GamePolitik -- Game Thoughts and Opinions

Number 4

2007-05-01T14:34:00.000-04:00

2 in a row. Im impressed

Number 4. Crash Bandicoot (PSX)
Oh Crash Bandicoot. 32 bit graphics, fruit frenzied marsupials and the most demonic math teacher villain of all time ( I wish my math teacher's name was Dr. Cortex). How we love thee. Once someone tried to convince me of Crash's insignificance because of inferior graphic capability and basic gameplay, but I am convinced to this day that he never actually played the game. The point of crash bandicoot was not to overstep the bounds of modern hardware or break down the walls of innovative story, but to make the most fun game of all time. All. Time.
The first game on the PSX (in this series at least) was the most fulfilling Video Game I have ever experienced. I was 7 years old, which may have contributed to my fanboyism, but I was thoughourly ensconsed in its glory. The first level where you made it through the linearly plotted jungle, over the death pits, and away from the crazy-ass spider-mask enemies, and then had to play the level in reverse to run away from A FUCKING BOULDER! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
-Joe Schmaling, 1999

Thats why Crash Bandicoot is awesome.
Straight up.

Joe

Again, I return.

2007-04-30T19:26:00.000-04:00

It feels nice to be the only one who thinks about this thing. Like I'm the only one who still plays PC games.

I think its cause I am.

I never finished my list of games. I really feeel like completing it this week. So here goes, numbers 5 and 4.

Number 5. Starcraft
Starcraft. Starcraft. Starcraft. One may have gotten all the points I'm about to point out from those words. Starcraft is in a league of its own. There is nothing quite like it, nor will there ever be anything as great as your first Zergling rush. No innovative graphics, even for the time, or fancy game mechanics, just an RTS that is so solid most precious stones shit their britches upon its insertion into a CD Drive. Blizzard captured its player with Starcraft and has held them like a vice grip on a scandalous senators scrotum. The intimacy of every detail of the game, including the remarkably cool "new" interactive menus and the tiny blood-splosions on screen when a firebat died, hooked anyone who played it even once. Everquest had nothing on this game. It took a certain type of person to delve deep into the otaku world of everquest. But Starcraft had an allure to not only the hardcore who had been preoccupied with their RA2 rivals and Westwood online scores, but the little'uns like me, at the age of 9, who played this game once at a friends house and now had further reason to force his parents to buy a computer. I played Starcraft more than any game since my debut as a gamer, and this is not time I'll spent by any means.
Starcraft was a gateway game, similar in nature to alcohol or marijuana. It led me to play through the Command and Conquer series, tossed me into Doom, and opened up the doors to every game I've ever played.
Except World of Warcraft. That was just a straight up bad idea.

The Next Generation

2007-01-20T01:28:00.000-05:00

So ya. Here goes the next few games in my epic countdown to ultimate electronic epiphany.

Number 6. Battlefield 2 (PC)(PS2 Modern Combat Licks more balls than a Korean working off his immigration Loan)

This game is great, and I don't know why. It has no innovative game aspects. No Fantastic graphics engine. Not even a gravity reversing device (to be announced on LifePatch 1.4.1). But the few things it did do, it worked seamlessly. The experience and unlock system was harsh, but not to the point of frustration and quittingness. It made you strive for it. And enjoy it. And the unlocks that you got. They were the coolest. The first time I went from the M4 to the SCAR-L was the first time I realized that MilSim games could be good (damn you CounterStrike......damn you all to hell). Being Commander was so cool the first time, but got monotonous and boring after the first time. Thats why this game didn't make top 3. All in all, this game is awesome, but not awesome enough to make this veteran critic (hahahaha....you laughed, I know you did) place it with the best.

It has been brought to my attention by one of my cohorts that I am a total retard. I need to re-examine my life. Fuck

HOLY SHIT!! AN UPDATE!!!

2007-01-11T18:05:00.000-05:00

YO! THIS BLOG IS MINE BITCH!!!
Seeing as its been somewhere in the range of 6 months since an update, I thought I might pitch in.

Recently, I've been playing a lot of games. Cod2, Bf2 and assorted expansions, some Quake, and various other games (Not all FPS's, those are just the ones I play the most).
This brought me to a thought. I want to compile my top 10 games ever.
So after racking my brain over and over, looking for scraps of long since buried brainwaves, I think Ive done it. Ive played alot of videogames all the way through, including some that my brothers in arms may have never heard of. Surprised at the fact that I could recall 10 games I've played, and order them, I was forced to put the DDR games into an all encompassing entity. They all rock.

So here it is. The story of my Life, in 0's and 1's.

10. Gunstar Heroes (Sega Genesis)
This game is what started getting me up at 5 in the morning so my parents wouldnt know I was on the "Brain-Melting-Apparatus". My brother and I spent more time on this game than we did learning to speak, and subsequently speaking. It was like Contra with a bad attitude. The first few levels where the little 2d 16 bit terror fighting machines boarded the Zeppelin and wreaked havoc on thousands of unsuspecting lackeys in brightly colored armor has stayed with me ever since. I have dreams about them to this day.

9. Doom (PC)
"Joe, what are you doing"
"I'm clearing level 2. With a chainsaw."
Doom was my first PC game, playing it on my best friend Spencer's half-top laptop in 4th grade till 3 in the morning. The epic quest through Mars City with little more than a few meager weapons and a brush clearing device threw my parents for the proverbial loop once they saw their 7 year old impressionable son dismembering a unintelligible aliens on one of those fancy computers. Ever since I've been addicted to FPS's, laying the foundation for my formidable fancy for fragging (+rep Alliteration). I didn't know it at the time, but Doom was the game that made me play James Bond in the backyard in summer, think of escape routes and secret passages to powerups when I was supposed to be taking notes, and insisting that my 5th grade teacher was a martian.

8. Half Life1
Ah....what list can go without Valves single masterpiece that stunned and awed us with the PII power to run such a game. I remember playing HL1 back in 2001 when I met a friend of mine and the Goldsrc engine was still cool. The pants-wetting, sperm killing, gut busting moment when you chose "No" at the end still gets me everytime I go on a nostalgic trip (on someone elses steam account. Why buy it?) back to the world of Black Mesa. I, to this day, continue to create conspiracy theories about the origins of the G Man, if we really were on Xen or just an orbital moon, and things that only the criminally insane or sex-starved brilliant could create.

7. Half Life2
I know no one liked it better. I did. The introduction of a sudden Nazi-esque force about which you knew absolutely nothing other than their child hood-bullyish obsession with ominous fear (Pick up that can) and fetish for microsoft error sounds eminating from one hell of an architectural masterpiece made the game every bit as good as its 32 bit prequel. The graphics became a key part of the gameplay, which is what jerked me into Next-gen gaming and set my psyche up for a head first dive into the technological future of video games.

Thats it for tonight, More on this later.
Does that make this the longest post? +pity No Life

Oh no, It's a start-up D&D blog so that I don't have to waste space here.

2006-08-20T01:48:00.000-04:00

Yup.
That's right.
Masterwork Gaming, Inc. FTW.
-Xanth out

Quake Wars. Sadly no, not that one.

2006-08-17T01:03:00.000-04:00

As a deathmatch fanatic it has come to my attention that Quake 4 SUCKED! It was like taking Quake 3 (best deathmatch game/tied with UT) and shoving the Doom 3 engine up its asshole. Then adding a bunch of unnecessary crap that destroyed the game's sweet "Bare-bones" fragfest feel. Plus I think renaming the Plasma Gun the "Hyper Blaster" was really kinda dumb.

Anyone else smell pancakes?

Relative to Last post

2006-08-16T23:21:00.000-04:00

Not Trying to exclude/jepordize any non-local, non-d&d fanbase

How's This Friday For you all?
2:30 at the earliest?
Leave comments.

HOLY SHIT WHAT?

2006-08-14T23:44:00.000-04:00

I think I'm ready to play now.
I'll forwarn you, It'll be quite a bit of BS, but at the speed we play at,
it'll be fine >.-
Also, hint for the AP bonus. I mention the subtrahend in the post, and that'll plus the difference is the real answer (ie, give both the number and the relevance).
Further hint: Both the Minuend and Subtrahend are Four-digit numbers.

That might have made it too easy.
Oh well.

Some Campaign stuff, relative to time.

2006-08-12T02:18:00.000-04:00

Same Scales, basically (seconds, minutes, hours, days etc.) except:
->36 hour days
->10 day weeks
-->Names of the days are pretty cop-out: it's just the ordinal number, then day.
ex: firstday. Exception: eightday and tenday. Because I can.
->100 & 1/2 day years. No Months. The Full Date is the ordinal week # + day + , + year.
ex: 1st tenday, 1337. shortened as 1-10-1337.
-->And yes, that's one half of a day. it comes right between 5th tenday and 6th firstday.
It's a big Party day. as is 10th Tenday/1st Firstday.
->Current year at start of campaign: 637.
One AP to the first person to correctly guess why I picked that though a comment here

Totally never noticed this before (Spot the Game Reference)

2006-08-10T17:25:00.000-04:00

Now Spot the Reference!
Scoring:
a. 0 points for the show, because it's so obvious
b. 1 point for the episode, because it was just on
c. 2 points for the object of reference, because I said so
d. 2 for the specific name of the reference
e. 1 point for the source game of said reference.
f. 3 for the edition that picture comes from
g. 2 for the book that the picture comes from
h. Snicks and Giggles if you get the irony.
Possible Total: 11

Hey, Uglies

2006-08-09T18:48:00.000-04:00

I'd bet Grimlocks to Gold Pieces that if you sent me your character sheets like I asked for before April, things would progress a little faster

Why I will never play WoW

2006-08-02T02:17:00.000-04:00

The thing about me playing WoW is that I wouldn't be able to stop. Because I love games with progression. The whole level ideal is addicting to me, and even at max level I strive for other items like money. I have been totally addicted to Battlefield 2. Obsessively trying to get my new ranks and unlock more. It's really my preferred 'fix.' There is something about the 'leveling design that attracts me and alot of people. I have no insight into it other than I need to go play BF2 more. Later people.

OMG Campaign Progress? What?!

2006-07-26T00:17:00.000-04:00

Thus, the geography of the world. roughly.

DDR SuperNOVA

2006-07-18T15:03:00.000-04:00

Is Awesome.
Further comment was not availible at time of publishment.

Podcast!

2006-07-16T00:19:00.000-04:00

We're podcasting, link to appear soon.

To whom it may concern.

2006-06-18T17:09:00.000-04:00

I'm behind a bit. Won't have campaign ready to start as soon as I get back. I'll tell y'all ASAIF

The Death of a Deathmatch

2006-06-08T00:24:00.000-04:00

I'm gonna start off my career on GamePolitik with an issue that i have been going over im my mind for a long time now. This is one of my main hot buttons.

You spawn up, find a gun and start searching around. Soon enough, you hear footsteps to your right. You turn down the hallway and jump to try to get a quick frag and... LAGGGGGGGGGGGG!! Oh no, not because your internet. It's because some fancy high tech graphic is hanging out in the hallway because "it looks pwetty".

Our new era of gaming has brought us many things. A few good... THE REST SUCK! What ever happened to games like Quake, and Unreal Tournament? Games where the graphics weren't amazing, but the gameplay owned your soul. Back when, I could fire up a DM and play for hours on end without any deterence of fun. Nowadays, I play an hour of Counter Strike Source, and I'm sick of it.

Rather than some fancy texture effects, give me some gibs or a jump pack, give me a rail gun that looks like a stick with cancer but owns up like hell. THAT WAS BOSS.. BOSS HOG! I can't even focus on playing anymore, I'm too taken aback by the environments. I'd rather play in a black abyss, and your opponents are white blobs, than be blinded by HDR and not be able to see my enemies.

As an example, I'm going to use my line of gaming, Valve. I have to admit, I'm a Valve whore, and you better know this now because it's gonna show. I've been on board since CS 1.5. I never actually played the HL1 campaign, but I logged in some massive hours on HL1 multiplayer, AKA Uber awesome deathmatch. This game had it all, good physics, great gameplay, great guns. Soon enough, HL2 came out. I played the campaign and was a big fan. So one day I was bored and decided to try out HL2 DM. WHAT...THE...FUCK?!!! Worst gameplay ever. "OOh fun!! I can throw random crap at people with my gravity gun." NO! NOT COOL!! This game was basically single player without bots.

Now, all you DM players out there will feel for me on this one. In real deathmatch, you run mega fast and action is massive. This was mostly based on the early Quake mulitplayers, one word, BRILLIANCE! In HL2 DM you play just like you would in game, slow and tactical. THAT'S NOT DM!!!

To wrap this all up, I leave you with this. Somebody has to do something before the deathmatch as we know it is gone forever. Now... i'm gonna go play Quake 4.

OMGx0RZ LIEK NOO MMBERZ ROFFLE

2006-06-07T22:50:00.000-04:00

Uh yeah... We got two new members to inevitably decline the quality of this glorious blog. The L337 wigga4lyfe uba gamezz ninja. And the oddly named gamer Smokeymcpot. Anyways, they're both really sexy, but I doubt they can write for crap.

-Ix

A Rebuttle to the Rebuttler's Rebuttle

2006-06-04T10:23:00.000-04:00

Get it done and we wouldn't have to sink to this petty squabbling, now would we?

Another Rebuttal!

2006-06-04T00:44:00.000-04:00

Hey, fuck you.

In a Rebuttle to my Own Post,

2006-06-03T22:19:00.000-04:00

It really doesn't matter if there are to many character choices for a player if they never get around to rolling their character. I mean seriously, I asked you guys to get me character sheets/backstories in April.
If fscking June now.
srsly.

Creating a Character

2006-06-02T23:02:00.000-04:00

So Today, Wizards Put out an article, to hype the PHBII, about how character creation has changed since the game appeared back in '74.
In short the article said that while some things have basically stayed the same (Six Ability Scores; 3d6/other related methods; Pick a class), others are really different (Races was one thing they focused on. Used to have level caps for certain classes, plus ability requirements).

So, when they got to 3/3.5e, they said that they created the most customizable character creation system yet to be seen in D&D. that is a very true statement.

But what does this "very modular character creation system" mean?

It means that there's always another choice.

Don't like any of the core classes for a character concept?
Make your own base class. It's cool.
Hell, Wizards does it. Just look at the SRD when you have time. That's (nearly) all the core material, plus a bit more.

Sometimes though, all the possible Race/Class/Skill/Feat/Spell choices can be a little much.
If you look on the D20 page of the Order of the Stick forum, there is a sticky that links to countless Classes, PrCs, Monsters, Races, and Feats. It's Flipping crazy.

So now, if you wanted to play a character very much akin to the Incredible Hulk, just pick up the Giant Fury PrC.

Need some Sneak attacking in Magic Darkness?
There's a PrC for it.

There are so many choices with all this stuff, it seems that Roll-playing has overtaken Role-playing.

16 core classes was Fine.
+3(8?) psionics is cool, so long as you know the limitations
+12 "Complete" classes I can handle, in small quantities
180 classes, counting Duplicate Prints? That seems a little much.
685 PrCs, counting Duplicate Prints? I'll pass on that.
Those are classes/PrCs crated by wizards, and in books that are in circulation, if you cared to know.

I dunno what my point really is.
Yeah, there might be too many choices.
But it's better than 1e.

and just a little tidbit: as "research" for this little article, I was clicking around the OotS forum, and there was a thread that was basically about this exact same topic, only slightly different.
Curse you people and your stealing my perfectly common ideas...

Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory

2006-06-01T00:20:00.000-04:00

To start things off, those of you with CAD Premium should (hopefully) agree with me that the most recent episode was Terrible.

Also, The Article below this one is fantastic, make sure you read it.

Onto more important things:
In this Penny-Arcade comic, something is described that I've meant to talk about for a while. That is, that jackasses. It's that guy, you know, the one you play Counter-Strike with, the one who won't stop using his headset, screaming nonsensical profanities.

Yes, that one.

They're like a plague and I hate it more than most people, most people who know me in real life know I have a high voice, so I et called a little kid alot, but the issue here is that games could easily be ammended to solve this, and the "Game Experiance May Change During Online Play" is not helping anyone. The America's Army honor server concept is one I enjoy, a company sponsered server perhaps, one that has strictly enforced rules, that way you can find non enforced rules to be a loud foulmouthed jerk.

This didn't really turn out what I wanted it to be, but those are my thoughts.

"The Finesse"

2006-05-31T23:23:00.000-04:00

This is just a term I came up with for a phenomena that is easily observable in most videogames.
Other people have noticed it sure, but no one else (to my knowledge) calls it that.
In Short the Finesse is a person's ability to pick up a game and immeadiately (or not) begin to develop skills that it takes others years to develop.
As an incredibly innacurate and unhumble critique of myself, I'd probably say that:
I have a finesse for console games (Tekken4/SSB/SSBM/Onimusha are my primary examples, but there are other games. Those just came to mind), but not for PC games(Yeah, my CS/DMC/GUNZ scores are usually like, 4:20. Not really, but they're bad), and it probably isn't there for arcade games, but those are so few and far between for me that I'm not sure.
Anyways, people can develop their finesse at varying speeds. For consoles, mine goes up really fast. (Tekken 4 at Schmaelz's?) On one noted occasion, which I believe to be where I tribute the term from, Ixion showed a somwhat slower, but still pretty quick, finesse rate (Onimusha:BW at Phillips' ?). This is a good example of the varying speeds, I guess.
The finesse should not, however, be confused with Newb Luk or Ski11z.
Newb Luk is just that; Luck. It's not any innate talent, It's just a blip on the radar. One-time thing, etc. etc.
Ski11z are like a more permanent finesse, I think. While if I were to pick up Tekken 4 right now, I might take a few minutes; maybe an hour; to re-adjust myself to it, a person with ski11z would just pick up the game howevermany months later, and beat the shit out of Heihachi on the highest difficulty possible.

I had more to write, But I can't remember anything else.
Also: If my Three Groupings (Console/PC/Arcade) seemed odd, they were based on a cross between my abilities(As noted above, the Finesse for PS2 Tekken 4. I'm Not that great in an arcade setting, though, ergo the two are split.) and Episode 9 of Pure Pwnage.(If you watch during the Micro battle, Jeremy witches between three über-micros; one a console [NES?], the next his origional RTS micro, and then and arcade micro, probably a fighter)

Questions/Comments/Concerns/Free Money for Me?
Leave one Here or email me.

A Banner

2006-05-25T00:42:00.000-04:00

This is a banner I mad for forums and such to advertise the blog.

It's raining.
-Ix out.

VGVN!

2006-05-25T00:11:00.000-04:00

I don't know how many of you have been keeping your self updated with the video game voter netowrk, but, they recently released a guided letter to your congressman type form. It's worth writing people, remember, in order for video games to be accepted as a medium, we need to show them who's playing.

LAN Parties

2006-05-19T23:52:00.000-04:00

Having one right now. Post about why I love 'em later

Mighty Morphin' Gamer Rangers!

2006-05-14T23:42:00.000-04:00

Okay so while listening to a remix of power rangers sound effects and other such into a speed rave song (Go Go Go Power Rangers by Aerogroove), I came up with an idea. Such has been born the Mighty Morphin' Gamer Rangers (Possibly in comic form sometime in the future)
Red Ranger: John Romero, with his powers of overhyping games, he can transform into the Design is Law Zord, which grants him the power of making bad games based around crappy code.
Blue Ranger: Sid Meier: Creator of the Legendary Firaxis and it's respective titles Sid Meier can Morph into the Well Known Zord.
Yellow Ranger: Gary Gygax, with the power to predecess all other games: Turns into the D20 Zord.
Green Ranger:Shigeru Miyamoto with his power of console skills, he is the Console Zord
Pink Ranger: Will Wright, because anyone who made the Sims... His Zord is popularity Zord
White Ranger: John "Engine John" Carmack with the Graphics Zord.
Black Ranger: Fata1ity with the first *real* professional gamer, he is the Headshot Zord.

Imagine that Power Rangers Series.

Behind The Scenes
This is where I'm gonna show Xanth's and My Xfire conversation for the brainstorm.
(My Name is John Romero, Xanth's is Kyuss)

John Romero: MIGHTY MORPHIN GAMER RANGERS!
[GH]Kyuss: Kick ass
John Romero: I got John Romero, Sid Meier and Gary Gygax so far.
[GH]Kyuss: Monte Cook. He's like Gary Gygax for 3.5, except not quite
John Romero: Nah.
[GH]Kyuss: Fine
John Romero: any other suggestions
[GH]Kyuss: Shigeru Miyamoto
John Romero: Of course
John Romero: He can be green ranger
[GH]Kyuss: Totally Random Jump in subject-
[GH]Kyuss: One of the not-so-legal digital D20 books is brilliantly bad
John Romero: We're not done here, and this convo is going on the internets
[GH]Kyuss: Fine
John Romero: Pink
Black
White

Is what I'm missing
John Romero: Pink might go to Will Wright, because anyone that created the Sims...
[GH]Kyuss: Lawl
John Romero: yeah...
John Romero: Roffle
John Romero: One power ranger is named Trip
John Romero: Tripp is now a power ranger.
[GH]Kyuss: If it's called "Mighty Morphin *Gamer* Rangers", why are they game designers?
John Romero: Bisexual Zord activate!

Because you were abandoned on the streets as a child and no one loves you
[GH]Kyuss: Damn.
John Romero: It's simpler to right as well, and I'm pretty damn tired.
[GH]Kyuss: Just because I'm out of ideas:
[GH]Kyuss: Here's a spell from the d20 thing, just so you can guess the subject matter.
[GH]Kyuss: Power Word: Orgasm
John Romero: 0.0
John Romero: You do realize this is being posted.
[GH]Kyuss: Edit it out,
[GH]Kyuss: No one will notice
John Romero: Nah.
John Romero: I want people to see a regular conversation.
[GH]Kyuss: Fine
John Romero: This'll be funny
John Romero: Need a black ranger
[GH]Kyuss: NA NAAA NA NA NA NA NA NA NAAAAAA, NA NA NA NA NA NAAAAAAAAAAAA
[GH]Kyuss: Don't. Ask.
John Romero: Don't Do Drugs?
[GH]Kyuss: Maybe
John Romero: Need another Power Ranger
John Romero: Well, gamer person
[GH]Kyuss: Fatal1ty

Just a quickie.

2006-05-08T20:11:00.000-04:00

You know what's weird?
What most other DM's find to be the hardest/most annoying part of making a campaign, making stat blocks for NPC's, I find to be the easiest and most fun.
But then what other people think is the easiest part of adventure buliding, writing the plot of the game, I find to be the hardest.

Go figure

OMG boredom.

2006-04-25T21:09:00.000-04:00

Expect no posts from the team, we'll be down in Miami competeing in BattleBots IQ. Wish us luck.

(And when we return, possibly a new staff member!)

Humor in Games?

2006-04-20T18:40:00.000-04:00

It's a rough topic idea; I'll just see how it turns out.
so there are many games that try to be funny; take for example, Psychonauts.
That game was all about the funny.
One level was like being godzilla- in a Fish's stomach.
Another- The last one- was a creepy combination of a Butcher Shop and a circus. What the fuck was up with that?

Then there are the games that aren't- at least not intentionally- funny.
Among this group? counter-strike. while trying to make a ~~somwhat realistic~~ tactical FPS, humor isn't a big priority. Yet we have the Chickens on Italy, and the toilet with shit in it in Militia. That's some funny shit right there. (pun intended?)

So while making this D&D campaign, it raises the question "How much humor is too much". I'm trying to write it semi-seriously, but I'm sure the occasional reference or Mark/Elle type moment will occur. In the event that I need some humor to be injected into the game through an IV drip, I do happen to have fifty random things that I can insert at will, ranging from "A nearby child begins screaming about monsters" to "A woman in a badger costume approaches the PCs, asking if they know the way to the village hall."

Here's one last video Game Joke:
Daikatana

This is what happens at midnight

2006-04-19T00:42:00.000-04:00

I liked the book microserfs. It's worth a read.

Nonlinearity in Games -- Ixion's first real post

2006-04-18T22:45:00.000-04:00

Sit back down folks, I'm bringing a doozy here. Mainly, my opinions on nonlinearity in games, as well as total enviroment immersion.
My first main point is done entirely through one game. That is Half-life 2. The main point I want to make here is initally on total enviroment immersion, or at least the beginning of it: Gabe Newell said in an interview with PC Gamer "We didn't think that the game really started until you got the gravity gun (zero point energy force manipulator)..." "We thought of the gravity gun not so much as this is an awesome weapon, but more of 'this is a metaphor for interaction"
Indeed it is. The gravity gun is one of the very first ideals of total immersion, an enviroment where you can interact with everything which is a big step to accomplish. To 'one up' this, we have Garry's Mod, which allows the use to spawn objects and characters in a number of user created and valve made maps, and just play around. The most obvious use here is humor (and my friends and I have tons of these screenshots, they will be my filler), but it really stands out as a way to play God. Like that omnipotent kid in that episode of the Twilight Zone. It's a lot of fun, but also a way to test the boundaries of our immersion. When should we be allowed to stop interacting? A question no doubt asked frequently in the industry.
A new way of interacting is sported in Kingdom Hearts II the sequal to the instant action RPG hit among japanophiles around the world. It's interaction concept is simple: when the menu indicates it you press the triangle button the the PS2 to initiate a reaction command, i.e. a dodge command, or a unique attack. While the process is very unique it brings me into my next point: linearity.
Linearity in games is possibly the #1 most dreaded thing to encounter by gamers, yet most games adhere to it as it is their life. Why? Because it is easier to code, a beautiful example I will cite is the dreaded Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. All Hot Coffee jokes about nonlinear sex aside, the game is huge, and totally nonlinear, the main storyline is more of a suggestion than anything. The world is completely expansive and alive, and works perfectly, like the much more friendly The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which is crack for people with an Xbox 360 apprently.
Wrapping up here, I just wanted to throw a few more ideas out.
-My friend came up with the idea of a "hands" weapon in an FPS, which are two hands that allow you to interact with you enviroment, like a realistic gravity gun.
-The PhysX card, more on that later, well be a perfect example of how to create more space to allow immersion and nonlinear code.

D&D Minis; A Good thing?

2006-04-18T17:42:00.000-04:00

I'd say so.
Most H-core 2e players wouldn't, but they're not the issue at hand, right?
Minis actualy do predate 3e. Granted, they weren't teh loverly pre-painted plastics we see today, rather they were (initially) unpainted Chainmail Minis. Some people evolved out of those, others didn't.
Wizards just put out something official in '03.
And Now they serve two purposes.
Purpose the First: Representing movement. marching order and combat could just as easily be represented by quarters, Dew and/or Bawls caps, Legos or a Buddha Statue, it just seems better to actually see what your fighting. Not to mention it opens up a huge world of new Monsters. Like the Swrod Archon. I'd never even heard of it before I got the mini in Angelfire. Or the New monsters, like The Arcane Ballista, or the Wrackspawn.
Purpose the Second: Easy Monster/NPC stats. Sure, If you were in a fight Against generic Dwarf 4th-level Fighter #256573, you could easily open your DMG to page 117 to figure out how quickly he's going to die; but even then you have to give him gear. Wouldn't it be easier to pull out your gold dwarf Mini and cooresponding stat card, which has everything you need, nothing you don't, and cites where to find all the nonstandard stuff?
On another note: I don't have very many dwarf Minis. I just realized this. I have maybe 9.
asa opposed to well over 18 humans.
Could be worse though; I don't have any Gnomes. Though there've been around four in all nine sets so far; and three of those weren't being produced anymore by the time I started playing/buying them.

The Nuances of the Inevitable.

2006-04-18T00:06:00.000-04:00

So, the subject of the March Issue of Dragon's "The ecology of the..." article was the Inevitables. WHat do I think of them?

The concept is simple and sound enough; Do sometihng really wrong, and the universe will punish you for it.
But it's not without it's complications.
The sole purpose of an inevitable is to turn lawlessness to order. a short game term? chaotic into lawful.
The name and simple overview of these contructed outsiders implies thatthose of a chaotic alignment will inevitbaly be brought to jutice; that Chaos will ultimately fail to Law.
That's kind of what I'd like to think what the 3.5 Developers were thinking of when they added the denizens of Mechanus to the MM, all but ditching the MMII(I? FF?) inevitables; which kind of sucked anyways.

Either that, or they just wanted to make sure that the PC's couldn't get away with everything.
Whichever.

Anyways.
Interpret that as you will, I'll come up with something better, most likely involving an undead red dragon; and/or magic items that are cooler than you, later, when I'm more properly rested and can string more than two sentences at a time together.
-The Xanth

Well, here goes

2006-04-17T23:51:00.000-04:00

In recent years, mainly spent trying to deal with being an angsty teen and a geek respected in the online community, I have created approximately 8 blogs, various Xanga, MySpace, 1up, and other accounts. Generally, I have noticed that in all cases, there is no way to actually express serious thoughts and ideals. That's where this site comes in. Here I get to talk about my derranged ideas on game theory, design and otherwise. You are completely free to comment and help me out here, as I'm still fairly young and prone to mistake making. So this is the start of what is hopefully an era of intelligent posting, which will be a refreshing break from the emo whinings of other such sites.