I didn't want to do it but spam spiders have managed to find my blog. I knew they would eventually, but I was hoping that it wouldn't be for some time. Well, can't have everything, I suppose.

      In any case, for those of you that actually do comment on the site (specifically the blog), you'll find your comment no longer shows up right away. The reason is I've turned on comment moderation. Meaning, I view all comments before they are posted. The purpose is to filter out spam.

      There is a spam blocker in effect now as well but it requires Javascript to be enabled on your end. Since some people insist of having javascript turned off, it won't work for them (actually, I'm not even sure if those people will even be able to post a comment). In any case, anything that slips through that will still end up in my moderation queue.

     With my running around trying out subscription-based MMOs, I decided to try EVE online.  It has a 14-day trial period that merges you with the rest of the players without any real distinction.  (Unlike Tabula Rasa that displays a "Trial Account" message beside your name for everyone to see.)

     EVE online is a single server, open-ended universe of space travel and corporate possibilities.  At any one time, there could be 20k people online playing - including a channel dedicated to newbies (Rookies) asking for help.

     The introductory tutorial is mandatory if you want to get any kind of handle on the game.  Without it, the learning curve is rather steep.  Almost everything worth doing is built into right-click context menus (so if you're an old school Windows user, then this won't be new to you).

     Now, having said all of that, the excitement level of the game is almost enough to make you comatose.  All of your ship control is handled by the computer.  All you do is issue commands and the ship does the rest.  If you're mining for minerals, you can get up and make coffee, go to the bathroom, read a book, watch the latest movie, etc. as it doesn't require any further intervention on your part until it has filled your cargo hold with whatever you're mining.  After that, you tell your ship to dock to the nearest space station to unload it (and process it, if you wish).  Then you undock and do it all over again.

     Combat is hardly glorious.  Again, it's more of the same.  You target your enemy, give the ship commands and it does the rest.  If you want to get right down to it, the entire game could easily be completely automated without any player intervention at all (since it's practically that way anyway).

     Your character is limited only by what skills he or she has.  Depending on several factors (including your race and your chosen career path), you have some default skills and attributes.  Training your skills isn't particularly difficult, however the time investment is rather lengthy.  For example, to go from level 1 to level 2 ship commanding, depending on your learning skill, can take around 2 hours (real time) to complete.  Higher levels will take longer (in some cases, several days).

     My first impressions aren't exactly favourable as I was falling asleep while playing.  In a nutshell, EVE online seems more like a chatroom with some sci-fi atmosphere and activities thrown in to fill in lulls in the conversation.  Now, it's entirely possible that I've missed out on some details that could make the game more hands-on but that would only be due to me not finding the commands to make that happen.

     I will play it (sort of) until the end of the trial but I find it difficult to believe that it would capture my interest enough to make me even consider subscribing to it.

      Lately, I've been playing the trial version of [Richard Garriott's] Tabula Rasa
and I have to admit, I surprised myself. TR first got my attention the middle of last year (summer '07) when it was being developed. During my usual online rounds, I happened upon some info of the game. I looked at it and figured it was just an FPS (first person shooter) with an online backdrop. What caught my attention was the intro cinematic. It wasn't the game itself that piqued my interest, but the storyline that was being hinted at in the cinematic.

     Unfortunately, I wasn't able to afford the game or the monthly subscription fee so I pretty much forgot about it. Every now and then I saw an advertisement or banner here and there about the game but never paid them any mind. I couldn't afford to play it so why bother getting interested in it, right?

     That changed about a week ago, however, when I saw a banner advertising a 7-day free trial. My first thought was 'Harumph... probably require a credit card just to play the "free" trial.' (Can you tell I've been down this particular road before? lol). Turns out that it didn't require anything except an account creation.

     Well, my free trial is almost over, unfortunately. It ends on the 25th of this month, but in the short time that I've had to play, my character is level 20 (and I was able to create, and subsequently delete, my Forean hybrid clone** - that's the problem with getting attached to a particular character (i.e. main). Even if you create a clone, it's just not the same.).

      This image is that of my character, Preston Braile. He's wearing Bio Armour that has been coloured a Dark Azure Blue (you can paint your armour pieces provided you have the paint to do it... I have over 20 colours of paint that I've picked up and crafted so it's not that difficult to come by). His main weapon is an injection gun (quite nicely bypasses armour values), however is secondary weapons are shotgun and rifle (mostly for those creatures immune to virulent attacks from the injection gun).

     Considering that it's unlikely I'll get to continue playing for awhile after my trial expires on Monday, I have no future plans for this character. I've just been clearing as many missions as I can get and crafting modifications for my weapons and armour. I only ever grouped with someone once and that was cut short because the game crashed during it. *grumble*

     The game still has some issues for some people. As normal, up-to-date graphics drivers are a must if you expect the game to function properly. However, that is not to say it will solve all problems. It just helps. Up-to-date DirectX is also essential for pretty well every game to run on a Windows platform almost since Microsoft decided to invent the damned thing.

     The game is still classed an MMORPG but it bears such close resemblance to a FPS that you could call it an MMOFPS and it would still be an accurate term. As far as I know, there is PvP but don't ask me where or how to get involved. I avoid PvP like the plague and as such, I know absolutely nothing about it.

     Now for the downside: NCsoft Inc. is the publisher and as such, control the financial aspects.  In their infinite wisdom, upgrading your account from a trial incurs not one, but two separate charges: the charge for the game itself and before you can activate the game, you have to purchase at least one month of subscription time.  Of course, this isn't mentioned until you buy the game and attempt to upgrade.

     Billing support is considerably less than stellar, sounding much like automatons repeating what you already know instead of bothering to address your issue.  For example, when I questioned the policy to require even more money to get the account upgraded and active, the support person told me that I had to purchase more time whether through a credit card or game card before I could activate.  Well thank you, but that was what I was bitching about to begin with.  Needless to say, I am not enthused even remotely - so much so that I won't be making any future attempts to upgrade the trial or play the game (in other words, they're not getting any more of my money).

     Tech support, however, did a wonderful job.  I had some issues after the most recent patch and got replies within a half hour after I posted my question.  They answered two of the most glaring issues and did a great job overall.

     So, if playing the game is more important to you than the money you spend, feel free to get it.  Otherwise, I'd play the trial to see if you like it first.  Dedicated players could get rather high in levels within a week.  You could get a feel for the game and determine if you're willing to pay for the game twice over before you can play it beyond the trial.

     [BTW, buying the game digitally is $19.99 USD and one month subscription is $14.99 USD <= both of these have to be purchased before you can upgrade from trial].

** - You can complete specific missions as you progress through the game that give you the ability to create hybrid clones of your character (there are three alien species in the game and you can create hybrid clones (alien/human combos) upon successful completion of specific questlines). When you create a clone, you do not start at level 1. You start at the level of the character you're cloning and their current location, however there are exceptions to that. You keep most of your quests you've completed but there are some that don't transfer. Using in-game footlockers will allow you to provide equipment and items to your clone as he only comes with default starting equipment.

     For the average person, laundry (or the ability to do one's own laundry) is nothing major.  It's just one of those things on their list of chores to do when the weather is nice enough to hang it all out on the line, etc.  For me, however, having the ability to do my own laundry whenever I feel like doing it is rather major.  You see, I haven't had access to a washing machine in over seven years.  I've always had to rely on laundro-mats, other people's generous offers of using theirs, etc.  For the last few years, I've been washing my laundry by hand in the bath tub.

     Well, I knew what it was that I wanted some time ago.  I wanted a portable washer/spinner on casters that I could use in my apartment (I have a small upstairs apartment).  I didn't realize it until recently that these particular machines are called "Twin Tub" washers as I was brought up thinking they were washer-spinners.  *shrug*  In any case, I finally got one!

     It is a 'Simplicity Supertwin' twin tub washer (made by McGraw-Edison and later taken to be labelled under the 'Admiral' trademark) and it's about as old as I am.  I grew up with this particular machine so I know it well.  (Those of you in Europe may recall the 'Hoover-matic [De Luxe]' twin tub washer (I believe that's what the name is).  The difference between that one and mine is mine has the actual aggitator in it.  Otherwise they are pretty much identical machines (and dated around the same time too).

     In any case, my mother found this one for me in a yard sale for $40 (which is ridiculously cheap considering if you want to buy one new, the average price ranges from $400 - 700, depending on where you go).  Works beautifully (although it didn't at first... but that's a different story).

     So yes, I'm ecstatic that I can finally do my laundry again at home!  To dry, I just hang the stuff up wherever I can find space.  Shortly, I'll be putting up a temporary clothes-line running from my porch (I have the front-door, and as such, the porch belongs to me) to the privacy fence post.  Until then, I have my apartment filled with laundry hanging up to dry all over the place. ;)

     And for the record, you wouldn't *believe* how much laundry I have to do... even when I did go out to do my laundry, I only ever washed the stuff I regularly wore.  Now I can wash all the stuff I've had packed away for the last seven years or so too. :D (not to mention the curtains, furniture covers, blankets, etc.) ;)

     As the title says, "Let the laundry marathon begin!" LOL

     Well I did what I could but the Ratings Extension project was a complete bust.  I finished all the necessary code to make it work early yesterday morning and I even went over the code multiple times from then right up until now and found no errors with what I wrote... despite that, it simply wouldn't work.  It would not send the rating and it certainly wouldn't store it.

     The biggest problem was that I didn't get any error messages... even the ones that I purposely put in.  Without error messages, I can only guess at what might be wrong.  Hours of guesswork later, I was still no further ahead.  I tried it in both Firefox and MSIE 7 (the latter because it gives visible javascript errors when they appear) and got the same lack of response.  MSIE has always bitched and moaned over any javascript error it comes across, but not this time, so I can only assume the javascript wasn't the issue.  That left the php code.  But without any errors forthcoming, it could be anything.

     With so many hours of guesswork put in and getting nowhere, I gave up.  I've scrapped the project as it was.  There is another one that I might be able to port to PivotX but there is a lot to that one and I'm not sure it's worth effort.