No, I'm not talking about the scripting language for the OHR, I'm talking about this new excuse for an OHR Magazine written by one, Rufus B. Surlaw. I had the unfortunate experience of running across this "magazine" while typing my own name into google, which I often do just to ensure I'm not being slandered or impersonated somewhere. I saw that a new OHR Magazine had been made, so I figured I would check it out.
Now this was a 'new' magazine to me, but not necessarily new to you all. I left the community back in 2003ish with little notice or fanfare, though in your hearts you knew something was missing. Now I am simply appalled that the Community has allowed this farce known as "HamsterSpeak" to continue for THREE YEARS.
First off, there are these covers drawn every month for the article. I have never in my life seen worse pieces of 'art' and I've been to some crazy art shows. I've seen people defecate in public onto a canvas, call it art, and still be better looking than some of these covers. The covers of magazines are supposed to be able to fold-in to create a witty solution to a question posed on the front. I have never read a magazine without this feature, so it was difficult enough just to get past the cover onto the meat of the pages within.
The second issue was the only issue worth looking at, mostly because of the history written by Rinku in which he details the greatness of BS:OHR over all other OHR Websites. Basically Rinku tells of the greatness of the Sheep-that-was-black and how awesome the articles and commentaries were.
I tried my best to read the rest of the articles, but after reading the June edition, I don't think I will ever be able to force myself to return. There was a review in there of a game I had produced years ago, long before most of you were ever able to use the OHR. Back when the OHR only allowed you to use FOUR MAPS and you had to e-mail James specially to reserve your .RPG filename in advance. That's right; Demo1 was created by me to be used as a DEMO. This was not a complete game, so many of the features were not implemented yet. For some reason, the reviewer of Demo1 didn't seem to realize that sometimes DEMOS contain features that are not yet finished. Perhaps we should have named it Beta1 or Alpha1, to be more specific for the great reviewers of HamsterSpeak, so they would have KNOWN that some features were not quite polished. Though, we did TRY and let the player know this by having the characters tell them if they weren't supposed to be part of the game yet... apparently this was not a good idea according to the reviewer.
Granted, it has been awhile since I last checked out Demo1, so I decided to boot it up and play it. The game was nowhere near as terrible as the reviewer stated. The graphics were colorful, the music melodic, and the characters memorable. I felt proud to help Anarac in his epic quest against the evil Brett and his orc minions. I felt a sense of accomplishment when I decimated their ranks, even though I had forgotten to equip the sword that was for Anarac-only. I leapt from my chair and wept due to the joy I felt in my heart at gaining 600 GP and 100XP.
So I think that Surlaw needs to find himself a reviewer that knows his stuff, and really gets a feeling for the games before posting an article. Simply rushing through a game as fast as possible to meet a deadline is no way to properly gauge how great a game is.
Finally, the last problem I see with HamsterSpeak is Communism. The OHRRPGCE has become nothing but a socialist organization (which, by the way, was revealed by BlackSheep:OHR back in 2001). The engine has become some sort of socialist project worked on by many people, and it is hurting the engine more than it is helping.
It is now possible to import .ogg files, which means MP3's can be converted, and sound FX can be added. That means we can have OHR Games with CD-Quality music now. The engine allows for way more than the standard 4 maps of the original version. The price we have to pay for such features is our very freedom. Give me four maps and BAMs any day so long as we retain our freedom.
In closing, I would like to suggest a few improvements that could be made to HamsterSpeak. I would love to see this magazine succeed, so I will end with a few simple suggestions.