Mired in Ecstacy

Yesterday, i logged onto viwawa and tried out the two new games. Numeroid, it seems is equivalent to the arcade classic “Puzzle Bobble” + forming of mathematical equations. My brain is kinda rusty but i did surprise myself by beating the crap out of everyone i came into contact with. Perhaps people are not used to doing maths while playing games i figured.

2nd game was Wahlords. Which i enjoyed much more. Basically its a bomberman game which has become turn-based instead of real time. So the makers have in actual fact sidestepped the issue of latency leading to the people having unfair advantages in the quest to trap each other. The purchase of different bombs and equipment adds a new twist to the game though higher levels have a marked advantage over the lower ones with their equipment. while u can hit 3 squares, they can hit the entire row. How’s that for coverage?

And so, i realized quickly that to beat others at both these games, one aspect is to grasp the trend
and pattern of the game better than your opponent. How long you have played them obviously is not an issue as i have outwitted higher levels with power bombs easily as I have lost to someone who is at a lower lvl than myself. While numeroid requires you to multitask and notice the connection of colours quickly and
mental dexterity in doing maths during reloading, Wahlords requires you to grasp the trend that your opponent has for play. Seems simple enough? While some have a tendency to take risks to gain points destroying objects, some have a more aggressive tendency to chase. Understanding your map and the moves your oppenent intends to make is actually quite a science. The number of action points, how far he can move, can all be calculated based on previous moves. Simple manipulation to bond others to gang against higher levels can be an effective strategy as well. No matter, i think those with a more mathematical, logical background should no doubt fare better than others on the whole as long they’re flexible to make use of their academic capabilities in a game.

All this ties back to my original thought from the Long Tail that the line of amateurs and professionals have been blurred. You don’t have to be an art director to be able to come up with short films on your windows XP or Vista that are highly entertaining. And most importantly, people who watch, don’t really care. They consume such articles with the same amount of expectation. (or absence of) Or perhaps you blog and the way you write captivates a much larger audience than that of magazines or professional journalists. People’s tastes differ by nature and while the mass media used to own our total attention span, the easier reach of more personalized sources makes a switch from 8 Days to the People magazine or Movies magazine commonplace.

While a couple of years of exposure to the “big picture” may be necessary, there is no doubt that our generation is picking things up fast. More analytical, logical skills sometimes making up for the experience of bosses can see us coming up with insights that may elude the hardened veteran whom has seen too much of the same thing to “see” it.

Yesterday night, i found myself playing the movies in my head again, some even continued into my dream. At some point I don’t even know whether i’m awake or asleep. Then again it may be just that, half-awake and asleep.

Blizzard sent me another response yesterday and i finally figured it out. (i think) Account seems to be different from billing in that account deals with the operating side on whether it has been blocked or whatsoever while billing deals with activity. Before i start to blame myself, standard blizzard responses do have a way of causing people to glaze through them. Its just like when you mom starts the conversation with “you know, sometimes you should…” Yes its not “right” to have such a response but hey we’re all humans right?