Over the weekend, I sat down and beat the Endless Setlist on Rock Band 2. I’d been looking forward to attempting it as I saw myself getting closer to it, but it took me longer to do than I expected.

The problem was that there were several cities filled with songs I had no interest in singing in my way. So in the tradition of students everywhere, I avoided Rock Band 2 for a while so I wouldn’t have to deal with them. And then I decided to just play the Quickplay mode for a while for “practice”…on songs I liked singing that weren’t destined to be part of the Endless Setlist. Finally, I decided I just had to sit down and do it…mostly because I realized it would be nice to have the Endless Setlist completed before PAX.

The guys behind Rock Band 2 really had the right idea in designing those last cities, though. I spent a month’s worth of weekends singing almost nothing but the Challenging songs in the game, songs I was only too happy to avoid (because I don’t care for the groups involved, not because I found the songs difficult). By the time I sat down to work on the Endless Setlist Friday morning, I was so comfortable with those songs that hitting the end of the Endless Setlist was almost more relaxing than stressful.

If the game hadn’t forced me to keep practicing those songs, I wouldn’t have been ready to deal with them. And I wouldn’t have been able to complete the Endless Setlist. It’s a brilliant design, and it reinforces the importance of practicing even those things we’d rather just see disappear.

A friend gave me MySims Kingdom (DS) for my birthday a couple of weeks ago, so that’s taken over the bulk of my gaming time. At first, it seemed fine. I created my Sim and sent her off on errand after errand for the people on her island, playing any mini-game I came across. I sort of followed the storyline, which I think was meant to explain why the island was so sparse. The King was constantly lecturing the mayor and me for not rebuilding the island.

Over the weekend, it finally occurred to me that I wasn’t really playing a Sims game. I was ignoring the player-controlled design for just trying to get through the game. I was trying to play an RPG. I started using the tools and mini-games to acquire things. I ran myself silly trying to collect things, without using them. Again, I still wasn’t playing a Sims game. By that time, I had finished enough of the tasks that the storyline had effectively vanished, leaving me with nothing but the design aspect of the game.  Realizing that, I slowly started actually trying to design each of my little houses. I even started building in some of the areas.

And then, in trying to plan out the design for the area where the game started, it finally occurred to me why I wasn’t paying the game as it was intended: I was waiting for the game to begin.

I know it sounds odd, especially since I’d seen Sims games before, but I kind of expected a game with “Kingdom” in the title and castles, dragons, and magic wands in the commercials and trailers to actually exhibit more fantasy tropes than an angry king and a rumored Star Prince. And there I was with a modern kitchen in one of my houses and a helicopter to fly me between the lowest and highest levels of the island.

Yep, that’s fantasy!

A little research soon revealed that MySims Kingdom for the DS was pretty much just like the MySims game, just with a King, and that all of the Kingdom theming went to the Wii version of the game. I’m so disappointed. I had specifically picked this game as my formal introduction to the Sims games because I love fantasy. I thought it would be an easy way to get involved and have fun. But it turns out it was too hard to theme everything in the DS game to match the title.

Adding to my frustration, the gameplay seems so pointless at times. For example, there’s no real sense of scarcity. Acquiring money and essences are both fairly simple and abundant, so you never really have to strategize how you’re going to save up enough to do what you want. Navigating across the island takes a while, too, even once you set up the heliports, and that can keep you from getting where you want to go during the time that spot is open for play. If I really want to be somewhere, I often have to kill time in that area or the adjacent area to make sure I can get where I need to be when I need to be.

Some of the Sims also have bizarre reactions to things. One of your errands is cheering up one of the shop owners. You encourage him and encourage him and encourage him…and he berates you for not being angry alongside him. I have no idea how that cheers him up, but… Another Sim blames you for the fact the pizza shop (that doesn’t actually seem to exist on the island, despite the fact the chef keeps appearing and demanding you give him vegetables) keeps screwing up his order. Once you get angry, he calms down. So, the indirect lesson here is if you get angry, things will be better.

Despite this major disappointment, I have had some fun exploring the island. I’m slowly designing each section (and it’s been quite a process to decide how to use each area). I  enjoy playing the mini-games, too. I like how they make sense with their objective and their location. Now that I’m actually trying to rebuild the island, I’m finding that I enjoy trying to theme an area (despite the fact the themes I’ve selected for most of the areas are very difficult to find items for).

As a game, MySims Kingdom is fun. As a Kingdom, the game could use a definite redesign.

Last night, my roommate explained Farmville to a friend of his. I personally don’t play the game, so I was fascinated as I listened to him explain the game and why he does what he does in game. For example, he explained he cultivates a certain type of crop because they’re cheap to plant and are guaranteed at least three times their worth when you sell the grown plant.

Having watched him play similar games, I know he’s applied this same mindset to those. As they keep working, he’s now always on the lookout for the best ROI, even though he has no clue what that means. And he’s looking to do the same when he makes deals with friends, coworkers, and others away from the game.

He’s also learning to be patient while he waits for things to happen in game so he can get what he needs to move on. I sat with him one night while he was playing the cafe game. We were chatting and he was cataloging the movies he’d just added to his collection, periodically looking at the screen. When I asked what he was doing, because it looked like his characters were moving around doing things on their own, he explained that he’d set up some things to cook, and he was waiting for one of them to finish so he could set up the next dish. This particular roommate can be impatient at times, so watching him find ways to keep himself occupied and calm while he waited for the in-game action to complete was impressive.

So, games can impart many lessons to both children and adults: being the best solo and team player you can, fair deals and interaction, and how to wisely invest resources.

Over the holidays, I had the opportunity to play Rock Band with some friends. I was already playing when they showed up, and I had to fight to not let my stage fright get the better of me (especially since I used to play with one of them all the time). But I stood there, hoping they weren’t listening to me, hoping they weren’t watching the screen. Deep down, I knew they were making mental notes of every phrase I completed that wasn’t perfect.

They really weren’t. They were too busy discussing the background to care what I was doing, and as soon as the song was over they were grabbing guitars and logging on. Lesson #1: No one expects you to be perfect. They just want you to try.

Before long, the three of us were jamming out, having fun. Everyone worked at their own level, and we sounded great. Occasionally, one of us would try to play something a level higher than we normally would, just to see if we could do it, and the others were supportive. Lesson #2: You don’t have to be as talented as the guy next to you. You just have to do well at your own level and stretch yourself periodically.

Of course, in pushing ourselves (or in trying songs one of us really didn’t know), we’d inevitably find ourselves struggling. No one would really notice until part of the screen started glowing red, and then someone would activate their Overdrive and save us. Lesson #3: When everyone is keeping up their end of the job, no one notices your mistakes until there’s a noticeable call for help, and then they help you out.

I’ve felt for a long time that gaming, like playing, is necessary for skill development. Small children learn about the world around them through play. Children and adults learn how to interact with each other and the world around them through gaming. There are companies that are starting to view skills acquired through gaming just as strong or as valid as those earned through work and volunteer experience.

You just have to open yourself to learning and to what constitutes a “learning experience”.

A friend loaned me this game when I was laid up with tendinitis in my ankle, and I’ve been slowly working. my way through it.

Well, I was. The game play has finally pushed me too far, and I’ve lost all desire to return.

At first, I liked working my way through the conversations and the trial. But soon enough I was finding that a character would tell you exactly what you needed to know to break their testimony, but because they told you, there was no evidence to present and you actually had to figure out what piece of evidence sort of related to that testimony to get them to say it at the right moment. Except they didn’t seem to remember they had already told you that piece of information, and the judge would throw it out.

It got pretty frustrating after the first couple of times it happened in the first case. Add to that the repetitive nature of the movement and conversations (at one point, you have to have the same conversation with a character five times before you finally get the information you need to move forward in the case), and the game became fairly stale.

Phoenix and the Fey girls are fairly entertaining, but they aren’t enough to make you ignore the game play.