There was a time when I would definitely call myself an avid gamer. I’d still like to call myself that. But, lately every game I play seems to fall short of that proverbial mark — whatever that mark is. Perhaps the problem is I am not aware of the mark I am trying to hit.

I just LOVE Massively Multiplayer Online games. I’ve loved them since the days when we mudded on terminal screens at the University…

I’ve played a lot of MMOs since those days: EQ2, Planetside, Dark Age of Camelot, Eve, Tabula Rasa, Guild Wars, Second Life, and now Age of Conan… Some of these did well to capture my attention, some did very poorly. However, lately, it’s as if no games are capturing my attention at all! Not sure what that is about. I mean, the latest MMO I’m playing is Conan… Yeah, CONAN! I should be all over that like white on rice, but somehow I’m not…

The reigning theory is that the heat is rolling in and we all feel a bit lethargic. Gotta love the oppresive summers here. Well, I have thirty days on Conan and we’ll see how it goes. I might just stick to Angband… ;)

Yep, I’m installing Windows at home again… Fret not, it’s just for gaming. I mean, that’s what winders is for, right? I need some gaming fix and I need Windows in order to do it in a non-stressful fashion. So, here we go.

First XP CD I found produced a blue screen when trying to start the Windows GUI for installation. Not a good start. Though, I thought it an appropriate welcome back to the neighborhood.

The second CD I found installed just fine. But, look at this, no video driver, no ethernet, no SM Bus, no “PCI Device”, no “USB Device”, and no 3D video controller… So much for plug and play. But again, I imagine it would be much the same as returning to Korea after all these years and smelling the wonderful open sewer system again. Oh yes… I remember that…

Ok, now we’re in driver hell. Yes, folks, no matter what Billy-boy would have you believe you do need to fetch drivers for XP most of the time. Kinda sad that it didn’t have the network driver built in, however. That little bit of fun makes it particularly difficult. So, I use my trusty laptop to download the necessary drivers. I installed the video, network, and chipset drivers. I was installing the video drivers lastly and when it came time to be done it asked me as per usual, “Restart Now?”. To which I was going to say yes. But, no… USB had died. No PS2 ports for keyboards, or and don’t you love how there is no CLI (especially a remote CLI) to enable a graceful shutdown. Looks like this reboot will be medieval style.

Well, FINALLY all the drivers are good. Had to step back the nVidia driver because the newer one was borking up. Other than that, we’re good. Doing the Update – Reboot dance now. Rhys is begging me to install the Sims…. I can’t wait to install some Counter-Strike tho. ;)

Ok, the reason this post isn’t more meaty is Angband… Tonight was the first night I got to relax in awhile, so I just played me some Angband… GOD it’s a great game! Oh, and you’d think you’d be able to notice right off if you were trying to beat down a Kobold with a shovel! You know what I’m talkin about?

I’m goin crazy here. Due to various factors in my life, I’m currently pretty broke. I’ve been working like crazy, both at my day job, and at my wanna-be job, and I’ve been goin nuts. I haven’t gamed in weeks aside from an occasional Angband quest.

I decided to give Freeciv another shot. I’ve always been a Civilization junkie in the past, and I’ve followed the Freeciv movement for years. It never seemed up to snuff, or maybe I just wasn’t feeling it. Those that know, know that Civilization is a pretty serious addiction. You have to be ready for the plunge. :) Well, I think I’m ready for the plunge.

I’ve got a Freeciv server on my main server and my main workstation now, and am picking the game up pretty quickly. I’m really excited to see the flexibility of this game. You can set coefficients for research, the year the game will end, production penalties, etc.

Another neat factor is the multiplayer aspect. It has always had a tilt to multiplay, which is something that the commercial Civilization always seemed to lack. Even when they finally implemented it, it just sucked! I haven’t had a chance to sample the multiplay on Freeciv yet, but I’m looking forward to it! Do you play? Drop me a line and let’s set up a game! Haven’t tried Freeciv yet? If you were or are still a fan of the Civilization series, then you MUST give Freeciv a shake. It’s totally worth it!

Ahhh, Angband. Such a wonderful game of yesteryear. Back in the day, I played it when it was named Moria. I remember the most impressive thing about this game was it’s sheer complexity and size. One of its claims to fame was the fact that it used up ALL of your computer’s RAM to play it. That is, if you were lucky enough to have a computer with 640k of RAM.

My friends and I used to crowd around my computer and play this game for HOURS on end. We’d set a 30 minute timer and take turns. Usually there were three of us playing. This was the extent of most multiplayer games of the day, you took turns and watched others play — and watching someone play a game with ASCII graphics was damn entertaining!!

To this day, Angband holds its own against the Halo’s and Half-Life’s because of it’s complexity in game play. Something which I find all too often lost in the advanced games of today. It’s a sad tragedy to me that the current generation of kids won’t have the kind of imaginative experience that this type of game provides. You can bet my son will play this game before I expose him to Halo, or Neverwinter, or whatever.

Drinking and Guitar Hero don’t mix… It takes you back to high school days. LOL!!