Monthly Update: November 2014

Happy November!  It's both Movember and NaNoWriMo, both activities that I think would be interesting, but I never remember until a few days into November and then I tell myself, "Ah, maybe next year."

So Evolve's Big Alpha weekend happened this last weekend, and all the excitement about that experience I will post about on Friday as there's simply too much to post in a monthly update article.  So onto other things!

Conklederp and I received the board game Pandemic from Coolman and his coollady because we got married (how cool is that!), but I already talked about that part.  Recently though, Conklederp and I got a chance to play that game and ho-boy was it fun.  Well, about as fun as potentially letting the world fall into a cesspool of disease and dead bodies can be.  

After watching the Table Top episode from Season 1 that covered Pandemic, we gave the game a try, although later realizing that I didn't shuffle the Player deck correctly, but that's what first playthroughs are for anyway.  What both Conklederp and I love about this game is that all the players are working together against the board.  If one person wins, everyone wins, but there is only one way for the players to win: finding cures to all four diseases.  There are, however, three ways for the board to win: running out of Infection Tokens, maxing out the Outbreak meter and/or running out of Player Cards.  In our most recent playthrough, while we did find cures to all four diseases, the world was pretty ravaged by disease, but at least they're curable now.  To date, we have a 66% success rate with this game, but even losing is "fun."

I also opened a shop on Etsy.com to sell/showcase cross stitch patterns I've designed over the years.  It's called ExorStitch.  You know, like The Exorcist and cross stitch.  It was Conklederps idea and I love it.  So head on over if you or someone you know is into cross stitching and likes to make semi-unconventional patterns for people you like/don't like.  It'll be a hoot.

In the video game department, I finally got around to finishing the Dead Space mobile game, which will earn it's own article later in the month.  But in short, it was a fun game that did things to the player that I haven't seen since Eternal Darkness, and I was happy.

The rest of the month is looking to be not too different from October, except instead of witches and zombies there will be pilgrims and poultry corpses along with native peoples that end up slaughtered by the millions.  You know, maybe I'll finally give Sid Meier's Civilization V a go.  I did give the game a start earlier in the year (or was it late last year?), but I think I started a set scenario as opposed to a new game so I left panicking that I would leave the world decimated and without hope.  You know, like losing a game in Pandemic.

In the newer games department, I haven't played Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth although I love the concept.  I haven't played Shadow of Mordor although I have only been hearing good things about this Skyrim meets Assassin's Creed creation.  I haven't played Destiny as I don't have the appropriate console.  I haven't played The Evil Within because it's new and expensive, but I do have the demo and I'm looking forward to playing that on a dark and stormy night.  So you know, Portland.  I also haven't played Borderlands, the Pre-Sequel since I haven't played any of the games in that series and I feel that I should at least have played the first Borderlands.  I could probably now start in on Bioshock: Infinite now that I've finished the first two games in the series.

You know, some people out there in the gaming community might call my lack of playing anything released within the last year as being lame (if that insult is even used in the gaming community), but I won't be listening to them anyway, because I like cheese.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

I Like Big Shiny Things

The Eternal Dilemma: To Buy Used or New?

This is a topic that will get people fired up on both sides.  Side A hates the idea of buying used games because it takes money away from the developers and puts it into the hands of Middleman Stores.  Side B loves buying used games because of their reduced price.  I like to consider myself as part of Side D.  We'll skip Side C for the moment, as they're probably on their lunch break.

Side D.  I want to purchase games as new products.  I like having a way of telling a game company that I like the products they're putting out and the stories they're telling.  Sadly, this isn't always feasible as games cost money.  And not just any money, typically $30-$40, at least for DS and PSP games.  PC games can average $40-$50 for a new game.  Being an adult with financial responsibilities (gas, car insurance, rent, food, phone, electricity, car maintenance), there always isn't a lot left from my paycheck to go out and buy a $40 game.  For this reason, I wait.  I'll wait for the game to drop in price or to think, "You know what self, I will go buy that game!"

Here's the second problem, after the whole spending money part.  Waiting.  I like to wait at least six months before buying a game, although, honestly, it usually ends up being at least a year.  For some games, the wait is even longer for any number of reasons.  Such was the case with SEGA's Infinite Space.  I first read about this game in issue #248 of Nintendo Power and thought it looked and sounded pretty awesome.  One of my roommates, Vortlynx, had very much been into EVE Online and a space building/exploration game for the DS sounded pretty awesome.  Even with the comment about the game having a "steep learning curve" wasn't a deterrent.  With Infinite Space, though, I apparently waited too long.  The games sales didn't do very well, but was received well by critics.  It then became hard to find at Gamestops and I never saw it at a Target.   Eventually, I checked Amazon and have had prices set pretty consistently at $74 for new and $23 for a used copy.  Buying from eBay is the same as buying used and at that point I was still somewhat hoping to find a place that had a new copy for under $30.  Gamestop's website has a new game for $34, but it's not available online and their "Pick up @ store" function is unavailable.  Which is why, last month, I settled for a used copy from Gamestop, as I was able to find one that was within 100 miles.

Another example, is that I currently want to purchase Castlevania 64: Legacy of Darkness.  Now, there's not going to be any new copy of that game that Konami's going to see any profits from.  Any new (shrink wrapped) game is going to be priced out the ass by some collector who's more interested in making money than actually caring about games being played.

It basically breaks down to, I'll buy new if I can at the time I want to buy the game.  If a new copy of the game is unavailable, I'll try to hunt it down in a way that the company still sees that I like their products.  If I still cannot locate a new copy, I'll try to find a used copy.  So, until the day that game companies start sending Dr. Potts and/or myself games to review, we'll both have to settle for purchasing games from any one of multiple stores (online/physical).

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Go Ahead And Toss My Name Around

P.S.  Side C got back from their lunch and their response to this topic is, "Meh."