So today I tripped and fell, breaking my headphone port and leaving it to roll around inside my laptop's casing. My computer, thus injured, is without sound, and destined for a trip to a Dell Depot sometime in the next two days. The big problem with this state of affairs: the computer will still be in the shop when I leave for Austria. Until I get it back I'll be using an old laptop which was mine in high school.
This catastrophe ought not to impair updates on my Study Abroad experience. I'm still leaving in ten days, and the hairy process of packing has reached a goodly pitch of chaos and panic.
-JA
Monday, August 18, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
World of Warcraft: First Impressions
About two weeks ago I installed on of my free World of Warcraft trials and began my adventure into a game that has 10 million subscribers and is probably the most famous RPG of all time, perhaps even the most famous computer game. Now, time is running out and I have about 2 days left on my account before I have to pay or leave. So, these are my thoughts on WoW. I’m not going to give it a scientific review, just record my impressions. Firstly, I like this game. A lot. Secondly, I hate this game. A lot.
Part of this schizophrenic relationship has to do with the great limitation of a trial account: you aren’t allowed to invite people to join you on your questing. This means that you either have to find a group of people interested in doing the same thing you are doing (and good luck with that at lower levels) or you have to fly solo.
Flying solo is itself a schizophrenic experience, since the difficult curve scales in a punishingly steep manner. As you start out, you cruise through minor enemies and monsters like you’re eating a sandwich, but the moment you leave the secluded vale where you start and enter the “real world,” the game steals your sandwich and replaces it with a muffin stuffed with rusty nails. You have to play really, really carefully to avoid being eaten by mobs of enemies who descend from every corner of the map. Worst, the quests you receive give you absolutely no clue about how hard they will be to complete.
Another annoying thing about WoW is the time investment required. You can’t travel really fast at all until you reach level 30 (a goal completely out of the range of any trial account), which mean you spend the bulk of your time running around the same bloody forest looking for your quests. And if you should die you have to run all the way back to where you fell, and the respawn sites are located around populated areas, which means that they are far away from your corpse, so you spend five minutes running around as a ghost before you can resume the action.
Now, all of these flaws aside, I do like World of Warcraft as an RPG. It is quite well designed, as you would expect from Blizzard. The game feels like it has been specifically crafted to hook people, as it gives yo the constant feeling that if you only stick with it for a few more days your character will become the most powerful person in the land. It has good graphics, and implements quotidian things like eating and drinking in an innovative way. If it were only more forgiving on low-level players, I might be tempted to name it one of the best-designed RPGs ever made.
However, the time requirements are ultimately what turns me off. I play games in cycles, where I play one or two games for a couple months, then move on to another game in my collection. Also, I try not to play for more than a couple hours a day. World of Warcraft is not designed for such a casual attitude towards gaming. It demands that you spend lots of time with it, and it punishes casualness with difficulty in every aspect.
Part of this schizophrenic relationship has to do with the great limitation of a trial account: you aren’t allowed to invite people to join you on your questing. This means that you either have to find a group of people interested in doing the same thing you are doing (and good luck with that at lower levels) or you have to fly solo.
Flying solo is itself a schizophrenic experience, since the difficult curve scales in a punishingly steep manner. As you start out, you cruise through minor enemies and monsters like you’re eating a sandwich, but the moment you leave the secluded vale where you start and enter the “real world,” the game steals your sandwich and replaces it with a muffin stuffed with rusty nails. You have to play really, really carefully to avoid being eaten by mobs of enemies who descend from every corner of the map. Worst, the quests you receive give you absolutely no clue about how hard they will be to complete.
Another annoying thing about WoW is the time investment required. You can’t travel really fast at all until you reach level 30 (a goal completely out of the range of any trial account), which mean you spend the bulk of your time running around the same bloody forest looking for your quests. And if you should die you have to run all the way back to where you fell, and the respawn sites are located around populated areas, which means that they are far away from your corpse, so you spend five minutes running around as a ghost before you can resume the action.
Now, all of these flaws aside, I do like World of Warcraft as an RPG. It is quite well designed, as you would expect from Blizzard. The game feels like it has been specifically crafted to hook people, as it gives yo the constant feeling that if you only stick with it for a few more days your character will become the most powerful person in the land. It has good graphics, and implements quotidian things like eating and drinking in an innovative way. If it were only more forgiving on low-level players, I might be tempted to name it one of the best-designed RPGs ever made.
However, the time requirements are ultimately what turns me off. I play games in cycles, where I play one or two games for a couple months, then move on to another game in my collection. Also, I try not to play for more than a couple hours a day. World of Warcraft is not designed for such a casual attitude towards gaming. It demands that you spend lots of time with it, and it punishes casualness with difficulty in every aspect.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Welcome to the Cage of Monkeys!
Hello everyone,
Most of you know by now that I’m going to be studying abroad this year at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. If you didn’t, now you know, and if you did and forgot then consider your memory refreshed. I’m writing this email to tell you all how to get in touch with me and to cover a few other things.
Firstly, contact information. DO NOT call my cell phone. It does not operate in Europe. I will be getting a new cell over there, but I won’t appreciate high international phone bills. In light of that, here are the best ways to get in touch with me:
1. Email. I check my email very regularly whenever I have an internet connection. You can reach me at jashley1@nd.edu, jashley4@comcast.net, or zerstorer.von.welten@gmail.com.
2. Instant Messaging. I use both AIM and Google Talk these days. My AIM screen-name is LordHighPetty. Of the two I prefer Google Talk, though.
3. Voice chat through Google Talk. I recently bought a headset, and I’m working on setting that up. If you have Google Talk and a headset, you can talk to me over the internet without (hopefully) paying expensive phone bills.
4. Snail mail, if you so desire. I’ll notify you with my terrestrial address once I’ve settled into the University.
Now, another matter. To chronicle my adventures in Europe, I’m setting up a blog. It is currently in its infancy, but it will be the place where I will put all further updates, announcements, and news. You can find the blog at http://cageofmonkeys.blogspot.com/
Also, I have bought a new camera for my trip, and I know that you all will want pictures. Pictures will be going up at my Picasa webalbum, which can be found at: http://picasaweb.google.com/zerstorer.von.welten/
This too is in its infancy stages, so bear with me if I have problems with this setup.
Further details of my trip will be going up on my blog soon. I’m also going to include this information there as well.
I hope that this message finds you well and that your summers are unfolding fortuitously.
-John Ashley
Now, on to other details. I will be leaving the US at 4:30pm from O'Hare in Chicago. My flight will arrive at Vienna sometime in the early morning (Vienna time, obviously). From there I take another plane to the airport at Innsbruck, where I board a bus for Salzburg.
Salzburg is an Austrian city most famous in America as the filming location for "The Sound of Music." I will be staying there for five weeks in the four-star Hefterhof hotel, where I will be taking an intensive German refresher course. This means six hours of German every day, from about 9am to 3pm. After the course is complete, I'm probably heading to Munich for Oktoberfest.
Term at the University of Innsbruck starts on October 10. By then I will have moved in to my dorm and gotten appropriately settled. Term goes until January 31, with a break for Christmas. Then I have the month of February for my winter break, which I plan to spend touring around Europe in as much style as I can afford.
Spring term begins March 1. My current date of return (subject to change) is the 6th of June 2009.
Further updates regarding the study abroad program or anything else will come as they come.
-JA
Most of you know by now that I’m going to be studying abroad this year at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. If you didn’t, now you know, and if you did and forgot then consider your memory refreshed. I’m writing this email to tell you all how to get in touch with me and to cover a few other things.
Firstly, contact information. DO NOT call my cell phone. It does not operate in Europe. I will be getting a new cell over there, but I won’t appreciate high international phone bills. In light of that, here are the best ways to get in touch with me:
1. Email. I check my email very regularly whenever I have an internet connection. You can reach me at jashley1@nd.edu, jashley4@comcast.net, or zerstorer.von.welten@gmail.com.
2. Instant Messaging. I use both AIM and Google Talk these days. My AIM screen-name is LordHighPetty. Of the two I prefer Google Talk, though.
3. Voice chat through Google Talk. I recently bought a headset, and I’m working on setting that up. If you have Google Talk and a headset, you can talk to me over the internet without (hopefully) paying expensive phone bills.
4. Snail mail, if you so desire. I’ll notify you with my terrestrial address once I’ve settled into the University.
Now, another matter. To chronicle my adventures in Europe, I’m setting up a blog. It is currently in its infancy, but it will be the place where I will put all further updates, announcements, and news. You can find the blog at http://cageofmonkeys.blogspot.com/
Also, I have bought a new camera for my trip, and I know that you all will want pictures. Pictures will be going up at my Picasa webalbum, which can be found at: http://picasaweb.google.com/zerstorer.von.welten/
This too is in its infancy stages, so bear with me if I have problems with this setup.
Further details of my trip will be going up on my blog soon. I’m also going to include this information there as well.
I hope that this message finds you well and that your summers are unfolding fortuitously.
-John Ashley
Now, on to other details. I will be leaving the US at 4:30pm from O'Hare in Chicago. My flight will arrive at Vienna sometime in the early morning (Vienna time, obviously). From there I take another plane to the airport at Innsbruck, where I board a bus for Salzburg.
Salzburg is an Austrian city most famous in America as the filming location for "The Sound of Music." I will be staying there for five weeks in the four-star Hefterhof hotel, where I will be taking an intensive German refresher course. This means six hours of German every day, from about 9am to 3pm. After the course is complete, I'm probably heading to Munich for Oktoberfest.
Term at the University of Innsbruck starts on October 10. By then I will have moved in to my dorm and gotten appropriately settled. Term goes until January 31, with a break for Christmas. Then I have the month of February for my winter break, which I plan to spend touring around Europe in as much style as I can afford.
Spring term begins March 1. My current date of return (subject to change) is the 6th of June 2009.
Further updates regarding the study abroad program or anything else will come as they come.
-JA
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