Category: rant

From a marketing point of view, I can see why a given videogame’s official website is as useless as it is. (Case in point? Far Cry 2.) They’ve (“they” being the publisher’s marketing/PR department) commissioned a promotional site from a design agency and all they give them is a bunch of art files and placeholder quality copy. They say that it needs to be a digital brochure and that they need an opt-in exclusive section, probably just because they need to match any opt-in quotas related to their annual bonuses. Some of the art files will be reserved for that. The agency picks a Flash template, replaces and repositions some elements and drops everything in. I don’t know, maybe they actually go to more trouble than that, but that’s what it tends to look like.

Alright, all the facts that people may be looking for are going to be in Wikipedia anyway. Any and all screenshots are going to be available from countless videogame portal sites. If you have a technical problem, there’s always the official forums, and if you’re stuck, there’s always GameFAQs. It’s not like we’re helpless customers or fans here.

Far Cry 2 has actually had some thought behind it – the “Far Cry 2 Experience” section is relatively novel and cool and they’ve bothered to update the news post-launch. But what’s the point of the rest of the site? There is a tiny selection of art assets – which can’t be downloaded. There’s a couple of wallpapers prepared for download, but only in so many resolutions. There’s less information about the game’s features than what you’d find in the first section of any preview of the game. Basically, the site is not satisfying any of my needs.

So why would I go to an official website? To get the developer’s and/or publisher’s side of the story. Instead they use this one digital channel which they actually control to tell an abridged version of the same story they’re telling through other media. Give me something on the people behind the game! Give me cool anecdotes! Give me carefuly prepared art assets and let me use them! Let me be a fan! I’m not sure where it’s coming from, but I sort of expect these sites to be like DVD extras on a movie. You know I’m a fan since I came to your site, why don’t you treat me like one?

I’m looking forward to reading this post when the first game with my name on it is out there. There’s bound to be some blushing involved.

Many outspoken figures in the videogame business have been vocal about their need to get rid of second-hand sales. Many have gone as far as likening gamers buying second-hand games to pirates.

Eurogamer has a pretty good overview of the situation, with a bent on seeing things from the consumer’s point of view.

Let me tell you a story. I used to be a poor student, like most of us. Despite this, I was a heavy gamer – all thanks to the second-hand market. I could afford maybe one (1) brand new game per year, but I bought dozens of games, fueling my passion for the videogame market. When I begun to make some money for work, I spent more and more on new videogames. In the end, my passion took me to working in the field, making games.

Very likely none of this would have happened without the second-hand market. Yes, I could buy some discounted titles and borrow stuff from friends, but we wouldn’t be talking about anywhere near the same magnitude. Then of course there’s piracy. A lot of internet-savvy young people wouldn’t cry about their inability to buy games if they could just turn to Piratebay.

The naysayers do not see that the second-hand market is keeping a lot (a lot!) of financially challenged consumers interested in gaming, very likely buying some brand new games on the side, and eventually making enough money to support their hobby, which they’ve grown attached to.

And it’s not just about being limited in spending. I could afford more brand new games than I’m buying these days. The fact is that despite working in the field, I do not see very many games being worth the entry fee. Games are too expensive – they should be impulse buys! Second-hand games are.

Now, couple the high price with the fact that most gamers never (anywhere near) complete their games and you have a situation where people are paying too much for something they feel leaves them unsatisfied. At the same time, the developers and publishers are spending ever-increasing amounts into making ever bigger games, which a tiny fraction of their buying public ever sees through. Why are we wasting all this effort? Why are we asking the consumers to support this practice, even though it gives them zero value?

I have a feeling the industry is far too interested in a fraction of the actual game playing and buying public, making no moves towards accommodating the actual masses and their wallets. They have no right crying about consumers not giving them money if they’re just not offering something the consumers actually want. The problem with only sure-fire hits with massive marketing being a reliable source of profit is all down to this. Consumers can’t take any risks because they’ve been priced out of their hobby.

Heavenly Sword is getting criticized for its short length. Many reviewers are being considerate, but the public isn’t quite so understanding, as seen in this Ars Technica comments section. The game’s length has been said to be in the 5-6 hour range, which does sound short. When younger, game length mattered to me, too. These days, I’m mostly interested in whether I can experience the game fully, which usually means completing it.

Let’s take Far Cry for instance. I’ve played it a lot, yet it doesn’t feel like it’s ending anytime soon. The game hasn’t really been giving me new stuff to go through, it’s been more of the same. I like the game and I would like to complete it, but I can’t be bothered to be going through the same things over and over again. Had the game ended by now, I think I would be more satisfied with it. I would get closure. All of the uncompleted games on my shelves (maybe some 90% of them) are dead weight – they feel like something I want to put a lid on, yet I can’t, because I haven’t completed them.

And the goddamn designers keep making the games appear longer by making the endings more difficult. This is just wrong. I loved Dead Rising, all the way up to the final fight, which is just stupidly hard compared to everything that’s gone down before. Now it keeps sitting there, uncompleted.

So when games are criticized for being (say) 10 hours long or shorter, I immediately take note. “This is a game I can complete”, “this is something I can do”, “this won’t leave me frustrated”.

Heavenly Sword’s been class A entertainment up to where I’m currently at. I’ve been playing it for three nights, I think, and I’m about three quarters in. Supposing that it would end with my next gaming session, that would be a good thing. It’s repetitive to the degree that I wouldn’t want it to stretch further, yet right now, I’m in a good place. The story moves on, I care about what’s happening. Now, if the experience leaves me wanting more, I can just go back to it, as it lets me play each scene independently, giving my performance a rank. This is just the way I want my games.

Lengthy games are all fine when the content actually warrants it, but this is very rare indeed. Most long games simply dilute the experience to the point that it destroys itself. Who in their right mind would prefer that? Add to this the fact that playtime is so limited when you’ve got a job, a family, friends and other media to consume. A “five-hour” game will probably last me a week or two, because I rarely have the time to sit down with it.

Another thing I need to bring up is the recommendation of renting Heavenly Sword due to its length. I don’t know about that. The game is beautiful enough to keep around in order to wow your gamer friends with the power of the PS3 and I feel that it has considerable replay value. But even if this wasn’t so, I would definitely buy the title, for the same reason I buy movies: I need to have the quality titles in my library in order to keep the experience intact. They’re not dealt with once the credits roll. The same with books and comics… I never could understand people who sold their books and movies once they’d consumed them.

Eurogamer’s preview of Bioshock hits it home: the extremely promising spiritual successor to System Shock 2 is really on its way and just a couple of months away from release. And yes, it is still sounding good.

What got my attention was the bit on beginning the game. You’re going to make a choice of difficulty – easy, medium or hard. How can I make a judgement on how difficult an experience I want when I haven’t played the thing yet? Is this game’s “medium” way too much for me? Will have to think about restarting the game because it presents no challenge? What about when my playing skills advance throughout the game, will it become too easy? I never want to breeze through a game, yet I will not spend an evening trying to get through a single scene… so what’s it going to be? “Medium”? What’s that, like not entirely for wimps, but not for real gamers, either?

Every game should have an adjustable difficulty, coupled with an adaptive one. Enemies get better as you do, and if you feel that you need to finetune the level of challenge, you can. There haven’t been too many games this smart, though. I know I greet every chance to tweak difficulty mid-game with joy (for instance: thank you, Oblivion).

I’m going to give a grand total of two videogames a clean pass on this, regardless of fixed difficulty: Doom and Halo. Halo has a perfect difficulty curve (for my average FPS skills, that is) and each level of difficulty is just what they promise. Like the original Doom before it, Halo has made the difficulty level part of the game’s overall lure. You want to clear them on higher difficulty levels and once you finally tackle Nightmare or Legendary mode, you know you’re the shit.

Microsoft is releasing a SHMUP to Xbox Live Arcade, titled Aegis Wing. It does sound good, although no screens or video to look at yet. It is free, too!

Gripe one: my bloody Xbox 360 is still in Germany being fitted with a new DVD drive or lined up for exchange. The free distribution is for limited time only, which is of course good marketing.

Gripe two: Aegis Wing is only available in the United States. What’s up with this region nonsense? It just doesn’t make any goddamn sense to region lock online material. It’s counter-intuitive. It pisses off a lot of your market. Figure it out and solve it please. I want to like your service, I’m still paying for it, but here you go again, pissing me off.