Some thoughts on being a teenager
Almost everyone survives being a teenager. Unfortunately, most people don't remember what it was like. This isn't really surprising, as the experience of being a teenager is so dynamic and, ultimately, fleeting. You change so quickly that you wouldn't recognize yourself 2 years ago or 2 years in the future. After you become an adult, well, you can spend decades without changing. That's why it's easy to forget what being a teenager was like.
Volunteer. It's awesome to feel wanted, and volunteering is a great way to do it. Plus, you get to meet new people, and put aside your own problems for a while. You might even get some perspective on things, "Gee, getting a D on that exam really sucked, but it's better then having a liver transplant."
You are the biggest influence on your life. Life, and other things outside of your control, will determine which resources are available to you, but you are the only one who decides what to do with them. You could have the most caring parents in the world, but they'll do you no good unless you listen to them. You could have the worst school in the world, but you can still learn a lot if you're dedicated. I'm not saying that other influences aren't important, only that you, ultimately, determine how much of an affect they have on your life.
Don't bother with drugs - isn't your life sufficiently confusing as it is? Why would you want to make your life more complicated? When you're over 21, fine, do what you want - but take full responsibility for it. Before then, you've got so many other pitfalls to negotiate, why make things harder on yourself? Might as well cut off a limb just to see how long you can survive without it.
Sorry if this sounded preachy.
For most of the day yesterday, I was looking forward to playing some more of the Neverwinter Nights demo. Previously, I had played through the initial training area and had arrived at the stables, which is where, I presumed, my demo adventure would begin.
So, last night, I fire up the computer, launch the demo, and step out of the stables only to discover the end of the demo. Now I've got to go out and buy this game!
NEVERWINTER NIGHTS
$29.99 at gamestop.com
Well, I've had one request to keep the Stories section around. Anyone want to speak up for Arrows, Secret Deals, or Holiday (which I think is a neat feature)?
So, I thought you might be interested in which parts of FlyingSheep.com are the most popular. Well, it breaks down like this:
71.57% Adventure!
7.79% Quizzes and Gift Ideas! (combined)
5.55% William Blake Timeline
4.72% Castles!
2.56% Jokes
2.34% (Home Page)
2.10% IAQ
1.13% What's In A Name?
0.98% Polls
0.37% Stories
0.22% Playstation Game Match Service
0.17% Web Counter
0.15% Arrows!
0.12% Secret Deals!
0.10% Lynx
0.10% Holiday
0.06% Recommendations
Clearly the Adventure game is the most popular attraction by far. I think that's great! I had no idea that it would be so popular. I'm also pleased that the quizzes and the William Blake Timeline are pretty popular as well.
As for the rest of the list, things that less then one half of a percent of you are interested in, well, I've got to admit that I'm thinking about getting rid of some of them. They take up space and time to the detriment to the rest of the website.
With that in mind, I'd like to formally announce the Endangered list:
Stories
Arrows!
Secret Deals!
Holiday
If you have any strong feelings about any of the above, please let me know as soon as possible.
Ok, so it seems that the Secret Deals isn't as popular as I thought it would be. However, I've just added one that I think almost all of you will be able to make good use of.
Until the end of November, GameSpot.com is offering $1 shipping on all orders. Order as many games as you like, and the shipping is only $1. Sounds pretty good to me.
I've got to stop playing Okage. It's addictive in a strange way, the story, while not terribly compelling, is interesting and funny. I'm not sure if it's funny because it's witty, or if it's accidentally amusing because of the translations.
Every character you meet, absolutely every one, is obsessed with the opposite sex. It's cute at first, and then it becomes repetitive. Each chapter in the game seems to introduce another potential girlfriend for the main character. It's mildly disturbing.
The biggest problem with the game, however, is saving your progress. It employs the tried and true method of Save points, places that you need to return to in order to save your progress. In town, you are supposed to be able to save your game at the local Inn.
So, after playing for about an hour the other night, and getting a few things accomplished, I decided it was time to go to the Inn and stop playing for the night. When I arrived there, the innkeeper refused to let me save! Instead, he said something vague like "You should see the princess while she's in town." So, I went around to everyone in town and talked to them again. I spent 45 minutes reading the same dialogue I had already read until I managed to trigger the right event. An hour later, I was allowed to save my game.
Now, if I had needed to leave the house for some reason (e.g. to go to work), I would have had to choose between being an hour late, discarding my previous hour's progress, or leaving the playstation on all day!
I'm vaguely curious about how the game ends. I might even read a walkthrough just to see what happens, but I've got to stop playing Okage.
Session Report: October 17, 2003
Games Played: Princes of Florence, Entdecker
Gamers: Chip, Vitas, Paul, Evan, Dave
Thanks to Dave at Scholars for hosting, and thanks for Vitas for providing transportation.
After spending about an hour and a half on the road (Maps? Who needs them?), we arrived at Cole's Hall to find . . . nobody. Actually, that's not entirely true. There were many Magic players upstairs, and Dave (I think) arrived shortly after we did. While Vitas and I got food and Magic commons from Scholars, Dave, Evan and Paul played a round of Space Beans. When they finished playing (and we finished eating), we started a five-player game of Princes of Florence.
PRINCES OF FLORENCE (2:11 + 0:29 rules)
Vitas: 60
Evan: 53
Dave: 39
Chip: 39
Paul: 32
I think this game moved much slower then it would normally, mostly because we were all (except for Evan) new to the game. We probably wasted at least half an hour to "work points to cash or victory points" confusion. As Evan put it, "You can convert two points to one point, or one point to 100 cash, so each point is worth 200 cash." - what could be simpler? (:
I made a rather silly error in the penultimate round. Instead of purchasing a building that matched one of my personality cards, I decided to try to get the recruit card, and picked a building based on the card that I would most likely recruit. The competition for the final recruit card was fierce (as I should have anticipated), and I didn't have enough money left to compete. As a result, I did not publish any works in the last round and tied for the "most works" bonus. I would have done better, but I still wouldn't have won.
That confusion and the interminable length aside, this is a great game. It's entirely possible to plan your ideal move ahead of time and, presuming that no one took the last of the freedoms that you wanted, make your moves quickly. Otherwise, the downtime can get a bit tedious. I like this game a lot, and I'd want to play it again.
ENTDECKER (1:45 + 0:05 rules and setup)
Dave: 74
Chip: 73
Vitas: 65
Evan: 44
Dave was new to the game, but he had read the rules before, so we quickly got into the meat of the game. There were two large islands in the game, and I managed to take the lion's share of both. On my last turn, I had 4 coins left to finish off the last island. Instead of taking 3 mystery tiles and placing a settler, I selected the known tile which left me without any money. At that point, Evan had a one point lead on me, but he had no stake on the island, and Vitas and Dave were far behind, so it seemed safe.
Had I been able to place that settler, I would have been able to defend my 15 point villager token and I would have won. Instead, Dave took quite a few of the village bonuses and inched ahead by one point!
I made the mistake of underestimating the value of the villages. I took the majority of the two biggest scoring islands and rarely, if ever, rolled for money. Dave, on the other hand, rolled for money almost every turn (Pirates came for him at least four times, and went away empty handed as he had only a single coin), and did not take the majority of any island. I'll have to try the "all settlers" approach the next time I play.
After the two-handed game last week, I wasn't so excited about playing Entdecker again. After this close and exciting game, I'm looking forward to playing it again.
Lots of gaming over the weekend, watch this space for session reports.
