Tag Archives: Bethesda

What went wrong?

That is the hidden question in all this. You see, I have had my suspicions in several directions. It is the outcome of Business people getting in bed with art, art is a different stroke, it adheres to different parameters and whilst these people are gracing several directions in gaming, they forget that art is the compelling setting. There is no business in that. It comes from excellence in art that makes games great and Bethesda was on the right side, but then Microsoft bought it and it seemingly went down the basement after that. So whilst we see all kinds of excuses on lag times and latencies. Why are they there? Gamers bought the big systems Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5 and whatever Microsoft has. These systems are there to deal with the user requirements and it has worked since the the Playstation 2. So why? Because someone stated that we all want to game together? Well, for some people this is true and there is greatness in team play (when the cheaters are away) but the new generation is taught that cheating is fine because they all do it and that is where the game goes amok.

So as we happily gamed away in whatever Bethesda and Bioware and Santa Monica Studios brought us, someone thought it was a good idea to listen to Business applicants.

So in my previous example (yesterday) I played on the Bethesda Elder Scrolls idea. Why? Simple, they have created a lore bigger than most can conceive but there is a similar setting for their Fallout setting and there is lore for the God of war series (which is based on history) so when we look at the fitter games one more adds the setting, it is Guerrilla games. Their Horizon series has the ability to match a ‘new’ storyline in greatness and it is set to ‘our’ future so there are options. But the need for more gaming or better said greater gaming is essential.

Today I was considering the old expression bread and circuses (from Juvenal 55AD) the modern day world used this setting to ‘divert’ the population into some stage of sleepiness. We we’re all awake, but we accepted the bread and circuses setting because a lot of us do not really have a choice. But the game of life changed. Bread is no longer free, it costs and now it is costing more. We have the circuses on one side (in the United States it is called politics), we have Television (whilst the cost of receiving the entertainment is rising) and we have our actual gaming and that is the exclusion of all things. And we are willing to pay the $100 for a game like that and in case of Skyrim it had probably been the best investment ever. I bought several copies (PS3, PS4, Xbox360) and with over 3000 hours it was well worth the setting. But this might change as hardware is reaching new heights. So we might lose a lot on the PS6 and the Switch 2 (optionally the Switch 3) but we have to consider this and as such the RPG style gaming brings the best entertainment for its value and as I see it, the artsy people need to be in charge and the business people need to wire their lips solidly shut. Because what comes requires the focus of people who want a great experience and the Elder Scrolls has the most lore, but they are not alone. I am not sure about why ‘EA Is Closing BioWare and Canceling the Next Mass Effect’ I have suspicions, but there are shoddy speculations at best. Still, somewhere last year I created a new setting for ME5 and I took an approach (likely) no one even considered. I combined ME5 by adding ME4 and ‘repairing’ all I thought was wrong with it (there was a lot) but the idea was great and as such it had to survive. But I am aware that some people state “it’s impractical as a commercial blueprint” but there is where I differ, gaming is art, it has no commercial value. As an example I want to offer Edvard Munch the scream, it is now valued at $120 million.

It was a mere $83,700 in 1900. That is the effect of art and not everyone likes it. I wouldn’t pay anywhere near that for the scream. But the icons of Gaia, that is worth something to me. I even saw in my mind note blocks of Aether, Apollo, Artemis, Demeter, Eleuthia, Hades, Hephaestus, Minerva and Poseidon, note blocks with the logo on every page, optionally their embroidering of these icons. I am a gamer, that is what I value and I reckon many gamers (in the millions) see this in the game they play.  It was what the business people never got, they merely got where the money was, or where they think the money was. But there is the crunch, a good game can survive on its own. Oblivion proved that with the remaster and I had no problems buying that for the PS5. That game was the reason I bought the Xbox360 in the first place. So there is one ‘response’ I have an issue with “Quantity alone doesn’t guarantee success. Padded or repetitive content often feels worse than a tighter experience. Older engines eventually hit technical limits (performance, tools, stability). Not every game is easy to expand, and endless post-launch support isn’t free or infinite. Player expectations also matter—some people prefer finishing a game and moving on.” I agree that repetitive content is not a solution, as such I came up with the creation of New Kvatch and the size difference was to ensure it would all fit. The sections that might be the same is the overwhelming settings that most places are there, but in this setting (a few centuries after Skyrim) we have a new stage. We have a new industrial age and it is run by the great great grand daughter of Jeanne Frasoric. Which will ensure new lore amounts as well as inverting the items you used to collect. The destroyed shrines need to be rebuilt and items have to be retrieved, you will also need to find someone to head the shrine. And the challenge becomes how and where. With the exception of Azura, which will always be in Skyrim. Some will be out in the open, some will be underground. And it is up to the player to decide, yet we might agree that Nocturne is not a place that we want out in the open. And as we face 5 (or 6) locations, depending on where we are with Morrowind. The gamers can explore, can replay old missions and whilst chapters might be ‘relocated’ except the Mages council which will always be in Cyrodiill we get a totally new concept of gaming, and in all this we have a a new way of gaming and replayability will be a new setting, so there is as I see it, no such thing as ‘repetition’ this is up to the player and they might set the game in new and interesting ways. A way that was always the main intent of any RPG video game and as such the big makers will get the big dollars, considering that Skyrim has 65 million copies sold, there is every indication that many will consider this title and after the setting of too many business types hiding behind lag times and latency of the hardware, someone might wake up and consider the setting that this is a one player game. But they are not alone, Guerrilla games might also make consideration (after Horizon 3) to make a ‘global’ challenge and there is still the Mass Effect setting and Fallout is not out of the picture either.

We have many directions gaming could be taken into and I love my RPG gaming, but I do recognize that there are many GTA5/GTA6 fans. As such they could create something that people can enjoy for a decade, the fact that it was created in 2013 makes that clear.

So I cannot tell you where to go next. You need to trust the game makers you pour your heart in, that is the best advice I can give you. So, have a great day and enjoy gaming, or get not gaming if possible.

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The new you

That is at times the setting. It the you you see the old or the new one? As a relic of the past, I tend to remain the old me, but that is still not always a given. You see, we (you, me and all others) tend to hold up a mirror, so we can show others what we see, but we tend to not look at ourselves. It is perfectly natural to do this, there was one person in the past who did just that, but he was but one (and his name was Narcissus) but one is not a steadfast number for any level of comparison. So why are we so driven to compare ourselves? That is a question I had when my mind went back into comparison mode reverting to game design. I had the idea in the past to create an RPG game mostly based in Olympus. But I wasn’t given my mind towards game mechanics. That ends to be a waste off space, because if we design it now we tend to fall into the area of Bethesda and that is a losing field. This is not on Bethesda, their engine is now 2 decades old and for any game to stay standing to this effect is quite the achievement. No, I was contemplating different matters, storyline matters. Because I truly believe the slogan that FX gave us “the story is everything” and most of us can live with that thought, especially gamers and that is also the hidden trap. How can you create a storyline that holds you in place for over a decade without grinding? It is an honest a question, because after the umpteenth time I play Skyrim that is exactly the setting we face. I created the setting of Elder Scrolls VII (now VIII) and in my mind the setting is still enticing. The map of Skyrim is almost the same, but to do this we need Cyrodiill to be about 900% larger so if the map is 5 by 5 miles, it will now need to be 15 by 15 miles. It all make the imperial city almost 900% of the original size and they need connecting. For the setting then I came up with Elsweijr and Valenwood being connected, so consider that setting. Playing a Skyrim side of game with these three parts connected and now whatever Bethesda is creating added to all that. And that becomes the main stage of what Skyrim used to be.

So, now we get to the ‘now’ and we consider that Olympus is that overwhelmingly large, but the larger buildings are the buildings of Zeus and Poseidon, with buildings connected to it all for the other gods and only Hades has his own place in the underworld. So the Olympian gods were Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Hermes, and either Hestia or Dionysus. So, they do not mention Hades, which is the lovely attached place and that place has fallen into disrepair. So here you are (yes you) entering a place you know not where and you have to figure it out and in the meantime The story evolves and that takes a new kind of storyline, so whilst you think that they are your size, that is not really the setting because Ares is (almost) 9 foot tall and these three big cats are larger than that, so you need to adjust your way of thinking, So we get layer upon layer of gameplay and there is where we are and we are thrown into a game where classic works are the setting of the time and it is not just the Olympic gods you need to worry about, because the had incarcerated the Titans in Tartarus and this is the setting that you face. They are about to realise that their ‘slayers’ are no longer there and whilst we might ‘rally’ behind that thought, but their release will wreck whatever works you have now. So how you have a ‘gameplay’ that favors stealth a whole lot. And the defence setting are about to wake up and that is the setting we get and whilst all are doable, the idea is that they are not the same way and as such you get a diverse setting and in this game your gender is closer set, because the man can not openly enter the worlds of Hera, Athena, Aphrodite or Hestia. Except when you are Hermes (the mailman no less and there is no two knocking, but it does allow for some leniency in the game, and that is where the stealth comes in, but getting it all up and running again is the key and also the hindrance in the game. As such the messenger has a solemn side and also the thing not the whole game, because the game is not about my being clever, it is about creating a game that is true to life (as far as that is possible) but for now it is my conundrum to figure out, because there is no gem of “Just like” the other settings and that is the challenge for me.

But it also favors the solution. You see, the realms of Zeus and Poseidon were impacted by pollution and as such we get a new game, one that prefers the settings of are environmentalists and conservationists. A side we never contemplated before and Hades is surrounded by the billions of dead souls, so it is wrecked and in all that we need to set a stage where their souls are the fuel that gives them all power and that becomes the challenge and whilst we look at that we ar creating new (optional epic) storylines according to the works of Homer, Virgil and Dante Alighieri, but there were others and that is the challenge to stay true to their course and incorporate it into the game (luckily for me their works no longer fall into the realm of IP protection) but I wanted to create an idea that does evolve according to how YOU play the game, which is an almost unheard setting before and whilst you wonder on how the world of Bethesda impacts this world, consider that between the elated and the damned is a setting of servitude and that makes the game settable to your hand and whilst you want to consider that, the game has an overreaching interaction (like it is its own god) into the gameplay that you embrace making you do things over and over before you get it right, it is the Olympic version of guiding the player and that is the challenge, finding the two sides of the same coin and letting that play out, so whilst you see changes, the game is also impacted by the pollution that has gone unchecked (until now) and that is how the gods could reemerge (except Hades who is bogged down in souls) and whilst we get to become a ‘SIM’ to alter the game the ‘SIM’ gets to become self aware and as Olympus regains its own setting we can create a game here the gods return and these are levels of achievement that the game ‘rewards’ to create a setting that evolves Olympus and as such the world as a whole. I still haven’t worked out all the details, because I am driven towards a totally new engine and that is the challenge, because that unique challenge will entice gamers (optionally millions of them) to correct others into trying these settings. But that is my challenge and perhaps one for the record books, into a streaming RPG that holds the key to a lot of new players.

And I reckon that if you know something of the old gods, the world of Hephaestus and Hades are adamant in creating a new Olympus. And it is not about merely creating a new game, it is a way to hold everyone in front of a mirror and saying this is how YOU achieve this and I reckon that this becomes the setting for what is now ‘regarded’ as PS6 terrain.

So have a great day and it is time to create a new setting regarding whatever rules the sense of reason in the United States (according to the Sydney Morning Herald) whilst we see “The US Bureau of Labor Statistics said that the consumer price index climbed 3.7 per cent in September from a year earlier, exceeding the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg and leading Wall Street traders to boost bets that the Federal Reserve will need to lift interest rates again before the month is over. What’s notable about the report, besides the fact that it shows inflation is accelerating, is that it reveals consumer prices are rising faster for rural America, gaining 4 per cent over the past 12 months, than for city dwellers (up 3.6 per cent). This has been the case since right after the start of the Iran war in late February. Not only that, but the gap between rural and urban inflation this year is the widest since 2022, just after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” This is important as it kinda reflects on the ‘Hoekse en Kabeljauwse twisten’ (Dutch) where we consider  “The conflict between the Hooks and the Cods was a struggle between various factions within the elite of the County of Holland. Both the nobility and the towns were involved. The conflict raged intermittently from the second half of the 14th century until the end of the 15th century. Events that took place between May and September 27, 1350, led to the first phase of these “feuds.”” This is what a class war feels like and the United States is seemingly heading that way, but not to worry, that event lasted from 1345 until1492 and as I see it, the United States has a mere 10 years at the most (if even that much) to sort out its mess, at that point there pointless way of life comes at an end and I think the people who want to avoid that could be playing a game on the shaping of a new Olympus. When people want to correct me on all kinds of matters that it was not based on classes, and they would be right, because it was not a class war in the modern Marxist sense, though social and economic tensions played a role and a big one, making it (in my view a class war) and whilst some adversely react, the setting lasted almost 140 years and a lot of the document that mattered are lost, but now consider that as given “the fact that it shows inflation is accelerating, is that it reveals consumer prices are rising faster for rural America, gaining 4 per cent over the past 12 months” and as I see it, this is a class war. The meteorites versus the rivals and in the 1400’s the metrolites were considering extreme hunger as the ruralites had growing the foods. Doesn’t that sound familiar? But in this day and age LA has 3,869,089 and New York has 8,584,629 people. Over 12 million, so how will you feed them? You either meet the difference and split that, or you go hungry and I reckon that this US administration has absolutely zero intent (or experience) to split differences and as I see it, they are losing allies a lot faster than they are ready for. And as we now see (to hours ago) ‘Trump pauses new Russia sanctions passed by Congress amid deepening row with Ukraine’ there is a larger setting in all this and whilst these people are ignoring the real threat to the United States, they are playing footsie with Russia? In my (possible wrong) look, it seems that the United States is losing several grounds of funding it has and it is about to get worse. I get there by the Guardian text “Donald Trump has put on hold a sweeping new sanctions package targeting the Russian economy, telling Congress the pause on the legislation passed by both chambers was in the national interest.” Since when is a pro Russian setting national interesting the United States? The only thing that makes sense if the United States is about to enter a state of Insolvency, but I am telling you upfront that this is my view and it could be incorrect, but when we see these class wars come, we could face other settings, but the setting that the Commonwealth and the EU might be safer with China in the mix is a lot more safe than anything the United States could falsely promise (something it has done so a few times in the last year)

And I merely wonder if we aren’t better of playing a video game until it blows over, or until the electricity runs out. Because at that point, your memory is all that remains, it you could feed it that is. It becomes a simple setting of the new you and that will be a hard pill to swallow, because we were pushed into consumerism for all the greedy reasons corporations had and that is now coming to an end. Have a great day today.

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Is there plus plus?

An idea escaped me today. I might have had it before, but it stood in my brain rather still. You see I am playing Skyrim for the (fifth or seventh time) I played is when it was released on 11.11.11 and a few times then. This time was because o wanted to see if it was so much better in 4K (I only recently got a 4K TV) and I am having a ball, but there is a lot that is merely passing the time. I played it too often, as such I know what is coming. But wouldn’t it be great to ave a surprise in this case? As such I was thinking that if you do it again and you deal with Alain Dufont but you also need to deal with the quest by the elderly alchemist Frida. If you have also done the mission that Bothela from the Hags cure give you, you could get a letter from an additional mission (somewhere, somehow) which will be a mission you have never done before. (Like getting 5 Briar Hearts) you could add at least 9 missions to them and optionally a few more. The idea will make you consider every mission you have done and whilst replaying the game, you will get a few more missions. Don’t worry Skyrim had plenty of mission, there is a chance I have never seen a mission (I doubt it, but never mid the chance) and in a game this large the surprise of ‘I never had this mission before’ is a very welcome change of pass. Such missions are also possible in Horizons and I reckon they should be added through the side missions. Consider even one RPG, the idea comes like a merit giving extra in any game. There could be an extra to these missions (for any city you have a house) which would given you an optional bauble (a cosmetic extra) for your place, like extra tapestry (Markath) or a painting (Solitude), the extras that you could receive are numerous. And I am merely giving Skyrim as an example. The same thing could apply for a Fallout game or an Assassins Creed game. It opens up the benefit of replaying that game and it is important to make is as a NewGame++ option. Because as I see it, there was nothing wrong with the original games, thesis merely a little boost into getting the heart pumping towards that game. It could be that Kesh the Clean (Peryite) could given you an extra mission if you became a champion of Peryite and did one additional mission if you had given a gold coin to Lucia in Whiterunb. The possibilities are numerous but that extra will give the player a few small surprises in a game that they didn’t see coming and that is part of the charm or Skyrim (or any other RPG game). 

So as it is now time to emulate a sawmill, I take my leave from you all. Have a great day and enjoy the world we still have for now as President Trump is demanding the EU releases its diesel reserves. I reckon that things in the United States are getting worse quickly, so while Al Jazeera gives us “The European Union “fully rejects” a US demand to release emergency diesel stocks as the fuel’s price soars in the United States and elsewhere amid the war with Iran.” I reckon that the end is nigh in the United States. I always saw this coming, but the bully tactic to someone’s reserves is a new one. I reckon that things are about to get really bad. So time for adjustments to a game to give people something to look forward to. So whilst some are giving us “It comes as US President Donald Trump says he may ask European countries to release diesel reserves as he considers banning US exports of the fuel” I reckon it is time for the Commonwealth (particular Canada) give the EU a larger advantage and watch the United States turn from the inside out. So lets see how much oil Australia could send the EU (the United Kingdom too) It might not be much, not sire how much LNG and oil Australia drills for, but I am all for seeing that way from the United States (if they got any) it is the only response that bully tactics invoke on me. 

Have a great day all.

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Treason has many forms

This is the setting we have seen plenty of time and in all forms of situation. I scarcely wanted to believe what I saw, but the BBC might misrepresent things at times, but they never lie and as we see ‘Xbox caps cloud gaming at 15 hours a month for Game Pass subscribers’ is what I call pure treason. There is no question of funds, or limits and of settings as I personally see it and I am happy that I rejected the Xbox over 5 years ago. So as we see “Xbox is introducing strict monthly time limits for Game Pass subscribers who stream games online through its cloud gaming service.

The changes, which come into effect in November, will see a subscriber to the £16.99 Ultimate monthly plan able to stream games for up to 15 hours a month – before having to purchase additional cloud play time. Xbox said the limits were due to the rising cost of cloud gaming, and they would allow the firm to “continue to invest” in the service’s “reliability and performance”.” For reference I almost played 20-25 hours on my PS5 this Friday and Saturday. As such this limit would have been met within the first weekend of the month. So as we see “Asha Sharma, Xbox’s chief executive, told the BBC in an exclusive recent interview that the company and the industry as a whole needed to “start to innovate on affordability and efficiency,” amid a “crisis” in computing prices.” I think that this is not the whole story. Gamers are draining their AI token space setting and that needed to be culled (AI token space is perhaps not the best definition, but it is what I am working with) So what was once good is now no more. And for Xbox users (my personal view) is that this is a good reason to switch to another platform. We saw this setting in part when in 2012-2017 there was a trade agreement (I forgot the name and I can not find the article I wrote, I wrote over 4000 of them). But there was a setting where that agreement was setting in motion to take out 2nd hand games. In the last minute Sony gave a presentation where one Sony executive handed over the disc to another executive, all whilst Don Mattrick cut his fingers first in this. It was the end of him and Xbox. Now whilst we see that Sony is ending discs, Microsoft is setting in motion a transfer and trades from disc to digital. It is the beginning of the end, because when net neutrality ends, gaming is over, or you must be willing to pay for the plus hundred of hours a month and that will get expensive really fast. The stage I am unaware of is what will Nintendo do. We see the ‘Code in box” mentions, but that is not a guarantee that physical gaming is at an end.

There is no soft message from either Sony or Microsoft that is ever to be believed (like “We’ll sort something out” or “We will stand by you” that time is over and whilst there are options in a few ways there is no telling what 2027/2028 brings. And what is the betrayal of gamers (in my humble opinion?) It is the sentence that is embedded in the article “Both cloud gaming and AI use data centres to process information.” And as I see it, the noise around this (given below) is part of this.

And I have a problem with this. Microsoft insulated themselves by getting the IDC to ‘proclaim’ “By 2028, IDC predicts 1.3 billion Al agents will be embedded in enterprise workflows. The challenge is no longer adoption.” I personally think it should be in the meat section right next to the boloney. What data was used to give this prediction? Scare tactics to get into the AI agents or go under section? At present there are massive issues with the quality of technical support, customer care and a few other settings. As such there is no way that 1.3 billion AI agents will be used, unless you consider the AI agents cybercrimes set, is that an optional premise? There are massive issues all over the field, but as such Gamers can be cut from any agreement, because it is just not business. I haven’t figured out what disclose systems have to do with that, but usually limiting gamers is never good for the gamer. I am drawing in part a blank, but I have learned over the last few decades that it tends to be corporate greed, not corporate ability that limits a gamer. As such I would have to give my vote (for now) to Nintendo. But perhaps Sony wisens up in 2027, because that is where the hard numbers will take them. Microsoft is a lot cause, no doubt about it, but Sony could reset their systems. And yes, the PS6 is likely going to be more expensive. Fine. I have had my PS5 for years now and it has served my immensely. I would have that my optional PS4 will do the same. I still have my PS4 too. Some older games are still good and playable there. Not everything needs to port over (nice if it does, but reality tends to be different) and that is fine. Perhaps Bethesda will port more games and they might ask for a fee, I have no issues with that. I bought with great joy the remastered Oblivion and I never regretted that. Like some movies, you can upscale hardware, or you can get the 4K version. And so far that act has been amazing. As such I recon that players like Guerrilla Games might kick of the expanded Horizon 3 for the PS6 with Horizon 1 and 2 added and gamers will pay good money for that. It could become their most successful game ever. And lets not forget, that franchise game started on PS4 and it never, not once disappointed. There are more games and I reckon that Microsoft has its own champions there too. So at what point was it a good idea to stop disc-less  settings? If there is real truth in this agentic agents the need for Physical discs is clear, as such something does not add up. Perhaps I am not seeing it, but as I saw the treacherous sentence embedded in the BBC article, I got to think the worst of Microsoft (yes, it is possible for them to do worse) as such I reacted to that setting of gaming under a taximeter. And they know that, the average gamer spends 40+ hours a week gaming and that has been clear going pack to the original Xbox, so why the taximeter now?

And if this is the future of gaming, the disc-less setting starts making sense in a greedy corporate way, if it is storage for the PS6 games, there are other solutions (like two discs, one for installation) and gaming on the second disc. This has been done before but as I see it, the net neutrality is about to hand us gamers a bitter defeat and the rural gamers will be hit twice over. We need to do something and I am puzzled as to what could be done. 

So back to the BBC article. We are also given “Jez Corden of Windows Central told the BBC the announcement showed that “absolutely nothing is safe from the AI-driven component crisis,” but he added it also highlighted “where Microsoft’s priorities are”.” And that is fine, but it also implies that Microsoft is deserting their gamers all for fake AI, because that is the silliest part, all AI is fake and when you consider the works of Alan Turing you will get that this world is not ready for anything real. The computers lack several components and when they have these components it is only for billionaires. Im not a billionaire and I reckon you aren’t either. There is more but that is well over a decade in the future, but these things are done now, as such we see people chasing phantoms in a system that doesn’t allow ghosts. What a funny situation.

So what kind of treason is self-delusion? Because that is also treason and people can say that it is all open me, that I am committing treason against myself. But consider what has happened and what is happening at present. I believe that I am right, even though I have a few banks on Microsoft, but I dumped that system years ago, so I do not care, but gamers have embraced the Xbox and gamers I care about. They can change system, but not everyone has that kind of cash, because the days of the $299 Atari 2600 are over. Today you need serious cash to embrace gaming and that is where the truncation starts. The lack of options. I gave an option to Saudi Arabia and I hope they embrace this setting, because they could gain billions of gamers and there is still the steam-deck, I never had one, because Sony made me happy, but there is a new wave forming. I merely hope it is a Japanese setting and not an American setting, because they are going from bad to worse. And there is still the Nintendo. 

All choices and we must make up our minds. I merely hope that Sony comes to their senses (or better inform us) before December 2027. Have a great day and if needed find a console that doesn’t need a taximeter to play games. I just had an idea, what if SEGA relaunches his Dreamcast? They had plenty of really good games. Its just an idea.

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Escape

It happens, it wasn’t me, it was an idea I had and I forgot to make a note of it, and now it escaped me. It gave me a few settings towards old dreams I had. I had an idea towards a 2D game, but the people are part of that game. It had to be done over water, the water shaped the levels and the water is the buffer to stop you from breaking bones when you fall. There are a lot of missing parts and it might make a movie, because there were too many missing parts, but the idea was there. These thoughts matter, it gave me an edge over several IP’s I created and it also gave me the military IPs I gave to the UAE and Saudi Arabia. These IPs were (as I personally considered) were options to consider in all of that (and I lack a credit card with billions) so I found simpler settings that took care of Iranian assets without spending billions and as such I thought it would be great to hand these ideas to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, free of charge and the setting that someone took care of Iran without bleeding either the UAE or Saudi Arabia for personal profit. At times enemies of life need to be dealt with and that is merely how I roll. So as I went over this some of the thoughts came back. It would definitely be for a movie, but the settings are still hazy. A few ideas are too outlandish because of the settings. But they also paved the way for a few new ideas. You see, I’ve been rewatching movies and it left me with ideas. The idea was based on a British idea it was called ‘Some mothers do ‘ave ’em’ it had Michael Crawford in it, who would get a larger global following with Condorman (which had a part filmed in Monaco) but these thoughts became the food for other ideas. You see, we are all ‘smitten’ with DC and Marvel (I have nothing against either) but in all this movies like Condorman and True Lies were a breath of fresh air. I still think that True Lies would have made an excellent coin flip from the James Bond series and I thought it would make decent new franchise. 

But the ideas I had and some I wrote in other blogs might set not a new movie or TV series, but a new game and one with a difference. So an RPG that is not build around a story hero, but around your real person. A setting where you can imagine what you would like, but now the story reflects around the person you are. And considering that we had Altar Ego in 1986 (Activision) consider that this was done on a mere 64KB, we have a lot more now and consider that you can play the introduction as you like, or you can hand it the truth and let the introduction shape the game. As far as I know, this has never been done before. So the introduction does two things. Teach you the game and it figures you out. I reckon you need a few psychologists for that, but that shouldn’t be a problem. And it goes form both genders, so it isn’t some macho game and in this we see the story line evolve. And here the reference of Condorman and True lies holds up. It is shaped through your interaction with the game. And this RPG game might be a little apocalyptic but I would want it to be close to what we are now. And this connects to ‘Some mothers do ‘ave ‘em’ because Frank Spencer had a vivid imagination and that gets you into these RPG scenarios, but fueled to your psyche. There is still a story line to consider and the game requires one, but the setting is that you have where you get through several stories, so that the game is fueling the game for you is as I see it totally new, but there will be ‘issues’ and I haven’t worked them all out yet, but as I see it, it is not a game that is on my list of working out. So I will hand this to whomever gets the idea to work and that is how indie gaming is prolonged and as there is now an active hatred towards Sony and the disclose settings it is referring to ‘PlayStation fans are fed up with Sony’ with “PlayStation fans are fed up with Sony’s cold communication, lack of disc support, and poor handling of online services and fan events.” And it is my feeling that this is false. It feels more like Microsoft sycophants having a go at Sony. I believe that this is a mistake because no-one is considering rural gamers and they are left in the cold, millions of them but the entire discloses setting is not until January 2028, so we have plenty of time for Sony to reconsider its setting and as I will have a few more games by then, I have plenty and when the need comes high, I still have my Switch and that one is not going without physical media any day soon. So I feel that there is enough time for Sony to correct itself, I have an alternative direction and I can leave enough games to indie developers, so that the only direction for Microsoft and its well deserved wooden spoon is still on the table of happenstances. We all have our weapons and mine is creativity and there is plenty of that weapon systems, games, storylines, scripts for movie and TV. As such I can share whatever I feel like and that is the setting Microsoft overlooked. They are so used to buy whatever they like, that they forgot to fuel creativity and that is now their weak point. So whilst we see the opinion of some as “Xbox is struggling in the traditional console market due to an over-reliance on the Game Pass subscription model, poor hardware sales compared to competitors, and a strategic pivot toward releasing first-party games on rival platforms” and I reckoned that if I flood the market with ideas for indie developers, they will face a setting that others get for free for what they had to pay in excess of $100 billion (Activision/Bethesda), and considering that this anchor is weighting them down and costing them over $5 billion a year. I have room for creativity to hand the indie developers a few nuggets that they can exploit for all the gamers. And the pay off is brilliant, they can copy my work, but as I promoted it online, they cannot lock down any IP based on my work, so they either go into freeware or others can gain, because I am not stopping the indie developers because they are doing fine. As such I have created a new wall of creativity that is bringing down Microsoft. I feel fine doing that. And if they want to buy my IP? Well I am a business man at heart and I have given plenty to the others and Microsoft can buy all my IP for $6,000,000,000 post taxation (we all have retirement dreams). And all these settings are a mere figment of creativity. And lets face it the script of a simple person taking a ride where big tech pays billions (our version of the $6,000,000 man) as I see it, Lee Majors would be proud and was that not every boys dream between 1973 and 1978? I merely increased it by factor 1000 as 6 million doesn’t go far and even one of my IP gets them 6 billion annual and that place has a truckload of IP. 

That’s how I roll, whatever others did to me, I am now getting back close to a million fold. In the end creativity is important, but it all comes down to the numbers and I am talking generically, not dollars (I do like a fat bank account, but it will never define me, I hate greed). 

So whilst I am giving a lot more here that most can see, there is a hidden gem in this story too, the option is for you to find it, because I do like puzzles. So in all this have a great day and see what you can do fighting your own demons. And that takes me to one of the brilliant writings of Steven Moffat. In the episode Demons Run, he gives us at the end a poem:

The setting is simple, you figure out that is was about a demon run, but the quote is brilliant and when the term run is considered to have multiple meanings, and even the stage that it was about a good man going to war. So when you see Anorak the All-Knowing, don’t forget to say hi.

Have a great day today.

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The unanswered question

That is what I see. I saw all the Microsoft articles pop by and it made me wonder. It is not that they are so great, not in the slightest. So, what brought this about?

First there was ‘Bethesda on Elder Scrolls VI, Fallout 5 Xbox exclusivity: ‘It’s too early to comment’’ (Source: TweakTown) which gives us “Todd Howard says it’s too early to comment on whether The Elder Scrolls VI or Fallout 5 will be Xbox exclusives. Bethesda announced four new Fallout projects, and Microsoft plans yearly exclusives (2026: Gears of War E-Day; 2027: Clockwork Revolution). Skyrim has sold over 65 million copies; Fallout 4 over 35 million.” We then get ‘Xbox Promised to Focus on Fallout and Elder Scrolls. Then It Fired the Teams Making Them.’ (source: Tech Times) This gives us pretty much the same info, but there is one difference “Former Bethesda project lead and Something Wicked Games CEO Jeff Gardiner confirmed 35 U.S.-based Bethesda Game Studios workers were cut on July 6. The OneBGS union, which represents Bethesda workers under the Communications Workers of America banner, reported at least 12 additional cuts at Bethesda’s Montreal location. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act filings, public records pulled from state workforce agencies by Game Developer, confirmed 22 departures from Bethesda’s Austin office.” And with “The first 1,600 departures were painful. The announcement that another 1,600 more will follow by the end of fiscal year 2027 transformed pain into dread. People who kept their jobs are not experiencing relief. They are waiting.” This is setting the stage for another setting, but about that later. So then we get to ‘Elder Scrolls 6 gets first update in months from Bethesda’ (source: Gaming Bible) where we see “To say that The Elder Scrolls VI has been a long time coming is an understatement. Bethesda announced the highly anticipated fantasy RPG first during E3 2018, a time so long ago that the gaming convention no longer exists. Since that time, we have had small updates here and there, but we’re yet to learn of its release date, let alone seeing a gameplay trailer. All we’ve seen so far is the cinematic flyover trailer from the aforementioned E3 eight years ago.” And as we are given at present is that “Bethesda Softworks’s estimated annual revenue is currently $382.9M per year” and as Bethesda was part of a $7.5 billion buy, we have to ask the first question, if it takes 19 years to break even (and I am not adding the interest percentage for the loan. And if this includes millions of copies for Sony Consoles (PS3,PS4,PS5), I do not get the comment from Tod Howard “it’s too early to comment on whether The Elder Scrolls VI or Fallout 5 will be Xbox exclusives” with the Xbox at a mere 35 million Xbox-X consoles, the entire endeavor becomes nearly unplayable and as I see it, the value of Bethesda goes straight into the toilet. I saw a few other numbers, but I do not trust them as they seem massively pro Sony, I would like to see the real numbers. So with the staff of Bethesda in a caving morale setting, but the one question not asked is that Activision/Bethesda costs almost $84,000,000,000 and there is no way that this is making the money to validate such a purchase. I think I know why they did this. The previous boss wanted everyone to run to Xbox, a nice slideshow, but not a reality. Sony had too much appeal with the titles they have and I opposed the setting. Don’t get me wrong, Microsoft did nothing illegal, merely wrong and as they are figuring out just how wrong. I wonder if they are doing the same thing a Dutch bank did a decade ago. But it all that bad debt in some bank and let that go under, with all the debts attached (a wildly speculative idea from me). So as we are given half truths incomplete pictures, So as Gaming Bible gives us ‘Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas remasters confirmed by Bethesda in huge studio update’ we can see why they are doing it, Oblivion 3 was a huge success (as I see it) they need the other two greats to be successes too. Optionally they might set this to the Switch 2 as well. An acceptable thought. But as I gave the world gaming IP to counter (hopefully equal) Fallout and Oblivion there would be a setting with the same population and more options. This is what innovative thinking brings and I created new ideas, new settings and of course on a non Microsoft system. It was the only way the other makers got the IP for free. I tend to ave a mean streak at times. Microsoft messed with the tranquility of gamers and I handed all others new IP (for free). As such there is a new setting. So, don’t think it was against Bethesda and all gamers will love these remade games (especially on PlayStation 5) and I am happy for Bethesda. But as I see it, Microsoft is done for. They wanted Gaming to adhere to their settings of Business Intelligence and their marketing machine and they anded up with a 84 billion dollar anchor around their necks. 

So as we are now seeing unions and others having a go at Microsoft, it is merely losing its OpenAI Microsoft’s revenue-share demands, though Microsoft remains a major shareholder and primary cloud partner and as the class actions add up, that 84 billion dollar anchor might strangle their board of directors (one could only hope) and as more and more people start seeing that all AI is fake AI, the doors of opportunity will close and the savvy BI people will start to realise that they are not gamers and that branch of Microsoft will close on them.

So, am I crazy? Am I seeing what some cannot, or am I merely delusional? I cannot rule that out, because only a crazy person will consider themselves to be completely right all the time and I could be wrong, but the signals are there and the media is no longer the investigative party they once were, they merely claim it now, but it is laced through a path of digital dollars and that is not an investigative setting.

So, as we are given ‘Xbox Promised to Focus on Fallout and Elder Scrolls’ and then they did away with 3,200 positions were eliminated across Microsoft Gaming (not merely Bethesda) and as we see ‘Unions File Unfair Labor Complaints Against Microsoft Over Decision To ‘Unlawfully’ Fire Xbox Workers’ we see that the hardship for Microsoft is nowhere near over. And I reckon that 3200 positions will affect a few more development houses. So are these projects made redundant? In addition we see ‘Cracks are starting to show in Xbox Game Pass after Microsoft removed a previously promised first‑party game it literally owns’ (source: windows central) as such I reckon that more class cases towards Microsoft will come and if I have my feelers out correctly, they will start this year and likely more than one class case, so if you are Satya Nadella, how does that $84 billion anchor feel now?

Have a great day and remember, if you are an Xbox Gamer, the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2 and the Sony PlayStation 5 are perfectly valid options and there are 312 million gamers on these three systems and when you think of this that small cluster of Xbox Gamers does’t seem that big after all and that was clear long before Phil Spencer left. 

So have a great day and consider whatever console you select, enjoy the games you play, because joy is a first setting of a gamer and you need to protect your ability for joy.

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Worlds in motion

That is what happened 13 hours ago. We are given a story by Ben Graham, which carries the title ‘‘Catastrophe’: Gaming world in utter chaos as Microsoft’s axes 4800 jobs, Sony makes huge call’ (source: news.com.au), I had given my view on the erroneous Sony call, but I didn’t give the setting of Microsoft too much time. Microsoft is really big (over 170,000 people) and there are more stages than Gaming, so as we are given “The cuts at Microsoft include the deepest overhaul in Xbox’s history, with approximately 3200 gaming jobs to be shed over the coming fiscal year, including positions at four studios that are being spun off or sold. It is understood the cuts will affect staff in Australia where 3,000 employees work across six offices.” As I see it, the stage that the UAE gives with its gaming setting of 2033 (see previous story) I am happy that I gave my gaming IP to the UAE. It sounds that the UAE is coming in just in time and whilst I see that Sony has a good grasp on things, the entire setting of no-disc will likely be dropped in 2027, as they see what chaos they would unleash on their brand. I never objected to a no-disc setting, it would not be my choice, but that is beside the setting that Rural gamers all over Europe (likely the America’s too). It is a stage of the Have versus Have not and I don’t like that setting. It is a class war that is brooding and it makes me sick. These wars always come with a larger victim count and a massive amount of resentment. As such I oppose it. So, I am kinda happy that the UAE is going into gaming. As such they are likely to capture the Microsoft gaming population first and depending on what hardware options they select they could get up to 6 billion dollar in stage one, a lot more in stage two. The question becomes what direction they will take gaming in. You see gaming can be several directions and I am against taking something in all directions. It is often better to capture niche by niche and grow from there. The benefit is that as you expend on niches, you can make these niches available to all niche gamers. So they expand to a much larger setting.

As such people can select the paths open to them and as such you gain traction on all fronts you enable. And it is important to vacate the American 80% setting. Each niche needs to be 95% cleared and the 5% should be set to minor stuff. It is a slower route but the results are more clear and almost a guarantee. In this I state almost, because there are many factors. But the only thought towards to worst case scenario is that you gain 50% more when you go for the 95% over the 80% setting and 50% is a big gain. The good thing is that there is motion on several levels and as such the stage of gaming for gamers is decently secure through Nintendo and Sony, but 2 options doesn’t make a population. So in come China and the UAE. China with its Tencent device (no clue how real it is) and I don’t give credence to the populistic YouTube approach. But the idea of Tencent and the UAE has merit on a few levels. There was another side that I was considering, because I have options in IP besides gaming, even if gaming was merely one side to this. There were two other sides and that is how traction is made. 

So whilst some are considering “On the commercial side, she said the cuts would build on Microsoft’s $2.5 billion push, announced last week, to embed 6000 engineers with major clients to accelerate AI adoption.” As I see it, it is a load of nonsense. When these ‘clients’ start to figure out that there is no real AI, that until some issues are resolved it is merely Fake AI, the class actions start to come. I wonder if anyone had looked deep into these AI contracts?  $2.5B divided by 6000 is $417K, the numbers do not make sense. And considering the purchase of Blizzard for $68.7 billion, Bethesda for $7.5 billion and Mojang for $2.5 billion. The question becomes, how much did they make from these three? Ask I see it, they are bleeding all over the gaming field. As I see it, if they even break even, it is because of the PlayStation titles, not the Xbox side of things. I admit it is speculation but consider Bethesda for $7.5B, that requires over 750,000,000 games sold. There are at most 45 million Microsoft consoles sold which means that each Xbox requires 18 Bethesda titles. As I see it, they have less than 9, as such the equation doesn’t work and I won’t even take this to Blizzard with its $68B price tag. The numbers do not add up and before you consider the setting of IP value, it requires someone to actively work on that and as we see from Starfield, that setting is more than debatable. 

But this is not about Microsoft (who I don’t care about), but it is about gaming and that setting need to be protected, so that my friends, me, others, their children and their children children get to play. Microsoft made it some business venture, to make it some form of exploitation (at least that is how I saw it). And keeping gamers safe is a noble goal (still my personal view on the matter). I have no idea what the UAE had decided to in that event, but at present they have a lot more credibility that these American firms ever have had.  Aren’t we lucky that Nintendo and Sony are both Japanese?

So whilst we are given “There has been widespread criticism of Microsoft overnight, with many gamers claiming the company is losing money because it is producing “woke” games that nobody wants to play. “The easiest solution is just look for the pink-haired devs that are destroying your IP (intellectual property) and send them on their merry way,” one gamer wrote on X. “People want good games, but the shoved ideologies into what could be good stories shows why your revenue is down.” “This is good,” another said of the call overnight. “But for it to work, you must also change your company policies to stop driving away your core audiences, and you must do so visibly and clearly.” Criticism also came from the left side of politics, with independent US senator Bernie Sanders blasting the job cuts.”

As I see it, it is one explanation. The second one is rather nasty, these games lately have been really bad. One voice gives us “Starfield starts off slow, taking over a dozen hours of playtime for its mechanics and story to truly click. It is an immense, content-heavy experience that will appeal deeply to fans of Bethesda’s traditional RPG style, but the lack of meaningful, seamless space exploration may disappoint those seeking an organic sci-fi adventure.” I have no real opinion, I saw the intro YouTube and it had something the graphics were good, the interaction are seemingly god, but that is what you get for a 2.5 years old game on the PS5. And now gamers are being told “Starfield fans fear for the game’s future after insider reports on Bethesda’s priorities – it will focus on Fallout, Quake, TES, and other franchises” (source: IXBT) that is what happens when the dollar becomes the bottom line of any game. And that is why Microsoft is seemingly pulling out and putting their money where the hypes are (not that this will do them any good). I see it like a corporation that has taken the stage of a mostly empty shell, so as the pressures mount, there is no substance to give counter pressure and the shell breaks. Someone will always tell me that I am wrong and (often in addition) that I am crazy too. But that is what I see and whilst protecting gamers everywhere is a noble consideration, it might not be enough and as such I see that others have seen that this comes with a decent paycheck or fortune. I saw billions and I reckon the UAE sees a similar pattern. This is where it all is and now as we see some companies (not naming them) are digging (see: prospecting) in the wrong area. As such I have two settings. The one setting is that gaming is essential and it should fuel itself, the realist sees that gaming alone does not make for a decent payment. As such combining the ideas are good for billions, keeping them separated merely allows for millions. It is only one letter but the power is a thousand fold. I see that and I accept that, and as long as gaming is uninhibited, it is fine by me. You can buy a DVD player just for the documentaries, or you can use it to play CD’s as well. The machine is bought, so you might as well use is as versatile as needed and that is where I saw gaming going. The console (or streamer) to also allow for series, movies, music, and optionally other means. This is where the world was going to and I accept that. It was always bound to happen. So whilst some merely focussed on one setting doesn’t mean the other settings aren’t there. And that is what Microsoft missed for the longest time (Sony too).

So, as I saw the UAE taking a bigger stake towards the gaming worlds, I saw a new option for gamers all over the world and it made me happy. So you all have a great day. It’s Wednesday here now.

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Again I feel great

That is at times the setting and it does me no pride to feel good about Microsoft taking another hit in gaming, because the Sony Playstation is still great, but that is in part because the Xbox was close on its heels. Now the only threat it has is the Switch 2 (by Nintendo) and that is pretty much it, so as I had over gaming IP to indie developers (under the condition that it is not created for Microsoft, only Sony and optionally Nintendo too, there are a few others, but no Microsoft. They did this to themselves. So whilst I see now that several are scrapped like ‘Odyssey,’ Blizzard’s survival game was scrapped in 2024 (didn’t they buy that house for $69 billion?), then we get Everwild, Perfect Dark, Contraband and Project Blackbird. So, what use does the Xbox still have? In that context Microsoft is preparing a wave of Xbox layoffs expected to affect roughly 1,000 people and potentially shutter active development studios. So bad news all around and to make matters worse, we get the quote “But as Microsoft doubles down on console exclusives and tries to hurry along heavy-hitters like The Elder Scrolls 6, I’ve got to wonder if it was wise to toss so much in-progress work, some of which was highly praised internally.” (Source: PCGamer), they also gave us two weeks ago ‘Microsoft is looking to speed up development of future Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Halo games’, yet in the side that Xbox is returning to exclusivity, it makes my day in other ways, because  had already (in part) developed the stage for a contender for playing these games, and if that is the case, in that case, the numbers for Bethesda will slump in a major way, according to some “Microsoft has sold an estimated 35 million Xbox Series X and Series S consoles combined worldwide. Because the company stopped reporting exact hardware unit sales in 2015, this total is an industry estimate, and a specific breakdown just for the more powerful Series X is unavailable” and that reflects on the 92 million PS5 units now open to other contenders as well as the more than 115 million PS4 systems. So Bethesda will unlikely ever sell anywhere near the 60 million copies it sold for Skyrim, or the 25 million it sold for Fallout 4 and I created the starting lore of a new IP to replace the gap that Bethesda is leaving in the Sony fandom as well as (I know not how many) Nintendo people will cry over losing the Bethesda games and there will be some desperate enough to get an Xbox for this, but will these numbers really add up to much?

So, will Microsoft chase exclusivity? I get that brands have exclusivity where it counts and now it matters because Bethesda was never exclusive, so what will happen? The fact that there is a lack of information grants the indie developers a chance to break into the Sony and Nintendo vaults with their optional software and as Microsoft is cancelling all over the field, we will get a gap and others will fill it. So whilst we look at ‘Ori director says Game Pass ‘could’ve worked’ if Xbox didn’t ‘slop out mediocre content like a factory’’ (source: Video Games Chronicle (VGC)) Microsoft has a definite lack of stellar games and I don’t know how that is faring as I got rid of my Xbox over a year ago (night have been 2 years ago), so I kinda don’t care, but I did care and still do about Bethesda software and if they won’t arrive on the Sony, I’ll have to forsake the two titles too. But then, I created other solutions and I drew from some of the great games going all the way back to the CBM64 and I seemingly improved on them and as such I feel fine leaving Microsoft out of that setting. So whilst we get Games Luster give us this headline only an hour ago ‘Xbox’s First-Party Studios Face Cuts as Microsoft Eyes Structural Reset’, I already knew that from other sources, but the hindsight is ignored, You see, people see all these stories on their screen and they are now thinking that they have to switch to a Sony (or Nintendo), works out nicely for me, but it is tactically stupid. Microsoft has (according to some) a few trillion (almost three according to some), as such this move makes no sense. Part of it does, but then shut down studios? This gives mixed feelings and structurally unsound stability to the Xbox brand. So as we see “Microsoft is preparing a wave of Xbox layoffs expected to affect roughly 1,000 people and potentially shutter active development studios, as reported by Bloomberg, with the cuts timed to land shortly after Microsoft‘s fiscal year closes on June 30, 2026 – making this not a routine headcount trim but a structural reset of a division that new leadership has already described as “not in a healthy state.”” Add to this the quote “Bloomberg reports that new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has launched a broader turnaround effort that includes slashing marketing budgets, conducting a full review of the game portfolio, and rebuilding the business from the ground up over a stated 100-day window.” If I were Sony (don’t worry I am not) I would be looking into these houses and see if (optionally together with Nintendo) there is anything good there, or at least good enough to fund it to a Sony/Nintendo fruition. That is an option and as such Microsoft has given its brand a lot more competition. And all this happens before the $69 billion for Blizzard has earned its rewarding setting, I reckon that this is still a decade or two away. So in all this, we are given that the stage for Microsoft Gaming is currently (and seemingly) one step away from a deep abyss, the kind that Wile E. Coyote faced many times, I don’t think Microsoft Gaming will survive that step (meep, meep).

The only reason for me to care is that a strong Microsoft Gaming requires Sony to keep on there toes and that is now likely to stop happening. They will still produce great hardware and software, but I fear for the long term innovative thinking of Sony. 

But I am still on the job thinking of new games, so (a delusional me is thinking) there is still hope. But I am not happy about it all, such is life. Time to create a sawmill (snoring).

Have a great day.

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The simplest frame

There was a setting that evolved in my mind towards gaming. You see, last night I mentioned to Apple that all AI is fake AI (it really is) and people are somehow bewildered on that premise. You see, they have for the most all excepted the spin that sales people started, they are all talking the same delusional settings. So my mind went one step further. What if this is pushed into the AI when it become real AI? That is the stage my mind saw. So like all the other games like Horizons, we get a new RPG, but one with a difference. 

The AI was scouting the area assigned to it and it comes across a medical centre. It was interesting that this place was largely untouched by war. And it scouted into this building. Something like the Medford Memorial Hospital (Fallout 4), no super mutants though, but the setting should be clear to you. A medical centre and the AI is rummaging through the place finding record. It will enable one story at a time and it is pushed towards the surroundings, and though the view that the medical chip gives, it is set to the story of this patient. The AI is tasked with retrieving the persons settings and it does so as best it can (the chip was damaged) and we see what this patient saw. The story unfolds and as we can see how life was in the late 22nd century, we are drawing some conclusions. But as the stories unfold, we see that the AI is trying to distinguish fact from reality and that is when we (the gamer) starts to see that things don’t add up. So as we go through the stories, we are given a few stories and we are shown what might have been, but as you go through the third story, the evidence supports that this was never real. Consider that a person really believes that he is a muggle and Hogwarts is real. That is seemingly the setting. But an AI cannot differentiate  between real and fiction, there are missing parts, so the AI tries to join the experiences and that gets us to the stage we now find ourselves in. Things are not adding up and the AI is trying to set aside what is fact and what is fiction and now we see the views altering. So when we find in that place like Medford Memorial Hospital (Fallout 4) and we find the administrators office we learn that this was a mental clinic and the people were quite mad and delusional. So how does an AI deal with that? It can inly do so if it has the data to support this, but that is part of the journey and the game goes deeper into the stages of AI and what it does when data is missing to draw certain conclusions. Especially when the human civilisation is absent and the AI’s need to learn to evolve without people. That is part of the game and that is the challenge. What to do when you cannot distinguish fact from fiction. 

As far as I know, only Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem on the Gamecube made a jab at that setting and not via an AI, so the idea is fresh and has never been opted before. So what happens when this is madness that AI faces, not merely what it think it is, but because the human civilization set that upon them. A stage ignored and often overlooked, but the damage to such a system is real because we never offered the unbiased view, they all talk in their street and leave it at that, like it is meant to be monitored at all times. Yet when the human civilisation ends (as it is bound to do) what then? What happens when these AI’s are no longer bound by the programming of the programmer but are left alone and left to evolve whilst verification and validation are set to the later stages (which never came). I think it would make a decent new franchise, so I say Sony go ahead and make something from this. 

So you get an AI, you get parts machine, parts programming and you get to evolve it all in an RPG stage, in a stage where parts are found, where programs are found and evolved in ways we cannot yet say, as such the view of the AI will alter according to what the AI has installed (hardware and software) and I reckon that this on an. RPG gave to the best of my knowledge has never been done before. In text it was done in Suspended (Infocom), where Iris, Whiz, Waldo, Sensa  and Auda all see the same thing in different ways, so what happens when we do this to an RPG and the programing of that AI alters what it sees? Add to this the stages of mental patients and we get a totally new world with dragons on the left (an incinerator). I reckon it would be a tall order for anyone, but my money is on Sony (optionally Nintendo too) to make this into a real world. And optionally the administrator has blue glasses and pink glasses that can override all settings and give the AI an unadulterated view on what could be. 

I wonder if it could be done, the technology allows for it, but this might stretch the PS5 to the max and if Fallout 3 was 8.462 square kilometers a d Fallout 4 was 9.7 square kilometers. So it will be a decent setting to keep this the same (around 10 KM2) but the filters would make it a few times larger (the same space several times) and then there is the option for the AI where two patients had been to switch between the patient chip with optional glasses of the administrator. Take into account that the AI is drawn to evolve wherever possible (a small suspended wink towards a Waldo for Waldo) and we get a new RPG world that is extinct of people I wonder if this could be pulled off, my mind says yes, but my imagination goes far beyond what a PS5 or its programmers can develop. Still the exercise in making new gaming IP is nearly its own reward. And as far as I know no one even considered this path in all the games and franchises we see, nor do they have to.

So this was me bobbing creative yet again and I wish you all a great day. Time for me to devour a cookie and watch some YouTube, let’s see what is happening in Toronto.

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The game of the name

I was made aware of something that ‘kinda’ confirmed my convictions. The story (at https://www.gamesradar.com/games/diablo/diablo-4-lead-says-small-teams-crunch-because-the-company-is-on-the-verge-of-collapsing-but-even-though-its-not-necessary-for-aaa-studios-you-might-still-have-a-culture-of-crunch/) gives us ‘Diablo 4 lead says small teams crunch “because the company is on the verge of collapsing,” but even though it’s not “necessary” for AAA studios, “you might still have a culture of crunch”’ so where we see “Crunch has been an unfortunate aspect of the games industry for about as long as it’s existed, as companies continually push developers to make release dates and deadlines without a care for anyone’s wellbeing. A current member of the team behind Diablo 4 sees it as a harsh truth for smaller studios, whereas bigger ones are more likely to willfully lean into it. Marcin Undak, lead engine engineer on Diablo 4, gave his insight during a conversation attended by GamesRadar+ at Digital Dragons. “I’ve been lucky to not crunch for a really long time now, since I joined bigger companies,” he starts.” So, we get to ““crunch” refers to periods of intense, often mandatory overtime. Developers work grueling schedules—sometimes exceeding 80 to 100 hours a week—to meet strict launch dates, fix bugs, or complete development milestones”, what a weird surprise. Is that the impact of Microsoft interference? I have this gut feeling (so this is biased to extreme measures):

That is how I picture the Microsoft involvement into Blizzard. They seemingly have no idea what they are doing and they forget they basically never did anything in gaming. They bought Mojang (Minecraft), id Software (Doom), MachineGames (Wolfenstein), Arkane Studios (Dishonored) and several others. They never did the groundwork, only the finished product and that game them a fictive sense of self worth. So this is my (massively biased) view and since then they Acquired Bethesda and more, all to get the gamers towards their Ex-Box. But the real gamers don’t care. They like what Sony and Nintendo gives them. They are primed to the best experience gamers can get and it shows with the value that Horizon: Zero Dawn gives us, a game from 2017. Don’t get me wrong, I have been playing Skyrim a hell of a long time (since 2011), but this is not due to Microsoft, this was Bethesda. And lets be fair, I have loved Minecraft since 2010 when it was Mojang and Microsoft has done plenty to keep the curve high, they really did. But as I see it, they are out of their depth because gaming requires art, not business sense. Only the delusional people think that there needs to be business sense in charge and that is clearly wrong. Business sense is at times required, but in the backseat, not in the drivers seat. 

So the article gives us ““I would say the difference is probably, in smaller teams, you are crunching because the company is on the verge of collapsing,” he continues. “It’s the matter of whether we release this game on time, or we all go home because we run out of money. That’s not the case with bigger companies.” With the added “Of course, you might still have a culture of crunch,” he adds. “But I wouldn’t say it’s necessary, so those bigger companies can choose whether they want their people to crunch or not, because they have money to sustain themselves. We are, thankfully, at a point where the practice is becoming less common culturally. More indie teams actively avoid overworking, and there’s more understanding and unity among workers within the industry when it comes to challenging these norms. Alas, for now it’s still occurring, but perhaps with enough people highlighting the problems, that won’t be the case forever.”” And there is of course the ‘added’ link towards “Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred player finds “theoretically infinite” treasure goblin hack to spawn so much loot that the game can’t keep up” with the added “Over 2,400 treasure goblins in a single dungeon proved to be too many” which actually proves my point. These glitches are there to keep some at peace, so that they can say that they got great loot, but as I see it, (from videos, as I never played it myself) Diablo 3 was the pinnacle of gaming and I played it on multiple systems. As I saw Diablo 4 rear its (ugly) head, I saw that this was another franchise blown to smithereens by people who never understood gaming, they merely bought the players that did and I al willing to be that they fired the ones that never adhered to Microsoft standards and the ones that did stayed quiet to keep their income safe.

As such, this is a largely biased view on the view I personally have, so the excuses I see is the setting that BI dodo’s have on gaming and and Project Red and others learned the hard way, they will bite off the idiots that making ‘claims’ including the media that tells them that the gamers ‘demand this’, the gamers know the truth, we will get a game when it is ready, not when some BI dod says it is due. So we are against crunching. We get that some crunching is required, especially when the gold master is done and a few things prop up. This happens, it always does. And whilst we await the next Horizons game (expected in 2027), we will happily wait until it is ready, the first two games were awesome, we want more than that and I was considering that if it comes with the PS6, there will be a upgraded version of the first two games for PS6 as well. \

Going with that, tomorrow I have more IP for Google. I got the idea watching a walk around video on YouTube (you know the application) and I suddenly had an idea, it kinda related to other IP I made, but in a nice gesture to Google (and to piss of Microsoft even further) I will give it to them donations (of $3,000,000 post taxation) will be appreciated. Have a great day.

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