Hopeless Gamer

Apparently this is me 

The math bit doesn’t shock me in the slightest

I was thinking this morning about a post I read a while back on the Dungeons and dragons online forums with the heading that went something like:“would you be playing this game if it wasn’t D and D ?

”That got me thinking, I’m a big fan of the D and D universe so that when Dungeons and Dragons online came about I was lining up to play.

 I went so far as to buy the Ebberon player handbook and a Ebberon novel to get into the whole “vibe” of the Ebberon setting in which DDO is set.In hindsight I went a bit overboard buying that stuff, I’m not sure if it enhanced the game play any.

Its an interesting question wether I’d be playing DDO it wasn’t D and D,I suspect so as I enjoy the game a lot.Knowing the back story and mythos of not just an MMO but any video game is not a prerequisite to wether I will enjoy  playing a game more, its kind of like icing on the cake I guess.

Its interesting,

By the look of the universal praise heaped upon Bioshock I’d have to concede that my disapproval of the use of “’little sisters” as a game mechanic  is limited to pretty much to me.

At the risk of repeating myself the so called moral choice to harvest/kill the little girls for adam is not a choice as far as I’m concerned, not as a father of two little girls who is affronted that such a “choice” would exist in a game at all.

Its adding a level of maturity they say.

Bollocks I say

Taking that “mature moral choice” argument further ,why stop at merely killing the little sisters?

Why not offer the choice that  if you torture the little girls before you kill them you get more adam or if you blow up a room full of little girls you can get a truckload of the stuff .

I’m not accusing the developers of being meretricious by trying this little sisters thing as a part of the game, however the claim that this gimmick raises the sophistication bar is spurious in the extreme.

For me, the fact that a lot of gamers and gaming press genuinely believe this type of thing raises the bar for story laden first person shooters is sad commentary on them    

So I get to the railway station and look into my bag for the Ipod for the trip to work.

*gasp*

 No ipod.

I had no idea how much I rely on the thing to entertain me and tune out  people.

 I’ve got the 30gb video ipod,so I can watch my video’s or listen to podcasts(not music so much unless its chill out ) and before I know it I’m at the end of my journey.

I’ve haven’t  bought a magazine for my commute for ages since I got my device.Now there is just the matter of the trip home

*hands shake*

As mentioned in the last post ,massive multiplayer online role-playing games and I don’t get along all that well sometimes.

I’ve been playing Lord of the Rings Online for a bit now, however I hit the wall for that game about 2 weeks ago and I doubt I’ll play again.I don’t play MMO’s to play by myself, I like to solo but I think the most enjoyable times I’ve had in an MMO have been with other players.

It’s a funny thing my on again ,off again love affair with massive multiplayer online role playing games.

I get all exited about the newest world of warcraft clone ,the ip excites me, looks fun  to play, has a few bells and whisles,so I buy the game.

As I cant spend a heap of time playing said game I rapidly fall behind the levelling curve of the others in the guild I’m in and find I’m either playing solo or getting into the  odd PUG.

And then I hit the MMO wall.

 Usually about 2 months into the thing it starts to become a chore with repetitive grinding and the like, I find I’m paying my subscription and not playing and even worse not looking forward to playing.

Bah! I say to myself and I cancel my subscription. 

 I have played Dungeons and Dragons Online a bit and I enjoyed it. Other guildies and players were around my Level ,the game made you group to advance.That sort of game play structure put many MMO players off the game, that and some other issues meant my guild and the general player base died around me.

What I need to do is remind myself it’s the journey, not the destination I should be focusing on,still,it would be nice to level as fast as others,  experience high end game content, and group with other high level players. 

 Now for the longest time I’ve been a Robert E Howard fan so the up coming Age of Conan MMO is an exiting prospect for me ,however someone on a podcast a couple of weeks ago was mentioning an aspect of the game and referring to a high end raiding dungeon.

Then like a doofus it hit me, It wont be like being immersed in a Howard novel, I wont be in Hyperborea,it’s a MMO.

And sure as eggs I will hit the wall. 

People grew up without things like the internet, personal computers and the like,hell,our house didn’t even have a phone till we were teenagers.

People like me. 

The other night I started playing a multiplayer game of mini golf on my 360 against one other  player, I didn’t have my headphones on and I could here him faintly chattering away through the TV speakers.

Normally I don’t get  into conversations on Xbox live as its usually some trash talking 12 year old and I can do without that.

 This time I did plug the headphones in ,expecting a teenager I was pleasantly surprised to her a guy who I guess was about my age, we hit it off right away and chatted about all sorts of  gaming type things.

He showed me a lot of tips to get a lower score in the game we were playing,and,as we were playing he talked about   Catan.

I downloaded it and we started a game, we didn’t get to finish as he’d been up awhile and was winding down and I was struggling to understand the rules and tired to boot .I had a ball, him playing in Mesa, USA and I in Melbourne ,Australia.

This sort of technology for having fun is not new I know…still, it blows my mind, here I was, playing in my lounge room with a guy half way around the world.

Here’s to you Krusty! 

I’ve finally entered into the wide world of hi definition television viewing, having purchased a new 42” LCD,and then, a hi def tuner and then a DVD recorder, as the old VCR wont cut it.

Any new technology can be daunting and I’ve found a terrific resource at the DTV forum

DTV Forum

Dealing with new types of hardware components are made a bit easier when delving into the various FAQ’s on the forums, chances are if you have a problem,somone has had it too and a solution can be had.If not, join up and post, I’ve found the community there quite helpful

And I guessing I’m not the only one….

Recently I bought “The Darkness” for the Xbox 360 and tonight was my first foray into multiplayer mode .

It was a little like every time I play the Xbox, when going from the keyboard mouse combo on PC’s to the game pad was like playing piano with boxing gloves on.

I  often find I can’t aim worth shit, an impediment no one I played with seemed to be suffering from.The first match I played was a CTF and I had the unimpressive score of 0-6, I tried to play about another 5 games but they were unplayable due to lag.

I think I managed my first kill in there somewhere, not sure really.

I may be wrong, seems when a new 360 game comes out the multiplayer is never the best until a patch or two.Still, the only way is up, I’m feeling second last on the score board is definatly achievable

I willing to concede at the outset that I’m a hypocrite on the issue of killing people in video games, many a time I’ve killed digital people from the Defias brotherhood in wow to soldiers in battlefield 2/2142 ect.So why cant I  play Bioshock?.

One of the enemies in  game are called “little sisters” and although not human underneath they are represented as little girls.This is ,according to  Joe McDonagh from irrational games to provide some moral ambiguity while playing bioshock:

“When we changed it to a little girl, it completely changed the dynamic of the experience. What we want to do is create a game which deals with moral shades of grey and doesn’t try and patronise us with two-dimensional cut outs - like a Disney take on what is right and what is wrong. The real world doesn’t operate like that - it’s not “Oh! He’s good, he’s bad!” We thought that gamers are mature enough, sophisticated enough to deal with sophisticated moral issues”.

I get it, and of course his right, rarely in the real world are issues clear cut and I understand that you can play the game without killing the little sisters.It seems like a bit of a ham fisted approach to injecting sophistication into a game but that aside-no matter what the rationale behind the little sisters being killed in game I just cant approve of it.

Reading the bit about not approving of a game makes my sound a bit stuffy and i’m not like that at all,and i think in game there is not a graphic representation of the killing of the little sisters….still

So what eh?

Just another guy on a blog saying he wont play Bioshock and I’m  sure the game will probably be a runaway success, however I think a lot of gamers will be looking for a good fps gaming experience, not a moral walk through the park.