I Just Caught Myself a Bad Idea

Source article: http://ca.kotaku.com/5842814/there-are-far-too-many-pokemon-to-care-about-anymore by Mike Fahey. September 22^nd, 2011

            In 1989 the GameBoy was created and took the portable gaming market by storm. Seven short years later with the creation of the vastly popular Pokémon Franchise, the GameBoy was pushed from an exception to a legend. The Pokémon game was revolutionary, it featured 151 unique monsters that kids could capture and train. The main selling point of the game was that players would need to trade with each other in order to get every specimen of Pokémon because neither game contained every Pokémon.

            Pokémon has since grown, releasing 20 games in their series. Nowadays, Pokémon are found within 5 regions and there exist 649 different Pokémon. Many players find themselves buying new Pokémon games when they come out, only to find the game play has not changed. All Pokémon games feature the same story; you are a young Pokémon trainer and are just setting off on your journey to become a Pokémon master. You will battle through gym leaders and trainers until you eventually find yourself vanquishing Team Rocket's (or a respective gang's) plan to conquer the world. Some of the only things that change from game to game are the Pokémon that you can catch. For many, this is not an issue. Being able to predict what will happen and plan your party accordingly. Additionally, fanatics know what to expect from new games, never being disappointed that their favorite game franchise has been changed.

            Familiarity in Pokémon is what makes it so successful. Players are never surprised when something happens in the game and never have to worry about one of their favorite features being removed or changed. Within all Pokémon games the core mechanics are the same, so much so that you can actually migrate Pokémon to later games. Unfortunately, it appears that the creators of Pokémon are running out of ideas. As there are 649 different Pokémon, each one is inspired from something in our lives. Many of the original 151 Pokémon were inspired off of animals such as Pokémon's mascot Pikachu, who is described as an electric mouse.  However recently, Pokémon are appearing in forms more contrived then before including gears, balloons, and even a refrigerator. On top of all of that, Legendary Pokémon; which can only be attained once in the game, have taken the form of every natural phenomenon including space, time and god itself.

            The Pokémon franchise is still popular but is on thin ice with fanatics. There are many options that the designers of Pokémon can take, one being slow down production of new species. Many fans believe that there are just too many Pokémon, and that if Pokémon wants to stay successful, needs to reduce the amount of new Pokémon released per game. Another option that Nintendo (the creators of Pokémon) could try is releasing a sequel or improving upon old games. Nintendo has just recently released their first sequel games Pokémon Black 2 and Pokémon White 2 and are doing surprisingly well. Additionally there exist many remake games such as Pokémon Fire Red and Pokémon Soul Silver. Finally, Nintendo has yet to release a Pokémon game for the vastly popular Nintendo 3DS. Taking advantage of this technology, and improving upon their existing market seems like the next logic step for Pokémon`s recovery.

Pioneer Wanted for Murder

Source article "McAfee Antivirus Founder Wanted for Murder" by
Marshall Lemon on the Escapist Magazine, November 13, 2012
John McAfee, founder and pioneer of the antivirus
industry is currently the prime suspect in the murder of, "fellow
American expatriate" Gregory Faull. The Belize national police have
been after him for questioning since the murder and John McAfee claims
innocence for the murder. Gregory Faull, who was found in his home in
San Pedro with a gunshot wound to the head, is known to have past
relations with John McAfee and apparently not friendly relations.
Reports state that two had been on bad terms for a while with a
history of a formal complaint being made by Faull against McAfee for
firing guns and displaying "roguish behavior".
McAfee Inc., formerly known as McAfee associates had come up with its
antivirus program as early as 1987 just as the internet was first
being established. After McAfee got the ball rolling he sold his
company for $100 million and moved to Belize to start a herbal drug
operation of all things. Moving from a computer technical industry to
a herbal drug operation doesn't exactly say "stable" in the first
place.
McAfee had established his operation in Belize but it did not come
without price or suspicion. McAfee's herbal company hit a bump in the
road and he became "increasingly erratic" and was estranged by other
American expatriates in the country. It was stated that McAfee had
hired criminals and drug traffickers for his security staff as well as
being reportedly seen on a Russian-hosted website about his efforts to
purify bath salts, the infamous and well-known hallucinogenic drug. In
April, police raided McAfee's compound arresting him and discovering a
drug lab and a full armory full of weapons. McAfee was reluctantly
released upon the discovery that it was all legally obtained and
licensed.
Because of their past relationship McAfee has been deemed to be the
prime suspect when Faull was found with a gunshot wound to the head
with his laptop and iPhone missing. McAfee has been busy dodging local
police in sandboxes and running declaring his innocence. There is a
conspiracy that he was set up but officials are still being cautious
upon their leads.

By: Brandon Gunter

Movies vs Games

  Movie VS Games

            The games being turned into movies lately have been nothing but utter disappointments. I just don't understand the need to turn something amazing into something so mediocre. For example every Transformer movie is top notch while the games they keep producing is crap. I just think that they should be separate from each other unless they have a master piece on their hands. As far as I am concerned they have not produced anything worthy but it works both ways movies should not be turned into games neither.  In my experience I can only think of a few titles that were of any success like the movie DOOM which actually turned out alright and the Wolverine Orgins game which was actually pretty cool to play. They are talking about making a Splinter Cell movie which Tom Hardy would be playing Sam Fisher which shows promise but so did all the others. Good actors can only help a movie so much but when the expectations are really high the movie is never as good as they hype that leads up too it. Even the Hitman movie looked beautiful in the previews but when you watched the movie we all got another mediocre movie showing us that it should not be done. There is one movie that did make the cut that I can think of which is Star Wars which produced some amazing games and did not take away from the most amazing films in my opinion of the last 40 years. They came out with a lot of games like the old republic series which hands down the best game for x box that I can think of there is also the force unleashed franchise. The only reason I think these games were so successful is because they stayed away from the main story line which in most cases wouldn't be a success but these games were. Final Fantasy did the same thing they did a sequel to the most amazing game ever made Final Fantasy 7. The movie was visually stunning but it was animated which probably helped it to be such the success that it should have been. The Advent children movie was probably the best movie that started as a game and ended with a movie which most of the movie to game conversions should look at and follow. Long story short people need to stop making movies because they were great games just to make a quick buck or two it's really bringing down the game and the reputation of the company's that get involved.

The Wii U

 Source Article: "Analysts chime in on Wii U's mid-term forcast" By Chris Morris. Gamasutra. November 16th, 2012.

On November 18th Nintendo released their newest home console, the Wii U. Nintendo hopes the Wii U Gamepad, a touch screen, tabletesque, controller will change the way we play games. The Gamepad's second screen allows for asynchronous gameplay, displaying different information on the television and the Gamepad. There is always a lot of hype surrounding new game consoles and the Wii U has garnered a strong initial reaction from critics. Not all press leading up to the launch of the Wii U has been positive though. Analysts have voiced concerns about the Wii U's long term potential. Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter predicts "The Wii U will quickly lose positive momentum" following strong holiday sales.  Pachter suggests the consoles $350 price tag will drive consumers away after a holiday sales boon. Critics and developers are concerned that the Gamepad's second screen is a gimmick and the system's CPU is underpowered.
Nintendo has faced similar situations to this in the past. The Wii, Nintendo's previous home console, was also derided as an under performing console relying on gimmicks to entice consumers. This criticism did not stop anyone from buying the Wii and as of September 30, 2012 Nintendo has shipped 97 million Wii's worldwide. The 3DS, Nintendo's stereoscopic 3D handheld system performed poorly at launch. This poor performance was due to one factor more than any other; the 3DS was too expensive. Nintendo wasted no time in rectifying this situation and within six months of the 3DS' release Nintendo slashed its price by $80. Sales of the 3DS have been strong since and the handheld has sold 22 million units in less than two years.
A major factor in the strong sales of the Wii and 3DS is the games available for the systems. Both systems offer experiences not available from Nintendo's competitors. Nintendo needs to capitalize on the unique nature of the asynchronous gameplay to push sales of the Wii U going forward.
The best way to guarantee the success of a console it to support it with must have games. Wii Sports sold 70 million copies and proved the Wii was more than a gimmick. The 3DS benefited from having one of the highest rated games ever, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, ported to the system. Once Nintendo creates the Wii U's must have title developers will stop complaining and start taking the Wii U seriously.
Nintendo's strategies leads many to believe the company is out of touch with their consumers. Sales numbers tell a very different story about Nintendo's relevance in the console hardware market. Hopefully Nintendo has learned enough from their last two hardware cycles to prove their critics wrong and make the Wii U a success.

Why do difficult?

               In discussions of games, difficulty is often called into question. People who like difficult games are often considered a niche audience, which is cool. Games like Dark Souls, Hard Corps Uprising and XCOM probably don't fit into most people's gaming needs. The part of difficulty that irks me is that I feel like I'm having my hand held in a lot of modern games. Sure some games have difficulty settings, but that's not exactly the difficulty I'm talking about.  

                

                I want to start by berating some modern shooters. I always seem to have the next objective taking up a third of my heads up display's (HUD) total area and it's not usually more complicated than "Move from point A to point B." Or "Hunt down the rebels inside the base" or something similar. It should be able to guide me in the right direction three different ways before resorting to on screen text. I should know that I'm stamping out rebels from dialogue or the story and the next objective can easily be marked unobtrusively on a mini map. I don't need constant pop-ups telling me what button tosses a grenade or how to take cover. Dropping the constant pointers for what to do and where to go can increase player creativity and encourages exploration allowing for a different style of level design.

               

              Another common hand hold feeling is enemy patterns. Sure enemies probably do need a limited set of motions so as not to be overwhelming but complete predictability is often boring at a lower difficulty level. The Legend of Zelda games often use this tactic for their bosses and while they aren't the center point of the games' mechanics it does take you out a bit when after struggling through a dungeon you simply have a memorization puzzle to end it. There's actually a narrow line here, mega man is a good example. Each boss has a move pool and most of them are pretty predictable, but the way to dodge and hit the boss isn't always clear or easy, but if you mess up it doesn't punish you too heavily. It feels fair and when you finally figure it out it makes for a much more fulfilling and rewarding boss fight. 

-Baxter Cranch

Medal of Honor: Warfigher, The Epitome of What’s Wrong

Duncan Kennedy, Source Article: http://ca.ign.com/articles/2012/10/27/medal-of-honor-warfighter-review

It used to be that First Person Shooters were a genre of reflex and decisions. Levels were linear, sure, but you had a choice of how to go about them. It’s the deliberation of “Do I tough it out and use just my pistol, or do I take the easy route and use all of my rockets and grenades?”. Those were the good times. Now all we have to look forward to is railroaded experiences with little to no choice or skill needed.

            Medal of Honor:Warfigher (MoH:WF) is the latest in a long line of Medal of Honor titles, originally a franchise that prided itself on its accuracy and compelling gameplay. The latest game is a poorly made excuse of millions of dollars. Perhaps the worst outcome of this game was the fact that it still sold amazingly. Despite mediocre reviews from all over the industry, it still secured the top spot in the UK. Does this blame fall on EA, who funded the project and published it, or does it fall on Danger Close Games, the studio that developed the game? Perhaps neither, it seems that the consumer base as a whole is the problem.

            The issue of masses of people buying mediocre products isn’t new, but it’s getting worse, and it creates a negative feedback-loop that might seriously harm the industry. It works like this; A company rushes out a poorly made game of the current popular genre. With the aid of forceful marketing and massive amounts of hype, the game sells like hot-cakes. Regularly, the game would never make a sequel, as consumers would see the poor quality of the game they just bought, but in the case of established franchises like Call of Duty and Metal of Honor, consumers remember the great games of the past and are “willing to tough it out” until the next game. This allows the big company to rush production on another poorly made sequel and forcefully market it to result in massive sales. Not only does this lower the standard of the industry as a whole, but it dumbs down the consumer base and makes it harder for other games to sell without adding in features to make it “more like Call of Duty”.

We’re seeing games with unnecessary multi-player modes. We’re seeing mechanics that have been done to death. Until games like Medal of Honor: Warfighter are no longer met with amazing sales, we’re going to have to settle for the same “Modern Warfare” shooter quarter after quarter.

Brendon Fredin - Why the EA Online Pass Hurts More Than It Helps

Source Article - http://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/16/hitman-absolution-contracts-mode-wont-require-online-pass-in/ - Joystiq – Xav de Matos

 

                With the recent announcement that the upcoming Hitman: Absolution will be having free online multiplayer in the form of it's Contracts game mode and is ditching the EA Online Pass for North American gamers, it got me thinking, why do we have this pass? What purpose does it serve?

                In my honest opinion, this pass is completely redundant. It hurts more then it helps. Time for a weird analogy. The EA Online Pass is like Communism. Both sounded great on paper, and then proceeded to become hated and unpopular in practice. It not only increases the cost of games in general, but hurts the used game market. Yes, used games hurt companies in terms of profits but they help the consumer out greatly. Not everyone has $50 to spend on a game and some are willing to wait for a used version to come in. With games coming close to $60-70 now because of this Online Pass, this only hurts those who want to purchase used games. Having to buy the game, and then head to the online store to purchase an online pass seems to be less user-friendly. What happened to the days where you bought a game and you didn't have to pay extra money to unlock anything?

                Another weird fact is that the EA Online Pass can expire. Really? So you will make us purchase a BRAND NEW GAME THAT HAS NEVER BEEN OPENED EVEN THOUGH IT'S BEEN OUT FOR A FAIR AMOUNT OF TIME with the off chance that even though they paid $60-70 for that game, they have a chance they now they have to pay an extra $10 on top of that to be able to play the multiplayer? That's completely insane. EA shuts down servers that have less than 1% of peak players for that particular game. Imagine a gamer buying a used game, buying the online pass, and the learning that the pass they just bought won't work in 2 months when the servers shut down.

                EA is taking a step backwards here. The online pass serves no purpose other than to line EA's already lined pockets. Gamers hate DRM, and consoles were the last safe haven. I hope other game companies and developers stay away from this style of restriction. I paid $60 for the game, I shouldn't have to worry about weather the pass is expired or not. 

“Automated level design will not replace the nuance of manual design” by Cory Fisher

Source Article: “How to Make Insane, Procedural  Platformer Levels” by Jordan Fisher                 (www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/170049/how_to_make_insane_procedural_.php)

There’s no doubt that creating the perfect platformer level is a challenge. Tweaking different variables and elements just enough to end up with a level that’s fun, challenging, and unique is an art in and of itself. Then, taking the whole process and doing it over and over again can be tremendously daunting and endlessly time consuming. But, ponder this: if a program could be created that takes factors like a character’s speed, jump height, and friction and generates a custom designed level for said character, would manually designing levels become obsolete? I think not. Nothing can truly replace the idiosyncrasies found in levels designed by real people. The organic feel and the little details that make you smile, laugh, or scream profanities at the screen are part of what make custom designed platformer levels irreplaceable.

First, does such a program exist today? One that can create levels the same way a human would? Well, Cloudberry Kingdom developer Jordan Fisher (no relation) has created one such algorithm. It takes into account things like the end goal of the level, the different block types which make up the platforms of the platformer, the physics of each specific character (i.e. speed, jump height, friction, etc.), various obstacles and enemies, and creates a level. In his article “How to Make Insane, Procedural  Platformer Levels” he explains that there are three things a good procedural algorithm needs to nail: feasibility (can you beat it?), interesting design (do you want to beat it?), and appropriate skill level (is it a good challenge?). The levels that his program creates can vary from a boring, straight-line run to the end, all the way up to a level that’s nearly impossible to beat, like the ones featured in his Kickstarter video.

But, even with the endless amount of variation that can be automatically created by Jordan’s program, there is still a need for human designers. Only a skilled and experienced designer knows what individual levels should look and feel like for a specific game. Super Mario World would not be the same if it were generated by a computer. The placement of hidden secrets and story driving elements are things that need a human touch to be done correctly. One day, maybe, there will be a program that can come very close to generating organic feeling levels, but, for now there’s still a need for human designers.

Not so Popular Vancouver

Source article: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/176110/whats_really_going_down_in_.php by Leigh Alexander.  August 17^th, 2012

            Once a striving metropolitan in the gaming industry, Vancouver is now having more trouble than ever.  In the last summer many major developing companies have moved or preformed massive layoffs. Activision recently closed down their Radical Entertainment facility, and Rockstar Studios soon followed. Other companies such as Capcom, Slant Six, and Relic have not had any luck either with recent layoffs. While these companies have chosen to relocate or downsize, other companies are trying to pull through the dry spell in Vancouver. Electronic Arts is doing an exceptional job sustaining in Vancouver with their Burnaby location remaining their oldest and largest location in Canada. Electronic Arts Burnaby is still manufacturing popular titles such as FIFA under the world renowned EA Sports brand. While Electronic Arts has had some downsizing, they are still preforming considerably well in Vancouver and hold a major presence in the hiring industry.

            Companies that relocate from Vancouver are choosing Montreal or Toronto for their new locations because of tax credits offered by the local municipal governments. In retaliation, the British Columbia Interactive Task Force (BCI) is trying to refortify the gaming industry in Vancouver. Their plan strongly relies on implementing tax credits that will attract new businesses and developers into the industry. In 2010 the BCI is credited with implementing the BC Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit (BCIDMTC) which gives tax redemptions up to 17.5% of eligible salaries. Many developers including Gree and TinyCo are in favor of the tax credit, but other developers believe that more steps will need to be taken to improve the conditions in Vancouver.

            A majority of the developers found in Vancouver worked on console games; however with the recent industry migration many developers that work on console games no longer are located in Vancouver. This opens Vancouver to mobile gaming. Gree, a big time Japanese mobile game developer has started hiring in Vancouver last July. Other indie mobile game developers are also appearing in Vancouver, including East Side Games which recently opened in July as well. Clearly Vancouver is not lost in the gaming industry, just behind. The future is unknown, if Vancouver intends to get a foot back in the door of console gaming then new tax credits and incentives will need to appear in the near future. Otherwise Vancouver can always take hold of the newly growing mobile gaming market worth $8 billion of the $56 billion revenue of the gaming industry.

-Brandon Dahn

Streaming and E-sports

Live streaming is a concept developed a while ago in which a person streams a game or other action over the internet through a live feed so that viewers may see what is going on as it happens. With this, E-Sports have made their claim to fame using live streaming to their fullest extent and bringing fans closer to events that are otherwise inaccessible to many people.

People have taken quite a liking to this new form of entertainment as it allows them to view their favorite players of games such as League of Legends and StarCraft 2 play in real time, and in some cases even interact with the players through live chat. One of the best features of live streaming is that major tournaments and gamers have figured out its potential and have begun streaming most of their of their games and tournaments, allowing people from all over the world to be a part of the event without having to travel the immense distance to get there or wait to view it after it’s been recorded and released to the public. 

As great as streaming is, and as cool as it would be to be able to make a living off of the income that can be present in streaming for long periods of time, it can be very difficult to get the recognition and viewers to make any money, let alone enough to live off of. To help this, many site such as Twitch.tv, and Own3d.tv have sections where people can surf through streamers and view newer broadcasters as well.

“The key is to innovate and carve out your own niche.” – Sean ‘Day [9]’ Plott, on how to become successful in Esports.

Esports are a great thing for the gaming community. They allow us to gather as larger group and help bring in new people to the scene, thus growing the community; however, there are two key components to having successful esports: the players, and the viewers. The players have their own lives and drama which is interesting to the viewers, as it goes with all celebrities; however, the players also attract viewers with their unique play styles, wins, losses, excreta. Game designers to have their role with this, as the games they produce will affect the viewers and players. As Mr. Browder said for his game StarCraft in an interview, “StarCraft 2” was conceived from the start to offer a good experience for spectators”. It’s imperative that a game is equally fun to watch as it is to play if they want any viewer count.

               

As it stands, streaming is only going to keep getting better, and its certainly helping the game industry grow. What will help streaming and E-Sports reach the next level is all dependent on the willingness of designers and players. Who knows, with time, maybe E-sports will end up in the Olympics!

By: Ayrton Hunt