10 Things I Undervalued When I Started Playing Minecraft

I started playing Minecraft a few years ago because I thought it would be an interesting game for my creative daughter. That turned out to be true (I even blogged about it - Minecraft bonding with my daughter) but what I didn't anticipate was how much I would enjoy the game. Every Minecraft newbie runs into many pitfalls. However, which one they actually fall into will vary from player to player. These are the things that initially tripped me up or slowed my progress.

Update: I'm adding an eleventh item to the list because I just have to add curing zombie villagers as #3.

11. Tridents

At face value, you might assume swords are the best offensive weapon in the game. However, anyone who runs into a drowned with a trident might tell you otherwise. Tridents are certainly harder to come by--you'll probably have to find a few and fix them--but they do more damage. Also, they can be enchanted with Loyalty which turns them into a ranged weapon you can throw.

10. Ender Pearls

Once you have a decent weapon and armour, you can get ender pearls relatively easily. Yes, you have to fight Enderman to do it, but you can win that fight. Ender pearls are incredibly powerful because they allow you to almost instantly teleport away from where you are. They are also one of the most effective defensive techniques in the game. If you get into trouble simply chuck a pearl and you'll be out of danger.

Note: you can't throw an Ender pearl out of lava. I tried that once... but only once. 😉 

9. Charcoal 

Most people agree the very first thing you should do when you start a new world is to cut down a tree. This gives you wood for your first tools and you can get to work making stone tools, and then iron tools after that. However, the one functionality of wood that I underestimated is making charcoal. If you build a furnace quickly and cook logs, you get charcoal that you can use to make torches. Once you have torches, instead of hiding from mobs all night, you can use that time to start digging a mine and speed up your ability to find iron, lava, diamonds, and a lot of other useful resources.

8. Trading to get experience points

It's surprisingly lucrative to trade with villagers. Yes, you get emeralds (or other items), but you also get experience points. If you breed villagers and put down the right work blocks for them, you can trade everything from rotten flesh to stone.

7. Spelunking

At the beginning of the game (when you don't have durable tools), this is by far the best option for gathering iron and coal. Strip mining might be more thorough, but exploring caves doesn't require anywhere near the mining time and you can quickly examine a lot of blocks.

6. Lava as fuel

Look it up, a bucket of lava can cook/burn more than any other fuel type. This allows you to save your coal for torches and trading with villagers.

5. Enchanting and combining books

Books can even be combined to raise their enchantments. For example, if you combine two Fortune I books into one Fortune II book.

4. Automatic sugarcane farms

Before I learned to build automatic sugarcane farms, leveling up villagers was a colossal pain in the chest plate. But now that I've tried them, I'm completely sold. I would never bother leveling up librarians without sugarcane farms again.

Note: use CrunchBase to make sure you don't build your Redstone machines on chunk boundaries. If you build on a boundary, your machine will keep breaking--which is awful. However, it's easy to figure out where the boundaries are and avoid them.

3. Curing Zombie Villagers

In my last world, I decided to try curing villagers instead of breeding them. Wow! What a difference. The discounted prices for trades are a game changer.

I had cured villagers before, but only out of necessity when I didn't have two to breed. I always figured the golden apple requirement wasn't worth the gold--when I could be using that gold to build powered rails. But now gold is easier to acquire and it's definitely worth it. The difference for librarians alone is enough to justify it (I don't even really need an automatic sugarcane farm anymore), but when you add in all the trades for the armourers and the blacksmiths (and others), it's just such a resource saver.

2. Enchanting for durability

I assume this is the biggest "no brainer" on this list, but I'd like to clarify exactly what I mean. Obviously, enchanting is great. However, what I didn't realize when I first started playing was just how key it is to get an enchanting table as fast as possible. The difference between using 'unbreaking' enchanted pick axes and vanilla ones can be the difference between constantly needing iron for tools, and using your iron ore for something else. When I start a new world, I dig down to around level 11 and start looking for diamonds. As soon as I find iron, I can make a bucket and take water down with me. Then, it's a simple matter of finding lava and using my water to create obsidian. Most likely, this is all easier than finding diamonds, but as soon as I do find them, I can make a diamond pickaxe (to mine the obsidian) and an enchanting table.

1. Fishing

A lot of people find fishing boring, but that wasn't why I initially undervalued its potential. At the beginning of a world, you get so much value from fishing. You can fish out experience points, food, saddles, enchanted books, enchanted fishing rods, and enchanted bows. The enchanted bows are probably the most important as you can get an infinity bow without an enchanting table. When you don't have much, an infinity bow is literally a game-changer.

Note: remember that fishing at night in the rain is the most efficient. So build a platform above water so mobs can't get you and fish at night.

That's my list. I hope you found it helpful.

Minecraft Bonding With My Daughter

I hadn't played much Minecraft since a co-worker showed me an original beta version, but I knew enough about the best selling PC game to suggest that my creative daughter give it a try. I thought it would be a great outlet for her crafty passion and also a nice way to get some more exposure to computers. At first, we tried Creative mode and having just watched The Swiss Family Robinson, we jumped into building a treehouse. We spent a reasonable amount of time working on that world and then one (or both?) of us suggested we try Survival mode.

Survival mode is a real-time strategy game and is therefore highly addictive. Before we knew it, we were using any time we could to build up our world and it got quite intense. The first time my daughter fell into lava, she was distraught because she had lost everything she was carrying: tools, weapons, supplies, etc. I started to regret ever leaving Creative mode, but things calmed down and we're now at a reasonable place where it's just one of the things we do and it's not such a big deal if someone goes swimming in lava.

Here's a screenshot of the first survival house we built that wasn't just a shelter from monsters.

The best part is that she got interested in Redstone engineering. For anyone who doesn't know, Redstone is the Minecraft way to create circuits that can power machines, traps, and other things in Minecraft. My wife suggested a lighthouse would be cool, so we build a functioning lighthouse together using Redstone. She even has her own Creative mode test world where she tries out Redstone inventions before she uses them in her other worlds. It's super cool.

I highly recommend this sort of cooperative play with your kids--just watch those screen time limits. We've thoroughly enjoyed the experience and my daughter has even started doing a Minecraft after school program.

Using PS3 wireless controllers with SUMOSYS

I got some inexpensive unofficial PS3 wireless controllers for my SUMOSYS retro game console and the standard setup instructions didn't work. Here's how I got them working with SUMOSYS 700.

1. Connect one working default controller and one new wireless controller (with the USB cable).
(In my case the wireless controller was constantly vibrating--don't worry about this.)
2. Go to the menu, choose controller setup and select the buttons. The controller should now work with the cable attached (but possibly still vibrating).
3. Detach the cable from the new controller and go to the controller menu again with the controller flashing for Bluetooth connection. I didn't have to do anything else here--it just found it.
4. The wireless controller was now working, so I unplugged the old wired controller, went to the controller menu and assigned the new controller to P1 (player 1 in games).
5. Used the menu to shut down. This saves the first controller.
Repeat the process for the other controllers, but you can skip connecting the wired controller since you have a working wireless controller to navigate through the menus.

I tried 1942 and Mario Kart and they work great so far. Big improvement!

Note: to exit games, I use Start + Hotkey (which I set to the Home button)

Building Video Games with My Daughter and LEGO

I asked my (then) 4-year-old daughter if she wanted to make a video game, and her response was exactly what I expected, "We can't make a game." "Actually, " I said, "we can! Want to do it?" She emphatically said yes, so we set out to make an iOS game. Of course, I had already done some playing around with Unity 3D, so I knew that a 2D game wouldn't be too much work.

I wanted her to have the best experience possible, so I devised a plan to take her ideas and convert them into the game without changing much along the way. I used a sample 2D game as a starting point so we wouldn't have to spend too much time writing code before she saw her creations in a working game. Note that if you don't deploy your app to the store, you can do all of this for free (plus the cost of LEGO of course).

We started by drawing out the main elements of the game by hand. Here are the villain and hero characters as my daughter drew them.



After that, it was off to the LEGO store so we could get enough 2x2 pieces to build whatever we wanted. Here's the villain LEGO version my daughter created from her original drawing.

We designed the rest of the game elements including a tree and an egg, and then I used photos of the LEGO concepts to convert her creations to simple sprite versions. Here's another character before reducing the pixels down to a simple sprite.



My daughter building LEGO versions of the game sprites.



This is a screenshot from the first build I deployed to my iPhone (just for fun, I threw in a photo of my daughter as the player). Not bad for a 4-year-old with some LEGO!

We had a great time on this project and I was prompted to write this post when she recently asked if we could play the game again.

Halo History: Version to Version Evolution

“Halo 3 sold more than US$170 million worth of copies in the first twenty-four hours of release, breaking the record set by Halo 2 three years prior.^[5][6] The games have sold over 34 million copies worldwide, and all Halo merchandise has grossed more than $1.7 billion.”
- Wikipedia

“Microsoft Corp said its "Halo 4" video game racked up $220 million in global sales on its launch day, beating records set by previous installments of the hit series.” – Yahoo News

Since the announcement of Halo 4 at the E3 conference, I’ve been reminiscing about the Halo franchise. I have fond memories—after all, I spent enough time with Halo to write three books: The Black Art of Halo Mods (Sams), Halo 2 Hacks (O'Reilly) and The Unauthorized Halo 2 Battle Guide (Thompson).

The Halo video game series has clearly been a fantastic success for Bungie, Microsoft and the Xbox group. As I played through Halo: Reach, I thought I’d write up a post about the most memorable differences between the various flavours of Halo. I wanted to do this as much from memory as possible so that the things that were really memorable get the most attention.

I didn’t get around to posting what I wrote, so now that I’ve had some time with Halo 4, it seems like it’s about time to post.

Halo: Combat Evolved (Halo 1) — 2001

- © 2001 Microsoft. First released screenshot of Halo

The first version of Halo (Halo 1, or Halo: Combat Evolved) is a first-person shooter (FPS) that was released on the original Xbox platform. It became the most important game in the success of the new Xbox video game console and spawned a massive franchise.

These are the aspects of the original Halo that I remember most vividly:

• It was beautiful (which sounds funny when you see the anniversary upgrade)
• The game engine was solid
• Melee attacks were addictively fun
• Vehicles were cool (see warthog jump). Combat with vehicles was a lot of fun
• The story was good
• Multi-player (deathmatch) was a lot of fun but there was no Xbox Live option when Halo was released, so you needed to either use the same Xbox (up to four players) or network Xboxs together (up to 16 players). In Building 25 on the Microsoft campus they had large screens and would network Xboxs together to play. That was the first time I played with a group. Later my roommate and I would thread a network cable to our neighbour so we could play.
• The pistol was clearly overpowered
• Large portions of the game involved playing through a level and then going backwards through the same level
• How do you run?
• The race at the end was exciting

 
- © 2001 Microsoft

Halo PC — 2003

A couple of years after the Xbox version of Halo, a PC edition was released. This became known as Halo PC. It was a popular game since consoles were still not considered cool by hard-core gamers. Basically, if you couldn’t use a keyboard, a lot of FPS fans, wouldn’t take the game seriously.

Thanks to networking options there was a vibrant multi-player scene for Halo PC and it boasted far more maps than the original Xbox game. If I remember correctly, the flamethrower—which was cut from the original Xbox game—was available in Halo PC.

Halo 2 — 2004

- © 2004 Microsoft

Halo 2 was a significant advance. Included in the upgrade was:

• Faster movement
• Dual-wielding (using two weapons at the same time)
• Exploding vehicles
• Jacking vehicles was a fantastic addition
• Xbox live multi-player support
• Health status was hidden and no health packs were available. This made it harder for better players to dominate by constantly rejuvenating.

Here are some of the Halo 2 Cons:

• The ending
  The ending was a let-down because there isn't any in-your-face way to see how many levels are left in the game (as there was in Halo 1), many gamers were surprised when the game ended. personally, I enjoyed the direction of the story, but at the end I was incredulous. "that's it?"
• The Jackal snipers sort of ruined part of the Legendary level experience. The Jackals were so ridiculously good with the Covenant beam rifle that they would immediately take you out. The only way to deal with them was to learn where they were and get the drop on them.
• Weapons aren't balanced
  Having played the Halo 2 Beta, I was disappointed with some of the changes (primarily to do with weaponry) that made it into the final release. I believe that too much was done to limit the impact of gamers who can actually aim. My pet theory is that players such as char (from crew116) kicked ass so badly in the Alpha and Beta that Bungie thought their favourite weapons were overpowered; the truth is that they were just the best players. To 'balance' the weapons, Bungie beefed up the weapons that require less skill. For example, the sword is clearly overpowered - there is no logic to the fact that the sword lunge has better range than the shotgun. IMHO, the sword ruins Lockout Slayer.
• One positive weapon change was the pistol being toned down—which prompted the Red vs. Blue joke “Balanced doesn’t sound like more powerful.”
• Still no run?

I wrote my first Halo book about Halo 2 multiplayer: The Unauthorized Halo 2 Battle Guide: Advanced Combat Techniques. Despite some unfounded allegations to the contrary, I did not violate any NDA agreement by writing this book and I did not release any information that wasn’t already in the public domain.

And since I did have a legal right to write about Halo, I decided to exercise it by writing Halo 2 Hacks. Which is a book about Halo 2 Easter eggs, glitches, skulls, tricks and mods. I tried hard to spread the word about modding as a creative and positive hobby, but I have to admit that most press at the time focused on modding as a form of cheating and it was hard to have my voice heard above the people claiming that all modding is bad—a perspective that is indefensible when people take the time to understand the modding community.

Halo 2 Hacks: Tips & Tools for Finishing the Fight. After the experience with my first book, I had to take precautions. Before writing Halo 2 Hacks, I paid an overpriced lawyer to write a decision in support of my legal right to write books about Halo. That document clearly asserted that the 1980 “Pac-Man decision” set the precedent for instructional books about software. After that, no one bothered to question whether there were any legal issues with writing books about Halo.

Halo Custom Edition (HaloCE) — 2004

In 2004, Microsoft made the enlightened decision to release some of the developer tools that were used to create Halo. This version was called HaloCE (for ‘custom edition’—not to be confused with ‘combat evolved’) and was an add-on for the PC version HaloCE brought modding support to the Halo universe. Unfortunately, it was the last time a version of Halo included support for ad-hoc modding. A map editor was added later on, but it doesn’t compare to the power and potential that Halo modders experienced with HaloCE.

If you had a Halo PC disk, you could install Halo Custom Edition (HaloCE). Some people confused HaloCE with Halo: Combat Evolved, but they’re entirely different beasts.  I wrote the Black Art of Halo Mods about modding HaloCE. This book combined many tutorials from the Halo modding community.

Halo 3 — 2007

 
- © 2007 Bungie/Microsoft

Halo 3 was another step up for Bungie. The graphics and game play were better, but it really felt like they spent much more time on the multiplayer experience than the campaign.

• The enemies were largely the same but with better graphics
• Equipment was added. Items including sprint and invisibility could be picked up.
• Two-handed weapons such as turrets
• Legendary campaign was too easy. It really felt like the new equipment and weapons put the game out of balance and Bungie didn’t have enough time to fix it before releasing the campaign. I can remember one instance where there was an invulnerability item that I ignored because I got through the whole fight without needing it—that struck me as odd at the time.

Halo Wars — 2009

 
- © 2009 Bungie/Microsoft

The original Halo concept was a real-time strategy game. However, that vision didn’t become a reality until 2009 when Halo Wars was released.

Halo ODST — 2009

- © 2009 Bungie/Microsoft

I understand that ODST was meant to be a different kind of Halo game—I get it. However, that doesn’t mean I have to like it. What I remember from ODST is long sections of walking around in a dark city and not doing much. There were flashback scenes to daylight that had the best battles in the game; some really fun fights.

• No multi-player
• Because you’re not a Spartan (you’re an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper [ODST]], you had limited “stamina” and had to rest. This ruined the experience for me since I’m all about getting into really gnarly battles and you simply couldn’t go hard enough for long enough to have the crazy fights I enjoy.
• An over-charged plasma burst can temporarily disable a vehicle
• Halo 1 Pistol was back
• Achievement progress was shown on screen

Halo Reach — 2010
 

- © 2010 Bungie/Microsoft

• Armour abilities were added. When a player spawns in multi-player, she can choose an armour ability such as armour lock or hologram.
• Dual-wielding is gone
• Weapons seem to disappear faster than previous Halo games
• Some new monsters that were fun to fight
• ‘plays more like Halo 1 or Halo 2‘
• Can’t jump as high as you could in Halo 3
• You have health again along with your shields like Halo 1. Pick up Health packs to restore your health.
• Fight in space was cool and difficult
• New assassination animations which are really cool.
• There is a new cR (credit) system where you earn credits by using anything in Halo Reach. This includes campaign, firefight, multiplayer, theater, and forge. You rank up using cR. You cannot de rank. Details of multi-player system: http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=1314
• No social matchmaking.
• The vehicles were the best yet—until Halo 4, that is
• Best selection of modes: driving vehicles, manning turrets, flying, etc.
• Ending was anti-climactic
• This was the last Halo game developed by Bungie.

Halo 4 — 2012

- © 2012 Microsoft

Halo 4 is the first new Halo game developed by 343 Industries. They worked on the Halo 1 Anniversary Edition, but that was just a graphics upgrade—not a whole new game. I’ve only just begun Halo 4, but so far I like it.

• Master Chief is back! He has been done for a few games. He’s back for a three-adventure.
• The game feels a little bit different. I noted earlier that Halo was slow in comparison to Unreal Tournament. I’m not saying Halo 4 is as fast, but the way the engine feels and the weapons behave is closer to the Unreal experience. For example, the Storm rifle.
• The graphics are great. The detail improvements are obvious; warthogs even have red gas cans at the back that get knocked off when the jeep takes damage.
• Equipment has been revamped yet again. It seems that this is the hardest problem to solve in the Halo universe because it keeps getting fundamentally changed. Armour lock is gone in favour of a directional shield.
• Weapons and ammo seem to disappear even faster than Reach and saving doesn’t seem to save them. This would be a big issue if ammo wasn’t so abundant. I’ve run into numerous occasions where my carefully stashed weapons were cleared away… annoying.
• The Elites look cool, but I don’t like the new grunts. The old models were better in my opinion. The fact that some can fly for short bursts is cool, and it’s also kinda cool that some of them look like they’re wearing Mexican wrestling masks, but I liked the old look.
• One issue that I have in the early levels is that ammunition is far too abundant on the Legendary setting. I remember having to be pretty frugal with ammo in past versions, but so far in Halo 4, I’ve had my pick of numerous weapons in most fights. This is just getting more and more obvious as the game goes on. I’ve regularly left entire crates untouched. I’d rather have fewer weapons but not have them ‘stolen’ by the game.
  If there is so much ammo because it’s the same amount for a co-op game, then there needs to be some logic to change this. Just as one example, I was in a section that boasted Elites as the toughest opponent (that’s on Legendary) and yet I had easy access to: an Incineration Cannon (the most lethal weapon in the game—thus far), plenty of small arms such as Plasma Pistol and Needlers, easily 200 rounds for the Covenant Carbine, numerous Storm Rifles, a Scattershot, lots of grenades, two Binary Rifles and at least three Banshees (I didn’t use any of them). Just a crazy arsenal considering the limited opposition.
• So far the new weapons and ‘monsters’ are cool. I’m enjoying fighting the new race: Prometheuns.
• The new vehicles are fantastic!
• RUN! FINALLY! It’s so nice to be able to run without using some special armour ability.

Halo has obviously had a grand impact on the gaming community. I don’t know the numbers, but it must be the best selling game for the Xbox. Halo 4 is the beginning of a new trilogy and I’m sure that 343 will do an excellent job with the next two installments.

XNA Game Studio Kindle Edition

The Microsoft XNA Game Studio Creator's Guide has been doing well in the reviews for the Amazon Kindle edition.

“I purchased this book specifically because it was the second edition and it seemed as though the authors' credentials exceeded the average book on XNA. Also, I was interested in the math behind game programming. I was not disappointed.”

- Rob "ActivelyX”

“This is a great book for XNA developers! My son and I are working through this book together and we are having a great time learning XNA! The author takes the time to explain complex gaming concepts simply, the code examples are almost without error, and the reader is taken through a wide variety of examples including everything from collision algorithms to writing games for Zune.”

- James Anderson "Avid Reader"

kitten proof your Wii

I have previously written about the adventures of living with Luddite kittens. this Christmas presented a special challenge (pardon the pun). under the tree arrived a Wii for my wife and me. we opened the box and then shared a look of horror--the Wii comes with an LED sensor bar that's powered by a thin cable. we knew instantly that this cable would not last a day in the same household as our cats.

we have tried the usual precautions, but none have worked for our tag-team of furry felines. for example, duct tape with the sticky side out keeps Rory away, but Asha likes chewing on sticky things, so her gnawing exposes the wires for Rory. it's hard to believe that such adorable creatures could cause any trouble at all...


- Asha (the oldest)


- Rory (the baby of the family and the proud owner of razor sharp teeth)

and, of course, we got caught up in a rousing game of Wii tennis and took our eye off Rory for the few seconds she needed to make mince of the cable. after splicing it back together, I knew that it was time for some more precautions. we went to the hardware store and bought a healthy supply of Split Flex Tubing (about $12 for 20'). it's simply a flexible tube that we are putting around any cable that seems fine enough for Rory's taste--fortunately, she stays away from thicker cables.

in addition to the Wii's sensor cable (which we'll only use until we can get a wireless one), we've put the tubing around the thin part of the Wii power cable, the power cable for the Xbox 360 add-on fan, and the small cable that comes with the Xbox 360 wireless network adapter--the router has long since been moved into a cat-free room.


- the Wii power cable protected from harm


- the Xbox 360 wireless network cable with a protective cocoon

so far, I'm very happy with the tubing. I think it might save me from some ill will towards our pets. on that note, I'm currently reading Marley and Me, which I'm also hoping will put our cats in a positive light.

Halo 3 finish the frustration

I previously whinged about my Xbox 360 crashing. now I'll vent a little bit more. the replacement machine literally crashed within five minutes of turning it on. so the biggest game launch in history is upon us, and I'm left out of the rumble until I get the replacement replacement. arghhh!



I just sent the Xbox Global Marketing team an e-mail about these issues. as a professional courtesy, I'll give them a chance to respond before I publish the e-mail.

update: they did respond and said that they are taking the problem seriously and have allocated roughly one billion to deal with defects.

as if to mock me further... MS is sending me e-mails reminding me of what I'm missing.


- MS e-mail about the Halo 3 launch

Halo 2 bloodless?

I recieved an interesting question via e-mail that I thought I'd share. it demonstrates just how much modding can aid this world of ours.

"I am writing to you because I need help changing the color of the blood in Halo 2. Our Church just invested $50,000 in videogame equipment to allow teenagers a place they can hang out and be in a safe environment. We are OK with the war shooter games but the blood upsets some people. I want to know if there is a way to hack the game to stop the blood or change the color. If so would you please tell me or direct me in the right direction."

this was my response...

unless you're talking about PC's, you're probably going to run into some trouble getting approval for modding. although it is possible to buy pre-modded Xboxs with third-party warrantees, modding Xboxs means voiding the Microsoft warranty. if you have PCs then you won't have to worry about any hardware modding and Halo 2 mods are supported.

once you have modded systems, changing the blood to another colour (or even transparent) would be an option.

for questions about modding an Xbox, go to http://www.xbox-scene.com
for questions about modding Halo, the place to go is http://www.halomods.com

XNA book about to be released

I just received this timely question from Ziggy...

"Do you know if your [XNA] book is still set to be released on the first? I know that in the past Amazon has incorrect dates posted and I do not want to misinform the community."

Thanks,Ziggy
Ziggyware XNA News and Tutorials

I've been meaning to post a message about this, and it seems that this is the perfect time. although I can't promise that the book will be out on a specific day, it is complete and printed. It should be out any day now :)

Frogger HD update

thank goodness! I discovered yesterday that there has been an update to the Xbox 360's version of Frogger.

when I first tried the game, it was virutally unplayable because the screen was squished on a high definition TV.

now I can happily enjoy the acrade classic -- and I'll even pay the two or three bucks for the full version.



- classic Frogger

Halo 3 pwnage

I just got completely pwned playing my first game on the Halo 3 Beta.

I guess not knowing the controls, not knowing the map, not knowing the weapons and not playing in months is a bad thing. it also didn't help that the rest of my team only scored 10 points.

there seems to be some issue with the FOV. after just one game I found that I had a headache. I'll have to check the settings to see if there is anything available for HDTVs. it might have something to do with the fact that I'm using the default settings on a widescreen HD.

no beta for you

so I threw in my Crackdown disk today and tried to download the Halo 3 Beta. sadly, there is a technical issue and it's still not up yet. all I can do at this point is read about it.

why we mod video

thanks to halomods, I found this great video: Why We Mod.

from the halomods description:

"Modding has long been associated with cheating. Although people do use mods to cheat, a large group of people actually use it as a means to get a little more out of the game. Still, modding for fun is misunderstood on a daily basis, and people cannot seem to figure out why we mod. Thanks to ExileLord though, a video has been created to demonstrate how modding is used for recreation and not for cheating."

way to go ExileLord! I'm thrilled to see modders lobbying for their due credit. I have been trying for years to get people to differentiate between legit modders and cheaters -- I even wrote an article about it for o'reilly called "modding Halo 2 considered harmful?"

video games are evil again

after another disturbed person was able to purchase multiple firearms and dozens of rounds of ammunition, voices in the U.S. once again rise up to blame the real enemy: the video game industry.

as mentioned in an article from the San Francisco post, ignorant individuals have tried to shift the focus off of what really matters and on to an argument that has no basis in reality. school shootings happened a long time before violent video games -- there were two here in Canada in 1975 -- but I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that school shootings didn't happen before guns were accessible to kids (or young adults, as in the Virginia Tech case).

my favourite example of the media irresponsibly trying to bring video games into the story (I'm paraphrasing from memory):

reporter: "we have been told that [the killer] played lots of violent video games."
killer's roommate: "I've never seen him play video games."

it's about time that the media catches up with today's multimedia. video games are bigger than movies. still some people love to dismiss gaming as an anti-social nerdy past-time. gaming has clearly surpassed those early stereotypes, and it's about time that there is mainstream acceptance for something that is well... mainstream.

BTW - best paragraph from the article: "According to a TheStreet.com story last week, Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive settled a lawsuit against Thompson with an agreement from the activist to stop suing the company and contacting retailers to ban the company's games -- the equivalent to getting a signed statement from Don Quixote to stop harassing windmills. "

XNA Game Studio Creators Guide

I'm happy to say that my latest book project is an XNA development guide that I'm co-authoring with Pat McGee from BCIT college. the book covers game development on the exciting new XNA platform.

not only is XNA an amazing new platform, but it also allows anyone to develop games for the Xbox 360. all that is required is an Xbox 360, a PC, and a $99/yr subscription to the Xbox 360 Creator's Club.

the book is called XNA Game Studio Creators Guide and it will be published by McGraw-Hill.

update: the sample code and other files that go along with Microsoft® XNA Game Studio Creators Guide can be found at: http://www.mhprofessional.com/product.php?isbn=007149071x (look for the "code" link on the left side, just under the cover image)

thanks to Pat, the forum for the book is here: http://www.gamedeveloperonline.com/


- working cover for the XNA Game Studio Creators Guide

pimps at sea invite

one of my oh-so-hilarious former microsoft colleagues just sent me an Xbox 360 invite to play Pimps at Sea (Alpha) - which, of course, is Halo 3.

and, of course, I don't have a copy of the Halo 3 Alpha DVD.


jerk!

my kittens hate nazis

lucky guy that I am, santa brought me a copy of call of duty 3 this Christmas. here's my sob story for the day.

being a fan of the xbox 360 achievements, I've been working through some of them. today I was trying for the close combatant award which requires that you finish a mission without firing a shot - only melee attacks and grenades are allowed. I was on the last checkpoint and about to launch into the final assault when one of my cats nuzzled up to the controller and managed to press the trigger. my rifle fired and that was it for my hard work; I had to start again from the beginning. :(

I guess she was just too eager to get into the fight.

xbox creators club live!

the xbox 360 creators club is up and running. this option allows game developers to use the XNA game development platform to create and run xbox 360 games.

although the game studio express (GSE) dev environment is free, the creators club requires an xbox live subscription and a creators club membership.

refer to the XNA blog (and the GSE docs) for details about setup. once you have everything installed, you can connect your xbox 360 to your pc and begin to work your magic.

this screenshot shows an xbox 360 project deployed and running on an xbox 360. the project is running in debug mode and a breakpoint has been hit - all while still listening to the iPod connected to the 360... nice.


- debugging an xbox 360 project - click for full-size version

xbox 360 mods banned?

it looks like ms has been banning people for using mod chips on their xbox 360s. they are doing this because, at this time, the only reason to use the 360 mod chips is to play illegal copies of games or remove the region protection so that one can run games from other regions.

this has nothing to do with modding actual games. modding games - as I've written way too many times - is great as long as you're not doing it to cheat. any chance I get, I'll remind everyone that modding is not the same as cheating! if you go on xbox live and play a mod, then hell ya - you're cheating. but that's not what most good modders are doing.

many modders are out there creating cool mods that they enjoy on their own LANs. i.e. when everyone knows that they're playing a mod. they're not trying to level up like a wuss or play an illegal copy of fusion frenzy.