Five Game Reviews

Though some people may not be aware of this fact about me, I am an avid player of computer games, and I like seeing what sort of community gamers develop, and what kind of appeal a given game has to people. There are many different types of games and gamers. Personally, I am a fan mostly of strategy, historical, and role playing games, and sometimes these overlap. While I do not often pay for games, there are many free games online, and each of them has their own target audience and appeal. There are far too many games for me to play them all, but I have played five of them long enough to make a review of them and analyze in at least some depth what their appeal would be to a gamer like myself (and maybe, like you). Each of these five games is somewhat different, but each of them has aspects that I enjoy.

Travian (http://s5.travian.us)

Of the five games, Travian is the one I have been playing the longest. The game mechanics are themselves fairly straightforward. Everyone starts out with a village in the twilight period of the Roman Empire in a fictionalized grid map where one can either be a Roman, a Gaul, or a Teuton. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages and the choice a player makes depends on how they want to play the game. Gauls are big on storage and trapping, Romans have a balanced approach that allows for simultaneous building in the village and in the fields, and Tuetons have great raiding bonuses. One starts out with six wheat fields, four woodcutters, four iron mines, and four clay pits. Each resource is needed, in varying amounts, for the military units one builds, for trading opportunities, and through buildings in the village. Each person requires one unit of wheat, and different upgrades/units require different numbers of occupants. This game also features alliances, which one can join with buildings, as well as the possibility of expanding the village (though this is an expensive process). Certain buildings can be built only when conditions are met involving the upgrading of other buildings or fields. As fields are developed, they give exponentially higher yields/hour. As fields or buildings are developed, they are progressively more expensive as well. Units can also be researched and given upgrades to weapons and armor to increase their effectiveness in battle. Probably the best part of this game is that the ease of joining alliances makes for plenty of advice from more experienced players and a friendly atmosphere. However, the presence of larger villages near smaller ones means that raiding is frequent and annoying. The best way to avoid getting raided is to build big crannies that safeguard resources, because if a raider gets nothing for his raid, he will (eventually) stop trying. This game is most geared towards gamers who like a strong military and enjoy the Middle Ages. The pruning of inactive villages allows new villages to be placed near more experienced ones. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on one's perspective. The guides in the game, and the forums, are most helpful to the new player who wants to know more about how to develop his or her village.

Overall Grade: B+


Renaissance Kingdoms (www.renaissancekingdoms.com)

This game belongs to a category of games where you play a character in a historical period (in this case, in the 1450's) who has to eat, work, and learn various skills in order to advance in level. In this it can be considered a role playing game. The game's builders are from France, but discussion on the forums and in the game is largely in English (though there are quite a few countries/languages/provinces in Europe from Scotland and England to the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria). You begin as a level 0 character who must level up by gaining 5 reputation points (which involve working 2 days in a church and finding three people who give trust points), as well as the acquisition of 90 gold in order to buy a field. The work one does creates resources which can be sold in the market (giving money to the worker) which then help the town where one resides grow stronger and richer. Interaction between characters takes place in churches (where one can hear mass, as this is after all set in the 1400's), taverns (which serve as site-specific chatrooms only open to those citizens/visitors of a given city) as well as in bulletin board-style forums for text-based roleplay. The game does an excellent job of building community and establishing a sense of place, though the game is a bit anachronistic and is mostly local and provincial in its focus, lacking much in the way of national power and glory. There are town elections, the possibility of travel to other towns, and as one's level improves, a variety of requirements for leveling (including upgrading wardrobe and acquiring certain skill points) as well as opportunities for jobs (like being a priest, or a politician, or a baker, weaver, butcher, and other jobs like that). There is a turn every day, where one must eat in order to live (or go in retreat in a church if one cannot be online during the 24 hour period). Depending on how one plays, it can either take two minutes a day or many hours. One gets out what one puts in. As I enjoy the text-based and chat-based roleplay of the game, I find this the most enjoyable of the five free online games I play. Alas, I am in a very poor town, so leveling up in the future will demand traveling to distant parts. Such is the life, though.

Overall Grade: A


Ikariam (www.ikariam.com)

The most off-putting part of this game is the tagline of the game--"where the gods play." Not being particularly enamored of polytheism, this did not warm me to the idea of playing the game. Nonetheless, being curious, one day I decided to look beyond the tacky tagline and play the game. In fact, I found the game to be quite enjoyable from a gameplay aspect, and very friendly to new players (though communication in the game is a bit difficult, involving only mail messages that count as 'diplomacy'). The quick early leveling, though, is soon replaced by a very lengthy and very difficult process of ensuring sufficient resources, which is a daunting task. Each island contains building materials (basically wood) and one of four "strategic resources" that have to be mined (marble, crystal glass, wine, and sulfur). Buildings and units require differing amounts of these, and in order to develop the town beyond a very early level it is necessary to trade with neighbors. This is not an easy task. Each town can set the price for the goods it wishes to sell, and it takes a great deal of patience/gold to acquire what one needs for a happy and growing town. Establishing colonies is an extremely onerous task, and so developing good trade networks and diplomacy is vitally important. New units and buildings are researched in an academy, which requires scientists (lowering tax base/gold while increasing the acquisition of knowledge). Mining the strategic resource and gaining building material also takes workers, and the island's resource levels are shared with all villages on the island. Military raids also occur in this game, but they seem to be rare due to the high expense of units relative to the low price of most buildings. Cargo ships are a popular item of purchase, though, and necessary to grow beyond very low levels. Each island also contains a Greek-themed "wonder of the world" that increases, at excessively expensive gold levels, the mining of the local strategic resource. Overall, the game is easy to play, but it is difficult to ally or communicate with other players. That said, the graphics of this game are gorgeous, and improve as one's buildings are improved.

Overall Grade: B+

Human Age (www.human-age.com)

A resource-management game similar in basic concept to Renaissance Kingdoms, but updated less frequently with new content and without the forum-based roleplay aspect, this game takes an interesting look at history. Each character begins as a caveman (or cavewoman) and must meet certain requirements in heatlh/morale (two factors which slide or rise depending on accidents or one's activities), skill points, and quests/jobs. Working and hunting lower morale but give one necessary kneecaps (the first currency) for food and other items. Each character must eat one food item (which gives weight--another necessary quality to level), and drink water. There are numerous jobs one must master and certain quests which require that someone work in certain jobs. The process of leveling up is lengthy--taking at least several months if one is diligent. With eleven ages, this would require a very lengthy process of playing to "beat" the game. The biggest problem with the game is that it takes so little time/effort to do what is necessary each day to continue improve the character, but there is so little interaction with other players (except through the "confession" feature, which is entertaining). The lack of interaction makes it hard to keep playing the game in an enthusiastic manner. That said, the offbeat approach of the game is worthwhile.

Overall Grade: C+

Holy War (www.holy-war.net)

The fifth of the five games I have played, this is also possibly the most difficult to get into. There is, thankfully, a chatting option which allows for interaction, which is by far the most worthwhile aspect of the game. Each character can be a Christian, a Pagan, or a Saracen (Muslim) in the time of the crusades. The pagans are lamentably popular, while the Muslims are embarrassingly unpopular. Leveling up requires the gaining of experience, mostly through plundering (unfortunately, this leads to reprisals from the plundered party which can be very harsh--though some players have managed to plunder themselves). Skills can be increased and weapons and armor can be purchased through plundering as well as through work (which gives a low salary, but since plundering is limited to an hour a day for free players, one will spend most of the day working). During the first few days one plays, one can plunder for two hours a day (which costs money after that, not worth paying in my judgment). Unfortunately, the game does not do a good job of letting a player know this, so much plundering opportunity can be wasted. The game also has clans (alliances) and battle modes between "faiths" at higher levels, but I do not know how these work, not being of a high enough level. One can also upgrade one's own housing to increase defense from attacks (a very useful thing) or increasing the rate at which one gains back health. These, I imagine, become very important in later levels. Dueling other players give gold and experience as well, and helps one gain reputation among other players for being a strong soldier. Perhaps the game is more enjoyable at higher levels, but it is not all that fun for a new player, and the game gives little help through manuals. Thankfully, the chatting within the game is most amusing and worthwhile. The setting of the game as a military game set in the crusades is also pretty cool. Sometimes, that's enough.

Overall Grade: C+

Client #9

I have long followed the career of current (but perhaps not for too much longer) New York Governor Elliot Spitzer. He made his national reputation as an ambitious Attorney General for the state of New York who was very loud and prominent in rooting out corruption in a series of high-profile scandals involving health care companies, gun manufacturers, and power companies, and I'm sure a lot of other issues as well. A Progressive Democrat, he lived up to his political ideology by using the power of government to punish wayward companies who did not live up to their moral obligations with customers and the general public at large. While I admired his stands against corruption, I still feel ambivalent about what such intervention means on a large scale about the freedoms of the citizenry at large.

Spitzer's highly publicized investigations against corporate malfeasance earned him a recent election to become governor of the state of New York. It was there that Mr. Spitzer's problems began to grow, as the highly popular attorney general found himself a deeply unpopular governor. Ironically, the two scandals that have dogged his time in Albany, one of which appears to have brought him down, involve corruption and the abuse of power. The lesson to the rest of us, would be anti-corruption crusaders or not, is a sobering one.

The first major scandal that I know about at least involves his abuse of power in a spectacular way. Having problems with the lead Republican in the New York Legislature, he used his aides to try to dig up dirty news to discredit his opponent and force him to resign. This was not a success, as the revealing of the attempt led to Spitzer losing his own reputation for moral probity in power. Once it was revealed that he sought to discredit his opponents through dirty tricks, it became possible to wonder if he had done the same thing as Attorney General, itself a very serious problem. Of course, Spitzer could choose to deny that he ordered his aides to do such investigations, but such a denial rings hollow, as aides generally do not go digging up dirt on the political opponents of their bosses unless there is either a specific order to do so or it is the general behavior of their boss. Neither would reflect well on the Governor.

The other scandal, that appears to have brought down his administration completely (and that may end up destroying his marriage), involves his identity as Client #9 in an investigation of a high-class prostitution ring. Apparently he spent over $4000 just before Valentine's Day for a high-class prostitute named "Kirsten" from a prostitution ring based out of New York that is under investigation by the Feds and the IRS. His call to the agency, and the agency's response, show that he was not a first-time client. Obviously, this reflects poorly on an anti-corruption and stern moralist sort of politician, more so than it would an obviously corrupt one. It looks like Spitzer's political career is over, but there are some lessons that might be useful for future people in like positions.

It appears, in this day and age, that nothing is really private. While I lament this personally, I suppose that as a rather nosy and public person (public enough, at any rate, to discuss delicate subjects online), that I am part of the problem. At any rate, if you are a person in a public position (whether in government, in business, or in private organizations), you cannot expect any of your personal conduct to remain private whatsoever. I know that in previous times leaders got a way with a lot of things, but the desire for information and the high levels of tracking and publicity present nowadays make it almost impossible to keep a secret life for long. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing I cannot say--I could argue it both ways depending on whether I was looking in the abstract or in the particular. Since the private conduct of people is no longer really all that private (sometimes because of our own stupidity and brazenness in the matter), it behooves all of the ambitious sorts among us to be a lot more honest and humble about ourselves. Being holier-than-thou nowadays is a bad call, and almost all the time it seems that the verdict on such would-be crusaders is the sobering one, "Physician, heal thyself." Ridding corruption from within and without still seems a rather difficult task, even more difficult when examining its spread within us all.