Dwarf Fortress (steam premium version)

It's good, it's great, it's the Dwarf Fortress we know and love but in pog steam form.

I first started playing it in like 2006 or so (when there was only a single z-level and every fortress had the same shape of outside river -> mountain -> inside river -> lava, etc., so I'm not new to it, but had been putting off playing it until the steam version came out. Now the steam version is out and here we are.

I've played one fortress in it so far, have a good system going, up to about 200 people in it now, fully furnished with bedrooms, food situation is good, have 3 squads in my military, and have successfully beaten back several sieges and one (really wimpy) forgotten beast. I'm at the point where I'm kind of running out of things to do, since I've reached a good level of safety. I may go kill the two forgotten beasts that are at the bottom of a big hole in the caverns, or try digging even farther down and see what I come up with.

The graphics on the steam version are great, very easy to see and play, looks beautiful. Music (it has actual music now!) is awesome, sound effects are great except for that one screeching thing that pops up every once in a while, I got a mod on steam workshop (wow workshop support!) to take care of that though.

There's a few issues with things like learning the new keyboard shortcuts, and there's some UI missing. Overall though I've been having a blast. It's also been great seeing all the support coming in for the game and the huge success it's been for Tarn and co., well deserved.

Vampire Survivors is all I've really been in the mood for for some reason.

It's such a stupid game, but when you really get into it there is a lot to do and think about, be it a path through enemies, or the items you want, especially as you try to unlock things. I'm amazed at how much fun it is.

I set up the Wii Metroid Prime trilogy with Primehack on my PC and Deck (I'm traveling and intend to play it while visiting family). Metroid Prime is still a good game, and it holds up really well! The mouse/keyboard tweaks work really well, and you can adjust the inputs to feel right for you. Paired with the controller-oriented auto-focus, and you've got a great experience that even feels native, which is a trip. It plays well on the Deck, too, but you have to find a good controller setup, and tweak/learn the Steam controller setup and implement it in the configuration menu. I never played these games fully before, so I'm looking forward to it.

MUDs

MUDs are text-based, multi-user dungeons games.

The effort required to MUD is greater than the novelty or whatever I'm learning anymore. Acquiring proficiency in a new MUD is a huge time commitment. I will probably keep playing Aardwolf, because it's the game I know the most. It's archaic in many aspects, but it's the Devil I know, and I do have fun with it.

To make a comparison, the Xbox controller has 8 buttons and two clickable analog sticks. That's it. I can get acquainted with a new game's control scheme in less than 5 minutes. MUDs can have hundreds of commands, some of those with multiple parameters. Not to mention dozens of systems, social dynamics, rules, roleplay guidelines, and fictional universes. It's a lot! Most of the "tutorials" are glorified text dumps, and you'll have to read and consult dozens of help pages multiple times during gameplay. If you want a roleplay game, you may need to create your entire character beforehand, which may or may not be approved. That's a lot of effort before you know if you'll even like the game.

What is more frustrating is that, in my view, there's nothing inherent to MUDs and their underlying technologies that force them to be that way. Things can be simpler, more agile, and more dynamic.

When you talk about why MUDs are not as popular anymore, many will mention the rise of MMORPGs such as Everquest and World of Warcraft — and they'll be right. However, even though they will never be mainstream, I believe it is possible for MUDs to have a large audience than they have today.

A reasonably competent computer user should be able to learn and play multiple MUDs at the same time without feeling that they're learning Emacs from scratch. With that in mind, here are some ideas:

1. Tutorials should follow the entire leveling process, presenting relevant information when it is needed. No text dumps.
2. Much less commands to memorize. Commands should follow the Do What I Mean motto. When needed, parameters are better than new commands.

• ex: only one command for equipping things

3. Smart verbosity: describe only what has narrative and/or mechanical significance. If a room has no distinctive features, it should have no description.
4. Strategic combat: repeating "cast 'ballistic missile' dragon" a hundred times is not fun. Combat should be lethal, requiring planning and thinking.
5. The world should not depend too much on the assistance of others to function. Social interaction should enhance gameplay, but a game that depends too much on human helpers cannot rebound from a reduction of the player base.
6. MUDs should either be deeply integrated with a client of choice or have a custom client that satisfies the needs of the majority of players. Client and game should be developed in tandem, and, from the player's perspective, there should be no distinction between them.

• no one should be required to learn scripting or complex configurations to play optimally.

7. When possible, scripting should be discouraged by the implementation of commonly scripted features in-game/in-client.
8. Scripting that skips grinding or interferes with combat must be prohibited and made mechanically impractical.

• games that allow scripting have no incentive to curb excessive grinding or to make combat interesting and strategic for all players.
• advanced scripting both in PvP and PvE creates an elite of player-programmers and transforms the upper levels of the game in coding competitions.

9. Inventory should be way easier... getting rid of junk, ordering things, and comparing stats is generally a drag. Ideally, inventories should be smarter and do things to make your life easier.
10. Consider making sound an integral part of the game. It's great for ambiance, and giving things punch and personality. They're great for the visually impaired as well. Due to screenreaders, there are many blind players in MUDs.
11. Most (all?) MUDs are spam fests. There's so much irrelevant or redundant text and formatting filling the screen at all times. A dose of minimalism would do good for the MUD community. Only show me what I need, when I need it. Don't make me use client-side scripting to recreate the game on my end, make the right decisions for me. Spam is terrible for blind users too.
12. Without removing the textual interface that is characteristic of the genre, graphics can be helpful for things like inventory and skill trees. This can be done over the game itself, maintaining the ability to do so via text for those who either prefer or need to do things that way. The Iron Realms client has something to that effect.

I'm not gonna lie, I've been thinking a lot about making my own MUD. There's so much untapped potential, it's exhilarating. A lot of the things holding MUDs down are ultra-old-school preferences that those deep into the community won't ever see as downsides.

Let's see what the future brings.

BONUS:
13. Mazes should be simple and/or telegraphed enough to be navigated without the assistance of an external map. No challenge through obscurity, no trying to be too smart.
14. Active quests or objectives should be a thing, and the relative direction and distance to their location should be informed in a way that does not discourage exploration but does discourage looking for external maps. For instance, there could be a message every time you enter a room such as "Your objective is southeast. You are getting close". Subtle enough to retain a sense of mystery, and informative enough to keep you in the game. If the game is fantasy, this could be explained in-universe as an enchanted talking stone. If science fiction, it could be a virtual assistant or a high-tech GPS. To make this even more intertwined with the narrative, the first quest objective could be acquiring such an object.

My son is making a play for child of the year, and has been initiating a lot of non-Catan board games. While some of his selections are a bit basic - he is eight years old - they're still better than playing Catan for the nine hundred and fifteen millionth time.

Outfoxed is a relatively simple team oriented clue finding game. There are a bunch of foxes; one of them has committed a crime. Clues are strewn around the board, and you have to find them, then use a contraption to see if that clue incriminates a particular fox. It's one part Guess Who? and one part clue. It's aimed at 7 - 10 year olds, but the cards are cute, and the contraption is fun, and like most co-op games, you pay attention even when it's not your turn.

Cosmic Cows is basically head-to-head yahtzee. It's pretty basic, but it's also fast - you can play in 10 minutes or less. The pieces are cute, and the board art is fun; the idea is you are both aliens fighting over cows that you're trying to beam up to your space ship, and rolling yahtzee combinations brings the cows closer to your ship.

Keys to the Castle and Keys to the Ice Castle are basically the same tile-based maze games where you try to make your way through the maze before your opponents. You have cards to uncover tiles or mess with your opponent. It's fun and silly, the art is delightful, and it's a great intro game.

Rock, Paper, Wizard has a bit more depth, and introduces a lot of D&D classic spells. It shines when you have 5 or 6 players. There's a spellbook on the table consisting of cards from a deck of spells. Each round, you think about what spell you will cast and on whom; then you "Rock Paper Wizard" and point your spell at an opponent. There's an order to how spells resolve, and then you get treasure based on where you are on the board. It's easy to get into - my son and his friends can all play, but so can my 75 year old parents with minimal coaching - and it's another game where everyone is engaged every round.

Azul is a beautiful tile placement game. You draw tiles from a common supply and place them on your "wall" and you get points for things like placing tiles close together or completely rows, columns, or sets of tiles. It's another relatively straight-forward game, but at least it's not Catan.

Catan. While I've likely made my feelings abundantly clear on the matter, it still gets played. At least our most recent game was "Cities & Knights" which is a huge improvement. I think I feel the same way about Catan that a lot of people seem to feel about "All I Want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey - it's a real banger, but overplayed.

Still on Guild Wars 2. Finally came around to giving money to the devs (bought some DLC on sale on Steam). That has opened up a few quality of life improvements (more storage space, ability to trade a broader range of items on the market, and more). It has also opened up more pathways for character development, including some new elite classes, one of which I've been levelling up and playing for the last little while. Because I feel like I'd fare better with these unlocks, I've set foot in the PvP aspect of this game. I'm actually enjoying it! I ask myself why I didn't try it sooner.

GW2 is a fairly well done MMO RPG, especially considering you can try it free-to-play at first. You can actually get a lot of value from it while f2p. I think I had over 200 hours clocked before I spent any money. There's so much content, so many long-running pathways for player development and expansion, and none of it (IMO) has been grindy in a bad way.

I started No Man’s Sky last night, since I got it as an early holiday gift. I’m playing on relaxed mode, and I’m really enjoying the space travel and mysterious storyline. It is really fiddly on the Switch, but not terrible, and I’d much rather play games there as a hangout experience with my partner versus on a computer by myself.

Pokémon Violet. Bought it after receiving a random 7 day silence in WoW and thought I'd play it to pass the time because fuck trying to appeal anything through Blizzard with their shitty customer service. Otherwise I would have been playing Dragonflight all weekend and pumping out Mythic dungeons in preparation for Season 1.

Thoughts on it have been mixed.

Firstly, the good. Nemona is best girl in the entire Pokémon series and absolutely nails the friendly rival archetype that Game Freak utterly failed to pull off with Trace's design and character in Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee. Trace felt like a heavily sanitized clone of Blue/Gary Oak whereas Nemona is her own fleshed-out character. She's student council president and is the one upholding law and order in the academy, yet she is also highly competitive.

Arven is a character who I thought I hated, until you actually find out why he's collecting all five mystical herbs. It is one of the best side quests and plot twists in the game.

Game Freak also (thankfully) retained a lot of the open world catching and encounter mechanics which made Legends: Arceus such a massive leap forward for the series.

However, making the game fully open world has come with a lot of problems and I kinda wish they just did the whole open-zone thing that Legends: Arceus did. Gen 9 has substantial performance issues and there have been times where my framerate has dropped well below 10 FPS when going into a town or large open field. I have also had the occasional severe lag spike where the game turns into a slideshow when catching Pokémon.

The game doesn't even graphically look impressive either. Some of the ground and building textures I've seen have looked so blurry and washed that they make PlayStation 2 graphics look impressive.

Another problem I have with the game is how it's open world but without any of the balances in difficulty you'd see in other truly open world games. I genuinely went east of the academy to start my titan hunting/gym journey, reached Glaseado Gym as the fourth gym on my journey and proceeded to get absolutely bitchslapped by Ice Pokémon that were nearly twenty levels above me. I also encountered a gym on the south-western side of Paldea which was impossible to reach until I got a later mount upgrade, which just confused the fuck out of me.

Paldea honestly feels like an empty and barren world, and I think part of this is the lack of interactable NPCs, lack of buildings you can enter, the incredibly low framerates, the copied & pasted towns which look identical to one another, and the gym gauntlets replaced with minigames disguised as a test before you can face the gym leader.

One minor thing that does irk me a bit about Nemona is her mannerisms. As a character she throws in more Spanish phrases like "Hola" and "Vamos" into her vocab than Dora the Explorer, almost as if the writers needed to remind you, the player, time and time and time again, that Paldea is based on Spain. She is the only character in the entire game that does this and it feels like something that makes what is otherwise a great rival character feel disingenuous.

And then you get very blatantly Japanese-inspired designs that ruin the setting like:

• Iono, the livestreamer Electric gym leader who is like your typical v-tuber weeb, from the child-like appearance and constant winking at the camera, to the oversized hoodie which you wouldn't see anybody wear in a hot mediterranean country like Spain.
• Larry, the Normal type gym leader is a salaryman, who battles you in a very traditional-looking Japanese restaurant.
• A lot of the food being very Japanese-inspired, I mean who eats stuff like teriyaki ice cream or rice balls in Spain?

Another change I'm not sure that I'm 100% on board with is how trainer encounters work in Paldea. Battles are no longer initiated by your opponents when you do so much as walk within their field of vision. The annoyance now is wild Pokémon encounters, because the spawn rates are ludicrous and some of the Pokémon are so small that you will often run into them, stop dead in your tracks and start a battle.

Finally, Geeta is the worst Pokémon League champion I've seen. She has the worst champion roster out of every generation and something about her design just looks freakishly out-of-place, like it crosses into the uncanny valley. All the other main series rivals that have preceded her had cool character designs. Geeta's is just awful.

I've been playing minecraft modpack nomifactory. It's very addictive. everything takes a lot of small parts to craft and it's enjoyable building up systems that build parts for you.