Category: Geek / Technical

Some time ago News 4 Gamers posted a video documenting the history of water in video games. Technical and visual style have evolved hand-in-hand, and it is a great nostalgic trip to see how water has changed in 27 years.

[tags]video games, geek[/tags]

I’ve written about my [tag]Knighthood[/tag] story and its continuing saga before. If you haven’t played it, Knighthood is a [tag]Facebook[/tag] application that seems to have taken Facebook by storm. In order to be successful at it, at least in the beginning, it is no more than a pyramid scheme. You have to recruit your friends to play. We’ve seen games like this before, but something about Facebook providing a willing audience seems to have helped Knighthood obtain a large audience very quickly.

Of course, the developers might not have expected so much population growth on the servers so quickly, so the game has been plagued with plenty of planned and unplanned downtime. It was common on the game forums to read about how a player couldn’t access his/her account while other people reported being able to play just fine. Load times would be in the minutes, which was painful when you were trying to heal your vassals while under attack from someone who seems to be able to load pages an order of magnitude faster than you.

Couple all of these issues with the usual bugs a game in Beta should be weeding out, and you had a lot of unhappy people playing a free game that they couldn’t get enough of.

And then a couple of days ago, I logged into Facebook to see that Knighthood was missing in my Applications list on the left side. My first thought: “Was I banned from Knighthood?” I couldn’t think of anything that I would have done wrong. When I checked the forums, I found that a lot of people were logging in to find Knighthood missing.

It turns out that Facebook had disabled Knighthood because it was actually causing problems with Facebook’s database. From the application’s home page:

Update 10:00pm: Knighthood was causing problems for Facebook own infrastructure and crashing their own DB (wow) We disabled most of profile updates to work with FB concerns. it will take much longer for your gold and vassal changes to be updated on profile right now.

Server temporary down message is unfortunately caused by Facebook due to abrupt shutdown of knighthood. It seems some of FB server know about app being back online, yet some servers reject knighthood requests with error message. We can only wait for all FB servers to get refreshed. If you see “temp down” message try to refresh (F5) a few times, you may get lucky and go to working FB server next time.

Update 4:30pm FB seems to be bringing it back online! We missing some of our settings and our developer list is partially erased. I’m going over settings and trying to restore the game.

Today 2/26 around 2pm PST Facebook disabled our game. We are working with Facebook to find out what happened and why application is disabled.

Wacky.

In any case, Knighthood is back online, which is bad news for me. I count myself among those who can’t seem to get enough of this game. I don’t even have to actively play it. Most of the time I’m waiting for buildings to expand or upgrade, and then I might capture vassals in some downtime in the evening.

Downtime in which I could be productive doing something else. Who am I kidding? One of the first places I go when I get access to a computer is to Facebook, specifically so I could check on my kingdom. I may give up on Knighthood eventually, but so far I’m kind of proud that I’ve only lost a vassal once and I was able to rescue him soon after. Soon the developers are going to release changes to the game which might make it compelling enough to continue wanting to play.

Also, since I last wrote about it, I’ve been promoted to Viscount. B-)

Manifesto Games co-founder Greg Costikyan wrote about the game industry’s need for [tag]game criticism[/tag] literature. He makes a point of differentiating critical thought pieces from product reviews.

While reading it, I felt that this article is another result of the great gulf that separates individual members of the video game industry from each other and their works. As another example, when Costikyan was looking for venture capital for Manifesto and getting a lot of publicity, I asked Alex Seropian during a post-mortem of Stubbs the Zombie about his opinion on Manifesto Games, and again, I emphasize that it seemed like everyone was talking about it at the time. Seropian surprised me with the answer, “Manifesto games? What’s that?”

I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that Costikyan felt a need to rant about the lack of serious literature about games, except I could have sworn I’d seen advertisements in The Escapist for Manifesto. Any time I’ve referred to The Escapist, I’ve said “It’s like Rolling Stone, but for video games.”

If you read through the list of comments on Costikyan’s blog, you’ll see even more links to websites. One is Gamers Corner, currently on its 8th issue, and the other is Action Button. There are references to Kieron Gillen and Russ Pitts, among other writers. It’s not as bad as Costikyan may think when he said that there is “virtually nothing we can point to today as ‘game criticism'”.

I do agree that we need more of it though.

[tags]video games[/tags]

The following story could be described simply. I was attacked by Viscountess Melissa twice. One attack was a failed attempt to conquer me, and another was a failed attempt to seize a vassal of mine. In return, I attempted to seize her best vassal, attacking her wall four times. I tried one more time for her second best vassal, and I was successful. Now her attack rating has dropped so she’ll leave me alone, and I get a relatively strong knight in my service once the rescue period has passed.

The next day, I received a Facebook message from a person playing as a vassal of Melissa who is apparently playing the game for her while she is away, or not. Whatever the case, I get a letter in character asking me to release the vassal I seized. I agreed, released the vassal, and received 100 gold coins as thanks.

Now, reading the above text was a rather dry telling of the tale. It mainly dealt with the mechanics of the game. Here’s how I saw it, though.

A courier entered my kingdom and presented a message from Sir Kellen, vassal of the Lady Viscountess Melissa and acting steward of the Kingdom of GodHand (OK, that part is comedy gold):

My Lord Baron Gianfranco

All the realms know of your nobility and valor. I have come to call
upon you but to ask of you one small favor on behalf of my liege the Lady
Viscountess Melissa for whom I am serving as Steward these past few
days.

It has come to my attention that the gallant Sir Gordon has fallen into
your service. I know not how such a thing should have come to pass
since all know a noble as gallant as you would not stoop so low. No doubt
some rebels in your court did seize him without thine knowledge.
However it came to pass, Sir Gordon is a great ally to my Lady and a dear
dear friend to us all. Would that you could find it in your heart to
release him from your servitude know that both our kingdoms would be
eternally in your debt.

Perhaps then we can talk of an alliance of our kingdoms or of at least
a mutual friendship and cease fire, my lord. Though my own holdings are
small, my Lady’s kingdom grows very strong. Though she has only been
playing for a short time, already she is ranked amongst the top 2500
nobility in all the Realms of Facebook. Rest assured her meteoric rise
shall continue in the coming weeks and with your assistance no doubt we
can see all of our kingdoms rise in glory to become the envy of all the
realms.

What say you my lord? Can our kingdoms begin this today to embark upon
an era of friendship and cooperation between our peoples? Or shall we
go a darker course?

I patiently await your most wise decision.

Sir Kellen
Vassal to the Lady Viscountess Melissa
Acting Steward of the Kingdom of GodHammer

Let it never be said that Baron Gianfranco has a stone for a heart! I sent the courier back to his liege with the following message:

Sir Kellen,

I am pleased to have received your message on behalf of the viscountess. It seems that perhaps a grave misunderstanding has occurred. I was under the impression that your liege had tried to conquer my kingdom, for her armies had to be dissuaded twice by my defending army. As retaliation, I sent my own forces in to take her best knight, but being that Sir Walter was too difficult to obtain without much bloodshed, I settled for Sir Gordon.

Assure the Lady Viscountess Melissa that I mean no ill will towards her or her kingdom, and that I was merely protecting my vassals from potential future attacks. Sir Gordon has been enjoying his stay in my tower in the past day, and already I can see why your liege would appreciate his return. He is a fine and loyal knight.

I do not wish to deprive such a brave soldier from the honor of serving his liege. In light of your most civil message of peace, I shall release Sir Gordon, and I hope, should our paths cross again, that we meet with tankards rather than swords.

Baron Gianfranco
Sovereign leader of the Capital of Gianfranco

I released Sir Gordon from his hold in the tower, and I presented him with the following message:

Sir Gordon,

It has come to my attention that you have mistakenly been spending the past day in my tower when you should be with your liege, the Lady Viscountess Melissa. I have released you, and you may return to serving the viscountess.

Baron Gianfranco,
Sovereign leader of the Capital of Gianfranco

Once Sir Gordon had been returned to his former liege, I was surprised to find the courier had returned with a payment of 100 gold coins as thanks from Sir Kellen. The amount wasn’t significant, but the gesture was. While I have no intention on joining into a formal alliance or swearing fealty to the viscountess, I am sure that our future interactions will be more peaceful. That is more than I could say for either Viscount Iain or Baron Nathan, each of whom are missing a major vassal as punishment for daring to attack me. Their vassals will be in my tower until their loyalty belongs to me. Lady Cami and Sir JD should make for good subjects in my kingdom. Fortunately, there is room in my tower since Knight TJ, formerly of Viscount Fred’s service, had decided that he preferred my kingdom much sooner than I expected.

And I have a feeling I would have enjoyed Ultima Online if I would have played it. B-)

About a month ago I purchased The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS. Since I don’t currently have a TV, my other consoles are useless to me, and the game sounded fun.

I came across the Isle of Frost, and it turned out that there were two races of people here. The Anoukis were apparently in control and had banished the Yooks to the more frigid areas. The more I talked to people on this island, the more I felt concerned for the Yooks. One of the Yooks had decided to take matters into his own hands and kidnap an Anouki, stole his identity, and lived in the comfort of the Anouki’s home. The Anoukis suspected that one of them was really a Yook in disguise, and you have been asked to figure it out.

After solving that puzzle, the Yook was revealed, and he left, but not before blasting me with some super breath that knocked me out of the building. When I went back to the leader of the Anouki, he thanked me for helping and then mentioned that I could go get my revenge on the Yook and also take out my aggression on any other Yooks I find. His words were dripping with hate, and the entire affair bothered me. So he asked me if I wanted to get revenge.

My options were either “Well…” or “Maybe…” Wow. Link would get squashed like a grape if he continues to be so ambivalent. Now, it turns out that it doesn’t matter what you say here, because Ciela, the fairy, decides for you:

“Hmmm….YEAH! Of course we want to get revenge!” What? No, we don’t! NO, WE DON’T! She does not speak for me!

But she does. You are sent to get revenge against the Yook who blasted you with his bad breath, and any other Yooks who get in your way. It’s all about finding the pure metal, after all, so it doesn’t matter who gets hurt.

I was sure that something would happen that would reveal the Yooks to be just as hateful of the Anouki. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that this whole section would be a bit of commentary on Isreal-Palestine issue.

Oddly enough, the Yook aren’t just a different set of villagers in a different area. They’re enemies. You can’t talk to them. You just attack. And kill.

Once you do everything you set out to accomplish, it turns out that the Yooks were under some kind of mind-control. They actually prefer being where they are because their fur protects them from the cold. They apologize for trying to hurt you.

Apologize to ME? I killed a large number of you! Why aren’t you upset?

And why wasn’t I given a choice in the matter? Why did Ciela decide to take the Yook’s attack so personally and go along so easily with the Anouki leader’s call for revenge? I’m surprised I wasn’t asked to perform genocide!

It was a very strange situation, I thought. To me, the appeal of revenge and of hate was raised without a strong argument against it in the game. Why doesn’t Ciela become repentant? I don’t need a happy ending, and I felt the way the situation ended was a cop-out, but did anyone else feel a bit uneasy playing through this part of the game?

I was a tourist, exploring the dungeon with my yet-unnamed feline companion, when I found a ring. I put it on, and it turned out to be a ring of invisibility! How awesome is that!

I managed to get fairly far at a low experience level because enemies just couldn’t find me until I already hit them with my +2 darts or kicked them. I was sitting in a room after making it to a new level of the dungeon, inspecting my inventory, when a friend came over to my computer.

“What’s this?”
“Oh, this is NetHack. My cat keeps getting in my way.”
“Uh, huh…wait, what?”
“Here, let me show you. Oh…wait. Let me take off my ring of invisibility first.”

I took a moment to look through the help to figure out how to take off a ring. I’ve never survived long enough to want to take one off before!

“Ok, so this at sign here? That’s me.”
“Uh…”
“And that f? That’s my cat. These are the walls, this is the floor, and this is the door out of the room.”
“Where are your enemies?”
“Probably on the other side of this door.”

I opened the door, walked down the dark corridor, and made it into a room with a fountain. Just as I was about to describe that I was near a fountain, an iguana appeared in the doorway. I showed my friend the text that appeared at the top as the battle waged between the iguana and my cat. My cat was victorious.

“Uh, huh. Well, I’m going to go back to my world where things are tangible. Like, with graphics.” I joked that the graphics came from my imagination, and I pushed my glasses up my nose.

I continued to play. I decided to drink from the fountain…and water moccasins streamed out! There were three giant “S” characters looming before me on the screen. They were between me and the doorway out of the room.

And I was still not wearing my ring of invisibility!

I put the ring on, but not before they took a few bites out of me. I tried to move out of the way, and they started swiping at the air. Phew!

But then I walked forward, and they apparently got lucky and hit me five times before I could move. I was poisoned, but it didn’t matter since I was killed by one last bite.

Ah, NetHack.