Games Vs. Movies

A good game beats, by leaps and bounds, a good movie. Sure, a good movie can be inspiring, make you feel a variety of feelings. But a good game can do all those things as well as allow you to interact with the characters and the storyline, explore the world the characters live in, and spend far longer to experience than a movie.

The price-to-enjoyment-time ratio is better with games. I pay $20 for a game, I can play it for twenty, thirty, forty hours. Some I go all the way to eighty. $20 for a movie at the theatre might get me a ticket and a thing of popcorn, maybe. Drink would go past that. That’s an hour and a half to three hours, tops. They don’t play those eight-hour long epics around here anywhere. I’m more inclined to buy a game and enjoy it for a long time than I am to go to the theater and this is coming from a huge movie fan.

Games have surpassed movies as a fun pastime. I still like watching movies, I still enjoy watching movies, but games are different. I can take different routes, revisit different characters, just run around and lark about, mess around, or play through some games as completely different characters and in completely different manners. It’s more fun, playing games. Movies can get inside your head, can roll around in there and really, deeply influence you.  Games take you beyond that into a realm you can experience and enjoy, through well designed and written characters, and into ornate places that feel different from a movie. You can pace things differently, explore more of the world, see the game differently. It’s different in a good way.

I guess what I’m saying is I’m more of a fan of games than movies. I still love movies but I’m a fan of games. I’ll play through games more times than I would watch a movie. The experience of gaming, of exploring, of interacting, of enjoying, has caught me. Caught me and won’t let go.

Constructive Criticism

I got several good reviews of my game. They’re not very high reviews, either. Two and three stars out of five. I wasn’t terribly happy about that but it was my first Twine game. I went through and read the reviews and discovered something interesting.

The people who reviewed my game left constructive criticism!

Imagine! On the internet, someone left a review and critique that was helpful. Both reviews made excellent points, pointed out things I could’ve done better, and complimented things I did well. I’m awestruck! I’m making note of what the reviewers said so I can improve next time. This makes me very happy! I’ve got some good, constructive criticism that will help me improve in the future with my next game (already in development).

I’ve been reading and playing a lot of Twine games and getting a feel for how the stories are laid out and written. I’m learning more about Twine and some of the additions out there to make my games better. I’m working on my next game, coming up with new ideas and working my way around my old limitations and failings. These reviews will help me get a good handle on what I need to improve as well as what I do well already. I never quite know what I do well at and what I need to improve upon. I tend to work in a vacuum where not a lot of outside opinion and critique enters. Getting good reviews of my work is a great stepping stone!

I guess I just expected nobody would play my game or review it if they did. I’ve had similar experiences with other creative endeavors. I know I shouldn’t depend on the opinions and views of others but it’s nice to hear something, even if it isn’t the greatest news. It’s good to know what I need to work on, how I can improve, what needs work. It’s nice to receive compliments, too. 😀

Stories In Games

Sadness comes upon me at the completion of a game’s primary story line. The end, the finish, the completion of all I’ve worked towards through the line of the game. It’s an end I knew was coming, I knew I was working towards. Still, it does leave me a little depressed. It’s actually done, actually through, and now it’s time for side quests and additional story lines.

I can always play again, play as someone else, experiment with different limitations, try to reach every achievement, max out every possible feature. It’s not the same, though. That’s just fiddling around, being a perfectionist, nothing to do with the story. Even finishing off every potential section doesn’t really finish the game off. It’s still there. The story is the part that drives me, that carries me through and makes me come back for more. I’ve played multiplayer games and it’s nothing of the same need or desire, the same feeling of working your way through the tale.

It’s the same kind of sadness that comes on me when I finish reading a really good book or watching a great movie. That feeling that the story should continue on, being great, making you laugh, making you afraid. Reading the story again, starting over, isn’t the same thing. You know how it progresses. Now it’s just moving through the motions, going to all the same places, doing all the same things. It’s best when it feels fresh, feels new. When you’ve forgotten all the little things that make the story great and get to experience them all over again.

I’ll have to play some of the side missions, the additional features and zones, experience new stories, new characters, new places. There’s always that, plus eventually I can play through as a different character, use different powers and abilities, build up a new person and see how they play, what they can do. It’ll be fun all over again. I just have to give it time.

I like that games nowadays have more than just action and fighting. There’s story there. Character. There’s humor and distress and despair. There are parts where you laugh, where you feel sad, where you feel hatred. A good game, like a good movie or a good book, should integrate all the different emotions as well as possible. A one-emotion game puts you in a limited realm of experience. You end up going somewhere else for laughs, for love, for excitement, for terror. Games that draw you in and use all the different aspects and emotions feel right, feel solid.

So I’ll go back to my game, back to the same world, back to the place beyond the story. There’s other stories to explore, other characters to meet, other enemies to fight, other storylines to experience. Maybe I’ll start over, experience another storyline, see things from another perspective, try something new. Either way, I plan on having fun.

Desire and Quitting

I’ve wanted to quit many of the things I’ve done over the years. Quitting Drum Corps was difficult but had to be done. There was no way around it. I didn’t quit in the midst of a season, though. Once I’d committed myself to it I couldn’t turn away. I’m lucky in that I don’t have a horrible vice I need to quit but can’t. I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I don’t do anything drug-wise that is addictive. So far I haven’t had anything of the sort to have to quit.

I’ve never wanted to be a quitter. If I decide to do something, I see it through to the very end. Relationships, of course, don’t fall into this category. I keep bank accounts open for years even though I despise the bank. I drive the same car until the wheels fall off and the engine explodes. The people who rented to me for so many years loved me because I didn’t have problems, I paid on time, and I generally disappeared.

When I decided I wanted to quit games, it was more along the lines of quitting the hefty time I was spending daily in games. I still play games and I quite enjoy them. My favorite has to be JRPGs. I’ve been a nerd for RPGs since Final Fantasy first came out. I haven’t played all of them but I’ve played the majors. Final Fantasy one, three, seven, and ten. Chrono Trigger. Fallout one, two and three. I haven’t played World of Warcraft or Everquest because I can’t justify the massive investment in money and time those games require, interested though I may be.

A friend of mine has recently been forced to give up games. I don’t agree with this. I believe we should give up things we want to give up. If we’re forced by others to give something up, we hold some resentment because of it if we didn’t really want to give those things up. We can become bitter because of it. It’s a matter of desires. By forcing the severance there’s a rift there that has to be mended and handled. Maybe he wants to give up games for her, maybe not. Ultimately the decision is his to make. I just hope he doesn’t give up something he loves just because she told him to.

We’ve only got a limited span of time in our lives. Why aren’t we enjoying it to the fullest? Why should we give up on the things we love too soon? I’m not a quitter by nature. Who I am prevents me from letting it happen. I suppose part of me really likes my life the way it is. There’s no need to quit anything since I enjoy it all. I enjoy my love, my house, my car, my job, my friends, my games. Giving up those things would be giving up everything I like about being me. I hope my friend can realize that giving up something he loves is a bit like giving up something of himself. Life’s too short for that.

Writing, pt. 1

I always seem to start with a blank page, nothing in mind to write. I always seem to prefer writing in the evening. I haven’t tried writing in the morning but I haven’t been inclined to either. I like getting things done before I do any writing, get the requirements for the day resolved so I have a guilt-free writing experience.

I still haven’t fully eradicated distractions from my personal life. Clearing them from work is fairly straightforward: move much of what I read off into the evenings, block anything I go to on a regular basis, get work done. On the weekends and in the evenings is a different story. Offsetting what I was going to read during the day means there’s a buildup in the evening waiting for me that I go through  I can read quite fast but it’s still a lot to get through.

Games… I still have a problem with games. They’re so much fun. It’s a book, a puzzle, a maze, an action movie, and a conundrum all wrapped up in one. I get wrapped up so easily in games.

To my credit, I’ve had a nagging feeling I’ve needed to get writing done today while I was playing. It eventually moved me to get off my ass and get on my ass and write.

I might need to get some creative writing prompts. When I start writing the thing I usually write about is writing. Seems counterproductive. I’m going to start expanding out into different areas to write about and see if I can get some writing prompts. Or, you know, actually go out and do stuff to write about. Ha!

Munchkin

I play Munchkin regularly with friends. It’s fun times, giving me a chance to get out of the house and away from the computer and socialize. I get to hang with friends, have dinner, and for a few hours revel in silliness, backstabbing, wacky hi-jinks, snacking, profanities, rule questioning, and the regular bitterness of defeat.

There’s a house rule: Cthulhu wins at a certain time. Once that time comes and the round ends, nobody wins. We’ve all been playing Munchkin so long, in so many different flavors, that we’re well acquainted with all the ways to prevent victory. ALL the ways. We’ve descended into absolute wackiness in our attempts to prevent each other from reaching level two, from beating a level one potted plant, from keeping each other from winning.

Cthulhu wins a LOT.

There’s no bitterness over it, no anger. Not usually. Sometimes new people join the group and start playing. I enjoy having new people come around. It’s a breath of fresh air, a new take on something we’ve done for so long. For the most part these people integrate well into the group and there’s good times all around. Some folks keep coming back for more of the good stuff. Others don’t do so well with failure, with losing. Those people don’t stay around too long. Munchkin’s all about keeping others down. It happens. Deal with it.

Victories that come with a group like this are few and far between. They’re truly magnificent feats when they happen  Mostly. Sometimes it’s just luck or the simple wearing down towards the end of the game. If the fates really are with you, you can win, maybe.

Keep trying, have fun, and expect absolute failure in large quantities. Munchkin times are fun times!