Click, #, #, #

Okay, this is another comment to my WOW post. I feel this deserves another blog post because it's longer than a comment.

To summarize, when I say "clicking", it's my short form for "Click, #, #, #" which is my way of describing WOW's gameplay. You walk up to a guy, you click on him, which initiates the attack. So now your guy is attacking him, and if you have enough energy and the spell is ready, you press #1 to use a spell and deal more damage. If you are running low on life, you press #2. If you are about to finish him, you can press #3 to seal the deal, using a stronger spell but shouldn't be used too often, maybe it stuns you for a bit. Rinse and repeat for every enemy.

That is what I believe to be WOW's combat system. I believe there's not much to it... I think of it too much as a react-response system... low on life, you heal (by pressing a button, an "easy" button if you will)... you need to pull a guy away from a mob, I assume you can do that with another easy button... if the enemy says "charging ULTRA Beam" you concentrate more damage, or you get ready shield/regen or nullification spells.

So I'm watching Duy now, Duy is fighting 6 guys at a time, and he's standing there, hand not even on mouse, and he's button mashing one of the numbers, I think. And the guys just fall like flies after 40 seconds or whatever. Now Duy is looting each and everyone of these monsters... and now he's fighting more guys, training them together so he can face one direction and hit them all. Once again, he's rapidly pushing a combination of buttons. His life bar is at 66%, not bad... block, parry, block, parry... 50%... still good... one enemy left... and done. I was hoping he'd get to lower life and then I'd see him reach for another number and his life would regen back to a high number... oh well.

First, to agree with Ambrose, Final Fantasy's system isn't that involving either. If you are low on life, you also heal yourself with a few buttons, and the rest of the time is spent fighting. Halo 4 player co-op is a bit insane too, since there's no real fear of death, so everyone just becomes a sacrificial zergling, guns-a-blazing.

So what I mean by Click # # #, is not the buttons you press.. but it's how you deal with everything. Take TOTA for example. You are GUY, you approach an enemy, and you press X X X X, down Circ, forward Circ, rinse repeat. Not totally exactly, but close. X X X X are the normal attacks, down Circ if you have the energy to deal more damage, and then forward Circ as a sort of combo ender. If you have low energy then you don't do those.

Healing? Healing is a bit different. My idea of healing in WOW (Guild Wars, and let's put FF in here) is that you can do it while fighting. TOTA, you have to run away, find a safe place for you or the healer for a few seconds, and then do the healing. I'm not talking about pushing buttons, I'm talking about responding to the environment and how to do it.

Smash? Well, Smash is almost no contest - it's one of the most variable response-react games there are, you can do almost anything anytime. There's a lot of visual stimulii that might cause you to change your actions, and... well, I hope I don't have to talk much about Smash... who disagrees? Maybe when you're like, the best player in Smash, it's a bit more response-react. You see Samus. She's off the edge. Then with your expertise, you know Samus' optimal flight path to get back onto land. You are Ness. You can now calculate the best timing to force Samus. But even then, sometimes it doesn't go right.

But that might be your idea - you press forward, hold C-up for a few seconds, and then press down and A at the same time at this precise moment, where Samus is recovering from a bomb drop and you are right there to knock her down. If you become that Robotic, maybe the gameplay in Smash isn't involving for you either.

In response to Ambrose with regards to Halo... well, it depends how you play. The problem with what I do (which is what you described) is that it isn't very effective, and usually ends in a 1:1 kill/death ratio. Obviously, the way I play in halo multiplayer isn't quite the same as I play in single player, you can't do that as much in single player. So is it trigger to fight, melee to finish, and run around the corner to heal? Maybe, but it's more involving than that, with all the factors.

Maybe the other thing I'm criticizing is that... in WOW, I think the stimuli are the: the green bar, the blue bar, and the enemy's green bar, and maybe the spell icons to see if they're ready or not. I can think of Final Fantasy, where I think that might almost be true. You enter a battle, and it zooms in, and you see your life meter, your magic meter, and the enemy's life meter. Let's say the menu is replaced with hotkeys so you can access your favourite spells. The question is, can you finish a Final Fantasy fight like that? Maybe there's a prompt that says "you have not enough mana" or "Fire spell was ineffective", but you get my point. Is it doable?

It's not in Halo. You require to see the level in order to run around a corner, or if the guy moves, you have to see him move so you can adjust your aim accordingly. It's not in Smash. SO NOT. It's not in TOTA, since you have to run around correctly to avoid spells and attacks. It's not in PGR2. And so on... but is it possible in FF? Is it then possible in WOW?

I have another partially related question. Why Meph runs, and, do you do meph runs (equivalent)? I assume Jia is at end game in Diablo II, but pure end game, no more raids, no more harder enemies. So why Meph runs? Stat increase from 233 to 234? Something else? I don't know.

Also, if there exists an end-game in WOW (no more raids, nothing more to play for except bigger numbers), would you continue? I assume they're always releasing new content, but if they stopped, would you stop? If you didn't stop, would your playing be considered the same as meph runs?

Halo: MMOFPS

Okay, this is a response to my "World of Warcraft" blog post on the other blog.

I may have... fibbed a little - at the time not really on purpose, but I realized something. I do like leveling up and bigger numbers, up to a point. We level up often in TOTA; sometimes out of necessity because a boss is beating us tooo badly, but sometimes just for fun. Sometimes we're a few levels away from learning new magic spells or new AD Skills. And I must admit, looking at my C.Cores and seeing my (Guy's) attack power at, for example, 332+132, it makes me feel good. I look at Jia's (Jade's) attack power and it's like 120+10. Hah. But his magic is through the roof and I have none of that, so we each have a role.

Seeing bigger numbers as you do attacks in TOTA is also nicer, although I do admit that enemies are getting stronger so they take longer to kill, makes me feel... not as satisfied. Leveling up the sword in Ninja Gaiden is fun, or getting some attack increases in games like that is nice. Being stronger in Paper Mario games is always nice, you get that nice level up animation too. Leveling up in Final Fantasy games is always pretty good, makes you feel better, except in Final Fantasy 8, but I digress.

I think the main problem personally for me in WOW, is not the leveling up and the numbers. The two problems for me, are the clicking, and the pace.

Pace is a major one. It takes many hours to level up a level in WOW, and it takes a long time to defeat an enemy, or a boss. In Guild Wars, it was more combat oriented - combat was faster, life changes occur more often, and overall it was a much faster game. In Ninja Gaiden, a normal enemy would die in 3 hits, or one nice combo or something, and similarly, an enemy can kill you pretty quickly too. In TOTA, your change in life can be really quick, and enemies die relatively faster than in WOW. Halo... well, everything is quicker in Halo and other games.

Devil May Cry bosses kinda had this problem - they took a lot of hits, and were more a battle of endurance than skill. Viewtiful Joe bosses had a formula where you had to learn, and then you just had to repeat the formula over and over until they died, that also wasn't that much fun. I like quick turnaround in my games.

So my main problem is pacing, or time. Personally for me, the result you get from playing an hour of WOW is not worth the time. Leveling up is much more satisfying in TOTA, where it happens much more often, and the effect.. well, the effect is okay. But in games like Paper Mario, where you have 30 life and when you level up and you gain 5 life, that is quite significant.

That said... if they made an MMO Halo game, where it's just like Halo 3, but they have some leveling up system where you get better shields, and better weapons... and you go into different classes and you can hold different weapons... that'd be neat. Then there's PvP games and all that, they have that already but now it's more... umm.. restricted, hehe. Then there are instances and dungeons, where you form a party of 4 or 8 or whatever, and it'll be like a SWAT team taking out a rogue enemy dragon or whatever. I think I can play this game.

Similarly, if Smash Bros was an MMO, where you level up and get new moves and abilities (triple jump? longer firefox? double air-dodge? stronger falcon punch? hits both ways?), that would be neat. If they had a mario game with swords? and you level up? Although I think it's called Maple Story? hmm... anyway, I think I can play these games, and level up, and enjoy myself... the thing is, these types of games don't take long times to play. I can be quick in and out of a pvp game in Halo in 10 minutes, or a dungeon in 30 minutes or something.

Hmm... I think that's it. And then comes the clicking, the core of the gameplay. That's another subject. So, for me, it's the pacing, the time effort required to play WOW, and how it takes too long for things to happen. So... does this say anything about me? Am I impatient? Is it a fault of mine? Well, whatever. That's that.

Magic: The Non-Quitting

About half a year ago, we all decided to quit playing Magic. We said something like "after 10th edition" we'll all quit - or at least, we will play less, draft less... we'll probably still draft each time a new set comes out, see what Magic's been up to, things like that... but we certainly would draft less. Duy quit, Jason quit, so it would almost make sense for the rest of us to quit.

... that didn't happen. We didn't draft less. We didn't quit. I am still in love with Magic, and I continue to draft it with Vinh or with Alan and Vinh pretty often. It's still fun. So what happened?

It would be wrong to say that "the new set is so awesome". That's not true. The new set is good, but so was every set that has come out. It's not like the new set made Magic so awesome that it was impossible to quit. There's none of that hocus pocus going on.

So what happened? Actually... nothing happened. We said we were going to quit, but why? There was no reason to really quit, so therefore... we didn't quit. Additionally, in the few recent weeks, the cost of cards have gone down. Significantly. SIGNIFICANTLY - kind of. The Canadian dollar went up, and there was this cheap wholesale online store that I shop from; now that the Cdn dollar is at par, it's much more affordable to buy it from that store.

I suppose one of the reasons we were quitting was the cost. Before, we would say that the cost of a draft was comparable to going to see a movie in theatres, and the cost for a good draft was... well, more than seeing a movie in the theatres. Well, now that I can buy cards for cheaper, the price of a good draft is less than the cost of going to see a movie, but I digress (sorta). The logical thing to do is compare what is better - drafting or seeing a movie.

You drive to the movie theatre (you have to wear clothes, etc; that alone might be considered another cost), you pay the admission, you sit down, watch the movie for 2 hours. Let's say it was a movie that you wanted to see in the genre you like. You watch it, share the emotions (laughter, fear, etc) with your friends and the people in the theatre, and then you come out. Chances are it was a new movie that you haven't seen before, and it was a neat experience, and now you add to your culture and experience with a new story and vision from the director. You leave the theatre and go home.

For now, let's experience the first draft of a new set.

Prior to the draft, you go out and buy your booster packs and lands; or, the other extreme, you buy all your cards online, and you buy enough cards for multiple drafts so that you don't have to do any preparation work for the next few drafts - which is what I do now. I'm at home, so I don't have to dress too fancy, Alan and David and etc don't have to dress too much either. You get the new packs, you open them, get the new card smell, and you ooh and aah as you look at the cards for the first time. You see new mechanics, ultra powerful cards, and your mind forms new synergies and combos as you look at and study the cards.

If you're drafting with David, the draft will probably take well over 2 hours. After drafting, you construct your deck, which is another fun process on its own - and then you play the cards, and more oohs and aahs come out as you see cards you still haven't seen before, and you see new combos in action. After the draft is done, you have your cards to keep and play with at a later date.

Now let's talk about a late draft... so the set has been out for a while, and you probably know 90%-100% of the cards, and you've had a few drafts and you might've even made some constructed decks or searched the internet for some, so you know most of the main strategies available. And for now, let's say we're not drafting with David, heh.

So you sit down, open the packs, take your cards. If you know 90% of the cards, there's a small chance that you still get some oohs and aahs if you see new cards, and in those cases it's pretty neat to find new gems. But most of the time, you'll see cards you've seen before. After you draft, you make your deck, and you'll play. Without David, the draft can take anywhere between 15 minutes and 45 minutes (or longer, however redundant that may sound).

So it's still fun to play... but the part I really like is finding about the cards your opponents took, or ninja-ing them with the cards you took. There is still mystery before you play with the deck, as you don't know (or shouldn't know) what your opponents have picked, so that little joy from ninja-ing them with good cards is quite fun.

And as usual, after the draft, you have a deck to play with at a future date.

But one thing that I noticed is... often, you don't really play with those draft decks again. So another question is... is it okay? Is it okay, that, even though you get this new deck for later, is it okay to not use it? It does seem wasteful, yes. You bought cards, and you use them for a bit, and then you don't use them anymore. It IS wasteful, but we're talking about entertainment right now. I did say that a lot of the fun from the magic draft comes from the drafting, making of combos, and then playing your cards that your opponent doesn't know you have. Of course, once you play them, they know what you have, and part of the shock experience is gone.

So the whole question is, what's better worth the movie, drafting magic or going to see a movie? And, the kicker is - if drafting is better than seeing a movie, how much does the "deck for the future date" account for? After you see a movie, you don't get anything physical out of it. So is drafting magic so awesome, so that, after you draft and make your deck and play with it, if your cards suddenly disappeared (so that you also don't get anything physical out of drafting Magic), would it still be worth it?

Okay, I'd be kinda sad if the cards suddenly disappeared. You did after all, "work" on them. But, I'm asking because we have dozens of draft decks that are no longer used - should we keep them there, collecting dust? Would I feel better if I played with them more? Are they special so that just having them there as a "reminder" would be okay? Should we deconstruct them into constructed decks? Well, those are some odd questions.

(Aside: Another reason I like Magic is that it gives me and Vinh something to do together. Our interests rarely intersect and he doesn't like doing a lot of things, so Magic is one of the ways Vinh and I bond. That is good enough reason to stay playing magic)

Anyway, I do like going out to movies, and I do like drafting magic. I can't always choose to go out to movies, and I think my resources are pretty well so I can choose to do both (plus videogames, etc.). Sometimes, it'd be nice if I didn't have to dress up and drive to the theatre... well, that's where renting a movie comes in. Renting a movie is a cheaper alternative to going out to see a new movie... but can't always do that either.

So... I didn't really answer my question. I just said that if it's an issue of cost... well, it's not a huge cost, so it's not a huge issue. Anyway, so I didn't answer my questions too well, but maybe you would like to share your point of view.

Bathroom Scales

joke from:
http://www.gcfl.net/archive.php?funny=20071109

Two youngsters were closely examining bathroom scales on
display at the department store.

"Have you ever seen one of these before?" one asked.

"Yeah, my mom and dad have one," the other replied.

"What's it for?" asked the first boy.

"I don't know," the second boy answered. "I think you stand
on it and it makes you mad."