Julian

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Blast from the past

Bored out of my mind, decided to resuscitate mIRC and open a chat channel for all rat slayers. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s the age of Vent, IM, Skype or whatever it is you whippersnappers use nowadays. There’s something to be said for the old school, and you know I’m all about the old school. So there it is.

You can still get mIRC here.
Log in to any AfterNET server (should be in your mIRC server list). Channel is, of course, #KTR.

So drop by if you’re “staff” or a friend of this glorious blog. Have a little chat, say hi, or just lurk, making everyone else wonder what you’re up to.

We don’t get together very often.

Right premise, wrong conclusion

WoW’s (former?) head dev Jeff Kaplan gave a nice little chat at the GDC. You can find it easily elsewhere in the world wide net. But I’d like to call attention to the following snippets, on quest texts and the medium:

Kaplan explained the age-old internet phrase, relating it to WoW quests that are simply too wordy.

“World of Warcraft quest designers are limited to 511 characters,” he said. “That’s all that will fit into the data entry. And all you programmers know why it’s not 512.”

Some quest designers ask for more space, Kaplan said, saying, “Why are there only 511 characters? We gotta have more, let’s blow that out.”
But Kaplan would prefer to see WoW quests go in the other direction.

“I actually wish that the number was smaller. I think it’s great to limit people in how much pure text they can force on the player. Because honestly… if you ever want a case study, just watch kids play it, and they’re just mashing the button. They don’t want to read anything.”

And this other little choice gem:

Kaplan prepared the crowd for a rant at this point.

I’m as guilty of this as anyone else. We’re so fortunate and privileged to work in a medium that is not only an art, but a revolutionary interactive form of entertainment. It’s unfortunate to see so many games try to be what they’re not, including our game at times. Of course we should embrace the concept of story… art, literature, film, song, they’ve all embraced story as well. But they all tell it in their own unique way.

I feel like we need to deliver our story in a way that is uniquely video game. We need to engage our audience by letting them be the hero or the villain or the victim. [Art, film, literature], they’re tools. But we need to engage our players in sort of an inspiring experience, and the sooner we accept that we are not Shakespeare, Scorsese, Tolstoy or the Beatles, the better off we are.

“If it makes us feel better, Shakespeare couldn’t 3D model his way out of a paper bag,” concluded Kaplan.

“Basically, and I’m speaking to the Blizzard guys in the back: we need to stop writing a fucking book in our game, because nobody wants to read it.”

Dear Mr. Jeff Kaplan (Jeff K.? lawls, etc.), if you’re reading this, my humble comment: It’s not about 511 characters or more, and it’s not that people don’t want to read your quest texts because they’re too long. People skip your texts because the quality of the texts stinks. A good writer can work wonders with 511 characters. What I would suggest to you, sir, is not to lower the limit, or raise it. The solution is pretty obvious: Hire better writers. There are tons of good writers out there that produce excellent stuff and are dying to get some work. When you outsource the writing to a programmer, marketing guy, cousin or whatever you’re only doing a disservice to the game.

Why your game turns me off

Because it might work with other people. But me? I’m old, weathered and sometimes cynical, and I can see right through your paltry deceptions. I’ve seen a lot, and that lot includes people just like you, trying to pull the same stunts you’re pulling. As a developer, of course it’s expected of you to piss off your playerbase. It’s implicit in the unspoken sort of “social contract” between you and your players. But… you’re not supposed to piss them off too much. When you do, you’ve gone to the other end and people are gonna start to, well… you know, not play your game.

You still do make games for people to play them, don’t you? Good. Since we’re on the same page, here’s a few sure fire ways of turning me off your game. Not that you have to cater to me by doing the opposite, of course. To the contrary, feel free to use this as a roadmap to deliberately make sure I won’t play your game. Or at least that I won’t play it with a smile. Up to you.

Continue reading Why your game turns me off

Silicon I have loved

“Finished” Fable 2 last night. Slightly disappointing ending itself, but the buildup to that ending… by Saint Meier, it’s magistral. Of course I say “finished” because it’s not really-really The End(tm). Now I got a bunch of post-ending quests that opened up, so we’ll see how that goes.

That’s not what I wanted to talk about. I’m still in a reminiscing mood this week, so after talking about games, I started thinking of all the little and not so little machines I owned throughout the years. It struck me as amazing how in only two decades and change the available power at our fingertips increased so much. I know we know this, but it helps to map it out and visualize it.

Continue reading Silicon I have loved

Games I wanna see remade

Reminiscing with Syncaine about Syndicate (that’s a nice pair of Syns) on my previous post reminded me about those games that urgently need to be made again for the enjoyment of today’s spoiled achievement and gamer card generation.

– The aforementioned Syndicate, because it was godly fun. A squad of four cybernetically-enhanced agents packing miniguns in a dense urban area? Sign me up.
– Crusader: No Remorse. Just think of all that property damage riding on top of a modern engine with physics and particle systems. Yum.
– X-COM (Or UFO: Enemy Unknown, depending on which side of the pond you are): Because it was one of the greatest games everÂ and pretty much the noble granddaddy of the tactical squad games.
-Paradroid. I don’t expect you whippersnappers to know what I’m talking about, but running around as a robot in a derelict spaceship hacking and assimilating other robots to stay alive was way too much fun.
– System Shock. This one is pretty much self-explanatory. I wouldn’t mind it one bit if someone remade System Shock 2 either.
– Deus Ex. No, don’t tell me about Invisible War. That was a bad sequel. The original Deus Ex was fraggin’ lightning in a bottle that needs to be caught again. At any cost.
– Ultima V. I know I’m getting into tenebrous territory here, but Ultima V was to me one of the high points of the series. I’m not getting into arguments about which one is better.
– Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2. A dark horse in this list. Did everything right, this one. Later installments were hit or miss.
– Carmaggeddon. Good luck getting this done in today’s saccharinized society.
– Supercars 2. An awesome, awesome little top down racer with violent vehicles.
– Transport Tycoon Deluxe. Often imitated, never surpassed.
– Elite. And no, don’t tell me I can play EVE for my Elite fix because it’s not the same and you damn well know it. Also, while I’m at it, I’d just like to mention that Frontier was better than most people gave it credit for. It just had a ton of bugs. Still, remaking Elite (and remaking it properly that is) is a tall order.

I also want my very own magical pony and a Secret of Monkey Island MMO. There, I said it.

More than the sum of its parts

I’m still in a circular mood (360, circular, get it? har har). Got Fable 2 recently just on the strengths of its many positive reviews and because I generally tend to like Peter Molyneux’s games a lot. Yes, even back to Populous. I played it when it came out. I’m old.

Well, it doesn’t disappoint and most of the praise thrown in the game’s direction is well warranted. Fable 2 does a lot of things very right, and a few things wrong. However, the more I play it I’m finding out those wrong things were done wrong essentially because they had no choice. But all in all this is one of those games in which the general feeling of the whole being way more than the sum of its parts is really strong and noticeable.

Thoughts follow.

Continue reading More than the sum of its parts

Why you need to play Braid

(it’s coming for PC on Q1 2009, or if you have an Xbox you can get it now from XBLA)

You need to play Braid because it’s beautiful. I don’t mean just visually – and it is a visual treat. I mean the whole package. It’s just a precious, beautiful gaming experience as a whole. Easily one of the most emotionally/intellectually rewarding games I’ve played in years, and that’s not a qualifier I throw around lightly. In these times of formulas, repetition and franchises, to find a game that challenges and engages you not because of its difficulty, but conceptually as a whole is rare. And to find it in the shape of, basically, a 2D platformer is just a miracle of design.

But it’s there, and it’s beautiful. Everything, from watercolor painting visuals, to its amazing soundtrack, its clever design and superb writing combines to make something unique.

Yes, there is life and original thought in today’s gaming. You can get it from XBLA for (I believe) $15 which is a steal for the experience you receive in return. Or it’s coming for PC soon. Whatever your case, this is not something you wanna miss. It’s smarter, more beautiful, more engaging, more thought-provoking and better designed than many, many of the games out there which took an army of people to make.

P.S.: Yes, I got a 360 for xmas. Games I’ve been playing: Rock Band 2 (which is awesome), Kung Fu Panda (which I stole from the kids because it’s great), Lego Indiana Jones (which is nice to look at but horrible to play, just like every other Lego game), and I’ve been beating the everliving crap out of the Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo Remix (which I love and I don’t care what you think).

Obsessed with Poo

What’s in the water down in Irvine? We have ignored the signs for so long. It all began with that (presumably) Dwarf stuck in the outhouse in Searing Gorge. A predicament, but one easily solved by some mass murdering in the area. Proximity to poo: close.

Then Burning Crusade regaled us with the wonderful quest experience of having to dig through twenty bundles of gazelle crap in Nagrand to look for digested cherry seeds. Yum, amirite? Proximity to poo: touch. Unless you RP’d using a stick to sift through the things, which many a roleplayer has done, as I understand it.

Now come Northrend, I’ve taken part in two of these high-class adventuring quests. One in Borean Tundra where you not only have to administer (by way of tossing) a powerful laxative to some wolves so they can evacuate important microfilm fragments, which of course you have to sift through. Proximity to poo: touch. Again. Then in Grizzly Hills not only you eat a bunch of seeds, maliciously tempted by a yellow exclamation sign, but you then have to remove those seeds from the digestion equation by means of yet another laxative. This time one you must prepare and ingest yourself. Then you go to an outhouse, and in between aoe’s of mist and mini-earthquakes (I kid not) you emerge triumphant holding what laid hidden in your detritus: partially digested seed. Proximity to poo: touching. Touching your own poo, man. Far out.

Of course the seedsÂ go back in the bucket for the next trusting soul to pick. It’s the cycle of life. And this is only at level 74 or so. What lies next? Is Kel’Thuzad, well, ‘blocked’? Gotta do something about that too? Do we find out about the Lich King’s irregularity? Is this what the plague was really all about?

One thing’s for sure, Blizzard sure loves shitty quests.

Lich King Tidbits

Still digesting it all, slowly, but I can offer some quickies. Longer lasting impressions might follow at some point.

– Yes, Death Knights are cool.
– Some folks are complaining about itemization. This ain’t like Burning Crusade, where the greens you got in Hellfire were better than your epics from Naxx. From what I gather, 71-75 items are only slightly better, and in the vast majority of cases only sidegrades, assuming your character did a minimum of Karazhan, Magister’s Terrace or Outland instances. Blizzard smoothed out at least the first half of your Northrend journey in terms of gear. This has heavy raiders from BC slightly miffed, and it’s naturally bad news for them. However, it’s great news for…
– People who didn’t get to raid at all in BC, or… wait for it… wait for it…. people who rolled Death Knights, headed to Outland straight away and blazed to 68 riding on quest reward gear only (which is perfectly doable). By the time those lvl68 Death Knights set foot in Northrend, everyone else’s ‘sidegrades’ are actually huge upgrades for them. Blizzard can be shrewd like that sometimes.
– The Nexus is hands down one of the best-looking instances I’ve seen in years, and Utgarde Keep holds its own as well. It seems they really raised the bar for this one, visually at least.
– Just to be fair and balanced, I glanced at my wife playing in Azjol Nerub for all of 20 seconds and didn’t find it very aesthetically appealing at all. But I cannot judge from a 20 second glance. We’ll see. I have high hopes for Uldum, personally.
– If you’re about to head into Northrend, you really, really, really wanna take your time and take the boat from Menethil instead of the one from Stormwind. The one from Stormwind leaves you in Borean Tundra. The one from Menethil, in the Howling Fjord. Why? How do I wanna put it…

Borean Tundra: Pasta.
Howling Fjord: Pasta with a freshly made tomato, basil and mushroom soft sauce, topped with freshly-grated parmesan cheese. Served just at the right temperature, by a 10th generation family chef from Tuscany, who made the whole dish right before your eyes while you sipped the season’s red wine, in a delightful summer sunset, on the terrace at his private villa. Then his daughter appears, and she’s none other than Isabella Rossellini. She sits next to you, takes a sip of wine from your glass and smiles at you, saying how much she loves men who play MMOs, and how virile they seem.

It’s about that level of difference in the experience, give or take the beautiful female. It’s like they dropped the Northrend map and it hit the floor on the Borean Tundra side when it was young.

– All quest gear, depending on class and gear type, apparently shares the same bland models (well detailed bland models, though), and you’ll come across a lot of recolors. Bad mojo. I don’t know if this is intentional and the good looking gear is only found in instances or later on, or if there’s an upcoming patch to introduce some variety. Dunno. But it is a serious turn off.

More to follow at some point. Overall verdict so far (very early on): Thumbs up, with some reservations.

I’m not anti-social, just anti-grouping.

This is a topic that has caused considerable discussion in the past. Not all of it awesome discussion. So let’s just get it out of the way: I like playing with by myself. I like soloing. If you give me the choice, 8 times out of 10 I’d rather be out there doing my own thing than being in a group.

But I’m not anti-social. At all. All my characters (of some importance) in every MMO (that I played more or less seriously) have been guilded. I have many good game friends, and these friendships persist even when either party moves on to another game.

Is there a disconnect here? No. Why? After the break.

Continue reading I’m not anti-social, just anti-grouping.