You would've wanted to murder me too then Jules. You might say you would have to Catch 'em All? Pokemon was the biggest thing on the planet back then and Blastoise was my best friend.
That's an excellent idea Jules. Not only is gamification great but the photography game is great too. The crazy thing is that I took some photography in sophmore year too lol. I've never been good at it and I don't do it anymore, but I love seeing stuff that other people do. My dad works for the Kodak plant here in Colorado and he's been doing photography for a long time. He mostly does portraits and stuff though, he doesn't take cool pictures of nature or abstract things. And he's pretty raw, he doesn't edit photos or do much with them. My cousin Chrissy is really into photography too, she's better than Dad lol.
For your photography game, do you imagine it being open world? The gameworld is full of people who want you to take pictures and the engine works out an algorithm for randomly choosing a couple people at a time to ask you to do a job for them? You work jobs and there's an in-game economy so that you can gain currency and save up for lighting equipment, expensive cameras, etc. Maybe you could be a "starving artist" and have the option to work your way up, earn your currency, engage the economy, get loot, and complete the jobs? Some quests could involve getting a curator to give you some presentation space at an art gallery. You could have high school graduation quests, family portrait quests, landscapes, abstract, freelance work to do on your own, opportunity to do quests for free w/out charge and earn brownie points w/ customers so they will toss your name around to their friends. That would be an additional system to design, some kind of recognition system like karma or fame. You could switch between third and first person views. I personally would wander around in third person, but switch to 1st to get a better look at things and items around me.
Astyanax was weird. It was super difficult for me to play, I kept having to start over, but the music was nice I guess. Ghosts'n Goblins was difficult too, but it was much more fun than Astyanax.
I really liked the shout out to Will Wright in the episode, I know where he's coming from and it's one of the reasons I like him so much. I often see everyday life like a video game because it makes things more interesting and puts things into a format I can understand much better. I know video games, I feel comfortable in video games with video game terms and structure. It's fun to look at errands and activities as quests and give yourself imaginary experience points for getting them done. It's especially helpful when I have to spend a day doing things I don't like or be around people I don't feel comfortable around.
When I'm in a video game I never just up and quit on a quest or give up. I grind, I search for loot, I try to get XP, level up, and find a way to finish the quest and get to the next one. So I try to apply that to real life situations and grind through crap so I can get it done and move on. Real life doesn't often give me the positive reinforcement and joy that video games give me. Nobody makes a fuss when you work out and get fit, have sex, work all day, pay a bill, acquire a meal so you can survive, acquire a shelter to avoid the elements, or acquire new loot like a new game, appliance, groceries, etc. Humans take everyday life for granted and kind of drone through it. So, it's fun to try and mesh the feel of an RPG together with it to make everyday life more interesting.
Going on errands for me can be an RPG, fixing the house or doing home improvement can be like Sim City or Minecraft. Getting into conversations with people can be like Mass Effect or Knights of the Old Republic. Whatever helps me get through the day and makes things more exciting.
Really complex RPGs in some cases are basically just extremely simplified real life simulations, with most of the variables removed and put into a fantasy setting. Real life itself is much more complex and unpredictable, so if you try to see it like an RPG, real life might be a little less confusing and taxing on your brain. If looking at life through that filter reduces your anxiety and stress, it could therefore increase survivability and quality of life while simulataneously exercising the imagination. That's probably why I do it.
Excellent job sirs. I really enjoyed hearing the origin stories. It's such a good feeling when gamers get together and have a kind of catharsis or bonding through gaming origin stories, or just talking games in general like this. This was the best way to start the new NWP show.
The earliest gaming memories I have are from the mid 90s when I was around 7 or so. My sister and I got an NES for Christmas and I was the one that ended up playing it mostly. We would play Mario games, Dunk Hunt, Paper Boy, and stuff when everybody was together, but I preferred to play alone and see what kind of games I could do alone. Some of the earliest games I remember playing in my life were Astyanax, F-15 Strike Eagle, Ghosts'n Goblins, and a lot of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
I did a blog here a while back about how Ocarina of Time was the game that eventually got me into games as more than a toy. Ever since then I've been in love with games and I haven't strayed away from them yet in any way. I'm hellbent on being part of design team, so instead of straying away from games I've actually grown way closer to them over the years. There are a lot of great games out there to play, great games on the way, and I think a few designers these days have been doing some pretty cool things with both gameplay and narrative. There's so much more left to do in game design, and I'm wildly optimistic about gaming's future. I've been getting more inspired, more ambitious, and more anxious as time goes on. I think I want to do what Rob has been saying people should do during the future of gaming episodes. I want to take contemporary engines like UE, CryEngine, or Source and start out by building indie games that aren't just another pretentious cookie cutter 8-bit effort. I've never wanted to build 8-bit games anyways, I want something fresh and modern.
My origin story and my gaming life in general has been quite isolated and focused, like turtles evolving on the Galapegos Islands lol. I don't have many gaming friends anymore where I live, and I barely started interacting with gaming communities online in the past year when I joined 1UP and then Pixlbit. I honestly didn't even hear the phrase "JRPG" till a year ago and I've been playing games since I was 7. Growing up I sometimes played games with my cousins and a few close friends, but the majority of the time I spent alone. So I know how single player experiences work, what I love about them, and what I want to do with them.
The reason I continue to invest in this hobby and why it's my favorite is because, when you're designing games you can make your imagination tangible in a sense, and make it interactive. One of the things that inspired me the most as a kid was playing Zelda and realizing that Miyamoto was inspired to make Zelda games because of the times he spent running around the forests by his home in Japan. Miyamoto was able to put parts of his imagination into the real world, using video games as the medium, where complete strangers could explore it and have a magical adventure of their own. How is that not the most transcendent concept ever? It's not some fake kind of transcendence like taking hallucinogenic drugs and going on a spirit walk, or an imaginary electro-organic world like The Grid in Tron. Video games are the real thing, and the real medium in which you can make your imagination, dreams, and emotions into a place. And the experience you offer to those complete strangers might just inspire them to carry on the art form, carry on the skills, and create their own worlds.
I find it quite hard to be jaded about gaming and especially game design. I have nothing to complain about, but I have plenty to build. If I'm not happy with something somebody else has done, or if I'm not happy with something I've done, I need to build something better. I don't see myself ever quitting this hobby.
Awesome. I got the Dragon King Axe because I finished the Depths recently, but there's no way I can weild it yet. I have like 20 more Strength points to go until I can use it effectively. For now I'm okay with my Longsword +7. I think I'm going to level it up to +10 and then find a way to use a boss soul and make it into a Boss weapon. I have a spare Longsword +5 in my Bottomless Box and I'm planning on turning it into a Fire or Chaos weapon. I do need a Divine weapon too though. That's at least three weapons I want to plan for. The weapons are awesome in this game.
I love farming for souls in the Darkroot Forest by the cat lady. There's a handful of guys in there I keep killing over and over and it's fun. I lure them one by one over to the edge of the cliff and I spin around them and kick them off lol.
I liked the joke too. Quite kosher.
Great comment, and I'll be over to read your Dark Souls blog soon!
I'm similar to you, I like to cheat the system a little but I don't want to break the game. Dark Souls is great and I like the fact I can farm for souls. I've leveled up quite a bit. I'm about ready to drop into Blightown, and I'm around level 50 because I've spent a while leveling up in Darkroot Basin by the Crest of Artorius door where all those high level characters are waiting for you. Even though I've been levling up and "cheating" the system a bit, the game is still really difficult and hasn't let me break it. I was leveled up, feeling badass, and had the giant Crow fly me back to the Undead Asylum (revisited) and I came across the Stray Demon hiding under the floor in the boss room. I thought I was badass and he handed me death 10 times in a row. I gave up and I don't know when or if I'll ever come back to challenge him again lol.
I feel like such a weakling again like I did at the beginning of the game, so I've been humbled. I'm scared to challenge that Stray Demon anytime soon. Maybe after a long time, and many more level ups.
Sounds like you need some time in a corner to calm down, anonymous lurking sir, or lady (beauty of being anonymous, who knows?). If you're so opposed to honesty then you'll be fine with the way things are now anyways, so why complain? If all you care about is getting your GOTY editions with that very specific title, then you'll be happy to know that that's exactly how things operate and nobody is rocking the boat for you. I'm certainly not rocking the boat, the people sitting at the computer typing in the GOTY title during the box design aren't going to listen to me :)
The universe is as you hoped it would be! I believe it would be a simple and honest fix to change the titles of the versions from GOTY to Ultimate or Complete just like Fallout New Vegas did, but I don't know anything so why listen to me? It's not a huge deal or a blight afflicting gaming per se, but it's a simple thing that annoys some people.
XOXO anonymous sir, or lady
Thanks for the great comment! I want games to step up difficulty, but I don't think restricting save options would be the best way to do it. The save system in Resident Evil works great but it wouldn't fly these days because most people don't have a lot of time to sink into a game session. People want the freedom to choose when to play their games and when to quit, I think that's why the save-anywhere systems in todays RPGs became so popular and widespread.
Dark Souls is a great example of maintaining difficulty and high demands while abandoning the RE style save system. It's a good evolution of difficulty. I wish more of my games were like Dark Souls because the gameplay and difficulty balance of the game is perfect for me. DS is set to one difficulty, just like a Zelda game is, but DS is much more fun and challenging. I wish I could play a Zelda game with a Dark Souls design. Dark Souls gives tough love and does it the right way while still respecting the player's time and effort. There's a lot of reward for hard work in the game, plus the bonfires aren't that had to come by.
Resident Evil is a ton of fun to play, but that design just wouldn't be fun to play anymore unless you were designing another game to be exactly like Resident Evil. The restricted save system would make you feel cheated and held back if it was stuck in an RPG like Skyrim. In Skyrim the point of the design is freedom and exploration. During a Skyrim playsession you can spend an hour just wandering around looking at flowers and hunting deer if you want to, or you can watch the sunset. In Resident Evil you have no choices or freedom in the open RPG sense. In RE your experience is quite scripted and you have to get the right key for right doors and you will end up going to all the same places in the same order to progress the game. It's still a great adventure, but it's not the same kind of design. The save system RE uses works great for RE, but it wouldn't be fun in other styles of games, and fun is king in a video game.
Elder Scrolls games have an excellent save system I think, because it's a mix of autosaves and player saves. You can save anytime you need to, but if you are too engaged in the game and forget to save, the autosaves can really save your butt when you're adventuring around. Nobody likes to loose hours of gameplay and progress and that autosave feature that happens when you rest or enter a building can be a life saver for players. I've gone hours in Oblivion without saving, dived into dungeons, hopped from one quest to the next, and died in a battle scared that I would get ripped off for all the effort I put in that day. But then I see that the game saved for me when I entered the current dungeon and I don't have to get screwed completely.
Great comment Captain Hawk! I try out nicknames with people all the time, most don't stick, but I keep coming up with them lol. Throw names at the board and see what sticks is what I say.
I know what you mean about some annoying save systems in RPGs. One that I have a problem with is the system in Star Ocean The Last Hope. I really love that game, but I have to set away hours (plural) to play it because the save points are spread fairly sparsely. The way you save you game in Star Ocean is by coming across a node and interacting with it, and when you're on a planet or roaming around some areas you'll be lucky if you come across 3 nodes. I enjoy the game, so I'll be off adventuring like I'm suppose to. I'll be battling, gaining XP and loot, and time will be flying. I will forget how low my HP is getting and I'll suddenly die in a boss battle or in an unfortunate ambush attack, and then I'll realize the last time I saved was 90 minutes ago when I was on the other side of this island! A save-anywhere system would absolutely make the game better and it wouldn't make such a hefty time-demand.
Oddly I actually agree with the comments on Fable 2's system. It's completely different than Mass Effect, and your choices in Fable 2 are permanent in the sense you can't revert to an earlier save and do it differently, but I got use to it. I made some odd choices that I wasn't happy with in Fable 2 but I learned to accept them. For example I played through the Spire sections where you become a guard and have control of prisoners. You're ordered to starve them all but you can feed them and get punished for it. I decided to starve them because I was afraid of loosing XP, but in the end I felt incredibly guilty for it. From then on I started feeding the prisoners and disobeying the superiors to my own punishment.
