Wurk wurk wurk Ten days in Azeroth: let me tell you about my character So. Very. Cool. Bikes
Well, I bought the Sim's Deluxe version for my kids to play (I think I prefer sexual references to violence). I'm taking the "retro" path - sticking with tried and tested old games (well, not that old) than the latest (ie. needs patch) games. It is addictive enough, while enabling me to prise myself away from it enough to have a real life :-).
I always say, you can't go wrong with the tried and true classics. Personally, I could play Railroad Tycoon quite happily for the rest of my days...
I commented to my supervisor that I was carefully avoiding buying the SIMs as I knew it would be terribly addictive for me and I'd waste a lot of thesis writing time on it and he replied that if I ever got my thesis submitted he'd buy it for me...incentive :)
Dave, if you were to play "Railroad Tycoon" all day that would leave you playing "Pirates" all night. Without sleep you would surely die, and so, sirrah, your claim is patently horseshit! I challenge you to a duel on the bridge! After my surrender you’ll pitch my men into the sea, send over a prize crew, and take up the Governor’s mission. Next you’ll find the treasure, marry the icon that pleases, and die of old age. A poisonous shrub that bears your name will be your legacy.
By winstoninabox, at
7:55 PM
All entirely true - you probably should have included Amiga favourite 'Wings' in that rant as well.
Monday, January 24, 2005
Surprisingly busy at work as the project heads towards wrapup and the next project starts to take shape. I’m taking a more upfront management role in the next one, which means I don’t get the luxury of blithely sitting back and waiting to be told what to do. This goes against every fibre of my being, but what can you do?
Work-wise, the big news – finally confirmed last week – is that I’m getting an all-too-rare perk trip in a few weeks time. The new application is being deployed to several universities, and I’m providing training to Curtin Uni and the Uni of WA in Perth. I’ll be away for a week. To make it even better, Fi’s trading in her frequent flyer points and coming over to spend the weekend as well (and providing training at the Perth branch of her work, so they’re chipping in some travel allowance, which is a bonus).
Hopefully we’ll get to spend the weekend with Jill, but so far she hasn’t replied to the emails I’ve sent, which makes me wonder whether I have her current address right. If you’re reading this and you’re in regular contact, can you send me her email address or let her know to send one to me? Ta.
Okay, so after spending a total of 19 hours over the weekend before last downloading the 50 Mb+ patch for WoW, we finally logged in and started playing. I say ‘we’ because Jimbo and Simon are now as addicted as I am (though they are piloting sitting back while I hog the computer a lot!). I’m playing a tauren (big bull minotaur-looking feeler with clod-hopping cloven hooves) hunter (as in big game, complete with blunderbuss and skinning knives) named Vasharda. I also have a pet wolf named Snarls.
I’d go into more detail, but I don’t want to be boring about it. One thing I will say is that despite the horrid lag induced by the slow dialup connection – which occasionally makes the game unplayable, but only occasionally – this game is utterly wonderful. I really could spend years just wandering around and looking at the scenery, killing monsters and skinning them for their hides and even just fishing (don’t ask). Apart from the engrossing gameplay, it’s just so pretty to look at. Last night, I entered a new area for the first time (leaving the tauren starting-player ‘newbie’ area of Mulgore) and was amazed at the way the scenery seamlessly shifted from rolling hills of bright green fields to desolate, earth-toned badlands, parched and desperate-looking. Like watching The Sound of Music segue into The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, complete with a soundtrack transition from cheerful tribal drum bombast to hollow haunting minor-key neo-Morricone-ism.
And last night, I took my first flight on the in-game fast-transit system, which looked a bit like this. Words fail me as to how breathtaking this experience actually looks, except to point out that you can swing the camera’s point of view around and look at the landscape zooming past below. You’ll just have to come over and look or get yourself a copy (and then join me on the Cenarion Circle server).
Fiona’s been searching for a new motorbike for the past month or so, but the urgency has started to increase over the past couple of weeks, as we get closer to the trip to Queensland at the end of February. We’re going to the WIMA AGM on the Gold Coast, and then spending a couple of extra days using a cheap-holiday voucher in Noosa. Oh yeah, looking forward to soaking up the sun-drenched, gaudy, muggy and ever-so-slightly tacky atmosphere of Noosa.
But back to the bikes: she’s got one main criterium for her Socratic ideal, which is that it is Low Enough. She’s short, and her short legs don’t actually reach all the way to the ground on most bikes, which are fixed at a height of around 80 cm off the ground. So the front runner so far is the Cagiva Raptor, which is low slung and quite sporty. In fact, it has quite a lot of oomph. The problem is that she took one for a test ride, and it had a fierce back-end wobble that made her look like a drunk driver. She had to wrestle it the whole way, all the time looking like she was going to swerve straight into the next lane, lamp or tree. The sales rep at the shop seemed to think there wasn’t anything wrong with it (presumably with the implied position that she was covering for a lack of confidence, competence or testicles) but made vague promises to ‘get the mechanics to look at it’. Whatever, buddy, we weren’t planning to buy an overpriced new bike from you anyway, we just wanted a test ride…
Anyway, in preparation for that trip, I took my first tilt at riding with a pillion passenger last weekend (Fiona). It turned out to be surprisingly easy, though there were a couple of moments when I found the bike responding sluggishly, particularly in the braking. After a faultless morning’s riding around, I almost managed to drop it in our front driveway, but luckily I’m pretty quick at getting my feet positioned to support the weight. Comes of all that time falling over as a teenager, no doubt.
We also went hog-wild with the credit card and finished assembling my collection of riding gear, picking up some new summer gloves, Rossi boots and a pair of Draggin’ jeans (like ordinary jeans of more-than-ordinarily-unfashionable cut, but with Kevlar lining located at strategic points to avoiding major skin-loss in the event of a slide). Not a cheap way to spend the day, but at least I’m kitted up in full safety gear now.
Now to never have a crash again…
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5 Comments:
But actually The Sims always seemed a little, well, creepy to me. Not sure why that is - the combination of voyeurism and mundanity (I mean, really, how often did that guy need to be told to take out the garbage and clean the toilet? Ewww!)
Of course I could say the same things about you and any version of "Sid Meier's Civilization”. Just without all the silly “Pirates” references.
...This all points to the same kind of highly addictive personality Jenny's talking about, doesn't it?
