D.W. Bradley: Still in the Game

Awhile ago I asked what happened to D.W. Bradley. One of my commenters solved the mystery, but the truth is kind of sad. The guy that created several Wizardry games is now making social games for Facebook. Hit the link above for the details. It’s like that scene in “The Wrestler” where Micky Rourke is working in a deli doling out potato salad to sassy elderly women.

I don’t know if Bradley is happy making those kinds of games – I sincerely hope he is – but it’s kind if heart breaking. For me it would be like finding out that John Carmack was working at an accounting firm, or David Gilmour was now working as a lounge singer in an airport bar.

The hard truth is that we sometimes expect too much from the people we admire. Nevertheless, I will always have respect for Bradley – and who knows – maybe in between making social strategy games for Facebookers, he’ll build an RPG..

FIN.

Fun with Polls: South Carolina 2012 Republican Primary

Polling firm Insider Advantage Georgia seems to think I’m a political pundit and decided to send me the latest poll it conducted in South Carolina, where six republican presidential candidates are fighting to win the Palmetto state and get some momentum going into Florida and Nevada. Since they sent it and I can’t use it at work, I’ve decided to post it here, and drill down into the numbers just for fun.

The first thing to note is that the poll was conducted on Wednesday night (January 11) on behalf of The Augusta Chronicle and The Savannah Morning News. The poll taps 726 likely voters in South Carolina (522 republicans, 20 democrats, and 184 independents) who plan to vote in the Primary. First the whole numbers, which have a +/- margin of error of 4:

Getting questions about SOPA in The Republican debates this weekend

ABC and Yahoo!, (ABC is a key supporters of SOPA, BTW), are hosting a debate tonight for the remaining Republican Presidential Candidates tonight at 9:00 pm ET in New Hampshire (You can read about it on ABC News). Whether you support these candidates or not, this is a good opportunity for the Internet community to submit the one question we would like ALL of the candidates to take a position on:Do you support SOPA and PIPA? To get this question answered it will require that the community submit it in droves, and though time is running out, there’s still a chance to get the question into the mix.

So how can you go about doing that? Well you can tweet using the hashtag #NHDebate on Twitter, for starters, and you can send questions to YahooNews and ABCNews.
Sunday morning on NBC’s (also a SOPA sponsor) Meet The Press, David Gregory will host a roundtable debate with the remaining Republican Candidates. You can bombard them with questions about SOPA and PIPA by sending a message via Twitter to Meet The Press and David Gregory and on the program’s Facebook page.

The Stop Online Piracy Act Support List Seems to be Padded

I’m looking through the list of companies and organizations that support the Stop Online Piracy Act (PDF) and I’m scratching my head at some of the groups that are supporting it. I get why companies like ABC, BMI, BMG Chrysalis, CBS, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Music Nashville, and more support it. What I don’t get is why some organizations that have nothing to do with the issue are on this list. Maybe it’s the conspiracy theorist in me, but it seems like lawmakers who support this bill may have padded the list.

Disgaea 4: The Art of Stealing

How to rob everyone blind in Disgaea 4 with little effort.

One of the most difficult things to do in Disgaea 4 is stealing. For the longest time I couldn’t figure it out; I felt like my Master Thief was a master loser without any real purpose. But I figured out a trick that made getting those rarest of rare items off of the hardest bosses easy as pie. The stealing part is easy but getting to a point where you get 99 percent from an Awesome Hand was not. The method I used follows – chances are there are spoilers in here, so don’t read this post beyond this point if you are worried about such things…

Fun with Fenrich: Mucking About in Disgaea 4

Since I’m enjoying Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten, I thought it would be fun to share how I beat a couple of the extra unlockable characters in the post-game, as well as some general tips that worked pretty well for me. Yes there are SPOILERS in there, so if you are a Sensitive Sally then you shouldn’t read it.

My Chantelise: A Tale of Two Sisters Review

My review for Chantelise: A Tale of Two Sisters went live on GameShark earlier today, if you’d care to read it. With every game Carpe Fulgur ports to the U.S., I gain a little more respect for the company. Chantelise is pretty much the opposite of the previous game, Recettear, which focused mostly on the day-to-day operations of an item shop frequented by townies, oddballs and adventurers.

Instead you are the adventurer wandering around the world, killing anything that moves and gathering up cash and treasure to buy all the things you’ll need from the item shop. Clearly Recettear’s influence can be found in this game as well, with all the market fluctuations and familiar items from that game dropped in to this one.

I like the way the game handles buying and selling, and how important it is that you spend the money you do earn wisely. Also I enjoy the way the game handles character progressions – through the use of items… Anyway, you can check out my final thoughts on the game over at GameShark. The bottom line is that I think this is a lovely game that deserves more attention than it is getting.

If you say it enough it might be true..

Just keep saying it..

In my day job I have to read a lot of editorials written by people that have absolutely no clue how things work in the real world, and they don’t bother to do any research. There are usually two reasons for this:

1) They are fucking lazy.

2) The find that the truth doesn’t support the tone of their bullshit rhetoric.

Yes, I seem a bit angry about this because it perpetuates a great untruth: that Leland Yee’s attempt to control retailers through the threat of a hefty fine somehow helped parents.

Hey buddy, can you spare some armor?

Can you imagine building an entire empire based on begging your neighbors for resources and then bragging about it to them to the point where they want to punch you in the face? That’s Empires & Allies in a nutshell. As much as I find Zynga’s game enjoyable for its core elements (empire building mainly), I feel like I’m a filthy drunken hobo begging everyone on Facebook for a dollar to get a drink. *

And I am not alone. Zynga has come to the conclusion that social gaming means begging for help from your friends constantly. We are all scratching our necks like crack heads itching for a fix when we’re craving those blue prints or that special armor to complete some building. When in doubt just ask a friend, right?

Hyperdimension Neptunia, YS Chronicles I & II Reviews

After a bit of a delay my reviews of Hyperdimension Neptunia for PS3 and YS Chronicles I & II for PSP are now live on GameShark. I was a bit harsh on Hyperdimension Neptunia because it was an unbalanced mess that put too much stock in titillation and no effort into the actual gameplay. Also it didn’t help that the game makes you pay money to play characters already n your party. Some free advice to developer Compile Heart: Never do that again.

YS Chronicles I & II fared slightly better. I really enjoyed this re-release on PSP and appreciated that the game mostly retains its original charm.

Check out both reviews and all the other great writing over at GameShark. It is no longer a site you visit for cheat codes and leave. In fact I don’t even know if there are cheat codes available over there anymore..