Games, addiction and time consuming pass times

[matgb]

I don't play MMORPGs like World of Warcraft. I try to avoid buying too many computer games, especially new ones, as I know what I'm like. Up until now though, I had no idea that Jennie was, in actualy fact, worse than me in this regard as well. She's hidden it well.

Those of you that read miss_s_b or theyorkshergob might be wondering if her silence today is due to hangover or similar from her birthday yesterday. You might suspect she's recovering. Well, she is, sort of.

She's sat on the sofa. Playing Speed Racer on the Wii. She's been there pretty much non-stop except for food breaks. Since 4pm today. 9^1/2hrs and counting.

It's a fun game, with lots of little tricks to learn. But she's way way past the "I want to be able to teach shrublette how to play this" stage.

Doesn't bother me of course, I've been distracted for more than a few hours by Oolite since I started playing it in November. But I don't recall an 8 hour straight game. Meh, I've turned the TV volume down and crawled into bed, I have books to read and candles to read them by--if she doesn't come upstairs until the morning that's her call.

Visitors tomorrow, innerbrat and ms_ntropy are braving the Megabus from The Smoke. So she'll teach them how to play it tomorrow evening I've no doubt.

Comments

[exmoor-cat.livejournal.com]

Who on earth names a game after a Jurassic limestone formation?

[matgb]

Ah, I see. Yes, well. It's an Elite clone using Object Orientated coding practices. Thus OOlite, set in the Ooniverse. Where I regularly dock at a Tescoo Ooxpress or a Sainsboory's.

It's fun, and very reminiscent of when I was ten (when the game first came out).

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Damn you, I will have to download this when I get home.

When I recently was looking for something in my old desk at my parents' house, I found a folder with many pages with handwritten tables of Elite trade prices, sorted by galaxy. I came to home computers rather late and played it on the Amiga '86/7ish. Elite certainly ate a lot of my time then but not as much as X-COM: Terror from the Deep in '95, when I was a useless unemployed graduate and played this at least 12 hours a day (when I wasn't sleeping, eating or watching rented VHS tapes).

[davegodfrey.livejournal.com]

Ooh, looks interesting. Though I haven't got the time for it, I'm currently utterly engrossed in X3:Terran Conflict. One of the nice things about the X games is that there's a large online community of people writing scripts and mods for virtually every aspect of the game.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Dammit, I can't dock anymore. Then again, it's been 22 years...

[matgb]

Fly first to the nav beacon that's outside the station. When right next to it, point at the station, that's a direct route.

Then fly in, at about half speed, and line up. Going too slow makes it harder.

Or do what they suggest in the forums and open your safe game in the text editor and switch it to TRUE under docking computer.

I didn't do that with my first one, but did with my second as quite frankly I can dock, but it's boring.

Essential purchase=witchdrive fuel injectors.

If your PC is up to it, get the 'realistic shipyards' add on as well—mine isn't, SB's is, hence I had a restart.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

It's also tricky because the station wobbles on all axes and doesn't just rotate like it used to.

I think I'm going to do that. I remember being really annoyed when you're attacked on your way in and they shoot off your docking computer and you had to buy a new one. Fighting for your life and cargo is one thing, crashing while docking after you escaped is just plain annoying and frustrating.

Cheers for the tips!

[mapp.livejournal.com]

"But I don't recall an 8 hour straight game."

Not even with a Civ game?

[(Anonymous)]

Hah! I reckon he managed it when he was playing Civ II on my machine ages back.

The only real question was whether he got out of bed early enough in the day to put nine hours in before retiring for the night...

That said, I've easily gone 12+ hours straight on Diablo 2 and Guild Wars. Unhealthy that :-)

[paulatpingu.livejournal.com]

Stupid work PC...

[matgb]

Oy, I resemble that remark.

As I said to Mark, Civ games don't count. Although I probably did.

[matgb]

Civ games don't count, you spend half the time waiting for the PC turns to resolve—I used to have a book to read at the same time.

Besides, I'd normally save regularly and take breaks to do stuff.

[cosmolinguist]

Aw, I wanna see innerbrat and ms_entropy too! That'd be awesome. Have fun.

[matgb]

We have no real plans at all, and I'm not sure how long they're up for, I did get confused with arrangements and stuff. But yeah, would be good if we could do summat, a trip to Manchester might be an option.

[cosmolinguist]

It'd be awesome to have you in Manchester; I know Andrew would love to see innerbrat too. Plus he feels bad we couldn't make it to Jennie's party, because he's like that, so a chance to rectify this would not be a bad thing either.

He's working tomorrow but I'm around during the daytime then too. I lost my phone so you'll have to e-mail me or brave the landline to get in touch, unfortunately.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

I'm working tomorrow also.

[cosmolinguist]

Well we two are quite free this evening. :) Don't know about you lot.

[pmoodie.livejournal.com]

There was a time I could quite easily have spent 9 1/2 hours engrossed in a game. Nowadays I'm much more of a casual gamer, although I'm quite capable of spending a whole afternoon playing something at the weekend, or when I'm on holiday.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I haven't really got engrossed in a game in several YEARS.