You know how I said I would stay away from Kickstarter, well I lied. Mostly because totally awesomely fabulous projects keep being offered. Damn them! The Maze of Games book is such a project.
The Maze of Games is a full-length, limited edition, hardback puzzle novel with over 50 puzzles and a deeply engaging story, all woven together in a “solve your own adventure” style which will keep you jumping from page to page. This innovative format has never been seen in a puzzle book before, and will be delivered to you in a gorgeous illustrated tome.
As a huge puzzle fan and a voracious reader of choose your own adventures (as a child) there was no way I could pass up this fabulous opportunity to support this artistic combination of the two. It looks simply enchanting. They are even going to be making a ebook version!
These are all games that I have played in the past, games that I find not only historically significant, but that have also made a huge positive impact on me as a gamer.
Some of you might notice that my list actually consists of twenty games, not ten. Well, I’m really bad at picking favorites and they all seemed so important, plus I really wanted a diverse selection
Tetris, Super Mario Bros 3, Final Fantasy 8, Tomb Raider 2, Diablo1+2, Starcraft, Myst, Journey, Zelda windwaker, Animal Crossing, Civ 3, Pokemon, mortal kombat, quake, Baldurs Gate 2, gauntlet, Heroes of Might and Magic, Overlord, Professor Layton and The Curious Village, Portal.
In general my tolerance for crappy games is rather low. The notion that I have to play a game for twenty plus hours before the fun part begins is quite intolerable. There has to be something redeeming or fun about the experience for me to continue.
I also prefer for the game to not be excessively difficult. Dying repeatedly in the first five minutes is not fun. Or making the game so complicated that it requires hours of studying before being able to play the game effectively is also not fun.
It really comes down to the fact that I have a limited amount of time to play games; I do not want to waste it on games that aren’t fun.
But I will say that writing reviews has definitely extended my patience and encouraged me to play games far past my usual point of abandonment.
Even so I rarely finish games that I don’t love, especially games that are really long. It is far easier to simply move onto a new game, because if it isn’t a game I really like, I have no incentive to play all the way to the end.
Both is really my preferred answer, but since that isn’t quite accurate I will attempt to be more specific. As I am a huge fan of both genres, in much more then games, it took a while to figure out that I do really have a preference.
In movies and TV I strongly lean in the Sci-Fi direction, while books are much more middle ground. But in games I seem to prefer the fantasy setting, its certainly what I play the most of.
This is very likely related to my proclivity for role-playing game, which are often in a fantasy setting, rather then the more sci-fi first person shooters. But I’m not sure if my preference is because of game mechanics or genre preference.
Okay this is going to sound cliché, but I almost exclusively pick elves. Here is the thing, games are an escape from reality, which means that when I have a choice about who should be my fantasy alter ego, I tend to pick the most fantastical, mythical, otherworldly, highly intelligent, attractive, cunning, and powerful. I want this avatar to be much more then I could ever hope to be in real life and in my mind this equates to Elves.
This also means that I am quite disappointed when a game only gives me human as an option. Quite often, this ends up impacting my enjoyment of the game, or contributes to my avoiding the game all together.
Though I am rather opposed to picking humans, I have no such restriction with elves. Give me any kind of elf and I’m happy, Wood Elf, High Elf, Blood Elf, Night Elf, Dark Elf, and so forth.
Humans are boring; I want my escape from reality to be better than real life. =D
I enjoyed the first 30 days of Video Games so much that I decided on another run. December seemed like the perfect time, as it’s a holiday heavy month. I haven’t managed to pre-write as many as I hoped, which would have given me a bit more holiday time. Will just have to see how it goes. =)
Since I couldn’t find a different list, I had to come up with my own selection this time. The topics are all over the place, but in the end I chose them because I was interested in answering them.
Here is the list as it stands:
31) Favorite Playable Race
32) Favorite Boss Encounter/Raid
33) Preferred Universe to inhabit
34) Favorite skill
35) Favorite scary moment in a game
36) A sequel that was awesome
37) Good or Evil
38) Favorite dungeon crawl or level
39) Achievements, to get or not to get
40) Favorite quest
41) Favorite pet/mount/companion
42) Favorite personal character name
43) Favorite Mini game
44) Favorite reboot of a classic game
45) Favorite combat strategy
46) Favorite art style
47) Favorite game adaptation
48) Game that made you feel the most heroic
49) Sci-Fi or Fantasy
50) Favorite morally ambiguous game
51) Game you love to hate, don’t get, wonder why anyone would buy
52) Favorite weapon
53) Male or female
54) Finish a game or not? How long to do you give a game before you write it off?
55) Multiplayer or single player
56) Instanced or not instanced
57) Best character progression
58) Favorite secondary character/random character/minor character
59) Picture of your game setup
60) Top ten games from your gaming history that you would recommend to someone else
Feel free to answer along with me. I always love to hear what everyone else’s picks are! <3
It has been incredibly interesting to watch the transformation of Double Fine. I don’t know if this was happening before their Kickstarter, but since then they seen to be evolving into a full-fledged entertainment service. No more do they simply offer games, they are documenting the entire process of creating games and sharing it with all their lucky viewers.
Though lots of developers have been doing video diaries, Double Fine has taken that idea and blown it up into a full-fledged documentary. I would be tempted to call this transparent development, but I am really not sure how much of it ends up being scripted, how much gets left out, and how much is shown out of order. Video is a wonderful media, but lets face it, editing can really change a lot. =)
Now I realize one Kickstarter a trend does not make. It was this latest Double Fine contribution, the Amnesia Fortnight offering at Humble Bundle, which put solid weight on the transparent development idea. Then again, in this age of reality TV, it’s not surprising that a game development company would branch out into this medium.
Is this a bid for fame or a way to provide a more stable income for a small development company? I’m not sure. It does remind me of the Penny Arcade guys, who have expanded far beyond a simple web comic; in business terms, diversifying ones portfolio. It worked beautifully for the PA guys, so why not Double Fine.
It will be interested to see if this is sustainable. Being filmed takes time, which means time away from game development. Will production time be impacted by all the video work?
Ultimately if this helps a small developer like Double Fine stay afloat for longer, then good for them. And I will admit, even though I am not a huge reality TV fan, seeing the inner workings of how they create games at Double Fine is really interesting.
This is by far the best pumpkin carving I have ever seen. Maybe its the programmer in me, but a jack o’ lantern that doubles as a Tetris Game, COME ON! Win.
This Facebook Felicia Day post completely exemplifies how I have been feeling about games of late. Is there some sort of new holiday that I didn’t get the memo for, because games are coming out like its midwinter.
Borderlands 2 just released; I’m still deeply immersed in Skyrim (yes I know I’m just behind on that one); Guild Wars 2 is like a month old; Torchlight 2 is out next week, as is WoW: Mists of Pandaria; and the Marvel Heroes beta is going live any day now.
Its clear some of these will have to be relegated to the ‘will play in the future when I have time’ pile, which seems to just be growing and growing and growing. ~sigh~
Though I sound a bit whiny, I do think this is a wonderful conundrum to have, I guess I just wish I didn’t need so much sleep. Maybe no sleep at all. That would be a solid eight hours of gaming a day and awesome!
My ‘currently playing’ list is still pretty accurate: Super Mario 3D Land, Skyrim, Dungeon Defenders, Zelda, Trine 2, Tales of Symphonia, SWToR, WoW, ME3 Multiplayer. Lots, but Skyrim has my focus currently. Raptr keeps track of everything I have played since May.
My to play pile is rather embarrassing since there are a lot of things on there that have been sitting around for quite a while. =/
Here is the list:
Quantum Conundrum
The Secret World
Civ 5
Okami
The Legened of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Xenoblade Chronicles
Borderlands
Brutal Legend
Red Dead Redemption
LA Noire
Ghostbusters
Arkham Asylum
Arkham City
Alan Wake
Mortal Kombat
Fable 3
Not sure if I will ever get to most of these but that’s the pile.
Here are a few games that I plan to play in the future:
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm
Guild Wars 2
You know how I said I would stay away from Kickstarter, well I lied. Mostly because totally awesomely fabulous projects keep being offered. Damn them! The Maze of Games book is such a project.
