Random Shots: The Year That Was 2013

• If there is anything to take away from this year, it's that 2013 was complete and utter bullshit. I feel like I've gone twelve rounds with a heavyweight boxer and I'm ready for the punches to stop. That I'm still standing at the end of all this says something, if only that I survived.


• Predictions
• South Park: The Stick of Truth - "Prediction: I will forget to buy this until it's been out a week, but I'll finish it (because it's short) and like the story and humor quite a bit. Also, I'll play a female character just because I can. If I can."

  Hmm. So, same for 2014, I guess? After having watched actual footage of the game, I am anticipating it more.



• Grand Theft Auto V - "Prediction: GTA V will be a week one purchase, though I'll look long and hard at the special edition before passing on it. I will play it a lot, but I fear I'll hang it up before finishing. Again."

  This one was pretty close. I actually picked GTA V up on day one. And although I stared longingly at the special edition, I was never in any jeopardy of buying it. Special editions are way outside of my price range now. And I did hang it up, though a lot earlier than I expected. Dark Souls drew all of my attention and didn't let go for weeks.



• Tomb Raider - "Prediction: After reading reviews and hearing about it on the Bombcast, I won't even pick it up."

  This one is one hundred percent accurate. I even played my brother's copy for a couple hours and that wasn't enough to get me to buy it. Square announced a next-gen edition for PS4 that has me tempted, but don't hold me to anything.



• BioShock Infinite - "Prediction: I won't pick up Infinite until there is a price drop. I'll play it for a little while before getting bored and moving on to the next shiny thing."

  Boy, I blew this prediction. Infinite ended up as a late minute preorder so that I could preload it through Steam. I played it all the way through to the end. And although I will loudly and profusely proclaim that I don't like shooters, I did enjoy it.



• Gone Home - "Prediction: Will preorder and play for a few nights before beating it. Expect one blog post and a place in my Top Five this year."

  Gone Home ended up short enough to finish in one night, but everything else was right on. Top Five spoilers, I guess.



• Next Xbox - Prediction: I'm currently planning to preorder and pick it up at launch. I'll probably only get a single game at first, but then own three or four by the end of the first month. My launch date predication: November 14, 2013!"

  Wow, did I really write that? I was off on the launch date by eight days, but I don't feel too bad about that. The funny thing is that, if you were to substitute "Next Xbox" with "PS4", this prediction would have been a lot more accurate. And there is no why that, twelve months ago, I would have seen myself buying a PlayStation at launch. What a difference a year makes!



• The blog sure took a hit, especially since October. There was a lot of pain and a lot of loss this year. But there was also good times. Thank you all for being here for me, cheering me when I was down. I couldn't do it without you.

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© 2013 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.

Random Shots: In Memoriam - 2013

• Once again, it is time reflect on those we lost during 2013. And let us hope that 2014 is less ruthless.


• Normand Corbeil, 56, composer for Quantic Dream, credits include Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls


• Robin Sachs, 61, voice actor, credits include Mass Effect and Dragon Age


• Kenji Eno, 42, game designer and musician, credits include D, Sega Rally 2, Newtonica, and Kimi to Boku to Rittai


• Seung Hyun Park, 25, aka "Go)Space", professional Warcraft III player


• Andrew Reisse, 33, co-founder of Oculus VR


• Doug Engelbart, 88, inventor of the computer mouse, helped develop hypertext, computer networks, and graphical user interfaces


• Hiro Isono, 68, artist and illustrator for Square, credits include Secret of Mana, Heroes of Mana, and Final Fantasy Adventure


• Ryan Davis, 34, co-founder of Giant Bomb


• Hiroshi Yamauchi, 85, president of Nintendo from 1949 until 2002, lead company in transition from a trading card company into a video game empire


• Steve Morgenstern, journalist, founding editor of Atari Age


• Mark Valentine, aka "h2orat", video artist for Cryptic Studios/Perfect World Entertainment, credits include Champions Online and Star Trek Online


• Tom Clancy, 66, author of The Hunt For Red October and late Jack Ryan novels, co-founder of Red Storm Entertainment which produced the Rainbow Six series, lent his name to other Ubisoft series, such as Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon


• Aaron Larry Hilden, 37, co-host of Drunken Gamers Radio podcast


• Charles Bellfield, vice president of Sega of America, shepherded Dreamcast from launch and helped transition Sega to out of the hardware business
• Be good to one another, because life is too short to spend it angry.

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© 2013 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.

Random Shots: LotRO Finally Gets Around To Selling Levels

• The big news of the day is that Turbine his finally caught up with the pack and will be selling levels in Lord of the Rings Online.


• /yawn


• Remember when we were all up in arms about horse armor? That only made tenth place in this list of the most egregious microtransaction items. And that was two years ago. It probably wouldn't make the top ten today.


• The time has long passed when we should be surprised or shocked when a game company decides to pad its bottom line by flipping a few bits in a database. MMOs are broken and I don't blame developers for trying to fix them, even if they are charging for it.


• If you are really curious, go read Syp's, Syncaine's, and TAGN's thoughts on the news. They are at least more interested in the topic.


• /yawn Oh, sorry. I should really take a nap.

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© 2013 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.

Turn To 100: The Goldilocks Dilemma

• Has it really been over a month since I posted on this blog? My goodness. Let's fix that.


• Although I submitted my entry for the 2013 Windhammer Prize, I still could not stop thinking about gamebooks. I am happy with this year's entry, The Independence Job. But I could not get out of my mind that maybe I could have done better. So I starting thinking about next year. This series will chronicle my development and writing of my next gamebook.


• My first idea was a fantasy story about a woman who runs the family farm after her son goes off adventuring.


• That lived in my head for about three weeks before I realized that I have no idea how to write that book. Initially, I wanted it to be a farm simulation crossed with an exchange of letters between the mother and son that shapes their development. I thought that I could make a fun little game that would influence the mother's options as she wrote to her son.


• But the more I thought about it, I realized that the rule system did not support the theme I wanted to explore: the connection between a parent and a child. As a designer, I detest when the rules are at cross-purposes with the theme of the game. The Fortune mechanic in The Independence Job is all about pushing your luck and the consequences of failure (or failing to push at all). Farming might be fun, and it might provide interesting encounters for the game, but it has nothing to do with the main story line. In effect, it was an elaborate minigame that would dominate the entire book. It would have to come out, but that left me without a system to hang my narrative on. I like the idea too much to let it go, but I need to mull it over until I find a game and not just a story.


• My second idea was to model an MMO in gamebook form, with zones and quests from level one to level fifty, dungeons and raids included.


• This one stuck with me for a couple of weeks. I plotted out each zone, the quests, and calculated appropriate rewards. I like the idea of tracking separate gear and character levels, but I'm not sure how much that adds to the system. I'm sure it can be worked out in playtesting.


• But as I mulled this new idea over, the results came in for the Windhammer Prize. My entry took a Commendation Award. I really liked my gamebook for what it did well (which some people really appreciated). But it ran afoul of one of the cardinal sin: lack of replayability. There are some curves in the road, but my entry was quite linear and I think it suffered in the voting for that. I was writing another book that, although it allows for open roaming, would also be quite linear. It is in service of the story and fits the theme, but I'm no longer sure it is right for the Windhammer judges. In a crisis of confidence, I abandoned this as well.


• First, I had a story without a system. Second, I had a system, but I was no longer confident about the story. Neither idea was just right. So, I needed a third idea.

Played Lately: Dark Souls

• I dedicate this post to the two brave souls who helps me defeat the Belfry Gargoyles for the very first time last night. You will never be forgotten, though I've already forgotten your Xbox user names.


• Dark Souls has occupied an inordinate amount of my attention lately. It started last week when Vinny Caravella from Giant Bomb decided to stream his return to the game. (I would embed them, but the videos are subscriber only.) That got me looking for speed runs on YouTube. That video got me looking for Let's Play videos.

• And that led to me playing Dark Souls Sunday night. I looked at my achievements. It has been nearly two years since I last played the game. Even after watching the videos, I couldn't remember how to control or play my character, so it was time to roll up someone new. Instead of playing it by ear, I followed the bog standard recommended build a rolled a pyromancer with the master key.

• Wow, those Let's Play people make this game look easy. I played through the Undead Asylum pretty quickly since it is straightforward once you know the layout. Even with all of the video training, the Asylum Demon killed me on my first attempt. But, practice make perfect, right?


• On my first character, those two years ago, I ended up spending a lot of time farming the Undead Burg for souls. This time, since I was more confident in what I was doing, I moved through the zone with greater speed. After clearing the zone to the best of my abilities, charged right in to take on the Taurus Demon.


• And he killed me. Over and over again. I swear, they make it look so easy in the videos! But down he went down eventually. One of the things they don't tell you about Dark Souls is that death is actually liberating. Once you've been killed and you've lost your souls on hand (souls are currency and experience all rolled into one), you are free to just pile your enemies under your corpses until they no longer stand. As long as you can persevere, you can find a way to defeat your enemies.


• I wasn't about to end there. In my prior attempt, I never got very far into the Undead Parish. But I was confident that I could do better. I continued on. Past the rats, past hollows of all sorts, past the fang boar. Finally, I ascended the church and, with the two other players I mentioned earlier, I defeated the Gargoyles. Ringing the first Bell of Awakening was a huge achievement for me, something that seemed like a distant goal when I first started playing.


• When I turned off my Xbox for the night, I compared my save games. My new character was level 22 in under four hours. My old character was level 25 in over ten hours. I had accomplished more in one night than I ever did when I played back in 2011. No, I did not do it the right way. I watched all the videos and I followed the wikis. But I had fun doing it. Don't let the perceived difficulty dissuade you. If I can get this far in Dark Souls, I suspect anyone can.

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© 2013 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.