Monthly Archive for March, 2008Page 4 of 5

Incomplete Evil

Published
by
Zubon
on 11 Mar 2008
in City of Heroes/Villains
. 2 Comments

I have been waiting to whine about when we will hear about City of Heroes Issue 12, largely because I expect info to be posted the day that I whine. My powder is just barely dry, so I am going for it. Last issue was on the test server for a month, so it is already two weeks behind where they want to be to keep a pace of one issue every four months.

Almost two years ago, I whined about Issue 7, also late. The gap between 6 and 7 ran from October 27 to June 6, about 7.5 months. At the time, I was bothered for the heroes: 6 and 7 were the villain issues, and Issue 8 was about 15 months after Issue 5. Heroes’ major addition over the course of a year was the PvP zones.

Now I’m concerned about the villains. Issue 8 was a hero issue, 9 was inventions, 10 was cooperative, and 11 was the flashback system. So in the last 21 months, the big content addition for villains was a chance to team with heroes and save the world. There were gameplay additions, like the new power sets and the invention system, but those were shared and mostly changed the way you went through existing content. As Statesman pointed out, most of the villain content is hero content with different flavor text, fighting villain groups. We are low on evil.

I have no idea what Issue 12 will bring, or when it will happen. There was a decent gameplay addition between issues, which is something, although again that is affecting (the rewards for) existing content. On our server, and on many others if the Black Market prices are to be believed, the villain side is mostly dead. My hero side SG is not far from it either, since the big addition since the Rikti re-invasion was to let us replay old content more easily.

: Zubon

(See all those City of Heroes updates on the wiki: Game Updates).

Update: Issue 12 teaser posted. Teaser, not on test. I remind you of Issue 7, which ran teasers for so long that they began showing off wall textures. Lighthouse has already implied that there will be more teasers, so be prepared to wait a bit. Still, look at the stuff in that teaser, woo!

Update 2: link 1 and link 2 stating:

We still have a bit before closed beta, and then several weeks of that till open beta. So, the info is getting strung out over that time. We pretty much have something for you every week.

So about a month from the first teaser to the test server, estimate another month from there. Roughly five months between issues, with 11.5 in-between. Barring major issues or good fortune.

My two cents for two years…

Published
by
Nicodemus
on 10 Mar 2008
in General
. 11 Comments

Wow, I missed my two year anniversary here at killtenrats on February 27th. Has it been that long already?

2007 was a bit of an iffy year for me, pretty chaotic with a few surprises (good and bad). 2008 looks “interesting” thus far. Hard to believe we are getting close to the end of the first quarter already…is that “new car smell” of the new year already beginning to wear off?

I expect I’ll be continuing to point my finger at the game industry and yell “noob!” frequently this year. There is just so much going on (or not going on, depending on your perspective). Yes, sometimes I state the obvious, but hey, that’s what I do. I don’t always make people happy with my commentary (even my gerbils have gotten death threats), but my response to that is “get your heads out of your asses and make better games so I don’t have anything to rant about”.

Continue reading ‘My two cents for two years…’

Losing the Illusion of Permanence

Published
by
Zubon
on 09 Mar 2008
in General
. 5 Comments

Our games are great for providing a false sense of accomplishment. I leveled! I got a badge! We defeated the dragon! It is an accomplishment in some sense, but it does not clean the kitty litter, pay off your mortgage, or provide clean drinking water in Africa. That is fine. It does not need to. We all have our recreation and entertainment, and you just as easily might have been watching a sporting event or cog dancing. I am ecumenical about that.

Part of that sense of accomplishment comes from attachment and achievement. You leveled up. Maybe you said you leveled your warrior, but it is still your warrior. You are connected, you have built something. Even if you are grinding your way along a treadmill, the little number says 56 instead of 54. Advancement! Progress!

Building sand castles is not progress. You get memories, maybe a photograph, and the tide comes in. You have sand again. It might be fun making sand castles, but that fun is more like baking a cake than raising a barn. We know the barn will be gone someday too, but it is less ephemeral.

Is this game The One? Will it last for years rather than months? We build up our characters. We spend hours getting that purple set. We have massive guild drama over loot allocation. And then we move on to the next game. The next The One might be several years away, or maybe you know this next game is just a bagatelle. The flames are barely on the horizon, and already it tastes like ashes.

: Zubon

Great Moments in Flash Gaming

Published
by
Zubon
on 07 Mar 2008
in General
. 2 Comments

I am playing some adequate shooter, and I have reached the last level. Like most, you hold down the left mouse button to fire. This being the last level, I am firing continuously for … longer than I can admit to myself. Wave 9 of 13 complete, huzzah, I have this nailed! Shift my hand a bit because I’m getting sore…

My new mouse has these really useful buttons on the side, which default to back and forward in a web browser. Microsoft designed this mouse very well, so they are right at your fingertips. You barely even need conscious thought to use them.

Crap.

: Zubon

Second Life and Death

Published
by
Zubon
on 06 Mar 2008
in General
. 2 Comments

Paraphrasing a discussion of Second Life and other online fun:
A> So virtual sex is twisted and strange, but virtual killing is good clean fun? This country is messed up.
B> Virtual killing is great because no one really dies. Virtual sex is stupid because no one really gets laid. See the difference?

: Zubon

What is Kotick thinking? If at all…

Published
by
Nicodemus
on 05 Mar 2008
in General
. 6 Comments

After I read about Kotick’s comments here and then commented on the insanity here
I was still pretty stunned for a few days, as were a lot of other people I know in the game industry.

At another conference, this time the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference Kotick has made more eyebrow raising comments. My skype went nuts over the last day or so as everyone has been sending me the links hah. Gamesindustry.biz reports a few of his comments, but I wonder if Kotick isn’t doing a technology and investing roadshow, hitting all of the influencers…with the same speech. So far, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Think about that for a minute.

Anyway, he has already declared that you need to spend $500M-$1B to effectively compete with World of Warcraft (total bullsh**) or at least be commercially successful. Now, he is saying that conversations with Blizzard has Activision thinking about a Call of Duty MMO (bad idea! bad!) which will probably cost…how much? My psychic mind powers give me a strong sense that the budget will be something insane, and will directly impact Activision shareholders (or Actiblizzion, whatever they call the merged venture). Even more mind boggling, is that he implies that Blizzard’s “take away” from the brainstorming conversations was (and this is a direct quote):

“about how Starcraft - as a short session experience - can actually be the model for in-game advertising and sponsorship and tournament play and ladder play for the future.”

Uhm, wow. I’m beginning to see where all this is going. I wonder how long before Blizzard/Vivendi starts feeling some serious buyer’s remorse. I don’t have an opinion of the staff at Activision, but my impression of Kotick is rapidly going down the toilet and based on his comments (granted, I didn’t hear them first hand and I don’t have the full transcript of his talk), I think we are beginning to see early red flags for the future of the company.

Sure, Blizzard is the king of the hill now, and World of Warcraft is great, but can they really follow through with people like Kotick being thrown into the mix? How many of the original designers and developers that worked on WoW are even around any more (remember the exodus with all the new MMO studios being founded by ex-blizzard WoW employees that all had critical contributions to the game?).

Look at NCSoft…they used to be the king of the hill too, but it only takes a few missteps for the whole house of cards to tumble.

My advice to Blizzard: Caveat emptor.

There Must Be Blood

Published
by
Zubon
on 05 Mar 2008
in General
. 9 Comments

I am one of 35 people in the world who liked the original ending of Evangelion. I think it takes the internal perspective on the external events shown in the (first hour of the) re-done version. One notable bit in those episodes is that Shinji is given infinite potential, a blank slate. And he rejects it. He needs a line, ground to walk upon, something to give him bearings. Alone in the void, he has nothing meaningful to do.

Many people reject Second Life because there is nothing to do. Wait, that can’t be right, you can do whatever you want, from swordfighting to interior design. There is just no reason to unless you already want to. Second Life does not have quests or monsters or levels to push you in some direction. You make of your universe what you will, in interaction with others doing the same. That is a lot of responsibility to bear, especially if you are looking for simple fun. (Also, the interface kind of sucks.)

A recent book I read was on the problem of evil. A partial answer I recall from a college text was the need for an “Irenaean environment”: without danger, we would not grow. One similar atheistic perspective holds that a being with no threats to itself has no reason to do anything. If there is no goal to potentially fail in your sandbox game, how long until people get bored and wander off?

So we start with a line. You are level one, and you have an experience point bar. Fill that bar and you reach two. You have a direction, and a goal at the end. We even have some new lines for you to follow at the end of that one. Small risks of failure along the way hide the fact that you cannot lose at World of Warcraft. There are things that want to eat you, and people with exclamation points asking if you would kindly do things. Far from a blank slate of imagination, you now have a clear, channeled path.

But I guess you can win now.

: Zubon

RIP Gary Gygax

Published
by
Ethic
on 04 Mar 2008
in General
. 2 Comments

From the Wikipedia:

Ernest Gary Gygax (July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American writer and game designer, best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson, and co-founding the company Tactical Studies Rules with Don Kaye in 1974. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of the role-playing game.

On March 4th, the Associated Press confirmed reports of Gygax’s passing that originally were made by Troll Lord Games, a small role playing game company Gygax had been working with. He had been in poor health, suffering multiple strokes and a near-heart attack.

- Ethic