On Non-Physical Software

The latest trend has been to eliminate the sale of physical software and to move everything to downloadable content. The recently announced PSP-4000 will no longer feature a UMD drive, with all games being solely downloaded off of the internet. This slightly disturbs me. Maybe I’m just old school, but a mere 8 GB or 16 GB for the hard drive will not hold all of the games and content that I like to carry on my system. In addition, there is always a concern that if my hard drive fails, an all too common occurrence, my games will be lost. Companies will need to ensure that purchases are tracked and allowed to be easily restored. However, will recent lawsuits regarding digital rights management, fair consumer treatment is not always the first priority of developers. In addition, backing up games to facilitate recovery as well as free up hard drive space would be necessary for me, another issue of digital rights management. Allowing this feature would, unfortunately, further facilitate file sharing for games.

On the other hand, consoles with large 80 GB hard drives are perfect for this setup. Not only do they have the space, and little other uses for this space, but digital distribution would severely cut down the time between purchase and play of a game. This setup also facilitates demos and other promotions with easy access to buying a full version of the game.

Between the two console giants, Microsoft and Sony, Sony seems well poised to make the jump into full digital distribution. With news of the PSP eliminating the UMD drive, a standard, large hard drive in the PS3, and free access to online content, moving to digitally distributed titles is incredibly easy. Microsoft, on the other hand, has the difficulty of their Live service. Although Live is well supported and maintained, the monthly membership system to gain access to Gold content and the ability to download from their servers could be a major barrier for some users. Charging a monthly fee for the ability to purchase games is not the best way to attract customers.

On Replayability

What makes a game worth a second, third, or fourth play through? I find myself asking myself this as I begin my seventh run through Castle Crashers. Despite the minimal story, repetitive gameplay, and short length, I have played this game more times, and spent more hours in it, than most games. The one aspect that keeps bringing me back for more, unlocking new characters and weapons upon completion of a playthrough, requires extremely little work from the developers. Every character fits a basic pattern, so it is easy to add new characters, and no new tactics are necessary to learn. In addition, the multiplayer aspect adds a new level of variation to the game.

Other games, however still draw me in for another play through without being as short as Castle Crashers. Mass Effect allows for a number of choices throughout the game, mainly whether you are good or evil which encourages multiple playthroughs of the game. On the other hand, classic epic RPGs like the Final Fantasy series still draw me in to replay them. However, these games are replayed differently. Unlike Castle Crashers, I don’t go straight back into another run of the game. Instead, I set the game aside after beating it and revive it for another run years later. These games are exactly the same, and instead of trying to get to new stuff, I treat these replays like rereading a good book. I look for subtle things that I would have missed the first time through, or just to refresh my memory and relive a great story.

On Video Game Authorship

With many games focused around user generated content, the role of the developer as an author is potentially diminished. One of the most satisfying aspects of playing console RPGs is being able to sit back and watch an epic cinematic after a boss battle and watch the story continue to unfold. These games all have a set story that immerses you for months, but is ultimately linear. So, to expand, developers are now moving one of two ways with their games. Either games take the “Choose your own path” format with set paths and choices, or developers take a backseat to users and market it as “user generated content.” These games have no set storyline and rely on the users to create stories for themselves. Although this is a more social take on game playing, it is a much more passive role for the developer. In this way, the game no longer serves as an escape from typical life, but rather another medium in which to act it out.

This ultimately leads to the question of whether developers should be in control of a game, writing a story for players to experience, or if developers should create a world which facilitates the creation of stories by the users. Personally, I am partial to the classic, story based game. I enjoy living through a well crafted story. Games like World of Warcraft don’t have the same sense of playing a hero as storyline games do. It’s not possible to create a world full of heroes, therefore the game must be filled with people who are all on the same level.

On the Lack of Incentive for Speed

So, I downloaded World of Warcraft on the free 10-day trial and found it to be a horrific experience. I quickly realized that Blizzard had no incentive whatsoever at this point to improve the experience. They have a huge population of players and it is far more profitable to instead improve their experience, not that of new players. Current World of Warcraft players can instead do the advertising and promoting for them. First off, after installing the basic World of Warcraft file, I was told that I needed a number of patches to be applied. Instead of downloading and installing a single patch, I needed to download over 25 patches. These were all of varying sizes and required user input at the beginning and end of every patch. This required me to sit at my computer waiting for downloads for the better part of an entire day. In addition, all of the patches ran through the Blizzard Downloader. The Blizzard Downloader uses torrents to run, further evidence that Blizzard only cares about the experience of current users. Torrent trackers require a large swarm of seeders and leechers to function well, and with the downloader automatically closing at the end of a download, there are few seeders on the network. In addition, for old patches, very few people will be available as leechers to help speed up the download. I found many of the patches requiring many hours to download. However, searching online found the patches available as direct downloads on another of sites and these downloads required a mere couple of minutes. Considering that this entire process required an entire day, possibly more for other people, of my 10 day trial, I was annoyed to find a large portion of my “free” time gone. For Blizzard, I imagine this is a further benefit as it will reduce players ability to complete anything during their trial period but still get enough of a taste to purchase the game for themselves. All in all, an incredibly frustrating experience.

First Thoughts

On the Difference Between Multiplayer Video and Board Games

Whatever happened to the good multiplayer video games? The short answer is that they have moved online. However, this means that those of us with friends in real life have increasingly diminishing choices. It almost feels as though game developers are telling us to forgo playing with our friends face to face and instead forcing us to use their games and systems as a conduit. Personally, I find this rather annoying and not just because I like to see the expression on my friend’s face when I get that perfect headshot, but it seems almost pointless to have purchased four controllers for a system in which most games only support one or two at a time. It seems that only Nintendo has embraced the party console idea and actually develops games that allow all four controllers to be used regularly. However, I find Nintendo’s game library rather lacking and wish the concept of the party game could expand to other platforms.

To make up for this, I have found myself playing more non-electronic games. Settlers of Catan has been making a major resurgence and I have been contemplating getting into Magic or Dungeons and Dragons. These are games that allow that close personal interaction that is not currently available from behind the anonymizing veil of the internet. Although gaming through the internet is great for meeting new people and staying connected with old friends, I feel there is too strong of a focus on the online gaming world as a separate world from the “real” one. The term IRL (in real life) even demonstrates that many people believe interactions on the internet to not be part of their “real life.” People and developers need to realize that the online world and the “real” one are the same and equal attention needs to be given to each.