11-08-2005, 03:16 AM
ARGH!
Ever have one of those moments when you are beta testing a game and suddenly become sick of doing the exact same thing for the one millionth time trying to hunt for annoying bugs?
ARGH!
You just get sick of looking at it. It's no longer a game. It's not fun any more. It's not even a hobby. It's suspiciously like work... Which is no fun at all. You have to be real careful that you do not lull off in to the doldrums... You must remain painfully alert looking for things like spelling and grammar errors in text dialogs, plot holes, and all manner of unpolished unfinished edges. The tedium gets so bad when you find your self staring at the same thing over and over that you start to lose track of things like spelling, you just blaze through dialog boxes. Which is bad. REAL BAD.
Especially when it is an RPG. And there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of characters to talk to. And you must go and talk to each and every one. And some of them don't even say a damn thing to you till you go and visit somebody else on the other end of the world. So it's back and forth trying to remain alert seeing what stuff done flag triggers with other stuff done flags and global event triggers. You go off and kill the bandit lord, slay the giant mammals of frightening size, and whollop the stuffing out of the bad guy to save the world. Or the Princess. And in an open ended RPG where there are thousands of side quests and things you can do, and it's all very open ended, you have to try and try again each time trying a new way to skin a cat to see if the game will remain meshed together if you do things in an odd sequence.
ARGH.
Same dialog boxes over and over. Except they change. Subtly. As you alter events and change global event triggers, the world and it's reactions to what is happening changes. Some times text dialogs change by a few simple words. So much to pay attention to. Big fat stacks of telephone books worth of text. You go through it a million times and somewhere along the way, you zone out and fail to notice an event flag or forget about a period. Or there is a typo. "Teh Bandit Lord is dead."
And then there is game balance and cheese and trying to become devious to see if the engine can be abused somehow, and if so, how badly. Can you actually make an indestructable character. And if so, is he (Or she) indestructable and Godlike, or just plain ironclad indestructable. Or on the other end, does the mage type characters die if a goblin does so much as look at them funny? Just how much damage can you make a fireball do? Out of the hundreds of monsters, creatures, and other encounters, how fair and balanced are monster resistances, and how much damage does their fireballs do?
Daisies daisies going crazies.
Ever have one of those moments when you are beta testing a game and suddenly become sick of doing the exact same thing for the one millionth time trying to hunt for annoying bugs?
ARGH!
You just get sick of looking at it. It's no longer a game. It's not fun any more. It's not even a hobby. It's suspiciously like work... Which is no fun at all. You have to be real careful that you do not lull off in to the doldrums... You must remain painfully alert looking for things like spelling and grammar errors in text dialogs, plot holes, and all manner of unpolished unfinished edges. The tedium gets so bad when you find your self staring at the same thing over and over that you start to lose track of things like spelling, you just blaze through dialog boxes. Which is bad. REAL BAD.
Especially when it is an RPG. And there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of characters to talk to. And you must go and talk to each and every one. And some of them don't even say a damn thing to you till you go and visit somebody else on the other end of the world. So it's back and forth trying to remain alert seeing what stuff done flag triggers with other stuff done flags and global event triggers. You go off and kill the bandit lord, slay the giant mammals of frightening size, and whollop the stuffing out of the bad guy to save the world. Or the Princess. And in an open ended RPG where there are thousands of side quests and things you can do, and it's all very open ended, you have to try and try again each time trying a new way to skin a cat to see if the game will remain meshed together if you do things in an odd sequence.
ARGH.
Same dialog boxes over and over. Except they change. Subtly. As you alter events and change global event triggers, the world and it's reactions to what is happening changes. Some times text dialogs change by a few simple words. So much to pay attention to. Big fat stacks of telephone books worth of text. You go through it a million times and somewhere along the way, you zone out and fail to notice an event flag or forget about a period. Or there is a typo. "Teh Bandit Lord is dead."
And then there is game balance and cheese and trying to become devious to see if the engine can be abused somehow, and if so, how badly. Can you actually make an indestructable character. And if so, is he (Or she) indestructable and Godlike, or just plain ironclad indestructable. Or on the other end, does the mage type characters die if a goblin does so much as look at them funny? Just how much damage can you make a fireball do? Out of the hundreds of monsters, creatures, and other encounters, how fair and balanced are monster resistances, and how much damage does their fireballs do?
Daisies daisies going crazies.
All alone, or in twos,
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall.
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands.
The bleeding hearts and artists
Make their stand.
And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad buggers wall.
"Isn't this where...."
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall.
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands.
The bleeding hearts and artists
Make their stand.
And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad buggers wall.
"Isn't this where...."