Status Update

Current Status: Extremely busy. We’ve had a stressful past few days at work. Lots of things getting more complicated than they should, deadlines being pushed and pretty much everyone staying late. Hopefully it will end soon because I haven’t really had a chance to write something and there’s an article about Game Progression vs Game Victory I would like to discuss. In the mean time, I’ve been watching Adam Ruins Everything (and it’s awesome!) and I’ve been wondering, is it legal for employers in Israel to forbid employees to talk about their salary?


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Remember Remember…

This is usually the day we remember The Gun Powder Treason and Plot, a staple of civil disobedience and unrest. It is good to remember that it is not only our privilege but our duty to take responsibility for our state and how it’s run. And we’re not talking only about elections. It is also the day I remember Yitzhak Rabin, now dead for two decades, who is still, in my opinion, the last decent leader we had in this country. And no one has yet been able to fill his shoes. And this year, because the previous two were recurring topics of conversation between us, I remember Keren Embar. She wasn’t here last November too. I regret we can never have those conversations again. I don’t have time or presence of mind to write any more but check past November 5th post for ramblings of the same nature.


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In the Tomb of the Forgotten Spaceship

Throutek sat on his bunk in their provided accommodations in the survivors’ retreat. It was spartan but serviceable. After all, it has been of service to the people here for going on twenty years. At the current time, he simply didn’t care. His mind was occupied. He never expected finding his grandfather will be easy. But he also never expected that when he did, it would be a grave. He lay down, commpad in hand and recorded the happenings of the last day in the captain’s log. After Zimir and Jax investigated the engine piece, flew up to the bridge section further north. It was sunk in a river bed off the side of a small village punctuated by a tower. Found a graveyard with grandfather’s tombstone in it. Decided that he might be buried but the quest is not done. Still need to find out who he was and why he left. Spotted movement in the village. Went there and found a big cat-looking thing called a Nexu. Fought it off and it ran away. Started exploring the village. It seemed to have been built quickly and abandoned years ago. Continued to the main ship’s body. It was quite disassembled for parts. Climbed the ship and approached the bridge. Inside was dark but Jax provided light. Heard gut wrenching grinding noise from inside the bowls. Continued to the bridge. There were some B1 Battle Droid remains on the way. Found a well maintained toolbox in the entrance to the Continue Reading →


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Interesting Things on Steam

Descent: Underground… It’s Back!… It looks like a bunch of fans gathered together, got the license and are now bringing Descent back from the dead. And, hell, if it’s going to be as cool as Descent, as fun as Descent II and as smart as Descent3, I’m in. They even call themselves, Descendent Studios. I see what you did there. Now on early access for 25$. And, apparently, so is Aquanox, in Aquanox Deep Descent. There’s nothing much about it yet except saying it’s a reimagining of the original series and a return to the world. I haven’t played the originals but I was lead to believe they are pretty good shooters. Coming in 2017. Rocket League – Back to the Future Car DLC just because I have to. I might want to actually play the game now…


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חמש שנים

שבוע שעבר, יום שבת ליתר דיוק, חגגנו, מעין ואני, את היותנו נשואים חמש שנים וביחד כבר שש. לא עשינו משהו נורא גרנדיוזי; רק את הדבר שאנחנו בדרך כלל אוהבים לעשות – לבלות אחת בחברת השני. וגם לא כתבתי על זה עד עכשיו כי לא הרגשתי שיש לי משהו ממש לכתוב. מבחינתי, זה עוד יום בחיים שלנו. יום שצריך לציין כי סיבה לחגוג זה תמיד טוב. אבל… זה פשוט לא מרגיש כמו כל כך הרבה זמן. זה מרגיש כאילו רק אתמול היא עבדה ואני לא, כאילו רק שלשום אספנו את מוצארט מצער בעלי חיים, כאילו רק לפני שבוע היינו צפופים בדירת חדר וחצי במעונות הזוגיים של הטכניון ורק קצת לפני ארזנו את עצמנו לקפיצה זריזה לקפריסין ועמדנו מול שתי נשים זרות לנו לחלוטין אבל שערכו לנו טקס משמעותי יותר ממה שכל רבי היה יכול לספק. וחוץ מזה, אני לא ממש רואה את זה כסוג של Achievement Unlocked. חמש שנים, אם כבר משתמשים באנלוגיה של משחק מחשב, צריך להיות כמו הסיום של האזור הראשון, משהו שכל מי שמתחיל עושה. דברו איתי אחרי 10, 20 ו-40. למה? כי, מבחינתי, להיות עם מעין זה קל. זה משהו שאני עושה כמו לנשום. זה משהו שאם אני אפסיק לעשות אז על הדרך אני כנראה גם אפסיק לנשום. אז כן, חמש שנים וכל זה. נדבר שוב עוד חמש.


Posted in Maayan, Me, No Category, Thinking Out Loud by with 1 comment.

Interesting Things on Steam

Smite is the third biggest MOBA of them all and some say it is the most interesting. I haven’t played it myself but I’ve heard it called more accessible, easy to manage and more fun to play than DOTA2 or League of Legends. It’s free as per usual but now you can have it with Steam achievements. Mars Colony: Frontier looks like a serious simulation of martian colonisation. Its tags also include RPG and Adventure so I hope it won’t be a NASA level serious simulation but something arcady enough and more enjoyable. Available now for 10$. Space Xonix is… pretty much like it sounds. It’s Xonix but in space. And completely bonkers. You claim territory just like in Xonix but then there are lasers and fireballs and lava and… just watch the video. Available now for 2$. Transformers: Devastation is a very colourful spectacle brawler starring our favourite set of Autobots and Decepticons and while all of these games always look like a kind of “mash buttons for glorious mass murder” simulator, it is so far getting great reviews from whomever plays it and I still have an affection for Transformers, even after Michael Bay. Coming Soon. Velocity Stream is an interesting concept of a space-like racer with crazy tracks because it is one player’s job to lay down those tracks in real time as the race progresses. I can think of a few problems with this but the idea is neat. I’ll wait for reviews. Available now for 15$. Alien Robot Monsters looks like Continue Reading →


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The Less Interesting Telegram

אז טלגרם מנסים להיות טוויטר ואני בודק איך זה יכול לעבוד. אם יש לכם טלגרם, אפשר לעקוב אחרי עדכונים תכופים יותר כאן. עוד לא יודע איך לשלב את העדכונים האלו פה אבל בטוח מישהו יוציא תוסף בקרוב.


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In the Midst of a Tropical Shitstorm

Came into the Cholganna system and nearly ran into an asteroid field but got ahead of it. Found some energy signatures on the surface and floating droid craft debris. Ancient things, Clone Wars age fighters and bombers. Which make me wonder what really happened to the Sa Nalaor. She obviously didn’t just run aground. Sensors detected the planet was about to be eaten by a nebula so we buttoned down the hatches and headed down. Landed on a beach in the equator. Tasted the atmosphere, squashed the sand and then took off in search of energy signatures. Found a downed escape pod and something else on the other side of the planet. Took it down next to the escape pod. Trimmed the trees a bit but nothing too bad. Found a cloud of green insects outside. As they started biting, I ran for the escape pod. Trip lit up a stick and started waving it about. Naritt lip up the canopy. Jax fired into the cloud. Zimir ran back to the ship. Green things annoyed me but I went in. Found the pod’s designation: 34-BESH. Zimir came up with the great idea to fire up the ship’s thrusters to burn all the insects. It worked, they all blew away. We found glowing green things stuck to the inside of the pod. Because of the hurry, I tried to pull the memory core but couldn’t get it. But it did become obvious that this fits the description of a Sa Nalaor Continue Reading →


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Interesting Things on Steam

The Flock is an asymmetric “shooter” in which everyone plays a member of the flock trying to get an artifact, mark some beacons and survived without getting eaten by the other members of the flock before the round ends. It’s a rather basic gameplay loop and rather short rounds but the gimmick of the game is the limited population. Every time a member of the flock dies, a counter ticks down. When it ticks down to zero, the game will cease to function. It’s an interesting premise of planned obsolescence — as the developers put it, every multiplayer game winds down after a year or two, we’re just actively planning for it — and it kind of negates the idea of buying it later for very cheap. Right now, the responses are pretty mild with some even claiming this is not interesting enought to get enough players to play it for long enough to actually see the counter reach zero. My current stance on it is that I don’t really play multiplayer only games and this one does seem to be very light on content. It’s out now. Super Mutant Alien Assault is dubbed “The Citizen Kane of Super Crate Box Clones”. If you don’t know Super Crate Box, go right ahead. (You might also want to check out Muffin Knight). I’ll wait… Back? Good. From what is currently available, it does look like they’re taking it another step further, with more interesting weapons, special boss monsters, more level variety and distinct Continue Reading →


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Space Station Lives of Others

Jax decided to check the public records for any info on the Sa Nalaor. Naritt went looking for rumors and scuttlebutt about the Sa Nalaor. An Isotech message pod hit an Yiyar clan ship. Went to dig some info on the ship that got damaged. It’s the Nightflyer, the Yiyar ship. Apparently, an Isotech ship snatched up the damaging message pod and flew away. Saw Rodian spying, gave chase, caught him and engaged. Naritt joined. Subdued Rodian. Cops showed up. Everyone escorted away. Rodian was covered by a bunch of other questionable folks and we had to let it go. Went to meet Shira, Reom’s sister, and escort her to the Isotech offices. Found some data on where the Sa Nalaor is. Reom asked us to find it and grab the tech on it as it was worth a lot. Jax tried to hack the pod but it didn’t work out so well for him. Got an advance on the mission payment of 1500 to use for supplies. Called to the hanger to pick up the droid. Went there and found the droid and four Rodians that didn’t really want to leave the bot alone. We shot them up expertly and rescued the droid, and some equipment too. Got the coordinates from the droid and started flying towards the target. Took a misstep on the final jump but made it alright to Cholganna, one final stop before final destination. “20 minutes to destination…” The computer notification beeped and Throutek closed Continue Reading →


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