What's new with HGI?

Hardcore Gaming Industries (HGI) is still conducting an investigation into the incident that happened at midnight January 1st when a small nuclear explosion centered in Steve Bartman Stadium leveled the town of Simpsonville, KY and vaporized Misfit Demons coach Richard Hertz and most of the town's residents.

Since HGI decided to cease operations for fantasy football at the end of the 2011 season where the Demons lost in the title game, they do not have to worry about building a new stadium or finding a new coach.

Last August, Gozer Games LLC presented a new board game they were interested in developing and HGI was involved with the play testing of the product. Called Titans of Industry, the game is now considered ready for production.

The idea of Titans of Industry is to develop the best corporation by purchasing facilities that produce and sell goods and then directing your personnel to most effectively do that to gain victory points which will determine the winner. Within the game, there are also opportunities to direct your personnel to train additional workers, make your facilities more effective, develop corporate strategies to acquire additional victory points, and gain advantages for the next turn. Here is the layout of the board and a sample of the factory and business cards in the game:





Getting a manufacturer to make the game for sale is not cheap. To get the necessary funds, Gozer Games launched a kickstarter for the product.
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The advantages of kickstarter is that the developer of the project will get guaranteed sales before production along with the necessary funds needed to manufacture the product and the people who pledge money get bonuses for their up front support and also the knowledge the money will not be accepted until the goal date and only if the minimum amount for the goal is met.

In this case, people who pledge will get the PDF files needed to print and play the game before the game is produced. Higher amounts will get a copy of their previous game Vampire Werewolf Fairies, a copy of Titans of Industry, a version of the game with better pieces, and for $250 the naming rights to one the the facilities in the game which HGI is hooping to do.

The last Marscon 2012 post

As I have done the last couple of years, I put together a chart of who appeared with who and where:



The closest I came to getting on stage was when I cleared the table and chairs off the stage after opening ceremonies and before the music started on Friday.

Death and Facebook

Last weekend at my mother's house she gave me the St. Rita alumni magazine which is delivered to her house since I don't want them bothering me for donations as I only donated (and will in the future) when their varsity football team wins a state championship. After tossing the donation envelope in the garbage I turned to the section which lists those who have passed away and noticed one of the half dozen from my class which I really didn't like is listed.

I had to fight my instinct to immediately transfer my ill feelings towards him to Facebook since I know if the words are not carefully chosen, the tone of the message will become the topic rather than the message itself like when I posted about the fat girl in the neighborhood. (Now I refer to her as the female Eric Cartman) I also have to remember how varied my current 200+ friends are:



After Whitney Houston died, I was unable to find the correct way to state that shortly after she destroyed the National Anthem before Super Bowl XXV (and became famous from it) in 1991 that I stated to my boss that on the day she was found dead in a hotel room I was going to have a big party and that since I found out about her demise on the way to party at Capricon it came true.

After some thought, I was able to get this written since it also explains why I have those feelings towards him:



To my surprise only one person commented and it was neither a family member who was trying to pass their overwhelming Christian ideals onto me nor was it one of my classmates. It was someone who I have not seen personally in over 8 years and though I have liked and replied to his posts, this was the first time he commented on one I made:



Here is a bigger view of the profile pic:

From all over the country

Yesterday evening, I returned from the aweseom weekend that was Marscon 2012. As I have done for now three years, here is a map the 15 states (along with Washington, DC) people came from to attend and or particiapte in the music track:

Going for the gold/getting off 69 with a hot woman

When I transferred my XBox information to my new system, I lost all my in game stats from Rock Band and as far as the game was concerned, I had to start everything all over even though my achievements remained believing that I would have to go through the tedius task of searching every song to see what I have done on them.

Recently a Rock Band app appeared on Facebook and it allows three things. I can use points they allow to request a certain according playing artist to be added to the game. I can search by title or artist for songs that are available to purchase which became useful at a party where I brought my system. It also shows my high score per song and per instrument.

What surprised me looking at that feature is that other than the 20+ minute Rush 2112 medley, the highest score I had in any song was on vocals for Snoop Dogg's Drop it Like It's Hot.

It also states how many songs in the game I got 5 gold stars which is earned playing expert and scoring 1 1/2 times the 5 star requirement. In Rock Band 3, I can earn 5 gold stars for my instrument even if other players are not playing expert.

It showed I had 70 songs. However, one of them was on harmonies which I know was done by someone else so that makes 69. A couple of weeks ago an out of town friend paid a visit and though she was not feeling her best wanted to sing a few songs in the game. On one of them while on bass, I did earn 5 gold stars getting me off 69 gold starred songs. Here is a chart by instrument:



Personally, I hoped you would not think I would actually post an entry in a public blog about having oral sex.

prop time

With Super Bowl XLVI happening in 8 hours from now, I went to a site to see all the game based bets and jotted 38 of them I would make. (To make things simple, I am assigning a base $500 wager to the 2 main ones, spread and game over/under, and base $100 to the rest.)

NYG +3 (+115) Over 53 (-110) total - 1,050

MVP: Mario Manningham 35-1
First TD: Chad Ochocinco 25-1
More pass attempts: Brady - 1/2 (-125)
Manningham more receptions than Branch: (-115)
Manning 3 TD passes (+250)
Tynes more kicker points +1 (EVEN)
Manning throws 4Q TD (-140)
Manningham first NYG TD (7-1)
Ochocince first NE TD (15-1)
Brady 3 TD passes (+250)
Brady more pass yards -4 1/2 (-130)
Brady 4Q TD pass (-135)
Manningham scored TD (+160)
Less than 9 penalties (+135)
Danny Woodhead TD (+300)
Over 70 1/2 (+450)
Over 65 1/2 (+300)
Over 61 1/2 (+225)
NYG 41 points (18-1)
NE 31 points (10-1)
71-75 tot points (18-1)
Score first 4 1/2 min of 4Q (+195)
4Q highest scoring (+200)
NYG scores every quarter (+200)
NYG scores 1Q,2Q (-150)
NYG - 3 1/2 (+185)
NYG - 7 1/2 (+300)
First half tie/NYG win (+1400)
NYG win 7-10 points (+700)
Half time tie (+500)
NE longest TD (-115)
First TD 40-59 yd (7-1)
Def or special teams TD (+155)
9 tot TD (9-1)
3 tot FG (+300)
Longest FG 37-43 (+300)

Total prop bets wagered $ 3,810
Total wagered $ 4,860
Return $2,700
Result -$2,160

t shirt time

As become a custom at Marscon, there is a shirt with the music performers in cartoon form based on the convention theme. This years theme is rocking the apocalypse and here is a pic of the design that was created by it:



FYI: The music guest of honor, the Consortium of Genius, are the ones operating the machine causing the apocalypse as their schtick is that are evil geniuses bent on overtaking the world or destroying it if they can't. Also the creature carrying death while drinking a can of Shasta is Superhorse, the member of the comedy group Cirque du So What which was created when the group was ret conned. (You would have to hear the track to completely understand.)