Category Archives: Gaming

July 19, 2024 · 19:18

A second visit

Well, it might have been a third time that I take a view towards an altered IP. This isn’t mine, it’s actually the property of Microsoft. The first game (Mass Effect) was released in 2007 and Mass Effect 2 was released in 2010. Mass Effect 2 is still regarded by many (and me) as one of the greatest tactical shooters. Mass Effect 3 is good, but it also gave us the greatest multi player shooters ever made. These two elements are the grounds of the massive fanbase of the series. 

The present we got at the launch party is still regarded by me as the coolest ever (see above), all the guests got one with themselves as the SPECTRE agent. 

At the end of game 3 there were a lot of complaints. I think that one was shoddy to some effect and it should have been set better, but the story was awesome. There were 4 endings (I never found the 4th, but I saw it on YouTube). And whilst going into this I accidentally found out another part which I will illuminate soon enough. It seems that Facebook is catering to Microsoft with accusations of spam. But I have my response for Facebook ready. Anyway back to the story. 

The new setting I created was set on the citadel. It happens after the slaughter starts and before Shepard makes its entry. In these weeks (optionally months) we are on the citadel. It has the familiar places (Embassy module and the stages from Mass Effect 2, yet there are a few hundred more places. This is a stealth game.

The story is that an engineer had smuggled his family on board, as such it he/she had a hiding place. As the slaughter (read: ascendancy) continues, this engineer needs to sneak its way around. The first thing that needs to be done is to secure water and sustenance. Also oxygen is needed (for the long haul).

Every place has three versions. The dirty stage (with bodies), the cleaning stage (with keepers) and the clean stage. They all have their own issues. 

One of the stages is to secure personnel manifests (with local celebrity locations), locations of interest and local artefacts. 

The races are Asari, Drell, Elcor, Hanar, Humans, Keepers, Salarians, Turians, Volus, Batarians, Geth, Krogan, Quarians, Vorcha, Yahg. The races in bold are the selectable races. In the citadel the Batarians, Quarians, Vorcha and Yahg have no embassy. As such they are the harder species to play. The Quarians (when found) will have information on the Geth. The Turians have data on Vorcha and Yahg and so on. As the game progresses once you have the data, you will face a setting where you have to install monitors all over the station to record what is happening as well as to set alarms so you can sneak your way around the station. You need to get a electronic shroud (a sort of digital cloak), enhance your hiding place as well as creating a few others where you can heal and rest in safety. In normal play the game will ignore several issues, but in hard more it will ‘see’ recording devices and start a hunt for you. Once this starts, you will have to set up a decoy to reset the alarm, the hiding place will be lost forever. 

To set this up it is more then a simple matter. The keepers are thorough in cleaning, as such it will be important to remain invisible. The largest issue I see isn’t merely locations, This place is huge. 

As you can see it is quite big. One idea is to set the stage by race (and most of the game on one of the platforms. It requires one huge LLM with deeper machine learning to create the levels. As I see it, per race you will need up to a dozen buildings (skyscrapers) to cover essential needs for the game. You will have to get the hardware you require for the tasks. The shopping district (ME2) should give you a camera and digital storage. No weapons in this game, however an idea comes to mind to get something like a mining laser (to cut through matter) and tools to open other areas.

Although the game seems straight forward. The idea came to me that the maker optionally have loads of other lore and concept art that they never used in the game. There would be use for them here. Also, other races would have data on humans like the illusive man, Shepard and so on. 

The larger setting I see is how to create a sphere of thrill and suspense that makes a stealth game, a stealth game. You see in ‘cheaper’ stealth games you carry everything making you a bulkier version of you with a backpack 15 times the size of you. So it is important to set the ‘sneak factor’ to find upgrades and better hardware to do the job. The shopping district will have a version one or two of an essential tool, but better versions need to be found. In addition to that, to set the tools to a random location requires a more spiffy setting. Or as they say, to be placed in ulterior locations where we have 1000 places it could be, but with references on items in logs (embassy and security). Then there is the idea of replayability. So as the citadel has hundreds of buildings per pillar, the stage comes that in a second game (with the same race) you will get confronted with different buildings. Similar but not identical, which gives new vibes to the game.

So, whilst we all see what Microsoft is up to with more rehashing the same idea. I took one look at a great game and created (optional) new IP in a day. This is why I see Microsoft as an agent of mediocrity. Now I will accept that this is not enough. More is needed to make this a great game, but I got them this in under a day (it is basically Microsoft IP). So feel free to to wonder what Microsoft is blundering around. If I can get this done in under a day, what are they seeking to rehash the old days? Don’t get me wrong I played Age of Mythology when it released in 2002 and it is a great game, optionally to play again. But considering all the IP they have (or should have) this is not enough. Lets face it they have GREAT IP. The Flight Simulator (2020) has truly become a great game (it was always great). It is a niche market, but for those into flight simulators it is the bees knees. Bioware had many great games. My personal favourite in D&D (Neverwinter nights, 2002) is still one of the greatest fantasy games ever. Both Dragon Age and Jade empires (not my favourites) are good games, where are they now? The problem is that some games need their scope readjusted. To coin an idea, the Multiplayer version of Mass Effect 3 could have been launched on the Xbox series X as a free to play game on that console. And free to play is important is important. They can still offer the loot boxes in the same way they did. For points fought over, or for a few dollars. And there is a market. This game is still played after 12 years. The is one hell of an achievement for a game released in 2012. So why didn’t Microsoft act? I got to the top 1% of players in 2013, there were over 1.2 million players at that point. Considering that the PS5 outsells the Xbox-X by 5:1 I would think that they squandered their markets. And this is a game that can flock hundreds of thousands to the Xbox (in addition to any other system), and no one thought this was a good idea?

As I personally see it Phil Spencer was all about capturing the player base (read: legally stealing), yet the the idea of bolstering its player base by offering playability was seemingly lost to him. And his hard times are yet to come. As I see it I might not have another option but to hand my IP to Tencent technologies. Partially this idea comes as Facebook removed my previous post under the fake guise of spam, which was not the case. The idea has merit as within two years Facebook would lose millions of advertisers. Troll farms create a lot of traffic, but not a lot of commerce, merely fake locations to advertise to, when retailers figure that part out, they will find another place to go to and there is my solution. I saw this three years ago, Whilst everyone was diving for digital dollars any way they could. I saw that the power of it all relies on engagement. And a troll farm only ‘seemingly’ engages. True engagement is seen elsewhere. That is the achilles heel of Facebook and the strength of Amazon (Tencent optionally too). So as I see it Microsoft lost out two times. Didn’t you wonder why Chrome has a market share of 65% and Edge a mere 5%? They aren’t looking in the wrong direction, they aren’t looking in the proper place to begin with. And I added my gaming idea as optional evidence part N. 

A setting overlooked due to the principle of spin. So whilst Microsoft relies on ‘The most powerful console in the world’, Sony and Nintendo are relying on the factor of fun and play and they are winning This year Nintendo had 123,000,000 players. Sony has 118,000,000 players. Now compare that with Microsoft and their 27.7 million consoles. And Tencent technologies is knocking at the door taking optionally more market share away from Microsoft. That is how bad it will get and I saw this 3 years ago. This is why I tried to get the solution to Kingdom Holding (so far no luck). In this environment Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud could score big, optionally the largest gain they ever had (speculative thinking by me). 

My weekend has stated, in Vancouver the day is only starting. Enjoy!

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July 6, 2024 · 00:00

The name of the game

Last night I had an idea (I’ve had many). The inspiration was a game called Midwinter. It was designed by Mike Singleton and released in 1989. He was the first to revolutionise gaming, tactical gaming. When games (for the most) all focussed on one part, he made it an open challenge and it played on the Commodore Amiga. You could do almost anything, walk to a place, drive a truck to a base, swim to a base. You name it, you could do it. We stepped a little away from that. There is a foundation to do it, but not open enough. I thought of throwing fuel on the fire and make it more challenging. To do this I turned to the war on Arrakis. It is (for the most part) really open. Consider where you and your skills decide on the abilities your troops and the enemy troops have. In the first part of the game you are an Harkonen officer. A starter, a milk mouth. You start as a soldier and you are part of the managing forces from Harkonen. So you start as a land trooper. Consider the last two Dune movies (which should be part of the design). You attack and subdue Fremen. You oversee the miners, you fight the fremen, you fly the ornithopters and you get to do this over and over again. The game is set up in time slices. As you do better and better the dials of the Harkonen are set higher and higher. When all the slices are done, when all the tasks are done, the Harkonen are set. If you score well enough you get medals awarded to you by an officer or even the Baron. The challenge is to defeat your own achievements. 

Screenshot

And the setting is that as a Caladeen (the home world of Paul Atreides) you will have to do really good to defeat the forces you enabled. The second scenario is two fold, you have to create an alliance with the Fremen (or you cannot get to stage three). You get small stages in the beginning then larger stages and the challenge is to beat yourself. The system is set by what you achieve. In stage two the Harkonen might be seen as NPC’s. Their powers are set to values you achieved in stage one. In stage three you reset YOUR values, but they are supported by the Caladeen and their presence becomes available by what you achieved in stage two. 

This is all I have for now, but the idea is that this has not been done before. Also the setting is supposed to be smooth. You can walk in the imperial palace (stage 2) and then walk up to an ornithopter and fly off, but you get to deal with Harkonen troops and Harkonen saboteurs and depending on how well you did, they become more than a nuisance. Unlike Dune: Awakening it is 

not multiplayer, that is an important difference. Here you create the levels of your opponent. 

The setting does not need to styled by Dune. But that was the setting I had. You could do this as a re-write of the game Knights of the sky where you get to start in the German airforce and after that can choose French or British airforces. Knights of the sky was not high defined graphics. But now you can to this in Unreal Engine 5 on a PS5 and get the whole battlefield on your computer. The setting of gaming like this is almost the same. You get to set the power of the opposing forces (NPC’s) with THEIR quirkiness but with the fighting powers of you. Go look at the history of gaming. It has not been done before. Old games setting the taste of the new game. But with a larger defining edge. As I see it, it will give a larger timeline because as you get into Stage three of the first game, you might want to redo stage one and make the game harder to beat. A game that you can replay over and over again, because as you upgrade the scores of one opponent, your challenge will be greater. How are those spice truffles?

Perhaps over time I will write more, consider that you have to train a mentat (Piter de Vries/Thufir Hawat), a troop trainer (Glossu Rabban/Gurney Halleck) and so on. There is more thinking to do, because the need for training Piter de Vries or Thufir Hawat sets a taste to the game, but we do not see them in the movies to that degree. So how to go about it? It could be that the palace has a strategic room and as you do troop management, it sets the properties on how you are directed playing the game, so as these two are added later in the game, the troops will be according to what you decided on in the strategic room. I do not have all the answers yet, but as you can see, so far the gaming industry has done nothing of a kind and they had decades to get their ideas straight. 

Well that is enough for today, Saturday starts in 4 minutes.

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June 27, 2024 · 01:17

The side not illuminated

The BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5111qxl2nro) is giving us ‘Apple in breach of law on App Store, says EU’ We get a few sides, but one side is not given to us. We are given “European Union regulators have accused Apple of being in breach of new laws designed to rein in big tech companies” It sounds nice, but at present the station “rein in big tech companies” is at least sanctimonious. We are also given “The firm charges developers an average of 30% commission on its App Store” and the penalty is given as we are given “The firm faces a potential fine of up to 10% of its global revenue if it fails to comply with the rules”. You see the one part we are NOT given is that all these developers get a channel to publish their work. The get their million by harassing people with advertising. These developers have no interest in giving gamers a real gaming satisfaction (some, but massively too little). So the EU should consider the fallout. You see Apple and Google could do two things. Pull all the games with an advertising channel, stating that this is not permitted. The second part is that they can start charging for the service. The bulk of these gaming ‘companies’ will soon thereafter collapse. You see when all these companies get CHARGED for spreading these games and cyber security. The net thing we see is that these companies will go somewhere else and the dangers of servicing hackers becomes rather large. 

The next part is that this becomes a new setting where the UAE and Saudi Arabia will get the option to offer the same thing Apple and Google did, but charging a mere 5% to 10%, the rest will probably going to China, making the EU and US lose even more revenue. 

All this because the shareholders of Epic Games wanted more revenue and they got this by throwing a tantrum like a child so that they get charged less for services. And lets be clear, they were eager to accept the deal when they were small, now that they are big they can afford to pay for the services. But that is not the only part. Epic Games wanted another path and when even one of these 3rd parties get to be hacked and the players get the damage, Epic Games will face the largest class action lawsuit in history. At that point I wonder how the shareholders will reflect on a pay cycle that will cost them billions. They had a safe environment with Apple and Google, but when that falls away these two will help to give the victims all the numbers and all the support they need to clean out the vaults of all the game developers who took the greedy way out. In addition the EU will get a new problem. As game makers fall flat and optionally move to China or the Middle East the EU will lose revenue. In the last 8 years 10 games made $13,000,000,000. So what will the EU do when that goes to China (or the Middle East)? There are over 200 companies, 105 made over $500,000,000. This was a bad call. These politicians have a socialistic mindset, Take from the rich, but they forget that these rich companies set the foundation of growth. Sergey Brin, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos were real innovators. The mediocrity of Microsoft is pushing them back more and more. And whilst they might be shown as the richest, they are losing more and more ground. Now with the EU, more and more business will move to better (read: non-European and American) shores. 

And the EU did this to themselves. Consider the DMA:

  • Business users who depend on gatekeepers to offer their services in the single market will have a Fairer business environment (But these services come at a cost, no more Freebees)
  • allow third parties to inter-operate with the gatekeeper’s own services in certain specific situations. (If hacked those services become nullified)

Just to part, the first will nullify these innovators, they cannot afford these services and they will go to a cheap solution making them a target for hackers. The second part will end some games, gamers have no patience and no humour. So when their game stops they will all cry like little children, their toy was taken away and when a hacker does get to upper hand, the class actions will come calling for all these companies. It is a war that the EU cannot win and the larger companies will become empty shells (my prediction). 

Until this first case was decided there was merely a threat of things, now it is coming to pass. 

I wonder what happens to the ‘fake’ economy in Europe when this starts. When advertising through gaming stops. What will the damage be? Amazon, Apple and Google have other means for getting advertising revenue. The others? Anyones guess, but there is a chance that a few hundred companies are sweating because no revenue meant no cost and that could stop now. So they need to find bankers. And what will those bankers demand? All issues that the DMA (Digital Markets Act) did not consider. I believe that this Apple case is opening a can of worms  no one is ready for and the implications are long term.

And now it is Thursday, Enjoy this day when you get to this point.

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June 9, 2024 · 23:17

Revisiting an idea

I had an idea on a direction in RPG gaming earlier (in 2021), I kept it in my mind and left it aside. The latest patch by Hogwarts Legacy pushed the thought to the forefront of my mind again.

You see what we now need is a smarter NPC. An NPC that reacts to you, to some extent we are already there. Some games do that, but to a limited degree. So consider two elements Honour and Dishonour. Every NPC will get a value and to the degree it has its own value, an outfit will get a new rating. In this example The Azkaban will carry Dishonour +5 and Honour -8 there is not linear setting and that will set a new stage. Poachers will see you optionally as an enemy, Ashwinders will see you as a ally (to keep track of the example). To the other games this applies to and the larger setting is that your choice of outfit isn’t just to stop cold, shield from heat, and to stop buoyancy, but it will also present you to them. Consider the Crusades. All those people in metal armour, it had an impact. I had been playing with this idea for some time. Why clothing is merely cometic, it can be so much more. Like weapons, there is a strategic side and we never used it to that degree in RPG games. 

As I see it, the new RPG will need this, as well as an upgraded economy setting. We have all the elements and now that we have powerful PC’s and a powerful PS5 the hardware will be able to deal with this. The question becomes, who will incorporate this setting first? I reckon that any RPG game lagging by 2026 will have lost interest by gamers pretty quickly. 

We need to push gaming forward and this is one direction we can add to the equation. 

Almost Monday now.

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March 15, 2024 · 04:16

The players

This is a bit hard for me. I have just had open heart surgery (4 weeks ago) and things are not panning out like I would hope. I think I am now on my last few legs, things might improve, but I do not think so. This is it for me, so the last thing I can do is to keep the IP out of the hands of Microsoft. Why would they enjoy my life’s work? The procrastinators of mediocrity. The man who gave us the term ‘Meh, good enough’? The insult is just beyond insane. So lets follow this up with the players who were invited. 

The favourite child
That was the first, Google. I have always ben pro Google and as such they had a first position. That was until they dropped the Google Stadia. At that point Google was out. The Google Stadia was the number one systems, but they were not alone.

The initial players
So, I had to look at other players, there were three

Amazon Luna
Apple Arcade
Tencent Technologies

The three are optional choices, the all needs to pass the qualifying questions (Whether they can run unreal 5 engine applications) but that is about it and the rewards are there. 50 million consoles in the first stage and another 125,000,000 consoles in stage two. So from inception until about 2 years to get the numbers. That places the system who takes that dive to the top of the charts, surpassing Sony and equalling Nintendo, that is a strong incentive and the cost? A Canadian passport and 300 bitcoin post taxation (a lot less then initially) but with my timeline sliding out of reach, I can merely hope to get some kind of a reward for the idea and I have written about it often enough (not everything) but the larger lines remain intact and as I settle on the stage another player made his entry.

Finally

Kingdom holdings

You see, it seems that these players are afraid to commit, so I needed another player to optionally commit to the idea and an Islamic system might be a stage that a person like HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal might like to spread his influence out over a much larger domain. Consider Egypt with 109 million people, Indonesia with 273 million and Bangladesh with 169 million, beyond that Islam is followed by a total of 1.9 billion people. My numbers were straight on and perhaps low as well. A islamic system that unites them all? A nice dream to have and one that could be a reality. That is the path I saw and now that my track is running to an end I want to make some money to life out my life in decent comfort. Is that too much to ask for? 

Anyway, I still have a few sides to sell and other places that can see that there is more to me. Will it work? I don’t know but this path was one I never predicted. One cut short by an open heart surgery. Will I survive? Perhaps, but not to the degree I expected, that much is certain. So now I can only hope that I can sell my IP to a party that is willing to hand me my dues. A simple dream but it is all I have left.

Enjoy the day.

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March 1, 2024 · 23:53

The dream connecting

This started yesterday, I was contemplating yesterdays article. I thought there was no connection, now I am not certain. I have been through a lot, my sternum was cut in half, my heart got a new valve and that was the start of a few issues. One if them is NSW housing stating that turning down an apartment on reasons of heart failure is not enough a reason, even the setting that I am in ICU did not sway them. So as such I have 2 weeks to get the papers in order. My life sucks!

So the dream was weird. It was like in some tropical French place. He was handing out food to all who wanted it. He was in relaxed clothing handing out palm leaves with fish and a side order of rice to all who wanted it. I also joined the queue and I took a leave from him. He said ‘hello’ and ‘welcome. Drinks are on the tables’ I said thank you mr Bowie and I started to turn whilst he continued ‘Mr Bowie is my dad, I am David’ Sorry David, I said and took a step towards the patio with benches and coolers with ice-water and drinks. I took something that looked like lemon based and I was surprised, it was lemon based with rum, sweet and delicious. It went nicely with the fish. The fish was lovely as was the rice. 

Whilst eating I was watching the people. They seem overly happy to be in this place. Some of the women were flirty and talking with him, but they kept their distance. His wife was still alive as such she would not be here. So why was I there?

It bothered me, I was still alive. So why was I allowed a look?

Then it came to me you see the EA list is set by the shakers and makers. Those who made the ranks at EA didn’t want that list to change, but the next iteration of gamers think differently, they see different sides and Streaming games will give them that and Apple and Android with their games advertisings will suddenly see a new rankings evolve. That is where Luna and its Tencent opposite can set new strides. It will be at some coin, but there is a chance that it will ruin the day that Apple and Google saw no further then there bankroll. I was stating that this will set a change of 50 million gamers, it could be more a whole lotta more and that is what is at stake. 50 or 100 million gamers who have had enough of advertisement. My line cancels out on 225 million gamers in stage two. If that proves to be correct it would create a streamer player list at the top, followed by Sony and then Nintendo. The question who could it be? A player who set the mark will win 

(as long as it isn’t Microsoft) the nice side is that streaming is new, really new and it will not hinder Nintendo or Sony, they have their own niches. This will be a new niche. A new order of gaming, where the happy moments are counted, not the achievements. And face it, can some of the older games even consider achievements?

So this side and the previous article give a more structural soundness. I just didn’t see it that way yesterday. But now I know more, there is always more. 

Enjoy the end of this week

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March 1, 2024 · 10:17

Just to mention a few issues.

To see this part I need to take you on a trip. First all the way back to September 2020 when I initially wrote ‘Software as a salad’ then to June 2021 when I wrote ‘Clouds for a chance for gaming’ now consider that I know gaming, I have been involved with gaming since 1985. So a few hours ago this image passes me by

So I went on this quest for over three years getting people to get ready to use what was to be added to what is. The situation is pretty simple. Between 1985 and 1999 the industry released over 10,000 games for Atari 600, Atari 800, Atari ST, CBM64, and CBM Amiga. The idea was to take the top 10% which is a little over 1000 games and make them ready for streaming. Now this does not happen over night. Games will need revamping, access to new graphics and music. 

A setting that would give the Amazon Luna and/or Tencent holding a massive advantage. Consider that I gave this to the world, all whilst EA gives us a commercial buy three pay for two. A simple concoction where we see exploitation without return to gamers. How is that for progress? How is that a situation for forward mobility? This is just 5 games, so what about the other 995? And this is how you lose a console battle, by not engaging with the audience. By hiding behind what is known, what is secure. A setting that EA knows to well, and they are not alone. So consider ‘Murder on the zinderneuf’, so what happens when it is revamped, rebranded as ‘Zeppelin final flight’? Alike but not completely. When that happens the IP is open to be reused that is the part EA and others forgot about when it is alike but not a copy and there are hundreds of games that can be exploited that way. Software people they never learn. Why is that?

I wonder what it takes for them to consider the lesson that I have placed in front of them for over three years now.

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February 29, 2024 · 13:19

It’s a leap year

For some it is a beginning of more. I just been in hospital for a week getting chest chiselled in two and replaced parts of my heart. Yet today was about more. Dune the second chapter gets out today and one review was chiseled in stone. You see there were two ‘errors’ with this version. They were not of consequence. The first was the the reference to the emperors army planet. The second is a joke, but the harkonen fans will love it. Yet these two parts do not add up to scrutiny. The movie was raw and refined. The review I saw (whilst I was already stating that I would see it) the review stated ‘Villeneuve brings the action’ need we know more?

I saw in the first movie all the parts that the first two iterations oversaw, but it didn’t come into the equation. Perhaps the second movie will get some if the issues rolling. But the second movie will be on target with ‘Villeneuve brings the action’. That’s all I needed to see, the rest I will know soon enough. But this is a special day, a leap year day. I have considered a few things in the past on ‘How to assassinate a politician’ and recently a few rewrites on Engonos, things are working out for me.

To see these elements in place on several tracks. OK, it happened over a few days. Still the setting to see it all come to fruition on February 29th matters. It might not seem that big a leap, but to do it in a hospital bed and frame the setting in my brain all whilst surgeons are placing a valve there is to see it come to fruition is uncommon and it turns out that the first day of my live starts on a leap year. 

Think of it what you will, I will make my own reservations. I have wasted enough time waiting for some sob to call me. I now have defined amount of time left (well sort of) and we do not use the time that we have to ourselves, time matters and that gave me the idea that I will impart on Engonos. Soon more about gaming IP and set to stone what I saw coming well over a year ago.

Enjoy your day

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February 20, 2024 · 17:50

Many off ramps, same destination

It has been quiet here for 6 days. These things happen when you suddenly end up in hospital. I will spare you the details, they are not important. The cemetery is filled with people who had my condition, so there. We are about to take to trips before we get to the main event. Thee elements all matter to paint a picture, one of presentation, one of anticipation and one of speculation. In all matters I could be wrong, but I will let you decide for yourself. A small added treasure hint, I will add a new piece of IP tomorrow. The savvy programmer could become a millionaire. I will let you consider that for yourself. I am no programmer and I have other things on my mind. But if you are savvy and create a good program, you could get between 20-50 million downloads over time. At $0.49 per sale that will amount to serious money. So I leave it up to you to consider that tomorrow. Now we take a different gander. 

The dream
When you are locked (lets call it that) to a bed your mind gets to wander and my did (and then some). I was offered a job as a courier for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia based in Sydney. Their personal mailman and they started with one hell of an offer. My startup bonus was BTC300. Of course I accepted and that would be my initial payment for up to 6 months. So when was the last time you were offered a starting bonus of $24M? So, yes my dream was delusional, but it was my dream and I was locked to a bed. In my mind I visited the cities I have visited in the past (a fair amount of them) and my life was turned upside down.  

Now I am certain that you wonder why anyone would do that? And that would be a fair question. Now consider the other side.

  1. The consulate might have been desperate for staff members and they took one that knew several languages and had travel experience all over the world and I fit that bill (fortunately).
  2. The consulate might prefer a courier who did not speak or read Arabic for all kinds of reasons.
  3. An unknown reason, only known to them.

These three reasons are perfectly logical and they will matter soon enough. Anyway, it was a lovely dream and I saw the places I have missed for about a decade.

The next instance of a rewrite
That is something all writers face. In my case the story of Engonos (played by me off course) I end up with a powerful Olympic bident called Psychofagos (meaning soul eater). I never really explored the part on how I got it. So that came to my mind, setting the hospital as a stage (might not be like that in the end).

As I walked through the hospital I noticed a myst, it was different, it was like clouds of soot, but the people didn’t seen to see it. I saw some of them blink like they were dealing with blurry vision and my mind raced. This wasn’t new. It was the Myst of Tartarus. Hades added the myst thousands of years ago. You see in the early days of Tartarus he saw that the strong became stronger, too strong and the end result was that these people started to relax. Hades created the myst of Tartarus. You see that myst attacks all sense of a person. Vision, abilities, skills and the mind. In effect it becomes a free for all, the weaker convicts now have a chance against much stronger opponents and the myst comes sudden, it comes quick and it is relentless. Above all you need to realise that when you slay another in Tartarus, you become stronger, but a share of all kills go to lord Hades (a large share). Tartarus itself nourishes Hades and has done so for thousands of years. The myst gives the strongest a chance to really add to the Hades pool of souls. So there I was seeing that myst in the hospital and I looked around rather frantically. To see myst where none should be is unsettling and it never spells good for anyone. Because of my heritage I am not affected to the degree others are, but I will feel the impact of the myst to some degree, so I was not a happy camper to say the least. I started to move slower and moved towards a wall, no ay to be really surrounded when there was a wall. I saw a glimpse of one creature, then a second one. They were in the attire of Myrmidons. The heralds of Tartarus. They killed with such vigil on earth, they were rewarded with eternal wars in Tartarus. Their souls knew of no better reward and they were almost inhuman. Take the largest gladiator you ever saw, make him twice as strong and five times as fast and thrice as agile and you are close to a myrmidon. They train every moment of their existence that they are not engaged in wars. They are unsettling to say the least. And two just slowly started to appear in my sight. They were clearly looking for someone and suddenly I saw that they turned on a fellow patient. Andreas and his son Kostas, both Greeks. They were looking for something that they didn’t see and I saw them move in for the kill, the movements were clear as day for me. I grabbed someone dinner knife from his plate and stabbed one in the neck, he hadn’t seen me and that as the last mistake he would ever make. He halted for a second to shake off the pain that a knife in the neck makes. I grabbed is sword and cut off his head with one clear slice. The second saw this and attacked. But there he was in a disadvantage. I am a son of Ares, as such my battle skills were born with me and the knowledge of a thousand battles. I stepped aside, blocked in a low stance cutting his meniscus. He sidestepped with the other leg  quickly, he had been wounded before and now he was a lot more dangerous. He would let me do the attacks, giving him an advantage. I made a fake attack, which he parried, I circled his blade counterclockwise and stuck the blade through his breastplate in the chest. His grip on his blade loosened just enough for me to break his pinky and grab the sword and off went his head. The only sure way to get rid of a Myrmidon. The body like the other one was turning to ash and I now had two swords. It seems that they could see some of the opponents, not all but some. I told Kostas to protect his father. He nodded but he felt a little lost. The myst does that to nearly all. Then I noticed something else. I felt some resurge, it appeared that I was getting some of their energy as well. I felt the sickness go away in seconds and I saw a lot more. I saw that there were more opponents one floor down. I rushed down in a cautious way, they were looking. I snuck up on one and as he never expected to face opposition I got him unaware and decapitated him, more energy and more sight, like an illumination from the myst itself. There were three ore, two myrmidons and something else. The last two myrmidons were a little harder, they worked as a team and one cut my leg. But the defeated souls almost instantly repaired me. This has an effect on the myrmidons. They hesitated and the early bird that hesitates becomes worm food, so off with their heads (I’ll spare you the choreography). I reenergised and it repaired whatever scratches I had and also my overall energy levels went up. There was a third part that I had never felt before, I felt more secure and skilled with the sword. Something that was new to me, but then I hd never slain a Myrmidon before and now I had taken care of 5 of them. Then I saw the myst a lot clearer and it became a beacon or me, the last Myrmidon. This one was different, his helmet lit up as polished silver in the moon, as did his bident. A bident? That was unreal. His bident wasn’t silvery, but has a silvery shine. It also had a large gemstone on the edge of the fork, a ruby. It gave me a memory which I buried for now. He was going for a bed in the end of the room. The name on the small whiteboard gave me ‘Leandros’, another Greek name. He was suddenly aware of me and countered before I could strike. He was more cautious and was engaging with fake attacks. This was clearly a highly trained opponent. He cautiously moved from side to side, trying to find an opening and then I noticed that I could touch the Myst. An idea formed and as we moved form side to side, blocking each others attacks, I suddenly noticed what I had hoped for and I threw one of my swords as a spear, which he countered, but that one second when he thought I had made a tactical mistake. I had my hand free and grabbed a dense cloud of soot, closed my fist and blew in my hand, the hand became a blowpipe for myst straight into his face and I saw the effect it had on him. He frantically went into defence mode against people who weren’t there and I thrusted the sword under his jaw, severing the spinal cord. As the head fell, I grabbed the helmet which was no ordinary helmet. In addition to that I grabbed the bident. I suddenly felt a rush. The bident focussed on Leandros, I saw Greece, somewhere on the east of the Peloponnesus. I saw Argos, I seemingly flew south east to Tolo, then still South East to a small island. Then the image faded. Whatever they needed, it must be there. I looked at the bident. It was some kind of brass, but there was more to it. There was an inscription “ενωμένοι είμαστε πιο δυνατοί” Then the memory came back. 5 Myrmidon commanders decided to honour Hades with all the kills Hades had allowed them to do and they would honour Hades as long as they kept the orders of their commander Achilles. A true vow. I could get behind their train of thought. They travelled to Crete where a well known blacksmith resided, they brought gold and asked him to make 5 bident in honour of Hades (something that was rare to say the least). Each commander paid two bard of gold, which was an absolute fortune and the blacksmith went to work. It took several weeks after which he produced 5 bident, each with a stone. Menesthius was given the bident with the ruby, Eudorus got the bident with the sapphire, Peisander the amethyst, Phoenix the emerald and Alcimedon the diamond. They were all happy, their bidents were stronger then anything they had ever held, their weapons a lot lighter and stronger. And they all have the same small text engraved “ενωμένοι είμαστε πιο δυνατοί”. As such I looked at the bident again. It was superior in many ways, it was not an Olympic weapon, but stronger then anything that era had. So I now had the bident of Menesthius. Was it Menesthius I had just slain? It might be, but that was a worry for another day. As Menesthius was slain the myst started to disappear and I hid the weapon and helmet in the usual place. Time to be a patient again. The myst had a nice side effect, the last hour became fuzzy for anyone hid by it, which worked for me. Time to plan on a trip to Argos and then Tolo. 

The main event
You see what you saw was part of Engonos and as it is in my blog, now it is visibly mine. My concoction and my creativity. I need to see where in the script it will fit, but it should be added to seasons one. The main event is all about Microsoft. I saw the article last week but I was somehow indisposed. I had not forgotten it, because no matter how dim the BBC was. I saw something that others might have missed and that is the exercise of today. It is about delusional settings. We have intentional delusions and unintentional delusions. The intentional is often self inflicted like the dream, or the story. The unintentional version tends to come from speculated views or facts and the mulling of these facts. Some set to half truths by your own views and speculations and some are set to other parts (which is not up for discussion today). What matters is that you see these parts ‘as is’ not as truths or as ‘maybe truths’ that is the largest mistake that a speculation can lead these versions to. The media relies on this for flames and so on. I do not, but I am strongly set to presumptions. If a speculation is a guess, then the presumption is an educated guess based on available data. That is the underlying setting you need to see.

This started as I read ‘Xbox, Nintendo or PlayStation: does it still matter?’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68304967). The short answer was ‘Yes, it does’ but that is not what this is about. We see the spin by Microsoft and then there is a jewel. Perhaps unintentional, perhaps a quick slide to avoid what was ALMOST said. The first I saw was “The analysts Ampere estimated that in 2023 there were a total of around 46.5m consoles sold, of which only 7.6m were Microsoft’s Xbox. That leaves nearly 39 million gamers that Xbox exclusives such as the long awaited Starfield from Bethesda, didn’t reach.” Don’t get me wrong, I have been a Bethesda fan for the longest time. Now consider that the game was released on September 6th 2023. And now we see “Updates could play a big part in improving the future of Starfield, but there’s one key issue with the game that seems unlikely to ever be addressed. Although Starfield received some share of acclaim upon its release, it was also met with a lot of disappointment, as it didn’t necessarily live up to the standards set by prior RPGs from Bethesda Game Studios. Although there are a number of areas for improvement that updates could tackle, some underlying choices in the design and story may be frustrating forever.” (Source: Screenrant) As I see it the 39 million gamers are not overly sad on missing out. We see also on other media “Phil Spencer on Helldivers 2 Not Being on Xbox: ‘I’m Not Exactly Sure Who It Helps’”, well the answer is simple. It helps a game being shown at its maximum. Sony has a truckload of those and Microsoft fell behind by a lot. He sounds like the desperate executive who cannot make ends meet. How are developers given a fair shake when they are rewarded pennies when they are entitled to dollars? GamePass only works at the core of less then $10 a month leaving developers with less than $0.25 per gamer. How does that work out for them? The quote that set me off is ‘suddenly’ gone, so I am hoping others still have it and Gamespot still had it: “a future where every screen is an Xbox.” I personally believe that he wanted to say “a future where every screen is an Xbox data collection point.” To see this, I need to take you on a small journey as I have stated this danger in the past before. Consider that Activision Blizzard was acquired for $69,000,000,000. Sixty nine billion. Let that sink in. Now consider that Activision Blizzard made 7.53 billion USD in 2022, less than in 2021. This gives us that the investment will take 10 years to break even, 11 years when we consider the interest and even more time when they become GamePass games and the revenue will become smaller still. So how is that a good investment when gaming technology evolves the way it does and Microsoft is now losing ground awfully fast. But when you consider data where games collect data on every gamer the field changes and they will have sign up deals where you get something cosmetic every month for free, it costs nothing and thousands will sign up, the small print that they collect certain parts will be written in the small print over dozens of pages. Yes, this is ALL speculation but that is what I would do if I paid for an Edsel for a ’mere’ 69 billion. The latest games are disappointing and Microsoft is losing ground. They misjudged the field and the people are sticking to their consoles (mostly Nintendo and Sony). I reckon that Tencent will be outshining Microsoft too with the optional 50 million subscribers (also speculation). That will be the third time that Microsoft misjudged gamers and loses a lot in the process. We can understand the spin by Phil Spencer. I reckon he is now desperate to get a win but as I see it it is not in the cards for him. Not as things look at present. And it goes more arctic for Microsoft soon after that. They are betting on the wrong horse and whilst they shared the field closer to equals with Sony in the era of the Xbox360, they threw it away in under a decade and after that they invested almost 100 billion in a few software houses that could not bring home the bacon and I was eager to assist in their downfall by handing IP to independent developers giving Bethesda even more challenges down the road. In the end you are as good as your next success and Bethesda had it in 2011 with Skyrim. Then Microsoft messed up their mojo. That is how I see it and now Microsoft is (as I personally see it) going down hard and the ‘spin’ we see around Helldivers 2 doesn’t help Microsoft. And it gets to be worse. This is given to us with “Xbox president Sarah Bond even teased the idea of some brand new hardware in a podcast released by Microsoft on Thursday” yes Sarah, deliver or shut up. You either have something new coming up (which might be essential for Microsoft), or basically fudge off. Microsoft lost against Sony, then it lost against Nintendo, the weakest console of all and there is a decent chance that over the next 15 months it will lose against the Tencent Handheld as well. Consoles require (for the most) games, or something unique and GamePass was not enough, not when the pass owners are told that certain games will not be released on GamePass. When mediocrity is the sum of GamePass, the games will go somewhere else and Bethesda new elder scrolls is well over a year away (at least), gamers will go somewhere else and when that happens the 100 billion dollar is the anchor that drowns Microsoft games. So the statement of “Ampere does not expect Microsoft to exit the console platform business in the medium term as that would leave a gaping hole in its games-related revenues” I am not so sure. RedFall and Starfield are huge disappointments and that amounts to abandonment by gamers. They will find another venture and some will hold on to their console, that is fair enough. But with the abandonments also comes GamePass cancelations and that is revenue Microsoft desperately needs to make revenue. 

So how wrong am I?
Not all will pan out, I get that, but I feel that I am closer to the mark than most others and the two elements that will ensure the drop of Microsoft is now more exclusive games on Sony and the numbers that Tencent will get. The second one will cost Microsoft a gaming population, one they desperately need.

When you read between the media emotions you see that I am making a good case. Read up and form your own opinion. Don’t just take my word for it.

Enjoy the week.

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February 8, 2024 · 20:38

The indirect path

I talked about this before. At first to fit the larger station of Elder Scrolls: Restoration, but as they are part of Microsoft. It becomes no way Jose, so I instilled it in a new RPG called Generation. It was not some Bethesda clone, it was totally different and I put a lot on it on this blog (go find it if you care). So here I was pondering a few things. And as I was setting a few thoughts out which flows from the setting of cogs and balances in gaming (a previous story) I gave the indirectness a new side.

Consider that this game is too large to play in one lifetime, so we get a second and even a third generation and that is the start of a new corner of RPG IP. 

So lets take a look at the next generation, the daughter. The offspring gets the mean of the parents. As such it is ((30+20)/2), but with dexterity something else happens. It is still ((15+35)/2) plus 50% of the difference as the woman is stronger in this field. So the daughter gets additional Dexterity, Intelligence and Creativity. The son would have gotten additional numbers in the other field, neither get additional agility as they are both the same for the parents. So there is a balance and over time these traits go up. In other fields like mapmaking it is about creativity, art and leather skills (original maps were created on vellum), this also allows for new settings to use creativity. You can have a McGyver and that allows for weapons (basic weapons) to be created in the field. And until your creativity is up, you will see and collect rope and leather, but until your creativity is high enough, a sling will never be the result. This allows for other weapons and it helps to season other skills too. Scribe skills are there to infuse map making, allow you to recognise books of value and read lore. But in this the skills of the parent will to some degree transfer to the child, something never done before. So over three generations you will have created a much stronger character if you marry right. And here is the kicker. I believe in checks and balances. Getting a too strong character limits the play, but a partner that is not all out in those fields but is an awesome butcher or fisherman allows for food to be gotten easier, as well as get more value from the skinning of a fish or a deer (I love my Bambi burgers). 

The indirect path has never been optimised and it is a niche in gaming that is screaming to be explored. And when you combine the elements you get to see that none of the others have any of this in their games. Over half a dozen gaming IP added to a blog. I give Guerrilla software a pass as their series is all new IP, never seen before and the others? I will let you decide.

Have a great day, my Friday starts in 200 minutes, in Vancouver it isn’t even 2am yet.

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