covert.creations

I’m jumping off the fence for a while on the gameblogging thing, and thought that perhaps rather than just idly thinking my thoughts about Games, I should just post them!

So covertcreations is back and I’m not liking the look of this site anymore. I intend on making a few custodial changes and fixing it up again! Is this a new years resolution? I hope not, or it will never get done! Hah!

My Top Five Memorable Gaming Moments of 2008 :

5. Leading a guild in World of Warcraft.

I had a reasonably strong guild in Warcraft (Bonechewer) only because as a rogue, the chances of being invited to raids was very low. So I decided that starting groups gave me a better chance, and for better or for worse I ended up with a guild out of it. Good times through 2008. Weird times, too. Warcraft is a game of rather broad scope, and the polish makes it enjoyable to play. However, the strong social vector that is present can be a boon and a bust for many things. The role of guild leader that I found myself in taught me a bit of politics and annoyingly, a lot of skill in appeasement. I’ll write more guild anecdotes later, but for now Warcraft was firmly entrenched in my gaming life in 2008…

4. Casual games on Facebook.

I went from Srabulous to Scramble to Word Twist and Word Challenge. Ultimately, the best game was ‘Who has the biggest brain”. Unfortunately for me, I plateaued at a certain stage with no hope of ever beating some of my esteemed facebook friends, as one is a certified genius from high school that routinely memorized entire encyclopedias and solved rubik’s cubes in under 20 seconds. AD&D made a brief appearance on FB this year as well. It was an aborted turn-based questing game that was somewhat entertaining, if not a little flawed. What one COULD do on Facebook with D&D gets my gears turning. More on that later!

3. RSA lose the token deal to VASCO on the Blizzard Authenticators.

Ouch. I was hoping this was a big chance for RSA to get into gaming security. Alas, to no avail. We are just too expensive for Blizzard. Vasco won it, and now you can do 2-factor authentication into Warcraft. And as I said a long time ago – this is GOOD security!

2. Not being able to log into WARHAMMER after changing my password!

WAR was interesting and entertaining. But I was really pissed that after changing my password that I could no longer log in. After hiatus, I’m sure I will return. However my friends in the game seem to be already trickling back to WoW. I’d like to see some good Planetside-style MMO action in WAR, but I don’t have my hopes up. And I’m only level 7 or something… who has time for all this stuff?

AND

1. Counterstrike!

So with my new leet gaming rig, I decided to log CS:S for a night. And I haven’t stopped! It’s crazy and intolerable just like it ever was, however it’s still a boatload of fun that I can’t seem to give up. Really, I wonder.. how OLD is this game??

So there you have it. My top 5 list for the year and the first content post in at least 2!

Happy New Year!
/covert

So long without a peep in this blog, so I intend that will be rectified soon. Very soon, in fact!

As real life intervenes in one form or another, the blogging world seems to shrink in relative importance. I suppose that’s a common ailment.

But having left my limited readership bereft of any content of any significance in a very long time, I’ll just say, “if you’re reading this sorry about that!”. I’m going to start updating with some amount of regularity again.

Yours in blogging (again)
Craig

Woot we’re back!

I intended on posting a warning and then leave the site for a month, but Yahoo acted a little quicker than I imagined (a lot, actually!). They took it down within the hour. Conversely, they were very slow bringin’ it back.

And I didn’t even have the common decency to give you a 404. Sorries =/

Anyhow, lets get back to the gamin’!

Cheers…

A series of business miscues… and the last vestiges of a rational gaming press have finally succumbed to the forces of stupidification.

Computer Games Magazine, my favourite magazine in the industry (and quite possibly, ever) has fallen. It takes with it another promising venture, Massive Magazine.

Tom Chick, Henry Jenkins, Cindy Yans, and a host of other fantabulous writers and illustrators will now presumably move to other places to share their insights (or hilarity, depending on which you’re looking for).

It’s hard to describe what a stunning loss this is for me. I even shipped a select boxload of back-issues to Australia. And up until this month, a nice treat would arrive monthly in my email – the digital edition.

It was a magazine that reinforced the notion that games are not just for teenagers and nut-jobs, but “normal” adults like you and I (yeah right!).

Many people have had their say, so I’ll just post a couple comments from CGOnline’s forums.

CG, ye will be missed. Massive, we barely knew ye.

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I made three images, summing up my thoughts on “now-gen”.

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A big thank-you

Two years, 56 posts, and my adventure in ascii gaming continues.

On this very happy anniversary, I get to pause, poke my head out of the sand, and begin the flagellation.

First off, I’d like to extend a welcome to many new readers, and thank some old ones. For your great patience as you’ve slogged through lengthy articles over these two years… a sincere thank-you!! I really appreciate it.

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As mentioned in my previous article, gamers expect a community from the game publisher. In a sense, this demonstrates the unique position of videogames in the landscape of entertainment. Consequentially, feedback and community become a cost of doing business.

I believe we’re quickly reaching the point where publisher-run communities no longer serve their purpose. The communities are too vast. Moreover, the gamers themselves have evolved toward a deeper level of sophistication. Gamers are the reason we’ve come this far, and we simply demand more.

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The nature of things

When online gaming was getting started, there was a certain novelty in spending vast swathes of time with the same people on the same game servers, night after night. It seemed inevitable that we’d eventually all team up. And team up we did. Forming groups is the most basic of human qualities, and is certainly no less true in virtual worlds.

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Is there a point where pure expertise takes you far from the elemental principles of your subject? Such that your perspective actually becomes skewed? It’s an interesting question, and certainly a difficult one. History is replete with experts that get blindsided by innovation or worse, redundancy.

When listening to someone as clearly expert as John Carmack, it’s absolutely clear that there are few that can exceed his knowledge or experience in graphics technology. Every year, John delivers the keynote at his own QuakeCon convention. It’s somewhat of an industry joke that no one really understands what he says there. His whole manner exudes someone totally steeped in technology (more specifically, graphics technology). It’s always interesting, even if you don’t fully grasp every last ounce of his wisdom. He gets up, delivers a clinically fascinating speech, and leaves.

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Innovation is surprising. It’s not something for which we already have a front-row seat. Its the thing that leaps out of the darkness, hitting us straight in the mouth. And we’re happy for it. Cold water can be good, it wakes us out of our reverie. The next wave. I see the wishful promises across print, spun out of relentless animated GIFs, flooding across the wires, and streamed into my home. Wireless and Mobile Entertainment. “Come”, they say. “Let us show you nextgen”. I walked through a door once, beckoned by my host. Someone was talking. “Craig, here’s the future.”

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