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Re:Support by RubberChainsaw · 2003-06-12 06:07 · Score: 2, Interesting · on Profile of a Hard-Core Gamer

Oooh, good question. Its so rarely that I am qualified to respond to a post on /. I'm a game designer, I've been part of several online projects, currently working on this one. I know its not a huge title and its pretty old, but I hope it lends some credibility to my post.

Firstly there is the problem of employment. I'm sure other posters have mentioned it, but ULtima Online had a program where players would volunteer to guide people and handle some basic customer service. This was a pretty typical program that was in place in other persistant commerical multiplayer games at the time, such as EverQuest or GemStone3. EA was eventually sued by the people who were a part of that program. They claimed they were being treated as employees and should get employee benefits. When this happened, the player volunteer program in my game at the time was curtailed. Nobody wants to have to defend a lawsuit. Lawyers are too damn expensive!
I believe AOL had a similar suit filed agaist them by their volunteers.

Aside from legal issues, its very risky to give players any enhanced power or responsibility within the game world. MMOG Players are often not very nice people. These games bring out the worst in people. I know, I see the support emails about friends stealing items, passwords, etc. I read the chatlogs filled with hateful, vicious comments. Upset or angry players will write the most obscene emails they can, saying how much they hate the game and they'll never play it again, only to turn around a few days later and plead to get their account and characters back.

In short, players are often very unpredictable. Even the most seemingly well-mannered people will have their moments (we all do, its human nature). They could disagree with a new item or skill and feel insulted that they "weren't listened to", "being ignored", etc. Or worse, there could be outside issues affecting the players life, and they have a breakdown within the game. When things like this happen it will hurt business, give a bad image of the game, and scare away new players (which are the most important ones). EverQuest might not have a problem absorbing it, being that they have close to half a million accounts. But as the number of accounts decreases, these outbursts have a more potent effect.

Then compare the problems to the potential benefits, which are reletively small. Some active characters to enhance the roleplaying atmosphere of a roleplaying game are certainly good things to have.. but data from my games has shown that the impact of feature characters isn't signifigant. Players mostly want new items, new things to play with, and new areas (in that order). And as the population of a game scales up, so must the number of active feature characters.. adding more risk and potential problems. As well as organizational problems. Each of these players will have their own ideas on how the game world should develop. It takes some pretty tight reigns and a watchful eye to make sure that they aren't taking things in a direction you don't want to go. That monitoring takes resources which most teams just don't have. Maintaining an online games takes alot of time.. its much worse than any "normal business" project I was a part of. But its fun, most of the time.

I understand the idea. Its an idea that everyone has. In fact it was one of the first things I suggested when I was hired as a designer for my first online game, and I was given this speech then (minus the lawsuit stuff, of course).

In the end, it would be really nice to have the extra hands helping with the game. The risks and resources required do not outweigh the disadvantages.

One thing to note, though, is that the mmog Shadowbane has done something along the lines of what was suggested. They have hired a team to play Feature Characters on their servers. Since they are hired employees

Re:ET not in top 5? by Mupp252 · 2003-06-11 09:29 · Score: 1 · on The 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming

Because it's not making a profit. No, sorry, simple as that, you can't argue. Games consoles are supposed to make a profit. The Xbox makes a huge loss for Microsoft. That's a mistake. In fact it would be a fatal mistake for almost any company except for Microsoft.

Do you have any documentation to back this up? It's true that Microsoft took somewhere close to a $150 blow to the face when it launched it's console but that's the past. You really think Microsoft would just drop the cost of their system if they were still losing that amount of money? Of course not. How much was a 10 gig hard drive and a Nvidia GeForce 3 card back when the Xbox was launched? Now compare that to the prices now. Like all electronic hardware the price drops. This means it now costs less money to buy these parts, hence, less of a loss for producing the console. I'd almost bet Microsoft isn't losing money anymore on selling the system. Which brings me back to my original question. Do you have any documentation backing this up?

Microsoft didn't "fuck up" as you mentioned. They prepared for the future. That's why it's not a good idea for unknown companies like Idreama with shaky financial backings to enter the console market. You have to be able to blow away the competition from start to finish. If the Xbox was sold at no loss when it was launched chances are it would've lacked the performance of other competing consoles. That would then make gamers less apt to playing it and more likely to reject the Xbox.

It's been longer than 5 years. by Anonymous Coward · 2003-06-11 07:42 · Score: 2, Informative · on Duke Nukem Versus Take Two?

CNN article: "Take Two believes that a five-year development cycle is more than enough time to complete a game." Five years?!? Actually, it's been more like seven years. 3D Realms first bought a Quake 2 engine license to build the game on, and development began before Half Life came out. A recent Gamespy article summed up the situation best: "The now-legendary Quake and Unreal series hadn't even been launched when the Duke 3D shareware first came out. The 3D hardware acceleration boom hadn't even begun yet! Is there any legitimate reason 3DRealms hasn't been able to develop a single game since Duke 3D?"

Re:A couple places to start by Q+Who · 2003-06-11 07:36 · Score: 2, Informative · on The Little Coder's Predicament

Nobody is programming Doom III in anything except C, assembly, and maybe some C++.

Doom III engine is written in C++.

You must be kidding by soramimicake · 2003-06-10 04:13 · Score: 5, Informative · on Anandtech Dissects The New iPod

The new firmware also comes with a couple of new games; back from the original iPod is breakout (called "Brick" for some reason), which is a toned down version of the arcade original - Arkanoid.

Arkanoid the original? Atari's Breakout predates Arkanoid by years. And that Atari game have, shall we say, some ties with the company that brings you the iPod.

BTW, there was a version of it on the Apple ][ as well.

David Hufford by cgenman · 2003-06-09 01:52 · Score: 2, Insightful · on Half-Life 2 Not On Xbox?

David Hufford, a product manager in Microsoft's Xbox group, said the Media Center PC remains the central digital entertainment hub of the home, at least to Microsoft's thinking. ... Hufford said it's easier for Microsoft to innovate its console with new add-ons like Music Mixer because the Xbox has a built-in hard drive that easily stores new digital entertainment applications.

We have a product manager who actually believes in the "Media PC," who believes a karoke software product is an original add-on which will sell a videogame, and who refers to "innovating [the] console" by writing software.

Obviously, Mr. Hufford could use a tighter grasp on reality. For example, here is an interview snippet ripped from Gamespy.

David Hufford: My name is David Hufford and I work on the Marketing team at Xbox, so my primary job is to market all things Xbox, including this new game controller.

GameSpy: What are you calling this new controller?

David Hufford: We're calling it Xbox Controller S.

GameSpy: What does the S stand for?

David Hufford: Well, there's not a lot of science behind it, it's more of an art thing. I think we were all in a room and thought it would be a cool name, so we just came up with it.

Sounds brilliant, doesn't he?

Actually, that one is taken a bit out of context. He doesn't flub the rest of the interview, and he doesn't flub the other interviews available for googling (though he does use the phrases "super-hot" and "kicks butt" too often for someone in a professional communications position). So he does sound like he is qualified to talk about whether or not Half-Life 2 will make the console, although he's equally likely to be one of the people who described Microsoft BOB as a "totally awesome innovation, dude."

After all of that tortureous and unnecessary deconstruction of the messenger, it isn't that surprising that Half-Life 2 wouldn't make the big X. The bare minimum specs have always hovered around the XBox level: 700 Mhz CPU with a good DX6 card. And, sadly, the minimum specs for computer games are generally set at what will actually physically play the game, albeit at 320x240 and 5 frames per second. If the XBox is at the minimum specs for the game, the XBox will be too slow to play it satisfactorily.

Sure by sebi · 2003-06-01 23:00 · Score: 2, Insightful · on Megaman - Network Transmission Analyzed

Is there still room for side-scrollers, in this age of incredible 3D worlds with incredibly realistic world physics?

Not if they seem to be as badly done as this one. But looking at the praise that 'Viewtiful Joe' seems to get from those that have seen it, I think that the genre is not dead yet. As everywhere else developers still need to innovate, but provided they do I don't need incredible realistic world physics. Let me run faster and jump higher than I can do in the even more realistic world I live in. Otherwise I wouldn't need to play games.

Re:Chrzzzzz... by NickV · 2003-06-01 15:00 · Score: 1 · on Metroid - Zero Mission Previewed

You're right.. the GBA is a BIG "let's re release games to a portable platform from our glory days" type of platform. But if you want an innovate, completely different type of game for the GBA, check out Wario Ware.... it's awesome. And, it's like nothing you've seen before.

coicidence by Savatte · 2003-05-27 07:49 · Score: 1 · on Game Originality: Any Left?

Just today, a friend sent me a link to cool looking game that I guess premiered at E3 The Movies I think its a little like The Sims, but this time you are making a movie. And you get to see what the trailer of your finished product will look like. Looks neat.

It is our own fault by Tighe_L · 2003-05-27 07:47 · Score: 1 · on Game Originality: Any Left?

The reason that we have all these unoriginal games is becuase we don't buy the ones are truly original.

Many of use are fanboys (including myself, I refuse to buy an Xbox), which gets in the way of buying that game that is truly original. My co-worker really likes Wario Ware Inc. but will not buy it becasue it is what he calles a "Kiddie Game".

It the hype maches too, I EB employee almost talked me into buying Matrix Reloaded: Enter the Matrix , but fortunately I went home and read a review!

phew!

Speaking of which the largest ET for the Atari 2600 like games is the Playstation 1-2. You are taking a serious risk buying a game for the PS with out renting it first. I have boughten some real stinkers for the PS, based on reviews.

There are a few companies I trust when it comes to games, and here is my short list:

Capcom
Sega
Nintendo
SNK
Natsume
Retro Studios
Factor Five
Konami

These are companies I know I can trust, but there are others that make good games.

It is our own fault by Tighe_L · 2003-05-27 07:47 · Score: 1 · on Game Originality: Any Left?

The reason that we have all these unoriginal games is becuase we don't buy the ones are truly original.

Many of use are fanboys (including myself, I refuse to buy an Xbox), which gets in the way of buying that game that is truly original. My co-worker really likes Wario Ware Inc. but will not buy it becasue it is what he calles a "Kiddie Game".

It the hype maches too, I EB employee almost talked me into buying Matrix Reloaded: Enter the Matrix , but fortunately I went home and read a review!

phew!

Speaking of which the largest ET for the Atari 2600 like games is the Playstation 1-2. You are taking a serious risk buying a game for the PS with out renting it first. I have boughten some real stinkers for the PS, based on reviews.

There are a few companies I trust when it comes to games, and here is my short list:

Capcom
Sega
Nintendo
SNK
Natsume
Retro Studios
Factor Five
Konami

These are companies I know I can trust, but there are others that make good games.

huh? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-05-27 05:54 · Score: 5, Informative · on Hacking Enter The Matrix

controversial? huh?

I'm confused, because a patch is released for a game and there is very little press about the game, that makes it controversial? the game was released right during the heart of E3, most websites more than likely had their hands full with E3.

reviews are now plentiful now that E3 is over, you can find just a few of them here, here and here.

Mike

Completely correct. by Inoshiro · 2003-05-23 06:04 · Score: 1 · on ATI vs. NVIDIA: ATI Steals the Show

Most 3D developers nowadays are still writting simplistic, low-poly, engines that don't work any worse on single-pass, single-texture cards. A lot of computer games have very high sounding system requirements, but play fine on older hardware. Similarly, a lot of multiplatform titles are written for the PS2 (the weakest of all consoles), and shoddily ported the GCN, Xbox, and PC (Enter the Matrix).

I only know of a few developrs who are targetting hardware that does single-pass, multitexturing, proper dynamic lighting, pixel shading, and so on. At least most of the games that come out that aren't super-awesome looking have good gameplay, unlike most of the worst LCD offenders.

Re:Great move for the companies all around by Babbster · 2003-05-21 12:09 · Score: 2, Informative · on Capcom, Sega Drop Gamecube Software Prices

I used the word "perception" mainly in reference to visual quality. Unfortunately, most multi-console Xbox games are developed first for the PS2 and then ported up. As Itagaki of Team Ninja at Tecmo points out, most ports end up relying on the Xbox graphics subsystem to improve the game (in terms of, for example, hardware anti-aliasing) and don't tweak the game at all to take full advantage of what the Xbox has to offer.

Even more striking is the fact that a few games (most notably the recent Need for Speed 2: Hot Pursuit) can actually SUFFER in the transition because the developers don't optimize their code for Xbox at all. This can result in games that are even worse for the Xbox than the PS2 because of sloppiness.

Overall, though, games are indeed better on Xbox if only because most developers are smart enough to enable Dolby Digital. It's the one area where I think Xbox completely blows away the competition - Pro Logic II and software DTS (in rare PS2 games) are just no competition. Even when games ignore the center channel (which happens too often), the level of sonic immersion is immeasurably better on the Xbox.

Anyway, my point is that multi-console people should find out as much as they can from users, pro reviews, etc. before settling on which version of a multi-console game they will get instead of assuming that the Xbox version will be a lot better...Unless it has Xbox Live compatibility, in which case the choice is absolutely crystal clear. :)

This Year's E3... by Baron_911 · 2003-05-19 07:33 · Score: 5, Interesting · on Gaming Sites Sum Up E3

Although there was a gigantor amount of games shown at E3 this year, it didn't seem like there were any huge groundbreaking games shown, at least nothing that got websites' panties in a bunch. Lots of part 2's and 3's... Overall, though, lots of good showings. Here are some of the games I thought stood out: (Besides the obvious HL2, Doom3, etc..)

Evil Genious: Sounds really good. I have this wanna-be-evil bug in me since Dungeon Keeper, and this looks to fill it. Although it would be nice to see a villian game minus the humor. I wanna be a serious evil genious!

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time: Big fan of the original, so I hope the new one does it justice. Although the remaking old games trend is wearing a bit thin, this one seems rather exceptional.

Sam & Max: Freelance Police: OMG! A new Sam and Max!!! This was one of my all time favorite PC Games back in the day, and the trailer for the new one seems to keep the same themes and witty banter that i've come to know and love (and randomly quote on a regular basis)(side note: new Full Throtle looks good too :)

Star Ocean:Till the End of Time: Gotta give respect to the non-SquareNix RPG's showing. This game looks especailly promissing. I played the previous Star Ocean, and liked it, but this game seems to be bringing the series a bit more up to date. The real-time battle system sounds pretty good, and graphics are great! Definatly one to watch for RPGamers.

CUSTOM ROBO!!!: Big Robots. You build em. Fighting! *drooool*

Tony Hawk Underground: Hrm... could be really cool, or could be GTA with skateboards... Although I was really curious when I read 'create-a-trick' mode! WTF! Could be really cool. Must have Online mode though!!! Plus it's acronym is THUG... sweet...

River City Ransom EX: YESYESYES!!! River City Ransom was THE BEST Nes game! Hands down! Nothing equates to the sheer pleasure derived from beating enemies sensless with a body at like 30 times a second! FWAPFWAPFWAP!

Well those are some titles I thought deserved some more attention. I left out some obvious choices (FF Tactics Adv, MGS3 + TS, etc...) but those games will rule as well.