Month: September 2006

Lots of my friends complain about “monthly fee” games, so Jonathan’s reaction to paying $14.99 a month for World of Warcraft is pretty consistent with most gamers I know. Yet one by one they put down their FPS gun sites and slowly migrate to WoW. Here’s my simple analysis of the cost issue.

I’ve puchased two or three games since World of Warcraft was released. Civilization IV and Out of the Park Baseball cost me roughly $49 and $29, so $78 total over a year. I generally purchase WoW in six month chunks because it’s cheaper, but let’s say I pay the full $15 a month. That’s $180 for a year. The first year it’s minus $15 since the first month their is no fee. I paid $49 for WoW, so that’s $214 a year for one game. Grand total for my gaming expenditures this year was $292.

The total is MUCH less than what I normally spent on games prior to WoW’s release. Let’s look at a slow year. Throw in a Madden, Galactic Civilizations, Football Manager, some random space game, a FPS to try out and quickly get bored with, and what is the total cost? If we assume a $45 price for each game, that’s $225 just for five titles. Since console games are more expensive than PC titles, it would be even more expensive. Note – since my wife reads this blog I will only publically admit to purchasing five games a year. These are, shall we say, conservative estimates.

Is the extra $70 for WoW worth it? I don’t watch TV much during prime time anymore. I Tivo everything with my DVR and watch what I want when I can fit it in. I’ve never played a game so much for so long a period of time. For my online baseball games I may spend an hour or so looking over rosters on occasion. I do spend time three days a week running a baseball sim for an hour or so. Otherwise, I am playing WoW.

So I think I am getting much more out of my gaming dollar today. There’s really no comparison.  When you enter the WoW-universe, gaming habits change.  People think they will play WoW plus buy a bunch of other games, but you won’t.  There simply aren’t enough hours in the day.

Anyone want to bet how many crap games have to be purchased as part of the GameStop.com Wii bundle?

Check back soon for information on our exciting pre-order bundles.

I am not sure I would say exciting Bob.  Maybe expensive.

I have still not decided what I am going to do as far as next generation systems go.  I doubt I am going to get a 360 anytime soon.  I am not so sure I want to spend a mortgage payment on a PS3.  And while the Wii looks interesting, I have yet to see how much the backwards compatible game will cost, or what sort of support the thing is going to get.  Right now I could care less about the audio/video capabilities, because I do not have a fancy pants HDTV set, so if the Wii is on par with my PS2 and GameCube, I can live with that.  No Mario on the tentative release list?  That could be a problem.

The transition to Out of the Park Baseball 2006 has entered the painful phase.  The computer AI just does odd things with players.  Some get released when traded, others are listed as being parts of teams but don’t show up on rosters, all sorts of nonsense.  The good people at Sports Interactive must be on vacation or doing something OTHER than fixing the bugs that were claimed fixed, but in fact were not.  A brief glance at the technical support section of the OOTP 2006 forum shows at least full page of unanswered problems.  Own a Mac and want to FTP your team exports?  Too bad, because SI doesn’t seem to have a clue about Mac FTP issues.

So I am not talking about anymore SI games until OOTP 2006 is finally patched up and doesn’t feel like an unstable mess.  If you’re an online league, please take my advice and wait a while before suffering through the transition pain.  There are some brilliant additions and we will work through them to enjoy the game, but a lot of commissioner’s blood will be shed to get there.

In other news, World of Warcraft continues to shine.  Lots of nice looking games get released and fall by the wayside because I am playing WoW whenever I am not dealing with OOTP 2006 issues.  I am finally at the point where I can do the end game raiding content whenever I want.  Getting together with 20 or 40 people to take on a dungeon is a pretty exciting experience when things work.  When they don’t, it can be very frustrating and expensive.

There is just so much to do in WoW that it’s hard to describe.  Many people approach the game thinking it’s all about getting to the highest level (60) and enjoying the end game content.  It’s so much more than that.  First, you must determine how exactly you want your 60 level character to participate in raiding instance dungeons.  Is you priest going to focus on shadow damage or become a healbot?  Is your warrior going to abosorb a lot of damage or deal a lot of pain?  The answer to each of these questions leads to long and winding paths to various armor sets, trinkets, rings, weapons, etc.

So there is a lot of research involved.  Various web sites contain a lot of information about the best strategies for different portions of the post-60 world.  Need a pre-Molten Core priest build?  Look it up.  Want to know how to spec for Zul’Grub?  Look it up.  This is the sort of gaming complexity that keeps me coming back for more in the same sad, sadistic way I keep trying to solve OOTP 2006.

I’ll write more about WoW since I’m done with SI games for a while, even with NHL Eastside Hockey Manager on the horizon.  Let’s see if we can get Jonathan to join us on Bronzebeard server!    

I rarely quote IGN these days; I think the antiestablishment period in TRB has long since passed, but allow me to post this gem from the IGN DVD review section for the new Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (Limited Edition) release:

“Otherwise, however, avoid these sets by any and all means; no matter how many retailers offer cool slipcases, comic books, or other swag, these sets were designed as a sort of back-handed show of gratitude to fans, or more likely as a stopgap for folks who wanted the originals and have yet to hear about the releases coming in 2007 in honor of the series’ 30th anniversary. (Mind you, we don’t have any details, tentative or otherwise, about that release, but seriously – do you think they’re gonna pass up the opportunity?)”

I have had this one, along with Empire and Return of the Jedi in my Amazon shopping cart for a long time, but I have yet to pull the trigger. I am a Star Wars child, so these movies are special to me, but do I really need this release? Am I enough of a movie buff to notice all the differences between the various sets? I do not even have a decent TV, surround sound, or anything of the like, so you guess I could get away with saving my money for now. That 30th anniversary thing is calling my name…

Then again, this is still Star Wars to me, not that New Hope nonsense.

I have covered this a few times before, but at one point in my life I was addicted to “collecting” games.  Thankfully those days have now passed, because they typically ended with a game library that grew dusty, stale, and worthless.

Ah, but there are a few gems to be had.  I am talking about the holy grail of collecting.  The sought after gems on eBay.  Yes, the RPGs.  I recently cleared more than the original MSRP (or at least what I paid way back when) for Legend of Mana, Vagrant Story, and Chrono Cross.  The common theme?  All Squaresoft titles for the original Playstation.  We are talking about clearing over $150 for these games, which if you think about it, is a horrible investment, but this is far better than losing my shirt, which is what usually happens when I toss up older games on eBay.

Bush vs. Williams is certainly fun, but the best story of the weekend for me has to be the Ravens. Could it be possible that they are now a legitimate contender? The addition of McNair, if he stays healthy is going to be huge. Throw in a strong rushing attack and a revived defense and you have to wonder how far Baltimore can go this year:

I came away from my trip through Baltimore’s training camp convinced that the Ravens’ defense might just be back. That’s looking like a solid hunch so far. Maybe it was just good karma resulting from the return to the field where Baltimore won a Super Bowl title more than five years ago, but the Ravens defense looked to be in 2000-2001 form at Tampa Bay.

Baltimore held Cadillac Williams to 22 yards rushing on eight carries, with the Bucs limited as a team to just 26 yards on the ground and 142 yards of total offense and eight first downs. The Ravens picked off Chris Simms three times, including cornerback Chris McAlister’s 60-yard interceptions return for a second-quarter touchdown.

Word of warning to the rest of the NFL: I think Ray Lewis and Co. are interested again.

I was equally impressed by the Falcons, but I did not want to pick them first for homer-factor reasons. 47 rushing attempts for 252 yards (5.4 yards/rush avg) is balls to the wall outrageous. What about the defense holding the Panthers to 215 yards? Vick managed another sub .500 effort (10-22 for 140 yards and 2 TDs), but he did not make many mistakes and he also rushed seven times for 48 yards. Not sure if the Falcons can keep it up, but it was fun being a Falcons fan yesterday.

For all of those pundits out there that think Houston should have picked Reggie Bush, please take a good look at the Texans’ roster. I am a long time fan of teams with great defenses – New York Giants and the current Jacksonville Jaguars. Houston learned what Jack Del Rio already knows. To beat the Colts, a big front line is the first step toward a division championship. Would Reggie Bush have helped this Sunday? Might have been closer, but no, not at all. I have to watch the pathetic Texans play every weekend and I am very happy that Williams is a member of the front line. The Jaguars have a great record against the Colts because they have big Marcus Stroud and John Henderson (Big John Henderson to his fans) anchoring a solid defensive front.

So the Texans made the wise football decision if they want to build a contender. Williams may or may not be a bust (jury is still way, way out as of today), but Houston made the same decision I would make if winning the division is a goal of the franchise.

is a lot better than anyone in the Texan’s backfield.  Reggie Bush managed 141 total yards in his debut against Cleveland (61 on the ground; 58 receiving; 22 on punt returns).  Houston’s leading rusher, Lundry only managed 32 yards on 11 carries.  A season one game does not make, but second thoughts in the Houston front office?

I came across this MSN Autos gas prices site the other day (I think I saw it in a recent Road & Track magazine) and figured I would pass it along. I paid $2.49/gallon this morning, which was $0.02 over the cheapest I could get in Columbus, but is a lot better than the national average of $2.62/gallon.  How else are you going to save for a shiny new PS3?

While Georgia’s 18-0 victory over South Carolina was enjoyable, it is still not the same thing as betting Florida, especially those Spurrier led Gators that kicked our tails year after year.

It should be noted that Georgia rarely racks up shutouts these days; I cannot recall one in recent memory, and I am not sure when we last shutout an SEC foe on the road. I read in the paper that the only other time a Spurrier team was shutout was 193 games ago when his Duke team fell 7-0 to Rutgers. Ouch.

Today’s AP and USA Today Polls have Ohio State remaining in the top spot. Fair enough; that Texas win was a big statement for the Buckeyes. Texas slipped to the eighth spot in both polls; once again seems reasonable.

Is Georgia really a Top 10 program at this point? AP has the Dawgs ranked tenth, while the coaches think UGA is number nine in the country. Maybe by the end of the year, but seems premature at this point.

What about Florida State? After that near disaster against Troy, how can they be ranked ninth (AP) and tenth (USA Today) respectively? Sure they won, but did anyone voting watch the game? Giving the Seminoles credit for overcoming adversity, but they should drop for their poor performance.

Same goes for Tennessee. You do not let Air Force come within a whisker of beating you and still remain a Top 15 team. At least the AP got this one right, dropping Tennessee from eleventh to thirteenth, while the Volunteers remained ranked seventeenth in the USA Today poll.

It is only week number two, but already there should be plenty to debate about the polls. Once the BCS nonsense rolls into town, the real fun begins.

Just realized that I have not made any predictions for this year, and while one game is already in hand, I think it is still fair for me to throw out a couple of picks.

• AFC East: New England (a safe pick, and while Miami should be better, I think Brady is too good to let the team slip)
• AFC North: Cincinnati (mostly due to me expecting the defense to be improved enough to complement the explosive offense)
• AFC South: Indianapolis (another safe pick; Jacksonville will be better, but they are not going to dethrone the Colts this year)
• AFC West: Kansas City (a new QB in San Diego will not help their cause, but Denver could sneak into the mix)
• AFC Wildcards: Miami and Pittsburgh (the only reason I am not picking Pittsburgh is because I did not make the pick before their first game; their defense is impressive)
• AFC Champion: Indianapolis (probably a safe pick, but I think this is the year everything falls in place)
• NFC East: New York (they may not go far in the playoffs, but this is Eli’s year to shine)
• NFC North: Minnesota (Chicago would be safe, but I have too many safe picks; the Vikings will have just enough to pull off the surprise)
• NFC South: Carolina (this team has it all – a strong defense, decent QB, strong running game, great WRs)
• NFC West: Seattle (no competition here in what has to be the weakest division in the NFL)
• NFC Wildcards: Philadelphia and Atlanta (the Eagles will rebound, while the Falcons are my homer pick, after all, I need a reason to cheer them on)
• NFC Champion: Carolina (safe pick is Seattle, but I did not respect them last year, so no point in starting now)

Super Bowl will feature Indianapolis over Carolina. Just don’t remind me in January if I am wrong in September. Happy football!

Things should look a lot different about the ‘Bin today as I continue a whirlwind upgrade effort from Nucleus to WordPress. Why the change? Because I think that WordPress is going to provide us with more options, is very flexible, and it seems to be a fantastic tool for blogging.

A few quick points:

• data conversion was a bit difficult – I am sure a few things are going to look odd (like formatting of the previous posts and some missing graphics)
• 9 posts did not convert; no idea why. not sure if I will manually convert the missing entries
• comments are disabled for now, until I get my arms around spam filters and the like
• layout may change; looking for something simple, clean, and crisp
• TODO: send Chris posting instructions
• a few links such as “about” are dead (until I have time to fix them)
• any bookmarks are mostly dead … so hopefully everyone will figure out how to navigate the new layout

Calvert Games was officially launched September 27, 2001 – back in the day, things around here were pretty barebones, and more or less hit the mark despite the Mickey Mouse look and feel. June 2003 saw a major overhaul of the site – the switch to a php Nuke based site brought about Calvert Games 2.0. August 22, 2004 saw the switch to Nucleus, which facilitated the launch of The Recycle Bin 3.0 (emphasis on blogging), and was my attempt at a simpler, more interesting format.

So here we are – The Recycle Bin 4.0 – not sure where we are going, but I am sure it will be an entertaining ride.

As the Recycle Bin fast approaches its fifth anniversary, I have decided it is time for a face lift. Site may be a bit of a mess shortly, but hopefully everything will be back in order soon.

Another glorious weekend is on the way for SEC football. This is the quickie version, so sit back and enjoy the abbreviated weekly preview.

Mississippi – Missouri
I do not like Mississippi, but I have to go for them for SEC pride. If Ole Miss manages a decent rushing attack, they may be able to pull this one off, but if not, they are going down to a Big 12 team. How bad is that?

(4) Auburn – Mississippi State
Cats and dogs do not mix, and the poor State Bulldogs are going to get the worst part of this mismatch. Auburn by 21.

Vanderbilt – Alabama
Vanderbilt played Michigan well early, but in the end they did not have the talent on offense or enough depth to really challenge the Wolverines. I expect this one to go pretty much the same way. Alabama will Roll, Roll, Roll to victory.

UCF – (7) Florida
While UCF may be a program on the rise, they do not stand a chance in this one. Florida will win going away; close early, but expect the gap to exceed 28 points.

Texas State – Kentucky
The Wildcats are always candidates for the SEC Shame of the Week Award, but Kentucky should be able to manage this one. Then again, Kentucky does suck.

Arizona – (8) LSU
I do not think LSU is a Top 10 team, but they will have this one under wraps fairly early. If not, this one will be a mild upset, but not as major as the guys on ESPN will make it out to be. LSU is not high cotton material. I will be seriously disappointed in a PAC 10 team puts a damper on my predictions.

Utah State – Arkansas
Arkansas will win, and all of hog-nation will think the USC game was an aberration. Something like that. Arkansas is the team I love to hate, but they will represent the SEC well with an easy victory.

Air Force – (11) Tennessee
An interesting match up, but do the Falcons really think they have a chance? Tennessee’s defense is going to be way too fast.

(12) Georgia – South Carolina
Georgia never plays well in Columbia, but the Dawgs have plenty of talent, and more depth than the Gamecocks. I expect this one to be close for the first three quarters, before Georgia pulls away by 10.