Tuesday, July 22, 2014

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.

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