If we hadn't determined this already, my tastes don't align with a lot of people. In a lot of things I'm behind the curve; just take my laptop if you really need an example. Other things will just tickle my fancy for no apparent reason. And of course, I think about other things way too much.
One of the things in video games that I actually kind of enjoy is grinding. I don't mean farming quests like "Collect 10 of the widgets that sometimes drop when you kill a certain type of enemy." I mean good old-fashioned Final Fantasy-style level grinding: beat the crap out of randomly spawning enemies to beef up your character.
There are games that do it well, and some that do it poorly. So, what's the difference?
The games that do it poorly smack down the player who doesn't grind. I'm talking one-hit total party wipe; the only way to get past the point is to reload an earlier save file and level up a few dozen times before you can even hope to damage the boss.
In part, this is tied to a mechanic that's referred to as "binary damage"; either an attack does full damage, or it does either one point or no damage at all, depending on the system. Usually binary damage is based on the attack stat (or whatever the mechanical equivalent in your game is called). If ATK is less than a certain level -- usually the defense stat of an enemy -- you're lucky if you do a single point of damage per round/attack; if you hit at all instead of getting the "Miss" animation. Binary damage can be thought of like you're in a D&D-like pen and paper RPG; you have a "to-hit" or attack roll to see if you hit or miss, and a separate calculation determines damage.
The games that do the grind well -- at least in my opinion -- are the ones that reward, but don't require. These are the games that if you play straight through the story mode, you may not be able to go toe to toe and trade blows with the end boss; but... if you manage the fight well, with a little luck you will win. In these games, grinding makes the fights easier, rather than making the fights winnable. And that's a thin distinction, but I think it's an important one.
A lot of these games work around "scaling" damage. To extend the pen and paper metaphor, it would be a system where attack and damage were determined a single roll. If you don't hit; you still have the Miss animation, but a character whose attack is barely more than the to-hit minimum will be doing a lot less damage than the character whose attack blows the defense out of the water.
We're not talking "elemental affinity"; where certain enemies are strong or weak against specific types of attacks. As a mechanic, "Elemental" affinities are a staple of RPGs in general, and really the backbone of strategic or "tactics" RPGs. These usually take the form of a rock-paper-scissors contest: Axes are strong against Spears are strong against Swords are strong against Axes. Some games take type-pairing to the extreme, like Pokemon's 17 types of moves, each of which is either deals normal, half, an extra half (1.5x), or no damage to the other types. Again, there is a difference in a game mechanic that makes certain units/styles ineffective by their nature, and one that penalizes you for not being strong enough to be in an area.
Now, it's a fine line to walk for a game designer. How much work (or time, same difference to the consumer) is the gamer going to be willing to put into your game? Games like the Disgaea series bank on the fact that their consumers already know what they're getting into; grinding not only individual characters but also weapons are a selling point of the franchise. I don't have the answer. Until I do, I'm going to keep playing the games I like to play, and celebrate when the random encounters I struggled so hard to beat my first time in a new area are running up against the same binary damage wall I put the time in to avoid.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Am I really saving money?
Comments I read elsewhere on a article about membership club shopping (i.e. Sams, Costco) got me to thinking about how I spend my money on groceries.
Living out here in the country (or rather, in a rural area, since I do live within the "city limits" of my town), I basically have 3 options for buying stuff; depending on what I need and when I need it. The first is local shops. Now, like many small towns, I'm limited in selection here; especially with the closing of the local general/small department store. In fact, shopping local for me is pretty much groceries (which I include the butcher and the farmers market), auto parts, prescription drugs and specialty items.
The second option is driving into the bigger cities; in theory, that's a choice between about 35 miles or about 130. In practice, I can get from my front door to the shops in Dodge City and back in 75 miles, which makes travel time about an 1:10 (or 1.15 hrs). Figuring gas cost at $3.50 (a little cheaper than what it is right now; but about I was paying a month ago), and a slightly generous 30 mpg (highway my car usually gets about 29.6), that's $7.50. Since I get oil changes free for the life of the car at the dealer I bought it at, I'm not going to worry about that portion, nor am I going to figure tire life into it. I will figure in my drive time, at a modest $15/hour. Feel free to change that for your own calculations, depending on your pay rate and how much you value your time away from work. That brings the cost of my trip to $24.50 to make a run to Dodge. To get to Wichita, it's a little more than $90.
But what do the numbers actually mean? That's the difference I have to get to in what I spend there and what I would have spent here -- or spend on items that are not available in town -- to be able to say "I saved money." If I don't have a cost savings of $25, then I would actually be saving money by spending a little extra at home.
The third option is shopping online. Unfortunately, outside of a few specialty foods companies whose ads we've all seen one place or another; grocery delivery for me is out of the question. If I was in a bigger city where such a service was offered, then I might consider it. Much like travel time when shopping out of town, the difference between buying locally and online is in the shipping (working with the assumption I would spend the same amount of time "shopping" for a particular item). Is a particular item different enough from local offerings or the savings on the total order great enough to cover the cost of shipping? The first is subjective, but the second is firmly objective.
Does this mean you should always shop at home? No. But it does mean that in small communities, you should work with the local businesses to make sure they know what the types of goods you have to go out of town for; and what they could be carrying to make sure your money goes to them.
Living out here in the country (or rather, in a rural area, since I do live within the "city limits" of my town), I basically have 3 options for buying stuff; depending on what I need and when I need it. The first is local shops. Now, like many small towns, I'm limited in selection here; especially with the closing of the local general/small department store. In fact, shopping local for me is pretty much groceries (which I include the butcher and the farmers market), auto parts, prescription drugs and specialty items.
The second option is driving into the bigger cities; in theory, that's a choice between about 35 miles or about 130. In practice, I can get from my front door to the shops in Dodge City and back in 75 miles, which makes travel time about an 1:10 (or 1.15 hrs). Figuring gas cost at $3.50 (a little cheaper than what it is right now; but about I was paying a month ago), and a slightly generous 30 mpg (highway my car usually gets about 29.6), that's $7.50. Since I get oil changes free for the life of the car at the dealer I bought it at, I'm not going to worry about that portion, nor am I going to figure tire life into it. I will figure in my drive time, at a modest $15/hour. Feel free to change that for your own calculations, depending on your pay rate and how much you value your time away from work. That brings the cost of my trip to $24.50 to make a run to Dodge. To get to Wichita, it's a little more than $90.
But what do the numbers actually mean? That's the difference I have to get to in what I spend there and what I would have spent here -- or spend on items that are not available in town -- to be able to say "I saved money." If I don't have a cost savings of $25, then I would actually be saving money by spending a little extra at home.
The third option is shopping online. Unfortunately, outside of a few specialty foods companies whose ads we've all seen one place or another; grocery delivery for me is out of the question. If I was in a bigger city where such a service was offered, then I might consider it. Much like travel time when shopping out of town, the difference between buying locally and online is in the shipping (working with the assumption I would spend the same amount of time "shopping" for a particular item). Is a particular item different enough from local offerings or the savings on the total order great enough to cover the cost of shipping? The first is subjective, but the second is firmly objective.
Does this mean you should always shop at home? No. But it does mean that in small communities, you should work with the local businesses to make sure they know what the types of goods you have to go out of town for; and what they could be carrying to make sure your money goes to them.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Thoughts on an Anniversary
Yesterday was Machel's and my 8th wedding anniversary. We didn't really celebrate; but we never
really have. It's not in our either of our natures to make a big deal out of time. But it has given me reason to think back over the past year and the good fortune we've had.
In a time when people have been stuck underwater in their mortgages, we've paid off the note on our house; when credit has been hard to come by, we've improved our credit scores and financed our first new car.
Chel graduated college, and in a job market that's tight in her field picked up a full-time job. When a lot of people have been struggling to make it, she's been able to use her hard-earned skills to monetize her hobby.
I'll be the first to admit, it hasn't been all wine and roses; but with the majority of the bitter has come sweet. We found out that the chances of us having a child were slim to none; but we learned we will become Aunt Chel and Uncle Deege to a fourth child on my side of the family, my baby sister's first. My mother-in-law moved in with us after taking custody of my sister-in-laws youngest two and subsequently not getting her rental agreement renewed, and hasn't left yet; but we've gotten to spend time with them we otherwise wouldn't have. {And yes, I'm trying very hard to find something good for us that has come out of the situation. Because otherwise, I probably won't be able to play peacemaker when Chel finally snaps and issues a great big FU to that side of the family.}
This year hopes to be better; we've got a week in Vegas planned for Chel's birthday in October with a couple of friends. But I wanted to do something a little sooner. We've both been really stressed, and definitely lacking in "alone time", both by ourselves and with each other. So, not this coming Saturday but the next; I'm stealing my wife and taking her to Wichita for the weekend; ostensibly for our anniversary, but more just to get away for a little while.
I had thought about staying at the new Hampton Inn attached to the casino in Dodge City; but chose the Hotel At WaterWalk instead. Wichita has better shopping and a wider variety of dining than Dodge, and for the same nightly rate as the Queen room at Boot Hill, we are getting a King Suite instead. Besides, we've already got the Vegas trip planned, no need to blow all our fun money before we get there.
We don't do stuff all that often. Partly because money has been tight the past 10 years -- with the house paid off the belts can loosing a tiny bit -- but more because we've always been happy to sit at the house and enjoy each others company. With that option... limited right now; I'm gonna take every chance I get to give my wife the opportunity to unwind.
In a time when people have been stuck underwater in their mortgages, we've paid off the note on our house; when credit has been hard to come by, we've improved our credit scores and financed our first new car.
Chel graduated college, and in a job market that's tight in her field picked up a full-time job. When a lot of people have been struggling to make it, she's been able to use her hard-earned skills to monetize her hobby.
I'll be the first to admit, it hasn't been all wine and roses; but with the majority of the bitter has come sweet. We found out that the chances of us having a child were slim to none; but we learned we will become Aunt Chel and Uncle Deege to a fourth child on my side of the family, my baby sister's first. My mother-in-law moved in with us after taking custody of my sister-in-laws youngest two and subsequently not getting her rental agreement renewed, and hasn't left yet; but we've gotten to spend time with them we otherwise wouldn't have. {And yes, I'm trying very hard to find something good for us that has come out of the situation. Because otherwise, I probably won't be able to play peacemaker when Chel finally snaps and issues a great big FU to that side of the family.}
This year hopes to be better; we've got a week in Vegas planned for Chel's birthday in October with a couple of friends. But I wanted to do something a little sooner. We've both been really stressed, and definitely lacking in "alone time", both by ourselves and with each other. So, not this coming Saturday but the next; I'm stealing my wife and taking her to Wichita for the weekend; ostensibly for our anniversary, but more just to get away for a little while.
I had thought about staying at the new Hampton Inn attached to the casino in Dodge City; but chose the Hotel At WaterWalk instead. Wichita has better shopping and a wider variety of dining than Dodge, and for the same nightly rate as the Queen room at Boot Hill, we are getting a King Suite instead. Besides, we've already got the Vegas trip planned, no need to blow all our fun money before we get there.
We don't do stuff all that often. Partly because money has been tight the past 10 years -- with the house paid off the belts can loosing a tiny bit -- but more because we've always been happy to sit at the house and enjoy each others company. With that option... limited right now; I'm gonna take every chance I get to give my wife the opportunity to unwind.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Win8 and Workflow
In the little time I've spent working with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview; I've noticed something very important. The Metro apps do not work with my writing workflow.It seems like there should be a way* to tile a Metro app, pinning it to the side of the desktop; or at least splitting between two Metro apps. And when I grab the top of a Metro app, it shrinks the page, and goes to what appears to be a positioning screen. This may just be for dual-monitor setups; because I can't get two of the things to appear at once, nor can I drop it on the "desktop".
This causes a problem for me, especially with the "Reader" app. When I'm writing, I'll often have a reference document open to the side. Sometimes it's a web site; usually, it will be a PDF or more recently an XPS document (hooray for free Print to File drivers). I like to have facts straight (or my character depictions consistent, at least), and the easiest way to do this is to splitscreen.
Now, I will say that this isn't a problem if you use the XPS viewer or Acrobat Reader from the desktop.
I can't seem to get this to work on Win8CP. I wonder if this could be partly due to my older hardware. I mentioned in the last post that Win8 automatically loaded a generic VGA driver for my laptop, instead of a specific driver for the GMA 900 (910/915). After more research (the first post was only meant to be first impressions), I found out that particular chipset does not have drivers available due to the changes in the graphics subsystem in Win7.
So what does that mean to me? I take a performance hit. Because Win8 cannot take advantage of the graphics hardware, the CPU has to pick up the load. And the Celeron M was not made for heavy lifting. I'm also limited in available resolutions to 1280x800 and 1024x768. Which means games like Civ4, which was playable at lowered resolutions under XP on this machine decides to spit, stutter, and pretty much become unplayable under Win8.
More importantly than gaming, the transition screens sometime glitch out; hiccuping when you switch between Metro apps. Which means swiping back and forth between, say, the IE Metro App open to Google Docs or Blogger.com, and the Reader app (which is the default display for both PDF and XPS) is not only time-consuming; but it can result in crashing (and then reloading) both. Hopefully, it will be more stable on supported hardware.
*As in, I was pretty sure I saw it happen in the preview video.
This causes a problem for me, especially with the "Reader" app. When I'm writing, I'll often have a reference document open to the side. Sometimes it's a web site; usually, it will be a PDF or more recently an XPS document (hooray for free Print to File drivers). I like to have facts straight (or my character depictions consistent, at least), and the easiest way to do this is to splitscreen.
Now, I will say that this isn't a problem if you use the XPS viewer or Acrobat Reader from the desktop.
I can't seem to get this to work on Win8CP. I wonder if this could be partly due to my older hardware. I mentioned in the last post that Win8 automatically loaded a generic VGA driver for my laptop, instead of a specific driver for the GMA 900 (910/915). After more research (the first post was only meant to be first impressions), I found out that particular chipset does not have drivers available due to the changes in the graphics subsystem in Win7.
So what does that mean to me? I take a performance hit. Because Win8 cannot take advantage of the graphics hardware, the CPU has to pick up the load. And the Celeron M was not made for heavy lifting. I'm also limited in available resolutions to 1280x800 and 1024x768. Which means games like Civ4, which was playable at lowered resolutions under XP on this machine decides to spit, stutter, and pretty much become unplayable under Win8.
More importantly than gaming, the transition screens sometime glitch out; hiccuping when you switch between Metro apps. Which means swiping back and forth between, say, the IE Metro App open to Google Docs or Blogger.com, and the Reader app (which is the default display for both PDF and XPS) is not only time-consuming; but it can result in crashing (and then reloading) both. Hopefully, it will be more stable on supported hardware.
*As in, I was pretty sure I saw it happen in the preview video.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
First Impressions: Windows 8 Consumer Preview
I was a bit surprised when I looked at the system requirements, my old laptop was robust enough to run the Windows 8 consumer preview. So, with a fresh install of this public beta; what worked, what didn't?
First, the specs for my test machine. It's an Acer Travelmate 2420, a 5+ year old machine running a 32-bit 1.5 GHz Celeron M processor with 2 GB of RAM. I guess I really shouldn't be surprised that I can get Win8 to run, since the Windows 7 tester said it would run that as well, just without Aero.
The Atheros wireless chipset worked out of the box, even prompting me to choose my network and supply the password during setup. With the public emphasis being placed on providing a seamless experience among traditional PCs/laptops, phones, and tablets; it should really only be a shock when an wireless chipset does not work as expected.
Sound worked no problem, even installing the AC97 audio control panel without my intervention. The monitor was detected, and a reasonable 1024x768 resolution was chosen. I probably could have gotten better results (and more options) from something other than the generic VGA driver, but either Win8 didn't recognize the earlier Intel graphics chip, or just didn't ship with a driver for it. I'm not going to complain about the available 1280x800 resolution.
The only thing that didn't go off without a hitch on the initial install was the Synaptic touchpad. Win8 identified it as a PS/2-Compatable mouse, and that was all she wrote; so no edge scrolling or tapping tricks for me, I guess.
Leave it to my mother-in-law, though. While Win8 was starting up for the first time, I wondered aloud what a fish had to do with Windows. And she mentioned that it looked like one of those "fighting fish", and I facepalmed at the pun.
When I boot up, I'm immediately reminded that this OS is designed with touch-screen interfaces in mind. The "lock" screen requires* a click and drag like a smart phone screen saver before I can log in. Really not that big of a deal, though a keyboard shortcut would have been nice.
After logging in, I come to the now-infamous Start screen. For the most part -- minus some "could not connect to service at this time" hiccups you're going to have to expect from working "in the cloud" -- everything that came with a live tile started up. The Pinball game didn't; but I'd wager that was more because of my lack of graphics horsepower (or even lack of a specific driver) than a problem with the game itself.
The Mail app also disappointed, both failing to connect to my GMail account and not having an option to use a standard POP3 account. When it finally did show that I had a Gmail account, it failed to show any inbox messages; though the send functionality worked perfectly. The Calendar app also seems to derp out a bit when syncing Google Calendar, especially when dealing with custom recurring events (i.e. every 2 weeks instead of every week). Both worked fine in Thunderbird on XP and Evolution on Ubuntu Linux, so I'm thinking its a glitch with how the Calendar app reads the recurrence data.
The Messaging app is a bit hard to test for me, since I don't use Live Messenger, I'll have to test out the Facebook functionality later on. The Map app worked fine, though it was a little slow; that may be my graphics again. The two things I noticed were lack of a "favorites" for locations; and no way to change the default "My Location" from inside Maps. You can add and remove locations from Weather, but from what I can tell, after the initial place look-up, Maps never double-checks the current My Location. (And yes, it's not using my IP address, that would put it 200 miles away instead of the 35.)
The People app is a nice little stand-in for a Facebook & Twitter timeline; though very basic in appearance; I prefer the originals (and no, I never thought I'd say that about facebook). Finance is nice for what it does, but it stopped working for me about halfway though my first test session; just crashed and would not reopen.
I'm also not a fan of the Internet Explorer Metro interface.** The large black bar that pops up at the bottom of the screen is annoying; it's a pain to get anything done in the tabbed browsers; and its just an all-around unpleasant experience. The one thing I will give credit (where it is due) are the Next/Previous Page buttons that pop in when you change pages.
As for quirks... the majority of my laptop special function buttons work as you think they should; the ones that don't are the numeric keypad. For some reason, Windows 8 (unlike both Ubuntu and Windows XP on the same machine) treats my virtual "numeric keypad"*** as having Number Lock off... moving the cursor instead of typing numbers. Also, even though the screen Brightness setting on the settings widget says unavailable, the brightness control keys work. Go figure.
Overall, I would have to say I am mildly impressed. Win8 acts like it would be a great on a tablet or a phone screen. However, as a desktop machine I'm having serious doubts. Despite trying to focus on using the Metro Apps, I find myself drifting back to the Aero versions (or whatever you want to call the Win7 style). Part of it is because the hardware I'm using is showing its age, and the pretty of the Metro apps seem to take longer both to load and to respond to input than the Aero counterparts. But part of it is from a consumer standpoint as well. Will the Mail, Calendar and People apps be able to replace Outlook, or even Windows Live Mail (Outlook Express)? Are the Music and Video apps really a better front end to your media files than iTunes or even Windows Media Player? Because that's what adoption is really going to hinge on; having better interfaces to do the stuff we want to do.
*I say "requires". I should probably say "seems to require" instead. Remember, these are first impressions, and I haven't had time to figure out how to do things in an "other" way yet. So whenever I say "requires", just assume I mean "seems to require" or "I haven't found an obvious way to do it differently yet."
** Writing this from the (Aero?) traditional interface.
*** i.e. the calculator tacked on to the right side of standard keyboards.
First, the specs for my test machine. It's an Acer Travelmate 2420, a 5+ year old machine running a 32-bit 1.5 GHz Celeron M processor with 2 GB of RAM. I guess I really shouldn't be surprised that I can get Win8 to run, since the Windows 7 tester said it would run that as well, just without Aero.
The Atheros wireless chipset worked out of the box, even prompting me to choose my network and supply the password during setup. With the public emphasis being placed on providing a seamless experience among traditional PCs/laptops, phones, and tablets; it should really only be a shock when an wireless chipset does not work as expected.
Sound worked no problem, even installing the AC97 audio control panel without my intervention. The monitor was detected, and a reasonable 1024x768 resolution was chosen. I probably could have gotten better results (and more options) from something other than the generic VGA driver, but either Win8 didn't recognize the earlier Intel graphics chip, or just didn't ship with a driver for it. I'm not going to complain about the available 1280x800 resolution.
The only thing that didn't go off without a hitch on the initial install was the Synaptic touchpad. Win8 identified it as a PS/2-Compatable mouse, and that was all she wrote; so no edge scrolling or tapping tricks for me, I guess.
Leave it to my mother-in-law, though. While Win8 was starting up for the first time, I wondered aloud what a fish had to do with Windows. And she mentioned that it looked like one of those "fighting fish", and I facepalmed at the pun.
When I boot up, I'm immediately reminded that this OS is designed with touch-screen interfaces in mind. The "lock" screen requires* a click and drag like a smart phone screen saver before I can log in. Really not that big of a deal, though a keyboard shortcut would have been nice.
After logging in, I come to the now-infamous Start screen. For the most part -- minus some "could not connect to service at this time" hiccups you're going to have to expect from working "in the cloud" -- everything that came with a live tile started up. The Pinball game didn't; but I'd wager that was more because of my lack of graphics horsepower (or even lack of a specific driver) than a problem with the game itself.
The Mail app also disappointed, both failing to connect to my GMail account and not having an option to use a standard POP3 account. When it finally did show that I had a Gmail account, it failed to show any inbox messages; though the send functionality worked perfectly. The Calendar app also seems to derp out a bit when syncing Google Calendar, especially when dealing with custom recurring events (i.e. every 2 weeks instead of every week). Both worked fine in Thunderbird on XP and Evolution on Ubuntu Linux, so I'm thinking its a glitch with how the Calendar app reads the recurrence data.
The Messaging app is a bit hard to test for me, since I don't use Live Messenger, I'll have to test out the Facebook functionality later on. The Map app worked fine, though it was a little slow; that may be my graphics again. The two things I noticed were lack of a "favorites" for locations; and no way to change the default "My Location" from inside Maps. You can add and remove locations from Weather, but from what I can tell, after the initial place look-up, Maps never double-checks the current My Location. (And yes, it's not using my IP address, that would put it 200 miles away instead of the 35.)
The People app is a nice little stand-in for a Facebook & Twitter timeline; though very basic in appearance; I prefer the originals (and no, I never thought I'd say that about facebook). Finance is nice for what it does, but it stopped working for me about halfway though my first test session; just crashed and would not reopen.
I'm also not a fan of the Internet Explorer Metro interface.** The large black bar that pops up at the bottom of the screen is annoying; it's a pain to get anything done in the tabbed browsers; and its just an all-around unpleasant experience. The one thing I will give credit (where it is due) are the Next/Previous Page buttons that pop in when you change pages.
As for quirks... the majority of my laptop special function buttons work as you think they should; the ones that don't are the numeric keypad. For some reason, Windows 8 (unlike both Ubuntu and Windows XP on the same machine) treats my virtual "numeric keypad"*** as having Number Lock off... moving the cursor instead of typing numbers. Also, even though the screen Brightness setting on the settings widget says unavailable, the brightness control keys work. Go figure.
Overall, I would have to say I am mildly impressed. Win8 acts like it would be a great on a tablet or a phone screen. However, as a desktop machine I'm having serious doubts. Despite trying to focus on using the Metro Apps, I find myself drifting back to the Aero versions (or whatever you want to call the Win7 style). Part of it is because the hardware I'm using is showing its age, and the pretty of the Metro apps seem to take longer both to load and to respond to input than the Aero counterparts. But part of it is from a consumer standpoint as well. Will the Mail, Calendar and People apps be able to replace Outlook, or even Windows Live Mail (Outlook Express)? Are the Music and Video apps really a better front end to your media files than iTunes or even Windows Media Player? Because that's what adoption is really going to hinge on; having better interfaces to do the stuff we want to do.
*I say "requires". I should probably say "seems to require" instead. Remember, these are first impressions, and I haven't had time to figure out how to do things in an "other" way yet. So whenever I say "requires", just assume I mean "seems to require" or "I haven't found an obvious way to do it differently yet."
** Writing this from the (Aero?) traditional interface.
*** i.e. the calculator tacked on to the right side of standard keyboards.
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