Tag Archives: Peter Molyneux

December 2, 2024 · 23:35

The version of a word

There is a word, it connects to the BBC article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czeg2p3wjy1o) where we are treated to ‘Why so many games are failing right now – and why others are breakout hits’ the word in this is ‘game’ the definition is “an activity that one engages in for amusement or fun”. The problem is that most ‘game designers’ have no clue on games. The bulk of these ‘designers’ are setting the bar ridiculously low. Their version is to create some version that reflects a game and lace it with advertisements. You see 100K ‘customers’ implies that the designer gets 100K times a few cents. So that implies 100,000 times $0.04-$0.07 gives us $4000-$7000 per advertisement and take that 3 times then whomever downloads the game has handed their achievement towards the $7000. The world (Google, Apple et al) likes this, because they get their larger share of the cash, but that doesn’t make a game, it doesn’t even resemble a game. And mobiles and tablets are overgrown with that trash. In the years that I have seen these junk providers I have perhaps seen a dozen games at best and they are still around, the rest is easily forgotten. So the article gives us “There’s also evidence people have been spending less money on new games, choosing to stick with long-running online games like Fortnite or yearly franchises including Call of Duty and EA Sports FC. Despite that, more games than ever are getting released.” As such we see Fortnite, Call of Duty and EA sports. I like merely one of them, but these are all games. We don’t all like the same thing and as such the designers of an actual game get into a much larger predicament. 

I have met the greats Richard Garriott, Sid Meier and Peter Molyneux (and a few more). They have a different mindset and that shows. They created games that are close to timeless. Even now I could get my thrills from Ultimate 3-8, Alpha Centauri, Civilisation, Dungeon Keeper, Magic Carpet. These games let us enjoy actual gaming and they would still entice gamers today. That makes for a real game designer. There are more designers of course. As I personally see it game designer made Horizon Zero Dawn a game of near perfection. There are of course more designers. Yet as I see it, we are given “That’s not only affected premium releases – smaller studios, whose games tend to be more affordable, have also struggled to find an audience.

It’s often difficult to pinpoint why, but quality isn’t a guarantee of success.” In response I give you Hello Games, a smaller studio that game is all “No Man’s Sky”, they gave it to us in 2016 and is till debated, played and loved 8 years later. I do agree that quality is no guarantee of success. There have been these games going back to 1985. We had games like The Sentinel, Paradroid, Eye of the Beholder, Tower of Babel. The list goes on. Some become success, some do not. There is another cog in that wheel. In those days the press illuminated games that THEY liked, the game population was small. Now everyone calls themselves a gamer and that is where the plot thickens. It becomes about the advertisements and the fountain of replication. For example there are dozens of match 3 games and they all advertise. And as they all advertise to the same people the advertisers see their money bags fill up. That is not gaming. So now we get to another setting. We see it “As well as battling for player’s attention, new games are increasingly battling for their time. According to analytics firm Newzoo, annual series such as Call of Duty and online titles such as Fortnite took up 92% of gaming time, with just 8% remaining for new releases.” I have doubts about this data. I for one have never touched Fortnite and I know a few more people who did that. There will be an offset of course, like the platform in use. Tablet, Mobile, Consoles and PC/MAC. The final part I needed to look at is ““Factors like a strong IP, strong marketing campaign, community fostering, and timing can help, but the fact is that there is luck involved,” he says. Right place, right time is a big part of gaming’s surprise successes. “But gameplay matters, and innovation, so great games often stand out and find their market.”” I can agree in part with this. IP is essential, and in that setting the Horizon games stand out. A new IP is essential and Guerrilla has the goods. Still the IP was not enough. The first game gives us a storyline that is quite literally out of this world. And these two are essential to a success. Graphics snd sounds count, but without the first two graphics and sound don’t stand a chance. We can debate IP, but without it dozens will copy what you have or they will copy it as well. That sets your pool to a much smaller population. And as statistics go, consider that “14,000 games have been published on the platform this year, with 2024 already overtaking 2023’s tally” do you know what it takes to produce 14,000 games? It comes down to 39 games each day. Take the timeline and you get something unsustainable. A setting that Advertisers love, but do the gamers? And when you consider the number of games. It seems to me that the bulk of designers are set to appease advertisement funds. The red currency that dwindles on the gullibility of gamers and the BBC seemingly overlooked that small fact. They know statistics? They know the top-line of involved data? So why didn’t they see this? I know because I have been involved with games and gaming since 1985 and I have seen several iterations of gaming whilst taking the advertiser out of the loop. It is time for a better dimension of gaming and the BBC story merely confirms what I have known for several years. And in all this the BBC has been unaware of what they missed from the very beginning.

Have a lovely day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Gaming, IT, Media

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 12, 2024 · 06:18

The attention an idea gets

That was a little bit of a spark that the Middle East Monitor gave me last week. I wasn’t sure if and how to pick this up. The article (at https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240905-what-could-saudi-arabias-first-aaa-game-be-like-following-chinas-success/) starts with ‘What could Saudi Arabia’s first AAA game be like, following China’s success?’ The subtext that stopped me was “Within just three days, “Black Myth: Wukong” shattered records, selling over 10 million copies and reaching 18 million within two weeks, with lifetime sales projected to reach up to 30 million. The game also achieved a peak concurrent player count of 2.2 million worldwide and has overtaken “Cyberpunk 2077” as the most-played single-player game on the online distribution platform Steam.” It shows one part that I have been saying for a long time. You see, the people have basically had enough of a repetitive Ubisoft and their umpteenth version of Assassins Creed, FarCry, Watchdogs and so on. 

As such there are hundreds of thousands of gamers who will eagerly pick up an original feeling game and Black Myth: Wukong addressed that feeling. It is yet another side to what I claimed over the last two years when I put original IP on my blog for the eager developer. It was theirs to use. People want original games, a feeling of novel and new and I gave the (eager developing) audience a new system and the storyline to a new approach in gaming. Actually I did a little more than that and again I am seemingly proven correct (yet again). And when some developer takes the ideas I stated here and takes an interest in being original They could go to town on branders like Ubisoft and Bethesda. You see, Microsoft is playing it very careful now. If they push Bethesda too much they lose that brand as well. They first thought they had the bong of happiness with Redfall. At present the game is reviewed as “it faced poor to middling reviews and lost thousands of players in just three days. Currently, it’s one of Steam’s most poorly-rated games due to extremely buggy performance, incredibly stupid AI, lack of matchmaking (in a co-op game!), and a whole other host of issues” and this view was given whilst the game is out now for over a year. Microsoft knows that they banked too much on their arrogance and now they have only have Bethesda left (at present) with some credibility. And Bethesda earned this credibility. Skyrim released on 11.11.11 still holds up as one of the most engaging RPG games in the field. They lost a lot of credibility with Starfield (a 60% game) only for Microsoft systems and even as the people got news that things were coming, the game has been out for a year. We now get ‘While Some Players Are Still Finding Starfield’s Gameplay Frustrating, Others Are Taking Issue With What Fans Are Creating For The Game – And How Bethesda’s Handling It’ (source: ScreenRant) as such Bethesda has basically one arrow left at present. The elder Scrolls and Microsoft knows that this needs to be a hole in one. As we see “The Elder Scrolls 6 is expected to be released sometime during or after 2026”, this might speculatively become their own Swan Song. Not bad for a $7,500,000,000 investment (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk). Activision Blizzard is (as I see it) another decent failure. We get that the annual revenue in 2021 was $12.10B, all whilst Statista reported “In the second quarter of 2023, Activision Blizzard’s net income amounted to 587 million U.S. dollars” (one source gave me US$1.51 billion (2022) of net revenue), you might think this is good, but Microsoft acquired this baby for $69,000,000,000. As such the annual interest of a loan that big is more than the net revenue of that firm (I predicted this well over a year ago as much). This all has impact. At present Microsoft has an immense losing streak in gaming (I truly hope that I am contributing to that). As such I handed original IP to game developers making the hardship worse for Microsoft and now they merely have the one final arrow of Bethesda left, which is expected somewhere in 2026. As such these factors all have impact. You see Black Myth: Wukong is one part (I had absolutely nothing to do with that) for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, referred to in the article has options. There is Scheherazade’s 1001 nights. I put a few issues out in the open. The idea of an RPG all based on the Arabian life and challenges. There was an option I considered to use an RPG game to promote Islam (for all people) with teachings in the game. There could be an option to take another look at Peter Molyneux’s Magic Carpet now that the systems are a lot stronger than the first Playstation, as such you can increase more than graphics. The game play could be taken to a new stage and the intensity of the game could be set to 11 (as the saying goes). Those are merely a few mentions that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia could entertain and I made reference to at least two more games in a relaunch/remaster and refitted vibe. All settings I made mention of over the last two years alone. 

But it is not all sunshine for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. You see it has an uphill battle as the Middle East Monitor states with “As a non-Western, non-Japanese contribution, the game faced extensive media scrutiny ahead of its launch, including “controversies” over alleged sexism within the development studio, government censorship on politics and feminist propaganda, and some technical issues upon release”, there are a few items. I will state that the accusation of “alleged sexism within the development studio” is pretty much bogus. All the development studios are dealing with these ‘kids on the block’ issues as the saying goes. And government censorship? I need to see this to make it count, but I state this as the Middle East Monitor did. 

I think that the biggest challenge for Saudi Arabia is to bring something unique. They have the area and the landmarks, but the other players (Japan, USA, Canada) have had the singular field of gaming, as such it is important to bring something unique. I believe that this is possible as Black Myth: Wukong made it happen. Still, it will be a challenging field. Making something look Arabian has been done and Ubisoft with AC: Mirage pulled it off. So it is just as important to have a unique Arabian voice, look and gameplay. Still, there is something to be said for a new Magic Carpet (from Bullfrog) now that the hardware is 3,500 times more powerful there is a lot of achievement open to the audience. There is an additional field with Arabian lore (which I explore in my created script ‘How to assassinate a politician’) and there is more to do. You see I still believe that RPG is the most true game environment. I have nothing against other modes. But the RPG field can be utilised or used to create another type of game, optionally based on this new RPG. 

As I see it (and as Black Myth: Wukong proves) it is more about being original. There will always be some gamers that yearns for a certain game style, but the masses want originality. You see, a lack of choice only works for some time. In this an Arabian game could be good, but it is important that all the right characters are dotted and crossed (as in the I and T). That is a first essential need for any game to make it to the release stage. Then there is the music, here Saudi Arabia has an advantage. There is a lot unknown to us and as such there should be plenty of options. Then there is the additional idea. For example Saudi Arabian developers could use existing locations to create another setting. Whether this is a addition to a new Division game, or a Die Hard touch towards a shooting game. And another idea is to use Tahlia Street (aka Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Street) as the backdrop of a variation of ‘Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego’ But now a realtime challenge to find the person that is trying to evade capture. Your only aid is his/her digital trace that you have access to. That could actually be a multiplayer approach where the mouse (aka criminal) and the cats (aka authorities) and the cheese dealers (contenders for the mouse empire) have to capture this so called mouse. With the stage that capture the wrong person makes you a target for arrest and there is the ring race. The mouse is rated on time it took them to evade capture and the others on the this it took them. And with that location completely mapped out it becomes a nice rat race (for the mice involved). I don’t think this has ever been done before to this degree and there is the rub. I just took this thought to a new level as I was writing this. So why can’t some of the existing developers come up with this? Think about that and as you try to figure this out consider that this is an optional new world with over 150 million possible new gamers. You can become a copy of what is, or come with something new, some version of an old game but now in a way never done before. And I have done that before, I considered a new version of Murder on the Zinderneuf and I made it into a 3D version of the game with interactions as well as imbuing it with elements of Iron Helix (1993). So there is a world of new IP out there. Now consider how much new IP Microsoft got for their $70,500,000,000 and what you could use (from what I have written here) without spending a penny. And the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a lot more to offer, Lore, Myths and a few more challenges. All that could create the new generation of games and gaming. The crowds are hungry for original gaming IP and the current player have very little to offer. Feng Ji might have come here first as the new player, but that does not stop Saudi Arabia from heralding their own chapter of gaming to the world of gamers.

Have a great Thursday, The weekend is now one day away (plus an additional 8 hours of work).

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Gaming, Media

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

May 17, 2023 · 14:32

The BS advertiser

Yup that was what links this. A game called something like the last outpost, it is a zombie apocalypse game and some moron in a beanie tells us that this is what the game looks like, all whilst the game looks nothing like this. The game is a linear game with massive limitations, a game trying to tell a story, all whilst the gamer wants what the advertisement shows and so far I have only seen three games do this and not drown us in advertisements regarding more BS games. This is how Apple and Android are getting rich whilst sleeping. The funny money paradox.

So here I was suddenly asleep and I see a weird setting, the roof of a building is like a bar, the proprietor is a serious shady character of seemingly Scottish origins. When I go down a floor I see some makeshift hospital, the weather was foul, so I did not see a whole much and there was a massive absence of electricity. The only thing I saw was a tag giving me FLIT. 

It was then that I woke up. Something rustled, but the setting wasn’t clear. Then I remembered that I thought in this direction before. For the same reason why I always loved Fallout Shelter (the BS game is relying on a huge Fallout vault door to get his visibility) and the other game I always loved were Dungeon Keeper one and two. Dungeon Keeper One came from Molyneux’s better days and two came from one. And that gave me the initial idea, but I thought too small.  Then my mind remembered that the US has four places named Italy. One in Florida, one in South Carolina, one in New York and one in Texas. So this was about Italy, FL. So what if we set the stage not t houses, but to buildings. Just like in Dungeon Keeper they all need a source of food (Kitchen) and a place to sleep (Hospital), but unlike in dungeon keeper, we cannot make rooms bigger, we need to work with the rooms we have. A hospital will have destined sleeping places, but a mall will not, we might find a smaller place with beds, making us rustle for more beds in the building. But in we need to make it safer (traps) and we need to defend (guard posts) and as we start a game we will have these two places (sleep and food) to build, but they open up to other rooms (alway in similar ways), but it is up to you how you fill in the location and stay alive. And as the game progresses there are more adversaries and more nights to survive. But you have most of the day to set up your traps. The downside is that food is an essential thing and as you have smaller or larger kitchens you have more dishes and more food. In the one pot kitchen you either have more recipes (which you need to find, together with resources), and as you have a larger kitchen you have more pots, as such people have choices (and 5% more energy), the one pot kitchen will leave you with 5% less every night, unless you have two days with different recipes. A large pot will also give you 50 food (like soup), but a stew will only give you 35 food. Yet the kitchen calls in people (who are all hungry), and here is where the game evolves. Some are guards and they defend the building. The engineer creates traps, like trapdoors that can only close for safe passage (or not) when there is a guard present. You need a plumber for heat and an electricians for power. So you need to protect these two as they are more rare to get and as the game progresses in the first level we get waitresses, tinkerers (creates weapons), scroungers (finding resources for weapons and traps) and so on. 

Yes, it feels a lot like a revamped Dungeon Keeper, but if we set aside a little brainpower, it can be enough different to create a new wave of gamers. Consider that this game is 24 (or 26) years old and there are literally tens of thousands still thinking of this game. There is a reason that this was a 90% plus game. Good games last a long time and in this age of instant and temporary satisfaction, we see people hurdling their idea towards the funny money paradox to get income, but they all forget that a good game needs only itself and there we have a setting where the new games could outlast a few items, although with the imminent collapse of the US (debt ceiling driven) it could alter right quick. This was why I was seeking the middle east solution for some of my IP. Better be wealthy in Dubai than bankrupt in New York and some might see that future soon enough. But the setting of gaming was always my number one. And in this case there is an entire culture of unexplored gaming options (and the billion consumers attached to it). 

This was only to wake you up and feel free to use this idea on Sony, Nintendo and Amazon Luna only. I do have standards and Microsoft has none, as such they are not a consideration. So whilst you wonder on why I was driven to move against that BS advertiser? He proclaims in his beanie that this game is how you see it and it is not, more importantly I saw a direction he is bragging about within an hour. Within in hour I surpassed his feeble attempt to surpass what he thinks we see towards what we could be seeing. 

Enjoy the day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

July 30, 2022 · 22:21

Networking for game makers

It seems weird, it even might appear dorky. Yet the setting is not to be underestimated. Now I have the advantage of age, so I was there when the very first games were new. One such moment in time was Dungeon Keeper (the very first one). 

Peter Molyneux had both a slam dunk and a home run all at the same time, the world went nuts for the game and those who did still remember the game up to this day. So it was disappointing when EA trashed it in their own shortsighted ways. Now, I am not about to ‘reinvent’ the dungeon keeper game. It has been done and the original is the best. But the setting that we had where certain rooms call for certain characters, that idea has merit, it still has. Consider the Warhammer 40000 game called Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr. They had the right approach, it is for all intent and purposes a new for of Diablo. It has its appeal, it has a few issues, but for the most it is an appealing game with a decent storyline. Now what would happen when we come across one of those giant cathedral ships? We dock and we get into the works. Now, I am very much against a game that is too alike. But the idea of being able to activate rooms, that will call for certain characters to join you has its appeal and the larger station is not getting it all up and running, but to fix things certain order must be found. So at times you will have the high need for engineers, but the next you need electricians, and the number or engineers get in the way. There are all kinds of settings we can go, for example an electrician will not appear unless there is at least one engineer, and so on. There is a stage where we need to set out what we need, what we can get and as the ship gets to be more and more fixed wealth and parts are yours, so you can upgrade your ship which will bring its own rewards and abilities. And as we map out the cathedral ship we will be able to find more, discover more and face more challenges and dangers. The nice part is that this game would have a small ship for the tutorial, get the introduction to other characters, but the larger foundation is that on a streamer, you can always add ships over time. A mere thought that took less than an hour. Yet do not despair, it will not be that easy and the art people will need to bring their A game to make it a true original. But I feel relieved, the idea that Peter Molyneux had will live on, it will entice more people and I feel that it is important to give credit (Like the Behemoth DSS Molyneux). There is a need for gamers to network, to exchange ideas and to keep the gaming community entertained. I played another Lego Star Wars, this one (the new game) is pretty fun, it has a lot of new parts in the game. It is a larger and true better game. It is a game that brings all the boys to the console (girls too). Perhaps in 10 years someone will come up with a new way to let Lego Games shine again. I do hope so because gaming for the mere fun does not happen enough. You see, I remember seeing the very first one 17 years ago. My first thought was “Cool, a game for kids” and I played in the store and it was fun to play. That was until someone from the shop tapped me on the shoulders asking if the other ‘kids’ could have a go. I looked puzzled, but then I realised I had been playing non stop for well over half an hour, I bought the game the next day. It was around easter 2005. Now 17 years later the game still entertains and that is a tough call. So even if we do not know how long this goes on, I do hope that someone in 2035 sees that game and gives it another spin. The old games can bring more joy than anyone remember, and when you see someone go on “Oh, that is so old. Why?” Stomp him (hard) and consider that some of these games only had 38Kb to work with, now we can do more but in gaming (with a f=ew exceptions) we achieve less. Why is that? A cool game does not guarantee a good game. A good game needs a decent story, it needs decent graphics (for its time) and it needs some level of challenge, yet we need to remember that no challenge is a challenge in itself. There is a reason I made the claim that I made yesterday (look it up if you are curious). Game makers are too often looking in the wrong direction, some for valid reasons, but the new ones are all following the wrong people. There is a reason I have what I have and I keep it cleverly locked away on a system nowhere near me, and for now the number of those interested would be increasing from 2 to 4. So what happens when someone figures out what I found out? Networking gets you there (well I personally hope not before I sold my IP) but networking in game makers has become too much like ‘Look how cool we are’ and not enough of discussing good ideas. The ECTS (London 90’s) was great. Talking to Richard Garriott and Peter Molyneux. They ACTUALLY shared good ideas, that time is now mostly gone, but it also means that the quality of gaming is harder to maintain. Until the end of the year we have Gods of War:Ragnarok, Gotham Knights and Hogwarts Legacy to look forward to. And after Horizon:Forbidden west that is slim pickings. Now there are more good games, not that many great games and that is a shame. Consider that HFW scored 4.6/5 at Amazon 9/10 at IGN and 5/5 at JB HiFi. Valhalla (Assassins Creed) scored a mere 8/10 at IGN and one critic gave it a mere 65%. One thing that stood out was “It’s a lot buggier than it should be but also impressive on multiple levels.” That is a multimillion project by a firm that is (overvalued) at multibillions and has a little over 20,000 people. They could not get close to a Dutch firm with only 360 people and they have nowhere near the resources Ubisoft had. That is the state of gaming and it is not getting better, but there is hope. The streamers could open more doors and make more gaming an option. And there is also the new player (Tencent) coming soon, so the streamers need to upgrade their gameplay by a fair bit. I still think that Amazon could take the larger lead with its Luna, but I reckon that they will lose ground if they go the way they presently (as fr as I can tell). They need their own games, they need to accept different settings and they might just pull ahead, I put enough gaming IP on my blog site for them to get active on, one I did today (see the beginning of this story). Whatever they do, they have less than 2 years. After that Tencent will be in play and it will not play nice. I wonder how US Congress reacts when Tencent gets over 4% of the US market, ban it like Huawei? We will see, there is time to watch it happen.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 28, 2022 · 20:34

The new IP, the old stage

Yes, that is the station I found myself in this morning. It was not completely new to me, I did write about it in the past (too tired to find the exact article as I have written in excess of 2250 articles at present), but the stage is a little different now. Consider war (see the TV for specifics), we know it and it is now closer to many homes than it was months ago. But we nearly always played an EA or Ubisoft version with respawning NPC soldiers. What if the setting is staged finite and no spawning all over the place? What if the stage is London, Munich, Amsterdam or Paris? A stage where you get inserted into a random location and your war-zone is a 10 block radius from there. Google Maps has nearly every detail, so do other mapping solutions. And you could be defending, escorting local civilians and giving aid. You get no choice until you get to a certain rank. How long would YOU last? It is time to teach the gaming soldiers a little realism. And when you face that you think different on Call of Duty Beachhead with high realism. That is nothing! I think some people are catching on what it is like, somehow they take more notice on events in the Ukraine than they ever did in Yemen or Syria. I like games that have NEVER be done before. A lot of my IP is set to stages never done before and that is where we optionally see a side of gaming that is totally new and innovative. Others were there before you with other games (several examples in this year alone) and I believe that this is the way to go, whether it is a console or streaming system, innovation beats iteration EVERY. Time. 

And as these systems are more powerful, we get a setting where we can launch a game like that (or kart) in our own streets, redefining gaming realism acceptance on a few levels. I remember seeing Red Dawn, the Chris Hemsworth edition (I saw both editions) and when we see one of the kids state “We are living Call of duty and it sucks”, I heard someone giggle behind me stating that this would be cool. Yes, the response of a wannabe soldier. I however was in the Middle East, I saw what Hamas did, I saw the bodies. That wakes you up real fast and perhaps a game is not the worst setting to educate people. It has been done before and perhaps it is time to unite these elements. I don’t know, is it wisdom or folly to go that way? I honestly do not. On one side I am merely creating new IP, but I want something deeper in gaming IP, and amazing story (Horizons Forbidden West) is one way to go, when it goes to stories the game Portal (by Rob Swigart) is another direction and that can be equally fulfilling. Still there is a call, not one of duty, but one of fulfilment. We all have it, we want to plant our flag, set our footprint and leave some kind of legacy. When you are a dedicated gamer, we all want to be a Sid Meier, a Peter Molyneux or a Richard Garriott. Not everyone are driven to release mutant camels and that is fair, but where we will be going (streaming systems) and what is possible is almost at the touch and I personally think it is important to push Microsoft out of this market before there way remains the only gaming-less option.  The problem is that it would have been easier if Google had taken up some form of game creation department and with the fact that gaming revenue is predicted to be $138,000,000,000 by 2023 is something that seems overwhelmingly attractive, but that is me and for now my idea to sell 50,000,000+ systems remain under lock and key (on a cloud location far far from home). But it is merely one direction and there are plenty of other directions, the revenue speculation opens those doors and even as a large chunk is set to microtransactions, the people are seemingly fed up with the EA and Ubisoft stage of microtransactions. I also gave a few other options (go look for them) and they are largely set to streaming systems. So is there an upside to THIS IP I now mentioned? No, it is merely another road one could wander, and it is here because I cannot wander them all and I am handing my ideas for free use to Amazon and Sony developers. It is a choice I made as Google decided not to create games. The old stage is seemingly fading, or at least I think it is fading, and what is around the corner is almost within reach and it will be bright and exciting, that is what I think, you might think different and rely on great franchises (like Gran Turismo) to set your beaker of desire. That is fair, gaming is what YOU want it to be, I merely want there to be alternatives for you to consider trying.

That’s how I roll.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, IT, Military

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 11, 2021 · 03:53

Missing hardware

This train had been on route for a while, and there are a few reasons for that. In the first my mind took the easy road, but as I pondered the stage again and again, my mind was trying to view another road, even if I remained unaware, I try to not look into the back of my mind. It is a messy place and covered with corpses. We all revere the idea’s we complete, but the others not that much, in this I am just like anyone else. There is no excuse, like a good IT person, I can be as lazy as the next person. 

The new hardware (of course a free idea for Sony and independent Sony Playstation and Amazon Luna makers is set in two parts (I’ll get to them soon enough). The thoughts came more clear as I was finishing the last Harry Potter movie. In the back was also an idea that Peter Molyneux had in Black and White, the gesture system. But it is one of the few times that it was employed. Harry I Potter games are a natural thought and Someone made it a harry potter game as well (Book of Spells), I never played it, but the wand was ugly as hell, It was a mere sign of the times. 

Now consider the image below, a wand we can buy and they are there for nearly any Harry Potter character, now consider that in the next batch onwards it was two small compartments, each for a cylinder that is no more then 3mm thick and 11-17mm long. One at the tip and one at the handle with two small metal points that connect to the inside, so that it can be charged without opening your wand all the time. 

Now consider that the first part is like the observer, like what the Nintendo Wii had, but not in one part, in two parts. One goes to the middle of the upper or lower side of the TV, the other to the middle part of the left or right side of the TV, two parts so that the scan will be much more accurate (even thought the Wii was pretty accurate), the second one, the locators are in this case in the wand, or perhaps a steering wheel, a sword, a bow and arrow and we can go on from there. 

Locator

These locators can be ordered per 2 and are relatively cheap. Yet what is more interesting is that a gamer can now get ‘almost authentic’ wands of choice, the gamer gets to choose and as we see the market bounce back, we see a much larger stage, because who wouldn’t want something almost geeky alike whatever they love? The steering wheel of Steve McQueen (GTA V), The sword of Viggo Mortensen’s Anduril (Lord of the Rings), you name it we tend to get overly enthusiastic on some movie and some special item, the Lord of the rings gets to hundreds of millions, Harry Potter Merchandise is well over 20 billion and that is a mere two movies. What happens when we add the Fast and Furious steering wheel that Dominic Toretto uses? And there is an upside, you can go as expensive, or keep it as cheap as possible, the steering wheel would merely need to two small hidden compartments with the two small connectors for charging. The generic locators would do the work with the scanners on the other side, and as the group of games expands over more devices, the gamers can consider buying two more locators, I reckon that a gamer will end up with 3-5 locator sets, they’ll start with one and buy another one when they get the two games they always wanted. After that they will exchange the locators to their new device of their game of choice, yet a steering wheel can optionally be used in nearly all racing games. The sword in plenty of games and as we see this grow we see a more complete engagement in gaming, something all game designers hope for and by setting the premise of a steer or anything to be as cheap or as realistic as possible will open new markets as well. Yes for the younger players that thing that case with the Book of Spells will suffice, but when that 9 year old turns 15-16, they want something more alike and those wands are anything between $9 and $90, it will be open to the gamer to decide what they spend on, we merely need to add the hardware to allow for that and as their choice of gaming adjusts, the locators can be moved from one to the other. 

A new stage where some will chose the cheap plastic sword and some will go for the Weta Workshop originals (or is that near originals?) It is up to you to choose, but we need the hardware makers to consider that there are parts of any choice that rely on the decision of the gamer. That is how the market rolls and we need to adhere to that because if gaming cannot lead the way the other markets are pretty screwed from the word go. That is a clear sign we have seen over the last 20 years.

Is it an option? I believe so, I believe that the markets are ready to show us that they can offer something new, is it enough? Time will tell.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, IT, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

August 3, 2021 · 02:45

The gaming mandate

We all seem to know what is best for all, we talk about policies, protocols and even mandates. Yet are they valid? I looked at a game based in the Walking dead on iOS, I looked at it for 5 minutes, saw how it played and deleted it. In my view it was not a game. It looked awesome, the graphics were amazing, but the game play is set to short term events that will get increasingly harder, not challenging, merely harder, and soon there after too hard. The game draws you in and after that it will be about pay to play through microtransactions. Their actions are not invalid, they are not illegal. I merely see it as this being no longer a game, but a mere cash cow. The problem is that these games also attract people who do not really know what gaming is, or sometimes even what games are. That is a shame.

You see, I am not trying to set out some mandate, but there is the joy of gaming and that needs to be protected. As I saw this game of short term bursts of gaming, the idea of gaming tends to be larger, should be larger and often on non-micro-transaction foundations will be more joy. So I started to think, what if the premise of that game is altered?

A different stage of play, a much larger map, even at the same foundation, consider what you know of the Walking dead and now have a Dungeon keeper approach. A map that is set, but in that map we can create a small protected place, we can place a garden (hatchery) that offers sustenance and calls a type of player, we sleeping quarters (lair) that does the same, but lets people rest. And we can see how we can add a workshop, a gym, a guard post and so on. As the game goes from level to level the players gets attacked, walker after walker with a wave or two and  the player can figure out hat to build where, how to get resources and so on, a stage NOT build on micro transactions, but a game build for joy and the consoles are doing their jobs, but soon it will be to the streamers, if they cannot break the cycle of pay-to-play, a whole generation will optionally lose the joy to play at all. Consider that Activision Blizzard generated 5.74 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. That is ONE company. Now we get it, Blizzard is big, and we cannot compete with that size, but there are dozens of smaller ones competing for revenue. Candy Crush generated revenue exceeding a billion dollars in 2019. Now consider that they did nothing wrong, but their game is set on algorithms that are set on you almost making it, and yes for $1 in special candy you could make it, it is ego versus mathematics and the ego will ALWAYS lose. Yet what happens when we invest into that $5 a month Amazon Luna solution? What if we enjoy long term gaming? You see, Amazon Luna (Google Stadia too) have a much lower threshold than consoles do and that is the barrier that is easily broken, to set players into a field where they can explore, enjoy and have fun. You see when we crush short term achievement drives and we get people on the bandwagon of fun we can change a lot and hopefully create a few people to take over the sceptre from people like Peter Molyneux, Richard Garriott, and Sid Meier. We have some really good game makers, but t present there is ALWAYS room for more, especially when their dreams, ideas and perseverance brings us new and original gaming IP. That is what we need on pretty much all systems. When the wish becomes the mandate it can be a force for good, but it is not a given, I merely hope it will turn out that way.

Yet in all earnest, and even as I am ripping old IP apart to use what is good, we need the stage of what is good to hopefully create something new and better. Even now I still think of a game released 24 years ago. It was GoldenEye 007. It changed things and even now it still holds a candle up to what is created today. Some of it is found in TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, almost 17 years ago. Games that enticed whole scores of gamers. So what happens when we look back and consider the IP we cast aside? We ignore Populous II: Trials of the Olympian Gods, a game 30 years old, but even now it still has appeal. Even as graphics need improvement, the makers then had really nice ideas and we forgot just how much fun we had for weeks. Even now, a 23 year old game like Sentinel Returns could still generate a whole score of fans and they are not alone. There have been makers like Peter Cooke who created Tower of Babel well over 30 years ago. Even as it requires an upgrade (graphics), the foundation of these games was good and engaging and we need them, we need to break the cycle of micro transactions. This sounds a little wrong, because there is nothing with microtransactions, yet I see everyone hammering against loot boxes and EA, all whilst the problem of microtransactions is well over 1000% worse. And the issue is not that they exist, or that they are not illegal, because they are not, but the foundation of the kind of gamers we create is. And I am not including the stupid people who go crying to some lame journo on how they wasted $12,000 on loot boxes, all whilst that journo is ignoring the stupidity of the person, but the draw of gaming is partially to blame. By setting the stage to ego (like a puzzle with a diminishing IQ counter), instead of a joy that has no time pressure, we change the foundation of our playing habit, and it needs to change. The old systems were harbouring dozens of games that could be added to any gaming arsenal and bring joy to the gamer Not all of them are RPG, some are shooters, some are platforms and some are a combination. We all have different needs, but we all have an overwhelming need to have fun, and too many games in todays android and iOS environment are driven to make it an ego driven event. If I were wrong there would never be a lego game, but I am not. There are well over 80 games based on the lego concept and they are (for the most) all fun. They are not alone but they are out there and their presence sticks out, they are not alone.

To call for a gaming mandate is wrong, because gaming is different for us all, I get that and some like the match three games, but they are hidden traps and that has never been made clear, The Conversation linked to this in 2014, There we get “During a recent radio talkback discussion, on which I was a guest, parents rang in with extraordinary tales of their children’s accidental and expensive online spending. One parent divulged that his six-year-old had spent A$700 in 15 minutes upgrading to new levels using in-app purchases.”, we still see news on loot boxes and the need to tax it all, yet none of them are looking into micro-transactions and match 3 games, are they? And they are not alone, a source gives us “The mobile games industry shows no signs of slowing down with consumer spending reaching $44.7 billion for the first half of 2021, an 18 per cent increase year-over-year.” And how does that add up compared to loot boxes? I think certain political players are unwilling to look into the directions that they have no hold over, and micro-transactions are not illegal, neither are loot boxes, but their legal status is wrongfully being changed. The stakeholders have a little too much power, so I need to make sure that we can change the premise of gaming before it is too late and in this the streaming solutions are the easiest to tackle, they are the station where the independent programmers could make the larger impact and with disregarded IP on a dozen systems there are additional options. I believe we need to press for this change before people forget that gaming has always been about fun, not ego.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, IT

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

June 7, 2021 · 22:04

God, the sequel

Yup, it all started two days ago. I left you all with some impressions, yet the stage was larger. We cannot set omnipotence without foundation , well we can because I am here, but I am that one exception to the rule (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk). The others (Hades, Poseidon and Zeus) they grew their powers. We tend to make fun and call some settings ‘fabrications’, there we see “Zeus got the sky and air, Poseidon the waters, and Hades the world of the dead (the underworld)” The gods got a decent role in Homer’s illiad, and more wrote about them in all kinds of ways, yet when you dig down and dig to the past several people, people who had never had contact had similar writings. It is trivialised by people who have internet and mobile phones, yet in the old days they had no contact, in no way were groups of people with no levels of contact ever stating the same believes and adhering to the same rules. Perhaps there is something to be said in “he was appalled by human sacrifice and other signs of human decadence. He decided to wipe out mankind and flooded the world with the help of his brother Poseidon. After the flood, only Deucalion and Pyrrha remained” and it is not the only time, even the first time that floods were a larger stage of cleansing. So why? Consider that power grows and power is gotten from somewhere. If Aristaeus got his powers from bees, what happens if people abuse bees? A stage we might not consider, but in a stage where power was important, the abuse of sky (Zeus) and waters (Poseidon) would inflict the wrath of these two. That is the stage we seek!

If we can create a god (ourselves) it needs a power foundation, the smaller the creature, the more simplistic their needs, the easier their power is milked. Hence the 6 animals I gave two days ago. So when we get to “both nectar and ambrosia were kinds of honey, in which case their power of conferring immortality would be due to the supposed healing and cleansing powers of honey, and because fermented honey (mead) preceded wine as an entheogen in the Aegean world; on some Minoan seals, goddesses were represented with bee faces”, with this I personally reckon that the German Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (1845) was a lot closer to the truth with his view on it and it is important that any game has some handle on the past. Anchors in how power is distributed, how it is gained. If not, then Zeus, Poseidon and Hades could never have defeated Cronos, their father. 

Now consider the paths that Ezio Auditore and Bayek of Siwa undertook (two actual masterpieces), how they grew their powers and abilities. Would it be any different for deities? No matter how the had the ability to do so, they still needed to grow their powers, we all do and now we have a handle on us and on the character we play. Yet if we want something that is larger than life as such some sandbox trip is needed, choices are to be offered. Whether a person has the bee, the wasp or the termite. It starts with a foundation and that foundation grows towards a power base and a weakness, we all tend to look towards Athens for inspiration, but those who do tend to forget to look towards Poseidonia, a ‘village’ on Siros. When we see the elements shown we need to wonder how it was possible and there we have a setting towards the power base of a deity. If Ambrosia is food for the gods, or is it the food that creates gods? One might fuel the other. These thoughts are below the creation of a game, as we set the stage to a larger stage, we need to consider what gives foundation to that stage. A brilliant example is Horizon Zero Dawn, and soon its sequel. We chase in the first game what created the game, we see that there was a machine that creates larger than life events, but there is always a shoe in the cog (Hades). Any stage needs checks and balances or it becomes a fuelled stage of disbelief, even whilst you play it. That was the brilliance that led to Ezio Auditore, a stage we understood (historically speaking). As such, when you figure out that the events in Ancient Greece and ancient Iran (Mesopotamia) are not unrelated, how long until the cogs connect? 

As such we see can see out minds evolve the new god game, but is it a god game or forging a deity? There is a difference and even as the Atari ST, Playstation one, two and three needed us to make mental jumps, the Playstation 5 is now advanced enough to make us see the difference and play accordingly, the specifics are now in our grasp making for a much larger stage of handling evolution. And I reckon that over time cloud gaming will take it to the next level. And in all this Ubisoft was not alone, consider the path that the God of War took, and even he was not alone. It was a path and we forgot about that part in god gaming. We merely have the maker of the games (Peter Molyneux) and his examples Populous and Black and White as examples, but what if growth is a stage that encompasses both? Setting a different sandbox environment might be the way to go and we finally have hardware that can take us there. 

How it done? That is up to the game makers, you can’t expect me to do everything. You need to get creative and make the next stage of excellent gaming, because if we leave it up to Ubisoft it will be anyones guess what excellent gaming looks like and it will end up being below par and we have seen enough games like that. 

So get to work, get to the drawing board and consider the stage we play (entire Greece), what we can do short of everything and start considering what makes power grow. If you are done with that hold it against the deities of Egypt, Aztec and Inca deities and see how you hold up. You see checks and balances is where it is at. That is what makes people choose and it will make them come back for a second and third time. A game played three times over, that is the stage of a legendary game in the making.

Hesiod

As such in this story I left two clues. They were Deucalion and Pyrrha. Why were only those two spared? If you look at the historic writings (Homer, Hesiod, Ovid, Apollodorus) some things add up and some do not. Now, we can allow for creative views and that would be OK, yet Homer (Ionia, 900 BC), Hesiod (Cyme, 725 BC), Ovid (Sulmona, 43 BC) and Apollodorus (Athens, 180 BC). People that can never have been connected in time, also consider that with our options of preservation, we do not have books that last 300 years and that is whilst we have all kinds of machines that allow for mass replication, that did not exist before the 14th century. A whole range of places most of them more than a life time of travelling away, yet the similarities are almost astounding. When you consider those elements, consider what more there I and what is making these sotries survive, now consider what you need to make a game of THAT magnitude survive the onslaught of players and their increased need of perfection, have a great day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, movies, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

June 5, 2021 · 14:38

The evolution of god

Yup that was more than a mouthful. Peter Molyneux was ahead of his time, and in all this he was not limited by imagination, he was limited by hardware, as was Sid Meier, as was Richard Garriott, as was David Braben. They made gaming great and their ideas live on, even though in at least one stage it was corrupted by a greed driven corporation hoping that micro transactions would safe them. But what if the next generation consoles and cloud generation gaming is the foundation of new games, what happens when we take the original concept and make it into something serious in a sandbox environment? If we think back to the ‘original’ gods, what happens when we can revisit the age of Hades, Poseidon and Zeus? What if we have the ability to become a god? What if it starts small? What if the game evolves through us, not that WE evolve in a set game?

Consider that energy grows, so consider that we start with accumulating via a bees, wasps, hornets, ants, or termite colony? We get one choice and we still have to find the right colony. Now we can spend time trying to find that colony or we can take a gamble, and as one colony grows the power within us and we row by directing the colony, we get a larger stage, because the colony is merely a first step. From the colony we can grow towards larger herds, towards singular animals and they too provide energy, they provide power and optionally evolve us in other ways too. You see in the old games it was about one person, one setting you and your antagonist, but in this day and age it is outdated, computers have grown more powerful, have grown towards multi creatures, and in all this we merely think of the old god the three, then we get Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Apollo, Artemis. But what if these templates are merely that, mere templates and you get to decide what kind of a god you become? We think back to (the good old days and) a game like Black and White, which was awesome but what happens when our power is depending on how we grow the initial power base? We can rely on the biggest termite foundation ever, but life is a setting of checks, balances and equilibrium, because without  stage of equilibrium you always end up with nothing. So far no game ever went there. We might consider that before the PS4 it as not possible and you might be right, but now in the PS5 era, we see that games like Elite Dangerous become larger than the original creator thought was possible on a BBC Micro B. That is no longer the case and even as I would love to play Populous 2 again, time moves on and we need to push games forward too. As far as I can tell, no one has made a clear push forward in setting a new stage of the god games and in light of the options within cloud gaming that is slightly weird. Cloud gaming is by default the stage where these games can evolve, so what I stopping game developers from going there? A lack of creativity maybe? It took me a moment to pause nd a little of pondering to set a new stage, and if I can do it, those wannabe great software houses should be ahead of me by a lot, so why aren’t they?

And all this is before you consider Neil Gaiman with American Gods, where the new gods get their energy and power from a very different stage, so what is keeping game makers from evolving as well? 

And all this is set to a stage of western gods, I haven’t even considered what a place like India could add to the mix. And I got this far on only one coffee.

Have a great weekend

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, IT, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 23, 2021 · 01:01

It’s good to be evil

It is the the phase that gave life and fame to Dungeon Keeper 2, it was not used by the first game that was released in 1997, but the fame of the first game was not less, it was a time when games were still in its infancy and good ideas were wasted all over the place. Both the first and second dungeon keeper were amazing games, as was an earlier release by Bullfrog named Magic Carpet. Still the IP was used later on by EA to set Dungeon Keeper in a stage of micro transactions and there EA screwed up the IP for life. A stage set to ‘maximise’ earnings became the downfall of EA. Yet the original games are still revered by a lot of people, as such wouldn’t it be nice if EA cleaned up its act? In the last week we got ‘EA now owns Codemasters and its many, many racing games’, ‘Here’s why Glu is an excellent strategic fit for EA’, as well as ‘The Silence After EA’s Anthem 2.0 Decision is Concerning’, you see Glu could be a good buy, yet in all this it only sets out the stage if there is an option to get a return on investment towards the $2,100,000,000 spend on this. The investigation (at https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-02-22-heres-why-glu-is-an-excellent-strategic-fit-for-ea) is quite good. It shows a part that I never considered and that does not matter, yet what is important is “The acquisition helps EA address a weakness by acquiring a suite of high-grossing titles that are very female-friendly and have large, loyal audiences. Plus, Glu’s expertise with these genres means that EA is gaining a lot more knowledge and insight into this demographic, which we expect will translate into enhancements for future Sims games.” It is important, because we see an element that is mostly ignored “have large, loyal audiences” is nice, but only if you treat them right and that is where EA loses the wheels on their wagons, not once, but multiple times. As I see it greed driven executives tend to destroy signs of loyalty. And there the shoe becomes a larger stage of concern. You see we can accept that we can either do right by loyalty or create it, the first tends to be easy, muzzle the greed driven executive is a first, creating it requires the greed driven executive to leave the room permanently and EA does not seem to be able to do this. 

In this, there are a few options, consider the stage we saw when we were offered Magic Carpet. So what happens when that game is relaunched in an upgraded version, one that would play wildly on a Nintendo Switch. Elements of the game can remain in place but the game needs alteration as to not infringe on the IP of Bullfrog (now EA), I feel justified as EA ignored it old IP for well over a decade and the ones they did not ignore was clobbered towards the stone age. 

As such Magic Carpet could be a much larger sandbox game. A map of Iraq extending to the Mediterranean Sea, with parts of Saudi Arabia and Iran. A stage where the power of your castle and the magic carpet comes from growth, a stage where we can learn new tricks and new abilities are found all over the map. You see the old systems could never do this, the computers were not powerful enough, but the Switch might make a new setting true, its controllers will have one for movement, one for fighting. A stage grown to the new systems. As such we can grow the fortress, and as abilities are acquired we can do more, go further and unlock more. As such the game takes a rather new turn.

The same can be done with Dungeon keeper, but that will have to take a massive adjustment, the stage of Dungeon keeper is too set. Still the idea was awesome. Consider the stage of Silent Hill, but now you are not the player, you are pyramid head, a stage where we consider the games were you play the antagonist. Pyramid Head is one of the more famous ones, yet consider that station with the man Dirk Garthwaite who became wrecker (a Marvel character), what if we can reshape such a person to our personal taste? We are all getting overwhelmed with the Norse gods through TV series and games, yet that same setting might come from Greek, Egyptian, Hindu, Inca or Aztec deities. All options to consider in the stage of making a game, yet how many still embrace the good old slogan ‘It’s good to be evil’?

I am asking because some sources give us ‘Global game revenue to reach $29bn by 2021’, all whilst a country like Australia only set their notch on $140 million, which amounts to 0.4%, not a lot to write home about is it? If loyalty is indeed key and when we see EA (and a few others) bungle the cake, how come they still end up with a large slice of that pie? As I see it, it should be relatively easy to take it from them with a better product and a better product is key in gaining loyalty. EA might have paid $2.1 billion for that database, but that will not stop competitors Nintendo and optionally Amazon to take over that cake. These two players are driven to loyalty and they can have it if they play their cards right. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, IT

Tagged as , , , , , ,