The Common Sense Gamer

6 Responses to “SUWT 22 – It be up”

1. jblaske says:
   March 18th, 2008 at 7:57 am

   It was quite enjoyable, actually listened to it yesterday, oh the glory of iTunes

   Keep it up D and Company.

2. Oakstout says:
   March 18th, 2008 at 9:48 am

   Just started listening and I’m sure it will great. I’m just glad we are back to a blog oriented show.

3. New blogs, some quicklinking and more « Nuyan’s Hangout says:
   March 19th, 2008 at 5:04 am

   [...] I’m not even talking about World of Darkness.. – And last but not least, the people of the SUWT pod-cast on Virginworlds honored me by selecting this blog as their ‘Blog of the Week’ for this [...]

4. Aaron says:
   March 19th, 2008 at 3:11 pm

   I don’t even remember the last time I listened to a podcast (any podcast). It’s good getting back to it. Anyway, another Miller-style (tediously long) response…

   Brenda and Paul are both right on The Sims. It has introduced a lot of people to gaming, but it does dominate precious shelf space. One other thing that makes it important is that it’s one of the very few games out there to focus on emergent gameplay and non-linear exploration. Wright’s games are also meaningful and instructive, something that’s necessary for games to become a respected form of entertainment. Just like The Sims, Spore is going to bring all sorts of people into gaming and make them respect what the medium can be.

   Madden Football — You’re right… the new roster is usually the main addition to a Madden sequel that makes it interesting. If EA really wanted to prove itself, it would allow players to download new rosters (with stats and abilities) to old games for $5 (names alone should be free). Then the sequels would truly have to stand on their own. I’m really hoping Backbreaker and Bloodbowl will be good alternatives for football lovers next year.

   Speaking of which… Fantasy sports, ala Bloodbowl, is one of my main interests in game design. I hadn’t considered “pirates in Madden”, but maybe I’ll try to make it work.

   Guilds remind me more and more of labor unions. Somewhere in the big mess, somewhere in the past, there’s an idea called “guild” that’s noble and good. But it seems like most big guilds now are basically just self-centered interest groups that try to bully their views into being. They’d usurp power entirely if they could.

   The “half a billion dollars” comment, I’m sure, was just a figure of speech, an exaggeration. But even so, it’s wrong. I still believe a popular MMO could be built for under a million dollars… mainly by focusing on replayability and dynamics, thereby allowing a much smaller world at start. And financial success is having more profit than costs, not making millions. Brenda’s right there.

   Did this happen in the film industry? After E.T., after Star Wars, Jurassic Park, or LOTR, did film producers say “That’s the bar now”? After the Harry Potter series, did book publishers say “That’s the bar now”? Is this sort of thinking just the sign of a young industry, and those industries went through that stuff a long time ago?

   John’s right that there’s going to be a lot of pressure on Blizzard to make another MMO, and they’re going to be held to their previous success. If Blizzard does what they usually do — make games that they themselves enjoy — then it will be a good one. But it won’t be so good if the pressure hits them hard enough.

   The name Nguyen is basically pronounced “win”. But that’s ok. Everyone gets to butcher a name once, at least.

   A nice mix of guests. An intelligent discussion all around.

5. Oakstout says:
   March 20th, 2008 at 7:06 am

   I’ve listen to a bit more of the cast, and I must say “Undoing D&D” would not solve the number crunching that is MMO’s. If we didn’t have number crunching we would have text trees that would decide how our character progressed. I don’t know about you, but I prefer killing stuff to just clicking on a bunch of words over and over to get xp.

   Can you even imagine what a game without number crunching would be in an MMO? How would you figure out how much damage a sword did, or what would be the basis for your health points? MMo’s as we know them would be different and there would be lots of story and roleplayng, but not a lot of fighting.

   I mean, would you just attack a mob then select the right outcome on a text tree? If you selected wrong you took some damage, or if you chose right the mob lost the fight? I just can’t figure out how, without the use of the boiled down numbers how a game would even work.

   As stated before, D&D might be numbers but it was all so story telling and the Dm”s as the one that usually ran my group in college, used the numbers guide the story along, not dominate it.

   I posted my thoughts on how important D&D where in the day on my blog a few weeks back. I think it explains my feelings why D&D is important.

6. SmakenDahed says:
   March 25th, 2008 at 1:05 pm

   1974… old people are funny.

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