Vacation

With Resistance 3 wrapped up, and with me transitioning onto a new (SECRET) project at work, it was a perfect time to take a nice rest.

My parents came out to visit, which was great. I really am not quite used to only getting home at Christmas, so I get pretty homesick during the summer, and it was wonderful to see them. We did a few cool things: went to the botanical gardens, walked around El Pueblo and Little Tokyo, and saw a Dodgers game. Otherwise, we pretty much just sat around and did nothing by the pool, or took naps.

I had two days between their leaving and the MLG mini-vacation, which I spent sleeping for the most part. There were a few instances of taking Mr. Davis out for a walk, of course, and some reading, but the rest was blissful, blissful sleep.

This past weekend was MLG, and Nick and I stayed at a hotel down in Anaheim. It was super fun! I really love watching Starcraft in a great big riled up crowd, and man what a crowd it was! On Saturday I got there early to snatch a good seat, and Nick and I rotated out for food and breaks so that we could keep our spot. Everywhere else the chairs were packed and people were standing in the aisles, but the matches were fantastic!

We did decide to head back home today, though, and watch the finals on the stream at Nick's place. This was for two reasons: Nick lost his wristband and it would have been really expensive to buy another for just one day, and we surely would have had to get there at like 8am again to get a seat on championships day, but the matches go on all day, and it would have been incredibly exhausting to stay there until the grand finals. I don't mind, though, because I had great fun on Friday and Saturday, and would rather assure that this last day of vacationing is nice and relaxing.

Tonight I will mentally prepare myself for the return to work, and then tomorrow it's back to makin games!

Starcraft Nerd

If you had told me a year ago that by the summer I would a regular e-sports watcher, I'd have called you crazy. But here I am, Wednesday-Sunday evenings, planted in front of the laptop watching Starcraft 2, and all giddy about the North American Star League finals in a few weeks. Let this be a lesson, a lot can change in a year!

Anyway, you may ask, "Lisa, there are so many great pro Starcraft gamers, how do you ever decide who to cheer for?" Good question, reader! It can be complicated, especially when you're new to watching e-sports and don't know all the players. Fortunately, I made this handy guide for how I decide who to cheer for in a Starcraft 2 match...

From Blogger Pictures

A Conversation

So I was playing the StarJeweled beta last night (it's a mash-up of Bejeweled and Starcraft II, where you play bejeweled to get energy to create units, which auto-attack the other team's base). On one match, my partner was just doing insanely good, and had like 3 times the energy as anyone else. But I was baffled because he kept chatting, suggesting strategies and cheering when we broke through and stuff.

"You're really good at this!" I said, amazed at how he could be typing and clicking on the bejeweled board and getting such a high score all at once.

"It's my girlfriend," he said, "she plays and I can type, lol."

"Well, she's really good at this!" I replied

"Girls tend to be good at this game, lol"

I hesitated, as I always do when about to reveal my gender to strangers in an online game, but went ahead.

"I'm a girl, but I'm only so-so at bejeweled."

"...u a girl?"

"Yes"

"Not many girls play Starcraft II"

"Yeah, I always hope to see some girls in the big tournaments someday"

"Yeah"

By then the match had ended and we went our separate ways. Anyway, it just made me thoughtful.

Meanwhile, I like Starjeweled a lot, and I noticed that there's not a lot of chatter if you're not doing so well and your partner is, as can happen in some other games. Part of this is because you would sacrifice so much energy to stop playing and type a message that it's often not worth the effort to say "why are you sucking!" But I think part of it is that there's just something weird about berating someone for not being good enough at bejeweled.

Anyway, StarJeweled - it's fun!

BlizzCon Wrap

So, I had a really great time at BlizzCon, even though I did not go see any panels (I hear I didn't miss too much on that end).

I got to try Diablo III (I like the Monk), StarJeweled (BEST STARCRAFT MOD EVER), Left 2 Die, (probably would have been more fun if we'd had more time), and Cataclysm beta (<3 Goblins). I enjoyed seeing all the costumes, and of course seeing Will's epic dance contest entry.

On the downside, Jay Mohr is teeeerrible, how is this his 5th BlizzCon? His humor is off and his jokes are tasteless and he nearly ruined all of the costume/dance contest for me, bleh!

The most surprising part of the event was how much I enjoyed watching the Warcraft III and Starcraft II matches, and the WoW Arenas were great, too. I think I spent most of my time there at one of the two stages, watching the epic battles unfold. I suppose this seals in a new layer of geekdom that I never thought I would have acquired.

My favorite part about the matches was how positive the audience was. One annoying thing about watching sports for me is how much team support can override and diminish the experience of just watching a good game. For example, watching football or watching the World Cup, when "the other" team makes a good mood, it is impossible to acknowledge without scorn, and I haaaaaate it when the non-home-team makes a great play and is met by booing from the home fans. So annoying!

With these tournaments, the audience just wanted to see people who play really well. Sure there were favorites, but all in all, if either player made a fantastic play, the entire audience erupted in cheers. The atmosphere was fantastic! It's a shame there aren't many Starcraft II tournament viewing venues in the US.

Anyway, I have a long layover before getting back to Kentucky, but I can't wait to see my family!

Todayborday is Labor Day

This weekend was fun-busy and restful all at the same time, as any good Labor Day weekend should be. There was lots of Starcraft II, some WoWing, some Magic, some Critter Crunch, and some Halo: ODST Firefight mode. I sadly missed Rich when he was in town (sadface) but I did snag a lunch with Bryan Cash on his brief stopover (happyface).

The Starcraft phenomenon is baffling to me. Could it be that I wasn't ever as bad at RTS games as I'd thought? Or was it the privileged one-on-one (or one-over-one's-shoulder) coaching I received in the beta? Somehow or another, I'm enjoying this game, and hold my own well enough that Nick and I moved up to Gold League in 2v2 (I remain convinced that this is 90% Nick, but I do feel I am improving!)

I am still skulking around in the practice leagues as far as 1v1, though. Every time I muster up some courage to do my placement matches, it fleets away before I can go through with it. Right now I rely on Nick during 2v2s to help me identify stuff when scouting if the other guys are playing Protoss or Terran. At work at if I'm lunchcrafting and doing my practice matches, I do the same thing with Nick and Ben, yelling "you guys what is this that they are building what does it meeean??"

In theory, I should play some Protoss and Terran myself so I can at least have an idea of what the strategies and structures are. But, I don't wanna. <3 zerg. Ah well, I'll figure it out eventually!

Cats, Vets, and Starcraft

I am so proud of my cat! He did really well at the vet, wasn't scared at all (though he was grumpy about being restrained to get his heartrate, and was absolutely affronted by having his temperature taken). He's also in great health, so I feel reassured as a cat mom.

He had a little tartar buildup on his teeth, but the vet said we could safely wait until next year for a teeth cleaning, so I have a new goal. See, the vet offers a service where they can clean the teeth without putting the cat under, which would be ideal. But, Mr. Davis isn't keen on having his mouth handled right now, so he wouldn't be a candidate for that.

My goal for the next year is to train him to accept handling of his mouth, so that he wouldn't have to get put under for the cleaning. Can it be done?? Only time, clicks, and a lot of treats will tell.

In other news, I've been playing Starcraft II 2v2 and occasionally 3v3 versus the computer with Nick and Nathan, and having a fantastic time. We've worked out a way to play that is great fun for me, but I don't think it'd work very well against human opponents.

I'm not very good about dividing my attention between base management and then microing my units out on the field of battle, so I just give Nick control of the units and churn out dudes and send them his way, whiles't he lays waste to the opponent with the ever increasing army. I'm like Hydralisk Depot over here, which is fine, because base management is fun for me. When Nathan plays with us, he does his signature move of "build a ton of expansions."

We rocked the computer's face for the most part, but after a faulty mouse incident, it was clear that Nathan and I are as defenseless as newborn puppies without Nick leading the forces. Oh well, it's still a fun time!