SuperVoodoo

I follow Bram Cohen’s blog (the dude who invented the bittorrent protocol) and he writes some really good, smart things on there. Today is the first time I’ve had a good reason to post one here so naturally I’m going to do it. His post was on the failure of freemium as a model for games in that it destroys the design by focusing on creating compelling shortcuts instead of challenging gameplay.

I agree with him, and have faced some similar problems with, most recently, League of Legends. LoL is a smart evolution of the game it’s based on (DotA), but it feels nothing but like a scam to me since it launched. You can buy boosters, characters, and skins with real money or by grinding hard enough. The problem is that the good characters cost $10 a piece or a whole lot of grinding, and it makes me question the balance of the game.

Another issue is the boosters, they basically create an inequality in the playerbase between those who pay and those who don’t. Only when all players have unlocked everything is the game truly balanced, which if you do the math would take a HUGE amount of time without paying a significant amount. Again were sacrificing balanced gameplay for compelling shortcuts.

I don’t know what the right way to make the model work is, but I have a few ideas:

1. Make all paid content purely aesthetic in nature, avoiding all possible balance issues.
2. Make the game cooperative so people at least don’t perceive that they are on uneven ground.
3. Make paid convenience-based content/services that don’t affect balance like extra character slots, robust stat tracking, no queue, plugins, etc.

It’s a relatively new model so the industry is still figuring it out. It is vital though that we make it known that there is a right way to do this and that we will not play games with gameplay issues due to freemium money-grabs.

On hearing the news that the 360 exclusive GTA4 episodes are now coming to PS3 I started to wonder whether Microsoft’s $50 million was worth it. I think financially it comes down to how big of a split they got since the packs did sell fairly well. Outside of that possibility though it looks like it didn’t do much for the base game’s sales.

If you look at recent examples of exclusive content it looks like doing something cheaper, more novel, and more immediate might be the way to go. GTA4 sold at about a 5:3 ratio on 360 vs PS3, which seems to be about the normal split. This leads me to think that the exclusive content didn’t do much to skew the figures. Compare that to Batman where the PS3 had some exclusive Joker challenge levels. The PS3 sold 45% compared to 55% on the 360, making for a much tighter split.

Most exclusive content is only a timed exclusive anyways these days, so I don’t know that it makes a whole lot if sense for the big guys to be doing this. As far as devs go this is a great financial boon, it’s basically sponsored content. If you can get away with a lower cost, cool exclusive that launches day and date I think go ahead, but I don’t think that multi-million dollar dlc packs make a whole lot of sense. Somehow I don’t think we’ve seen the last of them though…

On a whim I purchased Global Agenda because it sounded like something I might like. It goes like this: 3rd person shooter + mmo = win? After playing it the last couple of nights I think it has just a ton of potential.

The first thing that struck me is that the game has a ton of upgrades and modifiers for your character. Each of the three classes also has 3 distinct skill trees so it seems like there will be a large variety of play styles that can be effective. I spec’d as a turret building engineer for example but there were plenty of droid and balance spec guys running around wrecking shit too.

One thing I noticed is that the game takes the best elements of other big games such as TF2, WoW, with a little splash of tribes thrown in for good measure. Another aspect that was interesting was that I even though I died a lot I never seemed to go down in one hit. Hopefully this will serve to make the game less of a twitchy shooter and emphasize tactics more. It’s been a while since I played a game with durable characters, it feels pretty good here.

Global Agenda’s killer feature though seems to be the PvE, which I didn’t even know it had before playing. Turns out it’s a ton of fun to take down bosses with a team. I had a complete blast playing my role and laying down turrets, walls, and healing stations while shooting the hell out of some robots. One thing that also has me horribly curious is a mode called “double agent” where you do PvE with a 6 man team in which 2 of the players are secretly working for the enemy. I didn’t get a chance to try it but that sounds nuts.

I’m also a fan of the pricing model, with the base game you can play all of the competitive and cooperative stuff free forever, and then there is an optional subscription that enables you to play in a persistent, large scale territory battle mode. Reminds me a bit of PlantSide from the sounds of it. I’m just glad that I get the meat of the game for free with my purchase and can opt in for more, this should be the model for more MMOs.

This is all pretty early though since I’ve only played a couple times, but so far I’m all in for the full release next week.

As development costs continue to rise and developers need to maximize revenue in order to survive it’s no surprise that dlc an preorder bonuses are so prevalent. The theory goes that if someone buys the game used or late they will be missing out on some very cool shit. Logically these goodies should entice more gamers to preorder or buy new. I generally agree with the theory and how it’s done, but there is still a lot of money being left on the table and a lot of gamers left feeling incomplete.

Some games are smartly offering preorder bonuses with an early-access mentality, which is mostly the right thing to do. Alternately some have opted to make the goodies available for sale so that everyone can get the complete product for a little extra cash. I think that either of these is appropriate, and should happen more often frankly. Selling the goodies is far superior, but timed access is acceptable since all players will eventually have the whole game.

As a developer it’s pretty heinous and short-sighted to tempt players with things that they have either overpay for or jump into blindly. It is afterall a dangerous landscape out there with all this shovelware and fanboy exploitation going on.

I think the worst is beta access preordering, and I’ll admit that I’ve done this more than once (and not really regretted it thankfully). Putting myself in the developers shoes I just can’t fathom why you wouldn’t want as many people as possible playing your game, making it better, and whetting their appetites. It’s basically free marketing and playtesting, why you would limit that is beyond me. One possible exception would be that the devs/publishers don’t care or have confidence in their product… but they would never do that…

The balance of power has to shift and the producers need to exert their power over the retailers a little more. Economically it works out and you don’t even have to piss off your loyal fans!

I had heard a lot of things about DS going in, particularly regarding its harsh difficulty and rough edges. After spending most of my weekend with it I have to say that there is something special going on here. Make no mistake; this game is broken and bad in almost every conventional way, but it does a few basic things in refreshing ways that kept me coming back for more.

Structurally the game revolves around a whole bunch of boss fights with fairly short levels in between. I mean short only in actual length to travel, given that you’ll be extremely cautious and die a lot these short segments end up taking hours. You can also tackle most bosses in any order leaving a lot of the sequence up to the player. I ended up changing my route a few times in an attempt to find a boss that I could tackle.

The truly interesting thing about the game is that uses really simple mechanics but makes you apply them in very rigorous ways or face the consequences. DS uses it’s difficulty as a tool to train you to play smart, you literally cannot play this game passively. As far as RPGs go this is so refreshing and has me hoping to see a fully polished version of the ideas this game brings in the near future.

There hasn’t been a lot of activity on the site lately and the reason is that I’ve been playing an absolute shit-ton of games to get all caught up for 2009. Only now, nearly a month into 2010, do I feel like I have the right top 10 list. Without much further ado here is my top 10 for the year:

10. Shadow Complex

Shadow Complex is one of those games that brings back a whole lot of memories and reminds me that classic gameplay is still viable. A 2D game with solid, classic mechanics is something truly rare and left an impact on me this year, hopeful for more games to follow suit.

9. Batman Arkham Asylum

Batman is another example of a power up/exploration driven game in the vein of Metroid or Castlevania that delivered this year. The combat was interesting but felt slightly off, the story was top notch, and the stealth felt really good. Batman was one of those games I almost passed over this year and I’m glad that I didn’t.

8. New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Few games do local multiplayer really well, and I feel like this year none did it better than NSMB. Mechanically this game had a lot of stuff that I really hope other developers consider putting into their games. (My whole time playing through LittleBigPlanet I kept wishing for a few of them) That alone probably isn’t enough to make this list, but the fact that the game is a balls-out difficult Mario game with plenty of secrets makes it stand out.

7. Borderlands

Though Borderlands has pretty broken stuff about it (online specifically) it still managed to impress me enough to make it this year. The way that it mixes genre’s along with some very addictive gameplay will keep me coming back time and time again, be it alone or with friends. Borderlands has a completely unique feel to it that leaves me extremely hopeful for what comes next.

6. Red Faction: Guerilla

As far as open-world games went this year I feel like Red Faction was the most interesting. Multiplayer, both local and online, is what really took me off guard about this game though and is why it ranks where it does. The local multiplayer is an absolute blast to play, and the online is solid and makes for a lot of cool situations.

5. Dawn Of War 2

RTS games got a big push this year from DOW 2, it basically changed the way I think about the genre. I’m not sure that I’ve ever played an RTS in single-player mode and enjoyed it as much as I did DOW 2. I think the big moment for me was the first boss fight where it was crazy, hectic, and made me use the full potential of all of my units just to stay afloat. Online the game is also a lot of fun, I can’t really speak to the balance of the game since I don’t play nearly often enough, but as a casual player the competitive matches were always really intense and fun. I also am a huge fan of the add-on survival mode that they made.

4. Street Fighter IV

If only I could count how many hours SF4 has taken from me this year I think that this alone makes it have a mandatory spot on this list. I love the mechanics of this game, the focus attack is my favorite counter system ever in a fighting game. Before playing the game I would have called you crazy if you had told me that I would actually end up liking it more than SF2, which did take a while but now I just can’t imagine going back with 4 available. Even though Super Street Fighter IV is a bit iterative I am extremely excited to get my hands on it later this year.

3. Modern Warfare 2

Modern Warfare 2 was one of the best experiences I had this year. Through the course of the campaign there were a whole lot of “wow” moments and it was just a complete roller coaster the entire way through. Spec-ops may be the most creative coop mode I’ve seen all year and it certainly provides a ton of challenge for even the most advanced player. Of course MW2’s real strength is in the online multiplayer and I think they may have perfected their own recipe this time around.

2. Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age impressed me right off the bat and hasn’t let up yet. My understanding is that at 8.5 hours in I haven’t even scratched the surface of what this game is but I’ve already been blown away. I love the mechanics, the story, and the interesting situations in this game. A couple of years ago Mass Effect really shifted my thinking about RPGs and I’m glad that BioWare proved that you can still do a traditional RPG and make it extremely playable and fun. Ask me a year from now and I might tell you that this should have been the game of the year, but for now it just barely takes the #2 spot.

1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

I played through the first Uncharted and walked away with mixed feelings, I liked the story, I mostly liked the mechanics, but I hated the balancing and the ending sequences. Fast forward to this year and the sequel basically fixes all of my issues, the shooting feels spot on, the story is even better, the balancing is improved (though still not perfect), and they surprise me with my favorite multiplayer experience of the year. I can’t rave enough about the online component of this game, both the coop and the competitive. I don’t think I had as much fun this year with any other game, so Uncharted 2 wins in my mind. (As a side note all games should have the grenade throwing mechanics from UC2, it’s the best ever done)

So there you have it, there were a ton of good games to choose from this year and though nothing jumped out at me like Braid did last year I definitely had a blast and am really impressed with the general quality of games that came out in 2009. Now I’m on to play Demon’s Souls (which won GOTY from GameSpot?) and see how much torture I can handle…

There’s a conflict that I find between the serious narrative and the moment to moment action-driven experience in some newer games. Three examples that come to mind are Gears of War 2, Modern Warfare 2, and Grand Theft Auto 4. Fundamentally these games are action games, games that take you on a roller coaster ride that attempts to keep you engaged and having fun for 5-30 hours through their main story mode. All of them have a very dark undertone to them that fails to reach it’s full potential, but also falls short of failure, it ends up being a bit mediocre. Shocking things happen, and I’ve had actual physical reactions to games (specifically COD: World at War), and emotional reactions of varying degrees to all of them.

Having read both of the Gears books it’s apparent to me just how dark, desperate, and gritty this world is, but the game fails to convey that sense terribly well because it chooses to focus more on cheesy one-liners and keeping you always on the front lines, disconnected from the reality of living in that world. I continue to hope that they will chose to go a darker direction with the narrative and let the true desperation of the situation sink in. The frat-boy stuff also needs to just stop, or at least be written in a way that it becomes how the characters are coping with the situation versus how they just are at all times.

In MW2 the main problem is that they love to kill and switch your character around quite often, this prevents you from ever really getting invested in what is going on. Instead the backdrop of a near-future world is what they use to make the events feel more real and frightening. It works to some degree, casting aside the absurdity of some of the plot, and makes me feel something and that I’m doing the right thing throughout the course of the game. I wish that there were a degree of choice in the matter though and that some of the characters got more development, it would only serve to help get me even further invested and allow for actions to take on meaning. Currently the games are trying some really novel things, but are way too linear and switch context far too often for them to really work out. The key example of this is the controversial airport scene that has you rolling with some terrorist and mowing down civilians, it’s shocking and brutal and executed in a very purposeful manner, but it fails to make a real lasting impact because you have no choice in the matter. It also feels a bit sudden and like a one time thing so there’s no attachment or investment against which to really hammer home the horror.

Grand Theft Auto 4 made me change my behavior by getting me invested in the character. Where it kind of fell apart though is that the system allowed you to behave in a way that was inconsistent without any repercussions and build an extremely inconsistent narrative. Next time around I hope that they tighten up that game’s content (it was a bit much/stretched) and allow for more choice and consequence. Rockstar is on to something powerful here and just need to adjust the surrounding systems to be consistent with that vision.

I think that we’re getting closer to games actually hitting meaningful emotional themes, and games like Heavy Rain seem to hold some promise in this regard (though how much of a game it is seems to be debatable). Someday soon I think that we will see a game that walks this line very well and becomes something that we can truly hold up as an example that games can have meaning.

It’s been silent here for a few weeks but this post was too good to pass up.  Check out this article on Kotaku about FF13 and how linear the first few hours are, looks like a straight line to me.  Not that every game needs to have a whole lot of branches but this just seems a bit much.  I guess it’s what diehard RPG players are there for though, walk forward, hit x a bunch, watch cutscene about emo main character.  I’m not saying it’s a bad game (I can’t possibly know that can I?) but it does seem a bit uninspired from a design stand point much like most of the previous iterations.  I think they appealed to me in my younger years when the gameplay compared more favorably to the rest of what was out there, but now it just doesn’t pack the same punch.  Either way I’ll be playing it in March so it’s nice to know that I won’t be faced with too many decisions of where to go at least…

Something that comes up every once in a while is how budgets for big-name games are growing like crazy. Most recently I caught this article on how Gran Turismo 5 cost an estimated $60 million to make. How much money is too much for this stuff? I feel like some of this has to be pure excess, like all the test driving and massive research budget, and I have to wonder how much that stuff matters to the final game?

I can appreciate the need for realism but I feel like there is a point at which you’re just getting too accurate for it to be noticed by anyone but the folks making the game. Extrapolating this out I think that it holds that for all of these giant games there has to be a point of no return as far as investment goes. I look at voice acting, graphical fidelity, and extra modes in this way a lot. It impacts us as gamers quite a bit even though it may not be readily apparent. Games get released slower, they cost more, there’s less DLC, and development gets focused in the wrong areas.

Games are just getting bigger and that means that companies are going to bloat their games with all sorts of junk that none of us will ever actually notice or care about. I’d rather have a game come out that runs efficiently with a neat art style (one that helps offset the lower fidelity ideally) and that has modes that are fun and cater to the game’s strengths. I would also like them to come out sooner, cheaper, and be iterative in nature by leveraging DLC. My dream and the way the industry is headed couldn’t be more divergent though it seems.

The industry is still built around large tent pole titles instead of a lot of smaller hits, but it seems that this may be changing direction with the success of a few smaller games on multiple platforms, most notably XBLA, PSN, Steam, and the iPhone. Once these developers get a hit I hope that they keep their operations lean, for all our sakes…

A leading indicator for where things are headed as far as the business of selling games is concerned should be the bigger releases around this time of year. Modern Warfare 2 is no exception, and managed to slap me in the face with a few trends that are developing.

I tried to procure a copy of the regular edition for the 360, which is no doubt the lead SKU. A large retailer was completely out but conveniently did have plenty of any other version/edition, which makes me wonder whether it was on purpose to boost profits on the more expensive versions, kind of like an early adopter tax. Conspiracy theories aside, I managed to track down a copy after a couple retailers said I was SOL without a pre-order, which is completely bogus and not at all how retail should work. Seems to me like a game that will likely be claim the #1 or #2 spot on the bestsellers of the year list should be over stocked to hell on release day, but maybe that’s just me.

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