Tag Archives: Ubisoft

March 11, 2025 · 11:41

What the mind remains digesting

That happens to us all, especially the dreamers and the creators. As such yesterday’s blog is still on my mind. It reflects on Ubisoft as I see negative articles appear on a game that is not released yet (AC Shadows). It is said to be a whopping 125 GB, which is rather large as Skyrim and Fallout 4 don’t go that far. There are several reasons where this could be the case, but I digress. You see at present I have no intention of buying the game pre week 3. At that point the real reviews will have been out for some days. Let’s be clear AC Mirage was a wonderful game and for the most a real AC game. I loved it. It was a pleasant surprise from the disappointment AC Odyssey gave me. Ubisoft just didn’t listen “A game that is mean to appease everyone will please no one”, a rule I find to be the cornerstone of gaming. You see the Business Intelligence dude (or dudette) thinks different. In their terms they think that AC is 50%, add a little Prince of Persia you get an additional 10%, add another part from another successful game and another 10% is added and so on until they get to 100%. But the reality is that the stealth, the true AC part is diminished. Almost like adding water to the wine and at some point you can never tell the real taste of water or the real taste of wine. That is my firm believe. Let’s be clear to add sides that complement a game to a next version can make the game better, but it needs to be a unique setting that complements the original. That is what I intent to write and add to Hogwarts Legacy. So in that Trent what if we add to the beast setting, not copy (perhaps in part), but add to the story. As such I saw two parts. What if the next version adds jobs to the game. (3-5) per house. And they do overlap, A house has (lets say) 5 jobs. Two unique and three sets one in another house. That applies to all houses and you get each house with 2 unique jobs and one job shared to any of the three houses. That creates the achievement “A true Hufflepuff”, or the other three houses. 4 achievements right there. 4 play throughs, and in my example (in the connected story) one job is a wand-maker, A student of Olivander. Now the wand needs a core. We have unicorn hair, phoenix hair or dragon heartstring. What if there was a fourth one? The 4th one, requiring a Graphorn horn. There might be more, but that is a mere instance of what I thought. As a student you’ll learn how to make a wand (leading to the achievement “Wand artisan” and the obvious second one Wand-maker master (when you make a successful wand) with a graphorn horn. It isn’t that simple. You see, now all beasts create the right part, we could see a mere 1% successful Unicorn hair. With proper attendance by food, brushing the 100% success rate goes up (2%) and as you create a better understanding of animals and who they are combines with the success rate another 100% (4%). When you are not using that hair (so we get golden unicorn hair) they can be sold for the usual 120 knots (or sickles) we get something worth galleons. Galleons can only be exchanges at Gringotts or a comparable bank, the Galleons also represent a second part (I get to that) because all jobs have that distinction. Some at a smaller pace. I just created an economic state all in one go. This is what I believe that is what some developers miss (no assault on Avalanche Software). And the setting intensifies as we get specific jobs. No matter what you chose you will have a different goal. As we get to chose from the ministry jobs, the locations (France and Germany come to mind), you could become an Auror you could get specific options, and as such can increase your ‘fortune’, I see the aurora as a specific Gryffindor and Ravencroft job. 4 play throughs with very unique settings. It makes a person want to replay the game. I thought the very first location, the castle of Percival Rackham. The idea that it is a goal to restore that Castle, which required to set in place charms so that the people avoid it as well as a few other settings, the appearance of the ruin that all see and when you get close to the house, the ‘real’ house. Another idea was to add the French and German locations due to the Newt Scamander documentaries (me laughing on the inside) gets us two more settings, so in that case Avalanche gives us the near perfect setting. That haunted village could be part of the next story. Perhaps the third act is around Durmstrang. And if the French episode connects to Beauxbatons, than Durmstrang (believed to be in Sweden) gives us the fourth act in Stockholm (or Oslo). Four acts all carrying part of the story, all giving us parts in Exploration, Battle (example: Ice giants) and Beasts. It could add to the lore to a larger degree as these elements are added. The four acts will get us to the fifth act (the deserted village) and that can get us a few more versions. Some will want to believe one version, or another version, but in the end we are all given all the facts as portrayed through acts one through four. The idea to have additions of stealth like an animals or a plant has merit here. As I see it, the truth is always according to the truth of one, the other or insight of self. Although the spells are all there, we can get a few more spells from each of the other three houses. 

I got this in a little over a day, so it seems fair that tinkering is required. On the offset that my view of the 25 months is given, the new version allows for a lot more than 25 months of joy. And if someone wants to embrace the 11 unique jobs that the game gives it will be a lot more than 25 months. If the first idea (the portal) allows for the 2 games to be united, the stage of a near everlasting wizarding world epic tale will be the achievement of a lifetime, to be more precise Avalanches lifetime. According to Statista 44% is an avid fan and 53% is a casual fan, as such 30 million copies will not come close to the amount of optional copies sold for the next game. There is every chance that this game has the ability to break nearly all records. I reckon that there is little chance to break the records of Pokemon and that is not a bad thing. To break the stage of 50-100 million copies is close to amazing to say the least. Then there is the lore that needs to be created. A stage not easily done to say the least. 

Look at me go, a mere day (perhaps 2-3 days to seed the idea on November 27th 2022) and we have ourselves a chase. The others (for example Ubisoft and Bethesda) to get ahead where they never got and Avalanche to let them see their tailpipe as they sloughed ahead in gaming. And Warner Brothers to sit in the stands enjoying the race where the others come short by a lot.

Not a bad day for me, I got to hand over creative exclusivity to Avalanche Software and the rest (like Microsoft) seeing again and again what they missed in the first place. Have fun you all.

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March 10, 2025 · 10:35

After 25 months

There was a need to address the losers at Wired (especially Jaina Grey) who ‘hid’ behind “The game is mid at best, and its real-world harms are impossible to ignore.” I got the game at day one and let week I decided to play it for the fourth time. This time it was up to create a Gryffindor character. I call him Peter Manticore. Of course most of the cut scenes remain the same and again I see that after 25 months the game never waned its magic. The game kept its addictiveness, If anything, it respawned the magic of the wizarding world. This time around my nice reward was the fourth time that I got towards the Jackdaw character and four times I got a adjusted character story. In this case headless nick came to the aid of the main character. As such I got the challenge in a missing heirloom of Olivander (Ravenclaw), a visit to Azkaban prison (Hufflepuff), the graveyard chase (Gryffindor) and Scrope’s assistance (Slytherin). A setting I always wanted in RPG games and Avalanche delivered. As Wired goes, the utter BS of a 10% rating is the folly of a lifetime. This game is ten times any game Ubisoft has delivered in the last 10 years, so there.

After 25 months there is the larger premise that this game still rocks. Yes, a lot of the puzzles are set and the conclusion is the same, so that is not against Avalanche, that is on us. You see, the premise that this game can entice any player is the setting of a lifetime. It is what real gamers love. And the setting of the surrounding Hogwarts is merely the icing on a delicious cake. I never had the limited edition (with the floating wand) and that doesn’t matter to me. I am a little miffed that the free download of a deserted village (PC only) but that is the price of a console. So, I hope that this part will be included in Hogwarts Legacy 2. Still there is a rather large desire (by a lot of people) that this will be placed in France, and I think it is due to the Ministry of Magic expansion in Universal Orlando (as well as the Newt Scamander movies, a true Hufflepuff he is). Whatever we get, the Harry Potter fans (that teenager from Gryffindor) will love it, no matter the setting they get. We are given from several sources that “Warner Bros. has confirmed that Hogwarts Legacy 2 is not only in development but is a top priority”, a statement for fans to live towards. I would speculate that there is a chance that WB is setting the stage not only for the game, but to see this added in the HP world in the opening in Abu Dhabi in 2026. As such the fans will get their Christmas present a little bigger than imagined, optionally with a bucket of cherries lined in that cake as well. But the last part is pure speculation from me.

The fact remains that the game sold over 30 million copies, at $69 per copy that makes a little over 2 billion. And after 25 months that number strikes true to the game makers. As such the wannabe triple A designers are frothing at the mouth to learn what they did wrong (Ubisoft), as such Avalanche software has the inside track to surpass everyone. Yes, the franchise is part of this and that is part of the charm. Millions of fans could suddenly walk through Hogwarts and watch the space as the movies never let them and that counts for something. 

As such my idea was to create a portal (thank you Universal), one that connect these two games. The older person gets to travel back to a younger self and complete the first game (if you only now have it), it would be a little extra stuffing to let Wired know that they had it wrong by 99.9% and consider that this never has been done before. Another reason to do just that. There is an additional idea, what if the first game sets the parameter for the second one? If you were a Hufflepuff student you would be alerted to Helen Thistlewood. As such the Hufflepuff student would get Helen Thistlewood as an ally. In other houses, she would become a dangerous adversary. It would only be fitting that the other houses would have a similar setting on another place with other characters. This too has never been done. 

There is nothing like the spark of inspiration to see what you are creatively be possible to enhance anything and this were my ideas and I happily offer them to Avalanche, free of charge (thank you Kenneth Branagh). It isn’t merely the spark. It is what that enables you to do. To that effect, I also wrote something on November 27th 2022, called ‘It starts with options’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/11/27/it-starts-with-options/) and that is something I can leave to Avalanche software (as well as JK Rowling) as well. The story is everything. This is particularly important to realize in RPG games. Creativity for enjoyment to the gaming community, a setting too much ignored be nearly all. I once stated to Ubisoft “A game that appeases everyone, is a game that pleases no one”, I still believe that to be true, especially in gaming. Ubisoft never heeded my words and on September 26th 2024 we were given “Ubisoft’s board of directors launches investigation into problems in the company” and I gave them my take 2 years earlier. As such I don’t expect a lot to be done. The fact that Avalanche showed them up with a game that blew whatever Ubisoft had to smithereens is enough ‘evidence’ as I see it. And my evidence? I still get a hooting fine time with a game I played three times before over the last 25 months. And it still gets to me. What is what I call a near perfect game and I rate the game 92%, a little higher than most and I accept that it is due to the fact that I am to some extent a HP fan. But the game this large and being this close to flawless takes a massive amount of love towards the game and the developers delivered on this. That is something that should be clear. 

Good games are becoming more and more a rarity. I believe it to be due to these game makers ‘relied’ on their Business Intelligence ‘assets’ and tried to appease their audience. Yet the truth is that true gamers are not privy or aligned with ‘influencers’ they like their quiet gaming world and they are for the most solo players. This game delivered and whilst others are so prone to appease gamers, they forget that their adversaries are creating sound chaos on everyone but them. The safest way is to ignore all of them and create the phonebook where the real fans are. (Not sure how to do that) but that is my take on the setting.

So whilst we wait for Hogwarts Legacy 2, I will enjoy my 4th play through of the first game. I reckon that this will keep me busy for another 50 gaming hours, especially as I know most of the challenges that are coming my way. That too is part of the RPG world, especially as we play the game more than once. 

Have a great day and try to enjoy a game, a book or a movie today.

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January 27, 2025 · 04:22

A call to arms

That is what is in me. Calling you all up to arms. The first issue is Donald Trump, the president of Unites States of bankruptcy. And we see this possibly quite clearly. The first part is (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/buy-canadian-tariff-threat-implications-1.7439117) where we see ‘Why ‘buying Canadian’ isn’t as easy as it sounds’ And we are given “Can shrewd shopping truly help Canada push back on economic threats from the United States? If you believe the rhetoric from some political leaders, every little bit helps — especially if consumers pay closer attention to labels.” I believe we need to do more, we the people of the commonwealth must unite, Canada is our larger brother and the United States of Bankruptcy have no business making claim to it as the 51st state. There is no opportunity as that weasel Kevin O’Leary states. America has to fine ways to raise its economic awareness of go under. And the oil and forests of Canada are not the way. As a commonwealth Australia, India, Jamaica, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the other 8 nations have a duty, yes duty I say to if whenever possible to buy Canadian. As such all American maple syrups go from the shelves right now and are replaced with the real Canadian version. 

Wood and other stuff needs to be bought from Canadian dealers only. It might not be enough, yet tell me honestly when Trump attacks us, should we not respond? If he attacks one of us all with tariffs and we, all 15 replace American goods whenever possible with Canadian, adding to that notion by switching oil by Canada ($11.8B), United Kingdom ($11.4B), and India ($10.8B) from America to Canada, it will hurt America at least 33 billion right there, the other Commonwealth nations might not be the largest customers, but every little bit helps. Oh, and if we all stop American import oil, America can stop crying like a bitch to make oil cheaper from Saudi Arabia, they can now provide for their own oil. 

It might not be enough, but if the dent is great enough, America will think twice with their ambition to annex Canada into America. So as we see “Make sure we send a message to big retailers. Costco, Sobeys, Walmart, Metro and Loblaws. Buy Canadian products.” Our Commonwealth nations could add Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, Co-op, Sainsbury’s and a few others to that list. And this would also benefit the UK. So how much of a dent is needed for America to realize that pissing of the ally they once had was a really bad idea? The second article (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-premiers-buy-canadian-trade-war-1.7438587) also gives us in ‘Trudeau, premiers urge shoppers to buy Canadian as country prepares for a trade war’ “As a possible trade war with the U.S. looms, Trudeau and the premiers are now furiously trying to dismantle long-standing internal barriers to make it easier to trade goods and move workers across provincial borders.” And in that case, their brothers and sisters in the Commonwealth should also be heeding the call they face. 

And do not relent, let America face the hardcore upgrade to financial pains by removing massive parts of their income. It is the least we can do. Must of us could get the oil needed from Saudi Arabia and the UAE. This could open additional markets for both sides. As such there could be a call to add Aramco and ADNOC fueled gas stations. My temporary issue is that we see “Our refinery at Lytton (ample) uses crude oil largely sourced from Australia, New Zealand, south-east Asia, Africa, and North America.” As such North America should be rescinded from that list and replaced with oil from Canada, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Ampol has over 1900 locations in Australia and 262 in New Zealand, time to upgrade that list of places. As I said it might not be enough, but in hardship the Commonwealth has such together and our big brother needs out help now. We all should unite and let the baboonish call to make the 51st state a thing of the past. We see that America is also making the call to invest 500 billion into AI and that might be (might is the operative word) the final straw for their collapsing economy. You see there is only one definition of AI and it was handed to us by Alan Turing. Based on his paper 1950 paper ‘Computing Machinery and Intelligence’ (see https://www.turing.org.uk/scrapbook/test.html) 

turingDownload

(source: University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC))

As I see it, what we have now is an exploding predictive analytics model set so verbose that it never learns, it merely sets all the combinations of the set in data. It was a decent solution in 1986 when it was Chessmaster 2000 brought by The Software Toolworks and later after passing several hands until 2009 it was in the hands of Ubisoft. The Chessmaster 9000 was said to have an ELO of 2718. Data formats had evolved, but the larger setting was that the system never really evolved and in 1986 our concepts of data were different. Like some rainbow tables approach to the presentation of data we grew more attuned to the situation, but it still isn’t AI. A predictive analytical model using deeper machine learning and LLM model is of course much better, but it just isn’t AI and the elements requiring AI are not in existence yet. We now know what it should look like and a Dutch Physicist has now proven and shown the Epsilon particle to exist, but it isn’t here yet. For that matter until that evolves into a trinary system we are out of luck and President Trump puts 500 billion in this? This will always go sideways in the direction no revenue will come from and at some points the banks will want to see their revenue. A simple setting that is coming the way of America with no recourse. So yes, I am calling to arms to protect Canada, our Commonwealth brother. 

So why the AI part?
If America is to be set to their decisions, then the folly they employ is also a measurement and a hindrance to success. I do not oppose the effort, but in this ago that a solution is ‘presented’ as the holy grail and the future financial solution, the fact that it will never work at present is also the hindrance for the presented result. I don’t care that Microsoft is plunging billions in this and whilst securing 3.5 million carbon credits. The bigger setting is a joke (as I personally see this) like toddlers playing Texas Hold’em poker. With the pot merely increasing and when you realize that this could cost you the hand and in the case of America their nation. In this I believe it is essential to stand by Canada. We see all these companies vesting their chances and the effort is good, but the risk is theirs at present and now President Trump is making the country the presented bet of a folly hand. And it matters and no one is considering that too much will be lost, not even the media.

The media is not looking (or too little) at the dangers of data poisoning and malicious use of the data train in development. These two settings involve people and there is a near complete lack of verification of data and that could cost us all in time. So whilst America is willing to hedge its bet by presenting a solution that cannot yet exist (or in the near future) we can leave them to their sorry state and hand protection to our brother Canada to keep it secure and out of American hands. As such I call to arms.

Try to have a great day.

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January 5, 2025 · 11:59

What is the difference?

A note to start with. This is pure presumption, there is no evidence that this is happening at present. And the second part is that I will be talking about AI in this article, all whilst I know it doesn’t exist yet. The setting of ‘AI’ is the conclusion of LLM and deeper machine learning at present and the solution in some cases is amazing, yet it is not AI (and that never will be the case), yet players all over the field (like for example Microsoft) they are set to the ‘AI’ field and there lies the danger, too many will snap their teeth into this field and they do not know what they are doing. The ‘et al’ parties in this like the revenue and will to some extent ‘accomodate’ what comes and what will connect to it. 

If this is the first setting of that stage, the second would be the accusation that ‘Meta Opens Floodgates For AI-Generated Accounts On Facebook, Instagram’ (source: Forbes). This sets up a new stage in data collection and data gathering and this connects to a movie called ‘Free Guy’ (with Ryan Reynolds) and that set in motion some thoughts that occurred to me. This part will be speculation to some, presumption as I see it for the simple reason that I have seen decades of lazy programmers and not to clued in data scientists who rumble to appease their data collecting masters. 

The premise
A man is going out on a date with his girlfriend, they are having a lovely meal and at that point he gets arrested for an outstanding warrant in Riverwood NSW, as he is accused of stealing merchandise from a shop and he is sought out to answer questions for the death of a police officer in that location, he is not wanted, but is a party of interest. He goes along with the setting, as only to see what is going on. He is certain that they aren’t looking for him. 

You see, the man is not the person they are looking for, to be honest there is no such warrant but there is the snag. Someone mixed up profiles and his gaming profile where he visited the Riverwood Trader in Riverwood in a place called Skyrim. You think I a kidding? No that is the reality we face when AI’s, who are not AI’s as AI’s do not yet exist. In the bungling mess that data scientists face they will cross the wrong paths and leave a lot of people in a dark setting as they are in line of warrants and black marks by the setting of that stage. And when someone will query the stage and ask if Riverwood NSW and Riverwood Whiterun are the same locations, or virtual ones. The computer will simply answer “What is the difference?”

Settings
The setting of correct staging of locations and perhaps the simpler settings that a game crime is not a real crime the computer throws a NULL, it was never taught the distinction. The data Scientist never thought it would become a reality. And there is the stage when we get fake profiles collecting data. No distinct verification of data required (apparently).

It was a danger I saw years ago, but no one seemingly caught on and now as everyone wants to trow in their ‘AI’ to be more efficient in data collection, real profiles and real people get twist in a setting of what is reality and that setting will become the event of the day for a lot of people.

I am not looking forward to the arrest warrants from Florence and Rome for killing these so called Italian Carabinieri. I killed dozens in Florence and Rome and they will not realise that those done as my Altar Ego (Ezio Auditore) were not real, but leave it to any data scientist to leave that little setting out in the open. Now that some are pushing their ‘AI’ delusional reality to the larger profile and matching stages with all kinds of profiles we face these dangers. Should anyone say “That will never happen, we are to clever for that” I will answer “Why are you selling AI while it doesn’t exist yet?” These are stages that will soon come to fruition and even as it is not exactly that exact, there will be cross linking social media sources a they think it is their great O (ask any girl, she’ll know what I mean) and the simplest setting is decades old. You can not compare a basket of apples and a basket of oranges by calling both baskets ‘fruit’ the simplest setting ignored for simple greed. Because these ‘AI’ systems will accept both as fruit, even as an actual AI system would see the difference and simply state “I cannot compare a multitude of Oranges and Apples in the same comparison. The difference between a real system and an orchestrated system. 

Have a warrant free day today.

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January 3, 2025 · 13:37

Changing the question

That is an old setting that has been around for over 30 years. It comes from either market research or politico logy. You see, that setting was given as “If the answer does such the mines not match, change the question” and it has been used in all kinds of media for decades. As such I get to the article in question (at https://insider-gaming.com/ubisoft-far-cry-7-and-maverick/) we are given ‘Ubisoft wants to change the ‘Far Cry formula’ with Far Cry 7 and Maverick’. I found the setting hilarious. You see, we have AC odyssey (2018), AC Valhalla (2020), Far Cry 6 (2021), The Division, (2016), Ghost Recon Breakpoint (2019). That is a mere 5 titles that (as I personally see it) flopped because of shoddy programming ad even worse play testing. I personally see Far Cry 5 as a failure as well, but I have a few personal resentments against it, and I will not hold Ubisoft to blame for that. A stack of failures where the price of these titles drop by over 40% within the first month. It got to be that bad. Riddles with auto assumptions in these games to a much larger effect. As such when the article gives us “It’s understood that both games have had a significant overhaul to their movement systems, too, including the addition of tactical sprinting, sliding, vaulting, and more. Seemingly, this is due to both projects originating from the same game and sharing similar movement mechanics, with the similarities of both games bleeding into one another.” Well, in the past a lot of movement mechanics were blamed, but I saw that as shoddy programming. And as we look at blunder after blunder, the issue isn’t the system, it is the programmer, the director and the play testers. These three sides should be intertwined in creating a top product and they weren’t. As such I will not touch any Ubisoft product until I see a proper version and properly assessed. YouTube influencers are useless as I see it. So as I see it see it, the quote “Ubisoft is seemingly trying to break its own trend of chasing trends, and Far Cry 7 (or whatever it’s called) and Maverick seems to be a step in the right direction, albeit a considerable risk.” Should be seen as a proper one, but I for one see the larger danger in ‘chasing trends’ because gamers are not trends, they need to feel the comfort of a game and that results too often in more of the same. As such we might see AC Odyssey as a part of a revolving trend, but the auto assumption comes in play and the gamer gets into too many ship battles on day one, all whilst the serious setting of ships battles were that they happened seldom and with large gaps in between, all whilst the predecessor (Origins) was a solid product. 

Then there was the breakpoint failure. With a headshot resulting in the ping of a Triangle and the helmet flies up for over 30 feet (I remember headshots in 1982 playing out differently) and that ping was not part of the equation, neither was the flying helmet. Then there are all kinds of other settings that made little or no sense. All whilst gamers want to see ‘some’ level of ‘reality’ in that. The games had become a joke. No actor of any level could fix that (in this case Jon Bernthal). Ubisoft obscured their own view to the entire world. As such the answers never fit the bill, so they changed the question and most people will accept that software was the cause. As I personally see it, Ubisoft had much bigger concerns, solid programming being the first issue to address, when in doubt watch Assassins Creed: Syndicate, they are on Youtube. Flying carriages, I asked Tinkerbell and she denies every pixie dusting any carriages, she also reminded me that carriages cannot have happy thoughts. That is merely one setting, one of dozens why Ubisoft is phasing out of the gaming industry. I am not a sceptic thinking it should all be 100%, I have seen my share of stuff floating on air. But for the most when it doesn’t hinder the game, it doesn’t bother me, when carriages go awry in air, it becomes an issue and the waves of panicking NPC’s in AC Paris is just a little too much of a shift in playability. So, yes they can change the question, but gamers have a long memory and they have upset too many of them. As such as I foresee it, there is a setting that makes the Ubisoft stock go down another 25%-35%. Remember that in 2021 it was €84.60, it is now €12.86, that is already an 80% drop and it could get worse. The next released title tends to be the instigator. As such it might depend on Assassins Creed Shadows how this plays out.

Have an awesome 2025 this January.

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November 16, 2024 · 03:27

One step left for a new world

That hit me a moment ago. You see, 6 days ago I wrote ‘The easy lesson’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/11/09/the-easy-lesson/) it was an idea that could aid Apple in propelling their Apple Vision Pro, the idea hit me a week ago and now I see a few more angles to this. If Epic Games (makers of Unreal Engine 5.4) get a translation system online. It could propel the Apple Vision Pro even further. Areas like Tourism, Theme parks and even larger attractions could be visited, or seen in different ways.

I saw one side, then another and another. Apple seems to overlooked this, but the setting in high end tourism is easily made and the more are set to multiple sides it could boost Apple in several ways. As I see it, should Epic Games make the jump to make an engine that translates Unreal Engine 5 to a system that could be fed into the visionOS operating system. Apple would enjoy the upsizing, but in equal measure Apple and the game developers could get an entire new population to their translated games. We all know (or have heard of) “spatial computing experiences”, but how to set that? I saw the options about 4 years ago, not as the Vision Pro, but in other ways. And now I see that the Apple solution could work there too. And once this is going I reckon that Meta with its goggles would soon follow. The hard part is to make it work and not a simple figment of an idea that is nice or one title. This is why Apple needs to talk to Epic Games. The unreal engine would be central for conversion. We merely think of the Unreal Engine as a gaming system. But imagine that The game Assassins Creed 2, or Origin gets upgraded to Unreal Engine 5.4 and after that we get the translator to get the spatial system fed into visionOS. Consider that the spatial system let us walk through Florence, Venice, Rome and even Egypt (AC Origin) or Bagdad (AC Mirage), from there we could use it to teach us Latin, Greek, Italian, Baghdadi Arabic, Egyptian. It allows the goggles (to avoid confusion with glassware) to show us how it was then. It could also in a more frontal view of the Horizon games. To see the Thunderjaw next to you (a separate discussion). Once these systems are created the avalanche will build up and here Ubisoft has a distinct advantage through titles. So how long until the Vatican wakes up? And from there tourism gets a larger slice of this approach. And lets be fair, wouldn’t you walk through the streets of the cities we saw in the Assassins Creed games? See the machines in the Horizon games, or learn the languages of days gone by? The learning ability that is part of something bigger. A massively wild idea and perhaps contemplated by some. However, I cannot find anything in this direction at present. All options for at least two systems and if I had my way (I seldom do) there is even another side to the options I gave to the Saudi government. A way to propel the Saudi way of life to a much larger population. And now I see that the Apple Vision Pro device could do this even more so. 

It is not a step forward, it is a step to the left (or right) and it enhances the overall setting. It doesn’t replace it. A simple idea that others didn’t have (or rejected). I wonder how many considered this to be a futuristic path to learning languages? 

It has been Saturday for 3.5 hours now. Vancouver has a decent amount of Friday to do before it is here too. Have a great day.

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November 9, 2024 · 21:56

The easy lesson

The easiest lesson is too often forgotten and I fail to see why. This all started with some article on the Apple Global Vision Pro. And in 2009 Timmy the Cook gave us “We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products and that’s not changing. We are constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution. We believe in saying no to thousands of projects, so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot. And frankly, we don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change. And I think regardless of who is in what job those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well.” Yes, but at that point he forgot the golden rule of managing the ultimate golden Trump card. It is not the orange flavoured person, it is the issue to impress. I merely came upon this idea in less than an hour. It took me the greater part of 3600 seconds to reengineer an existing idea to cater to the Apple Vision Pro. It takes a conversation that Timmy the Cook needs to have with his half brother (Timmy Horton) to sit down and get us all a newly roasted coffee and get them talking. The idea I have is a jump to the side of these people and the other player can create a new setting to impress the entire Apple community. Is it possible? Yes, it is. Actually Nintendo did something similar several years ago, this idea has some reference to it and mostly it will be about the wow factor. It is entertainment in a different direction, but it will be an idea that can wow an audience. This and the freedom that it imposes will give the audience a rather large new setting. It might not be enough, but it gives the current audience a nice boost.

And in this I saw “Demand for Apple’s Vision Pro mixed reality headset is said to be so low that production could be discontinued by the end of the year. According to The Information, Apple is said to have already significantly reduced production of the Vision Pro in early summer 2024.” this is the view we see a few months ago, a view that seems stellar against “Reports suggest that development on Vision Pro began in late 2015, and from that time until WWDC, Apple filed for over twenty thousand worldwide patents and spent about $130 billion on R&D.” And this is the sight we see where Apple missed the ball (as I personally see it). They forgot the first order of business, how to wow an audience. Perhaps Timmy was tired of listening to people in the sway of Microsoft, he has probably heard it all before and the laughable situation is that we have seen this before. You see someone else faced this in 1985 and in two years it turned the ship around. That was an essential lesson. The Apple Vision Pro cannot use that idea (likely too expensive) but it has  another arrow in its quilt. It can do something different and it needs one participant to agree on this. I think they will do it as it is something that hasn’t been done before. In the world of software the one idea that others cannot walk is the path that redefines a market, it has been done before and Apple might do well to consider the path that Microsoft and Ubisoft are unable to walk. It is probably the first time that they are left behind in multiple fields and it took me one hour to come up with this. A setting that seemingly no one decided to walk (Microsoft is likely too mediocre to do it). And it had a larger audience too, you see there is every chance that someone similar “Meta’s Reality Labs Achieves Record Q4 Revenue Surpassing $1 Billion, Driven by Strong Sales of Quest Headsets and Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. Meta’s metaverse arm, Reality Labs, reported a remarkable Q4 2023 with revenue exceeding $1 billion, the highest in its history.” And that is probably the number two player it can entice. So there is a market ready to yield to more than it has and it took me one hour to get the idea rolling, so how many high paying bosses got caught short on this? It merely took an alternative view on the problem.

And in this day and age where we are given “Apple is laying off dozens of employees as part of rare cutbacks at the tech giant that will primarily impact employees in its services division.” and they are not alone. Meta, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, they are all cutting back and whilst some people think that is crazy, the clear path is often sought in any place of appealing to investors. Yet it took me an hour to find a solution (in this case), I got several other ploys created in a day (including one that offered Tencent an initial additional 50 million consoles) and no one figured on why. Well, in case of Microsoft it makes sense, they rarely are on the upside of innovation, no matter how they spin this, they are merely champions of mediocracy. But Apple, they have options. It merely took one guy who can see the elements on look to think “What if we do…” and that was all it took folks. So dream big, imagine big and good things might happen to you when the right people are looking. By the way feel free to ignore the blatant idiots relying on golden words and a simple “I’ll do right by you”, they are useless and only cater to their own needs. 

Have a great Saturday. My Sunday is a mere 155 minutes away.

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October 25, 2024 · 15:20

When future and past are similar

I made a jump today, it was into the past. Somewhere between the release of Battlehorn Castle and November 2011, I had an idea. A set of quests to ‘automate’ defences and infrastructure in magic. It use actual NPC’s but beyond that, nearly everything went. It went nowhere (as it was not my IP). Yet the idea stayed in my mind. And today I ‘remembered’ the idea I had. 

It can be applied in numerous ways. It might be a DLC for Guerrilla (the Horizon IP), it could be added to any number of non-Microsoft IP’s and it could be added as a simple structure to anything. You see, the IP is sound and versatile as is any good given DLC.

So how did this idea come to pass?

As I revered Elder scrolls (for a long time), the setting of adding to Castle Battlehorn became overwhelming. I found myself wondering how any castle could be without guards. So I set out and created a magical oven, with at the heart the device it replicated. There was a blunt oven (maces) a sharp oven (swords), a range oven (bows) and a guardian oven (Halberts). And every oven needs to be create a few times. Then there was the issue of what materials as used. Iron, steel, or more advanced materials. You needed a forge to create the bars of material and the wood blocks to create the handles. As such, nothing is really made out of nothing (initially) but the setting applies. As you create a more advanced weapon more time per weapon is needed and the machine places it in the basket. A simple weapon (iron, or wood) is about an hour with a maximum of 6 per oven. Getting the weapon in Silver, or gold take more two or four hours. I didn’t want rely on Bethesda weapons to not get them on my back. And as such we now had a near automated weapon system. You needed to be able to forge the master weapon like a iron sword, steel sword or silver sword and the rest was made as long as you had the metals. In the upgraded version I upgraded the machine to require less materials whilst the manufacturing remains the same after that the next upgrade required less time, as such you added to the machines and had a abled guarding setting to your castle.

Then came the kitchens and there the stoves could set out food in bulk for the troops. And with every pen you had, you would add to the specials that the troops would like. A chicken coup, a cow pen, a pig pen and as such the foods would enable much stronger and more resilient troops. The option occurred to create a vegetable patch and as the troops grew, so would the need for more food.

I played with the idea on a few levels and in the end Skyrim was released and I buried the idea in the back of my mind. For some reason the thought got back to me on my morning walk. But in this setting I made a crossover between the bank job in Thief and Horizon Zero dawn (as this is released in 5 days), You see e have the foundries in Horizon for one reason, but what happens if there is a DLC that gets Aloy into a secret location where all is automated. There isn’t a kitchen, but all else remains. Sentries, guardians, servants and the place was all forgotten. Aloy would have to rely on stealth to get things done and that changes the game. She would have to find materials to create hidden paths. And that could be a more sinister task at hand. In the end there needs to be  great reward (like advanced stealth armour) and more powerful weapons. Optionally a more rewarding boon so that the DLC could be in any Horizon game.

I like to think that Guerrilla might like the idea of that DLC to hand to their respectful fans. There are a few other thoughts that I am considering, but out of all of the optional issues is the fact that I created a dozen ideas, all whilst Ubisoft is dropping stock (or better stated their stock dropped). And whilst we see “AJ Investments to go private after Star Wars Outlaws” I merely created over half a dozen IP ideas. Sucks to be Ubisoft. In other news Microsoft stock dropped 7%. They blame their cloud revenue. I say that mediocrity never leads to high praise. I reckon that Oracle largely protected a landslide sell off on Microsoft cloud issues. The creative people rule in almost all IT sides and Gaming has been largely responsible for better IT design from the 90’s onwards. BI people need to realise this and not play the blame game. If they need to blame someone they need only look into a mirror. 

And that sets the creative people apart. Not everything is a sure thing. Nintendo showed us that with the WiiU, it also led to the Switch which blew Microsoft out of the water in half the time that Microsoft needed to make minimum revenue (or more clearer stated, it took Microsoft from 2013 to 2017 to create the revenue which was surpassed by Switch within 18 months) That is the true sign of innovation. I believe that Microsoft is trusting its own spin, all whilst the creative will shoot any spin to smithereens in half that time and there is more to come. As Guerrilla will release the third game somewhere in 2026-2028, whatever Ubisoft or Microsoft had will be reduced to nothing in no time flat. Horizon was the latest true innovative IP in gaming and everything else fades next to it. This also holds true to whatever BioWare will bring in the shape of Mass Effect 5. Even there I had some idea (somewhere in my blog). The problem isn’t merely the bugs we faced in Andromeda (mostly PC) the design was shoddy. There were real moments of brilliance, but I feel that the wrong people tried to make a name for themselves and that went wrong. I set the stand for 5 to include 4 (or Andromeda) to give the fans something to bite into. And that would have created a much larger wave (my personal imagination). Now as we are given that it will not (speculated) come before 2028, people like Guerrilla will get a free reign with optionally gaming fans giving up on their Xbox (yay me). In any event, the set stage as I gave it in 2022 is now more robust as Microsoft has given us too little and Ubisoft has seemingly cancelled more than it released. Now the streamers will have their moment in creating the setting of a lifetime with the optional Tencent or the established Amazon Luna to create a new niche of millions of fans. I foresaw a first phase release of 50,000,000 consoles. With Microsoft only having sold 58 million there is a real state of transfer of gaming fans on a global stage. I envisioned a setting where that streaming solution could grace 150-200 million homes. The Microsoft BI group might want to say that this isn’t realistic, but as I didn’t fight the excellence of Sony or Nintendo. The streaming solution could be next to it, not replacing this. The very first mistake Microsoft made. And now as I have been correct a lot more than I was wrong, I feel certain that the ‘larger’ software houses seems to be ‘placed’ with the Microsoft mindset and we are now shown that it was the wrong mindset from the very beginning. Should Guerrilla also grace the streaming niche I reckon that some players might be going the way of investors of 1929 (read: jumping out of a window, not to be mistaken for a Russian suicide streak).

How wrong am I?

The interesting and valid question. The problem is that the media is not to be trusted. It is filled with stakeholders who need Microsoft to do well and they will downplay the drop of Microsoft. But the truth of the matter is that Microsoft and Ubisoft are seemingly run by Business Intelligence. It makes for a solid core, but excellence (in gaming) is never found that way. It is the creative mind that does that and not to forget the story writers as well. These elements are less seen in the games of today and again Guerrilla is the exception that establishes the rule. As such games of today, software houses of today are grasping back to yesterdays games to make up for that failing. There is also the need to replay the old games (a drive that is not to be underestimated). Yet as far as I can see the horizon, I believe to be correct and should Tencent decide to buy my IP, I will be able to prove it.

Have a wonderful Friday (Vancouver gets to see that in around 3 hours).

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October 23, 2024 · 23:11

Out of the blue

That is what happened. I had a stream of ideas out of the blue. I do not know what fuelled this. Was it reading about the failures of Ubisoft? Was it another setting? My mind went racing and I went back to 1995 and Tia Carrere. In that year she was part of The Daedalus Encounter. It was a fun game and I had fun laying it. But then a thought came to me. That game in 2024 could open other doors. Doors opened through machine learning and deeper machine learning (AI does not yet exist). The track my mind went through was interesting. You see, the movie world made rules for (what they call) AI. But this setting might not completely apply to games. 

Now consider the first stage of creating these kind of games using the technology complemented with Unreal Engine 5. We can make new versions of Rama, Infocom games, but now not as text games. More like Zork nemesis, with actors and actresses. Infocom created more than 20 games and they could now entice a much larger following. As the games develop new technology would also develop in creating games. The larger fun of this is that many more developers will get a handle on this form of game development. 

That brought me to the next level. In 1984 The Dallas Quest was developed. As such Datasoft created “one of the best games out on the CBM 64” and it held sway over pretty much the entire gaming community, even those who didn’t follow Dallas (example: me). We now have the technology for streaming systems to hold the sway of all who love this level of games. That wasn’t the only setting. You see players like Netflix could optionally create a new level of games using these technologies. The setting of of these new options could set in motion a new form of gaming. Consider what was. And now take another direction. Creation of these kind of games using TV series. Grimm, Babylon 5, Charmed, Buffy, Doll House and several other series that have been discontinued. Now consider the implementation of ChatGPT, and with a library for every character of that series. Now we get a new technology. A game where the player can be any character in that series and the interactions will shape the ‘episode’ of that game. That trend could be pushed forward. Now consider another venue of these games. Egyptian Musalsalat: A Social Construction of Reality has strength all over the Arabic world. Now take these elements and build the new template. An interactive game where the player decides on the route of the episode. In The Dallas Quest we needed to make choice, like finding the football tickets in the lobby, if not you get stuck in the game. Now machine learning will be able to avoid getting stuck. And the game can evolve even further. Consider the setting that Grimm has, millions of fans still love this series. Now they can continue their TV fling in this new direction. Consider the streaming solution and consider that I gave the option of 200 million consoles with the directions before I came up with this. Now it could become a whole new dimension of gaming. 

Oh, and whilst you contemplate how Ubisoft blew game after game and delay after delay I came up with this new idea (within two hours). Don’t get me wrong, this will be a complex undertaking and the idea to use the Infocom and the Dallas Quest first enables this technology to grow and to adapt to some sandbox approach. I believe this could entice millions more to the gaming population and it has options over time. There is even the idea that former adventures could be evolved into new versions on a new template in a new shape with new possibilities. What a difference a few hours make.

Have a great day.

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September 12, 2024 · 06:18

The attention an idea gets

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

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

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

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

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

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

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