Video games will always be there for you after a girl breaks your heart. Whether, they get some dust after prolong periods of depreciation and absence of play, they will always be there, unless you return them back to the store where you got them.
9.
When your girlfriend is nagging you to do the dishes, wash your clothes, or stop “relaxing” in front of the television, (because she wants you to take her shopping), and you simply aren't in the mood you can't turn them off. With video games, you can simply flick a switch on the console and turn them off when they start to frustrate you, annoy you, and piss you off to the point where you start throwing your precious controller at the wall.
8.
Video games never get old, because there is always a new one coming out. Your girlfriend can only be new for so long; so what do you do when she gets old or when she gets over you because you’re not "fresh" anymore?
7.
There are levels to video games. There are issues with your girlfriend.
6.
You can read up and test out video games before you buy them. Girlfriends make you earn it, before you get it.
5.
If a video game is dirty take it out and clean the disk, if your girlfriend smells like fish, suck it up and eat the dish.
4.
Video games cost $60 or less, depending if you want a used game or a new game. With girlfriends, they can cost you your life, and your savings account.
3.
You can play video games whenever you feel like it. Sometimes your girlfriend is having that time of the month and she wants you to play with her with dire consequences and some bloodstains after your argument on whether to go out for dinner, or to stay home and cook something.
2.
A video game wont judge you, it will love you for who you are , your girlfriend has standards that you have to meet.
1.
Video games have cheat codes and it makes the game even better. If you cheat on your girlfriend, she might slap, kick, punch and bite; or worse move out and take half of your shit, including the video games.
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Showing posts with label casual gaming research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label casual gaming research. Show all posts
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
What is the JRPG genre? A basic guide for the uninformed.
Ok this is more of a soap box rant driven by Hyperdimension Neptunia not given an Australian release date but it also sparked an inspiration, write an informative guide on the JRPG genre so those who only reference it to Square-Enix and Final Fantasy or don't know about it can finally learn what the genre really is and all the different styles of gameplay in each.
First I'll start with the basic info that most should know and then I'll go in depth a little later. A JRPG is a video game genre made in Japan where you take the role of a predetermine character or characters in a heavily story driven experience. The JRPG genre is also known for it's similarity to the tabletop board game "Dungeons and Dragons" in terms of it's RPG influence through character development(leveling up), basic structure of narrative flow and occasionally combat.
Now to get into the in depth part. Like I said a lot of people think Final Fantasy and Square-Enix when they hear JRPG and stereo type it on that alone. This isn't true though. There have been various things done to the JRPG combat system over they years and the classic Dungeons and Dragons style was used when the genre started due to data limitations on the Famicom/NES cartridges. Sure there are a fair few JRPGs that use the classic turn based combat but that is due to what is easier to develop and appeasing fans but there are a lot of examples of JRPGs that have various tweaks to the system or are different.
I'll start with examples of the turn based combat being tweek and then go into the ones that are different. Some examples of variations/tweaks to the norm are Fire Emblem where the combat is strategic turn based where the teams take turns to fight and Valkyria Chronicles takes that up a notch by having stuff happen while moving your characters and using the environment to you advantage a lot better then other games in this sub genre. Shadow Hearts also tweaks the turn based combat system by using a thing called the judgement ring which has you performing a quick time event essentially to perform attacks and skills. The Judgement ring has multiple segments that you have to hit in order to perform the command and it has to sections in each segment, a orange section which will make the command work and a red section with is small and will improve the effectiveness of the command. You need to hit all the segments to get the command to work. Baten Kaitos tweaks the system with cards for your commands with varying values to shake up combat. Resonance Of Fate which made some serious changes to the system like using a special gauge to perform a running attack that you can attack as many times as you like until the time gauge runs out and giving you 2 different types of attacks depending on the weapon used and a variety of weapon types to use. Eternal Sonata is a hybrid turn based combat game that incorporates action combat during the turn of each character. There are tons more but these are just some great examples of variations of the turn based combat system.
Now on to the different type of combat system, the action combat system. There are a whole bunch of these that have come out in years and most of you can probably name more of these then turn based combat JRPGs. Kingdom Hearts is one a lot of people will know straight away but there are others. Star Ocean and the 'Tales of' series are 2 other examples of action JRPGs that have a cult following. The combat in these games is relatively the same but the thing is that some of the people who worked on Star Ocean worked on Tales of Phantasia. The combat systems of 'Tales of' games are arena based and you uses skills by pressing the skills button and a direction and Star Oceans combat system started the same but changed to using 2 different attack button and the skills with 1 button but a different one depending on distance with Star Ocean: Til The End Of Time and in Star Ocean: The Last Hope the skills with 2 different buttons. Secret of Mana had an action combat system that was similar to the Legend Of Zelda series. Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadows uses a touch screen interface for using spells in a action combat setting and works well on the DS. Key of Heaven aka Kingdom of Paradise had an action combat system that was heavily customisable.
Now the final part the stories. Some of you have it in your head that all JRPGs follow the same cliche story of angsty teens saving the world from evil but that's not true of all JRPGs. None of the 'Tales Of' series is like that and none of the Atelier series is either. I could name a boat load of them that don't have angsty teen saving the world but I've already got 2 walls of text and don't really want another. Believe it or not it's easier to name the ones that do contain the angsty teens saving the world. Also in JRPGs there is this thing called character development where the characters overcome their flaws for the greater good but this isn't always emo angst like in Final Fantasy VII and XIII.
Some people will argue that JRPGs aren't RPGs at all and they are half right. The role playing experience of true role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons or Fallout isn't their but it's mechanics of leveling up, magic and large worlds are there. You can also argue that all video games are RPGs because your always taking on the role of a character but that's a whole other thing altogether.
Well this is as much as I'll give you since I could spend forever and a day talking about it but I have to stop at some point. Don't label the genre on Final Fantasy alone and give some JRPGs a go. I recommend Resonance Of Fate, Tales Of Vesperia, Lost Odyssey, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Eternal Sonata, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony, Chrono Trigger, Kingdom Hearts, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn and Persona 4 as must play JRPGs that you should be able to buy still but there are tons of classics if your willing to hunt them down. The JRPG genre isn't as bad as you think, I hate FPS and shooters period but there are some that have stood out that I'm glad I tried. If I'm willing to play some games in the genre I hate, then you should at least give half these recommended games a go.
First I'll start with the basic info that most should know and then I'll go in depth a little later. A JRPG is a video game genre made in Japan where you take the role of a predetermine character or characters in a heavily story driven experience. The JRPG genre is also known for it's similarity to the tabletop board game "Dungeons and Dragons" in terms of it's RPG influence through character development(leveling up), basic structure of narrative flow and occasionally combat.
Now to get into the in depth part. Like I said a lot of people think Final Fantasy and Square-Enix when they hear JRPG and stereo type it on that alone. This isn't true though. There have been various things done to the JRPG combat system over they years and the classic Dungeons and Dragons style was used when the genre started due to data limitations on the Famicom/NES cartridges. Sure there are a fair few JRPGs that use the classic turn based combat but that is due to what is easier to develop and appeasing fans but there are a lot of examples of JRPGs that have various tweaks to the system or are different.
I'll start with examples of the turn based combat being tweek and then go into the ones that are different. Some examples of variations/tweaks to the norm are Fire Emblem where the combat is strategic turn based where the teams take turns to fight and Valkyria Chronicles takes that up a notch by having stuff happen while moving your characters and using the environment to you advantage a lot better then other games in this sub genre. Shadow Hearts also tweaks the turn based combat system by using a thing called the judgement ring which has you performing a quick time event essentially to perform attacks and skills. The Judgement ring has multiple segments that you have to hit in order to perform the command and it has to sections in each segment, a orange section which will make the command work and a red section with is small and will improve the effectiveness of the command. You need to hit all the segments to get the command to work. Baten Kaitos tweaks the system with cards for your commands with varying values to shake up combat. Resonance Of Fate which made some serious changes to the system like using a special gauge to perform a running attack that you can attack as many times as you like until the time gauge runs out and giving you 2 different types of attacks depending on the weapon used and a variety of weapon types to use. Eternal Sonata is a hybrid turn based combat game that incorporates action combat during the turn of each character. There are tons more but these are just some great examples of variations of the turn based combat system.
Now on to the different type of combat system, the action combat system. There are a whole bunch of these that have come out in years and most of you can probably name more of these then turn based combat JRPGs. Kingdom Hearts is one a lot of people will know straight away but there are others. Star Ocean and the 'Tales of' series are 2 other examples of action JRPGs that have a cult following. The combat in these games is relatively the same but the thing is that some of the people who worked on Star Ocean worked on Tales of Phantasia. The combat systems of 'Tales of' games are arena based and you uses skills by pressing the skills button and a direction and Star Oceans combat system started the same but changed to using 2 different attack button and the skills with 1 button but a different one depending on distance with Star Ocean: Til The End Of Time and in Star Ocean: The Last Hope the skills with 2 different buttons. Secret of Mana had an action combat system that was similar to the Legend Of Zelda series. Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadows uses a touch screen interface for using spells in a action combat setting and works well on the DS. Key of Heaven aka Kingdom of Paradise had an action combat system that was heavily customisable.
Now the final part the stories. Some of you have it in your head that all JRPGs follow the same cliche story of angsty teens saving the world from evil but that's not true of all JRPGs. None of the 'Tales Of' series is like that and none of the Atelier series is either. I could name a boat load of them that don't have angsty teen saving the world but I've already got 2 walls of text and don't really want another. Believe it or not it's easier to name the ones that do contain the angsty teens saving the world. Also in JRPGs there is this thing called character development where the characters overcome their flaws for the greater good but this isn't always emo angst like in Final Fantasy VII and XIII.
Some people will argue that JRPGs aren't RPGs at all and they are half right. The role playing experience of true role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons or Fallout isn't their but it's mechanics of leveling up, magic and large worlds are there. You can also argue that all video games are RPGs because your always taking on the role of a character but that's a whole other thing altogether.
Well this is as much as I'll give you since I could spend forever and a day talking about it but I have to stop at some point. Don't label the genre on Final Fantasy alone and give some JRPGs a go. I recommend Resonance Of Fate, Tales Of Vesperia, Lost Odyssey, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Eternal Sonata, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony, Chrono Trigger, Kingdom Hearts, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn and Persona 4 as must play JRPGs that you should be able to buy still but there are tons of classics if your willing to hunt them down. The JRPG genre isn't as bad as you think, I hate FPS and shooters period but there are some that have stood out that I'm glad I tried. If I'm willing to play some games in the genre I hate, then you should at least give half these recommended games a go.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Go Home Dinosaurs! Interview, Part One
Interviewing Eitan Glinert, Fire Hose Games’ Fire Chief, isn’t really about asking questions so much as it is staying out of the way of his train of thought. He’s just cool like that. In part one of our interview at PAX he talks to me about their upcoming tower defense title Go Home Dinosaurs!, how the game began as Slam Bolt Scrappers mobile, and 40 to 50 to 60-person multiplayer features.
Cat: It’s a Fire Hose game!
Eitan: Yeah, and because we’re us, every game has to have fitting-together Tetris-style puzzle pieces. It’s tower defense, or BBQ defense, with Dinosaurs. As the game goes you get bigger and differently shaped pieces, and figuring out how you’re going to put them together gets really crazy.
Cat: Can all the different weapon types hit every enemy type?
EG: Currently, yes. Down the road, I’m not sure. We have, for instance, two other weapons that aren’t here and they do hit all the enemies types. For instance, pTerry, our Pterodactyl, they have names but we haven’t been showing them off -
Cat: - you really do want us to empathise with the cute, pink dinosaurs?
EG: Well the animals have names, too! Apparently we’ve gotten lots of requests for Rodney the Rodent, which is weird. We have two other weapons, but right now we’re not showing them off just because it’s too much and we wanted to keep the demo shorter. One of them, Ghostbusters inspired, shoots out this crazy beam that basically slows down the dinos and does damage.
Cat: Gotta have a slow tower.
EG: We even have something in there about how you can’t cross the streams and if they get too close to one another they just stop and make this snarky comment, “You can’t cross the streams!” We’ll see if that stays in or not! Also, It seems to be doing really well with kids.
Cat: Dinosaurs!
EG: Dinosaurs, and super accessible gameplay. We had kids here yesterday that were playing for twenty-five minutes, I said, “I’m sorry!”, I had to ask the parents if they could move on because they were going to stay here all day. It was awesome and I felt really bad about it!
Also, we have this dialog text that comes up, it’s basically fun stuff for people watching the game. It might not even make it into the game, to be honest, but it’s fun stuff for people watching at PAX. One of the lines is basically the main character flirting with you, and it’s, “You’re really good at this game...and you look good, too! (wink)”, and so we had this five year old kid come and play and sit with his mom. The first thing, immediately it pops up, and the mom is like, “Oh...” and I’m thinking, “Haha! I’m just not going to say anything and hope she doesn’t notice.”
[Eitan breaks to fire up the demo for another kid!]
EG: So you remember how SlamBoltScrappers was super complicated for people to pick up and learn? This is basically us trying to fix that. This game actually started off, when we were beginning it, we called it “Slam Bolt Scrappers mobile”, that was the thing we started talking about, and then we ended up changing around stuff. We’ve actually managed already to iterate on it twice, and so it’s already very far from it, but this is basically us fixing stuff that we wanted to change about SBS.
Cat: You guys and your iterations, are there going to be, like, ten or so more?
EG: Yeah, OK, you really wanna know? This is a different game than was here yesterday because we’re getting nightly builds because everyone back in Boston is still working on this.
Cat: So if I come back tomorrow there won’t even be dinosaurs?
EG: What I can tell you is the gameplay is more or less set at this point. This is what the game is going to be like. What’s changing around a lot right now is the metagame and stuff like that. So, for instance, there’s going to be lots beyond what you see right now. You have the leveling up with the cards, that stuff is just placeholder, you’ll be collecting and trading with other players, friends, and we also have a huge multiplayer thing we’re going to be adding in and that’s also in the works.
Cat: Multiplayer...
EG: OK, don’t hold me to this, but we’re trying to see if we can make a version of this that works for 40 or 50 or 60, like a small-scale MMO type thing where the idea is that people can drop-in/drop-out. It’s not persistent, it’s not that you have your, you know, your guild or anything like that, but it’s supposed to be something you can go and you can play for a little while and hop out and other people hop in and it’s supposed to be a giant battle. We’re playing around with it, we’ll see if we can actually pull this off.
That bombshell concludes Part One, check back tomorrow for Part Two! Thanks, Eitan and the rest of the team at Fire Hose Games!
For more reading, our Preview of the game: http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
Cat: It’s a Fire Hose game!
Eitan: Yeah, and because we’re us, every game has to have fitting-together Tetris-style puzzle pieces. It’s tower defense, or BBQ defense, with Dinosaurs. As the game goes you get bigger and differently shaped pieces, and figuring out how you’re going to put them together gets really crazy.
Cat: Can all the different weapon types hit every enemy type?
EG: Currently, yes. Down the road, I’m not sure. We have, for instance, two other weapons that aren’t here and they do hit all the enemies types. For instance, pTerry, our Pterodactyl, they have names but we haven’t been showing them off -
Cat: - you really do want us to empathise with the cute, pink dinosaurs?
EG: Well the animals have names, too! Apparently we’ve gotten lots of requests for Rodney the Rodent, which is weird. We have two other weapons, but right now we’re not showing them off just because it’s too much and we wanted to keep the demo shorter. One of them, Ghostbusters inspired, shoots out this crazy beam that basically slows down the dinos and does damage.
Cat: Gotta have a slow tower.
EG: We even have something in there about how you can’t cross the streams and if they get too close to one another they just stop and make this snarky comment, “You can’t cross the streams!” We’ll see if that stays in or not! Also, It seems to be doing really well with kids.
Cat: Dinosaurs!
EG: Dinosaurs, and super accessible gameplay. We had kids here yesterday that were playing for twenty-five minutes, I said, “I’m sorry!”, I had to ask the parents if they could move on because they were going to stay here all day. It was awesome and I felt really bad about it!
Also, we have this dialog text that comes up, it’s basically fun stuff for people watching the game. It might not even make it into the game, to be honest, but it’s fun stuff for people watching at PAX. One of the lines is basically the main character flirting with you, and it’s, “You’re really good at this game...and you look good, too! (wink)”, and so we had this five year old kid come and play and sit with his mom. The first thing, immediately it pops up, and the mom is like, “Oh...” and I’m thinking, “Haha! I’m just not going to say anything and hope she doesn’t notice.”
[Eitan breaks to fire up the demo for another kid!]
EG: So you remember how SlamBoltScrappers was super complicated for people to pick up and learn? This is basically us trying to fix that. This game actually started off, when we were beginning it, we called it “Slam Bolt Scrappers mobile”, that was the thing we started talking about, and then we ended up changing around stuff. We’ve actually managed already to iterate on it twice, and so it’s already very far from it, but this is basically us fixing stuff that we wanted to change about SBS.
Cat: You guys and your iterations, are there going to be, like, ten or so more?
EG: Yeah, OK, you really wanna know? This is a different game than was here yesterday because we’re getting nightly builds because everyone back in Boston is still working on this.
Cat: So if I come back tomorrow there won’t even be dinosaurs?
EG: What I can tell you is the gameplay is more or less set at this point. This is what the game is going to be like. What’s changing around a lot right now is the metagame and stuff like that. So, for instance, there’s going to be lots beyond what you see right now. You have the leveling up with the cards, that stuff is just placeholder, you’ll be collecting and trading with other players, friends, and we also have a huge multiplayer thing we’re going to be adding in and that’s also in the works.
Cat: Multiplayer...
EG: OK, don’t hold me to this, but we’re trying to see if we can make a version of this that works for 40 or 50 or 60, like a small-scale MMO type thing where the idea is that people can drop-in/drop-out. It’s not persistent, it’s not that you have your, you know, your guild or anything like that, but it’s supposed to be something you can go and you can play for a little while and hop out and other people hop in and it’s supposed to be a giant battle. We’re playing around with it, we’ll see if we can actually pull this off.
That bombshell concludes Part One, check back tomorrow for Part Two! Thanks, Eitan and the rest of the team at Fire Hose Games!
For more reading, our Preview of the game: http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
A Tribute to "Shadow of the Colossus"
It wasn't Mario or Sonic or any of the classics that got me serious about gaming.
No, it was particularly two titles in the past decade for PlayStation 2 that made me realize that video games are as legit and weighty as any other medium of expression.
Sure, the percentage of games that hold up as "art" or have the ability to change someone, their outlook on things or how they question or view the world are few and far between, given that the market is flooded with FPS after FPS in the vein of Call of Duty and its legion of ripoffs.
But in particular, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, to this day, stand up to the test of time.
They are two examples that make me proud to be a gamer.
They are two of the many games that confirm my views on why the PS2 is my all-time favorite system. I mean hell, the console holds 5 of the 7 favorite games I can think of:
-Persona 4
-Resident Evil 4 (originally released on GameCube)
-Final Fantasy X
-Shadow of the Colossus
-Ico
As you can tell, I'm huge on Japanese games, and with good reason. With the exception of a few games and companies like BioWare and Valve, Western game companies often follow the mantra, "Shoot first, ask questions later."
In regards to the games listed above, all of which have come within only the last generation of consoles, I will of course, always hold SNES games like Tetris Attack and Super Mario World dear to my heart, or Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or Mortal Kombat II for the Genesis. But there's a difference between fun factor and nostalgia to the likes of games that impacted me long after I set down my controller.
In honor of the recent release of the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus HD re-release on PlayStation 3, I've decided to reexplore my love for Shadow of the Colossus in particular.
When I played SotC for the first time, I was immediately struck by its beauty. The far reaching landscapes, the desolate ruins, the sparse scenery. The light rays that shined through the temple.
It all built up to an otherworldly atmosphere that left me in awe and wonder.
It's funny because Fumito Ueda, creator of both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, really knew how to work the system's limitations into his favor.
Coming out of the gate the earliest, the PS2 was by far the weakest in terms of power of the three consoles (fellow rivals, Xbox and GameCube) of last generation.
So Ueda couldn't afford to build a world dense in details that he probably wanted to employ to immerse the player in terms of realism.
Thus, he went the opposite route.
Let's make a sparse and desolate world. Not sparse in terms of laziness and inattention to detail.
No, it was quite the opposite.
Ueda and his team took to apply the use of space in their games, to strategically place vegetation, building structures, ruins, and a camera perspective that would not only keep the player immersed in the world, but to engender feelings of loneliness, even a sense of helplessness, to a protagonist that is no super hero by any means - but is nevertheless on a journey to save the woman he loves.
But the enemy and the tasks necessary for him to accomplish this aren't so clear cut - he is to slay giant, mythical beasts known as Colossi in order to fulfill the temple spirits' wishes, but at the same time, he doesn't know the purpose or reasons as to why these Colossi are to be killed. What is the end goal of all of this?
The protagonist is so desperate to find a way to save the woman that he has no other choice.
The game opens up with shots of him riding his horse through far off regions. The intro then ends with him traversing a bridge that stretches far into the distance, as if never-ending, but ultimately leading to the temple.
I've actually traversed this entire bridge in the game and you can bet, it's long as fuck. I can't remember exactly but it literally took me 10 or more minutes to ride across the damn thing on my horse.
But these design choices were made on purpose.
The entire game's design was made for certain purposes.
When I traversed these long stretches of scenery and the world, uninterrupted, I felt a greater sense of wonder and amazement; at the same time, I started questioning myself and the protagonist's journey. I was in doubt of myself. Would I be able to conquer the next Colossus? Would killing another one bring me that much closer to saving the woman? Where would the next task take me?
The fact that there are absolutely no lesser enemies or minions to deal with in between each Colossus battle only elevates the gravitas of each struggle's outcome.
Or the fact that there are no towns or dungeons to explore, absolutely no other characters to interact with.
To say that the game is just a series of 16 boss battles would do it a great disservice.
Every Colossus battle is unique in itself. Each holds its own personality, and some are completely harmless and docile. Which only comes back to reinforce the question of the morality of killing them.
They simply aren't the black-and-white painted enemies of other games or stories. They aren't belligerent, imbecilic creatures out to hinder or try to murder you out of orders from a greater evil entity. This isn't a simple rescue-the-princess tale like The Legend of Zelda or Super Mario.
The Colossi mainly fight to defend themselves and their territory. Your invasion and encroachment of this is what brings out their animalistic qualities. I could feel the weight of the very first arrow that I would fire to provoke them to battle.
My character, the very person I was playing, was the insinuator. I felt like a hunter of sorts, killing not out of necessity for my survival, but for the sake of my selfish goals and means.
After the defeat of each Colossus, a scene plays where it collapses to the ground, turning into a black, murky presence that gets absorbed into the surrounding environment. The scenes serve the dual purpose in my mind to both add guilt to the player in what they've done, and to instill a sense that the Colossi are part of the natural world around them. They're simply returning back to Mother Earth.
But they no longer hold the purity and essence that they once did alive. The black spirit that is leftover is very much like the events that transpired in Princess Mononoke and the death of the Forest Spirit. You are a destroyer of nature, a selfish human being disrupting the order and beauty of the world.
Before I move on further about the game's presentation and other elements, on the note of the actual gameplay of the Colossus battles, at their very core is the quintessential mechanic used in almost all games - find a way to defeat the enemy.
To avoid confusion and add a common gameplay goal and familiarity to the fights, the sum of your actions is to basically find the Colossus's weak points and stab it into oblivion. These weak points are often cleverly concealed and hidden somewhere on the Colossus's body, or are simply in plain sight but are difficult as fuck to get to, such as the head.
And in thinking about it, stabbing a Colossus's head multiple times just makes killing them even more brutal and everlasting.
The very animations in the game reinforce this. When stabbing the head for the final blow that will take down the Colossus, the camera zooms in on your character as he reels back with his sword. He then plunges it in with all of his might in a sickening, yet gratifying manner. It's interesting to feel equal amounts accomplishment in finally defeating a single enemy you've been working at for a good half hour, and also a sort of disgust at what you've done.
As a gamer, it's rare to ever feel any emotion or remorse to the hordes and hordes of enemies you hack to pieces.
In Shadow of the Colossus, you will feel and remember each battle and death.
What makes each battle memorable, is that traversing each Colossus to find their weak points are levels and puzzles in themselves. The Colossi are so large and awe-inspiring that you're initially taken aback and approach them with hesitation and a great "WHAT THE FUCK, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DEFEAT THAT 50-STORY MONSTROSITY WITH MY PUNY ASS ARROWS AND SWORD?"
With every pounding step of the Colossus, the ground shakes. If you stand close enough to one, your character actually stumbles and falls over. There's an attention to detail about the character animations in the game that is so sorely overlooked in other games.
You can feel the frailty of the protagonist. His jumps employ every bit of energy in his lanky arms and legs that he can muster, and he stumbles imperfectly upon landing. It looks pretty sad/puny to the likes of the robotic, horrendously unrealistic ups that send your character skyward in other games. Whenever he grips a ledge or holds onto his dear life on a Colossus, he swings and rocks violently back and forth; you feel a greater sense of danger when the animation gives the appearance that he could fall to his death at any second.
Throughout the course of the entire game, you never actually progress in a new skill set or gain any sort of new ability. You simply never feel a sense of confidence or overwhelming empowerment to safely say that you can easily overpower the next Colossus. You always feel vulnerable, as each can simply dispatch you in 1-3 hits.
All that you have in the face of your physical deficiencies are your wits, unlimited arrows, and trusty steed, Agro.
Slowly, with great observation and inquisition, you notice the movements and patterns of each Colossus. This once again, isn't a kill-first-ask-questions later game. Often the best strategy to figure them out is to simply stop. And stare. (Not the OneRepublic song.)
And when you do manage to man up and have the balls to tackle them, climbing onto their bodies and moving to the areas/spots you want present themselves to be more like fully-designed levels. The armor that they wear are in the shape of platforms and ledges, and the brilliance of the game lies in the fact that rather than being a simple, static platformer of sorts, these levels are more dynamic. They move just as the Colossus moves, which presents as a challenge/factor to consider. Toss in elements like some of them having the ability to fly, or shoot electricity, or go underwater, or smash you with a giant sword, and you've got the makings of some of the most memorable boss battles, or in my eyes, the most memorable collection/set, in the history of games.
All of these qualities combined are what makes the game so enduring in my mind. The sense of achievement as a gamer is heightened when it is derived from your patience in the face of seemingly impossible odds.
On a final note, I want to briefly mention the narrative structure of the game, and how effective I found it to be. The game only briefly dispatches a few cutscenes throughout its entirety, typically to showcase a new land or portion of the world that you've discovered. The story's mystery and open-ended nature as a result is maintained. To many, this might seem like a cop out and can annoy those looking to be spoon fed abundant details of the world and backstory. The story all seems a bit too light/lacking when all you know is that you have to kill these Colossi to save a woman. But the purposeful slow pace and lack of clarity puts you in a position where you never see an overlying picture of the events transpiring/transpired. In that regard, you never feel removed from the journey - you feel as lost and in doubt and ever so determined as the protagonist.
The tiny snippets of dialogue and cinematics after each Colossus's death are just enough to maintain this mystery but also propel you forward to the next battle. It's a crazy addictive and rewarding mechanic. You're constantly left to try to figure out what's going on, to imagine and build a history around the lands you spend so much time traversing.
This subjective participation to the story's unraveling makes it that much more involving.
The ending, which I won't spoil, is also spectacular - it's a twist of sorts that gives you chills; this whole time you're killing these beasts and there's that uncertainty, that feeling of dread and guilt as to why you're really killing them, that the purpose of the quest is tainted in some way.
It looms in your mind throughout the game's running 10-12 hour experience. And thus, it fully manifests and comes to light all at the end.
I have yet to even discuss the game's excellent, haunting, ethereal-like score by Koh Ohtani. Listen to either "Prologue - To The Ancient Land" or "Epilogue - Those Who Remain" and tell me that these songs did not have any impact on you as you were playing the game. I dare you.
Okay maybe they didn't have any effect on you, but I'd deduce that said person is just a cold-hearted frozen ice queen then.
The game is a lesson on less is more. Show don't tell. Give the player control of not just the game's mechanics, but control over how he/she views the world and the journey and the story that they are undertaking.
It may seem manipulative to set things up this way, but every good affecting piece, whether in cinema or literature, employs atmosphere, subtle details, and a myriad of devices to engender a desired response out of the audience.
And the response I got out of Shadow of the Colossus was a sense of wonder, inspiration, inquisition, contemplation, doubt, and ultimately, one of the greatest gaming experiences of my life.
No, it was particularly two titles in the past decade for PlayStation 2 that made me realize that video games are as legit and weighty as any other medium of expression.
Sure, the percentage of games that hold up as "art" or have the ability to change someone, their outlook on things or how they question or view the world are few and far between, given that the market is flooded with FPS after FPS in the vein of Call of Duty and its legion of ripoffs.
But in particular, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, to this day, stand up to the test of time.
They are two examples that make me proud to be a gamer.
They are two of the many games that confirm my views on why the PS2 is my all-time favorite system. I mean hell, the console holds 5 of the 7 favorite games I can think of:
-Persona 4
-Resident Evil 4 (originally released on GameCube)
-Final Fantasy X
-Shadow of the Colossus
-Ico
As you can tell, I'm huge on Japanese games, and with good reason. With the exception of a few games and companies like BioWare and Valve, Western game companies often follow the mantra, "Shoot first, ask questions later."
In regards to the games listed above, all of which have come within only the last generation of consoles, I will of course, always hold SNES games like Tetris Attack and Super Mario World dear to my heart, or Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or Mortal Kombat II for the Genesis. But there's a difference between fun factor and nostalgia to the likes of games that impacted me long after I set down my controller.
In honor of the recent release of the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus HD re-release on PlayStation 3, I've decided to reexplore my love for Shadow of the Colossus in particular.
When I played SotC for the first time, I was immediately struck by its beauty. The far reaching landscapes, the desolate ruins, the sparse scenery. The light rays that shined through the temple.
It all built up to an otherworldly atmosphere that left me in awe and wonder.
It's funny because Fumito Ueda, creator of both Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, really knew how to work the system's limitations into his favor.
Coming out of the gate the earliest, the PS2 was by far the weakest in terms of power of the three consoles (fellow rivals, Xbox and GameCube) of last generation.
So Ueda couldn't afford to build a world dense in details that he probably wanted to employ to immerse the player in terms of realism.
Thus, he went the opposite route.
Let's make a sparse and desolate world. Not sparse in terms of laziness and inattention to detail.
No, it was quite the opposite.
Ueda and his team took to apply the use of space in their games, to strategically place vegetation, building structures, ruins, and a camera perspective that would not only keep the player immersed in the world, but to engender feelings of loneliness, even a sense of helplessness, to a protagonist that is no super hero by any means - but is nevertheless on a journey to save the woman he loves.
But the enemy and the tasks necessary for him to accomplish this aren't so clear cut - he is to slay giant, mythical beasts known as Colossi in order to fulfill the temple spirits' wishes, but at the same time, he doesn't know the purpose or reasons as to why these Colossi are to be killed. What is the end goal of all of this?
The protagonist is so desperate to find a way to save the woman that he has no other choice.
The game opens up with shots of him riding his horse through far off regions. The intro then ends with him traversing a bridge that stretches far into the distance, as if never-ending, but ultimately leading to the temple.
I've actually traversed this entire bridge in the game and you can bet, it's long as fuck. I can't remember exactly but it literally took me 10 or more minutes to ride across the damn thing on my horse.
But these design choices were made on purpose.
The entire game's design was made for certain purposes.
When I traversed these long stretches of scenery and the world, uninterrupted, I felt a greater sense of wonder and amazement; at the same time, I started questioning myself and the protagonist's journey. I was in doubt of myself. Would I be able to conquer the next Colossus? Would killing another one bring me that much closer to saving the woman? Where would the next task take me?
The fact that there are absolutely no lesser enemies or minions to deal with in between each Colossus battle only elevates the gravitas of each struggle's outcome.
Or the fact that there are no towns or dungeons to explore, absolutely no other characters to interact with.
To say that the game is just a series of 16 boss battles would do it a great disservice.
Every Colossus battle is unique in itself. Each holds its own personality, and some are completely harmless and docile. Which only comes back to reinforce the question of the morality of killing them.
They simply aren't the black-and-white painted enemies of other games or stories. They aren't belligerent, imbecilic creatures out to hinder or try to murder you out of orders from a greater evil entity. This isn't a simple rescue-the-princess tale like The Legend of Zelda or Super Mario.
The Colossi mainly fight to defend themselves and their territory. Your invasion and encroachment of this is what brings out their animalistic qualities. I could feel the weight of the very first arrow that I would fire to provoke them to battle.
My character, the very person I was playing, was the insinuator. I felt like a hunter of sorts, killing not out of necessity for my survival, but for the sake of my selfish goals and means.
After the defeat of each Colossus, a scene plays where it collapses to the ground, turning into a black, murky presence that gets absorbed into the surrounding environment. The scenes serve the dual purpose in my mind to both add guilt to the player in what they've done, and to instill a sense that the Colossi are part of the natural world around them. They're simply returning back to Mother Earth.
But they no longer hold the purity and essence that they once did alive. The black spirit that is leftover is very much like the events that transpired in Princess Mononoke and the death of the Forest Spirit. You are a destroyer of nature, a selfish human being disrupting the order and beauty of the world.
Before I move on further about the game's presentation and other elements, on the note of the actual gameplay of the Colossus battles, at their very core is the quintessential mechanic used in almost all games - find a way to defeat the enemy.
To avoid confusion and add a common gameplay goal and familiarity to the fights, the sum of your actions is to basically find the Colossus's weak points and stab it into oblivion. These weak points are often cleverly concealed and hidden somewhere on the Colossus's body, or are simply in plain sight but are difficult as fuck to get to, such as the head.
And in thinking about it, stabbing a Colossus's head multiple times just makes killing them even more brutal and everlasting.
The very animations in the game reinforce this. When stabbing the head for the final blow that will take down the Colossus, the camera zooms in on your character as he reels back with his sword. He then plunges it in with all of his might in a sickening, yet gratifying manner. It's interesting to feel equal amounts accomplishment in finally defeating a single enemy you've been working at for a good half hour, and also a sort of disgust at what you've done.
As a gamer, it's rare to ever feel any emotion or remorse to the hordes and hordes of enemies you hack to pieces.
In Shadow of the Colossus, you will feel and remember each battle and death.
What makes each battle memorable, is that traversing each Colossus to find their weak points are levels and puzzles in themselves. The Colossi are so large and awe-inspiring that you're initially taken aback and approach them with hesitation and a great "WHAT THE FUCK, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DEFEAT THAT 50-STORY MONSTROSITY WITH MY PUNY ASS ARROWS AND SWORD?"
With every pounding step of the Colossus, the ground shakes. If you stand close enough to one, your character actually stumbles and falls over. There's an attention to detail about the character animations in the game that is so sorely overlooked in other games.
You can feel the frailty of the protagonist. His jumps employ every bit of energy in his lanky arms and legs that he can muster, and he stumbles imperfectly upon landing. It looks pretty sad/puny to the likes of the robotic, horrendously unrealistic ups that send your character skyward in other games. Whenever he grips a ledge or holds onto his dear life on a Colossus, he swings and rocks violently back and forth; you feel a greater sense of danger when the animation gives the appearance that he could fall to his death at any second.
Throughout the course of the entire game, you never actually progress in a new skill set or gain any sort of new ability. You simply never feel a sense of confidence or overwhelming empowerment to safely say that you can easily overpower the next Colossus. You always feel vulnerable, as each can simply dispatch you in 1-3 hits.
All that you have in the face of your physical deficiencies are your wits, unlimited arrows, and trusty steed, Agro.
Slowly, with great observation and inquisition, you notice the movements and patterns of each Colossus. This once again, isn't a kill-first-ask-questions later game. Often the best strategy to figure them out is to simply stop. And stare. (Not the OneRepublic song.)
And when you do manage to man up and have the balls to tackle them, climbing onto their bodies and moving to the areas/spots you want present themselves to be more like fully-designed levels. The armor that they wear are in the shape of platforms and ledges, and the brilliance of the game lies in the fact that rather than being a simple, static platformer of sorts, these levels are more dynamic. They move just as the Colossus moves, which presents as a challenge/factor to consider. Toss in elements like some of them having the ability to fly, or shoot electricity, or go underwater, or smash you with a giant sword, and you've got the makings of some of the most memorable boss battles, or in my eyes, the most memorable collection/set, in the history of games.
All of these qualities combined are what makes the game so enduring in my mind. The sense of achievement as a gamer is heightened when it is derived from your patience in the face of seemingly impossible odds.
On a final note, I want to briefly mention the narrative structure of the game, and how effective I found it to be. The game only briefly dispatches a few cutscenes throughout its entirety, typically to showcase a new land or portion of the world that you've discovered. The story's mystery and open-ended nature as a result is maintained. To many, this might seem like a cop out and can annoy those looking to be spoon fed abundant details of the world and backstory. The story all seems a bit too light/lacking when all you know is that you have to kill these Colossi to save a woman. But the purposeful slow pace and lack of clarity puts you in a position where you never see an overlying picture of the events transpiring/transpired. In that regard, you never feel removed from the journey - you feel as lost and in doubt and ever so determined as the protagonist.
The tiny snippets of dialogue and cinematics after each Colossus's death are just enough to maintain this mystery but also propel you forward to the next battle. It's a crazy addictive and rewarding mechanic. You're constantly left to try to figure out what's going on, to imagine and build a history around the lands you spend so much time traversing.
This subjective participation to the story's unraveling makes it that much more involving.
The ending, which I won't spoil, is also spectacular - it's a twist of sorts that gives you chills; this whole time you're killing these beasts and there's that uncertainty, that feeling of dread and guilt as to why you're really killing them, that the purpose of the quest is tainted in some way.
It looms in your mind throughout the game's running 10-12 hour experience. And thus, it fully manifests and comes to light all at the end.
I have yet to even discuss the game's excellent, haunting, ethereal-like score by Koh Ohtani. Listen to either "Prologue - To The Ancient Land" or "Epilogue - Those Who Remain" and tell me that these songs did not have any impact on you as you were playing the game. I dare you.
Okay maybe they didn't have any effect on you, but I'd deduce that said person is just a cold-hearted frozen ice queen then.
The game is a lesson on less is more. Show don't tell. Give the player control of not just the game's mechanics, but control over how he/she views the world and the journey and the story that they are undertaking.
It may seem manipulative to set things up this way, but every good affecting piece, whether in cinema or literature, employs atmosphere, subtle details, and a myriad of devices to engender a desired response out of the audience.
And the response I got out of Shadow of the Colossus was a sense of wonder, inspiration, inquisition, contemplation, doubt, and ultimately, one of the greatest gaming experiences of my life.
Go Home Dinosaurs! Interview, Part Two
Interviewing Eitan Glinert, Fire Hose Games’ Fire Chief, isn’t really about asking questions so much as it is staying out of the way of his train of thought. He’s just cool like that.
In part two of our interview at PAX he talks to me about their upcoming tower defense title Go Home Dinosaurs!, game plagiarism, dynamic wave generation, calls Zynga evil bastards - plus hot dogs, forties and homeless people.
Cat: What about leveling up towers?
EG: Well, we had that in an earlier version, and I suspect that’s out. I don’t know... I’m still on the fence. We don’t know yet, I’m guessing it’s out, 30% chance of being in the game. We had an early version that did exactly that and people liked it, but it’s really hard as a designer. You show something to people and they say they like it and you have to figure out , “OK, but do you like it more than this? Or would you like it more if we did something else?”, and I’ll tell you that between the two responses, and how people played, I’m kind of on the side that this is probably better without. We just got rid of upgrading altogether, no upgrading, and I think that might be better for this. If we just stick upgrading with the card trading, with the tech tree stuff, that might be a lot more fun.
Cat: There were definitely moments playing where I though, “Should I be upgrading something?”
EG: I think that this game feels better without it, and it’s a really standard thing in tower defense but that doesn’t mean it has to be there. I think that in this case it’s probably stronger without it. Don’t hold me to that, maybe in six months I’ll send you a build that’ll actually have it there, but I don’t think it’ll make it into the final build of the game.
You know what’s neat, we have dynamic wave generation in this game, where the waves aren’t set. There’s an algorithm running that’s guessing how well you’re doing, and giving you dinosaurs that will match your level. That’s why you can have these different skill levels playing the same thing and it works for them. That’s gonna be in the game and we’re gonna have a lot of fun with that because it makes the game really challenging sometimes - we’ve seen five year olds that can play this and hardcore gamers and they have roughly the same difficulty, which is really nice. That took us awhile to figure out. It’s cool, too, because it makes it fast for us to throw in levels without having to worry about balancing waves - we do have to check, of course, but it gets us 80% there!
Cat: Will you have enough testers, are you going to be bringing in homeless people from the streets of Boston to test the massive multiplayer out on?
EG: Homeless people aren’t the problem, they’re always trying to break into our office and steal our hot dogs and forties. We should probably not advertise that we have those.
Cat: Mouse controls?
EG: We’re trying to get this cross-platform, and, I think I mentioned to you, iPad we want to hit up -
Cat: - So iOS?
EG: iOS definitely, Android we think we want to do, too, and then console.
Cat: Can be pretty hard to make money on the Android, can’t it?
EG: Piracy is rampant, it’s a real mess. With iPhone it’s the early adopters with money to burn so they don’t mind spending money, but with Android it’s, “I want my free thing, if it’s not free I’m not buying it.” The biggest thing beyond that is that on the iPhone, buying an app is so easy and straightforward. You want to buy something on the Android you have to go hit your head against the wall.
I mean, something we’re actually very worried about is plagiarism. So we’re showing this off here, are we going to be screwed in three months when somebody else comes out with this? The iPhone and stuff like that, it’s all plagiarism, people just steal stuff all the time. The thing is, we have to take that risk, we can’t afford to be quiet about it because death by obscurity is much easier than death by plagiarism.
So, people see this, and we’re doing a lot of new stuff that has not been done before, that’s why we’re trying to keep a lot of our cards close to our chest. We’re showing off a lot of the core gameplay stuff, but even some of the multiplayer stuff - we have some stuff that’s half working that we could show and have it be really impressive, but I’m just too nervous about that.
Cat: So without showing it off here, is there anything that makes it really different that you could just talk about...
EG: Well, the multiplayer stuff, stuff like with the cards. Zynga is a bunch of evil bastards, right? But the truth of the matter is that they do a couple things that are smart and do make games better, and so we’re trying to lift elements of that and basically bring it so it’s not this tower defense that’s “Play level” and that’s it, where we could do more interesting, I’m calling it “metagame” stuff that could be a lot of fun and let friends play together - stuff that just doesn’t happen in tower defense. There’s a formula and everyone sticks to it, and we’re trying to go above and beyond that.
The other thing that I hope will be harder to copy, is the dinosaurs are awesome, cute, you know-
Cat: -and they turn into bacon-
EG: -and the T-Rexes explode into steak and the Pterodactyls, of course, explode into feathers.
Cat: If it was like PixelJunk Monsters you’d have to run around and collect the meat!
EG: And the steak thing brings up interesting ethical questions about what’s on the BBQ and how did it get there?
How, indeed. While we ponder the provenance of that beef, big thanks to Eitan and the rest of the team at Fire Hose Games!
For more reading, our Preview of the game: http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
In part two of our interview at PAX he talks to me about their upcoming tower defense title Go Home Dinosaurs!, game plagiarism, dynamic wave generation, calls Zynga evil bastards - plus hot dogs, forties and homeless people.
Cat: What about leveling up towers?
EG: Well, we had that in an earlier version, and I suspect that’s out. I don’t know... I’m still on the fence. We don’t know yet, I’m guessing it’s out, 30% chance of being in the game. We had an early version that did exactly that and people liked it, but it’s really hard as a designer. You show something to people and they say they like it and you have to figure out , “OK, but do you like it more than this? Or would you like it more if we did something else?”, and I’ll tell you that between the two responses, and how people played, I’m kind of on the side that this is probably better without. We just got rid of upgrading altogether, no upgrading, and I think that might be better for this. If we just stick upgrading with the card trading, with the tech tree stuff, that might be a lot more fun.
Cat: There were definitely moments playing where I though, “Should I be upgrading something?”
EG: I think that this game feels better without it, and it’s a really standard thing in tower defense but that doesn’t mean it has to be there. I think that in this case it’s probably stronger without it. Don’t hold me to that, maybe in six months I’ll send you a build that’ll actually have it there, but I don’t think it’ll make it into the final build of the game.
You know what’s neat, we have dynamic wave generation in this game, where the waves aren’t set. There’s an algorithm running that’s guessing how well you’re doing, and giving you dinosaurs that will match your level. That’s why you can have these different skill levels playing the same thing and it works for them. That’s gonna be in the game and we’re gonna have a lot of fun with that because it makes the game really challenging sometimes - we’ve seen five year olds that can play this and hardcore gamers and they have roughly the same difficulty, which is really nice. That took us awhile to figure out. It’s cool, too, because it makes it fast for us to throw in levels without having to worry about balancing waves - we do have to check, of course, but it gets us 80% there!
Cat: Will you have enough testers, are you going to be bringing in homeless people from the streets of Boston to test the massive multiplayer out on?
EG: Homeless people aren’t the problem, they’re always trying to break into our office and steal our hot dogs and forties. We should probably not advertise that we have those.
Cat: Mouse controls?
EG: We’re trying to get this cross-platform, and, I think I mentioned to you, iPad we want to hit up -
Cat: - So iOS?
EG: iOS definitely, Android we think we want to do, too, and then console.
Cat: Can be pretty hard to make money on the Android, can’t it?
EG: Piracy is rampant, it’s a real mess. With iPhone it’s the early adopters with money to burn so they don’t mind spending money, but with Android it’s, “I want my free thing, if it’s not free I’m not buying it.” The biggest thing beyond that is that on the iPhone, buying an app is so easy and straightforward. You want to buy something on the Android you have to go hit your head against the wall.
I mean, something we’re actually very worried about is plagiarism. So we’re showing this off here, are we going to be screwed in three months when somebody else comes out with this? The iPhone and stuff like that, it’s all plagiarism, people just steal stuff all the time. The thing is, we have to take that risk, we can’t afford to be quiet about it because death by obscurity is much easier than death by plagiarism.
So, people see this, and we’re doing a lot of new stuff that has not been done before, that’s why we’re trying to keep a lot of our cards close to our chest. We’re showing off a lot of the core gameplay stuff, but even some of the multiplayer stuff - we have some stuff that’s half working that we could show and have it be really impressive, but I’m just too nervous about that.
Cat: So without showing it off here, is there anything that makes it really different that you could just talk about...
EG: Well, the multiplayer stuff, stuff like with the cards. Zynga is a bunch of evil bastards, right? But the truth of the matter is that they do a couple things that are smart and do make games better, and so we’re trying to lift elements of that and basically bring it so it’s not this tower defense that’s “Play level” and that’s it, where we could do more interesting, I’m calling it “metagame” stuff that could be a lot of fun and let friends play together - stuff that just doesn’t happen in tower defense. There’s a formula and everyone sticks to it, and we’re trying to go above and beyond that.
The other thing that I hope will be harder to copy, is the dinosaurs are awesome, cute, you know-
Cat: -and they turn into bacon-
EG: -and the T-Rexes explode into steak and the Pterodactyls, of course, explode into feathers.
Cat: If it was like PixelJunk Monsters you’d have to run around and collect the meat!
EG: And the steak thing brings up interesting ethical questions about what’s on the BBQ and how did it get there?
How, indeed. While we ponder the provenance of that beef, big thanks to Eitan and the rest of the team at Fire Hose Games!
For more reading, our Preview of the game: http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
N4G's hypocritical fan base.
I recent submitted a news story from Eurogamer about an interview with Heavy Rain developer Quantic Dream. The co-founder Guillaume de Fondaumiere mentioned how he had lost 1 million sales due to the used market. Some thing caught my eye in the comments. The was a lot of support for the used game market. That is fine but not many brought up the big question. They lost at least 1 million in sales. To put this into perspective on a $60 game (£40 for me) lets say around 15% goes to the developer. So this is around $9 (around £6)per game. So they have lost out by $9,000,000 (£6,000,000).
It seems I have gone on a bit of a tangent. Over the times I have spent going on N4G one thing has struck me. Everyone complains about how there are no new innovative IPs. The users complain how X game is another Call of Duty mould. I ask you do you blame the developers. If Heavy Rain (a new innovative ip) lost $9,000,000 on used game (including piracy, lending) sales why would any other developer take the risk and not go for the easier highly profitable option. At the moment there is always going to be an area where sales are lost (from pirating, used games, giving them to friends). The lack of new ips is a trend that has become more apparent this generation with sequel after sequel and other games using the same formula as the most popular game on the market
Well how do publishers and developers counter this trend. I will tell you. In other stories there seems to be a massive hatred for online pass. To be honest can you blame publishers for introducing online pass.If a developer is loosing $9 million it would be interesting to see how much publishers loose also. I agree some online passes are not implemented well but in an age of used game sales going on the up you must understand they are loosing a lot of money per game. The online pass has become more of a deterrent than a method for increase profits. I was in GAME the other day and I decided to get Medal of Honor. It was £20 new and £15 used. I thought to myself it is only £5. The online pass on top actually make the game more expensive.
I hope you can see why I am getting at when I call the N4G fan base hypocritical. On the one hand they complain about no new innovative IPS and how everyone is copying COD and then on the other the publishers come up with a solution to regain their money so that it can be pumped back into games but there is mass hatred for it. You can't have new ips with a used game market that is taken the money away from these new ips. Those same people who complain about no new ips also strongly disagree with online pass and often proclaim they have bought a game used. There is a reason for the lack of no new ips and it is down to you guys.
Does the N4G users have a better option to keep a used game market and keep sales going to the developer so they can take risks and develop new ideas?. Come on N4G. Stop being a hypocrite.
It seems I have gone on a bit of a tangent. Over the times I have spent going on N4G one thing has struck me. Everyone complains about how there are no new innovative IPs. The users complain how X game is another Call of Duty mould. I ask you do you blame the developers. If Heavy Rain (a new innovative ip) lost $9,000,000 on used game (including piracy, lending) sales why would any other developer take the risk and not go for the easier highly profitable option. At the moment there is always going to be an area where sales are lost (from pirating, used games, giving them to friends). The lack of new ips is a trend that has become more apparent this generation with sequel after sequel and other games using the same formula as the most popular game on the market
Well how do publishers and developers counter this trend. I will tell you. In other stories there seems to be a massive hatred for online pass. To be honest can you blame publishers for introducing online pass.If a developer is loosing $9 million it would be interesting to see how much publishers loose also. I agree some online passes are not implemented well but in an age of used game sales going on the up you must understand they are loosing a lot of money per game. The online pass has become more of a deterrent than a method for increase profits. I was in GAME the other day and I decided to get Medal of Honor. It was £20 new and £15 used. I thought to myself it is only £5. The online pass on top actually make the game more expensive.
I hope you can see why I am getting at when I call the N4G fan base hypocritical. On the one hand they complain about no new innovative IPS and how everyone is copying COD and then on the other the publishers come up with a solution to regain their money so that it can be pumped back into games but there is mass hatred for it. You can't have new ips with a used game market that is taken the money away from these new ips. Those same people who complain about no new ips also strongly disagree with online pass and often proclaim they have bought a game used. There is a reason for the lack of no new ips and it is down to you guys.
Does the N4G users have a better option to keep a used game market and keep sales going to the developer so they can take risks and develop new ideas?. Come on N4G. Stop being a hypocrite.
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