After two years... it is time -

Download the brainchild of Plastik and myself at my new virtual record label / music storage website - http://emptunes.com



I hope you check it out and enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed making it.

The site is still under work but should be done by June 1st. Download to your hearts content and link your friends!

The internet is becoming scary.

So a couple days ago, I posted about Pocket Legends and mobile gaming in general on my iPhone. It continues to amaze me.

However, even more amazing is that my little tiny post was somehow found by a PL facebook group. Then the PL website [linked above] posted a link on their front page Twitter gadget, directed right at my blog post. Wow!!! I'm flattered, surely; but mostly I'm confused. Seriously, how does the Internet find the most obscure stuff and manage to showcase it? I had people running up to me in game ALL DAY LONG, saying they read my blog. Surreal. I'm not even on facebook!!! Weird...

So I've almost finished grinding my first [real] character to 35. Currently I'm sitting at 32, equipped with a few cool PINK items [thx Esus!!!]. I've met tons of cool people so far, some pro some noob. Heres an example of what noobs look like -



I shall begin my quest for epic pink loot by nightfall! The citizenry of PL shall quiver whenever I join the instance! Well, maybe not yet, but very soon. When I gear up. And start rolling with similarly epic players such as myself. PL domination incoming...

But I do have a few problems and concerns with the game, I will admit it. First off, the chat system is being abused by spammers, scammers, and general immature noobery. It needs a workable anti-abuse mechanic, akin to a trigger. Drop rates on high end gear are currently too nice, as it's one of the few things that adds tremendous replay value at the end. I think drop rates should be lowered, but only slightly. It should take more than a week to truly deck a toon out. Finally, with respect to PvP - skills will probably need tweaking to make all classes and builds both viable and not overpowered. Currently I do not see any gaping imbalances, but I fear that a pure STR warrior with a 2-handed wep will be 2 shotting lower armored players. I also fear ice mages will potentially be overpowered with respect to too much CC utility if specced correctly. However these are truly minor things, and it will be interesting to see how the Devs approach issues as they sprout up.

Anyways, I just wanted to follow up on my first post by saying, I've almost entered full end game, and PL is holding my attention stronger than before. You must try this game.

2010: The Year of the Mobile Game

Ok, this is something I've been thinking about for a week now, but have barely had the time to post about it.

Recently, while on a short vacation, I took a good look at the App Store on my iPhone. I had an itch to game, but being away, began to think outside of the box.

Let me just jump right and get to the point. Last fall I got an iPhone 3GS. I had a $400 credit with AT&T, so I only paid $200 for a brand new $600 phone. Awesome deal, I couldn't pass it up, and I have no regrets. I've had the phone for about six+ months now, and it's been nothing short of badass. For the most part, it replaces my casual computing entirely. I pretty much do not surf on my computer anymore [except for lengthy posts like this], and also deep net searching. Hell, I think the only things my computer[s] are used for currently are music production and hardcore gaming. And the hardcore games have sucked lately.

But times change. People change. Games change. For the past week, I've found myself in a state of awe, literally overwhelmed with the awesome things I've been finding in the iPhone's App Store. We're talking wild stuff, people.

I'll be honest, I was a skeptic initially when I got my phone, and a skeptic even more when I started snooping around the App Store last week. Since last fall, the only downloaded App I've had on my phone is Scrabble. The App Store has been up and doling out apps for over two years. I remember looking through the App Store the day I got the phone last fall, thinking mostly something along the lines of, "oh, neato..."

But now I look at the App Store every single day, wondering what will come out next. Over the course of this past week my phone has gone from having one single dinky Scrabble app to having the following additions:

1 MMORPG, 2 MMOFPS [1 like Unreal Tourny, 1 like CoD], an online Mario Kart knockoff, an online Bomberman, online Poker, and a Final Fantasy Tactics knockoff with an unique twist.

Heres a few pics of some of the games I've been totally dominating online...


^ Pocket Legends ^


^ Eliminate Pro ^


^ Brothers In Arms 2: Global Front ^


^ Cocoto Kart Online ^

And those are just the games.

So basically what I'm getting at is, Developers of all kinds of software have finally figured out how to make badass games and apps. I'm talking badass. Theres a 30 dollar app called LogMeIn: Ignition that lets you do GoToMyPC type of stuff. You can literally control any PC in the world from your phone. You could actually play a computer game on a PC on the moon, controlling everything on the PC from just your phone. Holy cow!!!

Let me put it this way - the makers of this Mario Kart knockoff, Cocoto Kart Online, stopped making the series for Nintendo DS and switched to iPhone full-time.

I've downloaded things like Speed Test, to check my Wi-Fi connection whenever I'm using a spotty connection around town. I've downloaded a few News apps, some of which feature LIVE STREAMING TELEVISION FOR FREE. Things like ESPN Sportscenter. Stuff like an IRC client. Or a Radio fetcher which can play over 50,000 live stations on-the-fly. For free!!!

But again, the real gems are the games. The diamond of all the games is Pocket Legends [pictured above earlier]. I know it sounds corny, but, playing WoW on your phone is a million times cooler than playing from your PC. No monthly fees, no initial app download purchase - you pay for end game content as it comes out. And it comes out constantly, so you're basically paying 2-5 a month to stay at the top. Oh, and did I mention PvP? No, I didn't, because it hasn't been patched in yet... but it will... and when it does... this game will be launched into my top ten games of all time list. Literally. It's that f'ing cool. The game just came out last month, too, so it's perfect time to jump in. The devs put out patches DAILY. They talk with the customers CONSTANTLY. The game actually plays like a balanced MOBILE DIABLO. If you own an iPhone and do not at least check this game out for the free content, then you're an absolute fail.

I mean, for the love of god - they're online!!!

Anyways, I just wanted to give a little exposure to something that certainly deserves consideration. The thing that amazes me the most is the willingness of developers to try something new and untested, and with truly cutting edge technology. I've played games with people from China, Costa Rica, Russia, England, France, Sweden, Mexico, and all over the world already. Right from my phone. Total spent on games? About $10. Worth every penny, probably more.

Stay tuned for album release... you do want free some music, right?

Smallest blog post ever -

If I had/liked twitter, I'd be posting this message: Validus album is finally being released, after nearly 2 years of laziness/delaying. Worrrrrrrrd!

Just a game rant...

Dylan Cuthbert, founder of Kyoto-based Q-Games and mastermind of the PixelJunk gaming label, has lashed out at the business model of the world's largest games publishers.

"The model of games funding at the moment is fundamentally broken and biased towards making publishers stinking rich. Just look at the bonuses and wages of execs at EA for example, I could make the entire PixelJunk series, including series 2, two or three times over on the EA boss’s income bonus."

Cuthbert also decries the 'top-down relationship most publishers have with their devs:

"Luckily we haven’t been on the receiving end of that so far -- touch-wood -- but I see a lot of devs in a lot of pain primarily because of publisher-related problems."

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(((Now I know what you're thinking - what is the Dizpinion? Well, here's the Cliff's Notes version...)))

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We saw a similar conflict and resolution in the music industry. And guess who won that [or is currently winning]?

The consumer.

Piracy at the consumer end of the spectrum, combined with a backlash against the overmarketed and overhyped mainstream companies [publishers and distributors] caused a situation where purchasers were growing tired of overpaying for crappy music [20 bucks for a lame cd with 2 good tracks?!]. They found an alternative medium where they held the power to locate, share, and consume media that they found enjoyable without it being shoved down their throats [for stupid amounts of money]. On top of all this, at the same time as piracy became a legitimate possibility, digital recording technology had advanced to the point where the technlogy was readily available for purchase by your average Garage-Band Joe-Schmoe.

This created the perfect storm for the propagation of lots of music [some good some bad] without interference from corporate moneymakers. We all know you can go see Joe Schmoe's Garage Band at the local bar for a 5 dollar cover, just like you have for the past 50 years. That hasn't and won't change - but some things did. Even at the top of the artistic ladder, the product became marketable directly to the consumer without a middle man and with the relationship being based on the artist and the listener. Of course things like current MTV or American Idol or iTunes are the last bastions of these corporate Britney Spears pushers, but the majority of tech-savvy generations turned their radio dial to another station lonnnnnnnnng ago.

A similar phenomenon is occuring, albeit at a slower pace, in the gaming industry.

Just look at the popularity of things like Steam and D2D. Note how marketing in general is producing less bang for the buck. These corporate fat cats try and convince you that they know what you like without even giving you a choice to decide for yourself.

What if you were frozen in a block of ice for the last 20 years and were unfrozen yesterday, and some dude tells you that Nintendo no longer makes 2d adventure games like Mario or Metroid, but now focuses on making aerobics and fitness and calisthenics games for fat middle aged people [the same people who became fat by giving in to the McDonald's marketing machine].

These companies want to see you spending money every month to treadmill down the same staircase with the same exact wizard's hat on [they may change the color once in a while as a carrot-stick]. These companies want to see you pay money for that same stupid hat in different colors every month until you're 80, rather than produce a new game every couple of years. Or they'd be happy to see you buy a new version of Pokemon every year rather than put out a thoroughly balanced game that engages the player on a deeper level for a longer period of time.

You can see where the big names are going [DLC, pay2play, micropayments, pay-for-beta, pay-twice-as-much-for-a-limited-edition-box-with-a-cloth-world-map-inside, you name it].

These guys are trying to figure out a way to make you spend the extra $50 for a fake guitar. We're talking about useless junk like Babysitter Deluxe Tycoon 5: Noob Of The Year Edition.

I used to laugh at people when they said they're playing games like Combat Arms, but now I at least respect them for gaming in the trenches, for going down the less polished, less shiny, less hyped path. I shudder at the thought of what could happen to BF:BC2 if EA takes away too much creative freedom from DICE, but I also cheer at the promise of something new and worthwhile without having to spend 300 bucks on a stupid console. Or buying a specialized controller. Or having to spend 20 bucks a month to play. Or spending even 10 a week to keep up with the powergamer-DLC-Joneses.

WTF is with this popup ad -

PS - Happy New Years, foosballs!!!