Whodoo that Voodoo that you do so well?

It's kind of funny, but I always hit this present in the vault as my last present.

Why? Well it's the one that awards the Marks of Triumph, and for some reason I have it in my head that this box will be more likely to award me a case of Marks of Triumph instead of just a single Mark of Triumph if I save it for last . . .

I KNOW RIGHT?! I can't believe I made up this little voodoo in my mind, but obviously people do it all the time. For instance, in Wizard101, my wife and her friends sometimes think that the order you enter the hatchery will have some kind of magical effect that will influence which pet you get as a result. It's crazy talk, but I've learned to not try to argue with their voodoo ways. :)

So here's a question, what kind of video game voodoo do you believe in? What's your virtual equivalent of a football player never washing his lucky jockstrap? Give me your craziness! I'd love to hear it.

Happy dueling!

Whazzat? CR 84? YES!!!

I have to brag a bit . . . not because I'm the first or last to make CR84, but because now I am one of the happy-to-have-made-it-to-CR 84 crowd! Check it out!



That ring I'm mouse'd over on that screenshot is what did it today. It's a rare beauty that fell into my lap courtesy of the daily Vault mission. With a CR 78 rating and a nice red slot in it, which I graciously put a Precision and Might 3 mod in for an additional 17 levels (!!!) of effectiveness, that little pastel orange lucky-drop pushed me right over the edge of CR 84! I was shocked when I saw that. I was so happy I felt the need to taunt my good friend Spode (who's sitting at CR 82) with an email message.

Getting CR 84 is one thing, but taunting your good friend with it is another. hehe. I fully expect retaliation of some sort later today.

Looks like I need to try out the Tier 4 alerts!

More on that later. :)

Happy Dueling!

Shot through the heart . . . and DCUO is to blame

I loaded up Marvel Heroes a couple days ago when it launched, and played through the first level. It was reasonably fun and very much everything everyone has said about the game . . . Diablo meets superheroes. If that's your thing, you'll dig this game.



My wife showed some initial interest, even overlooking the isometric view, and that made me kind of excited! Unfortunately when she found out you really couldn't fly around and make your own personalized character, she was instantly lost. I believe the direct quote was, "This is just another one of those dumb games your group can play for free on Sunday nights."

. . . and she left the room.

. . . and she was back to DCUO . . . as was I! I can't get enough of DCUO lately! Earlier this morning I crafted my first rank four mod. Check it out.



Oh man that 12 Exobytes component is a lot of flying around and collecting little glowing bits around the world.

It did manage to bring my total CR up to 81 this morning. I'm getting ever closer to the magical CR 84. I think it's eventually all going to come down to these augments to push me over the edge. What happens at the magical CR 84? I open up the next tier of missions in the On Duty menu of course! Yay!

Lately it seems like all the action in the game is taking place in the CR 94+ area of the game. I keep seeing shouts of higher geared players looking for "nexus" groups. I'd look up what that means, but for now I'm just happy grinding away on my Steelworks missions.



Shot through the heart, and DCUO's to blame . . .

I also spent some time last night completing a bunch of Tier 3 two-player missions with my good buddy Tony.



Tony and I have been gaming together for years. To think we met in Everquest well over 10 years ago . . . whoa *time warp jazz hands*. Anyway, he rose about 4 CR last night and we raked in about 350 Marks. Good times!

Happy Dueling

Looking Cool in DC Universe Online

One thing that must happen in a Super Hero MMO -- Your hero MUST look epic. What's a hero without a costume? Well, for one, invisible, for two, NO HERO AT ALL!

The character creation process in City of Heroes and City of Villains are stuff of legends, which makes it all the more sad that those two particular games have gone the way of the dodo. For me though, the newest Super Hero game is DC Universe Online--thanks to Team Spode! We've been having a blast as you can tell from Tipa's posts, but the first real comment I must make about the game (aside from the already stated point that DCUO isn't for kids) is how awesome the costume changes are in game. It's brilliant, actually. It's like I'm instantly carrying around several costumes that are able to be equipped on the fly . . . and all neatly collected without ever taking up any backpack space. Now THAT's customization!

First you press Escape and select the Style option.

Once you're here, you simply open up each item and select which part of your costume you'd like to put on, and then select the individual item you want to wear.

Then you either lock in a particular style or unlock it, so if your character has an iconic thing about them that you feel is core to who they are . . . lock it. For instance, I just purchased a wing model for my character Stingite yesterday, and I'm thinking that is going to most likely be his iconic back item . . . that and his Mohawk, green lizard skin, and "S" for stingite emblem on his chest. :)

Everything else can shift around as I find new styles because that is truly one of the sub-games of DC Universe Online: collecting and unlocking all the styles the game has to offer.

Chaka Khan with a side of Chaka vs. Chakan

So I can't explain what happens to me every once in a while, but something grabs me, sits me down in front of the tv, pulls out a random old game cart, and switches on a nightmare from the past. Possession? Evil bunnies of death?

I ain't kidding here. Am I the only one that sees the evil bunny in that picture above?

Anyway, that evil bunny is from (and this weekend's distraction is called) "Chakan" ... Not to be confused with Chaka Khan as my friend Christina Ice Dreamer pointed out to me. Nor Chaka, the neanderthal boy from Land of the Lost. No, no, no this has infinitely less soul and beadier eyes.

Yes, that pixilated fella is Chakan--a bloodthirsty, dual-sword-wielding mortal turned immortal in 16-bit goodness. Who knew such bloodthirst came in such pixilated packages? Hey! This was some spooky stuff back in the day! :)

Playing Chakan now (and even back then) is a bit like eating nasty salty black licorice fish. Let me explain in inner dialog format: "YUCK, why did I put this in my mouth and is there ever any end to the disgusted pain I'm feeling right now? I'm still chewing on this nasty candy? Who do I sue and will someone hurry up with the legal documentation because . . . Wait a second . . . is this all that bad? Hmm, maybe I'll have another! This is the worst tasting candy I've ever eaten! I must share! Cripes, did I just eat the whole bag of that nasty stuff?"

(I think I just told a story within a story there . . . )

Here's the bullet list of agony:

- Chakan has no save option.
- Chakan has delightfully painful music.
- Chakan is an unforgiving finger masher that requires muscle memory to the Nth degree.
- Chakan gives you limited resources to pull off cool stunts (aka Alchemy) and makes you try to pull off the impossible (like beating a boss whose attacks you can't avoid (unless you're blessed with the finger dexterity of a concert violinist) when you don't have said resources.
- Chakan is a miserable game that . . . You must play! LOL!

When I first put in Chakan, I wasn't even wanting to play Chakan. You know what I wanted to play? Soul Reaver. That's right, a completely different game--I just had forgotten which game was which.

I did a little Internet digging after I started playing Chakan, and I found a few interesting nuggets out. Basically, the rumor from that link is that Chakan was going to have a sequel released on the Dreamcast but never got made. Instead what happened was some of the concept work for what would have been Chakan 2 went toward another game ... Blood Omen 2, which as it turns out is Part of the Legacy of Kain series of games including ... Dun dun dun ... Soulreaver, the very same game my psyche was hungering for in the first place. I wanted to play Soulreaver, not Chakan, but now I'm too far into Chakan to give up Chakan . . . Chakan Chakan CHAKAN!

I'm not going to go into the whole plot and background of this game, we'll let Wikipedia do that for us. Instead, I just wanted to say that I'm now in the Elemental Planes portion of the game.

That's right, congrats me (I'm sure it only goes downhill from here in a punishing spiral of difficulty)!

Yeah, I'm just really irritated with the lack of a save button on this game . . . was that common back in 1992? I guess so . . . wild . . . it just means my old Sega box is going to be left on for a couple days. Sigh.

After I finish playing out this Chakan nightmare, perhaps then I'll step into Soulreaver again on my old Dreamcast like I had originally planned. It's been far too long! I may even have to play through this whole vampire series that I missed! I didn't even know about the Blood Omen, Legacy of Kain series! Seems a bit spooky, but I'm good with Spooky.

Till then ...

Happy dueling

Dungeon Empires -- Leveling up my monsters woots!

Dungeon Empires continues to beat me up mercilessly . . . just look at this nonsense I'm fighting. LOL


Skeletal Warriors with 101 hitpoints and fire damage boosts. *shiver*

OH! Here's another . . . ATTACK OF THE ZOMBIES!


When I see fat zombie on the right hand side, I want to do exactly what it says in that box underneath him in the picture . . . . also when I see that big dude, it reminds me of another evil purveyor of death from good ol' Everquest. Remember Grummus? Good times!

I've been hitting a few of the 15+ non-player dungeons to see those baddies. They're still pretty tough for me, but I love a good challenge. Not a challenge that's TOO difficult mind you. ;)

Anyway, I've finally reached the stage in my progression where I can put monsters in the training room and level them up. Basically all you do is stick your monster in this little sidebar window here and click away!


If you're lucky enough to get to box six in the training progression before your monster gets fatigued, then they level up! You can use dragon ore to "protect" your monster from fatigue, but . . . meh . . . who cares. So far my monsters haven't been losing any progression when I only partially fill their uber "squares of training." I've just been able to keep leveling them up right where I left off after a few hours goes by.

Anyway, once you fill all six squares, the test tube to the right of your monster's portrait starts to glow and fill. If it rises above the line needed to level your monster, bada bing bada boom, you get to come over to the next screen and choose how you want to develop your monster's stats.


Work it funky skeletal warrior guy! Now if only I could name my monsters . . . I think I'd call this one "Cheekbone the barbarian."

So there you have it! If you're into Dungeon Empires, remember to look me up (stingite) and come destroy Cheekbone the barbarian in my dungeon. :) He's now an AC+7 one-star skeletal warrior. I don't think that really counts for much, but at least it's something. ;)

Happy dueling!

So addicted to Dungeon Empires . . .

Dungeon Empires entirely sucked my soul into its void last week, and I'm still trying to find a way out. I really have Arkenor to thank for pointing me to the vast expanse of this free-to-play monster of a game, which I kind of thought would be a nice distraction from whatever it was I was distracting myself with. You know, I kind of have a shtick going with a few blogs like Wizard101, LOTRO, Rift, DDO, Mytheon, and oh . . . just everything you might find links to at happydueling.com. ;-) I may have to start a Dungeon Empires blog after last week LOL!

The concept appears simple at first, and then slowly by slowly you start to see that this is in fact a very complex game from Gamigo. I think I might actually be more in love with the concept of this game more than the game itself, which is like two games in one.


Rawr! Dungeon Empires! Dungeons and empires . . . that's like evil upon evil, isn't it? Rawr!

So in Dungeon Empires you take the role of a male hero . . . First complaint, where THE HECK are the female heroes? This has absolutely got to change. You can't just make male heroes the only option anymore. In fact, I have a few complaints about the "masculinity" of this site in general. Two words: Succubus bum. They even put a lipstick heart on the succubus bum to draw your eye right to it. LOL. Egads Gamigo, CHANGE. Your core audience could be much much larger because this is a great game hiding behind bad Marketing. Luckily with the magic of F11 and full screen mode you can hide said Succubus bum.

I digress . . .

Anyway, your male hero can take on one of three emphases: Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence. These stats form the foundation of your character's abilities: Basically Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard. Although, much like classic Diablo style, these classes seem to be able to learn each other's skills interchangeably (I do believe). They just each start with different starting skill. (Wizard life drain for me, yay!)

At first look Dungeon Empires looks entirely pedestrian. Leveling appears pretty standard. (Check.) Combat is turn-based. (Check.) Gothic-style succubus bum on the front page. (Check.) Yup, this is a strategy-based RPG, but what's absolutely un-pedestrian about the game is that you're simultaneously leveling up your own dungeon full of creatures. Basically, you're roughly given a 24x24 space to layout your dungeon, room by room. You pack your dungeon full of creatures and furniture that buffs your creatures. To do this you have to "level" the rooms in your dungeon to unlock their ultimate potential.


The kid inside of me who used to forge his own dungeons on graph paper giggles at this aspect of the game.

Rooms and creatures aren't freely given beyond the tutorial though. It takes quite a bit of adventuring in other people's dungeons to find the bits and pieces that can fill your dungeon. Fear not! If you get bored with the look at feel of player dungeons, you can always play through a few offerings that Gamigo offers to you as pre-built dungeons from them.


Just a little different look can do wonders to breaking up the monotony. Is there monotony? Yeah, there can be. Unfortunately this game can move a little slowly, and especially if you don't really know what you're doing, but read on . . . I've got a few helpful tips and a link to share to make it not so painful.

If I've piqued your interest in this game a touch and you're going to try it out, do yourself a favor and after playing through the tutorial, stop by the Dungeon Empires forums and read this guide from Silverdash. It's just chuck full of good information.

Here's my main tips that I've gained from the past week of play that might help things go a touch faster.

1- Click the mini-map in dungeons to move from area to area. This alone makes the game move much faster. If the door you're running to is far enough away, your character will hurry up and sprint to the next doorway.

2- Ice Shield. Get this spell as soon as possible. It's been by far the most helpful spell in the game aside from the health drain you get as an intelligence-based character. If you have the mana for it, cast this spell immediately after every battle to prepare you for the next room even if you still have remaining protection from your old ice shield.

3- Keys. It took me a bit to understand that if you don't get at least six keys, those keys disappear after the level and are cashed out for 20 gold. If you're ever faced with a chest that gives you the option of choosing either a key or an amount of gold less than 20 gold, take the key!

4- Leveling rooms. Leveling rooms is accomplished through a system of trading in runes. Leveling a room from first to second level only costs around 3 runes, but this quickly doubles and then some. Without purchasing dragon ore (cash shop money), you can earn runes by throwing random fixtures and rooms that you find from adventuring into "the shredder" down in the lower right hand corner of your dungeon creating interface.


If your dungeon is full of monsters, you may want to start choosing rooms and fixtures instead of gold. This is doubly true if you find yourself in a dungeon you just know you're going to die in because if you die, you lose your gold (and exp too *ouch*), but you'll keep all the rooms, fixtures, and monsters that you pick up.

5- GOLD! If you log in consecutively five days in a row, there will be a nice shiny reward of 2,000 gold for you at the end of the rainbow.


That gold can equal a lot of new monsters for your dungeon. Too be honest, this game is really all about trying to build a dungeon that people will die in, but not always . . . what I mean is that you'll get money and items even if someone conquers your dungeon. The very fact that someone entered your dungeon and played through it will equal a reward. (I've yet to have someone die in my dungeon, but I've heard the payout is much greater if someone bites the big one in your space you've created).

6- Dungeon Pathing. Let me tell you something about the dungeons I've died in. They all have led me from room to room in a very serial and methodical method with one path eventually leading to the end. For this purpose look for rooms that have two door ways so you can build a torturous path for your intruders to walk. Don't give them a break by putting your ending near the beginning; otherwise, they could leave your dungeon at any time. No no no . . . make them pay mercilessly . . . .

7- LOGGING ON! LOL! This website is not bug free. You need to try your username starting with both an uppercase character and a lowercase character. Eventually you'll get the right username. It's just a little bit tricky. Also, even though this is a browser-based game, you'll have to have the Unity player. No worries, the site should walk you through everything you need.

Well, that's about all I've got in me at the moment on Dungeon Empires. Sadly, I've been neglecting my paid subscription games over this free to play. hahaha! I hope you guys give it a shot, and if you do . . . HEY, search for "Stingite" in the dungeon list and walk my butcher's path. ;) (You may want to level a bit first)


I'll be sure to see your name in my inbox in game like I did with Arkenor.


Dang! He survived! ;) I SHALL GET YOU ARKENOR!

If I actually make it to the later stages of the game, I'll have more to post on this subject, but until then, see you in the level 5-15 bracket!

Happy Dueling!