Point and click adventures have been my favorite computer games ever since I first popped a floppy into a drive.  I still vividly remember watching the intro to Maniac Mansion and wondering what this wacky game had in store for me.  From that very moment I was hooked.  I grabbed a hold of as many LucasArts games as I could get my hands on like Full Throttle, Sam & Max, and Grim Fandango.  Once those were devoured, I moved onto to some of Sierra’s delicious franchises (King’s Quest & Leisure Suit Larry).  Anything in the “adventure game” realm became the object of my obsession, one that continues even now.

These days point and click adventure games have fallen out of style.  LucasArts long ago abandoned their adventure game heritage.  Big name game studios focused their attention on more popular and profitable projects such as FPS’s, movie tie-ins or sports games.  This left only the indie game developers to pick up the torch.  Some have revived old classics while others have put out great new games like Machinarium, but I felt few were pushing the boundaries of this style of gameplay, that was until I came across TRAUMA.

I picked up TRAUMA through an earlier Humble Bundle.  It wasn’t in the initial offering, appearing as a last minute addition, and ended up being a pleasant surprise.  I had heard of the game before and even seen the trailer, so I was looking forward to finally playing it.  TRAUMA sucked me in from the very first dream and I couldn’t put it down until it was finished.  As a writer, I was impressed by how it unfolded.  As a gamer, I relished experiencing my beloved adventure games in a new light.

Come Share My Dreams

TRAUMA pulls you into the dreams of woman who is in the hospital after a car accident.  Drifting through these worlds she tries to come to terms with the memories they reveal and the predicament she’s in now.  There are four dream worlds to explore each with their own flavor and sounds.

The atmosphere in the game is fantastic. The music is a subtle audio blanket wrapping each dream in a comforting soundscape, from the shutter clicks as you move between scenes to the protagonist’s random narration that borders on poetry, fully immersing you into each little world.

The female protagonist, who guides you through these dreams, sounds a bit sedated as she speaks with you.  It’s not excessively monotone and instead adds to the ethereal quality of exploring someone else’s dreams which also fits with the fact that the girl is in a hospital bed recuperating from her injuries.  I wouldn’t be perky on an IV drip and pain killers either.

Picture Perfect Memories

TRAUMA leverages high resolution photos to make the game as realistic as possible.  It’s not the first game to do this, but it does execute it very well.  Even when you’re on a static screen you still get a sense of movement as the image tilts or shifts when you move your mouse.  Photos themselves are an integral part of the game.  When you travel through the dreams you find polaroid pictures scattered about.  Some of these provide clues to solving other dream puzzles or reveal more of the story.  Finishing the main ending and all the alternate ones for a particular dream gives you a photo “sixth sense” which helps you find any polaroids remaining in the dream.

The hyper realism of the game, through its photographic settings and live action cut scenes, balances against the dream logic you need to employ in order to succeed at the game.  With each completed dream you find yourself back in the hospital.  These scenes add layers to the story while revealing more of the protagonist.  They are far more minimal than the typical cut scene, but this adds to the charm of the game.

Game or Journey?

The developer’s goal wasn’t to make a video game in the traditional sense.  You do have the multiple endings and item gathering you find in most other games, but the focus of TRAUMA was to pull you into the story, letting you experience the flotsam and jetsam of a woman’s dream world, one that had become her only refuge after surviving a horrible car accident.  The isolation of these empty worlds is staved off by the pieces of memory that snuck in through the cracks, reminding her of the life before the hospital while trying to help her make sense of these tragic events.  You’re given a glimpse into the soul of someone who’s lost and in guiding her through these constructed realms, each one holding the fragments she needs to put herself back together again, you move her closer to finding some sort of peace with everything that’s happened to her.

TRAUMA often times feels like you’re playing a short film through the eyes of the main actress very much like a crude version of the SimStims William Gibson has proliferated throughout his cyberpunk novels.  The ease with which you navigate this world makes it a much more intimate experience.  No button combos or complicated moves just pure exploration.  TRAUMA isn’t for everyone and some won’t understand the real goal of the game, but for those willing to take a chance this is a taste of something different.  Hopefully this symbolizes the start of a new wave of unique adventure games.

What games have expanded your horizons? Let me know in the comments or shoot me a tweet @gabrielnovo. If you enjoy these articles then have them delivered to your inbox.

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Over at RetroHack, my partner-in-crime Ed is celebrating a great blogging milestone.  He has been published and PAID for a guest post.  With all the tips you see online about writing guest posts for free to generate traffic, here’s Señor Fisher making money from his blood, sweat and ink.  Congratulations buddy, may your words be seen far and wide.

Also, one of Ed’s incredibly useful articles is especially relevant these days.  RIM (aka the makers of Blackberry) have continued to screw the pooch with their latest OS update.  Still not learning from the first time around they’ve shoved Blackberry Messenger down everyone’s throat yet again.  For those on you incensed by this please make your way over to howto://delete BlackBerry Messenger from BlackBerry OS 5.0 for sweet, sweet release.

As always, RetroHack is filled with nerdy goodness and snarky humor.  Make sure to follow him on Twitter for bite-sized techie tidbits.

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I’ve been feeling this way for quite sometime.  An angry tweet here, a returned purchase there, no one could mistake me for a happy GameStop customer.  It’s not the constant up-sells or pressure to pre-order or any corporate nonsense.  For me, the cardinal sin that GameStop commits on a daily basis is not caring at all about games.

There has been the rare employee who actually cares about games and shares that love with customers, but whenever I’ve come across them—as frequently as I do unicorns—they are always looking for other employment, either having been pushed out by GameStop or tired of the insane management practices.

My Expectations

When walking into any video game store I have some expectations for the experience.  Right off the bat, I expect it to be run by and filled with Geeks, Nerds & Dorks.  The place should be overflowing with unrestrained passion and foaming at the mouth fervor.  There should be heated debates about the latest games, consoles or characters.  It should hum with the energy of video games, everyone is either playing or talking about games.  The staff should have an encyclopedic knowledge of electronic games stemming not from a handbook, but from a lifetime of enjoying them.  When you walk out of that place you should feel good.

Great comic book stores are exactly like that, jammed with passion and lightly salted with social ineptitude.  The employees may not be comfortable around chicks, but they’ll talk your ear off about graphic novels.  The people working these places drip the industry from their very pores.  It is their raison d’etre.

The Sad Reality

No one gives a shit about anything.  They could care less if you died right in front of them.  Even as they reach for the phone to dial 911 an exasperated sigh would escape their lips.  You can cut the ennui with a knife (which is impressive for 20-something year olds).

I wish I knew what was causing this oppressive atmosphere.  Having gone to GameStop’s in several states the experience has been the same.  Almost like it’s corporately mandated to provide the shittiest customer service possible.

The arrogance kills me too.  It’s the same kind you get when going to indie music stores when the person behind the counter judges you based on your musical tastes.  The difference is the music douches can back up their talk with an immense knowledge of music spawning from back in the day to incredibly obscure.  Most of the video game clerks give you that same attitude, but their knowledge barely scraps past the newest releases.

I know being a retail monkey isn’t the best work.  In my early years, I used to work at bookstores (both major chains) and there were good days and downright shitty days.  The one constant was my love of books.  Chatting with customers about authors and novels was always an incredible experience.

I can’t find any of that in a GameStop.  Blaring non-stop commercials shouting at me from mounted TV’s?  Plenty of that.  A love of games from a life long player? Maybe in the back underneath a pile of dusty Sega Genesis cartridges.

What I’m Going To Do

Vote with my wallet, as they say.  I refuse to buy anything from them anymore.  EBay, Craigslist, Amazon, ANYTHING other than GameStop will now be getting my video game dollars.  I may not be their prime demographic or a major purchaser of video games, but I am a disgruntled customer and in an economy where every penny is precious, I’ll make sure to spend the few I have somewhere else.  Honestly, with digital distribution methods getting more robust each day, I see them eventually going the way of Blockbusters, limping sadly into bankruptcy.

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Being a Nerd can be a tricky thing.  Topics of conversation that excite you tend to make others roll their eyes (or stare at you befuddled) while the very nature of your business lends itself to a total lack of social skills.  Socially well adjusted Nerds (aka those that got laid in High School) are few and far between.  You’ll probably find them in the consulting arena and/or technical sales game.  Their ability to talk shop at various levels lets them flow between different groups (techies, executives, end users) without feeling out of place.  This adaptability is a highly regarded quality and rarely found in most IT departments.

Even though I can speak Tech it doesn’t mean that is my default form of communication.  Sometimes I need concepts relayed to me in a simpler manner, just to grasp the bigger picture, without getting bogged down in the superfluous details.  That’s where RetroHack comes in.

I’ve known RetroHack for many years now and I’ve always been amazed by his ability to take ridiculously complicated technical concepts and relay them in an easy to understand manner.  His howto:// series is a friggin’ godsend for those struggling with the technologies covered.  Going into enough detail to get the job down, making sure you fully understand the concepts AND injecting a nice dose of mischievous humor, RetroHack takes the terminally boring and makes it completely accessible.

A perfect example would be his article on Password Complexity, a constant battle between security teams and end users, but here he breaks it down in a way that anyone can understand.  I don’t think people are ever really explained why passwords are so important.  Someone from the IT department just barks at them, with no consideration for their understanding, and then expects their word to be law.  Treating people with this lack of respect is a common problem in the IT industry.

Instead RetroHack, takes a different approach.  He related passwords to movies, quotes and inside jokes.  Not only imparting the real reason for the enforcement of password complexity, but giving you handy tips to make it something meaningful and easy to remember.  The networks end up more secure, end users aren’t treated like knuckle dragging, mouth breathers and everyone wins in the end.

If you’re in the IT realm and need something useful yet amusing, I highly recommend swinging by RetroHack for your uber nerd needs.

Disclaimer: I am an admin, editor and co-author of this site, but the content being put out would still rock the casbah without my involvement. 

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Computer technology has always been about harder, better, faster, stronger; always pushing for the bleeding edge in an obsessive drive toward MORE… more processors, more speed, more capabilities, more everything.  For the perpetually bored brainiac this is a lifelong passion keeping them happy until all their neurons stop firing.  For others it’s a great ride, but eventually the motion sickness kicks in and they want out. 

The longer I’m in the IT industry the more frequently I encounter the latter.  Intelligent, sharp individuals whose brains stopped being unquenchable sponges and instead settled into the comfort of their “area of expertise”.  Sometimes they can escape into management finally getting off the hamster wheel of progress.  More often their respective technology is put out to pasture and the “experts” are sent along with it.

I can understand from a logical perspective why this makes sense.  The older tech is no longer around so the skill set becomes obsolete.  Yet in our rush to shove the old aside to make way for the new we’re shooting ourselves in the foot.  Decades of experience are carelessly being tossed aside like dirty diamonds mistaken for rocks.

Being in the migration niche I’ve seen these battles first hand, played out in corporate arenas as drenched in blood as their ancient Roman counterparts.   Mergers and acquisitions or murders and executions, from the outside it all looks the same.  The old (and sometimes wise) are huddled, frightened, maybe even trying to fight, only to be slaughtered by the young, aggressive, cocksure future of the industry. 

There used to be a time when the torch was handed down from older generations.  A downloading of experiences and skills which were earned through a lifetime of passion not PDF’s or webinars.  I have to chuckle when I see this new wave barrel on ahead full steam until they encounter something outside the norm.  Stopped dead in their tracks they flounder and fume, attempting to reinvent a wheel already solved a hundred times before.

Certain professions still respect the art of the apprenticeship ensuring techniques and skills from the inception of the trade are never forgotten.  Even with the constant reinvention of the technology field there is much we could learn from those more traditional professions.  How many rising stars find themselves utterly lost with no one for guidance?  Countless disillusioned professionals struggling to make their way through a career unprepared and unaware.  Technically, professionally and personally, these poor souls navigate turbulent waters without a compass.

I know this trend won’t end anytime soon, if it ever does, but I do hope that somewhere there are those taking a step back and appreciating the bigger picture.  Perhaps even realizing the adage “those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” is more truth than cliché.

Image courtesy of core77

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I realize I haven’t been living up to my "nerd" end of the bargain.  Plenty of writing, film and nostalgic posts, but no real geekery of any sort.  In order to remedy this, I wanted to dig into a useful social media feature you might be unaware of.

The rise of Twitter & shortened URL’s

Twitter is one of the newest social media sensations to hit the web.  Think of it as a non-stop, real time, instant message conversation the entire Internet is taking part in.  As daunting as that sounds, the 140 character limit and their "follow" system make it manageable.  With its rise in popularity, people are now using it to convey all kinds of information, from news alerts to emergency response updates. 

Larger amounts of data are being crammed into the 140 character framework, making every character crucial.  Because web site addresses are frequently shared on Twitter (and often exceedingly long), URL shortening services have exploded in usage.  One such service that mirrored Twitter’s rise was Bit.ly and what made it so popular was Twitter choosing it to automatically shorten URL’s on its homepage.  With most tweets leveraging Bit.ly by default, I wanted to show you one of the cooler features of the service.

Metrics

Whenever a content creator publishes something on the Internet (blogs, pictures, etc), they’re interested in who’s seeing it.  Websites can track statistics in a variety of ways (i.e. Google Analytics) and blogs sometimes have built in stats, but when it comes to a link-by-link basis, there’s really not much.  For instance, Google Analytics gives you the referrer (i.e. Twitter.com) without getting the specific link that brought them in.  It’s useful information, but if you’re trying to target which delivery method is working best (Facebook, Twitter, IM) then it fails miserably. 

Bit.ly helps plug this gap by collecting detailed data on the usage of their links and shares the info free of charge.  As an example, I will use the metrics from a post on Lateral Action (one of my favorite creativity blogs).  I’m using them for two reasons: One, they get a hell of a lot more traffic than I do and two, I’m currently using Twitter Friendly Links not Bit.ly.

The latest article from Lateral Action is "How to Fake it As an Artist".  From one of Mark McGuinness’ tweets I saw the link: http://bit.ly/11WFZx. To tap into the info Bit.ly is collecting in the background, simply add a + sign to the end of the link like so:  http://bit.ly/11WFZx+ which will redirect you to http://bit.ly/info/11WFZx.  This leads us to the metrics page, which is divided into 3 major sections.

Info

At the very top of the page it provides a quick glance at the overall success of the link.

We can see how many clicks this particular link has had and Bit.ly also aggregates other Bit.ly links going to the same destination.  You can also see the link destination, number of Twitter conversations referencing it and where the clicks came from.  You can also click the COPY button to put the link into your clipboard or the SHARE button which opens a sidebar with several options (Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, etc). 

Traffic

This middle section dives deeper into the statistics and is divided into three parts: Clicks, Referrers & Locations.

In the CLICK tab we see the number of clicks on a per day basis.  If you were to hover over the bars in this graph it would display the exact number.  This is great to see if interest is maintained after the initial release of the link into the wild and can help you determine if subsequent attempts are needed to maintain your traffic goals for the content.

The REFERRERS tab shows us where the clicks came from in an application or website sense.  Clicking on the + symbol next to the entries provides more detailed information.  The website entries show you if the clicks came from sub-domains and Registered Applications shows if it came from apps like Tweetdeck and Seesmic.  With Email Clients, IM, AIR Apps, and Direct, it explains what the criteria is, but doesn’t further categorize it.

The LOCATIONS tab divides the clicks geographically.  I could see this being helpful if you’re trying to target a particular culture or country, but otherwise its just cool to know.

Conversations & Metadata

This bottom portion shows the Twitter conversations referencing the link and what metadata is being pulled from the page.

This can he
lp you discover who has created tweets of their own pointing folks to your content or if people are talking about it in general.  Metadata is metadata, really don’t have much to say about it.

_____________________________________

These statistics are extremely useful when you’re first starting out or when trying to gauge the interest in specific content, but like most things, should be used in moderation.  It’s easy to lose yourself in constant stat checking when your energies are better focused on content creation.  Also please remember, the Internet is a weird place and you can never be quite certain what will cause a buzz and what won’t.  John Scalzi, best selling author and prolific blogger, admits that his highest hit generating post wasn’t any of his essays or contests, but when he taped bacon to his cat and took a picture.

Did you find this info useful? Do you want to see more nerdy things like this? Give me a shout in the comments and let me know.

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