Holiday Gifts

A few people have asked me what gifts I think gamers might want. That's pretty hard to answer, but I'll try. First, gamers want Sirlin.net merchandise (also here) like T-shirts, mouse pads, or a Yomi tie.

Games

Once that's out of the way, pretty much everyone likes Xbox Live Arcade so a gift card with Microsoft points is a good bet (assuming they have an Xbox 360 to begin with). A gift card will let them buy amazing games like Street Fighter HD Remix, the masterpiece Rez HD, or that new Civilization game. I haven't tried it but I bet it's good.

If anyone is playing Street Fighter HD Remix with a pad, they'd do well to stop doing that and get a joystick. I used these Hori sticks throughout all of Street Fighter's development, and I used one to reach #1 on the ranked leaderboards. I hear some people complain that this stick isn't good enough, but apparently it is! I've also heard people complain that the buttons break, but I've never had a problem with any of my hori ex2 sticks, so maybe I'm just extremely luckly. You could always hold out for this higher quality real arcade pro hori stick, but it won't be a holiday gift anymore.

Everyone seems to like these shooting games, and this RPG. But don't forget about Wii games. For actual gamers, Mario Galaxy and Resident Evil 4 are still as awesome as ever. I haven't played the new Lego Indiana Jones, but I loved the first Lego Star Wars and people tell me this one is even better. It can really bridge the gap between gamers and non-gamers (hint, play with your girlfriend). And things like Wii Music and Endless Ocean will also get non-gamers involved. [Edit: Wii Music is probably best for kids, while something like Guitar Hero is probably better to rope in adults.] There's also Wii Fit of course, but it's really hard to get right now.

Or some cocaine would be another way to go. You can even give the addicts a 2-month dose.

Computer

As some general life advice, I recommend not using Microsoft Windows anymore. The most amazing material good that I have ever owned in my life is a Macbook Pro. It's a magical wonderland. No viruses exist for Mac, so there's no need to muck around with anti-virus software. The OS isn't DRM crazy like Vista, so it doesn't check all my hardware components 30 times per second to see if I have connected a device that might try copy DRM video. Above all else, it really does "just work" and have so many nuances of software design that are wonderful. It's also amusing that I can't even figure out how to network my two old PCs, yet my Mac can automatically see both of them and transfer files between them. So yeah, try out those new Macbook Pros that are even better than mine (get 4 GB of RAM so you can have 50 things open at once like me). They make them out of a single piece of carved aluminum these days, so even construction-wise they're pretty amazing. And you can run Windows on them too, in case you're developing a game with some bad person who keeps making a Windows-only version.

The 13" Macbook is even cheaper, and also worth every penny.

Books

Books can change the way people think. Last year, I gave Flow and Blink as gifts to several people. Blink is a little more entertaining, but Flow is a little more important. Flow describes an important psychological state that we feel when we are challenged and it's tied to the process of achieving mastery AND plays in to people's overal, general happiness, if you can believe that. Blink shows the tip of the iceberg of the idea that we make decisions by only consciously knowing about tips of icebergs, yet those decisions are often very good. These books are important enough that it scares me that these subjects aren't regularly taught in school.

Gladwell (author of Blink) also has a new book called

Click to read more ...

Happiness and Its Causes

Last week, I attended the conference Happiness and Its Causes in San Francisco. There were dozens of speakers: doctors, psychologists, researchers, and Buddhist monks, to name a few.

Happiness, we now know, is not something that we must wait around to just "happen." Though the root of the word (the "hap" part) means "luck," neuro-science, psychology, and other fields now know enough to explain that happiness is a state that people can consciously work towards, that there are specific ways of going about it, and that these ways have measurable, repeatable results. The more you know about the subject, the less luck seems to be involved.

The Tone

Before even mentioning the subjects discussed, I'll say that the overall tone of the conference was a contrast to the Game Developer's Conference. The average maturity level was much higher, there were no slimy business deals happening all around me, and there was a general calmness and mutual respect that permeated the place. I saw valuables strewn about unattended, but we all knew that no one would actually steal anything here. Also, there were quite a few more Buddhist monks wandering around than the usual conference.

The topics were too wide-ranging to summarize here, especially considering that many speakers only captured the tip of the icebergs of their subjects. I've read many of their books, so I think the best way to deliver this information to you in a non-boring, distilled form is for me to write several articles over the coming weeks. But here's a quick roundup.

Venerable Robina

The mastermind behind the entire conference is a monk known as Venerable Robina. She's from Australia and organized this same conference in Sydney, then took it to the US. She's currently based in San Francisco where she runs the Liberation Prison Project. Venerable Robina explained that over 10 years ago, a prison inmate wrote to her asking for advice about life and about the mind.

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Smash Videos Up To Part 7

My Super Smash Bros. Brawl tutorial series is now up to part 7! Here's the link to the videos, which also appear on Nintendo's site and on the Nintendo Channel on your Wii. Also check out the appreciative comments to see how the Smash scene feels about getting new players involved!

More Street Fighter HD Remix Reviews and Response to the Press

More reviews are in, and it looks like everyone loves the game.

• A+ - 1up
• 100 - Games Radar
• 5/5 - Giant Bomb
• 9.3 - Gamer 2.0
• 9 - Official Xbox Magazine
• 9 - VideoGamer
• 9 - GameStyle
• 9 - GameDaily
• 9 - Team Xbox
• 4.5/5 - GamePro

So first of all thanks for those reviews. But second, it's kind of strange to even think about a score when the real test of the game is whether it falls apart or holds up for years. Also, fighting games are notoriously misunderstood by the press (just look at reviews for Guilty Gear, one of the greatest fighting games series ever). But hey, I won't look a gift-horse in the mouth, so thanks again to the world of game reviewers.

Next though, I read some press on other sites saying how much of a struggle it was for me to make SF HD Remix. Yeah it was. But it was also a struggle for a lot of other people. And when I saw a site go so far as to say "I didn't get much help" in making the game, I feel I should say something on behalf of everyone else who worked on the game. Yes, I did have to fight for a lot of things and a lot of struggles were harder than they should have been, but EVERYONE helped on this game, from Backbone to Capcom to Udon to the fans.

Backbone's lead programmer deserves a lot more praise then he's getting. Again and again he delivered what he said he could even though he set the bar very high for himself. Another programmer helped me with gameplay changes and there would be no fake fireball, no Akuma super, no easier Zangief SPD motion without him. We actually had three producers and I managed to outlast all three of them as they left the company at various points, but the last one hardly slept as she made sure the latest builds were always ready for Capcom and that Capcom's issues were all addressed. Our tech director wrote much of the low level networking code himself. The UI team made awesome menus. Udon's Herculean effort involved them flying around the world to personally oversee and train the art contractors. Capcom coordinated the whole OCRemix effort for new music, not to mention publishing the game.

So even though it was a struggle and even though I had to fight for a lot of things (that probably made me pretty unpopular...), please know that of course I had help. Everyone sacrificed and suffered.

And I shouldn't leave out the players, either. It's not possible to design a game like this in a vacuum, and players contributed many ideas for balance and many hours of playtesting. Keep in mind that lots of players flew across the country on their own dime to help with balancing. Their help is why T.Hawk's dive doesn't knock down anymore, why Vega's Fake Wall Dive doesn't lead to infinite running away anymore, and why Cammy vs. Dhalsim is not a 9-1 match, just to name a few.

Constant struggle or help from all sides, I guess it's just how you look at it.

--Sirlin

#1 on Street Fighter Ranked Matches

Right now I'm #1 on the Street Fighter HD Remix leaderboards in ranked matches (Xbox 360). Ranked matches in almost every game eventually degenerate to cheaters and people who are somehow gaming the system with win-trading, but for now the top ranks do consist of legit players.

Also, as general advice to everyone, I wouldn't obsess about rank. If you start caring about it, it's really limiting. It's better to try new things, try new characters, and not worry about losing. Try to increase your actual ability this way, not an external number. When a tournament comes around (the real test), your ability will matter and your number won't.

You might be wondering which characters I played to get there. Akuma, Sagat, Honda, Bison, Vega, Blanka. In other words, over 1/3rd of the cast, ha. Weighted more toward Akuma, Sagat, Honda though.

Thanks for all the great matches everyone.

--Sirlin