Bit of music for Wednesday from Dream theater called Home. Song is from Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory which is one of my favourite albums of all time.
Month: October 2015
E sports
Esports has become trend for the video game community playing competitive for fun or money. Allowed players to experience new element even expand on the games. Suddenly core mechanics become super important with players needing to know everything about the game. Metagame which is outside knowledge of the game becomes important knowing animation length and mindset of your opponent. Information can help decide games knowing strategy helps decide strategy against opponent. Hearthstone shows this clearly with certain decks being picked based on opponent decks. Starting out bunch of players experiencing video games in new light soon become competitive experience. Bunch of amateur setting up leagues back in 2000s expanding to various companies supporting. Amateurs playing for fun used various websites to setup leagues now studios creating said games have say. Once just small group of amateurs turned into global business with various gaming studios putting real money behind it. Supporting Esports allows companies keep community active possible to create whole new source of revenue. Economics of the situation teams can disappear due to couple bad results. Even high ranking teams can disappear around only handful of teams which have lasted years. Income can be unstable with amateurs finding it hard to climb. Big leagues may have millions to play for but smaller leagues with most of the players much smaller pool.
Once started out as bunch of amateurs enjoying games in competitive setting has exploded into global force. Still the numbers are tiny compared to number of units sold of video games worldwide. Remains to be seen if Esports can become real global trend in Asian markets firmed rooted. Taiwanese government has started the process on classify to make it become real sport.
Support can be patchy at times with some studios providing bare basic support. Signs that big companies are starting to take notice with some being quickly over others. Sony has created Playstation Plus league the competitive face of Sony. Microsoft supported Esport leagues on xbox for years helping grow it around consoles. Even Nintendo started to get into it supporting super smash bros small leagues. Riot games supports pro players playing them wage during championships. Recently Call of duty has been pushing the trend with casual game getting it own championship based on league of legends model. Parent company Activision-Blizzard has created an Esports division to help support the platform.
Old media is starting to take notice with massive demographics which has disappeared tuning in to these events. BBC has done deal to allow Esports to appear on iplayer using BBC3 platform. Gambling companies are starting to get into the act with big firms now allowing bets to be made. Mainstream has started to take notice of something which started outside of mainstream playing catch up.
However does have darker side with big risk comes big reward. Players suffer sometimes from mental health issues pressure of winning. Cheating has been an issue along with doping to get better results. Turning hobby into job runs the risk of removing all the fun you once had.
Watched Esports in the past due to how interesting it can be not the only person.
Don’t view the whole trend as bad could help certain titles but yearly releases don’t become big. May result in longer support for video games which is good news. One or two people have blamed it for creating unfun titles which focus on narrow ground of players. Some people see mobile as new big thing for Esports don’t view that as the case due to the platform unless it only media platform. Bright future just needs to get over barrier to entry and economic issues due to demographics involved. Could always go the same way poker did which had rapid growth followed by rapid declines in views.
Could never get into Esports due to high risk high reward mixed with high amount of time needed.
Thoughts – Writers block
Writers block:
Find some views on dyslexic which I posted here, time talk about something did touch on. Writers block an interesting concept you run out of ideas or can’t find the words to describe something. First thoughts on the phase without thinking that what comes to mind.
Using Google to search for the definition you get the following.
The condition of being unable to think of what to write or how to proceed with writing.
Most people suffer from this lack of creative insight over various periods with some getting it almost every day. Depends on your job how often you’re likely to encountered. Recorded medical cases of people who lack certain ability from memory to people skills. From neurological stand point been many studies into couple abilities humans do without thinking. Hate to be in that position myself but is gold mine into areas which may not be studied easy without human subjects. Brings up some questions about what it means to be human do you have every ability or only some core ones. Would certainly be interesting to experience what it feels like not having any creative ability at all. Curious if anybody done any studies into writers block, medical issue caused by set of neurological conditions. Given how I can only speak for myself in rather uninformed position can only give you my experience.
After writing this going to be googling due to being curious and bored on the subject.
My experience:
One element of writers block which happens to myself start something run out of steam pretty quickly. Much rather write longer pieces even if they take more time over shorter stop gap pieces which don’t cover much ground. Could be part of the creative process reviewing my ideas finding not much else to them. However times when just can’t think of anything else to write. Same could be said for drawing something I need to get back into the habit of doing even if the result is rubbish same with writing. Maybe I should stop sitting on stuff which is blocked by writers block and just release the small snap shots. Rough guess on this blog must be around 30 odd pieces which got scrapped due to writers block. Habit which found useful is to write in bullet points first and fill in the gaps later. This allows me to avoid being blocked just carry on with another element of the writing. Do the same sort of when drawing focus on different bits over the overall picture. One thing is for sure getting writers block is frustrating way of life which impacts all of us but nobody talks about it. Myself had periods in which block on gone on for weeks and others just moments at time.
After all practise makes perfect just takes ages. Do enjoy writing even with challenges it does present some insight can be found here. Relaxing even with these challenges and writers block allows an release. Never worked in an creative industry all I know the pressure created from being forced to write short story was enough for myself. That maybe is down to the next point of any creative process which is the following question “Being interesting to my audience”
Being interesting
Society has shifted towards individual in some respects, result is everybody must be interesting. When it comes to the job market people are looking for Mr interesting to do rather boring job. End result is we get rather uninteresting content aiming to be interesting. One of the biggest issues I have is trying to be interesting falling into the trap and failing to produce any sort of content. My mind goes like this “Oh that not very interesting and scrap it”
Need to remember that because I find it interesting likely hood somebody else is going to find it interesting. Audience in this case likely to be myself why don’t I produce it. Little lesson to myself don’t scrap something keep working at it. Is it good enough end of the day does not matter so much for something which is hobby/outlet. Who knows the result could be something rather interesting. Not sure that interesting element is part of writers block part of my experience.
Closing statement
Writers block is common most people won’t share it, don’t worry about being interesting. Talking about it should help me with future blocks.
Magrider – Thoughts
Magrider – Thoughts
Recently been playing loads of planetside 2 getting much better feel for the game as a whole.
You can find my various thoughts on the game listed under planetside category pretty big faults with the game. Core of the game can be rather fun at times even with these faults helps put off new players. Faction of choice Vanu Sovereignty playing on Ceres European Playstation 4 server. Vanu Sovereignty faction get various benefits with specialist vehicles along with weapons. Main battle tank is called Magrider Vanu get an hover tank.
Admitting my hate now love
Willing to admit that I hated the Magrider at first for various reason I could not make the tank work and would die. Took me hours to work out how to use it along with upgrading it. Could be I gotten better with time or something else but I did serious hate it that much I was thinking of switching. Leaving the Vanu over one vehicle was bit silly so decided to keep at it. Soon I found started to love the thing with my results improving.
Comparing tanks
New Conglomerate Vanguard – Best armour strongest main gun but cost of speed and acceleration. Vanguard special ability activation of an tank shield base health is 4,000 but shield adds 2,000 on top for 6 seconds. Defensive style of tank which is designed to bust up armour.
Terran Republic Prowler – Opposite of the Vanguard fastest top speed, quicker reload time lower protection due armour resistance. Offensive ability anchored Mode lower reload speed higher projectile speed.
Vanu Sovereignty – Magrider – Takes traits from both takes combining both of them into one tank. Main gun 2nd highest damage mobility to match it armour wise middle of the pack. Mobility does not equal matching prowler speed instead does better job hill climbing. Unlike the other tanks limited by tracks can move side to side. Main turret requires whole tank to move in order to aim result front is always facing your target. Turret does have the lowest arc in the whole game meaning you can hit other tanks before they see you. Downside comes with slow reload speed and velocity. Magburner does give you major boost in speed for temporary period of time.
Okay it looks rather bad for Mr average. Does nothing great just does everything average apart from one or two minor things.
Mr average?
Mr average in many respects with some serious downsides fighting other tanks head on results in death. Vanguard rips you to pieces with sheer damage, prowler burst damage is high enough to win. Magrider must exploit lack of mobility getting behind taken by surprise you can burst down the other tanks. Extra mobility over the environment with stealth allows you to win. Against lighting tanks you can exploit the mobility or take them head on. Still risky to take on lighting head on unless it the skyguard platform.
Below are some examples from last night….
Example 1
Magrider hides within an valley fires to the hillside which somebody tank. Vanguard follows magrider into valley after being hit. Magrider moves up the valley edge firing down on vanguard main gun can’t aim high enough to hit the magrider. Vanguard pops the shield trying to escape dies seconds later.
Running stealth allows the magrider to get into positions like the one above. Driver of the vanguard should have avoided that situation. Vanguard may have better armour with damage potential but can’t do much against burst damage with extra mobility. Vanguard would been harder to kill from the hillside but still facing quite a task against the magrider.
Example 2
Magrider located to side of the road hidden behind the hill. One lone prowler racing ahead on the road is attacked by the magrider from behind. No cover for the magrider apart just open road. Prowler turns the turret to face the magrider who dodges one or two shots. Hit from behind by the magrider the prowler dies.
Example 3
Vanu has an armored column moving forward hits another armored column. Main battle tanks start firing on each other Vanu are dodging shots keeping distance. Small group of Vanu try to flank around using armour and heavy assaults. Magriders flanking around weaken the armour letting the front armour finish them off.
Combined elements of the magrider allow the Vanu to win. Head on the tanks suffer but that mobility keeps them alive just a bit longer.
Example 3 front armour is best option with stealth being used on the flanking force. Best results of the magrider requires you to exploit using the environment with some sort of element of surprise. Vanu main battle tank is rather versatile allows you to burst damage but glass cannon compared to the other tanks.
Weapon velocity
One of the roles I told about with the Magrider was being able to snipe vehicles long range using hill climb to be annoying. However….the main guns suffer from Low weapon velocity. Combined with bumpy nature of the main gun which is worse on console. You can provide support from further ranges but not a fan of that play style myself. Can be very powerful hanging back just at the outsides of one of the big battles.
Gunner
Benefits of the gunner can’t be underestimated for starters it provides you with much need extra awareness. Extra damage is just the bonus that awareness which helps the most.
High entry barrier
Magrider is just works better with upgrades some of the best ones are upgrading your weapons followed by tank upgrades. Default main weapon is okay, secondary gunner you get light machine gun which is average. Very useful against people trying to C4 you but against other tanks no.
Pros and cons
Pro
- Mobility – allows you to get to places no vehicle can go…
- Middle ground – Middle ground in everything
- Low turret arc
- Versatile
Cons
- Lack of straight line speed
- Average armour
- Low weapon velocity
- Solo reduced damage output
- Poor vision – , Low FOV, can’t turn your camera due to being turret based.
- High entry barrier – Cert investment with cons
- Weak against infantry
Sooooooo…
Magrider looks on paper rather bad however in practise the versatile nature combined with tactics means you can do some serious damage. Front armour is good for moving with the zerg, stealth is good for flanking. You can hill climb to avoid fire or hide on hills to rain fire down. Not sure which upgrade is better racer or rival. Overall I would say the tank good but does have high learning curve. Still think Daybreak games should buff the main turrets so they have fastest velocity in the game given reload speed makes sense. Instead of forcing one playstyle I taken the best of both worlds being aggressive defensive so attacking when it suits me. Tank suits my playstyle aggressive flanking with some clever tactics over sheer force.
Anniversary thoughts
2nd year anniversary thoughts….
Community manager for 2 years which equals 17520 hours, 730 days and 24 months. Seen loads of users come and go during that time I banned my fair share of users from the site. Safe to say I have changed my views….various topics from moderation to community management. Being part of the administration team means you have to be careful when it comes to relationship between members. On personal level rather hard to get to know somebody on the internet however some do know me others I just chat with. Combined with administration side of things makes things difficult at times. Not alone no matter what you think everybody had some sort of experience with something which has happened to you. Couple topics which are still taboo which should not be like mental health and human sexuality. Even in this community people are sometimes unwilling to speak about these topics. Myself I suffered not going to lie from both of these issues in various forms. Compared some mental health wise very mild but still impacted me. End of the day you’re not alone and be shocked who is a member of the LGBT community or had mental health issues. Some within this community suffer from it just be willing to listen to them if you know them or reach out to them.
Last couple years not so good for myself site has allowed some sort of anchor. Family issues can make things painful combined with bad job choices nice to have an anchor.
Site has allowed me to make friends [within reason] with couple people and reach out to groups I would never have done so in the first place. ^_^
Had my fair share of disagreements with people best advice try to see the point they are making. Apart for trolls just get rid of them. Not sure what else to say…..that all on my mind at the moment. Never rub your nose or eyes after you cut up some chilli or pepper.
Music: Jess Glynne – Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself
Just some music for this Monday from Jess Glynne 🙂
Improving planetside 2
Improving planetside 2
Free to play game planetside 2 is rather fun game does have some big faults just going to focus on 3 big issues for the moment. Core mechanics of the game rather decent but poor design choices with bad player feedback. Creates very unfriendly experience to new players which slowly turns into an wall. Result new players disappear from the game due to the high barrier of entry with high barrier of entry due to design choices. No secret the game on every platform is suffering with rapid declining playerbase rev ensues suffering become obvious. New creative director Jens Andersen admitted that fact on reddit AMA which you can find here.
Other big issues spawns, population balance, resources, UI, base design along with much much more.
Game progression: Grind is real!
New players are faced with serious grind in order to be useful various options locked out with linear grind progression system. Easy way of solving this would be giving players options by default like anti vehicle weapons. Reduce the grind due to letting players experience other options.
Would love to use aircraft to attack ground zerg armour but I can’t. Would love to do anti armour tank role but again can’t. Until I grind the certs away to unlock these items. Want to snipe instead of using semi auto sniper sorry you need to unlock that. Not being able to pick SMG for the infiltrator class.
Planetside 2 allows players to experience range of different experiences but gates them behind a brick wall. New players should be given basic options which allows them to be useful instead of being forced on tread mill for basic parts. Basic weapons super powerful compared to other items on the store which means game is not pay to win. Simple case of ungating options from players anti vehicle, certain weapons.
Lore: Lack of…
Another big weakness of planetside 2 lack of lore, issue here why should player care about the actions. Even call of duty has some sort of lore explaining why you’re playing team death match. Absent from this game just get some basic voice overs meant to help teamplay. Game fails to explain what each faction is doing or drive behind it. Factions gain certain benefits due to history but again not explained. You don’t know the name of your own commanders or even told the planet you’re fighting on. People complain about call of duty being skin deep but the game has far more lore completed planetside which is explained.
Some solutions adding more voice lines once base is taken explaining some of the lore. Soldiers could start talking between each other about how the battle is going. Commander could come into the fold see something interesting could be done with something so basic. Objectives could be worth some sort of lore voice tape loads of potential things you could do from design point of view.
You can find some of the lore on outside sources according to game credits award winning comic book reader worked on the project. You would not know that unless you took the time to look into it. Understand that writing for video game rather hard to do given how interactive the story needs to be.
Tutorial: The wall
Game does feature basic voice introduction but lacks any sort of tutorial. Koltyr starting place for new players with some basic outputs designed to teach players the core mechanics of the game. Player interactive however is required in order to teach you. Game forces you to work out how things work over telling you sometimes does not explain. Non existent tutorial with one time voice over introduction. New players faced with wall forced to work out what is going on right now.
Progression, lore and Tutorial.
Minor changes to the progression system would help with lore taking centre stage plus bigger tutorial. For myself the progression is one thing holding me various time which has caused me frustrating times. Lack of lore creates range of issues from with feeling that battles are meaningless. On the tutorial almost quit the game due how badly explained first couple of hours. Not sure sure creating list of solutions would be enough given how the game has already launched. Good to see that creative director Jens Andersen understand game not in very healthy state but I fear they are going to move on to another title.
Star Wars Battlefront expanding on first impressions
Follow up to my Star Wars Battlefront beta first impressions going to expand on points raised. Going to cover some news which came out about the digital content plans from DICE.
The Bad
- Vehicles
- Random power ups
- Lack of variety
- Voice acting
Vehicles – Walker assault vehicles powerful along with the game changer. Design point of view understand why they are so simple to use. Rest of the game is casual with simple focus. Not very interesting to use with little depth to them. Spawning is another issue fixed spawns allows people to spawn camp you taking down your air support. Air vehicles have powerful lock on weapons with no counter measures.
Random power ups – Power ups as game play mechanic rather interesting big issue with the current system is locations. Big complaint of past DICE games has been players hogging vehicles spawns not doing much with them and hurting the team. Overall the game is causal experience fine with power up vehicle spawns but the locations need to be moved. Walker assault the spawns are static vehicles you need are next to spawn points. Another issue is that you need these vehicles to win walker assault that powerful.
Vehicles along with power ups be reworked with some minor design changes to balance it out.
Variety – Game play point of view the game lacks variety you need to pick up power up for a vehicle. All the weapons feel the same overall you’re doing the same sort of thing.
Voice acting – Hero and villain voice acting why did you not use better ones.
The Ugly
- UI does not fit into art style
- Partner system
- Power ups
- Lack of server browser
- Vehicles
- Uninsipred static gamemodes
User interface or heads up display – Does not feel like Star wars but clean modern basic design tapped on. Nothing with it just feels out of place.
Partner system – Spawn system being so static does not fit with partner system would like to be able to select spawns.
Power ups – Already covered the basics of this point
Server browser – Going to hurt the PC side of things…
Uninsipred static gamemodes – Feels like could added more objectives with more happening as a result of these goals being met.
Sticking with my statement
Game is not bad just brings nothing new, core mechanics are simple with extra mechanics being random. Can’t see the game lasting that long based on the design don’t think that was the point. No desire to pick up the game based on what I seen at full price.
Download content….
Don’t agree with selection of content or the price.