As always I could not be content with what I had. So I bought a used Powercolor 4870 to upgrade from my 8800GTS. BAD IDEA! The card broke and it seems it's a common problem with the voltage regulators. 
 
I'm sick and tired of always doing this. It's certainly not the first video card that has broken at my mere presence in it's vicinity. 
 
So no more PC gaming for me. I'm going to stick to my consoles and netbook because I cannot mess with them. It's not like many games are released on PC these days anyway. I was looking forward to Dragon Age, but I'll get the 360 version. Only game that is unlikely to be released on consoles that I want to play is Star Wars: The Old Republic, but I'll survive without it. 
 
I can understand Jeff now when he said he didn't want to mess around with building PC's anymore. I've been building PC's for over 6 years and while they have worked most of the time there have never been a long period without some problem. Problem with video, with sound, with hard drives etc. 
 
Even if I can get it working I have decided I'm not going to spend another day troubleshooting a PC. I used to like it, but these days I just want it to work, like a console, push a button and it works. So many games I've bought on PC that crashes or doesn't work because some piece of hardware that it is in conflict with. 
 
PC gaming is not worth the trouble. I'll stick to using it for internet and video. 90 % of my PC problems have come from playing games on it directly or indirectly. 

I'm sure everyone at some point get that feeling that you want to go back and replay a game. You dust off your SNES or Saturn and hook it up to the TV. You start the game and the memories come flooding back. You play for 5 minutes and realize it's not as fun as it used to be, or perhaps it never was fun and the nostalgia filter is the only thing convincing you that there once was a time when the game was like an escape to paradise. 
 
With MMORPG's you don't have that luxury. Like on old girl friend you'll never see again there is no way to play the game and feed the demon inside you that is nostalgia. I feel that way about Tabula Rasa. I know if I could go back and play it that I would get tired after a few minutes, but because I cannot actually go back and do that, the feeling is left inside. I cannot play it and get that "Yup, that's the game alright. Yup, that's what I liked about it and yup that's why I stopped playing it." that you can from single player games. I stopped playing TR not because it was shut down, but because I didn't like it anymore. Like a girl friend you part with because you know you are not meant for each other and staying together is just prolonging the inevitable, you cannot help but wonder "What if things had turn out differently? Maybe we could start over again?" It's not enough that you know that it wouldn't work, you feel like you have to know it wouldn't work. 
 
Just like with old girl friends you only remember the good and conveniently forget the bad, even when you are fully aware of the bad, part of your mind simply refuse to accept it. The nostalgia tells you that your life used to be much better. There was a time of absolute happiness, even when no such happiness existed at all. I want to start up the game, log in, find my character who looked like a woman straight out of the US Air Force, gum chewing, spitting, bad-ass lady with shades straight out of the Top Gun movie. I want to hear the background music and jump into the game and start attacking some command post controlled by the Bane (I think that was the name of the aliens). 
 
The part of my mind that handles reasoning and logic know that going back to the game is futile and that I already know exactly what would happen, but the nostalgia demon whispers to me that true bliss can be found only on the world of Tabula Rasa. If only there was a way to play MMO games in single player, even without any people it would be enough to get that fix the nostalgia demon demands every so often. MMO's are like a forgotten period in history where we have no documents or buildings that have survived to tell us what life used to be like. We can only remember them and like history passed on by oral tradition, the memories change over time and move further and further from the truth. In our mind it becomes like the blissful state of nature many 18th century philosophers* were obsessed about. The time before the world become corrupted and everyone was pure. Or in the case of video games, before game developers become corrupted by large publishers such as Activision or EA and the games were pure and innocent, made for fun rather than profit. I doubt there is anyone who never have thought "games used to be so much better" even if they realize it's not true as soon as they have the thought.
 
What we need is an MMO museum, where servers are stored and people can get the true facts. Experience the game as it was and not as how they remember it. Perhaps in the future the worlds in MMORPG's will be on the Lost Worlds show on Discovery. People will study these virtual worlds and wonder how people live and future hackers will be like archeologists of today, trying to find the remains of the once great civilizations. 
 
* Jean-Jacques Rousseau for example

I've had a 360 since 2006 and loved it. Never bought so many games for a console before. I listen to Major Nelson and his podcast, needless to say I was a MS defender.

Then I decided that I wanted to play some games online so I upgraded my silver sccount to gold for one month. BIG MISTAKE! I've done it before using pre paid cards, but this time it was through XBOX Live and now there is no way to cancel short of calling them (only during business hours) and wait in line for 30min to cancel it and I've read stories from some people that they canceled the entire account instead of reverting to silver aking you loose all your points and stuff.

Some might say that it's common practise, but I've been subscribing to gamespot and other online websites over the years and all of them had an easy way to cancel online. I mean even porn sites are easy to unsubscribe to compared to this.

I know this is old news for most of you and many will probably defend M$, but I can't anymore. They are supposed to be about choices right? That's what they say on press conferences. Well then Mr. Microsoft TEAR DOWN THIS WALL...um I mean LET ME CANCEL MY SUBSCRIPTION!

I suggest to anyone who is only planning on using gold every now and then to buy pre-paid cards instead. If you don't want them to take $10 every month (yes that's what it costs where I live i.e not in the US)

Do you feel like you are wasting time in school or at work when you could be home grinding your World in Warcraft character? If so, check out the new wireless grinder released today by MadDogz. The grinder is easily synched with your character and then as long as you are connected to a wireless internet spot you can grind from anywhere! The grinding is extremely easy and addictive. The thing looks and works like a coffee bean grinder except instead of making coffee it gives you experience. The experience can be seen on a small LCD display. The grinder has several settings, for example easy mode will make the grinding very easy but you also gain less XP while insane mode will give you a 10x bonus to XP gain however make the grinding so heavy you need to be superman to grind.

MadDogz believs the product will be a huge succes and already have several new grinders on the way. The first is called "guild edition" where up to 40 people can grind at the same time, the other which many believe will be the most popular version is an auto-grinder, simply push a button and the grinder grinds for you at a slow pace. Critics say the auto-grinder is cheating, but others claim that some games already have that feuture like ADAM Online the MMO space game made by ZZP is the most obvious example.

(This is not meant to be taken seriously, just a stupid attempt at humour)

CN Soft announced a new MMORPG today called Boobs Online, a free to play micro transaction game. Unlike most MMORPG's people will start out as lvl 99 characters with a huge set of epic gear. As the player spends more time playing the game, and money at the shop, their characters will start to loose their gear and levels thus making them wear less and less until finally they are lvl 1, naked and completely helpless.

The game uses a new take on combat and insetad of killing hordes of monsters, the goal is to get attacked by a varity of different fiends. Giant tentacle monsters have been confirmed as well as various forms of banana like creatures.

The game is unlikely to ever be released outside Asia but TinyBomb will have a quick look of the game as soon as the beta starts.

(This is not meant to be taken seriously, just a stupid attempt at humour)