The heart of the debate - 3.5 v 4e (just a case of disappointment at change)

Just saying here, at the top, this isn't meant as an argument for or against 3.5 or 4e. It's offering a reason to why people are arguing about 3.5 or 4e because each side knows why its system works but they don't seem to see why the other side feels that way. (3.5s don't see why 4s like 4; and 4s don't see why 3.5s like 3.5 - 3.5s do know why they don't like 4; 4s do know why they don't like 3.5)

It's speculative and not quite my opinion on the issue, I don't have too big a problem with 4e.

I think that most of it is that 4e marked the death of 3.5. There's never going to be a new 3.5 book with new feats or classes. No new items or new settings. 3.5 DnD is now dead, it will only have everything it does now. Riding on that bitterness, the replacement system was different and aimed at a different market that many 3.5 players didn't like.

It would be like if MC Chris decided that he wanted to be more available to other groups than those who enjoy nerdcore rap. He may have decided that he should go for a larger pop sound, using their instruments and their rhythms. It wouldn't be unique anymore, it would be more of the same music that the RIAA is pushing out these days. MC Chris fans would hate it. "It's not really an MC Chris album", "I can't believe he'd change it", "This new album sucks", "This is boring". And there would be people who listen to MC Chris for the first time and like the album and don't understand why it's hated. They can relate to the music and compare it to other things that they like.

It is like how Nintendo, a staple in the gaming industry, decided to release a console (not just a game or 'module'; a whole new system to replace their old) directed towards a different audience. That audience ate it up and continue to while the gaming community proclaims their hatred for it because its "too simple", "not fun", "not what they wanted", "they feel ignored by the company". And there are people who bought the Wii for their first console and they can't see why it's so hated by gamers. They can play the games and feel like they know the entire game and they can relate it to activities they know/like to do.

Wizards released a new system; a replacement for the old. They wanted to make it more accessable, and broaden their market. Aside from the money of an untapped market, they want D&D to be a more common name in households. This required the rules to be "Less Complicated", and they made the system more like games that people are playing (WoW and all of it's clones for example). They gave everyone powers and make all of the characters able to work more independently (Playing in a group and playing as a team are VERY different; Three players working together in Co-op Halo has a much different strategy than Three players playing Team Fortress 2). They made it easier to roleplay by giving a simple slider between [Extreme Evil]====>>[Exterme Good] instead of a complicated grid where people need to explain the difference between neutral good and true neutral.

The old players feel that the system wasn't complicated; that it made sense; it worked well (Old game players feel that the controllers had no issues; the games were easy to play; the system worked well). What I don't think old players remember is the difficulty of learning how to roll a character in 3.5. The difficulty of looking at the weapons table and saying "I see that I do a 1d8 of damage, but how do I know if I hit". I remember first reading through the 3.5 PHB, with no other player there who knew the rules to help me, and not understanding a damn thing, and starting people all the time reminds me of how difficult 3.5 can really be to pick up and really know. I also remember when I was first playing a game on the SNES and the shoulder buttons were always so hard to use because it wasn't just my thumbs anymore. I'd lose races in Mario Kart because I couldn't hop because it was hard to learn to use that finger. Now I can deal with two shoulder buttons combined with two triggers and I get confused when people pick up an Xbox360 controller and have a problem using two analog sticks at the same time. I also can deal with the process of getting into and out of a grapple in 3.5 without even thinking and its hard to see why people can't wrap their heads around it.

What I offer from all of this, again, isn't argument but more a reason why things are hated. 4e is hated by 3.5 players; the Wii is hated by gamers. I, personally, can play 4e with no problems, and I enjoy a good amount of the titles for the Wii. The 3.5 players feel that Wizards forgot about them and they're sad that the books that they liked will soon be out of print and much harder to find. On top of this disappointment, they feel that Wizards rubbed salt in the wound by releasing a new system that doesn't even apply to them and how they want to play. To finish up the metaphor; Gamers were sad that Nintendo was going in a new direction and that their new audience didn't really include them.

4e D&D isn't bad as a game. It's just different and marketed to a different audience. It has easier rules, and is more like current popular games so more people will feel like they can play it without getting a headache every thirty seconds because there's some new complicated thing to figure out. This simplifying bothers 3.5 players because they liked the old rules; the old alignments; the complexity (which to them isn't too complex because they've forgotten how difficult it is to learn)

4e players who argue about how it makes more sense, and how its perfect and better, need to realize that they feel that way because it was probably the first system they understood and don't see why people like the complexity. If they had a bad experience with 3.5 (and never understood it) they'll especially cling to 4e because its the one that they can understand and they have the opinion that 3.5 is way too complex. [NOTE: I'm not saying 4e players are simple minded, or can't understand 3.5; Anyone can understand 3.5, its just more work like playing the xbox is more work than playing the wii]

TLDR (Please read above though to get full meanings);

3.5 players hate 4e like gamers hate the Wii. They hate it because its different and they feel like the company is leaving them out. 4e players dislike 3.5 because they know dnd to be easier and simpler and 3.5 has a lot of not needed complexity.

I hope this helps some of you who read this have a little more compassion for "the other" (3.5 or 4e, whichever side you're not on) and maybe these arguments can make themselves a little more scarce.

Bordom Blogging

It's amusing to me that there are so many people who make their lives out of blogging, making music, and creating art on the internet. The net has made it easy for everyone to access a public medium that they can broadcast any message they want on. The amusing part, in case you missed it, is that there are many people who do this who are called introverts because they're anti-social.

Music has been a huge thing lately. The band finally got together, with the addition of one Steven Shoop, and we have our crew together. Songs have been written and worked on. The issue I find within myself is that there really isn't much I want to express to the world (except for my frustrations about not knowing what to say). I feel like saying things to the public in any manner is rude. Who wants to hear about what I feel or what I want or what I did? My answer is no one, or they would have asked.

But this contradicts everything I feel about music. Music is fun to play and write but when I write there isn't anything that needs to be expressed, or when tried to express the words cannot be formed. I just don't understand...

Things have been very frustrating though. We played live the other day for a group of friends and things fell apart. It scared me because things were getting frustrating and now theres a grab for control and i think it might create rifts between us.

I'm feeling very anxious about writing this, I think because I'm being honest to a group of people who may or may not ever read this. I'm also watching something on tv and its making me feel very nervous and anxious. Paused and now things feel a little better.

Anyway, everyone is jumping in to fix what they think is a problem and it seems that everyones "problem" is that someone else doesn't sound right. I suppose its just natural instinct to assume that you're right and that something else is wrong, but its important in a group setting to look at everything.

Collaboration is a tricky trade to get down. Especially if people are not that willing to let one of their ideas go because it doesn't help as much as someone else's. Some people's egos just get in the way, myself not excluded. It's just... scary that this might be the start of the end for what we've been working on

Wow I last updated in March!

Well, here we are. Finals week.

It's been a loooonnnnng ride this semester, especially with those nasty database projects. Hopefully I'll be coming out of this semester with a 3-0 GPA. My job has changed finally, as I am working back at Planet Maze. It's not bad; the new Lasertron system is amazing to work with. We've got a few different game types in the works (Zombie mode is almost done!) so if you're ever down OC way, come check it out.

Work calls, so I'll talk to you later

Wooooo spring break!

Howdy,

So let me tell you how great it is to be a geek. It just is amazing.

So news in tabletops. Final Fantasy D20 and Fallout PnP are ready to go as soon as my crew comes home. They're looking pretty good (especially i'm in such a final fantasy binge right now).

Spring Break coming up soon, Final Fantasy XIII.

See Ya

Long Time... No Text

Hey interwebs,

it's been too long for this to be an update on 'whats going on since...' so this is just gonna be a 'whats going on' post. So, in school news, had my first tests of the semester today. I'm not sure how well I did on them to be honest, but I have an inkling that they're at least passing grades. In databasing we've got the rest of our project to get done by next Wednesday. It's quite a bit of work to do writing the html, php, and user manuals for the website and database interface. It all is do-able though just gotta put the time into it.

In laptop news: I got my battery and the back of my screen replaced by dell the other day. Their customer service was nice and were willing to work with me and not bull shit around with what was wrong. I've got to schedule a day and some cash where I can buy an external hard drive and do a clean up on my laptops hard drive.

In gaming updates: Bioshock 2 is amazing and I now own (wow those use the same letters in a different arrangement) a fight stick (arcade joystick and arcade buttons) for my xbox360. The cool thing about it is that my computer will pick it up as a controller and it'll work with my emulators. Battletoads makes a great game when played with an arcade stick.

Other than that, I've got nothin. Anyway, talk to ya later internets

hmmm about that PHP I need to learn...

So it's been a few days.

Let's start with my room. It is different. Still a mess from moving that I might clean up later, but I like it the way it is now. Does anyone who reads ever feel like too much of a pack rat? I've got tons of stuff and I can't think about throwing it away because who knows if I'll need it again. Oh well, win some lose some.

School. I've got a paper due on... the 12th, on a book that I need to read. I guess I probably should read that book this evening, it's only 79 pages of pretty epic stuff. The paper is for my History 101 class and the book is the Epic of Gilgamesh. Old mesopotamian stuff, which I'm excited to read. Faster approaching than the papers deadline is my databasing homework, which is half done. I wonder when I'll need to know PHP and HTML by for that class... I hope it's not too soon.

RPs. All last week we played Serenity, which everyone seems to have enjoyed. I still need to look over the book some more and get the rules down in my head. So far though, it's been a pretty smooth ride (meta-gaming anyway). In game, the characters hate the others guts to the point where our captain almost murdered his crew. But, who knows what might happen next. I'm enjoying running a game though, I've gotten to in the past but never a full on go at it like now.

RPGs. Ok this could've been lumped in with the above but my level 38 undead warrior in WoW is no more. He is now a level 39 undead warrior in WoW. Accomplishment? hells yeah.

Other gaming. Lots of Starcraft and Warcraft III in my life this semester. It's a good time waster during my breaks. I think I need to get a real backpack soon or else the weight of my laptop is going to cause my shoulder to fall off. I hope everyone else is finding a good gaming group where ever they happen to be.

Other news. Hmm... I just had something else I wanted to throw in here.... ... RIGHT! Two things of interest. First, new phone! Number is the same but my Voyager finally crapped out on me :( so now I have an EnV3. Funny story though: My Voyager broke within the first month of me having it (hinge snapped). I thought there was nothing we could do because the Verizon Wireless Rep we talked to said things will only get replaced if we take insurance on it, which we didn't. So time goes by until now when, because of the screen hanging by one hinge, it stops working about 60% of the time. After doing some research online, this is common with Voyager phones and thought 'wow, that's a HUGE manufacturing fault. Why do you only get a new one when you get insurance?'. Well to answer my question, which our VW Rep did not, all phones come with a One Year Warranty. I'm not going to get my phone in West Ocean City again.

Long story. Now Second,

I might be moving up to Salisbury soon. I've got to get my finances in order to make the move but, we're finally looking at a place for me to live. The move might not happen until after this summer, but I'm just happy that the idea is being thrown around. If things can move fast enough, I might be moving this semester to live with my friends Bobby, Dan, and Omar (all COSC majors). More on that as it develops though.

Catch ya'll next time!

Weird

Not too much again, but thankfully this is staying pretty consistent. It's strange that this is the one that succeeded, of my other blog attempts. I can never really seem to do things over a period of time, like work on a song for more than a day, or get into a game for more than a week. Then again, this hasn't been around too long.

Anyway,

Phone. Almost dead. My Voyager (great phone until the hinge broke off within the first month, and now crap phone) has started to show some major faults. I have a feeling it has to do with the fact that it's been opening and closing on one hinge for over a year and a half. The screens are up to... an almost majority fail rate. I'll need to open it at least 3 times before it will even display anything and then the screen will stop refreshing and I get stuck on a menu. It's still a random thing as far as I can tell so, it's been annoying trying to get it to work.

Serenity. Great game. I started GMing a game last night and we have some great people playing in this one. The characters also mesh and clash at the same time, giving our crew a very interesting dynamic. Anyway, that's really all the RP news since finishing Cody's campaign.

Classes have been awesome this week so far, mostly because a lot have been cancelled. Snow monday closed school and the snow over tuesday night gave us a 2 hour delay today, which took away my history class. My friday history also got cancelled today so woohoo for that. Databasing has been fun, we spent today putting our info into mysql which is easy peasy computer busy work. Theory has been good also, note reading has been everything so far and I've been sleeping through it (not literally but metaphorically). And COSC 320 is still hell to sit through.

Anyway, with that I take my leave.

Gotta love the 3 day weekend

Howdy everyone,

So, a bit of snow happened this weekend. About 9 to 12 inches worth and long story short, I got a day off of school for it. Over the weekend, I obtained legal copies of The StarCraft Anthology, WarCraft III and WarCraft III The Frozen Throne. I've been playing through WarCraft and it's been a lot of fun!

I can't believe that it's set so far back though! I wasn't expecting to play through the Orcs moving to Kalimdor and meeting the Tauren for the first time. Also I now know a lot more about World of Warcraft than I did, and its AWESOME! I know the banshee who started the undead movement to leave the scourge; I know the old king of Lordaron and Prince Arthas. I also know Thrall and the elf city of Silvermoon, oh and Northrend! It's cool to know that WoW was based on solid WarCraft storyline instead of being pulled out of its ass, like I thought it was.

So that's what my life has been the past few days. Blizzard games and working, which hasn't been a bad existance at all. I've also been doing my homework, as sparse as it is. I wasn't sure today what I'd need to do because it was our first day off of the semester and none of my professors got in touch with me about it, but then I guess I don't need to do anything extra.

In anime club news, even though this isn't the official blog, we're getting ready for our first meeting on Saturday. A few little things need to be taken care of but nothing significant at all. I think soon we might set up an actual site for the club because I'll, very soon, be coding MySQL and php (very very useful for databasing thus blogging and keeping records). This will give us a form of updating and a way to keep our library online so people can see what we have.

Anyway, this about wraps it up for every thing that's been new in my life. See ya round

Achievement Unlocked (1000G): Campaign Complete

Woooo!

As the title tells, we finally completed Cody's D&D campaign! The story was EPIC and overall the game was fun. Ask him for details though lol too much to type at once. Anyway, classes have been going pretty well. Currently sitting in databasing and about to try to access the server so we can start learning MySQL.

In other news, Starcraft has been a big thing still (which rocks). We had a 5 player game earlier today which made things fun. I, unfortunately, got protoss and zerg rushed a little early while my marines were out helping a team-mate. Still a good game though.

We've also been playing Fluxx and some of its other spin-offs. Its a really interesting card game if you haven't heard of it. It starts with some very easy rules and the cards that you play change the rules (like drawing extras, playing extras).

In anime club news, nothing really has happened. It got a blog and an email so we can start putting things together soon for Funimation and the other studios. We're really excited to get it off the ground though and then have our first meetings.

Short Update today lol

Good News Everyone!

I've switched another of my blogs over to blogspot.com! This is the personal one that I don't expect to get much attention but... oh well. Anyway, onto the actual update.

COLLEGE:

New semester started on Mondey, and my schedule is looking pretty easy compared to last semester. Let's go ahead and break this schedule down, then look at each of my classes and how they're pretty cool.

Mondays & Wednesdays = 9am History 101, 12pm Databasing

Tuesdays & Thursdays = 9am Music Theory, 2pm COSC 320

Fridays = New Menu and Dinner Specials!

Fridays = 9am History 101, 12pm Databasing, 1pm COSC320 lab

History 101 is looking pretty sweet for a good amount of things.

A. Class is at 9am not 8am

B. Books required to read are short, and papers are short

C. People I know are taking it also

D. Professor is straightforward, understanding, and passionate (aka AWESOME)

Note: These are ranked in no particular order

Databasing is sweet because it seems like its the most useful thing since

they decided that bread makes good plates and works especially well in

sliced form

Music Theory is... theory, how can it get any better. OH YEAH, it's got

a ton of people who are actually passionate about music and they all have

many different interests (also, my Professor thought it was interesting

that I am interested in video game music, and she was telling me that there

are video game cover bands)

COSC 320 is gonna be so much F... STARCRAFT!!!! We (the comp sci guys)

got it on our laptops and our Professor is boring, a pushover, posts all power

points online, AND the class itself is a joke compared to others we've taken

(as stated by the group who took it last semester) sooooo... we're gonna play

Starcraft over the schools wireless internet.

Note (again): We do plan on passing this course with excellent grades so,

parents, don't worry

OTHER THINGS IN LIFE:

Anime Club - Woohoo! Tia wants to start up an anime club that is local to home and I'm helping with it all. I've been really excited about this and have taken a good amount of initiative I never usually take for anything. (Maybe I'm getting a bit better in my head... more on that later)

Midnight Launch - Not so woohoo-ish. It was a good run but for now the band is on break for

an undetermined amount of time. In the mean time though, I'm going to try to motivate to get some more music done for newgrounds and possibly ocremix.

Mental Condition - Don't want to go into much but, I feel like I've figured out some things and gotten to really know who I am and blah blah blah blah blah... Anyway, in short, I realized that I'm not great at self-motivating and I have huge problems when change gets in my way. Upon realizing this I've taken some steps outside of my comfort zone to try to get things a little more brighter on my side of perspective.

Role Playing - Table-top games have been so great and this semester feels like they're going to be their BEST. We're finally going to wrap up Cody's campaign in the next week or two and I can not be more excited! The twists and the story we're amazing, and everythings been very well put together. Kudos to Cody for keeping track of it all and for going through all the work and bull we put him through to bring this story to us. In other news, I might start a Serenity game soon up at the Condo, and Kurt has a few ideas for some things he'd like to run.

Friday Night Game... Night - (I just realized that while I was saying that name before it sounded so kickass because it rhymed and now it is not because night was rhyming with night) Anyway, FRIDAY NIGHTS in the pines is now the official friday night game night for me. The guys back here and I have like 3 tabletops going and we plan on playing a lot of board games also. Its a good end of the week, a good something to look forward to.

iPod - DAVE! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! About 5 months ago (its been soooo long) my iPod started to not work. Leaving out the details, Dave fixed it for me and gave it a new case. This will make work/driving/walking so much more pleasurable again.

CONCLUSION

so thats whats been up with me since the start of the semester. See you all again soon!