The game of the day is flOw. It’s a bit like Snake. You go around eating plankton-like things and eating bits of other creatures while swimming deeper and deeper into the murky pool.
I believe the guy is developing this for PS3, too. It’s a nice time-waster with potential to be more. As someone said in the forums, it would make a good game for the Nintendo DS. I could also see it as a cool MMOG, where everyone is vying for plankton and eating bits of each other.
Bioware’s Austin group has been working on a new MMORPG, as I’ve mentioned before. A couple of the honchos gave an interview over at 1up. I read it yesterday, but there really isn’t anything new. They mention that they’re going to focus on making the player-character’s story interesting. I like how they mentioned The Hobbit vs. LotR, where Bilbo’s story had less of an impact on the world-as-a-whole, but had a huge impact on his and his companions’ lives. That is an interesting direction for an MMORPG, one that I would like to see done right.
So far, there have been MMORPGs where the characters participate in an overall story arc (like Asheron’s Call), and ones where each character follows his own path (like WoW). There has yet to be one where a character and his group have a truly epic experience. If you think about it, though, The Hobbit was just a raid. Plus, once Smaug was slain, he was gone for good. This wouldn’t be fair to the other groups, so you have to make it an instance. But, if everyone can do it, it loses its epic feel. So how do you balance it?
A quick stop at the Apple QuickTime Trailer site prompted me to list a few movies I’d like to see:
- Eragon: I’d seen the book and thought about picking it up, but never did. Looks like a cross between Harry Potter and LotR.
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Just finish this series already! They aren’t the greatest, but they’re perfect for curling up on a cold winter’s night with a fire and some hot apple cider. Don’t ask me why, they just seem that way to me.
- A Scanner Darkly: The style looks great (cell-shaded) and the setting sounds cool.
- Lady in the Water: Despite the Shayamalan haters out there, I like his movies. Well, the Villiage wasn’t great, but wasn’t bad, either.
- Flyboys: This looks like a fun movie.
- Pan’s Labyrinth: Del Torro’s new film looks very cool; a mix between Alice In Wonderland and a Marylin Manson video.
- In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Seige movie. Unfortunately, it’s directed by Uwe “Game-movie Killer” Boll. I doubt Jason Statham can save this one, but I still want to see it.
- The Fountain: Looks cool, but don’t know much about it.
- The Prestige: Heard good things.
I’m a bit late on this discussion. Nerf, Raph, Damion, Matt, Korea, etc. have all touched on RMT (real money trades) and microtransactions. They both boil down to paying real-life currency for in-game goods (or services).
Here’s one example: One guy goes around in an MMORPG killing creatures for the items they carry. He, then, sells the items for in-game money. Then, he posts an auction on EBay for the in-game money. Another player bids on the auction, pays real-life money for in-game money, then buys his in-game character something. This is usually justified as the first guy selling his services to the second.
Here’s another example: One guy pays the game company real-life money for a special item that cannot be found through any other method. Sometimes the special item merely changes the character’s appearance, other times it gives a bonus.
What’s the difference? In the first example, the game company is not making any money from the transaction. This is normally called RMT. In the second example, the company makes money. That is normally called a microtransaction. Some see these as an unfair advantage: the rich get richer.
In my opinion, microtransactions would be a good addition to a game provided they do not provide an unfair advantage. They should be integrated into the setting, though. The best example would be what used to be called a “restring”. In MUD days, this meant that a player could change the “look” of an item by adding colors or changing the title of the item. In this case, “a rusty longsword” became “Glamdring, the Foe-hammer” in pretty yellow, red, blue, and green letters. This was often traded in-game for roleplay points (given for good roleplay). It didn’t convey any bonuses, just looked better. You could normally tell the best roleplayers by how flashy their items were restrung, or how well each item matched in color and description. Sometimes, though, a player would get restrings because he was friendly with an admin. This is where the line between in-game and real-life began to blur.
So, allow people to buy flashy items with real-life money, but don’t make it statistically any better than a similar in-game item. You’ll always have some sort of black market RMT happening. Don’t spend resources to curb it. Instead, just make the game fun to play.
From this article, the MPAA wants to authorize home theaters for viewing movies. This, of course, also means that they’ll charge you money to watch a movie that you’ve already bought. I couldn’t get the other link to pull up, so I couldn’t get more details.
If I buy a DVD, it already includes all applicable fees for viewing said movie. I can watch it once or put it on repeat for the rest of my life and I shouldn’t have to pay anything else. I can have a movie-watching party with 100 friends. What I can’t do is charge admission; charge each person a fee for viewing my movie. I’m a little fuzzy on the legalese, but once I pay for a movie, my obligation to the artists and producers is complete. I’m not going to pay another fee for the right to watch the movie.
That said, if the MPAA wants to change the way that I watch movies in my own home, they are more than welcome to try. XBox Live allows TV and Movie rentals through the 360 now. I’m sure the MPAA latches onto some of those fees. Those of us without a 360 might like a less expensive way to watch downloaded media. So, MPAA, why don’t you innovate instead of trying to leech money after-the-fact? Bums.
I’ve got the basic functionality of my AIM Relay application working. I’m using AIM’s SDK. Here’s the low-down:
It logs on as one of my AIM screen names (ex: Server). I log on at another location as another of my screen names (ex: Laptop). From Laptop, I send an IM to Server containing a command to tell it where I can currently be reached (ex: @here). The AIM Relay sets my current location as Laptop. Now, if anyone sends a message to Server, it will forward it to wherever I currently am (i.e. Laptop). Now, if I send an @here IM to Server from my cell phone (ex: Cell), it will change my location and begin forwarding IMs to my cell phone. This way, I only have to give out one AIM screen name and people won’t have to send IMs to multiple screen names to figure out which one I’m currently at.
That, in itself, is pretty benign. It gets more powerful when I integrate it with Outlook. I mentioned this the other day, so I won’t go into it. What I’m really looking forward to is meshing it with other system functions, doing word replacement (to keep input to a minimum, while maintaining readability), and hooking up to an SMTP server for email. What I really want to do is hook it up to a MUD. One step at a time. Any other ideas of what this could be used for?
I stumbled across this article in my daily reading today: UFO: Afterlight. It is the next game in the UFO/X-Com series, started by the Gollop brothers. Speaking of Moore’s Law, X-Com: UFO Defense was the game that made me want to upgrade our 8 MHz 386 with 256KB to the all-powerful 16 MHz 486 with 1MB and VGA!
Anyway, the new game looks fantastic. I love the stylized cartoon-y feel. The UI looks very clean, too. I might have to get this one when it comes out.
Also related to the UFO series is Rebel Star. I wrote about this GBA game a little while back. It is a great turn-based strategy game. I haven’t played it in a while (due to Zelda and now FFTA), but I might have to pick it up again sometime.
The Thanksgiving holiday went well. I had plenty of time to R&R, eat, and see family. Did a little shopping. Went geocaching yesterday. That’s always fun when you have a free afternoon. We were 3/4 finding the caches.
Best Buy had Neverwinter Nights 2 for $25 this weekend, so I grabbed a copy. At first, it didn’t like the graphics card in my laptop, but after updating the drivers, it runs (albeit a little choppy). [rant] My laptop is a Sager with a 3.2 GHz desktop P4, 1GB RAM, and an ATI Radeon Mobility 9600. It’s about 3 years old now. What really chaps my hide is that I barely meet the minimum specs for NWN2! The graphics aren’t too much better than the first NWN. The problem, methinks, is Microsoft. With Vista coming up (or here already?), they are pushing for high-end graphics, so they threw all of these features into DirectX. While it’s backward-compatible, if you don’t use those functions, you’re forcing your users to have the best graphics capabilities. My 3-year old laptop is still a powerhouse (not to mention power-hungry), even with today’s dual-core processors. Creating software whose minimum specs are high-end at the time of the release is not a very good business model, especially if the graphics aren’t THAT much better than the first game. [/rant] Anyway, if anyone else has the game and would like to play, drop me a line.
So now, it’s time to get back to the grindstone and hit my projects hard for one last push this year. If I can finish my large project in the next week or two, I can cruise a bit through the next holiday.
I’m a little behind on my news, but Nerfbat got snatched up by Green Monster Games. I mentioned this company a while back (Schilling, Salvatore, McFarlane) and had high hopes. He joins several other ex-SOE/EQ2 team members (Moorgard, Erik Theisz, and Michael Woods) in the quest to “[change] the landscape of the MMO gaming world“. Heck yeah. Good luck and Godspeed, guys.
I’ve been tinkering with a software idea that I had a while back. It’s basically an IM Relay server (based on AIM’s TOC protocol). It is your single source of IM contact. When you sign onto another IM account, you send it an IM telling it which account you’re active on. I’ve got a few (home, work, laptop, phone). It will, then forward any IMs it receives to your active account. It will do much more than that, though.
In addition to relaying IMs, it can store IMs when you’re busy or not logged in, then send them when you’re available. The new AIM does this server-side, but mine does even more. You’ll be able to have it forward IMs or cached IMs to an email address.
On top of that, it’ll be linked to Outlook or Google Calendar (haven’t decided which yet). It’ll send you IM reminders for events as well as keep track of task lists. Heck, it could even look up addresses/phone numbers from your address book.
The cherry on top is integration to a MUD. I don’t know how I’ll do this, but since a MUD is also on my software list, I might as well build in IM capability. Why a MUD? Who needs graphics? Sure, they’re pretty, but I want auxiliary gameplay. I want to take short, 5 minute breaks from my daily routine to check on what my avatar and his world are up to. I want to nudge him, not control his every move. Passive gaming. I don’t have time to devote to active gaming anymore, so I’d like to create a virtual world where you don’t have to pay constant attention to.
