Chris Smith
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Posts by Chris Smith
Bridging Xbox-PS3 Divide
0I’m an equal opportunity gamer. I’ll even cop to occasionally playing something on a mobile platform, although it’s the choice of last resort (after standing on one leg over an open pit full of alligators while seeing how long I can hold my breath before I pass out). I own at least one of each type of current-gen console, although with TV time at a premium, I am often relegated to the PC, which to be honest, I prefer. But when it comes down to console-time, I have a choice (sorry Wii): Xbox or PS3?
I admit to favoring the Xbox, although my egalitarian spirit has always been at odds with this honesty. When faced with buying a game that’s available on both the Xbox and the PS3, how do I make my choice? Tricky, that one. My main Xbox is hooked to the larger TV in the family room, but only via component cables because it’s an older model without HDMI. My PS3 is on the same TV, but with HDMI hookup. The PS3 looks better there. However, I have two Xbox, and with profile sharing and cloud saving, I can start playing on one system and continue on the other, which is hooked up (via HDMI) to the living room TV.
So I blame you people.
The ts;du (too short; didn’t understand) version goes like this: I don’t play online, usually ever (for various reasons which don’t all amount to antisocialism), but I add people to my friends list on both the Xbox and the PS3 for the same reason I add them on Twiiter, G+, Raptr, etc: I like that presence of other people, even if we’re all doing other things. Seeing a lot of people online validates that it’s a vibrant platform that people are invested in, even if I’m personally 50-50 on either Xbox or PS3.
I tend to see more people on the networks (Twitter, G+, Raptr) talking about or on the Xbox then I do on the PS3. I usually see more people online when I log into XBL then I ever do when I log into PSN. I now have maybe about the same amount of people on each platform, and PSN is a veritable ghost town of “last login X days/weeks/months ago” compared to the “last online X hours ago” on the Xbox. That tells me that the PS3 owners on my list either have a hard time getting TV time, are off doing other things, or that the PS3 is lower in their hierarchy of platforms than whatever else they may be gaming on when they’re not using their PS3.
I came to this realization after communing with other Vita owners. I’ve seen a few more people online via the Vita then I ever have on PSN PS3, and there’s been far more discussion of PlayStation games. It’s elevated the visibility of PS games, and has made me more interested in the PS ecosystem as a whole, even to the point where I want to go home and use the PS3. I’d like to see more ongoing presence of people on PSN, and think that cross platform play like that supposedly offered by WipEout 2048 will help, but I’m sure if there were more people online with PSN in any capacity, it would feel more worthwhile to spend time there.
You’re Not As Free As A Bird, Now
2This is a wildly incoherent rant. I’m recovering from some kind of flu, and I’m lucky if I can spell my own name right now.
Sometimes I think people are trying too hard to court controversy where really there shouldn’t be any.
I GET that a lot of developers are looking at iOS. But are they looking at it for “the right reasons”? I figure that a lot of developers are developing for iOS because it has a massive user base, so I suppose “the right reasons” in any business are spelled with dollar signs where an “S” might appear, but when we phase it like that, it sounds an awful lot like what we take companies like Zynga to task for: profit over everything. We can’t fault the lower barrier to entry for indie developers, either, and for them, I think it’s a good place to get started.
But what creative person likes treading water? A lot of the talk from interviews with game developers seems to showcase a certain level of hubris (or PR which becomes the mask of the company, for better or worse) that needs to be in ample supply in what is certainly a cutthroat industry, where the people you work with today will certainly be the people you compete against in the market tomorrow, and where the high cost of development means less innovation and more impersonation. But where’s that unchecked bravado when the next product is merely a re-skin of the previous? How many iterations can a studio produce while expecting people to buy this “we’re on cutting edge of innovation” B.S.? If a developer makes a name for themselves on a mobile device, then I think that’s great. It’s a true success story the likes of which everyone loves to hear.
At some point, every bird needs to leave the nest…and to grow. It makes sense to me that in order to improve, one would need to expand, to take on new challenges, and to learn new things (and make new mistakes). For others, it’s apparently OK to get fat on name recognition by churning out the same low-level palp because it’s more important to sell where the people are then it is to stretch one’s personal and professional boundaries. I wonder how many of the rank and file developers in those companies are outwardly excited because they have a job, but who cringe on the inside because as creative people, they’re being tied down by the bottom line?
I don’t work in the games industry, but I do work in a tech industry. We had a meeting just this morning about how we’re going to be moving forward as a company. It’s going to be painful, involving some decisions to scrap old technology and begin anew. I’m sure this is not any different then what you’d see in other mature industries who realize that sitting on your ass and spinning your wheels benefits neither you nor your customers…it only benefits your competition, who is moving ahead into the space where you could be. I think I’d shoot myself if I had to churn out the same cookie-cutter product year after year, when what I really want to do is try something different, risky, more forward-thinking, farther-reaching, and then to reap the benefits of kicking the competition in the nuts.
When I see companies who are making a good product on iOS stay on iOS, I weep. I really do. If they’ve pushed the bounds of the platform, yet fail to move beyond the limitations of an all-purpose technology, is the money worth it? Sure, the smug answer is that yes, it is. That’s got to be what the CEO of Zynga tells his employees. I’m sure it’s what Mark Zuckerberg tells his employees. Creativity is for people who want to live on Ramen for the rest of their lives. We’re in this to make money, and building your skillset takes a back seat towards building someone else’s nest egg.
This isn’t so much a pro-Vita post as it is a “let’s stop comparing dedicated gaming platforms to the iPad” post. Nothing Apple produces as a “tablet” or an “iPhone” will ever be able to touch what a dedicated gaming device can do. The day that it does, it ceases to be on the “non-gamer” side of the line, and has to give up on it’s claim to that heritage. It can’t be both a general consumer device and a gaming system. Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony know this, which is why they aren’t making Wii, Xbox, or PS tablets. They’re still focused on the very specific use devices and in doing so are making devices which handle things that a tablet never will. There’s a problem with trying to be all things to all people, because it leads to a dilution of any one purpose. Simply because so many people are high on Apple doesn’t mean that it’s appropriate for their pet iOS device to be compared to anything that’s new in the tech world, any more than it’s OK to compare a Swiss Army Knife to a real screwdriver, can opener, or a pair of scissors.
Invading Your Personal Space With #PSVita near
0Mobility is the thing in gaming these days, it seems. Mostly we hear about it when talking about gaming on smartphones, but there’s still a market for dedicated gaming handheld systems. After a price drop at the end of last year, the 3DS is apparently seeing some excellent movement, and Sony has just released their next gen device, the PlayStation Vita.
Having a gaming system in your hand isn’t the point, really; it’s being able to take it with you to your in-laws house (so you can do something while they play Canasta for the next three hours). But even that isn’t enough in the modern age of near-ubiquitous wifi and the expanding availability of companion cellular data plans. Not only can you play online with other people in more places then ever before, but now you can find people with similar interests in close proximity to you while you’re on the road.
near is Vita’s proximity social networking app that comes pre-installed on the Vita. It works with wifi, but to get really accurate positioning, the 3G model with the activated service is best. near serves many purposes: it’s a friends leaderboard. It’s a mobile neighborhood leaderboard. It’s also a way to exchange game specific items with people you encounter in your travels.
The idea of near seems to me to be a no-brainer: if you’re out, why not see the presence of other people who are around you with the same handheld system? Multiplayer games are only good if you can find people to play with, and with consoles and PCs, we’re limited to whomever we can find online. Some of those people are half way around the world, or in different time zones. near brings you into contact with people who might be one street over, whom you never would have met in this capacity otherwise.
When you fire up near, you are given a list of games that you own and have played, and they’re listed by overall activity. When you click on the name of the game, you’re shown a radar of your surrounding area, along with the PSN avatars of anyone in proximity who has played that game. When you click on the person’s avatar, you’re given some info on their gaming history.
If you want to see how the game is ranking overall, click on the game’s icon in the popularity list to see the Player’s Voice chart. This view is intended to present some demographic information on how the game is faring around you. You can choose three avatars to describe your feelings about the game (sadly, they’re all positive), and it’ll munge your particular choices in with other people’s choices to create the pie chart you see here. When I took the screenshot, I was the only person in my vicinity that had been playing Mod Nation Racers, so it’s 33% all around. You can choose to view just your friend’s opinions, or the opinions of the people you have played with in that game. Finally, you can visit the website, or launch the app directly from the page
You may have heard about the Vita’s ability to send “gifts” to other players. We did, but we’ll be damned if we know how to actually do it. It’s happened accidentally, when Pete from Dragonchasers sent me a moon colony building for MNR, and I sent him a block. I guess you can send items directly to people on your friends list, or people who are in close proximity, and supposedly you can leave them “lying on the ground” for people to happen upon, if I was reading the literature correctly. Some games like Uncharted: Golden Abyss allow you to choose what to send, it seems, so hopefully I’ll figure it out in time for PAX East, where I’m hoping this near feature will be really useful.
As with any kind of personal information sharing, we need to talk about the privacy angle. Sony has had some trouble with hacking in the past, so I’m sure there might be people out there who are instantly wary about other Vita players knowing where they are. First, near is optional; you can turn it off and be invisible. Second, it doesn’t tell people exactly where you are. It’s not a homing beacon that you can use to zero in on someone’s house. It’s a general location service. Since I’d suspect that more people will buy the lower fidelity wifi only version over the higher-fidelity 3G version, you’ll be lucky if the system is accurate enough to locate you in the correct location on your own system.
I check in with near frequently, strictly from a voyeuristic point of view. I really don’t know of anyone around me who is a gamer, so it’s nice to see that there’s a decent amount of people nearby who have purchased a Vita. Actually, at the time of writing this, the only Vita that are out there are for those who sprung for the First Edition Bundles. The actual launch for everyone else isn’t until the middle of this week. Hopefully I’ll see more people popping up on my radar at that point.
Enter La Vita
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My PlayStation Vita First Edition Bundle arrived yesterday. It was actually ahead of schedule by a few hours. I was concerned that Amazon would flub the release day delivery, but nope…there’s apparently a warehouse only 20 minutes from me, and my delivery made it on to an early UPS truck (they don’t normally reach my house until late afternoon) so I was able to get my hands on it during my lunch break.
Overall, I am pleased with the device so far, with some key caveats that are going to make it sound like I’m anything but pleased. But really, I am!
Hardware
Sweet manatee of Galilee. Some people may be all up in the Vita’s face about it not being a smartphone or some dumb apples to oranges shit like that, but I challenge anyone to show me a smartphone that has a display like this. My HD TV doesn’t look this good, and the Vita thing isn’t even HD. It’s a tad bit bigger than my first gen PSP, and the first thing I noticed (aside from the screen) was how natural it felt while holding it. I get hand-cramps after playing the 3DS for more then 30 minutes, but the design of this device – the placement of the buttons, the weight, and the bulk – is just great.
There’s a few hatches on the device. The top has two: one labeled “Vita” for the games, and one accessory slot for gawd knows what. The bottom has a space for the Sony MicroSD. If you have the 3G model, the SIM card has a slot on the side. The proprietary power jack and headphone port are also on the bottom of the device.
The controls are as one would expect from a PS device, except that there’s two analog sticks, making this 100% as effective as your traditional Sixaxis controller, but a bit smaller (it’s a handheld, so the sticks can’t stick up as far, and the face buttons are smaller than usual).
The front screen is beautiful. The device came out of the box with the brightness cranked all the way up, and I was almost blinded by how great it looked. The touch screen is naturally responsive. The rear touch screen takes some getting used to. I think the idea for this rear touch panel is that you’ll naturally know where your finger is, as if you were poking your finger through cloth, but I’ve discovered that this isn’t always the case.
Best of all, the Vita has two cameras, a front and a rear. So far, I haven’t really played with these, since some of the really exciting, non-gaming software isn’t yet available here in the U.S.
The FEB comes with a sturdy (but hella bulky) case, free game, and a 4GB memory card, which is good for saving games but not much else. All Vita come with a three part charging system: a DC plug, a power brick, and a USB proprietary cable. These connect up to allow you to power the device, but you can disconnect the USB portion to connect the Vita to your PC. There’s some PC companion software you can download to back up your device, so the USB cable is welcome. It’s a crappy charger when plugged into the PC, though: while it supposedly will charge, it’ll take exponentially longer than plugging it into the wall.
Software
The OS on this is intuitive. Tap the bubbles. Swipe the screen up and down for pages of bubbles. Active apps have their own pages which you can access by swiping left and right. To close those app pages, you “peel” the page off with a swipe of the finger. That’s cute, actually. The pages are nice because they provide a “dashboard” for the app. Most of them contain options like accessing the manual, online features, links to the store, and other self-contained features. Mod Nation Racers: Road Trip even had a patch availability notification on it’s page, which I appreciated.
One of my ongoing gripes with Sony, though, is that they rely too much on “are you sure?” interstitial prompts. Going from a cold boot to playing a game takes far longer than it should. To get into any app, you click the bubble and are brought to the app’s dashboard page. You then have to click the icon in the center of that page to get going. Then the loading. Then in many cases, more clicking. Messaging and the Friends List in particular earned my ire because each step required a “Loading” screen. Sadly, 99% of the people on my friends list are never online, or are never playing with other people, so the friends features are basically worthless to me…so I guess that gripe is kind of moot.
My biggest annoyance is reserved for the Marketplace. I hate the Market on the PS3. It’s anemic and lame, and hurts my head when I browse it because it’s so lacking in the essential design concepts that might push me towards buying something. I was browsing through the PSP games on the Vita market, thinking I’d get an RPG from their wide selection there, but there’s no screens, no videos, no user ratings aside from a vague star system. So I am forced to look up information on the computer (or endure the loading times and use the on-device web browser). That’s really unacceptable. It’s also poor salesmanship. I think this is really a banner issue on how Sony doesn’t quite get engagement through UI. I’m not a great designer (or often a good designer), but I know what makes me jump up and down, and what makes me sit passively with a scowl on my face.
Games – So Far
As part of the FEB, I got a free copy of Little Deviants in the box. It’s OK. It’s a launch title, which means it’s specially commissioned by Sony to be more of a tech demo for their hardware’s new features then it is an enjoyable game. It uses all of the tricks of the device: the camera, both touch screens, and the accelerometer, across several discreet mini-games. This was the start of my ongoing annoyance. One of the games used the rear camera for an AR shooting game. I found the best way to play was to sit in my computer chair and to spin around 360 degrees to play it. Immersive! But also dizzying. The rear touch panel is used extensively in this title, and this is where I realized that my intuition regarding the position of my finger is way the hell off. My least favorite mini-game required me to move my Deviant using the accelerometer. I didn’t feel that it was all that responsive.
I downloaded the demo (yes! An actual demo!) of Uncharted: The Golden Abyss. I thought this would be a no brainer, since I love the Uncharted series, but there were a few things that bugged me. Mobile games, with their smaller screens, tend to cause my brain to go haywire when there’s a lot of detail, and that’s compounded when the contrast is really low. Picking out a small detail in the world (a pickup, a hand-hold) on a mobile screen frustrates me to no end. U:TGA made me bang my head against the wall in this regard. But it got worse, because I then had to pick up a sniper rifle and defend an NPC against an onslaught of some Featured Evil Nationality. Sniping here involves zooming in using the left shoulder button, and then using the accelerometer to move the crosshairs over your target ant, which is moving at high speeds. I was ready to spike the device into the ground over the frustration I was experiencing in trying to get that goddamn crosshairs where I wanted it. I’m not sure that I can disable this flailing feature and just use the sticks, but if not…I’ll be giving this a pass, which really disappoints me (Note: I’ll probably buy it anyway, because that’s how I am).
The other game I bought was Mod Nation Racers: Road Trip. As you may have read, I was looking forward to this, despite the limited multiplayer options, and it does not disappoint. Mostly. Racing – the point of the game – is fast and furious and exciting. The rest of the game is a train-wreck: the customization and the abysmal speed of loading and option transitions. I tried to make my own racer mod, but switching between the options required several frustrated taps to the desired tab which means either their hit boxes are way too small, or the system is just damn slow. When I tried to re-arrange the driver’s features by dragging them around (as I was supposed to be able to do), it moved too damn fast to control accurately. Feast or famine.
Overall, I’m kind of not feeling Sony’s catalog, current or announced, which is the same issue I have with the PS3. I’m not partisan when it comes to platform: I have an Xbox, and a PS3, a 3DS, PSP, and now Vita, but I tend to “oooh” over Xbox titles, and “meh” over PS3 titles for no discernable reason. That actually bugs me, because I feel like I’m not giving Sony merchandise a fair shake. I guess I’m still waiting for Sony to show me something that totally blows my mind. I’d like to see more demos from the market, since they don’t give us screens or videos or anything #angryface.
Overall
The Vita is a great piece of hardware. It’s powerful and sleek and attractive all around. The software is typical Sony: trying to create a new paradigm, but just missing the mark of creating something that naturally clicks. Some of the decisions they’ve made in how the software works, with the screen to screen to screen navigation, interspersed with “WTF?” loading times leads me to believe that 75% of the built in apps aren’t going to be worthwhile 95% of the time (and why I can’t I remove Welcome Park?!) What I’m really waiting for are the third party apps – not games. Skype, Twitter, Facebook, and others that will allow me to take advantage of the cameras and the beautifully large screen are currently absent, which I can only attribute to the perils of being an early early adopter.
Some of the features that wait in the wings for me I look forward to trying. The Cross Play – being able to play a game like wipEout 2048 on the Vita against someone on the PS3, for example – is really where the goddamn industry MUST go. I also really want the Vita to be a controller-with-screen for the PS3. It has Bluetooth built in, so it MUST happen. Otherwise, that’s opportunity left on the table for Sony to catapult ahead of Xbox and WiiU, and to make the Vita far more attractive to those on the fence.
I’m still holding my breath for some games that I feel that I must have, and it pains me to say that I think that the touch-and-tilt mechanics are gimmicks that I should be able to turn the hell off. These features are not the reason I bought the device. I have three tablets and four smartphones in the house, all with touchy and swipey interactivity, so the novelty has worn off. It’s up to developers to make it worthwhile for me to care at this point and not to shove their use down my throat.
But what do I like? I like the hardware, obviously. I like the potential for pairing this with the PS3. I like the mobile features, and I’m contemplating activating the 3G for some of the Near features (especially for PAX East this year) like gifting and such. Smartphones are great, but no matter how many sweaty pundits write about it, smartphones are not “gaming machines” just because you can play games on them. The 3DS is great, but it’s the inverse of the smartphone: a gaming device that often feels like it’s had secondary functions crammed into it (like Netflix, for example). The Vita feels balanced. It feels like a powerful game machine with a lot of potential to be a mobile HQ for applications, a true all-in-one platform that really doesn’t favor one use over another. I hope Sony realizes this and runs with it, because I only have so many pockets, and would like to have the Vita claim one of them.
Hey! Listen! The PAX East 2012 Tweetup!
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It’s almost here! In less than two months, PAX East will be taking place at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, snarling traffic and hopefully breaking last year’s attendance record of 69,500 like-minded souls.
Continuing the tradition (is it a tradition if it’s only happened once?), we’re bringing back the PAX East Tweetup! Actually, the “we” is “anyone” and the “bringing back” is “bringing the idea to people’s attention”.
Those who attended last year’s tweetup may remember that we had a hell of a time finding a location. Our original intended location was overtaken by a private party, and so we were relegated to the hotel lobby bar. But! It was available, and despite some evil glances from the staff, we managed to lash enough tables together to accommodate everyone who showed up. Fun was had by all, I’d say.
After the environment surrounding the convention center was recon’d last year, it was painfully obvious that the lobby was actually the best option available. Despite being a convention center, there was a noticeable lack of decent venues in the area, and those that weren’t taken over for private parties were so packed with general PAXers that it would have been difficult – if not impossible – to get everyone together. Or hear one another.
So here’s the thing: This year, we can play it by ear. We can start out in the lobby of the Weston Boston Waterfront – the hotel attached to the convention center – at 8PM on Saturday. Depending on the vibe (or if our little secret has gotten out, and the hotel bar is crowded), we can elect to migrate like a heard of thirsty water-buffalo to one of the external locations in search of a better venue.
Note: This year’s event is kind of squirrely due to the fact that PAX East is taking place on Easter Weekend. Although Saturday is the first choice, some people may elect to leave early to make it home for Sunday. If that’s the case and if people want to move the event to Friday evening, that’s totally an option.
PAX East 2011 Tweetup
Theme Parks
0First, both thanks and apologies to Scott for both inspiring this post, and for my blatant pickpocketing of his analogy. It was a good one, which brought to mind the way we bandy about phrases and memes without really dissecting them to understand them, or to realize how or even if they really equate. After Scott’s comment in the above-linked thread, I thought about the term “themepark”, and how it’s applied to MMOs, which lead me to quote to myself the words of a wise Spaniard who once said, “I do not think it means what you think it means.”
MMOdom is commonly divided by the players into two types: themeparks, and sandboxes. On the surface, these all-encompassing terms are meant to convey the experience that one can expect to have based on the design considerations of the game. Neither label is technically accurate, and after reading Scott’s sidebar comment, it got me thinking about how a real themepark and an MMO themepark mesh.
Fun For The Whole Family
If you travel to Disney, or Six Flags, or whatever regional “mom and pop” amusement park you have near you, you go in with some expectations, such as the following:
- There’ll be a lot of walking, and since they’re outdoor affairs, it’ll probably be really hot (since most parks are open only during the summer, or in single-season climates).
- You’ll be hitting the gift shop at some point to buy souvenirs.
- You’ll need to locate the bathrooms as soon as you enter a new section.
- You’ll pay through the nose if you opt to dine in the park, and the food will be one step above whatever they feed cattle.
- Most importantly, though, you’re there for the rides, and you’re going to be standing in a lot of lines for a long time.
Themeparks offer a lot of things, but their main draw is the rides. Rides in an amusement park are heavily engineered and encapsulated experiences which are mathematically constructed to provide the riders with specific emotions at specific places during the ride. These emotions are usually of the type or the level that we don’t normally experience in day-to-day life: terror, exhilaration, and wonder. Although unbridled terror, exhilaration, or wonder may seem like a good and desirable thing on an animalistic level, the thing to keep in mind is that they’re all controlled here through the design of the ride itself. Assuming you don’t have a heart condition, no ride should be expected to produce fatalities, or to put you in such a state of rapture that you’ll ride the attraction over and over until you die. They give us just the right amount of emotional kick to make them stand out amongst our normal emotional triggers, which is why we seek them out as an occasional diversion from the otherwise baseline emotional state of everyday life.
But we only want these experiences now and then, because like Ben Franklin noted, all things in moderation. Amusement parks are entertainment products, and it might be assumed that constant, repetitive exposure to anything will erode the intended effect with each subsequent exposure. Watching a movie for the first time, for example, can be intense. The second time we know what’s coming, so we’re a little less invested and a little more critical. The third time and we’re actively noticing the flaws in the writing, the situations, and the effects. The same might be said for our experience at an amusement park if we were to attend the same park day in, day out. We’d tire of it, and the rides wouldn’t be as exciting as they were the first time, or if we only experienced them once in a blue moon.
Are Themepark MMOs Actually Themepark MMOs?
The “themepark” designation is applied to an MMO where the majority of the content is highly scripted to the point where the player cannot affect his or her gameplay in a personal manner.
The meat and potatoes of the themepark MMO is the quest, which is the ultimate scripted experience – the “ride” of the park. Quests are designed for a purpose, and the player is strapped into the cart and is taken along the arc of the quest until that purpose is fulfilled. During the arc, the player cannot impose his or her will on the quest to affect a different outcome, nor can he or she tackle the quest from a different angle. Like a themepark ride, the player is more or less “along for the ride”, and shouldn’t expect to have any control over the progression of the quest.
“But Chris,” you think. “I do have control, with my choice of what to attack and where to stand that isn’t the fire, and so on.” To a degree, yes, but to a greater degree, no. We’re now talking about responses to the design of the ride. It’s no coincidence that “standing in the fire” is a no-no, which is exactly the way the designers of the ride intended it to be. We pat ourselves on the back when we realize this, and chastise those who don’t, but it’s not a huge secret, and it’s the expected and engineered response to the design of the quest-ride. If we want to get the most from the quest-ride, and in many cases complete it, we must exhibit the exact responses that the design was intended to elicit.
MMOs as Themeparks
In my opinion, calling an MMO a “themepark” isn’t damning. Themeparks are places that people like to go. We plan our vacations around them, and when we give ourselves over to them, they’re a hell of a lot of fun.
What people really mean when they use themepark as a derogatory reference is really different based on the person saying it, but some examples might be as follows:
Same Rides, Different Parks
Every themepark has a rollercoaster, but no two rollercoasters are the same. In fact, rollercoasters are the arms race of the themepark world, with each new addition striving to be the tallest, the fastest, or the craziest. In the higher end parks, rollercoasters are pimped out by being inside and festooned with all manner of special effects that take the excitement of a normal rollercoaster and amp it up to 11. But at the end of the day, they’re all just rollercoasters with a different coat of paint. They rise slowly, and fall quickly, and take sharp corners and maybe they loop you upside down. They don’t shoot you into space, or underwater, or through actual lava. They just follow a track and move really fast.
When a developer trumpets a feature as new, exciting, evolutionary or – gawd help us – revolutionary, we’re skeptical because we’ve seen many, many themepark MMOs promise something new and different, but which turn out to deliver what is just another rollercoaster. Maybe it’s got a nice new tweak to the old formula, but after repeated rides, we see it for what it really is. It doesn’t mean we don’t like it any less, but we also don’t think that the PR hype was doing it – or us – any favors.
I Hate Rollercoasters; You Hate Merry-Go-Rounds
Every themepark has standard rides like the rollercoaster or the merry-go-round, but chances are if you’re a rollercoaster junkie, the merry-go-round isn’t going to light your fire. If you dislike rollercoasters, then no amount of corkscrew turns or special effects is going to get you on board. If you’re a picky rider, then there’s a good chance that almost any park you attend is going to have a certain percentage of real-estate that is going to just turn you off.
The problem here is two-fold. First, you may look longingly at an aspect of the themepark that you really don’t care for, and you may think that the space would be better used by implementing a feature that you do care for. You might even resent the fact that the unwanted feature is present at all. Second, you know that no matter which themepark you attend, there will always be an example of this feature that you don’t like.
MMOs have an ongoing battle between PvEers and PvPers, with each side complaining about the concessions and sacrifices each side has to make to support the other. In the end, this balancing act fails to satisfy anyone, and everyone ends up believing that the product is only “half useful” to them.
It’s Not About The Experience; It’s About The Gift Shop
Who hasn’t exited an intense ride only to be met with the cold shower that is being dumped directly into the crass consumerism of a ride-themed gift shop? It’s a given that you have to buy a souvenir when you’re at the park (I collect shot glasses, for example), but the constant funneling of riders through the merchandise at damn near every ride kind of takes away from the endorphin high you’re nursing after that intense trip, right? The parks designers must think that you’ll be too hyped up on adrenaline to think straight, and that the $50 snow-globe the size of a baskeball will be a totally appropriate purchase so long as they can catch you before the buzz wears off. The ride has become the anesthetic to what is an otherwise painful process of parting with your money for shoddy crap merchandise.
Much in the same way, themepark MMOs are guilty of putting the merchandise before the experience. Many people use the quest-rides as vending machines that they need to plow through in order to get the loot. They don’t care about any contrived stories that the NPC is relating, or about the arc they’re involved with. They only need to know what to kill, and how many, in order to get their merchandise. It’s like if people only rode the rollercoaster because they knew there was a chance they’d be handed the keys to a new car at the end. Would they care about being on the rollercoaster, or would they painfully endure it while praying for it to be over so they could roar out of the parking lot with their phat lewt?
All Things To All People
Amusement parks are sprawling affairs, with mammoth rides, shops, restaurants, games, and shows. Each park tries to offer an embarrassing amount of activities to keep you there as long as possible. The diversification means you really don’t need to go anywhere else, because there’s always something you could be doing, and you’ll pretty much be guaranteed that you’ll never have enough time to do it all. It’s also pretty much a given that there’ll be something for everyone, no matter whether you like rollercoasters, or prefer the merry-go-round.
The themepark MMOs try to cover all their bases as well by ensuring that no content is off-limits to anyone. All classes have access to the same quests, the same zones, the same rewards (or at least analogues of the kind). If there’s some mechanic that does prevent a player from experiencing the same content as his or her neighbor, he or she can roll and alt and do it all over again! Themepark MMOs are egalitarian, where so long as you meet the height requirements, you can have exactly the same experience as everyone else around you. No one is left feeling like they got the short end of the stick.
Of course, this means that someone gets the short end of the stick, because with both complimentary and competing decisions to be made, MMO design is a constant balancing act where one class will always be considered overpowered and another underpowered. In an effort to be all things to all people, developers perform a never-ending dance of nerfing and buffing, tweaking and repairing, that inevitably leaves a percentage of players feeling that they’ve been screwed over.
Epilogue
Technically, a “themepark MMO” isn’t like a traditional themepark in many ways, but in other ways it is exactly like a traditional themepark.
In the “like” category, we have the discreet and controlled environments which are designed to drive the player in a specific direction, or to have a certain emotional response. They also offer a wide range of optional activities that are neutered just enough to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. They also share an almost embarrassing array of similarities between titles, despite PR exhortations that “their system is improved” over what their competition offers.
But the “unlike” category comes down to what we get out of them. Really, themepark MMOs don’t try to convince you that they’re not themepark MMOs. Six Flags doesn’t market itself as a Chuck E. Cheese’s or a Dunkin Donuts or a GameStop. It’s not embarrassed by what it offers because like any market where a product or service is popular, that market is going to get filled by many competing products that want a piece of that particular action. If we only needed one themepark, we’d have one, not Disney, Sea World, Six Flags, Universal Studios, or any number of the one-off local parks that exist worldwide.
What’s wrong with the themepark MMO is that people expect more from them then they actually offer. It’s not damning the people, because the people are right to want more. We want the next Six Flags park to have a better, more innovative roller coaster that’s going to knock our socks off, but we still expect to have a rollercoaster. We don’t want a clone of the coaster from another park, because if we did, we’d just go to that other park. If we’re promised something exciting, it had better be as exciting as promised, from soup to nuts, and not just a paint-job on the same-old, same-old.
But players do need to realize that the point of a themepark is not to leave with the most amount of emblazoned merchandise as our arms can carry. We could stay home and order shit from Amazon if that were a measure of the fun we had over the summer. We go to the parks for the experience and the emotion. We want to feel absolute terror and to scream at the top of our lungs as we crest the rise right before the hundred-meter free-fall, or when we’re shocked and surprised by the ferocious dinosaur only inches from face when the lights come back on. That takes one giving oneself over the experience, regardless of whether or not it’s “just another rollercoaster” or just a swing through the merry-go-round.
On The Road With PS Vita and ModNation Racers #PSVita
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One of the games I have on the PS3 which has been exerting a kind of low-level gravity on my mind lately has been ModNation Racers. I’m not a racing game fan, but I like the occasional kart game. MNR has the added attraction of having a wicked set of…well…mod tools included. There’s the avatar creator, which allows you to make some extensive designs, the kart editor which can create some pretty outlandish and cool designs, and the track editor, which enables anyone to make their own courses. Naturally, the power of this is that anything you create can be shared with the MNR community for their own use and rating.
The Vita is getting ModNation Racers: Road Trip, a portable version of the console title. At first, I thought this was a great thing! I wouldn’t need to schedule TV time to get to play MNR, since I could play from the living room, the computer chair, the porch, in a tree, underground, behind a rock, etc. Thanks to the design of MNR proper, you’ll have access to the creations from the PS3 version, which means that there’s somewhere around 500,000 tracks to race on! Suck it, NASCAR!
But just in the investigation of the game for this post, I learned a sobering fact: no multiplayer. A kart game that’s single player only. I can’t fathom that. Having no multiplayer in a kart game is almost unintelligible to the point of confusion. Part of the Vita’s selling point is that it’s a connected, multiplayer mobile device. I’ve ordered the 3G version, and although I don’t have plans to activate the 3G features, having a 3G/WiFi enabled device leads me to believe that the designers are hell-bent on ensuring that you never have to be disconnected from the Greater Internet at any time. Considering that MNR is a tent-pole franchise for the PS3, and is a launch title for the “always-connected” Vita, the lack of a multiplayer option is baffling and actually counter to what I think is a real strength of the platform. If this wasn’t a game that screams “multiplayer required”, I wouldn’t care, but…come ON, Sony!
Anyway, I haven’t actually played MNR online, due to the JGGIFWT, plus I won’t know anyone local with a Vita to coordinate a decent multiplayer session anyway, so although it technically doesn’t matter much to me, I’m still disappointed that the option isn’t there. I’ll still pick it up, because you can draw a track with your finger! How cool is that?!
I’d like to embed the videos, but Sony’s site is so bizarrely constructed that I can’t. So here’s the link.
Fan Service
0I like this trailer. I am very much looking forward to Aliens: Colonial Marines because I consider Aliens to be one of my top three most favorite movies of all time. I used to watch the VHS tape of it every single day, for months straight, when I was in high school. It was both a horror story, and a story about a bunch of bad-asses who’s asses weren’t as bad as they thought they were.
The switch from swagger to stagger was itself part of the horror effect of the movie. Here we had specially trained, heavily armed marines who were so sure of their ass-kicking ability that they dismissed their mission as “routine” (“Is this going to be a stand-up fight or another bug hunt?”), but eventually panicked as they were picked off one by one (“Pull your shit together, Hudson, we need you.”). Part of the power of the film is that not only do the good guys lose, but we see them go from an overly confident unit who pays the price for letting down their guard.
A lot of games based on popular IPs serve two masters: fan service, and attempts to carve their own niche in the canonical universe. Naturally, fan service is important. When you have an IP as big as, say Star Trek, Star Wars or the Alien universe, devs want to capture the essence of what makes the IP representatives so popular. For ACM, that’s the second movie in the series, Aliens, which is a natural focal point for a video game, with the guns and the action and claustrophobia and the marines and the aliens. It’s the most action-packed (and the last non-lame entry) of the series, and ACM seeks to invoke the same excitement and terror that made the movie so popular.
But sometimes fan service goes too far, often times into eye-roll territory. It’s now become “hip” and the norm to include “wink wink” content – either as a reference or outright – that lets the fans know that the developers “are fans too!” by adding things that fans will recognize. Names, places, references to situations, styles, memes, and even the occasional sly and not so obvious references (remember the “xenomorph skull” in the background of Predator 2? That kind of thing). It’s gotten to the point where devs don’t even bother to smooth it out, instead just dropping it into the game en toto as is, basically whacking the player over the head with how clever they are in tying their product back to the much-loved IP.
So I cringe at the thought that ACM is going to be about you, and your wisecracking, overly confident marine squad who’s sent out to find the original squad. You’ll be exposed to a lot of bro-fisting moments, a lot of swearing (naturally, because I shouldn’t be allowed to play these games when my daughter is in the room. Thanks for that, devs), a lot of one-liners delivered in an attempt to formulate some memorable quotes (“Hey Vasquez. You ever been mistaken for a man?” “No. Have you?”), and a lot of recycled tropes (“Stop your grinnin’ and drop your linen”).
Normally, it’d be quite refreshing to have this kind of situation if the game were the first entry into the IP, but according to the current description about that game that I have found, it takes place between Aliens and Alien 3 where you and your squad are sent out to locate the missing team who went to LV-426. I assume the impetus is that the expedition hasn’t been heard from (since Ripley, Hicks and Newt basically drifted off in a different direction without notifying anyone at the end of Aliens). What I do not want to see is an Aliens clone, with the same wise-assery, pound-for-pound, the same bravado, the same jokes or mannerisms. I don’t want my team to be a “let’s brush off any threat that may be responsible for chewing up the first team, because we’re so badass, at least until we see how badly we are also getting pwnd!” party. That would be a huge let-down because the writers really wouldn’t have had to do anything aside from taking the Aliens personalities and pasting them onto video game avatars of a second and totally unrelated squad. We’ve already seen and enjoyed it – when it was Aliens – and could now use something fresh that strips away the fraternity atmosphere and builds off of what I’d hope would be an atmosphere of “We lost the first time. Something very, very, very bad must have happened if one of our elite teams suddenly vanished. Stow the attitude”…and ramp up the tension and horror. Because WE know what’s waiting on LV-426, so wisecracking is going to be totally out of place while we move our squad into this interstellar killing field.
Platform Hierarchy
0I started playing Harvest Moon: A Tale Of Two Towns on the 3DS (which was probably brought about by the Wurm Online immersion), and I mentioned this in a conversation on Google Plus this morning. For context, I brought it up to talk about the incessant amount of exposition every day brings at the start of the game. The Japanese aren’t quite solid on the idea of “tutorial”, opting instead to cram slowly-scrolling text, line by agonizing line, into your eye-sockets, accompanied by comically designed cardboard cutout personalities. Normally I think this would be maddening, but Pete asked me if I was OK with it because the game was on a handheld system. The answer is that yes, I think that is the case, because I know I’d never sit through this on the PC. So that got me thinking of other ways that I subconsciously prioritize my gaming platforms between PC, consoles, handheld, and mobile devices.
Top Spot: PC
The PC is my longest-running gaming platform. I started out on the Timex Sinclare, which was the American version of the British ZX Spectrum, I believe. Then the Commodore 64. Then the Amiga. Then to the Intel-based PC, and it was off to the races after that.
I pick the PC as my go-to platform because I can find something to do whether I have 30 minutes or 4 or more hours. There’s also digital downloads. And it’s an all-in-one device: IM, web browsing for info, VoIP, and the game all operate on the same box without breaking a sweat. Plus, my PC is mine.
First Runner Up: Consoles
I have all of the major consoles (2 Xbox, even) because in my eyes, a true “gamer” is platform agnostic. They don’t play favorites; they play anything, anywhere. If there’s a game on console X, they will get the console for that game, partisan bitching be damned. I can’t sit idly by and not have experienced Halo, Uncharted, or the latest Super Mario game.
Consoles are difficult for me, though. Unlike the PC (which is always on), consoles require a “process” to get started: Turn on the TV, switch the input, power on the console (wait for the logos, and the dashboard to fire up), log in (waiting…), insert disk, sit down on the couch…and not move for several hours. Although the whole process takes a matter of minutes, it is a process, and in my mind, I need to be able to devote at least two hours of time to whatever I’m doing on the console. Add to that the fact that TV time is at a premium in my house, with a wife and daughter, that when it comes time to monopolize one of them, I have to hold on to it for dear life.
Second Runner Up: Handheld
Handhelds are still squarely in the domain of Japanese imports and translations, at least in my mind, and that’s OK. Their content runs the gamut from action-y to puzzle-y to RPG-y to strategy-y, making it a pretty close second to the PC when it comes to variety. But everything is still locked into cartridges, at least until we get the Vita, and Nintendo broadens it’s digital download opportunities for the 3DS.
Handhelds are good for anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour of gaming at a time. For me, they don’t generally have longevity of session. What they do have it portability, naturally. If I don’t feel like sitting in the computer chair (like I do all day) or can’t get the TV scheduled for consoles, I can sit in the living room with the 3DS and play. I played Harvest Moon last night, in bed, before falling asleep. They are also starting to really play up the mobility aspect, with 3DS’s Streetpass, and the Vita’s mechanism of the same ilk (who’s name escapes me now), making it worthwhile to bring your device with you everywhere so it can sniff the butts of other people’s devices. You’re welcome.
Dead Last: Mobile
I can’t really even consider mobile gaming to be on this list, but for completion’s sake, I’ll add it here.
To be fair, some mobile gaming is OK. Word games are tolerable, but the idea that mobile will kill handhelds just because developers and publishers are filling a low-barrier-to-entry vacuum of this relatively new market is laughable. It’s nothing but a land-rush, and a bubble of the kind we’ve seen in other markets, so don’t be surprised when we see a similar outcome.
Mobile gaming is for plebeians because everyone has a cellphone, and more and more people are trading up the inexpensive smartphones. It makes sense that devs and pubs are waking up with dollar signs in their eyes as they look out across this pristine plain filled with nothing but fat, simple-minded cattle ready for a good, hearty milking.
But that grossly unfair metaphor aside, mobile gaming is disposable. For me, it’s good for maybe less then 30 minutes, tops, and that would only be and option if I forgot to bring my handheld system with me (thanks to the inclusion of perks for taking the handheld with you everywhere, though, that’s a rare occurrence). I have yet to meet a mobile game that not only makes me want to download it, but to spend time with it when I have three vastly more preferential and diverse platforms available to me.
Self Loathing For The Uninitiated
0I’m not a psychologist. I’d like to be, because if there’s anything I enjoy more than playing these games, it’s the psychology behind making them, or the psychology of the people who play them. It really doesn’t fit into the overall motif of video gaming per se, but as a blog which focuses mostly on the multiplayer genre, taking an interest in the ebbs and flows of the underlying community does present itself as a never-ending source of material, both good and bad.
One trend that’s not uncommon is this idea of self loathing, or seeing a come to Jesus moment on Twiiter, or hearing someone had an epiphany, that once they’ve come to that sudden realization that they have wasted a good portion of his or her life playing video games – or generally, a single game in particular – he or she feels compelled to tell everyone that he or she is clean and sober, and have taken it upon themselves to save everyone else from the grip of [Insert Game Title Here].
Holy shit, this annoys me.
I don’t have any quotes on hand, but let’s paraphrase, because I’m sure you’ve seen the same ones I have, or ones very much like these:
“Just canceled my [Game Name Here] account. Best. Decision. Ever.”
“I can’t believe I wasted X years of my life playing [Game Name Here].”
“I spent so much time playing [Game Name Here] that I forgot what the sun looked like.”
…and other variations on the theme. Some people even go so far as to feel that they are so born again that they sink all their money (presumably saved now that they don’t have a monthly fee to send to [Insert Company Here]) into an actual film about how piss-poor their lives were while they were in the grip of such an unholy vice.
Before we go any further, I want to put the breaks on the sarcasm and admit that addiction is a Real Thing. Some addictions are easier to understand than others (like cocaine compared to serial reality TV viewing), but any interest or compulsion need not be chemically introduced in order to trigger an addiction. Addiction in any form can ruin lives, and kudos of the highest order to those who realize that they are addicted, and who manage to break the cycle and reset their lives.
Most of the quotes I’ve seen, and the ones I want to take to task, where people are making statements as if they just left their last support group session are from people who are not addicted. These people are being sarcastic and even insulting. I used the term “born again” above because it’s extremely apt: the generally accepted thrust of the term “born again” is that a person is overzealous about their new-found “religion” (whether it’s actual religion or not) to the point where they overcompensate in the opposite direction. What they loved is now hated with equal passion. If they were a cheerleader for it, they now revile it with no minced words.
To be honest, I don’t know who these people are trying to convince: the people around them, or themselves. I’d prefer it if people make their decisions without fanfare. If you are happy that you’re no longer spending 40 hours a week raiding, then write a book, knit a sweater, volunteer at a soup kitchen, or rescue kittens, but please, spare us your self-congratulatory victory lap. Our memories aren’t so short that we have forgotten how you vehemently defended [Game Name Here] against all comers just last week/month/year. We’ve all quit games, so your accomplishment is not as Herculean to us as it is to your S.O. who’s been nagging you to spend some offline time with them, or to your GPA which has been languishing in the low decimals because it was so important that “SexehKiteh” and “Be4stMastah26” not be let down when they pinged you to take that role in the raid Monday through Sunday.
Although I’m not a psychologist, I get that people like validation, and these people will certainly get some attaboys from the peanut gallery, from others who have gone through the traumatic experience of clicking that “Cancel Account” button themselves. But we can’t delude ourselves into thinking that we didn’t enjoy it. We like playing these games, because we belly up to the bar again and again for the same potential for punishment that we’re so proud of kicking this time around. Leaving the game isn’t the real moment of pride; realizing that maybe we let things get out of hand should be the real take home message, but that would require that we admit to people that we are weak, and that we decided it was easier to shirk our real life responsibilities in favor of a virtual world and the approval of people we only know by alias. No one, especially those seeped in geek culture, ever want to appear weak, so the game becomes the demon that we’ve overcome, not our own wills.
So if you want to really get respect for breaking free, admit that you fucked up. Say “I have a problem; I see it; And now I intend to fix it”. You may not get the snarky high-fives, but it’s amazing how sometimes articulating the problem can be a more powerful force towards solving it than pushing the blame onto an inanimate object in a public forum for some short-lived slaps on the back.
