The Thoughts of Malthazar

Obligatory Holiday Post

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 19:15:23 GMT

I took yesterday off from the Internet, so I'm a day behind. Still, happy holidays to everyone.

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:02:34 GMT

This might be a bit irrelevant, but is anybody else having any problems with YouTube where it won't automatically play videos in a playlist? Because those aren't working for me anymore, and I have no idea why.

Also, I think Valve may have killed my Team Fortress 2. It now takes a long time to launch. But the crafting system is kind of cool. Haven't got any actual gameplay done yet. I hope to get around to that sooner or later.

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:02:46 GMT

I got an e-mail from Blizzard. They realized I didn't make the charge and waived it, so I can reactivate my account if I want to. However, apparently this is a one-time only exception, so if they get defrauded again, I have to pay for it.

TF2 War update. It looks interesting, but I don't really seem to care that much. I don't really seem to care much about anything nowadays.

Finals are this week. We'll see how that goes.

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:53:19 GMT

There. I sent Blizzard an e-mail about the damned chargeback. Maybe they'll realize they've made a mistake.

To be honest, I don't really care anymore. It's just a stupid game where everyone else gets ahead except me.

At any rate, I have classes to go to. I'll write more later, perhaps.

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:08:09 GMT

Cold and snow today. Stayed at home, not that I'd have anywhere to go.

Bought some Mage dice yesterday. I was downtown with my parents for the Parade of Lights, so we dropped into Compleat. I know I said I wouldn't support that place, but it seems to be the only place where those dice were available.

I have two presentations this week, and two finals next week. I don't know if I'm going to pass any of my classes. I haven't done much work at all this year. Perhaps I'm just not cut out for college.

I should cut this short.

Absolute Utter Bullshit

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:47:35 GMT

"Access to the World of Warcraft account , has been temporarily disabled due to a dispute filed against the account's past payments. This dispute was filed by the bank, credit card provider, or financial institution associated with the payment on the account. As a result of this dispute, funds paid on the account were withdrawn from Blizzard Entertainment. This is known as a "chargeback".

The total withdrawn by this chargeback was: $14.99.

The account is now considered by Blizzard to have a negative balance, and will be unavailable for play until any and ALL outstanding balances have been repaid to Blizzard.

Repayment can be made by contacting our Billing department at 1-800-592-5499.
Hours: 8:00 AM � 8:00 PM Pacific Time, Monday through Friday (excluding US holidays)
We have also provided the following numbers for our international customers:
� Australia: 1-800-041-378
� Singapore: 1-800-2549-9273
� Mexico: 001-888-578-7628
� Argentina: 0800-333-0778
� Chile: 1230-020-5554

Other International callers without access to our 800 numbers may use: 1-949-955-0283
If you are unable to contact Billing by phone and wish to inquire about repayment via a money order, please contact billing@blizzard.com requesting that they send money order repayment information.

Until the amount which was withdrawn from the chargeback is repaid, the World of Warcraft account will remain indefinitely unplayable. Please do not reply to this email, as you will receive no further response.

Thank you for your time."

Yeah, I think I'm not going to ever play this damned game ever again, because they're telling me I'm not allowed to play because I decided to stop. With such stupid tactics, I wonder exactly how they are the top MMO online. Oh wait, it's probably because they muscled out everyone else.

I'd dispute this, but I don't give a damn anymore. Fuck you Blizzard. You aren't getting any more of my cash.

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 07:37:54 GMT

My Black Friday went decently. Since Left 4 Dead 2 was 25% off on Steam, I decided to pick a copy up for my computer. I'm still going to ask for an XBOX copy for Christmas, though, so I can play co-op with my brother. But this one feels harder than the original. Not in they made the enemies tougher, but in the fact that the AI for computer controlled bots seems to have gotten stupider. If WeGame worked for this, I'd record a video and show what I mean.

I also picked up the Promethean sourcebook for World of Darkness. It's an interesting concept, and I have ideas for a chronicle I could write.

I'm also considering using that free week of WoW from Blizzard sometime soon. Although I would like to use it to develop my lesser characters.

But eh.

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:55:04 GMT

I'm not sure what to say.

I'm not exactly a happy person. I spent most of today bored and depressed. It doesn't help that I keep seeing how everyone else gets everything I want: friends, fortune, and happiness.

I feel so alone and isolated out here.

Some More Thoughts

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:17:06 GMT

Recently, I've been playing Peggle World of Warcraft edition. It's incredibly fun and the levels are rather cool.

I also picked up some more World of Warcraft minis and got a handful of new monsters. Yay for getting new things.

And I'm considering getting back into the MMO. I would like to develop my lesser characters some more. But I'm not really sure if I want to go through the hassle again.

Don't really have much to talk about, so that's it for now.

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:01:19 GMT

Oh hey.

I figure this might be a bit easier than copying and pasting every single clickable into my posts.

http://www.squiby.net/user/Malthazar

So, yeah.

Heavy Am Disappoint

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:03:31 GMT

Short little thing I made using Garry's Mod and Windows Movie Maker.

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:17:27 GMT

I spent maybe an hour to an hour and a half today working on a TF2 map. It runs, but I'm nowhere near completion.

It's been a long day. I should get some sleep.

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:39:14 GMT

Today, I got to watch a play titled MacHomer. It's Macbeth, but with characters from the Simpsons. And all of them are done by one man.

It was really funny, and the guy is incredibly talented. His Homer was a bit off, but just about everyone else was spot on. If you ever get the chance to see it, then go for it.

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:03:50 GMT

When Left 4 Dead 2 was announced, I decided that I wasn't going to rush out and buy it. Then they decided to give an incentive for preordering by giving everyone who preordered an exclusive american baseball bat. I didn't care. Now, everyone who preorders gets Bill's Beret in Team Fortress 2. I still don't care.

I seem to have fallen into an apathetic state again. Even my medicine doesn't seem to be helping. I can't bring myself to really care about anything. I find myself to be bored much of the time. There's nothing I particularly want to do.

I hope I can get over this soon.

The Death of the FLGS

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:27:18 GMT

I may be a monotheist, but that doesn't mean I can't preclude the possibility of there being other gods. And I am certain that there is some god out there laughing at me.

In the city I live, there's a games story called Compleat Games and Hobbies. They announced on their website (http://compleatgamer.com/index.php) that they were holding an event called Get-Your-Geek-On-A-Thon (GYGOAT) on Halloween weekend. They promised 52 straight hours of gaming.

It's a bunch of bullshit.

They listed their schedule in their forums here: http://compleatgamer.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1812
There are events listed for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They also state that they would be running Zombies the entire weekend with the possibility of earning store credit. There wasn't anything I was really interested in Friday, but there was a costume contest on Saturday. I thought that I could take my Spy costume out.

So I went downtown on Saturday, and got in costume, then went to the store. I spent almost the entire hour listed for the event, waiting for it to begin.

They didn't do a damn thing.

And that promised game of Zombies that was supposed to be running all the time? Lies. It wasn't running when I was there, and I see no indication that they ever bothered to get it running.

I wasn't really bothered. A bit disappointed, but what I really wanted to do was the Arkham Horror event listed for Sunday (today.) It was supposed to start at 8 P.M.

So I left home around 7:30 and got there early. I got to the front door to find that it was locked. I went around and let myself in the back door. I was accosted by a man who I presume owns the store. I told him that I wanted in on the Arkham Horror game, which seemed to already be in progress.

He told me that the event ended at 6, that the game was running long, and that he wanted to lock up.

I left, trying to keep my feelings of anger and betrayal from overwhelming me.

I have been a patron of this store for nearly 10 years, and never once have I felt this way about this store. I can only chalk this up to the new management, because the old owner knew me, and would not have treated me in this manner. If this is how the new owner is going to run this store, promising one thing and giving another, I see no further reason to patronize this establishment.

What really hurts is I made a purchase yesterday, supporting this corrupt system. Well, they shouldn't expect anymore of my money. And I will advise anybody not to make any purchases there either. Because this will be the death of the friendly local gamer store.

Time Travel

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:51:58 GMT

This week, I downloaded DOSBOX and Alone in the Dark on abandonware. I managed to get it working today, and I tried to play it.

I'm not sure I'm cut out for survival horror. I remember trying to play this game as a kid, and it was hard then. Time seems to only have made it harder. The controls are a bit clunky and it took me a while to figure out some of the basic things. There are some parts in the opening that I remember, like having to push the wardrobe and the chest, but I never really got very far. I'd rather not resort to a walkthrough, but I get the feeling I may just have to at some point.

Plus, the combat system is kind of poor. Although, punching out a zombie was pretty funny. Not so funny was taking the 14 hits.

Of course, Valve had to do something for Halloween. And of course they had to make Harvest an official map. But did they have to put out not just one hat that I'm likely to never get, but a hat that I could get that will supposedly only last for the duration of this event? And how come the only servers I can find that host this event are either always full, or I end up getting kicked from them at some point?

This game just frustrates me to no end. I ought to get some sleep, but I doubt I will.

Disregard that last part. I have now managed all the Halloween achievements and got both hats. Yay.

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:59:18 GMT

Well, they are now officially tearing up the street I live on. Got the construction equipment here and all that.

I've also been figuring out my webcam and finally managed to get it in focus, so I can start using it efficiently. Might do some reviews or some such.

Tonight's report

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:42:59 GMT

Went back to WoW minis for the first time in a long time. It helped that I had a team prepared for a few months beforehand. I took second place, so I haven't lost much.

Also, my costume is nearly complete. I'm hoping to pick up a prop, but for all intensive purposes, I can go with it as is.

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:19:18 GMT

Well, you may or may not have seen this, but here's a really neat Halo machinima. You'll probably recognize two of the voices.

There Goes Reality

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:02:43 GMT

Current version of my custom Ancient One. This is designed to be used specifically with the Kingsport Horror expansion.

The idea is that investigators can no longer prevent rifts from opening. They have to wait until a rift opens before they can investigate Kingsport and hopefully close the rift. Final combat is also different from most Ancient Ones, as if all the rifts are open to begin with, the investigators instantly lose. This encourages the investigators to close those rifts quickly. At least, I hope it will.

Expanding the Mythos

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:03:25 GMT

Heya.

So, I'm working on my own custom Ancient One for the Arkham Horror game. I'm in the process of playtesting it. So far, I have a 50% win/loss ratio (2 victories and 2 defeats out of 4 games,) but I think I need to run more games to get an accurate reading.

At any rate, when it's more complete, I'll get around to posting a picture of it.

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:39:07 GMT

Well, it's official. There's a construction crew tearing up the street I'm living on so they can put in new pipes. So now there's only one point of entry and exit to the street.

Yay.

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:25:26 GMT

Oh hey.

So, the car that had it's engine break down finally got the engine rebuilt. Which means that I will probably be driving around again soon. Apparently, it threw a rod, which is decidedly not good for an engine.

But yeah.

Here's some stuff to click.

Argh.

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:52:02 GMT

So, back in February, I posted to YooTub a video I had recorded of Left 4 Dead where the AI system decided to get Zoey stuck and unable to move. I considered this to be a severe bug and felt like sharing this information with the community.

Instead, some people have recently decided to laugh at me and say I rage quit. I did not rage, I quit because the game had become unplayable. Yes, I was upset, but that was not my primary motivation in ending the game. Gods.

The stupidity continues. I got a comment about 20-30 minutes ago on the video that reads exactly as follows:

"2 things, wh7y dont you turn on the flashlights?
and what is wussy"

If the idiot bothered to watch the video, he should have heard the witch sobbing away. Plus, the area is lit well enough that the flashlight makes it redundant. As for that second part, I can't help him.

It doesn't help that somebody decided to thumbs up the rage quit comments, thus rewarding stupidity.

If you want to watch the video for yourself, here's a link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld4A_Le39zg

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:31:25 GMT

Well, it would seem Blizzard gave me some pre-paid time, but failed to notify me up until now, because apparently I have 3 days of prepaid time left.

Not really sure I want to go back. I've been finding Warhammer is much more fun. Maybe because it's something new. Maybe because it takes itself less seriously than WoW does. Maybe it's because you don't have a shitton of options available for character creation. I'm not entirely sure.

Plus, I've recently made a Squig Herder, and that's been a lot of fun. Yay, squigs.