Wednesday, June 07, 2006
You Said, Go Slow; I Fall Behind
(… the second hand unwinds, time after time…)
So my dad wants me to train for a future profession, let’s say, C++ programming. So he says, “go and become the best C++ programmer in the world.” So I’m thinking… I’m just starting out, and there are people out there with 30+ years experience with C++ - or at least, 30+ years of programming experience – so… is that goal, somewhat, unattainable? Am I wrong to say that it can’t be done?
Am I in the wrong mindset, or is it okay? So with that mindset… is it wrong if I don’t try? Like, I’m still learning a bit of C++, but I don’t think I’ll be the best in the world. Similarly, Wayne in the office needs an expert at ASP, and he asks me if it should be me. I don’t know ASP at all, so I’m thinking, it might take, maybe 1 year to get my ASP as good as Wayne’s, so… during that one year, if Wayne still learns ASP, I will never be as good as Wayne, so should I even try?
(I’m not really sure what the point of this blogpost is – maybe I’m just looking for something)
So what am I saying? If there was a bandwagon for C++ or ASP, I definitely missed them; anyone with ASP or C++ experience is much better with those things than a newbie (duh), so can a newbie even compete? Should I even try? Or should I find a new bandwagon to hop on to?
Speaking of bandwagons, let’s dive into games – a few months ago, maybe a year ago, I tried playing Diablo 2 with Jia. So I made a new character, and started walking around killing things. The problem is, I’m a newbie, and Jia (and his friends in that game) were experts. So we get into this dungeon, and I’m walking around and there’s a group of enemies. I start fighting, and then the enemies are dead.
Then, I guess Jia hits SHIFT or something to see all the items they drop, looks for a quarter second, and then runs off to the next room – and I’m standing here, looking around, seeing helmets and axes and tons of gold, so I’m here collecting loot. Also, I’m doing this very, very slowly, since I’m a newbie. Like they say in Psych 101, “an expert can extract more information from one look than a non-expert can.” So I guess it’s true. Jia can “process the scene” in a quarter second, while I’m still trying to figure out how to pick up items.
After that, I’m done, I look around, and Jia’s nowhere to be seen. Anyway, eventually I see which way he went, and… well, all the enemies are already dead. And I’m there again, picking up loot which looks important (and wasteful if I don’t get it).
“I fall behind…”
So, while Jia and his friends were having fun killing enemies and walking around, I was walking around, collecting loot, being confused. To me, I didn’t see a dungeon, or an epic battle, or a great story. I saw a clicking adventure, walking around, collecting loot. I didn’t see the great interaction of things. I might as well play Progress Quest…
Similarly, as you all know, I tried to start playing World of Warcraft. I played for maybe 10 hours in 10 days, and then I stopped completely. Part of it was because I was working on my magic set, part of it was because I was really busy. Xbox was fun, TV season finales were on, lots of work, etc. But primarily, I wasn’t having fun.
At first it was okay – novelty experience, I guess – walking around, killing enemies that are hard, getting stronger, enemies become relatively easier, and you can fight bigger enemies – just like in real RPGs or any other game. But then it got boring.
Once again, I missed the bandwagon. Ray, Alan, Duy, Jason, Jia, etc. were all level 30 or 60 or whatever, and here I was at level 1. They were all far away, and I was stuck at level 1. Throughout my 10 days, I didn’t party with anyone at all. To me, it was a pretty crappy single player game. Ray keeps saying how it’s a great society-social-something game, but I don’t see that at all. I didn’t experience that. I even sent letters to Alan and Duy, but they didn’t reply…
What I thought of combat before playing the game, is still what I think of combat. You come up to an enemy, and you press “2”. You wait for your energy bar to fill up again, and then you can hit “2” again. Then, near the end, you press “3”. Then you wait for your life to regenerate, and grab the loot, and find your next enemy. You level up, become stronger, get a skill (so you can press “4” AND “2” instead of just “2”) and see different effects on the screen.
On a side note, I did hop on the bandwagon for Guild Wars – it was new for everyone, and we partied up a lot, and we did missions together and worked co-operatively to fight bad guys and learn strategies for fighting bad guys and whatever. Combat is still pressing numbers, but it was faster, so reaction time somewhat was there too. So we were all equally new to the game, so it was fun and exciting. After a while it got a bit boring too, because… well, some people went back to WOW.
So maybe in defense for Ray and Duy and whoever else, they did hop onto the WOW bandwagon, so to speak, so in the way I had fun with Guild Wars, I can see how they’re having fun with WOW.
Tell ya what – if they make an MMO(RP?)G that has combat as dynamic as Ninja Gaiden, then I’ll join that.
Gankutsuou – Male Bonding and Childlike Yearning
Anyway, for David, here’s another Gankutsuou clip, which I’ve entitled “Bonding and Togetherness”, which seems to be something David would like. And while we’re on the subject, I recently got Adobe Premiere Pro and some other software from Mike at work, so hopefully I’ll be back into the video-editing hobby in no time. I just need a target project now…
http://www.baomon.com/blog/gank-3-256.wmv (12.5 mb, 8.5 minutes)
(there Kyle, no more magic. Do post some comments then.)
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(… the second hand unwinds, time after time…) So my dad wants me to train for a future profession, let’s say, C++ programming. So he says, “go and become the best C++ programmer in the world.” So I’m thinking… I’m just starting out, and there are people out there with 30+ years experience with C++ - or at least, 30+ years of programming experience – so… is that goal, somewhat, unattainable? Am I wrong to say that it can’t be done? Am I in the wrong mindset, or is it okay? So with that mindset… is it wrong if I don’t try? Like, I’m still learning a bit of C++, but I don’t think I’ll be the best in the world. Similarly, Wayne in the office needs an expert at ASP, and he asks me if it should be me. I don’t know ASP at all, so I’m thinking, it might take, maybe 1 year to get my ASP as good as Wayne’s, so… during that one year, if Wayne still learns ASP, I will never be as good as Wayne, so should I even try? (I’m not really sure what the point of this blogpost is – maybe I’m just looking for something) So what am I saying? If there was a bandwagon for C++ or ASP, I definitely missed them; anyone with ASP or C++ experience is much better with those things than a newbie (duh), so can a newbie even compete? Should I even try? Or should I find a new bandwagon to hop on to? Speaking of bandwagons, let’s dive into games – a few months ago, maybe a year ago, I tried playing Diablo 2 with Jia. So I made a new character, and started walking around killing things. The problem is, I’m a newbie, and Jia (and his friends in that game) were experts. So we get into this dungeon, and I’m walking around and there’s a group of enemies. I start fighting, and then the enemies are dead. Then, I guess Jia hits SHIFT or something to see all the items they drop, looks for a quarter second, and then runs off to the next room – and I’m standing here, looking around, seeing helmets and axes and tons of gold, so I’m here collecting loot. Also, I’m doing this very, very slowly, since I’m a newbie. Like they say in Psych 101, “an expert can extract more information from one look than a non-expert can.” So I guess it’s true. Jia can “process the scene” in a quarter second, while I’m still trying to figure out how to pick up items. After that, I’m done, I look around, and Jia’s nowhere to be seen. Anyway, eventually I see which way he went, and… well, all the enemies are already dead. And I’m there again, picking up loot which looks important (and wasteful if I don’t get it). “I fall behind…” So, while Jia and his friends were having fun killing enemies and walking around, I was walking around, collecting loot, being confused. To me, I didn’t see a dungeon, or an epic battle, or a great story. I saw a clicking adventure, walking around, collecting loot. I didn’t see the great interaction of things. I might as well play Progress Quest… Similarly, as you all know, I tried to start playing World of Warcraft. I played for maybe 10 hours in 10 days, and then I stopped completely. Part of it was because I was working on my magic set, part of it was because I was really busy. Xbox was fun, TV season finales were on, lots of work, etc. But primarily, I wasn’t having fun. At first it was okay – novelty experience, I guess – walking around, killing enemies that are hard, getting stronger, enemies become relatively easier, and you can fight bigger enemies – just like in real RPGs or any other game. But then it got boring. Once again, I missed the bandwagon. Ray, Alan, Duy, Jason, Jia, etc. were all level 30 or 60 or whatever, and here I was at level 1. They were all far away, and I was stuck at level 1. Throughout my 10 days, I didn’t party with anyone at all. To me, it was a pretty crappy single player game. Ray keeps saying how it’s a great society-social-something game, but I don’t see that at all. I didn’t experience that. I even sent letters to Alan and Duy, but they didn’t reply… What I thought of combat before playing the game, is still what I think of combat. You come up to an enemy, and you press “2”. You wait for your energy bar to fill up again, and then you can hit “2” again. Then, near the end, you press “3”. Then you wait for your life to regenerate, and grab the loot, and find your next enemy. You level up, become stronger, get a skill (so you can press “4” AND “2” instead of just “2”) and see different effects on the screen. On a side note, I did hop on the bandwagon for Guild Wars – it was new for everyone, and we partied up a lot, and we did missions together and worked co-operatively to fight bad guys and learn strategies for fighting bad guys and whatever. Combat is still pressing numbers, but it was faster, so reaction time somewhat was there too. So we were all equally new to the game, so it was fun and exciting. After a while it got a bit boring too, because… well, some people went back to WOW. So maybe in defense for Ray and Duy and whoever else, they did hop onto the WOW bandwagon, so to speak, so in the way I had fun with Guild Wars, I can see how they’re having fun with WOW. Tell ya what – if they make an MMO(RP?)G that has combat as dynamic as Ninja Gaiden, then I’ll join that. Gankutsuou – Male Bonding and Childlike Yearning Anyway, for David, here’s another Gankutsuou clip, which I’ve entitled “Bonding and Togetherness”, which seems to be something David would like. And while we’re on the subject, I recently got Adobe Premiere Pro and some other software from Mike at work, so hopefully I’ll be back into the video-editing hobby in no time. I just need a target project now… http://www.baomon.com/blog/gank-3-256.wmv (12.5 mb, 8.5 minutes) (there Kyle, no more magic. Do post some comments then.) |