Gamer Gaming

As I occasionally do, I like to stop what I am doing and take a minute to talk about my gaming habits. And, for a change, the list is quite different to normal. For a start, I'm not playing World of Warcraft, and haven't been online in ages.

Why? I got bored. It's all well and good discovering new areas, finding the cool nooks and crannies, running the interesting, intricate quest lines, and seeing stories unfold in different places... But Blizzard have dumbed the game down so much now, it's hardly worth bothering. There's only so many times you can run the same quests through the same places to get the same outcome.

You don't even need to read the quest dialog any more. Glance over the summary, run to the marked point on the map, got through the motions, run back. No more searching or hunting. No more figuring stuff out for yourself...

Dungeons & Raids never really held much interest for me, except when I were in a guild of like-minded crazies. THAT was fun. Now it's go to a dungeon with a group, and either steamroll through everything in 30 minutes, or die repeatedly and deal with others screaming and ranting at one another. Raids are even worse as they are bigger, take longer, and no one works out the tactics any more... Read an article, learn the moves, rinse and repeat.

And PvP holds no interest for me at all.

So it's either level a character, do the same stuff repeatedly and start again, or not play.

Which means I can't be bothered to play. Even the upcoming expansion doesn't make me go all giggly and think "wantwantwantwantwant" like it used to. I've not even seen the cinematic for it yet. Not interested.

I'm not playing Diablo 3 at the moment either, but that isn't a game I like to play in dribs and drabs. I don't like playing for half an hour then doing something else, and at the moment, I don't have the time to sit and play for a decent amount of time.

Games that HAVE sucked me in, however, are a strange mix.

Despite mocking Tamsyn and her love of all things Minecraft, I've somehow gotten hooked on Terraria. It's practically the same thing, but 2D and not 3D. I can't even explain what I love about it. Exploration? Crafting? Digging?! Whatever it is, I own it on both my PC and my Tablet. Both games are different - with randomly generated world's when you create a new game, it's ALWAYS different... Being able to play with others is sort of a plus, but the only person I played with was Jaysen. Who doesn't play often. And he sucked at it ;-)

Considering how much Minecraft doesn't hold my attention, I can't work out why Terraria does. Maybe I'm just fussy...

Next on the list of games that have sucked me in is The Elder Scrolls 5 - Skyrim. And I mean this game has all its claws in me and has dragged me in. I loved Oblivion and Morrowind (Elder Scrolls 4 & 3 respectively) but Skyrim has me even more so. I'm doing all the main quests at my own pace. I'm picking up all the miscellaneous quests I can find. I'm exploring every nook, every cranny, every cave, ruin, tower, dungeon, crypt, mountain pass, and whatever else there is. I'm making my gear better and better. I've adopted kids. I've become a werewolf (even though I forget I can shape-shift). I've saved vampires and murdered honest merchants. I've accumulated more wealth than I know what to do with. I've bought houses and built mansions...

And still I'm hooked.

I honestly think it's the open-world aspect of the game. I can go and do what I want, when I want, how I want. The play-style I use determines how my character develops his skills... I can sneak in and pick off the baddies from afar with my bow. I can go in blazing with magic in all directions. I can charge forth and let my axe splatter faces... I can be given a quest to go do something-or-other, and wander off in the opposite direction to go collect stuff so I can make some potions. Or go explore a cave. Or steal a horse. Or burgle a house.

Hey, don't judge me, I'm mostly good, but a locked chest MUST be locked for a reason, right? I can't NOT look...

In the world of Online Gaming, I am currently in love with Wildstar, a sort of futuristic sci-fi Western set on another planet. It's a very pretty game, and has a lot of undertones of how WoW used to be.

Think Star Wars meets Titan AE meets Firefly meets Warcraft.

But... My computer is old, and my laptop is, well, a laptop... There is only so much they can handle, and reeeally annoyingly, Wildstar is that one step too far. I can play it to a point, with all the details turned waaaay down to almost minimum, but it destroys the point. I like pretty games, I like games that look nice. And I like games that don't struggle when you have more than a few monsters surrounding you.

So now in order to play it, I have to save up for a decent computer, or really really decent laptop.

But I digress.

As for mobile games... Well, I've already mentioned Terraria. For some reason, I am also playing TWO farming types games, Township and Hay Day. Again, I have no idea why. Grow crops, produce goods, fill orders, build stuff, help friends... Strange, but addicting.

I'm also playing Dungeon Keeper, but that's more a five minutes here and there game at the moment. The developers have taken the idea of the original Dungeon Keeper game, and changed it to a game of "Micro" transactions. Doing anything takes ages. Unless you use gems. Which you find now and then, but you'll need more. So you have to buy them. Over and over. Same goes for the big powerful dudes, they cost gems. Which you can find. But you need more. So you buy them.

I refuse to spend money on it. So I am slogging away, taking my time...

I also have both The Tribez, and the sequel Tribez & Castlez. Honestly I prefer the first one, but it's a "build a town" game, and again, they push you to spend money... One of the "special" offers is a single building for more than £20! I'll pass.

I am getting bored of both those games... But I struggle with mobile games, trying to find something that holds my interest, doesn't cost money to progress, doesn't feel like actual work, and doesn't have a learning curve like a cliff-face.

My time has been all over the place this last month thanks to the house move, and that has definitely cut into my gaming time. But more than that has been how I feel...

Because of my useless brain and pointless body, I struggle with games, especially new ones. I really struggle to take in ANY new instructions, and learning a new game can take a while. Then I forget what I am doing completely which either results in a restart, or just me having a hissy fit at how thick I am, and just deleting the game.

If I am in pain, gaming sometimes distracts me away from it, and I can enjoy doing something. However, sometimes the pain wins out, and - the same if I am tired - I lose the plot, forget what I am doing, and make stupid mistakes that results in a Game Over or a Reload Y/N screen. Making stupid mistakes on top of stupid mistakes is the worst.

Running face to face with a handful of powerful critters is a stupid mistake that ends in death. That, coupled with the biggest stupid mistake of forgetting to Quick Save, well... That usually means an hour of slow creeping and assassinating is wasted.

And I just quit.

I think that was the only reason I stuck with WoW for so long. I was so used to playing it, knew what I was doing, even if I made silly mistakes, I could get over them. I almost played on auto-pilot a lot of the time.

But I digress..

The only game I am actually looking forward to comes out in just over a week... A revamp of the original Gauntlet game. I've been watching the videos posted to Steam, and reading about the features and what not, and really can't wait for it to come out. The 20-something of this month. And assuming it'll run on my computer (which I am sure it will) I will be getting it!

I also intend to get both Oblivion and Morrowind again too, and replay those, to see if I get as sucked in as I have been with Skyrim. No promises on holding back on murder and burglary mind you ;-)

Lastly, apologies for any typos/wrong words or formatting weirdness... I am very tired, in pain, in bed, and posting from my tablet.