By Cyrris , 27th May 11:01 pm
In stark contrast to my usual fanatical following of each previous version, I decided not to bother going near any of the beta releases for Firefox 3 which have been successively released over the past few months. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago, with the unveiling of Release Candidate 1, that I bit the bullet and gave it a go. While the reviews I have read around the web have given it glowing praise so far, I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed.
The best analogy I can think of is the car I drive. Just a few months ago I was driving a 15 year old bomb. All sorts of things were wrong with it, and it was generally not a pleasant driving experience. Now I have a brand new automobile. Being new, it has everything I could possibly want in a car, and more. What this means though, is that the few niggling bugs which do exist (a couple of rattles, a scratch or two, and a slightly misaligned dash panel) drive me absolutely insane. It’s so close to being perfect, but just not quite there because of some really stupid minor issues.
This is why Firefox 3 RC1 makes me so frustrated, and unfortunately very few of the issues appear to be fixable before the full release.
» Read all of “Firefox 3 - So Close, Yet So Annoying“…
By Cyrris , 2nd December 1:54 pm
The latest controversy over on GameSpot is simply the most recent example of why I no longer visit large all-encompassing game media sites. Back in the day I was a frequent visitor of GameSpy and GameSpot - so much so that I’d often end up typing “gamespoy.com” in to my address bar in a subconcious attempt to go to both at the same time.
I’ve thought about writing this piece for a long time, because I have a lot to say about the current state of the gaming sites I used to love. I didn’t, however, want to drag this site down in to an out-and-out bitch fest. Given the latest happenings on GameSpot, however, I can’t help but let everyone know what happens to a gaming site when the establishment goes from being passionate to being corporate.
» Read all of “Gaming Media: The Suits March On“…
By Vermouth , 23rd June 1:49 pm
A little while ago GameTap debuted to a collective sense of “meh”. The game selection was not particularly impressive and $9.99 a month to play a bunch of old games seemed like a steep fee. But as the months went by, they kept adding more and more to the game catalogue. They also introduced a cheap first month for only 99 cents. Earlier this month I decided to take the leap and wow, this is a quality service. The game selection is excellent and the quality of the program is surprisingly nimble. The game library for this service includes three categories of games: regular “real” retail games, retro games and original games.
» Read all of “What’s on Tap?“…
By Cyrris , 4th June 9:28 pm
Frustration in gaming is something which I wrote about quite some time ago, and is still something which I think every game developer needs to be acutely aware of. That is not to say that frustrating games are unpopular - in fact I would say that Counter-Strike has single handedly proved that is not the case. However, I do think that player frustration is something that needs to be dealt with. Consistently frustrating experiences invariably lead to bad attitudes. Road rage would be an extreme example.
Given my past experiences in online browser games, this has been at the forefront of my mind throughout the development process of The Project. Seeing as it will be a game where there are no computer opponents, both the winners and losers are human. The last thing a player wants when they’re on a losing streak is to be plagued by irritating problems which serve only to frustrate, and stop the user from getting on with the game. For a project with such a big focus on community, bad attitudes are something to try and minimize.
» Read all of “Game Development - Frustration“…
By Cyrris , 7th April 7:55 pm
When I first launched Aelon’s last design, version 9, I noted that the 12 months between it and it’s predecessor was the longest I had ever gone without redesigning one of my own sites - twice as long in fact. Since that day it has now been 15 months, and frankly the need for a design wasn’t actually critical - it was just something I wanted to do. The fact is, v9 was a good design, and deserved to last as long as it did. Maybe even a little longer.
As such, this latest redesign comes with no real functional changes over the old. The way everything works and is laid out is much the same. What I was really aiming for was something a little sleeker, rather than the simple boxes and rectangles that were here before. The end result you see here before you: Aelon vX.
» Read all of “Time for a Redesign“…
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