BattlePlay

From Heroine to Methadone

Jul 032011

I sat quietly listening to one of my peers going into intimate details about his life. I sat and listened contemplating if sharing with a large group of people would actually help me. My ears perked up when the leader of the group asked for new comers to talk at the podium. I looked around and slowly raised my hand halfway up, with my head slightly bowed in shame. When he beckoned me up, my heart started to race, as I walked to the podium.

My name is Kevin and I am a MMO Gamer.
“Hi Kevin” the crowd murmured in mixed intrest.

I have been addicted to World of Warcraft for more then 6 years. I have been clean for 2 months now. I was so addicted that I still get e-mail and read forums about it out of habit. That is where I heard about a new patch. At that time all I heard in my head was, just check it out what can it hurt. Luckily I stopped myself, and instead I started to unsubscribe from everything that deals with WOW. They say, you only need to do something for 3 months or so before it becomes a habit. I ask you how do you stop something that you have been doing almost on a daily basis for 6 years. It’s not easy that’s how. I wanted to quit for almost 6 months. I cut the cord when I realized that I had played very few other games in six years. I had no skills to manage my time, so I missed out on a ton of other great games. So once I quit, I went out and looked for highly praised games I missed out on playing. Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, Dragon Age and the Mass Effect Series to name a few.

It has been a hard road, I still think about playing WOW. It is a struggle that I hope to end up wining. My wife is happy that I don’t mindlessly run to my computer when it is raid time. I am happy that I don’t have to rush home to play only to find out that not enough players are on. I will keep you all updated of my successes and failures. I will certainly keep you guys up to date on the new games I am playing. I want to always have a sandbox game (Fallout 3), a platformer (Bayonetta), shooter (bullet Storm), and a fighting game (Mortal Kombat) always at my finger tips to keep me on the straight and narrow.

Well that is all I have to share for now, I did not look at all to my audience. I just quickly got to my seat and hoped for the best.

Your Face. Your Ass. What’s the Difference?

Video Games No Responses »

Jun 252011

Of course I would have trouble writing a post about Duke Nukem Forever. It’s unavoidable. The universe has decided that not only will the game be cursed for all eternity, any entity that spawns from the fact that the game exists will also fall on hardship. My ability to provide riveting commentary is no exception, it would seem. I’ve been trying to come up with this post since the day Gearbox and 2K announced that they had dug up DNF’s mangled carcass and were in the process of hooking the electrodes to its brain. They were bringing it back to life. And they were going to ship it, for realz this time.

Ever since that news came out I’ve been searching for the words to express my excitement for Duke Nukem Forever’s latest opportunity at reaching the store shelves. Nothing worked. Nothing! I tried to take the pure, over-the-top fanboy route — just gush fanboy goo all over BattlePlay about Duke and his new found developers. Here’s a brief segment to give you an idea of where it was going:

Oh my god! Oh my god! YES! Duke’s in the hands of Gearbox. This should be AWESOME! Where can I pre-order?

And it went on like that for another four to five hundred words — not exactly what I was looking for.

Then I tried to provide a glimpse into my nostalgia laced past, a past where Duke 3D was stashed away in a “c:/windows/temp” directory on almost every single computer in my high-school’s computer labs. Countless hours were spent on the school’s LAN trying to catch one of my friends right between the eyes with a rocket-propelled grenade:

… and that’s where I learned the power of keyboard shortcuts … as we’d whisper through our teeth to each other, “teacher! teacher! ALT TAB! ALT TAB!”

That one didn’t pan out either for some reason. I kept persisting, though. I even went the other direction once it was clear that not only was Duke Nukem Forever not going to meet the decades-plus worth of expectations I had stored away, it was actually a huge, steaming pile of shit:

I’ve never been so hyped for a game that ended up getting a 3.0 on Gamespot. How is that possible? You have to be trying extremely hard to get a 3.0 on Gamespot…

Again, it was just more generic reactionary comments that I’m sure everyone expressed 47,000 times over the last few weeks. So I squished it, and at least a half dozen other attempts. It would seem that it was just not a post that I was meant to write. And, maybe that’s OK. I’m not here to waste people’s time with a post I don’t believe is good. Sometimes the successful post is the one that you don’t write. Sometimes the successful project is the one that you just let die.

By the way, I will never play Duke Nukem Forever. Never. I’m not even sure I will pick up the next Duke branded title, even with Gearbox and 2K starting from scratch. And it’s not because I don’t think they could do a great job with it, not in the least. It’s more just comes down to the fact that they did the fans of Duke wrong — especially the ones that pre-ordered or picked up the game on day one (to the rest of you that are still buying it: that’s on you, dummy). They didn’t know the buzz saw of shitiness they were walking into. And that sucks. It’s a shitty move 2K, Gearbox — a real shitty move.

Gears of Money

Video Games No Responses »

Jun 052011

The Gears of War 3 beta has been over for a month now and that has given me some time to reflect on it. I won’t make this a game play review article, there are enough of those on the web for you to read. Instead, I’d like to write about what the beta could mean for the future of video gaming.

Gears of War 3 is by all accounts a “triple A title”. That term is taking on quite a few connotations in gaming circles. First and foremost it means money, and a lot of it. A huge up front investment is poured into these titles and along with that a huge amount of risk. GoW3 If a well financed triple A fails to produce some people somewhere are losing a huge pile of dough. And we all know when that happens, bad things follow; developers are laid off, investors fade away, and design houses shutter. The business of triple A’s is becoming an exclusive club with fewer willing to risk the investment. Any industry that produces a huge return for a high level of risk will naturally look for ways to mitigate that risk. Every investor, be it an independent association, a big publisher, or some established individuals, will be looking for ways to make a new triple A less risky; less likely to blow up in their faces as the euphoria of profits rolling in turns into the sick gut-wrenching, slow-motion realization that getting out of the investment with their shirts intact is the best they can hope for.

I think the industry may be in this state right now and Gears of War 3 could be considered an example. How many “3’s” are coming? Mass Effect 3, Call of Duty 3, Dragon Age 3, and Assassins Creed Revelations all count as evidence for this phenomenon. The publishers and the investors know these titles are going to make a profit. They are the tried and true. Heck who needs risk? They know they will be coming out of it with higher quality shirts then when they went in, maybe even a bow-tie too. I can almost hear it now: “They want more Commander Shepherd? Give it to ‘em!”

Gears of War 3 isn’t just an example of this trend, with the beta it’s setting a new bar; one that future triple A’s will be measured by. The beta was run on a scale unheard of for consoles. Partly to tweak the game for a smooth launch, and partly to drive awareness. One million beta players, one million pre-orders. Cliff Bleszinski goes on sabbatical. With what Epic just pulled off, hell, I would take a long vacation too.

Some may think this situation is well and good. The future of video gaming is heading in the right direction. Escalation on the high end. Things will go up and up. There is no way back. Some may also think this trend is narrowing the field to only the very rich players. Some may point to other industries and so-called “bubbles”. I’m no seer, I think the next couple of years will provide us the answer. I just hope whatever it is, video gaming is the better for it, and we the players, get to keep our humble gaming t-shirts when it’s all over.

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