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Valve’s new DRM / Piriting circumvention strategy is very interesting…

Original article can be found here.

As it turns out, Apple is unsure how to handle the influx of iPhone applications, most of which are games (or decidedly game-like).  The article says that, to date, over 500 millions(!) applications have been downloaded from the app store.  That is a very large number.

In a way, it’s almost counter-intuitive to what our readings have been lately.  Almost every week, we read an article by someone who thinks that the future of games (even the future of humans) lies within this emergent virtual media.  However, the sales charts prove otherwise.  It does not seem as though most people want to live in new virtual spaces, they just want to be less bored.  There were still children last Christmas who didn’t find Wiis under their trees.

The article goes on to talk about Apple’s possible plans for the iPhone’s gaming future, but they don’t seem very sure.  Does it really matter to them at this point, anyways?  I think there’s definitely an audience for iPhone games that are more engaging, with better graphics, gameplay, story, etc.  Also, since the iPhone is much simpler to program for, it’s likely that the business sector will head that way too.  If one had the tendency to over-react, they might talk about this being the end of console/PC gaming, but I do not believe that is the case.  It’s really just opening up the gaming world to non-gamers, which will likely be good for everyone, especially those of us who want to make a living from this.

Maybe. (Sony Makes It Hard to Develop for the PS3 on Purpose)
Part of me can sympathize with the choice they’ve made. Filtering out the junk from the nuggets of gold seems to be a decent priority. Heck, Apple can do it, why can’t they?

However, the developer in me wants to scream bloody murder. I can only rationalize this for so long, because this type of exclusiveness is just begging for ridicule. You can’t keep out the junk, no matter how hard you try. Bad games are developed, no matter what. By “bad”, I mean any game with a glaring flaw that subtracts the overall value to a game. A convoluted story, horrible gameplay, and bad art could be factors to this. Sony should realize that at the end of the day, the wielder of the almighty dollar is in charge. This is a fact.

I can imagine how discuraging and frustrating this must be for some developers. Considering the CEO’s statement about how he practically thinks that if PS3 developement remain “unfiltered”, then nothing but trash will be produced. Kind of adds a vibe of, “A lot of these development houses are full of crap! Who need ‘em?” to the mix.
Why would they think that people wouldn’t want to harness the sheer power of the PS3? Why would they consider making development time more costly and longer for third-party developers? I guess there’s a bit of that “only the strongest will survive” mentality here. It’s an insane stance for Sony to take, and I hope their realize the error of their ways before it’s too late.

Are games too expensive?

I’m on the fence, honestly. At first, I was pretty adamant against paying the premium price for modern console games. Back when I bought PS2 games, I thought that fifty dollars was quite a bit. Ever since the $60 dollar price point became the standard for the modern consoles, I’ve been wondering whether or not to complain about it.

You see, back in the nineties, games were around $40 – $50 to be begin with. The Super Nintendo, Sega Megadrive, and Sony Playstation, for example, were a lot cheaper than the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. And as far as I can remember, there wasn’t much in the way of protest. Either these games were rented at about ten bucks a weekend, or people actually broke down and bought it.

But now, it seems as if people started to feel entitled to stop paying “full price” for a game, and some have come to the conclusion that some games aren’t just worth paying $60 for. It could be because of the advent of Xbox Live Arcade, the Playstation Network, quality handheld games, and various Indie titles released on the PC. People are beginning to discover that, as of late, a lot of these downloadable titles are actually worth more than their $10, $20, or $30 dollar price tag. From there, the expectation of churning out a quality game so that you get what you pay for grows exponentially. On top of that, some people who do want to try out the big name titles may rely on the second hand game market to fulfill their needs.

As for me, I was never much of a person who bought games on the day it came out. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve actually pre-ordered a game, let alone go out of my way to buy it within the first week of it being released. The need to pay full price for a console game whittled away over the years due to being exposed to a smattering of indie games on the PC, and very wonderful budget games for the consoles and handhelds that I own. Heck, even a few open source games caught my attention! (Darn their reasonable price points and decent gameplay!)

Going back to the question at hand, are game really too expensive? I don’t think so. It’s more or less the same as it were years ago. However, is it worth spending the money to pay full price for these games? Depends on the game itself. Since you can’t play through a whole game without buying it for the most part, I like to play it safe by buying it second hand after a few months. I’m in no rush, trust me.

We the people have spoken and we have made our voices clear in how we spend our continuously scarce money.

Full story here: http://www.edge-online.com/news/games-industry-grows-despite-poor-economy

Despite a worsening economy, we are spending more money on games. Most major video game companies saw a growth in revenue this year compared to last year. Even though we are in what I see as one of the worst economic situations since the Great Depression, we are spending more money on video games, an increasingly powerful form of entertainment.

So, I wanted to ask you guys 2 questions. 1 is why do you think the video game industry is thriving in this terrible economic when money is tight with families all across the country? 2 is would you guys say that you spent more or less this year on video games compared to last year? Seeing as how we are what keeps the game industry going, I would be interested to know your spending habits on video games in an economy like this.

Here is the Slashdot posting:  Major Spike in Security Threats To Online Games

I swear, if it weren’t for Slashdot, I would have never found out about this. The main article (which is hosted on Gamasutra) deals with a very simple analysis on why criminals “hackers” are beginning to strike the online gaming community. Some of the reasons given include:

1) The Online Gaming industry being a moneypot. Massively Multiplayer Online Games are popular. Too popular.

2) The fact that some people out there are actually willing to pay more than five dollars for someones *insert online game here* character with what is considered to be “epic” gear.

3) Criminals are criminals, and they’re just moving on to the next logical thing.

4) People are susceptible to manipulation. (Social engineering is a wonderful thing.)

I personally feel as if this was inevitable, and I honestly seen this coming a mile away. Anything and everything can be compromised, and people don’t often think about their online avatars being one of those things. I am even guilty of feeling as if nobody would even bother hacking my accounts (be it for Steam, City of Villains, or otherwise). Even though I say that my virtual personas have absolutely no value to them at all, apparently gold farmers and account thieves think otherwise.

What are developers doing about this, though? Warning users of the dangers of account compromise and not buying gold apparently isn’t the only thing they should do. Maybe they should also take Blizzard’s lead.

As mentioned in the article:

“There are also some possible technical aides. For example, Blizzard has introduced the World Of Warcraft authenticator RSA key generator. This is a physical token device that allows you to augment account security by entering a specially generated password created by the device every time you log in.”

You can buy this key generator for a measley $6.50. I honestly believe that things like this should be free, and should be an expectation met by the company that just so happens to throw around millions of player’s personal information within their accounts. But then again, at least it isn’t as bad as charging money for in-game goodies that are only available for a short amount of time.

Right?

But at the end of the day, I think it comes down to (yet again) the user’s ability (or lack thereof) to avoid situations where social engineering could get the best of them. Being mindful of what information you give to whom, what passwords you create, and who shares your accounts could save almost anyone a serious amount of grief and trouble when it comes to avoiding account hacking.

I accept the fact that money makes the world go round, I’m reminded of it every time I open a webpage or look out the window. It seems the geniuses behind Google have just figured out that this applies to games to. They’re now going to put Google Ads into online games, starting with Flash games. It sounds like they might break into console and handheld games, but the language is difficult to understand. The actually announcement says that they can now place ads wherever they want into games and YouTube videos with their new software. Hopefully, they will leave the ads for when you finish, “At the end of a game session, the Google software will roll a 30-second video that includes a game character saying that the free game was brought to you by a sponsor.” Apparently, in-game advertising is big this week, because about.com also wrote about it, but talking about using it to replace monthly subscription fees, or how console and handheld games have used it, like real luxury cars and billboards. If it means I don’t have to pay monthly subscription fees, I’m all for them placing in ads, I already ignore them everywhere else online, how hard could it be?

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http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/op-ed/5263-Going-Gold-Console-War-What-is-It-Good-For

To paraphrase the Joker, “I have very simple tastes…good story, clever gameplay, and nice artwork—you know they have in common? They’re CHEAP”

As part of the “college student” demographic talked about above, I certainly agree that this is a generation of gaming I probably won’t be seeing a great deal of. Everything is so blasted expensive and there are still great games on the older systems I have yet to even look at seriously. The one consol I have some definite contact with is, of course, the Wii—by virtue of it being less expensive than either of the other two. And to think that the big three might actually consider upgrading already is quite possibly the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. What we (read: I) would purchase in a heartbeat is the downgrade…the system that, although runs all the games of the original, is smaller and cheaper than its massive predecessor (i.e. the PS2—as opposed to the PSII—of this generation) but I don’t think the technology has advanced enough in the three years since the generation shift to facilitate that change. So all we poor college students can do is wait and hope that the hardware doesn’t change before we can experience this generation to its fullest

(http://kotaku.com/357342/weezer-garbage-and-stone-temple-pilots-provide-next-rock-band-dlc)

There are many things that I could say regarding the subject of this particular blog, much of which I’m sure you’ve heard before. Whether or not you are a fan of “Rock Band”, you have to admit that the game is doing very well. Back in high school, DDR was the party game of choice, although even then it was not entirely popular with all of the “clicks”. These days, nearly every house party reverberates with the songs of Guitar Hero or Rock Band. And to some extent, games like that really do need constant updates with content to keep things fresh. But what about other games? DLC and the whole idea behind Micro$oft’s “MS Points” system just plain bugs me. Do people really need to be paying $2-3 for a different background on their dashboard? Or as many as 800 points (around $12?) for 3 new levels in Halo 3? I’ve heard of other games (it may have evevn been from discussions in this class) about games simply not having an ending in place so that you have to pay additionally for the end content. It just doesn’t seem right to me. If I’m paying $60 for a game, I want it to be nothing short of amazing, and unquestionably complete in every aspect. One more thing this blog reminded me of was the “Rock Band Stage Kit”. You can make your imaginary rock band slightly less imaginary by having REAL lights and smoke! (http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=802828) The overall quality of the Rock Band equipment (at launch) was obviously shoddy, I’ve yet to see someone who has not encountered some issues with at least one of the pieces. I’m not knocking the game though, it is a lot of fun, assuming you have friends to play with (I was playing last night).

So what are your thoughts on the subject of DLC, MS points, and cheap “expansions” that aren’t really expansions at all?

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=16590

This article is about not just how Wii is revolutionizing the industry but the progression of graphics versus game play for all the consoles. At the forefront of this issue is this question:

“One big question confronting the panel: is there a perception that great graphics and realism equals higher sales — and do games with unique graphics sell badly? Is there room for art direction for more than futuristic soldiers?”

The answer seems to be divided. In some games, especially sports, the progression of graphics seems to be a necessity. The average player expects the next generation to look better, and feel more ‘realistic.’ The real conflict in the industry now lies in determining which concepts need little improvement, games such as Mario. Others, such as Halo, follow a progressive line of improvements.

However, games simply can’t just look pretty. Due to a combination of factors, money being nears the top; game play is becoming increasingly more critical. Some of the best examples of this are Assassins Creed and Call of Duty 4. Technologically Assassins’ Creed is a marvel of engineering and ingenuity. The details, realism and environments are one of those things you just have to see. Nonetheless one of the largest criticisms remains to be the lack of depth. The game receiving high ratings not because of its game play but its looks. Call of Duty 4 has found the balance between both.

The true calling of the Wii is not a rush for the best graphics or game play but of attracting new and old generations to video games. Not only attracting, but also making them accessible and fun for entire families. It is by sticking to the basics and sticking to them well, which has deeply contributed to the Wiis’ success.