Renegade Games

There are certain types of people who are quite rare, but are extremely valuable. These are the ones who throughout their lives, try to seek information about absolutely everything they encounter. If they face something new in their lives, they seek out as much information as they can about it.

It is worth mentioning, that these are the people who are very well suited to running a business.

Modern society is all about specialization. Our entire education system is built on the fact that we need people who are extremely good at just one thing, and then they do that for their entire lives. This is good for many reasons. It makes people invested in what they are doing, as they cannot easily change. It is a barrier to change in lives.

It also suites the development of the world well, our entire society is based around this, and it is pretty obvious that specialization creates much more wealth overall, than if everyone did a bit of everything. It is all about focus.

We must not ignore the fact though that an alternative type of person is also needed. One that can look at the global picture. A truly global picture. They have so much information about various topics in their heads, that they can assess a situation and hopefully make the right choice. It is more of a decision making role, rather than a production role in society.

If you look at an information seeking person, they are like a sponge. They look to seek information constantly, their past time is getting more and more information, their entire lives are about seeking out new information about everything. It makes them happy.

The interesting thing is, if you ask any specialized person why they do not fill their time with information seeking, they usually come up with an excuse about not having enough time, being too tired etc etc. This is simply not true. We always have time for what we want to make time for. Most people work 8 hours, sleep 7 hours, that leaves around 9 hours to do anything. Look at people on the underground or the commute into work. They do nothing. What do people do at home? Relax by watching TV shows that offer no personal development whatsoever.

What do I do? Every day I listen to podcasts from HowStuffWorks for at least 45-60 minutes. On TV I mostly watch documentaries. I spend most of my internet browsing time reading news, or about topics I am interested in. Or reading books about any topic. The result? I am completely unsatisfied with how much I know.

I think one of the single biggest wastes of time is watching sports. It is extremely tempting, it creates big emotions, it makes you feel like you are part of something. But it is exactly the same as reading about celebrities.

Is this genetic? My father is exactly the same. However his case is interesting, he is a surgeon which is a highly specialized skill, yet he still knows about absolutely every other topic. Is it social upbringing? Probably also true, I went to a good school. But I was already like this. One of my best friends is just incredibly like this, he can talk about absolutely any topic.

I believe this is simply a state of mind. And anyone who wants to rise above the rest, can simply become an information seeking person. It is an easy way, and it will bring massive rewards. Socially, financial, and in greater happiness.

Soon I will be releasing a beta version of the new Republic-Online, it will even have a completely new name. I must say I have used A LOT of AJAX to build it, and it is phenomenal what you can do with it with a bit of creativity.

Javascript is already powerful in manipulating web pages, and now that you can interact with the server as well, all kind of things come to life.

All I can say is this will be revolutionary stuff, that no-one has done before. A lot of the game does things that previously would be coded in Java or Flash, but are now easy to integrate into the actual HTML and the web page, making it much quicker, versatile.

We can break addiction down into two categories, one where someone is addicted to a certain substance, usually because the body is used to having it in the body and “can’t live without it”. For example, cigarettes.

However, we can also get addicted without it being a substance, addicted to a certain routine, certain activities. Some say that these things also cause substances (endorphins) to be released which is why we get addicted to them.

In games development, and especially looking at the success of World of Warcraft, it is important to think about addiction as well, because a game that someone is addicted to is more “successful” I believe. In terms of monetary success, it is obvious, but also a game you are addicted to it more enjoyable as well.

I have spent quite a while now researching motivation and addiction in games, and I have found some interesting things.

The primary thing people get addicted to in games is repetitive action combined with reward. Just like killing rats in dungeons. The way to get someone hooked to games is for it to have some sort of repetition in it, that you receive rewards for. Thinking about cigarettes, many people say they are just as addicted to the motion as they are to the substance. The substance is the reward, the motion is the addiction.

One of the best ways to get players to come back, and to get them addicted to games, is to have some repetition somewhere in the game, and give players rewards for it.

When I was younger, and still, my favourite genre of game is construction/simulation games. Mostly, the games that usually started with the name “Theme”, or ended with the name “Tycoon”. My all time favourite is Capitalism II, I think it is a very advanced business simulation game. I always though if I could complete Capitalism II, it would really help me in real life too. Now, whenever I play it, it is just too boring and easy.

So the question is, is this really true? Can a business game, or a simulation game actually simulate that situation well, and would it help you in the same situation in real life? This is a fascinating question, as I am sure there are less billionaires than there are people who have completed Capitalism II, as there are less real life hospital managers as there are people who have completed Theme Hospital.

In a way, we are talking about games, so obviously a game is a simplified version of real life. However, just last night I was playing Roller Coaster Tycoon, and I realised that the game is actually fairly realistic, with most features and problems presented in the game appearing in real life as well, and vice versa. For example, benches will get vandalised in the game if you don’t have enough security guards. People get hungry if there aren’t enough burger bars. And so on.

So why is it, that it is so much easier to be successful in a game than in real life? I have listed 10 reasons that I think are the top reasons why success is easier in a game.

5. Simplified Personal Relations – A large part of running a business is personal relations. Motivating staff, keeping them happy, customer relations. Most of these factors are missing from simulation games, usually if i pay staff enough, I don’t need to worry about them being unhappy.

4. Attitude – Just like casinos use chips so you have less sense of money, computer game money means less to people, so you can risk it more.

3. Capitalism – Notice how in each game you start off with enough capital to get you going? In real life this might not be the case. In capitalism you need capital to start a business. In games you usually have capital. In real life, you probably don’t have millions lying around to spend.

2. Easier to please customers – Building a good long term business is all about satisfying customers, giving them what they want. In a game, all that matters is that my “quality rating” has a reasonable price attached to it. It’s all about numbers. Real life might not be as simple.

1. Infinite tries – Yes, the most obvious reason is that you can have as many goes as possible. Just because you mess up the same level 20 times, does not mean you have a bad reputation. You can make it the 21st time. (note – I would argue however that persistence is a key reason for success in real life too.