Level Up
In a role-playing video game (RPG), there are usually a couple ways to go about completing the quest you're given to save the world. This type of genre focuses not on reaction speed or play mechanics so much as macro and micro-based strategies in and out of combat. "Macro" refers to how you set up your team of typically medieval-type wanderers. Do you take four wizards, two knights and two wizards, a couple of thieves, or some other arrangement? "Micro" refers to how you command your characters in combat. Do you go for all-out physical damage, lots of magic boosts for fighters, a magical apocalypse in every fight, or some other type of strategy?
The one aspect of RPG's that has survived over twenty years of game development, however, is the idea of leveling. Each character is granted a "level," usually a numerical representation of his or her strength and abilities. A character at level 1 has just started the game; a character at level 70 is usually a death machine. "Leveling" is the intentional development of character levels on behalf of the player. In many RPG's, this refers to spending time wandering around and fighting extra monsters, giving your characters extra experience and thus extra levels to make them stronger.
When it comes to leveling, I believe there are three basic strategies that many players try to follow. These are outlined below and are especially applicable to the "old school" game series, such as Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy:
1. Speed Demon: Blow through the game like you don't have the time to even be playing it in the first place. Never spend time gaining experience points or gold, and avoid the best equipment at all costs. If you're not pushing forward in the plot, you're not having fun. Side quests are just that- optional side quests which should never distract you from the more important journey you're on to save the world.
Pros: This is easily one of the most challenging ways to take on these games, because many of them were designed to incorporate at least some degree of character building. If you get your highs off of being near death constantly and barely squeaking through even the easiest missions, though, this track is for you. As said before, you'll also be avoiding those painful hours of leveling and equipment searching.
Cons: Difficulty in this strategy can approach epic proportions to the point of impossibility. The risks you run, especially toward the end of the game if you haven't done any of the side quests, are sometimes suicidal. You are literally flying by the seat of your pants, casting first-grade fire spells against an ice juggernaut in the final dungeon. Godspeed.
2. Balanced Play: You spend some time leveling up, you get pretty good weapons and armor, you do a couple of side quests, and at the end of the game you find yourself in some danger but not huge amounts of it. This is how many game programmers originally designed their quests: to be played with an eye of character development but without having to spend hours between plot points making sure your characters were top notch warriors.
Pros: If done correctly, can offer an excellent balance of risk and reward. You don't sacrifice hours of your life, but at the same time you can push forward at a fairly good pace without dying every couple of fights.
Cons: Still requires leveling at some points in the game, and still results in you getting thrashed at least once or twice. You also have to spend more time than in the Speed Demon version, but less time than the last option.
3. Level Juggernaught: You live, eat, and breathe leveling. There's nothing you enjoy more than walking around outside each and every castle or fort, getting incrementally stronger and saving up for that sword that gives you a marginal +35 attack instead of +33 like the next cheapest version. Hours and hours of your time pass by as your wizard learns "Death Inferno" before you've even taken on the first dungeon. A side quest is not a side quest but a test of your manhood. You will leave no stone unturned in your hunt for the best weapons, armor, and magic. As a result of this behavior, any team you field in indomitable, and if you pick the optimal team (tank, brawler, healer, blaster)- guess what? The final boss of the game won't be able to scratch your shield. Even those "extra hard" Japanese-only bosses will be little more than a prolonged skirmish.
Pros: You run absolutely no risk. None. Your characters are so overly powerful and well equipped at each point in the game that, by the time you finally move forward in the plot, the regular enemies can't touch you. Hell, a nuclear bomb couldn't touch you by the time you're done. So every time you walk into a dungeon or boss fight, you know the outcome. Swift, undeniable victory.
Cons: As a result of your OCD leveling, there is almost no challenge left in the game at all. If anything, you may become so bored and jaded by that lack of risk that you stop playing the game before the end, because you know you'll destroy everything in your path until the quest is over anyway. Even worse, this type of gameplay can tack on a shitload of hours onto your overall play time ... not just 3-4 hours, but 20-30. Don't you have a life somewhere else?
The reason I've written this blog entry is because I've been thinking about how these strategies are a reflection of a player's overall personality. Some people just blow through things, others spend way to much time on them, and some people know the balance they need to be happy. Looking at this from another perspective, some people run lots of risk in the things they do, while others like to eliminate risk from any decision they make or any venture they pursue.
For as long as I can remember, I've been in one of these distinct classes of strategists in RPG's, and in life. Can you guess which one?
Happy winter break.
December 28, 2007
December 11, 2007
Photo Finish
We're down to the wire:
-Christmas Shopping
-Graduate Applications
-Pick up ICWE Music
-Pick up IBE presentation reviews
-Submit IBE final deliverables
-Write scholarship donor letters
-Submit resident check-out roster
-Make NSCS Red Cross donation
-Aerodynamics project
-Controls Final
-Aero Final
-Mechanics Final
-Clean the kitchen of 467
And we're done.
By the way ... I think I lost my glasses. If anyone finds them, let me know.
Happy Finals.
We're down to the wire:
-Christmas Shopping
-Graduate Applications
-Pick up ICWE Music
-Pick up IBE presentation reviews
-Submit IBE final deliverables
-Write scholarship donor letters
-Submit resident check-out roster
-Make NSCS Red Cross donation
-Aerodynamics project
-Controls Final
-Aero Final
-Mechanics Final
-Clean the kitchen of 467
And we're done.
By the way ... I think I lost my glasses. If anyone finds them, let me know.
Happy Finals.
December 05, 2007
Stolen from the Blog of George Hopkins ...
... who stole it from the New York Times. The below article outlines the societal and personal implications of perfectionism and how they relate to mental health.
Fun reading for this week :)
December 4, 2007
Mind Unhappy? Self-Critical? Maybe You’re Just a Perfectionist
By BENEDICT CAREY
"Just about any sports movie, airport paperback or motivational tape delivers a few boilerplate rules for success. Believe in yourself. Don’t take no for an answer. Never quit. Don’t accept second best.
Above all, be true to yourself.
It’s hard to argue with those maxims. They seem self-evident — if not written into the Constitution, then at least part of the cultural water supply that irrigates everything from halftime speeches to corporate lectures to SAT coaching classes.
Yet several recent studies stand as a warning against taking the platitudes of achievement too seriously. The new research focuses on a familiar type, perfectionists, who panic or blow a fuse when things don’t turn out just so. The findings not only confirm that such purists are often at risk for mental distress — as Freud, Alfred Adler and countless exasperated parents have long predicted — but also suggest that perfectionism is a valuable lens through which to understand a variety of seemingly unrelated mental difficulties, from depression to compulsive behavior to addiction.
Some researchers divide perfectionists into three types, based on answers to standardized questionnaires: Self-oriented strivers who struggle to live up to their high standards and appear to be at risk of self-critical depression; outwardly focused zealots who expect perfection from others, often ruining relationships; and those desperate to live up to an ideal they’re convinced others expect of them, a risk factor for suicidal thinking and eating disorders.
“It’s natural for people to want to be perfect in a few things, say in their job — being a good editor or surgeon depends on not making mistakes,” said Gordon L. Flett, a psychology professor at York University and an author of many of the studies. “It’s when it generalizes to other areas of life, home life, appearance, hobbies, that you begin to see real problems.”
Unlike people given psychiatric labels, however, perfectionists neither battle stigma nor consider themselves to be somehow dysfunctional. On the contrary, said Alice Provost, an employee assistance counselor at the University of California, Davis, who recently ran group therapy for staff members struggling with perfectionist impulses. “They’re very proud of it,” she said. “And the culture highly values and reinforces their attitudes.”
Consider a recent study by psychologists at Curtin University of Technology in Australia, who found that the level of “all or nothing” thinking predicted how well perfectionists navigated their lives. The researchers had 252 participants fill out questionnaires rating their level of agreement with 16 statements like “I think of myself as either in control or out of control” and “I either get on very well with people or not at all.”
The more strongly participants in the study thought in this either-or fashion, the more likely they were to display the kind of extreme perfectionism that can lead to mental health problems.
In short, these are people who not only swallow many of the maxims for success but take them as absolutes. At some level they know that it’s possible to succeed after falling short (build on your mistakes: another boilerplate rule). The trouble is that falling short still reeks of mediocrity; for them, to say otherwise is to spin the result.
Never accept second best. Always be true to yourself.
The burden of perfectionist expectations is all too familiar to anyone who has struggled to kick a bad habit. Break down just once — have one smoke, one single drink — and at best it’s a “slip.” At worst it’s a relapse, and more often it’s a fall off the wagon: failure. And if you’ve already fallen, well, may as well pour yourself two or three more.
This is why experts have long debated the wisdom of insisting on abstinence as necessary in treating substance abuse. Most rehab clinics are based on this principle: Either you’re clean or you’re not; there’s no safe level of use. This approach has unquestionably worked for millions of addicts, but if the studies of perfectionists are any guide it has undermined the efforts of many others.
Ms. Provost said those in her program at U.C. Davis often displayed symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder — another risk for perfectionists. They couldn’t bear a messy desk. They found it nearly impossible to leave a job half-done, to do the next day. Some put in ludicrously long hours redoing tasks, chasing an ideal only they could see.
As an experiment, Ms. Provost had members of the group slack off on purpose, against their every instinct. “This was mostly in the context of work,” she said, “and they seem like small things, because what some of them considered failure was what most people would consider no big deal.”
Leave work on time. Don’t arrive early. Take all the breaks allowed. Leave the desk a mess. Allow yourself a set number of tries to finish a job; then turn in what you have.
“And then ask: Did you get punished? Did the university continue to function? Are you happier?” Ms. Provost said. “They were surprised that yes, everything continued to function, and the things they were so worried about weren’t that crucial.”
The British have a saying that encourages people to show their skills while mocking the universal fear of failure: Do your worst.
If you can’t tolerate your worst, at least once in a while, how true to yourself can you be?"
... who stole it from the New York Times. The below article outlines the societal and personal implications of perfectionism and how they relate to mental health.
Fun reading for this week :)
December 4, 2007
Mind Unhappy? Self-Critical? Maybe You’re Just a Perfectionist
By BENEDICT CAREY
"Just about any sports movie, airport paperback or motivational tape delivers a few boilerplate rules for success. Believe in yourself. Don’t take no for an answer. Never quit. Don’t accept second best.
Above all, be true to yourself.
It’s hard to argue with those maxims. They seem self-evident — if not written into the Constitution, then at least part of the cultural water supply that irrigates everything from halftime speeches to corporate lectures to SAT coaching classes.
Yet several recent studies stand as a warning against taking the platitudes of achievement too seriously. The new research focuses on a familiar type, perfectionists, who panic or blow a fuse when things don’t turn out just so. The findings not only confirm that such purists are often at risk for mental distress — as Freud, Alfred Adler and countless exasperated parents have long predicted — but also suggest that perfectionism is a valuable lens through which to understand a variety of seemingly unrelated mental difficulties, from depression to compulsive behavior to addiction.
Some researchers divide perfectionists into three types, based on answers to standardized questionnaires: Self-oriented strivers who struggle to live up to their high standards and appear to be at risk of self-critical depression; outwardly focused zealots who expect perfection from others, often ruining relationships; and those desperate to live up to an ideal they’re convinced others expect of them, a risk factor for suicidal thinking and eating disorders.
“It’s natural for people to want to be perfect in a few things, say in their job — being a good editor or surgeon depends on not making mistakes,” said Gordon L. Flett, a psychology professor at York University and an author of many of the studies. “It’s when it generalizes to other areas of life, home life, appearance, hobbies, that you begin to see real problems.”
Unlike people given psychiatric labels, however, perfectionists neither battle stigma nor consider themselves to be somehow dysfunctional. On the contrary, said Alice Provost, an employee assistance counselor at the University of California, Davis, who recently ran group therapy for staff members struggling with perfectionist impulses. “They’re very proud of it,” she said. “And the culture highly values and reinforces their attitudes.”
Consider a recent study by psychologists at Curtin University of Technology in Australia, who found that the level of “all or nothing” thinking predicted how well perfectionists navigated their lives. The researchers had 252 participants fill out questionnaires rating their level of agreement with 16 statements like “I think of myself as either in control or out of control” and “I either get on very well with people or not at all.”
The more strongly participants in the study thought in this either-or fashion, the more likely they were to display the kind of extreme perfectionism that can lead to mental health problems.
In short, these are people who not only swallow many of the maxims for success but take them as absolutes. At some level they know that it’s possible to succeed after falling short (build on your mistakes: another boilerplate rule). The trouble is that falling short still reeks of mediocrity; for them, to say otherwise is to spin the result.
Never accept second best. Always be true to yourself.
The burden of perfectionist expectations is all too familiar to anyone who has struggled to kick a bad habit. Break down just once — have one smoke, one single drink — and at best it’s a “slip.” At worst it’s a relapse, and more often it’s a fall off the wagon: failure. And if you’ve already fallen, well, may as well pour yourself two or three more.
This is why experts have long debated the wisdom of insisting on abstinence as necessary in treating substance abuse. Most rehab clinics are based on this principle: Either you’re clean or you’re not; there’s no safe level of use. This approach has unquestionably worked for millions of addicts, but if the studies of perfectionists are any guide it has undermined the efforts of many others.
Ms. Provost said those in her program at U.C. Davis often displayed symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder — another risk for perfectionists. They couldn’t bear a messy desk. They found it nearly impossible to leave a job half-done, to do the next day. Some put in ludicrously long hours redoing tasks, chasing an ideal only they could see.
As an experiment, Ms. Provost had members of the group slack off on purpose, against their every instinct. “This was mostly in the context of work,” she said, “and they seem like small things, because what some of them considered failure was what most people would consider no big deal.”
Leave work on time. Don’t arrive early. Take all the breaks allowed. Leave the desk a mess. Allow yourself a set number of tries to finish a job; then turn in what you have.
“And then ask: Did you get punished? Did the university continue to function? Are you happier?” Ms. Provost said. “They were surprised that yes, everything continued to function, and the things they were so worried about weren’t that crucial.”
The British have a saying that encourages people to show their skills while mocking the universal fear of failure: Do your worst.
If you can’t tolerate your worst, at least once in a while, how true to yourself can you be?"
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