Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Work gets money buys toys

That's a mantra I've gone by for a little while now ...

Back to work yesterday, to be honest I coulda probably had a shorter break and saved some of the leave for later. I get bored easy and that bored almost translated into buying stuff again. Managed to conquer the world again (Civ 4) and then went on to conquering the galaxy (Moo2) :

Peace Through Superior Firepower

That's definitely the Civ4 way, although it's a little unfair on the AI when you have your PowerGamer Human going up against the game with the human having tactics optimised through experience. In Civilisation, you win or lose the game depending on how quickly you can expand early. If your enemies leave you alone for long enough, a headstart can never be caught up. The computer definitely has problems with player optimised tactics in Moo2, although that's partly down to the player knowing how to best set up the ships. The AI goes a bit too much All Rounder instead of MaxMin.

MaxMin is a gamer term, where your side is put to the maximum in some aspects but crippled in others. An example would be Thrud the Barbarian (Conan is too smart!), where he's a mountain o' muscle with a peanut for a brain. A character like that in roleplaying can be fun because Playing Dumb can be a hell of a laugh. The problem comes when the character isn't roleplayed properly, like when the stats say the guy can barely read or write but the player has him solving crossword puzzles and other assorted mysteries.

I'm a supporter of powergaming, an adventurer will always try and be the best they can possibly be. A mage will want to destroy everything before him, a fighter will want to be the best with weapons and a healer will want to be as effective as possible at keeping their friends alive. That's powergaming, echoing an adventurer's desire to be the best they can be. Roleplaying powergaming is when you accept the weaknesses of the character as well as bringing out the strengths. Minmaxing takes powergaming a little too far, by ignoring those weaknesses.

I've digressed again by going into talking gaming !

Working gets money buys toys :

I'm dangerously close to spending money again ... PC gaming seems to be dying out. It's been a while coming, stats like 1 in 10 of games in the Far East being legal (the rest are pirated) get the attention of the publishers after a while. It leads to draconian anti-copy methods being introduced which only achieve a less satisfactory gaming experience. It's actually less hassle to play the pirate copy than the legally bought copy. (Lol - I'm going by what I hear there !)

The item I'll likely acquire is an Xbox 360, which will mean a dedicated PC gamer defecting over to the consoles ... It won't happen for a bit though, as I've just started a Dragon Age campaign in an attempt to finally work my way through that game. The PC is still an excellent gaming platform, mouse and keyboard make an excellent control method. They don't handle driving games that well though and I've missed playing a decent one of those since being addicted to racing the cops in Need For Speed Hot Pursuit many years ago.

Why an Xbox ? I'm intrigued by the Wii's control method but I just can't see any games for that platform which I'd be interested in playing. Playstation 3 is superior but more expensive (I may have to check that assumption again when the time comes). Xbox holds a middle ground where I'd go for Final Fantasy XIII (I'm a sucker for RPGs) and Forza 3 as starters.

Thoughts of defecting are probably being initiated by the failure of trying to do PC gaming on the telly. PC games are engineered towards you being 2-3 feet from the screen, being on the sofa 6 feet away doesn't work, plus having keyboard and mouse on your lap in front of telly isn't that comfy.

So - no toys yet. Toys later. Probably after I save Ferelden from the blight :-)

PS Managed to get iTunes up to 1693 different tracks listened to over the past 4 weeks, a total of 4.7 days of music.

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