A project!

So Nick and I have put our heads together for a sort of projecty thing while we're not coding. Right now it's mostly setting and sketches, but we'll see what comes out of it.

We have a few characters too, but they'll probably evolve beyond recognition before anything occurs.

We're pretty excited, but we'll see if we have the time &etc to really do as much as we want with it.

Anachronisms

Anachronisms can really destroy the immersion of your story.

Most of the time when people talk about something being anachronistic, they're taking the context of the real world. But really, it's about context. If something makes sense within the context of your setting, it can hardly be anachronistic even if it doesn't match real-world expectations. Of course, this leads to the idea that settings themselves can't be anachronistic, which I don't think is quite true.

I was reading a scifi series a little while ago where the major alien species operated under feudalism. Feudalism, in a starfaring species. This is, I think, a setting anachronism. There's no reason for them to be feudal; they're rubber-mask humans. There's no excuses offered for something that should be impossible on the socioeconomic scale of a starfaring race of the same basic psyche as humans. The basic assumption of the setting had this completely out-of-place element, and it really destroyed the immersion I had.

In a different book, a fantasy with an expy of Edo Japan, the author kept using the word 'busted.' He had a busted lip, she had a busted eardrum. Some of it was verbal, some of it was narrative. In a setting where nobles (which these people are) are very formal, that sort of idiomatic English is horribly out of place. Again, it destroyed immersion.

In contrast, an in-universe anachronism is usually fascinating...and usually plot-centric. I'd love to write about a misplaced piece of high technology, or the remains of a Mayan railroad. It's just when they creep into the framing that they start destroying the integrity of your story.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

So Kingdoms of Amalur is the next big thing, and I have to say for good reason. They managed to snag R.A. Salvatore for creative director and Todd McFarlane for art director, and the whole thing looks and reads great. They managed an interesting twist on "you're the chosen one" by (spoilers) making you the result of a resurrection experiment that happens to work on you, and gets destroyed before they can figure out why yours worked.

The most interesting bit of worldbuilding is the Fae and the Ballads that rule their actions - they follow the Ballads, stories, over and over because death and so forth aren't a big deal to them. They get reincarnated/healed/etc with no issues so they don't care. And mortals are bound by fate, so in a very real sense there's nobody other than the player that has free will, even in the context of the universe. It's kind of a clever metacommentary.

The actual gameplay is quite streamlined, and the skills support hybridization in an interesting way by explicitly boosting the playstyle of a hybrid in the choices you make, as opposed to the usual underpowered dilution or overpowered synergy that happens in other games.

Overall I'm really impressed with how well put together it is. I hear it's a prelude to an MMO. I'd totally play an MMO based on this IP if they made it play as well as KOA:Reckoning.

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.