14 posts tagged “gaming”
The game was released buggy, like many MMOS, but at the same time, the devs tended to be receptive to feedback. That said, the game underperformed by a lot. Sales numbers were not as predicted or hoped for, and the number of subscribers retained dipped very low.
The game had a ton of faults, and a lot of missed potential, but when it comes to who dropped the ball I would have to place more blame on Monolith/WBIE for selling the property off to SOE. Now that said, SOE put effort into the game but it was never treated as a star property. One might say, with good reason, noting the underperforming history as above. They had to keep profitable.
But MxO was Monolith's baby and the devs and designers there worked hard on it. They had a good strategy and a plan for afterward, and the first four or five months after release were truly great stuff. Live Events were plentiful, characters would drop in, there were very effective storytelling elements in place and fairly frequent updates. The events that they held and the LET appearances really helped tie the community together.One really felt like a part of something. But of course, back to those numbers again -- it very likely wasn't financially sustainable.
The sale to SOE gave the game a longer life, but also a slow death. Fully rendered cinematics with original cast voices gave way to comic book format animation and finally to some drawn, barely animated storyboards that were hard to make out. Major characters were killed off or otherwise removed (likely as a way to save money), and only little things were added to the game. This was mostly in the form of gear or spawns of some sort.
I doubt there will be another like it for some time -- urban, smart, featuring an abundance of modern clothing options and styles, and filled with a mix of philosophy, supernatural elements, lots of places to enter and secrets to uncover, and a very unique playerbase full of extremely dedicated individuals. And in the beginning, the Live Events team played it well, and created the most memorable MMORPG experience I have had so far. It was fun, but sadly, the game did not realize its potential at all.
My latest piece for The Escapist is up. I was happy to see that it got the lead spot on the homepage for the week. I don’t know how that decision is made, but it was certainly nice to see. This piece was a bit personal, sprung out of a little reflection last summer about Silent Hill 4. I decided to do some further reading on Hispanic female video game characters only to discover that no one had written it yet.
I read an editorial over the summer by author Steven Saylor, whose Roma Sub Rosa series I read in its entirety last year, where he said something along the lines of: writers are always advised to write what they know, but a writer should write the story he or she would like to read. This was in reference to fiction, but it’s definitely equally applicable to nonfiction. So I saw an opportunity and ran with it.
In other news, I joined Twitter a while back and I’m finally starting to use it a little bit. At first, all I had was Greg Grunberg on my follow list, but now I’ve added some other interesting people. What an amazingly trivial concept, yet such an addictive site. I must say that LeVar Burton has one of the coolest tattoos I’ve ever seen. It’s an ambigram of his first name and “Kunta”, a tribute, of course, to his Roots role. Dan Brown may have brought ambigrams into the popular conscious, but LeVar’s tattoo made them cool.
Finally, the Times Square Virgin Megastore is set to close in April. I haven’t bought a CD there in a while, but that store holds so many memories for me. I went there very frequently as a teen, attended signings, in-store concerts, and sometimes just considered it a throbbing, lively, oasis where I could drop in to listen to some of my favorite new songs and wander around what seemed to me quite the cool location.
The prices were sometimes a tad high, but sale time was the best. Lots of gems to be had. Apparently, a six-million dollar annual profit isn’t enough for the chain’s new owners. The location is set to house a Century 21 discount designer clothing shop. I recall Century 21 liked to advertise itself as “NY’s best kept secret”. Hard to live up to that when you’re taking a prime Times Square area location. No matter. If it hadn’t been C21, it would’ve been another client willing to fork over the cash.
Even for this native kid, this store was a destination. Say what you will about big box type places, but this one going is a loss. I loved how the jazz and vocal section was so quiet, even though the rest of the store had loud, pumping music throughout. The last time I was there was for Christmas shopping last year, and it was still the same chaotic, bright place. And I’m sure it will remain so until April.
I haven't blogged in a while because I've been busy with a few things, but I always come back to writing.
Made these for my boyfriend's birthday last month:
mushrooms from Mario games. I borrowed the idea from a shirt over at ThinkGeek. I figured 1up suited a birthday. My boyfriend told me he wanted to keep it low key, and didn't want a big cake (which I've made for him before), so I considered cupcakes a loophole. Luckily, he found the whole thing cute and liked them.
Truth is, I'd planned them a couple of weeks earlier, and I was very happy with the way they came out. I didn't do a practice run, and nor had I ever made this recipe before, but everything was amazingly good. They all disappeared in less than a day!
The recipe for these cupcakes is here. I have a standing request from my boyfriend's mother to make her some now. She asked him to ask me for them after she tried mine. It's cute. I plan to make some, probably this week, and decorate them with little yellow flowers. Something springlike awaits.
Otherwise, not much notable has happened. Been reading and writing a lot lately. Both for fun and professional reasons. Looked into the possibility of going to J-School. Trying to get more of my writing out there as well as nurse a business idea I've been hatching lately.
When a console to PC port arrives with issues like poor optimization or a lack of graphical upgrades, this is naturally, disappointing. Bioware's Matt Atwood, in an interview over at Eurogamer, insists that the upcoming May PC release of Mass Effect will be different:
"We get questions about if we're going to do new content [for the PC version], but what's the real value there? The game is so robust with this content. What makes the most sense is to focus on making the keyboard customisable, increasing the visuals, making the controls very natural and add things like squad commands and hot-keys for Shepard's biotic powers and weapons; make those things that, honestly, when people make ports they just don't do. They just get it going and that's it. And that's not what BioWare's about."
No new PC-exclusive content is a bit of a bummer, but the rest is still good news. He also touches upon downloadable content planned for both the PC and the Xbox 360:
"We obviously know more than we're ready to talk about, just to be completely honest with you. But I think you'll see more planets, I think you'll potentially see more races - you're going to see really great content."
If you'd like more on the newer, shinier side of Mass Effect, the rest of the interview, along with the accompanying PC screenshot gallery should whet your appetite.
During Funcom's GDC presentation, Game Director Gaute Godager responded to a reporter's question about player-versus-player combat, and the problem of ganking with a potentially worrisome solution: Don't join a PvP server.
Depending upon your point of view, this is either the most logical thing in the world or a complete cop out. Godager's statements reflect what seems to be a complete free-for-all option on these servers. At least several months ago, it seemed that there would be safeguards in place to prevent players of very high levels from attacking or engaging players of much lower levels. The rules appear to have changed, and PvP, while in some cases restricted to within designated areas, seems to be open to a large problem with griefing.
Most MMO players know that griefing can be extremely frustrating to deal with, especially in the lower levels. These cyber bullies can even turn players off from renewing their subscriptions. So why make this decision? It seems the vocal members of the PvP audience, in many instances on the official community forums, figured that if the game were aiming for realistic, violent, and mature combat, then it might as well be "realistic" in this aspect as well. Thus, as the game currently stands, a bored level 80 may attack and kill a level 25 without consequence.
I'm not a big PvPer. I engage with friends or guildmates, or occasionally one on one when I'm in the mood. The promised rules blocking high level characters from ganging up on low levels represented the one thing making the possibility of playing on a PvP server remotely tolerable. I don't want other people to dictate how I spend my game time or be allowed to ruin my fun via griefing. If my character has a fair shot of beating someone, then that is tolerable on a PvP server. But to allow free-for-all attacks is just inviting trouble. Bad decision, Funcom.
As I sit here, unable to sleep yet, possibly having picked up my mother's flu, I look to the internet to provide me with a little distraction. After reading about the Super Mario Power Up! energy drink yesterday, I just read about yet another video game inspired set of drinks.
I tried Mountain Dew's Game Fuel tie-in in both soda and Slurpee forms. I heard the taste described as "liquid gummy bears" once, and I'm inclined to agree. Final Fantasy Potion hasn't made its way here from Japan yet. I've heard it tastes terrible, but I'd certainly try it once for the novelty.
Many of these drinks and game-inspired foods are Japan-only, and unlikely to ever get here, but it is another example of this type of cross-marketing. Beyond that, it's another way video games are a more mainstream part of life these days in many parts of the world. I'm sure eventually, we'll see more examples of this sort of thing here in the US. I just wonder what sorts of flavors will be on tap.
I was reading some gaming news today and saw the announcement for Wonderworld Amusement Park for the Wii. Now, I think the Wii has much to offer, but developers are still not taking it very seriously. The system is overloaded with minigame compilations. The pack-in Wii Sports is a minigame compilation itself.
Now, recently, many have been blaming low software sales for all but first-party titles. Economically speaking, that's a bad sign, but when you take into account just how many developers underestimated the Wii's potential success, these numbers might not even be relevant in a year. What's going to determine that? Well, better software should be a start. However, in order to get to that point, studios have to assign more development time, team members, and budget. And they have to stop thinking in such simplistic terms for the console.
It was a port, but Resident Evil 4 showed just how a serious, "hardcore" title could work on this system. With refreshed controls, it took advantage of the system's capabilities in a well-integrated, not tacked-on, manner. There are marquee titles on the way like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which I'm looking forward to, but then there are the junky, gimmicky, low-budget titles. Every console has its duds, but current the failure of developers to take the Wii seriously is something to watch. I certainly hope we see at least a somewhat different picture by this time next year, with fewer throwaway titles. I'm aware that the Wii is marketed as a very social system with a low barrier to entry. It is. But that doesn't mean that there can't be a slew of even more amazing titles in development.
This is awesome.
If you haven't yet tried Team Fortress 2, don't miss it if you like multiplayer shooters or competitive games in general. It's some of the most fun I've ever had with a shooter. Don't be put off by the cartoonish style, there's quality gameplay and lots of humor. Very much worth playing.
Speaking of humor, The Orange Box is loaded with it, even though I've only played through a portion of it over at my boyfriend's house. I've previously played Half-life 2 , but this time around have gotten to play TF2 and Peggle Extreme, which is a pretty darn funny edition. Portal, which I haven't played yet, but which I have heard a whole lot about and seen videos from, is full of weird, sometimes quite morbid, humor.
Halloween is coming up, but I don't have any plans this year. Have a ton of writing and work to do, but I'm considering trying NaNoWriMo again, and giving it a serious push this time. Haven't decided just yet.
I was reading the latest issue of Games for Windows magazine today (October, the one with F.E.A.R. sequels on the cover) and came across this "advertorial" near the back tech section. Ugh, I know Microsoft features these as part of its sponsor partnership with Ziff-Davis, but this one was particularly close to home.
It begins - "Women who play Games for Windows: It's not a myth, and it's not a publicity stunt."
Wow, Microsoft. Thanks for telling me that I play games. I had trouble believing it before, but now I am assured that this activity of mine is not a publicity stunt.
Wait, it gets better.
"That's right--there are real, everyday ladies playing computer games (even hardcore favorites such as Age of Empires III [Microsoft, Rated T] and Shadowrun [Microsoft, Rated M] the entire world over this very minute!"
Once again, thank you Microsoft, and writer Christa Phillips for letting me know that the mysterious creature known as the female that plays games is not a rare local species and is found throughout the world. Even sometimes playing hardcore titles. OMG!
It's not the content that I'm taking issue with so much as the presentation. The cutesy title and writing style makes me read the entire piece in this syrupy hyper voice in my head. It's also written in this patronizing way that I suppose is meant to speak to the mostly male readership of gaming magazines, but comes off as treating the female gamer as something of an exotic mystery, even while its aim is to debunk that sort of thing.
There are actually some on-target comments from some women quoted in the article, but the overall style of the piece just rubbed me the wrong way.
Part of the ending paragraph, "Women who love to game still look forward to the day when guys value our sniper skills as much as our crafting abilities. Until then we'll find safety and acceptance in female gaming groups like GamerchiX and PMS Clan...," also hit upon one aspect that I've thought about often. That is whether or not all-female clans and groups make further integration into the greater gaming community easier or more difficult.
But that's a topic for another day.
Real life and some other business has kept me away from blogging here for a while. But I'm back now. and look, another post about gaming. Well, it is E3 week, and I promise I don't always rant. I will be talking pleasantly about gaming soon enough.
I read this a short time ago:
Ubisoft Unveils Imagine(TM) Video Game Series for Girls
Thursday July 12, 3:06 pm ET
First Video Games in Series Available in OctoberSANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Ubisoft, one of the world's largest video game publishers, announced its all-new Imagine(TM) series of video games targeted at girls ages 6 to 14 years old. The Imagine line allows girls to explore their favorite interests and hobbies - as indicated in extensive lifestyle research on this audience - in an interactive and entertaining way. Ubisoft's Imagine series is part of the company's strategic expansion into the casual video game market.
Source: Ubisoft
The first games in the Imagine line will launch in October 2007 for the Nintendo DS(TM) system: Imagine(TM) Fashion Designer, Imagine(TM) Animal Doctor, Imagine Babyz® and Imagine(TM) Master Chef. Imagine(TM) Figure Skater will follow in early 2008.
"Ubisoft is excited to finally offer young girls a line of games that give them the chance to explore their hobbies and interests in interactive and creative experiences," said Helene Juguet, senior director of marketing at Ubisoft. "Our consumer research revealed that the young girls' market has been relatively overlooked. We are happy to introduce a variety of titles relevant to what girls in this age group have indicated they are most interested in."
Imagine(TM) Fashion Designer invites players to become hip Manhattan designers handling all aspects of the fashion business, from creating their own line of clothing to directing photo shoots. Online gameplay allows players to share their designs and ideas with friends and fellow aspiring young fashionistas.
Imagine(TM) Animal Doctor puts young players in the role of a veterinarian, not only by treating and curing all types of animals, but also by creating new facilities to expand the veterinary hospital.
Imagine(TM) Babyz® is the first simulation game focused on caring for babies. Players take on the challenges of raising a baby throughout all stages of development and will also be able to take photos and exchange tips and clothing through a unique online component.
Imagine(TM) Master Chef allows players to create recipes from all over the world using the stylus to prepare, stir and cook ingredients. Players can customize their kitchens with utensils and appliances. Fun mini-games include cooking quizzes and kitchen challenges.
In Imagine(TM) Figure Skater, players live the life of a champion who needs to balance her life between training, school and friends. Girls take on the role of a professional figure skater and use the stylus to perform jumps, spins and a variety of skating combinations.
source link: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070712/20070712005947.html?.v=1
I remember back when developers just made games and we all played them. I'm sure some little girls would have a blast with these, but do we actually need such specialized titles and marketing? Why not just market games to everyone? I swear, the games marketed to little girls are some of the cheesiest, cheapest sounding titles out there. I think if these were the types of games that I played when I was a little girl, I wouldn't be a gamer today. They're mostly sims. Yes, these are backed up by market research, but there's a problem: many gaming focus groups exclude females completely unless the company behind them specifically decides to make a game with females in mind. Who's to say that those other games wouldn't appeal to female players, even little girls? Don't they deserve better?
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