Thoughts on Fallout...12 Years Too Late

I thought long and hard about just what to say in my post regarding this game. It's old. It's groundbreaking. It's famous. Playing through the game for my first twenty minutes I could honestly not tell you why it is held in such high esteem, but after leaving for a few days and coming back, I fully understand.

I was about to start out with a few complaints mostly regarding combat, but instead I'll just get right to what about this game really grabbed me.

I wanted to be in the world. It didn't matter that I thought the combat was boring, or that the story had too little direction (and a god-damn-ball-busting-timer!!!) I wanted to explore what is essentially an entirely open ended world that was created before anyone truly knew what open endedness could be. Maps that gradually reveal themselves as you explore them are always the most rewarding. I wanted to learn the lore and collect crap and talk to people (fucking phenomenal voice acting) and just learn about this post apocalyptic waste land that seemed so unbelievably alive. I only have a pdf copy of the original game manual, but GOOD GOD is that thing incredible! Clearly, what made people such huge fans of these games is that they wanted to live out this existence in a world recovering from nuclear holocaust; the game designers did such an amazing job in making it seem real. I can completely see why a company like Bethesda, who make the Elder Scrolls games, would want to develop a property like Fallout 3. They pretty much write the wiki on how open a game world can or should be. Not owning a 360 or PS3, I have haven't had the chance yet to pick up numero tres, but you can bet that when I buy an Xbox, the first game I get will be Fallout 3. If the world is this detailed in a 1997 game with an isometric view, I'm sure the same details with updated graphics will just blow my mind out the fucking window.

So, just to wrap things up: I get it. I went in to these games expecting everything (combat, story, overall great gameplay) and what I came away with was an experience and a longing to be in a world that was alive (sorta, ha). This is a perfect example of "lasting gameplay" - why people still lavish praise on these games twelve years later. Experiencing a world this vivid takes a pretty long time to get old.

Take this experience, ramp the detail up ten times and give us the Fallout mmo, please!

-Max

Watched a great documentary on Hulu last night about remixing and the nature of copyright law in today's world. It's definitely worth a look: here.

Also, the band (guy) Girl Talk who features prominently in the show is one of my favorite musicians and his work can be downloaded here for free! My favorite quote about his music is that, "If you like music, then you like Girl Talk."

Virgin Worlds: The Movie!

(Full disclosure: I never finished watching it.)

By now I'm sure everyone has heard of the new mmo documentary Second Skin. Apparently some dudes got the bright idea to make a documentary of a certain selection of gamers who play EQ2 and WoW. Maybe when they first set out on this project they didn't intend it to be so heavily biased against the genre, but the finished product is pretty heavy handed in its disdain for these types of games. This is not a review, other than to say I thought the movie was fear-mongering crapola. Also, check out the latest episode of Spouse Aggro, as Leala pretty much rips into the film - like RAWR!

However, I just had an amazing idea for a rebuttal. Hence the title of this post. To counter all the negativity expressed in Second Skin, somebody needs to take their little digital camera and hop on a plane around the world to interview the podcasters of the Virgin Worlds Collective! From the way these folks behave on their shows (like normal, everyday human beings without social issues) they would be the perfect group of people to interview in order to show that the mmo community is a very friendly, deep thinking social sphere that isn't just inhabited by nerds in their parent's basements. The bias would be very obvious and very positive, promoting our community to the world at large.

Someone mention my idea to Brent and lets get this shit in theatres!

-Max

Ye Olde WoW Hate

This topic has been done to death, I know, but with the inevitable coming expansion, I feel it deserves some re-discussion.

At the this very moment (and for the last week or so) I will be the first to tell you that I am none too happy with ol' Blizzard at this point in Warcraft's lifetime. Not being able to log-in to one's first and favorite mmo will do that to a person. But, it is precisely because I love the game so much that not being able to play it causes my frustration at the company. I fully understand my current feelings for the game and thus am able to cope with not being able to play it for some unknown time. What I don't understand is why any WoW news at all brings out the haters, with the sharpest criticisms usually coming from former players.

Yesterday I was checking Massively and WoW.com for any new stories when this jumped out at me, as I'm sure it did to many others. My first and only thought concerning this revelation was that it sounds totally awesome, if it proves to be true. Now, perhaps it is because these days I mainly read mmo game sites for news, but I was quite taken aback by most of the non-mmo gaming communities reaction to the news. A little while ago I was checking Gamespot's "Latest Headlines" and two things caught my eye. One was this, which just caused me one more groan of Nintendo bewilderment. The other was, of course, Gamespot's own rumor mill reporting of the WoW.com news.

Jesus, god. Please take some time to scroll through the hate. Here are a few of the best:

"Can this game get any gayer?"

"No more new races will be added. This article is pure BS except the fact that the next expansion will be called Catacalysm. Expect a new hero class."

"This game has been going downhill since release, I didn't even bother with WOTLK, it'll take a lot more than Goblins and Worgen to bring me back."

"I don't play WoW anymore but all my friends are still addicted. Just wanted to comment on this. Ok I can see Goblins joining the Horde but Worgen for Alliance? How does that make any sense? Am I missing something? Seems like just a random choice because Worgen don't really fit as Alliance at all. But I guess if all people care about is "cool playable werewolves!" then why should Blizz care if it makes sense."

"and WoW becomes even more stupid, glad I left this piece of crap months ago"

"enough of this game already."


Most of this nonsense is easily brushed off with, "read the damn lore," and, "stop speaking out your ass on a game you have likely never played" but the comments from former players are what bug me the most.

What is it about this game that causes people to feel so burned when they finally call it quits?

• Did they take it too seriously?
• Did they not get out of it as much as they put into it? (time & effort vs. rewards)
  
• Are they just mad at themselves for playing the game for so long, but never really 'getting' what it is about?
• Or, perhaps after all that time spent did they never create the experience they wanted? As we all know, because of the social nature of mmos a large portion of that experience is player created.
• Lastly, maybe they just saw how much they had paid for the game and had a heart attack!

I am no psychologist so this is as far as my gamer-mind evaluation goes. But, perhaps those bullets are something to consider with regards to reasons for Warcraft burnout.

Lastly, when I started to write this post I remembered something Shawn Schuster tweeted the other day:

"Man I hate when sites write about MMO news and don't even play them. Don't you?"

Yes, Shawn, I DO hate that. I'd say that hate even extends to regular gaming sites that only partially cover mmos, but that have a rabid user base of mmo haters.

-Max


"WoW was the Nirvana of mmos"
-Michael Zenke in reference to wow's inevitable legacy

So Excited!

As you may have guessed, I'm excited. Why? Oh, well, because I just purchased the recently re-released Fallout Trilogy! So, I thought I'd throw up this post real quick to say that as a guy who has never played any of these games, but heard nothing of unending praise for them, I'm pretty excited. My expectations are extremely high (rightfully so?) and I hope that in the next couple of days I can perhaps offer a different perspective on these games, coming from a younger generation. I was only seven when the game was originally released.

The disk includes Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics. And I should say that I have also never played Fallout 3, so I'm coming into this totally new.

Well I am off to load the game and I will be back with my impressions soon!

-Max

The End of WoW *Tear*

Unfortunately, it looks like I won't be logging in to the World of Warcraft for quite some time. With the new patch 3.2 came more demands on the video drivers within my shitty little laptop, demands that it just can't handle. Dell, apparently, hasn't seen fit to update the drivers for the GMA 965 integrated graphics card in their Inspiron line, and because it's Dell, the generic drivers downloaded off the Intel site won't work. :( And yeah, because my warranty is out, customer service totally won't take my call.

I don't have the computer know-how or patience to search every last forum post for a possible solution to this problem.

So, until I get a decent computer, it's goodbye Warcraft.

-Max

Off Topic: Summertime Edition

It's always healthy to take some time out from a hobby. Today I thought I'd mention a couple things I've really been enjoying this summer.

Every season, it seems, I have a playlist of songs that I'm mainly listening to. Here is the mix that has been playing in my car for most of the last couple months.

1. No You Girls - Franz Ferdinand
2. Daylight - Matt & Kim
3. My Girls - Animal Collective
4. Summertime Clothes - Animal Collective
5. Bruises - Chairlift
6. No Hope Kids - Wavves
7. Weed Demon - Wavves
8. So Insane - Discovery
9. With a Girl Like You - Dave Sitek (The Troggs cover)
10. And I Was a Boy From School - Hot Chip
11. Ready For the Floor - Hot Chip
12. Stress - Justice (I know it's the Kanye West blog...but the video is amazing!)
13. Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell - Das Racist
14. The Girl at the Video Game Store - Parry Gripp
15. The Kids Don't Stand a Chance (Chromeo Remix) - Vampire Weekend
16. Cap Cod Kwassa Kwassa - Vampire Weekend
17. Engine - Neutral Milk Hotel (bad picture, excellent sound)
18. Heartbeats - Jose Gonzalez
19. Mykonos - Fleet Foxes
20. Everyday - Rogue Wave (Buddy Holly cover)
21. Day N' Nite - Kid Cudi

Be sure to comment back if you end up really loving any of them.

And if any of those links don't work then just search the songs or bands on Grooveshark, it's the best site I've ever seen for streaming just about any music there is.

I'd also like to mention a brand of tea called Honest Tea. If they have it at your local grocery store - do yourself a favor and buy a bottle. So far, I haven't found a flavor I haven't liked. Tea: the best thing to drink during summer, if you are underage.

This website is one of the funniest to come along in a while.

Ms. Kara Sutra (when she isn't bitchy) gives some pretty good advice.

Finally, if you are a do it yourself type of guy you probably already know about Instructables, but if not then check out the Throwies and other crazy LED projects.


Have a good rest of the summer!

-Max

The D&D Experience pt. 1

This is something that has been kicking around in the back of my mind for a little while. So, if you will indulge me, I would like to tell a short story.

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I couldn't give an exact date, but it was during my middle school years when I first discovered exactly what Dungeons and Dragons is. Until then, I had only a vague idea of a game played mostly by nerds in years past. So, one weekend I was sent to stay at my grandparent's house because my parents were celebrating an anniversary, or some such holiday. Their house is very easy to picture because it is the quintessential grandparent house. Really old. Really comfortable. Really good food. I usually slept in a room upstairs that formerly belonged to my youngest uncle and still had a lot of his stuff packed away in the closet. During the afternoon I was bored, so while my grandparents were downstairs doing boring old-person stuff I decided to go digging through the closet. Invasion of privacy be damned, I was a restless little kid!

I should note that by this time I had read Tolkien, (some) Dragonlance, and Harry Potter, so, for a kid, I was well-versed in fantasy.

Although, looking back, simply reading fantasy didn't really prepare me for what I found. Several open boxes were buried under a pile of clothes, so I decided to pull those out and sort through them. What I found in them immediately seemed to me a gold mine. For effect, I'll just list everything contained therein.

Books:

• 1st Edition AD&D Player's Handbook
• 1st Edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide
• 1st Edition AD&D Monster Manual
• 1st Edition AD&D Monster Manual 2
• 2 copies of (one is pretty ratty) 1st Edition AD&D Deities & Demigods
• 1st Edition AD&D Fiend Folio
• 1st Edition AD&D Unearthed Arcana

Modules:

• The Keep on the Borderlands
• The Isle of Dread
• Against the Giants
• Queen of the Demonweb Pits
• Vault of the Drow
• Tomb of the Lizard King
• Lost Tomb of Martek
• The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror
  
• Master of the Desert Nomads
• Sabre River

Other stuff:

• World of Greyhawk Folio Gazetteer
• an old folder full of graph paper, character sheets, and item/loot information

It took me most of the afternoon to just wrap my head around everything I had found. The complexity and detail that each adventure and book contained completely blew my mind. I thought the old, hand drawn illustrations that accompanied many of the descriptions were particularly cool. Because I have always been a sucker for maps, though, the Gazetteer was my favorite. The gigantic fold out map and the accompanying booklet described in minute detail an entire world that seemed to be begging to be explored.

In spite of the internet and its endless information, I am glad that this is how I found D&D. It would have been too easy and boring to just do a Google search for Dungeons and Dragons and read up on it. This sort of hands-on discovery fits perfectly with the spirit of tabletop gaming. It's just you, your friends, a few materials, and your collective imagination that brings the stories to life. So far I had three out of those four things, my brain was excited and my imagination was really starting to cook with the possibilities offered in these books.

My grandmother eventually came upstairs to find out why I had been so quiet all afternoon. She found me sitting on the floor next to the bed reading the Monster Manual. She smiled and said something like, "Oh, you've found all of Paul's (my uncle) old Dungeons and Dragons books, have you?" Apparently, when my uncle was in high school he was also in a local boy scout troop in which he made friends with some guys who got him into playing D&D.

Needless to say, I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening combing through many different books and modules; all the while my imagination expanding. When my parents came back and it was time to go home, my grandmother said I could take all the D&D stuff with me (as parents are sometimes apt to do without asking their children first)! This made me quite the excited little boy. On the way home I told my mom all about the cool stuff I had found. By the end of that day I had learned that Wizards of the Coast was currently producing the D&D materials and that it was in it's 3.5 edition. You can guess what my Christmas list that year consisted of. Eventually, we talked to my uncle, told him what I had found, and he was only too happy to pass his stuff on to a younger generation.

Thus began my problem and overarching idea for this post.

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I originally intended this to be one post, but I don't want it to run too long and bore everyone to death. So, in the next couple of days I will write part two. I hope this has given at least some insight into a much younger generation coming upon tabletop fantasy games. In the second part I'm going to discuss my current generation's lack of imagination and how games like D&D just don't seem to cut it for most kids any more.


What I'm listening to:
"Young Adult Friction" by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
It can be found under this review.

-Max