Tuesday, January 24, 2006

You say you wanted evolution... I have been enjoying my time at home and now it's drawing to a close. I've got today and most of tomorrow here, but there's still a lot to do. For one thing, I have to take a lot of things out of my bedroom here and sort through them. When I came home this time, I was horrified to find that my room had been completely trashed by my brother and his friends. Needless to say, I made it very clear to him that I was unimpressed, lol. At the same time, there's now an added urgency to sort through everything in there; when I'm gone again, I have no doubt that something will get broken or lost or totally destroyed. It frustrates me that I'm forced to find a new home for everything simply because my brother can't be trusted to take care of things. I was pretty disappointed by all of that. Apart from simply catching up with people, I've had a bit of time to jump into Guild Wars again recently. Of course, it has been fantastic to play the game with some friends once more, but I have to say...the experience has been a little mixed for me. I'm not entirely sure what the reason is, except perhaps for the obvious fact that I simply haven't had the time to play very much recently - there are certain areas of the game that I hadn't visited before, which I spent time in during the last few days. One example of that would be the Underworld area. In that area, you can take multiple quests and each time you take a quest, new enemies seem to spawn all around the environment. So it's as if one quest is activated over the top of another one. In general, that is the exception to the rule in Guild Wars. Usually, everything will relate to whatever quest you actually have selected at the time. Needless to say, I wasn't aware of this when I was in the Underworld and I activated several quests. I got quite a negative reaction from that, too, which surprised me. My first thought was obviously "it's just a game, what is the problem?" It would hardly have been difficult for us to simply re-enter the Underworld and begin fresh. But at the same time I thought, why did nobody warn me about that beforehand? I am intelligent enough to be told about an exception to the rule and to be careful enough to avoid taking more than one quest (or any at all). One of the players we were exploring with later told me that it was "a good way to learn". I really can't agree. It's just unnecessary to go in there and make a mistake, receive a collective sigh from everyone else - as if you should have known better - and then later be told that it was the best way to learn. No, the best way to learn would be a forewarning to avoid it in the first place. At the very least, it'd have made the experience more fun. But it certainly wasn't as fun as it could have been. This brings me back to a central idea that relates to Guild Wars specifically, but also I guess to many other games too. In our OB-based guild, I always wanted to ensure that we didn't include or exclude people based on their skill level or activity level. Of course, we shouldn't necessarily just avoid being competitive with other guilds; obviously some of our members want to engage in Guild Battles and so on and that's totally fine. And I encourage that, because it's a fun part of the game. However, at the same time, I don't think that the more hardcore players should be commanding the agenda of the entire guild. I don't like the idea that newer or less active players feel left out because they aren't up on the latest character builds or they don't want to debate the finer points of things that are often relatively superfluous anyway. To be clear, I don't actually think that this problem is occurring in our guild. And that's one reason why I'm really happy with the guild. But I do see this kind of thing popping up now and then and it makes me wonder what the point is. I can understand that the more hardcore players take the game very seriously, but some of us are simply unable to play frequently and when we do play, we just want to enjoy ourselves. If I were to be continually looked down upon as a casual player, or treated like someone who knows nothing about the game, I would simply stop playing it or I'd only play it with very specific people. Just because I do not constantly debate the ins-and-outs of tiny game details does not mean that I am incapable of understanding the game's basic rules or structure, which is something that some people in the game do seem to assume. It would be a shame to be literally forced out of a game because it starts to lack fun; not because the game itself isn't fun, but because the players themselves suck the fun out of it. I think that this experience also relates back to my increasing desire to design and build things on the web that don't have some ridiculously high barrier to entry. As a gamer, there are some games where very few people would be as dedicated as I am, while there are other games where the opposite is true. And I guess that relates to the Internet as well, as both someone involved in design as well as someone who doesn't want to have to deal with complexity. Due to these experiences, I really sympathize with the people who just want a simple and seamless experience, especially if they do not really understand the mechanics of it. Speaking of mechanics (got to love that segway), I definitely won't have to deal with the day-to-day mechanics of OB for a good while. Obviously, Dagger and Desbreko are our two Administrators there...but now I've put Desbeko in charge of staff as well. So he will be dealing with hiring and all of that stuff. It may seem like a small thing, but it's a big weight off my shoulders. I feel that he has a really good understanding of what the site needs and how I'd like it to be operated. So I am relieved about that. It means I can focus my time on new site developments, rather than being worried about the fine details of operating OB. It also means that when I'm away I don't really feel as though I'm letting anyone down, because I can't be there to oversee everything. As soon as I go back to Brisbane, I will be diving back into work on the new OB. Regardless of my Internet situation, I'll be spending more time on that than I have been thusfar. Annie: Thank you. ~_^ And yes...I hate those things. I hope I never meet one! John: Thanks. The speaker is still something I am experimenting with; it would be a link to a contact page (thus the idea of sound going into one of my ears). But right now the size of the actual speaker is too big and it's not quite working as I want. Still, I would say that the design there is roughly 5% complete or something; my intention is really to experiment with colour and positioning in that one. You can see how that is reflected in the myO intro as well. I suspect that the final design will retain that basic positioning, but will see a variety of patterns and colours applied. indifference: Thanks much! I hope the final design ends up coming together well. I've heard some stories about the Funnel Web and I'm just hoping I never come across one. If I ever lived in Sydney it would have to be in an apartment or somewhere where the chances of meeting one of those things is pretty much nil. lol CosmicSailor: Don't worry about overstepping any bounds, lol. I have a pretty lighthearted attitude and I think it helps. It makes for less stress. ~_^ I can understand not going back to the site after that. Afterall, what's the point of going back if nothing will really get better? It may just end up as an argument anyway. I think it's always preferable to be in an environment that you enjoy with people you are happy to work with. That is especially true on the 'net, if you're doing something as a hobby. If it's a hobby, it is probably particularly important that you ensure you're happy with everything. It's just not worth the stress otherwise, if you aren't getting paid. I've obviously had good and bad experiences in Melbourne, but I am aware that Melbourne is one of the world's most liveable cities (apparently THE most liveable according to various publications), and as a result, I've had little to compare it with. So I have always expected a certain kind of environment. The Gold Coast was quite different in some ways, but I think the general attitude of Australians is relatively similar wherever you go. You get some differences here and there, but Australians are all generally very friendly and approachable people. On the Gold Coast in particular, everyone treats you as though you are family (well, 99.9% of people anyway). So it's been very nice from that perspective. Aaryanna: Ah cool, I just added you on AIM. Hopefully we get the chance to talk, although I don't know how long it'll be 'till I'm using AIM again. My thought is possibly even to have a different texture and colour on each page, where the black and white would remain constants. But I guess we'll see, as it largely depends on what is logical to build and stuff. Even without the Internet at home, I will be able to update at the office from time to time. It's just that I won't be able to use AIM. But hopefully I'll have access at home soon (probably dial-up for a little while, before I move into the city). As for the Skyline, I will have to find a picture for you to show you. Maybe in my next update before I leave for Sydney, I will post a picture so you can see what I'm talking about. ^_^ Solo: I was very happy with your reaction to the design, lol. When people start relating it to tangible things and tastes and stuff, I feel very satisfied. Not that I deliberately set out with that goal in mind, but I know that when I experience that with someone else's design...it's usually something that sticks in my memory.

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