Hungry Gamer - Matt Agnello

A different kind of responsibility

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:47:53 -0800

John Ferrara writing for UX Magazine:

UX designers are accustomed to thinking about experiences that people enjoy because they’re completing some objective that exists outside of the interface, but games must be enjoyed for their gameness. That gives the designer a different kind of responsibility: to design player experiences that are themselves enough reason to play.

I’d go even a step beyond this and suggest a game UX designer must introduce frustration into the player experience — but frustration coupled with a strong motive to succeed. Those two emotions play off each other in games to create moments of intense joy and satisfaction when the obstacle is finally overcome.

I haven’t ever come across a UX designer who admitted their job included producing negative experiences. Some game designers have, though. I’m excited for a time when those ideas mate — when game UX designers use their talents to craft usable and fluid experiences to specifically introduce frustration in a calculated way that ultimately results in joy.

‘Tangible’

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:14:00 -0800

‘Tangible’:

GameInformer has an entire article devoted to Skyrim’s menu system.

Matt Bertz quotes Skyrim’s game director Todd Howard:

”You know in iTunes when you look at all your music you get to flip through it and look at the covers and it becomes tangible?” game director Todd Howard asks. “One of our goals was ‘What if Apple made a fantasy game? How would this look?’ It’s very good at getting through lots of data quickly, which is always a struggle with our stuff.”

Appreciate the bullet points

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 13:58:42 -0800

Appreciate the bullet points:

Nick Cowen reviewing Skyrim for VideoGamer.com:

The talent-trees themselves are represented by swirling star constellations in the heavens above Skyrim and are both beautiful to look at and easy to navigate. That latter quality is, fortunately, shared by all of the game’s menus and while it may sound like a bulletpoint on a factsheet to praise the menu system, Bethesda really do deserve some credit for its work in this respect. Given the volume of abilities, attacks and information players need to have readily available to them in the game, a poor menu system could have easily turned Skyrim into a chore.

Menus have the potential to destroy the immersive qualities of games like Skyrim. Other games will sometimes take the nuclear option, erase menus entirely, and replace them with skeumorphic oddities such as walking around a room full of costumes to try on outfits, like in Fable. Really high quality titles take the time to craft masterpieces that conveniently double as selection tools.

Zynga to employees: Give back our stock or you'll be fired

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 10:54:06 -0800

Zynga to employees: Give back our stock or you'll be fired:

Don Reisinger reporting for CNET:

Citing industry sources, The Wall Street Journal reported today that Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, along with his top executives, decided last year as they were preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) that they had given out too much stock to employees. But rather than accept that reality, the executives reportedly tried a different tactic: demand employees give back not-yet-vested stock or face termination.

That’s one way to increases shareholder value.

Ethically Free

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 12:52:00 -0700

Ethically Free:

Adam Saltsman for Gamasutra:

Freemium game technology can be one of the tools we use to increase convenience, but if it is at the price of contrivance, we are doing a profound disservice to the players that support us.

Fantastic article for anyone interested in the ethics of games where the entrance price is free.

We’ve opened this Pandora’s Box of market and psychological technology with free-to-play games. They’re a sort of freakonomics atom bomb where the possibilities of application seem simultaneously dangerous and benign, and the question is no longer what can we do but what should we do.

As a direct beneficiary of a game where you can start playing for free, I’m happy to work with a publisher who thinks about these problems every day. The best way we’ve found to answer that “should” question is pretty simple: what is the best experience for the player? It distills all the psychological, emotional, and market forces down into only the bits that matter — to the player and the business.

GLaDOS on iPhone 4S

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 10:32:59 -0700

GLaDOS on iPhone 4S:

GLaDOS:

The traffic will be slow and meaningless.

To the Crazy One.

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 15:54:00 -0700

To the Crazy One.

Last American Who Knew What The Fuck He Was Doing Dies

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 20:52:11 -0700

Last American Who Knew What The Fuck He Was Doing Dies:

The Onion on the death of Steve Jobs:

“We haven’t just lost a great innovator, leader, and businessman, we’ve literally lost the only person in this country who actually had his shit together and knew what the hell was going on,” a statement from President Barack Obama read in part, adding that Jobs will be remembered both for the life-changing products he created and for the fact that he was able to sit down, think clearly, and execute his ideas—attributes he shared with no other U.S. citizen.

The iPad in 1998

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 23:41:08 -0700

The iPad in 1998:

Apple’s vision of the computer for “Project 2000.” Sounds familiar.

The right yellow gradient

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 08:03:00 -0700

The right yellow gradient:

Steve Jobs, on a phone call with Vic Gundorta, on a Sunday.

[ via John Gruber ]

15 Million Summoners

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 10:32:07 -0700

15 Million Summoners:

Lucas Sullivan for PC Gamer:

Riot Games CEO Brandon Beck chalks the game’s success to the ever-enthusiastic community. “We’re most proud of the numbers that show just how many players are truly engrossed in the League of Legends experience,” says Beck. “[The community’s] loving League of Legends even when they’re not playing it—hundreds of thousands of people tuned in for our Season One Qualifiers, for instance. We’re very grateful to the League of Legends fans that have made us one of the most popular PC games today.”

The League of Legends community is by far the best gaming community I’ve ever been a part of, and I’m really proud that so many people can call themselves summoners.

Killing your babies: GDiP on hold

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 06:08:51 -0700

There’s a phrase people use for editing video called “killing your babies”. It means, there’s a shot you really love, and you want to hold onto it for as long as possible, but it really needs to go to make the edit better. So, you cut it — you kill your baby — and it actually makes the whole scene better overall.

About a month ago, I started my new job as a Community Assistant at Riot Games. It’s by far the coolest job I’ve ever had. If you’ve ever had any interaction with the Riot Games Commmunity team, you know these guys are passionate, and that passion is infectious. And time consuming,

GDiP is my baby. I want to keep it alive, but as my schedule stands, it’s not something I can devote enough time to and 1) stay sane, and 2) make it as good as I want it to be.

To make sure I’m really giving my all to the League of Legends community, I’m putting GDiP on hold for now. I want to bring it back eventually — that progress bar won’t fill itself — but only when I’m sure it can fit in around LoL, which has some of the most passionate players I’ve ever met, and they deserve my best.

The golden ratio in Apple’s iCloud logo. Details...

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 09:19:48 -0700

The golden ratio in Apple’s iCloud logo.

Details matter.

[ via John Gruber and Takamesa ]

Ben Kuchera: Duke Nukem Forever ‘rampantly offensive’

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:06:06 -0700

Ben Kuchera: Duke Nukem Forever ‘rampantly offensive’:

Ben nails it again, for Ars Technica:

Every time I put the controller down, I felt the need to rub my hands on my jeans as if the game were making me physically dirty. It’s like watching your uncle tell racist jokes at Thanksgiving and praying someone has the guts to tell him to cut it out, but this time it’s interactive—and you’re the uncle.

EVE 2.0. Your world just got owned.

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 12:53:48 -0700

EVE 2.0. Your world just got owned.

Long overdue post

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 11:09:00 -0700

I haven’t actually linked to anything or posted any real new content since June 3rd. That’s because starting May 27th, I joined up with Riot Games as a Community Assistant on the free-to-play MOBA game League of Legends, which is one of the most addicting and awesome games ever made.

It’s incredible. Riot is the best company in the world. But since it’s also incredibly time consuming, it means I’ll be posting much less often than I’d like.

I plan to keep doing GDiP and I want to try to link to one cool article every day. Try is the operative word. There are tons of great things to read out there, but finding them and culling out the great from the good takes time. So, if you see a slump in posts over the next few weeks, don’t worry; it’ll ramp up soon once I get into the swing of things.

If you want to follow my activities at Riot more closely, I’ve changed my Twitter handle to @RiotMontag where I’ll be posting more about some of the awesome stuff coming from Riot. You can also find me randomly posting things on the forums.

Next week, we’re going to Dreamhack, and it’s going to be an awesome time to be a LoL player. Make sure you follow the other cool people at Riot: @RiotPendragon, @RiotTamat, and @RiotNikasaur. You’ll be seeing some cool stuff from them in the coming week as well.

30 seconds at E3

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:56:16 -0700

30 seconds at E3

GDiP02: Gardner Moldcraft marches forward! A change to the...

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 10:18:08 -0700

GDiP02: Gardner

Moldcraft marches forward! A change to the growth mechanic makes a big difference in feeling of progress, but the playtest reveals a lot of weaknesses. Discussion of Discovery versus Invention. There also may or may not be cake.

Let's talk Elite

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:00:06 -0700

Let's talk Elite:

Leigh Alexander:

I see the Call of Duty franchise as programming, as on television. Elite seems to hint at the end of discrete, solitary box products and promise something socially persistent, pervasive. I picture people buying T-shirts with pictures of their clan logo on it, or something.

Spot on. Call of Duty is just another platform. Elite is a step toward making it sustainable long-term.

Mapping chaos

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:05:06 -0700

Mapping chaos:

Ideas are chaotic, so the way we record them should reflect that. I’m a highly visual thinker, and I’ve found writing linear while I’m on the phone or in a meeting just doesn’t cut it. By nature, linear notes get in the way of each other. If you start a new topic, going back to the old one requires writing in the margins or finding empty spaces between lines. It’s sloppy, ugly, and difficult to parse later, and I can hardly remember how any of it relates to each other.

If this sounds like a description of your notes and you suspect you might be more of a visual thinker, I’d recommend giving mind-mapping a try. It’s free form, easy to jump around, and engages multiple parts of your brain simultaneously for far better retention. That’s the productivity argument. The fun argument: you get to doodle in a meeting, with an excuse! Check out Brad Isaac’s cool Lifehacker article on some tips on how to get started mind mapping along with some options for organizing — or not organizing — your ideas. But keep in mind, there’s really no “right way” to mind map. You just do whatever will make your own quirky little brain recall some idea or relationship later.

If you’re into iPad apps, iThoughts HD is an awesome mind mapping tool that I use all the time for brainstorming. It also imports and exports OPML — the outline lingua Franca — so you can pull in outlines from linear outliners for free-form editing or push your mind map into a more traditional outlining program.