Item Degradation.

We've all played games where the weapons, equipment, etc degraded in various ways.  I have a very strong opinion of this since I've been playing games so long.


Ways of 'degrading' items:
1.  Set number of uses.  (Think secondary find-able weapons like the ninja stars in the original TMNT game or the entire Dead Rising game.) We'll call it "use it or lose it" from now on.


2.  Durability  that goes down with use over time. (S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl had a system like this, weapons would also jam on occasion in that game) Called "watch where you use it" from now on.


3. Durability that goes down with use over time, but infinitely repairable in some way or another.  (Demon's Souls weapons would degrade at various rates, but spending souls would completely bring them back.  Fallout 3 also used this model, as long as you had 'parts' from a similar weapon or piece of equipment) Affectionately called "repair addict" from now on.


4. Durability that goes down with use over time, but repairing has a limit. (Dark Age of Camelot model, where you could repair more times based on original item quality.  quality and durability on items were intertwined.) Referenced as "finally broke at the worst possible time".


Now, I feel each has a place in the gaming world, but my major concerns arise when the developers implement them poorly.  


1.)  Use It Or Lose It:  Simple, straight-forward, no surprises with this one.  You know up front how many uses you're going to have so you can plan accordingly.  The poor implementation of this comes into play when the number of uses aren't to your effective liking or they give you a large number, but near the end of a level for example.   Sure I like having the 40 bolas right before I enter the lava boss in Star Tropics world 3,  wait a minute, he's immune to my weapons and I have to defeat him with a jumping//timing puzzle?  Fail.


2.)  Watch Where You Use It:  This one is very over-used in a lot of games, and as a player it always takes some getting used to.  You find the Uber weapon, you're 3/4 the way through the level and you want to make sure you have enough of it for the battle at the end so you're still ratcheting through the sub-par ones to save up.  Well, one of two things happen in most cases.  A)  You used it too much and left you hanging on the boss by having it break, or B) you barely used it to save it up, and you finish the level with most of it left leaving you to wonder how much easier that level would have been had you used it a bit more.  Fun right?


3)  Repair Addict:  This one is very common, but problematic in it's implementation because developers seem to feel that if they give you a weapon that you can use forever it's either going to be getting repaired every 5 minutes, or it's going to cost you an arm and a leg in money or items to do so.  Effectively making you the sole supporting 'godfather of the local blacksmiths kid's private schooling.


4)  Finally Broke At The Worst Possible Time:  I include this one for all the MMO players out there who've ever spent hours (years) finding that last piece of gear for your 'epic template'.  It always seems to have that one little drawback of having a durability, and since it's a OTD (one time drop) it makes it all the more pleasant to think about.  You've got your wicked weapon, you're a raid machine, you are primary DPS on the one boss you haven't killed yet, the monster is half-way dead, and your weapon breaks, effectively neutering you from the fight.  Best part is, you can't repair or replace it meaning you're now the lucky little devil that gets to re-farm a whole new wardrobe to keep your stats up.  Have fun with that.


In conclusion I prefer games that keep it simple.  Realism with weapon degradation is a stretch on every level except on the Use it or lose it level and then only with some weapons like throwing stars, etc.  I prefer developers to leave weapon degradation out of games unless they make it something that's done in passing or every so often, rather than consuming the thoughts of players.


Disagree?  Have a comment or addition to my list?  Please let me know!


-CadDad

Pencil and Paper madness!

I'm thinking of creating a pencil and paper game.  Something that can be played around a physical table, with real live friends!  Also something that can be played online, with real e-friends!

I know, I'm 15-30 years behind the curve.  I know, no-one plays pencil and paper games anymore.  Listen friends, that's beside the point and I resent you for your condescending thoughts.

Oh, and I need your help.

So I have a few ideas for the premise of the game, but honestly, on the good ones, the premise is not what matters.  The rules matter, the repeat-ability matters, the structure and core matters.  This is the part I'm working heavily on right now.

The idea is to come up with a semi-simple, yet expandable set of core design directions that allow the game to be manipulated, used and endeared by the users, but also be solid enough that the users will use the core structure when they make their campaigns.

The game Lore, premise, etc can all be written afterwards, but the general style of the game and the structure by which the game plays needs to be straightforward and adaptable to nearly every conceivable scenario.

I've got a start to it, but it needs fleshing out.  Is anyone on this board willing to help out (casually of course, i'm not mental about this)?   I'm looking to put together a plan of action and a basic conceptual design and get feedback from some people, in regards to areas that the rule-set will be broken, etc.  What I don't want is the standard disclaimer of "when in doubt, the GM has the authority", etc.  There has to be a way to write in a style that can be followed when in doubt.

I don't want to be mis-interpreted here, I want the players and GM's calling the shots, but I want them to have a formula that works for them to follow, rather than having to ad-lib a lot.

Thoughts?  Volunteers?  Peanut-gallery jeers?

-CadDad

e3inc

E3 is fast approaching and I wanted to post a little something about it to get a discussion (hopefully) started about it. Many people who are avid gamers don't even follow this event at all, I find myself dryhumping the news sites and even watching the live presentations if I can. I really can't even explain why I do this to be perfectly honest. I've always just been really excited about E3, and just find myself trying to get the information first.

Speculations:

I think that Microsoft will announce a new IP. I think they are also going to announce something HALO (almost a given) I think they may also be adding on, or improving their Kinect. I even have this thought they may add on something that attaches to your body to help the Kinect grow it's usable possibilities for game applications.

I think SONY will also launch a new IP. I also feel SONY will come out with a single control scheme for their Move rather than having the navigator as a separate entity, they'll combine the two somehow.

I think Nintendo will announce Wii 2. I also think they will demo it on the show floors this year.

Demands:

I demand Microsoft give me a reason to repurchase a 360. I liked Gears of War 1, but once Halo3 came out, that game died and I just couldn't get into the Halo thing.

I demand Sony to release more information on Twisted Metal, a release date would be acceptable. I WANT TWISTED METAL. Right this instant. Twisted Metal.

I demand Nintendo compete in the HD market with their next system. Clearly HD isn't going away, and I think they could capture more of the "standard" consumer by making the move into HD.

Twisted Metal.

I'm excited as always to see what they will bring, but I also think this year, even though my speculations are high, will be low key.

BroodFather

PS SONY, Twisted Metal.

Hackers killed PSN and all I got was.....

the privilege of playing a game that I wouldn't have otherwise played.

As many of you know, Sony was attacked by an "external intrusion" in mid April. There have been countless articles ranging from "Sony is the devil" to "Sony is the victim". There's little to nothing going on in the gaming world that compares to the media foodstuffs that any journalist could gain from this event, so it's no shock that every day there is something new and not fresh coming out of said journalists.

Shortly after Sony took PSN offline, speculation began. It was anyone's guess as to what happened, as members began only receiving an error message upon trying to sign into PSN. It took Sony a few days to change the message people were getting to "Playstation Network is currently undergoing maintenance." Which really only led to more speculation. If you've been following the PSN blog : http://blog.us.playstation.com/ you already know all of this information, and if you haven't then you can revisit it step by step for yourself as I don't see the point in repeating the same crap that's already been done.

Sony held a press conference today May 1 2011 and laid out some of their "make good" information for the network being down so long. Of course you'll never please everyone, but they had to start somewhere. What they are offering all PSN users to make up for the downtime, in my opinion, is overboard.

Enough of what everyone else has been doing during this downtime, I'm posting today to tell you what I did with my "break from online gaming".

Wednesday evening, I decide I'm going to log onto DCUO and run a few missions or possibly do some pvp, haven't decided yet. I boot up the ps3 and get an error. Hmm, wtf..... I try again, and again and again. By this time I'm wondering if it's my connection, so I fire up the other PS3 and get the same error. I check my internet connection, and it's fine, but errors out on the PSN. I check the official blog, no word here. Proceed to do a bit of head scratching, and then dig further into it. Seems everyone has this problem, yay it's not just me! I tell myself, F it, I didn't really want to play anyway, and boot up Netflix. Netflix wants to sign into PSN, which is down. Now I'm starting to get frustrated, since I can't play online, now I can't watch some instant media. I try to sign in, it errors out, I hit the cancel button, Netflix keeps trying, tries to sign in again, errors, I cancel again and BOOM, Netflix works fine. Yay!

Thursday, I boot up my system and receive the same error. Darn. I check the blog to see if something official has come out about it. Nothing. I head out onto the open ocean of journalistic freeform that is the internet, and find that there are about 10 million assumptions and speculations about what is going on. None of this crap is useful. I decide that I'll check back later. That evening I tried again and nothing, but the blog had a post that said they were aware and no other news. Great, this doesn't sound good at all.

Skip ahead to the April 22 post. External intrusion. That's not good. Like anyone else, that had a credit card linked to their system, I called my CC company immediately and cancelled the card, better safe than sorry.

So, now I know that it's down for the long haul and there's not a whole lot that anyone can do about it. I decide that this is a good time for me to pop in a game my brother let me borrow I don't even know how long ago. I never got around to playing this title as it's a single player game (I'm not overly fond of single player games anymore with online gaming taking the majority of my time up) he heavily recommended to me. My god am I glad PSN went down. I would have never gotten around to this game, and I know that now. It took the PSN being taken offline for me to enjoy this title, a sad fact I now know.

Friday. I pop Heavy Rain into my disc drive and I'm ready to play this game. I avoided everything I possibly could about this game because I knew in my mind that I wanted to play it, but I heard that any information about it could spoil the experience. So, I took extra steps to avoid any information. Man am I glad I did. If you haven't played it, you need to, even if you don't think you're a fan of "this type of game" you need to play it. I'm not going to review it, or even type anymore about it because this is a game that you need to play with a clean slate to give it justice.

Ultimately, I have to thank the hackers for the downtime, I would have never gotten to experience this game had they not forced Sony to take PSN down. So, thank you, I can say without a doubt I am in the minority of PSN members that would say thank you to them, but, afterall, they are the reason for this post and the satisfaction I got out of playing Heavy Rain.

99/100 because no game is perfect, but Heavy Rain camped out, shared a beer with Jesus Christ and got pointers on how to make a game.

What did you do with your PSN vacation?

\\Kuendog//

I would like to introduce myself to the masses that follow this blog :) I am a simple man, enthralled by games and have been ever since I can remember. It was mostly PC games (Police Quest and Leisure Suit Larry if your wondering) that sparked my interest "back in the day" and blossomed into what I am today. I am a father now doing fatherly things with a wife (god bless her tolerance) and a son that is growing into a fine gamer (well maybe someday). Games have defined eras for me, defined periods of time in the past that I know I will remember long after Alzheimers has taken over. I mainly play PS3 now (curse you trophies) mainly due to the fact that I am lazy and just want to sit in front of the TV on the couch but have played (and still own) most of the consoles that I have played over the years and have the unique opportunity to share those oldies but goodies with my family and make it a family activity that we can all participate. I hear that families that play together, stay together. I haven't had much time because I am currently in the middle of trying to better myself by advancing my education and finding a job that will pay for my habits and the future habits of my family with what I am certain will include smartphones (gotta keep track of everyone) and trips to god knows where (as long as there is mobile gaming). I was planning on getting on here and contributing a while back, but life happens and now here I am. I have a lot to say for this particular blog which will consist mostly of "old school" and my viewpoint as things-are-a-changin. I also look forward to the content posted by everybody which spurred me to get on here in the first place as I was reading through some of the older posts. Keep up the good work and as Beavis used to say, "Heh heh heh, kick his ass!"

Let's see if we can start a bit of discussion here...

When Final Fantasy XII came out, I got it at release. I happily played it for a month or so, then Real Life intervened in some way and I stopped playing it. Other games came out and I started playing them, leaving my progress in FFXII at a standstill. Last month, I decided to fire it up again, just to giggles, and when I'd loaded my save, I noticed that I was at a loss for what I needed to do.

I admit it; I've done this on a number of games. Depending on the game, I may be able to pick it up right where I'd left off, but more and more often, I'm finding that I just can't continue on because I've lost my recollection of what it is that I was to be doing.

Let's discuss this. Have you run into a situation like this? What did you do? At what point do you decide it's better to start fresh than it is to try to continue on in hopes you'll remember exactly what you need to do?

When to call it quits.

For the last couple of months, I have been playing DC Universe Online rather religiously. Talking a few hours a day of my life dedicated to developing my character and collecting whatever in the hell you collect in a standard MMO. I've been enjoying the hell out of it, it's been fun and I feel my "main" is developed and ready for whatever the devs would throw at it.

It's been a great few months, but now I wonder if it's that time. You know the time to just call it quits on the game. The time where you have to decide if you're getting your money back out of it, or if you're just done experiencing what the game has to offer.

I was thinking about whether I would continue to pay the subscription or just call it quits. It's always been hard for me to call it quits on a game. I seem to always have this nagging voice in my head as it was coming down to the time when I knew I was probably done with the game, but couldn't put it down. I find I have this problem with all MMOs. They have this content that sucks you in, and then you've invested enough time and energy into developing your skills/character/friends whatever that you feel compelled to stick with it just to get more return on your investment. DC is no different for me.

So, when is it time to call it quits on a game?