Games – Page 14 – Ciaran Laval

February 21, 2014

Ex Linden Praises Versu Engine, Linden Lab Really Should Allow This To Live

The disappointment over the loss of Versu continues, with several people bemoaning the loss of what they consider to be a concept full of excellent potential. Now at this point it should be pointed out that excellent potential does not mean excellent delivery, but Versu certainly hit some right buttons. Here is a quote from an ex Linden :

The Versu underpinnings are genuinely revolutionary; my jaw dropped in the meeting where you explained how the engine works.

Inara Pey’s blog post : Could Versu live on links to an excellent article in the New Scientist : AI makes social game characters all too human.

The thing with Versu is that it wasn’t just about its functionality as an interactive fiction tool, people were very impressed with the artificial intelligence in the project, to quote that New Scientist article:

Claudio Pedica of the Icelandic Institute for Intelligent Machines at Reykjavik University is impressed by the way Versu models social practices. “Social rules create constraints on what actions an agent can do,” he says. “That’s a very powerful metaphor for human interaction.”

I can’t help feeling that Linden Lab have missed a trick here, because whether Versu was ultimately a success or a failure in the interactive fiction stakes, the artificial intelligence angle is something that would greatly benefit Linden Lab’s products as a whole, they would certainly benefit Second Life.

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February 20, 2014

Emily Short Wants Versu

I was reading recently that the family of the man who wrote the song “It’s a long way to Tipperary” still receive £30,000 a year in royalties. Obviously by now that’s going to be quite an extended family. I’ll expand on this later in the post.

Two blog posts from Emily Short identify some pain from the closure of Versu by Linden Lab. The first post actually has nothing at all to do with Versu initially, the conversation regarding Versu appears in the comments. The first post is about general examples of what can be achieved from Interactive Fiction : A (Mostly Recentish) IF List, For Breadth. That post excited me purely because it mentions Sorcery! by Steve Jackson and Finkle. I played the fighting fantasy books by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone when I was a lad! I loved those books.

However it’s in the comments where Versu gets a mention with a commenter suggesting Versu should be added to the list and Emily replying:

Versu I’m not listing here because there isn’t currently anything that people can pick up and try: Linden is no longer supporting it, has not released Blood and Laurels, and has taken down the older Versu app. I am investigating whether there is a way for me to regain ownership of the IP and carry the project forward on my own, but I don’t have concrete information to share about that at the moment. I made a pitch for Linden to open source the project as it currently stands, but did not succeed.

I suggested that Linden Lab might want to consider open sourcing Versu or handing the IP to Emily Short, Richard Evans or some other interested party in my recent post about the closure of Versu.

Emily followed up on that comment with a blog post about the closure of Versu : Post-Linden. In this post Emily explains about the closure of Versu. Emily also mentions how she would like to see people who may have started working on Versu in academic environments being able to publish their work in some form. Emily also says:

I am currently trying to see whether I can get back the IP for Versu and the apps that we built that Linden did not release, including Blood and Laurels.

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February 19, 2014

Versu Should Get A Second Life

Well my spider senses have proven to be correct with Linden Lab issuing a press release : Linden Lab Refocuses Product Offering

After careful consideration, Linden Lab has decided to cease development and support for dio, Versu, and Creatorverse. We’re grateful for those who took the time to experiment with these products in their early days, but ultimately we have determined that due to a number of factors, we and our customers will be best served by focusing our efforts on continuing to provide exceptional service and compelling new experiences for the users of our other products.

Whereas most product closures upset some people, the most disappointing aspect for me is the loss of Versu. From the blurb of the soon to be removed website:

Versu is an interactive storytelling platform that builds experiences around characters and social interaction. Each story sets out a premise and some possible outcomes. As a player, you get to select a character, guide their choices, watch other characters react to what you’ve chosen, and accomplish (or fail at) your chosen goals.

As a content creator, you’ll be able to create your own characters, improvise new dialogue and gestures for them, and even build entirely new stories and games for others to enjoy.

Unfortunately Versu didn’t make it to the content creation part. However there’s a lot of potential in this concept. So here’s the thing, is Versu dead or will Richard Evans, who may well still be the owner of Little Text People, or Emily Short, of Emily Short’s interactive storytelling, be able to continue with the product?

This is where things get a bit confusing, has Little Text People been released from Linden Lab back to being an independent company?

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February 17, 2014

Emily Short’s Next Versu Adventure – Blood And Laurels

Emily Short’s next Versu title will be Blood And Laurels, set in ancient Rome :

Cults. Conspiracies. Poison. Stabbing. Blackmail. Seduction. Prophecies and rumors. Divine wrath — or possibly just bad weather.

Death and glory in ancient Rome. Built on the Versu engine, coming soon to the iPad.

One day it will be coming soon to an android device … one hopes! There are already six Versu titles available for the IPad, the new title will be number seven. Those who attended the recent Oxford/London meetup may have already seen Blood and Laurels in action.

I love the concept of interactive fiction, but I’m yet to be wowed by it. I do believe there’s a lot of potential there for people to get creative and have fun.

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February 13, 2014

The Importance Of Being Social

In my last post I discussed how The Elder Scrolls Online pricing model isn’t too expensive, but it faces a challenge in terms of longevity. However some experiences thrive with similar or more expensive pricing models, namely World Of Warcraft and Second Life. Both of these platforms thrive because they are both examples of where the people are and you should not underestimate the power of people power.

When people get bored of their latest MMO, or when World Of Warcraft releases an expansion pack, people go back to WoW. People go back there because there are people there, real people, although they may be dressed in funny gear on your monitor. One of the complaints you hear about MMO’s is that there aren’t enough people there, however that’s generally not the case in WoW. There are less people at different times of day, but there are people.

Second Life has the same claim, people visit Inworldz or Kitely or other virtual worlds and report back that there was hardly anybody there. However there are people in Second Life, plenty of them, although every sim is not packed to the rafters, there are people around. This of course isn’t to suggest that there is nobody in Inworldz or Kitely, there clearly are and many people have fun on those platforms, I’m a fan of both of them, but there simply aren’t as many people as you find in Second Life.

This social aspect is extremely important for the longevity of a product because people who are engaged, invest more time, energy and money in their avatars, be they in games or virtual worlds and this investment leads to people feeling at home in those places. People may roam, they may visit other worlds, but there’s no place like home. So this socially driven investment in many ways binds people’s avatars to their favourite virtual world and of course, the more the merrier.

This sort of social investment is not something that companies can buy. However it does prove that cost is not the only factor when it comes to deciding where to venture online. If price were the only factor Second Life would be as dead as a dodo and the other similar style virtual worlds would be where it’s at. Getting people to move on is a challenge, the human factor seems to be underestimated at times, possibly because people outside the virtual just see pixels. They don’t appreciate the social investment.

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