Now playing: Ar Tonelico 2 (PS2) and Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume (DS)

I'm enjoying both. I'd enjoy Ar Tonelico 2 more if Gust games didn't have such horrendous data management. If you play this, or any other Gust PS2 game on the PS3, I implore you to BACK UP YOUR DATA. I got hit with the corrupt data bug, and while it only cost me an hour from my last back up, it's still sours my mood for playing the game.

Valkyrie Profile is proving to be thoroughly enjoyable, although the difficulty seems to be all over the map. Fights seem to range from trivially easy to moderately difficult depending on how you go about accomplishing your mission. Not to say that the challenge is unwelcome when it is present. I actually hope the game isn't too terribly long, given that there are multiple endings, and I would actually like to see all three.

That reminds me, I left off last time talking about a peculiar gimmick in games, which is to reuse the same levels or layouts. I have mixed feelings about this practice, and I'll start with the cons.

First of all, poor implementation of this idea can make a game stale. It's more of a testament to the gameplay or that elusive and ill-defined "fun factor" that reusing a level or layout works. Games that have "expert" modes or that sort of thing. I typically skip those, because they revolve around the concept of mastery, which I've more or less given up on. Secondly, though this is perhaps a more subtle idea, part of the excitement of playing a game is seeing new ground trodden, and reusing material is the very antithesis of this process of discovery. I might go so far as to say that the old adage "familiarity breeds contempt" applies well here.

On the other hand, this design can give the player some options with regard to how long the game experience will continue. One of the primary reasons I stop to think twice before starting a new game is because of the time commitment. Even a relatively short game at 5 to 6 hours is a signifcant portion of my free time for the week. An RPG that clocks in at 40+ hours could potentially take me a few weeks to finish. So having the option to decline getting extra content is a relief if the option is to play a game that would otherwise be longer. 

One last thing on my mind, which originally led me here at such an ungodly hour. I've decided to step down as an guild officer (In WoW, of course). It's too much like actual management, except that there are no incentives to be provided. I don't think I've worked any job for more than 6 months without listening to a coworker complain. I accept that as a sort of fact of life. Work is not fun; emulating the behavior expected for the intended consequence (getting paid) is not fun. But managers are responsible for other people, not just their own actions or behaviors, and that's where the real challenge lies. I suppose that when you feel that you've tried everything possible to make things better, and nothing has really changed, you'd better throw in the towel.