The Search For Games!
As Kheldar is aware, I've been looking for a free game I can play when there's nobody else around to join me in Guild Wars, or others that we have played together. I guess City of Heroes is still my favorite - I need to analyse that sometime to try to understand why that's so. But alas, $15/mo times two for mine and Karen's accounts is more than we want to spend. Besides, I'm afraid that if I had it available, I'd play more than I really should, and do less of other things. You'd think that by the time you reach my age, one would not be so tied to the "shoulds", but time is increasingly a treasure to not be frittered away.
Anyhow, I've enjoyed each of the MMORPGs I've played (Guild Wars, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings beta), but other than GW, all require a monthly subscription, and all but City of Heroes reached a point where I became discouraged because I wasn't able to complete some difficult mission. I've also enjoyed Titan Quest to a lesser degree, and Mythos demo more than Titan Quest, though not so much as some others, but Mythos is defunct before getting into beta. I also tried Silverfall, but couldn't make it work smoothly with my hardware, otherwise, it was OK. I also have tried, and am continuing to play, Dungeon Runners. It's not bad, but honestly, while I can enjoy soloing City of Heroes, and even Guild Wars to a degree, soloing Dungeon Runners is becoming a bit blase - might be better with a team.
I've thought I might like a first-person-shooter. Way, way back, I enjoyed playing the Quake demo that came with some previous "new" computer. I've played Rainbow Six, but there's too much required planning before getting into the mission. I enjoyed Thief, up to a point, until I got to a place where I couldn't progress further. I also recently DLed and tried the demo of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault in the single player version. I like the graphics and the play, but so far I haven't been able to get very far into the first mission. Maybe FPSs are not for me! I'm not much into any arena or deathmatch stuff as I'm just not skilled enough to survive. The nice thing about Thief is that you can take it slow and easy and make progress by being smart, rather than just fast and agile. I think that's one of the things about City of Heroes that make it the favorite. With few exceptions, I can usually find a way to complete a mission by smart play.
So, recently, I decided I'd like to find a free game that will run on my Linux installation, so started looking around. There are a couple of posts on the Kubuntu forums site, in the gaming forum where people have suggested their favorite Linux games, or where there are pointers to "top 20 Linux Games" kinds of lists. I actually found a couple that looked promising. The first that looked possible was Open Arena (available for both Linux and Windows), but it had two things against it: (1) I wouldn't survive an arena format for long, and (2) it's pretty violent and one of the main character types is female, with next to no clothes. So, I decided against even trying it.
Another Linux/Windows possibility was Nexuiz, another open source FPS, and in this case, one with a single player mode. I installed it in my Kubuntu installation, and it managed 1-2 fps - unplayable! I suspect this is an Nvidia driver issue as it's been that way ever since I first tried 3D Linux games like Tux Racer. It's time to try to fix that, so that's my next Linux challenge. Anyhow, to make sure it wasn't something inherent to my system, I also DLed the Windows version and tried it. With somewhat reduced graphics performance choices, it runs at 15-20 fps - that's playable. But, I realized that even in a single player mode, it is still a deathmatch scenario, and the two computer bots in the first, easiest mission, are just too much for my skill level. Clearly, survival is a matter of staying in constant motion while also blasting away with some accuracy at the bad guys - I have yet to survive for long. The graphics don't reach the level of some of the commercial games, but were better than I expected. Still, I don't think it's for me.
So, I continue to search for a free 3D game that will grab my interest. Any suggestions?
Optiker
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Re: The Search For Games!
I just had an interesting thought. What about a multi-player capable football management simulator? We'd each take a team and manage the team through multiple seasons? It wouldn't be a traditional meet-online-and-play-together type of game, but instead we'd be submitting orders and generating progress throughout the week. Perhaps though you aren't so interested in doing a management simulation...
Re: The Search For Games!
I've always enjoyed Real Time Strategy type games. While they are not free, you can play them online with others for free (at least the ones I am aware of). I think that you could also probably find demos to download and see if they would be any interest or not.
I have enjoyed playing a board game called Axis and Allies in the past. I understand that there is a software version of it and while the software isn't exactly like the board game I think there is the ability to play multi-player online turn-based. I think it may be via email but as I said I have not investigated it much. The game is not free but I don't think it's all that expensive either.
Re: The Search For Games!
I'll pass on football management and also strategy games. As implied by my comments on Rainbow Six, it's the planning/strategy/tactics that I'm not that fond of. I guess I like the real-time, "stop and figure out what to do next" as I do when I solo in CoH, bu that's a bit different.
But, don't let that stop the two of you from doing it together if you find one of common interest.
I've always thought I'd like to take another crack at a rpg by e-mail like what Andrew led and let Karen and I try once, but I'm not sure my thought processes would be any more compatible with that kind of game than they were then. But, I guess the blog site seems to me to be a natural way to do that.
Re: The Search For Games!
Actually, people do run RPG games via forum. I'll bet if we ran one that Kent and Sareth would want to jump on board with that too...
Re: The Search For Games!
I think we'd need to let GM Kheldar decide on that since the last time, when you let Karen and I play a PBEM RPG with you, we drove you nuts!
We weren't very cooperative. I was very conservative...wanting to go out and explore and not necessarily interact with anybody. Karen didn't have anything against interacting, but she was always wanting to stray off and do something peripheral to your design - like "look for agates on the beach!"[that's a family joke that probably doesn't mean anything to anbody else, except for maybe Mrs. Kheldar.]
One of the other Golden Anvil folks - I don't know her blog name - was a participant and I think you pretty much forced an encounter. Being new at it, I think I had too much of my own personality in the interaction to make it very interesting. I think we may still have the scripts filed away someplace - not sure why - since I happen onto them now and then.
Bottom line is that while I'd like to give it a try again sometime, You'd have to be feeling partricularly patient.
On the other hand, every time I happen to read somebody's post, or you talk about one you're running or planning to run, I think what fun it would be to be involved. For example, the WW2 scenario sounded really fun - to me, more so than a fantasy one. But, given my history, I'd never participate with a group like that who are so experienced and have so much rapport.
I doubt that as I've aged I've become any more of an extrovert, so on my part, it could be just as much of a disaster as it was then. If your recollections about it are in any more positive, you're being very kind, generous and gracious.
Re: The Search For Games!
I was in that too. Our characters never got to meet. I believe it was "Journey to Kalocsa" for my character. My guy did travel with one other character - dont remember who the player was at the time - but we got to a point where we were actually under attack by grunts. ONE DAY AWAY FROM TOWN. Where else would the attack come, right?
That adventure ended MID-BATTLE for my character.
But I do remember that it was an interesting - though somewhat ponderous - medium.
-- Kent
Re: The Search For Games!
All of the logs of everyone are up on my old website. It was definitely a slow moving game. A forum game would probably move quicker, since players could interact with each other without waiting for the GM to intervene.
Re: The Search For Games!
I play forum based RPGs extensively. I have... four retired characters (the games they were in went under) and six current characters (though two are in the same game. Long story.) The games can be as complex or simple, as interactive or isolated as the players and GM like. For example, in the MegaTokyo: the Clans game I have been involved in longest, a typical forum post is three thousand words and involves between two and four players (they write the posts interactively using chats or e-mails, putting it all together before posting.) These posts typically go up at an average rate of about two a month (per player). On the other hand, I'm involved in a fantasy game in which people write one or two paragraph posts three or four times a day, and interact or not as they please. So really, it all depends on the GM and players how things go.
The one key to a forum based game is that it does rely a bit on initiative on the part of the players, it needs players who are fairly reliable (there's nothing more frustrating to have a scene going and have a key player disapear for a week or two without warning), and it does require at least a modicum of writing skills.
All that said and done, I'd certainly consider getting involved in something of the sort. WWII is certainly a fun option...
Veni, Vidi, Volo in domum redire.
Re: The Search For Games!
I suspect I wouldn't have a problem finding a decent number of players if I wanted to start up a forum game. I'm actually seriously considering it. If I do, I'll likely put together a new forum for it.
Re: The Search For Games!
Hmm... Well, James, I would tend to lean toward the latter of the two models you described.
Or... live-chat ICQ-type again. =) I have to say - I REALLY REALLY enjoyed those sessions. I PROMISE that I have DSL now and AOL wont be crapping me out of the chat now.
-- Kent
Re: The Search For Games!
Well, I don't use ICQ these days. I *do* use IRC fairly heavily.
My connection is slightly irregular. In fact, the first time I went to reply, I got D/Ced...
As to the models of forum based play, that really depends a great deal on the players. MOST of the games I see are the "several small posts a day" types. But that also depends on the players being the types who do get on the forum several times a day. The one that I referenced as being a "we post once or twice a month, but it's a BIG post," on the other hand, has been going on for something like six YEARS, so it's developed an unusual climate where that particular posting style is actually ideal. It's also the exception to the rule. Most games tend to be the smaller but more frequent post thing.
Veni, Vidi, Volo in domum redire.
Re: The Search For Games!
As far as cheap and fun games go - there are a number of web browser based RPG games where you interact with other players as little or as much as you like. I have only played a couple, but one of my favorites was Kingdom of Loathing. It's a very funny, sometimes self-depracatingly sarcastic game. You should check it out. You can play it entirely single-player storyline and only interact with people through the economy (you can own a shop and sell your stuff) or you can play the game as player vs player.
The nice thing - nothing to install. If you dont play for a week - there are no negative side effects on your character.
Samurai of Legend is another that I am playing now. It's more... focused and less entertaining. somehow it's addicting though. I would point you to KOL first.
-- Kent
Re: The Search For Games!
I played KoL for a little while. It was entertaining. However, I never stick with the web based games all that long. I usually eventually get tired of playing the game in short little doses. I would agree though that KoL is worth checking out.
Re: The Search For Games!
I took a look at it, but didn't register yet. I may give it a try. I thinik Kheldar suggested it at some time in the past, but I didn't try it then. So, thanks for the reminder.
Re: The Search For Games!
I know you mentioned that you don't think you would be interested in RTS style games due to the strategy but if anyone ever is interested in as turn based strategy game via email, take a look at these two sites. They offer turn based email games that use the same or similar ruleset as some popular board games.
http://members.shaw.ca/emg.pbm/emg.htm
http://www.gamesbyemail.com/
Could be fun to try out if anybody would ever be interested. I recently played a game of Scrabble online with my mom, sister and wife hosted by facebook and though I am terrible at Scrabble and don't typically enjoy that game I thought it was a nice experience and a cool way to play a board type game.