![]() Technical debt is a phrase originally coined by software developer, Ward Cunningham, who in addition to being one of 17 authors of the Agile Manifesto, is also credited with inventing the wiki. But what exactly is technical debt anyway? And why do we call it that? It is referred to as a catchall that covers everything from bugs to legacy code, to missing documentation. Also known as design debt or code debt, the phrase (or more accurately, the metaphor) is widely used in the technology space. If you’ve been in the software industry for any period of time, chances are you’ve heard the term “technical debt”. In other words, it’s the result of prioritizing speedy delivery over perfect code. Which is why, alongside Pillars of Eternity, Mount and Blade: Bannerlord is my most anticipated game at the moment.Technical debt (also known as tech debt or code debt) describes what results when development teams take actions to expedite the delivery of a piece of functionality or a project which later needs to be refactored. It's unrefined, dated and clunky in many ways yeah, but it's still one of the most fun games I've ever played while having great replay value. Better than most other medieval melee/archery styles out there in spite of its age and their presumably low budget.Īll this is achieved with a pretty simple base game, it's just such a good "core". You can spend more time micro-managing your units while hanging back shooting ranged weapons if you're not combat-built or enjoy a more RTS-style of gameplay.Īnd importantly, combat is just fun. The strengths of your character and your weapon loadout will factor into your tactics as well. You're an overpowered juggernaut eventually so you make a big impact as a warrior as well as a leader, organizing your troops while fighting with them. This really helps break up any potential monotony and gives you more visceral first/third person action when you want it. Nords and Rhodoks) and what sorts of units you use against them.Īnd then, finally, you're on the field yourself. Which factions fail or succeed is somewhat random(except maybe Swadia due to their feasting tendencies.) which can change where you take your battles to(avoiding field battles vs. Which you can involve yourself in to varying degrees. Then there's the to-and-fro of the warring factions. You can play the game as a trader even, albeit I don't think it's fleshed out enough for that at least un-modded. You've also got resources to manage, and an economy that you can take advantage of. Of course, you can still choose interesting compositions over overpowered ones just to make things more interesting. This is honestly a weak point in the game's execution as certain units / styles are flat out superior, but we're talking about potential of the formula here even if it's not always well realized. I liked finding "bang-for-the-buck" units. Stronger units cost more upkeep though, and while money may eventually be trivial the early-mid game is more interesting due to this factor at least. You also level your units up, choosing different paths of upgrades. Of course this eventually grows into larger forces as you progress. Then you've got your heroes that you equip and build yourself, filling out your character's weak spots and eventually being great as an elite unit in field battles. And a decent player creativity factor.įirst, you've got your main character build, which will define how you play at least in the early game. What Warband really has is a lot of variety without needing a ton of unique content. Mods make a lot of games into great time sinks though. I have spent more time with it than probably any other single-player game. My favorite formula for a time sink game so far has to be Mount and Blade: Warband. I'm going to start with just one example. I'm wondering what games you find to excel at this balance and why. I think many games have more potential as time sinks, but that potential gets squandered by aiming for a very standard linear experience. There are ways to pull this off well and that's what I'd like to discuss here. There're certainly tons of games set-up to be time sinks, but they're too boring or, in the case of multiplayer reliant on there being enough other players that're reasonably mature and of comparable skill/experience level to really enjoy.Ī good time sink needs a difficult balance I suppose - it has to be interesting and varied enough to hold interest while having quantity or at least feeling like it does. This is one thing I look for in games and have trouble finding.
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