1 Month has Passed…

Oh man, last time I posted on here seems to be forever ago. So this summer has been quite fun but at the same time most wasteful. I’ve been wasting my time playing games this summer, but I’ve done some studying and a little game-making. So, let’s get started with what’s been happening.

After I got out of school, first there was not much to do. Fiesta’s Cypion Server Release was coming, and I was in action to get ready to play. Me and Dan were going to try to level fast, but we can’t possibly get the 1 million sparkcash, at least we can just grind as fast as possible. Whatever that happens, we were going to get to 105 eventually and not start an alt. However, things have changed recently (which I’ll explain below) and I’ve quit Fiesta again. (I also quitted Drift City not too far back.)

First off, Fiesta is pretty boring. I think eventually it gets old, you just kill monster after monster and nothing really happens after that. You have to grind now 105 levels and it is insanely hard to do. In fact, I don’t think it was meant to be done in less than a month and some people are killing themselves over trying to reach that 1 million, but I’m just giving up in general.

Now, an argument between my friend and I [and previously before] was that why do I always quit games and never stay “committed” to one. Well, here’s my case-and-point:
Games are meant to keep us entertained, right? So when we end up getting bored by them, the game has no purpose anymore. We need a new game that’ll keep you entertained again. So why should you be committed to a game if the whole point of them is to keep you entertained and you’re not being entertained? Yeah, you don’t and you pay more money to get a new game. xD

So then I obviously was bored and needed a new game. I tried to entertain myself with Game Maker, but you know…I really think I need to learn C++ or C and I’m gonna try using OpenGL eventually.

And now I bring myself into the present and past week. My sister and I always get along and sometimes we do stuff together. Well recently, we’ve been playing The Sims: Life Stories together, and even though you may think what the, this isn’t the kind of games Josh would normally play (Or you would) but I swear, it’s very fun. Maybe part of it is because we used to play The Sims on the Gamecube quite often. So I guess now I play The Sims: Life Stories. And we don’t just play it, we have a huge family tree thing we created awhile ago and we’re going to re-enact all the stories in the game. We’ve both almost completed the first family with their kids, and it is very fun. What makes it so fun? I think it’s the depth and complexity of the game yet how simple it is all implemented. I have fun building the houses, gaining relationships, and raising the kids from young babies to teenagers. If you like simulation games and haven’t tried it, The Sims: Life Stories is fun. And not just that, I heard The Sims 3 is going to be real good too.

So, that catches you up on what I’ve been up to. Sorry to my Fiesta people in the Cryptic_Fate guild on Cypion, I decided to give up…Again. So that is all, I am off now.

Some Understanding Today

So, today was full of little tidbits of information I learned about that I never knew before. I have finally uploaded the lengthy Earthbound video to Google Video, but it took a long time. Not only to upload, but the processing. I think Processing is only determined by the length of the video, which is actually obvious if you think about it logically. But then again, I always see everything differently. I also learned a bit about how video conversion works. I did my 4th video of Earthbound today and decided to record it at 320×240 instead of my usual 512×460. Then when I put it through Windows Movie Maker, the file only took 16 minutes to turn into a 76 MB video from 989 MB. What’s strange is, when I did that very lengthy video of 512×460, it was only 516 MB and it took 160 minutes to convert to 90 MB. Now what happened here? I think it’s because the program must adjust every little frame to a different size and the larger the size difference, the longer it takes.

I have been watching the people on my bus since last Thursday, and I kept hearing a familiar sound. The sound of the ringing bell/chime sound from Mario Kart DS when you start a race. Now, I’ve had my DS for about 1.5 years now, but I haven’t gotten it out since last summer. So I went on the bus this morning with my DS and went to multiplayer to look for a game session. Nothing there. I noticed that the people I suspected were playing the DS’s were farther than my stop was, so I sat back and waited. A few stops later, I saw the two people I suspected played Mario Kart DS. So I looked on my Mario Kart game rooms after a few minutes, and found one. Then I joined it and played with them until we reached our school. Same thing when I got on the bus afterschool. It was fun, but they are still beginners, and I got first every race except one time. I enjoyed it and will continue playing with them I guess.

I am now uploading the 4th Earthbound video and will be posting it as soon as google video finishes processing it.

I also made my Hello World! Program from a C++ tutorial. I am finally taking on the challenge of C++ and hope to be able to make games with it eventually. That’s my ultimate goal with it.