Introverted Introspection

Did ya miss me?

2010-10-19T23:43:00.002+01:00

Don't answer that question. I know I only have three readers.

So, what's happened in the last 2 months? Well;

I've been cruised by the police while walking in Gorton, mostly because I was wearing a hoodie.

I bought Halo:Reach and turned out to be quite good at it.

I've suffered a complete technology failure in that my PC died as well as my phone.

The PC was replaced by a friend with a shitty spare that is infinitely more awesome that my old one.

The Phone was repaired, but I had to suffer a Vodafone 360 phone for 3 weeks.

NatWest keep piling on charges which enable them to to take more charges.

I seem to have found a love interest.

I have met old friends only to find I may lose them forever.

So, yeah. Up and down. I never did tell you about Toy Story 3, did I?

MSN Spam Bots Amuse Me

2010-08-08T03:29:00.001+01:00

A friend of mine has had his MSN compromised. This is the third time I've spoken to this bot.

(03:24:20) Tim: hey!
(03:25:17) Matthew: Did you just sign up to a matchmaking site?
(03:25:26) Tim: I just signed up on a datingsite :)
(03:25:39) Matthew: You should give me the url.
(03:25:49) Tim: its [REDACTED]
(03:26:09) Matthew: Wow, I should sign up and give you my username so you can buddy me.
(03:26:28) Tim: go ahead and register and give me ur username so i can add you to be a buddy on it

Disabled people and buses.

2010-08-06T18:01:00.001+01:00

So, I have just been to see Toy Story 3, more later, but I am travelling home on the 77, only to see some bint who doesn't seem to know how to fold a pram take priority over a disabled woman. There's space for both. Fold the pram.

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Why Do We Grind?

2010-07-18T19:27:00.001+01:00

You've probably played a game that has a grind in it. It used to just be RPGs, but now it's sneaking into the FPS genre in the form of Multiplayer Ranks, which may or may not unlock various items. Call of Duty has it, and it's a purely linear experience, excluding the killstreak rewards, and Halo:Reach will include it in the form of 'Credits' earned for playing the Multiplayer element of the game, to be spent on shiny bits of armour. Why, though, do we grind?

For the answer, we need only look at human nature itself. To survive, animals and humans alike have had to compete. We compete for food, money, shelter... everything. Success in competition bring a slight elation, and that elation can become an addiction. Success that comes too easy will put you off, with the feeling of an empty victory, success that never comes leaving a feeling of defeat. This careful balance must be found and maintained by developers so that they can command the attention of the gamer.

Progression, however, must not come at a steady pace. If it does, gamers will feel as though they are only ever fighting for the same goal, one that they can predict and expect. By constantly shifting the goal posts, or providing multiple goals, the gamers experience will continue to become more and more addictive as they have new goals to aim for. In the classic case of levelling up, as in RPGs and recent Shooter games, the traditional variation of increased distance between goals is an obvious choice, as doing so will provide a quick buzz for the new player, but a goal to strive for that becomes measurably more distant with each goal attained, with the buzz of the early game setting the scene for the desire to reach the next goal, an almost Pavlovian response.

This response is also used to great effect by the Xbox 360 Achievements system that has been so doggedly been an inspiration for other systems including Steam's Achievements and PlayStation's Trophies, meaning that not only do we now grind our RPGs, but our FPSs, our Puzzlers, Platformers, Sims, Fighters and so on...

Why do we grind? We do it because that is what we were trained to do.

A Casual Analysis of the Top LIVE Titles

2010-07-16T08:24:00.002+01:00

I love Xbox LIVE. I may even marry it, but let me tell you why. Major Nelson, the Xbox LIVE Director of Programming, brings us a lot of statistics and interesting information about the service, and on a weekly basis, he posts a series of Top 20s. Top 20 active Xbox titles, Top 20 Xbox LIVE Arcade titles, Top 20 Indie Games and more recently, the Top 20 active Games for Windows LIVE titles.

First of all, lets have a look at the more sedentary titles. I can tell you that The Top Three, even without looking at the list, is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Halo 3 and either Call of Duty: World at War or whatever the most recent 'Big Name Triple-A Title' is hot at the moment that doesn't have the addictive progress-hunter multiplayer gameplay experiences offered by the top two.

It used to be that Halo 3 was the Top Dog for a very long time, but that title has been around a very long time. It's starting to show it's age, most certainly in the light of Halo: Reach soon to arrive. When Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare arrived, the number one slot used to flip-flop between Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare as people would fluctuate between the two game. Since then, we've had two new Call of Duty titles released, those mentioned above, who between them clearly have a larger market share than Halo 3, with Modern Warfare 2 clearly holding the advantage.

From that, it's perfectly reasonable to assume that First Person Shooters are popular, and it's true, they are. Western gamers, the Xbox's main market, is far more accustomed to a story being told to them about things happening to the character they're inhabiting, whereas in Japan, they are much more comfortable with being The Third Person in the story.

However, if we dip lower into the charts, beyond the 'Big Three', we see this week that our current 'Jeux du Jour' is Red Dead Redemption, some game about Cowboys made by Rockstar of Grand Theft Auto fame. The 'Fourth' installment of the city-wide immigrant-gangster-it-up is currently hovering mid-table at 8, up one place each week for the last two weeks, which we can take the mean that the popularity of R.D.R. is bringing people to GTA IV as they remember the Good Times.

Further still into 5th position, we find FIFA 10, this years incremental release of the FIFA video game from EA, well ahead of the official World Cup video game languishing at the bottom end of the top 20 and far ahead of Madden NFL 10 and NBA 2K10, a possible indicator that Europe and Australasia are a significantly larger market than Microsoft's American-centric marketing would have us believe.

Dropping now to 6th, we see that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is still alive and kicking, it's addictive personality and, dare I say, retro feel winning the day over 7th place Gears of War 2, a title that was plagued with problems at launch and has done well to retain such a large fan base. Also of note is that this is the first 'traditional' shooter in the chart that occurs in Third Person, Red Dead Redemption being discounted due it it's more open-world nature when compared to the 'arena' play of Gears.

Skipping over a title already mentioned in 8th (GTA IV) we arrive at 9th, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the first new FPS franchise to appear since the start of this article and the biggest threat to those above it, certainly in light of the title in 10th, Blacklight: Tango Down, a terrible title that feels like it's just trying to get a slice of the pie. It does, however, mark our first (and only) Arcade title in the list and if it manages to do this well next week (it's second week at release) then it stands a good chance of doing well over all.

Dropping now to 11th, we're starting to get some variety. It's still an FPS, folks, but it's Left 4 Dead 2, a game co-op with a huge following on PC. It surprises me with it's popularity, though it's a welcome variation on the chart from the FPS-fest we've endured so far.

Rounding out the chart as we look further down the list, we come to the Crackdown 2 Demo, a third person open city Genetically-Enhanced-Cop-Em-Up, with the promise of 'Demo Achievements' luring people hopefully into buying the awesome Crackdown 2, our first title without it's own website, which hovers at 17th. With Gearbox's Borderlands at 19 and Fallout 3 at 20, there is hope for humanity as RPGs make themselves known.

So, from this information, what can we meaninglessly extrapolate to insult people? Well, a very easy jibe is "Most Xbox gamers are uncultured First Person Shooter fans" which is true while being completely wrong. Most Xbox gamers are competitive jerks who want to be able to best people AND prove it, it just so happens that the majority of our titles allow a person to do that while providing adrenaline rushes and subjects we can relate to. Open worlds are also proving popular, but only in Third Person, with Fallout 3 only just popping it's head in to say hello. Sports are also popular, showing us that the primary market isn't just nerds who play FPSes, but sports fans who are likely to rob you.

Scary, no? See you on LIVE :)

Google Buzz - by Seesmic?

2010-07-14T21:48:00.003+01:00

Anyone who's anyone who follows me on Twitter (Hi Adam!) will know that I use Seesmic for Android when I tweet, so when news of Google Buzz support hit me for the most recent update, I did something I don't do often, and actually checked for the update.

The interface is pretty good. It presents you with that familiar Timeline view that Seesmic has, and the four tabs , being Following, Nearby, Search and Profile, differ from the usual tabs of Timeline, Replies, Messages and Profile. This change isn't that much of a problem, as Buzz's method of user interaction is completely different from the traditions that have grown up around Twitter's 140 character limit.

My only qualm with it is the lack of a map for Buzzes, as I do find that I enjoy the geographical side of Buzz, though with Maps and http://buzz.google.com/ (If you're on Android 2.0+ or iPhone) supporting a map of an area with buzzes represented upon it, it would be duplicating functionality that's already well done.

All-in-all, good update.

After Burner Climax

2010-07-08T06:53:00.003+01:00

So I was wandering around the Xbox Live Arcade the other day with the urge to buy something. It's a bad habit, I know, but one that has served my entertainment well. This time, I bought After Burner Climax.

Originally a 2006 Arcade title, developed by one of my all-time favourite developers, AM2, this game has guns, missiles, Boeing planes and a stupid amount of fast-paced action. Seriously. Things just go past so fast it's hard to be sure you've even seen them at times. Unfortunately, it's very easy to just end up rolling your plane all over the place as you try to swing the reticule from one side of the screen to the other. Overlooking this small interface problem, it's actually a very fun game.

It starts out really quite punishing, being able to count yourself lucky if you're able to reach the end. As you play on, you unlock 'EX' options, which can give you things from more lives, to a game that basically plays itself. It's a bit cheap to play in the 'plays itself' mode, but it's great for getting achievements nice as fast. I got my full 200 GamerScore in one sitting, but it's important to note that I almost felt like I was cheating myself with that.

They do have the perfect counter for that, though. Score Mode. This mode of play does not allow for EX options, meaning that you can't make the game just kill everything, you have to actually put an effort into things. So that I can get good at this mode, I will reduce the EX options slowly back to their defaults so that I can learn how to play the game at the high level that it demands.

With gameplay that's pretty, fast and easy to learn but difficult to master, it's well worth the 400 MSP (£3.60) I paid for it in this weeks XBLA deal, but I doubt I'd have bought it at the normal ask of 800 MSP (£7.20).

Destinaion Arcade

2010-07-08T04:06:00.002+01:00

So, Microsoft appear to be stepping up to the plate. We've seen that the PlayStation boys are able to have customised 'store fronts' for their various publishers in the PlayStation Store (on PS3 only, boo!) and with the New Xbox Experience, I had almost expected something along those lines in there. I mean, it's got some great features and is FAR more usable than the original dashboard used to be, but there was a lack of customisability in there from a Publisher's point of view, and that kinda sucks.

Major Nelson, however, has announced Destination Arcade, which looks to bring a much better discovery experience to the Xbox. Go have a look at the screenshots, it's pretty nice. It's a departure from the dashboard, but maybe it'll feature Kinect interaction some how. With this first simple change to what has been a neglected and increasingly over-priced part of the Xbox Live experience, we could see offerings like that offered by PlayStation. Soon, they may even one-up them. I'm not a fanboy, but Microsoft are quite an underdog, and Underdogs are always fun to root for.

In the future, I'd love to see a similar service offered for Retail/Games on Demand titles, offering access to DLC for games you've got, much like they're already offering on the Dashboard in a simplistic manner. The Internet is changing it's focus to User Content and User Owned Content, they call it Web 2.0. Maybe this is Xbox 360 2.0 in it's infancy? I wait with bated breath.

A formula: How long will it take me to reach Level 70, 10th prestige?

2010-06-24T14:05:00.001+01:00

Two posts in one day? Don't worry, this one won't deafen you, though it may give you head a bit of a workout.

I like Mathematics, and for a while, I've liked Modern Warfare 2. Unsurprisingly if you paid attention in school, these two do have quite a bit of overlap, be it Geometry (Bouncing Flashbangs off of walls or calculating the physics of a sticky grenade's blast), Simple Arithmetic (How many point do you need to level up now?) or in this case, Algebra.

In Modern Warfare 2, combat garners Experience (XP). This XP counts towards ranks, ranks unlock guns, guns kill people. It's a cycle. When you reach Level 70, you've unlocked everything bar accessories and paintjobs. After Level 70, you can delete all your progress in trade for a shiny little icon a total of 10 times. This is, predictably, called 'Prestige Mode', with Prestige making it's debut with Call of Duty as an Adjective, referring to the act.

Each level takes more and more experience to reach, with Prestige mode being unlocked at 2,516,000 XP. The game also takes into it's records how much time you've spent playing the game. Using this information, we can extrapolate some information.

To find the formula, we must assume or know the following:

You can collect a total of 2,516,000 * 11 = 27,676,000 XP (That's reaching Prestige Mode 10 times, then getting to enough XP to prestige again, even though I don't think you can)
The amount of time spent playing the game.
How many times you've Prestiged.
How much XP you currently have.

With this information, we can derive the speed at which we are accumulating XP with the following formula:

R = (2,516,000 * P + E) / T

R = Rate, P = Times Prestiged, E = Experience, T = Total Game Time

With my own current data of P = 3, E = 623,025, T = 7 Days, 12 Hours and 4 Minutes, it can be seen that R equates to 756.3 XP per minute, which seems correct as I score about 1.25 kills per minute, focus on objectives in objective gametypes and frequently complete challenges.

As you may remember from Mathematics or Physics, Time (Duration) is Speed over Distance. The Distance in this instance is the amount of XP we must accrue to reach our goal of Lv 70, 10th Prestige, 27,676,000 XP. When we Divide our Speed, or Rate (R), by our Distance, 27,676,000 XP, we are told how much time in total it would take at our current rate of XP growth to reach our Goal, with one last simple calculation to decide the remaining time.

R = (2,516,000 * P + E) / T

X = R / 27,676,000

Y = X - T

R = Rate, P = Times Prestiged, E = Experience, T = Total Game Time, X = Total Time to Goal, Y = Remaining Time to Goal

Using my own data, I can show you how it works out.

R = (2,516,000 * 3 + 623,025) / ~7.5 Days = 756.3 XP/Minute

X = 756.3 XP/Minute / 27,676,000 = 25.41 Days

Y = 25.41 Days - 7.5 Days = 17.91 Days

Now, that's not to say that I'll get my skull icon on the 11th of July. No, this is Game time, not Game and Menu time. :) Either way, it seems about right, as I was at 3rd prestige in 1 week of game play. 3 Weeks (21 days) of gameplay could see me at 9th Prestige, with the remaining 4 days plenty of time to get up to Level 70 of 10th Prestige.

Sorry if I made you think, but this thought been wanting to be thought out properly for a while.

Scaleform and Vuvuzelas.

2010-06-24T12:56:00.003+01:00

So, I've been playing a lot of games recently and I've noticed that there's a popular bit of middleware doing the rounds amongst the lazier developers, and that's Scaleform. That's not to say that Scaleform is as annoying as early SpeedTree uses, oh no. Scaleform is actually useful, in that it's a great way to create a UI and according to their list of games using their technology, some awesome (and less awesome) work has come out of it. Let me offer a few quick examples.

Fable II - Terrible menu system, exacerbated by an awful inventory system.
Borderlands - Consistent, but painful to use in certain situations.
Splinter Cell: Conviction - Awesome Main Menu, beautifully integrated with a 3D scene.
Fable II: Pub Games - I'm pretty sure the whole game was made with Scaleform.
Civilization IV - Very much a menu-driven game, and it works well.

You can see that, as a technology, it's gained users, and big name users at that, but it's also plain to see that it's easy to use badly. I can see your next question now, though: What the heck does that have to do with Vuvuzlas? Not much, frankly, until you have a quick look at YouTube at the moment.

See that tiiiiiiny little Football? Click it, and make sure your sound is on. :)

A Blogger client for Android.

2010-06-18T13:47:00.002+01:00

I found a Blogger client for Android. Blogger-droid. Seems very simple, but what more do I need, really, to blog on the go?

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Crap. Sorry.

2010-06-18T12:53:00.002+01:00

To my dearest and beloved readers,

(Yes, both of you...)

I'm terribly sorry for my lack of posts. Amazingly, Google don't have a Blogger client for my newest phone, and I've really not had much to talk about recently. Money troubles have lead to fewer gaming purchases and none of those I've made have inspired me to rage, particularly.

My life, however, has changed MASSIVELY since we last spoke. I have 2 whole groups of friends I didn't have last time, who I plan to write about at some point very soon as they're both quite important to me. There's my friends I meet regularly in London, and a group of friends on Second Life who have helped me identify quirks in my personality. To them both, I am eternally grateful for everything they've done for me, even if they don't know they've done things for me.

As a courtesy, I will now link you to some blogs and podcasts that are relevant to my future postings that may help you understand the changes in my life.

Efficient Ramblings - A blog written by a guy I fancied and 'lost' to another guy I fancied.

No Expectations - A blog written by a guy I know who liked to make me tie him to things.

Loki and the Goonies - A stabilising force in a chaotic community.

Bridging the Rift - A Doctor Who podcast involving a person who has become dear to me.

There are other, of course. There always are. I'm still deciding how much of it I want to tell the internet... not that you can't easily Google it, but I'm gambling that most people won't bother.

Anyway, keep your eyes peeled. Something wicked this way comes.

I'm on a bo... train.

2009-10-03T15:00:00.001+01:00

Sat on the train, on my way to Scunthorpe. First Class. Fancy reclining seat, I love it. I could get used to this.

This guy complained I don't post enough...

2009-10-03T04:02:00.001+01:00

...so he gets his face on the internet. See his PC tutorials at www.adamsdvds.co.uk.

Biked into town today.

2009-08-17T12:37:00.001+01:00

Not had much money, so I got on my bike today. Didn't do bad, 7.7mph.

Black Taxi

2009-08-14T16:35:00.001+01:00

You are colourful today.

For those wondering where I am.

2009-08-14T16:34:00.001+01:00

BoyZone. Heck Yeah!

The Twenty-Fifth of May

2009-05-25T18:05:00.001+01:00

It's my birthday. Cakes fit for a princess.

Huge forehead.

2009-04-22T08:54:00.001+01:00

I wasn't going to post this, but she commented that she looked like she had a huge forehead.

2009-04-22T04:30:00.002+01:00

A recent post on the Google Blog prompted me to google myself. Out of interest, I checked out the images returned.

#1 result? A 50x50px image of me stuffing myself full of cookies whilst wearing my favorite hat :)

Scunthorpe nightlife

2009-04-11T23:33:00.001+01:00

It inspires faint desire for Manchester. Ho-hum.

A Development Method: Front-To-Back, Simple First.

2009-04-09T09:03:00.003+01:00

So, I'm working on a website for someone that is making use of GenericMVC, a small MVC based framework that I'm developing (slowly, and badly at first) just so that I can get my head around the concept of MVC... anyway, all of this has given rise to some level of introspection, meaning that I have, in spite of my supposed concentration on the code, discovered and analysed my working style.

Future employers, please stop reading now, I might embarress myself :P

Allow me to intoduce you to my working method; Front-to-Back, Simple First. As I start my work, I tend to have an idea of what I need to do. Either I'm working from a spec-sheet or I have in my head a goal for which to aim. Of this, I then have a compartmentalised vision of each part of the project fit snugly together, knowing how they might talk already. I then take them and arrange them in order of simplicity. Once I have this order sorted out, I will then begin to hash out my code. This takes care of the 'Simple First' part of my method, so where does 'Front-to-Back'come from?

Quite simply, it refers to systems from the perspective of interface, either user or other systems. I will work from the systems at the front, things like a relatively static page on a website, all the way through to the back, meaning things like database relationship traversal or image pre-generation.

Imagine all of the above working in some sort of heirachal grid. The top or front of the grid is the code/coder-facing parts, meaning function, class and similar definiton. Following this, we find user-facing parts. In the case of GenericMVC and the website I'm working on, this is error messages, templating systems and the web-pages themselves. Being a UI nut, I do prefer to have my UI squared away at the eariest opportunity, or at least as done as possible as soon as can be. Following this, we have a stage of code optimisation, because it's always fun, before focusing on Admin-facing code, further code optimisation, ending with a good lump of sit-down, take-notes testing to complement that which has gone before.

On this same grid, starting on the left, we have the simple tasks. Static pages, menus, that ilk. To it's right, more complex stuff, like an article directory, a list of things. Nice simple stuff with a bit of a think to it. To the right again, more complex stuff. An image gallery, a user system. Further again, we have a fully fledged forum and all that jazz, ad nauseum.

This all has certain advantages; if you are working on systems alone, you have an idea of what things need doing, how easy the various things are, and roughly what order you want to do things in. This is great, because it means that you have a way of measuring your own progress, something that I love to feel pass by. Feeling stuck? Can't make your head work the right way? Just wander off and find one of the easier tasks to do.

This does, of course, have disadvantages; It's not going to work well in a team environment without planning. People will have different ideas on what is simple or not, what the order of code-depth ought to be, or even on how the project ought to be split up into units. I'm sure you'll be able to adapt it for team-work, but I've never tried. If you do, let me know how it goes :)

Oh, and if you're wondering about Gnome-Do? It's awesome, obviously :)

Aliens faked the moon landing

2009-03-13T17:27:00.005+00:00

Oops. Three months. Naughty Gleeb.

Enough self-flagellation. For a while now, easily since before my sister's wedding, I've been using Ubuntu GNU/Linux increasingly to the point of preference over windows. It easier to do my work in, it plays the games I want to play most of the time, and it just looks sodding pretty.

Anyway, there's a reason that I'm making this post. Since using Linux, I have increasingly fallen in love with Gnome Do, a wonderful little program that helps you to do the things you want to do. You hit Super-Space, type in all or part of what you want to do, and it does it. Want to shoot off an e-mail? Easy. Want to search Google? Go for it. There's plug-ins for nearly anything you would want to do quickly.

0.8, the version I'm running now, added a Docky. They called it a Docky because, as yet, it's still not quite as full featured as a dock as most others out there, but the version coming out today, 0.8.1, makes strides in the right direction. It add a clock to the docky, and I beleive that clicking the clock produces a calendar. All-in-all, it promises to be a good release. I'm just waiting for the release to be added to the PPAs on LaunchPad, at which time, I just have to update to the newest version and restart Do, and I'm golden.

An icon pops up, I click a few things, and it's all done for me.

I'm loving this whole 'Linux' malarkey. More about Gnome Do when I get my copy.

Gearing up for Christmas

2008-11-08T19:06:00.001+00:00

Christmas tree in Manchester, Piccadilly Gardens. Doesn't look too shabby.

My Saturday

2008-11-01T20:23:00.001+00:00

When you've no reason to in out no a Saturday, this is where you night find yourself.