Category: I Am Error
I Am Error: A Guild Wars retrospective, part 2
| December 21, 2011 | Posted by S.A.Perkins under I Am Error |
Continued from part 1. The first expansion, Factions, is more of the same, adding a shorter yet no less epic main storyline and two more classes, as well as a whole new Asia-themed world to explore, which is my favourite yet. The enemies aren’t as varied as I’d have liked because the same overarching villain is fought throughout the story and his servants basically comprise the enemies in most missions and areas, but that isn’t to say they aren’t good to fight – they’re tricksy little buggers who decide to explode with area-effect nonsense every time you kill one, and my paper-thin assassin with super low health was basically screwed once I’d weakened down a group of five or so,… more
I Am Error: MMOs and their future
| November 16, 2011 | Posted by S.A.Perkins under I Am Error |
So now we reach the crux of the matter. My rambling about Guild Wars has merely been a preamble – admittedly a very lengthy preamble yet one that was no less insightful or awesome (shut up, yes it was) – to this article. I’m a bit of an MMO bi-polar, because I both love and hate them. Not exactly a unique perspective on the genre, but as it is my perspective, obviously everyone on the internet needs to know my opinion. Yes, they do. So why do I like MMOs, and why do I hate them? Well, the main reason I despise MMORPGs is what they do to people who play them. I covered this in my previous article on… more
I Am Error: A Guild Wars retrospective
| November 9, 2011 | Posted by S.A.Perkins under I Am Error |
This week, I thought I’d have a bit of retrospective and talk about a game which I’ve loved for quite a number of years and which has slowly eaten away at my social life – ha, as if I had one to begin with – like a flesh eating sea bass (spot the reference!). Which game could I possibly be talking about? No, it’s not Mass Effect. Seriously. I’ve talked about that more than enough already. I’m talking about Guild Wars, the free-to-play MMORPG that has been continuously hanging onto World of Warcraft’s coat tails like a small infant child who wants to go home from the party and doesn’t quite understand what “bugger off” means – not that I’d… more
I Am Error: Gears of War 3
| November 2, 2011 | Posted by S.A.Perkins under I Am Error |
Gears of War 3 is the much awaited finale to the Gears of War trilogy. You know the general idea by now: the world is absolutely buggered, there is some insidious alien threat that will destroy the planet (ten points for originality), and men who look like part of the Steroid Enthusiast Weekly readership run around with giant guns, apparently capable of doing the job of an entire army with only four men, leading to significant job cuts and a hard time for all. That’s essentially the main gist of Gears 3 as well, save for some slight – and oh do I mean slight – differences. There will be severe spoilers in this review, so if you’d rather not… more
I Am Error: An analysis of current RPG games
| October 13, 2011 | Posted by S.A.Perkins under I Am Error |
This is the big one. Can I get through this article without mentioning that certain game by BioWare? I hope so, otherwise I may have to consult a psychiatrist about my deeply ingrained addiction, considering I’m actually playing it while writing. Moving on though, I thought that this time I would move away from topics about video games as a whole, away from issues of controversy and such things (I don’t half sound like a pretentious arse when I talk about that sort of thing), and instead I’m simply going to talk about my favourite genre of video games: the RPG (and now you can see why it’s going to be hard for me not to mention That Which Must… more
I Am Error: Character archetypes in video games
| September 28, 2011 | Posted by S.A.Perkins under I Am Error |
Video games have fallen into the regrettable trend of setting archetypes on their characters. You all know what I mean: the touch guy, the comic relief, the damsel in distress. Not all games use tropes like this, but don’t be too surprised if games will fall back on these standard character models, usually when the writers fail to actually, you know, write. I’d like to take some time to go through the different archetypes, where you might find them in the video game market, and how they work with the games as a whole medium. I might also delve into a debate on whether or not video games benefit from using these archetypes, or if they need to go. Oh,… more
I Am Error: Video game addiction
| September 21, 2011 | Posted by S.A.Perkins under I Am Error |
Video game addiction is a subject that has become something of a much debated topic over the recent years, because with the rising technical stats and improving quality of video games more people are becoming gamers, and more people are becoming what some would call ‘addicted’. It is something of a fear among the older generation that their spawn and progeny are going to end up addicted to video games – though to be honest, I’d be more concerned if my son was smoking weed than playing Call of Duty, if not by much – and so many people are starting to look at the inherent risks of video games and the chances of becoming addicted to them. As a… more
I Am Error: Video game controversy
| September 14, 2011 | Posted by S.A.Perkins under I Am Error |
Video games have come under a hell of a lot of criticism over their brief time (I say brief in relation to things like movies and books, so put the torches and pitchforks away and sit down). Whether you’re talking about the old ‘hot coffee’ incident in our good ol’ friend, Grand Theft Auto – and by friend, I mean the kind of friend you like to beat until he gives you the pack of skittles you wanted but he took – or the massive, overblown nonsense that surrounded Mass Effect’s totally infamous and ungodly sex scene, people tend to recognise that video games are surrounded by controversy; however there is more to it than the simple truth that video games can… more
I Am Error: Character interaction in gaming
| September 7, 2011 | Posted by S.A.Perkins under I Am Error |
Many of you know I’m a big fan of both Mass Effect and Fallout, two series of games which highlight their system of interaction towards NPCs (non-playable characters). Don’t get me wrong, I love the system of interaction in those games, but there lies a distinct difference between interaction and real speech. For example, in Mass Effect, you can pick from a range of dialogue options depending on your current situation, and your player character will play out those lines, and sure, you get different responses, but the problem is that often those conversations don’t feel… real. There was a conversation I had as a paragon (good) Commander Shepard, talking to a police officer about a situation I had just… more
