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Archive for May, 2012

NBI: Tha Tha That’s All Folks!

Posted by Stropp on May 31, 2012

I have to admit, when Syp approached me a few weeks ago about doing the New Blogger Initiative I was a little skeptical. Jaded blogger syndrome perhaps. While I felt his initiative was worth it, I wondered what sort of response he’d get.

Heh. As usual no need to worry.

The NBI has been an outstanding success. Syp has posted his NBI Wrapup, and the results are astounding. Over 70 established bloggers wrote articles to help new bloggers get started. And in what was the point of this whole exercise, a phenomenal number of new blogs were born.

Now my concern is how to fit all this new reading material into my feed reader (and get through it each day!)

Here is the list, copied from Syps post.

New blogs to check out:

Sponsor advice posts:

And don’t forget, if you have some advice for new bloggers, or are a little late to the party in starting your blog, the forums are still open (at least I assume they’ll stay open) for you to share advice or to get yourself up to speed.

Happy blogging.

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38 Studios: Another Angle

Posted by Stropp on May 30, 2012

Curt Schilling made some comments about the 38 Studios situation today that goes some ways to clarifying what went wrong over the last week.

While I still think the business was badly managed, the lack of communication between management and staff being the most telling sign of mismanagement, it appears that the state of Rhode Island bears some of the blame too. From what Schilling said, the studio was negotiating with investors to provide funds to help pull them out of trouble when the Governor broke confidence and made a number of public statements that scared the investors off. There was also an alleged broken promise for an approval of tax credits.

If what Schilling says is true, it doesn’t look like Rhode Island is a trustworthy government to do business with.

The question is, if the state hadn’t hurt investment in 38 Studios and had kept their deal with the tax credits, would 38 Studios been able to survive to bring its games to completion?

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It’s The End Of The World As We Know It

Posted by Stropp on May 29, 2012

Tonight on The Project, an Aussie TV show that looks at current affairs from a humourous perspective (the lead presenters are comedians) they presented some news that said that 10% of Australians believe the world will end in the Mayan Apocalypse on the 21st of December this year.

That’s a bigger number than I thought would have believed that, but the idea was raised that perhaps a big portion of that 10% were taking the piss. Which if you consider the Aussie sense of humour is not unlikely.

As for December the 21st. I reckon I’ll throw a party that night. If I’m lucky I won’t have to clean up the next day.

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How To Make Sure I Uninstall Your Game On The Spot

Posted by Stropp on May 28, 2012

… and never play it again.

This patent application (via GameInformer) by Sony subjects the player to one of the most vile forms of advertising I’ve seen yet.

While playing a game, the patent describes a racing game, but it could be any kind of game, the player is given an indication that the game is about to stop; the game then stops and an advertisment plays after which the game resumes perhaps rewinding a little before the interruption.

What kind of brain dead marketing moron came up with this idea?

I find it intrusive and annoying when an ad comes on during a tense scene  while watching a TV show. Could you imagine how much more annoying it would be to be in the middle of a boss fight, or just about to cross the finishing line, or at any other point in the game and be interrupted to watch someone shill their latest product? How much worse would it be if it distracted you enough to lose?

As I said in the headline, this is a sure way to have me uninstall a game immediately, and never play it again. Hell, the disks would likely go straight in the bin.

Would you put up with this?

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38 Studios Shuts Down

Posted by Stropp on May 25, 2012

Sad news today.

38 Studios has effectively closed down operations, laying off all employees at Rhode Islands, and at Big Huge Games. (Source: Kotaku)

I made the observation a few days ago that due to 38 Studios not making payroll, the odds were that it would share the fate of other business who did not make payroll. Unfortunately, this fate occurred very quickly after the initial reports. I was hoping that 38 Studios might be given a reprieve by their creditors or find an angel investor. The credit economy isn’t too flash right now with the European debt crisis, so no luck there.

In 38 Studios case it turns out that not only had management failed to make payroll, they had also stopped paying health insurance. Of course the staff had not been informed of any of this. It was only found out when an employee’s pregnant wife was told by her doctor.

None of the blame for any of this should fall on the developers, artists, and ancillary workers. These folks are now without jobs or health insurance. In a tough economy life is about to become more difficult for a lot of people. No, any blame should be laid squarely at the feet of management. It’s quite obvious looking at the screenshots that have come out of the studio in the last few days that the game was progressing well, and looking great. The people who were doing their jobs did so well.

There are a bunch of thoughts circulating in my head at the moment. Things like whether or not studios should attempt a AAA MMO as their first game; will small scale indie MMO’s like Wurm Online or Realm of the Mad God save the genre; the ‘sameness’ of the AAA MMO scene. But I’ll leave that to later.

For now I just want to wish the ex-employees of 38 Studios and Big Huge Games all the best and hope you folks find something else quickly.

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The Wrong Direction

Posted by Stropp on May 23, 2012

According to this video, source RPS, it looks like The Elder Scrolls Online folks are aiming at making their MMORPG a single player experience. Or at least they’ll be making the main storyline a single player experience.

Now I’ve said before that I think that MMORPGs should allow solo play, or at least not force players into grouping, and I stand by that. There are tons of great reasons to be able to play solo. But there is a trend in the latest MMOs, SWTOR for instance, to encourage players not to group… at all.

It’s funny, kind of ironic, in that the systems I’ve wanted to see in these games such as great stories are now being implemented at the expense of the other game systems that I still like.

One of the problems I have with forced grouping is that it is often a painful experience, usually when grouping with strangers. (Using Diablo 2 as an example, the 2 times I played with a stranger put me off Diablo multiplayer for life.) But I don’t want the MMORPG to go down the path where it is simply a single player game with a multiplayer component, like Diablo 3. That is the wrong direction. Completely.

What I would prefer is to have incentives for grouping that outweigh the downsides. You’ll never get rid of idiots who want to spoil the game, but hugely antiquated (and dumb) ways of assigning XP, or loot, need to be looked at.

Don’t make the player into a stand-alone hero. Make her into a member of a virtual world, provide the tools to shape her own story, and stand back and see what happens.

 

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38 Studios Won’t Be Releasing Its MMORPG

Posted by Stropp on May 18, 2012

38 Studios financial woes have been in the news over the last week. Despite not being able to make loan payments to Rhode Island, there were sounds coming from the administration that it would try to make it work.

But today there is news that 38 Studios has failed to pay its employees, and has laid off temp and contract workers.

That’s the worst kind of news that an investor can hear. When a company can’t make payroll, it’s not generally long for the world.

What I’m wondering is where that $75 million got to.

Schilling, as I understood it, invested something like $30 million of his own money, which coupled with that $75 million from RI provides a bankroll of over $100M. They’ve had a game release which presumably did well too. Where is all the cash?

It’s not like Project Copernicus has the scope of the $300M budget for SWTOR. Or does it?

In anycase, it’s probably not wise to get your hopes up for the 38 Studios MMORPG. Not unless an Angel Investor swoops in at the 11th hour. Or another studio buys the IP and development assets.

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Launch Day Blues…

Posted by Stropp on May 16, 2012

…for a single player game. What the hell is that about?

You kinda expect it for a MMORPG, but lots of players just want to play the single player mode. Why Blizzard didn’t allow an offline mode like they did in Starcraft 2 is beyond me. Dumb move.

If you’re prepared to get kicked out of the game at a whim, or wait in a queue to play single player Diablo 3, then by all means buy it now. Otherwise, wait until everything has died down and get it when this rediculous always on thing gets fixed.

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Secret World Links

Posted by Stropp on May 13, 2012

Since I’m not in The Secret World beta at this point, I’m living vicariously through others.

Here are the links.

  • Pete at Dragonchasers gives us a first glimpse into The Secret World. Still a bit rough which might cause some launch controversy, but the quest structure (warning a bit spoilerish) makes it sound a little more traditional RPGish.
  • Sente at A Ding World thinks there are quite a few nice things about the game. Lot’s of pictures in this post.

Arkenor is doing a series of articles on The Secret World beta weekend. The Secret World Beta Bonanza, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5. Lot’s of good stuff here.

That’s it for the moment but while my weekend is over, the US still has much of Sunday to go. I suspect there will be a bunch more posts in the coming few days. All up from what I see, it looks like the game still has some way to go before it’s ready for release and a June release might be premature. But the game itself is not your standard MMORPG, at least not in the kill ten rats sense. Lot’s of quests, puzzle solving, and perhaps not an easy mode game.

Sounds great.

 

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Have You Ever Wished…

Posted by Stropp on May 11, 2012

…for a device that can stop time around you and let you get everything done you need to in a day?

Years ago there was a Twilight Zone episode, the newer ones from the 80′s or 90′s not the originals, where  a woman finds an object (a fob watch I think) in her backyard that grants her that ability. Of course, because it was Twilight Zone there was a sting in the tail, but still…

I wish there was such a device at the moment.

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