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Via Greg Costikian, GameDevBlog: Notes on Half-Life 2 - the best analysis of what makes Half Life and Half Life 2 “good” I’ve seen.

Not everyone has played Half-Life all the way through; but everyone who played it at all remembers the opening sequence - the train ride that gives you an overview of Black Mesa, followed by the bang-up, James Bond beginning with the exploding equipment and the invasion of the creatures, with you in control the whole time.

I have to agree. The opening story hooks in Half Life are intriguing, humourous, worth the price of admission on their own, and a likely reason that so many people remember HL so fondly.

Also, a review of the making-of book which actually looks like it might be worth reading. The quote on this sample page spread was surprisingly candid, even for a making-of.

“We wanted the end of the game to feed directly into the beginning. From the first seconds of the game, we wanted the player to see where his journey would take him, so that when he finally got to the Citidel, he would have the strongest possible relationship with it. We had failed to do that in Half-Life 1, and we were determined not to repeat our mistake.” - Marc Laidlaw

1400 x 1050

It’s the quiet time between Christmas and New Year. Even though yesterday was quite productive it’s about time I burnt some hours to finally start using my new D600 laptop in anger instead of clinging to my reliable old dual 800MHz Pentium III.

Dell uses the buzzphrase “balanced mobility” to describe the D600. I conclude that this has something to do with:

1. It’s in the middle of Dell’s laptop price range,
2. The carry case weighs the same as the laptop,
3. The slippery “tri-metal” case is surprisingly non-slip for those moments when you need to balance a fresh cup of coffee while you’re running late for a meeting,
4. The slim, spare, functional design is balanced by the stupidity of this* docking station’s features, or
5. That it can be used for both gaming and productivity!

I might even attempt to test the last item’s thesis and whether a Mobile Radeon 9000 sucks, or not by benchmarking Half Life 2, World of Warcraft and Everquest on it.

* More to come.

How awful and surreal to see the toll from the Boxing day earthquake and tsunami climb from 2,000 to 100,000 people or more.

I donated here.

Consider also donating to The Red Cross, Musicians for Relief, Médecins Sans Frontières, and UNICEF.

A painless install. Four CDs.

Start up and register. A warning that 1-800 support numbers won’t work from Australia… riiiight. Again painless account setup except for the insitence on strong passwords - which is “good for you(tm)” anyway. I used a strong account name too. I hope I can remember what they are.

The Torrent-based patch system was nice. It suggested firewall settings optimizations I might consider and kept downloading. As I made the changes it appeared to speed up, though that could be a peculiarity of Torrent.

Opening sequence cinematics very nice. Snow, fur, water, weather, action.

Character selection is easy. I have no idea about Warcraft Lore, so I decided Shadow Elves looked cool, and they’re alliance too.

Nod in awe at the semi-cinematic introduction to my chosen class and race and the brief tour of the starting city.

Do a few quests. Nice, no typing required.

Die.

At first I thought that I’d been teleported onto the set of Angels in America. Everything is in grey-scale and I can move around faster. Oh no, I’m a ghost. I geddit. I have to go find my body and “re-enter” it within 6 minutes or I can ask the nice winged lady to bring it back after some rougher than usual treatment by the corpse couriers. Cooool.

Log off. Sleep.

Wake up. Go to work. Answer emails. Check blogs.

A sad inevitability of MMOGs is that the fantasy setting necessarily yields to the bevaviour of the occupying players and the mechanics of the game. It is said that WoW is more game than world and herein lies its likely commercial success. The reason I mention this is that I discovered that WoW might be turning into one of those kids’ birthday parties where the theme is “Superheroes” and everyone comes dressed up as Spider Man or Bat Man. The history lesson* in the opening cinematic sequence said that Shadow Elves were declining in number…

I guess that means I just bought a copy of World of Warcraft. Fat chance of playing it in the next couple of weeks.

The last line of the “Teen” ESRB rating is “Game Experience May Change During Online Play” which apparently means “Contains content that may be produced or altered by other players.”

How twee! A best of 2004 list.

How many of these infernal lists must we all suffer!?

N+1 if you’re reading this, I guess.

Best film of the year.

If you see only one film this year (and I did only see one film this year) make sure it’s Hero. Every scene is a postcard filled with balletic martial arts and impossibly pretty scenery. A sweeping story of love, betrayal, intrigue and an ending that rationalises contemporary Chinese policies, but forget that last bit. Why are you even listening to me? I only saw one film this year.

Best video game of the year.

With enormous hype and anticipation, it’s hard to get the words “Star Wars Episode 1″ out of your head and give something a fair review. The anticipation was awful. My Australian mind knew that hype = covering for a poor product. In the end it took about 2 minutes to conclude that Half Life 2 rocks after all.

It’s like you’re playing a crowbar-wielding Charlie Chaplin in a cross between Dawn of the Dead, 1984, Day of the Triffids and War of the Worlds. It’s plot-driven in the way that themed roller-coasters are plot-driven. The story and setting show the depth you can add to a video game if your company has no tangible limit to their incidental script writing and voice acting budgets. Everything you do is an interpretive dance involving crowbars, problem solving, bizarre and advanced weaponry, vehicles with Fisher-Price controls, sweeping & jaw-dropping vistas, fantastic physics, superb graphics and hordes of disposable enemies. It’s a pity the troop carriers are out of crowbar range.

Talk to me when you get to the ending.

Best music

KD Lang’s Simple. Which is … a powerful and simple tune. Too much use of the word elude for a real pop classic, but forgivable after reviewing Suzanne Vega’s use of “equivocate” and Frou Frou’s “press that dissonance if you dare.”

Best web site

Google. Best - as in - would miss it most if it went away. Ok. Sure. But to read? I think my favourite is still Boing Boing. Probably something to do with my favourite kids’ book being Dr Seuss’ Gerald McBoingBoing.

Best TV show

[I should take up watching TV so I can fill this in without resorting to The West Wing all the time]

Best radio show

ABC’s PM. Because 55 minutes of PM has more content than a whole year of Channel 9 news and with radio you create your own visual muzak. If you miss television news, get some props to help you. Carry around some stock photograps of lawyers leafing through weighty tomes in front of leather-bound libraries of books, scientists pipetting, doctors wearing stethescopes and computer scientists staring side by side - pensively - at flickering phosphors.

Best food of the year

Mine! I found a fantastic curried prawn recipe in our Indian cookbook A Taste of India by Madhur Jaffrey. I know recipes are copyright, so I’ll limit myself to the observation that - unlike traditional rural and regional Australian Chinese cuisine - it contains no Keen’s curry powder. My first use of nigella seeds, and shed loads of mustard oil seems to have hit the mark with people over 5 in our household.

Best phrase

I think Alastair’s “Hulk! Smash! [insert object of ridicule here]” has done it for me. My children have no idea who “The Hulk” is, let alone his “Incredible” variant but this phrase satisfies the need for melodrama when daddy needs to express displeasure with something. e.g. “Hulk! Smash! Petulant toddler’s attitude to bed time!”

Best moment

Right about an hour before the east coast polls closed in the US elections. Actually, that was the 2nd best moment, but more on the best one later.

Best application

[Assuming Half Life 2 doesn't count as an application...] Paint Shop Pro 9. I’ve owned it for a week, and although I am about as artistic as my 5 year old (lots of potential, not much talent… yet) it’s fantastic fun. I imagine if I had the $$ for Adobe PhotoShop I’d have more fun, but value for money-wise PSP9 seems to be a hit. You can tell from the attached image that I’m still struggling with the alpha channel and transparency. Next week I’ll work on features beginning with B.

Best party trick

Taught by Julian.

Warning: does not work on small children or mothers in law.

1. Take a piece of tube or spiral pasta (not too large and not too small) and hide it in your mouth. Announce you have a magic trick you want to show.

2. Grab some things to move around with your hands - anything really (I actually use another two pieces of pasta) - and concentrate on making them into a right angle, golden triangle or something mysterious and attention-drawing.

3. When you have everyone’s attention, say something like “Ouch, just a minute. There’s something wrong with my neck.”

4. Move the pasta between your back teeth.

5. Grab your head between your hands and rotate your head while crunching on the pasta.

Notes on audience testing: Most people I’ve tried this on look shocked and slightly sick around about now. It takes about 5 seconds before they find it funny. Not my mother in law and not the kids: “That must feel better now. Keep going.” and “Keep going. What’s the magic trick?”

The Graphing Calculator Story

“Graphing Calculator 1.0, which Apple bundled with the original PowerPC computers, originated under unique circumstances.”

Via Brad deLong

A host of holiday links!

Making Light: Bad, bad Santas which links to The Feast of Asses of course.

“Giblets it’s a trap!” says me. “Santa’s just tryin to lure us outside so he can temporarily sate his unholy appetite for Fafnirs an Gibletses!”

The History Channel’s Real Story of Christmas

Unfortunately, the Bible does not mention date for his birth (a fact Puritans later pointed out in order to deny the legitimacy of the celebration). Although some evidence suggests that his birth may have occurred in the spring (why would shepherds be herding in the middle of winter?), Pope Julius I chose December 25. It is commonly believed that the church chose this date in an effort to adopt and absorb the traditions of the pagan Saturnalia festival. First called the Feast of the Nativity, the custom spread to Egypt by 432 and to England by the end of the sixth century. By the end of the eighth century, the celebration of Christmas had spread all the way to Scandinavia. Today, in the Greek and Russian orthodox churches, Christmas is celebrated 13 days after the 25th, which is also referred to as the Epiphany or Three Kings Day. This is the day it is believed that the three wise men finally found Jesus in the manger.

Via Neil Gaiman’s blog, the Weeping Christmas Teapot! and (link)

So, I’ve still not explained where the Holy and Miracle parts come in, have I? Well, I’m an art student not a writer so I’m a bit clumsy in getting to the point, I suppose. Here goes: I believe that this is a Holy Christmas Miracle teapot because 1. the auction ends on Christmas and if you can’t get a Holy Miracle on Christmas, when can you get one? and 2. I’ve been told it’ll be a Miracle if anyone bids on this. Well, I’m not of any particular organized religion (which is why I suppose I’m not seeing images of Jesus or the Virgin Mary on the pot… you may… your mileage may vary… but I’m not promising anything) but I do believe in Miracles. And the Holy part? Well… if you get a Miracle on Christmas, there’s something Holy going on, right? At least it would seem so.

I’ve been following Geof Stone’s guest posts on Lessig Blog with great interest. Geof has published a book called Perilous Times about the way American society and law changes to focus on punishing sedition and dissent during … Perilous Times. The book and the guest blog entries focus on how to preserve civil rights and liberties during times or war. Stone uses history to illustrate the effects of suppression of dissent. History, it turns out, is not a source of optimism.

There’s a nobility about people who brave public forums to talk about “dissent” and “patriotism.” It’s understandable but sad that criticism, particularly of society and institutions, is seen as seditious and unpatriotic in times of war or insecurity. There is a need in society for a better understanding of the role of dissent. Posting on Lessig’s blog, while it’s good for access to people like me, isn’t really an audience that needs to be convinced. How about a bigger, less… introspective audience?

The O’Reilly Factor

I received a call this afternoon (Friday) from the producer inviting me to debate O’Reilly on the question: “Is dissent disloyal?” After the producer and I discussed this issue, O’Reilly (according to the producer) decided to redefine the question: “Can an American want the United States to lose the war in Iraq and still be patriotic?”

The goal of awakening a sleeping giant of public discourse doesn’t quite get off the ground on a show like The O’Reilly Factor.

The correspondence he receives after the show isn’t exactly a groundswell of support.

“You ought to be arrested, tried, convicted of wartime treason. And I don’t have to tell you the penalty for that.”

“I hope they are checking you out for being a traitor!!!”

“I must imagine, Mr. Stone, that you will look over your shoulder a little bit, because maybe some soldier in a foxhole somewhere might be a tad angered with you and your lunacy. There may be a few G.I.s in Chicago even that would like to `speak’ with you.”

So why feed the demagogue in the first place?

O’Reilly and the Cold War

I want to answer one questions about that because several people raised it: Why would any sensible person agree to be a guest on that show? Truth be told, I’ve always in the past declined to be on the Factor and other shows like it. I agreed this time because the issue “Is dissent disloyal?” is important, I’ve thought a lot about it, and I thought I might be able to contribute something useful. And I would have, had he not changed the issue! But, since the main thrust of my guest stint on this blog is learning lessons from past mistakes, I won’t do it again! (The reason, by the way, is not because it’s unpleasant, but because no one should allow himself to be used by a demagogue.)

It resonates with what a long time ex-pat friend once told me about his feeling for one taboo dinner party and BBQ conversation in the US. There is an American trait which is an unyielding support for state institutions. The POTUS, the constitution, (low numbered) amendments, and the armed forces, for instance, are defended with an almost unconscious fervour. While they might loathe the incumbent or the present state of the institution - criticism is unthinkable.

For those of us that don’t watch The O’Reilly Factor Stone’s recent posts on the history of dissent on Lessig’s blog are well worth reading.

File this post under “journal entries without conclusions.”

As part of my work, I’m becoming more involved with architecture. In my spare moments at home I’ve been reading texts and the web and trying to draw some threads together.

What is a software architect? How come every software architecture I see is different, and usually something between a development plan, project plan, high level design and analyst briefing?

Another conspicuously hazy definition is what it is that an architect produces. Is an architecture something that is produced? Is architecture the process of architecting? A document? A category? An intangible quality of the resultant implementation?

Time to survey some conveniently-linked sources.

How Do You Define Software Architecture?

There is no standard, universally-accepted definition of the term, “software architecture,” although there is no shortage of definitions, either.

Excusing grammar for a minute, there are about 100 definitions collected from literature and user contributions. There are plenty of weighty and not so weighty tomes for sale that push you through

Definitions range from:

Booch, Rumbaugh, and Jacobson, 1999:

An architecture is the set of significant decisions about the organization of a software system, the selection of the structural elements and their interfaces by which the system is composed, together with their behavior as specified in the collaborations among those elements, the composition of these structural and behavioral elements into progressively larger subsystems, and the architectural style that guides this organization—these elements and their interfaces, their collaborations, and their composition (The UML Modeling Language User Guide, Addison-Wesley, 1999).

…to…

[ATA 96]: The U.S. Army’s Army Technical Architecture (ATA) provides these definitions:

A Technical Architecture is the minimal set of rules governing the arrangement, interaction, and interdependence of the parts or elements that together may be used to form an information system. Its purpose is to ensure that a conformant system satisfies a specified set of requirements. It is the build code for the Systems Architecture being constructed to satisfy Operational Architecture requirements.
An Operational Architecture is a description, often graphical, which defines the force elements and the requirement to exchange information between those force elements. It defines the types of information, the frequency of its exchange, and what warfighting tasks are supported by these information exchanges. It specifies what the information systems are operationally required to do and where these operations are to be performed.
A Systems Architecture is a description, often graphical, of the systems solution used to satisfy the warfighter’s Operational Architecture requirement. It defines the physical connection, location, and identification of nodes, radios, terminals, etc., associated with information exchange. It also specifies the system performance parameters. The Systems Architecture is constructed to satisfy the Operational Architecture requirements per the standards defined in the Technical Architecture.

…and…

Ward Cunningham’s Wiki collates some (often contradictory) ideas. One of the more interesting contributions is:
I think we all have to remember that SoftwareArchitecture is still an emerging discipline. Remember, it was only a few years ago that MaryShaw et. al. published Software Architecture: Perspectives on an Emerging Discipline. I honestly think your view of architects in such vaulted esteem relative to other roles only serves to exacerbate the problem we are having in the field of Software Development. Why are they more than engineers? Why do you see engineering as only a stepping stone to become a holy architect? IMO, regardless of the field, design is what architects do — in some field they also supervise construction. It’s only the focus, context, or scope that separates the building or building-parts engineer from the building architect. I don’t consider that I am exalting myself to some lofty position. Instead, I consider that I am trying to bring more design to software architectures in the way of QualityAttributes, Styles, Patterns, and ProjectStakeholder Communication. I only call myself a software architect out of convention — why not call building architects building designers? Why give it up? Because some people have an emotional reaction to the term? Personally, I believe humans tend to make language a lot more complex with their emotional baggage. The trend towards SoftwareArchitecture should be welcome thing, something that we should be encouraged to advance. We shouldn’t cower in the presence of the word and exclaim we are not worthy. [...]– RobertDiFalco

…as well as…

Rudi Vernik (Principal Research Scientist, DSTO Australia Adelaid, SA, Australia): We argue that software architecture is an evolving set of core concepts, principles, patterns, guidelines and interfaces. Principles include Alexander’s concept of architectural philosophy. They can also include key structural and dynamic characteristics including global control structures, distribution approach, protocols, and concept feature assignment. We believe that architecture should not be thought of in terms of a static set of standard descriptions that need to be produced. Rather, it should be though of as a customised set of developmental views based on key underlying domain, design, and resource information knowledge. Architecture should not be thought of in isolation; it should be considered in terms of the processes and approaches used in a project; i.e. there is no standard concept of architecture, just a set of characteristics that an architecture should provide in a particular context. We argue that architectures need to be Supporting Component-Based Development through Customised Architectural Views, Proceedings of Australian Workshop on Software Architecture, Melbourne, 24 Nov 98.

I like Rudi Vernik’s thoughts. Particularly…

Architecture should not be thought of in isolation; it should be considered in terms of the processes and approaches used in a project; i.e. there is no standard concept of architecture, just a set of characteristics that an architecture should provide in a particular context.

So what does a real, as in - makes large hard constructions of timber, brick and glass - architect do?

Architects are professionally trained designers who work on small buildings, groups of buildings and large or complex buildings, as well as the space in and around them.

Architects must be multi-skilled. Building design today involves a team of people with a range of experience. The architect designs the building fabric and coordinates the input of the specialist consultants in the team.
[...]
During the five typical phases of a project the Architect has a variety of roles:
Initiation
The Architect establishes the client’s needs, expectations, project requirements and budget. This information is collated to prepare a written document called the design brief.

Design Phase
The Architect analyses the design brief and the site conditions, features and constraints and determines the best location and orientation. The Architect begins to develop ideas through rough plans, sketches and models. These ideas are brought together into concept design drawings.

Design Development, Documentation & Building Approvals
The Architect compares the concept design drawings with the design brief and develops the technical detail for the project with the project team. Detailed drawings and specifications are prepared to enable the builder to construct the project. The drawings are lodged to obtain local authority building approval. The method of engaging a builder for the project is determined.

Implementation/ Construction
The Architect works with the builder and other project team members to ensure that the project is constructed in accordance with the drawings and specification.

After Construction
Projects have a warranty period called the defects liability period. It is the Architect’s responsibility to follow up any relevant issues or outstanding work with the client and the builder.

The tradition of being a real (bricks and stuff) architect is usually to be an important person coordinating and directing a project. Real architects are engaged to make a project work from inception to the drying of the paint - usually not to produce a document and walk away. An architect will make models and rough sketches to prototype and elicit responses. A real architect walks the clients around the site and gestures effusively while painting word pictures. A real architect listens, discusses, negotiates, produces and project manages. A real architect ’s role is understood by builders, draftspeople, planners, and engineers. A real architect stands beside you when it’s all done to show you what you got for your money.

Software architectures, in my mind, were design descriptions that partitioned the solution so that it could be conveniently project managed. The partitioning showed everyone from the project manager down what the parts were, what needs they meet, and how they interact with each other. It requires skill, experience and knowledge of the stakeholder’s requirements and expectations, but is it anything more than a design task with an emphasis on partitioning?

My feeling is that the discipline of software architecture is usually something similar to the Wiki entry by RobertDiFalco above. A software architect is usually a designated important designer or engineer with a fancy name and a reputation to defend. The tools and techniques an architect uses are not some Masonic-style secret handshake, though it seems this is the way architecture plays in many organizations. The architect still needs to be a good designer, but an elevation to software architect is what happens to good software designers when the organization runs out of titles to promote them into.

So many discussions about architecture start from the premise that you need one, so now you should figure out what they’re going to do. I’d be happier to work in software development without the words architect or architecture. I understand people have an emotional attachment to the names but I’m sure we can get by without them.

In the future every blog will have its own fashion house.

Fear my 1337 Photoshopping skillz!

The next big thing in MMOG’s is here. World of Warcraft (WoW) has hit the streets and looks to be on target for 1 million subscribers.

A cataloguer of such things, “SirBruce” has added WoW with a conservative entry point of 200,000 subscribers in his graphs. MMOG luminaries are awaiting an official press release from Blizzard on actual (yeah right) numbers. Recent predictions put WoW subscriber numbers at about 800,000 with up to 100,000 users online simultaneously. To put this in perspective: Everquest, the biggest US-based MMOG, peaked at 250,000 total subscribers a year or so ago. (I’m one of them!)

I’m leaving something out. Korean and Japanese MMOG’s rule the waves with a few games over the 1 million subscriber mark.

To keep customers happy, Blizzard are vigorously going where no MMOG has gone before: trying to kill the real world market for in-game commodities through vigorous legal action: Blizzard Goes to War. Being able to use real money to advance your in game avatar is something that MMOGs struggle with. Blizzard are sending a clear message. Time poor and cash rich players need top find another game to play… or do they?

Well, ok, killing off the external market has been tried before. Sony had eBay kill whole categories of goods, threatened action, banned accounts, and left a thriving market for non-eBay auction site entrepeneurs to exploit. Sony once even went as far as polling users of Everquest whether they would like Sony to operate a cash for platinum shop… Now what was the problem statement again?

Another interesting part of the WoW release is the hype. Moreover, the type of hype. Many of the “WoW will kick serious MMOG butt because” sentences uttered ahead of the WoW release finished with the words “Blizzard do not release buggy products they test them as long as they have to.” That seems to be true. No large-scale MMOG has ever had such a smooth release.

However, it seems there are other, non-test, methods of lowering bug counts that Blizzard are trailblazing.

Via The Cesspit comes this gem:

link: “The /bug command is due to be removed, and is not currently functioning. To report in-game bugs, petition a GM. To report software bugs, please email WoWTech@Blizzard.com. “

The /bug command allowed you to help Blizzard track down problems. It gave you a user interfce that let you carefully and painstakingly enter details of bugs you encountered in game. Then it would do a good job of appearing to send them off. Then it would delete them.

This reminds me of:

The only controls available to those on board were two push-buttons on the center post of the cabin - one labeled on and one labeled off. The on button simply started a flight from Mars. The off button connected to nothing. It was installed at the insistence of the Martian mental-health experts, who said that human beings were always happier with machinery they thought they could turn off.
– Kurt Vonnegut, Sirens of Titan