Very busy. "Second Launch" should be wrapped up by the 24th. I'll be underwater until then. See ya.

Looks like once a month is about all I can handle for LJ posts these days. This morning I got braces to correct my increasingly crooked teeth. Eating feels weird, but otherwise they feel fine. This means my intention to go on the Zone diet this year is probably a bust. The restrictions of that diet are pretty strict, and eliminating nuts and hard fruit basically limits my intake to turkey and cottage cheese. Maybe next year.

The mind wobbles. The launch of the game didn't diminish the pressure at work in the least. The visibility and priority of the web site increased a bit, though, such that we got our hands on a good server engineer which allowed us to finish the RvR reporting pages we wanted to implement before launch day. I even got to do a Dev Diary about it, which is worthy if only because it allowed me to use schwerpunkt in a sentence. The whole studio pretty much shuts down for the last two weeks of the year, so not much is getting done beyond bug fixes and such. Still, we're already ramping up for January.

I managed to squeeze in one more practice, bringing the extremely rusty Generichead with me. Living in Europe definitely improved the appearance of his kit. Unfortunately, in the process I blew out both my swords, and discovered that my legs and helm need some work. I suppose maintenance never ends in this sport.

Let's see, what else... the cat had surgery for a chronic U.T. issue, the house god demanded a sacrifice of my time and money, again, I played through Fallout 3 and really enjoyed it, and I finished Xmas shopping. Oh, and I'm thinking about getting braces for my increasingly crowded teeth. I'm sure it'll be great fun. Feh.

For anyone who feels obligated to buy me a gift, I suggest a donation to my favorite charity. They have wisely made it very easy to do. Cheers.

Work did not get any less busy after launch. In fact, the web team now has the additional resources to actually get done all the things we wanted to do since last year. This is a good thing, though relaxation is not in my future.

One interesting political bit, I've been leaning Obama for a while now, though not conclusively voting for him. But it looks like I've finally found a candidate who shares my views on an incredibly difficult subject. From the debate last night:

This is an issue that—look, it divides us. And in some ways, it may be difficult to—to reconcile the two views. But there surely is some common ground when both those who believe in choice and those who are opposed to abortion can come together and say, "We should try to prevent unintended pregnancies by providing appropriate education to our youth, communicating that sexuality is sacred and that they should not be engaged in cavalier activity, and providing options for adoption, and helping single mothers if they want to choose to keep the baby." Those are all things that we put in the Democratic platform for the first time this year, and I think that's where we can find some common ground, because nobody's pro-abortion. I think it's always a tragic situation. We should try to reduce these circumstances.

Indeed. Abortion is a tragic act. But is it the business of the State? I think not, and it looks like Obama may be able to refocus some attention on solutions and alternatives, rather than the polarizing, inflexible stands we've been faced with in the political arena for decades.

At least, maybe he can. I suppose I'm a progressive at heart.

The launch is going extremely well, though the hours we worked this weekend were staggering. Sunday was the Collectors Edition launch, which was critical but small. Today opens up a bunch of new servers to the Standard Edition pre-order folks. It'll be a sizable uptick in the player base - many, many thousands of people are now playing WAR. Thursday is the final burst, with everyone else who purchased the game coming in. So far everything is smooth, with no major issues to resolve. We're all exhausted but very pleased.

If anyone's interested, I'm playing on the Order side of Wolfenburg server with a bunch of the folks from the studio.

Launched.

The doors open for the first public users at 7 a.m., Sunday the 14th. Less than four days. It's going to be an interesting weekend.

I'm told I "wear a beard well." What are the implications of that observation? Without the need for a fake beard I would have an easier time infiltrating a fundamentalist Muslim terrorist cell, or perhaps a gaming convention. I could save money on razors. I could stop getting carded. Anyway, it's off the day after launch.

Speaking of which, these days I work, and go home to log in so I can work some more. I woke up at 5 am so I could work, and I'll be doing the same before bed. I don't feel oppressed at all by these long hours. Everyone at the studio knew this time would come, and we all know that there is a finishing line just a few days ahead. The up side is that the game has been very well received and could be a huge success.

On the politics front, I couldn't care less about any of those bilious bastards. I only see strength without sense, appearance without substance, and argument without scholarship. A potential for either a black president or female vice president is as meaningful as a yellow ribbon magnet on your bumper. It's such a small thing compared to the much larger problem. At this point I'm only trying to figure out which one of them is going to sodomize the Constitution the least.

In a show of unity and foolishness, the entire Operations group is shunning the razor until launch. So, if you see me with a scraggly excuse for a beard you'll know why.

This weekend was a limited "preview" for Warhammer Online, which was mainly a server stress test. The hardware handled the massive influx of players just fine, and the public response to the game has been very positive. All signs point to this being a good year for Mythic.

Not a bad practice on Thursday. It took a couple days to arrange the time at work, but dropping out of practice completely until October would be unacceptable.

I counted a number of different problems, but they all came down to one major issue: I was disrespecting my opponents. Against Simon I basically stood there with my sword beside my head, inactive. Even worse, I legged Cunian twice and stayed at range, resulting in two well deserved defeats. It would have been easy to close the distance, control the center, and stack the deck heavily in my favor, but I played soft. Sparring time is too precious to waste on that old dilettante bullshit - fight or don't fight. Nothing in between.



On the up side, I learned that putting all that weight on my shield foot was limiting my offensive options, so I'm going to a more balanced stance. Also, I figured out the mechanics of a funky off-side shot that was used against me at Pennsic, and even managed to score with it once or twice. Now I just need to burn it into my muscle memory.

Less than a month until the game launches, but honestly there are far fewer days than that. Open Beta opens on September 7, which is essentially a minor launch of the game. Everything that needs to be ready for launch effectively needs to be ready for Open Beta. Just a little bit of stress around here.

The NDA was lifted yesterday, and the public response to the game has been overwhelmingly positive. People are complaining about little bugs here and there, which is understandable, but the game itself is very solid. Our subscriber projections for the first six months keep going up. It could be huge.

Check out the new cinematic trailer.

I've got my Pennsic videos online and ready for viewing.
You'll probably want to make a local copy (Right Click, Save as...)
unless you've got a fast connection.

http://movies.skutai.com/

If you have bandwidth, connectivity, or any other technical issue, you
should try my YouTube channel.

Enjoy.

I'm slowly converting the many videos Lanea and I took at Pennsic and posting them on my YouTube channel. The war itself was exhausting but full of fun. It has been called the Best Pennsic Ever and I can't disagree. There was more fighting than one could reasonably participate in, and the weather was perfect.

Anyways, later I'll post the less fuzzy videos on my site. I'm letting YouTube eat the initial bandwidth hit.

We announced the launch date of the game while I was at Pennsic. September 18. Now the whole studio has been transformed into a psychotic toy factory run by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum. Vacations have been canceled, hours extended... it's nuts.

It looks like I'm going to be pretty much out of action until October. But then, bliss.

... we're the class of 90, you and me!  That was our class song.  Actually, no it wasn't, but it should have been. 

Anyways, I think I'll play balynar 's game. 

I've been holding on to some very old fighting video for almost twenty years now, and I just got around to digitizing it. The whole video is pretty big and generally boring as hell, from Max and Bub walking through the Davey Crockett Animal Museum in Breezewood through all the fighting of the next two Pennsics. But, at least it's in a more durable format.

Now I'm in the process of cutting up the DVD into video of individual battles. The first two are up on my site. I think I'll break out that hawaiian tabard for the Lost Boys this year.

I've never actually given an interview before.  Check it out:  http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/38964

It was a phone interview, so the transcript's punctuation is a little choppy, but overall I thought it went well.  The web team is small and low profile compared to the game team, so getting a little attention from the player-base is actually pretty cool.

The studio is humming with brain power and clicking keyboards.  There's way too much to do and very little time left.  On the up side, the game is a ton of fun and I can't wait to see a billion people rushing into the servers to slaughter each other with merciless abandon.

It's 6:30 on a Saturday night and I'm at work.  Welcome to the game industry!

Well, at least I can fire Nerf darts at the interns.

8:30 - They turned off the air so we stole the data center team's giant fan.  Firing suction-cup Nerf darts at my steel buckler.  Why do I have my buckler in the office?  Sometimes interns need discipline.

9:03 - Someone changed the names of the character resistance values without telling us.  Ppthpthtpht!

10:04 - OK.  Wrappin shit up.

10:46 - It is... alive. God have mercy on our souls.

11:32 - Someone borked FTP access to the Herald server so I can't change one stinkin CSS file.  Waiting... waiting.  Two guys are in the lounge playing Rock Band.

12:35 in the a.m. - We are finally unborked.  Ftagn.

Sunday, August 3:
Lost Boys Kamikaze Battle, 2 hour resurrection

Monday, August 4:
Gates of Rome, 1 hour resurrection
Battle of Huan Er Tsul, 3 open field battles

Tuesday, August 5:
Woods Battle, 2 hour resurrection

Wednesday, August 6:
Town Battle, 1.5 hour resurrection
Mountain Pass Battle, 1 hour resurrection

Thursday, August 7:
Bridge Battle, 3 30 minute battles

Friday, August 8:
Field Battle, 5 open field battles

Sheesh...

"Live with commitment. With emotional content. Live whatever life you choose honestly. Give up this renaissance man, dilettante bullshit of doing a lot of different things (and none of them very well by real standards). Get to the guts of one thing; accept, without reservation or rationalization, the responsibility of making a choice. When you live honestly, you can not separate your mind from your body, or your thoughts from your actions.

In Dune, Frank Herbert called it 'the attitude of the knife,' cut off what's incomplete and say 'now it has finished, for it has ended there.' So finish it, and walk away, forward. Only acts undertaken with commitment have meaning. Only your best effort matters. Life is a Meritocracy, with death as the auditor."

I enjoy occasionally brushing up against the harsh, mercilessly critical tirades that float around the internet, such as that one from Gym Jones.  It puts a mote of motivation in the back of my mind that can be accessed when resistance is encountered and persistence is threatened.    Still, I have the luxury of indulging in dilettante bullshit.  Diversity and erudition are things of great value to me.  Thankfully, my survival doesn't depend on physical and mental persistence, unlike the professional mountain climbers and atheletes that seem to make up a large part of the Gym's clientele.

We're in a real crunch at work, and will likely remain there for the next several months.  The game... the game... one day it will launch and there will be much rejoicing.  Until then, however, I will be "living with commitment" to my job.  Not my first choice, frankly, but it beats the hell out of where I was working in February of last year.  Dull, dull, dull.  Anyway, the work crunch will probably be pushing my 45-50 hour weeks to 55-60 hours.  This should be an interesting experience, and one that I fully expected when I entered this industry.  The question is which of my hobbies will suffer the most, and does it really matter?  If they're really just hobbies, then the answer is no.

I enjoy fighting Felix (July 3, video #2).  His training has given him a precise defensive style, and he tends to attack into whatever maneuver I may be attempting as I approach.  This quickly reveals where my technique is weakest, and now that I'm filming my practices it gives me a record of things to work on.  For instance, lowering my defense when I attack from range, over-blocking, and useless crouching:



I think I'll start collecting these little moments to remember all the bad habits I need to jettison.  Speaking of which, the video clearly shows me bouncing around like a damn rabbit.  It's a useless waste of energy.  On the flip side, I felt pretty comfortable and strong in this stance:



I'll see if putting additional weight on my front foot will keep me from rapidly disengaging or getting pushed back onto my heels, which is yet another bad habit I learned from fighting long spear (where evasion is a virtue).

In other news, today is the fourth of July - the birth anniversary of our nation.  Even though there are many nations in North and South America, when you say "America kicks ass" everyone knows you're talking about the U.S. of A.  If you aren't living in this amazing country I pity you.  Seriously, we rock  the fuckin house.