tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46849367146157153162024-08-28T21:16:09.479-04:00It's Important for no important reason.Chris Cowgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17212001306855024712noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4684936714615715316.post-36008434884238610792017-03-21T01:01:00.000-04:002017-03-21T09:05:30.535-04:00

It’s been a while, huh? Looks like my last blog post was five years ago. I’ve changed jobs twice since then. Learned some: probably more than I realize, but certainly less than I should. But five years is long enough. It’s time to dust this place off; if not to say anything profound, then at least to get back in the swing of putting words together in something other than a P4 check-in. To kick

Chris Cowgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17212001306855024712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4684936714615715316.post-74078736439153095992012-01-10T17:05:00.001-05:002012-01-12T18:40:32.369-05:00

Look at this guard. What do you know about him? He doesn’t have a name. He doesn’t have a face. You don’t know him. You don’t know his friends or family, or if he even has either. To you he’s background noise as you navigate the city-scapes of Skyrim, with no more history, hopes, or dreams than the shrubs. Well, except for one thing (all together now): He was once and adventurer like you, until

Chris Cowgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17212001306855024712noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4684936714615715316.post-62957175817145680612011-11-10T10:45:00.000-05:002011-11-10T10:45:07.348-05:00

Hey guys. Sorry for the downtime. If you've been following CCP news at all, you can probably gather things have been a bit busy in the last few months.As a shameless distraction, here's Full Throttle's Ben lovingly recreated in the Saints Row 3 Initiation Station.

Chris Cowgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17212001306855024712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4684936714615715316.post-50989795641942092662011-08-23T00:31:00.001-04:002011-08-23T00:31:44.571-04:00

If you’re at all into them-there video games, you probably know that Deus Ex: Human Revolution hits the US this week. Like many nerds of my age bracket, I can’t wait to put on some mirror shades and fight the technocratic oligarchy. (Scientists now believe Invisible War would have sold a billion more units if the PCs had mirror shades.) If you haven’t played Deus Ex (because you weren’t a PC

Chris Cowgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17212001306855024712noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4684936714615715316.post-13820970150796851292011-08-01T23:51:00.001-04:002011-08-01T23:51:13.485-04:00

Hey all. No big post today. I hope to have something ready for you a bit later on. As an apology/distraction, I offer a picture of this amazing piece of promotional brilliance.

Chris Cowgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17212001306855024712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4684936714615715316.post-42709988065972921122011-07-26T01:33:00.001-04:002011-07-26T01:33:33.093-04:00

You’re a writer on a moderately-sized game studio. The world build is solid. Your lore bible is synergizing the shit out of people,  like Moses and MLK forming Voltron at a team-building camp. And those scenarios you’ve worked on with the LDs? Nobody will ever forget the Omaha Beach Bouncy Castle level. Wait, what’s that creeping up the schedule? Surprise! GD’s got a collection of some 200

Chris Cowgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17212001306855024712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4684936714615715316.post-24750002162326405382011-07-12T01:46:00.001-04:002011-07-12T01:46:40.099-04:00

I’m walking around Taris, right? I just got done murdering a Sith officer and a couple of faceless troopers for being unpleasant to a jabbering alien guy (an alien guy whom—it must be noted—seemed to have some experience completely vanishing dead bodies). So, like you do after successfully killing intergalactic authority figures, I’m off to the bar to celebrate. (Wait, sorry. I meant I’m off to

Chris Cowgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17212001306855024712noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4684936714615715316.post-16209513249219590902011-06-21T19:57:00.001-04:002011-06-21T19:57:35.323-04:00

Chris Cowgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17212001306855024712noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4684936714615715316.post-42749531413121352542011-06-19T19:31:00.007-04:002011-07-05T21:00:11.992-04:00

{Note: As of this writing, I’ve not yet seen Richard Dansky’s “Hero-Shaped Hole” talk from GDC 2011. I suspect I’m at best clumsily retreading the same material. If you have access to GDC Vault, I highly recommend giving it a look.} Game writing is weird. Unless you’re lead on a heavily scripted, character-driven single player game, or game where story choices are the primary mechanic, you won’t

Chris Cowgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17212001306855024712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4684936714615715316.post-88841153619104111182011-06-14T23:35:00.001-04:002011-07-16T21:22:19.689-04:00

The opening section of Old Republic, the Endar Spire, is a fun little NPE. For those of you at home, an NPE is fancy-speak for New Player Experience, which is itself fancy-speak for the tutorial section of your game. For most MMOs, it’s Noob Island. In Half Life, it was the Hazard Course. Oblivion had the escape from the dungeon. Etc. There’s no set way to do an NPE. Many designers even question

Chris Cowgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17212001306855024712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4684936714615715316.post-84130207514036183072011-05-26T00:48:00.003-04:002011-05-29T14:23:52.423-04:00

Start a new game, and first thing that happens is the game throws six doofuses at me. I get the differences between the men and women pretty quick. I got that far through public education. But the classes aren’t very well defined. Soldier I get. BLAM BLAM HOORAY! Scoundrel is like a Han Solo then, right? Pretty certain there’s no spaceships. Hopefully he gets some sort of bonus to gambling (

Chris Cowgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17212001306855024712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4684936714615715316.post-37604560264220491462011-05-15T18:42:00.001-04:002011-05-15T18:44:24.860-04:00

You know what’s great? Star Wars. No, it is. I’m not saying everything with the Star Wars label is good. There’s a lot of crap. The kind of crap that would kill most properties. That’s probably what’s most impressive about Star Wars: the brand can withstand any number of assaults and ill-conceived additions. When someone hits upon another entry that has that Star Wars feel, everything else

Chris Cowgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17212001306855024712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4684936714615715316.post-80647981288210212172011-05-15T16:57:00.000-04:002011-05-15T16:57:24.503-04:00

Hello, all. As I'm relaunching this blog, it's best I do the traditional intro post. I'm Chris Cowger, Content Developer at CCP Games. If you're familiar with EVE Online, you may know me by my dev handle, CCP Big Dumb Object. This blog is not affiliated with CCP Games. All opinions herein are my own. I have to say that so when I say something outlandish and stupid, we all know I'm not

Chris Cowgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17212001306855024712noreply@blogger.com0