It took every fiber of my will to haul my ass into work today. After hitting the snooze bar the usual 4 times, I knew that if I didn't get moving, I'd be late. I sat in bed for a few minutes, trying to think of any plausible excuse to call in. I just wanted to stay home. In the end, I just couldn't justify it, so I hastily got dressed and did the dutiful thing. I think the thing that made the difference was wondering if the necking couple would be on the subway platform. But they weren't. Perhaps I missed them, since I was 10 minutes later than usual. I hope that's the case, it would be sad if they broke up. They seemed to have a certain chemistry.

I've been getting home somewhat late, and weaseling out of wandering down to the gym. Shame on me, I know. I really did blow my arms out last time, though, so the additional recovery time, coupled with adjusting my routine slightly in the future, will probably help. I know I really should workout in the mornings, but when it comes to lifting weights or sleeping, I'm afraid sleeping will win every time.

I had an enjoyable hunt with my clan mates last night. Many good laughs, and a few coins too, were had. It sure feels like the amount of coins to be had from skinning has been turned down, but I'm not in the lands enough to really know for sure. I used to be able to hoover up 50c-100c of coins in about an hour on my own. I haven't made that rate in a while, but it could just be random variation. We'll see.

There are more and more new areas being added, and I'm find myself more and more in a land that's unfamiliar to me. The sad thing is, there's very little incentive for me explore. It seems so many of these new areas are stitched togeter in ways that prevent basic, reversible navigation, and frankly, I find that annoying and frustrating. The main reason I never go to Savannah is I find going east-west-east-west umpteen times moronic. I don't get my jollies drawing elaborate maps, or figuring out obtuse little mazes. Can the GMs with the fetish for lame old-school computer puzzles would give it a rest already? The world should be designed like it was one continously scrolling area with junctions only between distinct areas. The breaks between screens exist for engineering reasons, not game design ones, and it bugs the shit out of me when game mechanics are propped up against what is so clearly a jarring, distracting technical limitation.

Chum's little delight in trying to simulate regions where you can lost is foolishness. Since when did anyone have fun getting lost? Especially when you get lost for a random (or virtually random) reason, like in the marsh. These little "challenges" are just irritations to me. Instead of putting in real challenges to the game, like ones that involve cooperation or thought, we get these trial-and-error bullshit run-the-maze games, which might have been fun on my Atari VCS when I was 12. A word of advice to the area-designers. Clan Lord is not a simulation. Do not try to simulate real life. Make Clan Lord better, more fun, and more intense than real life. I'm all for challenge, but basically these current "challenges" are just bump-every-tree time-wasters. The only real challenge is can you keep yourself from being bored to tears as you try to discern the rhyme and reason (or lack thereof) of some very artificial navigation scheme that a certain GM thinks is insanely clever, when it's really just dopey. It's fine if there is an area or two like this, I know some masochists really get off on that type of crap, but it's basically becoming a staple of each new area. Some of us like east to always lead east, and west to always lead west.
posted 11:24 AM | link |