Category Archives: Gaming

February 16, 2022 · 14:29

Gift for militant wench

OK, not my finest hour in diplomacy, but it was the only way to give the path to people thinking ‘another Amazon story’. I woke up this morning with a new IP, an IP based on Google technology, but they do not create software, so their loss. And this is freeware only for Sony and Amazon products, just another way for me to say to Microsoft “Screw you!” So in my sleep I was racing through the street, there were paths, obstacles and my mind was making sense of it all (which took a few seconds) and I was seeing the brilliance of that Nintendo kart game that can take place in your home. A good idea, but I gave it steroids and turned it into something serious. You see, there are the F1 people, who love the F1, want to race on their tracks, want to be an F1 driver and this is not for them, There are good products and they are happy there. No, this is for the people who want to race in the real world. So consider a setting where the game has 10 circuits. They can give their address, or one they wished to live and the system will design a racetrack from 2500 metres up to 5500 metres (for now) based on real Google Map data. So you get a game that will soon have thousands of tracks, and the nice part is that there is racing (just the street) and challenge where the system adds obstacles, ramps (looking like it was fake and inserted) to give that goofy feeling for when you go all out. As far as I can tell, it has NEVER been done before and there Amazon gets the inside track, because as you race what is, the system with Machine learning and deeper machine learning will try to make you a map you requested based on the area, or location you gave and adds the track for you personally to your account. A setting where a game can grown into a massive behemoth of racing fun. A setting where you can race where you always desired to race, your hometown (wherever that is), Tokyo streets, Monte Carlo (every racer wants to be there one day), London, Berlin, Amsterdam and the list just grows. I am actually amazed no one in Google was that alert, but there you have it. So I say (still lacking diplomacy) “Militant wench, have at it”, we could include boat racing, but I reckon that a place like Rotterdam will give Amazon all kinds of problems. 

A simple idea boosted to a real challenge, and should you wonder why Microsoft cannot come up with it. Well that is simple, they can buy creativity, they merely lack the ability to create something. For that they have Mojang, Bethesda and Blizzard. Those who buy are limited to their knowledge of Excel (or so they say).

Enjoy this midweek! The weekend will be 68 hours away for some. 

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February 10, 2022 · 11:15

Out with the old?

It is a saying and I have heard it many times. Out with the old, in with the new. Yet in the world of media as an aggregated whole, that saying does not make much sense. For a few reasons my attention came back to Infamous:Second son I gave it an 83% rating when it initially launched (and I stand by that). You see, the game has brilliant and spectacular moments. In all but one setting it is close to brilliant. The one setting is linearity and in a near open world it is worse than a death curse. Linearity makes everything too predicable and that was the short coming of that game. It starts brilliant, the brother setting, the awakening of being a conduit and the power of smoke. It was amazing and until the second power comes into play it is all great, after that the party sizzles and linearity sets in. But that first area in Seattle is just grand. Then I thought what to do and I do not need to do anything, but Sony might. Consider that the game has a good and a bad setting. What if Reggie didn’t had a brother, but twins Delsin Rowe and Darren Rowe. One goes good, the other bad and that becomes a much larger story, one for the TV or whatever streaming service Sony has. They already own the IP, so that would not stop them and the setting could be larger, not larger in the stage, but it could give Seattle more than Amazon and Frasier (to opt an idea). The setting in the game was great and the antagonist Augustine was better thought up than most other antagonists in TV world. They both get the stage to clean Seattle each in their own way and there we need to set the station where the good one wins the concrete powers (and cleans up the streets and heals the reservation victims), as well as open up a much larger conversation. Can we separate people who are different? You see, Augustine is seen as evil, but her motives were pretty pure (from her point of view) and even as the game never went into that, the TV series might just do that and to be honest, the powers we saw in that game were freakin awesome. 

I am a little surprised that no one had thought of that track with a game that was optionally much larger than we all thought it could be. Especially as studios are vying for streaming successes. Sony has a few IP’s in stock that they could alter in many ways and Infamous:Second Son is merely one of them.

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February 9, 2022 · 11:24

Where am I?

We ask ourselves that question, but last night I ended up in perhaps the weirdest place of all. It started with the setting of what I had been writing about the last two days. I saw some kind of palace in Tartarus. The design was based on circles and levels. One circle was the arena, one circle the food hall and one circle the baths. The man in charge (Nikolaos) was above all others, almost like a smaller circle, but shaped like crescent moons. The food-hall and baths led to barracks where the others stayed. One of several palaces in Tartarus, well protected by his personal guards and order troops. The bathhouse had a spherical roof. With small holes it was like a black roof with the holes giving light like the stars do, yet the stars were shown in different ways. One was like a cone shell, yet I heard it being called Libra. It was confusing. And that was when weird went towards absurd. I was suddenly in front of a castle door, not a real door, but like those heavy carton doors like in a trade show. The doors were from some castle (also in carton), when you entered you saw a spectacle, carton people, real people (visitors) and There was the mayor (Richard Garriott) and he was in his mid 20’s. It was the launch of a game, the relaunch of Ultima 1, yet there were things out of place. I saw ‘Return of the spectres’ which was Ultima 5. There was a window with the Avatar fighting (all in cardboard) with the saying ‘Sartre me, Sartre you’ like a taunt. There was a large playing card in another window. It was Iolo, with some kind of crossbow hidden in his right arm. There was an inn (an actual inn) and people were drinking goblets of beer and sausages were served. On the upper floor I saw a woman around 25, long blond hair looking gorgeous, seemingly portraying Jaana champion of Justice, next to her a raven haired Mariah the champion of honesty. Ginger Julia champion of sacrifice was playing the flute.

The scene was weird, like I was both in the future and the past, but I had never seen a trade show that held such a scene, or such a display of a castle, so I was wondering where it was all coming from. Still the idea to relaunch Ultima one, and set Mondain the wizard as a champion of the spectres (Hate, falsehood and cowardice) they were portrayed in names by Astaroth, Faulinei and Nosfentor. It could very well work, especially if the world you go through is a lot like what Bethesda has done in Oblivion and Skyrim. On the other hand in a similar shape it might be a great fit for the Nintendo Switch. 

It is clear that the series need more work, but what happens when we set Tartarus on a neutral stage. We are told that Tartarus is where the dishonored and the evil go, but what if that is not entirely correct? What if Tartarus is a place that holds all those who were unworthy to enter the Elysian Fields? That implies that there is a whole range of grey that is added to the dark and the black. A stage where Nikolaos opts for two solutions, the first to rebuild tartarus, but in another stage to see what to do with those unworthy of tartarus. A stage of creating a way to separate the two groups? It is interesting, and in that he would need champions and task masters. Champions of weapons, of shields, of physicality and of sustenance. In perhaps one of the most brutal environments, how to reason with those who lost the will or ability to reason? It makes for an interesting puzzle, one I would like to solve.

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February 3, 2022 · 19:45

It’s IP but not mine

I just had the weirdest daydream. In the dream I was playing a game I had never seen before. I think it was a mini-game. It was set to either DC or Batman, I honestly cannot tell. What was the setting is that the mini game had two sides and you play one side. It was like a puzzle, the weird part is that you decide to either play the antagonist, which was based on Christian Bale as the Mad Hatter with ginger moustache and goatee and the stronger he becomes in the mini game, the better your upgrades get in the real game. The mini game is time based, so you get time to consider moves and the time is set to the maximum amount of moves and time to think is reduced. So as you ponder moves you might end up only having 3 moves (in stead of 4). The opposition was the assisting protagonist played by Ewan McGregor as Bobcat. If he gets stronger he gets more upgrades and the main character gets less. It is an odd thee sided equation. The weird part is that time is a larger element in the game. I was playing the game and I was selecting moves. The board looked very “steampunk Jugendstil’ if I had to coin a phrase. I had never seen the setting before, but it was not the mini game that was capturing me, it was the tactical side of the mini game. We always tend to go to make OURSELVES stronger, to set another level by making the opponent stronger is something I had never contemplated before. We could make our assisting protagonist stronger but that also comes at a price. It is almost the equation of 10 points can be divided. If the opponent ends up with 4 points, the 6 points go to you you think, but that would be wrong, Bobcat gets 6 and you get 4, so it is a different kettle of fish. You need to make the opposition stronger to gain strength, so if Mad hatter gets 6, 6 points open up in the main game and Bobcat only gets 4. It is a different kind of seesaw. The issue in the game becomes if Bobcat becomes too strong, Mad hatter ends up being weaker, but then so do you. A puzzle where you need to consider that your allies need strength, but you need to enable a little more for you. Because if one gets too strong, the third party (either you or bobcat) loses out too fast and when the game essentially requires two players, you are out of the game, because Bobcat ended up out of the game. It is a very different dynamic and that dynamic requires a level of balance. You see the (so called) AI in a game can be twisted to break on your behalf, but if YOU become the measurement of balance and opposing decisions the decision making tree becomes a whole new thing. To coin a phrase; “The game Skyrim has skills, so if you become stealth level 5: You are 40% harder to detect when sneaking”, so what happens when your stealth level 5 implies that some opponents automatically become level 4? You have all these kinds of opponents in the DC universe. So we have the armies of the clown, two face and the penguin. They have soldiers, sergeants, lieutenants, and captains. So what happens that in stealth the captains automatically become level 4? In fighting, if you are level 4, officers are automatically level 3 and below are level 2. But it is on top of what they naturally have, so you need an altering game, you cannot become a one trick pony. And the mini games decide on your assistant in that part of the game Bobcat, Catwoman, Bluebird and Azrael. It changes the dynamic of the game and more importantly is creates a much larger replayability and more challenges. Because you were playing part of a 3 sided dice and that changes the odds and the options throughout the game.

1,2,3 sided dice

As I stated this is not my IP, if any it belongs to Bob Kane, as such I put my thoughts here as Public domain so that (optionally) Mr. Kane can still become aware of it. 

As far as I can tell, this has never been done before and as such it might be an interesting push for a more challenging form of tactical games. Well, that is my part played, and it is time for me to have a sandwich and contemplate a few things in the Middle East. I think it is time to check what the media was so eager not to tell, especially as some players do no longer have the means to do the things some claim THEM to do but that is life. Have fun and Auf Weinerschitzel.

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February 1, 2022 · 16:07

That first step

We have all heard it, the first step is admitting you have a problem. There is of course debate on WHAT the problem is. I am not any different. I hate stupidity, hypocorism and bot to mention short sighted issues. One of these issues is ‘Tax the rich’, we see all these stupid people screaming ‘tax the rich’ whilst the system is set, there is a tax system, there are tax laws and instead of all screaming to adjust the tax system we see the empty gesture to tax the rich, the rich do not care, they adhere to tax laws, so these laws will PROTECT them. Another issue was seen in ‘Greed and Law helping each other’, I wrote it on July 9th 2021 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/07/09/greed-and-law-helping-each-other/). There I set out the short sighted setting of the Oxycontin setting. I wrote “Yes, there are culprits in this story. You see some sources give us that in 1996 316,000 prescriptions were dispensed, it grew to an impressive amount topping over 14 million prescriptions with an estimated value of $3,000,000,000. The issue we see everyone painting over is ‘prescriptions dispensed’, this is not something that a person can get, it needs a doctor and it needs a pharmacist.” You see there are laws and rules, and they were massively broken by doctors and pharmacists. So when do they go to court? 

It is Reuters who give us today (at https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/sacklers-near-deal-contribute-more-opioid-settlement-purdue-pharma-bankruptcy-2022-01-31/) the story of ‘Sacklers near deal to increase opioid settlement in Purdue bankruptcy’, I personally do not believe that members of the Sackler family who own Purdue Pharma LP were completely innocent, yet that is not the setting is it? SOMEONE handed a paper to dispense Oxycontin, a pharmacist handed over the drugs. Yet nearly all of them banked the money and did not ring the alarm bell (some really did that) and those who cashed in on 14,000,000 prescriptions? Why are they not in court? Members of the Sackler family cannot hand over prescriptions, they cannot dispense drugs to people, they can merely distribute to pharmacies. So I do not believe that they are completely innocent, but to go after them and not after the doctors and pharmacies is (as I personally see) immoral. 

Yes, I know that in Torts you go after the money.

So in that setting: “Jeff Bezos, I do believe you owe me $50,000,000 post taxation, pay up please!”

But is any of that fair? You might say that fair has nothing to do with it and it is not incorrect but it is wrong. So when Reuters gives us “An agreement involving members of the Sackler family and several state attorneys general could potentially end a legal challenge that has prevented Purdue from exiting bankruptcy, and clear the way for a plan aimed at helping to abate the opioid crisis” my personal thoughts are wondering how many of these state attorney generals went after the doctors and the pharmacies? Justice handed in August 2021 a verdict, ‘Doctor Sentenced To More Than 15 Years In Prison For Conspiring To Distribute Thousands Of Oxycodone Pills Illegally’, there is no way in hell that only ONE doctor did that, so how many are serving 15 years? 

It is U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss who gives us “Dr. Emmanuel Lambrakis wrote medically unnecessary prescriptions for thousands of oxycodone pills – an addictive and potentially fatal opiate.  Instead of abiding by his oath to ‘do no harm,’ Lambrakis pumped deadly drugs into the community.  Lambrakis put his own greed before his duties as a medical professional, and for that he will now spend a lengthy term in federal prison.” And as stated before, there is no way that there was merely one doctor guilty of that, in addition, there are truckloads of pharmacies that require the same amount of attention and that too is not being done to the degree it had to be done, it is my personal opinion that some state attorneys general’s were lazy and decided to go after the money, go for the easy conviction. Yes, the Sackler family benefitted, but who prescribed? Who handed them over? I see close to nothing on that. It is a simple tax the rich approach to a failing in law and a failing to observe the law and there are clearly a vast amount of doctors and pharmacies more guilty than any of the Sackler family. But we do not get to see that, do we?

As I see it, it started with that first step and the law has a problem, it cannot properly dispense justice to the wrongdoers. It merely went to the richest person and found them guilty. So what happens when it becomes about something more problematic? What happens when someone figures out that any Ponzi scheme can be done online handing the mess to Apple or perhaps Epic systems? So what happens when the hackers find the weakness in something like Nvidia’s GeForce Now service? What happens when 300,000,000 people lose $10-$35 and Epic goes ‘Not my Problem’, and Nvidia goes ‘We know nothing’? Who will end up with that bill of $3,000,000,000-$9,000,000,000 because the people will demand payment and as I see it the Justice departments will be globally clueless on how to proceed. The nice part here is that the court setting makes Apple automatically innocent, they had to open up the system and the people will merely lose their money. 

How a spindled world wide web we weave.

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January 24, 2022 · 21:55

Gaining an advantage

So, In continuation of yesterday I was contemplating how we can offer an in game advantage. And as I was considering this my mind took a step backwards, towards the golden oldies Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Lawrence Ellison (lol), and an idea came to mind. What if some of the attainments of the game was a wink to these golden oldies? For example, when hunting the undead we have the option to find a comic, a book and a dvd? In that case we get

Dracula Comic, Dracula (Bram Stoker), Dracula (Bela Lugosi)
The Walking dead, World War Z (Max Brooks), White Zombie (Bela Lugosi)
Ghoul Tails, Ghoul (Brian Keene), The Ghoul (Bela Lugosi)

In this, if you find the three DVD’s, you get a 10% against ALL undead demons, more important, you get another 10% if you find all 9 elements. 

There is more that can be done, for example set a database of 250 elements, so you cannot get them all in one play-through and there some random element, but if you start. New game any of the elements (comic, book, DVD) that has not been used will be used first. I thought it was a nice gesture, we take ourselves too serious and let’s face it a lot of games go back to books or movies, so it makes sene to bow to these greats in the form of a wink. History has its place and should not be forgotten.

There is a part where I am in doubt on the IP, but if possible, if all elements are found in a category, the music will change towards a Lugosi version of undead encounters. You see, the problem is that music tends to become tedious, so adding spice to it, optionally taking a page out of the Fur Fighters approach so that each character has its own instruments towards the same tune will also spice things up. You see this is no longer the world of Forbidden Forest (CBM-64), so adding effort in keeping the masses well entertained is essential for any game. Too many people seem to forget that. 

There is even the idea that if you find all the characters in a category (not an option within one play-through) So when we get all the vampires Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Klaus Kinski and Frank Langela, we get to play a New++ game, it is like a NEW+ game, but the opposition is a lot stronger, more important it is not just the undead, the zombies, or ghouls. There are Witches, Warlocks, Priests and a whole range of demonic classes and that is before you get to the Ifrit and Jinn. All challenges to be met, all ways to deliver to an embossed game that satisfy a lot longer than some other games do. Diablo met that challenge brilliantly and to find a unique alternative is quite the challenge, but it is clear that Microsoft is playing a game, a game with gamers for its greedy needs and as such the playing field on Sony, Amazon Luna and Google Stadia is now wide open and they are all ready to take market share away from Microsoft. Are you ready to make that market share yours?

Good luck!

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January 23, 2022 · 18:07

As I slice and dice

Yes, if you are a Microsoft lover and you thought the previous article named ‘In the beginning’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/01/21/in-the-beginning/) was all there is you are in bad luck. I needed time to get the next part in chime. You see, the antagonists are important, but so it the way we deal with them. Weapons matter (in all kinds of occasions) as such I wanted a new setting, not some Diablo copy and it helps setting up the gaming IP, the more unique an IP is, the easier it is to get a nice exclusive IP for Amazon and Sony. 

So in this setting I wanted a whole new direction. A direction that we seemingly forgot about. In the first setting we start with a dagger. The dagger can be imbued (needs to be) to be a more efficient weapon against a major demon class, and as we upgrade it from level one all the way to level 4, the weapon will get a whole lot more powerful. Yet there are also gradients here. I wanted to set the first level to 5 demons, so 5 demons will have to shed something, or we cut it out of them and in level 2 we need more, there is an idea to get 5-25-30-55. I also wanted to reward tenacity, so if you go in one stretch, the cost would be a little higher, but you can go from 5 in level one to 35 to level 4 and skip levels 2 and 3. It is but a simple thought and it ups the gameplay too. 

You make money by selling items and I wanted to avoid to a larger degree chests (not completely), so the kills will give you items that you can sell and in that premise the alchemists will be more important. So this is the first demon class. What about the second demon class?

In this I thought that upgrading a level 4 dagger to a level 0 Dirk might be an idea. 

As such we get the balance of Dagger – Dirk – Short-sword, and after that we need a second weapon. 

I am still considering versions of a morning star, a roman Pilum and a few other weapons, yet in the end, you will have 2-3 weapons, so there are two parts, you need two weapons and you need to think strategically, which Diablo took from the equation (it never really had any clear strategy). As such we have a new environment, we have different enemies and we have the need for different skills. I personally believed that support skills were where it was at. Healing, tracking and vision skills are the path to nice powers that aid in the challenge to finish the game. More important, as each level (area) is better cleared, the towns will open up more stores and more options. 

There is a secondary need to set the stage in a few more ways, in one part as I hate linearity, in the second part if we have more challenges the game would end up getting a much wider acceptance. I want to create a game that honours Diablo, not copy it. Diablo was a game I loved forever ever since the first one came out in 1997, there was Diablo 2 and Diablo 3 broke the mould, so I want to honour it, not copy it. We honour what we love, and I am merely making sure that Microsoft learns the hard way what a total of 68,000,000,000 can cost them. Especially when independent designers use my ideas for free mind you, and only when it is for Sony and Amazon Luna releases. Even if little old me can make sure that Microsoft realise that there is a larger station outside Microsoft, it would have been worth it. Like I stated in the previous article, Microsoft can only win if there is a dartboard and I fail to hit 180 points 470 times, only then would they optionally win, and I have a few more ideas coming. So take notice of this new approach to weapons and I will also give an alternative consideration to armour. In the first there is the idea that leather and pelts make for much stronger protection, in the second I would want to set the stage that imbued metal in the armour would hurt them, but that comes at a price as it would only protect against one major class and two minor classes attached to the major class (see previous article), you see we cannot make it too easy and as you might want to get all protective at the first class, the larger station is that you can never protect against all (a military certainty discussed by Julius Caesar at length). And we must respect the classics, should we not?

So here is the idea of weapons and a little about armour. I will try to come back soon and give you the larger setting of the environment and how levels are set, you can figure out how to program it, I will not do all your work, but the ideas might help set the station, so good Luck and may the one using this find and gain great fortune (and piss of Microsoft in the process).

Enjoy the day!

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January 21, 2022 · 00:32

Is there a difference?

That is the question that overcame me. I was considering a new IP on gaming and it is actually going well, but about that soon. Leave it to me to create a Blizzard contender but now as public domain (for Sony and Amazon). And I do need a hobby so it might as well be sawing the chair-legs away from the Microsoft board of directors. Anyway, as I was contemplating a new path in IP, the Guardian gives us (at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jan/20/tower-twice-grenfell-height-planned-single-staircase-urw) with the title ‘Tower twice Grenfell’s height planned nearby with single staircase’, so the initial example on June 14th 2017 was not enough, construction and architectural companies in the UK as vying for the title of who can kill the surplus population the fastest. A few small details, the Grenfell tower was 67 metres high and became a coffin for 72 people. Now we see that the mistake is overtaken by to buildings, one of 130 metres, one 174 metres and again the singular stairs. I reckon that cladding will not be a problem either, there are always ways to avoid cost overruns. So when we are given “A planning application for a 51-storey residential tower in Docklands with one fire escape has been paused after a safety outcry”, my initial thought was “At what point will Mayor of London Sadiq Khan wake the fuck up?”. Not only was once not enough, we now see two plans, one in Docklands and one close to Grenfell, so the people will not see this nightmare, once, they optionally (if they are lucky) see it twice, what a joy greed makes!

So when the guardian treats us to “Grenfell United, a group representing the survivors and bereaved, said: “After half a decade of campaigning for safer homes, it’s shocking to hear that a new tower block, a stone’s throw from Grenfell, rigged with a fire safety defect before it’s even been built, is being planned.” It considers a single staircase inadequate for use by residents and firefighters if an evacuation is needed, even though it is allowable under building regulations.” I am left with the cornerstones.

  1. Why is this still allowed under building regulations?
  2. Why did the Guardian and Grenfell United need to bring this to the people attention?
  3. What on earth is the Mayor of London doing by allowing this targeted killing of London citizens under his watch?

You think that point 3 is overreaching? Consider the Guardian, yes I have had disagreements with them, yet they are giving us a while places like the BBC people (and others too) seemingly have nothing. So at what point will the BBC wake up, when will the larger news take this up and asks loudly the serious questions that should be asked? 

I know, only 72 died, London has roughly 9,000,000 people, so it is nothing. If this upsets you excellent! You see, we saw all the trial shenanigans. Now consider the video (from a firefighter) that some might have seen (at https://youtu.be/QM4RJE81fh4) and now consider and wonder how these two plans were set in motion, moreover we get to hear “a 51-storey residential tower in Docklands with one fire escape has been paused after a safety outcry” at what point will you consider ‘has been paused after a safety outcry’. This required an outcry? This was not stopped from the moment the plans were submitted? It would have been long before the people and in particular Grenfell United would have been aware. 

So when we see the video with the response from a firefighter ‘How is that even possible?” and now the Guardian informs us that two more apartment buildings, buildings that are even higher are planned, I reckon that a lot of people want to know who is at the helm of these folly pieces and a list of civil servants that are seemingly asleep at the wheel of city governance, because as I personally see it heads will roll on this one. So we might be drawn by “as some safety experts call current staircase rules ‘madness’”, I would be much more interested on the setting that someone signed off on this, because we see “has been paused”, this implies that someone gave the signal to go ahead on this, or not?

So when the Guardian gives us “as part of a complex of 1,760 new homes being planned by the owner of the Westfield shopping centre in west London.” I merely wonder if that Westfield complex has an undertaker on the spot, because for them business will be booming with up to 3,500-4,000 new customers soon enough. You think I am too blunt? Consider that being soft seemingly did nothing and the fact that someone was optionally willing to repeat the 72 deaths with up to 4,000 souls for bartering in a second attempt. I believe we need a sledgehammer, not the subtlety of tweezers. We did that in 2017 and it seemingly led nowhere. So as the Guardian gives us “but it will rely on the same “stay put” strategy that failed on 14 June 2017 contributing to deaths, according to planning documents.” I feel anger, but mostly because there is some logic in the ‘stay put’ setting, yet it cannot be denied that is failed completely in Grenfell, so why were ALL London building plans not stopped to investigate the logical sanity of that procedure? And moreover, why is that setting as well as the conclusions of that not in EVERY newspaper in the Commonwealth? 

I will let you ponder on this whilst I continue on the idea that gives Blizzard a run for their money, mostly it is me having a go at Microsoft for buying an ice-cream cone for $37,000,000,000 whilst the supermarket 253.4 meters away sells them by the bucket for $50,000,000. It is only a mere factor of 740, and if I get a decent result on my first attempt Microsoft stock would go straight to the basement, and that is before they get a clue on the other issues that Activision might give them, which makes my attempt a lot easier. Ah well, I hope to give you the news soon. 

When a hobby give that much satisfaction, it is almost criminal to be on an income (I would still take it), and the better case for laughter is that one in 740 implies that statistics would fall towards me no matter how it goes. Consider a dartboard. How many darts will it take for you to throw 180? Microsoft can only win if I fail 740 times any success hit sooner becomes a massive cost for them. And there is the rub, only if I fail more than 740 times will Microsoft win, now you try on a dartboard and see how many times it took you to get 180. That is the folly Microsoft started and I am about to rain the size of a blizzard on their parade. Life can be fun and rewarding at times, unless you live in an apartment building in London.

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January 20, 2022 · 07:18

Supporting Sony and Amazon

There is a time when it is not about the dough (aka money), there is a time when it is about the principle of protecting the game and the gamer. And when it is supported by a civic duty to kick Microsoft in the mouth (for civic duty and personal pleasure) the money issue does not add up to much. You see, we can toss and turn over. Few coins now, but when gaming is slaughtered by Microsoft, what does that add up to in the end? 

So in support of what I wrote yesterday in ‘At it again’ I have decided that all gaming idea’s on my site are now free to use for both Sony and Amazon. I do hope that they will give me a bonus if the 50,000,000 consoles for Amazon becomes a reality, but that is not out of bounds is it? So I already created the foundation of an entirely new RPG (as I wrote earlier), so now I need to come up with an idea for something to counter Blizzard. I reckon that the Activision problem will solve itself soon enough.

This is seen in a few articles like ‘CoD Vanguard players expose ‘pay to win’ Double Barrel Blueprint after nerfs’, as well as ‘Call of Duty Acknowledges Problems With Warzone and Vanguard’, a setting that shows that with “The publisher released a statement on the official Call of Duty Twitter account, acknowledging the struggles these games have had, and its intention to move things in the right direction. Activision plans to fix as many of these issues as quickly as it can”, this indicates that the troubles brewing are not resolved, more important, they have been going on for some time and that tends to be disastrous. Even as game makers ‘hide’ behind ‘best selling in the US’ we see another flavour of “most powerful console”, which was done away easily enough by Nintendo and its “weakest of all consoles” to bash it, surpass it in sales in almost half the time. Now with Microsoft buying software houses for a total of $37,000,000,000 (most of it for Blizzard and Activision), we are introduced to “The bigger worry is that Sony is no match against its far-larger rival as gamers look beyond consoles” (source: Reuters), yet but the statement is not correctly given, is it? With “as gamers look beyond consoles”, we see the article catering to Microsoft and its advertisement budget, but the truth is that gamers always look beyond consoles, they look for the best gaming experience and so far Microsoft has disappointed too much and too often, as did Ubisoft, as did a few others. Looking beyond consoles makes sense, there is a case for both the Google Stadia and Amazon Luna, but Google does not develop games. As such the Amazon Luna has the better advantage and handing them (as well as Sony) free access to my IP works for me as a gamer and works for gamers in total. And I have always been protective of gamers. Not to mention that there is a surprisingly satisfying feeling if my RPG idea gains traction, when Microsoft Paid $7,500,000,000 for Bethesda, only to see that Sony and Amazon can bring a new competitive RPG at a fraction of the cost, not to mention the undisclosed option for Amazon to sell an additional 50,000,000 (or more) consoles on an idea Microsoft never saw coming in the first place. The idea to surpass Microsoft left, right and centre on their shortsightedness is massively satisfying and as I am considering now a Diablo like game where the stage is a combined Gauntlet like game, as well as a first person action slice and dice game, we see (in the earliest stage) that they got an additional lemon at $27,000,000,000. A stage that makes me laugh. Microsoft has the ‘lets throw money against the shortcomings we have’ and I countered it by handing over IP to Sony and Amazon that is new, fresh and optionally grows to be the equal of what they paid for at top dollar. It might not make me rich (never a priority to me), but I can fall asleep with the biggest grin knowing I pulled the carpet from under the feet of one of the biggest software companies on the planet. 

So when we look at “Microsoft will be looking to gradually lure PlayStation gamers to its own console with new content down the line.” We see subterfuge. And I feel 98.3245% certain (roughly) that my creativity can trump their subterfuge. So when we see the two parts namely “the huge bet on Activision signals the company is serious about building a virtual world beyond a console or device”, as well as “Sony is doubling down on games exclusive to PlayStation. It may have the air of a David and Goliath match-up, but Microsoft looks to be on a whole other level.” We see the courtesan move towards advertisement. Consoles have for the longest time aimed for exclusives, the Sony exclusives have proven to be exquisite masterpieces again and again. You see, THEY might tell you that gamers want “a virtual world beyond a console or device”, yet it is not gaming, it is a world of cheats, cheating and hacks and in that world there is a larger benefit for the maker to set the ‘pay to win’ environment by selling weapons and other micro transactions to fill the war-chest of its board of directors. At some point (sooner than anyone expects) the gamer will have had enough and dump these games. With the Sony games, with gaming on a console, the only cheat you get is on yourself.  But that part will not make the media, will it? Gamers will too often feel the need to chill and play the story, enjoy the world they are in, a setting that the Microsoft games will not offer. They will make lofty promises like “Activision has announced the worst punishment yet. In short, if you’re caught cheating in Call of Duty: Vanguard, you can be banned from every CoD game in the franchise.” A statement made in
November 2021. This in response to “Numerous players reported running into blatant cheaters on Vanguard on the very first day of the release.” And no one is asking the question why cheating was made so easy, so easy that it was ready on the first day of release. But I cannot find any media asking that part, and then the response ‘you can be banned’, not ‘you will be banned’, a subtle but unmistakingly difference that they are considering action, not promising that action will be taken and when the gamers get a few more of those issues, they will walk away. A good spending of 27 billion. So whilst we cannot deny that there will be a desire for virtual world combat, until you deal with the cheaters that world will be as appealing as a tax form. In this with the cheater active from day one, it seems to me that a lot more fixing is required. Darn and I was having so much fun surpassing Microsoft with creativity, all whilst common sense might defeat them before that. Because in the end it will be common sense. The common sense that gamers want to have fun, they want to exchange blows on an honest field so that s gamers they feel enabled and the last time I checked in a game filed with cheaters no one feels enabled, merely insulted and attacked on a false premise. 

So I do not disagree with Reuters on “Microsoft looks to be on a whole other level”, especially when that is set to the stage that the Microsoft level is an inferior one. Now, you are free to disagree, but consider if you go into a virtual world and there are a dozen cheaters waiting for you, how much fun will you have as a gamer? Not that much I reckon.

Enjoy the day! I am going to mull the new Diablo station a little more, the idea is taking form, but I do know it will not be easy to offer a Diablo alternative, that franchise is a really solid one. 

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January 19, 2022 · 07:16

At it again

Yes, Microsoft is at it again. This time it is costing them $68,000,000,000 for the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Associated Press released that information an hour ago (at https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-activision-blizzard-acquisition-call-of-duty-7a9e2bcc8f0b7b9049e4f93fe3e0a4dd). There we see “The all-cash $68.7 billion deal will turn Microsoft, maker of the Xbox gaming system, into one of the world’s largest video game companies. It will also help it compete with tech rivals such as Meta, formerly Facebook, in creating immersive virtual worlds for both work and play.” Yet what we do not see is the one Blizzard element missing, Diablo. We get “strengthen the company’s culture and accelerate business growth.” Yet I feel that there is a large need to upset fan bases and move them from the Sony path into the Microsoft path. It is a clever tactic, but not at 68 billion, there is more and I get the stage, there will be more even though the ‘META’ references do fit to some degree. 

The danger is seen in the smallest quote. I believe that ‘the world’s largest video game company’ is part of the stage and it is part of the need for Microsoft. We forget that the revenue of Candy Crush is huge and it is not merely the value of that revenue, it is the number of people generating that revenue that matters. You see these numbers are also a marketing drive and therefor a stage of doubling revenue. We think that advertisement are the key and for some they are to a degree, but what happens when the pay system becomes a marketing tool for verifiable information? We think it is assumption and presumption and for most it is, but when that data is verified with pay-cycles that game changes. And when we consider “the latest acquisitions will help beef up its Xbox Game Pass game subscription service while also accelerating its ambitions for the metaverse, a collection of virtual worlds designed as a next generation of the internet” we see a few things between the lines. In the first there is the subscription (Game Pass), so when all these games fall under subscription the game changes, the system will set a larger approval for THEIR streaming solution. It foes not impact my 50,000,000, but it does change the balance of the gaming community. When the larger battle stations involve ONLY Game Pass, but passes over Sony’s head there is added revenue. It is a brilliant tactic and it is specific. Microsoft alls it the move toward Meta. I do not doubt that, but this time it is not enough, for 68 billion it cannot just be for Meta, Meta is the side effect as I saw it in at least one other setting. Yet to united gamers all under YOUR banner whilst leaving Nintendo and Sony out in the cold is about something more, it will be to set up virtual machines on those two so that we see a Nintendo logo, but we are still connected to a Microsoft virtual machine. I believe it is a dangerous move because gaming was kept at an all time high as vendors had to be clever to get the attention of gamers, Microsoft is taking away choice, as such taking way vetting of the best gaming solution and as such limiting the choice to one and from there our choices will become ever so limited again and again until all choice is removed, then it is what Microsoft says what it is and that is what it would be. 

In gaming diversity of game makers gives us the goods, the Microsoft method does not fit in, and with Diablo optionally removed from at least one system, I will have to come up with new IP to counter the move of Microsoft. It is a hard call but I am willing to set that to Public Domain, just to piss of Microsoft (as good a reason as any). 

I truly believe there is more to it all, yet I am not certain if we will hear it in time, no matter what there is more to this and Nintendo with 26,000,000 subscribers and over 93,000,000 Nintendo Switch systems sold, 104,000,000 active Sony users (PS4/PS5/vita) Microsoft is setting up a system to entice close to 200,000,000 people to come over. And when you consider the $14,95 a month, we see setting where they stand to gain $36,000,000,000 annually, if that goes well and that is 52% of the investment right there. They will not get all, but a chunk makes it all worth it and Microsoft had the money. They are vying to become the only remaining system with choices on the market, that tactic makes sense. How will gamers react? I reckon there will be anger, because the system that sets diversity to null is not a system we can ever trust, that has been proven more than once. 

And yes there is a meta fragment in there too and when Microsoft comes to the table with such a user group they do become the most formidable gaming community, there is no denying that, but at what cost? That will the larger game that is kept hidden from us all, because a player like Microsoft will not tolerate the negative side to gain traction, it would be working against them to the largest degree. I wonder who will keep us truly informed, I truly do.

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