Tag: smile week

Smile Week: Gold-Plated Memories

Posted on by Gazimoff

It’s been a week since I started talking about the things I find great about MMOs. In that time I’ve looked at a whole bunch of stuff from how the games are built to how they’re supported. In the final post for the week, I wanted to talk a bit about one of the things that always stays with us from our time gaming: memories.

Over the time I’ve been playing Warcraft I’ve collected a whole bucketload of memories. There’s the time I ended up discussing jam-based artillery or the occasion I went on a bike ride through the jungle while being chased by dinosaurs. There’s even the tale of how my Warcraft journey began and where it led to.

My best MMO experiences have been defined by the people I’ve played with and the things we’ve got up to. Phil Carlisle, Namaste CTO dropped me an email on this theme at the beginning of the week that I’ve been itching to share with you. Here’s what he said:

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Smile Week: Supermassive Systems

Posted on by Gazimoff

Previously on Smile Week I’ve talked about how MMOs are changing mobile gaming, how the developers are more open with the community and how much work they put into art, music and worldbuilding. Today I’m going to talk about something a little closer to my heart: the nuts and bolts of an MMO and how incredible it all is.

I’ve talked about MMO design a couple of times in the past. Earlier this month I examined the various components that slotted together to make a great MMO, while back in July last year I examined the design of Warcraft realm clusters and how they’ve evolved over time. Today I’m pushing the view out even further to look at the building blocks for a complete online gaming platform.

Before I do this though, I want you to think about your own gaming experiences. You’re playing your favourite MMO and you’re knee deep in raidsville. The boss is pounding away on one of the tanks the healers are struggling to keep everyone up and the damage dealers are pounding their buttons like nutcases. You press an instant cast hotkey and the ability immediately fires. Barely a moment has passed and the ability has registered. The tank stays up, the healer stays calm and the deeps keep deeping. It’s the kind of thing you only notice when it goes wrong.

Now what if I told you that all this was only a part of all the systems that make up an MMO. Surprised? Let me show you just how many bits and boxes go into delivering our gaming experience.
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Smile Week: Atmospherics & Acoustics

Posted on by Gazimoff

How many times have you been playing through your favourite MMO, only to pause for a moment and say “Oh, wow…”

Screenshot

Likewise, how many times have you been in a quest, dungeon or even a raid and caught a moment of of stirring music. You remember – the kind that has you muting everything including ventrilo or mumble just so you can listen to it properly.

This post for Smile Week is dedicated to the time I’ve been stunned by the sights and sounds of my favourite games, literally pausing for breath while my senses take it all in.

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Smile Week: Dialogue Options

Posted on by Gazimoff

Today’s entry in Smile Week is a bit of compare and contrast. As MMO gamers we’re a bit of a fortunate bunch when it comes to developers and publishers. We’re looked after, listened to and cared for much more than our single-player brethren. What do I mean? Let me show you.

A single player game is revealed, marketed and released to aim for a particular point in time – the point in the year when the game is likely to sell at it’s best. They’re looking to make sure that there’s scarce competition from other similar games for a few months either side. Plus, marketeers want to make sure we’re likely to have money to buy the game or get someone to buy it for us.

The hype for a single player game all tends to be one way. A developer might release some artwork or a gameplay video, or hold an interview with a journalist or blogger. These are all great in sharing the vision of the game and the direction they’re headed, but there’s little room for the fans to give feedback on what they see.

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Smile Week: Incredible Ubiquity

Posted on by Gazimoff

I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about how I was going to kick off Smile Week. About which ideas I’d pull together and what stories I’d share. Unfortunately I’d spent a lot of time thinking and not very much writing, which isn’t very helpful.

As I sat on the train between Manchester and Winchester staring out of the window into the darkness I wondered how to start it all. Then I did what any gamer would do – I picked up my smartphone and had a quick blast on Cut The Rope. Feeding Omnom those delectable pieces of candy made me realise something.

Gaming is everywhere

The normal reaction to this is “so what?”, and it’s a reasonable response. But it wasn’t so long ago when playing video games meant hooking a mysterious box up to your telly, digging out an audio cassette and praying to the gods of small chaos that your game wouldn’t crash when the tape stopped.

Since those early days gaming has spread to infest itself in almost all consumer electronics devices made today. They’re no longer tethered to the home, instead being as portable and accessible as a book.
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Engineer Gazimoff’s Smile Week

Posted on by Gazimoff

Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Game

I’m going to start off with a screenshot. I can’t remember when exactly it was taken, but it was early on in my Warcraft gaming career when the raidgroup I was in was clearing through Blackwing Lair. That puts it at late 2005 or early 2006 – I don’t quite remember but it’s probably something like 5 years ago.

Back then the game was a completely different landscape. Raiding was new, MMOs were new, voice chat was new. Spell rotations were built on what seemed to work rather than World of Logs parses. If I had to give it a smell, it smelled like dirt after a heavy rain. I remember the days when I used to log in and just stand in awe.

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