A place where I like to jot down some thoughts, analyze the video game industry, reflect upon my life, and ponder the grand mysteries of the universe. Reader beware: these entries are highly informal and are not edited.

• 1Jul 09

  Quick Guide on Basic PC Optimization

  A lot of people hate their PCs. Blue screens, glitches, and performance that would make a crippled octogenarian seem fast by comparison might just make you want to switch to a Mac, or if you're savvy enough, use Linux. Fortunately, just as with cars and people, a bit of basic maintenance can help avoid this. Here are a few simple things you can do to keep your PC in tip top shape, whether it be for playing games or just browsing the web.

  1) Reinstall Windows! This is something you should do from time to time, ideally once a year. Now would be a great time to try out Windows 7 RC.

  2) Uninstall programs you don't use.

  3) Use a disk defrag program such as Auslogics on a regular basis (at least once a week).

  4) Keep your PC updated! Use Windows update and update your graphics card drivers every few months.

  5) Run CCleaner.

  6) Get rid of startup programs. CCleaner can help you do this.

  7) Get rid of unnecessary background services. Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL, go to the "Services" tab and hit services at the bottom. Make sure you don't kill any necessary services though!

  8 ) Update your browser. If you're using Firefox, there are some simple tweaks you can do to speed it up. Don't use a lot of add-ons, but make sure to use Adblock Plus!

  9) Do Google searches on how to optimize your OS (there are tons for Vista, quite a few for XP).

  10) Dust out your PC. Get a can of compressed air or a vacuum and eliminate all those heat sucking dust bunnies.

  11) Ditch anti-virus and anti-spyware programs. As long as you keep your PC updated and don't visit any sketchy websites (read: porn/torrent sites) you should be fine. I've been using Vista without any protection aside from Windows Defender for over a year and a half and have had no problems.

  12) For very old PCs, try out various Linux distributions. Ubuntu is the most popular but others may perform better.

  13) Realize that tweaks and optimization can only take you so far. If your PC is more than 5 years old, it might just be time to get a new one.

  14) Finally, have patience and realize that problems are inevitable from time to time. As long as you backup your data there's no need to stress. If you follow these basic guidelines and reinstall your OS on an annual basis, you'll avoid a lot of headaches and have a very fast, stable PC!

  • Posted Jul 1, 2009 10:53 pm GMT
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• 14Jun 09

  How to Deal with the Rising Costs of Games

  It's been a while since I've written a real blog pertaining to gaming. I'm still a bit rusty so please excuse any errors on my part.

  The gaming industry currently faces a major problem: the rising cost of games. This is somewhat offset by the fact that the industry is steadily growing as gaming continues to become more mainstream, but this growth isn't keeping pace with the exponentially rising amount of resources required to produce a major game. There are a few solutions I can think of to address this problem.

  The first is the crudest but perhaps most effective: to shorten games. Games of this generation are generally markedly shorter than older titles (Call of Duty 4). Or, if they are not shorter in terms of time required to complete them, there is far more repetition in mission and objective structure (Assassin's Creed, Oblivion). While this is a decent stopgap solution, I believe there are better alternatives.

  The most obvious is to find a way to increase game revenue. Using in-game advertising is certainly a possibility. If in-game advertising is implemented properly, as in Quake Live, it can be relatively non-intrusive and raise a significant amount of cash to help fund game development. The problem with in-game advertising is that 1) it is usually incorporated clumsily into games and thus ruins immersion and 2) in certain contexts it simply can't work (i.e. games with a fantasy setting).

  Another way of increasing game revenue is by charging for DLC, which I regard as being nothing short of insidious. DLC canwork if it is distributed in the form of downloadable expansion packs (i.e. the microexpansion Entrenchment for Sins of a Solar Empire, which was priced fairly at $10), but developers rarely do this and instead choose to exploit consumers. Consider EA's practices for instance. The Sims 3 shipped with $250 worth of DLC. That is, the game shipped with all that content that could have been included for free but instead must be purchased by consumers. Furthermore, EA is limiting the kind of custom content that can be created by the community, no doubt to force consumers to pay money for EA's content. In essence, they have monopolized their game economy. They are doing the same with Battlefield Heroes.

  Instead, I think developers should provide the community with tools to create content on its own, as with Source-engine games, Spore, and Forza Motorsport 3. Instead of fighting with the community, why not take advantage of it to produce new content at no cost? If it's a multiplayer game, DLC should be completely free, as with Team Fortress 2, so as to not fracture players.

  In order to fund these massive projects, many large scale developers (including EA) have been forced to cut back on the number of projects they are working on simultaneously. I find this to be a very wise move. Instead of releasing 20 mediocre games, why not release 5 good ones? Profits should be the same if not better and this is a far more sustainable business model in the long-term.

  There is one more option I can think of, which is to find ways to procedurally generate new and interesting content. While I still prefer personally-crafted content over something computer generated, if procedural generation engines (if that's what they're called) become sophisticated and powerful enough, than maybe one day the amount of resources required to produce games can be substantially cut down without a major sacrifice in game quality or breadth of content. Indeed, Spore has already shown us that, at least for certain kinds of games, the variety of content is greater with a procedural system than it every could be with a traditional development system.

  If you have any ideas on how to deal with the rising costs required to make games, be sure to post a comment!

  • Posted Jun 14, 2009 10:06 am GMT
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• 11Jun 09

  Games to Play...

  Another quick update today.

  I picked up Assassin's Creed on Steam for $10. Even though the game is fairly repetitive and the controls are a bit awkward with mouse and keyboard, it's fairly fun. Unfortunately, it seems to crash with my video card drivers (I have the latest drivers from Nvidia installed). Hopefully this will be addressed in the next driver update and I can continue playing the game.

  I also ordered The Sims 3 from Gogamer.com. Judging from reviews, the game has been streamlined substantially and no longer features all the tedium of the first two games in the series (after all, going to the bathroom every six hours got pretty tiring). The game is also now a lot more open in the sense that you can roam the entire neighborhood without sitting through a single loading screen. This alone means that the game is a lot more dynamic in nature and opens up a lot of gameplay possibilities. I have a feeling I'm going to be kept well occupied with this game throughout the summer.

  My camera arrived and I've been taking lots of shots. I'll upload a few when I take some good ones.

  I'm officially finished with high school and have my graduation ceremony this Saturday. I'm very excited to attend UNC-Chapel Hill next year, it's the first time I've looked forward to school in years.

  That's pretty much all for today. I'll consider writing a quick editorial tomorrow if I feel inspired. As always, thanks for reading and remember to leave a comment.

  • Posted Jun 11, 2009 6:30 pm GMT
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