Tag Archives: Bethesda

Many off ramps, same destination

It has been quiet here for 6 days. These things happen when you suddenly end up in hospital. I will spare you the details, they are not important. The cemetery is filled with people who had my condition, so there. We are about to take to trips before we get to the main event. Thee elements all matter to paint a picture, one of presentation, one of anticipation and one of speculation. In all matters I could be wrong, but I will let you decide for yourself. A small added treasure hint, I will add a new piece of IP tomorrow. The savvy programmer could become a millionaire. I will let you consider that for yourself. I am no programmer and I have other things on my mind. But if you are savvy and create a good program, you could get between 20-50 million downloads over time. At $0.49 per sale that will amount to serious money. So I leave it up to you to consider that tomorrow. Now we take a different gander. 

The dream
When you are locked (lets call it that) to a bed your mind gets to wander and my did (and then some). I was offered a job as a courier for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia based in Sydney. Their personal mailman and they started with one hell of an offer. My startup bonus was BTC300. Of course I accepted and that would be my initial payment for up to 6 months. So when was the last time you were offered a starting bonus of $24M? So, yes my dream was delusional, but it was my dream and I was locked to a bed. In my mind I visited the cities I have visited in the past (a fair amount of them) and my life was turned upside down.  

Now I am certain that you wonder why anyone would do that? And that would be a fair question. Now consider the other side.

  1. The consulate might have been desperate for staff members and they took one that knew several languages and had travel experience all over the world and I fit that bill (fortunately).
  2. The consulate might prefer a courier who did not speak or read Arabic for all kinds of reasons.
  3. An unknown reason, only known to them.

These three reasons are perfectly logical and they will matter soon enough. Anyway, it was a lovely dream and I saw the places I have missed for about a decade.

The next instance of a rewrite
That is something all writers face. In my case the story of Engonos (played by me off course) I end up with a powerful Olympic bident called Psychofagos (meaning soul eater). I never really explored the part on how I got it. So that came to my mind, setting the hospital as a stage (might not be like that in the end).

The main event
You see what you saw was part of Engonos and as it is in my blog, now it is visibly mine. My concoction and my creativity. I need to see where in the script it will fit, but it should be added to seasons one. The main event is all about Microsoft. I saw the article last week but I was somehow indisposed. I had not forgotten it, because no matter how dim the BBC was. I saw something that others might have missed and that is the exercise of today. It is about delusional settings. We have intentional delusions and unintentional delusions. The intentional is often self inflicted like the dream, or the story. The unintentional version tends to come from speculated views or facts and the mulling of these facts. Some set to half truths by your own views and speculations and some are set to other parts (which is not up for discussion today). What matters is that you see these parts ‘as is’ not as truths or as ‘maybe truths’ that is the largest mistake that a speculation can lead these versions to. The media relies on this for flames and so on. I do not, but I am strongly set to presumptions. If a speculation is a guess, then the presumption is an educated guess based on available data. That is the underlying setting you need to see.

This started as I read ‘Xbox, Nintendo or PlayStation: does it still matter?’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-68304967). The short answer was ‘Yes, it does’ but that is not what this is about. We see the spin by Microsoft and then there is a jewel. Perhaps unintentional, perhaps a quick slide to avoid what was ALMOST said. The first I saw was “The analysts Ampere estimated that in 2023 there were a total of around 46.5m consoles sold, of which only 7.6m were Microsoft’s Xbox. That leaves nearly 39 million gamers that Xbox exclusives such as the long awaited Starfield from Bethesda, didn’t reach.” Don’t get me wrong, I have been a Bethesda fan for the longest time. Now consider that the game was released on September 6th 2023. And now we see “Updates could play a big part in improving the future of Starfield, but there’s one key issue with the game that seems unlikely to ever be addressed. Although Starfield received some share of acclaim upon its release, it was also met with a lot of disappointment, as it didn’t necessarily live up to the standards set by prior RPGs from Bethesda Game Studios. Although there are a number of areas for improvement that updates could tackle, some underlying choices in the design and story may be frustrating forever.” (Source: Screenrant) As I see it the 39 million gamers are not overly sad on missing out. We see also on other media “Phil Spencer on Helldivers 2 Not Being on Xbox: ‘I’m Not Exactly Sure Who It Helps’”, well the answer is simple. It helps a game being shown at its maximum. Sony has a truckload of those and Microsoft fell behind by a lot. He sounds like the desperate executive who cannot make ends meet. How are developers given a fair shake when they are rewarded pennies when they are entitled to dollars? GamePass only works at the core of less then $10 a month leaving developers with less than $0.25 per gamer. How does that work out for them? The quote that set me off is ‘suddenly’ gone, so I am hoping others still have it and Gamespot still had it: “a future where every screen is an Xbox.” I personally believe that he wanted to say “a future where every screen is an Xbox data collection point.” To see this, I need to take you on a small journey as I have stated this danger in the past before. Consider that Activision Blizzard was acquired for $69,000,000,000. Sixty nine billion. Let that sink in. Now consider that Activision Blizzard made 7.53 billion USD in 2022, less than in 2021. This gives us that the investment will take 10 years to break even, 11 years when we consider the interest and even more time when they become GamePass games and the revenue will become smaller still. So how is that a good investment when gaming technology evolves the way it does and Microsoft is now losing ground awfully fast. But when you consider data where games collect data on every gamer the field changes and they will have sign up deals where you get something cosmetic every month for free, it costs nothing and thousands will sign up, the small print that they collect certain parts will be written in the small print over dozens of pages. Yes, this is ALL speculation but that is what I would do if I paid for an Edsel for a ’mere’ 69 billion. The latest games are disappointing and Microsoft is losing ground. They misjudged the field and the people are sticking to their consoles (mostly Nintendo and Sony). I reckon that Tencent will be outshining Microsoft too with the optional 50 million subscribers (also speculation). That will be the third time that Microsoft misjudged gamers and loses a lot in the process. We can understand the spin by Phil Spencer. I reckon he is now desperate to get a win but as I see it it is not in the cards for him. Not as things look at present. And it goes more arctic for Microsoft soon after that. They are betting on the wrong horse and whilst they shared the field closer to equals with Sony in the era of the Xbox360, they threw it away in under a decade and after that they invested almost 100 billion in a few software houses that could not bring home the bacon and I was eager to assist in their downfall by handing IP to independent developers giving Bethesda even more challenges down the road. In the end you are as good as your next success and Bethesda had it in 2011 with Skyrim. Then Microsoft messed up their mojo. That is how I see it and now Microsoft is (as I personally see it) going down hard and the ‘spin’ we see around Helldivers 2 doesn’t help Microsoft. And it gets to be worse. This is given to us with “Xbox president Sarah Bond even teased the idea of some brand new hardware in a podcast released by Microsoft on Thursday” yes Sarah, deliver or shut up. You either have something new coming up (which might be essential for Microsoft), or basically fudge off. Microsoft lost against Sony, then it lost against Nintendo, the weakest console of all and there is a decent chance that over the next 15 months it will lose against the Tencent Handheld as well. Consoles require (for the most) games, or something unique and GamePass was not enough, not when the pass owners are told that certain games will not be released on GamePass. When mediocrity is the sum of GamePass, the games will go somewhere else and Bethesda new elder scrolls is well over a year away (at least), gamers will go somewhere else and when that happens the 100 billion dollar is the anchor that drowns Microsoft games. So the statement of “Ampere does not expect Microsoft to exit the console platform business in the medium term as that would leave a gaping hole in its games-related revenues” I am not so sure. RedFall and Starfield are huge disappointments and that amounts to abandonment by gamers. They will find another venture and some will hold on to their console, that is fair enough. But with the abandonments also comes GamePass cancelations and that is revenue Microsoft desperately needs to make revenue. 

So how wrong am I?
Not all will pan out, I get that, but I feel that I am closer to the mark than most others and the two elements that will ensure the drop of Microsoft is now more exclusive games on Sony and the numbers that Tencent will get. The second one will cost Microsoft a gaming population, one they desperately need.

When you read between the media emotions you see that I am making a good case. Read up and form your own opinion. Don’t just take my word for it.

Enjoy the week.

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The indirect path

I talked about this before. At first to fit the larger station of Elder Scrolls: Restoration, but as they are part of Microsoft. It becomes no way Jose, so I instilled it in a new RPG called Generation. It was not some Bethesda clone, it was totally different and I put a lot on it on this blog (go find it if you care). So here I was pondering a few things. And as I was setting a few thoughts out which flows from the setting of cogs and balances in gaming (a previous story) I gave the indirectness a new side.

Consider that this game is too large to play in one lifetime, so we get a second and even a third generation and that is the start of a new corner of RPG IP. 

So lets take a look at the next generation, the daughter. The offspring gets the mean of the parents. As such it is ((30+20)/2), but with dexterity something else happens. It is still ((15+35)/2) plus 50% of the difference as the woman is stronger in this field. So the daughter gets additional Dexterity, Intelligence and Creativity. The son would have gotten additional numbers in the other field, neither get additional agility as they are both the same for the parents. So there is a balance and over time these traits go up. In other fields like mapmaking it is about creativity, art and leather skills (original maps were created on vellum), this also allows for new settings to use creativity. You can have a McGyver and that allows for weapons (basic weapons) to be created in the field. And until your creativity is up, you will see and collect rope and leather, but until your creativity is high enough, a sling will never be the result. This allows for other weapons and it helps to season other skills too. Scribe skills are there to infuse map making, allow you to recognise books of value and read lore. But in this the skills of the parent will to some degree transfer to the child, something never done before. So over three generations you will have created a much stronger character if you marry right. And here is the kicker. I believe in checks and balances. Getting a too strong character limits the play, but a partner that is not all out in those fields but is an awesome butcher or fisherman allows for food to be gotten easier, as well as get more value from the skinning of a fish or a deer (I love my Bambi burgers). 

The indirect path has never been optimised and it is a niche in gaming that is screaming to be explored. And when you combine the elements you get to see that none of the others have any of this in their games. Over half a dozen gaming IP added to a blog. I give Guerrilla software a pass as their series is all new IP, never seen before and the others? I will let you decide.

Have a great day, my Friday starts in 200 minutes, in Vancouver it isn’t even 2am yet.

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The spindle web

That is a setting I pushed myself into. You see, as I was revamping the issues of RPG, I found another way to use the IP of Vint Cerf in a way no one considered before. I came up with this as early as June 10th 2023 in ‘How to ping a delusional mind’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/06/10/how-to-ping-a-delusional-mind/)

This game me a jolt to say the least, but the issue of grinding kept on banging in my mind. There is an upside and a downside. The upside is that grinding can get you some yummy equipment early in the game which gives you an edge, the downside is that too much of any game becomes an exercise and will no longer be an experience. That downside is actually a lot less fun, more detrimental to fun then anyone is willing to admit to. So The option is to have a different kind of seeding. It should prevent grinding (to some degree) and grinding will stop to some degree. 

The idea is that any party evolves, the evolution happens over a period of 3-5 days, but I will come to that later. The hoodlums could be brigands or any kind of foe. In the first stage they reappear in a place you have already visited. In stage two there will be an entourage as well as a ‘leader’ and he (or she) will be stronger, that leader will have an entourage so if the first stage is 5-7 people, they will add anything between 3-8 additional troops. Now a few days later we get to stage three. A boss is added (as well as a boss chest) and now we see a difference, all the previous people will gain strength and abilities, or skills. Now we have ourselves a clambake and an actual challenge. Over time (depending on how often you hit that place, the skills of these foes increase, the larger extent is that with the revamped IP of Vint Cerf this now becomes more than a simple exercise and over time these elements makes this game a challenge at every turn. Now the ‘respawn time’ is (as I see it) 3-5 days per level and that time depends on how close it is to a town and to a decent road. The closer to both the quicker the respawn time and when you hit that place again no matter how evolved the foes were, the counter goes back to zero. This implies that hitting places at stage one soon becomes a waste of time, chests are only respawned from stage 2 and a boss chest in stage 3. Even as some elements respawn with some level of randomness, skills and attributes are increased by 1 for every attempt. As such every foe gets one extra point in one element and skill after every attempt. It stops grinding. Consider that every time you try a place, the opposition, every member is either stronger, more stamina, more stealth or whatever they gained with every visit. Soon you are up against the deadliest of people, not a good choice to make. This setting requires that there are enough places to loot (beyond the story places). 

So we have an increasingly clever pool of opponents, we have revamped how they fight and where they fight and now I have found an option against grinding. Now I need to consider another option to loot and we are off to the races (I had one and wrote about it, but I am not completely convinced it was the best path to take). 

In all this there is a spindle web to consider. You see a story in any RPG is not enough, you need yarn to spin the story, and there is the irritating voices that Bethesda gave us. I am NOT having a go at them. In 2011 it was what it was, but now we can do more. You need a pool of gossip, gossip that might be true, it might not, it might even be a trap. No matter how we see it a different, a more 2025 approach is needed and I am still working on it. There are two parts, the first is what you hear, the second is that you don’t hear the same thing all the time and more important that it changes per game you play. As such you might hear much different things your neighbour hears. There I need to make sure that the idea cannot be replicated (so what your neighbour hears will not work for you). Gossip is a real conundrum, but could leave you with a clue or an advantage. You see Richard Garriott had a great idea in Ultima 3 (1985), the tip gets you a tip. So what happens when you tip the local innkeeper? The cleaning lady? So you need a system that can create 1000 gossip clues and they are linked to a location. Wherever the gossiper lives, or close to where that inn or gin-joint is. I believe that pre-seeding is the best way to go, with a flag to activate the story. It is another way to start side quests but it should not take centre seat, it needs to be some side option at best. In that setting the traps are also an idea to get people to a place where a much stronger force tends to be (happy birthday to you, silly death comes to you). Making the trap a real challenge to say the least. 

Still got work to do on all this, but I have made a decent inroad in gaming that others have never addd to their system. So yay me and it is time to enjoy Saturday, except in Vancouver where it is only Friday early evening. Enjoy the day wherever you are.

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Lines of presentation

That is what it at times amounts to. A line of presentation, although in gaming it is called storylines and narration. You see, I have been pondering a few things. We cannot ignore a game like Skyrim and the weaknesses it has. I am not attacking Skyrim. It was released on 11.11.11 and two generations later, it still feels and plays awesome. There have been so many additions and now we need something new. The problem is that we need something really new, not just another version and that got me thinking. To see this we need to take a little historical journey. According to ‘history’ the one of the very first Spymaster was Akashi Motojiro (1904). I personally doubt this for the simple reason that the art of war was written 500BC, implying the Chinese did nothing with chapter 13 for over 2 millennia and that is as far fetched as it will ever get. Sun Tzu gave us the following categories of spies:

  • Local spies
  • Inward spies
  • Converted spies
  • Doomed spies, and 
  • Surviving spies.

But no one (at present has incorporated that in an RPG game. Until now it wasn’t really possible to add this. As such the side quest could be to evolve a spy network. The narration would be upgraded and when you consider the settings of balance, you could teach espionage to one and assassination to the other, the operative part is balance, a sort of detente in RPG gaming. Still the player would get benefit of both. Now consider the implications. Not merely the quests for each type of spy, the setting of learning the scrolls of espionage Ould be added and you would gain another side to the game. Bethesda relies on the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild. It is something that others need to avoid, but the beginning could be an eye catcher to any gamer. Now consider that a similar stage could be applied to the Hashashim, who were the dread of crusaders in the 11th century, they were the foundation assassins. There is of course the Ninja from Japan, all options to consider in a new RPG game, to set yourself apart rom the others, and as (according to some sources) the next Elder Scrolls is 2 years away, the early bird that chases the new frontiers can care themselves out a very nice slice of that pie. 

Narration
That is merely the gameplay, but the larger stage becomes the storyline, the narration if you like and that is the golden threat of any solid RPG game. There are more sides and I wrote about those lines on May 30th 2022 when I wrote ‘Creating economic sides’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/05/30/creating-economic-sides/). You see, the stories are one, but there needs to be the creation of a balanced economy or the game becomes weak. You see poverty around you, all whilst you have hundreds of thousands of credits. And it is not direct, it is the indirect influence that drives the game forward and these storylines could have a similar approach. Consider 3 locations. One has espionage, one has assassination and one has commerce. They all have their own advantages, but to some degree drawbacks too. You might benefit from all, but only to some degree and it only goes as far as the good will you create. Making choices does that in one direction and takes them away in another direction. It creates a form of balance and makes the game very much replayable, because one impact hits a region different from another. Sides too often overlooked. We might remember Fable where one area was in poverty, or in good standing depending on the actions you took, yet we can take that in a much larger and different directions as well. Until now it was not explored (no negativity implied), however the new streaming systems as well as the new consoles allow for a much stronger and larger play system, larger scenarios and larger areas. And we might think that this is the solution, however without a more verbose storyline and much more profound narration that is not going to be an option that survives. Only two months ago we were given “Starfield’s lacklustre exploration and lack of depth, with players feeling that the game becomes dull and tedious.” I never played the game, so I do not know. But I can understand how this came about and it evangelises my idea of bolder and better narration and story lines. No matter who does it, they need to get ready for a much larger storyline in all kind of directions. The linear storyline is pretty much at an end, but that is my point of view. 

I believe that the next large RPG game needs to set new boundaries and set an entirely new way to narrate a game, more of the same will not get far in 2024 (or 2025 for that matter).

Enjoy Sunday.

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Creating new gaming IP

That happened to me today. I think it started yesterday. Yesterday I watched the walkthrough of God of War 2. I hadn’t seen that since I played the game in 2007 on the PS2. I might have replayed it in 2008. I am not certain. I do know I played the game more than once. But since then the PS3, PS4 and PS5 came and I forgot about it. I replayed the God of War 3 on PS4 (remaster) as well as the original release and watching GoW2 set something in motion and it came to fruition with GoW3. To be clear. This is not some GoW clone, or sequel setting. I believe that would be Santa Monica Studio IP and it would be theirs. I suddenly thought it through as a new IP. More of an RPG but set in ancient Greece. Set in Byzantine Greece (around 400AD) we get a shifting setting but that could benefit the story. I am not revealing too much here, as I am still working things out. But consider what we know, important is also what we do not know and we get the optional setting for a very different IP. An RPG that involves the Greek gods, Greece, history and events that are often overlooked or forgotten. A new kind of educational IP with optional slash and sneaky sneaky (I was always up for sneaky sneaky). Now consider that setting and with two options. Normal and VR play. I do not know too much on VR play as I never played it, but I reckon that if we get this right the interest might be enormous. Even now I am thinking outside the box. Making the player optionally learn ancient greek in the process. There is so much out there and so much to be included that it almost boggles the mind (almost is not always a given). Did you know that it was Aristotle who came up with the Aristotle’s Hole. A pinhole camera in 500BC. There was no film yet, but the foundation of the Camera Obscura is that old. So what happens when we twist that in another way? What happens when the journey is not slaying, but educational? What happens if the game is about repairing (or breaking and repairing)? When (apart from the movie Wreck it Ralph) did you see a game that was about fixing stuff? It doesn’t seem to appealing, but it could be. You merely need to twist the setting on what is broken and why it is broken. 

I myself have always been a huge fan or replayability. As such the RPG has a little snag. You need to create allegiance and throughout the game that allegiance is the guiding star in the game. But what happens when you replay it with another allegiance? What will you fix then, there will be overlap, there will be some similarity, but consider that one part is never seen again for each of the directions you chose. Also, we need to hit other snags. Not complications, merely the outcome of choices you make in the game. So you could replay the game several times giving you optionally other outcomes and other challenges. To this degree a game was never created because those in charge wanted 99% coverage on one game. That time has gone and passed. The impact of Skyrim is making that clear as day and the fact that some people have well over 1000 hours invested in that game is ample evidence that there is space for such a game. I would say that this is up to Santa Monica Studios, but they have their own IP (and they are busy with a new game). So this gets to go towards the non Microsoft indie developers. I still think Amazon is the best choice, but a case now could be made for Tencent and their handheld. I am not ruling out Apple with their Arcade. Yet Apple tends to ‘hide’ in niches and that is not a place where truly great games are made, good games yes, great games a lot less so. And I like my IP to grow beyond expectations. As such I am not ruling out Apple, but I am not holding my breath. That being said Ultima III (by Richard Garriott) was released on the Apple II in 1983. That game got me hooked on RPG games (I had the CBM64 version). 

The moment you think with blinkers is the moment the gaming world passes you by and that is what I did. I removed the blinkers (unintentional) and my mind created the foundation of a new game. One never done before (as far as I can tell) and it is not a small game either. Alexandria, Antioch, Mystras, Ephesus, Mesembria, Reggio Calabria and several other places. That could open a door to a whole range of other games too (not sequels). 

A stage one walkthrough opened the door to. Whilst Microsoft is making new waves (and adding things to Windows 10) whilst we see more issues, what did I do? I created something new. Whilst we get ‘FTC Demands Microsoft Unveil Plans for Ubisoft Amid Activision Blizzard Scrutiny’, I came up with a novel idea. Whilst Bethesda is still releasing patches to a game they released in September 2023. I came up with yet another gaming IP. 

The $0.02 question
You see, what I claim and what is to become can be very different. I think this will be a success (if executed properly), but that is no guarantee that it will be, I do know that. What I also see is that I have come up with several pieces of IP, all whilst Microsoft buys its way to an early grave (with not much to show for it in the end).

Am I right? Am I wrong? That is for others to decide. I know what I have and what I am placing here is a setting that is now public. Over time I will add a lot more and that is also evidence on how those larger players keep on failing. Alexander Hamilton once said “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything”. In this, I stand for innovation, I stand for the pathways ignored. It doesn’t make me better, wiser or wealthier. But it does make me more creative and with cleaning data and gaming that is an edge you should never ignore. It cannot be bought, it could merely be borrowed for a time and the person who has it is the real gem in any crown. Feel free to disagree, but the evidence for well over 2000 years have shown that to be true. 

So here I am feeling happy with another piece of IP I need to work out (still working on a script) as such I might not be posting part 2 of this in the next few days, but it will come.

Enjoy the day, For me Monday is now 100 minutes away.

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Utter brilliance

Yup, I agreed from day one, but to see this reenforced is never a bad thing. The game was initially released in April 2022, as such it is reaching its second birthday. I got it on day one and I was happy as might have ever been. You see, I still remember the first game, which was in display in my DVD shop of choice. I thought it looked cool and I played it for a moment. I suddenly felt a tap on the shoulder asking if others could play. Right there I had lost 45 minutes and I rushed to get it then and there. After that I spend serious more time on my PS2. Over time I got the other games too, but LEGO Star Wars was always shining a little more.

As such when the Skywalker Saga came out I rushed to the shop on day one. I never completed the game, but I did clearly see that this game was a lot more then the previous versions. This all comes to the surface as I started to play it again on Christmas Day. Now (boxing day) I am a little over 50% of the entire game. The game is that big. Suddenly I realise that this isn’t a race. This came is a marathon. A one of its kind and it is clear it is brilliant. There is so much to do, there are so many levels and so many playing locations that it boggles the mind. Metacritic only gave it 82%, but I personally believe it should be given a 90+ rating (91%). For any game to keep you interested for close to two years and give that much playability is just insane on several levels. I personally believe that any Star Wars fan should have the game and any SF fan should consider it. The game at present has a little over 5 million copies sold, but I cannot see the source materials. I believe that it would be close to double this and the makers deserve it. It is by far the best LEGO game ever. It is by far one of the best games ever seen. Only to be surpassed by high res games like the Horizon series, Hogwarts legacy and optionally Skyrim as well. To be on that level takes a very special design team and they delivered. Even now there are additional things you can buy for a few dollars (character sets). They aren’t essential because the game allows you to get 380 playable characters, so there is more then enough. The game has several challenges and puzzles giving you a minimal grinding feeling. There is some grinding, but as I stated minimal. 

As such in the second wave around I now see the game as a work of absolute brilliance. I think that no matter what console a person got this Christmas, if they liked Star Wars, they will love this game. And for a game that is on systems as little as $15-$25 (online price) that is an investment worth every penny.  

Consider that a game like this keeps you busy for months, how much would you pay for that? To be honest I had most LEGO games (not all) and the Jurassic version is the worst one. The others are fine. A game that is not about bloodshed, but keeps the younger player busy for a long time. What parent could resist adding that game to the surprise stocking? 

I have written about hard topics and soft topics. I do believe that an article like this is essential at times. We can all write what we believe on day one, but to be able to do this after well over a year when it still has value is a little rare. There are more games worthy of this (Skyrim being one), but in that regards the load of games deserving that fate is rare, it is slim pickings in the long term gaming achievement. A setting we seldom consider. And Warner Brothers doesn’t have that many games out there to begin with, to hand us something this legendary needs to be remembered. Especially to all the gamers looking for the next big thing. The simple question ‘Did you consider something from April 2022?’ Should be out there and it shows us all whether this is a gamer or a console fashion seeker. OK, I will allow for some gamers to not like Star Wars, that is fair enough. They do exist, it is rare but it happens. 

Some are all about racing, some are all about sport games and they might not like LEGO games. But consider the Star Wars Range and the Harry Potter range and you get 2 games that will keep you busy for a very long time to come and lets face it. 1 (or 2) games keeping you busy for months. List the games that honestly did that you, that list will end up being a lot shorter than you imagined. 

Enjoy the day (optionally gaming).

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Currencies

This is not about money, well not in a real sense. I saw an image and suddenly an old idea came to mind and whilst I am watching everyones favourite Christmas movie (Die Hard), another thought came to mind. A friend just gave me the best Christmas present in a very long time. It is time to return the favour (sort of). As such I have something that is a freebee for any Tencent technology and Amazon Luna indie developers. A word of warning, this is not for everyone. This is not some a game for every player. Some will not like it, just like ‘Welcome to the rapture’ and it matters, because it not drenched in blood or actions. This is a different kind of game. This all started with watching the old Thunderbird movies and seeing Babylon 5. A thought got to me, what if we make it more ‘real’ when I had the thought the PS4 was new and it had nowhere near the powers it needed to be. So in this game we ‘work’ for a living, as such it is not a game for managers (internal lol accepted). So the setting was that we start being an intern on a space station (like the European space station) or Thunderbird 5. We are orbiting this planet and we have to use equipment to complete missions of all kinds. That results in credits and optional super credits, which gets us the funds we need for the second part of the game. These funds will enable us to do space walks and now the second part of the game kicks in. Space walks come with a camera and now we get the option to photograph earth, the space station and other things. The idea is to give the player a sort of photo mode in 4K with the option to save the photos and send them to our USB. Now consider that we have a 4K setting of the earth, a rotating earth and with the camera we can get a decent clear image of the country where we live. We can see the moon in much clearer view and so on. But this is not enough. I saw the setting that if we get all three done above a certain level, we get a promotion. From there we go to the moon. Consider moon base Alpha (or the moon base from 2001, which also gives us the next space station first as well). We learn more equipment, actual equipment and we get to do more and earn more, especially earn more credits and walk on the moon. Now you might think that this is boring and for those addicted to Fortnite, it might be, but there are more gamers, millions more and they just loved walking around the fallout ruins, or walk in Cyrodiil and this game is for them. See it as the part Starfield could not deliver on. A track of achievements that are done with the camera. I also want to set a larger field where we get choices and the choices made c lose certain doors, but open up different doors. For example, the camera allows for espionage missions, but it could close the door on one station and open the door on another one. Just a thought. 

From there we go to a deep space station, like the Coriolis space station (Elite Dangerous), or a station alike Babylon 5 (or the Inner space space station). This now becomes a much larger challenge, not only is it more challenging in missions, but there are more photo missions to complete. In this completing them yields large rewards, but not all missions are easy to get, or to get to. 

Now these two elements are not enough, but you can’t expect me to do everything for you, can you. You see, the entire photo mode part is undersold too often and it can be taken to another level. Yes, in 4K we can make the most amazing images but no one seems to take advantage of that, as such I thought it was a nice idea to use it and what looks better in 4K then space objects? The idea is also that as you unlock the next level, all previous levels remain available. Your clones are send ahead, you are not. As such soon you get to push more and more credits but there is a limit, only 50% gets send to a previous station and 25% to two stations back, so half, or half or half and so on. It stops those doing the minimal and getting ahead that way. Also in the setting of a B5 station, you also need to upgrade your quarters, so that you get access to more of the station and better space walks. 

This was the idea as I had it, but the 4K photo mode was too new when the thought came to me. Also there are a few more sides to all this, but that is for another day. Now consider that parents of RPG games get one side, but the idea of a non violent game with educational sides will have great appeal and in a streaming solution this game will appeal, not to all but to well enough. And it took me less than two days to come up with it (I spend nearly a day mulling this over in 2014), as such consider all the things Microsoft isn’t coming up with and they just spend $100B, now consider we get messages like “Expect new updates “roughly every six weeks” in early 2024” regarding Starfield, a game released on September 6th 2023. So, not only was the game incomplete. Even months later there is now some indication that gamers had merely a beta to play with. When you consider all the parts not there and consider what I basically designed in 2014, how asleep are these people? 

In the meantime there are all kinds of issues (some regrettably) that a game like Starfield has and has been showing for some time. This game was in development for 5 years. Now my part would not have been easy, but they didn’t rock it, so now it is a freebee for indie developers. And when they put out a superior game on those two systems another nail in the coffin of Microsoft appears. So how does it feel for them to mess with our safe space?

No idea how they feel and I do not care. I am off learning a little more and setting the stages for Final Draft 12 today and tomorrow. Have a lovely day, the 24th is now merely a few hours away for me.

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In development

For me over the last 20 hours, 2 issues were on the rise (like bread getting ready) in my brain. The first involves Final Draft and that setting will come to a new stage in about a week. From there I have two options, one solves it immediately, the other is a pondering stage. But about that more later. The second one was the arcane in a new RPG. You see, the one (for now) powerhouse is Bethesda and they created true greatness. Only an idiot will deny this. They took one of the most obscure gaming styles in gaming history and made it gaming mainstream. This in itself is an achievement that should never ever be forgotten and it took 4 titles. Oblivion, Skyrim and Fallout three and four. These four changed the face of RPG gaming. Now that they are part of Microsoft the issues will come and will settle all over their faces. Now, we do not know what will come next but the next Elder Scrolls is Xbox and PC only and 2026 at the earliest. As such a gap comes into play and the innovative designer can now get slices of a gaming market that will need innovation. It is why I placed so many ideas online, to entice makers to push RPG to Amazon Luna and Tencent Handheld. You see, whatever they miss and it might be enough and from there they will lose more and more marketshare. In addition it could get to PS5 (or PS6), but the larger station is that Sony has a platform, has exclusive titles and now 2 other platforms could become contenders too. They might not be a threat to Sony, it is not required. Enough innovation and they will nibble at the Microsoft population. All due to a war they never understood and a fight they weren’t ready for. 

As such I was considering the Arcane part in RPG. I made a few inroads in previous articles. Yet I started to wonder about the foundation of the arcane and then I remembered the foundation of one game you needed to find Sulphuric Ash and Spider silk (if you know, you know). It made me reconsider a few sides. What if the arcane needed more then a mana bar? What if the foundation of that power was a talisman and its catalyst? More in line of ‘the old days’, but now we get more. We need to get stuff, magic doesn’t come from nothing (when in doubt ask that insufferable Harry Potter) LOL.

So we get a new and novel use of jewellery. I had one element in my hand when I came up with TES7:Restoration over 2 years ago, but I merely saw that as the foundation of the introduction and part of the story. Now it escalates in a new arcane setting.

So the training goes one side. The talisman (necklace, ring or staff) the other direction, lets call it focal point and the catalyst (reagent, leaves, resource) is the power behind it. Now the arcane becomes an entirely new challenge. And this is not some and and and for power. The and and or in that equation gives the stage plus sides and negativity like we might face in real life. Consider a bicycle, we can adjust all elements for speed, but there we lose acceleration. We can have the tyres to get more grip, but with rain that grip goes away. It becomes a new stage, a place where it is about balance. And as the player has its own sides, that player needs to focus on options to chose from. In the beginning more power is everything, but over time you will see that arcane traction makes you more versatile and that is a side Bethesda NEVER used. They saw what was best and they were right, but other parts were missed and overlooked and now that the systems are much more powerful we see more in a game, as such we need to create a different playing field. For those who remember Oblivion, there was the Rockmilk cave a good grinding spot. It also made me create improvements (see previous articles). What now matters is that we had two factions in one place who were fighting each other. In that setting you need a different arcane play. It also gave me the idea to adjust arcane fighting and with the different storylines that is not an issue. What matters to me was the fact that the arcane we did have was a little too rigid. It made me think in this direction. 

So as we have an arcane fighter we need to enhance gameplay by giving the player a new way to prepare, like a ready equipment setting. 

Example:
Pendent one and ingredient five
Necklace One, Ring three and ingredient 12

This reads weird, I know, but the setting is that you will find and upgrade certain jewellery and you keep them, there is not merely a stronger one (well there is), they reflect on catalysts differently as such you need a new way to be able to get through a place that has two different parties, like a cave with brigands and spiders. YOU must be prepared for both and that takes a different way of thinking and you need to adjust your equipment accordingly. As such you might have a ring and a pendent, but they are both for different enemies and in this you might not have your staff, but you have in one hand leaves for one and in the other hand ingredients for the other and when you combine these abilities you get either different results or you make yourself really visible to one or the other fiend (never a good thing). It is a new way to play the arcane and of course that usage will develop your player in new ways, which pushes replayability forward. A side I worship in RPG gaming. So whilst (according to some) Bethesda is remastering Fallout 3 rumoured on PC and Xbox only, others can look at a totally new way to play an RPG, some will love it, some will not, but both groups will be introduced to more and more innovation in gaming and that is ALWAYS a good thing.

As I see it almost a dozen new innovation that no RPG game has ever handed you before. Now to be honest, before the PS4 there was no power to do so, yet these innovation are now in part to the public domain, giving two new systems innovative play, all whilst (according to rumour) the more powerful console in the world will be playing a new iteration of a 15 year old game. Perhaps it will have new sides, it is apparently not coming to Sony, so I do not care. What I do care about is pushing gaming forward and that is what my writing does, opening the eyes of indie developers to offer something others did not and I feel that I am succeeding.

Now it is time to brood more on Final Draft and see what I could deliver to the MBC group or Al Saudiya (or both) and have a little more fun there too. It is time to put the final part on How to assassinate a politician and see what I can make of it. And never forget (I don’t) that it could all be a great flop. There is no shame in that. Nintendo got there with the WiiU and surpassed their fortunes five times over with the Switch. One led to the other and we all face these moments and some state (and I do not disagree) that sometimes you learn more from failures than from previous successes. 

The Switch is now around 132.46 million sold units. It is now their second best console in history and surpasses the PS5 with 50 million and the Xbox Series X and Series S with a lot less than Sony has (no precise numbers available). So consider that Nintendo outsold Microsoft by well over 300%, so where is that most powerful console in the world now? Where is Microsoft now with their $100,000,000,000 investment? They might claim that good times are coming, but I am not seeing them. Yes a remaster is nice, but gamers want innovation, not iteration and remasters. The remasters are nice to feel good about the past and we need that at times NEXT to new good gaming. As such I was right all along and now the new indie developers have well over 15 months to capture an audience that is looking for the new and the exiting. As I see it a 75% game called Starfield isn’t getting it done (presumption, as I never played it), but consider that a game so overhyped and so rumoured about only gets a 75%, how sad is that?

Innovation is where it is at and Sony was correct all along. Time for streamers to tech Microsoft that lesson too and when more than three parties shows them how wrong they were from the start. Will they catch on? I created more innovative public domain IP one year  for non-Microsoft players than Microsoft achieved with spin and presentations in 10 years. So they can take that to their overstretched banks too.

Enjoy the day.

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Slapped by surprise

This happens to us all and it happened to me today. I was pretty much minding my own business when something on LinkedIn hit me, it hit me square in the jaw. It was the application in another direction, but I contemplated it to apply to gaming in a similar way. You see, this is not an easy story and a lot of you might not get it, that is fine. It is the evolution from RPG to CtLFG. Role Playing games evolving in Close to Life Fantasy Gaming. Confused? That is fine. To get this I need to give you some examples. You are sneaking in a cave and slaughtering all you can and at times you hear “It must be my imagination”, it was one of several things that bothered me. Now this is not on any player and not on Bethesda. They created greatness with Skyrim. It survived three generations (PS3, PS4 and PS5) and has been around since November 11th 2011. More then 12 years. To have one game do this, especially an RPG is nothing less than astounding. As such with that in mind I initially created TES7: Restoration (the initial design was from 2015). 

In this the foundation was set with Cyrodiil (Oblivion), to make it work that map would need to be 3 times larger on the X and Y axis, making the map 900% of the previous one. The imperial city would be similar that much bigger, cities would be somewhat bigger, more people and in the end we would connect Skyrim to this and optionally whatever TES6 would be, but that would be options. Restoration required both Valenwood and Elsweyr to be added as that would be the setting for the story and main quest. Yet the setting would be larger than just these two parts, missions that cover all the areas. A lot more side missions and even side quest lines. Now we get to the evolution part. To avoid grinding I used IP originally by Vint Cerf, but now applied to gaming would make it an innovation patent and now we are off to the races. Yet something happened./ Microsoft bought Bethesda and I will not help losers, so I made parts of all this Public domain with the setting that this was to be exclusive Amazon Luna/Tencent Handheld. I wanted these two to have an edge over Microsoft/Bethesda. That was the first setting. 

Now the slap
As such today I got slapped by surprise by someone named Willem Koenders gave LinkedIn a new setting to BI in data. It has an offensive side and a defensive side. 

It is brilliant. I can see the stage of several issues becoming a thing of the past. Rollback issues, especially in data with second and third tier connections would have been a nightmare, especially to rebuild some of these connections. As I see it, that is a thing of the past with this, rollback becomes repair with a second datafile upload. And in the short time I looked at it, there would be additional benefits. Now apply this to new and advanced RPG gaming (CtLFG). You see, the old ways will not work on larger RPG games, it would require cloud gaming and that is where the new strains become the power of GaaS (Gaming as a Service). You see, evolved gaming (RPG) no longer has trigger points perse, but a combination of a narrative point, a location point as well as a quest trigger. It becomes too complex for the PS5, but not for cloud gaming. That is where the game takes of in new directions and new dimensions. 

As such my mind went into overdrive. You see, I had focussed on the stories and the interactions, but I had not considered the data side of this all. The image by Willem Koenders gave me that setting and it could be a much larger setting in cloud gaming too. Yes, it is always about the larger part, but consider that we always must look forward. We cannot play Skyrim forever. Now consider (Skyrim)4 and see where that gets you. In addition, as it is cloud gaming new quests could be added over time as well. A nightmare option in any console. With cloud gaming it is done before you know it and available just as fast. And the setting in a new game would be tremendous. You see grinding ends, it becomes a challenge every time around and that setting reflects in a multiple of ways. With the new data setting you could get thousands, if not hundred of thousands of conversations. Consider a city not with a few dozen NPC characters, but with 1,000 NPC characters. It allows for a lot more options. In addition to that, the setting of friend and foe changes. You now end up with friends, unsubstantiated gossip, boasts, lies, and foes. A new setting in adventure gaming. Suddenly a personality with charisma becomes a lot more important, in addition to this so is the setting towards corrupt guards, people luring you towards traps and walking blindly into them is never a good idea. 

An evolved setting towards gaming and I reckon that this is merely the start. Any indie developer with a clear head and clear direction can grow and take serious market share away from Bethesda (and of course Microsoft). 

Now consider the image again. Consider on the offensive side Customer insight (NPC character) linked to analytics which becomes available choices (lore, conversations and actions), on the defensive side we also add NPC character, but now connected to city laws (compliance) and actions based on YOUR activities (stealing, walking, sneaking, killing) as such sneaking through any place now has impact on that population. In addition it is ‘short-term’ impact, yet when you do that again you get recognised quicker. And from there we now get narratives (storylines and conversations) as well as locations (shop owner, home owner). There is a longer impact to actions.  And leaving the house is no longer a ‘reset’ to activities. I set this to a much larger effect in out of town locations (what some call caves, mines and so forth). As I see it, Vint Cerf had no idea what his IP could do in that setting, but that is the way the cookie crumbles at times.

In this my brain is still reeling with all the thoughts it is creating (even now), but it is time to snore like a sawmill and greet Thursday, which is less then 3 hours away at present. It is still 25 degrees, I am melting. Time to snore.

Enjoy your day.

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Charlie Tango

Yes, it is an expression, but not the one you expect. As I was thinking of the new RPG, the one that will cause distress to a power like Bethesda, a new thought came up. You see, In the first I upped the intelligence of NPC characters in the game, all due to a brilliant idea by Vint Cerf. I don’t think he ever thought of the application I came up with, making this an innovation patent at the very least. It was up to the setting that is in the now. A new type of character. A stage where we consider the existence of SMPC (Self Managed Playing Characters). The idea was simple. A stage where you could activate a new type of character and as such give it powers and strengths and it becomes a Self Managed Playing Character. I had the idea before, but not to this degree. As such the game becomes more and it becomes to some degree self reliant. Now, lets be clear a self reliant game is dangerous, it could go into a direction the players never considered, but is that bad?

So as such I considered how to improve on it. So consider a Skyrim setting. You make friends with the Riverwood trader. Now we have all kinds of things that we can do to upgrade merchants, yet that is not the same. Consider this in a stage like the smith at Solitude, Beirand. Now consider that to upgrade this NPC you need to own a house in Solitude and you need to increase the link (friendship). When these settings are satisfied the smith will work at 1/3rd of YOUR smithing skills. After a while it will be at 1/2 of your smithing skills. These settings could be increased with skills. As such it would be increased with 10% and later 20%. Not every smith will allow for this and some will require missions to do this. When it is all done the NPC becomes a SMPC. This could be a tradesman, an artisan, a politician and so forth, it will set two things in motion. Replayability of any game employing this and as this is an ability that has limitations (1 SMPC per 10 levels), as well as location settings and certain skills. For example a court mage could never become one until your arcane levels are above a certain point. But the benefits are also massive (a later thought). As I am redesigning TESVII: Restoration to be more generic and optionally Public Domain soon, those developers (exclusive to Amazon Luna and Sony) will get a new lease on life, optionally giving Bethesda more hardship. 

And there is a larger stage in the works. You see I have no intention to make a knock off of Bethesda and I have already published several articles on this and now I am adding the SMPC styled characters. It also interacted with another idea (already published) and now we see a better stage of any game, so whilst some are redesigning the same game, I decided to make something so new it will be irresistible, especially to die hard RPG gamers (optionally I am delusional here). But consider that this one new game (by whomever makes it) has at least 5 new settings we have never seen before in RPG gaming, that is the settings that I am going for. All because Microsoft decided to buy and force us into a direction we never wanted to go. So good luck with that idea. And now another thought makes it here and optionally changes RPG gaming in a new direction.

What a lovely mid-week I have had, its Thursday now. Enjoy your day.

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