Playing multiplayer Shogun 2

I am playing an extensive amount of multiplayer in Shogun 2 at the moment. This is something I have wanted to do for a far time, and something that has been challenging.

As I said already in this blog, I played the original Shogun extensively, clocking the campaign on the hardest difficulty. While at the time I thought this an achievement, the truth is that I merely knew the game mechanics. I could beat the AI with any army as I know how to exploit it. It was to my sadness that I was uanble to play anyone online, as my success against the AI made me feel that I was expert.

The first thing about mutliplayer in any game, let alone an RTS game, is that the difficulty is more than that of the AI. AI difficult often increases by making the game mechanics unfair (that is, making their troops simply better than your equivalents). This is, of course, not particularly rewarding. A human RTS player, though, has  psychology: they can intimidate or be intimidated. In the 80 or so battles that I have fought, many have been enjoyable. Players have brought balanced armies, and I have met some quality gamers. At the moment, I have 3-4 players I play against regularly who offer courteous banter always.

Of course, not all players are like this. Top peeves are:

1) Not saying hello in the welcome screen.
The community is poor. Forums are decent, but the actual chat is terrible, with no conversations, and with many players simply clicking the 'go' button as soon as the army selection screen appears. Depending on how good the player is, and if I've already had a few games, I give them a few different salutations before giving them the game.

2) Choosing a 'spam' army.
The game is not designed to hamper certain spam armies. Selecting solely cavalry or solely monk or even solely ashigaru swordsmen leads to easy wins against balanced armies. Of course, there are the counterbalances to these armies (an all-spear army vs the cavalry for example, or bows vs the monks) but there is no way this can be chosen in the battle selection screen. If I encounter a spam, I'll play on if the player courteously acknowledges that they are trying a spam build for whatever reason, otherwise I'll give them the points. Spam armies are poor

3) Poor match-making.
I have played too many matches against people who have topped 1500+ hours in the game. For me the game is a waste of time for myself and my opponent: they have top veteran units that defeat anything I can muster in 1-on-1 fights. Again, if the player is chatty, I'll fight on. Otherwise, if I've had enough, I'll give them the match.

4) Overpowered retainers.
What makes the game tremendous is beating another player through distraction or deliberate tactics. I'll go through some of my tactics soon, but I find that some retainers dispense with these. One in particular, 'World Weary' debuffs your veteran units (which are essentially to success in multiplayer). I played a game where I caught all my opponents cav, held him off with a spear wall, took the melee-based dojos, flanked him with swords and rear-charged him with cav. He didn't break, I did, and I laughed long and hard. The shame is that my opponent, rightly or wrongly, gets no kudos for the win. Again, if we were playing a series of battles he could at least bluff with the idea that I might take a vanilla (non-veteran) army to avoid the effects of this retainer.

My tactics
I can't even remember the tactics I first used when I went online. I lost many battles, and without really knowing why. The best video I saw, though, was by fishsandwichpatrol (google him!) He showed how to use group formation buttons, and how to control eight melee units with one button. This is essential to even begin to start playing, and something I have shown those friends I play with online most often.

The first tactics I used with success involved the following build:

General - bow
6 Samurai swords
2 samuari spears
2-4 cav
2 ashigaru bowmen

My tactics were to sacrifice my bowmen on one side of the field, largely to distract his cav. Sometimes I would lure his cav to attack my bowmen,who would last between 5 and 10 seconds. In that time, I would reveal my cav, would who get free charges against him. Sometimes, I would leave my bow to die while I micro-managed my melee force to hit him (usually on an angle or a flank where I could). I won many battles using this tactic, but came unstuck against against the all-veteran armies the better players employ.

My new build is

General - leadership
A spearwall consisting of either 2 Yari or 2 Naginata
Flanking units consist of 3 of Katana, No-Dachi or Loan-Sword
1 missile unit consisting of monk guns or monk bows
2-4 cav, depending on the cost of my other units. These range from light, yari and great guard.
1-2 naginata attendents
1 monk naginata

My tactics with this build are follows:

Skirmishing and establishing the initiative:

If I have the cav advantage, I see to take some of the dojos with an unmounted light cav whilst they are protected elsewhere. I will try to bait him into fighting, and will seek to get some charges against unprotected infantry units. These charges will see my cav retreat as soon as they make contact. Sometimes running a cav unit across the front lines is enough to make my opponent break his lines.

My spear wall charges towards a building, and forms a solid, thin line with one flank protected. The Yaris are less durable, but they offer a great dimension of tactics with their ability to run faster. Naginata are better against opponents who take missile troops. Few do, though.

My main block of infantry are in the Alt + 4 group formation. When behind the spear wall, I will either begin to snipe with the monk bows, or look to establish firing lines with my monk guns. Both these units will do little in terms of wiping out units, but they will hopefully force him to engage my spearwall.

Bow cav are tremendous for baiting opponents. If unchecked, they can caused tremendous damage. They can't flee forever, though, and need to be retreated back through your lines to truly protect them (or via a larger contingent of cavalry).

Engaging
When my opponent chooses to engage me, I sometimes retreat my spearwall a second or two before it is due to hit. This allows me to rear charge him with my flanking swords easier, and serves to unnerve him, too.  At this point, some opponents will seek to overwhelm your spear wall. I vet my spearwalls with melee defence as much as I can, as their job is to hold the enemy line in place for as long as possible. My 2-3 swords will flank where they can.

Better opponents will seek to flank your position. It is now that I place my general just behind my spearwall (something that causes many opponents to launch more melee against my wavering line to get to him). The stand and fight buff, though, causes them to stay for between 15 and 30 seconds, which is enough time to get flank charges off.

If one part of the spearwall breaks (thanks to excessively vetted opponents, for example) then my monks charge in to plug the line. Otherwise, they seek to engage and flankers and/or cav. If I have some spare koku, I take some unvetted nag attendents to hold up rear cav charges. They can't hurt any unit 1-on-1, but are excellent support to slow down cav attacks.

Winning the melee
I regularly beat superior numbers by compressing the battlefield. When units are taking morale shocks, it doesn't matter too much how many men they have. I have many replays where I am outnumbered 4 or 5 to 1, and yet my flanking wins the day.

Against campers/camping, I usually sacrifice a unit (such as the bow cav) in order to distract my opponent. By microing my cav as I engage in melee, my opponent might miss the initial charge. The remainder of my cav then seek to exploit a hole in his line when he moves to engage and break my spearwall, usually by charging his general. It is a worthwhile loss of most/all my cav to kill his general.

Finishing off your opponent
When your opponent is fleeing, seek to chase down his most dangerous units. It is no good having nearly all his units broken if they reform. I have many replays when my units have rallied and counterattacked, and won.

Flanking is everything
One battle against a great opponent with 5k Koku (small) saw me end with 1 unit of katana and my general against 3 units of ashigaru, and 1 unit of katana. My opponent charged uphill at me, outnumbering me 4 to 1. I stretched my remaining unit wide (so they wouldn't be flanked) and then flank charged the initial unit that hit me with my general. Upon hitting, I immediately retreated him and charged again. On the second charge, his unit broke, which then led to chain-routing by the rest of his army. I had already gg'd (good game - term when you finish a game) by that point, and we were both astounded that I had won. A great win!

Overpowered units are not rewarding
I have a battle where my opponent outplayed me on all fronts. He took the dojos, he shot my cav, and he engaged me exceptionally well. My melee units were surrounded, his cav had just down my archers, and he had caught my two units of great guard with Yari Samurai. I had 3 units of melee left (all wavering) while my general stood in stand and fight in the midst of their last stand.

Cue the Great Guard: with one unit down to 10, the other unit (down to 40) charged through (!) the spears and engaged one of his two bow cav units (the other bow cav flank charging my cornered army). The Great Guard decimated this unit from 60 to 40 in about four to six seconds. At this point I was down to two wavering units in melee, both either side of my general.

The only mistake my opponent made now was the charge his general into melee. A full general unit was wiped out by my half-strong Great Guard unit (even when he was supported by the remnants of his bow cav) in about another five to eight seconds. This caused the morale of his melee units (even though they were moments from winning) to drop dramatically.

The fragment of my Great Guard unit (who never flee!) then spread themselves at the rear of his main body of troops, and charged. Instantly his entire army shattered. From an entirely losing position, to winning emphatically - the Great Guard's overpowered status was proved yet again.

The battle ended with his original Yari Samurai unit that had held up my Great Guard charging towards my remaining two units, and then thinking better of it...

I am thinking of creating a youtube channel of my battles, not least as I think some of the best battles for me are fought at my level. Those who are much better (1500 hours+) seem to know the mechanics of the game to extent that I once knew the original shogun. At that level, I wonder how psychology plays a role, and how much of the game is having the best retainers and the best-vetted units.

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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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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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Suitable Games for 12 year olds.

Very interesting thread about games suitable for 12 year olds:

http://www.pcgamer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17036

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The value of an imaginative life

For a fair time I have been concerned with the importance, or not of nurturing an imaginative life. I'm going to take a wander for 500 words or so, and talk about how it relates to games afterwards.

Tolstoy, who was pretty much embroiled in the benefits of an imaginative life, started a farm (Tolstoy farm!) partly because he wanted to see the fruits of his labour manifested in a physical form.

So much of my reading and writing and gaming does not exist in a manifest form. Yes, I can see the words on a page, or the picture on a screen, or the books on my desk. My stats can be counted, and games can be completed. But there is not a physical entity at the end of it. It is not like I make something that can be held or admired.

There is something Kantian in playing games: what is the difference between the memory of a real experience, and the memory of an imagined experience?

It is at this point, drinking my coffee, that I remind you that time is linear in the sense that it stops everything from happening at once. It also allows us to stop thinking about time, and feel some certainty in the march of progress, and in the certainty of our births and deaths (!) However, the experience of our lives is not linear. We might experience something in later life that changes and colours something that he had experienced earlier. For example, watching Wolves FC play in a lower division for many years when I was younger was a somewhat disheartening experience. It seems pointless, and an unfair waste of my footballing support. However, a few years ago Wolves were promoted. At that point all those years became something of a heroic struggle, an epic chugging-away at an arduous task that was won without fanfare or pomp. My childhood boredom of the struggle gave way to an adult appreciation of its worth.

So what has this to do with having an imaginative life?

Firstly, I never esteemed much the status of money and a car and fashion and such employment positions. I pursued the arts. Of course, this left my career prospects somewhat limited, but I have still done well for myself. And from this, I have some autonomy over my work. But this doesn't drive me. I am not a careerist, although I work well and have a good looking CV. Although schools are hierarchical, I treat those who are beneath me as I treat those who are above (albeit that I duly deferential to my bosses.) To understand why I say this you should read "The Devil wears Prada." Essentially it concerns an intern who is treated terribly as means-to-an-end dogsbody for an whimsical boss. Ultimately  (spoiler alert!) the fiery boss turns out to be deferential to her boss: it is apparent that she justifies her maltreatment of the subordinates by accepting such treatment herself from her superiors. Her imaginative life - of work being a food chain were her near the top - justified her obnoxious treatment.

I have never purchased an expensive car. Even if I had spare £10ks, I would not spend it on a new car. For me a car's price should be linked to its reliability and comfort. A new car loses £1000s when it is drive off the court. Yet it is not less reliable then it was before. An old colleague of mine part exchanged a car that was worth easily £2225 or more for £1500 to purchase a new car. The part exchange wasn't an issue: the purchasing of a new car was the cost. Every mile costs £s. Yet purchasing an expensive car isn't about reliability and comfort - it defines someone in the way only their imaginative world can. It manifests their status, perhaps even their professionalism often required to scrape the money together to purchase the thing.  Their imaginative life colours their experience of owning the car.

People are all social persuasions in England drink, and often heavily. The act of drinking too much socially is, on the outset, a generally limited experience. It leads to poor health, funny conversations and the inability to function fitfully in work and play. Drinking socially is, I think, an essential part of the imaginative life of an adult. But, for some, it is their imaginative life. To some, the dramas and tribulations of a night out aren't just inebriated meanderings through city streets to bars designed to shift as much top-margin cheap booze as possible: their nights out are imaginative shared experiences of hedonism and friendship.

For me, everyone has an imaginative life, whether they realise it or not. It takes me some space like now in the Easter holidays to consider what is important to me in having an imaginative life. I feel that this is important because that is what I have lived effective half of my natural life pursuing.

When I travelled independently in my youth, I came to two beliefs. One, that when a man (or, of course, woman) is given the autonomy to choose jobs and work and worth, he becomes responsible for choosing his beliefs. He can choose his values (nurtured and ratified through his actions) and become the person he is meant to be. Except, of course, if he is meant to be something of no significance, or worse. In that case, a man should be able to choose his values to become someone worthwhile and wholesome: not like a man who would see lasting on The Apprentice. Secondly, I believed (or chose the belief) that whatever is most important in life is surely available to all people at all times.

This second belief (that whatever is most important in life is available to all people at all times) is, I think, the next step on from my arty-farty belief that meaning and value is relative. Yes, killing is wrong. But beyond that, the Christian values that we should live by are often lost. Being nice to  people will never be the most important thing we do. Treating others as we ourselves want to be treated is perhaps the most important rule, though. Either which way, that second belief suggests that whatever is most important, it isn't at the whim of a boss, nor determined by how academic or how privileged you are. It is, for me, determined by the richness of your imaginative life. That is, a person's ability to bring meaning and purpose and significance to what they are doing.

I do not think that a person is able to do this (bring significance and purpose into their lives) by themselves. I think a spiritual belief is necessary for most. I also think people are unable to control their perspective and their mood: like Dickens' Scrooge says, ours moods can be moved by undigested food as much as they can be affected by thoughts. Of course, jobs and being busy, or being publicly celebrated (or lambasted) can replace the need to shape our own imaginative lives - being British, it is bad form to celebrate our own achievements. It is much better (or at least more preferable) to have someone else do that for us.

My memory of my experience of games and books is often better than the game or the book itself. There is a sense that with much great literature, or much great gaming, that there is an aspect of improvement. I don't know how far I'd agree with that: many of my lecturers at university did not seem to be the kind of people who had a grasp on the vitality of life, nor much concern for those they were charged to inspire.

One example of a game that stays with me even today is civilisation. The game mechanic itself is tedious: you build cities and manage an economy. But the meaning behind it is tremendous. Millions of lives are influenced on a whim. I am sure (or, rather, I know!) that often snap judgments that affect the lives of many are made by those with some power. I still remember how I brokered an alliance with one of two civs on another continent. I started a war with the other civ (on the other continent) and dragged my unfortunate ally in. About 50 years later (10 turns in game time) I had made peace with my original enemy without ever being attacked, as the two now-malcontent civs being warring. 200 years later, both these civs had regressed as their economy was devastated by war, and I was the emerging superpower. The gameplay in doing so was was basic. There was no-one to celebrate my 'achievement' and nor were there fantastic graphics to show off how well I had done. There was no need: my memory of that experience was profound enough to stay with me now.

Another example of a game that stays with me today is Deus Ex (HR, not the original.) The game itself has action sequences, but its real power is in the moral choices you make. It is entirely non-linear in the sense that one response to a scenario (trying to talk an angry man out of killing a hostage) will work sometimes, and other times not. There is no walk-through for the game, as it seems to randomly choose what option might work (or not.) In doing so, there is something unique about each game - something distinctively personal.

What made Deus Ex a great game was its moral choices. A main character that is an integral part of the plot for some could be killed early in the game for others. Dragon Age: Origins (and its much-maligned successor, DA:2) had meaningful moral choices, too. Where both of these games succeeded was that the moral choices were often the case of choosing the lesser of two evils. The choices also affected the latter game, too.

How does this apply to being a teacher? I think that creative writing and gaming and literature shouldn't be forced upon anyone. To read a story for the narrative, or to play a game to tour the content is only part of the experience. To realise that imaginative experiences can shape you ways unavailable by social status or finance or academic ability or even just by the social circle determined by your school and street: that realisation will, for some students, be the making of them. To realise that they live a life different and wider and more wonderful than any marketing-campaigned desire packed into the limited thinking encouraged by others.

Of course, it is not the job of others to encourage your thinking, or not. Chances are, if you are reading this (and have got this far) then you do think. Orwell said that the Government are terrified by the idea of people having two much leisure time. They believe people cannot occupy leisure fitfully, that we require marketing, and excessive working hours to keep us occupied. If we don't, then we riot. And perhaps if we live in London, or believe that commuting two hours to socialise on a weekend is a worthwhile allocation of time, there might be a grain of truth in what he says.

It is with all the above that I look again to the idea of a book about teaching and gaming. There are two other threads on the PC Gamer board that I will post on this for the perusal of those who read. 

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Call of Warhammer Mod

Purchasing a great PC game does not often mean the end of the game. Extra content in the form of mods expand a game beyond its initial remits. Half Life 2 - perhaps the best-paced single player experience still to be had today - flourished with a wonderful modding community (which in fact led to Counter-strike.)

The Total War community is particularly rich. Many mods, particularly for Medieval Total War 2(which must be easier to mod), expand the game to the point where it is almost an entirely new game.

Two mods which I recommend to my students are the Third Age Mod (Lord of the Rings) and Call of Warhammer (based upon the eponymous fantasy world.) While both are tremendous games in their own right, the lore and background to the worlds are fantastic. Previous attempts to recreate this world have fallen short (although the March of Chaos was admirable.)

Particularly pleasing is the ability to have 10,000 troops on the field at once: to set them up in minutes, and refight the battles in moments is still something I didn't think would be possible ten years ago. It's enough of an experience to play for 20 minutes and to feel like I've played for hours.

For those interested in playing, you need a copy of MTW2 (with the Kingdoms expansion) on Steam, or via here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Medieval-II-Total-War-Gold/dp/B0012BFK0G/ref=dp_ob_title_vg

You can download the Call of Warhammer mod here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=320935

You can download the Lord of the Rings mod here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=654

Read the instructions if you struggle; I needed to download a specialised launcher in the end to make the game stable. It's all in the forums, though: worth spending a few hours to get it working.

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A book of Gaming for Parents

At a(nother) parents(') evening recently I spoke with several families about gaming. It seems that most of my younger students are console gamers, and that they mostly play FPS. Anecdotally, most parents (probably as a result of watching their heirs fritter away their hobby time on FPS games) feel that gaming has little to no educational benefit. That no experience can be garnered from gaming save wasted time and an itchy trigger finger.

Saying that, a fair number of parents are open to the idea that there are games that offer either clear educational value, or an enriching experience. In particular, one parent of a child in my room is willing to try out some games having never played a game before in their life.

It is for this that I hope to create a list, which would eventually become a detailed guide, of gaming for parents. It wouldn't be a history of games (although that would, I imagine, become part of it.) Rather, it would be a guide to games for both their offspring (who we would expect to have some talent and endeavour in trying new games and genres) to parents who can barely work a mouse. I envisage, too, a guide to some games that parents can play with their offspring.

I'm going to write about a few of them on my blog over the coming months, and eventually turn it into an e-book. I'll seek some opinions across schools in the UK, too, and see if it could become something useful, and (more importantly) fun. I'll try to get some feedback from the parents playing the games, too.

There are a fair few people in this community who I am sure would have a great ideas for what games would benefit both students and parents (and not just the parents amongst us.) If you would like to contribute to a blog post, then please PM me, or post some ideas in this thread.

To get the ball rolling in terms of ideas, I think that a point and click adventure might be the place to start in terms of recommendations to parents. Something that has a sense of humour, and a sense of adventure. I think something that offers immediate purpose, but offers a sense of achievement nevertheless. I played 'Been There, Dan That!' and loved it, but not sure how school-safe that is as a recommendation. The Secret of Monkey island had a reboot not too long back, and is available for a tenner http://www.amazon.co.uk/Monkey-Island-Special-Edition-Collection/dp/B005CLPO1C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330900383&sr=8-1 It's also available on console, too (for those parents who have yet to install a game!)

However, would you think that an entirely ludic game might be a better place to start? Something like http://www.playauditorium.com/ perhaps?

What do you reckon?

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Dragon Age 2

This weekend I completed this game amidst a curious reception of two years of angry reviews. I enjoyed the original Dragon Age, as I enjoyed the original Baldur's Gate series. Indeed, for me the party-based RPG trumps the action-roleplaying of the Elder Scrolls series (of which Diablo trumps the Elder Scrolls series too.) For me there is a story in Bioware games, and Dragon Age 2 is no exception.

Except, despite PC Gamer's 95% review, it was lambasted by many in the gaming community. Indeed, one popular (console) gaming website simply put "Dragon Age 2? Please" as its summary of the game, as if it was such a terrible inception of a great series that its failure should be apparent to all.

It wasn't to me.



However, having purchased this from Game in the high street, I must admit I did put it down for a year or so on the basis of such ill-feeling. However, having played it through to some completion in the past month or so, I feel well-placed to give some informed commentary on it.

Character interaction is linear. While other party-based RPGs allow you to tinker with the stats and appearance of your characters, this is not the case with DA2. Although initially this may seem limiting, meaningful character interaction requires certain limits to the variation of your characters. Yes, some of your character are inherently 'evil' and some are notoriously pious. Yet when they do or say something that goes against their grain, but for a plausible reason, it seems to mean something. That, too, the game does this through the medium of 2-3 lines of dialogue between each character is impressive. Complaints have been made about the inability to customise the look of each character's armour. I was not too worried.

Speech options are on a wheel of: diplomatic, blunt and witty. It would have admittedly been better to have these options randomised so, like Deus Ex: HR, you were forced to consider what would have been the best option for you at that time. However, like with some of the championship manager series, what you think is a correct tactic (and what might be an effective tactic in real life) may differ from what the designer thought was suitable. So, again, I was not too bothered by the limited speech options. Romancing different characters was controversial, so I'll let you work that out yourselves.

Quests that seemingly had little impact return later in the game. I received on letter in my in-game house from someone who I had saved on a whim earlier in the game on my rush to completing the main quest. It is my most rewarding experience of the quest. Like a teacher, there are many things done that make little to no impact on ourselves, or even to school life as a whole. However, to the person on the receiving end of those actions, it can be entirely significant.

Combat is excellent. I used to find it tedious, and completed the original Dragon Age with minimal use of my special abilities. I used to want to scrap the combat system and have a purely interaction/adventure based RPG. However, now I appreciate the combat for what it is - tactical (rather than strategic) hacking.

Without spoilers, each act has a different rhythm. Criticisms have been made of the pacing of them all, but I enjoyed them for different reasons. Yes, areas are recycled: the same warehouse is used for at least three different evil plots (it must have a really low rent...) But the quest indication bar and fact that there are 15 or so different areas means that, again, this didn't bother me too much.

The game is less gothic than the original Dragon Age. This did bother me somewhat. Near the end of the game, characters start grabbing swords as big as themselves. Speculation is rife was this was: appealing to popular graphical demands is probably one reason.

I got used to my character's fat face by the end of my quest. But the character generation screen only allows you the excellent bearded face of the original Hawke (the main character)or a Nordrick-inspired effort (google him.)

I'll happily defend the game, and give it a score near into the 90s as far as such scores go. It has great replay value. Its failings are, I think, largely political (in that it is console-friendly, and seems less open-ended than the original DA.) Perhaps the PC-Gamer review should have forseen these, but to those who love the RPG genre, it is superb. Now if I could just get this camera off the heads of my characters a little further...

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So much to write about...

I have a backlog of essays and thoughts I wish to publish to this blog. But suffice to say this is my thought for tonight: today out of necessity I have worked 14 hours with a 15 lunch break and a 25 minute dinner break. It is almost midnight, and I need to read before bed. I will wake up at 7:00am and be grateful that I am rested already, and that I do not have a ridiculous commute.

I have used my google docs and my years of electronic resource cataloguing to plan my lessons for this week. It still took me well over an hour (and most of these lessons I have resource collated already.) During this my gaming computer crashed resignedly. I waved goodbye to a fair number of saved games, and (painfully) my saved multiplayer battles on Shogun 2 and Empire TW (not least my defeat of a level 10 general.)

Fortunately, my work computer wasn't affected. For many years as a student, and as a cover and student teacher, I suffered the stress of a crash that meant I lost the work of my profession. That has yet to happen and, with my cloud computer and HD back-ups, is much less likely to happen again.

But I digress. There are a few games installed on my computer now, largely from my disks. One I want to play before sleep, even for a few moments, is DA2. It has been lambasted; unfairly so, I think. But I will not be able to play it for long, as I think that I need to equally read before sleep. I will not sleep more than 6 hours tonight, but I hope to get my rest in while I do. There is something in the party-based RPG game that stays with me until sleep.

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The Games Industry

This is a fragmented article written from a 15-5-1 plan (see my other website, www.thequillguy.com, for a guide to this plan.) I copied, foolishly, a table into this blog, and only took the details of the plan and not itself overall structure. Therefore, the paragraphs do not develop an overarching point, but they might be an interesting read in themselves:

Some of my pupils, and I, spend a lot of time gaming, and a lot of time at school. But the school curriculum does not acknowledge gaming. While literature is studied and esteemed, and rightly so, gaming is (for reasons I discussed before) still in its infancy as an art-form of credibility. And that itself is perhaps right, too (at least for the current time.) But while subject teachers of ICT are compelled to teach decontextualised application use rather than contextualise them in projects for real audiences, then students will increasingly be switched off from the possibilities of ICT.



Learning becomes (at times) necessarily dull, arduous and involves taking steps backwards - but it requires an element of enjoyment to spark curiosity. Games are, usually, enjoyable. Usually (perhaps a little too often) this is due to the ludic-manipulations of behavioural psychologists. That is, gamers return because they enjoy the achievements that games can give them more than the uncertain and (seemingly pointless) frustrations of school/work life. However, learning urges the person to strive for improvement: bigger, better, more (refined.) Some gaming doesn't seek for improvement, or at least the improvement of the gamer is, how to define it... not applicable for much more than the game.

By that I mean that games like World of Warcraft do not improve every player. That is not entirely accurate: I imagine there is an improvement in some players' communication skills under pressure (because imagine if you had to battle through a monster-infested dungeon for hours only to have the entire game risking upon organising yourself accurate within fifteen seconds intervals and with thirty other people.) Reflexes and memory are also practised. However, considering the hours pumped into the game (1600+ I hear by some players), I wonder if it could be more a catalyst for self-improvement?

Self-improvement is the cover of the game. WoW involves, essentially, a bunch of numbers (your hero, with their stats) attacking other numbers (monsters, with their stats) until they drop numbers (in the form of better weapons.) This formula is repeated until you use the biggest numbers to defeat the biggest numbers so you have the biggest numbers of them all. But how far are the players themselves improved? And are they bothered? I am.

This example, like gaming, hints at how gaming is increasingly becoming part of mainstream consciousness. COD and WoW are lambasted by some gamers. But they are responsible for how many gaming is more a mainstream hobby and, for some, a legitimate creative career.

Yet I looked recently at employment in the Games Industry with mixed feelings. With the projects I run - and my minor modding experience - I wonder what it would be like for those trying to establish themselves in such a profession. This was inspired by several students in my tutor group who have the mix of creativity and determination that I imagine is necessary to succeed. Two factors warn against such a career, though. The first is that compared to other art sector jobs the status of such a position is low. But I guess that isn't a consideration for the artist. And it is a project-based job, rather than a mapped career.

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