There is a large part of my life that I have only hinted at in previous posts. In actuality, I thought I had posted about it in previous years, but having browsed my archives it appears that I didn't. At any, I have a problem, I play World of Warcraft (WoW). It is actually worse than that; the Lovely Lady Duck plays as well, and I am the one who introduced her to the game. I have geekiness and I infected my wife.
For those who are only vaguely aware of WoW, it is a Massively Multi-player On-line Role-playing Game (MMORPG). To dissect the jargon, a large number of people play the game on a central sever, interacting with other each as well as computer controlled entities, taking on the roles of characters in the world.
In particular WoW is a fairly normal high fantasy setting, although one with a great deal of depth and development in the background and history. Blizzard, who created and run the game, claim more than 11 million active accounts, although you never interact with that many people; there are multiple servers each with (this is a guess) around ten thousand active players.
Anyway, why did I decide to start talking about this now? There are I think three motivating factors:
1. WoW is such a large part of my life. In blunt terms of time, I typically spend fifteen to twenty hours each week playing, which is a substantial proportion of my free time. WoW has had substantial effects on my mood and mental state over the two years or so that I have been playing; both positive and negative. This influence is something that interests me, much as the influence of music does.
2. I want to write a few things about WoW itself. I don't want to become a full time WoW blogger, but that are a few things that I want to throw into the mix.
3. I have always enjoyed writing bits of fiction. Some of this has been fan-fiction set in gaming universes (X-COM and Laser Squad Nemesis before WoW). If I were to put a little of my writing up here, it would seem odd to include WoW fiction without first setting my WoW background up.
Showing posts with label games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label games. Show all posts
24 March 2009
25 March 2008
Second-hand items
As you will note from the links on the right hand side, I make use of second-hand options such as Green Metropolis, Amazon Marketplace, and E-bay. I feel that buying second-hand is a positive thing. It reduces waste by encouraging people not to throw things away, and also by reducing the market for new items, and reducing the need for wastefully large print runs which can end up destroyed untouched.
I also try to be as strict as possible about not illegally copying material, be it CDs, games, books, or essays. Whilst I am happy to accept the disgusting greed of the music industry and the poor treatment of the writing and recording artists, I still feel that stealing music (for example) is not only illegal, but probably does have a negative knock-on effect on the artists themselves.
I realised the contradiction in these positions the other day. I try to buy items second-hand. This means I am usually buying from an individual who bears no relation to the original source of the book or CD in question. No royalties will be paid to the author of the book, there will be no boost up the charts for the musician.
From the point of view of the artist, I may as well have acquired an illegal copy. The sole direct beneficiary of my second-hand purchase is the existing owner. In some cases, for example Green Metropolis, there are additional benefits to the second-hand purchase, such as a portion of my money going towards other beneficial projects.
So what is more important to me, the reduction of waste by buying second hand, or supporting the artist for their work?
How are games developers paid?
Whilst ruminating on the issue of artists being paid for second-hand sales of books and CDs, I started to think about how games developers are paid.
As I understand it (and I am happy to be corrected if I am wrong, I really don't know that much about it), a musician or band will be contracted by a record label to produce a set number of works, and be paid an amount for that contract. They may also receive a share of royalties or gig income.
Similarly, an author will be contracted by their publisher to write a novel, or multiple novels, be paid for that contract and possible share royalties.
In both fields there will also be the small, independent artists who will carry their own publishing and management costs, and the profit they turn from sales and gigs is what they earn.
In games, there are the small independent developers who operate in much the same fashion. They design and write the games, and what they can sell is their income.
There are also the development teams maintained by the major publishers. Do they operate on a similar contract basis? Publisher X offers a development team a contract to produce a specific game. Are the developers paid direct salaries, do they receive an amount from the project coffers, do they receive a share of royalties?
This is all just idle wondering, but could it have an effect on the way games are developed? Has it had an effect on the way that books are written and music composed?
18 March 2008
Music and games again
As I mentioned in my first post on this topic, I was interested by games such as Guitar Hero long before Audiosurf came along. Now a copy of Guitar Hero III has dropped into my lap. It is rather quite fun indeed. I feel many hours of playing coming on, although maybe I won't be dedicating as much time to is as I intend to with Audiosurf. The selection of songs is great, being largely seventies and eighties rock and metal, with a light dabbling of rocky blues.
I have already started investigating purchasing a second controller, and an adapter so that I can play Frets On Fire on my PC.
Talking of new controllers, I think my trusty old Logitech mouse is finally dying, so a new one is in order to keep my Audiosurf performances at their best. Currently I am considering the Razer Krait and the Speed-Link Styx.
I have already started investigating purchasing a second controller, and an adapter so that I can play Frets On Fire on my PC.
Talking of new controllers, I think my trusty old Logitech mouse is finally dying, so a new one is in order to keep my Audiosurf performances at their best. Currently I am considering the Razer Krait and the Speed-Link Styx.
13 March 2008
More musical games
Last night, the Lovely Lady Duck and I went to the house of our friends. They introduced us (after tasty Sainsbury's burgers) to the joys of PaRappa the Rapper.
PaRappa is a rhythm action game released for the original PlayStation in the mid 1990s. The standard controller is used for input. As with other rhythm games, you have to press certain buttons in time with the music, in this case rapping.
As an experience, it was surreal and amazing. My first attempt with controller in hand led to fits of giggles as a moose dressed in a police uniform attempted to teach me to drive. The bright graphics style, the insane characters, crazy lyrics, and rather giggly friends made this an evening to remember (although I think the resident kitten was less impressed).
Purely as a game, I was less impressed. Feedback between actions and game response seemed random at times. Developing an effective style was very hard, and some things have only made partial sense after reading through the Wikipedia page linked to above. But, it was one of the very first games of its kind, so there were likely to be crinkles to iron out. The drastic shortness did seem like a bit of a bonus, given the difficulty of some songs.
I do now have a drive to explore more rap style music, hopefully We7 will oblige.
PaRappa is a rhythm action game released for the original PlayStation in the mid 1990s. The standard controller is used for input. As with other rhythm games, you have to press certain buttons in time with the music, in this case rapping.
As an experience, it was surreal and amazing. My first attempt with controller in hand led to fits of giggles as a moose dressed in a police uniform attempted to teach me to drive. The bright graphics style, the insane characters, crazy lyrics, and rather giggly friends made this an evening to remember (although I think the resident kitten was less impressed).
Purely as a game, I was less impressed. Feedback between actions and game response seemed random at times. Developing an effective style was very hard, and some things have only made partial sense after reading through the Wikipedia page linked to above. But, it was one of the very first games of its kind, so there were likely to be crinkles to iron out. The drastic shortness did seem like a bit of a bonus, given the difficulty of some songs.
I do now have a drive to explore more rap style music, hopefully We7 will oblige.
25 February 2008
Crossover
Before I met the Lovely Lady Duck, the most important thing in my day to day life was music It is still the case that offered a choice between my music collection (and suitable audio equipment) and most human company, it would be the music that came to the mythical desert island.
Music can have a dramatic effect upon my emotions. It can powerfully affect me, invoking various feelings. Some pieces have brought me close to a state of euphoria. Also I find great intellectual interest in listening to music and understanding the histories and development of the musicians.
Although I prefer to listen to music in a state as close to that intended by the composer as possible, I find interest in experiencing different ways of listening; mono rather than stereo, really bad speakers, with earplugs in, and so on. Different experiences can give different, and wider understandings of the music.
Another of my favourite activities is playing computer games. I have been intrigued by games such as Guitar Hero, or the open source alternative, Frets on Fire, but have never managed to try them out. All of a sudden there was a flood of coverage on gaming websites about Audiosurf. The constant positive comments nagged me into submission; I submitted and purchased Audiosurf on Steam.
Wow. I am not going to bother explaining the game mechanics, I am getting too excited. Wahoo! Why I find this game so wonderful:
Music can have a dramatic effect upon my emotions. It can powerfully affect me, invoking various feelings. Some pieces have brought me close to a state of euphoria. Also I find great intellectual interest in listening to music and understanding the histories and development of the musicians.
Although I prefer to listen to music in a state as close to that intended by the composer as possible, I find interest in experiencing different ways of listening; mono rather than stereo, really bad speakers, with earplugs in, and so on. Different experiences can give different, and wider understandings of the music.
Another of my favourite activities is playing computer games. I have been intrigued by games such as Guitar Hero, or the open source alternative, Frets on Fire, but have never managed to try them out. All of a sudden there was a flood of coverage on gaming websites about Audiosurf. The constant positive comments nagged me into submission; I submitted and purchased Audiosurf on Steam.
Wow. I am not going to bother explaining the game mechanics, I am getting too excited. Wahoo! Why I find this game so wonderful:
- Fun, action game play that shockingly hasn't got frustrating (yet).
- A wide variety of styles, different modes, different intensities, but a standard core game.
- Trippy graphics that are trippy. Wahoo! Trippy.
- My music defines the game. I can pick and choose what I want to play based on my choice of music. I can be competitive with other people about something the really matters to me. Wahoo!
15 February 2008
Doom 3 - a rant
Following on from my celebratory Doom 3 post, I shall also vent a little frustration at the game.
Doom 3 is an excellent combination of emotive experiences, well designed story telling, great gun action, and big scary demons trying to eat your face. What more could you want? It a first-person shooter (FPS). The concept of the genre is to take people (usually), give them big guns, and things to shoots at. Some FPS games focus entirely on giving an environment for humans to fight each other (UT, TF2). Some prefer to focus on frantic, unending player vs computer action (Serious Sam, the original Dooms). Certain games attempt to tell a story, set a scene, envelop the players in a world (Half-Life, Doom 3). The premise is the same. People. Big guns. Things to shoot.
Doom 3 does the shooting very well, it does the atmosphere very well, it does the story well enough to support the atmosphere. Then, at a handful of moments in the game, things are ruined. There are jumping sections. There are jumping sections that require considerable precision to get through. There are jumping sections where if you fail to have this ultimate precision, you not only die, but cannot progress further in the game.
During the game, I died around half a dozen times in combat (because the game was easy, not because I am that good). There was a section in the penultimate level which required you to jump down a passageway between four platforms that retracted into the walls. After ten minutes or so of endless death, I decided to create a save game each time I managed to progress safely down one platform. Even with the four separate saves, one for each platform, I spent twenty minutes of frustrating load-jump-die-reload. My poor computer didn't know what to do with itself. I spent more time watching the loading screen than attempting to jump between platforms.
I want to play an engrossing game (with lots of guns and nasty demons to kill) that involves me, that draws me into its world, that lets me kill things in a violent fashion. I do not want to have my involvement in the situation completely destroyed by constant reloading. A certain amount of acrobatics (in game) can be a good thing, it can progress a story, it can develop atmosphere. To make those sections require such a high level of ability that only the most highly skilled players or those willing to put up with endless repetition and blind luck, is absurd. Make it hard, but give alternative routes. Make it linear, but keep it to a reasonable difficulty level.
If I want to have to complete pixel-perfect tests of precision and repetition, I would play Tomb Raider, or more likely dig out my Master System for some 8-bit platform action (which usually ended up with me punching something).
Doom 3 is an excellent piece of design, and I love it to bits. The frustration of the poorly considered jumping segments to the game has marred it.
Doom 3 is an excellent combination of emotive experiences, well designed story telling, great gun action, and big scary demons trying to eat your face. What more could you want? It a first-person shooter (FPS). The concept of the genre is to take people (usually), give them big guns, and things to shoots at. Some FPS games focus entirely on giving an environment for humans to fight each other (UT, TF2). Some prefer to focus on frantic, unending player vs computer action (Serious Sam, the original Dooms). Certain games attempt to tell a story, set a scene, envelop the players in a world (Half-Life, Doom 3). The premise is the same. People. Big guns. Things to shoot.
Doom 3 does the shooting very well, it does the atmosphere very well, it does the story well enough to support the atmosphere. Then, at a handful of moments in the game, things are ruined. There are jumping sections. There are jumping sections that require considerable precision to get through. There are jumping sections where if you fail to have this ultimate precision, you not only die, but cannot progress further in the game.
During the game, I died around half a dozen times in combat (because the game was easy, not because I am that good). There was a section in the penultimate level which required you to jump down a passageway between four platforms that retracted into the walls. After ten minutes or so of endless death, I decided to create a save game each time I managed to progress safely down one platform. Even with the four separate saves, one for each platform, I spent twenty minutes of frustrating load-jump-die-reload. My poor computer didn't know what to do with itself. I spent more time watching the loading screen than attempting to jump between platforms.
I want to play an engrossing game (with lots of guns and nasty demons to kill) that involves me, that draws me into its world, that lets me kill things in a violent fashion. I do not want to have my involvement in the situation completely destroyed by constant reloading. A certain amount of acrobatics (in game) can be a good thing, it can progress a story, it can develop atmosphere. To make those sections require such a high level of ability that only the most highly skilled players or those willing to put up with endless repetition and blind luck, is absurd. Make it hard, but give alternative routes. Make it linear, but keep it to a reasonable difficulty level.
If I want to have to complete pixel-perfect tests of precision and repetition, I would play Tomb Raider, or more likely dig out my Master System for some 8-bit platform action (which usually ended up with me punching something).
Doom 3 is an excellent piece of design, and I love it to bits. The frustration of the poorly considered jumping segments to the game has marred it.
Doom 3 - completed
The posting date is correct, this is February 2008. I appreciate that Doom 3 is old news. However, I have completed a computer game from start to finish. Wahoo! Why is this so unusual for me?
So to complete a game with a definite end point is an achievement for me. Why do I think I managed it with Doom?
I have been planning some posts linking why I play games, which games I play, my depression, and connections between them and wider contexts. I think Doom has given a small overview of the conclusions those posts will reach.
Doom 3 itself then? Probably vying with Unreal Tournament 2004 as my favourite FPS game. Doom probably beats UT to it, as I prefer the story elements to the straight forward multi-player emphasis.
- I have an attention span that can either be completed obsessive, or more often very limited. Obsessiveness tends to occur with open ended games rather than those with definite goals.
- I grow frustrated easily, which is a problem if a game starts to become difficult.
- I am easily distracted by new shiny toys.
So to complete a game with a definite end point is an achievement for me. Why do I think I managed it with Doom?
- The game is quite short and easy.
- The game design and flow is (mostly) excellent. I found the story, atmosphere, and situation engrossing. There was a high emotional attachment to events, mostly fear and tension, but also reward and satisfaction based.
- There is a clear escape from reality in the game, and there is no other human relying on my actions.
- I was almost forced to play in short bursts because of the intense emotions that the game produced.
I have been planning some posts linking why I play games, which games I play, my depression, and connections between them and wider contexts. I think Doom has given a small overview of the conclusions those posts will reach.
Doom 3 itself then? Probably vying with Unreal Tournament 2004 as my favourite FPS game. Doom probably beats UT to it, as I prefer the story elements to the straight forward multi-player emphasis.
27 October 2007
Monitor update
Two successes:
1. I found out how to run Doom 3 in custom resolutions.
Open DoomConfig.cfg in the Doom 3/base folder.
Change seta r_mode "-1"
This tells Doom 3 to use the custom screen size you are about to use:
seta r_customHeight "900"
seta r_customWidth "1440"
with the values the screen size you want.
seta r_fullscreen "1"
Will set fullscreen mode on (1) or off (0).
Thanks to this Doom 3 FAQ and TweakGuides for this.
2. I persuaded Pharaoh (and I hope Caesar 3) run in windowed mode - make sure that you are running in 16 bit colour mode and not 32 bit. Thanks to Heaven Games for that tip.
I think I have headed off my desire for a second monitor.
1. I found out how to run Doom 3 in custom resolutions.
Open DoomConfig.cfg in the Doom 3/base folder.
Change seta r_mode "-1"
This tells Doom 3 to use the custom screen size you are about to use:
seta r_customHeight "900"
seta r_customWidth "1440"
with the values the screen size you want.
seta r_fullscreen "1"
Will set fullscreen mode on (1) or off (0).
Thanks to this Doom 3 FAQ and TweakGuides for this.
2. I persuaded Pharaoh (and I hope Caesar 3) run in windowed mode - make sure that you are running in 16 bit colour mode and not 32 bit. Thanks to Heaven Games for that tip.
I think I have headed off my desire for a second monitor.
Monitor woes
When I purchased a new computer, I bought a separate system and monitor. Now, in my infinite wisdom, I went for a widescreen monitor. Unfortunately, this has had unforeseen consequences.
Being towards the bottom end of the monitor market, it doesn't support proper letter-boxing. Usually, non-widescreen television owners will see this as a problem with the almost ubiquitous use of widescreen broadcast these days; the black strips at the top and bottom of the screen. For me, it is a different issue. When the computer is outputting an image in the good old fashion 4:3 ratio (1024x768 for example), the monitor stretches it across its full width, distorting the image. Some monitors will put vertical black strips to the sides, so the image is shown in the correct proportions.
I play quite a few games, a large proportion of which are of quite an old vintage. Most of them only support resolutions in the 4:3 ratio. Some of these games (Doom 3 for example) will run in a window rather than full screen, so I can play them undistorted, but with the Windows desktop partially showing. However, a lot of my games won't run windowed, so if I want to play them, I have to do so with a stretched image. Which isn't very nice.
I have tried a number of devious solutions (virtualisation for example), but none have been successful. So now I am teetering on the edge of buying a second, 4:3, monitor. I have always wanted to run dual monitors, for the toy factor as much as anything, but it seems an expensive way to solve this problem. I also lack physical space.
The trials of geekdom.
Being towards the bottom end of the monitor market, it doesn't support proper letter-boxing. Usually, non-widescreen television owners will see this as a problem with the almost ubiquitous use of widescreen broadcast these days; the black strips at the top and bottom of the screen. For me, it is a different issue. When the computer is outputting an image in the good old fashion 4:3 ratio (1024x768 for example), the monitor stretches it across its full width, distorting the image. Some monitors will put vertical black strips to the sides, so the image is shown in the correct proportions.
I play quite a few games, a large proportion of which are of quite an old vintage. Most of them only support resolutions in the 4:3 ratio. Some of these games (Doom 3 for example) will run in a window rather than full screen, so I can play them undistorted, but with the Windows desktop partially showing. However, a lot of my games won't run windowed, so if I want to play them, I have to do so with a stretched image. Which isn't very nice.
I have tried a number of devious solutions (virtualisation for example), but none have been successful. So now I am teetering on the edge of buying a second, 4:3, monitor. I have always wanted to run dual monitors, for the toy factor as much as anything, but it seems an expensive way to solve this problem. I also lack physical space.
The trials of geekdom.
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