I talked to the boar and asked it to join me and it just grunted and kept sniffing the mushroom at it’s feet.  I offered it companionship as another party member with had a just convinced “Miss Piggy” to join her but this boar did not budge.  I then offered it some meat to join me… I dare not mention that the meat offered was from a very close friend of his that was slain just moment earlier…. he ate it and joined!

I’m in the process of renaming my Boar to Pork Piggler when I accidentely fired a flurry of arrows in a cone in front of me… any guesses on what I managed to hit?  Not just the GIANT momma boar that was roaming around but also her 5 piglets of death.  We learned first hand at how awesome these new boar pets would be as we were charged and mauled to death (and our pigs) within seconds.

Needless to say we recovered just fine and I happen to be eating some nice Carnitas and eggs as we speak.  Day 1 of being a Ranger in this new world has been tiresome and interesting… stay tuned for Day 2 when we get murdered by many more of your favorite animals!

I stumbled upon this article today after Mr. Dan Tack sent it over on twitter and I found it to be a really interesting take on the MOBA genre.  It’s taking the thing we all loved about the MMO (grinding for awesome looking gear) and adding it into the game.

It would appear the gear is totally cosmetic in nature but you might be able to purchase a increase to drop rate for real world cash.  I have to imagine this creates some pretty amazing opportunities for community made gear to be sold.

Gordon Freeman

G-Man

A lot of people don’t think of gaming as a dangerous thing when it comes to your health (unless you read about the random person who died from too many hours of some game) but it IS important.

I suffer from mild carpel tunnel issues from working the Information Technology field and from being an avid gamer.  I would say on a work day I may spend 10+ hours in front of a computer.  I first noticed major issues when I wasn’t able to open a jar of pickles one day and it had seemed that all my strength had left my hands.  I gave the jar to a friend and they opened it with no problem.  It scared me and I started looking into things to correct the problem.

If things get really bad like they did with me you will feel the pain in your fingers, wrists, forearms, shoulders, neck and even your back.  I had a massage therapist tell me she couldn’t imagine that I was even able to type with how bad things were.  Let me tell you, the pain I felt when she was getting the toxins out of those muscles might well have been gunshot wounds because it hurt that bad.

Anyways, let’s get on to a few things you can do to make this better.  I am in no way a medical professional and you are following this at your own risk.  I would recommend that you do stretches for 5-10 minutes when you start/end any long period of gaming.  I would also say some light massaging of the pressure points and muscles I’ll show you between matches or during break won’t hurt either.

Stretches

Pressure Points/Muscles

I also ended up getting splints that I wear at night that force your wrist and forearm into a position where there isn’t pressure on the muscles.  This has helped a LOT.  I’ve also read that a low gluten/dairy/sodium diet can reduce swelling and help with the pain.

The above charts are things that I do and they help me but with all medical issues please be sure to see a doctor or medical professional about your problem.  Also remember that proper posture and ergonomic gaming additions will lower the risk of you having any problems.  Stay healthy and Frag well!