Category: Gaming

Observations,mistrust chronicles and exploits

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How to keep calm in Austria

In a few months, it will be a full decade since I first ventured into Austria and I must say that it’s been mostly good.  I’ve learned to navigate what is by far the most hostile environment I’ve lived in. Austrian are in the category of “Rude people” so I development anti-social strategies to avoid them in their own country.

Creative and aggressive use of technology helps me avoid the need to ask questions, this is key as do not speak German.  Uber and Amazon and occasionally FaceBook have provided excellent faceless services helping me get the exact things I want and need.

Cash is King

Money literally talks and avoids misunderstanding or aggression.  I also tend to pre-paid my stays at hotels and pay for taxis in advance, no arguments. I paid you, now shut the fuck up.

Plug-in Zone Out

I tend to use headphones triggering the natural human response of not trying to engage in any German conversations with me.

Of course, this forced isolation has it downside but I do love the Austrian countryside.

Beauty Austrian countryside, really rude people.

A decade of Stealth

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Privately flaccid

Do we act differently when we are aware someone is watching? Probably yes, but eventually we ignore it to take advantage of “free” services.

The next chapter in the Life is Strange Universe was touted as “a free game” but today it seems it’s just a free demo that leads into Life is Strange 2 ($39.99).  Fine, I can accept that but more and more the privacy notices have become so upfront that I swear it has an impact on my experience.

The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit
After accepting the privacy notice and actual choice, 
I proceeded to the game wondered around my character’s 
bedroom then kitchen, interacted with a few items 
wondered outside the house in the snow and then 
deleted the game.

It would be curious as to the analytics the publishers get from my underwhelmed one-time gaming experience.

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Lab time

Designing, setting up and maintaining a computer lab is always a great time for me.  Layer 1 is always a bit of a chore but getting the right team together makes it light work.

In 4-6 weeks I hope to have a decent backbone with an enterprise-class topology and a gaming rig at the core ready for Division 2.

Tom Clancy’s The Division – re-building an Infrastructure takes time.

Today’s attack was routed through Italy 82.102.21.145, a nasty little attempt.

Local File Inclusion in query string: tag=/etc/passwd
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Duties and Achievements

After 434 in-game days, I’ve finished the last story mode chapter of FallOut 4.  It’s been a nice long read and a pleasant range of endings.  As a completist, I’m drawn to the final few trophy hunts one of which is aptly named  “They’re not Dolls”.

So far my bobblehead collection contains  
Charisma
Energy weapons
Medicine
Melee
Perception
Repair
Speech
Explosive
Small Guns
Intelligence
Luck

Searching for

Sneak
Science
Big guns
Barter
Endurance
Lock Picking
Strength
Unarmed
Agility
Tom Clancy’s The Division – Pulling us back to NY

This is gaming

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Heading back to DC

March 15, 2016 – Ubisoft announced ongoing record sell- through sales for Tom Clancy’s The Division, which has grossed more than $330 million worldwide in its first five days.

March 15, 2019 – The company releases The Division 2 no doubt aiming to smash that disgusting sales figure.

So how do a company go about maintaining that track record and move millions of gamers to a new platform whilst attracting the new one?

Since the first Beta, I was hooked but rapidly cooled off after constantly getting melted in the DarkZone or just not finding a stable squad to run with.  I noted that they have changed some key features that killed my interest in the title.

DLCs are free for Year 1 – no more issues with not having the right environment. This is an honest move as it created a massive difference between gamers who played occasionally and the elites.

8-player Raids were added as the ultimate end-game, clearly a move from the Destiny Universe.

And the ultimate killer move, reward gamers who continue to play The Division 1 with stuff in Division 2.  This move alone pulls me back to NY to scrap around for rewards.

Heading back to DC

I’m not a Twitch subscriber but at this stage, I’m very tempted to start subbing one of my favourite Division streamers. Just hope I can still afford my child support.