Can I Portal Back to Thurs. and Save 39 Quarters, Two Dimes, and a Nickel?

I started playing “Portal” as my choice for a single-player game.  Not knowing very much about the point of the game, I was excited to start a new challenge.  My first impressions were of the cold, dark, sci-fi lab setting of the game.  The game is essentially about a game; where you are the test subject and you are being studied as to how you overcome obstacles and conquer challenges.  As a player, I believe I was only given two helpful pieces of information (on the screen, after launching the game); directions for movement (A, S, W, D,) and that the ‘E’ will allow you to pick up an item.  Awesome!!  Thank you game developers for having the unproven faith in me as the player that I will figure it ALL out on my own.  I quickly realized that this game is pretty difficult.  I found the lack of help in the game frustrating.  I do not require being held by the hand or being spoon-fed information, but as a player I would have liked a little more assistance in the first couple levels.

In this game the player basically walks around, places objects where the (freaky, sci-fi/cyborg/robot/female,) testers want you to, and step through portals that exist (or can be created later,) to move from area to area.  The fun begins when you get a blaster of sorts that allows you to create and move portals to aid you in the game.  In addition, when a player (such as I,) gets frustrated, the blaster can be used to destroy some of the equipment and video cameras throughout the lab.  Destroying some equipment proved entertaining as it can illicit the game to warn you and complain about what you are doing.  I am not sure if they get angry and make challenges more difficult, however.

After 119 minutes of play, I am sure I am the dumbest gamer/Portal player of all time.  I believe I was in one room for 23 minutes before I accidentally figured out how to go where the game required me to go.  At one point I was so frustrated at not knowing how to get through a level, that I just started blasting portals everywhere.  The objectives for each level aren’t clearly defined, so users must discover for themselves what the challenge is for each level and assume that is how to successfully complete the level.  In addition to the ambiguous level objectives, it is not overly obvious when a level has been completed.  For example, upon completion of a task the game may verbally complement you as to your progress (i.e., ‘You are doing very well,’ etc.) but there isn’t any celebratory music, crowd cheering, clapping, fireworks, etc.  I found myself thinking ‘thanks for the compliment freaky, cyborg, tester- lady,’ how about some directions as to what I am supposed to be doing in here?   I like having an objective and/or a goal and this game does not appear to have either. 

My general lack of patience hampered my enjoyment of the game.  I am starting to get a clearer grasp of the traits I possess and how I would need to change some of my ways if I really want to analyze and learn from playing games.  While Portal was frustrating, it was also intriguing.  I probably should have paid closer attention to the skills (I evidently learned while completing,) in the first 5 levels because I am sure future levels will require the constant building on previously learned skills.  I will play it quite a bit more and see if my progress and simultaneous enjoyment of the game change with the mood I am in while playing.  In addition, I will have to experience more levels in the game to see if the game continues on it’s (at least to me,) monotonous path.  Patience is not something I have an abundance of but I will be sure to contain my frustration and boredom while playing the game in the future.

Cog Tools - Gaming 07/22/2014

Gaming blog….. 7/22/2014

First time playing a multi-player (online) game… and chose Monaco because it seemed like it was my speed; criminal in nature, probably easy by game standards, wasn’t too much $, etc.  A short synopsis of the game; this game involves an assembled crew (associated players up to 4,) of various criminal backgrounds to accomplish a heist or escape plan.  After downloading Steam (the backbone program to run on I assume), I set up my account and purchased the game.  What wasn’t immediately obvious was that the account email name is what it took as my screen name.  I had set a screen name, but later when I played it showed my email address name.  That was disappointing, but obviously I must have misunderstood the settings.  

 I received a game invite from a cadre mate (Stephani) who got on the Steam IM and messaged me to help with me with some setup stuff and ensure I'd use her invite to play together.  (Side Note: A microphone and speakers make the game a lot more usable from a group perspective and I had to change some settings in Win8 to get the mic. to work in a usable way).  Controls for the game are very easy…. Depressing A, S, W, or D control the direction of travel and shift allows users to ‘creep’ or move sneakily.  Of note, at least throughout the first 2-3 levels there are helpful directions posted on the screen display. Such things as ‘Space equals shoot’ will appear floating within view to make them easy for users to pick up some of the functions within the game while playing on a level.  In addition, there are direction arrows and glows that are given to objects of significance to make them easy for users to identify (their importance to the game objectives).  Each level starts out with some staging for the situation and task at hand; a threat lay-down and some intel on how to complete the stage objective.  It is interesting that this staging also offers a user some insight into the personality and skills of the assembled crew of criminals (other players in my experience).

Some things that I got to learn quickly were almost solely because I had an experienced gamer (Stephani) to help me hurdle my new gamer reactions to what was going on and how to complete the objectives for each stage/level.  While playing, she mentioned several helpful tips that she had picked up in playing it 3-4 times... (i.e., things that were not obvious that she pointed out, was the use of the touchpad to locate a ‘sight’ for your weapons (if one is obtained)along with some intel of how to hide from dangerous adversaries).  She had discovered some things when she tried to play the game with a mouse and a square target sight can be moved around on the screen simultaneous to the player’s character movements.  This is an interesting note, as it implies that some game manipulation may be more obvious depending on the particular setup (platform,) that the user is operating on.  Additionally, she knew some tricks of where to find cool stuff for us to use and take.  Items that were displayed on the screen often had a simple explanation in the margins as to how to manipulate new items so users are constantly being told further options they have to work with the game.  Within 30 minutes of playing (one mug of coffee,) and listening to hints and directions from my partner in crime and I was able to comfortably navigate around and take out Lebanese (French speaking though,) sentries.  In closing, if one is new to playing a multi-player game it can be very helpful to get immediate help and insight from a co-player who is friendly and patient enough to help teach you some of the basics as well as some of the cheats of a game.

Reflection: Saturday, 12 July 2014

1. What Happened?  Last night we as a class were pressed into an answer as to how long we were wanting to stay and work on our lego 'bots... but none of us could really muster an answer.... I think about half were wanting to power through, however late until it worked... and I think half were so mentally smoked that they were ready to hang it up in defeat.

2. How did I respond? At first I remembered the 29 hr shift I did to get stuff done a while back. I didn't want to leave until a job was completed.... this was different and not for work but still important.  I talked with a few others and said I'd be willing to press on as late as others wanted to, but I wasn't gonna keep anyone there late.  I know it's supposed to be about the process and not the 'product', but it is real hard to be able to get to the point to step away.

3. Why?  I still wanted the robots to conquer the obstacle course... and I wanted to make sure our robot could work as much as possible when called upon.  It is really hard for me to know when to drop a commitment and/or when to know a task is completed as closely as it can be done (by me or by a team and I).  I think I will have to work on paying closer attention to when that point comes and go through some measures to be more comfortable with calling it done.

Reflection, Wed. 9 July 2014

1. What happened?  We had to build a lego robot to accomplish a task (in our case; climb up an obstacle that is a tile covered incline and then drop a little lego ((Goonie)) dude down a PVC tube).   Some of the group really just tore in and took over specific parts of the build.  Three of us worked on getting started on the robot and the fourth was busy shooting photos and tape as documentation of our 'Process'.  I had wanted to ask for insight from the team member who was shooting pics.

2. How did I respond?  I didn't end up asking for over-all design buy-in from the 4th member.  But I should have.  I didn't really know how to approach the build but I finally found a part - mounting the 'brick' or lego robot CPU brain/nxt module thing (I'll get the actual name tomorrow...) to the base that a team-mate was assembling.  From that point I was focused on that and fetching legos or helping others look for specific parts, and setting parts aside that may come in handy for our build.  I ended up getting wrapped up and so much time went by quickly.  I think we got collective feedback throughout initial design but didn't ask our photographer (member #4) for opinions.

3. Why?  We all got wrapped up in working, building, and pinging ideas off of each other.... that we ignored our team-mate taking pictures... I'm sure each of us noticed or thought about it throughout the day but the effort wasn't really made due to laziness and inattentiveness to the 'team' taking part in the "process".  Now that several hours have gone by... I wish I had thought about it this way at the time.  I need to work harder on making sure everyone is pressed for their knowledge, without getting too wrapped up in a task and/or too focused on doing something on my own.  Sometimes all that is needed to help resolve is a problem is another set of eyes and brain on it.

Reflection; Tues, 8 July 2014

1.  What happened? While talking about how my wife is so much at cooking and food preparation than I am (IRONY), I managed to cut the tip of the middle finger of my left hand.  I was cutting an onion.... something I have done before but I was talking at the same time and not paying close attention to what I was doing.
2.  How did I respond? Partly due to surprise and partly due to instantaneous irritation with myself;  I said "Oh, beeee-otch!" rather loudly (at least, louder then I had meant to say).  Then in embarrassment and agitation with myself I stood up to leave the room and go wrap it up.  Everyone at the table started laughing and I was even more mortified.  Here I was meeting a new group of people and within a few hours I'm sure my team (Blue) probably thought me to be an idiot. I succeeded in doing something stupid and saying something inappropriate.  Great start Doug.
3. Why? I was embarrassed and wanted to conceal what had happened... I didn't want to draw attention to myself or get a bad name early because I did something stupid.