The Hog Spot

Do you like motorcycles? Harley-Davidson? If so, check out this blog. Personally, I'm not interested in motorcycles, cars and other things. But, linking to this blog gives me 5 cents. Yeeehaaa!

Life is pain

You know, I just figured something out - there is no way you can make money on the Internet. Forget everything I said before. There's no way you can make money in real world, too. You can't buy a book you like, you can't go to holiday to some nice country like Greece or something, you can't enjoy life because life is pain. If you think you're happy, then you're just lying to yourself. You're NOT happy! You are going to DIE!

Anyway, it's been ages since our last update. Things I discovered in the meantime:

- You can't get rich doing nothing

- AdSense generally doesn't work

- I'm lazy

- Traffic sites are generally crap

There you have it. I will try to write more posts, just to push that earlier crap away. And I'm going to reactivate my BlogSoldiers account, so that more people can see my blog. Does this make sense? Of course not! But life doesn't make sense, either. Go jump in the lake or something

My new blog!!!!111

I'm so excited!!! I created another blog, dedicated solely to the computer games! You can find it here. It has only one post so far, but we will get it going in no time! Of course, that doesn't mean I'm going to stop posting crap on this blog. I just wish Google would kindly return those ads here...

I think I know what to do

Some of you may remember me bitching about the crappiness of my blog. At first I though to just delete everything and start over, but I felt kinda sad to destroy all those beautiful pieces of wisdom and similar crap. So, here's what we will do: Dragon' Vampire remains to be the blog about everything (especially crap), and I will soon create another blog that will be more focused. In fact, it will be so focused it's going to deal only with computer games. Why computer games? Well, simply because computer games are interesting. I love playing (computer) games. So why not waste time writing about them, too? Yeah! Now I feel my life has purpose again!

Oh yeah, while we're at it, I have seen You, Me And Dupree tonight. It was OK, I guess, but what a waste of Matt Dillon! Such a great actor deserved a much better written role. And I don't find Owen Wilson as funny as most people do. He was interesting in Shanghai Noon, but after that he repeated the same role zillion times. Maybe he's a vampire?

Let's face it: This SUCKS!

I was just thinking about this whole blogging thing, and a small voice in my head told me the following: "What the hell do you think you are? You stupid idiot, you REALLY think someone wants to read all that DAMN crap you're writing? You're pathetic! PATHETIC! Go jump in the lake or something!"

I usually tend to listen to small voices in my head, especially when they are right. All those posts are totally random and let's face it - who the hell would want to read me bitching about NBA Live 2006? Even those Google ads keep disappearing from the site :-(

So, we're going to have a major change in design. I'll take a few days to think about the life, the universe and everything and then (hopefully) return with a more focused and more readable blog. Peace.

NBA Live 2006 sucks

Hey everyone! Do you remember 1999? Sure, it was long time ago, but that year is crucial for one simple reason - it's the last year that EA Sports released a GOOD basketball game. It was called NBA Live 2000. It was almost perfect - great gameplay, solid animations, at least some trace of reality, etc. The only small problem was that the game was a bit easy. Not too terribly easy, though, there was no way you could easily win the championship with same crappy team like Chicago Bulls or something. But, for example, I started a season with Cleveland Cavaliers (who then had their dream-team with Shawn Kemp, Wesley Person, Lamond Murray all on top of their game) and had 20 straight victories (of course, I'm talking about the hardest level). Then I lost a game, got pissed off and stopped playing game.

Anyway, my weird behavior is not the subject of this post. The point is, the game should have been only SLIGHTLY more difficult, you now, not to allow twenty straight victories, no matter which team you control, but that slight increase of difficulty level should have been the ONLY change made. If they had done it right, they could have easily stopped developing game and only release patches every year to update the rosters. Because that way the game would be PERFECT.

But no, EA Sports thought "Hey, wait a minute! Instead of simply improving the last game, let's make something completely new, terrible and crappy!". So we got NBA Live 2001, where players looked like chimps, acted like they were skating on ice (which seems to be EA Sports' trademark lately) and you couldn't hit a three-pointer to save your life.

I'm not going to talk about every single game since (I haven't played all of them, after all), but it seems that the gameplay never improved. For example, I heard that 2002 version had a terrifying domination of point guards. 2003 was OK (I guess), but for some reason EVERYONE was dunking like hell! Wiseguys at EA Sports probably realised that an average PlayStation freak doesn't give a rat's ass about authenticity, reality and crap like that, they all want to see dunks, dunks, dunks and more DUNKS! So, like I said, everyone was dunking. Not just guys like Darius Miles and Vince Carter - EVERYONE (strange, it was really hard to dunk with Vince Carter in NBA 2000). And the game (again) was a bit too easy. Once I had a fantasy draft and purposedly drafted all terrible players except Antonio McDyess (who has been one of my favorite players since NBA Live 2000, where he helped my Denver team a lot). OK, well, let's count Rafer Alston among those non-terrible players, too. Anyway, I managed to have a score close to 50% (though I had the bottom-ranked team) and in each game McDyess and Alston scored approximately 30 points each.

So then, again guys at EA Sports thought a bit about life, the universe and everything, and they decided - no more easy game. Hell, not only that, we will make every subsequent game so difficult that even the most patient players would be pissed off! Yeah!

So, we got NBA Live 2004. The magnificent idea of purposedly pissing off the players was realised through an unbelievenly clever design decision - the game simply decided not to let you have any offensive rebounds, no matter which team you control, and also the free throws were almost impossible to hit. So, if you have the ball possession ten seconds before the end of the game, and are trailing by one point, pray to God that they don't foul you, or else you're down. Even with calm shooters like Predrag Stojakovic or anyone it was hard to hit a free throw. With centers like Duncan it was almost impossible.

Now, we are going to fast forward to NBA Live 2006. All terrible ideas from previous games simply fluorished here. It is really a hard work trying to list all of the game's weaknesses, but I'll still try:

First, not only they changed the terrible decision about offensive rebounds from NBA Live 2004 (which is a good thing), they reversed it. Now, you will often have more offensive than defensive rebounds (?), but any way the computer will have more than you. Even if you have two centers waiting to pick up the ball after the opponent player missed, you will often have their point guard somehow get the ball and dunk over your precious centers, who will just stand there like idiots. At times, the game intentionally cheats and doesn't let you get a rebound. Once when I played with Seattle (it's only a single example) I missed a shot, Vladimir Radmanovic was like totally alone, but instead of getting the ball he kept running away from it (???) until the opponent player took it. In general, computer controled players in your team act like total imbecils. One of the reason you can't get many offensive rebounds (though you'll miss a lot of shots) is that their behavior seems totally random. Imagine this: You miss a shot, the ball falls on the floor, keeps bouncing or rolling on the ground, then your player approaches and instead of simply getting it, he jumps over it (???) and goes somewhere else, like in the audience or something. And it's really hard to switch control between players because everything is fast. And also, the game sometimes refuses to obey your commands. For example, if you have a player with a ball unguarded under the basket and you try to dunk, more often than not he will simply stand doing nothing (no matter how many times you try to press the damn dunk button) until either having the ball stolen from him, or three seconds call.

Your players acting like morons would be tolerable if opponent players weren't unstoppable. But they are. For example, there is no way you could beat LA Clippers. I'm sure Michael Jordan in his best days could only stand in awe watching Cuttino Mobley and Corey Maggette here. They hit three pointers when they feel like it, or they dribble through your entire offense and dunk over your two tall players, you name it. Similar goes (predictably) for LeBron James, Wade, Anthony, McGrady, Bryant, Garnett, etc. May the Force be with you if you play against one of these. Unfortunately, if they are in YOUR team, they act like idiots. The computer-led teams ALWAYS hit ALL open shots (including three-pointers, regardless of player's three point rating), and MOST of the impossible ones, like when their average-rated guard hits an easy three-pointer over the hand of my small forward. So, basically, if you want to win, you can't make a single mistake during the game. Because you will immediately get punished with seven three pointers. On the other hand, you have an incredibly tough time scoring. Sometimes I have to rip my hair off and stare in disbelief as my Ray Allen misses five completely open shots. Or Kyle Korver, who has like 88 three-point rating. Oh, and speaking of ratings, they are simply moronic. You have players like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade (ah, that damn 2003 draft!) being rated like 95, 96 overall or something. Hell, I don't remember Michael Jordan or John Stockton or anyone ever being rated that high. And to see how realistic those ratings are, check the US team performance against Greece on this year's World Championship in Japan. Or any other game for that matter. They got to the semi-finals because they played with terrible teams, and ONLY Carmelo Anthony was constantly good and deserved respect. Also, a change was made in blocking. In NBA Live 2003 (and probably 2004) in order to block a shot, you had to jump the moment the player releases the shot. In this game you have to jump BEFORE that, which makes it sometimes hard to block, not to mention how easily they can pump-fake and get past you once you are in the air. Another thing where the game cheats are, as I mentioned, rebounds. For example, Danny Fortson, one of the best rated rebounders in the game simply CANNOT jump to save his life, even against opponent point guards. So, no matter which team you control, the opponent often has like 15 rebounds more than you. Imagine how that reflects on the scoreboard.

So, we can slowly bring this little article to the conclusion - if you want to test (and destroy) your nerves, by all means play this game. And take Seattle. You have been warned.

PTR programs

Please, first read the previous post, where I talked about the PTR programs in general. I will now mention a few of them.
First, we have

It is the first PTR site I joined, and it is probably one of the best. The payout is 4$, most mails (at least till recently) were 0.5 cents, however lately they've been mostly 0.25 cents, it seems. They don't have PTP program, at least not for free members (you can upgrade your membership, but it costs money). There are trivia games every month, constant flow of e-mails, manual surf option (you get paid to surf various sites, and you can advertise your own, and this site offers the best ratio - you see one site and get 5 points, while showing your site costs only 3).

This site has the most interesting higher-lower game. The game lasts three days. You can have as many tries as you want and each costs one cent. You are given a number between 1 and 1000 and you try to guess whether the next one is going to be higher or lower. You keep guessing until you choose wrong. The people with ten best results share the jackpot (the best one getting 30%). The jackpot usually ends up being around one dollar, so if you're best you can get some 30 cents or something.

Another great site is the aforementioned

The payout is $15, but it is not too hard to reach, due to large number of mails and respectable value of each of them (each mail contains several links mostly 2 cents worth). They also have a higher-lower game, but it's not recommended (you play against the computer, rather than against other players, and they take 5% commission, so you'll probably be on the loss). You can also earn a huge amount of points by clicking on banner, manual surf, etc. You can use those points to advertise, or turn them into cash, or upgrade your account, or whatever you want. So, Seminole Wind is really a great PTR program. One small objection is the lack of PTP program, but you don't need one to reach payout relatively quick.

I'm also a member of three other sites, but they are not as good as these two. But, don't take my word for it. Anyway, here they are: First, the most famous one is

You won't earn much money from reading e-mails or playing games, but this site offers no minimum payout and it has a very good PTP program with $0.75 per 1000 clicks. If you're good at advertising, you'll probably find a way to get much money out of this. I'm not good at advertising, so for me Seminole Wind and Shocking Results are still the best. But anyway, PTP is the most powerful feature of this site, so if you can find a way to utilize it to the maximum, this site can offer a lot.

A similar site is

Its payout is low (1 dollar), and they send tons of e-mails. The problem is that the links in the mails for some reason expire very soon, and most of the mails are only 0.01 cents. Which means you have to read 10000 mails to reach the payout. Fortunately, you can exercise your advertising skills on the site's PTP section ($0.6 per one thousand clicks).

The last one I will mention is

This is another one with no PTP program, and the e-mails usually don't pay much and arrive rarely, so I still haven't "cracked" that one. There's probably a way to earn more money, but I haven't found it yet.

No matter which sites you join, you should always try to get as many referrals as you can. This will increase your winnings and get you to the payout sooner. Most sites pay using e-gold, and it usually takes around 20 days for the money to appear on your account after requesting payout. I'm currently near reaching the minimum on Shocking Results and Seminole Wind, so I will keep you informed on my money-making adventures after that. Till next time, take care of yourselves... and each other.

PTR

Some of you may remember I promised to talk about the PTR programs a few days ago. Centuries ago, actually. But, never mind. Here we are...

Anyway, you probably always wanted to earn tons of money from the Net. A good idea is to check that site I mentioned in the previous post, dedicated exclusively to that topic. But, what is the problem? As you could see, most of the moneymaking programs listed there required at least a small financial input from your side. So you opened an e-gold account (hopefully using that link to the bottom of the link section of this blog, so I would get credit) and wondered what next. You have an e-gold account, but it's empty. And maybe your mother is not willing to lend you her credit card to spend her hard earned money on that "crap". In short, you may find yourself in a so-called "empty e-gold account" situation.

How to solve it? You don't have a credit card, no means of transferring "real-world" money into the electronic form and all hope is lost. This is where PTR programs kick in. They give you the opportunity to make money from scratch. This is NOT a big money, and it takes TIME to earn enough, however this will give you a unique feeling of accomplishment once you spend months to get, say, ten dollars in your e-gold account, and then turn them into millions within weeks using one of those programs the other site mentions.

So, what is PTR? PTR stands for "paid-to-read" and, in short, these are sites that will pay you to read e-mails. Basically, the situation is as follows: You open a free account (most sites accept international members, if you're from USA, you don't care about that, but for me it's very important since I'm an international member) and choose to receive mails in site inbox only (trust me, it's much better having to spend a few seconds to log in than have your regular e-mail inbox flooded with messages, especially if you join more than one PTR site). You will start to receive mails probably the day after registering. So, it works simply like this - you get an e-mail with link (or links) inside it. You click the link and you're taken to a site. You wait a few seconds (usually 15 or 20, but don't worry about that, you're notified about time remaining) and your account is credited. With how much? Well, that depends on the site. Mails are usually from quarter of a cent to a whole cent. Of course, there are extremities on both sides. For example, Midnightclicking credits only 0.01 cents (isn't that a bitch?) while on Seminole Wind they go up to 5 cents.

The important thing is the payout - the minimum amount of money you have to reach to get paid. For example, at Seminole Wind the payout is $15. At MidnightClicking $1. But those payouts are equally easy/hard to reach. The sites that offer low payout as a general rule pay you much less for the e-mails. There are also some sites that have no minimum payout, i.e. you can request payout anytime. Most of the PTR sites offer many other goodies apart from mails. There are many contents, banners to click, games, bubbles, referrals, etc. Once you join some sites you will see that every single one is different, but you'll get the hold of it in no time. I'll only mention two most important features:

First, there is paid-to-promote (PTP). You have a link, similar to your referral link (but NOT the same). When someone clicks that link, they are taken to the site and you get credited for that. Usually you get around 75 cents for 1000 clicks. It is a pretty good feature to use, especially when a payout is a bitch to reach, due to low-cost e-mails. You can use some of those traffic websites, or advertise on other PTR sites, or something else, it's your choice. One warning, though: You can only advertise on approved sites. You have the list of all approved sites in the PTP section of your favorite PTR program. Also, not all PTR sites offer this feature.

The second feature are bubbles, and it seems they have them on all sites. It works like this: You pay a certain amount of money, say, 8 cents. When you make a payment, you get to the bottom of the line. You have a "bubble" worth 8 cents (or whatever the amount is, they usually range between one cent and one dollar). At the same time while you are at the bottom, your payment (and other payments) are used for the bubble on top. Once the bubble gets on top, the payments made after that moment are used to "burst" that bubble. It means, when 125% of the bubble amount is reached, the one on top get that amount of money. So, you're on the bottom, right? When someone makes a payment after you, they get at the bottom, and you're one place above. And when (after a few days, usually) you get to the top, other payments work for you. Once the other people pay 10 cents (for that is 125% of 8 cents), you get 10 cents. So, you turned your 8 cents into 10 doing nothing. But don't start drooling over this, it's not as good as it sounds. If you think about it a bit, you'll realize that the more money is in the "bubble pool", the more time you need to get your 125% back. So, as the bubbles get older, the more time it takes to get on top.

Now, in order not to get too long a post, I will publish this and describe several PTR programs in the next post.