Quick look: Dig N Fight and Lagoon B

Persistent Browser Based games are a great way to get in a little bit of video gaming when money and time are in short supply. They are usually free games that make money with a combination of adds and optional donations. Games like Dig N' Fight as well as Lagoon B are played by setting a course of action, and then simply checking in at a later time.

Dig N' Fight allows you to create a dungeon. You start with an imp that will dig out tunnels and dig for gold. As your dungeon becomes larger it becomes an attractive target to other dungeon makers. It quickly becomes prudent to form a defense force that will scout your tunnels for signs of danger. You may also create an attack force that will attempt to pillage other dungeons. The game starts off slowly with the first few days focused on gathering materials and improving your digging teams but as you unlock monsters, spells, traps, and new types of rooms the game really begins to shine.

Lagoon B places the player in the roll of someone attempting to start a company on a small island. The player starts as a beach comber who sells orange juice to the locals, but if you stick with it you may end up with a huge company.

Both of these games have similar pros and cons. Both games start slowly, but they become more addictive fun as your options expand.

Superbowl Stunner. . .

What a game last night. I am a Patriot's fan, and of course I was hoping for a win, but what I got was a view of one of the greatest defense based football games I have ever seen.

I am pretty bummed about the end of the football season, so I will be keeping myself amused with gaming. You may enjoy this quick play quarterback challenge. 2 Minute Football 2008, it is a pretty fun little Shockwave game that I hope you enjoy.

It has been a little while since I mentioned the Mass Effect hystaria, so I thought I should bring readers up to speed. Cooper Lawrence admits that she misspoke about Mass Effect saying, “I recognize that I misspoke,” she said. “I really regret saying that, and now that I’ve seen the game and seen the sex scenes it’s kind of a joke. Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it’s like pornography,” she added. “But it’s not like pornography. I’ve seen episodes of ‘Lost’ that are more sexually explicit.” You can read about this in The New York Times and Game Politics. Outspoken Game Critic took a surprising stance stating that he has no issues with Mass Effect, this was reported on Kotaku. One thing that is still disheartening is that Fox News has yet to print a retraction.

The MMO-LARP-ARG

I had a dream that is the coolest inspiration for a game. I know that most of the gamers that read my blog will know what these acronyms mean, but just in case . . . MMO: Massive Multi-player Online, a descriptor for huge on line games like Sword of the New World (Free to Play game) and World of Warcraft (Which is an insanely huge Pay to Play). LARP: Live Action Role-Playing Game, a game in which people take on characters and get together to play out a story. Some groups play fantasy games with ornate costumes and padded swords, others have modern day mystery cruises. ARG: Alternate Reality Game, is a game that has clues throughout the internet to help tell a story, the film Cloverfield has an ARG that is massive and has been used to promote the film and deepen the mystery of what is happening in the movie. If you are interested in the Cloverfield ARG the best place to start is here.

This brings me to the dream that I had last night. I was playing an MMO with a few of my close friends when this other player finds our group and tells us that he is trying to meet someone in real life, if we can help arrange this we will get $2000. The mystery man explains that the man he is looking for plays many MMO games and he can't personally monitor them all. Within hours we meet the target of the search and tell him about the unusual offer, he informs us that he is a data security expert named Bill and he explains that he gets crazy offers from headhunters all the time. Bill said he would be glad to help us out and meet with our mystery man, but he wants a free lunch as a show of good faith. My friends and I agreed to meet Tom at a restaurant and treat him too a meal. It is when we get together that I realize that the dream has been about a game within a game, "Bill" is a character played by my cousin. I woke up shortly after this, but I am curious about trying to create an ARG like this one. Character Profiles could be created in Myspace or Facebook, and the game would take place in online and offline meetings. It would be quite a bear to put together, but I imagine that it would be very fun.

Mass Effects . . .

Perhaps you have heard of the controversy surrounding the game Mass Effect. If not I highly recommend reading Game Politics for a quick recap starting with coverage from a Conservative site, and the very recently Mass Effect coverage on fox news.

Let me put it this way, a Mature rating on a video game is most similar to an R rating on a movie. People claim that mature video games are marketed toward children yet I have yet to see anyone put forth evidence of this. Here is an interesting fact: I have heard many people who favor video game legislation say that the typical video gamer is an adolescent male, but this is an often repeated lie. The truth is that the average video game player is male but he is 33 years old and has been playing games for 12 years, the typical video game buyer is 38 years old.

Video Game Frugality, Free Charities, & Joe Berry

One of my favorite frugality blogs, The Simple Dollar talked about video game frugality and getting the most bang for your buck. Not too long ago I talked about the joys of free gaming on the net his advice focuses on console gaming.

Ever want to give to a charity but you didn't have a spare time or a spare dime? Let advertisers foot the bill. The Literacy Site allows you to click through once a day to help fund the purchase of books, this site also has donation pages for hunger, breast cancer, child health, the rain forest, and animal rescue. The Ecology Fund, has a very similar mode of operation but it focuses entirely on environmental issues. FreeRice is unique in that you can make as many small donations of rice as you want, and you get to test your vocabulary while you do it.

Lately I have been on a music kick so I have to mention FineTune. This slick little site allows you to create your own mini-net radio with play lists of music. I have also recently had the honor of meeting country singer and all around cool guy Joe Berry today. Personally I am a big New Wave, Punk Rock, Celtic Rock (ETH Rules!), Classical, Big Band Jazz, and Heavy metal fan, but I have got to say country is growing on me.

Free Tabletop RPGs, Odd Batteries and Neat Houses

Hi everyone I just wanted to set up a quick post to show you a site dedicated to free table top RPG games Have fun delving through them.

I have been poking around sites looking for interesting tech I found Sugar powered batteries and liquid power batteries that you may find interesting.

Recently I have been considering a move and I found very interesting prefabricated houses

Table Top RPG Game

I enjoy table top role playing games, and one of my interests is game development. I have recently created a table top role playing game and I will be distributing this for free on the internet.

The game is called Farm Champions (FRMC) and it is a quick play fantasy role playing game.

Farm Champions

I hope that you enjoy it.