The Year of the Gamer

I would have to say that this is certainly the age of the gamer. There are so many different types of games these days, and such a wide variety of people playing them, that it’s hard not to someone playing something. So what are your favorite games? Where do you spend your time? Here’s where I’ve been spending mine.

Browser based games – I haven’t started playing any poker sites for money yet, there is only one browser based game that I have been playing, and it’s Glitch. Even though the game is being brought back to its beta stages in order to further development, the game is still a huge hit with me.

PC based games – as always the largest number of games I’m playing happen to be for the pc. These include Skyrim, Sims 3 (pets is a fantastic expansion), World of Warcraft, EverQuest II, and a few others that are not constants but are still on my desktop (there’s a good 15 titles in that category depending on my whims).  I filtered to and from League of Legends for a little while, but it got a tad bit frustrating to me. Magicka was the same way.

Mobile Gaming – these games always have a hard time trying to keep my attention. I really like bejeweled for some strange reason that I can’t even pinpoint, but I don’t enjoy angry birds at all. Plants vs. Zombie is a great title, and I actually have it on my PC now thanks to a generous Christmas gift. My ipad and iphone are almost empty of any games, I seem to prefer using those systems for organizational tools and media. If you know of any mobile games that I may enjoy, please feel free to let me know in comments! I’m especially fond of RPG games, although I have been known to play a few other types as well.

What Ever Happened To the Gigglegibber Goblin Gamblin’ Game?

Big Winner!

Remember when these friendly goblins were put into the game? The first “winner” on server won an enormous amount of platinum, over 3,000. Of course these days I hardly see anyone standing around the machines and with fast travel there’s no one waiting on any boats. The goblins could first be found at the end of various docks; Antonica, Commonlands, even Enchanted lands. Sure, it was a blatant money sink but these NPC seemed quite amusing and at the time a lot of players got excited over them.  With the addition of guild hall amenities we’ve seen a return of our green friends and it becomes easier and easier to spend 10 silver here and there as we wait for groups and form up for raids. It’s not exactly the same as a top online casino, but it’s a great way to pass the time.

My question is have you ever known anyone to actually win this game or is it just as elusive as the real life versions? I’ve gotten a match of five before and that gives you 25 gold, but it always seems like that sixth number is just slightly out of reach.

These days the “big jackpot” is a mere 323 platinum (at the time of writing this) which doesn’t seem like that much. The previous winner walked away with 361 – have the chances of winning increased and thus much less money is put into the pot before being won? I wonder what the statistics are, how many people actually play. Too bad there’s no real way to tell.

EQ1 also had a type of gambling game where you would keep trying to win a golden ticket for some fantastic prizes that you could choose. World of Warcraft has their mysterious fortune cards where players have a chance at winning an in-game cash value by “scratching” the card and once their fortunes are revealed the card can be sold to vendor for as little as 1 silver and as much as 5,000 gold.

What do you think of this type of money sink in video games, where you can at least walk away with some sort of reward?

 

Good Old Games: Betrayal or Big News?

The classic game digital store GOG.com is launching the rerelease of their website today along with some new titles for sale, among them the original Baldur’s Gate. There’s been alot of controversy going around the gaming community about their choice of marketing tactics, that being the faked death.

The problem with a complete shutdown of the old site with no warning is that most digital distribution services come with an implicit promise that you can redownload the software you buy from them repeatedly whenever you need to reinstall for whatever reason. By eschewing the traditional box and disk they save on the cost of printed materials and can offer games released with dos-box optimized settings that will run on modern gaming hardware. It’s a service that is sorely needed, as many classic games after their useful life become abandonware or if the company chooses to fight online distribution a severely overpriced collectors item. A service that can sell and support those classic games that are not abandoned makes them available to a new generation of gamers who didn’t grow up with Baldur’s Gate, Kings Quest or Masters of Orion.

Using a complete shutdown of your well supported and by all accounts thriving website to generate ‘buzz’ is a clear betrayal of the trust people placed in GOG.com, and it’s no surprise that it left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. It’s my opinion though that it was an honest mistake by them, and if anything it will have taught them that when/if the service actually does go out people will expect plenty of notice and next time will probably get it. What they’re doing by bringing back these classic titles is a necessary service for game publishers and the community, and it’s one made possible by digital distribution and the internet. Give them the benefit of learning from their mistakes I say, in the past they’ve been the go to website for classic game downloads with tons of extra material, support and service. It’s a service worthy of your trust, and I’m going to continue to be a customer.

Steam Sales, and What I Bought

King's Bounty - The Legend

For those who are used to purchasing games online, you’re probably familiar with two specific sites. One is direct2drive, and the other is Steam. Both are fairly well reputed sites and I haven’t had any issues purchasing games from either of them. Around Christmas time Steam had some incredible sales and they’ve returned this summer. I already own a lot of the MMO titles, but from time to time I like to stray towards something different. It may not happen that often, but it does happen. I have the Sims3 which I’m pretty dedicated to, and then a handful of other games sit on my pc for when I’m in the mood.

I recently picked up a bundle for “King’s Bounty” which included King’s Bounty: The Legend, and King’s Bounty: Armored Princess. I have never played this game before, but it looked neat and I had heard a few good things from friends. It’s a tactical game but also involves other elements like exploration. I haven’t played very far into it yet, but I’m having a lot of fun (even though a few encounters have absolutely wooped me). Basically you control one ‘leader’ type character, who is in charge of an army. You scour the map looking for things to defeat, and places to explore (and other things like that) and every so often you’ll ‘run into’ a mob. This opens up a game board where your army will be laid out, as well as the army of your enemies (pictured above). From there it moves to turn based attacks, of course the last one standing wins. You can pick up scrolls, wear armor, pick up leadership points and there are other bits and pieces to the game that I haven’t figured out quite yet (remember I’ve barely sunk an hour in so far). It’s still fun, and well worth the $10 I paid for the two games.

Along that same line I also picked up a Gothic bundle, Gothic II: Gold Edition and Gothic 3 for $1.99 – another game I had heard very little to nothing about (I haven’t been a gamer all my life) but it looked interesting and I had heard some ok reviews about it. I’m already aware that controls are a bit wonky, but other then that I haven’t even loaded up the game yet to check it out. For the price, I really couldn’t go wrong.

What about everyone else, have you been sucked in by the steam summer sales? What did you purchase? Let me know in comments!