Archive for Fluff

Hulk Smash!

// July 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Fluff

I responded to Massively’s post on the upcoming Hulkageddon event in Eve Online. Where player corps give our prizes for ganking miners around the game. My reply as follows.

I don’t really feel passionate about this one way or another, which is ironic since I’m a miner. Eve is a sandbox game and players do what they want, fair enough. I do think this highlights some very poor game design elements on CCPs part however and conceptually it’s never good when players shut down an aspect of the game by bullying other players.

The biggest problem is really that this just highlights what a joke mining is in Eve as a profession. I make way more ISK doing other things than mining, I get most of my rare ore from reprocessing salvage and things like can flipping seems to be at an all time high. Mining ships are among the least interesting, least versatile and least useful in the whole game.

Wouldn’t it be more interesting and there be more combat options in the game that were designed for combat ships to be hanging out in space for length of time instead of shut up in stations? That’s not the design in Eve though as combat and all other high value ships are shut away and resources horded inside of stations while the least defensible ships are designed to be the only ones sitting out there in space.

Given the reality of the game then why not Hulkageddon? It’s not new news that CCP doesn’t give a fig about miners, why should the players?

GWL: Gaming as Transmedia Studies

// June 21st, 2010 // No Comments » // Fluff

Henry Jenkins posted another in an ongoing series of media studies on the topic of transmedia studies. I think gaming in a complex online world like Eve Online is one of the best examples of the use of transmedia studies in a community. Gamers in Eve regularly leverage information from forums, video tutorials, wikis, podcasts, in game voice chat and a number of media sources to learn and coordinate their gaming activities. I think it’s for this reason that deep community driven games like Eve Online can contribute a set of skills to the gamer that can possible enhance their experience in education. Gamers of this kind naturally gravitate toward multiple media outlets for information and routinely engages in actions that either enforce the quality of learning from that information or proves it’s lack of quality and sends them into another cycle of investigation and study.

I think Henry’s article is a good read and food for thought for everyone. Big thanks to Sarah Toton for passing it on.

Transmedia Education: the 7 Principles Revisited
…
In a transmedia presentation, students need to actively seek out content through a hunting and gathering process which leads them across multiple media platforms. Students have to decide whether what they find belongs to the same story and world as other elements. They have to weigh the reliability of information that emerges in different contexts. No two people will find the same content and so they end up needing to compare notes and pool knowledge with others. That’s why our skill is transmedia navigation – the capacity to seek out, evaluate, and integrate information conveyed across multiple media.
…

Gaming With Librarians: What’s in a name

// June 17th, 2010 // No Comments » // Fluff

Preparing to move ahead with an Eve Online Corp for the Gaming With Librarians project once I hear anyone has done the tutorial, thinks the game is for them and wants to go ahead with it. On that note I’m tossing around potential Corp Names to use.

Among the ideas right now are:

  • The Archives
  • Archival Quality Inc.
  • Librarians of Eve
  • Curriculum Vitae LLC

Just some ideas so far. Anyone have suggestions?

Writers Atrophy

// June 17th, 2010 // No Comments » // Fluff

I’m socked at just how much my writing skills have waned with my break in blogging.

There was a time where writing even blog entries came naturally and easy to me. Long time readers may recall the days where I posted frequently and prolifically and I recall in those heady days, how easy writing came to me. I don’t just mean blogging or the occasional internet quip either, but reports, reviews as well as documentation and such. Having made an active effort to write again I now realize just how difficult writing inertia is to overcome.

It’s not that I don’t write of course, a look at the blog at work will quickly show I’m the most active poster there but this has all been in a dry “no style at all” form to summaries or quickly explain something. I used to consider myself a bit of an extrovert but don’t consider that true now at all, if it ever was.

In particular I notice the difficulties I’m having trying to blog through this ‘Gaming with Librarians‘ thing I started a few days back. It’s hard not to notice the difficulties I have extending a piece of writing past the length of a Tweet or bullet list and I feel something is missing in my life because of it. There’s a freedom in being able to just sit down and write, I’ll leave it up to you as to weather I ever did it well, but just the ability to put an idea down in a way you’re happy with it is amazingly powerful and therapeutic. I look forward to relating my experiences with the GiL group in the weeks ahead but don’t envy myself the long road to recovery I’m on to regain some measure of literary expression.

Stay tuned and lets see where this goes.

Self Education and The Big Bang

// May 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Fluff

I made this reply to a friend who commented on Amelia Beamer’s thoughts on LOST as Hyperlinked Storytelling and I thought it was worth posting here as well:

It’s really the entrance of the technique in storytelling that is the important part. Back in the mid 90′s “The Clue Train Manifesto” talked about the fundamental shift of our culture to a Hyperlinked culture. Most folks agree with it but it’s arrival as a means of information exchange so natural that people didn’t give it a second thought really highlights it as a fundamental shift.

This is where I think Academia is not just stumbling but falling down. People grow their knowledge in a less linear way now, choosing different safe starting points based on their particular interests and individual knowledge and grow out from there. In a strange way this is more modeled after the actual Big Bang in that space appeared all at once rather than a linear expansion from a single point. I think the biggest reason Universities risk becoming irrelevant isn’t so much that it isn’t a job training program, as if often cited, but because it’s methods are becoming increasingly seen as inefficient and self serving toward it’s survival as an industry.

iphone 007

// March 24th, 2010 // No Comments » // Fluff



iphone 007

Originally uploaded by Streamweaver


Gotta love this out your front door at 3:30. Sleep is overrated anyway I guess.

Star Trek Online Beta Impressions

// January 12th, 2010 // No Comments » // Fluff

Some feedback I posted on the Star Trek Online Open Beta. Reposting here in case there is interest.

These are my initial impressions after 2 hours of play. It’s only 2 hours but I think this is important as it’s what forms my initial impression of the game.

* Space is way too crowded. Having ship after ship stacked up on each other gives the whole game way too much of an amusement park feel.

* Waypoints to missions and goals are very confusing to me if they even exist. Which they don’t seem to. Not knowing where to go leaves players dead in the water.

* The overall pacing in the game feels slow and boring in ground combat.

* Distances in Space combat feels and looks too cramped and confusing. I’m often so close to things, particularly the borg cube, that I can’t even see what’s going on. The general distances make me feel like I should be able to throw rocks at the other ships. Definitely lacks that Trek Feel.

* Power management is good and gives that Trek Feel.

* Weapon arcs, shields and so forth all feel good and have that Trek Feel.

* Ship customization is great. Beef up the descriptions more please though.

* Skill descriptions are nice but some of the numbers leave me a bit flat. One ability gives me a 0.01 increase to something, which makes it seem pointless. Perhaps a more meaningful scale for players.

* I like the skills system but it’s difficult to get a feel for how things should play out. Perhaps a suggested builds system similar to what you have in CO would help.

* I don’t see why I don’t have a list of targets in the system, right now the only way I can see to select things is via Tab, which doesn’t work well, or manually select which seems just plain silly. This is Star Trek, we have sensors and all that. I should have a list of targets at least.

* I should have WAY more information about things on screen. I have to be right on top of something before I get the target name or can select it. Similar to the weapon ranges above, this just seems like a genre breaker for me out of the game and makes the whole thing feel like a silly DS game or something rather than an immersion driven MMO set in a virtual world.

Overall there seems to be a depth to the space combat that could be enjoyable but the presentation makes it feel like a shallow console game rather than a meaty MMO. If that’s what you’re going for cool, but I’m not left with a great impression of the game out of the gate.

Da-gone Dragons

// November 13th, 2009 // No Comments » // Fluff

I’ve pretty much been sucked in by Dragon Age lately and it’s a GREAT game. The narrative in it is fantastic and there’s no lack of great things being said. A few niggling annoyances to me though that don’t seem to bother anyone else.

The world feels small and definitely ‘console rpg like’ to me. I generally hate this trend in games and it adds to heavily to the spoon fed feel of a world.

The fighting in the game is the LEAST interesting part of it to me as most fights are just a zerg fest and moving from one “orcs in a field” section to the next.

There is a particular party mix you need to be successful in combat in the. This works counter to the NPC stories in that you can’t really adventure with the NPCs you like, you have to go for party balance.

The NPC mages they give you are the suck. You do about the same if you create a fighter or thief class but will be far ahead of the game if you make the main character a mage. I find this disappointing.

My other real comment is that I seriously doubt the toolset for this will be as successful as the Neverwinter Nights toolset. The game shines on cut scenes and voice-acting and I don’t see communities having that strength. We’ll probably just see “orcs in a field with various landscape” modules from the community because that’s all the game is without the cutscenes and acting. I think the gaming community is missing the point on customizable toolsets. If NWN is any gauge, what players want is a world creation kit to make their own MMO. The ‘M’ in this game being ‘Moderatly’ multiplayer instead of ‘Massively’. Nobody is filling that space and I wonder if anyone ever will.

Free Fallen

// October 14th, 2009 // No Comments » // Fluff

My online gaming life has been all over the place lately but it’s all been enjoyable.

For the most part I’ve been playing Fallen Earth since launch and enjoyed it more than just about any other game in the last year. I don’t want to do a review here but a few of the particular highlights for me are:

  • It has more content than any game I’ve ever seen at launch and has more content than many games that are years old.
  • It’s one of the more sandboxish character driven MMOs out there (but still far behind Eve Online)
  • I really enjoy post-apocalyptic games and have been wanting to get my FallOut on in an MMO since the 90s
  • Have a good group of people to play with
  • Have good RP hooks with my character

If you’re playing or going to play drop me a note and we can hookup in game. It’s lots of fun.

I’m even thinking about trying my hand at making a FRAPS based video for my character.

One thing I really find ironic about Fallen Earth though are people who claim to love the sandbox and non-linear design of the game but who insist on playing through every quest as if it’s a guided experience. /emote shrug

I’ve been having fun dabbling in other games as well. Champions Online is a fun game with some interesting features, particularly in breaking the walls of the MMO silo.

I’ll post screenies sometime.

Horus Out and About

// April 12th, 2009 // No Comments » // Fluff

I decided to try my hand (feet really) at running again for the first time in 15 years.  I use to run all the time and after a back injury I decided to give it up, primarily because the stern doctor looked at me and told me flat out that my “running days are over.”  I ran cautiously and with small agreements, I’d run for 15 minutes and see how my back feels and I’ll force myself to stop if I feel any kind of back discomfort.  I have to make these kinds of arrangements or I just wont stop.

Anyway, I didn’t stop.  I only did about 2 miles in a time that would have gotten me kicked out of the army back in the day but still I finished.  Cardio wise it wasn’t much of a problem after a year and a half of cycling and I could have done more I think.  My biggest difficulty was in the new motion and legs.  Those weren’t a big problem either, hell I ran 2 miles the first time out in 15 years without much of a problem, still though it’s a different motion and I can tell it’ll take some getting use to.  Particularly difficult was holding my knees and midsection firm but not tense, something you can be a lot more lax about on a bike.

How does Horus come into this you might w0nder?  Well in a rather interesting way it turns out and one that only one or two of you will understand.

I ran from Medlock Park to Mason Mill Park and as I was hitting the turn around point in Mason Mill I start having that conversation with myself that I have pretty much anytime I push myself.   It’s that self questioning part that asks things like “Okay, so are we really doing this or are you just going to be a total waste of oxygen?” .

It’s an effective internal tactic for me because there is this really obstinate internal part of me that jumps out when I’m challenged, even by myself.  I gave myself the usual answer I give when I ask myself this question, “Go fuck yourself” and I keep running on.

10 seconds after I say this to myself and lean into the run to go on I see Horus, right on the ground in front of me, about 8 feet away.  I ran out and back around and snapped some pictures of him with my iPhone, he’s small but you can make him out.

Not really something I can explain here but I’ve mentioned the topic to a couple of you.  Neat stuff and I’ll end with just posting a couple of the pictures of him.  I couldn’t get that close when I came back in but you should be able to make him out on the ground and again on the light post where he flew up to as I tried to get closer.

Horus walking Horus Perched

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