I am currently engaged in a serious battle against the common cold, or something. However, I still intend to continue doing vids and do a big update this weekend.Well, it seem to be quantity over quality as far as my recently blog post here are concerned, eh?
However, I find the fact that is is virtually unknown to be liberating... so I just ramble on aimlessly... I plan later to come back and write better articles based on what I post, but I'd need to spend more time on it, and for that, I need an economic profit motive. This is because, as I may have mentioned too many times before, I'm almost broke and also very sick.
Well, I'm a bit less sick, now. It's Flu: 9,001. Me: 7,200. (or Me + 200 pts since last check). Flu still leads by 1,801 points.
Ambient temp. : 35.0 deg. C or 95.0 deg. F.
Well isn't that just awesomely depressing?
So, in order to do more of what I enjoy (writing), and do it better (professional level), I need to have some sort of income to offset the energy costs - besides the current ones of running my PC, and feeding myself, and stuff, there's also the future of air conditioning my area and building my space into a SOHO (small office/home office) type thingy. Although, I think HOZC (home office zaibatsu core, where "Zaibatsu" means "mega-corporation", is more appropriate, since, you know, I'm a megalomaniac).
Anyhow, I've decided that one possible solution lies in web-based games. HTML-based games like... err, what was that... anyhow, any example I choose will be bad, because they mostly all suck. They're like playing Starcraft without the graphics. And, since I feel more like a cog in a machine than like a commander when I play starfraft, or any of those "Real-Time Strategy" games which are really "Real-Time Operational" games, not even Real-Time Tactics, I can't say that is a compliment. But the presentation of starcrast: graphics, sound, and how it all works together (animation): A+ superb!
So, let me explain what I mean with RTS-S being a lie:
- operations are what you do step to step. Like, "walk this way", or "shoot at that particular enemy".
- tactics apply a bit of intelligence to situations, like "provide cover-fire for the men moving West, by targeting the enemy forces in the North". In most games, "cover fire" doesn't even exist because forces blatently walk into an active firezone.
- starategy is the overall, long-term picture. Like "by drawing the enemy forces south, I'll invade the base from the north"
And if the tactics exist only in my head, then the game exists only in my head: hence, I'm the real "computer", not the PC which I want to be doing all the "hard work" for me.
So, that's why I don't think StarCraft is an RTS. It's an RTO game. It's a very pretty looking, fun, well balanced, long-living RTO game, but it offers nothing in the way of tactis nor strategy, besides what the players themselves invent as they play.
Now, that might be just fine for most players. They love to micromanage, and feel that their "hard work" which they make to do, in parallel, operation, tactical, and strategic thinking, pays off... and it probally does. They can multi-task well. A tactic which helps a lot in today's high-stressed environment.
And will probally help them to die before age 40.
I mean, I would really like the option to play games at higher or lower levels of abstraction. What if, in a RT wargame, you could really focus on converting strategies to tactics? Or you could step back and issues strategic directives to several battlefield commanders, who could be AI or human, etc...
Perhaps that's how Lineage plays. I'm not sure, I've never tried it... perhaps they're tons of games like this already... but since they're not as popular as Blizzard's stuff, and I don't know about them, clearly more work needs to be done.
Atlus, as a game company, has produced a ton of games... but so far, I can't say that each isn't without major flaws. An as for the megaten series, the major flaw is that the series remains an obscure japanese franchise. No matter how popular Persona 3 is, the fact is that it's probally the least impressive of the games in terms of depth of gameplay and story. The Commu system was a great innovation, though, and the closest thing to this were probally Shenmmue and Brave Fencher Musashi... but P3 does a key thing by pushing forward time based on major events, automagically. Personally, I don't quite like it, but it works to keep people always moving forwards, so it is harder to get stuck or get that "what do I do next" feeling. Which is important when you're stuck in a pre-written story.
Anyhow, I don't like to be too critical because what I should do is mind my own business and move from being a rather unproductive person to being a prolifically productive firm. If there's anything to take from the story of Atlus as a company, it is that you can have a big impact by being productive, and promoting yours features all as strengths. I mean, they wouldn't still be around, in a era where Square is falling to Enix, and Electronic Arts is being sued by its own employees, and SNK went bankrupt (yeah, I know, the founder revived it recently), if it wasn't doing something right.
I'm doing something right, too, but not so much as a firm... I've managed my money carefully, spent little, worked part-time jobs... and until recently, I could say that I took careful care of my health to that saved a lot of lost time in productivity... but asside from that, which in a way turns out to be a blessing in disguise, I've done better than even I would have expected, for my low levels of effort and productivity.
So, I think it is time I "face the music", invest in the equipment I need, make the plans I need, and try something. It can't be worse than P1.
No comments:
Post a Comment