Mail "Gambling"
Svetlana Pomerantseva
Hello, dear readers. Work on the number that https://tropical-wins-casino.co.uk/ you hold in your hands went under the auspices of E3. And so I want to tell about the exhibition in the introductory word … But we have already written so much about it in the magazine, and then, in response to one of the questions, let’s say, so far I’ll bite the tongue. Although … no. Still, I note this. The number of letters on the topic of the exhibition this time broke all possible records. What was not asked about. What do we personally think about the exhibition, which game we expect the most, what to expect from the consoles of the new generation when this or that Title comes out, is it worth taking the consoles at the start … And you know, it shows one important thing: the industry sighed again after many years of hibernation Full breasts. So, in our game street in the next few years there will be many different, but necessarily very funny holidays. I'm already all in anticipation. And you?
Alexey Makarenkov
Para-ram! Greetings everyone. Well, ladies and gentlemen … E3 is over, and the new game era has opened. So we are waiting for a shaft of questions about the future of game construction (actually, why we are waiting – they have already begun to pour out), and we ourselves, in turn, promise not to deprive them of attention and analyze each number at least one letter about what awaits us starting From this fall and further.
And one more information for reflection. In the near future we plan to ask well -known developers to answer some of your questions, so it will be great if you will make small comments in your letters, whose answer I would like to hear. It is possible that it is your letter that some famous developer will answer your letter. I will open up with the entry on this – we move on to questions.
Three funny letters
Personal impressions of E3
Sveta, Alexey, tell us what you think about the past E3? I believe that in the journal you are planning a large report, but I would like to hear your personal opinions. And then after all, in articles you often write a certain average, balanced opinion, and personal can differ greatly depending on the preferences. Thank you very much in advance. – Rotoi.
Svetlana Pomerantseva
I really liked everything. For many years it has not been such an exciting, memorable exhibition. The announcement of the new generation consoles did his job. I watched all the conferences with bated breath, and then local shows of specific games. If we talk about conferences, then I liked the Sony conference most of all. The old man here considers her chaotic, and I made it the main thing: there will be many interesting games (multi -platform and exclusive) on PS4, which will flow immediately after the prefix release.
And this means that there will be no such terrible situation as with PS vita or, for example, WII U. Both of these game systems are in my house (I bought one myself, the second – thanks to the old one, gave it), but for several months now I have not got any of them from the closet. Because not a single truly standing title came out. It was similar at the start of 3DS, but there they corrected it in a year. But a year! I don't want to wait a year. And I don't even want six months. I want to play right away. And with PS4, apparently, you will not have to wait.
The next most important for me was the EA conference, which are also great. I look forward to Garden Warfare. And again, I do not share the skeptician Alexei. It seemed to me that everything was very thought out there and it would be interesting to play for a long time.
Battlefield, of course, waiting. Dragon Age -. But I especially want to note Mirror’s Edge 2. Faith conquered me back in the first game, and I am just all impatiently, so I want to feel the parkour in the metropolis again.
Oh yes. I almost forgot! Dice Star Wars is just some kind of holiday.
Alexey Makarenkov
Since Sveta ran through conferences EA and Sony, I will continue the conversation about Microsoft, Nintendo and Ubisoft. Microsoft slightly disappointed me. I also understand that at the presentation of the console they promoted the new Xbox One functions and pedalized the topic of TV. But on E3 then it was necessary to make powerful game announcements and clearly show what exclusives would be at the start. For what, in fact, to buy a console to those who want to play, and not "pile up in the TV set".
And what in the end? From the new one was very interesting, but so far an ambiguous RYSE from Crytek. Trutty Sunset Overdrive with “Scout from TF2” in the title role. Rotoscopited by the most do not indulge D4 – Hello, Eclair technology. Spark … and having made a lot of noise Killer Instinct. On the latter I want to stop in more detail. I have not seen so much nostalgic snot from the press for a long time. Everyone came directly to boiling water when they found out that there would be a new ki. Yes, I understand that for me ki is also a whole juicy piece of my childhood.
[[Bullet]] sabrewulf, of course, amazing, but we are still very worried about the game. Not the same, oh, the wrong people are engaged in restarting.
But! Even if you forget that it will be frivoli, where all the characters except Iago will have to buy (here, to be honest, there is nothing bad-just an unusual business model for fighting!. Double Helix. Developers! In their track record, God forgive me, only a failed BatTlesHip, an extremely ambiguous Silent Hill: Homecomping and Front Mission Evolved Small-Malina. And these people should revive ki? Yes, they do not even have experience creating fighting. And the fighting winging, for a minute, is one of the most difficult game genres. It only seems that everything is simple there: a foot with a foot, a pumpk with his hand, and the binge; Jump, tackle, spotlight. In fact, any fighting wiping is a complex, inhabitant verified system. Where one small error at first glance can lead to a monstrous imbalance. Here it is necessary either by trial and mistakes to gain experience, or to invite people who can do cool fighting.
I'm scared for Killer Instinct. I really want to be mistaken and mistaken, but for now – scary, scary for the greatest game, which is in extremely unreliable hands, growing from the shoulders.
Ubisoft – handsome. Because they are not afraid to experiment and do not try to leave only on already promoted names. Watch_dogs the farther, the more it is amazing. The careful distrust that the “anniversaries” will be able to make the game so rich in meaningful events in the open world, is replaced by the belief that they will arrange a real revolution in the genre of “sandbox”.
[[Bullet]] But for The Division is somehow calm. Because it, despite all her ambiguous concept, in reliable, tested hands.
And they do not calm down on what has been achieved! The Division looks extremely interesting. A realistic and beautiful fighting, the most accurate hit in the setting, excellent graphics … is already outlined there ..
The Crew generally touched the living. Not everyone noticed, but in this game the most realistic dynamics of the car flow: you look at the screen and it seems that you are sitting at the wheel and drive along the real highway.
As for Nintendo, the company did not need so much. Show that on Wii U there is a normal multi-platform, and announce games for three main selling “faces” of their consoles-Mario, Linka and Donky Konggu. And in Nintendo the task did perfectly. According to Mario, we have two games at once – Super Mario 3D World and the sixth Mario Kart. According to the Donky Kong-Country Tropical Freeze. And on Zelda – The Wind Waker (plus a Link BetWeen Worlds for 3DS). And, of course, one cannot fail to note the second Bayonetta, which is very important for many. But the fact that Wii U does not have a normal pool of cool shooters and serious sports games is a very serious minus. This drawback must be urgently corrected. Right with the speed of sound, otherwise in the marketing plan (and, as a result, in all other plans, too) the console will weave in the tail.
Interviewers and respondents
How to behave in a cage with developers
Hello, Sveta and Alexey. You – I'm talking not only about you, but about the whole editorial office – communicate a lot with the developers, a lot of interviews are published in the journal (the most amazing of the latter, in my opinion, about the "New Union"). In addition, I read an interview on other resources. So, far from always they are as interesting as yours.
And in "Gambling" the interestingness of conversations is also at different levels. What is it connected with? I'm also thinking of taking a few interviews with developers, but only how to approach this? How is communication at all? – Elena Popova
Svetlana Pomerantseva
Elena, I can start telling a long story, what a complex art it is to take an interesting interview. But for starters I will say a completely different very important thing. If you are truly interested in the game that the developer makes, then this is ninety percent of success. In this case, you will not ask any banal, obvious questions, because you most likely already know a lot about the project, so you can immediately move on to interesting details (general information about the game for readers who are not familiar with the development, can be given in the introductory part of the text).
I sometimes observe various presentations, how journalists come completely unprepared. And they begin to ask either that everyone knows for so long, or in general that it has nothing to do with the game. I remember how one of the journalists began to ask the authors about multiplayer at the closed show of one famous action. What are the modes, how many players will be able to fight on one server … Everything is wonderful, only two months before the show it was known that no multiplayer in the game would be.
Unpreparedness is the best way to constrain any interview! And when you are in the subject, then talk with a person who is even more in the topic, is a pleasure. He sees that you, as he would say by the old man, is a shatter of the chip, and he is interested in telling you even more. Because he sees that his work is not indifferent to you.
The most exciting conversations are, of course, live. In this case, you can, as they say, stir up the respondent, understand what is more interesting to him, adjust all subsequent issues, send the conversation in the right direction.
I would divide the interview into three types. The first option is purely technical conversations. They are best triggered when nothing is really known about the game at all, readers have information hunger – in these cases it is necessary to ask a maximum of specific questions in order to satisfy this hunger. Only at the end of the conversation can you talk on some common topics. The second case is when almost everything is known about the game or the personality of the developer is almost more important than the game itself. Here is the most advantageous option – to determine on the moves what common topics are interesting to a person, and to move on to them.
Agree, if you interview, say, with Ken Levin, when the new Bioshok has already left, and the next one has not yet been announced, it is stupid to somehow trash the hackneyed topics. Here you can talk about the theory of strings, and about drama when working with satellite characters. What is there … Even the topic of moral choice in the game, which has fed up with everyone, may be interesting, because Ken has his own view of this question and about the moral choice, he may not tell at all like other developers.
In the case of the developers of the level of Levin, Molino, Newella, you can generally depart from game and near -playing topics and discuss purely life issues. In what environment is it more pleasant to work, which cars like more, life hobbies and aspirations … The main thing is not to abuse. We still have a magazine about games. If you include too many questions on abstract topics, it will not be so interesting to read.
The third case is an intermediate interview option. When you talk about the game, and do not forget about common topics. Moreover, the focus with a change in the rhythm of the conversation works perfectly here. You talk about the game, then smoothly flow into near -play questions, then you affect completely non -game topics, you jump again to the game. And with small clarifications, comments or additional questions you link all this together – into a monolithic, holistic text.
We used to use when writing an interview the principle under the code name "Soup from the ax". Когда у тебя есть много чисто технических вопросов и ответов, читать их подряд на протяжении четырех и более страниц становится скучно. Therefore, between the blocks of question/answer, copyright comments, thoughts about the game, some additional information are inserted. A kind of artificial, but very logical expansion of the interview format before an analytical article.
This technique works great if all issues are technical and, as they say, dry. But a pure, lively conversation, when the conversation is interesting throughout the entire length, and each subsequent question follows from the previous one, is better than any “soup from an ax”. Such interviews are very difficult to do, they almost never turn out during correspondence or conversations by phone or skype. Here we need a non -straightening atmosphere, it is necessary that no one is in a hurry and all the participants in the conversation are tuned to the conversation. It is best if you managed to pull the developer into a cup of coffee or for lunch – in this case you have a whole hour of time (or even more) to thoroughly talk on a variety of topics.
Just turn on the recorder, forget about it and talk to a person about games. If you miss something, then it will be possible to renew the questions remotely-for example, by mail. But get a remotely folding long conversation, alas, it will not work. It is precisely personal contact, live communication.
Alexey Makarenkov
We have a noble interviewer. I'm never joking. Since she broke through and she told so many things, I will come from a different angle. Let's talk about interesting chips and nuances that are most often hidden from the reader's eyes.
To begin with, such an important point as agreements and the very opportunity to take interviews. If the developer is little -known or, even better, indie, then everything is usually very simple. You find a person through a site or on a social network, you write a letter to him and agree on a conversation. Either on Skype/on the phone, or about a personal meeting, if you need to go to the country where the developer lives in the near future (we try to guess such things, because they, of course, do not happen).
The situation is quite different with developers working for a major publisher. There is every step, every sneeze, everyone, excuse me, the bunch of control. Without approval with the publisher, it is not done! Therefore, at first you contact the PR manager, submit an application, then consider it, approve or not approve. If approved, they require a list of topics that I would like to talk for, sometimes even the questions themselves. If the publisher does not like questions, then he can delete any of them or ask to replace with “more convenient”.
[Bullet]] Edmund McMillan, Jonathan Blow, Phil Fish … Millions of players around the world know these people. But, despite the star status, they are open for communication and are always ready to give a detailed and interesting interview.
Interviews can fly from interviewer to the publisher for weeks and vice. Sometimes completely funny things happen: “And here you are not mentioning our game in the question. We would not want any games to come up in an interview except our. Let's remove it. Otherwise the interview will not take place ". And I even get it, not exaggerate.
Then, when everything is agreed and approved, you call the developer on a given day and an hour and at best you get a good but slightly template interview. At the worst-the respondent reads you almost boring answers on a piece of paper, and to any attempt to make a conversation more alive and interestingly answers "Sorry, we are forbidden to reveal any additional facts".
Do not end at this and downs. The interviews received after the decryption (by decryption refers to the translation of the recorded voice to the text) is sometimes additionally sent to the publisher, he will again coordinate thirty-three times, delete something, asks not to voice some details … and affect all this obscurantism. There is no opportunity, because before that you most often have already signed some kind of brutal NDA (non-disclosure agreement), by which the publisher may prohibit the publication to publish any information that will consider it necessary.
Here I am already deliberately exaggerating, because such dragon methods are still found once out of twenty to three interviews. But you, I think, have caught the idea. Publishers try to control the press to the maximum and … the developers themselves. True, no one can forbid a journalist to write that he himself thinks about the game. But the interview – yes, often control.
[[Bullet]] But all attempts to reach the Rockstarians in the personal, so to speak, order end … Well, you understand everything from the picture.
By the way, if the game has a Russian publisher, then the procedure is sometimes further complicated. Because another link appears in the authority. And – that is extremely unpleasant – to turn directly to the developer or the Western publisher in this case. In this case, in this case, uncomfortable questions in the spirit will begin to ask: “In your country there is an official representative why they have not contacted him?»Yes, they can also run into the domestic publisher:“ Why do journalists from your country go directly to us? Don't they know that it is not supposed? See with us! Ata-Tat! Work strictly according to the scheme, otherwise the next time to publish our super-duper-genius game will be someone else ".
But you know … It happens that even remotely, in correspondence, under the gaze of the publisher and with a bunch of approvals, it is possible to take an excellent interview. When adequate, sane people work on each of the transshipment points through which interviews through which interviews. Then, it is possible to quickly ask additional questions, and get advanced comments, and get (approve) the text in a couple of hours, and even get some delicious bonus like an exclusive announcement of the gaming mode or some kind of gameplayan feature.
So we live.
The taste of soap
Are game series so bad?
Now it is customary to scold game series like Call of Duty for the fact that there are very few changes in them. I categorically don't like it either. But COD from year to year beats its own sales records.
What happens, everyone does not like it, but everyone continues to play? Does it seem to you that somewhere here there is a monstrous paradox? Here I am a girl, I really love shooters – yes, do not be surprised, there are such. And I understand that the COD series is stuck in time, it is almost not developing. But … I will definitely buy the next part. And one more. And yet. And I would really like to listen to your opinion on this topic. I feel like a real masochist. Stirring, but I continue to eat a cactus.
Sveta, I am hopeless? Alexey, do not consider for trolling, but how can I recover? And is it necessary? – Julia Vostrikova
Alexey Makarenkov
Let's cleanly. The serial principle of playing games in person is personally deeply cute to me. In fact, it’s not so bad when you know exactly that in a year you will get a game that will give you about the same feelings as the previous part.
You know for sure that there will be a lot of Hollywood, a lot of millions of dollars bored with the production, a good multiplayer and … always something new. But not radically new, but simply easy rethinking and refinement of existing ideas.
[[Bullet]] In screenshots the updated engine looks promising. But in the shown gameplay rollers, everything looks far from so rosy.
Analogies with movie series – the most direct. Only each individual game is not a new series, but a new season. In the new season, something always changes, however, the main canvas remains the same. Some characters can change, but only.
The main problem of any series, albeit very good, is that by the fourth or fifth season it begins to bother even very devoted fans. And it is necessary to either radically change the concept, or significantly change the cast (although, of course, this can also be exit sideways), or … arrange a restart.
In the case of the same Call of Duty – we, I'm sorry, which the season is already watching?! That's it! But there is one "but". This game series has not yet scooped up the entire audience. And he, unlike television series, has one very important distinguishing property: every new season (that is, every new game) can be held, even if you have not seen the previous seasons in the eyes. That is why there are still a lot of people who have connected either on the decline or last season. They are not tired yet! They are ready to watch two, three, four games.
But when the audience will be scooped up to the bottom and when the players who have met the players will watch the episodes of five or six-then the period of the great and inevitable depression will come for the publisher. Perhaps, through one, and possibly, and after five or six COD’S, the financiers will be surprised to find that the sequel brings not much money as his predecessors.
With a probability of 99% until this point, we will not see any serious pertresses with COD. Ulibaki dogs, a modified engine, a slightly better script-this is the limit of dreams. However, if unexpectedly competitors begin to eat the electorate … Only the Battlefield series has chances, but I personally doubt that Bf will be able to strongly undermine the audience Cod. Just because the game Dice is more serious and, despite the powerful technical breakthrough, a very wide audience that loves bara-boom, wrap and piu-piu will not collect.
[[Bullet]] Dog – this is certainly good. But so far there are no hints that with the addition of the Tuziks the gameplay will somehow radically change.
Is it worth being treated for dependence? I wouldn't. I see nothing wrong with playing about the same game once a year. It's not every day to watch the same series of the soap opera. There is time to relax. You just don't have to lay too big hopes on the new COD. Initially, keep in your head that there will be about the same. Maybe a little better, maybe a little worse. But without serious differences.
Quiet Sapa, step by step, we will live to the moment when the publisher has nowhere to go – and he will be forced to take risks and change the series dramatically. Not everyone is so patient, many from monotony will jump out with COD-Igly over time.
Svetlana Pomerantseva
Julia, as I understand you! I'm exactly the same dependent as you. I eat the cactus you mentioned year after year, I spit, but I continue to work confidently with my jaws. To be honest, I am sometimes visited by monstrous thoughts. Organize a powerful anti-cod movement, gather people and agree with them not to buy another part of the game. So that Activision see that the popularity of the game in its current form falls. Then they will vibrate.
I understand that there is practically no chance of success, so these are just dreams from scratch. But since I play COD from the very first part, without missing a single DLC, this juicy rutabaga was strictly fed by the schedule of order every year. I want a breakthrough. I want something radically new.
Games of one mechanics
About the basics of gameplay and why the simple is not all bad
Sveta, Alexey, I have what a question. Often in "Gambling" they give high grades to various indie games. “Braid”, “Fez”, “Jorney”, I heard that in the nearest issue there will be “Superior”. Doesn't it seem to you that this, I don’t even know, is a little illogical. After all, almost all of these games, I will say this, one mechanics. That is, the authors came up with some kind of idea and pilot it from the screensaver to the very credits. Nothing new, in fact, does not happen. On game forums, you can pick up a lot of interesting ideas, what is the merit of the developers? – Prokhor
Svetlana Pomerantseva
That's what, in my opinion, is strange, is that a claim is presented to the game: they say, it is based on one principle. If you look from such an angle, we can say that any game genre is based on a single concept. Shooters – a barn runs with a machine gun at the ready, rolls off the crowds of monsters, sometimes presses on the buttons, sometimes hides. All. The mechanics are monotonous and simple, like five cents. Strategies – we build a base, “grow” units, send them to battle. Occasionally swearing on a Gigrash and spit into a monitor if the tactics did not work.
Role games-we explore the world, perform quests, read dialogs, fus-r-yes. Platformers – generally primitive, run and jump. Racing – even more primitive, just going!
The mechanics of most genres, even those that we traditionally consider complex are quite simple. Especially if you take the very basic bases, and not go into details.
Chess … The rules are not very difficult, but the game does not become obsolete. So – no, it does not seem to me that games, which are based on simple mechanics, must be evaluated by separate specially invented criteria. Just because all the games are like.
Alexey Makarenkov
Light, exhale! Too close to heart. After all, a person says that there are mechanics, let’s say, disposable. For all its simplicity, the same races, platformers, arcades, shooters … All the main genres of games are multivariate. They are not boring. Based on these mechanics, you can definitely be such that it will crack in the navel and the hair on the head will stand on end. And not only on the head.
[[Bullet]] Portal – classic game of one mechanics. Portal 2 is brilliant primarily because the mechanics were significantly modified.
And there are games in which the basic idea may be enough for one maximum twice. The most indicative example is Portal. The first game is certainly brilliant. The second is just as brilliant. But only due to the fact that the developers did not eat snot and the Lyas sharpened, but turned inside out and managed not only to perfectly copy the basic mechanics of the first part, but also add a lot to the game. If Portal 2 had nothing new, it would no longer be brilliant, but just a very good game. And to the third part, if she came out exactly the same, everything would have begun to spit.
Such things. But what I agree with Sveta is that such games are not only no worse, but even, perhaps, better than projects blinded according to long -familiar patterns.
I agree that there are a lot of similar ideas on the forums. But let's say one simple thing for the again time – as much practice shows it, too many do not understand it. I'll start from afar.
We regularly arrive at the mail of “gambling” in the spirit “I have an idea for a brilliant game, make so that cool developers learn about it and make a game. But they did not forget to score money for the fact that I came up with such an idea of a cool one ". Moreover, ideas are sometimes really unusual, although for the most part, of course, not really.
[[Bullet]] You can, of course, say that Fez is the game of one mechanics, but then in general the whole genre of puzzle must be entered into the same category.
The truth is that any developer of brilliant, delightful, chic, extraordinary and just good, suitable ideas – WHO and a small cart. However, the idea itself does not mean. At all. As in any business, implementation is important. The ability to create an equally brilliant game based on a brilliant idea.
Do Portal some other people-and with the same concept the first-glass nonsense and slag could turn out. And the idea with the portals itself, to be honest, long before Portal's exit flashed in dozens of different flash- and even larger games.
So, guys, if you want to earn on the idea, become also cool realizers. Artists, programmers, gamedemes. Or talented leaders who will collect all of the above specialists under their wing. Otherwise – nothing!
Our prizes
Traditionally, we bore authors of the most interesting letters. Since this time all the letters are very, very interesting, then everything is received by prizes.
Letter "Three funny letters". Prize – disk Backup Plus from the company Seagate volume of 4 TB. In addition to the fact that this is just an external hard drive of a huge volume, it is also a great way to protect and publish all your digital data. Built -in reserve capabilities. Automatic preservation of photographs from social networks. General access to photographs and video on social networks with one mouse click. Improving the data transfer speed during the modernization of the interface to the Thunderbolt or FireWire 800 technology.
Letter "Interviewers and respondents".RITMIX RMP-530 – smartphone on the Android 4 platform.1 with dual -core processor MTK6577. The main feature of the device is an analog TV tuner, which provides reception of television programs thanks to the built-in telescopic antenna.
Letter "Taste of soap". Chic Fantec Db-F8u3e Winchester Corps. Characteristics: 3.5 " SATA, USB 3.0, esata, 80mm fan. A very convenient thing for creating a large external storage. Winchesters are supported up to 4 TB.
Letter "Games of one mechanics". Fantec CL-35B2 RAID -external corps for two hard drives from which you can assemble a RAID massive. Support for hard drives up to 4 TB, t.e. In total, 8 TB will turn out. The device supports cloud services, they can be controlled using mobile devices and organize striming photo/video/audio on modern consoles.