A Minecraft Story
I’ve awoken on a tiny islet just off of a cactus-strewn beach. Past that are rolling hills , with sparse trees under a blue cloudy sky. All I have are my clothes. Checking the sun, it looks like it’s about noon: I don’t have much time before it gets dark: I know that’s when the monsters come out.
The first order of business is to get some torches. The monsters aren’t afraid of the light, but they won’t be able to sneak up on me either. I swim across the narrow channel to the beach. I attack a tree with my bare hands, and I’m able to gather some wood together. I fashion that into lumber of sorts, and put together a small shack on the island. There I’m able to craft two things – a monster whacking-stick, and a crude wooden pick.
I swim back to shore and go inland. A little exploration and I find a rock cliff face that has what I’m looking for: Black flecks of coal. My wooden pick is not good, but I smash it into the rocks until I have some coal in my pack. Back to my shack, where I put some torches together and get a perimeter around my shack. It’s getting dark, so I lock my door and wait out the night. My shack is kind of tiny, but I bet I can dig down and find something worthwhile.
I start a downward spiral staircase of sorts with my wooden pick. About twenty feet down, I break through the ceiling of a cavern. That’s going to be the easiest place to find some iron, so this is a good thing. I climb back up to my shack and use what’s left of my lumber to make another door; I don’t want anything coming up out of the cavern. I build a better pick from the rocks I dug out, and a stone axe so I can head back to the short and collect some more wood. I’d better get some more coal too. Exploring the cave is going to need a lot of torches….
Eventually, I get enough materials together to build a proper fort, with a section for smelting metals, and a small farm so I can make bread, and a couple of waterfalls because I can. I’ve had some minor problems with giant spiders getting into the courtyard, but I’ve been able to keep the creepers and zombies out. I’ve explored the cave system in this area about as much as I’m likely to be able to, as I’ve started breaking through to lava pools and that’s bad for my health. I think it’s time to make a boat and cruise the coast to find a second site. Dig around a bit, and see what’s there.
Posted on August 15th, 2010 by Nathan
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Too Damned Many Good Games
There’s a strange kind of timing required in being a gamer. I don’t mean just “someone who plays games”, but someone for who it’s a hobby and follows the scene. Consider: I bought Dragon Quest IX a while back, and have sunk a significant number of hours into it. I’ve been following the event schedule for DQ9, and have even driven over an hour to download a special Nintendo treasure map. There, someone traded me Masauki’s “famous” map, which somehow migrated from Tokyo to Elk Grove, CA.
Then I purchased MineCraft. I’ll have more to say about that, but it’s taken my PC-gaming time like I haven’t seen. It’s like a first-person LEGO set, and for a game with no goals, it’s crazy fun.
Somewhere in there, StarCraft 2 was released. It’s a good game, I like it and I’d like to take the time to learn to get good with it. I bought it because it’s an “Event” game, and it’s almost like it’s difficult to even read about the gaming scene without having played it. But ultimately, I’m not very good at realtime strategy games and I have a grotto to clear in DQ and a new fort to build in Minecraft.
Posted on August 15th, 2010 by Nathan
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A Slime Appears
Dragon Quest IX is pretty rad. In several ways, it reminds me of World of Warcraft on a handheld:
- Armor and weapons appear on your character, even though you mostly wind up taking whatever gives you the bonuses and looking like some kind of medieval hobo.
- You see monsters on the world map, allowing you to run around them if you don’t feel like fighting
- Unlike WoW, combat is turn-based. Like WoW, you have a few abilities that combine in interesting ways for different effects
- Crafting! In DQ9, it’s called “alchemy”, but you’re still collecting stuff to make potions and armor.
- Questing! “Kill 10 foozles and return to me.” Really? Well, it’s a quest anyway
- Skill trees! Well, not trees, more like vines, as each one is a straight line. But some are only available to certain classes, and others can be used by anyone, and you can change classes at will. It’s at least as entertaining as a skill tree.
- Special events! Get rare equipment or quests on certain days!
All of that stuff combines to make a game where there’s usually something that you’re about to accomplish. Maybe you’re a couple hundred XP from getting a level and getting some skill points, or you just need one freakin’ magical beast hide to make that fur poncho. Or, you know, maybe you’re actually progressing the story, such as it is. It definitely has its hooks in me.
Posted on July 16th, 2010 by Nathan
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