My Workout Routine
10 Go to the gym
20 Overdo workout in an attempt to cancel out unhealthy lifestyle
30 Go home achy and sore
40 Skip the gym because my stupid workout hurt me
50 Feel bad about not going recently and resolve to do a really good workout
60 Go to line 20
What makes Nancy Drew: Lights, Camera, Curses! a girls’ game is the female protagonist. It’s not pink, it’s not cutesy, there are no magic animal friends, there is no shopping. Let me repeat that in case you were skimming. This game is not pink. I want to call up the developers at Her and make them all cookies. (Note to self: Consider revising “baking for feminism” stance.) I got the chance to beta-test Lights…, and I was so pleased to see that Her did not take an existing game, change the racecars into pink fluffy bunnies, and then call it a girls’ game.
Lights… has a solid storyline, amusing NPCs, engaging minigames and pretty cutscenes. Nancy’s on the set of Pharoah, a remake of a big-budget Silver Age Egyptian story, where mysterious accidents keep happening, and she has to figure out who’s behind it. Does a crew member have a grudge? Is the production cursed? Does it have anything to do with the tragic death on the set of the original Pharaoh? What’s with that cat?
Playing as Nancy, players have to use items around them to solve puzzles, a lot like an old Sierra game, only without an inventory. Every screen has the items for the puzzle on that screen, which keeps the game very linear, and eliminates wandering from location to location, wondering what you’ve missed. With the solution to each room in that room, it’s impossible to get stuck.
A few days ago, Her Interactive posted a preview screenshot of Lights… and a sharp-eyed forum member noticed a sign for a bar in the background, causing a bit of a ruckus over whether a world in which alcohol exists is an acceptable setting for an E rated game. I’m even more baffled by the worries about a minor alcohol reference because Nancy Drew solves murders, embezzlement, robbery, forgery, etc. Seems like if you’re worried about kids seeing a sign for a bar, they probably shouldn’t see chalk outlines or death threats either. The game maintains the same feel as the novels, there’s suspense and mystery, without gross blood and guts (or any underage drinking). Also no foul language or naked people, which should make parents happy. There was nothing that I found offensive or inappropriate, on the contrary I think a clever, independent crime-solver is exactly what tween girls should be seeing.
I loved all the puzzles in Lights…. One of my greatest gaming memories is playing 221B Baker St. with my dad when I was a kid, and using the clues to break codes. The Nancy Drew Dossier puzzles were just challenging enough to make you think, without crossing the line and becoming work.
The challenges in the story were a collection of minigames. They were so varied that they became a bit hit-or-miss. Lights… will be the first in the Dossier series, so Her can improve any snags for the next one in the series. One annoying minigame had users light candles by clicking the matchbook and then finding the candlestubs in a dark room. Only then the candles blow out, and it’s dark again. You have to keep trying until you’ve managed to find and light all the candles in the allotted time. Games that are essentially “hit buttons really fast” always take me out of the story and ruin my suspension of disbelief. Other minigames, like having Nancy make smoothies or play the piano, kept me entertained by introducing new rules and objectives for quick challenges.
The range of graphics styles for the minigames, like tropical cartoon fruit, a Matrixy green screen or pen-and-ink sketches, also kept things fun and light. Throughout the game, I was annoyed by the text choices. In my mind, PC adventure games are a safe place for zany behavior, and picking the “wrong” text choice in games like Monkey Island and more recently A Case Of The Crabs, is rewarding. Ask an NPC a zany question, get a zany answer. In Lights, Camera, Curses, I felt teased by seeing the goofy possible responses and being punished scorewise for choosing one. Even if I’m willing to take the points hit, the NPC doesn’t react to wrong responses. Why give me silly options if Nancy won’t say take them?
Overall, a solid game, finding a good balance between a fluffy game to play while you’re on the phone, and an all-encompassing game. The dossier series promises an entertaining casual game with a good mystery storyline, and they deliver.
“Hey Stick, the psych student from the electric shock test called. He says they won’t be able to use any of your survey because it fell too far outside the normal parameters. You were way too positive about our relationship, it’s unrealistic, it seems like you’re lying.”
“Really? Oh, that’s too bad. I hope it doesn’t mess up his project.”
“NO! NOT REALLY! I just wanted to know if you said anything nice about me!!! AND YOU DID!”
The other day*, I got paid to electric-shock Stick!
We agreed to be part of a behavior experiment that wanted couples to play an electric shock game, partly because I heard “game” and “electric shock” and I thought it would be funny, and partly because we wanted to see how we’d do in an experiment I read in a psych class about experiments like the Milgram experiment, I always think that I’d never do anything like that, that I’d be in that tiny percentage who stop the experiment and go home.
Ours wasn’t anything like that, though, but we were told one thing while they were secretly testing for another.
First we had to take a relationship survey, pages of questions rating how much I like Stick, 10, 10, 10, 10, and then write about a recent good experience. We learned later than the answers weren’t important, it was just to get us in a lovey-dovey mood for the real experiment.
Then we were told to hold on the handles to receive an annoying electrical pulse, and whichever of us can hold on longer, wins! They weren’t kidding about the annoying part. We got the impression — although we weren’t actually told this — that it was a battle of the sexes, a test to see which of us could hold on longer.
We made it 24 seconds! Incredibly low compared to other couples, and I only held on that long because I didn’t want to let go right away and ruin the guy’s psych experiment (So maybe I would have fallen for the Milgram trick? Probably not, since I was mildly shocking myself, not someone screaming in pain). The actually test was measuring whether shiny happy kissyfaces or grumpy people can hold on longer, I don’t know the results though.
I’m really glad we happened to be in the happy group and not the angry group, because answering all the questions about the last time Stick was really nice to me put me in a good mood. Also the winning. Winning put me a good mood too! I did mention that I “won”, right?
*Written 10/23 but held until the study was completed and declassified.
I don’t mean to sound like a bitter old schoolmarm, but when did it become the teacher’s job to stop lessons to provide supplies? I remember forgetting my pen or pencil and asking to borrow one in whispers, hoping my teacher wouldn’t catch me unprepared. So usually when my teenage students announce “I don’t have a pencil” and look at me to fix that, I remind them that I’m not a pencil tree, and go on with class.
I take that back. Maybe I am a bitter old schoolmarm.
In Chinese school the other day, one of my high school boys announced that he didn’t have a pencil. I handed him a pen from the collection I have in my bag. I’ve got some one-jiao pens that must have fallen off the back of a rickshaw, and a bunch of promo pens. Stick’s stepmom Char works in elder care, and she has a seemingly endless supply of drug rep swag. The pen I happened to hand to the boy happened to be a Viagra pen.
I didn’t have any trouble getting my pen back after class, and I don’t think he’ll be asking me to provide one again.
According to Isabelle, Uncle Stick is 50 years old and Aunt Meg is 10.
I dropped off my CV at some places in the local mall today. It was kind of a downer, I didn’t go to 4 5 6 years of college to ring a register, but 3 classes a week doesn’t make a proper paycheck. I decided to focus on the bright side of a simple job that won’t spill over into my free time, and not on putting on ridiculous dress code clothes to fulfill zany requests from corporate and customers. One place wanted me to handcopy my resume onto their official application (see previous re: “zany requests from corporate”) I started to laugh when I got to the references section, because does someone think I want a retail job badly enough to lie about it?
Later on today I had an interview, well, more of a meeting with a possible employer for some SEO and content writing work. Kind of what I’ve been doing here and there, but longer term and more regular work. They had a map of Middle Earth and a RENT poster on the office walls. Things are looking up!
Stick said something about his NDA and official release dates, so I didn’t post about it when he came home with it. But the guys from Penny Arcade are not the only ones with Gears of War 2.
I’m so happy whenever I read “president elect Obama” and I feel like our bit of a battleground state really came through. Votes are finally in for my new home state of NC, our purple state went for Obama by less than 1%.
I voted democrat almost straight through, but for state senate, I voted for some libertarian who wasn’t constantly spamming me with catfight infomercials. I’m in the minority there, though.
