Morning Keefinated! -- Neil, Guild Wars 2, OnLive and #playnice

Ramblings and musings of occasional significance to the Shacknews audience. This is the morning edition for August 27, 2012. Topics include: Welcome to the new morning show; Neil Armstrong has died and as a NASA kid, I cry; as well as OnLive, Guild Wars 2, and other things that may make you spill your coffee.

John Keefer

August 27, 2012 5:30 AM

Good morning, Shack! It's the start of a new week, and time for the launch (or reformatting) of the Shack morning show. I'll be up bright and early each morning to bring you a Keefinated dose of sunshine, so put a cap on that coffee and get comfortable. For those reading this for the first time, the Morning Keefinated has been appearing regularly in Shack Chatty for two weeks, and irregularly since I started in March. Now you get easy indexing, a list of tags (at the bottom) to quickly access popular Shack features and my semi-coherent rambling on a variety of topics, some of them being game-related. So let's get this rolling, albeit on a sad note.

RIP Neil Armstrong

For those unaware, Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, has died at age 82. If you don't know who he is, just think of him as Commander Shepard of the late 1960s. Yeah, this isn't game-related (unless you look here) but some things transcend our chosen field. This is one of them, as I grew up a NASA kid. My Dad lived, ate and breathed NASA. He had the privilege of working with the astronauts on a daily basis and he called almost all by their first names. Neil Armstrong was one of them. When Armstrong landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, we watched as a family, listening to Walter Cronkite, but my Dad was like a giddy little boy watching his friend do something amazing. In those tense moments as the Eagle descended to the moon, my Dad was almost white-knuckled. Keep in mind that I was 11 at the time. That's how much all this made an impression on me. And when the word came that "The Eagle has landed," my Dad finally stopped holding his breath. When Armstrong started his descent down the ladder, we all knew we were watching history. And when boot touched lunar dust, my Dad's eyes welled up and I think I heard the faintest "Atta boy, Neil." The passing of Neil Armstrong is truly the end of an era, a harkening back to when the space program meant something and pride took a front seat. And while the world offers its respects to a quiet, humble hero who never really liked the limelight, I offer this tribute to Neil through the eyes of my Dad. I'd like to think that the two of them are enjoying some great NASA recollections overlooking the Milky Way. * * * * * Guild Wars 2 launched over the weekend for people who plopped down money early for the game (it launches Tuesday for everyone else). Ozzie has taken up the mantle of coverage of the game for us. It seems quite a few of you are excited by this MMO, so we'll do our best to give you some fun coverage. Ozzie's been doing some great work, especially with games related to Valve. * * * * * What happened to the folks at OnLive sucked, especially the way it went down. Steve Perlman, CEO of the cloud company that now appears to be in a grounded fog, donated $50,000 to a COBRA fund set up for the displaced ex-employees. Guilty conscience there, Steve-o? The good news is that Microsoft appears to be looking to hire some of these lost souls and is hosting a party for many of them later today. Could MS be looking at Sony's gobbling of Gaikai and planning it's own initiative? Hmmm ... * * * * * I'll conclude this rather long initial edition with some random thoughts: I fully support @SusanArendt and her #playnice initiative on Twitter ... Don't you really wish you had even 1/100th of the money that changed hands between the Dodgers and Red Sox on Saturday? Just sick ... Only $100,000 left until we will get Planetary Annihilation! Keep giving people. Total Annihilation was the best RTS ever, bar none ... Flashback: With the NFL season right around the corner, I know a bunch of folks are gearing up for Madden NFL 13, but long before that, there was Atari Football in the arcade. Man I miss that game. What game do you miss? Have a good day, and play well. Keef

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John Keefer

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August 27, 2012 5:30 AM

John Keefer posted a new article, Morning Keefinated! -- Neil, Guild Wars 2, OnLive and #playnice.

Ramblings and musings of occasional significance to the Shacknews audience. This is the morning edition for August 27, 2012. Topics include: Welcome to the new morning show; Neil Armstrong has died and as a NASA kid, I cry; as well as OnLive, Guild Wars 2, and other things that may make you spill your coffee.
- [deleted] 1837403109
  
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  August 27, 2012 5:52 AM
  
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- [deleted] 439710436
  
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  August 27, 2012 5:59 AM
  
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- Mecha Tofu Pirate
  
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  August 27, 2012 6:17 AM
  
  Love the Armstrong story
  - Keefinator
    
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    August 27, 2012 12:29 PM
    
    Small follow up: Armstrong had always maintained that a word was dropped from his quote, although he admitted he didn't hear it either in the radio transmission. His intent was to say: "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind" ...
    - Caboose
      
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      August 27, 2012 8:24 PM
      
      I remember hearing a story on the radio a few years ago that some linguists had gone back to analyze the tapes. They concluded that he made the "pre-vocal sounds" (whatever that might be) for an "a" at that point in the phrase, then breezed right on to "man." So he meant to say it, and was thinking of saying it, but was just too excited to fully form it.
- razorblade79
  
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  August 27, 2012 6:33 AM
  
  I actually read all of it, great article.except for the part where you wrote Starcraft wrong at the end.
  - Keefinator
    
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    August 27, 2012 12:17 PM
    
    StarCraft story was better (TA had none), but loved the game play in TA so much more. Sadly, of all the RTS available at that time, StarCraft was near the bottom for me. Funny thing is that I like SC2.
    - razorblade79
      
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      August 27, 2012 11:36 PM
      
      TA was one of those games I really wanted to like but never could get into. It had a great soundtrack, great visuals for the time, the german version had cpt kirk doing the voice overs ... I can't put a finger on it but the game felt too messy if that makes sense.
      
      I'm keeping an eye on PA though, that looks pretty cool plus it's set in space which is always a bonus. Can't decide if I want to back it though.
- sheepraper
  
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  August 27, 2012 6:46 AM
  
  That was nice.
  - nunami
    
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    August 27, 2012 7:04 AM
    
    super nice
- eeeealmo
  
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  August 27, 2012 6:52 AM
  
  GW2 so good
- Nitrium
  
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  August 27, 2012 7:05 AM
  
  I really enjoyed that, thanks Keef!
- MercFox1
  
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  August 27, 2012 7:09 AM
  
  Keefination in full effect! I'll read some of this stuff during lunch.
  - MercFox1
    
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    August 27, 2012 7:25 AM
    
    That transcript of watching the landing is awesome.
    - Keefinator
      
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      August 27, 2012 7:37 AM
      
      Thanks. My dad (and my time living near the space center) offered so many cool NASA stories. Sadly I don't have a venue to relate them all -- aside from Chatty where I posted a few. Armstrong's sad passing gave me a chance to reminisce, so that was nice.
- Broken Canoe
  
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  August 27, 2012 7:09 AM
  
  Great to see these news compilations. Excellent!
- valcan_s
  
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  August 27, 2012 7:18 AM
  
  Good stuff, good morning.
- Johnny Law
  
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  August 27, 2012 7:21 AM
  
  I think in honor of cmdr Armstrong I'ma finally figure out how to play Lunar Flight: http://steamcommunity.com/app/208600
  
  I really bounced off of it on my first try, but it looks like experimenting in-game is not going to get you far... I needed to read the manual and watch the tutorial videos.
  
  (Interesting... just now noticed that they're doing a Mars expansion.)
- [deleted] 481526362
  
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  August 27, 2012 7:36 AM
  
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  - Keefinator
    
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    August 27, 2012 5:06 PM
    
    Cool. I plan to do this every morning. ;)
- glio1337
  
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  August 27, 2012 9:58 AM
  
  I dig! I was listening to the OnLive stuff on the GiantBombCast from last week, kind of... cool that Microsoft is throwing a mixer for them, lol.
  
  Also, all those nifty tags at the bottom made me realize... there is no other easy way to find all those sections of articles... Not that I can find anyway.
- johnhead
  
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  August 27, 2012 10:44 AM
  
  love the hot links at the bottom. that was awesome. thanks ...
- sergeon
  
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  August 27, 2012 11:29 AM
  
  I really enjoyed reading this, thanks!
  
  I never played Atari arcade but my best friend and I played hours of Madden '92 for the Genesis. Favorite play: Waggle Left!
- Dontdrop
  
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  August 27, 2012 11:45 AM
  
  Good job, enjoyed the article.
- FreshwaterAU
  
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  August 27, 2012 12:23 PM
  
  When i look at google news this is the top story in the science section. odd.
  - Keefinator
    
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    August 27, 2012 12:26 PM
    
    Hmm. No where to be found when I check.
    - FreshwaterAU
      
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      August 27, 2012 5:13 PM
      
      Argh, well it WAS there earlier. I swear
      - LilCrypto
        
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        August 27, 2012 8:30 PM
        
        I saw it too!
- flagg209
  
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  August 27, 2012 12:41 PM
  
  I miss a lot of games. I miss Halo on the PC, it was in my opinion the best FPS on PC ever (with the worst netcode ever). Man when you got on a server with low lag it was just...so perfect.
  
  I also miss 2d adventure games like Metroid and ARPG games like secret of mana.
  - Keefinator
    
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    August 27, 2012 1:17 PM
    
    Combat Evolved was really good, and I even had the privilege of seeing when Gearbox had it in development. More PC Halo games please.
  - one random winner
    
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    August 27, 2012 1:40 PM
    
    I'm surprised we haven't had more good 2D metroidvania games from indy devs.
- spazzium
  
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  August 27, 2012 8:47 PM
  
  I miss Xwing. :(
- biofrog
  
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  August 27, 2012 9:44 PM
  
  I have complete GW2 face at the mo.. bleary eyed lack of sleepness and hard to type. All worth it!
  - Keefinator
    
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    August 28, 2012 4:05 AM
    
    How far in are you?
    - biofrog
      
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      August 28, 2012 4:21 AM
      
      Running around the HUUGE Lornar's Pass area.. Level 34, doing fine! Glad to be further on that I was in the beta weekends :)
      
      Haven't partied much tho, what with friends not being on holidays and all, heh.