More Stupid Politicians

I just saw this press release from the European Parliament. Apparently the intelligentsia of the European political elite want all game consoles, computers, and other game devices to be fitted with a “Red Button.” This is so parents can intervene in their children’s gaming activities to quickly disable a game if they see inappropriate content.

/em forehead-slap

Seriously. Where do they get these people? Does become a member of parliament require having five sixths of the brain removed? Or is there training involved in becoming this stupid?

First of all, Mr Politician, the console, computer, or other gaming devices that you speak of already have a button that can quickly disable the game. It’s called A POWER SWITCH. It may not actually be red, but perhaps you can mandate that all new gaming devices can paint their on/off switches red. Will that do it for you? Perhaps you can deliver small tins of red acrylic paint to all households in Europe to allow parents to paint their own power switches. Could help.

Next, do you seriously want to include an additional Red Button on all computers? Even those used by business? Not everyone plays computer games, the poor misguided fools, so where is the sense in adding the additional expense of design, development, and QA to the average PC. Money is tight these days… you know?

Finally. What make you think that the average parent will even use this big Red Button, let alone even care that little Johnny is playing a virtual killer? Parents already have everything they need to know for how to choose what their little darlings can read, view, or play. There are reviews, voluntary ratings, even word of mouth. People these days don’t live in isolation from the world around them.

The fact that a lot of parents don’t care if their eight year old is playing GTA IV, killing hookers, and drinking Hot Coffee means that any attempt to make it easier to shut this down, is doomed to fail.

The parents that do care, are already using the power switch to control their child’s gaming. There’s no need for any more hoops.

Popularity: 4% [?]

I’ve Been Memed

DM Osbon over at Construed has hit me with the meme stick.

This meme is the one where I have to pick the sixth image in the sixth subfolder of my screenshots directory and post it here.

Well, my screenshots aren’t really all that organised. Who knows I might even have six folders with screenshots somewhere on my hard disk. Let’s see what I can find…

Yep, just as I thought, all over the place. So here’s what I’ll do. I’ve picked the sixth image from the sixth grouping of screenshots in my screenshot folder. I’ve been using FRAPS and it stores the image with the name of the game first, so there’s my group, and here’s my screenshot.

This is an image from Mythos, the now unfortunately defunct Diabloesque game from the now defunct Flagship Studios. It’s a picture of the chain smoking Gremlin Durkin in one of his first dungeons about to take on some old smelly dead guy.

As for the second part, nominating others for the meme. Well, I think I’ll break the chain here. Hope an asteroid doesn’t fall on my house…

Popularity: 3% [?]

Darkfall Servers Dark

Must resist urge to be snippy… will to resist failing… ahh what the heck.

What happens on release day when not even the servers start up? 

The forums also go down, that’s what.

It looks like the much touted release of Darkfall wasn’t quite what the community, or the developers for that matter, were hoping for. From what I can gather from reading various reports, it looks like the servers didn’t even start up on the 25th. A notice on the official forums is now saying that the servers are finally coming up after 12 hours of down time, and that Aventurine is giving players some additional time on their subscriptions.

The interesting part of the note was the comment that the forums were down to extremely high volume. That may be partly true, but I think it’s far more likely the case that the forums were disabled to prevent the community from going into meltdown. Apparently even the Stratics network was having issues but that only appears to be limited to IRC, the forums are not particularly busy.

This does not appear to bode well for Darkfall and Aventurine.

I don’t know, if the devs can’t get the servers up at all for 12 hours on release day, does that count as the worst MMORPG release ever, or does it have to be a whole month of problems?

Popularity: 6% [?]

New Darkfall Players – Leave Your Civilization At The Door

Today’s the big day. Well, it might have been yesterday… those timezone things can get tricky. Darkfall should be getting released provided nothing goes wrong. And so far, I haven’t heard of anymore problems. There were a few website and preorder issues the other day, but hopefully they won’t translate to release day blues.

Darkfall’s big selling point is that it is going to take players back in time to the days of extreme PvP. A time where PKers (Player Killers), Griefers, and Gankers roamed freely through the wilderness ready to smack down any player who dared step outside of town with extreme predjudice. In other words, they’re bringing us hardcore PvP.

Hardcore PvP is not your modern PvP. Warhammer Online for instance gives players a choice where and when, or should I say if and when, they decide to engage in combat with other players. Darkfall offers no such choice, and from what I’ve heard there are no safe zones, even towns are FFA. The only safe time is when you’ve logged off.

So here are a couple of tips for new players to Darkfalls Hardcore PvP to help you make the most of your gaming experience.

Leave Your Civilization At The Door.

Playing a hardcore PvP game requires a different attitude than does playing a predominantly PvE game like World of Warcraft or LotRO. Hardcore PvPers call non-hardcore PvEers Carebears for a reason, and that reason isn’t because Carebears are all soft and cuddly with rainbows shooting out all over the place. PvEers can be hardcore too, just in a different manner.

No. Hardcore PvPers are willing to endure the pain of harsh death penalties, losing everything they’re carrying, even as in the case of Eve Online, losing skill progress or vast amounts of equipment. And they’re willing, entirely willing, to inflict that pain on those around them. PvEers on the other hand prefer constant progress and don’t like harsh penalties when stuff happens. It doesn’t mean they don’t like  challenge, it’s a different sort of challenge.

To fit in with this harsh virtual lifestyle it’s necessary to leave that thin veneer of civilization at the door. As the saying goes, when in Rome…

If you are intending on playing Darkfall, realise that it’s a kill or be killed world. If someone comes into range when you’re fighting a mob, make sure you keep your eye on them. And always be ready for a surprise attack. If you’re not sure about someone, just kill them. Mercy is for the weak, and you can be sure your opponent will not be showing you any.

Darkfall is survival of the fittest baby!

Find Others Of Like Mind

A Hardcode PvP is not a solo friendly experience. Certainly it’s possible, but there’s not a lot of recourse when a gang of gankers show up while you are traveling between cities or are finishing off that quest mob. You’re simply going to die, and lose everything you’re carrying.

You won’t be able to retaliate later either. The gangs will stay in gangs. You won’t get close alone.

The trick here is to find a guild or player association that shares the same values as you do. Yes. You’re all playing a PvP game, but there are two types of PvP players. There are the PKers, and the Anti-PKers. PKers tend to be the Griefers and Gankers, the type of players who kill indiscriminately. The Anti-PKers are also motivated by PvP, but they tend to fight in a more honorable manner, and not when the other player is at their weakest.

Darktide, the Asheron’s Call FFA PvP server had a mixture of PK and Anti-PK guilds. Not surprisingly the two guild types tended to be enemies, with the Anti-PK guilds often defending un-aligned players from the PKers.

So decide what you want to be. Are you a PKer,  or would you prefer to be Anti-PK? Make sure you find like minded players and guilds and form relationships with them. That alone could make the difference between enjoying or hating Darkfall.

Get Your Head Right

Lastly, and perhaps the most important thing to do is to get your mindset right. Darkfall is going to be a hard, tough experience. From what I gather, it will be tougher than Asheron’s Call DT and with a lot more consequences.

If you are not prepared to lose all your shiny new equipment each and everytime you put it on then you shouldn’t be taking it out of the bank. Eve Online has a saying that a player shouldn’t be flying a ship that they can’t afford or aren’t prepared to lose. The same philosophy applies to Darkfall.

It should also be said that if you aren’t prepared to be killed the moment you create your character, or step into someone else’s path, and if you aren’t prepared for that behaviour over and over again. Then Darkfall probably isn’t the game for you, and you should cancel your preorder and get your money back.

Don’t assume that just because you think you can hold your own in a fight, that you will. Even if you think you are a good MMORPG PvPer, you might find that Darkfall’s twitch fighting style may confound you. Don’t assume that Darkfall is the game you think it is, or that you can play it the way you’d like. Don’t assume it is solo friendly, even if the Darkfall devs say it is.

If after all that you are still keen to see what all the fuss is about, good luck to you. I hope you enjoy your stay in Darkfall.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Bartle Test

I’ve been seeing those Bartle Test signature graphics all over the place lately. You know the ones I mean? They’re white/gray boxes with four numbers in them. Actually, never mind the description, you’ll see one below.

I spent a part of my lunch half hour today doing the Bartle Test on the GamerDNA website. It’s a series of thirty questions that ask you which of two options you prefer. If someone is after you, do you immediately attack or do you find a place where you can prepare for them. That sort of thing.

So here are my results.

I’m normally a bit wary of these sorts of tests, they don’t tend to be all that accurate, and especially since the Bartle Test on GamerDNA is a set of binary choices rather than a one to five scale it misses some detail. You need to ask a lot more than 30 questions to get an accurate profile.

Having said that, it does seem to paint my player personality in broadly accurate strokes.

I do tend to be a strong explorer, even though I don’t like pointless travel, and the socialization and killer aspects are roughly where I’d have previously guessed too. I don’t necessarily see myself as a carebear though. I do enjoy PvP so I expected the killer score to be a little higher. I guess that’s the tests inaccuracy coming in to play.

Anyway, as is the case with most of these tests, they’re a bit of fun and can give you a glimpse into why you play a certain way.

So lets open the floor. How about you, what’s your Bartle score?

Popularity: 5% [?]

Don’t Make It Hard To Get Your Game

Incoming rant. Take cover!

Last night I had a bit of a GADD spaz attack. I was surfing around the toobs and came across an article on how Ultima Online has recently (2007) completely upgraded the graphics and UI by putting out a new client for their venerable MMORPG. The screenshots looked pretty darn good compared to the original, cutting edge at the time but now dated, graphics.

So I headed over to grab the two week trial. I created an account and was sent to Fileplanet to download the client. I started the download and was promptly told that I would have to wait 30 minutes for the download to start unless I was a premium client. Premium meaning paying a fee. Paying a fee to get a two week free trial.

So I canceled the download and did something else.

Okay. Maybe I was being cheap. It was only a few dollars to go premium. Maybe I was being impatient — Homer: “forty seconds, but I want it now.”  – But maybe I didn’t want to jump through hoops in order to download something that was spur of the moment. Maybe I was annoyed that a huge company like EA wouldn’t at the very least provide a download of its own, even if it was slower than the premium service.

Game publishers, for goodness sake, don’t make it difficult for potential customers to get your games. Don’t give them reasons to click the cancel button.

There’s a reason why supermarkets put magazines and small price items at the checkout. They’re looking for people like me who make impulse purchases of those sort of items. There’s a reason why EBGames put the on sale games at the front of the store instead of in a disused basement storage room with a sign on the door saying “beware of the leopard.” (Apologies to Douglass Adams.) They want to make it easy for people walking on by to become customers.

Making it hard for someone to become a customer. Stupid.

Okay. Rant over. You can come out now.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Mission Runner Weekend

I had a bit of a lighter gaming weekend this week.

I intended to spend Sunday morning with EvilMo, my World of Warcraft Death Knight, but got caught up with some chores and the sat down and opened a book. Well that was it. Consider Phlebas had been in my to-read pile for a couple of months, so I figured it was about time. 

Saturday was spent with Eve. I spent a boat load of ISK on skills the day before, so I ran a bunch of missions to build my reserves back up. I now have almost 3 million ISK. Okay, so that isn’t very much. It’s just that ISK always tends to burn a hole in my pocket when I’m looking at skills.

The missions I’m currently working are for Spacelane Patrol, and are getting easier and easier. Mostly because they are repeating often. I’m starting to hang out for some level 2 missions. Hopefully they’re different to the level ones, and hopefully there are more of them.

One of the new features that CCP has added to Eve Online since the last time I played is the Certificate Planner. This is a window that shows the various certifications that are available to Eve pilots. These certificates, as far as I can tell, don’t have any real function. They don’t add and bonuses or provide any titles. 

What they do is give an indication to the noob like me what I should be training to perform a particular function effectively. So if I want to be effective in jamming an opponents targeting systems, I might want to look into the EWAR (Electronic Warfare) certificates. Getting this certificate means that I’ve raised the appropriate skills to a level where I’d be effective at jamming, for instance.

Just like my pile of books, I’ve got a pile of games to play. I’ll be endeavoring to make some time for WoW this week, and maybe Wizard 101 as well. I’ve been wanting to get into that again.

So many games, so little time. Sigh.

Popularity: 3% [?]

F.E.A.R Is The Mindkiller

Not MMORPG related, but anyhoo…

I tried out the F.E.A.R 2 demo this evening on the XBox 360. 

I knew it was out, I’ve read some blog posts about it, and I’d seen some of the reviews. But over the last couple of days I’ve seen a few of the adverts on TV and they looked pretty good so I thought I’d give it a try after I got home from work.

The download was pretty quick. It was only around 750MB over XBox Live. So I kicked it off, made dinner and watched something on TV. When I was finished and switched back, it was ready to go.

My first impression. Yep. It was pretty creepy. So much so that a few of the scripted sequences really made me jump. This game has atmosphere, and could that little girl be any more freaky evil?

The game was pretty smooth too. I have a bit of a love hate relationship with shooters on the XBox 360. I find the aiming controls always a bit too sensitive, so that I often overshoot when aiming and have to correct and recorrect often. FEAR 2 doesn’t seem to have this problem, I was able to smoothly line up my target in most cases.

The only downside was that there were a few common functions on the D-Pad that seemed to intefere with each other. At one point I couldn’t work out why my weapons were switching, only to figure out later I was trying to click down for health, and was inadvertently pressing a little to the right and switching weapons. That could also be why I often didn’t have health when I thought I should have.

I quite enjoyed the bit at the end of the demo when I got to use the power armor. It’s nice having a big mech suit available to allow one to take a lot of hits while mowing down enemies with auto-cannons and rockets. If only it was available for the morning commute.

Overall the whole demo lasted me about two hours. I’m not the fastest FPS player in the world, I tend to slowly make my way through the levels and try and minimise the damage I take. This made it a pretty quick experience, but hey, that’s what a demo is, right?

I’m not sure if I’ll go out and buy this one, but only because my time is much more limited these days and I’ve got other things to play. If I were on holidays, I reckon I’d head out and buy it tomorrow.

Popularity: 3% [?]

The Darkfall Release Model

Darkfall The Game might be an attempt to bring back the glory days of pre-Trammel Ultima Online and Asheron’s Call Darktide for the veteran MMO gamer, but the developer of Darkfall, Aventurine, looks to be trying out a new model for releasing a massive online game.

There is a standard modus operandi for the opening day of a MMORPG, one that’s been tried and tried again from the early days. This method is to make as much noise for as long as possible, sell as many copies and pre-orders as is humanly possible, and hope the servers cope on release day.

Then what we normally see is a server stress test that no beta testing could possibly hope to emulate as thousands of players all cram into limited server space. The newbie areas of the game get swamped with more players than they have been designed to handle. It’s no wonder that servers crash, or that we have players waiting in queues to get into the game.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise to hear that Aventurine is limiting the number of pre-orders, and by extension, the number of players who will be allowed into the game on opening day.

The reasoning is, that by limiting the number of players, the game won’t experience the release day blues that most other MMORPGs have experienced. The developers then have the chance to see how their game handles the expected load and fix any problems before they spiral out of control. Players then have a much better experience and tell the world that Darkfall had a great release, rather than saying how terrible release day was and scaring off potential subscribers.

There might also be some marketing benefits to staggering the release.

Limited pre-orders also force a customer who is sitting on the fence about pre-ordering to make a decision so that they can play at release. Pre-orders become rare and it’s more than likely the available seats will sell out before the big day. It’s even been suggested that we might find some Darkfall pre-orders popping up on eBay at somewhat ridiculous asking prices.

And it seems like this is exactly what is happening. Apparently Aventurine is reporting that the demand for Darkfall has exceeded expectations by a large margin. There’s nothing like a little scarcity to drive up demand.

So now we wait.

Darkfall will be released in just a few more days. If limiting release day subscriptions turns out to be a successful strategy, then who knows, maybe we’ll see this model adopted by other MMORPG developers.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Subscribing to Stropp’s World Comments Now Available

The other day I received a request through the contact form here on Stropp’s World from Brian asking about setting up an RSS feed for comments made on the posts here. 

It was a pretty good idea. One that I hadn’t really considered before, so I went a looking.

It also turns out it’s not that hard to implement. Wordpress actually has a PHP function for it, comments_rss_link(),  and all that is needed is to add it to the theme. In my case, I’m just adding it at the end of a single post. It’s a little crude since I don’t have a RSS graphic for it yet, it’s just a link after the comment form.

When I was looking I also found a Wordpress plugin for subscribing to comments, and I’ve installed that too. This one however, adds a checkbox after the comment form and when checked it sends out an email notification to the email address you are asked for (optional) when you add a comment to a post.

So there you go. If you’d like to follow the conversation on any particular post, you can now do so.

Popularity: 4% [?]