They Are Becoming Confident

I felt a sharp pain in my arm and looked down to find a tiny vampire with its proboscis lodged firmly in my skin.

“Aaargh!” I cry, and I make a very good case of it because the mosquito — seeing my outburst of rage and confusion — launches itself into the air in an attempt to escape.

All the best plans of a stealthy exit have been foiled, the alarm has been sounded and the terrible flying creature must enact a quick getaway. Hurtling through the air it flies over my mug and away from my desk at rocket speed. But not quickly enough.

With barely a moments pause and a precision clap I stop the juicy fat pestilence dead in the air and it explodes in a rain of blood and tiny legs over my desk. Down my arms, across my laptop, making a right crimson tide of my coffee… There is blood everywhere, which is as good a place as any to end this story.

  1. Posted February 8, 2010
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Rise of the Undead

My computer has stopped fucking up of its own accord. A few months back, the screen started to die, to the point that it was impossible to use my laptop without an external monitor.

For some reason, it’s stopped doing that. For the most part at least, it’ll still fuck up once every couple of days, but I’ve worked out how to turn the screen back on with the combination of a flashlight and a jiggling of the screen settings. It’s uncanny, but I can actually use my laptop around the house again, so I’ve ditched the second monitor from my desk (it’s unwieldy and doesn’t help my workflow that much,) and now everything is pleasant once more.

The past week has been really uneventful. I have barely left the house, and immersed myself in work and sork-like tasks in an attempt at feeling relevant. It hasn’t really worked yet, but maybe if I keep trying…

I’m also waiting on money. I’ve been making some financial renovations, but none of it has paid off yet. I’ve got a couple of invoices due shortly, but that kind of stuff usually takes forever to actually happen, so as a result I’m not going to do anything this weekend because I’m flat broke again. It’s a fantastic prospect to look forward to, and I especially can’t wait for Saturday night when I’m going to catch up on some long-neglected sitting around.

Moments later, a client from down the road popped by and handed me an envelope of cash. I was pleasantly surprised, and will amend my weekend plans accordingly.

  1. Posted February 5, 2010
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Bay Leaves To Be Desired

Today I woke up sleepy and stayed that way until well after 5 PM. It’s hard to tell but I suspect my metabolism may be broken, or I may have overslept a little.

I went to the supermarket to get some odds and ends before dinner, and bought some celery. I was careful to note the price on the display because that shop is notorious for overcharging. I don’t think they do it on purpose, but the prices on the shelf aren’t always right, so you can drive a hard bargain sometimes if you spot the difference.

The checkout guy got the price right though. $2.45. He was probably on to my shenanigans.

I couldn’t find bay leaves though; neither shop stocked them, and I considered going to the little Indian supermarket across the road but I didn’t think they’d have what I was looking for.

Work was boring today so I had a nap in the recliner chair in the afternoon. Maybe I should work nights more often.

  1. Posted February 2, 2010
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And May He Rejoin Society At Some Undefined Point

The week starting Monday 25th of January progressed at the usual rate; neither quicker, nor slower than any normal week. Ashley was still somewhat depressed by the perceived lackadaisical pace of the week.

“I’ll get you, time!” he schemed to himself, although there was no fist wave so we can safely assume that he wouldn’t.

The main problem was his business venture, or lack thereof. Everything was going well according to the business plan albeit at its own glacial pace, almost as though it had dragged the week down to its speed. Watching and knowing what was happening, and despite this being completely unable to find a way to fix things was bringing him down. He had a plenitude of ideas, but the implementation — as often is the case — was the hard part.

He was long past second thoughts, indeed the amount of thoughts he’d had would probably require some rounding and an exponential notation to express on paper, but nevertheless Ashley was a stubborn ass and any thought of deserting his fledgling business was akin to treason. Very delicious treason. More like treacle, really.

But nay, he would stick with it until the heavens aligned and he was presented with an opportunity too good to ignore. An opportunity that would elevate him out of the slums and into a house with real walls and doors and silver-lined porcelain. One day he would be free to live among the beautiful people once more, and frolic in the consumer wastelands and explore the urban canyons of excess.

One day. In the mean time he’ll sit by and write wanky prose in the third person because he doesn’t have a door and has been kept up all night and now can’t sleep even though he has to be up in five hours. Sometimes you get everything you deserve.

  1. Posted January 30, 2010
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Cities XL Goes Dark

I would say something like “our worst fears have been confirmed,” but it would be a highly ironic statement. Last night during the Apple brouhaha, Monte Cristo announced without fanfare that they’re ending the Cities XL online service.

If we pause to reflect, the sadness dissipates and we realise this has been going on since the initial release of the game. Despite a fantastic engine and some reasonable gameplay, the game itself was not finished at release time. After promises of treats and updates, the subscription service failed to deliver much more than a half-baked savegame-sharing system and a Christmas themed update. The actual gameplay remained unfinished and essentially broken.

So when the service goes belly-up after three months due to lack of interest, it’s really not that surprising.

There was no one particular problem, as the game suffered from numerous issues. As I mentioned, it was incomplete at the time of release, none of the team paid attention to the clients and beta testers who were disappointed with the limited gameplay, the DRM system was an absolute pain in the arse and required you to type your login details (often multiple times) whenever you wanted to launch the game. The subscription service was also an absolute rort, and the single player game was crippled to the verge of almost uselessness.

It had so much potential but the execution was completely bungled, and there’s no surprise it failed to entertain. The release states:

Cities XL will evolve into a fully single player game. As soon as march the Bus will be added for free in the solo game. At the same time we also keep on working on new content and new features to keep on improving Cities XL.

This seems highly unlikely, considering these features were promised at the launch of the game and still haven’t materialised. It’s disappointing but the money that Monte Cristo, customers, and subscribers alike sunk into the game has been lost and there’s really no point dragging it out. It’s game over.

Despite this, it will be interesting to see whether their decision will see the game un-crippled, and whether this will further allow the modding community to finish where Monte Cristo failed. One day the game might actually be worthwhile playing if that’s the case, but until then I suggest you keep your wallet firmly in your pocket.

  1. Posted January 28, 2010
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