Category: Games

Guild Wars

Prasad AjinkyaLeave a comment

I am a big fan of RPGs. Something about changing reality I guess. Diablo, Torchlight, Sacred … you name it, I have dabbled with that game if not played it to the fullest. Then came the era of MMOG (Massively Multi-player Online Games) … and MMORPGs were there.

Till date, I had always felt that India is somehow lacking on the bandwidth front. Not any more!! With decent enough speeds, we Indians can also indulge in a bit of online games. With winning titles like WoW, and free titles like 9 Dragons, 2029, etc. Which game to choose becomes a question.

Here I would seriously recommend Guild Wars … its your money’s worth. Its not a free game, but unlike its other paid brethren … GW does not operate on a pay per use model. You buy the game once, and you get to play it for a lifetime. It pawns WoW in this regard. With World of Warcraft requiring a good $20 a month. Which to some is expendable – the some being a good 21 million souls. With $40 for all the three titles, GW does score of WoW.

The reason why I am mentioning Blizzard so much is because a lot of people who have worked on GW have been Blizzard employees.

The game has a story line, but where the game stands out is the PvP area and its concept of guilds. Many players can be part of a guild, and there are many competitions between guilds. Players can choose different professions (Elementalist, Necromancer, Warrior, Ranger, Mesmer or Monk), depending on their professions their role in the battle changes.

The game play is simple and addictive. I havent finished the storyline (I only have 2 hours of my trial period left!!), but I am considering purchasing the trilogy.

All in all, awaiting GW2 and considering making this purchase.

Rise of Nations: Barbarian Rally tips

Prasad Ajinkya10 Comments

If you ever decide to explore the game without the multi-player aspect, then you are bound to check out the Conquer the World campaigns which are a part of the single player campaigns that one can play.

The Barbarian Rally is a scenario type which is described as follows –

Barbarian Rally: Take control of a neutral territory in one of the early turns in the campaign and then defend your city against a constant onslaught of barbarians. It’s a defense mission, so increase the defenses around your city with towers and the like. Produce military units to remain close to your city and intercept the invading forces. The invaders increase over the course of the mission, so expect to be nearly surrounded in the mission’s concluding minutes.

I am playing in the Tough mode, so was expecting an early onslaught, the good part about this scenario is the resources that you are given. Be wise to utilize them properly. To reach the classical age, you will need to research 9 technologies, which is a resource hogging strategy. A better idea is to go into defensive mode and be prepared.

This strategy worked for me –

  1. Build towers, the more the merrier
  2. Definitely go for one more city, you will need the gold that you get out of the trade for building archers
  3. Build 2-3 archers per tower and city, garrison them
  4. Next go for a mix of HI and LI
  5. Garrison soldiers to heal them
  6. Keep a watchout for siege weapons and take them out on priority
  7. Build an outpost, not only will it increase the size of your city, but also it will reveal hidden enemies (Contributed by Ameya Mane)
  8. In the end of the game, you will be swamped … take all your villagers and put them on repair mode. Especially the towers and the capital

Gaming as a Learning technology

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I was watching Jane McGonigal’s TED talk and her logic of gaming being a parallel learning track for this generation’s youth is pretty convincing.

For example, a researcher at CMU through a survey has found that by the age of 21, a youngster has put in almost 10,000 hours of online gaming.

Add to it Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 Hour rule of success, and you have a whole generation of teens who are virtuoso’s in gaming.

Compare this to the 10,080 hours of education that you attend in your secondary school (i.e. if you dont miss a single day of school), and you have an alternative track/medium where an individual is deeply engaged. I had earlier blogged about how games can be used to engage people at work. Well, the same holds true for education, and the platform is almost set. Now it’s for game designers to design games like Superstruct and Evoke, so that modern day games (where the world spends 3 billion hours of online playing every week!!) can be harnessed to educate, collaborate and design new-age solutions for the world.

Jane further goes on to say how games can be used to solve world problems – you can watch the rest of her talk here

Using games to get better

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So what do you do when you fall ill or are suffering from an ailment?

I usually go on a leave, sit at home and nurse (or be nursed) myself back to health. It takes some time, but the leave is a welcome break. I bet many of us do small variations of this.

But what about long term ailments? I suck it up, and bear with it throughout the prescribed treatment time. Not anymore, the next time I get a chance (god forbid no!!), I will try Superbetter!! A game proposed by Jane McGonigal. Jane is a game designer, and she has taken several aspects of the popular multiplayer games and turned them into rules for this game … the multiplayer aspect is used because we need peer support when we are down, not feeling well … even heroes need help, why not us :-)

The primary idea is to transform the way we see us, not as someone suffering, but as someone who is a secret superhero … the basic tenets are listed below, but I suggest that you do go through the original post –

Mission #1: Create your SuperBetter secret identity.

Mission #2: Recruit your allies.

Mission #3: Find the bad guys.

Mission #4: Identify your power-ups.

Mission #5: Create your superhero to-do list.

Once you get out of the victim view (that’s #1), then you can make a list of milestones towards a full recovery (that’s the #5). You do not have to do everything on your own, find people who will help you on your way (that’s #2) … also know what things you have to conquer (#3), and the things that make you feel better (#4).

It makes me almost look forward to a time where I will get to try this out :-D

Torchlight

Prasad Ajinkya3 Comments

I am a huge fan of the Diablo series, so much so that when I had an important exam to study for, I had a friend come over and play on my machine … that way I could study and not get tempted to play the game!! 3 months later, I cracked that test, Nikhil got hooked on Diablo :-). After battling the hordes of Baal, both of us tried different variants of the game, I think I have completed the game with all characters while Nikhil has completed the game in all difficulty levels (yep! Hell!!).

It was 2009 and the folks at Blizzard were keeping the Diablo3 plans hush-hush. So how do we fill the void? Believe me, I have tried … Oblivion, KOTOR, Assassin’s Creed, Fallout … RTS games like Rise of Nations, Rise of Legends, Anno 1404 … the list goes on. My thirst for Diablo remains, until I saw on the xfire community a game which seemed to resemble Diablo, a LOT!! Screenshots looked like an old friend with a new hair-do … sleeker, trendy … but underneath, it was the same old friend.

I did my research and read through the wiki of the game, an excerpt –

Pre-production on Torchlight began in August 2008, shortly after the dissolution of Flagship Studios. Runic Games was founded by Travis Baldree (lead developer of Fate and Mythos) and veterans of Blizzard North and Flagship: Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer and Peter Hu. The “entire Flagship Seattle team” consisting of 14 people (the branch of Flagship which created the original Mythos) signed on to Runic Games at the time of its formation. Having lost the rights to Mythos, the Runic team saw the development of a new game as a way to “finish what [they] started,” although they would have to start over with none of the code or art assets from Mythos.

The game is touted to be the best Diablo clone that is there in the market. With a standard storyline, and lots of drops, I found the game an excellent hack and slash game. Also with an upcoming MMO to be launched soon in tie-up with Perfect World (a Chinese firm), the rights to play online would be free with the game.

One more game to look forward to in 2011 :-)

When virtual takes over real

Prasad Ajinkya5 Comments

Just read this in the paper –

In a shocking case of parental negligence, a 3-month-old baby was starved to death after her parents forget to feed her as they were busy honing their parental skills in raising a virtual child.

Gaming is a technology that can be used to learn new skills (parenting being one of them), but before the game takes over the real purpose of picking up that skill, the player needs to quit.

World of Warcraft: A foray

Prasad Ajinkya7 Comments

Five years after the launch of this very successful game, and 11 million players later, I decided to give this game a whirl. This would be my first experience with a full fledged massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG). The decision to give this game a try was influenced by two factors, one was an article about a book I had read recently. The other was the fact that Blizzard was giving away free 10 day trial packages of WoW. You sign-up and you get an account trial for 10 days, simple.

Give an Indian a free deal, and you can be rest assured he will try. So without any further thoughts, I registered for my account, and got my 10 days worth of WoW – wheee!!

World of Downloadcraft

To begin with, the installer file is around an MB or so. I was happy, so I started the installation on Saturday. To my horror, the installer was just the start, the actual installation files were a mammoth 4.6 GB! This is just the Burning Crusade, and no add-ons. With a stripling connection speed of 256kbps, I downloaded the files over two days (my poor laptop was on for 2 days at a stretch). Now, the game installed and I eagerly clicked the shortcut, some animations followed (breathtaking yes, anxious yes, appreciating the animations – no!!). A moment in the game, the application informs me that it has to be patched before I can log onto any realm (a realm is a server where other players would also be playing). Fine, another 1.2 gigs to be downloaded … phew!! On the third day, everything was downloaded, installed, patched and updated. I was cursing WoW and Blizzard, such a bad experience to start with.

Totally Worth it

After all that bitching, I created my first character … a male night-elf fighter. There is a tutorial, and small quests where you learn running around doing small chores and killing weak animals. The entire application acts as one helluva thick client, with only minimal co-ordinates data being exchanged with the server. The loot is just about interesting to keep you hooked, and the quests keep on changing. The key is to take out as many quests as possible for good loot and faster experience gains.

All in all, the game is still running in my head. In some fights I fought alongside other new players, and we got to understand the pros and cons of each character. I immediately shifted to a female human mage – which suits my style more. Aim, fire, cold … the game is a completely different world, with two professions to learn, you can make your own weapons, or you can make food for others, or be a professional healer. The options are many.

I have been hooked onto this game for 4 days now and my laptop cringes whenever I run it in its full glory. I have lost some sleep when battling the minions, but I am loving every minute of it. Ill give the upgraded account a shot … but only after getting a proper gaming station :-)