{"id":116,"date":"2013-03-01T01:07:12","date_gmt":"2013-03-01T01:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.silly-sara.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/01\/a-game-of-thrones-genesis-part-three\/"},"modified":"2018-01-03T20:50:33","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T20:50:33","slug":"a-game-of-thrones-genesis-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.silly-sara.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/01\/a-game-of-thrones-genesis-part-three\/","title":{"rendered":"A Game of Thrones: Genesis (part three)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why am I still doing this to myself?<\/p>\n

It must be Derek Jacobi. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t resist his calm demands that I seduce and murder everyone.<\/p>\n

And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only going to get worse.<\/p>\n

I know this because I actually completed the last two tutorials and the first mission a couple of weeks back, but I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been able to bring myself to continue with this\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 strange and somewhat inexplicable blog account of me playing video games. Every time I sit down to, I think \u00e2\u20ac\u0153oh no, I have to play A Game of Thrones: Genesis, now. And I think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d rather just stare at my keyboard blankly for a couple of hours. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s less confusing and almost as much fun.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

I have to say it. A Game of Thrones: Genesis\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 is kind of bum. I have no doubt that there are people for whom this brand of bum is totally awesome, but for me, it is not the good kind of bum. It is the bad kind. The game is confusing, stressful, and somehow really boring too. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never experienced apprehensive boredom before, but now I can say I have.<\/p>\n

But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve only finished the tutorial and one mission, and I feel like maybe I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t given it a fair try. Maybe the tutorial and first mission weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a fair representation of the game. Or maybe it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get some dragons and I can just burn everything.<\/p>\n

So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to try a few more missions, but I should probably catch up with what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done already.<\/p>\n

And that means recapping those last two tutorials and that first mission. Here goes\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

\"agot_peacewar\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The third tutorial is on peace and war which, while complicating gameplay further, at least serves to clear up what the hell my end goal is supposed to be. I had honestly originally thought my goal was just to screw my opponent into the ground with secret alliances and busty noble woman.<\/p>\n

But no, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all tied to this peace gauge, and the prestige points attached to it.<\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s see how Mr Jacobi explains it, though.<\/p>\n

\"agot_peasantfodder\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What else are peasants for?<\/p>\n

As we learn in the fourth and final tutorial: nothing so important as to be senselessly murdered.<\/p>\n

Mr Jacobi has me kill a bunch of peasants in this tutorial to watch the blue peace bar slowly start to fill with red, which I can only assume is the peasant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s blood, which he harvests for this very purpose. In the fourth tutorial, he has me kill a bunch more peasants because he really hates peasants, and also because one of those little icons at the top indicates one of the prestige point goals. What is that goal? Murdering peasants. (And also other units, but you can tell Jacobi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hoping you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll concentrate on the serfs.)<\/p>\n

So yes, if you murder the most peasants, you get the prestige point bonus for murder. (I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually called murder, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not going to skirt the issue just because Derek Jacobi is.)<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember if Mr Jacobi even explains what the other point totals are for. Mostly, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just like\u00e2\u20ac\u009d hey, if you murder peasants, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll totally win this. Just saying.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

In between bouts of peasant murder, Mr Jacobi also mentions that basically everything they taught you how to do in the last two tutorials will also disturb the peace and lead to war. <\/p>\n

\"agot_karma\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At this point, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re supposed to be trying for war or not. The source material doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help with this confusion.<\/p>\n

Mr Jacobi does mention that there are some ways to prevent war\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

\"agot_waaaar\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6but obviously they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not that important, because you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re obviously going to go to war. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not even sure why he bothered with the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153quasi.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d You will be going to war. Everyone in Westeros goes to war. Even babies. Especially babies.<\/p>\n

And when you go to war, you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do any of that stuff anymore. No more alliances or booty calls or anything. You just hope you have enough food and gold build up your army, and then you hack away at your enemies.<\/p>\n

So that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the other good thing that peasants are for \u00e2\u20ac\u201c making food so that you can start an army. But mostly for killing.<\/p>\n

And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the third tutorial: you are going to war, so you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d better have a lot of food, and also, kill peasants.<\/p>\n

As I already mentioned, Mr Jacobi tries to justify that in the fourth tutorial with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153prestige points\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but to be honest, I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t paying a lot of attention to him by this point. In fact, I only took two screenshots doing the fourth tutorial. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a super quick tutorial that explains prestige points, which basically reward you for being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the best\u00e2\u20ac\u009d at certain actions (like murder). And the person with the most points at the end of the game wins.<\/p>\n

Only, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m unclear if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only in multiplayer, or if prestige points show up in the single player game. Even after playing a mission, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m entirely unclear on prestige points.<\/p>\n

Mostly, my goal is just to murder a lot of peasants and hope I get extra brownie points from the AI for it.<\/p>\n

But anyway, I totally took two screenshots. One was about fathering bastards.<\/p>\n

\"agot_bastardsahoy\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I took this because all I could think about was your enemy envoy riding up to this little kid and pointing at him and yelling \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bastard!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and laughing until he ran away forever. I also like the implication that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing you can do to get your great lord to keep it in his pants. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just going to father bastards. Just like you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to go to war. Man, Westeros is a wacky place.<\/p>\n

And the last tutorial screenshot that I took was the last thing Mr Jacobi says in the tutorial.<\/p>\n

\"agot_impossible\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I read this as: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wait, wait, I know you thought that was a lot, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still like a bazillion ways to get screwed over in this game. But we got tired of making tutorials, so we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll let the AI blindside you. Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that the best way to learn? Yes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

So, obviously, the campaign is gonna be fun.<\/p>\n

But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll save that for next time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why am I still doing this to myself? It must be Derek Jacobi. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t resist his calm demands that I seduce and murder everyone. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only going to get worse. I know this because I actually completed the last two tutorials and the first mission a couple of weeks back, but I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.silly-sara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.silly-sara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.silly-sara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.silly-sara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.silly-sara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.silly-sara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.silly-sara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.silly-sara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.silly-sara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}