The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

This post has Bioshock and Bioshock 2 spoilers, so keep that in mind if you read on.

Brer asked me, as I started playing Bioshock 2, to keep an idea in mind: Is the game being nicer to Sophia Lamb, and her philosophy, than it was to Andrew Ryan? This is a loaded question, of course. He obviously thought it was. Me, I disagree. I feel like both characters received a comeuppance of having their own philosophies turned against them. The difference simply lies in which has the more “brutal” philosophy.

Andrew Ryan believes in a very “dog eat dog,” social Darwinism kind of philosophy. The weak should not hold down the strong. The best will rise to the top, and should be able to shine without being held back, especially not by the government. In his philosophy, people who are weak fail, fall, and die. He considers himself, of course, to be among the strong, those who succeed. Yet, when you approach him in Bioshock, it is obvious that he is not one of the strong. He has lost, for you are here to kill him. He attempts to salvage his dignity by basically committing suicide through you, by choosing death for himself, instead of having it happen to him. But the fact remains: he has fallen, he has failed, and he will die. He gets the “bad” end of his philosophy.

I feel a similar thing happens to Sophia Lamb. She believes in helping the weak, and that “we are all one big family.” She believes in the greater good. Everyone’s actions should serve the needs of the many, not the needs of the few. If that requires sacrifice, then so be it.
At the end of Bioshock 2, at least with the good ending, Eleanor saves Lamb’s life. She provides kindness and charity which gives her absolutely no benefit, honestly. Lamb tried to control every aspect of her life, and will surely continue to. Giving her kindness doesn’t really give Eleanor any benefit, perse.
However, it puts Lamb in an awkward situation. Brer claims that she would go on to work her philosophical magic on the surface world, but I don’t think that’s the case. Eleanor has dethroned her. She’s in control, and I do not believe she is going to let Lamb do anything like that any more. Lamb is being reduced to a lame duck, being kept alive out of kindness. She won’t be able to enact any good on the world, because Eleanor will keep her in check. In fact, she’s really going to end up being nothing but a burden to Eleanor who, if she is really as brilliant and bright as Lamb would believe, is going to do good things, even if they don’t exactly connect with her philosophy. Eleanor will enact some manner of good on the world, and she is holding her back from that. Her existence, from that point, is potentially harming the greater good. She should remove herself, the very thing she tells Delta to do throughout the whole game. She is on the “bad” end of her philosophy.

Ryan’s philosophy is more brutal, so I feel like his fall from grace is more brutal. I also feel like having two games talking about his philosophy can potential put him in a slightly worse light than Lamb, who only had one. Still, I don’t feel like there is a significant difference between their treatment. I’m sure I’m probably missing something, or ignoring something else, but that’s how I felt when I finished the game, and now I have shared it in a bloeg.

Most reviews of Bioshock 2 that I have read start with the fact that this is a sequel that did not need to exist and, honestly, since that’s the elephant in the room, I’m not going to be any different. This game did not need to exist. Bioshock was a neat, near-perfect package that said what it wanted to say and was done. Playing through the first hour or two in the game, I was filled with the feeling that the game was trying way, way too hard. “Ugh, this is so unnecessary. Man, they’re really forcing this in here.”
After you get past those feelings, though, you start realizing that, hey, there’s still a fun game there. Sure, it didn’t need to exist, but it’s still a good time, and they certainly improved, mechanically, on the combat in the game, making it a much more enjoyable game, though perhaps a slightly diminished experience, since you’ve been to Rapture before.

All the plasmids and guns have been improved upon. The plasmids now have levels: you can upgrade them, and then charge them up for additional effects. This gives you a feeling of power progression you simply did not have in the original game. It’s not gaining levels, but you feel like you’re constantly getting stronger, a feeling you didn’t really get from the first game. This is certainly a benefit and helps draw you through the game experience. Additionally, upgrading the weapons fundamentally changes their use, unlike the first game. The Rivet Gun, for example, starts setting people on fire once you fully upgrade it, making it’s use change. It’s also a big difference, making you feel that same sense of progression that you feel with the plasmids. It works.

Combat itself has been improved by the simple fact that you have a gun and a plasmid equipped at all times. You don’t have to switch between them, which makes it much easier to zap someone with electrobolt and then drill them, or complete whatever kind of complex plasmid to weapon or weapon to plasmid maneuver you want to undertake. Add to this the fact that the game constantly rewards you for varying up your attack tactics, much more than in the other games. The research camera is now a video camera, and you get rewards for recording the killing of enemies in a variety of ways, much more than simply shooting them with the same gun over and over. It makes the combat much more dynamic.

Especially important, to me anyway, was the Little Sister collection sequences. The game gives you a very wide variety of traps, from proximity mines to the Cyclone Trap plasmid. These existed, for the most part, in the first game, but you never really had a reason to use them. You could set up ambushes for Big Daddies, I guess, but they never felt required. It was much easier just to charge in there with a shotgun or grenade launcher and be done with it. Now, with the defense of the Little Sisters, the game is giving you a clear reason to play defensively and set up lots of traps. I loved this: it was a welcome change from how I was approaching normal combat. I took the time to completely vary my approach for these sequences, and I had a lot of fun. I can see how someone who decided they were just going to run and gun during those times would find them a bit tedious, but I took them as a reason to do something different, and was rewarded. I found it very fun.

I feel like I need to mention multiplayer, another thing that people claim the game did not need. I only played a round, but I have to say, I can appreciate what they’re doing. They pretty successfully integrated the “Modern Warfare” style of multiplayer progression with the setting of the game. I loved that I got to walk around my little Rapture house, hear propaganda, set up my loadout and crazy splicer attire, and run into battle. I also enjoyed how well they worked plasmids into the multiplayer. Most of them are reconfigured to be debuffs or DoTs. They aren’t just another gun. They really do compliment whatever strategy you’re trying. So, yeah, I wouldn’t be mad at someone for playing the multiplayer. It’s not really compelling enough to get me to drop everything else and play it, but for a kid who got this for his birthday and has no other multiplayer options, he’s going to have a damn good time, and won’t feel like he’s settling for second best.

Yeah, Bioshock 2 was a fun time. It’s not really a “must play” like the first game, but if you enjoy the first, and want to enjoy some better combat in a familiar setting, you really should give it a go. Just expect many elements to be rehashed going in, and you’ll have no problem enjoying yourself.

Well, I beat it. I was unsure if I was going to, but I totally completely completed DEADLY PREMONITION.

I liked it.

I say that with some warnings. This really isn’t a good game mechanically. The open world stuff is tedious. The shooting is awful. It has some strangely-compelling voice acting, but that’s basically it for any sort of decent budget feel to the game. These are all written off by it being a shitty game. “Who cares? It’s crap.”

For some reason, though, I cared. There are elements to the plot that make it seem like everything in the game is working towards something. It gives the impression that there is an overall vision to the game which will make all these weird-ass elements make sense. It made me interpret what was going on as I went along, and then, at the end, it threw a plot twist that, if I hadn’t been looking at the game the way I was, wouldn’t have meant anything, but has, instead, left me reeling and unsure.

Okay, time to talk about the story, so, you know, spoilers ahead.

Agent Francis York Morgan is constantly talking to Zach. It’s obvious very early on that Zach is an alternate personality. York treats him as such. It’s obvious. However, since you’re controlling York, it seems like Zach is a stand in for the player. When you stop the car to pick up a collectible or something, York goes, “Is there something you want to check out here, Zach?” Since I, the player, was the person who made the decision to stop, it seems pretty clear that Zach = Me.
I was going through the whole game thinking of it this way. York is crazy because he has a game-player in his head. That’s why the world is so very “game-y.” That’s why there are enemies in sequences where combat makes no sense at all. That’s why the game looks like an old school PS1 game, because that makes it feel all the more “game-like,” instead of the more structured experiences you find nowadays. That’s why the things anyone does every day, sleeping and eating, are shown as game systems, even though they are, overall, completely inconsequential to playing the game. It’s still something that one would be aware of, and it’s being shown in a video game way, because I am a creature of video games influencing York.

Then the game makes you play as Emily.

At first, I didn’t realize the significance of this. The game still flipped back to York whenever he talked with Zach. It never seemed to miss a beat. I assumed York’s special brand of insanity, namely me, was rubbing off on his love interest. But what this really meant, as was made clear by the ending, was that I, the player, wasn’t Zach at all. Zach was a character in the game. And in the end game, when it becomes clear that Zach is a character, and not the player as character, well, it turns basically my whole interpretation of the game upside down. No longer is the game a commentary about how insane most video game protagonists are, if you look at them from a more normal viewpoint. It’s now a completely different story, and I don’t quite know how to grok it.

Additionally, Kaysen, the last boss, not only refers to the various locations you go to in York and Zach’s mind like they were real locations he can know about, but Harry, as well, refers to those places as real locations. It’s making the supernatural elements of the game real (well, besides the conceit of the purple gas which drives people to rage, which honestly, I can be okay with. The red trees that instantly consume women they are stuck into? Well, I put that into the “insanity” folder) for reasons I don’t quite understand. It also throws in the idea that Kaysen is some sort of Highlander or something, who doesn’t age, right at the end too. I don’t understand the significance of this, either.

Is the game really just a batshit insane experience, with no real purpose?

Again, I may be giving the game too much credit, but it seems like my original explanation could still hold true with the ending. Making Zach a character rips identity away from the player, making the player relive, in a certain sense, the sort of drama of loss of self which young Zach felt all those years ago. It’s also the point where the player loses all control over the story. Sure, there are some boss battles after that point, but from then on, it’s mostly cutscenes. Even most of the final boss battle is scripted heavily. It’s no longer your story, because you are no longer Zach. He’s taken it away from the player, and dammit, it can be as insane as he wants it to be, now that it’s not a video game fever dream, but his story.

But I’m probably just being too English major-y with it.

Still, it’s the fact that I was constantly thinking about interpretations and trying to figure out what it all could mean that kept me playing all the way through the end. On that level, this game was a huge success.

I liked it a lot. I can’t recommend that everyone play it, but I really did enjoy it.

Remember that Disney Channel Alice in Wonderland show where the White Rabbit was a guy in a bunny suit who was force to wear rollerblades so as to be hip? Oh, don’t worry, I found a link for you so you can experience it.

What does that have to do with KoL’s IoTM of the month, the Clan Looking Glass? Eh, not much, I guess, but I’ve been thinking about it since it came out.

Mostly, I think people were excited to see this IoTM because it meant the return of Clan VIP Keys, which were apparently insanely expensive. It wasn’t an issue for me, since I had one from the Pool Table, but, you know, I’m sure that was nice for people. Still, I don’t think one should overlook the Looking Glass, not that I expected them to, perse. But it’s a pretty awesome dump of content with some neat items in it.

I actually didn’t get a chance to get one of these myself, because Val and Cris had already installed one in the Ernest Borg Nine’s VIP Lounge before I even realized it existed. It makes me feel a little eh for mooching. I pitched in for the pool table. I suppose I shouldn’t worry, though, as it’s not like they seem upset. That’s just a problem with this furniture, I guess. There’s always some amount of having to figure out the social issues of picking it up.

Anyway, the Glass basically gives you one “DRINK ME” potion a day, which lets you access the Down the Rabbit Hole area. This has cool shit in it.
The Tweedleporium is a completely heart-based shop. There is a weekly rotation of neat stuffies, an expensive outfit that includes a watch, and puffs of smoke. The puffs of smoke lets you send silly picture messages to your friends. One puff equals one letter. It’s neat and silly, and I really like it. I also like that there’s a good NPC-store-purchasable rollover turn item in the game, even if it is much too expensive to use on any sort of serious run.
There’s a Mad Tea Party, that gives you a random buff based on the number of letters in the name of your currently equipped hat. That’s cool: there’s a lot of nice content in there, and I’m sure some of the buffs are very worth it. It’s hard for me to get excited about this, honestly? But I’m sure there’s at least one buff in there that’s going to become very hardcore-relevant. They’re all solid, and if actually take the time to plan your hat, you can get a nice boost once a day, I would think.
The final part is the Red Queen’s Garden, which is one of my favorite things: a quest that spans multiple ascensions to give you long term goals. I talked about how I liked this back with the Baby Sandworm, and this is no different. Basically, you fight some monsters with some okay drops, but you also work to collect maps to collect parts of a meal. You can get one piece per class, and once you have them all, you can trade them in for a cool reward: a piece of familiar equipment called the ittah bittah hooka. It makes your familiar give you completely random buffs in battle. That is totally cool. I can’t wait to get one and try it out. I like having long term goals.
There’s also a mini-game in the map that you can beat over and over again to get cookies that give you very strong buffs to your base stats. Less interesting to me, but still completely cool.

So, yeah, lots of good content in here. Your clan should pick one up. Three Mr. A’s is still a tough sell if you’re on your own, but I suppose you could always try buying Drink Me potions in the mall or something? It’s cool stuff. I feel like this is a win. Way better than the Pool Table, and a lot of fun.

Since I put the tag “Start Profiling” on the last post, I guess that means I’m writing a series about DEADLY PREMONITION. I guess that’s okay. I can write a little more. I still haven’t beat it or anything, but here are some more of my early thoughts. If I ever do finish it, you can bet that I’ll have a review that’s mostly just plot analysis or something.

I mentioned in the last post that this game bit off more than it can chew in terms of systems. This is completely true. DEADLY PREMONITION is attempting to have a huge, open world with hunger and sleep mechanics.

On one hand, it completely fails. Getting around the world is a pain in the ass. I hear one of the side missions gets you a radio that lets you fast travel, but the game won’t let me pick flowers while it’s raining, so I’m still without that particular item for the time being. The world is really huge, and driving controls incredibly badly. Sure, it gives you a decent feeling that you’re seeing all of this country town, but it also is just a huge annoyance driving around. The annoyance is enhanced by how useless the map is. You can’t zoom the map out. It only shows you your immediate area, so you have to scroll around if you want to see more. This makes it nearly impossible to plot a path to your destination if it’s more than two blocks away. You are constantly opening your map, scrolling around to find the next turn, and closing your map. It’s stupid.
The hunger and sleep mechanics don’t seem to do much either. Basically, you have to sleep and eat, and you can buy many foodstuffs and coffee and such in the world to refill those meters. However, it’s never really something that needs to be rationed. You always have plenty of money, and you find tons of food naturally in the world. It’s never anything even vaguely like a problem to make sure you don’t starve to death or fall asleep outside.
The sleep part, especially, isn’t a problem, because you are constantly trying to sleep to move the clock forward. Lots of events only happen at certain time periods, and often the game will put you in a situation where you have to wait half the day to continue the story. Because the in-game clock moves glacially slow, you have to either sleep or take many smoke breaks (which is another mechanic that moves the clock forward, for whatever reason) in order to get on with it.

Still, though, when you really get into the story, you really sort of understand what they were trying to do. You can see all major suspects and characters on the map at all times. You can see them going about their daily lives. They drive to work. They go home at night, after stopping by the grocery store. You actually have to follow their patterns to finish certain side missions, and it does give the entire game world a much more realistic feel. It’s sort of like Majora’s Mask in that way. The world is moving, whether or not you’re acting on it. You can actually go back to previous days to complete side missions, too, so it’s like Majora’s Mask in that way as well. You can go, “Okay, I guess he’ll be here during this chapter at 14:00” and plan a route accordingly. This kind of open world interaction is honestly rarely done. Games like Oblivion or Fallout 3 do it, but they never move key NPCs because you need to be able to find them. As such, it doesn’t feel like much is actually changing, because the only people you actually interact with are always where you expect them. This game moves everyone, even key characters you may need to talk with. They’re all living their lives. It’s cool. And the fact that your character can be hungry, so you decide to go out to dinner with some NPCs and mooch a free meal? Well, hey, that’s cool realism too.

Of course, this sense of realism is coming from a game where I’m shooting Zombie Ghosts that only York can see like… all the fucking time. But it’s neat, if flawed.

Then again, that’s exactly what DEADLY PREMONITION is. Neat, if flawed.

Between birthday and just awesomeness coming out, I just don’t have time for all the games I want to play. This is frustrating, especially since I only tend to write about games I’ve finished on here, most of the time. I go for the “review” and things. But now I’m worried. As much as I want to, I may have trouble finding the time to finish DEADLY PREMONITION. I feel the need to talk about it. So here are some impressions. I’m almost done with the third chapter, for those who are actually in the know about this game. No spoilers or anything, though.

Basically, I find DEADLY PREMONITION incredibly fascinating. Also, I find it a game title I feel required to put in caps, but that’s beside the point. Here is a game that is, at times, so amazingly subtle and well-acted, but at others, is completely stupid, clunky, and ridiculous. It’s just kind of mind-blowing. During a conversation with Brer, he said he wanted to play it because what I was saying kind of reminded him of the weird-ass, obscure Russian PC games he likes. You know the ones: Ambition far, far outstrips budget, but they don’t let that stop them. They try to do everything anyway, with weird results. Add in an odd translation, and you almost always have a mindtrip. I feel like that fits DEADLY PREMONITION perfectly. That’s exactly how I feel about it. It’s mechanics way, way outstrip its budget, which is only enough to make a game that looks mostly like a PS1 game. The underlying soul of the game, though, is outstanding.

Let me tell you what I meant about subtlety. Agent York Morgan is amazingly well-acted. His in-game avatar is awkward and creepy. When his in-game model smiles, you want to scream in terror. But his voice actor is, honestly, amazing. He’s really genuine. I really feel like I get this completely insane dude. He seems real, because he’s being played as real, even in the completely fucked up scenario the game is putting him in. He does little subtle things, like raises his voice a notch or two around elderly NPCs so they can hear him better. He has genuine emotion. It’s almost mind-blowing to see in a game with shooting controls that are potentially worse than the original Resident Evil.
NPCs are similarly well acted. Some of the smaller characters are less well done, but the rest of the main cast has very genuine voice talent behind them. I honestly can’t decide if these are all very, very passionate amateurs who are really getting into the roles, or if they just hired people who were that good. I honestly can say I rarely see voice acting this good in a video game. It’s even more surreal that it stays good, even when they’re saying ridiculous, almost engrish-y lines.

Basically, it’s the voice acting that makes me sit there and wonder if all the janky, low-budget aspects of this game were on purpose or not. There is a grasp of storytelling at play here that the graphics and gameplay might make you think does not exist. It really makes me think I should be looking very deep into every aspect of the game, and try to find meaning.

Then again, I’m probably just giving it the benefit of the doubt because it is charming me. But still, I’m enjoying it, actually. I really am.

Classic Munchkin is a much better game than Munchkin Cthulhu.

It’s weird, in a way. You’d almost always expect the first entry in a series to be the most simple, and have only the most basic of mechanics that sequels and spinoffs would build on. This just isn’t the case with Munchkin. Munchkin Cthulhu is a vastly simpler game, and a much better introduction into how the game plays than the original. However, the much wider set of mechanics in the original really make it a much more fun game, in my opinion. There is so much more you can do, and many more Options, Options, Options that you have on each turn. There’s much more interaction. That’s a good thing.

The races and classes do much, much more in this game. Basically, each class has actual abilities, powered by card discards (which gives you an actual reason not to put items out in front of you, as you may need them to power these abilities). These range from getting free run-aways, resurrecting a recently-killed easy fight so you can level up easier, or just winning on ties. The classes in Cthulhu are much more static bonuses: useful, but you certainly feel like you’re playing less of a role and more donning a title to equip certain items. The races fill the static bonuses in classic Munchkin, but even they are much more varied, from the Halfling’s ability to sell items at double the cost to the Elf’s huge, game-changing ability to level up when helping someone fight a monster. These cards really make the game much more dynamic. You have to pay much more attention to what people are equipping and using.

Additionally, I think the fantasy, DnD theme is just a much better fit for the game mechanics. You don’t grind and find loot when you play Call of Cthulhu. It’s not a loot game. As such, it is hard to come up with classes and loot that makes sense. In classic Munchkin, they have so, so much to draw upon that they can have the bigger variety of mechanics and items with no problem. They don’t have depend on making 10 separate Necronomicon jokes to have enough weapons (although most of them are fairly entertaining, I will admit). They even add in things such as damage types and monster keywords to mix things up. Clerics are good against undead, of course. Killing certain monsters with a weapon that deals fire damage makes things easier. There’s simply more variety.

Although I’d like to mix the two decks together sometime, I really feel like classic Munchkin is completely the way to go, unless you are just completely obsessed with the Mythos and hate fantasy. It’s clear this is where all their initial genus went. It’s deeper, but not so deep as to be intimidating. It’s just more fun.

(Side Note: Spell check wants to change Munchkin to Munch-kin, and Necronomicon to Noneconomic. Crazy, silly spell check.)

We had another night of Munchkin on Monday, and it was mostly good times. We played the original, which I picked up (which apparently made Shauna playfully angry, since she had suggested getting the game for me and Jonathan said that it wasn’t my kind of game) and I’m sure you’ll see a review of that tomorrow. Because it’s apparently Munchkin Week here at the bloeg. But for now I’m going to talk about something pointless, stupid, and depressing related to Munchkin. Ready? Okay.

I hate gender-based mechanics in casual games.

Okay, that description really doesn’t describe the phenomenon I’m talking about. What I’m talking about is casual games where game mechanics are based upon the player’s actual gender. This is normally done for funny joke time, to break the ice, or to give female players an advantage because the designers are assuming their boyfriends tricked them into playing or some shit.

Obviously, I’m a bit sensitive to such things. They put me in awkward situations.

Example from Monday. We were playing Cthulhu Munchkin again. I draw an early game Chibithulhu. I can easily beat it at the “male” difficulty, but at the “female” difficulty, I don’t have enough equipment. Everyone knows I have this card in my hand, due to a weird drawing snafu. If I am male, the right thing to do is to look for trouble, play Chibithulhu, take the extra treasure from being an Investigator, and level up. Everyone knows I have the card, and everyone knows I can kill it if this is the case. If I hold onto the card and don’t play it, I am, in their eyes, making an obvious play mistake.
This really, really, really bothers me for some reason. I try to learn rules and master them. I find that fun. I also don’t believe in playing at anything less than the best of your ability, as I find throwing the game only insults the people you’re playing with. (There are exceptions for humor value, of course, but in general, I feel this way.) I tried holding onto the card in reality. I didn’t play it for two turns. It drove me crazy. I didn’t want to seem like I was handicapping myself.
At the same time, I could have insisted I was female, I suppose. All but one person at the table I had had the talk with. That, however, seemed like I would be intentionally disrupting and ruining a fun night. We were all having a good time. Why should I be ruining it with my stupid bullshit?

I ended up playing the card, and asking for help to kill the monster. Everyone at the table complained. “What are you doing? You don’t need help to kill that.” I gave in, took my treasure, swallowed my feelings on the matter, and kept playing.

But it obviously bothered me enough to write a bloeg about it.

And that is why gender-based mechanics suck. The end.
Okay, I guess I didn’t actually prove that. Just that I hate them. I understand why they exist, and I think that’s a fine thing. Nothing wrong with breaking the ice in such games. But dammit, it’s stupidly hard. Annoying. Yes.

And that’s it for that rant. Stay tuned for more stupidity.

Essner wanted to play Munchkin. So much that he bought Munchkin Cthulhu, and we went at it.

Munchkin is one of those touchstone games that I feel like anyone who gives a shit about board and card games should know about. Yet, I had never played it, and really didn’t feel the need to seek it out. Still, I was looking forward to trying it, just to have the knowledge of how the game works and what its systems are seeing that, as I said, it is just one of those games that everyone knows and refers to.

My initial feelings? A fun game, but certainly one that deserves the criticisms it deserves. Will that stop me from enjoying it in the future? Hell no. But I see where everyone is coming from.

Basically, there are two decks, Treasure and “Door.” Every turn, you flip a door card. If it’s a monster, you fight it. Fighting is a pure numbers game with no real dice rolls. If your “level” is higher than the monster’s, then you win. Equipment and such from the treasure deck gives you additional levels so you can fight more powerful foes. Kill a monster, and you gain a level, and get to draw as much treasure as the card says from the treasure deck. Get to level 10, and you win.
Of course, this is a backstabbing game, so it’s not that easy. From the Door deck, you can also get various curses or monster buffs, which you can throw into the mix to fuck up other players, causing them to use their one-shot cards or to bribe other players with treasure or favors in order to bring them into the combat, where they can party and use their combined levels to beat a monster.
Other mechanics include classes, which are basically buffs you put in play that change your playstyle a little with different benefits, and being able to sell off items to buy levels (but not the winning level.) But that’s basically it for mechanics.

Yeah, so it’s a very, very random game, and not a very deep one. Honestly, there are rarely any really significant decisions that you are making throughout gameplay. It’s all just luck of the draw kinds of things, and “do I fuck him over now, or later?” From a pure gameplay standpoint, it’s not going to dazzle you with Options, Options, Options.
And honestly, that’s okay, because this is a social game. It’s all about trash talk, screwing people over, being screwed over, and plotting revenge. It’s the social interactions that make the game fun. The jokes on the cards help the first time or two around as well, but really, it’s all about the personalities of the people you’re playing with. It’s about being pointlessly vindictive just because it’s fun, or wasting all your cards on something minor because the humor of the situation demanded it. That’s fun as shit.

Honestly, the weirdest thing about playing the game was that it was a game that I didn’t know the rules of, but Droid and Essner did. That never happens. I’m always the person who knows the rules. I mean, it’s not a problem that they had more information than me. It wasn’t a big deal. A fun time was had. It was just interesting having Droid explain game mechanics to me, I guess. It’s a rare occurrence.

Yeah, I had a lot of fun playing Munchkin Cthulhu. I’d play it again. Apparently everyone kind of wished that Essner had gotten the original, because they liked the races as well as the classes. You can mix all the decks together, though, so maybe that’ll be picked up at some point. Either way, I’m down for another round or two. It’s good times.

This month’s IoTM in Twilight Heroes is the Viking Games jersey.

It’s red.

Once again, I think this is an IoTM completely not aimed at me. Does it have an effect I’m not aware of? I don’t think so. I think it’s just a stat-tacular shirt. Anyone not spellcasting would love the buffs on this shirt, and hell, even those who are spellcasting still might pick it over, say, the Letter Shirt if they were wanting that +XP bonus while grinding. Stat-wise, this gives you the sort of strong percentage boosts you might want. It’s nice for that.

However, I’ll say it again and again: I’m not really interested in IoTMs as a pure “better than everything” vector. I want them to provide novelty along with the betterness. I donate for IoTMs to keep me playing. I want them to offer options that change up my game, or just be so cool, a la the Personalized Flair on the previously-mentioned Letter Shirt, that I can’t help but want to wear it. I can think of no situation where I would rather wear this than my Prismatic Sports Bra or my Letter Shirt. Sure, it might be better stat-wise in some situations, but it’s just not anywhere near as fun. Heck, even the special attack on the foxy caped suit, when worn with the hat, is much more fun. (Plus it has the term “foxy” in the title, so… yeah.) I just can’t see any time where I would actually use this.

So, you know, I won’t get it. Nothing wrong with it. If you want such advantages, go for it. I just can’t justify it, especially when I play the game, unfortunately, much less than I used to.
Oh well. Not like I can expect every IoTM to be aimed towards me, hm?