New computer

Before we began the process of teaching an old geezer new tricks, and seeing if I could actually learn how to game, we did an equipment check. I already had XBox set up, as I have several grandchildren who come over and use my computer to play their games. Following FacelessJim’s instructions I downloaded first Grounded, the game we would be playing, and then Discord, which apparently you have to use in order to get into the livestream to converse with the other players. Sounded fairly straightforward, yeah? Well, not quite. Downloading Grounded was a cinch, and, first hurdle overcome, the computer check said that Grounded would work just fine with my system. Yes! No need to spend multi 💲

Then on to Discord. After setting it up, first they couldn’t hear me. Now I knew from doing Zoom meetings that the headset I’m using works just fine with both speakers and mic, with no reverberations. So I checked the settings in Discord and finally got the mic and headphones to work, just that everything anyone said echoed. After about 10 minutes I managed to get the echo off my mic, but everything everyone else said still echoed. The others (Faceless, mastervara77, and thennightmarefox) were being very noisy. Someone kept throwing things at Faceless’ face, and in addition to the noise it made when it hit his face, he would let out a squeal every time. Very annoying, especially when the real-time squeals and the echoing squeals overlapped. One of the benefits of having adult kids is that they go live on their own so you don’t have to hear them squealing and bleating on all the time.

Anyway, eventually with the help of Google I found a setting in Discord that allowed noise suppression, and, voilà, when I rejoined the game in progress (how long do these games go on for?) the echo had disappeared.

Yeah! Now I was all set to join in and whoop the butts of these upstart kids! (when you’re my age, a 32-year-old is still a kid). Problem is, when I tried to do anything it was slower than molasses. Worse than that, it was slower than Faceless getting out of bed in the morning. I logged off, then tried running it in one player offline mode, and it was just as bad. Turns out my computer was not adequate for the job.

Now the question became – do I love my son enough to invest in a gaming computer so that we could get this cockanamie idea off the ground, and help him supplement his income? Well, if we could get his career as an influential gamer off the ground then yes, it would be worth it in the long. run. My mother-in-law had just died at almost 103 years old, and had left me a small amount of money in her will, so I decided I would use that to help pay for a new computer. OK, the money hadn’t actually arrived yet, but I would use my line of credit & pay it off when the money did arrive (see: Micawber Principle). A look at the cost of a few computers made me gulp, then Faceless mentioned he could build one from scratch for a lot less money by buying the individual components. So yeah, one minor earthquake and an e-tranfer of funds later, and the building process was underway.

Yesterday, the last of the components arrived at Faceless’ house. He is going to record the build, and explain what he is doing, and adding it to his YouTube channel. That should be happening this Friday. I can’t wait to get it and to get started with the gaming process.