How far we have come

I remember purchasing my first cell phone. I was so thrilled by the idea of being in connected from “land lines” that I would call people as a prank when they were with-in touching distance. I would call the “land line” or their cell phone only to laugh at them as they realized it was only me calling. The novelty took a while to wear off me, having something to do with the subsequent bill that I received, and i am sure all my friends wearied of it long before I did. I thought of this today in my musings of how complicated life can seem to get. By no means am I implying that technology has complicated my life or made it any less enjoyable. I am a self admitted “techy”, I love new shiny things that whir, beep and twerp. I simply wonder at the innocence of a simple prank facilitated by the unwired format of the cell phone. It served the same purpose, it even had the resemblance of the same form as a wired phone, but simply allowing the freedom to roam anywhere with the phone gave me a thrill beyond measure. Perhaps I will go stand next to my wife when I get home, call her as I carry on a conversation of how our day was, to simply play a prank on her.

Just enjoying things

So I have steadily been advancing my character in WoW. He is now lvl 77 and oh so close to being maxed lvl. I have made a goal for myself to be maxed level before I leave as I am unsure if I will be able to play once I am out of the States. I am really having a good time with it though. I have been trying to do at least a random a night in order to accrue emblems for my eventual ability to wear Tier Gear. Perhaps because I am of closer level to others I play the game with and they are not having to drop everything they were doing in order to help me in my endeavors or I am simply playing with a more relaxed attitude and even the PUGS I find, enjoy the time spent with them. I have heard from many countless people such as the podcast “The Instance” or back when I listened to the “Drone Bay” while playing Eve, that it is the people you play with and finding a good group of people to play with makes a game experience completely different. That is the reason most of us play MMOs in the first place vice playing stand alone roleplaying games. I just find that the community in general is great to play with in WoW, as opposed to the other games in the past. I have had the great experience of being in a guild, but do not have the time to devote to any game that I did in the past so making connections with others in a guild has been very difficult if not near impossible.
I write about this simply because many of my other writings have found me musing about the longing for complex and deep games, yet I put forth that you would not have the depth of community, or the ability to fall in with others who are willing to allow you to grow at your own pace if the game was as in depth as those games of old.
I have also picked up a game for my iPad which I had originally played on the computer via Steam, and had liked it there, but fell in love with it on the iPad. Osmos is what I downloaded, and it is available for the iPhone/iTouch as well. This is a very relaxing chill game with the, smooth calm soundtrack that accompanies gameplay. I sat this past Saturday awaiting an upcoming UFC fight playing the game while a friend looked over my shoulder watching as my little blue nuclei grew with every absorption of lesser nuclei, totally getting into the game with me. So much so he went and purchased it for his iTouch.
It’s this new mood of gaming I have transitioned into that I am absolutely astounded by. The ability to sit back and to relax with pout having to stress over what’s next or what I could be doing in said game, and really really enjoying my gaming experience.

Behind the curve…but oh well.

I had used to think my self on the cutting edge of gaming. I would anticipate a games release, often times trolling through the local Gamestop, or Best Buy  multiple times through a week awaiting the arrival of the fresh game.  I have not set foot inside of a Best Buy or Gamestop in over 6 months.  Most of this is due to my, again late, utilization of Steam.  As of this writing I have not looked at Kotaku or any other gaming related news in over 2 weeks.  I just don’t seem to have the time to stand right at the forefront of gaming newness. Perhaps it is simply maturity, but I am not finding it as much as a loss as I would have at one time.

I am currently experiencing Wrath of the Lich King content in WoW for the very first time. The beauty of the landscape and the soundtrack that accompanies it, have me constantly coming close to death due to stopping what I am supposed to be doing (protecting myself from that overly aggressive grizzly bear gnawing on my arm) and simply sight-seeing what the designers of the game have engineered for us.

This got me to thinking of the way in which we consume games now.  I was brought up owning maybe one game a year to play on my Nintendo or Atari, even later on into life as I made my own money, owned my own gaming consoles, I partook of gaming in a moderate fashion, spending the time to finish a game or at least sink in numerous hours before moving onto another game.  That is until I started playing MMO’s.  I feel the nature and spirit of those games have leaked over into the gaming world in general.  Constantly striving for the next conquest, next boss to down, anticipating the next expansion with all its content to explore and again conquer.  Not to mention the “down” time in between expansions in which you looked to other games to occupy your time.  I would start playing games for only a number of hours to move onto the next game as the game did not have the depth and richness that an MMO has to completely sate my appetite.  So  I would move onto another game in the hopes that I would find the fullness that I gain from MMOs.  I went from having one game a year to 20+ games a year.

These days my priorities have shifted to my family and career, where I don’t always find the time even for my MMOs, but I am finding that my appreciation of my games has increased.  I still buy and play a number of games a year, but I find myself spending more time in them playing them either through or just devoting more time to them to try to experience what the designers have given to us.

The things we do for games…

I sit here in an internet cafe, fighting to stay online long enough to finish a quest in WoW, constantly battling disconnection and death due to them.  Growing ever more aggravated with the lack of WiFi stability, I finally log off for the night, and consider what I used to do in order to log onto a game.  I can remember hearing the whirs, bleats, clicks and beeps of the modem as it fired up connecting to our ISP to play EQ.  The times where I could just not log on due to lines being busy or when I was able to connect my computer online the data transfer was not large enough or stable enough to even launch the game.  I used to scream at the “you have been disconnected” window, as it logged me out in the middle of an “Inny” fight.

Oh boy when I upgraded to DSL I was golden! I was still playing EQ at the time, and I can assure you that life was grand.

So now here I sit with a cable internet connection, granted not a dedicated connection for myself, or one that has particularly high bandwidth, or even a router that is configured correctly to allow Blizzard in all its might the thoroughfare required to enjoy WoW, and I reminisce  of day gone by, when I longed for the oh-not-so distant future in which we would be connected at lightning fast speeds and completely stable connections.

Suddenly my connection issues this evening do not feel so big anymore.

I cannot wait!!!

Star Wars The Old Republic

As Darren over at the Common Sense Gamer originally posted, I really really hope this game lives up to these videos.  I have not felt so excited after watching a game trailer for an MMO since EQ2

Fantasy MMO’s and saving the entirety of existance.

Originally I was going to post about the episode of “Shut Up Were Talking” in which the crew discussed whether a fantasy MMO would ever be able to become mainstream or “triple A” again.  I was going to discuss the relevance of how MMO’s are never like the very first we played.  Then today as I was driving home I was listening to one of my other podcasts, “Gamers With Jobs“, where they were talking about a post on their website in which the writer had finished ME2 and become weary of the Grand/Epic story in which your character saves all of existence.  I can understand a desire to have a more intellectual, cerebral experience in our games.  One in which we come to have a connection with our characters, and the supporting characters  in the game, not because of the time spent developing her gear or skills, but because we have on some emotional level made an investment with our character.  In many ways that was the reason most of us fell in love with MMO’s, because we confused time spent leveling a character, grinding out to the next carrot held on a stick in the form of shiny purple armor, as an emotional investment.  Could you imagine the MMO that actually had a story line/game play that allowed us to make actual morale decisions which affected our characters impact on the game world.  Little cherub MMO cupid would come strike us all in the heart once more, and give us the “stickiness” that we all seemed to have with our favored MMO’s.

That being said, while we hold out hope that the game which will give us all a calm ooey gooey center again, happy with our digital wonderlands once again, instead of looking for the next big thing on the horizon, let us not forget why we game.  We want to be that super hero who saves the whole of existance.  Larger than we are in our everyday comings and goings.  Much as movies who have large explosions, and a muscle-bound, witty, hand cannon carrying numb-skull, with a buxom blonde on his arm give us a sense of adventure, so do these games.  Let us enjoy them for what they are, and perhaps not take them so seriously.  I personally would not want to have a game that was too serious.  Much as I do not enjoy watching the news, because it is too heavy to deal with, I would not want to spend my past-time in a similar world, even though it be make-believe.

How do they do it???

I have recently found myself in awe of the writers, podcaster’s, and game aficionados (as I prefer to think of ourselves) that have so much time to devote to this wonderful hobby we share.  Where do they find the time to not only play all the games that are coming out right now, because we seemed to be bombarded by so many great games right now, but also to podcast or write about it all.  I recently suspended my WoW account simply because I wanted to enjoy other things that were out there.  I still have the itch to play the game, I want to finally have a max level character in that game, but simply want to play other games right now.  My consoles have been laying idle while I have been playing on the PC, only to be used by my daughter watching Elmo’s World.  How do they do it?

My pile of shame is growing with alarming alacrity, and it has nothing to do with losing interest in the game of choice.  It is simply time.

So I have been playing Mass Effect 2 recently, and enjoying it very much.  They have trimmed a lot of the fat from this iteration of the game, leaving a little less of the RPG aspect to the game, but bringing in more of the shooter feel.  While I do not have much love for shooters outside of Halo 3 or Unreal Tournament, it definitely has lent a new dynamic to the game, that I wasnt even aware that I was missing.  I found myself in the original game blindly shooting, allowing my “stats” and abilities to supply the necessary accuracy needed to eliminate the enemies.  It adds a welcome challenge to the game.  At first I felt that the slimmed down ability trees would detract from my enjoyment of the game, because I love depth in my games.  I have not found myself wishing there was more yet though.  Often times in the original game, I found myself bogged down with too many choices and options.  Here I feel very well balanced.  The abilities I have,  give my Shepherd a feeling of power, and a variety where they do not become too overused.  It had been a while since I played the original game, and I find myself lost at times, trying to remember who characters that approach me in-game are, after almost 2 years since I had played ME1.  That has really been my only drawback  to the game.  Hopefully this does not become another added to the pile of shame.

I have been listening to  Shut Up We’re Talking, and it has become my favorite gaming podcast.  I really enjoy how they are very knowledgable of gaming and speak from a “gamers” perspective.  Yes the guys over at 1up are gamers, but have so much industry insight that I find myself zoning out at times, or not having as much knowledge as those who have spent countless more hours than myself.   They incorporate interesting topics, and fun guests making it a joy to listen to all the way through.  They brought up a topic on searching for games that have sticking power and how they don’t seem to hold us gamers like the used to that I want to try writing about next time.

In the mean time back to some ME2

Same ole’ Same ole’

It has been an interesting time with the new LFG function in WoW.  My reaction and emotions over the new component have ranged the spectrum, from loving it to hating it, and everything in between.  When I first logged in to test it, I was blown away by how responsive it was.  I was almost immediately grouped up in an instance that was of level or just above my level, that made it challenging and rewarding at the same time.  As time went on, and I was continuing to use the LFG (I wont lie, because I wanted the achievements that go along with the LFG component, but more on that later) and became increasingly miffed with it.  My first inkling of disappointment with the new function was, how much I felt as if I was back in Guild Wars.  I had no reason to quest anymore.  I had no reason to explore any of the content previously introduced into the game.  My sole purpose was to advance and level as fast as I could to get myself within reach of the “end-game” content.  This made me sad because there is so much content that I would never experience with this character, who I forsee will be my main due to my guild needing the healing power. It made me upset, because this was not the game I had paid for, or continue to pay for.  If I wanted to play Guild Wars I would go over and play Guild Wars for FREE! I slowly got over that reaction after I realized that the rest of the game was there, accessible to any who would take the time to appreciate what the game developers  had cared to put into the game that we all love so much.  The virtual equivalent of “stopping to smell the roses” if you will.   There is nothing in the game that dictates we must hurry through the content presented to us.  I feel it a little more than others, and I’m sure others feel it just as I do, because this is my first max level character (and it will BE my first max level character).  Once again, it comes back to what it seems we always eventually deal with in MMO’s, it is just a game.  Others say during these times, they like to take a vacation from the game, to re-center themselves on real life, reconnect with other games, or just read a book.  I do not devote the mass amount of time to the game as I used to, so my reconnection is not needed as much as other, or it may have been in the past.  Instead I find myself looking to enjoy the game for what it was presented to us originally.  the only difference between then and now is associates to share in the exploration with me.  This is where LFG comes in great service.  WoW has always been a playground for those who choose to play a solo game inside of a multiplayer game, yet there were rewards and advances to those who would join with other players to accomplish grander tasks.  The only wish I would have would be to somehow include the LFG into smaller groups that would allow you to accomplish quests in zones that would require a 3 man group or 2 man group to accomplish, instead of just heading off into an instance.  I have been forced to ask guildies to finish group tasks, who are higher level than me, but this always seems to cheapen the experience for me. I want to have the trial and tribulation that everyone else has had to endure. I still use the LFG component, presently hunting down my Tidefury gear.

Tonight though I experienced an unpleasant side effect of the LFG that everyone from the beginning was very scared of.  Bad groups.  I was plagued with them tonight.  Out of 5, only 1 was successful.  I understand that there are those out there who do not take the time to learn the game as others do, or even have the want to, yet there are simple facts that alot of people seem to miss out on. Take just a little bit of time to ensure that the group will be a success will save you ALOT of time.  Everyone tonight was screaming about “I just want to make level”.  Yet, time after time, the group would fail and once again we were disbanded by people becoming frustrated only to return to the LFG function.  Especially for DPS evidently, this equates to a lengthy wait for a new group, or in my case a couple of times the same group again, because we were all looking for a group at the same time.  Take the time to slow down a little bit, and Tanks, not go rushing into the frey.  Support casters take the time to buff everyone in the group.  Why do I the healer have to ask time and time again for the buffs that contribute to my mana pool?  Why when we have a tank designated for us, do others insist on acting as the Tank, but not taking the responsibility to BE the Tank?  DPS who insist on throwing everything they have at every encounter inside of the instance that they can’t help but pull the agro from the Tank, and then bitch at me for not healing them and letting them die.  The list goes on and on.  Perhaps I have been sheltered in the guilds and groups I have been associated with, by never really having to deal with such tom-foolery.  I don’t ask you to learn every class in the game or the associated skills they use, simply to concentrate on yours and how you can benefit those around you.  That is the heart of the group anyway.  Not how the group can help you get to where you want to be, but simply what you can do to better the group to accomplish its goal at the time.

Returning to games make you sad?

The question was asked does returning to old games make you sad. I don’t feel that it makes me sad, but definitely gives me a gloomy nostalgic feeling. I feel this the most with EQ2 because of the huge EQ player I was. The game can improve upon every game mechanic there is to improve upon, but it will never be a better game. For me there will be no better gaming experience than that which I had within the confines of EQ. What made it so great were the people. We were a non-hardcore/hardcore guild that loved the challenge of bringing this group of friends into the upper echelons. We enjoyed the failures as much as we did the accomplishments. The most important part was we enjoyed each other. The question can be asked, well if you were to find another group such as that wouldn’t you be able to enjoy the game just as much? I don’t think so. That was my first MMO and it held for me all the mystique and wonder which has disapeared from today’s games because we HAVE been there before. I still enjoy the time I spend in games today but it will never have the sense of discovery that my first MMO did. I am not sad when I go back to older games. I simply look upon them fondly like old friends or family members that have passed on. I loved the time we had, and I cherish the memories is what I focus on instead of a feeling of loss.

Way behind the power curve

I finally made level 60 this evening on WoW.  I was able to enjoy Burning Crusade content for the first time 2 nights ago, and absolutely loved it. The artwork for Outlands is amazing, and it feels vast.  It feels like it is in another dimension, and I have definitely left Azeroth.  There are so many dungeons, raids, and quests I have not taken part in on the “Old World” content.  This is a little depressing in a way, because I am still constantly trudging along in order to reach level 80 where I have friends and co-workers waiting on me and my healing power and I may never see this content.  That is until I come back through with an Alt.

I have not been playing much on the consoles due to 2 factors.  We have so many shows to watch on our DVR if the TV is on, we are trying to catch up on all the shows that have recorded recently.  The other reason is I pay for my subscription for WoW and do not have the time that I did once for gaming.  This leads me to devote the time that I have towards WoW due to the money that I am paying.  There are so many good games out there right now that I want to play, Borderlands, Dragon Age, and the one that I know I am going to have to make time for is the re-release of God of War and II.  God of War II was the game that ALMOST made go repurchase a PS2 again, because I was slow on the PS3 train, making mine non-backwards compatible.  I will never understand why any console company would make their leading console unable to play prior games.