Masturbation is cheap, clean, convenient, and free of any possibility of wrongdoing — and you don't have to go home in the cold. But it's lonely.Wow - that's a little out in left field. But it was reasonably fresh in my mind when I was pondering why I wasn't particularly interested in playing a couple of classics on the weekend. I've sunk a lot of time into World of Warcraft lately but needed a bit of variation, so I had a peek at Settlers IV and Civ 4. Only a quick peek because I really couldn't be bothered with them. I have a few other games too that I've not got my money's worth out of. And then the quote above sprung up in my mind. Hmm - let's take it to bits and have a look.
Cheap - single player games don't have a monthly fee like Eve & WoW do.
Clean - there's no chance of having a fight with someone in the guild. It happens. There's also no idiots infesting your single player game.
Convenient - pause button, able to save the state without leaving other people in the lurch.
Free from wrongdoing - can't upset people when there isn't enough room for them in your gang.
Going home in cold - probably more appropriate to cricket or Re-enactment people, a single player game means you're safe from the rain.
The pause button thing is not to be underestimated. It's actually kinda dangerous leaving a character out in the wilds in an online game, although it's a bit safer on the server I'm on now because it's a "Normal" one. Means there's a general state of peace instead of the Kill Or Be Killed state that makes a "Player Vs Player" server rather tense. Eve is even worse, because the pattern of play tends to have you alert at the keyboard for ages waiting for something to happen. Having a pause button is rather nice, it lets you break at your convenience or if you get called away. You can put the game to one side knowing it'll be in the same state when you get back.
So, single player games are cheaper, cleaner, far more convenient cos of that pause button, you can't annoy someone by leaving them off the team and you don't get drenched when the heavens open with 5 overs to go.
But they're lonely.
Lol - there you go, that's me comparing computer games to masturbation and sex.
I don't think I really noticed this before because World of Warcraft is pretty much the first big multiplayer game I've played, plus I'd always had the cricket to keep me in social gaming. I've always lived in fairly social housing too, ever since university when I was 18. That's 15 years ago now. When I moved out of the social housing, I was living with someone. So there was a little voice on the other side of the sofa telling me to keep the noise down. Plus other whinging :-) (You'd have to have known her ;-)
Pretty much since the WoW became the main game, I've been single, although the timing there is totally coincidental. After the breakup, WoW became a surrogate for the relationship I'd had. Which probably kept me sane in the months after, I had a group of Mercs to keep an eye on. That couldn't last though - issues with some of the personalities (being ignored for a couple of months does this to you) meant I couldn't continue torturing myself with the guild leadership thing and the relationships with Guildlink in particular, so I gave the job up to the best candidate we had at the time.
Bah ! I be digressing again. Closing note - Playing with Other People is far better than Playing With Yourself. I think that's something that everybody can agree on :-) Oh - time for another Heinlein quote before I really close this entry :
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of — but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.I must assure you that this entry was composed totally in private (ok, I had Dexter and Stargate Atlantis on in the background) and I promise that I'll be washing my hands in the very near future.
PS More classic Heinlein quotes here : WikiQuote. G'wan - have a peek :-)
Thanks for your visit Sleepypete...And your very kind and encourging words!
ReplyDeleteI am unfamiliar with Heinlein, odd as that may seem to be....Sci Fi is not on my radar, I'm afraid...It's never been something I was drawn to...But, I sure do like those two quotes, a lot! (lol)
Not a "game player" either.....But, I'm happy you came by and liked what you saw today.
I remember a time when ALL games were single-player, non-networked. I remember when the first online games took hold, how magical we all thought that we could reach out and share the experience with someone far away.
ReplyDeleteMy first online "game" was flying side-by-side with a friend in Flight Simulator. We used the software's built-in modem feature, and to this day I remember how neat it felt to be able to fly around his plane and interact with it, in real-time 3D. Freaky.
Today, we yawn at such stuff!
I think the "better with someone else" applies to a lot of things ... I like going to the cinema but rarely go on my own - it's just not as good when you don't have someone to compare the instant after-film reaction with ...
ReplyDeleteCarmi - aye, things have changed a lot over the last 10 years or so ... There was a multiplayer aspect built into Moo2, which is a game I love, but it wasn't developed to nearly the same degree as multiplayer games are now.
Warcraft is pretty tame at 40 people per side in a battleground, Eve has had fleets of 500+ Per Side! throwing all sorts of nasty at each other. Eve's a little ahead of its time there though, it's let down by servers that can't cope.