I Give Up

I recently uploaded a Youtube video about my thoughts on Sprint’s distribution of the Palm Pre. In the video, I said Sprint was not handling the inventory well, and as much as I understood only releasing 375,000 units in order to build up interest, it made acquiring the phone very difficult for anyone who actually knew about it and wanted it, considering each store only got about 10-20 phones, and the one near me did not get any at all.

From this, the Youtube user base “figured out” the following “facts”:

1. I am an iPhone owner who thinks the Pre is an inferior device.
2. I don’t know what I’m talking about when it comes to distribution.

The comments were getting so stupid to the point that I couldn’t even laugh at them anymore, and it became obvious nobody actually watched the video. Just because the title was “Palm Pre Disappointments” they assumed it was a disappointing review, when in reality I haven’t gotten my hands on the phone yet. All I was disappointed about was not being able to find one.

The part I love, though, is that because I couldn’t find a Pre I am apparently an iPhone owner. Oh man, totally. Steve Jobs is my god I can’t wait to trade in my crappy 3G so I can get a 3GS with Copy/Paste functionality!

Especially since my “iPhone” looks like this:

That, my readers, is a Sanyo SCP 3100. NOT an iPhone. If that was an iPhone, Apple would have gone out of business a long time ago. My phone is three years old and has 4 minutes of talk time before the battery dies. Now THAT’S an impressive piece of technology! (For all you retards out there, that was sarcasm.)

Remember back in 2006 when the Wii was released and nobody could get their hands on one because of the distribution problems? It’s the same with the Pre. Not enough product to satisfy the demand. And what with Apple’s 3GS iPhone launching in just a few days, the Pre will have some serious competition. It would have been smart for Sprint/Palm to get a leg up on the competition, that’s all I’m saying.

Now let me be clear: I want a Pre. Anything to upgrade from the phone you see up there. Am I going to rabidly defend it against the iPhone? No. Does that mean I am an iPhone fanboy? No! Where in the hell do these insinuations come from anyway? Is the average internet user THAT stupid? I used to think of myself as a pretty average guy. I wake up, I eat, I check my e-mail, I play some games, I go back to sleep. But seeing these comments on my Youtube and the general etiquette of internet users has had the opposite effect on me. It’s given me a ridiculous ego boost!

I don’t start shit in real life or on the internet. Especially not on the internet. It’s just not worth arguing with somebody who has the intelligence of a packing peanut. The saddest part is that a lot of people say that these people are better in real life. I don’t think so. You know that douchebag you met at the party that you would never be friends with? That’s the same guy who just impugned your integrity for saying you liked Killzone 2 on the X-Play forums.

Wanting your website to have a community is a noble cause. The problem with online communities is the anonymity factor.

When you go onto a website’s forums, or leave a comment on a blog or Youtube video, your “right” to post is nothing more than a privelege, one that administrators need to start taking away when the community gets too out of control and lacks the intelligence to uphold well-thought-out conversations. I say fuck the banhammer. It’s time to get rid of forums altogether when the user base starts mistreating it.

I’m hearing all this talk about Web 3.0. People say it’s all about social networking, but they don’t know why. I think I do. You look at sites like Twitter and Facebook, and what do you see? Intelligence. People talking to people they know, no anonymity factor, and the true possibility of personal embarrassment. When you post a link on Facebook or Tweet what you are doing, you are doing so as yourself, not as a screen name or as a completely anonymous poster. More than that, though, you have security. You can choose to let anyone reply or only people you know. Either way, you can see exactly who is posting their thoughts on your thoughts. Tweetworks, as I stated in my interview with Mike Langford, is a website that combines the openness of forums with the “post as yourself” factor of social networking websites. You are responsible for what you say, just as you are in real life. Why is this a good thing? Because it makes sure that, at least sometimes, the stupid people shut up.

I for one would love to see an end to anonymity on the internet. Everyone will disagree with me on the argument that then they can’t post to websites without giving away their personal information. My response? Then don’t! The less you say anonymously the better. What I don’t say is that nobody was interested in what they had to say in the first place because nothing they said brought anything of substance to the conversation. Sometimes it’s just better to keep your mouth shut.

Education in Games

Can games be used to educate? I’m not just talking about educational games here. This aspect spans to all games. Games require mastery, and mastery of a game requires learning about its game world. Therefore, anything we learn about a game is only limited by what is included in that game world.

Let’s take a game like Bookworm Adventures. Your attack power is based on the complexity and length of the words you are able to spell. So within Bookworm Adventures’ game world, we are learning not only proper spelling but we are also expanding our vocabulary. When we play historically accurate strategy games, we are learning about historical civilizations and battles. America’s Army teaches us what it is like to be an American Soldier through its punishment systems and tight focus on disciplined play. Bioshock exposes us to 1930’s art deco and architecture. The Game of Life gives us an exaggerated look at what’s in store for us, but even exaggeration is based on truth.

How, then, do we adjust game design to be educational but remain fun? Most adults don’t enjoy educational games (unless they’re nostalgic like Number Munchers) and the core gaming audience is aged 18-35. If you are designing a game for kids, why make it so it’s not fun for adults too? Obviously the kids are going to be playing with their parents or guardians, so a well designed game (especially a board game) should theoretically be fun for all ages, much like how a lot of kid’s comedy has jokes that kids wouldn’t understand but would make parents laugh hysterically (naughty jokes in Animaniacs, for example).

The key is to focus on gameplay first, educational factors second. If a game is played, it is educating the players in the ways of its game world. If the game world has educational aspects, the gamer will pick up on them. Focus your game around a specific lesson, and make that lesson your core statement. For example, “The purpose of this game is to  reenact the water cycle.” The core says that the water cycle is reenacted, or simulated, not taught. If you flat out say “When clouds form and humidity reaches 100%, it rains!” everyone gets turned off. Nobody likes school, especially in their games. Make the game strictly water cycle based, make the player interact with the different states of water, show the differences between drizzles and thunderstorms, etc. There are other ways to teach than just by saying what you want to. Games are, by their very nature, interactive. Use that interaction to your advantage.

Games are a hands-on experience. Therefore, whatever they choose to teach has to be a hands-on experience. If the lessons the game teaches are not through immersion in the game, the immersion is broken and the game has not been a successful teacher. Games are great at showing causality, so show us the actions and reactions, don’t tell us about them.

Graduated

I am now back home in Boston and have successfully graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design. It’s been a very long four years and I’m happy to just be able to sit down, make some games, and have some fun with what I’ve learned.

Thinking of exploring new platforms to develop for has got my programming hands shaking. On top of being a year or so away from the announcement of next-gen consoles, the Palm Pre is coming out on Saturday and, yes, I am getting one, mainly because my current phone gets 5 minutes of battery life while talking, and also because it’s a touch-based mobile platform I can develop for without buying a Mac and purchasing a yearly SDK license. Whatever I make for it I will most likely port to the iPhone, sure, but I’ll have to be able to afford a Mac first. In the meantime I’ll be able to make games for a less congested app store, and that’s an exciting notion.

Also tempted to make a new board game, something cheaper to develop but just as fun as, if not more fun than Stalin’s Stash. Don’t ask me what I’ve got in mind because, honestly, I don’t have anything in mind. It’s just something I’d like to do.

Now that I am home I will be updating here more regularly. Going to try to get back to my “one post per week” deal. Daily is too much work. That’s what Twitter is for.

Me On Tweetworks TV

Early this afternoon I got the chance to do an interview on Tweetworks TV, talking with Tweetworks founder Mike Langford about game development, schooling down here in Savannah, as well as current and possible future uses of Twitter. My webcam phased out a bit near the end there, but otherwise it came out pretty good. It’s long though, like 22 minutes, so make sure you have nothing to do and a beer in hand. Enjoy!

Also, if you are on Twitter, make sure to check out Tweetworks. If you ever took part in an old school message board, you’ll feel right at home.

Now Available

The Longest Night is now available. Download it today at www.deviatesoft.com.

Announcements about tomorrow… as presented by ME!

Leaving The Realm of the Third Dimension

3D Realms was an industry innovator. THE industry innovator I should say. Without them, the idea of episodic gaming and downloadable content wouldn’t even exist. There would be no Wolfenstein, no Duke Nukem… no Dopefish. The games that Apogee/3D Realms published in the early-mid 1990’s is responsible for a period I refer to as the “gaming renaissance.” Some may disagree with me on the term, but this was a period after the PC started to become more than a viable option for gaming; it became a gaming POWERHOUSE. This was the period when graphics, sound and gameplay all started blending together to create the truly immersive experiences that today allow us to classify videogames as a legitimate artform. The PC had sidescrollers, RPGs, First Person Shooters (DOOM clones in those days), adventure games… you name it, the PC had it, and thanks to the technology it looked and sounded better than anything the SNES or Genesis could ever offer. So while the two sides feuded over who had a better console, I went with the only console that still remains a powerhouse of gaming capabilities to this day. I’ve always been and always will be a PC gamer and developer.

And so was 3D Realms. They hung in there as a PC publisher in their later days, giving us games like Max Payne and Prey, not to mention a handful of Duke titles for consoles and PC. However, when you think of 3D Realms, you think of the most ironic title ever given to a game.

Duke Nukem Forever.

It’s a shame, really, because if they had made the game using Quake I or II like was the original plan, it’d probably be out. Would it be great? Who knows, but we certainly still wouldn’t be talking about it. We would have moved on to bigger and better games instead of being stuck on this for 12, nearly 13 years, all culminating in the end of one of the greatest game studios ever known to mankind.

Luckily, the Apogee name was renewed a few months ago and it is unaffected by the closure. Unfortunately, they are working on the Duke Nukem Trilogy, once again a project that is destined to end in failure. Three games based on a gaming icon of old that everybody sees as a joke. If Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard had done what it was supposed to do and parodied Duke directly, it could have ended the misery and we’d see some awesome, original IPs or revival of other, old IPs coming out of Apogee. Games like Raptor/Stargunner, Hocus Pocus, Rise of the Triad, and Commander Keen. Or hell, stop beating around the bush and give the Dopefish his own damn game. In these rough economic times, I wouldn’t doubt that the guys at id would love to get in on some small, cheap games to help keep cash flowing around the office.

We’re losing great studios on a near daily basis. Big Huge, Black Isle, NCSoft, 3D Realms, etc. Yet, each of these studios has spun off multiple, smaller indie studios. That’s what Apogee was in the first place. Now that it has spun back off from 3D Realms, let’s see them do what they do best.

In closing, it’s time to kick ass and chew gum. And guess what? I’m all out of ass.

You Really Need to Shut Up

Angry gamer language is like listening to someone with tourette’s syndrome screaming at a losing horse. It’s unfortunate. The anonymity factor allows gamers to get away with saying anything they want. However, that does not stop the fact that gay isn’t actually a derogatory word, and if we were in England, that other word you just called me would only mean cigarette.

The biggest issue is that when people use these words – in games, on forums – in a derogatory way, the people who run the game and or forum are then held responsible when somebody takes major offense and contacts a legal organization. So steps are taken to prevent such language from happening so that they don’t have to deal with the hubub, but this prevents any serious conversation about the topics from arising, such as homosexual relationships in the Star Wars universe or announcing a Gay/Lesbian Guild in World of Warcraft. Thus, the company that was trying to protect these demographics from harrassment is in trouble for trying to do the right thing.

The issue is that companies do not want the individuals responsible for this kind of harrassment to get in trouble. They may not be able to afford the lawsuits, or they may not have the constitution to apologize for their actions. If they ban the users from their forums, they get attacked for not allowing freedom of speech. If they censor the words, they get attacked for not allowing discussion about homosexuality. Basically, if a company has gone through the trouble of developing a community for their game, they’re going to get in trouble.

It’s the black ice conundrum. If I slip and fall on black ice on the sidewalk outside your house, the government says it’s your fault. In reality, it’s my own damn fault for not going into the street and walking around it, saving everybody the hassle. What am I suggesting then? I am suggesting an adjustment to user agreements, be it for games, communities, screen names, everything, that basically states that it is the individual’s responsibility to treat others with respect, and if they choose to use ignorant or hateful language that they themselves must suffer the burden of responsibility for their actions and not the company in charge or anyone affiliated with said company.

I don’t believe in censorship.

I do, however, believe that sometimes people really need to shut up.

Afterthoughts of Gaming

There is a tendency to simply port games to PC after or alongside their major console release. Often this is when a game is being pushed onto as many consoles as possible. Take the upcoming (and dare I say awesome-looking) Ghostbusters game for XBox 360, Playstation 3, Wii, Playstation 2, and PC. That’s a lot of resources to spread around, especially considering the unique art style of the Wii and PS2 versions (at least there is no DS or PSP version announced… yet). The issue is that console games HAVE to be game-killing-bug free and usually won’t be published if said bugs exist. PC games do not come with this restriction as they can be patched willy nilly. What ends up happening, then, is that if developers have to focus on putting their game on multiple platforms, the PC version ends up getting ignored in favor of patching it later.

Once in a while, though, we see the PC version of a game come out later instead of at the same time to make it all around compatible with every possible setup. Mirror’s Edge is a decent example of this, however there is the issue that single-player games tend to phase out of people’s minds after 2-3 months. Multiplayer and DLC keeps a game alive. Mirror’s Edge had no multiplayer, the DLC wasn’t out yet, the PC version came out 2 months after its console release, and besides the added bonus of PhysX, didn’t bring anything else to the table.

Then there’s Braid. It got off to a rough start with the Steam version being delayed by around 7 hours, but at least it finally came out and I’m having so much fun with it. To have waited this long for it to arrive on PC has been torture to say the least, as I do not own a 360 and only got the chance to fiddle around with it, not actually sit down and play it through. The PC version does come with a level editor, technically, but there is no documentation or easy way to load custom levels. Done correctly, a level editor can give a game an INCREDIBLY long lifespan as communities develop which are devoted entirely to creating custom content for the game, which is why Epic always ships their games with an editor.

A community devoted to creating Braid levels, new stories for Tim, and possibly even new time-shifting mechanics would be fantastic, although I do not personally know the capabilities of the editor. Should it be powerful enough, though, I would say there would need to be some easier way to access custom levels, either that we made or downloaded. The editor is there, we just need to know how to use it and we need to be able to access our content.

The Suspense is Killing Me

Hurry up already!