A satisfying KA-BLOOEY

As you may have noticed (if you play with me at all), I play medic 95% of the time (or more).

However, there are some maps or situations that just don't seem to lend themselves to this approach, and so I venture into the other classes.

The Viking map (probably related to ctf_yaaargh, shown in images and youtube video used in this post) is one of those cases. Last night, with few players on the server and map objectives that aren't particularly medic-friendly, I chose to try pyro, demo and scout this time.

It was my demo efforts that prompted this post. I consider myself very, very newb at the classes other than medic. Their speed, movements, reload timing and weapons fit like gloves two sizes too big -- everything feels slow and awkward, unfamiliar. In other words, I hit the respawn room a lot.

But I know by now that only with practice does skill come. So I stuck with demo a bit on this map to try and improve my grenade lobbing aim. The spiral stairs is a great place for this. There were enemies up the stairs, and I figured I should be able to lob a few grenades and damage them without getting in range of their weapons.

It was a nice theory.

Did I mention that I respawn a lot? Anyway, I kept at it, and then decided I'd try the sticky approach. While they were gone from the stairs, I placed some stickies on the ceiling and walls. It was kinda obvious, but I still hoped to catch someone.

A scout came running along and figured I was easy prey for his shotgun (not the first time). I lured him up the stairs, and he came cheerfully along, figuring to dodge my 'nades and mow me down with the scattergun at close range. And he almost did. But I fell down the stairs out of his way, and then just as I guessed he was passing my stickies on his way to finish the kill, I hit the right mouse button.

KA-BLOOEY!!!!

SCOUT STUFFING EVERYWHERE!!!

Oh, my. Oh, my! It was truly satisfying. I finally killed somebody with my stickies ON PURPOSE. I laid the snare, I lured them in, and BAM! got the timing right.

Ahh, yes. Very memorable moment, my first sweet kill as demo.

So tell me: What TF2 firsts do you remember best?

And for your viewing pleasure, a video that pretty much captures the fun of this map:

Map: Black Mesa

There are two things I remember best about my first time on the Black Mesa map:

1) there were so many points, and I never seemed to know which one to go to

2) spies! there were spies everywhere!

I've been playing on the excellent =(eGO)= Black Mesa server (72.233.91.126:27015). Highly recommend it. The first couple of times I visited, it was jam packed with players, and the action never stopped.

Not having any clue about the map, I just followed other players out into the fray and medic'd as best I could, dying often. The enclosed spaces (corridors, vents, small rooms) take some getting used to, and pyros especially seem to mop up on this map.

There are many clever hiding places for spies -- even things as simple as hugging the wall on the same side that the enemy usually barrells through from their spawn point (who ever looks behind them when running through an "obviously" empty room on their way to the front line?).

There are fun places that demos can camp and lob grenades (ledges around the top of rooms, catwalks, vents). A scout in an enclosed space is always difficult to target, so they might have fun -- though I wouldn't call the map scout-friendly per se. Snipers can shoot down looooong corridors at enemies rounding the corner at the far end, or camp out in the basement catwalk areas and pick enemies off cap point A.

There's definitely a little something for everyone, no matter what class you like to play.

The other night I experienced Black Mesa for the first time with relatively few players: 5 vs. 5. Given that there are five capture points (I think -- sorry, but I don't feel like logging in to double-check the map for accuracy at the moment, so I'm just writing this from memory), trying to win with 5 players is a whole new dynamic.

When we played with a full server of good players, I don't recall any actual wins when I was there -- just stalemate after stalemate.

But with the smaller number, every decision made a difference, and our team pulled it together into a WIN, at least once, maybe twice! (You know how it is, the last match is the most memorable, and I remember winning that one!)

Some tips for playing with just a few teammates on this map:

• Even when numbers are low, medics are still important! I tried going attack class with the idea that medics aren't needed with so few, but ended up switching back. As a medic, I found myself both busy and useful. There were times that I could capture or defend a c.p. by myself, and there were lots of chances to partner with teammates to take well-defended points together.
  


• Engineers are important, too! I think we had a medic, an engineer, and then a mix of attack guys who switched as needed between pyro, demo, soldier, heavy, etc. An engi with a sentry gun can sit and lock a key point while the rest of the team takes the others.
  


• You gotta communicate, people! I loved my team, because the chatter was friendly, cooperative and focused. When the engi's sentry was under attack and he couldn't reach the enemy in the vents above him, he'd call for assistance. When we were losing point A and needed to get it back, we dispatched someone without losing focus on whatever other targets we were pounding. This coordination was the key to our win, imho.
  


• Know the map! It was maybe my third time on the map, and I was still learning the details, but overall it was a HUGE help that I understood where to go when the call went out for everyone to gather at a particular capture point. All you really have to do is look up on the walls and read the signs to get the basic idea. And guys, don't be afraid to ask for directions. I found the others very helpful when I did get lost (thanks, guys!).
  
  
• Watch your HUD for cap point info! There's a very handy HUD indicator at the bottom of your screen that shows which cap points are held by which team. Use this! You can see which c.p.'s are under attack and need defense, even if you don't have anyone stationed there.

I'm looking forward to my next visit to eGO's Black Mesa server. Maybe you can meet me there and we'll secure some B-L-A-C-K points together!

Meanwhile, what's YOUR favorite map right now, and why?

Social motivation

I'm interested in a lot of social / relational things about the Net. My personality is such that I desire deep connection with people. I have always been somewhat impatient with shallow polite conversation. I want to know what deeply moves a person. What makes them tick.

What things do they fear the most, in their darkest moments? What things do they love the most and what do they do to pursue what they love? What stops them from that pursuit of what they love?

What has been their greatest hurts, their highest moments of greatness? What's the best thing someone ever did for them? What's the best thing they ever did for someone else? What gets them through the daily grind of life? What hopes do they hold for the future? What do they hope to look back on at the end of their lives?

The questions in my mind about people I meet is endless.

I'm a deep dreamer, and want to look deeply into the souls of those around me. To connect. To understand. To find understanding.

How does this apply to gaming? Well, I find the social conventions of normal real life relationships often make it difficult to establish the sort of connection I'd like. We wear so many masks. We have such busy lives. We are often shy, fearful, uncertain and self-protective. We are hurt and walled up behind barriers of emotion or memory. We are different. We are sometimes blind to the hearts of others or not empathetic enough to see how someone else is the same as ourselves in some way.

Online, and in the past when I have corresponded in long-distance paper letters, there is the possibility for more. More trust. More feeling of safety due to a buffer of time and/or distance. More willingness to offer understanding. More effort expended into the relationship, because it takes effort to communicate by writing your thoughts, and when you take the time to do it, you are making an investment. And so you tend to be forgiving, in order to protect the investment you've made in the relationship. Isn't that odd? I find it fascinating.

For a while now, the biggest barrier for me has been lack of time. I haven't spent time online around the types of people I usually get along best with (the creatives and thinkers - whether artists, musicians, writers, programmers, gamers/game developers, geeks in general, etc).

Deciding to start gaming with TF2 has been a w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l experience for me personally. More than just the entertainment of the game. It has been a fascinating place to observe social interactions in a gaming environment, especially because Valve has created such a special environment with TF2. They have put great thought into making it something that ENCOURAGES teamwork, working together with strangers, establishing rapport and communication and ability to connect in a short time with others of such varied traits.

I realize not everyone is wired the same as I am. My husband never talked about the social aspects of the game as anything special or a reason to play the game. I think that's a guy thing (if I were to make free with a gender stereotype).

Even if you think of it as "just a game", take a moment and ask yourself about some of your most satisfying moments. Was it when someone noticed your contribution to the team? When you found a teammate who was willing to work together to destroy a difficult target? When you dominated the stats and several people friended you after a match?

What are some of the things you like about the social aspects of TF2?

iPod Shuffle without iTunes

The Hubby surprised me with a wonderful treat the other day: an iPod Shuffle. Cute little thing, metallic lime square made to clip on your clothes unobtrusively and deliver audio-yumminess directly in your ear. YES.

So I settled down next to the laptop to make it go. We have a thing against iTunes in our household, so the search began: how to set the thing up to play music without iTunes.

It was actually pretty easy once I found the right pieces. Here's what's worked for me (for anyone interested):

• the script below requires Python, so download and install that first
• then run rebuild_db

The instructions on the rebuild_db page made it smooth as cheesecake. Except that I missed one little detail the first time around. When they say "initialize your iPod with iTunes (that is, give it a name, and enable its usage as a mass storage device)", I missed the part about enable it as an MSD. Which led me along the following rabbit trail:

I gave it a name, but then I couldn't access it via drive letter. It wouldn't show up in an explorer window for me to copy files.

The iTunes interface is highly self-serving, which makes it bad interface design, imho. They push a lot of propaganda at you, so once in the main window for my device, I had to click 2-3 buttons to say "No, I don't want to register" and then "Cancel" JUST to reach the normal view of my iPod contents. It's the sort of grief that pushes folks to give up their privacy to registration just to shut the thing up. Anyway...

Once there, you click the tab at the top for Settings. Towards the bottom is the checkbox for "Enable disk use".

Side note: I'm not sure about the songs vs. data slider bar. It seems logical to me that you'd want to give it more room for data, since iTunes probably only counts "songs" as songs that it is managing. So that's what I did -- set the slider for more data and only left room for about 10 songs to iTunes (just in case I ever find a CD in iTunes format that I really want and don't have time to convert it before sticking it on the iPod). If anyone knows better about the data vs. songs, let me know; it's just a guess on my part.

This all did the trick, and I was able to copy my .mp3 files onto the iPod and they played perfectly. Awesome.

Another nice feature: the rebuild_db "smart shuffle" feature (part of the script by default in recent versions) is a better random than the default shuffle. Have you ever been annoyed by "random shuffles" that keep hitting the same song or album, or don't ever seem to hit others? This one is better!

A little more tweaking of the Python script (they have some sweet little options for folks that like to listen to audio books or lectures), and everything is now just the way I like it.

Beautiful.

It's stuff like this that keeps me saying, "Ah, technology" (to the tune of "Ah, amore!").

What cool little tech hacks have made your life more enjoyable lately?

Mood: Expectant

For me, starting to play Team Fortress 2 was a bit like having children.
(but only a bit)
(in fact, just enough for literary purposes and no more)
The first time you do it just because your friends seem to be enjoying it, and it's just expected that some day you'll join them. ;-P

You look forward to it, but perhaps with a little apprehension at trying something new. You're not sure if you'll like it.

At first, it's really hard. There's a lot of "firsts", new things that you've never experienced before (if you haven't played similar games). You ache in places you never ached before (even though I used a wrist brace right from the start!). You stumble around figuring stuff out. You make some friends along the way (hopefully) who show you the ropes when you need it most.

The game grows on you over time. Becomes more familiar, a bit easier, more enjoyable. Less time thinking about how to play and more time just playing. And then one day, you experience a tough firefight -- and you push -- and you survive! And you realize that it's all gonna be easier after this. You've gotten past the newbie stage and are doing pretty good.

It's an awesome feeling.

I've played predominantly medic in my TF2 time. It's extremely satisfying to me to play a class that is generally needed (it's rare I find a team with too many medics already there, although there are some maps that make medic less useful or a lot less fun). I love providing ubers to my team. It satisfies both my desire to watch things go "KA-BLOOEY!" and my desire to save lives.

But after a while, playing ONLY medic wasn't enough. I realized it was time for something new. Going back to the "having kids" metaphor, it was time for an addition to the family. And even though I knew it would involve a lot of work, there wasn't the same nervousness as the first time. I knew how to walk, how to strafe, how to shoot -- I could "carry" this child easily, remembering the first time.

The frustrations and times when it just seems impossible won't be so bad knowing that they will pass. And someday, perhaps, I will see my name as number three (or one!) on the game stats -- and this time it wouldn't be as medic.

It will be as...

Spy.

After some conversations with other players to figure out if I really wanted to try this reputedly difficult class, I've begun my spy training (thanks, Vision!). I can tell it's gonna take some work. But I have several friends (and have encountered many "enemy spies" in-game) who inspire me to think spy will be really fun once I get the hang of it.

Ah, the glow of an expectant woman.
(Sorry, guys, for the woman-centric reproductive metaphor... Kaliki, you probably understand)

What future TF2 moment do you look forward to right now?
(an achievement? new weapon? doing something amazing that isn't even listed as an achievement?)

"Enthusiasm" is my middle name!

People that know me well know that I get inordinately excited about the littlest things -- mostly because I believe the universe is made up mostly of little things. Little things that come together in marvelous ways to create miraculous things like life, the universe and everything. Forty-two! And thanks for the fish!

So my enthusiasm for Team Fortress 2 is partly a reflection of that innate enthusiasm for life and its details. I tend to see more miracles in simple things than other people I know, and often draw conclusions that are appreciated by a smidgen (or less) of the population of the world. But that's okay. Blogs are a niche life form, after all.

One of the fun things about TF2 is that it encourages people to get excited about something. Excited about defending the point. Capturing the point. Popping the uber and whacking stuff. Winning the round. Taking the intelligence. (And even if you're playing with a bunch of silent gamers, Valve made sure that when you win the round, you hear people shouting and clapping over the victory. Thanks, Valve!)

Some other little things that keep me laughing in TF2:

• people's names (screen names / Steam ID)


• when people burst into spontaneous singing


• quoting various "cult classic" movies at appropriate moments


• the taunts and quotes of the various character classes


• getting sent to respawn by my husband (when we don't get on the same team)

As you can see, it can be the simplest things. It sometimes takes a bit of work to make a habit of looking on the bright side and milking every last drop of enjoyment out of life. So give it a little practice now:

What little things in TF2 make you smile?
Come on, don't be silent bob -- leave a comment!

testing one, two, three

Hey, guys and gals!

*buttercup clears her throat and steps to the front of the 12-step meeting*

My name is buttercup, and I love Team Fortress 2.

I'm pretty unassuming in the game, as I still feel like a bit of a newbie (only been playing since the tail end of August 2008), but there's a lot going on in my head. I suspect it's the same for you. I'm hoping this blog might become a place we can chat a bit and exchange thoughts, ideas and tell the tales of our best (and worst) moments in the game.

So, excelsior! Read on and don't forget to comment (or email me) with YOUR thoughts on life, the universe and TF2!