Category Archives: Gaming

Mental explosion

It just happened to me (about three hours ago) ad it is not the first time. I was watching a YouTube video by the Harry Potter collector (aka Peter Kenneth) and as I was watching I heard something. I  wasn’t sure what he said and it turned out that I misheard him. 

But this is not the first time it happens. I have had this before. Whatever Peter Kenneth said, it triggered something and my mind went into overdrive. I don’t know what he said, but my mind made different connections and as my mind took over, I started redesigning and redesigning until my mind ended up with a dumb smart device, also known as a singular purpose device. And as my mind took over evolution after evolution I just continued and after three hours (about 20 minutes ago) I ended up with a 4 station smart setting. All in a days work. Now, it is in part reengineered and I reckon that Universal has the programming ready (apart from the small settings I added) I introduced a new setting that could bring Amazon and Universal billions in revenue. You see, there are a few hundred million of Harry Potter fans. This is not something they all want, but a large group will. It doesn’t matter if they are avid or casual fans, there is a real market that could rake in billions of dollars. A 2023 Statista survey found that 46% of GenZers in the US identified as avid fans of the Harry Potter movie franchise. Another Statista survey showed that 44% of US adults surveyed considered themselves avid fans. (Source: Google), as such that sets in America the setting of over 150,000,000 and when we add Europe we should get over a quarter of a billion fans. So, I reckon that this could be a nice break for both Amazon and Universal. 

So what is this idea?

Well, it involves wands and I will tell Universal when they come over the bridge with some cash (we all have needs and I am no exception to this) but I reckon that after these tariff issues, Universal will lose millions and I reckon that they might be hungry for this idea (Amazon too) because as I see it, a good idea in these days is worth its weight in gold (darn, I just lost 50 pounds). But as I see it, the setting could earn me some cash. I will leave it up to them. 

So have a great day and never ignore the crazy ideas that pop up in the back of your head.

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Time testing

We all do that at times, especially when we are about to make a financial commitment. And today I got my test (partially). The setting comes from 1996 when I got my Nintendo 64 and Mario Kart 64. I was not the first on that track, but that track never stopped amazing me and I got plenty of value from a game that costs me $79 at that time. 

In time I bought more of these titles. The GameCube edition, the Wii edition and that was it. I stopped from getting it on the initial Switch, but that was merely as my funds dried up (low bank balance), we all know what that feels like. Yet this time around the kart fever sets in strong.

See what you are about to face (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq4uCJDwO9U)

The sites you see are phenomenal, and I get that some will say “I’ve seen this before in brand X” and that might be true, but to see it all interactive, see it all in a family setting and set to Nintendo IP is a whole new experience. 

Screenshot

Some of these other games (not naming names as there is nothing wrong with them) have one, two or three of these parts. Nintendo’s version has them all. Courses and knockout in the ring, or on ‘real world’ driving between tracks and the larger setting is that you can have 4 teams with up to 24 players, a definite first and it goes on and on and on. Consider that the kids can have game-chat and chase each other on this game, or merely play together with family members. This game has it all. 

I reckon this is the first reason in a while to get a console because of a game and that is not nothing. It shows Nintendo is still the unquestioned gaming champion out there. As such in June 5th the console comes out and there is the option to have the console with the game for $80 dollars more, which means that either the console or the game gets a nice discount. As I see it, this is a game changer for Nintendo. Apart from all the stuff they released with the switch, they are adding levels of innovation that hasn’t been seen since Sony released the PS3. Don’t get me wrong, the PS4 and PS5 were excellent products, but the gaming increase that we saw from PS2 to PS3 was pretty much amazing and the move from Switch to Switch 2 is showing a lot more that that. I actually didn’t think that my gaming universe could be rocked to this degree, but Nintendo pulled it off. So get ready because the moment of rocking your world is a mere 6 weeks away. 

As I see it, get ready for Nintendo to move markers to awesome and it will be a hard pill to swallow for Sony (Microsoft is no longer relevant), because Nintendo is flexing its gaming muscles and they have become awesome. At present the total lifetime sales for Sony’s PS5 has now reached 76 million units, I reckon that it will take for the Nintendo less than 13 months to equal that number, a setting we saw, we also partially expected this, but to see it due to one game is a new experience, but there you have it and that is a first day release product. I wonder what more they have in store for us. Time for me to find some dineros.

Have a great day and take some time to play a video game, any video game. Smell the roses through your controller and see what’s out there.

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As markets floats a new idea

I was reading up on how the markets were doing. Not that I really have any interest, but the actions of President Trump make it essential to keep notice. The larger setting is important and that kinda gave me an idea. So as Microsoft and Ubisoft are hunkering down on iterating the IP they have, I saw the beginning of another IP coming. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy with the remake of Oblivion. It was great IP, the reason why I bought the Xbox360 and a setting I enjoyed for over 3000 hours of gameplay. Once to do the story, the second time to find everything that was possible to find and I found plenty more and after that I played to get my character at 100% (100 in the properties and skills) I didn’t get there, but I got it to 90%+ it was harder then I thought, but it was fun while it lasted. As such Microsoft will get money from Oblivion and Fallout 3, they bought it, they are entitled to it. Bethesda created two massive blockbusters, so as I heard that we get Oblivion next week the first question I had was “Did they reprise the role by Sir Patrick Stewart?

So back to the core of it all, I saw “The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 699.57 points, or 1.73%, closing at 39,669.39. The S&P 500 dropped 2.24% to end at 5,275.70, led down by the information technology sector. The Nasdaq Composite pulled back 3.07% to close at 16,307.16. The tech-heavy index ended the day about 19% off its closing high, sliding closer to bear market territory. Shares of Nvidia sank 6.9% after the chip giant said it will post a $5.5 billion quarterly charge related to exporting its H20 graphics processing units to China and other nations.” The loss is seemingly profound (I am not an economist), but I noticed something in the byline. You see, it is the part of “related to exporting its H20 graphics processing units to China and other nations”, so as Americans are so ‘elated’ with their AI, Nvidia moves its H20 graphics processing units to China and other nations. I reckon that is another slap for this in the foot shooting President. So as the tariffs come to a larger setting, how much more expensive will Nvidia solutions become?

As we continue to get the bad press of the tariffs, as we get more and more bad impacts on the American economies, like tourism, or the USA Today giving us allegations of insider trading (see yesterdays article) people are starting to wonder what the hell they elected in the first place. 

I, one the other hand had a really weird dream and the beginning of a new IP. In this dream I was in a dead town, it seemed to be in the regions of New Mexico. The town was empty,  stripped, and the place looked empty. The people were gone, anything of value was seemingly gone. Seemingly was the right description. I cane to a room filled with people. It was a workout room and it had about 20 people in there. As I came closer they were robots, looking exceedingly yummy in their workout outfits. The men were ribbed and handsome, the women well shaped and some marvel superhero dream of what women looked like, there was even a model looking like Gal Gadot in her wonder woman outfit, and yes, she was complete ;-), or was that ;-)… ? (Yes, that was a sexual reference) When I turned on the lights they started to move like in some exercise routine, the lights went on and then off a few seconds later. A few second later more the light turned on again, but now dimmed. The robots continued their exercise. I looked at them, but they didn’t look at me, they were simply empty glared. I walked on and I got to a desk with an elderly woman. She looked at me and bid me welcome. Was I interested in buying equipment, robots or merchandise. She did not have many merchandise she stared at me and told me “we do have your size” she looked at me awaiting an answer. I merely looked at her for a few seconds, she looked away and looked at her desk with a larger display pad where she wrote things down.

This is the setting I saw and I started to see the setting and I thought that the game Portal (by Rob Swigart) 1986 was a pretty unique setting and worthy of rebooting. I tried to do this in 2011, but three weeks later I got the boot from my boss, and no not because of this, I did this at home and I was planning to reboot the CBM Amiga original to set this to Flash, which would have been more then ample to do this. My plan crashed but the idea never did. So this is a setting where you are an alien who crash-land on the planet and in an attempt to learn where you are, you are the one in New Mexico and the robots might not seem intelligent but their programming is the continuation of the species on this planet. We now get to a Battlestar Galactica setting where the Cylons are the human remains and the game portal is setting up the game premise. Instead of the screen being the stage, the setting are that you open 12 locations (over time) and as you start in New Mexico, you are given more locations over time. The portals you open position you from location to location and as you learn more, you will interface the computers and other ways to a work desk near a portal. As the story evolves, you will interface these computers so that the workstations on any location will have all the information that the original location has. And as you find more and more computers and robots the story evolves. I think that whomever makes this story (and game) should involve Rob Swigart as it is his original IP, even reengineered, I would never steal the original idea. It is his IP that created whatever I had in mind. I merely put it in a 3D single player environment and added locations and as the game gets the 12 locations, you get to explore the location, you get additional requirements and you see a post nuclear era, the stories that are in the computer and the revelations outside of the computer. As such I created a new IP, one that sets the premise of finding explorable locations and investigate places.  

Not a bad day, got myself a new idea and Microsoft seemingly is merely predigesting old ideas. I don’t fault them this, Oblivion is one of the most appealing IP ideas that we have had in 20 years only surpassed by Skyrim which Bethesda launched 5 years later. So it is what I would have done initially as well. Just funny that I create a new idea that could be the next place that gamers seek (when they are not lusting over the Metroid Prime games and their upcoming Switch 2). 

So I feel pretty dandy, have a great day.

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Food for thought

I knew I saw it correctly, or at least I think I did. Greed is eternal and it is always on the edge of what others think is ‘creatively sneaky’ or merely ‘adaptable innovatively wealth bringing’ it is what we can see (to an extent) as the new ‘nouveau riche’ or what some call “people who have recently acquired wealth, typically those perceived as ostentatious or lacking in good taste” and I would add to that part ending with “in good taste” with “in good taste and lacking proper ethicality” because as some will deflect “insider trading” it might be harder to prove as insider trading is hard to reflect on settings that are a mere speculation of a situation and that is where we get to the article that USA Today gave us on April 14th 2025 (at https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/14/marjorie-taylor-greene-stocks-trump-tariffs/83087826007/) and that is where I get to my article ‘The fifth branch’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/04/08/the-fifth-branch/) which I wrote nearly a week earlier on April 8th where I wrote “The entire tariff setting never made sense, unless it was by design and tariff on a Mc Donald Island (with only one CIEIO) and a lot of penguins, so that the President can claim medicine imbalance. In the meantime unknown ‘friends’ of his when the markets are at their lowest, buy what they can.” With the added “Even at 1% that is 30 billion and I doubt they will make that much, they will make enough to have their dream retirement at 40-50, something they never thought possible ever. But there you have it and the larger setting is that when the dust settles most offices cannot investigate as too many offices has lost their staff. A weird but not impossible setting.” And now almost a week later we get ‘Marjorie Taylor Greene bought stock before market jumped on Trump tariff pause’ with the subtext “Less than four hours before pausing for 90 days the individual nation tariffs on April 9, Trump told his followers on Truth Social, “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!” The White House said the post reflected the president’s responsibility “to reassure the markets and Americans about their economic security.”” I don’t sound so crazy now, do I?

So when we consider “That same day, Greene − one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress − bought between $10,000 and $150,000 worth of stock in companies such as Adobe, Apple, NVIDIA, Palantir and Cummins. The day before, on April 8, Greene had purchased another $11,000 to $165,000 of stock in Amazon, FedEx, JP Morgan Chase, Lululemon, Nike, Qualcomm, Tesla and other companies. She also sold between $50,000 and $100,000 worth of U.S. Treasury bills.” Doesn’t it sound nice? So, how much money did she make? And how many others followed that example? The new ‘Nouveau Riche’ are likely to be all MAGA Americans, what a way to throw the new directions into a less credible direction? And this gives me pause to consider a much darker setting for America. You see, if Russia and China figured this out, then they see that the America administration had become greed driven and that is a very predictable setting. I saw this a week before the papers (USA Today) caught on and when did the others catch on? So what do China and Russia have planned? As this plays out they could set the premise to a larger scale, merely as I foresaw that Greed is predictable. So as we also get “Members of Congress have up to 45 days to disclose any stock purchases, which means other members of Congress may have also bought or sold stock shortly before the president changed his tariff policy but have not yet disclosed it.” And as I see it the statement of “The purchases, made public in a federal disclosure on April 11, come as Democrats call for an investigation into whether Trump participated in insider trading.” It is my believe that the laws might not suffice as the law never considered a President setting the premise we just saw. So was President Trump the fool, the baboon (as some call him) or was he deceitfully clever? I let you decide on this and make sure you realise that these market crashes were seemingly set in motion to change the power of money where it wasn’t before. 

And before you call me crazy, I predicted this danger before it happened and as USA Today now gives us, it apparently did happen.

So have a great day and realise that some will have a great day at the expense of others. In the meantime I gave Canadians three days before I wrote ‘The Fifth Branch’ in the story ‘A political game’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/04/05/a-political-game/) where I give the Canadians a free idea to create a video game and as such one person (or one team) gets a chance to create a video game. A game that might make them some money the old way, through innovative thinking. No markets needed to be manipulated. 

So have a great day and as I end my midweek in 29 minutes. Vancouver still has 18 hours to make the most of their midweek.

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The art of evolution

We don’t realise, but we accept certain responses if we play a game, even an RPG. The talk back from the NPC is almost always the same. We tend to ignore that setting as a trigger to start a mission. Why? It is because it is expected. But what happens when that is no longer the case? What if a Chatbot becomes part of that system? We get what some would call a more natural setting to gaming. So we see in these ‘games’ the expected return of parameters. But what if that is no longer the case? I talked in the past about language games. Learn Latin, Greek, Italian, English and perhaps even Japanese in new ways? I talked about the placement in Rome, the setting could become that asking the question of a priest gives you the answer in Latin, so you get a new setting added. But in this case, the NPC setting is his intelligence. As such

I picture it as a setting 0-10, but the interaction could be that the farmer, or the help will a low setting, the range of a tradesman or shopkeeper might be higher and others (wealthy, educated) would be high. The game now has grades of interaction, a more natural setting that we might see naturally. The idea that the farm help gives you “The man with refined eduction is traversing to the Town Square” is ludicrous, but that is where we are and it is no longer a setting we should embrace, especially when you emerge into gaming and with linguistic based games it will matter. As I was mentally designing a Latin based game. I set the interactions around the life of Marcus Aurelius. Apart from the guards that might not allow interaction with the Roman Emperor, we now get a localization issue. You can only have a decent chance to interacts with him if he is at the library, forum or a public place. You still need to be able to get close to him, but that is a different problem. This is specific, but the interactions with NPC will not depend on who you approach and your answer is set to his intelligence. There would be an entire cog of interactions and the usefulness of the answer. I find it a little weird that it took this long for RPG’s to evolve to this degree. We tend to forget that Bethesda set the marker ‘high’ even as some of these games are already over a decade old and even newer games are set to the system that a game like Skyrim introduced. With chatbot based systems we now have a much more natural interaction of the game and the idea of setting this to a chatbot has been overlooked, as the game might seem unyielding, but chatbots can be set and having NPC’s intelligence or even intelligence with a social element.

We might get the response that this is too advanced, which translates into “We can’t be bothered” and that is where the levels of interaction differ. We need to expect more of games, not what is the setting that some like to respond to, but gaming is about sitting just beyond the borders what we can conceive and relying on Skyrim, a game 15 years old has passed now. Don’t get me wrong, Skyrim is still as interacting as anything we see released next month in RPG gaming, but that is massively wrong. And consider that this system when added to an older game like Skyrim, could ignite gaming desires. For now I have considered a more natural interaction when we consider learning languages this way and as the world stands we might have to consider this sooner than later. As we see education cuts all over the world (America and United Kingdom mostly) but it doesn’t stop there and that was why I thought of the Ubisoft interactions in games and as languages could be taught in this way with a whole range of languages (and social skills) we see that people can catch up in their own time (my sneaky setting that a Playstation 5pro could be an excellent mandatory school item) I can dream too. But the setting that there is a larger need justifies the interactions and setting interaction to a much higher level might throw the people in a more justified interaction, especially if we can see how social skills become part of the learning game. In this RPG gaming gets a leg up in many ways. 

To make these game more natural is a solid first and we all interact with NPC’s in numerous ways, so lets make language interaction more natural and more enticing. Mainly because a game with fixed responses loses its appeal after a few times, but natural language skills will keep you emergingly entertained and alert for a much longer time. 

Ain’t it great? So have a great day and rest assured, we all enjoy a more natural interaction in gaming, even those who do (at present) not give it a second thought. That too is the power of innovation. When you get confronted with it, you will wonder why you never thought of it before.

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Crossroads to the past

At this time the world is waiting what insanity goes our way. The tariffs are here, the news is shouting against each other trying to get the audience to listen to ‘their’ version of what is likely to be. I gave my view in the past and so far I see nothing to change my mind. An additional side was given to my mind when I considered what the friends of President Trump would do. When you know that negative impacts are coming, such a revelation is nearly as successful as making a killing in the markets on things that go right. As markets are shedding billions (up to now, over 8 trillion has been written off) and I reckon that someone was making a killing all on their own.

Still, that is not my problem. The benefits of being poor, no stock to worry about. Still my mind gave me an idea.

You see all whilst I was considering my next challenge (I am currently walking the length of the UK) and my next challenge will be Iceland (1332 km).

It came to me as I had a few thoughts (none related to markets) and the setting as I saw them gave me an idea. The setting is set around Google who found a way to use the thermal energy to power a new data centre and the idea is that with the water around Iceland being used to cool the systems. Google had a novel way to have a data centre that could connect both Canada and the United States to Europe and the UK, the possibilities are without limits. Yet as the building goes on, a person gets ‘infected’ by a group of Light Elves (Ljósalfar). That person get visions and goes off the rails. He is sent to the UK to recover, but the problems are slowly increasing. A second person also gets ‘infected’ but reacts better to it and this starts the unification between man and elf. 

My mind is still working out a few kinks in the cables as they come to mind. One of these is that these Icelandic houses (for elves) as they were build were ‘infected’ with talismans to bind elves and that remains a ‘mystery’ in the story. And I reckon that the end goal are the Norns, the Nordic fates had moved to Iceland. The three goddesses known as Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld, who weave the threads of fate and tend to the world tree. But their powers are set in 6 jewels. A ring and a necklace that each of the three had. The women are not there, but their jewels are. And the elves are the only one who could see where they are. 

The idea is to map out Iceland in near perfection a whole island to investigate (a small wink towards Midwinter) The idea is to have a new kind of RPG, mostly stealth based (which makes for a non-weaponized game. But the setting are evolving in my mind and I have an idea to make the game more technology minded and also intertwining with mythological sides. Still too much to figure out. And it is fun, Microsoft gives us “Our 23 game development studios focus on delivering great games for everyone, wherever they play”, I on the other hand are a mere person who set out the creation of gaming IP by myself and I created the setting of close to 15 games, so how many games did they create? How many are on the minds of gamers? I bet there are a few but how many people are involved with ‘these’ games. 23 studios? Should be at least 50-100. Me and my mere simple lonely person did it all myself. No matter what happens. I feel decently proud to have been able to create all this IP (and other hardware IP). I remained creative whist other do whatever they do. 

I shouldn’t play my own harp, but at this point I created at least 3 unique original IP and that is nothing to be humble about. And this game I merely thought into existence today. I feel proud of my own abilities at this time. And I haven’t even decided whether this could be a game or a movie.

Time to create another chapter I reckon, not sure where my creativity will lead me. Have a great day.

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A political game

You know the setting for President Trump with his tariffs are out there. As only 4 hours ago we got word (via Reuters) that another $5 trillion has been wiped of the markets (at https://www.reuters.com/markets/global-markets-stress-graphic-pix-2025-04-04) we saw another piece of news at NBC (at https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nintendo-switch-2-pre-orders-us-delayed-trumps-tariffs-rcna199729) giving us ‘Nintendo Switch 2 preorders in U.S. delayed because of Trump’s tariffs’ and my cogs started to think. The population of Seattle is around 4,018,762. Now if only 10% wants to get a Nintendo Switch 2 (I reckon that number is much higher) we end up with 400,000 Washingtons wanting that novel contraption and as such the option for Vancouver to get an additional 2 billion in revenue seems clear. And a smuggling game emerged from my brain. The setting is around the interstate bridge ad connect that to a classical game named Frogger and the setting is near complete.

In this setting we get the frog to make it to the other side. Now we change the setting to:

Here we see the interstate bridge, like frogger (now in a north south setting) we move from truck/car to truck/car, the slow vehicles get its there and the fast vehicles get us there faster. And there seems no real challenge and the blue rectangle is the part we see in the game, so the game scrolls. 

Now we get to the border, the guards move from left to right (the don’t care about the Canadian side), if the guard spots you you are royally screwed and you are out $800, if not you pass and you gain $1500. Now on the way back you get by taxi, but here you can skip from taxi to taxi as they pass, if there is a Maga cap in that taxi, it is yours and when you wear the cap for a second trip the border patrol ignores you when you wear a Maga cap. The task is to smuggle as many as Switch 2 consoles as possible. And you can team up, each their own game, but the scores are shown I reckon 2 (or 4 in true Switch 2 mode). In higher levels the guard move faster and the gaps between cars/trucks increase a little. So, we should thank President Trump to give us a lovely smuggle game. We can improve the game in many ways, like adding fentanyl shipments, which gives us a bonus bump (like times 5), so that the profit goes to $7500, however if you are caught you are stopped for 30 seconds and that is where the opponents get 30 seconds of optional gains. There are a few other things you can do, but I leave that to you. I hand over this idea to the clever Canadian with programming skills. It is an Australian ‘Gudday’ to our Canadian brothers and sisters (the she-form of the male can program just as good as the man can). 

How life can throw you a bonus? Well here you have it and there is not a Trump in sight to stop you. And as I go to enjoy the weekend now, I dream of desperate traders throwing themselves off buildings as their fortunes melted away among the trillions in market value. Trump might have stated ““Hang tough,” he urged his followers on social media. “We can’t lose.”” (Source: BBC), but the desperate and greed driven never hang tough, when the reaper comes reaping, the greed driven become suicidal. A simple lesson from life (1929 to 1939, the great depression where 7% committed suicide). 

So have a great day and when the stocks bite, pray you have a Canadian son/daughter who can program. This me having a spell of additional dark humor.

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N is for?

That is what I saw yesterday. Nintendo. I remember the Switch presentation and that was awesome and as I predicted, it overtook 3 yeas of Microsoft in a mere 14 months. At present they have sold over 150 million consoles, which is 500% of the Microsoft consoles sold, which also represents twice the amount of the Sony Playstation 5. That’s innovation at work, that is pure gamers joy. And now (say yesterday) they introduced the new console, the Switch 2 and it was pure joy to see buckets of innovation added to a great console. Its almost like watching the evolution of Playstation 1 to Playstation 2 all over again. I feel so giddy at present.

Let that not be the stopping power of wannabe reviewers with YouTube headlines like ‘Nintendo Switch 2 Is Disappointing’, ‘Nintendo Switch 2 Hands-on: An Exciting, Costly Sequel’ or ‘Nintendo Just Confused Everyone With The Switch 2’, these voices don’t matter. First off the presentation was clear. Three executives showed the Nintendo Switch 2 clearly and gave us buckets of innovation. First there is the chat button, where you can chat in the game with friends, or out of the game with friends. For parents there is a parental control for younger player, so they thought of almost everything. You can group chat in game (like Mario Kart World), every friend (up to 4) their own character and pose at times together for the in game picture. Then if you decide to include the camera (extra accessory) you can appear in the game at the bottom with audio, which has been given the option to reduce noise, so just the voice comes through. Clarity in its best form. As a Sony lover I am sad that they are overtaken by Nintendo and that trend will continue only with a much larger gap between Sony and Nintendo but that is the effect of true innovation and I am not sad for one second. I have my Switch 1 next to my PS5 and that is fine. 

So why is that good?
Because in 2002 Nintendo gave me Metroid Prime, an action adventure for the GameCube and now 23 years later that same game (remastered on Nintendo Switch) still gives me the buzz. It is gaming perfection and it still gives me chills to see these worlds, designed for a 40 MB memory system with a smaller drive system then either Sony or Microsoft had. It relied on on cards with a max of 32GB, which is still a lot more than a DVD. Now it gives us twice that on the game cards (up to 64GB) and the Switch 2 comes with 256GB of storage, a lot more than the predecessor. And that is before you consider the added settings of joy cons that can now be used as a mouse as well. The joy cons will now attach magnetically so there is no no sliding and the allows for in game changing as I see it. They also have a larger screen (7.9-in LCD screen, 1080p up to 120 Hz with HDR10 and VRR), but there is more. When you play it in the dock on the TV, 4K becomes possible (4K at 60 Hz via HDMI with HDR10 and VRR). All powerful innovations. And then Digital Foundry also gave me the setting “The Nintendo Switch 2 will apparently be able to handle Unreal Engine 5. Full article with Digital Foundry podcast with their source.” That means that my solution will now also with on Switch 2 giving them a handle on 50 million additional consoles, in a direction they never considered, sorry for the Amazon Luna, but first on in gets the jewelry. That is the power of innovation.

There is of course more, but I only have seen ‘clips’ for that and we get the setting that there is a lot more to have and Nintendo pulled it off, as I see it, Nintendo is about to become the king of gaming in several fields and Sony has its challenge ahead of them, because the Nintendo outsold the Playstation 2:1, so Playstation needs to look the other was (away from Microsoft) and focus on what Nintendo is bringing us in 8 weeks. I reckon that it will be possible for Nintendo to beat the first Switch and get up to 200 million consoles sold, which beats the Nintendo DS (154 million) and defeat all time rules PlayStation 2 with over 160 million sold, Nintendo Switch 2 is about to crunch records. I reckon that they will get there in under 2 years. Because that gives them Christmas 2025 and Christmas 2026 to beat these records and by what I saw in the presentation that will be very much possible. So, is there a downside? Yes, a minimal one. You see the Switch 2 requires the microSD Express card, the old one will not work. It is a minimal negative one especially as you consider all the extras you get right off the bat.

So I reckon that these bad boys will drop in price as well, because with 200 million more clients, prices drop fast. So whilst the world minus America gets to enjoy the Switch 2, America gets to grind their teeth, that is also the effect of tariffs, on the upside I just gave Nintendo the idea where they can get 50 million more systems sold. Oh and there is the one element I left out, the price. It is stated to be £395.99 (I used the UK price to not confuse the different dollar prices). That loser consoles (Microsoft) is still £479.99, the PS5 is £379.99 and the PS5pro is £699. So Nintendo did a great job giving us so much innovation at a competitive price. As a giggle I offer how Microsoft is setting the GamePass setting whilst most of the gamers in the world will go towards the Switch 2 pillar with their Nintendo eShop. 

So whilst America will go insanely jealous and negative on the Nintendo, they can blame the guy at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States for that setting. There is no reason why Nintendo needs to accept 10% tariff whilst the world is willing to accept the Nintendo right of the bat. That too is the game of gaming. 

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Software directions

That tends to be the norm, some software BI person looks at where the masses are and then shoots his net, so that he can catch the biggest population. And I (initially) tended to think the same way. We can call this the wrong way. 

So this started last night when Wired (at https://www.wired.com/story/can-gaming-save-the-apple-vision-pro/) gave me ‘Can Gaming Save the Apple Vision Pro?’, OK, I admit, the story was two weeks old, and none the less relevant to this conversation. Personally I didn’t know that the Vision Pro required saving, but that is my wimple setting. You see, new devices open up new frontiers and on November 9th 2024 I gave the world (apple too) ‘The Easy Lesson’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/11/09/the-easy-lesson/) and in under an hour I designed a near original game an adaptation from a world favorite game. Yes it took me less than an hour to think of a solution. 

Now there is another idea based on all time favorites and used in a very different different setting. You see, people look in the same direction over and over and hoping that something new hits them. I look in the opposite direction and that is why I have over half a dozen original IP settings and this one could bring Ubisoft the fortune it so immensely desired, the dream of growing to greatness. The funny part is that most of the work is done already. You see, schooling is required all over the world and the chances are that Ubisoft overlooked it. And apparently Timmy the Cook did too (said to be the CEO of Apple). 

The setting is larger to be considered as more and more need is out there for languages. OK, there are some hangups. But the larger setting becomes visible in mere minutes and 80% of the gamers have had that feeling, especially those who played any of the Assassins Creed games. You see, we all want to be that assassin, but the missed part is that they loved walking down the streets of Florence, Rome, The America’s, New York, Paris, London, Egypt, Greece, Iran and Japan. The one thing that Ubisoft excelled in were the graphics. When these games get upgraded to Unreal Engine 5 it becomes a very different game. Now on Apple Vision Pro (optionally MetaQuest as well) people can actually practice their language skills in a private setting and there are millions ready to get ready. Now there is no killing, there is no climbing all over the place. It becomes a walking setting, with optional reward settings and Ubisoft actually opened the door to this when they had the expansion The Discovery Tour added to the game AC Origin. It gave us a different setting to the game and also gave us just how deep they had taken the game. Now consider that we get access to languages English is gotten from AC Syndicate and Watchdogs Legion, and optionally AC3. French from AC Unity (when it is properly fixed), Arabic from Mirage, Italian and Latin from AC Brotherhood and optionally AC2, Greek and Egyptian from AC Origin, and most of the work is already done. Now there is one setting that takes precedence.

About a month ago I saw someone program a chatbot to take on scam centers. His view was that when they are held busy by chatbots, scammers cannot scam. But that impact is larger. People can now be set in chatbots engaging in the use of natural speech. As such there is a unification of skills and in that setting Ubisoft could offer a much larger population. According to ‘records’ in 2022, the United Kingdom had the most students learning English as a foreign language. There were approximately 262,400 students who were learning English as a second language that year, followed by Ireland with almost 116,000 foreign students. The third place ranking was completed by Canada, with around 105,000 students learning English as a foreign language. That implies a population of billions who want to learn English. When the modules are ready Ubisoft could cater to millions of people who want to learn any of these languages and with a subscription model they could cater to hundreds of thousands of them. To make it fun they could add the villa in Monteriggioni and as language assignments are completed they could get another painting added to the villa. There is also the notion that ‘midterms’ in several stages would upgrade Monteriggioni. You will not get a well and a few other things, but most other upgrades become possible. And as you engage with the people in Florence and Rome you could get lots of interactions. With Latin you get the added nun/priest outfits and get access to the old Vatican. Linguistic skills are valued globally and for those who want to learn Arabic there is the world of Mirage (just Bagdad) and there we will see what more there is to learn. Any language student gets assigned an address and as your skills progress you will get a ‘better’ address. All this was already possible and now it serves a much better purpose. There is classic English (AC Syndicate) and modern English (Watchdogs Legion) the setting already exist for the most. But the added setting of interactive chatbots will push the Ip to new heights and the graphic skills of Ubisoft have seldom been questioned (only in AC Unity). So this took a little more than an hour, but it was there for the longest of time. It just required Yves Guillemot to wake up to see what he had and now that this writing is out in the open, he could wake up and seek new frontiers. There is the thought that Unreal Engine might not be a solution everywhere, but it will give the most lifelike views on Vision Pro and MetaQuest. As such it just fits better. 

Software directions are out in the open. The trick is not to take the mundane direction that everyone seems to be taking. As such I offer this thought to the wannabe captains of industry.

Have a great day and think of what language you would like to learn, because that is a universal thought we all have. It might be that you want to learn the dead languages (Greek and Latin), you might want to broaden your horizon with English, French, Italian and Japanese and for those wishing to learn Spanish, a case can be made to include AC Black Flag. The rest? Well that gives a person a dozen languages to learn, but cases can be made for other languages as well. How that goes? It would be up to Ubisoft. 

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In dubio

That is where I am at the moment, I am in a state of ‘when in doubt’. To give you the full picture I have to go back to (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/11/27/it-starts-with-options/) when on November 27th 2022 I wrote ‘It starts with options’ at that point I wrote in a single setting an addendum to the entire Harry Potter stage and I added the stage to add jobs to Hogwarts Legacy. In this case I created the wand-maker setting for the game, or better Hogwarts Legacy 2, to evolve the game you need to add specialization to the game and I added jobs. To add replay ability to a game I am in favor to set this to a wider session, as such I considered that a job is only available to three houses, and in one house it gives you a bonus throughout the game. You learn that lore in the first stage of the game, through books and notes I reckon. So that was the first setting I set out, yet today as I play the fourth time the game (last week) and I just watched (yet again) Harry Potter and the Half Blood prince. A thought occurred to me and I almost got to write is down.

So what’s keeping me?
Well, that is harder to explain. The initial writings was set to the game, there was no IP violation made and as I offered the text for free to Avalanche software (the people behind Hogwarts Legacy), I feel good about it. Add value to an IP I adore and handing it over to the makers seems like a good idea. Now it is different. I thought of an extension to either Hogwarts Legacy (as a DLC) or part of Hogwarts Legacy 2. This is still ok with me, however I might like it better if Avalanche Software would hand me (a copy) of the letter from JK Rowling of showing her blessing for the addition. I consider the wizarding world stuff the ownership of JK Rowling.

The addition I had in mind are the setting where the creation of creatures comes under fire. Side missions that teach you more about the creation of the Inferi (in this case) on who created it and how it is down. Then unravel the curse lessening the power of this and diminish the inferi in the game. There are two settings. One making the amount of inferi less, the second is making the level of inferi less and set the lower powered inferi to zero. I am not clear on how to proceed, then there are a few creatures that can have a similar setting, but I tend to be the believer in balancing a game, so as the inferi are lessened, another creature gets more powerful (or more of them). For example you reduce the inferi, the spiders can become more powerful. These are mere simple considerations I am making in the progress of creating lore for a game. 

And to that effect, also create a house setting. As I see it, that mission is different for a Slytherin as the game gives a dark wizard a more powerful option and if we consider the game. All houses can do it and I will remain possible, but the owner of dark spells get a more powerful outcome and members of the house of Slytherin gets a bonus option. It is still a simple thought which I haven’t ironed out yet in my brain, but that is the setting my brain is thinking off (at present).

Having house dependent side missions might be a good way to set the bar in the next game. Another setting is that this could be done in more ways. So let’s keep it to the Inferi mission. In that mission, you any house can get the mission if they clean out an inferi layer, but a book in house Slytherin gets them a prequel mission, that becomes a more powerful stage to resolve it and get a bonus to the inferi layer mission, which in this case I call the Finite Inferi achievement. 

I always loved replay ability for any RPG game, but as I saw in the Bethesda games, doing the same thing over and over again tends to become boring and for the most part Hogwarts Legacy is no different. But the first mission involving Jackdaw was a revelation, four different ways to get there, the rest remains the same, but as we create more settings, we can enjoy the same game in different ways for much longer than we ever considered and jobs was one way, the houses are another way to give more options to the joy of gaming and as we gain that setting we could also opt for your own place to live with the option to modify your house your way and the setting is that you can only own one house and every house student (or former house student) can only own one house, they can buy a different house later on (more expensive), but the old house will be lost to you. I also thought of the mission where you could restore and own the house of Professor Rackham, it is where the game begins. This gave me the idea to incorporate the Wizarding world currency and push the use of Knuts, Sickles and Galleons. Yet the galleons are the ‘big incomes’ and that is required to get enough to own the bigger houses and at some point when you have enough it will open up a special venture. These are mere thoughts, but it is a direction that Avalanche can go for. So now wonder what is keeping some big game makers to become innovative in their strides, but that might merely be me.

Have a great day, I am almost at the midweek. I got there 43 minutes ago. Vancouver has to wait (or work) for another 15 hours to get there too. 

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