Autistic Gamer: Dragons

Check out the dragons and play that game because its fun.

If you have questions, please ask them and I will try to answer them in my posts.

Autistic Gamer: Relaxing the night away

I don’t usually go out dancing at all. I find it nice to just sit at home with my parrot and watch Netflix. This is because I am not really that interested in meeting new people who I won’t ever see again. Besides, people are rather difficult to handle when you don’t know them. I prefer the bird because I know him really well.

Or I prefer going to my sister’s place. I know that I will always have some kind of fun there, even if not much actually happens. That probability makes it worth while to head over to visit. I really like the area and that it happens to be slightly outside the city, in a smaller area that makes it hard to get lost in.

My sister usually has good food and there are always fun activities going on. I find it easier to relax there than other places. Plus I like the fact the fridge door keeps opening up instead of trying to shut closed like the door at my home. Its a bit funny, but not as funny as the cat magnets on the door.

I like seeing movies, but not necessarily with someone, as I don’t find that needful. People can your movie experience better or detract from it and I don’t find that I feel bad for seeing films by myself. Its a rewarding experience, because I can sit back and enjoy without complications.

That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy company; I just prefer company that I enjoy and can tolerate rather than strangers or people that act like we are complete friends (which I get and find somewhat disturbing) especially when they don’t mention how they know me. I would prefer some explanation, but it never shows up and I end up feeling awkward because I simply don’t care about the person. I don’t know why they have come up to me and why are they acting so friendly and close? We don’t know each other like that!

I can stand people being polite by asking to shake hands or saying hi, but trying to talk about how I am doing? Why am I offering up that information to you? Are you one of my siblings that I really like and enjoy the company of? Are you someone that I have spoken with before and had several previous interactions? If not, why are you disturbing me?

So I am doing another call for questions. Ask them if you have them and I will try to answer. I will try answering questions in a new blog entry if I get them.

Autistic Gamer: Why I play certain games

I enjoy playing some kinds of games because they interest me in certain ways or allow me to do something that I want. I play games mainly because of the stories in them and prefer only games with good stories plus something else I like. Games with lousy stories aren’t that fun in my estimation and have little value in being played again. I am always playing for fun, more than winning a game.

I like playing Roleplaying games because they allow me to create characters that interact in an interesting game world. I can engage in quests, do whatever I feel like doing and not have to worry about anything. There is a freedom that allows you to engage in any activities you may be interested in, but may not be able to in the real world. There is also the fact that the games give fun tricks or abilities to play with.

I like First Person shooters where I get to be a hero like Halo does. Games with a similar nature interest me and I will play those.

I like strategy games mainly for being able to control beings in the game and have control of over their lives. I don’t really play that many of these games really.

I like tabletop games mainly for the ability to interact with other live people as well do what I feel like in Roleplaying games. I prefer being able to play in a room with others more so than over the internet, but I take what I can get.

I like playing other games because they either let me do whatever I want to or because they are interesting like Myst and allow exploration. I like being able to wander around without restrictions, interacting with whatever I see if I would like to. That kind of freedom is really nice.

For next post:

If you have questions about something from an Autistic point of view or some kind of question in general, ask it and I will try to answer them. I will put up the next post Monday evening.

Autistic Gamer: Reviews) Dark Forces, Dark Forces: Jedi Knight, Rebellion

Star Wars Dark Forces

This game is a Star Wars version of Doom, but is way much better than that game. The first mission involves stealing the Death Star plans. This is then followed by other missions where you go to interesting places then board Vader’s ship, on which you hitch a ride. This is all to solve a case and destroy a secret Imperial superweapon. This game has cut-scenes with a narrative and it works really well. I would suggest getting this game and playing it somehow, you would be glad you did.

What I liked about it being an Autistic:

This game takes place in the Star Wars universe and has you fighting the empire. You get to explore neat areas and employ different weapons. There is also a story that is quite good to play through. It also has Star Wars music and some Movie Character cameos in it.

Star Wars Dark Forces Jedi Knight

This is a sequel to the first game and takes place shortly after Return of the Jedi. It involves the main character, Kyle Katarn, learning about his force connection and going after his father’s killer who is looking for a jedi burial ground. This game features live action cut-scenes between levels and it is rather interesting in that this works with the gameplay in a seamless fashion. You don’t really need to get this, but it is still worth playing.

What I liked about it being an Autistic:

I liked being able to use force powers and the integration of the cutscenes with the gameplay. There are different cutscenes that appear after you pick the light side or the dark side at a point in the game and it determines what ending cutscene you get to see.

Star Wars Rebellion

A rather not good adaption of 4X strategy games for Star Wars, Rebellion tried to be a good game but it really doesn’t work. The control setup is bad, and there is little of the gameplay that is good. Being able to send characters out on missions is nice, but more often than not, the characters will screw up the missions and get stuck spending time getting home. Another really annoying part is that the space combat simulator is not good. There is simply not enough good traits about this game for it to work. The idea of running the Star Wars civil war between Empire and Rebellion is nice, but the game suffers from bad implementation which removes most of the joy from it. From my personal experience, I have lost while playing easy and even from reading the material provided it is hard to get into this game. The game tries but there are better games that do the 4X better, plus the user interface is way better in some of those.

Personally, I wouldn’t bother with Rebellion unless you have already played it. In my humble opinion, this game needs to be designed before being acquired to be played. With a better interface and less hassles, it could turn into an actually enjoyable game.

What I liked about it being an Autistic:

I really didn’t enjoy this game or cared for it, but I would say that it had some nice concepts. Sadly, the game had serious trouble making this concepts work in my opinion which made this game not fun to play. It needs to be remade and approved.

Autistic Gamer: Reviews) Dark Sun: Shattered Lands

Shattered Lands was AD&D 2nd edition and it played pretty well. I still have the disc plus copyright sheet and I may try playing it again at some point. I moved from 2nd Edition to 3rd Edition though, and so I don’t remember a whole lot about it. The game had you control a party and you helped out slave villages. There were some areas to explore and you had a good number of quests that you could perform. It was a pretty nice game and was quite enjoyable.

This game was set in the Dark Sun campaign setting around Draj and you had to escape before you went around helping out the slave villages with their problems. Later you fought an army from Draj.

The game used the 2nd Edition rules and you made a party of 4 characters that you controlled. You were able to travel to some different areas that were connected in interesting ways and discover loot or complete quests. The game was pretty hard and required employing some planning for fights.

What I liked about it being an Autistic:

I enjoy roleplaying games and this game is a roleplaying game. You get to choose what your characters say and pick what quests you are going to do. There is also a good number of quests to perform and those quests are quite fun to complete.

This game also had good music to listen to as you went exploring. I enjoyed that part as well.

Autistic Gamer: Reviews) Myst

Myst is a point-n-click adventure that I would suggest strongly because it involves no combat and the entire gist of the game is about solving puzzles. I would encourage patience for this game as some of the puzzles are rather difficult. However, the simply amazing story makes up for that and the worlds explored are very nice looking and will cause you to spend time exploring without solving puzzles. If there is any game that is completely worth getting, this happens to be one of them. After you finished the game, you could keep exploring, although this is if you get a certain ending.

Myst had 5 areas to explore: Myst Island, Ship Age, Mechanical Age, Water Age, Space Age. Each area had puzzles to explore and figure out how to solve. You could go at any pace you wanted to and come back and try new things when you wanted.

Myst Island was the center part of the game. It contained the ways to get to the other areas and have a few puzzles to explore. Each puzzle was related in gaining access to another area, which were called Ages. Notable features of Myst Island were a sunken pirate ship, a spaceship, a clock tower, a set of large mechanical gears, a log house, a big tree, a library, a power station, a fountain with a smaller replica of the sunken pirate ship, and an observatory. There were also boxes with switches that you could push up or down. The island was always sunny, and had no weather of any kind.

The Ship Age was accessed through the sunken pirate ship and brought you to an age that had a rock formation with a pirate ship as part of it. There was also a lighthouse and a station for manipulating water pumps. At the top of the rock formation was a telescope. There are passages leading into the rock formation from both parts of the pirate ship.

The Mechanical Age was accessed through the large mechanical gear on the island and brought you to an age that had a small bit of land connected to a building on a track. The building was some kind of fortress and could be moved around. There are two other bits of land that you can access and the fortress has rooms in it to explore.

The Water Age was accessed through the big tree and brought you to an age that was set in a swamp with wooden walkways everywhere. Above you, there were two levels made of wood that you could explore once you were able to get up to them. The upper levels have buildings inside for exploring.

The Space Age was accessed through the spaceship and brought you to an age that was an crescent shaped island with a tower in the water to access. There are some interesting geological features to explore while you are there.

What I liked about it being an Autistic:

I liked exploring Myst Island and the 4 ages. The puzzles were very interesting and fun to solve with you learning more about what was going on as you solved the puzzles. It was enjoyable being free to explore however I wanted with no restrictions.

Autistic Gamer: Reviews) Diablo

Diablo

The first Diablo was either my first or second real game that I played. My brother Danny would know whether he had owned this game before Warcraft 1 or got it after getting Warcraft 1. It happens to be an Role-playing game, and it is quite bloody. You get to play one of three classes and you spend your time fighting monsters. The second and third games give you 5 classes, while there are expansions for both Diablo and Diablo 2. This game had an expansion which added a small dungeon, a couple of classes and a few quests for the expansion. It can be replayed some, but it eventually does become less interesting if you do so. There are a lot of quests, but you should get all of them after 2 or 3 playthoroughs.

The game started you out in a village with characters to interact with some before you went down into the ruins of a nearby Cathedral to explore. In the Cathedral, which was a church, you found monsters to slay, treasure to loot, and items to acquire. The game created a map for you to explore of the levels in the Cathedral, with the map being filled out as you explored. When you came back to the same saved game, the map stayed the same. This also would determine what quests you would end up receiving. The Cathedral was divided into groups of levels, each grouping containing 4 levels total from what I recall. Both the town and the different grouping of levels each had a musical score assigned to it. When you were in the town, named Tristam, it played a certain bit of music. In each group of levels, it would play the same music for each level.

The first four levels of the Cathedral were the Dungeon levels. They looked very like they had come from a cathedral or church building. The next four levels were the Catacomb levels and they resembled catacombs you might find in a church. The next four after that were the Cave levels and looked like caves with lava running in rivers inside them. The last four levels of the cathedral, which 16 total, were set in Hell which had a look of mixing bones with flesh and blood.

The village of Tristam was used as your home base. There you would buy/sell items, talk with the other characters, and could get items identified. One character healed you if you needed it. Each of the characters had completely voiced dialogue and had different things to say after you had gone into the cathedral and had come back. When you had quests, you could ask the characters about the quests and they usually had something to say. This was pretty interesting to me at the time.

There were three classes for use: Warrior, Rogue, Sorcerer. The Warrior could use all of the weapons and armor, plus could learn spells by buying books and repair his own gear. The Rogue had special ability as well but I can’t really remember what it was, and was really good with bows. She could learn spells as well. The Sorcerer could use some weapons and armor, but mainly used magic spells and was given the special ability to recharge a staff to make it usable again.

The expansion added in two classes: Barbarian and Bard. Both could do some interesting things, but I don’t recall anything about what it was. The expansion also added a new dungeon area with only 3 levels with a few quests.

One of the most memorable details I recalled was that the character you were playing would say something when you first entered the cathedral and entered a new group of levels. So if you went from the dungeons into the catacombs, your character would say something.

What I liked about it being an Autistic:

I liked the village of Tristam a lot. It had 8 characters that you could interact with. They would have things to say and it was completely voiced. The town could be explored some and that was nice. The levels in the Cathedral were nice and all of the monsters were voiced. The music was really great as well, leaving something nice to listen to as you went about your way.

I also enjoyed exploring the Cathedral and finding loot. Getting to cast spells was also really fun and it was nice being able to use them with the weapons. Fighting the monsters and completing the quests were also nice. Figuring out what to buy for the character to use was a bit of fun and some quests gave you items.

All in all, it was a really fun game.

Autistic Gamer: Reviews) Warcraft: Orcs & Humans

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans

My first computer game would have to be Warcraft: Orcs and Humans or Diablo. My brother Danny would be able to say which game he had first of them. I played it on an old-school computer when I was young. I wasn’t any good at it, but I made some attempts. It was fun though and summoning demons was great.

What appealed to me about this game was the units. There were two sides to play as with unique units on both sides. Most of the units were just copies of the same unit, like a unit to gather resources, or a mounted unit. The game did the same with buildings. The main differences between the sides were what spells the magic units had and what units the summoning spells gave you.

Despite being the same, the two sides had a different way of playing because of the units. The Orcs got mainly summons with a few buff spells, while the Humans got summons with buff spells plus healing.

Playing as the Orcs encouraged going all in with your forces because there was no way to heal them. Once the units had been significantly damaged, it was best just to sacrifice them in attacks. With the limited survivability, it was better to try summoning spiders and sending them to explore. This saved your units for later, more important jobs like attacking the enemy town. If your units did die, you could use their bodies to summon skeletons which were essentially cannon fodder. Oddly, each body produced two skeletons when cast, just like summoning spiders. Of course, the best summon you could get was the Demon. It showed up near the end of the game and could handle things on their own. It might have taken a while, but using demons to destroy everything was better than making an army at that point.

The Humans were completely different. They got nicer stuff than the Orcs like healing and invisibility spells. Instead of summoning Spiders, you summoned scorpions and could summon water elementals instead of demons. Being able to heal units meant that you could reuse your forces again as long as you could keep them healed and took the time out to do so. The invisibility was good for sneaking units in because it never disappeared until the unit with the spell start attacking something or the spell time wore off. Sending off units with the healer units is an effective strategy and works well.

Learning how to employ the units in the best methods was part of the learning for the game and its something that I enjoyed doing. I also enjoyed making the units and sending them to fight.

The missions were pretty easy and copied each other some. There were missions for base-building, cave spelunking, and attacking with no town. Base-building missions meant building a base and attacking the enemy. Cave spelunking missions involved exploring a cave of some kind or a building, but the action took place underground. A few missions featured having a selection of units with no town, and you had to attack the enemy. The missions started out with a tutorial like mission of building farms and barracks then got more harder later on.

What I liked about this game as an Autistic:

I enjoyed playing as a military commander and overseeing everything. It was fun to create soldiers and put them to use. There was also really great units and nice music. The missions were interesting with a nice little briefing that featured a nice map that would bring up the area you were going to.

I think I remember the units having different things they said when you continuing clicking on them and those comments were usually funny. I liked the little death animations too.

Autistic Gamer: Games get old

As far back as I can remember, I have played some kind of roleplaying game. Some were on the computer and some were tabletop ones. Despite this, I kept playing the games.

Nowadays, I have found I don’t play games as much; mostly because I am not spending time that way. One game I played more frequently was Dungeons and Dragons, currently I really only pay it online when I can.

Sometimes people will lose interest in playing certain games, its natural and a sign that your taste in games is changing. I used to play the Magic card game more, but I stopped because I didn’t find it as fun anymore. I like roleplaying games because they are always fun, but I have found that a couple of my computer ones are more fun than ones on tabletop.

This is mainly because tabletop games require finding a group to play with and you can that the group doesn’t play very much the way you play. So you move on to other places or groups. I personally haven’t found a new group yet, but I really wouldn’t go back to my old group. I don’t have many stories that aren’t ones that flow along the lines “you had to be there” to understand or find them funny. Another group I played with had more of that because I think that was the kind of players they were. More involved in the game as a game rather than something to be won. Its hard to play D&D for fun with people who want to win because it ends up feeling different in terms of play.

I think computer roleplaying games don’t have this problem because the characters are usually developed and the action keeps moving. You also don’t really have different play styles occurring in the game which helps. There are different play styles and you should find the one that works for you, then you should find groups that have that play style to join if the group is willing. Online games help here.

Another way that games become old is that you have played too much or they worked for when you were younger. Some games aren’t as interesting to play again later and they feel dated. I have a few games that I rarely play, but I might again depending on my interest. I know that committing to playing does take time, so being busy automatically means less play time.

Games may get old for graphics but that rarely is a problem unless you are obsessed with graphics, I am not so I don’t stop playing a game because it has older graphics. New graphics doesn’t mean that the game is good, just that it looks nice.

Anyway, I will put up more blogs later.