MikeJL Blog

Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO) is moving to a free to play service. (Free to play you can play free however can pay for additional content, unlock some premier classes, etc.)

Runes of Magic was also free to play however RoM just never hooked me (also to much JRPG'ish). I was lucky to play in the DDO open beta few years ago and it was a good MMO. Reason why I never jumped into it:

• Very unfriendly for solo (ya, ya .. talk all the its a MMO and D&D .. grouping needed.. still I want to be able to solo)
• I was in mid-WoW at that time and could not see paying to play another fantasy MMO.
• As above.. did not want to pay $15/month for part-time MMO play.

I have been one a break from all MMOs (sorta burnt –out on the whole MMO mechanic). Love to get back into WoW or Warhammer; just don't want to want to pay $15 to play part-time.

Well .. DDO may just be the MMO to fill my part-time MMO play. Reading an article on massively.com. A few things that caught my eye was the ability to hire henchmen AND a very good solo class to also be released.

That with no monthly fee. DDO may bring me back into MMOs.

Finished FarCry2. Overall a fun shooter (light ... very light RPG). It get little long in mid-game; however not a bad story. Its not Fallout 3 quality still it will throw a few twists on you. Very satisfying as a shooter and looked and ran fantastic on my system.

On getting more into Mass Effect now. It's third person and, at least on the first mission, not as open world (i.e. Fallout 3 , FarCry 2). Still the initial mission was fun and the story is good. The combat was fun and lots of RPG elements on abilities and equipment. Also a squad system (assign position, cover and direct fire) I need to play with more.

What a year for hardware. MacBook Battery, HP printer/scanner/fax, and yesterday my monitor Samsung SyncMaster 204B 20" LCD

Started to have issues with flickering and getting really dim to losing the picture. I originally thought it was the KVM switch; however when I hooked the LCD directly to the PC still had the flickering / losing pic issue. So I dug out the huge 20” CRT and was about to put the LDC into the recycle pile.

However, checked my receipt and it was purchased August 24th 2006 AND has a three year parts and labor warranty! Loged onto the Samsung site and in 15 minutes have a trouble ticket open and pre-paid UPS label printed! No cost repair!

Went from "awww sh!t" to "nice"!

Pays to check warranty info and receipt. Almost three years old I assumed it was out-of warranty.. glad I checked.

Lots going on but little blogging. Mom visiting and I have a summer class to teach (yea). Happy True Blood (HBO series) is back and summer season of Burn Notice.
I did get Mass Effect, installed, patched and started the game. However, my last save is standing at the start of the very first mission; so have not really started playing yet.

Have my eye on the new iPhone. The better camera and the video capture looks very cool. Also… Found out I get a discount on the monthly plan through work so I may take the leap and get an iPhone 3GS.

Very good in-depth look at http transactions
http://www.moserware.com/2009/06/first-few-milliseconds-of-https.html

Mass Effect has been out a year. However, waiting gave me game patches and a $16 price tag!



I really have not paid too much attention to this. Not sure why .. its a RPG and I love RPGs I guess I am 80% fantasy, 10% shooter and 10% other. However, the space setting will round out my current RPG library (Fallout 3, Oblivion) very well. A good "space opera" will be fun.

Ordered and on the way.