I destroyed my hands :)

Alright! I totally destroyed my fingers using with the Adobe Pen Tool. But I'm still very unsatisfied with my end product.  Looks terrible kiddish, and unprofessional. Bah...



So I took a break here: Gametrailers' Angry Video Game Nerd: Hydlide Review


The video is part of a series which runs at Gametrailer.com.  Essentially, a vulgar, angry dude picks out terrible old school games on old systems (Atari, NES, etc) and complains about them .  In this episode, the target of his wrath is "Hydlide".

 If you're allergic to vulgarities, you might just want to skip to 6:30min for the gist of the whole video.  Why I'm sharing this video is because I felt that he actually said something that made some sense.  He noted that essentially, this crappy game was just as cryptic as the first Zelda (for those who don't know what this is, Zelda is one of the all time most popular console game series) in terms of how to progress in the game.  However, what made the difference is the design of the game made it fun for people to play, so people were willing to collaborate and discuss it, even though the game's puzzles were extremely difficult and cryptic.  In order to beat Zelda, fans collaborated to come up with guides and game world maps (it was considered massive at that time) using game magazines. (obviously there was no Google then)



In days where collaboration was no mean feat, the design of Zelda managed to bring about such huge steps in their players.  Today, Google makes this process so much easier.  In some ways, I think this idea is rather important for facebook apps.  As long you manage to earn some form of leverage over the users (be it a great design, addictive gameplay, essential services), users might actually be willing to help you back.

Of course, its not going to gain that form of leverage nowadays, since users can simply just SWITCH to alternatives once you can't deliver.
Anyway, i must do a disclaimer on my statement from my previous post.  Its GOOD that Prof Ben keeps repeating himself.  Why does he repeat himself? I think that it could be for two reason...
1) He really believes in what he says (in that its important for us to hear it)
2) People don't listen/People forget to what they hear

I had lots of fun (and pain) getting the version one of whoisthemonkey's UI done.  Too bad I'm not paticularly pleased with my end product. Well, enough 3216 for the weekend.