Tuesday 7 January 2014

Anticipation

So after having a bit of a rubbish day today, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email on my way home from work regarding the Elder Scrolls Online beta. I'm in! It's been half a year or so now since I applied to get in and finally my chance has come... Or at least nearly.

See the problem is its a limited Beta window which starts Friday evening. Thats still 3 days away and so now I have to again experience the mix of emotions that is Gaming Anticipation. It's not the first time I've been through it and I'm sure it won't be the last but every time it ends up the same way...

Step 1: Confirmation
As with today it all starts when you know you're actually going to get to play. Sometimes it's when you know you're getting the game for Christmas, or other times its when the release date is finally announced. However it happens that's the point it all starts from. I've promised myself I won't let game anticipation take over but somehow it always does. 

Step 2: Obsession
I have something of an addictive personality and when I get into something I really dive into it. So when something I'm exited about it coming up I begin to obsess about it. I look for any scraps of pre-released information so I can start immersing myself in the game ahead of time. I remember in particular with the Maxis game "Spore" that they released a creature creator ahead of time. Although you couldn't do much with it I spent hours on it before the game came out.

Although not as popular as they used to be Demos are a great pre-game way to sink into a game. I'm sure I spent hours repeating the same 20-30 minute demos of the games I was really looking forward to. These days there's YouTube and streaming sites like Twitch.tv that allow you to see others playing a game before you get your copy. 

Step 3: About to break
So it's almost time. You're installing the game, downloading the update or waiting to for the servers to come up. You try and distract yourself, check your emails, make a drink but every other second you're checking to see if its go time. It gets even more excruciating if something goes wrong at this point. It's out of your control and the game you though you'd be playing at 7 can't be played til almost 10.

Step 4: Lose yourself
After you finally get on you give your full attention to the game. Every little feature is amazing, every scrap of new gameplay is great. You get a little frustrated at the same tutorial you've played in a million other games but at the same time you're glad when it tells you something you'd hav never worked out otherwise. 

Step 5: The come down
Usually this goes one of two ways. You either have to stop for some external "real life" issue, where you don't really want to come off but you have to. Alternatively you slowly lose interest. Maybe he game hasn't to quite as much depth as you thought, or you notice the control system isn't quite what you wanted. For me it's often the latter and so I'm wary about any game I get psyched about.

For me anticipation is equal parts good and bad. It's part of my gaming experience and its something that I think a lot of other gamers will be able to relate to. If there's anyone reading this that has a good gaming anticipation story they'd like to tell then leave it in the comments. 

Til next time...

Friday 3 January 2014

Blog Patch Notes - 03/01/2014



I've decided to put a little more effort into my blog this year and maybe actually do something with. As such I'm releasing a patch to update my blog. The changes to the blog are listed below.

Patch 1.01a - 3rd Jan 2014

Content
 - Frequency of updates increased from "rare" to "twice weekly"
 - Content will now conform to a category schedule as below:
     Week 1 Post 1 - General Game Design thoughts
     Week 1 Post 2 - Video Game/App Review
     Week 2 Post 1 - In Depth Game Mechanic discussion
     Week 2 Post 2 - Best of.... - A series listing my favourite games/apps/etc in a category
     Week 3 Post 1 - Tabletop Discussion
     Week 3 Post 2 - Board/Card game review
 - Bonus Content will be available when time is available.
 - Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation should all now function as intended

UI Changes
 - A new layout is under development and will be released Soon(TM)

Social
 - New followers are now actively encouraged.
 - Reciprocal linking is now available for testing.
 - Follower interaction increased from 0 to 100%

Other Changes
 - Author laziness decreased by 200%
 - Humour level increased by 2.5%

I hope the new changes will be able to be added in with little to no downtime. I'd also like to hear from any readers as to which posts they've enjoyed (and which ones they haven't). 

Til next time...