Welcome to Tim's World - a Worldcrafting, Writing, and Experimentation Blog!

My Internal Gremlin

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

I’ve been listening to Radiolab a whole lot at work lately. I first heard some of their stuff on NPR on the way back from Austin – the Parasite episode – promptly forgot about them for a few months, and then was coincidentially reminded about it via a tweet from Adam Atomic. So I’ve been toiling away the hours at work plugged into their podcast, which has been very, very interesting and entertaining to say the least. But one of the segments that I heard seems to have sparked a thought that I keep coming back to again, and again, and again… and I’m wondering if the best way to help exorcise this thought is to write it down (or type it up, or whatever :P)

So the piece that has stuck to me – and it’s not even from one of their longer segments, it’s just something someone said – has to do with the possibility of ‘downloading’ someone’s brain into a computer, thereby giving someone virtual immortality. I think I went way deeper in this post than ever before… Almost feel like I’m touching on the edges of that-which-is-not-meant-to-be-known, and trying to look at it too closely will send me spiraling into some Lovecraftian madness… but it’s all good :)

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The End

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

I made a decision last night to cancel my WoW Account. It was not an easy decision, but it was the right one. Since finally achieving the Loremaster achievement, and even a little while before that, I just haven’t had much fun with the game. I still love the game, but I think I’ve done all I really want to do with my characters – at least for now. I realized that I had not even logged into the game – except maybe once to check my banker’s mail – in almost a month.

Still looking forward to Cataclysm, and I’ll probably renew my account when it comes out, but for now, I feel it’s best to focus on other things, such as Tile Isle, Combat Cast, and other things.

That being said, it should come as no surprise to anyone that I’m discontinuing development on my WoW Armory WP Plugin. Considering Blizzard’s new armory features that let you place your character model and history log on your site, the only thing I’m really offering anymore is the gear list, which isn’t that amazing…

I’m planning to restructure the site a little bit and make it more about general game design (as was it’s original intention), and start moving WoW Armory and related articles to an archive of some kind.

I went ahead and put the source up on Google Code so that anyone who wants to see or use the code for themselves can do so. You can find the project here: http://code.google.com/p/wow-armory-wp-plugin/

I am a little saddened by the need to let it go, but I think it’s for the best. I’ve kept it very close to my chest so I could retain creative control, but I haven’t been able to give it the attention I would like lately, and I haven’t been able to give the users with questions or bugs the help they require.

Well, I think that’s all I have to say for now. Thanks for taking the time to read this. From here on, the posts on this site will focus more on game design, creation, and development.

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Brothers, Golems, and Time Travel

Friday, September 11th, 2009

Recently, I obtained copies of the Artifacts Cycle I & II. I ravenously devoured the first book (The Thran, The Brothers’ War), and started in on the second book (Planeswalker, Time Streams, Bloodlines). I’m already almost finished with Time Streams – didn’t matter that I’ve read them all before… Since I either never owned them originally, or no longer own them, I’m very pleased to now have all of these books together in one place.

I started thinking about why these books – despite being tied strongly to a game I no longer play or even like, or the fact that when I first read them it was during a time that I still thought FFVIII’s graphics were cutting-edge, and learning to ‘read’ Japanese off of foreign Pokémon cards would get me all the ladies – still have as much (if not more) impact on me as before…

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Official wow-armory WP Plugin New Feature Contest Extravaganza + PRIZES!

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

prizes

Contest is Closed!

No more entries are allowed for the contest. Thanks everyone for entering! Please bear with me while I tally up the entries and determine the winners. I’ll have a list of winners by July 1st (should be much sooner than that).

Update!

Well, there’s a little more than 24 hours left in the contest, so post, post, post!

As a last-minute surprise:Smart Bomb Enterprises has donated a prize for the contest:

To the grand prize winner:
One WordPress hosting account with a World of WarCraft template. Provided by www.NuTemple.com a WarCraft Sanctuary hosted by www.FireDragonHosting.com*

*Hosting account is for One (1) year and is renewable at rate of $4.95mo or $24.90yr Template is created by Smart Bomb Enterprises and is under Free License that can be used anywhere as long as all embedded links remain intact. Prize is supplied by Smart Bomb Enterprises www.smartbomb.ca


Guess what?! I’m building a list of all the most sought-after additions or changes to the wow-armory Plugin, which means I need your feedback! You might even win some prizes!

  • Have you ever thought of any feature that would make the plugin better?
  • Ever wanted it to show something more or differently?
  • Know of some way to make it even better?

Now’s your chance to help me come up with an extensive list of possible changes for me to make over the next few months! Rules and Prize information after the cut!

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Special #1: [Caught in the Middle: D&D Adventure] Part 1

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

I recently came across the adventure I had written up to be played online as a 4th Edition D&D Campaign, but which never actually panned out. Reading through the content I had written up, I realized that it was really pretty good and I didn’t want to lose it – so rather than keep it hidden I decided to share it with all of my readers :)

I’ll be posting segments of the adventure over the next couple of weeks, and I’ll try to include as much extra stuff as possible to make it more interesting (maps, etc). We’ll see how it goes… I guess this will sort of be my first ‘Special’ series.

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Spored

Saturday, January 31st, 2009

2364860198_4f98527f1bWhen i first learned of Mr Wright’s ambitious project, a few years ago in a blurry, Google video (before they bought YouTube), I was understandably excited.

Years later, Spore was released, and just the other day, I was able to finally pick it up and start playing.

I started up a new game, made my little carnivorous organism, and ate my way through to the top of the food chain. I enjoyed most every part of the game, and I’m still playing through the Space Age, and starting an occasional new creature now and again.

TrinkerI thought it would be interesting to break down some items of this game that I like, and those I don’t like. Since this is *meant* to be a Blog about Worldcrafting and Game Design, it might be useful. At the very least, it’ll be fun, and give me an excuse to show off some of my creations :)
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Magics.

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

I finished reading The Last Guardian last night – I flew through the book in a matter of hours, possibly because I happen to be a fan of Jeff Grubb… and it might be because of another arguably insane magic user he wrote about…

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