Analog Gaming - Warhammer and Warcraft

If you read this blog you already know I’m a gamer. I play video games, I review video games, I even write up news items about video games (saunter on over to Gamestooge and take a look). What you probably don’t know is that I enjoy more than video games, I enjoy games, period. You don’t hear much about other types of games though. When it comes to the mainstream media, they only have enough time to mis-cover and misrepresent the most ostentatious and conspicuous form of gaming, video games. This means that while even if you’ve never played a video game before you know who Mario is or what Grand Theft Auto games are about. You’ve probably never heard of Warhammer, Ticket to Ride, or GURP before, though these games and others like them have had a tremendous amount of influence on their younger sibling, the video game.

So, in an effort to educate as well as entertain I’m introducing, what I’m sure will become a sporadically updated series, Analog Gaming. In AG I’ll showcase various board, card, and table-top games (some you’ll know and others you won’t) highlighting how you play the game, its history, how long it takes, game mechanics, and then diving in to how it and variations on it have influenced more popular electronic games.

I don’t know if it’ll be successful but it sounds like fun abd it’s what I know.

First up, Warhammer By Games Workhops. Name sounds familiar doesn’t it? It should, it’s the primary influence for Blizzard’s popular, record shattering, series WarCraft. Warhammer is what is called in the industry a table-top fantasy war game. The basic idea is to build a customizable army using the books and rules that Games Workshop provides to write up a fantasy army, then you purchase, assemble, and paint small metal (or plastic) models, these models represent the forces of your Army. After you’ve designed and constructed your own army the next step is to wage war with it. Luckily, there are places to play all around the United States (and across the globe) though it is more fun to play against friends.  Once you have an opponent you set up your playing area (a dining table works great, for starters). You set up your armies and begin moving them around the board, each unit has it’s own characteristics and moves (remember those books I mentioned, all this information is found in them). You can’t win a war without fighting and the heart and soul of Warhammer is the rule-set that controls how units within an army interact with other friendly and unfriendly units.  These encounters are resolved by look at the two fighting units stats and then rolling across dice to see the outcome and comparing the dice to some charts to see who lives and who dies…

I know this sounds boring, and it can be, at times. Referring to books, army list sheets, and quick-reference charts doesn’t sound fun. But this is only a small part of the game and the charts are easily memorized, Games Workshop has tried very hard to make the rules as non-intrusive as possible. Leaving most of your time to beating the hell out of your friend, which is a great deal of fun. The actual game is only 1/3 of the Warhammer experience, the other 2/3 is designing and customizing your army, and then putting it together and painting it. It’s incredibly rewarding to see models you’ve put together and painted spread across a table in the middle of a game your winning.

“Blah, Blah, Blah” you’re saying, “What does all this have to do with Blizzard and Warcraft?” I’m getting there just one more thing before we get to the good parts! If you are a video gamer what I described should sound really familair to you, because I’m describing the analog non-digital version of a Real-Time Strategy Game (RTS). RTSs were the direct offspring of turn-based strategy games, which were the offspring of table-top war games. The historic base war games are very complicated and very long, and their descendants on computers haven’t changed much… In 1983 Games Workshop released Warhammer moving the game into a fantasy setting and cutting out a bunch of complications, to make the game more fun, faster, and less of a headache.  In the early and mid 90’s Games Workshop was approached by a small American development team called Blizzard, the folks at Blizzard were fans of GW’s products and they wanted to make a game based on the Warhammer setting… Negotiations went back and forth and Blizzard began eal development. Then GW backed out. Blizzard though still wanted to make the game, so they tweaked it and changed it a little and released it as Warcraft: Orcs and Humans…  The rest is history, Warcraft was the first successful RTS game (alongside Command and Conquer).  If you look through early Warcraft material and that in Warhammer books you’ll see several similarities: art direction, magic spells, griffin riders, wolf riders, tech gnomes and goblins, all are in Warhammer and the models of these figures look a lot like those found in the Warcraft games.

As the Warcraft brand matured, especially with the WCIII and World of Warcraft, Blizzard has moved away from the Warhammer roots, they’ve injected a great deal of humor, and cartoonish joy into the WC which is absent from the bleak setting of Warhammer.

If you’re interested in playing Warhammer the best place to start is with the Battle for Skull Pass boxed set, which includes two small armies, and everything you and someone you know to start playing with them (they are unassembled and unpainted, part of the game is doing that too).

Sustaining the Energy for Change

If you’re looking for direction, you’fe come to the wrong place. I’ve got no clue. I’m writing this as I’m thinking it out, muddling through it. I’d say this was an attempt at dialectic but there isn’t anyone here to respond to my questions. The name doesn’t really matter, I’m throwing out ideas as they come and we’ll see what sticks..

So there’s the question. How do you do it? How do you overcome the inertia of your life when you get a brilliant idea or you recognize areas of your life that you don’t like? The idea, the revelation, is easy enough it doesn’t take any energy or persistence. Ideas come all the time to everyone, acting on them, and then sustaining them that’s the difficulty. I have journals, txt files, scraps of paper, indez cards, stick-its, all full of great ideas, and I’m not bull-shiting you either. Some of these ideas are the kind that you can build a career, life, empire out of even.  I’ve even half-assed followed some of them through, laid part of the groundwork for something great. So what though, I’m not bragging here, telling you how great and smart I am, great ideas like that come to everyone, everyone. Sit in a coffee shop or diner for a day and take notes you’d walk out with enough great ideas to last a lifetime. My ideas are shit as long as they stay on all that paper.

See, there we are back at the problem, is it fear of failure? fear of greatness? fear of standing out of the crowd? I’ve started on some of these ideas, put some time and effort it, only to see myself lose the energy to follow through, lose interest in the idea, and I’ve sat and watched everything I’d worked on cave in on itself. So why looking back on my life so far do I only see lots of foundations, some even have the beginnings of a superstructure, there are no monuments though.

I’m going around the idea in my head, over and over, and perhaps that’s the problem. I sit here thinking about an idea so much that by the time I DO something about it I’ve already become bored with the idea. You can live a thousand lives in the blink of an eye, and see the actions of all your decisions in a heartbeat. Reflecting constantly on what the consequences of your actions will be so thoroughly so that, you no longer are even intrigued by those consequences can go a long way in killing any desire to act on them.

I’m not going to advocate acting on a thought or idea without any forethought on what it entails, that’s too irreponsible. I’m going to try and stop living so much in my head though, less time thinking just what and how I should do something and just try doing it… Maybe then it’ll stay fresh enough, I can sustain it long enough to see some of the change I want to see in my life, or not. I don’t know how thise thing works

So talk back to me here, am I wrong? right?… Let’s go ahead and try that dialectic thing I talked about. It worked for Socrates and look where it got him……..Oh.

Internet Fear and the Loss of Authority

Nicholas Carr, who from all appearances seems to be a very smart man has written an article for the Atlantic monthly. In his Article Mr. Carr discusses his fears that his use of the internet, google, etc… are changing how he thinks, altering his very brain chemistry… I think his fears are irrational and I’ll explain why below but for now, follow the link and read Mr. Carr’s essay and then come back.

Interesting, no? Mr. Carr raises several issues, marshals evidence to support it, and ties it all together with a nice reference to one of science fiction’s and hollywood’s most iconic films. In other words a very well written essay. I do have some issues with it though and here is why:

First off I’m wondering how much of Carr’s research was done using Google, Wikipedia, and the system he maligns through out his article? Ad hominen attacks are never appropriate but Carr’s continued use of the internet accurately portrays just how much of a threat he feels it is to his brain structure. I didn’t see anywhere in his essay where he decides that using the internet is too dangerous to use, nor does he call for his readers to change how they interact with the internet so as to curb its malicious influence on thought patterns, nor do any of the people he mentions in the article. Everyone seems to feel that the internet is changing them but none of them seems to be doing anything about it. If the threat was there, it would be easy enough to shut the computer down and pick up a magazine or book, or go to the library and immerse yourself in the stacks doing research. In fact that is the solution to the problem Carr poses on his article. If the internet has changed how you think by using it in the past ten years, then it stands to reason not using the internet as a resource will help it revert back. He touts throughout the elasticity of the brain to do just this and I quote, “The human brain is almost infinitely malleable…As people’s minds become attuned… Far-reaching effects on cognition…” This elasticity is then Carr’s salvation, stop using the internet and your mind will re-shape itself to whatever form you’d prefer it to.

Second, Carr mentions no hard evidence that the Internet is changing how he thinks. He quotes his own experiences and those of friends and associates. Anecdotes are all well but they can’t prove (or disprove) anything. Carr himself acknowledges this, but then immediately introduces additional anecdotes (Nietzsche) and unrelated studies, in the hopes that his reader will blindly accept their relevancy. He touts a British study that reports people’s browsing histories on-line, making sure to point out how people jump from place to place and rarely read entire articles or sections. This is a fascinating study of how people browse certain sites, but it doesn’t tell us anything about how they read books, or think in general. Carr then quotes a psychologist who worries that our on-line habits might be spilling over into the real world and effecting how we think, sadly he doesn’t quote any studies that substantiate that claim. Carr fails to mention if anyone has even begun to study this field at all. His anecdotes might play on my emotions but I see no need to worry until hard evidence is brought to my attention. Worse, he doesn’t bring forth any evidence to support his claim that the old way of reading books, newspapers, articles, etc… is in any way different from, and superior to how we read the internet. He talks of “deep” reading and the contemplation that immersion in a book creates but never proves that such deepness exists, it is merely assumed.

Thirdly I feel Carr’s argument is just a small part of a greater battle “raging” in academia and the halls of power right now. This is the age old battle of the old against the new, the haves against the have-nots, and power elites versus self educated amateur. The real fear here is not that the internet is changing how we think; it is that the internet is eroding traditional authority. Carr’s fails to directly address this issue, he in fact seems conflicted. He recognizes that through-out history as new ideas, technologies (writing, printing) are introduced they’ve had their critics, that these critics have largely been right but things still turned out okay, even better. I don’t know what Carr is trying to say here except that, he doesn’t quite know what it is he is arguing against (or for), and that I should be skeptical of his claims. Carr as a member of that traditional authority but part of it’s liberal wing wants to seem like he is okay with the changes occurring around him (the egalitarianization of society/academia/culture/etc. by the internet), but at the same time wanting to retain the aura of authority his position in the older hierarchy gives him.

In the end it seems that Carr raises an issue that bothers him only slightly. He worries that he and we, as a collective, might be losing something with the coming of the supremacy of the internet. He doesn’t seem to care enough to do anything about it though, even when the answer is as simple as turning the computer off and picking up a book.

I’ve sent the above comments to the author himself and other intellectuals who cover this field. I will also be forwarding them on to the Editors at the Atlantic as well, if I’m lucky they’ll find my comments insightful enough to print them, which wouldn’t hurt my career in anyway. I encourage you to read Mr. Carr’s piece and my reaction to it and then leave your comments below.

Resurrection…

isn’t just for Jesus! Since my internship at the Capitol started I haven’t been able to give this site the attention it deserves. While I was working at Borders I had plenty of time as I was never scheduled for more than 36 hours a week, often less than that. At the Chief Clerk’s Office I work 9am to 5pm every weekday, knock off an hour for travel there and back… Well, I don’t have as much downtime as I used to especially with a girlfriend I want to keep and an active social life (this means whatever you think it means).

I don’t want to make excuses, but I do want to explain and put some things into perspective… I love writing and at some point I hope to make a go at getting some of it published. I don’t know yet if this site is going to help. I started DMS in the hopes that having a forum would help and encourage me to write regularly and it did, when I had more free time. Right now my focus is on doing good at this internship and getting a good job at of it, starting a career…. Yes, in politics. You might think that there’s no point in trying but I’m not that cynical, I think a difference can still be made in this world by anyone, up to and including me!  Once I have that and things settle somewhat, then I can look around and see what needs getting done in my life and doing it.

So what am I to do with DMS (and half a dozen other projects) in the mean time? Mostly slow down. I will be posting here but not everyday, probably not every other day. I’m going to start small and commit to updating twice a week. I can’t say which two days yet, but probably Monday and Saturday or Sunday and Wednesday. I promise that these posts wont be just filler but will content actual content, most of which I hope you’ll enjoy reading. If you find that you absolutely have to read something written by me point your browser to Gamestooge, I’m posting there regularly now, chances are very good you’ll find several posts there by me.

First up here is something I’ve decide to call “Beating the Backlog”, where I show you all the books, magazines, articles, and games I’ve got lined up for “processing” and then how quickly I can get through them. This  is definitely more than just a list of what I’m reading and playing though. I’ll be writing on the thoughts, ideas, and criticism these things raise, This should be really interesting, to give you a taste of it I’m finishing up The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt , just starting Dragon Quest VIII and the Prince of the Marshes and am in the middle of Cryptonomicon, also you’ll see the scraps and bits that become poems ans short stories, or (in most cases) never go anywhere.

In other news my Xbox 360 broke. Microsoft though has been nice enough to fix it for free and pay for the shipping both ways (I suspect this is because they actually broke it before I ever bought the thing).

See you next time!

Not only gods…

But it appears blogs can die too. As this one appears to be in the middle of, when was the last time I updated DMS? Back on May 20th! Okay, well this isn’t a heal-all by any means, if anything I’m merely staunching the flow of blood. Why have I note updated? Simple, I’ve been very busy with my work at the Capitol. The last two weeks saw a couple of very important deadlines (bills had to be out of their house of origin and the Assembly Appropriations Committee cleared it’s suspense calendar items). If you were following my twitter feed you might have noticed all the talk of bills, I must have read and corrected over 300 analyses this last few days. Good news is that I made it out alive and things will be (should be is more likely) quiet for the time being, at least until July/August.

I haven’t been completely out of things though I wrote a few articles for Gamestooge, one of which also appeared on 2old2play, if you’re curious: here, here, and here. My review of GTA4 will be done in 24 hours or so and going up soon there after, right now I’m saying it’s 66% complete.

What next? I’m going to vote tomorrow. California has its second primary then, this is for those who didn’t want to move up their voting with the Presidential primary. I’d tell you who I’m voting for in my Assembly District but I can’t I work for the Chief Clerk of the Assembly so I have to be impartial. I get to vote but I can’t tell anyone one my views on the subject (check my archives though and you’ll figure it out). After that I’m going to be cleaning up DMS and creating actual content.

Sorry about the lack of updates, more is coming and thanks for reading!

Update or Not

I didn’t want my readers to think I had dropped off the face of the planet, that happens next week, when the California Legislature decides to try and make a budget.  With a $17 billion deficit and no one wanting to budge on whether to raise taxes or cut spending (I think both would be a good idea) it could be a long, poor summer…

Luckily, I get to be right in the middle of it! I can’t wait to see the floor sessions that go on for 9 hours! I’m sure it’s all hugs and kisses then…

I’m still in the middle of playing GTAIV which I’m enjoying but not as much as you would think seeing all those perfect review scores out there… My problem is that the missions in the game are the same ones I was undertaking in GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas. In fact, some of the things that made San Andreas have been taken out (working out, hair cuts, character customization). So far there is a stronger story but much of it seems blank and I have to wonder about Nikko’s decision to jump immediately into the crime world after traveling half-way around the world to escape it, seems to be a disconnect between what the character is saying and what you, the player, are having him do. I’m also not a big fan of the mini-dating simulator in the game, I bought GTAIV to steal cars and do crazy crimes in a big sandbox, not call fake friends on a fake phone and get fake drunk, or play fake pool, darts, bowling, etc… Look for my full review of the game next week (fingers crossed.)

I’m putting together a retrospective on DOS games as well, why they were awesome, some of the best, the trials of getting them to work, and what happened to DOS and its games… I don’t really know when that is going to happen.

I should stop boring you with the things I might be doing or am in the process of doing, you came here to be entertained… Sadly, I don’t have any of that right now stay tuned…

I play video games…

and right now I’m playing GTAIV like everyone else on the planet (or whoever spent that $500 million filling Rockstar’s coffers right now. Keep up with me over at Gamestooge!

Weekend Update with Kevin Neala… Wait!

Hmm… What did I do this week? I wrote a mediocre post on Holocaust Memorial Day.  A review of Ikaruga that I quite like, mostly because it is more creative than I’m usually allowed to do over at Gamestooge, which is why it is posted here. They wanted something a little more objective, which I gave them and that should be going up in the next few days…

This week is supposed to be a little slow at the Capitol, not that that means anything, no one seems to know what is going to happen over there. Next week is supposed to be crazy and I’ll be working the weekend, which is not something I’m looking forward to, but then no one asked. I’m just the intern

What is in store for this week? If I can get around to it a little first impressions review of GTA4 multi-player, a retro review of an as of yet to be determined game (probably something on virtual console or live arcade), I’m also going to start a playthrough of the Space Quest series for Talking Time, and I think that is quite enough. I also need to finish reviewing two pieces of writing, and start putting down ink on paper for my own stories. If I get it all done I’ll be very impressed with myself. I’m a realist though and expect me to get through maybe half of it… Go Me!

In other news my Warlock on Wow (Elune) just reached level 60 today… 3 1/2 years after I created him! I’m hoping not to take another year to get him to 70. But, then you never know…

Yom HaShoah

is May 2nd, it’s the day set aside by Jews to remember the victims of the Holocaust. On Monday ( 4/28 ) the California Legislature passed Assembly Concurrent Resolution 83, recognizing this week as Holocaust Memorial Week and urged all Californians to reflect on the Holocaust, those whose lives were lost in it, honoring those who survived it, and committing ourselves to meaningfully acting to insure it never happens again…

It was a lovely ceremony with stirring speeches and calls for action. The Chamber full of Holocaust survivors who have made California their home. The phrase “never forget” was said multiple times.

Yet, as they spoke, and I type this, thousands are being killed. In Darfur, Rwanda, Tibet, Ukraine ,aamongIndigenous populations around the globe. While we remember the horrors that were what are we doing to prevent those occurring today? Why do we turn a blind eye to the suffering of our fellow humans? The United States has more than once been referred to as a City upon the Hill, a beacon to the rest of the world, it seems though that we shine too bright, and cannot see the rest of the world dazzled as we our with ourselves.

I’m not writing this to be pessimistic, the pessimist has already given up, he mentions atrocities and pain only to confirm and justify his inaction. No, I mention this so that while we remember we might consider how we can prevent. I alone cannot do anything to stop the genocides across the world. I am small and powerless while potentates and Great Nations do as they please. But, I can be a small light. With my actions, small as they may be, I can make a statement one that I can share with my friends and family in the hopes that through my example they will be inspired to make small changes in their lives. I don’t flatter myself in thinking that my small ripple will ever become a wave. My stand is only a testament to myself, a single finger pointing and loudly declaring that “This is Wrong.”

My unobjective review of Ikaruga

Oh Ikaruga, I remember so well the first forum posts concerning you, the sequel to that most excellent of shooters Radiant Silvergun, but you were released for the Dreamcast in 2002, long after that console was dead in the U.S. Forums were buzzing with rumors of your porting to the Gamecube, that we might be blessed with your presence here in the States. I read every scrap of news I could find on you, when I heard you’d be coming stateside I rushed to the local EB games to reserve a copy of you, it didn’t bother me that that guy behind the counter had never heard of you, had to look you up, and then proceeded to butcher your name repeatedly. Whatever.

Then you arrived and I flew over to the EB hoping they hadn’t sold my copy yet. Turns out my copy was the only one they had ordered. I took you home and slid you into the Gamecube, stoked to experience your polarity based game play. The groans and moans about difficulty I’d read on-line hadn’t bothered me. I’d cut my teeth on games like Ninja Gaiden, Alien Soldier, and Gradius, I thought I knew. I was wrong. I’ve never been so humbled by a game in my life. Everything was so simple. Why was I so bad? Shoot everything on the screen. Enemies are black or white when you match their color you absorb their shots, only dying when hit by the opposite color (when white you absorb white shots and die from black and vice-versa when your black). You only has five levels! I never got passed the third. You crushed me. Even on repeated plays I could never get higher than a B on a level. I took my licks and retreated, you were replaced by easier games, games I could beat. Then I sold you back to EB and forgot about you…

But you haunted my dreams, visions of black on white, unending, incomprehensible patterns of monochromatic shots. How could I have failed so miserably? Why had I given up so soon? Too late though to get you back, I could only find you on Ebay and the price to redeem myself was too high… until now. For ten dollars I can play you again on the Xbox 360. I eargerly paid and waited for the download to finish. Finally, I would be able to banish the doubts and vanquish my failings, I would conquer you! So I thought.  Ikaruga, you are no easier now than you were 6 years ago. So my shame begins anew. The difference is that this time I’m not quitting until I’ve seen the ending credits.

Look for the objective, actual, review later this week