Unfortunate Happenstance

Sadly my gaming rig is suffering from some hard drive problems, so I can't really play anything at the moment. It could be motherboard issues, there's a tiny chance it's a memory issue but after running memtest no errors were found, so I'm going with hard drive problems since I can hear it clicking, though very rarely.

I've had an issue almost identical to this in the past, the only difference so far is that I don't have any corrupted files yet. So rather than continue to try and use the thing until all my files corrupt, I'm going to copy them over to some of those 4 gig usb drives before trying to run anymore tests. Currently it crashes almost randomly, with no real warning. Explorer is what always crashes, so I'm thinking my windows is corrupt.

If I have a virus, my services.exe is acting really strangely, but neither malawarebytes nor adaware can find anything. Adaware says they found a registry error, and fixed it, but I'm not so sure what that had to do with anything.

I had something else to say about my hard drive but I just can't seem to remember it at the moment.

I'll try and get a post up for Monday, but this is the reason why Friday's post never happened, because my PC started crashing all the time. Right now I'm on an old laptop that I've never really used before, but the freedom of movement is quite nice.

Achievements in the future

We all know that achievements are fun to complete. It’s the addition of another bar that slowly goes up and records our progress; it tells us how much closer we are too awesome in a game. It’s a lot like the experience bar, but instead of only providing desire for more levels; the achievement systems most new games are including are able to promote the same feeling towards almost any part of the game.

The origins of the achievement system lay with the concept of a 100% clear. This was promoted in many RPG games by providing certain endings depending on what actions you took in the game, or how much of the game you completed. The more things you did right in a game, the better you’re ending. The achievement system always worked best with RPG games because they were a type of game that provided choice to players, whereas games like the original FPS’s and RTS’s would only provide a single path, and no sense of choice. That’s the origins though, the first time an actual achievement system was used that provided rewards to players was with Xbox live from Microsoft.

Probably the original FPS achievement concept can be traced to multiplayer versions of games, where you could go on kill streaks. The higher your kill streak, the better you were as a player. Players could look at their kill streaks and quantify their ability. And it’s not just about counting the kill streaks for themselves, which they could do anyway in their heads. No, kill streaks are integral to the upbringing of achievement systems because they provided a way to show off to everyone else that you were playing with, just how good you were.

Most RTS games still don’t provide any real sense of choice. Warcraft 3 did an okay starter job as one of the first to provide choices to the player, while Dawn of War leans closer to an RPG and does it better. Despite these choices in the narrative, RTS games continue to lack any real achievement system; the game play just does not fit the mold. Achievement systems fit perfectly with RPG’s, and so as FPS games get closer to becoming RPG games, like Modern Warfare 2, there is a lot more room for achievements as rewards, and statistics to show off to other people.

Achievement systems provide players with many new tools. Players can see what they have accomplished in the game, how they stack up to other people around the world if they care about that sort of thing, and it gives them ideas for things to do in the game that they might not have thought of doing before. Just because a player randomly picks up a special flag or something in some part of the game world doesn’t mean that they’re going to go scour the rest of the game for them as well. But when a player picks up that flag and you tell them how many flags they have left to gather before unlocking something special, well then they go out and try to get more of them.

Just having a single objective like having to gather flags does not make an achievement system though. Super Mario games have long had you collecting coins, other games have had you collecting keys, some money; but those aren’t achievement systems, those coins and keys were a way to complete the game. Achievements are all about choices and promoting players to spend more time within the game world than is necessary to actually complete the game itself. In other words, they work like a kind of mini game, and the rewards associated with achievement systems can’t be a part of the requirements to complete the game. If they are, then it isn’t an achievement.

If you aren’t a fan of having an achievement system in every game ever made from here on forth, then the future isn’t looking bright for you. Practically every game in development or recently released has an achievement system. They typically aren’t so much used as a means to reward players anymore as they are to extend the life of a game. When a player completes a $60 game in less than 10 hours, they feel like it wasn’t really worth the money, especially with MMO games on the market providing unlimited play for very low fees. With an achievement system developers can quickly and easily extend the life of a game probably over double or triple the original time that an average person would have spent on it. Good news for gamers and their wallets, though perhaps bad news for gamers who are addicted to games.

Achievement systems will continue to expand in the future. Especially as more and more games offer the player different paths and choices to go down in terms of storyline, there will be more incentive to make sure players recognize the different stories available to them. LotRO was the first MMO to use an achievement system, and they gave a reward for everything, but other companies quickly realized that achievements in themselves were reward enough, that there was no need to integrate real status effects into them. The perk system with Modern Warfare 2 is a great example of a company that uses achievements as a means of unlocking more abilities... it's also a great example of how developers have to tread carefully when they offer any sort of upgrade system that overpowers the player. The number one reason that players want dedicated servers? So they can turn the perks OFF.

Personal Notes - I’m enjoying updating at midnight each night, which means I write the article before hand. Unfortunately it seems that means I won’t always have top quality articles; this one has no references or anything for example. I can think of all the references I would love to add, but I don’t have the time to go search the web for the sites : ( I hope to return to this topic in the near future and right a real piece on: What the future of the achievement system might hold?

Like the Achievement browser game, where you do nothing but try to do achievements, it’s rather hilarious, the entire point of the game is to complete achievements. I know it was made by Armor Games, and I should have discussed it in the article above, but time constraints work in funny ways sometimes. And something else… but I’ve forgotten since I didn’t write about it : /

I’ve also had hard freezes on my system 5 times tonight. After the 4^th I finally started paying attention and figured it out. Apparently the last Chrome update, which has caused Chrome to start over caching and pretending as if I don’t have cookies enabled, is now also causing massive memory overloads whenever I stream anything… from Any Website. Hulu, animewoot, veoh, cnn, youtube, etc., very annoying. This is the reason I quit using Firefox during I believe the launch of the 3.0 update, because it broke the browser and nobody would admit that it was broken from Mozilla. That’s when I first switched to Chrome. Funny because I am now switching back to firefox, and we will see if it has gotten any better. Everyone suggested I use Opera, but I don’t have it installed on this computer and updating Firefox was much quicker.

What does the future hold? - A look at MMO games

MMO games have come a long way since their humble beginnings, and they appear so prolific that it makes one wonder: just how much further can they go? Aion was just released, Blade and Soul is coming from NCSoft in the future, as well as Guild Wars 2. Blizzard has an unannounced MMO title that they are working on, and there are new free to play MMO’s hitting the market almost weekly. By the same token, many MMO’s are seeing dwindling numbers; Mythic has recently cut half of their Warhammer Online staff, the Matrix Online shut its servers entirely a few months ago, and Aion is already losing many subscribers if the forums are to be believed, practically all of whom came from WoW with many who aren’t going back.

There is of course the blame for the unusual tidal wave of hot non MMO games: Modern Warfare 2, Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2, Assassins Creed 2, Bioware 2, etc.. All top notch games, all being released between Q4 2009 and Q1 2010. If there was a war going on between MMO publishers and non MMO publishers, this is probably what it would look like. The point being, all of these are amazing titles for gamers, and due to the now standard additions of RPG elements within multiplayer environments, as well as the achievement systems all single player games now have, there is a lot of time to be spent away from MMO games.

Quickly, MW2 multiplayer is not bleeding into the MMO seen. Yes, it’s online, yes, it’s multiplayer, no, it is not an MMO. This is because it does not have a persistent world. There is a lobby, you connect to a game, the game loads, you play the game, you disconnect, and you’re back in the lobby. That’s not how MMO’s work. MW2 is a FPS RPG though. Just like the traditional MMO is an RPG, MW2 is one of the culminating transformations of including RPG elements into FPS’s. I say culminating because it’s been done before, even in MW1, but Activision has really hit the RPG aspect dead center this time.

With that out of the way, we can get back to the issue at hand. MMO games are here to stay, and it looks like they are attempting to push the boundaries. As mentioned before, a traditional MMO is a multiplayer RPG game with a persistent world; from Ultima Online to Everquest to WoW and beyond. While the traditional model still works, WoW can vouch for that, most producers have realized that in order to compete with WoW, the investment isn’t worth the payout and risk.

Taking Aion as an example, the game is more polished than WoW was when it launched, and it is seeing improvements constantly, but players are already disillusioned. In order to break into the traditional MMO market right now, you need a game that has seen practically 2 additional years of polish, much like Warhammer Online and Age of Conan are just now approaching. Aion of course launched after having been released for 1 year in Korea, so it still has a year to go before enough polish has been applied. Of course, by the time a game has gotten 2 years of polish, most interested players have bought it, tried it, and then tossed it to the side, looking to the new great thing on the horizon that promises better features and graphics than the now outdated MMO can provide. It is a vicious cycle.

Developers aren’t willing to just let this gold mine slip through their fingers though, despite the risks. Some decided to destroy the reputation of their companies to try and make as much money back as possible for investors, like Age of Conan did. Others keep pushing at it as long as they can, knowing they have an A list title on their hands, but things just aren’t clicking, which is what is happening with Warhammer Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online. Later developers have treaded lightly on the outskirts of the land mine that WoW has turned the traditional MMO market into, and have come up with some fresher concepts.

EvE Online created a persistent world with no rules, a sandbox. Or I guess a “universe” would be a better term. They’ve managed to garner a ton of attention and a solid fan base, despite the “low compared to top list MMO” numbers. Then there’s the rash outbreak of free to play MMO’s as well and here is where innovation is at its peak. Low budget companies throwing concepts together in a mad hope that something sticks and makes an impact on players long enough for them to gain a profit on their investment through micro transactions.

It may be strange to think of it, but games like Evony Online are actually MMO’s. They are multiplayer, they are online, and they have a persistent world that players can interact in. Though many of these browser games are missing the massively part. You could argue that Guild Wars was never a true MMO because it didn’t allow for large amounts of players to accumulate in a single location for adventures, aka lacking on the “Massive”. But that word has basically been forgotten from the acronym, as MMO has come to take on a meaning despite what it originally stood for.

The point of bringing up Evony is to showcase an example of just how much further MMO’s can go. While Evony Online is a browser MMO and is very bare bones, Dawn of Fantasy is a new MMO coming out that fleshes out the basic concepts. Dawn of Fantasy was most likely in production before Evony ever was, so there is no suggestion here that it is literally a take off of it. And before Evony Online ever did it, Glitchless’s Race War Kingdoms did it, but that’s another story. Dawn of Fantasy isn’t a typical MMO, it’s a MMO RTS. Base building, unit and army control, all with a world to conquer. While players are not destroying forests and digging up mountains (as far as I know anyway) in this game, they are building cities and armies in the RTS style and fighting with other players in an RTS style, all in the persistent online world of an MMO. Other MMO’s have allowed you to modify the game world before: Darkfall Online, Age of Conan, some A list MMO that I forgot the name of, Star Wars Galaxies as well. An actual RTS MMO though is one of the new directions some developers are going in order to try and scoop up part of the MMO pie. (note - I don’t condone actually playing Evony Online )

The next step in MMO development, the true “next-gen” is going to go beyond genre mashing though. Some people have been fantasizing about the possibilities for decades, just waiting for the technology and resources to match up so that it can be created. While all MMO’s require a persistent world, and many MMO’s allow players to interact and change things within those worlds, nobody has made a game where players can truly interact with the land itself: cutting down trees that are literally cut down and will take a long time to grow again assuming that they are given the chance, killing rabbits that actually disappear and don’t just respawn 2 minutes later, digging into mountains and having caves left behind. MMO 2.0 is another name for it, and there’s a small possibility that this is what Blizzard-Activision has in mind when they refer to their next-gen MMO that they are making.

MMO’s have a lot of life left in them, and they are going to keep invading the gaming world for years to come. If there is a genre out there, then it can be made into an MMO. Another spin on MMO’s is bringing them to consoles. EvE Online is doing this with their new MMO addition Dusk514, and FPS console MMO set in the same universe as EvE Online. While not next-gen, definitely a step forward for the MMO platform. MMO games have muscled their way into the same platform definition where one would only use the words “single player” or “multi player” in the past. It’s not just a multiplayer game, it’s an MMO.

Audio Surf is a game that is meant to let you enjoy your favorite songs in a more interactive manner. The song is turned into a race track of sorts, with you controlling a space ship that’s flying on it. There are 3 channel paths the space ship can go in and the simplified concept of the game is to collect the colored blocks and dodge the grey blocks. Timing is important as you have to constantly weave through the three different paths in order to dodge possible obstructions. Three possible channels related to an audio track with colored objectives to “collect”, where have we seen that before in a video game…

While the game at a glance is nothing revolutionary, the key concept here is that you can turn any song into an obstacle course to fly down. There are no more limits, if you have an audio file in an mp3 format then there is a very good chance it will play. I don’t suggest trying to load any audio books though as it will take forever. A 4 minute song generally only takes about 15 seconds to render the first time, and thereafter if you ever want to play it again the game has the information stored and it will load in less than 5.

Some audio files of mine would not play, even though they are mp3 and work fine in any media player on my computer. Most likely they require a codec that Audio Surf doesn’t support, but that’s probably an easy fix for the future, if the developers feel like it.

Back to the revolutionary part: the concept itself isn’t revolutionary, but coming across a finished product like this is rare enough that the word is justified. People have been adding their own sound tracks to audio games for a long time, but that typically took effort because you then had to actually program the game around the music. Audio Surf scans the mp3 file and then creates the game for you.

There’s a good reason major companies haven’t created games like this, and it’s not just because they can charge you money for each song you download from them. Whatever algorithm the game uses to read your mp3 file isn’t of very high quality, and it can often make obstacle courses that are inconceivable to complete. No game company wants to create a product that is as badly hit or miss as this one, and so it isn’t done. Well, almost no game company.

The game states that the faster a song is the more difficult it will be, but that isn’t true. Some very fast songs are jokes, while some very slow songs are literally impossible to play. Sometimes the rhythm is even messed up completely, and so your song will stutter start, going fast-slow, fast-slow, making it impossible to get into a regular groove. Often when the game stutters to a halt, or suddenly speeds up really fast with no visual queue that this is going to happen, you’re going to hit a lot of grey cubes.

If you want to get a perfect score on a song, don’t expect to start it up and just do it, because it won’t happen. To really beat a song, you will have to memorize whatever course is thrown out at you from the game. The track isn’t flat like it is in Rock Band or Guitar Hero, instead it undulates with the music. While this looks cool, your spaceship can be thrown into blind turns with no hope of surviving unscathed. Some people will probably get seizures from this as well.

The main mode of the game is simple enough. Catch all the colored blocks, dodge all the grey ones. There are many more modes, but they all lack any sort of explanation. Two sentences and a bunch of hints you can scroll through do not suffice as an explanation. After putting in over 5 hours I still have no idea how the scoring system works, and it’s largely irrelevant since in most of the modes you can’t actually choose what color blocks come at you. Supposedly if you get 3 blocks of the same color together, you get a score bonus, but I haven’t seen it.

Despite the large amount of issues with how levels are created, and how there is only mode worth playing; it’s still an enjoyable game. For those with an elitist passion you can grind out a song over and over until you make it into the number 1 spot on the online database, for that song. Only some songs are registered with the online system, but I think they will recognize any song you could find on iTunes. You couldn’t for example… play this song and expect the system to score you online. The game is made for short session play, but long load times hurt using it that way.

The game only costs $10, and it’s probably worth that much for entertainment. It also comes with a wonderful demo, so you can test it out before buying and see if you’d actually spend much time with it. I’m going to rate it a 3/10. Nice game, nice concept, but there just isn’t anything there, and oh, so very poorly designed to handle the musical anomalies it was made for in the first place. As a niche genre piece it’s great, but as a game, it isn’t much of a game.

Here's a sample of some guy playing it on youtube, as you can see, he's dodging the gray blocks, and going after the colored ones, which change color along with the background etc.