stuff123

It was like something decided that I was on to them and they stood in front of my mind’s eye so I could identify them more clearly. For me, the game is a metaphor for the rat race that we all have participated in. It’s called the working world. Dog eat dog. Kill or be killed. Too many Bad Bruces. People who said they were your friend but you knew they weren’t to be trusted. They had other plans for your stuff.

I didn’t think too much of the people that were always in a hurry to better their financial position in life at the expense of others. There goals included chasing yet another “Bimmer” and a bigger, fancier box to live in so they could have more space for the meaningless stuff that they would acquire along the way.

Yes that is a George Carlin routine. He just called it stuff (Where do you think I got the name for the blog? Everybody stole from Carlin because he was an orignal thinker. Ask Jerry Seinfeld, he’s the one who shared that story in the New York Times shortly after George’s passing). Eventually, I think George will be remembered as one of the greatest philosophers of our time.

And in the game, other tribes are inviting me to join. The ink is still drying on their requests as they are swiftly refused. I think that what I had built would have beeen the 14th largest tribe on it’s own in the continent.

So Ernesto and I have begun to talk. He sent me a link to a game that the developers of Tribal Wars make. It’s called Tribal Hugs. It misses the point of enemies. We will always have enemies of some kind—terrorists, hunger, disease, cancer, suicide, war, ignorance, crime.

I didn’t load the game because I fear it’s look and feel will be the same as Tribal Wars—cold and lifeless. The games I have played in Facebook are much more interesting from a graphical point of view but that’s not why I play them.

I found an even more rewarding game to play. Many of these games allow you to invite another player into your tribe/horde/team/crew. I look for interesting people (picture, game name, real name(sometimes), country (sometimes)) to invite to my Internet family and I use things that they say and do as triggers for stories.

I have learned many new things about the world that I did not know. I almost had Ernesto playing the find the blind gorilla game, but he gave up—”I can’t find you”. That wasn’t like the Ernesto I first met in the game.

Some of the this out of game communication, happened in Tribal Wars, but it was much to infrequent for my liking so I will leave this land and maybe I’ll come back from time to time to see what has changed.

I will have to talk to tex and Ernesto to find out how to get the villages I built back into the tribe so that they have access to their resources and troops. Stretch seems to have just disappeared.

Good games don’t have an ending, but they should be a rewarding experience. I think the designers need to find a way to put more life into this game if they expect the players to invest the time and money that they are looking for.

I find it interesting that they are trying to sell the company. I think they know the future of the game and now is a good time to sell when it is still perceived as valuable.

It is just a game, but not a very good one, in my opinion. You are welcome to yours.