Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

deathbyrobots

I was soooo happy when I got Uncharted 3 for $30 on Black Friday. I saved myself $30 on a new game which had just come out, you see. Plus, this game promised me an adventure in the Arabian desert to boot.

We headed to a medieval castle in France, which pointed to a Crusader castle in Syria reminiscent of one of my bucket list destinations -  Krak des Chevaliers, the stronghold of the Knights Hospitaller. A couple of ordinary puzzles later and we're off to the Rub' Al Khali - literally the 'empty quarter' of the Saudi Arabian peninsula. (NOT on my bucket list. I saw the edge of that desert when I lived in the UAE. Close enough for me, thank you very much.)

Sand, sand, more shifting sand, and, oh yeah, the forgotten city of Ubar/Iram of the Pillars/Lawrence of Arabia's Atlantis of the Sands. (Lots of names for this place, apparently.) Since interesting mythologies and creature creations usually come with every Uncharted, I was excited to see what they would do with the djinn.

The big reveal?

It was a brass jar, supposedly with a djinn in it, sealed away centuries before by King Solomon himself. A brass jar? Aren't we going to OPEN it? Nope. Not this time. No curse of somebody or other to mutate the Spaniards (Uncharted One), or blue dudes that inhaled too much resin (Uncharted Two).

This time, Drake merely hallucinates an attack by a few enemies who have been turned into fiery guys - and then Sully wakes him up. I was especially disappointed because, as you know, anything to do with djinn is of interest to me.

So I'm off to play the new Assassin's Creed. It's set in Istanbul, remember? I hope it's not as disappointing.

The Bartle Quotient

image via madore.org

You know I'm a gamer. But what kind of gamer? Betcha didn't know there's DNA involved, as in gamerdna of the Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology.

That's me on the right: The Queen of Spades.
Called “Pallas” on the French deck, possibly after the Greek goddess Athena. She faces left, and is seen in profile. On the English deck, she is the only queen with a scepter. She faces forward, a little to the right. Madore.org

I can identify with that.

Queen of Hearts, I am not. Nope. Not enough pink ink in my manuscripts. Everything I encounter is analyzed and shelved for future reference. Very Athena goddess of wisdom,/strategy/justice-like. Yup. Spades is definitely the right camp for me.

Must be why I love characters like Rowena Ravenclaw (Hogwarts) and Annabeth (Percy Jackson series. Loved the library in the cabin and the whole grey/white color scheme. I digress.)

So this all relates to the MMORPG: Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game - which I technically do not have any time for this NaNoWriMonth.

According to the Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology (at gamerdna.com), there are four categories a player trends into, with tendencies leaning in all directions in various percentages. These are my stats.



I'm going to translate this into blogging, just for fun. Hope my blogger buddies don't mind me nominating them for head of their camp.

Socializers: aka Hearts - (LeighTMoore) Spreads the love and enjoys interaction just for the experience. Involved in activities for the good of the group, such as a guild. Yes, LTM is definitely the Queen of Hearts.

Explorers: aka Spades -  Analytical. Likes to discover glitches, uncover things like the hidden easter egg. Should be an archeologist, or some kind of "ologist". I think Sarah Fine probably fits best here. Hey, what do you know? She's a psychologist.

Achievers: aka Diamonds - Eyes on the rare prize, such as the 8 million point christmas cracker. I'm thinking Matt MacNish has a high score here. Example: He wants to get 1,000 followers before he queries. He's probably got a high score in the socializer category too because of his quest to aid queriers everywhere. I thought he'd prefer the King of Diamonds, since knowledge is the rare prize we seek when we visit him.

Killers: aka Clubs. Try to affect their environment, control markets. Usually have minions. Who is this? I'm stumped. I don't have any one blogger in mind here, but I know we all have this to some degree. It's our competitive streak. Probably an attorney would be a good fit here, but I don't know anyone who writes legal thrillers. Slytherin, anyone? Maybe someone like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. What they do is important and good, but can easily go the wrong way. A good trickster, IMHO.

How many books have I read that tap into this theory? A bunch.  Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Divergence, to name a few that are top of mind.

Which camp/suit/category do you fall under? 

And hey! The new Uncharted came out yesterday. Did you get your copy yet?