3D vs 2D

There has been a lot of speculation on the GMC about why the public feel 3D games are better than 2D games. Taken from the topic, here's my view on it:

The huge advantage of 3D is, unsurprisingly, it's third dimension. Sure you can make a third dimension in platform or top-down games, or create something isometric. But they don't really cut it. When the chance of 3D is there, you darned well take it.

Take an FPS: You can hide behind things, on top of things, anywhere you like. That's what makes FPS's so good - that's why I play them. It's like being in a real combat situation. It simulates the real thing. 2D can't do that. It's not as real.

All said, 3D gives you realism and lets you feel like you're there. 2D gives you nice, pleasant, simple gameplay which keeps you entertained - mainly for a shorter time.

And before you say it, no I'm not getting too lazy that I just start copying and pasting my posts from the GMC =P

In the Event of a Fire

We all know (I hope) that, in the event of fire, we should not use lifts/elevators.

But recently, I noticed this scene from Independence Day:


The picture isn't entirely clear, but it shows people in a lift in Area 51 whilst aliens destory the base. Maybe we need a new sign:
"In the event of aliens attacking this base (Code Name: Area 51) and firing missles across the surface, causing explosions everywhere, do NOT attempt to use lifts."

I mean, come on. It's just not common sense.

Too many connections, n00b!

I'd like to start with an apology. I haven't updated for over a week and I'm sure that all of you, dear readers, have had a hole in your life for that amount of time...or you might have left. That's probably more likely...

My post today is about the GMC. In particular, it is about the Database error which users suffer every now and again, typically called "Too many connections."

After the GMC was hosted by YoYo Games, we users thought that the errors would go away for some reason. Unsurprisingly really, they didn't. The error is more due to the way that Invision Power works than who is hosting the site.

At first, the errors didn't come up enough to complain about, so I shut my mouth. Now, I'm getting them as regularly as before the take over - not cool.

The reason I complain is that these errors are slowly persuading more users to go to the YoYo Games forum. That's bad in my opinion because I don't like that forum and want to keep the GMC as it is, where it is. I can't see the reasons (except this one) behind getting a new forum and I don't find the new one as aesthetically pleasing as the GMC.

So, there we are. I'm sorry again for taking so long to update but I'll try to keep up. I promise!

GMC Karma

Karma has been a common forum feature for years, but never on the GMC. Until now (well, since last year actually).

The GMC Karma extension (exclusive to Firefox users) gives all users an initial karma of 0. Other members can then raise or lower each users karma, giving a reason as to their actions. It allows users to see what others think of them as well as showing why people have made their score as such.

At the time of writing, I have a karma of 2 (currently ). It has been raised twice. Once for humour and once for, I quote, "being Grego". It's a nice idea. On seeing this, I had a little chuckle to myself, amused at the idea that I was actually funny.

But what happens when your karma drops? Muslim_power's karma is, at last check, below -10. How does that make someone feel. Reasons for MP's low karma are "racist remarks" and suchlike, a lot of which are misunderstandings. This is when karma becomes a bad idea. If people have low karmas, it might make them upset or encourage other users not to download their games. I personally would find a low karma quite fun, but I'm sure others wouldn't and my bear a grudge against me for it.

The problem here is that there's no way around the situation: moderator's couldn't technically moderate all karma changes, but that would mean a lot of work for them; you could disallow lowering karma, but many members deserve it; the same goes for not letting karma go below 0; users could choose to opt out, but would that really be fair or sporting?

There is no real way to stop people lowering karma for the wrong reasons. Take a look at a Ablach Blackat's for instance. He's been lowered for giving someone a warn and because he's "mean". Moderator's have a lot of trouble with this sort of thing, being attacked for doing their job and, generally, doing it well.

Karma has its advantages and disadvantages and I think it's fun as long as it's not made serious. It was initially intended for fun, rather than to make a defining judgement about a person and that's how it should stay. So, as long as you can take a joke and have a bit of fun, find out your karma:

To see your karma log, just go to "http://www.gmcextention.lewisoft.net/log.php?user=" and add your GMC username after the equals sign!

Dynamic Banners

It's just worth noting: We now have a dynamic banner at the top of the page instead of a boring old piece of text. Watch out for new slogans!

You can find the banner here: http://publiclife.freehostia.com/dynamic.png/

GM King Suspicions

Recent goings-on in the Game Maker world have led to my suspicious being aroused about some sort of activity between YoYo Games and GM King...

As the cliché goes, my suspicions were first aroused by a post by Legolas710 on the GMC which seemed to imply some sort of official GM magazine was going to be published and that this magazine would have something to do with GM King...who produce Markup.

I then noticed a comment by Eyas on the Game Maker Blog, him being involved in GM King as well. This also supported YoYo Games and, though not talking about magazines specifically, it showed signs of some sort of apparent bond between the YYG and GMK.

Searching the GMK forum brought up nothing but links to issue 4 of Markup. Maybe I'm wrong. I've jumped the gun, mis-read the signs and put all my eggs in one basket.

But right now I'm clichéd out right now. So I'll leave my investigative journalism at that. I suspect we'll find out the truth very soon...

Fan Games on the GMC

As happens regularly, the GMC was awarded with a "controversial" topic about the amount of Fan Games on the forum and how annoying the user found them.

It's a real shame that members can't seem to understand how stupid they look when posting such topics. There is not a huge bank of fan games on the forum. Especially not Mario games, which seems to be the typical quoted example. There are in fact, very few. The current obsession seems to be game-packs, containing three or four low-quality games within them.

Also, seemingly unbeknowst to the people who complainer, these games don't cause a great irritation. They are, in fact, often extremely good quality and contain some simply wonderful coding. I am a great fan of the original sonic games, and am extremely happy to play any similar game as long as it can keep up with the classic sonic feel. My annoyance is with bad-quality fan games, but that carries across to any bad-quality game; the subject really isn't important.

What I really find amusing about these topics is that the user plans to combat the "problem" in some outlandish way. For example here, they recommend creating a seperate board for it. Excuse me? What help would that do? It would only make it harder for members to navigate the forums. Or maybe a rule should be implemeted against them. The deep irony is that the creator of the topic, George Williams, had his own fan game sitting in the WIP board the whole time. Peaches!

The moral of this post is: Don't complain. Don't try and make a forum with almost 50,000 registered members change its ways for you. Because that's just stupid. Especially don't do this when you yourself have broken this "future rule".

Boomshine

Recently I was persuaded to play an online game by a friend of mine. Being me, I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about it due to the number of online games there are nowadays. But I was impressed. Very impressed. The game is called Boomshine, and I am quite frankly in love with it.

The whole idea of colours exploding across your screen is brilliant. It looks...beautiful. Combine this with the awesome music of Tim Halbert and you have yourself a game which is fascinating to watch and listen to. It's almost hypnotic, really.

I strongly encourage you all to play this game. It's addictive, original and just nice all round. I know that this will stay in my favourites for a fair long while.