Commercial Broken
By Ben / 2010-02-22 12:31:32
Just a quick apology to start off. I've had massive computer problems the past week which resulted in my wiping my computer. That on its own was bad enough, but the subsequent reinstall has been littered with Windows Update shaped problems. Hopefully the worst is behind me and you'll actually see some news and a Halo anime review from me this week.
I wouldn't bet the house though...
I'm not sure where I stand on the whole 'videogames as mainstream media' argument. I'd like them to be treated with more respect, the higher class ones any way, and I'd certainly like them not to be the whipping boy for this generation, but at the same time I think that they aren't really worthy of Newsnight Review coverage and developers on talk shows yet. I'm sure it will happen, it already has happened in a few cases, as people who play games work through the various systems, and as those in the systems start to become attracted to games, it'll happen. More out of a desire for profit/viewers I assume, but also the dilution of media to increasingly banal and trivial lows. Not meaning any disrespect to games, by that comment, only that tv, the news and papers are all so desperate for content nowadays that Halo 3's record breaking launch is deemed worthy of coverage, so how long until the hype for the sequel to big selling game starts getting coverage, then it's not so far from the game itself.
This isn't actually what I wanted to talk about, mainstream acceptance through the news and various magazine/talk shows is a topic I've probably talked about before, along with a thousand other bloggers. The 'mainstream' acceptance I want to talk about is more commercial, literally.
Last week Film4 showed Aliens, nothing especially newsworthy in that, it's a modern classic, granted I personally may have seen it too often but I can understand why it would be on at every opportunity. The reason why I took note was that on Friday the new Aliens vs Predator game came out. I speculated to a friend of mine that perhaps the reason for the scheduling of the film was to tie into the release of the game. It seems a bit far fetched, but if you're channel 4 and you're looking at what film to put on to maximize viewers (and so revenue), then why not stick the film on a couple of days before the game comes out?
I dismissed it as semi-wishful thinking, there's no way Channel 4 would pay any attention to which games are being released. Except last night Channel 4 (for our non-Brit readers, Channel 4 own a few channels, one of which is Film4) showed Predator. Again, it's a great film, there's no reason to read anything in to it, and we can have the Arnie vs Danny Glover argument another time (Glover wins), but the timing got me thinking. Surely the same broadcaster showing an Alien film and a Predator film in the same week as the game comes out is not mere coincidence? Sure enough come the first advert break I get my answer.
I forget the exact wording from the announcer, but it was something along the lines of "here's a treat for you Alien and Predator fans", before an extended trailer for the game ran. The trailer was nothing special, or maybe I'm not fan enough to get excited by it, and maybe this is a problem with the low quality of Freeview, but it looked a little rough, but it did run for the entire ad break. I know it's pathetic to get excited about an advert. and I'm not, really, but I do think this is an important step. I'm sure at some point in the build-up to the world cup, or maybe the FA cup or Champions League final, one of the sports wear manufacturers will launch a new ad campaign by buying the entire commercial break for an extended advert. It happens every year or so, ever since Cantona smacked a football through satan's chest. In fact I've done games a disservice, I think EA may have taken the same approach with FIFA the past couple of years, but certainly this is a first for a non-established franchise, especially to have a broadcaster piggyback 2 films on its release.
It looks like it paid off too, as I type the charts have come through and AvP has taken the multi-format no.1, and in doing so it's become the fastest selling game so far this year. Quite a (surprising) achievement I'm sure you'll agree, especially as the past 3 weeks I've seen endless adverts for "the sequel to the BAFTA winner for best game" Bioshock 2. That's quite a billing for Bioshock 2, and I mean that sincerely, people. including cynics, have been won over by the game, and being able to wave a BAFTA around as a reason people should pay attention adds some stature, certainly more than "the only game to receive a Bitparade 10/10, even though none of the regular writers really thought that much of it".
During Predator, and the Dawn of the Dead remake that followed it, there were a couple of other video game adverts. While not one of them I've seen Sega's Olympics game advertised endlessly, hardly a surprise given that the Olympics are on, but aimed at a similar audience (who also love zombies and ugly mother fuckers) was Nintendo's advert for New Super Mario Bros Wii. I've had this trend pointed out to me before, but you'll find that Nintendo's advertising presence rockets whenever the kids are on holiday, and last week was half term. Granted late Sunday night is maybe a bit late to be planning your family activities, that's homework time, but the point remains. There was one other advert of note though, the advert for Heavy Rain.
As excited as I am for Heavy Rain I will admit to being a tad disappointed by it, it's content more than it's style though. For those that didn't see it, a robbery at a convenience store kicks off, the robber's got a gun and the teller isn't too keen on handing his money over. Present is one of the main characters from the game (the middle-aged detective Scott Shelby), and as the advert draws to a close he must make a decision as to how to deal with the situation. There's a few normal adverts sandwiched in between, then the second part starts up. I'm assuming they've put together a few different outcomes to this otherwise splitting the adds is pointless, but on the version I saw Shelby chooses to negotiate with the robber. Shelby convinces the guy to put his gun away and run, avoiding confrontation, unfortunately there's not a huge amount of tension in the scene, at least in advert form, hence my disappointment. Something more dramatic would have been more memorable, and maybe that's coming, one scenario could see you do nothing with the shop keeper ending up dead, another you fight and and up shot yourself.
So why the proliferation of gaming adverts at the minute, is it that games are in fact becoming more mainstream? To a point I'd say yes, I also saw an advert for a cruise yesterday that had Wii Sports golf prominently featured, and the new Alfa Romeo advert is a pastiche of Space Invaders. However the other factor is that advertising revenue is down. Whatever the reason for that is, and there's a few, the upshot of it is that it's now far cheaper to buy advertising time than it was 5 years ago. Despite the job losses the games industry is still worth a lot, it may even be still growing (I guess that depends on how well Nintendo do, given they're the ones who've set the bar so high), and as such it can afford to spend money on adverts when other industries are cutting back. Want proof, just look at the various adverts for people wanting your gold at the minute. These used to soley reside on the shitty digital shopping channels, they certainly weren't going to appear during Coronation Street or the news, now they're omnipresent.
So while there's every reason to believe that the spate of adverts is indicative of a growing acceptance of games (and a more disparate release schedule), I will just finish by saying that the longest advert I saw all night was for hair regrowth treatment, starring Shane Warne and a bunch of other antipodean sportsmen you've never heard of.
By Ben / 2010-02-22 12:31:32
Just a quick apology to start off. I've had massive computer problems the past week which resulted in my wiping my computer. That on its own was bad enough, but the subsequent reinstall has been littered with Windows Update shaped problems. Hopefully the worst is behind me and you'll actually see some news and a Halo anime review from me this week.
I wouldn't bet the house though...
I'm not sure where I stand on the whole 'videogames as mainstream media' argument. I'd like them to be treated with more respect, the higher class ones any way, and I'd certainly like them not to be the whipping boy for this generation, but at the same time I think that they aren't really worthy of Newsnight Review coverage and developers on talk shows yet. I'm sure it will happen, it already has happened in a few cases, as people who play games work through the various systems, and as those in the systems start to become attracted to games, it'll happen. More out of a desire for profit/viewers I assume, but also the dilution of media to increasingly banal and trivial lows. Not meaning any disrespect to games, by that comment, only that tv, the news and papers are all so desperate for content nowadays that Halo 3's record breaking launch is deemed worthy of coverage, so how long until the hype for the sequel to big selling game starts getting coverage, then it's not so far from the game itself.
This isn't actually what I wanted to talk about, mainstream acceptance through the news and various magazine/talk shows is a topic I've probably talked about before, along with a thousand other bloggers. The 'mainstream' acceptance I want to talk about is more commercial, literally.
Last week Film4 showed Aliens, nothing especially newsworthy in that, it's a modern classic, granted I personally may have seen it too often but I can understand why it would be on at every opportunity. The reason why I took note was that on Friday the new Aliens vs Predator game came out. I speculated to a friend of mine that perhaps the reason for the scheduling of the film was to tie into the release of the game. It seems a bit far fetched, but if you're channel 4 and you're looking at what film to put on to maximize viewers (and so revenue), then why not stick the film on a couple of days before the game comes out?
I dismissed it as semi-wishful thinking, there's no way Channel 4 would pay any attention to which games are being released. Except last night Channel 4 (for our non-Brit readers, Channel 4 own a few channels, one of which is Film4) showed Predator. Again, it's a great film, there's no reason to read anything in to it, and we can have the Arnie vs Danny Glover argument another time (Glover wins), but the timing got me thinking. Surely the same broadcaster showing an Alien film and a Predator film in the same week as the game comes out is not mere coincidence? Sure enough come the first advert break I get my answer.
I forget the exact wording from the announcer, but it was something along the lines of "here's a treat for you Alien and Predator fans", before an extended trailer for the game ran. The trailer was nothing special, or maybe I'm not fan enough to get excited by it, and maybe this is a problem with the low quality of Freeview, but it looked a little rough, but it did run for the entire ad break. I know it's pathetic to get excited about an advert. and I'm not, really, but I do think this is an important step. I'm sure at some point in the build-up to the world cup, or maybe the FA cup or Champions League final, one of the sports wear manufacturers will launch a new ad campaign by buying the entire commercial break for an extended advert. It happens every year or so, ever since Cantona smacked a football through satan's chest. In fact I've done games a disservice, I think EA may have taken the same approach with FIFA the past couple of years, but certainly this is a first for a non-established franchise, especially to have a broadcaster piggyback 2 films on its release.
It looks like it paid off too, as I type the charts have come through and AvP has taken the multi-format no.1, and in doing so it's become the fastest selling game so far this year. Quite a (surprising) achievement I'm sure you'll agree, especially as the past 3 weeks I've seen endless adverts for "the sequel to the BAFTA winner for best game" Bioshock 2. That's quite a billing for Bioshock 2, and I mean that sincerely, people. including cynics, have been won over by the game, and being able to wave a BAFTA around as a reason people should pay attention adds some stature, certainly more than "the only game to receive a Bitparade 10/10, even though none of the regular writers really thought that much of it".
During Predator, and the Dawn of the Dead remake that followed it, there were a couple of other video game adverts. While not one of them I've seen Sega's Olympics game advertised endlessly, hardly a surprise given that the Olympics are on, but aimed at a similar audience (who also love zombies and ugly mother fuckers) was Nintendo's advert for New Super Mario Bros Wii. I've had this trend pointed out to me before, but you'll find that Nintendo's advertising presence rockets whenever the kids are on holiday, and last week was half term. Granted late Sunday night is maybe a bit late to be planning your family activities, that's homework time, but the point remains. There was one other advert of note though, the advert for Heavy Rain.
As excited as I am for Heavy Rain I will admit to being a tad disappointed by it, it's content more than it's style though. For those that didn't see it, a robbery at a convenience store kicks off, the robber's got a gun and the teller isn't too keen on handing his money over. Present is one of the main characters from the game (the middle-aged detective Scott Shelby), and as the advert draws to a close he must make a decision as to how to deal with the situation. There's a few normal adverts sandwiched in between, then the second part starts up. I'm assuming they've put together a few different outcomes to this otherwise splitting the adds is pointless, but on the version I saw Shelby chooses to negotiate with the robber. Shelby convinces the guy to put his gun away and run, avoiding confrontation, unfortunately there's not a huge amount of tension in the scene, at least in advert form, hence my disappointment. Something more dramatic would have been more memorable, and maybe that's coming, one scenario could see you do nothing with the shop keeper ending up dead, another you fight and and up shot yourself.
So why the proliferation of gaming adverts at the minute, is it that games are in fact becoming more mainstream? To a point I'd say yes, I also saw an advert for a cruise yesterday that had Wii Sports golf prominently featured, and the new Alfa Romeo advert is a pastiche of Space Invaders. However the other factor is that advertising revenue is down. Whatever the reason for that is, and there's a few, the upshot of it is that it's now far cheaper to buy advertising time than it was 5 years ago. Despite the job losses the games industry is still worth a lot, it may even be still growing (I guess that depends on how well Nintendo do, given they're the ones who've set the bar so high), and as such it can afford to spend money on adverts when other industries are cutting back. Want proof, just look at the various adverts for people wanting your gold at the minute. These used to soley reside on the shitty digital shopping channels, they certainly weren't going to appear during Coronation Street or the news, now they're omnipresent.
So while there's every reason to believe that the spate of adverts is indicative of a growing acceptance of games (and a more disparate release schedule), I will just finish by saying that the longest advert I saw all night was for hair regrowth treatment, starring Shane Warne and a bunch of other antipodean sportsmen you've never heard of.
If O Had A Hammer
By Ben / 2010-02-15 18:06:41
New look site means a new look logo for God Mode On, awesome huh?
Usually when I do these, which is itself becoming increasingly rare (I blame podcasts), it's some high fa-looting piece about the future of gaming. Today though it's a little different, it's purely and simply a rant about something that's been bugging me.
Unnecessary QTE's.
This isn't a rant against all Quick Time Events, far from it, a well done QTE bridges the gap between CG and in-game as well as anything. Then there's the likes of Heavy Rain and Fahrenheit, the latter being one of my favorite games last gen and the former my most anticipated game this. Replicating the movements on screen has a certain appeal, not in a Daily Mail bothering school-shooting way, I suspect it's more a novelty. More than one 'Heavy Rain' a year and it might get a bit clichéd.
No, my issue lies predominantly with action games, and it's something that links Batman's saunter through Arkham Asylum with Dante's excursion in Hell. I am of course talking about the trend for making us mash buttons for menial tasks. In Dante's Inferno every door you come across requires him to jam his scythe into its chest, then yank it upwards, gutting the possibly murderous door demon. What this means to you is that you must press R1 (or Rb for 360 players), then hammer O (B) as though your life depended on it. Your life doesn't depend on it, it's just a door, a door that closes after you pass through it, meaning that if you want to back track for any reason, you must go through the whole process again.
In Batman, every time you wanted to pull a grate off the wall it involved much button pressing. Quite often Batman would have the leverage of the lower ground and his rope, given those conditions even I could fuck up an air-vent and I'm not the Batman (the truth is... I'm Iron Man). The whole process is arguably more ridiculous in Batman because he's Batman. He can sling people across the room, punch out Killer Croc, but a thin piece of metal held on tiny screws requires an exhaustive effort.
It's not even the absurdity of it that bothers me, it's how pointless it is. Dante's Inferno has a few moments that exist purely to lengthen the game, mainly its climbing between areas, but having to physically open a door yourself is just busy work. Most games manage fine by having the doors open themselves, or even not having doors - the crazy fools! The rest of the game is littered with artificial barriers that block your progress until requirements are met (kill everything), so why not apply the same logic to passing to the next room.
It's as though developers believe that if you're doing something, anything, that counts as gameplay. Technically they might be right, but I'd argue that "Fantastic dynamic door opening mechanic" isn't something you'd put on the back of the box, and so isn't real gameplay. You would't make a game based around that mechanic, this isn't an Olympics game, or even the bonus test of strength round on Mortal Kombat. Besides, the upcoming Muscle March has shown that you can make a game out of opening doors... kind of, they just weren't stupid enough to have you hammering O for the entirety of the game. There's a joke there about Muscle March's characters hammering something resembling an O, but I wouldn't be that crude.
The mechanic of mashing buttons for menial tasks is purposeless and dull. The sooner developers get it out of their system the better.
By Ben / 2010-02-15 18:06:41
New look site means a new look logo for God Mode On, awesome huh?
Usually when I do these, which is itself becoming increasingly rare (I blame podcasts), it's some high fa-looting piece about the future of gaming. Today though it's a little different, it's purely and simply a rant about something that's been bugging me.
Unnecessary QTE's.
This isn't a rant against all Quick Time Events, far from it, a well done QTE bridges the gap between CG and in-game as well as anything. Then there's the likes of Heavy Rain and Fahrenheit, the latter being one of my favorite games last gen and the former my most anticipated game this. Replicating the movements on screen has a certain appeal, not in a Daily Mail bothering school-shooting way, I suspect it's more a novelty. More than one 'Heavy Rain' a year and it might get a bit clichéd.
No, my issue lies predominantly with action games, and it's something that links Batman's saunter through Arkham Asylum with Dante's excursion in Hell. I am of course talking about the trend for making us mash buttons for menial tasks. In Dante's Inferno every door you come across requires him to jam his scythe into its chest, then yank it upwards, gutting the possibly murderous door demon. What this means to you is that you must press R1 (or Rb for 360 players), then hammer O (B) as though your life depended on it. Your life doesn't depend on it, it's just a door, a door that closes after you pass through it, meaning that if you want to back track for any reason, you must go through the whole process again.
In Batman, every time you wanted to pull a grate off the wall it involved much button pressing. Quite often Batman would have the leverage of the lower ground and his rope, given those conditions even I could fuck up an air-vent and I'm not the Batman (the truth is... I'm Iron Man). The whole process is arguably more ridiculous in Batman because he's Batman. He can sling people across the room, punch out Killer Croc, but a thin piece of metal held on tiny screws requires an exhaustive effort.
It's not even the absurdity of it that bothers me, it's how pointless it is. Dante's Inferno has a few moments that exist purely to lengthen the game, mainly its climbing between areas, but having to physically open a door yourself is just busy work. Most games manage fine by having the doors open themselves, or even not having doors - the crazy fools! The rest of the game is littered with artificial barriers that block your progress until requirements are met (kill everything), so why not apply the same logic to passing to the next room.
It's as though developers believe that if you're doing something, anything, that counts as gameplay. Technically they might be right, but I'd argue that "Fantastic dynamic door opening mechanic" isn't something you'd put on the back of the box, and so isn't real gameplay. You would't make a game based around that mechanic, this isn't an Olympics game, or even the bonus test of strength round on Mortal Kombat. Besides, the upcoming Muscle March has shown that you can make a game out of opening doors... kind of, they just weren't stupid enough to have you hammering O for the entirety of the game. There's a joke there about Muscle March's characters hammering something resembling an O, but I wouldn't be that crude.
The mechanic of mashing buttons for menial tasks is purposeless and dull. The sooner developers get it out of their system the better.
12 Angry Bens
By Ben / 2009-07-12 20:13:56
This week God Mode On takes a goosey at how much of a crossover there is between games and films, and whether we should even be comparing
When gamers want to stress the artistic value of games they often compare them to film. Of course there's an inherent folly (that makes me sound like a twat) to this that we're all well aware of. Games aren't movies, plain and simple. The narrative is constructed in a different way, they're far longer, and they have to be fun.
Well we can argue that last point some other time, but for now lets use the example of David Lynch. I like David Lynch, I find his films fascinating, but I'll happily admit that some of them are incredibly hard to watch. If you translate that to a game, there aren't too many great games that are hard to play through. On a shallower level you could probably point to something like Megaman 9, but that'll offend fans, maybe Gran Turismo or Forza, but again there are people who would argue their depth makes them fun. They aren't hard to play in the same way Eraserhead is hard to watch, they're just hard.
There's another way that games and films differ, a less obvious way, and that's what their devotees value about them. Granted most people 'like' films, but I'm not talking about the people who'll watch Saw when it's on telly, I'm talking about the people who'll track down some obscure Romanian horror from the 1950's.
I'm not sure what to call these types of people, they're musos with an ocular fixation, and as such 'film buffs' seems a little weak. I don't want to call them anything derogatory either, as I'm right on their border. As such the 'Cinemati' (with the capital naturally) is going to have to do.
These Cinemati value films with heart, something that tugs a little, even something they can empathise with. A Farrely brothers comedy isn't really their thing, and their favourite Jim Carrey film is either 'Eternal Sunshine...' of 'The Cable Guy'. They'll watch animations where nothing happens for the sheer wonder of it, and the brief and subtle glance between the two protagonists that speaks all you need to know about their love (5 Centimetres per Second - great film).
If you take the equivalent person who plays games, the elitist type who will perhaps sigh at the sales charts and tut at peoples purchases, what do they champion? You probably know where I'm going with this, but lets go through it anyway shall we?
These 'hardcore' gamers (their name, not mine) beat their drums for the likes of Killzone and Gears of War. They nail their colours to the HD consoles and anything that comes out on anything else is shit. Unless they want it then it's wasted on whatever format isn't doing it justice. Silent Hill Shattered Memories is an example of this, the new Ju-On game too, not to mention Madworld.
They close themselves off to experiences seemingly out of spite, and fear they might like something they 'shouldn't'.
To labour my point, here's a quote I found:
Granted this person is clearly an idiot, but if he was half as hardcore as he thinks he is then he'd be playing more that Smash Bros. on his Wii.
I am being a little disingenuous I'll admit. Not all 'Hardcore' gamers think like that, and not all the high valued games are boom fests. In fact games like Ico and shadow of the Colossus (made by the same developers admittedly), maybe Killer 7, Pixel Junk Eden, Flower, Rez, Braid etc, all those games are counter to my point.
Can I ask though, what's the best war film you've seen? Schindler's List? Platoon? Full Metal Jacket? Barefoot Gen? Now what's the best war game you've played?
Love story? Tale of loss? Tale of hope? Exploration of rage? Revenge?
The values that make films great aren't the same as those for games. Yes I'd love to have more character exploration in games, deeper stories, and even deal with more serious subjects. In the grand scheme of things that would be a good thing for gaming AS A WHOLE, but that isn't what makes games great, especially when you start to look at individual titles.
We seem to have forgotten that in our protestations of the merits of videogames. We forget that we should be singing the praises of games that are fun, that that alone makes them worthy. The 'art' can, will, and has come, but lets not forget what our medium does better than all the others.
By Ben / 2009-07-12 20:13:56
This week God Mode On takes a goosey at how much of a crossover there is between games and films, and whether we should even be comparing
When gamers want to stress the artistic value of games they often compare them to film. Of course there's an inherent folly (that makes me sound like a twat) to this that we're all well aware of. Games aren't movies, plain and simple. The narrative is constructed in a different way, they're far longer, and they have to be fun.
Well we can argue that last point some other time, but for now lets use the example of David Lynch. I like David Lynch, I find his films fascinating, but I'll happily admit that some of them are incredibly hard to watch. If you translate that to a game, there aren't too many great games that are hard to play through. On a shallower level you could probably point to something like Megaman 9, but that'll offend fans, maybe Gran Turismo or Forza, but again there are people who would argue their depth makes them fun. They aren't hard to play in the same way Eraserhead is hard to watch, they're just hard.
There's another way that games and films differ, a less obvious way, and that's what their devotees value about them. Granted most people 'like' films, but I'm not talking about the people who'll watch Saw when it's on telly, I'm talking about the people who'll track down some obscure Romanian horror from the 1950's.
I'm not sure what to call these types of people, they're musos with an ocular fixation, and as such 'film buffs' seems a little weak. I don't want to call them anything derogatory either, as I'm right on their border. As such the 'Cinemati' (with the capital naturally) is going to have to do.
These Cinemati value films with heart, something that tugs a little, even something they can empathise with. A Farrely brothers comedy isn't really their thing, and their favourite Jim Carrey film is either 'Eternal Sunshine...' of 'The Cable Guy'. They'll watch animations where nothing happens for the sheer wonder of it, and the brief and subtle glance between the two protagonists that speaks all you need to know about their love (5 Centimetres per Second - great film).
If you take the equivalent person who plays games, the elitist type who will perhaps sigh at the sales charts and tut at peoples purchases, what do they champion? You probably know where I'm going with this, but lets go through it anyway shall we?
These 'hardcore' gamers (their name, not mine) beat their drums for the likes of Killzone and Gears of War. They nail their colours to the HD consoles and anything that comes out on anything else is shit. Unless they want it then it's wasted on whatever format isn't doing it justice. Silent Hill Shattered Memories is an example of this, the new Ju-On game too, not to mention Madworld.
They close themselves off to experiences seemingly out of spite, and fear they might like something they 'shouldn't'.
To labour my point, here's a quote I found:
"But the ppl tht made the wii are smart. They made sports games anD "healthy-fit" games for one reason:
to attract non-gamers.
the attention of nintendo on non-gamers as is gamers is a pretty uneven (horrible) ratio so the Makers did somethin tht no one else would:
design the console with a moving sensor.
This, along side with designing the "healthy-fit games", assured all non-gamers, including gamers (gamers atrracted to SSBB, anyway) to have build intrest into buying it."
Granted this person is clearly an idiot, but if he was half as hardcore as he thinks he is then he'd be playing more that Smash Bros. on his Wii.
I am being a little disingenuous I'll admit. Not all 'Hardcore' gamers think like that, and not all the high valued games are boom fests. In fact games like Ico and shadow of the Colossus (made by the same developers admittedly), maybe Killer 7, Pixel Junk Eden, Flower, Rez, Braid etc, all those games are counter to my point.
Can I ask though, what's the best war film you've seen? Schindler's List? Platoon? Full Metal Jacket? Barefoot Gen? Now what's the best war game you've played?
Love story? Tale of loss? Tale of hope? Exploration of rage? Revenge?
The values that make films great aren't the same as those for games. Yes I'd love to have more character exploration in games, deeper stories, and even deal with more serious subjects. In the grand scheme of things that would be a good thing for gaming AS A WHOLE, but that isn't what makes games great, especially when you start to look at individual titles.
We seem to have forgotten that in our protestations of the merits of videogames. We forget that we should be singing the praises of games that are fun, that that alone makes them worthy. The 'art' can, will, and has come, but lets not forget what our medium does better than all the others.
Motion Lotion
By Ben / 2009-07-06 19:04:09
It's been a long time away, but to replace Loading Screen for a few weeks God Mode On returns... Don't all celebrate at once
Wii Motion+ has finally arrived. We can all mutter about whether or not it should have been in the Wii remote from the start, but no one's listening.
It's here now and so are a couple of games. As it stands I've only played EA's Grand Slam Tennis. I did want Virtua Tennis, for after all, I am a Sega fanboy *clenched fist on heart* Unfortunately it wasn't too be, I had a credit note for Gamestation and they only had Virtua Tennis with 2 plastic racket add-ons for £50. this is without adding on the Motion+, which would have been another tenner at least. Why am I telling you this? We'll come to that in a bit.
To follow the 2 competing tennis games we've also got Tiger Woods 10. The talk from across the pond is that this is brilliant. Personally I'm not a big golf fan so it's hard to get excited about it, but a good games a good game. After that Nintendo join the action with Wii Sports Resort, a collection of light-sport games. It looks good, I'm not knocking it.
I've heard that Tiger Woods uses the Motion+ to the best effect, having not played it I can't really argue, but I will offer a counter suggestion. Wii Sports Resort offers more than just traditional sports games, certainly not everything involves some sort of stick. Tiger Woods and the two tennis games try to recreate the swinging mechanic required, which is fine, but it doesn't really show what the technology can do.
I'm not complaining that they don't push the technology, who cares so long as what they do is fun. However what they show is limited. The sheer variety of sports in Sports Resort (basketball, fencing, sky diving) means the remote is used in a more involved way. Fencing would be a prime example of this.
Now, those rackets I mentioned before. One of the issues I've got with Grand Slam Tennis is that it's not always clear how the motion+ is affecting the game. I quite like the controls so this isn't a massive complaint, but it was only thanks to a loading screen that I clocked that it was the side of the remote that represented the racket face. Cheap plastic peripherals, assuming they match the game, would have given me a real world guide.
What you need is something more explicit. Rather than a puny girly-boy tennis racket, why not a big fuck off sword? It's a bad example, but the Soul Calibur Legends game that came out on the Wii a few years back, something along the lines of that (except better), where the remote allowed you to parry and counter, so that what you were doing in the real world could be easily seen on screen. And that's the point, it must be easily seen. Surely that's more impressive, and what I liked about Sony's press conference.
Perhaps my opinion will change as I play more of Grand Slam Tennis, a game I genuinely do like, but it really doesn't feel like the most impressive demonstration of Motion+. If you want people to be impressed then make what you're doing explicit, as it stands it just feels like standard remote doing what it's supposed to do.
Remove the smoke and mirrors, leave the Magic Circle, let us see all the work that goes into making an elephant disappear. I for one would be more impressed
By Ben / 2009-07-06 19:04:09
It's been a long time away, but to replace Loading Screen for a few weeks God Mode On returns... Don't all celebrate at once
Wii Motion+ has finally arrived. We can all mutter about whether or not it should have been in the Wii remote from the start, but no one's listening.
It's here now and so are a couple of games. As it stands I've only played EA's Grand Slam Tennis. I did want Virtua Tennis, for after all, I am a Sega fanboy *clenched fist on heart* Unfortunately it wasn't too be, I had a credit note for Gamestation and they only had Virtua Tennis with 2 plastic racket add-ons for £50. this is without adding on the Motion+, which would have been another tenner at least. Why am I telling you this? We'll come to that in a bit.
To follow the 2 competing tennis games we've also got Tiger Woods 10. The talk from across the pond is that this is brilliant. Personally I'm not a big golf fan so it's hard to get excited about it, but a good games a good game. After that Nintendo join the action with Wii Sports Resort, a collection of light-sport games. It looks good, I'm not knocking it.
I've heard that Tiger Woods uses the Motion+ to the best effect, having not played it I can't really argue, but I will offer a counter suggestion. Wii Sports Resort offers more than just traditional sports games, certainly not everything involves some sort of stick. Tiger Woods and the two tennis games try to recreate the swinging mechanic required, which is fine, but it doesn't really show what the technology can do.
I'm not complaining that they don't push the technology, who cares so long as what they do is fun. However what they show is limited. The sheer variety of sports in Sports Resort (basketball, fencing, sky diving) means the remote is used in a more involved way. Fencing would be a prime example of this.
Now, those rackets I mentioned before. One of the issues I've got with Grand Slam Tennis is that it's not always clear how the motion+ is affecting the game. I quite like the controls so this isn't a massive complaint, but it was only thanks to a loading screen that I clocked that it was the side of the remote that represented the racket face. Cheap plastic peripherals, assuming they match the game, would have given me a real world guide.
What you need is something more explicit. Rather than a puny girly-boy tennis racket, why not a big fuck off sword? It's a bad example, but the Soul Calibur Legends game that came out on the Wii a few years back, something along the lines of that (except better), where the remote allowed you to parry and counter, so that what you were doing in the real world could be easily seen on screen. And that's the point, it must be easily seen. Surely that's more impressive, and what I liked about Sony's press conference.
Perhaps my opinion will change as I play more of Grand Slam Tennis, a game I genuinely do like, but it really doesn't feel like the most impressive demonstration of Motion+. If you want people to be impressed then make what you're doing explicit, as it stands it just feels like standard remote doing what it's supposed to do.
Remove the smoke and mirrors, leave the Magic Circle, let us see all the work that goes into making an elephant disappear. I for one would be more impressed
Insert Credit
By Ben / 2009-01-29 07:41:52
There's no doubt the global economic slowdown is a bad thing, a look at my mounting bills is enough to demonstrate that. But does it have to be the end of the world as a gamer?
The credit crunch, people losing their jobs, others struggling to find them, money too tight to mention. Things are hard and it's not much fun, the bills are all coming in and those new things you wanted to kick off the year seem further and further away. There must be a silver lining though surely, anything, no matter how much you're kidding yourself?
There sure is! The obvious silver lining is that there's sales everywhere, bargains to be had. The problem with that approach is it assumes you've got the money to spend, and to be honest a lot of the stuff that's on sale now was also on sale before christmas, like we've had a perpetual state of £20 new games. It certainly is a silver lining though, anything you missed in the over-flooded end to 2008 can be picked up now. Whatever you pick up will still feel recent enough to scratch the itch for a 'new' game that we all get, all the time, relentlessly, gnawing away until we eventually cave.
No, the silver lining that's my current saving grace is due to being completely broke. No games at all since the turn of the year, actually I bought Ninja Gaiden Sigma for a whopping £2 but have yet to play it. I got games for christmas like I'm sure most reading this did, and handled wrongly they would get ignored. One of these games I got for christmas is actually the spark for both this lining and this post. I got World of Goo on the Wii from a secret santa (which I've still not played), but I couldn't download it because I needed to update my Wii. Unfortunately updating the Wii meant ending my sporadic love affair with the Freeloader disk. There are a couple of import games I'd still like to pick up, but my real issue was that I still hadn't played No More Heroes.
I know I could eventually have picked up the pal version, maybe even matched the sale of my U.S. copy with the cost of an EU copy, and I know this is a bit of a juvenile excuse, but I wanted the blood. We can get into the minutia of this some other time, but I wanted to play the game in its 'true' state. In short, I had a deadline and so sat and played the game. Within 5 days of starting it was done, the further into the game I got the more I loved it. I'd had it for months, probably more than half a year, but never got myself together to play it. But now I had no choice.
Metal Gear Solid 4 was my next game. Borrowed from a friend it's been in my possession for a while, again I didn't start it when I got it, but when I did I made slow progress through it. I really enjoyed what I played, but the time dedication was putting me off. Again though I had a deadline, I'd promised to get it done as my next game post NMH's, and so I had to sit down and finish it. And finish it I did, it might have even usurped Yakuza 2 as my game of 08. There's problems with it sure, but as an experience there's nothing else like it, it's something that needs to be played!
I've games that will no doubt get forgotten about, and that's what this current climate is good for. I picked Braid and Rez up prior to the new year, both hidden away on my 360 hard-drive, but I've completed Braid and am inching my way through Rez due to over familiarity. leading up to the new year I bought Motorstorm Pacific Rift and Resistance, neither of which I've played since the turn of the year but illustrate my point. As does, probably more than any other game, Valkyria Chronicles, a game I've got for christmas and wanted for months, but still haven't spent any real time with.
Things being tight is forcing me to fight the itch, to go back and actually work my way through the games I've bought recently. I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to buying games, my eyes are bigger than my mouth, or thumbs, or whatever. It would be all to easy to wander off from Mororstorm, despite enjoying it far more than I was expecting, there's new games on the way, shiny things, and I'm not committed to play it for any reason. Resistance too, I was enjoying that, it's not a classic sure but it's fun enough. The thing is the difficulty just spiked (again) right when I had to stop playing, it kind of kills the motivation to go back when that happens. Valkyria Chronicles is probably the quintessential forgotten game this generation, wonderfully presented and offering a fresh take on an old genre, but it's so easy to leave on a shelf.
So it's not all bad news, and certainly being forced to sit and play some of the best games of last year is hardly a hardship. The real test isn't due until next month with the arrival of House of the Dead, Street Fighter 4, then Resident Evil 5 and Killzone 2. So I guess it's a race between how much I can get done and how much I can save. Then there's the issue of what to do if society falls apart? If I've burnt through my back catalogue in January and we're in some Mad Max dystopia by April I'm going to look quite the fool!
By Ben / 2009-01-29 07:41:52
There's no doubt the global economic slowdown is a bad thing, a look at my mounting bills is enough to demonstrate that. But does it have to be the end of the world as a gamer?
The credit crunch, people losing their jobs, others struggling to find them, money too tight to mention. Things are hard and it's not much fun, the bills are all coming in and those new things you wanted to kick off the year seem further and further away. There must be a silver lining though surely, anything, no matter how much you're kidding yourself?
There sure is! The obvious silver lining is that there's sales everywhere, bargains to be had. The problem with that approach is it assumes you've got the money to spend, and to be honest a lot of the stuff that's on sale now was also on sale before christmas, like we've had a perpetual state of £20 new games. It certainly is a silver lining though, anything you missed in the over-flooded end to 2008 can be picked up now. Whatever you pick up will still feel recent enough to scratch the itch for a 'new' game that we all get, all the time, relentlessly, gnawing away until we eventually cave.
No, the silver lining that's my current saving grace is due to being completely broke. No games at all since the turn of the year, actually I bought Ninja Gaiden Sigma for a whopping £2 but have yet to play it. I got games for christmas like I'm sure most reading this did, and handled wrongly they would get ignored. One of these games I got for christmas is actually the spark for both this lining and this post. I got World of Goo on the Wii from a secret santa (which I've still not played), but I couldn't download it because I needed to update my Wii. Unfortunately updating the Wii meant ending my sporadic love affair with the Freeloader disk. There are a couple of import games I'd still like to pick up, but my real issue was that I still hadn't played No More Heroes.
I know I could eventually have picked up the pal version, maybe even matched the sale of my U.S. copy with the cost of an EU copy, and I know this is a bit of a juvenile excuse, but I wanted the blood. We can get into the minutia of this some other time, but I wanted to play the game in its 'true' state. In short, I had a deadline and so sat and played the game. Within 5 days of starting it was done, the further into the game I got the more I loved it. I'd had it for months, probably more than half a year, but never got myself together to play it. But now I had no choice.
Metal Gear Solid 4 was my next game. Borrowed from a friend it's been in my possession for a while, again I didn't start it when I got it, but when I did I made slow progress through it. I really enjoyed what I played, but the time dedication was putting me off. Again though I had a deadline, I'd promised to get it done as my next game post NMH's, and so I had to sit down and finish it. And finish it I did, it might have even usurped Yakuza 2 as my game of 08. There's problems with it sure, but as an experience there's nothing else like it, it's something that needs to be played!
I've games that will no doubt get forgotten about, and that's what this current climate is good for. I picked Braid and Rez up prior to the new year, both hidden away on my 360 hard-drive, but I've completed Braid and am inching my way through Rez due to over familiarity. leading up to the new year I bought Motorstorm Pacific Rift and Resistance, neither of which I've played since the turn of the year but illustrate my point. As does, probably more than any other game, Valkyria Chronicles, a game I've got for christmas and wanted for months, but still haven't spent any real time with.
Things being tight is forcing me to fight the itch, to go back and actually work my way through the games I've bought recently. I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to buying games, my eyes are bigger than my mouth, or thumbs, or whatever. It would be all to easy to wander off from Mororstorm, despite enjoying it far more than I was expecting, there's new games on the way, shiny things, and I'm not committed to play it for any reason. Resistance too, I was enjoying that, it's not a classic sure but it's fun enough. The thing is the difficulty just spiked (again) right when I had to stop playing, it kind of kills the motivation to go back when that happens. Valkyria Chronicles is probably the quintessential forgotten game this generation, wonderfully presented and offering a fresh take on an old genre, but it's so easy to leave on a shelf.
So it's not all bad news, and certainly being forced to sit and play some of the best games of last year is hardly a hardship. The real test isn't due until next month with the arrival of House of the Dead, Street Fighter 4, then Resident Evil 5 and Killzone 2. So I guess it's a race between how much I can get done and how much I can save. Then there's the issue of what to do if society falls apart? If I've burnt through my back catalogue in January and we're in some Mad Max dystopia by April I'm going to look quite the fool!
Invisible Walls
By Ben / 2008-11-24 19:32:49
Perhaps fittingly as we enter the run up to christmas, God Mode On takes a look at the 'invisible walls' that the games industry must overcome if it's to expand it's core market and really hook the casuals
The issue of new and casual gamers is one I've regularly come back to on God Mode On. I'm not entirely sure why that is but I suspect it's because I've become deeper involved in games as a pastime, almost accidentally, while many of my friends have remained passive. It's put me in a peculiar position of looking at the so called 'hardcore' and 'casual' from the outside despite being one of them. I'm not the only one, as television begins to lose its grip, film and music having to find new distribution avenues, gaming is becoming more accepted, creating a more zealous inner-inner circle leaving many gamers in a half-way house between the two camps. But that is a topic for another, more pretentious, day.
I was back at my parents Friday night. My friends, that are still in the country (and not in Japan, the jammy gets!) had made plans it was too late to change, so I settled in for a night in front of the telly with my parents and a takeaway. My dad soon got tired of my mums soaps and celebrity watching and went in the other room, me and my mum got talking about the Wii they'd recently bought. I'd brought a couple of games back with me for her to try and as there was nothing on I suggested we stick them on.
First things first, I had to set up the second remote. My parents had bought it the day they got the Wii (with Wii Play naturally), but couldn't connect it. They had no idea how, and decided to just give up trying. I also had to sort out the sensor bars range, again they had no idea how to do it, or that there was anything really wrong (there was, the pointer was all over the place). We also got talking about the channels, she liked the idea of the news and weather channels (and the internet channel, but they have to pay for that so it's a no go), the problem is that they have to sort out the wireless connection, easy enough if you know how, but they don't know the password for their router (understandably enough) and so I couldn't set it up for them.
Which actually brings me to a nice Little Big Planet tangent. LBP is often touted as being Sony's in for the casual market, I'd argue they've already got that with Buzz and Singstar, probably not console sellers on their own I guess. Little Big Planet though is not as casual as some think, ignoring the difficulty as it's not exactly Megaman, level creation is hugely in depth, and to access the fan made content you need to be online. Connecting an ethernet cable is easy enough but I can't see my parents doing that, and we've already established that they aren't about to set the PS3 up wirelessly.
Back on topic, once everything was set up I popped in Mario Galaxy and handed my mum the controllers. I've never seen anyone struggle so much in my life. When I first got my Dreamcast my mum fancied a go on Sonic Adventure, I happily obliged and handed her the controller, my prevailing memory of the next 5 minutes is of Sonic running in ever decreasing circles to the soundtrack of my mums helpless laughter.
Well history set about repeating itself, Mario swerved like a drunkard, falling into the quite avoidable black-hole of the second training level, wandering into enemies and leaping into the air every 3 seconds. My mums arms flailed around like an excitable Kermit, no matter how many times I tried to calm her down and get her to just use her thumb rather than the left side of her body to move. She doesn't understand analogue control, it's as simple as that. Frankly I've never understood why analogue control is regarded as such a massive leap over digital, there really aren't that many games that make the most of it.
House of the Dead was marginally more successful. It may seem a strange game to get your mother to play, but it involves nothing more than pointing at the screen and pressing the button. Actually that's not true, while her coordination was much better, the concept of reloading wasn't. I know HOTD2 pretty well from its Dreamcast days and really made the most of that knowledge. Without being unkind I was working extra hard to keep us alive, and I didn't mind that nor am I complaining, I expected it and was willing. I was trying to make things as easy as possible for my mum to engage with the game after all. It was tough going though, at one point seeing that there was only one slow moving zombie left I held back, leaving it for my mum to deal with. "Rererererererererererererererererererererererererereload" I ended up dealing with the zombie, whilst we both laughed (me and my mum, not the zombie).
The point of all this, casual gamers may look at games like Mario and Little Big Planet and really want to play them. My mum has complained about being bored of the various brain tests she's invested in on the DS, but enabling them to make the step up is going to be difficult. How to you teach someone analogue control, twitch reflexes, and the patience to overcome deficits in skill?
That is what the games industry is going to have to overcome if it really wants to expand is 'core' user-base
By Ben / 2008-11-24 19:32:49
Perhaps fittingly as we enter the run up to christmas, God Mode On takes a look at the 'invisible walls' that the games industry must overcome if it's to expand it's core market and really hook the casuals
The issue of new and casual gamers is one I've regularly come back to on God Mode On. I'm not entirely sure why that is but I suspect it's because I've become deeper involved in games as a pastime, almost accidentally, while many of my friends have remained passive. It's put me in a peculiar position of looking at the so called 'hardcore' and 'casual' from the outside despite being one of them. I'm not the only one, as television begins to lose its grip, film and music having to find new distribution avenues, gaming is becoming more accepted, creating a more zealous inner-inner circle leaving many gamers in a half-way house between the two camps. But that is a topic for another, more pretentious, day.
I was back at my parents Friday night. My friends, that are still in the country (and not in Japan, the jammy gets!) had made plans it was too late to change, so I settled in for a night in front of the telly with my parents and a takeaway. My dad soon got tired of my mums soaps and celebrity watching and went in the other room, me and my mum got talking about the Wii they'd recently bought. I'd brought a couple of games back with me for her to try and as there was nothing on I suggested we stick them on.
First things first, I had to set up the second remote. My parents had bought it the day they got the Wii (with Wii Play naturally), but couldn't connect it. They had no idea how, and decided to just give up trying. I also had to sort out the sensor bars range, again they had no idea how to do it, or that there was anything really wrong (there was, the pointer was all over the place). We also got talking about the channels, she liked the idea of the news and weather channels (and the internet channel, but they have to pay for that so it's a no go), the problem is that they have to sort out the wireless connection, easy enough if you know how, but they don't know the password for their router (understandably enough) and so I couldn't set it up for them.
Which actually brings me to a nice Little Big Planet tangent. LBP is often touted as being Sony's in for the casual market, I'd argue they've already got that with Buzz and Singstar, probably not console sellers on their own I guess. Little Big Planet though is not as casual as some think, ignoring the difficulty as it's not exactly Megaman, level creation is hugely in depth, and to access the fan made content you need to be online. Connecting an ethernet cable is easy enough but I can't see my parents doing that, and we've already established that they aren't about to set the PS3 up wirelessly.
Back on topic, once everything was set up I popped in Mario Galaxy and handed my mum the controllers. I've never seen anyone struggle so much in my life. When I first got my Dreamcast my mum fancied a go on Sonic Adventure, I happily obliged and handed her the controller, my prevailing memory of the next 5 minutes is of Sonic running in ever decreasing circles to the soundtrack of my mums helpless laughter.
Well history set about repeating itself, Mario swerved like a drunkard, falling into the quite avoidable black-hole of the second training level, wandering into enemies and leaping into the air every 3 seconds. My mums arms flailed around like an excitable Kermit, no matter how many times I tried to calm her down and get her to just use her thumb rather than the left side of her body to move. She doesn't understand analogue control, it's as simple as that. Frankly I've never understood why analogue control is regarded as such a massive leap over digital, there really aren't that many games that make the most of it.
House of the Dead was marginally more successful. It may seem a strange game to get your mother to play, but it involves nothing more than pointing at the screen and pressing the button. Actually that's not true, while her coordination was much better, the concept of reloading wasn't. I know HOTD2 pretty well from its Dreamcast days and really made the most of that knowledge. Without being unkind I was working extra hard to keep us alive, and I didn't mind that nor am I complaining, I expected it and was willing. I was trying to make things as easy as possible for my mum to engage with the game after all. It was tough going though, at one point seeing that there was only one slow moving zombie left I held back, leaving it for my mum to deal with. "Rererererererererererererererererererererererererereload" I ended up dealing with the zombie, whilst we both laughed (me and my mum, not the zombie).
The point of all this, casual gamers may look at games like Mario and Little Big Planet and really want to play them. My mum has complained about being bored of the various brain tests she's invested in on the DS, but enabling them to make the step up is going to be difficult. How to you teach someone analogue control, twitch reflexes, and the patience to overcome deficits in skill?
That is what the games industry is going to have to overcome if it really wants to expand is 'core' user-base
Capps In Hand
By Ben / 2008-11-10 20:04:16
Back after a bit of a break, everyones favourite opinion piece God Mode On returns with some ill thought out suggestions to help the games industry cope with the 2nd hand market
A post on Kotaku referencing Videogaming247 got me thinking. The post features quotes from Epic's Mike Capps, he talks about both the rental market and the second hand market being a problem for publishers and developers. Essentially his complaint is that the games industry (everything except the retail arm of it anyway) doesn't make any money when games are rented or when they are sold second hand.
This is not a new complaint for the industry and likewise me dismissal of it isn't new either. Perhaps I'm wrong but I can't think of another industry where the original artists (for argument's sake) are paid again on resale. The only thing I can think of that comes close is actors getting paid for repeats of TV programs, and possibly musicians getting royalties for air play. The royalties argument is probably closer to the rental market, however I would point out to Mr Capps that when I worked in a video shop we had to pay anywhere between £60-£100 for our rental films (each copy). We weren't just picking films up on the cheap from Play then renting them out for £3.50 a time. They cost a lot of money, the rentals would eventually pay that (most of the time), but if they didn't, or for extra profit, we would then sell them pre-owned.
The example that is often used as comparison to the 2nd hand games market is that of the second hand car market. My dad, being a northerner, is loathed to pay for a new car. He used to see it as a chumps move as, his words, 'It drops in value as soon as the wheels touch the road'. And he's right, my brother bought himself a 2nd hand Alfa Romeo, he could never afford a brand new one, yet second hand he paid as much as he sold his previous car for (or there abouts) and it's in great condition. However the car industry doesn't get money back when you sell your car, whether you do it through a magazine, a website, privately or through a dealership.
The dealership actually brings me to my next point slightly earlier than I intended, that while games and cars are very different, there are lessons to be learned for publishers. I mentioned before about my dad not being keen on buying new cars, that's increasingly not the case. In recent times car dealerships have begun offering packages and deals with your new car, be that free insurance, a buy back guarantee, free trade-ins, extra features, even tax, petrol and MOT's all being paid for. Buying a new car becomes a much more tempting proposition when you know you're not going to lose as much when you want to replace it, when there's zero risk attached and you know you have a nice new reliable car for the next 2-3 years. In gaming terms, give people a reason to buy new rather than wait a couple of weeks to line someone else's pockets. The recent Burnout game is a good example of this, even the likes of Gears 2 and Fable 2 with their online codes.
Probably the smartest move the car industry has made in the last decade is to buy into, or franchise, the 2nd had dealerships. You can buy a 2nd hand Volvo from a Volvo dealer knowing that it's been checked out by people that specialise in Volvo's, have the parts, and should anything go wrong knowing that you're dealing with Volvo from the off. My first thought with this comparison was Valve and Steam, obviously that doesn't actually deal in 2nd hand games, but it does sell old games with the money going to the devs and publishers.
The better model is to take it more literally, why don't EA buy into Gamestop, Ubisoft into Game? They take a cut of any of their games that get traded in and resold, offering reduced cost on new games for the store (in exchange for favoured shelf space), cheaper resale and better exchange rate to the customer (possibly even more so against other games from the publisher in question)? Basically give the customer a reason to sell your games back to you so you can make a second profit on them. Granted this favours the publishers big enough to invest in game stores, but then that encourages mid level and small publishers to find reasons for customers to buy new. There's always the option of publishers starting their own rental or trade in services on their websites.
To finish off, the quote from Capps that will cause the most fuss on the net “I’ve talked to some developers who are saying ‘If you want to fight the final boss you go online and pay USD 20, but if you bought the retail version you got it for free’. We don’t make any money when someone rents it, and we don’t make any money when someone buys it used - way more than twice as many people played Gears than bought it.”
This as he suggests it (or repeats the suggestion) is unacceptable. If you pay for a disk you are entitled to everything on it, the publishers have no right to charge a second time for content in such a cock-tease manner. What he's describing is essentially a download model for gaming, which I don't have a problem with (Steam for example), except that the customer has to buy the disk first. If we were talking about a return to the shareware model, where games are sold cheaply, or even free, with a payment having to be made to access the later parts of the game I'd be more forgiving. It still poses issues with the lack of uniformity with the net still, limited speeds and bandwidth caps would hinder a good chunk of users. Eventually you'd get people asking why they couldn't just pay a set price and have the whole thing on the disk and accessible to begin with and then... well then we're back to where we started.
Publishers and developers getting a second payment is an unreasonable expectation, I understand why they want it but it's just never going to happen. They are on the first steps of the right track with DLC, granted not every game is suitable for Burnout style expansions, but then perhaps not every game can be kept off the 2nd hand market. Online components will help with certain areas of the markets, there are people that wont trade in certain games because of the potential use they'll get from it online. Why not create short 4 hour spin offs (a la R&C Quest for Booty) that allow you to swap items and data between the download and retail games. Think about something like Animal Crossing, where by every new Nintendo game you bought gave you new items for your town. And maybe if you're really lucky you'll create the next Little Big Planet and have the consume provide you with the reasons not to sell the game while you fleece them with extortionate costumes?
By Ben / 2008-11-10 20:04:16
Back after a bit of a break, everyones favourite opinion piece God Mode On returns with some ill thought out suggestions to help the games industry cope with the 2nd hand market
A post on Kotaku referencing Videogaming247 got me thinking. The post features quotes from Epic's Mike Capps, he talks about both the rental market and the second hand market being a problem for publishers and developers. Essentially his complaint is that the games industry (everything except the retail arm of it anyway) doesn't make any money when games are rented or when they are sold second hand.
This is not a new complaint for the industry and likewise me dismissal of it isn't new either. Perhaps I'm wrong but I can't think of another industry where the original artists (for argument's sake) are paid again on resale. The only thing I can think of that comes close is actors getting paid for repeats of TV programs, and possibly musicians getting royalties for air play. The royalties argument is probably closer to the rental market, however I would point out to Mr Capps that when I worked in a video shop we had to pay anywhere between £60-£100 for our rental films (each copy). We weren't just picking films up on the cheap from Play then renting them out for £3.50 a time. They cost a lot of money, the rentals would eventually pay that (most of the time), but if they didn't, or for extra profit, we would then sell them pre-owned.
The example that is often used as comparison to the 2nd hand games market is that of the second hand car market. My dad, being a northerner, is loathed to pay for a new car. He used to see it as a chumps move as, his words, 'It drops in value as soon as the wheels touch the road'. And he's right, my brother bought himself a 2nd hand Alfa Romeo, he could never afford a brand new one, yet second hand he paid as much as he sold his previous car for (or there abouts) and it's in great condition. However the car industry doesn't get money back when you sell your car, whether you do it through a magazine, a website, privately or through a dealership.
The dealership actually brings me to my next point slightly earlier than I intended, that while games and cars are very different, there are lessons to be learned for publishers. I mentioned before about my dad not being keen on buying new cars, that's increasingly not the case. In recent times car dealerships have begun offering packages and deals with your new car, be that free insurance, a buy back guarantee, free trade-ins, extra features, even tax, petrol and MOT's all being paid for. Buying a new car becomes a much more tempting proposition when you know you're not going to lose as much when you want to replace it, when there's zero risk attached and you know you have a nice new reliable car for the next 2-3 years. In gaming terms, give people a reason to buy new rather than wait a couple of weeks to line someone else's pockets. The recent Burnout game is a good example of this, even the likes of Gears 2 and Fable 2 with their online codes.
Probably the smartest move the car industry has made in the last decade is to buy into, or franchise, the 2nd had dealerships. You can buy a 2nd hand Volvo from a Volvo dealer knowing that it's been checked out by people that specialise in Volvo's, have the parts, and should anything go wrong knowing that you're dealing with Volvo from the off. My first thought with this comparison was Valve and Steam, obviously that doesn't actually deal in 2nd hand games, but it does sell old games with the money going to the devs and publishers.
The better model is to take it more literally, why don't EA buy into Gamestop, Ubisoft into Game? They take a cut of any of their games that get traded in and resold, offering reduced cost on new games for the store (in exchange for favoured shelf space), cheaper resale and better exchange rate to the customer (possibly even more so against other games from the publisher in question)? Basically give the customer a reason to sell your games back to you so you can make a second profit on them. Granted this favours the publishers big enough to invest in game stores, but then that encourages mid level and small publishers to find reasons for customers to buy new. There's always the option of publishers starting their own rental or trade in services on their websites.
To finish off, the quote from Capps that will cause the most fuss on the net “I’ve talked to some developers who are saying ‘If you want to fight the final boss you go online and pay USD 20, but if you bought the retail version you got it for free’. We don’t make any money when someone rents it, and we don’t make any money when someone buys it used - way more than twice as many people played Gears than bought it.”
This as he suggests it (or repeats the suggestion) is unacceptable. If you pay for a disk you are entitled to everything on it, the publishers have no right to charge a second time for content in such a cock-tease manner. What he's describing is essentially a download model for gaming, which I don't have a problem with (Steam for example), except that the customer has to buy the disk first. If we were talking about a return to the shareware model, where games are sold cheaply, or even free, with a payment having to be made to access the later parts of the game I'd be more forgiving. It still poses issues with the lack of uniformity with the net still, limited speeds and bandwidth caps would hinder a good chunk of users. Eventually you'd get people asking why they couldn't just pay a set price and have the whole thing on the disk and accessible to begin with and then... well then we're back to where we started.
Publishers and developers getting a second payment is an unreasonable expectation, I understand why they want it but it's just never going to happen. They are on the first steps of the right track with DLC, granted not every game is suitable for Burnout style expansions, but then perhaps not every game can be kept off the 2nd hand market. Online components will help with certain areas of the markets, there are people that wont trade in certain games because of the potential use they'll get from it online. Why not create short 4 hour spin offs (a la R&C Quest for Booty) that allow you to swap items and data between the download and retail games. Think about something like Animal Crossing, where by every new Nintendo game you bought gave you new items for your town. And maybe if you're really lucky you'll create the next Little Big Planet and have the consume provide you with the reasons not to sell the game while you fleece them with extortionate costumes?
So Long Old Faithful
By Ben / 2008-09-17 17:19:16
God Mode On returns in homage to Ben's now departed Dreamcast
Tragic news friends, my best friend, the guy who's kept me sane since I left school has dies, just 2 weeks before his 9th birthday.
Granted he wasn't in the best of health, he quite often needed his pins cleaning, sometimes bending into/out of position. There were times when he wouldn't even recognise that I was trying to play with him and I'd have to turn him on all over again.
I am of course talking about my Dreamcast, Sega's box of wonder that has been by my side since launch day. The greatest console of all time, staggering game after staggering game, and the supplier of so many great gaming memories.
I'll never forget the struggle I had getting you online, but you supplying my teenage years with access to free porn just when I needed it. And the time I had saved a doctored image of Britney with a milk bottle in her fanny, not realising that you'd pick an image from my VMU to use as a screen saver. It was hard to tell whether my dad was angry, embarrassed or amused when I wandered back into the room to find him stood there. Great times.
I remember heading into Chester with mates, nipping into Game just to kill a bit of time and noticing an extraordinarily long que, puzzled I scanned the store and its customers, why was there such a freakish que? Of course it was because Shenmue had broken street date, I immediately snatched a copy and joined the hordes, sharing nervous looks with a fellow Dreamer praying this wasn't some horrible trick. Shenmue itself provided its own memories, my brother and his mate watching as I played the epic masterpiece, not wanting to play only to watch. I was on holiday from work at the time, but because I was heading towards the final breathtaking moments I called in sick on my day back just so I could finish the game uninterrupted.
You became something of a communal ritual, epic Soul Calibur battles were a given, as was getting destroyed by my button mashing brother. Before football every sunday a friend would come round just so we could tear through House of the Dead 2 to get us 'in the mood'. The hilarity of the ninja roping escapades on Worms, twitch gameplay in one of gamings slowest genres. I'd take on all comers on Streetfighter Alpha's dynamic fighter mode, granted I'd feel a bit cheap when I'd unleash a super-move if my friends looked like they were going to beat me, but I always knew you were routing for me.
Long after your official passing you stayed with me, heading to University and holding your own against he PS2, Gamecube and Xbox. How could they compete when you were offering 4 player Virtua Tennis, Project Justice and Guilty Gear. Ikaruga was daily for an entire term and I found new love for old classics like Berserk and Jet Set Radio.
Even at a non-geek student party one of your cousins was set up to keep us entertained. The host had been killing time till his guests arrived by trying to finish the crazy box in Crazy Taxi. Everyone took a turn trying to beat the last box, a mad race to the finish. The controller was handed to me just as I reached the optimum blood alcohol level familiar to pool players everywhere. I ended up defeated too, a mere second away from crossing the finish line to the giddy groans of my peers. I was forced to have another go but alas I'd tipped over the edge and was now far too drunk to show any crazy skills, only to pull and then later projectile vomit.
Up until your untimely death you were in use, with peripherals regularly being slotted into you, and you can't say I didn't keep you well fed with new games!
To quote Frightened Rabbit "I wish we'd never met then met today". Farewell my beautiful brother, though I may buy another Dreamcast, you will forever be my Drizzle Sizzle.
By Ben / 2008-09-17 17:19:16
God Mode On returns in homage to Ben's now departed Dreamcast
Tragic news friends, my best friend, the guy who's kept me sane since I left school has dies, just 2 weeks before his 9th birthday.
Granted he wasn't in the best of health, he quite often needed his pins cleaning, sometimes bending into/out of position. There were times when he wouldn't even recognise that I was trying to play with him and I'd have to turn him on all over again.
I am of course talking about my Dreamcast, Sega's box of wonder that has been by my side since launch day. The greatest console of all time, staggering game after staggering game, and the supplier of so many great gaming memories.
I'll never forget the struggle I had getting you online, but you supplying my teenage years with access to free porn just when I needed it. And the time I had saved a doctored image of Britney with a milk bottle in her fanny, not realising that you'd pick an image from my VMU to use as a screen saver. It was hard to tell whether my dad was angry, embarrassed or amused when I wandered back into the room to find him stood there. Great times.
I remember heading into Chester with mates, nipping into Game just to kill a bit of time and noticing an extraordinarily long que, puzzled I scanned the store and its customers, why was there such a freakish que? Of course it was because Shenmue had broken street date, I immediately snatched a copy and joined the hordes, sharing nervous looks with a fellow Dreamer praying this wasn't some horrible trick. Shenmue itself provided its own memories, my brother and his mate watching as I played the epic masterpiece, not wanting to play only to watch. I was on holiday from work at the time, but because I was heading towards the final breathtaking moments I called in sick on my day back just so I could finish the game uninterrupted.
You became something of a communal ritual, epic Soul Calibur battles were a given, as was getting destroyed by my button mashing brother. Before football every sunday a friend would come round just so we could tear through House of the Dead 2 to get us 'in the mood'. The hilarity of the ninja roping escapades on Worms, twitch gameplay in one of gamings slowest genres. I'd take on all comers on Streetfighter Alpha's dynamic fighter mode, granted I'd feel a bit cheap when I'd unleash a super-move if my friends looked like they were going to beat me, but I always knew you were routing for me.
Long after your official passing you stayed with me, heading to University and holding your own against he PS2, Gamecube and Xbox. How could they compete when you were offering 4 player Virtua Tennis, Project Justice and Guilty Gear. Ikaruga was daily for an entire term and I found new love for old classics like Berserk and Jet Set Radio.
Even at a non-geek student party one of your cousins was set up to keep us entertained. The host had been killing time till his guests arrived by trying to finish the crazy box in Crazy Taxi. Everyone took a turn trying to beat the last box, a mad race to the finish. The controller was handed to me just as I reached the optimum blood alcohol level familiar to pool players everywhere. I ended up defeated too, a mere second away from crossing the finish line to the giddy groans of my peers. I was forced to have another go but alas I'd tipped over the edge and was now far too drunk to show any crazy skills, only to pull and then later projectile vomit.
Up until your untimely death you were in use, with peripherals regularly being slotted into you, and you can't say I didn't keep you well fed with new games!
To quote Frightened Rabbit "I wish we'd never met then met today". Farewell my beautiful brother, though I may buy another Dreamcast, you will forever be my Drizzle Sizzle.
Spring Yard
By Ben / 2008-09-07 13:39:12
I quite like this time of year, I'm not a religious man, far from it, but I can appreciate that people need it. Summer's still a long way away and christmas was ages ago,people need a break. I know the next 4 days hold a special significance for some people and I'm not being deliberately facetious about it, but I really don't know that many christians. In truth I tend to look at all the religious programs over easter weekend with a fair amount of contempt, people get precious little free time nowadays, why ruin their 2 extra days with garbled singing? I actually had a conversation about religion yesterday with an Iranian. I'd cottoned onto him not being a muslim, but to find out that he was christian threw me a bit, especially as he became christian after reading the bible of his own volition. I'm not going to repeat a lot of what he said, not because it was especially offensive but because this is a gaming blog and his views are his own, coming from a westerner they would read very different. What I will say though is that no matter how many new people and how many different viewpoints I come across I'm constantly surprised by how ignorant I am. I'm willing to learn which I hope counts for something, but by the same token I don't really care. I'd much rather take people without the baggage of beliefs, which was actually a point both me and my Iranian friend agreed on. The reason I'm mentioning this isn't to get preachy or declare myself born again, but because one of the reasons the Iranian chose christianity over the nationwide (for him) islam was because rather than just being a big book of rules it featured moments that actually happened, real historical figures, then in the later stages teachings and philosophies. We disputed the finer points of this, and whether jesus was jewish, and something became apparent. Both of us reject the rules and flaws of the dominant religion of our society's, while he became a more passive christian (is there a way to word that so it isn't racist?) I am an atheist who has read buddhist teachings (I see religion as philosophies that has been butchered by people for their own means. Not that I'm holding buddhism up as some shining light, I met a buddhist who took great offence to my non-believing dabbles with the buddha). To labour a point while I was oblivious to a lot of the historical aspects of religion, and still am, because it all happened on the other side of the world, my Iranian friend was completely unaware of the reasons for most of the easter customs, purely because he's not from this society. Which is the important thing to remember, you're a product of society, your society, what I write here no matter how trivial, is not the truth, only a truth. Finally to my point, properly this time (with minimum beard stroking), believe what you want I don't care. I think you're wrong but so long as you don't bring it up in front of me I'm never going to tell you that. Easter used to be about, and still is lets face it, the beginning of spring and looking forward. How does this relate to gaming? Simple, we have 4 days off work. 4 whole days! At christmas we have to spend time with our families, deal with all sorts of peripheral shit (although we do tend to get new stuff). Easter has become a national 4 day holiday. There'll be good films on, good food to eat, loads of football on, and all your friends will likely be off too. We as gamers can finally sit down and finish things, get playing stuff we just haven't had the time for whilst we've been battling real life. With a bit of luck I'll have Smash Bros. this weekend, so when I'm not working my way through Advance Wars, Dynasty Warriors and maybe even Dementium if it improves, I'll be playing games with my friends and housemates. So even if you don't believe in a god, or if you're just celebrating Iranian new year (unaware of the parallels with easter and its original meaning) just be glad of the time off, the time to spend with friends and doing the things you enjoy. And have a good one!
By Ben / 2008-09-07 13:39:12
I quite like this time of year, I'm not a religious man, far from it, but I can appreciate that people need it. Summer's still a long way away and christmas was ages ago,people need a break. I know the next 4 days hold a special significance for some people and I'm not being deliberately facetious about it, but I really don't know that many christians. In truth I tend to look at all the religious programs over easter weekend with a fair amount of contempt, people get precious little free time nowadays, why ruin their 2 extra days with garbled singing? I actually had a conversation about religion yesterday with an Iranian. I'd cottoned onto him not being a muslim, but to find out that he was christian threw me a bit, especially as he became christian after reading the bible of his own volition. I'm not going to repeat a lot of what he said, not because it was especially offensive but because this is a gaming blog and his views are his own, coming from a westerner they would read very different. What I will say though is that no matter how many new people and how many different viewpoints I come across I'm constantly surprised by how ignorant I am. I'm willing to learn which I hope counts for something, but by the same token I don't really care. I'd much rather take people without the baggage of beliefs, which was actually a point both me and my Iranian friend agreed on. The reason I'm mentioning this isn't to get preachy or declare myself born again, but because one of the reasons the Iranian chose christianity over the nationwide (for him) islam was because rather than just being a big book of rules it featured moments that actually happened, real historical figures, then in the later stages teachings and philosophies. We disputed the finer points of this, and whether jesus was jewish, and something became apparent. Both of us reject the rules and flaws of the dominant religion of our society's, while he became a more passive christian (is there a way to word that so it isn't racist?) I am an atheist who has read buddhist teachings (I see religion as philosophies that has been butchered by people for their own means. Not that I'm holding buddhism up as some shining light, I met a buddhist who took great offence to my non-believing dabbles with the buddha). To labour a point while I was oblivious to a lot of the historical aspects of religion, and still am, because it all happened on the other side of the world, my Iranian friend was completely unaware of the reasons for most of the easter customs, purely because he's not from this society. Which is the important thing to remember, you're a product of society, your society, what I write here no matter how trivial, is not the truth, only a truth. Finally to my point, properly this time (with minimum beard stroking), believe what you want I don't care. I think you're wrong but so long as you don't bring it up in front of me I'm never going to tell you that. Easter used to be about, and still is lets face it, the beginning of spring and looking forward. How does this relate to gaming? Simple, we have 4 days off work. 4 whole days! At christmas we have to spend time with our families, deal with all sorts of peripheral shit (although we do tend to get new stuff). Easter has become a national 4 day holiday. There'll be good films on, good food to eat, loads of football on, and all your friends will likely be off too. We as gamers can finally sit down and finish things, get playing stuff we just haven't had the time for whilst we've been battling real life. With a bit of luck I'll have Smash Bros. this weekend, so when I'm not working my way through Advance Wars, Dynasty Warriors and maybe even Dementium if it improves, I'll be playing games with my friends and housemates. So even if you don't believe in a god, or if you're just celebrating Iranian new year (unaware of the parallels with easter and its original meaning) just be glad of the time off, the time to spend with friends and doing the things you enjoy. And have a good one!
Driving at Dusk
By Ben / 2008-09-07 13:39:12
I have a few blog posts stored up, unwritten admittedly, but the ideas are there. I keep them because I expect to hit a couple of weeks where I have absolutely nothing to write about, and this was looking like one of those weeks. I got lucky though, in an odd kind of a way, my boss' kids are off for easter, and rather than let them go off and enjoy themselves he's put them to work. Harsh, and I'm not sure how much they actually help, but needs must I guess. To tell you about that though I have to tell you about Serial Experiments Lain. I know I know it's an anime and I'm about to get all precious about how it has something of value to offer. But it does have something of value to offer, honest! I'm only about halfway through the series so I'm not entirely sure what's going on plot wise other than it looking at whether people can exist solely on the net ('Wire'). This same theme is the basis for Ghost in the Shell, at what point does virtual reality become actual reality? That's a huge topic that I think is pretty interesting, but probably not for discussing now. The assumption is that if we can ever exist on the net that it's a long way in the future, I'm not so sure. I saw BBC Breakfast covering internet dating the other day, apparently it's very common now and not the pariah pursuit it was a few years back. Social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook may well have passed me by but everyone else loves them, Apple have even based an iphone advert around them. I recently met up with some people I know off the net, specifically an internet forum, and do you know what, there was no awkwardness at all. I was a little nervous, not overly so, and it was more concern about the initial meeting of 5 minutes than the rest of the weekend. That's actually not quite true, I was worried that boredom would set in some time Saturday afternoon making the remaining 24 hours a bit of a drag, but I was wrong. You see we all 'knew' each other, and had even spoken to each other over Skype, add to that we have shared interests and are roughly the same age and it's not a surprise things went pretty well. When I get home from work I have something of a routine, it's not set in stone, but generally the first thing I do is turn my computer on and check my emails, forums, news sites and so on. I'm not a great exponent of online gaming, but I recently got Super Smash Bros Brawl and so playing a few games online is now something that crosses my mind before bed. Other people have nightly obligations to clans or just friends to take part in matches with across the web. There are people who spend pretty much all their free time on the net, they're not necessarily pathetic or sad, some are married with kids, and online is where they are when they're not performing their duties as husband/wife and father/mother. People even manage to stay logged on at work, be it on forums, social networks or chat programs. Being online may still be alien to people in the 40's, not that they're oblivious to the net, they use it, but they don't immerse themselves in the way the younger generations do. But let's be honest if I read the part of this post where I talk about my nightly habits to most people my age I'd get laughed at. Online is like driving at dusk, you don't really notice how dark it's getting until someone flashes you to put your lights on. Most people my age, and older, will spend plenty of time at a computer socialising, even playing games against others, but it just wont click that that's what they're doing. So what's all this got to do with my boss' kids? Once they'd gotten so hyper my boss gave up on them, he let them do what they wanted to do from the start, play on the computers. We have 4 computers, one for each of the staff. Due to the easter backlog all of us bar my boss were put to work packing items and getting them shipped out, which left 2, sometimes 3 computers free. The kids logged onto an online rpg, (there was 3 of them using 3 accounts, and from what I understood their school friends were also on there) then met up on there, shouting across the warehouse to each other about where they were headed if that person hadn't responded to the IM. My boss and his brother were staggered by this, not so much by a free online game, more that they all knew about it and were au fait enough with it to work out what server they were on and meet up. They saw it as pointless, why meet up online when you're all in the same room in real life? That's a fair point, but why not meet up online just because you're in the same room? If you want to play something why does geography have to be a barrier when the game removes that? My point is that if we are all already at the point where we're online pretty much all the time, playing against people, dating, conversing, and even making new friends, then what of the next generation? These kids have all that already, and it's such a non-event for them that they're using a game as a meeting point with their real life friends, like a social hub. The iphone is selling itself as being able to access the net from anywhere (anywhere with wi-fi). There are campaigns to have free wireless internet all across the country, meaning that so long as you have an internet ready device you could always be on the net! It's really not that hard to imagine that by the time those kids are my age we will be on the net all the time, perhaps not wired into our E-brains a la Ghost in the Shell, but the net may become a virtual ocean we are never out of. Scary perhaps, especially when you think about how monitored we could be, but it really doesn't seem like science fiction anymore
By Ben / 2008-09-07 13:39:12
I have a few blog posts stored up, unwritten admittedly, but the ideas are there. I keep them because I expect to hit a couple of weeks where I have absolutely nothing to write about, and this was looking like one of those weeks. I got lucky though, in an odd kind of a way, my boss' kids are off for easter, and rather than let them go off and enjoy themselves he's put them to work. Harsh, and I'm not sure how much they actually help, but needs must I guess. To tell you about that though I have to tell you about Serial Experiments Lain. I know I know it's an anime and I'm about to get all precious about how it has something of value to offer. But it does have something of value to offer, honest! I'm only about halfway through the series so I'm not entirely sure what's going on plot wise other than it looking at whether people can exist solely on the net ('Wire'). This same theme is the basis for Ghost in the Shell, at what point does virtual reality become actual reality? That's a huge topic that I think is pretty interesting, but probably not for discussing now. The assumption is that if we can ever exist on the net that it's a long way in the future, I'm not so sure. I saw BBC Breakfast covering internet dating the other day, apparently it's very common now and not the pariah pursuit it was a few years back. Social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook may well have passed me by but everyone else loves them, Apple have even based an iphone advert around them. I recently met up with some people I know off the net, specifically an internet forum, and do you know what, there was no awkwardness at all. I was a little nervous, not overly so, and it was more concern about the initial meeting of 5 minutes than the rest of the weekend. That's actually not quite true, I was worried that boredom would set in some time Saturday afternoon making the remaining 24 hours a bit of a drag, but I was wrong. You see we all 'knew' each other, and had even spoken to each other over Skype, add to that we have shared interests and are roughly the same age and it's not a surprise things went pretty well. When I get home from work I have something of a routine, it's not set in stone, but generally the first thing I do is turn my computer on and check my emails, forums, news sites and so on. I'm not a great exponent of online gaming, but I recently got Super Smash Bros Brawl and so playing a few games online is now something that crosses my mind before bed. Other people have nightly obligations to clans or just friends to take part in matches with across the web. There are people who spend pretty much all their free time on the net, they're not necessarily pathetic or sad, some are married with kids, and online is where they are when they're not performing their duties as husband/wife and father/mother. People even manage to stay logged on at work, be it on forums, social networks or chat programs. Being online may still be alien to people in the 40's, not that they're oblivious to the net, they use it, but they don't immerse themselves in the way the younger generations do. But let's be honest if I read the part of this post where I talk about my nightly habits to most people my age I'd get laughed at. Online is like driving at dusk, you don't really notice how dark it's getting until someone flashes you to put your lights on. Most people my age, and older, will spend plenty of time at a computer socialising, even playing games against others, but it just wont click that that's what they're doing. So what's all this got to do with my boss' kids? Once they'd gotten so hyper my boss gave up on them, he let them do what they wanted to do from the start, play on the computers. We have 4 computers, one for each of the staff. Due to the easter backlog all of us bar my boss were put to work packing items and getting them shipped out, which left 2, sometimes 3 computers free. The kids logged onto an online rpg, (there was 3 of them using 3 accounts, and from what I understood their school friends were also on there) then met up on there, shouting across the warehouse to each other about where they were headed if that person hadn't responded to the IM. My boss and his brother were staggered by this, not so much by a free online game, more that they all knew about it and were au fait enough with it to work out what server they were on and meet up. They saw it as pointless, why meet up online when you're all in the same room in real life? That's a fair point, but why not meet up online just because you're in the same room? If you want to play something why does geography have to be a barrier when the game removes that? My point is that if we are all already at the point where we're online pretty much all the time, playing against people, dating, conversing, and even making new friends, then what of the next generation? These kids have all that already, and it's such a non-event for them that they're using a game as a meeting point with their real life friends, like a social hub. The iphone is selling itself as being able to access the net from anywhere (anywhere with wi-fi). There are campaigns to have free wireless internet all across the country, meaning that so long as you have an internet ready device you could always be on the net! It's really not that hard to imagine that by the time those kids are my age we will be on the net all the time, perhaps not wired into our E-brains a la Ghost in the Shell, but the net may become a virtual ocean we are never out of. Scary perhaps, especially when you think about how monitored we could be, but it really doesn't seem like science fiction anymore
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