Als ich “damals” mit WoW anfing, geschah es auf einem deutschen PvP Realm namens Taerar.
PvP steht für Player versus Player, also Spieler gegen Spieler. Auf einem solchen Realm können sich jeder zeit die Mitglieder der beiden Fraktionen “Allianz” und “Horde” angreifen.

Es gibt zwar Gebiete, wo die eine Fraktion die andere Fraktion nicht ohne weiteres Angreifen kann, aber der Rest der Welt steht dem Kampf offen. Dies kann sich mitunter beim “leveln” und “questen” eines Charakters insofern negativ auswirken, dass man von höher leveligen Gegnern gerne mal getötet wird. Nichtsdestotrotz macht es Spass auf einem solchen Realm zu spielen.

“Damals” spielte ich eine Mensch Hexenmeisterin auf Allianz-Seite bis auf Level 70 hoch, was zu dem Zeitpunkt das Höchstlevel war. Es war eine schöne Zeit, bis mich Umstände, die ich nicht näher erläutern möchte, dazu brachten, erst ein paar Monate Pause zu machen und dann neu auf der Seite der Horde anzufangen. Bei diesem “Re-Roll” fing ich eine Blutelf Priesterin an, welche (anders als meine Hexenmeisterin) das derzeitige Höchstlevel 80 erreicht hat und auch noch aktiv gespielt wird.

In all dieser Zeit habe ich aber auch noch einige andere Klassen auf 80 hochgespielt, insgesamt komme ich auf 6 Level 80 Charaktere, davon 2 auf Seiten der Allianz (Realm: Taerar) und 4 auf Seiten der Horde (Realm: Rexxar).
Man könnte mich vielleicht als typisches Beispiel eines “World of Warcraft-Süchtigen” nehmen, aber ich bitte darum, zu bedenken, dass ich a) zurzeit leider viel zu viel Freizeit habe und b) nach wie vor ein reales Leben lebe und mir sehr wohl bewusst ist, wie viel Zeit ich in ein Spiel investiere.

Wie man an meiner Charakterverteilung anmerkt, bin ich keiner der Leute, die “nur Allianz” oder “nur Horde” sind. Ich sehe mich als Kind beider Fraktionen, jede Seite hat ihre Vor- und Nachteile. Jede Fraktion ist sowohl gut als auch schlecht.
Nur gibt es leider viele Spieler, die das nicht ganz so sehen und darauf basierend ihre Wahl treffen. Generell kann man sagen, dass vor allem Jüngere die Seite der Allianz bevorzugen, weil “das die Guten sind”, eine Tatsache, die nicht der Wahrheit entspricht….aber ich möchte mich nicht über die Demographie auslassen, das kann ich vielleicht ein anderes Mal machen, sofern Interesse besteht.

Zu guter Letzt möchte ich noch anmerken, dass meine Priesterin leider zurzeit eher weniger zum Einsatz kommt, da ich für meine Gilde eher mit meinem Paladin als “Tank” von Nutzen bin.
Die Gilde nennt sich Zero Tolerance und wurde von einem Freund und mir gemeinsam aufgebaut. Wir suchen immer noch gute Leute für unsere Raids. Vielleicht hat jemand von euch Lesern Interesse, sich bei uns zu bewerben

Ansonsten: Spielt ihr WoW (oder ein anderes MMORPG)? Falls WoW, auf welchem Realm, auf welcher Seite und warum, spielt ihr?

Jumpgate Evolution is the definitive elite space combat MMO set in an intense action-packed universe. Discover three playable nations, trade valuable commodities, take part in dangerous intergalactic raids, meet and play with friends and live out the dream to become an elite hero, all-controlling commander or infamous space pirate.

The screenshots are very promising, as are the features:

• Engage in Dog-Fights
• Explore a huge and varied universe
• Highly Accessible
• Huge Space Battles
• Three Playable Nations
• Advanced Gameplay Systems
• Player driven world

The game itself looks like a Eve Online variant, so one may wait for the Beta release to judge about it.

If you want to sign up for the beta, visit the Jumpgate Evolution homepage.

I’m signed up already and hope to be one of the many chosen for testing the game. What about you?

It is called “MyMiniCity” and it is very easy to play, if you can actually say “playing”:
First of all you create your own mini city (or not, if you prefer helping a friend…)
My mini city is called Coruin City, not a fancy name but I have to live with it. After you created your city you visit it each day once. You can also bug your friends or fellow bloggers to visit the page each day.

When you or someone else visits the page, a new citizen will “move” to your city, making it grow. Once a certain amount of citizen are living in your mini city, you get more options to increase parts of your mini city. These options are:

• Increase population
• Increase industry (50 citizens)
• Improve the transport network
• Increase security
• Improve environment
• Increase business

The first option exists right from the beginning and since my mini city is still young I can’t tell when I will unlock the next option. Once I unlock the next option(s), I’ll update this post.

I hope I woke your interest for this neat browser game. Let me know if you also start a mini city or if you decided to help me with my mini city.

Update 2008-01-30: I finally unlocked the “Increase Industry” option with 50 citizens

Star Wars®

Episode 2007

A DREAM CONTINUES

You think this is the beginning of a tale? You are wrong. This intro is the summary of what X-wing vs TIE Fighter World is working on. Actually the project was initiated a while ago but died to a certain degree as the forums got infested by spam bots.

Now they made a relaunch with a new website which is suits more to the needs of the project and which is hopefully protected against Spambots.

Why am I telling you about this project?

First of all because I’m also one of these X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter® and X-Wing Alliance® veterans, but another reason is that I think this project needs all the help it can get.

LucasArts™ last spaceflight simulation games was X-Wing Alliance® and it was released back in 1999. Since then we had no other Star Wars® space simulation!
Ok, Star Wars: Battlefront 2® has a space fight included, but it is not a real space simulator like X-Wing®, TIE Fighter®, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter® or X-Wing Alliance®.

X-Wing vs. TIE-Fighter® and X-Wing Alliance® are still being played these days, even after the MSN Zone closed the respective game lounges and kicking a whole community into the abyss.

Fortunately a veteran, known as Stresser, created a zone-like program named Errant Venture. However, the majority of the old X-Wing vs. TIE-Fighter® and X-Wing Alliance® players didn’t hear about it, yet. While famous Star Wars® clubs/clans like the New Republic Navy (NRN), The Rebel Allegiance (TRA) or The Fighter Alliance (TFA) keep on playing the games, their members are decreasing because other players don’t know that there are still people out there playing these games.

So what is to do?

1. Go, get your old X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter® and/or X-Wing Alliance® discs and become an active pilot again!
2. Advertise Errant Venture!
3. Sign up and participate at X-wing vs TIE Fighter World!
4. Bug LucasArts™ to get us a new Star Wars spaceflight simulator!
5. Spread the word! (ThumbUp, Digg or whatever this article)

It is time to do something, so let’s do it now!

Meanwhile, which one of the following Star Wars® spaceflight simulators do you like more, and why?

[poll=5]

P.S.: Sorry for that …uh… prominent intro, but I think it fits in this case

Computer Configuration

If you are evaluating a game or any other kind of software, you need to know the hardware specifications and the environment of the computer.
So before I explain how I evaluate software let me give you some details about my computer.

Hardware Specification

• Processor: Intel® Pentium® D 3.40GHz
• Memory: 3070MB RAM
• Video Card: ATI® Radeon X1950 Pro
• Monitor: Yakumo® TFT 19 WJT XFast
• Sound Card: Realtek HD Audio Terratec Aureon5.1 PCI
• Speakers/Headphones: Sharkoon X-Tactic 5.1
• Keyboard: Logitech Easy Internet Keyboard
• Mouse: Logitech G5 Laser Mouse
• Mouse Surface: Revoltec Lightpad

Software Environment

• Operating System: Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2
• Firewall: ZoneAlarm (the free version)
• Antivirus: AVG (the free version)
• and some other software…

Evaluating Software

#1 Note: There are slight differences when it comes to Games. These differences are indicated by italic text.

I’m giving points from 0 to 5, with 5 points being the best.
At the end, all points are summed up and divided to giving an overall point ranging from 0 (worst) to 5 (best).

When I’m evaluating a software or game I have the following rating categories with a few elements.
For the elements and category point calculation I also use the sum up/divide method. I have an example at the end of the categories list

#2 Note: If a software is for free, I will leave a few elements out. The excluded elements will be mentioned in the review article.

The Look

• First Look – What kind of impression makes the case of the software?
• Installation – Neat design or something you can’t call a design?
• First Time – The impression you get when you run the software for the first time.
• Requirements and Look – Comparison between the look and the minimum requirements as stated by the game description.

Installation Process

• Time – How long does it take?
• Complexity – Difficult or easy to install?
• Other – Autostart? Reboot required?

Usage and Performance

• Requirements, Look and actual performance – Does the Software run as expected? (Games: Frame-Lag or is it running smooth?)
• Complexity – Easy to use/play?
• Learning Curve – Is it easy to get into the software/game or does it take a lot of time?
• Games: Multiplayer – Easy to get into the online part of the game and do you have fun online?
• Games: Singleplayer – Is the “SP” short or extensive? Can you reach the level goal easily or not?
• Bugs – I don’t like these nasty little things…

Personal Impression
Although the above categories are already influenced by my personal impressions, I add this one to express my final opinion.

So, how do I calculate the points software X? Let me show you an example, which is not a game:

The Look
First Look – 4 points of 5 (4/5)
Installation – (5/5)
First Time – (3/5)
Requirements and Look (3/5)
–> 3.75 of 5 points for The Look

Installation Process
Time – (1/5)
Complexity – (4/5)
Other – insert explanation… (3/5)
–> 2.66 of 5

Usage and Performance
Requirements, Look and actual performance – (4/5)
Complexity – (3/5)
Learning Curve – (3/5)
Bugs – (0/5)
–> 2.5 of 5

now we sum each category up:
3.75
2.66
2.5
–> 2.97 points of 5, so the software is moderate, not really good but not bad either

Easy to understand, I hope.

Evaluating Music

Since the taste for music differs I will only provide a personal review of the music, mentioning how much the music costs, how it looks like and so on.
Depending on the music I extend my review on demand while I will stick to my 0 to 5 points evaluation system. Basically I can say that at the end of the music review I will give points. You can tell that this is really influenced by my taste, so don’t take the review too serious

If you have no clue about what a Rubik’s Cube is, let me try to explain it.

Wikipedia defines a Rubik’s Cube as followed:

Rubik’s Cube (commonly misspelled rubix, rubick’s or rubics cube) is a mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by the Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the “Magic Cube” by its inventor, this puzzle was renamed “Rubik’s Cube” by Ideal Toys in 1980 and also won the 1980 German “Game of the Year” (Spiel des Jahres) special award for Best Puzzle. It is said to be the world’s best-selling toy, with some 300,000,000 Rubik’s Cubes and imitations sold worldwide.

A Rubik’s Cube has nine square facelets on each side, giving fifty-four facelets in total, and occupies a volume of twenty-seven unit cubes. Typically, the faces of the cube are covered by nine stickers in six solid colours; there is one colour for each side of the cube. When the puzzle is solved, each face of the cube is a solid colour. The cube celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2005, when a special edition cube in a presentation box was released, featuring a sticker in the centre of the reflective face (which replaced the white face) with a “Rubik’s Cube 1980-2005″ logo.[...]

Wikipedia gives more details about the cube, however, I just give you some common information

My friend, Martin K. aka JediKJ, was so kind and put together some trivia about the cube:

• A normal (3×3×3) Rubik’s Cube can have (8! × 38−1) × (12! × 212−1)/2 = 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 different positions
• if every permutation of a Rubik’s Cube was lined up end to end, it would stretch out approximately 261 light years.
• Daniel Kunkle and Gene Cooperman used computer search methods to demonstrate that any 3×3x3 Rubik’s Cube configuration can be solved in a maximum of 26 moves
• In March 1970, Harry D. Nichols invented a 2×2x2 “Puzzle with Pieces Rotatable in Groups” and filed a U.S. patent application for it. Nichols’ cube was held together with magnets. Nichols was granted U.S. Patent 3,655,201 on April 11, 1972, two years before Rubik invented his improved cube.
• Over one hundred million Rubik’s Cubes were sold in the period from 1980 to 1982.
• In 1994, Melinda Green, Don Hatch, and Jay Berkenilt created a model of a 3×3×3×3 four-dimensional analogue of a Rubik’s Cube called the MagicCube4D. Having more possible states than there are atoms in the known universe, only 55 people have solved it as of January 2007
• In 2006, Roice Nelson and Charlie Nevill created a 3×3×3×3×3 five-dimensional model. As of January 2007, it has been solved by only 7 people.

Now after I talked so much, let me show you the YouTube video:

If you are longing for more information about the Rubik’s Cube, I recommend you visit the homepage of my friend at “zrrbite.dk – On Cubing“.

I still didn’t find my cube after finishing this article, so I need to keep on searching for it and can’t brag that I just solved it while typing this article

Last but not least…Do you have a Rubik’s Cube? If so, did you solve it? Or do you have something else you want to say about this addictive toy?

Well, I got a 3 day trial for you. I have 8 6 2 0 keys left, so if you want to get one of the keys, send me an email or post a comment with your email.
The key only works for the EUROPEAN Lord of the Rings Online.

You need to do the following steps before you use the key:

Download the Client:
Fileplanet
Gamershell
3D downloads
Filefront
http://hdro.arcor.de
http://www.arena51.be/lotro

Install it, then create an account at codemasters.com (or login) and use the trial key. Creating a codemaster account is for free.

Please note that they trial time starts to count as soon as you use the key.

Update: I have no keys left, I’m sorry if you are still looking for a key. Maybe I will get another set of keys soon. I will post it on here of course

As you most likely know I started this on June 18th, a day after my post about Computer / Gaming Addiction.
Although I planned to post a regular update on my progress, things turned out different as my real life kept me busy and didn’t allow me to spent time on updating my progress.

So, here they are…

The final results

As I said already, “RL” kept me quite busy, so I did manage to turn down my computer usage to a certain degree. Well, the last days kept me at my computer, but I was working on it to write a website for the German actor Thorsten Kramer. As soon as the page is done, I will give you an info on here

I still have minor problems with my parents, but everything else is ok now and the remaining problems will soon be solved, I’m sure

So far I had no luck with getting a job to keep me busy until my job education starts…but I keep on trying. The website for the actor is some kind of job…but not the one which will get me a lot of money…

I managed to stop skipping meals, except the one or the other time. But that should be ok, I guess

I still have a problem with my sleep pattern…but if you have nothing else to do each day, it should be understandable…anyway, I keep on working on it.

Well, that’s it.
After keeping an eye on all the things I decided to change I think I did well.

The results for Day 2

After sleeping a bit too long, I woke up at 10:00 local time and enjoyed a good breakfast. Then headed out into the real world to take care of some business. While I was in the “jungle” out there I also got something for lunch…but I don’t remember what it was…doh!
I was back home at 14:30 local time and, shame on me, I failed to stay away from the computer. In the evening I had dinner with my parents and then went back to the computer…stay up until 02:00.

I know, shame on me…but I’ll see to it that Day 3 end earlier.

The results for Day 3

I was up at 09:00 and had no breakfast as I had no time…and someone stole my breakfast…
For lunch I stopped by at SubWay to enjoy a nice 6 inch Chicken Teriyaki and a Coke. Then headed back home and read a book I bought earlier. I don’t know if you know it, but it is a Star Wars book: “Darth Bane. Path of Destruction” (It is not in English, but in German )
Anyway, now I’m online again and I better keep an eye on the time because I don’t want to stay up as long as yesterday.

Read the finale results

First of all let’s have a look at what I need to change to ensure that I won’t become addicted to computers:

1. Spend less time at the computer
2. Solving problems with my parents
3. Getting a job until my job education starts
4. Stop skipping meals
5. Stop failing to attend to personal hygiene
6. Get back to the regular sleep pattern

The results for Day 1

Yesterday I went to bed earlier than usual as preparation for my plans for the next (and the following days). My alarm clock woke me up at 08:30 local time, but I stayed in bed until 12:00…which was either a big mistake or I just had to catch the sleep I didn’t get for quite some while now. I will see what tomorrow going to bring on the terms of sleep. I then made me breakfast and lunch at the same time, no more skipping a meal!
The next 2 hours I spent trying to get a job, with no success
So I decided to switch my computer on and listen to some music while doing some cleanup. Worked well, especially because I did not log on with any messenger until 14:30 local time. Even then I spent the major time away from the keyboard (computer).
Now it is 18:00 and I think I can use the computer for a bit, AFTER I made me something to eat…no idea what it going to be, but I’m sure it will be tasty

As I’m talking about food…I’m hungry, so I better hurry up…

Right now I’m feeling a bit sleepy, so I’m sure I will go to bed as early as yesterday, maybe a bit earlier.

End of Day 1 – See you tomorrow or so, depending on the time I spent at the computer