Warcraft, Skinner Boxes, and Netti Pots
If you don't know what a Skinner Box is, I suggest you look it up. Why, you ask? Because This.
That's right, MMO's are like a digital Skinner Box. In other words, a rat in a box hitting a button to get a treat. Hint: You're the rat.
I recently canceled my World of Warcraft subscription (unrelated to that article there, actually) out of boredom. The grinding finally got as boring as watching shit dry, and raiding is sort of like participating in a group game of monkey-hump-the-football.
Even though I've got the sort of OCD personality that I can get hooked on games like that very very easily, I do seem to hit a threshold where I lose all interest. FOr Diablo 2, it was earning the best item in the game. After that, lost all interest. For WoW, it was the 100 mount achievment, and holy shit, what a miserable grind that was. Same deal as Diablo though; once I hit a sort of personal goal I had set for myself within the game, I was done. Actually, same thing happened to me in Fallout 3 and Battlefield 2... once I capped out my level or unlocked all the weapons, nothing. Lost all interest.
Speaking of games, I know I'm late as hell to the party, but damn, Portal is a fantastic little game. THE CAKE IS A LIE.
And speaking of other games, Battlefield Bad Company 2 is terrible. It's as if the developers set out to suck all the fun out of FPS games. I might be jaded because I'm coming from the ADD/Short attention span Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, style of gaming, but damn, Bad Company Two reminds me way too much of incompetent raids in World of Warcraft.
I seem to be into a "tiny bites" style of gaming now, where I'll just do a half hour or an hour of something like call of duty, and then go draw or do something else that's actually somewhat fulfilling. The thought of anything like a three or four hour raid makes me want to strap a helmet on and charge at hard inanimate objects face first until the thought leaves my brain.
Also, when did Cracked get interesting? I still remember it as a shitty Mad Magazine knockoff; the website actually entertains me. When the hell did that happen???
Now, rambling on to another topic, the little bomber dude up there was a two or three year old pencil sketch I could never get to look right, so I finally sat down during a Livestream session and finished the little bastard up. I think he came out pretty good, and people like him enough that I'll be including him (or critters like him) in Steamvolt.
Also, I used a Netti Pot in an attempt to clear out my residual mucous issues from being sick. It was... odd. Horrible for about two seconds until I realized that my brain just expected it to be horrible. Then it was just weird. Having a deviated septum means that the nostrils behave differently when you're pouring stuff into them, which was frightening and confusing.
The good news is that it seems to have cleared out whatever nasty allergen was stuck up in my sinuses and punching me in the mucous maker over and over again, so I think the discomfort and crying was probably worth it.
Hmm, rereading this post, I can see that it's definitely one of my more disconnected rambling ones. Eh, whatever. Time to go draw when I should be working! :D
Comments
Skinner Boxes are just fine for me
This article was pretty cool, Ahren (I hope you don't mind me calling you Ahren. You can probably guess my first name =P). I'm a Psych. minor, and Skinner boxes are pretty cool things, when you get right down to it. Even better: VIDEO GAMES. Yay for having my own reward system. You're right about cracked; they came out of nowhere with some really good articles. I know myself well enough that I refused to play WoW. I can't stand pay to play, and I just didn't want to get sucked into another grindfest. I actually just started playing Diablo 2 again with a friend after years of not. It's pretty fun. This past holiday season, my work closed for 2 weeks, and the first week saw me playing about 100 hrs of video games (and yes, I'm proud of it). Even so, I still cleaned up, spent LOTS of time with my fiance, and managed to get out a bit. It was heaven :) I think I beat 3 different games. I've always been a gamer, but life kicked my ass into gear when I met my now-fiance and I figured out what I needed to do to achieve the life I want. I'm about to graduate from school, and then marriage. Then, well, time will tell.
Portal is one of the coolest games ever. When I found myself bored or frustrated, I either chase myself around a corner for a while or fall in a permanent loop from ceiling to floor. What's really trippy is looking through the portal at all the other portals. It's pretty mind-bending.
I haven't used the Netti Pot, but I too have a deviated septum, and when I used the squirt bottle thingy, I had some interesting experiences, however they do work very well. I know people who use those things EVERY day. I'm just too lazy and not masochistic enough.
There. You rambled, and I rambled back. I enjoy doing that, for some reason. Even better, I enjoy your humor, so keep it coming.
P.S. What are some of your favorite games of all time? For me: Starcraft and Morrowind are top of the charts. I've played more games than I can count, and there are too many great shooters, but seeing as I'm a big zombie fan, Left 4 Dead is pretty sweet. Thanks again for taking up some of my time and entertaining me :)
edit: LOL at another Cracked article. Their #4 commentary got me cracking up.
Favorite games... hmm....
Oh man, favorite games of all time? Don't get me wrong, I'm still a gamer and will always be one, I'm just going to stay away from the MMO crackpipe and stick with the lighter FPS or RTS fare. It's sort of like the difference between a hardcore drug addict and someone who smokes pot and drinks alcohol, if I may cram a poor analogy in there.
Lately I'm a big fan of Left for Dead 2 and Call of Duty: MW2, but I've also been playing some weird little indie or small audience games; Harvest: Massive encounter is like a RTS lite game, and Puzzlequest is basically Bejeweled for D&D nerds.
All time favorites though? Man that's tough. Final Fantasy VII was pretty damn good, although in hindsight I'm not sure if it was the game or the wow factor of when it came out. FF8 really kind of lost me though.
The version of Tetris that came out for the N64 is certainly in my top 5, the Civilization games have always been pretty damn good, and it's hard to dispute the Half Life series as being way up there. Half life had some quirky bad FPS design flaws, but it's rare to find a game that sets a mood or tone as well as they do. Played Starcraft plenty too, but I'm not sure I could put it in my favorites. More so for the insane online gamers than the game itself though. I loved Total Annihilation, but the AI was coded poorly, so all of the units in the game would get retarded when things got crowded.
I really love Grim Fandango; that's an older one, but holy crap, still one of the best adventure games ever. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory was a fantastic FPS game as well. I really love the fallout games too, in spite of some really peculiar game mechanics and odd quirks.
Guh, there's so many good games. Plenty of crap too.
Amen to that last part
You brought up some thoughts I left out. Mine were thinking PC only, really. I LOVE FFVI (aka III for SNES in USA). It's my favorite FF, followed by FFX and then FFVII, but that's because I played 'em out of order. I never owned a PS1, so I got 7 later on. Half Life 1 was a great game, and believe it or not, although I've had 2 for a few years, I just started playing it a week ago. I had a blast using the fan boat. It's been a TON of fun so far. Steam has it properly rated at 96, I think. No glitches, a great save system, great story, great gameplay = WIN. In Left 4 Dead 2, if you ever run into anybody *O.B.C*, that's my group. We've been together for a VERY long time; I've been in it for 6 or 7 years lol. Not many have been in as long as me, but we have a good time. We run a server for that, for TF2, and even a couple older games. We started in Soldiers of Fortune II: Double Helix. If you ever want to look me up, I'm pretty sure my name here is also how you look me up on Steam. Maybe we can play sometime :) I <3 video games.
ramble ramble ramble
Never one to skip out on a good ramble, especially a game related one...
Never tried any Final Fantasy. Not sure I could pick up the older versions and get hooked. Similarly Fallout had all the hallmarks of a game I would like and positive reviews abounding, but I started it last year and just couldn't get into it.
Dark Age of Camelot filled a large portion of my time. Of course I wasn't doing anything Mythic really intended for its player base. I spent most of my time buying and selling to coerce the market. I was shockingly good at it. And shockingly bad at RvR. Which is the real long term attraction to DAoC.
Blizzard and Valve seem to own a large portion of real estate in any top list I might come up with. Starcraft, Warcraft 1 and 2 (ZugZug), all of Half-Life (fan-boat=awesome! wait until the sequels, even more awesome), Left for Dead, Diablo 2 (moar gear! moar moar!).
I haven't started Portal yet. I'm saving it for when I have time. I'm the sort of gamer who binges on a new game. Half-Life 2 sucked me into an all night bender that ended with the light of dawn throwing a halo around my furious wife's bedhead and sleepy scowl. Of course, that was before she went and got herself a Facebook/Zynga game addiction (which makes my skin crawl). Now she's a little more tolerant of the new game bender. Provided I plan for it.
I have the same opinion of Total Annihilation. Better AI and I might still be playing it.
Right now, I'm absorbed in Borderlands. FPS and Diablo-like looting? Both tickle competing portions of my brain. However, my interest wanes as I headshot the 47,000th Midget Psycho.
I'm also a sucker for conquest/strategy games like the Total War series.
BTW, I'm shrikezero on Steam as well.
Portal
Portal is a little weird in that it's basically four hours of awesome, and then you can call it quits and just enjoy the afterglow of a crazy little messed up game and story. It's a rare game where there's not really much need to come back and replay it once you're done, unless you're even more neurotic for achievements than I am.
Borderlands indeed!
I liked Borderlands a great deal, and I REEEEALLY liked Dr. Ned's Zombie Island. That was a great addition. Good description of the game, too. FPS + Diablo = win :) I didn't get either of the other expansions, but I may someday... I'm in the same place with uninstalled games. Even more-so perhaps because I reformatted to an OCZ 60GB SSD, but now I wish I'd REALLY splerged and gotten a bigger one so I wouldn't be afraid to install more games. I have AOE III, Starcraft, L4D2, HL2, Diablo 2, Titan Quest, The Witcher (lots of fun too), and I think that's it. I still have plenty of space, but so much less than I'm used to. It's also a big change to realize that there's no defragmenting and filling up the drive is no problemo. It's just soooooo fast. <3 for SSD.
Expansions worth it
Dr. Ned's is great. "Hey, hey! I pooped right where you're standing." My inner 8yr old laughs at that every time.
Mad Moxxi is worth it if you are a collector. The bank is awesome. I haven't done much with the arena, except discover the hard way its really meant for co-op.
General Knoxx kicks ass! If I had to pick one expansion I'd pick Knoxx.
Did you ever play the ill-fated Hellgate-London?
I have a small, fast 140GB HD, which means I get about 120 to fill, but I could have Terabytes and it still wouldn't be enough. I'm also running into heat problems with my frankenstein PC (stupid video card generates enough heat to raise my office temp by 5 degrees). So I'll likely be making a new one in the next few months. I really want to go SSD, but the cost is a big drawback.
Just before Borderlands came out I had to bite the bullet and uninstall something, anything! So I went all out and cleaned house. Starcraft, Diablo 2, all of Half Life 1 and 2, L4D, KOTOR, Assassin's Creed, and Atlantica. Aaaaand then Steam put some stuff on sale and Voila... drive's full again.
Hey Ahren! I bet Dan would agree your drawings would fit just fine in Borderlands.
Nostalgia kicking in...
Now you guys got me digging through old boxes of PS2 games.
Dynasty Warriors 3 and 4. Playing those games I lost enough flesh off my thumbs to spawn a thumbkin clone army.
I may have to get that...
I'll look into Knoxx later on. I'll probably get it. I did not play Hellgate, but I looked at it once :) I install all of my older games on my old HDD which is still in my PC. I use it as storage :) All the knew, heavy stuff that I want to play is on my SSD. I also was a Dynasty Warriors guy. Xiahou Dun was my favorite in 3. Something about that ridiculously big sword :) I actually have the music from Yellow Turban Rebellion on my computer lol. It makes me want to beat people!
Yellow Turban Slaughter!!
I would start up DW3 just to run through the Yellow Turbans. There was something incredibly cathartic about slaughtering your way up the ramp through mob after mob of Yellow Turbans.
Did you ever read the back story for Xiahou Dun? Totally insane badass. He gets an arrow to the eye in the middle of a battle. He pulls out the arrow and the eye comes with it. He then eats the eye and continues on through the battle.
0.o or should I say 0.x---<<
Huang Gai was my favorite for a long time. In DW4 I liked playing as Zhu Rong for the completely sexist and gratuitously bethonged bodyguards. Shameful, I know. Of course for sheer destruction and battlefield domination nothing beat the absurdly overpowered LuBu.
Supreme Commander
I just found out that the same guy(s) from cavedog who did T.A. did the Supreme Commander games. I picked up the second one off of steam, and it's pretty good so far. It has that T.A. feel to it, and the AI isn't retarded!
*ponders Supreme Commander*
My brother got the first one and like it, but said it can take a LONG time, but after Sins of a Solar Empire, I think I can handle long games. Shrike, I totally agree about LuBu, and I'm going to have to check out Zhu Rong :)
Supreme Commander 2: Quick fast review
Ok, got through single player and am now on to online games and skirmishes: It's fun. The single player storyline is pretty bland; nothing new or groundbreaking there, but the gameplay is fun. There are about ten thousand ways to approach a battle. If you miss Total Annihilation, this is a perfect follow up built for modern machines.
Is it an FPS?? Is it? Is it?
'Cause that's the only way to remake those old games! Xcom FPS! Starcraft FPS! Dwarf Fortress FPS! Dora The Explorer FPS, Swiper Armageddon! (buy the DLC from Walmart to get the ultimate weapon Boots the Monkey! He comes complete with +3 MoonBoots of Inanity)
I went back and replayed some TA and realized I liked the game better from a nostalgia "wasn't them some great times" perspective. It's making me less inclined to spent the $50 on SC. In all seriousness, I think extensive playing of FPS style games have made me too impatient to play strategy/tactics games. Intant Gratification! Moar Moar!
It's also not helping that I'm fighting the urge to go back and play Dark Age of Camelot again. A friend of mine is playing the part of the DAoC pimp and crack-dealer. "Dude, the new patches let you use any race! Come-on you know you want to! Just play a little, you can always leave again! Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 aren't coming out for like, ever, man!"
I'm sure you guys don't have any friends like that, right? :roll:
T.A. FPS = Abomination Unto Nature
No, no FPS, but I do know what you mean... I had to adjust from Call of Duty to the slower pace of Supreme commander, but it's not all that bad... the raw carnage of artillery barrages kind of makes up for it, and zerging your enemy to oblivion is exceptionally satisfying.
I know what you mean about the nostalgia of T.A.; I went back a couple of years ago and played through some skirmishes and realized that I HATED how bad the AI was with the high unit count bug. There's none of that in S.C., which is fun when the per side cap is 500 units or more XD
Ha! 500 units...
I sense a great disturbance in the Lag! As if a thousand units all cried out for packets at the same time.
Ha!
Epic :) yea, I definitely have some crack dealer friends. That's how I got back into Diablo, and now Titan Quest (same guy). I mix some Half Life 2 in when he's not around, and I'm just peachy.
Hey man...
...I have 18 megabit DL speeds... THE LAG IS NOT ME!! NOT MEEEEE!!!
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