EDUC 688 assignment

As part of my assignments for a class I am taking, I'll be using this page to record my thoughts and experiences while playing a game for my class, Educational Games and simulation.

The game I chose to play is Star Wars: Empire at War. I like the game because it ties into my other favorite thing to do, read and watch star wars related materials. I am attracted to games of this type, strategy based real-time games where-in two teams are pitted against each other, trying to take over "the world", in this case, the star wars universe-it essentially replays the movies, with a few other widgets tossed in. I've also played the Command and Conquer Generals: and Red Alert/Yuri's revenge series, much the same, but its the USA versus the russians in red alert, the chinese and a fictional terrorist army in Generals. I enjoy the strategy aspect of the games, its much like a chessmatch, different units in your army have strengths and weaknesses, as does your opponent. I like the strategy involved, but when I get frustrated, I cheat-i look for other devoted fans of the games, who have created or figured out ways to modify the game, to their advantage. Empire at War has three modes- one replays the events of the movies, one has certain limitations and you only have to conquer certain aspects of the star wars mythology, and one is just an all-out skirmish, either in space or on the ground, where you can sign up as the empire or the rebellion and just start shooting each other until one team wins. I like that mode when the other two get frustrating. I usually use the cheater program I found to give me unlimited money, then set the game on the hardest difficulty setting to see if i can still win. I usually do. The game designers created an expansion series, which adds a third faction to the game, a group of pirates, which opens up characters such as Jabba The Hutt and others into the mix. I may get that soon, as I can claim it is for my classwork, and I have to have it, otherwise my wife probably wouldn't let me.