Too many options.

When you decide to play a new game that has too many options, whether of the video or tabletop variety, you may run into the problem of analysis paralysis.

I'll give you a couple of examples. In Blood Bowl you have to pick a team. In Total War you have to pick a faction/nation. In Cyberpunk 2077 you have to pick a life path and a character build. These are the games currently spinning around in my head, but there are so many others. In Magic the Gathering you have to pick a color or colors for your deck, in Warmachine you pick an army, in chess you pick... no there are only two choices in chess. I'm sure you get the idea by now.

So how do you pick a side? This is my system.

Step 1. The Rule of Cool.

What looks the coolest to you? Which style speaks to you the most?

In Total War Warhammer, I went with the Vampire Counts first, because I like fantasy Gothic and the undead, simple as that. In Blood Bowl I went with Dark Elves. On my first Cyberpunk 2077 character I went with a nomad and stealth and pistols.

In these examples I had an idea that it would work, because I knew a little about the games, but my choices were based mostly on style.

Step 2. Playstyle.

What kind of playstyle speaks to you the most?

In Blood Bowl, some teams are slow, tough and hit hard, some are fast, agile and dodge trouble and some are a hybrid. In Total War Warhammer, some factions are masters of ranged combat (usually the elves), some are slow and “indestructible” (dwarves) and some do both (Empire). In Cyberpunk 2077, you can't spec your character into everything, so you need to choose the style you need. Fast brutal frontal assault or sneaky precise infiltration? Quick hacks or a time slowing sandevistan?

Before making a choice try to look at how the faction you like the looks of, actually plays in reality. 

 

Step 3. Try Again.

Never be afraid to start over and try another team.

Sometimes Step 1 and 2 don't fit together at all. You may really like the aesthetics of a faction but hate the way they play. This is when you have to re-evaluate. In video games that is easy enough, just grab the next team/faction etc. and try again, but in tabletop that is harder. After all, if you have just put a couple of hundred monies on an army and you don't like it you can't switch just like that.

This is when research becomes important. Read some guides and watch some games before you decide, and you'll be in a better position. If you are talking about video games like I am, then starting over is completely valid. There is no point in forcing yourself to finish a game with a team you don't like just to be stubborn. Re-roll and be happy.

Step 4. Research.

This final rule may seem like a bit of an obvious point to make, but watch some videos before you decide, particularly with strategy games. Story driven games like RPG's can be spoiled, but strategy games are all about the experience. Then again, you should probably do a bit of research before you put down your hard earned money on any game.

Hopefully this is of some help to someone, your method may be different, but this is how I like to do it.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!

 

Can you believe it?

Last week a leak concerning The Last of Us 2 caused a a major controversy. The highly anticipated sequel to the 2013 hit by studio Naughty Dog and publisher Sony has been eagerly awaited, but now people are angry and rightly so.

I can't say with any certainty who the leaker is, whether it's a disgruntled employee or a hacker or someone else, but the content leak instantly became a hot topic. Naughty Dog and Sony however did the worst thing possible: they started abusing the Youtube copyright system and striking down channels left and right, even ones just talking about the leak without showing any footage.

In case you don't know, if your Youtube channel gets three copyright strikes in a short period, your channel is terminated and for someone who is depending on the ad revenue to survive, this is very serious.

Yes, the channels can protest and they will get their videos back, but this kind of misuse of the Digital Millennium Protection Act is not exactly legal. Legality aside, it is absolutely reprehensible for a company to act in this way not to mention ineffective. It's a perfect example of the Streisand Effect in play.

I for one am getting pretty sick of gaming companies who bully and intimidate people as if they are some kind of mafia. I could say something about boycotting the game here, but in all honesty I wasn't about to buy a Playstation anyway... Still a really sick thing to do though.

The above mentioned story as well as recent rumors and leaks about a new Batman game (debunked) got me thinking. As a side effect of the Covid-19 crisis, practically every game studio has had to delay their upcoming games. All the gaming conventions like E3 and PAX are canceled and in this vacuum of information, the stage is set for click-baiters and rumor-mongers to profit on false and misleading information. It is up to us to keep a cool head and not trust rumors. Unless it is a statement by the companies themselves, there is no reason to believe it, no matter how tantalizing and exciting it may seem. You will only be disappointed in the end.

There was talk that E3 would host an online convention, but this too has been canceled. However, despair not, as Game Awards host Geoff Keighley has apparently organized a Summer Game Fest with most of the big publishers and they will stream their trailers and other info across the summer of 2020. There is a techradar.com article here:

https://www.techradar.com/news/e3-2020-what-to-expect-from-the-years-biggest-gaming-expo

So were are going to get some news soon and that's good. Until then, keep a cool head, wash your hands and join me again next time for more Eccentric Spheres! Have a great week!

Sometimes newer is better.

Well, here we are, the last Eccentric Sphere for 2019.

I started this blog way back in 2012, October 16^th to be exact and now I'm looking forward to taking it into 2020.

In order to go forward it is sometimes necessary to look back at what came before. Today I want to look a bit at video game art. Cover art to be precise.

Within some franchises the art is both predictable and boring. Take the Call of Duty games. Usually it's a silhouetted soldier with a gray or green tint. The Battlefield games have pretty much the same but with a blue or orange tint. Dull, but serviceable. Do a Google image search if you're curious.

It's a natural fact that the cover art has to be illustrative of what the game is about. A sports game has to show the relevant sport, Minecraft shows off the blocky nature of the game, etc. If the game has a cover theme or very recognizable icon, that goes on the cover. The Fallout games has a dude in power armor on the covers, which lets you recognize that it's Fallout from far away.

But what happens when this methodology goes wrong? Well, see below for the answer. A video from the Norwich Games Festival holds some examples, going all the way back to the early text only games. But, fair warning, you may well see this and tear at your hair in confusion and horror at the baffling “art”.

Anyway, please enjoy and I'll see you next week, next year and next decade. Until then, have a great time! See you in 2020!