Work and Gaming

In order to survive and/or play on`line games i need money, in order to get money i need to work. But i`m a gamer, gaming is like work for me, so how to combine the two ? The answer is simple : gaming at work or playing web fucking text based games.
It all started with the "need" to play, the need got stronger ... and stronger ... and the no games at work policy started to mean nothing to me. Beginning with shitty games like www.travian.com and www. bitefight.com, games which needed me to be on`line in somewhat crucial times, and i went on to flash games, long live miniclip.

I intend on saving some time simply by not throwing shit on the well deserving already filled with shit web games, and simply move on the games which can be played at work and deserve to be played.
Clearly the most played game at work is ... the one ... the only : Solitaire. Let`s just face it, solitaire was made to be played at work : it`s the ideal game if you need time to fly, the game which can offer a shitty challenge ... not a great one ... or a worthy one .. but still .. a challenge.
The other Windows games are playable, but they didn`t really manage to get the job done, sure Minesweeper is ok but its as interesting as hugging trees.
An interesting game worthy of playing at work is Transport Tycoon Deluxe. Easy to find and free to download. This game saved me from total boredom lots of times, sure it`s old and doesn`t look too good, but, just like other tycoons, makes time fly away. Hehe .. nothing like a good windowed game to end the working shifts.
Depending on the working place ... i actually played some arcade games in the office, nothing beats Tyrian while waiting for those mails :>

For the moment, at this I`Cafe where i waste my time and make money ... i can play just about any game, for the moment sticking to WoW and Lineage2.

Above all, when i get tired of just about anything and there`s way too much work to do I simply start a nice flash Tower Defense :

Free to Play

While i was gaming the other day, curse.com sent me this interesting news about a new, chinese free-to-play MMORPG (or at least i think it's chinese). Wow, how fascinating. The game will have the utterly stupid name of Secret Online, and will feature... a lot of stuff. Now keep in mind that if there's something i hate in gaming, it's free to play MMOs. Compared to their pay to play brothers, f2p's are known to have an incredible lack of depth, story or mostly anything else that can call them games. They are basically moneymakers for the respective companies which feed on the players' need for social interaction. And i will attempt to prove that using quotes from the upcoming "game"'s feature notes.

Satisfaction from PK
-Both great visuals and feels very smooth/fast paced.

Are they serious? Alright, this is new. Finally a game that embraces ganking and griefing as something you should take "satisfaction" from. So i won't only be frequently disturbed from my levelling session, but it'll be done with nice shiny effects too. And it'll be fast.

Enhanced battle system

-Every class has their own special battle system; you will explore new strategies and tricks to use your character to its max abilities.

Wooooo. So you're telling me that there's DIVERSITY in this game? Who would have thought. Then again, i wouldn't be surprised if this game had only 3 classes.

Players can get thousands of different kinds of crafting materials from almost anything they do, kill Monsters, questing, gathering etc and able to craft different types of equipments at special NPCs. Players can produce everything for the game economy and use formulas to select bonus attributes according to their character’s class, which there are endless different results.

Here's another thing that i truely hate. I don't seriously know why every producer thinks we LIKE hoarding every little useless piece of string we find thinking that we might need it at a later time. I sure don't. That "thousands" translates only into "you better get a large inventory son".

Use materials to craft your own transformation scrolls，you can transform to any monster in the game! And there is no “the best form”, only the better!

"Only the better"? Rock/scissors/paper, you mean? Cooooooool. Not. There goes the attachment to your class if everyone can transform into a fucking mob. And it'll make PK feel more like PVE too.

Some of players’ actions can influence the game world’s history. Player’s heroic actions will be recorded down in history books of the world. Real world's 1 minute equals 4 minutes in world of secret Online. The ratio is 1 to 4. According to difference date, they are different festival & special quests. Ex: Every January and June in Secret Calendar will hold Mountain God worship events at Stream village; Every February and March in Secret Calendar, will hold festivals at Norfolk.) Also, the first time player’s character is created on the server will be recognized as character’s birthday. There will be special rewards given at each birthday.

The birthday part is interesting, i'll give it that. The rest is nothing new. The "history book" thing is just an attempt to log events someone does and integrate it into the lore.

River of history cannot be stopped, which shall always move forward

'the fuck? Get better translators, you chinese pieces of shit.

Infinite Randomly generated quests for our quest lovers!

Yeeey! Another thing i hate: quests without a story. Quests without a plot, quests without a real reason. Quests without a soul. wants you to go to and kill for . Do this and he will reward you and possibly . And they call them "quests". Let's get something clear, ok? Stop calling these things QUESTS. Call them CHORES because that's what they are.

Secret Online has a market economy system that’s similar to real life economies. Most of the prices of its items can go up-and-down in relation to supply and demand. The prices that gamers see in different stores are only prices of these stores, not universal. To better emulate the real market system, Secret Online’s dynamic economy is fluid, meaning that item prices fluctuate from store to store and even from day to day based on supply.

Such big words for just some dynamic store prices. FYI, MMORPG economy will always mimic real life economy. Player-made economy, that is. Only thing is that in this game, the items which are needed by many players will be EXPENSIVE AS SHIT unless the server's mostly empty.

Different zones in Secret Online are connected together without needing to load every time entering a new zone. Every zone has its own different background story. Don’t be fooled by their beauties, when danger is always just around the corner. Be on your constant guard bla bla bla bla bla bla

This is both new and interesting. (get the sarcasm?)

Secret Online has it’s own unique Newspaper system; everyday the system will integrate any events or news created by players into a newspaper! There is also information sections that players can post advertisements, seek friends, seek marriage and more!

"TOP NEWS! Legolass2k has killed the Hairy Goblin of Big Dark Swamp while being ganked by Gimlypwnzor!" And as if real life wasn't bad enough, we now have matrimonial services in MMOs. Jesus.

Unique Instance Dungeon

Uh-oh. Here it comes: the exciting new features of the new "unique" instance dungeons.

Fun and challenging Instance Dungeons

Propaganda!? I expected something more unique-ish than "iz unique because iz nice".

It’s not just about killing monsters

This is both new and interesting. Somehow, i think it's just propaganda again. They probably meant "iz not about kill monster, iz about explore and look at pretty sight too".

It belongs to you and your friends

How romantic and intimate! You can be fucking sure that we'll be holding hands while we eviscerate goblins and shit. Seriously, this makes me laugh... treating an in-game location as something intimate isn't something a sane man would do. Then again, they're chinese, and they're up there with the japanese in the "weird shit" category.

"Secrets Online" is a new 3D MMORPG building upon the rich and vast history of ancient hegemonic China.

Drawn from the timeless dispute between the evil dynasty of the Yellow Emperor, Shen Mo, and the heroic Chiyou, our story shows the people rising to battle ancient demons and devils, as the powers of heaven and hell clash. bla bla bla

Oh boy. Another MMO focusing on the rough and forgotten history of emperor Chu Hors Wang and his empress Mi Sutcha Ho of the Yu Fat Fok dynasty which has briefly existed a bajillion years ago during the year of the Farting Dragon, on the third moon of the shintzu era. Or something. In other words, a long boring filler story that no one will give a shit about since it only focuses on the mighty whatshisface's family affairs or somesuch.

Alright, i'll stop here. And i promise that this is the last time i'll pick on cheap pieces of chinese shit. I think.

EDIT: oh, and here's some concept art too.

Boredom: Neverwinter Nights 2

I should have taken up NWN2 a lot of time ago, but that didn't happen since i was saving the game for my "escape" route: when boredom becomes too bad, turn back to the only game (or so i thought) that could present any more interest for me: a D&D game.
I'm going to be brief, since Devil already made a (brief) review for it in the first gaming post of this blog.
Basically, it was a disappointment. I started the game hoping to try my all-favourite D&D class (sorcerer). Alright, so they took Time Stop, my favourite spell, from the game. So they nerfed the sorc class to kingdom come for "balance" reasons while buffing the wizard class a whole lot. Who cares... it's still sorc, right? Well...
Apart from being full of glitches, the game is outright... boring. I stood the usual 3+ hours at the character creation screen only to be met with crappy animations, bad voice-acting, same casting incantations as the old NWN1, crappy character control (even though it was customizable), all those useless items and professions that you hoped would just go away in the second of NWN's expansions (talking about craft alchemy, weapon and all that nonsense... basically just "please hoard lots of junk") and the all-new party system which is as stupid as it gets. Want to control your character while letting the others' AIs do their job? Well i hope your character isn't a spellcaster since you'll almost always step in front of your party making you the first char that every mob you see, attacks. I even had the stupid situations of running around with 2 mobs on my tail while the stupid dwarf tank was taking his time killing the third. Obviously, stopping to cast would mean half of my hit points go bye-bye. Which is the reason i took invisibility as fast as i got it... making the game even more boring as i had to cast it before and after every fight. Joy.
Then there's the melee-to-spell ratio which is awfully fucked up, at least at the lower levels: my magic missle can do a whopping 5 damage, while the stupid dwarf with the stupid sword scores regular 21-damage hits. I need to get into almost melee range to cast color spray, i am weak and useless in melee, while the stupid dwarf can tank 3 enemies with no fucking problems whatsoever. Not to mention that he tends to score 1hitkills on all of them before i'm done casting my crappy missle (yes, all of them... great cleave and all that).
The story has potential, but it's kinda ruined by the stupid voice-acting (meh, not like NWN1 was any better) and the dumb, dumb AI of your team-mates which kinda likes to lag a lot.
All in all, i'm going to give this game one final try and then move on. The Witcher, perhaps? Or maybe Thief 3... wow, that sounds boring when i even think about it.