Month: March 2019

Raids week 116

Micki's Delirium

Raids 116 was March 23. I logged on at 9 pm Swedish time.

1. Old Baba’s Hut R3
Osiride, Tahlua and Thazara from Phoenix Clan, 5 Sokos, rest from EEraids channel. Invite only. Since we did a successful R2 last time, I suggested we try R3 this time. Shambler tank: Titusovid, red crow tanks: Titus and Osiride. Sokos like to stay together because of out of game voice chat and usually go left, so I suggested Caducea as a 6th left. Wisps almost wiped us both in hut and outside. Right side was good on totem killers and puzzlers (I believe we were 4 working on them). Titus got shamblers right away and kept them well, I focused mainly on healing Titus, Osi did Titus and party. Osi got aggro of Baba near the end and kept it. Baba was killing the party members before this. Completion time: 79 minutes…

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Eberron Random Events: Sharn and the Five Nations

Cannibal Halfling Gaming

The party is simply minding its own business on the streets of Aundair when they’re accosted by “Maestro Hennedy of Gault”. Seems this troubadour has decided he wants to witness your heroic deeds himself, and then make both you and himself famous with the resulting songs. It’s a nice opportunity . . . if he would just. Stop. Talking. And keep himself out of trouble. This is just one of the many encounters, run-ins, and occasions that your adventuring party could run in to with Eberron Random Events: Sharn and the Five Nations by Michael J Winegar!

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Catacombs of the Flayed Minotaurs

Dyson's Dodecahedron

Beneath the buckled stone floors of the jungle ruins in the Tempest Gardens is a massive set of catacombs guarded by the eternal vigilance of fifteen deathless minotaurs.

Catacombs of the Flayed Minotaur Catacombs of the Flayed Minotaur

Each minotaur has endured the ages imprisoned within these catacombs in their own way, but none are untouched by time or violence. And they are not alone – while they can barely stand each other’s company, many have surrounded themselves with a few creatures that provide them with entertainment, food, or just the comfort of sharing a living space with others – even if (as in one case) they are little more than psionic protoplasmic slime.

This map was drawn at ledger size (11″ x 17″) at a scale of 6 squares per inch. Part way through drawing it I decided it would be fun to stick in an “easter egg” like the classic Quasqueton map showing…

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DDO: Elves are toast

Bio Break

With the long Blood Tide chain complete, I figured that I could mop up the remainder of the House D quests without much difficulty. And then all of the lords of Stormreach laughed, because there were more than I had expected — and the first one, Stormcleave Outpost, was a “very long” mission.

For this one, I enlisted my kids to be morale support while I battled my way through a giant’s stornhold. Mostly this came in the form of “Oh Dad, you’re going to die here! You’re dead for sure!” and then some mild disappointment when I did not, in fact, die.

SSG/Turbine takes a different approach with its giants than most fantasy MMOs. Actually, have you noticed that most fantasy MMOs don’t really do giants? I mean, they’ll do giant bosses, but not giants as a race. The size makes it prohibitive, especially if you’re dealing with…

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Big Impact expected from STADIA Google’s Streaming Game Platform

The Connectivist

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On 19 March 2019 Google announced STADIA, its streaming gaming platform for nearly anything that has a screen.

Essential is that for online gaming  Google’s will use its own worldwide network infrastructure (not the internet) as much as possible and its nearest Google cloud of datacenters. So do not be fooled it is a new device, it is a global interconnected network of : your device, for instance Smartphone + little handset(Wifi); the digital infra of your ISP, preferably FttH; Google’s optic fiber links ; connected to Google datacenter (cloud of computers).Screen Shot 2019-03-25 at 14.50.16

Here is the appetizer for what you will see:

https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/03/19/google-stadia-announcement-trailer

and the explanation of what they do and intend to do.

It is obvious that while other companies and telco’s are trying to copy the Netflix success with low cost streaming media CONTENT (films) and their CDNs (content delivery networks), Google goes a step ahead…

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“Every Game is Good with a Good GM!”

Cannibal Halfling Gaming

Tabletop RPG design is a young practice, and designers in every genre and format are learning more about how people play games as they go. There is a universal truth, though, that every gaming group is different, and when it comes to facilitated games (i.e. those with a GM), the people who run the game will make a huge difference in the overall experience. On the internet, though, a massive logical leap is often made, leading to a fallacious and all too familiar rallying cry: “Every Game is Good with a Good GM!” A technically true sentence, this phrase has no purpose in discussions of game design other than to shut down criticism.

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Google Stadia, is it the Future?

Bring Your Own Games

Hi, my name is who? My name is, what? My name is… Stadia.

A little over a week ago, Google officially announced their new entry into the game industry. Holding an hour long press conference, and while we finally learned about what Google has been working on, getting all that information raises many more questions. The presentation plants the Stadia on a very thin line between success and major failure.

Credit: Tech Insider

When the new console was announced, all of our major questions leading up to it were answered for the most part, it is indeed a streaming dedicated platform. While there is no official box that comes with the package, a wireless controller set to connect to different devices around the house is an intriguing idea to say the least. Random connections and accidentally connecting to a new device is a genuine concern some people have had, but…

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Xbox Game Pass – Games You Might Have Missed

TWO BEARD GAMING

UK LINK / US LINKxboxheader
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When Microsoft first announced the Xbox GamePass in 2017 there was no way of knowing how successful the service would grow to be in such a short space of time. The concept was simple, become a “Netflix” for games featuring a wide range of games to download and play for a low-cost monthly subscription. The service has already become everything Microsoft promised, setting the standard to other companies for fan service while being kind to gamers wallets. Over 100 games are available at any one time, featuring Microsoft exclusives like Halo, Gears of War and Forza, big name 3rd party titles, indie gems and the highly praised backwards compatible offerings.

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Game Pass is the perfect service for gamers who are on a budget or just want to experience a wider range of titles as well as a great opportunity for the younger players to experience…

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Netflix of Video Games, the start of Cloud-Gaming

dcmme

By Gokul Siddharthan J, DCMME Graduate Student Assistant

Cloud Gaming

The ability to stream songs and movies over the internet has transformed how we watch movies and listen to songs over the past decade, but the $140bn market for video games hasn’t yet entered the cloud subscription services such as Netflix, Hulu, and others. Recently, Google began tests of a cloud gaming service called “Project Stream”, using a big-budget game, “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey”. The game is computationally heavy and usually runs on consoles and high-end computer systems. But with the computational heavy lifting transferred to Google’s data centres, even a modest laptop can run the game.

Microsoft is due to start testing a similar service called “Project xCloud”. Electronic Arts, a big gaming company with famous titles such as FIFA, has plans for a streaming product of its own. Nvidia, a maker of graphics cards and chips, is testing a similar service…

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