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1+1=1 : Collaborative Criticism

September 2nd, 2011 by Troy Goodfellow · Me, Media

Jenn: people should not be able to finish another’s sentences before they start them!
Troy: nope. but here we are

As I tried to unravel what was left to do this week from the things I should have done last week, I was pointed to the PAX panel on freelance games journalism hosted by many people I love and respect. If you want to know the basics and are too afraid that I will call you an idiot, listen. It’s a good panel.

One thing that it really missed, though, is that even as gaming becomes more multiplayer and linked, and as our experiences are more varied and separated, games writing is still a very singular practice. People like me play a game and talk about what we have seen with very little reaction to what someone else might have seen, or how they reacted to it.

Creativity sucks. There’s no getting around that. I can think of a lot of one man studios and five man studios, but two man studios are few and far between because creativity and – importantly – the expression of that creativity requires a slight submission of the self to the creative enterprise.

Time for some obvious history here. [Read more →]

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Three Moves Ahead Episode 132 – Age of Level-Grinding Empires

September 1st, 2011 by Rob Zacny · Podcast, Three Moves Ahead

ThreeMovesAhead

Soren Johnson and Tom Chick join Rob for a discussion of Age of Empires Online. Tom opens by short-listing the game for “worst RTS ever made” and it’s rough-sailing from there. Soren marvels at the disastrous interface, while Rob wants to napalm those cutesy Smurf villages. Then the panel talks about how AoEO could be redeemed, and finds there are some simple changes that could make AoEO a very good game.

Tom’s GameSpy review

Rob’s GamePro impressions and additional notes

Listen here.
RSS here.
Subscribe on iTunes.

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Three Moves Ahead Episode 131 – Splendid Little Wars

August 25th, 2011 by Rob Zacny · Podcast, Three Moves Ahead

ThreeMovesAhead

Soren Johnson kicks off an extended visit to 3MA by joining Rob, Julian, and Bruce to talk about smaller-scale strategy games, and how they compare to their more traditional cousins. Julian thinks they let developers play to their strengths, while Soren worries about their potential to be ephemeral. Bruce suspects that if great games are ephemeral, that says a lot more about gamers than it does about games. Rob wants to like “big” strategy games more than he does, but likes the more contained experience that smaller games, and board games, increasingly offer. Bruce reveals that his gaming habits are stranger than anyone imagined.

Listen here.
RSS here.
Subscribe on iTunes.

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Sandboxes of Peace

August 24th, 2011 by Troy Goodfellow · Battlegoat

Before heading out to the Penny Arcade Expo, I thought I should boot up Supreme Ruler: Cold War – a game that I have been putting off for a long time. If you’re not familiar with the Supreme Ruler series, the games are from Canadian developer Battlegoat and until now have looked at a near future of microstates and constant war. SR: Cold War is their first attempt at an historical setting for their style and it should be a great setting for a strategy game. Twilight Struggle is a great board game, there are lots of great war games, and even the Rise of Nations Cold War scenario was a better than average RTS scenario.

Now I’m only still dabbling in SR: Cold War, so this isn’t a review and it won’t be one, [Read more →]

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Racing Update

August 23rd, 2011 by Troy Goodfellow · Me

Before I jump firmly back into the loving embrace of Pride of Nations, Supreme Ruler: Cold War, Toy Soldiers: Cold War, Six Gun Saga, Sengoku, Sword of the Stars II and every other amazing strategy game to come out this fall, I should update you on how the racing is going.

Hood Sans Ornament

This is how a lot of my races are ending on my first drive through a new course in Shift 2: Unleashed, which has become my racing game of choice. F1 2010 is what I want to play, especially with the new one right around the corner and looking great, but the map is useless and I don’t know the tracks well enough to do more than get in everyone’s way.

Dirt 3 still looks great, but doesn’t handle very well. I’ve learned just how different driving games are, because while Shift 2 fights me hard and gives me good feedback on traction and corners, Dirt 3 always feels like I am driving on ice, except – as my racing coach and fellow Canuck Jenn Cutter notes – when you are supposed to be driving on ice; then it’s like you are driving on some unholy mess of god knows what.

But I am improving, and a lot of the advice from the comments in the earlier blog post helped. I turned off most of the driving aids, focused on learning the braking lines and sticking to beating my own times, racing against myself. Shift 2 desperately needs stewards or something, because they will penalize you a lap for the slightest cut across the grass but someone can T-bone you into a concrete barrier and no one seems to care. So I may be a little “aggressive” on my starts now.

I have made podiums, souped up my car, beaten proper lap times, raced on Suzuka and Nurburbring. I am getting the hang of this bit by bit.

But it will soon be time for world conquest again.

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GDC Panel on Strategy Games

August 22nd, 2011 by Troy Goodfellow · Design, GDC

The GDC panel with Tom Chick, Dustin Browder, Soren Johnson, Ian Fischer and Jon Shafer is now available for viewing at the GDC vault. A great discussion.

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