Order in Chaos

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I’m a borderline OCD candidate.  I have a few friends that I consider farther along that spectrum than I am, nevertheless I seem to be more than average.  It’s a running joke at work that my desk is so clear of papers that people feel intimidated by it.  (simple fact is that I prefer electronic copies than paper).  Yet it’s a mindset I have applied in numerous places in my life, mostly to manage anxiety.

My father in law is on the opposite end.  I remember the first time I did some repair work with him and went to his garage.  Stuff was everywhere.  It took me longer to find a saw than it did to use it.  My tools are not perfectly stored, but they are stored in such a fashion as you can clearly find them with a glance.  My better half originally thought I was crazy for spending time putting things back in the same place, but after a while of trying my method, the craziness of never finding something turned her around.

I’ve always had a passion for experimentation, the scientific kind mind you.  I learned quite early that you have to limit the variables to find much success, and that’s been my motto ever since.  Build a stable and secure foundation, have fun tweaking above that line to find better and better ways forward.

Clearly this applies to my gaming.  I try to automate as much of the rote stuff as possible, so that I can have more fun doing the different things.  I use map addons to mark harvest nodes, so I can try different flight paths.  I build and run simulators to focus on optimal skill choices and stat weights, then tweak as I go.  I’ll spend 20 minutes building a harvester so that it can mine for me for days and I can spend time building something else.  I’ll memorize board game rules just to find out if various tweaks can be applied.

Some folk ask how that’s considered fun, and I can understand that.  I lose a lot of mystery of “regular” discovery because I’m digging down at the underlying systems.  What I gain instead is pleasure in finding the things people didn’t think about.  In EQ I found a number of “exploits” where I could solo farm with limited risk.  I found features in the UO code that let me make items with near permanent usage and sold it for great profit.  I was in nearly every MMO beta up until RIFT launched, and logged hundreds of bugs in each.

I was watching some Awesome Games Done Quick the other day and wanted to show my wife.  She saw insanity, I saw practice and dedication.  They were finding all sorts of bugs in the code that allowed them to do amazing things.  Mario Maker seems to celebrate that mentality.

As I grow older, I’m finding that this need to find order in chaos is still strong.  As games become more complex, it’s becoming even more fun to find some of the weird stuff in games.  And I get an even bigger kick of sharing these finds with my kids and other gaming friends.

Stress is Good

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Explicitly triggered by Syp’s post, but something my wife and I have been chatting about recently.

Plain and simple, people grow through challenge.  If you’re not challenged, you’re not growing.  And we all know people who have opted to stop growing.  One of the side-effects of challenge is stress, or out ability to manage the challenge.  Some people crumple, some people thrive.  Everyone is different and everyone has their own level of comfort.

I was on a course recently related to career progression.  I’m at the point in my career where the next step is not really an increment but a leap in responsibility.  The burnout rate at that level is substantially higher, and the training is supposed to help folks come to terms with that reality.  We were 25 in the course and after the first day, about 5 had decided it wasn’t for them.

On the 2nd last day was a group exercise.  It was a mining simulation where you mined for a particular resource in order to gain credits.  These credits could be exchanged at the local market for a variety of items, including the ability to automatically mine more resources.  There was a distinct lack of details and direction, and there was a rather strict time factor.  Every 15 minutes the prices at the store changed, the clerks either became helpful or impeding, and stock levels would go up or down.  It was very hectic.

As a player, we were tasked with collecting credits to leave the mine within the allotted time.  No one knew how many credits were necessary, you just guessed and tried a special door.  If you go through, there was no way to tell the others.  You needed to work individually for that goal, but in order to get resources/credits you needed to work with other people.  At various parts, there were rules and instructions.

I would think that most people reading this blog would have excelled at this particular game.  The wide majority of online games use this model.  So for me, I just went with the flow.  I mined the optimal path (after a few minutes of reading additional instructions), bought excavators very early and soon had a massive amount of credits.  I wasn’t sure how many were needed to win.  I found a rather obscure rule entry that stated I could buy and item (for half my credits) that allowed me to see how many credits were needed and then tell the rest of the group.  Time was short, but I did it anyway.  I found out I had enough credits, ran back to the group and told them if they had X amount to follow.  Those that had more, they could share with the others.

Of the 25 that played, 1 guy succeeded without group play and was sitting alone in the other room.  I brought over a dozen people with me.  When we finished the simulation and broke down what happened, those that didn’t get out had one of two responses.

  • That was too crazy, I had no idea what was going on, panicked and just gave up
  • I didn’t find it fun, so I gave my credits to other people and played dead

Which upon reflection is how most people deal with stress.  They either succeed alone, succeed with others, crash and burn, or simply give up.

While there were people on the fence before that simulation, once it was complete it was rather clear who was cut out for the next step in their career.  From 25, there were 3 of us left.  And that’s a good thing because everyone learned more about themselves.  Folk had started with assumptions, and through trial, they grew.  They all learned how they dealt with stress, and at what level they were comfortable.

I enjoyed it.  Not only for the actual activity, but for the lessons I learned about myself.  I found that I have great focus when under stress, and that I will make efforts to bring people along through the journey, if they want to.  I much prefer a team victory than a solo one, but that I won’t hesitate to leave someone behind who has no interest in success.  (side bar, my wife fills in that gap, with a very large heart for other people in times of stress).  There are things I can tweak here and there, some additional techniques that I can hone up on, but generally I am quite happy with the results.

Now for another escape-the-room event…

 

 

Return to The Secret World

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Wistfully, I re-installed TSW this weekend and gave it a good spin.

I jumped in on my character who had made it to Transylvania, which if I recall, is pretty much the final zone before end game.  I have ~30% of the skill wheel unlocked, which means I have all the skills I want for solo play.

Further, I’m at skill 10, meaning that I’m in the best solo gear I can find.  Any power progression is unlikely to come from solo play.  So, given that I like goals, let’s see what’s here.

Exploration – I can finish up the next zone (forest) and move on to the other chapters and see the story play itself out.  TSW does have the best story-telling out there, and I certainly find it interesting.  This zone in particular is less weird, and more Vampires everywhere, so I might just jump through as fast as possible.  There are plenty of other issues to give stock.

Killer – I don’t think there’s any PvP here, or rather I’ve not found any.  Murder machine this game is not.

Achiever – Specific achievements don’t really get to me.  Power increments are a goal, but only so much as a step to the next one.  I’d like to collect more costumes, maybe round out some other skill trees.  None of that would have much impact on gameplay.  I wouldn’t really call that horizontal progression either.  I would like to get through combat faster though, it gets repetitive quickly.

Social – TSW focuses a lot on the RP community.  That is not my bag.  Social would be a means to do group content, which doesn’t interest me either.

 

I keep coming back to TSW.  A few weeks here and there throughout the years.  The story and quests (with a few notable exceptions) are very well done and immersive.   Character progression is no where close to linear, and setting the various decks out means you reach a point where you can do what you want.  There are a few weak choices but not too many bad ones.  If you pay attention though, then you find the really optimal playstyles.  You could concentrate on affliction, or penetration, find some leech options… everything links with everything else in some form.

The downside is that combat is extremely boring.  It all revolves around building 1-5 charges and using a finisher.  With so many skills, it’s hard to find proper and distinct animations as well.

So I’ll keep giving it a go, in small doses, until the combat wears me out.  Maybe I’ll finally leave the zone this time!

Marvel & Netflix

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I’ve watched both seasons of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and now Luke Cage.  All of them are rather highly rated, and I can see why that is.  That said, all 3 series are filled with dumbness.  Let me explain.

All 3 are superheroes with marginal powers.  By that, I mean that they are strong and have some toughness to them (DD is a bit more complicated).  That makes them more human than say, Spiderman or Thor.  Them being human means that we can relate to them more, and they are supposed to have flaws to support that theory.

DD has some form of OCD.  JJ is an alchoholic.  LC suffers from anxiety.  The issue here is that none of them ever seem to address those issues. They start flawed, go through the story, and remain flawed.

Let’s start with DD.  He begins innocently enough, then it just escalates to a personal vendetta to save the city.  And it never stops, no matter the sacrifice.  There is no epiphany here.  He loses the girl (s), his best friend, and the bad guys win by the end of the last season.  The reason that the Punisher stands out so much is because he actually has a character arc.  Hell, everyone has a character arc but the hero.

JJ is 5 episodes too long of moping.  The best progression is on her sidekick.  Killgrave is neat when you learn the backstory but after the 60th person that he mindcontrols to kill themselves, I get it.  He’s a douche.  I still don’t get the ending.

LC is JJ time two.  The entire series is about him being committed, then backing out of helping his community.  I dunno, but if I was 100% immune to bad guys, I would just walk in, take everything they had, burn down the house, and never look back.  The one where he takes the cash and then let’s the bad guys come back worse is just dumb.  The cops are dumb.  Cottonmouth and Shades are well-written.  Claire (Rosario Dawson) is well written.  Zip is not.  He tried to shoot Luke Cage in a half dozen episodes.  Like, at what point do you realize that he’s immune?

In all three series the hero makes decisions that go against all logical judgment.  They make a choice, then go back on that choice for “reasons” that make no sense.  To be honest, this reminds me a lot of the final two Matrix films.  At the end of the first, Neo understands his power and his responsibility.  He has a mission.  Then the 2nd one starts and he doubts everything.  What?  I get that bad things happen, I do.  Even with the best laid plans, things can and will go wrong.  But when the errors happen because of the heroes, repeatedly, that’s where it gets annoying.  Let the bad guy outsmart you.  Let the ally betray you.  Let the assumptions be proven false.

And I think the main issue with this is padding – stretching of material.  The movies have 2.5 hours to tell the story and a single bad guy plot.  The Netflix series have 13 hours to fill, but only a single story and only a single bad guy plot.  I can understand that the movies have really crappy bad guys.  Netflix addresses that by dedicating a whole hour to their backstories and motivations.  Fisk is extremely well done.  Cottonmouth is a solid one too.  Diamondback makes little sense.  Killgrave has some sense of pity.  Electra is solid.

Ok.  That leaves 12 hours to go. In each series you could cut it in half and it would be better for it.

The really sad thing about it all, is that it’s still miles better than anything DC/Snyder has released.

Cold Season

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I have a head cold.  It’s one of those annoying ones where my nose runs like a tap and I’m feeling like I’ve had 2 hours of sleep, but it’s not enough to keep me in bed.  I’d prefer the flu, where you sleep it off and 24 hours later you’re back at it.  This feels like it’s going to stick around a while… I guess I need some more gin.

Fitness

I picked up the 45lbs weight plates the other day.  I will say that those two plates are more intimidating than an assortment of smaller ones to make up the same weight.  There’s something comical about a string of plates, compared to the solemness of just massive honkers of steel.  I remember thinking on the first set “am I really doing this?”, which got better later on.

As I mentioned to Isey, playing hockey and working out is not going to plan.  I am not a stay at home player, and I like to rush and move.  After having lifted nearly 3 tons of weight, the body needs some rest and hockey is not that.  I personally like progress and I’m at the point where I can no longer make progress in one without sacrificing in the other.  I need to make some choices.  I have about 3 more months of hockey mind you, so perhaps I can just delay for a bit.

I’ve also gone back to counting calories again.  Not for the minute aspect but for the trends and meal planning.  It also provides some evidence for the way the scale works and the way the training plays out.  I’ve tried a few apps for this but right now, MyFitnessPal taking the prize.  The app is straightforward and links to other things.  All good stuff.

All that to say that I should be hitting my fitness goals by the May timeframe.  Just in time for summer cottage/beer season.

Games

Simply put, I seem to be burned out on games in general right now.  I lack the free time to do much on the organized front, and I’ve played all the single player games I want to right now.  The emulator is fun.  Spending some time flirting with a few games here and there.  StarTropics is done, but Kirby is up.  Illusion of Gaia as well.  I’d play the FF series but I’ve gone through them all numerous times.

Let’s go over the big names this past year.

  • Overwatch – Not a PvP fan.
  • XCOM2 – waiting for the LongMod, otherwise superb game
  • Dark Soul 3 – played a few hours, ehh
  • Doom – heard great things.  Waiting for a sale
  • Civ 6 – still trying to wrap my head around it.  Load times and short play sessions don’t help
  • The Witness – played, stomped my brain, loved it
  • Dishonored 2 – still full of PC bugs, waiting on this one…
  • Firewatch – on my wish list
  • Stardew Valley – not a fan of simulators…maybe later
  • Deus Ex 2 – Better than the first one.  The missions are way better than the hubs.
  • Witcher 3 – A great game hobbled by the worst combat controls I’ve played in a long time.
  • The Division – I should go back now that the big patch is in…but end game is nearly all PvP.
  • Grim Dawn – super ARPG, put in a lot of hours here.
  • WoW Legion – I don’t have time to raid and my time expired with 4 max characters.  LFG not including all dungeons still ticks me off.  Never saw an artifact.
  • Tyranny – played it, cleared it, may go back later.

Not much that I haven’t had a hand in, that I at least have an interest in. I’ll be honest, I’m not missing it terribly.

 

StarTropics

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Old school post.

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I died a lot here.

I remember being a kid and going to the local corner store and renting this game.

In point of fact, I remember renting it numerous times as 3 days wasn’t enough to clear it.  The boss in the picture above was the first time I learned to think outside the box in gaming.  There was this item, a rod, which made ghosts appear.  You could not get through this level without the rod.  As the game was rented, it didn’t have an instruction manual and actually using the rod was a mystery.  It took a day to figure it out, and I finally cleared the boss.

Now I’m giving it a shot on my Pi and the game is a pile easier than it was before.  Save states certainly help with that, as the controls are still rather unforgiving and there are spots where lack of input, or taking the wrong path is just plain death.  I can remember the frustration all those years ago of a screen filled with fireballs and having to jump on the exact right spot to move on.  Very annoying.

To top it off, StarTropics is renowned for one more thing – a code within the instruction booklet.  At one point, you get an in-game message that says something like “Remember to dip my letter in water”.  Well, the instruction book came with a small letter, and if you did dip it in water, then you had a code appear.  This code (747) was used to progress in the game.  Without it, you needed to bruteforce the way through.  I think this was the last time I saw this type of DRM used.

Anyhoot, back to the game.  You’re a young guy, armed with a yo-yo, exploring islands and dungeons, killing bats, snakes, minotaurs and finally aliens, all on your way to find your uncle.  The plot is actually pretty good, considering some of the stuff on the NES.  The controls are directional, with no diagonal movement, making some sections quite difficult.  There are various alternate weapons, like a bolo, or a baseball bat.  Enemies have patterns, you have life points, bosses are tough as nails.

It’s a hard game, but one that requires planning versus twitch movement.  With only a few places as exceptions, you can always see what’s coming ahead, and a quick pause can lay out the enemies to plan the attack. The largest issue is the lack of diagonal movement, which the sequel gets rid of (but introduces other quirks).

I have fond memories of the game and it’s certainly longer than I remember.  I thought perhaps I had rose colored glasses here, but StarTropics does a really solid job of holding true over time.  Well worth the trip down memory lane.

Writer’s Block

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Plenty of ideas rummaging through my head but I’m finding it really difficult to put virtual pen to paper.  I am reading a lot of blogs mind you, and everyone seems to have something interesting going on.

Games

Kids are enjoying the Retropie.  There are nearly 2000 games on it right now, and browsing through the selection is a pain.  How do you pick one of 700 NES games?  So my kids found 1942, if only because it’s alphabetical. They also like Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario World (an oddly difficult game compared to memory) and PacMan.

I’ve played a bit of StarTropics, DKC, Illusion of Gaia, TMNT4…dabbing around here and there.

We also played  a fair amount of Lego Star Wars Force Awakens together.  The game feels like some quantifiable progress in the genre.  I won’t hit 100% because, why?  96% has unlocked everything of merit.

Aside from computer games, we’ve played a lot of Ticket to Ride:Europe (kid mod: remove destination tickets) and Fire Rescue (play family mode).  TtR:E can be played with 2 players, but like Monopoly, it’s more fun the longer you wait between turns.  Long-played strategies are easy with 2 folks, but I can see them being derailed (yeah, I did that) with more players.

Fire Rescue is an interesting beast.  I’ve never lost family mode, or really come that close.  Hard mode, the closest to a win is missing my 1 marker.  I don’t think it’s doable with 2 players, and even with 3 requires a tremendous amount of coordination.  Lots of fun.

Both games are recommended for family play, and I have a 4 and 6 year old.

Other

I built an ice rink in the backyard.  Weather hasn’t been terribly helpful.  Kids enjoy it and have seen dramatic improvements in just a few days of use.

I’m working on an interesting project now that should dramatically change the way that the Canadian government does mobile work.  Finally catching up to the rest of industry.  It’s a project that will impact about 400,000 people, so there’s some kick in the risk/reward facet here.

Health-wise, I didn’t really make any new year resolutions.  I’m finding it very hard to play hockey multiple times a week and continue to strength train.  I’m at the strongest yet, and my legs have grown a fair amount.  Heck, I need to buy new weight plates.  I also need to re-jig my nutrition – I can feel something is off, so time to strip away and go back to basics.  I should be down to high school weight by the spring.

All of that to say that I am realizing that I need goals to function.  I do not do well by just fluttering in the wind.  I have, both luckily and not, achieved a fair set of my goals much earlier than I had anticipated.  Some of which I didn’t expect for many years.  I need to sit down with my better half and do a rejiggering.  Adulting, here I come!

My Own Emulator

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Ok, maybe not my own.  It’s a gift for the kids for Christmas.  My eldest played a bit of the SNES at our friend’s place a few weeks ago, and her face was something to behold.  I want to see how that works out.

Ever since I’ve had a computer, I’ve had emulators.  I modded my XBOX way back when to include an emulator.  My tablet has a SNES and PS emulator… It’s the way to go.  I’ve owned a lot of consoles and games, and having them all accessible makes a world of difference.  Having the save battery die in an NES game…or SNES game for that matter… not fun.  Doesn’t happen with an emulator.

So for this project, I wanted to build something with controllers that my kids could enjoy.  It had to be relatively mobile to transport, and it had to be relatively cheap.  So either a cheap tablet with a mini-HDMI and bluetooth controllers, or…RetroPie

I went the latter.  I started hunting on amazon for a new Raspberry Pi, but remembered that I am cheap.  I was also looking for controllers… again, cheap.  I then remembered that I had a Pi running a Minecraft server and that the entire thing was based on a microSD card.  Off to the store.

Found a 32GB Class 10 card for $12 and two F310 controllers (USB) for $18 a piece.  So all told, less than $50 for all the gear.

The RetroPie config process is almost a joke.  Download a file, load an image, transfer to the card, done.  I think it took 20 minutes to complete all the steps.

A couple quick searched and I had Atari, NES, and SNES games ready to go.  That was about another 30 minutes of work.  Transferring them through SAMBA requires no extra software either.  Even the boot up was a simple thing, as it detects the controllers and let’s you map button presses.  I hooked it up to wifi (needed a USB keyboard for that) and bob’s your uncle.  Even my wife was impressed and took a seat to watch.

Adventure Island, Yar’s Revenge, Super Mario World…my youth in a tiny box.  More specifically, my youth on a microSD card no bigger than a fingernail.

All that’s left to do is wrap up the package and let them unwrap it.  Then a couple plugs and we’re good to go.  I realize I have lofty expectations here, and that compared to today’s gaming options emulators seem ancient.  Still, there’s something to be said about a gaming system with a joytiq, one button, 16 colors and giant blocks and nothing but your imagination.

South Park – Stick of Truth

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Clearing up the Steam backlog and South Park is on the list.  I used to watch it fairly regularly but I cut cable a few years ago and haven’t really paid much attention since.  I had heard good things about the game, and obviously it was at a good price.

The game certainly takes the source material to heart.  It’s voiced with all the same folks as the TV show, the art is the same, the story is full of the same with, sarcasm and black humour.  It really feels like an 8 hour episode, and I’ll touch on that in a bit.

The game is RPG, all the way.  Classes (all very similar in effect), melee and ranged weapons, 3 armor slots, customizations for that gear, HP/MP and special powers.  Very generic and trope-like items, but with a South Park twist.  You’re as likely to find a giant dildo as you are a shovel.  Max level is 15, and that should be easy enough to reach by the end of the game.  There’s enough tinkering here to make you feel like you’re specializing in a particular type of role.  I personally prefer to stack the Bleed effect, as everyone appears vulnerable and it deals a lot of damage over time.

Combat is very similar to Paper Mario.  Turn-based, with you getting 1 accessory skill and one attack per round.  Press a button in the middle of an animation to deal more damage, or defend for more.  Nearly all fights are against multiple opponents, even a few boss fights.  You get to team up with 1 of 6 possible NPCs to help fight.  I liked Butters, Stan and Cartman, once they became available.  Stun an enemy in the overworld, and they show up stunned when the fight starts.  It’s fun to find the little links between the various skills and effects, which can make combat either very simple, or quite complicated.

The world itself is well done, with plenty of side quests to undertake. Each area has sub-areas, often locked behind story progress to attain a new skill.  Shrinking, anal probes, shooting, or one of 4 types of magical farts.  It sounds dumb, but when you’re playing it makes sense.

Without spoiling the story too much, there are clear acts within the game.  The town, sewers, Canada, a spaceship, school, a tower…and your own home.  This last one, well, it’s worth playing just for this 15 minute section of the game.  The battle with the Gnome Warlock is the most unique boss fight I have ever played.  Just don’t play with the sound up too high, or without headphones.

The final battle is reminiscent of FF’s model of multiple end bosses, with twists.  It works, not because of the mechanics, but because of how absurd the entire thing plays out.  When I completed it, I felt as if I had accomplished something, that the story had seen an end, and that in some way, it made sense.

There are certainly weaknesses here, though it’s hard to tell if they are on purpose or not.  The Girls recruitment quest exemplifies that issue.  Repetition is a little strong in some areas, where it feel more of a grind than it should be.  But then you get a quip from a character stating just that, and it gets too meta.  Some skill balance issues remain, where massive AE attacks and status ailments are just way too powerful compared to other choices, and the last skill for each class just changes the game – again, this is likely done on purpose.

If you play this as a straight RPG, then you’re gonna have a bad time.  If you play it as an interactive TV episode, then you’re likely going to find it too much of a grind.  Instead, it finds a solid ground between both.  It’s certainly made my top 10 RPG list.

 

 

Irony Had a Baby

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Ok, less gaming related today.

Two interesting stories to mention.  First, that Republicans are feeling targeted on college campuses (NYTimes) and second, that the CIA is complaining that a foreign government had a direct hand in a democratic election (all over but this one from WSJ).

Reading both, it feels like the Onion no longer has any relevant material to write about and that I need to pay double attention to see if an article is real or a joke.

 

My friends and family can certainly attest that I am far from a bleeding heart when it comes to society.  I am a firm believer that people have way more control over their lives than they think they do, and that the wide majority of actions and reactions are based on their direct input.  I would say that I swing left as compared to my elder generation, center when it comes to mine, and right when it comes to the younger one.

That’s not to say that the system isn’t rigged against them.  You need the chips to play poker, and the collateral to call a bluff.  Very few people on this planet have that.  I am more than aware that I live in the upper echelons of my country and as compared to the world wealth, I’m in the 0.10%.  Minimum wage in Canada would put that person at 3% globally, which is just about our country’s poverty line.

Money is not a cycle, it doesn’t trickle down.  Its distribution curve goes only one way.  It’s entirely reasonable that someone who tries hard, puts in the hours and effort and loses their job because of factors outside their control would be resentful when they lose their job and their boss gets a raise.  (Reminds me a bit of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, where all middle managers are sent away on a space ship to colonize Earth).

I get that when someone gets a bum deal, they start thinking about Maslow’s pyramid.  If you have no personal safety, or for those you care for, then it is not possible to be empathetic to others.  People feel isolated and alone.  They make rash decisions that are shortsighted and emotional.  I can assure you that I’ve been in that boat, longer than I care to admit.  Managing change takes energy, and energy is scarce when you’re just scraping by.

Society then breaks into smaller groups, where sameness is key and threats are diminished.  Individuality is washed away, replaced with group-think.  Uniqueness, the underlying quality of each of us, is squashed. 2 people become 3, become 5, become 100.  Mob mentality, where a sense of accountability is lost, but belonging is strengthened.  You end up with Occupy Wall Street, just a rash cry for attention without any goals.

People are not rational by default.  We are emotional creatures that need stability, caring and purpose.  It is remarkable how easy it is to lose all 3, for the fall is quick  is from up high, and we forget the people that surround us when it happens.

 

It’s just unfortunate that empathy is so difficult to achieve unless someone experiences the same events as another.  Walking a mile in someone else’s shoes has never been more apt.