Battle.net blues

So since I've been playing Warcraft 3 on battle.net, I've noticed a few things.

Most everyone on battle.net is a kid, or at least acts like one. impatient, immature, ignorant. They also fall into 2 categories from there, which is "pro" or "noob". im afraid im in the noob category compared to some of these lifetime battle.net pros. I'm sure theyve been there since the day it came out. but there are worse noobs than me, unfortunately.. and whenever i get in a game with them i have to smile because they make me look better ;)

The downside to legitimately purchasing blizzards Warcraft 3 is that since they have battle.net, they eliminated the ability to connect peer-to-peer tcp/ip connections. so no more "lan" games with your friends across your internet connections. although I think I've figured out that we can hook up a windows VLAN, and that might actually work. but its a much bigger pain in the ass than the ability to connect to a specific IP. battle.net is also not that great when it comes to matchmaking or finding the games that you want. its uncategorized, so basically thousands upon thousands of people get put into the same chat room.

the custom games is where my interest in warcraft 3 really is. the original game is pretty boring but people have come up with some ideas to add depth of gameplay and replayability to it. one particular favorite map, dota-allstars, is obviously the most popular custom game online. but there are lots of other interesting ones. TD (Tower defense), where you basically build towers and defend waves upon waves of enemies. there are many different flavors of TD, they're all pretty good, and i dont have time to try ALL of them. theres also something called battleships that i really like. basically DOTA and Battleships! take out the tedium in a warcraft game. you just control one hero or ship, and the computer takes care of unit production, so theres basically an equal force of baddies streaming out from opposing forces and cancelling each other out, except for your intervention. you only control your one unit, and its upgrades, and try to stem the tide and give your side an advantage.

So I'm determined to learn how to snowboard this year. I've done some reading on how to teach yourself basic turning and control, so i guess ill just go from there. in addition to that, the people i met at the LAN party last week are planning on going weekly, so i think ill try and join that group. going out soon to buy a board, bindings and boots. possibly goggles too. i didnt have much trouble learning skiing, and i was really enjoying it except i didnt really have anyone to go with the past 2 seasons. Loralei won't come within 1km of a ski hill ever again, no matter how much i nag her. she had a bad experience on the bunny hill once and figures thats the end of it. i figure everyone falls down their first day, but i guess it deters some more than others.