Slothman's Home Tree - A Conversation of Games and The Community that Plays Them

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Oct 6th, 2013 - Hey MMO, I think we need to talk

I added a new article under Theory bouncing around some ideas I've had for MMOs ever since I've realized my love affair with MMOs was on the wane. I want to re-energize the genre, because it is still full of untapped potential. It is time for someone to start taking risks and put together an MMO that isn't considered a 'safe bet'.

Nov 18th, 2012 - Getting Fancy

I added a slideshow that will eventually contain more images show casing different games and ideas. Also I fixed some IE7 issues with the site. What an awful legacy Microsoft has created with their browsers. Hopefully IE7 usage dies out faster than IE6.

July 7th, 2012 - All Hail Britannia!

I added an essay on Ultima 7 The Black Gate to the game theory section. If books like Animal Farm and 1984 are required reading for any fan of literature, then for a gamer Ultima 7 should be considered required playing. It is hard to do such a complicated game justice in a short essay but it is my hope that my writings inspire potential players to throw themselves into the world and play through it with the passion it deserves.

May 1st, 2012 - What is this nonsense!

I'm on a productive streak that endangers to exhaust this sloth to death! I added an about section to the site. Perhaps give my insantiy a little bit of meaning.

April 28th, 2012 - Mastering Your Stack

Added an article to Theory addressing the topic of why we don't finish our games and what developers can do to help. I know I want to beat all the games I buy, even as lazy as I am.

Feb 16th, 2012 - Sloths are sloppy

Fixed some bad links on the journal pages. Now the next and previous buttons actually work. Attention to detail is not a slothy trait. Oh well, better late than sooner.

March 9th, 2011 - Found a new home!

It is probably too much to expect that I actually create content for the site rather than just moving it and re-designing it. I did add a section over there on the left for links to sites that I believe are valuable resources for discourse on game related topics. Community I think is the next frontier games should really explore and to that end I hope I can contribute.

July 29th, 2010 - IE6 is a dirty abusive whore that I can't quit

Site now works and looks reasonably attractive in IE6. Why did I spend an evening tweaking it? I just like the abuse.

July 5th, 2010 - Site Update in Progress

It is hard to believe it has been nearly two years since my last update! I haven't quite got the whole site moved over to the new format. I'm looking forward though to adding some new content for a change. I really want to explore more of what I feel games are lacking lately. To me that is community. I went into this a bit recently when talking about what Valve/Steam could do to promote community, but I think it goes beyond even just player generated content. Fans want to follow games like they follow a favorite TV show. They want to explore the universe, not just play a good game then shelve it and never think of it again

July 11th, 2008 - The Beaten List

I'm creating a list here on the web site of all the games I have beaten in my life. Plucking the names of some of of these titles from my mind has proven to be a bit of a chore. So far I've gotten a handful of titles up on the site here. Hopefully this will inspire me to actually complete most of the games that I buy!

June 16th, 2008 - Bringin' Back the Payne

I uploaded a prefab that I made several years ago to the downloads section. I remembered that I had saved it on the 3D Realms Max Payne Forums. So I moved it here for prosperity. It is a Valkyr cannister that breaks apart then bounces around the map. I think the prefab is also in my Carson Street Hotel map as well.

March 17th, 2008 - Another Site Re-design

Spent all day sick, so since I had nothing better to do I decided to give the old site a makeover. Some of the links are currently broken, but I'll slowly get those pointing in the right direction. I also plan on completely redoing the old screenshot section.

Dec 12th, 2007 - The Ultimate E-Peen

I added my Gamertag to the Character List Page. I recently puchased an Xbox 360, thus my gamerscore is pretty low. I got the Elite with two free games, Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Forza 2. The Marvel game was great, I highly recommend it. Moving forward I hope to expand on the character list page to more of an achievement page. Chronicling some of my other gaming accomplishments not tracked by Xbox Live.

Dec 10th, 2007 - It's still Nov on Sloth Time(tm)

I finally updated with some reminiscing about the early 90s gaming. You can view it here. Although not entirely done, I plan on adding links to many of the services and games referenced. Which is Sloth talk for probably never...I also hope to write up a World of Warcraft journal, but the WoW experience today is not that much different than it was when it launched in Nov 2004 and off the top of my head there was nothing particularly interesting about the newbie experience in those days. However, I have gobs of screenshots from my WoW days, so maybe they will jog my memory a bit, and I'll remember something of value.

Nov 12th, 2007 - Full Steam Ahead

Yes, I still update this site on occassion. Not even constant ISP changes will prevent my little tree in heaven from growing. I decided to write a little rant about the lack of user created content on Steam. This will be followed by a new journal shortly. A bit different than the MMO journals, but full of gaming nostalgia nonetheless. I hope to have it up sometime this month...for realz!

May 12th, 2007 - The New Digs

I finally got my old comcast webspace migrated to roadrunner. The webpage is up and running once again. Still looking to tweak it a bit as I don't like exactly how I have the html and css implemented, but at least it is functioning. Yay. Celebrate good times.

March 11th, 2007 - 5 Years in the Making

Behold! The new site design! Still much to do, I wish I had time to go back and re-do some of the old pages to make them work better with the updated HTML, but that would cut into my naps.

April 23rd, 2006 - I Spilled My Hot coffee

I started playing GTA: San Andreas. I know I'm way behind the times. Whatever. I like being a Johnny-Come-Lately. I uploaded my Current Stats. I really like this feature of the GTA games. Where it tracks just about everything you do in the game. It gives a purpose to playing in the sandbox. I wish MMO's would implement features like this.

Nov 27th, 2005 - Did you miss me?

Ok so I have to eat a bit of crow. I'm back with comcast. They are still outrageously expensive, but they are also the only highspeed connection type I can get at my apartment so meh. Unfortunately I don't have exactly the same domain name. Someone swiped up the 'Slothman' nick name after I canceled. The old webpage url now goes to some hosting service in the UK. If someone took the name because of the reputation of the old site, then I'm actually flattered. Ah leave an old man his delusions. Rule #1 is in effect, which is - don't fuck with the fantasy.

Nothing else is new, but it feels good to be back. Yes indeed, it feels good to be back.

August 27th, 2005 - Like a Bad Penny

This webpage will be going down for an undetermined amount of time. I recently moved and haven't had time to look into getting new internet access. I probably won't stick with comcast because it is outrageously expensive. Anyway once I get settled with a new provider I'll have this webpage up at a new address. I'm sure google can find me once I move into a new home tree.

June 10th, 2005 - 3 years late or 10 years early? That's a Brain Bender alright

About 3 years ago, when I put up this webpage, I planned on keeping a list of games I considered better than just the typical industry offering. I always had Silent Hill 2 in mind when I came up with the idea. Thus it is fitting that that is the game that debuts as the first entry. It actually took me several months to finish the Silent Hill 2 piece. I had several false starts that I felt were too much like a game review. I decided the best way to focus on what made the game great was to keep it pithy. I'm actually quiet pleased with the result.

January 21, 2005 - My Gear Sucks Because I'm Saving For My Mount

Well not really. I actually have a large hunk of cash, more than enough to buy my mount in World of Warcraft, but I'm just so attached to being rich, I can't part with it yet. I recently downloaded Allakhazam's Character Profiler add-on and uploaded my character information here. So now everyone can bask in the mighty glow of my WoW e-peen. According to the profiler I've completed over 280 quests. Yet the Eastern Kingdom is still the most dysfunctional place I've ever seen, but I call it home.

November 24, 2004 - Insert Obligatory Everquest Bashing --Here--

Every now and then I notice that the bookmark to this page on my favorites and always make a mental note to do some kind of update. Well in honor of the recent release of Everquest 2 I decided to update the page with another installment of my EQ journals. As usual I included a few vintage screenshots to go along with the narrative. Unfortunately when I went to my archives, the zip file I stored my screenshots in was partially corrupted. Luckily I only lost about 8 to 10 screenshots out of around 300. Another milestone to mark is that I didn't even bother beta testing Everquest 2, which makes it the first major MMOG beta that I have missed. I hope to pick up Everquest 2 soon, not just because I'm a masochist, but because I'm very interested to see if not having played beta will make the retail release any better or worse.

August 10, 2004 - Bookending the Summer with Updates

While not intended, I have gone nearly the entire summer without any website activity. I finally got around to updating my City of Heroes villians page. I haven't played the game in a couple months, but I still had a few boss pics left to add to the list. Probably the last update to that particular section until I start playing CoH again. As usual it's bitter sweet to say goodbye to yet another Summer, but I do look forward to the new NFL season.

June 1st, 2004 - Leveling Paynes

I finally got around to messing with Max Ed2 level editor for Max Payne 2. The original Payne is one of my all time favorites. I loved the seedy underside levels of New York and throwback detective story telling. Max Payne 2 is good as well, I especially liked the Address Unknown theme park levels, but I didn't care much for the story. I felt it was disjointed and confusing. After having some success with QEradiant I picked up on the Max2 editor fairly quickly with some help from the guys at the 3D Realms Forums. I uploaded a small level I made to the File Download section here.

May 22nd, 2004 - MS Paint Commander

I added several more entries to my list of villians page. Although 4 new ones, I added a couple more about a week ago, but just didn't bother making an update about it. City of Heroes still remains a solid game. It is also extremely popular with current subscribers, unlike most MMOGs that have dissatisfied customers. I think alot of the good will toward CoH stems from the fact there isn't a whole lot that can go wrong. There is no PVP, crafting, or economy so Cryptic doesn't have to satisfy all different types of players. Basically you have a really strong and fun PVE game. Unfortunately Cryptic is going to start implementing things like PVP and crafting. I'd rather see Cryptic take CoH into uncharted territory rather than rehash old stand by features that are already in every other MMOG.

May 10th, 2004 - Paragon City: The Worst Revolving Door Prison System in the Country

I put together a list of villians from Paragon City that I have put behind bars. Unfortunately these miscreants are back out on the street before the paper work is even finished. The link can also be found in the screenshot section. You can mouse over the pictures to see a short description. If anyone knows a way to lengthen the time 'alt' or 'title' text displays over an image send me an email.

April 14th, 2004 - Now you too can have the fun and excitement of saving Aquaman

I've been playing the City of Heroes beta. An excellent game based on superheroes. If you are an MMOG fan, defintely check out this game. The concept of superhero powers are well represented, and there isn't a bad combination of powers you can choose. The game also sports a fantastic engine that runs smooth. Although you'll still want around 512 Megs of RAM and a Geforce 4ti card. I put up a link to some screenshots I've taken over the past couple weeks.

I added a new link to the menu on the left. The screenshots link is archive of screenshots of four games: AC2, Sims Online, SWG, and City of Heroes.

Jan 29th, 2004 - This update is the result of a Creative use of Magic

I finished up the second chapter of my UO journals a bit early. Ironically it is also the longest of my game journals so far. I included a handful of vintage screenshots throughout the journal to highlight some of the unique events I described. Out of all the major MMOGs that I have played, UO is the only one that I actually look back on with fond memories. Everquest is a close second, but nothing else is even in the ballpark. Ultima Online was just such an effortless game. You just logged in and played. You didn't have to organize a group with a healer and mezzer, you didn't have to walk an hour to find a battle in the middle of nowhere, and you didn't even need to leave your house to raise skills. UO was like laying out by the pool on a breezy summer day just after school let out, and knowing that for the rest of the summer, you had nothing to do but just enjoy the three months of freedom.

Jan 22nd, 2004 - Slightly Used Swoop Bike once owned by John Voight

I am currently taking advantage of Star Wars Galaxies 14 day Reactivation Trial. It is for a limited time, until Feb 4th or so. Not surprisingly the first thing I did was buy a Swoop Bike and cruised Theed lookin' for chicks. Also I am currently working on Part 2 to my UO Journals. I hope to have it done sometime early Feb, but I must admit, sloths are notoriously bad at conforming to schedules.

Dec 20th, 2003 - Use the Brush Luke...

I decided to 'brush' up on some rusty map editing skills (pun intended). I was never very good at map editing once games moved into the 3D realm. I was a self-proclaimed wiz at DEUII for Doom editing. I attempted a Quake 2 level ages ago and gave up quickly when I realized it was going to be way harder than the couple hours it took to whip up a Doom map. Several years later I tried my hand at a Max Payne map, I got a little further with MP, but again gave up when just making a door took like 5 hours. After playing Jedi Academy I decided to try once again to get some kind of competency with a level editor.

Qeradiant is the de facto editor for all things id engine related. I then did some searching on the JK3 Files webpage for tutorials and found Rich Diesal's tutorials were pretty good. So far they are and I was able to make a simple level with 4 rooms and 1 enemy. It is about the same as I could do with the Max Payne editor, but with Qeradiant it took less time. EDIT: Added a more Advanced Map in the file section.

September 30th, 2003 - Three parts Content, Half Cup Vagueness, One Slice of Ambiguity

Small update to the Game_Theory section. I added a small essay on PvP and what people want. I've found lately in game discussions there is a heavy reliance on shapeless and ambigious ideas. The problem is that people express nebulous opinions without thinking through what they want. My hope is that my essay will serve as a guide for others to find a logical path in their own thoughts to what they want. Honestly, I still think there is a long way to go down this road, but the overall goal behind my essay is to help people express themselves more clearly. It's all about what do you want and can you get your thoughts from point A to point B so you can show others what you mean.

August 9th, 2003 - Living up to the tagline

Finally got around to updating the links for the address change Comcast forced upon me.

June 30th, 2003 - If only it had Gungans...

Small update. I've been playing Star Wars Galaxies the last few days. coming out of beta, many people probably said bad things about it. Nothing you haven't heard about other MMOGs, but maybe enough to turn you off to the game. All I can say is, if you don't play this game you're missing out on a wonderful product. That's my obligatory sales pitch. I've added a SWG screenshot section from my recent adventures. I haven't played an MMOG this much since UO and EQ. Also attbi is no longer my provider, if you're here now you probably got the new url, but some of the file links aren't going to work for awhile until I update them. For now if a link doesn't work, just sub comcast.net for attbi.com and it should work.

June 8th, 2003 - Bugs Bugs everywhere

Updated Fun and Games mod, complete with addition of new bugs. Also fixed many bugs with the first game. Fun and Games Mod. I renamed the mod too as not to confuse with the old version. The old version with just one game is still up as well.

May 29th, 2003 - Programmer Fantasy Camp

I more or less finished developing my little NWN mod (Fun and Games Mod). Sans bugs its done. Only took me roughly a week to do it in. Not bad if I do say so myself. More importantly, my friend over at Mortal Eara has added the completed mod to their persistent world, formerly Middle Earth, now Mortal Eara. So if you'd like to check it out in a running NWN game, head over to there. Also I put up the full list of mod features on the ME forums. NOTE: Made a small change and added sounds to a few places, new mod version is 'Gb'

As a bonus, Dransik recently put in paper-dolling on their test server. Which means the first thing I did was create a female human and get naked.

May 22nd, 2003 - Its all Fun and Games till Someone Gets Hurt

I added, a download link for the two binary files I have for download. Both are Neverwinter Night Modules. The original is my Mining/Smithing mod, one of the first for NWN I might add. I also added another module I finished recently. Fun and Games Mod is much like the Mining/Smithing mod in that it is not an adventure, instead its a mini-game. Essentially its a casino, right now theres one playable game called 'Penguin Nesting'. The goal is to guess which color nest the penguins will nest, winning nets you some gold. Also to flesh out my ideas of persistent worlds need persistent stats, I added a scoreboard, player rankings, and total nest wins. I added a Version Notes link for more details.

Update: Made a few changes to the mod to close up some loopholes, like putting penguins on their own faction and less flakyness with the betting chests. Also added, round timer to fix some more loopholes. Also renamed the mod to Fun_and_GamesBa.mod so the old version won't be confused with the new version. Few more changes, shrunk the ring a tiny bit, fixed Ticket Master, and took out shouting Pingo.

May 15th, 2003 - Two updates in one week, whaaaaa!?

I made a small change to the 'Sloth' pic. Finally got around to making a button out of a sloth picture Scrote from P2P sent me a year ago. Also if anyone is interested in a good UO type game, check out Dransik. You can try it free for 30 days, the software is downloadable. If after the trial period you sign up, use my Referral Code: 6773 and I'll get a free month. I know everyone wants to support my gaming addiction. It is really a good game, don't be turned off by the graphics. I might write a mini-review of it later. Anyway, check it out. EDIT(8/09): No longer playing this, but its still a good game for anyone looking for a good UO clone.

May 14, 2003 - Yearly update right on time

Maybe it's a few days late. Anyway, I finally finished the first part of my Dark Age of Camelot journal. The first portion i s really just an overview of the first couple months. I decided to break down the DAOC journals into two sections, one for the PVE experience and one for the PVP experience. You'll probably note a fair amount of rancor in my retellings, but DAOC will do that to you. I might have to switch web addresses soon because Comcast is now my internet provider, hopefully the transition from AT and T to Comcast is mostly automatic. Also currently a faster address for this website is http://slothman.home.comcast.net. (Assuming you aren't already using it.)

Oct 30, 2002 - I played Sims Online and AC2 and all I got were these lousy pictures

I put some pics up of my adventures in both AC2 and Sims Online. Unfortunately, no witty captions or clever stories. The AC2 pics have actually been up for awhile, I just never got around to linking them. The Sims Online pics are pretty recent. I play on Canyon Creek server, my Sim is named Speck. Look me up if you want to dance all night. Click Here for the AC2 Pics and Here for the Sims Online Pics

Sept 24, 2002 - Ultima Online: The Poor Cousin

I should probably feel a bit guilty about the very sparse updates, but I take solace in the fact I don't run a webpage based on news content. This is essentially an old style homepage from ye olde days of the web. It is mostly about me and my interest, thus there isn't a huge need for daily updates. I have finally gotten around to updating the Games Theory section with a 9 page feature about Ultima Online. I've grown very disenchanted with all the EQ clones that have been released and in development. So I've gone through UO's features and made a case for why developers should try to remake a game like Ultima Online. That means 2D clients, skill system with macroing, open pvp system, and tradeskills. Yes it sounds pretty scary, but the other options are more PVE games with tacked on PVP and shallow tradeskills and community tools. OSI would not have to do a great deal of work to produce UOv2.0. They essentially just need to think back to 1997, then start building UO again from the ground up, making sure this time to not make the same mistakes as their predecssors.

July 30, 2002 - Neverwinter Night Dreamin'

I've spent a bit of time lately mucking around with the NWN toolset. After having beat the game, which is very good, I decided what NWN lacked was tradeskills. So I set out to create a mining mod, which eventually evolved into a mining AND smithing mod. So now I'm putting up the mod for people to try. It's not completely done, its still essentially a beta version, but its functional enough anyone can build on it or just play around with it. You can read Mine/Smith mod Version 1.0 notes here and download the mod here.

July 7, 2002 - All Part of the Process

Yeah it has been a few months since the last update. That is all part of the great internet tradition though. If a webpage doesn't go for at least a few months without an update, its not old school. At any rate, I've finally had time to put together another journal entry, this time on the beginnings of Anarchy Online. Anyone who plays AO now, but didn't during the first couple months of release are probably going to wonder if there aren't two different AO games after reading about my experiences. I have to give Funcom their due, they have turned their game around by sheer force of will and a fair amount of luck. I now actually consider AO better than Dark Age of Camelot, which isn't necessarily a glowing endorsement. My only regret with this update is that I don't have any AO screenshots. However, I plan on adding some to the story later, although they won't be vintage shots or even pertain to the story directly, it will still make the journal entry asthetically pleasing.

April 28, 2002 - Half Assed Changes

I changed one of the links to a list of all my MMORPG characters, I might include my Diablo and Diablo 2 characters some day, as well as any other game I can think of that had any relevence to me. Eventually I hope to track the progress of my current main characters Wiggleswort the skald. I have a running chat.log of that character. Once a good log parser comes out, I will start updating the wiggleswort page with stats like total experience gain and damage output and so forth. The character list for the moment is just a resource to compliment the character journals.

April 22, 2002 - The Glory Days

I've done a bit of rearrangement, now that I have both the genesis of Ultima Online and Everquest up, I made a crappy little menu page for them. Also put up Anarchy Online and Camelot columns which will remain empty for now. I decided against Asheron's Call since I only spent a month in the game and never took any screenshots during that time anyway. Plus I can sum up my adventures in AC pretty easy. Logged in. Bashed a drudge, logged out, uninstalled. Speaking of screenshots, regrettably I lost all my early EQ beta and first month shots. I had to fill in with some pictures from my second and third characters. Those pics showed roughly the same scenes I was describing in the story. Let this be a lesson to everyone, take lots of screenshots and archive them.

April 17, 2002 - Into the Breach

Well I've added screenshots to my first MMORPG memoir. I plan to make a menu page for the characters page once I put up more journals. For now though the link only takes you to the UO accounts. I've only done the first two months, there was actually alot of information to convey in those two months more than I expected. The screenshots themselves are mostly a hodgepodge of shots, all taken from around the same time period as the journal, plus a few are from UO beta. Unfortunately I didn't take enough screenshots. If anyone has screenshots from Great Lakes that consist of anything discussed in story, let me know. I'd like to see them and use them if possible.

April 16, 2002 - Success

Ironically you'll see that I've accomplished what I set out to do, without even knowing what I wanted to do. As I never went live with this webpage when I made the previous update. I could have just deleted my old update and started from here, but for all I know this update will never go live either. Pressing on though, the good knews is I have sucessfully retrieved my old UO and EQ screenshots. So my character journal pages won't look so barren. Speaking of barren the webpage isn't made to to blow anyone away graphically or aesthetically. I'm taking a page from Shadowbane's book with the low quality graphics and design, however my excuse isn't to improve your framerate, I'm just a neophyte at html and photoshop. However to my credit I've done just about everything with just notepad.

April 13, 2002 - So it Begins

I've always toyed with the idea of a personal webpage, but I never had a clear idea what I wanted to do till now. I've decided to chronicle my characters adventures in online games. Over the past 5 years I've played all the major mmorpgs, unfortunately I didn't save many screenshots over the years. I do have a small cache though and hope to get a few of those pictures online. Many of my UO pictures are on a zip drive and my EQ pictures are on harddrives that aren't connected to anything. So its not going to be the easiest endeavor. I didn't take many AC shots, and none were ever saved for future viewing, but that is not a huge loss as my sojourn in Dereth lasted only my free month. The same can be said of AO. Since I still play DAOC, I do have plenty of screenshots from there.

I've also recently begun chat logging my DAOC adventures, and if a good log parser ever comes out, I can put up some stat information I've aquired over the past 10 levels or so. Statz0r unfortunately is a bit outdated, and the new in-game formatting of text doesn't work too well with the old parsing.

Eventually I want to catalog ideas I've had about game design, which I'll put in Game Theory. Not on things that have been beat to death like PVP or camping, but tackling issues that generally are overlooked. Like integrating macroing into the game or reasons why twinking is actually good for a game.