Guild Wars 2 – Dungeons

So now that I’ve spent time talking about some things that Guild Wars 2 does well (although certainly not everything it does well), I think it would be appropriate to talk about the main, glaring flaw in the game – dungeons. Every MMO in the past decade has had some form of instanced group challenge, and every single one of them has done it better than Guild Wars 2.

The screenshots in this post will show your our futile attempts to complete this event. We were supposed to defend these “crystals”, although I strongly suspect they were really made of glass and paper.

In very general terms, a dungeon should be a fairly linear environment filled with obstacles, usually a mix of groups of weak normal monsters and intermittent bosses. There might be environmental hazards or timed goals, and the players should need to work as a team (if they don’t massively outlevel the dungeon). World of Warcraft and all its clones have this down to a fine art. You get in, you get your fill of plot and lore (or skip them), you murder all the things, and you get loot. It’s not the most elegant system, and one could argue that it isn’t fulfilling if there’s not enough challenge involved, but overall I think players would rather do something that is easy to moderately difficult, rather than bang their heads against a wall for say, 4 hours.

This is just the start, with only one burrow and a couple gravelings. My clones are pretty useless, even now.

Let’s Deconstruct Super Paper Mario – Part 4

Let’s get back on SPM, it was a nice break from the topic but now it’s time to look at even more of this decidedly strange game.

We’ve obtained a 3rd Pure Heart, and the villains look pretty silly now. Dimentio is sent by Count Bleck to deal with Mario and co., and we find out that O’Chunks had to write 1000 pages about his failure. Now THAT’S villainous, torture by forced writing! Mimi isn’t around to apologize for failing, maybe she died. Bleck postures about how strong he is for a bit, and how good it will be to destroy the world, and says something about his heart suffering. His sadness isn’t explained yet.

We go to Luigi, who appears to be in the same place Peach was last chapter. He meets two Goombas, and expresses concern for their well-being, even though he regularly squashes them flat. Also these particular Goombas are jerks.

Even this tiny bit of concern is totally unwarranted.

Video games are the best on sick days

When you were a kid, did you ever pretend to be sick to miss school, stay home, and play video games? I know I did. I can very distinctly recall doing this to make progress on Link to the Past and Pilotwings, and a lot of other SNES games as well (the only console I had as a child was my SNES). Honestly, it’s fun to play those games, but even better when you know you’re missing school. This tradition continues for most adults as well, I’m sure. I have many friends who I know have called in sick from their jobs on the same day to have LAN parties and 3-day weekend marathons, and I personally did this for the first day of World of Warcraft’s Cataclysm expansion. It’s pretty much a time-honored tradition among many gamers to do this on the release of anticipated games.

Skipping to finish this one was a no-brainer.

What games have you called in sick to play? Were they worth it? I’ve had games that I wanted to play and progress and see what happens, and to do so I’ve skipped classes and put off work. I did this when I was playing through Borderlands the first time, but it turned out to not be worth the trouble. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the game, but it certainly didn’t merit missing a class.

To me, gaming is always about enjoyment and escapism. I’m sure it’s the same for almost everyone else, and I know that I relax best when I think everything can wait a couple more hours/days/weeks. When I missed school to play these things, I did it to get away from responsibilities for a bit and just play the game. I like to turn my brain off when I’m gaming. To me, putting everything off for that day and just playing the game was the ultimate form of escapism, and still is. It isn’t smart or healthy to do often, but everyone needs a break once in a while.

So what I’m getting at here is that even though I know this was a stupid stunt to pull as a child, teenager, and college student, I still look back on those days fondly, because they were really fun. The freedom, the shirking of priorities, and the self-indulgence, I enjoyed that stuff even when I actually WAS ill. There’s a reason is have never thought of a “sick day” as a bad thing, even though the person is…well…sick. It’s a weird connotation to make, I know. Long live the trivial sick day.

Diablo 3 Beta – A Quick Look

So, the Diablo 3 open Beta Weekend is over, and I am no longer able to play it (thanks for never giving me a real beta invite, Blizzard). However, I did play it almost nonstop while it was available, and so I have gathered my thoughts and impressions together in this post. Please keep in mind that the Beta only covered 1/3 of Act 1 and 13 possible levels, so this is basically only the tip of a much, much larger game.

The Classes

D3 brings only 5 classes to the table, less than D2, but each of them had their own similarities to D2 classes, with some new things thrown in. The Barbarian returns as the incredibly destructive melee hero, skilled in cutting swaths through enemies and grinding hordes of mobs to paste in seconds. He actually felt extremely overpowered in the beta, and at no point did I have trouble playing him. He’s pretty close to his D2 counterpart, but more focused on cleaving and attacking groups. The Wizard is the quintessential elemental spellcaster, with lots of AoE effects than slow and snare enemies, and is very squishy in combat. I found that the wizard was very weak in the beta, especially compared to some of the the things the other classes were doing. I imagine the class is stronger at higher levels, just like in D2.

The Demon Hunter played like any kind of archer with traps you can think of, and I wasn’t too excited about it, even though it was cool to watch. All of the DH’s moves have style. I’m hoping that’s also a class that also gets better with time, because it look like it had potential. Unfortunately, due to some server issues (lots of those this weekend, since it was a stress test), I wasn’t able to try Monk or Witch Doctor much, but I have gathered that the Monk is very much like a Paladin, and the Witch Doctor has summons, like a Necromancer. Every class has a primary stat, Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence, and it’s a very easy system to use. Also, unlike D2, each class can be either gender.

The best memories never stand a chance

I’m going to take a bit of a break from Super Paper Mario, and try to talk about things that are fun or interesting. Today, I want to address nostalgia, and its role in both new and old games. Think of your favorite scenes from anything you’ve watched, played, or otherwise experienced. It could be a scene that was profoundly sad, or exciting, or funny, or just notable in it’s uniqueness, but whatever the reason, you remember it, and it will be in your brain forever. Everyone has these, and it’s good to have your own frame of reference. The thing is, these memories will become unfocused over time, it’s just how human brains work. We’ll keep recalling them, and each time we’ll make it seem more significant, or more essential. We tend to build up these memories, past their actual worth. It’s why I still think of the scene from Final Fantasy 7 when I want to recall a sad death, or the scene from Chrono Trigger when I want to think of a joyful reunion. Some musical tracks (like this one from EarthBound) can conjure up an entire game for me, and even the best finales don’t compare to the end of Cowboy Bebop (no, not a video game, sorry!).

Let’s Deconstruct Super Paper Mario – Part 3

So last time, we finally got to fight the villains a bit, adventure, and get our first Pure Heart (that required effort). Mario headed back to Flipside, and we are treated to another villain interlude! Maybe this time we’ll actually learn more about their plans.

That's some serious villainy there, giving homework.

So O’Chunks is back from his pathetic failure against Mario, and is begging for forgiveness. Count Bleck, ever the forward thinker, decides that Mario is a real threat, and decides to set a trap for him at the next Pure Heart. Evidently, the prophecy that named Mario as the hero also completely lines out his entire adventure and the order in which he will gain the hearts, so if the villains manage to LOSE, they have no one to blame but themselves. Mimi is sent, apparently she has magic powers from Bleck. Again, they don’t all go gang up on Mario, but at least this time we see that Bleck and Nastasha have some business. Bleck declares that he has to go somewhere and do something (and that’s all we get), and Nastasha goes to subdue some of Bowser’s minions, who are still hanging around since the wedding. Why doesn’t she take a minute to go mind control Mario?

Fission Mailed

Today I had a post talking about the intro to Super Paper Mario, and I don’t know what WordPress did, but it posted it blank and lost the draft. I have bits that I can pull back together, but I don’t have time for it today anymore, so I guess I’ll post it tomorrow. From now on, I’m never going to trust WordPress with this kind of thing. I’ll write them in Word, even if it means sometimes having weird image difficulties.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004)

Paper Mar: TTYD is a sequel in style and gameplay to the original Paper Mario. The graphics are better (but everything is still paper), the controls are smoother, and the locations are even more varied and interesting than ever. Besides the staple Mario cast, it features a unique cast of distinct and quirky characters. It really feels like a Paper Mario 2.0, and I think it is an improvement in almost every way. Besides the whole paper world thing, the main gimmick of this game is that fights are now done on a stage, where you can gain or lose audience appeal and even receive help (or hindrance) from audience members. If you have enough appeal, you can cast certain spells. It plays on the fact that the whole world knows Mario, and it makes it a fun part of the story.

The Elements of a Good Game: Characters – Part 2 – Further Characterization

Ugh, I can already tell that this title system is going to get horrible. I’m really sorry for the ridiculously long name, I just felt like I had more to say on the subject of characterization and wanted to get past the basics that I talked about last week. I’ll preface this by saying that most of this advice is pretty subjective, and there really aren’t any hard and fast rules for fictional characters. All I want to convey are general ideas that I’ve gathered from my experience and education.

When I look at characters that I consider to be fully-formed and well-made, I see that they feel like a real person. If you can ever look at someone in a video game (or any work of fiction) and say “yes, they seem like an actual living being that I could meet”, then something about them is clearly working right. At the very least, they need to make sense as a conceit of the setting, even if the setting is too alien to seem like a real place.

Where I’m coming from

I enjoyed writing up Wednesday’s post and thinking objectively about the subject of characters in game design. I still have a lot to say on that topic, and on the other aspects of storycraft, so I thought it would only be fair to share some games that I felt satisfied all the necessary requirements to make a really good game, and then some. Before I continue talking about characters, story, gameplay, and art design, you need to know where I’m coming from. Everyone does lists of Top 5, and while 5 is a very arbitrary number, I think it works for me too. If you want, I can always add a 6th later, and we can pretend that it’s a Pokemon team.

I want to preface this by noting how few old games are in the list. This is likely because of my continuous efforts to try to find and enjoy things that are new. I rarely go back and play old games now, but I did play a lot of the good ones when I was a child, so I don’t believe I am too biased. Anyways, let’s jump into this entirely self-serving list. If you don’t want to listen to me gush about a few really good games, you can skip today. I won’t be offended. Also, I never mail scorpions to people.