How The Game Is Played

Desktops that work

I want my desktop computer to work. To do what it is suppsoed to when its supposed and not suddenly fail or lose data. To use the hardware I've paid for as my hardware was designed to be used and to maximal advantage. To run the software I need or want to run.

Is that really so much to ask for?

In today's world I'd have to say, "Yes, it is."

I switched from Windows to Linux some time ago. Let me tell you the sum of my experiences. I spent more or less 10 years with Windows. Windows if anything gets more problematic and less stable as time goes on, though stability was never ist hall-mark. Under windows I had to count on a night-mare re-install of a failed OS at least every 6 months and usually every 3. Each tiem i did that i managed to lose something important that I wish I hadn't.

Windows is also a bear to program, really discouraging me from doing much in the way of garage shop projects with it. The combination of factors led me to move to Linux.

Linux is much more friendly to garage programmers. The problem is that it really is a garage program. Its full of "almosts." The hardware drivers are almost good enough. The Windowing system is almost reliable. Software installation is almost friendly and almost reliable. Wine is almost good enough to run Win32 apps. Cedega is almost good enough to run Win32 games. And in general everything is almost finished.

Linux is almost what I need, but not quite. To be fair if I weren't doing cutting edge stuff it would be fine. My wife loves her JDS. It web browses, word processes, and does email fine and thats all she does with her computer. But I need more machine then that.

Which brings me back to my beloved Mac PowerBook and OSX. Frankly, I have concluded that today Apple makes the only desktop that works by my definition of the word. Its reliable, friendly, and easy to use. It uses the hardware to its maximum and what software there is is rock solid. Being a Unix its also a joy to program. Having its own Window system it really does work as a desktop, unlike almost-desktop X which was engineered for networks not local desktops.

Unfortunately that software is also expensive. Macs themselves aren't cheap. And there are a lot of programs I want to run, such as games, that don't run on it at all.

So today i have a choice, desktops that don't work, or a desktop that is expensive and won't do exactly what I need.

What will it take for the industry to make a desktop that works, is reasonably priced AND runs all my software? I don't know. Maybe if Apple ported OSX to Intel that would happen but I'm not holding my breath.

All in all, I miss DOS.

Posted at 02:43PM May 05, 2005 by gameguy in General  |  Comments[1]

How to ruin a MMOLRPG in one easy lesson.

Massively multi-player on line games are the direct children of the pen and paper role-play games. In a lot of ways they are closer to them then they are to the single player CRPGs (computer role-play games) they evolved from.

Pen and Paper (or PnP) RPGs typically suffer from a problem known as PC escalation. Players are focused on developing their characters strengths. As the characters get stronger the things they face have to be tougher and the is results in a kind of cold-war escelation that ultimately takes the game into the bounds of the ridiculous.

Besides the inherent problems with keeping such a game believable and enjoyable, there is a very real problem that RPG groups arent static. New players come in and old players leave. When new players come in in the latter stages of such a game they can often feel like ants suddenly thrust into a a battlefield full of giants. This is both frustrating and un-fun for the new players. On Line RPGs can suffer from this effect, only on-line its often even worse. The developers are generally surprised at how fast the quickest developing players get to the end of their released content. They typically react in horror as they see all the work ahead of them to please these players.

In response they do two things:
(1) They make the whole game tougher in order to try to make it tougher on that top 5%
and
(2) They make the game tougher in order to try to slow down the growth of that 5% into a larger number.

This however results in a game that is much more difficult to play and much more frustrating for the users. The result is what was a fun and enjoyable balance for 80% of the players is destroyed for the sake of the top 5 or 10 percent. This builds a barrier to entry for new players as well as discouraging many of the mid-tier of players into giving up.

Although they don't generally talk about this, the experienced MMOLRPG players all know this phenomenon well. That is why in the early stages of the game you see them "grinding" the levels, their entire focus being on getting to the top of the ladder before the hatchet falls. Most MMOLRPG designers decry this player behavior, but ironically it is the designers' incredibly predictable behavior in "tuning" the game that gives rise to the player actions in question.

We are seeing this right now in City of Heroes. The easy ways to the top that the first players found are being declared "bugs" or "exploits" by the developers and removed. The result is that they are punishing those who either didn't get a chance to use these accidental features OR were honest and cooperative enough not to take maximal advantage of them while they were present.

I originally recommended this game as, perhaps, the game that would finally break the casual game-play barrier and allow players who didn't devote every minute of their lives to be real game participants. Alas, from what I see now, I have to retract that. The same old patterns are re-occurring and those who did not devote every waking minute to exploiting the early days of the game are going to have a hard and frustrating time trying to match the accomplishments of those who did.

Its sad and a shame. And, as for me, I've learned my unfortunate lesson. The next MMOLRPG I try to play I am going to level-grind from day one.

Posted at 03:24AM May 05, 2005 by gameguy in General  |  Comments[67]