The Waiting Game

Two waitlists, one committed accept ($$) and one reserve (huh?) still comprise law school results. I ought to hear from Cornell within a week or less and may visit Nashville early in July, but I will start planning concretely to move to Boston around July 15.

Law hasn’t taken up too much time thus far this summer. A History of American Law is still in the works but I should be finishing up very soon. A lot of it is interesting, some parts are spinachy. Most of my to-do list going in has more to do with habits and discipline than reading over subject matter, but I’ll definitely go for one or two more law books before August.

June in Chicago

Andrew has left and most everyone is working or studying, so things have been quiet this week. Earlier I raced Gilbert to 242 stars on SMG2 then, to fill a gap, chased down victory on Shining Force 2 off a tip from both him and my brother.

New Game List

All this gaming has inspired me to reorganize my favorite games, especially because what’s come out recently has started to shine like the old school hits. In molding and discussing it I found three key distinctions.

First, over a long time some games lose their appeal (Age of Empires, Cyber Speedway, Fifa World Cup 2002) while others do not (Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger). The properties of games and design decisions that go into them that ensure timelessness are very nebulous and can vary from person to person, time to time, and genre to genre, but personally, in the present they include some or all of these four qualities: 1) Sentimentally memorable or storyline-rich 2) Rich in shared personal experiences or meaning multiplayer episodes 3) Masterfully and memorably scored 4) Brilliant by toying with the boundaries of a genre or experimenting with new mechanics.

Second, getting started with the list pretty much revolved around my Final Fantasy order. I used some rough subjective input followed by averaging for the lower 60 games, and hand ordered the top 30 or so. VI (1), IV (3), T (4), VII (6), XI (12), VIII (15), I (24), IX (27), XII (59), XIII (82), X (83), V (93), II (99), III (100) was the outcome. X-2 didn’t make it.

Third, I had a tough time deciding where MMO’s fit in. Previously they were all easy to jam at the top because of my utter enchantment a la Everquest. At that time I had not fully plunged myself into one for an expansion or two worth of content. Now that I have they are no longer the greatest thing in the world as I have learned there are dire tradeoffs involved in playing.

MMO’s are thus demoted from the indisputable lead and enshrined roughly between the pantheon and the legendary games. During their peak I traded intellectual stimulation,  job security, and amazing friends for a very satisfying gaming experience, the opportunity to be the very best at something, and another pool of amazing friends. Sadly, I must have judged that that trade was worth it at the time.

Now, years later, I have little to show for the gaming experience, realize that to be the very best at something that isn’t financially productive is a crushing mistake, and my pool of amazing friends has dwindled below where I wish it could be. That last one is the one that really matters, but I realized something when comparing COD4 and Halo 3 to MMO’s. All my friends from those FPS’es (finite, escapable console game) are still great friends and are doing fine or exceptionally in life. On the other hand, many from WoW, FFXI are either still involved and thus have no reason to talk to me, or have lost touch.

Based on my experience, then, I’ve really begun to think that MMO friendships built around hardcore play are illusory and ultimately destructive.

Anyhow

Check out the list and let me know what you think. Not sure if I’ll be writing extensively for each game like the last one but it feels good to have the new order hashed out.