Morning Discussion
by Chris Faylor, Mar 16, 2009 7:06am PDTMonday, already? It seems like I barely got anything accomplished this weekend.
Really, I just played an hour or two Resident Evil 5, co-created and tested a Peggle drinking game, cleaned the apartment, watched some Wire, and read a few chapters of Snow Crash. The rest of the time, I was either sleeping or doing something here.
There were also about five minutes spend on a hammock. Hammock weather, at last!
On the plus side, um, I've got another chance at the weekend here in a couple days?
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I'm absolutely loving the social customs springing up in this game. For example, at launch, healing your mates was considered "good", and Valve even created an achievement for it. Now, as players move towards Expert difficulty as a norm, we have players "refusing" to be healed. "NO! I'm not black and white yet!" I've been yelled at, and even incapped once--for healing someone. Though, the more extreme resistance to being healed seems to correlate with female players. My sample size may be small though--any other observations?
Also, I think the most effective carrot/game mechanic that Valve has introduced to the game is stat tracking zombie kills at the end of each level. It seems to make players take a "I can kill more zombies than you" attitude--which invariably leads to spotty decision making (and player deaths). Observing the way people play is a fascinating experience.
I can't get enough of it.
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