Why Guild Wars is Technologically Awesome

I like Guild wars. And not just because it combines the best bits of the OCD-driven grinding/levelling/item gathering tendencies of a MMO AND the 'what happens next' eagerness of a story-driven game. It is not even because it has a number of game play elements that make it easy to pick up, challenging to master and continually entertaining to play. It is because from a technical perspective it's one of the more impressive games I've seen for a while. Here is a washing list of the things I find fascinating from a technology perspective.

Online updates - Guild wars is at its heart an example of a Software-As-A-Service (SAAS) which companies have been touting for a while. Whilst you need to install the initial application, the rest of the game is purely updates. And its not small updates either, as new campaigns, new cut scenes, new enemies are all downloaded on the fly. This said, all it needs to download is graphical presentation and input layers only. The original install is apparently just a 90kb 'thin' client and most of the logic in the game is kept on the server. As it gets to a new area, it compares what it needs with what it has and downloads any additional content. This makes it easy for developers to add more content, fix exploits and respond to customer demands.

Instance Network reconnect - The single worst part of RTS games is typically playing a game for 30mins, and be at the climax of a good battle, and then have either the game crash on you OR you get a network disconnect. In Guild wars, each explorable area is a private instance that is just made for you and your party of friends. So if one of you got disconnected for any reason, it would ruin the game for everyone if it wasn't for Guild War's ability to detect disconnects and allow the user to reconnect straight back to the session, allowing the party to continue adventuring.

A Well-Made UI - A common mistake is to have an amazing back end infrastructure and to spend no money on the user interface technology. Guild wars doesn't fall into this trap by having a user experience that is both gorgeous (even after 5yrs, the architecture and scenery in GW is breath-taking) and completely functional (user widgets are adjustable, contains all the information you need, have appropriate short cuts etc). It helps add to the gaming experience instead of detracting as some gaming UIs tend to. To top it off, much of the UI is customizable. You can in fact skin the client, since it doesn't affect any other player. This includes changing some of the graphics or sounds or whatever. This does have some impact in PvP however since you can mod certain classes to be more visible (everyone loves to kill the healers).

I've heard some friends say there isn't anything technologically innovative about Guild wars and it is true. All the above have been done in games before. Guild wars happens to execute many of these things well and this really helps you appreciate the technology behind this game.

Further Resources about the technology behind Guild Wars:
- http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/534/534454p1.html
- http://www.monashreport.com/2007/06/09/technology-of-guild-wars/
- http://www.dbms2.com/2007/06/09/the-database-technology-of-guild-wars/
- http://www.dbms2.com/2007/06/12/thoughts-on-database-management-in-role-playing-games/

Birthday LAN '08

Yet another year's Birthday LAN party is in the bag. And another record breaking year it was. Much of it was the same as last year. And of course, to follow PMI process, we can't close off the event without having a retrospective.

So what went well?
- Record attendance: 15 gamers and 15 non-gamers for a 30 person turn out and 7 girls for an amazing 1:4 ratio.
- New games were introduced which worked well. Call of Duty 4, World in Conflict and Aliens vs Predator 2 were added to the fray. Old classics like Dawn of War and Trackmania (Forever edition) also kept people entertained.
- The food was much better this year after we outsourced to a different provider (Flavour of Ceylon in Parramatta).
- The inclusion of a web-camera doing time lapsed photos was great as it gave a source of entertainment during the party as well as an riveting video after.
- The private bit torrent tracker BTNT was used for distributing games and this worked excellently to make for an efficient and quick distribution of games.
- The network and power allotment layout worked beautifully with almost no outages (the one outage being at 7am in the morning which appeared to be outside our control).

What didn't go so well?
- Fewer different types games were played. Previous years saw more variety.
- Player Participation per Game (PPG) was more erratic then previous years. Whilst some games like Trackmania and AvP had close to 90% participation, other games splintered with less than 50%.
- I pussyed out on the "No external access" rule which meant some people defaulted to playing Eve Online or WoW or Age of Conan at a LAN. Given a lack of consensus for the next game to play, this is a fairly normal default action for those who are addicted to MMOs.
- A record number of people stayed over (nearly all 15 gamers). This overloaded the sleeping accommodation which meant some people didn't sleep. This contributed to people leaving earlier (2:30pm) on the next day compared to previous years.
- Yet again forgot to FRAPs the battles during the games so I could have highlight reels from the individual games.

Otherwise interesting highlights included:
- Several people doing Tequila shots at 1am in the morning.
- People wracking their brains playing BridgeIt (A civil engineering bridge building simulator) till the whee hours of the morning.
- My set of non-gamer friends sat in our outdoors entertaining area for ages just chatting amongst ourselves despite the fact it was freezing.

Whilst it was a great and fun LAN, from my original set of goals, it was a mixed affair. Which is good, because it gives me something to perfect for next year's LAN. My general approach to these things are to let people run it and just help them with their objective of having fun (even if my brain is telling me to micromanage), My parents as usual brought up making this party the last LAN. And I can understand why. With the catering and electricity and hiring costs alone, it cost well in excess of $600 to run, ignoring the huge amount of time it consumes. I'm generally okay with it because each year it's fun to setup and run, I learn a few things and I get to show my friends a good time to show that I appreciate them. All those things balance the cost to my time and money. So here is to next year's more spectacular gaming event!

The Ghost who Walks, I mean Sings.

So I decided to throw off the thongs and the beer stubbies and get myself an dose of culture by seeing the Phantom of the Opera at the Lyric Theatre on Saturday. Considering it cost me $90.00 to see it, I had fairly high expectations of an enjoyable experience. And yes, my requirements were fulfilled. I'm not a total uncultured buffoon as I've seen musicals before at London's West End when I was travelling, so it has to be reasonably good for me to appreciate it.

Not everyone can afford this kind of experience and I'd like to compare and contrast this with the Phantom of the Opera movie (which you can buy for far far less, or rent for almost nothing).

Whats great about both:
- The music: The Phantom has some AMAZING songs. Things like Angel of Music, and Music of the Night and of course who doesn't know the amazing starting of the title song. I don't think I can remember the words, but the music flows still through my head.
- The story: It is a moving, tragic story which you really only appreciate in Act 2. In Act 1 you kind of feel that the Phantom is, as Sunny might say, a bit of a douche bag. But in Act 2, you really do feel sorry for him. And Christine Daae is a beautiful character regardless of whether she is played by Julie Goodwin at the show or Emmy Rossum in the movie.

Why the movie over the theatre:
- cost: self explanatory. $90 vs free.
- convenience: both in getting and watching the film. No crowds or parking to deal with.
- more-absorbing: This may slightly contradict a later point, but a movie is a continuous piece of fiction, whilst a play has intermissions and set pieces and people stopping to clap which totally ruins your ability to disconnect from this world and go to that world.

Why the theatre over the movie:
- There is so much passion and depth in real life sound that digital conversion just robs. The theatre is also built for acoustics so that when you hear it at the theatre, it moves you on emotional level.
- Visually its a trade off. Some scenes (like the Phantom throwing fireballs) are kind of stupid looking in the theatre because you don't have access to CGI/special effects. But you cannot deny that seeing things in 3D makes you feel like you are a fly in the wall watching the story unfold. Well up to the point where it changes scene anyway (as mentioned above)
- Theatrics: Okay this maybe just me, but I enjoy seeing the various things they do on a stage. Being treated to certain 'special effects' without CGI such as the Phantom taking Christine on 'the boat' on stage is pretty darn neat.

In short, if you know its going to be a quality production, its worth considering seeing the theatre version of a story, but unlike a movie, the cost of guessing wrong is way more expensive than just the time wasted. In the Phantom's case, its Quality with a Q, so go with my blessing.