Board Games

I grew up on Candyland, Parchisi, and Shoots and Ladders. I played Checkers with my grandfather, and Othello on Florida vacations. I never really got into Chess, though I’d like to. I played a lot of Monopoly throughout my early teens, though its hard to find people to play it with lately. I’m also seriously disappointed with the ‘modernization’ of the game. Lately I’ve gotten into Settlers of Catan.

Role Playing Games

RPGs of all types I adore, and all I require is a decent story coupled with better than average gameplay. Dragon Warrior was my first, though I didn’t beat it until years later. I remember Final Fantasy and its successors with fondness, but lately its games like Fallout 3, Mass Effect, and Deus Ex which really interest me. Not so much the FPS interface or nonlinear approach, but the depth of the story is what I enjoy. The best RPG I’ve played in the past decade is by far Tales of Vesperia.

First Person Shooters

I’ll admit, I’m not much of a FPS lover. I played my share of Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament in the college dorms. I developed enough skill to hold my own, but I never really devoted enough time to become a great player. I’ve played most of the big names out there, but they just don’t hold any lasting interest for me.

Real-time Strategy

As for RTS games, I really only play Blizzard titles, and then only for the single player campaign. The gameplay is fun, but I don’t have it in me to learn to micro units well enough to ascend to the higher levels of play. In an odd offshoot of this genre, DotA has peaked my interest lately. I do favor the more refined approach of League of Legends over the complexities of the Heroes of Newerth style.

Turn-based Strategy

TBS games are very much my thing, particularly those of the 4X variety. I can sit back and play them like chess. I started off with Galactic Conquest in high school, and rediscovered the genre with Civilization in college. GalCiv and its sequel really got me hooked on the space 4X genre. My only real complaints are the lack of competent AI, and the fact that games last too long for multiplayer to really work. Final Fantasy Tactics is an old favorite as well.

Massively Multiplayer Games

Of all the game types out there, the consistent lure for me is the MMO. I remember well the $300 phone bill and $400 AOL dialup bill in high-school, playing the original Neverwinter Nights. In college I had a brief experience with Ultima Online, and but I grew annoyed with its skill system. Eventually I found my way into Everquest, and that truly sucked up a large chunk of my life. Brief sojourns were taken into Earth and Beyond, Final Fantasy XI, Neocron, Ragnarok Online, and every MMO beta I could get my hands on. I still log in to Eve Online every time they give me a few free days, just to train some skills. World of Warcraft was the game that convinced me to give up Everquest, and life forced me to give up WoW.

With MMOs, I tend to get a very involved. Despite my efforts to keep my head down and just be another player enjoying occasional groups and raids, I somehow always end up in a pivotal role in a large raiding guild. I’ve been a member of half a dozen guilds, a raid leader in three of those, a longterm officer in two. I’ve handled recruitment, come up with encounter strategies, designed custom UIs, built add-ons by the dozen, and even designed and built a DKP system. My early warning sign that its time to quit is when I realize I’m spending more of my time doing managerial work for the guild than I spend actually playing the game.

While I do the math for many of the games I play, I take it to another level with MMOs. I’m the guy with the custom spreadsheets to track theoretical dps and hps numbers. I assign valuations to all statistics, and calculate the dps increase per point of DKP spent. I’m the one who evaluates performance after every raid: I look for damage taken, survivability, dps, buff uptime, burst, cooldown usage, rotation, consumables usage, and other such minutia. Part of the fun for me is knowing the mechanics so well that I cease to become a follower in my class’s community, and I start to become a leader. I don’t copy some guide’s spec and gear mindlessly; I break it down and understand it. Eventually I start developing and publishing my own guides with confidence, theory, and numbers to back it up. Every new class you play is a chance to master another area of the game, and to help push your guild-mates to new heights.

What’s Next?

I’m sure I’ll spend some time in Diablo III, and occasional gems like Portal 2 will always end up on my radar. As for MMOs, I’m content to wait around for the next big thing. I’m hesitant to pour myself into something that’s going to suck up my nights and weekends, unless its really that good.

My goal at the end of the day is to have fun, but many people seem to treat these games as a form of self inflicted torture, enduring bad groups and slow monotonous runs for just a chance at an item they want. I long ago decided that if a game wasn’t fun, it wasn’t worth playing anymore.

To mitigate bad experiences grouping, I developed a short list of qualities I look for in each prospective group member. Any time I consider inviting someone I don’t know to a group, I consider these factors:

Reputation

Good or bad, the impression you make on people will tend to spread throughout the community. Perhaps a friend or a guildmate grouped with you and had a good time. Based on that recommendation, I’m willing to give you a try.

Conduct

If I’ve seen you talking in a public channel, on a forum, or seen you in pvp, and I found your conduct less than becoming, that’s a clear sign to me that you’re probably not worth my time. If I’ve seen you respectfully selling items or asking questions, I’m more inclined to give you a shot.

Guild

If I’ve never heard of your guild, I don’t hold it against you. If you’re a member of a notoriously bad guild, or perhaps I’ve had a bad experience or two with some of your guildmates, it doesn’t exactly bode well. On the other hand, if you’re a member of a well known guild with a good reputation, or if I’ve had fantastic experiences with members of your guild, it helps.

Gear

Obviously not everybody can be decked out in fantastic gear, with the absolute best item for each slot. That said, if you’re wearing a poor piece of gear in more than one slot, and I’m aware of moderately easy upgrades you could have put in those slots with a little effort, it doesn’t say a lot for your dedication. If you choose a piece of gear that boggles the mind at how poor a choice it is, I’m not even going to give you the benefit of the doubt.

Lack of Standards

I not only look for these qualities when picking group members, but I apply them to each and every member of an existing group I want to join. I’d rather turn down an iffy group than join and waste a few hours of my life not having fun.

Unfortunately, not everybody is as careful as I am when picking and choosing their group members. If a group is in need of someone with my abilities, I first take a minute or two and look up every member of the group, quickly checking each member’s name/guild/gear and factoring in class makeup and destination. If they pass muster, I ask to join. Better than half the time, the response is “Sorry, somebody else asked first.”

I’ll invariably figure out who they invited over me, and run my little background check on them. I’ve been truly shocked at times with the quality of the player that got into a group instead of me. At one point I got into a discussion with the group leader, where the main thrust of the conversation went like this: “So let me get this straight, you invited JohnDoe34 over me, despite the fact that I have three times the damage potential, I add a much needed class to your group and he duplicates another class you have, I belong to a very well known guild and he’s guildless, and to top it off this guy isn’t even wearing pants!”

Now I’m not trying to say that they couldn’t succeed with pantless JohnDoe34, they might do just that. But the rest of the group will be struggling to compensate for the sheer lack of equipment and the low damage of their final member. At least with me, they could be guaranteed success and speed up their run by an hour or more. And I’d like to think I’m more fun to talk with than the pantless individual.

Call me crazy, but filling an empty spot in a group isn’t as simple as grabbing the first warm body to reply to your call. When faced with a dozen people vying for the spot, I inform each and every one that I need a moment to consider, as I have a lot of people looking to join. I run my little background check on each member, systematically eliminating those who don’t fit the bill. Once I’ve gotten rid of the chaff, I consult with the rest of the group. Mainly I’m looking for input on our chances with the final class makeup, and making sure nobody with a bad reputation snuck past my filter. Once I’ve invited the new member, I inform every person who requested a spot that they were not chosen, and give them the reason why.

I will admit to dropping my standards on occasion due to lack of interest in the destination, but for the most part I stick to my principles. The result has been the elimination of a lot of frustration, a lot less wasted time, and a lot more fun on my part. Is it too much to ask that everybody else apply the same minimal standards to their own grouping experiences?

Every applicant to a decent guild posts their resume on the guild’s forum, detailing their past guilds, their gear, their specialization, their past gaming experience, their real-life commitments, and their expected time investment in the game. From there, guild members chime in with past experiences with the applicant, rumors they’ve heard, and analysis of their gear and specialization choices. If you pass this brutal gauntlet, you become a recruit, and thus begins the interview process.

The only real difference between a job interview and a guild interview is the length of time involved. An average job interview might last a few weeks, with perhaps 10-20 hours total spent interacting with people at the prospective company. A guild interview, on the other hand, usually involves 5 hours a night spent interacting with the guild, over a period of many weeks. You’re expected to show up with a smile on your face and a willingness to meet, help, and eventually befriend as many guild members as possible.

The members sometimes have more power over your acceptance here than the guild leadership, and a bad comment about you by a single member can hinder your application for weeks. I once had my application to a guild blocked due to a single guild member not liking me. Despite having half a dozen people who really wanted me in, I was forced to endure an extra 4 weeks as an applicant before being accepted.

In that same guild, I went on to become a guild officer and raid leader. That objecting member later went on to try joining a rival guild, only to be denied entry due to his reputation. This is by no means an isolated occurrence. Reputation online is just as valuable as in the real world. You never know when doing something distasteful will come back to haunt you. You also never know when a little help freely given will pay back tenfold.

The best guild I was ever in required 8 weeks as an applicant. I had to show good attendance at all raids, group with members at every opportunity so they could get to know me, meet certain minimum gear requirements, and generally perform at or above the standard for every current member. Honestly, I think it was harder to get into this guild than some jobs I’ve had. That said, I had more than enough fun with this guild to warrant what I had to go through. I can’t help but wonder what the workplace was like if the rigors of the interview process were like those of the MMO guild.