Overly Positive

Whether you’re hurting waiting for server maintenance to finish (as is the case with Champions Online), for a game to come out (Aion), or for a massive ISP fubar to clear itself up (WAR), you’re going to experience that wonderful thing called downtime at some point or another in your online game career. Even the most stable games have to take a break every so often, and I like to think of server downtime as a game’s way of telling us players that it needs to take a sick day or a floating holiday. Why not, right?

It might be frustrating when you have the itch to play to not have the opportunity to do so. It’s probably even more frustrating when you’ve set aside precious time to play your favorite games, only to see that your window of playtime has been robbed from you. Idle hands are dangerous when it comes to online games and not being able to play them, and most people are eager to take out their anger on the nearest target, such as innocent keyboards or mice, or worse yet, the game’s official forums.

Now unless you like to get your jollies cataloging how many threads get made in a 5 minute period screaming about downtime, you probably want to do something else while your favorite game is unplayable. For geeks, this might seem a bit too much Captain Obvious for you, but the next time you feel like nerd-raging over downtime, think about doing this stuff instead:

• Surf the Intarweb: There are people who get the kind of entertainment you get from slaying rats and pwning noobs in battlegrounds from the internet all day. Sure, these people are either students, really bored paper-pushers at work, or trolls, but that shouldn’t stop you from joining in on the fun. The Internet has anything you fancy, from grinding friends lists in Facebook to “real” PvP on any news commentary thread.
• Do some housework: You know, those dishes don’t really do themselves, and the carpet doesn’t suddenly become clean on its own, either. Laundry needs to be done and hanged, and that layer of dust on your desk except where you put your food needs attention. You’d be surprised how therapeutic a little housework can be, and next time you have friends over you won’t have to clear piles off for them to sit down.
• Find other entertaining media: TV is full of high-quality celebrity nonsense to get yourself immersed in, music from your secret favorite artists V-Factory or the Jonas Brothers calls your name, and the 10th private re-watching/worship of “Night at the Roxbury” can’t been that bad, right? Games aren’t the only media out there that can make you “lol IRL”.

And of course there’s always…

• Go Outside: Yeah, as much as the great outdoors might be something you only venture into to earn your paycheck or buy your latest round of Cheesy Poofs, let’s be honest. There’s little to no lag, the resolution is pretty good on most days, and if there was any downtime for it, I think we’d be concerned with more than just our favorite game not working. Outside – it’s the other other other other white meat, and you should have a bite of it every so often.

So don’t despair when that game of yours goes down faster than a drunk person after their 5th kegstand – find another way to fill the time. Your sanity (what’s left of it) will thank you.

Ah, Darwin. So stoic, is he not? Perhaps he could have used more games in his time. Still, there’s  a reason for his appearance in one of today’s posts.

Syncaine from Hardcore Casual went through a recent purge lately, as it seems to be the trend on a couple blogs, and did a full re-install of his computer. During this practice he came upon the notion that because of the distinct lack of games that made a re-appearance, and the lack of interest in future titles, that “2009 is looking like a sad year for gaming”.

C’mon now, Syncaine, turn that frown upside down! Actually, I think that it’s been a great year for gaming, and it all comes down to the “c” word (no, not “Crap”, you silly cynics). That word is “choice”.

In the face of saturation in a particular segment of the game market, I’ve always supported it and loved it because of a Darwinistic sense of gamer natural selection. Products that have the same bugs as others, but which don’t have the quality nor the outlook to survive will fade into the background, while truly innovative and interesting titles will succeed.  Developers who can adapt to an increasingly fickle generation of gamers will thrive, while others who cannot, will not. And that sense of adaptation, leading to more titles that try to branch out into different things rather than the same tired old formulae, will have to happen faster out of pure necessity.

The advantage is with the customer here, folks. Because there are so many choices, and because there are so many things we could choose to play, we can afford to be more discerning and selective with our products. I used to buy most things that were on the gaming market that were “cool” and “popular”. Part of this may have been my personal preferences, but part of it was that there simply wasn’t very much besides the big, major games out there.  We don’t have to worry about adapting or dealing with a game that we don’t find fun. We can simply try out any of the other alternatives out there, and have more flexibility to  look at something that might not get as much attention, like a Darkfall, or a Wolfenstein.  Or maybe you want to renew an old love, like a Guild Wars, an EQ2, or an EVE. Variety is the spice of life, and it has some way of seasoning things in the gaming industry as well.

So when I look at an empty hard drive with a few games on it like Syncaine’s, I don’t see despair over the decrease in quality of games. I see the ability for someone to have the flexibility to make the choice not to have as many. I see a selective gamer, one that knows what they want and installs what they want. The choices, even in 2009, are many, and I think we should be fortunate we can have the ability to apply a little biut of natural selection to the games we choose to play.

By the way, my hard drive?

• WAR
• Aion
• Champions Online
• Dragonica
• Guild Wars
• KOTOR II
• UT 2004
• Left 4 Dead

One thing that I have been thrilled to see lately is people who work at blogs and sites getting a chance to rub shoulders with game developers of their choice. This is made very apparent when sites like Darth Hater and Gaarawarr Gabs get a chance to talk directly to the developers they have a passion and interest for meeting. Recently, over at Warhammer Alliance, I was ecstatic to get two of the guys that I managed the access needed to get the rush of talking with someone who makes a game they play. It’s an experience that I’ve had the pleasure of having many times, for WAR and other games, and hope more blog writers get the opportunity in the future.

In my times interviewing developers, guests of honor, and other such luminaries, I’ve discovered a few truisms and tips that people might find helpful. So if you ever do get the chance in the future to sit down for a few precious minutes with a developer that you’re a fan of, here’s some interesting guidelines to consider:

-Generate the questions beforehand: While this makes an interview a little bit less dynamic and somewhat a bit more “prepared”, generating and submitting the questions beforehand to your target’s PR/Community Rep, or to the developer themselves will end up being more beneficial than detrimental. Really, the point of an interview is to get information, not to put someone in a “gotcha” position – that’s for other sites with that kind of mission. If you want your interview read, you should try to make sure it has as much meaningful info as possible, and that means prepping your interviewee.

-Never ask a Yes or No question: A lot of people fall into the trap of asking binary questions such as “Will we see x in the game?” Many times, if a developer can’t talk about a feature (for fear of it being misconstrued or because they are under PR constraints), the simple “yes” or “no” answer doesn’t really provide that much more information to your audience. The exception would probably be something that is a hot topic that demands a “yes” or “no” confirmation – like perhaps something to settle speculation about class makeup, or mechanics that are fiercely debated in the community. Otherwise, try to phrase your questions as less of a “will there be” and more of a “can you explain”.

-Research your interviewee: Does your interviewee like direct and to the point questions, or do they like the flexibility to wander? Do they work for the team responsible for the engine, or are they more of a community person? Do they like their jokes sarcastic or plain-spoken? Can they even take a joke? These are the kinds of things you will want to know beforehand by reading other interviews and asking your contact what they are like.

-Research the hot topics: Topics of debate are things that a developer might be able to shed light on. If you ask a lot of “getting to know you” questions and not a lot of meaty information questions, or you decide to talk about an area of the game no one cares about, you’re not going to get a good impression from your interview. Knowing what the community is talking about, or even what they are arguing, will help you generate better questions people will find valuable. Just make sure you Research Your Interviewee and ensure they can appropriately answer those questions. If they can’t, then it’s not worth asking no matter how much people want an answer.

-Mix the difficulty up: Crossword puzzle afficianados and those who play Sudoku know – there are varying degrees of difficulty when it comes to puzzles. There are the same kinds of levels when it comes to questions – most likely divided into “softball” and “hardball” questions. A “softball” question is one that solicits an opinion or tries to be casual about extracting information. A “hardball” question is a direct, pain-point type of query that might get to the heart of a burning issue or even something that isn’t going right. Having a mix of these  will help in the long run, and challenge your interviewee as well as put them at ease.

and finally…

-Have extra questions: I can’t stress this enough. Nothing makes an interview fall a little flat than not having questions answered in a way that seems satisfactory, leading you with nothing to work with. If you have questions in your back pocket, you can pull them out at a moment’s notice to deal with a lot of “no comment” or other such nonsense. Having a backup is a good thing, not a tedious and bad thing.

I hope these tips help folks the next time they get a good opportunity to talk to game developers, and look forward to many more opportunities to read about exclusives on other sites.