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Nick Halme's Blog
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Hi, my name is Nick, previously employed as a Development Tester at Relic Entertainment. I fancy myself a writer; I previously wrote a column called Play Fighting for the Escapist, wrote reviews for a Toronto Star affiliated website called Evergeek, and have been keeping a blog (Vancouver Game Design) for a couple years now. I write @a_micro_story in my "spare time".These days I've taken to writing fiction, and am in a bit of a slump in regards to non-fiction game-talk. But I'll do my best to post some interesting stuff here. All of which will, of course, be cross-posted on my blog. Because I am lazy. [/end terribly dense block of rambling text] |
Expert Blogs
An Argument for Difficulty  |
| Posted by Nick Halme on Tue, 27 Nov 2012 04:25:00 EST in
Design,
Console/PC
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| What exactly is difficulty in games? Why do we feel obliged to offer difficulty settings in games, and who are they really for? |
| Read More... | 12 Comments |
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Is The Auction House In Diablo III A Feature Or A Crutch? |
| Posted by Nick Halme on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 04:17:00 EDT in
Design,
Console/PC
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| Is the loot system in Diablo III too random for its own good, and does the game really need an auction house feature? |
| Read More... | 17 Comments |
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Dead Rising 2 Has Lessons to Learn from Case Zero |
| Posted by Nick Halme on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 11:37:00 EDT in
Design
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| Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising 1 are nearly interchangeable products. Case Zero is a bite sized chunk of simple zombie fantasy that seems dismissed as promotional by its creators. But is Case Zero a more promising way to roll out zombie fun? |
| Read More... | 15 Comments |
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Where Shank's Boss Battles Went Wrong |
| Posted by Nick Halme on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 08:40:00 EDT in
Design
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| Shank is an amusing brawler, but unfortunately the cries of "visuals over gameplay" end up ringing true -- most damagingly in the boss fights. |
| Read More... | 6 Comments |
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Nick Halme and Kyle Stallock Argue About Games On Purpose |
| Posted by Nick Halme on Sun, 25 Jul 2010 09:10:00 EDT in
Design
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| Kyle Stallock and I go over Dragon Age's quirkiness, the "state" of Rockstar, being immersed in games, and whether or not there is some objective measure of a game's success (then implying that you can make marked "improvements"). |
| Read More... | 1 Comments |
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Do We Have A Moral Obligation To Make War Games With An Anti-War Agenda? |
| Posted by Nick Halme on Sun, 11 Jul 2010 03:20:00 EDT in
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| SOCOM is supported by the Navy Seals. America's Army is funded by the U.S. Army. Modern Warfare 2 has one scene involving civilians, and stands alone in having civilians at all in a war game. Should we be making war games with actual Mature content? |
| Read More... | 33 Comments |
[More Nick Halme Blogs]
Nick Halme's Comments
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Comment In: The Game Plan: The times they are a-changin’ [Blog - 11/28/2012 - 03:58]
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When I was interviewing at ... When I was interviewing at a now-defunct AAA developer I remember asking them about their studio layout, and how the team interfaced. r n r nThe answer I got was surprising: mission designers sat on one side of the building, and environment artists sat on the other side. r n ... |
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Comment In: An Argument for Difficulty [Blog - 11/27/2012 - 04:25]
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I agree, excellent point ... I agree, excellent point |
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Comment In: Is The Auction House In Diablo III A Feature Or A Crutch? [Blog - 08/22/2012 - 04:17]
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@Adam Bishop r n r ... @Adam Bishop r n r nWhat I mean is dropping into a co-op game in Diablo is very different from doing a PUG in WoW. Typing is kept to a minimum what is there to say and you farm as you would otherwise. It 's not set up to be ... |
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Comment In: 60 Straight Days of Crunch? Really? Please Explain. [Blog - 01/14/2011 - 10:31]
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...a team that's finaling on ... ...a team that's finaling on 7-day weeks for a couple of months. |
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Comment In: Interview: Black Ops Veteran Talks Video Games And The Real World [News - 11/22/2010 - 08:20]
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mixing the reality of warfare ... mixing the reality of warfare with the illusion of a 'game' is cynical. With a videogame, yes. What about Ludology |
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Comment In: Dead Rising 2 Has Lessons to Learn from Case Zero [Blog - 09/30/2010 - 11:37]
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DR is a niche game ... DR is a niche game because of its game design. Do you think Capcom wants it to serve a smaller audience A niche game might be a complement to the gamers that covet it, but no to the studio that wants to keep being a studio. I should have also ... |
[More Nick Halme Comments]
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