tbradshaw.net

Actually this time I’m not referring to that catchy tune from Aladdin, instead I’m referring to the World of Warcraft.

This gaming shift has been a long time coming for me, as this is my first significant foray into the Massively Multiplayer Online gaming phenomena that is sweeping–no, swiffering–the nation. I have to start by saying that World of Warcraft (or WoW) is awesome. Just absolutely kick ass. I have recently been revisiting the idea of gaming with DOOM, Quake 4, and now WoW, and I really think WoW is going to make a full gamer out of me again.

My delay in entering into the MMORPG has been a calculated one. The newer games in the genre, like EverQuest was immediately curtailed by several aspects. First, the graphics were still kind of behind the times. Second, and most importantly, these types of online games were brutally time consuming. You either played a ton or you were nothing in an online world of players. I’ve always had a bit of an OCD like love for games and hobbies and I didn’t want to get tied into a game like that. There was also a huge influence by Brandon “GreenMarine” Reinhart, a programmer at 3D Realms/Apogee that (if I remember right) attended school at Kansas University. Just a while after giving up on EverQuest and then abruptly quitting Dark Age of Camelot, he had this to say in a .plan update on November 26, 2001:

I played a lot of Dark Age of Camelot this weekend.

Today I had a startling revelation. It’s like a light turned on inside my head. All of this time I have been investing in these massively multiplayer games, from UO to DA, has been time I have lost. I have not fulfilled my primary duty to myself: self education and self improvement. Instead of spending my weekends programming or reading like I used to, I’ve been rotting away playing the same game over and over again.

I can’t even claim it was done in the interest of experimentation. I like to play a LOT of games and learn about what other developers are doing. I think it helps in my work and helps inspire me…

But this MMORPG stuff has been pure virtual masturbation. With no long term or respectful benefit that I can measure.

Why am I putting this in my .plan? Because it seems appropriate to look back on all my enthusiasm for this genre and say “I was wrong, this has no value.”

And so I can say to all the potential game programmers out there who are playing this stuff: put it away. It’ll kill you. It’ll drain away your ability to improve yourself and it’ll dilute your primary passion: coding. Instead of running home to code up a new idea, you’ll run home to waste four hours doing nothing.

Programmers like to be idealists and massively multiplayer games feed on idealism. They put you in a world where you can create and recreate yourself. It is an addicting hypothesis! One that gives you numbers and facts and items to manipulate and experiment with. They give you an environment that can fulfill your need for experimentation and exploration while removing your ability to produce something that enriches you or others.

I canceled my various accounts and next weekend I’m going to think up a new project to work on in my spare time and work on getting myself where I should be.

It was probably the most succinct damnation of MMORPGs I could ever imagine. I’ve never once forgotten his words. In fact, I’ve recited his statements a few times to friends (especially computer science friends) in regards to the genre.

So what has changed my mind? Why am I actually delving into this genre when previously I was certain that I wasn’t interested in sacrificing that much time? A number of things, actually.

First, the game.

• World of Warcraft is a “best of generation” game. When I say that, I don’t mean it in a way that says World of Warcraft is better than every other game in every way. Instead, I mean to say that it took all the best elements from the MMO games of this “generation” of games and put them all into one quite polished game. There aren’t a lot of weaknesses in the game and there are tons of incremental improvments.
• Anti-grind, Casual Friendly. One of those incremental improvements to the game was a serious set of improvements aimed at making the game much more friendly for the gamer that can’t puut in 30 hours or more a week. The idea of Quests for experience rather than just the genocide of as many creatures as possible adds tons of flavor to the game while providing very comfortable stopping points at frequent intervals. They even provide a “rest bonus” that will double the experience points gained by a player when they have been “resting” in a major city or inn for a while. Yeah… that’s exactly what it sounds like. Points for not playing.
• Still Around. World of Warcraft is finishing up it’s first year, and all of my friends that played and enjoyed the game are still playing and enjoying the game. Some more-so than ever before. With the announcement of an upcoming expansion pack, the fun doesn’t look to be ending any time soon. On top of that, the added maturity after a year of very active development has been very good for the game.

Next, after considering that this definitely looks like to be “the game” that is finally good enough for me to start playing an MMORPG, there were a number of other elements that had to fall in place for me to finish the consideration:

• Socially Fun. This isn’t one of those games that I’m just sitting by myself without any social interaction at all. This is a game, like Quake before it, that I play like some people play raquetball or baseball. I’m talking with my friends, building a team, having a great time, and then laughing about it over a beer later.
• Roommate Fun. All of my roommates (and most of my good friends) already play WoW. We’re always looking for games that we can enjoy together, this is clearly the natural fit.
• Entertainment Time. This is also not a game that’s taking time away from typically productive times. I have already removed television from my daily life (haven’t had cable in two years), and my personal projects are lately similar enough (often the same language and often the same framework) that switching between projects doesn’t even provide a “break” from the same thing. When I’m needing a “break” from the usual, typically I’ll end up reading Slashdot or friends blogs a huge amount, or browsing news and products out there that I don’t really need to be looking at anyway. That is… I’m “wasting time” just like GreenMarine considered the MMO games. Lots of people watch TV for a few hours every day, I’d rather do something interactive.

With all of these thoughts in mind, I decided to take the plunge and start playing despite my previous reservations. I haven’t regretted it a second. I don’t find the game “addicting” in a negative connotation at all. I certainly want to play a lot, but it’s not because of any “addiction” like qualities, but because it’s a fantastic time!

I would expect more postings about the World of Warcraft world specifically in the future. But for now suffice it to say, I’m playing again.

Growing up I was never a kid that had to deal with stress much. My parents were just too good at what they did, it wasn’t until much later in life that I first started getting a taste of “stress” as a palpable emotion.

Turns out, when I moved out from home and started making my own decisions, I decided to lead a pretty high stress life. I’ve usually cut it pretty close on grades, finances, and the like because I’m pretty confident and optimistic and willing to take a little risk and cut it a little close if I think it’s going to be worth it. (Which is most of the time.) It’s interesting the things one can find out about oneself when put in new situations.

Generally speaking, I handle stress quite well. I’m high functioning and able to work through just about anything. Physically speaking, turns out, I handle stress quite poorly. While I’m able to “keep on trucking” mentally, the body just isn’t up to the task. When I first started living on my own and things were tight, it would just be things like stomach aches or a little bit of nausea. However, after the illness that took me out in the Spring of 2003 affected the tissue of my mouth so severely, now I have a decidedly different reaction to stress. I “break out” with sores in my mouth.

I know, it’s sort of gross sounding, but it’s not “that” bad. We’re not talking about huge gaping wounds or even small cold sores. Instead, it’s a dense “rash” of very small sores that make the inside skin of my upper lip a little mangled and very persnickity. It hurts pretty bad, but is generally manageable with careful behavioral modifications. However, this particular time finances have really been digging into me, and the stress reaction in my mouth is worse than it has been in a long time.

So this time I’m left with an upper lip that is significantly swollen, irritated by even slight movement, and rediculously dehabilitating. (This is the part where I whine a bit.) Typically my combat for this type of symptom is just to liberally apply Orajel topically to the irritated area. Of course, Orajel is designed to help with tooth pain rather than broken “skin” and has a side effect of burning like a napalm and broken glass Blizzard(tm) from Dairy Queen. Sometimes I wonder if it really has any anesthetic qualities or if it just burns so freaking bad that afterwords everything feels great!

This time, however, my typical attack on my “stress sores” is ineffective. The swelling is just too much and Orajel only lasts for a few minutes before everything starts hurting again. So I’ve taken things to the “next step”. I’m now using a product called “Orabase“. It’s an interesting dental paste that is applied to wounds in an attempt to make somewhat of a “bandage” over the wound to avoid irritation. I’m currently using Orabase-B, a paste that is paired with a bit of benzicane for pain relief, but they have a new product now called Orabase Soothe-n-Seal that could be potentially even more effective. The catch, however, is that these products are really geared for a sore or two in the mouth, rather than an entire surface tissue layer in the mouth.

The “solution”? Well, after I determined that the most painful and irritated portions of my lip were those that were spending the most contact with the teeth (especially since the swelling means that the lip is subject to the sharp edges of the teeth as well) it seemed that the key would be to reduce the amount of irritation the lip is subjected to from the teeth. Simply put… I cover the inner upper lip tissue with Orabase-B and paste my mouth shut.

Of course it’s pretty difficult to talk, but it’s very challenging to talk with the swollen and painful lip anyway. Laughing is right out of the question, because even a simple smile is excruciating. However, after I’ve pasted my lip to my teeth I’ve found that the Orabase product provides a nice buffer between my teeth and my sore lip, at the cost of pretty much any significant human interaction. Lindsay and I have been spending a lot of ‘quiet time’ together, that’s for sure.

Why go through all the trouble of posting this post after almost a month of no posts? Well for one, some of my friends/co-workers at work read my blog and at least they’ll know why I don’t talk much. Second… well written communciation has become a pretty integral part of my every day human interaction now that I can’t really speak. And of course for all of you that know me well… I talk a lot, and laugh a lot, and smile a lot. So for the time being, this is the closest I can get.

Before the LAN party even started, I had already started my gaming fix. Roland and I split a copy of Quake 4 and by virtue of an upcoming test for Roland I got it for the night before the LAN.

Man, oh, man is Quake 4 awesome. I haven’t played a game all the way through that was that much fun in ages. It dwarfs DOOM 3 in just about every way. Well, other than pure scariness, which was what DOOM was all about. But since I’m not particularly big on scary games/movies/anything, Quake 4 had everything I wanted in a game.

In one weird aspect, it kind of reminds me of Half-Life 2. Half-Life 2’s engine appears as pretty much the apex of the previous generation’s technology. Quake 4 plays like pretty much the apex of last generation’s gameplay. The engine is clearly the best use of the latest technology we’ve seen so far. Without the frequent dips into complete darkness, the features of the DOOM 3 engine are really allowed to shine.

This is where I take a moment to consider the reviews of Quake 4 that I’ve read. All of them were “okay”, but focused almost entirely on “what is new here”, and when finding nothing outlandishly new about the gameplay, they just kind of blew it off. I really think that is a poor criterion to review from. Indeed when gaming was a new entertainment medium, every single game was a foray into something completely new. But now that gaming has matured a little (still new, I realize, but maybe toddler rather than newborn), the expectation that every single “great” game has to be brand spanking new is pretty unrealistic.

When I think of game reviewers I picture the group of judges in Iron Chef. They sit around the table and taste the amazing dishes provided by the challenger and they go, “I’ve already tasted this taste before… I guess it’s okay.” Then the equally amazing dishes come from the Iron Chef and all the judges go, “I’ve tasted this before. I mean, it’s a new mixture of tastes, but I’ve already tasted each of these tastes before. Since you’re the Iron Chef, I expected something completely new.”

What a crappy and unfair criterion that would be. After all, great recipes are creations derived from the good tastes of other things. I feel the same thing about great games. We’ve experimented enough that there are some well-known “good gameplay flavors”. Why rate down a game like Quake 4 because they took an old favorite gameplay base, then smothered it in a beautiful glaze of content and a revolutionary presentation. It is a great game. It’s something familiar with something delightful.

In fact, I think that describes all of my favorite recipes, gaming or food.