Disqus - Latest Comments for davehuston

Re: WordPress iPhone App FAIL

Dave Huston — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:06:24 -0000

Just because it's open source doesn't mean there's a way around the bug. I'll have to wait for an update.

Re: WordPress iPhone App FAIL

Dave Huston — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 01:46:25 -0000

No. "Local Drafts" means that it's saved to the app's storage space on the phone. There's no other way to access it.

Re: OMG the app is in!

Dave Huston — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 02:02:59 -0000

Very sexy!

Re: The importance of player choice

Dave Huston — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 01:33:21 -0000

My suggestion that the designer has failed if the player quits before finishing is based on the designer's motivation to take the player through a narrative. It's important to design the story as well as the gameplay. In this case, they presented me with a plot point in a character-driven game that I don't agree with my character participating in. Were I on an RP server, I would most definitely have skipped much of Wrath's content.

This is similar to the problem that Richard Bartle caused a ruckus about soon after Wrath was released. He pointed out a quest early on, in the Borean Tundra zone, where you are told to torture a prisoner as part of an interrogation. As you pointed out, you're welcome to skip this quest completely. Unfortunately, there's no alternative method to advance in the quest chain. Not only will you miss out on that quest, but you miss out on several quests that come after it, along with the experience points, gold, and items that come with them.

When designing our experiences, we need to make sure that we are aware of points in our story that some players may feel their characters would choose a different path and make sure that they can be equally rewarded for their choice. This is similar to Burning Crusade's player choice of Aldor or Scryer. Sure, choosing one cut you off from a number of quests and rewards available from the other, but the rewards and quests given to you were of equal quality (somewhat debatable, depending on who you ask).

Aldor/Scryer, good design. Kill Malygos whether you like it or not, bad design.

Re: Missing the Point

Dave Huston — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 10:36:15 -0000

Oh definitely. I develop my opinions pretty quickly about anything. If I'm not entertained or informed within 5 minutes, I'm out of there. :) Goes for video games, movies, TV shows, AND social networks.

Re: Missing the Point

Dave Huston — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 10:11:00 -0000

I'm certainly guilty of "Photo dumping" as you describe it. I join interesting groups on Flickr and Facebook and never get around to participating. It's led me to the idea of declaring one day each week my "social" day, where I will make a point of visiting all those communities that I don't participate in daily and see what's going on and what I can contribute.

Re: Missing the Point

Dave Huston — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:37:43 -0000

You're welcome to contact me at dave@thedavehuston.com. I'm no expert on such problems, but you should be able to click Restore in iTunes to get your phone back into working condition.

Re: How to Make Sure Nobody Sees Your Live Web Event

Dave Huston — Wed, 21 May 2008 10:19:42 -0000

Eric,

Despite my harsh criticisms of just about everything, I'm always interested in providing feedback and speaking with the people who are trying to change the web for the better. Please contact me at dave@thedavehuston.com. I'm very interested in interviewing you about your service.

Re: Have You Googled Yourself Lately?

Dave Huston — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:39:13 -0000

That's not bad, Michael. I'm interested in seeing how much I can improve my results simply by being more active online and making sure to use my full name (rather than Dave H as I have on some sites).

Re: Have You Googled Yourself Lately?

Dave Huston — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:38:12 -0000

Messed up a reply here :) The Disqus page confuzzled me for a moment. It would be nice if there was an option to delete a comment.

Re: I Smell Twubble!

Dave Huston — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:46:22 -0000

I follow a lot of people already (482 as I write this). Twubble said that it's unable to handle that many, so it was likely to generate a lot of people that I'm already following, which it did. The ability for it to process more followers would be nice.