In-Game Screenshots Vol.1

The following is a collection of screenshots from a variety of games that I saved for one reason or another.  Some are of bugs I’ve come across, some are of cool shit, and the rest are humorous in some way.  In any case here are some images for you to look through:

I never did find out whether or not this is a bug.  Is it an albino tank skin..?

This is what happens when you fuck up the installation of a gfx enhancement mod.

This is what happens when you have too much time on your hands.

Crash Bandicoot !  It’s actually a pretty good gungame map too.

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This may become an occasional segment of the blog: whenever I happen to amass a number of decent images I’ll do another.  This can be a good contrast against the many text-heavy posts on here.

Filed under: In-Game Screenshots, Counter-Strike: Source, Game Screenshot, GTA IV, Halo 3, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2

Forum Competitions: Deciding the Task

As part of a recent competition on Thunderbolt we were asked to give feedback on how we feel the current system of organising the competitions works (ironic I know), critiquing the prizes given and/or the tasks assigned to them.  The following wall of text is my entry, fleshed out a bit so it applies to most forums of similar focus out there.  This was more an exercise in marketing/ business strategy than anything else, I guess:

• One should determine task/ challenge based upon the worth of the prize(s) up for grabs.
• There are generally two distinct themes of task/ challenge: publicity/ PR orientated or community orientated.

From a business standpoint it would make sense to capitalise on the publicity/ PR theme when the prize(s) involved will be desired by a large amount of members. As it will prompt a good proportion of the board it will mean greater publicity. Two examples would be to ‘like’ the Facebook page or to hash tag the site on Twitter.

More participants = more likes/ tweets/ whatever = more publicity = encourage more members/ contributors to the website.

The problem with this type of task is that it’s very impersonal and uninspiring. It’s not fun; people are just clicking a button or typing a message to people on their friends list. Creativity is generally not encouraged nor is friendly/ communal competitiveness spurred. The competition then becomes somewhat of a raffle: everyone is on even ground and the names are picked randomly. Granted it’s then as fair as you could hope for, but it’s then boring and without any opportunity to display any sort of extraordinary desire for the prize (“this guy clearly wants it badly/ passionately: his entry proves it, let’s give it to him”).

Competitions based on creativity/ the community are generally fun to take part in. If the admins were to somehow publicise the entries on the front page of the website (not forum) they might be able to draw in new members and improve the creative output for future competitions. These allow members to show off their talents and maybe produce some crayzay banter that’s a pleasure to observe/ read. Creative tasks also require more effort, and so people who want the prize(s) most might in fact end up winning as the desire can be visibly obvious within text/ an image (the task).

The problem with this type of task is that people who aren’t so talented with a particular piece of software (Photoshop, for example) could easily be intimidated/ put off by others who can simply produce a better looking entry. But some people are much better at written prose, or making jokes, or knowledgeable of a particular subject related to the task, so there will always be someone with an advantage. That’s life. In-jokes are generally funnier than regular pop-culture ones, so people who have been active for a long time might have a lot more material to work with. The person(s) determining the winner should maybe treat these with a pinch of salt.

A successful/ fulfilling competition should include both of the above types of task. It’ll be good for both the website as a brand and it’ll encourage creative output/ competition from active members. Personally, I believe this to be a good formula to work by:

• If prize is worth more than x amount (in monetary value/rarity) or is an item that will attract a large proportion of the board, assign a community/ creativity based task as the primary focus of the voting/ winning criteria. As a secondary task, request some sort of publicity/ PR from us such as a Facebook like or Twitter hashtag.
• If prize is worth less than x amount (in monetary value/rarity) or is an item that is probably quite niche/ unpopular, assign a publicity/ PR orientated task as the primary focus of the voting/ winning criteria. As a secondary task, set a small creative/ community based task to encourage participation from people otherwise not interested.

Sought after = people willing to put more effort into their entries. Not sought after = probably a low effort output by members either because there’s no competition or because the item isn’t very appealing.  Choose the type of competition accordingly.

Filed under: Opinion, Forum Competition, Marketing

Minecraft: Creeper Face-Base

I first bought Minecraft when it was in the alpha stage of development (0.30); when it was a ‘hide and seek’ game within creative mode.  You had to download a hack to enable flight, and the range of items mustn’t have exceeded forty.  Since then, I’ve never really been that passionate about the game.  The constant updates regularly broke elements of gameplay or introduced something new that could not be used unless you were to start a new game.  That’s wholly understandable: it’s the very nature of a game still in development, and to expect different is to be unrealistic. Nevertheless, it wore down my patience for the finished article.  Now that it’s fully released I feel I’ve already experienced all there is to the game.  I generally don’t play singleplayer anymore as a result of this.

I do, however, still play on friend’s multi-player servers occasionally, in which I muck about with the creative mode making cool shit.  This time I’ve decided to share a particular creation of mine here on the blog.  It began with a simple imprint of a creeper face on the side of mountain, and developed into an underground ‘base’.  Take a look:

Each of those walkways give access to two rooms of the same size; both of which for one player.  Maybe a storage room and a crafting room?  I don’t care, creative mode is just making shit that looks cool, not stuff for functional use!  A total of five walkways means five people can inhabit this ‘base’.  you can find more screenshots of it (among other creations) on my Minecraft Photobucket album.

This sort of post might become a somewhat regular occurance here on the blog, as I’ve made a quite a few structures like this in minecraft over the past year on several of friend’s servers.  Although the single player now bores me, I still really enjoy the social/communal effort that the multiplayer offers, so I’ll still be active on the game and making stuff from time to time.

Filed under: Minecraft, Base, Creeper, Minecraft Building