Games Without Frontiers

Geek Brain on Toddler TV

2013-01-09T11:18:00.001-08:00

This past holiday I spent the week off of work at home with my sick child. As a result, we could not go out that much and stayed in to watch TV. TV aimed at toddlers. A lot of TV aimed at toddlers.

At first it seems like brain-numbing colorful and simple characters talking at the audience with a lot of awkward pauses to allow for a reply. It has been a while since I've watched the Electric Company or Mr. Rogers, but I don't recall the dead-into-the-camera stares and 3 beat pauses, but this seems to be a common trope of all children's programming.

But after a while of exposure, my brain started to break down some of the elements of these shows, and this is roughly my take on them.

Sofia the First: Middle daughter from Modern Family is brought into a Molyneux-like fairy-tale kingdom where she must learn to live the simple life of the top 1%. Wayne Brady is a rabbit that is street-smart and ethnic (i.e. something he has never done before outside of the Chappelle Show). Wakko of the Animaniacs is a magician that behaves like a borderline pedo, curses the entire royal ball, and gets away without blame. Not sure why, but there is a magic swing at royalty school that serves no purpose other than to throw people into a fountain.
Chuggington: People and train engines living in an idealized Marxist society. Every train and every person has a role they must perform to support the greatness of society as a whole, and no other pleasure is greater than getting the job done.

Octonauts: Marine biologist furries bumbling their way through underwater adventures and proving how little they know of the sea. Seems like the setup backstory to a Bond villian. Undersea lair. Genetically altered minions, or whatever a vegi-mal is. One of these characters will have a psychotic break, eradicate the rest of the base. I don't think it will be Dr. Inkling, as he does nothing but sit in the library. Peso could have a hidden Napoleon complex and he does have the medical knowledge. But best bet is on Shellington. He's a walking victim in every other episode, has the intelligence the rest do not, and is one bad day from unleashing a grudge on the entire world.

There is death behind those dark, cold eyes.

Mickey Mouse Club: This is a series on pure existential horror. Every episode starts with Mickey silently approaching the audience from the woods, Blair Witch Style. He then chants a magical incantation to create the clubhouse out of his own body parts, I'm assuming of non-Euclidean geometry. After a roll call of clubhouse members, Mickey leads a chant to activate Toodles, which is functionally kid-show shorthand for either Scientology, Chthulu, or both. Toodles provides 3 to 4 random tools for the day which will then solve a problem. These problems are situational, so to know what tools will be useful, Toodles or Mickey must be controlling the fates of all who walk in the clubhouse. After all tools have been used, a tribalistic dance is performed and the clubhouse disappears into the woods.
Minnie's Bowtique: Short vignettes of how Minnie cannot function unless a problem can be solved with a bow somehow. The bird will remind you of Cindy Lauper for some reason.
Little Einsteins: A show created around the scientifically rejected notion that exposure to classical music will make your child a genius. What really does set a high IQ is the ability of critical thinking, which is entirely ignored throughout this show. Example encounter: the team needs to get over the pyramids and they are in a rocket. Solution: audience must sing to make the rocket pogo stick over the pyramid. What the hell kinda message is that?! How is my child supposed to function if she believes that if you have a rocket and you need to go over something, that means singing on a pogo stick.

Video Games or Murder Simulators?

2012-12-19T11:02:00.001-08:00

Once again we find ourselves in a time of national tragedy. We see the same patterns. Mass media 24-hour coverage. Photos of the killer and victims. Tear-stained faces barely able to keep it together as they are bombarded with interviewer questions. Experts and psychologists attempting to explain the how and why of this event.

Before I dig into this, through no point in this article will I mention the names of any suspected killers. I feel every mention of their names functions only to create celebrity and mythos about them, when really they do not deserve the attention put to them. I would prefer that these mass murderers gain nothing from me.

Greg Hughes from the O&A show puts it in a much better light than I do:

I believe that there are some things that happen that go beyond our understanding and comprehension. We, as humans, have a natural curiosity or need to find causation, especially when the events are so horrific we hope to prevent them from ever happening again.

But events such as these do not have simple causes, nor do they lend themselves to simple solutions. How can we prevent this from happening again? I have no answers.

Would gun control help? 2nd Amendment! Ban guns! And that is about as deep as we get as both sides are reluctant to give even the hint of political ground to lead to a compromise. The NRA has announced that they will be rallying against gun control this Friday. Their argument? "If we're going to talk about the Second Amendment, then let's also talk about the First Amendment, and Hollywood, and the video games that teach young kids how to shoot heads." So to paraphrase, we will not discuss limits set on one Constitutional right until we revoke another Constitutional right.

But what about those violent video games? Aren't we just teaching our kids how to be psychotic killers on a nightly basis? What kind of sick mind would play these "murder simulators"? Hasn't everyone heard of some scientific article from somewhere that showed violent video games leads to violent behavior? People don't get extra lives, so we must be breaking our children from the consequences of reality.

This argument comes up all of the time. By my own rough observations, news of the Newton shooting hit around 10am. By lunchtime social media was loaded with gun control arguments By 2pm, national media was discussing how the killer played violent video games. How'd they know this fact? I'm assuming they learned the killer was young and male, and decided to go with lowest common denominator information. COD:BO2 sold $500 million in the first day so chances are the killer had the game, breathed air, and ate food.

What you really don't hear on the news that often is the difference between causation and correlation. The news states facts as if every detail is set in a long chain of dominoes (causation), so every new piece of information will uncover a new pathway and new explanation of the events that occurred It makes sense from the business model of the 24-hour news cycle. They want you attached to the TV, so every new insight must be important and revealing so that you stick around to let them sell you soap. But after a while, you run out of details and need to trump the other networks. And one of the go-to articles is violent video games.

So let's take a moment to discuss correlation. Have you ever noticed how storks are used to symbolize the birth of a new baby? Well why a stork? Because in northern Europe, storks would nest in rooftops. They get the most shelter by nesting between the roof and chimney. Where are the warmest chimneys for the winter? Where new born babies live. Want to find the house with a newborn, then you can look for the stork. Did the stork cause the baby? No.

What about that scientific study about the connection to violent video games and violent behavior? We've been hearing about this since the NES days. Surely science cannot be argued against. If you were to argue against science, you may as well become a Creationist.

Well hold on. You can actually argue about science. Scientists do it all the time. I do not buy into Creationism as a valid concept, but I am open to discussing the finer details of how evolution works and has happened over the course of existence. Scientists are constantly proving or disproving previous studies to eventually find out new discoveries on why things work the way they do.

And for the articles that make the connection between games and violence? Well I highly doubt most of the free world actually reads those articles, but here's a list of them:

Video Games and Adolescent Fighting, University of Texas at Arlington, January 31, 2009

Violent video games and aggression: A review of the literature, Nottingham Trent University. Nottingham, UK, Summer 1999

The effect of violent video games on aggression: Is it more than just the violence? Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. January 2011

Are Violent Video Games Harmful? Australasian Psychiatry, 2007

Four unrelated scientific articles from over the last decade. All of them telling the same story: that scientific studies that show causation between video games and violent behavior are flawed from bias samples and lack of proof. Science, doing science-y things, proving that video games are NOT creating a generation of killers. We're creating a generation of gamers. The chances that a mass murderer would have played a violent video game is just as likely as an Eagle Scout that has played one. I AM an Eagle Scout and I've made one.

Still not convinced? Have you watched teens play a first-person shooter and wonder why they can be enthralled for hours shooting random people they do not know? Well here's the big secret of why it is so entertaining: we're not training people to kill; we're training people to play tag.

Every see kids play tag outside in the yard? Ever see the game escalate so they use sticks, fingers, or whatever to pretend to shoot each other rather than make a physical tag? Just like that good ol' fashioned, wholesome Cops & Robbers or Cowboys & Indians that kids used to play back when computers were the size of Olympic pools and we didn't have to deal with this rise in violence. Well we, the video game developers, have made the exact same experience, but now you can play from your living room and not argue about whether I "shot" you or not.

And that rise in violence? It isn't happening. In fact we are seeing a reduction in gun violence since the early 90s. You could make a clearer connection to bad hair band music and gun violence than you could with current video games.

From the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

So what is on the rise? Media coverage of these violent events. It feels like we are experiencing it more because you hear about it more. The second a 911 call goes out, you receive live feed information of the incident over all the news stations, Twitter, Facebook, and such. Then you get in-depth analysis of what happened, computer simulations, expert opinions, images of victims, discussions of what was had for breakfast to the point of absurdity until the next news event happens.

So thanks to the modern news media, for milking us in this time of grief. It is an unfortunate time when the only respectable journalists on TV is the guy on Comedy Central and one-half of Dumb and Dumber.

Selecting Games for Family Vacation

2012-08-02T08:58:00.003-07:00

Once a year, my wife's family gets together for a summer vacation. Now that there are two grandchildren in the mix (my daughter and my nephew), vacation planning has become less about going out and doing things and more about sitting around the pool/beach or other baby-friendly environment. Though we still get an evening out here or there while someone in the family takes a shift sitting for the sleeping kids, most evenings are relegated to sitting on the deck and playing a board game.

Because of this frequent nightly event, the family turns to me with suggestions because I, after all, am the "game guy" of the family. Unfortunately, being a "game guy" comes loaded a mixed bag for this situation. yes I can suggest a wide-range of board games for this group to play to break up the Monopoly/Trivial Pursuit stand-bys. But this audience is familiar with the ol' stand-bys and anything beyond that carries the sense of game-geekery that turns off the group from a potentially engaging night. I wonder if somaliers have this problem when trying to get friends to try a really excellent vintage, but they would really just like to stick with the box wine.

Check out how the light cascades through this Boone's Farm

For this year, I have gathered together an assortment of games to try out. I picked them out specifically for this audience, but with the mindset to appeal to a wide range of age and interests.

Here are the games that I subjected the family and what their response was:

Settlers of Catan: The masterpiece that changed board games forever. 1995 Spiele des Jahres award winner. It is such a great game because adults and children can play together without the children being lost or adults being bored (play Candy Land as an adult, I dare you)

Being 30-something means playing board games in the backyard while in slacks and dress shoes.

Family Reaction - Whoa, what is this? German? This is already too complicated. Hexagons? Dice rolls? Mostly just arm flailing and wreckage of people giving up. Overall, a complete catastrophe with most players assuming that German children must be physicists and engineers from birth to get this game.

Gunther, your model of the neodymium molecule fails to address the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. How do you expect to finish the 1st grade with this work?

Evaluation - maybe too much game for this crowd out of the gate. Too many things going on and it gets confusing very quickly if you are used to Trivial Pursuit or Boggle.

My new favorite game

Cards Against Humanity: This game can best be described as the evil version of Apples to Apples. If you've never played Apples to Apples, the game is simple. You need a group of players, and each round, one player becomes a judge. The remaining players use cards in their hands that have a word or phrase to best match the card put on the table. Players get to argue their match and the judge makes the final call. In Apples to Apples, you sometimes get combinations that are unintentionally hilarious whether from the pairing or how someone makes the argument for it. I've seen "Operation" be used as an example of "Selfish", or "Bangkok" paired with "Dirty". All fun with the party you are in, and only as risque as you'd like. Cards Against Humanity throws the subtlety out the window and just comes up with the worst possible combinations that are still inappropriately funny.

Family Reaction - surprisingly positive. They understood what they needed to do just from a 1-minute description of the game. Outside of a few uncomfortable pairings somehow everyone enjoyed being ragingly un-PC for an evening.
Evaluations - Huge success. Though one must be careful as to who they play with. It must be a close group of friends and no one can be too sensitive. Something in this deck is made to offend you directly, so get over it before you even open the box.

Not as cool as it used to be.

Apples to Apples: I brought this version of the game just in case Cards Against Humanity didn't go over too well. But after you play CAH, there really is no going back. This one sat in the corner collecting dust. If Apples to Apples is a party playing Twister, Cards Against Humanity is the party from Eyes Wide Shut.

Should have been a sign to not work with your significant other. And then there's Vanilla Sky.

Ticket To Ride: This game was selected for the family not only because it is another Spiele des Jahres award winner, but what you do on a turn is very simple when compared to Settlers. In Ticket to Ride, everyone at the table is creating lines of railroads across the country. You have point-to-point locations you are trying to tie together. Each turn you can either build 1 track, get more resources, or get more locations. Pretty simple.

Sort of like the land grab in Monopoly, only you are not stuck in Atlantic City

Family Reaction - completely loved the game. Similar to Cards Against Humanity, they grok games that can be explained in a minute or less. Some of the players at the table are killer player types and for some reason they enjoyed blocking pathways as fast as they could, giggling the whole way. And one of these was my wife.
Evaluations - This is an excellent entry level game for folks into the realm of good, modern board games. Consider this a gateway game to Settlers. Though gauging my specific audience, I would go from Ticket to Ride, then Carcassonne, then Settlers.

Game Production – Back to the Kitchen Analogy

2012-07-03T09:33:00.003-07:00

I have been a game producer (or variant of the role: project manager, product owner, product manager, pain-in-the-ass) for 6 years and counting. I’ve worked 2-month game projects with bare bones teams to massive 3-year blockbusters where it seems the sun never sets on some part of the development. One question continually comes up when people find out what I do, and that questions is, “can you fix my PS3/Xbox?” The answer is no. Check if your console is within warranty, but at this stage of the console cycle it is only 18 months for the next round of tech to be out. The second most common question I get is, “what exactly does a producer do?”

This image is so 6 months ago

This is extremely difficult to answer and it seems no one really knows. The title changes from studio to studio. Most often in interviews for a producer role, I am usually asking that studio what does a producer role mean in this office. It’s a bit of an anomaly. Designers, artists, and programmers have a sense of familiarity and process of the daily grind as they move from job to job. And the life of anyone in entertainment tends to be very gypsy-like as projects begin and end or studios open and shutter. But producers are enigmas. We can sense each other and share in the pains and processes, but for the most part we are in the roles that don’t actually make anything, so it is rather tough to say what is it that you actually do as a producer. Much like the definition of what a game is, I’ve heard various descriptions during my time, but none of them really fully explain the job. “Producers are the net that catch all the spinning plates and if a plate falls, they put it back on the stick.” “Producers are the cattle prod behind all developers.” “Producers are a carrot on the stick and a boot in the butt.” “Producers make pretty spreadsheets and let us know how far behind we are.” “Producers are annoyances that stop by desks and remind you how stressed you are.” “Producers get the best desks, the second largest paychecks, and figure out how everything is going to be completed.”

For the last 6 years of doing my job, I still have a very hard time describing what it is that I do. Then I was faced with a home repair job that felt very much like what I dealt with day-to-day and I believe becomes an excellent metaphor for game production.

At around 3am on a weekday night (which is when all home catastrophes happen) I awoke to find a non-trivial amount of water in my kitchen. Since this was 3am, everything moved forward in my brain in slow motion as I connected the pieces while scanning the kitchen through only one open, yet bleary eye. Though it took an age to figure out without the help of caffeine, the mystery of the new lake in my kitchen turned out to be the result of a leaky pipe and my dishwasher water now emptying out everywhere except the pipe it was meant to go through.

My expertise in plumbing came from TV. So I beat my head with a pipewrench and jammed a finger into my eye.

I mopped up the water before it caused any damage while spilling out a litany of curses strung together in a tapestry of colorful expression ranging from the obtuse to just plain rambling. A coffee and flashlight later, I found a fragged P-trap under my sink that was letting out all of the water. Once I had removed the problem piece, I was faced with an unusual problem: how do I fix this mess?

My home is a century old. No, literally. It was built just before the Titanic set sail. Much of the construction of my house is new tech over old tech. You can make out where the coal used to be shoveled in from the driveway. The electric is a bizarre series of systems rather than room-by-room (one breaker controls lights in the kitchen, hallway, dining room, master bed room, and guest room, but nothing else). Much of the basic structure of the house was built in a time when there was no set standards and many things were built by hand with what was available nearby. This was the case with my sink drain.

From the floor I had a steel pipe sticking straight up at a non-standard width. Clearly this had been around since the Downton Abbey days. Coming down from the sink was a modern steel pipe of standard size. And this two pipes were about two-feet apart from each other.

Skype?! But how will it replace my complex system of pull-string bells?

Once I had arrived at the Home Depot (which opens extremely early for contractors and home owner catastrophes) I realized an additional dilemma. All modern P-traps are made of plastic. I needed to go from steel to plastic and back again, spanning across the inside of my cabinet while all connections being watertight and letting gravity do the work.

This is where the production part kicks in. As a producer, you are the first one to take a step back and evaluate the situation. It does not matter whether you are creating a new innovation in gaming or you are just polishing a game feature in Madden '13 that has existing since Madden '88, you will be faced with something where there is a significant translation problem, and the piece to fix it is not ideal. Nearly every dev can create solutions, but it is up to the producer to find the optimal solution. Fixing a sink may not have any effect on the electric, but in a game system it very well could be connected.

Someone in Tiburon is coding a Turkey Leg feature. This man knows what I'm talking about.

The producers job is the get everything from the sink to the drain in the fastest, cheapest, and best possible way, even if that solution is ugly as hell. A producer does not necessarily do the fix him/herself, but they should be familiar enough with every other working piece that they can make calls and suggestions for the developer to get the fix in right the first time. If they were good enough, they saw the problem before anyone else and had all the parts ready for when that day came. Producers are planners, translators, and problem-solvers. They excel when they are presented with a situation that there is no set process and they need to make something impossible happen. No one tells you how you are going to produce a Game with Fame event with Slipknot while they are in tour in Tokyo and your are in Manhattan, but as a producer you figure it all out.

Nice guy and a Frontlines fan. Who knew?

What I purchased from the Home Depot that morning was a bizarre collection of parts that formed together into a MacGyvered interpretation of a P-trap. It worked flawlessly and I still had time to eat breakfast and go to work on time. To this day I have not had a single drop of water come out of this system, so for the time-being, I do not have to deal with swimming in my kitchen.

Team Tabletop #5: the Rap

2012-06-27T06:13:00.000-07:00

One of the members of Team Tabletop ended up creating a rap as a follow-up to the mission write-up. I cannot claim credit for this one, as any rap I would make would be on par with Vanilla Ice's "Ninja Rap".

Here's the lyrics:

Roll for initiative, toss out the beagle
Hidin from the spotters cause the airstrike is lethal
I destroy the tank and pass the balsamic
Layin down mines and these dummies fall on it
But that ain't the end of a turn-based tale
Cause we gaussed the motherfuckers and LRMed out the whale

I personally would like to see this sung by hologram Tupac with Digital Underground.

Google Tupac and Digital Underground. I dare you.

Team Tabletop #5 - End of the Battletech Campaign

2012-06-25T14:28:00.002-07:00

On the Saturday before Father’s Day, our battle-tested group of game developers gathered together to fight the final event in our ongoing Battletech campaign.

At 5am that morning, our GM sent out the mission details. We were to enter enemy territory in an urban environment. Our primary objective was to destroy at least 80% of the enemy forces, which consist of every enemy we had met in the campaign previously, but had survived. Thanks to our success at the communications tower and repair facility, they would not be repaired, nor would they have reinforcements. This game would be the culmination of all previous games in the series.

We had a secondary goal of destroying a building that had the enemies’ generals and other authority figures. Once they had been alerted to our presence, they would evacuate, so we had 5 rounds of battle to accomplish this mission.

Our third and final goal was to have at least 50% of our team survive. Just as a specification from the GM, that included if our mech was destroyed, but our character ejected safely and ran like hell. Obviously he did not expect us to survive, either because this was a dangerous mission, or because he’s seen us play.

The usual suspects gathered in our usual space, this time making an effort to start early as we have been warned that this game had the potential to go long. In light of this early start and the weather holding at beautiful 70-degree and sunny day, we gathered around noon and enjoyed the weather and grilled our food.

It should be noted that most of the members of our group have been playing tabletop games since our time in high school, and in that time we do tend to go back to the food that worked for us back then (pizza, chips, soda, etc.) But as our tabletop gathering has continued, we have slowly been bringing in our collective culinary expertise into the fray. We set a monumental summer spread of gastronomical delights, it is worth discussing. I should note that I have found in my lifetime of geek-onometry that the ability to cook well has served me to be a better geek and more successful person in countless ways.

I destroy the tank and pass the balsamic

Our menu:

Teriyaki & honey marinated chicken skewers
Garden fresh salad and tomatoes with the juice of a freshly squeezed orange
Spinach and sausage stuffed mushrooms
Watermelon
Chips and dip
Beer, soda, lemonade, iced tea, and seltzer
Bucket of chocolate chip cookies*
And a bunch of stuff that was not consumed, such as homemade capicola, variety of cheeses, and fudge brownies

*I have noticed a direct correlation to the presence of these cookies at a gaming session and the likelihood of GM decisions working out in the player’s favor.

We sat on the deck, looking out over Jersey suburbia with the Empire State Building and Freedom Tower cresting over the horizon of homes discussing possible repairs. We gathered around a Droid tablet with our repair times broken down into a Google Doc spreadsheet we created earlier in the campaign. This doc calculated overall repair times against time remaining, so we could make a quick assessment of the damage and get back into the fight.

In our last mission, we had junked two of our most powerful mechs beyond repair. The other two were lightly scratched. Plus we added a very beefy Clan Mech as the reward from the last mission, so that was definitely going into battle this time. We put the Clan Mech into the hands of our rounded out pilot, and then did a quick repair job to get our best gunners loaded up with close-proximity gear. We were split for a bit on whether we should give the best pilot the scout to zip around, or let him hang in the background and launch volleys of long-range missiles. We finally decided nimble was the best course of action and it had served us well so far. We snuffed out the citronella and went back inside, ready for battle.

Now it's time to die... in a brightly colored rainbow block land.

At the gaming table, our dutiful GM had used what was available to construct an elaborate downtown complex. But what was readily available was my daughters building blocks and Noah’s Ark set. These items have become handy in the past, even providing the impetus for our slogan “LeRM the Whale”, but never have these toys been used in such nuanced fashion. It seems the fine people of Duplo have made certain that not only are their toys perfect for small hands learning basic manipulation while avoiding choking hazards, but that a bunch of 30 year-olds could use them for Battletech campaigns.

Our group lined up on the far side ready for battle. The conditions of the game were that the enemy was unaware of our position until they saw us or heard us. The rounds would not begin counting off for the secondary mission until the enemy was alerted to our presence.

It's like we're attacking Hoth, but sneakier

Game on.

One of my personal favorite quotes of Mike Tyson is, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”. Our last few missions have proven this to be true. Early in the game we construct elaborate plans, only to have everything go to hell once the enemy begins shooting back.

The only way to make this man scarier in his game was have him belt out "In the Air Tonight"

This time we decided to keep it simple: run to the edge, and set up a sneak attack where enemy forces seem weakest. There was a huge assemblence of tanks on the left of the board, so we decided to swing right, cut behind the wall, and jump the two mechs just hanging out in cover.

We were able to cut across the giant open field rather easily, to which our GM exclaimed,"you guys are lucky there is a giant wall in the way so they don't see you coming". We did point out that it was not our fault that their city planner decided to place giant concrete walls between downtown and the suburbs and perhaps next time he would want to defend his town with a radar or watch tower. Of course this is a world where walking tanks that can fall down and trip are somehow superior to regular treaded tanks, so architecture and technology must be suffering from poor STEM education.

We snuck into the downtown section and prepared a surprise pincer attack. We knew from this point on that strategy would be thrown out and this was our last chance to setup before kicking this beehive, and given the mission objectives, about on half of us dying. We checked in to make sure we were in optimal positions, and everyone gave their nod of approval to tear open this can of kickass. Approval was given around the table and we prepared ourselves for hysteria and hi-jinks.

That's 360 collective tons of stealth and sneaking in a populated financial district

Next round was a surprise round. Evidently these mechs had been summoned back to the core city of their forces to make a final stand (a la Alamo-style), but decide to just hang around in blind spots with new view of possible incoming forces. “Surely”, they must be discussing over the thousandth smoke-break that day, “these giant concrete walls that block everything except traffic of major highways will prevent all incursions to this fine city”. I understand that real-life combat is mostly boring, with occasional moments of pure hell, but if you are going to position guards, posting them on the outside of the door rather than the inside may prevent you from being horribly disfigured in a sneak attack.

So we horrible disfigured these mechs in a sneak attack.

Argyle Emblem are friendly players. Skulls are dead enemies.

They were surprised, but we were more so. It seems that we had tangled with these mechs before and severely damaged them in previous combat. With our jump-around-a-building-and-launch-every-rocket-we’ve-got technique, these guys were quickly evaporated.

At this point, the large armada of tanks spots the explosions of our missiles. The battle is on and everyone knows we are there. Time to play this carefully.

There seems to be enemy forces nearby, but we're not sure where.

Our GM had given us an additional advantage to this game. Our employers brought a land-mine artillery gun into this fight. Yes you read that correctly. An artillery gun that shoots landmines. Now that our enemy knew we were here, we could begin calling in artillery strikes to setup landmines in the next round. As long as the enemy was not nearby, they would be unaware that those spaces were mined. We immediately focus the artillery at the outside pathways in the city so we can funnel the enemy in the center. This would prove to be our smartest move throughout the game.

After clearing two enemies, we have taken half the city. How bad could the rest be?

What qualifies as not our smartest move, in fact failing completely to come in the running for smartest move, was the remainder of our battles. Enemy mechs would rush up in our faces in avenues and jumping over rooftops, while tanks spun around behind us and called in their own missile barrages. In a few short rounds, our Warhammer was severely damaged and overheating to near shutdown, our Clan mech had lost most of its front armor, and the Shadow Hawk had almost lost a leg. We had only killed 2 of 20 enemies, and we were close to losing this fight.

Fortunately for us, having spammed most of the city with landmines, most of the enemy forces were doing an amazing job of destroying themselves. Tanks would roll over a mine and just survive long enough to hit the next mine. Enemy mechs would jump on top of a roof, get hit with a barrage of our missiles, and then fall back behind cover to see a nice bouncing betty punch them in the nards. As a team of game designers, our overall strategies tend to be flawed but our ability to spawn camp and spam an exploit is unparalleled.

The enemy experience was pretty much this: Jonah Hill meets Bouncing Betty

As the game progressed, we had more kills from landmines than any team member. Our Clan mech was barely holding on while our Warhammer somehow was able to avoid fire long enough to not go into critical meltdown.

We turned the game into Minesweeper. Notice the sea of deaths near the river of mines.

We lined up all dead enemy mechs and tanks to keep a kill toll. We needed 16 kills to win. We had done enough damage to kill of 14 and just needed 2 more confirmed kills. The time had long passed to earn our secondary mission, but we were very close to our primary and tertiary mission goals. A group of enemy tanks were surrounded by mines, but had chosen to dig in like ticks throughout the game. One tank was cornered and another surrounded in yet another ring of fire. We assumed if we spook one surrounded tanks and fire everything off at the final tank, we have this wrapped up in one more round.

What's an F5 tornado? The finger of God.

We carefully position ourselves in striking distance for the cornered tank, but leaving an open flank for the surrounded tank to take the bait. Correction. 3 of us carefully position ourselves. The tank DOES take the bait and destroys itself. The 4th one of us then takes the moment of celebration a little too far and gets cocky with the Clan mech. He then jumps directly in front of the tank rationalizing that if our rockets don't finish it off, his fists will.

What he failed to realize, but what the GM had been waiting for, was this was a special short-range missile tank, which unloads holy hell into the face of anyone dumb enough to get into its grill. It returned fire with 20 loads of missiles, which meant 20 chances of critical hits. Our grinning GM pulls out his pound of dice and dumps them all on the table. What followed was such a complex round of mathematics and probability, it took 3 of us to help calculate the critical hits and following damage. Both the tank and the Clan mech were vaporized.

So to sum up, we won the primary and tertiary goals and successfully ended the campaign. All of our pilots survived (barely) and can continue on to a new contract/campaign. Nearly all of our equipment is severely damaged beyond repair, but we live to fight and play another day.

Game Usability as a Kitchen

2012-06-25T12:57:00.001-07:00

This is a pretty straightforward thought that seems to relay a complex design issue in games. Very often, game designers construct a beautifully elaborate experience, only to have it all go to hell once it gets in the hands of the audience.

Who is to blame for those problems? Is it the designer that is so stuck in his or her thoughts that only after daily practice in their own system do they understand it? Is the audience so attuned to gameplay of other games, you pretty much have to shrug your shoulders as a designer and go with the flow?

For the audience member, that may seem like it is the only solution to do what audiences feel is familiar, but this does come with a cost. If we were to make a FPS game, most likely we would make the control scheme and feel of the game very similar to Call of Duty. Why? Because chances are if you are near electricity, you have heard of Call of Duty. It was such a large hit that it becomes a simple way to educate the audience for any other FPS. Didn't play Call of Duty or didn't like Call of Duty? Well too bad, because if we only do what the audience is familiar, then expect a whole lot more of the Call of Duty experience. You will never get a Portal, Bioshock, or TF2. Just not in the cards. Game design then becomes a cliche machine.

So somewhere there needs to be a balance, or else game design is a dead art. And this is where the kitchen comes in.

Nearly everyone's kitchen is different. Kitchens come in various sizes, shapes, and colors. The components in them support what kinds of cuisines or normally cooked. Different people come from different backgrounds, and make different foods, so on and so on.

However, if we dropped an average person into just about any kitchen in the world, they would be able to identify fairly quickly that they are in a kitchen. It doesn't matter whether it is in Japan, Russia, or the U.S. It could be a commercial kitchen or part of a home in Nicaragua. We are able to identify very quickly key elements in the room that must have something to do with the cleaning and preparing of food. Usually some food storage and something that generates a lot of heat next to each other is a pretty good give away.

Now go into a kitchen that you've never been in before. Find a glass to pour yourself a beverage. Chances are you will go to the approximate location you are used to in your own kitchen. And chances are there will be anything but a glass or cup at that location. Somewhere in this space is the implement you need, but now you need to learn this space.

Game design does not have this luxury. If a player goes to the spot where they expect an ability (similar to looking to a glass in a different kitchen) they immediately go into frustration when it does not work as expected. This is not because of some stunted tolerance for change, as I'm sure many baby-boomers will point out. Instead it is a problem of context. We play games to enter a state of flow (read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi) so that behaviors in game that in all other context should be work, instead is an enjoyable experience. Failing to enter flow brings the task at hand back into work, which is exactly the opposite reaction we desire from games.

For game designers, we need to design our kitchens so that most people can go into them and begin using them at a near-expert level immediately. They should not wonder where the cups are. Instead we should make cabinets with glass doors so you can see where the cups are. If the player is used to a gas range but we only have electric, provide some quick UI that helps translate what the difference means. Can't find a specific ingredient? Well that's okay too because we are going to give you big arrows that point to suggested alternatives in the specific moment you need them.

Team Tabletop #5 is coming

2012-06-11T06:57:00.001-07:00

This weekend is the return of Team Tabletop.

We will be doing the fifth and final mission of our current Battletech series. So far we have cut off enemy communications, found an advanced unit, destroyed a manufacturing facility, and failed in cutting off enemy supply lines. Early reports tell us we will be facing an urban combat environment for the first time.

Should be fun.

We'll be getting an early start, so there WILL BE BRUNCH. 'Cus that's how we roll.

What Makes a Good Game Producer?

2012-05-17T13:24:00.000-07:00

Defining the role of Producer

Nearly every producer in entertainment is asked the same question: "what does a producer do?"

The definition of a producer changes in every studio. Sometimes they are more like project managers, handling the budget and schedules. Sometimes they are more like design directors, holding the vision of the product and seeing that every aspect meets that core direction. Sometimes they are firefighters, solving problems in rapid succession, usually because no one bothered with the core vision, budget, or schedule in great detail. Other times they are whatever the company needs at that moment, swapping hats as designers, programmers, QA, or artists, as they know just enough about each area to do beginner-level work.

There simply is not a good definition for what a producer does, because the true answer is "everything".

For the producer, this creates a bit of a problem in work assessment. Are you doing a good job? Well did you do "everything" today? As a producer on various products, usually I'm judged by my superiors on the quality, efficiency, and frugality in whatever area I happen to be in charge of for the product. To the publishers and most of the outside world, I'm judged on how good the end result of the area of the product turned out in retail, even though many of the decisions of that product were made well above my payscale.

I produced Homefront single-player campaign, so go ahead and judge.

Lessons from a Film Crew

When I worked in film, I was taught a simple rule to know when you see a good producer: "they are the ones sitting, talking on the phone all day about the next film". On a film set, every detail of every job is clearly defined to the person doing that job. You dare not pick up an apple box unless your title has Grip in it. Do not even try to plug in anything electric unless you are on the Gaffer's team. It is frequent on a film set to see a group of perfectly capable crew standing next a 5-pound object that needs to be moved for the next shot and refusing to touch it as if it were covered in razor blades and excrement. Instead they radio over to the one whose job it is to move that object and have them come in from a hundred yards away.

Mr. Cruise is on the set. Someone radio a Grip to move his "leveling device"

This might sound like insanity, especially when you are new to a set. The common complaint aired by crew members is "hurry up and wait" because they cannot move ahead with their job until a blocker is handled by the specific person that handles that specific blocker. Surely the whole production could save time if only I could plug in my own plug or lift a simple box.

But there are reasons behind this insanity. Each part of the crew has responsibilities to be ready to go when the time comes. If someone else begins to go rogue and handle their own simple tasks, then disasters begin to happen. A Gaffer might have all the power of that site maxed to capacity for the lights on set. If you need electricity, then only his team would know which circuits are safe and which could be killed just by plugging in your cell phone charger. Likewise, Grips are not just responsible for moving things, but making sure this things are safe for the rest of the crew to be around. If someone trips over a simple box, then it is the Grip's fault no matter who moved it. If you were on the hook for that kind of responsibility, you would flip out if someone moved something as well.

One of my responsibilities on The Station Agent: be this dude's hands to write a note. I'm serious.

Producers on film crews also have a specific responsibility. They are in charge of making sure that everything that is required for that day's work to happen is present and ready. If someone needs something to do their job, then the producer has work to do. They are present on set to handle anything that may come up throughout the day, and things come up all of the time. Weather changes, deliveries are late, equipment breaks, vans are stuck in traffic, etc. As these problems arise, the producer needs to run over and handle that problem immediately.

This is why it is the sign of a good producer on film when they are sitting on set, because it means there are no problems. They have though of everything and technically their job is done. They do not need to pay attention to the job at hand, so they might as well figure out the details of the next shoot which will be coming in 3 months.

A clearly defined role allows for a simple behavior to be used as a measure of performance.

Working in Games

Now in the game industry, roles are not as clearly defined. It's much more of a muddled system where everyone has their own process and style. Roles lack definition, especially in the production team. It's exactly like film, only back in the early 20th-century when no one knew what they were really doing.


What's the stuntman of which you speak?

Films have had over a century to refine their craft. Games have only had a few decades of large teams. Before then, games were made by one or two programmers who handled everything. By the nature of that development, we branched out roles from one "jack-of-all-trades" to many focused "jacks-of-all-trades". A game artist will not go very far unless they have rudimentary knowledge about graphical computing that puts them just shy of a CS degree. Likewise, graphic programmers better have a good sense of art and design so that they can make the tools and processes that will define the visual style.

Likewise, producers in games need to know a little bit about everything. They may not be able to code the game, but they better be able to read code well enough to find glaring errors in logic. They may not have an art degree, but they better know exactly what the art director is looking for when they negotiate art from an outside vendor and approve contracts and payments. In many of these cases it is good for the producer to have experts in each department that they can use for reference.

But despite whatever your studio's style of producer, there is a common thread among all of them that is akin to their brethren in film: they are there to make sure everyone can do their job that day.

Everyone's needs change quickly in game development. New problems and new bugs come up suddenly and need to be dealt with. The best way to handle this as a producer is talk to a lot of the right people and find a good course of action. If there is not a problem du jour, then there are problems coming tomorrow or the next day. Some you can plan for, but others will surprise the best of us. But whether your producer is being proactive or reactive, they are following the same basic behavior: they are talking with other people and making plans. This can be done over the phone, but for some reason the most efficient meetings are face-to-face. And to do this, that producer is not going to be at their desk most of the day.

So in my own experience, the best game producers are the ones you cannot find in their own desk. They are the ones constantly on the move, jumping from meetings to talk to a developer at their desk, and then off to QA. They should be wearing running shoes and not run out of breath when they go up a flight of stairs. Game producers should function like sharks; constantly swimming or else die.


You're gonna need a bigger console

The Rules of Entertainment

2012-05-10T11:54:00.000-07:00

If you are an entertainer, there are 3 things that are REQUIRED in whatever you are giving to an audience for it to be entertaining:

You must make the audience learn something
You must make the audience feel something
You must surprise the audience with something

Now I cannot claim credit for this list. I heard it during an interview with Penn Jillette. I am not sure if he originated this list either, but since it is such sound wisdom I would not be surprised if this was a list that Mr. Jillette in turn heard from some predecessor.

Not to say that Mr. Jillette cannot have profound and wise things to say, but he is paid to be the loudmouth distraction so you do not notice what Teller is pulling out of his pocket.

It's like the Tank and Medic pairing in TF2, if the Medic was silent and the Tank made cameos on Fox News.

Think of every good movie, song, book, or game you have loved as an audience member. These 3 rules apply. That movie you've watched a hundred times and still love it? Ever discuss it with other people and mention how you see something new every time? How about a new movie? Did you like the Avengers? Then you learned, felt, and were surprised by something. Didn't like it? Well then you are so well-versed in the Marvel universe and so detached from your own emotions that I just can't help you, man.

Though this IS how the movie showed a grown man who is in touch with his emotions.

What really surprises me that in my own 12+ year career in entertainment, how many people in the film, tv, and game industries haven't a clue that you need to provide these things to have a satisfied audience. And this is a raising bar, as our audience is being more sophisticated and informed over time. Making a group of people learn something or be surprised by the same formula is becoming a trickier task by the day.

When Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare came out, the FPS market was dominated by the Halo series. Then MW1 provided a photo-realistic world that put you in cinematic events (a.k.a surprise events to break up the run-and-gun), emotionally laden moments (you are killed as the main character in the first 5 minutes of the game), and realistic military phrases (anyone outside of the military know what "Oscar Mike" meant before COD?).

Now we have seen several blockbuster sequels, but Infinity Ward has a serious problem. What will they teach and surprise us with next? We've seen just about every kind of slow motion vehicle explosion and Russian terrorist plot that could be jammed into a game. Black Ops 2 is going into a futuristic warfare of robots and computers. Does this mean the franchise has to go into the future to surprise us because it has outpaced itself past the present?

Because calling it "Post-Modern Warfare" would be a bit too self-aware to allow tanks with size 83 sneakers.

For a long time in the game industry, there was an open question to developers, "can a game make you cry?" Many fans of Final Fantasy pointed to the Aeris death scene in FF7 as one of the most poignant moments in games, because it surprised the audience and brought them on the verge of tears.

Time to get the Kleenex.

For myself, I didn't own a PS1 so I never experienced this moment (though I heard about it quite a bit to know most of the details). I would use another example that may not be as popular, but really does capture a full entertaining experience for myself as an audience member: Shadows of the Colossus.

The player is the one on the left.

If you have never played this game, you should play it as soon as you possibly can. The opening sequence takes its time setting a basic adventure story, but makes sure that you are emotionally invested. This is not about saving a princess in another castle. At the start, your character brings the love interest to a temple. She is in coma and you, the plucky young adventurer, has traveled with your body across far lands to find a cure. The temple sends you on a quest to kill 16 colossi, each one a different living puzzle.

The space is artistic and vast. The colossi are damn near the biggest things I have ever seen in a video game space. Each one is almost passive when you first approach, and any violent actions could almost be seen as them defending their own person or territory. There deaths come with a mixed sense of victory and sympathy, similar with the choice to farm Little Sisters in Bioshock rather than save them.

Sorry little girl. Your corpse means more bonus points. Good ending be damned.

As we wrap up the tail-end of the current console generation, I doubt we will see investment into these level of details as they are not always seen as a good investment in games. Studios have been rocked in the last few years; previously riding a high of thinking we were recession-proof, to feeling the low of record numbers of studio closures. They know the audience for consoles are dropping off and they are being more selective about what games they are playing. Now game studios can only invest in games that will make their money back. That does not leave much room for surprise, learning, and emotion, especially when those elements are never a guarantee that every person will feel those things. Even in the best pieces of entertainment, there are just those completely competent individuals that just "don't get it".

Mr. Ebert, I'm looking at you.

But I feel it is a requirement of all entertainers to strive to be one step ahead of your audience or else you are no longer entertaining. Very much in the spirit of Lee Iaccoca where you need to "lead, follow, or get out of the way", as entertainers we need to make the audience feel something, or get in the seats with them.

Being a Gamer Dad

2012-05-08T08:07:00.001-07:00

I am a gamer, a developer, and a dad. I have a toddler at home that completely changed everything in my world. Gamers without kids might not understand that shift, so I will explain.

My daily routine before becoming a dad was fairly game-centric.

Get up in the morning and play a game with breakfast; find time to take care of 2 cats and a dog
Go to work, making games
Lunchtime, play games with other game developers
Continue making games, usually late into the night
Come home and walk the dog
Rinse, repeat

Now that I'm a dad, the routine has shifted considerably

Get up in the morning and barely have time to feed and change kid, while eating breakfast and taking care of 2 cats and a dog
Go to work, making games
Lunchtime, gym so that I have enough energy to keep up with the kid
Continue making games, but need to leave promptly at 5 to take care of the kid
Come home and take care of the kid. Find time to make dinner and take care of the dog
Fall asleep early
Rinse, repeat

Now in my pre-kid life, I had plenty of time to catch up on latest designs and releases. I would be current with the goings-on in the game world and familiar with all of the big titles that were just released. This is a necessary part of my job because games are a literacy. It is a literacy that changes and improves quickly, so if you lose touch you are no longer competitive as a developer.

As dad's out there should know, your kid becomes your world in a good way. Every moment you spend with them is fantastic. Sometimes a little stressful and crazy, but you'd rather be the dad on the floor making stuffed animals talk than the dad in Cats in the Cradle.

But I do need time to game, not just for my job but also for my own downtime. The simple solution would just be to fire up the console once the kid has gone down for the night, but this is also time to spend with the wife and this leads down the path of great dad, terrible husband.

So as a gamer dad, you need to pick your battles. Sneaking in a 1/2 hour when the kid is down for a nap and the wife is at the gym. Though keep in mind that even though your child is sleeping, you are like a fireman; you are on call that instant no matter what you are doing at the time.

I would recommend being selective of what games you play as a dad. I don't mean to keep just to the E for Everyone games. I mean that you should focus more on SP games with the ability to save at the drop of a hat. Nothing is worse than getting far in a MP game and then having to drop to check on things upstairs.

You will not be able to play an MMO. Your kid is now your MMO.

It's like Children's Week, only permanent and no time to slay dragons

Team Tabletop #4

2012-04-23T11:04:00.000-07:00

Battletech Mission #4

Our group of NY/NJ area game developers once again assembled for our tabletop gaming session to continue our current Battletech experience. In the game, we have formed a motley crew of mercenaries trying to make a buck in the conflicts in space.

In our previous 3 missions, we have stormed a fortified communications array, failed to protect a demolition crew to disrupt a supply chain, and blow the holy hell out of a tank factory.

Now we have been told in our pre-game mission briefing that we are to enter a planet covered in heavy jungle. We are searching for a Clan mech, but we will be facing off against an enemy recon squad in the search as well. Our team must rescue the Clan mech, and if possible destroy the enemy recon force and any defenses they have.

How many producers does it take to Meta-Game?

In this group, most of us are game producers and project managers. Since Battletech involves resource management and choice of mechs prior to entering combat, we have applied our professional skills into our strategy.

Our pre-game planning, using mech sheets and a spreadsheet on a Droid tablet to manage repairs

We are facing off against a GM who is a game designer by trade. He is wily and has forced our hand in previous conflicts to extend ourselves and make sacrifices. He has also given us the hint to install Beagle sensors due to the heavy fog and tree cover. And anyone that has played a game with a GM involved, you know that if they suggest something, you better do it. You will not get a second chance to make that mistake.

Over burgers and our Google doc spreadsheet, we analyze what mechs we can repair from the last session. Our heaviest mech has been destroyed which opens up quite a bit of repair time for remaining mechs, so we cover our options:

- most of our mechs need only light repair

- we are heading into a jungle, so we need light mechs with jumping capabilities (it takes more to walk through dense forest per turn). These should also be fast, since our GM has probably hidden the Clan mech on the far side of the map.

- we need to remove weaponry from the light mechs to install these Beagle scanners, so they will functionally be scouts only

- we need to back up the scouts with firepower. We believe most of the combat will be short-range, so we bring in the Thug. We are split on the Warhammer (up-close combat) or the Catapult (long-range damage and needs heavy repairs at this time). The Warhammer can fend for itself, but the Catpult can move faster and the scouts can call in long-range strikes from it when they find the enemy. We decide to risk the repair time on the Catapult and send in our best gun to pilot it.

Somehow this mech required 5 hours of repair to the arms

Our strategy: go in fast with the 2 scouts. As we scan the area for enemies, put the catapult in a good location to hit the entire map. Slowly bring in the Thug for cleanup. Essentially, zerg-rush to the far side of the map so we can cutoff the enemy and get the Clan mech.

Into the Woods

We immediately take off into a pincer formation with the two scouts acting as point. Our scanners are not having much effect as something seems to be jamming us. As we march through (or in most cases jump over) the woods, we see artillery shells being shot off in the distance. A round later, those shells are splashing in where we were just standing. Lesson learned: this is not the game to stand in one spot.

Not a single reference image on the internet of Battletech mechs in the jungle, but a ba-jillion Avatar images. Internet, you have failed me.

Our scouts are halfway across the map when suddenly our Catapult is jumped from behind. The Thug doubles-back to provide support while our scouts continue to head deeper into the brush. Now our scouts are jumped.

Somehow our scouts are able to pull through, even though they are being out-gunned and out-manuevered, we return enough damage to keep the enemy at bay. We're also able to locate to 3 artillery camps and wipe them out.

At this point, we have turned the entire jungle into a meat grinder. We have located all artillery camps and enemies. We have given out a fair bit of damage, but our team is also starting to become a little worse for wear. Our scouts are badly damaged, one having lost an arm. Our Thug barely has any armor left, and the Catapult is just able to stay alive long enough to put a few more missles into the air.

Fortunately we were able to knock down one of their mechs. The other mechs scattered as it looked like we would now have the numbers to defeat them. We then had the freedom to look for the Clan mech (which happened to be close to our starting point and we would have found it if we just walked forward).

Next Round - the Final Mission

The next game will cover the final mission in this series. We only have a few mechs left and not a lot of time for repairs. Our team handles knock-down fights well, but we suck at recon and escort missions. Let's see what the GM brings us.

Tabletop Game Tonight

2012-04-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

Tonight the plucky crew of NY/NJ game developers will be continuing our Battletech series with our fourth mission. Our team has been pretty beaten up, and most of our mechs are heavily damaged or beyond repair.

No idea what will be coming, though we will be using baby toys for our battlefield layout, especially the squeaky whale.

I'll post a recap of the game in the not-so-distant future.

New York Gamers

2012-04-17T08:35:00.001-07:00

The game industry is a very small and tight community. Within 5 years of a career, you have connections with just about everyone. This doesn't mean you'll be talking game designs at a coffee shop with Jane McGonigal or Cliff Bleszinski (or maybe you will as developers are a friendly bunch), but it will mean that you are within 2-degrees of separation from these folk.

If anyone could make a Kevin Bacon game with Jane McGonigal, it would be Jane McGonigal

Now that there have been a lot of studio closures and openings across the industry, that has exacerbated the mix. For example, most of the team I worked with at Kaos are now spread across the globe in just about every other studio that exists. And this happened within 6 months. That's extreme networking.

Within New York, that interconnectivity is especially strong. There are many studios in and around the New York area, and we all want the other studios to succeed. Games have not taken off in this city like in Austin, San Fran, LA, Vancouver, or Montreal. But we are here, working to prove that game companies can be very successful here. We will support each other through IGDA and other gatherings to make sure that our talent pool and industry is strong.

With that said, I truly support the endeavors of Avalanche Studios. They quickly filled the gap of triple-A gaming that the fall of Kaos created in this city. And they did it with an attitude of not trying to prove anything except that great games can be made here.

They've gathered a truly talented bunch of developers, and as soon as they announce their project, I will be in the pre-order line.

And it helps that they shoot me messages across Spring St.

That's epic

Mass Effect 2 Retrospect

2012-04-16T11:58:00.003-07:00

In a natural progression from my recent ME1 retro, I'm diving into ME2. Just like before I will present what was good and not so good from a developer's perspective. The bar is a little higher for this game since it doesn't suffer from new IP syndrome, nor have as many issues with the Unreal engine.

And yes, after this, you can expect some ME3 play.

PAX East 2012 Aftermath

2012-04-12T11:17:00.000-07:00

The time of year for PAX East has come and gone, and once again it was an epic gathering of epicness. PAX truly creates an excellent venue by mixing the best of GDC and E3 into a mega-presentation made for the fans. As a game developer, it's great to see the latest games and hear some of my confederates current thinking and direction in games. Here's a quick recap of what I saw:

2012 Expo Hall Floor

Gamers are Awesome

Throughout the entire weekend, engaging with a packed convention center with only shoulder-to-shoulder space, I only had to deal with 2 jerks, and one of them was not part of the convention. Thousands upon thousands of fans converged and were kind, thoughtful, attentive, and considerate. They are also extremely passionate, which seems to be gamers greatest strength and biggest problem.

As gamers, we love this stuff. We love it when someone dresses up in Cosplay, getting to play Felicia Day in Munchkins, or having normal conversations with makers and audience. Just look at the recent Mass Effect 3 ending press. It is an experience that has serious investment from the audience, so much so that the audience is having EA remake the ending!! This connection between maker and audience just has not existed before. Now we live in a world where we can alter what is entertaining us after it has been manufactured!

Hopefully an ending remake that adds awesome this time

But this passion came become overwhelming for the uninitiated. Walking in a densely packed space with cosplayers and obscure in-jokes does not allow much room for a learning curve. These are fans that love this stuff, and cannot understand why you do not share their enthusiasm. It's hard to find common ground with non-gamers, even though we could make connection to how emotional people get over their local sports teams.

What really is the difference between this guy:

And this guy:

If you said "attention to detail", then you are probably a cosplayer.

Here's an example of just how great gamers are in groups:

At PAX East, while waiting in line for Friday, someone blew up a beachball and a crowd game started instantly. We all knew the rules: keep the ball in the air. People would shout at those close to the ball to help push it to those who haven't gotten a chance to play. One dad lifted his son on his shoulders so he could hit the ball. Then 6 more balls came into the fray and I heard someone scream "multi-ball!!" Now you had to be very aware of your surroundings in case a rogue ball came your way.

Even waiting in line is a game

All of this because we were waiting. And excited. But also a little bored. But mostly a community with an unspoken understanding. We are here to have fun. We are here because we are fans. We will not judge your fun or fandom.

The Best

- Assassin's Creed 3 -my personal favorite of the high-end games catapulted the series to a higher level. There was a demo video that showed how the player would engage in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Expect large armies, historic settings, and a Arkham-esque approach to taking down soldiers from trees.

- Chivalry - at first this indie game seems like an interesting attempt at first-person gladiatorial combat. Imagine Skyrim only you fight in a mutliplayer arena. It is in it's Alpha stage and it seemed very refined for that level of development. My first playthrough wasn't spectacular, but when I was pushed into a wall of spikes, the game got my attention. My last battle I finished off my opponent, stood over the ragdoll, and decapitated it before the endgame screen came up. I walked away cheering.

The game objective seems to be to kill chivalry in the most bloody way possible.

- Future of Education Panel- I was surprised how many educators came to PAX, but this panel was standing room only. I came away convinced that Valve is up to something that will significantly help your kids in schools. Expect great things in the next few years.

- World of Tanks- this Russian-made, free-to-play tank game is doing extremely well in the PC market. And the developers are great to talk to as well. Also expect great things from this team in the not-so-distant future

- Secret World- a post-apocalyptic zombie shooter MMORPG. Read that again. The description alone is worth checking out the game.

- Independent Games - there were a lot of indie games in demo at PAX this year, and every single one I played was a lot of fun. Many were niche games, such as throwbacks to old side-scrolling fighters. But I loved those games.

- Costumes - these fans are putting a lot of time into these intricate costumes, and it shows.

- Team Unicorn & Felicia Day - thanks for being approachable and playing a few games.

- Free-to-Paint Models - great idea to add a little crafting into the tabletop area. How can you not paint a dwarf or ogre when it's free.

The Worst

- More of the Same - Most of the Expo Hall floor was covered with more big shouldered space marine and special ops shooters so that you lost track of what game was what. This may be indicative of the industry as a whole as many studios shuttered in the last few years and this generation of consoles is nearing its end. Many studios are only looking to make money where it has been proven that you can make money. If you are looking for something besides this year's Gears of Duty, go to the indie booths.

- The Staff of the Royale - Usually the GGW party thrown by Digital Noob is one of the best during PAX. This year there was a bit of a snafu as the usual place closed down. Royale provided the save in the last 24-hours before the event. However, the bouncers were instructed to turn away anyone in sneakers and jeans. That's pretty much every single gamer in town. I even heard Cliffy B was turned away.

This PAX East was bigger and better than previous years, and I hope the trend continues. I am already looking forward to next year's event. See you at the tabletop tables.

Prepping for PAX East

2012-04-02T11:54:00.000-07:00

Once again I will be off to PAX East for this coming weekend. I had a blast last year and met up with a lot of folks in the industry and media, as well as the fans.

I will not be marketing for any games this year, and instead going as both developer and fan. For anyone at the tabletop area, you will find me near MTG and D&D. I may even bring a few other game devs with me.

Also, keep an eye out for the media folks who will be helping to make a great event even better, like HipHopGamer, Digital Noob, and NotFNCute.

Team Tabletop Continues

2012-03-29T12:41:00.001-07:00

The call has gone out.

The forces of good and evil will do battle on 4/20. No word on our next Battletech mission as of yet. More on that to come.

Dex Out

Mass Effect 1 Retrospect

2012-03-28T15:38:00.001-07:00

A review from a game design perspective

So a little while back I promised that I would play through ME1 with my designer cap on. I would evaluate the game not on the limitations of the engine as I too was developing on the Unreal engine at the time and know what came easy and what did not. I would look at the intentions of the designers and point out what really worked, and what really didn't.

I do need to mention that I do respect the work that Bioware and EA have done, and not just because I have friends on their development teams. I also should mention that I will not warn of spoilers. The game has been out for years. Vader was Luke's father. Rosebud was the sled.

Well I finished a full playthrough and here's what I noticed.

Basics

Since no two playthroughs of this game are identical (which I do find a huge plus to the design), here are my initial specs of my Shepard:

- Male

- Earthborn

- Ruthless

- Infiltrator

Content issues and the UI

The biggest hurdle in creating an RPG is the content. Most games need to follow a bible just for creating a linear experience. Once you branch the experience, or allow for sandbox play, you are quite literally creating a world of content, and all of it must be seamless.

Somehow, UI design is usually one of the last items developed. How are we to know what goes into the menus if we don't know the content yet. UI tends to follow behind everyone else, which is also why the last big bugs and heaviest crunch falls on these guys near the end of development. People tend to ignore UI when it is flawless, and are relentless about it when it is not.

Though there are other articles online (like this one) about the specifics of UI flaws in ME1, I really find the issue to be a disparity between presenting a vast ocean of content from the very first screen, while keeping the stuff on screen still somewhat digestable. I feel ME1 came close, but was off enough to cause issues.

For example, the character creation assumes quite a bit from the player. If I pick an Adept, the games tells me that I am the ultimate biotic, with starting talents of barrier, throw, and warp. Great! What's a biotic? What's throw and barrier in terms of this game? Are they good choices? Do they fit with the character I have already built in my head before starting the game (for me it was Malcolm Reynolds)? I haven't a clue what I'm going into, but I need to make these very important choices before any content exposure, with no chance of going back. If I don't like the choices, then I have to go back and recreate everything from scratch and begin again.

Is Psychic a choice? 'Cus it should be.

This disparity between content and UI I feel is one of the biggest detractors of the game. The first time I played through back 5 years ago, I stopped after I became a Spectre and earned control of the Normandy. My issue then was the game switched from a guided experience to a sandbox (with some direction). I was not ready for the sandbox, and looking into the galaxy map the first time, I just went "Whoa". I picked a planet at random, landed, and was promptly destroyed by a Thresher Maw. Rinse and repeat a few times, and I was done.

In Star Trek Voyager, these distances would have taken 75 years to travel. That's a long way to go to Panda Express at Warp 9.

In this playthrough, I was gone from beginning to end. I've realized there are pointers to help guide you through the space now, which is a nice touch but not enough. I also had a series of combat powers, that even after finishing the game, I'm still not sure what they do. I do know that sabotage and damping had more significant effect on killing off geth, but I could not tell you what those powers did. I haphazardly blasted powers in the direction of enemy bots rather than use any real strategy to combat.

Terrain and the Mako

I find the Mako experience kind of a fascinating one, mostly because I imagine what the paper design and execution was like. We want the player to land on alien worlds with harsh environments. We want to give them a vehicle that can traverse difficult terrain. Then the execution process must have been a tennis match war between the vehicle team and the terrain team on who could be more absurd.

I see the terrain team looking at the terms "alien", "difficult", and "harsh" and just running with it. This is actually a good thing. Frequently in game development, the devs try to create the most accurate feature they can, only to find out they need to rebuild it because it was not what the Director or EP was thinking. Sometimes it is better just to go to 11 with the feature, and then you can tune it back down. And if we are bothering with scientific accuracy, alien worlds do tend to be very cratered and spiky. There isn't a lot of weather on other planets eroding away the harsh edges. Mountains on other planets are razor sharp. It was clear that the terrain team did their homework.

Mars will eat your car's tires

At this point, the Mako team probably caught wind of the terrain teams work, most likely through a producer. This is exactly the kind of trouble we producer cause. They went back to their Mako variables and then set them to 11 to handle whatever the terrain team could be making. What resulted was a tank that could drive over anything with an almost Spider-man-like ability to climb up walls. It had cat-like reflexes so that it never turtled. And most importantly it had rockets just in case.

Here's where I question the design. Why make sprint the same button as rockets? As a natural reaction as a player, I want to give the Mako a little extra gas to get up the hill. Instead I fly back off the hill wall and have to restart.

Then this mix got into the hands of the level designers, who rightly put hard to find objects across the map. But this whole combination is a cocktail to frustrate the player. The first planet is interesting, but the facade quickly breaks down on retrieval quests. Throw in almost impossible to traverse mountains in the way and a vehicle that can somehow crawl up them and someone is not evaluating this level's gestalt. There is a difference between making the objective of a game difficult with clear and harsh obstacles, and making objectives difficult through no-though tedium.

Cinematics and Story

This team had to create so much cinematic content, I'm actually impressed that they fit it onto one disc. Seriously. I have no problem that animations in most conversations tended to have the same head bobs and shuffles. I actually was able to suspend that nitpicking and really enjoy the story this time through.

Back when I first tried ME1 and quit at the galaxy map, my fellow developers told me I at least needed to keep going because the story was worth it. My personal feelings at the time (and still is) is that games are not an effective narrative delivery service. If you want to tell a good story, make a movie or write a book. In a game, the player becomes an active participant, and they are going to ruin whatever you had in mind. This is a good thing in games, but rarely do I buy into a game for the narrative.

But the ME folks did a really good job. I felt that they led me in the overall narrative when necessary, but allowed me to go off in any direction I wanted. Creating a non-linear narrative means you will need funnel points so that you can keep the overall direction together. Otherwise you would hit a branch in the story and then have to load a new disc (remember those PC gaming days?).

The ME1 story followed the classic cowboy narrative. A lone gunman encounters a corrupt sheriff, and in turn becomes the new sheriff. A motley crew of misfits that didn't fit with the old ways system join in with our hero, some reluctantly. In the end there is a gunfight between new and old law. Most likely some reveal about how the sheriff was really just protecting folks from a bigger evil. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go out and rent Unforgiven or any movie by John Ford.

When you leave a man at the Ilos Conduit, you better make sure he's dead.

It would have been nice to see the pre-story story that you select to help sell your version of Shepard, but again I understand that this game had to ship too.

So well done Bioware. And if you can translate John Wayne's character in the Searchers into ME4, then I would be impressed. And I'm still not sure whether that character killed his own niece in the canyon or not, but I'm sure he did. I'm also sure Shane died at the end as well, though they never showed it.

Save/Loads

This was the largest point of frustration for me. Main narrative events seemed to be sprinkled with occasional automatic saves, but few too sparse. Other planets only saved when you landed, in the hopes that you could do everything and leave before you need to save again.

But Unreal bots with rocket launchers have a tendency to be a little cheap. You can mow through a 100 bots without issue, only to have a rogue geth knock you out in one hit. Then you go an hour of gameplay back. That's just not right.

And yes I am aware there is a user save option when not in combat. After the first few hours lost, I spammed this option like a bunny in heat. Not an ideal play condition when I feel my time invested is constantly at risk.

Here's an example. The Thorian's Lair, which has a handy save point just before the entrance. As a player, you enter and engage in a cut-scene dialogue tree. Then some combat. Another cut scene. Combat, cut scene, combat, final cut scene of Thorian dying. There's even an achievement for this moment. But if you leave this space and are killed by a rogue geth you left on the planet and did not save, you go all the way back to the entrance to the Thorian's Lair. It's like the neverending portal slide, only less awesome.

Conclusions

I really enjoyed this game the second time around, much more than what I gave it credit for back when it first came out. There are quite a bit off issues, but there are for the first game of any IP. Any diehard COD1 players out there? There is a lot of forethought in the first game and you can buy into the vision for future (now past) endeavors. I'm picking up ME2 to see if they fixed the issues above, because if so, I'm sold.

Hit my limit on Election Year

2012-03-25T18:34:00.000-07:00

This is a bit of a departure from the focus of this blog. It is not game related.

[Jumping on soapbox]

Doesn't everyone buy there soap in one of these things?

I keep hearing in the news about different political spins on religion and the directions of the U.S. Constitution, even to the level how religious the Founding Fathers were. Fox News would have us believe that every original member of Congress was a super-religious Christian. MSNBC takes the approach that most of the Founding Fathers were Deists and scientists, believing the common concept of intellectuals in the 18th century that religion is an opiate for the masses.

Well I took the time to do some research, and the real Founding Fathers were ranging from borderline atheist (i.e. Jefferson who wrote "separation of church and state") to including religion in their daily life (i.e. Adams, President #2).

George Washington is used on both sides of the argument. He is quoted as saying,“the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion” in the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli. He also stated, “it is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible" in his farewell address.

The Founding Fathers were a diverse group of guys with different backgrounds, different motivations, and different beliefs. Which is really the whole point. There is no one American way. There are many.

So when I hear any candidate on either side of the aisle speak of the American Way as A, B, or C, you have missed a major step. The American Way is D: All of the Above.

And Google Santorum. That joke never gets old.

Looking Back on Mass Effect

2012-03-17T17:22:00.002-07:00

Back in 2007 I was well into development on Frontlines: Fuel of War, which we were developing on the Unreal engine. Though Unreal had been around over a decade, the newest version was just starting to see title launches on Xbox 360. So far we had seen a very successful launch with Gears of War, but from a developer standpoint, the engine was built to make that specific game. If you were creating a console title on Unreal then, you studied every other Unreal engine based game as it came out.
When Mass Effect originally came out, we swarmed it because it diverged the farthest from Gears in design to that date. Many developers heralded it as GOTY (though in tight competition with CoD4:MW and Portal).
Back then, I played up until Shepard becomes a Spectre and can travel anywhere in the galaxy. This is where my confederates claimed the game really started to become good. But I felt I had experienced enough of the game for my taste and moved on to other titles. To be honest, most developers only play the first few levels of a game before moving on.
Now that we're at ME3, I figured it was due time to go back and take a look at the series. I'll play from the beginning and evaluate the game purely on design choices, as many of the issues in previous reviews were due to limitations of the engine at the time (long elevators, odd animation for female characters, odd lighting issues, texture popping). I'll go back and record my progress and insights.
So here we go...

Team Tabletop - Battletech Mission #3

2012-03-07T13:18:00.001-08:00

Saturday evening our usual gang of suspects gathered together to play and evaluate Battletech, as it is a relative new game to most of us despite it being a classic tabletop combat game.

The Best and Worst of Us
I should preface that the most dangerous thing in a game is a game designer. This does not mean we are masters of every game we touch (usually that is QA Testers).

How the world appears to QA; perhaps we shouldn't let them outside.

Designers tend to pick up a game, kick its tires, and then once we have a rough understanding of intent and balance we put it down.We will analyze different aspects in the game and explore our options, whether or not they seem like a good idea or not. We know that no game is constructed from a perfect ruleset, so there are always holes and exploits. Sometimes they are from obscure combinations. Other times it is from doing the exact thing that the designer assumed that no one would ever do. Because of this, we sometimes do really insane things in a game.

Think of in terms of a game most people in the world are familiar: chess. The object of chess is to capture the opponent's king. Natural strategy would mean you put every possible obstacle in the way so that is the last thing your opponent can do. A game designer looks at this game and says, "you can attack with the king, so what happens if I lead an offensive charge?" Games allow for experimentation and divergent strategies, so the game allows you to take this route (though not for very long).

This tabletop group has a notorious reputation of doing exactly that. Actually one member in particular is notorious for doing exactly that. But since he does have a name in the games industry and frequently gives presentations at GDC and other events, I will avoid posting his name or image here. But he is the one that decided it was best to create a warrior in D&D 3.5 edition that carried heavy armor and 2 shields. No weapons. That character survived countless monster attacks, killed no one, and died trying to swim.

Impervious to arrows, deadly to no one, should stay in the kiddie side of the pool.

Tabletop is NOT Your XBox

Another major note of tabletop games is that they do not play like a console or PC game. There are no extra lives. You get one shot to do something or else perma-death. Also there is one player sitting across the table from you who is trying to kill you every step of the way. That player is the GM. And they are vengeful.

These games do fall into a set routine that usually shapes itself to whatever your GM usually throws at you. But in the first few playthroughs, you have no idea how you as the player will be screwed. So it makes for a high-risk, high rewards game. It also means rolling a natural 20 means more than a headshot any day.

Also, unless you have excessive disposable income and tons of free time, you tend not to have realistic model renderings of what you are fighting. Instead you use whatever is on hand to allow you to figure out the intricacies of combat. I have faced soda cans that represented dragons and my avatar was a Yuengling cap.

Roar! I'm a dragon!

Battletech Campaign So Far...

Whether or not you are familiar with the narrative and premise of Battletech or its expanded universe, I will sum it all up right here. It's the future. You are a mercenary/pilot. Wars are fought with giant, walking tanks, which can trip and fall over (but still more powerful than regular tanks for some reason).

Nothing says "screw your puny tanks" more than knee cap rocket launchers

Mission 1: Destroy a communications tower and any enemy mechs nearby

Team Strategy: Go in with a mixture of long-range mechs and heavy short-range mechs and destroy everything.

This strategy worked out rather well for a while. Unfortunately Battletech works in rounds of winning initiative with a dice roll and advantage of the last move goes to the victor. It also helps if the entire team moves all mechs in such a way that follows the same basic strategy. When your sniper runs forward but your heavy retreats, hilarity ensues. In one round, our sniper was torn a new A-hole cog. It also does not help if the only player that can help the sniper in time is the other sniper, who in turn was split asunder. The two heavies still have that new car smell.

Battletech also allows for melee combat (if you have a tank with fists, why not). One of our heavies ended up in a violent fist fight not too dissimilar from Rocky vs. Ivan Drago, if Adrian happened to be firing a RPG at Drago's back.

Our team won the battle, destroyed the tower, and captured their biggest mech with a knockout punch. Huge high-fives all around (except for the two snipers who no longer had arms).

Mission 2: Escort a demolitions team to destroy a bridge

Strategy: Bring in fast runners and capture the bridge; provide cover fire

I believe Mike Tyson once said, "everyone has a plan until they are punched in the face". That sums up our team's attempt at this escort mission.

At the game start, we have four fast mechs on one side of a bridge. At the other, there are four enemy mechs. One of these enemies is carrying an ax. An ax that we quickly find out is devastating to other mechs.

So just a tally, this is a future where wars are won by tanks that can trip and punch, and the deadliest weapon is an ax. Yep. Tomahawk missile? 50% chance of hitting. Tomahawk ax? It will end you.

As a group, we react by unleashing every weapon we have on this ax carrying mech. In a few short rounds, this mech is on the ground, twitching. In those same short rounds, the other enemy mechs leaned over the side of the bridge and blew up our demo crew. Ooops. We completely forgot our strategy.

Mechs can facepalm, but you have to roll for it.

So mission failed, we turn all guns at the next nearest enemy mech. Keep in mind that in this game, all weapons-fire resolves in game at the same time. So if a mech is destroyed, all missiles and weapons it fired and was fired at it still go through their processes. We effectively teabagged this enemy mech with rockets. The other two mechs ran away, but by then it was too late.

Mission #2 failed. Expecting results that our enemy forces would be able to resupply with more forces in future missions due to this bridge. Go team.

Here We Go

Mission #3: Destroy Tank facility, and as many tanks as you can.

Team Strategy: Bring in our heaviest guns and destroy everything

Map layout: We had to use some basic materials from around the house. My daughter's toys come into play. It seems large toddler building blocks are perfectly one-hex wide, an perfect for building walls. String becomes terrain height markers. Large gun towers are represented by animal toys, in this case 2 giraffes and a whale.

Focus all firepower on the left giraffe!

On the game start, we focus on attention on the closest gun tower (giraffe on the bottom-left). This worked amazingly well as gun towers are not meant to take a concentrated barrage like that for too long. The giraffe goes down and out come the tanks.

At this point our attention is split. There is a beehive of tanks coming our way, and a giant center gun tower blowing the crap out of our location (whale). Our strategic conversation at this point breaks down quickly into "when in doubt, LRM (long-range missile) the whale!!!"

We are able to sneak one fast mech in across the side of the facility so he can download a virus. It was an amazing bit of stealth done by a 35-ton machine. Just as it was ready to enter the facility, one of the team decides to fire blindly into the door and clear out a path. Instead of clearing out a path, it makes an impossible shot and levels the entire facility. Ummm, mission accomplished. Now what? Oh yeah, tanks.

Now these tanks are fast. Real fast. And they stick around just long enough for us to knock off nearly all armor, but not enough to make the kill. And there are enough of them that their little beestings are catching up with us. Instead of sticking around and take more damage, we decide to run for it. Unfortunately by doing so, it allowed them to concentrate all of their firepower on the big Drago mech we won two missions ago. That mech is now vaporized. The rest of the team were able to evac without too much damage.

What We Learned

Though most tabletop games do plod along at a fairly slow pace (one round of combat in mission #2 took 40 minutes to discuss and resolve) usually you get a round or two to make up for a mistake. Battletech does not allow for these mistakes. You need to make every round count, which can lead to a more defensive posture.

However, the game also rewards fast action over defensive play, so as a player you really need to find that sweet spot between bezerker rush and turtle that will allow for victory.

There is a significant portion of the game spent determining repairs and upgrade between missions. We found it best to put all of this information up on Google docs and handle it like a bunch of project managers (some of us are a bunch of project managers in real life).

Game designers + board game + Google docs = overcompensation

There was an extensive learning curve to Battletech, and I wouldn't recommend it for folks just looking to try it out once. You also should have at least one person present that is familiar with how the game is played. Preferably two people, since one would be the GM, and they will probably use that advantage to kill you.

And they will kill you.

Team Tabletop

2012-03-03T07:21:00.001-08:00

Tonight there will be a gathering of my fellow game developers in one of our longstanding tradition of game nights. Sometimes we explore board games and test their mechanics. Sometimes we play D&D. Sometimes we dig out some classics from our library.

Tonight's game will be the third night in our current campaign in Battletech.

Later I will post a report on the events of this night and describe some of strategies and items we learned about the designer's intent. I'll also include some of the absurdities and mistakes we made during play.

An Issue of Context

2012-02-29T12:43:00.002-08:00

So what I do for my 9-to-5 involves application of game theory into education. Coming from a strictly games-for-entertainment background, this has been a learning curve for me, especially when it comes to theories of learning. A year ago I was trying to teach my audience how to aim an M4. Now I show them the distribution property.

I didn't remember what it was either.

It may not come as a surprise that the current education system in the U.S. is broken and backwards. If you don't know what I mean, go and watch Waiting for Superman. It's on Netflix, and afterwards you will fear for your children's futures much like Outbreak made you fear the monkey from Friends.

Patient Zero. Side-effects may cause constant, whiny voice.

We have a system of schools that were created for the Baby Boomer generation and receive funding based on state tests, which then motivate schools to only teach to perform better on those tests. Unless you are a Baby Boomer (my mom has figured out Facebook, so I imagine there's quite a bit of you on the internets these days) the system has failed you. And it continues to fail us as it in no way prepares us for the world around us.

Disclaimer: everything in this post are strictly my own opinion and in no way reflect any companies that I have worked for, past and present. I am my own person, which pretty much makes me a raging a-hole.

Toys and the Noise

At home I have a daughter. She is a beautiful girl and I intend on providing an environment that she will be safe from harm, as well as prepared for her life ahead. Somehow this also means I flood her world with toys.

Most toys you can buy nowadays advertise some aspect of learning. She has a dinosaur that spits balls that the box said "teaches cause and effect". I'm not sure how a spitting dinosaur teaches cause-and-effect, unless it is teaching that when the dinosaur spits, daddy now has to move the sofa to find the ball.

Most of the toys are electronic. Which means they make noise. Which in my mind would makes a more impressive display if cat burglars practice moving through a dark living room loaded with noise-making toys and a napping, teething toddler rather than laser yarn.

This toy-noise is repetitive and migraine inducing. I firmly believe a toy company is figuring out a battery-powered chalkboard, that when you touch it, makes the sound of nails running across it. And for some reason it is like crack-cocaine to kids.

One toy in particular is supposed to teach basic shapes. The intended design is that the child is supposed to take pieces that look like food and place them through slots of the same shape. The toy then gives feedback, "the cheese is a [pause for dramatic effect] TRIANGLE".

Horror film and game makers take note. These voice-overs in kid's toys are the creepiest things around. You cannot use real kids for recording. Take a 3-year-old, shove them into a dark room with a big microphone in their face, and have them read lines of script all day. They'll have a breakdown fit that makes the first Rambo seem tame.

Back then, David Caruso only came in the "shades off" variety

So instead, these professional toy designers hire professional actors and actresses that specialize in sounding like kids. Imagine thirty-something actors squeezing their vocal chords to helium-induced levels so they can squeeze out "the cheese is a triangle" with Shatner-esque rhythm. Then an audio engineer takes these recordings and compresses the ever-loving crap out of them to fit in the limited memory of a kids toy. You now have the soundtrack that nightmares are made from.

Intended Design meets the Toddler

But back to my daughter's toy. In it's design, it is supposed to reinforce the understanding on basic shapes in positive and negative spaces (square peg ≠ round hole stuff). On paper, the child is free to experiment, but when an expected behavior occurs, the toy designer rewards them with sound. For the child, the sound fires off dopamine in their brain, which motivates them to repeat the behavior again and again. Neurologically it is how pop-music works, so now you know why Ke$ha and Nikki Minnaj have careers.

There had to be a scientific reason

The key part to this is inside the hole for the shaped-pieces is a tiny, innocuous button. For my daughter, she has no priming that has prepared her that the cheese needs to go into the triangle space. If she understood that, I'd have no reason to buy the toy in the first place. Once placed in front of her, she understands there is a large part of the toy with holes, and a few smaller pieces. That's it.

Within minutes of play, she was able to find the tiny, innocuous button. She hits it and the toy rewards her. No cheese. No triangle. No square peg and round hole connections. She has learned that button = noise. And because of the dopamine hook, she presses it A LOT. Daughter 1, toy company 0.

Preparation for Tomorrow's World

So my daughter understands now that with a digital toy, pushing buttons lead to entertainment. In a weird way, she is now a little more prepared for a computer/internet world. It will not take much to build off of this base learning to show her how the TV remote, XBox controller, or daddy's Droid works. I'd actually prefer if she understood these concepts before she attempts to fill the XBox with bologna.

But what she is ill-prepared for is the rudimentary logical concepts, such as square peg/round hole. And now I cannot introduce a non-digital toy to teach this concept, because she is already has learned that noise-making toys are more fun.

I actually see this problem come up quite often in education. Basic concepts are fancied up with gamification or new digital designs, when the audience is actually way more sophisticated than the designers thought. The audience breaks the entire system by finding an unintended short-cut, and we are all a little poorer for it. Game design 101: if there is an exploit in your system, the player will find it in seconds-flat.

The only solution I can come to is direct parental intervention, and showing her repeatedly that the cheese goes into the triangle hole. Which means I am now crawling on the floor playing with her toys as she watches. Which teaches her that daddy's knees are not what they used to be. And there's your cause-and-effect.

Launch Day

2012-02-22T17:19:00.001-08:00

The adventure begins.

This is my collection of ramblings on games and the industry that made them. I'll try to keep reviews on new launch titles, but I may dig into fellow developers library and provide retrospective analysis. Just because it is an old game doesn't necessarily put it on the ignore pile.

Thanks for stopping by.

Dex out.