I realized a couple things about writing long posts in G+. First, it isn't worth it. Second, a blog is better for gratuitous content. Third, a couple is usually two things; rarely ever three.
I have this epic long post about how boys and girls are lacking the ability to exercise their empathetic muscle. Boys had "My Buddy" and girls have dolls and stuffy's. Both of which are almost passé in current times. Everything is interaction via some sort of tool built for entertainment. I no longer see explorative play with relatable things.
Emotional roleplay is like practice being a functioning adult. As I say it, it seems silly. Most of my generation are still trying to figure out what being an adult actually means. I'm an Introvert with some social tendencies. This came from a lot of practice being social. Now-a-days, I feel like the tools that kids have used to develop that emotional maturity has changed with technology to the point where we need to adopt an alternative approach. I'll be damned if I knew what it was.
Personally, I go direct with my kids. I talk them through bad experiences and I find why they're angry and give them a chance to express it. It works with us, but outside of immediate family, it's hard to know how to relate. Because there are a lot of people aren't comfortable with that approach. This leads me to believe that there has to be alternative ways to learn to interact with others outside of the "tribe".
Toss them together in a private or public school? Sure!
What about Sports? They breed a competitive spirit against others and/or against yourself. But I don't... like competitive sports. :/
Gaming (video,board, rpg) seems to be a way to draw people together to interact. This could be through competition, cooperation, or a pure exploration (PvE). None of these really provide a way to explore the feelings of ourselves and others, though. (Although, a nice shooty game resolves all sorts of my own feels.)
Now... I'm at a point where I'm asking a question. How do we develop interpersonal skills and empathy without picking up the "aging tools" of yesteryear? How do we prepare our children--and ourselves--for interaction in the today's tech-laden world?
It's a social experiment, but it's because every generation has a different social landscape to overcome.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Screw you, DayZ
Yes, this is a short rant about a video game, but bear with me--or just mute the post. :D
DayZ is build on ArmA 2 technology. Yes, I know that it is technically, built on the "Take-on: Helicopters" engine which is also built on Arma 2 technology.
As a simulation engine, it designs the vehicle and ties the viewpoint to that vehicle. This becomes a problem when you tie vehicle like movement to something that shouldn't feel so mechanical, like... uh,people. At a macro scale, this is just fine! You have large fields to run through and urban areas to move through, but when I'm supposed to fit in a 40 x 40 space, the herky-jerky, "human walking simulation" nonsense is way over the top.
Yet, this is never ever going to be addressed. If they had approached this from an engine standpoint, we'd have already seen it resolved, but ... no. The human in DayZ is one of the most frustrating things to "drive".
Then add in the skippy zombies that detect you with uber senses from miles away and jerkily jaunt through building floors on their way to you. Hit detection is a mess. There's no coherence to the fight in melee. You swing and, maybe, you hit, even if the cursor is right on the zombie. But they can run at you, jump past you, swing their arms and you start bleeding.
Really ... they're going to add vehicles, but we can't get your game to sync properly with the server? Hell, player vs. player engagements are the same. It's easy with weapons at long distances because the simulator is designed to do that, but anything done inside of a building is close and extremely frustrating.
Oh, and the random disconnects. There's that...
Recently, DayZ went on sale for $29.99. That's how much I bought it for originally. It was silly because they actually bumped the price to $34.99 so that it would only drop to their original price. Yeah. They're adding stuff to the engine that is very cool, but only for social engagements and equipment... there is no gameplay refinement on the horizon. I honestly think they don't believe they need it.
It's true... DayZ is fun. It's exploration and a great survival simulator. Then, with the already poor network packet handling, you introduce zombies that have better sight than a Falcon and seeking abilities rivaling that of a German Shepherd, especially since you can't hit them with that axe you just picked up from that house back there. It starts getting less fun. Add players that have much the same movement and hit detection.
I want Dean Hall and crew to seriously consider improvements to the engine network packets and player control. Make the game less like an awkward human walking simulator. (Which... is kinda what the ArmA 2 engine is.)
I'll even explain what I mean... detach the camera from the head of the character model. This would reduce the feeling of "jerkiness" considerably. Then, and somewhat unfortunately, put the player's viewpoint on a "marble". The character model moves separate from the player's viewpoint, much like how BF4 has abstracted movement from the character model.
But... here, I know what I've said won't get further than a bit of DayZ loving trololo's. :( I just wish that, when I bought this, I knew they would be making changes to the content before they moved on from the gameplay and network optimization.
DayZ is build on ArmA 2 technology. Yes, I know that it is technically, built on the "Take-on: Helicopters" engine which is also built on Arma 2 technology.
As a simulation engine, it designs the vehicle and ties the viewpoint to that vehicle. This becomes a problem when you tie vehicle like movement to something that shouldn't feel so mechanical, like... uh,people. At a macro scale, this is just fine! You have large fields to run through and urban areas to move through, but when I'm supposed to fit in a 40 x 40 space, the herky-jerky, "human walking simulation" nonsense is way over the top.
Yet, this is never ever going to be addressed. If they had approached this from an engine standpoint, we'd have already seen it resolved, but ... no. The human in DayZ is one of the most frustrating things to "drive".
Then add in the skippy zombies that detect you with uber senses from miles away and jerkily jaunt through building floors on their way to you. Hit detection is a mess. There's no coherence to the fight in melee. You swing and, maybe, you hit, even if the cursor is right on the zombie. But they can run at you, jump past you, swing their arms and you start bleeding.
Really ... they're going to add vehicles, but we can't get your game to sync properly with the server? Hell, player vs. player engagements are the same. It's easy with weapons at long distances because the simulator is designed to do that, but anything done inside of a building is close and extremely frustrating.
Oh, and the random disconnects. There's that...
Recently, DayZ went on sale for $29.99. That's how much I bought it for originally. It was silly because they actually bumped the price to $34.99 so that it would only drop to their original price. Yeah. They're adding stuff to the engine that is very cool, but only for social engagements and equipment... there is no gameplay refinement on the horizon. I honestly think they don't believe they need it.
It's true... DayZ is fun. It's exploration and a great survival simulator. Then, with the already poor network packet handling, you introduce zombies that have better sight than a Falcon and seeking abilities rivaling that of a German Shepherd, especially since you can't hit them with that axe you just picked up from that house back there. It starts getting less fun. Add players that have much the same movement and hit detection.
I want Dean Hall and crew to seriously consider improvements to the engine network packets and player control. Make the game less like an awkward human walking simulator. (Which... is kinda what the ArmA 2 engine is.)
I'll even explain what I mean... detach the camera from the head of the character model. This would reduce the feeling of "jerkiness" considerably. Then, and somewhat unfortunately, put the player's viewpoint on a "marble". The character model moves separate from the player's viewpoint, much like how BF4 has abstracted movement from the character model.
But... here, I know what I've said won't get further than a bit of DayZ loving trololo's. :( I just wish that, when I bought this, I knew they would be making changes to the content before they moved on from the gameplay and network optimization.
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