The Phantom City

“There are times when total serenity isn’t enough. At such times I scarf a cheeseburger and fall asleep for the rest of the afternoon.”

- Master Hu, the Peggle Owl

That’s really all there is to be said. Play the game, and don’t forget your grid paper.

Link courtesy of Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Hmmmm…while I’m a firm believer that people can become addicted to pretty much anything, I’m having a hard time believing this story, where a couple in Reno, NV, are saying their Internet and online gaming addiction caused them to starve and otherwise horribly neglect — c’mon, let’s call it what it is: abuse — their very young children.

Viloria said the Reno couple were too distracted by online video games, mainly the fantasy role-playing “Dungeons & Dragons” series, to give their children proper care. “They had food; they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games,” Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Are we really going to say that kind of neglect stems from their video game use? They couldn’t tear themselves away long enough to feed or wash two babies? Or is it more likely that they wouldn’t have been feeding or washing them anyway? Either way, perhaps they’ll be put somewhere where the food won’t be delivered because the kitchen staff is playing Tetris. Oh, and where there are a lot of cats on the floor above. (Trust me.)

As an aside, what the heck is the prosecutor talking about when she refers to the online “Dungeons & Dragons” series? Is talking about the D&D Stormreach MMO? If so, I’m amazed there are enough players for there to be addicts.

Prepare for a dip in the global economy: Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution.

On a side note, I’m going to be really busy next spring doing…ah…stuff…so don’t bother me.

Link courtesy of Too Many Topics, Too Little Time.

I got nothing, so how about some Wikipedia?

• Cat, a domestic feline, Felis silvestris catus
• .cat, a top-level domain
• cat (Unix), the concatenate program in the Unix operating system
• Cat (Red Dwarf), a character in the TV show Red Dwarf
• Cat (role-playing game), an indie role-playing game about cats
• Cat (kingdom), a Dark Ages Pictish kingdom

Note the Coat, Legs, Claws, Face, Fangs and Tail attribute system in the role-playing game. Nice. “I have a strong, healthy coat!”

There are creeps everywhere, man! They don’t even attack…they just keep taking punishment, and they just keep moving, like they don’t even feel it!

For me, the sign of a good game is that hours after I play it, I’m sitting there thinking about better ways to play it. By that measure, Desktop Tower Defense is a good game. It looks easy at first, but then you start to realize the enemy (creeps) is getting a little farther each time, and those backup towers are starting to come into action, and you realize you aren’t going to make it another ten levels, and another hour has passed in defeat.

Link courtesy of Jeremy Zawodny, who warned us all.

GetaFirstLife.com:

A 3D analog world where server lag does not exist.

I like this First Life.

Link courtesy of the Doc Searls Weblog.

More random stuff I thought I’d blog about, but haven’t:

Three lies about social software - I can’t state it any better than this: “The ‘team’ represented by a given blog community is actually a collection of incredibly diverse people, with common interests rather than common views.” Link courtesy of Too Many Topics, Too Little Time.

Windows Vista Product Guide - A feature-by-feature guide to Windows Vista, by Microsoft. Link courtesy of OSNews.

Remember the Long Horse - Check out photos of the extinct “long horse,” and ask yourself, “Where have all the long stables gone?” Link courtesy of Boing Boing.

Jim Webb Almost Beats Some Sense Into Bush - Newly elected Senator from Virginia confronts the President of the United States…Why did I get out of political science?

The (un)reliability of Gmail - I haven’t noticed any problems, but then again it’s hard to tell when I’m not getting email, as opposed to Blake Ross.

Asteroid’s Revenge - You’re an innocent floating space rock, and you are viciously attacked by triangle ships. Take as many of them as you can with you. Link courtesy of Boing Boing.

Understanding XML in 15 Seconds (or Less!) - It’s all about the tags.

Ohio’s Columbus Spaceport - Suborbital, but you’ve got to start somewhere. Link courtesy of Bureau 42.

For this holiday season, Amazon.com is letting customers vote on which deep discount specials they’ll offer. Tomorrow’s is 1,000 XBOX 360 Core Systems, each going for $100, starting at 11 AM PST. Nice discount, but I suspect they’ll be gone by 11:00:30 AM PST.

Video Game Julio Franco looks back on his career, still playing at 48 years old.

Link courtesy of Deadspin