It's A Busy Day For Battle.net! (Can't Login To Battlenet Authentication Application Launcher ...Thingy) [Workaround]

Estimated Queue Time: Almost 10 Hours. Hey, I could go to sleep! It's not such a bad thing after all

Just a quick post to let you know, if you are experiencing this right now, that you are not alone. Not by a long shot. Some even have a theory. Even though I am sure this issue will spark another set of debates in forums about 'Always Online Games Versus Offline Games', try not to fret "too much", as Blizzard knows about it and is hard at work on the Blizzard Servers as we speak.

Proof*:

[I can't stop laughing at the jacket ahaha it turned out great]

Hopefully they will fix it Soon™...


Meanwhile, this is a good time to empty out your bathroom bottles at your desk, take the dog for a walk or feed it, take a shower, do some laundry, and many more things that may have been neglected lately due to heavy gaming. In a way, whatever is the cause of this, it is doing us a 'helpful distraction' public service! Sort of. Don't worry, you'll be back Online and Gaming again in no time.

A couple of things you can try for now as Workarounds are: don't use the Battle.Net Launcher/App to Login to your game's account, use the .EXE file that launches the game directly. Then, when it opens up, simply log in there in the game's Main Menu. This seems to work fine.
You can also try going Offline in the Battle.Net Launcher and still be able to hit Play for the game you want to launch, then log in at the game's Main Menu [which is essentially the same as the first Workaround, but saves you the trouble of taking the time to go and locate and execute the game's startup file] - this second way of doing the above was found at the Battle.Net forums, shared by Telkari, here.
If neither of these work for you right now, I just got in to the Battle.Net Launcher, far under the estimated time of queue. Hopefully this will happen to you, too.


See You In The Games!


[UPDATE»»» I was playing D3 using my above method (the first one) to log in... but I tried switching to Hearthstone just now - and it did not work for it...]


*Image Disclaimer: The picture used above was created for parody/satire and is only presented for [very] slight comedic effect. No copyright infringement or defamatory inclination in any form was intended and cannot be inferred. I personally support Blizzard Entertainment Inc. financially as a customer and have done so for many years through my past game purchases/licenses and have been a loyal subscriber for many years intermittently for their always exceptional products and support. This image was merely an attempt at humor and no ill will was meant to Blizzard Entertainment, it's employees, affiliates or partners, in any degrees of association. The picture is not to be utilized as a substitute for medical attention.

Quick Tip: The Sims 3 - Game Recording Is Slightly Darker Than The 'Normal' Colours Of Regular Gameplay [FIX]

Just a Quick Tip for those of you recording The Sims 3 and finding that your videos are looking 'darker' than the original gameplay itself - a problem that has been around for some people for over a year now... It's not that the game isn't recordable (although for some people they got nothing but 'blank/black screens' a few years ago) it's that the recordings are coming out, what looks like, a few shades darker than what the game really is.
I was recently seeing a spike in the number of people talking about this problem again and decided to see if I could find a fix, or at least a workaround, for it; and what I found was something that everyone can do for now (at least until AMD/NVIDIA or Maxis/EA makes an update that fully fixes the issue) and that is simply: to run The Sims 3 in Windowed Mode.

Whether you are using Dxtory, Bandicam, Afterburner or most other game recording programs (even NVIDIA's Shadowplay has the same issue for some people), the fix [more of a workaround] that I found for now at least allows you to record your Sims 3 gameplay with proper colours, as you can see in these frames extracted from a couple of game recordings, below:

Comparison between the display modes and the colours when recording (Darker vs. 'Normal') for the recording issue with The Sims 3, showing that the workaround works [at least for now] in two extracted frames from two game recordings (one in Windowed Mode and one in Fullscreen Mode). [In the right half, the camera has been 'zoomed in']

Have fun recording your Sims 3 gameplay once again, if this problem has made you stop - and
See You In The Games!

And More: justin.tv Is Now Shut Down [Note]

justin.tv's final message to everyone

Just a quick note and Moment Of Silence for justin.tv - for those of you who were streaming your gameplay, personal life and/or finger puppet theatre there - it has now shut down forever.... If you were utilizing justin.tv, there is a lot that is unfortunately not being carried over automagically, such as Followers, Facebook Accounts and more. You can still request to have your account transferred to Twitch until September 5th, 2014 though. For more information, visit the justin.tv and twitch.tv websites. If you wish to continue to share your gameplay/life experiences with the world, don't worry, there are still many websites out there that offer Live Streaming and Video Hosting, such as [Justin's Bigger Brother] Twitch, Livestream, Vaughnlive (gamers are directed to Instagib.tv), YouTube and many more.

RIP justin.tv

Quick Tip: Planetside 2 - Medic Revive Not Working [Note]

Just a quick tip for those who have recently jumped back into playing some frantic Planetside 2 and thought there was something wrong with the medic tool, being unable to revive, thinking they can't revive, etc - there was a patch a bit back that changed the Medic Tool so that Left-Click will Heal and Right-Click will Revive. Although changing such a long running/'staple' operation is a little lip-pursing, it should have the overall positive effect of assisting with attempting to revive within a tight group of teammates (instead of your tool randomly healing someone close, it should more effectively target the face down teammate on the ground). Just a note.


See You In The Games!