Friday, December 13, 2013

The Future of Online Games

Wonder how bad his lag was for Pong?
It’s not very good in my opinion based on what it is currently available. I would much prefer for PC games to be what they were in the 80’s and 90’s when you actually bought the completed game in a box with a CD complete with instructions.

Nowadays they are all under development and they expect you to pay for that while they try to make it work. They really should just call them “Permanent Beta” since they are always undergoing fixes and changes. And they don’t even do a good job of protecting you from malware and hackers trying to get at the money they ask for rubies, gems or other nonsense in game upgrading materials.

If any of these games are based on any war tactics or battles, well you can rest assured that the “coiners” or “wallet warriors” will be out in full force just after school gets out your local time. They must drive their mom’s nuts with the “Mom can I have the credit card” so they can amass a team of fully-equipped highest end “warriors”. What do you learn from that approach that is of any use in the real world? And what fun or challenge is that to the player? All it leads too is boredom for all parties.

That is, of course, if you can deal with the lag on your ISP that is always prevalent at those hours of the day when all the little “Johnny Wallet Warriors” get on their latest tablet or PC before migrating to the Xbox. Hard to do anything on a computer when it stops and starts like a 100 year old man crossing the street in the middle of winter.

And then the programmers are messing it all up by trying to show what they can do but really can’t do well and that is to make all games harder rather than more playable. All the package air flight games were destroyed by this approach since it really might have been some use in trying to acquire your pilot’s license, not to mention that I get motion sickness trying to play any submarine game if it is on the surface with all that rocking and rolling; is that really necessary?

And it seems the programmers and the chief financial guys are trying to dream up ways to keep you online 24/7 thinking that you might actually buy more rubies that way to get further into the game. All it did for me was increase my frustration level enough that I just quit them when I see the latest trap they are building or get notification that the site now has malware on it. I want to have fun not get locked to my computer like the guy above in the show LOST.

But what more do you expect from the last two guys who got picked in your playground games, you know the guys who couldn't play worth a lick and new all the rules and the physics involved in playing the game but could not apply them. That’s where all the programmers and financial officers all came from and probably the lawyers were next to last to be picked.

And so sadly all games and now companies are controlled by this bunch and not the creative folks that used to run things. And I guess that pretty much explains why online games and most companies are just no fun anymore. The last guys to get picked got control of the ball somehow and they aren't giving it back for nothing.

That isn't going to happen until some of us decide to let it be known that it is time for a change because this is clearly not working very well. So time for another diversion then and maybe my music studio is the place for that where you actually have to work at the task to get good at it. It is just another game but it does provide a nice change from all the boring music that gets programmed in studios today.

Maybe that’s the lesson for me. Play the stuff that gives you enjoyment since what you have been doing online is just a big fail.

And when the game you finally like to play doesn't return the income that the designers' want, they just shut it down and say thank you for your money and will return nothing. You and your new family of friends you made are left holding the bag and all the creative ways you learned to play the game are all for nothing. It makes you wonder what is wrong with businesses today but it is really quite simple. They are all driven by the chase for the almighty dollar and nothing else matters to them. It truly is just very sad, very sad indeed.




Saturday, December 7, 2013

Anno Online December Page

This post just exists to make it easier to find the original tips page since that is now in October Archives.

Link to Anno Online October Tips


How to Change a Roll of Toilet Paper

Sometimes people go a little overboard

So the writer is running low on material in keeping with the topic. Nope, as every dog or cat owner or parent of toddlers knows, there is a better way to install that most needed inventory in most people’s favourite reading room.

While it may in fact be slightly more efficient to the user to have the first piece closest to you, the pet owners and parents know that you are just going to end up wasting another roll of that valuable commodity. Seems that when the cat, dog or toddler gets effected by the latest lunar table high activity time they go into one of those crazy fits of activity that are otherwise quite unexplainable. Seems paws and little hands cannot resist the need to expel a pile of pent up energy on blinding speed repetitive paw or hand pulls and the job is not complete until the entire roll is on the floor. Only the truly mean parent tells another member of the family to roll it all back up on the cardboard cone.

And for those truly lazy individuals that do nothing more than put a new roll on top of the bathroom sink counter you are just tempting basic physics. Just as all golf course superintendents know, all water eventually finds its way downhill (well at least the good ones know that). Placing a roll of toilet paper on the counter is just asking for trouble since it will attempt to seek the middle of the sink when you first begin to run water in it, thus rendering the valuable commodity totally useless except for maybe a good projectile to be used in college dormitory fights.

And I would expect that all bathrooms in hell are always out of toilet paper (if there are any). That is something that I do hope you never find out just as Terry Fox and Nelson Mandela will never know. I’m sure they are having a really nice conversation. Maybe Terry is trying to explain ice hockey to Nelson. And I bet they are having a good laugh, too. They both earned that right.


Have a nice day and check the toilet paper stock. It is also good at catching tears.