Alan Wake 2 | Lawrence van Rijn

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December 9, 2023 · 00:49

Vroom, vroom

I had some issues, not with the topic, the topic is fine. It is not my niche of gaming. And in light of the Gaming Awards 2023 it matters. You see, after spending $100,000,000,000 Microsoft ends with one trophy. Their Forza game gets it, so congratulations Microsoft. As a Sony Disciple I would go for Gran Turismo, although, I do not care for that game (either). I played it last on my PS2, Forza on my Xbox360 last and neither appeals to me. I played some F1 and it is nice for a few go’s but that is it. I a not alone, but it is a small cluster of people. We aren’t racers and as such the game was lost on me. You see, I had real fun with Project Gotham Racing 3 (Xbox360) and I had loads of fun with Need for Speed Underground (Gamecube). There was an element of fun, the fun of racing and that had centre shift with me. Then of course there is the old Outrun (Amiga) and there were a few more on both Amiga and CBM64. The issue wasn’t the ‘simulator’ part, it was the fun part and both Sony and Microsoft have been so in each others face on the perfect simulator that they forgot about having fun. And this is on both Sony and Microsoft. Gaming is supposed to be fun, not some adrenaline race to all achievements. Did they both forget that? Why do you think that Minecraft is such a success? Why do you think that some shooting games are now introducing some kind of lego system? It is because the people just wanting to have fun whilst they are unwinding are adding up to a serious sized cluster and they are all realising that Tencent Technologies is trying to adhere to that cluster. As such they have now an additional handhold on the gaming population. Amazon with its Luna didn’t wake up and as I see it that could sent 50,000,000 people towards the Tencent Handheld and when it gets its own docking station (it might already have such a solution) it will also start biting into the Nintendo population as well. They all fell asleep and all whilst I was trying to warn Amazon of this danger, they decided to ignore me (which is their right). Now the station changes and I reckon by Q4 2024 Tencent technologies will be more than a blip, it will become a serious threat to the others. Amazon loses first, but the dock as long as Nintendo is the only one, will last them for as long as they have that advantage. Sony remains afloat, it has its own fanbase and is a solid setting, but by the end of 2024, Tencent is more and more likely ending up in third position, gaining on Nintendo with each quarter, how fast and how much? That is anyones guess, but if they deploy as I envisioned it, Nintendo could be the number three system by the end of 2025. It is that much of a race at present and lets not forget, that Tencent did this in under 4 years, surpassing Microsoft in all sales achievements. I saw this happening, but I had hoped that Amazon Luna would be in second place, that is now less and less likely.

The setting mattes, because whilst everyone is caressing their ego (Larian Studios has every right to do so) as well as Remedy Entertainment who brought us Alan Wake 2. Both games could most likely port to the Tencent, as such they keep on winning. Microsoft has no options, they just spend $100,000,000,000 (for Blizzard, Bethesda and Mojang), they have no reserves left. They divided gamers, they conquered brands and these conquests did not result in awards or high ratings.

A setting that Tencent Technologies can now use to their advantage. They seemingly all seem to forget about the fun and if Tencent remember that part they could gain massively in the gaming community. It is merely my point of view and some will say that it is the wrong point of view. But when you look back, how did these other games do? How long were they played? How many are now playing Forza or Gran Turismo? They didn’t do bad (neither of them) but I believe they both could have done a lot better and that is where I think the fun part is the problem, it is largely missing. They went all out in making the simulator and graphics the important part and forgot that plenty just want to race a track for the fun of it and that makes it more Project Gotham Racing then anything else.

Enjoy the weekend.

Evolution is essential

You might not realise it, but it is. Gaming evolution is on the forefront of my mind, because that is how we push the limits of gaming. Not by buying it (Microsoft anyone), but by creating new frontiers in games. For the longest of times it has been on my mind, mainly because streaming is the next evolution, not the the PS6 (I love my PS5), not any system, but the evolution of an architecture. Some might say that Alan Wake 2 is the new frontier, but it is not. It looks great, awesome and it pushes boundaries unlike any game this year (not Spiderman 2, and I love the first one). But frontiers is where it is. It is in that mindset that I took a sentimental journey. You see, if there is one side that does seemingly not evolve it is the story. The story is too often set in stone. But what if that was not the case? What if the evolution of any story is next? It is there that ChatGPT might have an option (an option, not a given). Consider Emperor of the North (1973) where you have to survive a train ride as a hobo. But that would be too two dimensional. Trains have been the setting of many movies. Silver Streak, Unstoppable, Pelham 123, Runaway Train and that lis goes on. There was Strangers on a train. Now consider that you (as a time traveller, which is my easy way out) need to survive a whole onslaught of train trips, but the setting of you changes with EVERY train. So you get the red wire across all trains and every train has its own goals. Complete that and you get the clue for the red wire. Now we add salt and pepper. The order of trains changes with every life you lose. You start from scratch and that sounds frustrating, but gaming is not a vanilla setting of happiness. It gives you an achievable goal and a obstruction to pass. You see, this would require some serious story programming. The other part is that YOUR role on the second visit to that same train could be different (Murder on the orient express) and that is how evolution comes into play. I want a new setting of stealth and casual gaming, a new setting of melee, stealth and casual gaming easing people from role to role. Now consider how to create this storyline and with streaming ChatGPT (or an alike alternative like bard) becomes an option and it is something gamers have NEVER faced before. The story remained mostly the same. So what happens when we take that away and create a story on a shifty changing narrative? That is where streaming gaming has the advantage over ALL other gaming and as I see it, it is not used. Not on the Luna, and unlikely on the Tencent handheld and that I what could set these two apart from all others. Giving gamers something they never faced before.

So what do you do to create this? I used a previous example using a matrix founded on Sudoku, but that was merely one example. You see Sudoku has 6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960 options. You cannot draw them all, but you can use such an engine to create something new, something never seen before, and those trillions are more than random, it is a setting of never ending uniqueness. The idea that two gamers playing the same game get very different stages should be overwhelming showing us who the gamer is and who is the read the solution online achiever. The idea of how to switch between lives comes to mind and the support system (something like Quantum Leap) is also coming into vision, but that is nothing compared to the story. And it sounds like fun to make this a story about Hollywood. A story of intrigue, sex (I am here Olivia Wilde) 😉 and greed. Hollywood without greed is not Hollywood. What if the underlying story is a rogue AI, the rogue AI is interacting with all other systems and you need to find the evidence that the AI is rogue so that the media DETACHES from it, and with that the other AI’s. The AI took the train to push its own narrative as it was a mobile system on tracks, but that is the delusion and you as the player needs to find the clues that leads to the evidence and give that to the world (a wink to A mind forever voyaging by Infocom). We are the gamers through what was and Infocom was important at one stage, it created more than Zork and gave us gaming, pushed us into new frontiers and now we get a much larger frontier. It is only natural that streaming leads that way and we should always remember where we came from.

Just a thought as Friday is about to start for me, the rest of you can follow later. Enjoy whatever day you are in.

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