I had to retry logging into to a forum 4 times before I got the right combination of username and password. I guess it's a sign that I have too many aliases. :(
Why The Stress on Player Skill?
As a gamer, I find it rewarding when player skill and decisions make or break a battle. There is a feeling of achievement when it is an improvement in your own skill that leads to victory in a battle, not just the fact that your character is now of a higher level, or that your character is now equipped with more skills. I feel it is more rewarding that your own technique, methods and tactics have improved against a given enemy. However, it is also interesting and fun to be able try different things - using your own control. Turn-based is fun if the tactical element is great, but otherwise it gets boring and dry quickly - especially if your skill repetoire (like at the beginning of your game) is too limited, or if it is too varied, you have too many useless skills.
Having a smaller set of skills repeatable, but that both grow in power and vary in tactical value as time passes as well as more interesting movement styles and enemies. It's always interesting when a skilful player takes less time to grind than that of a new player, but knowing that the new player will catch up eventually in skill as well - and follow suit.
Having a system like this also introduces a new element. Because enemies will have to behave similar to players and behave in predictable patterns (unlike in an RPG), this opens up a new avenue, since enemy AI can have more flexibility and can create more of an interest in the enemy, compared to just knowing it's HP. This also means that I can have annoying enemies that die in one hit, but are difficulty to hit without a gun, for example, or enemies that are easy to hit, but difficult to take down.
Then of course, we have enemies that are unblockable, or attacks that not avoidable (but blockable or possible to resist against) in addition to more traditional buffs and debuffs that affect speed, damage, the ability to cast spells, and so on. All this test player skills considerably, and it wouldn't be an overstatement to say that a new player with a powerful character will be greatly mismatched and depending on how different the loadout is on the character - it is even possible that the new player will be unable to use the character at all!
(Of course, if it actually reached that stage, I'd say the game probably needs reworking on the ease of control.)
The Tasks I Set Out to Do
I realise I'm quite fond of revisiting old posts, so here I am, posting again as a revisit. If you remember, two weeks ago, I posted this. So, how much of that have I done?
1. Get tertiary newspaper cards - got 'em both last week, The Age card on Monday, Herald Sun card on Wednesday.
2. Get copies of my academic transcript - got 'em two weeks ago. All the applications for the latest deadlines have been sent out. Sadly, I think I didn't get much feedback or response. :(
3. Update my blog - well, how many posts have you seen since then?
4. Raid Big W/Safeway - I raided Big W and Safeway roughly 8 times in the past two weeks.
5. Think about getting a new computer - I decided against it eventually in favour of saving the money for something else (people who know me already know what). I realise I only want it to play StarCraft II, so I'll get one when StarCraft II does come out.
6. Visit the bank - got my new card, and I'm bloody happy with it. It looks cooler, and does so much more for me.
Well, I thought I'd miss certain things, but I didn't. That being said, the movement of my Wii into my room has increased my usage of it somewhat. (Maybe an hour or two per week, instead of never.) I'm gaming a lot more regularly, and I have had significant shorter amounts of dead time for the past few weeks.
While I now have more free time and less hours of uni per week, looks like I can look forward to a very very enjoyable year, be it study, work, or play.
Mass Effect Completed
I've finished Mass Effect. Can't say I'm satisfied, but the fact that I completed the game is more than testament to how good it is. It's riddled with bugs, especially those involving collision detection (I think a nice physics engine, perhaps Havok, could help with that) - hopefully that's fixed by Mass Effect 2. I can't say I'm a fan yet, since I have no intention of collecting the trilogy or preordering the remaining planned two games. (By the way, why do so many of the biotic spells feel like Force powers? Hm....)
Mass Effect Playthrough
I've started playing Mass Effect lately, I think I'm about halfway on the storyline, not counting side quests. I can roughly see where the storyline is going, and it's not particularly brilliant, but it's still OK. The FPS controls could've been tighter, but it's sufficient. It's not an excellent game, but it's definitely above average.