But Is It Really Cheating?

Dr. Potts brought up a nice point, his first in fact, about LIMBO in his post on Tuesday.  His first sentence was, "I cheated twice."

In our current world of near internet connectivity through laptops, netbooks, game consoles, e-readers, smartphones and desktops, the way that we seek and take in information has changed dramatically, especially since I started playing video games in the mid 1980s.  The way this affects gaming and how we game is what I wanted to talk about.

I can remember,  not the exact year, sitting outside on a set of bleachers waiting for my swimming lesson to start (so let's say somewhere around 1988-89) talking with one of my friends about how to beat The Legend of Zelda.  I was at the battle with Ganon and didn't have an idea as to how to slay the Prince of Darkness.  I obviously knew enough about the game's mechanics to know how the game worked to know what I was doing for the most part.  This friend told me that he had heard and possibly implemented as well, the tactic of using the meat/bait that worked for lesser enemies and that it would draw Ganon out and then you could kill him with the Silver Arrow.  My tactic of firing frantically with the Silver Arrow wasn't working too well and Nintendo Power only gave so much information, but not how to defeat the final boss.  Talking with friends about being stuck in areas in video games was the earliest form of Gamefaqs.  I do not consider this cheating.

Enter Game Genie.  Yes, the desire to cheat in games was very great, especially with a device whose sole purpose was to subvert the pre-existing game program to allow special allowances such as allowing Mario to perform multiple jumps in mid air, make Mega Man's special weapon meter never go down or even giving General Leo's "Shock" attack to Terra in Final Fantasy III/VI.  For me, I would never (okay, maybe not "never" but very rarely) use Game Genie on a game that I hadn't beaten...... Okay, with the exception of Mega Man II, although that was to see what bosses and weapons were like and I never beat a game with Game Genie.  Either way, I've never been a fan of cheating.

If I remember correctly, in Goldeneye 007, whenever you enabled a "Cheat," it would not progress the game beyond the level you were currently playing.  Even if was something inane as "Paintball Mode" you could not progress the story line.  I thought this was a brilliant idea in a few ways.  First, you had to "earn" the cheat and not just punch in a certain code or button combination.  You could almost say that this was a form of functional achievements as I know Dr. Potts and I would frequently ask if we'd gotten a specific cheat yet.  (Dr. Potts is also the only person I've known who was able to earn the Invincibility cheat by beating "Facility" in 2:05 on 00 Agent).  Speaking of which, I watched a similar video that Nintendo put out  way back when, showing how to go through the level to get the cheat.  To this day, it's still the only cheat I don't have in that game.

So with that, what do I consider "cheating?"

1.  Looking up or seeking information about how to beat/pass a particular area/puzzle/boss/enemy in a game without having tried it before.

2.  Using codes, exploiting bugs/glitches or otherwise manipulating the game that was not intended during regular gameplay.

     -Examples: 150 item cheat in Pokemon Red/Blue; The Konami Code; Typing "Red Alert" or "On Screen" (among others) in Warcraft II.

3.  Completing a level for someone.

     -While I won't beat a level for someone if they ask me to, I do have a "policy" of sorts that I will show them how to beat a level, but then make them do it themselves.  I don't see this being any different than someone looking up a video on youtube.
4.  Using maps for areas or dungeons that you have not previously tried to explore on your own.

With that, I do not consider Dr. Potts to have cheated on LIMBO.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Little Gage Says "No Fair!"

First Impressions: LIMBO

On Friday I got sick, and by Saturday evening, I had played through and beaten LIMBO.  Here are some notes on my gaming experience:

1. I cheated twice.  I looked up solutions on the internet to two puzzles.  I am not ashamed.
2. When I got to the end, I said "I'm definitely playing through this game again."  Without cheating.  
3. The Atmosphere of this game is fantastic.  I give the game maximum score for graphics and sound.
4. I recommend everyone play this game for one hour.  If you're not hooked by then, you're not going to be. 
5. The spider is so awesome!
6. My only gripe is with the gameplay is around the controls and a couple of the puzzles.  On the one hand, the limited agility and ability of the player adds to the atmosphere.  On the other hand:   Sometimes it takes away from the atmosphere when I just keep dying over and over again.   The feeble little jumps just aren't satisfying and sometimes I feel like the button response could be just a little tighter.  Maybe it's my PC.   Also: Why does this kid drown in three feet of water?!  Can't he just dog paddle or something?  
7. No, I don't have any suggestions for solutions to the problems in #6.  Puzzle games are bound to stump  you some of the time.  And everyone who plays it will have a different experience.  I breezed through some puzzles, struggled and was rewarded by feeling smart when I finished other puzzles.  And then some of the puzzles I flipped-off the game and looked it up on the internet.  

Never Too Old For Video Games

I like to visit Cracked.com on about a weekly basis.  Conklederp knows which authors she likes while I usually don't remember who wrote what article.  I recently read two video gaming articles by John Cheese, whom I thought I didn't like after reading two of his articles, although I don't remember what those articles were about.  Anyway, one of his recent articles was titled "5 Ways to Tell You're Getting Too Old For Video Games."  It was a pretty good article, as far as Cracked articles go anyway, in that I was agreeing or disagreeing with what I thought were reasonable thoughts.

Here, I'll list his headlines along with my own thoughts on each topic.

5.  You Think Multiplayer is Bullshit.

While I don't think that multiplayer in its entirety is the collected fecal matter of our tasty bovine friends, I do not find it to be as much a selling point as other people.  Having grown up as a console gamer, multiplayer, let alone online multiplayer wasn't always an option.  The majority of the games I purchased and played were single player games (Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Eternal Darkness, Dragon Warrior, et cetera), and those that had a multiplayer element to them (Duck Hunt, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy III/VI, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Time Splitters), I didn't play to their fullest extent.  Sure I played a bit of multiplayer on Goldeneye whenever Dr. Potts was over, or a couple other friends, but it was never my main purpose for the game.  

With current generation consoles, each have some type of subscription/fee  component (Xbox Live, PSN and Wii Points), which I don't feel that I will ever need, partly because I don't have either system, but also because I don't want to interact with teenage douche bags yelling obscenities at me.  If I'm going to play multiplayer (most likely on the PC), I'd rather just play online with someone whom I know.

4.  You Think Games Are Suddenly Too Long

The three games that John Cheese references in this article (Skyrim, Fallout 3 and World of Warcraft) I have never played so I can't comment directly on any of these games.  I do know what he is talking about when he says that there seem to be a lot more side quests than actual story points.  I on the other hand tend to like side quests, but only to a certain extent.

I didn't do the Golden Chocobo side quest in Final Fantasy VII so that I could earn the "Knights of the Round" materia.  I liked the initial idea of breeding Chocobos, but the amount of time that it would have taken to find Chocobos from all over the world, to me seemed pointless; especially when there was a chuck of rock plummeting towards the planet.  In other games like Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2: Grimoire of the Rift, however, I did as many side quests as I could lay my hands on.  Maybe this is something with more recent video games trying to drag out the length of time it takes to "complete" a game, but then that just reinforces that I'm aging when it comes to video games, but whatever.

3. You Miss Game Storylines That Were Actually Compelling

I'm about 50/50 with Mr. Cheese's views on this point.  While I do agree that some of the Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior  (I'm also going to throw in Chrono Trigger) games had very in depth story lines that would rival that of some of the books that I was reading at the time, I don't feel that I was putting myself into the role of the characters that I was playing, which would be why I felt they were more "in depth" when I was a kid than now that I'm an "adult."

Part of my problem might be that as I don't have any of the "next-gen systems," I haven't played many of the newer games that seem to lack story lines.  However, how many people who played Super Mario Bros. felt that the story line was lacking and how did an Italian plumber, presumably from New York got to the Mushroom Kingdom.  That's never explained in-game.  In The Legend of Zelda, all the back story is told in the instruction booklet and just after the opening titles, which don't even play when you start a game.

But yes, I feel that story, for me at least, is very important if I want to have any emotional feelings towards the game I'm playing.  Sometimes I don't want there to be a story, for example, in the first Doom.  You start the game without any introduction, but you know that you need to shoot anything on the screen, and sometimes, that's all I want to do.

2.  You Think Originality is Dead

Sometimes I'll think "Huh.  I've played this game before, why do I want to play it again?"  Being the person that I am, I will usually look into games before I buy them (although with the Humble Bundles, I don't really care too much, and just think that this type of business model is very awesome).  That being said, I sometimes don't mind playing a familiar type of game over and over again.  

Yes, I do appreciate originality in video games, but sometimes I like to play something that I know, even if it's a "brand new" game that came out the previous year that's based on a platformer from 1990.  Mr. Cheese acknowledges this too when he says "The industry looked just as cookie cutter then as it does now." It's very similar to the movie industry. There'll be a period when westerns are all the rage, or where we're at right now, where anything to do with zombies or vampires will sell millions, just because of the subject matter.

1. You Miss When Games Used To Be "All About Fun."

To be honest, it seemed like Mr. Cheese began to ramble here, as if he didn't actually have "5 Reasons...." but only had four and desparately tried to come up with the fifth.  He starts off about the "look" of games versus the amount of "fun" and then trails off  about how the repetitiveness of games meant they were fun for younger players.

Maybe it's because I've been constantly playing video games for, roughly, the last 24 - 25 years, that I'm able to go back and play Castlevania or Donkey Kong Country and still have fun.  Granted some of that fun may turn into frustration, but I'd rather have that feeling than the feeling that I'm kicking ass at a game because it's too easy.  I actually remember not being able to beat a lot of games, which probably bothered me on some level, but yeah, I had fun.

Conclusion:  No, I don't believe that I'm too old for video games.  Like anybody in any genre in any form of media, I'm not going to like everything out there, but I tend to know what I like.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

The Road Goes Ever On And On....

Another Bundle of Humble Awesomeness

I first got my start using Steam back in the fall of 2011 when Valve was offering Portal for free in order to promote the release of Portal 2.  I didn't really think much of Steam at the time, partly because Portal was the only game that I used the engine/program for.  I hadn't fully explored Steam or realized how much there was to it.

Then Dr. Potts gave me the Humble Bundle IV, which contained the following games:  And Yet It Moves, BIT.TRIP RUNNER, Cave Story+, Cogs, Crayon Physics Deluxe,  Gratuitous Space Battles, Hammerfight, Jamestown, Nightsky, Shank, Super Meat Boy and VVVVVV.  

There're so many genres of games here, from casual puzzle games, side scrolling action, and old-school shooters akin to 1942.  So far the only game that I'm kind of iffy about is Hammerfight, but that was only after one play that lasted about 10 minutes and I'll give it more time after I go through some of the other games.


But this post isn't about those games, which you can still acquire individually.

This post is about the

  

which contains Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Bastion, LIMBO, Psychonauts and Super Brothers: Sword & Sorcery EP.  Oh, and it also contains the soundtracks to each of those games.  That's $62.95 worth of games (not including the soundtracks to each game) for however much you want to pay for them.  Yes, you could be "that guy" and pay only $0.01 for everything (0.00015% of the actual cost), but you'll probably just feel like a horrible person.  And if you don't, then you really should.

AND with each purchase, of which you decide the price to pay, you can have part or all of your purchase price go to the Child's Play charity and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

It's just an awesome thing that...... it's just awesome!

That's really all I have to and can say about it.

[It's only up for 14 days (as of 5/31/2012) so hurry up while you're at it].

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

It Sounds Something Like This

Legend of Zelda - Combat and Sound

In my previous post about the Legend of Zelda's aesthetic of simple, consistent visuals and open world exploration, I found it difficult to talk about those elements and not include two other, ever-present elements: Combat/Play Control and Sound.  These elements synch up so perfectly with the visual aesthetic, that the game would play very differently if there were changes to these areas.

Regarding Combat/Play Control:  I am  combining these two elements because I am defining combat simply as play control while under threat of attack.  You don't have to strike an enemy to be taking part in combat. When exploring the overworld map, enemies are obstacles just as much as trees or rocks.  Many times all the player wishes to do is to get through the screen and on to the next screen, but flying arrows or Peahats prevent that.   

I think one subtlety that Zelda does really well is to have Link pause for a brief moment whenever he attacks.  This adds a sense of control that free swinging and running would have been without. The one-two button combination of keeping a sword for the A button and an item for the B button is the defining innovation of Zelda's combat system.  Any player who has made it through the game is likely to have mastered the ability to fire a boomerang at a diagonal, with deadly accuracy.  When I'm wandering the map, I may just want to stun a few enemies and move on.  The unmistakable sound of the boomerang striking an enemy instantly assures me of my success, and I need not break stride.

Regarding Sound:  while it's not the same as graphics, it is arguably equally important in a similar way.  Similarly limited as the visual aesthetic, Zelda doesn't have a wide array of sounds, but the sounds it does have are consistent and fantastic.  The funny, dull sound of Link receiving damage, the satisfying sound of shooting the sword when attacking at full power, the scene-change trigger sound of footsteps.  These sounds couple with the graphics to guide me through the game. 

On the overworld, the delightful Zelda fanfare is very fitting for joyfully wandering around, the song is light and whimsical.  No pressure, the world is open to you, do what you want.  When you enter a dungeon, the droning dungeon song does it's job.  This place is not a happy place.  You're not going to find a faerie around the corner, you really don't have anywhere to run.  It's time for business.  

-D

The Legend of Zelda - Graphics and Exploration



Click on an image for a larger version

I think Zelda 1 is my favorite game of all time.  The reason for this is that I can very easily daydream myself into the world of Zelda 1.  All I have to do is take a breath, and Zelda 1 appears in my mind.  And it's always in a nice, dream-state, imprecise version of it.  It's like I can *smell* Zelda 1.  The visual representation appears the strongest, the colors and the general shape of the game, which are both very distinctive.  I'm going to try to describe and analyze what it is about Zelda 1 that makes it so distinct.  *I would also like to note that this post was not inspired by Jack's Memory Post - it was serendipity that we were both thinking at the same time, about the same phenomenon; of being transported into a game memory. 

There are some clear contributing factors to how easily I can imagine the Zelda world.  I played it when I was very young, and highly impressionable.  I played it a LOT.  But, in addition to these things, it is also a great game.  And it is on that fact that I wish to focus.  Yes, Zelda has been done before, but that's what makes it a great trial run for game analysis, that is, for game analysis on a good game.  The Legend of Zelda has a very distinct and consistent aesthetic, and it is an open-world exploration game.  I think these are the components which make the game particularly engaging.

Today I want to focus on the overworld map.  Particularly about the sense of exploration and how the visual style helps to facilitate that sense of exploration.  The game is viewed from top-down, and is divided by screens.  So when I enter a screen, I can see everything in the screen that I can affect or can affect me.  The game map in Zelda is essentially a series of rectangular pictures of screen size, positioned side by side and top to bottom to form a larger rectangle. I can only view one picture at a time, and I can move freely within the picture I presently inhabit.  Passing between screens is an important part of the game, allowing me to run for safety if danger lurks in my present screen.  The transition between screens is, for everyone who plays the game, a signature part of the visual aesthetic.

Each screen is made up by mostly tile-based images.  Bushes, Rocks, and Enemies all fit within small 16 x 16 pixel squares, as do all hearts, rupees and items (I discovered these dimensions when playing Mario Paint for the Super NES).  This consistent size and use of simple, primary colors creates a simplistic design that might be called minimalist.  There were never any real surprises, in a given screen, but there were always different arrangements of the small number of tiles.  The simplicity and limitations allow for everything to be placed purposefully, the consistency makes it so that the player is never pulled out of the game by bad design.

A great deal of my time playing Zelda has been spent wandering the map.  Just kind of looking around.  Early on in the game, it's pretty tough, because the enemy is tough, and Link is weak.  But after gaining a few more heart containers and a few more weapons, the world begins to open up.  Enemies and combat represent obstacles to be overcome, you have to earn each new screen you explore.  Because the games graphical consistencies, I can size up a screen in an instant. I really want to look around in that forest area, but is crawling with Moblins.  I'll stick to the Octorocks on the beach.Or I'd love to check out death mountain, but all those Centaur guys make that really tough to do.  It's fun to look around just for the sake of looking around, but if that's not enough, there's also a large number of hidden goodies to find.

It is possible to know this game completely; to literally leave no stone unturned.  No wall un-bombed, no bush unburned.  Jack points out that there was no visual cue as to when a bush was burnable or a wall was bomb-able.  You just had to give it a try an hope for the best.This method is was out of vogue by the time Zelda III came out, but I don't think it was necessarily a bad mechanic (Though it would have been nice to have gotten the red candle just a little earlier in the game -ed).  With no visual cue, I would burn every bush, but I would start with the ones that I thought made aesthetic sense, as though I could figure out and understand the programmer's visual style and thus, save myself time in the never-ending search for a new cave.  I felt more of a sense of exploration, knowing that I just might find something, and sometimes did find hidden caves that were secrets to everybody.

coming up next:  The Legend of Zelda:  Combat and Sound

Am I a Gamer Girl? Or a Girl Who Games? And Does It Really Matter?

I'm Emilie, significant other to Jack. I don't really have any fancy nicknames but for the purpose of this blog I will go by Conklederp. A question I've been asking myself lately is, am I a gamer girl? Or a girl who games?

Video games have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. As kids my brother and I had a Super Nintendo, but we only had 2 games - Super Mario World, and Super Mario Allstars.  We spent countless hours playing those games, but for some reason I just never got good at them. Something about lacking hand-eye coordination? Or not being able to figure out that you need to jump off Yoshi to jump across that gap? All I know is that when I couldn't figure out how to do something I would pass the controller over to my brother, who would gladly take over. 

The more games I played the more I learned that when it comes to action games, I actually prefer watching people play than doing it myself. My reaction time just isn't fast enough to progress much further than the first few levels. Examples of this include all the Mario games, Limbo for XBox, and even one of my favorites, Katamari. That's not to say that I don't enjoy these games, but when it comes to action, I panic. The simple fact of it is that I don't like frantic button mashing.

Around the time that I was giving up on Mario, I discovered Pokemon. To a ten year old, the primary appeal was how cute Bulbasaur was, and following the cartoon. In fact, I once traded my Eevee for my brother's Meowth because I liked Team Rocket. Ah, the folly of youth! As I've gotten older I've realized that there's much more to the game that just catching cute creatures. I've played through Pokemon Diamond, SoulSilver, and most recently White. While I know what some traditionalists would say, I found them to be consistently great games. I like putting together a team that is versatile and can win in any situation. I like training my guys to ridiculously high levels so that I can breeze through the Elite Four.

The games that I get really into tend to be slower paced and more about thinking than doing. I'm all about turn-based RPGs. When Jack introduced me to Final Fantasy Tactics, I don't know or want to admit how many hours of my life I spent playing through the game and all of its subquests-- Although I'm still working on getting a Dark Knight.

There is one game above the others that owns my heart, and that is The Sims. I'll probably end up posting a separate entry about this because I have tons to say, but for now I'll just say I have been playing this game for approximately half my life. (Jesus...) It's rare that anything, be it books, hobbies, or any other game, can cause me to stay up until 4 AM but this game managed to do it. I love The Sims so much that I have to limit myself and not play it during the school year, otherwise I would probably do that instead of my work. I think the thing that draws me to this game more than any others is that you can set your own goals. Aside from your Sim's lifespan, there is virtually no time limit. I've taken two weeks to build the perfect mansion. (And of course none of my Sims could afford to live there!). 

So that's me. I like RPGs and sandbox games. I don't like time limits, and action games stress me out. Does that make me any less of a gamer? Eh. And, would any of this be a big deal if I was a dude? Unlikely. All I know is that video games are a huge part of me and I can't imagine my life without them.

Conklederp, signing out!

Handing Over The Reins

For today, instead of my normal post, I'll be handing over posting rights to my girlfriend Emilie (Conklederp) for today.    She'll be guest blogging here on occasion.  But, please don't worry.  She's not going to take over a la Jeanine from Spinal Tap (attempting to take foot out of mouth) and she stated that she's not going to be the "Yoko of your guys' blog," (just found other foot in mouth......).

Anyway, I'll leave you in her hands until I'm back again on Friday.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

 Posting from the Couch.