Can a Role Playing Game be a mirror of your soul ?

I used to find it difficult to kill innocent people, you know.

One of my earliest memories of having a profound gaming moment is of trying to kill a random NPC farmer in the original Fallout. I wanted to try Fallout's famous freedom of choice, where the world and storyline would adapt to choices you make (really adapt, not Peter Molyneux adapt) , so I just walked up this character going about his life and shot him in the kneecaps (V.A.T.S. is so much fun).

His response was game design genius. He immediately pleaded "Please! I have children! " It shook me. I reloaded a previous save, and left him alone.

A simple pre-programmed response from an NPC made me think deeply about myself. And I realized that, even in make-believe world of role playing games, I couldn't willingly hurt innocent people.

What followed was about twenty years of playing RPGs as a paragon of virtue. Ever the hero with a heart of gold. I would always take the "good" choice. Bend over backwards to make sure everything in the world was just peachy, doing sundry side quests that involved rescuing lost sons and daughters, brokering peace between warring factions to avoid senseless violence, refusing monetary rewards for helping poor farmers (of course, the XP was admittedly more useful) and so on.

Some of my favourite gaming moments from RPGs are the emotional payoffs from undertaking arduous and long, though entirely optional, quests just to do the right thing. Helping the ghouls by rrepairing the reactor in Gecko in Fallout 2. Taking the long trek the temple of Ilmater to purify Yoshimos heart and set his soul at rest in Baldur's Gate 2. Sharing a drink and chat with Letho at the end of The Witcher 2, simply because I was tired of all the bloodshed and wanted to avoid any more. All fantastic emotional moments.

Even if this meant forgoing all the cool stuff you got if you played as an evil character (lots of insane powers, equipment and loot in many RPGs is available only to evil characters), I still couldn't bring myself to make evil choices in games. 

And then something interesting happened.

Today, I am far more ambivalent towards the ideas of good and evil. I increasingly believe that it's all simply a matter of viewpoint, and what seems abhorrent to one set of people is perfectly acceptable to another. I hesitate to judge other people's actions (not in a graceful, Buddha-like way, but rather in a more shrugs-shoulders-and-gives-no-fucks way) because I looked deep into myself and saw a person just as fucked up as any other human being, capable of the very acts of pettiness and cowardice and foolishness that I was so quick to judge other people for when I was younger and quicker to jump to conclusions.

And suddenly, it's easier to be a bad guy. Or at least, a neutral guy who does bad things.

The superb ending to the Witcher 2, where you can choose to fight Letho to the death, or talk about things over a beer. Would I have played it differently today ?

Recently, when playing morally ambiguous games like Shadowrun Returns and Sunless Sea, I find that making gameplay choices that affect the game world in "evil" ways are no longer difficult to make for me. In Shadowrun, I play a consummate professional Shadowrunner - what's important is the contract and the mission. Anything that jeopardizes the mission must be dealt with - no time for moral judgements or thinking about consequences. I regularly refuse to help poor ordinary citizens because I don't want to waste time and resources that distract from the main mission. I go through with the mission even if circumstances emerge where I would previously stop and consider the moral aspects of going through with it. Now it's more important to honour the contract and pick up the payment. Because I don't believe the "good" NPCs anyway - my present world view that everybody is equally fucked up helps immensely in making these in-game decisions.

The way that I make choices in games has changed.

And that is most interesting.

Can role-playing games be a mirror of your soul ? 

Does the way I make choices in RPGs tell me at least a little about my attitude to life in general ? Does looking at how I play videogames tell me about what I am capable of in real life ?

Let me quickly iterate here that I only refer to games where there is a moral choice to be made - typically RPGs. I do not refer to games like Call of Duty or GTA which are so often called out as examples of games that influence or cause violent behaviour. That is not a debate I am interested in addressing here.

I am currently a few hours into another playthrough of Baldur's Gate - but this time I'm playing as a true neutral character. So my in-game choices look beyond simple black and white "good vs evils" morals into pretty much "I don't give a fuck about anything other than what is best for me right now "category. I help NPCs if I feel like. I don't if I don't. And I don't lose sleep over what happens to them - because I'm buying into the fiction that they are responsible for their own fates. That's my mind filling in the blanks in the explicit narrative of the game with whatever it likes - the essential fabric of buying into the fiction of a typical RPG world. You invest the world and characters with back-stories and qualities that aren't actually present in the explicit fiction - just so that the world feels more like a real world than like a film set. It's the way we play RPGs, it's why we enjoy them so much.

But what's interesting here is that we can fill in these blanks in whatever way we want. Because what goes on in the gameworld when your back is turned can be whatever you want it to be. Even the most bleak of worlds like Fallout can be imagined to be full of hopes, dreams, aspirations and goodness. Even seemingly prosperous high-fantasy worlds with lush forests and mighty cities can be imagined to be full of perversions, betrayals, pettiness and deceit. And whatever we choose to fill in these blanks with colours our experience of the game.

I don't know about you, but I tend to fill in the narrative blanks with qualities that I perceive in the real world. So earlier on, I used to look at every random filler NPC and assume that they are basically decent, honest, hard working folk. Now, I assume the same NPCs to be greedy, petty, mean and nasty. And this makes them easier to shoot in the kneecaps. Or at least, to refuse to help.

Even more interestingly, it applies only to random NPCs. Not to party members or team-mates. In Shadowrun : Dragonfall, I did a bunch of quests specifically to help out Dietrich, Glory, Eiger and Blitz. I actually got pretty attached to the squad (they're beatifully written charatcters) and was willing to go the extra mile to help them. Which again to some extent mirrors the way I feel about close friends.

The classic standoff with Urndot Wrex in Mass Effect. I tried my best to reason with him - but to no avail. Today, maybe I wouldn't bother and just shoot him and get on with it. I don't know.

The way I play RPGs has changed to reflect my changing attitudes to the world around me. I don't go out of my way to fuck with people in RPGs, but I no longer go out of my way to help them either. Ditto in real life.

Which makes playing RPGs scary as fuck. Because maybe, just maybe, like really good mirrors, they'll reveal things that I'd rather not see.

Design Lessons from Star Realms

I recently purchased the Humble Card Game Bundle (one of the coolest Humble Bundles in ages) and had immense amounts of fun with it. Mojang's non-minecraft game Scrolls, Magic 2015 and SolForge are all great fun for fans of card battlers (real card battlers, not the Rage of Bahamut inspired super casual crapware that's so common these days). 

But the game I'm addicted to right now is the fantastic Star Realms, a digital adaptation of the physical deck-building game from White Wizard Games.

Star Realms is available for free on iOS and Android.

It's a space-combat version of the familiar Dominion mechanic. I won't spend time discussing the basics of the game here. If you want to know more, there are excellent reviews here, here and here [video]. 

I'm more interested in examining the design elements,including some specific to the digital game, to try and understand what makes the damn thing so accessibe, compelling and addictive.

1. Simple to understand

You'll take five minutes to understand the game and start playing ( the digital version has an excellent tutorial to put you through your paces) . And well after a 100 games, you'll still be evaluating new strategies and tactics. This is what makes Dominion a gold standard, and Star Realms succeeds spectacularly in using the old design principle of "simple to learn, difficult to master" to create compelling gameplay.

Let's look at the core rules in Star Realms : 

1. You draw exactly five cards from your deck and play them every turn. Every card you play gives you trade, combat or hit points.
2. Trade is used to buy better cards to put in your deck and play in subsequent hands.
3. Combat is used to attack your opponent and damage his hit points. Bring his HP down to zero and you win.

That's all you need to know to start playing the game.  It's even simpler than Dominion - which has limits on actions and buy per turn. In Star Realms, if you draw the card in your hand, you can play it. No further rules.

Simple, clear instructions on each card explain the effects of playing it

But what makes things interesting is the "faction"system. Most cards belong to one of the game's four factions (colour coded yellow, green, red and blue). Playing two or more of these faction cards together triggers additional abilities on the cards - giving you additional trade, combat or HP, allowing you to draw more cards, forcing your opponent to discard cards, acquire cards without paying costs and so on. Some cards are "bases"which stay on the board when played, providing the player persistent effects until destroyed by the opponent.

That's pretty much it.

By adding a few interesting interactions between cards using very few simple rules, the game delivers enjoyable emergent gameplay of great depth and complexity.

2. Simple choices with complex consequences

Every single turn of Star Realms proves Sid Meier's most famous quote right. When you're playing Star Realms, you're always thinking something like : 

• Should I buy the most powerful card available or one that aligns with my existing factions ?
• Should I attack my opponent or his base?
• Should I scrap this card for a short term benefit or keep it to strengthen my deck ?

The simplicity of the rules ensure that the player is always focused on the decisions that feed into her strategy or tactics. Instead of worrying about figuring out complex interactions or obscure rules, the player's attention is always on simple choices which have complex consequences.

This also ensures that the players feel in control, that their choices matter. And delivers the critical freedom to the players to attribute it to skill when they win, and bad luck when they lose.

2. Clarity of information

Specific to the digital version - Star Realms has almost no hidden information. At any state in the game, you can clearly see

• Your deck
• Your hand
• Your discard pile
• Your bases
• Your hit points
• Your opponent's deck and hand
• Your opponent's discard pike
• Your opponent's bases
• Your opponent's hit points

The only hidden information is what exact cards are there in your opponent's hand and which ones are left in the deck - and even this becomes easy to guess when there are very few cards left in the draw pile.

You can look through the cards your opponent has at any time.

Being able to see your opponent's build is something I've never seen in any card game before - and it has some very interesting effects on the gameplay. Because you know exactly what cards are in your opponent's deck, Star Realms becomes almost chess-like in it's strategic play. You are always seeing what your opponent is doing and responding strategically. Opponent stocking up on Machine Cult cards? Will you respond with a Blob rush or play defensive with Trade Federation and heavy bases ?

The whole idea of making all the information about the game state clearly visible to the player gives the player a strong sense of ownership over the outcome, and a much larger sense of satisfaction when victory comes.

However, there is enough that is down to luck : 

1. In what order cards from both players'decks are drawn into the hand.

2. Which cards become available to buy each turn

3. What choices your opponent makes.

Contrast this with Dominion, where all cards are always available to buy at all times - thus removing one element of randomness - making the game deeper strategically, but a little less fun tactically and less approachable overall.

So there is just enough randomness in Star Realms that I can attribute it to luck when I fail. This is absolutely critical - one of my favourite principles of game design is making the player attribute victory to skill and defeat to bad luck. Star Realms nails this.

3. Simple but effective UI feedback

Another design rule I often harp on is the "make the most frequently performed action feel juicy (Huzaifa Arab takes a pepsi-shot) and fun" chestnut.

And Star Realms actually is a superb demonstration of what to focus on to get this right. It isn't a superbly polished game like Hearthstone or Magic The Gathering, but it does a few simple things when you perform the basic action of "playing a card":

1. Clearly indicate, with colour coded floating text, whatever resource (and how much of it) you got for playing the card - combat, trade or authority (hit points).
2. Play a short sound for each resource type - trade has a satisfying "coin"sound, combat has a sharp laser blast and authority has some appropriate space blip.

Floating text and sound effects give the player great, clear feedback without being too fancy.

These two simple effects combine to do two things : 

1. Even playing a fairly useless card like a Scout or Viper gives you at least SOME positive feedback.
2. The act of playing monster card combos is doubly satisfying as the text and sounds combine into a deeply rewarding audio-visual cacophony that usually means a butt-kicking for your opponent.

There are also other touches - hitting your opponent for damage plays an explosion sound, but hitting him for more than 10 points in one turn plays a more explosive sound that lingers on for a few seconds, making it more enjoyable and rubs it in a little.

It's important to note that none of these effects individually are really very polished or exceptional in any way. But they're effective nevertheless - evoking the right emotions in the player even without offering any significant aesthetic value.

Design lesson - instead of obsessing purely about how your game looks, focus on whether the player is experiencing the right emotions frequently enough.

4. Short play time

The simplicity of the design and the elegance of the game's balancing ensures that the typical game is nice and short - typically lasting no more than 25 - 35 minutes for a 2 player game. And that includes time for thinking, and pauses between asynchronous turns.

Thanks to the simple, clear rules and uncluttered UI, the majority of the time is also spent thinking about strategy and then quickly executing your hand. No fumbling around in the UI or breaking your head over complicated rules.

Just fast paced, crisp turn based gameplay. So there's always time for one more quick game.

If you're at all interested in card games or turn based player vs player strategy games in general, Star Realms is an essential purchase. It takes the classic Dominion formula, makes a few tweaks and slaps on some cool space sci-fi fiction - making it far more fun and accessible for less hardcore players.

An evening spent watching Action Jackson

The two Action Jacksons in my life. Both are Kvlt.

For some reason, I had a sudden urge to watch Action Jackson. I have no idea why. Perhaps it was because it was called 'Action Jackson'- in an unintenitional nod to the eighties Carl Weathers not-classic that Vinay Nilakantan and I are so fond of. Perhaps it was because of this trailer http://youtu.be/YubQzbzGHps. Perhaps it was because I had a fucked up week and I wanted, much like Prince Siddhartha, to purify myself by undergoing some kind of severe penance.

But I roped in movie afficionados Naren Banad and Abitha Anandh (mainly because their combined experience may help them notice and point out to me the cinematic nuances that I might otherwise miss), and off we went.

As a result of our careful preparations for the evening, we were completely drunk by the time we entered the mall where the multiplex is located. Being drunk, we were in the mood for adventure. So we stuffed a tote bag with a couple of hip flasks full of whisky (or it may have been rum. I don't remember. Mainly because of the effects of whisky. Or rum. I don't remember), a full family tub of Baskin Robbins ice cream, some chocolates and sallied forth to test the theatre's seriousness about their stated 'outside food and drinks not allowed' policy.

Essential Action Jackson survival kit. Must be smuggled into cinema hall, helped by incompetent security guard (not in picture)

Of course, the security guard opened the bag and inspected its contents for a full thirty seconds before waving us through. If all security checks in the country are manned by personnel of a similar calibre, I have compete faith in the integrity of terrorists and other mass murderers - society has wronged them. The only possible reason that there is no bombing or shooting in a mall every single day is that these paragons of society have no interest in carrying one out. Here we are, suspecting these fine men and women of constantly plotting to wipe out significant sections of society by unleashing firearms and explosives in public places, while, on the contrary, they continue to steadfastly refuse to take advantage of the virtual red carpet welcome that our non-existent security offers them. "What use is a public massacre if there is no challenge?" they must be asking each other daily. So, perhaps in an ironic way, the poor quality of security is actually protecting us from terrorist attacks, by playing on the terrorists' inherent sense of fair play. Genius.

But I digress. On to Action Jackson.

As a service to the readers, I will now spare you all the pain of reading through more of my verbose style of prose, and present the salient features of Action Jackson in the form of bullet points.

• Action Jackson is a film in which Ajay Devgn has a double role. The actor excels, resisting the temptation to play each role slightly differently to add needless nuance and flavour, and executing a pitch perfect performance in which both Devgns speak, dance, fight and generally behave EXACTLY the same.Take that, Kamal Hassan.
• If you ever fantasized about watching Sonakshi Sinha walk across the screen while some background singers are crooning "Khusheeeeeeeeee. Oh - Khusheeeeeeee! ", then rejoice. Your prayers have been answered.
• Director Prabhudeva pulls off the admirable feat of taking Tamil actor Anandraj, who nobody would ever mistake for a beauty contest winner, and making him look even less appealing by giving him a glass eye. And also a weird Gorbachev like bloodstain-skin discolouration thingie, just in case.
• Anandraj is a crime lord who, for some reason, believes that the best way to get Devgn to fall in love with his "(Anandraj's not Devgn's) sister is by violently murdering his (Devgn's, not Anandraj's) girlfriend.
• The film introduces the really cool idea of an "arms dealer conference". I couldn't help thinking of some arms-dealer version of a body like NASSCOM running around for bag, lanyard, notepad and badge sponsors for months before the event.
• The film begins with a shot of a picture of Sai Baba. Perhaps to atone for what follows - people being dismembered by katanas, a big guy called Pedro beating Yami Gautam to a pulp but without disturbing her lipstick and multiple instances of Ajay Devgn dancing.
• Fantastic performances from Sonakshi Sinha, Manasvi Mamgai and Yami Gautam, who all manage to pull off the histrionic challenge that is pretending that Ajay Devgn is the sexiest man alive. Top notch acting - perhaps topped in modern cinema only by Isha Koppikar in Narasimha.

The hall was packed with Invisible People. Will Eisner would have approved.

Overall, though, it was fun enough. I was actually disappointed that it didn't suck a bit more. I had no idea what the fuck was going on most of the time, but enjoyed myself for the most part. Probably because I was pretty blind drunk by the end.

In which a Taxi for Sure driver threatens to bring 200 friends to my house and kill me. And yet I reach the airport like a boss.

Update : 

Taxi for Sure customer support called me and we had a chat. They said that they would take strict action against the driver. I appreciate that they called and seemed genuinely interested in the feedback, and in solving the problem.

I told them that's their call, but I'm not sure that would solve any problems. I suggested that if this was the first time that the driver had behaved like this, they should probably just tell him to take a chill pill and not do this to any other customer. 

I'm not interested in Taxi For Sure punishing the driver or not. He and I both had a bad day, and we both deserve whatever comes our way. 

I used some bad language (provoked by his incessantly rude behaviour, which nobody seems to care about). For which I apologized multiple times immediately. 

He wasn't interested in my apology and threatened to kill me in a "I know where you live and I will bring my goon friends and break your neck" way. And he threw me out of the cab. And charged me full fare.

Some of you think that I deserve death threats because I said "fuck" and that the driver was justified in his actions. 

Sure. That's your opinion. I don't agree. And I don't care about your opinion anyway. Just like you don't care about mine.

Excelsior.

-------------------------------------------

Dear Taxi For Sure,

It's been an entertaining morning. A driver from Taxi For Sure threw my colleague and me out of a cab. And, for good measure, threatened to bring hundreds of his taxi driver buddies to my home and end my miserable life. And the sun wasn't even up yet.

But I'm getting ahead of the story.

I'm writing this from Delhi.

And I got here no thanks to Taxi For Sure.

My colleague picks me up at 5.30 am in a cab, to go to the airport. We request the driver to pick up another colleague from Koramangala. He cribs and complains about this. Then picks up the phone and talks to who must be his boss. More complaining yakkety yak about said detours. He sounded like an ISRO scientist would if we had requested the Mars lander to pick up some cheese from the moon on the way to the red planet. Pretty upset.

"Sir extra 300 rupees"was the net outcome of this animated conversation.

I assured him that I had no problem with this. "Sure. No problem", I said.

The guy continues cribbing and complaining into my ear about how we have no doubt ruined his carefully laid plans for the morning by asking him to perform the painful task of driving his cab a few extra kilometres. No doubt his world domination schemes now lay in complete disarray, thanks to our callous request.

So he keeps talking.

I tell him "Boss. 300 rupees. No problem. Now shut the fuck up and drive".

He stops the car. Starts yelling. Tells us to get out of the car. Apparently the use of the word "fuck" and "shut up" are not on. 

I apologised instantly, cursing myself for screwing up my colleague's morning. He's a gentle guy and looked terribly uncomfortable with the whole situation.

I apologised multiple times, and told the guy I shouldbn't have used those words. Now can we go to the airport please?

The driver continues to abuse. And then threatens me with violence. He says he will bring a couple of hundred of his merry taxi-driving buddies to my house and take my life.

At this point, I'm thinking it's probably a bad idea to ride in a taxi with a man, upstanding paragon of decency though he may be, who has expressed a more than casual interest in throwing a party, inviting his friends, and murdering me for fun.

So I start walking away. We're not far from my house. Worst case, I can just get my car and drive to the airport.

But Taxi For Sure's foot soldier was not done, evidently. Now he's harrassing my colleague, who has been trying to calm things down - and asking for full payment. I did a quick ROI, decided that the small sum of a thousand rupees was a small price to pay for significantly reducing the probability that I would be beaten to death by enough drivers from Taxi for Sure to fill a passenger jet. So I paid. And walked away to the sounds of incoherent yelling in a curious mix of Hindi and Kannada. 

The guy was purple with rage by this time. I suppose he was a bit disappointed that he did not get to fulfil his fantasy of group-killing a senior game developer at Iblur junction. Or maybe he didn't like the fact that I paid so easily. I don't know.

A bit later, Taxi for sure sends an apology. It is most amusing. Here are the text messages from Taxi for Sure.

While Taxi For Sure's driver's obnoxious (and psychopathic) behaviour considerably dampened my mood in the morning, their apology lifted my spirits instantly.

"Apologies for not living up to your expectations. We are continuously improving and will make sure we resolve the issue" it seems.

No problem, guys. I readily accept your clearly heartfelt apology. I will forgive the fact that your driver Mr.S.Sridhar (phone number 8184082999 , Tata Indica no KA-53A-6681) threw me out of a cab at 5.30 in the morning, yelled and screamed at me and promised to murder me through the use of goondas. No problem.

But please also ask him to accept my apologies for saying "fuck"and "shut up" a couple of times. I already apologized to him multiple times, but he hasn't indicated yet that he's cool with that. 

It would also be nice if you requested him not to go ahead with his plans to take my life. Just saying. It will negatively impact my studio's quarterly roadmap.

Thanks. And have a nice day.

Anand Ramachandran.

P.S. 

How did we eventually get there, you ask ? Simple. Got an Uber.

Driver Ashok Kumar came, picked us up. Picked up my colleague. Dropped us to the airport.

I actually thanked him saying "Thank you. You saved us this morning. "

"It's my job, sir" he said, with only a hint of a smile.

The Anand Ramachandran Escalation.

No doubt, from time to time, the question enters your mind, "What does it feel like to go through life being called Anand Ramachandran ?"And, I'm sure, after a few futile attempts at finding a satisfactory answer, you go back to doing whatever it was that you were doing earlier, none the wiser. "Sigh", you despair. "I will probably never know", you whisper sadly to yourself, sipping on some blackcurrant tea. Which tastes like hot Ribena. But I digress.

I am here to help you. Let me assure you that it is the only subject on which I am one of the world's leading authorities. 

So, what, indeed, is it like to go by this seemingly harmless name ?

While I must admit that it does have its advantages, it is also not without some significant drawbacks.

The main reason for this is that there are numerous individuals who go by the same name - a startling percentage of whom also know each other personally and move in the same extended social circles. And I'm not even taking into consideration here the world-famous LASIK guy. Or that dude who is a big-wig in aviation.

I was blissfully unaware of the Anand Ramachandran proliferation until a few years ago, when I first noticed that another fine gentleman who shares my name would often comment on the Facebook posts of a common friend. A few "Anand Ramachandran and Anand Ramachandran like this" and "Anand Ramachandran likes Anand Ramachandran's comment " incidents later, the whole thing became so kvlt that becoming FB friends was inevitable.

Subsequently, Anand informed me that his brother's name was also Aravind, and that he had been mistaken for me several times. I conveyed my sympathies (it can't be pleasant being mistaken for a writer who has got death threats from crazed cricket fans on the Pakpassion forums), had a good laugh, and that was that.

Until a year or so later, when I finally got to meet him (or so I thought).

It was at one of the craziest parties I have ever attended (which is a whole blog post in itself, probably titled "Two Ducks and A Chinaman". But I digress) when a friend (we will call him Paavamani) excitedly called me and told me that he'd met this guy called Anand Ramachandran whose brother was also called Aravind Ramachandran, and that he was bringing him to the party just for the kvlt. I replied that I already knew him, and couldn't wait to share a beer with the excellently named chap.

A few cigars and beers later, Paavamani and Anand turn up. I excitedly greet them and then we chat about this and that, but mainly about being Anand Ramachandrans with brothers named Aravind. I also learn the bonus factoid that his daughter is my son's classmate - which contributes more towards my head reeling and spinning than all the alcohol I had consumed until that point.

And that wasn't even the strangest part.

That was when he seemed baffled when I started referring to our amusing interactions on Facebook. And he flatly denied that he was friends with me on FB. This caused me to

1. Vigorously shake my head from side to side very rapidly to disperse the clouds that were forming in my brain.

2. Realize that he was NOT the Anand Ramachandran who I had earlier bonded with on Facebook! There was another!

When a man named Anand Ramachandran with a brother named Aravind Ramachandran realizes that the other man called Anand Ramachandran with a brother named Aravind Ramachandran that he has just been sharing a beer with is not the Anand Ramachandran with a brother named Aravind Ramachandran that he thought he was, it is fair to allow him to sit down and quietly reflect for a bit. Which is what I allowed myself to do.

I have never really recovered from the impact of that moment. And every now and then, something happens that considerably worsens the chances that I ever will.

Like that time in Bangalore airport where a gentleman walked up to me, tapped me on the arm and asked "Excuse me - are you Anand Ramachandran ? "

Tempted as I was to respond with a bitingly sarcastic "Which one ?", I thought better of it, shook his hand, nodded and smilingly asked "Yes, I am. Have we met before ? "

Of course, inevitably, his reply was "Yes we have. My name is also Anand Ramachandran."

Normally, my response would have been to look for a chair, sit down and cry. But recent events had hardened me to the impact of meeting unexpected Anand Ramachandrans, so I took it in my stride. Further friendly conversation finally helped it to dawn on me that I had indeed met the guy before. I remembered him well, but only by the nickname "Oms Nandi". The reasons for that could be another blog post altogether on our strange nicknames for the most pleasant of people, which include "Kakkoos Balli", "Beer Beer Indrabeer Badamkheer" and "Mapuchi 2000". But I digress. 

At least he has done me the small kindness of inserting a 'Sharma'between the Anand and the Ramachandran to make things slightly easier when I need to mentally sort out and index various Anand Ramachandrans. Thanks, mate.

That was about three months ago. There have been no other sudden Anand Ramachandran incidents since. And I still haven't had the pleasure of meeting the one who started it all.

And if there are any more of you lurking in the woodwork, step out now. Maybe we can have an Anand Ramachandran conference next year.

Game design lessons from my high school days in Don Bosco

I often hear the argument that the things we learn in school are virtually useless in adult professional life.

From bewildered schoolboys wondering to themselves about the practical value of knowing the precise location of iron ore deposits in Bihar to self-styled reformers ranting about the outdated and archaic education system, there seems to be a prevailing opinion in modern society that our school system, outside of teaching basic language and arithmetic skills, offers nothing that will prepare young boys and girls for the trying times when they have to be actually productive.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Today, I make games for a living. I use several skills I learned in school on a daily basis. And, on the rare occasion, even things like language, math, science and history come in handy. However, the lessons that are most useful are those that I learned while playing all manner of games in school - both inside and outside the classroom.

Of course, I am not referring to the major 'mainstream' sports and games that gave us celebrities of the stature of Vijay Amritraj and Vishy Anand - men so famous that even Maria Sharapova would have no trouble identifying them if suddenly asked by a sneaky reporter.

I am referring to the lesser known, non world-famous but immeasurably more Kvlt games that took up so much of our time - Crocker, Conquering The Land, Battleships and several others that didn't even have names, but I fondly remember as "tear the other guy's pocket", "crawl behind the other guy and then have a friend push him over" and the evergreen favourites, "Kumaraswamy / Chinnaswamy Wars".

Crocker, of course, needs no introduction here. A game characterised by the fundamental tenet of "No waits in Crocker" made it a game of frantic pace and non-stop excitement - leading to the modern proverb "Time, tide and cocker players wait for no man". K.Srikkanth, deprived of the time to conduct his bizarre rituals between deliveries, would have failed miserably at it. Lalit Modi would have hated the game's pacing which leaves little or no time for ad breaks. Probably just as well it has never caught on as a spectator sport. The game design lesson here? Adding a single mechanic (time pressure) can make a formulaic game immeasurably more fun.

"Conquering The Land" was another interesting game design, come to think of it. It remains fairly unique in that it combines the traditional board game mechanic of capturing territory on a board with the more physical, schoolboyish activities of running, stretching and throwing sharp sticks at one another. Excellent idea - combine cerebral and physical skills to create a game that can only be won by players who have both. It's the same thought process that probably led to the development of Chessboxing. (Never heard of it? Shame on you)

My memories of school are also littered with enjoyable sessions of indoor games played during class. Notably, the old pen and paper classic, Battleships (later made into, for some reason, a film staring Rihanna). While the short-sighted may perceive this as mischievous and irresponsible behaviour, in fact I was acquiring crucial life skills - such as finding a way to entertain myself while looking reasonably industrious during boring sessions where other people talk about things I did not really understand or care about. This serves me extremely well today in the numerous meetings I am forced to attend with execs and other business-types who will give any history, geography or science teacher a run for their money in boring people to the point of death.

There were several others - a scouts game called "message relay" which combined the charms of Chinese Whispers with the thrill of the 100 metre dash with amusing results, assorted pen and paper games in which the chief skill was "firing" a pencil across a paper gameboard by flicking it with your forefinger, and amazingly imaginative "paper video games", ingenious game designs that used folded paper to create a gameboard on which you could "control" a small paper ball by pressing down to tilt the board. All imaginative game designs which I enjoyed very much and are possibly the reason I became a game designer. That and the small fact that I never finished a college degree and hence had very limited choices.

See? I did learn things in school that directly helps me in my career today. In addition to all the great stuff that was in the textbooks. 

How my son's passion for Halo got him interested in art and music.

My son is a typical eleven year old. He doesn't enjoy work. He doesn't enjoy educating himself. He'd rather be playing videogames and eating unhealthy things all day.

He does enjoy drawing and music - but we were finding it hard to get him to focus and practice in any meaningful way. He'd pick up something, doodle about for a bit, get distracted, and give up. Many children do. He seemed reasonably talented and interested - but did not have the discipline to overcome challenges, solve problems and learn stuff that wasn't ridiculously easy.

But he's different when he's playing Halo. For those of you living under a rock, Halo is the blockbuster XBOX game which involves heroic human super-soldiers and really cool aliens shooting at each other. It's awesome. You should try it.

Here are some videos that will give you an idea of what Halo looks and feels like :

My son LOVES Halo. He's finished every campaign in the game, and regularly plays multiplayer battles online. When he's doing this, he's incredibly focused. He practices long hours. He improves his skills. He doesn't back away from challenges. He takes defeat in his stride and wants to get better. And he gets better. It's exactly the attitude you want a child to have.

Now a normal parental instinct is to lecture the kid about this. WHY can't you show the same focus in art or music or studies? Or to pull the kid away from the game and force him to focus on other stuff. Thus usually igniting a death spiral of boredom and resentment that makes the poor kid hate absolutely everything.

I thought - why not get him to channel his passion for the game to help him develop other skills ?

Why not point him at the art and music in Halo to get him to spend more time developing his skills ? Could it work ?

You bet.

Art was always going to be easy - because my son is naturally drawn to it. So setting down goals to try and learn different aspects of drawing, inking and colouring had spectacular results (I'm referring here more to the discipline he shows in learning the skill than art quality per se). I'm posting a few of his pieces here (they're all from Halo) - I can assure you that the improvement he's shown is significant. More importantly, he enjoys the process and is proud to show people his work - something he was always shy of before.

Music was more surprising. Normally, he's reluctant to sit down and practice for more than a few minutes, and if a piece was too hard he would simply give up. Once I suggested that he try and learn some pieces from the Halo theme music - he was transformed. Now, he spends significant time sitting by himself and practicing the pieces (even in the morning for a few minutes before leaving for school). He does all of this unprompted - he doesn't wait for me to tell him to practice. If he has a few minutes free he's at the keyboard, playing away. It's amazing.

A month back, he was nowhere near this confident or motivated. He goes for lessons at the lovely Taaqademy, but he would barely spend ten minutes a day at home practicing, only when pushed. Add Halo to the mix, and a marked difference. Here are a couple of videos of him trying to play pieces from Halo. Far from perfect, but a remarkable improvement.

Kids don't hate art or music or science or math. They hate being forced to learn these things in ways that don't suit them - at some predefined pace, or with some predefined goals that they have no say in setting.

There is art in every videogame. There is music in every videogame. There is math and science in most videogames. It's an opportunity to get kids to learn skills in a way that will hold their attention and interest - point at the stuff that their beloved games contain, and get them to go deeper.

My experiment doesn't stop here. We've already begun exploring how probability works in the deck-building activity of games like Magic : The Gathering. I'm thinking of putting together a history and geography program based on Civilization V. Some time soon, I'll also try and get him started on programming by encouraging him to code his own games. I'm certain it will work.

I'll keep posting about the results here. I also urge those of you who have videogame obsessed kids to try some experiments of your own.

What is wrong with you, South India?

I sometimes randomly Google things to see what turns up. It's fun.

Last week, I Googled for 'South Indian Stud'. This is what turns up :

(Please click on all the pics in this post and view the larger images. Totally worth it.)

I mean, seriously? No Dr.Mr.Joseph Vijay Saar ? No Power Star of any sort? No Sidin Vadukut? Ridiculous.

To compare, I next Googled 'North Indian Stud'. Only marginally better, but better. At least one bona-fide stud, and two passable ones. I'll leave you to figure out which ones exactly those are.

North India - 1. South India - 0.

Next, as suggested by the admirable Devadittya Banerjee, I Googled an image search for 'Tamil'. Here's what I got :

Lots of pictures of chicks. One of Karthi. And suggested categories include 'Love Kavithai', 'Love Failure Kavithai', 'Love Letter' and 'Love Song'. 'Love Failure Kavithai' as an entire CATEGORY? WTF Tamil Nadu????

Surely only my home state couldn't be so pathetic. I needed to know. So I Googled for all the other three major South Indian languages.

Telugu again shows up only chicks, one random guy, and some suggested searches that all seem to be about something called 'Lanjalu'. The one colleague I asked for a translation assured me that it isn't something pleasant. Sigh.

Malayalam again stays with this pattern. Full chicks. But at least some balance is restored by Lalettan, Mamootty and some dude called Dileep. But no Sidin. Suggested categories indicate that Mallus dig something mysterious called 'Scrap'. Three of the categories are 'Scrap', 'Comedy Scrap' and 'Scraps Friendship' - whatever those mean.

So far, so good. I sighed in relief. Not only Tamil Nadu, but all other states are the same. Thank God.

And then something happened. I Googled for 'Kannada' : 

WTF??? It's all about the language! All the images show the script. The suggested categories are about the state - logo, Rajyotsava, and so on. Even the 'Love' here is 'Language Love'. The only image of that couple smooching is an aberration, a blemish on this beautiful search results page.

I was filled with a new respect for my current home.

But wait. Perhaps Karnataka is the exception. Surely, other Indian states will revert to the pattern established by Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.

I Googled further.

Sigh.

Rest of India - 6. South India - 1. Thank you, Karnataka.

For what it's worth, I tried with other languages from all over the world as well.

Looks like it's just us.

WTF, South India ?

(Except Karnataka. You're okay).

The Hero India Needs.

There is only one true Captain.

Superheroes vs Narendra Modi

Thank you, Abhishek Tewari ;)