For over 9 years now RJOworld.com has been my House of Random. The blog has gone through many phases – from very personal to political to gaming to somewhere in between it all. As of late I’ve had a lot of trouble writing a catch-all blog. The truth is I lead a couple of lives that all mash together but don’t always cross over well.

On one hand I’m a family man who loves and cherishes his wife and daughter, goes to work, volunteers in the community and is active in politics. On the other hand when the lights go off and everyone is in bed for the night I’m the guild master of the second largest Order guild in Warhammer Online, a freelance writer and consultant for several media outlets that cover the massively multiplayer genre of computer games and a true fan of all things gaming.

Even reading the above paragraph makes my head hurt – how could I possibly write one blog to cover all that stuff and keep my writings engaging to the people who drop by my site. The simple answer is I just can’t. I could just write everything that comes to mind on the various topics I listed above and mash them together on this site but it would be confusing even for me – I don’t know how you guys who drop by this site once or twice a week would digest it all and put it in to context. I know people from both aspects of my life come to this site and I’d like to do what I can to try and split things logically the way my life is kind of split.

So today I’m happy to share that I’m splitting my blog in to two sites – ryanosullivan.ca to cover the personal/family, business, technology and politics pieces of my life AND adventuresoftaas.com to cover my gaming itch.

If you head over to both the sites they have a post up with some information on how I intend to use the various blogs.

So what happens to RJOworld? This site will eventually (after about a month has passed) become a bit of an aggregator for the two new sites. I’ll also keep a bit of a social stream linking together my twitter, flickr, google reader shares, etc.

This site has been really good to me over the years – I hope you all enjoy the new format!

For those using Google Reader – the new feeds are:
http://www.ryanosullivan.ca/?feed=rss2
http://www.adventuresoftaas.com/?feed=rss2

Interesting to see a key early-Bush administration Republican endorsing Obama.

Every single thing said in this video is worth thinking about for the future of the United States and I’m so glad that a statesmen of the quality of Colin Powell has risen above party politics and come out and said it.

I don’t know if I need to say anything …

Tomorrow Canadians are going to the polls (don’t worry I’ll be sure to remind you 1000 times on twitter and on the blog tomorrow) and I’d like to ask for your support for your local Conservative candidate.

There can be no doubt that building a sustainable economy for our new enviromental reality must be a prime consideration as we go forward as a nation and Stephane Dion should be applauded for making it a cornerstone of his campaign. But the simple fact of the matter is the second option in this election, Stephane Dion’s Liberal’s, are going too agressive on change in a time where it is dangerous to change our economic model.

But enough about the Liberals – I believe very strongly that campaigns are built on ideas not whomever throws the best negative messages around the room. I’d invite everyone to read the Conservative platform here.

On the economy and the current financial crisis the good news is Jim Flaherty (the Conservative finance minister) has already made many moves to protect our mortgage system going forward. Over the summer he changed the CMHC regulations to only insure mortgages of 35 years or less and up’d the down payment regulations to 5%. The Conservative team has the knowledge and the plan to see our economy through tough economic times.

The Conservative plan also calls for a reduction in taxation for Small Business, an expansion of the definition of small business (raising the cap), a fund to reignite the manufacturing industry in Southern Ontario, and much more.

The Conservative plan offers Canadians a steady maintenance of existing programs, minimal spending commitments and tax relief for industry and regular Canadians. This is exactly the plan for tough times that might be ahead and I encourage you to consider voting Conservative for that reason.

Regardless – Tomorrow – VOTE.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

It breaks my heart that this McCain doesn’t really exist anymore – but its good to see that underneath all the damage that his partisan handlers have caused the real maverick, the guy who’s done such an amazing job for Arizona for 26 years is still under there somewhere.

I cannot bring myself to support McCain in this election any longer because of how far he’s drifted from who he is and from my own beliefs – but its good to know the guy I drove down to New York to campaign for back in 2000 is still there somewhere.

My friend Jim is trying to get an MMO blog going with a few of us. My plan for contributing to the site is to cover more Wonk / Business angles on topics that are being debated in the community. My first article up is about the never ending ZOMG WILL WARHAMMER ONLINE DETHRONE World of Warcraft debate and how it needs a serious reality check; but that doesn’t mean you should count it out.

One has to start any debate on World of Warcraft’s success with a clarification of that success. If you start out on the premise that WoW is a game with 10 million subscribers all paying 14.99 a month you are working with bad information right from the start. There are 10 million people playing WoW but Blizzard makes very little from about 80% of those people; they are in Asia where alternative business models prevail and revenue generation is not on par with North American, European and Oceanic markets. We pay 15 dollars a month while in China they pay about 5 cents an hour. This on top of the fact that Blizzard doesn’t actually manage WoW in China so there is money coming off the top there as well.

You can read the whole shebang here.

Speaking of Warhammer Online if you are planning on playing on the Order side my multi game guild Aureus Knights will be setting up in the game – check it out. Be sure to say hi on the forums!

In case you haven’t heard there was a propane explosion in the city of Toronto today. Huge parts of the city have been shut down and the largest shut down of the 401 (Ontario’s major highway) in history has occured as a result. For the record I am in the opposite end of the city and we are all good here.

At this time there are two people injured (I believe employees with the propane company) and one person missing. Also just a few minutes ago Toronto Fire announced that they have a fire fighter without vitals.

Driving home from the cottage I was listening to the coverage on the radio and I thought to myself no one killed, some property damage; there was no way this was that big of a deal. Wow – then I came home and saw the footage – unbelievable, check this out:

(Watch the video around the 1:50 mark)

This is obviously no little deal. I hope the fire fighters involved come out of this ok and we get the situation in order. For once I am actually impressed with the city’s response to something – it looks like they were really on top of it.

I hope everyone in the area is ok and gets life back to normal ASAP.

PC Gamer is collecting the top 100 games of all time from its readers – you can check out the site here.

Here is my top 10:
* Ultima Online
My first and best MMO experience – started a life long love affair with virtual worlds and MMOs

* It Came from the Desert
A little known title but one of the best games of the post sierra adventure game world

* Everquest 2
The first MMO where I reached and actively participated in end game. I will never forget EQ2 and I believe it is the clear winner of the third generation

* NHL
My gateway drug to sports games. I remember playing the NHL series on a sega for the first time – I was sold and had a reason to buy consoles for many generations to come

* Battlefield 2142
I still don’t get why this game didn’t take off like other FPSs. IMO this is the best battlefield title.

* Star Wars: Galaxies
This game came dangerously close to recreating the Ultima Online experience. The SOE team was brave enough to take on the sandbox game format but was not brave enough to stand by it. I’m still waiting for another studio to take a shot at a true sandbox experience.

* Final Fantasy XI
I haven’t put nearly the time into this game that I wish I had. I believe that this is the best end game out there but the community and the developers got in the way of making it accessible

* Civilization
Civilization requires no introduction – I remember playing this in Keith’s basement; probably one of the first games I played on the PC (as opposed to the amiga)

* SimCity
I don’t know if this qualifies for a top PC game as I played it on the Amiga 500 – but again, Sim City requires no introduction.

* Team Fortress 2
The newest title on the list. The team at Valve has managed to create a very accessible and very FUN experience. I’ll be falling back on TF2 for years to come.

So what’s your list? Post in the comments

Randy Pausch passed away yesterday after his long (and well documented) battle with cancer.

The name might ring a bell for some and others might have no idea who I am talking about. Randy Pausch is the professor who gave his “last lecture” on achieving your childhood dreams. The lecture which happened to be video tapped ended up becoming an internet sensation.

I first came across Randy’s work a few years ago reading one of his papers on the use of virtual worlds and computers in education. When randomly I came across his Last Lecture I decided I’d watch it and see what it was about (this was before it became a huge internet-thing). For anyone who has not seen the lecture I recommend you watch it (I’ll be embedding it at the end of this post) as it is one of the most inspiring things I have ever seen. I’ve seen commentators write that this is the type of thing every child in the world should see in high school; I full heartedly agree.

Everyone should live their life with the optimism and drive that Randy so well lays out in his lecture and I was very glad to nod my head as he spoke and realize that the principles he lays out are the foundation of the happy and well accomplished life I live.

As a dedicated follower of the virtual worlds community – I feel a terrible loss here
As a fan of his papers and a great admirer of his accomplishments – I feel a terrible loss here

Most important of all – as a human being, I feel our greater world wide community has lost one of our great teachers and fellow human beings. In the lecture he details how after he achieved all of his goals in life it became his goal to enable others (his students) to achieve their goals. I think for a teacher, or a human being period there is nothing more noble then this. And for this more then anything we feel his loss and will miss him.