Ten Out of Ten
In the gaming spheres, scoring is, for some reason, a really big deal. People often go to shaming campaigns if the game they really loved gets a 7 out of 10. First of all, that’s stupid. 7 out of 10 is pretty good. For me, it means mostly fun with a few caveats. 5 is not atrocious but decent if it weren’t for some flaws that should have been fixed. Then there’s the 10 out of 10, also a very fought over score. Because it looks so final. It’s saying, this is the best there is and can ever be. The point is, it’s not. 10 out of 10 is the best that reviewer thinks things can be right now. But then something new comes along that is better. So, consider this: Every time something gets full marks, 5 stars, 10 out of 10, it actually makes every previous 10 out of 10 in their category slightly less 10-ish. It might still count as a 10. If you go back to it at that time, it might be 9, comparatively. That doesn’t diminish its original value. It just means the scale has been expanded. This is true for anything that is an infinite game. A finite game like a school test can have a 100 and no more. But in art, the game is never over.
Posted in Gaming, Philosophy, Practice, Thinking Out Loud by Eran with comments disabled.
News: Average User has no Concept of How Much Game Dev Costs
Recently, some clueless joe on Twitter said he will pay 10,000$ to the person who adds a multiplayer aspect to Zelda: Breath of the Wild. If he was going to donate to a modder who was working on it, that would have been fine but it seems like he was thinking that he could hire someone to do something like that for that kind of money. Here is a long, detailed response to this which you should read but here’s the summary: 10,000$ would pay for about two work months of the average+ programmer. Also, networking is hard. The hardest networking challenges in gaming usually arise in fighting games because they usually need to be exactly per pixel and per frame accurate and, probably over distances where network traffic takes more time to go back and forth than it takes pro players twitch reflexes to react. You can see how important this is if you go back and read about the network woes of Street Fighter V. Now, the demands of a PvE, open world, action RPG would probably be a lot less strict but these are still difficult problems. Especially if you’re talking about tacking on something like this onto a game that was definitely not designed for it. You want a more current example? On the one hand, Battlefield 2042 is out now and it’s buggy as hell. On the other hand, Halo Infinite’s multiplayer is also out and it’s much better. Probably because the team is backed Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, Less Interesting News, Practice, Programming, Thinking Out Loud by Eran with comments disabled.
Far Cry 6, PETA, and are Games Educational?
Recently, PETA criticised Ubisoft for including a cockfighting mini-game in their recent franchise title Far Cry 6. And that got me thinking about what is ok or not ok to include in a game. I completely understand why Far Cry 6, which occurs in a Cuban-esque island country called Yara, includes that aspect. Cuba, a country under heavy sanctions, makes due with whatever they have at hand. And, as far as entertainment goes, while cockfighting is a horrible practice in your regular western-aligned countries, it is not exactly frowned upon in Cuba. So, Far Cry 6 appropriating this symbol for immersion purposes is understandable. On the other hand, I also completely understand why PETA would criticise this. Far Cry is a very popular franchise. At the time of writing, it has sold poorer than its predecessor but that still puts it above 10 million units moved. That’s a lot of people being exposed to this segment, engaging with cockfighting in a way that might be unhealthy in the future. In the game itself, you do play the cockfighting mini-game in a fighting game style, as a animal encouraged to viciously peck, rip, and tear another animal, both of which were probably forced into this against their will. So, think about that 13-year-old kid who just got his hands on the new, popular AAA title all their friends are playing and this is the first time they sees something like cockfighting. If that’s the first time they engaged with that sort Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, Humanity, Thinking Out Loud by Eran with comments disabled.
I had a conversation with Riku Nuottajärvi
This might not mean a lot to a lot of people but it’s something I am very much enthused about! The story is Matt Mercer tweeted about that music track in a game that just breaks you. I said it’s the Yehat Theme Music from Star Control II. Then Riku Nuottajärvi liked that tweet and I lost it a bit. And he answered me! That’s the person who wrote a lot of the music that accompanied me through the nineties. So, I’m keeping this as a memento. :)
Posted in Art, Gaming, Geekdom, No Category by Eran with comments disabled.
Some Thoughts on Difficulty in Games
Idan Zeierman said this on The Last of Us Part II: אני קצת לא יודע מה להגיד. ביחד עם המשחק הראשון, מדובר כנראה ביצירות שהן מהטובות שיצא לי לחוות. אבל הן מגיעות בצורת משחקי הישרדות/אימה קשוחים שנמשכים 30 שעות ומכילים הרבה זומבים. זה רף לא קל בשביל לחוות אותן כהלכה. — Idan Zeierman (@idan315) July 5, 2020 Translation: I don’t know what to say. Along with the first game, they are probably two of the best works of art I ever experienced. But they come in the form of tough survival horror games that take 30 hours to complete and contain a lot of zombies. It’s not an easy bar for experiencing them properly. I replied: מצד אחד, זאת הסיבה למה הרבה אנשים לעולם לא יחוו כמה מיצירות האומנות הטובות ביותר שנוצרו (כי הן משחקים). ומצד שני, היצירות האלו לא יהיו אותו הדבר אם לא תחווה אותן על בשרך. — Eran Arbel (@SabreRunner) July 6, 2020 Translation: On the one hand, that is the reason why a lot of people will never experience some of the greatest works of art ever made (because they’re games). On the other hand, these works won’t be the same if you don’t experience them for yourself. This got me thinking about difficulty in games. I think the subject of inclusion and exclusion through difficulty has been tread enough but I think it mostly referred to gamer culture. Some Dark Souls fans would like to think that the game won’t be the same unless it was Continue Reading →
Posted in Art, Gaming, Practice, Thinking Out Loud by Eran with comments disabled.
במשחקים Tropes עשרה
אז IGN פרסמו כתבה עם 10 ה-Tropes שצריך כבר להיפטר מהם. אני קצת מסכים ובעיקר לא מסכים. 1. אני לא מסכים שצריך להיפטר מהלוגים והפתקים לגמרי. אבל כן אפשר לשפר את ההגיוניות שלהם. דבר ראשון, אם זה קולי אז צריך להיות אפשר לנגן את זה ולהמשיך לשחק בלי שפס קול אחר יקטע את זה בהמשך. זה משהו ש-Subnautica עושה טוב. אפשר לנגן ולהמשיך. ואם יש עוד פס קול, הוא לרוב יחכה. ואם זה מסמכים אז זה צריך להיות מרוכז ולא מבולגן כאילו מישהו כתב יומן ואז פוצץ אותו לכל חדר אפשרי. 2. אני בכלל נגד cut-scenes שנועלות את השליטה כשאני בבירור הייתי עושה משהו אחר. זה בעיקר הציק לי ב-Rage 2. כשידעתי בדיוק מה איריס הולכת לעשות ורציתי לקטוע אותה באמצע אבל אי אפשר. אני לא מבין מה הבעיה. מעולם לא שיחקתם Half Life? זה יצא ב-98′. ושם, היית יכול להישאר להקשיב או ללכת. והיית יכול גם לירות במדענים. 3. הגרסה של באטמן ל-Detective Vision הייתה מפגרת. אני כמעט ולא זוכר את Arkham Asylum בצבעים נורמלים. וב-Arkham City ו-Knight הם ניסו לגמול אנשים מזה. אבל אין עם זה דבר רע באופן כללי. זה רק צריך להיות דומה ל-Mirror’s Edge, Deus Ex או Rage 2. הדברים לא באמת אדום בולט, צהוב בולט או ורוד בולט, אבל זאת דרך טובה להדגיש משהו שהדמות, או שהמכניקה של המשחק, יודעת ואנחנו לא בהכרח וזה מגשר את הפער יופי. 4. אני דווקא אוהב את הרעיון של המיני-משחקים האלו. אבל הם צריכים להיות רלבנטיים. למען האמת, רוב האלו של Spiderman היו גרועים. המיני-משחק של לפרוץ מכונות ב-Bioshock? Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, Less Interesting News, Practice, Thinking Out Loud by Eran with comments disabled.