Palladium in trouble

Due to the theft of about $800k - 1.3 mil, Palladium the company that brought us RIFTS, is in serious financial trouble.

To help, or just find out more, click here.

If you had any interest in their work, or projects, they desperately need your help.

Going Underground

Well, I'm making a foray back into the days of Pen and Paper gaming.

The World's Largest Dungeon (WLD) has sucked me in, and the game is beging for my players next month. I have to admit, it's a big module, and considering it's almost 900 pages, it's fairly cohesive. Additionaly, there's an awesome thread about it over and enworld, here. It's a bit long, but the lead developer for WLD is still posting and giving tips today.

I've also recently been reminded of my first computer RPG... Tunnels of Doom on the TI99/4. This is an amazing game for the time. 4 characters going down through a dungeon to rescue the king. It's timmed, with auto mapping, multiple levels, and a combat style that wouldn't be seen again until Ultima III.

You can download emulators and cartidges for the ol' TI99 at http://www.99er.net/.

What suprised me is that it was the same programer who did a TI version of Hunt the Wumpus, which was the game I had really been looking for. I figured I should be looking for games for my grandson to start playing as he get's old enough. Anyway, if you're looking for a good updated version of HtW, check here. He's also doing a remake of Tunnels of Doom.

Till next time...

Sum of it's parts

http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=5&ArticleID=464

So, they think the graphics are prety, but I have a problem with any reviewer that says:

"Morrowind was Bethesda Softwork's first game in the Elder scroll series, followed by the expansion packs Tribunal and Bloodmoon."

No... Arena was. Followed by Daggerfall. And then there was a middle game between Daggerfall and Morrwind. I'm 2 sentances in, and already I have to throw out this review for any sort of informed opinion.

I think part of my problem with Morrowind was the same problem I had with Alpha Centauri. All the parts were good, the graphics were great (for the time), and the interaction was beyond what should have been expected.... but....

The game itself fell flat. A few moments in and you'd get this feeling that you'd seen it all before. The new frontier doesn't have a 'story' behind it that ends up truely feeling compelling, and with no history to fill in using our own experiences or imagination, the little things we move around our screens don't compel us with any feelings.

Sometimes falling back on almost cliche creatures puts something into a game no code could. It's ok to bring in one or two new things, or drop something tried and true, but massive deviations give you an initial WOW, but quickly fade as you detach from a world that simply doesn't have any feelings.

Which brings me back to the Elder Scroll series. I'm going to feel like a total hypocrite as I won't be buying Oblivion any time soon. When it hits the discount bin, maybe. But if swords and armor are the only touchstones to my clasic orc/goblin/dragon motif I've called fantasy these many years, then it would simply be a waste of money.

The parts are good, and I love moving the game pieces, but the pieces need to move me.

Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)

"I was the only one in our party strong enough to turn the valve and open the poritculis guarding the crates and barrels in the alcove. As the iron bars lurched up, I steped forward to investigate the contents of the boxes.

Near the floor, behind a spiderweb, I noticed a metal grill that I hadn't seen in any other alcove. I stoped to try and figure out whether it was a trap or not. Before I could say anything, our newest member (the theif of all people) rushed into the alcove.

Which is where we found out I was right. It was a trap. I got a facefull of acid, which thankfully did not get him.

Unfortunately, the other 6 grills I hadn't noticed yet did.

The last member of our party sat staring at our corpses wondering how she was going to get out without help."

Ok. For the record, I knew it wouldn't be 'bad'.

That said, I didn't think it would be 'great'.

I was wrong.

Before I go any further, let me tell you that DDO is an online game, where you play with other people. If this doesn't apeal to you, it's still possible to play, it just isn't nearly as much fun.

Now, on with the main part.

First, combat, is fun. Even for someone like me who prefers turn based strategy to RTS. Combat is fun. I almost never play a fighter in an RPG because it ends up boiling down purely to my stats. They're either good enough to win, or they aren't, which from a play point, is borring. Especially considering most games label the difficulty of every area your in, or creature you face.

But DDO isn't that way. Tactics blended with some low end twitch skills will change your fighters life expectence greatly. In other words, you actually have to fight. You have to DO something, and not just stand there.

Now, don't let twitch scare you. While it makes a huge difference (and can make the difference between life and death) the frenetic running and swinging I'm watching most people do, simply isn't necesairy. It doesn't require hair trigger reflexes, or constant movement. Seeing a big attack comming and jumping out of the way, knowing when to block with a shield, or tumbling around and fighting are a 'help'. They make a difference, but they're a 'plus' not a requirement.

On the other side of that coin, I had the "joy" of adventuring with a group of people who just rushed everything. While there were enough of them to succeed most encounters, it was far more costly than it needed to be.

But that's a side note to what really turned me on.

What really has me excited about the game are thieves. For the first time ever, I feel like I'm playing a thief. Searching for traps, disabling them, picking locks, I feel theify.

You have to change your combat tactics as a thief. You'll be facing the same creatures a fighter would face, but you're not going to have his hp or armor. So where possible AVOIDING them is the key. You'll still get xp, it's not about killing everything in the room. A refreshing change.

Every class had that sort of different style, that really made me feel like I had to play differently. In other RPG's the game's classes feel more like a tint to the screen as opposed to what it should feel like, a different style of play.

Also, 'uber' gear, (AKA overpowered equipment) isn't a problem (yet, but then I only made it to level 2, equivilent of level 6 in most games I've played). You could probably play the whole thing through with starting equipment (though it would be tough).

The game has two hurdles to overcome if it's going to be very successful:

1) Content. The dungeons are 'fixed' so to speak. So, you'll almost always know where and what's happening if you've been there before. Eventually walkthroughs will come out, and there will be a 'path of least resistance' through the game. I have no solution for this, other than to keep piping content into it. And with the quality they've put in so far, that, I fear, is going to be rough.

2) The other players. DDO isn't like any previous game I've played. I love almost everything about the game (see below), but I also have tastes evolved from over 26 years of playing videogames. I need a little challenge, and to truely suprise and captivate me means breaking from the norm enough to be suprising, without drifting off into some LSD infused halucination. Younger players will probably not like DDO because of it's difficulty. Older players may not like the 'twitch' aspect of it (no matter how downplayed it is).

What I'd like to see added:

Honestly, housing/banking is the biggest thing for me. Something I like to do as a MMO'er is collect. Collecting in these games is a game too. I want to keep a set of the ancient daggers from one of the first missions. I'd like to keep all my starting equipment so I can remenis about where I came from now that I have uber gear.

It would be nice to have a little section of the world that I have control over. Something that I could make my own.

And that's it. Otherwise, keep it up.

I go round and round about crafting. But looking at it again, it really wouldn't add much to the game.

New Post

I've been promising I'm going to do more with the blog. I should, I mean, now that work doesn't consume 80 hours a week, I should do that.

But I haven't been into games lately. Not since Civ 4.

Don't get me wrong, the game is awesome. Civ always has been.

But it doesn't run on my system.

Let me rephrase that...

I can't run Civ the way I want on my system. When I play on a huge world (which is the only way I play), the game crashes after I expose a good portion of the map.

So, I'm not buying any new games, because that's money away from a new PC (any suggestions on a build, leave a comment).

Until then, I'm playing some truely, old school games.

First up, AD&D Misty Mountain for Intellivision. You can find the rom and emulator on the net. It takes a little looking, but it's out there. This game is awesome. You run around randomly built dungeons looking for tools to get to the misty mountain and gather two pieces of the crown. There are audio and visual clues to let you know what is in a room, and, well, that's it.

Sadly, it's fun. Atleast for me.

Also, I'm playing the Legend of Zelda. No, the first one. I never finished it and always thought I should. So, I'm in dungeon 8, and almost finished.

When looking for a map for Zelda online, I found a map for Pitfall. So, I may go back and do that.

If I've only got a few minutes, NetHack is eating away at my time. I found that at a site called Abandonia.

If you're into old school games (especially X-Com, which should be required before you leave school), Abandonia is the place to be. If a copy of it is available for download they have it, as well as a link to DosBox, a way for you to play those old Dos Games you miss so much.

In contrast to everything I just said, tonight I'm going to try DDO. I got on the billing stress test, so I want to go on and see how it plays. I'm hoping for good things. I'll let you know.

Later...

Civ 4

http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/civilizationiv/review.html

That's a good rundown of some of the main changes... but...
Ok, there's this civics thing, that can give you different ways to handle your government. Slavery, Caste system, etc. It's 5 catagories, each with 5 options (the base, no bonus, and 4 different bonuses depending on which you use). The options open up as you develop techs.

Religion is still kinda growing on me. I don't have a handle on it yet.

Resources (gold, stone, etc) are only active when you improve them.
There's a new improvement cottage, which upgrades to hamelt, then something else, etc... which adds a $ token to the square. Roads don't seem to do that anymore. I need to verify first though.

Everything you need to understand your city and it's updates is visible from the main screen, you don't need to go in to city view to see how things are going, and which squares are being worked is shown there on the main screen through subtle animations. It sounds hard to follow, but quickly in you get the hang of it.

Being a pacifist doesn't get you out of maintaining an army. The enemy thinks you're weak and has a grudge, BAM war. Deal with it hippie.

But that's not to say you can't have a peacful game, it just takes more work than it did before.

Back to land improvements... just because you have a city with good production doesn't mean that's the best place to build your wonder. Wonders seem to get bonuses if you have a resource being worked in the city. IE Stonehenge had a +20% bonus to be built if stone was in the area. I remember seing one for Marble as well.

Units and advancement. I don't see a defense rating for units yet. I may be missing it but it's possible it's not there. I do see a little flexed arm with a number, and a couple feet with a number. One is obviously strength and the other movement. The HP remaining for the unit are shown by how many little guys are standing there.

Ok, advancement. When your unit gets promoted it's not just a flat improvement, "I'm a spearman but better", kinda thing. Instead you get to pick HOW they improve. Maybe you want to make your swordsman city raiders, so they get a +20% when attacking a city. Now you'll probalby want to assign that spearman a +20% against melee attackers to defend your city. So it won't be ideal to raid the enemy, but it will hold your city better. So even troops have more strategy to them.

Settelers and workers no longer lower your city size, instead, you just take a growth hit while you produce them.

Graphically it's a big step up from 3, but it still maintains that grid style game play. So it feels familiar, but you know you've got a lot to learn before you're good at it.

So, here we have a very strong contender for game of the year.

PC's and Copy Protection

We've got a problem here.

Unlike PS2, Xbox, Intellivision, etc... PC's don't handle copy protection very well.

You see, they're not propriatary. So, a PC's configuration may, or may not, work with a protection scheme.

This is agrivated by the fact that it's easier to distribute a PC crack then a console one.

But there are little things like, fair use, backups and the desire to not scratch the hell out of my CD from use and shuffling that are legitimate uses. Or, in the case of one game I have, simply owning a copy of NERO and/or having my digital camera attached kicked me out of my game.

Obviously a boycot of games won't work, because then they'll just point out that PC games are dying (don't expect consol users to join the boycott), and stop making our games all together. They've been claiming this for a while, and won't see what's really happening.

Continuing to strip games of their protection only reinforces their arguments. So we loose by just pushing the point.

Giving in and taking it means we keep having issues because they won't know there is an issue.

Whining sounds like we want to copy games (which should be ok, it's the distribution that's an issue), and the louder we whine, the more it will seem like they're protections are working.

So, I'm at a loss. Can't stay here, can't go home.

What's even more frustrating is that the protection isn't even a speed bump to anyone who's actively trying to crack it. Only legitimate users suffer by either thwarting them entirely, or forcing them to go to a warez site and begin the path down the dark side.

If anyone with any influence is reading this, follow what I'm saying. I don't want to sell your stuff, I just want it to work with mine.

Nostalgia

Recently I made this post over at the NWN2 forums.

---

First, let me say this:

I am a gamer. A true, I've dedicated my life to it, often at the expense of 'real' things like school, or work, honest to god, gamer.

FPS, RTS, RPG, MMO, PnP, Solitare, Chess, Monopoly, online, off-line, if it's cards, dice or chits (the three of you laughing can stop now, since you probably still have your mud die). I love them all.

Let me start by dismissing a myth.

Role Playing Games have nothing to do with the story.

I'd like to repeat that because it's vaugely important.

Role Playing Games are not now, nor should they ever have been about the story.

They're about playing a character, and dealing with their reactions and interactions in a fictional setting. STORY tends to push them (meaning the characters) to the background, water down the experience, etc. When you look back at all these connected stages of a good game you have a story, but the story itself, is nothing but a happy accident.

Want proof?

Ultima VII.

Go on, what was the story of Ultima VII? You can tell me the setting, you can tell me what was happening in the game world, but you can't tell me the 'story'.

What was the story in Diablo II? You can tell me that. Because even with some random side things to do, it was a very linear, one way to win, connect the dots STORY. Which character you played, how you talked to townfolk, etc, was laid out in advance, and you played the parts between the lines of the story. But what your character did, didn't really matter.

What old school gamers complain about, when you take another stat away, or reason to roll the dice, is that you're taking away an aspect of that character's persona. Like removing the mole from Cindy, the difference between you and the next character became a little less, and the reason to share the story that's come to be your character has faded away. After decades of taking things about because they're hard has reduced
'role playing' to reading a book while having blob a hit blob b for x damage.

Those stupid little things we old gamers complain about like, food, money types, or carying 5 sets of plate mail seem silly. It's a game after all. "It's meant to be fun, not hard."

No. Not realy.

There was once a golden rule of game development: Easy to learn, difficult to master.

Now, it's easy to learn, easy to master. We don't want people spending to long on a game, because they won't buy your next one. You know the one where the next point haird, sexually ambigious 12 year old boy with an oversized sword is saving the world from a demon.

Role Playing is stats. Very, very much so.

The situations in the world, give us a reason to use those stats. That's the setting.

The openness of the world, gives those stats a chance to be used, and help make our character feel like something different. Those are the chapters.

How we react with our stats and character becomes a story.

Now if you'll excuse me, it's snowing. Which means it's time to walk up hill to my friendly local game shop (FLGS).

---

So, if you don't know NWN2 is on it's way, shame on you.

But I think it's worth repeating that games are getting dumber, and that is a Bad Thing.

The first against the wall...

I fear we're about to have a revolution in gaming.

And not in the good way.

More and more developers are growing weary of the media giants forcing them into certain development standards, motiffs and work environments.

Some are encouraging the industry to sell out, and take what they can get from hollywood, while others plead us to not go gentle into that good night.
I, myself, am torn. I look back fondly at the giant manuals, reams of graph paper, and almost non existant graphics that games used to have, and were able to hold my attention for MONTHS. I remember spending over a year trying to find every last piece of a puzzle for "Deathlord".

Yet, when I go to put those games back on my PC, I feel this sense of being underwhelmed. With games like Warcraft, Age of Empires, or Battlefield 1942 it's hard to look at chess as a comparison for a war. Icons moving across a grid just doesn't capture the sensation that 30 mounted troops marching against a battalion of spearmen does.

But we are loosing out to media giants, that want us to play games in our living rooms on propriatary systems, that they can force us to upgrade more often.

The number of game titles is dropping, rapidly, while the number of gamers is growing. Look at your local software store, if you can find it still, and see what I mean. Gamestop just bought EB, and previously, they had purchased Babbages, which had purchased Software Etc (or was that last one the other way arround).

The geek centric store is going away, and our games are being replaced by action figures, Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and quick play, never loose your place games that center around a sexually ambiguous 12 year old boy, whit pointy hair and a sword twice his size.

Because it sells to the kids.

But the age of your average gamer isn't 16 anymore. It's more like 26, and climbing as our parents die off. The average age of a Neverwinter Nights player is 35. (Yeah, supprised me too). The point is, it's not a juvinile market, and we're letting them make it one. We need to stand up for ourselves.

I think the developers are about to do so themselves. You can only take so much before you just say "ENOUGH!" Forcing to change systems, unheard of development cycles (under a year for a fresh IP with new content?), and having to drone through the same old crap again, isn't just borring for us to play, it's borring to make.

But risk is bad in business, and profit is good. A small profit off a sure bet, keeps you in the bussiness, while a loss, no matter how small, on a great idea, will drive you out.

What can we do?

1) Wait for price drops. One of the issues facing developers is that if the publisher doesn't see profit immediately, the title goes off the shelf, and away. Buy increasing the amount of games you buy in the second run, publishers will understand that there is a viable market out there of people waiting for the release to calm down.

2) Read reviews. Investigate your game before you buy it. But not in a review mag/site that earns it's revenue through gaming advertisements. Believe it or not many slant the reviews based on who's advertising in them. Epinions, or any site with user reviews is a far better concept of how good/bad a game really is.

3) Get involved in the pre-release community. Most upcomming games have boards and means of contacting the developers directly. If you find out a game is comming out soon, go to the board, read what's happening, and then cut the hype in half for a more accurate picture. After lurking for a week or two, post your ideas, concepts and suggestions. Here is a perfect chance for you to start organizing what you want from the ground up.

4) Don't be affraid to take a chance on a sleeper game or on a game that really bends the rules. Yes you should wait until it drops well in price, but the attempts at people improving and remaking X-Com is not because it recieved critical acclaim, it's because people took a chance on it and found out it was a really good game.

5) Don't buy HYPE games. Catwoman springs immediately to mind. Movie tie ins are almost exclusively bad. (Lord of the Rings: Return of the King being the noteable exception).

6) Build your own. Seriously, get involved. Dorm/Bedroom game development is dead. Dorm/Bedroom MOD development is a great way to push the boundaries. Most good developers know that a healthy mod community keeps their game on the shelves, and will provide you the tools to make those mods.

7) Don't settle. If something sucks, review it. If it's great, review it. Big name publishers are always going to try and make "Me Too" games. Small time publishers will do so to try and get their first hit. You helping increase or decrease a games sales are one way you can have a hand in stearing the industry.

Everyone gets a vote in america, regaurdless of Age, Race, or Nationality. The only name on the ballot is "George Washington". So vote, just do so wisely.

Not Quite Dead

Ok, just a quick hi to everyone. Sorry I haven't made any posts in almost a year, needed the time to kinda get my home life in order.

Fired, Hired, Homeless, Home Owner, it's been busy.

Currently working some ideas to kick start this bad boy up again.

AG