David: LEGOs

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Outside of video games (I've been fascinated with watching pixels move as I push buttons since my family got a Magnavox Odyssey2, which means as long as I can remember) my favorite toys when I was a kid were my LEGOs. They were a hodgepodge of various themed sets mixed in with some basic sets and carried about, along with various building instructions, in a plastic blue box resembling a briefcase. If I was going to be visiting a place away from home for any length of time, my LEGO case was sure to come along.

I remember building, tearing down, and rebuilding the same models over and over and over again. For me, the finished product was fairly boring and the creative possibilities held little appeal. What did it for me back then was following the directions. LEGO instructions were my gateway to technical drawings and fed my fascination for how things were put together. To me they were like reading the step by step instructions to a magic trick (incidentally my home town's public library may still have some magic books in the juvenile section with my name scrawled on the card).

Over time I aged out of my LEGO days. Video games were getting easier to come by, and comic books were beginning to pique my interests. However I've checked in on the LEGO aisle many times over the years. You know, just to see how things were doing.

At the age of 19 I began dating my then future wife and quickly became "Uncle" David to her 2 nieces and a nephew. While shopping for their birthdays and Christmas I was often tempted to buy a set of LEGOs, even though they were never on the list of things they wanted or needed. What I really wanted was an excuse to play with the bricks, ostensibly with the kids. LEGOs never made the cut, however, and I was left without a fix.

Flash forward 12 to 13 years later and I finally got my chance to buy LEGOs, this time for my daughter. (In case you're wondering, LEGO DUPLO do NOT count). These were girlie LEGOs, no way around that. They're from the "Friends" series, and you can say what you want about gender bias but my daughter loves them. We sat down together with the set she got for her last birthday and put together what is basically a LEGO dollhouse. I helped a little, but it was mostly all her. It was a mini-LEGO fix.

Yesterday, however, was different. Yesterday we took our 4 year old son to LEGOLAND. The attraction itself is pretty neat, but the best part for me was that it emptied into a big LEGO store. I made a bee-line to the Star Wars section and, after realizing that the Millennium Falcon might be a little too advanced at this point, son and I settled on the Jedi Interceptor. Little did I know then my son and I were a match made in LEGO heaven.

We got home and immediately opened the box and got started. For a 4 year old, he impressed me with his ability to interpret the LEGO instructions, and with just a little bit of help from me he began assembling the model. About 3 pages in, though, something beautiful happened. He picked up the Anakin minifigure with his lightsaber and told me he wished the ship was done so he could play with it. "Don't you want to build the ship?" I asked, greedily hoping for the answer I eventually got. "No I want to play with Anakin and Artoo while I wait for you to build it."

Euphoria.

I finished the ship, mainlining that old drug and loving every second of it, and handed it over to the boy. You see, he didn't get a set of LEGOs. He got a spaceship.

The LEGOs were for me.

David: One Month of Silence

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Sorry, I just couldn't take it.

Damn it, Vent! Don't you die on me!

David: Hearthstone

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I've been in the Hearthstone beta for a couple of weeks, and there hasn't been a day go by since that I haven't played a few hands. The game itself is enjoyable. Although I did purchase a deck of M:TG cards once, I never really played that game or any other CCG/TCG. That said, i'm enjoying the strategy where it exists, and cursing the luck (my bad/opponent's good) where it doesn't.

One thing has been bugging me, though. I don't find the game as fun as the standard action oriented titles I play, and yet I have barely touched any of those since I started in on Hearthstone. I was struggling to determine what the difference was, and of course it was leveling and progression.

As with any CCG, Heartstone is based on collecting and building decks out of a library of cards. Beyond a few basic class specific cards, the majority of the library is locked to a new player. New cards are unlocked by purchasing packs of 5 randoms. These packs are bought with real money (no thank you) or gold, the in-game currency. There are several ways to earn gold, but the most reliable way to earn a quick chunk is by doing a daily quest (playing as a certain class, winning a certain number of hands, etc.). So boom, you're playing once a day.

But it doesn't end there.

Every 3 games you win earns you 10 more gold. So if you completed your quest in 2 hands, you only need to win one more for that 10 gold bonus. Might as well play another hand.

Hey congratulations! You just won 3 hands in a row. Here's your 10 gold. By the way, did you notice that your character is leveling up and you only need about one more hand's worth of experience points to hit the next level? Then you'll unlock the golden version of one of your existing cards. Just one more hand. Promise.

Hey you leveled up! Way to go! You also moved up a rank with that hand! Aren't you just a little curious how tough the competition is at this rank? You are?! Play another hand then!

Wow! You're on a roll! This new rank is nothing to you, maybe you can burn through to the next one quick. Besides, you only need one more win to get to that next 10 gold bonus.

And so on, and so forth.

I see the strings, and yet I don't mind doing the dance.

David: Some Games I'm Playing

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• Grand Theft Auto V - Like it. Best in this series to date.


• Shadow of the Colossus - Still love it. Sage is fascinated by it.


• Surgeon Simulator - An amusing toy.


• Gunpoint - Lots of fun. Concept is just high enough to be baffling but accessible.


• Plants vs. Zombies 2 - Didn't play the first one. Kind of like this one.


• Disney Infinity - Fun on the couch with the kids. I've spent way too much money on figures and power discs. The figures are surprisingly well made.


• Fallout: New Vegas - Need to tie up some loose ends on my second play through. Much more in the spirit of the original 2 games than Fallout 3 was.


• The Room - I've played through this about once a month since it came out just to marvel at how well put together it is. Most fun you can have on an iPad.


• Guess Who? - Asked Sage if her person was black. She asked me what I meant. Didn't know how to proceed.

David: Steam Summer Sale

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So far I've picked up the Borderlands 2 DLC and Fallout:New Vegas. I'm patiently awaiting the new Civ V DLC to hit half off. Patiently.

In the meantime, I got swept up in to Steam trading cards. People are spending real world money on these things (pennies, but still). I'm not profiting, however. I've been selling off my non-Half-Life 2 cards and picking up HL2 cards on the market with the proceeds. In the end I've got a fully leveled up HL2 badge (granddad fought the war for this) and $0.17 jingling in my Steam wallet.

Until I go to craft the "Summer Getaway Badge". 3 cards left to go...