Moral responsibility in addictive game design

June 26th, 2007

There is an interesting article over at steveswink.com exploring whether or not MMORPG game makers are wasting their time making their games in the same way that their players are playing them.

“The crux of the question is whether or not playing WoW is more or less a waste of your life than creating original games intended to produce the same kind of enjoyment. In this age of digital property, virtual experience, how does one set of bits have value relative to another? How is it that Shane is wasting his life while I am an artist or a game designer or whatever? Why is sitting around making games and digital art different than raids on Molten Core?”

I’ve been on both sides of this coin, and I’m going to have to say that development ‘Crunch Time’ is certainly more stressful than any raid, it can easily eclipse the amount of time that a hardcore MMO player might spend in an average week in game, and may just as detrimental to your health. Though you are getting paid to Crunch instead of paying to play your MMO, so I suppose Crunch may be slightly less so.

Link! (via DevBump)

Posted in development, MMORPGs | Comments Closed

Red vs. Blue series ending

June 26th, 2007

Wired is reporting that the long-running machinima program Red vs. Blue is going to be ending tomorrow with its 100th episode.

“Machinima isn’t just about in-jokes for people who’ve played the games. The games are an inexpensive, accessible way to film the action. Red vs. Blue embraced the limitations of the medium, using the expressionless, masked Halo soldiers as a vehicle for off-kilter comedy, told in a tight five-minute format. It’s funny even if you’ve never heard of the game.”

I’m going to have to refute that last bit, I never really cared much for Red vs. Blue. I just never found it that funny. This probably means that my sense of humor is broken, so don’t bother telling me that it is. I apparently don’t know better. This is good news, though, as it means I won’t have to hear about the or write about it any more.

Link! (Wired)

Posted in machinima | Comments Closed

Console FPS controller that emulates mouse and keyboard.

June 26th, 2007

IGN is running a review of a peripheral that is designed to put the allegedly superior controls of a mouse and keyboard (in the context of First Person Shooters) on the Playstation 3. It looks a whole lot like a mouse with a Nintendo Wii Nunchuck glued to it.

“Happily, there exists new hope for the mouse-palming FPS faithful who want to get some console action going on. Accessory manufacturer SplitFish, the company behind the innovative MotionFX for the PS2 (review), is now launching the rather unique FragFX controller for the PlayStation 3. The controller basically breaks a SIXAXIS in two, replacing the right analog stick with an optical mouse and moving the left analog stick to a Wii Nunchuck-like dongle.”

Link! to the full review. (IGN.au) Thanks, brc64!

Posted in accessories | Comments Closed

Planet Puzzle League

June 26th, 2007

I’ve been playing a lot of Planet Puzzle League lately. Tetris Attack is one of my all time favorite games, which means that nobody wants to play it with me anymore. So being able to play the game online was a huge selling point for me.

More impressions inside.

 

There are 3 ways you can play online: Novice, Free Play, and Birthday Mode. In Novice mode you play against low-skilled players. Do too well, and you’re barred from playing it any more. I got barred after one round.

Free Play pits you against anyone and everyone, and you compete for bragging rights. I was able to find the most opponents here, likely because the battles are not ranked, though that means that you also won’t show up on any leaderboards.

Leaderboards?

There are leaderboards, but they only show up in online play in the last mode, Birthday mode. This is where you compete with other people that have the same birthday entered into their DS that you do. If my birthday is any indication, it’s currently very easy to be ranked on the leaderboards for your day. I was ranked third in the world after only winning 5 games.

Single player is standard Tetris Attack/Puzzle League fare. If you’ve played this game for other systems, you’ve played this one. The differences are pretty minor. There are no longer any dark blue tiles, for example. All of the standard modes are there: play for 2 minutes, play until you hit the top of the screen, and puzzle mode where you try to clear the screen with a limited set of moves.

The game, by default, makes use of the ‘book’ orientation of the DS, i.e. rotate the thing 90 degrees so it looks like a book with the touch screen over on the right. You can use the stylus or the control pad to control the game. The problem I had with it is that when using the stylus is that it got in the way and I missed some clears. Using the control pad wasn’t really an option, since you had to put your hands at 12:00 and 6:00, which is a little uncomfortable. Turning the display to ‘normal mode’ and eschewing the stylus controls seemed to be the best solution.

Online mode disappointments aside, this is a solid Puzzle League game that takes the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach.

Posted in DS, puzzle league | 1 Comment »

It’s easier to create a clone of a clone of a good game than something original

June 26th, 2007

GamesIndustry.biz is running an interview with Jason Kapalka, the founder of PopCap Games. Among other things he spells out what a visit to any site with a collection of little Flash games should tell you: People make cheap clones of existing games because it’s easier than coming up with something new.

The truth is that very few games are developed without reference to past games. There’s always going to be titles that build on a previous mechanic or game. But there’s a fine line between that and very bold-faced rip-offs that aren’t adding anything to the game and are just trying to make a quick buck. There’s games like that in the hardcore gaming market of course, but the problem in the casual space is that the investment in resources can be a lot less. So a three person studio isn’t going to build a knock-off of Warcraft. But they could crank out a clone of Bejewelled in a few months. The barrier to entry is a lot lower so you get a lot more of it.

He says a lot more slightly less obvious things. Certainly worth a read.

Link! to the entire interview (GamesIndustry.biz)

Posted in duh, interviews | Comments Closed

About me

June 25th, 2007

I finally got around to creating a page saying what this site is all about. For all your burning questions, please check it out.

Link!

Posted in crummysocks | Comments Closed

What is this thing anyway?

June 25th, 2007

This is the page where I try to define what this page is, who I am, and other sundry questions that may pop up from time to time. I make no guarantees about the quality or the timeliness of this information, or even that it answers your question. If you have something that you’re just dieing to know let me know on the contact page. I might even immortalize your question here for all to see.

 

What is this page?

This is my site, it’s evolved a bit since I created it back in 2001, but I like it. Over the years it’s evolved into many things, but it’s always been and will continue to be: my soapbox, my conduit to communicate with the masses, and a place to discuss what I find interesting.

Who are you?

That’s me. Here is an interview I conducted with myself a while back. I’m just your average person who was raised on video games, and is passionate about them. In short, I’m just like you. I just happen to have a website where I can effectively communicate with the masses and am passionate enough to be disappointed with the content of most of the video game ‘news’ (read: ‘blog’) sites these days.

What do you mean ‘disappointed’? Game sites are great! They speak to me and my generation. They let me know what’s hot in the world of video games. I can’t live my life not knowing what ‘Cliffy B.’ had for lunch today, or laughing at some idiot’s Final Fantasy VII Aeris fan-video!

Most of the ‘Big Few Sites’ publish more fluff than content, and what news they actually post is stuff that I don’t really care about: silly videos, rumors, top X lists, canned screenshots, canned press releases, and other drivel that takes next to zero effort to ferret out and write. I just generally don’t care about that kind of thing. If you do, then that’s great, there are plenty of other sites out there for you to get your fix. You just won’t find that here.

So you’re a news site, then?

Not exactly. This site is, and has always been, about what interests me. Actual game news interests me. Projects that I do interest me. Other miscellaneous tripe often does not, unless it’s very interesting or particularly weird. You certainly could take that to mean that I trawl sites and look for bits of news that are interesting, and filter out the mess that isn’t. But I certainly wouldn’t want to influence your perceptions.

Why didn’t you update today? You need to get on the ball, or you’ve lost a reader!

Sorry, though I’d like to update this every day, things happen. This site is not my job. I have an actual full-time job completely unrelated to this site that is gracious enough to allow me to have access to update while I’m there. Unfortunately, that also means that my actual work has to take precedence over updating the site. This site doesn’t even generate enough revenue to cover its bandwidth costs. What can I say, I’ve grown accustomed to eating. That said, I truly value every reader I have. I try to be accessible via a contact form that goes straight to my mailbox. If I’ve put some information that is factually wrong, call me on it, and I’ll fix it if I’m able.

Posted in about | Comments Closed

Wii controller teaches violence

June 25th, 2007

The Boston Globe is running a piece exploring how the Wii can teach violent behaviors to people that might not manifest until later

“As more violent games become available for the Wii, the debate about their participatory nature is intensifying. Researchers who have been critical of first-person shooter games — in which the player pushes a button to activate a weapon — say the Wii’s increased interactivity raises the risk of antisocial behavior. Others say that while the violent content may be disturbing to some people, there is no evidence to support a link between violent games and aggression.”

You really need to read the whole article to get a nice view from those ‘outside looking in’ on the industry.

Link! (via GamePolitics)

Posted in wii | Comments Closed

Gaming Addiction Not Like Substance Addiction

June 25th, 2007

Sparking a debate that is likely going to go on until either the end of time or a second video game industry collapse, Video Game addiction is likely not going to be classified as an actual disease by the American Medical Association.

“There is nothing here to suggest that this is a complex physiological disease state akin to alcoholism or other substance abuse disorders, and it doesn’t get to have the word addiction attached to it,” said Dr. Stuart Gitlow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

Although I’ve been a ‘user’ for more than 20 years, I’ve never experienced anything resembling classic addiction or obsession. So I’m going to have to side with this finding for now.

Link! (SPOnG)

Posted in site news | Comments Closed

“The world has enough bad color snapshots of Buckingham Palace”

June 24th, 2007

I bought a Game Boy Camera shortly after it came out, and managed to take some interesting pictures. I thought it was a fun little distraction for a time before I shelved it. I recently pulled it out of mothballs and made it into a kind of a webcam.

Imagine my surprise when I happened across this interesting guide and gallery devoted to the thing. I had no ideas that there were people out there that took their low-end photography so seriously.

“The Game Boy camera is not a conventional camera, and you won’t get much out of it if you use it like one. To use it effectively, try seeing the world the way it does. Your world is black and white. Contrast is accentuated. Detail is blurred. You can’t see very far ahead, so you must get close to things to see them. Wide angle distortion creeps in. You tilt sideways to see as much of objects as you can and still be close to them. Familiar and boring objects often look surprising and different viewed througth the Game Boy camera’s fuzzy, greyscale eye. Rows of seats on a train become seats on a spaceship in an old sci-fi movie. A glowing phone booth becomes a teleportation pod. Ordinary buildings become bombed out ruins. People’s faces dissolve into grey dots, remaining eerily recognisable.”

Posted in gameboy | Comments Closed

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