Game-related ramblings.

Month: March 2017

Hell Or High Water: A Solium Infernum Diary (part 2)

You should definitely read part 1 first. If you are unfamiliar with Solium Infernum, you may wish to read my earlier post about the game first. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Six archfiends are vying for the throne of Hell. In part 1, I described designing my archfiend(s), Rufus and Big Beak, who will focus on winning Prestige through praetor duels in the Arena. I took stock of my opponents, and decided that my top priority was to purchase the praetor Morax. Since I didn’t have enough resources, I used both of my order slots to demand more. Here is what happened.

Hell Or High Water: A Solium Infernum Diary (part 1)

If you are unfamiliar with Solium Infernum, you may wish to read my earlier post about the game first. Also, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

I’ve written about Solium Infernum before. At length. That was three years ago, and I haven’t played Solium Infernum since. Until now, that is. Over the winter holidays, I realized I had a hankering for its long-form, slow burn brand of strategy and treachery. But the group I used to play with had long since disbanded, so I needed to find some new opponents. I tried the Cryptic Comet forums, which were historically the best place to find other players, but it seemed no one visits them anymore. Without much hope, I dropped by the RPS Solium Infernum Steam group and left a message in the void.

I heard nothing for a couple of days, and was certain that everyone who used to play Solium Infernum had moved on. It was a complete surprise when I finally got a response. And then another, and another. And some of them knew other people who might be interested. Soon, I was starting a brand new game of Solium Infernum against five strangers from different places across the globe.

Now, two months later, that game is finished. This is the first of a series of posts detailing the game turn by turn, inspired by the Gameboys From Hell series on Rock, Paper, Shotgun that originally inspired me to buy Solium Infernum way back in 2010. Before getting started, I recommend you read my earlier post about the game, to give you an idea of what it’s about.

Finding The Grind In Skyrim

As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

The concept of “grind” appears often when discussing games, especially role-playing games. It refers to performing repetitive tasks, over and over again, for incremental gains, and typically derided as evidence of poor design that encourages “un-fun” behavior in players. I discussed the concept a little in my History Lesson post about Final Fantasy, as it is often associated with Japanese-style role-playing games, especially older titles. But grind can appear in any game. The Elder Scrolls series, with its concept of character skills improving with practice, could easily fall into this trap. Players could just sit around practicing magic or swordplay all day instead of actually heading out on an adventure. But I’ve never felt the desire to do this; the games offer so much to do, why not head out and do it, and train on the job?

So I was surprised that I not only found the one aspect of Skyrim that encourages grind, but fully embraced it.

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