The Deep King's Diary

(The faded pages have held up surprisingly well through the years. You open the diary and begin reading the page you happen upon.)

"The times are good; Deepholm is prospering under my reign, even more than during the rule of my predecessors. Let no Dwarf question the wisdom of King Lujan!"

You flip forward several pages, and begin reading again.

"The mysterious sorcerer who wished to obtain some of our diamonds promised me a guide to the Treasures Below. Could it be that the ancient legend is true? Are there really unimaginable riches gathered beneath Deepholm?"

Turning the page, Lujan's journal continues:

"I have been studying the magic tome, but can only read it a short while before my eyes grow weary and I feel as though I've awoken after a night of over-indulging in grog. Nonetheless, I've instructed my craftsmen to begin preparing the necessary materials. We shall be creating a nexus of ethereal energy such as the world has never before seen! And from this will come the knowledge of where to dig deep..."

You skim the next several dozen entries, all pertaining to normal rule of the kingdom and the occasional progress report of King Lujan's disturbing project. The following entry catches your eye:

"The craftsmen have begun a full strike against my orders, but it matters not; their work is nearly done, and I'm not so old and rusty that I cannot finish a relatively simple bit of polishing and rune-crafting. The obsidian blocks are already in place; the hard part is accomplished."

The very next page contains some disturbing claims. You read on, a sinking feeling in your heart.

"The arcane symbology is perfect. I can hear voices whispering to me, and I've directed the mining teams accordingly. The voices were correct; indeed, everything the sorcerer promised has come to pass. We have struck an unimaginably rich nexus of veins... more diamonds and gold than has ever been found together before! More iron than we could use in a generation!"

You shiver, and continue reading.

"The voices are persuasive, and demanding. I tried to command my soldiers to enforce my royal decrees, but to a man they refused. 'Disgrace themselves,' bah! They pledged to never again arm themselves, as if that would make up for their shameful decision. And my craftsmen... well, with my soldiers in mutiny, they will manage to depart with their lives, as well as their tools. But it matters not. I know yet how to handle a pickaxe. I shall claim the treasures for myself! But first, I must use flint and steel to ignite the energy flowing from this obsidian gateway. The voices promise that this will be the last task I am commanded to perform... after this, I shall be free."

There is a small scorch mark on the edge of this last page, and several blots of what might be blood.

"Royal blood," you think to yourself. The foolishness of kings has brought ruin to many a kingdom, as the philosophers say. And so it was for Deepholm.

You rub your hands together, casting off the pall from this ancient tale of woe, and concentrating on the treasures that will soon be yours...

In the back of your mind, a part of you wonders at never having found the obsidian stones the Crazed King referenced. But surely that is not as important as the magnificent treasure that is yours for the taking...

You shrug off your doubts and go to grab a pickaxe.

Writer's Block?

I've long desired to write. Ever since I was little, I dabbled in fiction and poetry and the like. Turns out I'm god-awful at poetry, but I can come up with some decent story-telling when the mood strikes me.

And that is the problem. The mood generally strikes me when I'm busy working... far away from a computer, with no time to even jot down ideas. (Interesting note: did you know that people once wrote things down on paper? How bizarre!) By the time I get home, my ideas no longer inspire me, or I've forgotten them, or I'm too tired to think straight and just go to bed only to repeat the miserable cycle!

But I don't actually consider it writer's block, mind, because I'm certainly not a writer. Not yet. I need to be writing stuff before I can call myself a writer!

Yet when the desire is there, and the free time is available, I always find myself staring at a blank word document. What gives!?

Where did the summer go!?

Obviously, blogging is one of the first things to go when my life gets too busy.

I'm meaning to get back into the habit of posting, if for no other reason than that I desperately need more practice at writing.

Sidebar: I've been debating the idea of getting augmented, if such a thing was available. I think I'd go with minor neural augmentations while retaining all my limbs and organs intact. Maybe then I could finally learn to play more than a few children's tunes on the violin?

I love that my job involves lots of travel. I've been able to see the four seasons of my beautiful Mountain State like never before, and consistently stumble upon cool things to see and do that I never knew existed.

If nothing else, my time in Japan helped awaken the inner tourist within me. Plus, my time away has helped me to really see West Virginia with fresh eyes - Always before, I took its beauty for granted.

And yet I possess a thirst for a more urban existence. Inexplicably, I long to replace my green hills with steel ones, my sleepy towns with bustling crowds. I've always longed for "the city", ever since I was a kid. I remember saying I'd live in NYC someday. (Since then, I've found out how grungy NYC can be... especially if you don't have a lot of money!)

I'm not sure where I'll end up in the next few years, but I know that my time in my home region is a brief rest before setting out on my journey once more.

The Video Game Dream

Upon occasion, when I'm indulging in a game with a determined (read: obsessive) focus, I'll have dreams of the game after finally succumbing to that pesky need for sleep.

Sounds fun, yeah? My enjoyment of the game doesn't have to end just because I'm not playing it anymore! Unfortunately, these dreams are invariably exhausting, repetitive, and boring. I can only seem to enjoy game-dreams when they come randomly, such as my recent Skyrim experience.

Another interesting situation is when you've been playing a game with such dedication that you begin getting confused in real life, either seeing things and interpreting them as things you know from the game, or else trying to utilize functions of the game's UI in your daily activities.

For example, I distinctly recall one sleepy Sunday morning from my childhood: I sat in a pew at the Baptist church my family attended, and my half-dozing brain tried to figure out how to "right click" my preacher to /con him.

If you never had the joy of a stolen social life thanks to EverQuest, allow me to explain: to right click, or "/consider" something, was to see how strong it is compared to you and whether or not it is hostile. This was something that wise players did obsessively, because unlike the MMOs of today that coddle our youth, EverQuest was brutal in its design and had all sorts of very powerful, very hostile creatures seeded throughout low level areas.

Looking back, I'm amazed at how much time I spent playing EverQuest. That was one brutal MMO by today's soft standards.

Pneumatic Dreams

The other night, I had a dream that I was playing Skyrim. It was vivid, too: I felt the rain on my face as I raised my sword and slew Daedra. I could smell the lush flora mixed with the muted decay of an ancient stone fortress. (Obviously, my subconscious didn't quite get the climate of the frigid northern province.)

My dream so moved me that I literally woke up out of breath, such was my desire to play the latest chapter of the Elder Scrolls. That, or else I had some sort of serious respiratory infection.

Upon catching my breath (which was disturbingly hard to do), I dutifully began installing Oblivion. "The next best thing," I vowed to myself. Truthfully, this has been a long time coming; I had meant to play through Oblivion more than three times previously.

Twice I gave up after my characters became unplayable due to the game's inherent design, and twice more due to Alienware's dubious hardware. (I've told that story before, haven't I?)

This time, though, I imagined myself carefully analyzing the skills I could control and leveling up in a rigid pattern that would net me the maximum attribute bonuses possible. Oh yes, I'm that kind of nerd.

I realized how serious my illness was when I woke up three days later, with Oblivion installed and ready and yet steadily neglected. I had spent the entire intervening period in bed, coughing all the while. Oh, there was a brief sojourn to the doctor's office at some point, followed by x-rays and super antibiotics. Its sort of a haze for me, to be honest.

All I know is that when I have time off from everything but bed-rest, I ought to be playing games. That I couldn't muster the energy to sit in a chair is testament to the severity of my indisposition.

Today's the first day that I actually feel up to sitting in my chair, though sadly I'm not sure I can do all that much else quite yet.

Do you ever dream of video games? That's something I'd like to further explore, but I think that it'll save for another post.

Stay healthy!

Portal 2's Pre-Release ARG

So initially I was really pumped for Portal 2's ARG.
The set-up was intriguing to begin with; trying to figure out wtf regarding the Potato Sack games, then realizing the connection and finding new Portal related levels in some of my games. All of that was masterfully done.

The puzzle solutions of the ARGs were fun to read about, which is generally how I participate in those sorts of events. (I'm strictly a wiki "the events so far" kinda guy.)

Once the potential for an early release was announced (as foretold by some clever soul), I became very committed to doing what I could to aid the cause. I tried recruiting my friends as well, but of the five who could participate, only one was dedicated.

Another two were spotty with their help and refused to leave the computer running overnight. (They are obviously traitors to the cause, and in fact were likely sent by the Combine to keep tabs on what's happening.) The other two didn't even pretend to participate. Needless to say, I was disappointed.

As of 10:45 on Monday morning, current projections show that we're only shaving a handful of hours off the release.

Now that I'm a working stiff, I'm no longer in a position to stay up until 4AM for a new release; especially on a weeknight!

In other words, it would appear that this "early release" event has turned out to be a spectacular failure. True to their word, the developers put the game's release into our collective hands... Turns out that most people didn't want it bad enough, I suppose.

Now, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I don't think this is what the developers were wanting when they envisioned this cooperative event. What started out fun ended up transforming into frustration and disappointment. Were I a game designer, that's not what I'd want my core fan-base to be associating with my new sequel.

All I know is that this weekend ended up having a pall cast over it by mid-Saturday, and I'm left feeling quite despondent going into my very busy work week. It is doubtful I'll get more than a few hours of play-time a day until the weekend, which is exactly why I was so excited that Portal 2 could have been released over the weekend.

Do you think the event back-fired? Perhaps it is still too early to say. Some miracle might still cause the game's early release at a reasonable time, like say 5:30 this evening?

One can still dream...

Portal 2 Early Release!?

Who called that shit?