YouTube works for me!

Here is another video by that dynamic team of Super Ultra Guy and Silver Moon on Plants vs Zombies.

Honouring Individual Gaming Styles & Lego Universe

I don't believe in "airing dirty laundry" by griping publicly about anything - the last post was quite an exception, although I tried hard to ensure that it was not a complaint directed at anyone. We did end up having a conversation in the car with every member of the family to sort out exactly what kind of observers they'd prefer to have around when playing Plants vs Zombies. I won't replay the talk, but it seems to have been quite profitable. Actually, it may have less to do with sorting out our individual gaming styles and more about the introduction of a new game to our family collection: the MMO Lego Universe.

We were not planning to buy Lego Universe, even though our son has been quite interested in obtaining it ever since he learned of its existence. We have enough MMOs to take care of, and this was an online game we'd need to pay to play. We thought our boy would lose interest too quickly to make it worth the while. However, my husband learned that the company was offering a trial membership at a greatly reduced price, and so my husband joined. The membership we have entitled us to four separate characters. It just so happens that there are four people in our immediate family, and so each person has their own character. Here's a brief introduction.

Daughter = Serene Sassy Cloud, a member of the Paradox faction

Son = Toxic Acid Laser, a member of the the Assembly faction

Father = Groovy Stoic Savant, a member of the Sentinel faction

Mother = Totally Spiffy Owl, no faction joined (the rest of the family made my character for me and chose my name - I'm lucky it's a pretty nice one!)

Father, son, and daughter have been playing together a lot. It's installed on my husband's computer, so he's been doing less writing when the children are around, but they are playing together. Everyone except for me has built a house in the BlockYard. As I type this, hubby is playing on boy's account while both kids watch. Each night when I sit with my son at bedtime, he is eager to tell me some new piece of information about the world. Last night, it was how he built his house and his new animal companion. The night before, it was about the four factions and their pros and cons. I'm not sure what it will be tonight. I asked them what their favourite part of the game was so far. Here are their responses.

Daughter = "So far, my favourite part of the game was joining my faction because I get new gear and new attacks."

Son = "Basically when I'm doing my faction, and when I can gain a new pet. My favourite pet is the bunny."

Husband = "Building stuff"

And so the ebb and flow of focus games in the household changes once again. Stay tuned for more (although equally irregular) observations.

Plants vs Zombies - Unsolicited Advice

Rather than post another video, I wanted to mention a small bone of contention in our household surrounding Plants vs Zombies. You'll see how the two incidents are related.

1) A few days ago, I noticed that my son was not running downstairs to the computer the minute he heard the Plants vs Zombies theme song music. I went to investigate and it turns out he had misunderstood a comment from my husband. My son said, "Dad says he doesn't want me to watch him anymore." We had a little chat and my husband explained that our son was watching him and "being bossy" and trying to tell my husband what to do. After he refused to stop all the extra editorial comments, my husband asked him to go do something else and let him play on his own.

2) I started my own file on the family Plants vs Zombies account. As I've mentioned numerous times, I'm not the best gamer in the house. My husband came to watch me play and help me out, but I started to get stressed out when he'd say "no, don't put that Pea Shooter so close to the front; you need range and the zombies will eat them too quickly" or "why did you choose to use the cherry bomb instead of plant more sunflowers?" I only played one or two rounds and then stopped. There's only so much constructive criticism one can take at once.

So, it's interesting to see that although gaming can be social in terms of watcher and player, having a "back seat driver" can be a real pain-in-the-backside. For the viewer, seeing "obvious" mistakes, it can be frustrating to holler advice that isn't taken and see errors made in front of you. For the player, having the challenge of a critic in addition to the challenge of the game itself can be a real discouragement. Add the usual family dynamics (father-son, mother-daughter, and other variations), it can be even more off-putting. As I was typing this, my husband had to walk away from watching my daughter play the new Lego Universe MMO. We'll see if we learn anything from my reflection (although I doubt the rest of the family reads this blog). Car conversation?

Plants vs Zombies - Final wave!

Here is another Plants vs Zombies "Super Ultra Man & Silver Moon" commentary video. In the one I tried to upload but couldn't, the kids comment on how their dad selects his plants for battle. It's funny that the kids know a lot about which plants to pick, but they don't want to start their own game to play themselves. That video was over 3 minutes, so it had trouble getting on the blog. This clip, at 2:16, is a shorter one and I believe it deals with the final wave of zombies coming after James. (One of these days, I should upload them to YouTube, but I'm not sure how many people other than the readers of this blog would be interested in hearing them wax poetic about the plants you can choose.) - Edited to note: I used my YouTube account, finally! Let's see if it works!

I've started my own Plants vs Zombies adventure on James' account, but I'll make that the subject of another post.

Plants vs Zombies - The Zen Garden Experience

Super-ultra Man and Silver Moon (the kids' alter-egos that provide "video game commentary videos") have produced a new video on taking care of the Zen Garden in the PC version of Plants vs Zombies. Here it is.

Plants vs Zombies - Interview with another fan

Here's my brief interview with another fan of the game in our household.

Mom: What's your favourite plant in the game?

Daughter: That would be a hard one. I'd have to say one of these three: cattail, seashroom or umbrella leaf. They're all very cute plus they are pretty good plants to attack with and defend with.

Mom: Why do you like watching the game?

Daughter: I like watching the game because it's cool and I get to see all the different types of plants and zombies. Plus, it has a lot of action.

Mom: What do you think of dad's playing?

Daughter: I think daddy really plans out his attacks very well. They're very strategic and powerful against the zombies.

Mom: What do you think was the scariest moment in the game?

Daughter: The scariest moment I've seen in the game was when daddy was fighting the final boss because he was really hard to beat and I thought he (daddy) was going to die.

Plants vs Zombies - Interview with a fan

Here's my interview with a young male fan of Plants vs Zombies.

Mom: What is your favourite plant?

Son: I like the Hypnoshroom because it has lots of colours and I like lots of colours.

Mom: Why do like the game?

Son: Because I think it's cool. It has lots of meaning to it. It makes it looks like it's really live.

Mom: What do you think about dad's playing?

Son: It's cool. He takes a bit of time before he chooses plants.

Mom: What was the scariest moment in the game

Son: It was like the gargantuan throws its imp and you look like you're going to die and you need to act quick and you're scared 'cause the music goes dun dun dun dun!