LeBron and Cleveland? Let it go already!

LeBron James recently said that he 'couldn't predict the future,' and that maybe one day he would entertain playing for Cleveland again. The internet, doing what it does best, blew this statement way the hell out of proportion.

The dude was standing in Cleveland. He was surrounded by reporters, microphones, and a city that - by all media accounts - wants him to go to hell. What was he supposed to say? If I was cornered in hostile territory, being eyed suspisicially by people who want to burn my shirt, then hell yes I'm going to talk nice about them. Is he serious about it? Who knows, but in my mind it doesn't matter. It wouldn't happen for 10 years or so anyway, if it ever were to come to pass, so it's not worth even debating. I'm not a LeBron defender, but I'm not a hater, either. I just wish people would come to grips with this and let it go.

I'm from Akron, Ohio myself. That's where I'm writing this, actually, on the eve of the Cavs hosting the Heat at Quicken Loans Arena (the 'Q,' to us locals). Am I excited about the game? Yes, because I like watching basketball and I love my home team. Does it matter who they're playing? Not really. The only games I might not watch are games against teams that are playing worse then we are (hi, Charlotte!), if only because really sloppy play irritates me and if they happen to pull a no-show against a poorer team, I get really mad - and that happens regularly. The Cavs are a young, inexperienced team right now with little to no true leadership on the court. Kyrie Irving has neither the personality nor the pedigree to command respect on the court right now, and our few veterans (Antawn Jamison, Andy Varejao, Anthony Parker) also fail in that regard.

The reason I write this is because of the continued anger and confusion that the LeBron/Cleveland connection still leaves in the media, a year and a half or so since the split. Let me explain my take on the situation, from what I can see here in Akron. For everyone I know who follows the Cavs, LeBron is old news. He's not on the team anymore, and he's not some specter looming over the franchise. He's a member of the Heat now. My social circle, at least, has let that go. I’m not wishing anything ill on the man (my father actually thinks far less of Blake Griffin, for example) and he can continue his career down south in peace. One reason I think he left when he did was because young teams in the East were stacking up (Chicago, New York, Miami) to go with Boston and Orlando so there was no way he was pulling those Cavs into the Finals by himself. He may have colluded to join Wade and Bosh long before but I think this is seen as more of a big deal because it's in the public consciousness. How many other players in how many other sports may have done this more successfully? We'll never know.

The big reason we're still hearing about this is because the media won't let it go. It's lazy reporting, to just connect LeBron to Cleveland and make some obvious statistical connection, then point to The Decision as it's root. The big news networks (ESPN in particular) thinks that the public still cares. Newsflash: most people don't. I got sick of the Brett Favre retirement saga, I got sick of hearing about Barbaro, and I'm sick of people painting the LBJ/CLE parting as an ongoing issue. Some reporter will go into a bar in Cleveland, intentionally stir up a hornets nest and then say, “See? See?” with a condescending tone, pontificating on why the issue won’t die. Hey jackass, the issue won’t die because you won’t let it. Give it a rest already.

I'll admit that I was mad when he left. Was I mad at him, or the way he did it? No. I was mad because I knew the first and perhaps only true Cavalier star of my lifetime was going elsewhere and I was back to watching 30-40 win teams with the likes of Bob Sura, Lamond Murray, Dujan Wagner, and Ricky Davis as it's 'highlight makers.' Here's what it's like to be a Cleveland fan: you watch players on your team, think , "wow, they're pretty good! I think we've got a potential star here!' and then they leave and you watch them get buried or cut by the rest of the league because they weren't that good after all. Players like Sura, Brevin Knight and Derek Anderson, players who looked better to us then they probably should have because of our inherently low expectations. This goes for all of our teams, most notably the Indians. Players like Ben Broussard and Jason Michaels, who start for us but go nowhere after leaving town because they're simply average at best. It's depressing when you step back and look at it.

Long story short, the media is the only reason that the public still links LeBron to Cleveland. If he came back someday, that'd be interesting. He'd probably be a shell of his superstar self at that point and it would be a purely sentimental move, but he did allot for the team in his seven years. He made the team relevant. He made people care, and he gave us some of the best highlights in the city's sports history. I just wish that Big Media would allow us to part ways for good, or at least, until a certain unpredictable future arrives.

Sports, Sports and More Sports

It’s football time! College football kicked off last week and the NFL started it’s season last night. The Ohio State Buckeyes romped my hometown Akron Zips, but who was surprised? They could have started their third string and still come away with the win.

As for baseball, the Indians season is over. The recent drubbing by the Tigers put postseason hopes to bed for good. They peaked in April and have been slowly sliding since, hitting rock bottom at the worst possible time. I’ll always wonder what they could have done, playing the “what if” game. What if Shin Soo Choo hadn’t missed all those games? What if Travis Hafner had stayed healthy? What if Carlos Santana could play defense? What if Fausto Carmona was someone else's problem? What if the Ubaldo Jimenez trade had worked out? “What If?” was the Indians marketing ploy this year, and it fits the season to the tee. What if, indeed.

Back to football, I’m in a fantasy football league and I’m starting Michael Vick at QB. I’m going to nervous until I see him play week one, because I just don’t know what I’m going to get out of him. I also have Peyton Hillis of my hometown Browns, and he’s already struggling with injuries. Damn you, Madden Curse!

I’m still kind of shocked that Hillis won the Madden Cover bracket contest. I understand his Arkansas fan base helped, but I just have this vision of the EA Sports executives seeing him beating out Vick on the final vote, and going, “s**t.” Vick would have been the first repeat cover star and is obviously more famous and marketable then Hillis. It’s too late now, since the game’s on store shelves with the Browns RB on it’s cover. It doesn’t seem to have hurt the game’s sales though, and let’s be honest – who buys the game for the cover, anyway?

Later, all.

I Suck at Halo Reach

It’s official: I’m no match for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Cyborgs that play online shooters anymore. Seriously, some people must be wasting their lives mastering headshots instead of doing something productive. I recently took a sojourn into Halo Reach’s online community, and it was a brutal wake-up call.

• GAME ONE: I played team slayer and got first kill (dying in the process). So far, so good, right? I led my team in kills for the first half of the match but suddenly things went south. I don't know how or why. I started getting killed allot and no one would die for me. It was irritating as hell. I finished with 6 kills and 10 deaths, good for second worst in the game. My team lost the match, 50-41.
  
• GAME TWO: Another team slayer match, this one was pretty much a ‘lambs (noobs) to the slaughter’ type scenario. I was constantly killed by a-holes I never even saw. I would unload entire clips into a guy, and then he’d one-shot me. I’m confident in saying that the other team was likely not a random rag-tag bunch like mine was: their coordination was just a little too sharp. I finished with 4 kills, 16 deaths and we lost 50-20. I was again second worst in the entire game. Damn it all.

At that point I called it quits. There are those who say that the only way to learn in these games is to get mercilessly pummeled over and over. These are the people who’s head I would like to slam in a door for hours on end. The whole, ‘die and a millions times and then you’re good’ idea is an archaic concept. There has to be another way. It’s like saying, “I burned myself hundreds of times learning to make coffee, so that’s the way you should have to do it, otherwise you’re a quitter.” Logic, anyone?

I asked the game to match me with players of my skill level. Did it? Well, if the rank and lifetime kills of my opponents was any indicator, no. The reason being, this long after a game’s launch is a terrible time to try and jump into the fray. If you don’t start when the game comes out, the longer you wait the bigger handicap you’ll have. The reality is that the game could have looked for hours and not found enough players as green as I was to fill a match.

As for playing with friends, that’s a great idea. You get together with people you know, and there’s a comfort level there. There’s a problem though. If you were to look at my friends list, you’d see one person, that would be Beta. She’s the only other player I know who plays the Xbox 360. Omega plays with me but for whatever reason he doesn’t have an online account. Even then, both of them only play when they’re visiting me, because neither of them has a system of their own. Anyone who I meet online playing Halo Reach or the like isn’t going to be impressed with me as I get blown away time and again. They’re not going to seek me out to play later. So for me, using the friends list is out.

I honestly don’t know what I’m doing wrong here. From Call of Duty: Black Ops to Team Fortress 2 to Halo Reach, I’m taking my years of FPS skills online and being ripped to shreds. The truth is, I’m not bad at these games. I’m actually pretty competent – especially with a mouse and keyboard in my hands – and when I’m playing an even match I can rattle off the kill streaks. I’m just no match for the folks with hours of playtime under their belt and skills honed over dozens to hundreds of matches.

I may yet retire playing multiplayer games for future e-AAGH.net reviews if this trend continues. Time will tell.

Pass? Not me… or will I?

I’m in the middle of reviewing NCAA Football 12, and it’s not been easy. Why? I can’t seem to pass the damn ball. Seriously, I can’t pass! Every ball I throw gets batted down or picked off. To that end I’m playing a running back in Road to Glory. However, there was recently a surprise.

EA Sports: NCAA Football 12 Video

I had to play makeshift QB for a play, and I completed the pass! Of course it was the second straight time we ran this play, so I had some idea what I was doing. The first time, I panicked – no one told me I was to throw the ball! – and got sacked for some 5+ yards. Dammit.

The review is still en route, so look forward to it soon.

NCAA Football 12 Bites

You can bite my... oh wait, you already are.

I’m playing NCAA Football 12 for review, and I wanted to share this pic fro my Road to Glory career. Bud Daniel got his a** bit by a defender. Kind of against the rules, don’t you think?

Nothing to see here, just me being awesome. Again.

Almost Back to Full Speed

Things are progressing well with my new PC. I've updated AlphasSports and posted the quarterly report on e-AAGH.net. It looks like we're almost back up to speed already.

New PC–Updates Delayed

Just an FYI for anyone who follows the e-AAGH.net sites: I got a new computer yesterday. My old one was very slow and wasn’t up to playing many current games, so I was hampered in my reviews. My new rig is allot better and has room for upgrades, which my old one did not.

The big reason I’m sharing this is because it’s set me back a bit as far as working on the sites. I’ve got to transfer allot of data from the old computer to the new one still and that’s going to take time. How much time is still up in the air. I have to get things in working order first and then I can start the transfer process. Hopefully in the next day or so I can start doing proper updates again.

If not, hey – at least I’m working on the problem on a shiny new computer. That’s a plus, right?

Back in the Saddle Again

I apparently can’t keep my word. Well, occasionally, anyway. I was playing Team Fortress 2 again – even after I said I was through with the game – and didn’t do so bad. See for yourself.

That’s not so bad, for me anyhow. I was an engineer for approximately 30 seconds before the round ended, so despite what you see here my score came from playing a soldier. 13 kills to 8 deaths is the first time in a long time I’ve been in the positives on that ratio. The sad part is that right after this, the next round saw me get dominated by three people at once (that sounds bad when said like that, doesn’t it?) and died every time I stepped out of the spawn room. Our base got flooded by the other team but I in particular seemed to get ganged up on. Fun.
On another note, after my struggles with the replay system, I finally managed to export a video, and even uploaded one to YouTube. Here it is.

It’s really not exciting but the system works, and that’s what matters. That’s all for now. Later, all.

e-AAGH.net’s Sudden Switch

Anyone who’s been to e-AAGH.net has noticed the recent format shift. Why change it again? For one, the previous format was a little limiting on future expansion. More importantly, though, is the cleaned up presentation and smoother navigation. Any opinions on it are more then welcome.

Cleveland Rocks

Hey everyone. I’m in a good mood tonight after my hometown Cleveland Indians won again with another walk off at Progressive Field. It looks like some of the old Jacob’s Field Magic still lingers there. It’s shades of 1995, actually, when that team made a name for itself by becoming contenders almost overnight and specializing in walk off wins when the park was still Jacob’s Field (it’s still The Jake to me). On opening day I made a wallpaper for my desktop to celebrate the Tribe’s new season, and now I’m sharing it with everyone here. I consider it my good luck charm and it’s staying up on my desktop until the Indians season is over.

It’s simple as can be but I like it. My motif was a sewn-on Chief Wahoo patch on a generic sleeve. I’ve got this now in many common desktop ratios, so if you’re an Indians fan show your support and download it.

Cleveland Indians Wallpaper

That’s all for now. Later all.

Portal 2’s Release Mechanic, My Take

I’ve heard allot of fussing over Valve’s unique accelerated release mechanism for Portal 2, both good and bad. There are those who think it was fun to be part of the release clock and those who doubt playing the indie games Valve linked to their ARG system had any effect whatsoever. My opinion is that for a one-time gimmick it was fun. I enjoyed tracking the updates and playing the games was a good way to pass the time. It generated sales for indie developers too, so that’s a plus. My biggest worry is that this will become commonplace. It was fun once, but more then that could be too much. Maybe once a year I could tolerate it but I can just see some marketing exec seeing the fuss that this generated and trying to implement it for their own upcoming releases.

Some companies get more leeway then others. Valve, Nintendo and Bethesda, for example. Nintendo has a deep, core connection with gamers that no other company can match and people will buy their systems just to play the latest Mario, Zelda, Metroid and the rest of their first-party lineup. Valve has a huge reputation for quality and gets more patience from gamers as far as release dates and processes then most companies (save for Blizzard). Bethesda’s the wild card in this paragraph. My argument for them is, if any one else released games as buggy as their Elder Scrolls series – especially Daggerfall and Morrowind – people would have burned them at the stake and forgotten them. For whatever reason, their games get a huge pass on crashes, bugs and glitches. Personally, Morrowind would crash on me every 10-15 minutes, almost like clockwork. Any other game that did that to me would have been uninstalled in record time but I kept playing Morrowind, accumulating over 100 hours of play, easy. While I can explain Valve and Nintendo’s freedom, I still can’t put my finger on Bethesda’s magic touch.

In any case, Portal 2 now – according to GlaDOS @ Home – has under 30 minutes left before release. I’ll be there, will you?

UPDATE: At 12:30 AM EDT, Portal 2 is unleashed.

Ready to Hang Up my TF2 Gloves

I think it’s time I quit playing Team Fortress 2, and the above picture is a small glimpse into why. It’s not just the 3 kills to 12 deaths you see here; I later got dominated by two players at once and fell to 4 kills and 21 deaths. The sad part was that until I checked the score screen I thought I was having a pretty decent round. It’s that thought, and not so much the kill/death ratio, that’s telling me it’s time to quit. When I’m dying more then 5 times as often as I’m killing and that feels to me like I’m doing well, I’ve jumped the shark.

I did grab the No-Hitter achievement later in the round for making a capture without firing a shot, but it took me almost four lives to do it. I got into the base and got the briefcase to the battlements before dying. I then got it and ran it to our front door and was killed. I then snatched it up and bolted for our intelligence with someone close behind me, peppering the walls and floor with gunfire. Just as I reached our intelligence and completed the capture – literally, it was less the a second difference - I was killed from behind by my pursuer, revealed to be a spy. That felt like a daring success, but that’s one success against how many losses? Too many.

I may log on for short jaunts now and again but my days of trying to be competitive are done. You win this round, Teenage Mutant Ninja Cyborgs – aka the other players I’ve faced – but I’ll be back in another game, and that one I will win.

And it will be sweet. Later, all

e-AAGH.net Traffic Meter Change

Just a quick heads-up on the e-AAGH.net site visitor counter at the bottom of the page. It read, up until this morning, in the 170s. After an update it reads upwards of 1,200. Why the change? Because I’ve changed from tracking the last 30 days to counting all visits, starting from the oldest data I have, which is from May ‘09. It will now count every visitor to the site from here on out. Let’s see how high you guys can make it climb.

Pick your favorite sites!

I’ve added a poll for everyone to vote on about your favorite e-AAGH.net network sites.
Which do you prefer?

e-AAGH.net

e-AAGH.net is the root of the network. Games news, reviews and previews are found here. It’s been up and active for over six years now.

Alazar

Our World of WarCraft blog, which has been inactive for a few months. It’s still up as an archive, chronicling both the game since launch of Wrath of the Lich King and my main, human paladin Gavelier from hapless level 42 soloer to experienced level 85 guildie.

The Jockeys

Our web comic about two radio DJs, their cousin Bernie Monster and their killer pet snake. It’s usually updated on the weekends, but due to varous factors is occasionally misses it’s release date.

AlphaSports

AlphaSports chronicles the career of one Rick Daniel in NBA 2K. Originally running on NBA 2K10, we migrated to NBA 2K11 when it released. Daniel started 2K11 playing point guard for the Miami Heat, but in his second season got traded to the Denver Nuggets and is now their sole star player.
So which is your favorite? Do you like AlphaSports’ biographical style or do you prefer a laugh with the Jockeys? Maybe you enjoyed Gavelier’s adventures and want him to come back, or just come here for the reviews. Let your opinion be heard!

Running the Rift

I picked up Rift yesterday and have been playing a for few hours on and off. The first thing to come to mind for me was that the combat didn’t have the oomph that DC Universe Online did, but instead is typical fantasy MMO fare. I helped close my first while going between two early quest zones near a Rudi’s Wagon in Silverwood. Once that was closed another opened no more then a stone’s throw away, which was just silly. While working together with other players was fun and there are nice rewards for it, these rift can also be a pain in the ass. I appeared inside a fiery invasion one near Argent Glade upon logging in, and nature ones later ruined my quest progress in Argent Glade proper, taking the north and sound ends. My avatar is a Mathosian warrior with Beastmaster, Riftblade and Champion souls. Why? I have no idea, they aren’t explained hardly, if at all, before you pick them. I read up on them before playing, which is the only way I knew anything at all about what I was selecting and even then I just knew I wanted the pet to help me fight, some ranged attacks and strong two-handed attacks. That’s it.

Rift can be fun, but how Trion Worlds can make a feature out of having your questing interrupted randomly and calling it ‘dynamic gameplay’ is beyond me. Other games do the same thing, but they just have other players doing it and call it PvP. I’m going to keep playing but there’s allot for this game to overcome at this point and when a game starts in a hole, that’s not a good sign.

Minecraft Texture Fun

It’s busy around e-AAGH.net, but In my spare time I like to play Minecraft. I recently opted to try out different texture packs for a change. I usually stick with one that pretties up the original look of the game (like the Painterly pack), so I opted this time to try something different.

I liked Animal Crossing, so Animal Crafting was an instant hit with me. This is my main offline world, with my home’s dock on the left and bridge over my moat center frame.

Here you can see my firing range. I’ve got a mine cart nearby that, if it catches something, I wheel it in front of the dispenser and fire away from safety. This look is downright arresting to me, but let’s try something else anyway.

This Gameboy texture is really… unique. It does give a good feel for the days of old but I’m not sure I miss these particular days that much.

Downstairs in my lobby is my cake room, with the old tried-and-true quote.

Eugh, the cake never looked that good before, and now it’s worse then ever. Great.

I like Minecraft allot and will probably try some more texture packs to find one I want. If I find any more that stand out to me, maybe I’ll bring them here, too. Later. all.

Update on March 21st 2011

I’ve not posted here in a while since e-AAGH.net is going so well, so let me catch you guys up on what’s going on the e-AAGH.net Network. My NBA 2K11 My Player avatar, Rick Daniel, recently had to start a game at point guard for the Miami Heat with both LeBron James and Dwyane Wade hurt, and he did pretty good. You can read all of his adventures are AlphaSports.

The Jockeys, my web comic, continues it’s weekly run. Recently Joey and Jackie had the coach of their local pro basketball team on the show with them, and he brought his latest recruit, a familiar, albeit “French” monster. The Jockeys usually gets updated every Saturday on The Jockeys – WHYME Radio.

Alazar, our World of WarCraft blog continues to sit forlornly since I’m still not playing the game – and I’m not sure when I will again. The site will remain up, though, whether I’m playing or not for all to read.

In non-site related news I’ve been playing Team Fortress 2 again lately, mostly on the Brothers of Chaos 2Fort server. If you were to go to their site and look at my stats, you would see that I suck at TF2.

I’m also drawing my pseudo-manga (a comic drawn in the style of Japanese manga) and may – someday – post a link to my latest work I had to start over since I wasn’t happy with my last work but I may finally be making headway. I’ve only been working on it, off and on, for over 10 years.

That’s about what’s up right now for me and e-AAGH.net. I’ll be sure to check back in if there’s any change.

Awaiting Dragon Age 2

Like many an RPG PC gamer tonight, I’m waiting for my unlock for Dragon Age 2. It’s supposed to come at 3:00 AM EST (12:00 PST) so I should have about 10 minutes left if nothing goes wrong. I may write up a first look article once I give the game a go. I may not. It all depends on if there’s anything worth talking about.

EDIT: Yep, it unlocked at 3:00 sharp. On to Feraldin!

Latest from e-AAGH.net

So far the deployment of the new format has gone really well. The pages seem to work, people are coming and going just fine and nothing appears to be failing. I’ve noticed one or two things that have needed fixed and patched them up with no downtime. I’ve added links back to here from the site, and I’ve tweaked the ads on the pages. All in all, it’s going well.

While you’re here, please take our e-AAGH.net visitor survey and help us improve the site.

My Hero

Meet my hero. He’s my heroic avatar in DC Universe Online, my latest game to review. In the last day or so I’ve reviewed Fallout: New  Vegas (PC), Call of Duty: Black Ops (Xbox 360) and Bloody Good Time (also PC), and I’ve got another review queued up for the end of the week. e-AAGH.net is back in full swing!