Month: September 2006

There was quite a reaction to my Out of the Park Baseball 2006 “final” review over in their forums. There’s some pretty level headed debate going on about the pros and cons of the game. I will state for the record that if you were a beta tester for OOTPB 2006 and thought the game was fine to release, then I owe lynchjm24 and other OOTP beta tester bashers an apology. I can understand why Sports Interactive released the game when it did, but any tester that did not see the many flaws in the original release simply was giving bad information to Markus and company. Fortunately, I know a few testers who did see the problems, so not all of them were as clueless as others.

Probably the most interesting discussion centers on the OOTP/SI merger that I called a failure. I am an outcomes kind of person. Version 6.5 is a better online product than OOTPB 2006 as far as stability goes. The common refrain for the SI apologists is that they bring a lot of resources to the OOTP development team. Well, so far those resources have not produced a stable online game for those of us transitioning from previous OOTP versions.

Can SI save the day and make this merger work? Maybe. I think the jury is still out, but there is a lot of work to be done to make the OOTPB franchise a better online baseball game.

SI has the advantage that those of us sticking around really do like complexity in our baseball gaming, something developers like Shaun Sullivan don’t seem to cater to. We want multiple minor league universes, complex contracts, media interaction, and all of those things that make the Football Manager franchise so great.

People like me are willing to put up with OOTPB 2006’s current state and slug it out because of the FM-like glimmers we see. But we are a minority. I cut back my own league from 32 to 24 owners because I know that only the hardcore online gamer is going to stay focused on OOTPB 2006. And it will be difficult finding replacement owners should some fall by the wayside.

My advice to SI?  Make the failure into success with OOTPB 2007 because I won’t stick around for OOTPB 2008 if 2007’s release is like 2006’s. That will be the end of my OOTP relationship.

This is the early edition of the SEC Preview (Week 5) thanks to tonight’s South Carolina – Auburn game, which by the way, the Tigers will easily take by 24+ points. Last week I was terrible, with a 7-3 mark; misses on Alabama (get a kicker already), Mississippi (man do they suck), and Mississippi State. I was right about one thing; one of the Mississippi schools would same the SEC. TRB SEC Shame of the Week Award goes to Ole Miss for their pathetic performance against Wake. For those keeping tabs, I am now 31-5 on the year. On marches Week 5.

(2) Auburn – South Carolina
No way does Tommy’s Tigers not win this one. Simply put, the Gamecocks have a long way to go to challenge the SEC elite.

(15) Tennessee – Memphis
Memphis is struggling this year, and while things are not perfect on Rocky Top, the Tigers from Memphis will be easily tamed.

Alabama – (5) Florida
I do not think Shula’s elephants will easily recover from the Arkansas debacle. If the Razerbacks can put up 24 on the Tide, imagine what the Gators are going to do this weekend. Scary stuff. The question is how many points will Florida unleash on the Tide? I am thinking something along the lines of 31-17. Oh wait, that would imply that Alabama has a field goal kicker. Never mind. Easy win for the Gators.

Temple – Vanderbilt
The Commodores will rack up two in a row.

Mississippi State – (9) LSU
Bad news for the State. 49-3? Something ridiculous for the Tigers, who are the favorites for the SEC Shame of the Week Award.

Central Michigan – Kentucky
The Wildcats showed some spunk against Florida last week, so they should manage to win this one. Then again, I have never been a fan of moral victories, but I am not a fan of the MAC, so I am sticking with Kentucky.

(10) Georgia – Mississippi
Will the Dawgs settle on a QB? Will Georgia find a running game? Will the Dawgs have an emotional let down? Will the Bulldog receivers finally learn how to hold on to the dang ball? Lots of questions, but my beloved Dawgs will go to 5-0.

Texas will have a tune-up against Sam Houston State before getting ready for some Red River nonsense. This will be a laugher.

I do not want to spend much time on poll bashing, but what is up with the West Coast bias? How does USC jump in from of Auburn? I can see Georgia falling a spot or three; they deserve it. Then again strength of schedule will be an issue for Auburn if they run the table this year. Their non-conference schedule sucks, but with that said, they did not deserve to drop in the poll after taking care of business last week against Buffalo.

Go Dawgs!

I think this the last post in my four part series detailing my experiences with WoW.  The articles were intended to give you my perspectives on the game, document my early struggles and successes, and focus on the fact that I am a MMORP and PC gaming novice.

Last night made for some interesting gaming.  When we last talked about the game, Chris suggested that I go in a different direction than a hunter.  Tuldar (dwarf hunter, L6) was a decent character once I started learning the game, but I took Chris’ suggestion and created Faltutin (gnome mage, L2).  I met up with one of Chris’ characters, who looked like a total bad ass, but he was nice enough to “trade” me some gold and invite me to join his guild.  While that was nice of Chris, let me be honest, I do not like the looks of the WoW gnomes.  My dud looked a lot like Dopey; in other words, very lame.  Thus Kaldur (dwarf priest, L5) was born.  Chris kicked Faltutin out of the guild, and invited Kaldur to the elite membership.  I figure it is elite because it looks like there are only 67 members.

I spent a couple of hours with Kaldur, completing quests, killing an assortment of beasts, and randomly healing folks.  I even joined two short lived parties.  As the Falcons/Saints game got out of hand, I grew sleepy, and eventually called it a night, but I did make it to level 5 in relatively short order (about two hours).  I figure another 2-5 hours should have me ready for the real fun, which Chris says starts at level 10.  I guess I will find out soon enough.

At this point in the game I have a few observations, which follow in no particular order.

First, I really like Tuldar, mostly because I like the idea of the gun.  The hunter seems like a fun class, but I have been repeatedly told that hunters are pretty much dime and dozen, and hunters are really easy to play.  I do not think there is anything wrong with someone new to the game playing with a class that is perceived as easy, but I guess I do not want to get boxed in with Tuldar later in the game.  I will play with him some more, but it sounds like he may not have a true future later in the game.  At least he is not going to be invited to join Chris’ elite guild.

Second, I really like the fireballs, but I do not like the gnomes.  Much like the elves in WoW, the gnomes look pretty ridiculous.  Since I have no desire to play as a human, and I really want to do something with a mage, I am sure we will be hearing more from Faltutin before it is all said and done.  I guess I could give Horde characters a go, but for now I am going to stay away.

Third, I could care less about playing with a bunch of anonymous folks.  That is really a topic for another day, but I think this game could be a lot of fun (and really deep) if you are playing with friends.  Why not get some friends together and start your own guild?

Fourth, there is a lot to learn, so reading the manual is a must.  That is crazy talk coming from me.  Since my realm server is down tonight, I have snuggled up to the manual (except for this post), which has actually brought about a few ‘so that is why (or how)…’ moments.

Fifth, I am still not comfortable with the $14.95/month fee.  I would much rather have some sort of pay as you play model.

Finally, it is pretty entertaining watch all the havoc in Coldridge Valley as new players are everywhere blasting an assortment of creatures.  Gnomes zipping left and right, followed by little purple imps (or demons or whatever) doing all manner of strange stuff.  Interesting.

Oh yeah, before I forget.  I am sick of other players challenging me to duels.  Shouldn’t they have something better to do?  Like maybe build up a party and get something accomplished.

I am sure there will be more to come later.

Since Sports Interactive let us know a few weeks ago that there won’t be another patch for Out of the Park Baseball 2006, I thought I would provide my final review of their fine product. This review is from an online baseball perspective. It may be the best thing since sliced bread for solo players, but I wouldn’t know one way or the other. Here’s my review:

Do not purchase OOTPB 2006. It is unstable. It is buggy. Stay away.

If you do not believe my assessment, simply visit the technical report forum and comb through post after post of unresolved issues. My online league conversion failed. We had to restart our league from scratch because of computer AI problems and game crashes.

Sadly, OOTPB 2007 will more than likely be a big full price OOTPB 2006 patch. Here’s my review of the OOTP/SI merger:

Failure.

A once online friendly game was released as an unseemly mess that was eventually patched to playability. If you put up with the unresolved Mac export issues, the lack of information about contract and free agent offers, the AI doing weird things unless you shut it down for every team and every level, the lack of development information, etc., then there’s a pretty interesting game beneath the surface. So interesting that I am putting up with the pain in order to play the game in an online league.

But you don’t have to. Just stay away. And don’t purchase OOTPB 2007 unless you see that all of these issues are resolved.

After a few more hours with the game, Tuldar is now a level 6 Dwarf Hunter.  Things became much easier when I figured out how to use my gun and use spells.  I kept pressing the thing (it looked like a gun), but could never make it work.  I knew I had ammo, but once again, could not figure out how to use the ammo.  I finally realized that I had to target as I normally would target with my axe, and then fire away.  I am sure veterans of the game are laughing, but basic stuff like this has been on the learning curve.

I have managed my way around Coldridge Valley doing an assortment of quests, killing monsters for loot, and the like.  I have not really been trying to level up; it has just worked that way so far while I practice my newfound skills with my gun (and the sing spell thing, which is pretty nice).

On one occasion I died.  I found myself in a cave full of trolls, which was not that big a deal, but after jumping done some sort of cliff/ridge, I got surrounded by four or five, and that was that – first death experience.  I did not really notice what (if anything) was lost or affected by going to the great beyond.  Recovering my spirit was a matter of leaving the Coldridge Valley graveyard and returning to the troll cave.  Once there, it was business as usual.

Speaking of learning curve type stuff, during the game I did not know how to use my healing herbs that I acquired as a quest reward.  I needed the damn things when the trolls were attacking, but I could not get them from my backpack fast enough to do any good.  I later learned that it would not matter, because you have to sit down to consume of the healing items.  I put the herbs in slot position 10, which shows as 3/0 (3 herb items, in position 10), but the herbs were also listed in my backpack.  I figured something was wrong, so I tried to move them back to the backpack, only to accidentally sit down, consuming (and wasting) the healing powers because I was already fully healed.  I did this twice before I realized that the 0 was for position 10.  Hopefully I do not need the extra healing later in the game, but in my book this is just part of the learning curve.

I have never played a MMORP game before, and it has been years since I played a PC role playing game.  Lots to learn.  Like how do I know what items my hunter is allowed to use.  It looks like I cannot use metal armor, but is there somewhere in the game (or in the manual or main site help) that describes items and what I can or cannot use?  I keep debating if I should read some strategy guides or something beyond the standard help page stuff.  I have no idea how to gain skills, professions, or the like.  I have gained all the skills that there hunter trainer in Anvilmar offers.

Thus far I have not joined any groups.  To be honest, I have never been a fan of online games (at least for consoles) because you typically run into all kinds of crap with strangers.  Someone did ask me to join them during my first play session, but I declined.  I have yet to ask anyone to join me, so my experience with the game is pretty much that of a hack and slash console RPG.  I know that is not fair and hopefully I can get some time with Chris (or other volunteers) to really get a different perspective on the game.

In the comments to my Part 2 post (see below) Chris suggested that I try something else other than a hunter – maybe a priest, warlock, mage, or warrior.  I wanted to start as a druid, but I just do not like the looks of the elves.  Same for the gnomes; they look so darn little and dart around all over the place.  What is the point in playing as a human?  I am human; I want something different in a fantasy game.  So I will create another dwarf; just not sure which class to follow at this point.

It has taken a few hours, but I finally have a few minutes of WoW under my belt. I have a couple of things to note about the initial setup before I get started. First, the copy of WoW was version 1.11.0.5428; this thing too a while to install (5 CDs). My wife’s laptop is not the fastest in the world, but I was surprised that the thing did not install faster. I lost track of time, but each disk had to take 20 minutes.

Once the game was loaded, the first thing I noticed was this little gem of a note

“If you do not wish to be billed for additional time, you must cancel your account prior to the end of your free month.”

I have always had something against monthly fee games; you cannot even start this one without setting up a credit card unless you have some sort of prepaid card. I would still rather do some sort of pay as you go plan.

I noticed that the Bronzebeard server is going to be offline Tuesday and Wednesday. Joy. Do you get a credit if your server is down?

Before I could get any further, the game started downloading patch 1.12, which was a good 465MB. Here we go with patching. The bane of PC gaming (for console fans). I noted that my download panel showed a yellow status – “your computer appears to be behind a firewall
change firewall and router settings (port forwarding).” While I did not have any problems downloading the patch, I setup my firewall and router to make sure ports were configured correctly for WoW. Still took about 25-30 minutes to complete the download. Then the download had to install. Yawn. Not so fun. Finally I was on version 1.12.0.5595 and ready to partake in some WoW.

The game suggested a server, but I picked Bronzebeard. Figured Chris may start a new character (or something) and play with me every once in a while. So off I go, but the game tells me that Bronzebeard is full (apparently I there are 24 players in queue). After a couple of minutes it was time to create a player.

I really wanted to create a druid, but I am not sure I like the looks of the elves in this game. I decided to go with a male Dwarf Hunter named Tuldar.

At this point I really do not know WTF is going on around me. The help icons (!) are nice; I think I would be really lost with out them. Right away someone asks me to join their party, but I declined. Still trying to figure out WTH to do and all that. I accepted a quest (have to get some wolf mean or the like), and off I go. Of course I saw bunnies, and my first thought was that I am not going to spend my time killing rabbits.

About 15 minutes later Tuldar was level 2, and had picked up some useful items (some sort of rob, belt, cloak, and boots). My reward for my first quest was a pair of Wolf Gloves (I think). I could have picked two other items, but I am not sure why I would want to pick up rabbit gloves. I think the other pair was something I could not use (part of the name was in read) because the gloves were metal. Of course I could be wrong, but I am thinking back to D&D games; there must be some restrictions.

Now the fun part. I needed to take the dog out, and lock up for the night, but I had no idea what to do to safely end the game. Is Tuldar going to get robbed? Should I have found an Inn? Instead the dude just sat down and that was that. I am now a veteran (but not so much) of WoW.

Georgia’s highly touted freshmen QB, Matthew Stafford, played like a true freshmen today. I guess it was bound to happy, but I did not expect the Dawgs to play so poor. While Stafford was not totally at fault for the lackluster performance in the first three quarters, it was clearly apparent that the team rallied around backup QB Joe Cox.

Stafford was an uninspiring 8-16 for 76 yards before being pulled late in the third quarter, with UGA trailing Colorado 13-0. Embarrassing. Damn embarrassing. The thing is, you could see this coming from a mile away at the begging of the game. There was just no offense to be found, but you have to give some credit to the Buffalo’s defense for keeping Georgia from getting into any sort of rhythm.

Enter Joe Cox, who comely led the Bulldogs on two fourth quarter scoring drives, capping off a 13-14 come from behind victory by going 10-13 for 154 yards with 2 TDs. Do we now have a QB? Cox was poised, comely leading the Dawgs, lots of touch passes which were 180-degrees different than Stafford’s laser-rocket passes. Of course the WRs did not help out Stafford, dropping pass after pass. Georgia’s poor hands continue to be an issue; I thought this would improve, but this is now a yearly trend.

Kregg Lumpkin led the Dawgs rushing attack (if you want to give them that much credit) with 52 yards on 12 carries (4.3 yards/rush). It was pretty pathetic after that; Danny Ware and Thomas Brown were not factors. TE Martrez Milner led all Georgia receivers with four receptions, 64 yards, and the game winning TD catch.

Where to from here? Thankfully next Saturday night the Dawgs have a breather against Ole Miss. The offense should get healthy in a hurry while Mark Richt figures out if the main man is Cox or Stafford. Should make for an entertaining week. Hopefully the Dawgs can survive another QB controversy.

Go Dawgs!

The adventure begins. Or something like that I suppose. After looking around at EBGames and realizing why I do not like that join (and why I typically shop online), I walked a few store down to Circuit City. Imagine my surprise when I found a big fat display of WoW titled (“now only $19.99”).

5 CDs and a 200+ page manual await, but first I had to get the DVD drive. For some reason the drive would not open. After some minor surgery, things are now in working order.

I am about to start on an adventure, full of preconceived notions, and expectations that may or may not be met. I have been told that I should reserve several hours for patching the game, which is one of the things I have always despised about PC gaming.

Time permitting, I will post some updates, impressions (from a newbie perspective), or something along those lines.

What a game! Thanks to an awesome relief performance by Cox, Georgia overcame a 13 point deficit to take down Colorado 13-14. Wow … huge sigh of relief.

This is not an interesting weekend in the SEC, and I am pressed for time [forgot to post this before the kids’ soccer games], so let’s get this thing started.

Marshall – Tennessee
Somewhat of a breather this week for Tennessee.  I suppose they could have something of a major lack of focus after the Gator debacle.

Mississippi State – UAB
These Bulldogs stink.  By stink, I mean they are going to embarrass the SEC by taking one on the chin today.

Tennessee State – Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt will claim their first victory of the year.

Florida Atlantic – South Carolina
It should be a laugher for the Gamecocks, but SC has no offense, so they will win this one ugly.

Tulane – (10) LSU
These Tigers are going to make it two SEC victories in a row for the Green Wave.  LSU by 35+.

Kentucky – (5) Florida
This one has a huge ouch factor for the Wildcats.  This one will be over quickly.

Mississippi – Wake Forest
One of the two Mississippi teams will win TRB SEC Shame of the Week Award.  I am going to have to pull for Ole Miss in this one; they should manage to take out an ACC bottom feeder.

Alabama – Arkansas
Everyone knows I hate the Razorbacks, so no reason not to pull for the Tide this afternoon.  Bama’s defense will be stout, but the Tide will have to find some offense to pull this one out, but as usual, the defense will be stout.

Buffalo – (2) Auburn
No reason for the Tigers not to remain undefeated.

Colorado – (9) Georgia
This game will be close early, but Georgia should be able to pull this one out in the second half.

In other games of note, (7) Texas will continue to get healthy, this week Iowa State will be the victim of a 28+ point thrashing.

I purchased season tickets to the Jaguars games when Jack Del Rio and James “Shack” Harris were hired. My friends thought I was crazy because the Jags weren’t very good. But I knew Del Rio would bring a toughness that I like in a football team and Shack built the Baltimore Ravens defense. I grew up with the New York Giants, the Buddy Ryan Eagles, and the Chicago Bears defenses. It is in my blood.

My wife was giving me a hard time that she saw a tear in my eye as I was watching the Jags beat Dallas last week. Everytime they panned the crowd she would say “Look, there are your people!” It was very hard moving away from Florida and giving those four seats up. They were mine for three years and I enjoyed every minute, including the pre-season games. I watched Mathis as a rookie, saw Leftwich’s first game as a pro, and still have my Fred Taylor jersey hanging in the closet.

I would have been going CRAZY right about now as I walked to parking lot DD (or something like that) after the beating Jacksonville’s defense put on the Steelers tonight. CRAZY!

I decided that I am going to throw some stuff on eBay and come up with a PC gaming fund.  Will keep everyone updated, but I am certainly going to need a “quick start” guide, or some getting started tips from those of you in the know.  I do not plan to spend hour after hour killing bunnies, and I am not going to have time to dig for gold all day.  Maybe those are misconceptions of what WoW is all about, but hopefully I will have enough in the eBay war chest to make a purchase next weekend.

Stay tuned.

OK, I know there is probably not much point in doing this sort of comparison, besides aggravating Chris, which I probably should not do since I need his help with the IOSBL OOTPB 2006 transaction. But what the heck, there is time to write, so I will give this a go.

I did not get to see either game, or highlights of either game, so I am just going by what I read in the NFL.com gambook summary reports. If you have never checked out these detailed box scores, and you consider yourself a “stats guy” you owe it to yourself to peruse these for a few minutes. First up, Mario Williams, who ended his day with two tackles, which increases his yearly total to four tackles and one assisted tackle. Maybe Williams put a lot of pressure on Manning; I am sure Chris will let us know if there is some hope for his newly adopted team.

Next up is Reggie Bush, who had a horrible day on the ground, with six yards on five attempts. That is pretty much an ouch, however Bush was the leading receiver for the Saints, with eight receptions for 68 yards. Bush also managed 36 punt return yards on four attempts.

For those keep score at home, I think this squarely puts the score at 2-0 in Bush’s favor. Of course it is still early days in the careers of both players, but I am just putting this out there because I have a few minutes on my hand as the New England/New York Jets game is at the half.

I did not get to watch nearly as much football as I wanted to yesterday, but what I did see was wonderful. I did completely miss predicting the Mississippi State game vs. Tulane; yes I now they are in the SEC, but after an embarrassing 32-29 defeat to the Green Wave, the Bulldogs earn The Recycle Bin SEC Shame of the Week Award.

I was 7-0 on the weekend; 24-2 on the year. Not too shabby. To recap, I am only counting SEC games in my tally, and I am not going against a point spread. After all, this is for entertainment value only.

How does South Carolina let I-AA Wofford come within an eyelash (27-20). Spurrier has some issues to deal with before he can get the chickens competitive in the SEC East.

No problems for Kentucky against Mississippi (31-14), which makes for a two horse race between the Mississippi schools for worst in the SEC.

Alabama and Georgia took care of their respective opponents, but Arkansas only won because Vanderbilt’s kicker could not hit a last second, game winning, field goal attempt.

Florida got the better of Tennessee, but I did not expect this one to be so close. Florida has to have the inside track on the SEC East, while Auburn’s close victory over LSU gives them early favorite honors for the SEC West.

Games outside the SEC saw Texas rebound nicely against Rice, and Michigan took down Notre Dame. Grateful on both accounts. Texas has not had consecutive losses since 1999, and who likes Notre Dame?

If I find myself with some free time later today I will do a write-up on their 34-0 victory over UAB. After shutting out South Carolina last week, and UAB yesterday, UGA racked up consecutive shutouts for the first time since 1980.

Go Dawgs!

This is the day that the Lord has made, and what a glorious day for some SEC football action!  LSU/Auburn and Florida/Tennessee are in the mix followed by a bunch of crap games, starting with, in order of suckyness:

Wofford – South Carolina
The ‘Ol Ball Coach is going to be majorly pissed, and the fighting chicken fans need something to cheer for after another depression loss to the mighty Dawgs.

Louisiana-Monroe – Alabama
Bama will Roll, Roll, Roll, but their defense better be stout because much like last year, there is not an offensive presence on this team.

Mississippi – Kentucky
Lets be honest, this is a battle to see which team sucks the most.  I have been wrong on every single game Ole Miss game so far, so why stop now.  Somehow the Wildcats manage to score a few more points than the Rebels.

Arkansas – Vanderbilt
I hate pulling for the Hogs, I really do, but they better have more talent than the Commodores, or there is going to be hell to pay for Nutt.  So I pick the Razorbacks under duress.

UAB – (10) Georgia
The Stafford era begins here, and everyone is going to leave Sanford Stadium happy campers.  I know that UAB can sneak up on some teams (cough … Oklahoma … cough), and a few years ago they kicked the LSU tigers in their collective tails, but it is not going to happen this day.  Dawgs will win by 13, something along the lines of 31-17.

(7) Florida – (13) Tennessee
While this one is right behind LSU/Auburn, lets not kid ourselves.  How much do the Volunteers suck?  They should have lost to Air Force last week, but chalk up some Rocky Top magic that allowed them to escape with a weak victory.  I am a card carrying member of the Gator haters club, but I think this one is going to be an easy Florida victory.

(6) LSU – (3) Auburn
This one is the headliner of the weekend, and I think this one has the Tigers from the Plains all over it.  This one is going to be a tight defensive affair, but AU will come from behind, and win by three.

Other Games of Note
Two other national games of note are on the weekend menu of football goodness.  (11) Michigan vs. (2) Notre Dame and (8) Texas vs. Rice.  I am not a Wolverine fan, but I cannot stand the Irish, so I am going to be pulling hard for Michigan.  I just do not think Notre Dame is a Top 5 team this year, but I suppose this is a chance for them to prove me wrong.  I am expecting something like 31-30, Notre Dame, but I hope victory belongs to Michigan.  Texas will put up 56 on Rice, in what amounts to a wound-licking game after the Buckeye debacle.

Go Dawgs!