Category Archives: Gaming

December 26, 2023 · 16:01

Utter brilliance

Yup, I agreed from day one, but to see this reenforced is never a bad thing. The game was initially released in April 2022, as such it is reaching its second birthday. I got it on day one and I was happy as might have ever been. You see, I still remember the first game, which was in display in my DVD shop of choice. I thought it looked cool and I played it for a moment. I suddenly felt a tap on the shoulder asking if others could play. Right there I had lost 45 minutes and I rushed to get it then and there. After that I spend serious more time on my PS2. Over time I got the other games too, but LEGO Star Wars was always shining a little more.

As such when the Skywalker Saga came out I rushed to the shop on day one. I never completed the game, but I did clearly see that this game was a lot more then the previous versions. This all comes to the surface as I started to play it again on Christmas Day. Now (boxing day) I am a little over 50% of the entire game. The game is that big. Suddenly I realise that this isn’t a race. This came is a marathon. A one of its kind and it is clear it is brilliant. There is so much to do, there are so many levels and so many playing locations that it boggles the mind. Metacritic only gave it 82%, but I personally believe it should be given a 90+ rating (91%). For any game to keep you interested for close to two years and give that much playability is just insane on several levels. I personally believe that any Star Wars fan should have the game and any SF fan should consider it. The game at present has a little over 5 million copies sold, but I cannot see the source materials. I believe that it would be close to double this and the makers deserve it. It is by far the best LEGO game ever. It is by far one of the best games ever seen. Only to be surpassed by high res games like the Horizon series, Hogwarts legacy and optionally Skyrim as well. To be on that level takes a very special design team and they delivered. Even now there are additional things you can buy for a few dollars (character sets). They aren’t essential because the game allows you to get 380 playable characters, so there is more then enough. The game has several challenges and puzzles giving you a minimal grinding feeling. There is some grinding, but as I stated minimal. 

As such in the second wave around I now see the game as a work of absolute brilliance. I think that no matter what console a person got this Christmas, if they liked Star Wars, they will love this game. And for a game that is on systems as little as $15-$25 (online price) that is an investment worth every penny.  

Consider that a game like this keeps you busy for months, how much would you pay for that? To be honest I had most LEGO games (not all) and the Jurassic version is the worst one. The others are fine. A game that is not about bloodshed, but keeps the younger player busy for a long time. What parent could resist adding that game to the surprise stocking? 

I have written about hard topics and soft topics. I do believe that an article like this is essential at times. We can all write what we believe on day one, but to be able to do this after well over a year when it still has value is a little rare. There are more games worthy of this (Skyrim being one), but in that regards the load of games deserving that fate is rare, it is slim pickings in the long term gaming achievement. A setting we seldom consider. And Warner Brothers doesn’t have that many games out there to begin with, to hand us something this legendary needs to be remembered. Especially to all the gamers looking for the next big thing. The simple question ‘Did you consider something from April 2022?’ Should be out there and it shows us all whether this is a gamer or a console fashion seeker. OK, I will allow for some gamers to not like Star Wars, that is fair enough. They do exist, it is rare but it happens. 

Some are all about racing, some are all about sport games and they might not like LEGO games. But consider the Star Wars Range and the Harry Potter range and you get 2 games that will keep you busy for a very long time to come and lets face it. 1 (or 2) games keeping you busy for months. List the games that honestly did that you, that list will end up being a lot shorter than you imagined. 

Enjoy the day (optionally gaming).

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December 23, 2023 · 21:39

Currencies

This is not about money, well not in a real sense. I saw an image and suddenly an old idea came to mind and whilst I am watching everyones favourite Christmas movie (Die Hard), another thought came to mind. A friend just gave me the best Christmas present in a very long time. It is time to return the favour (sort of). As such I have something that is a freebee for any Tencent technology and Amazon Luna indie developers. A word of warning, this is not for everyone. This is not some a game for every player. Some will not like it, just like ‘Welcome to the rapture’ and it matters, because it not drenched in blood or actions. This is a different kind of game. This all started with watching the old Thunderbird movies and seeing Babylon 5. A thought got to me, what if we make it more ‘real’ when I had the thought the PS4 was new and it had nowhere near the powers it needed to be. So in this game we ‘work’ for a living, as such it is not a game for managers (internal lol accepted). So the setting was that we start being an intern on a space station (like the European space station) or Thunderbird 5. We are orbiting this planet and we have to use equipment to complete missions of all kinds. That results in credits and optional super credits, which gets us the funds we need for the second part of the game. These funds will enable us to do space walks and now the second part of the game kicks in. Space walks come with a camera and now we get the option to photograph earth, the space station and other things. The idea is to give the player a sort of photo mode in 4K with the option to save the photos and send them to our USB. Now consider that we have a 4K setting of the earth, a rotating earth and with the camera we can get a decent clear image of the country where we live. We can see the moon in much clearer view and so on. But this is not enough. I saw the setting that if we get all three done above a certain level, we get a promotion. From there we go to the moon. Consider moon base Alpha (or the moon base from 2001, which also gives us the next space station first as well). We learn more equipment, actual equipment and we get to do more and earn more, especially earn more credits and walk on the moon. Now you might think that this is boring and for those addicted to Fortnite, it might be, but there are more gamers, millions more and they just loved walking around the fallout ruins, or walk in Cyrodiil and this game is for them. See it as the part Starfield could not deliver on. A track of achievements that are done with the camera. I also want to set a larger field where we get choices and the choices made c lose certain doors, but open up different doors. For example, the camera allows for espionage missions, but it could close the door on one station and open the door on another one. Just a thought. 

From there we go to a deep space station, like the Coriolis space station (Elite Dangerous), or a station alike Babylon 5 (or the Inner space space station). This now becomes a much larger challenge, not only is it more challenging in missions, but there are more photo missions to complete. In this completing them yields large rewards, but not all missions are easy to get, or to get to. 

Now these two elements are not enough, but you can’t expect me to do everything for you, can you. You see, the entire photo mode part is undersold too often and it can be taken to another level. Yes, in 4K we can make the most amazing images but no one seems to take advantage of that, as such I thought it was a nice idea to use it and what looks better in 4K then space objects? The idea is also that as you unlock the next level, all previous levels remain available. Your clones are send ahead, you are not. As such soon you get to push more and more credits but there is a limit, only 50% gets send to a previous station and 25% to two stations back, so half, or half or half and so on. It stops those doing the minimal and getting ahead that way. Also in the setting of a B5 station, you also need to upgrade your quarters, so that you get access to more of the station and better space walks. 

This was the idea as I had it, but the 4K photo mode was too new when the thought came to me. Also there are a few more sides to all this, but that is for another day. Now consider that parents of RPG games get one side, but the idea of a non violent game with educational sides will have great appeal and in a streaming solution this game will appeal, not to all but to well enough. And it took me less than two days to come up with it (I spend nearly a day mulling this over in 2014), as such consider all the things Microsoft isn’t coming up with and they just spend $100B, now consider we get messages like “Expect new updates “roughly every six weeks” in early 2024” regarding Starfield, a game released on September 6th 2023. So, not only was the game incomplete. Even months later there is now some indication that gamers had merely a beta to play with. When you consider all the parts not there and consider what I basically designed in 2014, how asleep are these people? 

In the meantime there are all kinds of issues (some regrettably) that a game like Starfield has and has been showing for some time. This game was in development for 5 years. Now my part would not have been easy, but they didn’t rock it, so now it is a freebee for indie developers. And when they put out a superior game on those two systems another nail in the coffin of Microsoft appears. So how does it feel for them to mess with our safe space?

No idea how they feel and I do not care. I am off learning a little more and setting the stages for Final Draft 12 today and tomorrow. Have a lovely day, the 24th is now merely a few hours away for me.

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December 21, 2023 · 04:01

In development

For me over the last 20 hours, 2 issues were on the rise (like bread getting ready) in my brain. The first involves Final Draft and that setting will come to a new stage in about a week. From there I have two options, one solves it immediately, the other is a pondering stage. But about that more later. The second one was the arcane in a new RPG. You see, the one (for now) powerhouse is Bethesda and they created true greatness. Only an idiot will deny this. They took one of the most obscure gaming styles in gaming history and made it gaming mainstream. This in itself is an achievement that should never ever be forgotten and it took 4 titles. Oblivion, Skyrim and Fallout three and four. These four changed the face of RPG gaming. Now that they are part of Microsoft the issues will come and will settle all over their faces. Now, we do not know what will come next but the next Elder Scrolls is Xbox and PC only and 2026 at the earliest. As such a gap comes into play and the innovative designer can now get slices of a gaming market that will need innovation. It is why I placed so many ideas online, to entice makers to push RPG to Amazon Luna and Tencent Handheld. You see, whatever they miss and it might be enough and from there they will lose more and more marketshare. In addition it could get to PS5 (or PS6), but the larger station is that Sony has a platform, has exclusive titles and now 2 other platforms could become contenders too. They might not be a threat to Sony, it is not required. Enough innovation and they will nibble at the Microsoft population. All due to a war they never understood and a fight they weren’t ready for. 

As such I was considering the Arcane part in RPG. I made a few inroads in previous articles. Yet I started to wonder about the foundation of the arcane and then I remembered the foundation of one game you needed to find Sulphuric Ash and Spider silk (if you know, you know). It made me reconsider a few sides. What if the arcane needed more then a mana bar? What if the foundation of that power was a talisman and its catalyst? More in line of ‘the old days’, but now we get more. We need to get stuff, magic doesn’t come from nothing (when in doubt ask that insufferable Harry Potter) LOL.

So we get a new and novel use of jewellery. I had one element in my hand when I came up with TES7:Restoration over 2 years ago, but I merely saw that as the foundation of the introduction and part of the story. Now it escalates in a new arcane setting.

So the training goes one side. The talisman (necklace, ring or staff) the other direction, lets call it focal point and the catalyst (reagent, leaves, resource) is the power behind it. Now the arcane becomes an entirely new challenge. And this is not some and and and for power. The and and or in that equation gives the stage plus sides and negativity like we might face in real life. Consider a bicycle, we can adjust all elements for speed, but there we lose acceleration. We can have the tyres to get more grip, but with rain that grip goes away. It becomes a new stage, a place where it is about balance. And as the player has its own sides, that player needs to focus on options to chose from. In the beginning more power is everything, but over time you will see that arcane traction makes you more versatile and that is a side Bethesda NEVER used. They saw what was best and they were right, but other parts were missed and overlooked and now that the systems are much more powerful we see more in a game, as such we need to create a different playing field. For those who remember Oblivion, there was the Rockmilk cave a good grinding spot. It also made me create improvements (see previous articles). What now matters is that we had two factions in one place who were fighting each other. In that setting you need a different arcane play. It also gave me the idea to adjust arcane fighting and with the different storylines that is not an issue. What matters to me was the fact that the arcane we did have was a little too rigid. It made me think in this direction. 

So as we have an arcane fighter we need to enhance gameplay by giving the player a new way to prepare, like a ready equipment setting. 

Example:
Pendent one and ingredient five
Necklace One, Ring three and ingredient 12

This reads weird, I know, but the setting is that you will find and upgrade certain jewellery and you keep them, there is not merely a stronger one (well there is), they reflect on catalysts differently as such you need a new way to be able to get through a place that has two different parties, like a cave with brigands and spiders. YOU must be prepared for both and that takes a different way of thinking and you need to adjust your equipment accordingly. As such you might have a ring and a pendent, but they are both for different enemies and in this you might not have your staff, but you have in one hand leaves for one and in the other hand ingredients for the other and when you combine these abilities you get either different results or you make yourself really visible to one or the other fiend (never a good thing). It is a new way to play the arcane and of course that usage will develop your player in new ways, which pushes replayability forward. A side I worship in RPG gaming. So whilst (according to some) Bethesda is remastering Fallout 3 rumoured on PC and Xbox only, others can look at a totally new way to play an RPG, some will love it, some will not, but both groups will be introduced to more and more innovation in gaming and that is ALWAYS a good thing.

As I see it almost a dozen new innovation that no RPG game has ever handed you before. Now to be honest, before the PS4 there was no power to do so, yet these innovation are now in part to the public domain, giving two new systems innovative play, all whilst (according to rumour) the more powerful console in the world will be playing a new iteration of a 15 year old game. Perhaps it will have new sides, it is apparently not coming to Sony, so I do not care. What I do care about is pushing gaming forward and that is what my writing does, opening the eyes of indie developers to offer something others did not and I feel that I am succeeding.

Now it is time to brood more on Final Draft and see what I could deliver to the MBC group or Al Saudiya (or both) and have a little more fun there too. It is time to put the final part on How to assassinate a politician and see what I can make of it. And never forget (I don’t) that it could all be a great flop. There is no shame in that. Nintendo got there with the WiiU and surpassed their fortunes five times over with the Switch. One led to the other and we all face these moments and some state (and I do not disagree) that sometimes you learn more from failures than from previous successes. 

The Switch is now around 132.46 million sold units. It is now their second best console in history and surpasses the PS5 with 50 million and the Xbox Series X and Series S with a lot less than Sony has (no precise numbers available). So consider that Nintendo outsold Microsoft by well over 300%, so where is that most powerful console in the world now? Where is Microsoft now with their $100,000,000,000 investment? They might claim that good times are coming, but I am not seeing them. Yes a remaster is nice, but gamers want innovation, not iteration and remasters. The remasters are nice to feel good about the past and we need that at times NEXT to new good gaming. As such I was right all along and now the new indie developers have well over 15 months to capture an audience that is looking for the new and the exiting. As I see it a 75% game called Starfield isn’t getting it done (presumption, as I never played it), but consider that a game so overhyped and so rumoured about only gets a 75%, how sad is that?

Innovation is where it is at and Sony was correct all along. Time for streamers to tech Microsoft that lesson too and when more than three parties shows them how wrong they were from the start. Will they catch on? I created more innovative public domain IP one year  for non-Microsoft players than Microsoft achieved with spin and presentations in 10 years. So they can take that to their overstretched banks too.

Enjoy the day.

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December 13, 2023 · 21:29

Slapped by surprise

This happens to us all and it happened to me today. I was pretty much minding my own business when something on LinkedIn hit me, it hit me square in the jaw. It was the application in another direction, but I contemplated it to apply to gaming in a similar way. You see, this is not an easy story and a lot of you might not get it, that is fine. It is the evolution from RPG to CtLFG. Role Playing games evolving in Close to Life Fantasy Gaming. Confused? That is fine. To get this I need to give you some examples. You are sneaking in a cave and slaughtering all you can and at times you hear “It must be my imagination”, it was one of several things that bothered me. Now this is not on any player and not on Bethesda. They created greatness with Skyrim. It survived three generations (PS3, PS4 and PS5) and has been around since November 11th 2011. More then 12 years. To have one game do this, especially an RPG is nothing less than astounding. As such with that in mind I initially created TES7: Restoration (the initial design was from 2015). 

In this the foundation was set with Cyrodiil (Oblivion), to make it work that map would need to be 3 times larger on the X and Y axis, making the map 900% of the previous one. The imperial city would be similar that much bigger, cities would be somewhat bigger, more people and in the end we would connect Skyrim to this and optionally whatever TES6 would be, but that would be options. Restoration required both Valenwood and Elsweyr to be added as that would be the setting for the story and main quest. Yet the setting would be larger than just these two parts, missions that cover all the areas. A lot more side missions and even side quest lines. Now we get to the evolution part. To avoid grinding I used IP originally by Vint Cerf, but now applied to gaming would make it an innovation patent and now we are off to the races. Yet something happened./ Microsoft bought Bethesda and I will not help losers, so I made parts of all this Public domain with the setting that this was to be exclusive Amazon Luna/Tencent Handheld. I wanted these two to have an edge over Microsoft/Bethesda. That was the first setting. 

Now the slap
As such today I got slapped by surprise by someone named Willem Koenders gave LinkedIn a new setting to BI in data. It has an offensive side and a defensive side. 

It is brilliant. I can see the stage of several issues becoming a thing of the past. Rollback issues, especially in data with second and third tier connections would have been a nightmare, especially to rebuild some of these connections. As I see it, that is a thing of the past with this, rollback becomes repair with a second datafile upload. And in the short time I looked at it, there would be additional benefits. Now apply this to new and advanced RPG gaming (CtLFG). You see, the old ways will not work on larger RPG games, it would require cloud gaming and that is where the new strains become the power of GaaS (Gaming as a Service). You see, evolved gaming (RPG) no longer has trigger points perse, but a combination of a narrative point, a location point as well as a quest trigger. It becomes too complex for the PS5, but not for cloud gaming. That is where the game takes of in new directions and new dimensions. 

As such my mind went into overdrive. You see, I had focussed on the stories and the interactions, but I had not considered the data side of this all. The image by Willem Koenders gave me that setting and it could be a much larger setting in cloud gaming too. Yes, it is always about the larger part, but consider that we always must look forward. We cannot play Skyrim forever. Now consider (Skyrim)4 and see where that gets you. In addition, as it is cloud gaming new quests could be added over time as well. A nightmare option in any console. With cloud gaming it is done before you know it and available just as fast. And the setting in a new game would be tremendous. You see grinding ends, it becomes a challenge every time around and that setting reflects in a multiple of ways. With the new data setting you could get thousands, if not hundred of thousands of conversations. Consider a city not with a few dozen NPC characters, but with 1,000 NPC characters. It allows for a lot more options. In addition to that, the setting of friend and foe changes. You now end up with friends, unsubstantiated gossip, boasts, lies, and foes. A new setting in adventure gaming. Suddenly a personality with charisma becomes a lot more important, in addition to this so is the setting towards corrupt guards, people luring you towards traps and walking blindly into them is never a good idea. 

An evolved setting towards gaming and I reckon that this is merely the start. Any indie developer with a clear head and clear direction can grow and take serious market share away from Bethesda (and of course Microsoft). 

Now consider the image again. Consider on the offensive side Customer insight (NPC character) linked to analytics which becomes available choices (lore, conversations and actions), on the defensive side we also add NPC character, but now connected to city laws (compliance) and actions based on YOUR activities (stealing, walking, sneaking, killing) as such sneaking through any place now has impact on that population. In addition it is ‘short-term’ impact, yet when you do that again you get recognised quicker. And from there we now get narratives (storylines and conversations) as well as locations (shop owner, home owner). There is a longer impact to actions.  And leaving the house is no longer a ‘reset’ to activities. I set this to a much larger effect in out of town locations (what some call caves, mines and so forth). As I see it, Vint Cerf had no idea what his IP could do in that setting, but that is the way the cookie crumbles at times.

In this my brain is still reeling with all the thoughts it is creating (even now), but it is time to snore like a sawmill and greet Thursday, which is less then 3 hours away at present. It is still 25 degrees, I am melting. Time to snore.

Enjoy your day.

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December 12, 2023 · 10:22

Making a case

This is something different. I have been accused plenty of times. Hatred of one, disgust of another and so on. So in light of that, lets give you a setting where I show you what Ubisoft could have done (could still do actually). I was making a somewhat delusional setting of me attending the University of Toronto getting a Master of Arts in Greek and Latin. It would be my fourth degree. I currently hold three degrees, making me a dirty old man. As such, a fourth degree feels essential. I have two graduate degrees and a Master (Intellectual property). So I was contemplating a few things and the idea connected to Ubisoft making a newer version of Playstation Home (not limited to Sony consoles) and a few things started to connect. Did you know that France currently has 500K students in Latin? I did not know that. Now consider that we use games in VR mode for language training. There is Greek (Athens), Latin/Italian (Florence, Monteriggioni, Venice, Rome), French (Paris) and so on. 

For the most Ubisoft has the graphics. Now we need to add a few limitations (no climbing or killing) and ion VR we listen to actual conversations in the designed language. Students will be learning languages in front of their console. Consider that (according to some) we see these numbers annually French: 120 million, Italian: 2 million and I have no clear numbers for the other two. 

Yet, as the library increases, the impact and interest in these language studies also increases.   So students get a real grasp of languages in specified languages. Now consider the one number I left behind. 

AC Syndicate London could cater to two billion (yes, 2,000,000,000) students of the English language. Listening to actual conversations, learning the language and more importantly learning some historical culture. Now, the language models need massive upgrades, they need to add 100,000 conversations and I reckon that when Universities sign up, they too will (hopefully) add a part to all this. 

A simple setting (except for the VR part) that was already designed. Now take away the climbing and killing and it becomes an educational tool, all whilst ‘their’ version of Playstation Home could still come. So what happens when Arabic (AC Mirage) is added as well? All settings that Ubisoft could have considered and implemented, growing their gaming population into an educational population as well. I reckon that a slice of 2 billion English students could be encouragement enough. 

All settings that not only push Ubisoft forward. It also grows the streaming population on a global scale. Consider that China has 400,000,000 English students. Now consider these people contemplating a Tencent Technology handheld to aid them in English studies. It would make that console the biggest console in history almost overnight (in less then two years is more credible). All revenues that Ubisoft overlooked. The consequence of staring with blinkers. What is in the corner of your eyes, tends to pass you by unnoticed. 

Just a thought for the day, enjoy yours.

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December 9, 2023 · 00:49

Vroom, vroom

I had some issues, not with the topic, the topic is fine. It is not my niche of gaming. And in light of the Gaming Awards 2023 it matters. You see, after spending $100,000,000,000 Microsoft ends with one trophy. Their Forza game gets it, so congratulations Microsoft. As a Sony Disciple I would go for Gran Turismo, although, I do not care for that game (either). I played it last on my PS2, Forza on my Xbox360 last and neither appeals to me.  I played some F1 and it is nice for a few go’s but that is it. I a not alone, but it is a small cluster of people. We aren’t racers and as such the game was lost on me. You see, I had real fun with Project Gotham Racing 3 (Xbox360) and I had loads of fun with Need for Speed Underground (Gamecube). There was an element of fun, the fun of racing and that had centre shift with me. Then of course there is the old Outrun (Amiga) and there were a few more on both Amiga and CBM64. The issue wasn’t the ‘simulator’ part, it was the fun part and both Sony and Microsoft have been so in each others face on the perfect simulator that they forgot about having fun. And this is on both Sony and Microsoft. Gaming is supposed to be fun, not some adrenaline race to all achievements. Did they both forget that? Why do you think that Minecraft is such a success? Why do you think that some shooting games are now introducing some kind of lego system? It is because the people just wanting to have fun whilst they are unwinding are adding up to a serious sized cluster and they are all realising that Tencent Technologies is trying to adhere to that cluster. As such they have now an additional handhold on the gaming population. Amazon with its Luna didn’t wake up and as I see it that could sent 50,000,000 people towards the Tencent Handheld and when it gets its own docking station (it might already have such a solution) it will also start biting into the Nintendo population as well. They all fell asleep and all whilst I was trying to warn Amazon of this danger, they decided to ignore me (which is their right). Now the station changes and I reckon by Q4 2024 Tencent technologies will be more than a blip, it will become a serious threat to the others. Amazon loses first, but the dock as long as Nintendo is the only one, will last them for as long as they have that advantage. Sony remains afloat, it has its own fanbase and is a solid setting, but by the end of 2024, Tencent is more and more likely ending up in third position, gaining on Nintendo with each quarter, how fast and how much? That is anyones guess, but if they deploy as I envisioned it, Nintendo could be the number three system by the end of 2025. It is that much of a race at present and lets not forget, that Tencent did this in under 4 years, surpassing Microsoft in all sales achievements. I saw this happening, but I had hoped that Amazon Luna would be in second place, that is now less and less likely. 

The setting mattes, because whilst everyone is caressing their ego (Larian Studios has every right to do so) as well as Remedy Entertainment who brought us Alan Wake 2. Both games could most likely port to the Tencent, as such they keep on winning. Microsoft has no options, they just spend $100,000,000,000 (for Blizzard, Bethesda and Mojang), they have no reserves left. They divided gamers, they conquered brands and these conquests did not result in awards or high ratings. 

A setting that Tencent Technologies can now use to their advantage. They seemingly all seem to forget about the fun and if Tencent remember that part they could gain massively in the gaming community. It is merely my point of view and some will say that it is the wrong point of view. But when you look back, how did these other games do? How long were they played? How many are now playing Forza or Gran Turismo? They didn’t do bad (neither of them) but I believe they both could have done a lot better and that is where I think the fun part is the problem, it is largely missing. They went all out in making the simulator and graphics the important part and forgot that plenty just want to race a track for the fun of it and that makes it more Project Gotham Racing then anything else. 

Enjoy the weekend. 

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December 7, 2023 · 01:00

Charlie Tango

Yes, it is an expression, but not the one you expect. As I was thinking of the new RPG, the one that will cause distress to a power like Bethesda, a new thought came up. You see, In the first I upped the intelligence of NPC characters in the game, all due to a brilliant idea by Vint Cerf. I don’t think he ever thought of the application I came up with, making this an innovation patent at the very least. It was up to the setting that is in the now. A new type of character. A stage where we consider the existence of SMPC (Self Managed Playing Characters). The idea was simple. A stage where you could activate a new type of character and as such give it powers and strengths and it becomes a Self Managed Playing Character. I had the idea before, but not to this degree. As such the game becomes more and it becomes to some degree self reliant. Now, lets be clear a self reliant game is dangerous, it could go into a direction the players never considered, but is that bad?

So as such I considered how to improve on it. So consider a Skyrim setting. You make friends with the Riverwood trader. Now we have all kinds of things that we can do to upgrade merchants, yet that is not the same. Consider this in a stage like the smith at Solitude, Beirand. Now consider that to upgrade this NPC you need to own a house in Solitude and you need to increase the link (friendship). When these settings are satisfied the smith will work at 1/3rd of YOUR smithing skills. After a while it will be at 1/2 of your smithing skills. These settings could be increased with skills. As such it would be increased with 10% and later 20%. Not every smith will allow for this and some will require missions to do this. When it is all done the NPC becomes a SMPC. This could be a tradesman, an artisan, a politician and so forth, it will set two things in motion. Replayability of any game employing this and as this is an ability that has limitations (1 SMPC per 10 levels), as well as location settings and certain skills. For example a court mage could never become one until your arcane levels are above a certain point. But the benefits are also massive (a later thought). As I am redesigning TESVII: Restoration to be more generic and optionally Public Domain soon, those developers (exclusive to Amazon Luna and Sony) will get a new lease on life, optionally giving Bethesda more hardship. 

And there is a larger stage in the works. You see I have no intention to make a knock off of Bethesda and I have already published several articles on this and now I am adding the SMPC styled characters. It also interacted with another idea (already published) and now we see a better stage of any game, so whilst some are redesigning the same game, I decided to make something so new it will be irresistible, especially to die hard RPG gamers (optionally I am delusional here). But consider that this one new game (by whomever makes it) has at least 5 new settings we have never seen before in RPG gaming, that is the settings that I am going for. All because Microsoft decided to buy and force us into a direction we never wanted to go. So good luck with that idea. And now another thought makes it here and optionally changes RPG gaming in a new direction.

What a lovely mid-week I have had, its Thursday now. Enjoy your day.

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November 27, 2023 · 20:11

Retrenching my mind

We all go through this, I am no different. At times I need to retrench my mind. I reckon it happens a lot more often when you are creative. This all started on the go. It merely happened one moment. You see with the blunders Microsoft employed, I cannot give any support to them. As such Bethesda is now also out of the equation. I redid the stories for Elder Scrolls VII: Restoration and I have pushed them towards indie developers as freeware. Optionally creating more and more competitors for the Bethesda population. Making Microsoft smaller and others bigger. The remarks by everyone’s favourite loser (Phil Spencer) who seemingly said “studios who can spend $200-300 million and automatically produce a hit that will more than cover that.” As I see it. He is off his rocker by a lot. Indie developers never had that amount of money and from them we got from Hello Games (No Man’s Sky), Roguelike (Hades), Mojang, now Microsoft (Minecraft) and there are more. What is important that the GamePass push (as I see it) can be avoided and to get the free IP, the makers merely need to push their game to anything EXCEPT Microsoft. With the Tencent Technology handheld that becomes a lot easier and it allows for a massively larger gaming group. 

Still, they aren’t alone. Bioware (Edmonton, Alberta) is still an option and even as I created the thought for Mass Effect 5 (whilst reusing Mass Effect 4) giving the gamers twice the game for one amount and a much larger story. I did away with the memory points (they made no sense at all on planets they never visited), but I revamped the idea in other ways. In addition to the stages we would reuse is adding a third level usage and optionally different management points. I also came up with the stage that the SPECTRE agent had additional options on Nexus and it would be massively bigger. With Hyperion being larger as well, to facilitate a more ‘realistic’ stage, we get another stage with Nexus when the other ships docks. Consider that the ‘original’ had a mere dozen missions on the Hyperion. Now it will hold close to 100 missions and some need to be ‘discovered’ showing you the engineering section, the server sections as well as bioengineering and water reclamation settings. 

But the nexus needed to be more. Set the larger stage that certain planets could only fuel certain missions on Elaaden, Eos, Kadara and Voeld when certain points are reached on the Nexus. The almost same happens, but for example Voeld when it warms up has another stretch but only when the servers and water reclamation are correctly working together. That limited AI would see through certain matters and it would set the stage the nexus AI wold connect to the Ja Niihk Dig Site AI and uncover two more locations. Now we get into the ME5 part. You cannot do planet by planet, but stages are in play and it also opens up the story to more. As such the one overhaul is narration. In addition to that in your quarters you can listen to all the uncovered narration and also additional storylines are opened there and open new missions. It had taken me less then a day, but in that setting Mass Effect 5 is a lot bigger and in that ME4 becomes 3 times the size. It will make much more sense and it becomes a true contender to the original trilogy. Here you go Bioware, you are most welcome.

Consider the sides missed (read: optionally overlooked). Consider that the cost of Mass Effect: Andromeda was around 40 million. Now consider that for 50% more you get an adjusted ME4, ME5 as well as a kick ass solution in gaming. The idea for the adjustment was essential. Even though MEA wasn’t bad, it got a mere 71%, which would now evolve into a 85%+ game with (hopefully) ME5 surpassing it at 90%+. Another side was to evolve the base settings on all the worlds. As the systems evolve, both Voeld and Elaaden would have the strongest impacts. Still, It isn’t about making a game merely better, the story needs to evolve and the story needs to gain sides. The negative part (conjecture) is that even as Elaaden becomes better, it becomes a little too cool for the Krogan’s. The setting I am going here for is that the ME5 parts will offer two sides, activate systems or leave them alone. Only if ALL are activated an additional side and an additional world becomes visible. They are all connected and with all the AI’s interacting with their ancient counterparts a new chapter opens up for inspection and for interacting. 

It is hard to look into the Archon. They were never my invention, as such the larger storyline is beyond me (reinventing them is not my goal or my premise or my desire). But with these parts in play Bioware could end up with a killer game on ALL systems (yeah, I cannot stop them going to the Microsoft losing solution). 

A stage that took me a day and even now I have an additional game in my mind that involves the Citadel (which would not be allowed on Xbox). 

In less than two days I came up with a kick ass gaming solution. So how long did they take for Redfall (56%) or Starfield (85%) to shape? I reckon I got a lot more done is less then half the time.

Just my point of view in the latter part of Monday, as such it might merely be me. Enjoy!

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November 25, 2023 · 02:11

Stopped making sense

Yes, at some point my mind stops making sense. Even to me. The weird part was that I had no idea whether it was simply a dream, the setting for a video game, a script or even the future. OK, the last speculation was definitely not the case. 

I was on trip with a motorcycle, riding the roads and taking trains in or around Switzerland. The roads had gotten so bad that bikes were allowed on trains (for an extra fee). I was being hunted by an assassin with a chrome coloured .22 with a silencer and that dweep was really accurate with that party popper. I had escaped his vision and I got somewhere around Lausanne (I had to look it up). The thinks that make it all unreal was in the first the bike, which was the bike Kaneda drove in Akira. The second part was the hotel outside of Lausanne. I had room 25334. I have never ever seen or been in a hotel with numbers that high. My mind filled in the blanks from trips to that region. 

The thing that is the most elusive were the roads. The roads had to a larger degree collapsed. They were pretty good in Switzerland, but with Germany’s economy collapsed the roads in Bavaria were dismal, no mentionable repairs had been made in close to a decade and certain seismic shifts broke the roads even further. 

There was a stage where it could have been the setting for a new game, gaming with a difference. You see GaaS (or streaming service) allows for a larger stage of gaming. Consider that a game has more than one side. Consider the setting where you have a management game for infrastructure on your mobile. A match 3, or a Tetris, or puzzle game (or all) that gives you funds for your infrastructure. The results comes into play in the larger game. If you do not do that (always valid) you aggregated average of a cluster of gamers is what the game uses to improve infrastructure and utilities. This would show in all kinds of ways. The hotel was perhaps a reference to the collapsing cities. As economies go bust many buildings will lack maintenance. The cities would become deathtraps. Certain ‘luxury’ hotels would be available all over the world for those who could afford it and local hotels in places that still run would be the envy for those who could not afford to stay there and boosting local economies for those who could. 

It is an evolving idea, but the premise that this is an optional truth coming to us in the near future has been a driving force in gaming for the longest of times. What does matter is how we push that future. I believe that streaming systems will become the future. By being inclusive in more than one direction is one way to go, not the only one, but one direction that many game makers have ignored (for too long). There is also the other side (one I am not ignoring) not all lie the match 3 games. They are algorithms that are designed to make you almost succeed. I hate them. But there are other directions, other games you could play on your mobile. So how to connect them? How to get another game to entice people to play and then connect them to the stage of the larger game? This is not always an easy task, but it is a challenge worth meeting. 

Then there is another path that occurred to me and that one is specifically for Ubisoft. Sony had the Playstation Home (2008-2015) and many miss that open simplicity. Ubisoft has/had AC Brotherhood, AC Black Flag, AC Origin and AC Mirage. Just 4 out of a lot of options. Any person can get an account and can select a world and they end up being in that world owning a house (partially random) and for $1-3 a month the can have a house in a second location. There is also the upgrade. As you select for the upgrade in location one (a more unique setting) you get the second location for free (or the second location upgrades the building in location one). It allows for a new setting for fans. A place they loved they can live there, walk around that town or city and  live to some degree in that temporal environment. Now consider that Ubisoft adds a VR engine. Now the AC fans will get a jug of lemonade from places they revere. And there as an additional setting. It is an environment where Ubisoft has exclusive marketing rights. A place where they can evolve NPC characters and it is in a system where there will be millions of fans. All the places we ran through, but now we can call Alexandria, Aaru, Aten, Duat, Krokodilopolis, Baghdad, Firenze, Rome, Venice, Monteriggioni or Havana our home. As these places evolve and as our systems evolve, we could end up with an actual address that can be wielded in the real world. 

As such our secondary address could become an actual address. These are services now laughed at, but 25 years ago web addresses were laughed at, now over 1,500,000,000 people have one and they are holding onto this for dear life. Ubisoft lost (read: squandered) so many IP options, perhaps it is time to look back in seeing what they could regain and it is their advantage, the graphics are already there. The places to see are already theirs.

Just a though and it might not make a lot of sense, but in 1995 a web location made no sense at all either. Evolution is where you see it.

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November 16, 2023 · 01:48

Time of the signs

This is the stage we at times face. It is not a sign of times. Time was not the operator here, the signs were and some remained in denial. One of the better game reviewers (Eurogamer) gave us ‘More people are playing Skyrim on Steam than Starfield’ today (at https://www.eurogamer.net/more-people-are-playing-skyrim-on-steam-than-starfield). There are a few issues, but that is not on Eurogamer. We get the setting that on Steam Skyrim versus Starfield ends up being 15,386 – 11,563, as such on steam a 12 year old program has more traction than Starfield. Skyrim is great, it still is. Skyrim was a 90%+ game and that matters, good games always do, all whilst Starfield is barely getting above 80%, in one case it is a mere 70%. That is the impact of mediocrity and Microsoft has spend billions on that. 

In contrast, Sony’s Spiderman 2 has sold over 5 million copies. Compare that to the Starfield list of what some say is “the game sees over 504074 daily players on average”, a mere 10%.

A game that is shooting itself in the foot by being merely on 2 systems. It was the right of Microsoft to bar it from Sony systems, they did spend all that money, but now the stage changes. New (and at times free IP) will be pushing in on that field and with the small announcement that “It’s fair to say, it will probably be a while before we hear anything more about how The Elder Scrolls 6 is progressing” the new players get almost free reign with creating RPG IP and that setting gets worse for Microsoft when the Tencent Technology handheld is released. 

So we see that modders are trying to improve the program, we see more and more that Starfield was not worth the hype, although with the lack of games that Microsoft has on its contraption, it might be the only thing on that system. In the meantime we see Sony pushing ahead and they did not have to spend a total of around $80,000,000,000 for Bethesda, Mojang and Blizzard their goose is properly cooked. We see all kind of half baked release signals by no one is setting the stage of what ACTUALLY will be released and when. In the meantime Microsoft will ned up with more and more competitors. And we get it Bethesda will not rush ahead and that is fine and perhaps they will create a new titan in RPG, they basically have done that 4 times already, but this time around 108,000,000 gamers are not connectable as Microsoft is making Bethesda games exclusive to their system and that includes the 40 million PS5 players. The not so nice part for Microsoft is that if there is even one successful new RPG IP, Microsoft will miss out on a lot more and after all that money they spend, what a shame. And with some stating on Redfall “Very mediocre game at launch. Combat feels sluggish and unpolished. Characters and dialogue are uninteresting” is merely one side, you see that proper game testing is essential and as I see it that baton was passed in both Redfall and Starfield. You see when we are given “Bethesda released another Starfield beta update, its second such patch in November” my mind wanders in another direction. You see the game was OFFICIALLY released on September 6th 2023, so why do we see ‘beta’ patches months later? And when you start looking, you will find a lot more. You see, none of that is fair on Bethesda, yet as they are now part of Microsoft, they will endure a lot more and the Arkane failure (Redfall) didn’t help much. Now their last straw will be a news Elder Scrolls and that is seemingly not out until 2025, as such several developers will have the field to create something that holds up to scrutiny and when they do the damage will be on Bethesda (and as such on Microsoft too). They already have felt damage from the Horizons games (both of them) and number three is coming. When is utterly unknown but if they get it out before the end of 2024 Microsoft will be handed another painful defeat and now it is AFTER they spend all those billions. The stage I tried to push for is coming to terms and should Tencent Technologies (or Amazon) take my share towards 50 million users, Microsoft will diminish. None of this is fair on Bethesda, but that is what they signed up for and the steam numbers show that they had glorious days, but a lack of gamers is about to undo whatever they created between 2005 and 2019. It saddens me because Bethesda had great gaming moments. Even now I am hoping that Oblivion and Fallout 3 will make it to PS5, these games were that good. But the Microsoft stage is different and leaves no place for Sony. The one fear I have is that they will create some kind of portal to capture user data of all Sony players. There is absolutely no evidence for that, but Microsoft needs data, it lacks data. Google has one side, Amazon has another side and Sony and Nintendo have the final side. A triangle of data and Microsoft is the piggy in the middle and that game is already frustrating with merely two players against the piggy, in this setting (as I personally see it) Microsoft is wearing itself out a lot more than Don Quixote rushing after windmills and in all that the profit they seek is no Dulcinea. 

It is at best the old hag from some old movie we all forgot about.

It is the time of the signs and one of those signs are the old days, the old days where developers saw that fun was a determining factor, something too many developers have forgotten about. I wonder how many other developers Microsoft will drag down before they realise that they are merely making it harder on themselves to hold onto anything at all. When it was merely one console it was fine, but now it is billions in several directions and the hardship is merely increasing from what already is and with 2 more players adding into that field the setting becomes unsustainable for Microsoft and as such for a player like Bethesda as well. Perhaps they will create the next Elder Scrolls to be a 95%+ game and I hope that they do, because it will up the level of games all over the field, at present it is not likely to increase gaming quality, sad. Really really sad.

The latter part of the week is now in play for me. I wonder what I will find in 16 hours.

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