I’ve been thinking about setting up my own (non-sports) blog. Booyor, tell me what you know about WordPress plug-ins. Any links or the like would be most helpful, of course.
Not so much a post, but a discussion
Reply
Author Archives: Devin
Video games and dice
Brian’s been focusing on the dangers of the real world lately, so in the interests of proper ying-yang balance and chi flow of the blog (or something), I will step up to supply some entertainment for you.
Today, I don’t have much to offer, quantity-wise, but I feel the quality makes up for it. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the trailer for Lego Batman. I, personally, am always excited when I see someone’s breaking out of Arkham, and if you toss in my love for Legos? Looks like a winner to me.
In your Calendar of Obscure and Largely Made-up Holidays, you might notice that today is GM’s Day, so be sure to give your game master, dungeon master, or story teller a quick thanks for their hard work, interesting plot lines, and extreme amounts of patience in not killing off your entire party out of frustration. Thanks, guys. Without you, we’d just be weirdos sitting in our living room, tossing around strangely shaped pieces of plastic. With your help, we’re Jedi, or half-elf mages, or dashing bandits, or mech pilots, or…
I’m afraid my post isn’t all good news, though. On GM’s Day, it seems oddly fitting to find out that Gary Gygax, the man at least partially responsible for the entire hobby, has passed away. I can only hope that an overly-elaborate, multi-level mausoleum will be built, and he’ll be buried with several powerful magical items that can only be retrieved by defeating the dozens of monsters that patrol the hallways.
Finally, in more of a middling ground, I enjoyed this article about Grim Fandango, one of those games that was entertaining, but difficult to market, and thus failed commercially. It was a somewhat odd game, but very fun. It was, as I recall, one of the first games I played on CD-ROM, and one of the last “adventure games” I recall coming out before the genre was grievously wounded by FPS, RTS, and console games. Unfortunate.
In which I abuse a simile
The cool thing about driving through a snowstorm is it’s like traveling through hyperspace. The snow turns into cool white streaks that just rush at the windshield. It is pretty cool.
The unfortunate thing about driving through a snowstorm is it’s like traveling through hyperspace- it ain’t like dusting crops, boy. Without paying very close attention, you could drive through a patch of black ice or bounce too close to a snowy shoulder, and that’d end your trip real quick, wouldn’t it? It’s a little nerve-wracking, especially late at night, which seems to be when I end up driving through snow storms most often. Unfortunate.
But it is really pretty.
Tycho plays it right
I’m sure people already read Penny Arcade, but this strip makes me laugh on so many levels. First off, it echoes one of my own (occasional) tendencies when it comes to RPGs. I know people always want to play the cool, legendary character- Luke Skywalker or Corran Horn. But they’re supposed to be special, exceptions to the norm. It always drives me crazy when the majority of a group are “exceptions”- sure, it’s cool to be a Jedi in a galaxy where only a handful of Jedi exist, but only a handful of Jedi exist. Why are four of them hanging out in a freighter on the Outer Rim for no reason, as many RPG groups seem to be?
As a corollary to this, so many players seem to ignore guys like Han Solo or Wedge Antilles- regular guys who are really good at what they do through innate skill, training, and practice, who are famous for doing what needed to be done at the right moment. Even more ignored is the guy who’s flying the Y-Wing that survived the attack on the first Death Star. I want to know about that guy. That guy might have an interesting story, and I want to explore it. That’s why most MMORPGs are not for me. Most MMORPGs don’t let you play that guy.
The perfect example is the Lord of the Rings MMORPG. I would, under the right circumstances, play it. What circumstances, you ask? Excellent question, that just allows me to continue the paragraph. Thank you. I would want to play a Hobbit. I don’t want to spend time off adventuring or what-have-you, killing monsters or hunting treasure. No, I want to advance in levels based solely off my horticultural prowess, I want to find items like Rohirrim Trowel of Excellence, I want to be the finest gardener that the Shire has ever seen. After that, perhaps I’ll expand into cooking. Most online RPGs won’t let me do that, though, which is why I don’t bother with them.
On the other hand, the comic also makes me laugh, because it reminds me of the Star Wars RPG my freshman year of college. My character had built up quite a rivalry with Brian’s character, and then my character’s ego was crushed when Brian was the only party member who could translate something for me. Learning languages is important!