New Feature! Best comic of the week.

Ok, so this is my only feature. So far. But it had to start somewhere. This week was a tough one, as Invincible came out, and I'm a big fan of that book. The new Blue Beetle is also darn good: I love the banter in that book, and it features an old Firestorm villain, Typhoon! I was big into the old Firestorm, so that was a nostalgia kick for me.

However, the best book of the week goes to:




Starlord! I remember, when I was young, I bought the very first Star Lord in a giant-sized format. It was weird, because it had God in it (later redacted and made into the "Lord of the Sun"). In any case, this issue is great. It's the first of a four part miniseries, and features five other nearly forgotten Marvel heroes from the misty past, including Bug, from the Micronauts, and Mantis, who will provide a pivotal role when these guys eventually meet up with the Quasar/Moondragon group . This is just a team building book, but Giffen writes it so well that it remains interesting even if there isn't a lot of action. Thumbs up and congratulations for being the first "Best Book of the Week"!

How's that for content?

A case for better localization

This is an interesting study: it seems that, when faced by people that we know are of a different culture, our mirror neurons become less active. Basically, your brain makes it harder on you to learn from people you know aren't part of your culture. The impact this has on games may be a factor in why some games do not go over well in different countries than the country in which the game was made, especially foreign countries that have a high level of xenophobia. If it is harder for a Japanese person to learn from a game where the tutorial is being taught by an obvious American, then the chance for a disconnect could be greater. As always, the two core game design principles are:

1. Never make the player feel weak.
2. Never make the player feel dumb.

Both these rules can be translated as "always make the player feel powerful and smart." Games are fantasies, and the bulk of humanity prefers to fantasize about being in more control over their lives. Sure, you can have instances where the player is overwhelmed by the opposition, but you can still create an environment where the player knows he is overmatched, but still thinks his avatar is powerful, and has the potential of becoming even more powerful as time goes on, whether through pure player skill, or through in-game mechanisms like character growth and such.

In any case, if the player can't learn to control the game because his mirror neurons refuse to learn from a tutor who obviously does not come from his culture, then the player may start feeling stupid. Which then leads to him putting down the game and telling his friends not to bother with it, either, which is exactly the opposite of what you want your players to do.

Hope that made sense. I'm a little fuzzy today: my wife, the slave driver ;-), is having me read the new Harry Potter out loud to her until late at night. Like most of America, with this book I think the main drive behind rushing to finish it isn't so much that we're curious about what happens to Harry (which is a big factor, admittedly) but that we want to finish it before somebody starts spoiling the ending for us before we're done. So, until I finish reading this 800 page monster, I'm going to be a little sleepy.