Tag Archives: Hogwarts Legacy

March 5, 2023 · 05:57

Merely a story

It was 862 AD, in a meadow stands a man, you would think he is in his early 20’s, but this man does not reveal age. He stares over the meadows watching people running at each other. One group seems to be viking, the other guards are local, or at least from the area. He watches as the turmoil of greed goes by wave after wave. It sickens him and it is not hard for him to avoid the people and the turmoil. He could move from place to place, but he is here for a reason. He was given word that a Northern Hawk Owl had been spotted. The setting was almost unbelievable, but he had to check it out. It was a magnificent type of owl and it was one he would love to have. It would be even better if he could both genders, so that they could reproduce in safety. As such He looked for signs but saw none and he carefully moved towards the forest, trying to keep all the animals in some form of observation. He moved along the forest lines and saw that the fight was moving away, then he noticed an arrow in a tree, but the arrow looked weird, like it was not shot from a bow and then he saw it, at the end of the arrow was the Northern Hawk Owl, dead. These stupid muggles, all greed driven and not one was responsible, from servant to king, all too stupid to consider nature. He would never accept muggles in his presence.

It was a decade later when Salazar looked back to the valley, he was very well aware on the valley and it was glorious, yet he considered what was out there and he considered a few items. It was time to set trials, to let the worthy acquire knowledge and that was the exercise. He created the first tower, dark stone, smooth as glass and within the stones were protection spells and rejection spells. No broom could be guided here and the walls could not be scaled. There were steps around the tower that went up a little bit, but he decided to use nature to guide the magic people. The Serpent must be passed on the left, the ermine on the right. As such the steps were either scaled or massive bad luck would hit the person going the wrong way. The two ascendance points were all marked and they all approached the same entrance, one route the right way, the other not. The door was a new puzzle. He had seen the bluntness of muggles and the door was a different kind. All who would hit it, or violently approach it would find themselves on the short list of pain. He looked at the door again and it opened in the simplest manner. A simple Alohamora would do it, the lock was invisible and magical, the smallest spell would work, muggles had no clue and he was in the tower. He tried several ways to see how he was hurt, but it was not intense. The tower worked and he went the right route, with ropes and invisible supports and he got to the next floor. He then applied his want to remove single stones all around the platform and he replaced them with stones now carrying a gem and all had precise applications. From there there were a few more small blockades, blockades that any decent wizard could pass and from there the shrine was created. A blood shrine with one item, the item was carrying magic, specific magic and anyone who did not have that magic would acquire it and they merely had to master the spell and place that spell back into the holder and return the item, a way to make sure that magic would remain and always grow. It was the first tower of accomplishment, a first tower of several that would become the legacy of Salazar Slytherin. 

Yes, this is a simple story and it was Hogwarts Legacy that inspired me to write it. I have no claims here, it was a simple idea and as this is linked to JK Rowling, I consider this now to be her IP. Hogwarts Legacy has its strong and less strong moments, but the largest part is that the sandbox approach allows this game to grow towards the future and the past. Salazar is a pureblood lover, but I wondered how he got to be there. One out of four is weird, but the reasons could be all over the field and our need for greed might be a strong reason. 

The game is out now, but in a year what will come? I reckon that they could build on this and create more, I made that in a previous article, but that was set around the character you played and enabled. The stage could be larger by incorporating lore no one considered. And that is where I found myself. That is apart from the setting that I didn’t want to think of technology today, we all have these moments and I have mine today. That being said, a game like Hogwarts Legacy is opening doors, it is by far the most amazing Potter styled game ever and the hundreds of videos are proving me right. In this I wonder what more I could learn in that game. I am nowhere near done and that makes the game more than one stage, it makes it amazing on several fronts and the game is as a game like that needed to be. And always when a game like that becomes available I will be happy. In that regard more happy feelings are coming my way, Metroid Prime my favourite game on the gamecube was remastered for the Switch, as such this year might be better than I imagined it to be. Happy happy joy joy.

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February 15, 2023 · 23:14

Evolving a game

That is the matter, it is part of any game if it was designed properly and I have to tell you that Hogwarts Legacy is a lot better than most reviewers see. There are a few good reviewers (except the one in Wired) and as I am not at 50% of the game at 30 hours of play with one character, I have to admit that this game has so much more than anyone realised. I do accept that like all RPG games there is a little too much fetch this, fetch that and go here, go there. But the way it is done, whilst giving you a choice of HOW you approach this game is brilliant. Avalanche software outdid themselves. But it is not about the now. My mind evolved this game into what is next. You see when you have a strong foundation and that is the golden bullet in any game. You see, we can consider what is next, some of the stories are just that good and even if it is not all about Hogwarts, you do get a larger setting to consider. 

To see this I need to take you to another game. A game masterminded by Richard Garriott. He created Sosaria and he mapped it, more important the map was basically the same in Ultima 3, Ultima 4, Ultima 5, Ultima 6 and Ultima 7. The graphics were upgraded and Ultima 7 was as perfect a game as any RPG every released. It is one of the few times I gave a game a review of 100%. 

But that never left my mind and it is time for Hogwarts to consider the next step. You see it will be soon when some want a DLC and that is fine, but what happens when they release the next version, something of bolster Hogwarts legacy? For example Hogwarts learnings? The map perhaps a little larger but with a part of France now added with the Académie de Magie Beauxbâtons? As the main character you become an Auror and how you get there is how you played the first game. With added places like London and Paris (these are always played at night), and a new story as an Auror. As this game is around 20 years AFTER Hogwarts Legacy and long before the Potters became a thing, or the events that started the Chamber of secrets. Different environments, different creatures and different challenges. If they can produce a capturing storyline they have a setting that could be big in 2024/2025. And the way the people embrace this game, it has every chance to do so again, especially if the second run is 4 times the size of this one. We forgot about evolution at times, it happens, because most of us see games as they used to be, a once off event. But games evolve and the gamer that embraces a franchise evolves too. And perhaps it is not France, but wherever Durmstrang is, or its American equivalent. There are a few options and perhaps Portkey games embraces these options, or perhaps they will not, but they have the option and they have it as they made heads turn. I am still a realist, so far I have found half a dozen glitches, only one annoying and I crashed once, but that is it and for a game of this size that is quite the achievement. Especially compared to a game playing in France filled with dozens upon dozens of bugs (not glitches) as such these makers did an amazing job. I cannot wait until I get more done in the game. I stopped because I remember the impact of non-stop gaming and I did 8 hours today. Tomorrow I can do more, so far this is the best investment in gaming I have made in at least two years and I do not regret buying the other games. But that is excellence for you. 

Have a great day and remember to embrace the games you really love, no matter what game it is.

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February 13, 2023 · 07:01

Media bullshit

Yes, that is what it is and I have had enough of some of them. As I personally see it, it is not voicing opinions, it is catering to bullies. All the anti UK messages when the UK wanted out, the irresponsible acts by the media on haunting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman al Saud without evidence, yes without evidence and now we see more irresponsible acts, but the acts is growing to more and more media and they are all whoring for digital dollars, that is the extent of their existence. Flaming to get more dollars and we are all in this mess because we are allowing for this. 

The anger has been with me for a while, but it took new proportions when I saw 

So Wired is now a bully? Well fuck them too. You see when I see “The story is rooted in anti-Semitic tropes. The gameplay feels dated. The graphics feel like they’re a couple generations behind. All the characters are one-dimensional. It doesn’t stay true to the established lore. Every character feels like an off-brand version of the characters we know and love. There’s no sense of place. No magic, no heart” I see nothing less than the validation that Jaina Grey should be seen as nothing more than a piece of garbage. Like others she makes zero mention of Avalanche software, she makes no mention of what they achieved, she merely uses Wired as a channel for Rowling hate, like any bully she lost the right of life, it is that simple. Fell free to disagree, because that is YOUR right. Agree or disagree these are the choices. Some will do neither, that is fair. Either they do not care (valid enough), or they honestly do not know where they stand (also very valid). We do not need to have some feeling of knowledge, the world is too big for that. This is bad news for the digital dollar prostitutes, but that is life. I think this is also the first time I think I have anti-transgender feelings. If they want to rely on bullies, their rights of life are made forfeit. It is not nice, but that is how it is. I truly deeply hate traitors and bullies.

So where were the anti-semitic tropes? This is about a wizard boy (or girl) facing a goblin extremist who gets ‘assistance’ from a dark wizard named Victor Rookwood. In this we also meet our share of ‘friendly’ goblins and we see early on in the game, any goblin not on his side is an enemy, which seems to connect to the Taliban and Al Qaeda (and many others), as such where is the anti-semitic side?

The graphics are great, they might not be completely next generation, but they are valid and more important, they bring the atmosphere to the level it needs to be. The game gives us magic and the game gives us character. I am not entirely opposing the one dimension character mention. You see like the US around 1800, the US had John Adams and they were killing native Americans, but perhaps the writer identifies with them. They killed 56 million indigenous people over about 100 years in South, Central and North America. Isn’t that the one dimensional people you mean? Americans murdering native American landowners? Wasn’t it all good for progress? 

In the end, what I stated remains. We all have our own opinions on gaming and certain titles, but to attack Avalanche because you hate Rowling is the act of a bully and bullies have no right to life as I personally see it. The editor of Wired better clean up this mess and be bloody quick about it. So how about that Gideon Lichfield, you ready to do your job yet?

Oh and for my view? I have had a better feeling playing this game the last 20-40 hours than I have had for almost a year. Other games like God of war: Ragnarok might be graphically superior, the music sounds better and they were fun too, yet this game was a lot more fun to play. The fun of gaming, who remembers that? Avalanche delivered the goods, it is time for the media to stop sucking (whatever) and do their jobs. I get that not everyone will love the game, but reviewers need to remain neutral and someone giving this game a 10% rating lost the plot a long time ago.

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February 10, 2023 · 21:14

The anger within

I saw a headline on BBC (see below) I wondered what it was about and I got angry, this happens and it will happen to us all. 

The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64572328) gives us a view. In this case on a person who might call himself a reporter, yet as I personally see him, a mere political hack without a future. To get there we need to look at a few parts. The first one is that we see the mention of Hogwarts Legacy, but the ENTIRE article does not mention Avalanche software once, not once and I have an issue with this. You see hacks mention one thing and then talk about something else entirely. That happens here. As I personally see it Hogwarts Legacy is a clear labour of love. It is what happens when the art people are in charge and not the business people.

We are then given “The Guardian’s games editor Keza MacDonald wasn’t as enthusiastic as some, writing: “Hogwarts Legacy derives its magic from its setting, not from its game design, which is competent but unspectacular.”” OK, a person has an opinion and whatever this is is an opinion, I do not agree. The game is close to spectacular, it is HUGE and Hogwarts is HUGE. The game design is amazing, not entirely unique but amazing. That is my view and to add that I have had one glitch since I started playing it over 20 hours ago is evidence on how good the game is in its architectural way. The one glitch is not really part of anything, but honesty needs me to point that out and I merely found one glitch. I also found something amazing (see down the story). The additional issue is shown with “Travis Northup, reviewing for IGN, wrote: “Its open-world adventure captures all the excitement and wonder of the Wizarding World with its memorable new characters, challenging and nuanced combat, and a wonderfully executed Hogwarts student fantasy that kept me glued to my controller for dozens of hours.”” I agree with Travis on the game. I personally give the game a 92% rating (the glitch brought it down a little).

The beauty
The beauty is seen when I played the game a second time. The first I only got to the place where I can make my own potions (avoiding spoilers). I wanted to see how I did as I replayed it and I did better, but I also learned two additional things. The first was one mission it got handed to me in two DIFFERENT ways. The first time as a Ravenclaw via Olivanders and a different stage of finding things, the second time as a Hufflepuff via a painting that gave me another location and it also came with a short visit to Azkaban, and another location, they ended in the same place and of course that part was the same, but it shows the beauty of Hogwarts Legacy, I can only hope that we get two additional ways to get to this part. The second part is experienced as the gear has a different impact on the player, the second time my offensive skills were a lot higher (with the same gear) than the first time where my defensive skills were a lot higher. I cannot tell at present whether this is intentional, or if there is a random part in play. But the effect is awesome. My Ravenclaw character needs a different approach than my Hufflepuff character does and that makes for a great game. There is no mention of that anywhere. Optionally there is no real blame, but that does not make Steffan Powell any less of a hack. This game is awesome and the mention of “I think, 20 years after the books came out, the world is in a different paradigm now – where it’s not really JK Rowling’s any more. It’s the community’s instead” angered me. The wizarding world is the IP of JK Rowling and Steffan better get a grip on his stupidity. We are guests in the world of JK Rowling. I do not care about her personal views (I never did) and I do not know what exactly her views are because the media alters and edits to its own need for digital dollars. Avalanche used that IP and created a new view that is unique and even as it is linked to JK, there is every chance that this will continue, whether it is only in games is unknown to me at present. I have seen all the hate and all the BS, yet the reality is that this game became a massive hit and will most likely rule the award ceremonies all over the world until march 2024. Avalanche did an amazing job, but the BBC (the people who rehired a person that is seen as allegedly guilty of killing the former princess of Wales) is all about the next political setting via hacks (as I personally see it). This game is too good for that BS approach. There is also a mention of repetitiveness and that is not entirely false, but it tends to be the issue with a lot of RPG games. The previous part shows just how beautiful. This game is and I am playing the game, not racing the game. In 15 hours I got to 20% of quests and 4% of exploration, so this game is huge, no doubt about it and I look forward to seeing a lot more. 

I do not care about Eva Echo and her agenda, I am playing a game by Avalanche. On the other side, I am not really willing to go against her. She has her views, her opinions and I have mine. We are from different worlds, our worlds do not overlap and they do not need to, as such I will not go against her either. That is as simple as I can make it, but any political hack using a great game for his infantile needs get the not so nice side of me and in this so does his editor (Blathnaid Healy). We can point fingers all we like, but someone approved this article. I also have optional issues with Sebastian Croft, not the person perse, but he is mentioned as ‘distancing himself’, perhaps for very valid reasons, my issue is that the article does not clearly bring this out, merely a link to the tweet which had limitations on characters used. But the BBC knew that upfront, did they not? 

What you as a GAMER need to know is that this game is a lot better than most claim, it has a few issues that any RPG will have (even Skyrim) and the art is beyond believe. Yes there are limits to the enemies yet I have seen over half a dozen in the first 10 hours and in real life all enemies are human, as such the game gives us more. Now, there will be valid reasons why people do not like RPG games (they might like GTA more), there are people who do not like the Wizarding world, all fair enough, but lets keep gaming to gaming and not some BS approach to appease political hacks. 

I have seen too much hatred over the last 6 months on this alone to accept the BS settings especially from someone like the BBC. It angered me a lot more than I am happy about. A game as good as this one does not deserve this usage.

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February 8, 2023 · 22:28

When the pool is too deep

Twi days ago I wrote Brain switch, it was me on a joyride through my brain as I was reengineering  IP over and over and it went faster and faster. I got a handle on it by playing Hogwart Legacy. You see gaming is more than an escape for me. It is a passion that allows me to take my mind away from things and that is at times a good thing. It allowed my subconscious to work on Engonos, the story of the grandson of Hades. Weirdly enough I was inspired by Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. Or better stated, he gave me the idea to take a trip to the right. In part I was already doing s in another way, but I suddenly realised that I could enhance one character to get a lot more out of the whole. It is in part a little bit of a drag. You see, I can go memento on that character to keep the story in line and not give away too much, but that too has its advantages and drawbacks. The advantage is that two characters are drawn into the story, one makes sense already, the other one does not on the surface of things, but in Olympian lore it does. As such I tend towards that part of the solution, even though one of them already has a larger role to play and I set that in motion. Now that these roles are staged and partially set, I need to build the background stories for all involved. As such the memento approach, the other one is a historic jump, it seems cleaner, but it opens up too much mesh. A combination has benefits, but at that point I need to be cautious how I approach the matter and I need to script some elements, but that is not a problem. One lesson I learned a long time ago, when a problem is too big, chip it into smaller manageable pieces. That was all good and fine, but that suddenly gave me a few more ideas towards some RPG designs I was entertaining, to be made freely available for exclusive Amazon Luna materials.

I get that this does not make sense, but the reason is simple. Microsoft made valid steps in gaming, we might not like them, but they did what any corporation did, set yourself apart. Yet they did so by buying Bethesda and making parts exclusive to the Xbox. This is a valid, but unappealing approach. This setting changed when Avalanche launched Hogwarts legacy and they set the bar way higher than Skyrim ever was, making it a problem for Microsoft. You see if Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 are on par with Hogwart Legacy, Microsoft loses a lot more than they bargained for. Now if I can add to that pain by giving Amazon Luna developers a sight to more software that is close to on par with Microsoft (not an easy task) they will feel even more pain and that is what I had been after. I expected this to be a lot harder, but Avalanche gave me a trump card, they surpassed Bethesda (what they had up to now), this is not unexpected because Skyrim is 11 years old. Yet it makes my work a little easier. The RPG has storylines, it has a balanced economic system and it has evolution, I only need to set a new stage that has a new kind of nemesis system. Not some copy of Shadow of Mordor, but something new, something we haven’t seen before. I want to counter grinding to some extent. I have one side which is a much larger map, the other side is a new kind of adversarial system and I want to add to that. But it needs to enhance what is, not replace what could be. This is hard to explain for now, but it is in the works, in the meantime, those thoughts are helping me to give larger rise to Engonos, which was what I had in mind all along. Cogs within cogs, not the most elegant of explanations, but it will do for now.

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February 7, 2023 · 04:33

Brain switch

Something happened to me around 02:00. My mind was redesigning a CBM Amiga game for streaming systems when a switch went off. I cannot really go to much into details for a few reasons, but my mind went into overdrive. I was redesigning part of a game almost every 10 seconds adding more and more. Then the mind took a sidestep and went into overdrive. The results are not to be placed here for a few reasons, yet I believe that the impact will be global if my mind is correct (which I am willing to doubt at present). The ideas for enhancing social media, the tomes of advertisement and several other parts flashed through my brain. 

As was the first part in Unreal Engine 5. I saw in a few ways that it is a game changer and could guarantee (with the right approach) a setting that goes so much further than the 50,000,000 subscriptions I expected. If this goes right than this system will go to almost double of what I expected and that is something. If my mind is not delusional, this setting could break all records in gaming and as I have been part of the gaming world since 1985 that would be some crown to remove from my head as I retire, my mind has always been about more than gaming, in the 90’s I tried to advocate that gaming could lower the threshold of IT for people, IBM refused to listen as did other players and I was proven correct less than 5 years later, I was correct a few times over in the decade that followed and now, now I see a new stage, a new setting and all that could enhance in several directions and as my subconscious brain is trying to tell my active brain side that there is more I see more applications and a lot more settings that could enhance in several ways. All that and at present the only player ready to see what could be a stage 2 setting that gets them close to $20,000,000,000 annual. The Kingdom Holding Company has an option to reverberate all over the Islamic world with additional handhelds that could get them a truckload more options, but I need to tread carefully here. I need to retest and reset every element here, a player like that you can only approach once and I need to make sure that the voice of delusional greed is handled and muzzled, but it is hard. As I see more opportunities (in part thanks to the Unreal engine 5) we see that whatever this system becomes and who owns it, it now stands in a place where it can overshadow all other systems, something I never aimed for but there it is. I have been and remain a loyal Sony fan and my PS5 is ready to get Hogwarts Legacy which will happen in 309 minutes (roughly). But as I see the next iteration of what I thought out, the station merely expands and enhances and it will be my pleasure to hand the wooden spoon to Microsoft (should I get that opportunity). 

And still my mind is pointing out some of the past versions and what could be possible in this setting and the stage of doing that to a streaming system, I need to find my off switch, I need sleep.

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December 11, 2022 · 20:33

Gaming Oscars, a chalice of achievement

I was looking for a simple list, but none of them gave it, a simple lit with the game and the amount of awards. None supplied it as far as I could tell and it is weird because the Oscars have done this for decades. The simple stage is that Elden Ring (not my choice) got the Game of the Year win. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that Elden Ring earned it, it really did, it is merely not my game. That does not make me angry, if anything it implies that gaming is bigger than me. The two games I had in that in that direction is the God of War: Ragnarok with Horizon Forbidden West as a second choice. 

So when we see GoW, we see that they won Narrative, Music, Audio design, Performance, Innovation, Action/Adventure, 6 wins in total. My second game Horizon Forbidden West didn’t get any, the competition was too fierce and too good. Elden Ring took home Game of the Year, Best game direction, Best Art direction, Best RPG, a total of 4 wins. Gran Turismo got a win too and a few others 11 wins for Sony, whilst Microsoft has 4 (Elden Ring is on both systems). 7 wins for Sony exclusives. It is a chalice of achievements and it was never in doubt. The exclusives are the system protectors and the system evangelists (if gaming was a religion). 

There we have the larger stage, the larger issue that Microsoft is spinning out of view. When it was all good, they were happy to announce it, now not so much. Even sales numbers are a combination of system S and system X. I reckon the numbers are basically that bad and they are getting worse. No amount of software house acquisition will fix that and the fact that Microsoft is spinning the numbers and hiding them is telling me more, in gaming Microsoft is done for. Not completely, they are the number one ruler in flight simulators and they earned that part, they truly do. Yet life is more than straight forward games. It is about the art and HFW and GoW clearly showed that, in 2023 Hogwarts legacy will show again that love of a subject and dedication to that love will make Hogwarts Legacy shine on any platform it appears on. I personally predict that Hogwarts Legacy will up the mark for achievements in a game by a fair bit. Yes, I saw “a Twitter user wrote: “Hogwarts Legacy got a VERY tepid reaction at The Game Awards… and also did not win.”” Yet that concern was not there for Bayonetta 3, was it? I missed out most of the Rowling debate, in the first because I do not care, in the second that people have personal views and they are entitled to them. If it offends you then crawl under your bed please. She wrote a series of books that captured the heart of two generations, in addition it inspired the creation of Hogwarts Legacy. We see all these people cluster around perfection whilst they have no idea what perfection looks like, perfection to them is anyone who agrees with them and that is the important part of the stage. Gaming is not that. This is why my view on Elden Ring matters. It is not my game, but I saw how amazing it looks and it was a clear competitor to the GOTY and they won, there is no negative thinking by me. Gaming is too big! I have shared my displeasure with Microsoft on many occasions, yet the Flight Simulator was a clear win and they won other items too and they will win more over time (until Microsoft is speculatively no more). You see the wins are not Sony, or Microsoft. These wins are made by dedicated people at Sony and Microsoft. Which Sony seemingly has more of at present. I like the reference to the Gaming Oscar’s, but there is a hidden flaw. A decade ago when Microsoft and Sony were on par, the games were better, now that is seemingly no longer the case. Microsoft games are too often makers like Ubisoft who are everywhere. Yet, we cannot discount Microsoft yet. With Fable, Starfield, The outer worlds 2 and an allegedly new Forza, there is every chance that Microsoft will win big in 2023. I like that idea, because it means that Sony will have to go full throttle in 2023 and 2024. When these two fight, the gamer wins and that is how I like it, gamers winning. So the chalice of achievement might be with Sony in 2022, but there is no assurance that they will get 2023 as well. It makes for great gaming years for all gamers, which is what I particularly like.

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November 14, 2022 · 19:40

The games one yearns for

We all have that. We focus on a game and that is our push point. It is a rather large issues when it is set to exclusives. In there Sony has a massive advantage over Microsoft, but Microsoft is not out of the race yet. Delay after delay, there are now more indications that Redfall and Starfield will get to the Microsoft community in 2023. I saw a first part of Starfield today and I will immediately admit that it looks really good. I am still not getting the Xbox contraption, trust lost is trust close to never regained, I am wired weirdly that way and the BS I once got from the Microsoft Helpdesk gave me that they really do not know what they are doing. Or better said, they know what they are exploiting but they keep their customer service department in the dark. Still, that is not what it is about. Redfall will come first (as several sources state), and it is Starfield that will be taking the cake It is definitely not some Skyrim version of a space game. It is much larger and there is a lot more. Yet that also comes with issues, but I will not speculate on what could be, what might be. It will be about the game and what I saw looks impressive.

In 2023 for me there is merely Hogwarts legacy waiting. I am unsure of other titles at the moment. I tend to not look too much forward. 2022 was AWESOME. Horizons Forbidden West and God of War brought gaming for me to a new high. I am merely looking at the exclusives. Yes there was also Elden Rings and Returnal but I never played these two. We all have our preferences. I am currently on the fence for Diablo 4, some news that reached me did not make me happy, but I am keeping it to myself. I have questions on that source too and I do not want to spread something inaccurate.

You will have them too and others will love their Xbox, they made their choices and as I see it they will go nuts over Starfield. I applaud all excellence in gaming, whether I support the system or not.   I revere games, not the system. As a system I am merely disgusted with the stupidity of Microsoft, so there.

We are now 3 days away from the next Pokemon, so my Switch will get some game-time too. Nintendo has its own release list, some not exclusive but that doesn’t matter. I still enjoy the games I have there and one more is added this week. For the most I have been thinking of what we can do more. Yearning is not limited to what comes NEXT week, NEXT month and NEXT year. Yearning also looks at the past. A spectacular moment there was Golden Eye (N64) and a few others. And there is where we see some news, some news that saw delay after delay (all the way from 2020) System Shock, the remake from 1994 will come to PS5 in March 2023. The notion alone is making me happy and with the hours I played the game (three times over at least) gives me butterflies (yes, I need help). Gaming gets a new lease on life as some makers are seeing the reengineering options unfold. The first feeling was when I saw my beloved (yes, I need help) Elite from the CBM64 getting remastered. I hoped for more of the same and David Braben would not have that. What he gave us blew most our minds away and it took some a decent amount of time to get a handle on that game. It had proper teachings, but the game combined Elite, Privateer and  added 21st century graphics, in addition the game became well over ten billion times larger than the original. Now consider that concept to some other games. That is where streaming games can take us. Yes, we can wait for the next mediocre program by Ubisoft. Yet would you not want to feel actual butterflies when you hold your controller? And that I not all, this will be possible for well over a dozen games all before 2024. Is that not the real feeling we wait for as a gamer? Lets be clear I am decently anxious to get to Hogwarts legacy. The little I saw (I try to avoid as much as possible) blew me away and it is still blowing me away. Yet I want it to freshly hit my eyes in February 2023.

We all want that, the people seeking every spoiler will lose larger than they imagine and in this Starfield might give the Xbox community the game they dreamt for, for well over three years. I hope they get that feeling too, because they too are gamers, they are in a sense family.

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April 14, 2022 · 02:51

Directions

We all do this, we take a direction, we choose a heading and most of us do it for emotional and sentimental reasons. I am no different. Yes, I still enjoy every moment in Horizons: Forbidden West. I hope I will enjoy Hogwarts Legacy well over half that much (more is always good). I try to have a realistic mind and the movie of Hogwarts Legacy blew me away, as it did most of us. Yet, some of us also hope for other IP to be made into games. Some go nuts for Marvel or DC games. Some of us love the Lego games. Yet I wonder what is possible if someone takes a gander and grabs a series like the Magicians, Babylon 5 or Battlestar Galactica into a game. Hogwarts and the writings of JK Rowling shows that there is massive appeal in the arcane. As such the writings of Lev Grossman could make for one hell of a game. Babylon 5 always had its own following and 5 seasons as well as a few movies opens the doors to a larger game. And there is a benefit to a space station. The same could be said for the Galactica, but I wonder what happens when we try to set a much larger station by opening the gameplay on a dozen worlds. A game that covers Icarus, Picon, Caprica, Gemenon, Tauron, Leonis, Virgon, Libran, Scorpia, Sagittaron, Aerilon, Aquaria and Canceron. A game that is too big for consoles, but not for streamers. All options that are forsaken, overlooked or just too big to contemplate. That last reason is a decent one. It is one hell of a challenge to get one world done right, to get 12 done good would be folly and I recognise that. A state of gaming we sometimes overlook. Just like the hungry man whose eyes are bigger than his stomach. In the latter case we waste some money on food we never had and that is OK, when you make a game and you make THAT much of an oversight bankruptcies start, so the game needs to be played careful and cautious. I get that, but if we always play it safe a game like The Darkness on Xbox360 would never have been a reality. A game that scored 82% (better than some Ubisoft games). There are other games with that setting and they were good games. Some would state not great games and I could go along with that. There are other games that scored not as much and were great games to play. So I am at time cautious on looking too hard at some rating. A game is what captures us, and for different people it is a different game. It was different with the approach for 50,000,000 consoles, which is weirdly enough based on small numbers, because it has never been done before. And if one program can lead there, what else are designers not looking at? I made the mistake of listening to the wrong people when I had my idea for Facebook 4 years before Facebook. Now, my version was not as slick, not as good looking and limiting, but I was ahead by 4 years. I will never do that again. I will go my own way and for now I have 5G IP in directions no one considered, optionally with extensions in several directions. A lot of them based on seeing the plans of Neom (Saudi Arabia). I came up with the IP for streaming consoles in a direction NO ONE considered. And it is ready for development. And the game is not even close to over. Only a few days ago it gave pressure to another IP, an IP no one seems to be considering and I reckon it could amount to billions, but it will not be overnight. A simple thought brought it to the top and in that same light I want to be positive on the IP of a TV series, a mini series and a movie, but they are not the real moneymakers, they are there for my ego (I think). And that is for some the rub. They are all about the profit, optionally the Adobe solutions that will bring Microsoft to their knees, but I believe that the small gains of TV ideas are no less than the other much larger amounts. The creator believes in his creations, not the value it represents. It is a path the creator walks and he (or she) hopes to see all the sideways that are connected to it, or the hope that new sideways are opened because of one IP. I believe that this happened in one case, but not in all cases. And there are other considerations. In my case Ego is one situation. I considered the evolution of the Amazon Luna, giving it all kinds of side uses, for the mere reason that Sony left them on the side and I want to be there to pick it up before Microsoft does. I want to make sure that they are seen as copycats, a former titan that is now merely a follower, not a leader, no matter what their marketing department advertises, but you saw that, did you not? ‘The most powerful console in the world’ is a considered statement of fact, but the fact that it was surpassed by the weakest console of them all is regularly overlooked. A stage that we ignore because some want us to overlook it and through that we overlook a lot more. But I do not mind, as I am alone on a path gives light to other options and it take one (not Microsoft) to take that jump and see their portfolio of revenue grow and when that does, the rest will sell itself. And when that happens my ego will be happy and shouting with glee showing all what Microsoft left in the dust and that was before the previous article where I saw more parts and places that Microsoft left lying on the floor, all ready for Adobe to pick up and make a move on what should now be considered a mediocre solution no one needs anymore and as people seek deep within ones self, they will understand that ‘They are the only advanced solution’ is no longer good enough and when that changes Microsoft loses the field on a 4th tier. They lost gaming to Nintendo and Sony, they never achieved anything in Tablets (Apple), they are a browsers joke (Google) and they will lose even more to Meta and they are about to be surpassed in streaming consoles by Amazon who also surpassed them on Cloud computing (Amazon AWS) and that is when their office solution passes over to Adobe, they will be the loser of the decade and I cannot wait to see those articles make headlines way too late. Microsoft took a direction to a cull de sac in a place no one wants to be all whilst others copied their failings. 

And I am so close to the victory I dreamt of, I can almost taste it, whether I get my IP sold or not, I will be around to see Microsoft fall to such a degree that the media can no longer ignore what has been in front of them for years. And when the people catch on the mess will be complete. 

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April 9, 2022 · 22:22

Trust, who you gonna trust?

Trust is something that is always out there. Some give it, some give it a little too freely. This is not to be confused with loose women, they merely do not care who to trust, they want a good time and 99.9963% of the hetero sexual men out there agree with me (and loose women too). 

Yet, in gaming trust is a dangerous thing. To see this we need to take a gander. In the first to the setting of Microtransactions. I am not against Microtransactions, it is merely an addition to the game and it is not free. Some are $5, some are $50 (and some a hell of a lot more). I believe that a fool (or a dedicated fan) will spend what they can afford and sometimes a little more. It is hard to keep the dedicated fans and the fools apart, but that is a very subjective view. 

Some wanted to go out and get the $5 for swords in Assassins Creed on day one, because these people start the game with a 5/5/5 sword (if you played the game, it will make sense). To the credit of Ubisoft, they CLEARLY stated that this is an item that could be earned in the game, and it was. Just not in act1, scene 1 of the game. There are a few other settings too, but Ubisoft clearly stated that with any item bought, that if it was obtainable in the game, they would let us know. Well done Ubisoft (I kicked them often enough, the good sides should be shown too).

I never accepted the loot-box stage. You see, for it to be gambling you need to lose it all, without anything to show for it. And tell me have you ever opened a loot-box and got the following ultra rare card?

No, you did not. So loot-boxes are not gambling. Neither are microtransactions, and it needs saying. Stop complaining. Buy it, do not buy it, just stop bitching about it. Now, some games are clearly upfront about it. The Hogwarts Legacy makers have stated that the game will not have any microtransactions. A good choice! There are others who are not that ‘elevated’ I have heard and seen some news on Gran Turismo 7 and there is some mess out there on microtransactions. I am not judging at present as I know too little, today is not about it, but it is linked. 

You see, to consider that we need to take a look at Reuters. I wrote about this setting in a different way, but they cover what I wrote. So (at https://www.reuters.com/technology/crypto-gaming-collide-high-risk-play-to-earn-economies-2022-04-08/) we see ‘Crypto and gaming collide in high-risk ‘play-to-earn’ economies’ and there we see “The 28-year-old from Bangkok was playing Axie Infinity, one of a new breed of blockchain-based online games, dubbed “play-to-earn”, which blend entertainment with financial speculation. These games can make for lucrative businesses amid the hype around NFTs and virtual worlds, attracting millions of players plus billions of dollars from investors who see the games as a way to introduce more people to cryptocurrency.” This is nice, such a sweet way to set the stage to playing youngsters (age 28) and the lucrative stage of investors. But when you take a gander to what I wrote on March 15th in ‘When is a slot machine not one?’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/03/15/when-is-a-slot-machine-not-one/) where I set the premise “The bottom of the slot machine fitted a credit card, some kind of crypto card. The slot machine also fitted USB-C sticks. The slot machine was a laundromat for crypto currency. And let’s face it, in todays world, who raises an eye on seeing a slot machine? I think my ‘associates’ had stolen a decent amount of crypto currency, which they laundered through the slot machines.” A stage where the slot machine becomes a cryptocurrency laundromat and the nice part is that it is also a slot machine and when the padlock is removed, it is merely a slot machine. The padlock was the second key of the chain to launder. You did figure that out, do you not? And even as I created some optional billion dollar IP (for Amazon) there is a much larger stage, because the current stage requires the oligarchs to launder whatever they can and there are solutions, some are not out in the open, but give it time. That need will surely come and my option is one that comes with the gamble option, launder the money or take a chance in gaining up to 75% in cryptocurrency by gambling. It will get the eyes of too many soon enough. 

My idea is clean, but some will subvert it, like some subverted the clean Mass Effect loot-boxes whilst they tried to fill their pockets. How long until someone figures out the 5G part that is NOT out in the open, until someone figures out its secondary stage? And all this is before the Hybrid era, the era that Meta will open up for EVERYONE. I wonder who will try to fill their pockets and how many will try to figure out something I put here months ago. I have time, I can wait, two of the events are now on 4Chan, so whomever breaks the codes has a clear path to a lot of revenue. I’d rather leave it out in the open for free than give it to some idiot at Microsoft. And if Google and Amazon do not want it? Then freeware it becomes. The person who is willing to destroy a thing, controls that thing. Ron Hubbard wrote that in the 70’s, the greed driven never understood it, for them it was always a  stage for compromise and negotiation. Lets all have some of it. Not me, I would rather see them squirm as a vagrant in agony than give in to the weak minded iterative spreadsheet users of this century. Let them return to the dust they came from.

So who you gonna trust? Trust and believe in yourself and only that. It is the stage that leaves wannabe friends outside. True friends will accept that and that is the difference.

P.S. I just finished my 2301st article, cool!

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