Category: General

Scott Hartsman‘s roundtable at IMGDC was about scripts, stemming from a blog fight that I had missed. I summarize the consensus as, “Scripts are often implemented poorly. If you are going to use them, take them seriously and design them well.”

Designers know that players will work creatively to get around restrictions. Players are bound by the limits of the code, not the intent of the vision. If a system can be broken, it will be. Programmers should know the same thing about designers. If you place artificial restrictions on the designers to keep them from mucking something up, they are still creative people who will find ways around them, sometimes breaking things more interestingly along the way.

If you want to see how this applies in your game, think of how one thing can break while a seemingly identical other thing still works just fine. There is a good chance that two developers used the same tools to create the same outcome in different ways. The latest patch changed something that one implementation depends upon, while the other is unaffected; for more fun, both could be broken in different ways. Good programming practices were not adhered to, and now the game is much harder to update. Now multiply that across several dozen people working over several years, most or all of whom now work on other products. Have fun maintaining the code!

To explain the title, “x is often implemented poorly” is a common issue. Jason Booth explained that about procedural content, which is neither a panacea nor the destroyer of worlds. Jeff Freeman explained that about forums, which can use valuable tools or useless noise. It may be a bad sign that some tools are misused more than others.

: Zubon

In our continuing series on online and ancient communication, our friends at Language Log have discovered that l33tspeak was responsible for the fall of Rome.

The villain was none other than txting, that widely-feared destroyer of civilizations. While IM and SMS had not yet been invented, the Romans used a medium that motivates textual concision even more strongly: marble.

I shudder at the use of “8” in words like “l8r,” but we had entire millenia where you did not write vowels.

: Zubon

It is Sunday, bedtime. I have the urge to stay up until four. Heck with this, we’ll get some fast food and play late into the night. We’re going to hang out, play some games, maybe watch a movie or something. Anyone up for Settlers?

Wait, no, I’m a grown up. I have work in the morning. Oh well; most of my friends live out of state, or too far in-state, and have work too. Being responsible sucks.

: Zubon

…this isn’t rocket science guys. Get your story straight.

I was at the NASA MMORPG Workshop held on Monday of this week at the BWI Marriot, so I’m speaking from first hand experience. The first thing I’ll tell you, is that everything you have been reading (like Slashdot, Gamasutra, Second Life Herald and even Wired are all wrong. Absolutely. Like, what happened to doing accurate reporting? Or even checking sources?

[Damn, even Wired goofed this?]

I’ll explain how and why these sources (and almost nearly everyone else there) has it wrong. First, most of the people that actually attended the workshop ignored the first rule of the world of technology. RTFM. Or, in this case, the website, documentation, materials, and everything else. Heck, I’m starting to think that the majority of the people that went didn’t even bother to pay attention during the panels or even read the powerpoint slides.

Continue reading EXCLUSIVE! Reporting about NASA MMO ALL WRONG…

Facilitating a statewide planning meeting last week, I had a keyboard connected to the room’s projectors. This let us visually track notes, issues to resolve, action items, etc. It also made me very aware that I should not try to talk smack about people in /gu.

: Zubon

From Moorgard‘s friend Kohath:

“You guys have an uphill battle differentiating yourselves from all the other MMOs that no one cares about.”

And there are good reasons not to care about lousy MMOs. And there are a lot of them. A lot. And more coming. And Raph is helping people make their own at home. I can only hope that Sturgeon’s Law is not too optimistic.

: Zubon

While the game itself seems to be wearing a red shirt, the makers of Star Trek Online (in whatever final form it may appear) may want to read this presentation on the deaths of Star Trek red-shirts. The canny player might be tempted never to put his crew in red outfits, but that is obvious cheating that is just asking for karmic revenge; you want the enemy to focus fire there, rather than hitting valuable bridge crew members. Instead, note the bit showing that Captain Kirk’s sex life is a primary determinant of whether crew members live or die. Now I’m not saying that there is any cause-and-effect, since Kirk was not one to seduce fanged tentacle fiends, but a noble PC captain must be willing to take one for the team. Age of Conan is trailbreaking this gameplay, so be sure to earn your crew buff on each new planet.

: Zubon

H/T: Mark Krikorian

Some not-a-game requires agreeing to proper use of its trademarks, etc. before logging in. That includes their name, and they claim their initials as well. Rather than delve into what exactly is being claimed there, I am going to avoid using the words or saying them aloud. I feel safer that way. I hope that was the intent of the Terms of Service change.

: Zubon