2nd May 2004, 10:46 PM
lazyfatbum Wrote:or the worst in my opinion; the techie games where pulling off a trick requires you to read a manual.
THANK YOU! That's EXACTLY my opinion on games like Tony Hawk and such! I believe all that holds me back from liking those games is the fact that there's NO way I could EVER learn all the complicated junk needed to do ANY sort of cool trick and all I ever do is the classic face plant. It's the SAME reason I only like certain fighting games. Having to memorize extremely complicated controls for each move is NOT fun. However, as in Super Smash Bros, where simplicity was the goal from the START, you memorize EVERY move the second you memorize ONE, the smash, and then you can very quickly just learn the physics and figure out the game the way GOD meant it to be learned, long ago when He first forged "Super Angel Wars Mega Hyper Kensutso Magic Massive Online Showdown Fasion Show Dance Dance Super Happy Fun Time Yeah!" and gave it to Adam and Eve.
lazyfatbum Wrote:As far as online play, I want it to the point that I turn on my GC, and start up Metroid Prime 2. I go to the multiplayer menu and there's a menu item marked as "Online death match". I go there, and I get a list of who's playing Metroid Prime 2 in the world right now. I click on the name "Dark Jaguar: Warrior Prince/Princess you decide, or not - I'm comfortable with my mascuninity" and then ask you to play with me by sending you a message either verbally or by text (I would prefer the headphone/mic setup like Xbox has). You reply and confirm that you want to play. The level loads and we play a two player Death Match, or a 20 player death match with all kinds of TC peoples. And it's full screen for each person playing, and there's no lag, no jumpyness and everything is super smooth. If Nintendo can do that, then by God Nintendo needs to get their ass in gear. If they cant, they should, in my opinion, wait until the technology is there.
You should know lazy that we ARE at that level, except for the "no lag ever" part already! That's EXACTLY how it works right now! You just turn on teh game, select multiplayer mode, a list of games being played RIGHT NOW shows up, you select who you want to face, and the match starts RIGHT up! You can also create your own and just wait a few seconds for people to start joining up, and you can ALSO tell it to show your friends and see what they are doing, send them invites, with voice in XBox Live, and see if they show up, or just talk to them and get them to invite you.
Now for the BAD news. Human beings, unlike technology, can be complete jerks. Penny Arcade sorta emphasizes this in many of their comics. You join a random match, and you are INSTANTLY kicked and given no explanation. The least they could do is tell you why you are going to be kicked out first. You are ABOUT to win, and suddenly they just quit to avoid having that loss recorded.
On the technical side, in your efforts to dream of this setup, which so you know already exists and does work very well indeed, far better than what you have apparently last used (seriously, you need, NEED to play a current era online game, so you would KNOW what things are like now and THEN come up with a new brilliant way to solve the existing problems, as opposed to being perpetually stuck in the past when things sucked), you failed to see the weaknesses of it. However, it fits in with the idea that it's not nearly perfect yet. Often times, on older systems mainly, there is a delay between the matches it SAYS are there and what is ACTUALLY there, so you may join a game only to find that it's already started, or that it doesn't actually exist any more. Other technical flaws that happen in some setups result in not EVERY game even being shown on the list. Finally, due to current server limitations, very often they have to have multiple servers set up, so you may not see your friend ONLY because they aren't on your server. Indeed, this is likely the biggest flaw of all, and it's all due to how the internet currently works.
Also, the lag. While lag is MOSTLY gone from broadband, it DOES still show up now and again there. One reason is because very often broadband companies will give you LOTS of downwidth, but only a 10th of that speed in upwidth. If you are an online gamer, you are screwed because most of these companies just give you a blank look and then say "no" when you ask them if there's any way, even one that involes an additional payment, to boost the upwidth to the same as the downwidth. Most of the time, it's not an issue. Sometimes though, it is, and gets annoying. Also, sometimes someone with a pathetic connection will show up and ruin things.
Finally, sometimes stability will get so bad that it frustrates you into not even wanting to play for that day. You are certainly able to find your friend and start up a game with ease and intuition under OPTIMAL network conditions, but then some network conjestion occurs, and many stupid things start stacking up, like you inviting your friend, but the connection being dropped sometime into the match, or JUST before the match starts. Right after that, you don't even see your friend online, but they see you, and start yelling at you over the phone, which suddenly became needed ONLY because of these issues (in optimal conditions, the phone is obsolete).
In any case, your method IS in use, and works great when the network is working great. It's just that currently the internet is FAR too unstable for it to ever really be perfect. On the OTHER hand, there are SOME games I've played where the network has NEVER ONCE had ANY flaws and ALWAYS works optimally. Warcraft 3 for example has never screwed up on me in any of these ways.
Regarding that magical realm where you can walk around and talk rather than just use a chat room, you must have never used V-chat. MS created that long ago with JUST that purpose, and aside from the horrible lag of the era, it was indeed VERY fun. You used a 2d avatar (and by the way, thank all that is holy for the ability to block custom avatars on specific users), and just roamed around a virtual environment using the "local" chat option most of the time, which, as in real life, let your words only be "heard" by people nearby (about 10 digital meters), or "shout" so everyone had to hear you. I liked hanging around the virtual alien world and hiding in the moon. Or, the mountain lodge and hanging out in the rafters. Just casual talkin' style fun. Of course, the technology REALLY wasn't up to the task at the time, and due to lag that happened far too often, MS stopped the service. Some people to this day STILL have their own servers set up for it though (it used custom IRC channels).
Anyway, once they finally iron out the stability issues, making all online usage as reliable as picking up the phone or turning on the TV, then online gaming should meet even your standards. Truth be told, it's not yet up to my own standards either, but I'm willing to deal with the occasional super annoying network problems considering the absolute fun and ease of use I can get the REST of the time.
So, your ideal Metroid Prime 2 online play setup is already being used in other games, but it's not ACTUALLY perfectly ideal. Just tolerable. I'd still want it though :D.
About the Virtual Boy, there were enough problems with that to really make it a stinker in all senses, but yes I agree the idea of a 3D system as opposed to current 2D displays really is a goal that needs to be fully examined. The VB was very bad, but not TOO many changes need be made. First off, if it's going to be portable, it should BE portable. That means letting you SEE WHERE YOU ARE. I think the solution there would be imax style glasses. The less of the "grey" you see while playing, the better. In the case of home systems, people like letting others see what they are doing, or some people like just watching (honestly, I find it boring to watch others play games, it's why I'm not a sports fan), but anyway, a 3D system others can watch is needed. Also, in those cases, everyone should share the SAME view, normally. So, once again an imax style 3D glasses solution is nice. It's just not something most people like the idea of, having to equip something whereas before they just DID. So, EYE SURGERY! :D Well, I'd do it because I'm all for ditching the human body in favor of a GIANT MECHA DEATH CANNON that can't really move around much and is really a sitting duck, but it LOOKS cool, but others wouldn't obviously :D. So, there's another "washing machince" style 3d system. It's got a giant screw, like a waching machine, that makes one, just one, full rotation that stretches from top to bottom around the center. Light, perfectly timed to the spinning, bounces off the super reflective screw at just the right time to produce a 3D image. Currently, last I checked, it has a very low resolution (measured in "voxels" on this device), and a very noticable flicker at that, but it's at least usable for military purposes. That COULD work for a TV of the future, set in the center. However, there would be things some people could see that others couldn't. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. As a bad side, you would have to watch it many times to see everything about a scene. As a good side... you would have to watch it many times to see everything about a scene :D. It would also make for a much more communicative experience when watching it with many people. Someone may ask "why did that guy die?" and someone else could say "oh, on my side I saw him get hit with a poison dart".
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)