The Separation of Ideals

As a person who wants to makes games for a living and loves to play games it is always distressing how mediocre some games are and yet they have million dollar budgets. One game always comes to mind is Call of Duty, a game that for all intents and purposes is considered one of the best franchises for FPS (first-person shooters) Black Ops as decent as it was has more than a few issues but truly hasn't changed since Infinity Ward's amazing Call of Duty 4. 


Some can argue that if it ain't broke don't fix it, well what about innovation or just trying something new? What about making a Call of Duty game just for multi player and one for single player? This is the separation I am talking about. I know more than a few people who do not enjoy multi player games (me included)I would rather have something co op or highly story based.


Call of Duty single player campaigns are fun but if I purchase the game for the story I am screwed because I just paid $60 for a 5 hour story. I get no enjoyment from the multi player so the only reason I keep the game around is because of the co op (combat training). Black Ops is the only one out of the series that I own because of this. Yeah I know MW2 had spec ops but it was limited to 2 players at a time so it is not the same. 


The most recent game that suffers from this is Homefront a game with so much promise because the story was so fascinating but never really got it going during the actual game itself. If the multi player was the point of making this game then why even create a single player portion at all? The development time could have been used to make the multi player better and you can use the story for a game that can benefit from it. I finished this game in about 5.5 hours and I was looking forward to it for months and I was extremely disappointed. The brilliance of this story was over shadowed by the fact that they are making a Call of Duty clone. I was hoping for a better thought out game with actual elements of great story telling and that took chances. Instead I got a great intro, newspaper clippings that attempt to drive the story, a voiceless main character and a cookie cutter design. But wait it has MULTI PLAYER!!! The multi player is set before the game is so not even that is cohesive. I long for the day where a company will say you know we have a brilliant story and let's focus on delivering that. Oh wait we have that they are called Irrational Games the makers of Bioshock. 


Bioshock is the example of what I am saying they made an FPS with a story, nurtured that story and did not focus on multi player at all because they know the power of story telling. Is there room for multi player in story driven games? Sure there is as long as it doesn't interfere with the story then I am all for it. 


A lot of people said Sony was crazy for putting out games like MAG and SOCOM Confrontation, in my opinion they got it right. They didn't try to force it, they said we want something multi player and that's what they focused on. End of story.


Let's just think about something, are people willing to pay $60 for a multi player game? Yes I think they are. I mean Call of Duty can just be multi player and it will still sell like crazy. For fuck's sake it has a menu option that says load multi player by default. 


Homefront you are a disappointment not because you were a bad game but because you are a follower. KAOS and THQ grow some balls, experiment and innovate or you will always be the company whose games people play while they are waiting for the new Call of Duty. And please if you are going to make a voiceless hero at least let me play co op with a voiceless partner.


Is Mass Effect 3 out yet? 

Very funny how things work

Three years ago I graduated college. I quickly landed this nice job as a designer for the luxury boating industry, in Fort Lauderdale where is known as the yachting capital of the world. Graduating has many consequences when you find yourself with a fat paycheck for the first time in your life (that's before Sallie Mae comes knocking on your door), look at yourself in the mirror and say "man, I'm a professional now..." It becomes addicting that anything is possible and you want to behave as an adult, being that you just got slapped in the face with your "adult permit" and the "you're on your own" certificate. I felt as lucky as I could and quickly changed things around, and fully upgraded because "I deserved it". I moved to a bigger apartment to fit my style and living expectations, got around to buy a smartphone (because business people need to be connected, and I am business) and even got around to buy some stock. What else can I do with a sudden strong flow of cash? What adults do on TV. Decided to invest, I looked around for the things I cherished the most in my brand new life, materially speaking. I loved my brand new Mac, my Verizon smartphone and  my news feed on iGoogle. So, I did very little research and invested substantial (at the time) amounts of money in stock from Apple, Verizon and Google.

One thing that I didn't know, otherwise retrieving from my decision to invest (which would have been a mistake), was that I graduated at the "worst possible time". I put that in quotes because I can think of worse times than rich people not being able to afford their lifestyle therefore firing people that need the money desperately, but that's another $20 as the town folk would say. I went ahead and invested anyway, just for doing something risky that felt right and out of pure sympathy from the little consumer devil on my left shoulder.

Times changed quickly and everybody seemed desperate. All of a sudden all the boats were on sale, but nobody was buying. I was sitting nervously on my desk, knowing that I hadn't done absolutely anything so far on that given day. The workload wasn't flowing, I was working less and people we're getting laid off left and right. It was economic apocalypse, and what did I know? I was just the little guy waiting to be released of my duties and on the worst case scenario, would be forced to face a cruel world as some of my colleagues did. What would I do? By this time, Sallie Mae was already on my case (and will continue to be as far as my eyes can reach the horizon on my figurative timeline). So what does a trembling chiwawa do? I got the answer: retrieve. 

My stock was worth close to nothing. I followed day by day negative numbers on a little application that was dedicated to give me specific numbers on my investment and willingly reminded me of how much I didn't know what I was doing. So, abruptly, I took a decision to lose even more money and sell the little I had invested. I walked out with literally close to 20% of what I had put in. I needed the money, the Earth was flat and I was reaching the border. As I wasn't ready to fall into oblivion with more debt (which I eventually managed to do anyway), I took as little as I could and paddled my way back. Bad decision.

What happened from there 'till now?

• new iPhones 
• iPad 
• iPhone on Verizon 
• iPad on Verizon 
• Google Chrome
• Android operating system

<span> If I didn’t sell anything back then, and focused on what was really happening, I could potentially be sitting on a pile nowadays, and I am referring to a pile of money. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but I know for a fact that the original amount that I put in would have close to tripled in the last 3 years.

I am happy to say, however, that the uneducated decisions of a new born adult can sometimes lead to great growth. Maybe not monetarily, but I’ve grown as a person who understands this, and that my friends is my success story. The story of my failure.

Now the facts: I managed to keep my job, boats are selling, freelance is coming in and I lead a happy life with what little I have. It only comes to show that if one invests in life, it pays.

:)

By Alberto Orsini

www.albertoorsini.com

The revolution is now

With all of the money people spend on games yearly it's no wonder more companies want a piece of the pie. Look at MTV Games a few years ago they purchased Harmonix so they can get in on it, Disney did as well and they have released games under Buena Vista games. Anyway not the point to me writing this. 

Today I read a post with bits and pieces from a speech Iwata gave. Apparently he is butt hurt that casual gamers are moving away from the Wii and the DS well sir let me be the first to tell you, you did it to yourself. Do not focus solely on the casual gamer that is the wrong strategy, good short term but bad in the long run. Also this is not the point of me writing this.

During the speech he kept using the word devaluing for free games and cheap games. Devaluing is a strong word Iwata what you are saying is that cheap games and free games make games worthless. Is that truly the case? I mean the people who are losing the most would be Nintendo because of the type of software they allow to crowd their system. 

But let's look at it on the flip side, game creators of all types love games, I am not talking about the CEO's of these companies I mean the people who actually create these games. So now game creator A wants to make game X because he thinks that he can sell a few copies, make some decent money and hell he is making a game. So he starts looking into making console games because of course everyone he knows has a console and it would be cool to make a game so people he knows can play on their console. Then he gets the bad news he is going to be working on a small project so Nintendo won't sell him a development kit because he doesn't make games from an office. So game creator A looks at other alternatives and he think hand held systems oh baby DS here I come. Oh no the DS dev kit falls under the same rules as the Wii no office no dev kit. 

Game creator A just wants to make game X that's all. Then he keeps digging and he figures cell phones are they way. So he looks it up and he finds out he can make his game for the iPhone, Android and webOS for $125 and he can work from home and not even need all of the phones to test on because all of these smartphone SDKs have emulators. He then can create his game have control over every aspect of it and not have to mortgage his house just to make part of his dream come true.

"But certainly it seems like, when content is being created and made available for free, that it is devaluing content, and is potentially devaluing the expectation of consumers for what content should be." What the fuck does that even mean Reggie? That making games available for free makes games worthless or just Nintendo games?  

I see it this way I could buy Wii Music for 49.99 and get stuck with a load of shit pressed onto a disc or I can buy Plants vs Zombies on my iPod touch for 2.99. So here is my argument to anyone Why the fuck would I spend 50 to 60 dollars on what could potentially be a shit game (Stranglehold) and be really pissed off or get Angry Birds for 99 cents hate but I would be out just a buck.

The revolution is now guys, more of us are using these alternative channels to distribute what we want and we have control on what we charge for it. Noah and his band gives away their music because they believe in the art. And people have the audacity to pay for bullshit like Lady Gaga and Justin Beiber? Money isn't everything Iwata I mean for you it is because you are the CEO of a company but when I can get Plants vs Zombies for the iPod for 3 bucks and have to pay 20 for the same game on the DS that pisses me off and what makes me even more mad is that it looks better on the iPod.

The only thing I see being devalued here is your opinion on what the value of games are,

Oh and by the way you should really look into creating a new character and franchise I mean Mario, I guess he's cool but I am not really looking forward to seeing yet another game which that cunt peach gets kidnapped. I know that story hasn't been beat to death because you still have the Universe to explore but give us something new already and I don't mean something stupid like a heart rate monitor that plugs into the Wii cause that's fucking lame.

And it all started with a bullet

Usually these posts and their heading don't have nothing to do with one another but this one is a little different. So Bulletstorm a decent enough game and I sort of enjoyed my time with it, but it's time for a trade in and thus the following.


I started checking since Friday for trade-in values for this game and came up with the following Gamestop $20 (mind you the game has been on the market less than 4 days), Best Buy (I didn't even know they did trades) is sitting @ $37 for the trade and Amazon @ $40. In all fairness Gamestop does have a trade in special so you get 50% more so it'll bring the credit up to $30. 


There is a game that is coming out called Homefront which I really want so the trek begins to pre-ordering this game. I look @ the same 3 companies for pre-orders and all of them have pre-order bonuses, so then I look @ trade value vs the best pre-order bonus so I settled on Best Buy because they have a Homefront branded headset as a pre-order bonus. 


Off I go to my local Best Buy(Coral Springs), they have a sign near customer service that says Trade in your used games here for Best Buy gift cards. Now I'm happy because I am going to trade in my game for $37 and reserve the game I want so I can get a pre-order bonus that I don't need but it's also a local store and I don't have to mail it to get a gift card (yeah Amazon I'm talking about you), So the first question the customer service rep asks is if I have my receipt, I say no because all I am doing is trading a game in and not returning. They say in order for us to trade the game in we need to have your Best Buy receipt, so I ask and if I didn't purchase it @ a Best Buy what then? They refer me to the website to do the trade in there or you can go to the other store (Sawgrass) and they can do it there because they are a larger store and all. So I say that doesn't make sense but okay. Now I'm on my way to the other store and lo and behold the customer service representative asks me for my Best Buy receipt, so I begin to explain to this nice young lady that I just drove from the other store and that they say I could trade it in @ this store, she apologized but you know there is nothing she can do really. Now I am really pissed and I leave. 


Now the decision is do I go online and pre-order it from Amazon and do the trade in there as well? Or take the 4 to 7 dollar hit and go to Gamestop which is local. I know this for sure I won't be doing any game related business with Best Buy anymore. A shame really I was looking forward to doing business there as competition is healthy.


As far as Best Buy goes you need to have a sign in-store that states that you accept trades for games that were purchased ONLY @ Best Buy, this way you admit defeat before you even start. 


Do you want to use the Gamestop business model for game trades and reserves? Then learn how to do it. It's not hard really you have the foot traffic just learn how to do it and do it effectively and you can make this a huge part of your bottom line. Remember you are not the only place that people purchase their games and you should know that. Either do it right or don't do it @ all. This is why there different places to shop, and because you have no idea how to handle gamers and those needs you have killed a new gaming customer relationship before it even began. I would rather get less money for a trade and less of a pre-order bonus than to do business there.


Ah Amazon you wicked online temptress. We need a local place that will actually want to compete with Gamestop but they are all too chicken shit to do so, either that or they get bought out by Gamestop.