T w e n t y S i d e d
Please pause for several minutes between panels four and five.
PS3 Still for “Early Adopters”
Via Kotaku, we have a quote from John Koller of Sony:
The PSP, from a handheld perspective, it’s more of a 13-17 year old [demographic], multi-ethnic, a bit lower-income as well. The PS3 is still in its early adopter phase, tech-oriented consumer… they’re interested in the multi-functionality of the system.
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| SONY: Everything is fine. We’re sure the market is going to abruptly change any minute now to something which is more favorable to us, without us having to do anything. |
Which is how I think Sony has viewed this all along. Their real goal was to win the format wars, since controlling the format of video content for the next decade is worth far more than having a respectable share of the console market for the next six years. They put the blu-ray player in the PS3, thus driving the price through the roof. Thus less were sold. Thus less developers wanted to make exclusives. Thus the main selling point of the PS3 – its super-powered processing abilities – went to waste, since only exclusives are going to be engineered to actually take advantage of all that extra power. Thus the system was even less appealing to people who just wanted a system for playing games, continuing a dreadful negative feedback loop.
But for Sony it’s still a win, because blu-ray won, and it won early. I’m not saying that having the blu-ray built into the PS3 is what won the format wars, I’m saying that Sony couldn’t afford to leave it out.
It makes business sense, although now that they’ve won the HD format war their behavior in regards to the PS3 has been slothful and unfocused. Their plan seems to be to announce that everything is fine on a regular basis, without really doing anything to close the gap with either of the other two consoles. I’d like to see them offer something to rival Xbox Live, gamertags, or the achievement system. (I know they have the trophy system, but it doesn’t look to be tied to anything like an account or gamer profile which can be shared. Without a gamertag, you have to just tell people you beat Explodious 3 on super double-hard. The system tracks your accomplishments, but it doesn’t give you a way to share them, which is what makes the system social and perhaps even viral.)
The thing is getting marginally cheaper to produce, which is nice, but even if they cut the price to Xbox 360 levels (which is extremely unlikely) they still don’t have a way to woo potential customers who are shopping for a console gaming system, or who might already own one of the others.
I am still a huge fan of the PS2, and it’s still my favorite of the previous generation. But a large part of the appeal of that system is the vast library of quality titles. The PS3 can’t ride the coattails of its predecessor because they dropped most of the backwards compatibility. And it can’t hope to build a library of its own if it’s sitting in distant third place. The tale of the dusty, underused PS3 is a common one.
Dear Sony: The current realities of the market are working against you. You will need to do something if you want this to change.
Topic for discussion: If you own more than one gaming platform (PC, Gamecube, Playstation, Xbox, Wii, etc) which one gets the most use?
Auto-Adjusting Frustration
The Birdmen post the other day kicked off an interesting discussion on auto-leveling or auto-adjusting difficulty in games. Now, I’m very much against auto-adjusting difficulty, because it solves one problem – the need for a game to provide the “right” level of challenge to all players – by creating a worse one: Taking away the ability of the player to adjust for frustration tolerance.
Ask people if a game is easy or hard, and you’ll see responses like:
Player1: Pfft. That game was a cakewalk. I only died maybe once a level.
Player2: That game was a pain in the ass. I died on almost every level.
So even among players of the same skill, the same experience can lead to very different perceptions. Some people want to play on a level they know they can handle and hoover up the content. Some players want the threat of failure to enhance their excitement. And some players want constant failure to test them and force them to develop their skills.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Auto-Adjusting Frustration”
Instead of Writing…
…you’re getting a link dump. [EDIT: No, actually you’re getting writing. Unintentionally. Brevity is a cross-class skill for me.] Time pressures this week are preventing me from writing about all the things that are demanding my attention. This stuff will lose some of its relevancy if I wait until I have time to write about them with any sort of depth, so instead I’ll give you the links and leave you to your own devices.
1. Darths and Droids has finished with Phantom Menace. Congrats to the comic irregulars. One movie down, five to go. Then there’s the animated TV series, the CGI TV series, and the Christmas Special. Don’t tell me you’re not doing the Christmas Special!
2. Yahtzee has teamed up with Yug & Matt of Australian Gamer to launch a new show called Game Damage. The leap from “I made this with Windows Movie Maker” to “This is good enough for broadcast television” is a massive one. Maybe they didn’t make it, but I’m amazed at what these guys accomplished with a limited budget and no prior experience.
I really like Yug & Matt, and I tune into the podcast from time to time. I’m often frustrated at the asinine delayed releases, missing titles, censorship, and price-gouging that Australian gamers have to tolerate. What have publishers got against a country with nice beaches and lots of purportedly friendly middle-class people who speak English? Americans often have a saying, “If X happens, I’m moving to Canada.” Screw that. If X ever happens, I’m moving to Australia, and I’d really like to be able to buy videogames when I get there to take my mind off the horrors of X. I have a lot more I’d like to say about this if I had the time, but for now I’ll just point you to Game Damage and say that it’s at least worth a look. (And it’s amazing to see Yahtzee go a full half hour without swearing.)
3. The Escapist has published a letter from the staff. It’s a sort of “position paper” for them, and it makes for an interesting read. As I said in the comments, at first I thought that it could use more depth, but I’m pretty sure that would have the opposite of the intended effect. A number of broad, reasonable statements that everyone can embrace is good as far as vision statements go. As you add resolution and details, it becomes harder and harder to make statements that everyone can agree with. In an effort to please everyone, you end up with a document that everyone can tolerate but nobody will embrace. (It’s like political platforms, really. “Education is good” is something everyone can agree with. But as soon as you propose a particular action, that “everyone” shatters into a hundred bickering clans.)
I also like that while unifying, it gives lots of room for individuals on the staff to embrace different positions. It might be a matter of personal taste, but I don’t become a fan of periodicals, I become a fan of an individual writers working for the periodical. Too many big-title publications go for that one-voice approach, and their voice ends up being a bland monotone. It’s one of the reasons I think blogs are so successful: Even when our page design sucks, our proof raeding is non-exitsent, and it doesn’t load right in your browser of choice, it offers a distinctive voice.
4. And finally, a question about gamertags: If I link to a gamertag thus:
I notice that if I’m not signed in, it doesn’t take me to my profile, but the Microsoft Livemeh signup page. Is this the way it’s really supposed to work? Only Live users can see gamer profiles, and everyone else gets the sales pitch? Please tell me this is just a fluke or that I’m doing something silly. If this is how it works, then I simply do not have the time to marshal the words to covey how much their irritating stupidity and lameness has filled me with indignation.
Ah! I sat down to bust out a quick link dump post, and ended up hammering out a couple hundred words and consuming time I did not have to spare. Apologies. There is no greater shame than a man who works from home but ends up being late for work anyway, so I must run. Good luck with the links.
No BioShock for Me
People keep asking if I’ll be getting BioShock now that I have a Xbox 360. I didn’t want to open up this can of worms again, but the question deserves an answer:
I can’t bring myself to play it. The game is dead to me. I played the demo and was completely underwhelmed. (And hoo boy did that cause a flamewar. I had to close the comments. Some regular commenters left, and I never saw them again. I’d rather not repeat that.)
Keep in mind, System Shock is my super-extra-special favoritest game ever. I wrote a novel about it. BioShock is supposedly the “spiritual” follow-up to that, but it’s missing all the parts that made the series appeal to me. To play System Shock without the inventory, the mad AI, the electronic music, the cyberpunk setting, the taut resource management, the level-up abilities, and using thumbsticks instead of the mouse? No, I will not do that.
I don’t begrudge those that love the game. I understand the story is good. But the game I loved is dead. I’m not going to go and snuggle the corpse for old time’s sake. Leave me to my grief.
Stolen Pixels #55: Crass Effect
Role-playing games: Now with lesbians!
Mass Effect:Nitpicks Part 2
It’s unusual that I have to break up my nitpicks post into two parts, but Mass Effect has forced my hand and brought this punishment on itself. The game is not nearly as awful as these posts might make it seem, but it does have egregious flaws that need to be recorded and cataloged.
Loading Screens
The game is saddled with heartless, incessant, and tediously flow-breaking loading screens. Some are disguised as elevators. The game is just a jerk when it comes to squandering slices of time. For example, if you have a mission that calls for you to visit the Citadel:
- Bring up the galaxy map, set the destination.
- See a short but un-skippable animation of the ship going through the Mass Relay.
- Back to the map screen. Use the map again to direct the ship to dock at the Citadel.
- Loading screen.
- See a short but un-skippable animation of the ship pulling into dock.
- While not a loading “screen” per se, the game pauses for a few seconds while the word “Loading” appears.
- Exit the ship and choose your away party.
- Loading screen.
- Get in a mandatory long-ass elevator ride. (A loading screen, really. A long one.)
- Once out of the elevator, use the “fast” transit system to go to the right part of the station.
- Loading screen.
- Unless you’re very lucky, you’re going to have to hike for a distance to reach the person you’re looking for.
This adds up to a couple of minutes of semi-interactive waiting so you can have a fifteen second conversation.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Mass Effect:Nitpicks Part 2”
From The Archives:
Blistering Stupidity of Fallout 3
Yeah, this game is a classic. But the story is idiotic, incoherent, thematically confused, and patronizing.
Control
A wild game filled with wild ideas that features fun puzzles and mind-blowing environments. It has a great atmosphere, and one REALLY annoying flaw with its gameplay.
Silver Sable Sucks
This version of Silver Sable is poorly designed, horribly written, and placed in the game for all the wrong reasons.
Civilization VI
I'm a very casual fan of the series, but I gave Civilization VI a look to see what was up with this nuclear war simulator.
Charging More for a Worse Product
No, game prices don't "need" to go up. That's not how supply and demand works. Instead, the publishers need to be smarter about where they spend their money.
Ludonarrative Dissonance
What is this silly word, why did some people get so irritated by it, and why did it fall out of use?
Dear Hollywood: Do a Mash Reboot
Since we're rebooting everything, MASH will probably come up eventually. Here are some casting suggestions.
What Does a Robot Want?
No, self-aware robots aren't going to turn on us, Skynet-style. Not unless we designed them to.
Quakecon 2011 Keynote Annotated
An interesting but technically dense talk about gaming technology. I translate it for the non-coders.
Shamus Plays LOTRO
As someone who loves Tolkein lore and despises silly MMO quests, this game left me deeply conflicted.