Tag Archives: Sony

June 14, 2023 · 23:50

The cross over

Yes, we have all seen it. Episodes where one crosses over in the other. It happens in gaming too, but it is seemingly more rare there. Yet what happens when we take advantage of this? An example is Azura’s Star. An item that has the ability to be massively powerful if you use it right. And there is the nag. Due to some constraints that is almost impossible and there is no fault, no blame. The fact that this game still has a hold on people after its release date of 11.11.11, almost 12 years later is nothing to be sneered at. Bethesda has earned the right to its legendary status. The fact that most of us (me included) would love to replay Fallout 3 on a PS5 shows that there is a lot Bethesda has to be proud of. So what is this about?

Consider that we would be able to build a charging station for Azura’s star. It is not instant, it will take hours, perhaps a day for Azura Star or a Grand Soul Gem, or a Black Soul Gem to get charged. Yet that stage offers a lot more than merely a powered gem. A setting where we have a mission to create a charging pedestal. Another mission that is all about functionality. Why no one considered it? I cannot tell, but in an earlier article a few years back, I created a magical duplicator for a castle (the one you could conquer in an expansion of Oblivion). A device, created and over time it would duplicate the item you had. In this one case Bows. As such it would take increasing more time. A hunting bow would take 30 minutes and a glass bow would take several hours. But once the stations are filled. The guards on the walls could upgrade whatever bow they had to a much more powerful bow. And it could be done with almost any item, but a sword would take another duplicating station. It was my idea to offer the setting where the guards as NPC’s would get upgraded to a much more able opponent and the items are locked to that NPC. When they die the weapons vanish. Swords, great swords, maces, Axes, Bows. You could create a real guard that was the fear of anyone trying to invade your castle. But how to create it? Well that was the easy part. It is how you can create a balance, or an imbalance that does not affect or benefit you beyond the normal scope. That is the key question. Even in the game I set up for the developer of Amazon Luna, PS5 and basically all non-Microsoft systems. Balance is still important. Too powerful and you damage the game, too weak and it is not worthy of pursuit. So there are settings we need to consider to make it worthy of chasing. And it falls into the realm of evolving NPC’s in your game. Because that will be a next step in most RPG games that would want to take their game a decade of more past its inception date. Charging stations are merely one step, a natural step, not even a gimmick. It came to mind, because if Fable will become the game whose trailer brought a smile to my face, we all need to up our games. This is how it should be. A powerful Microsoft implies that Sony, Amazon and Tencent will need to up their game too. As such I have set a lot online for all the non-Microsoft companies to take a learning from. More could and should be done. If this means that gaming in 2025 comes at an all time high, I will have done what I needed to do in my lifetime to progress gaming. A worthy endeavour if ever there was one. 

My brain had a much less noble thoughts on cross overs, but that does not matter. I was able to set it right and that is what matters to me. And crossovers could be applied nearly everywhere (as long as you own the IP). I made mention on this in the early development of the Luna and in my case the Luna key. So in this example that I am giving you, what happens when you have game 1 (System shock) and game two (Cyberpunk 2077) allows you to make a much more powerful firearm charger? I added another example in the past where Fallout Shelter could upgrade Fallout 4 (or whatever comes next) and that is interesting because you now have interaction between a mobile or tablet with a console. Gaming to a wider degree without compromising either. We need to consider these steps as we Crete new games. Ubisoft tried this with AC Brotherhood and did not get it quite right. Not wrong, but not quite right. Still it was worthy of trying and it did play out nice. Yet I believe they could have taken it much further. I personally believe that they were not serious enough. They didn’t create two games, merely one to add to the other. That wasn’t a great step, but it was their step to make. 

Often enough these additions are merely cosmetic, but they do not need to be. Crossovers are an option often ignored or denied for decent reasons, but what happens when we overcome that weakness?

Enjoy the day!

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June 11, 2023 · 13:11

Another player to push Microsoft down

Yes, a week ago Sony got more light in the Financial Times (at https://www.ft.com/content/4b410761-78d8-4bec-a48b-79f1373d42e1) gave us ‘Sony chief warns technical problems persist for cloud gaming’ there we are given “Promise of technology remains unfulfilled after more than a decade of development”. This is expected, but in light of certain steps, it is a little disappointing that Sony is not on a better horse. It works out well for me, but that is not the point. You see, these streaming solutions are great if properly aligned. In addition to that we do know that it will depend a lot on a full 5G deployment and in that both Japan and the US are underachievers. Japan is in a much better position than the US and the EU, but those two places is where the actual consumer base is for Sony and they need them, just like Microsoft needs them but they fumbled the ball a few times over. We are also given “Sony’s chief executive has warned that cloud gaming is still technically “very tricky”, playing down the risk to the console maker of the industry quickly converting to a technology on which its rival Microsoft has bet heavily”, as well as “I think cloud itself is an amazing business model, but when it comes to games, the technical difficulties are high,” said Yoshida, citing latency — the fast response times demanded by gamers — as the biggest issue. “So there will be challenges to cloud gaming, but we want to take on those challenges”. In this Kenichiro Yoshida is not wrong, but as I saw in articles I wrote months ago and in at least two cases 1-2 years ago I mentioned that Microsoft and now Sony are both looking in the wrong direction. They are in a stage where they are looking wearing the wrong glasses and that is the rub (for both). You see at present Tencent Technologies is seemingly looking in the right direction and that is the problem. If Sony doesn’t adjust its scope and its approach it will fall short. You see both companies need two parts, the first is a population and the second is the technology. At present all three have the technology, but the approach to getting a population is skewed and optionally right out wrong. This is a problem because Tencent is taking a much wider approach and they have the option to win this game at present. It does not make me happy as I am a Sony person. Some like dogs, some like cats. I like cats and my PlayStation. Yet I am a gamer at heart and that is why I am not turning my back on what Tencent could be bringing. This might not appease the American or Japanese ego, but that is not my concern. As I see it, the stronger the competition, the better the systems. The Xbox led to the Xbox360 and that pushed the PS3 to become a much stronger PS4, of that I have no illusions. Now with the Tencent system, we will see whether Amazon and Sony will become stronger adversaries, or if they will through in the towel as Google did. No matter how we see it there are issues in that Kenichiro Yoshida is completely correct. How they are overcome or swirled around is all up to Sony. One issue is partially seen in “many users have yet to switch from a console or high-end gaming PC to streaming games entirely over the internet, fearing the lags that can be caused by slowing internet connectivity and server speeds”, you see the error here is the ‘switch’ part. That is not likely to happen any day soon. It is why I and many others have a Nintendo next to our PS4 or PS5. The streaming console will be the third system when the offer is interesting enough. And for a gamer the currency is games. For that all three systems need time and they need to focus on what could be gotten now and what can be developed in the near future. The second one is important as is sets a long term goal and I put the design for nextgen streaming solutions as Public Domain for Sony and Amazon free of charge as to give Microsoft greater worries.  There is nothing more nagging when they spend billions on software houses and you hand new ideas free of charge making their investment an anchor around their necks. But that is the price you pay for screwing with gamers and taking away their free choice. They were allowed to do that, they did nothing wrong, but the price is a much larger issue and I was happy to give it to them. 

Yet this news article is not a new setting but one that leaves me with questions. Not merely is the article completely correct and on point? You see this is new technologies and a person like Kenichiro Yoshida will give what he can not optionally all he does have to tell, I get that. 

Yet the quote “The promise of cloud gaming is still unfulfilled after more than a decade of development” gives a rather irritating issue. You see there has been no information on certain developments and that is fine. The press does not need to know everything (at times they are unaware of anything), but it makes me wonder if Sony made the same mistake that Microsoft has made and that would give Tencent Technologies a much larger advantage. This is all on the premise of what I do know and I admit right of the bat that there is a whole lot I do not know. Yet that to is under the stage of certain elements and as I see it so far my assessment has been correct, as such I wonder what is in store for us. How deep will Tencent Technologies penetrate the western gamers world? At present their stage looks good, but as I stated, it does depends on a few items and what I have seen from some of the Unreal Engine 5 demo’s they are on the right path and some other information gives us that they are looking in a few right directions and that might bank them well over 50,000,000 consoles global within 2 years, which would shatter whatever Microsoft thinks it can sell and it will also shatter the expectations of Sony, but that is on what I presently know.

So enjoy the weekend and remember Monday is but a day away. 

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June 10, 2023 · 17:48

How to ping a delusional mind

You would think this is about someone and you would be right. This time it is about me, all about me. You see, if you read my previous article (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/06/10/without-intro-course/) called ‘Without intro course’ you would see that I am giving a lot more attention to the NPC part of RPG gaming. I have no idea how it is currently done. Yet I suddenly had a spark and I will only lift part of that veil. You see Microsoft is always watching and those losers are out of the game of consideration. This will be only for Sony (Playstation), Amazon (Luna) or the Tencent (Logitech G handheld). I personally would love to include Nintendo, but they would not be able to facilitate this. That is not negatively intended. Their system is awesome, but this is nextgen stuff, beyond the PS5. And then only three remain as I see it. This new system is a reengineered solution that could facilitate up to 25,000 NPC’s in a game. No one has ever done that and I got there in the weirdest way. The first thing my brain gave me was “When is a VOR not a VOR?” Which I got from Die Hard 2 (1990) it started a sea of ideas and as my mind was redesigning what it was designing in the first place a thought came to me and as I thought it through it made more and more sense and this is merely the groundwork. You see as I got thinking I remembered my old classes (UTS, 2011) which got me to the IP of Vinton Cerf. Yet his idea was set to other settings and it as not the obvious of choices, but if I am right, this ‘improved’ patent might fly. You see one setting is “If the improvement is also considered non-obvious, then the patent office would grant you a patent on the improvement”. I feel certain that Vinton never considered this application. The idea of game streaming and usage for the NPC characters never existed and until this moment doesn’t seem to exist. Some issues we see in Skyrim (not a bad word about that game) and the Horizon series never seemingly touched on this. Yet if I am right, my brooding has moved me to an entirely new setting of RPG gaming and that I keep under wraps and add this to my first IP as an optional bonus. There would be more less obvious advantages, but that would be giving away too much of what my delusional mind just set in motion. No matter how this turns out. My imagination engines are running full throttle and it isn’t even Sunday yet. 

Have fun.

 

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June 6, 2023 · 21:14

Ding Dong, push it

This is the stage, it is not exactly ding dong ditch, but the stage is not that far off. Some would state kiddingly “How do you tell the difference between a male door from a female door ? One’s got a ding dong and the other knockers.” Yet the larger truth is hidden here. It is a combination of anticipation and expectation. In market research it is about engagement that engagement is depending on Business Intelligence and most brands have been slacking off, they can no longer tell the difference between what the party lines tells THEM and what the consumers expect. There is a misalignment (not some Miss Alignment). The ITP (at https://www.itp.net/business/uae-consumers-expect-brands-to-get-them-report) gives us ‘UAE consumers expect brands to ‘get’ them: Report’ in this I am referring to places like the Dubai Mall. They are doing a much better job, but they are also vying for attention. That place has more than 1200 outlets and places like Louis Vuitton are vying for the attention of people also seeing Burberry, Armani, Dior, Cartier, Hermes and Prada , all in the same mall. A place that is over 12,100,000 square ft in size, so they need to get it right the first time. You see these places aren’t really competitive for people with a misers purse. When you see a person walking with a shopping bag that might not fit a sandwich, that person is likely to have spend $5000, as such he or she is done for the day. And that mall has 200,000 of visitors a day, as such they need to get on point to get their fair share. Business Intelligence is the currency that assists and here we see “According to the study, a staggering 92 percent of respondents claimed that it’s important for brands to “get” them. These findings come at a time when brand loyalty is plummeting, with 91 percent of consumers surveyed in the UAE (15 percentage points higher than the EMEA average) claiming to be less loyal to brands compared to two years ago. Nearly one in four individuals (23 percent) attribute this decline in loyalty to disappointing experiences.” I personally believe that it comes from the people expecting some kind of engagement, and to be honest, outside of the videos on the Dubai Kids Zone, I have not seen to much engagement. One of My IP solves that, but it is not mean for one shop, it is meant for the entire mall. It is the brands that require to create some level of engagement and to be honest. In all the mall walkthrough videos I have not seen any. You might wonder what that means. You see, the video walker will call attention and thus far, apart from the sensational views that the mall offers, I have not seen any. And my personal view is seen with “When asked about specific expectations, the researchers discovered that 79 percent of the UAE sample population emphasised the importance of brands consistently being aware of their purchasing habits. Furthermore, 86 percent of respondents insisted that companies should remember their preferred communication channel. A staggering 91 percent called for personalised discounts, while 86 percent urged brands to offer tailored recommendations during engagement sessions.” And consider this ‘86 percent urged brands to offer tailored recommendations during engagement’ Now there is debate on how to go about it and I reckon that this is on their marketing groups, but when we get a number like 86% it matter, it matters a great deal. I myself am on the fence, not on what is done, but how it is done.How to do cater to a Muslim population? In New York you set the Victory Secrets line in the open and the people come gushing, that will not work in Dubai. In other versions I prefer to have fun, as such the Mall could do something like below. 

Not real people of course, but the heads do not fall into a number, but into a slot with a brand and the ‘winner’ gets a small token from that brand. Perhaps to add a factor, the numbers 5,10,8,5 will be replaced by “Diesel, Adidas, Nike”, “Burberry, Dior, Hermes”, “Prada, Chanel, Cartier” and “Virgin, Sony and Nespresso” the (animated) head falls down the ramp and falls into one slot, then the visitor gets to grab one present from a barrel. An element of surprise and one of excitement. I reckon that line will fill up massively and fast. This is not the only way, some companies have their own way of engagement and they need to dig deep to create engagement, because when a place that rocks 200,000 visitors a day state that 86% of them had a less than great experience, it is time to evaluate what you are doing and the images below show great views, but it is lacking engagement. So why is that? And don’t think it is one shop, Louis Vuitton and Virgin both rock the view, and lack the engagement as far as I can tell.

So how to get the attention?
This is a much harder question, it is how to get them and that has been a life long struggle right from the bat. Customer engagement starts at one point and goes around towards what grabs them and Market Research is about masses, engagement is about that person, as such BI needs to evolve into new areas of engagement and that is the rub, how to go about it? The study gives us “The study revealed that 86 percent of respondents (15 percentage points higher than the EMEA average) considered it important for brands to provide a customer experience supported by the latest technology. Similarly, 85 percent (21 percentage points higher than the EMEA average) expressed their likelihood of being more loyal to a brand that invests in technology to enhance the customer experience.” And yes a TV screen creates more engagement, but at the Virgin Megastore, where were the gaming corners? 

Where are the places that interacts with people? It is not merely the best TV or the best screen size, it is what grabs a persons attention and there places like Adidas could benefit by adding a sport element in the store, it could benefit by having a place like Hermes open a creative corner. 

Consider buying a pyjama. One of the dreariest acts I ever face, but what happens when you can create your favourite pyjama (optionally in a more privacy setting)? It seems that the Arabic world is all about sports, as such what happens when you get to create your next polo-shirt based on YOUR favourite team? The Dubai Mall sports two Hockey teams, so why aren’t brands using that for more interaction? They might, but I never saw it. If the world of consumers is about engagement, the lack of attempts is equally staggering. You see, one of these walk throughs would have shown something. And it wouldn’t need to be ‘horrific’ like feeding a mermaid to the sharks, but between doing nothing and doing something horrific is quite literally an ocean of sand. So when this all starts with data, how is it captured? How are people engaged in this stream? That is equally important a side to manage correctly and even as I like the article, we see nothing on that. Especially in the UAE where tourism is at an all time high. What separates the local shopper from the tourist? It is not always clear and I believe that Harrods had its own set of problems in the 90’s. And when you have a study that boasts “21 percentage points higher than the EMEA average” I personally believe it matters a great deal, but the first observation is clear, there is seemingly a lack of engagement in the UAE (specifically the Dubai Mall). Oh, and this is not all me, places like the TRO group have been rocking the  Omni-Channel Advertising for well over a decade and they have been showing that there is power in engagement. So it is not just me, there are expert voices all over the place, but the larger Market Research and marketing community doesn’t know how to interact in an engaging sphere, as such they do not touch it. Yet that might merely be my view on the matter.

Enjoy the day and take the time to smell your cup of coffee, because that too is engagement. 

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May 31, 2023 · 07:42

The Gimmick

Every game needs to have one and during the night I contemplated how much more important it is to have one when you are replaying a game. This was all set in motion when I was replaying an RPG (which one does not matter), as such to enjoy replayability the game is either massive or (I will say AND) it needs a gimmick. Not something that the game has, but a gimmick it can hand to you to make it yours. You see, we all have these recollections whilst playing a game and we sometimes make notes. Yet what happens when the game is intelligent enough to make YOU a notebook whilst in the game? Your journey is set to paper every time you play that game again? Not just text, but drawn illustrations of what YOU saw in the game? One drawing that is added with every day of playing and that text can be saved to a USB in PDF form? Literally no RPG game has this and you can print it at home, n a much better printer in the office or at university or something like that. The font will be some version of Dancing script, Caveat or Pacifico and that too changes every time you replay the game, with make and female versions, small changes that make it unique. As such you and your neighbour would get two very different versions of their notebook. A story that is a journal and is added to the game as you play with you deciding how social you want to be with that journey. No game has it and if Microsoft  or one of its houses copy this idea, you will see what a losers they are (internal LOL added). 

My main thought is why no one considered this. It isn’t a hard thought to have and I feel certain I am not the first to think it, but no one added this to their game (not in all the RPG games I ever played). So is this a fluke and the idea is bad? Consider all the notes you make on games you play. Now you have a journal that keeps track on your progress, and in the game I designed here (title: Generations) that step makes more sense. The added evolution your as a gamer face in the game would benefit even more. As such the next generation (in the game) would start book 2 and you create a chronicle. Even more when we add mapping to the equation. No matter how you see it, one gimmick is nice but not enough. So where is gimmick number two? Well, I have to sleep on that one, but if my mind can evolve one gimmick, it can do so again and as I evolve this game and leave it for designers and programmers to make a new unique RPG for Sony Playstation/Amazon Luna/Logitech G Cloud and optionally Nintendo Switch. Microsoft will then have a new problem. It also supports my setting with Microsoft getting the Wooden spoon for being dead last. Even though I though it would finish behind the Google Stadia, now we have Tencent in the mix and that could spell more disaster for Microsoft. There is nothing like a console and a game pass (which is a good product) to be left on the road as the others have no need for it. For that you need GOOD exclusive games and over the last few years Microsoft didn’t add any and Redfall is apparently seen by a lot (I never played it) as wasted hard-drive space, which would equally apply to cloud space.

I just had another idea, but more about that hopefully tomorrow. I need to mull a few things over for that. You see, I wrote about part of it (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/02/25/the-stage-of-commerce/) when I wrote ‘The stage of commerce’, but what happens when we have a select group of NPC that we can evolve? We could apply it to all, but the game would become too messy. What if some NPC’s become cogs in the commerce machine? What happens when we enable them to be more by OUR actions? Not just a shop having more cash, but some NPC’s that become more powerful as we enable them to get education or skills? We would enable a larger dynamic in the game. How? That is the part I am mulling over at present. Schooling and buying business (or upgrading it) is merely one side and I think more could be done. Yet the how is in my mind at present. I feel pretty proud. I added several sides to RPG gaming that do not exist at present, as such the new developer could really come to the game with a massive bat to wield. A good stage to be in I believe, but that is what every innovator believes, the believe that self will prevail, I am in that regard no exception. We all have a similar stage to see this.

Enjoy the day (it is almost the middle of the week).

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May 25, 2023 · 11:49

The balancing scales

This story comes from two different directions, not too different, but there is no real link between the two (it will make sense, I promise). I (and millions with me) saw the Sony Showcase 2023. To be honest, I was a little disappointed. I do not think that this is on Sony, it is on me and to illustrate that, I will have to make a few sidesteps. In the first, you all know how I loathe Microsoft, they did this themselves (and their customer care with them) but we need to acknowledge and accept that Sony is now better because of Microsoft not in spite off. Sony grew to new heights as they were at each others throats. As they were battling for supremacy the gamers in both camps got a much better console and we all rejoiced. The issue (as I personally see it) is that the same needs to happen to games, driving games and gaming to new heights.  This is one and for me the most important reason to hope that Starfield, a Microsoft exclusive will become a 90%+ game. It will up the ante for Sony (and optionally Amazon Luna too). The show started with Fairgame$ a multi gamer experience which (even if it was not) smelled a lot like Ubisoft, all smooth, all overwhelming, but the real deal? We will have to wait and see. Helldivers 2 was very Starship Troopers, Phantom Blade 0 looked like an upgraded Sekiro and Towers of Aghasba had a Zelda feel to it. The games were nice, they were very turbo. They had their good moments too, or at least moments I lived for and I am not stating that all games need to be set to me, but when you saw that Telescope looking like the telescope from Alien (more futuristic), what did you think? Then we get some foam game that was clearly based upon Nintendo Splatoon, a turbo edition. This happens and I am happy for the PS5 people who get to have a go at this game, but all this is iteration and gaming, real good gaming gets offered innovation, we need that to evolve gaming and that is one of the reasons why I hope that Starfield is the game every gamers waits for. I had my moments, I loved Spiderman 2, I saw the new parts and they looked good, they really do, but is it innovation? I feel uncertain, there were more games. I can’t wait to get my hands on Alan Wake 2, it seems to be a winner, but seems is the operative word, it is gameplay we need and we saw little of that (apart from Spiderman 2). Yet the story behind this is that we need actual innovation in gaming on every console and this time around Microsoft seemingly gets to have first dibs on that, but we will know for sure in September. 

This links to the second part of it. I am replaying AC Origins and now I got to the curse of the pharaoh which is graphically a new height. Yet here my mind wandered, I had played it before and I cherished it. I took a sidestep to Valerian and Laureline (in Dutch: Ravian), I grew up with that comic as well with the Trigan Empire and things started to blend, started to mingle. So what if this game is not an assassins game and you cannot climb, hide or anything. Almost like Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, but now with a much larger stealth part, no killing. The idea floated in my mind when I saw the Star Trek Voyager episode Displaced in season 3. So what happens when we get to the two worlds Aaru and Aten. So when we get there we know nothing, we get to live lives, we get to walk around and we get to missions, but not in the usual ways. We need to be part of, or hear conversations to open this story and both worlds will have a dozen story lines. No Sekmet scorpions or Cobra’s. You think it is boring, but this is not a game for everyone, it is one where the story is everything and Ubisoft has shown that it can create good stories.  

This interacts when we doe in one world, we wake up in the other and vice vera, so you need to die at times (it is a hassle, but so is life). As such we get to learn that this is a prison and we need to learn why we are prisoners (a little The Status Civilization by Robert Sheckley where we get to see versions of stagnation and conformity) and for this the ancient civilisations were great. Life was simple and the mind is much easier observed and classified when it does the simple things. Yet how to set this in gaming? Ubisoft had its device, but what happens when the world is the device? What happens when the wold is not part of the mind, but the mind has to adhere to that world? No matter how complex we are, the mind controls is and as such we are shown new iterations and that could lead to innovations. But in this the story is everything.

We can speculate and ejaculate all over innovation, yet unless we are holding it in our hands (sorry, no pun intended) we have no idea what innovation looks like, the mind will not fill in the blanks, our wills do and that is why Google and Amazon missed out (at least twice already) So how do we get about to find the next innovator in gaming? Well we can dump all the BI people stating they have no clue and rely on the artsy people to dream the new game. Perhaps one with tech savvy skills, because art only gets us so far, tech does the rest, not Business Intelligence. 

This is my view and there will be people telling me I am wrong here. I will let you decide. For now, I want the new iteration of System Shock. Mainly because how the initial game made me feel, just like Mass Effect 1 ten years later. I miss that feeling to some degree, which I personally believe is the reason that some remaster are great reminders.

Enjoy the day.

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May 24, 2023 · 21:37

Fair is the way

To start this off, I am a Sony guy. I have loved my PlayStation one through five and that is it. I am done with Xbox, Microsoft blew its own death march and that is that for me. Still, I do believe in fairness, Microsoft will have its own glorious days, it has had them in the past and it will have them in the future. As such its exclusive massive failure called Redfall does not help it much. Yet this is also another matter, as such when I saw ‘I regret to inform you that the Starfield review discourse has already begun’ I was somewhat offended. You see, no matter what it is a title and it does not matter who brought it, or that it is an Xbox exclusive. It should be judged fairly. 

So as I read “Speaking on the XboxEra podcast over the weekend, leaker Nick Baker suggested that “it doesn’t matter if Starfield is great – I’m already convinced that no-one wants to give Starfield high review scores.” Baker’s thesis is that ‘low’ scores ranging from 7-8.5 out of 10 would be handed down to spin up a news cycle about Xbox’s continued difficulties over recent years.” I got angry. I do not believe that real reviewers (I was one from 1986 through to 1999) would do that. There are two kinds of reviewers. The real reviewers like Eurogamer, and a few like them and there are sycophants internet wannabe influencers who think that dissing one side will bring the other side to them. The real reviewers like Eurogamer and IGN will give you the real deal, others will not. As for the other part I read “But Baker isn’t the only one already focusing on Starfield and its eventual review scores. A recent Forbes article suggests that the Metacritic scores attached to the rest of Bethesda’s catalogue (skirting awkwardly around Fallout 76’s 55%) are more than enough evidence that Starfield is on track for a similar appraisal.” I had to pause, did this  Nick Baker have a case? I for one do not know. I saw the trailer and it blew me away. I was happy for Xbox gamers as they seemingly had a winner for their system. And lets face it Xbox needs a win, especially if it is an exclusive. I haven’t seen anything since, but mostly I wasn’t looking. Why stare at a game you will never play? And the other side is that the game is not finished. It isn’t due until September, September 6th is slightly more precise. So there is well over 3 months to go, and if that date is correct the gold master will be announced in about 8 weeks. As such, how can any clear review be out there? No one gets to see a real version before the gold master as such there should not now, not be any review with a meta score. The trailer is not a reason for any review, but if there was, the trailer I saw makes this a 90% game. I had not felt these gaming butterflies since the Mass Effect 1 trailer and that was in 2006, they had another trailer for the sequel which was in March 2009 and it blew our socks off, moreover Mass Effect 2 is still up to this date one of the best tactical shooters in history, it was THAT good. 

As such I am willing to wait until the real Starfield rears its exclusive head and I will be seeing an actual gameplay on YouTube knowing I will never buy it as I will never get an Xbox, still there are over 18 million Xbox gamers around the world, and why should they not have an amazing gaming journey? I know it is merely half of the PS5 population, but that is a marketing problem for Bethesda, they need not market where they are not. What they need worry about is getting a fair shake and they are entitled to a fair shake, no matter what orchestra they blow from. I believe that above all other things.

Have a great day.

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May 21, 2023 · 23:53

The perception of others

This is a case, this is often a case and in this case. I am one of the others. You see the ‘news’ is no longer that, it is often filtered information. Information that is accepted by shareholders, stake holders and advertisers, as such the people are seen and treated more often than not as a distant fourth. This setting came to the forefront when I saw ‘G7 takes stand against China’s “economic coercion”’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-65662720) where we are given “And in not one but two statements, the leaders of the world’s richest democracies made clear to Beijing their stance on divisive issues such as the Indo-Pacific and Taiwan. But the most important part of their message centred on what they called “economic coercion””  Now here we need to pause. These people do not lie (at least I hope they do not), but lets take a look at the evidence. The first is the ‘world’s richest democracies’, these nations are

1. Canada, debt around $ 2,100,000,000,000
2. France, debt around € 3,000,000,000,000
3. Germany, debt around € 2,600,000,000,000
4. Italy, debt around $ 3,000,000,000,000
5. Japan, debt around $ 9,300,000,000,000
6. UK, debt around £ 2,500,000,000,000
7. USA, debt around $ 32,500,000,000,000

Yes, they are really rich (in debt). To give a little consideration “As of April 2023 it costs $460 billion to maintain the debt, which is 13% of the total federal spending” for the US, their interest is $460,000,000,000 to pay for the interest and 13% of the entire budget is to pay for the interest. So all this talk about debt ceilings is close to null and void. Not unlike a Ponzi scheme the US government is taking out new loans to pay for the INTEREST of old loans. When did that ever go good? But that is not what this is about. The next stage is about ‘economic coercion’ something America and others have done for decades. Economic coercion is a political tool that the US pushed all over the middle east, and now that Saudi Arabia and other are pulling their contract with the US and giving options to China it is coercion? I mentioned it a few days ago (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/05/19/the-stupidity-of-some/) in ‘The stupidity of some’, I made mention of some elements then and several other articles before that. One should not bite the hands that feeds you and I reckon that is why other players were invited to this party as well (no matter what they say). The US is broke and needs others to do some of the heavy lifting. This is OK, or at least that is why allies stick together, but the bulk is deeply in debt with Canada and Australia in a much better position. Germany had industrial revenues so it is not that bad off either. But this is not bout that, it becomes clear when we see “Now, they worry they are being held hostage. In recent years, Beijing has been unafraid to slap trade sanctions on countries that have displeased them. This includes South Korea, when Seoul installed a US missile defence system, and Australia during a recent period of chilly relations.” They worry? So are they being held hostage, or are they not. Lets be clear all these players have engaged with some form of economic coercion in the past, it is a valid political tool, but now that the shoe is on the other foot, the US is worried. It is losing its grip on the Middle East and as Saudi Arabia is uniting its nations and leagues with the added Syria, Egypt and now optionally Iran as well, the stage changes for the west in the Middle East. China has been invited there now and that worries all players of team G7. You see with them losing 5%-10% revenue to China due to all kinds of reasons they are now scared that someone (the big banks like the Rothschilds) will cancel THEIR credit card and that has them scared silly. I would be to, I really would. This is just a few reasons why I tried to sell my IP to Saudi Arabia and Kingdom Holdings (optionally the UAE too). Amazon and Google were asleep and not caring (perhaps they didn’t like my IP) and Microsoft is not invited to that party and optionally Tencent Technologies is.

You see, the stage, several stages are turning to China as an option. Does China have any less debt? I cannot tell, but they are drilling into new business like nothing we see and that has the G7 scared. 

So when we get to “They called for “de-risking”- a policy that Ms von der Leyen, who is attending the summit, has championed. This is a more moderate version of the US’ idea of “decoupling” from China, where they would talk tougher in diplomacy, diversify trade sources, and protect trade and technology.” We see the larger stage, the ‘west’ will diversify trade sources, so that new and emerging economies can only do business with them if they do not do business with China. Almost like Sony did with retailers in 1998/1999. Those who were showing the SEGA Dreamcast would not be getting the PS2. It scared a lot of retailers because PS2 was a winning system and it did. The same was done much earlier with VHS pushing out Betamax (which was superior). A tool used again and again. Yet the larger stage is not these emerging economies, they are a factor, it is what will Saudi Arabia and the UAE do, they are now aligning the next decade and they were the big spenders all over the place and that setting is now heading for China (not sure if it is a done deal) and in this Egypt is important. With them championing Huawei and their G5, Egypt aligns with Saudi Arabia and a lot of commerce and Egypt then becomes a 5G beachhead all over the mediterranean and Africa. This will benefit China a lot. And as we get to “The US is already doing this with its ban on exports of chips and chip technology to China, which Japan and the Netherlands have joined. The G7 is making clear such efforts would not only continue, but ramp up, despite Beijing’s protestations.” This is the stage that is evolving and it is a dangerous move to make. I get why it is done. In the first I am not stating that China is innocent, I am stating that they all used these tools and the debts are drowning their actions. The danger is that if there are any innovative people in China, they will come with an alternative. I have no idea what, but I recall a nice example. The US created a specific ballpoint pen that could be used in space, they spend millions on that solution somehow and Russia? They used a pencil. We saw the Huawei block by Google and now Huawei is rocking the Harmony OS which is available in 77 languages. It is different from both Google and Apple, so what happens when Harmony becomes the tool of choice in the Middle East? You can ban and block, but the danger is that someone finds another way just like Toshiba in Russia decades ago and there was no alternative, as such Toshiba grew and grew with an entire market where they had no competition. Will it happen again? I am certain of it, when one resource closes people look for another resource, it is a natural continuation. Only really stupid people think that no one can get around them and I wonder what will come next. As such I have issues and the BBC did nothing wrong here, they reported, they used quotes and they adhered to something (not sure what). I am showing you that what is said is not merely dangerous it is deceptive. It these are the richest democratic economies, why is there a 50 trillion dollar debt (actually it is decently higher at present). A debt of 50,000 billion and no one is asking questions. I get it (to some degree) Russia is now a problem, the Ukraine is dealing with it, but it can only do so much. It needs support and I agree they do need it and I believe they deserve all the help we can give them, yet across the waters there is no one dealing with the actual debt, they are merely prolonging a complete collapse that will have too many deep in debt for decades. Retirement plans will collapse, health care will collapse and we will all blame someone, but no one is looking at how we all let this happen and now those with the option will look towards the Middle East (including me), a lot are looking at China as an option and a global brain drain will be the consequence. All settings that the G7 will have to consider, because they all have a lot to lose.

Enjoy the start of Monday up to 12 hours (for some) from now. 

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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.

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May 10, 2023 · 02:35

New IP on the fly

I got here a few hours ago. The setting starts with a rerun of Heroes season 1. I hadn’t seen it for a while, as such rewatching it was a good idea. Whilst watching it a few cogs started to turn. And for clarity this is all free for Sony and Amazon Luna developers (lets screw over Microsoft one more time). You see, in the beginning of the PS4 there was Infamous Second Son. 

I gave that good leaning towards average. Now, this needs explanation. The first is the start of the game which is amazing, the story is from beginning to end really good and Seattle was a great idea. The graphics were good leaning towards great, so why the score? There were a few issues. 

In the first the game is massively linear, you don’t realise it, but it takes steam out of a game that could have been great. In the second the linearity is numbing after a while. The third is the second part here you acquire the neon power is so powerful that you will rely on it until the end of the game. It was an awesome power, but the linearity of the game will allow you to maximise that power from the start. The side missions (the red and blue tasks) are in one area and it is the same repetition on every island. They didn’t take 3 (or 6) tasks on every area, no one per area. And the last part is the concrete power is never explored, it is merely there and when you get it, you have enough points to maximise it right of the bat and you never get to explore with that power new options in the city. It all makes or a bland end result. To add insult to injury, I did the Expert version in one go, something I normally never get to do, making it too easy overall. 

This nagged me when I was watching Heroes, the cogs starting to turn and this is what I came up with.

Infamous: Teams
Let the title not confuse you, it is a one player game, but I decided to take a twist in another direction, fuelling replay option again and again. In this version you control 6 people, but one at a time. We can set powers later and we could take a grasp at powers later, this is about the idea. You play one at the time and you only get to select the gender of the first character. There are three man and three women. The first one you select gender, but the system will assign one of the three to you in the first part. You learn the skill and you enhance the skill, but here is the kicker. There are a dozen places where you enter a place, or enter a location and you see on the screen something happen that involves a super powered being/mutant and that is the moment you switch to that next person. There is one setting, if you start with one gender, the next person will be the other gender (story related) and that drives us to to settings. The stories are separate but to some degree created by the system, as such we could play new games for a while and the story is unlikely the same story. The second is good and evil. You get a choice to once select that in the first character. The good will hug, or connect the heads, evil will push their fingers into the skull of the other and syphon the power killing the person. My version of Petrelli versus Sylar. It is then that the game changes. You create a sort of copy of THEIR powers whilst it also enhances YOUR powers. The good will deprive the powers leaving the person a normal, whilst the evil part kills the other making you more wanted. In case of the good there is a second setting, there is not always a choice, as such in one case a car (or elevator) pushes them together, on another case she gives him a passionate hug pushing her powers into him and so on and the nice part is that we can design a dozen ways and you will get different events per game. Linearity and expected thresholds are now avoided, something most games do not have. The idea is that as a team both get more powerful, as such there is no gain immediately grabbing the power of the other one. If we relate this to Second son, we would enhance smoke with video, not merely have two powers. In the beginning smoke will become faster and more powerful, yet after the merge with video, there would a static smoke and EMP smoke, but now in a setting with 6 new powers and that is when the mix becomes interesting. When power one becomes a second tier, the third power will be different again. Now you have a whole new range of issues and it will affect how you play the game. The video power allowed for invisibility, but in the game you seldom used it. I want to change that and with these 6 new powers It is the challenge to find a balance of stealth and full on clobbering (sorry thing). I have not decided on a location, but I feel driven to make it Amsterdam (I made at least one other game Amsterdam too). Because Amsterdam has its canals, there is a water element through the city (freeze, fish take your pick). 

With the power mix above I show how it works to some degree, the second adds green (blue and yellow) but the third is orange making brown (orange and green). This gives a new setting, you see the third influences the second and adds power, but in that random setting the game when a new game is played could play out a lot different. Especially when we add mental or passive powers. No game (as far as I can tell) has ever done this before. And whilst Amsterdam had my first preference, the location is not set in stone, I merely wanted a place that was not used before giving the international players a new place to explore.

The story of Second Son was pretty good, but we will need a new story, we actually need 6 new stories and that is the rub too, one of the 6 is the main character, but the others have their stories and they mix. A new challenge not seen before to this degree. And this is the 4th game I put online, whilst Microsoft spending billions currently has nothing to show for it, actually they do. According to Forbes, Redfall is in the top 15 worst reviewed games. So how many billions did they spend on that company? Evil laughter starts now and I will put more ideas here, good times for Amazon Luna and Sony, not that much for Microsoft, but that is how the cookie crumbles. 

Enjoy the day.

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