Category Archives: Gaming

June 23, 2022 · 21:16

Where to now?

That is the question, I have an idea for tomorrow. But about that tomorrow. Today was a day of changes. A day of ups, downs and all around ideas. But the one stuck in my mind is not coming forth. I had been too focussed (or is that obsessed) with the implementations in a place like Eaton Mall (Toronto). And that was not all. You see, in spacious the implementations are easy, but what in a place where space is at a premium (Harrods, London) How to get it there? There are several options, but there are two stages. The first is the augmented reality, the second is the 5G part. They are not connected as the Augmented Reality will work just as well on 4G. It is the additional parts of the 5G that are the optional challenge. At some space it is too short, not overly too short, but that many signals are what I did not completely consider. Consider a mall, where they are not set up spacious, the idea is that the idea for 6G (Yes, I am that far ahead) or optionally 5G+, but in 5G I have other concerns, they aren’t problems, they are merely concerns and they might be unfounded. Yet as we see a place like Harrods, we have similar space issues in places like Paris and Amsterdam. As such it is always good to mull technologies a dozen times over, tested in real spaces and see what problems I will be facing and check whether they are real challenges, or merely unfounded concerns. The important part is to see the difference between the two. It is clear that malls like Eaton Centre (Toronto) will not have these concerns, but a mall that wants to offer the same and it is in the compressed space of Harrods, the technology test needs to work in both. You see Harrods is comprised of 90,000 m2 selling space. In that space there are over 330 departments and every department has its own selling needs. Even as you think that this is a mere 272 square meter space, most likely in several cases less than 200 square metres. The fact is that they are one shop, but is it all you want or need? And other national malls have a similar setting The Dutch have Vroom and Dreesman, Bijenkorf, The UK has a few more. Debbenham (the  ones that remain) and s such there are larger malls all over Europe that have a similar setting and I do not see it as greed to service all 118,433 malls, I merely see that they should have equal chances, even as I focus on the larger players I spoke about in earlier stories. The mall setting is much larger and there will be some filtering at some point. But I prefer that to be as late and as small as possible. You see, being first also means that others can start reengineering what I put forward and get a larger crowd. Now, I do not mind, because there are plenty of players out there more clever than me, it is the state of things and it is natural. Only the true delusional thinks that they are the absolute best. So if I can set the worry to less than 4% I would be really happy. Should one come with the 98% idea and it falls under an innovation patent than they would win. I have no issues with that. I merely want to make the playing field as small as possible for the others. It is not greed, it is to make my idea count for a longer time (as long as possible). 

This is the nature of things. It is not merely to have an idea, but to test it against all odds and in all manner of ways. That is the larger stage we need to consider. Any creator of idea or invention must do so. It is not merely games, not merely hardware. It is all kinds of creation, it must always be tested. I reckon that painters and sculptors go through some similar process. In all this we are all alike, but not the same. So I reckon that we need to adhere to this stage on all matters.

If only to properly critically test the ideas we have. I have gone through this a dozen times, and a dozen times for every idea I created. This is essential, as an idea needs to survive the initial scrutiny. The buyer will always find something and it is important to see the larger stage of what they see and how it affects them. As such the consideration of Harrods becomes important. It is fine to see regent street, to see Yorkville, 5th avenue (New York), Kalverstraat (Amsterdam) and we can go on from there. You see, a good idea stays a good idea, but it all comes down to the value. And properly and critically considering your idea is the difference between a $250,000 payday and a $25,000,000 pay day and that difference can be that large and we all want the larger amount. Not because we are greedy, but because if we can get the larger payment, it shows that our idea was structurally sound. And from that sound setting more will come through, the buyer will see that part and here we see that players like Google and Amazon are really well versed in testing structurally sound settings. Sony people there have been doing it for a decade and there is a business sense. If they can find 5-8 issues that aren’t covered you end up going towards the 250,000 payday a lot faster than you think. The more artistic it is inclined, the more degrees of freedom you have, as such you have some with games, but you still need to have your ducks (geese too) on a row. Because when they designate you as the goose it will not be about running, but being able to stand your ground. And we all see that setting and some (business types) will hide behind a created catchword, a hype setting or a ‘cool’ claim, but in this games are a lot harder to stage when you are in the setting of ‘Business Intelligence’ trained people who do not understand the overlap of technology and art. They weren’t around in the early years and as such the CBM-64, the Atari ST and the CBM Amiga were able to launch hundreds of games and some made it, now it gets ‘tested’ and too many do not make it, whether they call it GamePass, or make some other claim. I reckon that plenty of these games would not survive the scrutiny of a GamePass environment and that is the problem. You see, the Wii Galaxy might have been a failure but it resulted towards the Nintendo Switch which was a homerun and then some. If you are not willing to lose, you will never win big. That is not my philosophy, it is a setting that has been tested over time and it relates to that weird Sun Tzu notion of “The supreme art of profit is to gain profit without cost” the most ridiculous of settings that might have the smallest notion in some fields, but not in gaming and not in innovation. Innovation is all risk, massive cost and a whole lot of sweat. But the winner gets to be alone at the top for decades and that makes it worth it all. Nintendo has gone that route more than once, as did Sony. Perhaps Microsoft started that way, but it was glazed over by wannabe’s and not by visionaries. Apple is also an innovator. Their Air products (Mac books and iPads) show that and the Surface has no option but to see the gap against Apple increase. Yet here too there is a danger, their successes are only as good as the current product. Google has a winner with the Pixel 6, will they with the Pixel 7? No one knows because the competition is fierce (Apple and Samsung). In this day and age it will be the economic affordable one will win, yet no one knows at present where the Tesla Pi will end. E will not know for 12 month and that is the larger setting. You see it will arrive AFTER Pixel 7 and whatever Apple will offer. So Tesla will have an advantage, but how much? It will be anyones guess and I cannot say what it will be. I reckon that with the exception of the inner core of the Tesla Pi team and Musk himself no one can. That is how it is and anyone making another claim is lying to you. Yet these people matter, they too test all what is out there and all that can be set against them, that is the market and there we see that the slogan “The supreme art of profit is to gain profit without cost” is a freaking joke. And if we see that, we see how short sighted the steps of Ubisoft (and some others) have been over the last 5-10 years. 

All this needs to be set in focus, in focus of what you design and what field you are designing in. I am delusional enough to go ‘nah nah nah nah nah’ against players like DARPA, but that is me, always happy to take the slack side. Because those who dare can optionally end up with a little more information than they had before. Optionally enough to see whether they stand a chance and that is also how the game could be played. Not the path of Thomas Cranmer as some like to play it, some are willing to take a page from one of the jesters that Francesco Dandolo had. They were good at jokes and they had specific skills too, skills that Francesco Dandolo made good use of. And there lies the rub. Where diplomacy is used to gain Business intelligence is a path, but a dangerous one. Verification is often near impossible, so people do not go there, but that does not mean that the path is out of bounds. Consider the people who rely on what their bosses told them “Fake it until you make it” It is all good until someone sees through that. And I personally believe that Sony and Nintendo saw through Microsoft and the gains their Xbox360 made we lost overnight when Don Mattrick stated “we have a product for people who can’t get online, it’s called Xbox 360” and within 24 hours the Xbox One was destroyed, as I personally see it, simple shortsighted greed of Microsoft and they are still suffering, their mistake was that big. And they made a few more since then.

So when I created the solution that could sell well over 50 million consoles I was making sure that Microsoft was not ever part of that deal, they screwed up enough and to be honest, when it comes to the choice of $250,000 and $25,000,000 I chose the larger amount. It is not greed, merely common sense. And I approached that same principle on the 5G and AR solutions I created. A setting that did not require some form of alien technology, it merely required common sense and critical thinking. I tend to live by “via ad sapientiam requirit scientiam” which does not help us in this case, so I might have to alter it into “via ad sapientiam requirit cognitionem et criticam cogitationem” (the path to wisdom requires knowledge and critical thinking) critical thinking makes all the difference and I see that, I saw that, but I like many others ignored it for a little too long. I still have time, but I also see that the ideas when not critically looked at will have the day one flaws we all would prefer to avoid. 

And that is where to now becomes a stage by itself. Through critical thinking and through analysing what was overlooked, because only the delusional overlook nothing. We can merely hope to avoid most traps, we hope to avoid all traps but that is only possible in 1 out of 2500 cases and those numbers are not betting odds, only the fakers think they can avoid wrecks they create at that point.

Have a lovely day!

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June 23, 2022 · 06:24

A pussyfooted warning

Yes, we all like to give out warnings, I am not different. Yet is my warning valid? It seems so, especially when I see what is out. It is addressed to Amazon and Google (mostly Amazon). You see in 2022 we get the generic information “This list will expand over time, and you can gain access to more games by subscribing to more channels. For example,  you can also access nearly the entire Ubisoft catalog via the Ubisoft Plus channel” but it is the wrong information. What will be released in 2022? Why would people get happy on a Ubisoft release list? It is now a mediocre software house with less than stellar achievements. Do you really want to rely on that player? And we are also given “The second title, an MMO called New World, managed to gain a lot of traction in the November 2021 early access period, but it’s not yet available on Amazon Luna. It is, however, included in GeForce Now.” Really? You rely on two titles? I have given you both a list allowing you for a dozen titles in 2022 alone. You can hide in high water, but you do not even have a submarine simulator, so you will drown there. The people are making up their mind at this stage and this is not a time to desert your system. Even as I boasted an option of 50,000,000 consoles. Do you think they would consider it if you are asleep at the helm? They will leave you for dead and Google Stadia is not developing anything, so all they seemingly have is Ubisoft. Amazon needs to wake up and add manpower to the kettles and get the coal into these furnaces, because the currents will overtake them and beach their solution like a bad habit. Mother Nature has no sense of humour and casually put you to death. Forbes is even worse. It gives us “A remake of the first Dead Space will arrive in early 2023, while a brand new Monkey Island game is slated for release later this year.” And in addition we see “Those are part of iconic franchises that are being revived over the next year or so” ‘being revived’? How lame is that? Is this the message your gamers are waiting for? Yes, if it is part of something bigger, but if this is it, Amazon will leave the race of the streamers pretty quickly. They had half a dozen options including bolstering a true gamers social network, but they seemingly folded leaving it all to Microsoft, meaning gamers can only rely on Sony and Nintendo to fill their gaming needs. They are good, they are great! But they are two and more is always better for the gamer and now seemingly these large houses feel more more comfortable leaving it in the hands of Microsoft, which in my eyes is not a solution at all. 

They had 2 years to pull ahead (and I am not talking about my 50M console solution) I gave some warnings in October 2020 and that is as early as I saw that Amazon had the option of being the winner here (Google decided too early to not be a developer) hence there was only Amazon and its Luna, but over two years we have seen the repeated lack of games, the reliance on Ubisoft and games that were already on other systems. Now, this is part of the start, but the start also implies you set out the strengthen the dikes of competition counters. Yet is seems to me that Amazon has given up, it is not doing anything until it is too late. Like giving the bull a doze of valium so that the rider will be ‘safe’ but is that what the audience expects? A place that has (seemingly) a 2021 revenue of $470 billion, and here we see that 1% of 1% is $47,000,000 a setting that could give them 3 new AAA titles, or a dozen of revamped titles. One percent of one percent and it also approaches my solution for 50,000,000 to 75,000,000 additional console sales. But that is much more strong and realistic if there are better and more unique games on that system. So two percent of one percent of what they got last year puts them on the map and heading toward the sunset of winners. You tell me why these places do not take the gaming community serious, because relying on Ubisoft is not the way to go. I will let you wonder how serious Amazon and Google are about being a player in the gaming market, because at present it will still rely on Sony and Nintendo and I am happy with these two consoles, I would be more happy if these two woke the fuck up and consider that gaming is out evolution and they have an advantage for now, yet when Netflix gets ahead of them they might as well pull out and start crying in a corner, because they did this to themselves.

Have a great day!

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June 19, 2022 · 21:55

The cool kidz

We all heard it, we all are aware of it, yet what makes a kid a ‘cool kid’, what makes a game a ‘cool game’ one would state that this is by public demand, by public indication. Yet what is true indication? What is indication that is not badgered by trolls, by marketing department and their minions? Do you? I certainly don’t. Social media and public opinion are so far apart you can park China between the two views. The views on public request (demand sounded too harsh) and public indication are factors of transparency and as we know social media is many things, transparent is not one of them. And thus we get to the question at the start, what is a ‘cool kid’? You might want to think that this is about kids, but it is not. 

This all started months ago and I was reminded of it today. You see, sometimes we just want to relax and play a game, a mindless game, a simple game and that is how my mind wandered back to 1991 and Sierra-on-Line’s ‘Jones in the fast lane’. I will grant you that the game could use an upgrade, a new view, new names perhaps 1-2 additions, but granted the game was close to perfect. The idea that you can just spend some time chilling playing a simple game is to a lot overwhelming. I thought I was alone, but over time I have seen a whole range of people seemingly desiring a game like this. You see, there is nothing wrong with a lot of games, but it is about the chase, about the achievement, about the hunt. I reckon the only exception was Ubisoft when they gave you the tour of AC Origin with the expansion and all the places to visit (like a beer maker). It was not about running, it as about seeing how much there was in that game and it was awesome. But time have shown us a whole range of games that a players like Google (or Amazon) could add to their systems, but they are all so hung up on replicating what the PS4 and Xbox One already have, why?

In this Nintendo is equally a contender, but they have their own setting of these games and they are doing great. Is that not the larger setting? How come Nintendo blew away Microsoft? Because their games were cooler? Higher resolution? No, the games were what the people wanted and that banked them an annual revenue for 2021 of $16.534B, a 37.34% increase from 2020. Did anyone consider that this is due to more than a really good console? And the additional news is that Nintendo generated approximately 42.6 percent of its gaming software revenue via digital unit sales. You still think I am kidding? Streamers have options, but if everyone looks in the same direction, they all miss out. The idea was that one of my IP could secure  well over 50 million consoles. One source now stated (one I actually trust) is that I was 50% too low with my estimation, and it was not some version of Jones in the fast lane, but it would be unique to streamers and Amazon has the lead as Google decided not to develop its system with software solutions. I am willing to debate this as a mistake of 50% is rather large, but in my favour, it works in my favour, so screw it.

In all this there is the setting of what do the Cool Kids want, but no one is digging on what decides what a cool kid is, and with the Nintendo revenue they all (Sony included) are looking in the wrong direction. They are all mesmerised by public opinion, all whilst no one verifies the transparency of that danger, especially whilst there is no clarity on what public indicators are. Where those indicators are and how they can be tested on the actual population? These are questions, I have no answers here, merely the fact that it needs to happen before Microsoft does something stupid again and pushes everyone in the wrong direction, like lemmings to an abyss. Which would be a shame and in this I sided with Amazon Luna (for the obvious Google reason) If they alter and expand on what they have they could have it all and as soon as the first evidence comes out proving me right everyone will adjust course to get some of the crumbs of that revenue pie, but if I am correct the one taking the lead will remain in the lead and merely cluster more gamers to their side and I expect that this is merely the beginning. 

So lets start again, when did we accept that we needed to have Game X on platform Y because that is what the cool kids want? Consider the definition “Trendsetters, often in reference to hipsters; those worthy of emulation.” How is emulation of a trendsetter based on a 5 year old game a cool kids exercise? Resident Evil 7 (2017), Aragami (2016)? Yes they were good games, but emulation 6 years later? Amazon is as guilty as Google is here and they need to up their game, or change entirely. It is up to them what they do, because Microsoft is casually taking up people hiding behind their Game Pass and when people are in one camp churning them is a lot harder than you think in gaming. Oh, and when you considered to follow some virtual Cool Kid and you learn you are duped, what defence will you rely on? I reckon none at all.

So no matter where you game, as long as it makes you happy that is fine, but I personally believe that gamers are missing out in a few ways and in part it is the lack of broader substance, they all run after another Far Cry, an Elden Ring, or whatever is shouted as ‘the cool game’ and there are plenty that are actually cool, but do you really think that a $109 game is sold less than a year later for $29, because it was supercool, or because it was too buggy for its own good? I let you be the judge of that. 

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June 13, 2022 · 23:30

What? Already?

It actually started with a demo, one by Arkane (the makers of Dishonoured). They are giving the Xbox population RedFall. A game to be released somewhere in 2023. The demo was pretty awesome. No doubt about it. Yet certain things started to nag me from the beginning and this is PURE SPECULATION. I saw the setting of 4 players and the demo clearly states that this can be played alone. Yet the setting reminded me too much of a game named Evolve. A bland setting to say the least. Yet the people of Arkane have proven themselves, no doubt about it, but they are now part of Microsoft and Microsoft is all about team play, all about more people in a game. So I reckon that at some point it might be possible on what would have been a 94%+ game, Microsoft needs will diminish it to a mere 80% game. This is speculation, and you need to accept it. The game is a year away and so much could change. But it got the gears rolling and it was only an hour later that I came up with what I would call a shadow player. If I am correct It could change the game for either Amazon or Google (whomever buys my first IP bundle), I will add it to there. Microsoft is not invited to that party, they can falter and fail all by themselves. 

If I am correct (and I might be) this will change the game in a few ways and it allows pure solo play over a lot of games. You are still allowed to invite friends, that I fine, but it will be YOUR decision that count Microsoft has taken enough from you, as I see it. Time to give games back to the gamers, not the data collectors. 

It is an optional fictive setting, but if I am correct the streamers are about to offer a much larger stage of play and that is the first stage where streamers will set themselves apart. It is time for the next generation to become self-aware (as the phrase goes) and I think I have what it takes. 

So get ready to see your streamer to give you an edge you never had before in gaming. That is not on either Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo. It is merely the shape of things to come and in this Google and Amazon could get the advantage they need to push Microsoft to the background (as we tend to do that). A new age is coming and I am overdue for some serious snoring. See you all tomorrow.

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June 9, 2022 · 22:16

The party of what was

We have this at times, we go back in time to remember the party we were at, the party we gave. There is a reason for it. It can be sentiment, lust, desire, achievement there are hundreds of reasons why a party remains in memory forever. A party is for most the easiest to see, and there is a second reason. It is a setting where the crowd remembers you, the crowd was part of it, you either distinguished yourself, or you were distinguished by others. It is the crowd that is an essential element in all this. It is part of the multiplayer appeal, or at least that is what I believe is the case. I play single for myself, for my own needs, for my need for joy. I am not a racer of routes, not a shortcut maker of cleverness. I walked through Oblivion and Skyrim for hours, enjoying the perfection that Bethesda created. I see solution after solution that is all about feigned perfection. It is about showing a crowd how perfect you are, but is that a truth? A reality? To present ones self as clever is not a presentation, it is deception. That is the side that I going wrong in too many games. Whilst I focussed on giving the gamer a good time, others are setting the dressing to pretend the gamer is much better than he or she actually is. I have been brooding on this, you see it is the game Elden Ring that brings the real gamers to the surface. I am a real gamer, but I was never that great in action games, I learned that the hard way in Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3. I still have these games. They are beautiful, but for me not something I can hope to conquer. I feel no shame, I have my own speciality and I have achieved plenty of game completions over the 40 years I have truly enjoyed gaming. From the VIC20, the CBM64, the Atari ST, the CBM Amiga, N64, CD32, SEGA Megadrive, Playstation, Xbox, SEGA Dreamcast, the PS2, Gamecube, Xbox 360, Wii, PS3, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and the PS5. I have seen and enjoyed gaming to the largest extent, but when the Xbox360 came things changed. This is not the fault of Microsoft, in this they are innocent. There was a push for achievements and to get them any way possible and I was the same. I wanted (for the most) all the achievements, I was not an online gamer, so I missed out on several achievements. I think it is what ‘saved’ me and even the Sony group has that issue. You are not a gamer until you get the platinum achievement. There is something wrong with that notion. It is like a new dimension of workforce adhering to the Wall Street stage of ‘Greed is good’, it is not, it really is not. I think the stage of Nintendo Switch to do away with achievements was wise, a lot more wise than most of us realise. Ask yourself the question, are you driven by achievements or to have fun? Do you enjoy walking in the world you play in? These questions have been bugging me for some time now. The Bethesda games brought it to the surface and to some degree the Ubisoft games too. Guerrilla pushed it into overdrive with the Horizon games. It matters, it really does because the wrong setting here could break streaming games. In the games I designed for streaming I think about rewards, not achievements. The Luna keys were part of that. Silver keys to the game you get them in and gold keys to unlock something in 5 games that you have at that point. Rewards are more satisfying, rewards are a token of achievement, a point where we all will get, but not having it on every profile matters. It stops the wannabe’s, it heralds those who are and it gives to those who attempt and overcome. We want to be the gamer that has it all, but why? You see there is so much to gain from replayability, there is so much to get when some options are only there for the arcane, for the shadow dancers, for the brawlers and it is possible we will not become all of those to the degree of perfection, but the inner feeling of what we get done is overwhelming and I believe that achievements undermine that. Now, this is nothing against Microsoft (I slapped them often enough), Microsoft brought achievements and it is a great idea, but game makers and others seem to have subverted the concept, that is how I see it and it took me a while to see the Nintendo Switch step as the great step it was. Yet I understand that achievements are important to some, so how to embrace the idea and make it better? The keys are part of an optional solution, but only in part. So to look at the party of what was is also a way to see the side of what might be. I have no idea if I will solve it, it might be up to someone else to do that, but it needs to be done. We need to go back to the old days to when gaming was pure it was about the gamer getting to places, not others judging the gamer on how he got there, how fast and in what way. We lost something there and we need to find it again. The streaming stage will push gaming further, but it will also push weaknesses and corruption of the gaming mind further. Gaming is about checks and balances and we seemingly ignored the balancing act. I have done that as well and now my mind is making up the consideration and the tally of balances missed. How it will fare? I cannot tell at present.

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May 31, 2022 · 19:43

9 options were lining up

Wow! I got some feedback from yesterday, mostly from people who want a free ride and had no idea what they were watching. The sudoku part is a handlebar, an optional shortcut to a much larger stage that was a puzzle and I turned it into an almost simple exercise. But for the Microsoft minded (the non thinkers) lets go over it.

Story
No matter what the story is, there are plenty of elements that can be generated. It’s like creating 180 unique chapters and you only need 9 of them, basically you might create 81 at launch time and get the others created whilst the program is running. Yet getting the 180 (or so) done beforehand makes lighter work afterwards. You see, any story is set to chapters, each chapter is set to paragraphs. So why this many? In case you want a never ending start of quests, you need the ammunition. 

No matter how clever you are, there is always another way and I merely presented one. In the previous image you saw the stage of what story to run, it HAS to start with ‘1’, so whether you take the row or the column, you will have one of each. In my example the blue one is less appealing as the second number is an ‘8’, so it will be a lot less in line. The green one (a coincidence, I swear) gives us 1,4,5,7,2,6,8,9,3 so there is more line and per location you will get one part of the story (via interactions) and the story will shape for the player. So after the third world the player will have parts 1,4 and 5. This is one of the effects of anachronism and linearity is utterly pointless in that setting. And as we realise that we have 150 chapters, we merely randomise the chapters, we sort them and select the 9 highest (or lowest) and as such you would have to play the game 20 times to see EVERY story at the earliest. 

Items
This is a different setting. Let’s state that all the items are the numbers (another use of the SAME numbers). So all the items for world 1 are all the ones in play, but not every world needs to have 9 items. And you might want to focus on what numbers are in play, but remember, each number is only used once, so the Sudoku method HELPS us to shape what we want, but it is not a solution for everything, and every sudoku is different. 

We have Items, people, the story, the location puzzles and the whole comes to a point when we unite them. A new version and a unique version of a game that started in 1988, and with the Forgotten city we are optionally breathing it new life. The Sudoku part is just a handlebar to create a station of almost never ending originality. Especially when you realise that there are “6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960 possible solvable Sudoku grids”. I used a simple way to create in simplicity what too many will try to complicate. Not a bad hour, was it? 

And this can be done on the streamers, it can be done on a PS5. I reckon that this is also possible on the Nintendo Switch. All this and all done in the limit of a TV show. Can life get any simpler? Well yes, but that is up to Adobe (for a price) and I think I have a nice idea for them to really screw up the margins of profit for Microsoft (because that is how I roll). And now it is time for a healthy meal (chicken rolls). 

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May 30, 2022 · 21:41

Three IP’s to make a fourth

That is what I contemplated today. I got a little bit lucky. 2 PS5 titles for $30. A good deal to say the least. The first one was the Forbidden city.

When it was released I was on a budget (a tight one) I had seen some parts on YouTube, saw some reviews all positive. The story is (as far as I got) captivating, but something was nagging at me, nothing negative. Merely the setting that once played, that is it. That is how most games go and there is nothing wrong with that. But what if it was not the end? It reminded me of a game I had on the Amiga. It was a Psygnosis title named Chronoquest.

I’ve forgotten most of the game, but this one got me back to those days. Travelling through time, finding clues to the real killer of your father. It made me think. That kind of game is now outdated, but the idea might not be. So when we think of Sudoku, we might remember the simple grid of nine, making horizontal, vertical and diagonal add up to 15. 

Most people learned quickly that the centre needs to be the ‘5’, then it becomes a simple setting of making the other 2 squares add to 10. Yet Sudoku gives us 9 grids of 9 and now it becomes a challenge, even more so when you realise that there are more options than most people can throw their hat at.

So what happens when we take the first game as an engine and create 9 levels. There are so many options. Greek, Roman, Goth, Spanish, Japanese, Scandinavia, Aztec, Mayan, Native American, and that list can go on for a while. Now we create the objects that are required, the stage is set, but this is not merely a whodunnit, this is a larger stage, but with a Chronoquest setting, we merely added steroids to the equation. Then we add an omnibus of storylines and we connect them. Like the Sudoku, we have 9 levels, but the numbers can be anything, and it is that seeding that gives us the options. Consider Chronoquest, places in time, that also implies anachronism, objects in the WRONG tine. It opts for dialogues, it opts for puzzles and if done correctly there will always be the chance that something has been seen before, but if every time has dozens of objects, we end up with 200+ objects The storylines need to be generic, like a dozen stories per time, yet the names can alter, the objects alter and the puzzles will alter. 

Time to fly
Now consider the larger sudoku. We could set the sequence of where we go by the centre square (as an example) so we now get 1,1,3,5,7,7,8,8,9 Now we get the tricky side, how do we enable area 2,4, and 6? Simple, the first double up (1,1) will open all 3, so now we get a puzzle that is slightly more challenging and not linear. The nice part is that 1 through 9 can mean anything and there are dozens of Sudoku creator scripts out there, all ready to be used for the eager maker of puzzles. I merely wonder whether anyone considered this application. Now do not let the style of writing fool you, this will still be a challenge making it and it will be subject to redraws, redesigns and back to the drawing board moments. But when solved, the maker will have a new style of game, a new IP and one that streamers will fight over to get, because replayability will be the streamer scream of 2024. When they learn and find out what the power of ACTUAL long term gaming is, they will get on board fast. So that took less than an hour and even now my mind is trying to implement a new side to using the Sudoku routine without making the game flat or predictable. And it needs to be able to redesign the new game with every matrix created, because that is the foundation of Sudoku, a unique number matrix. 

So look out for what is next and look to what YOU could make to become the next game maker all the others want. 

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May 30, 2022 · 00:29

Creating economic sides

Yes, we saw the optional impact of inns and sustenance. We were given the impact of the smith, and some sides. But how to control them? 

Well that is the first part, we do not control them, the cogs set some form of balance, like tables but with cogs we have less issues. We have slightly more control (or seemingly so), but the setting is an adjusted form of tables. We need no tables, we need the cogs to adjust seesaws and create a foundation of balance. This is hard to put into words and even as the foundation is set to credits, we need second seesaw creator that turns the credit value for each store into goods. This needs to apply for the jeweller, the bookstore, the smith, the general store and so on. I believe that it is like some form of chess assessor. Low value goods, medium value goods and high value goods. There is a side that we learned in school. For example 237 is 2*3*7(33), 28 is 2(2)*7, so how could we translate that into goods? I am still working on it and when we have that, we know what was left, we also know what the location has as revenue, this translates into town welfare. This welfare needs to translate into a balance for the town and a residual that translates into a positive or a negative. The negative pushes the location down, the positive lifts it up. The trick it to stay close to the seesaw balance. Too much into either direction turns places into ghost tows, or over lively places of expansion. I reckon it takes a real mathematician to set the stage for it to work, but the benefits are decently overwhelming so I need to create a way for this to work and it needs to work before we unleash the stories. The stories need to test the seesaw balance, it can flip a little, but it cannot take control, that is the challenge at present. 

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May 29, 2022 · 14:45

Music and sustenance

In continuation of the previous two articles. It is time to set a larger scene. In the first we talk about sustenance. You see there are always food places in RPG games, yet until Monster Hunter, I never saw any of these games take advantage of the sustenance factor. In this I got to thinking.

In the first, the levels of that. As I see it there are coffeehouses, taverns, Inn’s, restaurants, and as such we get to the basic setting we see below. As you might understand, you cannot have a village with a 4 star (or larger) sustenance place. And some places could get an upgrade. The upgradable settings are furniture, sustenance, and lodgings. Taverns can only upgrade sustenance and furniture. Sustenance are upgraded by getting that place a cook, it gets you a 20% discount for the rest of the game. Cooks can be upgraded by getting them a cookbook. Furniture can be upgraded by getting them better furniture and it gets you a +20% discount for the rest of the game. And the setting for the upgraded places is what I wrote earlier. In towns the production goes up, happiness goes up. It has all kinds of long time benefits for the gamer and the gaming area. Then we get another benefit, its benefit is temporary, but larger. You see in the old days the minstrel (bard) could invigorate the area. But the bard can only be in certain places. Restaurant/inn with terrace (as such it would have a podium), and there is an upside in that area. 

It is one of the benefits of the cog system. It showed me the ideas and the benefits of a larger stage, it brings the larger stage to the player and stops the person from being the centre of attention. The player still gets to set the tone in places, set the upgrades. But the larger stage will become the populous and the economy, stages where the player is a simple small factor, not the staging agent. And as we consider that the minstrel can be upgraded (2-3 upgrades in total) we need to make choices. A setting most RPG games tend to avoid, we can do it all, but it takes away replayability and sets the stage for blanket actions and grinding. That are things we can avoid to some degree and we get aa better game because of it. 

Consider that the minstrel can be upgraded 2-3 times. The clothing, the instrument and the music. Then we see that these are extremely limiting items. Like 2 outfits, 1 instrument and three pieces of music at the most. Who will you upgrade? One minstrel completely, or three minstrels partly? All choices we have to make. We could even adjust the music to the max of the highest minstrel, or the level of the minstrel in your home town. All parts that shape a game, all parts that make a game more desirable to the gamer, because a game that shapes in different ways, a game that gives more than one option and makes it replayable, that I a game that will be cherished for a long time and streamers will need long term interest in a game, it is their margin of profit on a large scale. And in this article I am merely scratching the surface of what is possible.

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May 28, 2022 · 22:35

Tally part two

Straight into the deep we go. Breathe in, hold your breath, dive.

Commerce
I wrote most of the foundation in ‘The stage of commerce’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/02/25/the-stage-of-commerce/) but not all, the foundation is larger than what I set there. I did it some time ago, but the article came to mind on February 25th 2022. Yet over the last few months I also reconsidered other parts. I stated “In the past I already discussed bookshops, taverns, and smith. We need to include goods and foods. This gives us the shops we need as a bare minimum, and considering the size of any area (in the past shops were seen in larger towns and anyone within a distance came to this place). So we now have the larger stage, and the people in that area add to this commerce.” But the world is larger than this, even if we base it on a 17th century fantasy premise. The cogs tend to simplify the setting, but does not change the dimension and that is what we need. But I feel that additional cogs to prevent the game from falling short. We can all rejoice into tables and the setting for armour, weapons, groceries, food, general items, books, jewels, taverns, masons and the list goes on. There are the cogs that drive 1:1, and the others tend to set the equation 1:2, 1:3, 2:1, 4:1. It is the balance that they set that keeps the game going and the more balanced that is, the longer the attention span the gamer gives it, and that I part of the equation. You can run from quest to quest like some set it, raid after raid and a quick trip to the stores to exchange equipment to coins. The one needs to be prevented, the other needs to be dismissed. The first element was discussed yesterday, by altering the concept and the kind of loot you find, the larger your benefit is in the beginning of the game. As the game progresses we get quarries and mines. The mines might make some of the requirements go away, but not all. As you get into the need of silver weapons, gold for enchanted jewellery. That gave me the idea to add Platinum as a source (it started with an engagement ring, but that is another story and she does not know it yet). But Platinum added a few other options, a few I had not considered before. So as we can find every mine EXCEPT Gold or Platinum we can create a handle on some parts of the equation. Then the idea goes from one side to the other. 

Towns
These are all over the place in many games, there we see villages, towns and optionally cities. This is how it has been, but the setting that we see villages and towns, they support farms, abbeys, convents, and keeps. Keeps have a more central setting in my mind, Keeps are supported by towns and cities, but the distance of a keep allows a town to BECOME a city. That is the larger setting, people can contribute to the creation of a city, but cannot push it. One person does not make an economy, people do, so I had to consider the setting where people are the foundation towards creating a city and even as the player you set the domino stones to get it done, I need a stage where (at least) 10% is out of our hands. I believe that the cog system does work and it works beyond economy, it could be the balance setter for entire games, not to manage it, but to set is as a setting of checks and balances. A setting where we can test the game in its true potential and that is essential. Streaming RPG’s are basically new, they might be based on old games, but the moment the makers realise what else is possible, they will run to what more they can get. They will make their games merely larger but not better. The deeper I dive into creating the next RPG, the more I see that another system is required, another pattern is required and in this I came up with the cog system. It is not unique, it is not the only way that it can go, but it is the way I designed it to go. I personally believe in the cog system. It is flexible, it an be adjusted and tailored to any specific situation or need and that is the foundation towards creating an RPG, is the cog model too small, we can add a cog, we can move cogs to be connected, it is a foundational choice. I believe that for me it is the best choice. For you? You will have to make up your own mind on what works for you. 

Four elements towards any RPG, towards any new story that gives life to a dynasty of gaming, it is time we prepare for the next stage of gaming, whether it is Google Stadia, Amazon Luna, PlayStation 6. We need to prepare what what comes next, not for the 10 year old game that we can play again, even if it was a really good ride. 

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