HaX0red

So get this.

Back in January, as I mentioned at the time, I cancelled my WoW account.  Actually, that should be accounts (plural) because, like many gamers, I always had a couple.  One was my "main" account, and the other was used either by my wife (on the uncommon occasions when she played) or by me for mule characters and the like.  Anyway, cancelled them both back in January.

So, imagine my surprise when my wife forwarded to me an e-mail she'd gotten last week (note well:  "last week" as in "late April") from Blizzard saying that her account had been banned, for disruptive activities or somesuch similar nonsense.  When she first told me about it, my first reaction was that it surely was some kind of phishing attempt.  But when I read the actual e-mail, it looked real and didn't ask for anything.  Then, when I tried to log in to the account through their website, I discovered that the message was legit.

Banned!  Accused of buying/selling game items for "real world" money!

I'm going to try to make a long story short here, so I'll gloss over some of the details.  I immediately sent Blizzard an e-mail saying, in essence, "no WAY!!!11!"; a few days passed; they must have believed me or whatever; the account got reinstated; I was able to log on to their account management website.  I then discovered that the account had in fact been reactivated about a week earlier by someone using a free Burning Crusade 10-day trial (like I said, she never played too much, so BC was never activated on that account).  There were a couple (literally) of days left on the trial, so I logged in (after sitting through the inevitable/interminable patching process) and discovered a new character (i.e., one that I am certain neither my wife nor I created) holding a fair amount of coin (with a lot more in its mailbox from the Auction House) and piles and piles and piles of mithril and gold ore.  Some of the pre-existing (i.e., legitimate) characters on the account also had piles of mithril ore in their mailboxes too.

Seeing all of that demonstrates conclusively that this wasn't just some kind of weird glitch in Blizzard's system.  Rather, some person actually got access to our account and used it for apparently (and in Blizzard's opinion, definitely) nefarious purposes.  I'm going to call that right there about the damnedest thing I've ever had happen to me (or someone I directly know) relating to computer or online account security.

Whoever used the free trial to reactivate the account had to have two pieces of information:  the account name and the associated password.  The name:  fine.  It's an e-mail address.  Not a "main" address, or even one that's commonly used, but still.  Not exactly super-secret information.  But the PW?  What the hell?  I knew it, my wife knew it, and that should have been it.  I know with absolute certainty that we never shared a WoW password with any third party, either intentionally or by falling for some kind of scam.  We aren't exactly airheads about that kind of thing.  She even works in a field where computer security is of extreme importance, for crying out loud.

I'd pay a fair amount of money to know how this happened, but I'm sure I never will.  So, I will remain more or less beside myself in the near term, and wonder what other pieces of our personal security may have been compromised as well.

Carriers at War

From about the mid '80s through the late '90s, my main hobby was, hands down, computer gaming.  No other pastime or interest came close.  I started on the Commodore 64 -- Pool of Radiance, Gunship, and Red Storm Rising remain among my all-time favorites to this day.  When I moved on to the PC, my favorites were generally the usual suspects: the Civilization games, Master of What-have-you, X-Com.

As much as I loved "strategy" games, for some reason I tended to pass on the full-fledged war games.  There were certainly exceptions to that tendency; the original Harpoon and Steel Panthers being two of the most notable.  In general, though, I had a strong preference for fantasy- or SF-themed games.

So, overall, it's not too surprising that I missed out on one of the big war game series of that era, Carriers at War by SSG.  It's too bad, in a way.  Looking back, it seems like it would have been a natural for me.  Naval + WWII = Win.

Sometimes, though, you get second chances -- of sorts.  Back in '07, SSG released a shiny new installment to this venerable (by industry standards) series.  I was completely out of the hobby at that point, so the new release entirely escaped my notice.  It has only been in the last year or so that I've found my interest in computer wargaming to be perking up.  And, to make a long story (slightly) shorter, it was about a month ago that I decided to pull the trigger and download it from Matrix Games.

This was not an inconsequential decision for me.  Fifty bucks is past my impulse buy threshold (usually) -- so I mulled this one over for quite a while.  I ended up giving it a try because I've been itching to find a computer war game that I can sink my teeth into, and I figured this one might fit the bill, especially since I've been on a Midway kick lately.  My bottom-line reaction:  I'm sorry to say that I'm having quite a bit of "buyer's remorse."

Not that it's a bad game; in fact it's a well-done product.  It has, however, almost completely failed to "grab" me.

It is an extremely understated game.  There's not an ounce of anything you might consider calling "flash" associated with this title.  In a vacuum, that is not at all a problem.  It becomes something of an issue, however, when I consider that I paid $50 in 2010 for a game that looks like this.  If it had been $35, I wouldn't even be mentioning it.  If I had gotten a nice printed manual, I might not be mentioning it.  But, in fact, it was $50 for a no-physical-product download, so that's how it has to be judged.

OK, so there's no (or very little) sizzle, so the product has to live or die completely on its steak.  And that's fine; that's more or less what I expected, and after all, it was the anticipation of said steak that got me punching my credit card number into Matrix's site.  The game could have blown me away with its content, and I would have been delighted to have gotten it at the price.  Sad to say, that absolutely hasn't happened.

I don't know if I can put my finger on the problem, exactly.  The basic issue, I think, arises from the fact that I just feel too far removed somehow from the events unfolding on my monitor.  It's partly due, I'm sure, to the level of detail the game presents me with.  A lot of things feel too glossed over or abstracted.  (I usually have no idea of exactly what's going on with my CAP, for example.)  On a closely related note, the gameplay decisions feel so broad brushed that I never feel like I have real control over what's happening.

I do not want to micromanage the firing of every AA gun in my TFs, but it does seem like there should be a middle ground between that level of silliness and what CaW is giving me.  I'm not going to give up on it just now, but unless things turn around dramatically, I don't think I'll be sinking too many more hours into it.

I'm glad companies like SSG exist.  I'm glad games like CaW can still be made.  Unfortunately, this particular one hasn't gone over too well with me, particularly given its price point.  I'm feeling a little burned by it.

Must... resist...

I am itching to buy this.

And not just the computer version.  I am battling a wracking physical compulsion directing me to go out and buy the tabletop rules and about three or four 15 mm armies.

Until about ten days ago, I never had the slightest interest in ancient warfare.  Then I happened across this review, which led me to the above-linked site, which led me to additional research, etc., etc.  Bottom line:  the Wanting Mind has kicked in.  Hard.

Pretty, pretty hoplites.

But!  2010 is the Year of Warmachine.  And, I have an entire Flames of War panzergren army to paint.  "Have" as in have.  As in bought and paid for.  As in the boxes are strewn around my office right now.

So.  I will be thankful for what I have.  I will work on the projects I have already undertaken before I bite off any new ones.  I will resist.

Today.

WoWpocalypse: the Final Chapter (again)

Account canceled.  Le sigh.

Not dead yet!

So, every so often, I have a relapse.

I am speaking, in this instance, of my weakness for MMORPGs generally and World of Warcraft specifically.  There is something in the nature of these games that grabs me right at the core of my psyche.

So, anyway, very shortly after my last post back in November, I re-activated my WoW account, which had been dormant for almost exactly a year at the time.  Picked a particular character, a mid-30's Tauren Hunter, and started playing him.  And playing.  And playing.   Got him up to 70 (my level cap, since I don't own the latest expansion) and kept playing and playing and playing.

It is absolutely no exaggeration to say that immediately after restarting my account, all I wanted to do was play WoW.  That's the way these games work on me.  When I'm playing them, they consume literally every second of my leisure time -- I don't want to do anything else.  (I haven't picked up a paintbrush, for example, since I finished my last batch of tanks.)  I certainly don't want to write blog posts.

But, then Christmas came, and you know how that goes.  I had to scale back my playing considerably due to all the holiday-related shenanigans.  Plus, I was out of town (and thus, completely cold turkey) for a few days.  And here's the funny thing about the way these games work on me:  when I'm playing, all I want to do is play; but when I can't play all the time, don't really want to play at all.  If you follow me.

So, bottom line:  Christmas kind of killed it for me.  I've barely played since the out-of-town trip I mentioned and I'm completely cool with that.  I've turned a big part of my attention back to "real" games.  There are a couple of things coming up that I'm really excited about (including, especially, a UPS package that's scheduled to arrive today!), and I plan to write more about them soon.  Onward!

Well hello there

I am on the internet.

After thinking about it for a few days, I have decided that I am precisely narcissistic enough to start blogging about my gaming interests and activities. I have no illusions that people are going to actually read this -- and I'm not even entirely sure I want anyone to.

I'm doing it anyway, though.

A little about me: I'm a 40-something dude living a pretty nice life in the USA. I've got a great wife and a great kid (pre-schooler). I've spent a lot of years in school and had a lot of different jobs (including some military time), but right now, for various reasons, I'm a full-time stay-at-home dad.

And, I'm a gamer. I'd call myself "avid," and I guess I am, but the reality is that I spend more time thinking about games and reading about games than I spend actually playing games. This blog is something of an outgrowth of that fact -- i.e., another way for me to think about games.

"But what games, Greywing?" I can almost hear the throngs demanding. Well, you imaginary throngs are being pretty cheeky to start demanding stuff midway through my first post. But, anyway, here's a brief synopsis of my current (and past) top interests:

Computer games: I never was much interested in "video" games, but PC games -- now that's a different story. In fact, for years and years, that was my number-one hobby. I mainly went for strategy titles. My favorites include the usual suspects: Civilization, Master of Orion, Master of Magic. My all-time favorite is probably X-Com (sweet, sweet X-Com).

I also have/had a soft spot in my heart for RPG's, going back to SSI's "gold box" D&D games. So, I was a natural target for the MMO scene. I started playing EverQuest in 1999 and it sort of swallowed my leisure time whole for the next six or seven years. I dabbled with City of Heroes and (of course) WoW, but no game ever grabbed me the way EQ did (there's no time like the first time).

I got over it though. I've been clean of MMO's for months. Not saying I'll never play again, but I'm honestly not interested in that kind of thing right now. Beyond that, in general, I just don't spend too much time with the computer these days; I've been much more focused on real-space gaming for the past few years. And that brings me to:

Miniature games: This category is probably my top interest at the moment. I am hampered in this pursuit, however, by the fact that I just don't enjoy painting all that much. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a "necessary evil" -- I like it, I guess, I just wish I liked it more. I love having miniatures that I've painted, but I don't love the process of getting there, if that makes any sense. Plus, I'm not very good at it. I have a basic grasp of and use three techniques: base coating, dry brushing, and washing. That's pretty much it. And, to top it off, I'm amazingly slow at it.

To recap:

• Not crazy about doing it;
• Not very good at it;
• Extremely slow.

But, still: I love my little soldiers/tanks/anthropomorphic dinosaurs/etc.

I know I'll talk a lot more about this stuff in later posts, so I'll leave it at that for now.

Role-playing games: I've been playing D&D since I was about 9. (That was the '70s, kids!) I loved 3.5. I ... do not love 4th Edition. I remain pretty bummed about that whole thing.

But! All is not lost. I feel roughly the same about Pathfinder as little girls feel about unicorns. I'm lucky to be in a solid group with a standing Pathfinder Society game every other week. We've also recently revived a very long-running Mutants & Masterminds campaign that had been dormant for a couple of years. More on both of those things later.

Board games: Yeah, I do these too. I stumbled upon Board Game Geek about a year and a half ago, and it has cost me a lot of money since then. I'm not too much of a Euro fan, but I do enjoy hex-and-counter war games and that category known as "Ameritrash" -- a term I loathe and will not use here again. Of all the gaming categories I've mentioned, this is the one I'd most like to be able to spend more time with.

So, anyway, that's me in a very tiny nutshell. This is way longer than I intended, and I'm running out of steam for now. More later. Or maybe not! Probably. But we'll see.