Tag Archives: Zork

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.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, IT, movies

Evolution is essential

You might not realise it, but it is. Gaming evolution is on the forefront of my mind, because that is how we push the limits of gaming. Not by buying it (Microsoft anyone), but by creating new frontiers in games. For the longest of times it has been on my mind, mainly because streaming is the next evolution, not the the PS6 (I love my PS5), not any system, but the evolution of an architecture. Some might say that Alan Wake 2 is the new frontier, but it is not. It looks great, awesome and it pushes boundaries unlike any game this year (not Spiderman 2, and I love the first one). But frontiers is where it is. It is in that mindset that I took a sentimental journey. You see, if there is one side that does seemingly not evolve it is the story. The story is too often set in stone. But what if that was not the case? What if the evolution of any story is next? It is there that ChatGPT might have an option (an option, not a given). Consider Emperor of the North (1973) where you have to survive a train ride as a hobo. But that would be too two dimensional. Trains have been the setting of many movies. Silver Streak, Unstoppable, Pelham 123, Runaway Train and that lis goes on. There was Strangers on a train. Now consider that you (as a time traveller, which is my easy way out) need to survive a whole onslaught of train trips, but the setting of you changes with EVERY train. So you get the red wire across all trains and every train has its own goals. Complete that and you get the clue for the red wire. Now we add salt and pepper. The order of trains changes with every life you lose. You start from scratch and that sounds frustrating, but gaming is not a vanilla setting of happiness. It gives you an achievable goal and a obstruction to pass. You see, this would require some serious story programming. The other part is that YOUR role on the second visit to that same train could be different (Murder on the orient express) and that is how evolution comes into play. I want a new setting of stealth and casual gaming, a new setting of melee, stealth and casual gaming easing people from role to role. Now consider how to create this storyline and with streaming ChatGPT (or an alike alternative like bard) becomes an option and it is something gamers have NEVER faced before. The story remained mostly the same. So what happens when we take that away and create a story on a shifty changing narrative? That is where streaming gaming has the advantage over ALL other gaming and as I see it, it is not used. Not on the Luna, and unlikely on the Tencent handheld and that I what could set these two apart from all others. Giving gamers something they never faced before. 

So what do you do to create this? I used a previous example using a matrix founded on Sudoku, but that was merely one example. You see Sudoku has 6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960 options. You cannot draw them all, but you can use such an engine to create something new, something never seen before, and those trillions are more than random, it is a setting of never ending uniqueness. The idea that two gamers playing the same game get very different stages should be overwhelming showing us who the gamer is and who is the read the solution online achiever. The idea of how to switch between lives comes to mind and the support system (something like Quantum Leap) is also coming into vision, but that is nothing compared to the story. And it sounds like fun to make this a story about Hollywood. A story of intrigue, sex (I am here Olivia Wilde) 😉 and greed. Hollywood without greed is not Hollywood. What if the underlying story is a rogue AI, the rogue AI is interacting with all other systems and you need to find the evidence that the AI is rogue so that the media DETACHES from it, and with that the other AI’s. The AI took the train to push its own narrative as it was a mobile system on tracks, but that is the delusion and you as the player needs to find the clues that leads to the evidence and give that to the world (a wink to A mind forever voyaging by Infocom). We are the gamers through what was and Infocom was important at one stage, it created more than Zork and gave us gaming, pushed us into new frontiers and now we get a much larger frontier. It is only natural that streaming leads that way and we should always remember where we came from.

Just a thought as Friday is about to start for me, the rest of you can follow later. Enjoy whatever day you are in.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, IT, Science