Where the PS3 and XBOX 360 Failed

Dove cued me into an excellent revelation:

The real failure of the XBOX 360 and the PS3 are the same: Sony and Microsoft both made the console that their fanbase said they wanted. They assumed that people would answer "within reason" or "within how much they would be willing to pay for what they say they want."

Of course, people don't do that. The first rule of usability is "don't listen to users." (Instead, watch what they do.)

Nintendo came along and said "Well, our research says they'll spend $250. What can we cram into that?"

The PSP is what everyone said they wanted - a GameBoy Advance that plays 3d games. Then the NDS comes out with less power and trumps it - because it lets you do something new, to interact in a new way. The Wii is essentially the same. It's called "Blue Ocean" strategy in business leet speak.

GP2X versus PSP
This is something I see come up a lot, for some reason. GP2X versus PSP? Not truly comparable, because the GP2X is such a niche device. If you want a handheld that does non-3d emulation, you get a GP2X. You are already "not normal" for even wanting emulation, let alone open source.

If you could only get one, as always, the question boils down to "What kind of games do you want to play, and how much are you willing to pay for them?"

Maria de Guadalupe discovers: The Joys of Multiplayer Disconnects

The wireless router (Ativa) that's gotten our Wii online also let Maria and I try out Mario Kart DS via WiFi. We both choose "Worldwide" and eventually came up with different opponents - sadly, it seems you can't game with friends and worldwide opponents, which is gay.

She's played the game extensively and claims to know every track. I sat there configuring her NDS while she played on my black one and after a while she said "He left."

"Who left?" I asked.

She looked puzzled. "The fourth player."

"The losing one?" I asked rhetorically.

Later still, she said "Now the third place person left! It's just me and the other guy."

I told her "They leave because they are tired of losing."

Before she won the cup, the 2nd place person quit too. She was not amused.

I figured she had a bad game - she'd won two cups before this, but then she kept winning and I realized "You're really good at this."

"Thank you, Papa."

"No, really. Anyone still playing Mario Kart DS should be good."

So we called up Billy's house and I thought Sarah answered, but the voice replied "No, I'm Zach."

Doh. Way to make a boy feel manly. Mistake him for his mother. I fall over myself by quickly saying "Hey I was trying to reach you anyway, what's your Friend Code? Maria and I have a wireless router and want to try out Mario Kart DS with you." Actually I wanted to chat with Billy but this worked.

Zach helped me find out where to find what our Friend Codes were, and I discovered that if Zach was my friend and I was Maria's friend but Maria wasn't Zach's friend - we can't connect. No error message, you just time out after 5 minutes of tedium. We rectified this. I let him and Maria chat on the phone a bit before we switched off again.

Zach then did merrily trounce upon our bodies, karts and all, winning three cups in a row. Partway into cup 1 I heard his mother call him and he whispered on the phone "I can't talk." I hanged up and hoped I wasn't supporting child delinquency and called Billy after the games.

I tried to tell Billy that Zach's achievement (the summary trouncing of Maria and I) was no small deal given that Maria had won nearly every online cup she'd played in "Worldwide" opponent mode, but of course Billy just chuckled.

I don't know. *whispers loudly* I think he knows.

Learning from Milton Friedman

While I have very mixed feelings about Michael Roberts, father of MP3.com and Linspire, he educated me about Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize winning economist. Michael wrote:

I flew up to San Francisco and visited him [Milton] and his wife Rose in their San Francisco apartment. They offered me a cold glass of water and we talked about my Internet and business experience. Then I asked Milton the question I had come up with. "How do you make the world a better place?"

His answer was, "If you want to improve the world you have to create more capital. While creating non-profits makes people feel better, the only way to fundamentally improve living conditions is to create more business." I left the meeting puzzling over that answer. It was a bit more abstract than I was hoping for. Later he sent me some photocopied pages from several books with a nice note.

Over the years I've had time to think about his response. I've come to the conclude it was the most succinct and accurate response possible. Capital is gasoline for the great engine of economic development which creates jobs, grows wealth and responds to consumers needs and desires.

Nothing is free, a friend is fond of telling me. I shall ponder this further. I'm not even sure if I agree with Milton (nor that I'm qualified to disagree) but that one quote makes me want to research further... Milton Friedman's entire series titled "Free to Choose" is now available via streaming video.

Stars & Stripes reports: Rehabilitation with the Wii

I prefer leaving my blog as a non-news service because who the hell comes here for news? But I found this interesting, especially how aware the military is of how many young men play games today.

A Bit of History

That's all, just the link. I found a number of the old items interesting - you can look up "Nintendo Museum" on YouTube. I did and found these:

	Nintendo Museum Tour - Osaka Rare Nintendo toys from 1889-1970s, attended by the creators of Super Mario Kart and Nintendogs. Honors for This Video: #40 - Most Viewed ( Rare Nintendo toys from 1889-1970s, attended by the creators of Super Mario Kart and Nintendogs. Honors for This Video: #40 - Most Viewed (Today) - All #3 - Most Viewed (Today) - Gadgets & Games - All #37 - Most Viewed (Today) - English #3 - Most Viewed (Today) - Gadgets & Games - English #26 - Most Viewed (This Week) - Gadgets & Games - All #22 - Most Viewed (This Week) - Gadgets & Games - English #32 - Top Rated (Today) - All #1 - Top Rated (Today) - Gadgets & Games - All #31 - Top Rated (Today) - English #1 - Top Rated (Today) - Gadgets & Games - English #17 - Top Rated (This Week) - Gadgets & Games - All #15 - Top Rated (This Week) - Gadgets & Games - English #92 - Most Discussed (Today) - All #3 - Most Discussed (Today) - Gadgets & Games - All #2 - Most Discussed (Today) - Gadgets & Games - English #73 - Most Discussed (This Week) - Gadgets & Games - All #13 - Top Favorites (Today) - All #2 - Top Favorites (Today) - Gadgets & Games - All #12 - Top Favorites (Today) - English #2 - Top Favorites (Today) - Gadgets & Games - English #24 - Top Favorites (This Week) - Gadgets & Games - All #22 - Top Favorites (This Week) - Gadgets & Games - English #17 - Most Linked (Today) - All #1 - Most Linked (Today) - Gadgets & Games - All #20 - Most Linked (This Week) - Gadgets & Games - All (more) (less)	From: GovernorWatts Views: 53,811 Added: 2 months ago
	Time: 08:37	More in Gadgets & Games

	Nintendo Museum Feature: Part One - The Toy Era Hankyu Department Store chain decided to hold a Nintendo Museum inside their Osaka Store for their 100th Anniversary. The Nintendo Museum spans all the way from their early years On March 28th of this year, the Hankyu Department Store chain decided to hold a Nintendo Museum inside their Osaka Store for their 100th Anniversary. The Nintendo Museum spans all the way from their early years as a playing card manfacturing company, right up to the present day's Wii console. A fasacinating insight into the world of Nintendo that any fan will get ahuge kick out of... This is part one, covering the toy years... Be sure to also check out part teo, the video game era when Nintendo suddenly exploded into a massive world wide company. (The response link at the bottom of this video will take you direcelty to it!) (more) (less)	From: ScrewAttackEurope Views: 118 Added: 1 day ago
	Time: 07:34	More in Gadgets & Games

	Nintendo Museum Feature: Part Two - The Video Game Era Hankyu Department Store chain decided to hold a Nintendo Museum inside their Osaka Store for their 100th Anniversary. The Nintendo Museum spans all the way from their early years On March 28th of this year, the Hankyu Department Store chain decided to hold a Nintendo Museum inside their Osaka Store for their 100th Anniversary. The Nintendo Museum spans all the way from their early years as a playing card manfacturing company, right up to the present day's Wii console. A fasacinating insight into the world of Nintendo that any fan will get ahuge kick out of... This is part two, covering the video game Era when Nintendo exploded into the massive worldwide company that they are today (though shrunk a bit from their domination of the market in the 80's)... Be sure to also check out part one, the Toy years. which is the response link below the video! (more) (less)	From: ScrewAttackEurope Views: 55 Added: 21 hours ago
	Time: 05:56

Game Reviews: Continuing to provide us what we don't want

I'm glad that someone is writing about how games are reviewed, because the current model is utter crap. Examples otherwise are far and few between.

First of all, game reviews start out with the fictional setting of the game and its story, when gamers really want to know first and foremost "What kind of game is it?" If it's a 3d game, what kind of 3d game is it? 1st person? 3rd person? What do you do? Drive cars? Wander a haunted, indoor environment?

Also important but often omitted: Does the game have cooperative play? Versus play? If there is a multiplayer component, what is it like? How does it operate?

Many NDS games to date have woefully pitiful explanations as to what the multiplayer mode is or does.

After the mechanics of the game are settled upon the fictional setting can be told.

GP2X and Retro Gaming

Retro Gaming
I didn't know there was a GameCube GBA Player. I feel, humbled at my lack of knowledge. I try to not let anything worthwhile in gaming pass me by - a lesson I learned from missing out on the heydays of the SNES and some GameCube games.

I didn't miss out on Shadow of the Colossus! I think I have the 'net's only remaining copy of their technical rundown of how they made the game in English.

GP2X specific Retro Gaming
MAME on the GP2X seems baaad. ROMs that run craptastically in MAME run great on the CPS2 emulator.

Different NEO GEO games like different settings so I'm trying to figure out how to create indifidual "CF" settings files for the Rage2X frontend of the GnGeo emulator. One shoe does not fit every iteration of Samurai Shodown.

NEO GEO Retro Gaming
My 10yo has found she enjoys the Samurai Shodown series (she hasn't seen the bad ones yet, just I and II) and the penultimate 2005 ROM of King of Fighters.

In King of Fighters I pick ... this really big guy who has a toddler son ... and press heavy kick. To mock her, I put my right hand on my head and use one finger - that rests on the heavy kick button, and every time I attack I say "Kick to the Head!" She can't figure out how to approach me, either while walking, jumping, or attacking while doing either of those, without receiving "Kick to the Head!"

She did find a guy who wields a pole-arm that beats this strategy quite well.

My other trick is saying "Block Low." I can pick any fast character and do this, though it's funnier with the drunken master. I run up to her and say "Block Low" just before I attack (I say "Kick to the Head" after or as I kick). While she has kind of figured out how to "Block Low" she hasn't figured out what attacks always counter a low attack, so I usually end up either KO'ing her or knocking her down a lot.

Until she found the guy with the bo-staff I could go through all 3 of her characters with "Kick to the Head!" My right shoulder was almost bruised the first night, so I warned her I'd hit back the next night.

This all makes it sound like she can't play : Samurai Shodown proves she can, and she can pull off several special moves in King of Fighters. She just doesn't understand timing well, or when to block - the old adage of "I know my opponent is about to attack, I'll block now and hit him next." Unfortunately for her, these are the perennial necessities of fighting games. She'll learn it eventually, because I don't always choose my "Kick to the Head!" character.

But at any rate, we've been enjoying nightly sessions of MAME. There's only, like, a thousand game to try. For some reason she asks for Samurai Shodown and "Kick to the Head!" I mean King of Fighters.

Wii Online: Stupid for Techno-geeks, Perfect for the Average Person

Using the Wii's Virtual Console, Shopping Center, and Opera Internet Browser.

I noticed a strange phenomenon this weekend: people like simplified, easy to use, easy to understand controls better than more complex controls that give them increased capability.

Written like that, it makes sense, but we techno-geeks rarely think about it.

My 10yo daughter has fallen in love with the Internet not on a computer and a mouse (which she has been exposed to), but on her Wii. I observed how she surfed to find out why.

1. She pointed at links and clicked a big, round A button on the Wii Remote to go to pages. She pulled the trigger and dragged the direction she wanted to pan on the page. She pressed the + and - buttons to zoom. This was all intuitive to her - only the zoom took the first 5 minutes to understand (she was using an option on screen). She found the trigger's function accidentally and moved on.
2. She had trouble aiming at hyperlinks, so she changed how she was sitting, just like she does when she's playing the Wii in a competitive game. Eventually she reclined again, having found a position the Wii Remote liked (it disliked hitting things at an oblique angle, and she was far to the side of the TV). She didn't seem to realize why things had changed (she had centered herself when she sat up and then relaxed again), and it didn't bother her.
3. She was able to add favorites (bookmarks) easily, by clicking on a star at the bottom of the screen while viewing a page. The favorite gets a screenshot of the Web page you are on and the title (usually concatenated). I saw her add favorites and then go to another she'd made a Favorite for few minutes before - essentially task switching between pages by keeping favorites she didn't plan on keeping forever. (Dad's note: She did not bother arranging or deleting favorites, though I tried these features out - just two of the three buttons in your Favorites view: add, move & delete.)
   
4. She zoomed in to read different parts of pages. If a website formatted badly for a Wii, she still looked at it, but spent less time on such sites before moving on (~1 minute as opposed to 3-4).
5. She didn't mind that it takes more time to do all of this than with a mouse and keyboard, because for her a mouse and keyboard involves these things:
   1. Turning on the computer, and signing in.
   2. She's not accustomed to the keyboard and isn't a touch typist (although she's used typing tutor programs).
   3. The computer browser is confusing.
   4. She has to go to the computer room, sit down, and plan on spending a while there.
      
   5. She stated that using the Wii Remote and just turning on her Wii and getting online was much easier than all of the above, which she enumerated in simpler terms.

I found some of her assertions amusing - as human interface engineering teaches you "Don't listen to what your users say, watch what they do." Why? Because users lie, even though they don't think they are. Maria spent more time on the Wii than she might have at a computer, but it didn't bother her because it was more in tune with her usual life.

Maria used the Wii's online Opera Browser to research Virtual Console games - to find out what was good and worth her money. She paid me and her mother $20 for us to buy her "Wii Points" online, with which she could buy old emulated games the Wii runs.

She found that the only thing worth downloading, she bought first: Bomberman '93. Every other good game was either single player (vast majority), or two player, both of which I can emulate for free on my computer. I don't have 4 or 5 joysticks, so Bomberman '93 on the Wii for $6 made economic sense: extra USB gamepads for the PC run $15 a piece at least.

I was proud of her research (she wrote her findings down, whereas I would have used Firefox's tabs) and the fact that she got it all done - on the Wii.

Truimph of the Wii

Gamers have yet to realize: the war is already lost / won.

Bad Things

Censorship on the Internet: Bad according to BBC, Amnesty International
It's official, censorship on the Internet is changing people's perceptions and allowing governments to control what people know.

Worst Buy Still BAD
Worst Buy really is bad: They scam people and outright lie, or sign you up for digital subscriptions which cost you money without you knowing it.

Supreme Commander did get better...

Recall the beta review (which was still true post-release) where I ripped Supreme Commander for playing like frozen crap pushed through the grating behind your computer's power supply.

Things have gotten remarkably better.

• The game doesn't become a jerky, choppy, chop-fest anymore. The game does, however, slow down. Basically it's as though the game speed itself was automagically scaling (some RTS's have a game speed slider most of us leave at "100%" - well imagine that that slider automatically decreased as your computer begged for mercy, and that's what happens). I still find this annoying because a 4v4 game will become slow and drawn out; however, it is actually playable versus before where you couldn't accurately click on units.
  
• Supreme Commander no longer has a CD check. Just install the game and play it.
• Choosing where each player's start location is in a Skirmish / Multiplayer match is now easy - the menu color codes things for you so you can tell.
  

Ordered Payback for the GP2X

WOOT! From GP2Xstore.com

Order Content

Product ID Product Name Price Quantity Total 003 Payback SD Card Game $29.99 (Tax 0.00%) 1 $29.99 Subtotal Amount : $29.99 Discount : $0.00 Shipping (USPS - Priority (2-3 day delivery)) : $5.60 Tax Amount : $0.00 Total Amount : $35.59

GP2X returns - working!

It's Back!

WooT! Thanks to Grahf!

I'm also now a member of GP2Xtorrents.com - they have some good stuff with nothing that would make me dislike them (like the full version of Payback). Speaking of Payback I need to buy that! Woo!

I've updated my emulators; having installed a 2gb "image" onto my 4gb SD card, I'm liking that I spent $90 on it oh so long ago right about now. Carrying my GP2X into work with me reminded me of why I like it - I noticed I didn't bring my black NDS.

My GP2X plays music, has a 4gb SD card, plays movies, lots of emulated games and homebrew. My NDS can hold between 5 and 12 games, 7-8 being the usual number, using the G6 Lite, which has 512mb of space. The PDA homebrew ("DSorganize") for the NDS won't work on my G6 so...

China Displaces 1.5 million People in Prep for Hosting Olympic Games

Read it an weep, but be sure to read about Atlanta, Georgia in the USA too.

Wii continues to trample people, competitors alike.

4.7 million Virtual Console titles sold, 100 available to buy. That may not me Microsoft XBOX Live's Marketplace, but it kicks Sony Online Entertainment's PS3 Home right in her tender middle, then knees her in the face on the way down. But lately, beating on the PS3 is easy.

If a Wii Hard Drive does come out, I will scream "THAT'S SO FUCKING STUUUPIIID!" Why? Because the Wii should allow you to plug any USB Hard Drive into it - and then let Nintendo make money on the Virtual Console sales. Who cares how they download it? Just get them to download more!

Some proprietary Hard Drive Box comes out and I will scream. I really will. You just won't hear it from where you're sitting.

Bill Gates thinks motion controllers are hot, but is such an asshole he can't admit Nintendo gave him that idea, and tries to say his idea is different than the Wii. Who does he think he's fooling? I suppose experience has taught him it doesn't matter: getting a product out people buy does.

Wii: Six Month Review and Metroid Prime 3: With or Without Multiplayer - good reads if done so in order.

Sorry for not posting links but I've read so much lately - the Bill Gates thing was over a Tennis Racket - he said "You can't use a Tennis Racket with your Wii" uhhhh okay - yeah. Try asking Joe Schmoe to swing a tennis racket around for two hours instead of a Wiimote and see what happens to his arm.

"WHY THE AMERICAN FLAG IS FOLDED 13 TIMES"

THIS IS FALSE. For one, anyone who can read all of this and believe the original flag folders had all of this in mind is silly. For another, "Symbolizing George Washington's hat"? That should send off another BS meter.

Apologies for being gruff but everyone needs to wake up and start checking sources, so pardon me for taking a page out of Patton's modus operandi...

I am amazed, flabbergasted, at how much stuff people forward without checking for sources. This is one thing that helped spread hatred of the Jews in France - people just listening to a few and not thinking for themselves, only saying "Hey, that's what I wanted to hear anyway!" and latching onto it. Somewhere out there - Muslim fathers are forwarding each other horror stories describing what happens when men let their daughters lead their own lives, and they eat it up.

Whenever I get this stuff I check it on www.Snopes.com, so much so that a friend of mine now does so just to avoid me correcting him.

It doesn't matter if something says what you want to hear (remember Anti-Semetism, and recall that a lot of people back then were predisposed to such thoughts), it matters what is real and valid. We should base our lives around truth, not fantasy.

I always teach my children to question things. "I like this." "Why?" "Because it's fun." "Why?" The annoying repeater is the father, not the child. By age 10, my oldest daughter has become so adept at enumerating the whys of things that come under her purview that she came home from a weekend with her grandparents and told me "My grandmother is better without her medicine if she just drinks water, so whenever she asked for soda I gave her water."

All I can do is just stand there and look shocked, and await the day these powers are used on me (lovingly, but it'll happen).

Everyone here is an adult, right?
So ask "Why?"

Note: I sent this in a reply to a general forward I got. Aren't I a jerk about truth?

It's a great time to come back to the GP2X scene.

My GP2X joystick broke a while ago, and a seemingly random member of the community of GP2X owners offered to fix it for me *swoons*. Now I'm back and it's actually cool - here's what I posted in the forums...

Apparently GBA emulation is not only possible, but really happening. When my GP2X joystick broke, folks still thought this was an impossible dream.

CPS2 emulation is apparently gotten so good you can run some games at 200MHz. I can't wait to try out Magic Sword again, heck, maybe Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom or Shadows of Mystaria will work. OMG, the link has the D&D title screen on it (jizzes self & feints).

There's this cool cradle which apparently can be had for less moola from Nubie's link; I'm guessing there's something in North America that does that too.

There's wireless Internet access, which is something I wanted since before I bought my GP2X. Who's going to arrest you for piggy-backing carrying that around?

EvilDragon is busy. Good to know.

Folks are making an open source Firmware for the GP2X! This could really help the device as it ages if it enables us to do more with our GP2X.

Maybe if I make a GP2X game I'll become famous enough for Hooka to interview me. *dreams*

There's a lot of homebrew to catch up on - and honestly, since I have an NDS and a G6 Lite, that's high on my list of priorities.

I can finally buy Payback. My joystick broke while I was playing the demo. It was xnopasaranx's wondering about me and Sam Fisher and PokeParadox getting back in contact with me that got me to reiterate my problem, which Grahf saw and PMed me offering to help.

If xnopasaranx hadn't written nicely about me, Pokeparadox never would have pointed me to the thread, and Grahf would never have seen my issue, and my GP2X would still be sitting next to my wife's MP3 player (when she's not using it). Thank you guys.

It's great to see Squidge is still here, Telcolou - I hear Epicenter left on bad terms and I'm saddened for that but such is the nature of humanity and the hardships of the world.

I've been having great fun in life - my kids are fantastically well behaved - my 10yo daughter cooks food, as in dinners. My 7yo daughter cooks scrambled eggs without making them too dry or soggy. My 2yo son scribbles on the wall in red permanent marker. Hey wait that's not good... oh he protects his sisters if I'm chastizing them. And my lovely Latina is STILL fun to chase around.

Why the Wii will Prevail

It's all summed up here:

1. The console is systematically outselling every other new generation game console (XBOX 360 and PS3) every month.
   
2. Games cost less for developers to make, and take less time.
3. Whereas XBOX 360 and PS3 caters most to men, the Wii has a greater success rate at getting everyone in the family to play it - this means that the Wii should sell more games than a console the family buys for their teenage son who plays it in his room.
   

That's what Nintendo is banking on. While the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are played primarily by young men, the Wii is played on average by more people in each household. That means Nintendo has a good shot at selling more games per console than its rivals, said George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing.

"Before, it was the teenage boy playing by himself," Harrison said. "Now, the whole family is playing."

Dave's take? It's obvious, and anyone who thinks otherwise lets their emotions rule them too much. Welcome to a changing market.

My Etrian Odyssey

For this next bit - sometimes I try to be a funny guy. This is one of those times.

I bought Etrian Odyssey and spent a very long time trying to hack the savegame - the game is gorgeous (see my review) and fun, but also unforgiving and hard. A party-wipe means "start over from the last time you were at the town's inn." Ouch.

My plan was to take one character and make her into a version of "Lord" Benedict, from Final Fantasy Tactics - a character who a faulty PSX 3rd party save card corrupted and suddenly could learn any skill (max it out) as soon as it was available. His level didn't change, but he was the master at anything he could do. It was like having Michael Jordan on your team. He couldn't carry the battle, but man he was awesome.

I did get Skill Points happening with my Protector / Paladin, Madrigal, and maxed a lot of her skills out, even though she's level 5 (now). Basically, my catch for trying to survive a party wipe. Sometimes folks drop, but not Maddy. Oh no, Madrigal's a resourceful gal. Not invincible, but how many level 5's do you know who can do almost every trick in the book? And, to keep the game fun, 98% of the time she either attacks or does Front Defense during combat, and that's it.

I had heard folks complain in the forums about a certain beast on the very 2nd level of the Labyrinth that was wiping parties out just because it could. The Ragealope. Some kind of angry Antelope or some such rubbish. I figured folks were diving in early.

Baring this in mind, I can tell you ... WITH ALL THE CERTAINTY IN HEAVEN ... with the very assurance that ON DAY, Jesus Christ will come again and judge the living and the dead... with this level of assuradness, I... assure you...

It is NOT the "Ragealope".

It is the "RAPEalope".

I seek the thing out with my party - Maddy's got Stalker up so nothing runs into us and wears us down. Everyone's 5th level. Standard party: Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Cleric, Mage. Or is that Gay Germanic Word for Fighter (Landsknecht), Call it What it is Paladin (Protector), Rangers do More Than Survive (Survivalist), Clerics Without Gods (Medics), and Mages Without Magic (Alchemist)?

Anyway.

The battle starts and I have Maddy put up a frontal defense, and tell Pharra (my fighter) to Cleave, Glen (my ranger) to haste the party, Lia (my cleric) to brace herself, and Vera, her sister (my mage) to use Volt (a nice lightning attack).

Rapealope is MAD. Rapealope CONFUSES puny Ranger and Mage.

I think "Oh dear." I recalled in FF7 how my party of "rape the enemy and steal their candy" was annihilated by creatures who just kept casting confusion on them.

Rapealope is ANGRY. Rapealope hits ignorant intrudors for massive damage.

Lia (cleric) tries to remove status ailments, but it doesn't work on confusion. Glen (ranger) dies horribly, her guts still entangled on the beast's antlers. Pharra (fighter) uses Cleave again, while Vera (mage) casts more Volt. Maddy attacks. I have 4 out of 5 characters left.

Rapealope is DISPLEASED. Rapealope confuses pitiful Paladin and Mage.

Vera (mage) dies in a similar fashion to Glen (ranger). Pharra takes another stab at the beast. Lia tries to heal folks.

Maddy comes out of her daze in time to look around and sees only she, Lia (cleric) and Pharra (fighter) are up. She cheats. She breaks an oath and uses Smite. Calling upon her forbidden Goddess, she smashes the Ragealope. I have 3 out of 5 characters left.

Rapealope is AMUSED. Rapealope kills puny Cleric, and knocks Fighter silly.

I have 2 out of 5 characters left. With Pharra almost dead, and the Ragealope badly injured but still powerful, Madrigal flees to the first floor and takes Pharra and the bodies with her.

And that, my fellow, was my encounter, with the Rapealope.

Man Arrested for Using Unsecured Wireless Connection

Uh, this is stupid. It seems the world of computers is "Don't get caught." Because reality and law aren't meshing well. I won't bother defending it or going into the issue - only state that it's another example of the way people working changing faster than existing models can cope.