ScuzzBlog: Diaries July 2022
Entry 1st July 2022: Post 1: There is no going back.
There is no going back.
Yesterday Gameforge closed the servers for the last time on the
online game Tera. The game had been running for ten years since
2012, and I had been playing pretty much for that whole period.
For me it was very sad. I have invested a lot of time in the game
and over the years accumulated a good deal of rare and special
items. My beloved characters are no more, and I am now denied any
access to the game environments. I have the original discs which
are useless without the actual game servers.
There is no going back. These are the perils of online gaming. You
actually own nothing. Simply as a subscriber or player you are
given access to the game servers whilst they are running.
Other games that I invested time and money in have now become all
but redundant to me. Games such as Rift, SWToR, Guildwars, Star
Trek and Archeage all absorbed many hundreds of hours of my time
plus subscription charges and game shop purchases. But without
maintaining my activity I have long since become disconnected
from them. Even World of Warcraft since the release of Cataclysm
has been been remodelled and revamped changing the very nature
of the game. They released Classic and TBC but sadly there is no
link to the retail game.
The loss of Tera made me reflect of what it is to lose your gaming
hereditary and providence. My mind drifted back to a time before
the computer and what if anything still remains other than all my
memories. And so I take my mind back ten years or so before the
days of my ZX81 and to a time when gaming meant hooking up with my
other friends in 'real life' and sitting round a table and playing
board games. I do have a game from that period, Buccaneer. A truly
magical game that was not reliant on dice. My mates and I had long
been advocates of dice free games. Sadly the game is empty without
those friendly faces around the table. It has no soul.
Another game we played was Subbuteo. Sadly I gave away my game a
long time ago to one of my nephews along with my model soldier
collection and Hot Wheels Matchbox car collection. In the day we
would carry our favourite Subbuteo teams to friends houses and lay
out the green pitch and play all day facing off with each other.
The faces of schoolfriends have become distant memories and I doubt
I could even play the game now. I do have the Amiga version but I
am afraid that is no substitute.
My boxed games of the era seem to have become a little fragmented.
I have this tin full of game pieces such as Cluedo, Risk, Frustration,
Colditz and Monopoly, but whilst I also have the boards, I have
lost the boxes and the instructions. More importantly the family
and friends of the day are equally as fragmented and so it is not
now possible to rekindle the joys of the days.
I have but one Games Workshop model character left as I again gave
up all my figures and games a long time ago. But as with the board
games I do not have a collected group of friends that would be minded
and able to play the war games using these figures. All a distant
memory.
Computer games can be a solitary experience, and much of the online
activities of the internet are controlled by companies that if they
so chose to pull the plug would make your online experiences a touch
problematic. So reflect on those things that you treasure and enjoy
and consider how much control you really have of maintaining some
semblance of continuity and control. It really isn't worth investing
many hundreds of hours in something that in time you may be denied
access to.... or is it. Thinks.
Anyhoo... I have been enjoying a sabbatical away from the Website
as I make up for the lost hours not playing on the PS4. I had chosen
to not buy a PS4 up until now, as I feared my addiction would overwhelm
me. And I was right. My time playing online games came to an abrupt
halt as I battled my way through Nier Automata, Final Fantasy VII
the remastered version, Detroit, Resident Evil 2 remastered, Saints
Row remastered and Hitman 1 and 2. I have now concluded my session
having concluded The Arc of the Covenant and determined there are
no more ways to kill the Washingtons. Next stop is HitMan 3, Tomb
Raider and Uncharted plus FFXV, but that will have to wait until
the Death Star has concluded the summers torment.
And so I return to retro. Sorry for that.
On that game control issue, I was most angered by HitMan. I chose
to buy the Definitive version which came with the Legacy update.
It became very apparent to me that in upgrading they had been messing
with the game and the positions of some NPCs. This is quite critical
when you plan your missions. Time to don the black suit, shave my
head and go give WB a piece of my mind..... HitMan style.
PS I don't really mind the not going back by the way as although
I do have an active interest in collecting old computers my gaming
interests have always been focussed on the here and now and the
next best thing. You really do not want to be living in the past
when it comes to games.
The answer to the question of the meaning of gaming fun is '47'.
There is no going back.
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Last updated 1st July 2022
Chandraise Kingdom
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