Category Archives: Gaming

August 7, 2023 · 01:31

Reinventing the wheel

It started on Friday night. I had the weirdest dream. I was in some kind of information centre. It looked like a mix of an ATC centre, but with attached CCTV centres. None of it made sense to me and the weirdest part was that everyone was talking and no one was listening to any of it. It made no sense to me, but then I woke up and my mind was resetting things. Still up to this point I have no idea what started it, but a few hours ago my mind set aside a new kind of CCG for computers. The game was free and every 12 hours you get a free pack. You could buy packs as well, a pack was $0.99, but there was no need to buy any. The game had a starter pack, which was free when you installed the game. So let’s take a look. The game has elements of Illuminati (a game by Peter Jackson), parts of Android: Netrunner (the newer version from NetRunner WotC) and a few other games. The player has two decks, the offensive deck and the defensive deck. Both games have a header card and there will be several headercards, each having a strength. 

I decided on making fun of the current alphabet groups. In the example I created a ‘CIA’ card, but it could have been MI-6, DGSE or another team, all with a ‘new’ designation. So in this case the CIA header card will have the ability to defend an attack without using defense points. But there are other abilities. It connects on all 4 sides, all header cards do that. It is the combination that makes for a structure. 

The connecting card has one input, and up to three outputs. So some cards will have no output, it will be an end card, some will have output points. They all have strengths, a local strength (in this example 5) and a total strength (3), that means if you have 3 of these cards, the entire structure would have 9 support points to ward off attacks. The stars and dots are the strength of the card, as you get more cards and more of the same you can merge them (or when you win games) the stronger card will get an additional local or total srength point and in some cases you get an additional output connector. So a one connector card. Could become a 2, or 3 connector card.

This is the attack deck, the defence deck is similar, but it now has versions of the FBI, NSA, AIVD (Dutch) and so on.

So how does this game play? There is the storyline and there is the free-line. In the free line you set your deck up against another player, but it is played blind. The player does not know who they played and you do not know against who you played, but the results are there. The outcome is Win (they never surpassed you), mate (they defeated you, but never got to the header card), or loss the header card was overruled. If you win, one of your cards (usually the card that stopped the attack) will get an extra point (the 5 balls on he top right), when all 5 are filled the card gets an additional star. 

When you open packs you get new cards, when you have three the same you merge them into one stronger card. You can have the three cards separately, as you have 4 output ports on the header card and you could have more than one CCTV card, but that is up to you to decide. As the game progresses, you will have additional cards and you can rethink your organisation. The attacker has an agent, the agent can use any part of the organisation once only to get past an obstacle. So you get James Brand for MI-6, Reminder Stamp for the CIA, Hubby Bonsoir for the DGSE and so on. These agents  also have abilities. JB has technology expertise (so he can avoid CCTV likeminded cards), RS has Charisma, so he could avoid or gets an edge when one of the connector cards is a person and so on.

The part that I haven’t figured out is how to set the automated stage. I was first thinking on some version of electronic dice, but that might make the game unplayable, I hate to rely on random events, it is a solution that is weak and not really capturing. A pack would have 8 cards, 4 attack, 4 defence and that is set to 2 commons and 2 uncommon cards, when you get a rare card, you get 1 uncommon card and every deck has one rare card (either defence or attack). The starter deck will have all the organisations and all the agents. So you always have those from the start. The setting can evolve and you can build more than one deck as such you get a larger stage. When you play the storyline you setup your deck and during the game you see the opponent cards and see how your deck holds up, so you face an agent, or you play your agent and that sets out the story. As you fail you redo the mission, or wait until you get a stronger deck, in that case you have the option to play your game against the opponents and see how they fare. In my setting your first opponent is the Miniseries of National Strawberries (Jamaica, a Dr No wink) it has no real power and no real opposition, but it shows the options of the game and it will be your first win, which is 2 packs, together with the 2 packs you got with the starter, you will now have 16 cards for defence and 16 cards for attacks, as such you should have a starting set to match up.

There is a lot more to this game, but I thought it was essential that the CCG games of the past would not be lost to the digital era. When you go back and you see the vast offer of CCG games, it is such a shame that it was never pushed into the digital era, only Wizards of the Coast with their Magic game made it to the digital frontier, but there was so much more. It seems a waste to see it all fall away, hopefully whomever gets this game running, will entice all the others to make it to the digital stage. Anyway, I remained creative and as such feel free to use this idea to set up your own solution for Streaming solutions or consoles. 

Monday is about to start west of Australia.

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July 30, 2023 · 08:20

It started with a book

Yes, I have something for you the game developers. There is however one catch, this is for developers that make games exclusive for Amazon Luna and/or Nintendo Switch. Under those conditions this IP is free for you, no Microsoft allowed. I stated that I will aid in their downfall anyway I can and handing IP to developers in other regions is fine by me, optionally the Tencent handheld can be included in this deal.

This all started a long time ago, it was just a dream, an idea that involved time travel. In my mind it could have ben a movie, but then some time back I considered that it could make a game too. A stealth game and the burning of the Quran brought it back to the forefront of my mind. You see, we have lost a lot due to fires. So I came up with Quantum Theft, a stealth game (with a catchy title). In this game you are an entrepreneur in discrete entry and removal operations. Yet in this day and age, you will be found, unless they do not know that there was a theft. So in comes the time traveller (you) and you get to sack places. But there is a catch, you can not get caught or it is back to the start you go. You need to sneak into a place, replace the items and you only get 1-4 hours to get the job done. No save games in between and as you are a better thief you will get better gear, more options to loot and more options to gain fame. The introduction is the Library of Alexandria. It caught fire some time ago (48BC) by Julius Caesar, who swore to me that it was an accident (as if).

As you see the mage of Desperados above, there are similarities, the view so that you can see where people are looking, but in this game the colour is also important. In 48BC slaves would look and ignore, until you become a hazard to them or their masters and they would shout for help and the guards tends to not be so nice, so not being seen is important. The game would be larger, like Aloy in the Horizons game. I wanted to set a tradeoff with gender. The female character is more agile, but cannot force doors, and she carries less but be faster whilst carrying stuff. The male can force doors, carry more but be less agile, so they can have very different routes in the game. The game will take on elements from the original Tenchu game (PS1), as such guards and slaves have different routes every time you start again. In the first 2 levels you get the introduction, but you still have set targets. Also every stage, you look the part of the time, as such you blend in, but I wanted to have a few extra elements there. In ancient Greece colours mattered, as such I wanted to exploit that part in the game, also the senatorial robes would be excellent to fend of the guards, but I still want it to be a challenge. 

The first two levels are

  • Library of Alexandria – 48BC
  • Athens and Piraeus – 86BC 

The second level has streets and houses, there will be more chaos and you need to take heed on how to proceed. You kill anyone, you change the timeline and the game resets, you get caught, the game resets. You get trapped, the game reset. You need to copy the item, so that the timeline remains intact, remove the original and get out. This is a game of pure stealth. 

In the first to levels it will be about getting scrolls, amphoras and figurines.

Then we get to the real levels and I came up with the following

  • Constantinople – April 1204 (4th Crusade)
  • Florence February 1497 – Bonfire of the Vanities (what gave me the idea for this game)

Florence will add a new setting, books and paintings. Under the cloak of stupidity worn by Girolamo Savonarola the people decided to burn books and paintings that they deemed secular. This level will also have a lot more places and more people, the challenge becomes harder. 

  • Iconoclastic Fury 1566

This will be a different challenge, you see this happened all over Belgium and the Netherlands. But you only get two stages. Instead of relying on the same area this level could by in Zürich, Copenhagen, Münster, Geneva, Augsburg, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Maastricht. As such you get two locations to loot. 2 out of 8. A setting that has never been done in gaming. You have to first in some fields and this is one. 

  • French Revolution, Paris 1791
  • Kristallnacht, November 1938
  • Nazi Plunder, Berlin Fire Department, March 1939

In the last three levels all stops come off, both have masses, armies and you need to remain unseen, but by that time you should have a fair amount of upgrades aiding you in that process. This is merely 8 events I singled out. There was the burning of Rome (64AD) when Nero (aka Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, also know as that fat fuck) decided to have a little fire, the critics are not all on the same page as for what the reasoning was. I still remain that he was an arson driven little shit, but that is me, always seeing the good in people.

There were plenty of other events like the great earthquake of 1906 which redesigned San Francisco and that list goes on. What matters is that the stage as I wrote it here has never been done before and there is a lack of stealth games, even though the Horizon series shows that there is appeal to that kind of game. There is even an additional upside, but that is still int he works. When you play those on the Amazon Luna, the idea is to be able to put the scrolls to your Kindle so you can actually read the scrolls you ‘saved’, the paintings and statues you can see on your Luna and might have a link to more too. Like your safe-house where you can admire the art you saved. Just a thought, but this is something I thought up in hours (and some will not see this a an optional game), on the other hand, Microsoft hasn’t had an original idea for some time now, but they buy for billions and they seemingly have nothing to show for it. Now the Amazon Luna and Nintendo Switch (optional the Tencent Handheld too) get a gaming idea that they didn’t have to pay a penny for, life is hard for some and for some fresh roses are delivered at no cost at all.

By the way, Microsoft reported a slowdown in growth of parts of its business recently, lets see if we can add more bad news to their future by giving all other systems great games. If they can match it, they can go right ahead, they paid all those billions haven’t they? So where are their great games? Me laughing out loud now.

Enjoy the weekend, its almost over.

 

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July 26, 2023 · 14:41

Conscription Calamity

I heard of the notion, armies have had issues with getting meat for the grinder for as long as I remember. There were the crusades and the lords of the land beckoned with the option of wealth and the avoidance of utter poverty. And that was the feeding frenzy for those grinders. Almost 5 million people were lost over these numerous squabbles. From Accra to Jerusalem, millions were lost and the loss of people in those days implied that the shortage of manpower almost ensured the end of poverty and non-stop hunger. There was the Russian Revolution as well as WW1. By 2016 Russia was down 10 million souls and that was not the end of it all. WW1 took another 10 million souls (approximate losses both sides) and that was almost the end of it. There was of course WW2, there we have around 23 million military deaths and well over 50 million civilian losses. Yes, we have all made a mess of the setting. Yet all that fades to comparison to the Russian setting we see now. First I saw one article (see article three), then the article from the BBC giving us (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66304522) ‘Russia expands pool of men eligible for call-up’, which gives us “Russia is raising the maximum age at which men can be conscripted from 27 to 30, making more of them liable to serve in the armed forces”, which was not in line with the first article, as such I looked what I saw earlier, I did not see it, but I got the Express (at https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1794927/vladimir-putin-russia-ukraine-conscription) giving us ‘Panicked Vladimir Putin rushes through new law allowing Russia to conscript pensioners’ with the added text (the one I saw earlier) “Vladimir Putin has ushered in new legislation which will enable him to conscript men over the age of 60 in an apparent bid to shore up his armed forces 18 months after his invasion of Ukraine.” As such, even the pensioners aren’t safe anymore. How desperate do you need to be to take such precautions? Consider that Russia has a population of well over 134 million, I reckon that 25% is of an eligible nature, which is well over 30 million and they have to resort to pensioners? The math is wrong on a few levels. I showed you all how 4 settings of the Russian Army has failed them (Artillery, Logistics, Supplies and Medic) and now we are given that the army themselves is falling apart. This has got to be the biggest defeat and humiliation of Vladimir Putin. When we look at the history of war (Crusades, Russian Revolution, WW1 and WW2) we never saw a failing of this degree and it is seemingly getting worse. The strongest part of them is a group of mercenaries (the Wagner group) that must feel downright wrong to the Kremlin. A place where they were vying for supremacy with America and they cannot hold up against the 20th strongest army on the planet (aka the Ukrainian army). And that is all whilst the Ukrainian army is depending on other sources for supplies. 

A clambake fest that should have been over in a week and so far the Ukrainians are holding out for well over 510 days and I reckon they aren’t done yet. There will be payback for all the intentional bombing of civilian targets, not sure how, but Russia might face a much tougher setting than the Germans did in the treaty of Versailles. On 28 June 1919 it was said that these reparations was assessed at 132 billion gold marks (then $31.4 billion or £6.6 billion, roughly equivalent to US$442 billion or UK£284 billion in 2023). I reckon that this amount will by higher by 200%-300%, this implies that all the oligarchs need to hide whatever they had, because global organisations will come for them and when they do organisations like the Dutch Heineken company (who apparently are still doing business in Russia) and numerous American and European companies will be a similar state. It will be a mess that will not stop any day soon. Those who were pro-Russian will hide behind miscommunications and they have the option to run for their lives to Russia or become the centre-point of ridicule both them and their children alike. The Dutch have some experience with their NSB people in 1945. I reckon this might be worse. The French had the Vichy France collaborators. Neither ended well, the Dutch collaborator Pieter Menten got off (after 8 months) in 1945, but the setting changed in 1976. He fled to Switzerland but was arrested soon thereafter. He died with dementia, he never escaped his fate. I wonder what will happen to certain Dutch pro-Russian people like Thierry Baudet and Wierd Duk? I have absolutely no idea, but they banked on the wrong player and there will be consequences there too. That is all in addition to the Americans supporting and going soft on pro-Russian players. And in all this the Russian army is now relying on pensioners and setting them up against Ukrainian fighters who are by now all veterans. They pretty much made short work of the Wagner group. As such I do not give the Russian pensioners much of a chance. Meat for the grinders and the Russian grinders are low on meat a setting where 5 out of 5 of the land forces are failing. That has not been the case since before the Crusades. In that meantime defence forces had Sun Tzu (the Art of war) as well as Carl von Clausewitz (On War) these two books had basic information that Russia could have used to avoid the setting that they are in now. The weird part is that Amazon dot com offers both books for a total that is less than $50. So when you look at the list of losses, how stupid was the Russian setting to begin with?

I will let you decide, the middle of the week has begun, the stroll towards the weekend is now in effect.

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July 23, 2023 · 16:59

Blue laundry leaking

It happens, sometimes the colours get into the other colours and your white stuff is no longer white. I had my issues with myself, overlooking a red sock with my white shirts and behold, I was suddenly the owner of pink shirts. This is a problem as it is not fashionable pink, but a melee of pink shades in white shirts. The fashion looks a righteous mess. This is something we all dread, and in IT land it is not different, especially when the detergent is Microsoft.

It all started (at https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/stolen-microsoft-key-offered-widespread-access-to-microsoft-cloud-services/) with ‘Stolen Microsoft key offered widespread access to Microsoft cloud services’ where we are given “Redmond revealed on July 12th that the attackers had breached the Exchange Online and Azure Active Directory (AD) accounts of around two dozen organisations. This was achieved by exploiting a now-patched zero-day validation issue in the GetAccessTokenForResourceAPI, allowing them to forge signed access tokens and impersonate accounts within the targeted organisations.” I was at first cautious. There are intense haters of Microsoft and they do not throw around any kind of evidence, as such I wondered how far this went and behold, ITWire gives us (at https://itwire.com/security/danger-from-microsoft-azure-breach-still-remains,-warns-wiz-researcher.html) ‘Danger from Microsoft Azure breach still remains, warns Wiz researcher’ and here we are given “New York-based cloud security firm Wiz has warned companies and organisations affected by the recent Microsoft Azure breach that the impact of the intrusion may be much wider than reported, and could affect applications beyond those claimed by Microsoft to be impacted.” In addition we are given “Our researchers concluded that the compromised MSA key could have allowed the threat actor to forge access tokens for multiple types of Azure Active Directory applications, including every application that supports personal account authentication, such as SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, customers’ applications that support the ‘login with Microsoft’ functionality, and multi-tenant applications in certain conditions”, I see this as an issue. The larger scope is not merely the cloud. That thing has all kinds of security issues. No, the small ‘hidden’ text becomes “The breach came to light on 13 July, with the email account of US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo cited as one of the more prominent accounts to have been breached” it came to light as a ‘prominent’ account was breached. So how long was this mess there? There is a reason I do not trust Microsoft and as such I do not want them anywhere near the 50 million accounts that I see coming, or the ones that follow, which will be a massive amount of accounts. Even more I reckon as I concluded a new stage in Dubai. I saw the opportunity when I investigated the Dubai Mall, the Mall of the Emirates, the Dubai Marina Mall and the Battuta Mall. There were a few more, but the setting of malls this big all in one city was something I never considered and it gave me more ideas, more options and that made me consider the interactions of my Augmented Reality IP with two other IP’s. Actually four, but that is a story for another day. What is absolutely clear is that I do not want Microsoft anywhere near it. Not with the mess they have, so either Amazon wakes up, or Tencent technologies gets it all. I never discontinued my interest in Google, but they basically took themselves of the field. No idea where Apple is, but that is not my problem at present. You see, the larger stage is the security risk that Microsoft is and it is also seen with “The news agency said Adair’s client had not forked out what Microsoft demands for its premium security suite, and hence detailed forensic data was unavailable.” Really? They are all about the forking out, all whilst their solution is like a 45 year old prostitute claiming to be a virgin? I would suggest that forking out is the least of their problems. That is even beyond the fact that the transgressions are requiring ‘detailed forensic data’ all whilst the transgressions are what the first article is implying “by exploiting a now-patched zero-day validation issue”, all whilst IT Wire implies that the damage is well beyond the ‘pretended’ scope and as such might (a speculation from my side) not be patched, not to the degree it needed to be. And anyone wonders why I do not trust Microsoft with my IP? They haven’t been able to close their barn doors, at least since 2019, optionally long before that. So your data (and my IP) would have been at risk for well over 4 years. We are also given “This isn’t a Microsoft-specific issue, if a signing key for Google, Facebook, Okta or any other major identity provider leaks, the implications are hard to comprehend. Our industry — and especially cloud service providers — must commit to a greater level of security and transparency concerning how they protect critical keys such as this one, to prevent future incidents and limit their potential impact” This might be, but I have never seen these levels of transgressions on Google Cloud or Amazon AWS, but that is merely my point of view. Then we get an interesting side “while Microsoft had ensured that Azure Active Directory applications would not longer accept forged tokens as valid, by revoking the compromised keys, the danger from the breach still remained” well, it might be, it might not be. Microsoft stated that they had the most powerful console in the world and within 2 years that Nintendo launched the weakest nextgen console of them all, they surpassed all sales records Microsoft claimed to have had, so I am not holding my breath here. The number one question is ‘Why could Microsoft not differentiate between real tokens and forged tokens?’ That would have ben my first question, but I am not seeing that here. Possibly for very valid reasons, but the missing out is a case here. So whilst some stare at “setting up application-specific backdoors”, my issue is that with every application, the change of interaction and transgressions increase. It just does. For example (a bad and debatable one), if EVERY application has a zero day issue (pure speculation) we get with 3 applications a speculative 9 zero day problems. So what happens when the average corporation has Azure and 35 applications. This implies that this customer has 42,875 risk factors. Yes, it is a speculation, yet the ITWire article gives us this with “The full impact of this incident is much larger than we Initially understood it to be”, as well as “We must learn from it and improve”, a setting that sounds nice, but consider that Azure was launched 14 years ago, if you are still learning, you have a much larger problem. In December 2020 I wrote ‘Historic view versus reality’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2020/12/26/historic-view-versus-reality/) there I quotes the No Such Agency giving us “National Security Agency warns hackers are forging cloud authentication information”, as such the Microsoft claim “Microsoft had ensured that Azure Active Directory applications would not longer accept forged tokens as valid” as a hollow joke. The NSA made the statement 3 years ago, as such Microsoft should have put (buggy) solutions in place to stop forged keys, but it seems they never did. Another mess they made with their own hands. Don’t take my word on this, the NSA send out warnings in 2020. Warnings that Microsoft seemingly never took to heart. Still happy with your blue cloud? I reckon it is time for people to consider Amazon AWS, Apple iCloud, Google Cloud (GCP), Oracle Cloud or wherever you will be trying to keep your data safe, as I personally see it Microsoft is not that place and with that they are scuttling yet another (what I personally like to call) a spin system, just like a washing machine trying to tumble dry your data on servers where you do not have access to them. But that might be my short sighted feel on the matter.

Enjoy the day, Monday is now but a day away.

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July 18, 2023 · 00:33

A partial view

We are at times given a partial view. We aren’t always aware, which is no ones fault, except the media. In this I saw things not add up when the BBC gave us ‘Xbox v PlayStation: The battle for control’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-65669480) where several things stood out. Before we begin, I am massively for Sony with a side order of Nintendo. Be aware, but Sony is not without faults. So lets begin. 

“Sony’s getting ready to announce the PlayStation 2 (PS2) – the powerful update to its game-changing PlayStation. Rivals Sega and Nintendo, who’ve struggled to fend off the new competitor, watch nervously.” This is not entirely correct. Sony played hardball, some ‘traders’ basically gave the shops the message. If you were showing a dreamcast, you would not be allowed to get the PS2. This scared a whole range of shops and Sony gained the upper hand. This was essential for Sony because SEGA had launched Soul Caliber on Dreamcast, which is until this day one of the most perfect games EVER created. It was so close to the arcade game that people went out of their way to get game and system. I know of the ‘persuasion techniques’ as I was a witness to them in Rotterdam (Netherlands). OK, we can accept that the BBC might never have been aware. 

In 2012 the battle was almost even, the Xbox 360 was phenomenal, no one denies that (and those who do are actual idiots). I had my Xbox360 next to the PS3 and I loved both systems. The 360 had a few release titles that made it a massive contender for Sony. Then the ground fell away with some Microsoft person stating that the next one (Xbox One) was always online, there would be no 2nd hand gaming and those who wanted to play offline could remain with the Xbox 360. The BBC article gives us “The 22-second clip, now widely seen as a legendary slap down, shows PlayStation CEO Shuhei Yoshida simply handing Sony exec Adam Boyes a copy of Killzone Shadow Fall.” Yet that was not it. For that we need to take a sidestep to an article named ‘No Press, No Facebook!’ Which I wrote on August 12th 2014 (at lawlordtobe.com/2014/08/12/no-press-no-facebook/) there I wrote “It is 7.1 that is the big issue, by agreeing to this (if you do not you lose your PSN account and online abilities) you confirm that you will not resell your games or buy second hand games. This was the big killer for Microsoft in the beginning in addition to the fact that this issue hits 80 million consumers. How is this not in EVERY newspaper? Perhaps their bosses where in the act of ‘hustle for advertisement coin’ (whoring seems like such a harsh word here).” The presentation by Sony was clever but they were on the same horse as Microsoft was. I gave the screenshots and evidence to several stations but they all ignored it, most probably too busy playing Geisha for Japanese industrials. Because Microsoft had the first presentation and they scuttled themselves Sony did a 180 before the presentation and as certain trade agreements never went through (Trans-Pacific Partnership) as such things went well for Sony. 

These elements were all missing. As such Microsoft lost more and more.

Then there was the storage issue. Sony set the rules on what was passible, Microsoft did not. As such for a mere $100 more you could double your storage by changing the hard drive, and for gamers that was a big deal. Microsoft did not allow for that and it went from bad to worse. There was hardware, but it was clumsy and expensive. Sony had the stronger setting here and these upgrades were possible from the PS3, as such Microsoft could have redesigned their Xbox One, but they were greedy and they left that part out in the open. As such the Sony was winning well over 2:1 and with the Nintendo Switch matters went from bad to worse. Microsoft kept on claiming that it was the strongest hardware of all and within a year they were surpassed by the weakest of all (Nintendo Switch). By that time the Xbox Series X had nothing to offer for gamers and they were in third position, what we are not shown that the Switch sold 125 million, the PS4 sold 117 million (in less than 10 years) and PS5 sold 38 million. Microsoft sold 22 million over 2 systems (series S and series X). They are in third position but lagging by a massive amount. And now for something that the BBC does not have. I am adding gaming IP to Amazon Luna and Tencent Technologies for free (to make Microsoft hurt more). You see there is a downside to owning Blizzard and Activision. You need to sell a lot to make up to that $69 billion and making it more appealing to create for the other two systems (Sony and Nintendo have a good arsenal and they do not need help) as such these streamers will have additional options and it slows down Microsoft more and more (but that is for another day and I wrote about that before). 

The article also gives us the deceptive “Meanwhile, the PlayStation 5 continues to dominate the next-gen console scene. But, two and a half years since launch, it still lacks the depth of truly exclusive games that have been seen as system-sellers for previous generations.” Which is utter BS. The PS5 has it range of exclusives and it has been breaking records God of War, Horizons, Ratchet and Clank, Spiderman, all previously released and the new versions broke records and made gamers gasp at the view of what was being released. Microsoft isn’t out of the race yet, but it needs to throw billions at this equation and that is still part of the discussion. Microsoft has a large advantage too. Game Pass is drawing in gamers, there is no denying it, yet after the $69 billion blood bank there will be consequences. Overly hyped games like Starfield need to deliver, if not the exodus from Microsoft will become stronger and the nice part of a $69 billion courtesan without gamers is a trophy no one looks at. There is of course more to the purchase, but it will show Microsoft in a state of defeat yet again and if I get my way it will end up behind Amazon and Tencent technologies too.

The final statement is the funniest one “But after a well-received showcase and Starfield, its biggest release of 2023, still to come, Xbox isn’t out of the game yet.” You see, after Redfall (its demise and joke) the pressure is not entirely validly on Starfield, in addition Bethesda games are implied to be a Microsoft exclusive, but without the millions of Sony fans they will not be making the numbers, the trust towards Microsoft is gone and people are shying away from Diablo 4, merely because Microsoft could endanger gaming fun, as such there is a lot more to fear, but those selling the $69 billion deal will be aware of that, not? 

In the mean time, the article was short several parts and not all pro Sony. Still there is also no battle for control, Microsoft lost by a fair bit, lagging in several ways and it will get worse, because the moment they get their deal and system errors prop up things will go south fast (and not in a good way). You see that is the part Microsoft never considered, games will look for EVERY fault they can find and hit Microsoft over the head with it and they have pissed off way too many gamers. They never considered a gaming population with an actively hostile setting. They forgot what it took to make the Xbox360 a real contender, something they threw away with pretty much one presentation and that matters, because it will show the lack of control too.

Enjoy the new week.

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July 14, 2023 · 22:47

About last night

Yup, I am going to go there. Yesterday I started writing about a new IP, a new game. It is incomplete. It is new and as far as I can tell, it has never been done before. As such I leave this IP for free exclusively to developers for the Amazon Luna and the Tencent technologies. You see, Microsoft is out. They are so driven to keep gaming IP out of the hands of Sony, making all non-Microsoft gamers suffer. It is my duty to make them burn. For instance they are trying to buy Blizzard/Activision for $69,000,000,000. This means that they need (over 3 years without accounting for interest) $2,000,000,000 a month just to clear this. Microsoft will have a whole battery of accountants making some bad loan corporation (where they push in all the bad loans into) or some other creative solution. You see, they can try to make the revenue, or I can hand solutions to their competitors and if I create enough options, Microsoft will end up being cornered more and more and it will implode. Especially when you cannot pay for a $69 billion dollar solution. Amazon and Tencent created a viable solution. Apple, Google and Sony are pushing on other corners as well. As such pushing more and more against Microsoft will show the dents in their armour until it cracks and no longer protects their board (or is that bored) of directors. The creative mind gets to win and the fakers at Microsoft trying to rely on spin will end up with less and less. That is my simple motivation to teach Microsoft a lesson. When they validly took over Bethesda they woke up an angry gamer. To everything there is a consequence, Microsoft is about to learn what a world with 

The stage
The stage was set in a dream. In that dream I was climbing a building. I was not alone and the building was a ruin, no idea where or what caused it. The ruin was parts of floors, walls and it had paths with boxes, crates made out of metal, plastic and wood. I needed to get somewhere, but what it was faded the moment I woke up. And that reminded me of Mirror’s edge. All clean, crisp and futuristic. Now consider a new game, doing free running, or free running plus to get to a price, part of a story or something we need to achieve. But this is not set as ‘set to a path’. An open world building, but the design and the programming is not set to a graphic, but set to engineering principles. The building could collapse, but to gravity and engineering, not to cool looking premisses. As such there are no ‘set courses’ there is no one sides solution. And as we scale more and more (and higher places) we get an entirely new game. This is not some game that would work on consoles, this has streaming (GaaS) written all over it and as you see it now, it might not be an actual solution, merely the start to one. Yet as far as I can tell no one has this and now it is free for the Amazon and Tencent technologies. I reckon I need to come up with half a dozen ideas more and the fate of Microsoft will be sealed. It already is, but getting there sooner works for me. Consider that Microsoft seemingly had a quarter revenue of $52.857B, a mere 7% more. They will (with future purchases) require well over $59 billion a quarter just to stand still, but with the added purchase they will require to get well over $65 billion a quarter just to appease their shareholders and that is where I come in If I can divert enough people to Amazon and Tencent Technologies whilst Apple, Google and Sony keep the pressure building on the other side there is every chance that Microsoft will see the down side of pissing off gamers in their pursuit of greed at their expense. 

It is my personal view and I admit if someone tells me I am wrong, they might have a case, but we all react in out own ways and this was mine. At least I am creative and handing it to hands of non-Microsoft making. 

Enjoy the day before the weekend.

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July 4, 2023 · 02:00

Small victory

This article is a little weird (little being the operative word). You see, I got here via several paths, all walked at nearly the same time. The first started with me going through Skyrim for the 4th time, now on PS5. I bought the anniversary expansion as it was on special and a game that pleased me for over 11 years deserves a small infusion of funds. I am still in the same setting and this time around I found all 7 black books. This is a first in the 4 play-throughs. I got them all on my own and the feeling of pleasure to see a new level was almost overwhelming (I did say almost). This got me to think of a few things running parts in my IP. You see the IP I was creating for non-Microsoft systems had a few issues, but the idea of having a long term game is enticing. As such I created a set of events that makes a replay more entertaining and more addictive for the RPG player. Yet that was as far as I got and my mind was replaying old issues in programming. Like the setting of [SET mission to Class=1 and Gender=2 or Evolution=4] this gives us that not all see a mission and the mission is limited to gender and class in the first or the evolution is set to 4 (it makes sense a lot later and not today). This gives us that some missions are optionally never played. These are side missions. So as we replay a game we see missions that we never saw in the first play-through. Why? Well we can give it all, or give the player a nice ride a few times over and I believe in long term gaming. I have no time for people who play games with the solution page to their left (or right for that matter). These are simple track gamers and there are enough games for these people. 

Sidestep
Now I make a sidestep. This is important for the whole story. This sidestep is what the Australian Financial Review gives subscribers on China. As such we will jump over it. Yet one quote there is “China’s hostility to the west has come at a very substantial economic price” this statement is flawed and faulty. It is the west with its slamming Huawei that is at the center of a lot. All the accusations and the US and EU have NEVER given clear evidence of their accusations. I get the UK stance that no infrastructure should be in foreign hands. That makes sense, but handing it over to the US is no different. We get more on the Russian setting towards Ukraine and I cannot completely disagree, Russia is a losing stage and that will have larger repercussions down the track. I reckon that BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) will exploit the setting as long as they can and then optionally dump Russia, they might not have a choice and with Saudi Arabia and the UAE bolstering their group the stage of ‘at a very substantial price’ is shown to be faulty. The collaboration at present between Saudi Arabia and China will bring oil and revenue to China. Saudi Arabia is in the process of ordering military hardware from China which will cost the West billions upon billions and it all goes to China. This is not new, this has been two years in the making and I gave warning of this as early as 2019 I believe. The article has a lot more claims, but they are empty. When I see “are privately more sympathetic to the US and its allies” reads like a joke and a bad one at that. The stage is that the population (read: consumers) is on the side of China via India. The wealth from the Middle East is pouring into China and is giving construction jobs to China for building all over Saudi Arabia with a several of them adding up to almost a trillion dollars. So where is the substantial economic price? At the next stage China has 5G Telecommunications via Huawei all over the Middle East and it is about to border Europe directly. Leaving the Mediterranean open to Saudi telecom hands soon enough. 

As such when I see “So far this year such investments in China are running a little more than $1 billion whereas two years ago it was nearly $50 billion” I tend to howl with laughter. You see, projects like The Line, Neom Bay, Oxagon, Trojena, and Sindalah represent well over $500 billion and China is about to get large chunks of that. Not sure how much, because I am not an insider, but I am certain that it will surpass $150 billion. Then there is the multi billion dollar military contracts and the refinery at the Chinese border, which is worth billions and more in infrastructure. So what economic loss? China is running on all engines and they are seemingly killing it. A world without the US and without the EU and these two players are making it happen. This is the price of arrogance and I have been clear over the last 5 years that this was about to happen, but the ego centrical politicians all stated that they knew better. We are about to learn the impact of stupidity on nearly every level.


As such I have a few issues with the AFR article. It is a good article, but a flawed one. One that boasts American supremacy, the little issue is that they no longer have the field. You see one source gives me “US National Debt Spiked by $851 billion in One Month, to $32.3 Trillion” now, I am not stating that this is true, but if this is true, then the US is already merely in a holding pattern until the next debt ceiling political setting and wth that BRICS (with Saudi Arabia and the UAE) will become a winner and the new global power. At that point China, India and Saudi Arabia will be better off shedding Russia. It has become too big a political and economical danger to them. And it is merely an egg timer away.

Back to the game
This is when my mind took me back to the game and a ‘new’ game. You see all these things were in my brain contemplating when I consider a different approach to the use of active and passive abilities in gaming. It played in my mind when I was remastering a Microprose game with similar settings, but now with a different approach. I call it Agent Gamer. This would be exclusive to Amazon Luna and whomever buys my IP. You see we have all seen passive powers in games like Mass Effect, Diablo 3 and more games. But they all have a similar approach to the use of passive powers. I am uprooting that and taking a different view. A game with active elements and passive elements. But you can spike these passive elements in different ways. In addition to adding several additions to the game, we can also rack certain abilities. It is like colour mingling. 

Consider the wheel. We have three basic colours (Blue, Yellow and Red). When we increase these skills we also influence the adjacent colours. Blue will influence Green and Purple, Yellow will influence Orange and Green and Red will influence Orange and Purple. It is simple setting where you make one 10% more effective (or easier), yet in the same setting increase the effectiveness of the other two by 5%. And this can be done in a multitude of ways, but the game is called ‘Agent Gamer’ and as such I will not reveal too much here. You see, to make Microsoft collapse by 2026 requires me to set the field to make the others more powerful (hence the Amazon Luna). Sony and Nintendo are on track to make their own wins (diminishing Microsoft in the process) Adobe and Apple are on other tracks and Google is no longer a contender in gaming (they have other fields). Overall the arrogance of Microsoft is about to bite them hard. Azure is doing not as good as some sources reveal. We see the Microsoft spin engines turning and we are given ‘We Think Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Can Manage Its Debt With Ease’ but I think they are in a bad state and it is getting worse. Still I have more than a year to watch them collapse, I merely want the timeline to be as correct as possible and as such if I can help their opposition being stronger and better I will do so. Gaming is only one side of it, but they interfered with my gaming pleasure and according to Zeus (Hades too), I can hold a grudge like nothing they have ever seen and I am happy to prove these two correct. In the end the largest stage could be coming from Saudi Arabia, especially as they are eager to feed their Esport settings and 50 million new members will go a long way towards that goal. Amazon had their chance and now it is up to the other eligible parties, which includes Tencent Technologies. 

Enjoy Monday and for those still overcoming Canada Day last weekend, have a second coffee before you start any work.

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June 24, 2023 · 10:11

Path of a slippery slope

We all have that at times and this time it is me on that slippery slope. You see I made reference to the loss that Facebook would be facing, and yesterday I decided to dig deeper into that. You see, I have nothing against Facebook (or Meta), I am not after their channels. Yet my new design will give a larger stage and it will cost Facebook 10%-15% (a rough estimate), I doubt it will go beyond that, and if it does, it will not be for many years. Still according to the numbers I am finding (2022), that would mean a loss of $11-$17 billion to Facebook and there is no other side to that. It will not become my revenue (the revenue of my IP). It will trickle down to me to a small degree at some point and I was contemplating how I could enlarge that trickle effect. But I am deciding against it, because it will impact the bottom line which implies that the negative effect is a lot larger than the positive effect. And as I was looking deeper, I saw that the other branch has additional positive effects. Not more money (perhaps over time), but it sets the stage that the revenue of stage one will be met quicker, which is absolutely good. It is the third branch that has a few items, no negative sides, but I have been looking into getting a more positive impact, positive revenue stream sided. Still there is time for that and perhaps as the third branch is executed, more options become available. In the first I am looking into the option of the Tomes that are connected. There is a stream coming there and it is positive, but there are no numbers, no numbers from any reliable source that would give me this stage to be considered quicker. 

As such there are more sides to consider, especially as Facebook is coming with its own Twitter, there is nothing realistic yet, but I have been considering on how this could be accessed. As Twitter is playing games, I see no real benefit at present, but Facebook has other goals and there more options could evolve. 

Still I am on a slippery slope. I was feeling content and safe when it was all about the IP, as such I am not focussing on the revenue streams (other then a return on investment). You see, here we get Microsoft (who is not allowed near my IP). They are a 5 time loser. The first was their Tablet approach (that Surface thingamajig), which is nowhere near Apple, not even a dent in their revenue stream. This was their first loss. Then they lost their cloud solution to Amazon (that bookshop) which is loss number two, then they lost the console war to both Sony and Nintendo. This beckons the laughter that the strongest console in the world lost to the weakest of them all. That gives us loss number three. They are losing market share to both Apple and Adobe in their core office setting which is loss number four and the streaming war they will definitely lose it to whomever ends up with my IP. And in addition to that, they will lose to Amazon for sure and they will lose to whatever Tencent Technology will bring and they are likely to lose to Apple Arcade (I do not know enough of that solution) as well. This makes Microsoft a loser five times over and as such the implosion of Microsoft is still on for 2026. Which after all those billions invested in keeping Sony smaller is just hilarious on many sides. These elements matter because it places my IP in a premium spot. The idea that I have the ammunition that boots Microsoft in the ass makes me happy, no matter how little I get for it. Still, I need to focus. You see, getting overly happy on one side is not good. I require a critical mind to consider what could be done in three stages.

The first is what I must have (Unreal Engine 5)
The second is what I should have (a clear population with a mission statement)
The third is nice to have (A Foxtrot Uniform to Microsoft and optional additional revenue streams to moi)

These three streams are always considered in the short term, medium term and long term. Americans hate long term, the often lack focus and vision. Yet the long term is always important. It matters towards whatever mission statement you cloak yourself in and how you present the solution. It matters a great deal. Only spreadsheet users focus on the next quarter, but it is not about the next year, it is about the next three years (at least) and that is how I saw that Amazon and Google were leaving billions on the floor (Google more than Amazon). It is a realisation on where one could be heading where the real profit is, because the bulk of all revenue seekers are focussed on the next quarter (where their bonus is). And because of that they leave larger revenue options untouched. Feel free to oppose me on that, but when you do, look at your boss and their bosses on where they are focussed on. It is always a next quarter stage and you tend to lose a lot of revenue that way. Even now we see all the tech companies and places like LinkedIn shedding hundreds of jobs, all whilst a place like LinkedIn had options, they had in their niche options to diversify and keep to their niche. Others are in a similar stage, and when we realise that, other can have a go at finding their option. You see when you the delimitation of a corporation (that next quarter thing) your options open up, not merely mine. All those willing to dream and design past a next quarter will have options they never considered before and that is when you see the meadow with lost revenues. A meadow that Microsoft, Google, Amazon, LinkedIn, Meta, Salesforce, and several others. They are all shedding jobs and perhaps for them it is a valid setting, but that also means that they aren’t able to make critical adjustments when people are needed and that is where the visionary comes in. I was lucky that my IP started well before they shedded jobs. I was in a pristine place where no one was looking and I have that advantage now, an advantage that will not last. I get that. But for now they aren’t seeing what I am and with the tens of thousands of jobs gone, the manpower to seek around is also faltering for them (which is good for me). Still I know I am on a slippery slope. There are elements that I am most likely to overlook and I do not know which ones (because if I knew, I wouldn’t be overlooking them). 

Still it is a nice weekend for now, I will see what tomorrow brings. Time is not one element one tries to anticipate, it is too tiring an exercise and you tend to overlook more and more elements, they say a stitch in time saves nine, but for the most you tend to live on borrowed time instead of enjoying life and that is a big no no in my book.

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June 16, 2023 · 20:49

The news I never saw coming

We all have this, we see events. We see impact and we see the fallout of choices. There are no real surprises. Yet Google surprised me a little. First they dump their Google Stadia and through that shed market share, all whilst there is a stage where they also denied themself to billions in revenue. This happens, there is no blame. There are a whole range of corporations who needed to adjust their mission statement, their party line. I get that (in the 90’s not that much). So I was taken by surprise when Al Arabiya gave us (at https://english.alarabiya.net/News/saudi-arabia/2023/06/15/Google-announces-training-for-Saudi-Arabia-gamers-MENA-Gaming-Summit-in-2023) with ‘Google announces MENA Gaming Summit in 2023, training for Saudi Arabia gamers’. So first they dump their Stadia and now they start training gamers? What will they use a PS5, or the Amazon Luna? So when we see “Last year, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince announced a plan to develop the country’s gaming and esports industry, aiming to create 39,000 jobs and boost GDP by $13.3 billion (50 billion riyals) by 2030.” I merely go ‘meh’, they turned me down when they stood to make billions in advance, optionally I would be representing 40% of that revenue in phase 1. I admit that my solution is not much for the Esports category, as such I am not a solution, but indirectly they could be fuelling all kinds of business and the revenue adds up. Still this is not about me, it is about Google. Their training manuals are pretty sic and as such that choice makes sense, yet under what guise are they restarting a gaming initiative after dumping their console? It is not the weirdest question to ask.

And it is also there that some parts are starting to make sense. With “Gaming experts and partners from Google will run training programs for over 250 university students across Ahsa, Abha, Dammam, Jeddah, and Riyadh from September 2023 with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology’s Centre of Digital Entrepreneurship (CODE). The program is expected to cover entrepreneurship strategies, gaming career opportunities, monetisation through Google Ads solutions such as PerformanceMax and AdMob, distribution best practices on Google’s app store Play, storage solution Cloud and video streaming platform YouTube.” It seems to me that the gaming side is merely a sidetrack. The real deal is seen with “monetisation through Google Ads solutions such as PerformanceMax and AdMob, distribution best practices on Google’s app store Play, storage solution Cloud and video streaming platform YouTube” as I see it, this is about advertisement money at ANY expense. How lovely from Google. At present we see the funny money hype through gaming as an advertisement handle. How to maximise on that, which is not the same as gaming. It is at times actually the opposite of it. 

And with “YouTube will offer a workshop at the Saudi Esports Federation’s Gamers8 conference for 50 Saudi-based creators and Esports players focusing on gaming content and channel optimisation, audience development and engagement with the gaming community on YouTube.” I reckon that before long it will become about advertisements pushing through engaging with gamers. I could be wrong, but that is how I am seeing it at present. There is one part I find deceptive, but I could be wrong. With “Saudi Arabia is home to over 22.3 million gaming enthusiasts, many of whom can be equipped to turn their passion or hobby into a full-time career.” I am wondering what the endgame is. You see, Saudi Arabia has 32.1 million people. This statement gives us that 69% of Saudi Arabia is a gamer. That is an uncanny large population. And then we get to ‘many of whom can be equipped to turn their passion or hobby into a full-time career’, I cannot say that this is false, because I have no data whatsoever giving evidence that the statement is correct or false, yet the statement that the larger setting of 69% can be equiped to be professional players implies that there is a massive need for hardware. Perhaps that is true, but it also opens up other dangers for Saudi Arabia. An average gamer and his PC sets the need for an 850 Watt power supply. Now consider that half of that, roughly 15 million will suddenly require 850 Watt for the PC and then we get the monitor and other devices. That is one hell of a power drain. The KSA would need to consider the larger need of 2 nuclear reactors commencing their building within 60 days and there is every chance that if the Google numbers are right, they will come up short long before these rectors are completed. These puppies take 5 years, they can rely on gas or oil reactors for power, but that puts whatever environmental needs they had going on the draft of failure. All that and the largest setting is not even being met. That level of gamer additions and the rest of the nation will face labour shortages, but that is merely me trying to be realistic.

So is there something? Well yes, this does not come out of someones imagination, but I have some question around the numbers and that is merely before we consider another side. You see Statista released in April “Nine out of ten adults in the UAE play video games, and 90% of respondents in a Global Consumer Survey by Statista considered themselves gamers, with 23% identifying themselves as frequent players, meaning they play at least 11 hours per week. In 2023, the UAE’s gaming market is projected to reach over 306 million USD.” As such is the reaction of the KSA regarding what the UAE is giving us and is Google merely the facilitator? I get the 90% bit, I consider myself a gamer, but that is not my professional setting (it was not possible to be a professional gamer when I was young), so they have other professions as it will be in the KSA, yet to be a professional esports person, making it your full time career requires other elements and when you consider these parts the numbers do not add up, not in the frontal version and not in the aftercare (power needs). 

In the end, we will have to wait to see what the MENA Gaming Summit in 2023 actually ends up being. We will see, it will be soon enough.

Enjoy the weekend now starting near you.

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June 15, 2023 · 22:20

Crude awakening

This happens, we all have that. There is no negativity, there is no blame. This sometimes happens, yet when it happens it tends to be with a negative siding. Yet the opposite can also happen and I just learned it is even worse. You see this all started some time ago when I created one of my IP’s. In the running were Google and Amazon. In the first phase it as around 5 billion annual with a lot more after. Google dumped the option with the solution attached and Amazon remained, they weren’t biting either. Yet then Tencent technologies entered that field and things were looking up again. As such I have time. Yet a few hours ago I learned that the lower setting was fine and I expected that at full release the upper limit was somewhere between 12 and 20 billion. There was no way to be more precise, because this has ever been done before and I cannot say too much, because Microsoft is ALWAYS watching and I do not want them anywhere near my IP.

So the crude awakening happened a few hours ago when I learned that the inclusion factor is close to 0.0144% (annual shift) this improves the value of my IP by a lot and I have no idea just how much, but it implies that is will be a lot higher than 20 billion under cautious estimation. It is a lot more than I ever envisioned and personally I do not care if it ends up with Amazon or Tencent technologies. This was why I tried to sell it to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and to the Kingdom Holding Company. I reckoned that 5% of 12 billion is well worth it and now it seems that I could (could being the operative word) end up with a hell of a lot more. Not that I need that, but the setting is one I never saw coming to THAT degree and that is before some realise the impact on Facebook, because they will lose a slice of their cake, but it will be over time and the size of their loss is not one I can predict, too many factors involved. Another side was that it would positively impact Amazon, which is why I tried to get there first, but they are seemingly not interested. That’s fine, when a company decides to leave billions on the floor, I say ‘Whatever’ and there as a small scent at that time that google might work, but they took another direction and weeks later I see that Tencent Technologies is entering that field. Matter little to none to me, but that is life. 

So as my mind is reeling from the inclusion number (you need to see the 1/x side) when that happens the world starts spinning. It is the most brutal of crude awakenings I ever faced. So for this moment (optionally until tomorrow morning) I will have a hard time focussing because the numbers do no lie and I reran these numbers a few times, even if the numbers presented to me are off by factor 10 (I redid them offsetting by 100) the results are mind boggling and I do not get shaken this easily.

As such I will try to focus on other matters tomorrow, but that is as good as I can promise myself. Thank goodness the weekend is now a day away. I will need this upcoming weekend for all the 48 hours it holds.

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