Astras

@ztiworoh said:

My first memories of playing a game are probably the original Mario/Duckhunt NES cartridge at my uncle's house or Centipede on the Atari 2600 that my grandmother had in the late 80s.

Played both of those, Centipede on the 2600 was my first console game.

Weetabix vs the Titches on the Acorn Electron was apparently my first ever game, according to my brother.

Yea, "Random PC game - Throwback" would be awesome. Some suggestions:

• Xcom
• Red Alert
• Homeworld
• Theme Hospital
• Transport Tycoon

It's a great game! There are moments where you think.... huh, Some of the bosses in Zelda to me are feeling a bit clunky, i.e... here's your dungeon loot item, guess how you kill the boss????? There are a few moments when you just think, what an absolute joy to play though!! The ending as you expect from Zelda is totally epic also!

*Raise

Awesome, awesome game!

ok, obviously my first post wasn't clear enough.

I like Diablo 2, there are obviously a few people who aren't happy about the auction house system in the new game and I am not the only one, my reasons might vary from others.. but here I go and i'll try and explain them again... maybe I will get some different responses other than "Hey dude just don't play" or "You don't have to play the game that way dude" etc...

Blizzard obviously are going to place emphasis on Diablo endgame through creating a Tier like system such as in Wow, you will more than likely require a certain quality of "Gear" item to be able to progress comfortably or be effective in certain dungeons.

People who think that other items in the game will be worth money are kidding themselves, it's only really the item's at endgame that will matter. Blizzard will facilitate this by doing what they have done before by implementing "scary low drop rates"... the items will obviously be farmed and people will buy. From each sale Blizz makes money which is fair enough. It't the physiological game model that bothers me.\

How can Blizz make loot drops more attractive than they do in wow. Experts have already identified that the physiological effect that loot rolling has in MMO's can in some cases be similar to what addicted gamblers go through. By directly strengthening the link between real world currencies and in game items and providing a means to exchange items for cash this will strengthen these addictive tendencies that stray towards addiction.

Everyone will obviously want a shot at making some cash from the game, there will be players who have no real way of getting these items from ingame.. i.e. we work. Because of the model of the game and the imposed drop rates we will prolly be forced to pay extra for access to content or making ourselves competitive.

Yes ok Diablo 2 people argue was the same, but to me that argument just doesn't hold up too how accessible Blizz have made this feature. Maybe i'm wrong but to me it just feels a bit of a tactic, maybe a smart one on their behalf.

I just hope the game doesn't end up convincing people that "I know, i'm going to play Diablo 3 soooo much I will make sooo much money, This can be my job NOW :)" Because it's just not going to be productive.

I would just rather have a game that looks as good as Diablo... and yes it looks great, have massively reduced drop rates so I wouldn't have to:

Keep repeating content like I did in Wow

Have to pay so I can be competitive etc

I just wanna play an awesome game!

With Diablo 3 coming soon, it's fair to say that there their new auction house system clearly supports a new type of player that believes that they are going to be able to make good money from just grinding away loot.

Why am I going to play another Blizzard game that makes me rerun content over and over just so they can make the loot drops 0.00001% so they can facilitate this type of system. As a gamer who plays games just to enjoy them, I don't see the reason other than to get me so "Time" invested in the game that I can't stop playing it, and when they release expansions or content updates I need their specific tier items which I can either:

Buy - You will not be able to trade or use ingame currency for these items - thinking that is just kidding yourselves

Grind - Devote a ridiculous amount of time rerunning content (Sound familiar - wow)

I hope the people that believe they want to play gold farmers online really get a life because the game will surely pay a lot less than the minimum of minimum wages when they cease to have fun, and start grinding!

If this is the start of a new type of game genre - gold farmers grinding and selling online, then I think I will try and stay clear of this, as gaming is about fun and not about trying to grind some kind of worthless existence.

I remember back when I was a kid, me and my mates/ brothers would play games and when I was watching them play I would be itching to grab hold of the controller and start playing myself. I would get angry if the controller wasn't shared equally. 
 
We used to have certain rules with different games..  
 
Platformers - pass the controller if you die and every time you finish a level. 
Sports - Pass the controller after game 
Racing - Depending on the game, after every race pass.  
Fighting - If you lose.
 
There was certain times where greed would get the better of you, and you wouldn't pass the controller or exceptional circumstances such as difficulty vs ability. 
 
For me now, the first time this has happened I have found myself preferring to watch a game rather than playing it.   
I prefer to watch cast's of Starcraft 2 over playing it, ok watching a cast or commentary is slightly different then watching someone play a game. But I find watching the casts much more enjoyable and interesting than actually playing the game. And I think the game is great and have put loads of time in it.  
 
There are other games that I have watched Let's played videos of. But I keep coming back to Starcraft 2 casts, theres something fantastic about watching the 3 races duke it out!  

Seems to be more emphasis on comedy at the moment which seems a bit forced in places... The older quick looks felt a bit more natural and more fun for the guys. Making quick looks for several years probably does that to you and the games as of late haven't been the greatest.  
 
Looking back, it would be great if they freshened things up maybe by pushing a new feature... or more throwbacks?

Me and my current gaming/ games programming habits and thoughts:
 
As a kid I used to sit in front of my Acorn Electron (British OLLLDD computer) and program in Basic for hours. The games I used to make were low level, mainly text based and very light on graphics. I used to show these to my friends who would look at them and say.... "Uhmmm what the fck is this LOLZ" 
 
To me it was a monumental task that I had achieved, my first graphical game with bound box collision. My first structured procedural based program, trying to explain what I done just seemed pointless, I was very alone in my hobbyist developments. 
 
I started realising that  what I was doing wasn't relevant to anyone anyone else and because it was the day's before the internet just was between me and this old computer, getting more and more out of the machine seemed to be a relationship that me and the computer had built up together. Even though at the time there was more powerful machines available my family simply couldn't afford any other machines. 
 
Looking back on my old programs which I did a few months ago, loading them from *tape, I see a determination that I have somewhat lost as of late. I re inspired myself again to start games programming.   
What I realised was that it doesn't matter the quality of the game that I am creating, I may lack certain skills, I may not be as technically gifted as other programmers, I don't have much artistic talent with graphics, I don't have as much time as I would like to program..... but the relationship between me and the machine to push myself and create a working, functional game engine that I create, is for me... kind of a communication , a diary of sorts between me and the machine! 
 
 
As a kid my gaming habits were compleatly different also. I used to have much more respect for games, I think that was down to the part that I used to have an extreamly limited supply, so if I ever got a game, no matter how bad it was I would play it through again and again, I would know every mechanic and explore everything. 
 
Now I am older and can basically play anything I want, my interest and patience is not as great as it once was. I am much more demanding and expect certain qualities. My patience seemed at one point to be so low with this generation of games that I found myself buying a game, playing it for an hour, and never pick it up again.  Which is an expensive waste of money. 
 
I decided to go back and play more retro games and I have found myslef enjoying gaming again. Whether or not it's because I am a retro gamer and prefer games of my youth.. i'm not sure yet, but there's something about the 8, 16 and 32 bit era that I just love. 
 
I am going to keep playing these games and keep finding gems that I missed out on back in the day, to me I have resparked my interest in gaming and programming by accepting the fact that it's ok to be content and it's not necessary to be "MODERN" to have a fun hobby or relationship with gaming and programming.

The first ps2 game you ever played ???? OMG dude????