Spoiler alert! The following feature contains story elements from the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. This is not a review but an analysis of the story told in Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare series. For those of you that will never play the game, skipped the “No Russian” mission, or missed the subtleties I encourage you to read on.
Five years after Imran Zakhaev was killed and a nuclear launch against the United States prevented, attitudes in Russia have shifted towards the teachings of the once radical. While not explicit, I believe that Zakhaev’s followers were more prevalent than first believed. Infiltrating the military and government at all levels, Zakhaev’s spiritual successor Makarov was able to slowly twist the Russian peoples’ attitudes to those of the Ultra-Nationalists. Like Zakhaev, Makarov has a thirst for death and destruction and uses them as tools to further his agenda of war. Attacks are made at various targets worldwide fueling the bloodlust of Makarov’s recruits and training them for the coming war.
While Makarov is seen as a threat by the United States there is little action taken to reign in this mad man. Whether Makarov is protected by the Russian government or is slippery enough to evade all nets is not revealed. There is at least one US military leader that is taking steps to put an end to the destruction and death. General Sheperd, who lead the military action against Al-Asad in Afghanistan, is now the head of a small military operation. The General's Taskforce 141 is composed of various special operations members, hand picked by General Sheperd, from the British and United States military and intelligence agencies. Their current mission is the retrieval of the encryption module from a downed US satellite from a Russian military base. At the same time General Sheperd is recruiting the latest member of his taskforce from the Army Rangers, Private Joseph Allen. While inspecting the abilities of this new recruit there is a rebel attack in the Afghani city near the military outpost Allen’s unit is stationed in. General Sheperd goes with the unit to retaliate against the attack. The counter attack is successful and the General takes Pvt. Allen with him to his new assignment.
Thus ends part one of the retelling of Modern Warfare 2. Check back next week for the second part.
11.25.2009
The gloves that touch
I was out and about with my buddy Sean this last Saturday. We visited a local sports apparel retailer and found something quite unexpected. Tucked away in the winter wear were these nifty pairs of gloves specifically designed to work with touchscreen devices without needing to take off the gloves. The 180's touch it gloves are a winter necessity for technophiles. The little nubs on the tips of the thumb and first finger allow the use of touchscreen devices while keeping your digits toasty.
I hardly expected to find this techie winter god send in the same place where I used to buy inline skates but wonders never cease. If you want to get your hands into a pair of these iPhone friendly coverings you can order them directly from 180's.
11.20.2009
Reinventing sports franchises continued
When a new sports video game is slated for release nearly the entire staff, all three development teams, would work together to lay the ground work for the project. Cooperation will help the project in the initial phases and bring together the unique expertise from different areas of development together. The three team structure will remain intact while members from both the support team and content team would join the main dev team in an effort to bring fresh new ideas, support, and help to the development of the new title. The support and content team’s separate projects will not be abandoned. Essential staff will remain to work on those projects until after the new title has reached a more complete stage. This would all but guarantee that each team will have working knowledge of the methods and inner workings of the other dev teams, and a deeper understanding of the mechanics of the new title.
This policy of flexible team structure, sharing of information and resources, and a spirit of unified effort towards making the franchise the best it can be is a boon for the workers and management. Each team will have their own respective lead project coordinators and their ability to communicate and work together is key to the success or failure of this model. In this respect each lead will have to have a clear picture of their own team’s projects, their team’s abilities, and how their efforts mesh with the overall goal of making a great videogame.
After the release of the latest entry in the sports franchise series the content dev team should begin work on the DLC. Chances are the season has already begun for the sport has already begun or will begin shortly after the release. Within months the content on the disk will not be an accurate picture of the real life state of the sport. The content team will need to work in overdrive to provide constant updates and new content to players of the new title. Thanks to the three team model they don’t have to work alone. While the main dev team takes a break before starting on the next game, the support dev team will help the content dev team test new content and provide player feedback. This feedback will help guide the direction of the DLC. Requested content could be rapidly produced, meeting the demand of the player’s quickly and to their satisfaction.
Each team lead will be responsible for their respective team and also participate in the design and construction of new titles and features for future iterations of the franchise. Here we come to a point where my own ideas come to an impasse. I’ve little experience when it comes to the workings of higher levels of software development management. What I do know comes from books on game design, which stick to more traditional models. Should there be a group of producers and higher management that over see the whole of the franchise or should the team leads be solely responsible for the content they produce? Tradition would suggest the former but I have misgivings about taking creative power and authority away from the lead designers.
There’s still a lot to cover, including the benefit this structure would have for fans, but I’m going to stop here. When I first had the idea for this article I didn’t realize the scope and complexity that needs to be addressed. I’ll probably come back to the topic in the future, especially if I’m reviewing a new sports title, but for right now I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.
This policy of flexible team structure, sharing of information and resources, and a spirit of unified effort towards making the franchise the best it can be is a boon for the workers and management. Each team will have their own respective lead project coordinators and their ability to communicate and work together is key to the success or failure of this model. In this respect each lead will have to have a clear picture of their own team’s projects, their team’s abilities, and how their efforts mesh with the overall goal of making a great videogame.
After the release of the latest entry in the sports franchise series the content dev team should begin work on the DLC. Chances are the season has already begun for the sport has already begun or will begin shortly after the release. Within months the content on the disk will not be an accurate picture of the real life state of the sport. The content team will need to work in overdrive to provide constant updates and new content to players of the new title. Thanks to the three team model they don’t have to work alone. While the main dev team takes a break before starting on the next game, the support dev team will help the content dev team test new content and provide player feedback. This feedback will help guide the direction of the DLC. Requested content could be rapidly produced, meeting the demand of the player’s quickly and to their satisfaction.
Each team lead will be responsible for their respective team and also participate in the design and construction of new titles and features for future iterations of the franchise. Here we come to a point where my own ideas come to an impasse. I’ve little experience when it comes to the workings of higher levels of software development management. What I do know comes from books on game design, which stick to more traditional models. Should there be a group of producers and higher management that over see the whole of the franchise or should the team leads be solely responsible for the content they produce? Tradition would suggest the former but I have misgivings about taking creative power and authority away from the lead designers.
There’s still a lot to cover, including the benefit this structure would have for fans, but I’m going to stop here. When I first had the idea for this article I didn’t realize the scope and complexity that needs to be addressed. I’ll probably come back to the topic in the future, especially if I’m reviewing a new sports title, but for right now I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.
11.15.2009
Slow As Sunday: Reinventing sports franchises
Every year it is the same story again and again. The next installment of a big sports franchise is coming to stores. The new game features only slight improvements over past installments but still feels like the same old same old. Production values suffer from the lack of time spent on development. Time is not a luxury sports games can afford. Athletes are injured or traded, old teams fade into oblivion or new teams spring up in less time than it takes to create a well crafted AAA title. There are also problems with expanding the size of the development team. Changes take place in the real world far more quickly than even yearly installments can adapt to. Only the best and most energetic team leads can keep track of all the personnel and resources that would be needed to create a masterful videogame.
While playing SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 I thought of a solution to these problems. After discussing the ideas with Editor in Chief of Gaming Nexus Charles Husemann I was able to take my own ideas and his suggestions and come up with a rough model; a new way to offer content to gamers and fans of sports franchises while offering a polished gameplay experience. Instead of the normal one year development cycle, development teams should shift to a two year cycle. I can hear the arguments already “Wouldn’t that mean less content?” Well the answer is yes and no.
Yes, there will be less features and “innovations” to gameplay coming out every year. Most would admit that despite the new features that come out every year it takes two or three years for them to reach refinement. Team management, player created characters, and online multiplayer are all features that have just recently hit the sweet spot for many franchises. No, there would be even more content made available to players via downloadable content. DLC has already extended the life of videogames, and unlike mods, are proven source of revenue for publishers and developers. Regular roster updates are already in NBA ‘09 and ‘10 and the FIFA series but updates don’t have to stop there. New players, coaches, announcers, content for created athletes, sound tracks, and many other forms of content can be updated, changed, or added to.
Let us explore the development team structure needed for a two year, continuously updated, development cycle. Three separate teams working together on every game title would be ideal. The teams will be the main dev team which focuses on the creation of a new title, the support dev team that works to fix bugs in the new title and DLC, and a content dev team that focuses on creating new content for the new title and the DLC to follow the initial release. Splitting into three teams has many advantages. The main dev team will have two years to create new features and a polished gameplay experience without having to worry about staying up to date with every change in the sport. The content dev team will be constantly working with the tools provided by the main and support team to continuously update the experience for the user and the new content featured in the current and future title. The support dev team will be responsible for communication between all three teams, testing content, and communicating and sharing the ideas of the fans with the other dev teams in order improve upon the franchise. Over the course of two years, these three teams will be constantly working, creating, and inventing with enough time to polish, test, and innovate.
The costs and profits of creating videogames, distributing them, and advertising them is not a responsibility I envy. A publisher might think that by offering a new title every other year may hurt the bottom line and keep the franchise from being able to compete. This is not so. A two year cycle would produce a more polished video game without having to swell the development team to an unmanageable size. Any disadvantage that might come from not having the latest and greatest features of the rival company will only be relevant for a year. When the new entry in the series is released, has the new features, and implements them better than the competition it will be clear that their brand has the better game. PR could be shifted away from advertising the new slight improvements that come each year to supporting and growing user created content and the DLC offered by the developer. There is even potential to make more money using the two year cycle. For a small monthly price, say $5, publishers could make just as much money as they did before and potentially more with intelligent use of in-game advertisements. I’m not a particular fan of the practice, but I do like the idea that with constant updates there will be more changes in advertisements and more free content made available by sponsors.
I’m afraid this entry is already running long and I’ve barely scratched the surface of the how and whys of a two year development cycle. I’ll be continuing to discuss the different elements of the production cycle and how publishers, developers, and, most of all, players will benefit from the two year cycle. If there are any particular aspects or ideas you’d like to offer leave them in the comments section. I’ll try to address all concerns and suggestions later this week.
While playing SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 I thought of a solution to these problems. After discussing the ideas with Editor in Chief of Gaming Nexus Charles Husemann I was able to take my own ideas and his suggestions and come up with a rough model; a new way to offer content to gamers and fans of sports franchises while offering a polished gameplay experience. Instead of the normal one year development cycle, development teams should shift to a two year cycle. I can hear the arguments already “Wouldn’t that mean less content?” Well the answer is yes and no.
Yes, there will be less features and “innovations” to gameplay coming out every year. Most would admit that despite the new features that come out every year it takes two or three years for them to reach refinement. Team management, player created characters, and online multiplayer are all features that have just recently hit the sweet spot for many franchises. No, there would be even more content made available to players via downloadable content. DLC has already extended the life of videogames, and unlike mods, are proven source of revenue for publishers and developers. Regular roster updates are already in NBA ‘09 and ‘10 and the FIFA series but updates don’t have to stop there. New players, coaches, announcers, content for created athletes, sound tracks, and many other forms of content can be updated, changed, or added to.
Let us explore the development team structure needed for a two year, continuously updated, development cycle. Three separate teams working together on every game title would be ideal. The teams will be the main dev team which focuses on the creation of a new title, the support dev team that works to fix bugs in the new title and DLC, and a content dev team that focuses on creating new content for the new title and the DLC to follow the initial release. Splitting into three teams has many advantages. The main dev team will have two years to create new features and a polished gameplay experience without having to worry about staying up to date with every change in the sport. The content dev team will be constantly working with the tools provided by the main and support team to continuously update the experience for the user and the new content featured in the current and future title. The support dev team will be responsible for communication between all three teams, testing content, and communicating and sharing the ideas of the fans with the other dev teams in order improve upon the franchise. Over the course of two years, these three teams will be constantly working, creating, and inventing with enough time to polish, test, and innovate.
The costs and profits of creating videogames, distributing them, and advertising them is not a responsibility I envy. A publisher might think that by offering a new title every other year may hurt the bottom line and keep the franchise from being able to compete. This is not so. A two year cycle would produce a more polished video game without having to swell the development team to an unmanageable size. Any disadvantage that might come from not having the latest and greatest features of the rival company will only be relevant for a year. When the new entry in the series is released, has the new features, and implements them better than the competition it will be clear that their brand has the better game. PR could be shifted away from advertising the new slight improvements that come each year to supporting and growing user created content and the DLC offered by the developer. There is even potential to make more money using the two year cycle. For a small monthly price, say $5, publishers could make just as much money as they did before and potentially more with intelligent use of in-game advertisements. I’m not a particular fan of the practice, but I do like the idea that with constant updates there will be more changes in advertisements and more free content made available by sponsors.
I’m afraid this entry is already running long and I’ve barely scratched the surface of the how and whys of a two year development cycle. I’ll be continuing to discuss the different elements of the production cycle and how publishers, developers, and, most of all, players will benefit from the two year cycle. If there are any particular aspects or ideas you’d like to offer leave them in the comments section. I’ll try to address all concerns and suggestions later this week.
11.01.2009
Slow As Sunday: Videogame Burnout
Tis the season of videogame release dates. From now until the beginning of next year reviewers and players alike will be bombarded by a large number of AAA titles that many of us have been waiting for since their announcement a year or more ago. Already I’m feeling overwhelmed by the number of great games that are coming out and have stopped caring about the hype associated with big name titles. How does one deal with videogame burnout? Let us explore some possibilities.
Take your time
You get that one title you’ve been waiting for all year and then realize that just one week from now you’ll also be picking up your pre-order for another title you’ve been wanting to play. Soon you’ll be sitting down for your nightly video game fun faced with the choice of which two game you will spend time with. This may sound like a problem that a hardcore gamer would want to have, more choices between great games, but it can be difficult to make a decision. The best way to solve this problem is realize a simple truth; you do not have to play a game because you own it. Take your time getting to the next game on your list. Your brain will be much better off focusing on one epic game at a time rather than bouncing back and forth between two story lines.
Moderation
You’ve finally got that 100 hour epic RPG and can’t wait to get started creating a customizing your character. Before you put the finishing touches on the nose of your new mage/fighter half elf an hour has already flown by and you don’t even know what the premise of the story is yet. There are those games that hold our attention for a very long time and we escape into a well crafted virtual world for the better part of our free time. Beware burnout! If you know that a game will take you the better part of a month to complete then plan some days where you don’t touch the game at all. I’m sure there are those who can afford to submerge themselves completely in a game, but my rule is that when I start dreaming about the video game it’s time to cut back on how often I play it.
Socialize
You just beat that game you’ve been playing for two weeks and you can’t wait to tell your friends. Then you realize that you haven’t called your friends and have hardly left your home for two weeks. Staying connected to the outside world is essential in avoiding videogame burn out. I’m not talking about chatting on forums or posting your recent achievement on face book. Step out of the virtual world and connect with real people. The familiar virtual worlds of video games have rules and mechanics that will become familiar to the point of seeming second nature. Refresh your mind by interacting with one of the most unpredictable and entertaining of nature’s creatures; humans.
These are only three different methods for three different problems and videogame burnout can take on many different forms. Fortunately most can be solved simply by prioritizing and managing your time with videogames in order to keep things fresh.
Take your time
You get that one title you’ve been waiting for all year and then realize that just one week from now you’ll also be picking up your pre-order for another title you’ve been wanting to play. Soon you’ll be sitting down for your nightly video game fun faced with the choice of which two game you will spend time with. This may sound like a problem that a hardcore gamer would want to have, more choices between great games, but it can be difficult to make a decision. The best way to solve this problem is realize a simple truth; you do not have to play a game because you own it. Take your time getting to the next game on your list. Your brain will be much better off focusing on one epic game at a time rather than bouncing back and forth between two story lines.
Moderation
You’ve finally got that 100 hour epic RPG and can’t wait to get started creating a customizing your character. Before you put the finishing touches on the nose of your new mage/fighter half elf an hour has already flown by and you don’t even know what the premise of the story is yet. There are those games that hold our attention for a very long time and we escape into a well crafted virtual world for the better part of our free time. Beware burnout! If you know that a game will take you the better part of a month to complete then plan some days where you don’t touch the game at all. I’m sure there are those who can afford to submerge themselves completely in a game, but my rule is that when I start dreaming about the video game it’s time to cut back on how often I play it.
Socialize
You just beat that game you’ve been playing for two weeks and you can’t wait to tell your friends. Then you realize that you haven’t called your friends and have hardly left your home for two weeks. Staying connected to the outside world is essential in avoiding videogame burn out. I’m not talking about chatting on forums or posting your recent achievement on face book. Step out of the virtual world and connect with real people. The familiar virtual worlds of video games have rules and mechanics that will become familiar to the point of seeming second nature. Refresh your mind by interacting with one of the most unpredictable and entertaining of nature’s creatures; humans.
These are only three different methods for three different problems and videogame burnout can take on many different forms. Fortunately most can be solved simply by prioritizing and managing your time with videogames in order to keep things fresh.
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