Greetings from Loraan
Hello, all. After Ozymandias's post introducing me, I thought I should post an introductory note to tell you a bit more about myself. First off, my actual name is Peter Weingartner. I'm a friend of Ozymandias's from before he joined Microsoft. Unlike Ozymandias, I do not work for Microsoft and could probably be considered to be a detractor of theirs (but that has more to do with my frustrations with Windows than with what they're doing in the console game industry). Since I do not work for the Microsoft and have no affiliation to the gaming industry other than knowing Ozymandias, you can be sure my posts will contain nothing but my own opinions unencumbered by such pesky things as corporate affiliations, facts, and (with apologies to my personal deities, the Magliozzi Brothers) the thought process. The same is true of Ozymandias's posts, really (well, his may be more fact-based than mine); but I can say rude things about Microsoft without getting fired while Ozymandias can't. Actually, I suppose he might get fired if I post something like that, but he would deserve it: he was foolish enough to let me post to his site.
Now, as to gaming: I can not be said to be a hard core gamer (at least not by my definition). You can take a look at my
gamer card to see for yourself how lame I am. I have played a whole mess of video games over the years, but the past year or so has seen a sharp decline in the amount of time I've spent playing with the consoles. When I play, I tend to look for things that are novel, or worlds that I can explore with a minimum of tedium and frustration. I like to have to think about a game without being reminded that it is a game (if that makes any sense). Things that get me excited are non-linear, exploratory play and puzzle solving. Things that get me down are clichés, bad voice acting, boss monsters (see clichés), and bad game mechanics.
There have been several games that I have finished, and a couple that I have actually enjoyed enough to play multiple times.
Myst,
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and
Eternal Darkness have merited this status for me. For the most part, however, I will play a game for a while—maybe really getting into it—and then give up in frustration, boredom, or indifference as something goes south. Two recent examples of that latter category include
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and
Oblivion (both of which I played on the XBox, by the way). Chaos Theory was a lot of fun for most of the time (I love being stealthy and finessing my way through a game), but it betrayed me in the end by changing the rules of the game (and why the heck couldn't I shoot the bad guy in the head while he was standing right in front of me monologuing? WHY WHY WHY?). As for
Oblivion, it was beautiful, immersive, and non-linear; but it was also boring, and the fight mechanics were tedious. Mind you, I didn't hate either game. I just gave up on them. I do have games that I hated, and I might mention them later.
Today, I'm most interest in the stuff Microsoft is doing with the XBox Live Arcade. I like that I can download a game, play for a while, and enjoy it without making a serious investment of time or money. The arcade gives me light, fluffy diversions that are just the thing for after work. I won't get a deep story or awe inspiring cinematics, but I also don't have to worry about save points or how many hours I have to spend grinding through monsters so I can get that +10 ogre knife I need to kill the next boss. I'll still pop in some of the big titles (
Prey looks to have some potential, and maybe the next Zelda title will make me overcome my inability to say "I would like to take a Wii, please" without blushing), but I'm not chomping at the bit for them.
Anyway, I will post more later. I hope you find this stuff interesting, and I'll be interested to read how my experiences either match yours or how you see things differently.
By the way, my gamer tag "Loraan" is actually a reference to something just as is "Ozymandias." Double nerd points to anyone who can spot the reference. The fact that it was the name of my risk-averse halfling rogue in D&D does not count!