On RockSmith

Been a couple weeks, I know. Nothing exciting happening on my end. Building cities. Improving my guitar play through my PS3, so I did want to write a sort of mini-review on RockSmith. I know this isn't a review site or anything, but anyone interested in guitar might like to read some of this.

First of all, I've been teaching myself guitar for over 10 years now. I started playing when I was 16, just sort of as a side hobby. Several of my friends were in garage bands and stuff, so I just picked up stuff here and there. I know enough to masquerade as being "good," but I am not technically sound by any means. I putz around. It's all for fun.

Coming from that perspective, I've always enjoyed the Rock Band style games. It always annoyed me when I felt I could play something more easily on a real guitar than the plastic substitutes. I knew it was only a matter of time before they mated the two and came up with something really neat. RockSmith is one such attempt at mating.

Maybe you've heard of the new Rock Band with the "pro" settings where you can use a special guitar that functions pretty similarly to a real guitar. That's all well and good, but I didn't want to plunk down the cash for a special guitar. I already own guitars, and they are expensive enough in their own right. I was hoping to someday be able to use the guitars I own with some sort of game.

Enter RockSmith. Comes with a nifty USB cable that hooks into any electric guitar. Perfect.

The game itself is less of a game and more of a teaching tool. It gamifies things, but I think it is best understood as a good way to learn songs or brush up on skills. For a hobbyist like me, it's loads of fun, and I can see where it is going to improve my playing.

As someone who "kinda" knows guitar, the biggest hurdle right away for me is not the technical difficulty (it starts off as if you were a complete novice), but the transition to sight reading. I've always played songs by memory, not live. I'm having to retrain my brain and hands to use skills in conjunction with the display. It's actually fairly challenging and makes me feel like a newb a lot.

The game is gated, but the difficulty within the song scales as you hit (or miss) notes. Thus, it's possible to progress at something of an accelerated rate. It may be annoying for some to start so basic but, like I said, I need to learn the methodology anyway. I'm cool with it.

The one black mark against the game, so far, has been the audio delay. If you've done any research about the game, you'll probably see this caveat. It is processing an analog signal from your guitar, figuring out what you played, and displaying crap to your HDMI screen. HDMI is a poor transmission medium if you want immediate reaction. Apparently, if you split your audio out to analog cables (like might be used in a home theater setup), the lag goes away. I do not have such a setup, so I cannot test it.

The lag is definitely noticeable, but I've pretty much gotten used it. I crank the TV way up so I can only hear the amp, and it's tolerable. When trying to play more complicated stuff from memory (the game has an open amp feature), the lag throws me a bit, but if I just play, again it's not bad. Just something to get used to, though I'm really contemplating getting a nicer audio setup. It's not like I wouldn't use it for movies and such.

While some may take issue with the game, if you approach it as a "learning can be fun" tool, I think your expectations will line up. It's not as game-y as Rock Band but, to me, that makes it more fun in some ways. It's also not something I can play with friends, but again, that's not why I got it. (I think you can hook up a guitar and bass together now and jam, though. I don't know any bass players currently to try it out.)

Anyway, this is hardly a comprehensive review, just some scattered initial thoughts. If you're a hobbyist like me looking for a fun game to play with your own guitars, this is a great buy. I think I snagged it for like $55 or something. Probably can easily find better deals, but it's a lot cheaper than splurging for the newest Rock Band setup. And you will learn guitar. Real guitar. Pretty neat if you ask me.

Traffic Jam and Learning

Perhaps my favorite part about being a gamer is how easily it promotes lifelong learning. I'm a big fan of learning. I absorb knowledge like a sponge. Perhaps part of why I've taken an extended break from WoW is that I didn't feel like there were any more opportunities for me to learn. That isn't to say I'd explored every nook and cranny, but that the buffet table of knowledge for me (at least) was pretty picked over. I really had to hunt to find any savory bits.

A very easy remedy for this is to try new games, especially in different genres. Hence why I've been having so much fun with Sim City. There hadn't be a legit new one in, what, a decade? Sure there were some solid knock-offs, but I never played any of them. For me, it's a return to something familiar but that is very new.

I've chronicled a few of the things I've learned, and most recent lesson is regarding the traffic. Traffic jams are a huge problem right now in the game, not just because of my specific city designs, but also because of several other strange game design artifacts. Perhaps the mos egregious of those is that most city zones only have one connection to the regional highway. This all but forces one to have a traffic problem at larger city sizes. I'm hoping that one gets fixed in a patch soon. Until then, I'm forced to be inventive about my traffic flow.

I'd been using the old tried and true grid approach, but it isn't working. I may go back soon and modify the grid by destroying the last little bit of connecting streets, and putting in lower density streets so that my major avenues become like a limited access highway. I've heard that might help. Also, since Sims choose the shortest path (regardless of how much sense it makes), I may chop some of those paths off to force the flow where I need it to be. It's an interesting puzzle.

I've also picked up a new game: Rocksmith. It's all about learning, learning the guitar. The cool twist here is that it comes with a cord that allows me to plug in the electric guitar that I already learn (and sort of know how to play). Then, it'll run me through a "journey" that develops real guitar skills and teaches me some fun classic rock songs. I think the best description I can come up with is that it is sort of Rosetta Stone meets Rock Band. It straddles the line between teaching aid and game, and so far I've been impressed. I'll write more about it as I get more experience, but I'm a fan of things that "gamify" learning, and just learning in general. The game was recommended by a fellow guitarist, and he did not disappoint. Pretty neat.

Building Cities

I haven't checked in for a while. Still kicking. Still building cities and enjoying it. I'm trying to complete some Great Works now. I think I've figured out how to build a successful city in most cases. Resources are so key in this version of the game. Tiles with lots of resources will be easy to build up. Also, it helps to have established cities nearby with road connections. Being able to farm out early utilities and simply pay for what you need... priceless. Well, if you ignore the paying part.

If you get your trade empire set up alongside some solid resource gathering and upgrading... you'll be making money hand over fist in no time. Most of my larger cities show a 10k plus debt per hour, but make it up easily through exports. It's pretty crazy.

Of course, as soon as I felt comfortable, a giant lizard showed up and caroused through my city. Destroyed my entire resource gathering infrastructure, nearly ruining the city. Fortunately, I'd been sitting on a sizeable nest-egg, so I was able to rebuild and get stuff back up and running without too much trouble. It was dicey for a bit. Stupid lizards.

I can't wait until some of the DLC starts showing up and they unlock things like expanding the city tiles or being able to edit the highway. Currently almost all of my cities have huge gridlocks when entering and leaving since there's only one exit on the highway. What sort of city has that? At the very least I should get one for each side of the map. I plopped a pro stadium and the traffic snarls are something fierce!

Anyhoo, that's all for now. Hope you WoW kids are killing extra critters for me.

Sim City 2013 Impressions

I
'm pretty much addicted to the new Sim City game at this point. Look, I know it's EA and they're evil. I know they did a crappy job with the launch. I know the always-online DRM excuse is feeble on a good day. That still didn't stop me from buying. I feel a bit dirty (since we all must vote with our wallets, right?), but few things in life are as personally satisfying to me as Sim City. And, let's be honest, it was a long, long time between iterations.

Put aside the political shenanigans, and you have (what I think is) a pretty solid game. I'm a fan of most (if not all) of the improvements they made to the gameplay itself. It's prettier, more intuitive and, if possible, more addictive than ever.

In today's age of DLC, I fully expect content packages that do things like "open bigger city tiles" and "extend your borders." Some folks will no doubt feel nickle and dimed. I would argue that it's all in the execution. If they give free updates interspersed with mostly cosmetic "for pay" packages, I would be a happy camper. I don't want to get too much into this argument, as it's both heated and over-hashed, says I.

Instead, I'd like to focus on the gameplay and my initial impressions. So, in no particular order, here we go:

• I seem to get a lot of "Crime has the upper hand" messages, but have a zero crimes committed per day stat... very odd.
• Found this Google Docs Spreadsheet. which is pretty comprehensive. Well worth a look, particularly if you're struggling from the "not enough workers" probably that I'll touch on next.
• So it appears that to balance both jobs and workers, you are roughly working with this equation... C+I+P = R. That is, Commercial, Industrial, and Ploppables equals Residential. C, I, and P all generate jobs. R generates workers. That means you need a whole crap-ton of R to fill all your jobs. What's more, high density R doesn't seem to be as dense as high density C or I. Doing the math, you need like 4 high rise R buildings to fill up the jobs for one C skyscraper. See that spreadsheet for more info. For me, it means my cities tend to look like 80% R, 20% everything else. I hope they tweak this, even if it is realistic.
• I hope a bigger plot DLC comes out first. Filling up the city tiles right now is too easy. Especially if you are using a lot of ploppables.
• Specialization in mining and trading seems a great way to make money, even if you don't go full tycoon. I find myself always throwing down for these and then exporting to the global market.
• I wish it were easier to tell which roads were feeding which buildings so I could upgrade accordingly.
• Sometimes the UI seems pretty slow to update to a change I made... even on cheetah speed!
• My buddy really missed the ability to set the funding level like in previous version. I find I'm partial to being able to turn individual modules on/off to achieve the same end. Seems more intuitive to me, but perhaps less real world?
• Which brings me to my next point... the game seems to balance on the edge of "simulation" vs "game." Some things are game-y, some seem to give a nod to reality.
• Those RCI problems I mentioned earlier are a good example of this... maybe they're realistic, but I think I'd prefer a more game-y implementation to add variety to the cityscapes.
• My buddy was really bemoaning the lack of transparency to the underlying statistics. He thought previous games did a better job of that.
• The LFR version of region building bugs me a bit. I feel like I'm somewhat dependent on my neighbors not to be poor mayors. Their rampant crime may spill over into my city, for instance. This is probably pretty realistic, but makes me want to erect big, giant, Raccoon City-style walls.

That's it for now. Like I said, I'm really enjoying myself despite the shenanigans. Any of the rest of you trying this one out?

A Google Reader Alternate

I have a post I'm cooking up with a whole bunch of Sim City lessons learned and tricks, but the announcement Google made about retiring Reader sent me into a mental tailspin (as well as a whole bunch of others, it seems). I've been a Google Reader user for years now, and I'm not even sure I could find half the blogs I like to read again if Reader just disappeared. So yeah, I was just a bit panicked. Plus, as a content provider, you have to somewhat wonder how this is going to affect your readership.

Have no fear. Feedly to the rescue!

After I calmed down a bit, I suspected it probably would not be too hard to find a replacement. Surely, someone else has created a clever RSS-based reading application. It did not take long. I found Feedly right away, installed the Chrome app, logged in, and perhaps 15 minutes later was staring at my Google Reader subscriptions in a new service. After a bit of poking around, I was sold.

Then, I decided to go look to see if my Reader subscriptions would be safe with Feedly after the inevitable shutdown. The good folks at the Feedly blog had two wonderful articles. One with tips for all of us transitioning from Google Reader. The other explaining how your subscriptions WILL be transferred over (short answer: seamlessly and without any action on my part. Huzzah!).

I figured I'd pass this all along as a sort of public service announcement, as many of you undoubtedly had faced similar freak-outs in the last few days. I want to note that I am in no way affiliated or receiving anything from Feedly. I'm just pimping them because they're the first service I came across, it was super simple to set up, imported my existing subs with a button, and assured me that they've got my back when Reader is shut down. What's not to like?

So no, I do not think Google shutting down Reader will be the end of blogging. I don't think it will really harm traffic all that much. Sure some folks may be left in the dark, but where there's a will, there's a way. If we keep creating content that folks want to read, they'll figure out how to read it. How do I know this? Because I'm more consumer than creator these days anyway!

Case closed. The Mayans were still wrong.

Sub-Free

I did a bad thing last night. Well, at least it felt bad. Sorta. I cancelled my WoW sub last night.

Truth be told, it was rather uneventful. I do not have any rage, I just can no longer keep up. My gaming time is spent on Sim City (now that I can get in) and a variety of pick-up-and-play games. LoL will happen from time to time. They seem to be making Assassin's Creed games quicker than I can finish them. (That had never, ever been a problem before, but I guess it happens.)

As long-time readers probably know/can guess... there were a myriad of personal reasons that really pushed me to this. It's not dissatisfaction with the game. I've had to turn a lot of my energy in upon myself to heal and rebuild things that were horribly broken. Life does that sometimes. Better to have loved and lost and all that.

In previous posts I mentioned continuing to write here. I still plan to do that. This is not a "good bye" post. I'm merely pointing out that I'm sub-free for the first time in almost a decade.

Specific to WoW, I realized that I don't have much of a desire to raid or do end-gamey stuff. I may jump back in during a boring month and muck around, but that simply depends on if time finds me. I'm no longer going to make the time. My character will be there waiting, so it seemed wise to save myself $15/mo that I really wasn't using.

Feel free to keep me in the WoW loop via comments. Otherwise, I'll probably be talking about random games. (Right now, baffling worker shortages are on my mind, for you Sim City players. What is up with that? The algorithm has to be screwed up, right? But hey, at least I can play reliably now...)

Much love to all of you that have shared Azeroth with me over the years. I'll be lurking!

Two Posts? No Wai.

In one week? Crazy, I know. I'll make this one short so as not to blow anyones' mind. I know you were all worried.

For the last two nights I've been trying (and failing) to play the new Sim City. I'm sure I am not alone in this. In fact, I know I'm not alone.

It's funny because you think I would just go play patch 5.2 in WoW, but I won't. I'll beat my head against the wall like everyone else. Makes me wonder, how much of our pain is self-imposed? I could just step away for a week and be patient until they resolve the dumb server issues (that I think EA should be able to anticipate at this point from every big game they've ever launched), but I won't. I was excited to build cities and, damnit, I want to build cities!

They will resolve the issues. A lot of people will be pissed in the mean time. I'm pretty unhappy as I'd like to play the game and apparently have a mental block disallowing me from playing anything else. But, again, I blame myself just as much. And I threw a movie on in the background, got to bed early... it wasn't a complete loss.

If you're thinking about trying the new Sim City, I would strongly recommend that you WAIT for several weeks. Listen for the "all clear" on the Interwebs. I'm sure it will be resounding (if not, I'm sure I'll mention something). From the tutorial (which I somehow got to play last night), I can say that I'm pretty confident the game will be hella fun. If only we could play it reliably!

I hope maybe the pressure forces them to write a patch allowing you to play the game offline in some form. I can dream, can't I?