I was talking to my friend over at Starstruck Games on Twittter a couple days ago, and they mentioned reading my blog post about Dragonride VR and how that reminded them of an old computer game called DragonStrike. I hadn't heard of it before, so I did a few searches, and lo and behold there it was on Steam for 3 bucks. DONE!
Guys, I'm playing the first-ever dragon combat simulator!
After playing it I was instantly transported back to the days in the early early 90's when I would play a turn-based D&D game on my old Commodore 64. (I can't even remember what the game was.) While this isn't turn-based, the graphics and music are spot on.
A recipe for awesomeness: dragon jousting, goo-covered battlefields, and my enemies dead before me!
To be honest, the best thing about this game is not the game . . . it's the manual!
Whoa . . . this is an AD&D Computer Product?
I mean, yes, you can fly around, home in on a dragon, and either joust its rider or blast it with a breath weapon in several different polygonal pixelated environments, but let's talk about this MANUAL! Look at this beautiful gem of information . . . a schematic on how a dragon lance is put together and attaches to a dragon saddle? What?!
So that's how it all works . . . huh . . . it's all right there . . . in the manual . . .
I mean, there's a 3-page story, the jousting schematic, controls, orders and ranks for dragon jousters, a description of each area of the map, stat sheets for each type of dragon, and a printable keyboard command layout. Could you imagine being the writer for this manual? That's a pretty sweet gig.
"Argent is small for his 723 years of age."
The game itself is a hard-to-play piece of ancient trash, BUT THIS MANUAL IS GOLD! I say it's 3 bucks well spent!
If you ever wondered how the progression of Dragon Jousters work, there you go.
That's more lore and goodness than you can shake a D20 at! The funny thing is, if you ever lost the manual to this game, you were screwed because to play the game, it actually asks you to type words from the manual to verify you bought the game. The manual and the game are tied together by a virtual serial cable that could never be severed! As the execs at Westwood surely once said, "Ain't no kid gonna just copy this game to a floppy and share it with his friends! He's gotta go through Kinkos as well!"
Closing in on my next dragon jousting target!
I was only ever able to get to the 4th mission in the game. I'm sure if I was 14 and had a full day to kill I could get a little higher in the ranks of The Knights of the Rose, but I hear BG3 calling to me.
DragonStrike is a great blast from the past, and if anyone wants to build me that dragon-jousting VR game of my dreams, there's a manual for that!
I casually dropped by my Bandcamp page to see how the stats were doing, and as I expected, they were pretty abysmal. hehe. I never expected there to be a stellar play count AT ALL. I just really wanted to make my music available to those that might be interested and especially old acquaintances of the past.
3 complete plays! (Pretty sure they were all me)
By selecting the tabs underneath "Plays" you can get specific details about specific time periods. I'm sure for popular bands, that's kind of a cool thing, but for me, the coolest feature of this chart is the "defender" mode. When you click this button, it literally turns your stats into an old school game of defender.
Destroy the aliens! Play my music!
This is actually playable and gives you 3 lives to mess around with. You don't actually wreck into the collision of the bars, and once your humans are all gone, the aliens go into hyper mode and eventually swarm and destroy you. Your "plays" becomes your score, and honestly 3,300 plays of my music would be amazing, but for a Defender score, that's not that great.
It's that cute gamification touch that I love to see from websites. From Google, it's expected now that you'll see an amazing game from them every year or two (just like they did for Pac-man 30th anniversary or the 2021 Olympics). From other companies, it's nice to see when it happens.
If Bandcamp was really savvy, they'd find a way to automatically make a rhythm game out of your uploaded music. Now THAT, I'd like to invite people to come play. :)
Last night my son went to a local roller skating rink. When I went to pick him up, he was incredibly excited to play the Galaga arcade machine they had there for some reason, so we gave him a couple quarters, and it was over pretty quickly unfortunately.
Shootin' the digital insects!
I was reminded about how ruthless those old arcade games could be. They were absolutely designed to suck your quarters down, but what made Galaga so insidious and so great at the same time was the self-sacrifice aspect of the game.
In Galaga, for the price of a quarter you get 3 lives, but what most people tried to do was sacrifice their first life to the invading aliens, who could tractor beam the ship and carry it behind them during the level. Then, if you shot the ship that was carrying your ship when it was dive bombing you, then that second ship would snap together with your current ship, creating a double shooting ship. Of course, a double-sized ship was also twice the target, but that double shooting ship could then be used to score big points on the bonus waves in-between the levels.
Typically you'd take the gamble and it wouldn't pan out and you'd end up losing both ships in frustration, but every once in a while you'd rock those two ships and beat the challenge levels to the point that you earned a new ship and felt pretty great about your decision. That sacrifice paying off as a reward is definitely "The Galaga Effect" in my mind -- it's a soft gamble that won't outright kill the game, but could result in a fantastic feeling while it lasts. It's a little bit of the same feeling someone might get from when they're on a slot machine hot streak. It's also a much stronger sacrifice than a laying out a chess pawn for sacrifice because it's literally sacrificing 1/3 of your life to get 2x the power.
I read a really fascinating interview with Shigeru Yokoyama, the designer of Galaga where he talks all about how Galaga came about and some of the thought process behind it. When he designed the game originally, players were getting longer play sessions about 7-8 minutes with one quarter, which wouldn't fly with arcade owners, so Namco came in and ratcheted up the difficulty:
"Yeah, although I was really worried after the location test failed to pull in a very good income. The average playtime of a single coin back then was about 3 to 4 minutes, but people were playing for 7 or 8 minutes with our game, so the income was lower. There was some grumbling about that at Namco, but I asked them to let us leave it this way. I said the fact that people could play longer would make it popular, and it would still draw a good income. However, from the arcade operator’s perspective, short-term profits were the priority, so in the final commercial versions of we ended up caving to management and doing it their way." - Shigeru Yokoyama
I quickly found a free version of Galaga online, called Galagon 2004, just go to www.freegalaga.com and you're there. I'm sure there's more of them out there as well. All the old games have been recycled and redone hundreds of times, and if you're into old game Emulators, I'm sure you can find even more.
The arcades these days have a version of Galaga called Galaga Assault where you play for tickets. It's amazing to see how controlled play times are on this game. They've really got it down to a science. In addition, Galaga Assault has a "redemption mode" where you actually buy extra fighters in exchange for quarters. If you really want to throw extra tokens down the drain to try and win the jackpot, you can have extra fighters already attached at the get-go of the game!
Galaga Assault quadruples down on hedging your bets. I feel like there's something to be said here about pay to win, but in a ticket arcade, that's . . . a given?
I'm trying to think of some modern examples of the Galaga effect in games. If something comes to mind, please share it in the comments.
Personally, since I've been playing Risk of Rain 2 lately, I'm reminded of the shrines where you sacrifice life in exchange for gold. 50 life for 25 gold is a big risk. Although sometimes that feels more like an act of desperation in that game and the benefit probably isn't quite as tempting as it was in Galaga.
Earlier today my old coworker @Jetsers threw out the suggestion to write a blog post about Pokémon Red and Blue, the original Game Boy Editions. I loved that suggestion, so I promptly ran upstairs and asked the kids if we had that game since they'd be the ones to know for sure. The answer was no, but hey dad, look at all these other great old Game Boy games I own!
How about some Frogger with a side of Donkey Kong and Dr. Mario?
Yes, my dear son, for I was the one that bought those particular games for myself and you stole them all. ;)
Alas, the oldest Pokémon Game we own is Pokémon Channel for the Game Cube, which I played with all of my kids when they were super little. For them that was probably their first exposure to Pokémon.
Outside of this we own . . .
5 Nintendo DS Pokemon Games:
Pokémon Conquest
Pokémon Soulsilver
Pokémon White (we also had Black, but it was given away as a gift)
Pokémon Black 2 (we might also have White 2? I can't find it)
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Darkness
6 Nintendo 3DS Games:
Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon
Pokémon Y (we also had X, dunno where it is)
Pokémon Moon
Pokémon Sun
Pokémon Alpha Sapphire
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Gates to Infinity
3 Wii Games:
Pokémon Battle Revolution
Pokepark Pikachu's Adventure
Pokepark 2 Wonders Beyond
3 Nintendo Switch Games:
Pokémon Sword
Pokémon Shield
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX
Of those, I can confidently say I have only played Pokémon Channel, Pokémon Diamond, and Pokepark Pikachu's Adventure. (I'm not even counting Pokémon Go because, really, who DIDN'T play Pokémon Go?)
But wait! Diamond wasn't even on your list! Yup. We've lost a couple games along the way as well . . . there was a particular season in our lives where Pokémon Diamond was lost, and we tore the house upside down looking for it since the kids were heartbroken when it went missing. We never did find that game. Oh well. It happens with those small little black cartridges.
So, anyway, I did a little searching and reading about the old Pokémon games and found the original cartridges for sale USED on Amazon for premium prices . . . like 30 to 50 bucks. Now, as much as it would be great to slap those in my Gameboy color, it just doesn't seem feasible. On the flipside, however, it is totally possible to buy Pokemon Red or Blue on the 3DS in the Nintendo eShop for $10. Now THAT I can handle.
So then the next question was, which one of these bad boys do I want to play! Do I want to play Red with the stylings of Ekans, Arbok, Oddish, Gloom, Vileplume, Mankey, Primeape, Growlithe, Arcanine, Scyther, and Electabuzz? OR do I want to play with the stylings of Blue with Sandshrew, Sandslash, Vulpix, Ninetales, Meowth, Persian, Bellsprout, Weepinbell, Victreebell, Magmar, and Pinsir?
I leaned Red for the Electabuzz . . . it's the closest to a "stingite" pokemon out of the bunch . . . $10 later I was playing that super old school Pokémon game like it was 1998.
Red Version on a Red 3DS . . . BAM!
I chose Squirtle as my starter Pokémon and my mortal enemy John chose Bulbasaur. He whined so hard when I beat him . . . outta here, John!
I really liked how the game made you talk to everyone in the starting area because you just couldn't seem to find Professor Oak until you tried to actually leave the town -- that was a nice touch. What I didn't like was how I couldn't make my name Stingite because it was one letter too long . . . "Stingit" it is. At least I could give my Squirtle a proper turtle name.
Yow know what I'm talking about, TMNT fans, right?
So it looks like I'll be wandering the tall grass for a bit. Wish me luck!
Thanks again to Joel for the great game suggestion, and if you have a game suggestion you'd like to give me, drop a hello on this Twitter thread here. I was quite surprised at how many of my followers were interested in classic gaming titles! Good stuff.
So, bit of a different post today. I didn't play very many games last night as I spent it watching Netflix with the uber wife . . . finished off Season 3 of the Magicians and Started Season 2 of Mindhunter. Because of this, I'm pulling from the "thought jar" for today's post and it all has to do with a tale of two games . . . one of which is Sonic Colors!
Sonic Colors, you ask? Yeah! So this 10 year old game is one that's been sitting in my family's collection of older Wii games for awhile now, mostly forgotten and untouched, but I'm bringing it out of retirement for one reason, and that's all because of a cute family we visited a few months ago.
My son and I visited this family a few months ago to get to know them just a bit better. It's a big family . . . five kids all under the age of 10. They don't seem to have a ton of money and like most families this size, video game entertainment comes in the cheaper variety and always a few generation of game consoles behind the cutting edge.
I remember when my Dad gave away my old Atari to a family like this back in the late 80's, and despite younger me being a little bit miffed about losing that nostalgia and my "collection" of games, it stuck with me as being a completely noble act. (Dad's are wise like that. Thank you, Dad.)
Anyway, when we visited this family a few months ago, the talk amongst the kids was Sonic Colors on the good ol' Wii. The kids were 100 percent enamored with it at the time. I immediately recognized the game and let them know that we also owned this game (My kids also raved about it). These kids were talking all about the wisps in the game and started asking me very detailed questions about which wisps we had unlocked so far. hehe. I was like . . . you know . . . I personally have never played the game, but I'll tell you what . . . I'll play Sonic Colors and tell you all about it the next time we come to visit. They thought that was great!
So I dragged Sonic Colors out a couple weeks later and managed to get through the first set of levels . . . and then put it away, but, I just couldn't stop thinking about those kids on the Wii and my dad's example to me.
A few days later I was shopping at Gamestop, and while I was there I dropped back by the old Wii games to see what they had and found a copy of Mario Super Sluggers, which is hands-down my all time favorite Wii game.
I knew immediately that this family needed to play this game, so I picked up a copy for them and texted their dad to ask if it was ok if I gave his kids a game. He thought that was great, so I dropped it by and told the kids that I was sorry I didn't have many of the Wisps in Sonic Colors unlocked yet, but I would keep at it.
Then I surprised them with a copy of Mario Super Sluggers and let them know that this game . . . was THE BOMB! It's by far my favorite game on the Wii. Their eyes lit up, and we agreed . . . the next time we meet, it's a full status report from me on my Sonic Colors progress and they'll let me know what they thought of Mario Super Sluggers.
I think next time I visit them, I'll come prepared with a bag of our old Skylander figures. They'll completely lose their minds. :)
So this post really serves as nothing more than a summary of everything that wasn't captured in posts 1, 2, or 3.
Lesseee . . . what's left.
1- Wizard101 -- well well well, if it isn't the game that started it all here on The Friendly Necromancer. I'm going to be honest. Lately all I've been doing is logging on to do my various jobs in game and do a little Monstrology . . . although I really would like to keep my Wizard City to Polaris adventures going with Morgrim.
we left on Episode 26 . . . that was back in January . . . WOW!
I never got a lot of feedback about that series, but there were a few kind comments here or there from people who enjoyed the series. Thanks to you all!
This week looks to be the week we launch our Test Realm to the Live Realm, so . . . hold on to your PvP gear and let's DO THIS THING!
2- Pirate101 -- well well well, if it isn't the game that got me into the biz. I've been enjoying reminiscing back in Cool Ranch lately. My apologies to those of you who don't really enjoy the Cool Ranch part of Pirate101, but it's one of my favorites these days.
If I could again find the time (it's in short supply these days), I wouldn't mind heading back to Twitch to play through more of Pirate101 with Virtuous Vanessa.
3- Ark, Survival Evolved -- Uber Wife downloaded this and started playing it the other day, so I gave it a go for about 30 minutes. Not a bad game at all! At some point I'd like to explore that a bit more, but honestly . . . I kind of like the 16-bit Minecraft survival game a bit more . . . call me crazy.
4- The Switch! We have one! What the heck am I doing not playing that thing 24-7? AGAIN, not enough hours in the day. I would like to go back and give Zelda a more dedicated play through. I watched my kids beat the game, and they had a blast with it. It's dad's turn now.
5- Rocket League! Ok, so . . . I got really bummed out about Rocket League the other day. The reason why? I can't explain it, but my aim is terribly off in that game lately. To make matters worse, I'm ranked a Veteran now, so I'm getting matched with really good people and if my aim is off, I look like a complete doofus. If I could rank reset for free, I would, but that wouldn't be very fair to the rookies . . . it's just . . . what is up with my aim???
Anyway . . . this video of Morgrim and myself playing Rocket League is hilarious.
6- Elder Scrolls Online -- I was actually set to play this game with my friend, Andrew before I got sucked back in to Everquest. WHY EVERQUEST, WHY?! We managed to sync up our play times a couple times, but group play was a stuggle for us at best. Sorry, Andrew. I may come back to this if . . . I find the time. (this is definitely a reoccuring theme this post, isn't it?)
7- DC Universe Online -- NO! Just no. I refuse to open that game again. I've spent far too much of my gaming life playing this game. (just between us though, it's still loaded on my PC, and I do get tempted to log on just to say hello to my friends -- even if my stomach instantly turns the moment I log on.)
8- Magicka -- I was convinced to give this one a go by Morgrim, so I bought it for $2 and played the first few chapters. Pretty fun actually! I can see how this would be a good time in multiplayer. I'd like to play it again . . . um . . . if I find the time. (It feels silly typing it again.)
9- Dubwars -- what? It's loaded on my PC but I haven't played it for like forever.
10- Guild Wars 2 -- what? Oh yeah . . . I kind of killed myself playing that game last year, and now I can't bring myself to log on. Sorry.
11- classic gaming -- You know what I want to do if I ever find the time? I'd like to have a party where I line up a couple tables, bring out my old gaming systems and invite my buddies to come play classic games with me! Put that one on my bucket list.
. . . and that's about all I have the time or inclination to write about this morning. whew . . . that was a nice 20 minute brain dump.
A lot of fun can be had around the table, and I'd say that lately that's where I've been having the MOST fun. Let's take a looksy:
1- Dungeons and Frickin' Dragons -- Yup! I'm actively participating in four D&D games lately.
The Barrow Maze -- Ben Durbin (aka Ratbeard for those who know him from the Pirate101 forums) has been DM'ing a group of people through a super unforgiving module where you start out as level 0 peasants and hopefully grow to be powerful heroes -- but don't get too cocky or you'll end up dead. Leveling is strictly based on gold acquisition and experience gains. I joined in a little late . . . late enough to watch a couple level 5 characters die before my level 0 characters even made 1st level. let's just say there's an undead knight and his army that we freed upon the world. whoops.
Out of the Abyss -- Sam Johnson (aka Blind Mew for those who know him from the Pirate101 forums) has been DM'ing a group of us over lunch time 1 or 2 times a week for the past year, and we're finally nearing the end of the Out of the Abyss campaign. I play a Rogue with a heart of gold. :) We all leveled up to sixth level yesterday and defeated the Pudding King in Blingdenstone. Good times. Give us 2-3 weeks and we may make it to the surface and out of the Underdark! It's been a riot, and some day I'll have to tell more about our adventures we had here. By the way, having a master storyteller like Sam be your DM . . . it's a choice experience.
Althea and Company -- This is Jeff Toney's game where he DMs for his daughter, two of my kids, and me . . . I play a bard and for the most part I just try to keep people alive with healing word. ;) I dedicated an entire blog to our fun and adventures, but I just didn't have the time to keep up with it. This is straight up the Lost Mines of Phandelver. Our party hit level 5 and we're about to move on to things more . . . giant related. *squeeee*
The Saviors -- This is my game. I'm DM'ing the same group as above only with the addition of Uber Wife. I have a game to DM for all of them on Sunday, and I feel woefully unprepared. I'm hoping to get some time on Saturday to figure out how to approach this. This troop is now around the level 3 range, and I've been mostly running the one-shots of M.T. Black and I even wrote a campaign of my own to get them from level 2 to 3.
2- Boss Monster! Every time we go to our local bookstore, my son Miles would pick up the Boss Monster game box and really want to get it. He likes the retro 16-bit look to the cover, and it just sounded fun to him. Luckily for me, Jeff Toney had a copy of the card game in his car. (You gotta understand, Jeff Toney's trunk is always filled with a few games.) I borrowed it and played it with my family, and we had a great time! It's a bit of a toss up on games like these and my family is a bit burnt from playing Munchkin, which my family really wants to like but surprisingly really doesn't like. I don't know what it is about that game . . . Anyway, Boss Monster was a hit, so I purchased the game for myself and it's in our family rotation of games now.
3- Near and Far. Jeff Toney purchased this game from a kick starter and it's a sister game to Above and Below, which is easier to find at the moment. Jeff, myself, and Karl Holbert from work all played this over a couple of lunches about a month ago and it was awesome! This is one I want to get and play with my family.
And that pretty much wraps up my unplugged gaming news. I'll have to think about writing a Part 4 to this series . . . it'd be about everything else, like console gaming and other PC games outside of Everquest. I'll put some thought to it. :)
Back in December 2016 I was on vacation for a bit and purchased myself a Christmas gift from Steam's discount aisle. Do you ever just see a game and think, oh yeah, that's something I'd probably like? Dub Wars was one of those purchases that just kind of checked all the right boxes from the get go . . . dubstep (check). What? You thought there would be more check boxes than dubstep? (Actually a lot of the music isn't really pure dubstep, but I digress, and it doesn't matter -- great music is great music.)
Honestly I'm not really a 2-D, top down, shooter kind of a guy; although as I was playing the game I kept thinking to myself, I wonder if Mark Bussler from Classic Gameroom has tried this game? He's totally a 2-D, top down shooter kind of a guy. He lives for this kind of game. Then again, I don't know if he's an electronic music loving type of a dude.
Anyway, the thing that makes this game different is that you don't fire the gun, the music fires the gun, which makes for a very "non-mashy" experience where you just move your ship around and aim your weapons as you visually see the music fire off beautiful lasers of death.
The tempo of the game naturally moves along with the tempo of the music, and when you hear the bass drop is the same moment where you are wrecking enemies with your most powerful weapons fired off in rapid succession. It's actually the quiet moments in the game that can be the most stressful as your weapons are just firing occasionally and you're running away from things thinking, can this song just drop the bass already?
At first when I bought this game I was thinking, this would be super fun to stream, but I did a test video of me playing and it was pretty funny how focused I was at dodging. Just look at this face:
Later in the video it doesn't change much.
Yeah! I don't think I even moved my head to the music lol.
So I don't know about streaming this game, but it might be a different experience with an audience to react to and entertain. I kind of turn into a different person when I stream. :)
The game suffers a touch from replayability problems. There are 10 levels (songs), and while the music is absolutely great, it's 10 songs that you hear over and over. Did I say playing over and over? You end up playing levels over and over a lot to power up your ship, and this is because the first time you enter a level, you will get wrecked -- power ups help so much with surviving.
You play games over and over and collect "wubs," which are then spent to improve your health and weapons. Probably the coolest part of this feature is that your weapons can get massively upgraded and not only become more powerful, more more outlandish . . . whereas you can have little exhaust lasers shooting out of your side at 0 wubs, 1000 wubs will sometimes cause those exhaust lasers to become giant lightsabers of death, which is fun.
There are over 40 achievements to earn, which help replayability, but some achievements are like . . . really? That's crazy. Who would do that? *cough* I may or may not have the achievement for playing a level 25 times in a row. *cough* I may have just boosted my health up and put myself in the corner of the screen and walked away from the game to do that.
So there you have it. Dub Wars! Pretty fun little game, and a pretty great discount rack buy for me over Christmas.
It's kind of weird how a bad night of gaming can just throw you off. I had one of those the night before last. First, I got discouraged by the gold sink required to craft the Tempered Spinal Blades back piece. I tried to explain this to one of my friends in Guild Chat and why I'm doing it . . .
But what I talk about there doesn't even cover the cost of crafting all the other back pieces that led to this piece:
When I looked back at all the time and effort I was spending creating this thing, I don't know . . . I just kind of got depressed. At that particular moment two days ago, it just didn't feel worth it, and I got discouraged, and this was after I had already completed my Gift of Blades! I think the real kicker for me was the feeling of futility from buying watchwork sprockets and doing this:
Buying those sprockets and dumping them in the mystic forge . . . dunno, it was a weird feeling. I can't quite call it anger. I can't quite call it sadness . . . it's just a game after all . . . I can't quite call it nerd rage.
I shall call it the feeling of, "meh."
THEN, I had a huge string of defeats in the new Tavern Brawl in Hearthstone. LOL.
I haven't built up a ton of cards, and I have very very few legendary cards, so when I'm forced to build my own deck instead of say the awesomeness of the last couple of weeks where the Tavern Brawl put people on equal footing . . . I don't know, there's just more defeats for a chump like me. This also left me with said feeling of "meh."
~~
Last night, however, was an OK night (can't really call it a "great night"). First, I actually hooked up the Atari and played some Adventure. I ain't kidding. I was actually kind of surprised that my cartridge was in such good condition. The whole reason I loaded it up is because my son asked me to. I think he might have seen it at Classic Game Fest and got interested. That worked for me because it also kicked him off Guild Wars 2, so dad could play. I eventually returned after he beat his head against the second level of difficulty and showed him the old pro's ways of running the chalice to the gold castle in all three levels of difficulty. *smacks hands together* If an old game of Adventure can't break the "meh," then I don't know what can!
In Guild Wars 2 I took myself back up to 13 gold from my poverty levels of "99 silver and some chewing gum," and continued on my futile quest for the tempered spinal blades (did I happen to mention there's another two stages of evolution for these Spinal Blades? Such a gold sink. I don't know if I can keep going.)
And any time I can help down the Teq and get some easy loot . . . I'm in!
I also hopped over to Wizard101 and harvested several gardens and got gobs and gobs of loot. As I said a few days ago, it's just pure happiness seeing all that loot.
I was also super happy I got to crash through the first part of Darkmoor with some quality people yesterday (*fives* to my friends--you know who you are) and will probably have my Krulhu spell here very soon . . . like today soon.
Finally, Hearthstone was treating me well again and I managed to win a couple more Tavern Brawls before calling it a night while watching some Twitch to wind down.
~~
What's the moral of the story? Well, there really isn't one . . . i'm just trying to make a Blaughust post for the day. LOL.
Ok, I'll at least try to shoot for a moral of the story: I think it just comes down to attitude and variety really. For grindy stuff like the blades, if something isn't really working, you need to just step away and try again another day. That's usually how it works in MMOs anyway. Having friends to rant to and gain insight from is also a definite plus.
I don't know, Hearthstone really is about getting some luck with your draws mixed with having great cards. Playing your strengths (or at least a strong build) while earning and crafting those rare and legendary cards is probably your best bet. (Thanks Cavernshark for your infinite gobs of Hearthstone wisdom you dispense to me.)
Hope you all have a great day of gaming and keep your chin up! There's going to be good days and bad. Just keep playing.
