GameCreate

Haven't looked at GameCreate for a while, but happened to notice that the new verion is out of beta. Might be just the shot for CCG.

Bowes Coat of Arms

Coat of Arms: "The Arms which he claimed varied between Ermine, three bows paleways in fesse gules."

Bowes - Wikipedia

I had a hunt for Bowes related stuff on the net. Not too much there, but at least there's more reference to the villiage of Bowes at Wikipedia

my.stlukes - BlogThis test

my.stlukes - 3.0: "Welcome to my.stlukes! "

Found an interesting vid off a library site that has a great take on Web 2.0:

E for All: Civilization Revolution interview

Civilization Revolution looks interesting, but I'm not sure whether the move to a more action packed format will actually increase gameplay. I hope they don't blur it into an RTS .. Multiplayer has always been something that I've only found use for as hotseat, or small LAN. Once the game gets past the ancient era its pretty much over one way or the other and I lose interest in playing (or the opponent does). I don't think it's really a suitable candidate for the 'thrill me' console crowd. Gonna have to wait for some in game footage tho.

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Map Concede vs Map Select ver.2

After last WCG I was fired up to redo the numbers for map concede and map select for a size 5 map pool. The results were a little intriguing.


As the size of the skill difference between the players increase, the starker the difference in the different map selection methods. 4 map concede continues to remain at the same level regardless of additional map bias as it continually selects the middle ground where there is minimal bias. 2 map concede BO3 performs the next best with an additional bonus of map variety. Map select BO3 with random 3rd is another step below with only .4% difference in methods over a 10% map spread at 53% win chance for player 1. This difference in methods extends to 4% difference when player 1 should win 70% of the time and map spread is up to 20%. Single map random selection gets hammered quite severely, but more to do with the lack of 3 matches as it is more or less in sync with the true skill if you look purely at the average. The spread blows it out of the water though, giving 10% to 20% change in outcome depending on the map. Comparing this to other differences, it seems vitally important to not use random method when using 1 map. Map concede would keep the spread to whatever bias the middle map provides.

Finally some stats and figures to get my own head around the problem and to show the powers that be.

GameLog 11

Back to it. WCG threw my weekly reflection out of whack a bit, as well as cutting seriouly into game time. It was great to meet up with familiar referees & players, as well as getting an opportunity to meet more from the best in the world.

Steam now has stats tracking for TF2 and Portal in 2 week increments, so it'll be easier to make up for a couple of weeks missing by having a 2 week GameLog.

TF2 (30h) Still has that oldstyle feel that hooks me in. I love it. Hope it becomes the Grand Unifying Game of all team based FPS.
Puzzle Quest (20h) 19 Druid. The flight back gave a lot of time to get stuck into Puzzle Quest on the DS. It's an addicting game and most spare moments I had I'd be playing it. It's actually surprising how easy it is to pull it out, flip the lid and you're in the game immediately. Even a 20 second window would be meaningful enough to pop it out and shuffle a couple of manaballs around.
Portal (11h) 2 hours to finish it, 4 hours to finish advanced, so that must have left 5 hours of trickjumping and listening to the JoCo soundtrack over and over ;)
World of Warcraft (8h) It won't go away that easy, but it sure is being neglected.
Brain Age 2 (6h) Another pick up on the DS. Sandy and I are using it as a good social wakeup game. Cameron is even in on the action and is demanding 'little poota' whenever it comes in sight. He's got the hang of clicking through the menus with the stylus to get to the drawing or piano game, so that's something I guess.
Trackmania Nations (2h) Some after-work destressing when Cameron is around. Otherwise it's straight into TF2!
FIFA 07 (1h) New season of Competitive Computer Games starting at St Luke's with FIFA this term. I'm writing the proposal for next year's events and it looks like we might drop to a one game format, with TrackMania leading the vote so far in terms of fun factor, ease of playablilty and ease of competition management.

Carmac

I'm not much of a fan of carmac, he's outspoken and almost up himself. Last year he slammed double elimination as a format in favour of the intensity of single elimination, but then whinges when single elimination doesn't deliver. The thing is agree with most of his points, but for different reasons. He just seems to gloss over critical issues that have much more impact than the surface issues.

Zero Punctuation does Orange Box

Found a neat little snippet on the EG forums pointing to a Zero Punctuation review of Orange Box. Awesome. I dug up a couple more of his interviews and he speaks my language in terms of game taste and style. He's from Brissy too, local talent FTW!

FIFA finals @ WCG

Study material for FIFA this term at St Luke's.

Portal

Since reading about Portal that was coming in my pre-order of Orange Box I've been waiting to see how they'd updated the game. I managed to play a 5 level demo at WCG since Valve had a stand there. It was pretty much what I expected, nice and slick though. Couldn't figure out how to put the box on the trigger the first time playing it, but others may have not solved it either as later on there was a big sign on the monitor saying "PRESS 'E' TO PICK UP THE BOX". The guy on the stand was from Valve too, so I had a great chat with him regarding Portal, TF2 and all things Steamy.

Finally got a chance to sit down and play it today, and although it only took ~2 hours to finish the game, the final level was AWESOME. So involving, it really felt like you're breaking out. The end credits were even more spectacular with a Johnathan Coulton song



Portal song on MySpace

WCG 2007

.. is over in Seattle this year. Nice city; reminds me of Brisbane.

My phone's slowly dying because of the 110v power over here (takes forever to recharge fully), so I'll need to get the photos up when I get back.

The WCG press interviewed me on day 1 after the openng ceremony. We talked for 1/2 hour about my previous involvement and about QGL, however it looks like most of the stuff didn't make the article. They could have at least spelled Bundy right ...

I'm eyeing off a Nintendo DS lite over here. After playing the Puzzle quest demo a while back on the PC I've been itchng to get the game. Since it's not out yet on PC and it's still going strong on the DS I think it's enough to pick it up by itself. Add to that some addictive little brain games to justify the purchase and I'm sold. Apparently they are cheaper over here than in Singapore. Wouldn't have expected that. Games are $20-$30 too.