Game Juggling and Frustration Management

My previous post mentions that I’ve basically been hopping from game to game to find enjoyment, but I think it’s time I learned to do a bit of game juggling.

Currently, I have a six-month subscription to EVE on a new account, and at the same time, I will be enjoying Gulid Wars 2 and The Secret World and what they have to offer, slowly but surely. I don’t want to make any of them a main game (unless I think all three are my main game), but all of them provide something different and appealing for me.

EVE: Internet Spaceships and Sandbox goodness

The Secret World: The lore and mythos is intriguing, and Investigation missions are boss.

GW2: Free-to-play fantasy with action combat and potential longevity.

 

I’ve never really tried to multitask gaming before, so if you folks have any ideas on how to best juggle games, let me know!

 

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On another note, I’ve been dealing with some frustration regarding my connection to the Internet recently. I had trouble patching and playing certain games, and more recently, certain sites, like MMORPG.com (my workplace, basically) and Steam’s Store pages (Missed the last few days of the Steam Sale as a result) do not load properly, making it difficult to actually read or click anything.

I’ve been managing the frustration by focusing on other activities, but I’d just really like for my connection to be stable so my browsing and gaming can go back to normal again.

The Best Advice To New Capsuleers #TweetFleet

When I play video games, I have this horrible tendency to min-max my actions . It’s just how I got used to playing console games; worse still, it translated into a desire to do things expediently in MMOs.

Now EVE is a big place, with many different things to do and a lot of skills needed to properly accomplish those tasks. The one thing I knew I wanted to do in the long term was to eventually build ships, but I also knew that I had to make money to get the materials and blueprints and skillbooks needed to both build the spacecraft I would be using and fly it properly without losing it in a firefight.

To respond to that scenario, I asked myself, “What do I want to do?”

I wanted to do Planetary Interaction. Then someone told me in the forums that I might not get a lot of money or be able to properly invest in Planetary Interaction as a newcomer to the game. I reconsidered my plans to follow this route.

I followed up that thought with the possibility of doing missions and farming the standings and research points needed for datacores to make the ships I wanted to build. The information was at my fingertips, when someone told me that I wouldn’t be able to make good use of the information I had because I wasn’t training the right skills to level 5. I reconsidered my plans to try this out in the interim.

At a loss, I asked the members on the EVE forums about the best way to skill my character so I could do Planetary Interaction, Missioning, and Industry at the same time, effectively. To that end, Mara Rinn and RavenPaine gave me the best advice I could ever really ask for.

Mara Rinn told me to “Fly spaceships for fun, not profit.”

RavenPaine said, “ISK is very important, but FUN is more important. Make sure that your chosen path (paths) is fun and interesting for YOU.”

Of course, they were right. In the past, nearly every console and PC game I had spent hours obsessing over with min-maxing and “getting everything right,” I ultimately never finished. In MMOs, I got burned out from wondering if I was strong enough, or made enough DPS, or if I was looking at the right database entry for a questline I needed to finish to get better loot that was only incrementally more powerful and not even visually shown on my character.

While in EVE, information and knowledge (and website tabs with guide entries) is definitely important, worrying about maximizing ISK all the time makes it a job: one where, unless you trade in the black market, you don’t even get paid in food-buying money for. It’s an approach that can drive me away from playing EVE, if not from burnout, then from fear of being ganked and losing a virtual ship because I couldn’t fly it right.

I’ve chosen, in that regard, to not worry about maximizing ISK. Instead, I want to do the three things I feel like doing (PI, Missions/Datacore gathering, and building stuff) as best as I can WITHOUT worrying about the min-maxing of stats and the optimization of my skill queue.

Sure, I’ll still be a nervous wreck at times wondering if I’m doing the right thing. That’s to be expected as a new capsuleer. All of it, however, is part of the capsuleer’s experience in space. With a future that reaches up to distant stars, who says we have to stay focused on a single shining beacon of light? New Eden is mine to explore, and I hope to get many good memories out of flying here.

Appreciating New Eden #EVEOnline #tweetfleet

Stream of consciousness post stemming from a few days of play. I wanted to write more, but I’ve been unable to do so due to my ISP keeping me from accessing Games and Geekery, and only Games and Geekery.

My plans for being in New Eden did not involve being shot down by NPCs because of sustained radioactive damage from a bloody rock that I couldn’t maneuver away from quickly enough. But it happened, and so I must accept it.

My plans for being in New Eden involved Planetary Interaction, PVE Mission Running, and an attempt at getting the necessary skills up to pilot a Dominix in the future with drone capabilities. Sadly, Trial players can’t actually train all the skills necessary for PI, and so I must accept it.

I want this game to succeed for the very reason that makes it niche: it is a world where the interactions make the game richer and more varied, where the systems are complex, and where the questions you ask yourself are as important as the choices you make.

What I’ve realized is that this is a game where the metagame is as important, if not doubly so, as the actual game. It’s also one of the most complicated, intricate webs of learning I’ve ever become entangled in.

Folks who want to do well must invest money into subscriptions over a long-term period, or at least enough to make enough in-game money to purchase PLEX to continue a subscription. To make the most out of your experience, the social aspect of the game involves not only finding a good corp, but finding a good corp that shares your timezone and general core values as a player or human being.

Skills get trained over the course of minutes, hours, and potentially, days. Knowing what you want to do is paramount, but when you start out, everything seems viable, and the way you train yourself in the beginning can only be good for the long-term survivability of your pilot as it takes minutes to begin.

Beyond a certain point, you have to start making big decisions. Do I take the cheap ship out and make less money from an activity, or risk losing a more expensive ship for a greater gain? Do I train the shorter timed skill first, or the more important skill?

Perhaps the one thing that made me appreciate the game, even in this short term I’ve been playing, is that there are fundamental hidden questions in everything you do in EVE Online.

“Do you give in to baser instincts in the name of new experiences and ‘fun’?”

“Do you treat EVE as a game, as a test, or as a business?”

“Do you sacrifice your core values for virtual goods and does it affect you on a personal level?”

I like asking myself these questions, and I like that it makes me think philosophically. I do believe I would like to devote more time to exploring this game on a subscription basis. My only concern is finding a AUS/NZ corporation to join that fits my schedule, and figuring out if I get to keep my free 21 days if I subscribe immediately,

In any event, I guess I’ll be looking at virtual stars in addition to LOTRO and Skyrim for the time being.

It’s Space Time! #EVEOnline #TweetFleet

Thanks to Stargrace of MMO Quests, Petter of Don’t Fear the Mutant, and a host of other Twitter and Google+ folk, I decided to try out EVE Online.

Originally, my interests shifted towards never trying out EVE, but I’ve been on a Space themed kick with my general television viewing that I thought to try it out. Because SWTOR won’t be releasing in the Philippines the same time as other parts of the world, I figured, it was either I try something new or go play Star Trek Online or Star Wars Galaxies, which I have tried before. The compulsion to try something new won out.

I’ve spent around two hours in the game so far, and it’s a little confusing at first, but not so bad. I have a spiffy Asian looking character who looks perpetually tipsy, and the starting Gallente ship has a nice asymmetrical look that I enjoy looking at.

I think that EVE has a tendency to bring out the serious strategist in a person, which is nice and all, but I do have some laid back goals during my stay in the game. The long-term goal of my stay is to build myself a ship of my own. The short and medium term goals are to create a character that can pilot that ship I made for PVE missions, and to make enough money to buy the materials to build the ship.

I don’t know if my interest will hold out, but it’s a nice diversion for a little while at least. Best of all, I’m learning little by little that there are people with different ways of seeing things in the EVE world, even if ‘m just talking to them on Twitter.