T w e n t y S i d e d
This makes me realize just how strange Starcraft must sound to Asian fans:
He’s not bad. He made me laugh, and I can’t even understand what he’s saying.
Stolen Pixels #20:Not All Change is Progress
This is an unusual one. It’s probably the first & last single-panel comic I’ll ever make for Stolen Pixels. This is also one of those rare cases where I regret my overly verbose style. I wanted to show as much of the image as possible, and I pruned the text as much as I could, but in the end I really had to obscure a lot of it to make my point.
When you’re making screencap comics, it can sometimes be a bit hard to make fun of a game you refuse to buy. Since they’re even charging for the Spore demo, I thought I was going to be left without the means to mock the game. Then I discovered that the various videos in the ever-present ad campaign provided me with all the tools I needed.
Good Old Games
The other day I briefly mentioned Good Old Games, but now the beta is going and I’ve actually had a peek inside. It’s tremendous.
I have not actually used it (yet) myself, but here are some of the good things I’ve been hearing:
- Lots and lots of titles. Unlike other game portals, I don’t see any filler. Nearly everything on the site is a AAA title of yesteryear, without padding out their list with shovelware and Bejeweled knockoffs.
- Nearly every game is $6. A few are $10.
- A lot of games are actually The Base Game + An Expansion for $6.
- “No DRM” is listed as a selling point. It’s been so long since anyone treated me like a customer that I’d forgotten what it feels like. I’m welling up right now.
- Most of it downloaded as zip files for easy archiving, and the game is a single exe installer. Plus you can download it as many times as you want from their site.
- They aren’t just offering the game. In some cases you can get, “the full manual in PDF, the game’s reference card, an avatar pack, as well as MP3s of the game’s soundtrack! Separate downloads too, so you don’t have to get it all unless you want it.”
- Most of the games are from The Golden Age. Modern enough to run without tricky emulation, old enough to run on whatever dusty old heap you might have lying around.
- You can get support, which is something you won’t get if you pick up one of these games at a yard sale.
This is an amazing thing. I’m actually feeling a profound sense of guilt that I haven’t given them any money yet. Not for a game, but just, you know, in general. I know I’m getting Freespace 2, and with these prices it’s actually pretty easy to just toss a couple of extra titles into your shopping cart.
Is DRM Killing PC Gaming?
Jay Barnson is the preacher, and I am the choir. Please turn in your hymn books to #132, “Is DRM Killing PC Gaming?“, and sing along with me.
I sing that song often enough around here, as everyone is painfully aware. But Jay has been both a mainstream and an indie developer (and in fact recently moved back to indie after another stretch in one o’ them highfalutin’ mainstream outfits) and it’s nice to have some support from someone on the other side of the gamer / developer divide.
I Blame Thunderbird
I know we just went through this a month or so ago, but for no discernible reason Thunderbird lost all my emails. I restored a 2-month old backup, and it managed to lose those. I restored the backup again, but I have no way of knowing how long Thunderbird will keep them around this time.
More to the point: Any personal emails sent to me in the last 2 months are gone. If you emailed me in the past week or so and didn’t hear back from me, please re-send. Several people have sent me links and “You might want to see this” articles over the last couple of weeks, and now those are gone. I’d planned on writing about some of them
Boring details of the misbehavior follows: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “I Blame Thunderbird”
Cheap Disposable Games
I’m sorry I can’t find the comment now, but it’s been asked of me more than once. The question is roughly: Is there some price point at which you might buy Mass Effect and BioShock, simply treating them like an extended rental?
A really interesting question. Someone even offered to buy me a copy of BioShock. Hey, if the game is free then running out of installs is no big deal. It’s a disposable game, right? If it’s just $5, then you can play it until you run out of installs and still get your money’s worth. Even an 8 hour game is a bargain (assuming it’s not terrible) at a mere $5. Of course, my objections to DRM have never really been about money, but it’s an interesting proposal: Would you accept a gift game (paid for by someone else) with limited installed / online activation? If not, why not?
I really do find the idea of disposable software to be distasteful. The main reason I avoid this stuff is that the idea of software being aware of how much its been used and refusing to run at some point is just preposterous to me. It’s data. It’s bits. Its information, and imposing an artificial self-destruct into information is just demented.
Part of it is that I don’t want to worry about “using it up”. Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Cheap Disposable Games”
BioShock: Demo
I wasn’t going to write an article on this at all, but now people have forced my hand. In the comments of my previous post people were shocked, shocked(!) that I dumped on BioShock after playing just twenty minutes of the demo. I claimed it was shorter, shallower, and an example of what was wrong with PC gaming. Surely I needed I play for longer than that to make that sort of call?
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “BioShock: Demo”
From The Archives:
The Loot Lottery
What makes the gameplay of Borderlands so addictive for some, and what does that have to do with slot machines?
Artless in Alderaan
People were so worried about the boring gameplay of The Old Republic they overlooked just how boring and amateur the art is.
Silent Hill Origins
Here is a long look at a game that tries to live up to a big legacy and fails hilariously.
Grand Theft Auto Retrospective
This series began as a cheap little 2D overhead game and grew into the most profitable entertainment product ever made. I have a love / hate relationship with the series.
Programming Language for Games
Game developer Jon Blow is making a programming language just for games. Why is he doing this, and what will it mean for game development?
What is Vulkan?
What is this Vulkan stuff? A graphics engine? A game engine? A new flavor of breakfast cereal? And how is it supposed to make PC games better?
Good to be the King?
Which would you rather be: A king in the middle ages, or a lower-income laborer in the 21st century?
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.
Hardware Review
So what happens when a SOFTWARE engineer tries to review hardware? This. This happens.
Batman v. Superman Wasn't All Bad
It's not a good movie, but it was made with good intentions and if you look closely you can find a few interesting ideas.