The Curious Case of a Conference that wants to be a Convention - HawaiiCon 2018

How did we get here again?

It's been a while since I've dusted off the storied pages of this blog, and one of the more popular poasts here was what I felt was a scathing review of the inaugural episode of HawaiiCon, hosted annually on the Kona side of the Big Island after an adventure that left me very angry at the treatment my friends and I had been given, and after an interesting conversation about flimsy lanyards, I had told myself that this convention had to really get their shit together for me to return.

So of course 3 years later in 2017, I returned as a vendor -- selling gaming items as I with a few others had opened a gaming shop, and for the most part that particular weekend was pretty enjoyable (mostly because we had made a decent amount of money for a store which at the time had only opened in the previous month), but as I was dealing with my vending duties I was unable to really critique the "con" and look into the issues that I highlighted to see if HawaiiCon had, in fact, gotten their shit together.

Fast forward to this year: 2018. After working with the HawaiiCon Gaming department for the better part of nine months on and off, a series of unfortunate events caused me to attend this year not as a vendor, but as a volunteer. This became a great opportunity to not only re-critique what I did get to see, but also compare their first year to this... current year.

Things I Liked...

One of the more crowning moments of the con was presenting a Loco Moco to Stefan Pokorny of Dwarven Forge

I know that at the bare minimum, some of the things I suggested did get implemented at the game room. Advertising was definitely much better compared to first year. A schedule was worked out, and (mostly) posted on the website. The layout of the room was a good collaboration effort, and I was happy to have been a part of the scheduling and layout process. On the days of, I liked how gaming room staff were active and inclusive, either starting up board games, running RPGs or manning the info booth. All my positive experiences with the convention were with gaming room staff, and for that I wanted to thank them for that. I also wanted to thank the gaming room VIPs, they were an absolute joy to pick their brains, have dinner with and just let them be them without the whole "famous" person connotation.

My demos for Star Wars Armada had a good amount of interest, at least 5 or 6 people were excited about the models themselves, and the Big Island Armada community got at least 1 more person playing. That is very exciting.

I'll take personal responsibility for that boost in popularity in the greatest of social deduction games, Secret Hitler. Between my heavy ironic right-wing posting IRL, and the jokes others made that I made zero attempt to shut down (because why shut jokes down?), I have had a few people after the convention thank me for the great experience and asked me about where they can get copies of the game. That for me, is a big victory.

Another great thing was being able to sell off some of the things I had in my closet -- I made like, $270, which I was happy to donate 10% to the local college tabletop gaming club for their activities.

... and the not-so-much stuff.

Again, I feel like the event organizers sees gaming as a side note, something to be tacked onto an academic conference with sci-fi undertones. I had a few just "LITERALLY WHY" moments that weekend:

1. Due to how the layout of the venue is, a bigger panel room opposite one of the walls hosted a cosplay contest. This in itself is not a problem, the problem was when it was decided that the green room for the cosplay contestants (and the infiltration/exfiltration for these contestants) was through the gaming room. So you can understand my displeasure when a crowd of people wandering in with organizers shouting at them to get in a line and find the door in the middle of a room for quiet activities. I had to stop my scheduled Star Wars Armada demo for a good 20 minutes while I waited for the crowds to do their thing and leave. I could tell that the visitors that were with me were also pretty annoyed that they were unable to concentrate on the game and instead had to jostle about since the line/crowd ran completely through the center of the room. Paid VIP events off to the side were also disrupted by the crowd, and I'm annoyed that an event that those people paid to participate in were disrupted. They shouldn't have to deal with that. 
2. As a last minute, not on the gaming schedule thing, the gaming department gets drafted in some sort of charity casino night event? So participants pay money to play "board games" -- really just a couple of craps/blackjack tables and then some cards against humanity tables towards the center. I (in my stupidity, I guess) hosted a Secret Hitler table, which of course became the most popular game of the weekend when people actually play it. Anyway, I get looks of derision from a couple of the organizers, and I even get a few people come and harass the table, just because the board game has the bad man's name on it OH NOOO. Meanwhile, literally across the room is a game also made by the same people -- Cards Against Humanity. So we can't play well designed board games because the bad, scary dude's name is on it? That's bullshit. Anyway, after a few rounds of Secret Hitler, we played more social deduction games like Coup, which the table enjoyed. In this case, I just found the obvious closed mindedness very unfortunate, and I want to thank those people that gave the games a chance and had an excellent time of it!
3. I heard about a staffer that was arrested for property damage at the hotel, and was apparently allowed to return to the venue as a convention goer. I don't know exactly how much of the story is true (I know the arrest happened but did not confirm personally that the person in question got to return.), but I would have not only dropped them from the volunteer staff, but I would have asked them to just not come back, period. It caused some real questions to be asked among the other volunteers, that's all.
4. I heard about a different staffer doing inappropriate things with another person and while it was handled correctly in my opinion, I was disappointed that something like that happened and I hope that it doesn't happen again.

And for the more minor things I didn't like:

• The convention pamphlet lacked basic functions like a map of the venue, schedule of events, list of panels with descriptions, and hours of operation. You would think all these things were a simple affair, and would have been included immediately. Instead we get a 30 page advertisement that was for all intents and purposes useless for the congoer. I think there was talk of an app or something, but I'm almost certain nobody actually used it, so there's that.
• The "feedback" panel was more just a solicitation for people to praise the panel, and not actually put in some good critiques. A couple of people tried to  raise some issues, but were quickly swept under the rug with announcements about the resort fee being waved next year. WOO TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS WOO. That was embarrassing.
• Why are we spending so much money on C/D-rated celebrities, but we STILL have flimsy business cards for con badges. Nobody checks them, the badges are too small to notice them. Lanyards are a little better, but that's not saying much. I have considered a couple of times just literally wearing a badge from a previous year and just melding into the crowd.
• Volunteer staff may be differentiated by "tract" or department, but this differentiation still isn't made on the badges. In the case of a security issue, I still have no way to flag down a security staffer. Instead, I was given the number of the head of security, but that seems not very useful if he's swamped doing crowd control and I have to call him across the entire hotel for an immediate issue.
• The price is still way too high for normal people to attend. If you drop the prices on tickets, you will get way more people to attend, the volume of people that goes up, the higher the potential for sales. It's insane to have such a high entry cost for such a tiny convention. 

 Continued Thoughts on Stuff 

I suppose as it is, HawaiiCon is already a pretty great academic conference. So if the organizers want to continue in that direction, I suppose there's nothing I can suggest that can change that. If they want to move this towards the truly inclusive setting to everyone like the organizers keep on telling me that they want then I believe these suggestions may help:

• Have a convention booklet with a map, hours of operation, list of panels with descriptions and code of conduct within the booklet, not a haphazard printout made the night before the event.
• Improved, visible convention badges large enough for convention staff to be able to check badges easier. The staff shirts are very good, do continue with that.
• The website is in dire need of improvement. The elements are sloppy, and the sloppiness makes it hard to quickly discern needed information. It detracts from the event big time.
• Dramatically reduced prices for locals -- the kamaaina rate for entry needs to be way lower if you want more people on the inside.
• If you don't want dramatically reduced overall prices, then perhaps a reduced price for those that just want to do gaming stuff so that tournaments can fire at reasonable prices for the vendors and attendees.
• More volunteer meetings across the year for training purposes. A one-time long lecture "training" is honestly not good enough. In addition, the level of information given to staffers really needs to be increased so that we can do our jobs better.
• The volunteers need to be given some sort of actual appreciation. As much as I love reading one and literally only one thankful post on facebook, an after-party would be a great step in a better direction for the volunteers.
• For the Gaming Room: I suggest that for the gaming meetings (which are plentiful and are mostly fruitful) that they end with the people that show up actually play a board game at the end as a means of training the volunteer staff and so that they can start a board game demo on the fly if there's a lack of things going on in the gaming room. Hell, one meeting should just be hosting an RPG one shot, as an icebreaker activity and to introduce the hobby to those new to it.

Again, I think this event has the potential to really take off. I beg the organizers to find some time to actually go to a real convention and stop trying to just make this a 4 day dinner party with some C/D-list celebrities while you sprinkle some sci-fi stuff on it that seems cool because you read about on some webpage. It's embarrassing and I have no desire to give up 2 days of badly needed paid work to work a 40+ hour weekend with little to no appreciation from the higher ups. It's one of the reasons that made me leave the KawaiiKon volunteers after many years of loyal service. This event isn't even nearly that big.

A Final Word on Other Things and Stuff

Now that I've gotten my word vomit finally on paper, here's some more positive stuff that I'm looking forward to:

As of the writing of this article, I am throwing some of my support behind a new gaming lifestyle venture, known as Slow Your Roll. I'll be starting out with blagpoasts (which will be mirrored here) and YouTube videos, and I intend to eventually start hosting a regular podcast if I can find someone with a good mic and some time to just shitpost on a microphone. It's pretty exciting stuff, and I ask that you follow them on Instagram as well as on Twitter and Facebook. Bonus points if you buy some of their apparel, or perhaps some cards from their TCGPlayer account! There are a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head, and I am looking forward to working with the Slow Your Roll team to organize and execute these ideas.

Until next time, may your ventures be successful, you critique and accept good criticism, and you live life to the fullest.

MTG Decklists: Sen-I-Soshitsu

For Your Listening Pleasure

Artist's Rendition of the Author preparing for Game Day

I recently had the distinct pleasure experience of playing in my local FLGS Khans of Tarkir Game Day, and, as I'm wont to do, I brought a decklist that was definitely not meta for the small town of Hilo, Hawaii. Or really much of anything for that matter.

Story Time

The plan to run this deck was birthed with a passing joke when my friend Blankato threw the following decklist at me on Khans release weekend.

Source

I looked it over, took a sip of whatever magical alcohol Blankato had served that night, and jokingly said that I should run it for Game Day. At the time, I was brewing an Izzet deck that ran Ornithopter/Darksteel Citadel/Ensoul Artifact, Scuttling Doom Engine, and other shenanigans, like Shrapnel Blast. The deck wasn't really doing what I wanted it to do, and I had most of the cards that were worth something. It would have been little effort to pick up the cheap rares and commons -- I had just cracked something like 28 Khans of Tarkir packs at the time, and had plenty of commons and most of the rares from that set needed for this deck.

So, I started making my usual secret trade for bad cards thing I do prior to an event, while showing off my ideas for post-rotation Minotaurs in order to throw off potential snipers and other information gatherers. As an aside, I seriously hate that when asking/trading for cards over facebook -- almost instantly one's super sekret awesome deck plan is found out and everyone prepares for it. That's why I do most of my random rare trading offline, to give the illusion of spontaneity.

Long, terrible story short, I placed 5th at my FLGS, going 3-1-1 and scrubbing out in the quarter finals. Not bad, considering most times I play Standard Constructed, I usually go 1-3 and wonder why I even bother playing the format (and in fits of cold rage, Magic as a game) at all.

The Deck

Holy crap this thing is hilarious, due to the fact that it's so goddamn fragile, yet if an opponent isn't ready, you can dunk them by turn 6 at the latest. Let's take a peek at a few of the card choices Takahashi Naoya took when putting this list together:

One of many sleeper hits for this deck.

Tomb of the Spirit Dragon is a card I wouldn't normally bat an eyelid over, but after playing it at Game Day, I might actually throw one in my Sharuum Commander Deck. Being able to gain an impressive 6 life a turn with two of these out, all open land due to convoking Ornithopter shenanigans makes for a hilarious turn of events against aggro. Also, the look on your opponent's face when you drop this turn one makes it worth it.

What's your's is mine, what's mine is also mine.

Daring Thief is just a great card when built properly around. With Springleaf Drum and useless permanents such as Ensoul Artifacts and Singing Bell Strikes that are already enchanting stuff, you can use those $15 Courser of Kruphixs that you traded away after the Born of the Gods Prerelease! On top of that, they don't even have to be yours! Or trade that Ornithopter with their piece of absurdist bullshit Siege Rhino!

Die in a fire, activated abilities.

Chump blocking. That's cute.

When faced with the hated Sylvan Caryatid or the annoying Hornet Nest, you must be able to get around it, and shut it down. Also, locking down their creature that has Singing Bell Strike enchanted to it is great. General planeswalker neutralization is good too.

TeeHee™

Not only did I almost single-handedly demolish a dude with my Bident in a game, but being able to draw free cards off my weenies is great. Having them swing with their (bad) blockers is even better.

Observations

Upon playing the deck for a time, I did discover some interesting things about it as well as the format:

• With only 20 land, including 12 islands, the potential for mana screw is rather high. I recall one particluar game against Abzan where I had to literally run off of a Tomb of the Spirit Dragon, a Darksteel Citadel, and Ornithopters/Springleaf Drums in order to cast my colored permanents, most of them promptly removed by the Abzan player. That leaves me to my next point:
• I'm about 90% sure that this deck loses straight up against spot removal.dec. In games against Abzan, Mardu and Jeskai, the player with the removal would merely burn/remove the offending artifact creature as I attempt to cast Ensoul Artifact upon them. In Abzan and Mardu's case, having access to Utter End (and to an extent, Crackling Doom) makes things like getting rid of Doom Engines much easier. Jeskai has access to blue, which can start counter-wars or other blue shenanigans. Abzan has its charm, which, much like its Rhino, is the "I win" button against your win conditions. End Hostilities also throws huge wrenches into your plans.
• If you can't match the speed of the Rabblemaster, don't even bother. I can understand why he's so sought after in Standard nowadays. If he isn't dealt with (or summarily countered), he will rekt you, since it's likely the Rabblemaster player is clearing the way with removal galore.
• I feel like I need practice with sample hands and mulliganing. There are many times where I feel that I have a good hand that works fine only to be blown out by a single Thoughtseize. Of course, there were times where I didn't know what lands looked like, and other times where I drew 10/12 Islands in the deck.
• Dig Through Time is a great card that I almost want to throw a copy into the deck for more "send help" options. Either that, or Treasure Cruise, because that's also a pretty good card, and it's not like I have ways to return cards from my graveyard back to the field in this format.
• Wingmate Roc is a dirty totally balanced and fair card. That second ability is fantastic, by the way.

Some Final Thoughts

Artist's rendition of the Author 2-1ing people left and right.

Everything about this deck screams potential value at high risk, and that's what makes it fun. Much like my Minotrolls deck during RTR-THS standard, or even prior to that, the famed StuffyDoll™ deck from ISD-RTR standard, I go for wacky, silly things that amuse me, although in this case I did netdeck this. I hate netdecking, so I felt particularly dirty playing it. But whatever.

Unfortunately, as with most great plans, I may scrap it due to the ever changing meta. Who knows? Maybe I'll throw in some Clever Impersonators and Stubborn Denials in the board to help me out.

Dr. Strangecon or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Worked HawaiiCon

I still have no idea what just happened.

For some people, HawaiiCon 2014 was a resounding success. As the first convention ever to be based upon the soils of the Big Island of Hawaii, I can't deny the fact that this is pretty damn awesome. That being said, my penchant for needing to comment on things that bother me is flaring up again after this past weekend, and I guess I want to voice my concerns out to anyone who cares to listen. As a member of the team that was given the "opportunity" to set up the "gaming" room at the Con, and with my experience staffing at Hawaii's Premiere Anime Convention, I have a limited, but informed view on the nature of a convention.

Here be Ranting

As a person who's worked on, with, at, near, and all other adverbs describing actions involving gaming tournaments (notably Magic: The Gathering) for as long as I have, I tend to see what works and what doesn't. For example, our team works hard to run seasonal prereleases that draw in at least a hundred people, some times two hundred people over a weekend. The following:

• Having a link to an excel sheet schedule instead of integrating the schedule onto the website.
• Putting the events in a room different from the room described in the program and on the map.
• Not having a correction in your program about said room venue change.
• Having the room venue not be anywhere near the rest of the rooms of the Con.
• Provide basic power (yeah, half the power outlets were dead) and internet to the given room without needing to ask the custodial staff. (I didn't realize this was a thing at a supposed 4+ star hotel. I've seen better from 3 star hotels.)
• Doing all of the above one week before the Con weekend. (to my understanding)

all led me to the number one statement given to me and my companions at HawaiiCon:

"Oh, you guys run the gaming room! Great, I was looking forward to playing some games. So, where is that, by the way?"

Cue righteous fury. We expect some sort of proper advertising (or if you guys won't do it in a timely manner; let us know. We'll do it.)

So, we spent our weekend in a mostly empty room on Friday until the Hotel staff finally got around to putting up some sort of signage, as we weren't able to. I'm sure if the vendor's were dicked over in a similar manner, they'd probably pack up and leave at this point. We even considered it multiple times over the course of the con. You must understand our irritation -- we throw in a ton of money in order to prepare product for tournaments and other things regularly seen at conventions. We take time out of our schedules to share our love for our respective games with the greater public, and provide a service to those gamers coming in from other areas. When the potential gamers/customers have no idea where they can go to play games/buy gaming supplies, we get stuck with a ton of useless product and a nice fat pile of expenses that we now have to eat, and the players were unable to have the fun they could have had if they had just known where to go. I'm sure the vendors would be furious if they were relegated to some deserted corridor of the hotel with zero signage and incorrect directions to their room instead of the primo spot next to the Main Events hall and the Registration table. Oh yeah, and we had to leave the room by 8PM in order to accommodate a dance party.

Why wasn't the dance party over at the main ballroom? A big event like that should be in the big room, or over in the central Con area.

Whatever. Mindless rant over.

Saturday and Sunday were a little better, a group of my usual players from the local FLGS dropped by and I was able to run a Conspiracy Draft queue. We were even able to get a constructed event off the ground, and was happy to meet and make new friends (once they were able to find the bloody room) all throughout the weekend. I'd like to think my actions got a few groups of friends to go out and purchase copies of Coup, so as to lie, cheat, and steal even after HawaiiCon got out.

 Just kidding, I have some more stuff to rant about. 

Some other things that mildly annoyed really pissed me off:

• Con Security was all but nonexistent. I'm almost certain that with a minimal application of charisma, I could have gone to Hapuna Prince, parked, and participated in all of the desired convention events without so much as a single person checking for a badge. I prefer KawaiiKon's method of having a member of security checking badges at each door of each of the rooms used at the convention.
• In relation to the above, I feel like the volunteers should be relegated to a department with respective jobs and those jobs be noted on their staff badge. This makes sure I won't waste a tech's time when I'm looking for this room or that room. This also allows me to file a complaint with whoever's in charge of the idiot who couldn't answer any questions yet was able to sit at the main registration desk blithely. There were multiple people who did that over the course of the weekend (rumored), and had they been at my events, they'd have been chewed out/shamed into not working under me again.
• You have to be kidding me that you're going to charge $25+ for a single autograph. I only want to get my staff badge signed, not fund your next god damn trip. :getout:
• Much like Beats by Dre, the badge lanyards were very nice to look at (big old HawaiiCon logos and other fancy stuff on it), but were so flimsy that the slightest accidental hang up and SNAP -- your badge is on the ground and the lanyard is now worthless. The response from a passerby? "Well, if you had bought a ticket..." >implying implications As if buying a 3day pass was going to magically improve the state of these flimsy lanyards. Perhaps if the money didn't go into a metric ton of high costing guests, you'd have some money on some decent lanyards.
• For the amount of money people are shelling out for this Con, you'd think the Hapuna Prince would throw in complimentary internet service. Hint, hint. (somethingsomethingfourplusstarhotelsomethingsomething)
• Randomly turning off the AC and re-purposing rooms during scheduled events is a surefire way to give me a headache and lower my impression of the hotel. I'm looking at you, Hapuna Prince. (rumored, I can't say I personally experienced it)

Further Thoughts on Stuff

I feel like the organizers thought that "Con" meant "Conference" rather than "Convention", and here's some reasons mixed in with other stuff that came to mind as I'm writing this stuff all down:

• The few panels I went to (when they weren't being reprogrammed, moved, or otherwise fucked with) were fantastic, the content matter was interesting and interactive.
• The guests were top notch (and I think most of their budget went there, honestly). Special thanks go out to Esme Bianco, she found a new fan in me due to her bro-like nature.
• The venue is gorgeous. Seriously, just go out there and see the sights. Just don't deal with the hotel, the upper management is probably braindead.
• In relation to the previous point, the service personnel were great people and I have to thank them for doing everything in their power to allow us to salvage the weekend. From getting power to the room to adjusting the lights and air conditioning, I have them to thank in our attempt to create a positive gaming ambiance within the Con.

All these things gave the event the feeling of an academic conference, rather than an enthusiast's convention.

Granted, these points weigh very highly against the multiple pages of drivel I just vomited on things that irritate me this past weekend. That's why I can't say I hated my personal experience there. Professionally, I won't be doing any sort of work for HawaiiCon until they shape up and actually cater to the people they want to have hosting events for them. Believe me, I have no confidence in the alternative.

Personally, the con was about as enjoyable as any other weekend getaway, and I had more fun in the off time away from the con. I think my friend R1nzler put it best in his own review, poasted on faecbook, and repoasted here in picture form. Context -- he was a Kickstarter backer and got to do way more stuff that lowly me did not get to:

Go view it using your browser, I'm saving space.

As always, I'm welcome to clearing up misunderstandings or addressing issues that are wrong, or need clarification. I think myself reasonable, a simple explanation or actions moving in the right direction for next year go a long way with me. Oh, did you hear? They're doing 4 days next year. Four days. And apparently they're going to try to get the cast of Dr. Who in for next year, if the giant Tardis with "2015" painted on it is any indication of what's going on. Talk about ambitious...

Until next time, may your fury be righteous, your rants relevant, and your organization top-notch.

The International 2012 - Three Weeks Later

Valve's Premier Tournament: The International

The hype has finally died down. My heart has finally stopped beating after the splendor that was an event fully sponsored by Valve. Some three weeks ago, The International Dota 2 Championships were held in Seattle, Washington under the control of the fine folks over at Valve. The top sixteen Dota 2 teams in the esports community competed over a prize pool of over $1.6 million USD, as well as a chance to have their names engraved on the Aegis of Champions that served as the tournament's trophy. I won't say much, as whatever would have been said has already been said by people more knowledgeable than myself at this particular artform. I will do this, though:

This video posted above is probably some of the best Dota seen in years. I haven't seen plays this big since the first International, a year ago. It truly shows the level of skill needed to play at the very height of the scene. Without further ado: The Play. Seen over a hundred thousand times by loyal fans, this just proves that this game (not even out of beta, mind you) has the potential to become huge. Just huge. Even now, as I finish this blog post, I'm thinking about what hero I'm going to play as I enter the matchmaking queue.

Meet the Troll

It's finally here.

Meet the Pyro is released. Go watch it.

Day three of the Pyromania update will be featured later today. Day two was a bunch of weapons, which doesn't really matter.

An interesting thing that went along with MTP's release was the announcement of the Source Filmmaker beta, which can be signed up for starting today. The Source Filmmaker is what VALVe uses to create all their "Meet The" shorts.

The Pyromania Update: Day 1

IT BEGINS

This morning, the TF2 team put out a blog post and a new sub site for what they call "the long-awaited final Meet the Team short, Meet the Pyro". Dropping in on Wednesday (which would coincide with that whole Adult Swim business that was announced a few days ago).

The sub site has day one of the Pyromania update, detailing the story of Poopy Joe, the simian astronaut. Players were given an idea of the new game mode, "Doomsday", in which the teams are tasked with taking enough fuel to Poopy Joe's rocket to send him to space. "Both teams will attempt to get the necessary fuel up a preposterously slow-moving elevator and into Poopy Joe’s Australium-powered rocket to the stars," notes the description of the new game mode.

More posts will be made as the update pages progress. For now, enjoy this promotional image of the Doomsday launch, straight from the Doomsday page linked above:

Adult Swim and VALVe partnership?

Screenshot from the AS/Valve Promo Website.

So I'm looking at my Faecbook wall this morning when I see some of my other friends' blogs posting something like this. Intrigued, I checked out the promo site here, and then signed up for the newsletter.

I suspect it might be something either involving stupid amounts of hats, or (gasp!) a certain Meet The Team video might be released very, very soon.

~~~~~

In other news, I've been playing a ton of Dota 2 and Crusader Kings 2, and I fucking love both of those games.

So yeah, that's my life story as of now. I'll try to put more posts in later.

Also, Vinderptus is on Steam now. Go check that shit out.

GSC Game World Closes Doors?

Dead? Seriously?

A troubling bit of information hits me right as I begin finals week for my university classes. Apparently, Ukrainian based GSC Game World has been abruptly shut down today, and all of its employees have been let go.

Sadly, this appears to be not rumor, but truth, as posted by Joe Mullin, GSC's social media manager.

GSC themselves have not commented on the issue, but will do so on Monday, according to their own official twitter.

When more information becomes available, it will be reported here for the readership to view on their own.

Portal Free Until Sept. 20

Probably one of the best puzzle games ever, says me.

I know this is a couple of days late, but I figure I'd announce it here as well as all the other social networking sites I frequent, because, well. If you don't already own a copy of Portal, you really are missing out.

VALVe even put out a sweet YouTube video about how educators are starting to use games like Portal and the Hammer editor to learn physics, and things of that nature.

In any case, VALVe has made Portal free until September 20. Yes, all you need is a valid Steam account and you're set. Here's the place, and the pretty interesting YouTube video:

http://learnwithportals.com/

Sudden Realization

I have seen the light. I need a break.

It hit me a few days ago when I was lying in my bed thinking yet again about ways to defeat your average Riku of Two Reflections EDH deck. I had been in a foul mood over being yet again stomped by Tooth and Nail + Riku's UR activation + other similar shenanigans. Earlier on in the week, I had ragequit from playing Dino D-Day after a team I had been playing on put on the worst possible performance I had ever been a part of. Before even that, I was starting to get sick and tired of the numerous ways a Grey Knight army could rape my Imperial Guard corps. At that time, I had also lost the will to play League of Legends, Team Fortress 2 or any game I had at one point thought of as "fun" during my 2 month summer vacation from the hustle and bustle of the university. On top of this, old mainstays such as World of Tanks and Shogun 2: Total War had become slow and dull for my poor self.

I sat there, cards in hand, wracking my brain when that small thought had crept into my head. "Yo Chris," the thought had opened with, "you really should step back from gaming for a bit." It was true. In my eternal quest for true entertainment, I had lost the reason why I had enjoyed the Traditionally Virtual games that I had based a good portion of my life around. Fun. I had stopped having fun. It was a disgusting feeling, a nugget of truth at the back of my mind. I needed a break. A break from all things.

Either that, or at least something different to do. With 21 days left until the university restarted classes again, the state of me being bored out of my mind was very very close to being a reality.

I used to believe in fun once. I don't know what's happened to me. I... guess I just need a break.