Category: Flash Games

Casual Hardcore

I have yet to be able to play in moderation, and my gaming time has hardly decreased, but I am not a hardcore player of anything in particular at the moment.

I am a recent World of Warcraft newbie, but it is not enormously sucking me in. When my triple-xp referrer friend wants to play, we play a few hours, although we have not since hitting the “instances do not work” wall. Other than that, I solo a character for about half an early quest hub before logging. As part of the hardcore player’s optimization, I am cycling through characters and using that rested xp. It still has that new game shine, so I am playing a couple of hours most days of the week.

I have a lifetime Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ account, and I play a couple hours a few times a week. We have a Casualties static group, I get a level on an alt, I run the bounty IXP chain, or I farm and craft. It usually lasts about one expedition: if my packs are full, I will most likely warp back to town, sell, train, and log.

Team Fortress 2 appears a few times a week for several hours. I know and like a few maps, and I have not felt like being a newbie again to learn new ones. Friends have invited me to several Facebook games, and some are amusing once you get 4 or 5 running at once. Visit Kongregate twice a week to check on card challenges. Plants vs. Zombies still gets a little time.

That adds up to quite a bit, but it is widely scattered. This, plus my web-like conceptual map, explains why I write about one game but end up mentioning four others. There is no “one game” at the moment, and I would enjoy more time to binge a bit more on each or add more to the stack. I frequently find myself wanting to like various games more than I do.

: Zubon

Solution Failure

“Hey guys, the difficulty of our new ‘puzzle’ game varies randomly between trivial and ‘there is only one pixel on the screen that works.'”
“Let’s build in a video that shows where the one pixel is.”
*high five*

*facepalm*

: Zubon

Full disclosure: if you click and sign up at Kongregate, I get some kind of points that do nothing but put a number by my name. But, you know.

Referrer Links 2: Browser Games

This is the other post, where you can leave comments with referrer links for whatever browser-based game you play that gives you a link to have all your friends click. Visit your MiniCity? Have them killed by zombies and werewolves? Sign up for your flash games site? Great.

I recommend linking with the site name, what it is, and what you (and they) get for using that link. Example: KONGREGATE, a flash games site. If you sign up from that, I get points that put a useless number by my name. You get absolutely nothing.

If you would like to have a post removed (quit, game run by evil aliens, etc.), comment again or e-mail me, and I can delete old comments. We may have multiple, competing codes/links for the same game: whee! If the game in question is a “real” game, like an MMO or something that would not get you banned from most message boards for posting it, use this post. Please be patient if the comment does not appear immediately, as I will need to check the spam filter before and after work.

: Zubon

Reader Critique Requested: Toytown Tower Defense

Having noticed that our readers include a great many fans of tower defense games, the maker of Toytown Tower Defense asked for feedback on why his game might not have been well received. Or let’s put that in less polite terms: it is rated just below 3.5 on Kongregate, when some real garbage clears 4. Let’s get some reviews in the comments, something more substantial and useful than the Twitter-like comments on Kongregate. Try it before my ensuing comments bias your impressions. Continue reading Reader Critique Requested: Toytown Tower Defense

Flash Variations on a Theme: Tower Defense

Consider as a case study three variations on the same type of game:

Each has that familiar gameplay that you know I love: building defenses that blow up armies of mindlessly marching monsters. Each has taken it in a rather different direction. (Each is far longer than the last batch of flash games.)

Continue reading Flash Variations on a Theme: Tower Defense

Flash Variations on a Theme: Launches

Consider as a case study three variations on what are essentially the same game:

In each, you launch your little person into the sky, get rewards that you can use to buy upgrades for your flight, and repeat until you hit the cap. “Better” means getting more upgrades faster.

Continue reading Flash Variations on a Theme: Launches

Audience Effects

Misaimed Fandom is when the audience takes irony as endorsement or likes a character the author meant to be problematic. The classic example is Milton: Satan is the bad guy of Paradise Lost. If you enjoyed Achievement Unlocked with no sense of irony, you were engaging in misaimed fandom.

The tropers note the characters of Rei and Kaworu Neon Genesis: Evangelion. They are pale, creepy, and emotionally stunted, and therefore not intended to be sympathetic, sexualized (Rules 34 and 36 aside), or fan favorites. The creators missed two things: (1) they are the nicest people in the series; (2) many otaku are pale, creepy, and emotionally stunted.

What examples would you cite as misaimed fandom in gaming? PETA’s Thanksgiving Cooking Mama parody was meant to make you sick, but children enjoyed its gooey, over-the-top violence. Other games have meant to sicken you with violence but instead provided hours of gore-soaked enjoyment for the masses. Hard moral choices lead to “hey, watch what I can do to this old lady” moments. Was You Have to Burn the Rope really meant as a Portal parody?

: Zubon