Bad news, everyone! With my newfound library access (which I am enjoying at this very moment), I used the free and extensive bandwidth to download World Of Warcraft and sign up for a 10-day guest pass! So as of last friday, productivity is precisely zero. I am, however, level 13. And really cranking up my Tailoring skill.
Why this has been so good at destroying productivity is another bit of terrible news for you, great for me: It turns out that of all games in the world, WoW is the one (not counting turn-based ones) that works pretty nicely over satellite. Seriously! I can play it despite it indicating a ping of 1500 usually, and for quite a while, it was 2500 (that means the round-trip for data to/from the server was 2.5 seconds, as opposed to the 10th of a second it is here at the library). Not that it's perfect, or even decent - there is a solid 2 second delay between me clicking on any button and getting a response (not movement though, they handle that very very nicely), so my "instant" spells are 2 second casts, and longer spells are just really really long. What this means is that while I can play, I am not very
good.
I had to carefully select my class accordingly. I have a Paladin started up (handy because attacking happens at a set pace, once you start it off with the 2 second delay, and Paladins have the strongest armor in the game, making killing them a slow process I can react to, and they can heal themselves and even become invincible if need be - of course, I'll have to plan that invincibility 2 seconds in advance), but have instead been working hard on my mighty Warlock. Warlock is pretty good for lag, because instead of spamming spells, a Warlock casts a few spells which then tick damage constantly over time automatically - one of them is virtually identical to the Drain spell in LL2. And more importantly, you get a pet demon to help you out, and he is not subject to lag at all. I've done reasonably well for myself. And best of all, fishing works fine despite the lag! Hooray!
The worst thing about all this is that it means I can definitely buy and play WoW. The $15 monthly fee is the only obstacle, and I am quite cheap enough to make that a serious obstacle. For now, I will enjoy my 10 days, get back to work, and wake up in cold sweats each night, shivering for my fix, thereafter. But eventually, it will be time to turn this guest pass into a life-destruction pass, and that will be that. Maybe a reward for finishing Titan Tunnels?
Hey, speaking of wasting time and Titans, I just bought Titan Quest today, thanks to a really nice deal at Circuit City - buy the expansion (on sale for $25) and you get the game for only $5. Can't pass that up on a Diablo clone. So once the WoW guest pass is over, I'll luckily still be hooked on something! Well, lucky for me, too bad for you. Okay, not that lucky for me. I like to finish games and make money. But I do also enjoy playing them.... hmm, a dilemma.
For now, I'll get to work telling you stuff about TT on the Sneak Peek. Catch you there in a few minutes when I'm done. Then I better get back to WoW - I'm at the library, I should take advantage of all this speed!
