Archive for August, 2005
History of games and RPG
Two of the oldest war games of all times can b tracked to almost four thousand years ago: Chess and Go. Even though ‘war games’ already originated at the turn of the 19th centaury from Prussia, it was Wells who wrote the amateur book for war games in 1915, now known as the war games ‘bible.’ Dices were commonly used to predict the outcome of the game, and what the elements evolved would be.
A vital piece of game design, which is often overlooked, is the model for adventure. For example, early D&D was defined by the keyed dungeon map and room descriptions.
Evolutionary that is what many authors have described RPG as. Since Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, RPG has become much more ‘sophisticated’ and it also had its origin to D&D.
A more literary approach to role-playing came at first from Chaosium in reaction D&D. The rules for Chaosium were based a skill-based system also working percentile, developed for “Rune quest” originally.
It became known as basic role-playing {BRP} As technology developed so did the imagination have more freedom, not limited with the physical world anymore. But to most industries it is still a struggle to support effective running adventures without laying out a plot to follow.
The approach of providing maps and background had all but disappeared in favor of scene-by-scene plots. With the revival success of D&D, this may be reconsidered.
No commentsNavy Renovations Underway with the New Roster
As the ever-changing Imperial Navy evolves, there is a need to keep the roster of the Vast Empire’s Navy as up-to-date as possible. However, this article isn’t about the addition of new recruits. It’s about the new Navy roster.
Admiral Japheth, the Naval Commander-in-Chief, has been spending most of his time updating the Naval roster by adding recruits, taking away AWOLed recruits, and adding new positions to the roster. But now, it has taken a giant step for Navy kind: the roster for the VE Navy has a completely new design.
In place of the older roster is a new one, more advanced than ever. Instead of saying something plain like “Kaph Squadron”, it has morphed into the more Imperial-like phrase “1st VE Star fighter Group: Kaph Squadron”, and so on and so forth for the other squadrons, thus making Nazgul “2nd VE Star fighter Group: Nazgul Squadron” and Aegis “3rd VE Star fighter Group: Aegis Squadron”.
Also, in addition to that, a flight school has opened up, stationed on board the Platform Saratoga. Similar to the Army’s Drill Squad, the Vast Imperial Flight School will help those new recruits just entering the Navy pass their exams and get a position in an actual squadron. Captain sk8guy is in charge of that.
As the roster additions change from the work of Admiral Japheth, the Navy once again receives a new “face” (see the first edition of the VE Today to see my article “The Face of the Ever-Changing Navy”) that inspires us all. Special thanks to Japheth for taking his time to improve the roster for all of us to see.
No commentsThe Controversy Continues: Part 1
In the gaming world today games like “World of Warcraft” have reach a population of over 300,000(That’s about the entire population of Jamaica). But not all games have a positive look like that, games like “The Sims 2”, “GTA: San Andreas”, Has the debate over video game content reached a tipping point?
That could very well be, now that Republicans are jumping into what has been, up until recently, a Democratic issue. Hot Coffee is fueling the fury, of course. The mainstream coverage that the GTA: San Andreas mod has received has not gone unnoticed by Republicans, who are loathe to allow their Democratic counterparts to steal a political march.
An article in The Hill notes that H.R. 376, a resolution calling for an FTC investigation of the Hot Coffee scandal, was the first video game action ever introduced by a congressional Republican. Michigan Rep. Fred Upton’s resolution was passed by an overwhelming 355-21 margin.
“Everyone wants to get on board now because almost no one will disagree,” with the idea that explicit games should not be sold to minors, said Mathew Baum, a political science professor at UCLA.
Richard Davis, who teaches political science at Brigham Young told The Hill that the GOP move is no surprise. “It is traditionally the case that Democrats come up with an initiative, Republicans pick it up, pass the lesser form of it and still get the credit. This is a classic example.”
Like it or not, Hot Coffee is going to be with us for quite a while. The video game industry is now entering what will probably be the most challenging phase in its brief history.
No commentsThe End Comes, November 1st
A happy and sad moment is coming to Star Wars fans November 1st – The release of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Happy because once again we can experience this great movie (legally, that is. Shame on you, movie-downloaders!). The sad thing is, is this is the last big star-wars thing we have to look forwards to. Since they decided against making episodes 7-9, Episode III is the last Star Wars we will see. Sure, there will be re-release after re-release, but nothing new. The DVD will feature the movie at its highest quality, and includes a few bonus features, including multi-level demo of Star Wars Battlefront 2 (I hope for Xbox). For those of you who haven’t seen the movie (Shame on you also!), it is about the final stages of the Clone Wars and the completion of Anakin’s transformation into Darth Vader. Filled with lots of dismemberments and great lightsaber duels (including a wield four sabers at once by Grievous) the movie is worth the buy. So remember people, November 1st! (That or you can wait until it comes out in some huge all six episodes release).
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