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Archives: March 2010

March 20, 2010

Just In Case You Needed Realistic Force Feedback

by Frank — Categories: Gaming — Tags: , , — Leave a comment

This one comes courtesy of Gizmodo via Destructoid, where apparently one hardcore God of War III player was so into the game he managed to literally break two fingers. Matthew Razak of DToid opines:

“I’ve been sitting here for ten minutes trying to visualize how this even happened, but cannot think of a way where I would be holding a controller while playing a game and still be able to roll over my hand with my knee. I can only conclude that this man plays videogames in a very awkward position and must be some sort of contortionist. However he did it it doesn’t look like he’ll be beating the game any time soon.”

Ouch. You and me both, Matthew. You and me both. Well, like I always say, let’s look on the bright side – considering that Kratos decapitates, impales, and rips things into halves on his way to fulfilling his revenge, the guy should be real lucky that his intense playing only landed him two broken fingers.

Don’t try this at home, kids.

March 19, 2010

The Good Drama of Developer Dirty Laundry

by Frank — Categories: Gaming — Tags: , , , , — 3 Comments

So by now I’m sure some of you have caught up with the whole very public spectacle that the Alganon/David Allen/Derek Smart thing has become. For those of you that haven’t, all you need to know, prior to reading, is that it’s definitely a rare case of developer rage with a lot of he said/she said shenanigans.

On the one hand, watching all this stuff unfold might seem unprofessional, uncomfortable, or just plain odd. After all, I think it’s no secret that any workplace has some amount of drama that goes on behind closed doors, right? In the gaming industry, most of the time a studio has no problems keeping a lid on what might (or might not) be going on during development – which makes the few times it does creep out something to watch.

Still, no matter what side you take in this little affair, the airing of dirty laundry and the drama that comes with it is at least a humanization of developers in general. Certainly, the human element you don’t want to associate with developers is one in which they are launching the verbal equivalent of everything from potshots to missiles across an online battlefield. But the tendency of us as players is to remove the human element from a development studio and focus only on their product, or the results it produces. Some developers prefer it that way, but I think that there isn’t any real harm at showing off passion, enjoyment, and the hard work that goes into making a game. If that means peeking behind the Wizard’s curtain, then so be it.

Personally, I find the whole exchange a bit intriguing but definitely educational. Sure, you might really think that David Allen stole a bunch of cash from Alganon’s investors or that Derek Smart is a pretentious loudmouth asshole, but the fact of the matter is that it isn’t mindless automatons who work long hours during the week to make games, it’s people like you and me, who have homes, might have families or loved ones, and who put on their shoes one foot at a time, every day. The ugly drama that results from that might not be the most pleasant of things to read, but it’s certainly a sobering, if not interesting lesson in workplace professionalism and the fervor with which developers pursue the creation of their games.

If I have any bias at all, it’d be towards the poor Community manager or team that has to deal with all of this. As someone with a bit of experience in that arena, my heart goes out to the community folks. Dealing with a member of the development team that might quote something that sparks discussion means a little stain on the studio carpet. You get out a vacuum and a steam cleaner, and the cleanup is done in a matter of days. But dealing with someone on the team that quotes something and causes a little bit of controversy? That means bringing a shovel and ton of carpet shampoo to deal with the veritable dump truck of dirt.

Hopefully Alganon will get past this little interlude – but until then, we’ll all be reading with interest.

March 19, 2010

Sony’s Funny, Fruitful PS3 Marketing

by Frank — Categories: Gaming — Tags: , , — 3 Comments

A few months ago I noticed that Sony made a shift to a more light-hearted marketing campaign in an effort to move consoles. Utilizing fictional, ever-changing VP of Something Kevin Butler as their helmsman, the Sony onslaught of marketing since their $299 price drop has been funny, down-to-earth, and most of all, gotten results. Overall perception of the PS3 and its slimmer, sexier look has been positive, and the console has now, in my opinion, caught up to the Wii and 360 as a competitor in the overall sales market.

You have to give credit to Sony marketing for creating such a memorable and interesting campaign. I’ll have a few video links below for your perusal, but the gist of the matter is that Sony is trying to get in tune with the average, regular gamer. This is a gamer that isn’t always fooled by shiny, over-the-top dramatics, such as the oddity of a crying doll that graced our TV’s from Sony a while back. They’re also a gamer that has a tinge of sarcasm, a bit of the funny, and simple, practical needs. With the “Dear Playstation” ads and the latest video about the upcoming PS3 motion control, Move, Sony’s taken a a tack to address the masses at their level, while creating a sales pitch that is smart and strategic. Having a central figure like “Kevin Butler” helps too – a combination of stereotypical clueless CEO and sharp wit – helps with this as well. The wink to the TV as Butler subtly jabs at motion control competition from the Wii and 360 is seen as mildly asshole-ish, but still charming.

Honestly, the results speak for themselves. The days of the PS3 being viewed as the oversized, overpriced joke of the console wars appear to be behind them, and even though there are some issues – like the massive borking of non-slim PS3s a while back and the lackluster PSP Go sales – Sony’s on its way up. If you don’t believe me, just check out the stuff below. I think you’ll lol at least once. Don’t forget to follow the hapless, yet confident Kevin Butler on Twitter if you’re into that.

March 18, 2010

Singing the Unsubbed Song

by Frank — Categories: Gaming — Tags: , , — 6 Comments

Wow, it’s been a while! It’s funny how a short trip to another city can take a lot out of you, right? I’m still on the road to recovery but don’t worry – I’ll be back to 100% real soon.

Today, I’m informing my smallish readership that I have moved on from one of my subbed MMO,s Aion. As those who play MMOs know well, unsubbing from one that you’ve played is not unlike breaking up with someone you’ve dated – it’s a bit awkward, makes you feel like you invested your time for nothing, and it kinda hurts your butt for a while. But just like any actual relationship breakup, ultimately, you need to look on the bright side and see that yes, even though you probably totally made a mistake putting months of your life into the affair, that you’ll have learned something. Yes, just like finding out that dating someone who is a little too into kitchen appliances might not be conducive to a healthy relationship, unsubbing from an MMO gives you a few lessons to take to the next subscription.

For example, here’s some great tidbits I learned about Aion during my journey from 1 – 50 as a Cleric:

  • Perpetually poor people like me can’t pay for deaths and experience loss consistently. Soul Healer, you are the Donald Trump of MMOs.
  • A little randomness is nice. Too much randomness, such as critting on crafting for quests, is nice to make you want to stab your eyes out with a spoon.
  • Soul Healer, you should write a book on economical success in MMOs.
  • The best treadmill grind is the one you don’t realize you are running. The worst treadmill grind is the one that you not only realize you are on but which also has spikes on the treads as you run.
  • I like a little resistance in PvP. It makes battles more exciting. However, when encountering the resistance is like jamming your index finger as hard as you can against a brick wall to try to make a hole in it, it’s not quite as fun, you see.
  • Getting loot is neat. But in the repeated absence of any loot at all, you can at least copy and paste items into chat to fantasize about having epic gear.
  • Did I mention that if Soul Healer was a class, all they would have to have is an ability which sucks money and experience away to succeed? Easiest class ever, I say!

So the next time you bust up with the MMO love of your life, don’t drown your sorrows in pints of Ben and Jerry’s and constant YouTube and Hulu watching. Learn the lessons and move on (or back) to something you truly enjoy and can give you what you want. Trust me – you’ll be better and a little less flabby for it.

March 6, 2010

Geek Travel

by Frank — Categories: Social Geekery — Leave a comment

Yep, that’s right, I’ve gotten a bit inconsistent in the posting lately. Sorry about the lack of positive posting, but I’ve been prepping for something I rarely do, and that’s travel.

Traveling as a geek means that you’ve got to do what amounts to twice the preparation for twice the convenience later. Sure, in the olden days, one could truly unplug and get away from the tech that they normally carry around with them, but not so today. No, in a world where geekery needs to keep up on the latest news on meaningful and relevant subjects (you know – games, computers, how many kills someone got in a game of TF2), you can’t be not wired, even on a business trip.

Packing your laptop, external drives, and USB sticks might seem like overkill to some people who like to travel light, but for a geek, it’s simply a desire to stay connected to the things they normally do when they’re home, no matter how cumbersome it is. Chances are if you see someone furtively trying to find a power plug so their laptop won’t die, or Twittering with one device while checking mail with the other, that they’re probably a traveling geek.

This is even worse when, like me, you work with computers as your job. In that case, being wired is not only a convenience, it’s an absolute necessity. If I couldn’t do what I needed to in a moment of crisis, things would probably go worse than hiring a scary, angry robot with lasers instead of a friendly clown for a kid’s birthday. For some geeks, forgetting an ethernet cable is worse than forgetting to pack underwear.

There are some people out there who view all this dependence on technology, even during travel, as a detriment to travel as a whole. I dunno though – I think that I call it being as productive as possible no matter where you are. Besides, if there wasn’t a need for all this convenient, portable tech, there wouldn’t be so many prevalent smartphones, netbooks, game devices, and whatnot out there for us to devour. If I can stave off a long, boring layover with a few blog posts and some laughs at the best (and worst) of the Internet, then that’s just good for everyone, because trust me – bored geeks are dangerous geeks.

March 3, 2010

The Top of the MMO Mountain

by Frank — Categories: Gaming — Tags: , — 2 Comments

Yep, that’s Everest you’re seeing. What other mountain would I have picked for this topic today? Heh.

Anyone who’s played an MMO before knows that there is an end, a top, a pinnacle to be reached that everyone aspires to and works towards.  It could take the form of a level cap, the best gear in the game, being ranked number one in killing squishy cloth-wearing classes, or something else entirely. It’s the sort of “cream of the crop” that MMO tourists never really get close to and many powerlevelers race to achieve first.

Me? I’m somewhere in the middle – a journeyman who tends to tough it out whenever possible, and sometimes reaches the top of the mountain climb. I watch the tourists fade away into obscurity and the powerlevelers fade away into distant heights. As someone who has less playtime than the average gamer, my schedule sometimes prevents me from getting to that mythical MMO peak.

This, however, is not one of those times. In Aion, my current game of choice, I’m close to level 50, the current cap of the game. Now, many of you who are reading this know that if I’ve gotten near Aion‘s cap, that means that I’ve grinded, literally, hundreds of millions of experience points to get there. I’ve probably suffered through tons of instances gone bad and death penalty bills that have flattened my virtual wallet. Sure, the crippling experience curve makes trying to walk straight up a wall less of an effort and it seems odd that a PvP advancement system takes away more ranking points than a supermodel breaks hearts, but I manage to have soldiered on.

The secret, it seems, is people. Everyone plays an MMO for their own reasons, but at least one of those reasons involves other people – whether to stand alone at the top of the MMO mountain in front of an audience or to play with others and have a grand old geeky MMO time. I’m doing the latter – running with an extremely small but dedicated bunch of people who have been climbing the steep mountain of Aion along with me. It’s funny how a few laughs over getting low-quality items from bosses makes the game a little bit easier to bear. Along the way, I’ve gotten to know new people, snicker at the usual community chat hilarity, and generally try to mask the fact that I’m climbing the MMO mountain. It’s probably part of the reason why I’ve managed to get as far as I did, and I think that if more people realized that, they’d be more apt to stick with an MMO.

Now to get that 125+ million experience to get to the cap…

March 2, 2010

Valve’s Viral Vision

by Frank — Categories: Gaming — Tags: , , , , — Leave a comment

It seems that Valve is at it again with some viral marketing, releasing a curious update yesterday to puzzle game darling Portal that included a new achievement and some curious radio message data. If you’re curious about the shenanigans, you can check Jim Sterling’s latest article on Destructoid about the Portal craziness, or alternatively the live decoding thread on the Steam forums.

I do have to say that seeing viral marketing work properly – that is to say, overt but not obvious, teasing but not condescending – is entertaining business. If you check the thread, you can see people have brought those cryptography and puzzle-solving talents to bear, figuring out an interpretation of the sounds and then the image data within hours. The fact that Valve has also been notably tight-lipped about helping is also a great way to increase the mystery and keep the high interest going.

Having something to speculate about is one thing – I mean, people have been asking for what might be Portal 2 and of course, Half-Life Episode 3 for quite some time now. But having something to speculate about along with a breadcrumb of data idly dropped by a developer? That makes the process of waiting just a little bit more exciting if not good marketing. People remember decently good viral campaigns, because they are both complex in their planning but simple in their execution. Obviously, if a game doesn’t live up to the marketing, you might think that the virus might not have done its job, but from a certain perspective, if it’s created the kind of buzz and short term exposure needed to make people aware, it just might have.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing the results of the image data (all very curious pics, you should definitely check them out) as well as the big reveal that Valve might have up its sleeve with all this. I hope you are too!

March 1, 2010

Gleeking Out Live

by Frank — Categories: Social Geekery, TV and Movies — Tags: , — Leave a comment

So today my good friend and fellow Gleek Kristen sends me an uplifting link on a dreary Monday – the news that the cast of Glee is going on tour very briefly to hit four cities – with right here in Chicago being among the lucky places. Am I excited to see one of my new guilty pleasures live in and in the flesh? You bet.

The news is the latest coup in a string of validating successes for the musical-drama-comedy hybrid, and even if I wasn’t a fan of Glee I’d have to nod my head and give it props. The thing with Glee, as I’ve written before, is that it’s taken a lot of the formulaic stuff from various shows and turned it on its head, creating an original show that’s able to stand on its own. With accolades from the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild, anda dedicated, rabid fanbase, Glee is set to continue its successes in 2010. Heck, when you can get the attention of the First Lady to provide a performance, you know you’ve made it big.

There are a few musical acts out there that aren’t as good live as when they’re in the studio, but musical performances almost always come up aces “IRL”. The reason, among others, is the need to have strong performance presence in a theater production that doesn’t go through much, if any soundbooth editing and tweaking. Musical performers have to have the standout talent to entertain people live, and if you’ve watched or listened to anything Glee has to offer, you know the cast has the chops to get the job done. Aside from that, the mere fact that a show about geekery outcasts is good enough to get live performance requests is validation of the potential success geeks have in a world that sometimes shuns them.

Glee returns with the second half of their first recording run in April, and I’ll be looking forward to seeing how the story progresses after the success of the club after sectionals. Will they get too big for their britches? Will rival club Vocal Adrenaline become a menace to be feared? The longevity of the show will be challenged depending on how the writers and producers handle the aftermath of formulaic geek success and keep us Gleeks entertained. I’ve got confidence and optimism though (big surprise), and I can’t wait to get my fix back – both on the TV and live.

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