Month: December 2012

Let me be upfront: the “.hack” (sic) games for Playstation 2 are not MMORPGs. They are a series of story-driven, single-player RPGs about a fictional MMORPG.

Throughout the four-volume “.hack” series, the player controls a Japanese child who is playing an MMORPG called “The World”. All of the plot events that happen outside of the “The World” are explained through news clips, email exchanges and monologues from the main character, who you never actually see. The player experiences “The World” through the eyes of the protagonists’ character, a boy with blue hair named Kite. At the start of “.hack” Kite’s friend, whose online persona is a large ogre named Orca, shows Kite how to play the game. The opening serves as a tutorial.

While exploring a dungeon, Orca and Kite meet a young girl character being chased by a monster that is unfamiliar to Orca. Orca engages in battle with the monster, but it performs a powerful attack on him, killing his character, causing the game to crash and, we soon find out, putting the real player into a coma. Kite meets other players who know people who have fallen into coma while playing the game, and he sets on a mission to solve the mysteries of “The World” and, hopefully, save his friend.

Like a real MMORPG, the player can trade money and items with other “users” (who are actually non-playable characters). When exploring dungeons and and battling monsters, the player controls only Kite, but he can recruit two other characters (who are controlled by A.I.) to go with him. While engaged in battle, the player can press a button to do a standard weapon attack against enemies or open the menu to use an item or special skill. Kite can also issue specific or general commands to other party members, like telling them to stay on the offensive or focus on healing. This feature could be seen as a precursor to Final Fantasy XIII”s paradigm system.

The series’ story explores issues within the real-life MMORPG community. The biggest theme is that of the dangers of anonymity, as the main character is unsure who to trust. Some of the other characters are actually hackers or employees of the company that made “The World”, and some are even computer viruses!

If you complete a volume, you can can save your game file and transfer all your data to the next volume. You can also start a new game in any volume, but the plot wouldn’t make much sense and your character would not be strong enough to survive. If you missed out on the .hack series, there’s no excuse to not pick them up and play them in order.

A printer can seem like the most complex device to many customers. Besides the little LCD screen usually on it, everything else is a mechanical combination of wires, metals and plastic in huge indecipherable joints. If you are having troubles with your printer, take condolence in the fact that this frequently happens to many other customers. The good news is that most printer issues can be easily resolved by you, the customer.

Here are 5 tips for troubleshooting your printer

Problems with the Quality of Printed Documents: Perhaps the most common printer-related problem is of quality. A printer can be producing high quality print-outs one second and the next; it starts to look faint or smudgy. This is usually the result of one of the following reasons: the ink level is low, you’ve just installed a new ink cartridge or the print setting has not been properly configured. If your print-out is faint, check the ink level of your cartridge; some printers would notify you of this whilst others may not. If your printer has not notified you of low ink levels, get to the cartridge, remove it and check the ink level, if its full, simply install it in properly and it should be alright. If your print-out is smudgy because you’ve just installed a new cartridge, do some test print-outs, it should normalize after a while. If it’s smudgy and you haven’t installed a new cartridge then check to make sure the settings have been configured properly, i.e. set text when you’re printing a typed or written document.

Printer TigerPaper Jam: Another common printer issue is stuck paper. A paper can get stuck in a printer for many reasons; a power failure or multiple papers fed in at once. To solve this problem, simply check the power to see if it’s on, if it’s not then put it on and your printing should continue. Now if it’s on and the problem persists, then put it off and gently pull the paper out, don’t pull too hard because you may damage the wheel that controls the paper movement. Make sure the papers are not stuck together so that only one goes in at a time.

Unresponsive Printer: The next printer issue we’ll deal with is an unresponsive system. If you have powered on your printer, fed in paper and issued a print but it’s not responding. Check to make sure your USB cable is properly fixed in. Since every printer usually has its own unique set up, refer to your guide and ensure everything has been set up as directed in the guide. If this still persists, try reinstalling the printer drivers which is on the disc that it came with. If you have damaged or lost your driver disc, download it online and run it to fix the drivers again. Your printer should work now.

Unresponsive Scanner: If the scanner on your multifunctional printer is not working, here’s what you can do. Ensure all the proper wires have been put in place as they ought to. Ensure you’ve put the right side of your document to be scanned on the screen and it has been fit in properly. If the problem persists, re-install your drivers and consult your printer guide for directions.

Problems with Scan Quality: Finally if the documents you scan don’t come out right, here’s what you can do. Go to your printer scan settings and check the resolution settings. Photos need a higher resolution than text documents and images for the web usually need a higher resolution than images to be printed out. Set the appropriate format for the document JPEG, PDF et cetera. And ensure the document is as you want it by previewing before hitting the scan button. If this persists, try cleaning the printer screen and ensure your document is dry and free of dust before you scan again.