Games – Page 10 – ɔimoɈɒ

Immersive, Connected, Asynchronous

So, there are two types of gameplay I imagine in this game. And this may increase the game far beyond initial scope. Immersive Play This is closest to console-type play. Someone churns their way through 20 levels of combat and research, at varying difficulties to get to the end game. This is enhanced with later … Continue reading “Immersive, Connected, Asynchronous”

So, there are two types of gameplay I imagine in this game. And this may increase the game far beyond initial scope.

Immersive Play

This is closest to console-type play. Someone churns their way through 20 levels of combat and research, at varying difficulties to get to the end game. This is enhanced with later multiplayer and, I would hope, special co-op levels as well as death match style play. But the gameplay is all immersive. It’s real-time tactics which will suck in the attention.

Asynchronous but Connected Play

This is the gameplay done when you only have two minutes or thirty seconds. It’s not enough to immerse you entirely and it may open the gameplay to other platforms (maybe even including emails, push notifications). Have to think a bit more about this one.

more about messaging and supply lines
shared missions ( “I can’t move forward on sigma sector until you blow that bridge” )
passing of information ( “Anyone seen the Derps in Downtown” )

The closest things I can compare this to is using other channels outside WoW to plan raids. What if the online component required people to do things for each other. Think of that segment in the Matrix sequel where they had to hit things within a certain time frame to get through a door. Very silly, the whole sequence. But the idea being that in a war, even a guerilla war, there are sacrifices, feints and advances. In order for Cell B to advance, maybe Cell A has to lead an extremely difficult mission against some major component of alien infrastructure. If they don’t achieve a certain score, then Cell B has a much harder time of it.

One Lump or Two, Vicar?

I’m left to wonder then; is this one game or two?

I’m intrigued by something Willem Kokke said to me earlier this week about starting out with a simpler game to get started. I think that an Asynchonrous Connected game could work as a standalone. As an iPhone game that would be a companion for an iPad strategy game. I already watch TV while using my phone and iPad so why not play a game? Maybe there’s an entire untapped market there. Some console games use phones to help track inventory, to provide in-game information. Why not affect gameplay?

So that’s a simpler idea, that feeds into the development of the story, that can provide story elements in and of itself. It looks like I’ll need to open a new area of the wiki.

The Games Market is about to have a significant and violent rebalancing. Look out.

David Braben: if you look at just core gamer games, pre-owned has really killed core games. In some cases, it’s killed them dead. Braben’s thesis is that single player games are being killed by the second hand market. A player might buy a game on Monday, sell it on Tuesday and it might be bought … Continue reading “The Games Market is about to have a significant and violent rebalancing. Look out.”

David Braben:

if you look at just core gamer games, pre-owned has really killed core games. In some cases, it’s killed them dead.

Braben’s thesis is that single player games are being killed by the second hand market. A player might buy a game on Monday, sell it on Tuesday and it might be bought again, pre-owned, on Wednesday for a high fraction of the cover price.

Multiplayer games usually require some sort of server access, a license to play and only one can be used at a time. So a game that comes with a network access key is less likely to be sold on if the multiplayer aspect is any good.

Braben’s own studio project is “in limbo” because it’s a story-based single player game. Considering that there have been several successful story-based single player games (Tomb Raider and sequels, inFamous and sequel, Prototype and sequel, Uncharted and sequels), I’m not entirely convinced that the problem is that single-player games are at threat. There’s also a role for the publisher to provide the market access and that’s an issue in itself. With Braben’s track record, you’d think that it would be a no-brainer (to develop, to get funding, to get a market) so if it is on hiatus, it must be something else.

The Pre-Owned Market

The developer/publisher doesn’t get any share of this second sale and, well, they want it. The pre-owned games are marketed alongside the brand new games and it’s obvious that sales assistants are incentivised to sell the pre-owned copies due to better margins.

Games retailers who have made the bulk of their money in the pre-owned market over the last few years (such as GameStop (fucked) and Game (fucked) and feeling the pinch as publishers are moving more and more to digital distribution and refusing to allow this grey market of used plastic disks to continue. (I must admit a total lack of empathy for games retail companies – they saw it coming – heck, everyone saw it coming – and they did nothing). And, let’s face it, while we appreciate being able to buy a game that did poorly for a couple of quid, when the pre-owned version is less than a fiver cheaper than the brand new copy, you have to think there’s something shitty going on.

The publishers latest trick is to prevent their latest releases from being sold through the retailers and that, certainly in the case of Game, is proving to be the nail in the coffin. Even if their creditors can agree to some sort of sale, the publishers are unlikely to be interested.

Explaining to my son that it’s not really sad or bad that games retail stores are closing is an intriguing debate. He maintains it’s unfortunate that gamers won’t have stores to buy games from. I maintain they weren’t buying them anyway, so it’s a non-issue.

Digital isn’t the Future, it’s Yesterday

This is why Game is fucked and Gabe Newell is a billionaire. While he may not have realised his assets, the fact that he’s worth ten times the amount of money that Game currently owes to creditors has to be taken into context.

Even with horribly draconian DRM, the online digital distribution games tsunami known as “Steam”, a product of the Valve Corporation, is doing well. With considerably less draconian DRM, the Apple-owned AppStore is also thriving. And with google recently changing the name of their application store from Android Market (entirely descriptive) to Google Play (entirely confusing and aimed at the entertainment market), there is a move to seeing games as our primary download. Valve, Apple and Google are very well placed.

Obviously, people will put up with horrific DRM if you’re selling them stuff they want to buy and you make it cheap and easy to do it. Steam and the AppStore deliver this in spades.

The only people who will do badly in this scenario are the purveyors of second-hand plastic disks. Publishers realise that they not only can stem the tide of losing revenue from the pre-owned market but also save money on distribution (packaging, shipping, storage) and they may not need to give as much of a cut to retailers who have, for the last few years, been working against them.

But the question then is – if it’s digital and non-transferable, am I really buying it? And if so, why isn’t it cheaper?

Post apocalypse, what’s the landscape

One thing is plain; the current model of video game shops is at an end. It only took thirty years for the model to be created and killed. Considering what is achieved by Steam, it’s not unreasonable to assume that later consoles (such as XBOX 720 or Sony PS4?) might not even come with optical disk drives. The market for selling plastic disks, brand new or pre-owned, is coming to an end. (Which in IT-speak means it will be around for a decade or more).

Digital Download Stores will consolidate but while Apple will always maintain their own ghetto of apps, I can see other platforms having a cornucopia of App Stores, each with their own clones, malware and copyright issues. And you’ll be able to pay for the games in a multitude of ways, from real money to CPU/network/storage/location on your mobile device.

And finally I’ll not have to worry if the pre-owned disk my son has bought from the latest dodgy retailer will actually work. I’ll just make sure to send him the game as a gift. And if you’re still working for a high street video games retailer, I’d seriously consider looking elsewhere.

Crowd funding Investment: I have a bad feeling about this.

From Gamasutra: Newsbrief: In the wake of Double Fine’s astonishingly successful Kickstarter campaign, industry trade body UKIE called for legislation changes that would allow UK video game companies to use crowd funding to finance their projects. UKIE explained that the UK’s current legal and regulatory framework puts too many restrictions on crowd funding, and the … Continue reading “Crowd funding Investment: I have a bad feeling about this.”

From Gamasutra:

Newsbrief: In the wake of Double Fine’s astonishingly successful Kickstarter campaign, industry trade body UKIE called for legislation changes that would allow UK video game companies to use crowd funding to finance their projects.

UKIE explained that the UK’s current legal and regulatory framework puts too many restrictions on crowd funding, and the group promised to release a report that outlines the ways in which the laws should change to better suit game developers and the entertainment industry at large.

I view this with some discomfort. There is nothing stopping UK video game developers using crowd funding to finance their projects. Nothing. Beginning their position with a straw man argument sets the scene for a document filled with repetition and obfuscatory prose.

The restrictions of the UK’s current legal and regulatory framework are in place to protect people from shysters. It’s not always possible and some people get burned but it’s the best thing for everyone.

There is nothing stopping Kickstarter from being in the UK as-is. But this paper from UKIE is attempting to effect serious change in the way securities are dealt by permitting crowd funding from “small holders” to purchase securities in bulk and I’m extremely wary of it for two reasons:

they’re using Kickstarter as an example. This is disingenuous in my opinion as its saying “look what donations/pre-ordering can accomplish, now let us sell shares this way” and nearly every discussion seems to revolve around selling investments. Kickstarter proves this isn’t required. And their opening argument is utterly defeated.
in my own investment dealings (helping to advise local companies), I’ve had to deal with venture capitalists who have been nothing short of shysters. Term sheets which could drive their own truck through them, legals which are not only different to the terms laid out in the term sheet but actual opposites which, when discovered are resulting to more more than an apology.

So, the mother of all unintended consequences would be to permit this and allow investment managers to punt junk companies on the Internet for pennies. In effect, doing a pre-IPO IPO. With the number of companies out there and the number of potential investors, this becomes an administrative nightmare. While the fund managers laugh all the way to the bank, you have thousands of shareholders wondering why they bothered considering the bulk of the money goes on fees and you’ve got such a micro-percentage of the company that you can’t control anything anyway. Ending up with a heap of shares in a worthless company isn’t the only potential outcome. Are they seriously going to have shareholder meetings with thousands of shareholders when a company is worth £100K?

I might be spending too much time worrying about the motivations of strangers. In my opinion, these people are not to be trusted.

The State of the (Games) Industry

Saw this Tweet by @notch: Related posts: Jonathan Gems on the abolition of the UKFC Ten Apps I Want… Digital Circle going independent and my thoughts on the Future Stop the Big Brother State

Saw this Tweet by @notch:

The Sky Is Rising

A report on the boom in the media industry despite the worst recession in 70 years. Related posts: cultureTECH: What I did… Holidays in England All I needed to know about games… Humans FTW! Sky-Bully FTL!

A report on the boom in the media industry despite the worst recession in 70 years.

Interesting Stats on Steam. How’s your multiplayer?

This was taken at 11:45 am UK time. That would be 06:45 in New York and 03:45 in California. Knowing that other people are playing your game means you’re more likely to play it. Would it be useful to include stats like this in every multiplayer game? Related posts: The Games Market is about to … Continue reading “Interesting Stats on Steam. How’s your multiplayer?”

Dear Esther – 14th Feb 2012

(MP4 Link – 61 MB) Let me start by saying: I love this. It’s not the breathtaking visuals. The construction of a world extremely similar to our own yet with an ethereal, otherworldly quality. It’s the cadence and tone of the voiceover. It reminds me of the outstanding Eve of the War vocals by Richard … Continue reading “Dear Esther – 14th Feb 2012”

(MP4 Link – 61 MB)

Let me start by saying: I love this.

It’s not the breathtaking visuals. The construction of a world extremely similar to our own yet with an ethereal, otherworldly quality. It’s the cadence and tone of the voiceover. It reminds me of the outstanding Eve of the War vocals by Richard Burton.

Every game should aspire to having this sort of visual and auditory delight.

Onlive: Gaming in the Cloud review

Just before Xmas I was contacted by a PR agent for the new BT Onlive Service. Onlive is one of the “big two” cloud gaming services and happens to be the one having received investment from BT and being bundled with some of BTs other premium services with their broadband offering. (The other cloud gaming … Continue reading “Onlive: Gaming in the Cloud review”

Just before Xmas I was contacted by a PR agent for the new BT Onlive Service.

Onlive is one of the “big two” cloud gaming services and happens to be the one having received investment from BT and being bundled with some of BTs other premium services with their broadband offering. (The other cloud gaming service is Gaikai).

A few days after agreeing to post a review, I received a new Onlive Microconsole in the post. As it arrived just before Xmas day, there was much speculation on the service and how it would work. The requirements for Onlive are pretty basic:

minimum 2 Mbps internet connection (5 Mbps recommended)

and that’s pretty much it. My internet runs at 6.5 Mbps downstream (real world about 5 Mbps) and 700 Kbps upstream (real world about 600 Kbps) and with a latency of about 40 ms. So you’d think I should be fine for this. For a good discussion of the other sources of latency – including the latency of your TV display, see Eurogamer.

But, this is from the Onlive help on Latency:

The lower the better, but if your “ping” result is much more than 25 ms, we do not recommend using it for online gaming.

Oh crap.

So I did a traceroute test:

mycomputer:~ me$ traceroute bt.com traceroute to bt.com (62.239.237.1), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets 1 skyrouter.home (192.168.0.1) 1.225 ms 0.689 ms 0.709 ms 2 bm5.niba-dhcp.isp.sky.com (94.9.207.62) 22.532 ms 23.585 ms 23.632 ms 3 10.245.166.241 (10.245.166.241) 22.570 ms 22.977 ms 22.726 ms 4 89.200.131.173 (89.200.131.173) 38.261 ms 39.105 ms 35.741 ms 5 linx7.ukcore.bt.net (195.66.224.56) 94.604 ms 35.891 ms 39.608 ms ...

So, really, I can’t even make it to the BT Core network without incurring over 35 ms of latency, which means my connection is too ‘laggy’ for Onlive. I checked with some friends on BT Infinity and their connections incur about 25-28 ms on BT Infinity to the BT core network. That’s much better and obviously the bulk of my latency is eaten up in the transition from the Sky network to the BT core network. I’m a bit annoyed because it is part of BT’s Wholesale ADSL offering. Bah.

Anyway.

The Microconsole requires a HDTV with a HDMI connection and there’s a client that can access the service which runs on Windows, Macintosh and Android. While there is an Onlive Viewer for the iPad, it’s not going to permit you to play games because Apple would demand 30% of any revenue. Yes, Onlive could work around it the way that Amazon has worked around the Kindle. Yes, Apple are being unreasonable. Let’s just leave it at that.

And then I was greeted by

You’ll note the setup is extremely simple. I have two bugbears.

The power socket is pretty much the same size as the hole for the sound jack. That flummoxed me for a minute. My own fault but still.
No WiFi built-in. What a pain in the ass. This means I have to either run CAT5 to my TV or use a PowerLine adapter. What sort of system doesn’t have WiFi?

This was followed by an email to support and this is the first real frustration; it took 24 hours to get a reply. Any enthusiasm for playing the console had completely deserted my son as soon as the initial excitement died. It took me a little troubleshooting but I figured out that my 14Mbps PowerLine adapters needed to be replaced with 200 Mbps adapters as the former weren’t transferring enough bandwidth.

So, eventually I got it running.

The selection is okay. For a family with a lot of consoles (we have PC, Mac, PS3, XBOX 350 and Wii as well as iOS devices) then the immediacy promised is an improvement over options like Steam or the XBOX Marketplace, PlayStation Store or other App Stores.

Gameplay - M4V video, H.264 encoded, 11 MB

Cons:

It eats bandwidth. Which means no Youtube for the wife when it’s running and I’d even discourage other less intensive uses of the network.
Latency issues mean that what you see is not timed with your reactions. For games where reaction time is important (i.e. most of them), I found this maddening.
They take payments by card but if a PIN is required, it’s not eligible. Which rules out pretty much every Debit card in the UK. Maybe they should sell cards at the checkout in Tesco?
No login, no play. This is a worse system than the extremely draconian Steam DRM (which means you can’t play two games you own at the same time on different computers) – it just means you can’t play at all.

Pros:

You can decide to ‘rent’ a new game like Arkham City for 3 days (for £3.99), 5 days (for £5.99) or permanently (for £34.99). That’s comparable to video game rentals and outright purchase. (Arkham City is cheaper at £29.95 from Amazon but you have to wait.)
There are free trials available for just about every game which allow you to pay the game instantly for 30 minutes. That’s better than a demo or crippleware.
The Playpack Bundle which provides 135 games for £6.99 a month is incredible value. You also get a 30% discount on all other games if you subscribe. It includes games like Fallout, Fallout 2, Supreme Commander, Bioshock, Borderlands.

Conclusion: it’s not really for me at the moment. I’m enough of a twitch-gamer that I need every second of latency to allow me to play the game properly. In shooters, this level of latency would just be unacceptable. Even Izaak, 10, whose reactions in games tend to be a little slower due to inexperience, found it irritating. It would, however, be an awesome service for a game publisher to tap into if you couldn’t be bothered putting out a demo level. And for gamers who don’t want to bother with downloading demos, why not try the full game for 30 minutes.

But I don’t think know if this is a permanent conclusion. I have standard BT Wholesale ADSL in the house because BT Infinity has not been rolled out to my area yet (the BT Exchange is enabled but … the doowhangle isn’t connected to the gazwhingie). Maybe Infinity has better latency? If it does, then I’d certainly re-consider.

Onlive has UK servers so if your ping latency is less than 25 ms then I think you should try Onlive with the Playpack Bundle. The console is £69.95 retail and you get free access to the Playpack for the first three months. You can also sign onto Onlive with a Mac or PC or Android tablet by just downloading a client. Give it a go and if you find the latency to be acceptable, then please let me know in the comments?

Just be aware: No Wifi so you have to run a cable. A bad connection means no games (use pingtest.net to check). Prices are not really cheaper.

Other Reviews:

wee doors banging: Online with Onlive

This is science. Wipe-out Style.

“Here is a short footage on our recent work on quantum levitation. We were inspired by the game Wipe’out to do our work. With this new technology, we hope to revolutionize the world of motor transport; Maybe in a near future we could assist to a real Wipe’out race.” Amazing stuff – this is the … Continue reading “This is science. Wipe-out Style.”

“Here is a short footage on our recent work on quantum levitation. We were inspired by the game Wipe’out to do our work. With this new technology, we hope to revolutionize the world of motor transport; Maybe in a near future we could assist to a real Wipe’out race.”

Amazing stuff – this is the sort of inspired stuff that hackerspaces were invented for.

Putting some meat on the bones

A bit more detail on each of the game ideas listed in A Brief Intro to Sonappa. Alien Salvage The first game, codenamed Alien Salvage, is a real-time-tactics 3d isometric third-person shooter with a investigative storyline involving a special tactics unit employed to defend against a hostile alien incursion. Multiplayer aspects will be developed for … Continue reading “Putting some meat on the bones”

A bit more detail on each of the game ideas listed in A Brief Intro to Sonappa.

Alien Salvage

The first game, codenamed Alien Salvage, is a real-time-tactics 3d isometric third-person shooter with a investigative storyline involving a special tactics unit employed to defend against a hostile alien incursion. Multiplayer aspects will be developed for later updates and will include squad-level skirmish between human and aliens.

The player will control a small squad of special operatives whose role is to seek out and destroy a series of alien infestations. The controls will involve the movement, grouping and fire control of the squad as a whole as well as individual units. Managing the squad is handled through a small HUD which will also provide information on the health and capabilities of each unit. The player will work through a series of environments in the single-player story and encounter a variety of alien forces.

The aliens are part of a massive invasion force and the player is one of many human squads dedicated to tracking them down and removing them. The aliens vary in size and shape because they are part of a vast galaxy-spanning empire. Their technology is advanced and by capturing items of technology, the player is able to add to the human technology pool, unlocking new weapons, defences and transport. Some of these items may also be used to communicate with the alien forces, which can change expected outcomes.

In multiplayer, the conflict can be between human vs human, human vs alien or alien vs alien. All of the forces are given scores and can be compared and contrasted depending on capability. There will be multiple modes of games – deathmatch, scavenge, king of the hill for starters. The multiplayer environments will be based on the single-player maps.

Furukontakuto

The second game, codenamed Furukontakuto (j: full contact), is a 3d third-person platformer borrowing elements from fighting and shooter games and blending parkour action and a gripping results-based storyline. Multiplayer will involve speed-and attrition-based levels to provide an active combat arena.

Inspired by action movies like District 13, the idea is to blend hand-to-hand fighting and gun-play seamlessly with the speed and acrobatics of parkour (free-running), base-jumping (short parachute drops, wingsuits) and Buildering (unassisted climbing). Each character will, like Mortal Kombat or Streetfighter, have their own specialities. From a traceuse Francaise to a seasoned Qinggong master.

Unlike fighting games, this isn’t just about winning fights, it’s about moving a sequence of messages across the City. In the single-player game, the player will have the opportunity to play multiple roles as they hand the message between dead drops and traverse the whole of the city.

In multiplayer, the main goal will be to move a message from one side of a sector of the City to another while being intercepted and assisted by others. The opposing side must intercept and hinder other players from receiving the message.

Zombi

The third game, Zombi, is a real-time-tactics 3d isometric third person squad-level shooter with goal-based development and a survivalist single player plotline. Based on the RPG, Zombi, the player will have to progress through a zombi-infested post-apocalyptic city. In multi-player, players will act in concert or in competition for resources in a semi-persistent universe.

In the single-player game, this involves travelling between locations, picking up resources and staying away from the hordes of undead and, more importantly, other survivors. There is a decision tree to follow as the player tries to track down his/her missing family. With limited resources, the player must make decisions wisely.

In multiplayer, the player joins a semi-persistent world where resources are being constantly depleted by other players in the game. The player may be allied with others or alone, depending on the game mode, but will have tasks to perform, goals to achieve and limited time and resources to achieve them with. The world has reset-intervals where resources are replaced, depending on the progress within the game.

The next posting on the subject will deal with the monetization strategy. There’s also some information to be posted on the technical side – more on that when I investigate feasibility.