single player games

Return of the middle-aged MMOer (is that a word?)

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Asation, from http://www.swtor.com/

 

This really is turning into a yearly blog!   Maybe I will try to rectify that.  I was thinking of doing Nanowrimo (again) this year, and my decision not to do so has freed up a huge amount of time that I wouldn’t otherwise have had!   So, time to write about gaming again.

I’m still trying to balance gaming with “real life”.  When I quit SW:TOR about three years ago, I realised that spending hours in front of a computer screen was not good for my health, my fitness, or my figure.   I got fit, I lost weight, and I cut down my gaming time dramatically.    I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me, that has to be a conscious decision.   If I didn’t make that decision, I’d quite happily sit for hours, playing games, while no doubt drinking wine and ordering takeaways (no time for cooking and washing up!)  I have to accept that it’s kind of addictive for me.

However, it works the other way too: the less I play, the less I’m drawn to playing, oddly enough.   I’d still rather do it than housework, of course, but it’s not like it was a few years ago, when I could happily have spent the whole day staring at the screen, given the chance.

And the less I play, the less social gaming is.  I don’t have the time and experience to do “dungeons” in ESO or SW:TOR, so they have become solo games.   PVP didn’t appeal terribly much in either of those for different reasons (I wasn’t wild about it in SW:TOR and in ESO, Cyrodill was so huge and I kept dying and having to run back and get killed on the way … rather frustrating and boring).   I did have a stint in WoW recently and that was much more social as there was so much group content that didn’t require a long time to organise and do: dungeons, old raids and achievements, world bosses, etc.   I enjoyed grouping up with other guild members.  Even raiding was quite accessible.   I know many people hate that WoW has become so casual-friendly, but I have to say, that if you are casual, then … it’s friendly.   It’s easy to gear up and you don’t feel excluded from the good stuff.

As for the hugely anticipated (by me), ESO: what happened there?  (So long since I last posted!).   Well, I loved it at the beginning, had fun doing the starter dungeons, but being a slow leveler I once again went through the experience of being stuck in what seemed like a single player game: levelling through quiet areas and lonely delves, not feeling I had the skill for veteran dungeons, and not managing to find a group for them at a suitable time (I did try to organise one, but the timing seemed to be wrong for everyone else).    It was SW:TOR all over again!

I still pop in now and then as it’s now buy to play, and called Tamriel Unlimited.  But oddly enough, I’m back in SW:TOR.   Some of my guild have returned to it and as it’s now free to play I thought I’d give it another try, and finish off the main class storyline for my inquisitor at least.  The story is actually turning out to be a little disappointing, but never mind: my misgivings about the game still apply, but I’d forgotten how pretty and atmospheric it was.

What I really want is to play Witcher 3 and Dragon Age:Inquisition, but my computer says no.  Maybe in a year or so, when they’re in a sale, I’ll buy them and put them on my son’s computer.    Meanwhile SW:TOR is providing a nice combination of single player story and MMO.

Return of the middle-aged MMOer (is that a word?)

The Cat Lady

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Image

My MMO time has been limited recently, and probably will be for some time to come.   There are a number of reasons for this, but foremost is my cat’s habit of sitting in front of the screen and pressing buttons on the keyboard.   It doesn’t mesh well with games that don’t have a save/load buttons.  I still pop into GW2, but have been using some of my limited gaming time to explore some cat-owner-friendly single player games. 

I stumbled across The Cat Lady, played the demo, and was intrigued enough to buy the full game.    It seemed appropriate, given that my own cat was altering my gaming style!   A big draw for me was the main character, so different from most protaganists in video games.   You play a 40 year old reclusive, depressed woman called Susan Ashworth, known to neighbours as “The Cat Lady”, because you feed the local stray cats.   It was interesting to play such a non-typical character, and I hope we see more of this in games. 

I expected it to be a scary game.  I’ve talked here before about being scared in games, particularly in the first Thief game, and I expected to have to play this one during the day time, with all the lights on.   The sound should have been scary.  As you’re exploring rooms, you’re constantly aware of sounds around you, creaks and taps, possibly made by people who want to kill you.   There are some disturbing, Silence-of-the-Lambs-esque characters, and the game is fairly graphic in its depiction of their horrific crimes.    There are also several “jump” moments.   However, I wasn’t scared!  I’m not sure why.  Perhaps it was the simple, scrolling 3rd person view, and the knowledge that Susan was immortal.  What was the worst that could happen?  At first I thought that being immortal still allowed for pain and maiming, but in fact, each “death” was a fresh start, with a healthy Susan.   Sometimes “dying” was a useful strategy. 

Instead of feeling fear, I became drawn into feeling for the character.   Near the beginning of the game, there is a conversation with a psychiatrist which gives you the chance to make decisions about Susan’s background and motivation.   I don’t know how these decisions affect the game, but they do have the effect of bringing you closer to Susan.   It’s only as the game progresses that you understand why Susan is the way she is.  In fact, for me, the game became more like an interactive story about this character.   Some moments were truly moving.

Susan’s voice acting was great.  Initially, it sounded flat and unexpressive, but those very features helped to convey her depression.   Unfortunately, some of the other voice acting wasn’t so good, and I felt the actors were reading from a script while doing a funny voice.  There was good use of music in the game.

I enjoyed the game play.  It was like a point and click adventure game, but all keyboard controlled (you have a hand free all the time!) and no pixel-hunting.   Things that you can interact with are clearly shown as you walk past them.  This made the game pretty easy to play, and you won’t need to be searching for walkthroughs.   It might be too easy for some, but I didn’t mind as I was caught up in the story and didn’t want to get stuck with the puzzles.

I bought this game while it was on sale at Desura, but I think it’s worth the full price.    It’s on the Steam Greenlight list. 

Now, I would just love to play a female protaganist who is even older than 40!  

The Cat Lady

Love me, love my pet

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Why do I love playing pet classes in MMOs?

  • I like being able to play more than one role within one class, and having a pet gives me the pet’s secondary role.
  • Usually, pet classes seem to have good surviveability
  • Probably because of the above two reasons, they’re often good for soloing
  • You can multitask (for instance, have your pet fight a mob while you’re mining a node)
  • The first class I ever loved in an MMO was a pet class (my warlock).

And finally, perhaps the main reason

  • it’s a lonely old world out there, and it’s nice to have a companion

I can become quite attached to my pets.   That’s why my hunter in World of Warcraft keeps bringing out her crag boar that she trained in Dun Morogh all those years ago.   That’s why I was devastated (well, maybe not devastated, but pretty put out) when my warlock’s demons were renamed at the start of Cataclysm (thankfully, they got their old names back).

Maybe SW:TOR is the ultimate game for pet class lovers, because every class has a selection of companion “pets”.   Companions with back stories and personalities, companions that you can talk to and even romance!  No wonder I’m drawn to the game.

There’s one problem, though.  I have to learn to play without a pet whenever I group up!   And real life has got in the way of grouping for the past couple of weeks, so I’m out of practice.

Love me, love my pet

‘Tis the season (to spend too much time on gaming)

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Needless to say, I’ve been unable to stick solely to levelling my tankadin.

  • I’d decided to go for the “What a long, strange trip it’s been” achievement on one of my characters, so I’ve had to log in every so often to get the Merrymaker part of that.  I have everything now except “A Frosty Shake”.   The fun thing about it was that I had to queue for dungeons in the hope of getting the hat needed for one of the achievements.  The only dungeons open to me were Wrath of the Lich King heroics.   My character hadn’t even done the normal ones, never mind the heroics.   I’ve had this character for a long, long time, and even way back in vanilla she ended up with gear problems (back then, it was because the guild dungeon groups tended to be too late at night).  She was the one that I posted about some time ago, as having crap DPS.   I haven’t retested her DPS, but the quest rewards at the beginning of the new Cataclysm areas make an enormous difference.   There didn’t seem to be any problem with doing WotLK heroics in that gear (although I can’t speak for my group skills!) at level 81.  It has been fun, and now I have more confidence I might even queue for the Cataclysm dungeons.    I do feel that I would like to get a look at these dungeons before I go there with my tank.
  • My druid had to try out one of the new Cataclysm areas.  I’d been avoiding reading about the new areas because I wanted a surprise and I was very impressed with Vash’jir.  I couldn’t resist logging on to the druid to explore more.
  • I made a new gnome to see the new gnome starting area.
  • Of course, I had to create a goblin.
  • And a worgen.
  • And another goblin.
  • I need to get round all my main-ish characters to make sure they get their presents from Greatfather Winter!
  • Meanwhile, Steam has had a sale on.  Somebody stop me!
  • I felt I had to look in at Everquest II to wish my character the best of the season.

Really, I’m surprised there’s time for anything else.   If only I could find a way to make housework feel like a game.

‘Tis the season (to spend too much time on gaming)

Romancing Zevran – big spoilers!

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I wonder why the romance aspect of Dragon Age has drawn me in so much?   Maybe it’s just because I haven’t seen much of it in other games, and because there seems to be a genuine (if hit and miss) attempt to portray realistic emotions.

I tried to continue courting Alistair.  I dragged my party on a quest to find a particular gift for him that I had heard he would like, then rushed them back to camp to see if it was enough to encourage Alistair to make a move.   He started off by asking me about my relationship with Zevran.   I was able to tell him, genuinely, that we were just friends.   (Because that seems to be the way things go in the Zevran relationship.  Friends with benefits).    Finally, after a lot of fussing, he came to my tent, romantic music played and Zevran’s approval dropped way down.   Afterwards, Alistair seemed to go on a bit of a guilt trip, talking about being struck by lightning.     I was starting to get fed up with the whole idea that I was somehow sullying his purity (or something) by bringing in a physical element to the relationship.    It left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

I went back to talk to Zevran, who, like Alistair, insisted on a choice, but for different reasons.   I made my choice and he became my right hand man.   I took him out on every expedition, except the one in the Deep Roads (where I replaced him with Oghren).   He kept me amused by flirting with Wynne.  His approval was 100% (adore) through much of the game, without me doing any more than inviting him to my tent (repeatedly, admittedly, but you would, wouldn’t you?).    I collected his special gifts, but they I never needed to use them.  He adored me anyway, regardless of what I could give.

That turned out to be the major difference between him and Alistair.  With Alistair it was all about him.  Zev makes it clear from the beginning that it’s about what you want.  There is no cajoling, no special quests, no gifts needed, no jealousy, no worrying about saying the wrong thing (unless you actually tell him to leave, there is nothing you can say that can’t be resolved  in the tent later).   He’s honest, caring (reciting bad poetry to cheer you up), loyal and devoted.  You don’t have to buy his body or his heart.  They are freely given.

Just before we went off to the final battle, I gave him all the gifts I’d been saving.   I don’t know if there was any point then.   He had been at 100% for so long, and ‘adore’ had already changed to ‘love’.    My character ended up with him at the end.  No regrets.

It was strange how involved I felt in the romance.   Zevran seemed ‘real’ in the way a character in a book or film might do.   He grew on me over time.  I was playing a rogue myself, but I liked him so much that I ended up giving him all the best rogue gear (quite selflessly, as it covered him up more.   My choice would have been to cover him up less).   I even ended up playing him more than I played my own character (I like to position him for backstabbing, and I couldn’t work out how to do that in tactics).    I chose him to rescue me from the dungeons.   I chose him as my champion to fight Loghain.   At the end, after Alistair’s speech, I looked round to where he had been standing in the crowd, and I felt anxious when I couldn’t see him for a minute.   Thankfully, he had just moved, and we rode off into the sunset together (for a time, apparently).   But it was strange how attached I became, and how the romance played such a big part in the story for me.   I would have liked more dialogue, but still, I think the romance aspect added greatly to my enjoyment of the game.

I’m playing through again as a male warden, romancing Leliana.   Or that was the plan.  Like Alistair, she’s rather demanding, and my male elf has ended up with Zevran.  Again. I think I’m going to have to go back to an earlier save.

Romancing Zevran – big spoilers!

Sex and the single dwarf

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I’ve been drawn away from MMOs over the past few days by the highly addictive Dragon Age.   As befits someone of my advanced years, I’m playing it through on ‘easy’ settings.   Unfortunately, I’m finding some characters aren’t as easy as they look.

I’d read that Dragon Age allows for sex and romance.    Of course, I immediately tried to cosy up with all the surrounding NPCs.  My character is a no-nonsense, hotblooded dwarf.   However, it turned out that it wasn’t as easy as all that.   Apparently you are only able to romance certain characters in the game (depending on the gender of your own character), and none of them are ‘easy’.  It takes time and work.   I checked  to see who I could make a play for and Alistair’s name came up.  Alistair?    He’d been following me about for a while, but I hadn’t thought of him as a sex object.  I’d been too busy to trying to flirt with Duncan or Cailan, or that bad guy that I forget the name of but really quite fancy.   (I mean my character fancies him).    Alistair was a bit of boy next door type.

Once I found that he was up for it (or at least, further up for it than any of the other characters who were available at the time), he suddenly started looking a lot more attractive.   Beggars can’t be choosers, you know.  There’s a war on.    So I set all out to get him.   I talked to him at any opportunity,  gave him the best armour and weapons I could find, chose him for every party, gave him gifts, arranged impromptu trips back to camp on the off-chance that he’d get bored with sitting at the campfire, even switched to being an archer so I could watch him flexing his muscles in battle.    Did any of it do any good?  No.  The guy is driving me nuts.   I don’t know if he’s being coy, or if he’s strangely asexual, but he doesn’t seem to notice whatever I do.   If I give him a gift, he goes all ‘Oh, really?  For ME?’ as if he hasn’t noticed that he’s the only person in my party who I give gifts to. As if he hasn’t worked out WHY I’m giving him gifts.   For goodness sake.

I keep dragging him out, thinking that the thrill of battle and the b0nd of fighting together might spark some interest in him.  I even put all my points into coercion, in the hope that I might be able to persuade him to go for a quick snog round the back of the supply cart.   But no, he’s still prissying around, pretending he hasn’t noticed I’m interested.   What do I have to do?  (I mean, what does my character have to do?)

It was never this hard in real life, I’m telling you.

Sex and the single dwarf