New addictions

[oyceter]

I have, strangely enough, been spending all my time playing social games online. I say strange because while CB is a gamer, I am not. I discovered with my ex that I enjoy watching games with stories—I loved watching Eternal Darkness even though it freaked me out, and I had a lot of fun watching Zelda: Wind Waker. But I'm terrible at playing them... I tried other Zeldas on Wii and Nintendo DS, and I never made it past the tutorial on the former and rapidly got bored of killing things in the latter.

But then, CB got hooked on Sims Social on Facebook, and then he sicced it on me! Argh! Now I am actually active on Facebook, what the heck?! (I play on an incognito browser window and delete cookies every so often due to recent reports of Facebook tracking you everywhere.) I think Sims appeals to my rampant consumerist nature, and at least buying virtual things online with virtual cash slightly appeases the desire to do so offline. (Also, I am geekily excited about all the Halloween stuff coming out right now. My Sim can sleep in a coffin!)

And then troisroyaumes introduced me to Glitch, an extremely cute MMORPG that involves no fighting or killing whatsoever. Normally I would have found it too complicated to play—the learning curve is much, much steeper than Sims—but the absolutely gorgeous and adorable art direction kept me in it even as I couldn't figure stuff out.

So possibly now I have a free trial at Gamefly... I have tried City Interactive's puzzle/quest games Murder in Venice and Tree of Life, both of which I find very clunky in design but puzzly enough to spend my time on. Am still waiting for the new Professor Layton to come out. I tried Sakura Taisen: Takarazuka in New York in the Roaring Twenties! Sadly, not its actual name. Even more sadly, I bounced off it due to all the talking and how obvious it was that the game was written for fanboys to ogle at all the different women. Ew.

Anyone have Gamefly recs (Wii or DS preferred)?

• I don't like anything that involves combat or combat stress. As in, I found Plants vs. Zombies and Angry Birds too stressful. And I am really sad, but I couldn't get past the tutorial for Okami too =(.
  
• I can't do 3D games with a lot of movement because they make me queasy (see: Ilo Milo, which is fun and adorable and sadly makes me feel like throwing up, and Portal, which looks really cool and has great writing but makes my head spin. Picross 3D is ok because of the tiny DS screen.)
  
• I am awful at physics-based games (see: Angry Birds and Cut the Rope).
  
• I really like puzzly games like Professor Layton, and I have been chronically addicted to Picross (as well as Piczle Lines on iPhone).
  
• I can do block-type games like Tetris, Dr. Mario, and Puzzle Fighter.
  
• Despite my current addiction to Sims Social, I generally find simulation games too complicated... I hate amassing armies; I don't want to run a city or a shop, much less a country or a world; and mostly I'm as much a giant homebody in games as I am offline.
  
• I like a very easy ramp-up period. I.e. I tried Myst a long time ago, entered the world, stared at the screen for ten minutes, clicked on five things, and then gave up.

(Both Sims Social and Glitch accounts are under my legal name, ergo my not linking.

ETA: And now the Glitch account is fandom friendly!)

Comments

[ursamajor]

Gliiiiiiiiiiiiitch. (I am Pandora Kouti on there if you'd like to friend me there. There is also a Dreamwidth group!) I was doing Sims Social immediately before I started Glitch because I adore Sim games, and I got hyounpark addicted, but then Glitch Happened.

Myst is beautiful but it annoyed the crap out of me for the longest time - it felt like there was more pressure for me to figure out what to do in the world to get anything to happen, rather than me feeling like, "Ooh, there's this nifty gorgeous world to explore, I wonder what happens if I do this?" I finally got it for my phone when it was released awhile back, but am still running around the first area trying to figure things out.

I don't know if there's a version of Katamari Damacy for the Wii (I'd thought Beautiful Katamari was being translated to the Wii, but now seems that may not have happened?), but I found it pretty easy to learn the motions for, and it's a lot of fun when you've had a crappy day and then you come home and take it out on the world by rolling up everything in the world. ;) I'm not sure if it's the kind of 3D motion that might make you nauseous, though? Haven't tried any of the 3D games you listed ...

The Final Fantasy series is still one of my alltime favorites - as the numbers go up, the stories get better - this might be something you watch while CB plays? Especially FFX. First time a video game made me *weep*. Other potential "watch but don't play" games - I've been watching Xenosaga while Hyoun plays, because the story and cut scenes are awesome, but I just found the actual gameplay irritating and boring. Though caveat, these are all PS/PS2 games as far as I know ...

[heavenscalyx]

But the higher-numbered FF games don't have mandatory cross-dressing! *just one reason I adore FF7*

For watching while someone else plays:
Suikoden (for the PS2, alas) ROCKS. My favorites are 2 and 5. Suikoden 5 has the most compelling and complicated political story, plus the love story is not romantic, it's all about family. And canonical lesbians! Suikoden 2 has pretty boy annnnnnngst.

Also Persona. Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (PS2) has a female protagonist who kicks ass and a creepy, realistic urban legend. Persona 3 (PS2 and PSP) has an all-new mechanic, plus, I believe, you can select levels of play including an "easy" level designed for people just interested in the story. Compelling characters and story -- one of the characters is clearly of the Arisugawa Juri archetype. Persona 4 (PS2) tunes up the mechanic and adds a canonically queer character AND a genderqueer character. The Personas are all v. creepy in their own ways, but balance the creepiness with good story and funny moments at least as well as Full Metal Alchemist does. The original Persona has been remastered for the PSP, and Persona 2: Innocent Sin has just been released for the PSP as well (was not originally released in the US due to content issues [Nazis!] and possibly also because of the availability of a gay relationship option for the male protag).

[softestbullet]

<3 Final Fantasy <3! Seconding FFX because its combat system is turn-based -- i.e. you can go as slow as you want. That might help with the stress. And of course it's gorgeous.

[oyceter]

Ahahah Sims! This is actually the first Sims game I've been able to get into, probably because CB is already in there... I tried Sims back in 2003 but was so annoyed by having to keep my Sim fed and watered! I think I also like looking at people's houses.

Katamari! I love it, but I suck at it =(. I'm really not good at moving avatars around a 3D space (I have only just quite mastered how to jump onto different things in Glitch, and it is a platform game!), so I can randomly grab stuff, but I almost always fail the time limit/circumference things.

I may also avoid FF, just because CB doesn't like it, so I can't watch him play, and I tried FFX way back when and the turn-based combat system still stresses me out.

Just found you on Glitch YAAAAY!!!