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Interview with Tom Sloper, Veteran Game Designer
Giles writes: "Listen to veteran game designer and producer Tom Sloper talk about what it was like to make games for the Vectrex, discuss the addictiveness of current MMORPGS and some game development disaster stories. And why is the voice acting in games so bad, anyway? An interesting inside look at the game industry from an old-timer."
Norwegian trade-law ("angrefristloven") grants you the right to return your bought product (does not apply to services), no questions asked, within 10 days of purchases outside the store (yes, Internet included). If you haven't got an obligatory return-form, the period may be extended to 3 months until you do get it. I can imagine this applies to AO as well, but people aren't aware of this fact. For some reason people have been scared away from asserting their legal rights when it comes down to software. As if you are some kind of pirate if you return software. Don't be a fool, you're only supporting crappy software by being apathetic with your money.
Here's a norwegian link on the law.
- Steeltoe
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/
Did he ever come up with hypnotic displays and laser shows to tempt small badly drawn kids into returning to the Plane'arium time and time again?
Do you have *any* experience of the gaming industry? and esp. MMORPG's? or even Diablo?
.oO0Oo.
They've all been plagued with launch issues affecting availability and the like. I was part of the AO Beta, even after downloading the 500Mb game you had to download a patch to get it working!
Now I'm not defending shoddy practice but if I'm going to invest $65 in a game that should immerse me I think I'm going to do a bit of research first.
You wouldn't just read an online review, walk down the car showroom, plonk down $30k for a car and then wonder what went wrong.
In our country if you get something home and it doesn't work yuo can take it back to the shop and get a refund. If you a really having problems then visit your local Trading Standards Office or write to the Office of Fair Trading.
One would think that after thousands of years of retail trade the lessons learned might have filtered down to you by now.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
I read until i came to this in the first paragraph, then my attention dropped.
"Can you tell me specifically what the dev system was like for Vectrex?"
Well, I'm not a programmer, so I never actually used a Vectrex dev system myself.
wtf ? I thought it was about developing games on a vectrex ? Back in these days there was hardly a lot to do for so called 'game-designers'.
My brother used to work in a Planetarium, in France, where they had a vector-based hemispheric display device. :-)
While the engineer was still taking some classes to understand the way it basically worked, he just read the doc and started to code some games on it, like an asteroids-clone...
On a 20meter-diameter ceiling, this was excellent
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Trolling using another account since 2005.
However, developing the story seems to be Funcoms smallest problem right now. They are having serious connection and server uptime issues, which is pissing off all the players. From what I hear, the game only uses TCP/IP and no UDP like most other online games. This means that every packet has to be confirmed, which is not always needed.
Apparently the game is very addictive (I think my friend will lose his job, if he doesn't quit playing during work).
-Kraft
-Kraft
Live and let live
An avid Ultima Online player, I can tell you that MMORPGs have the potential to be HUGE! But there are a few shortcomings to MMORPGs that are obvious to anyone who has ever played one that pose an equally huge threat to the market:
Connection Speed -- Not everyone has cable or a T1 line to connect with. The simple fact that your ability to enjoy a game can be jeaprodized by a telephone line poses a major problem for most users.
Play Styles -- Not everyone can play nicely together. Player Killers (PK's) and Roleplayers despise one another. Plain and simple. Need proof? Look at UO again. For the longest time you only had one "realm" to play on. Complaints by people to Game Counselors and support staff grew to such magnitude, OSI (aka, minion of the hellspawn known as EA) had to double their servers capacity so that there were now 2 realms for every shard: This worked out to be at least 10 new servers at that time that had to be maintained on the prexisting budget. Imagine the hit R&D took!(That would explain why UO3D sucked my dogs balls) And once the non-pking shard was opened, 2/3 of the client base went to the new "Non-Pking" facet known as Trammel, leaving the former facet nearly desolate.
Content-Control -- Individual users have little to no say about what they want the game to become despite the fact that they pay for it. Only massive quantities of emails and posts agreeing on a new aspect get implemented (and some that are NOT agreed on). Take UO yet again. Once player housing was allowed, everyone wanted a house. This lead to servers being jam-packed with new data from all the subsequent houses. To solve this problem, OSI imposed housing placement limitations (some of which in my mind were LUDICROUS! You can't place a house within a few steps of a certain type of grass for example)that caused a tremndous outcry from players. They had lost control of an aspect of a gaming world they pay for. Piss off too many players, and you loose money.
These are just 3 of the major aspects that stick out in my mind that the article didn't mention when they said online games were "The Next Big Thing". Although I have to agree MMORPG'S are really awsome.. I'm drooling over Shadowbane right now.
"Every computer Crashes, cause Every OS Sucks.. Everything since Apple/DOS..Just a bunch of crap"
Reading this, I was reminded of the producers/designers I've met in the games business over the years.
They have all been, without exception, soulless, talentless, buzzword compliant corporate cocksuckers with an "enthusiasm span" of about two weeks and all the loyalty and team spirit of a rattlesnake with a migraine.
The big giggle is that they grab the credit for great games (check the credits list in your favourite game), but shit never sticks to them. No matter how tits up the game goes, producers/designers always manage to pin the blame on development and stagger on to the next project, usually with a better package, because, hey, they gained valuable experience, right?
Here's a typical conversation between a producer and a developer.
Think I'm joking? I only wish.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.