Project Natal

At this years E3, Microsoft revealed its new product that will finally be able to compete with the Nintendo Wii. Currently code named "Project Natal" that emphasizes, full body motion sensing capability, voice recognition, and also facial recognition. After watching the demo video, I was just stunned. My first reaction was probably what everyone has been wondering, "How the hell does this work?" The technology for motion sensing has certainly been around in games, but I think there will be a lot of skepticism on whether Project Natal can perform with the precision that it is currently boasting about. Certainly if they are able to succeed, it will be a crushing blow to the Wii. The WiiMote has already been proved to be innovative and intuitive enough to attract a large range of users (children, adults, seniors), but will be able to compete with the intuitiveness of using your own body to control your actions on the screen? I would think not, but then again if you let too much variability with how users use the motion sensing ability, it could hinder the technology. All we can do is wait and see what Microsoft will come up with as they continue to push to "dominate the world."

Nanovor

When Smith and Tinker came in on Wednesday, I was almost literally jumping out of my seat. I was anxious as I  knew they were going to hand out their developing new product for each of us to test. I didn't even have a clue what the product or game was going to look like, but I found myself still wanting to get my hands on it. It was like a little boy on Christmas day waiting for his presents. As they were presenting the IP and game development of Nanovor, I can honestly say that I pretty much zoned out and thought of only when they would hand out the products. Despite my lack of concentration in the classroom, I was still able to comprehend some of the things they were saying. 

One thing particularly interesting was how they were able to integrate an offline and online compenent together. This was exactly what I wanted to do originally as a group project with augmented reality and a trading card game. We later switched to another idea, because it was too hard to figure out how to integrate an offline and online part together, but I thought that the people at Smith and Tinker achieved this goal almost perfectly. I was very pleased with their product once they started handing them out. Unforunately my excitement died a half an hour later as my Nanoscope stopped working. Hopefully their online beta will be a lot more error free than the Nanoscope, but this is definitely a product that I look forward to in the future to compete with Pokemon and other big name brands. 

Monopoly

Lately, I have been obessively playing online Monopoly (in fact I'm playing as I'm writing this). I mainly started playing to free myself from boredom in class (never in Digital Play though!). Now, I have not only resorted to playing in my classes, but in my free time as well. I have always enjoyed Monopoly as a kid, as I seemed to have an innate business sense which many of my fellow peers lacked. Also with less and less time to actually find time to playing console games due to lack of portability and time, Monopoly online is a casual game that only lasts about 45 minutes. 

A couple years ago I found out that there was an actual Monopoly World Championship (since 1973). Its quite a hefty process to be eligible. You first have to take multiple choice test about Monopoly. If you get more than 80% correct, you then have to answer 5 essay questions that are then judged before a panel. 24 people are selected through the process and are sent to Washington DC, and the winner of that goes to Las Vegas for the World Championship! I then made a goal for myself to one day become the Monopoly World Champion (even though it sounds ridiculous and unproductive). Now that I am eligible (21 and over), I will be trying to compete in it every year! 

Pixel Junk

The other day, I stumbled upon a YouTube video. It was the preview for the new Pixel Junk game! Just like its three predecessors: Pixel Junk Racers, Pixel Junk Monsters, and Pixel Junk Eden, it looked fantastic. What I love about the Pixel Junk series is its fun and simple gameplay along with an original creative design. In Pixel Junk Racers, the only controls  you have is the gas and changing lanes. Even without the steering (which is what almost all racing games involve) the gameplay is extremely fun as you play modes such as "Sunday Drivers" where you try to pass as many cars as possible in a traffic jam filled race track. The style of gameplay for each of the games always has a unique style which is rare in the mainstream games today.

The basic plot of the 4th installment of Pixel Junk series is that you are piloting a spaceship like vehicle, and are trying to beam up fellow workers in order to save them. The spaceship can shoot at the rock substance. The most interesting concept is the manipulation of magma and water inside the cave environment. When you mix the two together, the chemical reaction results in creating soft earth which the spaceship can shoot through as well. With this, it is possible to explore and reach parts of the environment which were unable reachable before to rescue the rest of the workers. Although the game is pretty much completed, the name for it was still pending (it was called Pixel Junk 1-4 at the time). I checked the Pixel Junk website, and found the naming contest for the game! My entree was Pixel Junk Element, as I thought of the manipulation of fire (magma), water, and earth was the key concept to the game. The game will be announced at the end of this month, and so I await patiently :)

Online vs Offline

While typing my response paper about character identity and creation, I noticed something. Today's multiplayer experience (nowadays through the medium of the internet) has significantly changed the roles of game characters. When playing MMORPGs, you choose one class which has benefits and drawbacks in comparison to other classes. The game then usually has a balance where a single class cannot successfully level or complete quests alone, but only in a party of multiple classes. This is completely different from games a decade ago. I remember that every RPG that I played (in particular Final Fantasy 7), where I always tried to make the main character into an "ultimate" character where they were all rounded in melee, magic, and all other skills. I would have that character try to play all possible roles in the game. Even multiplayer games during that time, all the characters were essentially the same except maybe a slight variation in their animation. 

Character balancing must be a nightmare for game developers. I remember that back when I was playing Ragnarok Online, there would be no incentive to be a melee type character (Knight, Assassin). Their damage was based solely on their weapon equip and cards (that added bonuses), and even then they were not good at maximizing DPS (damage per second) like mage classes were. They were also not the best tanks, as a Priest with high health and equips could also heal itself which a Knight or Assassin could not. Pretty much the game was dominated by any Wizard and Priest combo. This led to many complaints, which resulted in several updates on balancing class types and skills to make it more even. Even with the changes though, players are not always happy until they get what they want.

It seems that now with the internet, online games have really been trying to emphasize the important of playing with other players. I personally think it is more enjoyable to play with friends anyways, but just an interesting observation I made that I believe shows the major differences of the offline and online "era."

WoW

After 10GBs worth of downloads, patches, and installations, and also countless hours of waiting, I was finally able to start my World of Warcraft trial account. It was well worth the wait. I then had first-hand experience to the addiction that has captured the souls of millions. I remember playing the day right before my CSE midterm, which Wanda warned us about happening. My actual time in the game is definitely not what I would normally consider "hardcore," as I only have a level 8 Priest, but I thought I was still able to get a good experience. A lot of my time also went into researching stats, skills, and guides before actually starting the game. One significant thing I noticed that was different among most of the MMORPGs I have played is that the consequences for dying is not very severe. I lost no experience, and floating as a wisp to find and resurrect my body was actually quite enojoyable. I think this minimal penalty for death feature is what entices many new MMORPG players to keep playing WoW. I am unsure if I personally like it or not, but I'm sure that the other 12 million or so players find no problem to it. I think there should be at least some sort of penalty (I guess traveling back to your body is not fun), but having too harsh of a penalty can really kill a game. This comes frmo my horrid experience in FFXI, where it was possible to level down if you died. It was already hard enough to gain your level, as by level 10 you were unable to earn any decent experience without finding a party of 6 to take down a single monster. I would probably earn about 10% of experience per hour, and dying (which I did often as I was the tank for the party) would result in losing 25%! This was defintely the big turn off which led me to discontinue my account after two months. Although 

Although I am sad to know that my trial account ends this Saturday, I am glad that I didn't regret the choice I made in high school when I sold my brand new copy of WoW because I didn't want to get sucked into another MMORPG (and I know it would have sucked me in!).

Week 3

Last Wednesday was definitely a surprise to me, as our guest speaker Doug Pearson came into the classroom. Before that day I knew Doug only as a fellow badminton player, and that later changed into the CTO of Flowplay. The topic he presented to us in class about casual games was interesting. He said that more and more games were being created towards a new audience, the casual gamer. I have always consider myself as a "gamer," but lately I have been a lot more interested in games that are quick to play and require less of my time. It would make sense that as a full time college student, I just wouldn't have the time to put into a normal 60 hour RPG, but at the same time I feel that the interest level for me is not there anymore. I also had another discussion with a friend that is currently working on ideas for the next Microsoft console. He said that they may be looking at more towards casual gamers for the next generation, something that Microsoft is usually bad at. It will be interesting to see what will come up in the next few years from the console platforms.

I did get around to check out ourWorld, the game created by Flowplay. My first impression was that it was all about social interaction between players with little or no "game" aspect to it. Though this would probably be more appealing to teenage girls, but as a guy gamer I need to have a sense of achievement through playing some sort of game. I later did find the game appeal as I progressed through by receiving game badges and "flow" by attaining a certain score on a number of the games offered in ourWorld. I was disappointed that a lot of the things I wanted for the customization of my character appearance (I wanted a tatoo) could only be purchased with gems, their premium currency. I guess they have to make money somehow, and purchasing gems seems the best way to do it. The UI was definitely the most appealing to me, and would be an interesting topic for my research paper.