The past few weeks, I’ve moved away from my former obsession with Haxball, the multiplayer online soccer/hockey Flash game that helped me pass the time when nothing else was going on. The switch happened when I stumbled upon a Java-based Capture-the-Flag style game called TagPro. It’s another exceptionally simple online game with a chat interface and up to eight people playing simultaneously, but it adds power-ups, registration, and a leaderboard, amongst other things. You can also join the conversation with the developer and the player community at the TagPro subreddit.
The downside is that you can’t create a private game for just those you’ve invited, teams are random, and there’s no way to choose the next game’s map. The upside to all of this is that you’re usually in a populated game right away, but there’s only a few hundred people playing right now, and only maybe 80 with any consistency, so there are random times when only a few people will be on. 2v1 games are pretty much useless. Otherwise, it doesn’t get much more fun than this little distraction.
(If you ever decide to play, look for Comrade. That’s me.)
(EDIT: Thanks to LuckySpammer, TagPro creator, for noticing this post and shouting me out in the game tonight! Your game is my addiction.)
I’ve also been spending a lot more time in a place that you’ve all heard me talk about over the years. Many of you know that I spent a lot of time on the Second Life grid back in 2006 and 2007, and that I held team meetings there for my Covert Ops team starting in late 2009. I also had a gig as a DJ, first at The Edge back in the early days, and more recently in 2010 at Club Velocity. At the second joint, a handful of agent friends would jump on the grid and party with us, using it as a logical extension of my streaming radio show.
About two months ago, I realized I wanted to have a bit of a “reunion” for my agent friends that used to party at Club Velocity, and to get a few more on the grid for that gig as well. I’ve been introducing a few of them over drinks during the last few weeks, and I think we’re going to have a decent crowd when the time comes. (Right now, I’m looking at early May, and I do have a location scoped out.)
In the meantime, I’ve found a new club that I really enjoy, and they do shows nearly every night from 9-11 pm Eastern (or eight to ten for those of you in the Central time zone) and they spin a good variety of tunes, take requests, and generally have a good time. Most of these folks are long-term regulars, but they’re open to newbies. As a matter of fact, I spent a half-hour with them tonight before coming back to write this post and go to bed.
If anyone wants to get back on the grid or wants to be ready for the Alan Edwards Show on the grid, let me know via any of the various ways you can reach me, and we’ll put something together.
As for tonight, I’m wrapping up a below-average Monday. I’m a bit burnt out already, and I think this week may already qualify as slowest ever. Just knowing that we’ll be making our initial descent into San Juan in 140 hours is making it impossible for me to focus on anything else, but it’ll be here soon enough.
(I wish I had that remote control from Click. And yes, I watched Click.)