Tag Archives: Minecraft

December 28, 2025 · 14:13

Are doornails really dead?

I got a nice surprise today. I got a story (at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/2025-was-the-year-xbox-died-130000467.html), the only inaccuracy I think is that the contraption was dead already, for about 2 years. So I got to wonder. What happened to:

Mojang studios (Mincecraft) $ 2.5 billion
ZeniMax Media, Bethesda $ 7.5 billion
Activision/Blizzard $68.7 billion

Which gives us $78.7 Billion and it shouldn’t be allowed to go into a bad bank, that interest is still due. The last purchase was only completed in October 2023. So what happens, sell it to Saudi Arabia? The interest (said to be around 5%) implies that Microsoft is still meant to pay $3.935 billion interest on an annual basis and there is no way it gets to be reflected away, although I might advise Saudi Arabia in particularly Minister Majid bin Abdullah Al Qasabi that he should not offer a Halala over $50 billion for the entire package. I don’t think Microsoft is allowed any leeway for their intentional stupidity. That being said, they bought Mojang studios in 2014 and they did mighty fine work on their Minecraft product, including the PS5 (which still needs the PS4 disc), but that is small fry. The result is truly amazing and the fact that it is still one of the most popular games on any console is due to the Microsoft teams and credit where credit is due I say. Still, as the optional spokesperson for Saudi Commerce, I think it is essential that the Saudi Fleet of airplanes need to be give to all its Microsoft 2024 Flight Simulator players free of charge the fleet of planes that are part of the Saudia airlines, which consists of Airbus A320-200, Airbus A330-300, Boeing 777-300ER, Boeing 787-9 and Boeing 787-10, as well as include the King Abdulaziz International Airport (Jeddah) and the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh in the base setting of the Flight Simulator 2024. I think that Saudi Arabia is due some VIP treatment if Microsoft wants to flog away their failures. I think that Saudi Arabia is due that privilege. 

I think if you want the grease the wheels of commerce, you better take out your best effort, but that is merely me speaking. This all started in 2013 when they upset the gaming industry, by thinking they could strong-arm gamers towards the Xbox, whilst they never actually understood gamers (I point to the Don Mattrick, the former president of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business, widely remembered for controversial stupid statement of “Fortunately we have a product for people who aren’t able to get some form of connectivity, it’s called Xbox 360”) my response was ‘Fuck you Mattrick” and I placed a handful of gaming IP on my blogs for anyone not Microsoft. That’s how I react and these people are still welcome too all that, especially as the Xbox is now dead on arrival, a proper vivisectioned console at your local morgue. So whilst the article gives you “Xbox didn’t enter 2025 in a great state, and it’s leaving the year grasping for help, like an Arc Raider player desperate for a revival after being knocked out. Microsoft cancelled the Perfect Dark reboot and Everwild, two of the most interesting games in its weak upcoming slate. The company brought titles like Forza Horizon 5 over to the PlayStation 5, which prompted Engadget Deputy Editor Nathan Ingraham to declare he no longer needed an Xbox.” He never needed one and I did mine away years ago, it was just a dust collection setting and I merely held on to it because of Elite Dangerous and Subnautica, when they became available on PS4/PS5, the fate of my coaster to be (Xbox One) was set. Some regrets, but the Xbox360 was awesome, so not that much and it was my first setting for Oblivion and Skyrim, which I also have on Sony. We were also given “There was a chance for Microsoft to reinvigorate the Xbox brand with the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X gaming handhelds, but the $600 and $1,000 launch prices placed them out of reach for most gamers. It also doesn’t help that Windows still isn’t well-optimized for portable devices with touchscreens, and those systems also aren’t compatible with older Xbox titles like the consoles. At the very least, Microsoft now has a handheld foothold. But a future portable Xbox console would need to be significantly cheaper to compete with the likes of the Steam Deck, which starts at $549 (following the discontinuation of the $400 LCD model).” But as I personally see it, Microsoft tends to lose interests in solutions that dos not make them shine and the Xbox had nearly rusted through as I personally see it, but there was the news which was available for about three days now and I had other matters on my mind, so it was a nice setting today, I was proved correct all along and as Saudi Arabia is vying to be a digital powerhouse, the setting if upgraded to a better shine, what was left of Microsoft games, might get a decent second life, but the additions to the Microsoft Flight-simulator 2024 will be required, although they might include it as a package deal for the nice price of $50 billion, not a penny more, including the Flight Simulator 2024 might make it worth the time of Minister Majid bin Abdullah Al Qasabi, but that is merely my view on the matter. And there is the setting we need to consider, the Xbox came to life (with massive help of Dwayne Johnson) and grew to new heights in 2005, it actually became a competitor to Sony and made Sony release the PS4 and PS5 with the immense upgrades. Gamers rejoiced and then in 12 years (due to Don Mattrick as I personally see it) it went from hightop to basement level bargain value. Still, I am not happy. Sony was better with Microsoft chasing its tail and that needs to be said and the results as we still see every day its awesome and as I see it, Todd Howard now needs to say the words “Elder Scrolls 6 is coming to Playstation” the Sony and the gaming world needs to hear those words. The Microsoft blame game of ‘perhaps’ and ‘we will service all gamers’ is disingenuous at best and not appreciated. 

So whilst we are given “Its partnership with AMD could easily lead to new handhelds, and it also gives Microsoft a leg up in producing a compact and powerful Xbox PC. After all, why should the company keep trying to go toe-to-toe with Sony’s closed PlayStation platform? Why shouldn’t Microsoft embrace its PC roots to give us a gaming desktop under our TVs? The company has already committed to bringing new Xbox games to PCs immediately, so the line between the two is already blurring. It may be a risk, but evolving into a PC proves there’s still life in the Xbox brand. And crucially, it’s also something Sony can’t easily replicate.” You see, the gamers feel betrayed by Microsoft, even those having an Xbox, they aren’t (don’t say ever in this case) going to trust Microsoft, they tried to play gamers and these players don’t like to be played, they take this personally and that is what Microsoft did in a few ways as I personally see it.

So you all have a good day and those owning a Playstation have pleasant dreams, because Microsoft just bought the bucket from Davey Jones locker. I reckon that this setting is hardest on Phil Spencer, who tried to do everything to make Microsoft gaming work. I think he did a fine job, but Microsoft overhead was ruled (as I see it) by Excel users and that goes against the grain of gamers. Have a great day today, my time for a late lunch now.

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October 17, 2023 · 09:40

Remembering milestones

We do that, we all do. When a milestone is reached we tend to celebrate this. I am no different. Even though I have slapped Microsoft silly (a few times over) when they get something right I stop at that point too and this time they got something right. The BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67105983) alerted me 10 hours ago with ‘Minecraft becomes first video game to hit 300m sales’. I love my Minecraft, it is one of the few real LTG games EVER made. LTG or Long Term Gaming is a gold mine for any developer. No matter what comes next, Diablo 5, Fallout, Elder Scrolls 9 or even Horizons three, we play those games, but we always return to the snug comfy environment of a LTG. I have been a Minecraft gamers since 2012. I tried the demo on the Xbox360 and I was hooked within 20 minutes. I later also bought it for the PS3, Xbox One, PS4 and I am now playing it on the PS5. There are even more versions, but I do not have those systems. 

A sandbox game like no other and don’t think it is the high end graphics, there aren’t any. Even on the PS4 it looks like a Commodore Amiga game. It is the addictive nature of the game that sets it apart. Mojang sold it to Microsoft for a little over 2 billion some time ago and Microsoft got a huge following of gamers at that point. It was up to 120 million active gamers. 

And the creativity was uncanny, as you can see, someone had the time to turn these cubes into a space shuttle. The game especially in survival mode is a never ending setting of growing and surviving and after 10 years I still enjoy that. 

Don’t think that Microsoft sat on their laurels and merely raked in the cash (they did that too), work on the game continues. Last year I was suddenly confronted with entirely new cave systems and it changed the game dramatically. Even a cave willed with light, water and grass. I had never seen a cave like that before. That is what a gamer wants. His game and the ability of that game to knock his (or her) socks off and in that respect Microsoft continued the work of Mojang and delivered.  There was all kinds of merchandise and even a creeper Xbox Series X. There seemingly was also an Xbox looking like a Minecraft torch, but I never saw that one myself. I bet that Minecraft lovers went hunting for that one on day one. 

So today I will be having a cupcake with a candle celebrating the 300,000,000 mark of Minecraft and congratulations to Microsoft. I think it is important to remember these great moments, because let it be clear, 300 million is a great moment. Neither Skyrim or Grand Theft Auto 5 got to that point. 

So enjoy your day and remember, a great game could be just around the corner if you are willing to try it.

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December 23, 2022 · 23:11

Unions

The thought took me by surprise. I had been playing Minecraft that day and the dream took me in a different direction, the merging of games. Now in the case of Minecraft this might merely be a DLC, or added to the game, but the stage opens up new directions in gaming.

To give you the rundown, I need to take you on a small trip. In my days of the Atari ST, the game ‘The Sentinel’ was released and I was happy, a remake was made in the late 90’s and it was awesome on PC, the music was fantastic and the game left an even deeper impression. The game is about a sentinel, it cleans the world, it rotates and nothing will survive in its gaze. It seems simple, but the 3D landscape is tricky and there are 1000 levels (if I remember correctly). So to win you need to get to the highest point and devour the Sentinel. The game is simple, but addictive and the PC edition even more so. But what happens when we take the Sentinel and make it massive, it cannot be devoured. Yet if you can get close to it, you could ‘attack’ it and get glowing bricks from it. The glowing bricks give the player powers. Blue will drop never ending water when active, red drops lava and so on. Yellow becomes a sun beacon. The Sentinel however changes the landscape it sees, and as such destroys your house, reduces it to rubble (with all the stuff still there. A rare event that changes the speed of the game and creates chaos. But that is merely one side, so what happens when we have BOTH games? We have thought of it and it does not always apply, but what happens when we have games from the same maker? For example AC Origin and AC Valhalla? They have implemented the cosmetic parts in later games, but what if we can push it both ways and more than just cosmetic? So Horizon Zero Dawn AND Horizon forbidden West? The games can be played separately, but what if we could unite these games? Add even more terrain? That is (optionally) the power of streaming games, streaming games will make this possible. 

It is a continuation of an idea I had in the past (and wrote about it). The original EA CBM64 game ‘Murder on the Zinderneuf’ now with a Bioshock look. Fully 3D, yet that is merely the start. For the Amazon Luna, the idea came for Luna keys, gold and silver. So when you play the game you could find a chess set, when found the option opens up to unlock THAT chess set in the game chess. It makes for a new setting of long term gaming. In addition, the idea came that could open up other games and other makeover of games. Like the game Clue, Harry Potter themes (if that was open to offer) and so on. In that same stage Assassins Creed 2 could offer a renaissance Italian chess set and so on. Not every game will offer this, but with every iteration that does we add value to gaming, we add interest in people who like to play chess to play other games. When you play the new version of ‘Murder on the Zinderneuf’ a game like monopoly would suddenly get an additional playable token (the Hindenburg) and it is that interaction that gamers will become hungry for and they will play more, enjoy more and experiment more. The power of streaming games is not unlocked for the simple reason that the game owners are merely looking to ‘copy’ their game on a new platform, to get more names, more players but no one is looking in creating better players, more fun and more joy. It is seemingly past them.

It is a stage that needs to be looked at now, because the new makers of systems are looking in that direction and there is no price for second place. As I see it The Tencent Streaming solution is merely a year away. The current owners squandered billions, lost the middle east and now Tencent is about to offer new options, new terrains and they will offer it to millions more. So how much of the playfield will Amazon surrender? Google left the gaming sphere and Microsoft remains useless (which they will spin in a direction like blaming Sony), but the truth is that these three players left well over 6 billion a year on the field and that field is now increasing and is slowly moving towards Tencent. Yes another fine mess they left the gamers.  The only player, who had their own niche is Apple and I have no idea what they are up to, they play their cards close to their chest. But they could be the new winner in the 11th hour. I cannot tell, too much speculation on that direction.

But the union of games is a natural concept in streaming games and look at how many offered that stage, the simple answer is none. And when Tencent does offer it, they basically become winner by default. It was so easy to actually listen to gamers (something Microsoft has never done). Sony and Nintendo were not streaming solutions and they have THEIR market. The others (Apple excepted) did this to themselves. Consider what you read here and consider what you see in gaming and then see how natural the ideas actually are.

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September 1, 2022 · 04:52

Resetting contemplated options

There is a time when a person needs to reevaluate the choices he is considering. I am at that stage. I had hoped that the parts I have shown would have enticed Google or Amazon, but they have not (or so it seems). So I have the option of considering two more options. The first play for the third party is now underway. The third party here is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. You see they are intent on getting out of the oil business, or better stated, they do not want to depend on it too much. Here I am offering a gaming stage with well over 50,000,000 subscriptions. The nice part is that they can now consider Google, Amazon or Tencent. I personally do not care (as long as they can keep it close to Amazon Luna quality. You see, for me it cares as part of the deal is that I get 10% of the IP and sales value (plus a starting fee). 10% of 50,000,000 subscriptions could be anything from $25M to $50M and when this takes off, I have no idea where it will end, but even at a mere 1-2 years I could end with $25M to $50M a month in the second year if its running. I reckon that is a good retirement fee. Even at a maximum of 6 months it will be more money than I ever contemplated (or even dreamt of) having I was never greed driven. 

So consider the graph below.

The main event is the idea I concocted. The Master Choice is a set of old CBM64 and Amiga games now set to the latest in game streaming. Games that you all forgot about (Younger players are exempt from this). The CBM64, Atari ST and Amiga had created so much awesome IP and most are left unattended, left as garbage. Something these master pieces never deserved. I wrote about them in the past. And as I stated this is merely the start. Then there are the remasters. New games now made to fit this platform. There will be interest, the moment this solution surpasses 10,000,000 subscriptions, others come calling like junkies at a free cocaine feast. It is not good News for Bethesda or Blizzard, they decided to become Microsoft solutions. And when this takes off, Microsoft will fall flat. Yes, they will have their mobile options, but the larger stage will be lost to them. I have nothing against Bethesda or Blizzard, I loved their games and I still do, but there is a consequence of choice and if I get this done, they face hard choices. Then there is a part I cannot tell yet. The new IP. This needs to be catered so that independent developers can grow and can facilitate to, because any GAAS solution will need that. I have close to a dozen options for the start, but after that it will be time to hand over the reigns to the next generation, I will have proven I was right, I will be entitled to my retirement and months of skiing every year. Time for the next generation to make a mark and now there would be a new player. A Saudi group of programmers giving us a new stage of gaming, a stage no one ever considered, no one ever contemplated. But if a small nation like the Netherlands can give us Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, what can a nations like Saudi Arabia achieve? You forgot about the small parts, did you not? Minecraft was Swedish (as was ABBA), and that is merely when we look at two of the most visible houses at present.
So I want to open the field to others, I want to entice new options and a new era of gaming, because evolution of gaming is important. Nintendo will remain, Sony will remain. They always considered the gamer number one, it is not that I am telling that they remain, the gamers have decided that they remain and some will still side with Microsoft, that is fair. But the Microsoft field will tighten in gaming as it will in two other directions and I will hopefully be there to see it happen (health issues). Yet until recently I never considered Saudi Arabia as the new Mecca for gaming. It was an article in some magazine that dropped the coin. Saud Arabia was always in the back of my mind, but I expected that my IP would have gone to Google or Amazon. Now there is every chance that I will win a lot. A setting that sets the owner on par with Nintendo and Sony is not to be ignored, and even as Microsoft would still be number three for a little while, the humiliation of them getting surpassed by a new player will tong, it will sting a lot. It will show in the first that I was right, it will show in the second that their path was wrong all along. Yes they will make serious money with mobile games. But to lose one niche in technology to this effect will hurt, it will make everyone wonder what Xbox was and why it no longer matters. But for me it is about a new era for gamers, a stage that puts them in the pole position. The front person in a technology that depends on enticing their senses with creativity and inspiring them to become creators. And it has every chance of happening soon. How soon? I have no idea. I am still dependant on the selectors and the choice makers, in this I am a small fish, but a fish dangling 50 million subscriptions in looked at and my blog speaks for itself. Almost 2500 articles on all kinds of matter, many of them games and a lot of them showing ‘evidence’ that I was right long before others knew what was happening. It might be my delusional side and that is a fair observation for others to make, but if the sale happens they will suddenly state “Why did you not come to us?” At which time it will be too late and they don’t need to look at me, their superiors (or shareholders) will look at them asking them why they missed out, these people have no sense of humour. But I do, I will be on the sidelines giggling, enjoying a hot cocoa with rum and watching the snow fall and the slopes prepare for winter fun. And the one thought I will have is that I made ti the end of the rat-race maze, in a way I never contemplated 30, 20, or 10 years ago and I wonder what I will do next, because the creative mind only stops when it is dead, that lesson I learned through many sleepless nights (and three bundles of IP).

73 minutes until breakfast, whatever will I do now?

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December 11, 2021 · 04:44

The missing gap

I woke up this morning (03:15) and I started to realise what I had been missing (no, not a gorgeous woman, but yes, that too). I have been a gamer for the longest of times and I have been active going back to the Commodore Vic-20 (1982). Over the span of 40 years I have seen a huge collection of games spanning the Vic-20, CBM-64, AtariST, CBM Amiga, Megadrive, Playstation, Dreamcast, Playstation 2, Xbox-360, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox One and Playstation 5. I am not counting the PC and Mac Games but yes I had them too. My mind suddenly wandered on certain titles and the one that woke me up was an old PS1 game, Kula World. 

I suddenly realised what I missed. Game makers are all about the achievements, the progress and the hardship. Yet, when was the last time you set down relaxed and just played to have fun? I reckon that most of you had with Minecraft, but with what other game? Do not get me wrong, Skyrim is heaps fun, but it is a game with missions, a game with targets and I do not oppose them. Sometimes we just want to have fun, either alone or with friends. I reckon that is why Mario Party is such a success. Gaming just for fun. When was that?

It is almost a setting that gaming is now intended to push artsy people into a business degree. It is OK for some and ok for some all of the time, but not for all people all of the time. The new games (even the ones I designed) are about targets, populations and getting to a point, but what if there is no real point? Kula World was a game with a target in the distance, but oddly enough, when you were playing it was about the fun and I actually miss that. 

Don’t get me wrong, I still love hours and hours of Elite Dangerous, I still enjoy my Skyrim time and at times even Watchdogs: Legion. Yet the stage of focussing on fun is dwindling down in gaming and I think that is a shame and it is a loss for all gamers. I get it, some want to get contracts done in Grand Theft Auto, some what to get their team to the cup (NHL) and some want to survive (Last of Us) and there is nothing wrong with that. Yet at times it merely needs about the fun of playing and that is gone in too many places. And even I am guilty of that, all the designs I created, my mind created was about going somewhere, and for moments I forgot the feeling I had in Oblivion to just look at the scenery. Why is that, what did the game makers forget? What were we made to forget? 

I do not know how it happened. Perhaps people (game makers) were too intent on staring at Ubisoft and their one AC a year, perhaps they all forgot what the fun of playing was or perhaps the makers hired Business degree people to get them a money making game. Yet I feel that something is being lost and I hope that some will rectify this sooner rather than later. I reckon that if I looked back to the last 3 years, playing Minecraft and losing time and the sense of time there is the most fun I have been having playing a game, which is a shame. I had that feeling a lot in the Amiga and CBM64 time and I miss that feeling, I suddenly realised that I missed feeling that way. There is no way in hell that I am the only gamer feeling that way, but there it is. The gap I am missing and it makes sense, after all that school, who took a gap year? Where is our console gap year? Even now as we marvel on the sanctity of new titles, new challenges and new horizons, where is the gap that allows us to sit and just have fun?

Think back, when was the last time you had actual fun playing?

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August 22, 2021 · 19:14

Time slice or lemon tart

That is indeed the question, but the question is not that important at present. It all started with a weird dream. In this dream I was in Montreal (Canada), now let’s be clear. I have no connection to the city, and apart from the fact that they have a good hockey team, I know next to nothing on the place, I know it is in French speaking Canada, but that is all. So in this dream I saw someone, it might be a reflective me, it could be anyone. They saved a hawk, or falcon from their balcony. The animal was shivering and clearly afraid, the person put on an oven mitt and offered his hand. The bird jumped on the hand with the mitt and carefully the bird was taken in the house. He placed the bird on top of a chair and got the bird rare roast beef (it seemingly really liked the rare roast beef) and gave it a bowl of water mixed with a lot of sugar. The bird was no longer seemingly afraid, but it was nervous. The person was looking at the clouds and wondered. He then moved what was drinkable and eatable into the bathroom, the bathroom and this is important was one of the innermost rooms in the house, no windows and no direct outer wall. He also placed a chair and a small table (it was a large bathroom), moved the goods into the bathroom and walked around the house pushing the heaters up everywhere, yet not to the highest setting, setting 4 was used on knobs with a 6 setting, I think that mattered somehow. Then he carefully moved the bird, now aptly named Horus with the mitt again and took the chair as well. He then got into the kitchen, took several items and moved to the bathroom where he set the radiator to high. 

Then it started to happen, Montreal was hit with a cold snap, it was only October, or November, but the cold-snap happened and well over 50% of the people in Montreal froze to death. 

Now, none of this is a mystery. I saw the Day after tomorrow, I played AC Origins, so all the elements (all except Montreal) fell into place, no real mystery or divine intervention.

Then I remembered every time I played a new game of Minecraft. Did you play it? The first day is important, because you need to create a safe location before the sun goes down. That part is important because too many RPG games are a service where it is at your convenience. Whenever you get around to it, and Bethesda has used that setting since I started playing it in Oblivion, in that same setting Fallout 3 onwards has the same stage. Yet what happens when that is not an option? When a house is on fire, it does not help to hand the bucket to the owner of the burning house when you get to level 13. He (of she) needs it now, or really soon. This is a stage we forgot about, the time slice. There are two issues.

  1. Do you have the minimum skills to cater to a time driven need?
  2. Should such a stage be set and always be achievable?

These two setting are important, there are gain two stages we must contemplate. In the first we cannot always be there, that is a mere fact of life and programming around that element is often folly. The second is that if we have a proper RPG, we have houses (guilds), but what if your first guild is not a mage or a tinkerer? So early in the game you see a setting where you can only watch, be that famous Monday morning quarterback and watch others do the job. Then we get to the important part, we need to set these parts to some level of randomisation that instigated when you START the new game. Not when you get there. So we see the need to have 20-40 missions with a decent rewards, but we need to be partially lucky, so that the internet cheater miss out as well. That is setting a larger story, especially when success unlocks a larger side quest. And the second part in all this, it enables and fortifies the replay of a game. So in the dream we can see that Horus was the trigger, but what happens when you never noticed that bird? Would you be ready? Would you make it to any shelter? And most important, without resources you will go hungry, thirsty and optionally will continue with decreased stamina and health (a day without food makes a person weak, try it for yourself if you doubt me).

So is the approach of having time sliced missions a hit or a lemon? I cannot answer that, I think it could be great if you program this properly and it will take proper programming to get it done. Programmers could ask Anunnaki (god of fate), but there is a chance that you will not receive any help from that direction. It will be a challenge on several levels, but should you pull it off you will be the one adding a new dimension to RPG gaming, a dimension that has been lacking for close to a decade, before that systems were just not strong enough.

In this I merely remembered the settings I came up with in Mass Effect Andromeda 2, Base of the pillar. And yes, I will admit that I had some overlapping ideas that I had for Elder Scrolls VII: Restoration, but I think that a good foundation (as long a the story is completely different) is not a bad thing. I saw the massive mass driven mistake that Andromeda was and there was a setting to fix it and regain credibility, but in that setting ME Andromeda would pack the second game with the first game, and even as a lot was the same, it was added with an enormous amount of changes and different storytelling. One needs to be faithful to the original trilogy. 

Yet all these settings cannot be more of the same, there needs to be a level of evolution. Yes there are plenty of gamers that do not mind more of the same, but they will soon realise that they are stuck in the past and that is as I personally see it never a good thing. And is success a guarantee? No, it is not. I do not offer guarantees, I merely dabble in ideas that can make the next generation of gaming special and enticing.We all might come up with a Nintendo WiiU, and that is fine, but it is not that system, it resulted in the Nintendo Switch and the few who are able to make THAT leap will make it big and that ups the level of gaming for everyone, that I the setting that players like Amazon Luna and Google Stadia (they a little less) get to look t and there is the larger station of play, a setting we have not seen before, not a game that exists everywhere. This is not about exclusivity, but about a totally new level and dimension of play, I think too many are forgetting that we need to push that part and not enough of us are making that leap. 

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July 21, 2021 · 23:54

Two to plenty

I have had enough of looking at covid numbers, and I have had enough of several things. As such, I feel the most at ease giving service (I did it for more than a quarter of a century) and creating new IP.  And as I was playing a personal favourite, I realised that Microsoft was holding two massive trump cards and to overthrow that, the other makers need to consider taking a leap, a leap that will make the Microsoft position shaky, very shaky indeed. This solution will optionally fit Amazon the best. Netflix has a chance, but if Google does not change its position, then they are up at the mercy of the developers. It is a choice they made. 

So what is out there? You see, I always knew that our lives revolved around creating places to live, kill things and eat (let’s not forget about the food). Minecraft drilled into that brilliantly and as Markus Persson, Jens Bergensten, and Stephen McManus played on that brilliantly, they sold it to Microsoft in 2014 for two point five billion. Then there was Bethesda who created Skyrim on 11/11/11. A game that for a very long time avoided (not completely) the levels of grinding. And Microsoft offered $8,500,000,000 to the makers. Yes a brilliant move, but it also implies that if someone makes a game like these two for Amazon, the Microsoft gaming share will drop by a decent amount. And it is a tall order, to make something alike and different enough not to be seen as a copy. It can be avoided to some degree. For one, the building materials can be set to marble sorts (Romans and Greeks), giving us all kinds of other challenges and achievements. In a lot of ways Minecraft was brilliant and close to perfect, but it can be done in other ways too and the Minecraft setting will require a streaming solution, which get us to Amazon Luna. But they are not the only player, anyone picking these ideas up can design something for Google Stadia. And it matters, with the massive amounts of revenue to be seen in the next two years, would you turn away a billion dollars? I wish I had been more pressed as a programmer in my youth, I would have done it myself. Alas, I made choices, I have no regrets, but if I was a decent programmer, I could have had more (not in a greed driven way). And now I get to spout other non 5G ideas to the world giving them a chance to take a slice away from the Microsoft pie. 

I will leave it to you, but consider that Skyrim has over 15 million players, Minecraft has 126 million players. Do you still think it is a bad idea? And as the gaming frontiers are changing, as Microsoft is trying to sell THEIR Microsoft Cloud all over the place, the gaming dimension polarises, Microsoft only respects what their board of directors tell others what matters and I have no intention of seeing my devices being overrun by some Azure thin client. As such I see the need to set my dreams and non 5G IP considerations towards public domain, to let you all grow on non Microsoft fields. Azure might have the advantage, but that does not mean that Google and Netflix are out of the race. It is merely a speculative idea and I will let you consider where the race takes us all.

So when you are creating YOUR version of a sandbox game, you can focus on building (and you need to), yet the stage of that can be done in various ways. You can focus on how the Greeks and Romans did it, so you need to create a place create income and become part of an economy. Anything else and you face the dangers that it is too much like Minecraft. As you grow your status and economy, you can opt for one side in game one, the other in game two and every iteration opens up the free game to a much larger extent. If you are in Volos, Larissa or Ladochori (Greek places) you will have to employ different solutions, but in a sandbox game, location is not the key, it is the surroundings you face. A setting that shapes all your decisions. You can only go with the flow and create, and seek, and pillage, and murder and explore. And in all this pillage and murder remains open to addition or choice, but in a sandbox game you make the decisions, you set the tone and you become your own legend (sanctified by Amazon, Google and/or Netflix).

If I feel up to it I will draw out a much larger setting towards real social media for gamers, not marketed messaging for large corporations.

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October 15, 2020 · 06:16

In pieces

When was the last time you went out and researched something? For me it started 83.4 minutes ago (roughly), to fight insomnia (meeting it half way) I decided to do a puzzle, and as I was completing the puzzle, I became mesmerised by the picture in the puzzle. The house is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. It turns out that it is a traditional maramures monk house in Romania, the image is from Adrian Domokos (at https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/traditional-maramures-monk-house-1190795452). I soon found a few other examples, but for some reason Adrian captured something the others did not and I cannot get the right words to describe it. Yet the house is printed on my mind, and as my mind is working out other things it is also converting that very same house to a Minecraft place of living. You might not get that, which is fair enough, but my mind captures things and recreates it in different dimensions, sometimes for fun, sometimes for other reasons. 

I am (at times) hesitant to let the mind wonder freely, not merely because it tends to lead to insomnia, in other cases it got me to design something to sink the Iranian fleet with (one needs goals after all), yet when I was rethinking the weapon and its delivery system I considered that this solution would also work on that ugly American contraption called the Zumwalt class, and lets be fair, that thing is way too ugly to not make it sink, especially as Defense News gave us yesterday ‘US Navy eyes new design for next-generation destroyer’, as such we get “I don’t want to build a monstrosity. But I need deeper magazines on ships than I have right now,” the chief of naval operations said. “I’m limited with respect to DDG Flight IIIs in terms of what additional stuff we could put on those ships. … So the idea is to come up with the next destroyer, and that would be a new hull. The idea would be to put existing technologies on that hull and update and modernise those capabilities over time”, the added “To avoid another costly failure, such as the canceled next-generation cruiser or severely truncated DDG-1000 program, the service is harkening back to its successful Arleigh Burke program, the mainstay of the Navy’s surface combatant program for the past 30 years”. A program with in mind building 32 dinghy’s and 29 of them got cancelled, the there three never properly worked. A wasted $22.5 billion, well, let’s consider that it is not much if you say it fast (I dare you). And when we consider that “the Zumwalt had been sold to Congress based on unrealistic minimum-cost estimates. Eventually, program costs exceeded the budget by 50 percent, triggering an automatic cancelation”, so in light of the unrealistic minimum cost estimates, did anyone go to jail? Did these estimators get paid? So we have a stage where my 5G solutions require ‘assurances’ for the $25,000,000 initial part whilst the $22,500,000,000 sails into the deep end without any problems (or assurances for that matter)? Oh and that is all before we consider these so called smart bullet, the ones that Congress would not approve as it was well over $1,000,000 per shot, How much was sunk into that part? 

So the rebel rouser in me thought it might optionally be a nice idea to try the new weapon system called ‘Gordian One’ on the USS Zumwalt, you know, before we piss off all the Iranians, and lets be honest, there might be some congratulatory slap on the back in it for me from an American Admiral or two (isn’t that why we tend to be innovative?), ahh well, such is life I say!

And lets face it, no one asked anything about the Zumwalt class and what the need was to ignore the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. We know that the Zumwalt was designed and build for a very different kind of war, one that it was not able to do in the first place, but let’s not haggle on those details. And all this is before you realise that the Zumwalt class (compared to the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer) is almost 987% more expensive, so how exactly do we need to see the setting of ‘minimum-cost estimates’, me thinks that someone was buttering their bread on both sides other thickly, yet that is merely my personal train of thought. 

So whilst we look at one and the other, why was there so much about some traditional maramures monk house in Romania? Well, that is linked to the topic of Copyright Law and the nice setting of some silly bugger registering a few pieces of paper and forgot a setting or two with a few documents, which gave me the idea as I looked at the hull alloys and you see, the setting of a Tumblehome wave piercing hull sounds nice, but there are constraints too and that is where I started to wonder, if it sinks the Iranian fleet, the Zumwalt might not really have a chance either. In addition, even if Gordian One does not do its intended purpose, the stability of the Zumwalt will change enough for it to sink itself (which might be poetic justice in its own right). 

So whilst the USNI News reports that ‘Navy Lacks ‘Clear Theory of Victory’ Needed to Build New Fleet, Experts Tell House Panel’, I decided to gain victory by building a weapon system that achieved more than one goal (not telling the kids at present), and as that is shown to work and the delivery system works (not tested yet), we see a stage where Bryan Clark, a naval analyst and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute gives us “We don’t really have that clear theory of victory or operational concept today”, OK, here at this point I take one step back and if I misreported on his quote then I apologise (I tend to not have access to confidential US Navy events), yet if I did voice it correctly, we have a much larger problem. If it is true that the Navy is in doubt on ‘clear theory of victory’ or on ‘operational concept’, which flagrant yahoo of a milk-dud admiral approved the stage of the extremely sinkable Zumwalt Class? It seems to me that clear stages leading to victory and a natural need of irrational concepts is essential for any new boat, submarine, dinghy or pleasure cruiser (Spearhead-class). And if the staged speculated theory of victory is not visible, no Zumwalt class should ever exist. That was clear from day one, was it not? Here we go back to the beginning, traditional maramures monk house in Romania had a set stage, a stage it still fulfils almost a century after it is build, the Zumwalt has been unable to meet basic standards from day one, and people wonder why I want to test a new weapon system on it? Well, consider that I would never test it on the Blue Ridge, as that ship after 47 years is still working to near perfect levels of excellence, the USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) is expected to get its retirement in 20 years, however there is every chance that it could function until deep past 2055, when we see these events, when we see these parts of success, can we at least begin to understand what an utter failure the Zumwalt class is? 

So with the stage of the Zumwalt being uglier than a really old building in Romania and less functional than pretty much anything in the US Navy, I leave you to try and tackle my other needs. Have a great day!

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July 11, 2020 · 22:52

Project One Fiver

We all have the setting in our heads, we have an idea and we partially roll with it. It is there where we get the problem, some see problems, some do not. I am the one in category two, yet I also have flaws and they show themselves rather quickly. I am the entire opposite of those, I am one who quits as the challenge is gone. It is a basic law, it is stupid, but in 1989 there was a different stage, the BS artists were in charge, I was new, I knew nothing, but I had my 

Nantucket clipper compiler and a book on how to program and within weeks I was ahead of a lot of people.  I was asking container programs, admin programs and I loved it. But it came with an inner flaw. Someone in the cinema world asked me for a solution, I was not thinking like a consultant, because I was self trained, I rejected the offer, not because it was hard, but because it was easy. I had in my mind set the stage and developed the solution in an hour, I saw what was needed and my mind set the stage in minutes. The shows, the cinema’s the date’s, it was the simplest application of Clipper and dBase 3, as such I saw the premise that I was doing all the work and getting almost nothing for it, because people would state that it was too easy, and in those days the rent was due. I leaned a lot over time and I went in a different direction, but the ability to see solutions remained in me. 

So as I am watching the Battlestar Galactica series (again) an idea came to mind, what if the premise of the RPG is changed? What if the game is not one game, but 15? All linked into one massive game, into one large game that is in part driven by the parameters of other gamers? Not just that, but your achievements will be an added parameter for them? Over time your stage will be the overbearing one, but you are not one voice, you are one of a choir and over time you are the choir. As far as I can tell, that has never been done before and even as my idea grasps some idea’s from others, the stage of philosophical drives, the stage of a limited stage is not new. Other games programmed around it, I am considering it to be part of the game. And over that stage we see the ability where we intersect in a much larger stage. Yes, it sounds confusing, me talking about stages, about parameters and about requirements, yet games are like that and we fill in the blanks in stages, the stage of where we play, the stage of where a character is and we have the ability to set a much larger field of play in a  game that could set a new record in gaming in the next console war. 

A stage that has several planets, a stage that is set where we have a formula that creates 15 planets, and you have no idea where you are. This is not for the weak of mind, or those walking around in Minecraft, this is Elder Scrolls Oblivion on a scale that is 15 planets big and we do not set out to gain a flag or to kill a monster, we set out to create a dynasty and that is never a clear sailing premise. I see the solutions that other greats did before this, There was the Ultima series an RPG by Richard Garriott that is something that still drives me and why it was never refurbished in a new coat with new graphics still puzzles me. But they were not alone, there were others, to some perhaps forgotten, but with gems in its coding. Hopefully we will see a remade System Shock soon, yet it was not alone. Whist Ubisoft is all about triggers and respawning enemies, the stage is out there for a different kind of RPG, I believe that the PS5 will open up more options and different sets of games. The problems is not the game, the issue will become where is the IP, who owns it and how can it be staged in different ways. We see series like Westworld and we wonder how it can become a game. There was someone with the Westworld Shelter approach, I never saw it, I would have liked to have seen it, but it was removed before I could see it. This is not a random phrase, the question becomes that in the age we face, sources are limited, so how can we make a game enjoyable, repayable and original without it becoming a mesh of Minecraft and Animal Crossing? Whilst Ubisoft showed us how not to do it, w still need to do it and we need to do it right. It needs a hand that looks outside of what coders look at. We need to consider the creation of a strategy guide before there is a game, so that we can ensure the long term existence of the created game. And to be there for the long term you need to look with different eyes, to see in a different scope. I saw the option of scope when I created the foundation for Elder Scrolls VIII: Restoration, I saw the option of views when I considered Watch Dogs IV: Refugee, it also gave me the idea to set different dimensionalities (there was was an example in System Shock), yet the combining of elements is a much larger stage and it is a different stage. It is not like we go to the theatre, it is the entire block around the building that houses the theatre as well. That is the stage we work from, because when the surroundings are there, that is when we give size to the stage in that theatre. It has always been that way, yet in the past the computers could not deal with that stage, computers are finally catching on and even as the remade Pirates (Sid Meier) was betrayed into a diminished stage and labeled Assassins Creed: Black Flag, does not mean that it was so, we had no reason to give up on a time honoured classic, yet that stage was burned before it flourished. I wonder what we can get done when that is ignored in a future project, what happens, when we have a planet making program like we see in No Mans Sky and we prepare 15 codes, 15 places with enhanced detailing, 15 stages where the plant is the stage, where we are a person in a much larger field and we get to set up the stage of history, I reckon that it has never been done before, not to this degree and not to this reference of options, a stage much larger than ever before and to the degree where we at the end of 200-600 hours want to play it again, so far only Bethesda and CD Project Red have come anywhere near that stage, there is off course GTA5, no one denies that, so out of 2300 game developers, only 3 only got that near, would it not be the right challenge to be one of 10 ever to get that near? It is not a hard question to answer. 

I’ll let you simmer on the question and the questions that will be in your mind at this time.

 

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October 23, 2019 · 12:47

What I experience versus how it is seen

That is a fair issue in gaming, we experience gaming in a different set of parameters and that is how is has been like forever, yet I believe that the constraints of this tug of war has met its end. Gaming is now experienced in a whole range of different slots (online gaming, mobile gaming, console gaming, pc gaming) that people are seeking a red line, there are those who were there before and those who are here now and they both what to get a finality in gaming.

It makes sense, but not to all the gamers in the land. I came from the very beginning. The CBM VIC-20 and the Kempston controllers; there had been a gradual increase to all our controllers and until the first console era (Xbox/PSX2/GC) the stage was set, now we get a whole range of controllers, all set to a stage of someone, and the controllers have been used to gain the upper hand. Luckily the difference between Xbox and PS4 is not huge, so overall we keep abreast of any ‘new’ developments. Now we are getting haptic controllers, which will be a new sensation for some, but the issue is that we need to experience gaming in a real news sense and there the plot fumbles and dies.

Now that we are facing 6 iterations of gaming, it becomes more and more essential to embrace a form of gaming, as gaming is going to enhance our lives and how we interact with the systems we play. Let’s take a look at the options:

  1. Forza Horizon
  2. Tombraider
  3. Minecraft

3 games, three very different games and just these three will benefit differently from whatever controller is out there. Forza the car simulator will need haptic for counter steering, but in the end is is still a controller, Tombraider needs haptic for its bow, yet it is still a person going through mazes, and in Minecraft we get to chop and bow enemies. Yet these games can be played on an of the 6 systems, so how can those systems endure next to one another?

It is a setting what we are getting confronted with when we get headlines like ‘Here’s Why PS 5 With Haptic Feedback Tech Will Change Gaming‘, there is no setting that will get the same on a Microsoft Xbox, and it is not expected to be. Even if Microsoft gives it a different name, they will be around and we get an entire market streak that is befuddled and stated towards misrepresenting what people face. To give you already the go ahead, ASUS gives us “Oh, and the haptics are fantastic. The phone has two vibration motors that deliver excellent feedback during gaming and everyday tasks“, so we get haptics with our mobile gaming as well!

Beyond that Microsoft and Sony give the talk like we expect them to, yet in an age that now include Apple, Google, both streaming and dedicated gaming, as well as Nintendo, what should be there, is not. Instead of finding the differences that make gamers play on different systems, we see a push to make the systems all compatible, so that they all can give us Fallout shelter and Gems of War so it can be equaled on all 6 consoles, with no difference.

Why?

In the next games like Cyberpunk, System Shock, we could get the entire division in another way, when we ADD HARDWARE. When we do not the system takes over, but to set the stage in a field where our mobiles become our virtual keeper, or have an upgraded model that has such a feature, that is not in the plans, and it is so directly essential to create a new awareness of hardware and options.

And the past has been facilitating towards these boundaries, yet neither Sony, nor Microsoft has been considering this jump ever. How weird is that?

Console gaming

Console gaming has not met any changes since the beginning, when we consider the games on the PSX2 versus PSX4, Xbox VS Xbox One X we see a range of software but that is it, where has been the upgraded gameplay? Merely games that merely needed more resources? That has been the setting for al video games at present, and that is now the one element that will stop the next wave. Yet we all want the new powerful console, and for the most we will not care if we go from PS4 to PS5 or from Xbox One X to Xbox Two Ultimate. I merely believe that the one increasing game play to set to PS4/Xbox One X to or PS5/Xbox Two AND install a direct setting to the mobile (depending on game) had an advantage.

And it is not new! Going back to the GameCube, those with a GameCube had the option to link both their GameCube and their Gameboy advance with a cable, in certain games the Gameboy became the mini map, and it is interesting that in an age with apps and blue toots this connection has not been explored more. It goes on beyond the game itself, the gaming center has not been evolved and considered in some social media foundation, it is like they all were waiting for Facebook to take the lead in a world where they wanted to be the only player. A gaming center could be the surrounding world were people would look for like-minded fans, we see that in Google YouTube every day, I wonder if the new consoles set the world in gaming experts, gaming explainers and players. This need is essential for the next gaming world, merely for the reason that gaming is a stage of evolution, at present it stopped evolving and that is a bad sign.

We still have a year ahead of ourselves, I wonder if this year will show a new year of gaming, a new beginning of gaming. I hope it will be so and I hope that the larger players will up the ante towards gaming; it is the only way to up the game.

 

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