BF3 Premium release rant

So I’m going to rant for this entry, about one of my hobbies. Battlefield 3, which if you are not familiar is a first person shooter FPS video game available on all the major gaming platforms. So if you don't care about gaming you may not want to read this issue.
There are a lot of things to complain about in the battlefield world. Some of them are development problems, some of them are programming problems, some of them are gamer problems and some of them are just problems which I’m not sure who to blame.

My rant is about the developers, programmers, and their marking people. Like many fans of either the franchise or the gaming genre new game generate a certain amount of buzz and excitement and some where along the way the people who make video games figured out if they started having people pre order games then they could save money on manufacturing because they would know how large to make a first run of the game so that they don’t end up with a lot of stock if the game doesn’t sell well after the first few months. It’s a very smart move.

Then they were able to add to games later once they were released with down loadable content (DLC). This saves money because you already have the basics of the game done you are just adding things to an already existing vehicle. Which ,truth be told these were all probably parts that were being developed for the game in the first place but were left out for one reason or another so a lot of the work is already done, but it is programming work and if you can make money on that so be it, which is fine. I don’t have a problem with the game getting a warm up if fact I prefer the warm up.

Then the developers came up with exclusive content which you pay a bit more for but it gives you something that other players don’t have in the game. Which may or may not give you an advantage but it is fun to have if you enjoy the activity and spend any time doing it. It is partly escapist fun so why not give your player some depth of your personality or flavor.

Battlefield 3 is no different than any other game developer out there however they have recently taken a great big whiz in the collective bowl of cereal of their base /core audience.

DICE and EA came out with a premium service which gives those players access to a few things other players don’t have. Some of it helps in game but mainly it doesn’t really it is all just a bunch of filler. But getting to play the games a bit earlier than other players is fun and the premium service was mainly a bundle of the new maps DLCs which were slated to come out over the next 12 months when it was introduced., which was totally worth the additional money to have the game have much more content.

I’ve played other FPS which could have used a lot more DLC which didn’t get any of it and that company is not defunct and they had great games.

So it’s expected by the consumers that the games will be freshened up a bit and it will cost some money.

The whiz in our cereal bowl is that now DICE and EA are making the premium service and all the other DLC and the original game all available for equal too or maybe even a bit less then it was originally sold for less than a year ago and less then 6 months since they asked the original buyers of the game to buy the Premium DLC for just a bit less then they are now marketing the whole thing for in less then two weeks.

To me as a consumer it is a giant F*** you game buyer you mean about as much to us as a speck of dust on our shoes.

You don’t care about the game buyer and you have proven it with that really shitty move. Which really makes the lame premium “bonus content” seem like a double slap in the face, no one really expected it to be more than fluff. Well almost nobody who understands you are in the business to make money from a workable product. Now I’m not sure exactly where making the money stands in the ranking compared to how workable the product is when it is sold but I would like to think the product being the best that it can be is up there slightly higher than the profits and if profits are number two on the list that is ok.

However when you market the “bonus content” as being something to enhance the game and it is a video about stuff that most players have figured out on their own or that many of the Youtube content creators have already explained and explained it better or some other lame thing that doesn’t do anything for the gamer at all. Seriously weapon camo in a gaming system that puts you on a heads up display if you are aimed at or fire your weapon? I mean really how does this enhance the gaming experience? It doesn’t hide us and if certainly doesn’t make the other player shooting at you pause and say oh damn your weapon is so much cooler than mine. In fact they do not notice it a bit.

The thing is they didn’t just give this stuff to you either. You have to do some ridiculously long quest which gives you nothing useful in the game. It is an insult and that our money was just something you expected to get from us and even deserved to have.

Well you haven’t earned that money and you have insulted a lot of gamers and would be willing to be part of a class action lawsuit against the gaming developers for this fraud against the consumers which is really what it amounts to, as the release information was deliberately vague and now offer all the same products for less than the original purchase price it is just shameless and shows the greed that drives businesses to give the consumer less and less for every dollar spent.

I’m not going to stop playing the game but I know I’m not going to buy anymore add on stuff for games and I don’t know that I’ll really buy too many more games from DICE on a first offering because 6 months later it will be half the cost. I’m sure I’m not the only person who fells this way. You’ve really alienated yourselves from a large part of the community and should make it up to your customers in a meaningful way.

In other news.

I’m just not sure what to think about the whole Lance Armstrong thing.



Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely

Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday

Thank you for reading, please subscribe, you know if you are reading this on blogspot or on diaryland. If you are reading on face book well you are already subscribed. Aren’t you happy.

Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,






PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don

PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

You'll just have to imagine you've been offended or maybe you have...

Picking a jumping in point is almost as hard as coming up with titles. Usually though the writing just happens…albeit a lot of it occurs in my head or I just delete it after a while because even I look at it and say well that is just jibberish.

Perhaps I have the adult onset of attention deficit disorder … well I’ve probably always had it and have adapted specific coping skills which help me disguise the fact that I have this condition … is it a condition? What ever the point is that things get missed in life by the people around us, for example I probably needed glasses years before I got them but I didn’t get them until my junior year of high school. I remember that my technique for taking notes in class was to squint remember as many things as I could write them, squint again locate where I was on the board remember a new group of things and then repeat the process as quickly as possible and hopeful get it all done before the teacher erased the board. Which wasn’t all that often … so my notes were incomplete… therefore my grades were poor… therefore my basic skills in many classes were lacking, putting me behind my peers in many ways.

This happens a lot so I don’t feel slighted at all because of this and if I hadn’t been so introverted I might have said something but I didn’t say anything.

A re occurring dream I had all through school was a myriad of situations were my own insignificance was amplified and I couldn’t wake from the dream. It has evolved from just simple images to actual scenes and situations and my invisible body with voiceless screaming all having no effect on everything around me.

If you’ve read the blog for a while now you know just because it is incoherent to the average reader doesn’t always prevent me from posting what I’ve been thinking, if I can follow it or the chaos has purpose to veil a meaning then I leave it. Most of the stuff that gets the axe is stuff the crosses the line.

Which line…well that line were most people stop when telling a story, making a point, or anecdote and know that there point has been made… I’m a make sure the nail has been driven home and the line gets blurred when I cross over it.

There are a few people who get to see this in action and I’m sure they aren’t shocked to know even with them I don’t always cross the line. I know they won’t judge me too harshly because I’ve gradually exposed them to this with test comments and such. However this is not always the place to tear down the walls or have to defend a comment to the masses. Not that I feel I have to defend anything I say but it is more that if someone makes a comment stating that something I have posted has offended them and I don’t respond to it … it leaves me with the feeling that well perhaps they think I’m ashamed of what I’ve said and refuse to debate it.

No if something I’ve written has offended you… good you know where you stand on that particular subject … doesn’t mean I’m sorry if I’ve offended you and if I say I’m sorry you may not believe me and if you do I may not have meant it and just said it to make you feel superior than me … which is why we tell people they have offended us … because we believe our thoughts, value, ideas are better than theirs as expressed by what ever has us feeling offended.

So rather than not explaining myself all the time I just don’t always write a lot of what goes on in my head.

I’m trying to think of something with minimal potential to offend but still make my point and I’m struggling with it… so you’ll just have to take my word that cake batter isn’t always a reference to cake batter and it may or may not be what you are thinking or it might be both

The point is cake batter isn’t where the train is going to stop …it’s going on to the next stop just like the express that passes you by when you are late.

So that is where I’ve been lately in my blog writing and deleting things because they go too far.

Then there is the next level of things that hit the cutting room floor… I don’t like to share. Why write a blog then if you don’t like to share… because I like to share what I want to share but not everything that can be shared and even though I’m introverted I’m also a bit of an attention whore. But not the all so annoying look at me look at me whore but I do like attention … then I get freaked out a bit by it all too

Yeah I know I confuse myself a lot too. I should probably be a bit more open about all of that and not delete so much stuff. We’ll see but I walk a crooked road to get to a point that isn’t really all that far away from me so it may not happen all that quickly.

In other news…

I finally saw The Dark Knight Rises with Stunt Boy… it was awesome. Joseph Gordon Levitt is better than rather good and freaking stupendous I don’t have the vocabulary to express this man’s ability to bring a character to life and suspend disbelief. The whole revived Batman Trilogy with Christian Bale has been terrific.

Although I think Mr. Bale has been helped along by so many great cast members from Gray Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Cane and all the other roles that have made these films with such incredible depth of story that you a truly pulled in the world of Gotham City and would not be a bit surprised if the bat light appeared in the sky

All the bad guys, Liam, Thomas and Heath made each film unique that are as complete as stand alone piece but not so over done that they don’t fit with the others films

In short if you haven’t seen this film you should.

Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely

Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday

Thank you for reading, please subscribe, you know if you are reading this on blogspot or on diaryland. If you are reading on face book well you are already subscribed. Aren’t you happy.

Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,






PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don

PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

I still have a the box it came in ... well not really

Because a few high profile people, or rather people who are being profiled for a mass audience, have come out saying that they are virgins it has stirred interest in these people and in many cases ridicule about their choice to abstain or live a chaste life outside of the professions of religion.

I’m not sure exactly why anyone really cares one way or the other if you are getting any or not but it seems to be noteworthy.

However, I’m curious if these chaste ones will choose to talk about it when the finally decide to go ahead and fall off that wagon? Again it goes back to the whole why does it matter and I guess why are those who are choosing to let this information out choosing to market themselves as these pure are the driven snow?

Doesn’t that set you up for further ridicule once you decide that you really like sex and decide the best way to celebrate the new found joy in life is to go ahead and do things in public with a few people.

Seems to be counter productive but I suppose if you make it into adulthood with your virginity in tack that you are only likely to give your V card to the person you marry and they will most likely be giving you theirs on the same day.

I don’t understand it, all the fuss with getting rid of it, keeping it and all the other hubba baloo about it all.

I certainly can respect and even admire the choice for those who decided to live a chaste life. It is difficult to put your mind back to a place where it is all theory and there isn’t an understanding of what it means to participate in acts of procreation / fornication which really are the same thing. Semantics really I mean if you don’t knock someone up when you do it is it still procreation or is it down graded to fornication because you failed to achieve the desired goal. Because if you try and try and try and always fail you could be doing things an awful lot and in your mind you probably really do believe that it isn’t going to work anyway and isn’t that the whole point? How we see it in our minds.

What if you enjoy the procreation is that allowed because it is supposed to be a strictly clinical thing of producing, so there really shouldn’t be any enjoyment in the process.

I’m really trying not to cross lines because as real life super hero guys tells me all the time I go one step beyond where the conversation should stop.

I’m just not really sure where the line is most of time.

I don’t presently think I know of anyone in my personal life who has made a choice to be chaste. I can certain empathize with where they are but don’t think I fully understand it although for myself I’m not a fan of doing things for myself and really see the wrapping things up on my end of things as a failure of sorts, but I don’t want to be chaste even if I don’t enjoy my end of the bargain and would rather focus on the other person having a complete journey and then going a bit further than planned.

Perhaps that is where the line is and I should go ahead and stop there but I’m not exactly sure that it is the line … did I spell hubba baloo right?

So if you have your V card and want to keep it, good on you mate but most people aren’t going to understand why you are keeping it so it’s probably better that you not really share that information not because it is something to be ashamed of but it is no more anyone else’s business as who you start bumping in the night with or the middle of the afternoon, or on the side of a car in a parking lot full of people, or in a park, or in plane at 30 thousand feet. It just isn’t anyone’s business until you make it their business by talking about it all.

In other news

I don’t really have any other news today the Olympics are still on so between my other choices I’m watching as much of that games as I can.



Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely

Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday

Thank you for reading, please subscribe, you know if you are reading this on blogspot or on diaryland. If you are reading on face book well you are already subscribed. Aren’t you happy.

Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,







PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don

PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

This started out one way then zagged all of a sudden

Lately nothing has made a lot of sense, not that anything has ever really made a lot of sense. A lot of the time it seems that I’m in a truck with tires without tread trying to go up a muddy hill in a rain storm and the temperature is hovering around the freezing point.

I’m trying to keep a positive outlook about it all which with all the doom and gloom of the political climate, it’s a constant bombardment of negativity.

The demons would have a field day if I would soak them in some booze but better to not allow that all to happen, because they are bad enough as of late anyway with out the assistance of anything artificial to arm them up for a siege against my psyche.

The Olympics have helped some but even they haven’t been as exciting as they have normally been, it’s almost as if some cloud have covered up everything and isn’t allowing any luster to brighten up anything.

Lots of controversy too seems to be much more so than I remember in past games. Although a lot of it seems to be from all the stuff going on outside of the games, with several athletes making negative comments in blogs, tweets and other social media.

It is a unique thing though that the commentators would often not hear what an athlete thought about their comments for days after they had made some poor review. Now the athletes have a vehicle to respond immediately if some one trashes them in the press and to have it heard by as wide an audience at the commentator.

It has unfortunately been the sword against the athletes who have made comments against other athletes: religion, ethnic background or what ever else they have decided to talk about. Which certainly would be dismissed if made outside of the framework of the Olympics, but as “Ambassadors” of their respective nations it isn’t just them saying the hurtful things but their country. So some censorship takes place as to what they can say and what they can not say.

Certainly there are other athletes who probably harbor deep animosity toward other athletes for who they are, where they are from, the color of their skin, and any other difference that the Olympics is supposed to erase and have the sons and daughters of the world only see their competitors as athletes in a common sport.

It is good the nations will put aside their political difference and compete predominately for the love of the games.

Our coverage is like most nations focused mainly on our athletes it would be nice to see others but we have such a large delegation and competitors in nearly every single event that spreading it out to cover all of our own athletes is hard let alone trying to include all the nations at the games.

All in all I have enjoyed everything I’ve seen and still love the Olympics for its ideal and that an effort of peace is so widely attended.

In other news

The exchange has begun




Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely

Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday

Thank you for reading, please subscribe, you know if you are reading this on blogspot or on diaryland. If you are reading on face book well you are already subscribed. Aren’t you happy.

Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,






PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don

PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

My father and bad socks

So my day began bemoaning the fact that my socks did not fit right. This has been a life long thing with me and my feet. It literally ruins my day, puts me in a foul mood and just disrupts any flow I have going on.

When you consider that a majority of the nerves in the human body end in the feet it begins to make sense that if your feet are not comfy you are not happy.

I guess next time you are having a bad day you may want to change your socks or put on a better pair of shoes. However that concept is not the point of this issue.

For lack of anything better to say and because my stupid socks were messing with my day I decided to share it with the world via facebook and twitter, I didn’t put it on my tumblr though

Several people liked it, assuming that they too have the same dislike of uncomfortable feet and my aunt left a comment about my father not liking the bad sock fit either. I did know that but I hadn’t thought about it in a while and didn’t make the connection this morning during my lament. Another friend said, “like father like son”

However when I read these comments at lunch time, It sparked a chain of thoughts and I spent the rest of the day during my wondering thoughts time thinking about my father and I and how else we were a like or not alike.

Coincidentally the anniversary of my father’s death was about two weeks ago. So I had been thinking about him a lot lately anyway and how it still is hard to believe that he isn’t here any longer.

They say as long as you keep some one in your thoughts they never really die. I suppose that is true and while my father and I don’t have conversations any longer there are times when I think about the words he would have for me or what he might say.

Like all children and parents my relationship with my parents had ups and downs. There were times that we simply did not get along at all and went for long periods without speaking. Other times we got along and bonded in our way.

My father was a very private person who didn’t share a lot of his feelings with people. I am like that. My father liked to discuss politics and current events.

I like current events but see politics as a corrupt and very evil thing and those in politics serve only themselves and themselves alone. I would rather muck out horse stalls than talk about politics the same goes for religion.

The list could go on and on about how we were a like or not alike. Which I could do but that would involve getting into things which are pretty personal and perhaps good reading or perhaps not if you didn’t know my father.

Like my father people rarely if ever saw him drink anything other than coffee. He drank his coffee black and all day long. I do the same. I do get in several glasses of water too but for the most part if it’s liquid and going into my body chances are it is coffee.

My father was a very good artist and had no formal training, at least none that I am aware. He drew houses with a lot of detail and I’m lucky enough to have one of his drawings. He drew houses for people and some of his ideas were built and some of them are part of the house where he lived and died.

I’ve come to peace with my father’s absence in that I know from our conversations that he didn’t want to linger in hospitals and he died in his sleep following a celebration. The celebration was my mother’s high school reunion. She was away on a trip with my youngest brother and he could have easily have not gone but he knew many of these people and was friends with a lot of them even if he had gone to high school in another state.

Everyone who was there later said that he was in good spirits and had a very good time with friends and some family as well.

I was visiting with my cousin in North Carolina the day he died and had tried to call a few times on my way back home but was never able to get a connection.

We had spoken about a week before and I know that that last thing we said to one another was I love you

Glad I ended up sharing my bad sock day because it lead to some better thoughts


In other news…

Stunt boy asked me If I kept all the beer I have in the fridge is on the bottom shelf to keep it from freezing. I said no, I keep it there because I don’t use it a lot and it’s out of the way there.

He says, Oh that must be why my mom keeps hers on the top shelf.


Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely

Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday

Thank you for reading, please subscribe, you know if you are reading this on blogspot or on diaryland. If you are reading on face book well you are already subscribed. Aren’t you happy.

Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,






PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don

PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015