Going over the top!

I’ve been playing Deus Ex for the first time as part of the Vintage Game Club, although I haven’t really been keeping up with the conversation (I’m always a level or two behind everyone else). I’m about halfway through the game, and while I can appreciate the many things that DX does right, I’m still getting kinda bored.

Not buying Spore

I have been waiting for Spore to come out for ages. And now, sadly, I will not be buying it. Sigh.

I was stopped in my tracks by the Amazon anti-DRM reviews. Given that I work on several machines, I would probably exhaust my 3 installations within day (especially since previous experience shows that at least one installation will fail to work for one reason or another). If I pay for a game, I want to own it, not rent it.

This really frustrates me. I respect copyright and I make a point of teaching my students to do the same. It is only fair that the creator(s) of an artwork are allowed to control its distribution. I don’t appreciate being treated like a thief. This action on the part of EA makes me more likely to seek out a pirated copy, when I would have gladly paid money for the game. It’s just stupid.

To return you must first depart

Another book that has influenced many game writers is Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces (or, at least, the more readable summary The Writers Journey, by Christopher Vogler). I do not intend to review that book here, but rather respond to Michael Abbott’s recent post on The Brainy Gamer.