Epoc and interfaces

So Penny Arcade has a post up about Epoc. Mind control of games (or really any interface in general) is by far the best possible option. Right now the best interface is generally mouse and keyboard - between the two we can manipulate things in multidimensional spaces and input complex commands (and most importantly, communicate clearly and quickly). Unfortunately, even as cool as Epoc is, it's not nearly precise enough to be a full interface.

Coming in from the other end is siftables, which are augmented reality, emphasis on reality rather than augmented. These are also a great interface, but I think they're pretty limited. It seems to me siftables would work best for things that are already physically manipulated - flashcards or board games. The paint and music siftables, while interesting, did nothing that a well-done UI for any paint or music program could do. And in fact, the program could do it better. They're also begging to get lost.

I was talking with Nick about interfaces, specifically about how the keyboard and mouse are so awesome and it's hard to device another type. But there has been, to some extent, success in the mobile market without using a keyboard and mouse. Touchscreen interfaces, specifically multitouch gesture-based displays, have begun having functionality that is similar (and in some cases better) than mouse control. The lessons learned from the mobile devices translate into tablets. While keyboard and mouse are still certainly amazing, perhaps the tyranny of the ancient interface device is ending.

Morality, gaming

There's an article on massively talking about moral relativism in gaming. While the article linked ends up upholding the game-enforced moral view, it makes me think of how so many games in general have "good" and "bad" as basically an informed morality. When moral choice systems are put in, they're basically reduced to, as yahtzee put it, sainthood or baby eating.

Part of this may be due to the difficulty of writing about two sides that have opposed but understandable views, and part of it may be due to the classical fantasy idea that people prefer a clear-cut good and bad. But even so, you run into Fridge Logic way too often. For example, the Malygos storyline in WoW. Humans screwed up magic horribly so he's going to take it away from us. Annnd that's is job. Yes. He is supposed to be the arbiter of magic. But he's being portrayed as evil, I disagree. Other than the Aldor and Scryer storylines (which were...somewhat lacking), you don't tend to see in games the ability to make rational choices of what factions you want to side with.

You also don't tend to see any way to side with factions other than fighting the opposed faction. I think that there should be more opposing factions with reasons for existence other than simply to oppose each other.

Digital Distribution

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon.com is getting into the digital distribution business. This is not actually very surprising - digital distribution is the future of media distribution. It is less expensive than pressing CDs, and doesn't rely on brick-and-mortar stores. The biggest advantage is that there's no need to go with a distributor - you can set up a store on your own website. Failing that, distribution companies like Steam and Greenhouse are far more cost-effective than brick-and-mortar, and feature their own DRM.

Of course, there's some good evidence that DRM is worthless. Of course, the iTunes App Store probably doesn't have similar piracy numbers - but that's a platform where DRM is not intrusive and where prices are, by and large, reasonable. Regardless, for the vast number of users for any type of electronic gaming - console, mobile, or PC - digital download is the best option. And its power is only going to increase as time goes on. Especially with the FCC pushing for more bandwidth freedom.

Roleplaying in MMOs

Massively has an article asking about how important roleplaying tools are. I think though that the question has an inherent assumption that's incorrect: that roleplaying is not inherent to the design of a game (well, MMO, in this case). Now, many people may define roleplaying as talking in character (and possibly in Ye Old Butcherede Englishe), but I think it goes beyond that.

In a game, when a player makes a choice or fulfills a quest because he wants to, because it's interesting, or because he feels empathy with a character - that's roleplaying. Every time a person decides to use one item over another solely for looks - that's roleplaying. An enjoyable game experience should be synonymous with an enjoyable roleplaying experience.

Dev meeting

Every weekend (sometimes every other), the dev team actually meets face to face. One of the drawbacks of being a startup with partners who are all working professionals of one type or another is a lack of spare time, so we make do.

On the docket for today was some design stuff, but mostly business, marketing to be specific. While I prefer dev meetings to be more about design, marketing is a very interesting topic. For the past few weeks, I've been engrossing myself (as much as this is possible) in marketing information. Yay internet! I've covered a range of examples from soft drinks to consoles to delving into the why we love gaming's forefathers' products to this day. The common denominator with every successful marketing campaign that I came across was an amazing product. So, we're going to start there. We've got lots of neat ideas for products, and we plan on marketing them in ways that allow us to show our personality.

Google Wave

So Google Wave has started its limited preview, and we're pretty excited about it. Not only might it be the Next Big Thing ™, but it could easily be an amazing platform for games. There's already a sudoku example as an embedded gadget, but with HTML5 and flash compatibility, more complex games are perfectly achievable.

Games are a social activity, and with Wave as a social aggregator there are remarkable possibilities. Especially if you include the OpenSocial API. Being able to embed a Wave with a game in any webpage, or even publish your games to a blog, seems like it should be taken advantage of.

Welcome

Welcome to Achronic Games at Blogspot. Here we'll be posting information and updates as they come about our games, as well as our thoughts on game design and the game industry.