Enough to Give You Flashbacks

I spent this past week sick. As in, "I should have been in bed but work wouldn't let me" sort of sick.*

While that didn't exactly help me with keeping up with the blog (as well as playing games), I did have time to finish up a book on the video game industry. For people who read Kotaku, the name Jason Schreier should sound familiar, and his book Blood, Sweat, and Pixels is a look behind the development of several video games. While none of the games featured were MMOs, several of the games were those developed by game companies that do develop MMOs, such as Bioware and Blizzard.

And if I thought that his article on the disaster behind Mass Effect: Andromeda gave me flashbacks, this entire book was akin to reliving a five year stretch of my life.

This pic popped up when I searched Google for
"generic software developer working photo".
In my experience, these people can't be
actually coding at that time because they're
all smiling. (From thebalance.com.)

Video game developers are a breed apart of most other software developers. While I used to hear stories of the earlier days of Microsoft when upper level managers would roam the hallways, complaining that too many people had gotten married or had families for Microsoft to keep their edge, video game developers pretty much lived for writing code 24x7. A coworker of mine was once on the dev staff for Betrayal at Krondor, and the stories he told of the insane hours worked made for good lunch discussion.**

And the stories that Jason told in his novel really hit home for me, such as:

• The doomed Star Wars 1313, the game that was going to restore LucasArts to its former glory but was destroyed by micromanagement from the top (George Lucas) and the sale of LucasFilm to Disney. This reminded me of my company's attempt to capitalize on the rush to get everything on the web by creating a "web based midrange CAD program"***; which was great in theory but was about 10+ years away in terms of bandwidth and raw computing power. All his initiative did was suck up resources when they were much better spent getting the last major release of our CAD software bug free (it wasn't, and the product when shipped was a disaster). There was even a last ditch effort by a sympathetic EA executive to try and save the LucasArts team and 1313 by arranging a 1313 presentation to another of their studios, but that ended in defeat when the head of the studio was only interested in acquiring the talent and not the product. And that reminded me of when my company was finally acquired, and I could only watch from afar as friends I'd known for years were let go in the massive bloodletting at was once a proud development and engineering house.
  
• The redemption of Dragon Age: Inquisition, after the poorly received and hastily thrown together release of Dragon Age 2 (which was originally intended by Bioware to be called Dragon Age: Exodus, but EA forced them to say "2"). The original sequel to Dragon Age: Origins was meant to be Inquisition, but because SWTOR was slipping in the release schedule the corporate parent EA wanted to release another Bioware game instead, and so the dev team had to rush in and create what became DA2. The failures behind DA2 really weighed on every aspect of the work on Inquisition, as Bioware wanted to prove that they were more than just a Mass Effect studio with some other games of lesser quality. As a side effect of both DA2 and ME3, Bioware also had to handle corporate pushback as to whether they should really do the ME3 extended ending. Bioware wanted to get it right, but corporate looked at it as essentially feeding the trolls.
  
• The lonely development process of Stardew Valley, where Eric Barone labored for years to get what he felt was a "good enough" product for release, to the point of nearly working himself to death. Even when he released Stardew Valley, he had no idea whether the public would think his labor of love to be any good. That crippling self-doubt plagues a lot of creative types; I see it from software developers to musicians to actors to painters, and yes, I've seen it in the perfectionism of the mini-Reds when they practice their instruments.
  
• The eventual trainwreck behind Destiny, and the real reason behind why Peter Dinklage sounded like he mailed it in during the voice acting. (Not Quite A Spoiler Alert: it wasn't his fault.) As well as Activision/Blizzard's corporate handled the Diablo 3 fiasco (another chapter), it didn't handle Destiny's problems quite so well.
  
• The soul crushing doubts that drove the Witcher III development, and whether the game would be good enough to meet the standards of Western RPG developers/fans, not to mention whether there would actually be enough content in the game to not have long stretches of simply "not doing anything".

I could go on and on, but the entire book is filled with stories about many games we video game players know, and yet don't truly know because we've not peeled back the curtain to what lies behind the game.

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels provided me with a bit of catharsis. I used to work in the software industry, so I know what it was like to be in their shoes. At the same time, I realize that is the sort of work that is by far a young person's game, because I'm more interested in trying to keep my work hours down to reasonable levels. I have become the "married guy with kids" that so upset Microsoft's old management, and as a consequence I want to step back from the intensity (and insanity) behind software development and enjoy more of the fruits of their labor.

But it has also increased the respect I have for the devs who make these games. I already had a lot of respect for their work having lived it, but you'd have to take my old job and crank it up to eleven to get what crunch**** is like for them.

So I'll raise a glass to Jason for a very well written book, and another glass to the devs who put together these games.

*We do have "sick days", but there were too many deadlines that were suddenly foisted on us this past week to take time off.

**He also used to tell us "you don't know how good you have it here, as we'd be sleeping on cots to finish the release."

***The midrange CAD/CAM/CAE market was above the level of Autodesk. Software in that range is what is used by major corporations to design products, such as CATIA or Pro/Engineer or Unigraphics. These are the software packages that auto companies use to design cars and electronics firms use to design televisions.

****Another dev term. We used to simply call it "hell", as in "we've got another hell week ahead if we want to lower the amount of bugs to acceptable levels."

A Job Tailor Made for Stephen Colbert

Yes, really.

I'm not talking about his current job as host of The Late Show, but rather his Tolkien geek status.*

You see, according to a recent Destructoid article, there's a Tolkien Loremaster on staff at Standing Stone Games to make sure they remain true to LOTR and The Hobbit. That Loremaster also consults with some academics on Tolkien as well as investigates Medieval and Dark Age source material to help round out the work on LOTRO. If that doesn't sound like a job perfectly suited for Stephen, I don't know what does.

I knew that Blizz had a resident Loremaster on WoW Lore, but I was unaware of Standing Stone having a resident Tolkien Geek in-house. Okay, they're all likely Tolkien Geeks to some degree, but the knowledge that there's an official Loremaster position was news to me. But this makes all kind of sense, given the amount of work that went into the storyline behind LOTRO. LOTRO was definitely not a "throw it on the wall and maybe it'll stick" philosophy that some MMOs I've played have; the game is so well done that there are parts to LOTRO that you'd swear were part of Tolkien's world that were actually made up for the game.

Like most of the North Downs, for instance.
In LOTR, North Downs consisted of The Greenway
and the ruins of Fornost. And that was it.
From lotro-wiki.com.

So here's to Standing Stone for putting forth real effort to make LOTRO appealing to your resident Tolkien geek.




*I thought I was a Tolkien geek, but Stephen outgeeks me by a long shot. My Tolkien knowledge ends at Unfinished Tales, as I simply could not get into the books of notes and early versions of the Middle-earth stories collectively titled The History of Middle-earth. My brother-in-law, however, has read them all and he also rereads The Hobbit and LOTR annually.

Twenty Years in the Making

I was going to write about something else, but I saw this come across my newsfeed today (courtesy of syfy.com):

Dungeons and Dragons had its Biggest Sales Year Since 1997

It took me a few moments to digest those words.

D&D had a better year in 2017 than when 3e was released in 2000? Better than before Wizards of the Coast bought TSR?

Wow.

That's quite an accomplishment.

I'm sure that the success of Stranger Things hasn't hurt, and the interest in watching people play D&D on Twitch.TV (such as Geek and Sundry's Critical Role) has helped too. But maybe the fact that it's twenty years later means the gamers grew up, had kids, and now their kids are playing too.

From imgflip.com.

For all the new (and returning) players, welcome to the world of RPGs! Pull up a seat and tell us about your character. I'll get you a drink: beer, wine, or the D&D staple Mountain Dew?* Sorry, I don't have any Nutter Butters around the house --one of the mini-Reds has a peanut allergy-- but I'm sure if you bring some snacks that'll do. (Even fruit or veggies.)




*Nowadays, it's Diet Dew for me, thanks. Or coffee.

Fiddling Away

The oldest Mini-Red is home for Spring Break this week, and she had one request of me: that I put a mention about the newest LOTRO instrument in the blog.

So, this is for you, kiddo.

Meet the Fiddle:

From lotro-wiki.com.

Yes, they have a fiddle coming out soon as a playable instrument for LOTRO. My oldest is excited, but mainly because she really hopes they come out with an oboe sometime after the fiddle.

When You Thought Things Couldn't get Stranger....

...apparently the 80's are back in a big way.

People trying to make sense of the rise of mass shootings in the U.S. has found a convenient scapegoat:  violent video games.

Just like with the Satanic Panic blaming D&D, Heavy Metal, and other assorted items for the decline in Western Civilization*, some people are blaming violent video games for the steady stream of gun violence in the U.S.

From what I can tell, the list of video game publishers in the President's Summit on Violent Video Games are there just as a punching bag. Unless, of course, Rockstar is hoping to get a boost in sales due to being labeled the "bad boy of the video games industry".

I guess we'll have to defend our hobby from this crap for the foreseeable future.




*Or that goths were to blame for the Columbine shooting in 1999.

A Quick Wednesday Post

Okay, I laughed. For some reason I thought of the tons of Kitties I've seen over the years in Warsong Gulch.

A Return to Normalcy: More Pugging in SWTOR

It definitely felt weird looking at the large block of free time the other night* and thinking to myself "I could actually run more a couple of flashpoints tonight!"

I've been playing that Jedi Shadow I'd originally started on Red Eclipse (pre-merge) and is now on Darth Malgus (post merge), and since she is at the end of Chapter 1 I figured she's at the perfect point to run some low-mid level flashpoints.**, so I queued up for several and got in without much fuss.

You have to understand that when the following is the case:

• I queued as DPS
• It's about 3 AM server time in Europe
• I specified about 4-5 flashpoints in my queue

that typically I'd have to wait about 15-30 minutes before something popped. However, I got into a flashpoint within 5 minutes at the most. I should know, because I figured I could get some chores done while waiting but I nearly got caught missing the flashpoints because I was AFK when they popped.

But really, that was the worst thing that happened through the entire evening.

The flashpoints were quick, clean, and even the "all DPS" flashpoint (Athiss) was easily handled by my team. I'll freely admit that while I requested DPS, I geared as a tank, because in an all-DPS flashpoint you're going to potentially be called upon to be either a tank or a healer in a moment's notice. Besides, I had enough tanking gear in my inventory courtesy of previous flashpoint runs, so I was covered just enough to not feel like a noob wearing PvE gear into a Battleground.***

While the lack of drama and wipes were the best part of the evening, I found myself in several flashpoints with a couple of the same people. I wasn't so thrilled about one (who kept saying "whatever, bb" when someone would say something to her), but the other was a really good DPS and pinch healer Smuggler. When we were down to just two of us on the last boss of one of the Hammer Station runs, she took out the last boss pretty much by herself while I "tanked".****

I'd have to go back to Wrath era WoW, when I used to get up at 6 AM to play for an hour before getting the (then) little mini-Reds ready for elementary school or preschool, to when I got to know most of the regular instance runners on a server. It was oddly comforting, knowing that the same people who worked so well together were still around, running the same instances. Perhaps it is better to think of the early morning crew as essentially a mini-guild, held together by the common goal of getting an instance completed.

I never got that sense of camaraderie when I ran BGs in WoW, because a) I no longer logged in early in the mornings, b) there were the server don't-call-them mergers that brought a larger pool of players together than before, and c) in the 40x40 BGs that I preferred the fights were so big that you rarely got the chance to know people to the same degree. I wondered once whether the 40-man BGs approached the scale of fight that you had in the old 40-man raids, but I concluded that wasn't the case because you could kind of putz around in  Mists-era Alterac Valley and not be missed at all, but everybody (and I do mean everybody) had a role to play in AQ40; people noticed if you weren't pulling your own weight.

Still, it's nice to find some regulars to run with from time to time. I'm not planning on joining a guild, since my free time is pretty imaginary most days, but it's nice to have that guild-esque feel to some in-game activity.

Without all the drama.





*Courtesy of the Olympics, my wife was glued to the television and let me have free rein of the desktop.

**With the leveling adjustments done in flashpoints these days, the concept of low-mid level range flashpoints doesn't exist. However, I'll always think of the Hammer Station through the Boarding Party / Maelstrom Prison (and Imp equivalent) level flashpoints as low-mid level.

***If you've ever been in that situation, you understand. Personally, that's why I would run the WoW 40-man BGs until I got a reasonable amount of PvP gear, because one person isn't typically going to make a difference in a 40-man run of Alterac Valley. Typically, anyway.

****There was only so much damage mitigation you can do when you're specced DPS as a Jedi Shadow, and I was tanking pretty much from the beginning of the fight when the "tank" died early in the fight before one of us could reach the healing station. I died with just a 1/8 of the boss' health remaining, and the Smuggler was able to take out that last bit before the next round of adds spawned.