My Other Blog

One of the things I do far too often is play computer games. When I get seriously hooked on one I can spend hours on it and end up sore from sitting so long at the computer.  Lately my obsession has been a computer game called Totem Tribe.

I found it where I find most of my games lately, my WildGames console. At Wildgames you can play one or two sessions of games for free, and then can play more sessions for a fee per play. These fees can add up to money off on the game.

For budgetary reasons I try to get by on the free sessions, but every once in a while a game comes along that I can’t be reasonable about. Totem Tribe is one such game.

In Totem Tribe, the player takes the role of the scantily-clad tribal chieftainess, Aruku. I can’t decide whether that’s a blow for feminism or for male chauvinism. Anyway, each level of the game is set on a different island with different challenges.

You start out building your villages. As you progress through the levels more buildings for your village become available. Some buildings generate people, either workers or various types of military units.  Other buildings conduct research.

Each island has various goals you have to meet. You have to find various items— jewels, amulets, totem symbols— and you have to battle a variety of enemies. The enemies are things like walking mushrooms, animated stone slabs, floating eyeballs…. and then there are the Shades, evil black things that are hard to kill.

The first few levels were easy and I did fine on my own. Later I tended to do internet searches on ‘Totem Tribe’ and whatever the name of my current island was, to get to some tips and tricks to guide me through it.  On some levels I was very dependent on these guides!

After a few days of obsessive playing, I’m now at the final level, which is very tough. I followed directions on the walkthrough and planted groups of six towers at the top, bottom and left side of the village area to combat the periodic attacks by animated stone slabs, and built up a crowded village and researched all techs that were available.

Then I planted the combat flag at the enemy’s stone idol, which set all troops to combat there, while I spent my time back at the village directing my construction crews to repair buildings damaged by the repeated attacks.

After what seemed like hours of this, my soldiers destroyed the idol, only to have it replaced by an evil alien squid which seems to be ten times more difficult to kill. I’ve hit it with various spells from my temple, as well as having my troops go at it for a few hours, and its life line is still almost all green with only a tiny bit of red at the tip.

My current strategy is to disassemble some village buildings and rebuild them more closely to one another in the hopes of getting more space to place a couple more soldier-generating buildings.  All the while continuing to repair the village as it continues to be attacked.

Of course, all this game playing doesn’t help me get any writing done, though I lie to myself and say it’s helpful in plotting my fantasy novel. I keep resolving to not allow myself to play until I’ve done some work on my novel, and yet I keep allowing myself to play the game— just a little— first, and before you know it the day is done.

Perhaps I should have given computer games up for Lent. I didn’t really think about that option. Instead I resolved to read only Christian fiction and non-fiction for the duration of Lent. (I have a friend, the Sci-Fi Catholic whose blog is in my blogroll, who gives up ALL FICTION during Lent. I couldn’t handle THAT much sacrifice.)  So, for the time being I’m trying to simply be more moderate in my use of computer games. (Pray for me!)