November 2005 Entries
Interesting piece here:
Gamergod: Brad McQuaid on Instancing! (via Slashdot)
Brad McQuaid (a.k.a ‘Aradune’) was one of the original minds behind the first Everquest, and is now, with Sigil Games, working on the forthcoming Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. The article is pretty much a game design white-paper, and quite heavy going, but focuses on the various pros and cons of Instancing, vs a wholly shared world. It’s a fairly fundamental choice of gameplay design, and the impression one gets from the article, is that on the whole, McQuaid seems quite cool to the idea of Instancing, particularly in the case of Vanguard,...
And you think you’ve had a bad patch day:
“We're working on code changes that would allow anyone to teleport to a point on the map without first going through a telehub. Obviously there are many details to consider, particularly as it relates to access permissions. However we expect that we'll have something to test soon, and will be able to release the code some time in December.”
From the 'In Development' Second Life Forums. Now this is going to take a little explaining, so bear with me.
Travel in Second Life takes three main forms; walking (and ground vehicles), flying (and airplanes),...
The V2 Thresher is on hold for a bit. While I am very confident that what I need can be done, I’m still not entirely sure it can be done by me, or at least not yet anyway. The basic skills necessary are rudimentary enough, but it’s the finer aspects of my virtual omnipotence that I need to work on and master, so as a bit of an exercise in understanding how each of the primitives work, I’ve spent the last few days building, and destroying, houses. Nothing screenshot-worthy yet, but an invaluable way to practice simple object construction, and...
Seems to be National Xbox 360 Day in the US today:
BBC News: US gamers lay hands on Xbox 360
Yea, and there was much grumbling about ‘cores’. Seems there’s two types of 360, one that has all the bits, and one that sucks, and they sold out of useful ones. I must admit, I know very little about consoles in general, being something of an old-school traditionalist when it comes to my gaming, and seem to have by passed the console thing entirely.
My gaming history:
Sinclair Spectrum +2. My first ever computer, it used audio cassettes as a data storage medium,...
Construction is well under way now. Here’s what I have so far:
Van Hemlock: Early Work On The Body
It’s recognisable, which is a start, and several people in there knew what it was supposed to be, which surprised me greatly. Planetside and Second Life are possibly as far apart on the MMO spectrum as it’s possible to get, so it just goes to show what diverse tastes gamers have.
I really should have done my research first though. The SL vehicle physics engine, which the script I’ve yoinked needs to work, can only cope with an linked object made up of 31...
Been a while since we’ve seen one of these:
Slashdot: Blizzard Sued for Death of Gamer
It seems a 13yr old Chinese kid jumped to his death re-enacting a scene from World of Warcraft. It’s amazing what they can determine with forensic pathology nowadays.
I think I actually did that quest once – a Spiritual Tauren Shaman chap in a cave in Thousand Needles, The Weathered Nook, who sets you a series of quests involving various aspects of spirituality; the test of strength, the test of endurance, etc. Quite a nicely storied mini adventure, and I quite liked it. Presumably, the Alliance...
Right, time to roll my sleeves up and get to work. Tearing myself away from the sheer virtual tourism if Second Life is quite tricky though, partly because of the clever, but lag-paralysing, streaming content system they use.
At first I hated it. Having come right from World of Warcraft, the sheer time it takes to load anywhere was something of an affront to the senses. Most normal MMOs install their worlds beforehand – hence Everquest 2’s 4GB installation and similar for other titles – it’s mostly art. Sometimes they’ll want to add bits, or change things, and this is done...
You know, I don’t think I’ve ever actually introduced any of the links I whimsically refer to as ‘Monster Hunters’, over on the sidebar there. Terribly rude of me. As the term implies, these are all people who like me, follow the goings on of MMO gaming; be it as players, journalists, developers or mere academic interest.
Of course hardly any of them are paid to do so, and they are only human after all, so levels of interest and writers block come and go. I don’t actually know any of these people – at least not in the conventional...
One of the key areas of Second Life, are the various ‘Sandboxes’. While the engine supports building and scripting just about anywhere, most land is owned by someone, who may or may not want 150ft battle robots suddenly sprouting in their carefully manicured lawns. So Linden Labs have set aside a number of publicly buildable areas to allow people to work unhampered on their projects, and very quickly my travels took me to the one just to the South-East of the newbie plaza.
The first thing that strikes you, is the sheer quantity of pine. New shapes (“Primitives”) created into the...
Good grief...just what the hell is going on in there?
Gamespot: Trials of Obi Wan Refund Offer (Via Slashdot)
This is SOE we're talking about, right? I can only begin to imagine how angry the remaining SWG players are by now, but having the expansion you bought redendered mostly useless within a week or so of buying it would test even my limitless patience (clinical addition). You know, I was quite prepared to pass the whole episode off as just a hiccup - teething troubles, but then I recently recieved an email from one of my longtime online friends, who loved...
Hmm, hard to know where to begin with my Second Life debut really, and that in itself is probably the most acute description of what the thing is like, right there – a kind of motivational agoraphobia. For so many years, I’ve bitched about rigid and uninspired treadmills and level-quests, and suddenly, that’s all been ripped away, and now I’m a bit frightened and lost by it all. It burns us! What am I supposed to do? My problem is that I’m fundamentally, a Gamer, and Second Life is not a game – at least not in and of itself.
Just...
I’ve lately found myself becoming somewhat intrigued with the post-doctoral chin-stroker’s favourite virtual sandbox, Second Life. It’s generally lumped in the ‘MMO’ bracket by the casual observer, but according to the spiel at their site, is something much more than the kind of game we all know and hate...
Second Life: Main Site
It presents itself not so much as a game, but an environment, in which ‘residents’ (rather than ‘players’) can build their own world, with its own rules, and set their own goals. There’s also a load about 3D Modelling, which is presumably necessary to make stuff, and AI scripting,...
Ha! This just in, the day after I cancel my SOE Access Pass subscription:
Aggro Me: SWG Combat Upgrade Upgrade
Plenty of comentary abounds.
On the one hand, I respect and admire a MMO that no longer gives a toss what it's players think anymore, and who are now committed to drastically changing the game beyond recognition, over and over, until they get something that sticks. On the other, I've been burned a few times now, and at this stage, couldn't care less how much more patronising they intend to make SWG...
Welcome to SWG! Please select a character class:
Han Solo [ ]
Luke Skywalker...
Some weeks ago, it was announced that online gaming in China was to be restricted with a kind of reverse 'resting' system, for all MMORPGs.
Van Hemlock: The Definition of Healthy
For want of any healthy useage guidelines from my own government, I've decided to take this on-board, and game like a Chinese person from now on. I suppose the point of living in a western democracy is that you're free to regulate your own life and habits, but I wonder with MMO Obsession and Addiction whether a helping external boot up the arse might not actually be quite helpful in keeping...