Category Archives: Gaming

October 1, 2022 · 21:42

The colour we paint ourselves with

That is thought behind my accusation towards places like News dot com dot au. It starts innocent enough. The headline ‘Saudi Arabia seeks to spend 60 billion in gaming’, my initial thought being “If they give me the $50,000,000 post taxation with a few additional items I asked for they will get a lot more than they bargained for and the option to make 1200% on investment in the beginning and many times more over the years that follow”, but I am awaiting a response from their consulate at present. The article (at https://www.news.com.au/technology/gaming/saudi-arabia-seeks-to-spend-60-billion-in-gaming/news-story/64862d5632f6af3b658d61579e3f4c59) gives more, but not that, merely innuendo and targeted guesses as I see it. It is “The announcements came from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is involved with, and believed to be one of the architects behind, the ongoing civil war in Yemen, and who is also considered by many to be responsible for the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi” that got to me, so lets give the idiot (aka Junior Miyai) a little history lesson. As such “the war began in late 2014 mainly between the Rashad al-Alimi led Yemeni government and the Houthi armed movement, it was the lawfully elected president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi who called for help. Saudi Arabia and several other nations came to the aid of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, so Saudi Arabia was involved, but was NOT the architect, the architects were the terrorist factions of Houthi forces with FULL support of Iran. A fact that many western media have been shunning to report on for a long time”

Then there is the accusation of “and who is also considered by many to be responsible for the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi” there we have the false and foul reporting by western media on many fronts, the United Nations was equally guilty of accusing the crown prince through an UN essay by some French person and several parties ignored essential claimed evidence, which was never tested and the involved parties were very intent of NOT mentioning that. 

It gets to me because this was about gaming and it is nothing more that a political hatched job. And like the virtual blowjob that we get from these media players, which means that there is no blowjob at all. We are given “including an acquisition of a “leading game publisher””. But we are never given the who, merely that $20,000,000,000 is merely implied, there is no real information here, there is also real information, mere references to FROMSOFTWARE, Elden Ring, Sony and it all seemingly makes it an article, seemingly being the operative word. It is a hatchet job to keep the name Khashoggi alive, a person no one ever gave a fuck about, well perhaps less than a dozen, to some extent. If anything the writer shows how obsolete and worthless the media has become. And it is not merely the writer, this went past an editor and others, and they approved this, so what about them? Well I have a few ideas but they will have to wait until the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia buys my IP, it will be so worth it to see their margins of profit flutter away.

It is merely my view, but I have written several articles on that columnist with added views on the UN report and other parts, I am too tired to repeat it all, you can find it by searching “lawlordtobe + Khashoggi” in Google, have fun! Oh and if there is any media out there who actually knows what software house they are buying for $20B, I feel certain that there are plenty of gamers who would love to know. I reckon it could be Ubisoft, but they are paying way too much for that place. 

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September 30, 2022 · 14:11

The union of games

This started yesterday in the oddest of ways. I have had a few thoughts in this direction, but I do not remember this being so outspoken or clear. It started watching YouTube. Not sure what I was watching but something got stuck in my mind. Then my mind was thinking about the Assassins Creed series and how they always have a bird do the ‘hard’ work. That got me thinking. You see the Paris and London areas are nice, but what if it is modern days (Watchdogs: Legion) and a modern version of Paris (one or the other), now consider not an assassin but a thief and the thief does not have one animal but three. So like the Beastmaster (1982) with Marc Singer before he started hunting aliens in V, a stage where he gets support from three animals. One on land, one in the air and one in the water and it does not stop there. With the chosen animal, he also gets bonuses and that is where we almost intentionally stuff the player. They get one choice each and it has to last them the entire game, so you can select the animal and get the bonuses, but you forfeit others. For example, a cat has night-vision and gives him a large boost of agility, a dog has amazing smell and he becomes stronger, and there is the third animal a horse which makes him fast, really fast and strong, but he misses out on the other two. The same for water. With a fish he can swim underwater without end, the frog makes him agile in water and he gets infrared vision and a third animal (undetermined). The same for flight. It would be even nicer if there were 5 animals per side, more options and more replayability over time and that is what streaming needs, replayability.  The city has over half a dozen storylines, and in this each storyline has multiple sides, so that the player gets to make choices and live with consequences. But there is more (there always is), it is not merely the skills he picks up, but when he takes the view of the animal, also the way that animal sees the world giving the player a lot more to deal with. We have seen similar parts in games like Fur Fighter (Dreamcast), Fly (CBM Amiga), and a few more, but never to this degree and to such a blending of different sides. It could be awesome, but consider that on a game like Watchdogs: Legion, but the map is now 400% larger. So in Legion the map was about 3.5 kilometres each side, now we go to 7 or 10 kilometres each side. Now it becomes a whole new challenge. In that game we could run from place to place, now it becomes a whole new challenge. And it is a much harder challenge as you need to find your entrance in nearly every building (or optionally could) the cat has its ways, as does the dog, but the other animals cannot be dismissed. They all have a power bonus and that matters in the game. So it will be up to the creator to also include some level of added bonus. The cat and the hawk combined allow for one punch KO’s, the stork gives him the ability to carry much heavier loads (they used to deliver baby’s in the old days) and so on. No one has ever made a game like this and with streaming new possibilities open up, even the option to have well over twice the amount of ‘open’ houses in the beginning and add to that from there. So if you replay the game a year later you might never enter the same building again (on a mission).  

So whilst Ubisoft brings you a new iteration of something you have played for over a decade, I created the foundation of new IP in less than 24 hours. So any indie developer who reads this, have at it and good luck!

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September 30, 2022 · 02:09

The opportune moment of my IP

There was a side I never, or almost never talked about, merely because it was interacting with other options and therefor it had a slippery side of becoming unpredictable. The second wave of my first IP bundle had an evolutionary stage that went straight into the Metaverse. Now I see that Saudi Arabia (at https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-arabia-neom-invests-1bn-metaverse) as I see it the Middle East Eye reports ‘Saudi Arabia’s Neom invests $1bn in metaverse’, it could cover my IP as well, so as we see “The company has invested $1bn in 2022 in AI projects that include a metaverse platform, in the hope that it will advance Tonomus’ goal of positioning Neom as the world’s first “cognitive community”” add my monthly $500M solution to that and it becomes a much larger powerhouse and it goes a lot further than making the UAE jealous. The IP as offered to the Saudi Consulate (in Sydney) gives rise to much more than I expected, if these two are united (something I hoped to do in 2024)  this goes a lot further than even I expected in the term I expected things to go and it goes beyond AI or mere Saudi interests. This impacts several nations all with access, making Neom an instant power hub for technology and streaming.  Although originally not part of their design Tonomus would have the ability to be well over 100% more powerful within 2 years. So even as we see “Dubai announced a metaverse plan in July that aims to deliver 40,000 new jobs and $4bn to the city’s economy in five years.” I saw another path that they were not looking at and now Saudi Arabia has the setting for $6,000,000,000 annual within 5 years and a lot of jobs, not that many, but their setting it total, my setting is annual, as such I win, or actually the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wins if my structure is accepted into the whole frame and that number is merely on my side of the equation, their side could spell it to be a lot more for a lot longer because my scope enhances their scope, something I never banked on because it was not part of my design, and there is a secondary part to that too, you see the Metaverse was an optional enhancement to my IP, so there are waves upon waves (as I see it) and that means that the old approach is next to the new approach and I have to giggle to myself, when I see the utter stupidity of Optus, whilst seeing my own innovation, a side that neither Amazon nor google saw, or saw coming enhances my IP even more and should the KSA buy it, the nextgen powerhouses of IT will no longer be in the US, or EU. They will be in the Middle East because it is not merely what Saudi Arabia, or the UAE does. It is what they can achieve together, a side I never considered and I feel decently certain that none of the other players had considered that either.

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September 20, 2022 · 21:13

Equational parts

Today might take a moment. You see I was getting ready to write something else when my brain started to shout in my head. The phrase was ‘shifting sands’. I am uncertain what started that, but when the brain shouts, I tend to listen. I had to look it up as it was kinda familiar but the exact meaning wasn’t clear. The dictionary gave me “used in reference to something that is constantly changing, especially unpredictably” that did not completely helped me, yet a thought was getting hold there. You see, I offered part of my IP to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And even as Amazon and Google decided to ignore the option, I saw the IP for what it was, a stage to something larger and the three elements that it did cover was a lot bigger then the sum of the individual parts, as such I thought I was sitting pretty, even  though I am not great at waiting. So as I was contemplating the individual parts, I suddenly realised that there are additional stages that interact. As such we get “used in reference to elements or parts that are constantly changing towards the engine that supports them, predictable or not” and if I am correct (still uncertain) then the IP picks up a few billion in value. Now, at this point I do not completely care about its total value, but the 20 year sales commission will take a leap forward. So let me try to explain it without compromising the IP. You have a game for example Skyrim, this came has locations and this game has clothing. You can see both as cosmetic parts, but when they become elements of the game they change application. For example cold Skyrim relies on warm clothing, we have (almost) never been been exposed to these elements, but what when that changes? What happens when the bad weather picks up? How useful will a bow be? All elements Skyrim ignored, but what if that is not the case? So what happens when you are dressed for Skyrim and you end up in a place like Valenwood? Now, you can see that when you are in a game like Elder Scrolls or Fallout. But what happens when we go into a game like Diablo? Or even more contextual, I saw today that someone is making Impossible Mission 3, a game franchise that flourished on the CBM64, so some people are picking up the ideas I had and they are evolving them. So what happens when we take the simple game below and make the terminals more interactive and more important, what happens when we do not have limited time, but limited access because elements are still unfound? 

Have you thought of that? I reckon Google did not and neither did Amazon, and no one cares what Microsoft thinks, but Apple remains an option. Now take THAT idea and add the game ‘V’. There on the CBM64, we merely ran from place to place and we were content, but what happens when we add the mini game of Impossible Mission to that game (or the other way round)? 

I had some thoughts in that direction in the past, but I never contemplated a larger stage but when the system is accepted by Saudi Arabia the larger stages become debatable and they become elements of discussion. They are not games, but the same setting applies. The shifting sands elements allow me to grow system one with system two and we get a much larger system 3. Systems like Facebook sort of gave it to you, but they basically added to the junk you had and called it novelty or ‘expanded opportunity’, but we could see that it was merely more for THEM. Yet when these systems are (partially) in YOUR control and you get to decide whether you want system two to enlarge system one? We get a form of system individuality, like a system SHOULD have been all along and that is at the back of my mind (without giving the IP away), as such we could optionally see that the application of shifting sands to a user system will make it truly user friendly, now consider that we add security like WE want it to be, whatever it is. Now we have a new setting, well optionally a new setting but these systems are up to US, like they should have been all along. I just never contemplated it because I was thinking like an American as the expression goes and now I see that more is possible, but the application is a new one, and it is not free of challenges. You see, how can we evolve a closed system? It has to be closed as there is too much cybercrime and cyber theft. There is not a way to make it zero, but we can make it so that only the top tier hackers might get away with it. So whomever the 80 people are that the NAB hires (see previous article), they are all about stopping hackers, whilst the access levels were the ones that required scrutiny. Should you doubt that then consider the news that we got merely an hour ago ‘Major crypto trader Wintermute hit by $160 million hack: CEO’, there we are being told “Decentralised finance platforms and software, which aim to provide crypto-based financial services without traditional gatekeepers such as banks, have been targeted by numerous heists in recent years. The sector is little-regulated and victims of crime rarely have recourse” yes, because hackers really take notice of rules and laws and a bank vault that is open is one they can access, and there is a reason that banks use traditional gatekeepers (pointless or not), the larger stage is that open systems are done for (like Microsoft) a new setting is required and that is what I figured out. I am certain that others have too, but the greed of Fintech is stopping them and as such they lose small amounts like $160,000,000 such is life. And as such the world turns, so congrats you hackers on getting enough to pay next year rent, but at some point Fintech will grow up (or they go out of business). It is merely a matter of time which of the two becomes the winner. 

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September 6, 2022 · 22:12

Just to be clear

Yes, that is essential. I am about to throw caution to the wind and do something (optionally extremely stupid) that has never been done before. Yet that is for tomorrow (or the day after). For now we focus on Microsoft. I did not plan this, yet with the article (at https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/uk-watchdog-further-probe-microsofts-687-billion-activision-deal-2022-09-01/) we get ‘Microsoft’s $69 bln Activision deal could harm competition, UK says’ I keep my voice in the middle in this. You see I always applauded exclusives, in any system. It made Nintendo the behemoth it is today and Sony has had its successes as well, as did Microsoft with its Master sergeant in Halo. All systems had this and even as I hated Microsoft buying Bethesda, it was a brilliant tactical ploy. I did counter it by giving away RPG IP to all Amazon Luna and Sony Playstation developers, but it is a valid ploy. Yet Microsoft keeps on buying companies. It is their funeral. Yet the UK only reacts to Activision? So when I see “Microsoft Corp’s $69 billion acquisition of “Call of Duty” maker Activision Blizzard could harm competition in gaming consoles, subscription services and cloud gaming, and it needs to be investigated in depth” this might be fair enough, but it seems that there is a larger issue here and it is not with Microsoft, I have more questions regarding certain ‘investigators’. Now, as stated before, I am no Microsoft fan for a few reasons and those who have read my articles know what I am about. But here is something more and I was happy that some people had (again) not done their homework. This is seen with ““We want people to have more access to games, not less,” Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith said. “Sony, as the industry leader, says it is worried about ‘Call of Duty’, but we’ve said we are committed to making the same game available on the same day on both Xbox and PlayStation,” he said.” I am hereby calling Brad Smith a LIAR! You see with the purchase of Bethesda they have clearly stated that the new Elder Scrolls is now an Xbox exclusive. As such we see Brad Smith as the liar and Sony gamers as the victim. But there is another side. Microsoft has been pushing its cloud gaming, and that is the path they will take, to host Microsoft cloud games on other systems, so that they can honestly claim that they service all systems, as long as it goes via their cloud capturing data (a speculation, I admit).

And the cloud solution is seen with “the deal would not be anti-competitive if competitors were given access to Microsoft games, as Microsoft has pledged” It is the ‘access to Microsoft games’ part that is the stage and interestingly enough there is no ‘release on other systems’ part. It is a larger capture and I get it, it is decently brilliant. As such I gave the others a new RPG game, parts of the stage, parts of the story (to get them started) and within a week another nice surprise that will cost Microsoft dearly (if all goes well) and on September 30th several parts become public domain, and only the clever sleuths will be able to find it. A new way to push the industry in a new direction. It is a crazy step and it took me months of pondering, but as I was given the afternoon off, I went to a local internet cafe and activated the timer. It is the start of one hell of a ride that might not go anywhere, but it will make the headlines and show the shortcomings of a few tech players (including Microsoft), yet the article bothers me. You see I believe in exclusivity, as such the quote “Microsoft needs to give a greater deal on assurances and put down in writing certain specifics around exclusivity” bothers me. What specifics? An exclusive game is an exclusive game. That is the case for Nintendo, Sony and as such also Microsoft. They are allowed exclusive games and if they buy Activision for 69 billion, they got the company and the exclusives are theirs. I might not like it, but that is the game, I countered by handing a totally new and unique RPG game to Amazon Luna and Sony Playstation free of charge. That was my choice, and over time I do believe the stupidity of Microsoft will be the death of them (I will be happy to help out though). 

And over time we will see shifts, the streamers will make sure of that, but that is the day after tomorrow. For now we focus on today and tomorrow. And here the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) might be an optional enemy. You see, Mario has been a Nintendo exclusive for a long time, for decades but the CMA did nothing there. So what gives now? They did not act on the buy of Bethesda, so what gives now? They are all focussing on “Call of Duty”, there is no mention of Diablo, a franchise no less important. And I get it, they have a case. Microsoft got greedy and now there is an issue. Yet I still feel bothered, because this stage opens the end of exclusives and that is a problem. It is a problem because the games will end up being as good as the weakest system and that is not acceptable. Am I overreacting? Perhaps a little, but there will always be differences in games. And these differences will make a game better on either system A or B, and that is fine. But when a system MUST be there for both one system will lose out more and they will have a game that is less than optimal and that is a larger problem. Gaming must always be at the edge of technology and that makes gaming great. As such not all games will work on all systems. Some games will be better in one location, some will be better in the other place. Exclusives are more than a game on one system. They are the games that uses that system to the maximum of what is possible. It is one reason why we love our exclusives. So I cannot tell if the CMA has a point but from a pure gaming point of view they are on a slippery slope as I personally see it.

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September 3, 2022 · 20:32

Valuation and validating

It is at times a hard decision to make. We valuate what we have and then we validate. It happens and we all face it in one way or another. Now I have to make a choice. Validation through path 1, 2, 3 or 4. And they all have valuations. The problems is not the valuation, it becomes the likelihood of that valuation to become a reality. You see I do not trust Microsoft (for various reasons), but the stage is also that I will get bobkis from Google or Amazon and Elon Musk is an unknown factor. I kept him on the books because he recognises good ideas and ideas he can monetise. In this case that could work for me and now path 5 is opening up with path 6 attached to it. Now path 6 is Tencent, but they are teaming up with Microsoft, I did mention that they cannot be trusted? Microsoft is a walking failure spinning what they can and finding new partners wherever possible as they are leaking revenue all over the place. The problem is who is in charge? Tencent of Microsoft? That now leaves me with path 5 and there lies the rub. Path 5 is an unknown to some extent, but they will recognise revenue and they recognise opportunity and this one is not oil based. Yes, path 5 is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the IP packages will add up to $17,000,000,000 (and some coins). So the moment I produce the presentations and the evidence the stage is set and my price? An initial $50,000,000 (post taxation) and a few loose items as well as 10% of the rest. That is the honeytrap. It is more than a honeytrap. Once the evidence is given they will hand over the cash for ownership of 90% of this and I have what is needed for the rest part of the journey. The moment I get to that part the rest is simple. It is the first stage that tends to be the larger issue, once this is in motion the rest will come easily. There is nothing like a simple stage of proven evidence to get the train rolling. I have given Google and Amazon ample chance to wake up. They did not and when others get the revenue and these players see what they missed they will reorganise but it will be to no avail. The larger stage is not that, it is to keep the stupidity of Microsoft out of all this. Whenever I see them I see the Smackos chihuahua yapping “Try Azure, Azure smells nice” and I feel waves of frustration. And Microsoft ALWAYS has an excuse ‘Microsoft Blames Ubuntu Update DNS Problems for Azure Services Outage’, or ‘Dodgy Microsoft Azure update knocks Ubuntu VMs offline’ yet these stages seemingly ignore “A few months back, I wrote about the discovery of a series of major vulnerabilities in Microsoft Azure by security researchers, suggesting that tenant isolation in the public cloud — which ensures that each organisation’s data is cordoned off from everyone else’s — may be more in question than we thought.” (Source: Protocol) Now any provider in this field has issues. Yet when we see “As of the end of 2021, AWS retained the top position with 32.2 per cent market share, followed by Microsoft at 30.1 per cent” we need to realise that we see ten times the issues on Microsoft systems than on any AWS system and that is AFTER the media gives Microsoft pass after pass. Any questions on why I do not trust Microsoft? And I am hungry for my millions and Microsoft would endanger that, as such I do not want them around. And when the evidence of the 50,000,000 is given they will all race to get a part of it, but at that point it is not up to me, it is most likely up to the shareholder from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who makes that call and now Microsoft is back in to the race (alas), but that would be the right of the owner of that IP (s long as I get my 10%) and when the IP comes to fruition and the people realise that 50 million was not a maximum, it was the bare minimum and there is no way of telling how far it goes, not with over 2 billion gamers in the mix and I am merely aiming for the 3% mark, the rest will follow after that however there is no way of telling how many will follow. Only a delusional mind makes that claim and I am not delusional. But I am face with choices. The entire project would be much smoother with Amazon or Google, yet now I am faced with a less smooth ride and with more clear assurances I get paid. And that is not a balancing scale, not a seesaw or a wedge. There are a number of issues that I cannot properly see because it is a field that never interested me, I merely am a pawn of the outcome. But 50 million subscriptions implies $500 million a month, should that be $250 million a moth it is fine, it also calls out to millions of gamers who get the news that the new player is 50% cheaper and that starts a new wave (in my benefit), even as I only get 10% of that, it is a hell of a lot more than I have now and it solidifies my retirement fund and my long lasting vacation after that. My last true vacation was in 2002, soo I feel that after 20 years I am entitled to it. It is also making me nervous, you see last year there was an inkling of reality, as such I never gave it much value, but now, now there is a serious chance that this could happen and as such I feel nervous, perhaps it is like a marathon runner who sees the finish line 20 meters head and he also feels the exhaustion and they are weighing battle in his mind. I see the finish line and I see that the other parties will pay when there is a clear indication, something I can show. It is a show that played in my mind for years. And I am almost at that finish line. So as my Twitter peeps are unaware (because of certain issues) we get to see a new path, is it path 7? I can only guess, but I am not seeking a new path, merely hoping that one of the first 5 make up their mind (hopefully fast), a stage that has weighed heavily on my mind. In the mean time I have made a first attempt in the finale (of season one) regarding the grandson of Hades. I think I have worked it out to some extend and that means that the cliffhanger could be the last three episodes and the new story will follow in a 2 episode special. Well, I do not see it that way as it I a story and not scripted for TV, but that could be how it plays out in the end. It was when I remembered a fountain in Rethymnon, that started the path  I am on now. As such it becomes more than just the stage and Demeter. I got the surprise guests lined up and now I need to set a stage to get Hephaestus involved, and I think I found that too, in Athens no less. But it is not where the stage is, yet the stage is not the play (not in this case) it is becoming the journey to an arena and that has my attention, just like the paths of IP, this path is there, but it is easier. It merely includes my creativity and that I have to spare (at present). In this I am not entirely original a happy fellow named Plutarch aided me in a few momentary lapses and that drive is now a much larger drive because of it. And there is a second benefit, if the funds come through I can focus 100% on the writing of this tale, as well one other project I have on the shelves (for now). And in all this the validations and valuations are only easy and adhered to when they go our ways, isn’t that interesting. The mind abhors bad news, or negativity on what one creates. Is that not weird too? You might say no, but all life is part positive and part negative and as we go through life, the negative parts are equally driving, so why avoid them?

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September 1, 2022 · 04:52

Resetting contemplated options

There is a time when a person needs to reevaluate the choices he is considering. I am at that stage. I had hoped that the parts I have shown would have enticed Google or Amazon, but they have not (or so it seems). So I have the option of considering two more options. The first play for the third party is now underway. The third party here is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. You see they are intent on getting out of the oil business, or better stated, they do not want to depend on it too much. Here I am offering a gaming stage with well over 50,000,000 subscriptions. The nice part is that they can now consider Google, Amazon or Tencent. I personally do not care (as long as they can keep it close to Amazon Luna quality. You see, for me it cares as part of the deal is that I get 10% of the IP and sales value (plus a starting fee). 10% of 50,000,000 subscriptions could be anything from $25M to $50M and when this takes off, I have no idea where it will end, but even at a mere 1-2 years I could end with $25M to $50M a month in the second year if its running. I reckon that is a good retirement fee. Even at a maximum of 6 months it will be more money than I ever contemplated (or even dreamt of) having I was never greed driven. 

So consider the graph below.

The main event is the idea I concocted. The Master Choice is a set of old CBM64 and Amiga games now set to the latest in game streaming. Games that you all forgot about (Younger players are exempt from this). The CBM64, Atari ST and Amiga had created so much awesome IP and most are left unattended, left as garbage. Something these master pieces never deserved. I wrote about them in the past. And as I stated this is merely the start. Then there are the remasters. New games now made to fit this platform. There will be interest, the moment this solution surpasses 10,000,000 subscriptions, others come calling like junkies at a free cocaine feast. It is not good News for Bethesda or Blizzard, they decided to become Microsoft solutions. And when this takes off, Microsoft will fall flat. Yes, they will have their mobile options, but the larger stage will be lost to them. I have nothing against Bethesda or Blizzard, I loved their games and I still do, but there is a consequence of choice and if I get this done, they face hard choices. Then there is a part I cannot tell yet. The new IP. This needs to be catered so that independent developers can grow and can facilitate to, because any GAAS solution will need that. I have close to a dozen options for the start, but after that it will be time to hand over the reigns to the next generation, I will have proven I was right, I will be entitled to my retirement and months of skiing every year. Time for the next generation to make a mark and now there would be a new player. A Saudi group of programmers giving us a new stage of gaming, a stage no one ever considered, no one ever contemplated. But if a small nation like the Netherlands can give us Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, what can a nations like Saudi Arabia achieve? You forgot about the small parts, did you not? Minecraft was Swedish (as was ABBA), and that is merely when we look at two of the most visible houses at present.
So I want to open the field to others, I want to entice new options and a new era of gaming, because evolution of gaming is important. Nintendo will remain, Sony will remain. They always considered the gamer number one, it is not that I am telling that they remain, the gamers have decided that they remain and some will still side with Microsoft, that is fair. But the Microsoft field will tighten in gaming as it will in two other directions and I will hopefully be there to see it happen (health issues). Yet until recently I never considered Saudi Arabia as the new Mecca for gaming. It was an article in some magazine that dropped the coin. Saud Arabia was always in the back of my mind, but I expected that my IP would have gone to Google or Amazon. Now there is every chance that I will win a lot. A setting that sets the owner on par with Nintendo and Sony is not to be ignored, and even as Microsoft would still be number three for a little while, the humiliation of them getting surpassed by a new player will tong, it will sting a lot. It will show in the first that I was right, it will show in the second that their path was wrong all along. Yes they will make serious money with mobile games. But to lose one niche in technology to this effect will hurt, it will make everyone wonder what Xbox was and why it no longer matters. But for me it is about a new era for gamers, a stage that puts them in the pole position. The front person in a technology that depends on enticing their senses with creativity and inspiring them to become creators. And it has every chance of happening soon. How soon? I have no idea. I am still dependant on the selectors and the choice makers, in this I am a small fish, but a fish dangling 50 million subscriptions in looked at and my blog speaks for itself. Almost 2500 articles on all kinds of matter, many of them games and a lot of them showing ‘evidence’ that I was right long before others knew what was happening. It might be my delusional side and that is a fair observation for others to make, but if the sale happens they will suddenly state “Why did you not come to us?” At which time it will be too late and they don’t need to look at me, their superiors (or shareholders) will look at them asking them why they missed out, these people have no sense of humour. But I do, I will be on the sidelines giggling, enjoying a hot cocoa with rum and watching the snow fall and the slopes prepare for winter fun. And the one thought I will have is that I made ti the end of the rat-race maze, in a way I never contemplated 30, 20, or 10 years ago and I wonder what I will do next, because the creative mind only stops when it is dead, that lesson I learned through many sleepless nights (and three bundles of IP).

73 minutes until breakfast, whatever will I do now?

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August 23, 2022 · 01:30

Crossover salad dressing

Yes, as confusing ideas go, it is a good one. I have been seeing some Harry Potter system at the supermarket. They call it Magical builders. The setting is cool, like the old children theatres. Any idea that encourages imagination is OK in my books. But the makers did not take it far enough. See the image below. 

This is one of the cards there are around 35 of them. And all the main characters are there, including a cat and owl. But you only have to look on Facebook and the crossover ideas flow from everywhere. What happens when the Enterprise meets Vaders dreadnaught? What happens when Klingons have to fight Legolas? Oh and these are the timid sides. There was one about Hermione Granger with Kylo Ren and one of Ron Weasley with Rey. I will spare you the details. 

Crossovers will happen. It is in our brains to set parameters outside of the series. So my mind was  contemplating other things when I remember the Disney Infinite stages. So what happens when we get these characters and we can upload the ones we have with a code (see below).

Now we have a much larger stage, we get to use these characters online and more importantly we can keep the same settings as the set we see now. But what happens when the new Rings of Power get a similar setting, what happens when the sequel (or is that prequel) to Game of Thrones is added? With stages, with all kinds of solutions. What happens when we allow the people to play such interactions and share that with friends. Consider an old program It was Adobe Director. It was ahead of its time (I think I still have the floppy version somewhere, yes it is that old). Now we get beyond the train-station, the train and the quidditch field more scenes that can be downloaded. In this the creator can move the characters like Flash objects and create dialogues. This is in programming simple and as these series grow and have more characters and scenes, we could see Ron Weasley in Rivendell asking Sauron for liquorice wand (as crazy ideas go).

This setting does need a program hat the makers could easily sell for $10-$25, and in that setting we would see the next generations create initial scenes, but it could start their imagination to create more, to create what comes next and I believe it is important to foster imagination in all ages. This idea came to me in the middle of nothing, so why did others not come up with this?

The idea is decently simple to program (a speculation from my side) and over time that can grow into something serious. All because someone considered adding a QR code to the back of a head, the back that we will not see when the figurine is completed. So what kept them from this next stage? Funds? I reckon that 100,000 times $10 makes a cool million (or $2.5M if you want to charge $25), making an app like that cost a lot less, so the funds could not have been the case. 

When will people (especially in marketing) learn to think out of the box? I came up with several ideas to propel Neom and the Line in such ways that is not seen at present, so why not? Are these marketeers (most likely in London) losing the plot of what might be? Is it like Google (optionally Amazon too) that they are asleep at the wheel? It is slightly speculative from my side, but I am not seeing any start to different places creating visibility, awareness and traction. Why not?

I leave it up to you to consider the rest of that equation.

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August 16, 2022 · 18:59

The old debate

The BBC is hitting us with another version of a debate that has been going on for a while. The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-61594815) gives us ‘Report blasts “manipulative” video game loot boxes’, first off, they are not lying to you, this is not misrepresentation. In this, I do not completely agree with the point of view of some. The article gives us “The contents of the virtual boxes are only revealed through either game play or by making a payment. While some contain useful tools or desirable extras which improve the experience, others are worthless.” These facts are true. There are two sides here. In the first, why allow for payment? It is the right of a person to buy something, we set ourselves up for that one. Yet in all this, the people who paid 12,000 euro for boxes. No one is debating the utter stupidity of these people. No one is debating that as an adult YOU are responsible for your actions. But the press was all about those poor poor junkies, weren’t they? The other issue is “others are worthless”, what makes the card worthless? It is a direct question. What makes a card worthless? In the NHL game, there are functional cards (stadiums and players), there are cosmetic cards (outfits) and there are support cards, so what makes a card worthless? Then we get “The report authors, the Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC), say gamers are being “manipulated” into spending large sums of money on the chests.” I have an issue with that. Which games were they? How was there manipulation? The NHL game gave card packs on milestones, and there were a lot of milestones. In addition, you got three free packs a day, and if you connected to the game (logged in) often enough, you got enough markers (there is one in EVERY pack) to exchange those markers for an expanded pack, giving you 12 or even 20 cards. The packs also had a betting coin card. One per pack and these funds allowed you to bid for other cards. Within 3 months I had all the stadiums, all the NHL jerseys and hockey masks, as well as over 100 players. I NEVER spend a cent, this was all free. So please tell me “How was I manipulated into spending large sums of money?” There are always the stupid people who want it all on day one, is that the fault of the game maker? Is it THEIR responsibility for the stupidity of others? The next part of my disagreement is seen in “Critics say the boxes are a form of gambling because players cannot see what they have actually bought until after they have paid to open the contents”. In this it is important to see WHY I disagree. You see in CCG games like Magic, Star Trek, Star Wars, The lord of the rings and more we see that a pack has one rare (optionally one super rare), 2-3 uncommon cards and the rest are common. This is a set formula. So if a game set has 50 rare cards, you would be buying at the very least 50 packs. The optional rest is gotten through swapping with other players at events and at tournaments. It is NOT gambling because one element is missing. The element of gambling is that you lose everything, so until there is a pack where you get all blank cards stating “Thank You!”, it is NOT gambling. You always get a set equation, you always get something. It makes it not gambling. 

In this I oppose the setting of “Finn Myrstad, director of digital policy at the NCC, said: “The sale and presentation of loot boxes often involve exploiting consumers through predatory mechanisms, fostering addiction, targeting vulnerable consumer groups and more.”” Yet there is a sparkly of truth here too and I do not deny it. Players like Electronic Arts played the exploitative element too much in FIFA, it backfired. There is exploitation, especially when the complete pack contains 10,000 players. However I disagree with the ‘predatory mechanism’ part. There is a whole range of predators on YouTube with there ‘card reveal’ channel, there “Do this to get something for free” and that is never a good thing, but these groups did not separate the exploiters from the makers, did they? Lets be clear the makers are not freshly white innocent. Only the people from Mass Effect 3 who introduced these loot-boxes in their multi player element, they were phenomenal and massively innocent. Others used that stage to make big money. 

The article ends with “But the same year Fortnite-maker, Epic Games, decided to let players in its hit video game see what was inside its llama loot boxes before deciding whether to buy them.” And their case agains Apple gained traction. I believe that the Epic Games people are the lest innocent, and their setting will have long term repercussions, it is only a matter of time. The one element not seen was given to us by Android: Netrunner. They gave us a different setting making it fair all around, the expansions were all the same price and always had the same cards, so there was only one pack to buy (once a month). It allowed for a smoother and fair game stage. In addition, the CCG world has something called factory sets. They were slightly different (like a silver border) but that was the only difference. A factory set contained ALL the cards of a game. The game was instantly fully playable, but they do tend to come later. So EA had the option to release a factory set half way through the season, but they did not, did they? Is it on EA? That would be a fair question, and I do not know the answer, merely my feeling in this. Is there a larger exploitation? Yes, but not all of it is on the makers. YouTubers were all over their FIFA cards and the more bang the better their bucks and the numbers of their followers, but we do not see that here either.

The BBC (as well as Tom Gerken) never lie to you, yet I have issues with the article as I have issues with the setting of it. The players HAVE a responsibility and some are pushing it on EA (and others) and the media aided them, which is not fair either. All this is merely my point of view, so feel free to disagree.

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August 10, 2022 · 00:06

Peek a boo

I have no idea what drove it. I was watching an advertisement, I was thinking of non-repudiation and for some reason the cogs in my skull started spinning. Before I knew it I had an entirely new set of IP. OK, a set is a little bit of an exaggeration but it is definitely more than one IP. The implementation is something else. I would need to confer with whomever buys my IP. Whether it is Amazon, Google, Netflix or Tencent. The IP is meant for streamers. The idea could apply to consoles as well, but they would not benefit as much, although, when I think of it. Yes, it could apply there too. So it is a larger field. 

I am not being secretive, but it is a less complex idea, so I would give too much away, as such I will put it in a safe place (not 4 Chan though). The idea is growing as I type. I am considering more sides and more options. There are a few practical sides too and it could drive other elements to a larger extent. But it is too soon for that, for now I have a new piece of IP that I can add to IP bundle 1. Will there be more? I honestly do not know. I never banked on this side, but here it is and more might follow, but I do not know. This idea came quite literally out of the blue. I have been brooding on the Line (Neom), certain solution would fit nicely there, yet too much of that place is still in the planning phase, so as more comes out into the open, it is likely that more will come to mind, but there is no way to tell. There is still the gaming side to consider. After the ideas of zombie survival, the citadel conundrum and a few other games, I seem to be digging into one direction. There is nothing wrong with that, but it comes with the danger that I design too similar themes and gamers are not appreciative of that, and neither am I. There is the setting of a new stealth game, based on Tenchu Z, set in a city but not in Japan. This is not a Ninja game, but a stealth game based on an individual and vengeance. Too many elements are not set yet. I was thinking of a place no one tends to use. A place like Stockholm, Rotterdam or even Washington DC. Just an idea, the place is less important than the fact that there is a water element. I am using Amsterdam for a very different game (a game that I wrote about 3-5 years ago). An idea that I had before, a setting that suits the streamers well. You see we seem to create maps again and again, but what happens when we reuse them? Streamers would benefit and not the same map. Not the identical map, well identical yes. But the ability to respawn the game and every building based on the era the game plays in. We seem to forget that the city we live in is the same city we play in, but what happens when that game is set in 1950? 1926? It is not always clear how that map ends, but it is time we explored a different way of creating and enjoying games. It started when I was considering the RPG Generations. You see evolution goes in 2 directions, we merely forget the one direction, but that does not mean it is not there and as such my mind went places. I reckon that there is a lot more to look at, but for now? I have new pieces of IP and I am celebrating that with a cold beer, I believe I deserved it today. 

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