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Affilliation
Netopia Now Allows Bots on Their PCs
I was surprised to see a move like this has been made. I can understand the financial reasons for establishments to do this, but as a gamer who actually plays the games, this is very disturbing. “Piloting” is already quite disturbing as it is, but bots too?
I haven’t thought this through in depth yet, but my current opinion is that bots and piloting causes problems and is a symptom of problems. People who actually play the game are either at an unfair disadvantage or have to put up with a diminished experience. The heart of video games is still fun-factor, and I don’t see much fun in effortless accomplishment.
I also think that this is a symptom of bad game design. If people resort to these types of activities, it may indicate that the game is only fun at the “higher levels”, and that the road to get there is not fun at all. Perhaps there’s something that can be done in the game design to make playing at all levels likable.
Of course, you can’t please everybody, and there will always be a few jerks in the crowd. This could also be side effect of the growth of online games as a whole. More people, more of everything, including the problems in online play.
Regardless, I think games are meant to be played, not just “bought”. There will always be bots or pilots, but better design and gamers demands should have the muscle to lessen the problems. Like most capitalistic endeavors, the market just adjusts to demand. Your purchases will eventually become the votes and messages that the industry will listen to, so put your money where you want things to go.
Tags: opinionBookworm Adventures
I was getting up to speed with past web comics when I ran into this strip from Penny Arcade featuring Bookworm Adventures. The last word game I ran into that I liked was Text Twist. Perhaps it was interesting, so I gave the trial a shot.
The trial only allows you to play for an hour before expiring, which is a tad too short for me. The game really is simple though, essentially something like Boggle crossed with a fighting game. You fight a series of enemies until you get to the end of a level and fight a “boss”. Attacks are made by creating words out of the letters available on the board. When words are made, the letters used are consumed and replaced, and you execute an attack, the damage proportional to the length of the word formed. Sometimes, you get power-ups which gives various bonuses like more damage, upgraded defense, etc.
If you think about it, the concept really is quite simple, but the presentation makes the experience more fun. In the trial, I got to fight creatures from Greek mythology, and there’s trivia avaliable for each while you fight them.
I wish I could play it some more, it the presentation (and the game itself) really got me interested. Why don’t you check it out yourself?
No tags for this post.You gotta love those "ladies"!
I was lucky enough to win a relatively huge pot at Full Tilt with QQ (”ladies”)!!! I’m rarely lucky with pre-flop all-ins, so I’m not gonna push my luck much further for today. 
Exodus
Already had a blog in darthritual.spaces.live.com. Currently checking this one.
– edit –
All blog entries/posts you read prior to this post are entries from the old blog. I already managed to migrate them here.
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