NaNoWriMo has been an event that has intrigued me for a few years now. I've often thought of doing it but never actually committed the "thinking" into "doing," despite seeing it crop up every year in my friends' status updates on various social networking services. I admit to a certain level of elitism preventing me from getting involved, as well: NaNoWriMo has always seemed like an interesting idea, but in practice I always come off feeling that it's the sort of deal bored housewives do to make themselves seem more interesting– "I'm a novelist," etc. No, dear, you watch Oprah.

After various amounts of work adjusting the layout and getting everything migrated I'm quite excited to announce the opening of ctrlclick.com, the new home of what used to be joshuameadows.com. As I've mentioned here a few times I no longer feel the content I write about here is quite appropriate to be housed under an address so specific and personal to myself, so I think that it is better kept in this new location.

In a period of time to be determined (either immediately or sometime in the next few days, depending on free time and motivation), this site will be transitioning from its current domain to ctrlclick.com. I have a lot of reasons for wanting to do this; I feel that a domain name based around someone's real name probably should be full of personalized content, and that's not really been the focal point of my writing here for quite some time, so I don't feel that it's all that fitting any longer.

BioWare is a developer with an extensive history in roleplaying games. One of their earliest titles, Baldur's Gate, is often lauded as revitalizing the computer RPG genre entirely as well as introducing the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ruleset to an audience that had never been exposed to it. When their 2007 sci-fi RPG Mass Effect was released on the Xbox 360, it had amassed a million in worldwide sales in its first three weeks. Dragon Age: Origins is BioWare's latest release, returning to their roots as fantasy aficionados after their forays into science fiction.

In a previous entry I talked about the way many games implement "moral choices" these days and how lackluster I generally find that implementation to be. One of the things Bioware has advertised about regarding Dragon Age is that their story will be much more nuanced and realistic, not pigeonholing players into these sock-puppets of emotions. While I'm no where near far along enough in the campaign to make a qualified statement on things, I wanted to break for a moment and explore my previous point a bit further using this game as an example.

ngmoco, the developer responsible for extremely popular iPhone apps like Topple and Rolando, has released Eliminate Pro at long last. What they're billing as the "the first online FPS that fits in your pocket," Eliminate Pro is a free, micro-transaction supported FPS that allows you to compete against other players over 3G or Wi-Fi in deathmatch style arenas.

If you haven't heard by now, Infinity Ward, the developers behind upcoming FPS Modern Warfare 2, have released a YouTube public service announcement warning players against unsportsman-like "grenade spam." It's all well and fine, but the five seconds at the end of the video inform you that the PSA has been brought to you by "Fight Against Grenade Spam," or, FAGS.