If Missiles Opened Doors

What I'm thinking about now:

Going out and buying all three Etrian Odyssey games... and a DS to play them on. Why? Who the fuck knows. I barely knew they existed until an hour ago when I read this. That led to a visit to the games' websites. Which led to me wanting them. I don't necessarily like this kind of long winded, sadistically difficult JRPG, but I like the idea of them. I want to like them. I may have spoken before about my attraction to Atlus games. The two most recent for me were Disgaea and Odin Sphere. They are two phenomenal games but they are deep-fat-fried in the 'ol grind aesthetic and Odin Sphere has that punishing difficulty that is so typical of Atlus. The bottom line is, I just don't have enough days in my life to dedicate to these pursuits. Perhaps if I were sickly and could not leave my bed.


I finished Shadow Complex yesterday in what I think was a five hour stretch. Lack of sleep had me in a fog so memory of the event is blurry, but I have the achievements so I know it happened. If I were to review this game I would use a single word: Metroid. Or if I used two words: Super Metroid. You can tell these guys have played that game before and you can tell it's been on their minds quite a bit since. There are sections of the map that are almost direct translations. As a fan of SM myself Shadow Complex grew on me more every time I was reminded of it. If we had never made 3D games, if sidescrollers were still king and continued to progress graphically this kind of thing would have sold millions. A part of me wants to live in that world.

Lord of the Rings Online is now free to play and that has spurred me to play it just as it did a year ago. There is still money involved to be sure, but it's involved via micro transactions. This idea I really like. While I haven't spent any money on the game yet, I feel I'm much more likely to spend a few dollars for some extra content than I am on a subscription fee. It just never made sense to me to pay over and over again for the same game. When you don't know how much you are going to be able to play in a given time period, you don't really have a clear idea of what you are paying for. But if some super-special armor costs one dollar American then I know exactly what getting and what it's costing me. I really hope this business model works out for Turbine and other developers because it sure works out for the consumer. I also want to point out how cool it is to play in Middle Earth. LOTRO as a game hasn't shown me any real stand-out moments yet, but the ability to explore all the locations from the books is very cool. Game enthusiasts are always talking about immersion. LOTRO doesn't make me float out of my chair or anything, but it makes it easier to imagine myself a traveler in Tolkien's world.

Why is October the Tenth Month?

Doesn't "oct" mean 8? That's always bothered me.

So I've been playing Fallout 3 mostly with small doses of MvsC2 and Monkey Island. I've gone through two play sessions of LOTRO now, both of which being multi-hour affairs. The second one I actually played with a friend. He had some characters on other servers but not the one I was playing on. You can't switch servers without paying a fee so he didn't want to do that. I didn't want to start over and play through the "intro" levels a week after playing though them the first time. I convinced him to play a new character on my server. So in actuality our time together was spent IMing while he went through the bullshit opening stuff and I walked around doing fetch quests. I never actually saw his character. Wheee.

These are the kind of multiplayer online hassles that I like to avoid by... well... not playing with other people. I remember as a youth a group of us doing a kind of gymnastics just to get a one on one game of Star Craft going. This was the time of dial-up so there was lots of hanging up and reconnecting and then disconnecting to use the phone to call the other guy to try to figure out why it wasn't working. These experiments always degraded into one volunteer running back and forth between houses to relay messages like some WW2 soldier running cable under enemy fire. It's amazing to think about all the physical activity and in-person social interaction that those early online games created.

Now we have a much more advanced infrastructure on which to place our virtual meetings. The games however seem to have a level of complexity that requires just as much work to create a satisfying online experience as it did back then. I'm not saying that I've never had fun online; I have, even with strangers. It's just that these experiences have never measured up to the feeling of playing in the same room with someone else. Over the years I've had tremendous fun playing "same couch" with people, even games that aren't multiplayer. I have particularly fond memories of tag-teaming RPGs like Final Fantasy 3 or Earth Bound, one person controlling and the other drawing maps, or taking notes, or flipping through guides, or just being there! How about four-player Goldeneye in a dark basement all summer, or hot-seating Soul Caliber 2 between 6 rowdy drunks until the early mourning hours? What about three friends buying Guitar Hero 2 and deciding not to sleep until they had played through it? You just can't get that from online play.

So I guess I'm whining. Online play does have its merits, particularly the ability to get large groups together in a short about of time... provided it's a popular game. This topic is timely because a good gamer friend of mine is moving back into the area and I'm looking forward to a return to the long sessions of beer and slaughter we used to indulge in.

Oh, and LOTRO isn't half bad really.

LOTRO or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love MMORPGs

OK maybe not love. I'll just start from the beginning.

So at PAX they were giving out full copies of Lord of the Rings Online with the Mines of Moria expansion. I find it impressive that a company other than Blizzard is making enough money from subscriptions that they can just hand out full copies of AAA games. But then, maybe they should all be doing that. My biggest problem with MMOs is that you have to pay to keep playing a game you have already paid for... forever (unless you pay hundreds of dollars for a lifetime subscription). So really why charge for the game at all? I'm not certain but I think Blizzard gives away the base version of Wow, and has for some time. I can't help but think of a pusher on the street corner going "hey man, want to get your game on. Have a little taste, first one's on me!" Well actually the second taste is on them too because they give you a 30 day free trail, which in the case of LOTRO I am now using.

My second biggest problem with MMOs is that they never end. There is no discrete limit to the game. Potentially you could keep playing it forever and they could keep adding little bits of new content to entice you. What this means is that playing an MMO is a huge time investment. Or more like time sink hole. I already spend way more time than I should on the hobby. If I tried to play an MMO something terrible would happen: I'd have less time to play other games! There's just to many great games coming out all the time and an endless library of older games. I couldn't in good conscience dedicate myself to just one.

Anyway, lets talk about the game. Its cool I guess...

Yeah that's pretty much it. I like the story elements and the visuals for the setting. It feels like Middle Earth, which is exciting. The game play is actually kind of boring but again, this isn't my usual cup 'o tea . You click on a monster and your character starts trading blows. I imagine that as the game progresses the battles become more intense, requiring you to use your abilities in a tactical manner. I got to the point in the game where you pick a profession and can start making stuff. This is the part of the game I find most appealing. I have yet to discover how deep the crafting system goes but from the little I've done it seems like I could get pretty into it. I chose the Tinker job which involves cooking. I was very stoked to learn that I could brew beer. Beer and video games have always been a match made in heaven and now you're telling me I can drink beer while playing a game in which I'm drinking beer? You sir are a champion of men! ...not sure who I'm talking to there...

So I've got a month to play for free and I'll probably spend a few more sessions with it. My friend has an account so I'm going to try to play with him at least once in order to enjoy the MM aspect of my MMORPG... or maybe just the M... the second one... yeah. I'll let you know how it goes.