Tag Archives: Sony

February 23, 2022 · 05:35

Salad with that?

It has been a while since I wrote about gaming IP, and I am not sure if it is really IP, but it is something the Sony and Luna developers might like. Even as I haven’t written about making games since January 25th when I wrote ‘daemonis more’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/01/25/daemonis-more/), an idea came to mind. I was watching ‘First we feast’ in this case the episode with Tom Holland and an idea came to me. You see, food has been in gaming for the longest of time, but we never set the bar of necessity there. Yes, most of us made at least one setting of Elsweyr Fondue (I always play a Khajiit), but it was not until Monster Hunter when I saw that there was a massive upside to having a meal before fighting. We forgot the sustenance setting and even as that is a mere copy, I thought it would be an idea if we add to that. 

So as an adventurer, you get the option to buy recipes, you can find and buy books with forgotten recipes and more important you can offer them to the local tavern where you live. So we can set a new set of elements to flourish a town. There are all kinds of side quests you can gain there. More important, we can set like the impact of a bard (which I discussed earlier) the impact of food. In the beginning there is one main meal, but as the tavern progresses which it does as the town progresses, it can do more and in each stage the recipe is either replaced or added as more recipes are only for a larger tavern, a larger tavern with a cook and as that escalates the town flourishes in other ways too. You see, you can be the centre of the universe, but that is not how the universe works (it only works for me this way, LOL), it is directed by all kinds of cogs and as we are able to grow cogs, replace cogs we see a much more interesting place, a place that grows different almost every time we play it, which adds to RPG games in no small way. So if writings become increasingly more important we will see that only the larger towns will have a bookshop and that also iterates a new set of options.

This is now possible because streaming and the PS5 are now of such size that we can add to the complexity of an RPG (and even more, but that is at present for Amazon eyes only). 

We can add to all businesses in all kinds of ways, but the clever part is not doing it, but setting the stage where it can grow and it can maze YOU the gamer into a setting where the game becomes at times a surprise. Think back to Elder Scrolls Oblivion, consider Chorrel, it was always the same (as were other places), but what happens when the change is not something you control, what if tomorrow you go into your RPG town and suddenly a store is upgraded and another store is added? In a game you are the antagonist, but what is the wonder of the game when at times you are merely the spectator? Not a cut scene, but the evolving nature of the town through the game and the game play you in part brought? It makes for a new (and very old) version of RPG gaming and that is where you will find the gamers. In a place where they never expected to be, where they are a force to be reckoned with, but not the stage master. We see some of the elements in the latest RPG games like Horizon2: Forbidden West, but it can go further and over the next 5 years it will, it will be a new standard of gaming because the PS5 allows for it and streaming consoles like the Google Stadia and the Amazon Luna allows for it. That is where optionally gaming will go and the first one with a real original and captivating game will get a nice slice of a cake that is expected to grow to $25 billion by then, should you doubt me, that is fair, but consider the people going nuts and tweeting all over the place on HFW on nearly all social media channels, originality accounts for that and Guerrilla delivered. Yet in this world there is space for more than one player and as Bethesda sold itself to Microsoft the market for close to 120 million PS4 players and 15 million ps5 players is now wide open. They said that the next elder scrolls is not coming to Sony, fair enough, but will happily become competitors, for several software houses the idea of servicing up to 135,000,000 gamers is appealing. I do not know what the streamers do in numbers, but Amazon (if they accept my terms) will grow by well over 50,000,000 consoles. So there is a market and whoever becomes the most innovative game designer will laugh all the way to the bank, every day for the rest of their live they go to the bank. And Microsoft? Who cares, they made their bed, now see how it pans out for them.

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February 18, 2022 · 19:23

Unintentional?

Whilst playing a game (Horizon 2, Forbidden West) my mind was drawn into a setting I have not openly done before. In the intro part we are (optionally) drawn into the conflict of intentional versus unintentional shortsightedness. A thief preventing theft is the clue (not giving away anything. But consider that I consider Microsoft to have shown (several times) the application of intentional shortsightedness. This goes back from the Xbox One and after. For whatever reason they did this, they set up intentional shortsightedness on storage for the longest time (since 2011).  And I have scolded them for it, I could do so because their competitor (Sony) set up an option where it could be solved. They did this in the PS4, PS4Pro and PS5. Microsoft since the Xbox One avoided that and only now (2020) offered another option, I reckon because they could no longer avoid that. Now we see streaming and I warned about congestion, the setting in the UK is now “UK’s biggest network operator, might soon become its biggest 5G provider. EE currently has 5G live in the UK in 160 places and plans to cover the whole country by 2028.” So proper national 5G in the UK by 2028, implying congestion in a lot of rural places. Europe and the US are in no better state. There we see “All of the major U.S. wireless carriers say they have nationwide 5G service, but industry analysts say that service is largely indistinguishable from 4G LTE service”, yet 4G LTE and 5G are not the same, in no uncertain way! So we see an industry who is hiding behind  shortsightedness to leave one third in the dark and that applies to the UK, US and Europe. 1/3rd is not worthy to be properly connected and in that we see a problem, it will taint streaming systems (and it works for Sony in no small way too). But I am not here pleading for Sony, I am here pleading for gamers.

The game gives us the stage of unintentional shortsightedness, because can we predict what happens or what is needed in 1000 years? Of course not, but the clarity we could see in 2011 was addressed by one and not the other, that makes it intentional. They cannot hide behind ‘We did not see that coming’ because nearly all could see it coming a mile away. Some hid behind what would expected to come (trade agreements) and someone boasted his trumpet too soon and the brand suffered, the other one made a video of one person handing a disc to another person and made short of the situation, but they too hoped for change and it is seen in there terms of service, the media largely ignored it whoring for digital dollars, but they too are guilty. 

These are all stages of intentional shortsightedness. So when does it become unintentional shortsightedness? Because of the filtered business approach, the approach of common sense or the approach of what a board of directors stipulates? I honestly do not know. I am willing to go with common sense, but common sense and business sense are not aligned, or better stated they are more often not aligned than aligned. There is the stage of common sense versus service level agreements, there is the stage of common sense and dependancy of suppliers and there are a few other stages. Yet if the the UK is any indication, the delay to national 5G (real 5G) until 2028 sets a much larger premise. The ability to offer 5G solutions and 5G added abilities to a nation when it needs to rely on other means. It is (as I personally see it) as the 80’s setting that Dutch Luc Sala stated as the have’s versus the have not’s and it is coming to actual deployment in the next 5 years and not merely in the Netherlands, it will be seen on the global stage. A stage of technological discrimination, the problem is to see the difference between intentional versus unintentional shortsightedness, because even as a game brings it to the forefront, this stage has been deploying for close to 3 years and if you want to refresh your information (I stated it several times) at present only Saudi Arabia has a national deployed 5G network, and it is more than that it is merely 700% faster than the US, it is a nation that took serious steps to make its nation 5G and over the next 5 years it might get a lot more benefits in its wake than any other player. South Korea might have an advantage as well, but that will be seen over the next 2 years. A stage that we saw coming a mile away, so is it at that point intentional or unintentional shortsightedness? I will let you decide. But the lack of services that we will see pop up all over whilst some providers hide behind ‘It works fine under 4G LTE’ and whilst the media keeps n ignoring certain steps should inspire you to seek out the real information bringers and make sure that the media starts operating less under the appeasing structure and more supported by the common sense pillar. 

Just to recap the important setting “In theory, 5G is likely to reach speeds that are 20 times faster than 4G LTE. 4G LTE has a peak speed of 1GB per second; 5G could theoretically achieve speeds of 20GB per second. … But where you might get 10Mb per second from your 4G network today, 5G could possibly provide 100MB per second everyday speeds”, so it becomes the “Do you really need 20GB per second?” And you think you are swayed, but the part ignored is that banks and others can have 20 times the transactions, so when you are in a bidding war and you will (nearly) always be missing out on a bid, it becomes the option where those who have will get the goods, those who have not will miss out on the goods. Transactions that are 20 times faster, the seesaw in a truly unbalanced stage. Consider your business where the information is brought to you at 5% speed, how appealing is that to some?

All matters that were out in the open for 4-6 years, now slowly pressing on your business, on your home, on your gaming and on your stream speed. You really think I was kidding when I saw congestion as the next big evil coming to your front door? So when short sighted people give you (on June 4th 2018) ‘NBN chief blames online ‘gamers predominantly’ for fixed wireless congestion’ and whilst we see see “The fixed wireless component of the NBN covers approximately 600,000 Australian homes. 234,000 homes are currently connected.” The larger ignored setting is that “streaming 4K video can use as much as 7 gigabytes (GB) per hour”, a clear setting of intentional shortsightedness, as (Australian) Netflix users surpassed 11,000,000 the Q1 2019, as such we see a massive cluster of shortsightedness. The issue here is prediction when does prediction become intentional? I cannot tell and Covid changed the metrics by a lot, but the levels of congestion were clear, they were clear before covid (2018), there are cogs that are connected, but I can tell you right now, that those claiming to see the difference can not always tell (including me), but I saw a lot of the factors upfront and I blogged them at the time since before covid. As such I feel that I have proven that a lot of unintentional shortsightedness was indeed intentional shortsightedness. Yes, I agree that some cases can be made in a few directions, but not all and too many points were unattended by too many industrials, and not merely in one nation, but near global and in the upcoming 5G commercial wars it will give raise to several failings that we are bound to see in 2023 and 2024. Perhaps suddenly the issues I raised in the streaming wars are a little less innocent, especially from the view of some of the industrials as they gave them. Consider some ‘stream’ presentation and consider who in the end they are really for.

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February 18, 2022 · 15:23

The Dutch lead the way

If someone told me 5 years ago that the Dutch would become a new leader in open world gaming, I would have told them to stop using drugs and could I please have some of whatever they were taking and I would be proven wrong and I am. The software maker Guerrilla Software, the makers of the Horizon series did something way unique, not only did they set a new record, the have now 2.3rd (if there will be a third part) to actually surpass Mass Effect in storytelling. A scenario that was unheard of 5 years ago. There was no doubt, there was no doubt that part one was exquisite on many levels, but at present, as I approach the level with three snakes, the point of the first repel I feel that there is a larger station, a story that could become legendary and a Dutch software maker did this. Yes, I saw a few glitches, I saw 1-2 bugs, I also saw 1 error and as Eloy is now visible in the red grass (intentional or not) is beside the point. This game is roaring an introduction that is unheard of and it is merely the intro to something we can only guess on. And (to vex Microsoft) it is only for Sony PlayStation gamers! 

The game plays like we are getting in our most comfortable shoes. We see the things we loved, the controls we remember and the game has the feel of a world we understood and on the PS 5 it is so gorgeous, water the blight, it is amazing and there are dozens of hours head of me, optionally up to 100 (speculation) hours of amazement and gaming. The posters revealed San Francisco (what is left of it), those large red towers were a bit of a giveaway and some of the trailers showed that we have so much more to see. But the part that get me the most is that the intro part gives us what was and a larger story (supplementing) on what became through time. A station largely ignorant of the player, making us watch whilst we game through a story that goes into a direction we do not know where. In part because I would not give spoilers, but to the largest part because I am merely at the first repel point (it makes sense when you get there). The horizon story is breathtaking and I feel certain that NO ONE had a clue what we were in for when the first trailers were given to us in 2015 I believe. We knew that we were seeing something special but how special is only coming clear in the beginning of part 2. 

In the speculative part of me, I do hope there is a deeper setting to Sylens (Lance Reddick), apart from the cast of Fringe (Scarecrow) being upset, I believe that there is a lot more to the setting of Sylens (but that could just be me), It seems that the story can go a whole lot further, but that too is a combination of speculation and wishful thinking. What is true is that I am at the mere start of the game and it is impressive beyond believe, to be honest, it has been a whilst since I was that impressed. It is the combination of Story, gameplay, character and anticipation/thrills. You see, the corners, the triggers we have seen in past games have presented anticipation and even as we think we know what we get into the first repel will dazzle and optionally surprise us (I actually do not know yet). 

And this is brought to us all by a Dutch game maker. It would be folly to think that all great games come from America/Japan, but to see another game maker surpass thresholds like the story of Mass Effect trilogy and new levels of gaming that America seems unable to deliver is something no one would have expected and as other games come, some need to realise that the old standards no longer apply. The old masters have to some degree now been surpassed. It would always happen, but I never expected to be around to see that and it should be a harsh lesson for players like Microsoft and Ubisoft. There levels will only maintain with the upcoming new titles, so whatever they think they have, they better test it and if it does not break the 83% marker it will bring them down, not sustain them. We have arrived at that point and their influencers and marketing will not aid them, not when these new levels of excellence are brought to the gamers. It was a lesson they were always going to have to learn, but I reckon that they hoped that there would be time until 2023/2024. As I see it, 2022 will be the first moment these makers will get the crap kicked out of them. And it was a Guerrilla army of makers (360 of them housed in Amsterdam) that would treat them to the first kick.

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February 17, 2022 · 18:00

The game you hope for

This comes one sleep away from the game Horizon’s forbidden west (PS5), the sequel from Horizon Zero Dawn. It was a great game, a great journey and as I see it, this game put the Dutch firm Guerrilla Games on the map as a top tier developer. The game was new, original and the story was close to amazing. The first game was a good journey into awesome IP and of course the people who got hooked on the first game want to jump into game two (that includes me). Yet it also reminded me of others, what had been. You see, I remember a game called Steep, as 

I was getting into winter sports, this game had appeal, which fell to zero almost at the point of arrival. You see beyond the claims is the engine, and the engine was made for people who like ‘turbo’, so there is no stage where someone just enjoys training downhill, it has to accelerate (all the time) and the game shows this, the moment you go down, the acceleration is off the wall, and in real live it never is like that. In the end one (of several) views were “Simply put, Steep is average at best” and that is a shame because that 71% game could have been an easy 85% if the makers did the numbers and especially did not charge another $20 for extra game modes. You see it matters and Horizon Zero Dawn gave us the whole enchilada and that was quite the trip. Now, comparing these two games to each other is like comparing coconuts and pineapples. So I am not comparing games, I am comparing effort and as I personally see it Guerrilla Games has it, Ubisoft does not, or had it and lost it is perhaps more precise. But there is another side too. It has been my experience that too many YouTubers are trying to appeal to the software houses too much. There are of course the ranters, but they will always be there. That being said watching a review and then a ranter tends to show a few settings you might not have considered. And in the end it is about finding the right game, especially as a budget is getting more and more towards one game every other month at best. It is at that point that Microsoft shows its Game Pass and the deal you have. But consider this one view gave us “Yet, currently totally free with Xbox Game Pass, Steep is still worth a quick backflip or two. Find out all there is to know about one of Ubisoft’s worst” and hidden there it shows the problem. A pass that allows us to be happy with a 70% game, why is that? The game pass needs to show us that you can play 12 90% games in 2022, but that is not really the case is it? We want to play Ratchet and Clank, Ghosts of Tsushima, Horizon Zero Dawn, Horizon Forbidden west and 8 others, but the Game Pass cannot give us that, can it? Although, it will give you the flight simulator and that is truly a 90% game. 

We hope for that next 95% or better game and my hopes are with Horizon Forbidden West. 2022 will bring at least 5 more games to PS5 and we all hope for the best, we have good hope on what came before but there will always be a sliver of doubt until the game arrives, it is in our nature and in this I am no different, we have all seen decent games, decent games that could have been 90%+ games if only a little more effort was taken. We want to blame Ubisoft and they are a clear example, but they aren’t the only one. The problem is that the game pass has the ability to make the choice field smaller and soon it will be just Ubisoft for some consoles. It is one of the strongest reasons to see Streaming consoles (Amazon Luna) grow faster and stronger. It will soon be the best path to the games we hope for, we want to embrace Sony and Nintendo, yet the clarity is that it will not be enough, we need a new generation of game makers, the list looks impressive, but these are games that were coming for some time. You see the games you never saw coming (like Ghostwire) are coming less and less, gaming is moving from the wild west into corporate west and that leaves us with dwindling choice, have you not noticed that?

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February 16, 2022 · 14:29

Gift for militant wench

OK, not my finest hour in diplomacy, but it was the only way to give the path to people thinking ‘another Amazon story’. I woke up this morning with a new IP, an IP based on Google technology, but they do not create software, so their loss. And this is freeware only for Sony and Amazon products, just another way for me to say to Microsoft “Screw you!” So in my sleep I was racing through the street, there were paths, obstacles and my mind was making sense of it all (which took a few seconds) and I was seeing the brilliance of that Nintendo kart game that can take place in your home. A good idea, but I gave it steroids and turned it into something serious. You see, there are the F1 people, who love the F1, want to race on their tracks, want to be an F1 driver and this is not for them, There are good products and they are happy there. No, this is for the people who want to race in the real world. So consider a setting where the game has 10 circuits. They can give their address, or one they wished to live and the system will design a racetrack from 2500 metres up to 5500 metres (for now) based on real Google Map data. So you get a game that will soon have thousands of tracks, and the nice part is that there is racing (just the street) and challenge where the system adds obstacles, ramps (looking like it was fake and inserted) to give that goofy feeling for when you go all out. As far as I can tell, it has NEVER been done before and there Amazon gets the inside track, because as you race what is, the system with Machine learning and deeper machine learning will try to make you a map you requested based on the area, or location you gave and adds the track for you personally to your account. A setting where a game can grown into a massive behemoth of racing fun. A setting where you can race where you always desired to race, your hometown (wherever that is), Tokyo streets, Monte Carlo (every racer wants to be there one day), London, Berlin, Amsterdam and the list just grows. I am actually amazed no one in Google was that alert, but there you have it. So I say (still lacking diplomacy) “Militant wench, have at it”, we could include boat racing, but I reckon that a place like Rotterdam will give Amazon all kinds of problems. 

A simple idea boosted to a real challenge, and should you wonder why Microsoft cannot come up with it. Well that is simple, they can buy creativity, they merely lack the ability to create something. For that they have Mojang, Bethesda and Blizzard. Those who buy are limited to their knowledge of Excel (or so they say).

Enjoy this midweek! The weekend will be 68 hours away for some. 

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February 10, 2022 · 11:15

Out with the old?

It is a saying and I have heard it many times. Out with the old, in with the new. Yet in the world of media as an aggregated whole, that saying does not make much sense. For a few reasons my attention came back to Infamous:Second son I gave it an 83% rating when it initially launched (and I stand by that). You see, the game has brilliant and spectacular moments. In all but one setting it is close to brilliant. The one setting is linearity and in a near open world it is worse than a death curse. Linearity makes everything too predicable and that was the short coming of that game. It starts brilliant, the brother setting, the awakening of being a conduit and the power of smoke. It was amazing and until the second power comes into play it is all great, after that the party sizzles and linearity sets in. But that first area in Seattle is just grand. Then I thought what to do and I do not need to do anything, but Sony might. Consider that the game has a good and a bad setting. What if Reggie didn’t had a brother, but twins Delsin Rowe and Darren Rowe. One goes good, the other bad and that becomes a much larger story, one for the TV or whatever streaming service Sony has. They already own the IP, so that would not stop them and the setting could be larger, not larger in the stage, but it could give Seattle more than Amazon and Frasier (to opt an idea). The setting in the game was great and the antagonist Augustine was better thought up than most other antagonists in TV world. They both get the stage to clean Seattle each in their own way and there we need to set the station where the good one wins the concrete powers (and cleans up the streets and heals the reservation victims), as well as open up a much larger conversation. Can we separate people who are different? You see, Augustine is seen as evil, but her motives were pretty pure (from her point of view) and even as the game never went into that, the TV series might just do that and to be honest, the powers we saw in that game were freakin awesome. 

I am a little surprised that no one had thought of that track with a game that was optionally much larger than we all thought it could be. Especially as studios are vying for streaming successes. Sony has a few IP’s in stock that they could alter in many ways and Infamous:Second Son is merely one of them.

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January 25, 2022 · 17:56

daemonis more

Yes, from one we go to the other and it is time to look towards the setting of protection. Armour if you want. You see the games all have their take on it, and so do I. We have cloth, leather and…..

Yes, you are roaring to name dozens of armour, all from other games, Blizzard and Bethesda did their work, yet I believe we need to go back to the basics. You can have 60-200 forms of armour, but what does it serve? The basics are what some call undergarments, the armour and the cloak. Yet be not deceived, the undergarments can be fur, cloth, thin leather or chainmail. Each their protection, each their weakness. Try walking through the winter scape of Scandinavia or Canada and try doing that wearing chainmail UNDER your vest, you soon will learn that col travels and Chainmail holds onto the freezing cold like nothing you have ever experienced. Yet chainmail has properties that we need. So we could go chainmail coated fur. You see, each benefit will have a drawback and it becomes a much larger puzzle when you imbue the armour with magical properties. I do not believe that there are only upsides. Like magnets, what pulls on one side, pushes on another. Any natural product is like a small balance, upside and downside go hand in hand, but overall the larger benefit is found. The cloak might have stealth magic, yet the iron armour imbued with strength or poison magic will negatively impact stealth. It is not completely set in stone yet, but I believe that a lot more can be done on balance instead of merely adding percentages here or there. 

And as armour is stronger, it tends to be less stealthy, still stealth will have a side that benefits all, it will have options making it worth having and so begins a new water table of balance. 

As I personally see it, we get a lot more puzzles and joy by having the three elements of armour in the personal screen and work our way from there. Three elements in stead of a combination of 8. Three elements and each having its options instead of X*Y*Z armour settings you have to program ahead of release. There is of course more to be done, but I just handed three separate sides (including the previous two articles) to get you going and become a new and competing Blizzard. Let’s not forget that there are several systems where Microsoft is not welcome, so you have options in the long run and this was handed to you without charge so you can design your version of a slicer and dicer on Sony and Amazon systems at no charge. When was the last time you had an offer like that? You still have to do your dues and your perseverance in making the game, but you have a head start now. I will try to add a few more sides to this all giving you more to work with and let us remember that we want a better set of options for gamers in total. You see Microsoft is about removing choice, they have the largest companies and you get to play those games as long as it is on a Microsoft system. An inferior system that betrayed its gamers (as I personally see it) more than once. Do  you really want to be part of that, or do you want to be the new wave of game designers in a setting where the gamer gets to choose and they choose you? Now they will choose Microsoft because there is no other system that has it, how is that freedom for gamers? 

And freedom is where it is at, so I design the IP for you all so you can oppose a Microsoft dictatorship for gamers. It is merely my way of fighting that technology usurper. At least that is how I personally see it.

So feel free to agree or disagree, yet those who disagree when choices fall away, you better realise that you were part of that limitation of choice.

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January 24, 2022 · 21:55

Gaining an advantage

So, In continuation of yesterday I was contemplating how we can offer an in game advantage. And as I was considering this my mind took a step backwards, towards the golden oldies Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Lawrence Ellison (lol), and an idea came to mind. What if some of the attainments of the game was a wink to these golden oldies? For example, when hunting the undead we have the option to find a comic, a book and a dvd? In that case we get

Dracula Comic, Dracula (Bram Stoker), Dracula (Bela Lugosi)
The Walking dead, World War Z (Max Brooks), White Zombie (Bela Lugosi)
Ghoul Tails, Ghoul (Brian Keene), The Ghoul (Bela Lugosi)

In this, if you find the three DVD’s, you get a 10% against ALL undead demons, more important, you get another 10% if you find all 9 elements. 

There is more that can be done, for example set a database of 250 elements, so you cannot get them all in one play-through and there some random element, but if you start. New game any of the elements (comic, book, DVD) that has not been used will be used first. I thought it was a nice gesture, we take ourselves too serious and let’s face it a lot of games go back to books or movies, so it makes sene to bow to these greats in the form of a wink. History has its place and should not be forgotten.

There is a part where I am in doubt on the IP, but if possible, if all elements are found in a category, the music will change towards a Lugosi version of undead encounters. You see, the problem is that music tends to become tedious, so adding spice to it, optionally taking a page out of the Fur Fighters approach so that each character has its own instruments towards the same tune will also spice things up. You see this is no longer the world of Forbidden Forest (CBM-64), so adding effort in keeping the masses well entertained is essential for any game. Too many people seem to forget that. 

There is even the idea that if you find all the characters in a category (not an option within one play-through) So when we get all the vampires Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Klaus Kinski and Frank Langela, we get to play a New++ game, it is like a NEW+ game, but the opposition is a lot stronger, more important it is not just the undead, the zombies, or ghouls. There are Witches, Warlocks, Priests and a whole range of demonic classes and that is before you get to the Ifrit and Jinn. All challenges to be met, all ways to deliver to an embossed game that satisfy a lot longer than some other games do. Diablo met that challenge brilliantly and to find a unique alternative is quite the challenge, but it is clear that Microsoft is playing a game, a game with gamers for its greedy needs and as such the playing field on Sony, Amazon Luna and Google Stadia is now wide open and they are all ready to take market share away from Microsoft. Are you ready to make that market share yours?

Good luck!

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January 23, 2022 · 18:07

As I slice and dice

Yes, if you are a Microsoft lover and you thought the previous article named ‘In the beginning’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/01/21/in-the-beginning/) was all there is you are in bad luck. I needed time to get the next part in chime. You see, the antagonists are important, but so it the way we deal with them. Weapons matter (in all kinds of occasions) as such I wanted a new setting, not some Diablo copy and it helps setting up the gaming IP, the more unique an IP is, the easier it is to get a nice exclusive IP for Amazon and Sony. 

So in this setting I wanted a whole new direction. A direction that we seemingly forgot about. In the first setting we start with a dagger. The dagger can be imbued (needs to be) to be a more efficient weapon against a major demon class, and as we upgrade it from level one all the way to level 4, the weapon will get a whole lot more powerful. Yet there are also gradients here. I wanted to set the first level to 5 demons, so 5 demons will have to shed something, or we cut it out of them and in level 2 we need more, there is an idea to get 5-25-30-55. I also wanted to reward tenacity, so if you go in one stretch, the cost would be a little higher, but you can go from 5 in level one to 35 to level 4 and skip levels 2 and 3. It is but a simple thought and it ups the gameplay too. 

You make money by selling items and I wanted to avoid to a larger degree chests (not completely), so the kills will give you items that you can sell and in that premise the alchemists will be more important. So this is the first demon class. What about the second demon class?

In this I thought that upgrading a level 4 dagger to a level 0 Dirk might be an idea. 

As such we get the balance of Dagger – Dirk – Short-sword, and after that we need a second weapon. 

I am still considering versions of a morning star, a roman Pilum and a few other weapons, yet in the end, you will have 2-3 weapons, so there are two parts, you need two weapons and you need to think strategically, which Diablo took from the equation (it never really had any clear strategy). As such we have a new environment, we have different enemies and we have the need for different skills. I personally believed that support skills were where it was at. Healing, tracking and vision skills are the path to nice powers that aid in the challenge to finish the game. More important, as each level (area) is better cleared, the towns will open up more stores and more options. 

There is a secondary need to set the stage in a few more ways, in one part as I hate linearity, in the second part if we have more challenges the game would end up getting a much wider acceptance. I want to create a game that honours Diablo, not copy it. Diablo was a game I loved forever ever since the first one came out in 1997, there was Diablo 2 and Diablo 3 broke the mould, so I want to honour it, not copy it. We honour what we love, and I am merely making sure that Microsoft learns the hard way what a total of 68,000,000,000 can cost them. Especially when independent designers use my ideas for free mind you, and only when it is for Sony and Amazon Luna releases. Even if little old me can make sure that Microsoft realise that there is a larger station outside Microsoft, it would have been worth it. Like I stated in the previous article, Microsoft can only win if there is a dartboard and I fail to hit 180 points 470 times, only then would they optionally win, and I have a few more ideas coming. So take notice of this new approach to weapons and I will also give an alternative consideration to armour. In the first there is the idea that leather and pelts make for much stronger protection, in the second I would want to set the stage that imbued metal in the armour would hurt them, but that comes at a price as it would only protect against one major class and two minor classes attached to the major class (see previous article), you see we cannot make it too easy and as you might want to get all protective at the first class, the larger station is that you can never protect against all (a military certainty discussed by Julius Caesar at length). And we must respect the classics, should we not?

So here is the idea of weapons and a little about armour. I will try to come back soon and give you the larger setting of the environment and how levels are set, you can figure out how to program it, I will not do all your work, but the ideas might help set the station, so good Luck and may the one using this find and gain great fortune (and piss of Microsoft in the process).

Enjoy the day!

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January 21, 2022 · 22:40

In the beginning

It is not a new line, it has been used so many times, but it is a decent start to any story. As I was contemplating yesterday’s story and yesterday’s actions, my mind wandered al over the field. You see creating a hero is easy, you look in the mirror and you have a (delusional) hero. You see, it is the antagonists that shape the story. Would Hercules be anyone if his deed was stopping bullies in a bar? Would the bowie knife existed if it was tasted on vagrants? Nope, we need antagonists!

So I wanted to create something new, yet there are only so many antagonists you can create, gaming has existed for decades, people have used nearly all the antagonists that myth, folklore and history allows for. So we need a new setting of a story. And then it hit me, what if (a setting I personally believe in) the enemy is all around us, we start in a place with one enemy, but from there, then what? That is the only weakness that Diablo has, the story is set to some degree and then we see that our powers are created because we know what comes. So what happens when we take that away?

So consider the pentagram above (a coincidence, honestly), We see the 5 points (A-E) when you start a new game, Demon class A is the first one you meet, you will gain powers from killing that demon, but there is no way telling what class it is, it might be vampire, it might be a ghoul, Incubi, Ifrit, there are too many to name, but that makes the setting fun. As you kill more of that kind your power in point A rises, so at some point you will encounter a new demon. Killing the first one is a challenge, but like Demon A you gain the ability to kill it easier. Now the hard part, the small points are not assigned, If demon A is coded blue, and the second demon is Red, then whoever you meet is assigned purple will be easier to kill, but you will have a max of 50% advantage (can’t make it too easy) and every game the wheel changes, every game will be a new challenge, you can (to some degree) consider the main points, but the minor points cannot be determined until you face them. A setting that (as far as I know) Blizzard never considered and now I have come up with a new challenge. And every game will have up to 8 main types, so against 3 of them you will have to fight for your life. to a smaller degree with minor classes too. And with up to 25 main classes and 30 minor classes, there will be new and unique playthroughs for some tyme to come (spicy enough for you).

This is merely the antagonists. There is more, towns will need to be created and they all have a smith (weapons) an attacked armour maker, and inn (food and drink). And as we see these elements evolve we get a better handle on who and what to kill. A setting that has been done before but not to this degree. So Microsoft spend billions on goods, and I countered the first move (free for Sony and Amazon developers). So consider how angry gamers will become and create your own fortune, let’s show Microsoft not to mess with gamers through their sanctimonious BS. So there is a lot more to do, but consider that we have a larger population dedicated to keep the quality of gaming high.

Enjoy the weekend!

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