Shoddy game pulled for offensive content.

June 30th, 2007

Shoddy Brain Age series knockoff Mindquiz is in the process of being pulled from shelves because it contains a particular word that is considered particularly offensive for folks suffering from cerebral palsy.

“I thought it was absolutely appalling that a word like this should be used to describe someone who has not achieved very well,” said the caller, continuing, “My daddy also has cerebral palsy and he is in his mid-50s and this is a word that really offends my dad.”

What the word is seems to be unclear.

Link! (Gamasutra)

Posted in DS | 2 Comments »

Game review scoring methods are flawed

June 29th, 2007

Scores that games get at various news sites influence their sales. Developers are sometimes dissatisfied with low scores, because or this. Mitch Gitelman, who worked on the latest Shadowrun game, is one of them.

“According to OXM’s scale, a 7.0 indicates a game that has a lot of things going for it, but still has a few major issues, or something that limits its appeal. That’s fine for OXM, but an arbitrary value like that means different things to different people. I don’t think a 7.0 is a game that deserves my attention, and I’m pretty positive that most people feel the same way. The Xbox 360 version of Shadowrun is hovering around 70.3% on review score aggregators like GameRankings.com, and that number means radically different things to developers, reviewers, and consumers.”

It’s tough to see a game (or anything that you’ve poured a huge amount of yourself into) get raked over the coals. So I can empathize. Though a 70% is hardly abysmal, it’s still C- territory. I’m not going to detail why I think reviews are flawed, I’ve beaten that horse so many times I’m starting to get tennis elbow.

Link! (GamersWithJobs)

Posted in GWJ | Comments Closed

So you want to be a games journalist?

June 29th, 2007

There is an interesting article up on GameDaily Biz that details the steps that all armchair bloggers need to take to make it to the big time (that is what they all want, right?)

“[I]f you’re reading this, chances are you want in. Can’t say I blame you: All things considered, getting paid to travel the world, play games months in advance of release and rub elbows with the industry elite is nice work if you can get it. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the vast majority of editors, fellow freelancers, marketing/PR reps and developers I’ve encountered are some of the hardest-working, most intelligent and interesting people you’ll ever meet.”

He also references another post in the same vein by EGM guy Dan Hsu, which is also worth a read. The information in the articles overlaps slightly, but both are certainly worth reading if you’re thinking about diving headlong into the realm of Video Game Writer Stardom.

Link! (GameDaily Biz via Joystiq)
Link (1up Blog)

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Consumers do not know what their purchases are capable of

June 29th, 2007

In a recent study of some sort, a conclusion has been drawn that seems pretty obvious on the surface: very few people utilize features of their electronics beyond what they bought them for, if they are aware of them at all.

[W]hile 80 per cent of US households own game consoles capable of DVD playback, only 30 per cent were aware of that fact and only 13 per cent of gamers are using them for that purpose.

Hit the link for even more startling revelations.

Link! (Gamesindustry.biz)

Posted in studies | 2 Comments »

Addiction to gaming FTL

June 28th, 2007

Since the AMA has declined to classify video game addiction as the same as substance addiction, the bowels of the Internet are venting their spleen about what they think gaming addiction really is, and what it isn’t. Gamespot user Draqq_Zyxorian had this to say in his latest blog entry:

“PASSION. Somehow, this word is abandoned for the more fearful word: ADDICTION. Could it possibly be that when someone sacrifices much of their livelihood towards the pursuit of success in video games, it is not because of addiction, but because they are passionate about it? You know, like they would a sport – which is a GAME, I might add. Poker, blackjack, paintball, deer hunting, mixed martial arts. Last time I checked, sacrificing most of your livelihood, even for something that involves gambling or violence, can also be called dedication and heart.”

He goes on to compare the folks that play games obsessively enough to forget to eat, sleep, and bathe to athletes of all kinds. Somehow equating the passion that the athletes have to become the best they can be to video game players doing the same. The only problem is, I’m pretty sure that there are very few folks in any sport that have gotten so passionate about honing their craft that they forgot to eat for a few days.

Link! (GameSpot)

Posted in gamespot, message board gold | Comments Closed

Some movies make terrible games

June 28th, 2007

For some reason, I’ve been seeing a glut of articles telling me things that I either already know or are so obvious I should already know.

Case in point, Thomas Tull of Legendary Pictures offers this word of advice:

During his keynote speech on the second day of the Hollywood & Games Summit Tull said, “Not everything translates. Just because a movie comes out and does well, if there isn’t a good story or a compelling reason [to create a game], it is a very dangerous thing to take a brand, slap it on a box, and just say ‘Well, people will buy it.’

“If you rely solely on the brand itself, and not on the gameplay, I think that’s a mistake,” he continued.

“I have very strong feelings from the movie side… Making videogames into movies just because they have sold well is a pretty bad idea.”

I’ve played my fair share of movie tie-in games, and they’ve by and large been pretty crappy. Games like The Grinch and The Chronicles of Narnia were pretty terrible. I actually have tried to steer away from games based on movies as much as possible. Though things like the Half-Life mod for Underworld give me hope that somebody out there knows how to make a proper movie tie-in, even though the movie was pretty terrible.

Link! to article (Gamesindustry.biz).

Posted in duh | Comments Closed

Educational Games not as fun as Non-Educational Games

June 27th, 2007

The Slate has up a rambling almost non-article where the Justin Peters bemoans the fact that games that are designed to be educational are not as fun as games where education is an added feature.

Any child of the 1980s and 1990s will remember Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing and Math Blaster Mystery: The Great Brain Robbery, games that promised to make skills acquisition fun. They’ll also remember ditching Mavis Beacon for something with guns as soon as their parents’ backs were turned. Making games educational is like dumping Velveeta on broccoli. Liberal deployment of the word blaster can’t hide the fact that you’re choking down something that’s supposed to be good for you.

I’m a child of the 1980s and I’ve never played either of those games, and I enjoy a good cheese sauce on my broccoli. So I’ll concede that he may not be talking to me.

He also posits some rhetorical questions such as: “Can a game still be called a game if it isn’t any fun?” Which, if you’ve ever played a game off of the $5 or under rack, you know the answer.

Though the article itself may or may not be the greatest in the world, it’s an interesting thought exercise.

Link! to the full article (via Joystiq)

Posted in duh | Comments Closed

Konami releasing peripheral doomed to failure

June 27th, 2007

According to Siliconera, Konami is apparently going to be bringing out its very own version of the e-Reader for some card battle game. Maybe the e-Reader sold better in Japan, but I only know of one person that bought one other than me. I can’t fathom why someone over there thinks this is a good idea.

Konami is prepping another trading card game for the Nintendo DS … Juushinden: Ultimate Beast Battlers is a newly developed series where players create and battle with a deck of forty cards. Instead of playing with a deck of virtual trading cards, … players scan tangible cards into the game. The magic reader plugs into the DS’s Game Boy Advance cartridge slot and it deciphers what card you scanned in.

The article doesn’t really make it clear if it’s coming out in the US or not, but if it does, I’ll probably get one when it hits the bargain bin or when I find one at a yard sale.

Link! (via GoNintendo).

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People spending more money on video games than on music

June 27th, 2007

Ars Technica is running a piece saying that in the US, sales of video games in dollars is overtaking sales of music.

“The information not only reflects the gaming industry’s strong trajectory but also serves as a painful reminder that the music industry continues to suffer. EMI recently reported, however, that sales of its DRM-free songs and albums have been good since the launch of iTunes Plus, with CD sales of those same albums dropping during that time. If the gains made by selling DRM-free music online outpace the losses from CD sales, EMI’s decision to go DRM-free will prove to be a good one, and the rest of the industry may follow suit.”

This revelation didn’t produce many gasps in my household, mostly because our spending of video games occasionally outpaces spending on food. Though I’m willing to accept that we may be a statistical anomaly.

Link!(via the Slashdot).

Posted in old news | Comments Closed

Video Game Channel to air show about video games

June 27th, 2007

In a completely unexpected move, ‘television for gamers’ channel G4TV is going to start airing a show that is vaguely video game related. It’s game-related in that it chronicles the fake lives of the fake people working in a fake video game development house. It’s also animated in such a way that it looks like it could take place inside of some kind of NES-style video game system.

“Ostensibly gamer-oriented cable network G4 TV plans to lampoon gamer and game development culture with a new series animated in the style of 8-bit video games. Next month, G4 will launch Code Monkeys, which chronicles the lives of employees at fictional 1980s game company GameAvision, a formerly independent studio that has been acquired by an oil magnate.”

This is being created by the same person that created Minoriteam for Cartoon Network and I’m With Busey for Comedy Central, two of the worst and least funny shows that I’ve ever seen. My expectations of this show being any good are pretty low at this point, though I hope I’m wrong.

Shacknews has some more info and a couple of ‘screen shots’.

Posted in ironic | Comments Closed

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