Yup, it happens to us all. Yet in this case it is about a different kind of commitment, it is about gaming with the the capital gee. I raised the issue on June 10th (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/06/10/how-to-ping-a-delusional-mind/) where I gave light to a new approach and a different usage to IP that Vint Cerf created and in gaming it would allow for an innovation patent and it would give the maker an 8 year advantage. In addition to that, my mind started to elaborate on that idea and see a larger picture. As such we can take it to a new level. As we set the stage of a maximum of 25,000 NPC characters, we can include a little more.
Now consider:
Physical courage – Feeling fear yet choosing to act. Emotional courage – Following our heart. Intellectual courage – Expanding our horizons, letting go of the familiar. Social courage – To be ourself in the face of adversity. Moral courage – Standing up for what is right.
Now, not all NPC characters will have all these traits, but when we add Situational phobia, Animal phobias and Phobias of the natural environment we get a whole new level of gaming. The idea that with EVERY game these traits are set to a certain level with EVERY NPC we get an entirely new level of gaming. Consider any NPC in any RPG, in a cave or a city. We could set intellectual courage to magic wielders only and set Phobias of the natural environment for them to zero as well, we get a new level of challenges. The other side is that grinding will also become a different entity. Consider the game Oblivion. Early in the game I would grind Rockmilk Cave to get the good stuff. Now that same consideration where the NPC characters would have different traits over the new crews inhabiting it, with the added new IP that Vint Cerf left us with, the game becomes a whole new challenge. As such the old text of ‘I must have imagined it’ will become a thing of the past and these two elements together will rock the solution towards real innovation in RPG. When we add the other IP parts I mentioned earlier we end up with an entirely now form of RPG gaming optionally blasting Bethesda and whatever else Microsoft will have coming. Indie developers would have a much larger stage of competitive RPG.
All this adds up to two parts. The first is that innovation will drive gaming to new heights and that will be in the hand of streaming systems giving them more than a lease on life. It becomes the new setting that makes streamers real independent gaming systems. The second is that Microsoft fails yet again and that will make it a ninth time. All those billions and gaming IP ends up not being in their hands, but in Public Domain a new level of failure for Microsoft. All that because they wanted to invade the safe space of one gamer. What an expensive lesson to face.
Friday is 33% done for me, for others it is about to start, the race to the weekend is on.
Today I saw the second confirmation. China is now ahead and I am unlikely to ever see a dime of this IP. This is OK, but in that same setting neither will Microsoft and that makes me happy somehow, it shows that I was ahead of them by well over 3 years. It also shows that statement I made (several times) that Amazon and Google were dropping the ball, now the field gets to be a little clearer.
I gave some of the load in ‘Girdle your loins’ on November 30th 2022 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/11/30/girdle-your-loins/) even as I mentioned there and in pieces over the two years before that that I was onto something, but Amazon rejected my offer and now as I see it Tencent Technologies is close to complete to get at least 50 million subscriptions, surpassing Microsoft almost overnight and trivialising (to some degree) the Amazon Luna. Google had already vacated the area, but now the game changes. If Tencent is able to keep the consumer trust, they will become the new top three players in Gaming and GaaS. You see, I made mention that the ‘G’ was gaming, and I saw today that several indie developers are on the mark with what I predicted. Microsoft spinning their Xbox360 arsenal, all whilst they left billions on the floor and it is starting to show, the moment the numbers on the Tencent Handheld start to flood the market, now with the Middle East squarely behind this, their 50 million will grow to over 150 million and that was the simple setting no one saw, or too many were willing to ignore in favour of their own ego’s. I don’t have an ego (well, I might be in denial there). I saw the solutions and I saw a few more, so I can lose some IP, I have more, but the larger benefit is that once the others see what they are losing out on, they will want some of the other IP and that is my meal ticket. They can of course wait until it is too late and hand even MORE to China, but that would be on them. The fun part was that Google had a larger option to win this all, they left it on the floor. I know why, and that does not matter. It was THEIR call and they were allowed to do what they did, but now we see another field that will soon be in the hands of China and all the US crybabies will not matter. The thoughts were clearly online, clearly in Public Domain and everyone can see how they fell short. I feel good. Really really poor, but good.
And for those in doubt, when was the last time you left 25% of the population of this world on the floor as an optional consumer base? It is a simple enough question, it was not really that hard.
The quote that does it is “The puzzle game on his Android phone had been interrupted by a video showing Hamas militants, terrified Israeli families and blurred graphic footage. Over a black screen, a message from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the first grader: “WE WILL MAKE SURE THAT THOSE WHO HARM US PAY A HEAVY PRICE.”” You see, if you know you know. But for those who don’t lets educate you in this matter, there is no blame to you, you might never have considered these parts.
We know that Angry Birds was the game and I feel that this is not on them. What does bother me is “Spokesperson Lotta Backlund did not provide details on which of its “dozen or so ad partners” had supplied it with the ad.” The fact that the ad partner pushed this through Android and possible iOS too. So who was the culprit? We are also given “Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ head of digital, David Saranga, confirmed that the video was a government-promoted ad but said he had “no idea” how it ended up inside various games.” It makes sense that this was Israeli government and I am willing to believe that they didn’t push it through, but the ad partners could, someone laced this to get a negative spin going. You might not push this to a game, but this game has at present 263 million monthly users, as such up to a quarter of a billion people are being made aware. Now, all things being equal this means that the ad partner that pushed the ad is important to colour and classify this culprit. If only to learn whether this was a mere short sighted salesperson (these ads cost money) and these salespeople like their coin, or was this something more? I cannot tell. To give this kind of visibility to any political song requires a few issues and I get that a person like Lotta Backlund wants to play nice with all parties and she is likely seeking answers too, I get that.
You see an advertisement is made, a project is created, the advertisements are added, that project gets vetted and then pushed online and set against a budget. As such two parts of that stream were either ignored, diverted or altered. Whomever created the project is one, whomever vetted the project (on the game, android and/or iOS) side is the other. If it is only android it might be the same person, but I doubt it. Behind door number two is a new setting, one too many people did not worry about. Even when we ignore all the emotions games are exploited for advertisements and now they are ore and more likely show a message that should not be placed on children. In their defence there are plenty of Adults who like Angry Birds too, so there is that issue but until we get who pushed the advertisement campaign has that project, and as such it tells us how widespread this campaign went. To how many people, in what countries and optionally we get even more personalised data on the who were shown the advertisement.
The budget will tell us how much interest was given to the project. Without that we cannot see the optional damage created. Yet that part is equally important, this might be the first event we see, but it will not be the last. The moment more and more people learn that THEIR political game can be pushed into a game, the more radical players will show up on the radar and that amounts to really bad news for governments trying to limit the damage, yet with the populist agenda’s out there, there would be added desire to push messages to games.
It is still the day before Halloween. So here is a little dark humour.
Question: What is red, in a corner and shrinking? Answer: A toddler with a cheese grater.
I was about to look into something that bothered me in Saudi Arabia when news hit me. That news stopped me in my tracks. You see it is 15 years ago today that Bethesda launched Fallout 3. I had never forgotten about that game, I even missed it to some degree. Fallout 3 after Oblivion was a massive step forward and together they were the start of Skyrim. As Bethesda became a Microsoft subsidiary, Elder Scrolls VII: Restoration became lost to them and I started to push that game in parts towards public domain. But there was one part that was never part of this. The introduction and Fallout 3 reminded me on how important the introduction was. The entire introduction is seen in Vault 101. A simple but strong setting to get you into the game, to start the narrative and to give away a clue or two. I had forgotten about that part, I had forgotten on the importance of a start. In Dune (the book) the beginning is given to us as “A beginning is the time for the most delicate care that the balances are correct.” In the 1984 movie we hear “A beginning is a very delicate time” both are correct. I had never forgotten either, but I see that I overlooked parts of that. I didn’t in the movie I create ‘How to assassinate a politician’ or the TV series ‘Keno Diastima’ in both those settings the introduction is the start and the beginning are the connected prequels. There I have that space, in gaming you do not. In Restoration the game in the very beginning reflects back to Oblivion, a game too often overlooked. Bethesda did a really good job (until they became part of Microsoft).
As such there were solutions. As a separate game it becomes a different puppy and that had be going. The entire setting is no longer on the elder scrolls list, as a separate game you need to set a different schooling and I did a dissimilar introduction, but now it becomes a much larger station. So what happens when we create not one, but three introductions? When we create introductions for the choices made we get a new gaming setting. We create a smaller infusion of longevity and that is the first step to LTG (Long Term Gaming) that is the stuff that streamers (Amazon, Tencent Technologies) require. Streaming relies on at least 2-3 LTG games and Microsoft has two, when we take those options away by creating a real LTG, we get a new setting, we deprive Microsoft of revenue, something they desperately need after spending $69,000,000,000. Soon they will be haemorrhaging all over the place and denied revenue is one, the other I keep for later. Those two will push Microsoft over the edge and I am driven to that because they invaded our safe gaming space by pushing THEIR needs on all gamers at the expense of everyone else. That angered me, they did nothing wrong in the legal sense, but they did in the spiritual sense and when Tencent technologies and Indies programming for them get that IP (as I am making it public domain) the Game pass loses value, especially as they denied certain games to be there in year one. The greedy will be served, that is what I always believed and now I am making it a reality. And as Microsoft seemingly invested $13,000,000,000 in genAI there shores are stacking up and a few more bad news (like missed revenue and less customers) will set their doomsday clock to 0:01, which works well for me in this case. As I said once before, I will hand my IP to Saudi Arabia for 35% of the value, before I will let Microsoft near it for 165% of that value and making a lot of it public domain works well for me, I might not get a dime of that, but Microsoft cannot make exclusive IP claims when it was published and that is the part everyone forgets about. You see “Software patents for computer-implemented inventions are treated as typical patent applications and must pass the same tests of novelty and inventiveness.” You see, when something is on the internet or a blog, it fails the novelty test. Microsoft will have to share space and cannot claim anything. I open the space for indie developers and they can go wherever they want to go and with thousands of indie developers in China, Tencent technologies will have an advantage and that mean more trouble for Microsoft.
They were warned, but they were eager to ignore everyone to the request of their board of directors. In the end they lose 5 times over. Apple took the tablet, Amazon the Web systems (AWS), Sony took the console, Tencent technologies is about to take streaming services (GaaS) and Google is biting into their office revenue (not as much as I hoped, but still). Bleeding on 5 sides and I will (hopefully) add two points of pressure. In the end their $82 billion investment will come up short. Yes GenAI is all the rage, but it needs a pedestal to grow from and that pedestal is vanishing fast. I wonder which banks will buckle first. Wall Street is at present obsessed with AI, but soon they will realise that this setting needs a platform top start from and the Microsoft platform is waning that much is a given all over. I wonder how long they will be able to keep the spin up. At some point these banks want evidence and if FTX is anything to go by, a lot of banks are starting to get worried, not in the least by my speculated weights of banks with too much US treasury bonds. We see the news on how 10-year treasury bonds are a green light, but are they really? When that goose sparks a lot of people will be without savings and I fear that that moment is not too far away, giving more added pressure for Microsoft to perform. Consider that the ‘investments’ requires them to make AT LEAST 4 billion just to pay for the interest. Now consider that the media gives us that they made 198.3 billion USD, you would think that this is a no brainer and I would agree. Now consider that they lost 5 times over (6 if you include Bing) to competitors. They are still making some money, but the numbers aren’t adding up. Bing currently has a market share of 3.02%, which is nothing. There are too many cost issues that are not registering as I personally see it. So when we look at the whole picture, they are seemingly bleeding all over and the numbers cause me to show question marks. So am I wrong? I could be, but Microsoft has become too big, everyone is shouting against Amazon and Google, but they stay silent against Microsoft and they just got a new bigger player.
War never changes the premise is sound, but you win the war by changing the stage the other one is stepping on, or you diffuse its support systems and the others all forgot one thing, the population is a support system in this war and Tencent Technologies is about to come into this field, Amazon had options for several years. They squandered it on I know not what. Now Tencent Technologies optionally with Huawei will get a larger stage to work from, all whilst the Microsoft stage is shrinking. As the middle East turned to China, Microsoft lost even more and that is what too many are trying to be in denial of. I wonder what Microsoft loses by the start of 2024, it will be something but I have no idea what they will lose at present.
In continuation of yesterday’s part. I did more mulling (or brooding) on the setting of the case file. If you consider that the case file is a collection of three mini games, the first thing I considered that three did not make the cut, so I came up with two more mini games. That led me to two considerations. The first was on the setting of ‘evidence’ the second was on progression.
Danger One The first danger was that you get too much of a “then I went there, then I did this then I saw that”. I need to consider another path. Almost like a diary, but with changing premisses.
Even as we adhere to some setting we can start with the date, the action and the location can be programmable. As such, we get more than a dozen versions of the first element which contains the action and location. From there we get (as illustrated) 4 versions as a start that describes the event we ‘just played’. That part is set with actions and clues. The clues (hints we uncovered) are set to text parts and these elements make up for a chapter in the case file. The problem here is not that it is too detailed, it becomes what elements are required. On the other hand, if I set the larger wheels in motion, the re-engineer will solve the setting.
Complication One The 4 versions are the four versions of the text, it might be that ChatGPT can ‘solve’ it all making the solution easier to get up to two dozen versions and that is ‘painted’ with the writer style that is selected. So that every case-file has a different artsy approach resembling the thriller and espionage greats of the past.
It is rather invigorating, trying to engineer a new solution from scratch. With the IP I made it was somewhat simple, now that I am getting to the nitty gritty part of the bottom layer, I need to set a different premise. The original solution that had 3 64KB mini games now becomes a lot more connecting. Each mini-game will not merely be larger, it will also give us more properties and more parameters to consider, to implement and to keep on the side to make the story work (or make it more of a story).
From there I will need to consider the elements to make it a framework. As such it is not a framework, but a setting to create a framework for each case file. When I get that I avoid replication to a larger degree making it much more long term, or at least longer term. You see the case file is merely one side of the appeal. The cases need to have the appeal for the whole game to remain interesting, not a connection of repeated actions. The idea to enhance the original was for me a trigger to create a better game, the case file was merely an extra. Yet the idea to make it a way to connect your gaming to any other mobile solution (for the case file) will add to the larger interest for gamers and that could also be set to enhancing the gamer profiles of gamers (if the gamer desires). There are still several parts to dig into. The first is to let the gamer set the connections and data collectors in place. That gave me a few ideas to enhance the game further. The second was to set the game in a ’24 hour’ setting.
Consider this example. Even as we see that action one and action two are interchangeable in the beginning, the setting past the second timeframes is that we could see different information in time frame three. When we add to the fact that action one and action two gives us different data we get a different and larger frame to work with, yet I also believe that any upside needs to receive a downside. We get on one side, but we are through that way denied other intelligence to work with (sorry for sounding cryptic). It becomes an altering frame within the game and now we get a new premise. We can create cases with altering time constraints. It adds to the dimensions of gaming enthusiasm. Adding the two ‘mini games’ was’t the challenge, it was how t fit it into the frame for players. Getting the introduction levels to get the first two ‘tools’ to teach the players what to do, then we get the ‘main tool’ and in the second intro mission we add one tool and in the third mission we add the second tool and after that the real missions start giving me a lot more challenges to upgrade the game from what was into what could be, but that is for soon enough.
That was the setting I was in yesterday. I love linked technologies. My first real interaction was connecting my Gameboy Advance to my Gamecube and in a game, the game boy was the map to the game I was playing on the Gameboy. This was neat (dorky but accurate). In the past I wrote about parts of this, but in a slightly different setting. In this case I am in the process of remastering IP (making it new or optionally innovative IP). The stage is that a game (or games) use a connection to something like ChatGPT to create case files based on writing styles like Chandler, Le Carre (an essential writer in my view), Desmond Bagley and Alistair McLean. That setting as the case file is merely a short story will not impede on the original writers.
So why does this matter? You see, games tend to have the EXACT SAME narrative. This is not on the games, but evolution is where you could create it. You see, even as Restoration has some alterations towards the narrative, this game requires a different approach to be a bigger hit. You see, the group of people who are gamers and are also bookworms (or enthusiast readers) is rather large. Another cluster that Amazon, Google and Microsoft missed. As such Amazon with the Luna and Kindle will have an advantage. That is until Tencent Technologies creates such a setting, or partners with Alibaba or Amazon to do the same thing. You see, what happens when a game you love creates (through ChatGPT, or an alike) create a case-file (read: narrative) that you can read and send to your friends, or place on your profile so that others can read these narratives. That makes the ChatGPT essential. Thousands of case files, similar but not exact copies. That create new waves, new interactions and new fans. All options that the larger three missed (a few times over). Now we get the narrative to a remaster all missed.
You see, streaming games need to evolve and bring more to the game. They will never replace the Nintendo or the Sony consoles, but they will be a brother to the other two and that is where the larger gains can be made and that is where I am looking and the larger three are all missing the boat. Well, Google dumped the Stadia, so they aren’t even in the game anymore. But the larger setting with Kindle can create a double whammy, especially when you consider how small some margins are, that sets up all kinds of new connections and create new evolutions in gaming and I am all about evolving gaming, as I get better or more inclusive games, me, myself, I and all other gamers win and winning is the marker we all accept.
All innovative directions the big three either ignored, rejected or never saw and it is not about the Kindle. You could set this to a PDF. The setting is that you add to any profile to make the profile more, not more advertising, but more profile we all win and that is the second tier of creating waves. Let the game push all sides of gaming, not merely the game, or the narrative. As I personally see it another side ignored by the two remaining players (Amazon and Tencent Technologies). Now to be fair Tencent is new to this, but they are more and more in a position to take up a massive chunk of gaming marketshare and if they do it well, it is fine by me. I as a gamer win (other gamers too) and that is what I am after. More and better games, not Microsoft or Ubisoft iterations, but more and better games.
So whilst we see iteration after iteration, gamers hunger for more and that time is already now. So, lets see what time and innovation will be brought to gamers and readers alike.
LTG or Long Term Gaming was today’s topic. It was a tweet that brought me to this point. It wasn’t entirely that tweet. When I created the foundation of Restoration replayability was the setting I focussed on.
As such the image made me giggle but then I considered the impact of what could be and that is going to be all the rage in streaming games, or GaaS as some techno dudes set their cap.
You see, would it not be an idea to have a blend of iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 when you play that game in 2024? And I am not merely talking cosmetic. You see in a game like Watchdogs 2, the phones could have additional power and optionally additional protection. Sneaking into a parking lot (one of the WD2 missions) could make it a lot more challenging. That setting is overlooked. It is not the fault of the creators, this setting was never an option in gaming. But now it is possible. For example in Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, some of the elite guards could in 2024 be sporting Body armour by manufacturer XTEK. You see, games never had the additional parameters, but the new streaming consoles will be different, gaming will be taken to a whole new level making it essential that games are upgraded, as will be the need for more and better equipment. Before you start going on ‘that’s too hard’ consider that we see now what was never an option in the Commodore Amiga or the Atari ST. Games and systems evolve and now we get a setting where one system (a streaming system) will add new dimensions of gaming. I will not part with my PS5, I love it too much, but having a streaming system next to it will become more and more commonplace. Now these evolutions are not a given. Assassins Creed Mirage will not be impacted, it plays 1200 years ago. But there are plenty of games where if COULD apply. Newer speedboats, new model cars, new model nearly everything and there is a larger setting.
On February 13th 2022 I wrote “Just like the stage of combining deeper machine learning to a lens (or google glasses), a camera lens that offer direct translations, and the fun part is we can select if that is pushed through to film, or merely seen by us, now consider filming in Japan with machine learning and deeper machine learning auto translating ANY sign it sees” (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/02/13/looky-looky/) in the article ‘Looky Looky’ Now we see advertisements by Google iPhone doing that very thing. Another example where my creativity trumped a big tech company, in this case Google. Gaming was about pushing boundaries and it could do so again, not at the behest of Microsoft when they finish some new piece of software, but ahead of that software. People like Sid Meier danced on the edge of the CBM64 with Pirates in 1987. He did what even Commodore did not consider possible and he was not alone. We need to push art back to that stage and streaming systems are the most logical choice here. A setting where long term gaming could evolve and for the streamers (Amazon and Tencent Technologies) that stage needs to be explored sooner rather than later. When gamers see that they get a new dimension in gameplay. They will come and tip their toes in the water. Gamers always do and that is why Sony was scared of the SEGA Dreamcast.
Soul Calibur was something that no one had, not even Sony. SEGA pushed the envelope and of course Xbox360, PS3 and PS4 had their own innovative successes. Now it is time for a new level of innovation and it is my believe that streamers could be holding that trump card. How players like Ubisoft will go about it? This is anyones guess, but I reckon that a player like Guerrilla Software and Santa Monica Studio are looking into that chapter right now, because the first one in will get the larger slice of pizza, that has always been a given and it is one of the reasons I oppose Microsoft invasion of the safe space that we gamers had. It was not about making gaming for everyone, it was pure and simple greed and greed will diminish a game EVERY TIME. There is no exception to that rule, which is why I am making a lot of my thoughts public domain. I hope to inspire and spark independent game makers. Yes, I had a dollar sign on my head as well (a person needs to eat and pay rent) but a lot is already PD here, so I will never see a penny of that myself.
So, whilst I am ‘evangelising’ Long Term Gaming, the setting in a GaaS (Gaming as a Service) is not new and it will exist and it should exist. Game Pass was a brilliant idea. It was Microsoft’s decision to not include several games until 2024, but there could be a legal reason (I do not know).
What matters is that I just had an additional idea that no game is sporting at present, that is not on those games. They were limited by hardware. With streamers it is a lot less limiting on deployment and physical copies. It is a different animal where we get a new stage, a new kind of food and a new kind of animal, but not one we have ever seen before and that makes it exciting.
Enjoy the weekend. Down here Saturday is a mere 1827 seconds away.
Yes, this happens. Even to me and Microsoft apparently figured part out, part I had hoped to include in the sale of my IP, IP which might now be made public domain. I refuse to let Microsoft walk away with it all. You see, I made the second (or third mention) in ‘Ring around the currency’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/12/25/ring-around-the-currency/) on Christmas day 2022, almost a year ago. I had seen how gaming went and I made some calculations. Between 1985 and 1999 the systems Atari 800, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and Commodore Amiga had a little over 10,000 games. I reckoned that if you took the list sorted by rating and you take the top 10% you end up with 1,000 games. Now we get that some still have IP protection. I reckoned that if we set that marker to 50% (really high) we still end up with 500 games, a lot more than Amazon or Google had. The others are fair game, no IP protection and these games could easily be transformed for cloud gaming. Going from 64KB to 1MB-15MB is still a good gig and these games were really fun and addictive. A system with 500 games (merely one of three pillars). That is what the seemingly bright people at Amazon missed and I was laughing most of the year, knowing that my giggles were temporary at best. It was one part that ensured 50,000,000 consoles and alas Kingdom Holding (with Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud) were not taking the bait for billions in revenue. Neither was the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who was driven to eSports. But I thought ahead of the pack. You see eSports people get there by training and the younger they are the better they become and these games set up my and the next generation, so the new generation could do worse than train on these games. Still that was not my focus, it was a focus on fun. The fun I had through decades of joyful gaming. Not hopping like a kangaroo in FPS games. I also saw the option to reengineer some games (like Defender of the Crown) to be a little more realistic and more Arabic driven, a combination of that game with a focus of the 1st Crusades. Show the current generation what Islamic life in 1095-1291 achieved. And that was not all, many games were up for grabs, rejected and forgotten. As such the creation of a large coffer of games would propel any console and that was the setting I set out to do, but it was only one of three pillars. I tend to make the other two pillars public domain soon enough especially as my retirement in Toronto is now no longer a reality.
There were several other games that required remastering in the new setting. There was Knight Games on the CBM64, and setting this with a Saracen style might appeal to a lot of Arabic gamers. The nice part was that I had played most of those games and I would be able to recall plenty of details and plenty of gaming sides, even improve on some of them. A setting that was never considered in those days.
All this came to the surface when I saw ‘Phil Spencer Teases the Revival of Older Microsoft Franchises’. It came with ““With Game Pass, we have the ability to maybe pick a couple of franchises every year and almost do a ‘revisited’,” Spencer explained. Although he clarified that it was not an official branding term, he expressed the potential to recognise the significance of these games in gaming history and make them available through Game Pass.”
Yes, that was the setting that gave me pause to think. Spencer does not think in small settings and as I make this now public domain others will come and see what they can have. You see Microsoft has committed 69 billion, as such making sure that all these games get multiple contenders all vying for a piece of the pie makes the slice for Microsoft smaller and that is not the only thing they will face. So all who read this, if you develop games, see what old games you could purchase, get the IP for or register the new gaming IP. It will be the first disappointment for Microsoft. They will have to share the pie with many others. The other side is that these people could get a slice of the game through the new Tencent Technology handheld. Another mess they never banked on. I had hoped to keep ahead of the curve, but it seems that this is no longer an option. The only thing left is to make these steps as expensive as possible for Microsoft. They invested to get a mile, so if I can make the setting so that they merely get a furlong it will be a good day for me, or at least a better day than it was this morning. So here you see it, this is what Amazon and Google missed. Well, it was one of three parts they missed and I wonder if someone over there will wake up at some point.
Enjoy the day, I will enter Friday being decently grumpy today.
This article is not for the faint of heart. One could argue that there is something wrong with me (there always has been). I just had the craziest idea and if you reject it, that is okay. I have a hard time accepting it myself. You see, we are in a stage where we are nothing more than a puppet in a show that we do not want to watch. We are made to watch it, as such we need to unwind.
So here you see Watchdogs: Legion. A good game, but a game that could have larger stages. You see, Ubisoft made the map and the environment and there is nothing wrong with that. Yet to offer some stage to unwind, a new system came to mind.
You see, there is an evolving setting where Ubisoft could release the option to enhance ANY game they have with user created DLC options. If anything Bethesda has shown just how creative users could be and Ubisoft might spin that in a new direction. You see, people have had enough of certain clowns and that is where my creative mind came into play.
I chose Watchdogs: Legion, because the environment fits. Now consider that you are a new character. The character is a seal hunter. You are shown in shoddy clothes wielding a spiked bat. Now you have to stop is disperse 10 Just Stop Oil protests by clubbing the protesters to death (just like some do to seals). Lets be clear, this is just a game. The higher level is that you need to do this before the protesters can create too much financial damage.
You think it is bonkers and yes, to a degree it is. But the media is no longer trustworthy and as the photo-mode comes into place with you showing off the protesters you killed, people might stop to consider just how stupid these protests are. For Ubisoft it is a win-win. They sell more games, they create a DLC creation kit that allows to make user created IP for the games they own and we get to blow off steam because we arrived 90 minutes late at a job as some protesters were dancing in front of a bus. If enough hay is created with photo mode and these protesters have to consider just how much stress they are creating, they might decide to select donuts for dollars. So these protesters might go a new direction, but the story, the song and the dance remain the same. Seeking limelight in the wrong way and for that we have a solution. A spiked bat to release the stress they inflicted upon us.
Next could be Karen hunting In San Francisco or Chicago. The options are endless (well for as long as Ubisoft has location games). Yet the underlying setting is there too. You see, we love our games and some love the settings of the Creed in Italy, Egypt and now Baghdad as well. Yet when you are done with the 25 hours in Bagdad, wouldn’t it be great to test the DLC from another fan? I am not sure of the technical possibilities to get that done, but when you consider 3 Watchdogs, at least 5 Assassins Creed, several Far Cry games. I might not have liked them all, but they all have a well pronounced fanbase and as such a DLC creator might be Ubisofts ticket to get additional revenue. It will be limited to PC, I get that, but when the DLC is good enough, perhaps Ubisoft might make some of them additions to consoles as well. Just a thought.
I have enjoyed Wednesday now for 2 hours. The middle of the week is here.
We do that, we all do. When a milestone is reached we tend to celebrate this. I am no different. Even though I have slapped Microsoft silly (a few times over) when they get something right I stop at that point too and this time they got something right. The BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67105983) alerted me 10 hours ago with ‘Minecraft becomes first video game to hit 300m sales’. I love my Minecraft, it is one of the few real LTG games EVER made. LTG or Long Term Gaming is a gold mine for any developer. No matter what comes next, Diablo 5, Fallout, Elder Scrolls 9 or even Horizons three, we play those games, but we always return to the snug comfy environment of a LTG. I have been a Minecraft gamers since 2012. I tried the demo on the Xbox360 and I was hooked within 20 minutes. I later also bought it for the PS3, Xbox One, PS4 and I am now playing it on the PS5. There are even more versions, but I do not have those systems.
A sandbox game like no other and don’t think it is the high end graphics, there aren’t any. Even on the PS4 it looks like a Commodore Amiga game. It is the addictive nature of the game that sets it apart. Mojang sold it to Microsoft for a little over 2 billion some time ago and Microsoft got a huge following of gamers at that point. It was up to 120 million active gamers.
And the creativity was uncanny, as you can see, someone had the time to turn these cubes into a space shuttle. The game especially in survival mode is a never ending setting of growing and surviving and after 10 years I still enjoy that.
Don’t think that Microsoft sat on their laurels and merely raked in the cash (they did that too), work on the game continues. Last year I was suddenly confronted with entirely new cave systems and it changed the game dramatically. Even a cave willed with light, water and grass. I had never seen a cave like that before. That is what a gamer wants. His game and the ability of that game to knock his (or her) socks off and in that respect Microsoft continued the work of Mojang and delivered. There was all kinds of merchandise and even a creeper Xbox Series X. There seemingly was also an Xbox looking like a Minecraft torch, but I never saw that one myself. I bet that Minecraft lovers went hunting for that one on day one.
So today I will be having a cupcake with a candle celebrating the 300,000,000 mark of Minecraft and congratulations to Microsoft. I think it is important to remember these great moments, because let it be clear, 300 million is a great moment. Neither Skyrim or Grand Theft Auto 5 got to that point.
So enjoy your day and remember, a great game could be just around the corner if you are willing to try it.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 