My Kind of Gamer

This is really my kind of gamer:

A post in the official World of Warcraft forums has attracted much attention recently. Everbloom, a Night elf Druid on World of Warcraft's Feathermoon server, has managed to reach the maximum level 85 without killing a single mod. Everbloom pulled the feat off by only picking herbs, digging up bones and simply exploring the wilderness of Azeroth.

Like Everbloom, I hate games that require me to run, shoot, and feel under pressure. How much nicer is it to walk around at leisure, pick herbs and accumulate points that way. I often set up games on purpose in a way that makes it impossible for opponents to bug me while I'm slowly doing my thing. Life is full of stress, so if I find time to play, I want the game to be as stress-free as possible.

Sadly, I only find time to play maybe once every 3-4 months. Maybe I'll celebrate the end of the semester with one major bout of gaming.

Hardcore Gamers...

. . . are all  nuts. OK, maybe not all of them but many definitely are. Which I didn't know until I posted a review of Civilization V where I dared (and what a horrible thing to do!) to mention that I like Civilization V and didn't enjoy Civilization IV. Since then, I have been inundated by angry messages from gamers, ranging from mildly offensive to scarily crazy, berating me for expressing my opinion of the game. This is really insane because it's just a game. And probably now I will be hated even more because this is not a sentence any hardcore gamer ever wants to hear.

I have been accused of being paid by the company that made the game to promote it (I wish, but in what universe would they hire somebody like me who only plays a couple of times a month, at best?) and of never even having seen either version of the game and just writing bad things about Civ IV out of spite (yes, because it cheated on me with my boyfriend.)

So, gamers, please stop writing to me, telling me how Civ V's introduction of hexes has changed your life for the worse. If you care about it this much, you probably never had a life to begin with. Maybe now is a good time to get your ass out of that arm-chair and go get one.

P.S. My husband's comment on this subject: "If you spent as much time with gamers as I do, you would know that these people don't have any sex. At all. Ever. Then, you would be more compassionate towards them."

Civilization V: A Review

For some reason, Sid Meier's Civilization V got pretty bad reviews, which surprises me because the game is really great. I loved Civilization 3 and Civilization 2 and played them for years. Sid Meiers Civilization IV: Complete, though, was a huge disappointment. It introduced a lot of components that were useless and led nowhere. Worst of all, it allowed very little choice in game options. I prefer to customize every game according to my very specific preferences, which was impossible in Sid Meiers Civilization IV: Complete. As a result, I only played it a few times and it turned out to be a complete waste of time.

This new version of the game is a huge improvement on all previous versions, especially the fourth. The graphics are fantastic. The game looks a lot more sophisticated and professionally done. Longer games can get tedious and repetitives, especially for obsessive players like me who need to control every city's production and every unit's movements. So it really helps that every technological advance, policy acquisition, creation of a Wonder, or beginning of a new era is accompanied by a beautifully made screen with an interesting quote. To give an example, when you enter the modern era, you hear a voise announce: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!" The leaders of the cultures you meet actually talk to you in their own languages, which is beyond cool.

There are many new options in the game, which initially intimidated me a bit. I can never make myself read a manual or look for help online and prefer to figure things out by trial an error. This version of the game offers such detailed and timely help on every issue you might encounter that learning to play Sid Meier's Civilization V is rendered extremely easy.

Some of the improvements to the game have been a long time coming. You can now purchase new tiles, instead of waiting forever for your civilization to expand on its own. There are city-states that allow exciting new options for diplomacy. You need to make efforts to make a city-state friendly to you but diligence in this area always pays off. Friendly city-states offer great gifts, as well as timely advice on how to run the civilization.

A big new improvement that has caused something of a controversy among Civilization lovers is that religion is gone and has been substituted by different kinds of social policies that can be adopted at different points of the game (contingent on how fast you accumulate culture.) In the previous versions of the game, religion was somewhat of an afterthought and an eventual useless encumbrance. Choosing a religion made very little difference on how the game was run and it always felt like a needless distraction. Social policy, however, has been very well-thought out and is very sophisticated. You need to choose your social policies carefully because they will have a big influence on how your civilization develops.  

I know people have complained that the game runs slowly and crashes often. What you need to know before you buy it is that you need a new and powerful computer to run it. Read the specs carefully and see if your computer meets them all. If it does, this game will process all turns extremely fast and will not crash. Mine has been working perfectly.

What Counts as a Civilization?

I've been waiting for Sid Meier's Civilization V to come out for a long time. When I finally received the game, I was dismayed to discover that the list of civilizations one can play for in this version of the game runs as follows:

America, Arabia, Aztec, China, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Greece, India, Iroquois, Japan, Ottoman, Persia, Rome, Russia, Siam, Songhai

Do you see what I mean? There is no Spain!! Even though Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world, even though Hispanic civilization gave the world Cervantes, Picasso, Garcia Lorca, Goya, Calderon, Goytisolo, as well as 11 Nobel Prize winners in literature, there is no place for Spain in this version of the game. On what planet is Spain less deserving of being named a civilization than France, Germany, and Siam is beyond my comprehension. Spain was one of the civilizations in the previous versions of the game. I wonder what the motivation was behind removing it from the list.

It is equally annoying that the word "America" here refers to the United States. Canada and the countries of Central and South America are completely excluded.

Scrabble on Kindle

Great news for Scrabble-loving Kindle-owners: our favorite game is finally available on Kindle. Unlike Shuffled Row and Every Word, SCRABBLE for Kindle isn't free. For me, however, the game is definitely worth the price.

I'm fascinated by language games and Scrabble is one of my favorite word games ever. The only problem is that I really suck at it. I'm not being coy about it, or anything. Believe me, my Scrabble skills are abismally poor. A long time ago, I stopped inflicting myself at those of my friends who play this game. I tried playing with strangers online, thinking that, since I don't know them, I won't feel bad by making them suffer through the frustration of playing with me. Eventually, though, I gave up after receiving several polite suggestions that I learn the rules before I subject people to my horrible Scrabble skills.

Now that SCRABBLE is available on Kindle, I can gratify my desire to play the game without making anybody suffer. The Kindle version of the game can be played against yourself, against the computer (at various levels of prowess), and against your friends. I was afraid that it would take the system forever to think of a move, but that turned out not to be the case. The game against the computer proceeds fast. There are in-built functions that help those of us whose Scrabble skills are poor. Graphically, the game is beautiful and very easy to play. The only problem with the game is that now I've been playing it for 2 days and keep putting off grading students' exams.

Another Free Guest Pass Key for Starcraft II

Here is another free guest pass key for the new Starcraft II. The person who gets here first will be able to use it for free for 7 hours of game time or 14 days from activation (whichever comes first):

7EZD7X-PVYP-NRYRZM-GTR7-V26XWP

Instructions:

1. Go to www.starcraft2.com/guest

2. Create a Battle.net account or log into the one you already have.

3. Enter the Guest Pass Key into the field provided.

Have fun!

Free World of Warcraft Passes

I have two guest passes for World of Warcraft. With each guest pass you can play for free for 10 days.

If you want these guest passes, leave your e-mail address in the comment section or write to this blog's e-mail at clarissasblog@hotmail.com.

Like last time, if there are more people interested than guest passes available, I'll pull names out of a hat to see who gets the guest passes.

StarCraft II: A Free Guest Pass

Gamers all over the world have been eagerly awaiting the release of StarCraft II. For ten years, fans of the game have been speculating as to whether the hype will be worth it. Now, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty is finally out.

I have a free guest pass that allows you to play the game for free for 7 hours or 14 days from activation, whichever comes first (those who don't know what will come first have never met a gamer.) So if you are interested in checking out what the game is like through the use of this guest pass, let me know.

Just leave an e-mail address where I can send you the Guest Pass Key in the comments or send it to me by e-mail. I promise that nobody will find out your e-mail from me. If there are several people who are interested, I'll put their names in a hat and see who gets the guest pass.

For the sake of all gamers, I sincerely hope that StarCraft II lives up to the expectations and turns out to be worth the wait.

Let the Protoss win!