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Torchlight

March 9, 2010May 5, 2018 Prasad Ajinkya3 Comments

I am a huge fan of the Diablo series, so much so that when I had an important exam to study for, I had a friend come over and play on my machine … that way I could study and not get tempted to play the game!! 3 months later, I cracked that test, Nikhil got hooked on Diablo :-). After battling the hordes of Baal, both of us tried different variants of the game, I think I have completed the game with all characters while Nikhil has completed the game in all difficulty levels (yep! Hell!!).

It was 2009 and the folks at Blizzard were keeping the Diablo3 plans hush-hush. So how do we fill the void? Believe me, I have tried … Oblivion, KOTOR, Assassin’s Creed, Fallout … RTS games like Rise of Nations, Rise of Legends, Anno 1404 … the list goes on. My thirst for Diablo remains, until I saw on the xfire community a game which seemed to resemble Diablo, a LOT!! Screenshots looked like an old friend with a new hair-do … sleeker, trendy … but underneath, it was the same old friend.

I did my research and read through the wiki of the game, an excerpt –

Pre-production on Torchlight began in August 2008, shortly after the dissolution of Flagship Studios. Runic Games was founded by Travis Baldree (lead developer of Fate and Mythos) and veterans of Blizzard North and Flagship: Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer and Peter Hu. The “entire Flagship Seattle team” consisting of 14 people (the branch of Flagship which created the original Mythos) signed on to Runic Games at the time of its formation. Having lost the rights to Mythos, the Runic team saw the development of a new game as a way to “finish what [they] started,” although they would have to start over with none of the code or art assets from Mythos.

The game is touted to be the best Diablo clone that is there in the market. With a standard storyline, and lots of drops, I found the game an excellent hack and slash game. Also with an upcoming MMO to be launched soon in tie-up with Perfect World (a Chinese firm), the rights to play online would be free with the game.

One more game to look forward to in 2011 :-)

Value of copy

March 7, 2010February 4, 2017 Prasad AjinkyaLeave a comment

Copy as in the written text. Often organizations do not realize how important a properly worded message can be. If the communications department does a muck-up of the job, then the intended audience misinterprets the messaging.

At work, we were discussing the entire content cleaning and re-wording of our marketing communications. Anyone who has been to our flagship portal would realize that the learning curve required to understand the concept and use the product is quite steep. During this discussion, we learnt the Study Technology that Scientology proposes. I thought that I might share this with you.

Scientology states that there are 3 barriers which stop an individual from studying a particular topic –

Misunderstood Word – If an ambiguous or a complex word is used in the message, then that is a deterrent to the individual. Jargon comes in this space. Look at the text you have written from your audience’s perspective, if there are any words which could be misinterpreted, then replace them with simpler words.
Steep Gradient – If the student is expected to perform new actions, without getting enough time to learn from his previous actions, then this results in confusion. You can see this problem with most failed games, the tutorials are too small or are too confusing. Give them space to assimilate new actions, try to setup a practice play of the new actions. Games like World of Warcraft excel at these things.
Lack of Mass – Attempting to teach something without anything concrete is difficult. Imagine trying to teach an abstract concept to a student without any solid examples.

For mainstream adoption, if these things are not done, then the level of energy and commitment required for an individual to take up your content would be too high. It might attract like minded people such as yourself, but it certainly wont attract the masses.

Looking back, when I apply these to our own tour to the site, I realize that there are still colossal huge gaps to be filled.

World of Warcraft: A foray

January 29, 2010May 5, 2018 Prasad Ajinkya7 Comments

Five years after the launch of this very successful game, and 11 million players later, I decided to give this game a whirl. This would be my first experience with a full fledged massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG). The decision to give this game a try was influenced by two factors, one was an article about a book I had read recently. The other was the fact that Blizzard was giving away free 10 day trial packages of WoW. You sign-up and you get an account trial for 10 days, simple.

Give an Indian a free deal, and you can be rest assured he will try. So without any further thoughts, I registered for my account, and got my 10 days worth of WoW – wheee!!

World of Downloadcraft

To begin with, the installer file is around an MB or so. I was happy, so I started the installation on Saturday. To my horror, the installer was just the start, the actual installation files were a mammoth 4.6 GB! This is just the Burning Crusade, and no add-ons. With a stripling connection speed of 256kbps, I downloaded the files over two days (my poor laptop was on for 2 days at a stretch). Now, the game installed and I eagerly clicked the shortcut, some animations followed (breathtaking yes, anxious yes, appreciating the animations – no!!). A moment in the game, the application informs me that it has to be patched before I can log onto any realm (a realm is a server where other players would also be playing). Fine, another 1.2 gigs to be downloaded … phew!! On the third day, everything was downloaded, installed, patched and updated. I was cursing WoW and Blizzard, such a bad experience to start with.

Totally Worth it

After all that bitching, I created my first character … a male night-elf fighter. There is a tutorial, and small quests where you learn running around doing small chores and killing weak animals. The entire application acts as one helluva thick client, with only minimal co-ordinates data being exchanged with the server. The loot is just about interesting to keep you hooked, and the quests keep on changing. The key is to take out as many quests as possible for good loot and faster experience gains.

All in all, the game is still running in my head. In some fights I fought alongside other new players, and we got to understand the pros and cons of each character. I immediately shifted to a female human mage – which suits my style more. Aim, fire, cold … the game is a completely different world, with two professions to learn, you can make your own weapons, or you can make food for others, or be a professional healer. The options are many.

I have been hooked onto this game for 4 days now and my laptop cringes whenever I run it in its full glory. I have lost some sleep when battling the minions, but I am loving every minute of it. Ill give the upgraded account a shot … but only after getting a proper gaming station :-)

Rise of Nations: Egyptians are wondrous

January 24, 2010May 5, 2018 Prasad Ajinkya6 Comments

In my earlier post, I had said that strategies in game have to be civilization specific. This is the first of that series. Today I was playing 1 v 3 Tough on British Isles, being Egyptians, I decided to go on the front foot from the word go, and while I was battling on the opponent’s islands, I was building wonders and booming steadily on mine. The key to Egyptians dominating is based on exactly this point, wonders. To illustrate this point and to take screenshots, I ran one more game this time 1 v 1 Tough on a random map.

Egyptians have multiple benefits which can be used right from the start. One of the foremost is the 7 farms per city benefit. Not only do the farms generate food, but also they generate a small trickle of gold. So right at the start of the game, aim for 150 food and 150 gold (this is the time when everyone goes for Sci 2). As an Egyptian, you can start building the Hanging Gardens (+50 Knowledge). By the time you are finished building this, you would be aging to Classical age. Now, the HG comes in handy, with generating an extra +50 knowledge, you can age faster, gather more knowledge.

Having an early access to all wonders one age before they are available to you means that you get to pick and choose the best of them. In the image below, I have built Versailles and Statue of Liberty by the Enlightenment age.

In a standard game, a tough computer opponent would have attacked you at least once, and would have started on some wonders to compete against your wonder streak. That also means if you get the Terracotta Army and gather free Light Infantry (LI), then you have resources, wonders and an army, whereas your opponent has only 2 of those 3.

In this game, I built some 8 wonders (Hanging Gardens, Colossus, Terracotta Army, Versailles, Statue of Liberty, Red Fort, Forbidden City and Taj Mahal), and all of them before they were accessible to the other opponent. I won this game through a simple wonder victory.

The Egyptians are a flexible lot, as long as you actively target specific wonders, you can be very lethal. Some of the best games I have played as a strong economy and an unbeatable army have been as Egyptians. The right strategy for this civilization is to do a delayed rush (aim for during the 3rd age). By this age, you will have a trickle of LI’s from the Terracotta Army, 4-5 HI, 2 siege weapons and some Egyptian cavalry (camels) and you are set. Go for the nearest city, with the spoils you boom. With the booming resources, build wonders. Rinse repeat.

Work is Play!!

January 14, 2010May 5, 2018 Prasad Ajinkya2 Comments

I have been reading Reeves and Read’s Total Engagement: Using games and virtual worlds to change the way people work and business compete, this is as part of my work (I know, rocking job :-)). The whole idea started when we decided to see how individuals change their approach of work if they see their passion in their work (and not the other way round!!). One of my passions is games. Hence the book, and to see how games can be used in work scenarios in order to change the way employees engage with their jobs.

By the first set of chapters itself, the authors had me re-affirm my faith in games completely. The authors looked at around 800 different jobs available with the US Labour Department (O*NET), and identified around 50 0r so different capacities/skills needed to function in those jobs. Each of these skills was then explained as something that we (as gamers) do whilst playing our favorite games.

So why do we pay for doing the something for which we can also get paid for? Why cannot work become play? I strongly believe it can be made into a play-space. Imagine your job as a MUD :-)

Rise of Nations: Strategy should be civilization specific

January 11, 2010February 7, 2017 Prasad Ajinkya14 Comments

Any season player will tell you that the choice of civilization will make or break your game. This is all the more true in multi-player games. When our lot started playing, we quickly realized that certain nations are way much better than the rest. Soon, some of us developed their styles around certain civilizations. Amongst the entire lot, one of us could never figure out which is his best civ. He used to play the same with any civilization … soon it dawned on the rest of us, that this is the way the game is to be played. You need to be as good or as effective with any civilization. What needs to change is our choice of strategy.

For example, if you are Aztec, then you have to be a war-monger. You cannot stay in peace. If you are Greeks, then you have to boom and race ahead in terms of ages. So on and so forth. Some civilizations are well rounded. The Americans, Dutch … Indians … I think they are very well balanced to suit any strategy.

I know some of you may not agree, but I think the winning player is the one who can choose the right strategy with the right game play style with the right civilization. That’s the trick.