--- Hello everybody. I’m Markee Dragon. I want to introduce to you something that’s really pretty exciting. It’s a new method that we’re integrating into our forums of buying, selling and trading that offers one really key thing that we’ve really needed. That is protection for the seller.
What that means is that you’re going to be able to do transactions and you don’t have to worry about the payment getting reversed because the funds in the system come in to us first then they’re converted into these points in the system. Once they’re converted into points, it’s on us. If we take fraudulent funds, it’s on us. If anyone in the system sends you points for making a purchase, you know the money is good so you don’t have to do any verification on them. I mean, don’t be stupid. You don’t have to do any verification on them. Then you can turn around and cash out these points for later and have it pay out to via PayPal or maybe other methods in the future.
What I’m talking about is a new site called Reality Bridge. It’s realitybridge.net. This up here is Reality Bridge’s home page. The site’s really pretty cool. It’s pretty clean, pretty crisp. It’s still in beta so there could be possible bugs. If you find any bugs, there’s a help feature; go through the help, submit them and we’ll get those taken care of. It’s all about buying, selling and trading.
This is the home page. How does this site integrate with MarkeeDragon forums? Well, let me show you. In fact, let me show you somebody who really just posted this in the forums. This right here is Exponent from the forums.
MD: Tell me what you asked me today.
Exponent: I thought it would be awesome to get a S4 arena suit and weapons. It seems so difficult to get so I could use the help.
MD: Basically what you wanted was … of course you want the suit, you want the weapons, stuff like that but what you really want is the assistance in getting that.
Exponent: Yes.
MD: And you want to do it without violating any terms of service, correct?
Exponent: Most definitely.
MD: Basically, I was like how fortuitous that you came to me today asking me about this because we’re just now launching the Reality Bridge site that has just this feature. The reality Bridge site is designed for offering services especially like this. I told Exponent, I said, Ok go to the MarkeeDragon forums and make your post of what you want. I gave him permissions to view the new feature to where you can actually couple a message with Reality Bridge and you’ll see that every time you make a post it will offer you the option of buying or selling. What happens is he made his post here that he’s taking bids on a complete set of brutal gladiator armor. He put his post up there then it goes back to the Reality Bridge site.
On the Reality Bridge site there’s member stores up here. We’ve got a member store just for MarkeeDragon. Every time you make a forum post in MarkeeDragon and you choose one of the options to have it show on Reality Bridge as well, it’s going to show up here in our store. Currently there’s only a couple of items because we just started this. When you click on our store, it takes you to a page - you can recognize it because of our header up there. His item is the last one up here. It says “want to buy arena suit and weapons” and that he’s taking his bids. It’s the same text right out of the forums. It’s actually truncated so it’s like the first 250 characters; it’s not the whole thing. Let’s click on that. Here we see the truncated post again and a link back to our original post in the MarkeeDragon forums for if you want to see the whole thing. You can actually see a little bit about Exponent here; seller ranking, when he signed up, how popular he is, including if he made blog posts or other stuff and/or if he has a other items on here for sale as well. We can click the link and it will take us back to the post. What this does is this allows him to post in the MarkeeDragon forums then have the post appear in Reality Bridge. On Reality Bridge, he doesn’t have to worry about taking fraudulent funds from PayPal or credit cards or whatever because the funds are already in the system here and they’re already checked like I mentioned.
So, in this case he’s not really selling something but the guys are coming to him that are going to sell. He’s going to get bids and they’re going to show up here. It will be different people offering to perform this service for him. Then he can select the one that looks like the best. In fact, he can contact them and ask them some questions before accepting bids. Also, if he were selling stuff on here, then he could take in the bids and he’d be able to select from one of the highest, most likely. I don’t know why you wouldn’t take the highest amount.
Anyway, it’s all as simple as that. It’s funded through PayPal right now. There are a lot of options in here right now. The dollar amounts are a little bit lower but we’re raising those as we go and checking everything out.
If you want to help Exponent get his armor and weapons look up the post.
Having never been to PAX, despite it being less then 200 miles up the road, has been an interesting experience. As a festival for gamers, by gamers, offerings are available from every game type and every genre. Few other conventions can boast such diverse exhibitors as Wizards of the Coast, Blizzard, Dell, Atari, Steve Jackson Games and NCSoft, just to scratch the surface. On top of that it's held in beautiful Seattle Washington, home of the Space Needle and Starbucks Coffee.
Wandering around the Convention Center feels like home. PAX has gone out of the way to give old friends a place to play any conceivable game, and better yet a place to make new game buddies. Ample bean bags and rooms such as the Classic Console room where not only was the original Nintendo and Super Nintendo systems available to play classic favorites such as Dr. Mario, Super Mario Brothers 3, Megaman, and Starfox, but a whole host of other classic games. They even had a couple of Atari 2600's hidden towards the back and hooked up to 42” plasma screens that brought those old 8 bit graphics to life.
The exhibitor hall was filled with the latest and greatest offerings from the heavy hitters in the game industry. All the popular MMO's were represented, and anyone could jump in for free play of their favorites, or have the ability to make new favorites. Demos of both World of Warcraft the Collectible Card Game, and the Board Game were available staffed by represenatives from their respective companies. Steve Jackson Games was in force, demonstrating a host of games, including Munchkin Quest, a cross between the old Warhammer Quest board game, and the Munchkin Card game.
A board game checkout room had multiple copies of just about every board game created in the last five years, including several that I had never heard of but looked quite interesting. Located across the street this area was a board/card/miniature gamers paradise. The rooms were a rabbit warren labyrinth of tables and chairs, sweaty bodies, and intense concentration as bunkers were taken, railroads built, cards tapped and dice worn out from rolling.
On the non directly game related side, Dell, Microsoft and ITT all had booths. Amazingly they even had quite large lines, especially the Dell booth which centered around one of their mobile media demonstration centers in a semi truck trailer. The number of games available at this booth alone out numbered any other single booth.
Quick Game Reviews;
Fallout 3; Yes, I'll play. And I suspect this was probably the stand out game of the whole convention.
Champions Online: I hope this is a beta, I assume it's supposed to look a bit cartoony. But if it does not get better graphics and better game play don't even bother. As it is it's going to have a hard time shaking the comparisons to City of Heros.
Iron Chef for Wii: Uh... ok. This is just a stupid game period. Wave the Wii around to chop food. Wave it a different way to mix it all up.
Munchkin Quest: If you love the Munchkin card game, this will be fun. If you don't have 3-4 friends to play it with in person, this won't be any fun. Either way the jokes and puns are still present.
Warhammer Online: Looks a bit better then Warcraft, but going back and forth between the two I had a hard time telling which was which sometimes. Still stand by my original statement: Warhammer 40k would have made a MUCH better MMO then yet another entry into the fantasy genre.
Starcraft II: Zerg rushes are back! That's all.
World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King: Meh, new content, have to level up with even more grinding again.
Twin Skies: Another MMO, graphics looked ok. Game play OK, but it's not going to be the next WoW. Seems geared towards a slightly younger audience, but also had quite the in depth story.
Bountiful Kingdom: This is my type of game, top down 3D view, realtime movement. Replayability looks likes it is non-existent though.
Raven Squad: Easily one of the most popular First Person Shooters available. Game play was about what can be expected though, this title didn't seem to bring anything to the table that hasn't been seen before.
Two Worlds, The Temptation: Looks promising, graphics are good, but I didn't get much sense of the game play or the world.
Overall PAX was a bit disappointing. Most questions regarding game play, future development, or more pointed questions tended to be either deflected or ignored. The lines into panels were uniformly huge and had at least 30 minutes waits, some like the Fallout 3 one had several hours of waiting. The chance to play new games was great, and the few booth babes around were worth a look. The real plus of the convention though was the ability to get to make new friends in the hundreds of pick up games going around.
If you live near Seattle, I highly suggest going. If plane flight is involved it may not be worth it. I'd give the convention a 3.5 of 5.
You could actually make fun of this game for it's production being so on and off. Well it's on again. This time from Cryptic Studios. Check out the trailer.
This is what your brand new pinball machine looks like when you get it straight from the factory. They even give you handy instructions on how to set it up. I’m going to read them this time because last time, when I pulled Indiana Jones out of the box, it had these pads on it and I dropped it on the cement floor about that far. That’s not supposed to happen.
Pinball machines here now are 75 cents to play. The Indiana Jones game is 75 cents to play. I was told that the Crazy Flipper Fingers who are a gang of pinball players – they call themselves a gang - they boycotted some of the places that charged 75 cents and got them to change it.
Most of the time, I film these all on my own. Maybe you don’t know it but I’ll hold the camera with one hand and face it back at myself. Everybody’s like, “How’s that cameraman keep that so study?” Well, it’s just me holding it so not a camera man. Anyway, it’s the first time I’ve used a cameraman in a long time.
For tournament games, Indian Jones has tournament play on it; this has tournament play on it as well. They did at first, put over here on Spiderman if you want to come over here, this one’s tournament play too. This one, actually we can put the sign down, but right here there’s a button for tournament play. They quit putting them up here and started putting them on the front, which I think is a much better solution rather than having it up here. Looked rather strange especially if you weren’t going to do tournament play.
Tournament play actually hooks up online, allows you to compete against other people; also allows you to play for cash. There are some places that do that. Some places it’s against the law; it’s considered gambling. It just all depends on where you’re at and whether or not that’s an ability. I know I’ve been to a few places where they do pay out. Pay outs tend to be under $20 or so because not that many people are willing to pay.
Comes with two sets of keys. One is for the coin door; the other is to hang inside the coin door and are used for the back glass.
You want to be very careful with the glass. It’s made to take an impact straight on to it but if you hit it on a corner the whole thing will shatter.
Nathan: Everyone’s just on break right now?
Adam: I’m not on break, heading coming back from lunch, just wanted to look at the … Take a look at the …
Michael: I’m on break, haven’t had one in awhile.
Nathan: Oh that’s awesome! No, no, I don’t want to be on camera but that’s awesome.
That would be Nathan, manager at TrustWho, cracking the whip. That’s what he gets paid to do.
This is the pendulum, goes inside and it’s what makes it tilt when you’re too rough with the machine. It doesn’t come set up already probably because it’s sliding all around the place. Just a little lead, actually this one feels like ferrite or something, its kinda light. Stick this in and make sure it’s not touching the sides. If it’s touching the sides then it won’t swing properly.
Half a mile of wire, actually over half a mile of wire in every machine. This is all done up on an assembly line. Sometime when I get down to Stern again I’ll do a factory tour and show everybody how it’s done.
There’s a rumbler you can put in some of these. It’s an extra add-on that makes the machine vibrate whenever you hit special stuff. They’re not automatically installed; you have to actually buy those at Stern.
I’ll have the pinball league over this Wednesday and everybody’s going to be wanting to play this.
Pinballs.
I gotta find my level.
Legs are all the same length. Down at the bottom here, you just adjust these out in order to change the slant of the machine. Basically, to get it level.
Now comes the fun part.
I bought this without even having played the game.
So, let me tell you a little something about myself. Maybe you didn’t know this. I really like pinball. Can you tell?
I have several machines here. It’s really just a hobby. I was thinking about opening like a barcade or something like that. That may still happen one day but for right now, I’ve got all these machines here.
How many of you would be interested in hearing a little bit of something about pinball machines? Do you guys play them at all? I know that I play every day. I really like it because it’s a short game, you can play 10 or 15 minutes and move on. Go back to work or whatever. It’s never the same way twice. In the computer games you can follow the patterns and stuff like that; just doesn’t happen with the pinball machines.
I’ve become pretty good at pinball and we’ve thought about doing videos about different machines. I seem to end up with the latest machines all the time and I can share some tips with you about how to really improve your game.
I have on order all the machines that are being made this year, which is three of them. I got Dark Knight which is for the Batman movie – it actually arrives in a couple of days. Then, there’s 24 and CSI coming out this year as well.
I got all these different machines. Like Spiderman here, everybody asks the question, “How do I get superhero?” The answer is, you don’t. It actually doesn’t work. Even with the latest software version, Spiderman’s superhero mode does not work. Waiting for another software update.
Another fun one is Frankenstein here. Frankenstein, he actually will throw the balls at you. Don’t know if you can see his little hands up there. Kind of exciting.
F-14 Tomcat; this one is a little bit older machine and it’s a classic. It’s in the top 100 of the most favorite machines voted by people on the Internet Pinball Database. This one is actually really hard but if you figure out how to do it, I can with one quarter, leave about ten credits on it about thirty minutes later. It’s a lot of fun and if you find one you can get a lot of play out of it. If you know how to play it, you can win the free games real easy. So, if you find one, you can play it.
Now, Indiana Jones. This is my latest pinball machine. This was made for the movie. It’s got a lot of the stuff – like it’s got the ark up here, it’s got the chalice, it’s got the, forgot what it’s called but it’s from Temple of Doom – the round Chankara stone I think is what it’s called. This one is a lot of fun. It’s got eight ball multi-ball and I’ve figured out how to get five extra balls in one game.
This spot right here that is for Dark Knight when it arrives in a couple of days. Then there’s the old classic, Swords of Fury.
Anyway, if you’re interested in hearing more about pinball how about you reply and let me know. If you are, we’ll actually do some contact.
It has been officially announced that the special beta for the Murloc cards will be for Wrath of the Lich King. They will be doing multiple rounds of beta invites. The first set of invites will go out August 1st. Shattered Crystal has just a few of these cards left. Get them now because soon they will be sold out.
MD: Hello, I’m Markee Dragon and this is my friend, Paigan who I believe is one of the oldest players in the World of Warcraft at 75, almost 76 years old.
Paigan: 18th of this month.
MD: What server do you play on?
Paigan: Muradin server
MD: Muradin?
Paigan: M-U-R-A-D-I-N
MD: OK and you’re in the Wolf Pack Guild, right?
Paigan: Yes, that is two words.
MD: The hunter, what kind of animal you got?
Paigan: actually, I got three. I’ve got the tiger that is an elf, so he’s got a tiger. I picked up a winter wolf. Recently, with the help of the guild, I got a white lion.
MD: White lion?
Paigan: Got a white lion in Winterspring.
MD: Winterspring. What is so special about this lion?
Paigan: According to what I’ve been told by the guild master, it has the highest DPS of any animal in the game.
MD: For those people that don’t know the …
Paigan: DPS, Damage Per Second.
MD: Ok
Paigan: It’s the way we rate the amount of damage an individual or weapon can do.
MD: I don’t play enough anymore to know whether or not having this white lion is a big achievement.
Paigan: Well, it’s supposed to be. Although, one of the guys in the guild was trying to get it. It’s a quest. You’ve got to complete a quest. On the second quest you go out and kill this female white lion but you’ve got to kill a bunch of local animals first. Drop a particular piece of meat that you put on a rock which attracts her, and then she comes out, she attacks you, you kill her, you complete the quest. Just before she dies, her mate comes out, a white male lion. The trick is to tame him.
MD: So you tame him and you kill her?
Paigan: Well, you got to kill her first.
MD: Ok
Paigan: And he’s nasty.
MD: If she doesn’t kill you first.
Paigan: This is true. You can’t tame a pet if you have a pet with you.
MD: So, you’re already at a disadvantage because you don’t have a pet with you.
Paigan: You gotta put your pet up.
MD: I know you like to play solo a lot. Are you able to do this solo?
Paigan: As far as I know, I don’t think it’s ever been done with a character up to 60 level. When you get in your higher levels, possibly. What we did, several hunters in the guild got together, we all got the quest. We tamed him several times. Basically, you leave your pet, tame a local animal as a pet, have it attack the female lion when she comes out and don’t do anything.
MD: Let it get killed?
Paigan: It’s gonna die, but once you’ve attacked it, it’s your prey. Then the other members of your guild … we don’t form a party, they’re all individuals playing together … they kill her off. The white lion comes out, one of the other hunters drop a freeze trap on him and you start taming him. Of course, taming him is gonna take longer than the freeze trap. So, a series of freeze traps directly in front of him so as he breaks out of one, he steps into another one. By the time he’s out of the last freeze trap, he’s your pet.
MD: Very nice. Taking that pet around with your hunter is like a badge of honor.
Paigan: Well, maybe. I haven’t had anybody comment on it but then I haven’t played him that much recently.
MD: Sounds like a pretty neat pet to have.
Paigan: It’s nice, definitely, because it’s fairly rare that people have them. As far as I know, I have to put that in to be quite honest.
MD: Well, now you know how to do it. Thanks *bleep*.
Paigan: You’re quite welcome. You did it, you used my name again.
Google has introduced this new social hangout that reminds me a bit of Second Life but you can play it through a web browser. We've created a Markee Dragon Lounge. You are welcome to visit and hang out. I'll be logged in for a bit tonight.
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