Backlog: The Embiggening – December, 2015
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 11/28/15 at 02:33 PM CT
Ah, December… the month that shall be known as “X-Mas” to future generations (at least if “Futurama” has any kind of prescience). To contemporary humans – and especially contemporary human gamers – it is a month for piling on a bunch of purchases and acquisitions-via-gifts to make our backlogs grow as fat as free-range Hobbits. Ironically, December is usually a weak month for new releases, and this year is no exception.
There isn’t much in the way of new shovelware dropping on our heads as the year comes to a close. In fact, the only scheduled release of licensed garbage we have to look forward to this month is a delayed release from last month: “Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends” (seriously, if publishers are going to produce barely-playable licensed garbage, they could at least be bothered to release it on time… it’s not like the delay will suddenly make this type of game suck less).
There are two new ‘legit’ multi-platform releases …
Hey, You! Get on the Cloud!
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 11/22/15 at 03:35 PM CT
“The Cloud” is the hot, new fad in the world of computer technology, and shows no indications of going away any time soon. While actual “Cloud Computing” is a term referring to easily-expandable virtual server architecture, when most average folks talk about “The Cloud,” they are, instead, referring to the many services that offer blobs of online storage for individual account holders.
Having recently come to join the 21st Century (15 years late) with real, usable Internet speeds, AND having recently started to run a good, old-fashioned Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game in “The Cloud” with Berzerk Games’ “Tabletop Simulator,” I suddenly found myself with an urgent need for and ability to utilize Cloud storage. Of course, I didn’t want to actually pay for the privilege, so I went on another modern-day pilgrimage, visiting all of the holiest of holy Clouds to see if any of them were worthy of veneration. While by no means fully comprehensive, the following is …
The Mario Virus
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 11/15/15 at 07:37 PM CT
On September 11, 2015, Nintendo released their answer to the fantastic Indie game, “Super Mario Bros. X.” Their effort, a little WiiU game called “Super Mario Maker” has managed to attract a significant following by demystifying the world of ‘Mario’ ROM-hacks.
Now anyone can easily build and upload their own custom ‘Mario’ stages for all the world to see… except the world generally won’t see them at all. Unfortunately, Nintendo managed to implement the sharing process in their new game in such a way that momentum and viral marketing are the only ways for would-be ‘Mario’ designers to get their ideas in front of eyeballs.
Over at ArsTechnica, Gaming Editor, Kyle Orland did us all a favor and created an array of graphs detailing the way “Super Mario Maker” stages shake out by popularity (with popularity leading directly to Stars, which unlock the ability to upload more stages at once and make existing stages easier for players to find). The …
Vaguely Related Review: Northeast Nebraska Telephone Company
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 11/08/15 at 02:52 PM CT
It has been a month since Northeast Nebraska Telephone Company (NNTC) rescued me from the ISP tyranny of Windstream (delenda est). I have already written about the gory details of how I came to be a customer of NNTC, so today I’m going to focus on the quality of the company’s service. In a word: Euphoric.
During the process of getting a fiber optic line extended to my farm, NNTC executive, Terry Eriksen, told me the company would begin work on my fiber run on September 21, 2015. They did not actually begin working on that date… they started trenching and running the fiber two weeks before the 21st! I have never heard any anecdotes from anyone dealing with an ISP or teleco where the company starts doing service work early rather than ‘fashionably’ late. Due to their quick start, NNTC had the fiber run completed and ready to trench through my yard and hook up to the house by the 21st.
It just so happened to be raining lightly the day that NNTC showed up to run the fiber …
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