Distilling January: A Review

I've taken inspiration from tagn.wordpress.com and I decided to take a look at what happened in my newly emerging blog over the course of the past month.

 Verydistilled has become a bit of an obsession of mine since I started in November last year, you'll notice I try to post daily on weekdays and stay in contact over Twitter most of the rest of the time.

My topics of conversation through Jan have ranged from creating evil penguin-eating monsters in LBP to attempting to murder my friends over New Year. I've read some really interesting articles over the past few weeks, from the heroism of Twitter defending its clients, tonnes of predictions for 2011 games and even some lore stuff for GW2 (yay for giant polar bear warriors!). Considered buying DC Universe Online; decided against it, bought LBP2.

The most popular posts for January 2011 were as follows:

1. Vanessa Atalanta Trilogy - Puppetmaster Interview
2. Guest Post: The Experience of Evil by time2pwnu
3. The Looking Glass Club
4. Waiting for my Blue Mace Lady
5. Marble Hornets Entry #33

Congrats to time2pwnu - in the short time its been up, his guest post has shot to near the top of my reader list. Nice one :D.

Top 10 Search Terms for January 2011

1. blue mace lady
2. marble hornets 33
3. "robert monroe" xkcd sickness
4. appleofoureye
5. everymanhybrid
6. inception ambiguity
7. marble hornets unfiction
8. segst
9. "an amphibious mammal swims in this sea"
10. "apple of our eye" slender man

Special mention to the person who found their way to my blog via the search term: little naked nude blogspot. Kudos horny midget blogspot adventurer - you are a king among men.

Video gaming wise my time has been split as follows:

50% Black Ops

25% Guild Wars

25% Little Big Planet 2

Black Ops: I'm now about halfway through my 5th prestige - not amazing by the real hardcore gamers' standards, but impressive for me, I think! I'd rate myself as semi-decent. Usually going positive when it comes to K/D ratio once the game ends (my overall K/D is currently 1.22). Each time I prestige I keep trying to use different guns, but inevitably I always end up falling back on the FAMAS - its a complete beast and I love it.

Guild Wars: I've been striving to finish the Elonian cartographer title by exploring the continent of Elona in its entirety (and so get Legendary cartographer by gaining the equivalent title for all continents), and also max my Luxon Allegiance title through grinding out some Alliance Battles and Jade Quarry after Jade Quarry battles. All the while, I've been chugging booze like there's no tomorrow - I will have GWAMM by the time GW2 is released!

Little Big Planet 2: Only recently got it, but if you've been reading my posts and following me on Twitter you'll know how much I've been enjoying this game. I think I'm on the final few levels now and its getting tough, I've heard the final boss is a complete bitch so I'm looking forward to that. I'll be making a level fairly soon, the Girl asked if I would make one on the subject of "how much I love her" - so she'll probably be eaten by Gobbler's mother. Who knows?

ARG-wise, the first part of my month was filled with 15 Days of Darkness stuff (what with the OOG discussion going on the 4th of Jan), subsequent to this we've got some interesting stuff happening in Marble Hornets and also some real developments from the smaller YouTube stories out there (such as Experience of Evil and Dark Harvest). Other games worthy of a mention:

Missing Wallace - brilliant story in this, uF poster Thunderwolf has just come in and blown the whole game apart, so its well worth getting involved if you fancy it.

The Wrach - interesting story, cryptic and twisting. Worth getting into if you've got the conviction.

Interesting blogs I've come across over the month:

Brit Chick Runs - Healthy living and running blog from a horse-mad oatmeal hoarder, lots of fun.

L'Épée Magique - RPG enthusiast and Dragon Age: Origins player. Debates tea and elvish custom.

Video Games Blogger - up to date gaming news, crashes when I load it at work - update IE systems admin! Curse you. 

Kill Ten Rats - MMORPG news, including lots of Guild Wars stuff. Love it.

So, its been an interesting month overall. Expect more stuff from Feb - notably, Guild Wars updates, Marble Hornets shenanigans, Black Ops pwnage, fluff, stuff, waffle and banter.

Werewolf: A Family game of Betrayal, Deception and Murder

Early last year I came across the following article on wired.co.uk: Werewolf: How a parlour game became a tech phenomenon by Margaret Robertson.

Robertson introduced me to a game which, since then, I've played with my friends whenever we've got enough people together in a room. If you have the chance, give the article a read, but I'll describe the rules to you here and hope you can spread the word. The game is called Werewolf.

Now, I understand if you've stumbled across this you might have already heard of the game under a different name, perhaps Mafia (as one of my friends had heard) but I'm lead to believe there are a number of subtle differences and nuances which arise if you play the game correctly, so it might be worth following on regardless. Robertson describes the rules simply as:

Its core premise is simple -- a room is split between villagers and werewolves, and the former aren't aware who are their enemies, determined to eat them. Can the werewolves eat their prey before the villagers identify and lynch the werewolves?

Here's a bit more detail:

1) First off, you'll need a decent number of people. The minimum is probably 5, but more is preferable. Each player is assigned a category, in the simplest version either you are a villager or a werewolf. With a group of 5-7 you'd need 1 werewolf, 7-10 probably 2 and more than 11 you'll probably want 3 werewolves. No one other than the person themselves must know who is a villager and who is a werewolf (this is easily done with cue cards for each player - telling them their character). You will also need one narrator who knows everything.

2) The game is split into 2 stages; night and day. During the night, everyone closes their eyes and "sleeps", the narrator asks the werewolves to open their eyes and silently agree on one villager to horribly maul and leave bleeding and spluttering in their fields to die a slow and agonising death before the sun rises. When the deed is done, the narrator asks the werewolves to close their eyes and then announces the morning has arrived and everyone wakes up. The narrator informs the villagers who has been killed and they must sit the remainder of the game out.

3) The entire group must then agree on one person out of them to lynch. The trick is that the werewolves are also allowed to vote, but obviously no one knows who they are, so they must try to convince the villagers that one of their feeble peasants is the bloodthirsty killer. So, with their lynching target agreed upon, the accused is strung up and the narrator informs the group whether they killed a fellow villager or successfully targeted a werewolf. Night falls again and the werewolves are free to choose another to kill.

4) The game continues as such until either all the werewolves are dead (and the villagers win), or the werewolves outnumber the villagers (and the werewolves win).

Sounds simple enough, right? Right, it is! The rules in and of themselves are simple and straightforward, you can't go too far wrong. However, what happens when you begin to play is something else entirely. You might play one or two day/night cycles before it happens; but it will happen. You will go into "Werewolf Mode" - a state of consciousness where everything is relevant and nothing is irrelevant.

"Why are you so adamant that Josh is a werewolf? What are you hiding?"

"You've voted for Sarah three rounds in a row!"

"Why so quiet? Come on, perk up - afraid you'll say something you regret?!"

"Honest to God, I'm not! I don't know what to say, I'm not! AAARRRGGGHHH!"

The times I've played with friends I have learnt more about them than I had for the past 5 years. Robertson puts it aptly when she says:

It's your best bet of finding the most interesting people and of emerging the next morning with a couple of intriguing job offers. Rather than spend a fortune on funky business cards or hours memorising people's blog posts, the most effective way to connect in the tech industry may instead be to kill and eat them.

What I love about this game is it exercises your brain muscles. You can try to read every player's expressions throughout the game, see how they react to lynching their friends and allies, see whether they are particularly vocal about a particular suspect, or quiet when the blame is thrown at them. You can attempt to remember who each person votes for as a werewolf, try to remember who votes together and who never votes at all. Or you can keep schtum and hope no one notices the blood dripping from your fangs.
Whilst, on the surface the game is so simple; underneath there lies an undercurrent of real visceral investigative work - real brainboxing and mind-fu'ing. Above the simple villager/werewolf dynamic, there are further twists you can introduce once you get the hang of the basic rules. There are numerous characters you can assign to people, here's just a short list:

Black Ops News 26/01/11

Recently received a glimpse of the game play involved in the new map pack for Black Ops. Pretty excited, even though I'm not a sniper myself I'm hoping the maps will give more scope (*snigger*) for long range combat to keep the whiny snipers happy. I'm also hoping that the darkness in the Kowloon map will give a greater viability to infrared scopes, which have seen little to no play since the game was released (compared to Modern Warfare 2, where they were relatively common for snipers).

I have to say I was hoping that the "stadium" map would include the ability to fight across the large plain of the hockey rink. There are no maps with large open plains (again, unlike Wasteland and Derail in MW2) in Black Ops - the closest, in my opinion, being the central street in Havana and the Snow field on Grid. Still, can't wait to get to grips with the new features such as the zip line and the collapsible bridge.

Other Black Ops news: the 1.06 patch came out last night.
Notable changes:

• When you down an opponent into Last Stand, if your team mate finishes them off you will be credited with the kill and they will get an assist, this was sorely needed. It doesn't remove the pain in the arse that is Last Stand from the game, but it does at least make it less frustrating.
• Adjustments to the AK74u and RCXD - both sorely needed, although I'm not sure which changes have actually taken place.
• Changes to PSG1 sniper attachments.
• Tweaking the Silenced Sniper rifles.
• Numerous fixes to connectivity problems - although I believe I still crashed a number of times last night...

Full list can be found here: Gamrfeed on Black Ops 1.06

Finally, Wired.co.uk tells me that Gamers' Voice are reporting CoD to trading standards for not delivering a stable online gaming platform for PS3 and PC gamers. I have to agree, it is incredibly frustrating being kicked out of a game when you are doing well, and probably even more frustrating being kicked out when you are doing badly and so are given no chance to redeem your K/D ratio.

From wired.co.uk: http://cdni.wired.co.uk/620x413/a_c/bloppy.jpg

Whilst I'm hoping the latest patch will fix most of the problems; I don't believe the problems are game breaking. For the most part I can play full games and get a decent connection; but that won't stop me trying to twist my controller into a turkey twizzler if I d/c in front of 3 angry enemy players.

I'm still thoroughly enjoying the game and am improving my play style with every day. I'm at 5th prestige now! Wooo!
Next weekend I have some friends coming over and we will be partaking of some "Buzz! Music Quiz!" action, I'm quite looking forward to it. Seeing as, with the exception of Becky and possibly Sam, they are all completely clueless about popular culture - I'm quietly confident.

Anyone tried Buzz? What do you think of it?

Final Fantasy XIII-2

As if the disaster that was FFXIII wasn't enough, those crazy Japanese folks are bringing out a direct successor to its terrible throne. Final Fantasy XIII-2. Discovered this on wired.co.uk (love ya!).

From Wired.co.uk http://cdni.wired.co.uk/620x413/a_c/2323XIII-2_RGB_white_cp_620x413.jpg

Ok, ok, FFXIII wasn't that bad, it was just linear with unlikable characters and a story at once stupefyingly dull and mind numbingly complex. It looked pretty, at least. Back in 2010 I read on 30 Ninjas that Yoshinori Kitase was thinking about bringing out a XIII-2, and my feelings were mixed. The girl completed FFXIII fairly quickly, spurred on, (i believe) by my purchase of a HD telly to truly appreciate the fantastic scenery which you could occasionally see past the oppressive walls which kept you on the straight and narrow path from inevitable cutscene to inevitable cutscene.

Of course, FFXIII-2 is going to follow a similar vein to FFX-2 in following some of the characters from the first game and telling their story further. Because that worked so well in FFX-2 didn't it? No, no it didn't.
FFX-2 was a girlier version of X, it just replaced all the story with singing and dancing and squeeking and made the whole world seem like a mushy pink squeeky land populated by people who, in their time of need, need crap J-Pop to bring them together.

Lightning, at least, is supposedly the main character and this is something of which I approve. She was the strongest character in the game, and was a welcome refrain from the sickly sweet Vanille and her pointless beepings. I really hope that Square Enix have listened to fan's remonstrations regarding XIII's flaws - to be honest, if you ask most FF fans what they want, they will say a mixture of FFVII and FFX, and that is certainly something I could live with.

Good luck Squeenix, do us proud, make us believe in you again! We can make it through, as long as we believe and lo... wait... there I go with the sentimental nothings, dammit Yoshinori, you've infected my mind with mush!

Cross Platform Portal 2 for the PS3!

Yes please, thank you and goodnight. Nice work Valve, I am always torn about which platform to buy games on as it limits the people I can interact with in the game world (so, buying an MMO on the PS3 would be difficult to interact with people due to the lack of a keyboard), but with the new release of Portal 2, all players will be able to interact with players on PS3, Mac and PCs and it doesn't matter which platform they're playing on. Awesome.

Full story can be found at wired.co.uk juuuuuuuuuuuuuuust here.


Picture from http://cdni.wired.co.uk/620x413/o_r/portal2.jpg on www.wired.co.uk/

Plus, if you buy the PS3 version you'll be able to download a free PC/Mac version through Steam. Even.Freaking.Better.
Its another example of how Valve is one of the most community-savvy developers out there. Kudos Portal 2 team, ku-freaking-dos.

Twitter Challenges Govt' Subpoena

linked from wired.co.uk

In my gollomphing around the net I came across this article on Wired.co.uk concerning Twitter's response to the recent subpoena they were issued for information on a number of key figures in the Wikileaks saga. Instead of simply allowing their databases to be opened up and scoured of the key information, Twitter challenged the gag order which came attached to the demands, they won and subsequently notified the persons involved that their information was going to be released. This action by Twitter allowed the persons involved (including wikileaks founder Julian Assange, accused leaker Pfc. Bradley Manning,  former WikiLeaks spokeswoman Birgitta Jonsdottir, and WikiLeaks activist Jacob Appelbaum) to challenge and attempt to quash the subpoena in court.

Wired.co.uk's Ryan Sigel states:

That's what makes Twitter's move so important. It briefly carried the torch for its users during that crucial period when, because of the gag order, its users couldn't carry it themselves. The company's action in asking for the gag order to be overturned sets a new precedent that we can only hope that other companies begin to follow....


...Even more remarkable, Twitter's move comes as a litany of companies, including PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, and Bank of America, follow the political winds away from the First Amendment, banning donations to WikiLeaks. And Amazon.com voluntarily threw the site off its hosting platform, even though there's nothing illegal in publishing classified documents.



By standing up for its users, Twitter showed guts and principles. Much of it is likely attributable to Twitter's general counsel Alexander Macgillivray. As security and privacy blogger Christopher Soghoian notes, Macgillivray was one of the first law students at Harvards' Berkman internet law centre and at in his previous job at Google "played a major role in getting the company to contribute takedown requests to chillingeffects.org."

I can't help but feel the bile rise in my gut, this whole WikiLeaks saga has raised the Orwellian fear in me and it's shown in stark releif just how powerless the little man can be if the government wishes him gone. It is laudable that Twitter has supported its users in such a way, and it makes me feel a little bit safer knowing at least the big T has our back.

Independant Gaming - Torch or Lantern?

Do not let them tell you that you shouldn't post after giving blood - they are wrong, whoever these naysayers may be. I defy them! Wooziness aside...

Ever wanted to be stuck inside a cave, with nothing but a pickaxe made of diamond and some wool? Me neither. Or at least, if you asked me a few weeks ago - I'd have agreed with you. I mean, haven't you played Minecraft? What about cowering in a cupboard whilst Princess Flappyjaw snorts and growls its way around the room lusting after your skin, which would make a perfect balaclava? Never wanted that? Why the hell not? You're weird...

I see from this article over at Wired.co.uk that the Independant Gaming Festival is coming up, and Minecraft and Amnesia: The Dark Descent are both in the running for Indie game of the year. I'm torn about who I would go for - on the one hand Amnesia is pants-wettingly terrifying, there is nothing quite like the fear when your lantern runs out of oil in a dark corridor, and in the dim distance you see an leg disappear into a doorway. Of course, you turn to leave, but as you do so great fleshy tumours burst out of the walls, stringy cartilidge bars the door - you crap yourself, hit alt-f4 and go to bed to sit wide-eyed in the dark.
On the other hand, Minecraft is quite the opposite, I cannot stop playing, perhaps tomorrow I will spend an hour flattening ground to build my cathedral - bit by bit, from the ground up. Perhaps the day after that I will dig straight down, in the hopes of finding a dungeon, so that I can get wheat to start my farm. Maybe after that I'll gather 100 blocks of wool and build a woolen tower as high as I can. Its so freaking expansive, my mind boggles!

I think in the end Minecraft wins this one for me, because whilst Amnesia is innovative in removing the player's ability to fight back, it forces me not to play because it is so terrifying! I laud this as a great acheivement by the developers, but if we are going off fun-factor - then Minecraft has it beat.

Ultimately, I think both games have been revolutionary - Minecraft in its wide appeal and commitment to sandbox gameplay, and Amnesia with its shedding of the power of the weapon in survival horror gaming, and the way it forces the player to come up with other ways of making it through the twisted corridors of the castle.

I'm really glad I'm not withing range of a computer with Amnesia on it right now - in my blood deprived state I fear that the sheer terror would throw me into some kind of shock... maybe its time I just put my head on the desk...

Inception Director - The Folly of Ambiguity

About a year and a half ago I subscribed to the UK edition of Wired magazine. It was mainly to get me immersed in the techie culture which surrounds modern life but that can be sometimes difficult to penetrate unless you are willing to invest (sometimes literally) in the medium, to inform the research I was doing for my postgrad dissertation. Since then, I have really enjoyed getting the magazine each month and often I will read it cover to cover within the first couple of days.

One of the articles in January's edition is an interview with Christopher Nolan (the director of The Dark Knight and Inception) he discusses his view on the ending of Inception and what he thinks happens to the characters after the curtain falls. The final paragraph of the interview interested me the most and it is the reason I'm posting it here:

I've always believed that if you make a film with ambiguity, it needs to be based on a true interpretation. If it's not, then it will contradict itself, or it will be somehow insubstantial and end up making the audience feel cheated. Ambiguity has to come from the inability of the character to know -- and the alignment of the audience with that character.

(Christopher Nolan, 2011, Wired.co.uk)

This, I believe, is a concept with which a lot of ARG's need to get to grips. Too many Slenderblogs and Blargs and other games end on a note of ambiguity, its seen as tension or suspense - perhaps they are leaving it open for a "sequal" or hoping the players will fill in the gaps - and all that is very well and good. However, what the PM needs to understand is that this approach can often be frustrating.

When we are invested in characters, perhaps following them over a number of months, years even, maybe even interacting or meeting with them - and then for them to just drop off the map is often a rather disappointing ending. If you choose not to communicate a concrete conclusion to your game and leave conflicting clues to convey that their fate may have been one thing or another, you must at least have an idea in your own head on how everything ties up and what happened to them, otherwise when you are putting it together it won't make sense and your own uncertainty will show through.

If you are interested in the entire article, it can be found here: http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2011/01/play/inception-director-lives-the-dream



Btw, no I'm not talking about 15 Days! You've wrapped it all up nicely thanks! Carrots are tasty.