My Thoughts on Bubble Tanks 3 (Flash)

Greetings once again folks to “Delvarian’s Assorted Stuff”! I hope you all had a great Christmas holiday. I apologize for no topics being available for the last two days and my general inactiveness. I was busy spending time with relatives and friends for Christmas. But without further to do, it is time for today’s topic. To clarify, today’s topic is about my impressions on the recently released flash game of Bubble Tanks 3 by Hero Interactive. So sit tight folks and enjoy the article!

Bubble Tanks is a series of (currently) three games released by Hero Interactive. In each game, you control a tank made out of bubbles (with the WASD Keys or Arrow Keys). Your objective is to explore other large bubbles (AKA the levels) and defeat all the other enemy bubbles by using your bubble gun (use mouse to aim and fire). If enough bubbles are collected, then the bubble size will grow and more weapons will be available for use. But be warned, if the tank is hit, the number of bubbles acquired will decrease and can even lead to the tank leveling down. The same system applies to the enemies (starting with 2). The system was altered slightly in the second game, with the addition of an evolutionary tree. With this evolutionary tree, a player could specify how they wanted their tank to function as: a mighty glacier, glass cannon, or a combination of the two. The system was further altered with the third game where, a player could use the evolutionary tree, use one of the pre-made player tanks, or create and customize your own tank. This customizable tank system was taken from Bubble Tanks Arenas – a spin-off game focusing more on arena combat than on exploration.

Of course, the system is balanced so that an infinite amount of guns can’t be used or a small tank could have a huge unrealistic number of guns. The number of guns that can be applied to a bubble tank is limited by number of GP which is determined by level and tank base size. The greater the base size, the more GP is available for usage – at the cost of a slower moving tank. However, these limits aren’t as strenuous as they seem. One could build many different kinds of tanks using the tank editor thanks to the large array of usable weapons and normal bubbles. In fact, the same system can be applied to make unique enemies for others to see. From what I have observed, the player has the option of using player and enemy tanks from the base database, the saved computer data, or from other players – leading to one play-through of the game being very different from another. Heck, if a player finishes the game, he or she has the alternative of using the “New Game Plus” option to begin a new game with their previous ended game’s customized tank – a nice way of promoting the replayability value.

Like every game, this game still has its “bumps” and downsides. First off, (as of the time writing of this article) no music had been playing in the background of the game. In the previous two games, the music did play leading to a jarring effect in the third. Of course, this may be due to the “Efficiency Mode” being on. A minor quip I have with this game is no “multiplayer” of sorts. In other words, having the ability to play directly with other players (P2P or through server) as opposed to using the blue-prints of the tanks from other players. I still love the game due to its improved features, but it can still use some improvements. But, the game has gone a long way since its humble beginnings in Bubble Tanks 1. To put it bluntly, from my impressions, this game is a good step up from the previous game. There are still some technical issues with lag and the like needed to be ironed out – but the folks at Hero Interactive are working hard to fix them. Moreover, with the player packs being released per week, more stuff will be available to those who love the game so much that they are willing to spend some cash. I give this game, 8 out of 10 bubbles! Try if out at “http://armorgames.com/play/10015/bubble-tanks-3”.

That’s it for today’s topic folks. Remember to try the game out if you want to experience what I talked about first-hand. As the tropers at TvTropes would say, this is “better than it sounds”. In addition, remember to keep in mind that your mileage may vary on how good the game is – as always. I respect you decision on the matter. Comments, suggestions, and corrections are always appreciated! Spread the word out of this blog to your family and friends! But, anyways, I hope you all have a great Monday. This is Delvarian for “Delvarian’s Assorted Stuff” signing off for today!

My Thoughts on the U.S. Gun Debate

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you are having a great day before Christmas is here. As usual, it’s time to cover another topic at “Delvarian’s Assorted Stuff”. Today’s topic will be my general thoughts on the debate on guns in the U.S. Like every other article on this site, your mileage may vary – you may have other opinions on this topic. And seeing how heated this debate is and how passionate some of the arguments are on both sides, this is a must have. But enough with the disclaimers and whatnot, time to dive into the topic at hand.

As many of us can recall, gun debates have been happening all across the U.S. Not just simple ones, but serious ones. As in whether if people should have guns at home or should be prohibited from carrying or owning a gun. One of the proponents’ (for having guns) arguments is that guns are needed for self-defense and without them, security will decrease. On the other hand, opponents say that it will be misused and people will go crazy. On both sides, cries of government doing too much or too little and people’s rights being violated are thrown into this heated debate. It has gotten so huge that even state and government officials fight for either side – leading to some states having different gun regulations. But, one of the main problems of this major argument is that many people cite that gun regulations have a black or white morality or something related to this. When in reality, morality with guns is more or less in shades of gray.

Guns have a proper usage and an improper usage. They can be used for hunting and self-defense or they can be used for criminal acts. Yet, the main problem is with the person, not the gun itself. The gun is just a tool and therefore, has no morality attached to it – it doesn’t make any decision. Rather, it just follows the demands of the wielder. On the other hand, the person holding the gun has a morality and acts by him/herself – in other words, he or she is sentient. Thus, he/she has the ability to follow the right path, follow the wrong path, or most commonly, follow a mix of the paths. They can make the gun a tool of benefit or a tool of death and destruction. So, if politicians wanted to eradicate the gun problem, the best solution would be to fix the nature of human beings – an impossible task. But, the main point is that, the human, not the gun chooses to make a decision, and that decision is most of the time, morally gray. Therefore, gun debates cannot use the saying that there are only good and bad ways to use a gun. There is a proper usage but, when used with other people of shady morality, the “correct” decision becomes hard to determine.

For example, let’s say a criminal were to break in a home and threaten the residents with a loaded gun. In this case, if someone had a gun and was willing to the protect his fellow residents, then he had permission to take out the intruder for the sake of saving more lives. Here, the decision taken was not sparkly clean (in most morality systems and religions, killing is generally wrong) but, he averted a possibly more tragic outcome of many or all people being killed. Imagine if guns were restricted and not allowed – the outcome will have been totally different and would be based more upon the criminal’s morality. So, the argument and belief of the usage of guns having a black and white morality is completely false. Nothing in life is completely right or wrong – sometimes people cannot even tell what some decisions’ outcomes will be.

So what can we do to fix this issue? Well, first off, education is a must. Most of the time, people who argue in this debate are misguided due to not having a clear viewpoint or an open mind. Fixing a closed-mind may prove tough to accomplish, but the main point would be to educate the masses on both sides of this issue. People can demonstrate how morality for guns, as with everything else, is gray, not purely right or wrong. But most importantly, emphasize that the debates aren’t bad in themselves - it is just the miscommunication and misinformation that are bad. Proper gun laws have to be put in place to make the country better. However, it must be done in the proper way so it balances the right of the people and the safety of our society. Of course, any change will bring controversy and outrage. But, it’s just that we, the people of our nation, how will have the final say on this topic and how the nation will move forward in the years to come.

Thanks once again for staying with me folks. I hope you enjoyed my general insights into the gun debate. The topic is more complicated than what it appears to be. But, this provides a brief look in what needs to be improved or fixed. Well then, like usual, comments, suggestions, and corrections are always appreciated. I hope you all have a great Christmas beginning tomorrow! This is Delvarian from “Delvarian’s Assorted Stuff” signing off! Have a wonderful holiday!

My Thoughts on If Video Games Are Works of Art

Welcome again to “Devlarian’s Assorted Stuff”. Today’s topic will be on the very controversial issue on whether video games are a form of art or not, and some of the surrounding arguments. Remember folks, considering how controversial (and flame-bait worthy) this topic is, take into mind that your mileage may way. Your thoughts on this issue will vary in some way or another. This is why it is (highly) not recommended to start a discussion on this in many sites or forums. But without further to do, let us delve in and explore this interesting topic.

Looking at the humble beginnings of video gaming, video games were intended to be for entertainment for kids – nothing more. As seen by this early (first) era of gaming, most games were made for arcades and arcade-like systems. Of course, the market shifted to Japan after the Great Video Game Crash of 1983 with the introduction of the Nintendo Entertainment System or the NES for short. Even then, most if not all games, were intended for entertainment and for kids – though the stories improved in this time period. As the years went by, technology improved leading to better systems (such as the SNES) with better graphics, sounds, and gameplay, as well as other things such as story and mechanics. All in all, it was considered by many veterans to be one of the best time-frames in gaming thanks to all the amazing (at that time) advancements. However, it is key to note that as mentioned before, stories began to improve and became (for the most part) more complex, and had more moral and philosophical meaning. For example, instead of the simple save the princess plot, it was more like save the world from the evil empire with many people having their own agendas – slightly simplified though. The game developers were dipping into deeper parts of telling a story and providing an impact to life like a book or movie.

Of course, even at that period, most people considered it to be for entertainment and children – not a work of art. It wasn’t a bad thing at all considering that most plots were still simplistic and only a few – could have been considered a work of art. Thus, there were not enough examples to convince the populace into moving onto deeper concepts. As the time went by however, companies began to trudge into more complex storylines with connections to real world events. Many people applauded these changes yet, some critics and activists defied this stating that it would “ruin society” or something similar. This was the start of the age of T-rating games, exploration into deeper concepts, and the beginning of video game controversies and the general stupidity of activists and critics.

Here, developers wanted to push forward into deeper more moral ideas like in movies and books but they further they went, it seemed that more issues came up from the stupidity of the populace. Take Mass Effect 2 from the fairly recent day. Many (misguided) people (including FOX News) decried it as a “porn simulator” and cautioned people to keep their kids away from it. The same thing happened with Grand Theft Auto IV, where critics decried it as a “murder simulator” (though there were slightly right, but the game wasn’t about random murdering or the simulation of the act). In fact, the content was much subtler and was more or less (for the case of Mass Effect 2) implied never shown on screen. But of course, critics and activists still decried and complained about it. This has happened to several games over the years and many companies have been afflicted from these people’s misguided crusades. Even some states over the years wanted to pass laws several regulating gaming and pushing back M-rated games.

The main issue with this is that people cannot decide whether video games are a form of art or not. Consider books and movies, and how they can show touchy and controversial issues without the same level of complaining that ensues when video games show it. In fact, this problem also stems from the fact that video games are still perceived by many to be for the children and that a lot of video game enthusiasts back down from defending. Heck, the issue has gotten so heated that even the Supreme Court has opened a case to see whether video games are protected by the First Amendment (freedom of speech). Many fans, critics, and activists on both sides fight on whether video games are art citing many examples and counter-examples with no avail on either side. Some people cannot wrap their heads around the idea that video games have matured to the point that not all are for kids – some are, but others are for more mature-minded people.

Because of this huge debate, if a game were to cover a controversial topic (e.g., war, genocide, fear, torture, etc.), it would face a huge deal of controversy unlike books or movies. Books and movies have already covered many hard-to-read topics, so why not video games. As many have said before me, we need to stand up for our medium and push forward and “mature” our medium. If books and movies have done it beforehand, so shall our medium. For this to happen, we need to defend our works when faced with controversy, try making more meaningful stories, and provide enough evidence that video games are in fact, a form of art. The Supreme Court’s decision will have a major impact on gaming, and will either improve or destroy the genre. But no matter what it will come to, we gamers should rally together and stand up for our genre and educate the masses. If we push forward, our medium will never be the same again – just like entering adolescence or adulthood. As they say, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” – anything could be a work of art but will vary depending on the viewer.

Thanks for staying with me folks! I would like to give many thanks to Daniel Floyd, for inspiring me (and other fellow gamers) to speak up for our medium. Keep on rolling Mr. Floyd and as for everyone else, have a wonderful day! Remember, comments, suggestions, and corrections are always appreciated. This is Delvarian for “Delvarian’s Assorted Stuff” signing off for now!

My Thoughts on Internet Trolls

Welcome again folks for today’s blog posting. Today’s topic will be on a collection of people, called trolls – internet trolls to be precise. For safety concerns and the fact that the topic is so broad, I won’t delve too deep into this topic. But, I’ll cover the jist of this topic and on how “we” can stand up to them and reduce the problem.

The Urban Dictionary defines Trolls as “One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument”. As many internet users could tell you, they have encountered one or more trolls in their experiences with the internet. The effect can be either minor or profound depending on the circumstance. But, of course, troll(s) always stir up anger and controversy for their own self-indulgence or pleasure. They go to a multitude of sites on an impromptu basis in either groups or by themselves. No site is safe from their attacks – they can bring down a site by spamming or worse. They sprawl all across the web either active or “lurking” – no one’s safe from their wrath. There is an important thing to note on this matter though, they do not work in groups most of the time. When I refer to them as “them”, I’m referring to these people as a collection, not as a group. They sometimes work together and most of the time they don’t.

However, what attracts these people to particular sites or fandoms? Why are some more vulnerable than others? The answer is that it all has to do with the size of the fandom, the “eccentricity” of the fanbase, and the anonymity of the internet playing a role. Generally speaking, the larger the fanbase the more the fans there will be – which makes the message boards on these fandoms more popular. Unfortunately, this means that trolls will be able to attack a larger audience and a larger number of fans will not be able to resist the temptation of “feeding” the trolls – as in responding to them. The same thing with “eccentricity” of the fans, the more fans like a work, the more the chance they will protect it from criticism. Sure, some fans will accept criticism, but when the eccentricity is at high-levels like in some certain fandoms, they will attack the criticizers without mercy. This will just add fuel to the fire for trolls.

Of course, the other main reason for trolling would be the anonymity of the internet. In most cases, people on the internet feel more inclined to be less “conservative” or more aggressive because of their belief that they cannot be tracked or punished for their behaviors – unlike in real life where these behaviors would have negative repercussions. In fact, on the internet, trolls barely have any repercussions - they could always make another account or go to another site to troll if they are IP-banned or even use other methods.

Any person could become a troll with enough aggravation or desire. However, there are ways of dealing with their antics and the like. The first step would be to ignore them and continue on with the preceding conversations. Trolls love to have attention as it’s their “main food source” to keep going. With ignorance or indifference to the trolls from the targeted members, trolls will grow disinterested, and will either quit or move to another site. As the saying goes, “ignorance is bliss”. Although getting all fans to comply would be extremely hard due to the aforementioned problems on disagreement. The second method would be also decrease the number of arguments on a multitude of things in fandoms. Of course, this according to today’s standards would be practically impossible to achieve due to the human race. A third way and much less popular way would be to bait them away from un-expecting users. As Know Your Meme/Rocketboom put it, they are known as cannibalistic trolls. With enough time and effort put into this (by ironically mostly doing nothing other than education), trolls can be put down safely – unless they have their own agenda(s). Then, we can focus on some of the many other issues plaguing various fandoms.

That’s it for today’s topic folks! I apologize if this posting seems a bit half-hearted or something related – I was having some issues choosing and writing a topic today. As always, suggestions, comments, and corrections are always appreciated. Have a wonderful day folks and I hope to see you tomorrow. This is Delvarian signing off!

My Thoughts on the Cause of the U.S. Recession

Welcome to Tuesday’s blog entry from me folks! Today’s topic will be about my opinions surrounding the various financial crisises in the U.S. or in short, the U.S. recession. Just as a disclaimer, your mileage may vary on these opinions. You may agree or disagree, and there might be a better way to look at this. I’ll only cover a minute section of this major world issue, although more articles examining this topic shall come in the future. But without further to do, let us delve on this controversial subject.

As we all know these days, the financial health of the U.S. is in crisis – as is the rest of the world’s credit. The world can be considered at peril if some actions take drastic actions to secure their money back – which could lead to wars and genocide and the like. But before that, let’s go back a few years and see the cause of this giant mess. In the olden days, people used to very rarely borrow, mostly relying on cash at hand for buying or trading goods. Heck, even before that, people just bartered instead of using hard cash. Consequently, little to no debt was incurred and trust was kept in balance. As the years went by however, people began to dabble in investments and loans which at first, mostly went well. However, it eventually reached the point where they became so unregulated that the banks could do nearly anything – they were greedy to put it at best. All those completed rules, procedures, and plans to confuse people when working with a bank to squeeze every penny from the customers/investors. It wasn’t too bad at first, as most people paid off their debts, yet it eventually reached the point (sometime at 2006) where part of the system collapsed as most of the borrowers could not pay off their debts.

Why did this happen? This happened mostly because the banks tricked their customers into picking wrong options to earn a profit. In this age of capitalism, people traded money, and non-existent money or debts. This caused the system to be pretty unstable if the debts were unmet and as proven by history, the financial system had practically collapsed and had to be re-stabilized by the government by bailouts. People could not pay back their loans, so businesses closed down, the economy closed down, and even banks became more stringent in handing out loans. Yet still after cutting down on money, the big companies give huge corporate bonuses… Partly ironic in this age of financial problems.

In fact, the current national debt is 11 trillion dollars and growing. Imagine the consequences of the nation becoming bankrupt. The consequences and possibilities are horrifying to confront at best – not to mention the domino effect ensuing. Yet, as stated above, people are still greedy as before if not partially more and some areas. Sure people are more wary of their money more but, still have their petty issues with greed and pride. In fact, the main cause of this mess was not only due to greedy banks but also driven mostly by greedy consumers. They had the “I want it now!” mentality on having items. Thus, most of them took loan after loan to buy item after item never feeling satisfied – leaving an increasing pile of debt. Where did this lead to? The situation we now all see and encounter today. It did drive the GDP of the country up (short-term gain), but at a huge negative (long-term) cost.

To be even more precise, some keywords here to note would be short-term and long-term. I would go highly into detail on this topic today (I’ll focus on this at another day), but to put it bluntly, people more or less, focused on the short-term rather than the opposite. The majority of the population, low-level or high-level, focused on short-term pleasures and never saved up - eventually causing this huge deficit across the world. This is one the primary faults of the human race and must be addressed (as in more heavily) at one point or another if we wish to survive.

But, many will ask, “Can we escape this crisis?” The answer is yes or no. It depends on whether the people of the U.S. can cooperate, spend less, and save more. It will decrease the GDP, but it’s better than increasing the national debt at the rate we are going. The next thing would be to fix the government policies that waste money and reward the wrong people. Afterward, we must team up with other countries to fix up their messes and eventually hit the green – if possible. Of course, many countries won’t cooperate – but, it is in our best interests if we do. Besides, it is better than having more wars all across the world. On the other hand, we may be able to take out this problem but only for it to come back as “history repeats itself”. Yet, if we (as in, a majority of the world’s populace) can band together to push for a better future we can theoretically, fix this worldwide financial crisis and avert a world war. It is a huge demand to ask for and may be a too optimistic goal for the most of you, but we all got to try. That’s one of the beauties of the human-race, banding together for a common-goal whether it be malevolent or benevolent.

Thank you for staying through this minor-essay of my thoughts! I hope you enjoyed it and I also hope to see you all tomorrow. As always, suggestions and corrections are welcome. Remember to refer this to your friends. This is Delvarian for “Delvarian’s Assorted Stuff”, signing off for the day!

Adventures in MMOs - Doomlord

Welcome again for today’s blog post folks! Today’s topic (as if you haven’t already inferred from the topic) will be a medium-length review of my dabbling in some random MMORPG – popular or unpopular, big or small. In this case, this will be a review on my adventures in the Browser MMO, Doomlord (www.doomlord.net), made by the folks at  Beholder Ltd. You may be thinking that I am pushing the budget a little for going this out of topic. But hey, this is “Delvarian’s Assorted Things”, where I’ll (and maybe others in the future) will cover a multitude of topics ranging from gaming topics to other topics – no matter how outlandish they may be. It all depends on my mood and reader demand. Besides, some MMOs need some attention and are overlooked by MMO-reviewers at times. So, sit tight and enjoy the review!

From the beginning of the game, I had to choose from four different “classes” of sorts or hordes - Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, and Diamond. Each had their own bonuses relating to skills and I decided to pick the Ruby horde due to its specific (which I forgot) advantages. I presume the choice of class will affect something later on down the line. Just afterwards, I was introduced the story of this game and began the tutorial. From what I can make out of the plot, the forces of nature on a medieval planet have been dis-balanced so much to the point that the planet entered an apocalypse of sorts. Moreover, the natives or people were forced down into underground caverns due to enemy forces on the surface. The surface ones were ultimately defeated yet, the aftermath people to turn on each other and become murderers of the like. They wanted each others soul energy (or ability points of the sort) to become stronger – to become a Doom Lord.  Thus, begins my character’s quest to quench his never ending thirst for soul energy and to become one of the greatest doomlords – hopefully to overturn the apocalypse and restore the balance of the planet.

The tutorial ran me through how to spend my soul energy to increase one of my 7 stats (Strength, Attack, Defense, Constitution, IQ, Magic, and Thaumaturgy) and all the other basic features of this kind of game. Some prime examples of this genre would be BiteFight and BattleKnight – two mediocre games in my opinion due to their lack of innovation. However, what distinguishes itself from its relatives is that it uses a point-buy system (not a leveling system like other similar ones) to directly improve stats while the EXP earned is used for gaining levels and advancing the story. Speaking of the story, the game mechanics’ seem quite woven into the story and not considered to be “static” or inconsistent like in other games of this type. For instance, when my character reached level 1, the story explained why I attained the ability to buy items from the Soul-huckster AKA the equipment and items shop – I met a soul-huckster, a traveling merchant of sorts, while traversing through the surface lands. Though, one will have to eventually strike a balance of whether to buy new items or to directly improve stats as they use the same currency – soul energy. A nifty feature for strategy, though with enough persistence this can be averted.

Similar to other “time-waiting” games, you set a time to hunt and you’ll have to wait through a timer to see the results. Though, it does update after each individual hunt is completed. You have a set limit of Action Points for hunting though (capped at 250) to prevent on infinitely hunting or to stack them to infinity. Of course, I never ran out of action points per day probably due to the fact that I check it only 3 to 5 a day on average. You can duel other players using Duel Points (capped at 100) but, I don’t recommend doing it at a low-level until you raise your skills and buy good enough equipment. From my own experiences, dueling gave a minute amount of soul energy and EXP and could not be rapid-fired – something I would put up with due to all the clicking involved. Thus, I gave up on dueling entirely for profit and instead relied solely on questing and hunting for obtaining soul energy and EXP. A nifty feature which also sets this apart is that per every hunt, you are asked a question which if you answer correctly, you’ll gain a 10% bonus to the amount of soul energy you would have earned originally on that particular hunt. These questions range from general knowledge to less than known knowledge, but never delve into the complicated subjects (thankfully).

Of course, this game isn’t without its own downsides. Like most other games of this genre, Beholder Ltd. makes a profit by selling Ancient Stones, which are needed to get the most powerful items in the game and can be readily bought in the game story for real money. This can seriously disbalance the game if players can easily buy better items. However, thankfully the developers have coded the game so that one can earn Ancient Stones for free by hunting – though a VERY low rate. Of course, this can be also offset thanks to a skill increasing the chances of finding one. Moreover, all the waiting in this game may turn off a lot of gamers and prospective players looking for something more fast-paced or more sophisticated. This isn’t exactly a bad thing, but it limits the population of the game servers – thus, the servers don’t really have that many active people (AKA only about 100 or more).

tid-bits or findings in the game in the future (if any). I give this game a (heavily opinionated, Your Mileage May Vary on this) rating of 6.25 out of 10 stars. I recommend you all give this game a look though if you looking for a browser-based MMO.

Well, thanks for staying with me through the review folks! I thank you for the support and wish you a great day/night. Please point out any flaws or inconsistencies you found in my “review” if possible. Suggestions are always welcome! See you tomorrow for another blog posting here! This is Delvarian, signing off!

Malefor and Morality

Welcome again folks for today’s blog! Short or medium sized as it may be, today’s topic shall be a bit on morality, and to be precise, some morality discussions on a certain Video Game character, Malefor the Purple Dragon AKA the Dark Master.

First off, you may think, “Malefor? Well he must be evil by looking at this name, and surname and knowing that he is a dragon.” Technically, it is true looking at this past deeds and actions. Besides, his name is close to the word malevolent, and the word “mal” is bad in Spanish. Heck, even his name, the Dark Master, is a cliché used for antagonists for decades in medieval stories now. But, there have been discussions of whether he is a Complete Monster or not or something else. As we all know, he committed many atrocities such as genocide against many species, without pity or remorse and tortured others. He even killed most of the next generation of dragons by smashing the eggs in the Temple. Moreover, he enslaved someone as a child (Cynder) to the evil side and forced her to commit many atrocious things to free him from his prison. He basically tarnished her reputation and caused many people to look down on her. It took many years and Spyro for her to be forgiven and still is less than trustworthy to others in other locales.

However, the main point here is whether Malefor is a Complete Monster or not. His goal was that he basically wanted to “cleanse” the world by blowing up and reforming the planet and gain a huge amount of power. However, he was thankfully stopped by a certain team of two (lovers). By looking at his lack of remorse and so many sins and crimes committed – most of us viewers will think that he is truly a complete monster. But, we need to take into account why he wanted to enact “The Great Cleansing”. No villain takes all these actions without reason or cause or just for fun - well… except for those truly heartless people. Malefor must have had a reason to take this path in his life. Otherwise, he was just a being of pure death and destruction – something that most of us avid readers won’t believe without more concrete evidence.

He could have (as stated beforehand) done it for fun as he could have been dissatisfied with his life. But, that has some contradictions as he worked so hard to gain the elements. Then again, he could been overworked by the previous guardians. They could have overburdened him with WAY too many tasks (as he is a purple dragon, only one born every 10 generations to lead the populace into a new age or something) without an appropriate amount of respect which led to him falling to the path of evil for revenge. Or, a serious part of his emotions broke down – AKA he lost someone he cared about a lot. It could be a parent, a child, a friend, or more likely a lost love. As we have learned from many stories, with great power comes great responsibility and with great power comes insanity of sorts. Thus, the loss of a loved one (or more) could have thrown him severely off the path of sanity. All of these things or part of these things could have begun his path of darkness which led him to become a genocidal tyrant.

No matter what, the path of actions he took was completely wrong and immoral. If Malefor were to atone for his sins, should be punished appropriately but, in a constructive manner. However, we should all consider this in a neutral perspective and not go crazy in this. Morality is a complex thing to observe, thus, we will come up with our own theories and whatnot. This is why fanfiction is so wonderful - so many options on both spectrums especially considering that Activison hasn’t given us any answers yet.

Thanks for staying all this time folks for reading through this wall of text! I will delve a bit more into these theories on why Malefor came what he became and how in some cases, he became good again – all of these possible in the realm of fandom! I hope to see you all tomorrow and have a great day! This is Delvarian, signing off!

MMOs... What Do We Look For?

Greetings guys and gals! Here is my promised (small) blog posting for today - this time on one of my favorite topics - MMOs.

As many of you (or not have heard), MMOs are Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. Some of us have favorites, and some of us have our hated ones. But as par human nature, none of us agree on which ones we like - not to mention the raging flame-wars on multiple sites. In fact, it is common knowledge that someone will complain about an update somewhere, and the problem gets worse as the fanbase grows in size - the conflict being either against other factions of the fandom or against the developer. It is frustrating, but we must put up with it or… snark at them ;).

But, today's topic isn't about the fanbase's massive issues (well... it will be on another day). Today’s topic will be on, what do you look for in MMOs? What draws you to specific MMOs? What features do you want? What about the playerbase and game content? The EXP or skill system? All those things and more will be covering in the following days.

Enough of that though. Considering the broad scope of the topic, I will be mostly covering what I usually look for in MMOs, and somewhat of other people’s ideas. For example, I especially like MMOs with a friendly but tight-knit community. Of course, this can be offset if there are MANY players but a less tight knit community. I personally like communities where there are enough people to guide newbies forward to become productive players.

The next topic to be covered in detail in this series will be on the EXP system and whether it should be capped or not and my ideas/solutions to their problems. Of course, send me suggestions on how to handle this matter and please, be honest on me. I’m still getting used to hijinks involved in this matter of trade. So, most of these postings will be quips into my mindset involving MMOs. As always, please send a comment or suggestion and remember to stay in touch!

Have a great day folks!

Delvarian

Blog Opening!

Heya guys!

After much contemplation and consideration, I have finally opened my first blogging site for all to see. To be precise, this blog will cover a various amount of things - ranging from gaming to gardening to morality. But, of course, we all got to start somewhere. I wish everyone has a great time on this site and remember to refer to your contacts. The next blogging article will up later on today! Thanks for the support readers.

Sincerely,

Delvarian