The Discipline of Gaming

Tutorial, hint, walk though, cheat sheet, spoiler.

“Wax on wax off, the discipline of gaming Grasshopper.” Okay that was a reference from two different movies/shows but it seemed to fit. In my gaming entertainment over the years I have often found myself hitting the proverbial “brick wall”, especially if it was a puzzle based game. “Where is the damn key located to unlock this step?”

Struggling with clues or the strategy within a game can be frustrating. Not being able to advance means we play that scene or sequence over multiple times. I can see the Game character that we are playing, finally stop and stare at us through our monitor and scream “THE KEY IS OVER THERE DUMMY!”

This of course would creep me out so, as not to a ire the little person I am moving around in game I would look for, “Dun..dun..Duh!” the Spoiler. This of course would give me the answers I needed to advance to the next section of game-play, but was very anti-climatic. In my early days of gaming spoilers were hard to come by and I was actually glad. Now we have an abundant of spoilers for almost every game. It is too easy to cheat. A disciplined gamer will achieve their gaming goals without the need of “Spoilers”, and I have found that to be very rewarding.

Keisuke Miyagi (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 I am not the Mr Miyagi of gaming, not even close but I have learned a valuable lesson. Patience is the key. When we accomplish the hurdles that most games set for us, it means that we have fully savored and enjoyed what it had to offer.

I have spent literally weeks at a dead end trying to figure out what I needed to do and when I finally figured it out, I woke the whole house up with “Eureka, I have found it!” . ..okay, I never say eureka, but it was a scream of excitement. Several deep breaths later and as my heart settled back into my chest, all I could think of was “Damn, what a rush.” This game lasted longer than any game I had played. I felt like I truly experienced the game as it was meant to be instead of fast forwarding to the end.

Our entertainment purchase is wasted if we fast forward to their conclusions. It is like buying a movie to just fast forward to the good parts. That moment of entertainment becomes just that, a moment.

Back to School...Let the games begin!

I read an article awhile back and was amused at that point where we are in entertainment. Back to school still carries a certain “Blech” feeling when I hear it. Now that we are at that point or past it and school has changed the summer schedules and activities, there is always that helpful advice we get on helping our “mini-me's” survive the transition. The past few weeks, day time TV has been riddled with the helpful hints from snacks to homework, too rest and recreation. It was always a struggle for everyone to balance what's needed.

"We're going to make this short and sweet, parents: You probably shouldn't try to dodge a back-to-school gaming tuneup. Sure, talking about responsibilities and setting screen time limits is no fun. Kids hate rules, and parents hate having to play traffic cop. But back-to-school time means re-balancing languid, lazy summer schedules -- and if you're going to help your kids develop time management skills and a head for how to balance their own activities and schedules, this is the perfect teaching moment."

MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family, from tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate online games for everyone in the family.

Gaming has grown over the years and has taken its place among the “R&R” portions of our life. This is evident in several ways, but really gives notice when your local TV news mentions gaming along with other entertainment outlets, when offering the helpful hints entering the school year. For me, in the dark ages, it was a black and white TV with three channels. No real competition there, it was three channels.

I don’t have to worry about battle plans for a back to school tune up, I'm just waiting on grand kids. Those of you that do, I wish you the best, do right by your mini-me, because children are cool and deserve our best. Of course this means that Mom and Dad have to set the example and make sure they are showing restraint for the school season, it's only fair. Since I don’t have to worry about setting any examples, when asked “you played games for 6 hours?”, my retort is “I'm grown, I can do what I want”.

I remember family nights when “Alone in the Dark”, a survival horror game developed by Infogames was played.

Image via Wikipedia

"In 1925, Jeremy Hartwood, a noted artist and the owner of the Louisiana mansion Derceto, has committed suicide by hanging himself. His death appears suspicious yet seems to surprise no-one, for Derceto is widely reputed to be haunted by an evil power. The case is quickly dealt with by the police and soon forgotten by the public. The player assumes the role of either Edward Carnby – a private investigator who is sent to find a piano in the loft for an antique dealer - or Emily Hartwood, Jeremy's niece, who is also interested in finding the piano because she believes a secret drawer in it has a note in which Jeremy explains his suicide. The player, either as Carnby or Hartwood, goes to the mansion to investigate. As the player enters the house, the doors mysteriously slam shut behind him or her. Reluctantly, he or she continues up to the attic. In that room, the action begins."

With the lights off and the sound turned up, everyone would take their turn playing either character. Hours were spent working through puzzles, getting scared and generally laughing ourselves to tears. We played the game through to the end and when asked what shall we do on family night, “Lets play the Dark game dad.”, so we visited mansion Derceto on several occasions.

 Our family night wasn’t the norm, gaming was the majority vote. Through Monkey Island, Indian Jones to Willy Beamish and Quest for Glory, we were gamers before gaming was cool. So naturally, these days, getting ready for the new school year has to include game time adjustments. No more playing games with dad until 1am.

Shipwrecked into another MMO.....Final

My first introduction to “instancing” in a game was Everquest, Lost Dungeons of Norrath. The LDoN quests were unique, challenging and a nice addition to the, then present content. Instancing has become an expected feature in may games these days including DDO. Clicking on the entrance to one of these instanced areas, a window will pop up that allows you to set the difficulty level. There is also an explanation for each setting to give you an idea just what you are getting yourself into. Casual, Normal, Hard, Elite and Epic, I chose normal because it's not casual and it makes me feel like I'm not taking the easiest route. I'm not casual, I'm normal.

My normal cleric finds out there is an abnormal sound coming from the Heyton Family Crypt. Get out the recipe for Spooky and see what is needed. The ingredients were here but it lacked the flavor I was hoping for. I understand that this is still “noob adventuring” at this level, and school was still in session as the tutorials continued with new content, but it still seemed bland.

Sarcophagus smashing skill is maxed, no there is no such skill but if there was I would have been maxed out. The Crypt, appropriately so, is lined with Sarcophagi along the walls, one right after another. I suppose in order to find out where the strange sound was coming from one would indeed smash them. Process of elimination, two steps “Wack”, two steps “Wack”. Sometimes you would yield coin and other times a ticked off dead family member. There was enough Sarcophagi to Sarcopha-gag-me.

One appealing aspect that was introduced in this dungeon was the puzzle. I personally like the puzzle as long as it's done well. This puzzle was not difficult, it was...normal. Certain artifacts found in the Crypt, not in any of the 275 Sarcophacrap along the walls, but found in rooms is what allowed you to advance. Finding a way to get past the magic doorway, which was locating the items to place in the Sockets, added that little bit of mystery. This is much better than just entering the room for your final encounter.




The puzzle and the ambiance of the final room was the best parts of the this dungeon. I guess after I had to destroy crates and boxes for money when I first entered the game, I should have expected that all my coin drops would be similar.

Pillaging the Crypt made sense by busting up the Sarcophagi but I think a few would suffice. This was the part that seemed to outplay or overwhelm the reason for the adventure. It sadly dwarfed the cool puzzle and became very mundane. Speaking of Dwarf, my Cleric will be off to other adventures when time permits and hopefully as we progress, so will the puzzles and I am sure plenty of random stuff to break, smash and crush. 

Trivial as it may sound, the ability to keymap movement is critical to me. A player should not be limited to how they can move their avatar. Having the left mouse button preset and unchangeable is unnecessary.  The Free to Play option doesn't make me feel obligated or committed and makes it worth the space on my hard drive.