March 2006 - Posts

• How To Think (for Design)

  Okay, so you've started off with a concept. Let's say your concept is regarding a game in which a cute Mario-like character flies an F-16 through various airborne puzzles, avoiding all the bad guys and collecting powerups which enable him to zap bad guys Read More... Posted Thursday, March 30, 2006 1:23 PM by Rich Bryant | 0 Comments

• Spam, spam, spam, spam. spam...bastards

  The days of unmoderated comments are gone. I just reviewed comments and found 10 identical spam-links trying to guide people toward some roulette-on-the-net game . I've deleted them, but it was extremely irritating. Comments are moderated. You may experience Read More... Posted Tuesday, March 28, 2006 11:45 AM by Rich Bryant | 2 Comments

• Of Man and Superman

  My heroes aren't your heroes. I'm fairly certain of that. I have no time for Wolverine or Colossus, i loathe Superman with a passion. Batman is okay but obviously mentally defective however many excuses about using that costume to spread fear the film Read More... Posted Monday, March 27, 2006 9:02 AM by Rich Bryant | 2 Comments

• Iconic

  Now there's a word which has seen its fair share of abuse recently. But we intend to take it back and make it actually mean something again. When you think about the architecture and clothing in Faith , you should be instantly getting some iconic images. Read More... Posted Saturday, March 25, 2006 8:09 PM by Rich Bryant | 5 Comments

• Adding Resources

  The Roller on this site has added two new feeds, re-added one which i had problems with and updated one which was linking to commentary rather than articles. In order, then, i'm delighted to introduce Grouchy Gnome at the nerbat blog , a MMO designer/developer Read More... Posted Friday, March 24, 2006 10:28 AM by Rich Bryant | 0 Comments

• Flashes of Faith - #1

  (the first in an occassional series where aspects or specifics of Faith get previewed to you, the harshest critics of all) (from the notes of Fr Pietro diNucci, encyclopaedist to the Holy See) ..the Great Faiths have always been tolerant of Heresies secure Read More... Posted Wednesday, March 22, 2006 4:19 PM by Rich Bryant | 17 Comments Filed under: Faith Specific

• Finding my faith, capturing yours

  Thing is, much as i'm delighted by Chris's work on the economy, over the moon by David's restructuring of our inventory database (this guy blows me out of the water as far as data management is concerned) and hugely looking forward to Matt's innovative Read More... Posted Monday, March 20, 2006 10:08 PM by Rich Bryant | 4 Comments

• Where have you been?

  create your own visited countries map Read More... Posted Sunday, March 19, 2006 3:27 PM by Rich Bryant | 4 Comments

• Size Matters - Part 2

  My first foray into the examination of size left out an awful lot in order to stay with the topic of a person's physical size and how it affects them and their world view both in online and offline situations. It was also somewhat of a manifesto explaining Read More... Posted Friday, March 17, 2006 11:21 AM by Rich Bryant | 5 Comments

• It grows

  The team grows, that is. This week sees dlc3007 and Bigska join us. Normally i'd put off commenting on that until Rich R, the producer has had his say but what the hell, he can always delete this if he wants and this is news that makes me extremely happy. Read More... Posted Thursday, March 16, 2006 3:21 PM by Rich Bryant | 2 Comments Filed under: Faith Specific

• Games, arts, sciences, the usual

  Just like to say that i reread one of Richard Bartle 's pieces on Gamasutra today, and remarkably, there's a bit i disagree with. Richard says: Virtual world design involves much craft, but at root it's art. A designer makes decisions based on how they Read More... Posted Wednesday, March 15, 2006 2:27 PM by Rich Bryant | 4 Comments

• The Next Game

  Don't get me wrong, i love working on Faith . I love making this game, i think it'll change how MMOs are made forever afterwards. But i have this busy brain, hacker mind is monkey mind. A friend of this group's (i dunno if he'd call me a friend, probably Read More... Posted Sunday, March 12, 2006 1:18 AM by Rich Bryant | 4 Comments Filed under: Life, Design, Miscellany

• Tsa gravandaya Roma - Being Nothing

  Sounds like a zen thing, doesn't it? It's not. Tsa gravandaya Roma . Not a true Rom . That's what a guy called me last night as i passed the local green where a funfair was setting up. More accurately, it means "a nothing Rom ", one who has either given Read More... Posted Thursday, March 09, 2006 11:44 AM by Rich Bryant | 6 Comments

• Size matters - Part 1

  This is a truth. Size always matters. It's something i am (often painfully) aware of. Let me explain. I'm six feet and four inches tall exactly. That's not monstrous, but it's big. However, i am relatively lucky in that much like any MMO character you Read More... Posted Tuesday, March 07, 2006 10:51 AM by Rich Bryant | 13 Comments

• Site Upgrade Complete

  Well, i finally got us up to Community Server 2.0. Next to reimplement the graphics John Ammon made for us. Watch this space. Read More... Posted Monday, March 06, 2006 8:16 PM by Rich Bryant | 3 Comments

• PvP is sex, PK is rape

  Scott "Lum the Mad" Jennings recently locked a thread on his blog , concerning Dave Sirlin's comments on what World of Warcraft teaches. The thread had devolved from a chat about Dave's comments to a discussion of how the ideal MMO has totally unrestricted Read More... Posted Thursday, March 02, 2006 10:31 AM by Rich Bryant | 19 Comments Filed under: Design

• Unique snowflake, my arse

  Raph Koster has a post on his blog asking people, what's your ideal MMO ? I looked through earlier, and mostly people think WoW with a bit more ability to affect stuff and maybe some more configurable character aspects is their ideal MMO. So we may as Read More... Posted Wednesday, March 01, 2006 5:13 PM by Rich Bryant | 6 Comments