Jane and I had a ton ‘o fun last night—started after supper and went to 12 midnight. Guild Wars 2. We really haven’t had so much fun since Might and Magic 4. The problems with most games are: bad art; bad maps; not-ready-for-prime-time glitches; and unsolvable puzzles or character requirements: 4 weeks into the game before you realize a mature jumping skill is requisite for the solution to the game and your mouse won’t do it, ergo your character can’t (Oblivion).
Well, we found a big online game with none of the show-stopping faults, and got heavily sunk into it with baby characters—and the fact that two people sitting side by side or across the country can separately run characters, link them up, and go solve problems together. I’m running a fire-throwing noble-born elementalist and Jane’s running a street-rat ranger with a big spotted cat for an ally, and we’re trashing fire drakes and bandits and having a ball. Lynn’s got the game at a higher level than we have, and we haven’t linked up with her yet, but we can: there’s a way to talk back and forth, even by audio, if you have headphones (not yet) and while my crappy mouse skills have me running into pillars and off stairways, I’m learning for a very practical reason: I’ve got a mouse I can marginally use, and my hands are starting to get just a little sore from the trackpoint mouse I tend to use while writing: since gran had bad arthritis, I pay attention to this warning. Gameplay may teach me to use a trackball efficiently yet.
And my guy is quite pretty, which is fun.
If any of you are gamers and want to give this one a spin, you buy the not-too-pricey disk, and that’s the last money you have to spend. You log on to a server: if any of you ask, we can tell you what server we’re on, which probably helps if you’re trying to ‘meet’ somebody on line; and beyond that, you just run around and have fun. Time just got away from us, and we realized it was midnight.
Sounds like fun! My daughter and I have played Runescape for years, but I’ve not heard of Guild Wars2. We’ll check it out!
I am such a gaming n00b, I never really got into it. Why, I don’t know. — Gosh, it sounds like y’all had a ton of fun. No idea how I’d do in a modern immersive game like that. — Why is it I don’t expect you two to be big on games? And yet you’ve both mentioned it before. — I wonder what my gamer alter ego would be like.
(I had really liked the anime, dot hack sign, which has something like .//sign for its logo. The anime centers around characters in an online VR game with a fine surprise ending.)
I had a number of complaints about World of Warcraft that Guild Wars 2 addressed handily – made the game far more enjoyable and playable. Aside from being very pretty, even at my low graphics settings, it has a reasonably engaging storyline as well.
I find using the mouse to move in this sort of game far less reliable (which is to say, I too run into pillars and off stairways) than assigning movement keys to the number pad. (Every game I have allows me to do that—except Skyrim, which makes trying to play it a royal pain.)
You didn’t mention what races your characters are, but I can’t recommend the Asura highly enough. Their dialogue is an absolute hoot!
DH and I are currently engrossed in Star Trek Online, which went free-to-play a couple of years ago. A friend mentioned that the Serenity ‘Verse will be bringing out an online game later this year in beta; we hope to get in on that as well.
Most online games should have keyboard based movement in addition to mouse/pointer movement, ie., use the ‘e’ key to walk forward, the space bar to jump, etc. Relying on only one or the other leads to *headdesk*.
There are a number of online ways to set up chat. We use Ventrilo, which requires a small fee and some setup on your own computer to act as a server. Once you do that, you designate a key on your keyboard to activate your microphone and you can talk to others ingame who are on your Ventrilo gateway just like using Skype. It might be nice to be able to talk with Lynn remotely (you can just shout across the room at Jane :D).
Jane and I used to love computer gaming back in the days of Might and Magic 6, but the games got too wow-heavy, story sucked, and they sacrificed speed to graphics, which, once you’d seen, you’d seen. I played the opening scenario of one game I’d planned for a major Christmas prezzie, and it sucked so badly I felt like shredding the disc. This one has us excited again. We had a hoot last night, and we’re thinking strategy to beat a hard scenario rather than dissing the creators: this is a good sign.
I’ve lost many an hour to computer games, although I go for the single player logic/puzzle type games. Every six months or so I drop a wad of virtual cash at BigFish.com and get my fix of hidden object, logic puzzle, match-3, and time management games. For those leery of such sites, I’ve been buying games (from $2.99 to $13.99 depending on game, sale discounts, etc) for 7 years and have never had a problem. Buy six games, get a free game! Endlessly playable, yours to download forever, and thousands of games to choose from. I have 70 at this point, I think, many of them free. (avg price is $6.99) Once downloaded, you don’t have to be on the internet anymore, which is a real consideration for those of us in the back of beyond.
Oh, and you can download a free 1 hr trial before buying. Then if you want it, you buy it and they activate it for you online, and you can continue where you left off. Mac and PC, make sure you’re in the right section. You have to join the Game Club for the discounts, but since you can join, download, purchase, and cancel membership all in the same day, joining and cancelling is no big deal.
Sorry for the commercial, but I LOVE BigFish, and I got my mom addicted too! And she hates computers! GAME ON!!
Yay, BigFish. I love those FHO games, too. I have a short tonne of them myself. I wait for the specials and get the collector’s editions whenever I can. The try before you buy option is good too because there are swine among the pearls.
Game on, indeed. My other vice is mahjongg solitaire, which is an individualized game of matching patterns combined with pick up sticks. You have to match tiles, but you also can only ‘lift’ those with exposed edges.
Keeps the brain sharp.
Mahjongg is great! I have a version on all my computers. My favorite is Mah Jong Quest, which has special tiles, like bombs and wind storms, to help free up tiles for extraction, as well as a story to follow. 🙂
That sounds like a good one. I love Mah Jong.
If you’ve got a PC, BigFish has Mah Jong Quest 2 you could try. The Mac version may not be available anymore. 🙁
Ma Jong uses the eyes in a different way, too. Restful. Like giving your eyes a good relaxing stretch after a day of staring at print. Spider solitare, Cubis Gold, and Jewel Quest are my big time wasters. Cubis gold is a shooter kind of game, and Jewel Quest you have to match three to turn squares gold and get all the squares in a game board turned gold.
I’m enjoying Guild Wars 2 — it’s very well designed for having people help each other out. (This leads to the “zerg” phenomenon you can spot rushing around Queensdale, but it completely avoids “ninja” behavior, “griefing”, etc.)
The norn are also hilarious.
“Daddy, can I use your new sword to kill that spider on the wall?” “Sure thing, snowflake, just be sure to dedicate your kill to Bear!”
Lol! We got caught in a zerg in the bandit caverns; I’m totally new to this world, but my guy has a ring of fire that hits only enemies, so I just got in the middle of the scrum and loosed that and general fire stuff, and ended up with quite a lot of nice stuff. 🙂 I at least stay solvent in this game, which beats having to go about New Sorpigal (M&M) picking herbs to sell to get a repair on the armor.
As you get used to the options on the elementalist, there are fun moves you can learn— using one attack to create a field that sets up a combo with a subsequent attack, equipping your weapons with a sigil that operates when you switch elements, buying traits that make your play style more effective. (I like the ones that cut down on falling damage, as I tend to fall off the jumping puzzles a lot!)
You kids with your massive online games. Me and the other old folks will be over here with our pencils and twenty sided dice feeling old.
Heh, what you mean ‘we’, White Man? Our gaming group has been running for about 20 years now. We primarily do Hero Systems, although we have used D&D, GURPS, Wooden Ships and Iron Men, Iron Kingdoms, 7th Sea, Age of Conan, Shadowrun, and several other systems whose names escape me. Plus any number of fast tabletop card games to fill in between times. We don’t have gaming conventions out here, so we created our own; Hanathon is in its 18th year now. How about a nice game of Guillotine, or Family Business?
Family Business? The Mayfair card game?
Yep! Vinny’s going to have to ‘take it on the lam’… Guillotine is a somewhat bloody-minded yet silly game about the French Revolution, and who’s taking a tumbrel ride.
Several of our group play Magic, but that’s always been a little too intense for me.
The ties between Thieves’ World and Mayfair were deep back in the 80s and gave me the chance to learn “Family Business” from its creators—the very definition of a memorable evening!
I run one of those on Friday nights, though it’s Fate-based, so we never get out the d20s.
This is a new one to me. Thanks for hipping me to it. I’ll have to see if anyone’s demoing at the next con I attend. I usually use GURPS, but I’m looking for systems that are easier to get newbies into.
Check out Fate Accelerated for a stripped-down version that’s really easy to get newbies into. I really like Fate because the emphasis is on storytelling, and any time someone comes up with something that the mechanics don’t address, I just say “okay, you created a narrative aspect that you can now make use of”.
So house rules simply become rules. Or, rather, you just chuck the rule for the story. This sounds like a good idea for tournament games. Get it up quick, keep it moving because you only got a couple of hours. Definitely going to check this out.
If you like interesting dice, you might like the Doublesix kickstarter: d12’s numbered 1–6, 1–4, and FUDGE-style.
If I were to get into an MMO, Guild Wars 2 is at the top of my list. OTOH, I’m a little resistant to multiplayer gaming online. I got into it once before, and the (self-imposed, to be sure) responsibilities to other players to be online got to disrupting my sleep schedule. If you don’t play as much as your partners (who may have all the time in the world), you don’t support them as much as you could. So, I tend to do multiplayer in person with European style board games. Since I just had occasion to look at this yesterday, here’s a sample of these games for the curious: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Board_Game_Gift_Guide_2013
CJ, I’m confused. Are you using a trackball or an actual mouse-mouse? I have a pad on my laptop, which is a nice change from the mice I usually use. But, I would think the best thing to give fingers a rest would be a mouse-mouse, using more wrist and fingers just unprecisely for clicking.
Best you stay in playing games. I hear they let anybody drive in Spokane! 😉
Dear me, has Spokane made the national headlines again?
Re the mouse, Walt, I have a hand tremor I’ve had since childhood, and it plays hob with a mouse I have to steer. This giant trackball (red ball, teardrop shape, logitech) lets me brace my hand on the body and move it with my fingers, hence no tremor. Which is a good thing, and the game is really good for teaching coordination—if you’re being shot at, you have a real motive to learn to maneuver. 😉
I understand now. I do something similar when I need to move a mouse precisely: put the heel of my hand on the table, and move the mouse mostly with my thumb and little finger, sometimes rolling my fingers or hand to nudge the mouse just that little bit.
In my few experiences with trackballs, I’ve been unable to keep the cursor off the edge of the screen. Zoom to the left! Zoom to the right! No middle ground for me…. 😉 I have big hands: I probably needed something like a bowling ball sized trackball.
And, yes, being shot at concentrates the mind wonderfully!
I was a confirmed, twenty-year-plus trackball user, but had to get a mouse for GW2. I got the Logitech G500 because it has a customizable weight package that bulks it up and makes it easier to control and a “fine tuning” adjustment that controls the ratio of hand movement to screen-cursor movement. I thought I’d only use it for GW2, but I’ve wound up using it for everything.
I got a very neat little item that provides a mouse surface on the chair arm and there is hope I might be able to use an actual mouse if the game ends up demanding it. If I can relax enough, even in the heat of game play, it helps the tremor.
If I were to get one of those, Zorro would take it over; she already stomps back and forth over the keyboard, the existing chair arm, whatever acreage is available on the desk… Are you sure your 2 beasts wouldn’t take liberties? They already send coffee cups flying 🙂
I had to chime in, days late that I may be – Guild Wars 2 is VERY fun. I, too, played a great deal of World of Warcraft (not so much, now, sub fees)…and FHO, too…
I’ve still got GW2. I was very fond of my pretty little fire flinging chick! Even if she did die a lot, since I never seem to get the hang of the dodging mechanic 😛
But I just wanted to say “Woooo!” because I too would not have expected you guys to enjoy any of the modern MMOs. I don’t know why any more than BlueCatShip did. Silly me 😀
GW2 gets even more fun when you are able to get a group of folks together!
I’d started playing games on the Apple ][e (Wizardry, Ultima, Zork, all the “classics”). I brought Might & Magic with me when I moved to OKC from Michigan…and it was downhill for Jane and CJ from there.
I’ve played GW2 since near launch, but hit burn out a couple months ago and took a break, and will hop back in on occasion to play. I have a ranger and a mesmer at 80, the ranger is a short/longbow swap and is a hoot to play. The game itself is gorgeous, as is the music.
The way level exemping works means you can have a higher level character play with lower level characters just fine.
My characters are on Darkhaven, but with the magic of guesting, can play with anyone on any server. The only thing that can’t be done without transferring to another server is WvW (World vs. World).
I play using a trackball ( this one: http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/wireless-trackball-m570?crid=8 ), but that’s the trackball I’ve used for mumble, mumble years. It works for me as a leftie I have better motor control using the thumbball to move the mouse and I can use this for hours on end without any pain in my wrist. Logitech only has the wireless version now, but the battery life on it is ridiculously long.
I’m doing pretty well on it…got an Elementalist human male; a Ranger human male; a Norn engineer female, and all about 10-12 in about a week. There’s a learning curve—figuring how not to drown. Pairing up with a stronger character to go where fools rush in… The engineer is surprisingly fun, and her quick-set gatling gun turret does even the odds a bit and makes up for my slight clumsiness with the mouse…