I realize I should post an update here. I am side tracked by real life stuff. My work on UOGuide has ground to a halt. This blog is also suffering. I still want to get to the series on how I would revamp UO.
I hope to have more time to spend on UO related stuff in the near future. If I don't manage to post again, have some good holidays.
December 1, 2010
September 27, 2010
Making the Big Screen
After watching the boat PVP video to make sure it uploaded without any issues, I saw a curious related video. It was by IGN and it was talking about the Stygian Abyss expansion. I decided to check it out.
To my surprise the game footage they showed looked very familiar.
Our Guild has made the big screen! Well internet screen. A screen is a screen. At least one person likely watched it on their television. Maybe.
To my surprise the game footage they showed looked very familiar.
Our Guild has made the big screen! Well internet screen. A screen is a screen. At least one person likely watched it on their television. Maybe.
September 14, 2010
Copy Don't Create
Someone has put together a slideshow explaining where Zynga got all their game ideas. It is being discussed a lot on Slashdot. There is also a mention at the end of the Slashdot summary about the story I talked about yesterday. They called it an "underground platinum purchase program". Sounds catchy.
The how I would resurrect UO articles are still in the works. I have got some of the next one done and have plenty of ideas for all of them. UOGuide has just been taking up all my UO time lately with the new Event Calendar. I did a few fixes today and will likely work on some more improvements tomorrow.
One startling figure I stumbled upon today was UOGuide's database query count has increased 4x since the Mediawiki update. I suspect it has something to do with the search suggest. The site appears to be holding up, but I may disable it for a day or two to see if it drops the query number back to normal.
The how I would resurrect UO articles are still in the works. I have got some of the next one done and have plenty of ideas for all of them. UOGuide has just been taking up all my UO time lately with the new Event Calendar. I did a few fixes today and will likely work on some more improvements tomorrow.
One startling figure I stumbled upon today was UOGuide's database query count has increased 4x since the Mediawiki update. I suspect it has something to do with the search suggest. The site appears to be holding up, but I may disable it for a day or two to see if it drops the query number back to normal.
September 12, 2010
$500 Buy-in on your MMO
It has been pointed out that there is a top-teir purchasing service for Zynga's games (creator of Farmville). If you want the most bang for your buck you need to spend $500. Oh wait, that is actually $500 or more.
How can such a thing be anything but completely irresponsible of a game company. These points you buy get you absolutely nothing but virtual goods. If someone wants to spend $500 on these points then go ahead. But you don't encourage that type of behavior by giving a bonus for spending so much.
When someone is addicted to a video game, perhaps Everquest, at least they are not spending all their money on nothing (unless they are buying swords and stuff). Casual games are going to end up getting regulated similar to the gambling industry if this keeps up.
The worst part about the whole thing is you have to pay by wire transfer. They don't take credit cards at this level. Obviously because buyer's remorse is big factor. Oh you bought 1,000,000 pounds of feed for your cows, but realize it will take 200 real life years to use it all up? Boo hoo.
How can such a thing be anything but completely irresponsible of a game company. These points you buy get you absolutely nothing but virtual goods. If someone wants to spend $500 on these points then go ahead. But you don't encourage that type of behavior by giving a bonus for spending so much.
When someone is addicted to a video game, perhaps Everquest, at least they are not spending all their money on nothing (unless they are buying swords and stuff). Casual games are going to end up getting regulated similar to the gambling industry if this keeps up.
The worst part about the whole thing is you have to pay by wire transfer. They don't take credit cards at this level. Obviously because buyer's remorse is big factor. Oh you bought 1,000,000 pounds of feed for your cows, but realize it will take 200 real life years to use it all up? Boo hoo.
September 10, 2010
New Event Calendar on UOGuide
I made a calendar from scratch to keep track of UO events on UOGuide. Head to any page on the site to see it. Major development headaches include:
- Working with Mediawiki in general
- 1/3 of the development time was spent dealing with time zone conversions
- Figuring out how to do the popup when hovering over a day on the calendar
- Thinking I was near completion until I remember 2 more things that I couldn't launch without doing..................a couple times
August 30, 2010
How I Would Resurrect Ultima Online
This is part of a series of articles on how I would update Ultima Online to be a game new people would want to play in 2010 and bring old players back.
If you go to any UO forum, you will find topic after topic of how someone would improve the game. Some ideas seem to be common sense, others are shot down for being too like another game. Stratics used to have a forum called the Ideas Den in which players would vote on what people came up with. Some of those ideas translated into real additions to UO, the most notable being house customization.
When I am playing a game, I will often think of how the experience could be improved or added to. This is likely why I took up programming. On the websites I manage, I carefully consider each addition and constantly look for ways to improve what already exists. This is why I have a major issue with how the current UO website is constructed. But we can go into that later.
Since I have been playing UO the longest, it is no wonder I have had so many ideas. One of my most cohesive and extensive idea was for a faction overhaul (I will try and find a link later). Just a day ago I had a new idea how to fix the vendor system and make it not a tedious click fest. About 10 years ago I even had an idea which World of Warcraft eventually implemented, the talent system. I don't believe I had ever posted this anywhere. Basically, once you reached 100 skill you could opt to spend skill points in a variety of abilities/spells. For example a Mage could spend 5 skill points to learn a new spell. Maybe I could go into more detail later.
When am I going to get to the fixing UO part? It is coming up. This is meant to be a series of several articles broken up into sections. There is a lot needing to be done and I don't want to write an entire book in one sitting. Here are some of the topics I am thinking of:
Since I am just tossing ideas out there, I could assume there is an unlimited amount of money available to make this happen. But that would not be fun in my opinion. The idea that this could actually happen is why I want to write this. So this is not going to be an off the walls illusion where there is a 100 million dollar World of Warcraft budget.
In my opinion, I estimate it would cost 10 million dollars of investment to bring UO to look and act like a game put out in 2010. Over UO's lifetime, EA has easily made over 100 million dollars on this game. Lets assume an average of 100,000 subscribers (UO peaked at 250,000 and it is estimated there are currently 50,000) paying $10 per month for 14 years. That comes out to $168,000,000. Of course you need to add in development costs and server upkeep. But then there is other revenue such as character transfer and everything they are selling in their store. It is safe to say EA has made a lot of money which is why UO is still around.
So I think a 10 million dollar investment is a bargain considering the money to be made in a MMO. The next question is where does that money go? Well the bulk is to paying developers. Estimating a $50,000 salary per developer, you could hire 20 for one year at $1,000,000. This means a team of 100 could be added for 5 million. I think 100-150 people would be the team size, so there goes 1/2 to 3/4 of the budget!
Most of the team would consist of artists. The new client will be by far the most labor intensive part of the revitalization process. There are thousands of pieces of art which need to be redone. Lets assume there are 2,000 item graphics that need to be created (I will try to get a more accurate count later when we discuss the new client). Lets assume, on average, 1 artist takes 1 day to recreate one item. How many artists will be needed to to make all those items in one year? WikiAnswers says there are 260 work days in a year. So it will take 8 people making about 250 pieces each to redo all that art.
Isn't math fun? If you are making something brand new, we couldn't have such exact numbers. Since UO already has a set number of systems, items, creatures, etc. it is a lot easier to get numbers on how much it will cost in a certain time period. Of course these are my own estimates, only EA could figure out the exact costs.
I think that is about it for the introduction. Next article will be identifying the additions which drove people from the game and why people leave in general.
If you wish to submit feedback about this or any other blog post, my email is available in the right column of this page.
If you go to any UO forum, you will find topic after topic of how someone would improve the game. Some ideas seem to be common sense, others are shot down for being too like another game. Stratics used to have a forum called the Ideas Den in which players would vote on what people came up with. Some of those ideas translated into real additions to UO, the most notable being house customization.
When I am playing a game, I will often think of how the experience could be improved or added to. This is likely why I took up programming. On the websites I manage, I carefully consider each addition and constantly look for ways to improve what already exists. This is why I have a major issue with how the current UO website is constructed. But we can go into that later.
Since I have been playing UO the longest, it is no wonder I have had so many ideas. One of my most cohesive and extensive idea was for a faction overhaul (I will try and find a link later). Just a day ago I had a new idea how to fix the vendor system and make it not a tedious click fest. About 10 years ago I even had an idea which World of Warcraft eventually implemented, the talent system. I don't believe I had ever posted this anywhere. Basically, once you reached 100 skill you could opt to spend skill points in a variety of abilities/spells. For example a Mage could spend 5 skill points to learn a new spell. Maybe I could go into more detail later.
When am I going to get to the fixing UO part? It is coming up. This is meant to be a series of several articles broken up into sections. There is a lot needing to be done and I don't want to write an entire book in one sitting. Here are some of the topics I am thinking of:
- Introduction - You are reading this now
- Problematic Game Additions - Changes added to the game which are bringing the game down or drove people away
- A New Client - Yes, another brand new client is needed unfortunately
- Core Game Changes - What needs to be done on the server side
- Reaching a New Audience - New features which will draw people to the game
- Don't Forget Current Players - Making sure not to cause another wave of people to leave
- Conclusion - Pulling everything together
Since I am just tossing ideas out there, I could assume there is an unlimited amount of money available to make this happen. But that would not be fun in my opinion. The idea that this could actually happen is why I want to write this. So this is not going to be an off the walls illusion where there is a 100 million dollar World of Warcraft budget.
In my opinion, I estimate it would cost 10 million dollars of investment to bring UO to look and act like a game put out in 2010. Over UO's lifetime, EA has easily made over 100 million dollars on this game. Lets assume an average of 100,000 subscribers (UO peaked at 250,000 and it is estimated there are currently 50,000) paying $10 per month for 14 years. That comes out to $168,000,000. Of course you need to add in development costs and server upkeep. But then there is other revenue such as character transfer and everything they are selling in their store. It is safe to say EA has made a lot of money which is why UO is still around.
So I think a 10 million dollar investment is a bargain considering the money to be made in a MMO. The next question is where does that money go? Well the bulk is to paying developers. Estimating a $50,000 salary per developer, you could hire 20 for one year at $1,000,000. This means a team of 100 could be added for 5 million. I think 100-150 people would be the team size, so there goes 1/2 to 3/4 of the budget!
Most of the team would consist of artists. The new client will be by far the most labor intensive part of the revitalization process. There are thousands of pieces of art which need to be redone. Lets assume there are 2,000 item graphics that need to be created (I will try to get a more accurate count later when we discuss the new client). Lets assume, on average, 1 artist takes 1 day to recreate one item. How many artists will be needed to to make all those items in one year? WikiAnswers says there are 260 work days in a year. So it will take 8 people making about 250 pieces each to redo all that art.
Isn't math fun? If you are making something brand new, we couldn't have such exact numbers. Since UO already has a set number of systems, items, creatures, etc. it is a lot easier to get numbers on how much it will cost in a certain time period. Of course these are my own estimates, only EA could figure out the exact costs.
I think that is about it for the introduction. Next article will be identifying the additions which drove people from the game and why people leave in general.
If you wish to submit feedback about this or any other blog post, my email is available in the right column of this page.
August 29, 2010
Bringing Vendor Shopping Back
While replying to a topic on U Hall Stratics, I had a sudden solution how to fix the current issues with vendor shopping.
I think a very "UO" solution would not be to create a global search system as many are asking for. Even the developers said in the recent Town Hall that they did not want to create a World of Warcraft style auction house Instead you could ask (by which I mean setup search options) the vendor if they had the item or better. If the vendor does, a bag would be displayed with all the items that fit your criteria.
For example if you are searching for a Swordmanship item which has at least 40% damage increase and 40% hit lower defense, the vendor will display every sword that fits this criteria. Now you will only be browsing those exact items. If the vendor does not have anything, he will say so saving you dozens of clicks.
A system like this would maintain the uniqueness of UO's system but also make shopping a lot more convenient and much faster. The system could even be expanded so you can specify many different items you are looking for, which would be better than current search sites where you go one by one.
My next few blog posts will be a series on how I would handle revitalizing UO as a whole. It is something I have been thinking about for a while and would like to write out some articles on it.
I think a very "UO" solution would not be to create a global search system as many are asking for. Even the developers said in the recent Town Hall that they did not want to create a World of Warcraft style auction house Instead you could ask (by which I mean setup search options) the vendor if they had the item or better. If the vendor does, a bag would be displayed with all the items that fit your criteria.
For example if you are searching for a Swordmanship item which has at least 40% damage increase and 40% hit lower defense, the vendor will display every sword that fits this criteria. Now you will only be browsing those exact items. If the vendor does not have anything, he will say so saving you dozens of clicks.
A system like this would maintain the uniqueness of UO's system but also make shopping a lot more convenient and much faster. The system could even be expanded so you can specify many different items you are looking for, which would be better than current search sites where you go one by one.
My next few blog posts will be a series on how I would handle revitalizing UO as a whole. It is something I have been thinking about for a while and would like to write out some articles on it.
August 24, 2010
Darkfall Again
I have been really busy with a lot of stuff, not playing many games except Starcraft II when I have a chance.
I remembered last year when I was keeping up on Darkfall, I would look at Google Trends as a sort of way to measure interest in the game. At the time Darkfall was in a downward trend and I predicted that eventually it would fall below UO.
Surprise, surprise; it has.
It also appears to have leveled off quite a bit and is in the same slow downward trend UO is in. Actually, UO has been going up recently. That is encouraging.
But a quick trip over to the Darkfall forum revealed another piece of ominous news. Or rather a lack thereof. There has been no game news posted since July 14, over a month ago. Maybe they all took a summer vacation? But this was definitely not the right time as an "expansion" (really a large publish) was supposed to launch about 2 months ago.
While the game is lasting longer than I thought, it is quite clear that it is walking dead at this point.
I remembered last year when I was keeping up on Darkfall, I would look at Google Trends as a sort of way to measure interest in the game. At the time Darkfall was in a downward trend and I predicted that eventually it would fall below UO.
Surprise, surprise; it has.
It also appears to have leveled off quite a bit and is in the same slow downward trend UO is in. Actually, UO has been going up recently. That is encouraging.
But a quick trip over to the Darkfall forum revealed another piece of ominous news. Or rather a lack thereof. There has been no game news posted since July 14, over a month ago. Maybe they all took a summer vacation? But this was definitely not the right time as an "expansion" (really a large publish) was supposed to launch about 2 months ago.
While the game is lasting longer than I thought, it is quite clear that it is walking dead at this point.
July 12, 2010
Blizzard Subsides
Blizzard has backed off of their plan to display your real name in their forums. We are still left to wonder how they ever thought it would be a good idea in the first place.
With the Starcraft II beta back up we get an interesting look into how many people are playing World of Warcraft at any given time. There is an information box which displays the current active players, numbers of Starcraft games going, etc. The graphic shows all players for WOW and SC combined. The number has been as high as the 800,000's and as low as 200,000. It would be interesting if someone were to try and chart the WOW activity levels.
With the Starcraft II beta back up we get an interesting look into how many people are playing World of Warcraft at any given time. There is an information box which displays the current active players, numbers of Starcraft games going, etc. The graphic shows all players for WOW and SC combined. The number has been as high as the 800,000's and as low as 200,000. It would be interesting if someone were to try and chart the WOW activity levels.
July 10, 2010
I Don't Accept Your Terms
I got an email today informing that the Terms of Service for the Playstation network have changed. What has changed? I have no idea as the email just informs me that there was a change, possibly many changes, or maybe they fixed a spelling error. Perhaps it is my fault entirely for not memorizing the terms when I signed up for an account.
So I won't be accepting their terms if they can't put in the effort to inform me what has changed in their massive legal document. I will keep using my account though. This is a funny line:
You linked me to your website so I could read your terms of service. So basically you are tricking me into agreeing by linking to your site for the document you directed me to review?
I know this is nitpicking, but if a company wants their Terms of Service to be respected they should put in the effort to make it easier for the end user to understand them. Many people don't read these things as it is and it is frustrating for the people who do when you just toss out something and expect us to understand it.
So I won't be accepting their terms if they can't put in the effort to inform me what has changed in their massive legal document. I will keep using my account though. This is a funny line:
Please don’t use our Sites if you don’t agree to these Terms of Service because once you are on our Sites, you have to follow the rules.
You linked me to your website so I could read your terms of service. So basically you are tricking me into agreeing by linking to your site for the document you directed me to review?
I know this is nitpicking, but if a company wants their Terms of Service to be respected they should put in the effort to make it easier for the end user to understand them. Many people don't read these things as it is and it is frustrating for the people who do when you just toss out something and expect us to understand it.
July 7, 2010
Customer Irritation Level
We are now a day and a half into the fiasco that is announcement of what RealID is really for, taking away your privacy. You know it isn't going well when you make the national television news in Canada.
There are now nearly 30,000 posts on the US forum, nearly 10,000 on the EU forum, thousands on every other WOW forum and even videos on Youtube getting ten of thousands of views. The overwhelming response is negative. Some of the defenders are likely trolling, which is ironic.
Now people are starting seeking information other Blizzard employees, they don't have to look very far. Just pull out their Burning Crusade manual and flip to the back. Developers always want people to look at the credits, right? I don't think they intended to be for this reason. This is exactly why you don't publish your information unless you have a good reason. If you piss someone off, it just makes it easy for them to find you.
Markee Dragon made a 30 minute video response to this. I listened to it in the background as I did some work. He brought up a lot of good points like people who are in situations where they handle sensitive information, they can't post. I saw a post saying a teacher would be risking their job because it is against their rules of conduct. He also brought up another good point about the mass discrimination there will be against people with Chinese names. You know, the whole gold farming stereotype.
Towards the end of the video, Markee revealed that he came across an interesting tidbit of information when working with EA. They have a "customer irritation level" metric. It is used to measure the player response to game additions. The goal is get the bar as high as it will go while staying just below the level where players press the cancel subscription button.
There are now nearly 30,000 posts on the US forum, nearly 10,000 on the EU forum, thousands on every other WOW forum and even videos on Youtube getting ten of thousands of views. The overwhelming response is negative. Some of the defenders are likely trolling, which is ironic.
Now people are starting seeking information other Blizzard employees, they don't have to look very far. Just pull out their Burning Crusade manual and flip to the back. Developers always want people to look at the credits, right? I don't think they intended to be for this reason. This is exactly why you don't publish your information unless you have a good reason. If you piss someone off, it just makes it easy for them to find you.
Markee Dragon made a 30 minute video response to this. I listened to it in the background as I did some work. He brought up a lot of good points like people who are in situations where they handle sensitive information, they can't post. I saw a post saying a teacher would be risking their job because it is against their rules of conduct. He also brought up another good point about the mass discrimination there will be against people with Chinese names. You know, the whole gold farming stereotype.
Towards the end of the video, Markee revealed that he came across an interesting tidbit of information when working with EA. They have a "customer irritation level" metric. It is used to measure the player response to game additions. The goal is get the bar as high as it will go while staying just below the level where players press the cancel subscription button.
July 6, 2010
Blizzard Is About to Ruin the Internet
It looks like companies just don't understand the internet anymore. First Facebook wants to make everything about you open to the public. Now Blizzard is going to force you to display your first and last name if you want to post on their game forums. There are many reasons why this is a terrible, terrible idea.
The first being is stalking. There have been so many cases of people getting harassed through the internet. People have commit suicide over it. Has anyone every pissed you off so much in a game you wish you could beat them up? I haven't, but I've seen this reaction countless times on forums and talked about on Xbox Live. Now Blizzard is going to give them the first piece of information to really do some damage to you.
What can someone do with a name? Well if you have a Facebook account or Myspace than you are going to be easy to find. From there they will be able to locate a lot of forums you post on, possibly your phone number, your email, etc. Now they can harass you in many ways.
But what if they want to take it beyond playful phone calls at 2AM in the morning? You managed to get them so mad that they want to steal your WOW account. Blizzard asks for your first name, last name and email to retrieve your Battle.net password. If you post on the forum, your attacker knows your first and last name. That can be used to find your facebook and email address. Once the attacker has that, they go to your email and activate the forgot password recovery. If you selected the question what school did you go to and have it listed on your Facebook, you are in deep trouble now. They have full access to your email account and possibly many other places such as your bank, personal message and any number of forums you post on. All that is left is to reset the Battle.net password and delete you WOW characters!
Security on the internet is designed around private information. What is the name of your first pet. Who is your favorite teacher. What is your birthday. Many of this is now available for all the world to see. The final piece of the puzzle is connecting your online persona to your Facebook profile. When that happens you are one huge target for whoever does not like you.
I think Blizzard is going to back track on this idea fast. There are already tens of thousands of posts all over the internet about this change. From what I gather the response is overwhelmingly negative.
One final note, what is Blizzard going to do if someone has a legitimate name that has something obscene in it? If Blizzard attempts to censor it they will likely be liable for a discrimination lawsuit. They would also have to disable the world censor on their forum if that person wants to include their name in their posting.
RealID is a real disaster.
*Added*
A Blizzard employee decided to test out this new policy by posting his name. We now know he lives with his mother and will likely go home to a full answering machine. Funny enough, later on in the topic he warns people that just because you know someone's name does not give you the right to find out more information of said person. Then the topic was locked.
The first being is stalking. There have been so many cases of people getting harassed through the internet. People have commit suicide over it. Has anyone every pissed you off so much in a game you wish you could beat them up? I haven't, but I've seen this reaction countless times on forums and talked about on Xbox Live. Now Blizzard is going to give them the first piece of information to really do some damage to you.
What can someone do with a name? Well if you have a Facebook account or Myspace than you are going to be easy to find. From there they will be able to locate a lot of forums you post on, possibly your phone number, your email, etc. Now they can harass you in many ways.
But what if they want to take it beyond playful phone calls at 2AM in the morning? You managed to get them so mad that they want to steal your WOW account. Blizzard asks for your first name, last name and email to retrieve your Battle.net password. If you post on the forum, your attacker knows your first and last name. That can be used to find your facebook and email address. Once the attacker has that, they go to your email and activate the forgot password recovery. If you selected the question what school did you go to and have it listed on your Facebook, you are in deep trouble now. They have full access to your email account and possibly many other places such as your bank, personal message and any number of forums you post on. All that is left is to reset the Battle.net password and delete you WOW characters!
Security on the internet is designed around private information. What is the name of your first pet. Who is your favorite teacher. What is your birthday. Many of this is now available for all the world to see. The final piece of the puzzle is connecting your online persona to your Facebook profile. When that happens you are one huge target for whoever does not like you.
I think Blizzard is going to back track on this idea fast. There are already tens of thousands of posts all over the internet about this change. From what I gather the response is overwhelmingly negative.
One final note, what is Blizzard going to do if someone has a legitimate name that has something obscene in it? If Blizzard attempts to censor it they will likely be liable for a discrimination lawsuit. They would also have to disable the world censor on their forum if that person wants to include their name in their posting.
RealID is a real disaster.
*Added*
A Blizzard employee decided to test out this new policy by posting his name. We now know he lives with his mother and will likely go home to a full answering machine. Funny enough, later on in the topic he warns people that just because you know someone's name does not give you the right to find out more information of said person. Then the topic was locked.
July 5, 2010
Modern War Addendum
While playing yesterday I remembered one of the points which was apparently replaced: sniper rifles. It is absolute nonsense that someone can one hit kill you with a sniper rifle. If you get shot in the head, okay. But there should be no difference being hit with an assault gun and a sniper rifle in the chest. Even more frustrating is "quick scope snipers" that run around and one shot kill you. They have unlimited range, one hit kill and only have to aim at you. In comparison to a shot gun which has a tiny range, and won't kill unless you hit dead center.
Also I experienced another moment of extreme latency when I knifed a guy, completed the whole animation and saw blood, but he didn't die. When he killed me I saw he was actually laying down and I knifed into thin air.
This will be my last rant about MW2.
Also I experienced another moment of extreme latency when I knifed a guy, completed the whole animation and saw blood, but he didn't die. When he killed me I saw he was actually laying down and I knifed into thin air.
This will be my last rant about MW2.
July 3, 2010
Britannia Manor
I saw a link to this documentary about Richard Garriott's house and life on Stratics. It is interesting seeing where his game design perspective is coming from. He sure likes to collect a lot of weird stuff. In it he mentions his first game, Akalabeth: World of Doom, netted him over $150,000 right out of high school. It was such a success because most games at the time were on the level of Asteroids, just lines and text.
Moderns Warfare 2 is Bad List
I was considering making a top 10 video about things that suck about Modern Warfare 2. That is never going to happen because it would be a lot of work and by the time I could get to it, we would be on Modern Warfare 5. So I'll just post it here. These are not in order of sucky-ness.
- Host Migration - If you are going to do player hosting, you could at least make it so that host migration does not fail so much. It seems like at least 1/3 of the time migration fails and the match ends. This is especially frustrating when the game is seconds away from ending and the host quits to avoid a loss. Other improvements could be made such as making the screen black so someone can't spend 5 seconds spotting you.
- No Guns Only Mode - It would be so great to have a guns only mode. No claymores, C4, grenade launchers, RPGs, kill streaks, thermal, heartbeat sensor or anything. Just bullets flying everywhere. I think a lot of people would enjoy this.
- Lack of Bug Fixes - After two or three patches, there hasn't been a single new bug fix. The bug where you get stuck with the bomb case in your face remains. One night I was in a game where some enemies were invulnerable in a domination match. Someone pointed out that a couple guns don't work with silencers. They are releasing new maps, couldn't they do fixes also?
- One Man Army - Many people agree that this perk is unbalanced. It gives you unlimited ammo. People don't even use it for the intended purpose, switching classes. They spam the same class over and over, recharging a grenade launcher or RPG. I think a nice fix would be to make it so the ammo level remains the same. So if you use 2 grenades, switching to that class again will not return them. Combine this with point #6 and you really have no idea where to shoot.
- Hit Detection - It is too generous.
- Latency - This just kills the game on a competitive level. I can watch a kill cam and see my opponent step into a doorway, but he never appeared on my screen. The person hosting the match always has an advantage over everyone else.
- Bullet Penetration - Bullets can go through anything. Why even have a FMJ attachment? I swing around a corner and watch bullets clip the corner to kill me. If you don't have FMJ, then your bullets shouldn't go through 75% of the stuff they are currently able to. It makes it impossible to take cover.
- Spawning - It is just horrid. I have posted a video of one occasion which was slightly unfair. There is so much room for it to be improved but the developers just don't care about it. This highlights how they view the game, as a casual shooter.
- Hacking - Basically they have never attempted to stop it. There are thousands of people on the top of the leaderboard with 16 billion points or something. I see those people with the modified usernames all the time. Sometimes I am in games which are acting really weird and it is obvious someone is doing something. I bet someone who ends up hosting a match could lag out specific players or the entire enemy team. It certainly feels like that has happened on a couple of occasions.
- $1,000,000,000 and nothing to show for it - Activision made well over a billion dollars on this game and show absolutely no sign of supporting it beyond the map packs, which make them at least $100,000,000 more per release. How about a tournament mode? How about addressing any of the concerns listed here? I would love to see what the player activity numbers are. I suspect there is a huge drop off starting in January and then spikes with the map packs. Then compare that to another game like Call of Duty 4 which was going strong well after a year of release.
July 1, 2010
Why UORares Was Broken
I did a bit of investigating today to find out why the UORares Item Database submit form was not working anymore. There is an administrator panel in which I am supposed to see items awaiting approval, but it was always blank. It did work at one time because I added a couple dozen items when it first opened.
The cause of the issue was an invalid itemid being assigned when submitting the form. A simple changing of +1 to +2 fixed it. If for whatever reason you wish to submit an item, it will sit waiting for me to approve it. One other thing broken is images don't get saved. I'm not really keen on spending time to fix that considering the site is not used anymore.
I am saddened that the bug was not with the administrator control panel itself. There is no doubt that over the past 6 years that some people have attempted to submit a variety of items. There was no error message indicating the item was never received. I was hoping there would be some to approve.
It is interesting looking at the code for one of the first PHP applications I had written. There are so many things I know now that would make it require a lot less lines and be a lot more efficient. It is in fact so bad I can't to reuse it for anything. Every line literally needs to be rewritten. At least it still works.
The cause of the issue was an invalid itemid being assigned when submitting the form. A simple changing of +1 to +2 fixed it. If for whatever reason you wish to submit an item, it will sit waiting for me to approve it. One other thing broken is images don't get saved. I'm not really keen on spending time to fix that considering the site is not used anymore.
I am saddened that the bug was not with the administrator control panel itself. There is no doubt that over the past 6 years that some people have attempted to submit a variety of items. There was no error message indicating the item was never received. I was hoping there would be some to approve.
It is interesting looking at the code for one of the first PHP applications I had written. There are so many things I know now that would make it require a lot less lines and be a lot more efficient. It is in fact so bad I can't to reuse it for anything. Every line literally needs to be rewritten. At least it still works.
Anyone Remember UORares?
It has been about 5 years since UORares went inactive. I was put in charge of the site back sometime in late 2003 I believe. Unfortunately it died a slow death due to the rare community falling apart due to developer neglect. If only we had Event Moderators back then.
Every once in a while (with the while being over 2 years) I like to post some news. By some chance if someone visits UORares and does not know about UOGuide's newsletter, now they will. I also changed the poll, but it appears to be broken. Votes are not being accepted.
Speaking of the newsletter, I am very happy how it turned out. It was a lot of work but I am proud of making it. I did receive a bit of criticism for the banner. It was put together in about 15 minutes to add a little color. If anyone wishes to make a better one it would be appreciated. I am hoping the construction of the July newsletter will have a lot more contributor's. If I am to do this every month I won't have much time to work on other site projects.
How about something funny? The fanboi wars between Apple and Android are always a source of comedy. Someone has made a funny set of videos showing the ridiculousness of the arguements. One involves someone trying to purchase an iPhone at a regular cellphone store, the other is a misguided attempt to get a non-iPhone repaired in an Apple store.
Every once in a while (with the while being over 2 years) I like to post some news. By some chance if someone visits UORares and does not know about UOGuide's newsletter, now they will. I also changed the poll, but it appears to be broken. Votes are not being accepted.
Speaking of the newsletter, I am very happy how it turned out. It was a lot of work but I am proud of making it. I did receive a bit of criticism for the banner. It was put together in about 15 minutes to add a little color. If anyone wishes to make a better one it would be appreciated. I am hoping the construction of the July newsletter will have a lot more contributor's. If I am to do this every month I won't have much time to work on other site projects.
How about something funny? The fanboi wars between Apple and Android are always a source of comedy. Someone has made a funny set of videos showing the ridiculousness of the arguements. One involves someone trying to purchase an iPhone at a regular cellphone store, the other is a misguided attempt to get a non-iPhone repaired in an Apple store.
June 28, 2010
UOGuide Newsletter
Since about the time I first setup UOGuide, I always wanted to do a newsletter. It is just one of those things websites used to do. You don't see it much anymore. The UO team has done one randomly for the past couple years but it has been a while. The first one will likely go out tomorrow night.
If you haven't yet signed up, you should.
I have spent a lot of time working on both UOGuide and our guild website for HOT Guild. I added an arcade and gold modifications to make things a bit more interesting on the forum.
The Mediawiki developers said the next version, which has the nice new Vector skin, was going to be out weeks ago. I was hoping to be able to implement it by now. Oh well, maybe next month.
I have a lot of big ideas for new features on UOGuide. Hopefully I will be able to get one or two added during July. In the mean time I am trying to promote all the stuff UOGuide can already do, such as host a guild website and personal page, or promote a fansite.
If I can improve the UO community just a little bit, that would be a nice thing.
If you haven't yet signed up, you should.
I have spent a lot of time working on both UOGuide and our guild website for HOT Guild. I added an arcade and gold modifications to make things a bit more interesting on the forum.
The Mediawiki developers said the next version, which has the nice new Vector skin, was going to be out weeks ago. I was hoping to be able to implement it by now. Oh well, maybe next month.
I have a lot of big ideas for new features on UOGuide. Hopefully I will be able to get one or two added during July. In the mean time I am trying to promote all the stuff UOGuide can already do, such as host a guild website and personal page, or promote a fansite.
If I can improve the UO community just a little bit, that would be a nice thing.
April 21, 2010
Factions is on the Brink of Ruination
I just had to post a quick rant after reading the developers idea on changing Town Sigil corruption.
Everything about this proposed idea is wrong. Instead of huge epic fights over all 8 cities, you are regulated to a single one at a time. One week a city will be available at 2PM, the next at 2AM. Why did they take out 24 hour corruption timers? Because it was so difficult to guard for that amount of time. Now they want you to fight 24 hours a day every day. No 3 day breaks. The entire concept of town ownership is tossed out the window. Towns are going to be swapping hands every day.
I really wish Draconi and the gang was still in charge.
So, instead of being a constantly ongoing battle open for potentially all towns, the game instead would be a series of concentrated battles for single town at a time. At any given time, all online players would be able to tell what town's capture window is open. The idea is to capture that town's sigil, hold it for a short time to corrupt it, then successfully return it to the town. Failure of any faction to do so means the town goes uncontrolled until it comes up for capture again the next day.This just can't be happening. I was so excited about them updating factions. But now every change they unveil or idea posted is dreadful. This latest one just lowers my expectations to the lowest point.
Everything about this proposed idea is wrong. Instead of huge epic fights over all 8 cities, you are regulated to a single one at a time. One week a city will be available at 2PM, the next at 2AM. Why did they take out 24 hour corruption timers? Because it was so difficult to guard for that amount of time. Now they want you to fight 24 hours a day every day. No 3 day breaks. The entire concept of town ownership is tossed out the window. Towns are going to be swapping hands every day.
I really wish Draconi and the gang was still in charge.
April 5, 2010
Kitchen Sink Forever
There is yet another video out showing footage of the infamous Duke Nukem Forever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CwHzclyYnI
From this is becomes crystal clear (even though we knew already) why the game was never released. They tried to cram too much stuff into one game. Underwater, driving, interactive slot machines, destructible environments...................plus whatever else we haven't heard of yet. That is just too much for a brand new game to take on.
You can add some neat stuff here and there. Maybe vehicles. Maybe underwater. But not all at once.
They claim the game was close to release. In reality it wasn't. They just kept adding more and more. Development was destined to go on for eternity. Or in another word, forever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CwHzclyYnI
From this is becomes crystal clear (even though we knew already) why the game was never released. They tried to cram too much stuff into one game. Underwater, driving, interactive slot machines, destructible environments...................plus whatever else we haven't heard of yet. That is just too much for a brand new game to take on.
You can add some neat stuff here and there. Maybe vehicles. Maybe underwater. But not all at once.
They claim the game was close to release. In reality it wasn't. They just kept adding more and more. Development was destined to go on for eternity. Or in another word, forever.
March 20, 2010
Lord of Ultima
I guess I missed the initial announcement because today I read on Kotaku that Lord of Ultima is now in open beta. It is a browser based game in which you build cities and do battle against the world. I am trying it out and it is okay so far. I've played a couple browser games and this seems to have a lot more features than most. It also has pretty graphics.
Besides the name, it doesn't have a thing to do with the Ultima or Ultima Online universe. Everything is generic fantasy. Perhaps there is some stuff later on or little easter eggs. The naming is purely to bring back nostalgic feelings. Get people to play.......and eventually pay.
While the game is free to play, there is a store where you can purchase diamonds. I assume other stuff will be sold in the future. Limited edition items or city decorations. The possibilities are as endless to which a wallet can be opened.
Will have to see how this game turns out.
In other news, Markee Dragon's redesigned website has opened. I have to say I am not a fan of the new design. The old one was unique and interesting. Now it is generic game blog 37452 with standard game screenshot backdrops. Also what is up with going with a blue color scheme? Even the dragon is now blue! Bleh.
Besides the name, it doesn't have a thing to do with the Ultima or Ultima Online universe. Everything is generic fantasy. Perhaps there is some stuff later on or little easter eggs. The naming is purely to bring back nostalgic feelings. Get people to play.......and eventually pay.
While the game is free to play, there is a store where you can purchase diamonds. I assume other stuff will be sold in the future. Limited edition items or city decorations. The possibilities are as endless to which a wallet can be opened.
Will have to see how this game turns out.
In other news, Markee Dragon's redesigned website has opened. I have to say I am not a fan of the new design. The old one was unique and interesting. Now it is generic game blog 37452 with standard game screenshot backdrops. Also what is up with going with a blue color scheme? Even the dragon is now blue! Bleh.
March 15, 2010
Activmoneyism
The price of the first Modern Warfare 2 map pack has been revealed. What would you expect to pay for some new maps? Does $3 sound good? Well there are going to be 5 of them. Maybe $5 or $8 or even $9.99.
Tough luck. It is $15! And there isn't anything else announced thus far. Just 5 new multiplayer maps. That is 1/4 the cost of the original game. It is quite obvious this is a huge money grab. There are 25 of million of copies of MW2 out there. What is $15 x 10 million? More money than 99% of video games will ever make. For 5 freakin maps, two of which are being brought back from COD:4.
It is clear now why Activision forced out the people who were possibly standing in the way of this gold train. They probably want to start pumping map packs out en mauss. They could easily be doing at least 1 new map a month. Keep people hooked on MW2 like it is a MMO. In the mean time they are not patching any game bugs or issues, just major exploits.
Even more astonishing is Activision is holding back royalty payments to Infinity Ward staff. Delayed payments means interest. The longer they hold the money, the more Activision reaps.
There is just no end to their corporate greed.
Tough luck. It is $15! And there isn't anything else announced thus far. Just 5 new multiplayer maps. That is 1/4 the cost of the original game. It is quite obvious this is a huge money grab. There are 25 of million of copies of MW2 out there. What is $15 x 10 million? More money than 99% of video games will ever make. For 5 freakin maps, two of which are being brought back from COD:4.
It is clear now why Activision forced out the people who were possibly standing in the way of this gold train. They probably want to start pumping map packs out en mauss. They could easily be doing at least 1 new map a month. Keep people hooked on MW2 like it is a MMO. In the mean time they are not patching any game bugs or issues, just major exploits.
Even more astonishing is Activision is holding back royalty payments to Infinity Ward staff. Delayed payments means interest. The longer they hold the money, the more Activision reaps.
There is just no end to their corporate greed.
March 13, 2010
House Cleaning Dragon
It looks like Markee Dragon is cleaning up his act. He was never a saint to begin with, somehow getting himself perma-banned from UO way back. In a story he explained when Origin invited him to a fanfest, he told them he was banned. They unbanned him I think. Ah, the good ol' days.
He posted a video announcing the changes to his website and a bit on why it was happening. It boils down to game companies not liking his support of breaking their game rules (item sales, scripting, botting, etc.). So it is hard to do business with people who you are causing headaches for. I imagine he is doing this mostly because he has some new business plan or idea, and that revenue from these illicit operations was simply not worth holding on to anymore.
Oh well.
He posted a video announcing the changes to his website and a bit on why it was happening. It boils down to game companies not liking his support of breaking their game rules (item sales, scripting, botting, etc.). So it is hard to do business with people who you are causing headaches for. I imagine he is doing this mostly because he has some new business plan or idea, and that revenue from these illicit operations was simply not worth holding on to anymore.
Oh well.
March 11, 2010
I Realize This Blog is Here
I haven't been playing UO lately. After a month of Stygian Abyss, I had done pretty much everything the expansion had to offer. I ran the two new champion spawns dozens of times, worked up Mysticism, and slayed all the Peerless. It got boring pretty quick so I took a break. I planned on starting back again in January, but I was having serious wireless connectivity issues. In fact I still am, just having mailed the router back to the manufacturer for repair today. But I am mostly not playing because there is nothing to do.
I play UO to PVP. For the past 8 years there has only been one type of PVP available: Champion Spawns. I've run them all a thousands of times. Gotten every power scroll in duplicates. It just isn't appealing anymore. I was very excited when factions was being worked on again. There were a lot of nice changes and additions. Unfortunately that no longer appears to be the case. First Draconi is let go and now Sakkarah. It is hard to be enthusiastic when EA is making every effort to prevent UO from being updated.
There are more faction changes in the works, mentioned on Stratics forums and in the House of Commons chat. However, it appears they are dumbing down the system. Reducing it from 4 to 3 factions, reworking points so they are about doing all different things instead of killing other players. To me it sounds like they are trying to shoehorn Warhammer Online ideas into UO. And if you didn't know, Warhammer Online isn't doing very well. In fact it probably has many fewer subscribers than UO.
I make no promises when the next blog post will be.
I play UO to PVP. For the past 8 years there has only been one type of PVP available: Champion Spawns. I've run them all a thousands of times. Gotten every power scroll in duplicates. It just isn't appealing anymore. I was very excited when factions was being worked on again. There were a lot of nice changes and additions. Unfortunately that no longer appears to be the case. First Draconi is let go and now Sakkarah. It is hard to be enthusiastic when EA is making every effort to prevent UO from being updated.
There are more faction changes in the works, mentioned on Stratics forums and in the House of Commons chat. However, it appears they are dumbing down the system. Reducing it from 4 to 3 factions, reworking points so they are about doing all different things instead of killing other players. To me it sounds like they are trying to shoehorn Warhammer Online ideas into UO. And if you didn't know, Warhammer Online isn't doing very well. In fact it probably has many fewer subscribers than UO.
I make no promises when the next blog post will be.
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