Another New Project I Won't Actually Finish: Operation Game Collection

What is this magical project that will get a flurry of posting and eventually end with a wet fart?

Well its one I have had for many moons. Its a general summary of what games I own, how often I play them, how much I want to play them, what I have for the game, and what I still want to buy for it.

I will try at least once a week, if not more to cover one RPG, one Minis game, and one card/board/CCG title. I have so many games I could go on for months doing it. I will probably just do 10 or so installments, maybe more. I shall let the whims of fate and nerd ADD determine how far I go with it.

I will talk a little about the game, my thoughts on the game, and why or why not I plan on wasting more money I probably shouldn't on the game.

To help speed things along, there will be a category list, with 3 values, Low, Medium, and High. (Plus the odd N/A where needed. Like N/A for category 1 means I have never actually played it.)

The categories:

1: Amount I play it.
Low would mean less than once every 6 months, Medium at least once every 3-6 months, High at least once every other month. One can't decide what to do with a game if one doesn't keep stock of how much it gets played.

2: Desire to play it.
Low means maybe once every 6 months or so, Medium every 3-6 months, High at least every other month. Just because you get to own a game doesn't mean you get to play it as much as you want.

3: Popularity in my area.
Low means I seem to be the only person who likes the game in my region. Medium means there are a few known scattered groups, High means almost every local group knows it and plays it. Sadly most of my games are in the Low or Medium category.

4: Amount I own.
Low means under 100 dollars retail of stuff. Medium means from 100-300 dollars. High is anything over 300 big ones. Keeping track of what you have is another thing to consider. Given the other 3 above categories it brings to light how much you might want to keep buying.

5: Stuff I may still want to buy.
Low means under 100 dollars. Medium 100-300. High is over 300. Am I set on the game? Do I have such an inane love I want MOOOORE? Am I basically done with that game system as far as wasting money on it?

6: In Print?
This is either Yes or No. But by "In Print" I mean is the edition I own and play the one in print? In many cases I am happy with a previous edition and see no need to upgrade. In others one either has to upgrade or it happens so seamlessly as to really not matter. (Like Magic the Gathering. I may be still using 4-15 year old cards by this point, but I am still playing under the current ruleset. Some games like that and Warhammer 40K basically just tweak the rules anyhow.)

If multiple editions of a game system are so different as to be entirely different games and I play them, I will bring that up as well.

Sadly I do not have the readership of Jamie Mal, the adorable Leigh Alexander, or that crazy SOB from Uruguay but I would like to see comments on these updates. Add in your own ratings to the above to the games I do that you have. Or take my project and do it yourself on your own blog.

We may all learn something. Even the gaming companies.

Saving in Videogames

Over at Gamespite, one of the blog's writers put up a rather interesting discussion on saving in videogames.

Here was my thoughts on the matter, with my usual "taking a forum/blog reply and tweaking it for content on my own blog" thing.

For those of you who don't know, most video and computer games limit where you can save your progress. From games that make you go for HOURS without a save point, games that let you save anywhere you want (usually destroying all immersion and danger to the player should they have the lack of restraint to save every few seconds), to games with a Quicksave/Suspend function that allows you to make a temporary save that is usually erased when you return, keeping the desired challenge, but allowing for people with limited free time to actually play and enjoy a game on their schedule.

The article poster brought up how it should be more player friendly given the increasing average age of game players and how the 35 year old average person doesn't have the amount of free time a 15 year old no life kid on summer vacation does. (I was one of those people even with my mother having tons of pointless chores and home maintenance to do. Only one car in the household, and my father worked 2 jobs. Most of my friends had sports, 2 divorced parents to split their time with, or other activities to do. I did not. I still do not have much of a life and thanks to my job I generally have a decent amount of free time, but I still have plenty to do, and lots of interests, as this blog and my endless pile of unplayed games and unfinished projects attests to.)

I pretty much agree. I don't have the time or interest for many 50 hour epics anymore, much less ones that won't let me save whenever I damn well feel like it. With multigig SD cards and 20 or more gig hard drives (20 being TEENY now. And I remember when 120 meg HDs were the stuff of kings..) there is no excuse for at least a quicksave slot.

We got into this "save when we tell you its ok to save" thing in the early computer years when developers were either trying to save disk space or attempting to put in some challenge. And even back on the C64 some games had generous save areas (like Ultima which pretty much let you save whenever you were on the overworld map), or savestate cartridges that allowed you to snapshot. And as we all know, Japanese creators are nothing if not hidebound traditionalists who will happily regurgitate the same idea even if its a bad one provided "its the way things have always been done", which lead to the designers telling us when we can save.

I would prefer more fair hard saves than an instantly erased quicksave though. A 2+ hour dungeon in Breath of Fire 2 on the GBA CRASHED at nearly the end of it. I just could not go back after that.

Yes I know hardsaves just cause some players to cheese their way through a game, but so what? It makes Fire Emblem games playable instead of the endless frustration in playing it perfect they would otherwise be. It allows players to explore and take risks they otherwise would not in fear of a game over. (Hi Wizardry and Etrian Odyssey!)

I think the lack of an in mission save is what hurt Operation Darkness on the 360. I think its a wonderful game, but so many people and reviewers seem to loathe it. The fact most missions are 40-90 minutes long with no save and a VERY small margin of error (usually 1-7 members of your team cannot die or its Game Over, even if you have a way to revive them...) is probably the reason why. Add in the fact many battles seem to have surprise reinforcements that can totally hose what was a winning battle until that point and it just leads to player frustration.

Developers keep designing games for the no life teenager who is happy to spend dozens of hours playing a game and going for 100% unlock.

The problem is the market has evolved where a sizable percentage of the playerbase isn't interested in this style of play, and they can't be due to time restraints even if they might be!

Give us the choice. Even make save types an option for the game like difficulty level is. I can save anywhere I want in Doom, but to kill some time (because I had 40 minutes after a disastrous Operation Darkness mission) I decided to play an Ironman mode game on Ultraviolence to see how far I could make it before dying. I CHOSE not to use saves outside of one when it was bed time. Why force it on the player?

I made it to Episode 1 Level 6 before my Space Marine finally fell to a room packed with monsters. Got trapped in a double sized alcove and some Spectre Demons ate me. It was freaking awesome. But would I love Doom the way I do if it only played Ironman style? Hell no.

But I CHOSE to play it that way as a challenge, and thus had no irritation and frustration about it.

Its 2009. The PLAYERS deserve to choose how to play the game, not some overworked and underpaid developers.

More Evidence of Why I am Slow and Lazy

As if my pile of unfinished projects started on this blog are not evidence enough, or my half painted miniatures wargame armies, or the throng of half or unread gaming books or the mass of videogames are not enough, I humbly present my collection of unbuilt model kits. Some of which I would build once I know how to use an airbrush as I see no other way to make them properly pretty.

Many of the robot model kits come in their core colors and I generally have no excuse.


On the left is my newest kit, Raideen, complete with removable parts to turn what might be the first transforming robot into its bird mode. You would figure technology would allow a modern model kit to do this WITHOUT parts swapping. On the right is the last model kit my father purchased for me, back in 2003-2004. My favorite mecha design the VF2-SS. It currently has 2 legs built during a disastrous Changeling sit down RPG session.



In my cellar (in the parts my uncle I haven't really seen or talked to in 2 years hasn't taken over with stuff he put in there when he moved to an apartment) is the remaining heroes of G Gundam 1/144 kits (already have Rising Gundam built, and MSiA toys of God and Nobel Gundam.) plus the Robotech Defenders kit edition of the Orguss. The Orguss is one of those kits I really NEED an airbrush and skills to do right.



And the real pile of shame. Kits from as far back as 1999 unbuilt. Fei's mech from Gundam Wing, the Master Grade Ingram from Patlabor, the Alien from Alien, an AT AT from Star Wars, an SR 71 Blackbird (my favorite airplane EVER), the AH 64 Apache Gunship (my favorite helicopter, mostly thanks to Gunship on the Commodore 64), the V117, the VF 1D Valkyrie Training type with FAST Pack (another GET AN AIRBRUSH model), some really small scale Macross kits I bought for Battletech but are too big, the Dougram aka Battletech's Shadow Hawk, the lovely Dom 2 from Gundam 0080 (one of the 2 best original Gundam timeline series), another 0080 kit from the Zeon side, and 3 Super Robot Taisen kits to complete my ATX team even though my Alteisen kit is out of scale with them. (But it was a 500 piece BEAST I am proud to display even without much actual painting done to it.)

As you can see, I have a great many projects to work on. Its rather sad really. Especially since I have my eyes on a GaoGaiGar with Dividing Driver big kit at the comic shop.

A nerd's work is never done, is it?

And people wonder why I like prepainted minis games...

RPGs and the Image of Cool

I am a big proponent that RPGs aren't looked at fondly by the masses, and it is a BIG challenge we as gamers face.

On one of the forums I visit it was brought up. Here is my response:

Are roleplaying and the people who do it cool?

No, we are really no better or worse than any other group of people participating in a harmless and fun passtime.

Does roleplaying and the people who do it have an image of cool?

No, we are considered to be some of the worst of the worst before getting into people doing immoral, illegal, and deviant passtimes.

Which is total retarded bullpuckey, but image means more than content.

(Explains how Mike Bay is still allowed to make movies.)

Someone made a good point on the Penn & Teller show Bullsh*t. If American Football was invented recently it would be outlawed or decried all over the place as being overly dangerous and a threat to our youth as thousands of injuries have happened over the years and quite a few fatalities.

Yet a harmless thing like videogames has tons of anti game crusaders.

Why? Its all about image, and what is socially acceptable, not the actual reality of the situation.

Alcohol kills and destroys thousands of lives every year but if any nation tried to outlaw it there would be a damned riot. (Just see United States Prohibition in the early 1900s!) Its taken multiple family members from me to the point I hardly have any left alive. (And even fewer one could say are doing well thanks to it.)

Why is it defended? Its a way of life and so established its not going away, and the reasonable explanation that most people who partake of it are perfectly fine and not getting into accidents, fights, or drinking themselves to death or poverty.

You can put this same line of thought to RPGs which maybe have a tenth of a percent of actual relatable "damage" to the users of it, but thanks to image its considered horrible.

Luckily we ARE doing better on image than the 80s with Pat Pulling and her reactionary nonsense though.

But sadly, perception always beats reality. It keeps political parties going, starts pointless wars, gives religions power, and helps the people who enjoy staying stupid and ignorant keeping to this status quo.

I'm not sure what else one can really say.

Keep gaming and to Hell with anyone who says otherwise.

Just please make sure you aren't one of the bad eggs who makes the rest of us look bad.

I guess it just sucks to be gamers. But there has to be something to it if in spite of the image it has we keep doing it in spite of all the obstacles.

Pricing and the Doom of RPGs

I've been hearing it for years. RPGs are doomed. Sadly there is a loud group of morons (many of which unsurprisingly are on RPGnet) who claim these games are too cheap. This has lead to some blogger posting a massive 2 part manifesto on how RPGs are TOO CHEAP and this is a big reason why they are dying out.

Yeah.

I largely lost interest in either ramble the second it was said RPGs were too cheap.

The real problem with RPGs doing well is their image, their marketing, their complexity, and their fanbase.

Secondary problems involve scheduling issues for gamers, their generally too high pricing, quality of the actual gaming products, and the market's desire to actually play them.

For some reason 2/3rds of all roleplayers seem content to only play whatever edition of Dungeons & Dragons is currently in print regardless of the game's actual quality.

But overall RPGs just have the same damned problem American comics do. They cost too much, and are continually aimed at pleasing an ever decreasing market share, and are largely only available at specialty stores which are hard to find if you don't know where to look, and are usually repellent to anyone not willing to put up with their "quirks".

At least comics have a trade paperback market at the bookstore which kind of helps, plus major TV and movie and toy properties to help keep them in the mindshare.

RPGs don't have this period to the point I wonder why anyone bothers making or playing anything, especially if its not more in print D&D (or maybe White Wolf as the distant second place).

And if we want to do a quick play with nerd product prices....

I have the complete 20 issue (20 month) run of the Marvel Shogun Warriors comic book which ran from 1978 to 1980. At its start it was 35 cents, which was touted as a feature.

By issue 4 it was up to 40 cents, and the final issue (20) was 50. 5-6 years later 60 cents was the normal comic book price with series like the Transformers being a notable exception at 75 cents for slightly better quality paper and color.

Now most comic books are 3 dollars, with many at 4. (Such as the Transformers)

It doesn't really matter if the books look amazing, its 4 bucks for 10 minutes of entertainment, 15 if you are a slow reader or like to really study the artwork.

When I tell your average person or even your average nerd how much a comic book costs now I get words of disgust and horror.

Few people will pay this price regardless of economic realities and the ever retarded inflation principle.

Which leads to comics having to increase prices which causes them to sell to even LESS people, being one of many causes of comics' downward spiral. And then when you compare it to Manga books where its a good 200 pages for 10 dollars it makes it so even the only new comics fans stay in the land of black and white comics with sweatdrops.

100 bucks is still 100 bucks even if it gets you less. Perception of value and sticker shock matters.

Just ask Sony how they are doing with their expensive game console compared to the cheaper 360 and Wii offerings. They hold a distant third place in most of the world because of it.

And even inflation has a stopping point. A can of soda in the mid 80s was like 50 cents. Its roughly a dollar now with some variation. Its only doubled in price as opposed to RPGs which went from 15 bucks in the late 80s to 40-50 now.

Its more than doubled. And what do we get? Oh so fancy full color and hardback, stuff that does SQUAT for actually playing and enjoying the game.

Unless making the books heavier and less portable counts as a feature. Oh, and sucking up more printer ink if you need to make some cheat sheet pages.

RPGs need help, that is to be sure. But raising prices? That's just gonna make a bad situation WORSE.

Awesome Videogame News!

Yes. A new Mechwarrior game. I am excited. Battletech lives. The Unseen are back out of legal limbo, a new videogame is being made, and Catalyst is still making goodies for the tabletop game.

ROCK ON.

More news here: http://pc.ign.com/articles/100/1002164p1.html

Games of Success

What does that topic mean you ask?

Well last week I had a kind of sort of epiphany whilst playing many many games. Wednesday became I GAMED A LOT DAY. (For content posting I may bring up these events in a comic format just to make up for my currently low frequency of posting. I am keeping my blog to at least 4 posts a month, but it could use some more content...)

While the earlier games I played were gamer games with gamers, its the later games that I wish to talk about.

I played these games with a mixture of gamers, non gamers, and "well my SO is gaming so I will play too I suppose" types.

The games I introduced for the most part were really basic and quick to explain. Under 5 minutes and everyone knew the basics, or enough to start.

They were all highly regarded and the game that seemed the most "gamer" of the group (Wings of War) was a REAL hit, the second time I have gotten a horde of people involved and playing. (Which helped the epiphany part leading to this post.)

The rules take less than 5 minutes to learn the "basic" version of. Setup really takes about the same time (players selecting airplanes to use then putting them a reasonable distance away from other people's airplanes), and then everyone is on their way. Few exceptions to deal with, not too many rules, anyone can win, but skill has some effect, games take less than 30 minutes depending on number of players and scenario.

Now if the 2 different groups I had run Wings of War with had been introduced to say, Twilight Imperium, Warhammer 40K, Advanced Squad Leader, or something of that ilk? Not only wouldn't have many of them wanted to learn, I would have lost their interest before the game even began.

(Yes there is a thing called Phased Learning which helps here and I may go into in another post sometime, but for now we are just gonna keep things simple.)

Quick, fast, and easy to learn games you can teach quickly are more likely to engage people, especially casual gamers.

They will understand the game quicker, and start having fun much faster without being bored by endless explanations, subrules, and exceptions. Some folks later on may want the extra depth and crunch of a more complex title, but most won't. And they need that springboard, that solid foundation with core concepts before moving on to them.

And even hardcore gamers like myself sometimes want a lighter and more elegant game. Heck, its becoming my preference! Something I can learn fast, and teach even faster.

Almost every one of my most beloved RPGs usually fit into this quick and simple category. Basic Roleplaying/Call of Cthulhu? Roll percentile dice equal to or under your listed skill. D6? Roll that many dice and add them, beating a target number, with a Wild Die that causes gonzo effects as determined by the GM.

You can teach em quick and have them on their way fast, grabbing them.

So next time you pick out a game for new players, or as a new game for your existing group, look into some of the lighter, faster, simpler games.

You may find your fun comes in faster for everyone.