Looking for a game
The Internet almost always has what you're looking for. The problem is finding it. For the last week, I've felt like I should track down some good Paper Mario fanfiction. Then I realized that it'd take longer to find something good than it would to read it even if I knew where to look. I need recommendations, because otherwise I'll feel obliged to trawl through everything to find the good stuff. Or just sit home, not read it because I won't have the time to do it properly, and wonder if anybody shares my theory about Midna being Count Bleck's daughter.
Likewise with MMORPGs. Isabel has started playing Animal Crossing: City Folk. I'm looking for more games. There are about 200, depending on who's counting. It's hard to find good information on them. I mean, I can find out if a dancer can wield a longsword or if an axe does more damage than a sword in a specific game. Or that they totally nerfed mages. But if you haven't picked a game, it's really difficult to find good information about what a specific game is like. One review site, every game has between a 7 and 8.5 rating. About 30% of the reviews give it a 1 and say you're an idiot for playing it. 70% give the game a 10 and say they're not idiots. It's not helpful. I can't make an informed decision, so I can't make a decision. Even if I find one I like, I'll be wondering if I could've found one that's better.
I've found a few 'review' sites, but they're not helpful. "You can play as an elf" doesn't tell me what a game is like. "You can have three different kinds of spiky hair" doesn't tell me what a game is like. The reviews I've seen give you a four page writeup of the world's history and show you a screenshot with ten guys casting spells at each other and dozens of glowy numbers. I don't chose a game by how glowy the numbers are. Look at Final Battle Adventure Online. The numbers are hardly glowy at all.
"You have four attributes. Two of them are irrelevant, depending on what class you are. You put points into them when you level up." tells me a bit about the game. "If you put points in the wrong one, you're screwed unless you pay us $5 per point to reset it" tells me even more about the game.
I'm not really sure what I'm looking for, but here's what I've got so far.
Pay or Free? No preference. I can afford $15 a month. However, before I spend $50 or more on a game, I want to be sure I like it. I actually prefer a flat fee to a "free" game where you have to pay a la carte for basic functionality.
Death Penalty? No. Or not much. On Maple Story, it takes a huge amount of grinding to level. There's no way to tell how powerful a new monster is. If it kills you in one hit, which it might, you can lose days of work. Not fun. I understand that it's more realistic for actions to have drastic consequences. That's why I don't fight alligators in real life. If I accidentally pull four red slimes instead of three, I don't want to spend another week treading water.
Sociability? Not really. I'm not really into guilds or such. I play odd, irregular hours. I'd rather not have a group of three people who expect me to be on from two to four-thirty every day. If I'm playing a game where I'm supposed to be part of a group, I want to be able to easily find a pickup group, and I prefer quiet, competent people to interesting ones. I realize this is more to do with the players than the game, but that's such as it is.
So I'm open to suggestions. Either a game or a good review site. Or Paper Mario fanfiction. Either way, really.
Likewise with MMORPGs. Isabel has started playing Animal Crossing: City Folk. I'm looking for more games. There are about 200, depending on who's counting. It's hard to find good information on them. I mean, I can find out if a dancer can wield a longsword or if an axe does more damage than a sword in a specific game. Or that they totally nerfed mages. But if you haven't picked a game, it's really difficult to find good information about what a specific game is like. One review site, every game has between a 7 and 8.5 rating. About 30% of the reviews give it a 1 and say you're an idiot for playing it. 70% give the game a 10 and say they're not idiots. It's not helpful. I can't make an informed decision, so I can't make a decision. Even if I find one I like, I'll be wondering if I could've found one that's better.
I've found a few 'review' sites, but they're not helpful. "You can play as an elf" doesn't tell me what a game is like. "You can have three different kinds of spiky hair" doesn't tell me what a game is like. The reviews I've seen give you a four page writeup of the world's history and show you a screenshot with ten guys casting spells at each other and dozens of glowy numbers. I don't chose a game by how glowy the numbers are. Look at Final Battle Adventure Online. The numbers are hardly glowy at all.
"You have four attributes. Two of them are irrelevant, depending on what class you are. You put points into them when you level up." tells me a bit about the game. "If you put points in the wrong one, you're screwed unless you pay us $5 per point to reset it" tells me even more about the game.
I'm not really sure what I'm looking for, but here's what I've got so far.
Pay or Free? No preference. I can afford $15 a month. However, before I spend $50 or more on a game, I want to be sure I like it. I actually prefer a flat fee to a "free" game where you have to pay a la carte for basic functionality.
Death Penalty? No. Or not much. On Maple Story, it takes a huge amount of grinding to level. There's no way to tell how powerful a new monster is. If it kills you in one hit, which it might, you can lose days of work. Not fun. I understand that it's more realistic for actions to have drastic consequences. That's why I don't fight alligators in real life. If I accidentally pull four red slimes instead of three, I don't want to spend another week treading water.
Sociability? Not really. I'm not really into guilds or such. I play odd, irregular hours. I'd rather not have a group of three people who expect me to be on from two to four-thirty every day. If I'm playing a game where I'm supposed to be part of a group, I want to be able to easily find a pickup group, and I prefer quiet, competent people to interesting ones. I realize this is more to do with the players than the game, but that's such as it is.
So I'm open to suggestions. Either a game or a good review site. Or Paper Mario fanfiction. Either way, really.