Computer games and me

[wispfox]

As many of you know, World of Warcraft was my go-to for fairly healthy uppers when stressed or depressed.

Unfortunately, I have found it boring of late, and so I canceled my subscription (which continues through February, but whatever). I originally thought that I would probably return come the next expansion, but I've since been questioning that belief.

The things I like no longer outweigh the parts which bore me. I love the lore and the story. They did a fabulous job with that. I like the quests that aren't purely about killing something over and over again. I like exploration, and making things out of other things (although there is a lot more that they could do there; right now, we can't even customize things we make in terms of color, let alone some other way to be individual without breaking the mechanics of the objects in question). I like the social aspect, at least as an option. Often I don't have the social energy available to actually _be_ social, but that's ok. I really like the fact that I can - and did - collect non-combat pets and mounts in-game, for the most part without spending any real-life money. Pets! Mounts! Gleeee!

I really, really dislike the fact that the vast majority of what there is to do is the same thing over and over and over again. Even if it's not a daily quest, which is the same thing over and over taken to a whole new level of suck, it's often entirely about 'go find this person/people and kill them'. Ok, thank you, bored now!

More recently, in my quest to find games that entertain me and still give me those small doses of easily obtained success, variety, and novelty, I tried a few other games.

City of Wonder was fun. However, it's _stupid_ amounts of mouse clicking. And, you are actively punnished if you don't log in regularly. Your goods spoil, your buildings need cleaning, your money needs collecting, and your people to be moved in. I'm sorry. I like the fact that I get to make my own city, and that I can make it include interesting buildings. I don't like that the tedium needed to get there is most of the game, nor the fact that not logging in regularly is punnished (I don't mind having a bonus for logging in regularly. I _DO_ mind the assumption that people's lives revolve around their games, rather than their games fitting into their lives), nor the fact that it adds a ridiculous - and unneeded - amount of clicking into my life. My wrists don't need that.

I have been enjoying Glitch. There is no killing, although you can die by running out of energy. And then you squish grapes in hell until you are alive again, low on energy and on mood but otherwise the same as before. There are many things which talk to you, and with which you can interact. Pigs are all about giving you their meat. Chickens are at least apparently not happy about giving you grain (unless you have a high skill with animals and then they tell you that they don't actually mind and sometimes suggest that you should chase them). Butterflies give you milk in a.. somewhat confusing and vaguely disturbing kind of way. Various trees need water and petting and then you can harvest them. You can pet pigs, too.

You can have housing, where you can have gardens, trees, animals (the three kinds I mentioned above), and keep your stuff.

There are quests, largely involving skils you can learn, but also sometimes involving learning more about the story. There are lots of skills. There's some puzzles, although either I haven't found them or there aren't enough yet. Hidden passageways and keys make me happy. There are brief party places, one of which pleased me _IMMENSELY_, as it was on the moon. Moon parties involved crazy high jumping, then there was the addition of a trampoline like thing. So much fun! So silly. :)

I like this game, but I worry that I will run out of new things to do and look at and then stop being interested in it. metahacker suggested player-created content, of which there sort of already is some very minimal and limited amount (you can provide materials with which places can be made). That seems to be a good idea, if it's locations and quests and perhaps things that can be gin, and if there is enough structure around it that the developer(s?) don't have to vet it all the time.

I am reminded of MUCKs and the ability to build things there, and that idea could totally work, with structure.

So I've been hunting games that I could play for the small bits of completion and success and exploration and story. I was originally looking at older games, as many of them had good story. Except that I really do _like_ the pretty aspect of WoW. And older games are, well, not as pretty.

I'm going to start looking for non-combat games, because I tried Rift and lasted precisely long enough to create a character, tried Lord of the Rings Online and managed to do a few quests. Just... not my thing anymore, apparently. It may also be that they needed more clicking than I liked. Let me interact with things without clicking, please!

I briefly played with Tale in the Desert, but it felt like it punished you for not logging in often enough, and also felt like it was competative, not cooperative. One thing I've learned from glitch is that I _really_ like not competing, and prefer the cooperative style of gameplay where it's not you _against_ anything, neither world nor other players. Sure, in glitch, there is an enemy. But you never have to engage it. I'm not sure that I ever will.

I briefly looked at Fallen Earth, but it was quite mouse-intensive. Otherwise interesting, though. Might have been too depressing for me, however.

So now, the hunting.