mind_of_richard

Last September I pre-ordered a Wii Fit. Word on the street is that this is going to be a huge hit for the House Mario Built. In fact, Amazon has sold out of all their stock, and I am seeing the Fit go for $180. When I pre-ordered I got locked in with a lower price, and with Super Saver Shipping, my cost for the Fit is going to be lower than retail. Last night I got the email it shipped.

Total geek news, I admit. Still Nintendo has shown more and more that they are going for something different with the Wii. The Fit, I feel is one more example of this.

BTW, been playing No More Heroes a lot over the last few weeks. Really a great game.

I have been writing and designing my butt off these past few weeks, but I have been playing the Wii a lot. With my birthday just past I got loaded up on new game goodness and in my free time I have been marveling at the joy that is the Wii.

So what am I playing?

Glad you asked. Here's the list:

• Super Smash Bros. -- Freaking awesome.
• No More Heroes -- As great as the hype, and I love that it uses the remote in a great way.
• Mario Kart Wii -- This knocks Mario Galaxy out of the top spot.

Mario Kart freaking rocks. Great controls, and the added features makes what has always been a fun game even better. I've played the game with the Classic Control, the GameCube Controller and the Remote, but I dig the steering wheel the best. Responsiveness with the wheel is great, and I am becoming very skilled with the drift.

What I like about Bros. as well as Mario Kart is the online play. Last night I was racing against racers around the world, which really made for a different experience. Yes, no one communicates, but dealing with real drivers in real time made the game even more enjoyable.

Any way here is my Wii Number: 4390 9658 6849 4825. Let's see what happens.

The year is 1983, I walk into Dark Horse Hobbies in Boise, Idaho. I am in a sixth grader, who has found a hobby that would go on to be a very large part of his life.

On the shelf is this brown booklet, 8.5" x 11". In red, superimposed over a sketch of a rocky bad land is the following:

The First Fantasy Campaign by Dave Arneson

Though Blackmoor would go on to be one of my favorite settings, it was the publisher, Judge's Guild that would go on to define my view of what a gaming supplement should be.

Robert Bledsaw was the founder of Judge's Guild, and it was Bledsaw, more so than Gygax, who influenced me in my approach to design. That may be a surprise to must, because do not write in that style, I avoided (for the most part) writing a lot of material for D&D. However, it was the approach to game supplements that influenced me.

A Judge's Guild product was one that filled you with gaming desire. Page after page of little bits of information that did not force you to flesh them out, the encouraged you to do so. A Judge's Guild product was one that brimmed with possibilities, and they shimmered with the power of imagination.

Yes, some of Judge's Guild product was rough. Looked through the Game Lens of 2008, they appear amateur. Judge's Guild was garage, in the sense the products were done because of the passion the creator's had.

My gaming collection has ebbed and flowed as I grew up. Each year as I grow older, I get rid of more and more. However, it is my Judge's Guild product that I still refuse to get rid of, and that is due with the power these products have.

Robert Bledsaw, the founder of Judge's Guild, has passed away. In the year that has seen the passing of Gary Gygax, the hobby that I so dearly love, has lost another deity.

This passing, much like Gygax, has left me gutted.

I unplugged last night from everything.

No Internet.

No writing. Nothing.

I pretty much sat in my chair, read and thought.

I thought about gaming, game design, my love affair with this hobby, and more importantly the event of watching my childhood Gods die.

Three deaths hit me the hardest before yesterday: Steve Gerber, Tom Snyder, and Lloyd Alexander. When I wrote in those posts that I was gutted, I was. Those three individuals were such a large part of my life. I grew up as a Army Brat and I found myself in new towns on a regular basis. Military children, in order to survive, look for things to latch on to. We do so in order to survive the sudden changes that being a military child entails.

No one, and no creation, helped me too survive more than Dungeons & Dragons. It was my doorway into a place I could call home. As my physical surroundings changed, the surroundings of my imagination was constant. It was this constant that enabled me to deal with each new move--which always happened in the summer the day after school got out--without having friends.

It was my in. My way to meet new friends at each new "hometown" I found myself in. More than that, it was Dungeons & Dragons that kindled a raging fire of curiosity leading to my life long love affair with reading. The first time I picked up those strange dice as a impressionable eight-year old I was hooked. More than being hooked on games and gaming, I was hooked on reading. I wanted to know more about history and the fiction influencing a game I loved.

Back in those days what we knew about Gygax was what we read in the pages of Dragon and the forwards of the hardcover D&D books. When you are young, and when you live in a age without the ready access to the Internet, the stories that are known now, did not exist. Rereading his old "Sorceror's Scroll" columns last night, I was struck with the passion he had for this game and this hobby. This passion, did not diminish with age.

When exactly I knew I wanted to design games, I cannot tell you. Yet, it was the likes of Gygax, Arneson, Bledsow and the rest of the "Old Guard," that showed me you could design games. So design I did. It was my hobby, much like my friends (who I did meet after settling in a new "hometown") who liked to fish, play baseball, collect baseball cards, and the like. For me games and game design were my hobby. The bulk of those early games were done for my, and my friends, enjoyment.

"You cannot design games as a job," my parents liked to tell me seemingly forever. Hell, when I had to go through the interview process to obtain the rank of Eagle Scout, one of the adults asked me what I wanted to do as an adult. My response was simple. "I want to design games." In return I got blank stares, and told I was being silly. I refused to listen to this. I am glad I didn't. It is my love of this hobby, that drove me, and still drives me to this day.

I have been lucky in many ways.

I use to work for Dave Arneson and got to talk with him and learn from him. I also got to meet some of the original Blackmoor players. I have meet a lot of people who I consider to be friends because of gaming. I got the bug to design games. I got the crazy idea to form my own company with James. All of this I owe to Gygax, because if it was not for him, this hobby, that we know and love, would not be possible.

One of my most prized gaming possessions is a GenCon 1985 program book signed by him. Through the years, and with every move, this book has been with me. As I purged the library and game library before each move, it is the works of Gygax that I have kept.

What is the mark of Gygax's transcendence?

When non-gamers and non-geeks knew who he was and knew what he did. Though Ariana does not game, she is the wife of a gamer, and she knew how the passing of Gygax was going to hit me. My in-laws, whose only concept of gaming is traditional board games like Monopoly, knew who Gygax was. Hell, as I write this, Tony Kornheiser talks about the passing of Gygax on his morning radio show.

Gygax, was a giant.

Period.

His influence reverberates through the culture. James Wallis said it best, when he wrote:

Now, at last, we can forget all the crap he did later. Even if he only had one moment of genius, it’s such a moment of such genius that it instantly elevates him into the very highest echelons of game-design greatness. His work built not one but two industries—how quickly would computer games have moved out of the arcade without the likes of Colossal Cave?—a genre, and a language of shared experience in fantastic worlds shared by hundreds of millions of people.

Gygax.

Few people can be known just by one name.

More than that, Gygax showed us how to harness the power of the imagination and forge worlds that exist only within the mind's eye.

To the gamers out there.

Remember F.A.T.A.L.?

(click here for an epic review of this game.)

Guess who has a copy of the PDF?

Go on, guess.

Yes, I have a copy.

Yes, I plan on reading it.

Actually, attempt to read it.

Why?

I am curious, I have just finished reading The World of Synnibarr and its' only supplement.

I am also a glutton for punishment.

The rumors and mythology that surrounds this game is legendary. It always provokes endless discussion on RPG.net's forums.

So I am going to read it.

Wish me luck.

I have been doing a lot of reading over the past few weeks. Most of it is for Colonial Gothic, but some has been for pleasure. Sadly, the pleasure reading usually takes a back seat for the other reading I am doing. When you design and write a historical supernatural roleplaying game, you need to immerse yourself in the sources and research. When I finally lay in bed at night, I make an attempt to read for pleasure, but usually one of two things happen:

1. I pass out and fall asleep.

Or.

2. I decide to watch something I've recorded on the DVR.

However, this year I decided to make a more concerted effort to read for the pure pleasure of reading. Unlike the reading I have done for Colonial Gothic and the other projects under way with Rogue Games, the rules I laid down for my pleasure reading were simple:

No pleasure reading will be current project(s) related.

By doing this, I forced myself to relax, and clear out a mind becoming cluttered with too much minutia.

Armed with said rule, I turned my focus to the stack of books. SO what have I finished reading?

Glad you asked.

Delta Green: Eyes Only. Yes, it is a game book, but it is the first one I have read in a long time (I am still making my way through Victoriana 2nd Edition) and I enjoyed every minute of it. I never read the original chapbooks, and now I do not need to, they are all here. I am a huge fan of Call of Cthulhu as well as Delta Green, and it is one of those games that I return to time and time again. Though I typically play CoC set in the 1930's, Delta Green: Eyes Only makes me want to run a modern game. There is so much good stuff found between these two covers, that I find myself returning to it over and over. If I was forced to pick a favorite part it is the adventure Artifact Zero. I hate to throw out the word brilliant, but this is a brilliant adventure. Period. Great book, and I am so glad I ordered it back in May.

Spook Country, by William Gibson. I came late to the Gibson party (first read Neuromancer in 1999) but since reading him, I have become a major fan and have enjoyed pretty much everything he's written. Spook Country is a continuation of Pattern Recognition and is set in the present day. It was hard to get into Gibson's new book at first, and the writing style seemed a lot more disjointed than normal. I almost put it down, but I am glad I didn't. The book has a great plot and the various threads that seemed unconnected at first, come together in a nice way and I enjoyed this book immensely. What I like best about this book is that the cyberpunk elements are non-existent and though the technology is ramped up a touch, it does not obscure a great narrative. A very good read.

I've also read and enjoyed immensely Michael Ruhlman's The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef's Craft for Every Kitchen. Like Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, Ruhlman's Elements of Cooking is a primer for working in a kitchen. This is not a cookbook, but a guide to the process and elements you need to know for cooking. The book has two parts, the first part is a collection of essays and the second part is a glossary.

The eight essays covering the topics of Stock, Sauce, Salt, The Egg, Heat, Tools, Sources and Acknowledgements and Finesse, are tight and well written. The essays, truth be told, were a changing event in my approach to cooking. After reading them, I still find myself returning to reread and study the advice and techniques talked about. I love to cook, some say I am a very good cook, but I always downplay it. I can learn more and improve my skills, and these essays opened my eyes to things I did not consider when I approach my cooking.

The second half of the book, and really it takes up the bulk of the book, is The Elements of Cooking A to Z. Though a lot of the elements discussed are based on French cooking, this is a glossary of terms and the most recent trends found in cooking. I found this section extremely interesting and I now find myself referring to it often.

Finally I have finished Madman Gargantua, which collects nearly every issue of Mike Allred's Madman. This is a comic I have always enjoyed, but sadly, only read on and off throughout the years. Immense in both size and price, the collection is the perfect book because everything you need to read is here. Rereading the issues I am constantly amazed with how Allred not only developed as an artist, but as a writer. The charm found in the earlier stories finds a balance as the series progresses, and it truly is a great read. More than any creator, Allred excels at throwing opposing concepts together in the effort to create something that is both new and intriguing. Just a great book and a great collection, but I nearly died due to a collapsed chest when the book fell on my chest when I dozed off one night reading it.

So there you go, a recap of the books. More to reread, and it feels good to see the stack slowly shrink in height.

I have made my love for the Wii known for awhile. One of the games I have been looking forward to getting my hands on is Super Smash Brothers. The game was delayed, but is now back on track. It is coming out in Japan this week. Someone has leaked the opening movie to the web. Seeing this, I want this game even more.

I have been playing this:

What do I think of this game?

Perfection.

As good as any Mario game I have played. Far better than Zelda (which I love btw).

Super Mario Galaxy is perfection.

And yes, I am still writing, but when I am not writing, I am playing this game.

I am now officially part of the Game Industry.

Why?

I just got an email from a Game Store Owner, stating that his distributor told him Colonial Gothic is not released yet.

Strange, it's been out since August.

I love this industry.

I got this from doc_mystery  and because this one appealed to me, I thought I'd play along.

It is a meme working from the newly published HOBBY GAMES: THE 100 BEST edited by James Lowder and published by Green Ronin Publishing.


Boldface if "I own this game".
Italics is "I have played this game".
Italic and Bold are "I both own and have played this game"

( To spare you the list, I hid it behind the cut. )

Crazy last two days, with Ariana and I getting ready for the big move this Friday. Still, I have a few and I want to write about GenCon for a bit.

This was the first year that I worked for my own company. In year's past I was a booth monkey for others, and nothing could prepare me for having your own company. Had a lot of meetings, met a lot of people, reconnected with a lot of old friends, and had a blast. I was very happy to see people respond to Colonial Gothic, and the only thing that would have made it better was if maliszew could have been there. Next year he will, and he can witness it first hand.

The events were all mixed up this year, and I am still upset that the confusions took place. Next year, there will be in booth demos. Still, some were run and those who were in them had a blast. I also have to thank matt_m_mcelroy for helping me out on Thursday morning with the demo.

I spent a lot of time talking and socializing. I attended the Diana Jones Awards, which was fun, and personally I am glad The Great Pendragon Campaign won.

As for the con, it was big. Real. Big. The buzz on the floor was great, and I did manage to walk the whole thing. I also took some time to hit the Auction Store and scored a few things I have been looking for.

The only new game I bought was Victorian 2nd Edition from angusabranson's Cubicle 7. The book is gorgeous, and I really dig the setting. I also enjoyed finally talking with angusabranson. There was more things I wanted, but with a move less than a week away (this Friday, yikes!). I really did not want to bring a lot home, that needed packing. I am sure next year I will make up for this lack of swag buying and swapping. I did trade a copy of Colonial Gothic with Zygote Games for Bone Wars. This is a fun game, and it is well worth your time to check out and play.

Spent a lot of time hanging out and talking with irishspy, jedisteve and MadAlfred. It was fun simply sitting around and talking about topics not game related. On a personal level, this is one of my highlights of the con.

Spent a lot time talking with flamesrising and not enough time talking with darkshiver (though we did walk some of the con floor and catch up).

It was great finally meeting jirel, drivingblind, eddyfate, princeofcairo and adamjury. It was great catching up with jaegamer, iamnikchick and robin_d_laws.

The shared booth with Heliograph/Grey Ghost Press/Rogue Games/Zygote Games was good. We had a lot of traffic, and people seemed to have a good time.

I will say that the Indie Games Passport rocked, and that drivingblind was a genius for coming up with this idea. drivingblind we are on for next year. Great job.
In all, I am happy with how well GenCon went. I learned a lot, did a lot, and laughed a lot.

I want this game. NOW.

Why the Dodecahedron?

Sorry.

Why the d12?

This is One of the most asked questions I have received. The question, whether in person, in e-mail, or on the phone, is one that typically goes like this: Why 12-sided die?

The answer to this is not as easy as I thought it would be.

Why?

The decision to use 2d12 was a primal one, rooted in my youth.

To put it simply, I really like the d12. From my early days as a youth, the d12 was the one die that held my imagination. You could have your d6, or d10, and even your d20. For me, it was the d12 that I liked. When I tried my hand at game design when I was 13, my games used either the d4 or the d12. I liked the using the different dice.

Gamers always tinker. We always look for different ways to build mechanics. We look for different ways to model rules to allow for a certain play styles. As a freelancer I did work on game systems that used the d20, the d6, or the d10. In my downtime, away from writing, I wanted something different. Tired of die pools. Tired of the same old same old, I came up with the seed, that blossomed into 12º.

The mechanic that is 12º dates back to 1996. I was in my last year of grad school. My regular play group, tired of playing the same games and styles, decided to have a challenge--create your own game, mechanic included. That was the only rule. Theme, tone and setting was open, the goal was to break a rut that, we as gamers, had found ourselves in.

Thinking about what type of game I wanted to play, I decided that I wanted something with Ancient Greece and Spartans. I wanted over the top action, similar to the movie Spartacus and Ben Hur. I wanted a simple mechanic, one that did not get in the way. This is what lead me coming up with the Target Number, and rolling it or less to succeeded. Tired of percentile systems, I grabbed two d12s, and based everything off the number of 24. Reason? I cannot tell you. The number appeared to me.

Boom.

Just like that.

Everything would be based off the range of numbers between 2 and 24.

Instead of rolling high, I decided to roll low. It was intuitive to me, and meshed with the simple mechanic I wanted.

Though the game was not a hit, the mechanic was, because it allowed for larger actions. Once you strip away all the minutia, and look at the mechanic as a means to allow flashy big dramatic action, the rest falls into place.

I experimented with the mechanic, and tweaked it from time-to-time. Heck I even have a card game that uses a version of this mechanic. When the time came to get Colonial Gothic ready, it was an easy decision to use the mechanic.

So to answer the question: "Why the d12?"

I like the die. :)

Take this with a grain of salt, but according to VGChartz, since being released in November, the Wii has sold 8,000,000 units quicker in a span quicker than the XBox 360 and PS3.

I am taking this with a grain of salt, because it is not official, but still, that is damn good.

Ok, let's try an experiment.

Here is my Wii Number: 4390 9658 6849 4825

Now let's see what happens.

I am not a PS3 owner, nor a Sony fan. Still, I found this interesting:

Now, it seems, the PlayStation 3 is going to continue the hacking legacy of its handheld counterpart. Word has it that an exploit has been found in the 1.10 and 1.11 versions of the PS3's firmware that could potentially allow the booting of unsigned code. Unlike the hardware mods necessary to achieve the same level of functionality from a typical console, exploiting the PS3's firmware is likely a process that can be duplicated by just about anyone with nothing more than the proper instructions.

You can read the rest here at Ars Technica.

At this year's GenCon, the Indie Games Passport will be your guide to a lot of great games and publishers.

So what does the passport do?

It acts as a map, telling you where participating Indie Publishers are in the hall.

Use it to find all participation companies and groups. Use it to discover some very great games. Use it to take part in a prize drawing.

Those who complete the passport are eligible for a drawing a prize-pool drawing.

More details are coming, but plan now to take part.

Rogue Games is very happy to be a part of this.

So this morning, I read the following:

Psychological profiles can be compiled by covertly monitoring the way in which online gamers play PC and console titles. Players’ behavioral characteristics and preferences can be catalogued hence allowing for the possibility of targeting individuals with customized adverts.

You can read the whole thing here: Google Patents Gamer Profiling Technology.

You can read a little more about it here, here and here.

Now, the easiest reaction to this (and I must say the right one) is privacy concerns. This is another way that THE MAN to keep tabs on us. I want to know what advertisers want to know about gamers, other than their love of Mountain Dew and salty foods.

However, I hear the words of a former professor, Dr. Lee, when I was working on my Masters in Computer, technology and Information at DePaul. She said:

There is no evil technology; only evil use of technology.

For a second, let's ignore the bad applications of this patent.

If Google has invented a tool that aids in psychological profiling, imagine the good uses of this.

Able to create software that can aid in diagnostic testing. Imagine if you have a patient who suffers from dyslexia. If the computer recognizes this, it could switch from a text based test to a verbal test.

Creating information sources, that can recognize if the user is not a native speaker of English, and is able to switch to the language the user know.

Heck think of the gaming usages of this technology. Creating AI that ramps up the challenge based on the actions of the player. If the player is aggressive and killing innocent people, the game's AI can profile the player, and adjust the level of response to match the situation.

Really, how different is this from what we do as GMs when player's go off the rails and start killing innocent villagers? Player's go on a killing spree, as a GM, I try to get the situation under control but ratcheting up the village's response.

Granted, the above is simply brainstorming, yet I do not see the technology in evil terms.

The use of it to monitor people, and send said information to "someone" does bother me.

I love the Wii. This is the perfect game system.

Last night, Ariana played it for the first time, and fell in love with the elegant beauty of this gaming system.

We did the bowling on Wii Sports. I have not had this much fun in a long time. It was nice gaming with my wife, laughing like two kids, and just taking some time to ourselves.

The kicker. She is hooked. She's never wanted to touch the PS2, or the 'Cube. She loves the Wii.

How many out there have a Wii? I got eat_my_justice's counsel number, and I enjoy the Mii Parade. Email me your counsel number, and I will add you. I have a cool idea.

GenCon 2007 is almost here.

I know, it is only May, but no harm in stating some of the Rogue Games plans now.

Here is the schedule for the Colonial Gothic Demos.

Colonial Gothic Demo

The truth is hidden, and plots are afoot. Events are moving behind the scenes, and lurking in the shadows are agents with their own agenda. Colonial Gothic is a supernatural historical horror role playing game set during the dawn of the American Revolution. This demo will teach you everything you need to know to join in the fight and defeat the evil that lurks.

Game ID	Duration	Date/Time
RPG00126	2	8/16/07 10AM
RPG00127	2	8/16/07 2PM
RPG00128	2	8/17/07 10AM
RPG00129	2	8/17/07 2PM
RPG00130	2	8/18/07 10AM
RPG00131	2	8/18/07 2PM

More to come about the rest of the Rogue Games plans.