Last weekend I went to VanLan 2007! If you haven’t heard of it, I am sure you are not alone. Every year all my old High School friends go to Vancouver to play computer games and hang-out with each other. It is a good way to stay connected with each other. This year there was only about a dozen of us (a lot less from last year), but it was still a lot of fun. The only down-fall of VanLan is that every year there seems to be more drinking and less computer games. I guess it would be less of an issue if I was a bigger drinker. However, on the positive side, it is a lot easier to beat an intoxicated opponent. Even with this set-back, we did play a lot of computer games. Here is an overview of some of the games we played: Dawn of War, WarCraft 3 mods, Aliens vs Predator 2, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, and much much more.
I was, also, introduced to a cool little game called Geometry Wars. The best way to describe the game is Asteroids on Ecstasy. I never thought that such a simple game could be so visually stimulating… or that hard. The best part is the full game only cost four bucks! Whenever I had some free time on the weekend I was playing this game, so I got my money’s worth already.
Another interesting game I was introduced to was the Starcraft boardgame. I really don’t like Starcraft, so I was shocked to find out how good this game was. Starcraft (the computer game) has absolutely no strategy in it. It is all about micro-management and cruiser rushes. I thought the boardgame would be doomed to fail. However, I was surprised how much strategy was in the game. The best way to describe the game is a cross between Axis vs Allies and Settlers of Catan which are both excellent games. I am definitely tempted to buy the game.
I just had my first experience with a company called Widgetbox. I am always surprised at what you can find on the internet. However, I feel like an idiot when my “non-technical” friends seem more knowledgeable than me. This usually entices me to throw a half-dozen programming/computer acronyms into a sentence to retain my dignity .
Widgetbox allows you to make small widgets for a bunch of enviroments including: Blogger, Typepad, Myspace, Facebook, Netvibes, Pageflakes, Google, etc. Remind me again? Why am I making Facebook applications? This seems to do everything that Facebook Apps can do and more. If I have some spare time, I might play around with it. Anyways, while I was checking out Widgetbox, I came across a pacman widget.
A few people at work showed me this little web app game a few months ago called Desktop Tower Defense. It is an addictive a little game. The crazy part is that the guy makes $8,000 a month from Ad Revenue. That is almost 100K a year!
About a month ago I cut off my cocaine habit (formally referred as World of Warcraft). World of Warcraft is a great game… but it seems to devour your time. Although I know people far worse than me, my free time seemed largely consumed with the game. It is bad when a game makes you choose between a “full time job” and a computer game. Anyways, since then, I have been able to accomplish a lot more. One of the things I did with my new free time was create this website. I, also, have been doing a lot reading. However, the stresses of life have finally caught up with me. I, finally, got myself a new computer game: Command and Conquer 3. I wanted to pick up the game for awhile now but I have been, until recently, too busy playing WoW. I have a friend who works at EA and he was able to pick me up a copy for 20 bucks. I couldn’t resist the offer! From what I’ve played so far, the game is awesome. It is very visually stimulating. However, the real test will be how good the AI is. I’m not very good yet, so I can’t pass any judgment on it yet. EA claims that they have put a lot of work on the AI in this game. Regardless, it can’t be as bad as Battle For Middle Earth 2… at least I hope not. Anyways, hopefully I’m not trading one addiction for another.
Last weekend I went to VanLan 2007! If you haven’t heard of it, I am sure you are not alone. Every year all my old High School friends go to Vancouver to play computer games and hang-out with each other. It is a good way to stay connected with each other. This year there was only about a dozen of us (a lot less from last year), but it was still a lot of fun. The only down-fall of VanLan is that every year there seems to be more drinking and less computer games. I guess it would be less of an issue if I was a bigger drinker. However, on the positive side, it is a lot easier to beat an intoxicated opponent. Even with this set-back, we did play a lot of computer games. Here is an overview of some of the games we played: Dawn of War, WarCraft 3 mods, Aliens vs Predator 2, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, and much much more. 
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