Grieving for the loss of D&D yesterday, we got to thinking of a way to play D&D without having to rely on webcams. It’s been mentioned before, but we’ve now come to the conclusion that the only way (That we have come up with, at any rate) we can reliably do D&D is to use a web-based game table, such as RPTools or Gametable. Now, I know that these options are hardly ideal, but I can’t think of any other reliable way to subvert the fish eye viewing problems that come into play when trying to run an intricate board-based encounter (As D&D is want to do) over a webcam.
So let’s have a conversation. Any other ideas? I’m sort of at a loss.
Remember when the idea of mind-control devices (The kind that allow you to control things with your mind, not being controlled by some Orwellian overlord) were some far-off fantasy? Well, that shit is finally REALITY. Cue The Jetsons theme, and the flying cars and dinner in pill-form (Or whatever the clichés are these days).
As you fellow continue to plan for your mass exodus to Portland, I as the only of the quartet remaining in Bemidji would like to recieve updates. What are your plans, tenetave time tables? I would hate to remain in the dark until the day where you guys say “we’re leaving this weekend…what didn’t you know?”
I’ve noticed a trend that has been burgeoning over the last few weeks: we have simply fallen out of communication range. Be it direct or indirect, I think this is unacceptable. Now, there may be many simple excuses for this problem: school is in full-swing, many other local preoccupations, etcetera, and I’m not saying it’s your fault, I’m easily as much to blame as anyone else. But I think we could stand to interact more.
Now, there are a lot of relatively simple solutions to this problem, but listen, and heed my call, because what I’ve got is going to revolutionize your ass.
I think we should use Twitter.
I know, I know, it’s sort of a weird thing to say, it may even sound completely asinine. But hear me out! Twitter can be, if nothing else, just fun to use! Now, it’s not exactly easy to explain the specific advantages to using Twitter over other mediums (Facebook, Text Messaging, Phones, Skype, Google Talk, fucking talking to each-other in person), and there are a lot of strong arguments against it (Why the fuck would people care if I’m eating Lucky Charms?), so I’ve decided to make a list of why Twitter is (for lack of a better word) good.
- It’s Simple. - Twitter is designed around this principle. I hate to rag on Facebook, as it has been good to me in the past, but I grow weary of it, primarily because it’s entirely too cluttered. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it is the goddamn shitstorm that MySpace is, but it’s seeming to be growing closer to it every day, completely overgrown with “Quizzes” and goofy meta games that are not conducive to Facebook’s original purpose. Twitter cuts out all the crap and leaves you with a relatively streamlined and to-the-point interface that just allows you to broadcast what you’re doing and talk to other people about what they’re doing, which is the point of Social Networking, right (Don’t answer that, it’s rhetorical)?
- “Dumb Phone” Support – As you probably already know, Twitter has support for any phone to text tweets directly to Twitter from your phone. Since Twitter essentially functions as a SMS bulletin board, you can post to Twitter from wherever you are, and get updates from others in the same fashion. This makes it easier to broadcast things of interest around town or wherever to the “board”, which I, for one, find delicious.
- TweetDeck makes it better. – Again, you’re probably aware of this. TweetDeck (and Seesmic Desktop) is a desktop application that allows you to receive live updates to your computer from Twitter and Facebook, as well as post to those services. In addition, you can organize the people and services you follow into groups and columns to better see who you’re following. This is invaluable if you follow a lot of people and want to make sure you don’t miss anything.
So yeah, this is sounding entirely too much like an Apple advertisement, but it was necessary to convey my point. It’s an extremely robust, yet simple, communication tool that will make it much easier to stay in contact with each other if we use it, and I think it could be great if we all really did that.
Seriously! Go wild with it, post an update whenever some bullshit pops into your head because, in the end, I want to read it.
Upon coming home tonight, I decided I wanted to check out something new on my PC. Apparently, for whatever reason, it has just now decided that it has finally had enough, and crapped out. It turns on, but gives no monitor input. I’ve tried switching cables, and monitors, and, well, nothing comes of it. This leads me to believe that the video card has failed, all of a sudden, after four years. Unfortunately without any goddamn video input I can’t do anything to fix it short of ordering a new one.
Seriously, though, I wish things would just fucking work. You know, once in a while.
Well, I, for one, am extremely pumped. I just wonderin’, should we start looking into a good timeframe for executing on this grand scheme? I wouldn’t want to let it fall into the black abyss of flopped ideas.
