Skip to main content

In which I abandon my profession and join Xfire

I just spotted that my Blogger profile used to claim I was an accountant. I'm not an accountant I am an engineer and I have no idea how that sneaked in there. Apologies for any confusion caused.

While we are on the subject of true confessions I have decided to open up my gaming habits to the world by joining Xfire. At first I hesitated because it is a kind of voluntary spyware but then I reasoned that plenty of folk who know more about these things than I do are using it. Xfire probably isn't going to turn around and use the data to empty my bank account or blackmail me. I am fairly impressed so far, its a small download and simple install that doesn't seem to hog much resources. It managed to identify all of the games on my hard drive even some more obscure titles and games buried in my Steam directory. I doubt I will be using the chat functionality much but I am quite looking forward to finally knowing how much time I spend playing various games.

I am showing my Xfire mini profile in the sidebar to replace the criminally neglected "currently playing" item. Unfortunately the mini profile only shows the most popular game played over the last week. You can click through for a more detailed listing but who is going to bother? If any one has a better Xfire widget that is compatible with Blogger then please let me know. The few Xfire widgets that listed by Blogger don't seem to work.
Labels:

Comments

Crimson Starfire said…
I recently uninstalled Xfire off my computer because it was causing some of my older games to crash. Starcraft seems to have major issues with it.

The main reason I used it was to provide a chat client to my friends to reach me in-game. I can do all that with Steam now (and without the advertising), so Xfire got the flick.
5:41 am
mbp said…
I haven't had any crashing problems yet with Xfire but I'll keep an eye out for them. Steam does offer a lot of the functionality of Sfire, particularly now that you can include non steam games but the Steam client is a lot bigger than the Xfire client and seems slow in comparison.
5:54 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Android Tip 3: Sharing a Folder between multiple users of an Android device

Android has allowed multiple user logins for quite a while now. This is can be very useful for tablets which are shared by family members. Normally Android erects strict Chinese walls between users preventing them from using each others apps and viewing each others files. This is a useful security feature and ensures your kids don't mess up your work spreadsheets when screwing around on the tablet and should also prevent them from buying €1,000 worth of Clash of Candy coins on your account. Sometimes however you really do want to share stuff with other users and this can prove surprisingly difficult. For example on a recent holiday I realised that I wanted to share a folder full of travel documents with my wife. Here are some ways to achieve this. 1. If you have guaranteed internet access  then you can create a shared folder on either Dropbox or Google drive. Either of these has the great advantage of being able to access the files on any device and the great disadvantage of bein
52 comments
Read more

Portal 2 two screen coop on one PC.

I mentioned before that I intended to try Portal 2 in "unofficial split screen co-op mode. Well split screen on a small computer monitor is a recipe for a headache especially when the game defies gravity as much as portal. However a minor bit of extra fiddling allowed us to drive two seperate screens from one PC. The Steam forums describes a complicated method of doing this that I couldn't get working so this simpler method which worked for me might be of use to someone. 1. First I followed the instructions in this post to get split screen multi-player working: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1847904 A minor issue not mentioned is that you need to enable the console from the keyboard/mouse options menu I am using keyboard and one wired Xbox360 controller as suggested. Getting the controller to switch to channel 2 was tricky at first but as Chameleon8 mentions plugging it out and in again during loading works. The trick for me was to do the plug / p
1 comment
Read more

Lotro: The Forgotten Treasury

Throg joined a Kinship group for the Forgotten Treasury instance last night. It was an enjoyable change from the solo questing that the now level 55 dwarf champion has been mostly doing so far in Moria. Some members of the group had tried and failed to clear the Treasury before so we knew it would be challenging but we were lucky enough to have a well balanced group with Guardian, Minstrel, Lore Master, Hunter, Burglar and Champion (Throg). Throg (level 55) and the minstrel (53) were both below the 56ish level of the instance but the others were all higher so it more or less balanced out. [SPOILERs ahead] It is a well designed enjoyable instance set in a circular chamber with balcony around. As you enter, a boss absconds to a locked side chamber with his treasure leaving the fellowship to clear trash ringed around the balcony. Once the trash are cleared you have access to a puzzle which must be solved in order to open the locked door. Clearing the (including six mini bosses) also get
13 comments
Read more