So... new hobby?
Jesse invited Sara and me over to his place tonight to learn how to play WoTC's newest miniature game: Dreamblade. I bought a starter set and we played 3 games tonight. The games themselves take about 30 minutes each, which is cool, 'cause they take up enough time to be a time-waster and satisfying to finish, but not so long that the games drag on forever. All in all, it's a pretty cool game.
Drawback? As with all collectible games, it costs a *lot* of money to buy the pieces necessary to be competitive with anyone other than casual players. What's worse is that, since it's a new game, there aren't many players at all. The good news, though, is that, since it's new and there are few players, competition for cash prizes seems sparse, even though what exists is pretty tough. The thing is, though, that practicing and learning the game is difficult to do unless you have friends who play, as well. While Jesse is available for such practicing, he's not available all the time, and he's also kinda far away if I'm just in the mood for a quick game. Sara's not likely to be very interested in spending a lot of money to be "good" so my options for opponents are fairly limited. I'm thinking of seeing what these no-reward Edge tournaments are like one of these days. Realistically, I think Jesse's interested in getting me to play so that he has some local friendly competition to play against, outside of tournaments. I certainly don't mind =P
Anyways, Jesse mentioned that there was a way to play Dreamblade online, so I looked it up, downloaded the mod, and connected to the server. And man, was I disappointed. Don't get me wrong; I'm a programmer, too, and I know that it's a bitch to get things running cleanly and smoothely, and that's just for simple programs like "add two 45-digit numbers!" Just adding in graphics is a bitch by itself, but figuring out a way to network users over a server complicates things even more.
However, my point is that the program looks and plays like crap. It's free, so I've got no right to complain, but, free or not, I can still qualify the overall quality of the program. And I gotta admit... you get exactly what you pay for with the online Dreamblade server, hosted by the VASSAL engine. That got me thinking ... could I do better? I honestly have no idea how to deal with networking, nor do I have any experience with graphical programming, but as Dreamblade becomes more and more popular, an online version of play will be demanded more and more ... and if I could get my name stuck to "the premier online Dreamblade game" then that'd be a pretty cool thing to stick on my resumé.
Unfortunately, I'm having enough trouble as it is finding time to work for FERI, in between my classes, homework, projects, and my renewed attempts at maintaining a semi-social life. Cramming in a completely new project that I'd have to do research on, etc, would cut into all of that other time even more. But it *does* sound like loads of fun, and probably the best learning experience I'll get with regards to programming for at least another 2-3 semesters.
Eh, I gotta get back to work. Meandering thoughts... go away!
Drawback? As with all collectible games, it costs a *lot* of money to buy the pieces necessary to be competitive with anyone other than casual players. What's worse is that, since it's a new game, there aren't many players at all. The good news, though, is that, since it's new and there are few players, competition for cash prizes seems sparse, even though what exists is pretty tough. The thing is, though, that practicing and learning the game is difficult to do unless you have friends who play, as well. While Jesse is available for such practicing, he's not available all the time, and he's also kinda far away if I'm just in the mood for a quick game. Sara's not likely to be very interested in spending a lot of money to be "good" so my options for opponents are fairly limited. I'm thinking of seeing what these no-reward Edge tournaments are like one of these days. Realistically, I think Jesse's interested in getting me to play so that he has some local friendly competition to play against, outside of tournaments. I certainly don't mind =P
Anyways, Jesse mentioned that there was a way to play Dreamblade online, so I looked it up, downloaded the mod, and connected to the server. And man, was I disappointed. Don't get me wrong; I'm a programmer, too, and I know that it's a bitch to get things running cleanly and smoothely, and that's just for simple programs like "add two 45-digit numbers!" Just adding in graphics is a bitch by itself, but figuring out a way to network users over a server complicates things even more.
However, my point is that the program looks and plays like crap. It's free, so I've got no right to complain, but, free or not, I can still qualify the overall quality of the program. And I gotta admit... you get exactly what you pay for with the online Dreamblade server, hosted by the VASSAL engine. That got me thinking ... could I do better? I honestly have no idea how to deal with networking, nor do I have any experience with graphical programming, but as Dreamblade becomes more and more popular, an online version of play will be demanded more and more ... and if I could get my name stuck to "the premier online Dreamblade game" then that'd be a pretty cool thing to stick on my resumé.
Unfortunately, I'm having enough trouble as it is finding time to work for FERI, in between my classes, homework, projects, and my renewed attempts at maintaining a semi-social life. Cramming in a completely new project that I'd have to do research on, etc, would cut into all of that other time even more. But it *does* sound like loads of fun, and probably the best learning experience I'll get with regards to programming for at least another 2-3 semesters.
Eh, I gotta get back to work. Meandering thoughts... go away!