Games, games and more games (also, work and finances)
Aside from headaches and mice and preparing to move to Waltham, my life lately has consisted of a lot of gaming related activities that you all may be interested in.
Firstly, I've developed an strong interest in game design and analysis. Yeah, I know, this is totally surprising to all of you. I've been reading a lot on these topics, as well as working in my copious spare time on three different computer games. One is puzzle game working titled "Shiny" and a cooperative effort with bronzite, which means it's being done in Visual Basic. I got a couple Visual Basic books from the library yesterday, which I'm hoping will allow me to do so substantial programming on Shiny. The second, "Motion Magic" is totally beyonds my means to do complete or even prototype, seeing as it's a graphical MMORPG. However, it is a lot of fun to come up with stuff for. The last one is an ASCII graphics game, working titled "Atonat" that is in very beginning stages of design, but I am disinclined to say more about on an open internet.
Relatedly, being sick in bed is good for reading. I've run out of readily available good fiction, and have a stack of game design textbooks borrowed over the summer from friends in the WPI game development program (Thanks to techiemikey and Chrisco). So in the last week I finished reading Edward Castronova's Synthetic Worlds and read Everything Bad Is Good For You, and started skimming Contemporary Perspectives in Game Design. Synthetic Worlds is a fascinating, though densely academic, look at MMORPGs from a serious standpoint. High points include the chapter which attempts to give a non-gamer a sense of what playing a MMORPG is like, the chapter on what makes an economy "fun", and the discussions of permeable economic and political boundaries between synthetic worlds and Earth. Everything Bad Is Good For You looks at how modern pop culture, mostly games and TV, affects people and reflects their desires from the unusual perspective of mental stimulation rather than the common one of values. Its argument that current media requires more mental effort than previously is well argued. Contemporary Perspective... was the only one of these books I was not impressed with, for two reasons. One is that it is very clearly a textbook having discussion problems and probably needs an instructors help for most people to gain all the required background. Secondly, the focus is rather strongly on analog wargames specifically, and if you are unfamiliar with these and/or uninterested large sections of the book are unparseable and/or boring. There are, however, good sections of the book that I found worth reading.
A couple times in the past people people have mentioned that I would probably like YoHoHo Puzzle Pirates and wandering the internet yesterday I came across the free trial version. The result: I agree with people that I would almost certainly love this game. There are a few problems. One, money: the game developers naturally want money for their game and I certainly can't blame them. However, right now my financial situation is awkward*. So I shouldn't start paying another monthly entertainment fee (I am already paying for World of Warcraft and Live365 and have subscriptions for those out for another 4 months or so). The appropriate solution is of course to start a trial and then switch to paid when I have money again, assuming I can resist until then. Before I'll do that though I need to decide which "ocean" (i.e. server) to play on, which is determined by two main factors, payment scheme and people. So first off I want to ask all of you, do you play this game already? If so, on what ocean? If not, would you be interested in starting? As for payment schemes there are two, one which is the standard dollars per month and opens the whole game, the other is a a-la-cart method where you can by a special in-game currency for real money which is then used to unlock individual features. Personally, I'm inclined to try the a-la-cart method simply to see how it works (though it may also be cheaper for me), but playing with friends is very appealing and I'd like to know if the two will conflict before making a decision.
EDIT:
Also new in my gaming repertoire is that I'm going to be co-running a LARP. This is new challenge but I believe this game to be worth the effort. Specifically, the game Marlowe 2020 a Shakespeare/Cyberpunk mashup that I played at Intercon. Shameless plug: Game is at WPI on June 16th at 1pm and there are still open slots. If you want to play and haven't done so already, send me an email at [username] at gmail.
END EDIT
*Right now my financial situation is awkward in that I have no income, my liquid assets are limited until July, and I have no idea what my situation will be like in 3 months to a year, but it will almost certainly be different potentially by a lot. Relatedly, I am looking for a part-time low-to-medium stress job in the Boston/Metrowest area to start in June. If anyone knows of someone hiring for that type of position that would want, well, me for it, please let me know. You can describe me as "a smart, mathematical, college graduate with strong pattern recognition skills and a good work ethic" to hiring folks if you want. Thanks!
Firstly, I've developed an strong interest in game design and analysis. Yeah, I know, this is totally surprising to all of you. I've been reading a lot on these topics, as well as working in my copious spare time on three different computer games. One is puzzle game working titled "Shiny" and a cooperative effort with bronzite, which means it's being done in Visual Basic. I got a couple Visual Basic books from the library yesterday, which I'm hoping will allow me to do so substantial programming on Shiny. The second, "Motion Magic" is totally beyonds my means to do complete or even prototype, seeing as it's a graphical MMORPG. However, it is a lot of fun to come up with stuff for. The last one is an ASCII graphics game, working titled "Atonat" that is in very beginning stages of design, but I am disinclined to say more about on an open internet.
Relatedly, being sick in bed is good for reading. I've run out of readily available good fiction, and have a stack of game design textbooks borrowed over the summer from friends in the WPI game development program (Thanks to techiemikey and Chrisco). So in the last week I finished reading Edward Castronova's Synthetic Worlds and read Everything Bad Is Good For You, and started skimming Contemporary Perspectives in Game Design. Synthetic Worlds is a fascinating, though densely academic, look at MMORPGs from a serious standpoint. High points include the chapter which attempts to give a non-gamer a sense of what playing a MMORPG is like, the chapter on what makes an economy "fun", and the discussions of permeable economic and political boundaries between synthetic worlds and Earth. Everything Bad Is Good For You looks at how modern pop culture, mostly games and TV, affects people and reflects their desires from the unusual perspective of mental stimulation rather than the common one of values. Its argument that current media requires more mental effort than previously is well argued. Contemporary Perspective... was the only one of these books I was not impressed with, for two reasons. One is that it is very clearly a textbook having discussion problems and probably needs an instructors help for most people to gain all the required background. Secondly, the focus is rather strongly on analog wargames specifically, and if you are unfamiliar with these and/or uninterested large sections of the book are unparseable and/or boring. There are, however, good sections of the book that I found worth reading.
A couple times in the past people people have mentioned that I would probably like YoHoHo Puzzle Pirates and wandering the internet yesterday I came across the free trial version. The result: I agree with people that I would almost certainly love this game. There are a few problems. One, money: the game developers naturally want money for their game and I certainly can't blame them. However, right now my financial situation is awkward*. So I shouldn't start paying another monthly entertainment fee (I am already paying for World of Warcraft and Live365 and have subscriptions for those out for another 4 months or so). The appropriate solution is of course to start a trial and then switch to paid when I have money again, assuming I can resist until then. Before I'll do that though I need to decide which "ocean" (i.e. server) to play on, which is determined by two main factors, payment scheme and people. So first off I want to ask all of you, do you play this game already? If so, on what ocean? If not, would you be interested in starting? As for payment schemes there are two, one which is the standard dollars per month and opens the whole game, the other is a a-la-cart method where you can by a special in-game currency for real money which is then used to unlock individual features. Personally, I'm inclined to try the a-la-cart method simply to see how it works (though it may also be cheaper for me), but playing with friends is very appealing and I'd like to know if the two will conflict before making a decision.
EDIT:
Also new in my gaming repertoire is that I'm going to be co-running a LARP. This is new challenge but I believe this game to be worth the effort. Specifically, the game Marlowe 2020 a Shakespeare/Cyberpunk mashup that I played at Intercon. Shameless plug: Game is at WPI on June 16th at 1pm and there are still open slots. If you want to play and haven't done so already, send me an email at [username] at gmail.
END EDIT
*Right now my financial situation is awkward in that I have no income, my liquid assets are limited until July, and I have no idea what my situation will be like in 3 months to a year, but it will almost certainly be different potentially by a lot. Relatedly, I am looking for a part-time low-to-medium stress job in the Boston/Metrowest area to start in June. If anyone knows of someone hiring for that type of position that would want, well, me for it, please let me know. You can describe me as "a smart, mathematical, college graduate with strong pattern recognition skills and a good work ethic" to hiring folks if you want. Thanks!