Category Archives: Gaming

April 11, 2022 · 20:27

It started with Z

Yes, it all started with ‘ZZZZZ’, it was weird in a few ways. I kept on dreaming the same dream, I kept on looking at the same stage, an empty stage. Then there were a few people, but that stage changed, it changed again and again and returned to the initial stage with the same people. It is all I can say on that. The dream faded within minutes andI can remember that it had something to do with a Zombie apocalypse, not really my favourite subject. I remember a few games in that series. All relying on advertisements and microtransactions. That is not stated in any negative way. I am not against microtransactions, especially in a free game. But the mind started to wander. I had this thought before. I made reference to this in ‘As fiction becomes real’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/10/18/as-fiction-becomes-real/) which I wrote last October 18th. It was a decent idea and it could have a future. Especially if the stream systems grow up and grow smart fast. You see, it is not an issue if we have microtransactions. But the replayability is low to non-existent. I addressed a few sides there and opted for a few possibilities that allows for a larger stage of replayability. Yet, I also remember the stage of ‘preparation’ that we see in Bethesda games by loading a person with specific S.P.E.C.I.A.L. skills or elder scrolls abilities. So what happens when that is not possible? What if we set the stage to a random person? Optionally a random gender as well? Would the game suddenly be ‘unplayable’ or will the gamer rise to the occasion? It cannot be the gender. Lara Croft, Aloy, and many others preceded this game. So gender is not the issue. What if we add to the challenge? What if there was some kind of zombie shelter? Some kind of bunker and we drench that stage in realism? Lets not forget that the challenge is to survive. How far would you get? The problem is that there needs to be mode’s, simple modes (where you can select all), hard mode where you can select little and insane mode where you have no choices, what the system gives you that is what you have to work with. There are some games like that, yet the larger games that ALL rely on microtransactions do not seem to have this, it is not their forte, and that is where the streamers (Google Stadia and Amazon Luna) could play a much bigger role. Yet there is an element missing, it is the educational side. Yes, going to was Playstation style is nice (not realistic but nice) and there we need to see what we can teach. You think that survival is fin, that is until you learn that food in finite, it needs time. And that is another setting. You might feel safe with an army around you, but they too need food and when food becomes scarce you will learn the hard way that you have yet to see a version of dog eats dog that you were not ready for. 

The problem, or the challenge becomes how to make it interesting without it being a steeple chase, or some floor is lava approach towards survival. Do not expect ll the answers here. I do not have all of them, but I can see the start of too many RPG games being too much alike and the play-through of most Bethesda games are too alike, we did that ourselves. It was not the fault of Bethesda. But what happens when you do not get that choice? What happens when the game is set to San Francisco, but that is all you know. You could start in Berkeley, Oakland, San Jose, Tenderloin, or Glen Park. There is no chance that the same solution applies to all, there is merely the simple approach of common sense and to set a stage of survival and when we have this in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York or Chicago the game changes by a lot and that is the intent. You see, we look wrongly to these games. What if the map is separate from the game? We could use most of these maps in a dozen games. We merely need to think to a much larger stage. We need to walk away from one game and walk towards several games that have a map added to the entire stage. Consider that dozens of games are places in Los Angeles. So what happens when they all use the same map? Not some small time map, but the ACTUAL map of Los Angeles. Lets face it, for the most that place remained the same. So what happens when we add to that stage by adding cities and a game could be played in ANY of the cities? Consider Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Chicago? Consider that we can select the city for the next Call of Duty, Splinter cell, Terminator or Predator? There is no problem, it requires different programming, different triggers and the hardware and abilities are already there. Many are staring at Ubisoft+, but that is 10 years old programming. We need to adjust our sights to the programming of 2024. This is not the fault of Ubisoft, but the fact that they are seemingly not on top of this is odd, almost weird. Consider the Division, Splinter Cell, and Watchdogs. Is it not strange that they are not ahead of the rest? So why invest in 10 years old programming? Do not get me wrong. They brought us the tales of Ezio, they brought great games, yet with the exception of Watchdogs: Legion, it ended in 2017 with AC Origin. And it is time to break the mould and come with something totally new. I set several games in my blog and made them freeware for anyone making games for Amazon Luna, Google Stadia and Sony Playstation. It is time to give the streamers the substance that will drive the people to these solutions. And it should have been done a year ago. And this was not rocket science and as I give the impulse here, and as I gave the setting in 2021, is it not weird that no one picked up on that? (Guerrilla and Avalanche have a decent excuse) We see repetition of the same, drenched in microtransactions. And do you think that streaming people will accept microtransactions? 

I will let you decide for yourself.

 

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April 7, 2022 · 01:00

Home is where the dagger lands

Yes, a weird expression, it derives from ‘home is where the heart is’ (aka the office), and ‘drive the dagger home’ (aka to push the blade the deepest), and when you combine them you set the start of something rather dark. The idea (not the most tastiest of idea’s) hit me. Yes, we can make fun of the Russians a bit more and when we consider the things they are doing at present to Ukrainians, the idea has a weird sense of completion.

You see, we see all the teenagers live and relive the life of the call of duty. I think it is over the top, but then I am no longer a teenager, so I cannot identify. Now for the setting. When we consider the setting in Ukraine. We have so much material, through drones, through satellites and through many other means. So lets create a game that funds the teenager needs and the revenue will go towards rebuilding Ukraine (taxing oligarchs 100% will not be enough), but we have more, we can do it at the expense of the Russian Army. The powerful Russian bear who was made the bitch of Paddington bear (voice acted by Volodymyr Zelenskyy). As such, my mind started to wander and I suddenly realised that it was done before, but never before with live feeds that were translated to a game. So consider the image below

We get the street in a game now, the tank intact and you are a simple infantry rocket operator. As the tank goes to his demise (and you fire the rocket) reality takes over and the scene you see above becomes a reality. The points (be getting it as close to reality) will unlock new weapons, new places and new challenges. You can evolve into a group of soldiers, on route to stop Russians. Infantry, cavalry, and airforce. Not all will be set to an image, there will be other stages (you still playing the Ukrainian side) and when you resolve all the war scenes, you get to have a selfie with Putin.

It is a new setting towards war games. Yes the challenge towards the game remains, but it is time to show what the horror of war is and Ukraine has had its share of horror. Hospitals, civilian buildings and you are there as an angel of vengeance taking out the enemy forces. It is just an idea, but we never had this situation, so I do not merely want some game, I need there to be an educational side. People need to see, second hand what the horror of war is and this is as good an idea as anything else. As I said, it is just an idea, but so far no one else seems to be getting them, so I might as well put it here and see what the call of duty developers can make of it. It is not my cup of Ouzo. 

You see, the part that people do not realise is that the army that is rated 21st on the scale of power is defeating the nations number 2 largest army in the WORLD. I truly think that people have no idea what the Ukrainians are achieving here and with the inhumane slaughter of Ukrainian civilians by Russian forces, the stage is growing quite dark, so it is time for people to get a real sense of just how impossible that achievement is and my mind is set as a gamer, a game might wake up the people seeing that what Ukraine is achieving is close to impossible, and that matters. It matters a whole lot.

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April 5, 2022 · 23:37

In preparation

We all prepare, but how do we do that? There are games, there are tests, there are challenges and we seem to accept some, we reject others. I see how many reject the setting of what the Russians are up to, I even see how Americans would prefer Putin over Biden, with settings that is in denial of truth, in denial of facts. A way of thinking totally impossible 40 years ago is now the foundation of failing in America. Yet, I wonder not about that. To be true, I wonder what parts are real and what are not. Not in the case of the Russian slaughter in Ukraine. Bellingcat put online the Russian actions of shooting a person on a bicycle, on a bicycle no less. But what tests do you rely on? I for one took the Pottermore test whilst waiting for Hogwarts Legacy.

In this I will be wielding a Hawthorn wood with a Unicorn core 14 ½” and a Hard flexibility wand. I have a hedgehog patronus and I am in house Ravenclaw. So for the game I am ready. Yet what happens when the next game comes along? What happens when someone takes the Divergent series and creates a new world looking like something you see in the Last of us (without the altered enemies). To create that world the 5 factions become reality, yet here you are a different person, here you can take over (possess) any Candor, Abegnation, Dauntless, Erudite or Amity. Yet the choice allows for progress like a dungeon keeper, to let the dungeon take care of itself. The people unaware of you, you are merely a hand in growing a community. Finding places in a discovered city. Showing knowledge, exploring weapons, so the city cannot be safe in the beginning. Animals that are hungry and even as slaughter seems the only option in the beginning, later on it seems like one of many solutions. The guardians, the intelligent and the honest setting a stage for the peaceful and the selfless to grow to unparalleled greatness. 

It seems we have a likeness of tests, especially from movies or books we enjoy to set a larger station for ourselves. Something we can brag about to our friends. Like the master of their Minecraft, ready to show others what you have done and the group never stops growing. As you find people with likeminded goals you share and that pushes for other sides too. Sides I am not entirely ready to reveal here, because I want Amazon (Luna) and Google (Stadia) to have the advantage (and to show Microsoft their inability) to show what others cannot see. And it is here that we see the larger station of streaming growing, not merely by playing, but by embracing that what the gamer loves. What the gamer drives and even as that is not the setting that grows the amount of people to any console, it does give the world the image that the gamer wants to show the world. All this is set through streamers and their station towards perfecting their profile, the gamers presentation to the internet. I do not think that Sony ever realised how close to perfection they were and then with the PS4 and later they dropped it completely. Unaware what they lost and now in the next phase it seems that several players have all the options at their corner. 

We want to look prepared, we want to be the one in the middle and we forgot that there are several ways to get there. Not all of them requiring the slaughter of civilians, not all of them require to be a fan of everything, yet in case of some games, the option to be more than a player of the game is expected. But who will accomodate? Who will do that to a larger station than it is now? Sony bungled it from PS4 onwards, but it is not too late, it is not completely lost, and in the stage we see online with splinter groups, for the consoles to keep THEIR splinter group safe is becoming increasingly important.

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April 3, 2022 · 00:01

The package and….

That was the setting I faced when watching GameRant giving us ‘Amazon Luna: How Many Games Are Included?’ (At https://gamerant.com/amazon-luna-games-how-many/), basically for $10 a month you get access to 134 games. Consider that I buy less than a dozen games a year, that is a decent deal and lets not forget that the Amazon Luna just started. I had to giggle intensely when I saw the Ubisoft+ option for $17.99. There we see three titles I can get for $10 (all three), Odyssey can be bought for about $15, Valhalla is $39, and that list goes on (like the Division 2 for $15), so as such, not that great a deal. Games priced down as they were old news and glitchy to boot. But the start (for non Ubisoft games) is there. I set out in previous articles at least half a dozen additional titles and Amazon has optional additional paths to walk with the Luna. It might seem like a small stage, but it is the beginning to surpass the Google Stadia, it also sets the stage to close the gap to whatever Microsoft has and surpass that. 

Forbes adds to that the free games you can claim (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/krisholt/2022/03/30/here-are-the-amazon-prime-gaming-free-games-for-april-2022/) and there are a few beauties there. Of course, we all remember Oblivion, but there are plenty of people who never played it. This is important. We look at the games out there and think it is ‘old’ news, but I have been in gaming since 1984, so I have pretty much seen it all. Those who are just starting do not need to get bogged down by the faltering Ubisoft philosophy. There is a whole range of games out there that are forgotten, its IP abandoned, yet it does not need to be and there is a nice side to it, they are able to bring a whole range of joy to players, mainly ingle player ones, but that does not need to be the case. There is one problem, where does Amazon want to be? It matters, because there is a setting in the subscription where we see “Retro, Family and Luna+”, there is wisdom in focussing on one element at a time. You see Nintendo is an established family brand, so there is a danger there. I am not stating that they should abandon it, I am stating that Amazon needs to play to its strengths. Luna+ with 134 games is a strength and adding a dozen of so titles in 2022 will add to strength. Yes, there is Microsoft boasting its game pass (for $15.95/month) making it 50% more expensive and as you see in many places, it is trying to fight Sony with its $119.99 annually (or $12 a month), and if that is not enough we also are given ‘Microsoft is moving ahead with an Xbox Game Pass Family Plan’, yes the king of spin is all about the message, but the rumblings are all over the place and it does not bring peace of mind. Microsoft is already moving to a new stack of attacks (Nintendo) all whilst Nintendo is feeling comfortable and perky. They have proven themselves a dozen times over, so Microsoft is not an issue for them. Sony is doing great, even as Microsoft is not releasing sales numbers, and they make claims that they are focussing on the Game pass, I wonder where they are playing that on, especially as they are ‘losing’ to Sony in a near 2.5:1 setting. Then we see that the younger players are smashing it on the Nintendo Switch At present they are at 91,000,000 Switch consoles sold. This implies that there is a chance that they are close to neck on neck with Sony and the Nintendo-Microsoft sales are (by some) estimated to be 10:1, a horrifying defeat for Microsoft. And that is the player you trust for a game pass? Lets be clear, the game pass is a really good deal, but it needs to be said that it cannot be the deciding factor for buying that console. Not when Sony and Nintendo are that far ahead of Microsoft. Yes, we saw the great news on how Microsoft is pouring billions into gaming, but the numbers do not add up, this is about data collection and a game pass and always online offer a great data collector stage. 

As such Microsoft is already clearly in a mere 3rd position, and now we see Amazon Luna slowly growing. I reckon that by December 2024 Microsoft is a mere 4th position player and that is before any deal between Amazon and Google is considered, at that point Microsoft will be a distant 5th, hoping to be counted among the gamers, but that group has had enough of the spin they were presented. 

Luna is about to become a contender and they have a setting and option to become a top three console and that opens up doors, doors for games and doors for a larger Luna station usage as long a they play to their strengths. As I see it, as long as they play an open game with their consumers they have the option to go a very long way, showing Microsoft yet again that spin is nice for internal messaging, but the gamers are catching on and Ubisoft was never part of any of these solutions. 

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April 1, 2022 · 19:10

The path overlooked

It is not some highway, it is. path, optionally regarded as a dirt road and we all overlook it. I did too, it was when I was dabbling with some arcane glyphs that the path opened to me, it was not some simple path, it has curves, it has a few potholes but it leads to billions (intentional plural). A stage I never considered and many with me represents billions and it is there for the taking. Amazon is the clearest path, but Google could wander onto that path too. Either stands to take home billions, but the one who wanders there first will have a clear advantage. Because it is all linked to resources and resources when gone are just gone. So there will be one clear winner and if I had to put money on either, I reckon it would most likely be Amazon. In the era of a new Xena we see the stage go from Hippolyta to whomever becomes the new militant wench. As stated, Amazon has a clear advantage here and I am refraining to write it all down here.  Simple, if it is a really good idea, you do not give it away for free. But I am not greed driven. So whomever buys the first IP bundle (which is priced at $50,000,000, including the Canada clause) gets this idea separately for 5% of the IP and trade value, no fee required for this IP but it is linked to the first bundle which allows the owner to sell 50,000,000 consoles with one software idea. That makes it $1 per console, there is of course a 10% IP and sales value linked to the first and second bundle, but that is fair dinkum. And because I believe in fairness, Microsoft cannot apply, they miss out. They are now in a position to prove that I was wrong, that they know what they are doing. Of course they do not and I will prove I am right, but the taste is so much sweeter when Microsoft ends up in 5th position with their console, behind Sony, Nintendo, Amazon and Google. The smell of my victory is nearly there and that is merely the beginning. I need to do nothing about their Surface thingamajig, Apple took care of that giggle. I need not act on their cloud solution, Amazon with AWS is already way past them there. I merely need to hand Adobe their incentive plan and Microsoft will lose a chunk of their 365 cloud office and they will lose more soon thereafter. It is not that they missed a path, they missed highway after highway and their marketing spin will not safe them now. Just the idea of setting the boulder dash in motion and that is not all, the new idea will add a whole lot more losses to some, particularly those who are not part of that solution. Billions upon billions and merely lost because no one was actually looking. And make no mistake, I missed that path just as much as all the others, but I am there now and the others are not. So am I merely late to the party, or am I about to become a trendsetter? I honestly do not know, but it is not out in the open, so I might be a trendsetter. I will let the buyer decide.

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March 31, 2022 · 23:40

Enraged two (or too)?

Yes, the previous stage that I gave to you in ‘Rage’ is not done yet. It was more than just a ramble, there was a lot of truth in there, but it was not about the setting, it was about the stage. You see, we have seen movies in that direction. Dutch, Swedish, American, and other nations have given us a movie in that direction, but NONE of them have ever considered a game in that direction. This all started when my mind took a dive into the games I played on the Gamecube and I suddenly remembered ‘Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s requiem’ and my mind took a wander. It dove straight of the deep end. The PS2 gave the people Bully, the Gamecube the game I just mentioned. But none of them gave the people a game about rage, about the insanity of rage.

Consider a game, that plays in a large city, not unlike the cities we see in Watchdogs, but here it is not about being special, it is quite the opposite. You are confronted with rage, a buildup of rage and in the beginning you can make the character play games, play sports and take frustration out in the boxing ring, but it does not work completely and as you are surrounded by elements, the rage buildup is more distinct, more profound. We can focus on the AI of an NPC, but it needs to be more, we need psychological elements to set the game in a direction. I have no illusions, most platforms will not go for this, but PC’s and streamers might. This has never been done before and I like games that were never done before, I like the originality and the effect it will have. Consider that political opposition that it will bring. Blaming games towards violence, whilst their own political ploys are exactly why this is happening. A game that gets the talking going on the ludicrous setting we face in every day life and the consideration that the people are never given. So what happens when you need to blow off steam and you cannot ever be seen doing this? In nations where CCTV is drowning the population (London), in places where social events are the tone setters to injustice (San Francisco/Los Angeles) and that is before we see the impact of population pressure (New York) and you, as a frustrated person needs to keep your sanity or be confined to less nice places where the insanity of rage is total. A game like that has never been made and perhaps it is time to make such a game. Perhaps it is time to introduce the people and the larger audience of the true settings that a lot of people face and the impact it tends to have on the frustration levels of people. I can guarantee you that it will not be a nice game, it will never be a game that gets the larger population across, but it can become a niche for a few million gamers, and that represents millions in revenue and the people are eager to play games, especially games that have never been made before. 

Now consider one of the most hated games Manhunt. A game that sold 1,700,000 copies. It represents well over 51,000,000 and consider that this game required an infusion of less than 15 million, so well over twice that amount was made and when did anyone turn down the option of making 300%+ of their investment? Now, there would be a risk, a game like this always has risk, but when you add elements, when you entice towards something never done before and you appeal to the teenage mind. It makes for an interesting setting and an optional side of revenue that many never considered. A stage I merely show here, so that the indie developers can get to work. Close to half a dozen IP gaming ideas in these blogs and it seems that it will take some time for people to catch on. There is a reason I played the cards in the way I did. My views have been increasingly correct and that should be enough, but it is not merely about what others make, it is a way to show that the age of big brands is ending. We look at Microsoft and Ubisoft, but it is not only them, that list is increasing and the larger players are losing track of where they were, of what they could do and that is one part of the stage that allows the indie developers to take hold and claim their slice of a $200,000,000,000 pie and whilst they grow, those who relied on created hype and spin end up with less, the world of gaming needs progress, actual progress, not what some claim is progress. That is the setting we see. Why do you think that people are going nuts over Elder Ring, Horizons Forbidden West and soon Hogwarts legacy. The gamer recognises a work of love. Some makers think that they can tell others what they should love, but when did that work out that way? Perhaps in 1985 when there were less than 20 games per year. Now that stage differs and we keep on getting more of the same. Even now a game less than 6 months old being sold for $39, a stage now essential to these brands because they could not deliver quality and this is as good as they can get it, so how will we see the next batch of games, the next batch of true original gaming? Sometimes we cannot rely on vanilla games, we need to go dark for someone to see the light and give us a next version of something totally new. Something they have never seen before and that is what Nintendo has done on the N64, Gamecube, Wii, and Switch. So to follow in the footsteps of the original makers they need to rely on thought and creativity, not to rely on the spin of the most powerful console in the world. It got defeated by the weakest console of them all (Nintendo Switch), so creativity is essential and perhaps taking it for a ride on a really dark road is not the worst idea to have. It all depends on the willingness to take a chance.

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March 30, 2022 · 19:06

Two paths to similar stages.

I had an idea today on a different stage of Customer service, a new setting of software, one that intertwines with CRM software and it allows any CRM agent to have a much better grasp of the conversation it is trying to have. The idea came out of nowhere and as my mind was iterating the same idea again and again, it started to add parts, it added ideas and it added concepts. At the centre of that heel was Adobe to some extent, but it was also a new iteration of contact management within CRM. We see the stages that some people state that they have something in that direction, but they do not. They have no earthly idea on what is required there. A stage that allows CRM, Customer Service, Technical support, Marketing and telesales use the SAME data set, but each their own merits, each their own powers and NO ONE has it, not to this degree. I was actually surprised that it took me so long. I worked in Technical support for decades, the path did not dawn on me until today. Actually I have been fighting that concept since I wrote ‘Pristine and weird’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/02/24/pristine-and-weird/) on February 24th 2022. You see, I talked on a few settings, but my mind saw that Adobe had a few other options as well and that started the thoughts in my mind, but not to the degree that happened today. Today my mind set out to make a much larger premise and a much larger stage for service locations, for CRM locations and for customer service agents. The stage evolved from nothing to a behemoth. And that stage is essential. I have seen presentations from all kinds of vendors and they keep on designing the same wheel. Why? Why did Microsoft not wake up when they had the chance? Now we see that Adobe has a much larger track setting in several regions on several train (and training) sets. And Microsoft never woke up. Weird, is it not?

But that is merely one side. My mind was reconsidering my article ‘Rings’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/03/27/rings/) where I was considering a new approach to RPG games in particular the NPC part. Yet there is a link between the two. If we reconsider the image (from the Arrival), what happens when we ‘see’ these rings as tracks on a stick, but not s a record, as individual rings and they are linked through paths of the NPC character and the emotions that they show. Bright, dark and shimmer modes. Each mode with its own connections to the ring of a word and connected stance of that NPC. Today’s systems cannot cope with this at present but there is no saying what the PS6 will be able to do and even as I give a reflection of what we see, the storage of it will be another puzzle entirely. We need to consider different paths, different approaches to data and to what is available. You see AI is not ready, but elements of it are and no matter the amount of data a NPC faces, when every NPC becomes a shallow circuit, the reality of that NPC will be so confusing to the mind of the gamer, that he will no longer be able to tell the difference between single player and multi player games, because all the NPC characters will become so human and optionally humane that the gamer becomes overwhelmed and there is another upside. The NPC could become linked to any gamer allowing for evolution of that NPC. The gamers will be unaware but it evolves NPC characters still having its own responses, its own actions, but through shallow circuits they become too human to the mind of the gamer. Now take that part and see how deeper learning allows for a CRM setting that gives any agent the top responses that connects to the people they talk to. The Customer Service agent will come from “How can we assist you with answering the questions you have?” The marketing agent gives them “How can we assist you gaining a better understanding of your customers?” The Telesales agent will give them “If we can offer a solution that enables solving this issue, would it become a real solution for you, or is there anything more that you need to enable your targets?” Different department heads, different divisions, one data set and enabled and managed by one manager per division setting the claim of their expertise. Not one system does that, why not? And Microsoft has had decades to go there, but they did not, now systems are going towards the larger Adobe stage and their cloud solutions and when they connect to CRM systems they will have a much larger upper hand than they ever had before. A stage ignored, it was not sales enough, it was not revenue enough and it was no real solution. I have seen all the excuses going back to 1990, yet with the cloud the people were so driven to be on the cloud that they forgot that the customers in the cloud evolved their needs to and when we see Adobe and Amazon Web Services evolve, we see Microsoft falling further and further behind. And whilst Forbes gave us three days ago ‘Zero-Day Windows 10/11 Hack Left Unfixed For Seven Months And Counting’ (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2022/03/26/microsoft-windows-11-windows-10-hack-attack-zero-day-new-windows-update/) we see that not only  does Microsoft have larger issues, there is every chance they are losing too much ground to remain innovative or iterative for that matter, It seems a larger stage is opening up and Microsoft becomes the joker (it cannot participate in the game of bridge that follows). 

A stage that opens a weird connection between games and CRM, but they are both about connecting to the consumer/gamer, so it is not that weird. 

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March 27, 2022 · 23:05

Rings

We see them, we are confronted with them, we embrace them and we reject them. Yet weirdly enough, for the most we never ignore them. You see the circle is its beginning and end anywhere on the circle. We have accepted this long before we started to set our faith to wedding rings. Yet in the last few days I have been thinking through the ring process. It matter not why it was done, yet that it was done is still important to some degree. As I was considering the stages of pipelines (sales tracks), life cycles (marketing tracks) and circular service level agreements, I suddenly realised (to coin a phrase)  that games and gaming is not set to such a track. It makes sense, and at the same time it does not. A game is like a painting there are no cycles, there is no repetition and weirdly enough I suddenly found a painting that represents my thoughts. The image below is a ring, a cycle. (Unfortunately, I have no idea who made the painting)

But we see a third dimension and optionally a fourth dimension as well. That dimension cannot be seen, but we feel it is there. I reckon that Hogwarts Legacy unleashed a little more than I bargained for. I think it started when I saw the movie Arrival (2016) with Jeremy Renner and Amy Adams. The language shown in the movie started something in me. Not about aliens, that was clear for decades. Do you think that people really look like Dennis Rodman, for real? (LOL). No It is not about the people, it was about the language we were shown. So when you get that we take a sidestep. You might have heard of chainmail, but do you know how the rings are made? 

So as we see the rings, we take another gander towards that alien language, but now we take a sidestep, consider that every sentiment is in a ring, but more than merely sentiment and language, it become aa stage of digital markers as well, like a polyphonic approach to language and sentiment, vocal intonation. You see, we think of games, we think of NPC characters, but the need for NPC characters to become less singular dimensional becomes increasingly important and there lies the rub, you see we think of today’s emotion whilst relying on recording and programming stages that are decades old and something will have to give. 

And even as it (for now) seems impossible and largely overplayed, do you really think that this is far fetched when the PS6 comes and whatever Microsoft (if they still exist) has? We need to be thinking not merely of the games that come out in 2022, we need to think about the games that need to be made with a release date of 2030. And should we come close to the station of some kind of true AI, what we now have does not even come close to what is required and using yesterdays solutions will not cut the butter. As such my mind went wondering on the sound of the voice. If we cannot tell what is truth now, what do you think will happen next year? The only way to beat this is to look at new and innovative ways to find a way to store and retrieve them. The blue painting help me realise that and even if that solution is for now out of reach, the idea that we limit ourselves today on what CAN be done will result in a tomorrow that never comes, but Microsoft will soon learn that lesson the hard way, 50% of that happening is merely 1-2 steps away at present. And suddenly some other parts come to mind, but that is for another day, but I can tell you that it involves a stick (for now).

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March 27, 2022 · 15:16

Skill to kill

Yes, very bright, is it not? But in the last few days I have been mulling over the RPG game I out here on my blog over the last few months and whilst playing Horizon: Forbidden West something stuck in my mind. 

You see something got stuck there and the skill tree is fine for THAT game, but for me, for the player it had drawbacks. It is not the game, it is within the game, and that is fine, but consider that  you play in such an open world. In that open world you tend to go in one direction. I tend to go the way of the sneaky archer. And that game limits what you as a sneak can do. This is not a weakness, it is not a flaw and they did NOTHING wrong. But the thought was in my head and stayed there.

So then we saw the smallest piece of Hogwarts Legacy and they gave us another path. In that path we are given:

Now, that is also a path we see, but my mind started blending the two elements. You see we get the stage of limitations, we get the stage of directions, but we often miss the blending of choices and there we ultimately see the stage where some are given the tendency to unlock EVERY skill. But that is not realistic, it is also counterproductive. So what if a game gets another edge. Consider that CCG games in the past had a limited version and a generic version. The limited version was black or silver, the factory set was gold (a factory set is a complete set of all cards bought at beginning). Now consider that we connect skills to a trait like the CCG game Illuminati did.

In that game we saw the head you ‘ruled’ in this example ‘Shangri La’ (see below), it can connect to any card, in this example we use a card named ‘Big Media’

As you can see it connects from a higher card on one side and connect to THREE sides to smaller skills. Now some have 0 connectors, some have one and a few will have two, but YOU decide the application of that skill. Now consider we go back to the first card, it is in the game not called ‘Shangri-La’, but ‘Covert’ and we have 2 of those cards in the beginning of the game ‘Covert’ and ‘Overt’, now we have archery which is (comparing to Big Media) not 4/4, but 2/3 It can connect to 2 stacks and enforce three connecting skills. In addition any card can be upgraded. The Big Media resistance will be its own power. So over time that number goes up (as you become a more skill-full archer), now consider that we end up with 4/5 stacks Covert, Overt, Social, Commerce, Faith and Govern. Six elements and you have either 4 or 5 stacks so something has to give and in the beginning you only have two stacks, so it will be about choices. How will you decide? 

And there is no better choice here, it will be about YOUR choice as you play the game. Now consider that as you get awarded cards through levelling or quests, you get new options and alternative options. For example the covert archer will level up having a larger chance of getting the scout card, the scout card can evolve into a mapping card, the edge and back of the card now represents a map, yes, we all forgot about the back of the card, but in a game, in a digital environment that side has options. And as the mapping option becomes available to select you see that mapping has benefits in the commerce side, especially if you gain art cards. There is still place for improvement (there always is) but when did you see a game that gave you CHOICES to evolve skills and adapt them in any way YOU could? I have been busting my mind and I saw no such options, not in ANY game and that is the power of versatility. It now becomes a side we never saw coming, but there is more.

What if I set that option aside like I did when I designed the Amazon Luna achievement keys? What if playing a game of chess allows you to gain the strategist card to apply to this game? It is just a thought but in that setting we get a stage that skill in one side enhances another? I do not think it is a great idea, but it could apply to cosmetic sides of the game. We could add a whole range of options. As we go forth we can also add cards, or evolve abilities with a black border (Covert only), white border (overt only) or gold border (commerce only), so kill shot would be covert only and if we evolve this over time the border becomes green, or brown and it an be applied to both covert or overt. And when we see this we can concentrate on higher end card, as they bolden all cards connected to them. In this there is one more stack, the homestead stack. As I state before we can influence to some degree, but if we add the homestead stack and we allow for levelling points to this stack the overall setting improves in town and that setting opens up a whole new range of options (and limitations). 

It is just one side of a game that is not ready yet, but consider who else has this and more important, which RPG allows for this? 

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March 26, 2022 · 18:45

Chaos on the brain

Yup that was me alright this morning. It started actually pretty good, I was enjoying some tea (yes I drink that every now and then), I was enjoying being in my bonnet and behold, a thought passed me by. It was a mix of Queen, a thought of Ted (the teddy) and things started to click. You see, when I grew up (a really long time ago) I got my hands on some Flash Gordon comics and the mix started to rattle. 

I loved it, it was just different. So I was a fan before Queen, Sam J. Jones and Melody Anderson decided to have a go at Max von Sydow. I loved the music, the movie all because the comic woke something up. Even nowadays, I miss the comics, I can still enjoy the Queen album (they truly outdid themselves) and the movie was for a 1980 movie quite enjoyable. But something was missing. You see, now we have the streamers and they could transform the original comics into something dark, gritty and closer resembling the comics. Who? I have no idea, but Amazon, Hulu and Netflix should seriously consider it. No matter who wins, if they can make it truly dark and more resembling the comics, they could have a large win on their hands, merely my point of view. Nothing more. So whilst that process started chaos came knocking on my display. It was Hogwarts Legacy (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AZmuZNu5LA) and it blew me away. Not by a little either. Even now as I am still enjoying Horizon: Forbidden West, I cannot stop thinking of what Avalanche Software has set in motion. What I saw was unique and flawless.  I plays a century before the Hogwarts we know and it works out that way. Yes, we recognise parts, we see things and creatures from all kind of places, but there is so much new to be seen, so much art in nearly every screen that I believe that on view alone, it will drive millions of Harry Potter fans insane with the need to get this game. Yes, I heard about the critique, I cannot say how I feel as I avoided (intentionally or not) most of the information as it was too far from release date. So whatever goblin issue there was the clip I pasted was my first introduction to the game and it looks utterly stunning. So even as some will say, I saw that. I avoided the 2018 leaks, I see no need to get hung up on something 4 years before release, and I still believe that. I saw some teasers that were released, and now some real stuff and this game could optionally set a new bar for many game developers. First Guerrilla, now Avalanche and Ubisoft cannot release anything to that level of gaming as I personally see it. Can you not see that Ubisoft is about to become a ‘has been’, like Microsoft (just a thought). So why the link?

I believe that any new IP, could be linked. Could transgress from comic to both games and series and here the path for Amazon becomes a lot more clear, but there is nothing stopping Netflix to seek an alliance with a real hungry and futuristic software house to unite and create both using one design and art team. There really is no need to reinvent the wheel and nowadays these wheels are a lot closer alike and a lot closer together than was the case in the past. 

In this fantasy and science fiction seem to be more easily adapted to both stages than others, but that is merely a personal view. And in this, what happens when you consider what games like Horizons: Forbidden West and optionally Hogwarts Legacy allows for. So what happens when the world of Flash Gordon become a much larger RPG styled game than ever before? It goes further than this. Consider Hansel and Gretel. Not the fairy tale, but the movie that gave us a bad ass Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton. Now consider the environment. Take Southern Germany, a map that maps Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria in the 11th century. And the Black Forest is only a small part of Baden-Württemberg. Now consider what you need to do to become a famous witch hunter. And optionally the golden Emma Watson statue if you kill more witches than anyone else (no need to avoid humour, is there?) And consider the era, the first Crusades are in full swing, so there is an abundance of criminals and charlatans, there are corrupt officials and in that stage you will need to put your stamp. And it does not come easy. In the movie they had the weapons, but in this game you will not get far without the help and alliance of a really nice blacksmith and they only work for coins. We are so gung-ho about the kill-shot that we forgot that before we get to do that kill-shot a lot more needs to happen. Would it work? I honestly do not know, but in this day and age, the larger entertainer and the larger holder of a unique piece of IP has a much better chance than all others. Guerrilla showed that and believe it or not, I believe (from what I saw) that Hogwarts Legacy is on that same track. Avalanche did something really good and I cannot wait to find out. And if I had to choose? I honestly do not know. I would look forward to all three games and it has been a while since more than one game was on my list. At present HFW is just so fulfilling, it is almost scary. 

But that too is part of gaming, the anticipation and finding out that it was well warranted, Ubisoft used to be like that, but now it seems the new software makers are on that path whilst the old makers are exiting the stage on the left side.

Chaos is on my brain, but it comes from a weird mix of the old, the new and what might be, and in the stage of a place that now has more than 20,000 castles? I reckon that any witch would want one, so there is a reason to play this in southern Germany and there is no reason to think that the map is limited to merely there. In 5 years, no telling what systems are capable of in 2027/2028.

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