What's in a Name? (I'm Just Sayin'...)

In Psibabe's conclusion to her upcoming review of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, she observes:

"It is amazing that a movie series based simply on a theme park ride can continue to have so much steam, but Depp and company do it again."

-Psibabe, AKA Ashley Perkins

I think that's an interesting and valid observation. It seems like Hollywood is currently in the business of looking back at nostalgic things of our childhood and then building a movie around it. Don't get me wrong - I've enjoyed all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but a theme park ride isn't the least that Hollywood has taken to make a movie. Case in point - Battleship. Mind you, they can go absolutely anywhere with this license, but it's a license for a game based on a board game that predates World War I. There aren't even any characters associated with the license... just ship-to-ship combat. It almost seems like movie companies should be able to do just as well creating completely new movies... Sadly, I'm not saying they would... I'm just saying it seems like they should be able to.

Initial Impressions: Spider-Man: Edge of Time DS

So, I'm currently reviewing Spider-Man: Edge of Time on the DS and the PS3. That's cool, since I'm a pretty big Spider-Man fan, but, typically, DS games (or any portable game for that matter) pale beside their console-cousins when a game is made for all current systems.

With Spider-Man: Edge of Time, however, I'm finding that I'm really enjoying playing the DS version. It seems like the game, while on a more limited system, really uses the system - and the game's premise - to its advantage.

Case-in-point, the story in Spider-Man: Edge of Time has you playing the part of the Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099, mentally linked across time, trying to stop Sloan from meddling with time. The tampering has caused "Temporal Causality" - which, basically, means that either Spider-Man can cause changes in the environment of the other based on his actions. This is a major aspect of the gameplay on both versions I'm reviewing. However, only the DS version allows you to swap back and forth - at will - between the two. This aspect alone really adds interest to the gameplay, giving it elements similar to the sleeper hit The Adventures of Cookies & Cream, whereby each character has to take some action to allow the other to progress - which is really working for it in a big way.

So what's in an MMORPG?

I recently had the agonizing pleasure of reviewing Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising. I love the game; it's almost like it was made specifically for me... but, I'm not everyone, and there were some features that people tend to expect from an MMORPG that it doesn't have out the box. Mind you some of these are specifically mentioned as upcoming features in the FAQ on the game's official website, but they're not in the game at launch.

Specifically, Gods & Heroes currently has no PVP gameplay. You can't attack other players, period. You can play alone or you can work with friends (or strangers, for that matter) to go up against more powerful enemies and to conquer the dungeon areas, but you can't attack other players. In most MMORPGs, there are generally two sides (factions) and you select which side you are on when you create your character, then there is generally some provision for attacking other players from the other faction, and often even a "duel" option that allows players to challenge other players to a fight, on an "opt-in" basis. Some games have specific servers set up for PVP gameplay, which essentially means that you've opted in by creating a character on that server. Gods & Heroes doesn't offer any sort of PVP gameplay, even though one of the character classes in the game is Gladiator. Since the "bad guys" faction are NPCs and all players are Romans, I don't see how Faction PVP could be easily worked into the game, but I can imagine the gladiator arenas being brought into play, which could be a nice way to handle duels.

Also missing from Gods & Heroes is any crafting or harvesting, although both are planned post-launch features, and Magnolia bushes can already be found and the act of harvesting them can be performed (although I don't think you actually gain anything from it, just yet). When I play games that have crafting and harvesting, I will do a decent amount of it, but I don't typically make it my focus, so I can't say I missed it much.

So, the question comes down to what exactly is needed for an MMORPG these days? IS PVP gameplay a must-have? Does a game HAVE to have factions? Are crafting and harvesting important MMORPG activities or just ways to keep easily bored players busy? If I can get new items and armor from enemy drops and/or by buying it from vendors, how important is it that someone in Colorado can make a tunic for me, when it comes down to it?

This is just questions, without any real answers, but it seems to me that a lot of "neat" features that have sprouted in MMORPGS have gotten swept up into the common recipe, without necessarily deserving a permanent place as a staple of the genre.

As for Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising, what has been delivered so far (at launch) seems like it has very little focus on the online aspects. It seems like it could have been a perfectly good RPG, without being an MMO. As it is, the value of the game for a player who likes Gods & Heroes with just its current features is reduced by the fact that you have to pay a monthly fee and the fact that, should the game not prove to be popular enough and the servers get turned off, then you can't continue to play the PVE parts, because the game requires a backend server to run.

So, thoughts? Is PVP a must-have for an MMORPG? And what of crafting? harvesting / mining? auctions?

Decompression Day... Mostly...

Well, it's Friday, the day after E3 ended, and everyone's still got stories to post, but tomorrow we all head back halfway across the country, from L.A. to LA and start to return to the normal, 361-days-of-the-year routine.

Yesterday, as soon as the show was over, we started to relax a bit. We met for dinner with a couple of SVGA/Baton Rouge IGDA alumni, Joel Gonzales and Kyle Prestenback (aka ==Boy, Game Vortex alumnus). Andrew Horwitz, also an SVGA/Baton Rouge IGDA/Game Vortex alumnus (Snow Chainz), was supposed to join us, but things didn't work out.

Today, however, on the precipice of our transcontinental voyage, we're taking a moment to chill a bit. Today we are kicking back at Universal Hollywood, and tonight, we celebrate another successful E3 with a Dinner at Bucca di Beppo... a great place for a group, given their family-sized portions... and a restaurant that can't be found in Louisiana.

Hey, Mr. DJ...

It looks like E3 exhibitors are making a desparate attempt to single-handedly keep DJs employed in LA this week. NOS has DJs at each of their tents outside of E3... Bethesda has DJ Michael Basic right now... and the For Fiesta Social Club had DJ Shy today... there's more, but that's all I can think of at the moment...

No complaints, mind you, but now I REALLY want to break out DJ Hero 2...

More on 3D Gaming on the NGP...

So, I recently wrote an article on Game Vortex on Sony's patent on interactive occlusion based on head tracking and what effect this is likely to have on the NGP, but going into the minute details seemed a bit much for the average reader. So, if you missed that story, check it out first. If you want more information, continue on below.

How It Works...

The problem with typical stereoptic 3D imaging methods is that they are heavily reliant on binocular vision... and, for that matter, even position and alignment of one's eyes. If you tilt your head off of dead center ever so slightly, the effect suffers. Furthermore, the 3D images you see in these entertainment media are tied to a camera that is not directly tied to the viewer, so even though the 3D view has a sweet spot from which an observer should view it, the 3D image will be the same regardless of the position from which you view it. This can allow for the appropriate unique views for the left and right eye, but doesn't allow for interactive occlusion, the effect of changing your viewpoint a bit and seeing one object getting partially or completely hidden by a closer object. This occlusion is a natural part of how people determine the relative depth of objects.

Given a single viewer, however, there are ways to reproduce this interactive occlusion in an interactive entertainment product, such as a game. By capturing positional information about where the viewer is looking from, the in-game camera can be tied to the viewer's actual viewing position. Then, when you look left, right up or down, the image shifts so that you're peering around a close object to see an object that's further away. The result is that things can appear to be deep inside of a "box" whose glass top is the screen of the NGP.

The first time I saw this effect, it was done using a Wii-mote as a camera positioned on top of a monitor, pointing toward the viewer and a pair of glasses with two L.E.D.s, one mounted on either side, to provide positional information. This creates a very convincing effect, but required that the user wear glasses or a headband of something similar with mounted lights to provide tracking information. By replacing these position tracking elements with facial tracking, the system only requires the built-in camera; no external hardware is required. I would expect to see this used in several Sony first party titles, and, most likely, made into part of a developer toolkit library, to make it an easy-to-drop-in feature available to developers creating games and applications for the NGP.

Citations:

• Sony Patent: Method and Apparatus for Adjusting a View of a Scene Being Displayed According to Tracked Head Motion on Google Patents


• Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote on YouTube (Effect Shown With Wii-mote) - by Johnny Chung Lee, Carnegie Mellon University