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Project Gorgon – Not Dead Yet September 26, 2014Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, Misc MMOs.
Tags: Kickstarter, Project: Gorgon
8 comments
Barring some sort of miracle, this Kickstarter attempt isn't going to succeed. But that's been pretty obvious for a while! The more important thing, to the team here, is that people are getting a lot more excited than they've ever been. We're seeing close to a hundred people online, which is still tiny, but for a previously-completely-unheard-of alpha test, it's great!
Eric Heimburg, Project: Gorgon Kickstarter Update #6
There is less than 24 hours to go for the Project: Gorgon Kickstarter campaign at this point and it sits about 22% into its $100,000 funding goal. Unless somebody shows up ready to write an $80K check really soon, the campaign will not fund.
And the failure to fund comes for a few reasons. I mentioned the name recognition issue in my post at the start of the campaign. "Who is Eric Heimburg?" is a serious problem in a field where names can be a draw. And the name of the game itself, Project: Gorgon has never struck my as very dynamic or descriptive. While it doesn't feel as weighed down as the labored Shroud of the Avatar: The Hidden Virtues or as nonsensical as Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, it also doesn't have the zing of Camelot Unchained or the simplicity of EverQuest. And it isn't like all the good short names are taken. Didn't Bungie just go live with Destiny? And wasn't there Journey just a while back?
I don't know. I just look at that name and wonder "What is this Gorgon? And why has it become somebody's project?" It doesn't say "game" or "fun" to me… it trends more towards frog dissection in high school biology to be honest. That might just be me.
And the whole Kickstarter campaign probably could have gone better. While I am on the mailing list, the whole thing came up as something of a surprise to me. There wasn't a lot of build up or attempts to get the word out in advance of the campaign. There was no attempt to build up a sense of excitement to make a big, first day splash. Hell, I only happened to see the Kickstarter announced on Twitter, after which I went away for about 20 minutes, came back, logged in, and managed to be the first backer.
Me being first in line for something I wasn't even aware was coming, that speaks to some poor prep work. And there is a strong correlation between Kickstarter projects doing well in the first 48 hours (well as in hitting 25-50% of their goal) and successfully funding. Project: Gorgon didn't even make 10% of the target in that time frame.
Finally, Eric Heimburg just isn't a bright beacon for the project. Not only does he lack name recognition, but he is just not the tireless showman that Mark Jacobs is, or the shameless self-promoting egomaniac that Spaceman Richard "Lord British" Allen "father of the online gaming industry" Dennis "most game designers really just suck" Garriott de Cayeux comes across as, or even the snake-oil selling charlatan that Brad McQuaid can be on a bad day. Eric Heimburg is just too focused on the game itself… which is the right thing for an engineer, but doesn't work so well when you need publicity.
Such is life. I certainly wouldn't be any better in the role.
And so, for whatever mix of reasons, the Kickstarter will almost certainly not fund. And here I was all ready to name an NPC as part of my pledge.
However, as a follow on to the quote at the top, there is this:
We're working on other ways to get the funding we need to make the game. I'll share more of our plans as soon as I know them! In the mean time, if you're enjoying the alpha, fear not: it will remain up and running for at least a few more months while we try to figure out a way to bring the game to completion.
And here is one of the key bonuses that Project: Gorgon has as a Kickstarter project. You can go to the Project: Gorgon site right now, download and play in the alpha.
And there are things to see. I only ran around the initial starter cave… it has been one of those month's where "go play more Project: Gorgon" has been the 4th or 5th item on my list of things to do on any given night, and I rarely managed to get past the 2nd item… but there is a lot more to see, a world to explore, and I am sorry I haven't gotten there yet.
Bhagpuss put up some screen shots of what he has seen, and I will add in some of the shots that have been posted as part of the Kickstarter campaign or on the game site at the bottom of the post.
But the essence is that there is a game here, an MMO, and if you are too busy whining about how World of Warcraft "ruined" MMOs to peek in on some of the niche projects like this or Camelot Unchained or Shroud of the Avatar, that are catering to concepts that just are not possible or practical in a mass market "must appeal to as many people as possible" MMO, then I am not sure I can take your rants very seriously. Put your money where your mouth is. If you want these sorts of things, go support them.
How often do the really interesting things in life line up with what works in the mass market in any case?
Defense Grid 2 Coming Online September 23, 2014Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, Other PC Games.
Tags: Defense Grid 2, Defense Grid: The Awakening, Hidden Path Entertainment, Kickstarter
19 comments
A little over two years back the team at Hidden Path Entertainment, the creators of Defense Grid: The Awakening, ran a Kickstarter campaign with a slate of goals.
The baseline goal was to raid $250K to create a new set of levels for Defense Grid: The Awakening. Being one of my favorites in the tower defense genre, I was in just to get a few more levels of the game.
But Hidden Path Entertainment had a grander vision. They had their eyes on Defense Grid 2, a sequel they hoped to fund through the Kickstarter. For everything they wanted to do… new engine, multiplayer, level creator/editor, support across multiple platforms… the target was one million dollars.
However, sometimes our reach exceeds our grasp. In this case, 30 days of Kickstarting only came up with $271,727. That was enough for the basic goal, more levels for Defense Grid: The Awakening, but nothing else on the list. And they delivered on that… almost on time. The promise was for December of 2012 and we got it in January of 2013. Not much of a slip at all.
But Hidden Path also promised us Defense Grid 2.
You'll Get DG2
We're working to cross the minimum and fund Defense Grid: Containment. But please also understand that by joining the team as a backer, you'll also get a copy of DG2 when we release it. We'll need to do extra work on our end to earn or raise the remaining funds in order to complete DG2, but when we do, you'll still be a part of the team. Crossing $250,000 gets you DG:Containment this December, and DG2 when it is complete.
They were going to have to go find another way to fund it, but it was still part of the plan.
Time went by. I played through all of the levels in the new expansion multiple times. Hidden Path kept us up to date on funding, which they managed to secure through a couple of sources. Kickstarter backers were allowed into the beta on Steam earlier this year. And, today, Defense Grid 2 becomes available on Steam.
At least the Windows version is available today. Mac and SteamOS versions are slated for mid-October.
Those of us who supported the Kickstarter got our keys this past weekend, so I have already spent some time with the game, and it is good.
The single player game is an expansion on the original Defense Grid: The Awakening, with story missions that carry on from there and all the variations on how to play through a given level you have been lead to expect. There is still multiplayer co-op and the whole DG Architect, which allows players to create their own levels and share them through the Steam Workshop, still to discover.
Here are a few screen shots I have taken of the game.
The art style has changed, the turrets have all be redone, and the levels are part of a wider landscape now. The aliens are a bit less interesting so far… though I haven't made it that far into the game. The turrets do seems to have more well defined roles now. And, of course, there are a pile of achievements. But for the most part it feels like a good, solid tower defense game.
As part of my Kickstarter pledge, I ended up with an extra key. I am going to give it away to somebody who comments on this post.
All you have to do is leave a comment indicating that you would like the key and make sure that the email address you use when leaving the comment is valid (nobody by me can see it and that is where I am going to send it, so if it bounces you lose) within 24 hours of this post going live (by 15:00 UTC, 8am PDT, or 11am EDT September 24, 2014) and I will use some sort of random number generator to decide who gets it.
I can still do something like "/roll 1d100″ in WoW can't I?
The winner will be notified by email and I will append the result to the post.
And if you don't win, well, the game is only $25. And if that is too steep, there is always the Steam Holiday Sale in December.
But so far I recommend the game if you liked the original or enjoy tower defense in general.
Addendum: Prize Roll straight from Ironforge in Azeroth.
The roll was 13, which I guess means spoutbec wins the Steam key. We'll see if his email address is legit shortly.
Free Realms Inspired Family MMO Raises Seven Dollars on First Day September 3, 2014Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, Mail Bag.
Tags: Free Realms, Kickstarter, Toontown Online, Wonky Seasons
8 comments
The upside for Wonky Seasons, should they be able to carry this first day momentum, is that is that their Kickstarter campaign is trending to raise a grand total of $109.
The bad news is that if this trend continues, it will only get them to 0.13% of their $85,000 goal.
Okay, I am being snarky or sarcastic… or maybe both. Heck, I couldn't tell you for sure if Free Realms was their inspiration. This is all they really say on the subject:
Wonky Seasons started because it's creators saw how the closure of a popular family MMO game affected it's players. We followed many stories of kids that were heartbroken and the big void the closure of this game created.
While the characters in the logo made me think of the now shut down Free Realms, they could as easily be referring to the dearly departed Toontown Online. Or it could be some other game. So take your pick.
I am not bringing this up to be hurtful or to have a joke purely at their expense… though that will probably get them some attention, which they desperately need… but because this sort of thing almost makes me weep for the almost boundless sense of optimism that this sort of project requires and how it is going to get smacked down by the harsh reality of the world of game development in general, and MMO development in particular.
Just last Friday I was bemoaning the fact that the Project: Gorgon Kickstarter campaign seemed unlikely to succeed largely, I felt, because it had little name recognition. No major media outlet is clamoring for an interview with Eric Heimburg just so he can promote his new Kickstarter. But Eric Heimburg at least has standing in the MMO game developer community and has worked on actual MMOs that have shipped, are still running, and could be considered successful… not to mention actually having a working alpha version of his game that you can download and try before you decided whether or not to kick in any money.
And with all of that, he only rolled out of the gates on the first day with $4,500 of the $100,000 he is looking to raise to hurry up the production of his game… a game that is already a tangible thing you can play.
In that context, what chance does a team with no standing and no game development experience listed have showing up with no fanfare and looking to build momentum and get the ball rolling after they have already started the clock on their campaign? It isn't like they are making something that will capture media attention or is likely to go viral. Another MMO? Who needs that? We're looking for the next potato salad campaign. (Which, depressingly, brought in more than Eric Heimburg's first Kickstarter.)
So what do you tell somebody who sends you a note asking you to please do a post about their Kickstarter campaign? Being one of a dozen or so messages in the blog inbox, I nearly passed over it. I only looked at it because it was flagged to indicate it was sent from the feedback form on the About page here at TAGN, which meant somebody came here and pasted it in themselves rather than just using an email spam service. And I only decided to do a post because… seven dollars?
Do you tell them to give up, go home, get a real job?
I don't know. I don't know what they really have. I don't know where it may end up.
All I could recommend is that they get themselves a copy of It's a Long Way to the Top by AC/DC… I am partial to the Jack Black version at the end of School of Rock… and to play that loudly every time life comes around to kick them in the teeth as they try to move this project forward. If they want to get this done, they'll be listening to that song a lot.
You can find their Kickstarter page here to read all about the project.
The Return of Project: Gorgon August 29, 2014Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment.
Tags: Kickstarter, Project: Gorgon
7 comments
Actually, Project: Gorgon never went away. About two years ago there was Kickstarter to help fund some of the development. That was not a success, but the project soldiered on.
Porject: Gorgon is back with a new Kickstarter. This time around Eric Heimberg, the lead developer, is looking for $100,000 so that he and the two key artists working on the project can focus on it full time and bring it to a level ready to release.
And, to be brutality honest, just one day after the Kickstarter launched it looks doomed to fail.
The problem is name recognition.
Mark Jacobs was able to meet his two million dollar goal only on the last day of the Camelot Unchained Kickstarter, even with his name and a serious promise to match what was raised out of his own pocket. Richard Garriott, was able to parley his Lord British persona and a load of nostalgia for his games into a couple of million dollars via Kickstarter as well, so his Shroud of the Avatar project could go forward. They were both the public faces of games that have a legion of fans.
And even Brad McQuaid, mired as he was in the problems with Vanguard, was nearly able to hit the half million dollar mark with Pantheon, even if he did not make it to his $800K goal, based in large part on the fact we know who he is and that he is associated with a successful project, EverQuest.
Eric Heimberg worked on Asheron's Call, which was a success. But we do not associate his name with that project. Sandra Powers, his wife, also worked on Asheron's Call as well as EverQuest II, but her name out of context would just draw a blank for me. So you can get a couple of bloggers writing about the project and a specialty MMO news site or two, but the mainstream gaming media won't pick this up. PC Gamer or GameSpot or Polygon are not clamoring for an interview with Eric Heimberg. His is not a name that draws any attention. There is no story that they can sell.
So while Space Tyrant Roberts is out there using the more than fifty million dollars thrown at him by adoring fans to create space bonsai, Project: Gorgon is going to have to do this the hard way.
But at least the project is prepared for that. See, you can actually go download and play the early alpha version of the game. It is there. It is an available, downloadable, tangible thing that you can go try today. So, unlike any of the examples I have list above, you can do so BEFORE you hand over any money.
It looks a bit awkward… the pace of walking doesn't quite match the movement to my eye, as an example, and I have problems judging depth and distance in the cave… but there is quite a bit in place, and the whole thing has moved forward dramatically from the first access nearly two years back. There is the groundwork for a serious game here. The intuition system, for example, is interesting and used in an amusing way for an example.
And if you hang around in the starter cave while looking at screen shots in another window, you can even die.
Death does not hold much sting now, but this is still early alpha.
The Kickstarter page lists out the vision for this game. Some of it sounds like other, similar ventures. But here there is the bedrock of a game, a foundation already laid, that you can go try yourself before you pledge anything.
Because that is the only way this Kickstarter is going to is going to succeed. Without name recognition as a draw, Project: Gorgon is just going to have to win people over, one at a time, with its demo.
So if you feel inclined, go give it a try. The download is quick, the package is small, you do not need to register, you can just enter a character name and play. Then don't just go "yuck" and close the window. Run around a bit. Click on things. There is a surprising amount of "there" there in Project: Gorgon.
The Passing of Another Steam Summer Sale July 1, 2014Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment.
Tags: Civilization V, Europa Universalis IV, Kickstarter, Planetary Annihilation, Steam, Steam Summer Sale, Ticket to Ride, Total War: Rome II
14 comments
Another Steam Summer Sale has come and gone.
As others have noted, its regularity… and the fact that we get a Holiday sale in December… has taken some of the edge off of the whole thing. Seeing a whole pile of games marked down was a huge deal the first couple of times we saw it. Now, however, we have come to expect it.
Such sales have changed my behavior some. If there is a game I have to have right away, I still buy it right there and then… unless the sale is around the corner. Steam screwed me on that last year. I bought the Brave New World expansion for Civilization V the day it launched, despite the summer sale coming up. And then two days later the Summer Sale launched and the expansion was marked down, a gaffe that even Steam realized might have been a discount too soon.
So maybe I won't pre-order anything that will launch close to the sales zones any more, but otherwise my behavior on must-haves has not changed.
But for things I am not sure about, games that are not "must have" but merely nice to have… the Steam sales process has changed my behavior quite a bit. My wish list is now filled with things that I "sorta" want, if the price is right, and I am in a good mood. The impulse buy aspect of Steam sales has been replaced by watching my wish list. I look at what is on sale that day, then look at my wish list, ponder if anything is "must have" at their current price, and then move on, generally without buying anything.
This year I did end up buying a couple of games. One was for the strategy group "next game" plan that I wrote about last week, and which makes a good example of how Steam has influenced me.
While we had a list of potential games, Total War: Rome II was the primary contender, backed by Loghound. (I had other suggestions, but I wasn't sold on any of them.) A not-too-old release, it still has a list price of $59.99, the current benchmark price for AAA games from major studios. As the summer sale was already in progress, it was marked down to half off. $29.98 wasn't a bad price. There is a whole lot of game there.
But Steam has taught me to always wait until the REAL DEAL has been offered. So while Rome II was the prime candidate, nobody moved to purchase it until Friday, because it wasn't until Friday that the REAL DEAL kicked in and the price dropped to $20.37. At that price it was an easy purchase and all of us picked up a copy. So that is the tentative next game for the group, once we finish up our Civ V game (at some point in August by my guess) and if it turns out to be suitable. A quick look shows a battle style that gives you a budget to buy units in advance, so I suspect this could mean long lead times before we actually play. But the single player campaign looks to be worth the investment, so even if we don't play it much, it was probably worth the money with the deep discount.
So there it is. Our next game has been chosen.
I did have two impulse purchases, one of which was Europa Universalis IV, as it had been marked down to $9.99. It has been on my wish list since it launched, so I am not sure if it is really an "impulse" buy, but I grabbed it. It is one of those games… like its predecessors… that I really want to like, but which is so complicated and so deep that I can never get into it and actually play. I spend most of my time trying to figure out how to do simple things, which quickly becomes frustrating. I have no reason to suspect that this will be any different.
The other was Ticket to Ride, which I already own on the iPad. I should have just stuck with that. The iPad version is the game as it should be played and as it should look and perform. The Windows version is slow, graphically inferior, and prone to buffering mouse clicks as you wait for it to catch up, leading to many a mis-played moment. I regret this purchase and I could not recommend this on Steam even at its very low sale price.
And, in a sale related matter that isn't really about Valve or Steam, I was just a tiny bit annoyed to see Planetary Annihilation early access up on the list of things on sale… or even available at all. I backed their kickstarter, but not at a level high enough to get early access yet. I get a finished copy and that is all, but I actually paid more for that than the early access sale, which also gets you a full copy. And Uber Entertainment, the studio behind the title, hasn't been the best about communication when it comes to actual progress towards release, they are a year late at this point, and they are out there hawking early access at retail. I realize early access is basically a retail pre-order, but it still makes me think, "Dude, remember me? I gave you money nearly two years ago?" Just the nature of Kickstarter projects I guess.
And then there was the contest.
In order to spice things up… and get people to spend more money… Valve put everybody on teams and set us against each other for the possibility of getting something for nothing… assuming you didn't buy anything for this gimmick. Clockwork over at Out of Beta covers the whole thing better than I, I just want to grouse about the level of exclusion.
Anybody who wanted to participate got dropped onto one of the five color teams. However, to actually do anything to help your team, you had to be level 10, at least as far as I could tell. So despite years of Steam usage and owning over 100 games, I wasn't able to play because I was only level 7.
While that was up from where I stood last year, it still wasn't enough.
The problem is… well one of the problems I suppose… is that I purchased most of my library before they got into the whole levels thing. And one of the prime ways you earn points to level up is based on how much money you spend, so most of my purchases didn't count. The other problem is that I am not inclined to spend money just to level myself up on Steam. But that probably excluded me from the Summer Adventure thing anyway, as Clockwork pegs the whole thing as a pay to win affair.
And, on the annoying front, one of the ways I could have earned a few badges and points was by voting on the content of upcoming sales. Only you must be level 8 to earn anything by voting, so once again Steam failed to engage me by imposing what looks to be an arbitrary level limit on rewards. Bleh.
So, the score for the event.
- Purchases at the lowest possible price as Steam has trained us: 1
- Impulse purchases: 2
- Engagement in sale related events: 0
- Games on Steam I haven't even played yet: too many
Maybe I will be the "right" level for whatever event Steam has planned by the time the Holiday Sale comes around.
Shroud of the Avatar, Virtual Real Estate, and Keeping Control June 9, 2014Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in Camelot Unchained, entertainment, Shroud of the Avatar, Star Citizen.
Tags: Kickstarter
5 comments
We do not, to my knowledge at least, have a live MMORPG that has started life financed via Kickstarter as yet. There are a few on their way, such as Shroud of the Avatar and Camelot Unchained, but we still seem to be a long way from a state of "this is how these things work." A trend does seem to be forming, or two trends really.
The first uses Kickstarter as a marketing scheme and litmus test for the popularity and financial viability of a given project. That a project can raise a given amount of cash from its Kickstarter campaign is used to secure further financing after the campaign. You can often pledge money afterwards for the same reward tiers as during the campaign, but player pledges were not, nor were ever planned to be, the primary financing for development. Oculus Rift is a good example of this. It had a successful Kickstarter that helped the project get off the ground. The ask was for $250K, and it came back with nearly ten times that much, falling shy of $2.5 million raised. But other financing based on that success helped it carry on, and the project raised a total of $91 million in capital before it was bought out. And while not everybody is happy that Facebook stepped in to buy up the whole thing, that is the way things work in what is essentially a very traditional way to raise capital.
On the Kickstarter MMORPG front, Camelot Unchained appears to be using this method. Their Kickstarter was very aggressive, setting a $2 million goal which they achieved with less than a day left to run on their campaign. But the promise was that if they could make that goal, other financing would be forthcoming, including Mark Jacobs himself kicking in a substantial amount of cash. So there was the new Kickstarter front end to what seems to me to be an otherwise traditional financing process; seed capital leads to further funding.
The other trend eschews traditional financing in a bid to maintain control over the project. As much as John Carmack has tried to sooth people, the idea that Mark Zuckerberg has the final say on what Occulus Rift becomes drives some up the wall. There is a great tradition of large companies buying smaller ones and just screwing them up and into extinction. To avoid this, you don't sell out and you don't give up control. That means after the Kickstarter campaign is done, you keep going after people to give you money. You keep taking money for same pledge tiers you had in the Kickstarter. You start up a cash store to sell additional special items to your fans. And you keep banging the drum, marketing hard, selling a dream or what might be the result.
The poster child for this trend is, without question, Star Citizen.
With $44 million already raised, Chris Roberts is selling the hell out of his vision of a space combat simulation RPG with MMO and single player elements, which is pretty damn good for somebody who hasn't shipped a game in over a decade. And while you may believe that this will be the killer space sim app that will destroy EVE Online and every other space game or that this is the most spectacularly public long con in the video game industry ever, Chris Roberts has been able to both get funding and keep control of his baby.
And, in what I take as a blessing on some of my posts from last year, Richard "Lord British" Garriott de Cayeux appears to be taking this route. I spent some time comparing and contrasting Lord British and Mark Jacobs and their respective visions and Kickstarter campaigns because they feel, to me, like two very different personalities with different views. And now I get to carry on with that as their projects head down their separate paths. (Though, to be honest, I am probably making more out of this that is really there, but it keeps me amused.)
While we have been getting updates on Camelot Unchained, money is not something that gets brought up. They are much more likely to mention Nerf gun wars than money raised. Not that you cannot give them more money. They have that setup on their site. But it isn't being played up as much as it could be. (So they have "only" raised another half million dollars since their Kickstarter at this point.)
Shroud of the Avatar, taking the control path, is becoming more focused on raising money. There is the usual running tally of funding. The project ended its Kickstarter campaign with just over $2 million, but now boasts of having raised over $4 million total for the project. And then there are the offers for backers such as the "add-ons" that people can purchase for use in New Britannia. These were enhanced considerably with the latest "Epic" project update, which looks to buy heavily into the Chris Roberts approach to raising more money. There are new pledge tiers, new stretch goals (ever the siren's song with Star Citizen), and new add-ons.
And while the stretch goals (mounts and elves and boats and such) are supposed to help move along the funding, it is the add-ons that grab your eye.
Or, rather, it is the price of some of the add-ons.
Among the items added to the add-on store are whole towns, which run between $750 for a "Holdfast" to $4,000 for a whole "City."
And while towns will be purchasable with gold in-game at some point (QFT: "There will be a path to achieve this in game via in game gold purchase but the ownership of the scene will incur a rental fee.") there will be ongoing rental overhead for the in-game option. So if you want to run your own town free and clear, real world cash is your option. Money talks and bullshit rents month to month.
And what do you get for your $750, assuming you are a cheapskate and just want a Holdfast? The add-on store says:
- 12,600 m2 of player lots
- A design session with the Dev Team to define details including:
- Name of Town
- Location: Roughly which quadrant of the map. (Exact hex will be determined by Portalarium, Inc.)
- Biome: Forest, Mountains, Grasslands, Swamp, etc.
- NPC Building Definition (inn, smithy, etc.)
- NPC names and stories
- Lot Selection: Determine which lots of which size you want. For example at this size:
- 21 Village Lots
- 5 Village Lots + 1 Castle Lot
- 20 Row Lots + 1 Castle Lot
- 13 Village Lots + 1 Keep
- 13 Village Lots + 4 Town Lots
- etc.
- X Keys to X Locked Lots:Central Square with 1 NPC owned building
- Keys equal to the number of lots chosen
- Owner of the keys can lock and unlock lots at will so they can actively control who gets to live there
- The key owner can evict an occupant and lock the lot using the key
- Players will still need lot deeds to claim the lots once the town owner unlocks the lots
- 1 Add On Store House
That is a considerable amount of "stuff" I suppose, including developer interaction. I wonder if naming is going to be more flexible for those who pay in real world cash versus coin of the realm. And, note, lot deeds are not included.
And while the comic/drama potential of being able to lock people out of lots in a town is intriguing (do you get a title like "Dictator for Life" when you buy one?), the sticker price makes me recoil in horror. WildStar plus a year's worth of subscription ($60 + $180) is less than a third of that price, and will probably go down with time. But I can be a notorious cheapskate. I am sure somebody out there is happy/amazed/ready to lay down the dollars for a town to call their own at that price.
And real estate, done akin to the real world variety, as it is being approached in SotA, is a limited resource I suppose, unlike the fancy space ships and lifetime free repairs that Star Citizen is selling to an eager audience, so should be priced accordingly. But that price makes me cringe. (Not to mention the "bought the farm" metaphors that spring up.)
What do you think? Is this the right direction for SotA? While I would bet that Lord British has greater name recognition than Chris Roberts, the Wing Commander series, on which Chris Roberts' reputation is largely built, was the biggest franchise to come out of Lord British's own studio. The Ultima series was a clear second place. (Which one got an animated series? Hint: It wasn't anything set in Britannia.) You can say, "Chris Roberts" and get no response, but say, "Wing Commander," which Chris Roberts does as often as is polite, and suddenly things are different.
With that in mind, can Lord British reasonably aspire to be a "sword and sorcery" Star Citizen in terms of funding?
Last Day for A History of the Great Empires of Eve Online May 24, 2014Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, EVE Online.
Tags: Kickstarter
2 comments
As I write this there are less than 24 hours left in the Kickstarter for the planned book A History of the Great Empires of Eve Online.
There is little danger that the Kickstarter will not fund. As it stands now, the campaign has brought in nearly seven times the initial asking amount of $12,500. That was enough to add a hardcover option on top of the digital and softcover editions that were initially announced.
But time is running out if you want in. There is always the possibility that there will be a way to get a copy later, but there is no mass market appeal for such a book. It is likely to be a special, one-off run and not something you'll see on Amazon or at your local book store… should you still have a local book store.
So if you want a copy, time is running out. The Kickstarter campaign ends tomorrow, May 25, at 8:51am PDT, or 15:15 UTC / EVE Online time.
Addendum: You can still order a copy by going to the EVE History site.
A History of the Great Empires of EVE Online April 24, 2014Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, EVE Online.
Tags: Andrew Groen, Kickstarter
5 comments
Andrew Groen, who has written for Wired and the late Penny Arcade Report, has decided to take on the history of EVE Online.
In order to fund this project, he has launched a Kickstarter campaign. Of course he has.
The campaign is to fund the printing costs of such a book. He needs $12,500 to print the minimum run of 1,000 copies. Given that he is already past the $9,00 mark, just hours after the campaign opened, it looks like he will make his goal.
His introductory video, which is something that Kickstarter really pressures you to have, is actually worth a watch. WordPress.com won't let me embed video from Kickstarter (they only like YouTube) so here is an awkward screen grab from it.
He has been working on the history for six months and, while there is work still to be done, he is now setting himself up with an eye towards printing and distribution.
The book itself will focus on null sec, where the wars of sovereignty have created so many stories. From the Kickstarter details:
This book will take readers from the very first day the servers switched on to the formation of the first regional alliances, through the Great Wars of 2004, 2007, and 2008, and into the modern era of huge power blocs of coalitions. It's a journey through the politics, warfare, and culture that have shaped Eve into the game we read about in the headlines today.
This is, of course, the part of EVE that separates it from so many other games. Raids, battlegrounds, quest chains, or even one-time events like GuildWars 2 has run for the last year, don't garner the same sort of attention as the ebb and flow of politics and war in the outer ring of stars in New Eden.
Interestingly, for the "Risks" section of Kickstarter information, there is none of the usual "things might go south" or "I might just walk away with your money" sorts of statements. Instead, Andrew seems more worried about the nature of the content he is trying to produce.
Deception: I've been warned by members of the Eve community that there are some who will attempt to deceive me into writing their own version of events to make their organizations look better. The Eve wikis are proof of this fact as they're often rife with hyper-partisan history. The only way to counteract this is through extensive reporting and interviewing. Only by getting multiple perspectives on situations can you dig through partisanship. I've dedicated myself to doing dozens of interviews to make sure all information is as balanced as possible.
Jargon: When discussing the high-level events of Eve it's easy to get bogged down in jargon that the average person – and even many committed Eve players – don't understand. Some accounts of Eve history are so riddled by jargon that they're illegible to anyone without years of in-game experience. In my work, I always place an emphasis on making sure everything is understandable for everyone without dumbing things down or making writing boring for experienced players. To that end, I'll be working with a team of editors from both Eve and non-Eve backgrounds to ensure I'm getting a variety of input before publication.
We shall see how that works out. That he already has endorsement quotes from The Mittani and Helicity Boson might make the first goal a bit hard to swallow.
The Kickstarter itself has only two tiers. For a $10 pledge you will get a .pdf or Kindle version of the final book. For $25 you will get a softcover book and a .pdf or Kindle version, though you'll have to kick in a bit more for shipping outside of the US. I am in for the softcover book.
The campaign is set to run for 30 days, finishing up on Sunday, May 25th.
Well, that didn't take long.
But you can still pledge to get a copy of the book in either format until the end date.
Pantheon: Mostly Fallen… for Now April 14, 2014Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen.
Tags: Brad McQuaid, Kickstarter
3 comments
A few weeks back I took a look at the Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen and the state of affairs since it failed to meet its goal on Kickstarter.
I was particularly interested in how crowd funding would work in and environment where there was no critical mass to achieve. My guess was that people would feel differently about just handing money over versus pledging money in a system where it would not be taken unless some minimum value was achieved.
The Kickstarter campaign was pledged $460,657 from 3,157 potential backers. As of last night the post-Kickstarter campaign stood a this:
That is half as many people pledging, and they are pledging almost a third less per person than during the Kickstarter campaign. And the numbers have not been growing substantially since shortly after the Kickstarter ended, which lead to this announcement on the Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen site yesterday.
In the past few months we have seen some of the most passion bubble up from the Internet than we have in some time; all for an idea of a game we all want to see happen. It has been an exciting time for all of us.
Over the first month of development through crowdfunding, we've been able to achieve what was needed to be done in order to gain investor interest. That is, we've shown there is interest in a game like Pantheon, we've built the term sheets and business plan, and now have a prototype we can show to potential investors.The downside now is that our initial resources have depleted, which regrettably means that development is going to slow down until finances can be secured. It's not something we want to do by any means, but as we cannot guarantee paychecks to the team, they each need to be able to spend time on other things to pay the bills.Once we're able to get that level of funding we can then secure much-needed studio space and be able to pick up the pace of production dramatically. We are deeply thankful to this community for getting Pantheon to this critical point, where we have been able to put together an attractive package to present to potential investors.
In the interim, any donations made at this point until further notice will be going directly to maintaining the website during this phase, and not towards development.
So there it sits. You can now donate to keep the web site functioning while they seek further financing, but work on the actual game has pretty much ceased. I suppose one must commend them for honesty, but it does make it difficult to see how Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen will progress from here. A failed Kickstarter campaign followed by an unsuccessful attempt to crowd fund directly cannot be helping their case.
Is this the end for the game?
Obligatory Shock About Oculus Rift Post March 26, 2014Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, Hardware.
Tags: CCP, Facebook, Kickstarter, Oculus
11 comments
So yeah, yesterday after the markets closed, Facebook announced they were going to buy Oculus VR for $2 billion. Oculus VR is the company currently working on the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.
And then a corner of the internet exploded. I figured I ought to mark that moment in time so we can come back and revisit it later.
Sudden, and potentially rash statements were made.
A general revulsion with all things Facebook was expressed by some.
Basically, all the dislike of Facebook… and there is much to dislike about Facebook and it methods and its founder's outlook… bubbled forth. Answer this question: If Mark Zuckerberg asked you to strap this to your face…
…which movie would come to mind? Aliens? Clockwork Orange? Lawnmower Man?
Would you envision fun things happening or bad things? Or just boring things?
So we are currently in the shock phase of this announcement, which is making the whole "Disney buys Star Wars"thing look pretty tame, at least in our little corner of the internet. After all, for a lot of people the Star Wars series was already ruined by episodes I-III, so what else could Disney do? But a lot of people were pining some pretty big hopes on Oculus Rift being a step into the future of gaming.
And now Facebook has it. Are we going to get Candy Crush Saga VR? FarmVille 3D? Are we going to get any sort of VR gaming experience at all out of this? Zuckerberg isn't exactly big on video games. His past actions have been about extracting money from those games that choose to live in his domain.
Ars Technica already has a column up about what Facebook might do, which includes a lot of promises about what won't happen… from the guy who no longer controls the company… so the brightest bit in that seems be the fact that Facebook bought Instagram and hasn't destroyed it yet. Maybe Zuckerberg will just leave them alone.
Then there is the Kickstarter aspect of the whole thing. Oculus VR raised $2.4 million of its funding via a Kickstarter campaign… just before Disney bought Star Wars, to bring that back around. People who gave money at that point forked it over for very specific reasons. This was the way it was pitched:
…the first truly immersive virtual reality headset for video games.
For video games. That is what they said. Will they keep saying that a few months after the acquisition? And will it matter if more developers step away because of Facebook?
While Oculus VR likely has no legal/financial obligation to do anything but send out the promised T-Shirts and early units that people were entitled to for their pledges, do they have any sort of moral obligation after taking Facebook's money when it seems likely that the vision sold will not end up being the vision pursued?
And, finally, there is the "Why sell to Facebook?" question. Why would Oculus VR sell to a company that has so little interest in video games and so much invested in collecting and selling our data? Were things just up for the highest bidder? Were there too many strings attached to other offers? Did current investors force the move to cash out?
Because there had to be other offers.
Anyway, among other things, this puts the whole "CCP moving closer to Sony" thing in a new light. Was the word already out that Oculus Rift might be moving away from video games? Was CCP hedging its bets? Is Sony's Project Morpheus the new leader in that arena?
The Sony project was interesting when Oculus Rift was there as well, but alone it seems destined to become yet another proprietary piece of Sony hardware. Sony VR will require you to purchase a PlayStation 4. And that may keep Oculus Rift in play even with Facebook looming large over it.
As the dust settles after the big shock, people are starting to muse about what this really means. I suspect we will be doing that for a while.
Of course, every such announcement has its bright side.
And then there is the humor aspect.
We shall see how this all develops. If nothing else, I have a tickler now to check back on this in a year.


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Updated: 07/16/2014 5:37 PM |
Created: 07/16/2014 11:46 AM
By: Stuart Dyson, KOB Eyewitness News 4
Former New Mexico Gov. Toney Anaya has agreed to settle fraud charges with federal investigators.
Anaya, 73, got into trouble because he acted as CEO of a company called "Natural Blue Resources" and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says he concealed from investors that two federal lawbreakers were actually running the company. He got out of trouble by "cooperating extensively" with the investigation, in the words of an SEC press release.
In other words, he squealed.
Anaya is a Santa Fe lawyer, a Democrat who served one four year term as governor back in the 1980s. Before that he served as the state's Attorney General. In 2009 and 2010 he ran "Natural Blue Resources", an outfit that was supposed to be investing in companies drilling for water in the arid Southwest. The Securities and Exchange Commission says James Cohen and Joseph Corazzi called themselves consultants, but really ran the company. Both men were barred from running publicly-held companies because of previous violations of financial laws.
"Cohen and Corazzi concealed their involvement through a so-called 'consulting' agreement," said SEC Enforcement Division chief Andrew Ceresney. "Investors in Natural Blue had a right to know who was running the company behind the scenes."
"I am cooperating fully with the SEC and the charges they are pursuing are against two other individuals," Anaya said. "No charges are pending against me."
Anaya's agreement with the SEC does not admit or deny wrongdoing. He is barred from participating in any offering of "penny stock" for at least five years. That is the kind of low-cost high-risk stock that "Natural Blue" was offering to its investors.
KOB welcomes a lively and courteous discussion as long as you follow the rules of conduct set forth in our Terms of Use. Comments are not pre-screened before they post. You agree that anything you post may be used, along with your name and profile picture, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and the license you have granted pursuant to our Terms of Use.
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Narrow your search
The Local Motors Strati EV isn't just the world's first 3D-printed car, it'll also be the first car that you can download and print yourself.
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Ideal for dens and bedrooms, this TV also makes for a perfectly good PC monitor.
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Google brushes off a self-described Google employee's account of serious and widespread AdSense fraud as a "complete fiction."
But who is? You might be surprised.
Apple's Macintosh arrived with great fanfare, but the computer that aimed to show why 1984 wouldn't be like "1984" barely made its debut. Here's the story of how it came to be.
AT&T's top exec in Washington denies the company's new "sponsored data" service will hurt consumers, amid claims from digital rights advocates that it violates FCC Net neutrality rules.
An Indiegogo campaign aims to raise $100,000 to produce an artificial-intelligence machine dedicated to improving humans' happiness (and helping them around the house).


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The Observatory
Covering the animal within
Zoobiquity promotion belies activity in comparative medicine
By Curtis Brainard Jun 14, 2012 at 03:00 PM
The promo machine for an upcoming book, Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Health and the Science of Healing,... More
NSF invests in literary science journalism
Creative nonfiction program seeks emerging writers
By Curtis Brainard Jun 8, 2012 at 03:00 PM
The National Science Foundation (NSF) doubled down on literary science journalism this year. Actually, it quintupled down. In 2010, NSF... More
An eye on environmental justice
EHN series focuses on an under-covered angle on toxics
By Curtis Brainard Jun 7, 2012 at 11:00 AM
A number of media reports in last year have examined the impacts of toxic pollution on communities, but few have... More
Salt Lake Tribune takes Grantham Prize
$75,000 award goes to series about threatened forests for second year in a row
By Curtis Brainard Jun 6, 2012 at 03:10 PM
For the second year in a row "the world's richest journalism prize" went to a series of articles about threatened... More
How to improve environmental coverage?
Project sets broad goals, learns to adapt
By Curtis Brainard Jun 4, 2012 at 06:50 AM
Fixing the news is a tall order, or so the Project for Improved Environmental Coverage is learning. The effort launched... More
CBS News hires M. Sanjayan
Lead scientist at The Nature Conservancy to cover science, environment
By Curtis Brainard Jun 1, 2012 at 06:50 AM
Network news got a little better this month. CBS News announced in early May that it had hired M. Sanjayan,... More
From SOS to SMS
Mobile journalism service aims to protect Indonesian forests, connect villages
By James Fahn May 29, 2012 at 01:25 PM
WEST KALIMANTAN PROVINCE, INDONESIA—Alim, the chief of news for Ruai TV, remembers when the area didn't have a privately operated... More
Evolved for exhibitionism?
Wired column makes weak claims about human behavior, psychology
By Curtis Brainard May 25, 2012 at 02:21 PM
"Sound the evo-psych bullshit klaxon!" British science journalist Ed Yong tweeted on Thursday. He was right to be concerned. Yong's... More
Reparative journalism
Reporter sinks a controversial paper on "ex-gay" therapy
By Curtis Brainard May 23, 2012 at 05:20 PM
It's not often that a journalist convinces a prominent scientist to recant a controversial study that he has tenaciously defended... More
The western frontier
KQED Quest, Pacific Standard keep their eyes on the other coast
By Curtis Brainard May 21, 2012 at 11:00 AM
American media may cluster in the east, but the west is still the land of pioneers, even in the domains... More
USA Today's oily, gassy rainbow
Detailed cover story a bit too rosy about 'energy independence'
By Curtis Brainard May 17, 2012 at 06:50 AM
USA Today sees an oily, gassy rainbow on America's energy horizon. "Energy independence isn't just a pipe dream," read a... More
Attachment parenting, detached debate
Time's titillating cover overshadows article's substance
By Curtis Brainard May 15, 2012 at 02:15 PM
Time touched a nerve this week with its provocative cover photo of 26-year-old Jamie Lynne Grumet and her 3-year-old son... More
The ice melt cometh
But flawless coverage about happenings in Antarctica has been rare
By Curtis Brainard May 11, 2012 at 03:45 PM
A variety of news outlets has covered two papers published this week indicating that the Weddell Sea area of Antarctica... More
Biotech bogeymen
The San Francisco Chronicle's muddled swipe at GE crops
By Curtis Brainard May 9, 2012 at 02:30 PM
If you're worried about pesticides, then the San Francisco Chronicle has a sweeping indictment of genetically engineered (GE) crops to... More
Mad cow, sane coverage
Most media treat BSE discovery with appropriate concern
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A few days after the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) announcement last month that it had discovered a case of... More
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Email blasts from CJR writers and editors
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Jack Shafer on losing his job (Capital New York)
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I'm developing a framework in java which relies on a number of XML files with large number of parameters.
When reading the parameters from the XML file, I have to have a large if-else statement to decide what the parameters is and then call appropriate methods. Is this normal? to have a large if-else statement?
I am thinking that there is a simple and neater way of doing this, e.g. Java XML mapping or Java Reflections? is this the answer? if so, can you please provide examples of how this is done so I don't have to rely on a large if-else statement?


text:
Sunday 4 November 2012, 16:46
What a week it has been! We've finally celebrated Halloween on It Takes Two, Zoe danced with a spider and we saw the return of #hubbahubba Harry Judd on the Friday Panel, with everything coming to a climax over the weekend with the live Strictly shows.
So what have you lovely people been talking about out there in the interweb?
Well our Strictly-bots have been taking note of all your lovely messages and here are just a few that tickled our fancy feet...
FuzzyRobson had been to see the FAB-U-LOUS James Bond and realised that a certain Vincent Simone may have been spreading his talents further afield that dancing; "Man in a blonde wig? Did I just see Vincent Simone playing the baddy in Skyfall?" Good point FuzzyRobson!
We caught Vincent wearing the said blonde wig again on the It Takes Two set. Check it out in our gallery from week 4.
Meanwhile Babswhitcombe sent in this adorable picture of her sons guinea pig. Hmmm I think I've seen this hairstyle somewhere before...Louis?
Anna_marie78 asked if we could give a birthday shoutout for her daughter who is 10 on Sunday... Happy Strictly Birthday Tyler! Sorry we couldn't get it on It Takes Two, but it was rather packed with the Friday Panel.
lipping5 made the production crew giggle during the show on Monday with her message. "My 5 year old just shouted 'It's Craig Level Forward Mummy!'" when he appeared on It Takes Two. Thank you for brightening our Monday show Libby.
And finally thank you to ezzbunch who sent the web team this message; "you make It Takes Two so funny! It makes me laugh so much!" Well thank you very much. We're glad you're enjoying our interaction.
Don't forget you can send us questions and comments throughout the week for all our guests on It Takes Two using our blog, Facebook page and Twitter feed.
As a way to thank you, here are two bare chested pictures for you!
All posts are reactively-moderated and must obey the house rules.
Join the discussion...
Why, oh why did the audience detract from Andrea Boccelli's performance by clapping the dancers on every lift or turn instead of allowing us to listen to the wonderful Nessendorma in full?
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
Oh please get rid of Darcey,her voice is so annoying...seriously,why does she have short bursts and talk up at the end of every sentence? Ihope she isnt returning next series!
Another fab roller coaster show.
Can I ask the strictly fans, anyone as dismayed as me at the uneccessary cheering/whooping etc during Andrea Boccelli's performance? Come on Beeb, riotous applause at the end would have been awesome. As it you only served to encourage the audience to overshadow a beautiful spectacle of music and dance. Sorry Beeb, but very disappointed!!!!
I agree lizzie,its so bad mannered when someone is singing to applaud the dancers,its not all about them.
I agree with sall the comments above. The audience should be asked NOT to clap and cheer at the dancers whilst your guest singers are performing. Tonight you had the epitome of voices in Andrea Bocelli.
I too agree with Lizzie, To have a great tenor singing the great aria spoiled by the audience, screaming and clapping is beyond belief
I totally agree that the audience showed very poor manners during Andrei Bottcelli's beautiful rendition of Nessum Dorma !!! Surely the BBC could have asked for some decorum before fthe show !!! So relieved that Lisa is through !
Totally agree lack of respect from the audience.
We wish to complain. Please can Artem do a solo dance We are fed up seeing Pasha nearly every week doing the solo spot, tonight it was even with Artems partner!! not impressed. Artems fans think he is the best so we would like to see him please. Thank you Artems fan club
For some of the judges the marking still leaves a lot to be desired. Examples being:
Les has a soft spot for Victoria Pendleton - I'm sure one of the 'Wooden Tops' would have given her dance more hip action this week, and Craig has a real downer on Nicky Byrne regardless of what he does.
Time to be fair and judge the dances judges - you are beginning to look stupid and petty.
As for Darcy and her comment about Lewis's dance, me thinks she doth protest too much.
Totally agree grudges2 eg craig gives denise 9 then llouis only 6 but did not find hardly any criciticism of Louis so why 3 marks less!!!????
Perhaps zoe on take two would like to ask the queation?!
Can somebody from the BBC tell me why Sir Brucie cuts the judges comments short? It drives me mad when you don't get to hear a comment from one of the judges, especially if their score is inconsistent with the other judges.
I'm not a Bruce Forsyth fan and disagree with Craig Revel Horwood's confession that it will be difficult to replace host Bruce Forsyth. Strictly is not the Generation Game or Play Your Cards Right. The poor old knight finds it tricky to see the autocue let alone stand up. Every dog has its day.
Please, please, please can we have less gossip and fewer lame jokes so that we can hear what ALL the judges have to say about every dance?
Panto and Pole Dance for people with childish minds. Even Len is loozing his grip and sinking under the bar! I am on the verge of seeking alternative entertainment.
Why do the audience applaud the dancers when the guest artists are singing, it's annoyed me each week but it completely ruined the enjoyment of the beautiful voice of Andrea Bocelli on Sunday evening. Can they not wait and applaud both the guest artists and the dancers at the end of the performance?
Once again, thank you for your comments.
What did you think of hunky Artem's toned chest on Saturday night!? Phew, I think we're still getting over it.
Apparently Artem was supposed to be wearing a Gladiator top but ditched this idea just before the show.... thank goodness! What do you think?
Very poor decision to allow the audience to applaud the dancers whilst the majestic mr Bottachelli sang a faultless aria, come on BBC lets show some respect for great perfomers and ask the audience to applaud AFTER the performance. Otherwise a superb show as usual
It was thrilling to hear Andrea Boccelli sing but why or why did the audience have to ruin his performance with totally unnecessary applause when the two pro dancers came on. The dancers' simple and basic lifts evoked a frantic reaction from audience and completely spoilt his "Nessun Dorma". In future could producer ask audiences to extend some common courtesy to guest singers. Last week's singer Dionne Warwick suffered same fate, at end of performance her face said it all ("why did I even bother!").
Although I initially thought that Darcey was wrong for Strictly I have to say she brings class to the show, her comments are always worthwhile, I would like to see her dance again on the show with one of the male dancers.
Saturday 3 November 2012, 21:10
Sunday 4 November 2012, 18:40


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Former Flipmode Squad member Rah Digga has spoken out in light of the heat Mister Cee believes he has to fight after announcing a resignation from Hot 97 yesterday and coming clean about urges for transsexuals.
Digga hopped onto her Twitter page to speak up for Cee and also admitted she experienced some teary emotions during his tell-all explanation Thursday (September 12) morning on Hot 97.
"So umm..I just woke up from a nap. Mr Cee resigned?? WTF??," she tweeted September 11.
"It's interesting how everyone keeps injecting themselves in Mr. Cee's business then act like he owe us an explanation. sigh"
"@KaeAltoBella @whiteoutgotu and then what after he confesses? we gonna rejoice in his honesty..FOH world full of hypocrites"
"@thenotoriousEKB @illaim that's because people are making it THEIR business. Behind closed doors or front street it's still HIS business!"
"@whiteoutgotu @KaeAltoBella oh no not yall haha…just people in general"
"IMO Mr. Cee was/is the best DJ @hot97 had/has to offer."
"@thenotoriousEKB @illaim The rules of fame are always be humble. Nowhere does it state confess all your seedy underworld dealings.."
"@Rosenbergradio the best cry ever…I can't stand y'all lol," she tweeted September 12. (Rah Digga's Twitter)
Back in 2011, New York rapper Prodigy said despite the media hype and reports, Cee can expect support from Mobb Deep no matter his sexual preference.
"I'm just hearing what people saying, and radio, so I really don't have that much of an opinion about it," Capital P explained in an interview. "But to each his own man, if it's really like that. It sounds crazy to me, like Cee is my n*gga. We f*ck with Mister Cee. That n*gga loves Mobb Deep and always shows us love, and plays our music all the time on the radio. He's one of the only ones that does that. It's few of them, and he's one of the main ones. So regardless of what, that n*gga shows us love, and we're going to show him love back. He's always going to get new music from us. That n*gga call, we always going to pick up like 'What's up? You good?' If he wants to do a party, whatever. Whatever Mister Cee wants to do, we f*ck with Mister Cee. That's what it is." (Complex)
A couple weeks prior to P's words 50 Cent also vouched his support for Cee in light of negative publicity in light of shemale allegations.
"It's only entertaining because he means that much to hip-hop culture and his association to it," 50 told Hot 97 personality Miss Info. "I recognize Mister Cee as the guy who introduced us to 50. So he means that much to the culture. A lot of the kids who hear the radio don't hear him the same way. I've played my albums for Mister Cee. Every album before it came out to see what he thought. When this type of stuff happens, you keep pushing…They can say what they want about it, how about if you say, 'I'm Rick James, b*tch.' [laughs] How about if you say I don't care? Who is to judge you other when there is an audience that's probably one of the strongest audiences if you look at Lady Gaga's career that says that that's fine. If you say it's not fine, then you're gonna get attacked. You're gonna write apology notes." (Celebrity Drama)
Early Thursday, Cee acknowledged footage surfacing online this week of him with a cross-dresser and claimed that's what it took to speak out.
"I am tired of trying to do something or be something that I'm not," Cee said in an interview with the Hot 97 morning show. "I'm tired. I'm tired. Have I lied about getting sexual fellatio in a car with a transsexual? Yes. I have lied about that. I feel bad for the listeners that it did take a video for me to say this. I have been in denial for this for a very, very long time. A very long time. Now, the funny part of it, and I know I'm going to get hit with social media when I say this, but I'm going to say it anyway. Do I consider myself gay? No. I don't consider myself gay. I do, I have gotten fellatio from transvestites and that's as far as it went. I've never had actual sexual intercouse with another man and vice versa. That has never been done to me. I have had fellatio with a transsexual person. The person who I was in the car with, I knew exactly who that person is. That's neither he or there." (Hot 97)
Need a new game to add to your collection? When's the last time you won something? Check out today's five reasons you should cop the new Rayman Legends video game and win your own copy!
Check out Mister Cee's interview:


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If it weren't for the delivery it would be an unbearable waste of time. He's lost it completely! Wolfe would benefit from an editor who should tell him to cut cut cut cut cut
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Vacation and Spa Expo 2014 Starts in Sofia
A total of 250 companies and organizations will present their tourism and vacation offers at the "Vacation and Spa Expo 2014" in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The event starts on Thursday at the Inter Expo Center in Sofia and will last until Saturday.
The Altai region in Russia, a leading Turkish company for medical tourism, and software companies offering tourist services from Germany and Greece will be among the participants in the exhibition. There will also be stands of tourist agencies from the neighboring countries.
Traditionally, the companies will be offering tourist packages at discount prices, if booked and paid during the expo.
- » Bansko Declared Bulgaria's Best Winter Resort in 2014 World Ski Awards
- » Bulgaria Should Be Year-Round Tourist Destination – Minister
- » Bulgaria's Tourism Minister Expects 4-5% Growth This Winter
- » Bulgaria to Offer Combined Tour Packages with Neighboring Balkan Countries
- » UK Skiing Holiday Maker Praises Bulgaria's Bansko
- » Bulgaria Expects 4-6% Increase in Tourist Numbers in Winter


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In a bizarre instance of role reversal, a patient stole an ambulance in Atlanta Saturday and took two paramedics in the back on a wild ride, authorities said.
The episode began at a hospital and ended when the patient crashed the ambulance into a chiropractor's office near Decatur and fled on foot, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. He remained at large several hours later.
The two DeKalb County fire paramedics who found themselves trapped inside the stolen vehicle escaped serious injury, the newspaper said.
The unidentified patient took control of the ambulance about 2 p.m. while the paramedics were in the back completing paperwork after having dropped off another patient at Emory University Hospital.
DeKalb fire Battalion Chief Christopher Morrison Jr. said the man "came out of the hospital, dressed in a gown and rubber gloves, jumped in the front seat, locked the doors and took off in the unit."
The suspect "looked through the little window in the back and told them, 'be quiet and hold on,'" Morrison said.
He then sped away, traveling several miles before running off the road, knocking down a utility pole and winding up inside a chiropractor's office.
The ambulance was a total loss and the chiropractic office sustained substantial damage, Morrison said.
Patient Steals Ambulance in Atlanta, Takes Paramedics on Wild Ride
Paramedics escape serious injury but ambulance total loss after crashing into chiropractor's office
In a bizarre instance of role reversal, a patient stole an ambulance in Atlanta Saturday and took two paramedics in the back on a wild ride, authorities said.
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Grade: B-
Opens Fri., June 4
Let me respectfully offer a suggestion, future memoirists: if you were once the boring center of a wild bacchanalia, why not focus exclusively on the wild bacchanalia part? It's very likely that that aspect, not your banal "personal growth," is where an audience of strangers' true interest lies.
Dimitri Verhulst, who overcame a childhood of foster parents and institutions to become a novelist, has claimed his popular The Misfortunates is semi-autobiographical. And it's a great subject. As in the book, the film version, energetically adapted by director Felix Van Groeningen and cowriter Christophe Dirickx, concerns 13-year-old Gunther (Kenneth Vanbaeden), growing up in a dilapidated Belgian house with his boozing, developmentally arrested father (Koen de Graeve) and his three equally debauched uncles.
These aren't Will Ferrell's man-children. An ornery lot, they're temperamental and prone to violence on people (within the first minutes, a guy gets stabbed in the throat with a broken bottle), animals (a bird shits on the drying laundry, gets shot), objects (a chair is slowly destroyed, in an apparent homage to the same scene in Gummo) and, of course, beer.
That they all live with (and ritualistically ignore) their addled, elderly mother completes the portrait of terminal adolescence. The Misfortunates views their catalogue of depravity with a deftly balanced mix of fascination and fear, sucking up the fetid surroundings to the point where you half expect the theaters to pump in nicotine stench à la gimmick auteur William Castle.
But what of young Gunther? Flash-forwards show us our narrator-protagonist when he's older (and played with grave reserve by Valentijn Dhaaenens) doing considerably better, trying to sell novels and awaiting the birth of a son he doesn't want with a woman he doesn't love. Will he turn out just like his shitty father?
Frankly, who cares? Perhaps a film that spends its entirety rolling around in filth would be too much—although one can imagine what Emir Kustirica, of such madcap Eastern European brawlers as Underground , would do with this source material—but there has to be another angle of attack than this mopey, narcissistic bullshit. After two acts spent mostly bottling up the surroundings, the fun ends and the remainder crawls into multiple-endings mode. You know what would fix that? Focusing on the good stuff.
Jonah Hill co-stars as schlubby, put-upon record company staffer Aaron Green, who spends his days absorbing profane insults from his tyrannical boss (a monstrously funny P. Diddy).
Prince-Bythewood's "Beyond the Lights" deserves another look
"Horrible Bosses 2" misses opportunity to resonate
Tension-filled "Foxcatcher" builds dread without tipping hand
The Western range not so welcoming in "The Homesman"
"The Theory of Everything" missing a certain something
"Keep On Keepin' On" an open love letter to friendship
Visually ambitious "Big Hero 6" fuses best 'toon tropes
Nolan's epic space drama "Interstellar" anything but subtle


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Graham Templeton
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More executives are hiring career coaches to help them improve their skills, which they say is "critical" for their success, Sarah E. Needleman writes. "In a down economy, it's particularly important to have someone on your side," one executive said.
View Full Article in:Wall Street Journal (tiered subscription model), The
Published in Brief:


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Singo's Central Coast memories turn to despairHe MIGHT be a hard-nosed businessman who made his name in the cut-throat world of advertising, but to say John Singleton has a soft spot for the Central Coast would be the understatement of the century. The passionate Mt White resident is throwing ... Daily Telegraph Australia - Central Coast, 4 days ago
Ad-man John Singleton fights to revive Central Coast - 9News.com.au, 5 days ago
25 images for john singleton
Singleton open to a deal with Fairfax
John Singleton, head of the listed Macquarie Radio Network, has commented on a potential sale of the business. He said there have been approaches by private equity firms, and he was now also again considering a deal with the radio stations division ...Individual.com, 3 weeks ago Media Wrap: Singo's Fairfax thoughts; APEX launched; Southern Cross directors queried AdNews, 3 weeks ago Colorado Open Lands salutes Dan Ritchie, Dean Singleton Denver Post, 1 month ago Merger talks between Fairfax Radio and Macquarie back on WA Today, 1 month ago
Singo shouts the bar after stakes win
John Singleton shouted the bar at Hawkesbury after Strawberry Boy's win in the Ladies Day Cup. Source: News Limited JOHN Singleton shouted the public bar at Hawkesbury on Thursday after Strawberry Boy resumed with a gritty stakes win. And not even ...Brisbane Courier-Mail, 2 weeks ago
Racing: Singleton keen for joy
A virus has put an end to Dear Demi's spring campaign but her trainer Clarry Conners is still hoping John Singleton's colours can feature in the group one winner's stall. Yesterjoy will run in Saturday's Wakeful Stakes at Flemington as a prelude ...New Zealand Herald, 4 weeks ago Conners looking for Flemington Joy Yahoo!Xtra, 4 weeks ago Conners looking for Flemington Joy (AAP) Yahoo!Xtra, 4 weeks ago
How Singo and Bolts landed ultimate date
John Singletonb/and Ray Hadley had a lunch date with Jamie Durie Source: Supplied HAPPY and carefree bachelors John Singleton and Ray Hadley made their way to exclusive water-access only restaurant, Peats Bite, on the Hawkesbury yesterday. They went ...Perth Now, 1 month ago How Singo and Bolts landed on their feet NEWS.com.au, 4 weeks ago
More from: , Herald Sun...and 2 other sources
At The Track: Singo still smiling
John Singleton, daughter Sally and her fiancee, Pierre Hawach, enjoy themselves at Royal Randwick on Saturday. Picture: Simon Bullard Source: Supplied AT least something went right for John Singleton over the weekend. Singo had Dear Demi scratched ...Brisbane Courier-Mail, 1 month ago The Greenback Raid of Colonel John Singleton Mosby Examiner.com, 1 month ago
More from: , FoxSports.com.au...and 2 other sources
Kuro steals the show as This Is Australia adds to John Singleton's woes
John Singleton's week went from bad to worse as Joe Pride's Kuro dangled the Melbourne carrot before his trainer with a convincing win in the listed Brian Crowley Stakes at Randwick on Saturday. Singleton's highly-strung colt This Is Australia, ...WA Today, 1 month ago Kuro steals show as This Is Australia adds to Singleton's woes Canberra Times, 1 month ago
Singo hoists the Aussie flag in cup battle
THEY don't come any more patriotic than John Singleton. Jimmy Cassidy and Dear Demi (left) defeats Solicit in Group 2 Stocks Stakes. Picture: Source: Vince Caligiuri / THEY don't come any more patriotic than John Singleton. The larrikin ...FoxSports.com.au, 1 month ago Demi flies the Aussie flag for Singo Herald Sun, 1 month ago More Sports - Singo hoists the Aussie flag in cup battle FoxSports.com.au, 1 month ago
Gosford: Hadley and Singleton go racing
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More from: , FoxSports.com.au...and 2 other sources
Charity restores grave of a 'father of Melbourne'
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More Articles for yoga
Calm yourself with yoga during your layover
Is there really anything more stressful than a layover when you still have another flight to catch?
In the moment, I never think so.
That's why it's so awesome that more and more airports are embracing the power of yoga.
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Original owner 1961 Ford Galaxie Sunliner Convertible 125,399 miles original parts (except for plastic back window and generator). 175 hp 292-V8, manual 3 sp... More
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Perfect location, friendly and flexible staff, good food in the restaurant, very comfortable rooms - overall 5 stars! Right in the center - great restaurants and bars close by. We visited after hurricane Odile and services were slightly limited but they made sure that we were well looked after.
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Newly signed Def Jam rapper Gunplay recently talked about his upcoming Medellin solo album and what rap stars aside from Jay-Z he wants on the project.
Gunplay said he plans to knock out multiple new songs on a daily basis to keep up with the LP's timetable.
"Work, work. Now I feel like the clock's ticking, know what I'm saying?," Gunplay said when asked about his state of mind is like since penning his Def Jam deal. "Got to hurry up and get these records done and make sure I present the best product possible. Once I feel comfortable with it then I'll let it go. So I'm trying to knock out three records a day and out of those three, I'll only pick one that I want to put on the album. The rest iss gonna be for the next tapes and sh*t." (Pigeons & Planes)
He also considered what guest features he wants on the upcoming project.
"That's a good question. I don't know if the God MC Hov would be on it but I would love for him to be on it. It would really be a classic album. A lot of rappers that I really wanna work with, they're dead. They're already dead so I don't really know. Oh, Big KRIT. I like Big KRIT, I want to work with him. We'll see. I don't know, I might wake up in the morning and have somebody I want to make a record with and try to make it happen. I just go with the flow, man." (Pigeons & Planes)
Earlier this month, Gunplay opened up on inking his solo deal with such an established label.
"It just feels like all the work over these years ain't go in vain," Gunplay said about his new situation. "God is good. It's his plan. It's his plan. I ain't got nothing to do with this. I'm just here for the ride, bro. I got an album coming out, I just signed with Def Jam two days ago. The ink just dried. So look out for the untitled album. So far it's untitled, I'm sitting down with [Rick Ross] and we're going to make everything happen so we can produce the best product possible." (VIBE TV)
A few weeks ago, the Miami-based rapper discussed fighting cocaine addiction.
"It got pretty bad. It got bad. I can't let it get to the point where I steal and sh*t. That's just f*ckdafied. I might borrow it from you, but I never really did some sh*t like that. I would just be like, 'Front me with an 8-ball and I'll just pay you later.' Some sh*t like that. I would never steal or do dumb-a** sh*t like that. But how bad did it get? Just my health, man. Looking myself in the mirror and my nose never being right. I could never breathe straight and I'm always blowing my nose. I'm already a skinny n*gga and that sh*t draws me up even skinnier by the time I wake up in the morning, I lost 10 pounds, like 'What the f*ck just happened?' Then, that day you gotta be at a video shoot. You got raccoon eyes and you 10 pounds lighter and you can't even breathe and you're blowing your nose like crazy and sweating because that sh*t makes you sweat. Come on, man, you look crazy. That was really one of my first steps in really taking this rap sh*t seriously…and that was quitting coke. That was 2008." (XXL Mag)
Medellin is expected to hit stores shelves later this summer.
Check out a recent Gunplay interview below: