Classes can be really, really boring. I bought a Palm T|X last year (back when I had spendable money) in order to "take notes" in class. Granted, I do this sometimes, but I thought irc would be much more fun to do in class than boring old notes. I rarely install games on the thing, which seems odd. Tiring of solitaire, I got iLarn, a port of the roguelike larn.

The game bends me over a splintery table and paddles me with the spiky board of "I own you" +9.

It's a good thing character creation is fast, because at least half the time you die in the first few seconds of gameplay. Be it monsters right at the dungeon entrance, poisoned water, dart traps, etc... the first levels are very tense. This means that when you actually get a decent character with some of the more awesomer items, you're even more on edge, because you don't want to lose all the hard work.

As with most roguelikes, this difficulty is the norm. It lies in stark contrast to the dungeon-crawlers of today, which are all about the low-level monsters you wade through to slowly gain experience. Most refer to this as the grind. The grind is both boring and too safe, I find. It's there as a security blanket, because killing off someone's lvl1 character 2 minutes into the game isn't "cool" or something anymore.

I wanted to say "politically correct" there, but it didn't quite fit. There are similarities, however, to what doesn't seem to be tolerated in games these days. Silver platter interfaces, extensive tutorials, frequent save points (though that's another issue altogether), and low risk... it all makes me "meh"

Games like this don't mess around with you - you are very very mortal. It's been a long time since I've played a game where winning doesn't involve an n-lengthed gameplay sequence that I need to get past. Winning here actually involves beating the bloody game. If you die, you don't reload the last checkpoint and try again, you damn well LOST. START OVER, LOSER, the game screams at you.

The end result of this is something that has totally gripped my mind and caused me to go into obsessive fits over gameplay theory... yet, unlike an MMO, it never loses it's mystery. I don't know what an item does until I try and use it. Exploration is constant and meaningful. There's genuine "oh, shit" moments, as well as genuine catch-your-breath moments.

All of this can be summed up in saying that things have really changed in the last decade (I've said this before, I know) as far as game design goes. Some would say that in rogue, you would simply become frustrated and give up. On the contrary, I become *angry* at the game, and dive back in headfirst, determined not to die this time.