Crowdsourced Translations

Just a link to a good post by Adam Saltsman on Gamasutra about the experience of using crowd-sourcing to localize the popular iPhone game "Canabalt" into other languages.

Say what?

The only comment that I have is regarding Adam's post is that he mentions that "the introduction of new language options has had no measurable effect on sales." It should be noted that the game has very little text, I mean hardly any at all. And of that small amount of text, you seriously don't need to read any of it to be able to understand how to play it. The game is simply tapping on the screen to jump and doesn't really even have a user-interface. Also the game is over two years old. So, chances are that anybody, even non-English speaking people, who wanted to play it have probably already gotten it and hardly suffered at all for lack of localization.

I should also note that he does say that he thinks localization was a good idea and that it is probably a better idea to have localization in for for launch as international app stores may be more likely to feature the game. I'll add that being featured early on is one of the key features to having a successful mobile game.

SOPA Blackout Day

Today is the day a lot of major internet sites such as Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla, Google and many others are blacking themselves out to raise awareness of the Software Online Protection act. If your are just learning about this whole thing now, here is a link to a CNN article that explains what it is and why you should be concerned about it.

I found some code that is supposed to black out the blog, but I'm too afraid of breaking something to try wedging it into this template code. I did install the plug in that adds the "Stop Sopa" graphic in the upper right-hand corner. I'll also post this wonderful and informative picture.

Learn what YOU can do: americancensorship.org

Addendum:

Regarding SOPA and PIPA, are you actually doing anything? Posting links, re-tweeting, liking and sharing posts may raise awareness, but it isn't really doing much. 

All the major blackout sites have links that will take list your representatives websites via your zip code. They all have web-mail forms. Granted, it's just going to be read by an aid and a tally-mark added to a list, but it counts. A large number of tallies from actual voters scares the hell out of them. Politicians get money from lobbyist, not to get rich, but to buy campaign ads to get your vote and get them re-elected. Its all about YOUR VOTE! Tell them they won't get it next time if they don't vote NO on this issue.  It will take less than five minutes to fill out a web-email form for all of your representatives.

Also don't hesitate to look up their Facebook pages and post on their walls. If you're tweeting about SOPA and PIPA, throw in their @name to get their attention. Show them that you are paying attention. Tell them you are watching and that you vote.

iPhone Audio Controls Rant

I've been meaning to complain about this for awhile. Dreaming, nay fantasizing, about complaining about this. Really. I had this fantasy where I would be at one of those diners where you pay lots of money to sit next to somebody famous. I'd be sitting next to Steve Jobs and I would spend the entire time not just complaining, but ranting to the point where Mr. Gates wouldn't care one way or another about the problem, but just be so sick of the whole thing that he would get his people to fix it just to shut up the echo of my voice in his head.

There are two unfortunate problem with that opening. The first is that Mr. Jobs has since passed away. I pay him tribute by not saying, gone to that 'something related to Apple or Tech in general' in the sky. The second unfortunate problem is that I think that opening may have  raised your expectations of what this problem is way above my ability to express how much it gets under my skin.

Anywhere, let me present you with a picture. This is the iPhone lock screen after you've pressed the home button twice. Doing that overlays the iPod controls for the audio. You get the four main controls: back, pause/play, forward and volume.

My problem is with how close the back and forward buttons are to the centered play/pause button. Why aren't they moved off to the edge more? Do you have any idea how many time I've hit back or forward when I meant to hit play/pause? It is really easy to do and really annoying while in the car. Know that this isn't a problem while listening to music, who cares if you accidentally skip ahead to the next song. It is a problem when listening to an audiobook. Some books have really long tracks and you don't want to have to re-listen to 10-20 minutes of a book to get back to where you were. And trying to manually trying to find the exact spot where you were is annoyingly difficult and certainly not something you can do while driving.  there is no reason the back and forward buttons aren't all the way on the left and right edges of the screen.

/rant off

Cherry On Top

I put a reference to Cherry On Top frozen yogurt in Highborn and now Cherry On Top has announced on their blog that if you take a screen shot of that bit and send it in, you could win stuff.

I do think they have the best frozen yogurt. Yum.

Go read about the contest here.

Merry Christmas from Jet Set and Floyd

I did another quick Jet Set Games Christmas picture. I didn't get a chance to spend as much time on this one as I would have liked. I imagined a scene with Floyd as Santa, carrying a bag of presents, and filling a lot of 'odd' shaped stocking hanging above a fireplace. Each stocking would have a picture of one of the Worgon kids with a large picture of Enzo and Jessica on the mantle.

...but since Danny didn't have the time to actually do I real picture like that, I Photoshopped this together from the Chapter 3 key art in under and hour. Brett commented that it was very Tim Burton and asked if maybe we could have an alternate one featuring says, Trillian. I have to remind him that we are hard at work on an exciting new game and I did this on my own, seriously cutting into my video game playing time.

I do wish I had saved all of the thrown together Christmas pictures I've done over the years.

In other news:  Rade and I just did an interview with PC Game about creating the original Command & Conquer where it was pointed out that I have worked on more C&C games than anyone. This is only due to a technicality. I re-did some artwork for the German version of C&C Generals, turning the infantry on the sidebar to androids, giving me a one up on the rest of the core C&C team. That article is probably a few issues off from showing up though. I'll remind you about it later.

I also, just this second, found a Highborn page on TV Tropes, amazing level of detail. I am going to have to go back over my dialog file to see if they missed anything. You should go check out the page to see if you caught all the stuff they did.

The Birth of the First Real-Time Strategy Game

I happened to look at the trivia section for Dune II on Moby Games. I found the following entry:

This game is commonly called "the first real-time strategy game", but that designation is incorrect. Dune 2 borrowed many elements from a previous Westwood release, Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Revenge. And thatgame borrowed elements from what is probably the first true game in the typical "RTS" genre, The Ancient Art of War.

This is all false. I was an artist and designer on Battletech: The Cresent Hawk's Revenge and its predecessor Battletech: The Cresent Hawk's Inception. I must, somewhat embarrassingly, admit that I never played The Ancient Art of War though I heard it was a very good game. I could also point out that some of Westwood's earliest projects were converting SSI's games to the Amiga and Atari ST. But the point that this guy doesn't seem to understand, and made funny by this comment of "typical RTS" was that those were all "turn-based" strategy (TBS) games. Dune II was the first "real-time" strategy (RTS) game. Maybe he just never knew what R.T.S stood for.

I don't have the text of my update and it is pending approval on Moby Games. When they approve or reject it I'll get an email where I'll have access to the text of it again. I'll post it here when they do.

I figured since I was at it I would also share some other information on the game's history.

French developer Cryo Interactive was developing a Dune game for Virgin Interactive, but it wasn't going anywhere. Not wanting to waste the Dune license, Virgin gave the game to Westwood, who they had just acquired. This is circa 1992 and when Westwood change from Westwood Associates to Westwood Studios. Virgin was planning on canceling the Cryo game, but instead one of their producers flew out to France and got things going again and did. Virgin soon found they had two Dune games, though they were quite different. Cryo’s Dune is more of an adventure game that basically followed the story of the first book/movie. Westwood’s Dune was the first Real-Time Strategy game. Cryo finished their game first and it was released first, hence this game being Dune II.

Westwood wanted to just call the game, Dune: The Battle for Arrakis, but Virgin’s American marketing department insisted on calling it “Dune II” and they didn’t like the sub-title, “Battle for Arrakis” because they thought it made the game sound too much like one of those slow and boring, turn-based, strategy games that were dying out at the time. It should also be noted that some of Westwood’s first products were porting SSI’s turn-based strategy games onto the Atari ST and Amiga. Virgin wanted to emphasize the building and development aspect of the Dune II, so it would appeal to people who liked games such as the then popular: Populous and Civilization, two of the three games that inspired the gameplay in Dune II by the way. The third game that inspired Dune II was the Sega Genesis game, Herzog Zwei.

Later when Virgin’s European office was given the game to market in their territories, without knowing anything of the previous argument, renamed it, “Dune: The Battle for Arrakis.”

Blade Runner, the Cool Twitter Kids and I

One of the cool things about twitter is getting to listen in on people (I was gonna say famous people, but that sounds lame, especially when the people I am talking about aren't mega-famous, just authors or artist I like) talking to each other. There is the somewhat neat factor when you find out the people you like and follow also follow and talk to each other. You get the feeling that you are there with them while they are talking about stuff. That all still sounds pretty Access Hollywood lame, but there you go.

My point, which is covered up by my new hat everybody seems to like, though somebody did say I look like a shady character, is that I was reading a twitter conversation between Joe Hill, Ed Brubaker, and Michael Oeming where Oeming mentioned how much he liked playing the Blade Runner game we made at Westwood Studios back in 1997.

I should admit that, although I worked on the project in the beginning, nothing I did remained in the project when it shipped. For the longest time the Windows icon was the last thing remaining that I had created, but at the last minute they changed it. Mine was the silhouette of Decker used in the title on the movie poster, which I thought was the perfect icon. No idea why they changed it. I'd ask Rade, as he was the producer on the project, but after all these years I don't really care that much. My heart has since mended.

Anyway, nerd boner. Though I will admit I have no plans to frame these tweets like I want to do with the ones where Monkey Island creator, Ron Gilbert, praised my game, Highborn, on the iPad.  Note, that I haven't framed Gilbert's tweets, I just have had plans to frame them for about a year now.

Copy & Paste Customer Service

Following this introduction is my exchange with a Blizzard customer support representative regarding the issue in my previous post.

Now, I cast the blame partly on him and partly on the corporate mentality that emphasizes issue resolve time and neatly worded replies. I worked briefly in Customer Service for Star Wars Galaxies at launch so I know what goes on. I had plenty of co-workers who would do nothing but use a program that pasted issue solutions. They did just what Osomveskin does, see the basics of the problem paste the generic response. You can the same thing on a lot of phone support where you can tell they are following a flow-chart. Yes, they appear to have a great resolve time, but they it is still HORRIBLE customer service because they not only don't solve the customer's problem, they look like idiotic monkeys.

All is not lost however, there are some companies who shine at customer service like Amazon.com and American Express. With both of those companies I have personally experienced, and heard many stories from others, about how they listen to your problem and fix it beyond the customer's expectations.

You'll note in my response to Osomveskin that I did figure out what the problem is with a further search of the forums.

Joseph
12/8/2011 8:39 PM I have been accepted into the Diablo III beta and played for a little while. I have found, however, that I cannot post in the Diablo III forums. I get the "game license has expired or been cancelled" message when trying to reply and creating a new topic. A search for this error has only given me old information pertaining to other games.


Osomveskin
Customer Service Representative
1 hour ago Howdy!

Thank you for contacting the Blizzard Entertainment Tech Support Department.
If you are having problems accessing or using the Forums, we have some steps for you to try to correct the problem. Note that an active StarCraft II or WoW account is required to post on the forums.

1. As a general step, you may want to clear the temporary internet files and 'cookies' on this computer. Please note that this may clear your saved passwords and settings for certain websites. Instructions on how to remove cached files and cookies for some of the more common browsers are listed below. If your browser is not listed please consult your browser's help files on how to delete cached files and cookies.

If you are using Internet explorer, click on Tools in the menu bar at the top, select Internet Options, Look for the Temporary Files or Browsing History section and click the Delete button. Make sure to delete Files and Cookies when prompted.

For Firefox, select Tools from the menu bar, click Clear Private Data, and make sure Cache and Cookies are selected and click the "Clear Private data now" button.

For Safari, in the menu bar click on Safari, select Preferences, Security, Show cookies and Click remove all.

Cookies must be enabled for you to access the forums. Your browser security settings or computer security software can stop you from accessing the page properly. If you are unsure how to clear your temporary internet files, or change the security settings for your internet browser, please see your browser's help section for further assistance. You may even want to try a different web browser.

2. If you receive a "Login Server Down" message, the login server itself may be experiencing a temporary downtime. This is often concurrent with login problems with the game itself, and should be resolved shortly after the login server is back online.

3. If you receive any generic or specific "Error" when you try to post, please wait 5-15 minutes and give it another try. This can occur during website maintenance or even during login server issues
If you are using Google Web Accelerator with your internet browser please try disabling it and then log back on to the forums. If you are not sure how to disable the Google Web Accelerator, please visit http://webaccelerator.google.com/support.html for further assistance.

Regrds,

Freddy M.
Customer Support
Blizzard Entertainment
www.blizzard.com/support


Joseph
A few seconds ago Thank you for your cut and pasted reply that doesn't address my issue at all and was a complete waste of my time to read.

Here is a link to the actual solution to my problem: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3657426031

UPDATE!
I just got home and found that they took the Diablo III beta server down until tomorrow, but as I'll be out of town until Sunday night it means I won't get to play this weekend.

I did get another update to my customer service ticket though, and this guy actually read my email and spend the time to type out an actual response. See, they aren't all bad. I don't even mind the mistakes (yeah, like I'm one to talk) because this way I know that I am actually getting his attention where the pre-typed out response makes me feel like I'm being ignored.

Customer Service Representative 3 hours ago Hey there Joseph =)! I do apologize for the earlier response and it was just a general troubleshooting for a lot of forum threads. For beta testing within D3 (congratz btw!) some of the issues and answers can be found on the forums as you found =). If you do run into any future D3 issues I do implore that you do post on the forums as well as the developers *do* read them and it is important we document any problems as well. Thanks in advance for future feedback and hope you enjoy your time in D3 not only in Beta but on actual release as well =). Happy holidays! Thanks and take care! 

- James

Diablo III beta

I have been in the Diablo III beta for two nights now. At this point it sucks because I can't play.

I got to play a little last night, but it keeps losing connection to the server. If you've kept up, you have to be connected to the server in order to play, even if you are playing the single-player game. They've said some things but we all know it is for two reason which are not in any particular order: anti-piracy for one. And two, the real-money auction house where you can buy and sell items and they really want to make sure you aren't going to cheat. But watching the server go up again down like (insert inappropriate joke about your mom here) you can see where the concept is slightly flawed.

The worst part, and the reason I am so frustrated, is that the launcher gives you an error that is a number that tells you nothing. I think I have seen three different error numbers but I don't know what they mean. At first I thought maybe there was something wrong on my end, but at least I on the forums this isn't the case. The last post from Blizzard was over two hours ago and said the server is back up, which is then immediately followed a few minutes later by a billion posts from people who can't get on. Nothing else official has been posted.

Oh, and I can't post on the forums. I get "This account has limited posting access due to the following condition: This game license has expired or been cancelled."

I tried to search their forums for what this problem was related to, but all the information I could find was related to the old Starcraft II beta and not relevant. I went to their customer service section and filled out the web form, of course their neatly organized categories didn't really come anywhere close to the problem I was having. I picked something that seemed relevant if you squint. Hopefully it will get passed along to the right department.