Category Archives: Meta

Gaming, Meta

On Podcasting

At this point, there have been twelve episodes of the Aggrochat podcast, which you can find in the sidebar. I’ve been in nine of them, meaning that it was about three months ago that Belghast approached myself and the rest of the normal cast about starting it. For a few reasons, I was hesitant about the idea at first, but I went along with it and things seem to be working out.

I am not naturally an outspoken person. I have previously been described (by other people on the podcast) as “chill”, “stoic”, “serious”, or other words that imply I don’t talk a lot. In addition, when I do talk I talk too fast and have a tendency to omit words. I think I sometimes come across as a know-it-all, despite efforts to tone it down when I’m talking to new people. All of this would make me think myself unsuitable for a podcast, if not for a few things. I’m told that I have a great speaking voice (and sometimes singing voice, but you will never, ever hear it). And as part of an earlier point, I’ve gained a bit of a reputation for knowing a lot of (sometimes useless) things.

Professor Ashgar

That last part is probably why I was asked to be on in the first place. I have an above-average memory for mechanics and random information. I know what most of the items in League of Legends do by name, even ones no one buys like Guinsoo’s Rageblade. (I don’t know what Vilemaw’s buff does, however.) During my raiding period in World of Warcraft, I knew theoretically how to play classes that weren’t ones I played personally, and what stats were valuable to what specs for everyone in the raid. This continues into games we play now; I tend to figure out most boss mechanics on the first or second try. I know oddball strategies for most of the bosses in FF5, which comes in handy on the Fiestas.

I could go on, but at this point I’m merely proving some of my earlier comments. I am the group’s walking information repository, and I’ve come to accept that as my role sometimes. This doesn’t come up a lot, but I’m actually the youngest one on the podcast, so it’s a bit of an odd situation. I don’t know everything, and sometimes things are mentioned that are simply before my time or beyond my experiences. I got into console gaming in the Genesis/SNES generation, and didn’t have my own system until the PlayStation. My first MMO is World of Warcraft*, so any experience with anything prior comes from what I’ve heard others say. This mix of experiences is what makes the podcast work, I think.

With a Little Help

This is still not a venture I’d be comfortable doing alone. It’s hard for me to think of myself as interesting, but I can see how someone might be interested in the random conversations were were already having before we started the podcast. Bel, Rae, Kodra, Tam, and Dallian are all great to work with. (I’m sure Waren is too, but the only one he’s been on I was gone for.) The final result is a variety of information sources, interests, and backgrounds talking about stuff, and things, and the stuff about the things. This is fun, and seems to work. Give it a listen if you haven’t already.

 

*This is technically not true. My first MMO experience was the beta for Wish, a vaporware MMO.

Gaming, Meta

On Things That Turn Into Other Things

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Everyone has their preferred character archetypes. In D&D terms, everyone is familiar with the traditional Fighter, Mage, and Thief, so most games try to provide player characters with options along those lines. Other games expand a bit more, with a healer archetype (sometimes a variation of the mage) or an archer archetype (sometimes a variation of the thief). More classes are usually created by combining these in some way. The Barbarian is a combination of the swiftness and light armor of a thief with the power and strength of a fighter. My favorite archetype is a different sort of combination: the shape-shifter.

In a way, shape-shifting characters are usually a combination of the thief and mage archetypes in that they are (usually) magic-users with tools to adapt to a variety of different situations. More generally, it’s characterized by the ability to switch between archetypes. The stereotypical example is the Druid, which is usually given a variety of nature-based spells to heal or harm, and the ability to turn into animals when spells aren’t an appropriate solution. There are other characters that fit this archetype that aren’t the druid, like the lead character of the Breath of Fire series, who turns into a variety of dragons.

There is the lesser example of things with a single alternate form, like most depictions of werewolves. In games, this usually manifests as some sort of temporary power up or super mode (which I like a bit less), but it’s sometimes an alternate form with different strengths and weaknesses from the “base” form. League of Legends likes this model a lot, using it for Nidalee, Elise, and Jayce (sort of).

Balancing this character type has historically been difficult, and for good reason. If one person can duplicate the jobs of three or four at a moment’s notice, it risks eliminating the need for the more focused characters. The traditional tradeoff for this is usually decreased effectiveness at any one role, but this leaves the shape-shifter marginalized in any situation where a single task is valued. “Alternate form” types tend to fall into this trap especially often, where the strengths of one form do not sufficiently cover for its weaknesses, leading to use of only one. (Nidalee in League is perhaps the best example of this.)

Some games balance the ability to do everything by forcing a choice of role, and decreasing the effectiveness of other forms or roles. WoW is the best example here, but D&D Next seems to also use this approach. An alternate approach is limiting the ability to transform in some way. Breath of Fire 4 has both a transformation and a perpetuation cost, so you can’t stay a dragon forever. (I think BoF1 only had a transformation cost, but I haven’t played it in a while.) These have shown to be acceptable ways to balance the power level of this type of character, and I wish more games would use them rather than declaring it too difficult and leaving my favorite archetype out.

 

As a final note: It’s the final day to make donations for The Run, influencing what jobs two members of SDA will use when playing through FF5. I’m still working my way through as well.

Meta

Hello world!

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I suppose some kind of introduction goes here. Given my skill set, the default title seems appropriate.

I’m Ashgar, a name which isn’t original, but I’ve been using it for long enough that no one’s likely to take issue. I’m a programmer, a gamer, and now apparently a blogger. Among certain people, I’ve earned a reputation for knowing everything, but I can assure you this is false. There are plenty of things I don’t know, but I’m working on fixing that. My gaming history doesn’t go as far back as some, the first game I can remember owning and playing is Overkill. My MMO history is much shorter, as I entered the genre with World of Warcraft around the time Burning Crusade came out.

There’s a bit more to me than my background and history, but I think that wraps it up for an introductory post. I don’t know what brand of content is going to follow, but I’ll try to keep it interesting. Or at least educational.