Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Looking forward to Champions Online.
What I've seen of Champions Online through previews, and developer interviews, has made me rather excited about it. However, most of my excitement comes from the desire to really delve into the character creation and figure out how all the various power options in the game work. I've often had great fun messing with character creation in CoH, and in fact, I find the creation and experimentation to be my favorite part of CoH, and often the only reason I play. Champions Online promises an even greater amount of creative freedom, and the ability to mess around with things a lot more.
What I fear, is that I will run into the same problem I always run into. My enjoyment of the game will come almost entirely from the creative aspects, and actual gameplay will become the chore that must be done to enjoy the parts I love.
One example of the sort of problem I've had in the past was Diablo II. I'd get the idea to try building a character around a certain power. Sometimes it would be a power available early, and it'd be great. Other times, it'd be something only available late, and I'd have to try slogging through the game long enough to get there. Often, I'd get bored first, and never finish my concept. I have a lot of incomplete Diablo II characters that never managed to really explore the concepts I had built them for.
Written on 20090711 (yyyymmdd)
What I fear, is that I will run into the same problem I always run into. My enjoyment of the game will come almost entirely from the creative aspects, and actual gameplay will become the chore that must be done to enjoy the parts I love.
One example of the sort of problem I've had in the past was Diablo II. I'd get the idea to try building a character around a certain power. Sometimes it would be a power available early, and it'd be great. Other times, it'd be something only available late, and I'd have to try slogging through the game long enough to get there. Often, I'd get bored first, and never finish my concept. I have a lot of incomplete Diablo II characters that never managed to really explore the concepts I had built them for.
Written on 20090711 (yyyymmdd)
Friday, July 17, 2009
Regarding the MMO
http://doublebuffered.com/2009/07/14/no-mmorpg-will-ever-beat-world-of-warcraft/
This guy makes some points I hadn't thought of before. They also seem to be some very good points. Such as:
"Unless you have breaks and social hubs built into your game (the waiting-for-the-round-to-end time of CounterStrike can serve this purpose well), players will never develop the long term social ties needed to sustain a community. This is also why there’s never been a good MMORTS: the amount of brainpower needed to manage units in a way that engages RTS players doesn’t leave a whole lot left over to build social bonds."
I kinda feel like that was the core observation of the article. The one of greatest import (at least for me).
This guy makes some points I hadn't thought of before. They also seem to be some very good points. Such as:
"Unless you have breaks and social hubs built into your game (the waiting-for-the-round-to-end time of CounterStrike can serve this purpose well), players will never develop the long term social ties needed to sustain a community. This is also why there’s never been a good MMORTS: the amount of brainpower needed to manage units in a way that engages RTS players doesn’t leave a whole lot left over to build social bonds."
I kinda feel like that was the core observation of the article. The one of greatest import (at least for me).
Monday, July 13, 2009
Game Core Mechanics
It occurred to me that CoH's main gameplay can be little more than hitting buttons at the right time. When the power lights up because it's ready for use, you hit the button to use it. There is a lot of strategy involved in creating a character, and deciding how to use it, but once that's done, the actual use of the character, tends to not be very deep. The bit about hitting the button when it says it's ready, reminds me of DDR.
Another thing that occurred to me, is that the common boss design in action games, where there's a visible animation before a big attack that needs to be either dodged or blocked, is in many ways similar to a quicktime event, in that it's just hitting the right button when the onscreen cue tells you to. Though quicktime events tend to be more straight forward (making them easier) and often involve having the character do feats not normally possible in the game mechanics.
With regard to the block when told mechanic. One varient I thought was neat was something I encountered in Skies of Arcadia. In the ship to ship battles, there would be a colour code to each segment of time in battle. The colour told you how dangerous a given moment would be. This generally encouraged you to block during the most dangrous ones. However, the most dangerous segments were often the ones in which you could do the most damage too. So there was a choice there between blocking, or gunning, and the different weapon types actually offered more than two ways of handling it.
I really don't know if these things I've observed are good things or bad things. I do know, that I often wish things were different, but I don't know what I'd want it to be. I'm reminded of how I love building decks for Magic The Gathering, but don't have much interest in playing the game. However, if I don't play, I can't learn how well my decks work. So the gameplay becomes a kind of chore I have to get through to do what I like. I find I have similar sentiments about most games that I play, and don't know how to fix it. I fear that even if I did find a game that did things in a way I really liked, I'd probably finish it too quickly due to it not being feasable to produce enough quality content to really keep me interested a long time. Sorta like how I can read books far faster than their authors can write.
Written on 20090710 (yyyymmdd)
Another thing that occurred to me, is that the common boss design in action games, where there's a visible animation before a big attack that needs to be either dodged or blocked, is in many ways similar to a quicktime event, in that it's just hitting the right button when the onscreen cue tells you to. Though quicktime events tend to be more straight forward (making them easier) and often involve having the character do feats not normally possible in the game mechanics.
With regard to the block when told mechanic. One varient I thought was neat was something I encountered in Skies of Arcadia. In the ship to ship battles, there would be a colour code to each segment of time in battle. The colour told you how dangerous a given moment would be. This generally encouraged you to block during the most dangrous ones. However, the most dangerous segments were often the ones in which you could do the most damage too. So there was a choice there between blocking, or gunning, and the different weapon types actually offered more than two ways of handling it.
I really don't know if these things I've observed are good things or bad things. I do know, that I often wish things were different, but I don't know what I'd want it to be. I'm reminded of how I love building decks for Magic The Gathering, but don't have much interest in playing the game. However, if I don't play, I can't learn how well my decks work. So the gameplay becomes a kind of chore I have to get through to do what I like. I find I have similar sentiments about most games that I play, and don't know how to fix it. I fear that even if I did find a game that did things in a way I really liked, I'd probably finish it too quickly due to it not being feasable to produce enough quality content to really keep me interested a long time. Sorta like how I can read books far faster than their authors can write.
Written on 20090710 (yyyymmdd)
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Marketing Music
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/12/nettwerk-ceo-terry-mcbride-puts-fans-in-charge-of-bands346.html
"We started initially with T-shirts. We found out that the T-shirts that the fans designed -- even if the artists didn't like them -- the people who went to shows liked them more than the ones that the artists designed. That was consistent whether it was Barenaked Ladies, or Avril or Sarah -- the fans' T-shirts always sold more. The fans would do the designs and vote up the ones they liked, and filter them to the top, and we would take the top 3 voted designs and put them in production. And they were consistently the top sellers out there.
In 2005, we took it a step further by releasing Barenaked Ladies songs in stems [pieces of the music tracks]. That sparked the idea for the guys who created Rock Band. That was more of a remix. Now I'm more about the mix; to hell with the remix! We have an artist named K-OS, and we released all of the stems two weeks ago, and the fans have not heard the album. It's not due out until March, so they are actually mixing the album. So we will release physically and digitally the artist version and the fan version. And when we go to radio, we will service the artist version and fan version. So we are taking it the rest of the way." - Terry McBride
"We started initially with T-shirts. We found out that the T-shirts that the fans designed -- even if the artists didn't like them -- the people who went to shows liked them more than the ones that the artists designed. That was consistent whether it was Barenaked Ladies, or Avril or Sarah -- the fans' T-shirts always sold more. The fans would do the designs and vote up the ones they liked, and filter them to the top, and we would take the top 3 voted designs and put them in production. And they were consistently the top sellers out there.
In 2005, we took it a step further by releasing Barenaked Ladies songs in stems [pieces of the music tracks]. That sparked the idea for the guys who created Rock Band. That was more of a remix. Now I'm more about the mix; to hell with the remix! We have an artist named K-OS, and we released all of the stems two weeks ago, and the fans have not heard the album. It's not due out until March, so they are actually mixing the album. So we will release physically and digitally the artist version and the fan version. And when we go to radio, we will service the artist version and fan version. So we are taking it the rest of the way." - Terry McBride
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Understanding others?
http://doublebuffered.com/2009/06/16/the-players-are-wrong-but-listen-anyway/
I believe that in any conversation, it is important to understand why the other party says what they say. In my experience, understanding why is the key to truly helping people. Otherwise, you just end up going in circles.
I believe that in any conversation, it is important to understand why the other party says what they say. In my experience, understanding why is the key to truly helping people. Otherwise, you just end up going in circles.
Started up CoH again...
While I find the new Mission Architect to overall be pretty brilliant, I also find the game as a whole feels buggier than I remember it being before. This might be partly due to my memory forgetting little annoyances, but I don't think that would account for all of it. The game just feels like it's not as well polished as it had been when I first started playing.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Atheism as a Stealth Religion
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sloan-wilson/atheism-as-a-stealth-reli_b_76901.html
Sometimes, the same patterns of thought will appear in seemingly opposite locations.
Sometimes, the same patterns of thought will appear in seemingly opposite locations.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Key Duplication.
http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=791
Seems technology is making it easier than ever to duplicate someone else's keys.
Seems technology is making it easier than ever to duplicate someone else's keys.
While I'm on the topic of Religion...
http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2009/05/god_only_seems_nonexistent.php
'tis for laughs. May it amuse.
'tis for laughs. May it amuse.
Quotes from Bertrand Russell
http://talkingincircles.net/2008/06/17/quotes-from-bertrand-russel/
"There is no logical impossibility in the hypothesis that the world sprang into being five minutes ago, exactly as it then was, with a population that “remembered” a wholly unreal past. There is no logically necessary connection between events at different times; therefore nothing that is happening now or will happen in the future can disprove the hypothesis that the world began five minutes ago." - Bertrand Russell
This is why I see no contradiction between the idea of God creating the world 10k years ago, and the theories of Evolution and the Big Bang. The former is much like the idea of it forming five minutes ago. The latter would then be the "wholly unreal past". In life, whether or not the past is real doesn't matter, only whether or not the information gleaned is useful.
"There is no logical impossibility in the hypothesis that the world sprang into being five minutes ago, exactly as it then was, with a population that “remembered” a wholly unreal past. There is no logically necessary connection between events at different times; therefore nothing that is happening now or will happen in the future can disprove the hypothesis that the world began five minutes ago." - Bertrand Russell
This is why I see no contradiction between the idea of God creating the world 10k years ago, and the theories of Evolution and the Big Bang. The former is much like the idea of it forming five minutes ago. The latter would then be the "wholly unreal past". In life, whether or not the past is real doesn't matter, only whether or not the information gleaned is useful.
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