-
Affilliation
Can’t Sleep (Magic and Warcraft)
Lately, my mind has been occupied by game design. Not necessarily video games (but included, of course), just game design in general. Last week, my thoughts were mainly occupied by Magic: The Gathering (MTG) and World of Warcraft: The Card Game (WoW TCG).
MTG has been around for a long time now and is largely regarded as an example of good game design (I highly doubt it would last this long if it wasn’t). The game is very mature now, and with thousands of cards available, the strategic possibilities are immense. Richard Garfield, the creator of MTG, even patented (U.S. Patent 5,662,332) his creation. Regardless of what new collectible card game comes out, I think MTG will always be there. It’s no longer just a card game, it defined a genre of gaming, and a new gaming culture, IMHO.
The new collectible card game making it big right now is the WoW TCG. Based on what I’ve currently seen, it’s what I envisioned “Rage” was in 1995, except much much better. WoW TCG has some game mechanics that I found to be very strategically interesting, particularly regarding resources. The game is a little more expensive, though (even for a collectible card game), and the way the card dependencies are designed, you’re probably going to be shelling out quite a sum to be able to make a good, cohesive, customized deck. My friend used the term “A-list” collectible card game, and I agree.
If WoW TCG manages to get past the fad phase, perhaps I’ll dig myself a bit deeper into it.
Tags: MtG, MtGOCan’t Sleep (Xbox and XNA)
Can’t sleep, and it’s annoying. I really want to sleep, but a lot of stuff is floating in my head, as usual. Perhaps a little typing will help.
I just finished watching “The Contender”. Normally I’m very excited about the fights, but the fight tonight was a bit dirty, and I’m not sure I agree with the judges’ decision regarding who won. Perhaps they were right, Sugar Ray seemed to agree with them, so they must’ve seen punches I didn’t. Besides, I was a little distracted with setting up XNA Studio Express.
XNA is something Microsoft came up with to help in game development. The intriguing thing about it is that its a single development platform that can be used for both Windows and Xbox game development, you use the exact same code, you just re-compile it to the proper platform. It’s actually a very good idea, IMHO, given the rising development costs of making games, this is a welcome thing. The item I installed is the Express version which is mainly for trying it out and for hobbyists. As far as I know, you have to use C# for this. I’m not sure if C/C++ can be used with it in the future versions, or perhaps in the Professional version (which ain’t available yet).
As much as the Wii has carved itself a niche, I don’t think it’ll take the crown from Sony yet. Xbox 360, on the other hand, has a shot, but I think it may not be in this generation. Microsoft is doing a lot of things right with the direction they are taking Xbox, and I honestly think that the Xbox has a good shot at beating the PS in Western countries. Will it be in this generation? That I doubt, but I think Xbox will be taking a greater share of the market than Sony would be comfortable with. Perhaps the next console war will be on Microsoft’s side.
As much as the PS3 started out on the weak side, we have to keep in mind that Metal Gear and Final Fantasy are really huge Sony exclusives, and the new versions haven’t come out yet. Before “Gears of War”, Microsoft only had Halo. PS still has a historical and library advantage, but I think Nintendo had that advantage too when the first PS came around. Xbox is doing a lot to make the system developer friendly, which will probably appeal mostly to the Western developers, but I think the other key thing they are doing right is Xbox Live. For me, online play IS the new frontier, and Microsoft has a huge advantage in that area (compared to Sony and Nintendo at least).
This is gonna be a very interesting next few years for the consoles. While the battle rages on, I think I better start learning C#.
No tags for this post.-
Flavor of the Month
-
Other Profiles
-
