My 2014 Gaming Predictions

To me, 2014 is the year of hope. All of the next gen consoles have been released. Several games have been announced for them. Now, we all wait in anticipation, hoping the games will be as good as the developers say they are. We spent a lot of money on these consoles. We want revolutionary games that will make that money worth it.

I have looked at the games that are expected to release in 2014 and made my predictions on the best in each genre. In general, I do not cover game genres that I do not play. However, this year there are several big games in other genres that have won awards in the past. I decided to add a Special Mentions section for these games. I am not experienced in those genres, but their franchise histories are enough to warrant possible contention for Game of the Year awards.

I make my predictions based on a combination of factors, such as the hype surrounding the game, the developer’s history of games released, the previous games in the series if it is a sequel, and what I personally think from the preview footage of the game. I generally weight full game releases higher than expansion packs. An expansion pack has to be perfect to beat a new full game. Unless the company has history of making superb expansion packs, I usually will not even include them in the list of contenders.

Hearthstone Basic Decks Card List

In Hearthstone, each class has a Basic Deck. These are preconstructed decks that new players can use when they are just getting started, but the game does not let you see the list of cards in these decks. I am the type of player that likes to swap out a card here and there until I eventually arrive at a deck I like. I could not do this unless I had a list of cards to start with. I decided to play with each deck and write down the cards I drew until I had a full list of cards for each Basic Deck.

Warrior Basic Deck			Shaman Basic Deck			Rogue Basic Deck
M	Name	Q	M	Name	Q	M	Name	Q
0	Charge	2	0	Ancestral Healing	2	0	Backstab	2
1	Execute	2	1	Frost Shock	2	1	Deadly Poison	2
1	Murloc Raider	2	1	Stonetusk Boar	2	1	Elven Archer	2
2	Fiery War Axe	2	1	Murloc Raider	2	1	Goldshire Footman	2
2	Frostwolf Grunt	2	1	Rockbiter Weapon	2	1	Sinister Strike	2
2	Heroic Strike	2	1	Voodoo Doctor	2	2	Bloodfen Raptor	2
2	Murloc Tidehunter	2	2	Frostwolf Grunt	2	2	Novice Engineer	2
3	Razorfen Hunter	2	2	Windfury	2	2	Sap	2
3	Warsong Commander	2	3	Raid Leader	2	3	Ironforge Rifleman	2
3	Wolfrider	2	3	Hex	2	4	Dragonling Mechanic	2
4	Dragonling Mechanic	2	3	Wolfrider	2	4	Gnomish Inventor	2
4	Sen’jin Shieldmasta	2	4	Sen’jin Shieldmasta	2	4	Stormwind Knight	2
5	Gurubashi Berserker	2	5	Booty Bay Bodyguard	2	5	Assassinate	2
6	Boulderfist Ogre	2	5	Frostwolf Warlord	2	5	Nightblade	2
6	Lord of the Arena	2	6	Reckless Rocketeer	2	5	Stormpike Commando	2

A Visual Guide to the Interactive Boards in Hearthstone

One of the advantages of playing a card game on the computer is the little extras that can be added. Hearthstone currently features four unique game boards. In typical Blizzard fashion, clicking on the various unique doodads on each map yields fun and comedic results. Here are all the interactive objects I discovered.

My Time as a Volunteer Game Master

A lot of players in MMOs think it would be cool to be a game master. Well, I got that chance for about a year a while back, and now I am sharing my story. The year was 2003. My console of choice, the GameCube, was not living up to my expectations. I felt like I was always waiting for the next game to come out that would end up getting delayed or cancelled. My PC had become outdated. I did not have the money to buy a different console or a new PC. I still loved gaming though.

As I got bored with my existing game library, a friend told me about a free online game called Mu Online. I liked some things about that game, but its importance is that it introduced me to the Asian MMO beta. I had never really known there were free betas online before. I ended up trying out many of them including Kal Online, Knight Online, and Risk Your Life. These games really were not that great, but I could not afford the subscription MMOs. I did not even know an MMO could be better.

Risk Your Life was a game made by a Malaysian company. It had many of the same characteristics of other Asian MMOs, but shortly after I started playing, I heard there was an American company that was going to publish the game for America. That company was Planetwide Games. They created a website with some forums, and I started posting while I continued to play the Malaysian version. I was excited at the possibility of better connection quality to the servers located in America and a better translation into English (Asian translations were pretty bad).

The Closed Beta for the American version was delayed many months. Finally, the first invites went out in the summer of 2004. I remember anxiously waiting to see if I would get a beta invite. I did not get in the first few rounds but did get an invite by the end of the week. At this point I quit the Malaysian version and just played this Closed Beta. I truly wanted it to be a good game. I became more active on the forums and sent in bug reports whenever I found one. The Closed Beta was three or four months. Then, it was time for Open Beta.

Some of the beta testers had suggested a helper system. They had played other MMOs where veteran players could assist others in the game and on the forums. Those players got a special title for other players to recognize. Planetwide Games liked this idea, so they created the Guide system. This happened just at the beginning of Open Beta. As I had been active on the forums and submitting bug reports, my application to be a Guide was accepted. All of the Guides got the “Guide” title in front of their name on the forums and in the game.

I had a lot of fun as a Guide just helping people out. I learned as much as I could about all the classes, character stats, game environments, and more. Whenever someone asked a question in the global chat, I wanted to be the first to answer it. At some point the company decided to add some volunteer Game Masters. These would be like the employed Game Masters but with fewer in-game powers. Naturally, I applied the first chance I got. I was accepted a few months later. Now I could help other players in a more official capacity.

They did not have any backend tools for the GMs, so every day I would log in with my GM account and announce that I was available to help with any problems. Everything was done through in-game whispers. I became an expert at managing whispers with multiple players at once. If I could not solve a player’s problem with my limited GM powers, I would contact one of the employed GMs to handle it. We opened up a free IRC chat for players to get tech support. I would have that in the background. When I heard the little sound that someone had posted something, I would tab out to help there. It was a lot of fun “GMing” for many months.

I did get bored eventually. None of us volunteers got any money. We did get unlimited free access to the game when it launched though, but it was not enough for me. Some good GameCube games had come out by then, and I was done. It was 2005 now. I quit my volunteer position that summer.

Those who know their video game history know that World of Warcraft came out at the end of 2004. Planetwide Games went with the same model as WoW. You had to pay $50 for the box. The first month was free, but then you had to pay $15 per month. I thought it was a mistake to charge the same amount as WoW. I knew by then that Risk Your Life did not compare. It did not stand a chance. Its only hope was to have a discounted subscription.

To shore up interest, the company attempted to do a player vs player tournament with an unprecedented prize of $1 million. This grabbed many headlines, but the game engine was not in any shape to prevent the eventual hacking and exploits that occurred from all the people eyeing that money. The tournament was cancelled after thousands of people had bought the game for that sole purpose. Within a year the game was shutdown.

A game failing is not a happy ending, but I value those memories. I got a chance to see what it is like “on the other side”. My Game Master account being hacked was a big wake-up call on security, how not to trust random people online to be who they say they are. I am always skeptical now, always watchful. It also gave me an interest in the game community. I chatted a bit on forums before that, but ever since I like to get more involved. I do not want to just sit on the sidelines. I give feedback in the hope that the games will be better. I have this blog to give my opinions on the game industry.

My 2013 Gaming Predictions

It is time for this year’s predictions. The year 2013 represents “the last hurrah” of the seventh generation consoles. It looks to be one of the best years. I think I said that last year, but this year even more. A number of my predicted top games for last year were pushed into 2013. Then, there are all the games that were already planned for 2013 release. This year is stacked for big releases.

This post is a compilation of my predictions for the top games of the 2013 year. I have looked at the games that are expected to release in the coming year and made my predictions on the best in each genre. Last year, I made my predictions a little late, all the way in April. This year, I decided to make them in January.

As a rule, I do not cover game genres that I do not play, so I do not make predictions for the Racing, Sports, and Fighting genres. I also do not play handheld games; I make no predictions of 3DS and Vita or iOS/Android (smartphone/tablet) games.

I make my predictions based on a combination of factors. Mostly it is hype surrounding the game, but I also think about other factors such as the developer’s history of games, the previous games in the series if it is a sequel, and what I personally think from the preview footage of the game. I generally weight full game releases higher than expansion packs. An expansion pack has to be perfect to beat a new full game.

Starcraft 2: Our Best Hope for eSports in America

I wrote a short opinion last week about using more real names to refer to professional players than of nicknames. This got me thinking about what could be done to make eSports more popular in America. Between Europe, America, and Asia, America is the furthest behind in terms of accepting eSports as a real sport and valid profession. eSports have definitely grown in America, but the average American still does not know what eSports is and how much fun it is to watch.

The first-person shooter (FPS), fighting, and real-time strategy (RTS) game genres are the most popular within the eSports community, but RTS, or strategy in general, has the best chance of going mainstream. This is because America has a history of rejecting violent videogames. It just so happens FPS and Fighting games are the two most cited game genres by the press and worried parents as “violent” and not suitable for children to play or view. It is hard to justify shooting people in the head or beating them up to parents, even if they are not real people.

Real-time strategy does not have that baggage to deal with. It is easy to draw comparisons with chess, a respected game in America. There are already professional chess players. RTS would just be seen as the electronic extension of chess. Now, you might think turn-based strategy would be better. Chess is turn-based, so a turn-based game would be even easier to compare to. Well, turn-based games are just too long to keep viewers interested. A typical Civilization game takes 4 hours, and there is not much action.

So right now Starcraft 2 is the game of choice for eSports in America. It is always possible another game will come along that is even better than Starcraft 2 for eSports, but right now Starcraft 2 is our best hope. It is definitely not the perfect, especially since Blizzard Entertainment does not really foster the eSports environment. They do not do any advertising really, even for their own tournaments. Battle.net does not have tools to make tournaments easy to setup and execute. Blizzard refuses to add a LAN mode for tournaments. Maybe in the future we will have a better game, but Starcraft 2 it is for now.

What this means is that the eSports community needs to support Starcraft 2 eSports as much as possible. It has grown quite bit already since the game’s release in 2010, but it is still far from being considered legitimate by the average American. Putting money into many different games will splinter the eSports community. We need to focus on one game, and right now that should be Starcraft 2.

Starcraft 2 as an eSport is already doing well compared to other eSports, but it could be improved quite a bit with a few key changes. Over the next few weeks I am going to write a series of “Improving Starcraft 2 eSports” posts on the changes I think will push eSports to the mainstream in America.

The Proliferation of RPG Mechanics

As the cost of making video games has gone up, publishers and developers have looked for ways to get players more invested in their franchises. The more invested a player is, the more likely they are to buy DLC for the game and sequels in the franchise later on. They are also more likely to buy the outside merchandise like toys, books, and board games. One of the big problems to solve was getting a player to spend more time with a game until the DLC or sequel came out.

For example, Star Wars: Jedi Knight could be beaten in about 20 hours the first time through the game. There were two different endings to pursue in the single player and a basic multiplayer mode, but not much else to do after that. That meant you were pretty much done with the game after a month or two. If you liked the game, you might come back and play through it again from time to time. By the time the sequel came out you may have forgotten what Jedi Knight was about.

People are afraid of the unknown, which causes doubt about buying the sequel. If they do not remember how they felt when they played the previous game, they are less likely to buy the sequel. However, if they were playing the game just a few weeks or months prior, they might remember how much fun they had and decide to preorder the sequel or buy it on launch day. When developers started looking at ways to get gamers playing their games longer they found one particular genre of games that seemed to do this well: RPGs.

Role-playing games by their nature are longer than other games. The basic idea in role-playing games is that the player gets to make many choices throughout the course of the game. They can choose which items to equip on their characters, which character skills or spells to use, how to respond to non-player characters (NPCs), which quests to tackle, and what order to tackle them in. All these choices could greatly change how the game plays, creating opportunities for replay value.

When Anti-Aliasing Is No Longer Needed

I have seen a few questions over the years by players just upgrading to a new monitor with higher resolution and wondering why they still see jaggies and need anti-aliasing. It is always a similar story:

I just bought a new 21.5″ monitor and 1920×1080 resolution. My old monitor was only 1024×768. I thought people said you don’t see jaggies with this high resolution. Is something wrong with my monitor?

The pixels on a typical monitor are pretty small. You would think we would not be able to see them while sitting two or three feet away from the monitor. Well the individual pixels are hard to see, but jagged edges are not. They are most common when a line drawn on the screen is near vertical or horizontal but not quite. Our eyes are able to pick up the stair-steps in the line pretty easily.

Anti-aliasing (multisampling in computer graphics) is a way to smooth this out by rendering jagged parts of the image at higher resolutions (2x, 4x, etc.). Then scaling those higher resolution parts back down to the original resolution. This blurs the edges of all the lines just a tad and covers up a lot of jaggedness in the final image. At first glance it would seem we just need higher resolution monitors, but it is a little more complicated than that.

Optimal Game Price vs Length Part 3: Free to Play Games

With full games and DLC it is pretty easy to tell if it is worth it. You either play the game or content yourself to see how long it is firsthand, or read the experiences of others to get a range of lengths (say 20-30 hours). It is then easy to apply the 1 hour per dollar rule (or whatever your personal rule is). On the other hand, free to play games offer an interesting conundrum.

Technically, you do not pay anything to play a free to play game. The bandwidth to download the game may cost some money, installing the game might take some of your free time that could be used for other games (time is money, even free time), but you do not pay anything directly to the developer or publisher to play the game. My little hour per dollar formula falls apart when the dollars are 0 (1/0 is undefined), so it would seem any amount of gameplay you get out of it is “worth” it. Not true.

My 2012 Gaming Predictions

I have written before how I like to make predictions about the future of the game industry. This post will be a compilation of my predictions for the best games of the year. I like to wait until I can read and hear about a lot of the big games of the year before I do this. After all, I cannot make a prediction if I do not know what games are even expected to be out.

I make my predictions based on a combination of factors. Mostly it is hype surrounding the game, but I also think about other factors such as the developer’s history of games, the previous games in the series if it is a sequel, and what I personally think from the preview footage of the game. I generally weight full game releases higher than expansion packs. An expansion pack has to be perfect to beat a full game.

Action

Winner: BioShock Infinite
Other Contenders: Halo 4, Max Payne 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, The Darkness 2

I expect the latest Call of Duty to sell like crazy as always but tend to favor games that bring something new. Call of Duty games do bring small changes but not enough when compared to other shooters. For example, Halo: Reach scored an average of 91/100 on metacritic while Black Ops only managed 81/100. I expect Halo 4, BioShock Infinite, and Max Payne 3 to all score higher than Black Ops 2.