19 posts tagged “commentary”

Games really are a fragile thing to create. Making a really good video game is already a house of cards, and if it's original, getting it to sell is a yet another debacle. I think Kotaku's review nailed it. Visually, the game is amazing. Luc's an artist, it shows. However, for a game, visual quality and audio are not enough. Most of the complains lie in play, and that's what video games have over other mediums. We play them.

Enemy design, level design, the 2 character controlling mechanics apparently didn't go over with players so well, and while Bernard is tweaking the game, they're selling off what should be a beta version for $5 on Steam. I stopped playing PC games as a child since I felt like publishers rushed out PC versions to market at roughly beta status then promised fixes within a few weeks.

Perhaps Eternity's Child is better off being a Graphic Novel. Luc is an artist, he'll have more control over what goes on doing everything himself. Plus, maybe the storyline will get some better exploration with the graphic novel format. Yes, games are a harsh mistress, but think about play from the moment you conceive of a game.

A lot of people have been decrying Resident Evil/Biohazard 5's mass slaughter of black "people." I say "people" because they're no longer human in the game. They're zombies; they were people that were exposed to a horrible virus by sinister means. The black people in the game are victims of a sci-fi version of Darfur. I think Africa needs more focus. Have more games take place there. Get more people to pay attention to the horrible goings on as well as the good. I wonder if outrage over Resident Evil 5 can get directed towards the inaction concerning Darfur?

What's racist to me is the stereotypical depiction of black people as "gangstas" or criminals dressed in a certain rap star wanna-be manner. Want to do something good for black folks in video games? Have a big fat tall black man as your Summoner. Have well rounded black women manage all the libraries in your game world.

Fat Princess has stirred up a lot of ire as well. It's capture the flag where the flag is a young woman you can overfeed. The fatter the Princess gets, the harder she'll be to carry over to your side. First, images of women get blasted for being unnervingly skinny only to have tremendous mounds of lard mounted on their chests. A majority of video game females range between campy with no sex appeal to bodies that super models' photoshop wranglers aspire to. Fat Princess is hardly the breakdown in stereotypical female character appearance I'd hope for, but I could laugh it off. I agree with one of Mighty Ponygirl's alternative suggestions. Namely, replacing the fat lady with a fat stash of gold. You could even make a game of lightening the load when mobility matters then re-collect the gold later. I would definitely NOT laugh at Fat Princess if players beat her up to expel weight.

Or what the heck, go with a sci-fi theme. Use a magnetic meteor. These meteors are fuel of the future. Get meteors to your base and build a larger space fleet. You could attack the meteor directly to lighten loads or reduce others' rewards.

Next, "Good character designer, have some pie."  Good, non-sexist character designs.

With the 10 million Nintendo Wii systems out there, I was incredibly shocked when Boom Blox only moved 60,000 units since release. It looks like it's doing better internationally, but even then, it isn't the big smash hit that I'm sure a lot of people were expecting it to be.

Boom Blox has some things going for it that would help it sell in the casual market:

1. It's a fun game! I tried it briefly and it is very friendly. The time from putting the disk in to having fun is almost instantaneous!
   
2. Steven Spielberg branding.

1. The packaging design is a disaster. For starters, Steven Spielberg's name is barely legible.
2. The image on the package itself looks cheap, it doesn't really tell anything about the game. I'm going to blow up boxy animals? Cruelty to boxy animals?
   
3. Where were they advertising? Brain Age advertised in Time Magazine. I heard a Brain Age ad on KGO Radio when it was released ages go. Had I been in charge of where advertising dollars go, I certainly would have put some money aside for radio and national newspaper ads.
4. Name of the Game? Blocks are a kid's toy, and the packaging doesn't help.
   
5. Price Point is a possibility; $50 is hardly an "impulse buy" compared to other games.
   

So, a friend of mine messages me that May NPD numbers are out. I do a web search and the top result ends up being May 2007. Oops...Well, compare that to May 2008 and it's easy to be confused.

1. Pokemon Diamond—DS—Nintendo
   
2. Mario Party 8—Wii—Nintendo
   
3. Spider-Man 3—PS2—Activision
   
4. Pokemon Pearl—DS—Nintendo
   
5. Wii Play w/remote—Wii—Nintendo
   
6. Forza Motorsport 2—Xbox 360—Microsoft
   
7. Guitar Hero II w/guitar—Xbox 360—Activision
   
8. Spider-Man 3—Xbox 360—Activision
   
9. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars—Xbox 360—Electronic Arts
   
10. Guitar Hero II w/guitar—PS2—Activision

1. 360 GRAND THEFT AUTO IV TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE (CORP) APR 2008 1 871.3K
2. WII MARIO KART W/ WHEEL NINTENDO OF AMERICA APR 2008 2 787.4K
3. WII FIT W/ BALANCE BOARD NINTENDO OF AMERICA MAY 2008 3 687.7K
4. PS3 GRAND THEFT AUTO IV TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE (CORP) APR 2008 4 442.9K
5. WII PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA FEB 2007 5 294.6K
6. WII SUPER SMASH BROS: BRAWL NINTENDO OF AMERICA MAR 2008 6 171.1K
7. PS2 IRON MAN SEGA OF AMERICA APR 2008 7 130.6K
8. WII GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK W/ WIREACTIVISION (CORP) OCT 2007 8 116.8K
9. NDS POKEMON MYSTERY DUNGEON: EXPLORERS OF DARKNESS NOA APR 2008 9 107K
10. NDS POKEMON MYSTERY DUNGEON: EXPLORERS OF TIME NOA APR 2008 10 102K

Guess which is which....

I looked at Gamasutra's list of their top 20 influential women and I was disappointed. The list was mostly of female executives; while I am happy to see that these women are climbing to high positions such as "executive VP of global marketing" and all, I was hoping for a list of amazing women who worked like crazy in the development trenches creating and innovating awesome games. The women were instrumental in the creation of original IP and exciting experiences. Here it is, in order of me coming up with their names.

1. Reiko Kodama. She was one of the co-creators of the Phantasy Star series of role playing games for the Sega Master System and producer for Skies of Arcadia. It seems like she does everything from design games, create pixel art to managing the production of a game. Considering how much I loved Phantasy Star as a kid, I consider her to be an idol of sorts. I dream to meet her some day.
   
2. Mieko Ishikawa. A composer and now producer at Nihon Falcom. She was one of the original composers for Ys, an action RPG franchise known for having some of the greatest music ever in a video game. Mieko continues to take part in shaping Falcom's products. Falcom is a special company for sure, making a good deal of money on live concerts of their music(I'm pretty sure arrangements of Mieko's original pieces still persist) and arrangements of their music that weren't in their games.
   
3. Minae Matsukawa. Producer of the Phoenix Wright series. She's worked office jobs, a security guard job and just wanted to get into games. She did so with great success and I admire her for it.
   
4. Rika Suzuki did game design for Hotel Dusk: Room 215, Trace Memory and the first 3 Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior games.
   
5. Kim Swift. Right from graduate to Game of the Year winning pro is a leap many envy. She was one of the members of a group of students that made a project that became Portal, one of the greatest gaming phenomenon of recent times. Props to her and the other members of the student team that Valve snapped up in a jiffy.
   
6. Amy Hennig. Directed Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver. I enjoyed this game on the Sega Dreamcast, and thought is was pretty darn groovy that a woman directed it. Props to her!
7. Rhianna Pratchett. Writer and story designer for Overlord, that amusing game of causing mayhem through a combo of action and real time strategy. Thank you for making lines worth reading.

That's it for now, if I think of any more, I will add them to the list.

Read this earlier and it's hardly a new issue. I remember wondering how the creator of Snood got away with ripping off Puzzle Bobble for years. At first, the "creator" didn't charge for Snood, but now customers must pay for Snood licenses and much money has been made off Snood spin offs and merchandise. The ancillary stuff wouldn't have sold if it wasn't for the popularity of the "original" Snood.

If you really want some gaming de ja vu, check out Columns. Horizontal, vertical and diagonal 3-matching has been with us since 1989 according to Wikipedia! At first, I thought Puyo Puyo was one of the first games to deliver 3-match, but it's actually based on 4-match. Minor semantic difference, but overall, it's the same match-to-win aspect.

Just thought I'd dig up a bit more history...

Microsoft has an advantage that other sites such as Amazon, etc. don't. Ownership verification.
You can prevent people who haven't even downloaded the demo from writing reviews or ranking a game. At least this would be possible if Microsoft fixed their DRM for Live games.

Microsoft could prevent a LOT of fraudulent reviews or hype panderers simply by restricting reviews to accounts that have downloaded the demo version of the game. And label reviews as being written by demo downloaders versus full game purchasers.

If reviews become far too numerous, there's always ranking the reviews for usefulness.

Another industry blogger struck gold on the internet. Child Psychologists that write intelligently on children and video games. I studied that subject in school and I never got a straight answer to the following question:

1-Do video games really make un-aggressive children aggressive. OR
2-Are kids with a lot more innate anger inside attracted to video games in the first place and the games just draw that out?

Monkey See, Monkey Do. That's how children tend to operate. As they are (hopefully) taught, they begin to realize what behaviors are healthy to emulate and which behaviors will lead to doom. I'm a game developer, not an individual that will parent your children for you via proxy.

I've been following this issue on Kotaku.com which has been doing a marvelous job posting updates.
A brief summary of the debacle:
A Fox News story on Mass Effect was full of statements ranging from misleading at best to down right lies about the romantic subplot in the game. The "reporter" for Fox slammed the game's "nudity" and the psychologist brought on was spouting nonsense on how sexist Mass Effect is when it's clear that all she has seen is a brief video of the "sex scene." Geoff Keighley of Spike TV makes a solid attempt at delivering the actual facts but he is drowned out by the incessant yelling of the other 2 women. Neither the anchor nor the psychologist played the game. The anchor "watched trailers" to learn about the game, but

EA, which now owns Mass Effect's developer, BioWare, has released a letter pointing out each and every inaccuracy in the Fox News story. EA even signs off on its letter to Fox News "This isn't a legal threat; it's an appeal to your sense of fairness. We're asking FNC to correct the record on Mass Effect."

They're asking for an apology, not demanding it. So far, Fox News has purportedly offered EA an opportunity to get on the air and set the record straight themselves. I find it very disconcerting that Fox News won't take responsibility for errors they made by setting the record straight themselves. Now you may think I'm some "gamer" ranting about game related drivel that has no impact on the rest of the world, but I beg to differ.

Fox News' treatment of this story makes me strongly question how they deal with more serious and complex issues such as rising tensions with Iran, tribal chaos in Kenya or global economics. Or even the upcoming Presidential race here in the US.

Not that I've ever watched Fox News with the intent of being informed.

After viewing Japanese and English language trailers of Trusty Bell/Eternal Sonata, I really hope the American release of this game will let us choose between Japanese and English languages.