I often link games to philosophy (or what you wanna call it)  as it keeps the gray matter active.

Some people might think it too much, but I say: The biggest problems in the world ( & people's personal lives) stem from the fact that they do not think about what is at hand. You just go through the motions, because that is how it is. If most people/organisations/bussines'/governmetns would stop and contemplate what they are doing and what they want to achieve, I can guarantee that this world would be a better place.

 

After all our ability to think and rationalise is what makes us human, right? Wether you believe in God or Science, it is our brain that sets us apart. It's a damn shame that some people appear not able to use it, or too lazy to use it.

 

Famous phrase: I think, therefore I am. (or if you are a dancer: I dance therefore I live )

 

Well after getting some stuff organised, I took some time to play some Shadow of the Colossus again. I think I already rambled on and on about how great this game is, so I'll just make this short. The horse is awesome. It truelly is a character on it's own. I was lost in one of the dungeons and I had a feeling I was heading back in the same direction. And I was like, if I see Aggro (the horse) then I am going in circles. And before I could see him, I could hear him greet me with his typical horsie snuff. They really create a connection between the main character and the Horse in that way. Same goes for the boss battles. When you dismount to fight one of the Colossi, he will always be around, running around panicy and reacting to the colossus' actions. And as soon as you call for him he'll detour and run at your side. Again, enforcing the bond you feel with that computer generated horse. And the main character will also shout in panicy way to Aggro when engaged in fighting a colossus.

 

As you can see, games to me are about  emotions. (as is dancing, but that's for a different blog -> it's more than technique, it's a feeling)

 

Now on to this blog's  focus-point. (after my usual ramblings )

The last time I played Shadow of the Colossus I was stuck at colossus # 8. (they don't have names, so everybody numbers them) I spent an hour figuring out what I need to do, including analysing the tips your guiding *god* gives you. (or whatever it is)

Now after all those mistakes last time (which was about 3 weeks ago) I figured out how to take #8 down in 15 minutes and spent another 30 minutes executing the strategy. Took him down, watched  a cinematic that didn't explain jack and moved on to find # 9.

 

After some wandering I found mr 9. Spent another 20 minutes figuring out how to take him down as well, but haven't quite gotten there yet. Brought him down, but I can not find a way to reach his weak spot.

 

So what is the point of the whole story? When you arrive at something new and unknown, it is often daunting and feels like it is impossible to accomplish. The trick is to keep at it, but not to a point where it frustrates you. Soemtimes you need to let go and have at it again after some time. You need time to figure out the *weak spot* of that thing you are trying to accomplish. To know what to do, you need to know what not to do and this takes trial and error. In the game it means dieing a coupel of times, in real life it means accepting that you wll fail sometimes.

 

Just keep your eyes on the goal (reaching the end of the game/accomplish your goals in life) think about every individual challenge you need to overcome to get there, but most imporant (to me then) is to enjoy the ride. If you don't enjoy the game, you will probably never play it throguh all the way to the end. Same goes for your life, you need to enjoy what you do. I truelly believe that everybody has a calling. Taking into account my teachers in school. You can really tell who loved their job and those stayed fresh in my mind because of the great way they taught. Then there were those that were just going through the motions.

 

The sad thing is, a lot of people go through their entire life like that, going through the motions, no feeling, not thinking: even with all it's negativitys I absolutely love this. Not just their job, but all aspects of their life. Because that is what you are supposed to do, opposed to doing what makes you happy.

 

Also I come from the old skool of gaming, back in the day when there was no internet  and you could be stuck in a game for weeks at a time, all the while trying out different strategies. You were working hard at it, so when you finally beat that boss or figured out that puzzle you felt a true sense of accomplishment, because it took hard work.

 

And that is exaclty what is lacking nowadays. A game like Shadow of the Colossus is utterly ruined by looking up how to beat the colossi on the internet. It removes the sense of awe and how the hell am I going to do this and thus the real sense of accomplishment when you do bring one down. Everything is made easy nowadays.

 

Which is why so many people b*tch about the quality of games. There are some great games out there.  I find that most gamers that constantly complain about games not being good enough, are those that download games. And because now they can buy 5 games for the price of one (or downlaod them for free), they spent about as much time with those 5 games  as they would with the 1 game. That way they never sit down with the game and get to know it's intricacies and really appreciate it. Hence these *gamers* always complain that no game is worth their money. (except when they get forced to buy a game because of it's gamekey and multiplayer)

 

If you work hard for something, you will be proiud when you finally accomplish it. And if you love something, you will be able to put out the hard work needed to succed in it. THAT is mhy philosophy. If you work hard and save up your money to buy that game which you always wanted, it will mean more to you then if you just downloaded it.

 

I love salsa & dancing, and I think I can succeed if I work hard at it, but this is life...you never know what turn is coming up. So I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

 

ps: If you're a gamer, stop wanting everything the commercial world throws at you. Look at your options, decide what you think will be worth your money, hunker down with it and i guarantee it'll be worth your money.

 

If you're a dancer, remember that this is one discipline that really takes hard work and practice. Sometimes you need to let that new thing lie and let it sink down a bit and attempt it again after a couple of weeks and sometimes after a while of not practicing it, you can just magically do it. It's all about training your muscle muscle memory.

 

feel it, love it, live it... I just happen to love both.

 

Every gamer has had this at least once. You start playing a game and as you get in to it and get the game mechanics down, you suddenly go: Man this game rocks! out loud.

 

Well, I found a game that truelly rocks in the very sense of the word. It's called guitar Hero and man does this game rock. You get a crazy plastic guitar controller with the game and while playing through the tutorial, you immediately feel like a guitar rockstar. I couldn't help but smile whil I tried out the controller. I called my girlfriend over to try it out. She couldn't help but smile. The game's sound is amazing, making you really feel like yhou are playing a guitar.

 

It has a very steep price, (70) but I definitely recommend it to anyone. It's awesome and it will definitely be the party favorite. (Sorry Mario Kart, move along) I will be getting it soon before they sell out. And this coming from a salsafreak. Guitar Hero rocks!

If there is one thing that is hard to do, it is to keep every individual in any group of people happy with your product.

There aren't many companies that can do that, but two of em spring to mind. That's right, Blizzard & Microsoft.

But the thing is, their end-products aren't necessarily of their own making. In my opinion, both aforementioned companies are extremely good at looking at their competition, looking at their target group and what they want to create, take the competitors priduct and polish it up untill the point it comes out looking like a completely new product, and thus make a product that can please enormous amounts of people with completely different tastes.

So basically they are good at looking at other products of similar design, polishing them up, brining in new, exciting and functional aspects and then releasing them to the public in a  big fanfare of marketing campaigns.And it works too.

Take Blizzard for example. They started off diablo by trying to make your run of the mill turn-based rpg. After playing around with it, making it realtime they decided to stick with that concept and lo and behold a new genre was born. The action-rpg aka clickfest. Take Warcraft 3, the big thing in there was what? Heroes and rpg influences. New? Nope, done before in Warlords Battlecry. Just executed so brilliantly, making it so much fun. World of Warcraft is a prime example of Blizzard not forgetting that games are supposed to be fun. Slim to none downtime after fights, action all the way.

Same goes for Microsoft. Basically Xboxlive is a central gameserver browser with a neat friendslist and filtering options. They took a concept that has existed for years on pc's, but was different for each game/software. It is just now with xfire that I found the perfect gamecompanion. just a year before xfire hit the net, Microsoft standardised and campaigned their xboxlive to great succes. We won't even start with the windows and messenger comaprison because those are just polished (and better) versions of the competitors counterpart, Apple & ICQ.

Basically by watching their competitors ad improving on their mistakes, both companies are really succesful.And ofcourse never forgetting what their user-base wants.

And in reagrds to games, Blizzards nails it everytime: Games need to be FUN.

Woot! I passed 1000 hours if logged World of Warcraft play.

See my profile on xfire.