New Exercise Program

I'm by no means a small person, and haven't been for the majority of my life. Part of this is simply skeletal structure passed down by genetics, and part of it is personal willpower limitations. I recognize I should "eat less, move more" to improve my body image and overall health, but quite frankly I find that I'd rather be spending my time on other things, like video games.

My solution? Video games that make you move. Sounds great, except that I don't have a Wii or any other system that really logs movement. I have a PS2, and an Eyetoy, but the only game I have for the Eyetoy isn't really engaging. When I first saw a Dance Dance Revolution arcade game, I thought that would be a great way to lose weight, except for the fact that (a) it costs money every time you want to play and (b) you have to potentially look like a completely uncoordinated goof in front of an arcade full of people. The latter reason became especially true after knowledge of professional DDR players became widespread, with videos like the one where the man starts breakdancing on both dance pads, and ends with a perfect score.

But wait a minute, didn't Dance Dance Revolution get converted to console gaming before they introduced the PS3?

Yes, yes it did.

I am now armed with two DDR titles, as well as a pair of dance mats. They arrived in the mail today, and I'm so far very pleased. Just tonight I have, according to whatever calculations the game uses, done the equivalent of a two mile jog. I'm not sure how accurate that is, since I didn't feel terribly winded afterwards (though I definitely felt like I had a workout!) and I was still sorely tempted to keep going. I'll probably play again for a bit after I'm done here.

I've made a few observations on my initial play-style, however. For one, I have trouble switching legs, with my right leg dominant. It's actually easiest for me, so far, to just stand on my left leg and use my right to do all the steps, even crossing in front or behind of the left leg to hit the left arrow. For some reason, I'm not nearly as adept at playing with my left leg, as when I tried to reverse things and just stand on my right leg, I ended up switching very quickly because of coordination issues. I have to wonder if this comes from the fact that the arrows on the screen are read as a pattern, and therefore under the "left brain's" authority. I also wonder if this is why having two left feet is a negative thing in dancing, since it implies that the left foot is already inferior.

Despite my right leg doing all the steps, though, my left leg may actually get the harder workout as it ends up being my sole balancing post and support for much of the movements. Either way, I'm definitely excited about this prospect.

DDO: Monks and Bards

I discovered something the other night, logging in to DDO. Despite my love for bards and monks, I've actually found they're two of the most stressful/difficult classes to play. I think I've managed to narrow down why.

In DDO, monks get a lot of nifty, customized abilities that weren't part of 3rd edition. It adds some flavor and flash, and there's some talk about them being overpowered, which of course makes them desired by anyone who wants to be unbeatable. I have to admit that they can be very lethal in dealing out massive amounts of damage, and pretty quickly. In that regard, they're on par with a dual-wielding rogue with sneak attack. Yet fighters and rogues both have ways of dealing with the aggro that comes from dealing massive damage: fighters have more HP, and can wear shields to increase damage reduction, while rogues have an enhancement ability that decreases the aggro (or "hate" as it's called in-game) that their sneak attacks produce. Perhaps a Constitution-heavy monk would be better at taking the hits, but they'd also be less adept at giving them. Some of the monk abilities can reproduce a few beneficial (but at low to mid-level relatively unused) clerical spells, like removing blindness or curing diseases, but overall I end up feeling like I should multiclass into rogue or cleric so I can be more useful.

Bards are another issue, one that extends beyond just DDO. Jack-of-all-trades, master of none, yes, I get it. They're supposed to be able to make up for an existing lack in party balance, tossing in whatever low to mid-level magic is necessary that the cleric and wizard are too busy to cast. Plus they get the bard songs. But the bonus the party gets from the songs is minimal, and in many cases is easily replaced by spells from other classes, and you'd be hard pressed to find a party that wouldn't rather have a second cleric than a bard. Because the bard's role is so varied, you either end up wasting time trying to figure out what your role in this party needs to be, or you end up being told what you should be doing which may or may not correlate with the skills and spells you've taken as a bard. Regardless, more often than not you end up feeling superfluous or just plain weak.

More than clerics, I think bards have a significant in-game and balance reason for needing the ability to switch spells on a daily (or in DDO, per-rest) basis. It wouldn't really help their survivability, but it would let them tailor their abilities to each party a bit better, much like a wizard or cleric can. As it is, in DDO they can change one spell every 3 real-life days, and pay in-game currency for the privilege.

The rules for bard and sorcerer spells were based on a system in which the character would be played with (generally speaking) a single group. It didn't account for having five different parties in a single day, and having to re-figure your character's role in each of them.

Experience Points and Level Ranks

In the MMORPG Dungeons and Dragons Online, the experience points required to level were altered (increased) from the 3rd edition rules that the game is based on. This was a good move for them, because an online game isn't limited to how often a group of people can gather around a single table, and the internet has already seen how singularly dedicated people can be to level-grind in games. If it used the original table, either the rewards given for quests would need to be seriously reduced, or people would face no real challenge in getting to the current maximum level of 20.

To give an idea of the difference between the two experience tables, the original 3rd Edition requires 190,000 experience to get to 20th level. DDO requires 1.9 million, ten times as much.

Even in an online setting, however, this amount of experience between levels can be daunting, so DDO breaks each level up into five ranks. Each rank you achieve (that isn't a level-up) gives you one enhancement point, to be used to purchase minor abilities and provide a way to further customize your character's skillset. I think that some of these abilities are pretty neat, and will probably be looking for a way to incorporate some of this into my game.

I don't think adopting their experience chart is the right path for me to go, however, since live games are few and far enough between already. I'm all for making each level gained feel like an epic accomplishment, but I think I'd end up discouraging people. So if I want to add this, I'd need to figure out some other way of distributing ranks or enhancement points.

Responsibility and Me

The past couple of years, I've noticed a trend in my behavior with games. It is not a new behavior for me, but is one that I'd suppressed for several years and now has a new reason behind it.

My first forays into online gaming were with MUDs. I searched through hundreds of them, trying to find one that seemed worthwhile, and eventually settled in a Roleplay-required place that wasn't too different from what I had become accustomed to, gameplay-wise. I created a vast number of characters but could never seem to stick to one for long. I kept coming up with concepts for characters, creating them, and then letting them falter and languish when my concept or idea failed to come to fruition quickly enough, or when I got too bored with level-grinding. After all, it's a game. Why should I spend too much time devoting actual work-like energy into it? Finally, I decided I was tired of the cycle, and made up my mind to create a "throw-away" character, one that I wouldn't care one way or another what happened with. No predestined goals, no background, no real concept, but I promised myself I'd make it to the maximum level. I even used a random name generator, so I wouldn't assign the character any hidden meaning or goals that way.

This "throw-away" still exists. I have been playing him for over eight years now. For over three of those years, he was a key governmental figure in one of the game's kingdoms. I gave my all to that game, that faux-government, to make the in-game environment feel as real as I could, to give the people who worked with me a real sense of connection and achievement. I held the position for longer than any other character, and even when real life took precedence with moving, finding and maintaining a job, and marriage, I did my best to remain accessible to those who depended on me in the game, albeit by messages rather than direct contact. Three days after my forced retirement, due to my "increased absence", everything I worked on was tossed out.

It's taken me years, but I'm finally coming to terms with some of my disappointment and bitterness (this site, which I came across recently, has helped). I've sought solace in other games, but I never seem to stay satisfied with one for very long. None have the depth I'd felt in the MUD, despite the beauty of graphics and the potential for RP, the latter of which I find to be severely lacking in most cases. And in all cases, I've intentionally avoided any duty or responsibility that anyone has tried to assign to me. After all, it's a game. Why should I bother putting too much energy into something that will, ultimately, have no effect on real life? Especially since any work I do will likely end up being undone once I'm no longer there to sustain it.

Mabinogi is releasing G4!! Soon! Yes? ... Maybe?

Mabinogi is gearing up for its next big generation release, and pretty much everyone in-game is chomping at the bit. Unfortunately, while a lot of people thought this patch was coming in just 2 days, on Feb 5, it seems that it may just be the release date of another teaser. This comes as a disappointment to many, myself included. You can only build up suspense and excitement so much before people start wondering if anything will ever happen at all.

I think that Nexon's decision to release another teaser rather than the real deal is ultimately going to demoralize their playerbase rather than heighten the excitement, building more irritation than anything. And that's not the kind of tension you should be going for.

I'm personally hoping that G4 will see the release of something a bit more "worth it" for bard characters. At present, the skills Composing and Music Theory have been capped at rank 9 (rank 1 being highest, and F through A being below). This meant a person could get their Instrument Playing skill to rank 7 fairly easily, since you could create scores that would give you skill experience for playing.

At rank 7 playing, however, in order to advance you must resort to playing 'default' music, stock music created by the game designers. When playing default music, the song you play is completely random, so you cannot choose to only play one song, or even songs of a specific difficulty. Despite this, I managed to spam my way to rank 6 of Instrument Playing.

The reason someone would put so much into these skills is that once you have Composing and Music Theory to rank 9, you can create score scrolls that have magical effects. Some regenerate HP, mana, or stamina. Some give boosts to a single stat, such as Strength or Luck. Some of them have other effects, such as charming animals or giving direct combat bonuses. The better you are at Instrument Playing, the better effects you can do, and they affect all party members within a rather large area. Sounds nifty, right?

Problem One:
The type of score scroll you get is determined by random, and it seems that some types are more likely to be generated than others. Furthermore, whether or not your score gets a magic effect (which is determined at creation of the scroll) is also completely random.

Problem Two:
You need to be at least Rank 5 in Instrument Playing before you can use any magical music aside from stat boosts or regen. So I'd have to spam my way with default music through yet another rank. Not so big of an issue, since those types of scores are harder to come by anyway.

Problem Three:
There's only a handful of scores that are actually useful below Playing rank of 5. Strength boosters are good if the party is heavy with melee fighters. Dexterity is good if you have a lot of ranged fighters. Intelligence might be good if you were in a party full of spellslingers (not common at all, even individually) but is otherwise only useful for a quick boost when trying to enchant something. As far as Will and Luck go, the questionable bonus received from a boost to these is hardly worth mentioning.

The regen scrolls, at first glance, seem much more worthwhile. Instead of being a single temporary bonus (that seems to end an amount of time after the song ends roughly equivalent to the length of the song), they would regen the specified amount at regular intervals throughout the playing. Unfortunately, only the mana and stamina regen scores seem to be at all useful, and even then only minutely. The majority of the players are simply too impatient to wait for a slow regeneration effect. Potions already exist that will restore HP, mana, and stamina, and these are both quicker and more plentiful than score scrolls anyway, not to mention bards who can play them. Regen scores are much harder (it seems) to produce than stat-boosters, as well.

Problem Four:
Another reason that the magic music is so relatively useless takes some explanation. The numeric potential of the stat-boosting and regen scores is determined by your Playing Instrument rank, and you need to be at least rank 9 to get any effect at all. No matter what rank you are, however, the value you get is determined within a set range which always starts at zero. If it's zero, then you get a message saying the music seems to have no effect.

Rank 9 playing grants 0-1 for stat boosts and 0-2 for regen, according to information available. When I was rank 9 playing, more often than not my score would work, and I'd get a value of 1 regardless of what type I played, and I figured that was fair enough.

Rank 8 playing grants 0-2 for stat boosts and 0-3 for regen, again according to available info. Once I got to rank 8, the biggest difference I saw immediately was that my score scrolls had zero effect more often than they had before. I very rarely got a value of 2 from a stat boost, and even more rarely a value of 3 for regen.

Rank 7 playing, in theory, grants 0-6 for stat boosts and 0-4 for regen. By this point, I was getting zero effect from my magical scores more often than I got any effect at all, and the majority of the time I was still getting 1's and 2's. Occasionally I got 4 from a regen. I still have never seen anything above 4 from a stat boost, and usually only got 3 at best. Most of the time, if the party needed hp or stamina regeneration and didn't want to use potions, the Rest skill would regen them faster than my music could, anyway.

Rank 6 playing is supposed to give 0-10 for stat boosts and 0-5 for regen. I've only been rank 6 a short while, but so far it seems my success ratio (success being any value above 0, failure being 0) is about 50%, which is an improvement on rank 7 (but still not as good as I remember rank 9). I'm seeing more 3's and 4's from both stat boosts and regen, though not reliably. As I said before, I've never seen anything above 4, which is a shame because a bonus of 10 to a stat like Strength or Dexterity could be a major boon.

So Problem Four is actually two-fold: 4a) The range of the bonus, regardless of playing rank, always starts at 0. 4b) The value you get doesn't seem to be based on anything you can effect. It's not entirely random, or else you'd see more high numbers than now. I suppose you could call it semi-random, erring on the low side with higher numbers being exponentially less likely.

With weapon damage, you have an attribute called Balance, modified by the weapon type and by your Dexterity, which determines where in the damage range of the weapon you're likely to have your hits fall. On average, a damage range of 10-20 with a Balance of 50% will generally mean 15 damage each hit.

With spellcasting, there is Magic Balance, modified by Intelligence, which determines where in the damage range of the spell you are likely to hit.

There does not seem to be any apparent equivalent "Music Balance". If there is, I'm completely at a loss as to what effects or modifies it.

As far as the regen scores go (at least so far), HP is pretty much worthless, both inside and outside of combat. Inside of combat, the Healing spell and hp potions are much faster and more reliable. With a roughly equal chance of getting any effect and no effect at all, chances are your music won't do any healing the first try, and if it does, it's too slow to save anyone's life.

Stamina regen scores are marginally more useful. It can be easy to run out of stamina (which is used up by using skills) in a long fight, and sometimes you don't have the time to quaff a potion, or maybe you didn't realize you were low. Having a constant regen of stamina, regardless of the amount, could actually save someone in combat. Outside of combat, it's pretty much useless. The Rest skill regens faster.

Mana regen is, arguably, the most potentially useful effect below rank 5 Playing. Since mana regen is naturally very slow (faster at night, but still fairly slow), it can be nice to have another method of regenerating it. Again, however, potions are plentiful, especially if you have the Herbalism and Potion Making skills. And like with the HP regen, you're not going to get enough benefit out of it during battle that it's likely to make a difference. Outside battle, it's more useful.

So: HP regen? No use. Stam regen? Potentially useful during combat, but otherwise not. Mana regen? Potentially useful outside of combat, but otherwise not.

Problem Five (What, you thought I was done?):
The musician is rendered immobile while playing. Now, the area of effect is pretty big. I can stand in one corner of a normal dungeon room and reach party members almost in the opposite corner. But stat-boost effects will end early if the song ends early. So if the party wipes out the room and starts heading on to the next one, the bard either gets left behind to finish the song (if it produced an effect worthwhile enough to continue) or to cancel it and catch up so that he can play it again (possibly getting a worse result) in the next room.

Further, because the bard is immobile, and because monster spawns in a room are random in their location, it's quite possible one will aggro on the bard and hit him, ending the song prematurely, before the party can assist. This means a wasted attempt, and the bard has an instrument in hand instead of a weapon to defend himself with, if he's still alive.

So, half the time (or less) you make a scroll, it's magic.
Half the time (or less) it's magic, it's something useful.
Half the time (or less) it's something useful, you can get it to work.
If you get it to work, half the time (or less) it's actually worthwhile.
1/2 of 1/2 of 1/2 of 1/2 = 1/16
So... I guess 1/16th of the time (or less) it's worth playing a bard?

I swear, I'm going to de-rank Music Theory.

Overall I think the biggest problems are the abundance of potions and the impatience of the majority of players, followed by the unreliability of the effects. These are the main factors that make playing a bard so frustrating and, quite frankly, useless.

Funny... I guess I expected bards to be more powerful in a game called Mabinogi.

Beautiful and intelligent... Is that legal?

News Flash: I play Mabinogi, which some of you may already be familiar with. I recently had the opportunity to continue the storyline quests available to those who purchase one or more of the available game services, and completed both the Generation One storyline and the Generation Two. I'm currently working on G3.

Something my wife and I have both commented on, now, is the extraordinary writing of the storyline. Most Free-to-Play MMOs have the shiny graphics meant to draw you in, and they throw in some basic quests to learn the game with, along with, perhaps, some advanced ones, but that's it. Like many webcomics, they rely upon the pretty renderings to keep their fanbase. This is true for several pay-to-plays, as well, but we'll ignore that for the time being.

Mabinogi has the pretty sights and sounds. From a purely visual aspect, they have much more as well. The detail put into the very beautifully immersive environments is, while perhaps overlooked by many, very much appreciated by those like my wife and myself. Details like putting benches on a second-story terrace, when that terrace is mostly concealed, either by hanging sheets or privacy screens. Details like wildflowers as part of the terrain, not just the background, in outdoor "dungeons". Details like coffin-shaped treasure chests in crypt dungeons, ornate chandeliers above the line of sight of most characters, shadows of clouds being cast on the ground... I could go on.

But what sets this game apart from the others that I've played is the story. I don't want to give too much away, because I'd love for all of you to go through the same perception shifts and realizations that I did. The writing, even down to the clues that only make sense after you've learned "what happens next", the supposedly random text-bubble quotes spoken by various NPCs, or even just their descriptions when you talk to them... Everything contributes to this immersive experience. That, along with a masterful weaving of concepts both familiar and unfamiliar, and the granting of something more meaningful for the completion of these epic quests than just some gold or experience points. The game provides an actual experience, one that isn't measured by points or levels, to those who give up their hard-earned money to support it, and that's something I very much appreciate.

Again, I have gained more satisfaction and intellectual pleasure playing this game than almost any other game I've paid to play, whether it was set up as a free-to-play game or not. Neverwinter Nights didn't have this depth or immersiveness, it always seemed far too contrived. City of Heroes, while immersive, lacked a solid storyline and often felt forced as well. Flyff was just utter inanity in pretty packaging.

And while it may lessen the magnitude of your accomplishments in the game to see others who have also saved the world, doubtless in the same fashion, by finishing you become part of that group, part of the elite who have taken on forces and endured hardships that the non-paying crowd cannot fully comprehend.

I have my disappointments with the game, but overall, I'm happy with it. Heck, considering who we learned about the game from, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I'm looking forward to the G3 storyline, which includes different options based on your decisions. Again, something I've never seen in other free MMOs, and rarely seen in paid games.

Some people I know, who I've tried to introduce to the game, have been unable to play it due to system requirements, but those who are able to play, I highly recommend you give the game a chance. If you like the free version, I would recommend paying for one or more of the available services, and taking advantage of not only what the service offers, but also the mainstream storyline quests that become available. Hopefully you'll enjoy them as much as we have.

Past Experience - Neverwinter Nights

I think it's rather sad that my old computer could run this game just fine, but I had to buy a new CPU to play a free MMO game.

I stayed away from Neverwinter Nights for a long while, but eventually picked it up after finding out that, 1) some acquaintances of mine not only played it, but used it as background material for a play-by-post Dungeons & Dragons game, and 2) there weren't any monthly fees. I probably should've followed my original instinct.

To be fair, since purchasing it I've had a fair amount of fun with the game, but solo play eventually bores me to tears, shiny graphics or not. If I can't at least have a LAN game with another person, you'll find me playing it only when exceedingly bored. As for the online, multiplayer aspect, I'm of at least two minds on the subject when it comes to NWN.

I'm a Roleplayer. I seek out RP for the sake of RP, not just as fluff to fill the time between bot-killing. There were a number of hosted games which claimed to be RP-style, but very few followed through with such a promise. Even when the promise was kept, there was only so much that could be done, given the game's engine itself. Several player-made tools, widgets, and wands were created and added to various servers to try and make up for the failings of the product, but the core of the game that Bioware built was hack & slash munchkinism, not RP.

Assuming all other factors were equal, a strength-based fighter would statistically always win over a finesse-based fighter. Regardless of class, build, and sometimes even level, a greatsword would always win over a rapier in a duel, despite what we know of real-world physics.

Whether it was an RP-Lite server or hardcore RP, if you wanted to go anywhere or do anything, you needed levels, or at least gold. To participate in mass battles in defense of the city, and not be simply another corpse on the field, you had to "train", "hunt", "travel", or otherwise level-grind to make sure you made a difference. If you didn't want to be a pushover for any random two-copper PC villain, you needed to be able to best them in combat, or bluff your way out. Most of the PC villains I came across, though, were never good at letting you escape, somehow always being powerhouses that used their evil alignment as an excuse to grief you, and then would chastise you if you complained for not facing the consequences of "RP".

On the few servers that had PC-filled IC offices, such as mayor, king, guardsman, whatever, you might have some pretense of power, but without levels (Read: sufficient Hit Points and fighting ability) you wouldn't survive the first assassination attempt, usually put together by some petty powergamer who had no other motive than A) their alignment and B) a desire to do something "big", instead of just griefing low-level characters in the low-level "training" areas.

Occasionally, I came across decent RP. Rarely, I came across really good RP. But almost never with a villain/antagonist.

When I played on the MUD, my character's titles and offices had meaning. The position held power, even if my character couldn't fight worth beans. Typing, good writing skills, creativity, were much more useful in tense situations there, and even if it did come down to game mechanics for combat, there were restrictions meant to discourage griefing of low-level characters, to prevent powergamers from constantly player-killing those who had no chance of defense. On NWN, even the best servers had nothing in place which did that. It didn't matter what level you were. You could be level 3, and a level 20 character was in no way prevented from antagonizing you through combat, despite the fact that there was no way (save for logging out) to defend yourself.

A good player, hero or villain, should make their target's death worth it, in terms of entertainment value, for the other player, not just for their own ego-boosting pleasure.

RP is not dead, just wounded

Ok, I admit it. I'm very resistant to change. There's still a good-sized part of me that rails against paying for online games, even though I've now succumbed to the depths of paying for "free-to-play" games (Ok, yes, you can play them for free, but to really enjoy them costs an average of $15/month). That part of me is rather close to or symbiotic with another part that says, "Sure, the graphics are shiny, but you'll never have the same fun or RP that you did playing that free text-based game."

Yeah, the MUD I played in was pretty good. I had a lot of good times there, made some friends, some enemies, etc. I look back fondly on the time I spent there, and occasionally drop in to check out what's been going on.

The problem is, my nostalgia plays tricks with my memory. Sure, I remember the good times, but I also have over three years' worth of logfiles to remind me of all the bad times, too. The in-character politics is one thing, but to have IC politics manipulated by OOC, to have players abuse their power by spying on you with their IMM account, to have rogue IMMs depose players' characters from power due to OOC dislike, to have spent over three years of my life devoted to helping a game's roleplay environment with nothing to show for it...

Yes, I'm bitter. I reached the point, quite some time ago, where I no longer trusted anyone in power within the game, because the majority of them had tried, with varying levels of success, to screw me and mine over. But that's not why I'm writing this. I do not intend to subject you all to the venomous vitriol which has built up within me.

My point of this post, rather, is to discover why, after knowing all the difficulties, all the politics, all the OOC factors that tint my perspective of that virtual place... why do I still feel the urge to return there? Whether it's to resume my role or begin a new character, I feel this pull towards the MUD.

I believe part of it is due to the inherent traits of a text-based environment, something that no graphics-based game is going to be able to reproduce for quite some time - customization of your character's appearance. Graphics-based character generation comes with preset attributes; your hair can be these styles, these colors, your skin can be these shades, your eyes can be this shape, these colors. After a while, there's no way to look unique. That's why there's always a rush to get the newest, coolest-looking clothes and such when new expansions are released. If you're the first, you get to look unique and stand out, even if it's just for a little while.

Within the text-based world, however, you can enter in your own description of your character. You're not limited to the defaults, to the pre-approved styles of hair or clothing. You can add details, like that scar your character got fighting some major battle, or even just your character's bearing. Not everyone walks the same, after all. Sure, it's limited by your imagination, but I'd much rather be "constrained" by my own than by the imaginations and code limitations of the game designers. After all, these are the same people who have mandated over and over that strength beats all, that a bigger sword equals a better sword, while finesse and grace are relegated to the weak, or at the most second-best.

Sudden insight: Video games give many people an escape from the feeling that they are powerless, without control of their lives, by allowing them to feel powerful within the context of the game. However, the game does not teach any different lesson: You need to be strong, be powerful, in order to progress. The game provides escape, temporarily. You can fight against the evil/corrupt powers-that-be and have a chance of changing things for the better. But there is no long-term solution included. Nothing learned from the game can be applied to change a person's daily sense of oppression in the real world. It's a patch, a quick-fix akin to cigarettes and chocolate.

Returning to my widely swinging point of this post, yes, character customization is a big part of it. My mind can come up with much more variance in appearance than a game engine can allow for. Further, perhaps due to this, the text-based crowd tends to exhibit a bit more imagination and RP ability than most people you'll find in a graphics setting. Again, some of this is due to code limitations, but a good deal of it is not. I felt a greater sense of immersion playing a game without graphics than I ever have while playing the shiny stuff.

Then, do I play with the shinies and ignore the lack of depth and RP, or do I return to the text, ignoring the lack of graphics, and subject myself to more psychological torture at the hands of petty politics for the chance of a more satisfying RP experience?

Game Developers Hate Central USA

So, I've been doing the whole job-hunt thing recently, sending out my resume to various and sundry employers in the hopes of bettering my situation. A lot of them I've sent via email, so I'm checking my inbox for new messages and notice an ad for a site proclaiming great income potentials for game testing, and how I, too, could become a success story.

It was a scam, of course. I'm no novice, and did my homework before committing the forty-odd dollars it asks for. But in the process, I came across a site that listed the employment opportunities pages for Nintendo, Blizzard, and EA games. So, curious, I went to look and see what was available. After all, practically everyone wants a job doing what they love, and gamers are no exception.

After scouring the listings, I did find a few I could qualify for. I hit one, tiny little snag, though. All of the listings were nowhere near where I live. It seems practically every gaming company has its development and testing sites in California or Texas, with some in Florida, and even a job offer in Bucharest, Romania. But next to nothing in the Central US, and absolutely nothing in the state of Misery.

So, I guess if you want what is arguably the coolest job in the world, you have to already live some place cool. Personally, I think St. Louis is pretty cool. Kansas City's not bad, either. And Columbia, Missouri is a pretty hip place, too, not to mention the fact it has several college campuses with students who would jump at the chance to support their education through gaming. And the city itself is booming, now boasting a population in excess of 100,000.

I'm not biased, though. If a major gaming corporation decided to open an office in some terribly obscure location in the Midwest like, say, Sabetha, Kansas, I'd be satisfied. Still without a gaming job, but satisfied.

Games are (supposed to be) fun

As games of all sorts have advanced, they've also gotten more complicated. There's more to remember, more to do, different tactics or combinations to learn. Some recent video games I've seen have tried to revert to a simpler layout, or to make things more intuitive for the player, but that only makes things more complicated for the programmers, not to mention the fact that what's intuitive for one person may be completely foreign to someone else. And, of course, what's intuitive anymore? Now that we've all become so used to the non-intuitiveness of previous video games, have they replaced our instinctual coordination?

As they've advanced, there's also been a bigger push for video games that allow you to play with other people. But we've gone beyond adding a second controller, or taking turns to see who can get the better score. We have to all play at the same time, and be able to cooperate with (or attack) each other. But we don't always have access to a circle of friends that can come over and play with the console, now that we've bought the eight controller adapter and six extra controllers, not to mention the money to invest in all that hardware to begin with. So we've acquiesced to the fate of the friendless or isolated, and play online with strangers we've never met in the hopes they won't make us feel too inferior.

I have a wonderful new computer, thanks to my darling and beautiful wife. It was a birthday present this year. However, there's not much either of us can do about our internet connection, and if the baby knows what to do, he's not talking. We live just outside the city limits, so we don't have access to the cable or DSL the city provides. There's a DSL extension which would reach us, but it's full, and has been for a year with no expectation of vacancy. So we have two options: dial-up or satellite. I almost wonder if we should have stuck with dial-up. We're supposed to have 1MB/s download speeds, but we're lucky if we reach a tenth of that. Which makes online gaming rather lag-filled at best.

Despite this, we do our best to enjoy the games we play. Both my wife and I were avid game players before we got together, and that isn't likely to change. We've done City of Heroes/Villians, Neverwinter Nights, Age of Mythology/Empires, and a number of free MMO(RP?)Gs including Flyff, Runescape, and most recently Mabinogi.

It can be something of a hardship, at times, to play. I can see other characters perform skills at speeds that were engineered to astound, while I move in relative slow-motion. Others can shoot their arrows three times or more before I can manage one shot. Magical skills are another difficulty. The ice bolt skill, for example, allows you to shoot five bolts in rapid succession. I can maybe get in two shots before the enemy has reached and hit me. The healing skill, another rapid succession spell, I can heal once, maybe twice, before another character has expended all their charges. The majority of tactics which are in common practice with the playerbase are impossible for my wife and I to use, simply because our connection speed is too slow, something which we try to explain (with varying levels of success) to those we group with, so as not to have them think we're not trying to pull our own weight.

Sometimes, frustration over our plight builds, usually in me, and I become more stressed by playing the game, something which was intended as a means of releasing tension and having fun, than I would have by, say, reflooring our living room (not an arbitrary comparison, as I have very recent experience to draw from). Yet I continue to play. Am I drawn by the fun that I'm having despite the poor connection? By the fun that can potentially exist in the game, if things were going as they should? Or am I just a sucker for the shiny graphics?

Then I come across someone, in-game, who spends the better part of an hour complaining about how bored they are, and asking if someone can come revive their character, because they don't want to respawn back at the last town and have to walk all the way back. They ended up, eventually, taking a greater hit to their experience points by reviving on-the-spot, rather than having to make the trek across... two screen transitions? And they're still bored.

If you're bored with the game, it obviously isn't fulfilling its purpose, and you should stop playing. I might get frustrated, but at least I'm never bored.