"Meeeeeeeediiiiic, We need a medic over hereeeeee!"

-"Stay back"

-*zrrzrzz*

-*poch poch* *poch poch* *hust* *hust*

-"You're good to go"

Solche oder so ähnliche Sachen hört man manchmal wenn man Battlefield 2 spielt (habs seit Monaten (leider) nichtmal mehr auf der Platte). Aber das nur am Rande. Um was es mir hier geht? Ich will wieder ein bisschen leben in die Bude bringen. Und wie? Spaaam Postings!

Nun gut. Was gibt es denn zu schreiben? Nicht viel außer vielleicht auf was für Spiele denn der geneigte Autor des Blogs, wartet. Gerne darf Kommentiert werden (macht aber sowieso keiner). Kleine Einschränkung: Q4 2008 bzw. Q1 2009. Als guter Gastgeber fang ich dann mal an:

Mirror's Edge und gleich nochmal Mirror's 'fucking' Edge. Das neue Spiel von Digital Illussions CE, kurz DICE. Womit wir wieder beim Anfang wären. Battlefield. Der Entwickler des wohl besten Multiplayer bunnyhopping "Taktik" Shooters ever. Battlefield 2 (subjektiv objektiv)

GTA IV - Ja ich bin PC User

Far Cry 2 - Ich höre die fernen Rufe: "Hype, heib!!!111!!!" ob Ubisofts neues Spiel es, im Gegensatz zu Crysis (wo jetzt "Warhammer" oder so rauskommt mein Vorschlag für einen Unter-untertitel: "Jetzt mit noch weniger Spielzeit"), auch verdient hat,werden wir sehen.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky - es wird wieder geschtalkt warum habe ich den FIlm eigentlich nie gesehen und Stalker (ohne Punkte gehts schneller...) nie richtig lange gespielt? Ich werde mir aber gerne die klare GrafikDetailpracht genauer angucken.

Battlefield: Heroes - ich bin immer noch nicht in der Beta :( Naja auf die Final warten.

Mit Battlefield wär der Text dann auch wieder Rund. Genug geschrieben. Dazu kommen dann auch noch andere Spiele, wie vielleicht "Disaster: Day of Crisis" (Meinungen abwarten). Ich Spiel ja sowieso alles wo nicht RPG draufsteht.

-"Stay back"

-*zrrzrzz*

-*poch poch* *poch poch* *hust* *hust*

-"You're good to go"

Solche oder so ähnliche Sachen hört man manchmal wenn man Battlefield 2 spielt (habs seit Monaten (leider) nichtmal mehr auf der Platte). Aber das nur am Rande. Um was es mir hier geht? Ich will wieder ein bisschen leben in die Bude bringen. Und wie? Spaaam Postings!

Nun gut. Was gibt es denn zu schreiben? Nicht viel außer vielleicht auf was für Spiele denn die geneigten Autoren des Blogs, mit mir sind es drei, warten. Kleine Einschränkung: Q4 2008 bzw. Q1 2009. Als guter Gastgeber fang ich dann mal an:

Mirror's Edge und gleich nochmal Mirror's 'fucking' Edge. Das neue Spiel von Digital Illussions CE, kurz DICE. Womit wir wieder beim Anfang wären. Battlefield. Der Entwickler des wohl besten Multiplayer bunnyhopping "Taktik" Shooters ever. Battlefield 2 (subjektiv objektiv)

GTA IV - Ja ich bin PC User

Far Cry 2 - Ich höre die fernen Rufe: "Hype, heib!!!111!!!" ob Ubisofts neues Spiel es, im Gegensatz zu Crysis (wo jetzt "Warhammer" oder so rauskommt mein Vorschlag für einen Unter-untertitel: "Jetzt mit noch weniger Spielzeit"), auch verdient hat,werden wir sehen.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky - es wird wieder geschtalkt warum habe ich den FIlm eigentlich nie gesehen und Stalker (ohne Punkte gehts schneller...) nie richtig lange gespielt? Ich werde mir aber gerne die klare GrafikDetailpracht genauer angucken.

Dazu kommen dann auch noch andere Spiele. Ich Spiel ja sowieso alles wo nicht RPG draufsteht.

Jetzt seid ihr drann. Kleiner Hinweis noch: Gerne auch mit Bildern. Ich nicht. Ihr wisst ja, das böse F-Wort.

It's been three years since Battlefield 2 was released and to celebrate BF2's 3rd birthday it looks as so DICE are going to release a brand new patch.

"In a world exclusive event, on Friday the 20th of June, a massive bombshell was dropped on netGameRadio's 'The Inside Battlefield Show'. In an exclusive world first soaring interview, it was confirmed that on Monday, the 23rd of June, to coincide with Battlefield 2's third birthday, gamers will see an announcement regarding a new patch coupled with exciting original maps."

The interview was directly with John Hargelid, a Live Producer from DICE, Sweden, who confirmed that support for Battlefield 2 is not over, and that an announcement regarding a possible new patch and maps will be announced on Monday. The question that was directly answered included references to a patch, maps, and gaming modes.

For more info visit netGameRadio

The Challenge

We were asked to come up with an example, which we thought would best illustrate one of the four strategic areas of marketing warfare: Defense Marketing, Offense Marketing, Flanking Marketing, and Guerrilla Marketing.

Flanking Warfare Rules

"Pursuit is a second act of victory, in many cases more important then the first." Karl von Clausewitz

Taken from "Marketing Warfare" by Al Ries and Jack Trout

• A good flanking move must be made into an uncontested area.
• Tactical surprise ought to be an important element of the plan.
• The pursuit is as critical as the attack itself.
  • This example first started out in my mind as a Guerrilla Warfare example, but I couldn't justify the expense of setting up the infrastructure and be willing to drop the investment in a moment's notice.

Uncontested Area

We chose a space which we believe is uncontested: Ad Services for First Person Shooter Gaming Systems. Specifically we are focusing on a very popular on-line game Battlefield 2. There are many maps which include space in which ads could be posted for players to see.

The ad services code would be added into the game to show up bill boards, walls, or boarded up windows. The ads would be geo-specific so that local advertisers to the players who have registered accounts providing all the information for geo-targeting.

Tactical Surprise

We also chose BF2 because it is also several versions out from the lime light of the newer releases of current games. The code could be introduced in a patch to the existing millions of BF2 players and thousands of game servers. The code would be designed to be modular so that other game interfaced would be build from the core used by all First Person Shooter games.

Pursuit is Critical

The team would be prepared before the introduction of the new code to the BF2 gaming system to branch out to other popular gaming systems. This is key to the planning of this project. We would not plan after we realized the success, but rather we would have our resources in place to take advantage of the successful flanking attack. We would make the competitors think twice before trying to enter this now contested space.

Flanking vs. Guerrilla Marketing

You choose which tactic based on your position in the market compared to your potential or current competitors, the resources you have available to you, and your ability to pursue and dominate a new market or successful campaign. In this example, I assumed that the software development, contractual agreements, and investment in time and money was too great to assume a guerrilla attack. But if I were a multi-billion dollar company I might see this little adventure as a guerrilla campaign.

This was a fun brainstorming exercise. Good Hunting.

After a week of rendering those models and experimenting with different types of lighting, I decided it'd be fun to make a little composition. Originally, the plan was to create an animated scene that I could upload to YouTube but within a few days I changed my mind and decided to do a single frame instead:

An animated version of the scene remains a possibility; it's just that I'm still hopeless at rigging and preparing the soldiers for this scene would have required a lot more time and effort than I was willing to commit. An experienced animator probably could have done it in no time but I'm an amateur and burdened with other priorities. I still haven't told my neighbour that I found her cat and that's something I should have done weeks ago. I've also got half a dozen DVD rentals that are seriously overdue.

The idea to recreate Guile's level from Street Fighter II appeared out of the blue. I knew the Allied Intent Xtended mod included a well put-together F16—modelled and textured by clivewil—and it was probably the availability of that model, more than anything else, that compelled me to try. Growing up, I was a big fan of Street Fighter II, so the prospect of recreating a familiar image and spending a few days reminiscing about my Godlike SFII skills held great appeal.

More importantly, creating the scene allowed me to get better at using textures, Bipeds and the Physique modifier, and required the careful posing of half a dozen 3D models of humans. I'd never tried that before and it seemed a fun way to learn the basics.

Except for the clouds (created in 3ds Max) and the HUD (added via Photoshop), everything in the scene was sourced from Battlefield 2. Well, everything except clivewil's F16 which, as I've already mentioned, was from Allied Intent Xtended, one of the very best BF2 mods going around. Some of the models were tweaked ever-so-slightly because I wanted them to better resemble the objects featured in Guile's scene. For the most part, though, they were left alone. Battlefield 2 offered the equivalent of virtually everything seen in the original SFII level, so it was just a matter of finding the right objects, importing them into 3ds Max, applying textures, then moving them into position.

The only object that could have been more faithful to the original was the Supply Crate. In Street Fighter II, the corresponding object is a destructible wooden crate (a rarity in video games) and BF2 definitely had one that was suitable but I think the Supply Crate, for this version, has more novelty value.

The scene's main source of light is a Skylight with its Multiplier set to 1.3, however there are also three Omni Lights; two within the hangars to prevent them from being pitch-black and one in the foreground to increase the overall brightness of the fighters and onlookers. Without the Omni lights, the lighting had a more consistent, realistic feel but video games from that era didn't really strive for photorealism, so I had no qualms about brightening things up.

As hoped, it was a fun project and though I'm sure it could have been done better, I'm happy with the end result. Happy enough to move on, anyway.

Let me know what you think.

(Click to enlarge)

- Jason

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.560162&w=425&h=350&fv=] from www.wegame.com posted with vodpod

]]> http://april15th.wordpress.com/?p=66 Mon, 12 May 2008 17:09:05 +0000 april15th http://april15th.fr.wordpress.com/2008/05/13/my-very-first-youtube-video/ I really don't care for that title but every time I substitute it with my original choice - "Here's a nice piece of SHIT!" - I feel guilty for using bad language.

Back when I was deeply immersed in the world of Battlefield 2 machinima, I felt contempt for anyone who posted their work on streaming video sites. I wanted crystal-clear, high-quality versions of everything. For a while there, Putfile.com was the most oft-used of those streaming sites but then YouTube arrived on the scene and everyone started posting their horribly-encoded, low-res crap there instead.

Eventually, I, too, was lured in by YouTube's siren song but I vowed that I would always provide people with high-quality versions of the same clips. All they had to do was ask. (No-one ever did.)

My very first video was posted almost two years ago to the day and has since racked up 7104 views. To put that into context, there's a ten-minute video on YouTube called Watching Paint Dry; it's exactly what its name implies and it has amassed 39,720 views. Quite an indictment on the quality of my own videos.

Speaking of which ...

The clip was actually a response to someone's request on the TotalBF2 forums. The game had just been patched to include vehicle drops and someone had asked whether or not it was possible to exit a flying jet or helicopter and then land in an air-dropped vehicle before it reached the ground. I can't remember how many times I tried it before finally succeeding. Maybe it was five. Maybe it was fifteen. When you think about all the pain and suffering in the world, though, does it really matter? What's important is that I had a problem (my abject disgust for low-quality streaming video) and I overcame it ... the feel-good story of the year.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4721610664071549049]