Category Archives: Gaming

April 16, 2025 · 23:37

Food for thought

I knew I saw it correctly, or at least I think I did. Greed is eternal and it is always on the edge of what others think is ‘creatively sneaky’ or merely ‘adaptable innovatively wealth bringing’ it is what we can see (to an extent) as the new ‘nouveau riche’ or what some call “people who have recently acquired wealth, typically those perceived as ostentatious or lacking in good taste” and I would add to that part ending with “in good taste” with “in good taste and lacking proper ethicality” because as some will deflect “insider trading” it might be harder to prove as insider trading is hard to reflect on settings that are a mere speculation of a situation and that is where we get to the article that USA Today gave us on April 14th 2025 (at https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/14/marjorie-taylor-greene-stocks-trump-tariffs/83087826007/) and that is where I get to my article ‘The fifth branch’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/04/08/the-fifth-branch/) which I wrote nearly a week earlier on April 8th where I wrote “The entire tariff setting never made sense, unless it was by design and tariff on a Mc Donald Island (with only one CIEIO) and a lot of penguins, so that the President can claim medicine imbalance. In the meantime unknown ‘friends’ of his when the markets are at their lowest, buy what they can.” With the added “Even at 1% that is 30 billion and I doubt they will make that much, they will make enough to have their dream retirement at 40-50, something they never thought possible ever. But there you have it and the larger setting is that when the dust settles most offices cannot investigate as too many offices has lost their staff. A weird but not impossible setting.” And now almost a week later we get ‘Marjorie Taylor Greene bought stock before market jumped on Trump tariff pause’ with the subtext “Less than four hours before pausing for 90 days the individual nation tariffs on April 9, Trump told his followers on Truth Social, “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!” The White House said the post reflected the president’s responsibility “to reassure the markets and Americans about their economic security.”” I don’t sound so crazy now, do I?

So when we consider “That same day, Greene − one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress − bought between $10,000 and $150,000 worth of stock in companies such as Adobe, Apple, NVIDIA, Palantir and Cummins. The day before, on April 8, Greene had purchased another $11,000 to $165,000 of stock in Amazon, FedEx, JP Morgan Chase, Lululemon, Nike, Qualcomm, Tesla and other companies. She also sold between $50,000 and $100,000 worth of U.S. Treasury bills.” Doesn’t it sound nice? So, how much money did she make? And how many others followed that example? The new ‘Nouveau Riche’ are likely to be all MAGA Americans, what a way to throw the new directions into a less credible direction? And this gives me pause to consider a much darker setting for America. You see, if Russia and China figured this out, then they see that the America administration had become greed driven and that is a very predictable setting. I saw this a week before the papers (USA Today) caught on and when did the others catch on? So what do China and Russia have planned? As this plays out they could set the premise to a larger scale, merely as I foresaw that Greed is predictable. So as we also get “Members of Congress have up to 45 days to disclose any stock purchases, which means other members of Congress may have also bought or sold stock shortly before the president changed his tariff policy but have not yet disclosed it.” And as I see it the statement of “The purchases, made public in a federal disclosure on April 11, come as Democrats call for an investigation into whether Trump participated in insider trading.” It is my believe that the laws might not suffice as the law never considered a President setting the premise we just saw. So was President Trump the fool, the baboon (as some call him) or was he deceitfully clever? I let you decide on this and make sure you realise that these market crashes were seemingly set in motion to change the power of money where it wasn’t before. 

And before you call me crazy, I predicted this danger before it happened and as USA Today now gives us, it apparently did happen.

So have a great day and realise that some will have a great day at the expense of others. In the meantime I gave Canadians three days before I wrote ‘The Fifth Branch’ in the story ‘A political game’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/04/05/a-political-game/) where I give the Canadians a free idea to create a video game and as such one person (or one team) gets a chance to create a video game. A game that might make them some money the old way, through innovative thinking. No markets needed to be manipulated. 

So have a great day and as I end my midweek in 29 minutes. Vancouver still has 18 hours to make the most of their midweek.

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April 12, 2025 · 06:07

The art of evolution

We don’t realise, but we accept certain responses if we play a game, even an RPG. The talk back from the NPC is almost always the same. We tend to ignore that setting as a trigger to start a mission. Why? It is because it is expected. But what happens when that is no longer the case? What if a Chatbot becomes part of that system? We get what some would call a more natural setting to gaming. So we see in these ‘games’ the expected return of parameters. But what if that is no longer the case? I talked in the past about language games. Learn Latin, Greek, Italian, English and perhaps even Japanese in new ways? I talked about the placement in Rome, the setting could become that asking the question of a priest gives you the answer in Latin, so you get a new setting added. But in this case, the NPC setting is his intelligence. As such

I picture it as a setting 0-10, but the interaction could be that the farmer, or the help will a low setting, the range of a tradesman or shopkeeper might be higher and others (wealthy, educated) would be high. The game now has grades of interaction, a more natural setting that we might see naturally. The idea that the farm help gives you “The man with refined eduction is traversing to the Town Square” is ludicrous, but that is where we are and it is no longer a setting we should embrace, especially when you emerge into gaming and with linguistic based games it will matter. As I was mentally designing a Latin based game. I set the interactions around the life of Marcus Aurelius. Apart from the guards that might not allow interaction with the Roman Emperor, we now get a localization issue. You can only have a decent chance to interacts with him if he is at the library, forum or a public place. You still need to be able to get close to him, but that is a different problem. This is specific, but the interactions with NPC will not depend on who you approach and your answer is set to his intelligence. There would be an entire cog of interactions and the usefulness of the answer. I find it a little weird that it took this long for RPG’s to evolve to this degree. We tend to forget that Bethesda set the marker ‘high’ even as some of these games are already over a decade old and even newer games are set to the system that a game like Skyrim introduced. With chatbot based systems we now have a much more natural interaction of the game and the idea of setting this to a chatbot has been overlooked, as the game might seem unyielding, but chatbots can be set and having NPC’s intelligence or even intelligence with a social element.

We might get the response that this is too advanced, which translates into “We can’t be bothered” and that is where the levels of interaction differ. We need to expect more of games, not what is the setting that some like to respond to, but gaming is about sitting just beyond the borders what we can conceive and relying on Skyrim, a game 15 years old has passed now. Don’t get me wrong, Skyrim is still as interacting as anything we see released next month in RPG gaming, but that is massively wrong. And consider that this system when added to an older game like Skyrim, could ignite gaming desires. For now I have considered a more natural interaction when we consider learning languages this way and as the world stands we might have to consider this sooner than later. As we see education cuts all over the world (America and United Kingdom mostly) but it doesn’t stop there and that was why I thought of the Ubisoft interactions in games and as languages could be taught in this way with a whole range of languages (and social skills) we see that people can catch up in their own time (my sneaky setting that a Playstation 5pro could be an excellent mandatory school item) I can dream too. But the setting that there is a larger need justifies the interactions and setting interaction to a much higher level might throw the people in a more justified interaction, especially if we can see how social skills become part of the learning game. In this RPG gaming gets a leg up in many ways. 

To make these game more natural is a solid first and we all interact with NPC’s in numerous ways, so lets make language interaction more natural and more enticing. Mainly because a game with fixed responses loses its appeal after a few times, but natural language skills will keep you emergingly entertained and alert for a much longer time. 

Ain’t it great? So have a great day and rest assured, we all enjoy a more natural interaction in gaming, even those who do (at present) not give it a second thought. That too is the power of innovation. When you get confronted with it, you will wonder why you never thought of it before.

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April 7, 2025 · 22:02

Crossroads to the past

At this time the world is waiting what insanity goes our way. The tariffs are here, the news is shouting against each other trying to get the audience to listen to ‘their’ version of what is likely to be. I gave my view in the past and so far I see nothing to change my mind. An additional side was given to my mind when I considered what the friends of President Trump would do. When you know that negative impacts are coming, such a revelation is nearly as successful as making a killing in the markets on things that go right. As markets are shedding billions (up to now, over 8 trillion has been written off) and I reckon that someone was making a killing all on their own.

Still, that is not my problem. The benefits of being poor, no stock to worry about. Still my mind gave me an idea.

You see all whilst I was considering my next challenge (I am currently walking the length of the UK) and my next challenge will be Iceland (1332 km).

It came to me as I had a few thoughts (none related to markets) and the setting as I saw them gave me an idea. The setting is set around Google who found a way to use the thermal energy to power a new data centre and the idea is that with the water around Iceland being used to cool the systems. Google had a novel way to have a data centre that could connect both Canada and the United States to Europe and the UK, the possibilities are without limits. Yet as the building goes on, a person gets ‘infected’ by a group of Light Elves (Ljósalfar). That person get visions and goes off the rails. He is sent to the UK to recover, but the problems are slowly increasing. A second person also gets ‘infected’ but reacts better to it and this starts the unification between man and elf. 

My mind is still working out a few kinks in the cables as they come to mind. One of these is that these Icelandic houses (for elves) as they were build were ‘infected’ with talismans to bind elves and that remains a ‘mystery’ in the story. And I reckon that the end goal are the Norns, the Nordic fates had moved to Iceland. The three goddesses known as Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld, who weave the threads of fate and tend to the world tree. But their powers are set in 6 jewels. A ring and a necklace that each of the three had. The women are not there, but their jewels are. And the elves are the only one who could see where they are. 

The idea is to map out Iceland in near perfection a whole island to investigate (a small wink towards Midwinter) The idea is to have a new kind of RPG, mostly stealth based (which makes for a non-weaponized game. But the setting are evolving in my mind and I have an idea to make the game more technology minded and also intertwining with mythological sides. Still too much to figure out. And it is fun, Microsoft gives us “Our 23 game development studios focus on delivering great games for everyone, wherever they play”, I on the other hand are a mere person who set out the creation of gaming IP by myself and I created the setting of close to 15 games, so how many games did they create? How many are on the minds of gamers? I bet there are a few but how many people are involved with ‘these’ games. 23 studios? Should be at least 50-100. Me and my mere simple lonely person did it all myself. No matter what happens. I feel decently proud to have been able to create all this IP (and other hardware IP). I remained creative whist other do whatever they do. 

I shouldn’t play my own harp, but at this point I created at least 3 unique original IP and that is nothing to be humble about. And this game I merely thought into existence today. I feel proud of my own abilities at this time. And I haven’t even decided whether this could be a game or a movie.

Time to create another chapter I reckon, not sure where my creativity will lead me. Have a great day.

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April 5, 2025 · 16:09

A political game

You know the setting for President Trump with his tariffs are out there. As only 4 hours ago we got word (via Reuters) that another $5 trillion has been wiped of the markets (at https://www.reuters.com/markets/global-markets-stress-graphic-pix-2025-04-04) we saw another piece of news at NBC (at https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nintendo-switch-2-pre-orders-us-delayed-trumps-tariffs-rcna199729) giving us ‘Nintendo Switch 2 preorders in U.S. delayed because of Trump’s tariffs’ and my cogs started to think. The population of Seattle is around 4,018,762. Now if only 10% wants to get a Nintendo Switch 2 (I reckon that number is much higher) we end up with 400,000 Washingtons wanting that novel contraption and as such the option for Vancouver to get an additional 2 billion in revenue seems clear. And a smuggling game emerged from my brain. The setting is around the interstate bridge ad connect that to a classical game named Frogger and the setting is near complete.

In this setting we get the frog to make it to the other side. Now we change the setting to:

Here we see the interstate bridge, like frogger (now in a north south setting) we move from truck/car to truck/car, the slow vehicles get its there and the fast vehicles get us there faster. And there seems no real challenge and the blue rectangle is the part we see in the game, so the game scrolls. 

Now we get to the border, the guards move from left to right (the don’t care about the Canadian side), if the guard spots you you are royally screwed and you are out $800, if not you pass and you gain $1500. Now on the way back you get by taxi, but here you can skip from taxi to taxi as they pass, if there is a Maga cap in that taxi, it is yours and when you wear the cap for a second trip the border patrol ignores you when you wear a Maga cap. The task is to smuggle as many as Switch 2 consoles as possible. And you can team up, each their own game, but the scores are shown I reckon 2 (or 4 in true Switch 2 mode). In higher levels the guard move faster and the gaps between cars/trucks increase a little. So, we should thank President Trump to give us a lovely smuggle game. We can improve the game in many ways, like adding fentanyl shipments, which gives us a bonus bump (like times 5), so that the profit goes to $7500, however if you are caught you are stopped for 30 seconds and that is where the opponents get 30 seconds of optional gains. There are a few other things you can do, but I leave that to you. I hand over this idea to the clever Canadian with programming skills. It is an Australian ‘Gudday’ to our Canadian brothers and sisters (the she-form of the male can program just as good as the man can). 

How life can throw you a bonus? Well here you have it and there is not a Trump in sight to stop you. And as I go to enjoy the weekend now, I dream of desperate traders throwing themselves off buildings as their fortunes melted away among the trillions in market value. Trump might have stated ““Hang tough,” he urged his followers on social media. “We can’t lose.”” (Source: BBC), but the desperate and greed driven never hang tough, when the reaper comes reaping, the greed driven become suicidal. A simple lesson from life (1929 to 1939, the great depression where 7% committed suicide). 

So have a great day and when the stocks bite, pray you have a Canadian son/daughter who can program. This me having a spell of additional dark humor.

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April 4, 2025 · 02:47

N is for?

That is what I saw yesterday. Nintendo. I remember the Switch presentation and that was awesome and as I predicted, it overtook 3 yeas of Microsoft in a mere 14 months. At present they have sold over 150 million consoles, which is 500% of the Microsoft consoles sold, which also represents twice the amount of the Sony Playstation 5. That’s innovation at work, that is pure gamers joy. And now (say yesterday) they introduced the new console, the Switch 2 and it was pure joy to see buckets of innovation added to a great console. Its almost like watching the evolution of Playstation 1 to Playstation 2 all over again. I feel so giddy at present.

Let that not be the stopping power of wannabe reviewers with YouTube headlines like ‘Nintendo Switch 2 Is Disappointing’, ‘Nintendo Switch 2 Hands-on: An Exciting, Costly Sequel’ or ‘Nintendo Just Confused Everyone With The Switch 2’, these voices don’t matter. First off the presentation was clear. Three executives showed the Nintendo Switch 2 clearly and gave us buckets of innovation. First there is the chat button, where you can chat in the game with friends, or out of the game with friends. For parents there is a parental control for younger player, so they thought of almost everything. You can group chat in game (like Mario Kart World), every friend (up to 4) their own character and pose at times together for the in game picture. Then if you decide to include the camera (extra accessory) you can appear in the game at the bottom with audio, which has been given the option to reduce noise, so just the voice comes through. Clarity in its best form. As a Sony lover I am sad that they are overtaken by Nintendo and that trend will continue only with a much larger gap between Sony and Nintendo but that is the effect of true innovation and I am not sad for one second. I have my Switch 1 next to my PS5 and that is fine. 

So why is that good?
Because in 2002 Nintendo gave me Metroid Prime, an action adventure for the GameCube and now 23 years later that same game (remastered on Nintendo Switch) still gives me the buzz. It is gaming perfection and it still gives me chills to see these worlds, designed for a 40 MB memory system with a smaller drive system then either Sony or Microsoft had. It relied on on cards with a max of 32GB, which is still a lot more than a DVD. Now it gives us twice that on the game cards (up to 64GB) and the Switch 2 comes with 256GB of storage, a lot more than the predecessor. And that is before you consider the added settings of joy cons that can now be used as a mouse as well. The joy cons will now attach magnetically so there is no no sliding and the allows for in game changing as I see it. They also have a larger screen (7.9-in LCD screen, 1080p up to 120 Hz with HDR10 and VRR), but there is more. When you play it in the dock on the TV, 4K becomes possible (4K at 60 Hz via HDMI with HDR10 and VRR). All powerful innovations. And then Digital Foundry also gave me the setting “The Nintendo Switch 2 will apparently be able to handle Unreal Engine 5. Full article with Digital Foundry podcast with their source.” That means that my solution will now also with on Switch 2 giving them a handle on 50 million additional consoles, in a direction they never considered, sorry for the Amazon Luna, but first on in gets the jewelry. That is the power of innovation.

There is of course more, but I only have seen ‘clips’ for that and we get the setting that there is a lot more to have and Nintendo pulled it off, as I see it, Nintendo is about to become the king of gaming in several fields and Sony has its challenge ahead of them, because the Nintendo outsold the Playstation 2:1, so Playstation needs to look the other was (away from Microsoft) and focus on what Nintendo is bringing us in 8 weeks. I reckon that it will be possible for Nintendo to beat the first Switch and get up to 200 million consoles sold, which beats the Nintendo DS (154 million) and defeat all time rules PlayStation 2 with over 160 million sold, Nintendo Switch 2 is about to crunch records. I reckon that they will get there in under 2 years. Because that gives them Christmas 2025 and Christmas 2026 to beat these records and by what I saw in the presentation that will be very much possible. So, is there a downside? Yes, a minimal one. You see the Switch 2 requires the microSD Express card, the old one will not work. It is a minimal negative one especially as you consider all the extras you get right off the bat.

So I reckon that these bad boys will drop in price as well, because with 200 million more clients, prices drop fast. So whilst the world minus America gets to enjoy the Switch 2, America gets to grind their teeth, that is also the effect of tariffs, on the upside I just gave Nintendo the idea where they can get 50 million more systems sold. Oh and there is the one element I left out, the price. It is stated to be £395.99 (I used the UK price to not confuse the different dollar prices). That loser consoles (Microsoft) is still £479.99, the PS5 is £379.99 and the PS5pro is £699. So Nintendo did a great job giving us so much innovation at a competitive price. As a giggle I offer how Microsoft is setting the GamePass setting whilst most of the gamers in the world will go towards the Switch 2 pillar with their Nintendo eShop. 

So whilst America will go insanely jealous and negative on the Nintendo, they can blame the guy at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States for that setting. There is no reason why Nintendo needs to accept 10% tariff whilst the world is willing to accept the Nintendo right of the bat. That too is the game of gaming. 

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April 2, 2025 · 02:02

Software directions

That tends to be the norm, some software BI person looks at where the masses are and then shoots his net, so that he can catch the biggest population. And I (initially) tended to think the same way. We can call this the wrong way. 

So this started last night when Wired (at https://www.wired.com/story/can-gaming-save-the-apple-vision-pro/) gave me ‘Can Gaming Save the Apple Vision Pro?’, OK, I admit, the story was two weeks old, and none the less relevant to this conversation. Personally I didn’t know that the Vision Pro required saving, but that is my wimple setting. You see, new devices open up new frontiers and on November 9th 2024 I gave the world (apple too) ‘The Easy Lesson’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/11/09/the-easy-lesson/) and in under an hour I designed a near original game an adaptation from a world favorite game. Yes it took me less than an hour to think of a solution. 

Now there is another idea based on all time favorites and used in a very different different setting. You see, people look in the same direction over and over and hoping that something new hits them. I look in the opposite direction and that is why I have over half a dozen original IP settings and this one could bring Ubisoft the fortune it so immensely desired, the dream of growing to greatness. The funny part is that most of the work is done already. You see, schooling is required all over the world and the chances are that Ubisoft overlooked it. And apparently Timmy the Cook did too (said to be the CEO of Apple). 

The setting is larger to be considered as more and more need is out there for languages. OK, there are some hangups. But the larger setting becomes visible in mere minutes and 80% of the gamers have had that feeling, especially those who played any of the Assassins Creed games. You see, we all want to be that assassin, but the missed part is that they loved walking down the streets of Florence, Rome, The America’s, New York, Paris, London, Egypt, Greece, Iran and Japan. The one thing that Ubisoft excelled in were the graphics. When these games get upgraded to Unreal Engine 5 it becomes a very different game. Now on Apple Vision Pro (optionally MetaQuest as well) people can actually practice their language skills in a private setting and there are millions ready to get ready. Now there is no killing, there is no climbing all over the place. It becomes a walking setting, with optional reward settings and Ubisoft actually opened the door to this when they had the expansion The Discovery Tour added to the game AC Origin. It gave us a different setting to the game and also gave us just how deep they had taken the game. Now consider that we get access to languages English is gotten from AC Syndicate and Watchdogs Legion, and optionally AC3. French from AC Unity (when it is properly fixed), Arabic from Mirage, Italian and Latin from AC Brotherhood and optionally AC2, Greek and Egyptian from AC Origin, and most of the work is already done. Now there is one setting that takes precedence.

About a month ago I saw someone program a chatbot to take on scam centers. His view was that when they are held busy by chatbots, scammers cannot scam. But that impact is larger. People can now be set in chatbots engaging in the use of natural speech. As such there is a unification of skills and in that setting Ubisoft could offer a much larger population. According to ‘records’ in 2022, the United Kingdom had the most students learning English as a foreign language. There were approximately 262,400 students who were learning English as a second language that year, followed by Ireland with almost 116,000 foreign students. The third place ranking was completed by Canada, with around 105,000 students learning English as a foreign language. That implies a population of billions who want to learn English. When the modules are ready Ubisoft could cater to millions of people who want to learn any of these languages and with a subscription model they could cater to hundreds of thousands of them. To make it fun they could add the villa in Monteriggioni and as language assignments are completed they could get another painting added to the villa. There is also the notion that ‘midterms’ in several stages would upgrade Monteriggioni. You will not get a well and a few other things, but most other upgrades become possible. And as you engage with the people in Florence and Rome you could get lots of interactions. With Latin you get the added nun/priest outfits and get access to the old Vatican. Linguistic skills are valued globally and for those who want to learn Arabic there is the world of Mirage (just Bagdad) and there we will see what more there is to learn. Any language student gets assigned an address and as your skills progress you will get a ‘better’ address. All this was already possible and now it serves a much better purpose. There is classic English (AC Syndicate) and modern English (Watchdogs Legion) the setting already exist for the most. But the added setting of interactive chatbots will push the Ip to new heights and the graphic skills of Ubisoft have seldom been questioned (only in AC Unity). So this took a little more than an hour, but it was there for the longest of time. It just required Yves Guillemot to wake up to see what he had and now that this writing is out in the open, he could wake up and seek new frontiers. There is the thought that Unreal Engine might not be a solution everywhere, but it will give the most lifelike views on Vision Pro and MetaQuest. As such it just fits better. 

Software directions are out in the open. The trick is not to take the mundane direction that everyone seems to be taking. As such I offer this thought to the wannabe captains of industry.

Have a great day and think of what language you would like to learn, because that is a universal thought we all have. It might be that you want to learn the dead languages (Greek and Latin), you might want to broaden your horizon with English, French, Italian and Japanese and for those wishing to learn Spanish, a case can be made to include AC Black Flag. The rest? Well that gives a person a dozen languages to learn, but cases can be made for other languages as well. How that goes? It would be up to Ubisoft. 

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March 26, 2025 · 00:43

In dubio

That is where I am at the moment, I am in a state of ‘when in doubt’. To give you the full picture I have to go back to (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/11/27/it-starts-with-options/) when on November 27th 2022 I wrote ‘It starts with options’ at that point I wrote in a single setting an addendum to the entire Harry Potter stage and I added the stage to add jobs to Hogwarts Legacy. In this case I created the wand-maker setting for the game, or better Hogwarts Legacy 2, to evolve the game you need to add specialization to the game and I added jobs. To add replay ability to a game I am in favor to set this to a wider session, as such I considered that a job is only available to three houses, and in one house it gives you a bonus throughout the game. You learn that lore in the first stage of the game, through books and notes I reckon. So that was the first setting I set out, yet today as I play the fourth time the game (last week) and I just watched (yet again) Harry Potter and the Half Blood prince. A thought occurred to me and I almost got to write is down.

So what’s keeping me?
Well, that is harder to explain. The initial writings was set to the game, there was no IP violation made and as I offered the text for free to Avalanche software (the people behind Hogwarts Legacy), I feel good about it. Add value to an IP I adore and handing it over to the makers seems like a good idea. Now it is different. I thought of an extension to either Hogwarts Legacy (as a DLC) or part of Hogwarts Legacy 2. This is still ok with me, however I might like it better if Avalanche Software would hand me (a copy) of the letter from JK Rowling of showing her blessing for the addition. I consider the wizarding world stuff the ownership of JK Rowling.

The addition I had in mind are the setting where the creation of creatures comes under fire. Side missions that teach you more about the creation of the Inferi (in this case) on who created it and how it is down. Then unravel the curse lessening the power of this and diminish the inferi in the game. There are two settings. One making the amount of inferi less, the second is making the level of inferi less and set the lower powered inferi to zero. I am not clear on how to proceed, then there are a few creatures that can have a similar setting, but I tend to be the believer in balancing a game, so as the inferi are lessened, another creature gets more powerful (or more of them). For example you reduce the inferi, the spiders can become more powerful. These are mere simple considerations I am making in the progress of creating lore for a game. 

And to that effect, also create a house setting. As I see it, that mission is different for a Slytherin as the game gives a dark wizard a more powerful option and if we consider the game. All houses can do it and I will remain possible, but the owner of dark spells get a more powerful outcome and members of the house of Slytherin gets a bonus option. It is still a simple thought which I haven’t ironed out yet in my brain, but that is the setting my brain is thinking off (at present).

Having house dependent side missions might be a good way to set the bar in the next game. Another setting is that this could be done in more ways. So let’s keep it to the Inferi mission. In that mission, you any house can get the mission if they clean out an inferi layer, but a book in house Slytherin gets them a prequel mission, that becomes a more powerful stage to resolve it and get a bonus to the inferi layer mission, which in this case I call the Finite Inferi achievement. 

I always loved replay ability for any RPG game, but as I saw in the Bethesda games, doing the same thing over and over again tends to become boring and for the most part Hogwarts Legacy is no different. But the first mission involving Jackdaw was a revelation, four different ways to get there, the rest remains the same, but as we create more settings, we can enjoy the same game in different ways for much longer than we ever considered and jobs was one way, the houses are another way to give more options to the joy of gaming and as we gain that setting we could also opt for your own place to live with the option to modify your house your way and the setting is that you can only own one house and every house student (or former house student) can only own one house, they can buy a different house later on (more expensive), but the old house will be lost to you. I also thought of the mission where you could restore and own the house of Professor Rackham, it is where the game begins. This gave me the idea to incorporate the Wizarding world currency and push the use of Knuts, Sickles and Galleons. Yet the galleons are the ‘big incomes’ and that is required to get enough to own the bigger houses and at some point when you have enough it will open up a special venture. These are mere thoughts, but it is a direction that Avalanche can go for. So now wonder what is keeping some big game makers to become innovative in their strides, but that might merely be me.

Have a great day, I am almost at the midweek. I got there 43 minutes ago. Vancouver has to wait (or work) for another 15 hours to get there too. 

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March 22, 2025 · 11:21

Twinkletoes

Yup, this happens to us all. Even the non-dancers. Twinkletoes means “used to refer to someone who is a good dancer or who moves lightly on their feet”, I accept that, but as I personally see it, it Also stages the person who has the situation that the person “who is a thinker or who moves swiftly in their brain” the same situation applies. I have been iterating new IP through existing games for over two days now (and it is really exhausting). I have been making new iterations to my version of Elder Scrolls 6: Restoration, a new FarCry (based on the legendary FarCry 3), the new RPG I have set on paper here, new iterations of commerce (in the RPG’s) and added a setting to a new stealth RPG (not a new Assassins Creed) and a very new approach to Watchdogs 5: Observations (in its earliest infancy), I had already commenced Watchdogs 4 to paper (somewhere on this blog) and it plays in modern day Japan. I changed the setting to Sapporo, as this is relatively new in gaming and as such there is novelty in new locations and the story requires a harbor setting. And this has been merely the last two days, although the original setting were created up to 5 years ago, with the setting of Restoration (TES6) almost 10 years ago. So as I am driven to near exhaustion as my brain is in twinkletoe mode, I can assure you that it is merely my version of overly active brain syndrome (perhaps there is a medical term for it) and it is leaving me a little tired. As it the case, it did give me the setting of Watchdogs 5, the issue here that it is a networking setting as the game goes in pairs. 

It is also less action driven, but more activity driven, as such you can be the hacker or the Agent in this game, there is a larger setting that you as one or the other can give clues to a fellow on the other side of the isle and the goal is to create a more robust observation and detection system. The frail setting of certain systems allows for actions to be monitored on CCTV, the internet and personal observations. The thought came to me as I was remembering 1985 video game Hacker by Activision. It was designed by Steve Cartwright and he got it done on a system with a mere 64KB, too what happens when we throw some real power to it? What happens when we unite agents and hackers and run the system from both ends? Can this result in a much more robust system? What happened when the game adds zero day faults (Apple has a few, Microsoft has tons as I personally see it). So what happens when we set these stages in motion and it is not merely point and click, so why happens when a Palantir (Gotham) system is thrown into the mix? I am merely postulating now, the reasoning that games could also instruct or teach people on how vulnerable they are in real life. 

As we move from station to station, some might remember the game V (based on the 1983 TV series), you merely run to a point and activate that system to let the red fumes inhabit the space station (I think that was what I was supposed to do), but add a section based on Portal (by Rob Swigart, 1986) you can get a lot more. That is the setting that I see when we set a game like Hacker to a much larger stage and at that point it is new IP, not merely some variation of IP, but a much larger stage and totally new. A game that teaches, informs and trains the next stage. As we now see that programmers are programming bots to keep scammers uselessly busy, we can grow more mundane and more intense in almost any direction. And it is a new endeavor, not some wannabe drip drip copy, but something totally new. Just like the makers of Chipwits (by Epyx, 1984) made a new version a larger and more enticing version on these newer systems, we can grow many games in new jackets and larger premises to new heights. And these systems have the computation powers to net the stage much larger. We can use the setting of the Balance of Power and add a few cogs to make it a much larger machine. And as Chipwits has a new version 42 years later in a much larger setting, we can do this in many ways and I wrote about them around 4 years ago. The new IP set on original ideas and stupidly discarded by this who thought the new horizons require better games, all whilst these games are the timeless golden oldies. We saw and forgot what Millennium 2.2 brought on the Commodore Amiga with 1024 KB on 150ns. Now we have systems (and mobiles) with 32000 times more memory and more than 15000 times more storage whilst the processors are over 250,000 times faster. You can really go to town on those merits and create the larger setting on several stages. I said that this was part of the 50 million Amazon Luna sales that I foresaw and some are in such stages now, but as I saw it Amazon stayed asleep and like Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin (1864) they went with that setting in the trend of “There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them” and the left billion on the floor all relying on the AI hype. I was thinking on that last week, there is no AI and I see it as NIP, Near Intelligent Parsing (making it NIP avoiding the confusion with IP). A setting that is overlooked, because as there is no AI, they all shout, so what is it then? Well, it is near intelligent, there is no real intelligence at present and it is set to the programmers who are parsing data and ideas into new (flawed) data. You see, a lot of this is intelligence and it almost get you there, but not entirely, the training models are set to more and more likely outcomes but there are percentages that are off and that is where the shoe becomes the wrong fit and I reckon that when these errors hit ADNOC and ARAMCO both will want some legal satisfaction and it might be a few years away, but it will happen, because the distance between real AI and NIP will be the size of the Grand Canyon (which these AI proclaimers will deny) and as they throw more complex legal documents at the customers they will get out to ‘their’ field retired and non-accountable to any legal discourse. It is almost like bad mortgages sold (or swapped) to new owners and they get out. Yet this field is the new wild west and I refuse to become part of it. And what happens, I saw the new stages of income based on old software. The Atari 600/800, Atari ST, CBM64 and CBM Amiga gave us over 10,000 games between 1983 and 1999. So if we only take the highest scoring 10% we get 1000 games. Now 30%-50% have IP protection, but I saw the override in new IP in a few ways and these are valid options as I see it and that implies that that ‘great’ (not really) game brand Microsoft, left thousands of options on the floor whilst they went to spend billions on something that I not panning out. You see, where it all becomes a new kind of hustle, all whilst for over two years I have written on other means to get revenue? And I am not done yet, because as I see it, the more I write here, the more revenue I show and the more IP I give here, the weaker the bog tech firms show themselves to be. A simple setting with simple outcomes and the best gig becomes that should someone copy the IP I set here, the bigger the losers biotech becomes. A simple equation to the question what makes for a good game?

That leaves me with the question, is there a mental setting to Twinkletoes? It is merely a mental thing in me, the question I cannot answer has a larger appeal than most other things in life. Have a great day and if you wonder what bag I left here? I do some things with intent, you can’t give away the game and here is the setting. In November 2018 I wrote ‘It’s about time, slappers only’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2018/11/29/its-about-time-slappers-only/) the premise to Watchdogs 4, and the larger player would be the one with Meta Glasses, before Meta even had glasses, I call them Google Glasses. As such I was ahead from META by years. And as I see it, I have done so a few times with games and when we see Software companies make ‘innovative’ claims (hardware suppliers too) I get to be front and central in their claims showing them what I had created years ago. I reckon that I am mere steps to show what I had months if not years from what Bernard Arnault apparently had created whilst I had the setup in my bog (and more) close to a year before they made their AR (Augmented Reality) claims through LVMH. I was a few steps ahead of them and I made it common goods in my blog before March 21st 2023 in ‘The unplanned story’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/03/21/the-unplanned-story/) and all the wannabe innovators (no referral to Bernard Arnault) can go suck an egg. As I said, have a great day with an optional game or two, because gaming makes the brain go in innovative mode.

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March 21, 2025 · 15:00

A new gaming IP

This is merely my idea. It is not an attack or anything like that on AC Shadows. I ignored the game for now until I get a proper review (a review not made by a wannabe influencer). Ad this setting is important, because an influencer goes where the money is and that is likely blowing the flute that Ubisoft supplies along with the music. It is their right and they are backed against a corner, so I don’t blame them. But like those traders dealing $2 stock, it is likely that you end up with a bag with nothing, or at least you lose your $109 investment. As such I stay waiting. Yet, my mind does not wait, regardlessly it ploughs on. And the setting of a Ninja is interesting to my mind. When I think ninja games I still think of Tench Z, it was da bomb in the Xbox360 and at times I miss it. So what to do?

Well I have my own settings to consider. So I went to design a new game. This game plays in Korea in the ‘old’ days. In a stretch from Hwacheon-gun to Yanggu to Chando-yi to Hahoe-ri. A block that slices through both North and South Korea, in this the idea has given me the idea to tell the story of two brothers, they become opponents through ideology and it is important to differentiate in what is good and what is evil. It is merely a point of view. Both get rescued and and as they end up in opposite sides of the river both think the other brother is dead. In game 1 (yes my mind created more than one IP point) they both end up in a battle school, they both support their side and as they become better and better, their abilities and responsibilities grow. 

One side relies on stealth and range weapons, the other on intrusion and close by sentry killing. And such their abilities evolve differently, they don’t come to blow, but the new game gives you the other brother and you have one game and two complete stories. And as they are separated by geology, they also evolve different skills. The north will be in a mountain area with a lake, the other one in forests. They both have their own weapons and in total you get a range of weapons to play with. At the high points of the games you both get involved and as such you are part of building two fortresses. They are both unique and hand you different settings. There are elements that I discussed earlier when I initially created Elder Scrolls 6, Restoration. Not leaving created IP for duds, especially as Bethesda now is part of Microsoft. They can invent their own IP (and they have). And as the next Elder scrolls is not out until 2026 or later. I can do with my own designs whatever I think I want to do with it. The backdrop is that the early ninja’s are allegedly (I’m not an expert on the subject) from Korea (it is said that: Those roots are found in the “art of warfare” that began around 4000 B.C. in Indian culture, was passed to the Chinese mainland, and around the 6th century, passed through the Korean peninsula and crossed over to Japan) and I accept that as a stated fact. It also pays to keep it all fresh and not be another Japan story. In this setting we can see it all as new and by focussing on other weapons it will feel new too. There is at present a lack of real stealth games, so there is that too, especially as you dive into the oriental world. 

It was my thought that the stealth part is more about actual mission. The Art of war is set on 13 Chapters. As such we can in the first game (whether it is one brother or the other) set these 13 chapters in the first game (also educating the player), and a we build the fortress, we create a larger premise, because we need to engage the villages, the people and get the artisans. The lord of the region is always loaded and can pay for ‘anything’ and set that story to the larger premise. It is also a set that we can incorporate the Prince by Machiavelli in this. The second game we need to do things different to make the game greater and larger. One such book could be The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan. It could set the narration to the lord of the second place and in that that ninja will do a lot of travel and as we already know the first game that ninja will be able to give support in different ways.

I am still ironing out the parts, but the setting was done in a few hours, so Microsoft, eat your heart out. I wanted to set the north south border, but there were too many political players involved, as such I merely saw one Korea and in the time of Koguryo, Paekche, Silla we have three regions, as such two were used and one might be for a sequel. This gives us the political setting we could frame the game to. 

So ever before I see AC Shadow, I will have created the making of another stealth game. So why does it take some years to get to this point? Well that is obvious, the graphics would take time, but that is a challenge for other IP creators. 

As such I will relax a little and keep the mind ploughing through the sides that are still a mystery to me at present.

Have a great gaming today.

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March 19, 2025 · 20:50

Ubisoft a shadow?

That is the setting. Of course the setting at this moment is that the NDA’s have expired and we get legions of ‘fans’ giving their view on the game. As I personally see it, I will wait until the real reviewers come out to play. As I see it there is a danger from Ubisoft. They lost 75% value and I stated this a few times, the last critical view was on July 7th, 2020 when I wrote ‘Death of the creed’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2020/07/07/death-of-the-creed/) There I stated “I see a game that is shoddy on several fronts, but I do realise that I was watching something that had not been released yet. However, the stage I saw is in line of what AC had become. Yes, it is a game, as was Odyssey, but when you realise that not one fort on the planet had thousands of arrows, their aim was not that great (especially as they cannot shoot things in the night that moves), we see a much larger lag in gaming and a lag in the AC series.” After that AC Mirage was released and that was a good game (I think it was) and I enjoyed every minute in that game. But the AC range has had its failures, or as I would prefer to call it, shoddy approaches towards the wrong setting. I know that is my view on the matter, and not everyone agrees and not all the ‘super glitches appear on every system (as far as I know), but there is a larger setting to wait until the real reviewers have had a go at that next game. I don’t mind buying a game, I mind spending my money the wrong way. And waiting for real reviewers is that first step.

I am not a negativity blaster, I merely want to see the real deal and wannabe influencers and Ubisoft approved reviewers will not get me there, not whilst Ubisoft is on the verge of bankruptcy (losing 75%-80% of stock value does that) and the news in other settings, like hearing news of buyout by Tencent and several other options. I mentioned this in ‘A repetitive bashing’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/03/28/a-repetitive-bashing/) where I stated “I also warned all last year that their next two products better be beyond good and Watchdogs: Legion was, the other (AC game) was not” we are now in a stage where apparently AC Shadow is likely to be the last straw they have. As I always stated “A game to appease everyone, is a game that pleases no one”, but that is merely my view. The fun part is that I created several gaming IP, so Ubisoft only had to take notice. That doesn’t mean that my views are better, but I created several original gaming IP’s and Ubisoft is merely flogging the same horse again and again. Perhaps they are out of ideas? 

So, what is the view on AC Shadow? I don’t have none at present. I will take a better stance when the real reviewers have had their look, as such I will know in a day or two if I will buy the next AC game. And there is no AC Harry within me. The games I loved were the First AC, AC2, AC Brotherhood, AC Black Flag (but I don’t consider that an AC game), AC Origin (my personal favorite) and AC Mirage. So will AC Shadow grace my gaming shelf? I will know no later than Sunday.

So you all have a nice rest and optionally run for the gaming shop in several hours (here it arrives in 11 hours). On the off chance that it will be a great game they will house the two game that were required, this will drive up the price of their Ubisoft IP and I saw articles (unproven) that implies that they are about to move certain IP into other ventures, it read like they are about to pull a Bad Bank setting, not unlike Credit Lyonnais (1994) if I remember correctly, there were more and what Ubisoft is doing is perfectly legal and accepted in the business world. As such there is nothing stopping them from doing so. 

How the rest of the month will go? Time will tell and most likely the real reviewers. Have a great day. And try to ignore the hard times we are introduced to news by digital dollar chasers.

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