sponge sound == good

I'm sure that everyone has seen the trailer for the SpongeBob SquarePants movie. Surprisingly, this movie has something to offer. After watching The Flaming Lips perform a song written for the SpongeBob movie on Conan, I went to further inspect the possiblities of a cool soundtrack. I was shocked to see that the soundtrack actually has some good music on it. Besides a couple of songs sung by the cast of the movie itself, there were 4 good songs. The Flaming Lips, Wilco, The Shins, and Motorhead are all on the soundtrack. It was supprising to me, considering its a mainstream/childrens show. You can go to the official movie sight and listen to the full version of the Flaming Lips song, and 30 second clips of the others.

Again I am in ghost form (dead). A cool look at Onyxia, right before it blew flames over the innocents. 

Anyone for fried chicken? 

As the time counted down, most of the people in Stormwind were teleported to the Orc city of Ogrimaar. This is a picture I took while in ghost form (dead) of the many bodies. 

The dragon Onyxia appearantly does not deal with the petty laws of physics. 

It was supposed to be a place of worship, but the chickens decided to change that. 

Upon entering the cathedral in the city of Stormwind, I found that many of the normal NPCs had been turned into ginat man eating chickens. 

The end has come....

Just 20 minutes ago, the World of Warcraft beta came to an end. Only 5 more days before the retail release. Blizzard decided to end their beta with style, summoning hordes of enemies in the major cities of the game. I managed to capture a few screenshots of the carnage that transpired, and a few shots of some of the aftermath. Many brave warriors died on this day of reckoning. I hope to have these pictures posted soon.

Where are you Gravity?

Earlier today, I was in my humanities class, enjoying a discussion entailing the thoughts of Edward O. Wilson. When arriving at Wilson's discovery of the theory of evolution, naturally controversy came knocking. I expect there to be people who argue against evolution, especially religious fanatics. What baffled me was the interjection by one student. He honestly claimed that man could not have orginated from apes becuase the earth has only sustained life for 20,000 years. He argued that 20,000 years ago, gravity did not exist on earth; therefore, no form of life was able to survive. I'm not even sure how to respond to a claim such as that. Following this, he decided that the idea of microevolution was acceptable, but macroevolution was absurd. This is a timeless view on evolution that is easily discredited, and was. Before I was able to state the obvious, atleat to me, another student in the class brought to his attention that the combination of many microevolutions is nothing more than macroevolution. After this information was brought to his attention, he had nothing more to say. In the end, I got a good laugh from it. I'm all for a listening to someone elses ideas, but atleast back yourself up when entering such a heated debate.

Snakefart. Am I supposed to take you seriously?

So I am finally getting down to writing about some of the MMORPG changes I mentioned earlier. I'd like to start this semi-excruciating subject with character names.

Considering the situation, a fantasy adventure "Role" playing game, its understandable to see a certain degree of abnormal names, especially surnames. For example, a wood elf druid might be seen going by the name Thalos Windwalker. Examining the first name, we can see a typical elvish name. Nothing wrong with that. Following it, Windwalker. Ok, it is definatley a fantasy name, but none the less, it is by no means ridiculous. The problem arises when a person gives their character a "humorous" name. How is one able to seriously roleplay when there is a gnome magician in the group named Fuzzybutt Fizzlesalot? It is understandable for a gnome to have a somewhat comedical name like Coget or Squabble, but Fuzzybut Fizzlesalot sours the role playing experience. While playing Star Wars Galaxies, I actually encountered another player named Snakefart. Am I the only person who sees a problem with this? Maybe so, considering the large amount of horrific names in MMORPGs these days.

Currently, a name restriction system is in place in MMORPGs to prevent players from creating characters with copyright names such as Drizzt or Luke Skywalker. Also, people are unable to place "profanity" of any sort in their name. The system is not foolproof, for you will see many players with such names as Drizztt or Sheeyitface, but it does prevent many characters from being named. I propose that a more extensive name restriction system be issued. It would be composed of a team of people who recieve names from the server as people try to create a new character. This team will then examine the name and determine whether it will continue its journey to becoming a character, or die. A computer program could be written to handle most of this, but people will eventually find a way around it, so actual people are needed.

If by some chance you are reading this post and play a MMORPG under the alias Snakefart, I am not sorry for calling you a dumbass.

By eliminating the "humorous" names in role playing, it allows for a better role playing experience all together. Honestly, how do you role play someone named Snakefart?

GMAIL

I have 5 gmail invitations, so if anyone is interested in getting a gmail account, send me an instant message.

Massive Multiplayer

After a 2 hour discussion with a fellow game enthusiast, and roommate, about the current setup of Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) , many changes come to mind. My next few posts will specifically target existing concepts and how they can be changed for the better. I will even speak of new ideas which result in sweet multiplayer goodness. Stay tuned.

DSL

DSL -- Digital Subscriber Line:

Today the DSL at my place was turned on. Hallelujah! After a week of absolutley no internet acess, the early arrival of my DSL was happily accpetd. Now i do not have to stare blankley at my computer screen, as if something magical might happen. As to this post, it is the first post on this newley created "blog". I needed something to occupy the emptiness of this page.