New Poll - What kind of a soldier are you?

So here's my latest poll. Just in case the draft is reinstated.

What kind of soldier are you?

I melee; therefore I am
Double barrel action for me (shotgun)
Robin Hood to the rescue (bows)
A single shot is all I need (sniper)
Call me 1-800-FLOWERS (frags)
Don't call me fat (heavy gunner)

This is not about what type of weapon you like to use the most, but what type of soldier you are. You might like to use the sniper rifle, but does that really reflect the type of soldier you are (especially if you're just using the sniper rifle as a baseball bat)? More when I post the results.

Poll results - New ranking system in GoW2

So here's the poll results:

What do you think of the new ranking system in Gears of War 2?

Love it! = 3 votes
It's okay = 1 vote
Hate it! = 0 votes
I don't play Gears of War 2 any more = 2 votes

I have to admit that it's nice to finally see some progress for all the hard work I put into Gears matches. That being said I will admit that I voted for "It's okay" and not "Love it!". I'll tell you why.

The reasons why I like it is the fact that you actually get to see what you're working towards. There's your progress. There's a goal. And there's a sense of accomplishment when you level up. Yes, I know there are people who'd play Gears online just for the fun of it whether there was a ranking system or not. I'm not one of them. Mostly anyway. I do enjoy playing online with my friends but sometimes the monotonous nature of online matches can get boring after awhile. When that happens I'd turn the game off and probably never come back. With a ranking system (and one you can actually see working and you understand) it's nice to come back to the game and see if you can "level up" one more time before going to bed.

Just the other night I was 7 points from leveling up and we were about to call it a night. Well, I just couldn't leave my rank that close and just go to bed so the group decided to play one more match so I would hopefully get those 7 points. Unfortunately the match we were in didn't turn out very good. We had 4 people in our party so we picked up a "FOUND PLAYER" and started the match. By the second round all players on the other team had dropped out and we were running around shooting bots. We were cruising to a very easy victory when with 1 win away from winning the whole match we got the "host disconnected to the game" message. Apparently that "FOUND PLAYER" was the game's host and he didn't want to stick around for 1 more round and an easy win. He would rather take a 1,500 point loss than play another minute against bots. Game over.

Unfortunately that meant I didn't get my 7 points to level up. We all wanted to see if we'd be penalized the 1,500 points for "quiting" the game just because the host quit. We stuck around for one more match and I was able to level up. We also found out that we didn't lose the penalty for dropping out. But that's not always the case.

I've played a couple of games where I've left early. One I willing took the penalty instead of sticking around in a laggy game. The other times I've lost connection to the host or that other error message (something about timing out). Sometimes I've gotten the penalty and sometimes I haven't. After talking to my friends that's happened to them too. One of them lagged out of a game due to his internet connection and got the penalty. It's wasn't his fault, but I guess a computer system wouldn't recognize that.

As much as I like the fact that you can now see where you stand, the random penalty assessment is very annoying. But does it matter anyway? If you play long enough everyone will be able to max out their rank in the game. A higher rank doesn't necessarily mean you're better than the person next to you, it just means you've played it long enough to accumulate a lot of points. Now, for some people it might take them one month to get to rank 20 (like me) when someone else can do it in a couple of days. That is a differentiation in rank but that doesn't show up when you get into a public room. You don't know if that "15er" has been playing a couple of days or just a couple of hours. I know the system that everyone has compared the new ranks in Gears 2 to is Call of Duty. But with Call of Duty it's the same way. I'm on my third level of prestige in COD4 and I'm not that good of a player.

Even though we have the "experienced" based ranking that you can see in a game lobby the developers said they still kept the "true skill ranking" for better matchmaking, but it just stays in the back ground. While I like the idea of playing against similarly skilled players instead of facing a room full of zen masters, it bothers that they say "you're a 13 ranked player but we're going to treat you like a 2 ranked player because of your skill". If I'm a terrible shot than just all me that. I can handle it.

And how can we be sure that "true skill" rankings are accurate. My friend Genghis Khan leads all friends in almost every single category on my friend's leaderboard, but he never achieved a gold stripe in the original ranking system. Evil Ric, who's not far behind Genghis on many of the boards, got a gold stripe and kept it for a very long time before losing it and then never being able to get it back. Then there's other players that got the stripe, lost it, got it back and lost it again. And they couldn't figure out why. Where's the consistency in that?

I think this new ranking system is a huge step in the right direction, but I don't think it's perfect. The "true skill" ranking is too much like Halo's system (which is Microsoft's baby) so there should be no surprise that it's used in this game. But it's a system that I don't think anyone's ever really understood. It's just now that the gaming population has cried loud enough for someone to do something about it. And while I will probably never max out my prestige levels in Call of Duty games there is some hope that I can max things out in Gears of War 2. It just might take me until the next game comes out before I do. Another year or two should give me enough time.

I took a hit . . . but I didn't inhale

When I got on to play Gears of War 2 last night I already had a room full of friends playing. Thankfully another group of friends got together and we started up another room (twice, thank you very much Max). It was a nice casual, laid back room and we were having fun. Until we started one match.

We knew there would be trouble right from the get go when the option to vote for the game type (warzone or execution) didn't even display on most of our screens until after the voting had ended. Most of us did get a chance to vote on the map. We picked Jacinto. And then the lagging started.

It was very hard to run anywhere because while your screen would show you in an open place your character would act like he's stuck behind a wall. It took three attempts for me to be able to pick up some more ammo during one of the matches. And forget about trying to shoot anyone. I put a whole clip and a half from my lancer into someone who was standing still on my screen, but I never downed him. One second later he was crouched behind a block and firing at me . . . through a tree!

But what put me over the edge was when I died by mortar fire when on my screen the guy hadn't even fired it yet. It wasn't until just before I switch to the ghost cam that I saw the mortar shells fire towards my position. You can't play a game like that. It's impossible. So I quit.

Yes, I know with the new ranking system I was going to take a hit on my total experience points and I possibly lost a rank because of that (I was only rank 2 or 3 going into the match), but I didn't care. I can't be expected to stay in a game and "play" when shooting someone has no effect and I die before someone on the other team fires their weapon. It was a much better decision to take the 1,000 point hit for quiting (or whatever it is) then to stay in that game. My teammates, on the other hand, stayed in and tried to get a win.

Since I was still in the party I sat back and listened to what they were going through while I waited for them to finish their game. Apparently the only way one person on the other team could be killed was with grenades. Since those only come up every other round it made for a long match. After twenty minutes of listening to my friends struggle with the laggy game I pulled the disk out and shut down for the night (sort of). I turned on the TV and mindlessly watched a little bit of all 70+ channels before I had to turn my 360 back on and play something productive.

I set my preference to "off-line" because I knew my friends were still playing and I wasn't really in the mood to go back to Gears, and I put in Fable II. After chopping wood for 30-40 minutes I felt better (and I got an achievement for the effort as well) and THEN I called it a night.

I don't know what my total experience was prior to quiting the match so I'm not sure I can tell exactly how much I was penalized. When I log on tonight I just might see my rank a little lower. But for me it was all worth it. I took a hit for quiting . . . but I didn't inhale. And my night was better for it.

New Poll - What do you think of new ranking system in GoW2?

My latest poll:

What do you think of the new ranking system in Gears of War 2?

Love it!
It's okay
Hate it!
I don't play that game any more

You have until next Wednesday to vote and feel free to leave a comment about the reasons why you voted the way you did. We're all dying to know. But you'll have to wait until the poll closes before you find out what I think. Sorry, that's just the way it is.

Poll Results - Website for the real you?

Here are the latest poll results:

Do you have a website for the real life you?

No = 5 votes
More than 1 = 2 votes
Facebook = 1 vote
MySpace = 1 vote
Personal website = 0 votes
All of the above = 0 votes

I voted "no". I think my sister started a Face Book page but when I tried to view it it said I needed to be a member first. I don't really like sites like which require people to register just to see their content.

On the other hand I've been considering getting a website for myself and I can't make up my mind how to do it. MySpace seems so last year and for little kids (sorry Sand Dog), but I don't like requiring people to register just to get to my site (Face Book).

On the other hand I don't know how to design a web site. That is way over my head. Eventually I'd like to take this blog to it's own site (if I ever get more than 10 readers, maybe) but then I'd have to design one, or have somebody do it for me. Then there's the whole question about maintenance and what do I do if something goes wrong. And if I'm fiddling with things there's bound to be something that goes wrong.

If you put aside where you've got a personal page then you have to answer the question: do I want my personal information out there? Yes, I have a blog and talk about things in my personal life, but if you passed me on the street you wouldn't know who I was. I kind of like that. My online persona is Pengwenn and while it is the real me it's also a shield I can hide behind if I don't want to get to personal. So, at the same time it's the real me even when it's not.

I can be frustrated and pissed off (and maybe even drop a swear word or two) without having to worry about people looking at me and judging me for not being "lady-like". I can flirt and tease my fellow gamers, putting all kinds of fantasies in their heads about me, without having them "hurl their cookies" when they find out what the real me looks like. It's all innocent fun and nobody gets hurts. They go to bed with their fantasies and I go to bed with my anonymity still intact. It works for me.

Getting a website for the real me would destroy all of that. I don't think it's a bad thing for people; I just don't know if it's a good thing for me. As a girl I was taught to protect myself and there are a lot of predators on the net. I've had a couple of people on my friends list that I've deleted because they were starting to creep me out. Having a website would be like opening my front door and inviting all the weirdos over. The only weirdos I want to meet are the ones I can kill . . . or at least mute.

Now I do have an email address that I'm willing to share (just not out here in the open) so if anyone wants to get past the "Pengwenn shield" (to a more personal me) just drop me a comment or a PM on Xbox. If I know you (and like ya) I'll let you know what it is. If not . . . well then I guess you'll have to play some arcade games with me until I DO like you. Oh, and it helps if I win. :)

Medic!

I think I've found my calling in shoot 'em up video games. I am a Medic!

I seem to play better when I can hang back a little bit and take time to survey the action before rushing in. Then if anyone falls I can rush to their aide and revive them. It seemed to work well last night while playing Call of Duty: World at War on the co-op story mode with kaiakapero and Pogue Moran.

There was one mission where I didn't get shot down ending up in last stand at all. And I think two others where I was only downed once. I let Pogue charge straight ahead. I kept kaiakapero ahead of me, but always in my sights. And I just picked off anyone they missed and tried to revive them whenever they fell. Of course a lot of times it was kai reviving Pogue and me reviving kai. Still, I think it worked out pretty well.

I use to love running right into the action, especially in Star Wars Battlefront. I wanted to get in there and start fighting. I did find that while playing that game it was to my advantage to take a moment to look over the map or area to see where people were at before deciding which direction I was going to run. Maybe it was just having an overhead map that helped. I don't know.

I struggle sometimes in Gears because I don't have an overhead map and so you never know where the enemies are going to come at you from. You have to rely on your teammates to give you a heads up, but by then it might be to late to help them. Since there's no respawning in Gears (unless you play Guardian or the "territory" game types) it's very easy for half your team to rush into an ambush and get wiped out. When that happens pretty soon you find yourself alone and having to take on the whole team. Now you know why I like Guardian. I get to respawn.

When I've played Gears and hung back a little bit, getting a good look around before charging off somewhere, I seem to play much better. And if I'm the last one left alive (a rare feat at that) I find it easier to play when I can pick my ground and plan for the enemies attacks. Of course it helps to have some well placed grenades too.

I don't have the patience to play as a sniper in the Call of Duty games. And I get tunnel vision too easily that I forget to keep checking around me for incoming enemies. There's just been too many times I've been stabbed in the back while snipping. My brother kai on the other hand loves to snipe. He made a point of telling me about it last night before we got online to play. If you can do it, all the more power to you. It's just not my thing.

The movie Saving Private Ryan was on this past weekend and I was watching the final battle sequence. The interrupter they brought along was in charge of running ammo refills back and forth between the positions. Throw a medic's bag over that guys shoulder and that would be me. Except for the fear, sniveling, crying, "what have I gotten myself into" bit, of course. Because I'm a medic that can shoot. But only when I have to. And I might even hit something . . . eventually.

Video gaming therapy

So, I've been getting very frustrated while playing video games recently as I'm sure you're all aware of (and which sometimes I'm sorry I brought it up) and I didn't really know how to get that excitement back. I think I've finally figured it out and I can sum it up in two words.

FINAL FANTASY

On Tuesday, after a long day at work, I finally decided I needed to connect my DVD player and PS2 up in my new house. I wasn't going to watch a movie and by the time I got around to getting everything connected I hadn't planned on playing a game. But I did. I put in Final Fantasy X-2 again and after about 30 minutes things started to feel right with the world again.

Of course things didn't feel all that "right" in my hands at first. Holding my Dualshock 2 PS2 controller felt weird. It felt too light, insubstantial and cramped. While the controller looks symmetrical the stick placements seemed off. My wrists felt awkwardly bent and I was afraid my thumbs would trip over themselves while I played. And then I remembered when holding a PS2 controller didn't feel that way.

I remember going from the flat, oval controllers for my SNES to the dual stick controllers for the PlayStation. It felt awkward at first, but after awhile it felt completely natural. It felt like this was the only way to hold a controller and play a game. For years I lived that way, first with my PlayStation, then with my PS2. Sure, there was s GameCube thrown in there but 99% of my game time was spent with a DualShock controller in hand.

I remember when the original Xbox came out and I hefted their original controller (the big black hamburger) it felt awkward. The sticks were not symmetrical, the buttons at an odd angle and way too close together. How could anyone play I game using this controller? I eventually moved to the "S" model of the controller which fit better in my hands and wasn't quite so bulky. When I got my Xbox 360 I went through a similar situation, but it was easier to get use to the new controller.

It was probably easier because there were move games I wanted to play consistently with my 360 that I didn't really have with the the original Xbox. While I was playing the original Xbox I was still playing my PS2 for the majority of my time. The PS2 controller was the one that felt the most natural and comfortable in my hands. But unfortunately I haven't played my PS2 for at least 5 months, maybe more.

So even though it was very late when I finally got my DVD and PS2 hooked up I decided I wanted to put something in and see if the machine still worked. I put in Final Fantasy X-2. It worked. When I looked at my save file the last time I saved the game was in May of 2005. The other game I considered playing was Final Fantasy IX and that save files was from April of 2003. I couldn't believe it had been that long since I've played that game. I guess if I would have thought about it I should have realized it HAD been that long.

I remember when my PS2 had been my life. Now it seems that is true of my Xbox 360. Don't get me wrong, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It's just that I think there are more FPS games for the 360 than there are for the PS2. Maybe it has something to do with the "typical gamer" for that system, or maybe it's just a trend that has recently just surfaced. I'm a RPG gamer at heart as I've said before so there is only so much FPS action I can take before I start to lose it. And recently I think I've been losing it.

So when I restarted FFX-2 again for what was probably the third of fourth time I felt like I was finally coming home. My mind and body could give a sigh of relief and some much needed RPG therapy could begin. And as much as I wanted to go to bed I stayed up and played for about a half an hour before calling it a night. And yesterday I went back for some more therapy.

Does that mean that I'm done playing FPS like Gears of War, Halo, or Call of Duty? Absolutely not. As much as I liked playing FFX-2 it was kind of lonely with no one to talk to. For now I'm content to play some Final Fantasy and remember why I liked playing video games in the first place. I'm sure the controller will feel natural in my hands again too. I've just got to figure out how to balance my RPG and FPS desires so I don't get burned out on one or feel lonely on the other.

I think everyone should experience some video game therapy every now and then. There's nothing worse than a gamer who puts the games away because they've forgotten why they love playing video games in the first place. And besides, even with the cost of high speed internet and video games it's still cheaper than laying on a couch talking to a shrink. And blowing up things or cutting enemies down with a sword is so much more cathartic, don't you think? That's all I'm saying.