Total War and Day Z - some thoughts

As I sit today on the top of Scarborough Esplanade, looking far across the frothy waves, I feel the discomfort of the breeze against my bare arms. It is not entirely unpleasant, but it is something that jolts me out of the expectation that I will be here forever.

I will one day die. Playing Shogun 2 makes me think repeatedly about the prospect of death, and of the purposes of guiding men to their deaths. Whether those deaths have meaning, those pixilated imagined men, is not just down to me. As their general, I can control the logistics of the battle, but I cannot control entirely how they perceive themselves, and the purpose of their deaths.

With steel and wood, men once battled .If they were to kill someone, they would have to face him. Combat was brutal, and I imagine men could not train for that without actually experiencing combat themeslves.

It is with this idea that I think towards my own future. I am of a certain age where I can believe, or perhas more likely fool myself, that I have all certainities planned.

Playing a game like Shogun requires some dedication. Since starting my multiplayer experiences, I realise that just because I can beat the computer heavily and frequently doesn't mean that I stand a chance against those who play the game regularly. I say regularly – most of those I play have clocked between 500 and 2000 hours on the game. And that is in the space of a few years, maximum. This time seems exorbitant. Why spend so long on such a game, or even just one game? In doing so, it seems clear to me that th epurple flowers that strain against the seas breeze will only be here for a short length of time. They will one day pass like all else on this island.

Writing, creative writing, is not something that I want to do in my apartment much. At least not at this time. It is, instead, something that I am happier trying to do amongst other people.

But yes, the game, and time spent playing it. The thing about games is that they are an imitation of real life. That is, they have their exploits and they have their limitations. There comes a point where someone is so incredibly able to play the game, so intuitive in terms of what unit beats what, that they can beat anyone with 'only' a few hundred hours of experience.

I have found myself on more than a few occasions a poor loser. I don't rage quit, and I don't disconnect – I always take defeat to give my opponent credence. But I detest losing to self-conscious power-gaming builds. If I see a spam of monks, or of cav, or of heroes, then I give my opponent the game, with a few choice words too. If my opponent doesn't speak to me, even to say that universal greeting of 'hi', I tend to give them the game, too.

When I do play, I find myself wanting to play until I have a win. Yet that win is not always so simple; I often want to win a great battle. And so I find myself on a streak of losses until I play someone who has only played 50 more hours or so than me. And then it is apparent that they are much worse than me.

All of these experiences mean that when I do find myself in an excellent battle that flows back and forth, I enjoy it tremendously. I have a few that I will probably upload, along with some defeats, too.

Day Z. The game has the unusual quality of creating tension and keeping it there. The possibility of being killed by another player makes the game what it is and will make it a huge success.

However, the nature of that killing matters. If, for example, I am kiled by a collection of elite bandits who intend to steal my loot so as to better survive, then that is the game. If I am double-crossed by someone, then that is also acceptable. But some of the current mechanics break the immersion.

One is the killing of newly spawned players. This isn't a problem for the game mechanics in terms of breaking the game itself, as this is the best time to be killed. However, the reasons to kill a newly spawned player are only to grief others. There is nothing to be gained loot-wise. And there is nothing in role-olaying a bandit that means this makes sense.

There are many many players who are, I think, perhaps incapable, rather than unwilling, to roleplay a character. That is not their fault, because that is not the game they want to play. They want to play CoD, with its ocrridors and its upgrades, and its kill streaks. They want to get a gun with big numbers so they can get bigge numbers in their debug table (of player kills.)

Expert players hunting and killing other players is a judicious part of the game. Collections of players fighting other players is, again, part of the game. But this appeals to a fraction of the gamerbase – those who focus solely on competitive FPS games. And this minority have influenced the rest of the game. Most players, now, shoot on sight. They don't talk; they kill. Many, I have found, can't hit a player who runs. But their shooting has replaced their talking. And this removes the tension of the game.

The first and foremost concern of a large budget game like Day Z is to make money. And appealing to the expert FPS crowd will create self-marketing. Therefore, PvE (player Vs Environment) zones would water down the game's brutality. Instead, there should be consequences that force FPS griefers into roleplaying certain characters. For example, someone who kills new spawns or unarmed survivors should gain negative traits. Those who kill groups of amred survivors could gain positive traits.

Survivor traits should trump bandit traits. Some of these should be much more powerful.

NPCs should be in the game, in the absence of players who will talk. These will offer food and/or shelter ,or can be killed like anyone else.

But these facets are second to the fact that the game makes you feel like your death matters. I managed to get out of one of the cities, and picked up a rifle. With it, I found my way far far north, and currently raid a nearby town for supplies. Other than that, I amble around the countryside, surviving as long as I can.

Some say that this leads to boredom. That the long you survive, and the more you have gained, the less inclined someone is to talk to someone. Indeed, letting in someone who you haven't played with for many hours before is a foolish thing – they could undo many hours of work, possibly hundreds. But that is the game.

It has made me wonder whether all the things I have gained now have made me soft. Of whether I do not want to gamble with my future, and my school with the opportunities that might be found in this kind of climate.

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Gaming for purpose or for pleasure (or for nothing.)

Many of my hobbies see me sitting on my backside. I took a decision this year to change my gaming chair for thin wooden kitchen furniture. My thinking was that I would balance my gaming time with more active hobbies. This hasn't necessarily been the case. I have spent many hours in a thin wooden chair, and it is a miracle that my back hasn't trashed itself.

There is something about gaming and imbibing other bits of literature that can improve. But for what point? And for what purpose? Shouldn't gaming, at times, just be a piece of distraction? Why should significance be sought in all things?

One of my students wishes to begin a Minecraft club. I question the value of this club when I consider how much time it would take to do so. But I asked for him to show me a presentation, which he created. And I see it as my job to facilitate enterprise, even beyond my own doubts.

So, does anyone else run a Minecraft club? And to what extent do you make the educational value explicit?

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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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