I win at the nethacks

[inhumandecency]

For the new year, I decided to give another try to some vices I had sworn off (I guess that's like the opposite of making resolutions). So I started a new game of nethack. My first two characters got wiped out by what was basically the Gnome With the Randomly Generated Wand of Death, but just when I was about to give up, my third had a ridiculously

Comments

[catbirdgirl]

I once had to use hypnosis to make myself lose interest in nethack for several years. I stayed up all night on a regular basis to play in my early 20s. Even now I have mostly not been interested in a while.

and I have never ascended.

however WOW, secret society wars, Kingdom of Loathing, even the Sims can do the same thing to me.

[kayshabeast]

While in my adulthood, I have mostly learned to moderate my game-playing and have eliminated games from my life that I can't control myself on (basically, MUDs and MMOs), there is one series of console games that I just can't play in moderation. Alas, the 4th installment of this game happens to have come out over the holidays, and alas, I am playing it now. Oh, Persona 4. You eat my life.

Yesterday, I forgot to: eat, go to the bathroom (until it was very very urgent), walk my dog, go to the gym, shower, do the laundry, and do some online banking stuff. I was also supposed to write the syllabus for the class I am starting to teach today, but it was a no go. I have a Persona problem. The worst part is that when it's over, I'll probably be all depressed and mopey (at least I was last time I played a Persona game). Maybe I'll aspire to move on as you have this time around...

[inhumandecency]

The way I've been thinking about it is that I'd been staying up late and eschewing social contact to read a novel, most people I know wouldn't bat an eye. So I've been judging different objects of obsession by how far they diverge from that. Most video games take much longer to get through than a novel, so that's a problem. With a game like Nethack there's high replay value, which makes it even worse. But then there are MMOs, which don't even have an ending. There's always new content, and there's never a sense of resolution. Add that to social connectedness within the game, and it starts to seem like a distressingly strong replacement for real life...

[nfnitperplexity]

Congratulations! Did you wish for the Platinum Yendorian Express Card?

There's actually not all that much difference among classes in the late game, though - they all pretty much become dual-wielding regenerating fast stealthy DPS sniper cleric tanks. The really big differences are in the early levels, when the difference between valkyrie's starting gear and stats and a tourist's starting gear and stats....well, let's just say I know which one I'd rather take into combat against a housecat.

[inhumandecency]

No, I just wished for magic markers and amulets of life saving. My god threw so many artifacts at me as sacrifice gifts that there was a pretty good chance wishing for another one wouldn't even work. Anyway, isn't the PYEC neutral-aligned? If my character became able to use it, he'd have to commit seppuku later.

[inhumandecency]

(: at the housecat reference.

You know, the wizard's starting pet is a kitten. The game is actually designed to allow you to take the lv. 1 housecat challenge!

[tanac]

God, Jeff just got me sucked back into nethack. I hadn't played since college (the first time), and never played it truly seriously then.

Since it's aggravating my rsi's, I should stop playing it now, especially since I'll never bother reading enough of the hacks to get seriously good at it (best so far is someplace around level 30, after finishing the gnomish mines and sudoku or whatever those levels are, totally with cheats).

[inhumandecency]

Sokoban, which I think in america is sometimes called boxxle! Although sudoku in Nethack would be a blast, by which I mean a self-hating kludge on a level with dot matrix printer tetris.

[cherdt]

Excellent! As someone who has spent countless hours battling ASCII monsters and 2-color sprites, I salute you.

I wasted a lot of time on a Rogue-like game called Omega. I'm pretty sure I've won the game, but the goals of the game were multiple and fairly unclear. In fact, the only way the game would tell you that you won is if you retired your character to become a NPC in the game. And you could do that at any time. I think that was trying to tell me something important, but I never listened.