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| Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 | | 9:52 am |
Opinion: Now shut up and keep grinding Demand for subscription massive multiplayer online games (MMOG) will top $2bn (£1.3bn) by 2013, according to a new report. The study, by analysts Screen Digest, said the market had been driven by attempts to emulate World of Warcraft. The findings suggest that the MMOG's market in Europe and North America grew by 22% and was worth $1.4bn (£0.9bn). There are at least 220 active MMOGs, although many of these are exclusive to South East Asia. Speaking to the BBC, Piers Harding-Rolls - senior analyst with Screen Digest - said that despite the recession, subscription MMOG's were still showing significant growth. "Some games are eroding World of Warcraft's (WoW) position - Warhammer Online and Age of Conan being the two most significant - but that's more down to their growth rather than any decline on WoW's part. "WoW's market share was 60% in 2007 and 58% in 2008, but in terms of revenue, it went up year-on-year and is still going big guns. Mr Harding-Rolls said that a combination of new title releases, different payment systems, and games that target specific demographics had helped the rise in popularity of MMOGs. "If you look at the example of RuneScape, this is a game pitched at a teenage audience. You can play it for free or you can pay a premium and get a better service without advertising. "It's an effective way to build a subscription base, rather than the traditional routes that involve PR, hype and having a service that has to be almost perfect from day one," he said. The report examines revenue made from subscription based services, rather than total player numbers, in Europe and North America. Size matters Some games - such as the German title Panfu and Tribal Wars - are in the 10 most popular games when it comes to player numbers, but not in terms of spending. In addition, some games - such as Warhammer Online - were released late in 2008 and so didn't make the list. However, Mr Harding-Rolls thought that Warhammer would be one of the top three when next years list comes out. There has been much speculation on how the video games industry would fare during the recession, with many experts - such as the British veteran game designer, Peter Molyneux - expecting a lot of price pressure on games. Mr Harding-Rolls said that, for now, it was a case of wait and see when it came to MMOGs. "Under the current conditions, it will probably be harder for publishers to pick up new customers and gamers who have multiple accounts on different games may well scale back which game they play. "That said, playing a video game - especially a MMOG - is a low value proposition to a user and once you're a subscriber you're likely to stay a subscriber for at least a few months." | | 9:51 am |
You have no rights in World of Warcraft Opinion: Now shut up and keep grinding
I think we've all spent so much time playing World of Warcraft that we've started to mistake it for an actual country. So when the ruling Blizzard party passes a law banning add-on authors from advertising or soliciting cash donations within the game, we all react as if it is a civil liberties issue.
It's not. WoW is a game, not an economy. Blizzard isn't against wow gold farmers and powerlevelling services and nagware add-ons because it wants to be the only one to make money from WoW. Blizzard is against them because it wants to protect the image of WoW as a fun game, which ultimately is the best way to protect its own revenue. Blogger sites are predicting the imminent implosion of the add-on community, but the reality is that there are really only two commercially run add-ons affected by this new rule.
The first is Carbonite, an add-on that makes questing easier by telling you where to find things. This has two versions, one paid for by subscription and a lite version that nags you in-game to upgrade to the paid version.
The second is Quest Helper. QH is the most popular add-on in the game, with over 20 million downloads. It does much the same thing as Carbonite but it is paid for with donations. There is a nag message in game to prompt you to donate.
Both add-ons sound as if they are doing the same thing in the same way, with the same commercial motive. But QH is a voluntary project that became a full-time job for its author because it was popular enough for discretely solicited donations to pay the bills, whereas Carbonite was run as a money-making exercise from the start and exhibited a lot of the web sleaziness you see from wow gold spammers and powerlevellers. In other words, Carbonite is the bathwater and QH is the baby. It's a shame they both had to be thrown out together, but it's hardly the end of WoW add-ons.
I still believe that the game as a whole is improved by the new rules. Virtually all add-ons are free because they are developed by enthusiasts who just want to make the game better. If people only worked on things that directly resulted in financial reward, none of us would have exalted reputations with any faction. Yes, you should be fairly recompensed for your hard work. But programming WoW add-ons isn't work, it's a hobby.
Or at least, it is now. | | 9:50 am |
GDC: McGonigal: Game Developers Will Shape the Future of our World The IGDA Education special interest group keynote this year was delivered by Jane McGonigal, director of game research and development at the Institute of the Future and notable ARG designer (ilovebees).
Here, she asked the question: “Are you optimistic about the future?” (incidentally you can receive her slides automatically by mailing slides at avantgame.com.)
“I think game developers have some of the most reason to be optimistic out of anyone on the planet,” says McGonigal. She proses that about 1 in 2000 people have a chance of altering their own future.
“That’s based on the concept of having 3 million game designers, developers, hackers, and counting. I have determined that game platforms are the best thing we will have in terms of determining the future.”
The great work of game designers over the next decade, says McGonigal, will be to redefine life as we know it. Games, she says, have the power to change our actual world.
There are 5 key forces that drive us toward a game designer’s future, she says. These are:
1 – sustainable happiness
2 – persuasive technology
3 – the engagement economy
4 – programmable reality
5 – superstructing.
Though her arguments for each can’t be replicated perfectly here, I will address some of her salient points.
McGonigal says that to be happy, humans crave: Satisfying work to do, the experience of being good at something (comparatively), time spent with people we like, and a chance to be a part of something bigger.
“These four things are what games do,” she says. “Positive psychology is coming to the conclusion that multiplayer games are the ultimate sustainer of happiness.”
Scientists agree as well that that dancing with other people creates a perfect happiness, because brains sync up if people dance to the same beat, and this elicits a very strong sense of happiness, akin to the strongest opiates.
“How can people dance together without being humiliated?” she asks. “But then I did more research and I found out that when people get humiliated, they get even happier!” Humiliation is a way of showing people we’re vulnerable – and they like it because they gain power. We are happier when we’re humiliated around people we trust.
Wikinomics says that “we must collaborate or perish.” McGonigal points out that it took 100 million mental hours from a highly diverse knowledge community to create Wikipedia.
It’s hard to get people to collaborate on things like this, but “It’s not hard to get people to contribute cognitive hours to a game, or a game world,” she says.
“It might only take 5 days of World of Warcraft to create Wikipedia,” considering the vast number of players. “There’s no reason why we can’t take real world work and real world problems and seductively conceal it in a game world. Gamers have no problem doing work and doing collaborative things, you just have to figure out how to make them care about it.”
“The idea is that game developers over the next decade and beyond, will be able to remake reality. Make us happier, make us smarter, and make the planet more resilient,” she added.
60% of kids in developing countries are gamers, and 97% of kids in developed countries consider themselves gamers. So it’s just up to developers to forge this future, McGonigal notes. A post-session Q&A echoed some of my skepticism, asking if developers have all this power, why haven’t they already done it?
To this point McGonigal offered: “We’ve been building up an arsenal of strategies for reinventing the human experience, and maybe we’re starting to realize that some of our games are more powerful than we anticipated. We didn’t know our own strength.”
“I think we’ve been a little seduced by our power to engage people. I think maybe only recently have we come around to the idea that we have to use that power to do good. We haven’t done it because we’ve been so good at what we’re already doing that we haven’t felt motivated to do it. But now that the world is sort of falling apart, people may be thinking about doing something.” | | 9:49 am |
PCGA: PC Game Market Worth $11 Billion In 2008 The PC games biz was worth around $11 billion in 2008 including massively multiplayer online games, says a new report from the PC Gaming Alliance and DFC Intelligence.
According to the report, the growth of online digital distribution, the growth of free games with a virtual item purchase model, and the sale of game cards at major retailers like 7-Eleven were the three biggest trends of the year.
That $11 billion figure makes the PC the largest single games platform in the world, says the PCGA, and the lead platform in both developed and emerging markets. The North American and Western European market alone had revenues of $6 billion in 2008. The report says top games regularly generate over $50 million at retail revenue, with MMOs generating over $100 million in annual revenue after 5+ years. World of WarCraft’s annual revenues are put at $1 billion.
In emerging markets like Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, the relative rarity of high-end systems has been a major driving force for online casual games. Major portals such as Pogo and Yahoo! now generate over $100 million in annual revenues.
The PCGA is a non-profit organization consisting of game publishers, developers and hardware manufacturers interested in promoting the PC as a games platform. The new report was compiled by research and consulting firm DFC Intelligence, and can be read in full at the PCGA website | | 9:48 am |
Drug addiction, alcoholism, cyberdependence? ...WoW! Issued by: Sparkplugs Placement Agency
With SEACOM (a full service provider of international fibre bandwidth along the East Coast of Africa to southern Africa, Europe and Asia) just months away from fruition, we can now look forward to the positive impact it will have on companies and individuals both locally and worldwide. Enhanced internet access and inexpensive amounts of bandwidth is bound to boost small and large businesses, not to mention the endless opportunities it will have on our education and healthcare facilities.
This is exciting news for our YouTube fanatics - streaming videos and downloading audio files will now be painless and fast!
Then there is gaming...
Over the years online games such as World of Warcraft have come up in discussions amongst recruiters worldwide (except SA).
Now most of us would see this as just another game right?
Since debuting in North America on November 23, 2004, World of Warcraft (Activision Blizzard) has become the most popular MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) around the world. The game exceeds 11 million players worldwide.
"MMORPG" is the most instantly gripping, involving and demanding entertainment technology ever invented. The addiction rate appears to be about twice that of crack.
Employers (US, Europe and Asia) are specifically instructing recruiters not to send them World of Warcraft players. There is a belief that WoW players are not focused on their work and distracted most of the time...
This was the opposite sentiment a few years ago when Yahoo! employed a Senior Director who was an avid World of Warcraft player and according to Wired magazine:
“The process of becoming an effective World of Warcraft guild master amounts to a total-immersion course in leadership. A guild is a collection of players who come together to share knowledge, resources, and manpower. To run a large one, a guild master must be adept at many skills: attracting, evaluating, and recruiting new members; creating apprenticeship programs; orchestrating group strategy; and adjudicating disputes. Guilds routinely splinter over petty squabbles and other basic failures of management; the master must resolve them without losing valuable members, who can easily quit and join a rival guild. Never mind the virtual surroundings; these conditions provide real-world training a manager can apply directly in the workplace.”
Dr Orzack, a clinical psychologist at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts and founder of the Computer Addiction Service, says: "These games are very elaborately designed to ease you in gently, entice you, and keep you there. And it's a cycle: people begin to spend too much time playing and their careers and personal relationships begin to deteriorate."
At the end of the day, when hiring, most recruiters and companies will never be 100% sure whether they are hiring a drug, alcohol, porn, gambling or game addict. A candidate's personal life is confidential and unless it directly affects his/her performance, no one will or should have the right to discriminate against an individual's personal vices.
This is a risk that is taken every day when making that employment offer; the question is - should we be worried? | | 9:44 am |
FANGO FASHION Profile: TATTOOED STEEL High-grade stainless steel. Aerospace-quality titanium alloy. Ingredients for your next WORLD OF WARCRAFT sword? Nope, these are the building blocks for some of the most badass horror-inspired personal accessories around. Meet our new friends at Tattooed Steel, makers of handcrafted cuffs, belt buckles, rings, and dog tags. Tattooed Steel merges some of the world’s toughest metal mediums with cutting edge outsider art designs to create highly original—and surprisingly affordable—personal accessories. Here’s how it works: Tattooed Steel teams up with a series of signature artists, and literally tattoos their designs onto stainless steel and titanium alloy. The designers they work with offer a range of styles and influences: classic Americana tattoo designs; graffiti inspired art; contemporary graphic design; comic book art; and, of course, the horrific and the gothic. These are artists who are absolutely not afraid to represent ideas of death and darkness in their work, and by combining their fearless artistic vision with non-traditional mediums they create highly unique, and amazing cool, products. Not only is the product unique, so is the way Tattooed Steel does business. A totally ecommerce business, Tattooed Steel actually cares about the artists they work with, providing royalties for their work, plugging their other projects, telling their story, and supporting their vision. Most importantly, they are giving these artists the forum to showcase their work, which so well represents those that live the FANGORIA Lifestyle, but are often rejected by the mainstream. As the company expands and develops, they will be looking for artists from all over the world to submit their designs through the community section of their website, www.tattooedsteel.com, to possibly be featured on their products. So for all you aspiring horror artists out there get sketching. And for the rest of you miscreants, get over the Tattooed Steel site now and pick up some products; you’ll not only be supporting your fellow freaks, you’ll end up looking a lot tougher than you did when you started. | | Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 | | 9:55 am |
Video game developers graduate to kid titles Some who once made gory games to entertain themselves have grown up and broadened their sense of fun with titles their kids can enjoy. ALEX PHAM | LA Times Staff Writer Reporting from San Diego - It's no coincidence that most of the blockbuster video games of the last two decades have been gorefests and war simulations. Their creators were single guys in their teens and 20s whose all-night coding sessions were fueled by Doritos and Mountain Dew.
John Smedley was one of them. In the mid-1990s, he helped make the trailblazing online game EverQuest, a slash-'em-up fantasy world that only a Dungeons & Dragons-obsessed geek could love.
But Smedley has grown up, and so has the industry.
Now 40, he is broadening his definition of fun and putting the finishing touches on a game that he wants his four children to be able to play. Free Realms, expected to go live on the Web in early April, reflects a level of maturity that's starting to change the nature of games now bursting onto the market. The cliche of game developers 20 years ago is that of socially inept young men who sleep under their desks," said Billy Pidgeon, an analyst with IDC who worked as a game producer in the late 1980s and early 1990s. "Many of those have now climbed out from under their desks and started families."
Smedley and the San Diego company he runs, Sony Online Entertainment, are prime examples. Sony Online has gone from creating Cash Money Chaos, a bang-bang game released in 2006 that features guns, girls and wow gold, to Free Realms.
Instead of death, blood and foul language, Free Realms has tutu-wearing goblins, puppies and snow angels. Like EverQuest, the game has adventures, but these quests involve exploration rather than combat.
"I wanted to make a game that would be fun for my kids," Smedley said. "But I also wanted to make it safe enough so parents like my wife wouldn't have to worry about them."
Smedley is in a good position to reinvent the nature of virtual worlds. He pioneered the game genre. As a computer science student at San Diego State, Smedley spent $600 (and hundreds of hours) a month playing an online game called CyberStrike. It was so much money that he had to quit college after 18 months to get a job developing games for Alien Technology Group.
In 1993, he shifted to Sony. Three years later, he proposed the idea for EverQuest, which could be played simultaneously by thousands of players in a lush graphical environment. It was a radical departure from the crudely rendered, text-based online games that existed then. Six years later, EverQuest was released.
Its creators hoped the game would break even within two years by garnering 70,000 players paying $10 a month. They doubled that in six months.
Today, these figures pale in comparison with the 11.5 million people who play World of Warcraft, an online game released in 2004. But in 1999, the EverQuest flood nearly ground San Diego's Internet traffic to a halt.
"John really helped invent this genre," said Geoff Keighley, executive in charge of game content at MTV Networks.
Players loved EverQuest, sometimes a little too much. Some clocked more hours in the game than they did for work, leading people to call the game "EverCrack." There was also a lot of bullying. Smedley hired hundreds of employees to constantly patrol it, resolve conflicts and banish players who got out of hand.
The game is rated "Mature," which means only adults are supposed to play. That doesn't prevent teens from finding their way in, often by getting permission from their parents. Smedley once took a call from an outraged parent who demanded to know why his son was banned.
"I told him his son used bad language," Smedley said. "The parent insisted that his son never cursed. So I pulled up the logs of what his son had typed in the game and e-mailed it to him right then. He read it and said, 'I'll take care of this.' "
The incident taught Smedley to be more aware of what his own kids were doing online.
Instead of a pool table and a pinball machine, the game room of Smedley's San Diego-area house has half a dozen high-end computers, each with a 30-inch monitor.
One Sunday afternoon last year, Catherine, 11, fiendishly typed away at her keyboard, constructing an online story involving a unicorn in a game called Neopets. His two younger girls, Emily, 9, and Rose, 7, clicked through pages filled with cute animals in another online game called Webkinz. And Patrick, 14, toggled between EverQuest and World of Warcraft.
Smedley peered behind Catherine's shoulder, marveling at the story she was creating with her online friends.
"There's a whole subculture of kids her age who do nothing but write stories," Smedley said. "We added a similar feature to Free Realms just because of what Catherine does in this game."
Other developers at Sony have also recruited their own children, bringing them into the company's test lab to get input. Some of the characters in the game are named after those young testers.
Based on feedback from hundreds of kids, Sony's developers have made Free Realms a lot different from EverQuest. The screen is less cluttered. There's greater emphasis on finding and making friends. Quests take minutes, rather than hours, to complete.
Smedley is also motivated by the business opportunity. He watched Club Penguin waddle its way to immense popularity among kids 4 to 14 years, including his own. It was acquired by Walt Disney Co. in 2007 for $700 million. Another game for kids, RuneScape, hosts 15 million active user accounts. At its peak in 2002, EverQuest had just half a million subscribers.
Unlike EverQuest and World of Warcraft, however, Free Realms and these other kids' games cost nothing to play. Publishers make their money from selling virtual items, including pets, homes, clothes and even colored "contact lenses" to change the eye color of avatars. Some analysts estimate that players of these online games have spent about $1 billion so far on such online goods.
During the last two years, 6 million people started playing online games who had rarely or never done so before, said Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
"To succeed in this new market, developers are going beyond just making entertainment for themselves," he said. "They're now getting greater satisfaction, personally and financially, from entertaining a broader audience. That includes their families." | | 9:54 am |
Sustaining Democracy's Lifeblood Kathleen Parker blamed the newspaper industry's decline in part on the MySpace generation, which is too absorbed playing the "The Sims," "World of Warcraft" and Second Life to care about the real world ["Frayed Thread of a Free Society," op-ed, March 15]. So all those high school and college students who campaigned and voted for Barack Obama last summer were just a fluke, huh? I'll admit, I'm probably one of the few kids at my high school who doesn't just read the sports and comics pages. But Time magazine reported Feb. 5 that demand for news content, especially among young people, is higher than ever. They're just getting it free online instead of paying for a printed paper. The problem facing newspapers is that my generation doesn't want to pay for news content. Rather than blaming society's problems on youth (a practice as old as humanity itself), newspapers could learn a thing or two from Apple. People thought illegal downloading would mean the end of the music industry. iTunes proved them wrong. More people would pay for news content online if all it took was a few cents and one button click. EMMA FURTH Bethesda -- Thanks to Kathleen Parker for her scary wake-up call. She asked, "How does the newspaper industry survive in a climate in which the public doesn't know what it doesn't know? Or what it needs ?" This reminded me of the words of the American satirist Artemus Ward when he wrote, "It isn't what people don't know that's so dangerous as what they think they know that 'tain't so." That just 27 percent of Americans born since 1977 read a newspaper the day before -- as reported by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press -- was truly shocking. I don't have the answers, but this situation is worthy of heavy-duty study because a free, independent press is the very lifeblood of a democracy. FRANK RIDGE Reston | | 9:45 am |
The World Needs More Co-op Gamers endure a salvo of unfair stereotypes. We can’t talk to members of the opposite sex without our voices cracking or our pungent body odor sucker punching our would-be significant others right in the nostrils. We can’t talk to anyone — ever — because our truncated vocabulary has been stripped of everything that isn’t level strategies or release dates. But the most inaccurate of these stereotypes is that gamers prefer the sort of solitude best obtained by ignoring the greater portion of the human race. Anyone who follows the games industry in any capacity knows this simply isn’t true. World of WarCraft wouldn’t pack its servers with 11 million players if gamers wanted to eschew socializing. (There may be some argument as to whether most WoW players are classified as casual or hardcore gamers, but as far as I’m concerned, folks who play games is folks who play games.) Obviously, games that champion the competitive spirit require multiple players, such as Call of Duty 4 and 5, but there is an itch next-gen consoles sorely need to scratch: Rather than pick each other a part, a lot of us want a common goal to strive toward. I’m not pretending there aren’t decent co-op titles on the market. Left 4 Dead and Resistance 2 provided some of last year’s most intense, team-oriented firefights. Of course, wanting to play together is by no means a new trend. In the past, there was no gaming infrastructure. No Xbox LIVE, no PlayStation Network to connect us to one another. And yet, people still gamed socially. One of the high points of my week as a kid was heading to the mall to play some Battletoads or the six-person, superpowered extravaganza that was the X-Men arcade game. Granted, the co-op modes of the past seldom focused on story. But given the technology we have available today, that can easily change. Titles like Resident Evil 5 are proving that a compelling narrative needn’t restrict itself to a single-player format. The more gamers who can share in a well developed plot, the better. Game developers, give us a chance to play together. I promise we’ll play nice. | | 9:44 am |
Blizzard's World of Warcraft add-on policy change Blizzard says no to money-grubbing app developers. World of Warcraft is insanely popular, and not only do over 11.5 million players subscribe to it, but there's also a huge amount of mods for the game too. With the modding and add-ons for the game that add functionality, there's also a few mods that take the 'fun' out and replace it with advertising, donation requests and lots of other distracting (and at times annoying) things. Blizzard have just recently decided that they won't stand for that, and that any add-on should be free and actually improve your experience ingame, releasing a list of revised rules for the add-ons. We had a huge look at the game, blog-style, and didn't find the add-ons to be too bad, but rules is rules, and they're now updated. These updates are as follows: 1) Add-ons must be free of charge. 2) Add-on code must be completely visible. 3) Add-ons must not negatively impact World of Warcraft realms or other players. 4) Add-ons may not include advertisements. 5) Add-ons may not solicit donations. 6) Add-ons must not contain offensive or objectionable material. 7) Add-ons must abide by World of Warcraft ToU and EULA. 8) Blizzard Entertainment has the right to disable add-on functionality as it sees fit. It's a good move on their part, and should make it more enjoyable for the WoW players out there - just be ready for a few apps to be removed if they won't comply with the updated rules. | | Monday, March 23rd, 2009 | | 10:04 am |
Top 10 bad predictions from 'gaming analysts' It's not easy being a gaming industry analyst.
You slave each day trying to take the temperature of an industry catering to teenagers and adults who, let's face it, don't exactly run in your circle of friends. You have to use that Ivy League education to figure out what the Average Joes (and increasingly, Average Janes) are planning to do with their money.
And then you have to predict how Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Electronic Arts and Activision will cater to those couch-dwellers.
It's enough to make a guy cry himself to sleep on his imported, hand-woven, 1,000-thread-count Egyptian linen pillow.
Sometimes analysts earn their keep pretty well, offering opinions that aren't too off the money. When the Wii Fit debuted at E3 2007, for example, gaming journalists left Nintendo's keynote address looking like a bunch of dogs who'd just been shown a card trick. I know. I was one of them.
But analysts knew it was a money-making machine, and they were right.
In some really glaring moments, however, these industry "experts" have offered advice and predictions so imbecilic you have to wonder whether they were sober when they made them.
So in my small effort to add some reason and sensibility to your day, if not a little chuckle, I bring you my personal top 10 favorite wrong predications made by "industry experts" about the current generation of consoles.
And trust me, every single one came from a guy who got paid like a sultan to say it. Let each one stand as proof of how you should never, ever trust anything you read on the internet — especially when it's offered by an "industry analyst."
10. The Playstation 3 will win the next-gen battle: When Wedbush Morgan Securities' gaming superanalyst Michael Pachter speaks, people listen. Hopefully no one listened when he offered the following prediction in May 2007: "Ultimately, we see Sony winning the console war with 36 percent of the market, with Nintendo capturing second place at 34 percent and Microsoft finishing third at 30 percent." For you kids keeping score, Nintendo's Wii currently holds 48 percent of the console market, followed by the Xbox 360 (30 percent) and the PS3 (22 percent). Given that consumers bought more than twice the number of Wiis as PS3s in the three-plus years of the current console cycle, Sony will have to make up a heck of a lot of ground for Pachter to be right.
9. The next Microsoft and Nintendo consoles will come to market in 2010: Sure, we're a year off from that prediction being proved either way, but it's a pretty safe bet that we'll be seeing neither a new Xbox nor Wii by the end of next year. The statement was bold enough when Pacific Crest Securities' Evan Wilson said it in February 2008: "We believe that peak industry sales will occur in 2010, given that Microsoft will likely introduce its next console that year and Nintendo will likely launch before then." Since then a lot has changed. While there seems to be little doubt that at least Microsoft is working on the 360's successor (and probably Nintendo on the Wii's), both companies have been hammered by sagging economies in the US and abroad and are not likely to move on from their current consoles out of fear of taking on more debt. Until the proverbial bottom of the downturn becomes evident, you probably won't be seeing anything new out of either company. And if you don't see either announced at this June's E3 expo, this prediction is completely busted.
8. Apple is entering the home-console market: This one was pretty far fetched from the moment Prudential Securities' Jesse Tortola said it in June 2006. "The game console device could be morphed out of some combination of the MacMini and iTV, while the handheld player could be developed as an enhancement for a future version of the widescreen iPod," Tortola told investors. But it was pretty clear even back then that Apple's big secret wasn't going to be a console. Steve Jobs is no fool, and with three major consoles already in heated battle, only a crazy man would have taken the kind of loss necessary to design, develop, build and distribute an entirely new home console from scratch. Half credit, though, because what Apple was indeed working on was the iPhone, which has now become a pretty significant game-playing device. Though it's not exactly competing with the Nintendo DS, mind you.
7. Midway will have a significantly better year in 2008: Michael Pachter really isn't that bad an analyst. He's actually one of the better ones. Which goes to prove how wrong you can be and still be the smartest idiot in the village. In 2007, Midway Games was hammered by massive losses and accumulated a mind-blowing amount of debt. But in May last year Pachter said 2008 would be different for Midway. He thought the company would perform "significantly better," adding that he believed it had hit bottom "quite a while ago." Just a few short months later in December, Sumner Redstone sold his 87 percent stake in the company to a private investor for $100,000, or $0.0012 a share. Two months after, it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. While the company is technically still in business, it likely won't survive to the end of this year, as the new owner is already taking bids for intellectual properties like Mortal Kombat in order to cover $240 million in debt.
6. The sale of Take Two to Electronic Arts is looming: While some predictions were just bad judgment, this whopper was flat out stupid. Mike Hickey of Janco Partners had to have been smoking a large amount of questionable substance when he a told investors he was "convinced [Take-Two] will eventually be acquired at a meaningful premium to their current share price" any moment now. That was in December 2007. And last time we checked, Take Two is still doing business — sans EA. To be fair, EA did offer a very sweet $25.74 a share (the stock is currently trading at just under $9 a share). But full of cash from Grand Theft Auto IV, Take Two was able to spend $11 million to fight off the takeover. After months of threats and (eventually) negotiation, in September EA officially confirmed it had abandoned its bid for Take Two. Maybe this time investors should have listened to Pachter.
5. Sony is considering a Playstation 3 without Blu-Ray: Every other entry on this list has some time behind it. This prediction, proffered on February 25 by Mike Hickey of Janco (and "EA will buy Take Two" fame) is so beyond reason that I won't wait a year to call it bull. Hickey made this forecast in the same breath as he advised Sony would offer a PS3 price drop "in a few days" — an indication of the quality of this Hickey missive. It's hard to wrap your head around how many things are wrong with the Blu-Ray–less PS3 idea. Sony spent billions developing the PS3, and one of their biggest reasons for doing so was to establish Blu-Ray as the format of choice for the next generation of DVD players. To offer a PS3 without a Blu-Ray would be like Baskin Robbins selling empty cones. Oh yes, and one other small detail: Billions of dollars worth of PS3 games on disk would be made unusable by this new, albeit cheaper, PS3. Sorry, but digital distribution just hasn't come far enough for Sony to get rid of disk drives in their consoles. Maybe for the PS4, but you won't be seeing a PS3 without a Blu-Ray. In other news, Michael Phelps called and he wants his stash back.
4. Microsoft wins, the Revolution will sell 3 million units by 2007, the PSP will beat Nintendo DS sales by 5 million, and 43 million PSPs and DSs will sell by 2009: Why say one thing and be wrong, when you can say a whole bunch of things and be really, really wrong? Mike Wallace, UBS' lead game analyst (which theoretically means he's the company's top gaming brain) cooked up a hot batch of fresh stinkers one fine January morning in 2006. He did accurately peg that the Gameboy Advance would remain the dominant portable device through the end of the year, but from there on out, his crystal ball was on the fritz. Running down the list: Microsoft was spanked by the "Revolution" — aka: the Wii — 49 million to 29 million units; the Wii sold nearly 20 million units by the end of 2007; for all but one week in 2007 the DS overwhelmingly outsold the PSP; and the PSP and DS combined sales top 150 million, and it's not even the end of 2009.
3. Ticket sales for Iron Man will be affected by GTA IV's launch: The first weekend after Grand Theft Auto IV launched very little happened but a whole lot of shooting, driving and drinking of vodka with your crazy cousin Roman. But Janco's Mike Hickey went a little overboard and advised owners of Marvel Entertainment stock to brace themselves for the worst: The game could hijack their profits. "We anticipate the video game release of GTA IV on April 29 could dampen the potential from Iron Man’s theatrical release on May 2," he told investors. I sure hope nobody actually listened to Hickey, because that weekend Iron Man sold more than $100 million in North America and another $200 million in international sales, becoming Hollywood's second biggest first-weekend blockbuster for a nonsequel superhero movie.
2. Ken Kutaragi will replace Howard Stringer as head of Sony: As the father of the Playstation, Sony Computer Entertainment's chief executive Ken Kutaragi demanded a certain amount of respect. Wedbush's Michael Pachter apparently was in a lot more awe of him than Sony in December 2006. When Kutaragi was "promoted" out of Sony Entertainment's daily operations, Pachter said the reason was clear: The company was grooming him to replace Sony chairman and CEO Sir Howard Stringer. "Kutaragi is the visionary, and his work on PS3 was done at launch. They need to groom him to replace Stringer," Pachter told GameDaily. "The rest of the guys are competent, experienced, and loyal. I think each of the other moves made sense. In time, I think you will see Kutaragi given responsibility for other functions, like Blu-ray." As for that prediction: Not only has Stringer kept his job, in April he will additionally become president of Sony Corporation. As for Kutaragi, nobody's really heard from him since.
1. People will bore of World of Warcraft: Honestly, this isn't a pick-on-Michael Pachter-fest. It's just that when he's wrong he's very, very wrong. In September 2005, Pachter made his worst prediction to date — one that, had anyone listened to, cost them the opportunity of a lifetime. While speaking about the rise of MMOs, he said: "I don't think there are four million people in the world who really want to play online games every month…. eventually it will come back to the mean, maybe a million subscribers." Even back then, a mere five months after launch, it was clear that World of Warcraft was already a monumental force of gaming, raking in more than $700 million. For Pachter to have been right, more than 75 percent of those already playing the game would have had to quit. Instead, as anyone who'd touched it knew would happen, WoW's subscriber base grew to make developer Blizzard and its investors very rich, indeed, and turned WoW into the Google of MMOs. As of last month, WoW has 11.5 million subscribers paying more than $2 billion annually in fees alone. | | 10:03 am |
Feature: 'Dragonica' Preview Massively multiplayer online (MMO) gaming has grown exponentially in recent years. Titles like World Of Warcraft and Everquest have become more than mere games; to many, they are a way of life. Inspiring levels of dedication and passion like no other form of entertainment can, these virtual communities are ensnaring hundreds of new members worldwide on a daily basis. With MMOs enjoying such phenomenal popularity, what better time to create another virtual world for online gamers to colonise? No doubt the folks at Gala Networks Europe had this in mind when they made the decision to import Korean MMO Dragonica to these shores. Digital Spy caught up with producer Max Stolberg to find out exactly what the game has in store for us. It may not be household name yet, but Dragonica is sure to create a stir upon its release. Combining arcade-style gameplay with traditional MMO action, this side-scrolling 3-D adventure is completely free to play, but that’s not the only thing that makes it unique. "It's certainly not a traditional MMO as the whole approach is completely different," explained Stolberg. "Players will mainly move left-right and up-down even though you can move diagonally as well. The main difference is that all maps limit your movement in the up-down direction while players progress by moving to the right like in a 2-D side-scrolling game." Although it won't be the first game of its kind set against a high fantasy backdrop where gods, demons, wizards and warriors are locked in an epic battle between good and evil, Dragonica offers an alternative to its competitors and is geared towards a very diverse crowd. "We are targeting a really broad audience addressing older and younger players alike, as the game combines a retro style with up-to-date graphics," said Stolberg. "Due to the many fun quests and humorous skills like the fart attack, airstrike or Buddha squash, we believe parents can enjoy Dragonica as much as kids can." As the producer informed us, the game's ethos is very much an inclusive one, with developer Barunson Interactive striving to create an accessible community for players of all ages to enjoy. "They wanted their game to be different from other side-scrolling games, though, and therefore chose a 2-D side-scrolling system with a 3-D turn concept and transformed this whole action-oriented jump and run experience into a proper MMO with all the up-to-date community features," Stolberg elaborated. One of these features is an in-game cash shop, where players can purchase a variety of character customisations, including costumes, novelty items and health. In order to keep the game balanced, the developers have ensured that players with money will rarely triumph because of their financial advantage. Important items like weapons and armour will not be sold in the store. There can only be obtained through completing quests, trading with other players or killing enemies. Players can transfer funds into their account using a similar system to other online stores such as Xbox Live or the Wii Shop. When trailers for the game appeared on YouTube, some fans drew visual comparisons to role-playing games of old, such as The Secret Of Mana and Final Fantasy Tactics, as well as newer titles like Disgaea, but Barunson assured us any similarities are unintentional. Its simplistic approach and economical system requirements are, however, certain to strike a chord within the retro community. "We’ve even tested it with a SNES pad using a SNES-to-USB converter, which worked," the producer assured us. The game has undergone beta testing in three countries so far and enjoyed a positive reception across the board. "The last closed beta test in China saw a huge influx of players every day and the vast majority of comments were either really good or plain euphoric," the producer asserted. "Despite that, Barunson decided to review the game one more time and added a couple of new maps, lots of more quests, and balanced the classes so that playing PvP will be an as good experience as with any pay-to-play MMO." Its first playtest in the Western world took place this month at the Games Fleadh in Tipperary, Ireland. The game was previewed to a group comprising school children, university students, parents, media and teachers. Feedback was highly positive, with players appreciating different aspects of the game depending on their age group. "I looked at the game and thought it was cute, but as soon as I played it for two minutes, I realised that the gameplay is nothing like the other side-scrolling MMOs," said one of the university students. "At last, a game that I can play with my children but that I can beat them at!" a parent added. Since their rise to prominence, MMOs have not been without their critics. World Of Warcraft in particular has been lambasted in the excessive gaming debate due to its high maintenance and time demands. With this in mind, Baruson has taken measures to ensure that Dragonica does not put such a strain on the social life. "There’re a couple of ways you can greatly reduce your levelling time, developing your skills with your characters, or playing as a group to get through sections of the game quicker," said Stolberg. "When we talk about skill, we talk about the action-oriented side of the gameplay; the bigger
the combo you are able to pull off, the more experience you’ll gain. Also, if you’re married in the game, have kids or play as a couple, you’ll also be able to level considerably faster. Dragonica has chosen a more casual approach compared to regular MMOs but it’ll still take some time to reach the highest level or equip your character with the best PvE and PvP armour. Otherwise, where would be the challenge?" Dragonica is very much a long-term project for Gala Networks and Barunson. Major updates are planned "roughly every quarter" to ensure longevity and there has even been talk of console ports. "Developing console versions of Dragonica is definitely an option according to Barunson," Stolberg revealed. "They, however, need to focus on finishing and polishing the game first to launch it in the many territories they’ve licensed the game to. For the time being however and once Dragonica is launched, you can easily just plug in an Xbox controller and it still works absolutely fine." The game is due to arrive in Europe later this spring, with Gala Networks holding lofty expectations. "We believe Dragonica can be a rival to any pay-to-play game and its unique style and approach combined with a lot of modern and even innovative features will only be the start,” said Stolberg. "It has tons of quests, and fun skills await the player and until he or she has seen it all. We’ll have new updates ready with even more content. We think that as the game has controls that are easy to pick up, console gamers will be drawn to it as it offers a style of gameplay that isn’t available to them in other MMOs." | | 10:03 am |
Blizzard Working On New IP? Blizzard appears to be working on a fifth title according to two new job postings. The fifth brand-new unannounced game surfaced last week following previous hints that Blizzard was interested in working on a completely new IP. Currently Blizzard is working on Starcraft II, Diablo III, a new World of Warcraft expansion, a next-gen MMO, and a new unannounced game that may be a new IP. Blizzard hinted at developing a game based on a new IP back in 2006 when Blizzard COO Paul Sams commented: "I wouldn’t be surprised to see a new franchise from us at some time in the future; there’s certainly a desire to do so." Blizzard is recruiting again and have been looking for programmers on programming job site forums where two new positions have been advertised by Blizzard's 'Slouken' who has been working on World of Warcraft, specifically with the UI and interface community. The positions have been advertised stating: "Blizzard Entertainment is seeking an experienced gameplay engineer to focus on game rules systems for an unannounced title. This is your chance to get in on the ground floor of a dynamic and focused team working on a brand new project. Blizzard Entertainment offers a fun, creative, and technically challenging environment with excellent compensation and a full range of benefits." Based on these two new job postings for software engineers, we can assume that a new IP from Blizzard is in the works. | | 10:00 am |
Lego making a play for a share of online games Nirvana for the video-game industry looks a lot like World of Warcraft, except without the arcane rules that mystify the average player. That vision is the driving force behind "Lego Universe," a new online game based on the building bricks franchise scheduled for release in 2010. Developed by a San Mateo, Calif., company called Gazillion Entertainment, the game is designed so even a 5-year-old and his grandfather can play together. Gazillion, which has been operating in stealth since 2005, is also working on an online superhero game based on its license with Marvel Entertainment. The goal is to make virtual-world games that anyone can play. It's a financially hazardous terrain, explored by many companies before Gazillion, including NC Soft, whose "Tabula Rasa" game, designed by Ultima Online creator Richard Garriott, shut down March 1. These types of games are difficult and expensive to build. They're even more arduous to maintain once tens of thousands of players pile in.
The potential payoff is a pot of wow gold. Consider "World of Warcraft," developed by Blizzard Entertainment in Irvine, Calif. It has 11.5 million subscribers, each paying about $15 a month to play. That's $172.5 million a month in fees alone. The disc, which appears regularly on the weekly list of 10 best-selling PC games even though it's 4 years old, brings in another $20 a copy. It's no surprise that the game genre, known as massively multiplayer online games, or MMOs, is a hotbed of development. MMORPG.com lists 253 such games, many of which are in development. With such a crowded field, one way to cut through the noise is a well-known license. Lego and Marvel fit that bill, said Ted Pollak, senior analyst with Jon Peddie Research in San Francisco. "I think there is a big opportunity for mass-market MMOs, especially when they are connected to recognized brands," Pollak said. But, he warned, "the quality of the game must be top-notch, which is not an easy undertaking."
Gazillion Chief Executive Rob Hutter said his company had recruited 300 developers, many of whom have worked for Sony Online Entertainment, Blizzard, NC Soft, Walt Disney and other seasoned MMO studios.
Among the changes Gazillion made: shorter game sessions so players can jump in and out in 5 or 10 minutes, easier ways to move around the virtual world, more intuitive menus and fun ways to interact.
| | 9:59 am |
Logitech G19 keyboard review The Logitech G19 is a feature-loaded gamer's dream-keyboard -- but at $200 it's definitely not for the light of wallet. The G19 has a standard, straight keyboard layout. It's main selling feature -- and the one that no doubt drives its price up the most -- is that it's also equipped with a tiltable 320x240 LCD. The LCD can be used to display all kinds of information. Not counting nearly 80 games -- including World of Warcraft -- that directly support the LCD to display in-game information and statistics -- out of the box you can use the LCD to display a clock, play Youtube videos, run a picture slideshow, or even check your POP3 email. The only downside to the LCD is that it requires a power supply, so the G19 will add a little extra cabling to your setup. Immediately to the right of the LCD at the back of the keyboard are two USB 2.0 connections -- great for Logitech's G35 headset and G9x Laser mouse, for example -- for the perfect Logitech PC gaming 'triumvirate.' Like Logitech's G9x Laser mouse and G35 gaming headset, the G19 keyboard is highly customizable. For starters, the G19 arms you with twelve programmable 'G keys' (G1-G12) that sit along the left-hand side of the keyboard. Each G-key can be assigned a keystroke, a pre-made macro, or a custom-made, complex, multi-keystroke macro -- perfect for MMOs and real-time strategy games in particular. The G19 also supports up to three separately stored profiles, so you can have up to 36 macros (12 per profile) stored at one time. The color of the backlight -- which can be nearly any color -- can be different for each profile. Switching profiles is as easy as hitting the M1, M2, or M3 buttons located at the top of the G-keys. A set of media-keys and a conveniently placed, ergonomic roller for volume adjustment sits just above the number pad. Another convenience is a dedicated slider switch for disabling the Windows key -- something any gamer will immediately appreciate. Personally, I have to confess that I miss a dedicated set of programmable gaming keys like the Ideazon Merc Stealth has. I also found the G19's keys to be a little 'mushier' than I prefer for general typing, but that's a highly subjective preference. I like the LCD panel, although I don't have any games that directly support it yet -- but it's still handy for its clock, POP3 and other functions. The LCD is crystal clear and has a very sharp image. I look forward to seeing what this puppy can do. (Can I be the first to ask for a 'rear view mirror' function for 3D shooters?) Minor faults aside, there's no question about the G19's greatness. And the LCD function -- which is currently supported by World of Warcraft and more than seventy other games -- definitely has a lot of potential. Whether or not major PC game developers jump into supporting it in the future is another question. Overall, the real question about the G19 isn't whether or not it's awesome -- it's just whether or not you're willing to spend $200 (the cost of a good video card or other system upgrade(s) to get all that awesome. If you are, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. | | Friday, March 20th, 2009 | | 11:04 am |
When Gas Powered Games' new PC strategy game Demigod is released next month, WarCraft fans are going Aside from slaying monsters and engaging in epic quests, Anthropology graduate student Caroline Whippey sees similarities between the mythical characters in the online role-playing game World of Warcraft and the lives of its 11.5-million player base Whippey has played games – including online gaming in recent years - her entire life so it wasn’t a stretch when she decided to focus on the industry for her master’s degree. It was in November 2006, while Whippey was in her final year of undergrad, when she was introduced to the World of Warcraft and she was instantly hooked. Finding little academic literature on the subject, she decided to use her anthropology background to examine how players bring their values, perceptions and experiences to the game when they are playing or interacting with others. More specifically, her research focuses on race, ethnicity and multinationalism, sexuality and gender. “Absolutely people bring their values and perceptions of real life into the game and it affects how they interact,” she says. In the game, players must choose which side to belong to – the Alliance or the Horde – which are battling each other for control of the world. Users can participate in a player versus player server, which allows them to fight players of the opposite faction, or player versus the environment server. They can also form guilds or groups of people with common interests, and have virtual conversations with other players. In this world of fantasy, Whippey says a player’s real-life personality can play a significant role in how they play the game. “Most people that I have spoken with or worked with, don’t play another persona. They have their character but they don’t necessarily role play with that. Most people, I find, there is a part of themselves that comes across very clearly.” With online players hailing from all corners of the world, cultural differences sometimes make their way into the game. “People do make negative comments geared to race,” she says, adding racial slurs have been used in general chat channels accessible by all players. “Usually at least one person will comment and say, ‘hey, that’s offensive.’” Similarly, the term ‘gay’ has been used in a derogatory sense by players during online conversations. Whippey says some players apply gender-based stereotypes to the male and female fictional characters. “I had a couple of women tell me they preferred for their gender to be anonymous or play male characters because if people knew they were female, they would treat them like they didn’t have as much skill ... that whole ‘girls aren’t as good at gaming’ thing.” Players can target others by attacking a lower level or vulnerable character, which is called ‘ganking’ and because death isn’t permanent in the World of Warcraft, some players ‘camp’ out over the body of a fallen character to kill them when they come back to life. “That’s a process of harassment, it can get very annoying,” she says. “If you are choosing to be in that environment (player versus player) it is a part of the game play.” Most social norms that exist in real life translate to the game and regulate what is deemed acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. But, Whippey says there are no significant consequences to breaking these rules other than for other players to rebuff them. Players can feel a sense of bravado and act in a way that would otherwise be socially unacceptable because their true identity remains hidden behind their character. “Part is anonymity because you are playing a character, that’s what people see and they don’t connect whoever is behind the screen to the character. There is no way to know who is playing that person.” For some players, such as those with physical disabilities, anonymity can be empowering. “Although there is some negativity, there are some positives about a virtual community and people being able to interact. It does cross geographical distances. It is a world where you are judged by what you say and do, not your physical appearance.” As the World of Warcraft continues to expand, Whippey sees her research interests growing with it. She has applied to a PhD program, during which she hopes to further examine the gaming industry. In spite of the similarities with real life, in the end, World of Warcraft “is a game,” she says. “It’s fun and I love it.” World of Warcraft Known as WoW. Falls within a classification called massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Developed by California-based Blizzard Entertainment. The game, which follows three previous games from the same series, was released in late 2004 and is the world's largest MMORPG in terms of monthly subscribers. | | 10:51 am |
Hands On: Demigod's Addictive Strategy Gameplay Apes Warcraft When Gas Powered Games' new PC strategy game Demigod is released next month, WarCraft fans are going to find the gameplay pleasantly familiar. Though I wouldn't go so far as to say it blatantly rips off the popular WarCraft III mod Defense of the Ancients, the similarities make it impossible to discuss Demigod without mentioning its inspiration. Not only does Demigod mimic the concept of using heroic avatars to lead armies (calling them "demigods" instead of "heroes"), the overall feel of combat and gameplay in the newer game is so inherently similar to its predecessor as to be instantly recognizable to those gamers who have experienced both. The big question now is if Demigod's graphical upgrade and handful of gameplay changes can prove enough of a draw for gamers when its primary competition is a free add-on download. I've played the beta version of its multiplayer mode extensively, and found it to be an addictive experience. Gas Powered Games is no stranger to mimicking Blizzard's games; it is most famous for Dungeon Siege, a 2002 PC release that directly mimicked Diablo. Like that earlier effort, Demigod is an obvious attempt to build on the intensely addictive, deceptively simple gameplay found in Defense of the Ancients using contemporary graphics and a handful of gameplay tweaks. Gameplay in Demigod is a cross between real-time strategy and action role-playing. In other words, it's a cross between Diablo and WarCraft. You control one of eight demigods, each of whom is equipped with several customizable combat powers. By killing enemies you gain experience, which goes towards adding new abilities to your demigod. Though each of the available skill trees has a vast number of options to choose from, and each character's tree is unique, the key to success seems to be focusing on the character and branch that best complements your playing style. Instead of roaming a vast world all by your lonesome, Demigod pits you (and friends) against an equal force on symmetrical maps, dubbed "Arenas." The goal in each level is to push your foes back while taking control of certain strategic objectives. Taking wow gold mines, for instance, allows your local portals to pump out minions more rapidly. These minions serve as the equivalent of an army in a more traditional strategy game, with one big caveat: You don't have direct control over them. Instead of clicking on a squad and sending them to a certain point, you simply move your demigod and all of his or her devotees will trail behind, ready to attack anything in your path. Before playing the game, this was one of my biggest concerns. Anything less than fantastic programming would send your pals running in random directions, instead of towards the appropriate melee. The good news is that either Gas Powered Games' attention to detail or the simplicity of each Arena ensures that the computer-controlled masses almost always do their job. I did count two instances when my posse ran off to some remote location, but considering that I've been playing the beta for almost three days straight, that's a very small number of glitches. Unfortunately, the beta I've been playing does not feature Demigod's single-player mode. Defense of the Ancients was very successful solely as a competitive multiplayer game, and though Demigod replicates this well, I really would like to see what sort of interactive story it has crafted. Gas Powered Games has, at least, crafted a rich, vibrant world, particularly in relation to the demigods themselves. Each demigod has an attractive, interesting aesthetic design that suits its role. The Rook (pictured top), for instance, is a classic "tank" style character best suited to wading into combat and smashing foes up close and personal. His appearance, a gigantic stone golem with catapults built into his shoulders, makes that very clear. My personal favorite character, The Unclean Beast, looks like an cross between a panther, a bear, a wolf and a corpse. It specializes in poisoning its foes and sucking the life from the living. In a game where players are urged to bond with a single demigod, it's imperative that each character be interesting. In that regard Demigod excels. It speaks greatly to Gas Powered Games' ability to craft a solid game that despite all its derivative elements, I'm still excited for Demigod's April release. If you're going to lift from someone else's game, you could certainly do much worse than one of Blizzard's. Even this pre-release version handily demonstrates that its developers recognize what made the source material so successful. As much as I've stressed the similarities between Demigod and DoTA, it would be just as easy to make a comparison between this game and chess. Each game of Demigod is one giant, hyperspeed version of chess — you encounter an enemy, they counter your attack, you learn to counter theirs, and so on until one of you loses ground. It's quite easy to learn. But the huge number of skills and characters means the best players will have spent literally months of their lives learning the intricacies of the system. Hardcore Defense of the Ancients fans may not see the need to jump ship for Demigod, but anyone who missed that Warcraft mod would be wise to check this out. | | 10:48 am |
In-Depth: BioWare's Vogel On The Power Of Speech In Games Rich Vogel, who serves as co-director of the BioWare Austin studio developing The Old Republic for Electronic Arts and LucasArts, spoke at a recent South by Southwest panel about the differences between layered communications in text and speech.
The good thing about virtual worlds as opposed to real life, says Vogel, is that virtual worlds actually free up introverted people to talk to others. This was something he saw during the early day of Ultima Online.
"The barriers are lifted there for those kinds of people," Vogel says of players who were handicapped, or simply nervous around other people, and are suddenly able to communicate without their normal difficulties. When it comes to talking to people you don’t know, "you find that text is much more appropriate than speech. Another thing I’ve learned," Vogel continues, is that people trust you more when you’re using voice instead of text. "When you hear someone…you get a much better feel for that person."
Vogel says that most MMO players use voice chat to give combat directions. But he also says that he thinks it’s good for the game to have downtime between combat. "It gives you social time."
As a manager, he discusses the difference between sending an email to someone on his team, instead of going down the hall and talking to that person. Talking is filled with emotion, whereas text is very sterile. "It makes me think about things. It slows them down, instead of emotionalizing them." Vogel notes. And the same is true for players.
"Giving people place to go where they have common interests," predicts Vogel, is going to be a big trend in future. "MMOs are just one way to do that." He adds that virtual worlds, which don’t give people common goals, will lose users, "because they get bored and leave."
"World of Warcraft has 12 million people playing because it’s a fun space to be in, and they’re motivated to be there." Virtual worlds, by contrast, he says: "To me, that’s where the others have failed, [by] not providing that..."
Vogel remains skeptical about user-generated content, saying "We rely on others to entertain us." Citing BioWare’s Neverwinter Nights series, well-known of letting players create their own levels, he states that only 2 percent to 3 percent of users provide content that’s really good. While it’s good that people are making the content, it doesn’t reach a critical mass – simply because people are not good at entertaining themselves."
After the panel discussion, Vogel answered some exclusive Gamasutra questions that give further insights into his view of social networks, and what console and online game developers can do to take advantage of a changing world…
Is Facebook going to kill World of Warcraft?
RV: No, I don’t think Facebook’s going to kill World of Warcraft. Because, I think, social networking has it’s own architecture set up for just that one thing. World of Warcraft’s a game. Social things happen in that game, but it’s a secondary thing, it’s not a primary thing in that game. It’s not the mechanic of that game.
It’s an experience designed specifically for a purpose. Where Facebook is an open app.
Are we going to see MMO developers have to adjust the type of game they make, or are they going to continue to make closed, immersive worlds that are very steeped in a specific fiction?
RV: I think closed immersive worlds attract people. A lot of people like direction. There’s a lot of people that like directed content. Because it immerses you when it’s directed. It pulls you in, gives you a story, gives you something to follow: people like that.
Now, what will happen, is they’ll have more social architecture built into MMOs then you’ve ever had before.
How will that look?
RV: How would that look? So, example... you may be able to chat with someone real-time on your iPhone. Or organize a place to meet [through] an iPhone app.
So even though it’s an immersive world, it’s become and more accessible? You can immerse yourself in the world, from anywhere?
RV: From anywhere. And that’s what I think’s going to happen. Web 2.0 applications on community sites forming are happening now, and will continue to happen. Applications, especially for the new iPhone, will happen.
You can find out where you friend is and what server he’s on, and talk to him. Or maybe even…help your friends out during trouble. If they need money, any assistance with the quest, you can go online and do that in real-time.
Will Wright famously remarked that he wanted to make Spore a single-player MMO. Do you think we’ll see more of that on the single-player side and the console side?
RV: More games are online connected. And my opinion is, it’s the future, and anyone that doesn’t go there will be dinosaurs in five years. Because what’s happening is, in the retail market, because of used game sales and other things, velocity of game sales drops dramatically after the first three weeks of launch. It’s a cliff.
Downloadable content keeps games fresh. So you’re going to see more and more single-player games going into downloadable content, or episodic content, or whatever you want to call it.
Are traditional developers working in the industry today equipped to make these products? What should they start doing to prepare?
RV: That’s the problem, right? You have to become not a box company, but service oriented, a community-building oriented company. Communities are very important. And they help things grow virally. People are going to have to change.
How do you change your thinking as an industry, or as a team?
RV: Quit worrying about copy protection, and start worry about how you get the content fresh on a game with downloadable content…but it means having a live team. It means your game doesn’t stop when you ship it, anymore. That’s a model switch that people have to get to.
So all games will become ongoing?
RV: Yeah, I think it’s happening now. If you don’t, you die, right? You see it, used games are going to kill you. That’s why the top 5 -- not the top five percent, or ten percent, or twenty percent of games are making money anymore -- just the top five are making money.
Could Blizzard add broad social networking elements, or let people get into the game on different platforms in different ways, would that increase the number of players?
RV: Yeah, absolutely. It’s about accessibility. It’s really an elasticity question. It’s about what people are willing to pay for, and what they get. It’s all about ‘is it a value proposition?’ If it’s a value proposition, people are going to buy it.
So the games that succeed in the future will offer the most connected elasticity?
RV: I’d say the future for single-player games as well as online games is value propositions. So if you offer the ability, and it’s accessible by many different ways, and you offer the ability for people to connect easily and get into your game, and they like it and they enjoy it, and they want to give that someone else, and you make that as easy as possible: then it will grow. | | Thursday, March 19th, 2009 | | 9:53 am |
Online game gets real-world banking license NEW YORK (AP) — With banks around the world foundering, the idea of moving your bank account to another planet might have some appeal. Interstellar banking isn't here yet, but at least you can pretend. The publisher of the online science-fiction game "Entropia Universe," set on the planet Calypso, received a banking license from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority last week and plans to open a real bank within a year, albeit one without physical, walk-in branches. Players of "Entropia" already exchange real money for a virtual currency that is used for their expenses on Calypso. And virtual money they make in the game, through hunting, mining, trading or other activities, can be cashed out into real money. The virtual currency, Project Entropia Dollars, has a fixed 10-to-1 exchange rate to the U.S. dollar. By setting up a real-world bank, Sweden-based publisher MindArk PE AB gains the protection of the Swedish government's deposit insurance for these accounts, up to about $60,000 for each customer. MindArk also plans to offer standard bank services like interest-bearing accounts, direct deposit of paychecks, bill payment and lending, said David Simmonds, the company's business development director. The company isn't clear on what type of lending it will engage in, but Simmonds said it wasn't planning to make the sort of risky investments that have foiled other banks. The banking license also means regulators will gain more insight into possible money laundering in the virtual world. Simmonds said the company is already keeping an eye out for such activities. The economic activity in "Entropia Universe" was worth about $420 million last year, about the same as the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, population 110,000. The game has 850,000 player accounts, though not all of them represent active players. "Entropia Universe" is unusual in allowing a free conversion between its virtual currency and real money. Most online games, like "World of Warcraft," prohibit the sale of virtual items and money for real cash. | | 9:42 am |
World of Warcraft Gold Farming: Farming Gold in Nagrand and SMV Market Prices at the auction house are constantly fluctuating, two of the base products of wow gold grinding in the outlands can almost double in value in the space of a few hours. This can leave you kicking yourself if you sold something only for it to appear at twice the price of what you put it on for in an hours time.The auction house isn’t the only way though, sometimes you can sell a large amount of something (10+ stacks) for near the auction house value and without it taking its cut. It is always a good idea before selling anything on the auction house to advertise it in the trade channel for the price even a little more than you where going to put it on the auction house for. You will get a few annoying people offering you ludicrously low amounts, just ignore them and stick to your guns, it will pay when someone wants to buy all you have for more than you were going to sell it for in the first place.
Netherweave Cloth.
This drops nearly everywhere in the outlands, its price varies widely, however on most servers it fluctuates between 4g and 10g, a good time to consider selling this on any server is between 7-8g, it might not be the best price you could get for it, but you wont lose precious wow gold in auction house deposits. The best part is that there is always a high demand for Netherweave Cloth, so can nearly always sell this in the trade channel. To pick up Netherweave Cloth I suggest killing the Trolls in the Warmaul Compound in North West Nagrand, There are plenty of mobs to kill and you generally get 1-3 pieces of netherweave per kill, plus you get some Warmaul Beads, which are excellent for getting your rep up with both Kurenai and the Consortium.
Sunfury Signets & Arcane Tomes
Both these drop very regularly in Shadowmoon Valley, these both go for large amounts in the auction house especially since scryers is currently an overplayed ffaction, so many more people are buying these over the Aldor. You can pick up a lot of these grinding just west of the Scryer town in Shadowmoon Valley, between the two bridges there is a road heading south, there are two paths, one has a huge of the blood elves in groups of three and close together that you need to kill, it may be easier to do this in a group of two or three, however if you are soloing take the path a little further on, up towards Eclipse Point, here the blood elves are spread out, and not in groups, Not only will you pick up silver, netherweave and the two Scryer hand ins for these but you will also notice a high drop rate of greens and even the occasional blue, all these can usually be sold on the auction house or even disenchanted. |
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