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Crowfall details starting, finishing, and resetting by Hunger
The latest development blog from Crowfall establishes a problem. The nature of any sort of permanent game is to fall into stagnation. Eventually, the most powerful players control everything and there's no room for new people to come in. You want room for new people to come in. But you also want to have long-term effects to what takes place in the game rather than just resetting everything as the game approaches a static state. What's to be done? According to the aforementioned development blog, you reset... but by pieces. At the center of Crowfall's design lies a cycle of birth, corruption, and demise. Characters remain, but as they participate in individual campaigns of the game there's space for players to make a lasting impact on the game world. But the continual destruction of each campaign as certain players "win" ensures that there's always space for something new to happen, that no one ever becomes unassailable in every sense. Take a look at the full post for a clearer picture of how the game intends to keep players engaged by periodically wiping the board clear of pieces.
The Daily Grind: How should hunger work in MMORPGs?
This week's Crowfall character creation screenshot was pretty and all, but it was the unassuming "hunger resistance" stat down in the statistics panel that caught my eye. A huge fan of cooking and food mechanics in games, I was simultaneously excited and concerned over the inclusion. I have seen hunger (and other needs/survival mechanics) done so well in MMOs (Star Wars Galaxies, EverQuest II) and in mods for other games that they're genuinely fun to play; they add much-needed flavor and immersion as well as flesh out the economy and give meaning to crafting. But I've also seen MMOs, RPGs, and player-made mods that make eating, resting, and traveling so arduous and chore-like and downright annoying that they actually distract from the core game, even when those activities weren't originally the point as they would be in an overt "survival" sandbox or roguelike (I'm not talking about those!). How do you think Crowfall will handle it? How should hunger and similar mechanics work in MMORPGs? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
'Hunger' could add a touch of the surreal to PS4
Newly unveiled surrealistic action-adventure Hunger may be coming to the PlayStation 4 as a downloadable release. CEO Ola Holmdahl told Joystiq that "Tarsier is currently imagining Hunger as a PSN game for PS4." Hunger stars a young girl called Six who is kidnapped and forced to work at an underwater retreat called The Maw, which exists to serve the rich and powerful. The game centers on Six's journey through The Maw as she attempts to win back her freedom, and while on her adventures Tarsier says she'll catch "a glimpse at the corrupt heart of modern happiness." Clearly it's still early days for Hunger since it was unveiled just yesterday and only with concept art, but a PS4 release makes sense given Tarsier's ties to Sony. After releasing Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic on PS3 and co-developing LittleBigPlanet Vita, Tarsier says it's currently working closely with Sony Computer Entertainment. It's unclear if that specifically relates to Hunger, but the game may well be the same unannounced title Tarsier signed a first-party deal with Sony for, back in 2010. [Image: Tarsier Studios]
LittleBigPlanet Vita dev displays Hunger for new IP
LittleBigPlanet Vita co-developer Tarsier Studios is working on a new intellectual property and game called "Hunger," which the Swedish studio describes as a 3D action-adventure with elements of stealth and exploration. Tarsier announced the news at the Nordic Game Conference today, where it was awarded 500,000 Danish Kroner (around $91,850 dollars) in supportive funding from the Nordic Game Program. There's no word on platforms, but Tarsier did sign a first-party deal with Sony back in 2010 on an unannounced project. Also, today's press release notes the studio is "working closely with Sony Computer Entertainment," although that's not specified as relating to Hunger. Whatever the platforms, Tarsier's concept art and synopsis for its new IP has our interest piqued. Hunger centers on a young girl called Six who's kidnapped and forced to work in The Maw - no, not the purple alien, but a "surreal underwater resort catering to the whims of the powerful elite." We wonder if there's an element of the classic British TV series The Prisoner in there, since Hunger also has a Six trying to escape from a super-weird retreat. Anyway, as soon as we get more information, information, information. we'll let you know. [Image: Tarsier Studios]
$17 million technology prize lets you choose which of humanity's problems to solve
Technology prizes are nothing new, but they tend to be focused on specific issues like space travel or security flaws. The upcoming Longitude Prize, funded by the Nesta charity and the UK government, will be a little more... ambitious. The duo is promising a £10 million ($17 million) reward for the best solution to one of six greater challenges that humanity faces today, such as developing eco-friendly flight or giving independence to the paralyzed. While the winning entry will have to help the British economy in some way, this is otherwise a truly global competition; anyone can enter, and the end result will ideally help the world at large.
Satiate intercontinental voracity with online vocabulary game
Ever feel you're wasting your time with games? Feel like you should be doing something to better yourself or the world around you instead of staring at a screen? Well, with Poverty.com's Free Rice game, you can do your part for personal and global fulfillment without ever stopping the gaming.The self-betterment in Free Rice comes from vocabulary identification questions that automatically adjust to your skills so they're challenging but not impossible. The world-improvement comes from the eponymous free rice, ten grains of which are donated through the UN's World Food Program and the site's advertisers for each right answer you provide. In the past month, over 856 million grains of rice have been donated, with the total rising exponentially day over day.We love the idea, and think this model has potential for all sorts of games. Every Halo headshot can net a donation to Amnesty international (sponsored by Mountain Dew). Every five star Guitar Hero performance could give money to Save the Music (sponsored by VH1, of course). Bill Gates could add few bucks to his foundation for every Achievement point earned. The possibilities are endless.[Via Gene. Thanks Michelle]
Japanese hardware sales, May 28 - Jun. 3: Explanatory Aqua Teen edition
We know, you were disappointed. Last night, as you happily refreshed DS Fanboy every nine seconds or so looking for this week's Japanese hardware sales, the vim slowly faded from your eyes as the hours ticked into oblivion. We would never willingly deprive our readers so; we were unavoidably delayed! You see ....Thousands of years ago, before the dawn of man as we knew him ... there were the moon men, reigning over the Earth. But this was not the Earth you knew! It was covered in jelly and high-density motor oil, making the planet very slippery. The moon men blamed the corporations, and there was a war and many were killed. The battle raged for millennia until 8000 A.D., when the moon men realized they were not actually from the moon, but from rural Pennsylvania. They then built a monument to the moon but then the Quakers stole it and filled it with oatmeal, and no one knew what flavor. Californians were highly displeased and turned all the Quakers invisible, which is why you never see them anymore. And that ... is where babies come from.- DS Lite: 123,140 4,321 (3.39%) - Wii: 69,748 11,104 (18.93%) - PSP: 26,358 261 (1.00%) - PS2: 11,814 503 (4.45%) - PS3: 8,998 629 (6.53%) - Xbox 360: 2,219 175 (8.56%) - Game Boy Micro: 310 97 (23.83%) - GBA SP: 247 41 (14.24%) - Gamecube: 226 30 (11.72%) - DS Phat: 71 10 (12.35%) - GBA: 16 1 (5.88%)[Source: Media Create]
