I have been working on setting up the (hopefully) final home of this blog, along with my MMO Network project. I have a couple of people helping me and we’ll get things rolled out pretty soon.

Unfortunately, since I’ll be providing the hardware and bandwidth, it has taken some time to set the whole thing up. I have pretty much decided on the platform to use, along with the necessary hardware. What remains is getting the server tweaked with all the necessary utilities and services. My somewhat limited experience with Linux has slowed me down, but I have been having a pretty easy time fiddling around with things. Once it’s all decided, clean install, configure and away we go. Until then, my singular audience, you’ll have to be patient.

Thanks and see you soon,

Firedorn

It seems like the gnomes at Blizzard have once again packed together a bunch of features and disguised it as yet another patch. These are probably exciting times for many of Azeroth’s denizens, but alas, I have had my fill, once again, of World of Warcraft. The tedium which is end game has started to wear out my patience. I know for a fact that if I did have more time to give to it, I probably would. But the fact remains that with the amount of time I do have to give to this game, I will get nowhere…and fast.

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I would like to take the time (as little as possible) to welcome a new member to my online dysfunction. He is a very good friend of mine and has shown some interest in the mmonetwork.com project, along with this blog. He will be putting in as little effort as possible to add content to this site. Therefore, without further ado, I give you …

/drumroll

GOONIGOOGOO

/crickets

Thank you,

Firedorn

This is a test post.

I am NOT gay

Basically, I am trying to find a permanent home for this blog. As it stands, the web space I had for this was too big for nothing. It is now being used for bigger and better things. So I looked at my available resources…seems like I had some unused credits for some “free” webhosting with GoDaddy; a gift I got for all the domains I’ve purchased over the years. In any event, it also seems like those “free” webshoting credits aren’t really “free” after all. Sure, I get 1 month of hosting per credit, but it’s not free of headaches (to set up), not free of access restrictions, not free of bugs and, worst of all, not free of ADS!!

Now, I like GoDaddy for everything they helped me achieve in maintaining my domain portfolio, but this really bites! After all the money that I’ve sent their way, their hoping to gain even more money by running ads on the hosting credits I’ve earned. Some great gift you’ve give me Mr. Daddy!

Besides the fact that they are an eyesore, they cause script bugs…those nice little windows prompts that asks if you want to debug the script. Who at Microsoft decided it would be a good idea to ask the every day user (an average Joe) if they want to debug a script that they have not created? Now, with all the people in the world that use IE, what percentage represents the actual person(s) that created that script? Well, just in case, let’s give them the option to fix their mistake… GG Bill! Useless features FTW!

But I digress…I’m guessing I’ll grab an old 386 lying around in the basement and run Linux on it. This way I can host this myself on a 40MB hard drive. It might be slow, but damnit, there will be no GoDaddy ads! I have nothing against ads, as long as they make ME money.

Anyways, I better go finish off this quest before I fall asleep at the keyboard.

As is always the case, many things take my attention away from the task at hand. Mostly, it’s been work and family. I’m getting ready to go back to work soon, all for a company that I will eventually buy (hopefully). Then, there’s the case of my wife, who’s getting larger and larger, day by day, as her due date gets closer and closer. That’s right! It’s our third child and I’m seriously psyched about it.

Early 2008 (if all goes well, not earlier), we will welcome our third child into this world and the sleepless nights will begin again. That’s when I do my best work… I’m hoping to work more on this site in the weeks to come, along with the free time I will have with a newborn in the house. “How?”, you may ask would I have free time with a newborn. Well, it’s very simple. I for one can not stand being woken up multiple times during a night for any reason whatsoever. So I basically take the early “feeding shift” and stay up ’til the wee hours of the morning. Otherwise, I can’t function properly. I might be so out of it if I’m woken up for a routine, that I might feed my baby a warm bottle of beer… So instead, I stay awake. While I wait, I work, play, watch TV, etc…

Now, that being said, there’s also the case of the latest influx of new games that have been released that have piqued my curiosity. One such game is Hellgate:London. Now, anything from the minds that worked on Diablo will have me drooling. Diablo was one of my biggest timesinks, as some of my friends (and my wife) will agree with. Countless nights were spent up playing that game, all to go to bed when the sun came up. I have also enlisted to help the AFS save the world from the Bane in Tabula Rasa. My forever love of fantasy has drawn me back to Middle-Earth in Lord of the Rings Online. World of Warcraft is still taking my money for the possibility of returning for a few hours to raid with some friends…but Azeroth has bored me once again.

All these games, to someone who enjoys fiction, fantasy, sci-fi…all coupled with the social interaction of online gaming, well…where am I going with this? Oh yeah! I have found that a single game can appeal to many. I have also found that many games appeal to a single person; me. There are so many good concepts in many games. A lot of them are actually great. However, they are usually implemented with many mundane features and concepts, that take so much enjoyment away from the gamer. I think that’s where I come in. If your game has enough good things, I will want to buy it, try it, beta it, get on it somehow to try it out. I’ll be raving for a while on how fun it is, but then…it sets in. The tedium of the rest of the boring, mundane. The things that are repeated ad nauseum.

Many distractions, many commitments, many responsibilities. The MMO Network will be up and running, one of these days. Hell, I may even start an MMO Project…let’s just add something else on top of the pile of crap I must accomplish before I die. In any case, this project is close to my heart and will see the light of day. It’s actually daytime as I write this; quite the change for the usual. Until then, I wish you adieu, dear (singular) audience. I shall see you in Middle-Earth, or in Azeroth, or in Lodon, or on Foreas, or on the Internets…or hell, maybe even on Earth.

Thanks,

Firedorn