I read this interesting book called Synthetic Worlds by Edward Castronova on the plane to GDC and I was shocked when I got to chapter 7.

The book is basically about virtual worlds and how they have real economies and the willingness of people to put their real life on the back burner because they consider these virtual worlds to be a more fulfilling experience. I’ve seen all of this first-hand, of course, but it was interesting to read the professorial Castronova’s analysis. Among other observations, he first made notoriety in gaming circles for determining that Norrath (the virtual world inside Everquest) has a real world GDP slighty larger than Bulgaria. That is, the average worker in Bulgaria would be better served playing Everquest all day; they would make more money.
Chapter 7, in particular, talks about the merging of real life corporations and in-game communities. The chapter begins by quoting from me, yes yours truly, albeit while in character as I wrote our in-game corporate website. Although I am not attributed at all (which is strange, but I am not mad), the entire chapter talks about “Taggart Transdimensional” and the corporation we built for the online space-based MMO called Eve Online. There is a previous post about this here. We created this virtual company for a virtual game that was based on a real corporation. We took this approach because of the sophisticated nature of the game itself, which demanded that an organization have various disciplines work in concert: mining, industry, defense, finance, trading, etc. We had to do everything a real corporation does from HR to accounting to recruitment; and the organization was constantly evolving (see high level org chart).

Anyway, it was a very surreal experience to be reading that chapter on the plane and read about Castronova’s analysis of what we built in that game and how it is a harbinger of the real-life merging of out-of-game and in-game organizations.

Filed under the categories: Games, Musings

I snapped these pictures last night after I played Oblivion way too long. But I can’t wait to get back into the world tomorrow night.

Filed under the categories: Games, Musings

This game is just incredible. I can barely believe something can be both so broad and so deep at same time. Oblivion is by far the best RPG ever made. I am actually shocked at how much I am enjoying playing it on the XBox 360, when I am traditionally a mouse n’ keyboard kinda RPG guy. It’s very nice to lay back on the couch with a blanket and the wireless controller and jam it loud on the stereo. It kind of annoys my family, but not my virtual family in Oblivion.

Filed under the categories: Games, Musings

Cheating in online games is a fairly significant problem, and there is a new way to do it in Korea. I found this very interesting.

People can buy (or build) “dongles” that attach to their mouse port that contain important macro behaviors to kill monsters automatically, retreat, heal, loot, etc. There are people that just plug this dongle into their computer everyday before they go to work. It’s very hard for the MMP operator to detect because the USB dongle appears to act rather similar to a mouse because the software actually analyzes the video signal and makes “fuzzy” choices.

Filed under the categories: Games, Musings

I downloaded some app from a strange-named company Nellymoser to hook up my Ipod to the 360 so I can listen to better music while I play games. The only complaint I have is that it has to re-index my library every time I hook it up, so it can take 10-15 seconds before my playlists appear.

Given the choice, I would like a hack that lets me share my iTunes playlists straight from my computer (PC or Mac).

Filed under the categories: Games, Musings

I found this interesting page that talks about some of the design process and art iterations behind the 360.

Filed under the categories: Games, Musings

This is a great game. I played it deep into one night and finished the single player campaign. It was really a fantastic and immersive experience. It is easily one of the most impressive games so far for the 360. The online experience is a kinda donkey, but it’s very nice and smooth when it works well.

Filed under the categories: Games, Musings

As I am getting ready for the Game Developer’s Conference next week I found this video from last year’s GDC when Will Wright gave his keynote. I think the guy is a genius… judge for yourself.

Filed under the categories: Games, Musings

So back in 2002 I started playing this game called Eve Online. I don’t have time for deep MMO experiences any more, but it was amazing while it lasted. Together with Will and Craig, we ran an in-game corproration called Taggart Transdimensional and we had a great time. We were, by far, the richest corp in the galaxy, the first to build cruisers, the first to build battleships, etc. We ran the corp from a different point of view and our corp attracted some of the best and brightest in the gaming world. In fact, that’s how I met Gustaf. He used to give the philosophy tests to incoming recruits (yes, we had essay tests requirements).

I was being interviewed for a magazine recently (EON) about all of this, and I found a bunch of old Eve pictures I have uploaded to Flickr. I had forgotten about some of the great art we made for the corp and some of the great experiences we had. Here is a little sampling:

First, here are a few pictures of the still secretive Jovians. Our corporate space station was visited by five Jovians that arrived in their behemoth battleships and they were calling for Ragnar (me) to come out. I actually spent 95% of my Eve-time in space stations controlling our corporation, treaties, alliances, trade, wars, etc.

These Jovians were actually all the guys at CCP that run the game. They were demanding a special item that I had come in posession of, an elite Mining Laser that I was sold. Apparently, this item had slipped into the game via a reporter, who sold it to some random guy, and that random guy came and found me because he knew I was the richest in the game. I paid a crazy price for the mining laser (about a billion ISK, which was a lot for the time), and then I promptly outfitted one TTI Apocalypse battleship with this mining laser and took an absurd screenshot of the entire fleet out sucking an asteroid belt dry of the most valuable ore. The new mining laser was INFO highlighted so everyone could see what TTI was using as our standard mining package, even though everyone else was using regular mining lasers. This caused amazing controversy, since they were sure we cheated to get these lasers… but I had no idea the origins of this mining laser. So rather than being jerks and just snatching it back, the CCP guys created an RP event and five of them appeared as Jovians outside our space station, asking for their property back.

They whisked me away and teleported me and my Raven battleship deep into Jovian space and negotiated a trade with me. I still can’t talk about the trade, but they ended up with their Jovian mining laser back. Here are a few pics of their battleships and some of the Jovians themselves I grabbed during the surprise event.

We also had a load of fun with all the propaganda and the wars with other corporations. There was one philosophically opposite corporation called Endless Corp headed by this guy HellGremlin. We ended up doing all sorts of great capers together. Here are some of the pictures I still have left over from the proaganda… Some of these caused a lot of controversy because they were Nazi-related, but it was all in good fun, just like the real Nazis.

We also had a big load of advertisements and promotional pictures. There is some very creative stuff in here.

Filed under the categories: Games, Musings

It’s been a big month for the 360 and there are finally some really good games coming out for it. I picked up both Burnout and Ghost Recon the day they came out and both are amazing.

Burnout is BY FAR the best action racing video game of all time. The best action RPG car game is of course Happy Car, but since that is not out yet (ahem), I have to spend my free time playing this one. If you have played other race car games and think they are all pretty much the same, then you have to try Burnout – they have effectively re-invented the whole genre.

One of the coolest new features of this version is the online play and the pre-race hype camera. The camera jumps around to 2 of the other racers, plays dramatic music and says things like, “This is your Rival! He took you down twice last race!” or “Here is the point leader – set your sights on him!” The effect is very nice because it personalizes what is otherwise a sterile multiplayer matching of random online gamers. It causes a lot of chatter too… I kept hearing everyone talk about who they are gonna gang up on because they are winning, or ad-hoc allies are created to get back at a rivalry.

Maybe I like the speed in this game because I am tired of driving to the convenience store in my Prius in an electric whirrr of 20 MPH to pick up some diapers and half-and-half.

Filed under the categories: Games, Musings

My thumbs have moved to a new level of carpal tunnel disorder, which really isn’t that horrible of a thing because you have sweet memories left over.

Fight Night Round 3 for the 360 game is great, and definitely not a button-masher. One unique thing about the game is there is no UI at all while you are fighting. You don’t have any UI representation of fatigue, power, stamina – nothing – you just have to watch how your boxer moves and listen to the commentary to figure out how its going.

I’ve gotten about 800 achievement points on my GamerCard. I don’t know why I am so into that stupid GamerCard, but I find myself doing things I would not normally do just to get more points.

Here are a few screenshots. The graphics are the best of any 360 game so far. Here are a few screenshots. That second one looks like a black guy beating up an Arab, but that is probably my own Rorschach reaction.

Filed under the categories: Games, Musings

I have noticed a horrible trend in game design while playing with my XBox 360. This is obviously a marketing-led game design decision – shades of New Coke.

The trend has to do with giving the player EVERYTHING in the game in the first five minutes, and then taking it all away and making the player earn it back.

This horrible design technique (which I call Riches to Rags to Riches) was evident in Need for Speed and Kameo. In Need for Speed, the player starts out with an awesome fast car, great nitro boost, great tires, etc. Five minutes later, it is taken away and you have to start over with a crappy car. Kameo, which is a really lame game in almost every other way, also uses this horrible design technique of giving the player all powers and abilities right in the beginning. A few minutes later, your “evil” step-sister, or some other lame plot twist, takes all your powers away.

Obviously, much of the player’s classic incentive for building up their character is taken away if they already know what it is like. Need for Speed tries to replace that motivation with some fictional “revenge” where you have to impress some bloomy girl and beat this bloomy guy because he is a jerk.

Imagine if you spent the first half our in Diablo with all the best armor and the best weapons? But I can see the Dilbert marketing department sitting around saying, “We have to get them hooked, so let’s go ahead and rip up the whole game design and create a stupid fiction to trick the players.” Sorry, it doesn’t work!

FMV’s sweet comeback now with Ultra-Bloom to Mask Bad Acting:

A super-zoom for super-ultra-bloom.

Filed under the categories: Games