A Perfect Pair

Travel Form was worth the lack of sleep. However, having a partner that can’t keep up makes it less useful. I keep offering to grant a level so that John can ride a horse but he doesn’t want to get too far ahead of me.

I finally have WoW professions for my Druid. I chose herbalism and skinning because I can just collect stuff.

My plan was to quest while the kids napped today. But my kiddos never napped. So instead I waited until john got home, we took a family walk around the local path for a few miles. The kiddos both feel asleep at 7:30 and we got our two hours of questing without neglecting sleep. Needless to say I feel productive.

Today we were productive in pairs. John wrote two papers, we each leveled twice, we walked two miles and played WoW for two hours. Overall a great day.

Will Travel Form be less impressive in the Morning?

My plan after yoga this evening to go to sleep early has been thwarted. With the elemental attacks going on at Kilrog I had to play WoW for just a few minutes. If you know what the heck I am talking about you likely also realize that just a few minutes is not what happened.

Basically there are cool mini-tornados swirling around waiting to get beat up by me in kitty form. Since I am starting my third server in three weeks, I am only at level 18. However, that is good enough to get both travel and sea form. I can turn into not only a cat but also a cat that runs fast and a cat-like creature that can breathe under water. I am almost ready to admit that John is right and we are not going to make to level 80 by the expansion. But I have not given up entirely.

The point of this brief and fruitless post this evening is that my I did not get extra sleep, grade or do dishes. I just spent the last 3 +hours playing WoW. I feel that my new abilities in game and 5 gained levels are a means of productivity. I wonder when I wake up early tomorrow to bright eyed toddlers and a long to-do list if Travel Form will seem as impressive?

WoW vs. Grading

Because of the time of year my progress in WoW is a slow going. John has final papers, math labs & I have a mound of end of the quarter grading. Once the kiddos are asleep I am faced with a daily dilemma.




I started a new Druid last night and dragged John along for the ride. We found that he can successfully write portions of a paper with WoW minimized, unless I draw agro and then he needs to jump in and help instead of just follow. We joined Kilrog & John is getting back in the habit auctioning again so we don’t go broke. We are both arguing about how far we can level our characters during the winter break so I will keep you posted on how we are doing.

Intro to Video Game Studies & Married Life

In the winter quarter at California State University, Bakersfield I am teaching a course titled "Introduction to Video Game Studies." I am upping my gaming research IE gameplay time. It always seems to bring a spark into my marriage when I re-commit my spare time to gaming.

I started WoW on October 30th (after a 6 year hiatus) and I am working on my second Druid. I am currently at level 12 and only walking around in cat form. Things are slow going because of time limitations but John playing in a party with me is helping me level quickly. I work all day on a Mac but have been playing at home on a PC and the short cuts and typing are a bitch. I have almost got my interface right and then I work all day on a smaller computer and feel like I am back at square one.

 

We plan to resume finishing up Tomb Raider co-op soon. I planned to wait until I was done with grading but that seems to be a pile I will never get under. So instead we are looking more optimistically at this weekend.

If you have suggestions about fun games to play side-by-side please pass them along. We may have completed our 100 days but the quest to remain a happily gaming couple forges on.

The Boone Marriage is Saving the World

Jane McGonigal presented her research at TED on how gaming can save the world.  She challenged the world to play video games "21 billon hours a week." What basically equates to us all playing one hour a day.  It seems that my husband and I are well on our way to saving the world!

I quoted Jane in my Masters thesis because she is the best kind of gaming researcher: a scholar that writes and plays.  I am a public speaking teacher who was so impressed by this presentation that I think everyone should watch it.  If you read my blog you should watch this video, twenty minutes may seem like a long time but her research is amazing. 

Hero Hiatus

John and I decided together that finals week should take precedence over our daily play.  So we are a few days behind.  With God of War, Final Fantasy and Heavy Rain all sitting and awaiting completion we will now add a few Urgent Evoke games to our queue.  I actually had to take Final Fantasy to bed with me last night to curb John’s temptation.

Jane is Sexy

On a shallower note: I love Jane McGonigal’s boots and dress in her TED presentation.  Kudos to Jane for her brilliant research and proving that geeky gamers can be sexy. 

My PS3 is glitch-free but Heavy Rain is Random

Last night I accidentally killed a religious schizophrenic.  In real life I have never shot a gun but during the game Heavy Rain multiple option pop on the screen and you have to act quickly or you might be killed, maimed or loose the chance to catch the killer.  I quickly pushed a button not realizing it was the “shoot him” option.  I was horrified which was only lessened by the fact my character was horrified as well.

I also changed a diaper and fed a baby in the game last night.  This is the only game you can shoot someone in the face and then rock a baby to sleep ten minutes later.  I controlled the game for almost 2 hours last night before John nicely asked if he was going to get a turn?  You do not realize how much time has passed when you pulled in so many different directions.

I have mentioned before that it helps to play with partner who can prompt you on which button to press.  My skills of shouting commands can use some refinement.  Luckily john presses buttons before I talk out loud or our characters would all be dead already.

My only complaint so far is that loading times are taking longer.  I would whine about this more but I am just grateful to have a slim PS3 and not face the “glitch” or rather the online connection of death that other Sony customers faced this week.

When we finally went to bed we had unraveled so many plot twists that we were not as sleepy as usual.  We dozed right off but we were not zombies as we stumbled up the stairs: the random plot twists had our minds reeling.   

Heavy Rain is Tricky: SPOILER ALERT!

Heavy Rain is on the agenda again.  For our daily martial gameplay I came prepared with my yoga strap to stretch while John completed mundane tasks and I waited for my turn with the controller.  Instead the game picked up.  I would play for a few minutes and as soon as I felt the slightest tinge of annoyance a new cinema scene would begin. 

The cinema scenes were short but riveting.  Just long enough to keep me addicted to the game and want to complete a few more monotonous real-life activities to gain another piece of the puzzle. 

Saying I like to read is like saying most people like to breathe.  I usually read about one work of fiction a week and really like mysteries (especially if they have vampires in them).  John and I like to read books together to try and foresee the plot twists.  This game has so many clues and so much happening that so far nothing seems remotely clear.

SPOILER ALERT:

When one of the main characters sons goes missing (with a serial killer of young boys on the loose) obviously the dad goes to the police.  The police question the dad (which you control) and you have to try and remember what your kid was wearing.  It never occurred to me to pay close attention to his attire while I was trying to figure out how to push a swing by holding multiple buttons in sequence. 

It is a little amusing that I am so eager to get back to a game and get more details when really I have only uncovered as much as I would already know from watching a trailer.  The game is tricky because you think you know what the next task will be but it not predictable at all. 

The music really helps make the game feel like a movie.  A slow and sometimes frustrating movie but as someone who has read 500 pages of a book before it got good I do have some patience.  It is exciting playing a game that might become a new genre.  In a few years if games like Heavy Rain continue perhaps it will be easier to predict what comes next.  For today, this game is tricky because its amazing developers have managed to really think outside the box.