i probably shouldn't hate anything that can't hate me back.
If you want to write fiction, the best thing you can do is take two aspirin, lie down in a dark room, and wait for the feeling to pass.
One year ago: I do the first news quiz!
Two years ago: Memories of working at Apple.
Three years ago: Greg tells us about trade secrets.
Four years ago: Darin and I played video games then too.
I have decided I hate the game Diablo II for a number of reasons. I know you don't care, but I'm going to share my reasons with you anyhow. I also know Blizzard doesn't care, because this is like the best-selling game of all time and they're crying all the way to the bank.
The game
I was a huge fan of Diablo. I played it a lot. I was looking forward to Diablo II. Perhaps not as much as Darin, but some.
Okay. Problem Numero Uno: it doesn't play on my Powerbook. I know, the world's tiniest violin just leaped into action. But for those of you who, like me, lead Powerbook-enhanced lives, any game that does not play on my Powerbook is a game that has just made my life more difficult. Mind you, I've got 400Mhz, I've got a big screen, I've got a 13 gig disk. The fault lies with Blizzard, not with me. I have to reboot with the base set of extensions (annoying enough), but even when I do the game sputters (continuously) and half the time it just freezes and/or crashes. Whoo hoo. Sign me up for figuring that out.
So I installed my copy (we have two copies, because you have to play the game with the Play CD in the CD drive, and while Darin could probably circumvent the copy protection the guys at Blizzard actually have a clue and circumventing it would be tough and we're not trying to cheat them out of any money anyhow) on the big machine in my office. And immediately became annoyed by the game play.
You start off clearing one field at a time of monsters and doing various quests in each field. (At least, this is how it is in Act I. I cannot speak for the other acts.) You clear the monsters out, you do the quest, you go back to the main area to get your next quest. Fine and dandy.
Unless you quit before completing a quest. Or before finding the shortcut to the field you're in. Because when you start up the game again, the game respawns all the monsters in the field, and you have to fight them all over again. As Darin points out, maybe this is good for lower-level characters who want to build up experience points.
Me, I find that tedious.
You either have to keep playing--for hours and hours--or you have to keep the game open on your computer (and you can't get to any other program--Diablo II takes over the computer). Some choice.
I've only gotten halfway through Act I, because I'm finding it slow going. I'm just not interested in killing 8 million Fallen (little devil creatures)--it gets really, really old after a while. Maybe I did this endlessly with Diablo. Of course, my life has changed a little in three and a half years.
The life
I don't have the time necessary to devote to this game. Which has four acts, in case you're interested. I see how long Act I is taking. I calculate that finishing Acts II through IV could take until Sophia is in college.
I have too many other things to do with my time. There's Sophia, who is awake a good chunk of the day and needs something we like to call "interaction." Sure, she's learning how to play by herself, but I don't feel comfortable sticking her in the exersaucer (thank you, Tamar--that saucer has been a godsend for entertaining her when she gets fussy) for hours on end. For fifteen minutes, yes. For four hours, no.
And there's my writing. I'm trying to devote Dora-time to my writing, although it's so easy to let other errands creep in: food shopping, running to various stores, working on Wordplay...
And I'm never going to read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at this rate, despite Pooks's suggestion that I buy a second copy and hack it up into smaller, paperback-like sections.
And there are the movies I'd like to watch.
And there are the boxes of books still waiting to be gone through.
And there's even finding time to do an entry. (Right now Sophia is asleep on the bed beside me, and I'm using--yup--the Powerbook to write and keep an eye on her.)
The biggest problem is (for me) that Darin is so addicted to Diablo II. He's played it for hours, both in single-player and multiplayer modes. (Evidently the multiplayer mode--a group of friends around the 'net can all play together, all helping one another gain experience and getting through tough situations much easier--really rocks.) He can't really watch Sophia for long, because she, you know, fusses from time to time. So I end up watching her a lot more, at nights and (so far) on weekends, which are supposed to be prime Daddytime.
He will say that she does just fine, thank you, playing in the exersaucer next to him or swinging in the swing or whatever. But you can't--okay, I can't just leave her too long without interaction. Darin is much better at the laissez-faire type of interaction. So I take her away and do something like (today) take her for a long walk, which I'm not sure she appreciated at all, given how sunny and hot it was today.
And what that does is remind me that sometimes I really miss being able to play a game like Diablo II for hours on end. I enjoy the time I spend with Pookie, but every so often I'd like to do nothing but read a huge hardback book or play a computer game with my friends or go see any movie I want to in the theaters any time I want, and currently all of those things are easier for Darin to do than for me. Because I feed her. Because I can get her to sleep more easily than he can. Because I freak out a lot more if she's not been paid attention to. Because nowadays my attention is divided between whatever I'm doing and her, even if we are in two different places, and I cannot narrow down my focus the way Darin can. I never could--Darin is famous for his ability to focus on one project to the exclusion of all else, including food and sleep--and now it's simply impossible. And it probably will be for years to come.
So in addition to hating the style of the game, I hate Diablo II for making me wish for five or ten seconds a day I wasn't a parent.
Of course, I will cry the first time she tells me she doesn't want me around and why don't I go play a game or something.
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Copyright 2000 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@nobody-knows-anything.com