Social Games through the ages (part 1?)

We may never know who invented the first ever board games. Examples have been seen back to as far as the bronze age. However, they created a glimpse into what would be the future. Social gaming is not just about computer graphics. It is about the interaction you have with a player within a gaming environment, be it playing with them, or against them. Can we say for example that playing football is better for a kid than playing a combat game. They teach the same things, and although the kid isn't running around exercising the body, they are exercising the mind.

I wasn't a great footballer at school. I personally couldn't see the point of running around to put a small spherical object into a goal, and whilst potentially it taught team building, it never really ended up that way.

Compare this to World of Warcraft. I have recently been running raids with my guild, who currently have 10/12 cataclysm bosses down. Each of these fights is directed by one person, and every person in that group has a role to play. If one person makes even the smallest mistake it impacts on the rest of the group, and forces someone to modify their tactics. In school football, the defenders would always lounge around chatting with the goal keeper and let everyone else run around in the middle. That is something you cannot afford to do in WoW.

Thing is though, that games change depending on outside influences. WoW has changed in accordance to things other devs have come up with for their games. I suspect the game of football has changed a lot from the days when an English premiership football team contained a majority of people born in this country.

I do believe that WoW will change even more, especially if other indie companies continue to come up with new ways to tempt the players away. Wurm Online is one such an example. It is a sandbox game where the world can be changed to your whim. You forge out, join an existing village, or find a spot to plant your own. It has a few very clever systems implemented, like the idea that you can build your own island if you want to. It has a free version (all skills restricted to 20), and a limitless premium.

Eve is a game which has had hardly any competition, which is a problem for it. For as long as it has nothing to threaten it's position, it won't change. Games need that competition, and really, anyone with new ideas should be listened to. New ideas can only make the games stronger.

Making a point

I think nature has made a good point over the last few days. In the event of a severe weather disturbance, humans as they are now wouldn't adapt, they would try to just live day by day.

It would be so easy to find a way to keep the rail network open, running a reasonable service. However, the station i travel to each day isn't deemed as important as Gatwick, so the line is neglected and falls silent.

I will say though, looking out the window on tuesday night was quite eerie. We passed a train on the line, windows dark, covered by thick snow. The rails behind it were snowed over. Platforms were empty, left to acquire more snow. A few had footprints, but on the whole people were at home, or stuck in their offices, cars, or even on trains. We would have learnt how bad it can be the last two times, but the train companies who run these things probably don't deem this a worthy thing. People who pay for season cards have days which are void, but in the scheme of things this doesn't matter much.

Still, the experience gave me a bit of an insight into what we do in this sort of event...huddle at home and try and find things to do. I wonder what would happen in the ice age...

Changing a Stereotype

Question- Why are geeks seen as spotty teenagers who sit in their rooms and fiddle with computer stuff all day long?

This question arose a couple of days ago, when a few forum goers took a bit of offence to the idea that maybe doing a direct port from doom to source without a graphics touchup was in someway blasphemy. Suffice to say, words were said and this question popped up in my head.

Now, i admit, i am a geek. I have a vast amount of random knowledge, i have a love of computers and computing. Yet when the word "geek" is used, this image of massive glasses and stutters and pale skin crops up. The other assumption is that a geek couldn't defend themselves. I have met people who love rpg's and games workshop who can handle themselves.

I suppose it is true for all stereotypes. I have met British people who don't drink tea, Intelligent Americans who could find Iraq on a map, even courteous white van drivers. Yet the stereotype rears it's ugly head again and again.

Then another question popped up. In a world without electricity, who would rise. The cool kid or the geek. Now, some people who read this blog from a certain forum which i had a falling out with this week, won't know what i am on about. Mainly because i am almost certain they can't read long words.

So...a brief synopsis of what could be to come.

In 2012-2013 the sun will enter a period of heightened activity. This is perfectly normal, part of it's natural cycle. The solar flares however will impact on the planets atmosphere and cause some electromagnetic disturbances. The activity will last for anywhere up to a month.

Of course, it probably won't happen to such a severe level, but it does pose quite a few interesting sociological questions. In this world sans electricity, where would our qualms lead us.

Of course, all this thought leads back into realistic games. If there is an event that could possibly feature into a game, this is a good one to think about.

So, intellectual exercise time:

In the event a solar flare hits our planet and causes an emp effect, what would the survival strategy be?

Sometimes, blogs do end on a question...

Today is a rarity. After an interesting bank holiday weekend, i have successfully managed to beach my car in the ikea car park, cut up an idiot 4x4 on a roundabout and spent half hour trying to work out what the warning light on my dash was all about. Turns out i had accidentally turned overdrive off...

What has this to do with games and games design you may cry. Well, nothing actually, i was just venting. Incidentally, if you do drive a Chelsea Tractor, try and work out what you want to do on a roundabout before you enter it. If you do get cut up by a techno grey micra, just laugh and put it down to a rarity.

This week i have been puzzling over something. If, in this world, we are accepting of all religions and cultures, why are atheists persecuted for their non beliefs. The scouting movement recognises a vast majority of religions, yet believes that atheists should not be leaders. In parts of America, an atheist in a town is about as welcome as a 4x4 in London.

Now...i went to a catholic school, and i must say that those schools do very well in turning people from Christians to Agnostics, yet utter that you don't pray every night, and the Chaplin will have a fit. What a world we live in.

As for frozen skies, work has paused for a bit. The next Facepunch Mapping Competition has begun, and i am working with Firegod to bring a bit of heat to an otherwise cold world.

Now, i did say i would end on a question, but i can't remember what the question was. So, i will make one up.

What is the question for the answer for life the universe and everything?

And when i remember the original question, i will post it.

Maybe this twice weekly thing could work...

Second post this week. Second Monitor up and running after having to travel down to the shops twice. The number two is hawt this week.

Just started working on an English club in UDK called "The Snowball". It has the sort of music we can expect from an English club. Trashy club music that no-one can work out the differences between. I'm trying to establish a concrete and metal feel to it, this is an area which, while outside of the law and order of the inner tunnel, is still protection from the chills of outside the heated zones. Tunnels connect to these areas, the outside being too cold for people to move freely through unless they are an idiot, or have heated protection.

The drive of the narritive

And thus, like a speeding train, i derail off the rants, and rerail back on the rails i should have been on all along. Today i talk about narrative.

We have two types of narrative, the scripted kind, and the unscripted kind. Scripted is commonplace in gaming. You are often forced to follow a set storyline. Even in open world games such as World of Warcraft, what you do is set out. You can only become a hero. There is no range of who you become. A set hero in a mass produced world.

An unscripted story is harder to accomplish, but it can be done. Games like Wurm Online and Love give the players a world, not storyline and let them become who they want to be. It's a risk only indie companies want to take.

Thing is, when risks are taken, occanionally something dramatic will happen. Whether it's accidentally blowing up the guild house again, or managing to revolusionise the way planes are used in a war zone, it's a risk that needed to be taken. And only by taking risks can we move forwards.

Of course there is another side to an unscripted world. The idea that you don't need to give the player all the information. Give them a storybook with half the pages missing, let them make their own stories. Even though i highly doubt blizz read this blog, i'm looking at them, and the other big names to start allowing the players to make their own name in a changing world, not someone elses name in a static world.

War...War never changes

Quick thing on this...

This quote comes from Ron Pearlman at the beginning of the fallout games. Now, MG4 essentially stole the line for their game and used "war has changed".

Some clarification, and something which i am trying to write into Frozen Skies. When Black Isle talked about that epic line, they were trying to portray how mankind, even on the brink of it's own destruction will try to find a way of killing itself just that bit more. To this end, MG4 was wrong.

War never changes.

Fallout took humanity to the end of the world, yet there was still fighting between those who thought they were right and everyone else was wrong. War can advance and fall behind, but it will always be the same brand.

Added onto my little rant of the day comes the observation that people seem to think that post apoc = fallout. Kids today...they do need to learn that post apoc doesn't mean post thermonuclear war. Thus the creation of frozen skies.