Superpower 2, dev. Golem Labs, dev. Atari, PC, 2004.

I very much wanted to like this game. As readers know, I'm a big fan of grand-strategic games such as Europa Universalis; I've also wanted something akin to a modern update of Balance of Power for many years. Indeed, last E3, this was one of the few games I saw on the show floor that piqued my interest.

The initial impression is good: When you load the game, you are looking at a 3D model of the planet, with the sun and moon moving around it, daylight shifting as the sun moves, weather patterns visible on the globe. You get a great sense that we all live together on a single planet, which is partly why when, during the tutorial, you launch a first nuclear strike on China (as the US), it's so shocking. You select countries (or military units) by clicking on them, and can zoom in to see rivers, mountains, roads, and cities, giving a real feeling of a living planet.

The level of detail, and the amount of research involved, is staggering. As a simple example, if you check the treaties to which your country (or any country) belongs, you'll find a whole list of international treaties and organizations of which most purchasers are going to be ignorant--from, say, the European Bank for Reconstruction to the World Meteorological Organization. There's excellent detail on population makeups--minorities, languages--per capita GDP, etc. If you forget the game and use this as an interactive almanac, it's pretty impressive (albeit if that's its purpose, you'd design a different interface).

As with EU, every country is playable (although you may not get far as Andorra), and the game has economic, political, diplomatic, and military aspects. The problem is that the simulation is so detailed, and so complicated, that it is out of control.

Here's one rule of game design: imperceptible causes are meaningless, indeed, merely frustrating for the player. If, say, my stability rating is declining, and I have no way of determining which of dozens of potential factors that impact stability is causing the decline, I'm pretty well helpless to correct the situation.

But when I say "out of control," I also mean that the simulation tends to spin off in absurd directions. Sinn Fein may run candidates in Northern Ireland, but they are never going to take control of Parliament. In an extreme case, the US might indeed come to Israel's military aid if in danger of conquest from Syria, but I very much doubt the German Federal Republic would. And I cannot conceive of circumstances that would lead France to declare war on Sri Lanka--all things that have happened to computer-controlled countries in games I've played.

This is, of course, one of the problems with grand-strategic simulators; by nature, they are complicated systems, and balancing them to get reasonable behavior from the system is a difficult and complicated undertaking. EU does it; Victoria never did (despite multiple patches). In the case of Superpower 2, the underlying system is so complicated, I wouldn't know where to begin.

Here's another rule of game design: Decide what you want to represent, and focus in on it. Prune unecessary detail. The level of information in Superpower 2--and the developers desire to use all of it in their simulation--sabotages, rather than reinforces, its accuracy.

The third problem with the game--shared by many sim/tycoon style games, by the way--is the fact that sandbox mode is not only the default, but the main expected style of play. Unlike EU, there is no 'scoring' system, incorporating a bunch of different potential player objectives in a single overall score, so there's no effective way, at the end of a game (or in the middle) to say "I am doing well compared to other countries" (or compared to a previous game as the same country, or compared to that country's starting position). Goals--striving toward and achieving them--are essential to gameplay, and I'd argue that the only sandbox game that succeeds without a scoring system is Sim City, and that only because the variety of player-selectable goals are wide, and clear. Yes, I could set myself the goal of conquering the world, or improving my economy by 200% or something, but it's kind of hard to see why I would want to do so.

In addition to a scoring system, the game cries out for a variety of well-developed scenarios. In fact, there are nine, but none is what I would call balanced or well conceived. As an example, as Botswana, you are supposed to improve your country's stability by 10% from its starting value. I succeeded in doing so, but frankly, had no real understanding of why--probably merely because I improved the economy. (The historical notes at the beginning of that scenario, incidentally, are erroneous; Botswana has not, in recent years, been particularly unstable--indeed, it is one of Africa's few economic and political success stories.)

In other words, the scenarios are minor little lacunae that exist primarily to introduce you to sandbox mode, and the sandbox mode is unsatisfying.

Finally, in the "bad developer, no bisquit category": music often locks up, repeating the same phrase over and over until you are driven batty (or simply turn the sound off). Additionally, the game crashes occasionally--not with manic frequency, but coupled with the fact that there's no autosave, this is can be extremely frustrating.

Put it all together, and... well, great idea for a game, too bad about the execution. There seems to be something of a mod community, but I don't know how they could rescue it (as, in a way, mods rescued EU II--the AGCEPP mod vastly improves it from the original). You really need to strip out about 80% of this game, work to balance the rest, and get in a scoring system.
posted by Greg at 4:17 PM 3 comments

Gamasutra today features a soapbox piece I wrote entitled "Has Mobile Game Innovation Ended Already?"

Also, I've agreed to join a group blog of members of the Democratic Freedom Council, an essentially libertarian pressure group within the Democratic party. The blog is called Democratic Freedom. The upside is that those of you annoyed by my occasional political rants here won't have to read them, as I'll be keeping this blog directly game-related henceforth. Well, maybe with the occasional recipe. Contrariwise, those of you who like that stuff are welcome to read it at the other blog.
posted by Greg at 1:06 PM 3 comments

This is interesting; Majesco has filed for a $100m public offering, with a plan for a listing on NASDAQ. At present, it is traded as an over-the-counter stock on the OTC BB, a penny stock exchange. A NASDAQ listing would definitely be moving up in the world, and would make the stock a whole lot more tradeable.

Majesco is mainly a publisher of budget games, although they've had some success with larger titles such as Bloodrayne. Additionally, they market GBA peripheral hardware, including a "wireless link" that lets you play multiplayer GBA titles without the need for a cable, and a "wireless messaging unit" that lets you text with other GBA owners with the same unit (not over a cellular net--this strikes me as a non-starter), and a device that lets you play short (up to 45 minute videos) on a GBA. They also sell videos--mostly cartoons--for use with the device. I have no idea how well it's doing at retail, but its imaginative, at any rate.

At present, Majesco has issued 81m shares, with the stock trading at around $1.65. So assuming the price doesn't drop, they need to issue another 60m odd shares to raise $100m. It isn't clear how much of the money raised will go to the corporate treasury, and how much will go to current investors, although it's worth noticing that Majesco made a complicated deal in 1Q to raise $25m from private investors that involved giving them common shares, a 7% annual dividend payable in additional common, and warrants to purchase more exercisable at a strike price of $3; presumably, some of these investors will use the offering as an opportunity to cash out. But assuming the company retains a big chunk of the offering, it give them a nice warchest for expansion.

In the last quarter, they reported net income of $20.5m (compared to a loss of $2.2m in 3Q last year), but of this, $18.9m was "non-cash credit related to the change in fair value of the warrants issued in connection with a private placement," presumably relating to the warrant deal from 1Q, leaving actual net income of $1.6m. This is still positive, as the company has made losses in prior quarters this year, and the Christmas season, when a huge chunk of sales are booked, is still to come. Nonetheless, this strikes me as a slender basis on which to base so large a public offering. Currently, their p/e ratio is quoted as "n/a", meaning they have a loss YTD.

Per Majesco's release, the offering will be underwritten by RBC Capital Markets, JMP Securities, Harris Nesbitt and Wedbush Morgan. These are basically third tier investment banks--actually somewhat surprising that an offering of this scale doesn't include a top rank Wall Street firm.

All very interesting, and I'm not sure what to think about it. But I doubt I'll be investing, at least without some really interesting statements on the part of management about their corporate strategy and what they intend to do with the money.


posted by Greg at 10:45 AM 3 comments

You can now get an N-Gage QD for free--or rather, with a rebate from T-Mobile that repays the cost of the device if you sign up for a $40/month service plan. (Or a rebate that produces a net cost of $50 for a $25/month plan.) This is how the device should have launched, IMO.

Might even be worth it to play Pocket Kingdoms.

(And yes, the caveat: I work for Nokia.)

Incidentally, I spent a lot of time on a recent trip with Ancient Empires from Macrospace. Not an N-Gage commercial title, but a J2ME download, and available for a lot of different handsets. It's sort of Heroes of Might And Magic very light; turn based fantasy conquest, one "campaign" of eight scenarios, plus two non-campaign scenarios. Unlike recent PC games in the genre (e.g., Heroes IV, Disciples II), it held my interest. I'm not sure why, but maybe this game style just works better in a 2D environment.
posted by Greg at 11:45 AM 2 comments

This is interesting (from Matt Evan's CLSA Korea Telecom & Internet email newsletter:

Marvel Sues NCSoft Over Trademark & Copyright Violation

Marvel has accused NC Soft of violating its trademarks and copyrights with characters in City of Heroes....There are no non-player characters, or NC Soft *designed* characters that resemble Marvel characters...

However, the player creation system in City of Heroes is extremely flexible and allows players to simulate the look, and to some extent, the abilities of their favourite character...

...one inevitably comes across players with names like "Spideyman" and "5uperman" who have designed their costumers to look like their favourite characters. Presumably, this is what Marvel is complaining about. The fact that these characters are user created, rather than produced by NC Soft, will probably be a key factor in this court action.

Yes indeedy. A meaty issue, and one that I think is very unclear under current law. The DMCA's takedown provisions make ISPs effectively responsible for violation by websites they host; by extention, you can argue that an MMG is responsible for violation by members of the community. But of course, there's no real harm to Marvel, either; no one will assume that a bozo in CoH named 5uperman is a product, service, or character of Marvel Enterprises--more that the player is a llamer. And there's certainly no intent to violate on the part of NCSoft.

The lawsuit strikes me as objectively bogus, but then, bogosity is no defense in our lovely legal system.
posted by Greg at 9:15 AM 2 comments

Woohoo! My 15 year-old daughter, Betsy, has coded her first game. It's not a good game, mind you, but it is a game.

She's taking a programming course at Stuyvesant, and this is part of her course work. It's programmed in Logo. To play, you need to install NetLogo 2.0.2, and download the Legends of Britney file. Then, start NetLogo, open the Legends of Britney file (from wherever you saved it), and click Play.

You are Britney Spears. You have to eat all the turkeys (the slow moving little gizmos). The bees fly around eating all your corn (the yellow squares). If they eat all the corn before you eat all the turkeys, you lose. Also, if they run into you and sting you 15 times, you lose. There are three levels. If you beat all three levels, you get to dance with Paris Hilton. Paris Hilton has a square green head, but Betsy did the programming, not the graphics, and takes no responsibility for how she looks.

Not ready for the IGF, I think, but hey.

posted by Greg at 9:26 PM 3 comments

Well, I don't want to go overboard. It's too easy to come up with nightmare scenarios about what may happen next. But here are things I think have a reasonable chance of happening, even assuming some good will on the part of the theocratic right.

1. The end of the Western Alliance. NATO is a dead letter. Even the English are not going to follow us into war again.

2. An Argentina-style currency crisis. This is where some are going to think I'm going over the deep end, but I'm not. Ask an economist.

We have an untenably large fiscal deficit, the administration wants to reduces taxes further (if anything) and has show no inclination to cut spending--rather than the reverse--opening that deficit wider. To date, that deficit has been financed largely by Asian nations (including China), trying to ensure that the dollar does not fall too far against their currencies. This is not sustainable; ultimately, interest rates will have to increase, because higher rates will be the only way the Treasury will be able to find the money it needs to borrow.

Simultaneously, we have a huge current account deficit--meaning we import far more than we export. This, too, is unsustainable--it involves borrowing further money abroad.

When a nation runs large current account and fiscal deficits at the same time, it is at high risk for a currency crisis. A currency crisis occurs when the nation's creditors no longer have confidence in its ability to repay its obligations; at that time, sources of further funding dry up, liquidity dries up, the currency crashes, there are major lay-offs, and there is, for a time, deep recession.

America has avoided this fate so far for several reasons, including a past history of financial responsibility, the fact that we dug ourselves out of the Reagan deficits, and the fact that the dollar is the currency of account for most of the world. But even America cannot continue to run deficits of this scale forever.

A currency crisis is, in fact, virtually inevitable, unless a) the fiscal deficit is drastically reduced, by cutting expenditure, raising taxes, or both; and/or b) there is a large increase in US exports relative to imports. Both of these look quite unlikely over the next four years.

Exactly when the crisis occurs is impossible to predict; quite possibly, not until after W is out of office, which is a bit of a pity. As the architect of the coming depression, he ought by rights to be around to suffer the consequences.

3. A serious attempt to ban abortion. Bush basically owes his re-election to the Christian right, and this is the single issue that most motivates them. This could take the form of a constitutional amendment--which, since they control both houses and the presidency, they can get through--but which also must be adopted by 38 states, which may be more problematic. Alternatively, they can adopt it as a simple law, which would, however, be susceptible to court challenge--but then, it is quite likely that Bush will be able to appoint several new justices to the Supreme Court over the course of the next four years.

The only factor that might restrain the Republicans from doing this is concern about the next election; this is the kind of issue that might well motivate the opposition enough to win (just as, in my opinion, the gay marriage issue is largely responsible for the Republican victory).

4. Military action against Iran, North Korea, or both. Quite likely, this will not involve a full-on invasion and conquest, as in Iraq, if only because the volunteer military doesn't even have enough men to secure Iraq, let along hold down Iraq and fight another war. More likely, it will be an airstrike to try to take out reactors, missile sites, or other nuclear-related facilities. Given that we will have no allies, this assualt will inevitably be condemned by the entire world, other than Israel; we will escape UN sanction only by using our veto. If it involves Iran, Iran will become (like Syria is already) a covert supporter of the Iraqi insurgency, making pacification of Iraq essentially impossible.

5. One or more major terrorist operations against the United States, quite likely involving dirty bombs (I think it less likely they'll get actual nukes) smuggled into the US in shipping containers, virtually none of which are inspected three years after 9/11, even though this is our most obvious vulnerability, because the current administration hasn't bothered to spend any money to do so.

Have a good time, fellas. And it might be time to start socking away some money for a rainy day.

posted by Greg at 4:00 PM 3 comments