The MMO Notebook

Posts Tagged ‘Computer’

Microsoft has opened up their Windows 7 pre-order website and for a limited time you can get the upcoming operating system for half price. Upgrade pricing for Windows 7 Home Premium is set at a low $49.99, with higher tiers scaling up in price. The low pre-order pricing is for a limited time only, so take advantage of this soon if you plan on upgrading to Windows 7.

My advice: Windows 7 is the best operating system Microsoft has ever created. Run, don’t walk, to the pre-order site and get the great pricing and ditch Vista and XP.

A story came out today that a woman was killed by a rogue laptop computer. Her car was hit by a tow truck, which was not the deadly part.  It seems that her laptop was laying in the backseat, and when her car was hit, it flew up and smacked her in the back of the head. The laptop was the killing blow. This is a sad story, but there are some lessons to be learned here.

You should never leave your computer on your car seat without it being in a case. It would soften the blow if something like this accident happens to you, but it also protects your computer from sunlight and serves as semi-camouflage from thieves. If you must leave your laptop in the car, I recommend placing it on the floor behind the front seat. Keep in mind that heat can negatively affect battery life in computers and cell phones, so don’t leave them in your car for long.

So be safe out there and secure your gadgets.

There are many ways to protect your computer. You can use anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall software, but have you ever considered power protection? It is one of the most over looked areas of a computer setup.  The video below will talk about power protection for your computer and what you can do about it. As with all upcoming content on this site, it will be explained in an easy to understand way that bypasses all the geeky terms and specifications and gets to the point as to why you should or should not use something.

Yeah, I am still waiting for my new computer to arrive. Not being able to play any game for more than a month is making my fingers itch.  I have, however, had plenty of time to think about what games I want to play going forward.  I am a litle torn on the subject.

My World of Warcraft subscription is still active, even though it is not being used right now.  The easy road says to go back to playing it, but I am getting urges to play other games.  I have a lifetime subscription to Lord of the Rings Online, a game I have not logged into for a long time.  The urge to play LOTRO has been heightened lately by the fact that I have been listening to the LOTR audiobooks again.  I do this every couple of years because I love the books so much.  My only complaint with LOTRO is that I grew weary with all the quests, but if you are not questing, you are wasting your time.  The experience gained from grinding mobs is a pittance compared to what you receive from a quest.

Another option is the Sony Station Pass.  As you probably know, the $30 a month Station Pass allows you to play any of Sony’s MMO’s that you own the software to.  Everquest will ever be my first MMO love.  I played Everquest 2 for awhile, but none of my friends followed me there, so I gave it up.  I also played Pirates of the Burning Sea for a short while.  It grew stale fast.  Star Wars Galaxies is another that I played from launch, but the game destroying NGE update had me running for the exits.  I tried Vanguard again, but as I mentioned on this blog earlier, it still is way too buggy for me.

It could be because I am older now, but nothing in the MMO space gets me very excited these days.  After playing so many of them, it all seems like I’ve been there, done that.  I don’t see much innovation anymore.  Are all the great ideas used up?  I don’t think so, but you can’t tell that from the latest crop of games to be released.  Conan, Warhammer, and Darkfall are more of the same tired ideas that have been used over and over again. The only thing that sets Darkfall apart is the fact that it is so hardcore that most people will never want to play it.

So what is a veteran noob supposed to do?  I think I will start from scratch in LOTRO and see how it goes.  I still need to decide if I stay with WoW or go with the Station Pass.  My computer isn’t due for another couple of weeks, so I have plenty of time to decide.

As mentioned in my previous post, I have a new gaming computer on the way. Unfortunately, due to the holidays, shipping is rather slow. So, that leaves me with only being able to write about it instead of using it. Currently, I’m using an Apple Macbook Pro and running Bootcamp to game with. It’s a higher-end model running at 2.4ghz, with 4gigs of RAM, and a Nvidia 8600GTm 256mb video card. It runs Everquest and Lord of the Rings Online surprisingly well at the 17″‘s native resolution of 1920×1200.

Since I’m going to start up Everquest 2 and Vanguard again, I wanted to get a beefier machine. I don’t like to play games on lower settings and I was worried that Vanguard would be a problem. That prompted me to order a desktop PC with a stronger video card. I have built my own computers for years, but this time around I went with a pre-built solution. Computers are so inexpensive these days that it wasn’t worth my time doing all the parts/pricing research that usually goes into my building a custom PC.

It didn’t take me long to find a decent PC at at great price. I ended up purchasing a HP Pavilion m8200n Multimedia PC from Amazon.com for $669. The specifications include an AMD X2 6000+ processor, 3gb RAM, 500gb hard drive, TV tuner, etc. The included video card is very weak, so I found an Nvidia 8800GT 512mb card on sale at Best Buy for $250. This system is certainly not the best, but it’s a fast computer at a cheap price. The bummer for me is the estimated arrival date isn’t until January 2nd, so here I am waiting for it. But, soon enough, we’ll find out how well it performs with these games.

–Wolfen