Dungeon Runners

So I'm easily amused. Lately I've been filling my head with min-maxing Dungeon Runners in an attempt to increase my loots-per-minute on The Snow Chieftain. What fun.

The game actually has a very nice mechanic on it. i like the simplicity of the class system and the surprising depth. I detested that WoW was such a loot game but pared down here to the bare essentials it works wonderfully better. I am working up 2 game designs based on the simple character mechanics that are evidencd here and in other similar games. One is a PvP map based game and the other a co-op level grinder. I'll share more..maybe.

W00 H00 Time to Shoot Hookers!!!...?

GTA IV comes out today kids, but you already knew that. Jack Thompson is on the rampage again. You probably already guessed that. Hot coffee? Nah, he doesn't need that this time around. This time, IGN supplies the juice by means of pre-release vid. There's nothing really here that wasn't in the others except it is ratcheted up a notch and shown back to back. Hookers and strippers, hit and runs and drive bys. Nothing here to see kids.

I'm a free speech kinda guy but honestly, I really hope that when the newsies write their inevitable stories tomorrow about how the games biz is taking Hollyw00t for a ride, they don't have too many lines about how we are destroying the yewts. Hate to say Jack is right, kinda, but this stuff really ain't for kids. I'm pretty sure I'll get an extra day in heck for saying that.

20 Reasons Not to Play D&D 4e

The guys at Topless Robot have an awesome take on some of the changes for DD4E. I'd been following it lightly and planning on running a game around the office when it comes out but...

No Half-Orcs? No Bards? No half naked Succubus on p.230 of the DM Guide? WTF!

The read is a nice little romp through the nostalgia for some of the finer points of DD1E. Sure I won't miss THAC0 but if I can't continue the legacy of Grukk the Half-Orc barbarian and his faithful pal Piffin Fandershall, Gnone Illusionist, well then, I just don't think I'll play. Maybe it's time for more Hackmaster...

Thanks for the link Bloo.
Topless Robot - A 20-Point Letter of Protest Regarding the New 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons (from a Gnome and a Half-Orc)

Spore Released into the Wild Sept 7

Three days before my birthday and I'll have a week off for the Austin Game Conference! Oh man, this may be the best birthday ever. I think I'll sit in the hotel room and play on the laptop...oh crap. My ACER probably won't play it... Good thing I talked Killer into springing for that ASUS beast with the DX10 card in it! HOOWAH!

UPDATE:


It's on the DS. Shannon got me a DS for Christmas. Life is good. Also, an indepth interview on Newsweek.
Spore finally evolves to retail Sept 7, 2008 - Joystiq

Sid Thinks MMO

So everyone and their uncle is covering the brief blab that Sid Meier has thoughts about doing an MMO down the road. I hope it isn't going to be Pirates (snark). I would really like to see what direction that would go in though. Colonization but in space against other planets? IN.

Duels Meh!

Duels is a pretty slick little web game where you level up aand duel. Simple and fun, low complexity. It's one of the better web games I've played and I try to play them all for 5 minutes at least once. Hop on over and let Grukk kick your ass.

Link.

AGDC Links

I'm planning on writing up my time at AGDC this year as there are a lot of good tools that I came away with. In the interim, here's a list of links about the show that I need to read and you might find interesting as well.

Panels
MMO on Console - I missed this one but someone IS going to do it and they might even do it well. Ok yes, technically someone HAS already done. A few somebodies actually. The news here is making it cross platform, oh and probably also trying to make it suck less than previous attempts. NCSoft has already thrown their cape in with the PS3. Maybe even the PSP?

Defining Fun - I didn't see this but BLOO and many were very impressed. It defines fun through the PENS model (Player Experience of Needs Satisfaction) :
- Competence
- Autonomy
- Relatedness

BLOO notes:

This matches with other research and opinions of other game academics
and designers.

- Competence (PENS)
- Achievers (Killers in PvP) (Bartle Player Types)
- Game (Schubert)

- Autonomy (PENS)
- Explorers (Bartle Player Types)
- World (Schubert)

- Relatedness (PENS)
- Socializers (Bartle Player Types)
- Community (Schubert)


Richard Bartle:
Player Types In MUDS: http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm
Bartle Test: http://www.guildcafe.com/bartle.php

Damion Schubert: http://www.zenofdesign.com/

Tools
Vivox - Warcry covers the Vivox demonstration. Vivox is a cool voice technology we've looked at before and it include some cool multi channel command and control layering that might just work excellent for the game.

Big World

News
Matt Frior moves to ZeniMax. I've always admired Matt and his talks at AGDC are among the best. Very focused and down to earth. ZeniMax on the other hand...hmm...well, technically I probably can't talk about it, so I won't. Good luck Matt, you'll need it.

Star Trek Online - Killer Tribbles. Really, what else is there to say? Not much apparently.

Romero - Even less to say. I did sit next to him and Stevie Case one year flying out to E3. I remember thingking at the tmie "Wow, that chick is hot!". That was years before everyone starting talking about WoW. I'm visionary, you see, just like John!

Raph Koster - Interview. Raph really stole the show for me this year in the final panel. While I don;t think the big MMOs are going anywhere soon (and neither does Raph I bet), the success of web based and casual spaces is ludicrous to argue against. Habbo Hotel, more players than WoW and more importantly a 60% ROI? Seriously...

WoW Webcomic, Now With Babies on a Stick!

Long time funny man Lum then Mad, known to all WWIIOLers for the timeless rant on using 7 fingers to fire a rifle in our early days, now more respectfully known as Scott, posted a new WoW web comic that is worth the read if you swing that way. A true successor to the old Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth that recently met its demise. The eternally macroed Loping the Chinese ninja looting bot who is Flintlocke's favored wee companion is more often than not, comedy gold.

Thanks Lum. If we get the chance to sit down and trade some snark this year in Austin I'll happily sport the first round.

"This is so gonna rule." | Broken Toys

Cool Thing of the Day

Many thanks to ahwulf for digging this up.

Makin' games in Tejas

Seems them thar legislators down in Austin want us to make more of them thar video (rhymes with rodeo?) games and moving pictures here in the great state as long as they are all nice and don't portray no violence and have good ole family values. Values like "Don't mess with Texas!" or how about the ole timey favorite "Remember the Alamo!" or the ever popular modern classic "Dallas Cowboys!". Yeah those are a nice set of non-violent family values if I ever heered 'em.

Rodney Gibbs, who makes games I've never played, like porting the Sims to the DS (does porting count as MAKING games? Can you get a grant for that!?) says...

What we do is mass-market mainstream family-friendly stuff. [The incentive program] is helping to overcome that stigma we still suffer from: ‘Oh, games; that’s shooting people.’ That’s just like saying all films are Quentin Tarantino films.

They sure aren't Rodney...only the good ones.

Link