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Archive for October, 2007
24 October, 2007 | No comments
Wasting time is good for social interaction
Someone from an online game I play made a post in a game forum about how she had a hard time making friends on that particular online game.
The game in question is Guild Wars. Depending on one's definitions, it is not quite a Mass Multiplayer Onlne Role Playing Game (MMORPG) of the traditional style. Most MMORPG have a contiguous world, players move from one place to another seamlessly, and can bump into other players anywhere in that world.
Guild Wars is almost entirely based on instancing. Instancing and instances are industry terms to describe how a seperate copy of a part of the world is created for the players to play in. So, players in Guild Wars form groups in towns, and they will go into a part of the world that is specifically generated for them. They will not bump into other people in their copy of that part of the world.
Managing the game in this instanced manner allowed Guild Wars not to charge a monthly subscription to maintain the servers. They make their profit by releasing new campaign worlds instead.
Without charging a subscription fee, Guild Wars is also freed from artificially creating time-sinks for their players. Subscription based games tend to waste the online time of their players, so they need to spend long hours getting things done, and hence, will play the game longer and pay for fees.
Part of that freeing up of time-sinks is that a player can teleport to anywhere in the gaming world he has been to before, without having to walk across entire game continents to get there.
I used to think that being able to travel instantly to anywhere in the game world, would be an asset to the social aspect of the game. If your friend needed help halfway across the game world, you can almost instantly go to his aid, as opposed to most games, which would require a 30 minute walk and ride to get there.
Another aspect of time savings that Guild Wars is able to attract players with is the fact that not many things need to be done repeatedly. Gamers refer to repeatedly doing a certain task in the game as grinding. Guild Wars has very little grinding compared to most subscription based MMORPG.
It also has a low level cap. Most games gauge progress with character levels. Most subscription based games keep players interested by forever dangling a carrot in front of them in the form of a high maximum level and game content playable only by higher level characters.
Guild Wars has a maximum level of 20 and it can be achievable in 2 weeks of casual playing. Everything before level 20 is considered the tutorial. Most of the game content is then catered to level 20 characters and the edge that people get is in their playing skills.
It all ends up being an attractive game package. Players pay for the game, and they are not burdened with a monthly subscription. They do not need to waste time traveling around, they have access to almost all of the game's rich content quite quickly, and they are not forced to repeatedly go through certain game content in order to move onwards.
For some reason, the social aspect of Guild Wars is lacking, compared to other games. Players are not able to form lasting relationships as they are able to in other MMORPG. I had pondered about this and realised that all the aspects of Guild Wars that attracted me to the game, is also detrimental to the development of the social aspect of online gaming.
As I have mentioned above, being able to teleport to any part of the gaming world should be helpful for buiding relationships. The game architecture that allows this to happen is instancing. The downside of instancing is that when someone is asking for help, it is likely that all his friends are in an instance, halfway through doing something.
Players in other MMORPG are usually faced with time consuming rides in ships, flying beasts or walking, if they want to travel vast distances within the game. Many people hate this waste of time, and occupy themselves during this time chatting with their friends online.
Occasionally, if a player only has 15 or 30 minutes to spare in the game, the long travelling puts them off, and they end up sitting in town for that period of time chatting with other gamers. Paradoxically, the instancing aspect of Guild Wars allows players with only 15 minutes to spare to at least get small parts of the game done, doing a simple quest, or a single round of Player versus Player (PvP) battle.
Players for many games get stuck at a certain part of the game, because they are not able to defeat the monsters in the next area. They continuously train in a certain area of the game in order to level up and improve their characters for the next challenge. This grinding can sometimes be mind numbingly monotonous, and the players are denied access to the next part of the world because of their level.
However, if a player plays in a certain part of the game day in and day out, he will bump into others who share his predicament, people of the same level as him. After a while of repeatedly meeting, friendships can be formed. While they might part ways later on, they can continually compare their progress of the game with each other
Guild Wars players are freed from most grinding, on top of that, being in an instanced game, they need to spend very little time in the towns, and hence, is not likely to form relationships with other players in the same stage of the game as them.
Guild Wars characters are also freed from resupply needs, one less reason to hang around in towns.
All those aspects that make Guild Wars more efficient, in terms of giving players more playing time, and less wasted time, also reduces the time and opportunities for players to interact with others.
It should have been so clear to me, because thats the way it is in the world. Social interactions happen when you are not efficient, when you are on a bus, when you are eating and when you are sitting around not working.
Most MMORPG gamers out there pay $5 - $15 a month and spend a fair chunk of their gaming time sitting around chatting. Guild Wars players do the complete opposite.
24 October, 2007 | No comments
Women in Games 2008: latest themes and details
The encourages research and seeks to promote careers for women within the games industry. Making this career path attractive from a female perspective doesn't just make good business sense, it's vital both commercially and artistically.
Modern gaming is a cutting-edge industry on the forefront of technology and interactive storytelling. But for it to become a true sister medium to music and cinema, it needs greater balance in its audience and its workforce.
Even in the industry's traditional areas of interest to women, such as art and animation, female representation is low - lower still in more scientific disciplines, such as programming. Without women taking on a greater role in the creative process, how can the end result – the games themselves - ever consistently appeal to female tastes? More broadly, what is the industry missing out on through the domination of male perspectives in the creation of games?
Women In Games was established to address such issues. A major theme of Women in Games 2008 is exploring ways of encouraging more women to enter games and increase their prominence across the industry, ultimately demonstrating how the female perspective can provide a rich new angle on the gaming experience. Other themes will focus on the latest game research with a particular emphasis on areas that affect, or are affected by, women.
Women In Games 2008 will be organised by the and , a leading games development studio based in the UK and responsible for such classics as Banjo-Kazooie, GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark and Viva Piñata.
• Location: Warwick University
• Date: 10th- 12th September 2008
23 October, 2007 | No comments
Supernova 2: turn around
Today added another feature to the game, which will be an important factor in the wargame part: it is ships’ turn rate.
As I said before, the angle from which you hit the enemy will be important, since hits from the side or the back will do much more damage. So, beside moving your units in good spots, you’ll have also to consider the orientation. Each ship will have a peak speed and a turn rate, independent from each other. Some ships could have a high speed, but be very clumsy when turning around, being very vulnerable expecially in the short range battles.
An user in my forums asked me about rotating turret (expecially in big ships). That makes sense indeed, otherwise would be too easy to destroy a big battleship with a couple of scouts! of course each weapon will have a fire angle. Some will have 360° of fire capability, so in practice doesn’t matter where your target is, they’ll be always able to hit them.
I’m thinking for now to make this division:
1) beam and missile devices, typically short range weapons, will have very wide angle of attack, but usually will do less damage
2) bolt and torpedoes devices, typicall long range weapons, will have narrow angle of attack, but usually will do more damage
of course that’s just a generic rule, there will be exception. Also when you come to short range, will be very hard to avoid being hit, so short range weapon will be always deadly in closer combat, while long range one will do lot of damage from distance (to borrow a term from modern warfare, “artillery barrage”).
I am still fleshing out everything of course, so for now I haven’t yet made an implementation of all those features in the wargame. Won’t be easy but I’m progressing fast recently… 
22 October, 2007 | No comments
Today’s YouTube find: “I Am Murloc”
Here's a music video for all of you "World of Warcraft" fans.
Behold, the mighty murloc :)
Enjoy!
— Matty
22 October, 2007 | No comments
Orange Box for the Xbox 360
Finally I get to play Half-Life 2 on the 360.
22 October, 2007 | No comments
FREE Family & Kids Friendly Game Downloads
Hi! Hope you have a great weekend. I'm going to have one cause I've finally finished with my Game Zone project at my homepage! 
I'm free, I'm free, I'm free from my monitor screen!
I've been working literally day & night on my Game Zone for the past one and a half months, piling up laundries (that need to be ironed...), sacrificing the nite outs with my beloved hubby *sigh*, sometimes feel like giving up, thank God it's all over now!
What is my Game Zone project all about? Well, this is the craziest ideas for my website (). I like gaming, in my younger days, I'm a Nintendo, Sega, PC Games gamer. Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Donkey Kong, Prince of Persia, Street Fighter....I used to play with these and other great games until I got married and have my kids.
Being a stay at home mom, I have absolutely no time for games anymore, even if I have the time, I have to put into consideration the quality and nature of games since I have my kids around. Most of the time I'll just play word games like word search, scrabble or flipwords, it's fun and educational, and my son actually enjoy watching me playing these word games and he's quite good in playing the word search game with kids version (you might want to check it out ).
The word games are great, but for gamer like me, I still prefer some action games that I can play and have my mind chilled out and relaxed after a stressful & busy day.
So...after my quest for games...I've found , great game downloads site featuring kids games, word games, card games, mahjong games, puzzle games and action & arcade games. I've downloaded quite a number of free games for myself and my kids there.
Then...one craziest idea came to me...since I have my selection of favorite family & kids friendly games from , why not share them with other parents and kids?
That's how I started my Game Zone project, and why do I called it my craziest idea, well, I've absolutely no idea it's going to take up so much of my time to list ALL of my (and my kid's) favorite games! I've not counted how many games in the Game Zone, but it's a huge selection family and kids friendly games featuring puzzle games, kids games, word games, action games, mahjong games and card/board games.
These games are non-violent, some educational and all of them are fun to play! I hope you'll visit my and try some FREE games for yourself & your kids/grandkids .
Here's some of my favorite games :
- - I love the relaxing tropical music in this game!
- - fun brick buster game
- - my favorite 80's hits match 3 game
And my kid's favorite games :
and more! Come and check out more fun games @ ! See U there!
p/s now that my Game Zone project is over, more reviews of my favorite sites 4 parents & kids coming up next...stay tuned!
Have a great weekend!
* Check out the latest FREE games @ ! *
19 October, 2007 | No comments
Nokia N810 - a new Internet tablet to Nseries range
informs - October 19, 2007 has introduced the latest addition to their Nseries - the new N810 Internet Tablet - at the the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. The pocket-sized, GPS enabled device allows users to connect to the nearest Wi-Fi hotspot or over their mobile phone to make internet calls; check email; watch videos on or update a blog using the device's slide-out keyboard and 4.13", 800x480 resolution touch screen.
Wi-Fi connectivity is enabled across thousands of different locations globally through cooperation with Boingo Wireless, Earthlink and The Cloud. The N810 also offers up to 45 hours of music playback and memory to store up to 7,500 songs on an optional 10GB memory card. The device also features built-in maps and satellite navigation to help you find your way. The integrated receiver allows you to pinpoint your position and find a wide variety of points-of-interests using the free pre-loaded maps, while shelling out for an upgrade to Wayfinder's voice-guided navigation gives turn-by-turn directions to explore the world on foot or in the car.
The unit is powered by Linux based OS2008 and features a highly customizable user interface containing a Mozilla based browser with Ajax and Adobe flash 9 as well as Bluetooth headset support and enhanced video and audio features via the use of the integrated VGA camera.
"The Nokia N810 packs the power of a traditional computer into a pocket-sized format. Its open standard technology accelerates the convergence of multiple functionalities and services into a single device", said Ari Virtanen, Vice President, Convergence Products, Multimedia, Nokia. "Our new Nokia N810 offers users a true Web 2.0 experience in a compact, stylish, yet affordable package - it connects people to what matters to them."
Forum Nokia has also announced the launch of maemo platform support services for software developers and companies around the world via forum.nokia.com. Currently, Forum Nokia has more than 3.4 million registered users, developing mobile applications on Symbian Series 40 and Series 60 platforms. This professional support service complements the developer offering with maemo.org, an open source community sponsored by Nokia.
The N810 “multimedia computer” is expected to start shipping mid November with an estimated retail price of USD$479.
To download applications and games for your Nokia cell phone, try . For further info visit .
19 October, 2007 | No comments
Call of Duty 4 Beta
I'm personally surprised this game actually ran on my pc. The stream line game play combined with great graphics stands out from the previous CoD. Of course you would know this once you played so I don't have to tell you about what to expect.
19 October, 2007 | No comments
U don’t play this Game? What a Shame!
You're busy at your work, you don't have a time for relax, You would like to play with somebody online? Carom 3D it's for you the best solution. In every moment you can sit in front of your computer screen and for 5-15 min. play with your friend or foreign player, playing one of the best billard games. If you want to play in this great title, you have to just download the game from Internet, register account. Carom 3D weigh only 45MB, after instalation only 150, so it should hold even on small Hard Drives. Plus of this game is that system requairments it's only procesor 450MHZ and 128 Ram memory. In our times this configuration has practically every computer. Why is it one of the best symulation in the world? Physics in this game is in 98% similar to real. Balls bouncing amazing! You're feeling like inreal world. Graphics is Simple, so it's not slow you system and you can do a lot of this when you're waiting on your turn. What's more? In the game you can practise because you have Training mode. In multiplayer added virtual money called caney. In Background you can hear only one Smooth Jazz song but it is superb maked so it's never bore. A Big Plus of this game is Serwer. U don't need fast connection beacuse game offers wide brand Serwers and u can play any time with any speed. Also, u can practise your english playing with english :]. In the end i want to say, that this game is for fans and people which haven't a lot of free time. I recommend this type of entertainment beacause it's learning game rules and helping u in the real Bilard. If you want to play with me no problem.
Dawid 133 Novice serwer 1. You'll find me very fast.
by Dawid N. (17)
17 October, 2007 | No comments
Captive SaveGame Disk
I have seen search engine traffic for the classic Amiga RPG . Most of it was about a saved game datadisk.
Without further ado, this is the link for my saved games. Why not have a go?
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