Minecraft won't let go

Priorities: As you can see I have been neglecting my blog again. Currently I am in a transition from Minecraft to other games. I took a leave of absence on the Unlimited Craft server to try and help get away from Minecraft, and just when I thought I was free, I discovered the Survival Games servers. Which are basically pvp matches setup like the hunger games.

They are really fun and one reason I like it so much is because I rock at it. I am currently in the top 100 players on the leaderboard of about 35,000 players. Here is a link to my page on their server: Survival games

Besides my efforts of taking a break from minecraft on PC I just today bought Minecraft for the xbox 360. It should be fun because I can play it splitscreen with my wife and friends.
I have also been playing skyrim on and off. Its good but isnt all that addictive. Very similar to fallout 3 which I have already played the heck out of.

I have temporarily canceled my Old Republic subscription. I am not playing it enough to justify the $15 a month. When a friend of mine gets back in August I will reinstate it if I haven't already because he will want to play.


Virtually Virtual: Going to write a review of xbox Minecraft soon.


Thoughtful gab: I was comparing things at work to video games. In the sense of what I have learned. One example are the pallet jacks. Every new person takes a while to learn to steer it and bumps it around all over the place. Where as when I first got one it took me all of about 2 minuets to get it down and I was moving it around like a pro. Why is that?

It may seem silly but I believe it may have something to do with all the driving games Ive played. From Forza to Burnout to Mario Cart. I have played a decent amount and I think that they have given me some knowledge of maneuvering things. Idk how to explain it, but some video games require precision driving, and they are usually fairly close to real life. So I just learn the real life quicker because of it.

Same goes with driving a car. Sometimes I think I can park well because of the games. Idk it would be neat to setup a legitimate scientific experiment to find out if this is true or not.

Lava death and medieval dress

Priorities:

I have been spending a lot of my free time on the internet. Not playing games, just watching youtube videos, editing and reading the Unlimted Craft forums, and other surfing.

Otherwise I am playing minecraft.

Yesterday I played some battlefield. It was fun, I think I might play more.

Virtually virtual:

I am excited for the Minecraft xbox game to come out! It will be fun to get all the achievements and play split screen with the wife.

I am kind of loosing interest in minecraft again. As I have said before, it comes in waves.

It's ironic I loose interest now because I was just promoted on the UC server. I have more responsibility and should be there more. But I am tired of building mundane things. I want an epic project again. Even then, I just want to do the epic project.

Maybe I should take a week vacation or something from UC.

The Head-Staff, eydya, and I are good friends (through minecraft) I am sure he would ok it.

Maybe I will get back into battlefield. Or if I ever get skyrim I will just play that.

Thoughtful gab:

So I got my wife to play Minecraft with me a few weekends back and she was totally hooked. We played all evning then on Saturday we played all day together! We have made some roads and stuff in the jungle, around our base. We have a farm and a sheep farm with different wool colors. Its fun.

She had never found a diamond on her own and was sad. She was recently killed by a creeper. So I used an xray texture pack to find some diamonds and let her mine them. I saw that there was lava behind them and warned her. When she got the diamond she freaked out and said the computer wouldn't let her move. The lava poured over her and she was dying. In a panicked act I placed dirt around her to stop the lava and somehow eneded up suffocating her with it.

So I technically killed her, but we say the lava did.

She lost all her stuff to the lava, including her first diamonds. She shut the game off and said she would never play again.

-sigh- it happens. We have all been there before. I am sure I can get her to play again though. I made chest with a present for her for when she gets back in game. :)

We also went to the Renaissance Festival here in Arizona this past weekend! Totally fun, like always. We dressed steampunk.. or attempted to.

Saw some sweet medieval costumes though. And the turkey legs were a hearty meal. HUZZAH!

Senses of direction.

Priorities:

I am back into minecraft. Have been for a few weeks. Between my last post and now, I got a new monitor and got back into StarCraft 2 and Battlefield 3.

Virtually virtual:

In StarCraft I played some ranked matches (Bronze ladder 1v1 and Gold 4v4) and am working on the campaign on brutal difficulty.

In Battlefield I got to the colonel rank (45) and stopped playing.

Now I am back into minecraft, specifically playing hardcore mode single player, playing normal single player with my wife when I can get her to play with me, and playing on the Unlimited Craft server. I will talk more about this in my next post.

I want to get skyrim because I have heard A LOT of hype about it. Better give it a try. Just a matter of money now.

My wife is playing dragon age 2 and a little minecraft with me. :)

Thoughtful gab:

Ok so I have an interesting story for today's gab, about direction.

I was just talking with my wife the other day while she was driving us in a area of town that we weren't familiar with, about how good my sense of direction is. Because during the drive, she managed to lose her sense of direction a few times.

For example, we were going East and she pulled into a gas station to get gas. We left the gas station and she turned out a different driveway and starting going North. She was completely unaware that she was going a different direction than before. It was obvious to me so I gave her a minuet to see if she would notice then told her the error. Similar instances happened 2 other times that same trip.

It just seems no matter where we drive, how many turns we make, or how unfamiliar the layout is, I usually know which way we came from, which way we were going, and which way is N.S.E.W. I don't need to look around a lot or check where the sun is, it just seems natural. I call it my internal compass. I never really questioned that it was anything besides a natural born sense of direction. Until today...

I was playing minecraft today and left my home to go chop wood in a nearby forest. I noticed that I had taken some turns and could not see my home anymore. But I remembered how I got to where I was, and even more importantly, where my home was from my position. I started thinking about how if my wife or parents would have done the same thing, they would be turned around and lost in the forest.

Now I have played many video games, for a long time. A lot of those games have minimaps and often you will need to backtrack. In an RPG you learn the layout because you travel back and forth often, while questing. In first person shooters you have to learn the map quickly so you know where the strategic points are, learning the layout as fast as possible drastically increases your odds of pwning a newb that has no idea where he is going. This "learning" of the maps and direction has become second nature, I don't need to activity memorize what is where, it just comes naturally and instantly.

So my theory is that this video game direction training has become a real world ability. Like a map on Battlefield 3 or Old Republic, in real life I am keeping track of my N.S.E.W. direction and the path I came from without consciously thinking about it. I am learning the layout automatically because I am so used to doing the same in video games.

Could this be another way video games benefit real life? Now of course I have no evidence that supports this. Just a coincidence and a simple theory really, but who knows. It might just be a natural sense of direction and not video game teachings, but It's an interesting thought none the less.

"That's no moon."

So over a 5 day span I have been working on my biggest minecraft build to date! We will see how long it takes you to guess what I am working on.

(note: I am still not done! I have some minor details to add, and possible an interior. I will post the finished project whenever I get there.)

Priorities:

18 Hours spent building

About 4 hours a day for 5 days

Virtually Virtual:

I only had used one picture to go off of. I did use creative mode and fly, otherwise no mods, no world edits.

The first step I took was deciding how long it should be. I then tried to judge the angle of the

perimeter. There are no slanted blocks on minecraft; the most difficult part of the build was calculating the inclines. I needed to find out how many blocks to go before going inwards a block, to make a sloping effect. I overshot my first time, building the outer right outline, but got it right the second time.

In this first picture I am flying high above to try and get an idea of the outline. I was using waypoints to mark the tips and middle of the ship to know where they were. It helped a lot since the length of the build was out of the visual range. Which unfortunately means it is next to impossible to ever see the ship as a whole.

I got the middle perimeter layed out, you can already tell what its going to be! (hopefully)

Around day 3 I had finished the bottom of the ship and was nearing completion of the top. Using some simple math I figured out the incline of this 160 block long beast!

The finished product! Minus the piece in the middle that was having loading issues due to the distance.

I will post more, and a video, when I finish the trimmings.

Thoughtful gab: My Star Destroyer is so win! My wife says its cool but I can tell she is kind of just saying that. Does she realize how many blocks this took? Or how difficult it was to figure out with no blueprints?? lol anyway...

She hasn't played minecraft with me for a good while.. I will keep pestering her to do so though and when she does... she will love it.

Our Youtube channel, and catch-up

I realize I really dropped the ball on blogging. But that's what gaming can do to you. I have taken a break and I am back with a fresh start.

I have a Youtube channel for my blog. I have downloaded some Minecraft tutorials so far, and plan on downloading other games on there as well.

Here is the link

http://www.youtube.com/user/TodaysMarriedGamer?blend=1&ob=video-mustangbase

Priorities:

Today I did a lot of building in Minecraft on my new server, Unlimited craft. I also played Old Republic.

Virtually Virtual:

I got a new monitor! Yay. Finally a nice looking 20'' widescreen. All my games were so much different when I first played them.

As I mentioned before, I am no longer in Legendary craft. Well that's partly true.

Here's what happened:

I finally got mod, I got super mod, Felipe (the owner) was being a corrupt fool that only cared about making money, I joined a branch of of LC called UC, I become assistant (equal to mod), that's where I am now.

The people on this server are real. I like it better :)
So now I am working hard in the forums and in game to try and get admin/head-staff some day.

Here is a link to their forums

http://www.unlimited-craft.com/home

Thoughtful gab:

Its funny how you have to be in the right mood to play games sometimes. For example, today when I was playing Old Republic...

When I got home from work I was ready to play some Old Republic! I looked forward taking my time, killing every enemy, listening to the entire conversation, and exploring the world. But then after playing games (minecraft) for 5 hours, when I finally got on Old Republic my feelings were different. I was annoyed by all the enemies I had to fight, I didn't care to explore, I skipped through most of the conversation because it was redundant, and I generally rushed through the game.

If I played Old Republic when I first got home from work, I would have truly enjoyed it. The way games were meant to be played. Rushing through it is a waste of time. You aren't enjoying the game as much and you are skipping things you wouldn't normally. From experience, I suggest that if you find yourself in this rushed state, take a break from video games. Go do your chores or read a book. Then come back later and you should have a fresh pallet, much better to really enjoy the game with.

Cant talk, old republic

I'm busy playing Old Republic

Yes its out

Yes its awesome

Some things are better and some are worse from my expectations

Took some getting used to an MMO (yes this was my first)

I plan on writing longer blog posts, I just cant now... must get back to game lol

Star Wars beta: storm before the calm

Me:

In 24 hours time from this time I will be playing the Old Republic beta. Between then and now I will be working black Friday at Target.

It is a weird mix of dread and excitement. Honestly I have tunnel vision and the fact I will soon be playing Old Republic will keep me smiling the whole time.

I promise either during, or as soon as the beta ends, I will post some sort of review on it.

I plan on being a class I do not plan on playing for a while when the game is released. The smuggler. I will review this class and the game itself.

In other news my xbox decided it does not want to play CD's anymore. So no more Battlefield until I get a new one. Christmas? Tax return?

More info on SWTOR:

The game will be released on December 20th but will be playable via internet download for people who pre-ordered on the 15th.

I highly recommend http://db.darthhater.com/ for detailed information on planets, classes, skills, and more.

Home front:

My wife and I are doing well. She thinks it is a waste of money that I have donated money to the Legendary Craft server that I play on on Minecraft. The donation not only give me more abilities in the server, but shows the admins I care for the server, increasing my chances at mod, and keeps the server running smoothly.

She is afraid that when Old Republic comes out I wont pay any more attention to her. I already addressed this in a previous post. I myself realize the game will be addicting and hard to leave at any time. But I know over everything my wife comes first. No matter how hard it is I will make time to be with her during my "new game craze" phase.