Tag: Adept

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A little Bump and Grind

I’ve spent the past few days in the game reward loop earning points on Tom Clancy’s The Division Global Event.  It’s an excellent way to keep gamers playing with the hope of finding loot and rewards.

I ended up aiming for 50 mixed caches as my goal at the end of GE which should increase my chances of getting something special.  My cache opening ceremony will probably take 20-30 minutes just to re-organise the inventory.

Here’s what on the Wishlist

AlphaBridge Classified    Holster
Striker Classified        Gloves and Holster
Lone Star Classified      Mask, Knee Pads and Holster
D3-FNC Classified         Holster
Reclaimer Classified      Gloves and Knee Pads

This is absolute gibberish to non-Division gamers and like all acronyms and industry talk, it inadvertently divides people.  I could actually meet a Division player and have a full decent genuine conversation dispute the demographic or real-life profile.  Words like grind, face tanking, exotics and caches mean a totally different thing here.

This is what makes a game successful, I don’t see nothing wrong with a little Bump and Grind.

Tom Clancy’s The Division – Rush for loot

1st day of exercise for 50 days….feels good though.

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Re-inventing yourself

The serious business of Gaming has not gone unnoticed by the global powerhouses like Microsoft.  Gaming is one of the six massive investment areas that the tech giant is focusing on and it makes me laugh when individuals jab at my lifelong indulgence on this “not so niche” area of computing.

Source: Microsoft

In the meantime, this weekend I took some time to level up my 3rd character in readiness for the next Global Event in The Division. It’s always fun starting from scratch and it gives me a good excuse to opt-out of real life.  I was joined by a few friends along the way and avoided toxic or youth gamers.

Tom Clancy’s The Division – Ready for the Global Event

In a way, I guess we re-invent ourselves in real life to suit the situation and our personal goals all the time.

 

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Solo runs

My love for single player games continues; this skillset is particularly fruitful in a real-life Person versus Environment (PvE) situation. This morning I arrive at Gatwick Airport knowing I had just one hour to get to the terminal gate.

Navigating major airport terminals during summer holidays is challenging if you don’t anticipate the delays and have a countermeasure in mind. Also, any Network specialist will tell you that the last ‘hop’ is often the most problematic.

Airport terminal log – target Gate arrival time 11:20

10:30 arrive at Gatwick by train
10:40 arrive at terminal monorail shuttle 
transfer (Primary service)
Delay 1 - (Service failure)Terminal train 
out of service transferred to slow buses.
10:45 arrive at terminal
10:50 Checked-in luggage (I don’t normally do this)
10:55 Arrive at security check
Delay 2 - (Slow Service) Carry-on luggage 
selected for ‘random’ check
11:05 Cleared to proceed to gateway
Delay 3 - Gate allocated at 15 mins walk 
11:10 Arrive at Gate sweating and panting
11:30 Actually boarding plane
Delay 4 - Sitting on runway 
waiting for flight slot
12:14 Flight actually takes off

Flight departure scheduled for 11:55 and there no compensation or anything I can do about it except bitch and blog.

Tom Clancy’s The Division – the downside of Server side gaming
Hazards and delays avoided
Heavy or cumbersome hand luggage 
Travel document misplaced 
Gadgets misplaced 
Fast steady pace walk pass all NPCs 
(In real life - families, groups,tourists, 
airport staff walking the opposite way and 
folk who arrived early)
Shopping queues 
No window shopping 
No phone calls
No App checking
No SMS or VoIP 
No other players
...single player runs are definitely faster

Mission accomplished – Side effects

Elevated blood pressure 
Massive adrenaline surge
No time to think
No last minute detours
Hight chance of verbal conflict

Countermeasure

Arrive 2 hours ahead of time. 
(Problem: 4 out 5 EasyJet flights delayed)
ABSOLVER – Time to relax

Chaos can raise its head rapidly. Are you prepared?

Winter version is similar with the added bonus of being able to use your coat to conceal a second carry-on bag avoiding the additional fee….whoops, did I say that out loud.

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Simple Gameplay

The Directive on security of network and information systems (the NIS Directive) was adopted by the European Parliament on 6 July 2016 and entered into force in August 2016. Member States have to transpose the Directive into their national laws by 9 May 2018.

Naturally, this law has been sidelined in favour of the more popular GDPR which was entered into force on the 25 May 2018.

Maybe it’s “too” technical or doesn’t have a good acronym. I’ll just call it DENIS (DirectivE on security of Network and Information Systems) to keep it simple.

Two new Laws that just made things a little bit more complicated, but wait, there’s a shortage of InfoSec experts and salaries are not rising in proportion to the work, and wait, the InfoSec profession is 90% male or has all the industry reports suddenly fallen to the bottom of the agenda.

Cute little single player game INSIDE has got me laughing and panicking at the same time as I play the role of a boy escaping Big Brother….it kinda feels like Orwell’s 1984 vision.  The simple game design is what makes it an absolute winner in the era of 20 bottom combination moves.

INSIDE – Simple but brilliant gameplay
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Erase yourself

Probably inspired by GDPR, some Global vendors are following the tracks of social media giants by making it easy to download ALL your data.

It will take seven (7) days but I just put in my request for info to Apple hoping for some surprises.  There will be many of us who state that we have “nothing” to hide and don’t care what information is held.

You don’t know what you don’t know

https://privacy.apple.com

Self-discovery is always a healthy thing gives you the power to decide to delete ALL, correct or reset.

Basic discovery

App Store, iTunes Store, 
iBooks Store and Apple Music activity
Apple ID account and device information
Apple Online Store and Retail Store activity
AppleCare support history, repair requests and more
Game Center activity
iCloud Bookmarks and Reading List
iCloud Calendars and Reminders
iCloud Contacts
iCloud Drive files and documents
iCloud Mail
iCloud Notes
iCloud Photos
Maps Report an Issue
Marketing subscriptions, 
Marketing downloads

 

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Coming out of retirement

Well, I’ve finally earned the FarCry 5 Platinum after some cheesy Arcade gameplay.  Anyhow,  it’s back to FallOut 4 to finish the story while I wait for Detroit: Becoming Human in 20 days.

Far Cry® 5 – Chessy Arcade gameplay