Beginnings & Don't Starve

I love video games. But, I would never call myself a gamer because of the connotations that that title has. To me, being a gamer means that there is a certain level of expertise to be assumed, just like a foodie would know what a stone fruit is. They have opinions about games, repertoire played, an understanding how most games operate, an ability to categorize games, adept in the terminology used (it took me a long time to figure out what NPC's and DLC's were), and have a general sense of what a 'good' and 'bad' game is. Though I do understand that there is a spectrum to this, I do not feel confident in any of the above mentioned 'attributes of a gamer' to call myself one.

So, why am I making a blog post about a game if I am not a gamer as I have defined it? Well, this blog is a vehicle to write down ideas that I have. I have always had trouble with writing, as you soon will see. So, while I do recognize that I am not 'qualified' to pass judgement or be a source of unbiased material I want to enter in the conversation. This blog is my entry into that talk.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let's talk about some games, specifically Don't Starve. If you've never played it, I recommend you go out and buy it! Out in 2013 by the gaming company Klei Entertainment, who brought us Shank and Mark of the Ninja (both of which I have yet to play), it is described as "an uncompromising wilderness survival game full of science and magic." You, Wilson, are trapped in a different dimension from an experiment gone wrong. Now, you must search this world for different materials to help you survive. You can gather, build, create, and fight! Think Minecraft mixed with Danny Elfman.

"No instructions. No help. No hand holding. Start with nothing and craft, hunt, research, farm and fight to survive."

This couldn't be more true. You spawn and then you go. There are no instructions to guide you. Needless to say, I was very frustrated when I started this game. I'm ashamed to say I died too many times from just walking around in pitch black until I realized you can make fires.  But the beauty in this game is that it's so unapologetic. You have to figure out what works best and determine what you are going to prioritize. Are you going to go food hunting today or are you going to go look for stones? Is today the day i'm going to fight that bird thing? Perhaps not.

One mechanic that is interesting is that once you die, that's it. Each time you inevitably die, and it will be a lot, will hit you right where it hurts. One time I built up a nice fort. I survived a couple of winters. Everything was going my way. Then, the hounds were coming. No big deal, I've dealt with them before. Oops, there's a fire hound. Better get him away from my stuff. I'm running away but a swarm of bees distracts him. Oops, they kill him next to all of my stuff. Place is ablaze. Burned everything. Everything. I couldn't survive the winter with everything to ashes. It's shit like that that makes me rage the most. After that. I calmly shut the game off and didn't play for a while.

Starving is only one of your concerns.

Once I realized that there was a game wiki, that changed everything. There are so many things that you can create that having that tab open is necessary. Try the game without the wiki though, it makes the game that much sweeter when you become victorious.

Overall, I think this game is pretty good for the genre that it is. What that genre is, I don't know...first person/2-d/survival? The style is pleasing and the music is definitely great. There is replay value to this but after a while I found it to be a little monotonous. I figured out what strategy worked the best for me (without looking up the hardcore 1,000 day strats) and stuck to it. After that, the game just turned into maintenance. When I died it would be from something that caught me off guard. Then I would have to start building up my entire fortress again from day 1 (literally). After the initial fun the game became boring. But, that goes with most games. Once you plateau, you either seek different ways to become better or you quit. For me, I quit. But, after a year i'm ready to go back to it!

I haven't played in a while so I thought I would write down my thoughts about this game and then give it a couple of runs. I will probably die a lot. But that's ok.

Here I go!

Update: I died after 22 days of a jumping spider. Life sucks.