Video game console names

Odyssey	👍
Odyssey 100 (200, 300, &c.)	😐
Tele-Games	😐
TV Master	👎
Telstar	👍
Telstar Classic	👍
Telstar Deluxe	👍
Telstar Ranger	👍
Telstar Alpha	👍
Telstar Colormatic	😐
Telstar Colortron	😐
Telstar Marksman	😐
Telstar Galaxy	👍
Telstar Gemini	👍
Telstar Arcade	👍
Channel F	👎
VCS	👎
2600	😐
5200	😐
7800	😐
XEGS	👎
Jaguar	👍
Astrocade	😐
Intellivision	👍
Intellivision II	👍
Intellivision III	👍
Arcadia 2001	👎
ColecoVision	👍
Vectrex	👍
Entertainment System	👎
Super NES	😐
64	😐
GameCube	👍
Wii	👎
Wii U	👎
Master System	👎
Mega Drive	👎
Genesis	👍
Saturn	👍
Dreamcast	👍
TurboGrafx-16	😐
Neo Geo	👍
Interactive Multiplayer	👎
PlayStation	👍
PlayStation 2	👍
PlayStation 3	👍
PlayStation 4	👍
PlayStation 4 Slim	😐
PlayStation 4 Pro	😐
Pippin	👍
Xbox	👍
Xbox 360	👎
Xbox One	👎
Xbox One S	👎
Xbox One X	👎

Conclusions:

1. It is not hard to come up with a good name.
2. If you want a bad name, overthink it.

Wish list: HEMA video game

I backed CLANG, but in the end, I don’t think I’ll ever be very satisfied with a motion control sword fighting game.

What I’d really like is a HEMA-based game along the lines of Bushido Blade.

Xbox Live Rant

I hate Xbox Live.

After buying some Microsoft points, I transferred them to my son so he could buy Minecraft. It turns out, that Microsoft won’t let a minor buy it, although the system didn’t tell me that. Someone else had to explain why it wasn’t working. Oh, and I couldn’t transfer the points back to me. Why can I transfer points only one-way to an account that can’t use them?

I carefully customized the settings for the kids’ accounts, but the settings don’t seem to have anything to do with what is actually allowed or not. I am constantly having to adjust the settings to allow them to do things I thought I had already set as allowed. And it is even odds whether changing the permissions will actually help or not.

I recently bought another Microsoft points card, but whenever I tried it, it always came up as invalid.

(There’s also the run-around I got trying to get a second-hand Xbox repaired.)

And you have to have an Xbox Live account to use the Amazon video app.

Every time I have to do anything with the Xbox is painful and ends up not working.

Nintendo

Gruber, Marco, and Siracusa have all been talking about Nintendo.

I don’t know much, but I do know this: Being a 3DS owner has felt like you were dealing a company that was living in the past and only barely keeping up. I can only store settings for three WiFi networks? Buying an app/game and getting in to download in the background takes a large number of seemingly pointless taps? Games are still sold on cartridges? If I buy the cartridge version of a game, we can play it on any of our 3DS systems—one at a time. If we buy the digital version, we can only play it on one specific device? Etc.

Are these just software problems or are some of them hardware problems being reflected by the software? I don’t know, but it seems clear that Nintendo is not great at making a great overall product despite being in control of the hardware and the software.

I’m not convinced that getting out of the hardware business will help. I’m not convinced that writing software for other platforms will help. I am convinced that making great products will help.

There’s also a point made that the 3DS library—which includes all DS games as well as the 3DS games—makes up for this. Personally, though, I’ve found more games I want to play on iOS than for my 3DS. In any case, having a deep library is good, but it doesn’t invalidate criticisms of the system.

The future of gaming

The Omni is a very interesting device. It appears to be an elegant solution.

They should distance themselves from this kind of hyperbolé rather than quoting it, though:

Ladies and gentlemen, you're looking at the future of gaming

Video games have not had an uphill battle against their lack of VR technology. Rather, such technologies have had little success in the market. It isn’t just because “they aren’t there yet”. It is because people enjoy playing games without the VR experience. Such gaming will continue no matter how good the VR technology gets. The VR technology will be used for some games but not a majority of games.

Even among the types of games that work well for VR technology, there’s the convenience hurdle. Pulling all this gear out of where you store it and getting it set up and calibrated adds overhead that tradition controller and screens don’t have.

While prices will certainly continue to fall and the experience will continue to get better, I wonder if this stuff will ever provide an experience that really justifies the cost. But I’m hoping the Omni does have a bright future. I’d love to try that setup with Minecraft. The non-gaming applications are very interesting and may equal or exceed its gaming applications.

Linear

Here’s a tip for video/console/computer/iOS† game designers:

Free wandering doesn’t make linear gameplay non-linear.

Rather, adding free wandering to a linear game tends to be tedious at best and frustrating at worst.

†Is there a good general term to use here?

FFX vs LoZ:SS

A more interesting question, for me, than Civilization versus Final Fantasy might be this: Why do I enjoy Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword but not Final Fantasy X?

They’re both linear storylines. In both, you walk from cut-scene to cut-scene, possibly with some combat in between.

It’s not as simple as real-time versus turn-based combat. I tend to prefer turn-based, and FFX is the one with turn-based combat.

FF or Civ?

“Do you prefer Final Fantasy or Civilization?” noisms asks.

I’ve played Final Fantasy X, and I found it frustrating. I’ve also played Square-Enix’s Chaos Rings, which I found similarly frustrating. Though FFX’s story at least kept me more interested than CR’s.

Civilization, on the other hand, I enjoyed a lot.

That said, I wouldn’t say that my problem with FFX was that it wasn’t Civilization.

Console game dialog

I got Sonic Generations for Christmas. It’s nice to have back the classic Sonic gameplay that was sorely lacking in the last couple of Sonic titles I played. Though it is going to take some getting used to it in stereoscopic 3D.

So many console games have really annoying dialog. It uses a dozen lines where three or four would have sufficed. The player has to click through it three or four words at a time. And then there’s the ones that throw in lots of pointless interjections for more pointless clicks.

Does anyone really enjoy clicking through this stuff? I enjoy the stories, but I’d enjoy them a lot more if they weren’t so poorly delivered. I used to come up with excuses for why this was handled so poorly, but these days the excuses are worn out.

So far, the biggest sin in the Sonic Generations dialog—ignoring the sin of having dialog in a Sonic game—is the pointless interjections.

Wii

Santa brought the kids a Wii, and my worst fears were confirmed. It is far too much physical activity for a video game. (My arms are sore! ^_^) It is far more fun than the few times I tried it before.

As a former member of the Sega→Sony anti-Nintendo faction, I have to admit they’ve made some really good moves. With the original GameBoy, they understood that portability was more important than color. While the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 continued down the road of more expensive and a somewhat narrow library of games, the Wii went for a lower price, heavily featuring motion sensitive controllers, and more variety in its titles. Wii Fit looks very interesting. Wii Music brings a different attitude to music titles. (I think something in between Rock Band and Wii Music could be very interesting.) The DS looks very interesting too. The new cooking application, like Wii Fit, shows not only a tolerance for but a vision to expand the variety of software as few other “video game” companies have been willing to do.

The Mario-esque theme music behind everything on the Wii is about my only complaint. I think I’m a convert.

Sonic?

I really enjoyed the Sonic the Hedgehog games on the Sega Genesis. They were part of the reason I bought a Genesis. They were straightforward Mario-style platformers...on speed.

I’ve now played a Sonic game for the Xbox 360. Right off the bat, this game does not feel like a Sonic game.

In Sonic games, you start the game, and you start playing. At most, you choose a character (Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles) or load a saved game. Then you’re racing through the level.

There is a story. (e.g. Dr. Robotnik has trapped your woodland friends in badnik robots and is trying to collect the six Chaos Emeralds in order to rule South Island.) There’s just no exposition.

The 360 Sonic starts with a (much too lengthy, IMHO) exposition movie and then you...walk around a town talking to people.

(o_O)

This post was somewhat inspired by We can steal the term “neo-retro”; there are parallels in P-n-P gaming and console gaming.

Per encounter abilities

Listening to the D&D podcast, they talked about “per encounter” abilities in fourth edition. Abilities that can basically be used once-per-fight. It’s also something I’ve been experiencing in the Star Wars Saga Edition. On one level, “per encounter” abilities are very artificial or meta-game-ish. Put simply, there’s seldom a good “in character” explanation for such things. On the other hand, though, in movies, literature, real-life, etc., heroes don’t tend to have a signature move that they use almost to the exclusion of all else. In games, however, that’s an easy thing to fall into. Trying to make the rules emulate the real reason for this dichotomy—I think—is both hard and tends to led to unnecessary complication. So, I’m thinking that “per encounter” abilities can actually be a very abstract way to improve simulation (whether you’re simulating reality or fiction). Improving the simulation without overly complicating the rules. The difficulty may lie in figuring out how to not make them feel artificial “in character”.

school of Rock Band

Playing Rock Band could actually help improve your singing. Playing Rock Band could help improve your drumming. ...but it won’t help your guitar playing. (>_<) Unfair!

To PS3 or not to PS3...

So far, I’ve only been able to find two reasons to buy a Playstation 3...

• Rock Band is only for PS3 or Xbox 360
• The PS3 isn’t a Microsoft product

On the other hand...

• PS3: $400
• Xbox 360: $280

Turns out there is going to be a version of Rock Band for the PS2, though it won’t have all the features.