Blogs

A blog. It is just pieces of data being littered on the net... I can see why blogs is so popular. Everyone can (I think).

We are tied up in this world. Tied with relationships, tied up with material things. No matter hard you try, these ties will stick to you forever. It is how we are created... Sometimes when things go wrong, divulging it to someone near you might not help, for certain reasons. You have to deal with the thought that, that person knows what you told him/her. Sometimesm you regret telling them things. They react differently. You don't want to go through these unnecesarry feelings and trivilations.

But, you can't keep it within yourself. Everyone knows that. It becomes a mental Splinter that slowly tears you away from the inside. That is why blogs is there to save your day! Divulging you life to a stranger, is a feeling that no-one can pin point. Is it because the stranger doesn't give a hoot about what you have to say? Or is it sharing your troubles or tribulations with some guy/girl? Maybe this is what drives the Internet. Anonymonity (sp?). In fact it is... 3/4 of the Internet is Porn. You are browsing the sites completely anonymous. If you walk into a magazine shop and pick up a Porn mag, people are going to check you out, immediately getting prenotions about you. Many bulletin boards, otherwise known as forums, are littered with alter egos. Vorkon, the Destroyer. Shadow Stalker. Pink Fluffy. etc. You can do what you want, no-one will know who is really is sitting behind the screen. Again, I use the term, appearances can be deceiving. Another thing that makes blogs so popular is seeing people experiencing the same troubles/tribulations. You immediately connect to the person, although you may be reading a forty-year old paedophile's (sp) blog.

It is strange, that although only one or 2 people will actually trouble themselves to type in a confusing URL to come read this. Yet I still feel as if I got something off my shoulders. I am littering a piece of myself into the World Wide Web.

Happy gamin!

Exams are finally over!!

Yes, that is right (for me at least)! Exams are over!

But before we crack open the cases of beer (well, not really, for me it will cracking open cases of Oros), a crucial period must first complete itself. I have dubbed this period the Alcatraz period... Let me explain why!

You see, after you finish your exam you are usually elated and in a party mood, right? We all are, but deep inside you is that fear for when the TIME comes, the time to get your results! Now compare this to an escapee from Alcatraz.

You just want to scream with joy, when you jump over the walls of Alcatraz right? You actually escaped this hell-hole... Not really. In front you lie troubled waters to safe haven. You don't know if you will survive the swim!

Who else feels this when you finish your exam and have to wait for your results. The excruciating Alcatraz period!!

Mu controversy...

Recently I have heard that the free MMORPG is gonna (or already did) receive a huge new patch. You can have pets and other cool stuff. But what does these cool new things help if the main game mechanic is repetitive as a bulldog chewing on a steel pipe?

Yes, guys and gals here comes my opinion of Mu...

The first that catches your eye is the nice graphics, but believe me, as I have told, appearances can be deceiving! You begin the game with absolutely no clue what to do! So after an half an hour of qeustioning everyone beside me. I run into insanely high level creatures and get killed. I respawn and head another way. I begin to kill some spiders and mini dragons... It looks very promising! I expected something in the form of quests, but it was non-existent. The only thing you do is kill and level and look cool. That is all!

I stopped playing.

After a while I heard a huge new patch arrived and thought maybe it deserves a second chance. I downloaded it and played again. Before ten minutes was over I quit and oathed to never set my virual ass in that game again. The new patch will most likely not convince me to play again.

This is my opinion and I am very interested to what your views are on the game.

Mu online site

Exam bores...

Wrote maths today. I ran out of time and rushed the last questions which will probably result in 60-75%.

Anyway, after learning for Comptuer Studies Theory I stumbled upon an interesting thought. Binary consists of 0's and 1's. Each letter or character consists of 8 binary digits. The letter "A" is something like this. 10010001. Now imagine if you take DOOM3's code, which equals to about 500,000 lines of code.

mmmm. 500,000 lines of code probably holds 100 characters. That equals 500,000,00 characters. In Binary it will equal 8X500,000,00. Doom3 has alot of 0's and 1's!!!

So let's start.

100101000110010101001010101001110010100001010100101..... Nah, just kidding!

Happy gaming!

Appearances can be deceiving.

Today, after getting up at 11, I began some Maths revision. Pretty easy stuff, but you just have to go and fetch it in your memory banks!

Now back to the topic. Everyone has heard that appearances can be deceiving, and most you seem to believe that. Well... Here is more proof!

Yesterday, me and my bro went to buy a new monitor for one of our PC's. By habit I also went to check if there are some new games... On the shelf was Trackmania Sunrise! A new racing game with high speed races and jumps, even half-pipes!

After seeing the brilliant trailer on the June NAG magazine DVD, I turned the box to see the minimum specs...

(Prepare to be amazed!!)
-> 500 mhz processor
-> 128mb RAM
-> 16mb 3d card!
-> 900mb of space!

I was flabbergasted. The only proof to see if it really was as good as the trailer is to buy and play it. And yes people, absolutely brilliant! It redefines the term fun!

If you have a few extra bucks, grab a copy and play this hectic, fun game. If you LAN regularly it might even give the old Counter-Strike a go!

Go here now!
Trackmania Home page

Our little SA war3 server :(

After my abscence from our local War3 server, I decided to give it a go...

I logged on, meeting many new faces. My happiness couldnt have lasted longer. Just when wanted to see what games were playing, my joy went down the drain. Our peaceful and loving server was swamped by DOTA! Yes... DOTA

Now for those of you that dont know, DOTA is a custom-made map where 2 forces of heroes face each other joined by computer-controlled units. I have played it twice and it sucked! It is detrimental to our local competitive War3 community. No-one wants to play a 1v1, because they want to play DOTA!

It is really sad... really sad.

I need empathy/sympathy (whatever).

Game developing

If you are like me and like to create your own world in which you survive, then you would like to delve into the world of Game development.

There are a lot of questions as to with what language to start with... C++,Delphi,Java,etc. Well it depends on what you are trying to make, but I will assume that you would want to make "games".

The best way to start making games is to head to http://www.gamemaker.nl
Gamemaker is a neat packaged tool for the beginner programmer. With easy tutorials, you are on your way to "gamemaking" heaven.

But...

Dont get me wrong. Dont think that Gamemaker has limited capabilities! It has functions for network play and extended 3D capabilities plus the added functionality of DLLs.

Anyway, head there and go download and give it a go!

Here is a few examples of games I made using GM.
-Defriance- 3.4mb (forgive the crappy screenshots :) )
Download


-Protegis- 3.2mb (forgive the crappy screenshots :) )
Download


After you checked this out, head to http://www.nag.co.za
They have a local game development section that is worth a check if you are interested!

SA's Geological location

In competitive gaming terms South Africa seems to be stuck in the worst possible place for gaming to succeed.
I'll take a clan of Counter-Strike players as an example.

If you want to succeed internationally you must have constant competition against other nearby countries...
Now let's look at SA's neighbours.

-Zimbabwe. Under the rule of Mugabe hunting the white boer... Nope, no chance. I think Zimbabweans may actually be good since they have to defend and attack the farms, respectively. (No offense meant to Zimbabweans :) )

-Mozambique. Nope...

-Botswana. Botswana was claimed as the most promising economica country in Africal, in terms of growth, I see in the future a clan or 2 from Botswana.

-Namibia. At the moment, Namibia has the greatest potential out of our neighbours, but still none the less far off from SA clans.

Now you see what we are stuck with... No nearby countries providing sufficient challenge to succeed internationally. If you take Europe there are 10-20 countries to compete with, a much more competitive enviroment.

You might say, what about Online Play?

We are stuck under the tyrannical rule of Telkom. A monopoly. Only 1 telecoms provider is allowed in SA! Well... Not really, since deregulation has allowed more players to enter the field, they must still rent Telkom's lines to provide services, which means still exorbitantly priced DSL!

But SA still delivers on the international scene none the less. Our greatest achievement was Phantom, achieving a 7th place in Quake 3 at WCG. A ps2 Dead or Alive2 player also did very well, earning a second place.

The upcoming ESWC promises to yield great results, with Evolve (Counter-Strike) and the new upcoming War3 player, Shase! Good luck guys!