Aveyond

I started to respond to Scotty's discussion about games on his blog, but changed my mind when my thoughts wouldn't stay in a single sentence. So, not having anything particularly heavy on my mind tonight, I thought I'd plug my favorite game.

I am by no means a a gamer. I don't like shooting or fighting or racing games. I am poorly coordinated so the ones that rely on reflex aren't my bag either. I did love Myst, but all the sequels made me motion sick. This is pretty funny for a woman who lives in in the Ozarks; I drive up and down hills and sail around curves all day without so much as a twinge. But sit down in front of my computer to play a video game, and I'm reaching for dramamine. Quite honestly I try to steer away from distractions like games. I have enough drains on my time without adding to the load. Writing is hard enough as it is around four kids.

However a few months ago, while snowed in, I stumbled into a RPG Game that I fell in love with. I played it steadily for two weeks and was actually sad when I reached the end. I felt like picking up my monitor and shaking it to see if there wasn't just a few more bits stuck inside some diode. It's called "Aveyond" and it's a product of Amaranth games.

Aveyond was clearly written with a predominantly female audience in mind. In fact the main character is a female. The creator paid a lot of attention to storylines, enriching it with major and minor characters, villains, subplots and multiple (as in more than 60) quests. The graphics are simple, but rich with detail. As the player is solving the interdependent quests and fighting monsters (leveling up, gaining new magic skills) they explore countries, cities, villages, caves, labrynths, mazes and even oceans. If the player plays their cards right, they can even ride on a dragon. Nicely included, but not emphasized is a love story. As far as I'm concerned, the person who wrote this game is a genius. I've searched high and low for another one like it, downloaded and tried a few, but haven't found its equal.

Here's the link to the site to download it. Warning: It's addictive. I completely neglecting my writing and housekeeping during the two weeks I played it.

Aveyond

Gossip has it that the game designer is working on a sequel. I wish she'd hurry.