January 01, 2010
Where the Time Goes, Part II
or, The Year We Watched Too Much TV
As I did last year, I kept track this year of how much stuff I watched, read, and played over the past year.
The big surprise, looking at the numbers/lists, was just how much TV I watched this year, which is particularly surprising considering I do not have cable and no television reception to speak of¹. Instead, I have a Netflix subscription, which allows me both to receive movies and seasons of TV in the mail and to stream whatever's available on the service.
The other big event this year is that I jumped into the latest generation with both feet, buying myself a 360 Elite and a high-def television back in May or so. That has led to many many hours of games but also television and movies, via the Netflix streamer on the 360.
Anyway, here are the numbers:
- 139 films, or more accurately, as last year, 139 film or video experiences. This seems starkly down from last year's 192, but when I stop to consider that I watched 28 seasons of television (yes, complete seasons) compared to the prior year's 16², I think, holy crap, did I watch a lot of television this year. Thankfully, I think this will slow down in the coming year and I can get back to watching films, including a pet project a friend and I will hopefully be doing in the near future. I have only one season of Buffy left, two of Angel, and LOST's final season starts in about a month. I have a few others I want to see, but if I were to make a prediction about this, I think this year was likely an anomaly.
In any case, I saw 32 films in the theater, which is about the same as last year, and 19 of the movies I watched this year were primarily because I have kids (I'm looking at you, summer blockbusters).
- 72 books, which is ten more than last year. I didn't count any of the books I read aloud to the kids save one (A Christmas Carol, which is sufficiently hefty to be countable), but I did read a fair amount of genre fiction this year. I read a handful of nonfiction books (4) and three books for work (3 -- also nonfiction, but separated out), which means I read more than 90% of people in my profession did this year, if Steve McConnell is to be believed. This is up from 62 books last year, with roughly the same distribution.
- 11 games, which is up from last year as well, and those games I played I tended to play quite a lot of. I played Fable II and bought every property; I played Far Cry 2 and found or earned every diamond. I think I found all but two points of interest in Assassin's Creed (flags, or whatever), solved all the Riddler's challenges in Batman: Arkham Asylum, and found all the orbs in Prince of Persia. That's quite a lot of OCD gaming, my friends. And that's not even counting the games I've played quite a bit of but haven't finished (hopefully we'll see them here next year): Brutal Legend, Braid, World of Goo, Tomb Raider: Underworld... I also started several handheld games, never to finish them, and while I don't think I'm likely to, I did put some hours in there as well.
And again, this doesn't count boardgames, though between me and the boys we have already started to amass a significant collection.
The Resolutionary: I have no resolutions really to make except that I think that much television is excessive. Four series really grabbed me this year: MI-5, LOST, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Angel. Of these, LOST probably takes the least of my attention -- it's more an emotional rollercoaster while I'm watching it than anything else. I might also aim to play more quirky games this coming year, especially downloadables. I have played several but only finished a couple.
The Accountant: I honestly have no idea where I found this much time for all this entertainment. Granted, I was not crunching on a game at all, so perhaps that's reason enough to have found a lot of time -- there were two or three months in 2008 where I barely read, watched, or gamed at all.
The Biorhythmicist: Uh, why did I have this category last year? I guess I went into a period this year where I was really into playing games; all of the games I finished this year, I finished since May. I didn't play any in those first five months or so, at least, none that I cared enough about to finish.
The Apologist: Those seasons of TV were especially gripping :) And having said last year that I'd like to blog more about games this year, I'd have to say I largely fell down. I did post twice as many blog entries in the last year than the year prior, which is good; I haven't yet posted about several games that I finished and have something to say about, which had a lot to do with when I finished them and how driven I was to get to the next one. I played a bunch of games in November and December, and only posted about the one. I hope to turn that around this year.
See you in the next week when I start a series of posts about some game design work I did over a decade ago, and the lessons I learned doing it... I've already written most of the first one, so this is not an idle threat ;)
¹At least, I haven't tried with the new television. I had no reception with the old tube TV and although this one is LCD, I think I'd need to buy some kind of antenna or something. I'm not going to bother. (back)
²Even putting a season at a conservative 10 hours or so, this would mean about 60 more "movies" worth, meaning I'd have seen slightly more filmic entertainment than the prior year, or about the same. (back)
Posted by Brett Douville at 08:46 PM | Comments (0)
September 19, 2009
New Sidebar Follows/Fellows
Just a quick heads up. I don't much talk about my work in this space, because the blog was kind of a way of letting off steam about what I consume and not so much what I create.
In any case, it's shameful that I haven't previously directed folks to two blogs by friends of mine from Day 1 Studios, Kyle Wilson and Adrian Stone.
Kyle has published a number of articles about the architecture of Day 1's Despair Engine, the sorts of trade-offs that they make and why.
Adrian talks about engineering concerns, often with regards to graphics but also general architecture or performance issues. His latest two articles are particularly nice and involve suggestions you can start using today on your own code bases.
In any case, I knew from the time I spent interviewing with these two gentlemen¹ a few years back that I could learn a lot from them, and it was a large part of why I took the job. Anyone else can read their thoughts on coding for games without changing his place of employment.
¹A term I use loosely with respect to Kyle. Kidding! (back)
Posted by Brett Douville at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)
August 03, 2009
RSS feed
I've updated the RSS feed link to point at the atom feed, which works much better with Google Reader and I suspect others. For full text and better formatting, I suggest you unsubscribe from the feed and resubscribe.
Hey, while you're at it, you can follow me on Twitter.
Posted by Brett Douville at 09:01 PM | Comments (8)
February 21, 2009
Difficulty Post Crossed to GamaSutra
A couple of days ago my post on "managing difficulty" went up on GamaSutra. Lots of great comments over there, some of which I'm addressing here.
One thing to keep in mind is that there's a meta-rule when you're discussing any aspect of design, and not just design for games. Design with your audience in mind. My "tips" were specifically intended for games with wide, mainstream appeal, often accompanying a license.
Also, I didn't discuss the latest critical darling, Left 4 Dead in the post about difficulty, and not because I don't have thoughts about it, but more because I'd need more information to make an informed decision. However, the bulk of the comments focused on the story manager, which I think is a bit separate from difficulty -- the story manager manages a sort of difficulty, but within an overall difficulty setting. We have been playing the game on Hard in our co-op group, and the difficulty is just right -- hard enough that we have to do encounters a few times to get them right, but not so hard that we can't -- but basically, that's a factor of overall difficulty, and not specifically of the story manager. So, I'm not sure how I'd talk about it, though it's an absolutely splendid implementation. Stephen Chin does make an interesting remark about more experienced players coming in for more attacks in L4D... I haven't noticed that, but if true, it's a great way of managing difficulty in a co-operative game.
Story management, however, is definitely a very interesting area and one worth mentioning. I think this is a technology many will be attempting to rip off from Valve in the years to come. I do like Spencer McFerrin's suggestion on the GamaSutra post that the world and fiction reinforce what's going on in the difficulty space -- it's a variable we know about, why not design a little dialog system around it? Great thought.
I did stay away from Bethesda games, though not consciously. I'm a bit too close to Fallout right now to be objective, and I haven't been through a cycle with the design team yet thinking about our audience. Also, who knows, they might not be happy about it if I talked about it here. Also, I play relatively few open world games, and so I don't have much basis for comparison. And they aren't licensed games. So, they were pretty far from my mark.
Bart Stewart mentioned unique challenges, places where it's okay to be a little harder. I agree with this, so long as they conform to the other rules; it should be easy to change the difficulty levels in these contests, and the easiest setting should be completable by anyone in your potential audience.
I got a comment on the blog and I'll reiterate here -- we need to permit people who are motivated by challenge to participate alongside those who aren't. If the dial is there to change difficulty "whenever", well, don't turn it if you want the challenge. I would say, in response to one of GamaSutra's posters, that though Jedi Knight offered additional rewards to players who finished the game on harder difficulty levels, this unfortunately broke the rule about not giving rewards for difficulty that make the game easier. Great idea, though, and maybe a stretch goal for players. Some others in the post commented on this as well, but it bears repeating.
Post-post Erratum: So, actually, I was wrong about this. I happen to have one of the designers from Jedi Knight in town, and he clarified for me. The Light vs Dark Force Power bonuses in the game at the end of each level were for a) not killing (or killing) the non-combatants, and b) for finding secrets, as far as he recalls.
Rubberbanding came in for some heat; I haven't formed any opinions about that. I prefer games in which the driving AI can manage on its own, but I haven't really thought about it enough to speak intelligently, so I'll just leave that one up to developers who work in that space.
OK, I'll keep an eye on the post and round-up for any more comments I might have missed. If anyone's come over from GamaSutra to visit, thanks for dropping by! Give me a shout in the comments, let me know you're lurkin' :)
Posted by Brett Douville at 09:48 AM | Comments (1)
September 25, 2007
Blog Roll
Finally got around to posting a blog roll. I left a few things out that seem like they've died, and in one case left someone out who I think would probably prefer her privacy, but for the most part that stuff in the side bar is what constitutes my google reader feeds. Obviously a few things fit in multiple categories, but that's pretty much my categorization in the reader.
Posted by Brett Douville at 01:11 PM | Comments (2)
January 20, 2007
Guess I'd better post
The blog finally went empty today. Guess I'd better post -- well, I've got some time tonight, so why not?
Posted by Brett Douville at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)
July 11, 2006
Ministry of Two
I was invited some months ago to preside over the wedding of two friends, Andrew and Jen, in California. The ceremony finally arrived and took place this past Sunday, on a beautifully sunny day at the Thomas Fogarty winery in Woodside, California, in the heart of the Bay Area. I am not a minister by trade nor by calling; this was, as far as I now know, a one-time thing.
In any event, several people at the wedding asked that I make the greeting and ceremony available online. Here it is.
Greeting¹
Welcome, family and friends.
When I learned that Jen and Andrew had chosen a winery for the setting of their wedding, I thought it particularly appropriate. After all, the making of wine isn't so different from a marriage. It takes good roots, good soil, light, love, and yes, sweat and toil to make a great wine -- but it's a joyful toil, given the rewards. The result is a wonderful, complex, almost living thing which is the source of a rich variety of pleasures and flavors, much like marriage can and should be.
So, I thank and welcome each and every one of you who is here today, because you are the roots and soil from which Andrew and Jen grew, two people who mean a great deal to me, two people about to formalize a beautiful union. Like a fine wine, I am excited to see how they grow better with age.
Ceremony
I've selected two readings for today. The first is from the letters of Rainer Maria Rilke.
Marriage is in many ways a simplification of life, and it naturally combines the strengths and wills of two young people so that, together, they seem to reach farther into the future than they did before. Above all, marriage is a new task and a new seriousness, a new demand on the strength and generosity of each partner, and a great new danger for both.
The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of their solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realisation is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side by side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky.
We'll come back to these thoughts in a moment, after a second reading from Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities.
When you have arrived at Phyllis, you rejoice in observing all the bridges over the canals, each different from the others: cambered, covered, on pillars, on barges, suspended, with tracery balustrades. And what a variety of windows looks down on the streets: mullioned, moorish, lancet, pointed, surmounted by lunettes or stained-glass roses; how many kinds of pavement cover the ground: cobbles, slabs, gravel, blue and white tiles. At every point the city offers surprises to your view: a caper bush jutting from the fortress' walls, the statues of three queens on corbels, an onion dome with three smaller onions threaded on the spire. "Happy the man who has Phyllis before his eyes each day and who never ceases seeing the things it contains," you cry, with regret at having to leave the city when you can barely graze it with your glance.
But it so happens that, instead, you must stay in Phyllis and spend the rest of your days there. Soon the city fades before your eyes, the rose windows are exspunged, the statues on the corbels, the domes. Like all of Phyllis' inhabitants, you follow zigzag lines from one street to another, you distinguish the patches of sunlight from the patches of shade, a door here, a stairway there, a bench where you can put down your basket, a hole where your foot stumbles if you are not careful. All theh rest of the city is invisible. Phyllis becomes a space in which routes are drawn between points suspended in the void: the shortest way to reach that certain merchant's tent, avoiding that certain creditor's window.
Millions of eyes look up at windows, bridges, capers, and they might be scanning a blank page. Many are the cities like Phyllis, which elude the gaze of all, except the man who catches them by surprise.
I chose these two readings today as a pairing of things I wanted to say to Jen and Andrew, two things which play off of one another. When I first encountered the Rilke, I was struck by a peculiar sadness. I focused on the gaps between people, that uncrossable distance that separates us, two skins which often seem to be enormous walls of granite, or of lead, for all their impenetrableness. But as time has gone by, I've grown to view that distance as a source of continually renewing joy -- that despite those gulfs, love acts as a bridge to span that gap and allow two people to draw such rich pleasures, each in the company of the other. That over time two people grow and change, and each of them, with love and respect, watches over the other, in a full knowingness that though separate, they grow side by side and together. Constantly shout out your joy for each other from the parapets of these walls, so that the bridge remains strong, and so that you may never forget.
In the Calvino passage, I am reminded reading it again here of how full of wonder and awe each of your personal cities strikes me. Andrew and Jen, you are each glorious cities, which offer rewards beyond measure to your inhabitants, so long as they never cease to see them. To meld the two quotes a bit, you should begin to see each other as caretakers for the other's city, which will ever renew itself and grow, and change. Some districts will fall into disuse, some will be forever filled with light and crowds, but all of it will be the city that you watch over and love.
In a moment or two, each of you will place a ring upon the finger of the other and exchange vows. It's a very intimate moment, and all of us here are proud to be a part of it -- everyone here is focused on you, now, in the ceremony. A little bracing, isn't it? Perhaps a little scary? Before all of us, each and every one of us focused on you? Indeed, you could say the entirety of my ministry is focused on you.
You have spent a lot of time over the last months designing and considering not so much the ceremony, but the reception afterwards. But what I want to say to you now is that in each and every day, you must find a way to remember the ceremony -- to share a moment of intimacy, be it a physical remembrance such as a lingering kiss, or an emotional connection through the deep and meaningful sharing of some part of you that you have never revealed before. Each of you, like a city, has an enormous number of places to visit -- more than any one person could visit in a lifetime... but not so many that you cannot try.
Life is much like the reception -- it is all the things that take a lot more planning and care and which really end up driving you a little crazy, because it never happens as you expect. But the marriage... the marriage is here, in the ceremony, in the moments that you share alone, together. Promise me, while you exchange these vows, that you will find time in each and every day for the ceremony, a time when you don't think at all about the reception, a time when it is just the two of you, sharing an intimate connection, remembering or revealing a part of your cities that drew you to one another. Do this, and it will last.
And now, enough from me. Thank you for allowing me to share in the intimate moment that presents itself, the sharing of your vows, and the exchange of your rings.
¹It should be noted that I actually started the service by saying "I am Iron Man" and making a remark that I was in the wrong page of my missal because that the start of my purification ritual for beating Andrew at Guitar Hero. The bride was a little teary from her processional, so I ad-libbed something to lighten the mood for a moment. Both bride and groom looked amazing. (back)
Posted by Brett Douville at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2006
Administrivia: Podcast & Next Post
So, a couple of things:
1. Welcome to any folks who browsed here from Evil Avatar. A few nights ago I was interviewed by Phil Kollar/Kefkataran for their weekly "Evil Avatar Radio" podcast with my reactions to E³. That was a fun experience and maybe I'll do it again some day -- thanks Phil.
2. Yes, I have a new post coming, which has some of my thoughts about the appeal of Brain Age. I haven't been "playing"¹ that long, really, but I've already formed some early opinions that may be worth sharing. I'm hoping to get to it this evening.
¹I'll admit that in the context of games generally, Brain Age as an experience isn't really play, per se. (back)
Posted by Brett Douville at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)
April 18, 2006
New Post Coming Friday
Sorry, I've been busy with lots of personal details. But someone gave me a hard time today about not posting, and I promised him I'd have something up by Friday to keep him "entertained and informed".
The post is called Industry in Crisis, which sounds a little like flame bait, now, doesn't it? Check back on Friday.
Posted by Brett Douville at 01:46 PM | Comments (2)
November 19, 2005
Administrivia
So, a few things.
1. Sorry for being absent for a while. Some personal business intervened.
2. Welcome to any Blogged Out readers who've come here. I've made the Blogged Out roll a few times now, it's always nice to be noticed (and read). Comment away, please, I'd love to hear your thoughts on current or past items.
3. Slight blog changes: I've removed the "Upcoming" area on the sidebar since it has swelled the size of the sidebar by 9KB¹ and ceased to be all that useful, even for me. The idea was to keep track of what I might post about next, based on what I've been reading, watching, or playing, but it had gotten so long that I doubt anyone was scrolling to the bottom anymore.
In future, I'll simply indicate what my next post is likely to be about, and you can still take a gander at what I'm reading, watching, and playing. Feel free to drop me a line at brett {at} brettdouville {dot} com if you care to discuss, digress, or discourse.
Upcoming article: On the sources of inspiration, spurred by a recent viewing of Finding Neverland and some other tidbits around the 'net. Likely to be posted in the next couple of days.
¹Which isn't so bad, except that it's part of every page on the site, and with all the comment-spam-crawling I seem to be getting these days, I suspect it was adding significantly to the amount of bandwidth I was consuming -- which I'll be paying for if it goes too high. Not enough for me to worry about it, but enough that small measures are probably worth taking.
Posted by Brett Douville at 12:53 PM | Comments (0)
October 12, 2005
Man, the Spam
I've not been blogging due to a cold and then some travel. So's you know.
Anyway, while I was away this past weekend I got seriously spammed. I cleared all that out before I headed out again on Monday (business travel this time) and got thoroughly re-spammed.
Ugh. There are times when I hate the Internet.
Posted by Brett Douville at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)
August 29, 2005
I made Blogged Out again
So, welcome back, GamaSutra¹ readers.
Jim Rossignol adds to the discussion, so I'll go ahead and keep talking about it in the original article's comments section.
Thanks Jim. And a belated thanks to Simon Carless for the first one.
¹Free registration sometimes required. I'm registered, so I don't know which are which.
Posted by Brett Douville at 06:19 PM | Comments (0)
August 05, 2005
Welcome GamaSutra folks...
Well, turns out I somehow got mentioned on GamaSutra. I'm not sure how.
In any case, anyone who gets sent here from there, welcome. Browse away.
For anyone out there reading, I expect to post something about why I've stopped playing World of Warcraft sometime this weekend.
Posted by Brett Douville at 11:31 PM | Comments (0)
August 03, 2005
I'm in Chicago
I've a post coming up but it needs to cook a few more days; I didn't get a chance to finish it up before I left.
Incidentally, the stuff I intend to post about is that "Upcoming" section over on the left of the page. I should probably reverse the order, but I take things off the bottom. So, expect that post to be about World of Warcraft. Cheers.
Posted by Brett Douville at 07:16 PM | Comments (2)
June 22, 2005
On Vacation
Hardly thinking about games at all. Well, maybe a little bit, but not about any games I'd be able to tell you about anyway. But mostly just relaxing the brain. I'll be posting again in a week's time.
Mario Golf, however, has been played quite a bit here, some with my brother-in-law, who has a healthy competitive instinct when it comes to golf particularly. Mario Golf helped my mini golf game, though -- beat him by two strokes, with just three over par!
Posted by Brett Douville at 03:53 PM | Comments (0)
May 22, 2005
Ah, well
I was going to blog a bit today, but my hard drive crashed last night, so I am without a 'net, so to speak. This phone isn't great for posts.
Posted by Brett Douville at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)
May 18, 2005
I think I'm back
Grief sapped my will to write for a little while there, but I think I'm back. Thanks for everyone's kind thoughts.
Posted by Brett Douville at 09:35 PM | Comments (0)
March 28, 2005
Regrounding the Blog
So, I've been thinking lately that while writing what I think about various books and movies is fun and all, one of the things I'd like to do, at least for a little while, is re-ground some of my thoughts in terms of what I do for a living as a game developer and as a game player. I'm going to give it a try for a little while, at least.
Some books & movies may have nothing to do with what I do, and yet may still have applications to what I do. Some have quite a lot to do with it, even directly, due to subject matter or whatever (as with Band of Brothers, the first entry to follow this new thinking).
Anyway, let me know what you think. Cheers.
Posted by Brett Douville at 08:18 PM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2005
Damn the Spam
I had turned off unregistered comments due to getting too much spam. I hate not having them on, so I've re-enabled them. Be warned that there may be some occasional spam I need to clear out until I've found a better solution.
Posted by Brett Douville at 07:26 AM | Comments (0)
March 03, 2005
Brotherhood of Mini
I bought a Mini shortly after I moved to Maryland -- I knew I was going to be in the car a lot, and after driving a Civic for 10 years, I decided to treat myself to something a little higher-end. So, as most of you know, I've now got a "liquid yellow" Mini.
So, now, as I'm driving to and from work, I often find myself seeing another Mini -- and exchanging a little wave. The best waves are the ones that come through the front window -- it's not like an afterthought, but like belonging to a club with a secret handshake. It's fun! Call it the Brotherhood of Mini.
What it reminds me most of is the random buffs you get and give in World of Warcraft¹. You're running along, you target someone and buff them, they maybe whisper thanks -- and you move on, a little happier, just in a tiny way. Feels good; it's not actual community, but it's communal feeling, and that's kind of nice.
So, to the gentleman in the blue Mini today, and the woman in the chili red one with the white bonnet stripes -- hey, thanks, you raised me up for a minute on the long drive. And thanks, too, to the high-level troll who buffed me last night; sorry, I didn't get your name, you were moving too fast.
¹Obviously, not unique to that, just what I personally play.
PS. In other news, Brent Sienna drives a Mini. Welcome, my cartoon brother. /wave
Posted by Brett Douville at 07:44 PM | Comments (0)
January 22, 2005
Here goes... something...
So, I'm off and blogging. Many thanks to my fine friend Loren's fine hosting service, I couldn't have done it without you.
My blog is intended to reflect my thoughts and opinions about a number of things, including games, books, and movies. I'm an avid consumer of all three, but a developer of the first. So, occasionally I may spend a little time talking about game development, like Jamie does, but mostly it will be more along the lines of reviews and such.
Expect the look of the site to be unstable for a little while as I figure out how I want it to look.
Cheers, thanks for reading.
Posted by Brett Douville at 07:21 PM | Comments (2)