What Hath I Wrought?

I'm sitting at my work laptop*, listening to the Star Wars d20 group that my oldest is DM for*, while they contemplate their latest mercenary conquest.

Yes, a gaming group of about 8-10 teenagers is overwhelming the size of our kitchen table, playing pencil and paper RPGs. They are playing as (effectively) mercs in a Star Wars campaign set in The Old Republic (SWTOR Era).

It's been a long time since I gamed in a teenage group, and hoo boy, are they boisterous.

I may a be an old fuddy duddy compared to that bunch, but I'm glad they're having a blast.

*Mainly because I died in Wildstar, and I have to wait a while to be able to rez in place. And I really really REALLY don't want to have to walk all the way back to take on Vorion the Corruptor.

**And my son is a player in, as well.

Not Again...

This has not been a good week for geekdom.

Word has now come out that Mr. Severus Snape, Alan Rickman, has passed away from cancer at age 69.

Although I knew him first as Mr. Hans Guber, from Die Hard:

He'll be missed.

Rest in Peace, Goblin King

The news has spread over social media like wildfire that David Bowie passed away on Sunday.

He'll be missed.

About that movie....

Yes, I have now seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

No, I'm not going to talk about it much.

Yes, it's a good movie.

No, it's not a great movie.

Yes, it is better than the Prequels.

No, It's not better than the original.

Yes, it is (IMHO) better than Return of the Jedi, whom I actually put below Revenge of the Sith.



I feel it is now safe to venture into SWTOR without concern of spoilers being splatted across the screen.

Fire? You don't need fire to beat a troll...

...just a good legal team and a willingness to smack the patent troll around.

Word came out late yesterday that a patent troll company, RecogniCorp LLC, lost in it's attempt to sue Nintendo for how the data for their Mii's are stored.

The judge threw the patent itself out, saying that the patent the company tried to sue Nintendo over --a patent on how police sketch artist data is stored-- an attempt to monopolize mathematical operations.

Here's the link to the Business Wire article about the case.

And an article from Nintendo Life, providing a bit of context to the case.

Troll in the Dungeon!!

Under the heading of patent trolls, it seems that several video game companies, Activision, EA, Zynga, and Take-Two Interactive among them, have been sued by a company calling itself Virtual Gaming Technologies for "real-time interaction systems" in online sports.

No, really.

Why do I call this company a patent troll? Well, for starters, the company Virtual Gaming Technologies was founded in September 2015, and practically the first thing the company did was to file lawsuits in patent litigation friendly East Texas.

I'm all for a patent holder to defend their rights to their patents, but come on. It's not like fantasy sports haven't been using this tech for a while, and the fact that the company was created expressly for the purpose of suing the big names in the video game industry implies that they really haven't much of a leg to stand on.

To that end, I'll let John Oliver do the talking on my opinion of these patent trolls:

Quiet Night...

Helloooo!!!!

Hellooooooooo!!!!

Where is everybody?

Oh, wait. Star Wars.

Nevermind, carry on. I'm just gonna leave this here....

And this....

Google Gets in on the Fun with Star Wars Easter Eggs...