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The Digital Continuum: Evolving past fantasy Pt. 2
Last week I covered several of the reasons given for the fantasy genre's dominance over the massively gaming market. The conclusion which I came to was fairly simple; all of the things that make fantasy great for MMOs can be done with sci-fi. Yet in the comments section last week there was a very good question asked by Jeff Freeman. That question was this, "If any genre can do what fantasy can do, then can't fantasy do what any other genre can do, too?" It's a very good point that I actually hadn't even thought of at the time of writing last week. The fact is that it's true, but only to a certain degree. I agree with Jeff in that fantasy has different strengths and weakness than sci-fi. The key to making a great sci-fi MMO is to simply take a look at all of the successful massively games over the past several years and figure out what made them work so well. For instance, part of World of Warcraft's success is in thanks to its relatively easy leveling curve combined with several stream-lined elements such as simpler quests. That is something that should be kept in some form no matter what kind of MMO a developer might be making.
WoW Moviewatch: Unofficial Patch Trailer
We recently showcased Surgee's cool and funny (and somewhat disturbing) music video "World of Warcraft: Evolution." Now he's brought to us his vision of a future WoW patch, in which some new features are added to the game to make it more playable and interesting. He gives concrete examples of how these new features will play out, which is something Blizzard should really take a look at. The lore-based trailers they do are wonderful of course, but something like this focused on serious gameplay would be really neat too.Previously on Moviewatch...
MMOGs: missing a sense of mystery
Just this afternoon, Craig Withers was talking about the regrettably static state of Azeroth. Tying nicely into that theme is an article in the Guardian, a paper known for its thoughtful coverage of gaming news. Columnist Alexander Gambotto-Burke talks more about EverQuest 2, but makes much the same point: MMOGs need more of the unknown. Mystery is one of the most significant themes in culture. One of the most appealing aspects of the fantasy media and mythologies that inspire and inform games like EQII is the sense of uncertain, and most likely perilous, adventure. But in EQII and its peers, however, the unknown, basically, doesn't exist.Gambotto-Burke goes on to note that Tabula Rasa is attempting to fill in a bit of this gap, with its fluid control points system: The AI-controlled alien enemies, the Bane, will work against both player and computer-driven humans to capture towns, military bases and cities. Sometimes they'll succeed. Players will never really be certain of which areas are safe and which are overrun, as the battle constantly waxes and wanes - with or without player input.
Behind the Curtain: Evolving the World of Warcraft
Hopefully you read our very own Mike Schramm's post earlier this week (if not, go read it quick and come right back) about Lore and Storytelling in MMOs. I panicked a little when I read it, firstly because he's a better writer than I am, and secondly because I'm going to talk about a similar subject myself – specifically World of Warcraft, and how I feel Blizzard could be doing more to evolve the lore and the story of the game. I'm not a Biologist, but my understanding of evolution is that things change and grow. Certain species die off, to be replaced by newer ones better suited to the environment of the time. With one expansion under its belt, bucketloads of content patches behind it and another expansion on the horizon, WoW certainly hasn't stood still as time has passed. While WoW had hardly become sterile, is adding new content the same thing as evolving the game?
WoW Moviewatch: The Evolution of World of Warcraft
I think most of us are aware that World of Warcraft has undergone a great amount of tweaking since its initial conception -- and even more tweaking since its initial launch. This video just makes it easy to visualize the precise amount of change that's happened since it's been available for public scrutiny. So take a look and watch an unknown game turn into a game you love (that may or may not be gone now) turn into the game we're all playing today.Previously on Moviewatch...
ZTE's Evolution handset sports dual alphabet support
Here's a bizarre one. ZTE's latest mobile not only sports a sleek, black enclosure and 3G connectivity, but also includes a "dual level, multilingual Fastap keypad based on Digit Wireless' Fastap Keypad Global Language Platform." As you'd expect, both English-speaking individuals and those proficient in Romanized Ukrainian and Russian should have no trouble entering text messages, as the keypad clearly sports both Cyrillic and Latin-based letters. Although the minutiae of this here device has yet to be unveiled, we do know that it'll be distributed by PEOPLEnet -- the first national provider of 3G communications in Ukraine -- and while nothing was written in stone, ZTE also suggested that the Evolution could be used by "international operators for authoritative certificates and assurances to overseas markets." Click on through for a more detailed shot of the bilingual mobile.[Via Slashphone]
The changing state of the PS3: What stays and what goes?
There is a lot of information in Game Informer's interview with Sony's VP of marketing Peter Dille. One discussion point is the rumble feature mentioned by Cory Barlog for God of War III. Dille passes over the question because there currently is no rumble feature in the PS3 controller -- but it's obviously coming. The rumor of a redesigned PS3 has been floating out there for a bit and seems probable given all the changes occurring with the system (coupled with poor sales). It might be time to wonder what the PS3 redesign will entail.We know that rumble controllers are going to be in this redesign. Sony and Immersion buried the hatchet, which prevented the PS3 from shaking in the first place, and Sony is currenly "working closely with them" to explore "new and innovative ways to utilize this technology in PlayStation products." There's been some significant changes in the storage capacity of various PS3 models and how the company has dealt with them. Today the 80GB model was announced for Korea, a global release shouldn't be unexpected. The lack of a European 20GB model was the harbinger of its North American death and we're still waiting for the official Japanese death, but like we said before, we expect that to happen when the 80GB model is officially announced for the region. Plus, each model released during this incremental launch has been slightly different than the last. We can watch the evolution (and the survival of the fittest) in progress.
MotorStorm dev talks SPU usage and 'cooperative rendering'
Scott Kirkland, the Technical Director behind MotorStorm, sat down with Beyond3D recently to talk about some of the more technical details of developing the intense off-road racer. They cover a pretty wide range of topics, from Evolution's contributions in developing the Havok 4.5 physics middleware, to culling unseen vertices in order to increase rendering performance. Here are a couple highlights:On SPU usage:"MotorStorm only uses between 15 and 20 percent of available SPU resource, so we're aiming to achieve a 5 fold increase in SPU performance, which should allow us to do some awesome stuff!"On using the SPUs and RSX for cooperative rendering:"The leap in performance provided by [the SPUs] gives us the bandwidth to significantly reduce RSX time spent processing vertices that don't contribute to the final scene. The favoured approach is to use SPUs to generate minimal scene/instance specific index and vertex buffers from compressed data."It is a fantastic read, and well worth checking out. It gets EXTREMELY technical at a couple points, so don't feel bad if your brain catches on fire. I set off the fire alarm twice.
MotorStorm #1 in Europe and worldwide?
We all know MotorStorm took #1 in the US and Japan with software sales, which is awesome. We're not ashamed to admit that -- neither should you! It's a fun game. Lots of mud. Anyway, alongside Resistance: Fall of Man, it's taken the top of the charts across the world. It's not an easy feat to say that you've been number one in the US, Japan, and Europe!Evolution's boss, Martin Kenwright, issued this statement: "Developing Motorstorm to a standard we were all happy with was certainly a challenge - but the team here really delivered. Evolution has a reputation for delivering high quality racing titles, but the consensus was to come up with something really special for Sony's new hardware. We're delighted that the public has agreed with the press and made Motorstorm a worldwide number one PlayStation 3 title." Shall we raise our mugs and sing a song to honor this accomplishment?
Robotic salamander provides clues to the past
A team of Franco-Swiss scientists has attempted to gain evolutionary insight on how animals first started walking on land by testing a salamander-like robot controlled wirelessly from a PC. They believe the slimy amphibians to be very similar to the first fish-to-land-strutting vertebrates -- their steps controlled mainly by the spinal cord. The scientists can maneuver the robo-salamander to easily switch between swimming, slithering, and crawling by sending signals from the PC to move its limbs via its mechanical "spinal cord." Since the computer system controlling the bot's spine is no more complex than the nervous systems of primitive walking pioneers, the scientists can deduce that their brains worked mostly to control speed and direction. "A decapitated chicken that runs for a while even without the brain is a good example of spinal cord regulation of locomotion," states researcher Auke Jan Ijspeert. By experimenting with the robot, the team came closer to their goal "to decode perhaps some of what happened during evolution."
DS Daily: Down the line
Nintendo has absolutely dominated handheld gaming since ... well ... forever. They've been slow to upgrade technology (just look at how long the original 4-shade Game Boy lasted) due to this success, but eventually, it has to happen. But exactly how does one upgrade from the Nintendo DS? Backward compatibility has been a general mainstay for Nintendo in the handheld scene, but that would require the same dual-screened approach as before. Should they resurrect the revered Game Boy name, or stick with their new franchise title?Certainly, the next handheld from Nintendo is quite a ways off; Japanese people still need several more for conveniently playable doorstops. But how would you do it?
MotorStorm 720p, 30fps (not True HD)
The 'True HD' concept is certainly off to a rocky start on Sony's console that could. Despite confirmation from SCEA senior VP of marketing Peter Dille that MotorStorm would rocket to the US at 60fps in glorious 1080p, Sony today rescinded that remark. MotorStorm, alas, will be presented in lowly 720p, chugging along at 30fps.Seriously though, those numbers will keep MotorStorm competitive -- and in HD. We just couldn't miss out on an opportunity to muffle the True HD buzz.[Thanks, Jonah]
Aging creatives: Adapt or die
Not all game designers are like the youthful Cliffy B. or David Jaffe, some are quite chronologically enhanced. One such aging creative, J.D. Alley, has written a piece about facing his own extinction. The 62 year-old discusses how he's survived in the gaming industry. Although there is a lot of explanation, bending and weaving throughout the piece, it's actually an interesting story of how to survive in the long term, like this gem quote, "We operate in a tough, demanding and competitive business that rewards success modestly and almost inevitably punishes failure with extinction. There are not many second chances in our business and those studios that have survived a gross miscalculation more than once can be counted on one hand."J.D. Alley lays it all out there and in the end makes it sounds like the older you get, the more cutting edge you've got to be. Those young whippersnappers are always ready to take over, but having the wisdom and influence that comes with age, coupled with the recognition that one must always be riding the wave of innovation is how to make it in the long term.
Robotic tadpoles emulate evolution
Robot tadpole mating. That's what a team of vertebrate physiologists at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. have been using to investigate the evolution of vertebrae. These little robot tadpoles -- lovingly named "Tadros" -- are modeled after the larvae of sea creatures called "sea squirts": each has an electronic eye, motor, computer brain, and gelatinous tail of varying lengths and stiffness. By racing the Tadros towards a light in 8-foot fish tanks and recording the results, the scientists have been able to carry out a simulated form of evolution by electronically mating each Tadros and producing a next-generation that shares the attributes of its two "parents." Over 10 generations of robot tadpole "relations," the scientists found that the tails became stiffer as the swimming performance improved. Apparently this stiffness accounts for only 40% of the improvements in swimming performance: further investigations will ascertain which factors account for the remaining 60%. Next, the team hopes to add a "hunter" to the tank which the Tadros can avoid using infrared sensors, to mimic the pressure sensitive organs of fish. Evolution emulating robot-tadpoles today, giant killer robot-frogs tomorrow?[Thanks, Rod L.]
Official Sony website experiences evolution
Sony's offical American PlayStation website has undergone a serious makeover, just in time for the upcoming PLAYSTATION launch. One of the new things that Sony's touting is the "PSP Evolution", a term that was undoubtedly created by a marketing team somewhere. This is where the new firmware upgrades, like the hotly anticipated 3.0 update, will end up being distributed. You may also want to check out the site's not-often-updated downloads page, where you'll be able to download new Content Packs and demos. [Via PSP-Vault]
Did Sony's incompetence kill E3?
So now we know E3 hasn't been "cancelled." It's just been pared down into something resembling, well, not E3. I know the jaded insider thing to do is sniff that the big show was too bloated and sugary for it's own good, but the bottom line is E3 was a true event, comparable in sporting terms, to the Super Bowl or World Cup. An event that focused the scattershot attention of the gaming public on one grand, glowing spectacle and gave us something to argue about and pick apart for the rest of the year. No matter, how much more intimate and productive, the "evolved" E3 and it's imitators may be, it will still carry the whiff of an orthodontist's convention compared to the epic scale of expos past. As we contemplate the end of an era, the rabid, booth babe-loving fanboy may look for someone to blame. Obviously, the misgivings about E3's notorious gluttony had been building for some time. The decision slay the beast was no doubt arrived at mutually by an exhausted and weary industry. But if you had to pick one massively influential player with a particular interest in dialing down the festivities, it would have to be Sony -- a company whose costly, bumbling performance at center stage last May must have weighed heavily on execs as they nervously looked to next year's baccanalia. If eras are supposed to end with a bang, Sony's ended with a motion-sensing bust, or rather a strained "Riiiiiiiidge Racer!" Sony didn't kill E3, but they certainly demonstrated why clumsy corporations might prefer a more sterile, less pressure-packed environment.
Turok 3 interview and screens
The Turok franchise has been an acquired taste; where most FPS franchises gain popularity through a constant rate of carnage, Turok the Dinosaur Hunter featured large environments and heavy segments of exploration. When it debuted with this formula on the N64, the game was widely received as being a generally great game. The rest of its installments on the console followed the path that the first title paved and it wasn't until Turok: Evolution hit the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube that the franchise became the fish out of water, flapping on the concrete and slowly dying. As such, the announcement that Turok would be returning to the PS3 with a new team of dedicated folks behind it who aim to return to the franchise's grass roots of its glory days on the N64 brought about hope to many a gamer. IGN picked up on that beacon of hope and set sail through dark waters in order to conduct an interview with Propaganda Games Vice President and General Manager Josh Holmes.
