RPG

This post today isn’t actually about Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning. Mostly. This post is, how can I talk about Kingdoms of Amalur – and going forward, other things I might play? There’s a few things that are stopping me from being a content creator. For one, I have a slow internet connection. And according to the Twitch app, my video card is of poor quality, even though it’s of the current generation (though not a 3080). I don’t have a webcam any more, I often leave the keyboard to deal with RL stuff, I don’t feel like doing hair and makeup and I don’t like the way my voice sounds on video. ...

When I started Kingdom of Amalur: Re-Reckoning yesterday, though I haven’t played for six years, it all came rushing back. I immediately remembered why I’ve never actually finished the game – the aching loneliness of running an MMO by myself. I remember really wanting, back in the day, a version of EverQuest without other people, just me and a party of NPCs, killing stuff and camping camps. Games like KoA remind me that something like that would be really boring. ...

I was a little frustrated the last time I played Banner of the Maid, the tactical RPG for the Switch (et al) about a fantasy retelling of the French Revolution. I hadn’t leveled my characters evenly and it became clear I was never going to be able to beat a certain fight as I had no opportunities to grind my poor performers to higher levels. The other issue that really killed my interest in the game was not being able to take screen shots. Not in the prologue, not in the cut scenes, not ever. The capture button, when pressed, displayed a little box on the screen saying that screen captures were disabled. ...

If you’ve ever healed a party in an MMO, you know the drill: the tank forgets their defense moves, the DPS wander into every well-telegraphed attack, the party rushes ahead while you’re still frantically trying to get mana back for the next encounter. Everyone else in the party is prone to random, unexpected suicidal thoughts and actions and it’s up to you, the cleric, druid, priest or whatever your official title, to see them safely through to the other side of the dungeon. Of course, the party is grateful… to the tank… ...

Carpe Fulgur had the bad judgement to release Recettear: An item Shop’s Tale while I was traveling. But that’s okay. Recette and her mob-connected business fairy, Tear, would wait. Painting the shelves. That chocolate bar melting in the window was this guy’s inheritance from his grandmother. “Sell it,” she told him, “if you ever need the money.” It had been in his family for generations, and he hated to let it go. Bring up the offer just a touch and he might part with it. ...

I thought I would never find a game on Facebook that tied together social gaming and RPGs. This whole experiment with Facebook games has typically been one spam-filled sim game after another. Frontierville, City of Wonder, My Empire, Virtual Villagers – all share the same half-hearted copying of better single player games combined with a financial urge to turn the player into a whining beggar who is a burden on their friends. ...