You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September, 2006.
X06,
Microsoft’s gaming conference, is serving as the platform for a ton of announcements. Here are some items that caught my eye:
- Cryptic, developer of City of Heroes/Villains, and Marvel announced that they’re teaming up to do Marvel Online. This is amusing given that Marvel was, until recently, suing Cryptic for facilitating copyright infringement.
- Peter Jackson has teamed up with Microsoft to work on two games. One is going to be set in the Halo universe (though not as part of the Halo trilogy) and one will be an original creation by Jackson’s in-development new interactive studio, Wingnut Interactive.
- Guitar Hero II is confirmed for the 360. Everybody knew this already anyway, of course, but woot! Of course, this means I’ll have to buy the game twice, as the 360 version looks to be launching after the PS2 version. It’s also apparently not a port. It’s been re-written for the 360. Downloadable content ahoy! If they put a good selection of songs up for download, I know that I, among many others, will end up spending more money downloading songs than the game itself originally cost. God, I cannot wait. Earth Eternal is going to have to do without me on Guitar Hero II release day.
- The original Doom is on Xbox Live Arcade, with 2-4 player co-op mode and everything! I will be buying this.
I’m 
sure most of you have seen this, but I had to comment. Uwe Boll, director of uniformly horrendous movies based on video games (House of the Dead, Bloodrayne, other schlock), is so tired of people telling him what a hack he is that he challenged some of his critics to a boxing match. Privately, he informed the four critics that he picked to fight him (there was no shortage of takers) that this was just a PR stunt, and that they’d receive training in any case.
Apparently, not only did they receive no training, but Uwe Boll, big pussy that he is, never provided it, insisting that it was just a PR stunt anyway. Sure, Boll didn’t need it since he’s an amateur boxer, and reportedly refused to fight any critic that had fight training. He proceeded to beat the crap out of the critics he hand-picked to lose to him, none of whom looked particularly threatening or as if they had any idea what to do in the ring. Uwe Boll: You suck and bullying around some completely untrained people (who weren’t even told it was a real match!) doesn’t change that one bit. I hope someone goes Tonya Harding on you.
I ’sat down’ in Achaea today with Dr. Richard Bartle, the inventor of MUDs/MMOs, whom I created a character for called, appropriately, Progenitor. Dr. Bartle and I have known each other casually for years, and he was kind enough to serve on the advisory board for The Sapience Group, a failed online community consulting company I co-founded in 2000. Along with Damion Schubert, I also served as technical editor on Dr. Bartle’s seminal book, “Designing Virtual Worlds” in 2003.
The interview/chat touches on a number of different topics, from the idea of a 3D web to voice chat in worlds to differences between text and graphical worlds. Enjoy!
H
ell yes. Wargames comes to the PC on September 29th, titled ‘Defcon.’ Buy it. Heck, if you pre-order it, it only costs $10. Introversion is a small, indie development team that creates some of the most unique games around. I think everyone who liked the classic 80s movie Wargames is going to want to play this.
If 
you’re not watching The Wire (The picture is from season 1. There are no ‘main characters’ at this point), you’re missing out on one of the great achievements of cinema/tv. I could was poetic about its astounding level of insight, direction, acting, and writing, but there’s no point. Tim Goodman, in my opinion the best tv critic in the country, can do it better. Read his review of the just-begun season 4 here. Forget what he says about the only current competitors on tv being the Sopranos and Deadwood. Both of those shows are able to rely on crutches like main characters. The Wire is an ensemble piece par excellence. Seriously, it’s one of the most impressive pieces of storytelling I’ve ever seen or read and it saddens me how far storytelling or story creating in games has to go to even be in the minor leagues compared to the Wire. The fact that I love the series isn’t what this post is about, though.
Warning: This is a rant.
Mastercard and Visa drive me crazy. For many, many years, phone and internet-based merchants have been asking, loudly, for Visa/Mastercard (which, for all practical purposes, represent a duopoly in the US) to accelerate the pace at which they roll out customer security features. It is in the consumer’s interest and in the merchant’s interest to reduce fraud, but what is in Visa/Mastercard’s interest is maximizing the number of transactions, since they take a percentage of each transaction. The more transactions, the bigger the profit Visa/Mastercard make (they are not the same company, and their regulations differ, but only in detail, never in substance).
W
ith worldwide ratings of the United States at an all-time low, it is sadly unsurprising that American McGee’s latest game, “Bad Day LA” is being critically savaged, garnering scores as low as 10%. As a patriotic American, I find this outrageous. It is clear to me now that both the national and international gaming press are full of tree-hugging liberals just looking to do a little American bashing. Giving Mr. McGee low ratings is letting the terrorists win as surely as eating French Fries rather than Freedom Fries is.
The reviewers claim it is full of bugs, justifying their low scores by happening to mention that occasionally civilians walk around on fire without concern, and flying into the air a few seconds after they’ve actually exploded. WAKE UP PEOPLE! American is out there making the world safe for game players, and you complain about a few innocent bystander immolations and car bombs? Talk about missing the forest for the trees!
E
arth Eternal is indeed going to be using the Ogre 3d engine. We completed our tech evaluation of it yesterday and came to the conclusion that it is cheaper in the long term (if more expensive in the short term), and considerably more flexible than the solution we were using (which is going to remain nameless, as I don’t want to slight it). It also gives us the benefit of owning our technology (Ogre is under the LGPL (Lesser GPL) license). The high quality of the Ogre user community was a major factor in our decision, so props to them.
PlayNoEvil posted an interview
on Friday that the author did with me recently. It’s probably got the best history of Iron Realms I’ve seen, though it’s basically a history of the business rather than the individual games. I even created a very high-level timeline of our history for it. That’s it!
There’s an apparently fun game that some virtual world developers and publishers like to play, in which they brag to the world that they have achieved X registrations. Second Life, for instance, is rather infamous for talking about registered users rather than actual users. They like to claim they have half a million+ users, for example, but somehow they only get peak simultaneous users of around 10k. The Second Life hype machine is truly second to none, which is actually a bit of a shame as it obscures the fact that they are actually growing. Gleaned from a short article on James Wagner Au’s blog (who blogs about SL) are these stats:
Gamasutra is reporting on the creation of a new games studio called Green Monster Games, founded by, of all people, Curt Schilling, a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. Assisting him are Todd McFarlane (creator of Spawn) and fantasy/sci-fi author R.A. Salvatore. Apparently, Schilling already owns a small paper-gaming company. That’s it. I just thought it was an interesting group of founders.
…so stop asking!
I don’t have time to go to AGC this year and I tend to only attend industry conferences when I have a concrete reason for going to that conference (speaking, looking to meet particular people there, or feeling that there’s valuable information to be gained that I’m not likely to be able to grab off the net or by just asking the speaker directly later). General networking is always valuable and I sometimes even enjoy it, but it typically loses out to getting actual work done. Perhaps someday when we’re willing/able to spend money on things like a secretary and an operations manager that isn’t just me I’d feel better about taking the time off to go to more conferences, but for now, I hang at Iron Realms HQ, also known as my home office. Besides, Nixon would miss me if I left.
A
nyone used it? We’re considering switching from our current proprietary rendering engine (to remain unnamed) to Ogre3d, an open source engine with quite a robust community. We’ve been evaluating Ogre3d since mid-week last week and are rather pleasantly surprised at the quality of the documentation and organization, both of which speak well for the Ogre community effort. Too many open-source projects are plagued by poor documentation and a lack of organization, but when you find a gem, you sometimes really find a big one. I was also impressed by the responsiveness of the forum members and the high signal-to-noise ratio.
Does anyone have any experience with Ogre3d? We’re reviewing the project pretty fully, but there’s no substitute for significant hands-on experience, and we only have approximately another week to finalize our decision. Any help is appreciated, thanks!
(I’m not really looking for suggestions on other engines, though I appreciate the thought. We’ve evaluated the offerings in light of our specific needs - which are not standard - and Ogre appears to be the only thing that potentially fits the bill, for a number of reasons.)
F
rom a post on a blog called Shoemoney I came across today comes a failed business idea of the blogger. I’ll just quote what he says, as it’s hilarious.
I want to purchase a Gas Station and Give away Free Gas
The catch is like the gas would come out really slow and also you would be limited as to how much you could get per week. (Like max 50 gallons a week).
How do I make money ? EASY - I would setup paintball guns around the gas station with webcams that would let people from the internet take shots at the people filling up there cars with gas. You could charge per shot or a xxxx amounts of shots per month for a set fee. PROBLEM - I talked to a city council member about this and he told me there was a “no flying ordinance” or something rule within city limits however I could maybe do it in the country…
Too funny. One wonders what goes on in the mind that considers this idea seriously enough to talk to his city council member about it.
I’ve created a page with a set of links to the event posts, in order, here.
This is the final post in the series of posts describing a large event in Achaea. Start with the first post if you’re interested.
Posted on August 14:
Subj: …To end the night eternal.
The forces of Sapience massed upon Mount Nicator, rallied there by the party returned from their audience with Ugrach. Warriors hailing from all cities, all affiliations, gathered together with a single mission: destroy Slith. The consequences of failing to return Slith’s corpse to Ugrach were explained to all, and all pledged to see that it was done. [It is rare that the player factions, whom are quite acrimonious with each other at times, all cooperate against a common threat like this.]
Posted on August 14:
Subj: Eternal Night: Dawnbreak, Part I.
Deep within the Northern Ithmia, the sacred birch of the forest stood bathed in starlight. Its trunk and upraised branches resembled the vague shape of a woman, hinting at the presence of Thalia[NPC], the Spirit of the Northern Ithmia, within the ancient birch.
Posted on August 10th:
Subj: Eternal Night: Darkness, Part IV.
As has been told, a net woven by the three Visages of the Lady of the Moon proved instrumental in capturing the mighty nychtaur, dispelling the enchantment upon him and returning him to his stallion form. The God of Death then appeared to ceremoniously relinquish his claim upon the stallion to the Goddess of Dreams, in fulfillment of an ancient promise. [as described earlier]
Posted on August 8th:
Subj: Eternal Night: Darkness, Part III.
Then came the unending darkness.
Every dawn, the sun would rise. And so would her triune guardians, locked into orbit with the sun by the ritual Tavarius[NPC] and Isillinde[NPC] had subverted. Through the heavens the solar orb would rise, no light ever reaching the earth except the single focused beam cascading from the centre of the planets down upon Mount Nicator, where Tavarius drank in the radiant energy while protected by the powerful ward around him. Every dusk, the sun would set, but the night would be no darker than the day, and the days were dark indeed.
Posted August 7th: (More are coming later, but I must go do other things at the moment.)
Subj: Eternal Night: Darkness, Part II.
Then came midnight.
A chilling, bestial roar echoed through the city of Ashtan. Soon after, a massive bull-like demon thundered through the city streets, laying waste indiscriminately to those who came across its path. When this creature, dubbed the nychtaur, was brought down by Blujixapug, his corpse was consumed by green flames and vanished…
Posted on August 6th:
Subj: Eternal Night: Darkness, Part I.
Though many wondered at the meaning of the demonstration at the top of the tower and the whereabouts of Tavarius, and a few journeyed to the Southern Vashnars to scout for any disturbances there, the party at the planetarium continued largely unabated through the morning hours.
Then came noon.
Posted on August 3rd:
Subj: Eternal Night: Foreshadowing, Part II
The Disc of the Nocturne is an ancient sacred artefact in the city of Hashan. The Triad of Hashan, composed of Twilight, the God of Darkness; Ourania, the Goddess of the Moon; and Valnurana, the Goddess of Sleep and Dreams, had long been worshipped in that city, until recent times.
Posted on August 3:
Subj: Eternal Night: Foreshadowing, Part I.
[What follows is a full chronological retelling of the events leading up to and during the solar eclipse of the years 426-427 A.F. The preceding accounts have shed light on some part of the events that may partially be repeated herein for the sake of linear telling.]
Posted one day later, on July 29th:
Subj: Mother and child.
Late in the autumn of the year of the eclipse, months after the nightmares had returned to the Dreamrealm, a single nightmare was found wandering the Sangre plains alone, besieged by numerous giant white bats. Those who observed the cloud of bats over the Sangre rushed to investigate the phenomenon, and many were slain by the savage beasts before the object of their pursuit was discovered. Another startling discovery: this nightmare was heavy with foal.
Posted 14 days after Part 2, on July 28th:
Subj: To capture the moon.
…And so the night swallowed the sun and the moon as foretold upon the battlefield of Nishnatoba when the world was young, and the soul of the male unicorn was released. As Thoth had cautioned, however, the creature was not as Valnurana had known him. He appeared instead under an enchantment as the fearsome nychtaur, a raging bull-demon rampaging through the cities of Sapience[main continent] and killing indiscriminately.
In large, longer events, we often post documents part-way through, or after anything major happens. That first post was made on July 10th. This one came four days later, on the 14th.
Recently, Achaea saw the end of what was probably the single most complicated event/storyline ever run by Iron Realms on any of our games, containing over thirty distinct sub-plots that contributed to the overall story. For those who are unfamiliar, events like these in our games are a mixture of God/admin-driven story and player-driven story. We seed the story with its initial elements (or sometimes take the seeds of a story from what players are doing and go from there), and then the event/story becomes a cycle, with players and admin alternately driving and being driven by the actions of the other.
Frequently, after major events, we’ll do a write-up of the event that puts the story elements in a single document or set of documents, often written ‘in-character’, in order to dramatize the event further, allow the major player participants to enjoy some credit and time in the sun, and record it for posterity. I’m going to post said documents here, in the order they took place. This is part 1. I’ll occasionally place notes in [ ] for those who aren’t familiar with Achaea’s lore.