Tales from a Tank: In the Beginning, there was Chaos

Like so many times before, when I first started Final Fantasy 14 (yes, it's another one of THOSE blogs), my first instinct is to roll a healer.  That's was what I did in all other MMOs I've ever played so why not?  But never would I suspect the game would hook me so bad and in the end, playing as one class seems like a waste.  But what to take on next?  How about a tank?

 

A tank, for those not into MMO vernacular, is a character class who's job is to be on the front lines, facing the enemy, and protecting other party members from harm.  With their high HP and defense, tanks are designed to soak up insane amounts of damage.  Almost all their skills revolve around attracting the monsters' attention (known as aggro) and having the enemy attack the tank and only the tank.  In a perfect encounter,  the tank is the only character who will take any damage.  If, by now, you think that's a lot of responsibility, that's because it is.  Tanks, along with the healers, are nearly indispensible.  Since I was already used to the pressures of being a healer (maybe a blog about that is in order), being a tank seems like a natural fit.  So that's exactly what I did one day in FF14.  Just got up, walked into the gladiator's guild (gladiators and it's eventual successor, the paladin, are two of the tank classes in FF14), and signed up.  Little did I know what I was getting into, because….

 

Tanking is hard.

 

I've seen tanking done before in other games, but FF14 takes the role a little too far.  In any given four player dungeon, the tank is in charge (mostly) of the following:  leading the party geographically though the dungeon (gotta know the map layout), marking enemies (which to attack first, second, etc.), engaging the enemy (often called 'pulling'), enemy positioning (facing the enemies with big attacks away from other party memebers), holding onto enemy aggro for dear life (what tanking is all about), buffing yourself (so your HP doesn't sink like a stone and panic the healer) and if the fight wants for it, to watch out for adds (that being enemy reinforcements). 

 

Failing any of the above could get you labled as a 'bad tank' and one of my friends, I'll call him C-Rox, likes to call out bad tanks.  But he has the luxury of being one of the best ones.  It also doesn't help that another one of my buddies, I'll call him Z-man, is a natural born tank.  Between the two, I've got almost as much standards to live up to as the Pope.

 

Still, there was nothing to do but to try and right away things decended into chaos.  In the first three or four runs, I think I must have lost aggro in 50% of battles.  Given that some battles are against very easy foes in sets of one or two, the real error rate is much higher.  It wasn't long into a dungeon before the 'advice' started coming.  'You've got to keep attention away from other party members,' says a party member.  'What do you think I've been trying to do for the past three fights, jerk,' I wanted to say, but instead, I just said 'okay'.  For the longest while, facing off against groups of three or more had me in near panic and more often than not, an enemy or two would always get away.  After these first few dungeon runs, I would consider hanging up my sword and shield and never tank again.

 

(I'm never gonna tank again, guilty feet have got not aggro…)

 

Annnnyway….  the discourgement never kept me down, and I hacked at it one dungeon after another.  Ironically, it was those very same 'bad tanks' that gave me the courage to go on.  Before I joined the tanking pantheon, I too, was very critical of 'bad tanks'.  After having done it myself, suddenly, all those bad tanks weren't so bad anymore.  Everytime I got partied with one of these, I would be reminded of my own follies.  This allowed me to see all tanks as essentially 'good'.   It's just that, some tanks are 'more good' than others.  In other words, I developed an unnatural appreciation of the role, seeing myself reflected back in every single tank, good or bad.  Seeing other tanks make the same mistakes I do meant that I wasn't alone.  There are people out there who do understand.  People like… other tanks!  And, as I learned to forgive other tanks for their mistakes, so too, do I free myself of the mistakes I make.  This is the breakthrough.  This allowed me to accept my mistakes and to keep going.

 

Now, after more than a month, I've lead dozens of dungeons through countless encounters.  Sometimes, I did well, sometimes, not so much.  But I've progressed: going from being a bad tank to a pretty good one.

 

But just when I thought the worse was behind me… just when tanking was getting comfortable under the skin the game throws a curveball in the form of the biggest tanking challenge for me yet.  I think I'll save that story for another blog.

Trojan Horses

With the recent announcement of real, live, actual Steam Machines this past CES and the ongoing Steam Dev Days, Valve has been on in the spotlight for a long time now.  With Steam Machines just over the horizon, I want to take this time to revist some of my earlier theories in light of some recent information.

 

I still think the machines are a bad idea from a console lover's perspective and that hasn't changed.  In fact, it only got reinforced as several manufacturers confirmed that the machines will be aimed at existing Steam customers.  It is all well and good, they say, if console gamers adopt Steam Machines, but first and formost, the boxes would be meant for existing Steam gamers.  Basically, they are asking fans to buy a second PC, this time, for use in the living room.  This makes no sense. 

 

Unless there's something else involved. 

 

I don't have any proof, but I think this has less to do with game boxes in your living room, and more to do with the operating system.  As mentioned in another blog of mine, there isn't a single console manufacturer who boasts about their operating system.  Until now.  I think there's a good reason for it.  Steam is already very large in the PC arena, but as big as they get, they will always be shackled by Microsoft Windows.  If Windows do well, Steam does well.  If not, then not so well.  With PC sales sagging under the weight of smart phones and tablets, Valve is probably worried about their future.  Afterall, they do not have a foot hold in the mobile market.  Which is why they are now creating their own with Steam OS.

 

The living room space is a frontier that hasn't quite been conquered.  Every day is a battle between the Big Three.  Not like the PC, where Windows is king.  There's room here in the living room market to make an impact.  The Steam Machines are a trojan horse for Steam OS.  Sell enough machines, and you will propogate the operating system.  And it's very well possible that the machines will sell very much indded.  Valve recently release new figures.  There are over 70 million active Steam accounts, right now.  Suppose just 10% of PC gamers make the jump to a Steam Machine.  That's 7 million units sold, each one with Steam OS.  To be fair, some manufaturers are installing their machines with both Windows and Steam OS, but not a single machine will ship without Steam.  All of a sudden, Steam OS users would be 7 million large.  Even if only five percent of gamers choose to buy a machine, it's still 3.5 million.  That's right up there with PS4 and Xbone.  Not too shabby.

 

But why is the OS important?  Afterall, Steam OS is based off Linux, and Linux is open source and free.  What does Valve gain?  Well, what does Microsoft gain?  iOS?  Or Google's Android?  The power of incumbency.  Internet Exploerer is the most popular web brower.  Not because it's better than the competition, but because it comes with every copy of Windows.  Both Apple and Google control the app spaces on their iOS and Android with their respective stores.  Can Valve take advantage of this?  Suppose Steam Machines take off better than people would expect.  Every machine comes with Steam OS, and every Steam OS is installed with Steam.  All of a sudden, Valve's got a foothold in your gaming purchase decision, just by being there, by default.  Steam OS itself is a second trojan horse, this time, for Steam the vendor.

 

Right now, Steam isn't included with every copy of Windows nor will it ever be.  The biggest thing about Windows 8 isn't how ugly it looks, but the app store.  It's Microsoft taking a page from Apple and Google and creating their own default vendor with every copy of their latest Windows.  They will never let Valve be that vendor.  But it's too little, too late.  Steam already has a strangle hold on the PC market, and Microsoft's app store hasn't taken off.  Not for lack of trying, however.  But how long will this last?  As MS gears up for another round of dominance with Windows 9, where does that leave Valve?  With the rise of Apple and Android, where can they go? 

 

It's true.  At first glace, the Steam Machine makes very little sense.  But if you were a top player being squeezed by all sides, yet have the numbers to back you up in the foreseeable future, wouldn't you, too, take a gamble on dominance?  To take your own chunk out of a big pie?  Of course.  And if anyone has the means, the will, and the reason to do so, it's Valve.

My Top Five Games in 2013

2013 has come and gone, and the new systems are out!  Now it's time to look back at last gen and pick some games that are cream of the crop.  Here they are, in descending order!

At #5, we have Beyond: Two Souls.  Though not as good as it's predecessor, Heavy Rain, this game still managed to do what most others cannot.  Other games depend on big set pieces, over the top moments, and the biggest bang for the buck.  Beyond, though, is the opposite.  In fact, the most over the top action pieces are the worse part of this game.  The best part are the quiet moments.  What makes this game on my list is how the developers took some of the most mundane moments in life and turn it into an adventure.  Whether it's a girl stuck inside her house on a cold, winter day, or at the party of a teenager, there's never a dull moment, even when there are dull moments.  Totally worth playing just to see these masterpiece sequences.

#4 on the list is Project Diva f for the PS3.  I've played plenty of rhythm and music titles in my day, but none of them feature the sheer amount of great tunes as Hatsune Miku and Project Diva f.  In games like Rock Band or Guitar Hero, I always struggle to find good songs.  In the end, out of a roster of 50 tunes, I might only like 5.  In Project Diva f, that number is more like 10, or even 15.  To be sure, there are some outright objectionable tunes, but unlike other music games, they are the minority.  With Project Diva, I can play for hours without getting bored, and I can even play the same song 10 times or more in a row!  It's also fun with friends.  We had a group of four over, once, and easily spent about 8 hours just taking turns playing.  Jpop isn't for everybody, but that's too bad.  This game is a pinnacle all by itself.

I had real trouble with #3.  2013 had a lot of great titles.  Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite, GTA V...  Just incredible.  It was tough but The Last of Us takes the third slot.  Thing is, I've played games like TR, Bio, GTA before, but nothing like The Last of Us.  The way it combines action and stealth together is a rareness and the best sequences in the game make use of both at once.  I find that, if a player chooses to use stealth over run-and-gun or vice versa, that player only experiences half the greatness of this game.  The act of being spotted and then having to run for your life is an amazing experience in and of itself.  Oh and the environment!  For once it actually makes sense.  If you're in a forest, it doesn't feel like you're running in a corridor of trees.  It also helps that the graphics are drop dead gorgeous, and the story captivates until the very shocking ending.  Believe the hype.  This game is a masterpiece.

I love a good story, which is why #2 is no surprise.  Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies take this slot.  Though not as good as Trials and Tribulations, DD recovers from the disappointing Apollo Justice outing, delivering a satisfying story from beginning to end.  The 3D graphics are slight below par compared to the 2D counterparts, but it also allows for additional effects like zooming and perspective.  The cases are still as twisted as ever, and will leave you guessing right up to the end.  Of course, a wack load of crazy characters populate this game, and the translation serving all this up is worthy of a Pulitzer.  It's one of the harder games in the series too, and I love that!  The icing on the cake is the $6 DLC.  It's an additional case that took me about 8 hours to beat, possibly longer than the longest case in the main game and every bit as good as the rest.  There is a lot of game here, and a lot to miss if people pass it over!

#1 will be no surprise to regulars of this blog.  That's right, it's Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.  For the first time ever, I appreciate and understand what it means to play an MMO.  It's endless, it's daunting, it's a time sink, but I love every minute of it.  It takes top honors because it's a stellar MMO.  The best I've played.  It's got all the modern enmities: a class system you can switch in and out of anytime, a fantastic matchmaking tool, the most involved crafting system I've seen, and tonnes of things to see and do.  There is one thing about this game that surprises me still.  The writing here is top notch!  I don't know who localized it, but every NPC manages to have it's own personality conveyed almost exclusively through text.  There are also some genuine moments in the game too, which would fall flat if not for the excellent script. But it also takes top prize because of what it did to me.  It made me a believer again. For a long time I stopped playing with other people, but with FFXIV, I do that every day.  It's given me hope.  Hope that I don't have to be alone in my gaming. 

And that's it folks.  Here's to another fantastic year for gaming!  Ciao.

A Very Rough Cost Comparison Between Ways to Play

After the launch of the PS4 and Xbone, I find myself frequenting gaming news sites more and more.  I want to see who's in the lead, what the latest titles are and what the public reception has been for each console.  Inevitably, at the end of each article, in the comments section, there will be the usual fanboy wars.  Proponents for both PS4 and Xbone come out in droves, whether or not the news article was for one, the other, or both, there's no avoiding it.

Surprisingly, there is also a third faction joining the fray, and their involvement is also as inevitable as fanboys on both sides of the debate.  In every comments section, without exception, there will always be one, or more, poster(s) with the following comment: "both the PS4 and Xbone suck.  The PC is still the best platform".  I can't help but think that, in a topic which is no business of PC gamers, that comments like these come out of jealousy.  Even the layest person have heard of a PS4 or an Xbox One, but few know the latest graphics cards, or even Alienware.  I think the PC gamers are just envious of the hype surrounding the latest round of consoles.

But they do have a point.  A gaming rig specifically designed for performance can beat the pants off even the current generation of consoles.  But what I never hear, when PC fans boast of their machines, is how much the darn things costs.  Because to do so would clearly give the advantage to consoles.  Something I found out just recently, when my old PC broke down on me and I had to get a new one.

My new PC cost $550, before tax.  You will note that its more expensive than either the PS4 or the Xbone.  And for that price, the performance is modest.  How modest?  So modest I couldn't find more than a single review for my graphics card.  I found a bunch of bench mark results, however, but it only serves to confirm just how modest my PC is for playing games.  The one article on the web says it can play games like Bioshock Infinite, Battlefield 3 and Crysis 3 on low to medium settings.  From there I can make an extrapolation:  the card is probably as good as an Xbox 360 or a PS3, but cannot be good as PS4 or Xbone.  Because if my PC and 360 can run Crysis but presumably the Xbone can do it better, then my PC cannot be as good as an Xbone.  It's a loose interpretation, to be sure, but it's the best I've got.

Now, given that you can get a PS3 or a 360 for about $200 dollars during he boxing day sales, with pack in games, even(!), the PC costs a fortune in comparison.  Granted, you can do more with a PC, but and extra $350+ dollars worth?  I don't think so.  Is the ability to surf the web or multitask really worth the extra $350?  It might.  There's no doubt that PCs are very versatile machines and the older consoles can't multitask worth beans.  So maybe it's worth it.

But let's think ahead a little bit.  If my PC is basically a 360 with a premium of $350, then wouldn't that mean a PC performing up to PS4 specs be $750?  That is, $400 (the price of the PS4) plus the $350 PC premium (for versatility)?  So if you want next gen console performance on PC, you'll likely be spending at lest $750 to $850 on a rig.  Now that's expensive, especially given all the latest PC like features on current generation consoles.  Bottom line:  if you want a good PC, you pay through the nose.

That's something I never hear PC fanboys boast about.

PS.  I'm aware that building your own PC costs less than buying one in stores.  Good for you if you can. But there are more people out there who can't.  In which case, I say, if you want to game for a good price, get a PS4!