Welcome, welcome to Blog Banter, the monthly blogging extravaganza headed by bs angel! Blog Banter involves our cozy community of enthusiastic gaming bloggers, a common topic, and a week to post articles pertaining to said topic. The results are quite entertaining and can range from deeply insightful to ROFLMAO. Any questions about Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!
And the topic is : Gaming with your significant other!
I game. I game a lot. When I first met my lady many years ago she led me to believe she was just as hardcore a gamer as I was, but since she was shy I didn't press the issue, instead taking her word for it.
Later, when we began living together, I realized the extent of her noobness. Her prowess extended to JRPGs, the Harvest Moon series and little else. This didn't bother me per-se, but I do believe it came to bother her. She saw how much enjoyment I took out of more varied and challenging games, as well as my inclusion into gaming culture and wanted more and more to be a part of it. I took the role of encourager, companion, trainer and opponent.
A few years now into her journey, she's made some progress. We play Castle Crashers on and off, she owns a PSP and is slowly growing her collection of games for it, and peeking over my shoulder to perhaps gleam some interesting in other titles.
She's tried FPS games but they don't seem to pull her interest enough for her to continue training. Every few months I get her to try again and see if the genre can put some hooks into her. She has started playing EVE-Online, which is arguably the most hardcore video games ever made. She watched me play for a little under a year before she allowed me to pull her in as well. She's just starting and I'm documenting her progress here on this blog.
We wanted to start playing D&D, but it's been impossible to find a group to play with. That search continues. We tried getting into CCGs with YuGiOh. I've been a Magic: The Gathering player since 4th Edition and was stoked to start playing something again, but games like that are so much better when you have more than one opponent to choose from. It got old and we didn't continue.
She still plays JRPGs, but so do I. Really looking forward to Final Fantasy XIII. Also need to get a copy of Star Ocean 4.
We talk about games often, watch each other play and play together when the opportunity presents itself.
Gaming, like life and love, is a journey. We continue together upon it.
o7
Other participants!
Gaming with my wife, You could be doubling alone, Next Gen Killed Our Gaming Relationship, Forced Perspective, Playing With My Toys, From Gaming Geek to Heroes Freak, My Lady and Gaming, Gaming with your significant other, Gaming Together, Maybe?, Girl Gamers = Hawt, Gaming with my significant other, Move Over Hott Boy, I Want to Play, Valentine's Day is for Gamers, Frag the Girlfriend!!, 'Til Mongoose Do Us Part
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Certificates: Elite = 1337?
After Energy Management V finished I took a second to update my certificates. Last time I did it I had mostly standard and basic with a handful of improved. Now I have Core Capacitor at Elite.
It's my first elite cert, but I'm not sure if I feel any sense of accomplishment from it. I'm not really using them to plan my skills per se. I know what I need to do. It's cool to have them, but I'm not sure they had the effect CCP thought they would have. I wonder why that is...
QR has come and gone and Apocrypha is just around the corner, so I want to know what the long-term effects of certificates has been, especially from the players who are more than a year in (since we all know it's been helpful to the noobs).
Is it completely superfluous or can it be tweaked to be better? How would you tweak it?
o7
It's my first elite cert, but I'm not sure if I feel any sense of accomplishment from it. I'm not really using them to plan my skills per se. I know what I need to do. It's cool to have them, but I'm not sure they had the effect CCP thought they would have. I wonder why that is...
QR has come and gone and Apocrypha is just around the corner, so I want to know what the long-term effects of certificates has been, especially from the players who are more than a year in (since we all know it's been helpful to the noobs).
Is it completely superfluous or can it be tweaked to be better? How would you tweak it?
o7
Thursday, February 26, 2009
CK's Blog Banter #5: Everybody Needs Sombody.
Welcome to the fifth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banters.
This month's topic comes to us from Mynxee of Life in Low Sec. She asks "Alts and Metagaming: Is playing two accounts who are logged in at the same
time and work together (hauler/miner, explorer/combat associate, trade alts in trade hubs) a form of metagaming that is "ruining the game"?"
articles at the bottom of this post!
I'll start this one with a little music. The song seems appropriate to the issue.
Metagaming to me is not a good or bad issue. It's a fact of life in MMOs. There are constructive uses for metagaming and others that tend to ruin the game for others, but in EVE metagaming is condoned more readily than in other games in the interests of realism.
A hauler alt for your miner. Explorer alt for your combatant. Trade alts for your indy. RP alts for your RP primary. These are all pretty harmless and do nothing but help a player create the most basic of personal support structures. Having a corp and alliance to go to for backup is nice, but when everyone is busy or AFK, you still got stuff that needs doing and it's in your best interests to figure a way to do it yourself efficiently.
It's really espionage that pisses a lot of people off. However, if you look at subterfuge and counter-intelligence IRL and extend it into the EVE fiction, then it's a fair assumption that one could change their appearance and identity quite easily in New Eden. Having a clone to download into that looks completely different from your original body but has the same brain isn't that difficult a concept to grasp in the world of flying internet spaceships.
Nobody on the receiving end of clandestine intelligence tactics is ever pleased, but that doesn't make it any less realistic.
So to answer the direct question, no. I don't think metagaming is ruining EVE because it embraced by the fiction.
Further into the issue, when it comes to programs and tools outside of EVE and you're asking yourself if this is "hurtful" metagaming, ask yourself if such a tool would not be available to an actual capsuleer. EVEMon, EFT, forums and killboards, etc... It's easy to see how such services would be at the ready for the capsuleer community just as it's at our disposal as gamers.
o7
Participants!
Participants:
This month's topic comes to us from Mynxee of Life in Low Sec. She asks "Alts and Metagaming: Is playing two accounts who are logged in at the same
time and work together (hauler/miner, explorer/combat associate, trade alts in trade hubs) a form of metagaming that is "ruining the game"?"
articles at the bottom of this post!
I'll start this one with a little music. The song seems appropriate to the issue.
Metagaming to me is not a good or bad issue. It's a fact of life in MMOs. There are constructive uses for metagaming and others that tend to ruin the game for others, but in EVE metagaming is condoned more readily than in other games in the interests of realism.
A hauler alt for your miner. Explorer alt for your combatant. Trade alts for your indy. RP alts for your RP primary. These are all pretty harmless and do nothing but help a player create the most basic of personal support structures. Having a corp and alliance to go to for backup is nice, but when everyone is busy or AFK, you still got stuff that needs doing and it's in your best interests to figure a way to do it yourself efficiently.
It's really espionage that pisses a lot of people off. However, if you look at subterfuge and counter-intelligence IRL and extend it into the EVE fiction, then it's a fair assumption that one could change their appearance and identity quite easily in New Eden. Having a clone to download into that looks completely different from your original body but has the same brain isn't that difficult a concept to grasp in the world of flying internet spaceships.
Nobody on the receiving end of clandestine intelligence tactics is ever pleased, but that doesn't make it any less realistic.
So to answer the direct question, no. I don't think metagaming is ruining EVE because it embraced by the fiction.
Further into the issue, when it comes to programs and tools outside of EVE and you're asking yourself if this is "hurtful" metagaming, ask yourself if such a tool would not be available to an actual capsuleer. EVEMon, EFT, forums and killboards, etc... It's easy to see how such services would be at the ready for the capsuleer community just as it's at our disposal as gamers.
o7
Participants!
Participants:
- Epic Misadventures, This is my Alt - There are many like it but this one is mine.
- Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah, I Missed This Month's Blog Banter!
- A Mule in EvE, Meta what? Is it hurting EvE?
- Morphisat's EVE Online Blog, Me, Myself and I
- One Man And His Spaceship, Me and My Shadow
- Ombeve, Blog Banter edition 5
- Diving into PsycheDiver's Psyche, CK's Blog Banter #5: Everybody Needs Somebody
- Dense Veldspar, Blog Banter
- Ecliptic Rift, OOC: Blog Banter #5 Metagaming
- The Ralpha Dogs, Me, Myself and I
- Mad Rant, "Blog Banter - It's my party, and I'll alt if I want to...."
- EVE Chick, The Handicapper General
- The Wandering Druid of Tranquility, "...you see mate, it's a matter of leverage, savvy?..."
- New Eden Diaries, It's only a game
- Oz’s House of the Evil Dead, If You Can’t Ride Two Horses At Once, You Shouldn’t Be In The Circus
- Diving into PsycheDiver's Psyche, Everybody Needs Sombody
- more to come over the next few days!...
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
My life in EVE - Part 23.
Truth be told, I haven't had much time to log on for anything but changing skills. I hope to change that soon, but I'll have to see.
Energy Management V finishes today after a fair amount juggling. It's a minor milestone for me. Next I have to do some serious work on my shield skills.
I dropped in on my corpmates last night as a friendly check-in. They were happy to see me and I them. We did some catching up on RL and IG issues. I didn't have much time but I'm getting the feeling COGN is being retasked internally for something more than just the same old combat duties. More on this later.
My lady is still in Hulm mining Veld and Scor in her Burst. Other than a small amount of juggling she's remained focused on her learning skills. She's got one more rank 1 skill to get from IV to V and then she can start on the higher ranked learning skills.
She has yet to get over her fear of venturing into less-secure space. That'll pass in time.
She's looking forward to joining EVE-Uni.
o7
Energy Management V finishes today after a fair amount juggling. It's a minor milestone for me. Next I have to do some serious work on my shield skills.
I dropped in on my corpmates last night as a friendly check-in. They were happy to see me and I them. We did some catching up on RL and IG issues. I didn't have much time but I'm getting the feeling COGN is being retasked internally for something more than just the same old combat duties. More on this later.
My lady is still in Hulm mining Veld and Scor in her Burst. Other than a small amount of juggling she's remained focused on her learning skills. She's got one more rank 1 skill to get from IV to V and then she can start on the higher ranked learning skills.
She has yet to get over her fear of venturing into less-secure space. That'll pass in time.
She's looking forward to joining EVE-Uni.
o7
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Mass Effect 2: Teh Teasing Begins.
Go HERE. Come back to my blog when you're done drooling.
I'll go over what we can gleam from this flash site point-by-point.
1) At some point, we see Sheperd "die".
2) We can expect a few returning characters. I'm also guessing we'll see a point in the game where the player takes direct control of characters other than Sheperd. They did this in KOTOR2.
3) The Geth are evolving. This could be due to adapting Reaver tech to themselves.
4) We may see a slightly improved graphics engine.
5) Cerberus will be a major antagonist.
Did I miss anything?
Other than the short teaser, we get to see two pieces of setting concept art, which looks great.
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that Mass Effect is probably my favorite non-EVE game of all time. I've been waiting some something to sink my teeth into for some time now, and now I can't wait for more!
If you have a 360 and have not played it, it's a pretty easy game to find and you get a great amount of replayability, especially for an RPG. It's unique in its execution and gorgeous in its presentation. What's more, you'll be able to transfer character data from the first game to the second, so anyone looking at getting into the series is best served grabbing the first game before 2010. Lastly, it's a planned trilogy, so investing in the story now gets you in on a well-constructed epic.
I was hoping for more DLC for the first game, but there are big indicators that there will be much more DLC for the sequel.
PC players have Mass Effect as well, and I'm betting on a simultaneous release for the 360 and PC this time around. Also, don't rule out a PS3 version at some point.
o7
I'll go over what we can gleam from this flash site point-by-point.
1) At some point, we see Sheperd "die".
2) We can expect a few returning characters. I'm also guessing we'll see a point in the game where the player takes direct control of characters other than Sheperd. They did this in KOTOR2.
3) The Geth are evolving. This could be due to adapting Reaver tech to themselves.
4) We may see a slightly improved graphics engine.
5) Cerberus will be a major antagonist.
Did I miss anything?
Other than the short teaser, we get to see two pieces of setting concept art, which looks great.
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that Mass Effect is probably my favorite non-EVE game of all time. I've been waiting some something to sink my teeth into for some time now, and now I can't wait for more!
If you have a 360 and have not played it, it's a pretty easy game to find and you get a great amount of replayability, especially for an RPG. It's unique in its execution and gorgeous in its presentation. What's more, you'll be able to transfer character data from the first game to the second, so anyone looking at getting into the series is best served grabbing the first game before 2010. Lastly, it's a planned trilogy, so investing in the story now gets you in on a well-constructed epic.
I was hoping for more DLC for the first game, but there are big indicators that there will be much more DLC for the sequel.
PC players have Mass Effect as well, and I'm betting on a simultaneous release for the 360 and PC this time around. Also, don't rule out a PS3 version at some point.
o7
Monday, February 23, 2009
Death Tank: Like Worms but faster.
I downloaded the trial for Death Tank, merely on the fact that I've seen some people talking about it. I didn't actually learn anything about the game, but the fact that the community was talking about it got my interested.
I've played Worms before on several platforms and through several iterations, the latest one being on the Nintendo DS. I liked it as a simple, time-based source of fun. There's something to be said about the causal fun of a time-based game.
This is like Worms... sorta.
Death Tank is not casual, in fact is seems to make every effort to make your playtime as frantic as possible. That's not a gripe, but an observation. It's real-time, and with up to 8 players in tanks on the field it gets pretty insane. What's more, after about 1 minute a random bombardment from above begins, blowing away those unlucky enough to have lasted that long until there's one left.
There's a money system which allows you to rack up cash for kills to buy upgrades and weapons over the course of 20 matches. There's not a huge amount of available items, but I guess there could be more on the way at some future date.
It's fun, but I think the price of the full game (1200 points) is a little steep. Give it a shot with the demo and tell me what you think.
I've played Worms before on several platforms and through several iterations, the latest one being on the Nintendo DS. I liked it as a simple, time-based source of fun. There's something to be said about the causal fun of a time-based game.
This is like Worms... sorta.
Death Tank is not casual, in fact is seems to make every effort to make your playtime as frantic as possible. That's not a gripe, but an observation. It's real-time, and with up to 8 players in tanks on the field it gets pretty insane. What's more, after about 1 minute a random bombardment from above begins, blowing away those unlucky enough to have lasted that long until there's one left.
There's a money system which allows you to rack up cash for kills to buy upgrades and weapons over the course of 20 matches. There's not a huge amount of available items, but I guess there could be more on the way at some future date.
It's fun, but I think the price of the full game (1200 points) is a little steep. Give it a shot with the demo and tell me what you think.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Watchmen Movie Predictions.
I'm almost done the graphic novel, and after watching every trailer and checking every ad and pic, I'm still not entirely sure the story will fully translate to the big screen.
Now let me be fair, it looks AWESOME and as far as I can tell the acting is spot-on. The mood I get from the book and movie samples are very similar to each other. My problem is two-fold.
1) Time. The graphic novel is long, and even if you cut away the pirate stuff and some other small side-stories, it's an epic to be told. I'm not sure if a running time has been announced, but if it's shy of 2.5 hours, I don't think it can be done well. If you have a confirmed running time or just want to argue this point, go ahead.
2) Super saturation. Anyone who's read the book knows there's nothing super or heroic about these characters. It's a vigilante story with costumes. The problem is that it doesn't come off like that in the trailers. It comes off as another superhero flick, and we may be reaching a mainstream media saturation point with that genre. Marvel and DC are pumping out movies as quickly as possible, and Heroes is still going strong on the small screen. Will people just write The Watchmen off before seeing it? It all depends on initial reviews. If the point is made that this is NOT a superhero movie, than it may just attract movie-goers.
Let me know what you think.
o7
Now let me be fair, it looks AWESOME and as far as I can tell the acting is spot-on. The mood I get from the book and movie samples are very similar to each other. My problem is two-fold.
1) Time. The graphic novel is long, and even if you cut away the pirate stuff and some other small side-stories, it's an epic to be told. I'm not sure if a running time has been announced, but if it's shy of 2.5 hours, I don't think it can be done well. If you have a confirmed running time or just want to argue this point, go ahead.
2) Super saturation. Anyone who's read the book knows there's nothing super or heroic about these characters. It's a vigilante story with costumes. The problem is that it doesn't come off like that in the trailers. It comes off as another superhero flick, and we may be reaching a mainstream media saturation point with that genre. Marvel and DC are pumping out movies as quickly as possible, and Heroes is still going strong on the small screen. Will people just write The Watchmen off before seeing it? It all depends on initial reviews. If the point is made that this is NOT a superhero movie, than it may just attract movie-goers.
Let me know what you think.
o7
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