Web Nuggets: SD Studio Profile and the History of Clans

(badman) #1

A new blog entry has been added:

[drupal=856]Web Nuggets: SD Studio Profile and the History of Clans[/drupal]

The weekend is very nearly upon us and we’ve cobbled together the latest Splash Damage coverage from around the web.
Today’s tour kicks off at The Daily Telegraph, where Tom Hoggins has put together a detailed studio profile of Splash Damage, covering the history of the company from Quake III mod team all the way up to Brink’s release. There’s also a separate interview to be had, with Tom chatting to CEO and Game Director Paul ‘Locki’ Wedgwood about the UK video games industry and the plans for the future of Splash Damage.
Speaking of interviews, the Aussies over at PC Powerplay also managed to get some extended phone time with Paul to talk the past and future of the competitive scene. The Q&A comes in four, roughly page-shaped parts, each of them covering a different time period in the long and illustrious history of first person shooter clans:

[ul]
[li]Part 1: The early days of the genre [/li]> [li]Part 2: The emergence of FPS clans [/li]> [li]Part 3: The evolution of FPS clans in the face of consoles [/li]> [li]Part 4: The changing face of the modern competitive shooter scene [/li]> [/ul]

(CleaverDancer) #2

Missed this post, there’s some interesting stories, you guys should post up photos from Early SD! :slight_smile:

(badman) #3

I’m not sure the internet is ready for that. :smiley:

(Indloon) #4

:smiley:
I bet you guys are playing Wolf:ET,ET:QW and BRINK in ‘break room’.

(Humate) #5

Essentially, it’s the idea that the game doesn’t end when you get to the end of the multiplayer map. The skills that you acquire are not just the muscle memory and geographical layout of the maps – your combination of aim and ability to pull off mid-air headshots, and then knowing the best routes to run, and when to stop, and when to go silent, and so on – but also making the best use of the build-out of your character. And that’s an element that comes from real-time strategy games, where the build order and rushing plays such a critical component in your game.

The biggest issue I have with character builds, is not knowing what the player has… their moves cant be countered in the moment. At least in RTS, these things are easily scouted :wink:

The second issue is, they mitigate the player’s need to be involved in the game, in the present moment. Take the Ninja Perk vs the Walk function as a prime example. Due to the walk functions negative aspect of slowing you down, you only gain the benefits if you know when its use is appropriate . For the ninja perk, theres no involvement required by the player to be silent, and as a result it disregards the player’s battlesense. It only requires that player to play the game long enough to acquire the XP to unlock that ability. I say, if the time it took for them to unlock that perk didnt teach them when and where to be silent, they dont deserve an ability that hands it to them on a silver platter.

I think its fascinating, that people prefer to play a game thats obviously dumbed down for them - than to go through challenges and tutorials that teach them how to play the game. If you look at the way Blizzard handled SC2, yes they removed some of the things that were considered “skill differentiators” but they made sure they didnt really compromise the integrity of the game by introducing challenges, by including a single-player campaign that challenged / taught specific skillsets, and an ingame ladder system that mitigated “pub bashing”. I know, I know - its Blizzard they can do whatever they want :wink:

(wolfnemesis75) #6

[QUOTE=badman;372078]A new blog entry has been added:

[drupal=856]Web Nuggets: SD Studio Profile and the History of Clans[/drupal][/QUOTE]Awesome reading! This guys just flat out kicks ass! Must be fun having a boss like that! :slight_smile: