http://google.com/profiles/kafka47/

Sometimes, I want to blast out content easily. Actually, let me qualify that. Using the word content for what I post in Twitter or (now) Google’s Buzz is very much using the word loosely.
At any rate, I just want to blast out ’stuff’ easily. Thoughts. Ideas. Sightings. Photos. Links. Rants. I think you get what I’m saying. I hope you get what I’m saying. When I joined Twitter in 2007, I thought that would be “the place” to do it. After a few years, I have found Twitter to be mind-numbingly AWFUL to use. 140-character limit? Photos in a separate place? Links shortened? Shitty clients as a gadget in the corner of my Gmail?

Now that Twitter has done the impossible and carved out a niche among even the most non-nerd of nerds out there, you’d think there’d be some improvements over what it was (in 2007). And as more and more tweets are beamed out, I have found the volume, the searchability, and the readership make it almost unusable. With the character-limit, many of the tweets I follow are abbreviated into something akin to a smear of text and letters from a ritalin-injected highschooler on their iphone. Do you understand this pain?

Google buzz. It’s clean. It’s easy. It’s integrated. And I could post this in Gbuzz if I wanted to. Twitter would look like… “#Googlebuzz i luv gbz bc it iz clean n coo oh n #twitter sucks 4 me”

#1 Dragon Age : Origins



From the RPG experts comes Dragon Age : Origins. The excitement I have for this has not waned over the years, in fact the various YouTube developer previews have exceeded my expectations. The combat looks plain fun, together with a rich detail in environments, spell effects and gritty melee action. It’s obviously a heavily story-driven game, so I’m hoping it isn’t too cutscene heavy. This is my next game purchase and I can’t wait to have a go!

#2 Torchlight



Torchlight came out of nowhere, and I’m honestly not sure where I heard about it. For the quick and fun Diablo-style dungeon crawl, this will be a nice ‘casual’ game to break out once in a while, as the content randomization doesn’t suggest I need to remember any story arc or quest objectives. I lament the lack of anything multiplayer, but I did enjoy it’s spiritual predecessor, “Fate”. Just something to tie me over until Diablo 3.

#3 Borderlands



This one got my attention recently. The “RPG and Shooter made a baby” tagline is an idea whose arrival was only a matter of time. The “RP Shooter” aspect is displayed readily, and is easily grasped right away. It’s a shooter, but as you ‘level up’ you’re obviously taking on bigger challenges and pouring out more damage and extra abilities. I like the idea of a small co-op mission-based style of game, ala Left4Dead. And I have to say the trailers are pretty funny.

… more later!

According to RPS, this may be in the works. Per http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/09/26/sony-to-develop-planetside-2/.

As a somewhat seasoned (but inexpert) Planetside player (CR4), Planetside had a great mix of teamplay, massive battles, and a wide variety of individual player choice (specializations, vehicles, objectives). It’s probably one of my favourite games of all time. I moved on when it was clear the game was dying a slow death (empty servers, etc.).

My thinking on PS2:

• A PVE axis that contributed to the overall battle (and your XP). This was planned for, and never implemented in the original. There was a real lack of solo content in PS, and this would have really helped.
• Better base design, thus removing the layout silliness that players would exploit. Also base placement was a huge problem, very odd design decisions were made in that regard.
• Better LFM/LFG system. Enough of the hunting for extra squad members.
• Proximal VOIP system would allow you to shout at nearby players to get them moving. Teamspeak was great if you were already grouped, however the whole server couldn’t be on your TS server.
• If the game has a “Command” specialization that allowed them special privilege to direct the battle, then reward players who following your orders. This would ecourage better organization and get groups moving in the same direction. Having more people on one side of a battle made all the difference.
• Reward the support activities of players who chose to perform roles that don’t involve battle. The ANT drivers and the GAL pilots should be encouraged, not excluded.
• Outfit/Guild Housing is absolutely required. The implementation of Outfits was an aborted design, obviously. There must be clear benefits to joining an Outfit and sticking with it. And then rewarding the successful ones. A game built around teamplay should structure itself around the entire concept of “Team”.

The list goes on, now that I start thinking about it. Planetside was THE GAME that realised the goal of most MMO games. Massive battles, massive coordination, esprit de corps, and most of all, fun! I miss that game.

I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.

There are three titles that may appear with great frequency as one meanders the gaming news these days. Each are certainly worth discussing on their own, simply on the merits of having such attention bestowed upon them. However, there is a common thread to be pulled from these stories in particular. These companies, and their gaming products, are faced with tremendous obtacles. The bigger and better they become, the harder it is to grow beyond . In essence, their fight is a fight against themselves. Success can be a cruel instructor. Read on to see what I mean.

Blizzard’s WoW Zeitgeist (Austin, GDC)
http://www.wow.com/2009/09/17/agdc09-blizzard-talks-about-world-behind-warcraft/

There’s no background needed here. The behind-the-scenes peeks at Blizzard are rare, and consistently fascinating. This recent presentation highlights aspects of their infrastructure and organization, none of which is particularly surprising at all. But still impressive. To call it anything but a ‘campaign’ would do Blizzard a disservice. They are engaged, they are worthy, and they are very very busy:

• ~13,000 server blades
• 4,500 employees
• 180,000 bug entries
• etc. etc. and etc.

It’s equally impressive that behind all of the maintaining, extending, and innovating, there is a storm going on. They’re on the front lines fighting the battle that is WoW, but also in the back room, concocting what will be it’s successor.

In the MMORPG space, who do they really have to fight against? In Blizzard’s terms, there is only one enemy to WoW, and that is WoW itself. We all know that raising the bar is something that Blizzard knows how to do; they’ve done it quite a few times. Yet, in challenging WoW it isn’t enough just to raise that bar, they have to move it. And Blizzard’s track record won’t help them. It’s an interesting thought.

How they’d accomplish that is anyone’s guess, but the first job of the designers of this new property would be, in essence, to KILL WoW. They have to design the game in such a way that it suddenly obviates the limits and the failings of their juggernaught. More on this later, it’s a favourite topic.

Operation Flashpoint : Dragon Rising

The original Operation Flashpoint was a victory for European developers. Years and years ago, before the ascendancy of Crytek and Codemasters, this game was released. And it was really really good, as far as tactical squad-based shooters go. In line with Blizzard’s own challenge of one-upping itself, Codemasters must find a way to replicate the quality and scope of the original Operation Flashpoint in modern terms. The challenge of translating a rather primitive shooter to a modern FPS masterpiece is daunting.

Unlike Blizzard, Codemasters is re-entering the market to find it very crowded indeed. But their real enemy is their previous property because the original OFP was a defining product in this space (in my opinion) without real peer. So they’ve amplified all that was good in the original, expanded, and innovated. The result, again, is anyone’s guess. However, viewing the videos and promotional material, it really looks like this has been done. Codemasters will do battle against itself October 9th, yet it’s clear to me this is an easy battle. Their previous property is long-gone, thus eliminating the need to “kill” anything of the old game at all. It’s doubtful we’ll bother look at the original OFP ever again, and OFP2 will be a success.

NCSoft’s Aion
http://www.massively.com/2009/09/17/aion-is-the-single-most-pre-ordered-mmo-this-year/

I beta-tested a “port” of a Korean game to the western world before. ‘Overlord’ was an immense game, and the challenge of converting a product of such scope and density was evident. The play experience was nothing short of painful, and the game quickly faded from consciousness. However, here comes NCSoft with Aion, a “sweeping fighting fantasy epic” with tens of thousands of quests, artwork, NPCs, PvP, etc. And thus another “cultural port” looms for MMORPG gamers in the western world.

NCSoft has a good reputation (despite some misses in recent history). They know what quality is, and they understand the how singularly important this is in the minds and hearts of gamers, quite like Blizzard. So while I personally don’t wish to lay quick judgement upon their latest creation, I am not positive it’s going to work. They already have numerous successful gaming properties, yet by far the clear leader is Guild Wars. It’s hard to think about NCSoft and not think GW. It’s a big gamble, because they’re forging ahead with new properties in the face of GW’s prominence in our minds. Rest assured, the release will settle the matter. I don’t see any effort to move the bar that GW set at all, and that is a critical mistake.

–

In these examples, there lays a reasonable conclusion : in the quest for greater success, a more immediate success is your enemy. Addressing it (as Blizzard is likely to) improves your chance. Ignoring it (as NCSoft clearly is) is sure to spell disaster.

Anyhow. Thoughts coming. I’m motivated this time! Thanks for (not) reading!

/covert