Proud Mammal Kane

Raised by sloths. Invented the hula-hoop. Enjoyed a short stint as a zombie in Haiti. Now he makes games.

Published: 39 articles

Review: Food Fight

The return of my second favorite (after Proud Mammal) game publisher… another Cryptozoic Entertainment game! And this game is my second favorite Cryptozoic game. It only takes about 2 minutes to explain. Definitely takes less than 2 hours to play (a lot less really). I gave it to my second favorite brother (if you’re counting my parent’s dog) for Christmas 2 (maybe 4 (2 times 2)) years ago. Whole lotta 2s in my mind when I think about Food Fight (2 Fs!).

*Quick Aside* The video below is what I found myself watching after searching for an appropriate “2” image… watch at your own risk. This is the type of shit that serial killers watch on repeat.

Food Fight is a very simple game, it’s just a re-imagining of the card game War where players flip cards and hope they have the higher number. All Food Fight is, is a fun revamp of a game that everyone played before they were even in 2nd grade (there’s that number again!). What they did to the game to step it up to the next level though, is separate the cards into 3 suits -Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner- each suit represents both a type of card in the player’s deck and a type of card in the Battlefield Deck (basically Victory Points). And the type of Battlefield effects which powers certain cards will have. For instance, the Dinner Roll card is only worth 1, unless it’s in a Dinner Battle, then it’s worth 9. Easy so far right? It doesn’t get any more complex. There are a few instant cards as well to give you a chance during fights that aren’t going so well. Like adding Mustard to your lunch troop, pretty good idea because it gives him +3. That’s it! You already know how to play the game

Simple games are great, especially when you bring it to a friend’s house, or you have people not used to playing games around. Food Fight is the sort of game that won’t impress your hardcore gamer friends, but it won’t confuse your non-gamer friends into saying “I hate this, lets just play some more Call of Duty 13.” It’s an introductory game, something to get non-gamers playing, or to get a night rolling. Honestly I wouldn’t want to play the game for more than 1 finished game, because it can get gruelingly long (if people know what they’re doing too well) or even unfair (if the randomness just doesn’t fall in your favor for the duration of the game). But it’s a starting point regardless. It’s fun to play, it’s fun to taunt your friends and it’s even more fun to look at, because damn… those guys at Crytozoic know how to hire folks to draw pictures for them.

The art on these cards is so great, I don’t even know what to say about them. I’m just going to post a few of my favorites and let them speak for themselves.

from http://www.deskovehry.com/fotky/foodfight/food-fight-23.jpg

Some of the basic Lunch troops. They look like a dirty baker’s dozen.

from http://www.cryptozoic.com/sites/default/files/artwork-images/lesterleopard.jpg

Them’s a good knock at corporate consumerism.

All in all, if you’re a gamer that wants to introduce some people to a “new, old experience”, or you’re swayed by great aesthetics. Food Fight is a game for you.

Science-Fantasy Literature

I’ve been reading a lot lately (mostly for enjoyment). There is a series of books, what I’ve read so far are actually short stories compiled in books, by Fred Saberhagen called Berserker that have been brought to my attention. They focus on a war between life and unlife, with unlife taking the form of gigantic robotic death machines called Berserkers. And it’s fucking great.

before i get in depth on what makes Berserker great, let me tell you about why I’m a bad book reader.

The problem i have with reading occurs where boredom sets in and I never pick up the book again. I have high standards for books, and if it doesn’t tickle me just right, then it’s done. Just before I started with Berserker, I was reading a book called Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good… but it’s very dry. It takes an almost clinical approach to fantasy space exploration. It offers great insights into not only the human mind but also the possibilities of the universe that our society’s general anthrocentric attitude often misrepresent. Too often I hear people stating that life needs water to exist. There is no oxygen on that planet so there can’t be life. It goes on an on, and people think that our universe is inhospitable, but in reality the general media just has a limited view of the possibilities. Star Maker takes a stab at some of those preconceived notions (despite having been written (published) in 1937). Despite this… after my pumping up of it’s ideas, I just can’t make it through the book. It’s too clean, too sterile, almost in direct opposition of the subject matter of life. It’s interesting, sometimes engaging and even intellectual… but I’m bored by it. I hyperbolized a bit earlier in this paragraph, that I never pick a book up again after I toss it aside, not true, I’ll keep limping through Star Maker, one page at a time. But I have A Game of Thrones coming in the mail, and if that’s nearly as good as my buddies would have me believe, I’m sure Star Maker will fall by the wayside.

Image taken from https://www.flickr.com/photos/85385780@N03/7906643408/

You can find this online for free… just don’t tell anyone that I told you that.

But before that package arrives, I suspect I’ll have another 2 Berserker books under my belt. They are extraordinarily diverse in their subject matter (for being centered around killer robots). Saberhagen manages to often leave the robots at the side of the conflict and focus on the people. Which is something games are incapable of. The video game Mass Effect is the perfect example because many readers of the Berserker series believe the giant killer robots from deep space idea used in Mass Effect to be directly cribbed from Berserker. And after only 1 book, I agree. The similarities in their design and function and behaviors are too similar to be co-incidence. But. The thing Mass Effect didn’t take from Berserker is the characterization. Mass Effect is good at characterizing, but everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, going on in that game is about the Reapers (their version of Berserkers). Saberhagen took a less direct route in his stories, once in a while the short stories don’t even have a Berserker in them (many, many of them do. But it’s nice when we get a look at the regular people of the universe rather than the giant death machines or the super heroes (figurative super heroes, of course)). I can appreciate a small part of the whole, which is something that is missing from much of sci-fantasty.

taken from https://www.flickr.com/photos/martinisaac/3619759712/

I love this cover. Penguin had the best cover artists.

I suppose that wide focus is also a boon of the format. I haven’t gotten into the novel length stories from Saberhagen… partly because the short stories have been so great I don’t have any desire to part with them but also because of my boredom factor, if they begin to lag, I’m probably just going to be out the door. But that’s a mystery for me to solve on my own. Anyway -point of the post- read Saberhagen, it’ll get you pumped and thinking at the same time.

The Deal with Free to Play

Proud Mammal Kane 17 Comments

Here we are, only 2 months in and I’m already resorting to talking about video games. I’ve just been playing a lot of games recently and a good number of them fall into the “Free to Play” (FtP from here on) category. And if you don’t know what that means, welcome to the club, because FtP just rolls about 100 types of games and payment systems into one big umbrella term. I think I’ve narrowed them down to 3 basic types though with a couple subsets to boot.

Fully Free to Play Forever – These games are all about ad revenue. These are often flash games and you can find them just about everywhere. A great thing? They’re small diversions. They’re great if you’re a kid and you have no money and absolutely nothing to do. Another great thing? There are literally millions of these games out there. A bad thing? Well, most of them suck. A vast majority of them are just click bait. Once in a while one might grab your attention and hold it, but all these guys are trying to do is get you in the door to see an ad, and from then on it doesn’t matter. They’re not good, but they’re not going to cost you anything but time. So… whatever!

One and Done – These games don’t quite fall under the FtP header for most people, because most games are the type that you buy and can play on forever. I’m going to narrow this a bit to only include Massively Multiplayer types of games that usually involve a subscription. The best example of this is Guild Wars 2. Once you buy the game, you never have to buy anything else ever again. They of course give you the option, because Premium Content is never far from any FtP game, but they do it reservedly, and it doesn’t affect the way anyone plays the game. I respect that.

Premium Content – Here’s the type of monetary manipulation that really got me wanting to talk about FtP games. There are two really important sub-categories of premium content FtP games that makes one an absolute delight and the other a wretched mess of unholy marketing. The difference between the two is that one’s premium content changes the way the game is played, while the other doesn’t. And one of those two styles hurts the ways the basic game can be enjoyed by their players.

One of the most successful games in the world, called League of Legends, allows players to make purchases from their store that don’t affect the gameplay. They sell skins and upgrades that can’t be bought via the in-game currency but nothing they sell hurts the competitive nature of the game. League of Legends is a cutthroat and aggressive game, people that play it often times take it very seriously (too much so in my opinion, but that’s another article). That player base doesn’t want unfair advantages based on the amount of spending money a player has. And I commend League for doing it in this totally egalitarian way. They created an ultra popular game and they don’t make you pay a dime for anything –unless- you want to. Great.

On the other hand. The situation I abhor is the grim amalgamation of all of these parts. It’s a Frankenstein’s Monster of cash grabbing premiums. And as much as I hate to bash it, Star Wars: The Old Republic is the worst and most aggressive content limiting game I’ve ever played under the FtP header. From the very first screen you see, you’ll be limited in choosing who to play. And while in a very minimalistic interpretation that choice is 99% cosmetic, but you’re making a character that you have to be happy with for essentially what amounts to the rest of the time you play the game. Which could be 5 or 10 years if you like it enough. That first choice alone limits the amount of people that SW:TOR will draw in because it limits the player’s choices immediately. On top of that, they limit other functionalities (including max level, chat, social groups, etc) unless you pay for their subscription service, which is fine, just don’t call it Free to Play. Call it an Unlimited Trial period. Or Call it a Sample Version. I just can’t believe that any of their current players like the system. And as much as it seems like I’m railing against SW:TOR, I just think what they’ve done is bad business, and a little manipulative. The game itself is decent.

taken from http://www.heatherbrookes.org/hb-blog/?p=2341

FtP SW:TOR (acronym central)

I like Free to Play games. I think it’s a good business plan and in some cases I’m sure it makes bigger profits than normal sales. I just don’t like it when they offer something up as “free” but withhold anything that makes it good. or it a metaphorical sense… It’s kind of like a pay-toilet. Sometimes you just have to put the quarter in the slot to find out if the shit’s worth it. and It’s usually not.