Hobbies in Half-Term

Some half-terms are designed to recover from the ravages of before. These days my time is less like that, though, as I try to manage my time reasonably enough. Some teachers work like hell during the half-term, and do very little during the holiday.

Emotionally, there needs to be a recover. Physically, perhaps too.

What I like best, though, is to keep an element of work ticking over. By that I mean completing a little something everyday. And part of that routine is not spending free time gaming.

Recently, though, I have found my gaming somewhat lacklustre. A bit too easy, and not evocative by far. Recently, though, my Total War campaign has grown difficult to the point of being impossible. And it is strangely more enjoyable because of it.

Currently I'm defending a siege of 700 against 2500. The opposing army has somewhat better troops, too. The first battle I fought, I almost won as the enemy merely tried to come through the gates. I attempted to fight it before the end with less losses, and in each conflict since they have simply streams over the walls with siege towers and ladders. But each time I feel I learn slightly better how to approach it. I played the battle five times, and restarted each time. It has been a long time since I did that. 

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Difficulty of games

I have previously blogged with some thoughts about playing a game for 15 minutes. There is something particularly about that time: it might still worthwhile. Often, I find playing a game for a length of time (45 minutes plus) is enough to put myself in the mindset of enjoying it. Of challenging myself, and taking something from it. Games like Deus Ex and Dragon Age are ideal for playing in the chunks of time available in the evening, or between work, eating, socialising and sleeping.

However, I have become increasingly lethargic in my gaming recently. I wonder if it is perhaps due to my desire to not die more than three times in the same place. For example, I have been playing through Dawn of War II and, like all good RTS games, it is a frantic game. I don't quite know what I'm doing at times. However, unlike when I played as the space marines (where each unit has its definable role) I am finding myself simply ctrl + a and right clicking on enemies. And this is happening fairly frequently.

Perhaps I should play on a higher difficulty. But there are some considerations with that:

1) Dying constantly because I don't know what I'm doing is a quick way to stop playing the game entirely.
2) I play the game for a positive experience.
3) Perhaps a positive experience is dying, but improving my perception of the game's tactics.

As so often is the case with strategy games, the strategy is to beat the mechanics of the game, rather than the puzzles inherently suggested. That is an unclear expression, let me give an example: Championship Manager (when Football Manager was called Championship Manager) used to reward tactics that placed your players in certain formations that didn't quite correspond to what would be effective in real life. I think that if you were slanted slightly left to right, the game would treat this as an outstanding tactic, and you would win more games. Or at least I read on a respected forum (The Dug Out.tv)

To understand these kind of tactics, you either have to play the game enough to sense them, or resort to search engine experience. Neither is how I want to spend my 15 minutes of gaming time.

However, I should like to waste some time judiciously. That is, to game and die, but feel that my death was not arbitrary. That I might be improving. Or at least to enjoy my experience of imagination - and to realise that needing to win in a game all the time need not be the point of every game, not least when it feels somewhat lethargic.

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15 minute gaming

The past four weeks have been busy. OFSTED and the like have compelled me to aim for the esoteric percentage improvement in my performance that demands an almost absolute immersion in the work. From the outside, you would see a workaholic.

And, as I step back, I wonder what kind of person is that to bring up our kids?

During such a time, I do not like to dedicate a significant amount of my leisure time to gaming, or even to watching films. I cannot remember the last time I sat and watched an entire film. Normally, instead, I watch 15-30 minutes. My attention span is not what it used to be.

It is with this mindset that I have enjoyed the following games over the past three weeks:

Deus Ex
Total War: Call of Warhammer (and Napoleon)
Men of War: Assault Squad
Space Marine

The thing about these games is that they lend themselves very well to 15 minute gaming. Deus Ex, having already been completed, allows me to tackle a mission, or a sidequest, in that time. Unfortunately, the lack of consistency mean that my character is hardly being roleplayed - one moment he's a pious cop, the next a maverick thug. Still, it's got a great soundtrack.

Total War keeps me ticking along. There are still the usual issues of poor AI and terrible collision detection. But as a wargame, it's the best we've got right now. Can see myself dropping it when MTW3 or the like comes out.

Men of War is typically chaotic. I never feel like I have a mastery of the game, or even that I quite know what I'm doing. I also become unduly confused with its reverse mouse clicking qualities.  Ah well: still one of the best in its genre.

But Space Marine is becoming strangely compelling. Played through for 45 mins to an hour, it can become tedious. Run, roll, shoot and look at brown. However, its simplicity is also a benefit: I can jump into it in moments, and then jump out. The most ludic game I play right now, and perhaps just what I need - some play.

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Teaching or Gaming or Writing?

I have two computers in my house: my work computer and my gaming computer. This is deliberate as I know that games can affect the way your computer works in all sorts of funny ways.

A few months ago, despite careful maintenance my gaming computer gave up the ghost on an upgrade to Windows 7. While this was worthwhile, I lost much of my gaming downloads. I say lost - I can always redownload them. However, I feel that my bandwidth might be hit too much. Such concerns, though, have meant that I have hardly gamed in the past few months. And I certainly haven't purchased (m)any new games.

I have made some narrative with my Total War, my Warband, my Deus Ex and my Men of War. I have been chugging through Dragon Age again, and quite happily so. However, in doing so I have found myself without any entirely ludic games. Nothing to pass the time with no purpose other than to play the game itself.

As often happens when I go through times with my hobbies such as this, I ask myself what purpose there might be in doing so. I am a man who endeavours to have little consequence outside the blogs I write onto hyper-real paper. I am also a product of graduating in the early 2000s. Already at that time the job market was extraordinarily slow, except (of course) if you wanted employment with transitory menial tasks, of which little to no training was required (although the ubiquitous 'experience' was.)

Various paths led me into teaching. Many observers have been kind enough to rate my teaching, and I am fortunate to feel like I am the judge of my own effectiveness. However, the job demands a lot. It also requires an extraordinary amount of energy. It is increasingly a young person's game, which is not really the way you want your education system to be run. Still, for the moment I am functioning well. But I still wonder what my purpose might be.

When still at school I was determined to find a job beyond any kind of status or financial reward. I think I thought writing might have been it. In fact, I have an audience of students who would read what I write. But my writing skills and energy have chilled to the point of having almost been frozen. I am fortunate to have a reasonably regular and wide readership of this blog, and some interesting correspondence because of it.

However, I hope that I build my writing energy into something a little more substantial. To take on smaller, more fun projects. To write over a period of several years. Instead, I currently write a novel that is entirely unsuitable for publication (even though I find it amusing!) And all that starts with reading.

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Replaying Deus Ex and Dragon Age

At the moment I have redirect much of my hobbying time into other pursuits: two games to which I happily return are Dragon Age and Deus Ex (HR)

Both games are well suited to 15 minute episodes. They have great soundtracks, and they both scratch a fantasy and sci-fi itch respectively. And, in lieu of time to explore new games, they keep me ticking along as the classic games they are. 

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A hardcore gamer

An interesting post worth of consideration (and the putting down of my work this Sunday day) referred to the notion of what a 'hardcore' gamer is.

The word 'hardcore' has obvious connotations, not all of which are positive. It also evokes the idea that gaming as a hobby is a fad that only attracts certain people, and those people often being teenagers. This isn't too dissimilar to the notion that pop literature attracts people with too much time on their hands.

One point made was that a hardcore gamer absorbs the genre and history of the game, rather than just its visceral experience. This is not entirely dissimilar to a point made by a moderator who stated that someone might watch Terminator 2 for its incredible explosions and generally awesome killer-robots. Another person might watch it for how its narrative arc and cinematography might compare to other films by James Cameron (such as Titanic.)

For me, like with writing, I believe that to appreciate games one has to create games yourself. To realise the difficulties and choices necessary in such an endeavour (beyond the programming requirements) makes a person appreciate the skills of a game-maker more.

I have moved away from games recently because I have been busy as hell with other things. I think, too, losing many saved games hit my hobby hard. However, like with all things worthwhile, beginning something when I do not feel like doing so often gives way to the appreciation of that thing: that is a garbled way of saying that I enjoy playing a game often after 5 minutes of getting into it. I can cross the distance between the rawness of now into the refined possibility of different experiences.

It is a strange and worthy feeling.  

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What do teachers really think about games?

Again, a great thread from the PC-Gamer board. As usual, I'm not responsible for the content of this outside link: http://www.pcgamer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17031


At another parents(') evening last week (where I tell parents how their children are progressing in English), I had three sets of folks who told me their kids played too many games. Of course, their kids are probably playing too many FPS games, and I tried to direct them towards something else. 

Here's an interesting article on what some teachers think about games in school, in light of a teaching union (albeit the smallest one) saying that there needs to be some legislation against violent games:

http://beefjack.com/features/what-do...ut-videogames/
My take? I think that every student in the 21st Century UK is entitled to a rich imaginative life. Of course, through class and gender every student in the UK has a path to the future already laid before them. That cannot be easily changed. However, games - like books and film - can offer purpose and fulfilment far beyond the aspirations of schooling's bells and rows. To paraphrase Alan Bennett's Hector in History Boys, you need the pop-culture to balance, nay, to be an antidote to elitism in high-culture. Never before has there be a generation better able to create its own culture, and its own games and its own imaginative fulfilment. Youtube, Alice, and a myriad of game-making software is freely available. It just needs to be used, and esteemed. 

At the moment, though, such culture manifests mostly through Charlie biting a finger and filming angry teachers. That's funny, but perhaps it's time for games to be seen more as the fulfilling imaginative experiences that they can be.

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