Can't sleep, don't starve!

So I can't sleep, so I decided to play a round of don't starve. Nights in game are kinda long so why not blog about it?

Day one: New game, playing wolfgang because he's the coolest. Adventure time! Tons of flint and got an axe right away. Huzzah! Found a wormhole, but avoided it. Found another a few yards away. Oh, I guess they connect? Lame. Gathered tons of stuff that will be helpful if I find some rocks. Oooh a Ring thing.

Day two: Went wondering around the edges of the forest, and made a fluffy flower hat. Decided to see if wormhole 1 ended up being as anticlimactic as I assumed. Nope! In a bog! I hate bogs, ported back immediately. Night falls and it's raining. Great.

Day three: After using up most of my pine cones during last night's tsunami, I came across a rock farm! It even had a foggy area with tomb stones. A friendly skeleton  in residence gave me a pickaxe! Thank you friendly dead dude! Also found another ax by a lonely pig shack. I have decided to name lonely pig Joe. He didn't mind me taking his ax. He also had a crank thing.

Day four: Joe the pig has become the guardian of my first science machine. he seems unimpressed as I try to press on him the importance of his new duty. Unfazed I explore on, finding another friendly skeleton, this time with lots of beard hair, a badly scuffed up grass suit and a never used fire wand. I am starting to wonder why the skeletons around these parts are so friendly.

Day five: What are these shadows?? I have wondered far and away from Joe and I am realizing, he's not so bad. Oh sure, not the best protector of science, or the best smelling guy, but all in all I could do worse, especially with shadow things chasing me! I kind of miss him but I have put several biomes between us, it is too late to go back and apologize. I doubt he is following me to do the same.

Day six: As I am lamenting finding anything worthwhile and wondering if Joe the pig is the best chance I have for I come across it! Pigtropolous! about 15 pig huts within the same localized area! forget you Joe! These pigmen look upon my new science machine in awe, and have a king nearby whom I can bribe! I may just settle in here and build a base.

Day eight: My fluffy flower hat, the manliest of hats fell off my head today as I was chopping down trees! I can hardly believe it, and neither can the good denizens of Pigtropolous! they Run in fear at the sight of me, no doubt unable to recognize me! Sadly the area around pigtropolous is populated only by trees and spiders! I must quest to get my headgear back!

Day ten: went grave digging today. If the skeletons can be helpful, why can't the graves I figure. Bad idea. ghosts spawned at almost every grave I dug. I got some gems out of it though so I made my way back to pigtropolous. Sadly in spite of my dwindling sanity and awesome replacement head gear, the pig king wanted none of my gems! defeated I made my way back to town, wondering about his new eye foliage around his throne. I know they weren't there a moment ago. Now I sit by my fire, dejected in a way that my fluffy flower hat cannot console, as the eyes in the night mock me.

Day eleven: I am seeing the pitfalls of Pigtropolous, but the surrounding biome is a peninsula, with the pig men deep enough inside that anything else is half a day's walk away. But so far I have not seen a single beefalo and my food supplies are dwindling. In desperation I ate a green mushroom. Raw. Biggest single mistake of all gameplay! My sanity is at an all time low, new shadows are after me, all because I didn't take the time out too cook my mushroomy friends.

Day thirteen: In a bid for more food and different types of construction materials, I decided to burn down part of spooky spider forest. The pigmen were unfazed, but unfortunately I was caught in the middle of the back-draft. Sadly, I did not make it. My friendly skeleton will be surrounded by amazing things to give to the next unwary traveler.

Microsoft and the used game market

Earlier today I tweeted that in light of the new Microsoft 'news' making the rounds, I will not be buying a console. Rather, steam will be getting the bulk of the (not negligible) amount of money I spend on consoles. This led to an uproar I didn't quite expect!

"How is Microsoft different now from Steam?" seems to be the rallying cry. How is their new changes on the console any different from what I am going to do with my PC gaming.  Needless to say I can't tweet an adequate response to everyone individually so I am taking it to my oft ignored blog.

I think this boils down to the concept of ownership. What is mine and what is not? This concept has been changing for years, but there is a striking difference between PC and console games. In the PC market I can't remember the last time I paid full price for a game, thanks in no small part to Steam. And while I have ended up with a few bad games, the fact that these games were less than $5 each made the bitter pill easier to swallow.

Physical games are a different commodity, rather than go down in value or retain value over time they become 'collectibles' or vanish entirely. Realistically we can't expect major retailers to hold onto games and stock for a console's lifetime and duration, or even a year out. Eventually a few years down the line we can hope for the games to get 'greatest hits' status and drop to half price and resurface in our local stores.

How many times have you picked up a used game loved it, then bought the sequel at full price? Or only had a few dollars and picked up that 5 year old game that you haven't thought about in years?

Let's face it, not everyone is thrilled with the way PC games are handled. Steam itself is under fire from more consumer friendly countries about their no reselling policies. They are only able to sue over it because it's illegal for terms of service in other countries to  block the right to take Steam and Valve to court. Think about that for a moment. 

To be honest, if I could check a box and resell some games *back* to steam they'd have my loyalty for life. I would seriously never shop at another retailer again, so I am closely following the news of this lawsuit in the hopes that PC game reselling will become our future.

For now, I am quite aware that these new console specs are in fact rumored and not concrete. But I am also not going to wait and see, I'd rather let Microsoft know that this is a path I do not support. We have madechanges in the past, and it's only by letting companies know how you will vote with your wallet that you can hope to get some change.