I’ve become very interested in “redesigning the game, after I gather mass of data.”
(I guess it’d be neat to change a game on the fly while gathering usage feedback, but since the tools I would use aren’t going to be widespread anytime soon – much more interested in iterating on a game which can end up widely distributed). Continue reading “User Feedback based design, and Biometrics”
Author: vidHero
The lure/illusion of short time investments (re: game play)
Just commented on Christian Nutt’s feature at gamasutra : The Rise Of Dragon Age II.
I’ve been saying for years that “I’m just not an RPG guy” (though it seems I’ll avidly play every other genre). I think of it as a question of time : when I hear a game has more than 30 hours of gameplay – I hesitate to buy it. Because I know I won’t be experiencing everything it has to offer. (would you buy a DVD/Bluray if you knew some parts of the feature would be omitted?) Continue reading “The lure/illusion of short time investments (re: game play)”
copyright: Do copies need to be physical? (duplication vs. translation?)
Reading this “Did Watson Succeed On Jeopardy By Infringing Copyrights?” article got me thinking about copyright again.
Someone commented that OF COURSE google book scanning is copyright infringement. here is my (perhaps naive) reply: Continue reading “copyright: Do copies need to be physical? (duplication vs. translation?)”
Analyzing Fighting Forms (cameras, stats, private communities)
Would be cool if gyms sold videos as a standard service.
Just setup a couple flip cams around the room, covering the ring from all angles? When anyone steps into the ring, a recording starts (records to disk). Or maybe you trigger it by pressing a button before you start your sparring session. $2 to 5 bucks to download the giant raw recording via usb or simcard. maybe a couple more bucks for a dvd of it to be burned and delivered – next day. No restriction from recording your own videos for free, with your own equipment. This would just be a for-your-convenience cheapo service.
hmm.
HMMM!
and someday soon, you could setup kinect cameras, Continue reading “Analyzing Fighting Forms (cameras, stats, private communities)”
Marketing Concepts: the Calculated Climate Change of Bulletstorm
After reading Andrew Vanden Bossche’s High Aspirations for High Scores article on Gamasutra, I’m really surprised at all the ways Bulletstorm’s “Echoes mode” demo failed to hold my hand, and found it to be a major stumbling block in the game’s otherwise stellar promotion.
Would like to try and dissect the marketing experience so far, here: Continue reading “Marketing Concepts: the Calculated Climate Change of Bulletstorm”
Dickwolves, Rape Culture, Penny Arcade Fans and Fanatics
Apparently the crazed faceless masses of our dear internet have gone off the deep end about Penny Arcade’s attempts to not feel guilty.
They made a strip, the Sixth Slave, about the ignoble underlying nature of World of Warcraft players, and it somehow became a lightening rod for rape culture. (they followed up with a strip, Breaking It Down, about the lunacy of attributing the comic strip to the promotion of rape, which was then misconstrued as mocking rape victims). Refusing to back down, they proceed to sell a tshirt and pennant featuring a dickwolves mascot and sporty logo.
Here is an interesting summary of the community response, PAX Speakers Withdraw Over Controversy, by Alexander Bevier. I couldn’t resist offering my penny’s worth of thoughts:
If you wish to change the culture, I would encourage you to do the hard thing: and attend these PAX events.
Seek to speak there, and engage the gaming culture, instead of abandoning it to fester. Continue reading “Dickwolves, Rape Culture, Penny Arcade Fans and Fanatics”
Train Riding Bums: Beaten With Sledgehammers
Been working on a review of Emperor of the North all weekend. Seems like every time I sit down to tighten it up, I just write more. barf. sooo. here are my notes so far:
Emperor of the North : Review
Continue reading “Train Riding Bums: Beaten With Sledgehammers”
PreJudging Upcoming movies: Batman3, The Hobbit… and hot chicks in insane asylums!
Here is some unnecessary fan boy ranting about upcoming movies. In response to MovieBob’s blog post on The Escapist. I was pleased to try and counter the writer’s rampant pessimism (it’s like a mirror!) with some weird sardonic optimism. But then I felt the need to follow up. With nasty pessimism. wtf? I don’t know why I always end up getting so negative about things I enjoy (or expect to enjoy!). but. I spent some time writing it. so i feel the need to preserve it. in all it’s creative uglies: Continue reading “PreJudging Upcoming movies: Batman3, The Hobbit… and hot chicks in insane asylums!”
CES 2011 – Surface 2
This post is suppost to keep track of interesting news that’s shooting out left and right from CES this week. (Like Xolotl’s dying sperm shots in Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light). (the tragedy here, is that I don’t know ANYONE who cares about this CES tech shit half as much as I do)
Microsoft Surface version 2
(aka Samsung’s SUR40 tv) sounds awesome. AWESOME! I’m stunned this isn’t bigger news. … I guess people see it as a giant iPad that costs more than twice most high end tvs? (or they will soon? if they ever even hear about it?) butttttt. What’s really exciting is the “pixelsense” tech, which claims to be a bunch of camera sensors mixed in with the pixels, turning the whole display into a camera. Apple patented this years ago. but, microsoft made it. HMM! (actually, no one has laid out the tech exactly. who knows how many sensors there are).
I’ll rant more about below, after listing off some interesting tech announcements Continue reading “CES 2011 – Surface 2”
gore gaming (thoughts on the genre)
This post was originally ranted out at the Escapist forums, in response to Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw’s post/article about Splatterhouse and potential gore gaming mechanics:
I think what’s interesting about gore gaming is – the concept of sadism.
If video games are this magical invention that frees you to “do anything you can think of,” then why are you perpetrating all this gore?
Make the game focus on this. If you ignore this aspect of the experience (by making the game about a stylish world travelling treasure hunter, for example) then you’re robbing the gore of it’s punch. You’re making a different genre of game that happens to have some gore in it. which strikes me as lame/irresponsible. Continue reading “gore gaming (thoughts on the genre)”