Thanks.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions to my previous post. I've now got Rise of Nations (PC), Advance Wars 2 (GBA), Final Fantasy Tactics (GBA), and Starcraft (PC) on order (it wasn't in stock). Now if I could just buy enough time to play them all.

I'm actually planning to shift the focus of my research from camera control (been doing it for 4 years, bored out of my nut) to RTS AI (or maybe planning in general). I haven't started reading much, but I thought it would be a good idea to see what games are out there, how they work, etc. before I start trying to work on the AI.

I can't believe how much information there is to remember in an RTS! I thought my head was going to explode when I went through the first tutorial in Rise of Nations. This brings me to my complaint about games: they're too bloody hard.

I don't mean hard from a strategic point-of-view, I mean from a memory point-of-view. Back in the old days (C64 era), characters could run-and-jump, and could be controlled with a joystick with one button. The capabilities of characters now are numerous, so providing the user with the ability to control the character necessitates complex controllers and control schemes. Now I need to remember obscure button combos and when to use them, execute them with impeccable timing, etc.

The problem I have with this is the amount of time I can dedicate to gaming. When I am working, I usually only manage spurts of about 1-2 hours/month at best, and often go 3-4 months without gaming at all. If I spend the requisite time learning the control scheme, odds are pretty good that I won't get a chance to play further until another month or so. By that time I've forgotten all the combos and usually start back at the beginning to go through the requisite tutorial sections. I've lost count of the number of times I've played the first parts of Wind Waker, Beyond Good & Evil, Halo, and basically every game in my library (although I don't like Halo, so that has long since been retired).

I guess I'm not the hardcore gamer I used to be (or think I am), and should restrict myself to games that have easier control schemes. Help may be at hand with the Wii, and I can only hope that it offers diversity (simple games for me, complex games for the hardcore gamers) that I'm after.