The Nibbana Family

And “A Christmas Story (You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out!)”…

I seldomly play computer games. When I do, I get very drawn in and play really hard, quickly begin feeling guilty for ‘wasting time’ on mindless entertainment, and then quit playing just as fast. As a very logical person and computer programming hobbyist, I am also always looking for ways to beat the game by finding areas to exploit to my advantage. Back in the 90’s while playing Final Fantasy VII, I found a sequence for earning money within the game by depressing keys in a certain order. I rigged up some duct tape on my controller to hold the keys in place and 8 hours later I was rich!

A couple of months ago I became obsessed with MyBrute. The benefit of MyBrute for someone like me is that it only allows three fights per day. This equates to about five minutes of game play per day, which is perfect for preventing me from becoming obsessed with the game and puts me at ease that my competitors are given the same limitation and can’t get ahead. Still, I’m always looking for an advantage. I began looking at ways to create my own bot, or an automated script which would automatically login, go to the arena, select an opponent, fight, and then repeat the process. I wrote a PHP script using the Snoopy class which succesfully completed most of these tasks. Unfortunately, it stalled when it encountered the fight stage because the creators of MyBrute utilize Flash and require a button keypress within the Flash object. Snoopy and cURL are unable of replicating keypresses in an object such as Flash. Perhaps the creators of MyBrute anticipated this, and subsequently my bot attempt was thwarted.

More recently I became obsessed with a game on Facebook called Farmville. Farmville is a cute little game that allows you to build a farm, harvest crops, manage livestock and grow trees. As a player gains experience and money from harvesting they level up and can buy new and exciting items for their farm. It didn’t take long to figure out how to quickly level and earn money and ribbons but as the games progresses leveling becomes exponentially harder and more time consuming. There had to be an easier way! That’s when I thought about using a mouse and keypress replicator that would record my keystrokes and automate the process for me. I found an application called Axife Mouse Recorder which does exactly what I was looking for. All I had to do was record myself planting, harvesting and plowing some crops and automate the recorder to do it for me while I am away. Now I can level in my sleep.

The obvious question that may come from some of you is, “Aren’t you taking away from the fun of the game?”. My answer is no, at least not for me. Different people derive different forms of pleasure from playing a game. While you may be excited and content playing a game in a more traditional fashion, I get the most excitement from figuring out how to beat a game and finding ways to exploit opportunities to my benefit. Games are a form of entertainment after all, and I believe each person should feel free to play in the way they find most enjoyable.

Here are two.

Help!

This has been a big summer for me! Ari, Mom and I stayed home this summer together and did a lot of fun things. Ari took art, science and literature classes at the local library while Mommy and I went to the kids section and played with their toys and read books. We went to the pool a few times too. I love to swim and am not afraid of the water at all. Mom and Dad have to watch me because I will try to get in by myself. We did other things too, like go blueberry picking, visit a nature center, and feed alpacas and llamas at a rescue farm.

A new playground was built near the pool. Since it is only a block from us we watched it grow and we finally got to play on it a few weeks ago. It is so much fun! There is a see-saw and swings. There are huge slides and lots of ladders I can climb, even though that part of the park is for the older kids.

Grandma took my cousins camping last week and Mom, Dad, Ari and I went too. It was hot but a lot of fun! We went tubing on the river and I loved it. I hope we go again sometime because it was so much fun. Mom or Dad held onto a rope that was attached to my tiny tube and they pulled me around or let me float down the river while making sure I stayed close to them.

Finally, I have been learning a lot of words too. I am learning to tell Mommy and Daddy what I want and need. I can tell them when I need to go potty or when I want to play outside. I also just learned to tell them I want to watch Elmo’s World (not Sesame Street, just Elmo’s World). I think I might drive them a bit crazy with that one. I also know some songs, or part of songs. I know “Tomorrow” from Annie, my ABC’s (although I just say A,B,A,B over and over), and a few others. I also know how to tell Mom when I want to hear songs!

I like staying home with Mommy and Ari, and I love seeing Daddy a lot more too. It has been a really good summer!

Want to play a game that is free, elegantly simple and yet terribly addictive? Then head on over and dare to challenge My Brute!

Not too long ago while perusing the news on Tyler Cruz, I came across his review for My Brute. Intrigued, I accepted his challenge and gave his character a run for his money. He quickly pummeled my character and taught me a valuable lesson, but at that moment I vowed to return one day and seek revenge. Victory will be mine!

The premise behind this game is elementary. After naming and selecting your character you make your way to the arena where you can fight up to three times per day. Your character has random strength, agility and speed attributes and is given a weapon or two to begin. As you gain experience and level up, your stats increase as do your hit points and opportunity to earn special skills.

Once in the arena you don’t actually do anything but watch the screen and root for your Brute to win. There are no buttons to push or actions to take, you simply sit back and relax and let your Brute do all of the work. Initially you may think little of this mindless entertainment, but soon you find yourself addicted to the brilliant simplicity of the game and looking forward to your next battle after a nights rest. The limit of three fights per day and desire to beat your next opponent will keep you coming back for more.

So what’s stopping you? Are you daring enough to challenge My Brute?