This is a great example of too much time and too many friends..

Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby have put together a great book about the culture of gaming and game developers.. The book follows several of the game world’s masters such as CliffyB (Unreal) and Shigeru Miyamoto (Nitendo) and their rise to the top of the gaming world.. Weaving game developer events with the history of gaming we get an inside look at the in crowd, the rock stars of gaming..

While there isn’t a lot of earth shattering information, the book provides a unique insight to the developers lives and how they pushed the envelope of gaming to the levels of today..

The book also delves into the early days of professional game playing.. We get a look at some of the early competitions in Dallas and the people that play..

Overall this is a good book for some light reading.. For those of us old enough to remember the early days when 2D side scrollers were the latest thing it has moments of nostalgia.. Plus it’s always good to remind some of the kids that there was gaming before they were born..

Fey~

The Guild Wars Factions preview is this weekend.. I got a chance to log in early this morning and take a quick run around the new frontiers.. I like the new classes.. Still not sure whther I would prefer to run an assassin or ritualist, or even what would make good secondaries, so since I only had one character slot to work with instead of the two new slots we were promised, I cobbled together an assassin/monk for those much needed self heals while running for my life in random areas..

I like the new graphics, especially the giant turtles.. But, like any expansion, it left me wondering if the final release will have more, or if it will just be More Of The Same.. We’ll see what the weekend holds when I get more of a chance to play..

Also joined a good guild a couple weeks ago.. Fonkin drug me into it and it’s been fun.. A more adult oriented group with some youngens that are learning quickly.. Check out our guild, The Order of the Frozen Tundra, and our site over at http://toft.gogab.com .. And yes, I put it together even if it is a basic Nuke Portal..

Fey -