A fair amount of buzz has been surrounding the news that a touched up version of Quake III is going to be available for free on the web. The game will stream onto your computer as you play. This isn't some slow Java or Flash version of Quake it is in fact pretty much the same Quake III many users still have installed on their systems today.
id's goal in making Quake III easily available online is to not only refresh the old Quake III community, but to introduce it to the more casual PC gamers out there. id has said that they are implementing a system that tracks your efficiency and skill level so it will automatically suggest servers to play on so you can play people at your level of skill. As it is now, to play Quake III you have to install the base game, patch it to 1.32c then download a bunch of mods that people play. Maps are another story all together. While this system is fine for those who are truly into Quake III (as I am), the new players are often turned away by this alone. I really do think Quake Live will at least solve this portion of the game's accessibility, but there's one thing Quake Live won't change, and that's the community.
To me, and many of the hardcore Quake players it's not just a game, it's actually a sport. Quakers play hard, they've gotten so good that any new player who joins in will be outmatched. id's matchmaking system will only go so far. Quake III's community has a lot of media coverage. These "Frag Movies" often display some of the best examples of the amount of finesse and skill that is within the Quake III community. All these videos are easily accessible either on youtube or Own-Age.
The above movie is but one example of some of the media that users create showcasing some pretty impressive skills. Now when someone new plays Quake III they are often there as a result of watching these videos and want a piece of the action. This won't change much with Quake Live, although the player may discover these videos at a later time. They may then choose to ignore id's matchmaking system to try and move upwards in the Quake community. That's where they will hit the brick wall. Of course there is the possibility that the new Quake Live players will form their own community, but it's incredibly difficult to imagine that the old Quakers won't mix up with the new ones resulting in a lot of discouraged players.
Of course there are those new players who will be persistent and they will keep on trying and pushing themselves. These players are the ones who become the true Quakers. The players who aspire only to get better. Although the Quake community can sometimes frown upon the new players (due to their lack of experience and skill) there are always those who help the newer players and teach them the ropes. Quake III is a game where there's so much to learn, then you take what you learned and you evolve into a more skilled player. Everything down to the movement in Quake III requires hours of practice.
Community aside Quake Live will offer better net-code, a completely web based community system with stats and server browser along with some minor game-play tweaks and graphical touches. New game modes (many coming from some of the Quake III mods currently available) are also being implemented. For those of you who are interested you can try to get into the action by applying for the beta here. All it takes is your e-mail address and you're set. Not everyone gets invited to the beta, but it's always worth a shot.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Will Wright - Insane? Maybe. Genius? Definitely.
I never really payed any mind to Will Wright prior to The Sims. It's at about the same time the first Sims game came out when I first heard of who he is. Simply put, Will Wright is the brains behind Sim City, The Sims, and the soon to be released Spore. He is known for not just thinking out of the box, but thinking light years away from that box.
I have some good respect for those who take an existing idea, polish it up and release it with a few little additions and tweaks. Call of Duty games come to mind here, where they take the same basic game play and add in a few little things here and there to make their game interesting. I have even more respect for those who think of something so different it's almost crazy, they look at the world around them and dig deep within their own minds to uncover some truly unique and amazing ideas. I mean, let us take Spore as an example. Spore is a game about evolution. You start off as a tiny amoeba in a pool of primordial goo. You do what these little amoebas do in real life, you feed breed and evolve. At some point in this phase you start to evolve what could be called limbs, or usually fins. You eventually find yourself in control of an entire civilization. You can go passed the civilization phase even, once you've taken over your planet (either violently or peacefully, it's your choice) you get to build a space ship to expand your new galactic civilization to other planets in an immense pet galaxy. This pet galaxy eventually becomes a huge playground where you can perform some neat experiments.
At first glance Spore appears to be a hugely complicated game. Chances are it is rather complicated, but I don't think it's as complicated as many seem to think. The game is simply a collection of tools and games put together in one large package. The way Spore is weaved together is simply amazing really. You look at such a basic, yet infinitely complex idea and put make it a reality in a virtual world. Let's put it into perspective. "Let's simulate a whole galaxy in a video game." That's what Spore aims to do. This seems to be an impossible, or very daunting task, but really when you start breaking things down it seems very possible. Granted, this is a video game and not a perfect galactic simulator. In this game you can make a totally new ecosystem with your own creatures and even plants. It uses a simplified model to simulate ecosystems, the game picks and chooses which species of creatures to put into your ecosystem to make it balanced. You as the player can take one creature, and find out what happens if you insert it into an alien ecosystem. It's these kinds of experiments in-game that can actually provide the scientific community, or a kid at home learning about all this stuff with valuable insight on the impact humans can have on Earth's ecosystem. Spore is a collection of already used ideas weaved in a totally different way. The core idea and concept joining all these done-before ideas together is where the new idea lies.
To me, meeting someone like Will Wright would be an amazing experience. I have so many questions that peek my interest. I always have a huge amount of respect for those that don't follow the norm. The current norm in the gaming industry is basically a linear evolution in video games. You can expect most next generation games to have better graphics, better sound and even better physics. I do tend to like the latter physics part because you can really get some cool things to happen in a game these days, but it takes more then that to truly be innovative. I seem to share a similar opinion about the gaming industry as Will does.
I have some good respect for those who take an existing idea, polish it up and release it with a few little additions and tweaks. Call of Duty games come to mind here, where they take the same basic game play and add in a few little things here and there to make their game interesting. I have even more respect for those who think of something so different it's almost crazy, they look at the world around them and dig deep within their own minds to uncover some truly unique and amazing ideas. I mean, let us take Spore as an example. Spore is a game about evolution. You start off as a tiny amoeba in a pool of primordial goo. You do what these little amoebas do in real life, you feed breed and evolve. At some point in this phase you start to evolve what could be called limbs, or usually fins. You eventually find yourself in control of an entire civilization. You can go passed the civilization phase even, once you've taken over your planet (either violently or peacefully, it's your choice) you get to build a space ship to expand your new galactic civilization to other planets in an immense pet galaxy. This pet galaxy eventually becomes a huge playground where you can perform some neat experiments.
At first glance Spore appears to be a hugely complicated game. Chances are it is rather complicated, but I don't think it's as complicated as many seem to think. The game is simply a collection of tools and games put together in one large package. The way Spore is weaved together is simply amazing really. You look at such a basic, yet infinitely complex idea and put make it a reality in a virtual world. Let's put it into perspective. "Let's simulate a whole galaxy in a video game." That's what Spore aims to do. This seems to be an impossible, or very daunting task, but really when you start breaking things down it seems very possible. Granted, this is a video game and not a perfect galactic simulator. In this game you can make a totally new ecosystem with your own creatures and even plants. It uses a simplified model to simulate ecosystems, the game picks and chooses which species of creatures to put into your ecosystem to make it balanced. You as the player can take one creature, and find out what happens if you insert it into an alien ecosystem. It's these kinds of experiments in-game that can actually provide the scientific community, or a kid at home learning about all this stuff with valuable insight on the impact humans can have on Earth's ecosystem. Spore is a collection of already used ideas weaved in a totally different way. The core idea and concept joining all these done-before ideas together is where the new idea lies.
To me, meeting someone like Will Wright would be an amazing experience. I have so many questions that peek my interest. I always have a huge amount of respect for those that don't follow the norm. The current norm in the gaming industry is basically a linear evolution in video games. You can expect most next generation games to have better graphics, better sound and even better physics. I do tend to like the latter physics part because you can really get some cool things to happen in a game these days, but it takes more then that to truly be innovative. I seem to share a similar opinion about the gaming industry as Will does.
The only next gen system I've seen is the Wii – the PS3 and the Xbox 360 feel like better versions of the last, but pretty much the same game with incremental improvement. Bu tht eWii feels like a major jump – not that the graphics are more powerful, but that it hits a completely different demographic. In some sense I see the Wii as the most significant thing that's happened, at least on the console side, in quite a while. - Will Wright.
The Wii is a really awesome console in my opinion. It's a next-gen console that takes the actual interaction the user does with the games and changes it. It is most definitely unrivaled in a party environment. Like Spore, it is a fresh idea.
Like The Sims, I expect Spore to be a huge success. The idea alone is a true winner. Kudos to the man who dares venture where most game developers are scared to go. The fear the industry has when venturing into totally new territory is holding the industry back as a whole. People like Will Wright open new doors, they shed light on unexplored territory for other companies to start playing with these ideas. Although a totally new idea is often times a hit or miss ordeal, the thing that makes Will Wright so amazing is that he, and Maxis (the company he works for) find ways to almost guarantee a new idea's success.
You find more information on Spore and Maxis at the official Spore Website.
Like The Sims, I expect Spore to be a huge success. The idea alone is a true winner. Kudos to the man who dares venture where most game developers are scared to go. The fear the industry has when venturing into totally new territory is holding the industry back as a whole. People like Will Wright open new doors, they shed light on unexplored territory for other companies to start playing with these ideas. Although a totally new idea is often times a hit or miss ordeal, the thing that makes Will Wright so amazing is that he, and Maxis (the company he works for) find ways to almost guarantee a new idea's success.
You find more information on Spore and Maxis at the official Spore Website.
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