Magus is on vacation, hanging with my sis (Schala) - here's a nice picture, as you see it's very secluded and beautiful on this little isle. We'll send you a note or two about some of the games we are playing while we are here - oh yes, we got the hook-up here... HD, broadband, every game console ever created, some smokin' PC gaming rigs... we're good to go! Schala wants to thank all of you for helping me find her, and after we get some rest - we'll go get our freakin' cats! Now... where were they...

• 27Mar 12

  Free to Play - My Buttocks!

  I was not reslly into online gaming, except for Cityville and Mafia Wars - but as I became frustrated or bored with both of those I decided to try out some strategy games. I played Batheo, Crystal Saga, Chronicles of Merlin, Warflow - and after a while got thoroughly turned off. Why? Because at a certain point they all did the same thing - made it so hard to advance WITHOUT CASH PAYMENTS that the games became impossible and extremely bogged down. Batheo, Warflow and Chronicles of Merlin have different graphics - but its all the same gameplay and the same irritating problems - they all use the same tactics to get people to pay.

  Starve you out.

  Slow your advancement.

  Impede you from upgrading.

  Throw ridiculously hard battles at you out of nowhere.

  Show you how a player who has half your levels can be twice as powerful - with CASH.

  Change the game dramatically when you get to cetain levels, so you can harldy make a move without having to stop playing (like cool down timers that get increasingly punishing as you level up).

  Forcing you to choose between prematurely levelling up or having no activity in your game play.

  Crystal Saga does some of that - but they add on confusing levelling, impossible battles and low odds creating / finding certain items that will help you advance. You can always get past all that with CASH, though...duhh.

  Now that I am more aware of the underhanded methods being utilized to extract cash from people, it will be hard to impossible for me to ever play these types of games - and I am going back into my shell over all this MMO stuff again. Cityville has new goals now anyway - at least I can keep doing stuff in that game, instead of just looking at the interface and not having anything to do for hours...

  • Posted Mar 27, 2012 9:12 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 26Apr 11

  Game Testers still not getting their due in 2011...

  First of all, I'm not a game tester - but I did spend a little time getting ripped in the past working for a small company that operated as a contract company for companies that were really cheap - too cheap to pay the measly sums that game testers already get.

  I do look at the positions every once in a while - hoping they will get better, but it's been about 20 years since I did it and it's still the same. Game Testers are the security guards of the industry. Just like security guards, they do the most critical work in the company, yet do not recieve proper respect or pay. And now they are asked to be even more technical - it's not simply play through the game and report anomalies anymore - they are almost like Jr. Programmers; having to find and report hacker level bugs. They are required to work 24/7 if necessary - and cheap skate game companies won't pay them much more than minimum wage. Its shameful and a travesty. I'll bet you that the people in the HR department are getting paid well - and do they develop games? NO.

  The kernel - the skeleton crew, if you will, of any company are the people who should be getting premium pay. The kernel of a game development company is the Game Producer, Designer, Artists, Programmer, and TESTER. If you have those components - you can make a game. So why is it that the Tester is getting left out of the loop? It is what happens when you let HR run your company. All of a sudden certain people aren't worth as much as others. HR goes by a pre-made formula, stamped in their heads at the collegiate level. They cannot adjust based on the individual needs of the company. Companies make the mistake of allowing those people to run them, when they should only provide a service. If they were capable of running a business - why are they working for you?

  The first thing an HR department will do is set up your company to value their friends - college graduates - more than anyone else regardless of expertise. They will weed out people like the companies founders - who might have great skills, but do not fit their profile. You have given your company over to them and now all you get is whatever every other company gets. your company is going to be built without any individuality at all. Because Testers aren't normally degreed, the HR will and has ruled that they are not worth premium slaray - well no salary at all actually. They get paid hourly, which is dumb because Testers work around the clock anyway.

  Because there is no game tester degree program, HR feels justified in paying these hard workers the minimum they can skate by with. And you - as the lazy company owner - has let them go ahead and perform this abomination. Why get your hands dirty and do the right thing? HR knows what they are doing, right? And it's more money to pay the programmers, designers, artists, etcetera - right? Who cares about the game tester - all they do is make sure a quality, polished product arrives on the shelf - and save your compaby from lawsuits, returns and abandoned customers? They only save you millions of dollars - so why are they worth paying properly.

  Oh yeah - because HR says so.

  Who is running the company - you or Human Resources???

  • Posted Apr 26, 2011 6:28 pm GMT
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• 26Mar 11

  I sure had a lot to say about Fable 4...

  My post at Project Ego regarding ideas about Fable 4 - I thought since I wrote a freakin' novel it deserves to be here... (http://projectego.net/fable-4/comment-page-103#comments):

  Like the consensus I liked Fable 1 / TLC (which I consider an add-on to Fable) the most. There are elements of 2 and 3 that I liked, but overall Fable was the best. I didn't mind the dog so much in F3, because it didn't require as much attention as in F2. In F2 the dog was a complete annoyance – didn't you have to feed it too? It's been a long time since I played F2, but I do remember that annoying, attention sucking mutt.

  What I did like in F3 was the nice graphics and the guns. Yes, I said the guns. I didn't like the guns jamming after 4 shots (maybe that was just the guns I had) – but I did like them. I think they need to work on the guns zoom feature and in combat mechanics. For instance – if you don't specifically point at an enemy and fire the gun, why does it choose an enemy that is far away from you when there is one or two right in your face about to smash on you? I had one of a million hollow man ambush fights (at the Fort again and again) where I was trying to shoot one that was right up on me – I was even aiming at it and the game kept shooting something off-screen. I had to pull out a sword to hit that one particular enemy because the game would not let me shoot it! Additionally, there was really no use for a pistol over a rifle that I could see. The game explained one over the other depending on the type of shot mechanics (long range or close-up battling) but really – I just chose the most powerful (rifles) and let that be that.

  I don't know because I really didn't concentrate on upgrading weapons – but they should think about taking away the jamming as you upgrade mastery or the gun itself. I have weapon mastery level 5 and my gun is still jamming – come on, that's ridiculous. And they should allow us (I said ALLOW, not FORCE) to make our own weapons, and especially hybrids – since we have to learn blacksmithing, why not use it?

  Why are the melee weapons so weak in F3? In F1 and 2 the swords / hammers were devastatingly powerful. In F3, my default is a rifle, not so in F1- 2. Its because the swords and hammers are so freaking weak in F3 it's like trying to beat the enemies with a straw. My sword cannot back up a Balverine – but my rifle can. I don't have the killer 360s like in the previous Fables, that can devastate a group and keep them off of me – so the next best thing is my trusty steel hot lead pumper.

  The next best thing to sword play to keep enemies off of you in F3 is magic – but try even the strongest enemy pushing spell (Force) and see how much breathing room is gives you with the Grey Balverines. tbc…

  To continue: I agree with an earlier poster that the gauntlets are not necessary. The Hero is supposed to have innate powers, and be able to wield special weapons that nobody else can. The magic skill doesn't need to be bound to an device to justify the "passing down" theme of the game – the magic is a natural gift, or should be – not something handed down like a sword, axe, gun or blade; its passed down in the genes. So in that respect Fable 4 should make sense better than F3 did (or didn't).

  Even at mastery the magic spells at that level of casting take too long. Your still going to be surrounded when the spell hits, depending on the enemy. A good example is at Worthington Manor (dlc) or Aurora area fighting those living statue things in the desert (they can really accumulate at the right spots). Hollow Men can accumulate, but only if your weapon is weak and you don't know to keep moving. Use any spell you want – your still going to have to roll out of there, even at master level.

  What almost all developers are doing now is making the games so that the difficulty can never be surpassed., They call this "game balancing" or "keeping the game challenging". They have forgotten what makes a good adventure story, the struggle, the revelation and then the triumph. Its the triumph part that we are not getting and that bitter taste in many gamers mouth. Even if its very difficult or secret, gamers need at least some hope that they can get past the struggle phase. In the present state, there is very little if any reward, because all developers think about is "challenging the player". It punishes the player for advancing in levels or becoming more advanced than the game "thinks" he/she should be, in ignorance of the effort it took to get there.

  There is the notion – well wouldn't the game become boring if a player were allowed to become "overpowered"? The answer is that the gamer had his / her enjoyment GETTING THERE. Becoming "overpowered" is a journey in itself, unless the game makes it too easy. The thing is, make it even remotely possible – maybe I don't want to over-level in my first run, but on a subsequent run I might play it that way. Developers forgot about replay – people want to replay, but most don't want the same game experience as the first time. So becoming super-powered should remain one of the options.

  I could go on and on – but specifically what F4 should have is a better, more detailed map. You should be able to transport to a specific spot on that map. I could care one way or the other about the dog – maybe that should be optional. I would suggest being able to call animals ala Darksiders horse – and as a matter of fact, that is what the hero needs – a horse, or the ability to jump on one if needed. Magic should flow outward of the Hero and through everything he touches. He should be able to influence his weapons based on his magic. Combat should be more fluid, no more holding buttons to perform a flourish. Perhaps flourishes should be based on number of successive hits (combo) just before the death blow?

  F4 should have a much larger kingdom – that is, based on what era they will be concentrating in. What is good about the series is that they cleverly leave it wide open – it never says your hero is to be greater than the last – it just says your the hero of that particular day. So it doesn't hamper them to make another game in which the hero could be vastly superior than other games in the series. That being said, and "Old Kingdom" prequel would flush out the series nicely. The Old Kingdom would be massive, because it is before the fall of the Kingdom (notice how Albion is sparsely separated). The question is – will Lionhead actually have the nuts to push out an epic game? Most studios have 2 epic games, the first and the last – and the rest are games that are just marketing players to buy the next game.

  It is obvious by the story that the Old Kingdom had much more powerful heroes, Albion heroes are unaware until they "discover" that they are so skilled. The story of the Old Kingdom would have to consider that people are aware of Hero power and their value / purpose – it would be a totally different Fable indeed.

  I think they should add summoning magic, and take it out of the bottle. Your summon could level up as your usage and stats like other weapons. They have to consider that because of how they added a face to the dark forces this time around. If there are dark spirits complaining about light – where is the light coming from? Must be light spirits that are powerful enough to balance. So it makes sense to be able to communicate with them.

  Its time for the blind seer to be revealed, and Old Kingdom story can provide the back-story. Maybe F4 can finally tie all these disparate games together? Or maybe they just want to keep it mysterious?

  F4 should have better "everything". The menu, the story, the rewards. It should also allow us to create the look and race of our character, as they promised since the first game. Lionhead, for example, offers in it's hair pack corn rows and afros – but where do they allow me to make a "Carl Johnson" (Grand Theft Auto: SA) ? NOWHERE – I can't get into playing the girls because she will have one particular look and your stuck with it – and it ain't the kind of girl I'm into. The Prince is not a character I would choose in a lineup either, but at least he's a dude I can buff out. F4 could go so far as to change the whole complexion of the races in the game according to your choice.The Hero you choose, or rather the look you choose for your Hero should have no bearing on his / her skills and abilities, Lionhead… if your listening. You know how these companies do it – they add races but they also add irritations that make choosing them a bad decision. Look at how irritating the Aurorans (minorities) are in the game – I just want to kill the whole city if I have to ear one more slow motion sentence out of them.

  They should add options such as – Are you gay Would you like to turn off gay characters in the game? Would you like to have the lights on or off during "sex" (age check)? I'm not homophobic – but I am not gay either and I find it off-putting to be trying to make a friend and suddenly dude is asking for a date. If they don't give us that option, then add to the expression an easy way out. In F3 if you push anyone over to the date side, that's all they do is keep asking you for a date – I can't stand that, gay or not. Give us an out, Lionhead! They should add options for the controller as well. Let us re-assign buttons for goodness sake (whatever happened to that in games anyway?). The camera should be corrected so you can more easily see who you are fighting; in most games, clicking the R3 (stick) will spin the camera over the shoulder of your character – not in F3 – it just does a 1% zoom thing – totally useless. Let us pull in and out so we can see what the heck is going on. And let us use items, like foods, outside of battle.

  Fix the freaking inventory! Why do I have to go to a Pawnbroker to figure out what I have? There's your weapons and clothing – but what about how many Toy Bows I have? How many Women's Pyjama Slippers? Show me an inventory! And when I need to buy something for one of my 15 brat children who now hate me because I was too good and too broke – how about providing it at the shops? It took me about 5 hours to find a Porcelain Doll – that's insane.

  Fix the quest system! I had about 10 -15 fetch / gift quest that I completed in F3, and all I needed to do was return to the hirer – they all disappeared. How about letting US choose whether to cancel quests??? Think about that for F4 (or make a freakin' patch for F3). And fix the glowing hint trail too – any time I choose to go to Mourningwood (where the hippies are) it vomits me far away from the camp, and after 50 – 60 times fighting the same pattern of Hobbes and Hollow Men it really gets tired. The opposite way is just as bad – when I get quests from MourningWood to Bowerstone and choose fast travel it takes me on this convoluted path – when I got my bearings I felt stupid – there is a sewer right there in Mourningwood that gets you there in about 1 minute with no fighting whatsoever – but the game should know that too. Quests should always have precedence over jobs – but then again that should be your choice. And stop changing my current task without confirming it with me!

  Dump the co-op MOANING in the game. As a singleplayer, I should be able to play the game without being nagged IN-GAME to go co-op. I shouldn't be nagged about Xbox Live either. I shouldn't have any weapons that require me to do things on Xbox Live in order to level it up – what does that have to do with the Hero's story? There should not be a Demon Door asking for me to bring a co-op player – I am playing a game, not recruiting Xlive players.

  Ok I'm shuttting up now…

  I think I've said enough for now. Just change it, fix it and make it better, Lionhead. Oh and make it for PC ON TIME this time.

  • Posted Mar 26, 2011 8:04 am GMT
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