Hey it's been over a month since my last gamey blog. Well it has been busy and I've been back stateside visiting family. Game time is a premium commodity with family in two different hemispheres.
I've been playing Fallout 3 a lot more. It has that family-friendly pause button. I still flip skills in Eve Online and lately I've been reading more about its exciting new features. But Eve seems to always be waiting for a good feature. While I was in the US I did make a couple of choice purchases. I bought the real rules to Savage Worlds and an expansion set to the Battlestar Galactica boardgame. I also picked up a Traveller GM screen for fun. I'll have to write about them soon. I have let Evony die.
I am only playing 3 Facebook games; My Zoo, Mafia Wars, and Tiny Adventures. My Zoo is cute, educational, and super short to maintain. Mafia Wars... well just for the heck of it. Tiny Adventures is almost like D&D and they just packed in new characters which I am trying out. I've already run 18 generations thru the game tho... Might be time to let go.
Hope all is well for you... my 2 or 3 readers! Haha! Cheers, mates!
Game On.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
More solo "social" games
Well I've just not been excited about Eve or WoW lately so I've retreated to Facebook games. I even gave Evony the boot. Really without any hope of having those attractive female avatars to look at it, the game loses appeal. I suppose any game that really only has boobs going for it is not much of a game.
Perfect World is still an interesting idea, but I just can not bring myself to invest the time in it that it surely requires. I still think it is a fantastic free to play game and anyone that really has days of "do nothing" time should be looking at it.
The 3 active games on Facebook I am playing are Mafia Wars, My Zoo, and Tiny Adventures (D&D). I am about to give up on Mafia Wars. It follows what is now a common FB game format. I am not sure what genre to call it, but it works like this. You have a limited amount of "energy" to spend on "tasks" that gain you "resources" like experience points and money. You spend the money you earn on equipment that is required for some tasks. As you gain levels you get "points" to apply to your stats like your total amount of energy. These games require you to recruit other FB friends in to your group--this is also a requirement of many tasks. Mafia Wars has a few twists to it. You can build a core team of friends who boost your abilities by virtue of their level. You can join endless groups of Mafia's (other games often made joining exclusive so you had to leave one team to join another). The upshot of this is that it is much easier to get larger mafia teams. This really only helps in PvP combat. PvP combat is a very basic single blow exchange and who ever does the most "damage" wins. You get a slight bit of money and xp for this. You can assign "Hits" on enemy mafia--basically allowing you to post a bounty on someone you can't kill. I could go on, but really half the fun is figuring out the game yourself.
My Zoo is similar to Mafia Wars but less complex and a nudge more educational as you build your own zoo with a large number of animals. The animals have little stat blocks with them that talk about where they live and how endangered they are. My wife started this first and I started poking at it. This game is fairly new and still a bit raw, but entertaining.
Tiny Adventures was released by Wizards of the Coast probably a year ago. The format is simple, but unique. It is, of course, show casing their pen and paper game by letting you select familiar classes, loot dungeons, and use special powers. They just recently expanded in to new classes for Druid, Barbarian and others. I thought I'd go check them out. You level each character to level 11 and then they retire. You can pick one magic item you acquired to gift to your next character. This game really plays itself which I suppose is its one flaw. You enter a dungeon and encounters are timed. So there really is nothing for you to do aside from wait an hour for your character to complete. You can choose to change gear or use potions between encounters, but this isn't all that compelling.
I suppose the attraction to FB games is this low involvement. You click a few things and come back later to see how you did. This obviously makes it very work friendly. Amazing how we seem to be returning to nearly "MUD-like" games. I do hope they expand the concepts around the "social" part of these games to be truly social. It would be more fun to actively game in a team than just have friends as a "requirement."
It's a gaming lite week. But y'all go crazy. Game On!
Perfect World is still an interesting idea, but I just can not bring myself to invest the time in it that it surely requires. I still think it is a fantastic free to play game and anyone that really has days of "do nothing" time should be looking at it.
The 3 active games on Facebook I am playing are Mafia Wars, My Zoo, and Tiny Adventures (D&D). I am about to give up on Mafia Wars. It follows what is now a common FB game format. I am not sure what genre to call it, but it works like this. You have a limited amount of "energy" to spend on "tasks" that gain you "resources" like experience points and money. You spend the money you earn on equipment that is required for some tasks. As you gain levels you get "points" to apply to your stats like your total amount of energy. These games require you to recruit other FB friends in to your group--this is also a requirement of many tasks. Mafia Wars has a few twists to it. You can build a core team of friends who boost your abilities by virtue of their level. You can join endless groups of Mafia's (other games often made joining exclusive so you had to leave one team to join another). The upshot of this is that it is much easier to get larger mafia teams. This really only helps in PvP combat. PvP combat is a very basic single blow exchange and who ever does the most "damage" wins. You get a slight bit of money and xp for this. You can assign "Hits" on enemy mafia--basically allowing you to post a bounty on someone you can't kill. I could go on, but really half the fun is figuring out the game yourself.
My Zoo is similar to Mafia Wars but less complex and a nudge more educational as you build your own zoo with a large number of animals. The animals have little stat blocks with them that talk about where they live and how endangered they are. My wife started this first and I started poking at it. This game is fairly new and still a bit raw, but entertaining.
Tiny Adventures was released by Wizards of the Coast probably a year ago. The format is simple, but unique. It is, of course, show casing their pen and paper game by letting you select familiar classes, loot dungeons, and use special powers. They just recently expanded in to new classes for Druid, Barbarian and others. I thought I'd go check them out. You level each character to level 11 and then they retire. You can pick one magic item you acquired to gift to your next character. This game really plays itself which I suppose is its one flaw. You enter a dungeon and encounters are timed. So there really is nothing for you to do aside from wait an hour for your character to complete. You can choose to change gear or use potions between encounters, but this isn't all that compelling.
I suppose the attraction to FB games is this low involvement. You click a few things and come back later to see how you did. This obviously makes it very work friendly. Amazing how we seem to be returning to nearly "MUD-like" games. I do hope they expand the concepts around the "social" part of these games to be truly social. It would be more fun to actively game in a team than just have friends as a "requirement."
It's a gaming lite week. But y'all go crazy. Game On!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Felicia Day and The Guild
Honestly, I can't really imagine a cooler gamer. Game On, Ms. Day. Game On!
Felicia Day, born in Huntsville, Alabama, and now moved to LA to be an actress. Yet she still manages to be a gamer. She is the creative spirit behind the web phenom "The Guild" which can be seen at http://www.watchtheguild.com. She has roles on Dollhouse and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm sure she is soon to be an icon of legendary women in gaming--if not already.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Perfect World: Day 4
So after a few days of on and off play, I can say that Perfect World is still interesting. I do find myself wanting to figure out more about how the game works. The game is entirely stable and seems to be without bugs. I generally experience a bug or two in WoW on a regular basis. To get an entirely free game without them seems a bit unreal.
I have to admit that I suffer bit of WoW burn out. Now any morg that resembles elves in the woods sort of turns my stomach a little. My ability to enjoy Perfect World is hampered by this burn out. It is a different game, but certainly contains many of the same tropes.
I'll keep it loaded for a while longer and see if maybe it suckers my wife in. Then I can report on the wife factor.
Game On!
I have to admit that I suffer bit of WoW burn out. Now any morg that resembles elves in the woods sort of turns my stomach a little. My ability to enjoy Perfect World is hampered by this burn out. It is a different game, but certainly contains many of the same tropes.
I'll keep it loaded for a while longer and see if maybe it suckers my wife in. Then I can report on the wife factor.
Game On!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Perfect World: Day 1
I spied an ad for something called "Perfect World" on a game forum site yesterday. It appeared to be a morg that was "free to play" originally created in China. I wasn't convinced so I checked out the web site. They did not have an overwhelming amount of info on the game, but it was free and I figured, why not?
The client was a whopping 3.5 gig download. That a big client and on par with other full-sized, full-pay games. After the download was the required patching... then some confusion about account creation and then finally I could log in to play.
The toon creation system is sure to keep the aestetic gamer occupied for hours. There was a lot of detail to faces and body types. There are only 3 races, human, winged elf (mostly human), and untamed (human with animal head). But my wife is sure to enjoy just creating an avatar for hours.
After the few hours it took to download, install, and create a character I only got about 30 minutes to play. I ran a quest and learned a bit about the UI. It was all very well done (especially at the price). Graphics were very tuneable and on par with WoW. Animate was smooth. The game appearance was pleasing. I am intrigued. I'll have to fiddle with it some more as time allows... but no rush, it's free!
Game On!
The client was a whopping 3.5 gig download. That a big client and on par with other full-sized, full-pay games. After the download was the required patching... then some confusion about account creation and then finally I could log in to play.
The toon creation system is sure to keep the aestetic gamer occupied for hours. There was a lot of detail to faces and body types. There are only 3 races, human, winged elf (mostly human), and untamed (human with animal head). But my wife is sure to enjoy just creating an avatar for hours.
After the few hours it took to download, install, and create a character I only got about 30 minutes to play. I ran a quest and learned a bit about the UI. It was all very well done (especially at the price). Graphics were very tuneable and on par with WoW. Animate was smooth. The game appearance was pleasing. I am intrigued. I'll have to fiddle with it some more as time allows... but no rush, it's free!
Game On!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
I just finished watching the last 3 episodes of GitS:SAC on DvD. I have the whole series now. I have seen the first movie and read one manga (book). I have enjoyed all of them so far. I'm sure I'll go on to acquire the next 26 episodes of The 2nd Gig.
I think of all anime, GitS might be my favorite so far. I love the cyberpunk feel absent of weird Japanese mysticism. GitS is pure technology. The themes explored are mostly moral, but not usually deeply dark. GitS does dive deep once in a while, but it doesn't wallow in it. All the main characters are likable, honorable and generally free of fatal flaws. I find these qualities fairly rare in anime.
Often a series mixes technology and magic with characters that have glaring flaws. These stories often dwell on death and torture. Protagonists never seem fully deserving of triumph. Sometimes I cheer for the bad guys.
So if you are like me and have really wanted to enjoy anime more, but just struggle to find one that is a bit more intelligent yet fun to watch, definitely consider Ghost in the Shell. It is a wide spread classic for a reason.
I have discovered there is a PlayStation 2 title for GitS. I'll have to check it out, but my first searches for it didn't make it sound appealling. A GitS inspired roleplay would rock on toast...
Game On!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Evony and Ivory
Evony... I don't know about y'all, but this game's ad has been popping up on every game-ish site I have found. Each ad features a buxom model asking "Are you ready to play, My Lord?" The cleavage is massive. The hook is so obvious and ridiculous. So I clicked on it.
Turns out that Evony is a tech-tree medival simulator on par with early versions of Civilization. It just goes to show you how far computer gaming has advanced to make something like Evony completely free to play.
Evony is a web-browser embedded game. I'm guessing it uses Java behind the scenes, but I haven't pulled back the covers to look. None the less, it is a very complete and comprehensive game. You start as Lord of your city and must build up cottages, saw mills, barracks, etc and all the while upgrade various buildings to hit the quest goals. Typical for this sort of game you must manage resources and plan for player aggression--although you are give 7 days of peace to start.
There are ways to establish alliances and declare wars. There is a market system of buying and selling resources. There are wild, unowned valleys to explore with armies and plunder. It seems you can purchase (with real USD) resources directly and this seems to be the intent of the designers. To hook you with a free game and then let the first rube with $50 on Dad's credit card wipe you out with ill-gotten armies. Thus inspiring you to buy in. I don't think I'll be buying. But it is a fun easy diversion to run in the background.
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