Question: If you had purchased a game that was hyped a bit and you bought into the hype (obviously since you purchased it!) and the game turned out to be complete crap with content that was just glued on (poorly) just so they could put it on the box... say multiplayer, which also turned out to be complete crap, would you try the second in the series if journalists that are "in the know" were claiming that the second was worth a shot even though the first was garbage?
That question smacked me in the face when I realized someone paid Reality Pump money.... REAL WORLD MONEY to publish Two Worlds II. I don't know about any of you, but I played Two Worlds, and.... I wish I hadn't. The only saving grace in that debacle is the fact I didn't pay money for it. When Two Worlds was still in development there was quite a lot of buzz going on around the web about it. Supposedly the "multiplayer version of Elder Scrolls IV" ( it did look quite similar graphically, and yes there was multiplayer, but more on that later) journalist were claiming this game was going to be the second coming and possibly what Elder Scrolls IV could have been.
Anyway, getting back to my point, I played this game that should have never been. Really the only thing this game has going for it, is it sets the bar as to where this generations bottom is. Graphics were a problem, sound was a problem, voice acting was just horrible, AI went from LOL to WTF, and I'm pretty sure they crammed so much bad into this game, the case smelled off. The multiplayer component of this game was "Horse Racing" yes. Horse Racing. Maybe I'm wrong here, but there should be a little more beef to the content than one mode that is pointless and short in order to be able to toss it on the box and trick the consumer into purchasing it.
Now that Two Worlds II is out, the "in the know" journalists (not sure if the same ones or different ones as I'm too lazy to research this!) are saying that the issues from the first have been addressed and this one is worth a pick up and play. Uh... I fear the hypetrain is coming and some folks are tied to the tracks. I just can't seem to get over the fact that the first was so bad, and I just can't see how the second could be much better. Sure games have improved from the first in the series to the second, that's a given. As time passes, new methods, ideas, technology, ect comes about and all of that can be used for improvement.
I don't think I'd have any issue with this game if it were named something else rather than the second. I have nothing against the dev, nor do I think they have never / will never / could never make a great title, I just don't know why they'd wish to associate this "superior title" with the unspeakable one. I guess my question is fairly simple, but I tend to shy away from a second if the first was straight out terribad, but do you?
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Stupid things done in video games, part 2
In the first Final Fantasy game, you were able to go ahead and choose four characters for your team. A balanced team usually consisted of a fighter, a black belt, a black mage, or a white mage. This gave you a well rounded team with two melee based bruisers, your magic cannon, and a healer/undead killer. You could also sub out the black belt for a thief and get a character that while not the damage powerhouse, he could crit a lot better than any of the other characters. Then you had the red mage; he's pretty much the jack-of-all-trades but master of none.
It took me a while to finish the game, but once I did, I started thinking about other character combinations. Essentially, I was looking at the long run on these characters since later on in the game, they upgrade to more powerful classes. The fighter becomes the knight and has access to some lower level white magic spells. The thief becomes the ninja and can cast some black magic spells. Black belts become masters and are unarmored and unarmed brick shithouses that will bring down the pain. Red mages become red wizards and gain a few extra spells, but can't cast any of the super powerful ones. White mages become white wizards and get access to extremely powerful healing and holy spells. Black mages become black wizards and cast all sorts of complete and utter pwnage, like the best spell in the entire game: Nuke.
My younger self thought it'd be cool to make an all magic team. Two red mages, a white mage and a black mage. This lasted for a while, but I quickly got bored with it. A number of other character combinations were tried and planned, but they also went to the wayside. At this point, I started to grow weary of Final Fantasy, grew more interested in girls, and let the game collect dust.
A number of years passed, and nostalgia kicked in. One time while I was visiting my parents, I decided to break out the ol' NES. I played around with a few games, but finally settled for an evening of playing Final Fantasy. I was surprised that the game's battery was still good, and it had remembered my last group combination that I'd tried: two black mages and two white mages. They hadn't gotten very far.
It was at this point I started thinking to myself. "Self," I said, "you've obviously got a little something going on here with this current layout."
"Damned straight," I replied. "We've got the healing and the ass-kicking power there, but only later on in the game. Right now, we're too full of suck to get far. I don't think we could even kill Garland!"
"But what if we were to really get somewhere with that similar plan? Have a fighting chance early, then totally kick ass once you mature?"
I gasped at Self's teased idea. It was brilliant, and could work out rather well. Start a new party with two fighters and two black mages. The fighters do the majority of the fighting early on, while the black mages do support and fling spells from behind. There was only one problem, and that was the lack of healing. Potions were fine and all, but buying them along with tents, Phoenix down, and all the weapons, armor and spells meant this was going to be an expensive adventure for the team. Until we got everyone advanced to the adult state, it was going to be a long and painful grind just to get the necessary money. Once it was achieved, it would pay off and do so in a majorly ass-kicking way.
Unfortunately, I didn't have the time or patience to fulfill this plan. I stopped shortly after getting past Astos, mainly because I came close to destroying my controller in fits of rage as I kept dying over and over again.
Much like with Dragon Warrior, the challenge sits in its unfinished state, taunting me every once in a while as I think of it.
It took me a while to finish the game, but once I did, I started thinking about other character combinations. Essentially, I was looking at the long run on these characters since later on in the game, they upgrade to more powerful classes. The fighter becomes the knight and has access to some lower level white magic spells. The thief becomes the ninja and can cast some black magic spells. Black belts become masters and are unarmored and unarmed brick shithouses that will bring down the pain. Red mages become red wizards and gain a few extra spells, but can't cast any of the super powerful ones. White mages become white wizards and get access to extremely powerful healing and holy spells. Black mages become black wizards and cast all sorts of complete and utter pwnage, like the best spell in the entire game: Nuke.
My younger self thought it'd be cool to make an all magic team. Two red mages, a white mage and a black mage. This lasted for a while, but I quickly got bored with it. A number of other character combinations were tried and planned, but they also went to the wayside. At this point, I started to grow weary of Final Fantasy, grew more interested in girls, and let the game collect dust.
A number of years passed, and nostalgia kicked in. One time while I was visiting my parents, I decided to break out the ol' NES. I played around with a few games, but finally settled for an evening of playing Final Fantasy. I was surprised that the game's battery was still good, and it had remembered my last group combination that I'd tried: two black mages and two white mages. They hadn't gotten very far.
It was at this point I started thinking to myself. "Self," I said, "you've obviously got a little something going on here with this current layout."
"Damned straight," I replied. "We've got the healing and the ass-kicking power there, but only later on in the game. Right now, we're too full of suck to get far. I don't think we could even kill Garland!"
"But what if we were to really get somewhere with that similar plan? Have a fighting chance early, then totally kick ass once you mature?"
I gasped at Self's teased idea. It was brilliant, and could work out rather well. Start a new party with two fighters and two black mages. The fighters do the majority of the fighting early on, while the black mages do support and fling spells from behind. There was only one problem, and that was the lack of healing. Potions were fine and all, but buying them along with tents, Phoenix down, and all the weapons, armor and spells meant this was going to be an expensive adventure for the team. Until we got everyone advanced to the adult state, it was going to be a long and painful grind just to get the necessary money. Once it was achieved, it would pay off and do so in a majorly ass-kicking way.
Unfortunately, I didn't have the time or patience to fulfill this plan. I stopped shortly after getting past Astos, mainly because I came close to destroying my controller in fits of rage as I kept dying over and over again.
Much like with Dragon Warrior, the challenge sits in its unfinished state, taunting me every once in a while as I think of it.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Tilting
Tilt
Definition: When card players let their emotions cloud their judgment, it's called going "on tilt." Often, when a player suffers a bad beat or a losing streak, they will go "on tilt."
I am a competitive card player. I have been playing the card game called Magic: The Gathering (magic or mtg for short) for about a year and a half. I only played casually for a few weeks before instantly becoming hooked and venturing into the world of competitive play at a local shop that hosts it.
I was your classic newbie, showing up with no experience and a limited knowledge of the game. I was in awe of the regular players decks and was amazed at the plays they made casually that I wouldn't have thought of in a million years. I quickly started forming friendships with the players at the shop and was helped out by the veterans to make my deck better and play tighter. I was having a complete blast.
I have your classic addictive personality features. When I like something, I go all in and attempt to learn everything I possibly can about whatever it is, and if its something I can utilize my own skills with, I also attempt to become the best I can possibly be at it. Magic was no exception to this rule.
I started reading various website articles and watching professional players play. Their ability to automatically know what to do in any given situation was incredible to me. I watched video after video, read article after article. A lot of the time I didn't even know what I was reading, but it was fun for me regardless. I got to see new and unique decks that simply never crossed my mind before, and using this information I quickly applied them to my own decks and made them better and better.
Down Goes Frasier!
Before I knew it I was sitting across from the best player in the shop in one of the regular Tuesday night tournaments, Charles. Charles was well known and feared by the other newbies in the shop, and for good reason. He was a ruthless player piloting a fearsome deck that made short work of all but the most powerful of decks. Charles also has your classic "sore loser" personality who cannot accept defeat without first spouting out a stream of excuses as to why it happened.
I was playing a deck of my own creation that I had been having some recent success with. It was a mono-white "weenie" deck that consisted of a ton of cheap, fast, weak creatures that attempted to win via sheer numbers. I had recently spent a couple dollars on the deck to upgrade it with a powerful spell called "Path to Exile" that removes any creature from the game for almost no investment. Little did I know how much that couple dollar investment would matter.
I sit down across from Charles and he offers me the standard "good luck!" line and we shuffle up. Some of my fellow newbies offer some highly usable advice "try not to lose too fast!" and I start to focus. The rest of the room becomes a dull hum in my ears as my eyes start darting around the playing field. The first game goes by in the expected blur, and I get crushed so fast hes already reaching for the results slip. But then something interesting happens in game 2, I won. He is just as confused as I am and he starts rambling off his usual excuses "I got screwed that game and you ripped so ridiculously."
Game 3 starts and i have an interesting hand. Its very high risk high reward. It has a mix of my usual cheap creatures plus 2 of my only expensive card in the entire deck. The card known as "Captain of the Watch" is staring at me in my hand. The card is an instant army maker, but it is very slow to play, and Charles's deck is very fast. It was at this point in time my mind started thinking not as a newbie, but as someone who's inner fire was starting to light a path to the next level.
As I evaluated keeping my hand my mind went back and replayed the last game. I could tell that his deck had a hard time dealing with swarms of creatures but could easily knock out my strongest creatures, and his creatures were most definitely bigger than mine.
So, I keep the hand. The game progresses and I start trying to clog up the board so I can cast my Captain of the Watch and try to take over. My deck was fast, but his was faster. I realized racing him was not an option. As the game progresses the board is eventually emptied as we end up wiping each others creatures out. On my turn I finally get to drop my Captain of the Watch and an inner beacon of hope starts to shine through in my thoughts. Am I really going to beat THE Charles? A turn goes by and I drop yet another Captain of the Watch, and look up expecting his temper tantrum to kick in, but he is completely unmoved. I am very curious as to what is going on in his mind. Is he bluffing or does he have something to somehow clear this up? I swing in for a huge amount of damage and pass the turn. On his turn he casually wipes the board with a sweeping spell and passes back.
My heart sunk. My glorious army was destroyed. My hand is empty. I am drawing blind and have no clue what will happen. He is sitting with precious few life points left and I don't know how to finish the job. I draw for my turn and draw dead. Land. I pass back the turn and he confidently slams down a creature called Baneslayer Angel. This card is the card of legends. Only the richest most competitive of players even have SEEN one, let alone own them. Due to its incredible power and extremely high card price, it was known to me as the "wallet-slayer." Charles has a look of satisfaction on his face as he now has essentially nothing to fear from me. His angel outclasses every creature in my deck, and will allow him to bring up his life total from the brink.
As I mentioned earlier in this article, I had recently invested a couple dollars into a powerful creature removing card. I didn't know how or when it would actually matter to a newbie playing a random deck like mine, but that time could not have been more perfect. The jumble of thoughts running through my head of how I would handle the legendary angel and if I should simply conceed clouded my mind as I prepared for the turn. My shoulders slump, my head goes in my hand, and I draw my card for the turn off the top of my deck. Looking back at me is a Path to Exile. At this point in the game everyone else in the room is done playing and eagerly watching my game commence. I confidently exclaim "Path on the Baneslayer" and hear discussion from the onlookers about the game state.
Charles at this point is very upset. "That is such a bullshit rip i cant believe that crap!" he yells as he throws his angel into his exiled zone. It is very normal for him to yell such things, but this is the first time I was in the opponents seat. It felt bad but the fact that I was still in the game utterly drowned out his harsh words. I pass back for the turn, and he throws down a useless card and passes back. The crowd of onlookers eagerly await my draw for the turn. I look around with a shit-eating grin and draw my card, hoping to find something to try and regain command with. I look at my freshly drawn card and realize it is yet another Captain of the Watch. I play my instant-army-maker and Charles screams some obscenities as he gathers up his cards angrily, knowing he has lost to the newbie. He fills out the results slip and leaves the area, unable to cope with the defeat.
I am beaming with joy as the other guys in the store congratulate me. David had defeated Goliath.
Someone at this point said "Wow Charles is tilting really hard." I had never heard this term before. "What is tilting?" I ask. I was never a poker player which is apparently where this word originated from, but I was told it is what happens when a player feels they got robbed in one way or another and were very upset about it.
As a new player I never even thought it was possible to get that upset. It was just a game after-all.... right?
The Sheep Becomes the Shark
Its been well over a year since that story took place. At this point in the story I have gone from timid newbie to veteran level status and am sitting as one of the "feared" players in the room. It is not uncommon to hear people say "ouch!" or "sucks to be you!" when the pairings are announced and I am paired up with one of the middle level players. My decks are powerful and full of expensive cards, and I am a tight player who makes next to zero mistakes. I punish mistakes and take advantage of any hole I can find. I am now what Charles was to me when I started playing. That mythical player with the incredible deck who wins far more than loses. I'm not the best player in the room but I'm up there. That title would still fall to Charles, ironically enough.
As my competitive playing evolved and I started evolving into the next level of magic, my experiences with the game started to broaden. I started playing at different venues and I bought my deck on Magic Online to test my mettle against the best of the best. And I was winning. A lot. I had built a powerful custom tuned deck designed to take down the popular decks of the time. I tested it extensively with a friend of mine who decided to run the same deck with me so we could both make it as powerful as possible. We both dominated the circuits and were crushing on a regular basis. At one point I was pitted against an actual pro who happened to be at the venue i was playing at and I crushed him as well. I was feeling really good about myself and thought I could actually play this game professionally.
Above: My magic career of wins and losses
It was at this point i discovered the world of 100+ player online tournaments known as "dailies." These cost $6 to enter and had enormous prize payout if you went at least 3-1. My immediate thought was how i could utterly dominate the online crowd and make a bundle of money from the generous prize payouts. I bought $30 worth of tournament entries and went to work.
I attend my first four online tournaments I end up 3-1 in all of them. Only in the 5th do i get my first 2-2 and no prizes to go with it. I was riding very high. I made a bundle off the prizes and had enough winnings to play a huge amount of more tournaments and clean up even more. My plan was working!
The Taste of Defeat
And then something foreign happened. Something I hadn't experienced in almost a year. I started losing. After my galiant streak of 3-1's, I ended up going 2-2 a whopping 15 tournaments in a row. My heart was broken. My spirit was sucked out of me. I was filled with a mixed bag of emotions including sadness, fear, and worry. And then something happened to me which had never happened before. I tilted. I was upset and there was no calm on the horizon. I was livid and didn't know what to do. I thought about quitting magic. I thought about going back to casual play. My friends gave me words of encouragement and recommended I just simply take a break. I was so confused I even submitted my plight to a popular online magic tv show on channelfireball.com (which they answered, at around 5 minutes 35 seconds into the show)
They made a good point on the show. Try not to let it effect you, take a break, take a step back and regroup. So I did just that. I took a break from the dailies and calmed down. And I slowly but surely stopped fuming and started enjoying the game again.
Second Place
My competitive playing continues to this day. I continue reading articles and watching videos on a daily basis. I'm not the potential pro player I originally thought I was, and grinding tournaments is no longer part of my daily life. But I still am a shark and I play to win. I have never missed a Tuesday night tournament at my local shop. Most of the faces have changed since the year and half its been since I started playing there, but some of them are weekly warriors just like me, showing up and having fun. We get new players nearly weekly and I try to be as helpful as I can be to anyone who asks for it, as at this point I am a voice of experience. Even some of the other vets ask me for help which is a great feeling.
The players in the shop have become stronger, their decks have become better, and I am now simply one of the good players there rather than that powerful "auto-loss" that i was once considered to be.
Recently I was going through the motions of another tournament. Like usual I was 2-0 going into the final round. This is extremely common for me and nothing special. I used to be a master prize grinder at my shop. Undefeated streaks were common and I was filled to the brim with prizes. It took a rather harsh loss in my last tournament to show me a brutal realization.
I was paired up with a kid I had played against endless amounts of times before. I have never lost to him before and I figured I was on my way to 3-0 land.
I have recently had a wicked long streak of 2-1's with a couple 3-0's peppered in. This is a stark contrast of my old streaks which were mostly 3-0's with a couple 2-1's peppered in.
The kid is a regular at the shop at this point. He has acquired a handful of decent cards and is running an unruly yet competent control deck. He has yet to achieve a 3-0 but is getting better.
I am going through the motions and realizing things are fruitless as his board has a card on it my deck literally cannot answer. We move on to game 2 and the same card lands on the table. But this time I could have easily prevented the card from hitting the table, but my sloppy overconfidence ended up causing my downfall.
I pen in a depressing 0 in the wins column next to my name and sign the results slip. I am livid with myself. How could I lose to a newbie with my skill and deck? I normally heartily congratulate someone for beating me and getting their first 3-0, but i said not a word to my opponent as I packed up my cards. I text my friend about the loss and explain that I am tilting pretty severely using a carefully chosen selection of curse words. He offers kind words and reminds me about his own recent bout with tilt and how a break might be in order.
I go home and talk with him at length about my thoughts. Maybe a break is the answer, we end up agreeing on.
The Love of the Game
That night as I tilted I blamed it on everything but myself. I cursed the card in his deck that I "didn't have an answer to." And figured I couldn't have done anything about it.
After thinking long and hard about what happened and what my options are, I noticed the game has become less of a game and more of a routine for me. This realization has scared me to death. My tight playing and mistake minimizing has become second nature and no longer something I actively strive for. Can you guess what this has lead to?
I have lost my edge. I've become predictable. I've lost the inner fire. I am no longer the end-boss. I am still excellent at the game, but no longer am I achieving the level of play that I truly desire to be at. Despite being off the tournament grind I still love the game and would never dream of abandoning it. But my fire is in need of kindling.
Taking a break from something I love is the last thing I should be doing. I need to come up with a new plan of attack. I need to relight the fire and strive to get to a new level. Playing the game is fun and I should be having fun. I need to get back on my competitive path and become that mythical player again. The one everybody fears and wants to be like.
To this day I mostly lose to the earlier rival in this story, Charles. We always have intense epic battles, but he beats me more than I beat him. I always wonder afterward what he has that I do not. I always pilot strong decks and I'm a strong player, but Charles has the fire. Charles's legendary temper tantrums are not because he thinks he is the best player in the world, but because he wants to be the best player in the world. He refuses to let his fire die.
I need to be like Charles.
Without the tilt, of course.
Definition: When card players let their emotions cloud their judgment, it's called going "on tilt." Often, when a player suffers a bad beat or a losing streak, they will go "on tilt."
I am a competitive card player. I have been playing the card game called Magic: The Gathering (magic or mtg for short) for about a year and a half. I only played casually for a few weeks before instantly becoming hooked and venturing into the world of competitive play at a local shop that hosts it.
I was your classic newbie, showing up with no experience and a limited knowledge of the game. I was in awe of the regular players decks and was amazed at the plays they made casually that I wouldn't have thought of in a million years. I quickly started forming friendships with the players at the shop and was helped out by the veterans to make my deck better and play tighter. I was having a complete blast.
I have your classic addictive personality features. When I like something, I go all in and attempt to learn everything I possibly can about whatever it is, and if its something I can utilize my own skills with, I also attempt to become the best I can possibly be at it. Magic was no exception to this rule.
I started reading various website articles and watching professional players play. Their ability to automatically know what to do in any given situation was incredible to me. I watched video after video, read article after article. A lot of the time I didn't even know what I was reading, but it was fun for me regardless. I got to see new and unique decks that simply never crossed my mind before, and using this information I quickly applied them to my own decks and made them better and better.
Down Goes Frasier!
Before I knew it I was sitting across from the best player in the shop in one of the regular Tuesday night tournaments, Charles. Charles was well known and feared by the other newbies in the shop, and for good reason. He was a ruthless player piloting a fearsome deck that made short work of all but the most powerful of decks. Charles also has your classic "sore loser" personality who cannot accept defeat without first spouting out a stream of excuses as to why it happened.
I was playing a deck of my own creation that I had been having some recent success with. It was a mono-white "weenie" deck that consisted of a ton of cheap, fast, weak creatures that attempted to win via sheer numbers. I had recently spent a couple dollars on the deck to upgrade it with a powerful spell called "Path to Exile" that removes any creature from the game for almost no investment. Little did I know how much that couple dollar investment would matter.
I sit down across from Charles and he offers me the standard "good luck!" line and we shuffle up. Some of my fellow newbies offer some highly usable advice "try not to lose too fast!" and I start to focus. The rest of the room becomes a dull hum in my ears as my eyes start darting around the playing field. The first game goes by in the expected blur, and I get crushed so fast hes already reaching for the results slip. But then something interesting happens in game 2, I won. He is just as confused as I am and he starts rambling off his usual excuses "I got screwed that game and you ripped so ridiculously."
Game 3 starts and i have an interesting hand. Its very high risk high reward. It has a mix of my usual cheap creatures plus 2 of my only expensive card in the entire deck. The card known as "Captain of the Watch" is staring at me in my hand. The card is an instant army maker, but it is very slow to play, and Charles's deck is very fast. It was at this point in time my mind started thinking not as a newbie, but as someone who's inner fire was starting to light a path to the next level.
As I evaluated keeping my hand my mind went back and replayed the last game. I could tell that his deck had a hard time dealing with swarms of creatures but could easily knock out my strongest creatures, and his creatures were most definitely bigger than mine.
So, I keep the hand. The game progresses and I start trying to clog up the board so I can cast my Captain of the Watch and try to take over. My deck was fast, but his was faster. I realized racing him was not an option. As the game progresses the board is eventually emptied as we end up wiping each others creatures out. On my turn I finally get to drop my Captain of the Watch and an inner beacon of hope starts to shine through in my thoughts. Am I really going to beat THE Charles? A turn goes by and I drop yet another Captain of the Watch, and look up expecting his temper tantrum to kick in, but he is completely unmoved. I am very curious as to what is going on in his mind. Is he bluffing or does he have something to somehow clear this up? I swing in for a huge amount of damage and pass the turn. On his turn he casually wipes the board with a sweeping spell and passes back.
My heart sunk. My glorious army was destroyed. My hand is empty. I am drawing blind and have no clue what will happen. He is sitting with precious few life points left and I don't know how to finish the job. I draw for my turn and draw dead. Land. I pass back the turn and he confidently slams down a creature called Baneslayer Angel. This card is the card of legends. Only the richest most competitive of players even have SEEN one, let alone own them. Due to its incredible power and extremely high card price, it was known to me as the "wallet-slayer." Charles has a look of satisfaction on his face as he now has essentially nothing to fear from me. His angel outclasses every creature in my deck, and will allow him to bring up his life total from the brink.
As I mentioned earlier in this article, I had recently invested a couple dollars into a powerful creature removing card. I didn't know how or when it would actually matter to a newbie playing a random deck like mine, but that time could not have been more perfect. The jumble of thoughts running through my head of how I would handle the legendary angel and if I should simply conceed clouded my mind as I prepared for the turn. My shoulders slump, my head goes in my hand, and I draw my card for the turn off the top of my deck. Looking back at me is a Path to Exile. At this point in the game everyone else in the room is done playing and eagerly watching my game commence. I confidently exclaim "Path on the Baneslayer" and hear discussion from the onlookers about the game state.
Charles at this point is very upset. "That is such a bullshit rip i cant believe that crap!" he yells as he throws his angel into his exiled zone. It is very normal for him to yell such things, but this is the first time I was in the opponents seat. It felt bad but the fact that I was still in the game utterly drowned out his harsh words. I pass back for the turn, and he throws down a useless card and passes back. The crowd of onlookers eagerly await my draw for the turn. I look around with a shit-eating grin and draw my card, hoping to find something to try and regain command with. I look at my freshly drawn card and realize it is yet another Captain of the Watch. I play my instant-army-maker and Charles screams some obscenities as he gathers up his cards angrily, knowing he has lost to the newbie. He fills out the results slip and leaves the area, unable to cope with the defeat.
I am beaming with joy as the other guys in the store congratulate me. David had defeated Goliath.
Someone at this point said "Wow Charles is tilting really hard." I had never heard this term before. "What is tilting?" I ask. I was never a poker player which is apparently where this word originated from, but I was told it is what happens when a player feels they got robbed in one way or another and were very upset about it.
As a new player I never even thought it was possible to get that upset. It was just a game after-all.... right?
The Sheep Becomes the Shark
Its been well over a year since that story took place. At this point in the story I have gone from timid newbie to veteran level status and am sitting as one of the "feared" players in the room. It is not uncommon to hear people say "ouch!" or "sucks to be you!" when the pairings are announced and I am paired up with one of the middle level players. My decks are powerful and full of expensive cards, and I am a tight player who makes next to zero mistakes. I punish mistakes and take advantage of any hole I can find. I am now what Charles was to me when I started playing. That mythical player with the incredible deck who wins far more than loses. I'm not the best player in the room but I'm up there. That title would still fall to Charles, ironically enough.
As my competitive playing evolved and I started evolving into the next level of magic, my experiences with the game started to broaden. I started playing at different venues and I bought my deck on Magic Online to test my mettle against the best of the best. And I was winning. A lot. I had built a powerful custom tuned deck designed to take down the popular decks of the time. I tested it extensively with a friend of mine who decided to run the same deck with me so we could both make it as powerful as possible. We both dominated the circuits and were crushing on a regular basis. At one point I was pitted against an actual pro who happened to be at the venue i was playing at and I crushed him as well. I was feeling really good about myself and thought I could actually play this game professionally.
Above: My magic career of wins and lossesIt was at this point i discovered the world of 100+ player online tournaments known as "dailies." These cost $6 to enter and had enormous prize payout if you went at least 3-1. My immediate thought was how i could utterly dominate the online crowd and make a bundle of money from the generous prize payouts. I bought $30 worth of tournament entries and went to work.
I attend my first four online tournaments I end up 3-1 in all of them. Only in the 5th do i get my first 2-2 and no prizes to go with it. I was riding very high. I made a bundle off the prizes and had enough winnings to play a huge amount of more tournaments and clean up even more. My plan was working!
The Taste of Defeat
And then something foreign happened. Something I hadn't experienced in almost a year. I started losing. After my galiant streak of 3-1's, I ended up going 2-2 a whopping 15 tournaments in a row. My heart was broken. My spirit was sucked out of me. I was filled with a mixed bag of emotions including sadness, fear, and worry. And then something happened to me which had never happened before. I tilted. I was upset and there was no calm on the horizon. I was livid and didn't know what to do. I thought about quitting magic. I thought about going back to casual play. My friends gave me words of encouragement and recommended I just simply take a break. I was so confused I even submitted my plight to a popular online magic tv show on channelfireball.com (which they answered, at around 5 minutes 35 seconds into the show)
They made a good point on the show. Try not to let it effect you, take a break, take a step back and regroup. So I did just that. I took a break from the dailies and calmed down. And I slowly but surely stopped fuming and started enjoying the game again.
Second Place
My competitive playing continues to this day. I continue reading articles and watching videos on a daily basis. I'm not the potential pro player I originally thought I was, and grinding tournaments is no longer part of my daily life. But I still am a shark and I play to win. I have never missed a Tuesday night tournament at my local shop. Most of the faces have changed since the year and half its been since I started playing there, but some of them are weekly warriors just like me, showing up and having fun. We get new players nearly weekly and I try to be as helpful as I can be to anyone who asks for it, as at this point I am a voice of experience. Even some of the other vets ask me for help which is a great feeling.
The players in the shop have become stronger, their decks have become better, and I am now simply one of the good players there rather than that powerful "auto-loss" that i was once considered to be.
Recently I was going through the motions of another tournament. Like usual I was 2-0 going into the final round. This is extremely common for me and nothing special. I used to be a master prize grinder at my shop. Undefeated streaks were common and I was filled to the brim with prizes. It took a rather harsh loss in my last tournament to show me a brutal realization.
I was paired up with a kid I had played against endless amounts of times before. I have never lost to him before and I figured I was on my way to 3-0 land.
I have recently had a wicked long streak of 2-1's with a couple 3-0's peppered in. This is a stark contrast of my old streaks which were mostly 3-0's with a couple 2-1's peppered in.
The kid is a regular at the shop at this point. He has acquired a handful of decent cards and is running an unruly yet competent control deck. He has yet to achieve a 3-0 but is getting better.
I am going through the motions and realizing things are fruitless as his board has a card on it my deck literally cannot answer. We move on to game 2 and the same card lands on the table. But this time I could have easily prevented the card from hitting the table, but my sloppy overconfidence ended up causing my downfall.
I pen in a depressing 0 in the wins column next to my name and sign the results slip. I am livid with myself. How could I lose to a newbie with my skill and deck? I normally heartily congratulate someone for beating me and getting their first 3-0, but i said not a word to my opponent as I packed up my cards. I text my friend about the loss and explain that I am tilting pretty severely using a carefully chosen selection of curse words. He offers kind words and reminds me about his own recent bout with tilt and how a break might be in order.
I go home and talk with him at length about my thoughts. Maybe a break is the answer, we end up agreeing on.
The Love of the Game
That night as I tilted I blamed it on everything but myself. I cursed the card in his deck that I "didn't have an answer to." And figured I couldn't have done anything about it.
After thinking long and hard about what happened and what my options are, I noticed the game has become less of a game and more of a routine for me. This realization has scared me to death. My tight playing and mistake minimizing has become second nature and no longer something I actively strive for. Can you guess what this has lead to?
I have lost my edge. I've become predictable. I've lost the inner fire. I am no longer the end-boss. I am still excellent at the game, but no longer am I achieving the level of play that I truly desire to be at. Despite being off the tournament grind I still love the game and would never dream of abandoning it. But my fire is in need of kindling.
Taking a break from something I love is the last thing I should be doing. I need to come up with a new plan of attack. I need to relight the fire and strive to get to a new level. Playing the game is fun and I should be having fun. I need to get back on my competitive path and become that mythical player again. The one everybody fears and wants to be like.
To this day I mostly lose to the earlier rival in this story, Charles. We always have intense epic battles, but he beats me more than I beat him. I always wonder afterward what he has that I do not. I always pilot strong decks and I'm a strong player, but Charles has the fire. Charles's legendary temper tantrums are not because he thinks he is the best player in the world, but because he wants to be the best player in the world. He refuses to let his fire die.
I need to be like Charles.
Without the tilt, of course.
Monday, January 10, 2011
The expectations of disappointment.
I’ve been a dad for a few years now (nearly 13) and I’ve been a gamer for much longer. My kids know how much I like games and when a parent is into something the kids get into it also.
My daughter (12) has always been into games she can ‘get’ right away and do well at. Games she can pick up quickly and finish or games she can tootle around on with costumes, mini-games, or just time-wasting behavior (Nintendogs for example). She rarely re-visits games for a second time and is into the types of games that I wouldn’t even pick up to read the back cover in a store.
My son (7) likes games that he can be good at, make no mistake, but it seems the games he re-visits are the ones that he struggles with initially. He plays the same games over and over and within those games plays the same levels countless times. He is into games that are similar to ones I was into when I was a kid, and by and large games that I’m still into.
Now that you have a background on the kid’s differences in game behaviors, they share a common trait as well. They both believe that I am the supreme authority on all things relating to games. From ‘knowing’ how to beat things I’ve never played before to knowing every release and what type of game it is. I do happen to know more than my fair share about these things, but it’s obvious that I can’t keep track of every game out there.
It’s a situation that has more drawbacks than positives from a Dad’s perspective.
Of course I want to live up to my children’s expectations of me, because as a parent you are the mold that 'most' shapes their development into adult persons. There are times I’ll walk through the room when they are playing a game and they’ll hand me the controller to beat a specific level//area//boss//etc and I’ll whip it out like I’d done it a thousand times before and they get that starry eyed look and it makes me feel like a million bucks and really inflates the ego. Other times they’ll ask me about a specific situation or encounter in a game I’ve never played and then look at me with shock and disappointment when I tell them I don’t know.
As they get older, they are starting to realize that I’m not as godly as they thought I was, I don’t think they mind this realization, but is sure bothers me. ;)
-CadDad
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