Psychochild

I've not been feeling too well lately. My better half came home with some sort of plague that made her lose her voice and become bedridden. I've mostly been worn out, not sure if it's from me taking care of her or some form of her plague trying to drag me down. Either way, I've been trying to get some extra rest in. I've managed to play some MMOs, though. And, I've realized something: I'm pretty good at playing MMOs.

Post copyright Brian 'Psychochild' Green. Visit the post to participate in the comments: I’m pretty good at playing MMOs

So, I lied, but only a little bit. I have been getting into EverQuest 2 lately. But, as I said, it wasn't the new content sucking me in, but the old content. Turns out, it's the really old content that's been keeping me playing.

Post copyright Brian 'Psychochild' Green. Visit the post to participate in the comments: You’re just making it harder for yourself

I've obviously been super-inspired the last few days as I've written a couple of creative works. Figured I'd post on here for those that appreciate that sort of thing. This first piece I wrote in EverQuest 2. As I wrote last post, my main character is a Necromancer. After thinking so much about roles, I [...]

Post copyright Brian 'Psychochild' Green. Visit the post to participate in the comments: A bit of creative writing

For my day job, I installed EverQuest 2 to test out the new player dungeon maker system to see if Storybricks could, uh, "borrow" any inspiration from the system for our own editor. Along the way, i got sucked back into the game a bit. I'm not quite fully immersed back into the game, but after playing so much I feel like I should justify that effort by trying to draw some sort of game design analysis from it. So, read on for some of my thoughts.

Post copyright Brian 'Psychochild' Green. Visit the post to participate in the comments: A Game of Roles

So, another year has left its marks upon us, leaving in a huff and leaving a new year behind as revenge. Seems appropriate to take a look at the year that was and the year that will be.

Post copyright Brian 'Psychochild' Green. Visit the post to participate in the comments: Out with the old year

Earlier this month Justin "Syp" Olivetti interviewed me for his Game Archaeologist column over at Massively. I went into some depth about my background as a developer, my experiences with Meridian 59, and even a bit about Storybricks. http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/12/20/the-game-archaeologist-crosses-meridian-59-an-interview-with-br/ http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/12/27/the-game-archaeologist-crosses-meridian-59-a-chat-with-brian-gr/ Got questions? Leave a comment and I'll answer them as I can.

Post copyright Brian 'Psychochild' Green. Visit the post to participate in the comments: Interviewed about Meridian 59

It's Christmas (or a few days after Winter Solstice if you prefer), and I'm taking a moment to write a blog. Mostly so nobody has a sad Christmas fearing I've disappeared into a void. :)

Post copyright Brian 'Psychochild' Green. Visit the post to participate in the comments: Happy Holidays!

Sorry I've been quiet the past few weeks. Jet lag is a harsh mistress. But, I have some good news on the Storybricks front! We've announced dates for the beta of our SDK (story development kit) for February 2012.

Post copyright Brian 'Psychochild' Green. Visit the post to participate in the comments: Storybricks news

Last time (http://psychochild.org/?p=1108) we were left with a sticky balancing issue of how many feats to give out. Paladins were feat starved, whereas a Sorcerer had plenty of feats to go around. This week I'll provide some thoughts about how to tackle this to try to bring some balance to the system and some other considerations.

Post copyright Brian 'Psychochild' Green. Visit the post to participate in the comments: Weekend Design Challenge: More tweaks

First, I have a bit of good news. Namaste landed a round of seed funding! That means we can do crazy things for a bit longer. It also means that someone who is willing to write a check believes in what we're trying to do with Storybricks. The even better news is that you can become a part of it. Namaste is looking to hire a few other people.

Post copyright Brian 'Psychochild' Green. Visit the post to participate in the comments: LFM: Help Wanted!

In the continuing saga of one peron's mission to turn the d20 system into a classless system, we find ourselves with a question of balance. We've got a foundation laid (http://psychochild.org/?p=1106), let's take the next steps toward our goal.

Post copyright Brian 'Psychochild' Green. Visit the post to participate in the comments: Weekend Design Challenge: Balancing with odds and ends

he fine chaps over at the Core Elements Podcast had me over to chat about games and talk a bit about Storybricks (http://www.storybricks.com/). It was a fun show, definitely looking forward to doing it again sometime in the future. :) The information and audio is available here: http://coreelementspodcast.blogspot.com/2011/11/ce-14-brian-psychochild-green.html

Post copyright Brian 'Psychochild' Green. Visit the post to participate in the comments: Me talking, again!

Last challenge (http://psychochild.org/?p=1101), we were looking at the problems with using feats for making a classless d20 system. This week, we'll look at some solutions.

Post copyright Brian 'Psychochild' Green. Visit the post to participate in the comments: Weekend Design Challenge: To the points

This is mostly for people who use RSS, but I've added a little text widget on my site with current news. I'll update that for news that doesn't quite warrant a full post, like if I'm going to be out of town for business, etc. Yet another way you can stalk me without having to add me on a social network. :P

Post copyright Brian 'Psychochild' Green. Visit the post to participate in the comments: News section added to sidebar

It's funny the things that developers get fixated on in games. One persistent worry is of "twinking" or "power leveling", the process of giving items or helping other people to a level beyond their own. There seems to be this irrational fear of people somehow "not earning" the stuff they get in a game. This results in a lot of strange game mechanics that may seem typical for a long-time MMO player, but that may stick out as unusual for someone not already steeped into MMOs. Let's take a look at how it seems that some designers think sharing is a bad thing in MMOs.

Post copyright Brian 'Psychochild' Green. Visit the post to participate in the comments: The importance of sharing

In case you're not properly stalking me on some social media site, it's my birthday today. Hooray for not being dead yet!

Post copyright Brian 'Psychochild' Green. Visit the post to participate in the comments: I’m older, but what about wiser?

When last we did a weekend design challenge... oh, has it really been three months? Yeah, I slacked a bit here. To be fair, I've been busy. :) But, let's get back on the horse and take a look at our "coverting D&D 3rd edition to classless" project, shall we?

Post copyright Brian 'Psychochild' Green. Visit the post to participate in the comments: Weekend Design Challenge: Looking at smelly feats

So, the blogs have been abuzz with the big announcement out of Blizzcon about the "Mists of Pandaria" expansion to World of Warcraft. I figured I'd give my point of view on it, with the usual caveats, of course.

Post copyright Brian 'Psychochild' Green. Visit the post to participate in the comments: Thoughts about WoW and pandas