Archive for July 2007

Spoilers in this one, but I’ve attempted to write a benign paragraph so no one accidentally sees anything. I can’t help but write another post about Harry Potter as the story takes up much of my thoughts since finishing the book. The Leaky Cauldron’s Leaky Lounge has a absorbing discussion going on around the finale.

Jim Hines is collecting lists of books to read next now that Harry Potter ends. One person mentions Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. Paul loved Ender’s Game series series. When my oldest was into Harry Potter and we finished the latest book, she got into The Chronicles of Chrestomanci.

Movie

OK, my additional Harry Potter thoughts. I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last weekend. Paul said he saw a blooper where it said 11 Grimmauld Place instead of 12. I suggested it was showing the place next door, but Paul said it was definitely the Phoenix hideout. Anyone catch this? He also made another good catch, but we know the movies don’t capture every detail from the books. The photograph of the original Order of the Phoenix showed Mad Eye Moody with his fake eye. The photo was from 14 years ago — Mad Eye didn’t have his eye yet.

Details, Epilogue and Rowling

Search the Internet and you’ll find plenty of discussion about how Rowling left out details or didn’t bring closure. I think we all see different details as more important than others. Paul wanted to know more about the Kreacher cupboard and the genealogy. I didn’t give second thought to that.

Some people expressed disappointment in the epilogue saying it should not have been included or it didn’t cover the right things (careers, for one). I think having an epilogue was good. Sure, it could’ve been better, but at least we got some insight into their lives and that Hogwarts continued business as usual retaining the four houses including Slytherin.

We also wonder if Rowling will write something completely different for the joy of it. Maybe she plans to take a long holiday and enjoy her three children.

Careers

Harry mentioned in an earlier book that he considered becoming an auror, but I doubt he did that after a lifetime of battles in his short life. Hermione was a genius. What careers are there for smart witches other than teaching? Obviously, she didn’t become a teacher since she wasn’t going to Hogwarts. Since Kingsley took over the Ministry of Magic — I’d suspect at least one of them would work there.

Children

The names of the Potter children made sense and I liked Albus Severus, but can’t figure out where Rose and Hugo came from. Thought Ron would name one child after Fred. A Victoire was mentioned as Teddy was snogging her. Assumption is that she’s the child of Bill and Fleur considering the French name.

Deaths

I was relieved that Ron, Hermione and Harry lived. I worried most about them. Considering the war, we had to expect casualties even if it meant Lupin, Tonks and Fred. While we didn’t learn how Lupin and Tonks died, we couldn’t expect Rowling to cover the details of every death. It was a war. Hedwig and Dobby were tough losses, but it gave the story more authenticity or else it would look like Rowling was trying to make everyone happy.

Griffindor Sword

A member at Leaky Cauldron thought the sword appeared in the Sorting Hat because only the heirs of one of the founders could pull it out of the hat. But I’d think someone has to put it in there in the first place. Goblins don’t give up their work easily.

The Potters

Harry inherited enough money from his parents that he wouldn’t have to worry about money for a lifetime. So what did the Potters do? Can’t even begin to guess. Since money wasn’t an issue, maybe Harry was a stay-at-home Dad. Hey, he saw more in his short 17 years than most people see in a lifetime. I appreciated the insight into Lily’s childhood. Would’ve liked to know more about James. Why would Lily fall in love with a guy who seemed to be the school bully / trickster?

What thoughts flow in your mind about the series?

Update: MSNBC conducted an interview with J.K. Rowling and puts it all on its Harry Potter section. The articles reveal bits and pieces of the interview, which is a long read. It answered most, if not all, questions we discussed.

Alice Greenfingers is an original and creative game that mixes the strategic with the simulation, and the diner and tycoon genres. It most reminds me of the lemonade stand game I played years ago in black and white. Some report the game resembles Harvest Moon and SimFarm, which I haven’t played.

“Greenfingers” indeed refers to the gardening theme of the game in which players help Alice plant, grow and sell fruit, vegetables, flowers and eggs. I wasn’t sure I could survive Alice Greenfingers since I don’t even do a good job with my front yard. Amazingly enough, I didn’t kill anything and earned a profit each day. I love what the developer’s game tips says about playing the game, “… unlike traditional arcade games you can not ‘die.’ So, take it easy and do things at your own pace to enjoy the game to the fullest!”

Do I hear hemming and hawing about the inability to die or “win” the game? Don’t despair; you can still win awards such as going a whole day without the game reminding you to water the crops and sell 80 boxes in one day. Alice also earns points for health, knowledge, popularity, and wealth. Challenge yourself to get those numbers high as possible.

You’re in charge of your land. You can build crops with a lovely design by adding a duck pond, fence for animals, trees and fountains. It’s a delightful way to garden without the sweat, heat or fear of killing living things. One of the game’s strengths is its replayability. With so many things to buy in the market, you can design your farm in a variety of ways. If design isn’t a big deal, then you may lose interest once you’ve discovered and tried everything.

Alice begins with a shovel, a small water pail, tomato seeds, and a box that holds four crops. As she earns money from sales, she can buy bigger water pails, boxes, other seeds, animals, fence, and anything to help her enjoy her garden. As in the real world, Alice must decide what products to sell and how to price them based on current demands. As time passes, the store adds more products for Alice to buy and add to her farm. Players eventually unlock all the items in the store and must rely on their own imagination to stay engrossed.

To keep things unpredictable, you receive a message that asks if you want to sell boxes of a product for a proposed price, go see the doctor or take out an ad in the local newspaper. I wish the game came with a way to hire workers to pick the crops. My hands got tired from moving the mouse like crazy to grab a box, pick up four crops and carry them to the storage shed, repeat, repeat, repeat. By this point, the game becomes tiring and loses some luster especially after the store stops adding new products.

It’s nice having a game where you can take your time and relish the experience. The only timing that enters the game is that each day lasts about 15 minutes for 30 days. After 30 days, some features, like the ability to sell eggs, disappear. That’s a shame. Alice Greenfingers should continue with all features intact allowing players to maintain their farms for as long as they want.

P.S. JayIsGames has great tips and spoilers for playing Alice Greenfingers. Most spoilers hide behind a button labeled “Show Spoiler.”

System Requirements: Windows

• Windows ME/2000/XP/Vista
• 10MB free hard disk space
• 300MHz or faster Processor
• DirectX 3 or higher

System Requirements: Mac

• OS X 10.2 or higher
• OpenGL video card

First — Spoilers are in invisible ink. So you can’t accidentally see anything unless you try.

I want to thank Amazon a thousand times for delivering the book around 10:00 am, Saturday, July 21. We were prepared for it to arrive between July 24 and July 26 because of the embargo figuring the publishers put online stores under strict orders not to ship books before Saturday to avoid any arriving early.

While eager to read the book, I didn’t want to stay up past midnight and spend that time waiting in line. Furthermore, I didn’t want to shlep from store to store looking for copies. Turned out a store near us had plenty of copies… frustrated and disappointed… 30 minutes later, we got the delivery.

I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) yesterday (had to — or else it would interfere with work!). I’m content with how Rowling completed the book and tied the story. The ending fit — it wasn’t a phony ending where she felt pressured to satisfy her readers.

I have a couple of questions that went unanswered or I missed the answers, but nothing that would drive me batty. Those who haven’t finished the book, stop here to avoid spoilers from comments that don’t appear in invisible ink. If you’ve finished the book and want to discuss. Select the below space and scroll the mouse pointer to highlight the space to read it.

What was the point of the baby that made Harry uncomfortable while he talked to Dumbledore?

What was significant about Harry’s green eyes? Rowling said it was important.

How can Draco Malfoy and then Harry be the last true owner of the Elder Wand though he disarmed Dumbledore and Harry disarmed Draco (but not with the Elder Wand)? After all, “a wand chooses its owner.”

What happens to the Elder Wand? Harry said, “I’m putting the Elder Wand back where it came from.” I doubt Harry is going to open Dumbledore’s crypt out of respect.

Is Teddy a werewolf? Assume that Tonks’ parents raised Ted.

Snape was supposed to tell Harry about death at the time that Voldemort put protection on Nagini. Snape cut it close and it was luck that Harry happened to be there at Snape’s death without Voldemort knowing. Why would Snape risk going to Voldemort before telling Harry? He could’ve died without telling Harry.

How did the Sorting Hat come in possession of the Griffindor sword where Neville found it? Griphook ran off with the real sword.

Harry recalled having put a wig and a battered old tiara on an old ugly warlock (page 620). When did this happen? Why did he do that?

What were the careers of Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny? We only learn of Neville’s career.

Any questions of your own?

Help Redrum Bilgewater navigate buccaneer-infested waters in Pirate Island, the latest from Sandlot Games. The Dread Captain Weevil, Scourge of the Seven Seas, has vowed revenge on the Twelve Islands if his golden peg-leg is not returned.

Collect enough gold to satisfy his demands before he unleashes his, and his skeleton army’s, wrath. Unravel a story of mystery and intrigue as the game unfolds over twelve chapters. Collect 11 trophies, use 6 level-altering power-ups, and conquer 100 increasingly challenging levels in this high seas adventure.

Gamezebo review of Pirate Island

The Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex had a rainy June that it came within one-half inch of breaking the record that has stood since 1928. A friend of mine sent me this picture from FunPic and I just had to share. So a gal wearing High Tide Heels doesn’t have to worry about falling into an unexpected ditch — just swim her way out. They look painful, though.

Past entry, Taglines, Marketing and Branding Haikus, touches upon taglines and what they are. But today’s discussion looks at whether a business needs a tagline. Ilise Benun of Marketing Mentor believes not every company needs a tagline, but they’re helpful when a company’s name doesn’t give prospects an idea of what the business does. That’s my belief, too.

meryl’s notes blog alone doesn’t tell you right away what this blog covers, so I added a tagline beneath the blog name to address that. My business name is meryl.net, again it tells you nothing. So I have a header that says “Content that inspires and informs” to give you the idea I do something with content that leads to results.

I also put “writing * editing * research” beneath meryl.net on business cards and e-mail signature. I’d like to use it on the meryl.net home page, but there isn’t a logical place for it without overcrowding the page. I don’t think it would be better to have than “Content that inspires and informs.”

The challenge in writing the perfect tagline is creating one that’s specific and not too general. “Content that inspires and informs” might not be specific enough, but it was better than the one I had before and I’ve yet to come up with a replacement.

Have you ever had a dream that crashed into reality? I have. I ran into my dad in the hallway while half asleep and it scared the bejeebies out of me. You can stay that I was wide awake after that. In the beautifully designed Dream Chronicles, the story begins with Lilith, the Fairy Queen of Dreams, casting a sleep spell over the entire kingdom.

Yet, somehow Fidget wakes up his wife Faye. But is Faye dreaming or experiencing the adventure? Players assume the role of Faye who searches for Fidget and Lilith who kidnapped Fidget. Faye has two jobs: find all the dream jewels for the dream spells in Dream section of the book that guides you through the game. The book also contains a path, known as chapters, telling you where you need to go next. But before you can get there, solve the puzzles that block your way to the next scene.

The book contains 18 chapters with each chapter, for the most part, representing a scene with a puzzle or puzzles. The hidden objects part of the game comes from finding the hidden jewels and items to use in solving the puzzle. At the end of the game, the number of dream jewels you find will determine your final score. It would’ve been cool if the player could cast a dream spell after finding all the jewels for a dream. But that could make the game more complicated.

Press any key or mouse button twice to quickly skip through the jewel description, which appears upon picking up a jewel. After reading a few descriptions, I lost interest so clicking through helps loads. Clicking twice works for any content appearing on the screen for those impatient like me or don’t want to read the same content again.

The puzzles vary through the game. Some hidden object games tend to repeat a puzzle style, but not Dream Chronicles giving the game a unique twist. As you solve a puzzle, you move to the next chapter and learn more about the story. When you arrive on a new scene, Fidget gives you hints to help you in your current quest. On occasion, something glimmers on the scene to lend a hand. I appreciate those glimmers since they don’t give away much and provide just the right amount of help so I don’t get frustrated with the game.

Any time I want to take a break from the game, I left the game open. When clicking “Quit,” the game tells you that you would restart the current level. The thing is that a level isn’t clear to me. Is a chapter the same thing as a level? Semantics, but I don’t want to lose my hard work.

I figure out most of the puzzles, but a few don’t make sense forcing me to rely on luck. I’d like to know the story behind those tricky puzzles that I couldn’t solve. Though the game ending fell a little short of my expectations, the game weaves a nice story. Dream Chronicles should be a big hit especially for the casual games crowd with its assortment of puzzles, stunning scenes, storyline and low frustration factor.

Download Dream Chronicles for 30 minute trial or buy Dream Chronicles.

System Requirements: Windows

• Windows ME/2000/XP/Vista
• Pentium III 700 MHz or faster processor
• 128MB RAM
• Sound card recommended
• DirectX 7.0 or later
• 25 MB available hard drive space

System Requirements: Mac

• Mac OS X 10.3.9 or newer
• G4 800 MHz or faster, or G5 or Intel processor
• 800 x 600 minimum screen resolution
• 25 MB available hard drive space

Amazing how a simple game reels in players. All you do is shoot bubbles and when you match three of the same color, they pop. That’s about all there is to the game. However, the Bubble Shooter Premium comes with a variety of themes so you can change the scenery for a change of pace. The game rewards you with a screen saver when you earn 50,000 points.

You can do more than make a match and prevent bubbles from reaching the bottom of your screen. Aim your bubble just right and you might knock down a bunch of bubbles that appear below your bubble. If you fail to make a match, the game takes away a bubble until they all disappear. When they disappear, a new row of bubbles appears pushing the bubbles down. You don’t want the bubbles to reach the bottom because that means it’s game over.

The vibrant-colored and soft-colored scenes set the mood for the game. Pick Water and your game takes place underwater where the bubbles float and you can do a few cool moves. Pearls your thing? Try Gems. The stunning graphics and calming music are relaxing — until you get mad at the game if you happen to be a competitive player as I am.

You can play against another player whose game appears on the right side of the screen, but you can’t chat or anything, just peek in. The multi-player — I don’t think that’s the right word to use because only you and one other player appear — game works differently as new rows show up at no particular time. The instructions don’t give details for this variation.

As for the chat feature, I’ve yet to find anyone in the chat room when I check. If you’ve played other Bubble Shooters, this edition offers more themes, more avatars, backgrounds, chat and a screensaver. The game tracks high scores by player, computer (local) and global.

The game should attract those who like the Bubbles series of games and similar style games. Bubble Shooter Premium stands out from the crowd only in its gorgeous graphics and bonus screen saver. Overall, Bubble Shooter Premium is a solid arcade game.

Download a free trial of Bubble Shooter Premium or buy Bubble Shooter Premium.

System Requirements: Windows

• Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
• Pentium III or faster
• 128MB RAM
• 65MB available hard drive space

Who will benefit from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) and the series in the short term and long term? This previous post discusses how killing Harry could potentially hurt future sales once the current popularity dies down.

People still buy The Lord of the Rings though the series is old by today’s standards. I wonder if the movies will cut into the sales of the books as people might choose to skip the books and go for the movies. Could that happen to the Harry Potter series as all seven books will eventually be available as a series of movies?

Death and Spoilers (no spoilers here)

If Harry should die, would the next generation buy Harry Potter knowing this? It’ll be hard not to find out about a main character’s death or ending twist long after the last book’s release date.

Unsurprisingly, a photocopy of the entire book appeared online as The Dallas Morning News (might require free registration) explains without spoilers. How will this affect sales? I don’t think it will hurt sales much as fans want a hard copy to hold in their hands and flip page by page. I have no interest in reading the entire book online even if it means finding out what happens a few days sooner. Mugglenet and Leaky Cauldron ask fans not to leak anything, but Mugglenet issues a warning that comments could contain spoilers.

Young Fans and Future Generations

My middle child looks forward to reading the book with us. My little one is only four, so he has yet to hear or see Harry Potter. Will he want us to read the books to him? Will he read them himself? Or will he just take the easy way out and watch the movies? The movies only capture a portion of each book since the books have too much happening to squeeze into movie format.

That’s one thing the movies do well — they don’t try to capture everything. The writers and directors try to tell a tight story with key parts covered (as far as we know) instead of trying fit in all the elements.

Another key point in how the book ends is the young fans. Kids start reading the series around age nine. How could an adverse ending affect these kids? Adults want surprises and twists, but kids want to believe Harry wins.

So could the ending hurt or benefit the book publishers? The movie makers? The young fans?

Jenny and Robert of Dream Day Wedding return and invite us (or maybe not and we’re G-rated peeping Toms) on their honeymoon in the second Dream Day hidden object game. Well, maybe they didn’t invite us, but we get to follow them again. Whether you’ve played Dream Day Wedding or not, both stand-alone and aren’t dependent on each other.

Dream Day Honeymoon successfully recaptures the beautiful scenes with hidden items that blend smoothly so the scenes don’t look funky. The hidden items meld with the background so well that when I let Cupid’s arrow help me find the item, I still couldn’t see its shape. The skilled hidden objects game player will appreciate the challenge.

Birds of Paradise also hide in every scene. After finding five of them, you earn a bonus hint. However, you can’t earn more than four. So use the hints rather than save them for the end of the level, which is what I do in hidden objects games. I prefer to use the hints on the few remaining objects that I can’t find.

Each level except for the first has three scenes with an assigned number of souvenirs (objects). The game doesn’t expect you to find every souvenirs, but most of them. For example, one room has 10 souvenirs and room two has 10 souvenirs totaling 20 objects you can find. But you only need to find 18.

Upon finding the required amount of souvenirs, you play Perfect Match. It’s a memory card-like game where you find matching pairs until the tiles are gone. You play Perfect Match nine times, the number of levels it takes you to reach “Cloud Nine” for the Bonus Level.

The game has three honeymoon crises and three Choose A Story scenes. A honeymoon crisis occurs when something goes wrong and you return to a previously visited scene that has changed because of the crises. You also have less time on the clock to find them, unless you play relaxed mode. For Choose A Story, you pick one of three options and the story proceeds based on your choice.

The Dream Day series run shorter than some popular hidden objects games. While that sounds like a drawback, it isn’t. Many fans of casual games don’t necessarily have the luxury of completing a game quickly. Like most hidden objects games, you can stop playing for a while and pick up where you left off. The story in Dream Day Honeymoon is easy to follow, so it shouldn’t be a problem to take a break for a few days or weeks.

Dream Day Honeymoon weaves together a nice theme that flows from start to finish. Hidden object gamers will enjoy this one. It isn’t the biggest or most fancy game out there, but it gratifies.

System Requirements: Windows

• Windows ME/2000/XP/Vista
• 600 MHz or faster processor
• 128MB RAM