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So lots of things to write about, just haven't been getting around to doing it. Would be much easier if I was better at writing short updates, but knowing me I can't see that happening.
A fair chunk of my free time at the moment, and I don't seem to have a lot of it, has been going into Dragon Age: Origins. I've just finished the last of the build an army quest lines, and have a number of human (Warrior and mage), dwarven and elven NPC's ready to help me fight the blight or more likely get inevitable caught and killed in my area effect spells. It's a good game; I've been enjoying it. While I recognise that there's little difference in quests and dialogue once you've done the origin story beyond the odd comment about your race/gender I've been pleasantly surprised at how they've made some of the origin details matter later on. I'm still mostly wandering around with Alistair (good warrior), Morrigan (evil mage) and Leilana (good rogue) primarily for theargumentsconversations they often have, but also because getting the final player character 20 levels into the game kind of makes me disinclined to stop using the ones I've taken with me so far to try them out.
This is also where the title of this entry comes in there's something about western style RPG's (by which I mean Bioware and Bethesda made ones mostly) that results in all my player characters ending up with the alignment of 'Kleptomaniac Good'. This is where they'll consistently do what's right, pick the good options, say all the nice things and yet at the same time will pick every pocket, loot every home and generally attempt to acquire every possible ounce of money or special piece of equipment they can. In Dragon Age this has resulted in the odd plot killed party members spending their last few moments (in the resulting sequence) standing around in their underwear (because I've reloaded to strip them of all their possessions after watching it the first time around). I'm really noticing this with Dragon Age because most of the quests don't give you the rewards unless your mercenary enough to ask for them which kind of brakes with my picking all the nice and good dialogue options otherwise.
In reality I think it's probably fair to say that as a gamer I'm more Obsessive Completionist Good, I'll inevitable play nice characters instead of evil ones, but either way it all ends up on the sidelines when it comes to loot. In Fallout 3 my house in Megaton has a book shelf stuffed full of unneeded skill books (made all the worse considering the time spent fighting the physics to get them in there), and lockers full of named special versions of the weapons. That's not including carrying more ammo than I could shoot or the time spent trudging slowly over-encumbered by stuff because I couldn't bring myself to drop it. Then there's the large libraries worth of scrolls my Elder Scrolls character lugs around with him and never uses, and the fact the most common spells I cast are the ones to lighten my inventory and increase my strength, so I can actually move in order to sell my newly acquired treasures. Hell in Half Life 2 I used the gravity gun to launch large quantities of ammo and health upgrades across the map for when I might need them.
I recognise I do it though, too many final game bosses defeated with a pile of un-usued and unneeded mega-elixers/rare ammo/whatever has made me try and remember that I have these things and they only have any sort of purpose if they get used. Still I'm curious any other game item hoarders out there, and if so how do you break the behaviour?
Actually I'll think I'll try writing one thing a day and see how that works this week, if I'm going to try breaking some habitual behaviours might as well break a few more. Still to come this week: FFXIII - it's "not an RPG" status, slating reviews and franchise loyalty; The Hyperion/Endymion novels by Dan Simmons; Why buying a car right now is difficult (stupid scrappage scheme and supply-demand economics); and general life, the universe and house progress.
A fair chunk of my free time at the moment, and I don't seem to have a lot of it, has been going into Dragon Age: Origins. I've just finished the last of the build an army quest lines, and have a number of human (Warrior and mage), dwarven and elven NPC's ready to help me fight the blight or more likely get inevitable caught and killed in my area effect spells. It's a good game; I've been enjoying it. While I recognise that there's little difference in quests and dialogue once you've done the origin story beyond the odd comment about your race/gender I've been pleasantly surprised at how they've made some of the origin details matter later on. I'm still mostly wandering around with Alistair (good warrior), Morrigan (evil mage) and Leilana (good rogue) primarily for the
This is also where the title of this entry comes in there's something about western style RPG's (by which I mean Bioware and Bethesda made ones mostly) that results in all my player characters ending up with the alignment of 'Kleptomaniac Good'. This is where they'll consistently do what's right, pick the good options, say all the nice things and yet at the same time will pick every pocket, loot every home and generally attempt to acquire every possible ounce of money or special piece of equipment they can. In Dragon Age this has resulted in the odd plot killed party members spending their last few moments (in the resulting sequence) standing around in their underwear (because I've reloaded to strip them of all their possessions after watching it the first time around). I'm really noticing this with Dragon Age because most of the quests don't give you the rewards unless your mercenary enough to ask for them which kind of brakes with my picking all the nice and good dialogue options otherwise.
In reality I think it's probably fair to say that as a gamer I'm more Obsessive Completionist Good, I'll inevitable play nice characters instead of evil ones, but either way it all ends up on the sidelines when it comes to loot. In Fallout 3 my house in Megaton has a book shelf stuffed full of unneeded skill books (made all the worse considering the time spent fighting the physics to get them in there), and lockers full of named special versions of the weapons. That's not including carrying more ammo than I could shoot or the time spent trudging slowly over-encumbered by stuff because I couldn't bring myself to drop it. Then there's the large libraries worth of scrolls my Elder Scrolls character lugs around with him and never uses, and the fact the most common spells I cast are the ones to lighten my inventory and increase my strength, so I can actually move in order to sell my newly acquired treasures. Hell in Half Life 2 I used the gravity gun to launch large quantities of ammo and health upgrades across the map for when I might need them.
I recognise I do it though, too many final game bosses defeated with a pile of un-usued and unneeded mega-elixers/rare ammo/whatever has made me try and remember that I have these things and they only have any sort of purpose if they get used. Still I'm curious any other game item hoarders out there, and if so how do you break the behaviour?
Actually I'll think I'll try writing one thing a day and see how that works this week, if I'm going to try breaking some habitual behaviours might as well break a few more. Still to come this week: FFXIII - it's "not an RPG" status, slating reviews and franchise loyalty; The Hyperion/Endymion novels by Dan Simmons; Why buying a car right now is difficult (stupid scrappage scheme and supply-demand economics); and general life, the universe and house progress.
