Disqus - Latest Comments for timdean

Re: Retreading the Path

Tim Dean — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:28:27 -0000

Seems like 'fun' isn't the right word to capture all gaming experiences. But it's such a new genre (although not *that* new) that we don't really have a comprehensive vocabulary to describe what people get out of gaming. Some seek fun. Some seek challenge. Some seek another experience entirely.

And we don't even really have the language to describe or define the spectrum of what games are, or could be.

In some sense, I'm sympathetic to Kieron Gillen's idea that a game, qua game, is something that an agent is involved with, rather than just observing. That can mean something with minimal interaction, but where the player is somehow the perceiving the plot or the environment first hand rather than in a mediated way - such as in film or theatre. But some level of interactivity is necessary to give that one-to-one experience of the plot or world.

There has to be a lot more to it than that, too. Not that we should expect a single minimal definition of 'game' or 'fun' that will satisfy all situations. There's probably a PhD in the attempt, though.

Re: Death to Online

Tim Dean — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:14:14 -0000

I hear you Logues, but I don't think you necessarily need to be a game designer to critique games. Like Jeremy Clarkson isn't an engineer, but he can still tell you that a car's suspension is too soft or that it's targeting its market all wrong.

I guess where many games journos and bloggers go wrong (and I suffer from this, I'm sure) is by speculating as to the fix without knowing whether it's even feasible, technically or commercially.

That said, if the industry is built in such a way that it produces products that a certain proportion of the target market find disappointing, then those people have every right to make noise, even if it won't or can't change the industry.

But the decline in games journalism isn't just restricted to this phenomenon. It's just a terribly low standard of quality of reporting, analysis, criticism and integrity. Outside of RPS and a select few blogs, I find it hard to find any insight in to PC games these days.

Re: MMOs I Have Played - Pass It On

Tim Dean — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:22:37 -0000

Yeah, interesting point about WoW-fatigue. When you've invested so much in one game and are now exhausted by it, you're hardly likely to re-invest in another game that's more or less exactly the same. Another reason why MMOs should look for alternatives to the WoW model if they want to lure ex-WoW players.

Re: Why Champions Will Never Be Balanced

Tim Dean — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:30:05 -0000

Rock, Paper, Scissors is an *analogy* for the phenomenon of balance, and it nicely illustrates the concept of the Nash equilibrium. But I'm not suggesting Champions is as simple as RPS.

Perhaps my usage of the term 'trounce' was misleading. Trounce can mean 'win' in PvP, or 'have better xp/min than an alternate build' in PvE. Xp/min is a big driver for many players (either consciously or unconsciously), so they're encouraged to choose a build that maximises xp/min.

Sure, in Champions you can have a PvE build without a defensive passive, self-heal or a hold - and I'm not saying it won't be fun - but you'll be making the game harder for yourself. I suggest that most players will eventually adopt these powers for the reasons I discuss in the post.

Case in point:

"More powers mean more variety in PvE so long as you're not trying to pick the optimum build. Do you want to play a super-strong hero than can fly and shoot lasers from his eyes? Got it."

I tried a super strength hero with laser beam eyes, and he was desperately underpowered so I discontinued him for another build that was more effective in PvE. In this case, the diversity of powers *didn't* lead to a diversity of builds.

Re: Why Roper has to Go

Tim Dean — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 05:54:04 -0000

Well, I understand what you're saying. But I disagree.

I also don't think it's fair to misrepresent what I'm calling for. I'm not making death threats. I've never even said he should be sacked. I'm saying he should take it on himself to resign.

Take it or leave it. Although I take it you'll leave it.

Re: Why Roper has to Go

Tim Dean — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 05:34:56 -0000

I'm not just crystal ball gazing. Roper has already taken responsibility for making the drastic changes in the launch day patch without testing or prior warning (http://news.mmosite.com/con....

He's also stated his philosophy of balancing games (http://www.tentonhammer.com....

If you peruse the forums, you'll see many posts of people saying they're leaving. Even if they're the only ones and many others are staying (which I think unlikely given my experience of server populations over the past couple of weeks), there are still plenty of people leaving because of these issues.

Roper isn't just a developer. He's the leader of the Champions team. He's responsible for these decisions. It's my opinion that he's jeopardising the future of the game. I think he should go.

You're welcome to disagree. I know from your blog (which I like, by the way) that you enjoy Champions. I don't begrudge that for a moment. But my faith in Roper is gone. And that's twice now, given Hellgate.

Re: Why Roper has to Go

Tim Dean — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:50:20 -0000

Why, Rog, should I stop playing the other games made by Roper? What's your argument? It sounds to me like saying I should not listen to an old favourite musician just because their last album was crap.

Perhaps Roper's skills were perfectly suited to the likes of Diablo or *craft. Perhaps they're not suited for MMOs like Champions.

What's clear to me is there has been a failure of management of the launch of Champions, with manifold bad decisions made at the top. Roper has already taken responsibility for those decisions. My opinion is that if he continues to make decisions of a similar poor quality - and I see no evidence that he won't - then he endangers the future of Champions.

I don't want him to resign because I think he's a bad person. That would be bald ad hominem. I want him to resign because I think his decisions are ruining the game.

As it is, I think it's too late now anyway. At least for me and the multitude of others who have reluctantly cancelled their subscription to the game until it improves. Even then, the population 'rebound' when it's polished will never be as high as if it was polished at launch.

Re: Why Does it Need to be Massive?

Tim Dean — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:39:47 -0000

All the above examples highlight my point: that 'massive' isn't as big a deal as it once was. Yet many upcoming MMOs still push the 'massive' angle, and there is still talk of player housing, player economies etc, when these might not necessarily be the only way to go.

Re: Go Jane, Go!

Tim Dean — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:58:53 -0000

Awesome. Double awesome. There needs to be more, much more, psychology and neuroscience (and Confucianism) in games!

I love that the people who grew up with games are finally becoming thinkers, decision makers, scientists etc, and they're taking the medium seriously. This is only scratching the surface, but I fully expect more insights into the psych of gaming - and how to make gaming appeal more to our psychology - to emerge in coming years from people like Jane.

Pity about the video/audio quality though. And that Xeni seemed more preoccupied with her laptop than the interview. Wouda thought Boing Boing would be a bit more pro than that.

Re: The Future of MMOs is... City of Heroes

Tim Dean — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:52:47 -0000

@bobo

"how long has Tim been playing (I guarantee it hasn't been long)"

Well, there's *your* first mistake. I've been playing for over three years.

So let me get this straight: you call into question whether I'm qualified to talk about something I've been involved with constantly for three years, yet you deign to make assertions about something you know nothing about: i.e. me. Mate, hypocrisy starts at home...

And your points are largely incoherent.

1) You think I should talk about a rare bug (one I'm yet to experience in game) as a part of the *mechanic*?

2) You don't consider Villainous/Heroic soloable? Isn't it such by design? Heck, my kin/elec defender can solo Heroic.

3) Did you miss the word "most"? Or perhaps you've had an unlucky run of teams? Mate, subjective experience is different to objectively declaring something 'false'.

4) Perhaps you missed the line "although no moreso than all other CoH missions to date"?

5) So you suggest it's heretical to critisise the 100KB limit? We should all be thankful that NCSoft runs servers at all, and should never hope for more?

6) "why should the mobs be allowed more liberal use than in the game itself?" Why not? It can be done. I believe it would improve the system. If NCSoft wants to make the system as good as possible, they should do it. Not sure why that's so hard to grasp.

And most of your points have no bearing on whether I'm qualified to talk about the game. What I'm wondering is whether you're qualified to argue at all.

Regulars on this blog know I'm always willing to engage in reasonable debate, and I'm open to being proven wrong or hearing about other people's perspectives. But you're going to have to do better than this ill thought through comment if you want to engage on this blog. First embrace the distinction between opinion and fact. Second, don't make assertions you can't support. Then I'm more than happy to hear what you have to say.

Re: Why Don't More Women Make Games?

Tim Dean — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:47:40 -0000

Hi again Scott. Good point - *if* high level maths ability is not required for programming, then you're right (although, technically, my argument is still 'valid', but it may be unsound is one of the premises was false).

But, I would expect coding ability and mathematical ability to be correlated - you might not need to know about vector spaces and automorphic forms to code, but I imagine if you're good at one, you have the potential to be good at the other. If that's the case, then my argument might still stand.

However, I also mention another issue which is interest (not supported by the 1997 research). If women are less *interested* in high-level abstract subjects, if no less proficient, that might also explain the low number of women in programming, at least.

And one last point - I would urge you not to characterise my post as saying "women are not as good at math." It's that kind of talk that gets people all fired up. My post says that while the mean performance of men and women in maths might be the same, several standard deviations up there appear to be more men than women, and people who take a job involving maths ability tend to be those who are a few standard deviations above the mean, thus more men in jobs that require maths ability.

Re: Why Don't More Women Make Games?

Tim Dean — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:04:39 -0000

Thanks, all, for the thoughtful and critical comments. Allow me a brief reply.

@Sean
Thanks for the detailed, and tempered, comment. You make some good points, all of which I take on board. And I agree the study brings to light a phenomenon but doesn't propose why it exists. I've speculated about biology as a possible cause myself, although others have speculated such as well.

I also agree that even if there is a biological difference, social and cultural differences also exist, and these should be remedied. I also don't believe a biological difference, even if it exists, means we should accept a fatalistic approach. We should continue to encourage *anyone* who shows talent and expresses an interest in any subject.

My main points is that *if* there is are biological differences in natural aptitude (or interest) - and there's evidence to suggest (but not prove) there is - in certain careers then we *shouldn't* expect gender parity in those careers, and we shouldn't explicitly mandate a 50/50 gender split in a top-down way.

My generalisation is just that, a generalisation, and it's open to scrutiny. I acknowledge your experience teaching maths, although we'd need more than anecdotal evidence to disprove the generalisation. There's probably research out there about this - I haven't seen it, but if anyone finds some, I'd be very interested to give it a read.

As for the African-American anomaly, I can't really speculate - although I'm disappointed you presume racism on my behalf should I do so. All I can speculate about is the small sample size of African-Americans in the 1988 data, as well as possible social issues around that time that may have prevented a comparable cross section of male/female African-American students from being included in the study.

On a closing note, here are a few more references that speak to this issue. One supporting the notion of a difference and examining its impact:

http://www.lagriffedulion.f...

One denying a difference according to the latest data:

http://www.sciencedaily.com...

And one talking about the complexity of the issue - and that a lot more work needs to be done to establish a biological basis to mathematical aptitude:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005...

Re: The Horror of Gaming

Tim Dean — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:03:09 -0000

Spotted it on Steam the other day. Can't wait to download and play it.

Re: Why Don't More Women Make Games?

Tim Dean — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:54:11 -0000

Hi Jamie. Yes, I'm mentioning biology as a possible reason why women aren't in the top standard deviation (or bottom) of maths scores. And I've sited evidence to support that theory. How's that a fail again?

Re: Why Darkfall Brings Out the Worst in Us

Tim Dean — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:47:15 -0000

Hi Kansalis. Thanks for the comment. And the advice that if I don't like a game I shouldn't play it. Although it won't surprise you to hear that I already subscribe to that advice ;)

And I did mention that I don't begrudge those who enjoy the game, I'm just pointing out why it's not for me - and, I suspect, many other gamers. If you've read other posts on this blog, you'll see that myself and Dave strongly support alternative and niche MMOs, even if we don't play them ourselves.

Although - and this might come as a surprise - I am considering giving Darkfall a try, although later in the year when the teething issues have been ironed out. While on the surface it looks like there's a lot for me to dislike about Darkfall, there's also a lot that appeals to me. I'm pessimistic now, but open to be convinced otherwise about the game.