MOAR LANZ!

Seems to be LAN season at the moments as I will have attended at least 3 LAN's within 3 week(ends) in a row.

At the 1st one we fired up AVP2 (which lasted most of the night :D ).

The last LAN is a student oriented LAN at which I will be adminning game servers (that I installed, patched and configured using Linux dedicated server software) etc.

On another note. It looks like the UT3 Linux release (rumoured to be released soon) won't make it in time for the last LAN unfortunately :(

Now, this begs the question: Before the last LAN, what should I spend money on:

• 2 x Western Digital Scorpio 2.5" 7,200 RPM HDD (for the XPSM1730)
  or
  
• 2 x 1Tb Western Digital HDD's for the server...?

I really should buy myself a Gigabit switch, but HDD space is more important. Apparently :)

No more games for Linux?

As I am now a dedicated Linux user, I am finding it interesting (and annoying) to see a decline in Linux games. For example NWN2 and UT3, both of which were released last year have both previously had Linux versions made, but no more.

Is this because it's easier/cheaper to develop for directx/windows?

If this trend continues, I will never purchase a windows game again and I will continue my gaming shift from PC to console.

Wrath of the Lich King Revealed

I really shouldn't but I'm stealing bandwith (78Mb total) to download the trailer for this from 3dgamers :P

The whole destructible buildings concept seems unneeded but hey lets try make another red faction-like game of which these features will probably only be available in instances...

Seems pretty uninteresting but (apart from what I wrote above) I will try to withhold judgement until it comes out as I will inevitably buy^H^H^H pre-order it.

Not only but also, seems like the official wow community site has suffered a slashdot-like effect soon after the anouncement :P

I keep getting "404 Not Found" error every time I try to download it from there:

Not Found

The requested URL /wrath/movies/wrath-trailer/Wrath_Of_The_Lich_King_US.avi-downloader.exe was not found on this server.

lol

Importance of Video (and Computer) Games

How often do you find yourself longing to play a particular game only to have other affairs interfere with your ability to be able to (at least) play? Does this affect emotional status and/or mental alertness?

I find that it does. Too many times I am pulled away from games like WoW (and allot of computerized puzzle games) only to find my mood to be that of a disgruntled/depressed/grumpy/negative nature. Which people around me generally don't like.

As a friend of mine pointed out; It is similar to the likes of denying an elderly person from trying to watch their favorite TV show...

This is also one of the reasons that I loose sleep. I am sometimes forced to play games during hours that conflict with normal everyday life, such as staying awake until 0300h just so that I can get the (uninterrupted) playtime that keeps my mood in balance and my mental alertness at it's peak, however a lack of sleep contradicts this entirely!

There is considerable study showing that Video Games are not only an important aspect of entertainment^[1], but can also be an automatic (subconscious) learning experience^[2]

So how does one go about trying to fit more game-hours into one's life, without sacrificing too much (eg. sleep, work etc)?

References:


1. 2006, BAFTA, Video Games are as Important as Film and Television: Video Games Awards become BAFTA’s ‘third arm’ [PDF]



2. L. Bedigian (2006). Professor James Paul Gee shows the world the importance of video games. [HTML]