Kathunter's Personal Space

"In a genre where trolls, night elves and orcs fight to control middle earth, Gravity Entertainment's anime-based MMORPG seems like the black sheep of the pack. In this light-hearted whimsical title from one of the largest online gaming companies in South Korea, Ragnarok Online combines simplified RPG controls, bloodless combat, anime art and addictive social communities to create a truly unique online experience."

[via Lycos: by kathunter]

I could not possibly be more proud of being a "Frag Doll" than I was this weekend. My girls owned the entire Black Arrow competition without losing a single round. We had to schedule follow up challenges to find teams to compete with the FD ladies, and still left PAX nearly undefeated (note: in 2 days of playing, I think they did indeed loose 4 rounds total; they rock so hard you can't even sing to their tune). Pictures soon -- goodness knows there were tons of photos to document the entire event.

I love you ladies; I have never been witness to female gamers representing so soundly, though they do every day. If anyone still believes we were indeed born to clean the floors, this weekend you certainly lived up to those expectations.

So the Frag Doll girls are heading to PAX for our first public competition. The four girls who will be competing are some of the meanest type-A shooters I have ever run across. Brilliant to watch. We had a practice this evening, and I had my ass handed to me on a silver platter. But that is actually ok because I have been on RS3 mainly, and had not played a few of these maps in Total Combat mode yet.

I finally bought another XBox, so until Dave asks for his back ;) I have set up an internal LAN system link so I can run through all the maps, find the best grenade spots, and the sneaky sniper hideouts. Having only played console FPS games seriously for a month now, I have a total new respect for you guys. I am determined to get the whole thing down, from optimizing my point of view to dancing while shooting, or I will die trying.

A lot.

"Artificial Life is hoping to launch the new game later this year, on the latest 3-G mobile phones.
All virtual girls will look the same - but each girl will behave differently - depending on how much money is spent on her.
On top of a general subscription, men will be charged a fee to buy flowers and gifts for the virtual girlfriend.
In return, she will introduce them to different aspects of her life, like letting them meet her female friends - also electronic imagES"

[VIA BBC NEWS]

"If you felt teased by her sexy Girls of Gaming cover, then this new feature art is going to blow your mind. Rayne is 100%25 topless and smokin' hot in the October issue of Playboy magazine. This is a first in videogame history and trust us when we say that Rayne does not disappoint."

[via BloodRayne site]

After G4oria awards, I finally "got" games=boobs. Fine. That is not going to change anytime soon. But I am a little surprised Majesco went for the Playboy spread. It is a great PR stunt, and will sell copies of the game, but everyone has been walking on media eggshells since Columbine if not before. I am curious to see how this plays out in the press.

Gamespy is having a Sims 2 day. Check out Dave Kosak's hands-on of the first Sim's title I actually plan on purchasing.

"I had a busy weekend. I got married, had a kid, then another. I got a job, lost it, got another, and got promoted. I bought a new refrigerator, redid the bathroom, and learned to cook. I bought a new house, renovated it, and then set it on fire. Twice.

"Nintendo has patented key console online gaming features. Specifically, it has received patents on things such as player league tables, voice communications and online gaming host services. While the article doesn't address how Nintendo will use these patents, it makes you wonder if this is the first step for Nintendo to become a major player in the online gaming market."
[via Slashdot]

I am back on a crazy schedule trying to make up time. I remember sleeping yesterday at 10am. I had dinner this morning at 6am, took a nap at 2pm, woke up at 7:30pm. My head is spinning and I am not exactly sure where I am.

"800 MB Patch adds new Hunter class. The patch will also contains boats and zeppelins for character transport%2C a new level cap raised to 55 and a wide variety of item stats have been changed. Players can now share quests with an entire party%3B new micro-dungeon designs have been introduced and a large amount of general and class specific tweaks and enhancements applied."
[via GameDaily]

OK, who is going to Burning Man this year? Anyone? I have cut my trip down this year, and hope to go for 4 days rather than the entire week if I can find a ride, but I am pretty sure I am going to go. Of course I have not packed or thought about where the poles to my tent are, but these are minor details.

Other events? the :Frag Doll: girls will be at PAX in Seattle the 28th and 29th, and I will also be at the Women's Gaming Conference in Austin September 8-10. If you happen to be at anyof these events, please let me know so I can say hola.

In case you do not read comment threads, there is an argument going on over the merits of Doom 3, here.

I started a club on 1up to exchange playing schedules and LIVE tags. Join!

1635 video game commercials from 2002 - present, the majority coming from Japan.
[via souris]

Monday morning, and still no XBox. I have to wait two more days before I can file a missing bag report and replace everything. Thanks Dae for letting me borrow your XBox. Of course you are coming back from New York today and don't know that I took it, but I am sure you would have wanted me to have it ;)

I knew not to check my XBox, I knew it, but no, Cranky and Bella said it would be ok, and I had two laptops with me, so I decided to take the plunge, and let US Airways transport the machine no one has been able to pry out of my hands for months. As soon as I put the fragile stickers on my "G-Pak Xbox Organizer and Travel Case", somewhere deep inside, I knew I would never see her again.

Today I flew home to San Francisco, but my baby has not made it back yet. I have work to get done tonight, so it was a major inconvenience, but overall I was ok. I can replace the case, the machine, and the 7 games I was carrying tomorrow easy enough, but then I thought about the hard drive. Hundreds of hours of my life is stored on that machine. All my KotOR games, my Rainbow Six mission that took me forever to get through, my Halo games, Splinter Cell missions. I do not have the heart to start over. Please, please let it be on a later flight.

I had this idea once. The idea was this. You might one day meet someone who just gets you. And then you fall in love. Then one you day you actually meet someone who does gets you, but you don't fall in love.

Then you meet someone who has no idea what the world to do with you, and you fall head over heals in love. But don't expect to see that brother at the dinner table because he knows you are a crazy bitch. And the thing is... he is right! You are one crazy lady. (A cute crazy lady, but your list of references is a little dusty at best.)

So you decide it just is all quite silly. So you change the ball plan and decide to do the chick on chick thing. But who in their right mind would ever, ever want to date a woman?

There is nothing left, but you and your cigarette. You leave your hotel room, and play a couple hours of Black Arrow, and pretend you are contributing to some strange messed up society, and decide that the disappointment does not really matter, because your ideas were a little far fetched to begin with.

Maybe you should stick to killing aliens. In both worlds, camping begets a bite, but at least in my world, I can change servers after.

"Warner Bros. has expanded its interactive gaming capabilities by acquiring video game producer Monolith Productions, the company said Thursday. Monolith, which has created 'Alien vs. Predator 2,' 'Tron 2.0' and 'No One Lives Forever,' will become part of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, which licenses videogames, co-publishes games and produces multiplayer online games, including 'The Matrix Online.' Terms of the deal, which will be official Oct. 1, were not disclosed. Jason Hall, senior vp of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, co-founded Monolith Productions in 1994 and was recruited by Warner Bros. while the two companies developed 'The Matrix Online.' Hall does not personally have a stake in the company, according to a press release issued Thursday. "

[via Hollywoodreporter.com]

ok - I am using a new XBox LIVE tag - x7x Katscratch. Here you can witness my weak attempts to shoot at things. Also, you can reach me via my 1up blog page -- http://deadkat.1up.com/

Hip Interactive Corp. has completed its acquisition of videogame publisher Arush Entertainment (aka World Entertainment Broadcasting Corp.). Hip issued 871,312 shares of its common stock to cover the purchase, 55.607 of which will be held in escrow for up to one year. During that time the principal shareholder in Arush can purchase the escrowed shares for $1.50 apiece.
Also, Hip shall be obligated to pay additional purchase price consideration based on an earn-out arrangement through the period ended March 31, 2007.
Under terms, Hip gets rights to all of Arushs projects, including the Playboy: The Mansion and Fear Factor: Unleashed properties. Previously, Hip was on-board as the North American publisher of both titles.

[via biz.GameDaily]

The only good part about spending a lot of time in bed in a hotel (if you are as single as I am), is the cable. I don't have cable at home, which in San Fran means no channels, so when I am out of town, I am fixated on the TV.
It has been days of convincing infomercials, 90210, Growing Up Gotti and FOX News. I had forgotten all the pleasures my TV could bring me when I unhooked the Xbox. Truly amazing.

According to a story in the Sunday edition of the U.K.s Daily Telegraph, Ubisoft has emerged as the leading candidate to purchase Eidos plc.
The piece states that managers from Ubisoft have been in attendance at the Eidos headquarters for the past week trying to complete a deal, but may be up against internal competition from Eidos, as the story adds that Eidos chief executive officer Mike McGarvey is seeking financial backing for a buyout bid. Any deal is likely to be valued at around 215 million pounds (approximately $396.0 million U.S.).

[via biz.GameDaily]

I recently joined up with a new Xbox LIVE girls clan, and as soon as Rainbow Six Black Arrow came out (our first competition title) I have to head back east to see my family.

To say that my mom lives in the middle of nowhere is giving the location too much credit, and needless to say, broadband access is not an option. It is not even a figment of the cable company’s imagination. They gave us some weak excuse about how much money it would cost to run 20 miles of cable to a trailer in Dacusville. Whatever. I think they are just haters.

Regardless, I have to find a way to practice with my team this week, and not many Internet Cafes have TV’s to jack into, so I book a hotel on hotwire for the week. Come to find out, their broadband is not fully installed in the hotel rooms, and Hotwire couldn’t give a flip and have no intentions of returning my money.

Now, add to all this, I can’t drive when I am here. I only have a motorcycle license, no car license, and it is way to expensive to rent a chopper out here, so I am stuck at the hotel most of the day. After a little digging around, I find they have one broadband connection the lobby area (heh heh heh)

SO our new plan is to throw my sister’s old TV into the back of the wagon, plug it up in the hotel lobby and hook up my X-Box. Voila! I can now play RS3-BA on LIVE tomorrow with my girls. At this point, I am so frustrated with this entire trip, I dare anyone at the hotel to say anything to me at this point.

(I did not mention the fact I have a 101 degree fever again and can’t get an early flight home to see the doctor, and the security guard is tired of taking me to Bi-Lo in the hotel van to buy more medicine)

But... if you happen to be in Greenville, SC and are interested in a little free gaming time, stop by the Holiday Inn on Augusta Road. I will am sure I will be easy to spot.

Some physicists argue, in every decision we make in life, an alternate reality is created. Chance not intelligent design. Many different lives are lived on our behalf. I wonder if this is the one I would have been happiest in.

I am assuming everyone took the day off work to play Doom 3, so I won't bother posting.