Fun Tax

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Would you pay 10$ to skip 10 hours of repetitive content?  Would you pay 5$ to acquire enough skill points to use that amazing sword?  Free to Play games are betting you value their items more than your time.  It’s the basis of the market and at a simplistic level, it’s quite accurate.  The problem is that we long-time gamers don’t play game so much for the reward as much as the journey.  I didn’t beat BioShock to see the last bad guy (there isn’t one), I played it to be engrossed in the story.

Games today don’t always follow that mentality.  Some are designed for instant (or partially delayed) gratification.  A harsh slog, through horribly produced content in order to see the really good stuff.  Any game that says “get through the first couple hours and then it’s great” is a poorly designed game.  The intro to FF13 or Kingdom Hearts 2 spring to mind.  EQ2 when it launched was like this.  Games that provide random drops in order to progress (most F2P city builders, like FarmVille) are built around the concept of the result and not the journey.  Rightly so, people will buy their way to the fun part.

Then you might get a game like SWTOR, where the good stuff is actually the journey and not the end result.  Perhaps the journey gets long in the tooth on the 3rd or 4th attempt and then the company can make money.  That could be convenience items or costumes.  Some might sell new journeys.

While I disagree with Jacob’s assessment of the F2P market going through some sort of apocalypse in 3-5 years time (I’m more inline with Wilhelm on this one), I do see some rather drastic changes to the core concepts.  The idea of a “fun tax” seems to be the current model, where you need to pay to have fun.  Game following this model are likely to be doomed (or closed as Playfish) as you can get more fun, for less money on a mobile platform.  The concept of a “fun bonus” is more likely to succeed.  Think of it as a trial of an awesome game, like demos of old.  “Oh, I get 20 hours of great gameplay for 20$?  And you want an extra 5$ for 5 more hours?  That’s reasonable.”  The kicker here is that the content has to be of the same quality or better.  WoW expansions sell on this.  Skyrim was 50/50.

There is certainly a lot of money to be made in the F2P model (or the buy to play model).  You just have to figure out how to make people want to give you money rather than need to give you money.  That is, if you want long-term success.  I mean, there’s a reason the 3 card monte guy isn’t sitting at the same street corner for more than a hour.

Social Psychology

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Taking a break from your regularly scheduled (and often missed) gaming blurbs, I wanted to expand a bit on the concepts of psychology and how it works with social interactions.  Granted, you could spend your entire life talking about just one part of the topic and I can do little justice in my tiny blog, but consider this an experiment in wall pasting.

Preamble.  I am a people watcher.  Introverted overachiever, never really had to work hard to get through in life, not much I’ve ever had a whole lot in common with the, ahem, common person up until I reached the adult workforce.  I mentioned this in a previous post a while back but I don’t really remember being a child and worry free, nor was there ever an “aha!” moment of adulthood.  It just sort of was always there.  The adult workforce is very similar to school, in terms of skill sets.  The difference is experience and wisdom.  I’ve been lucky enough to meet the right people at the right time to move ahead at a rather quick pace.  I get to work with incredibly smart people on a daily basis.  I like the challenge.

So if you’ve read that you’ve likely come to some very basic conclusions about me.  If you read between the lines, you’ve likely applied certain psychological templates to me as well.  This is good.

For most people, when they meet someone new, they come to some quick judgment if they “like or don’t like” the other.  Most attribute this to a gut feeling.  Quite right!  This gut feeling is a personal metric system we use to gauge relationships, and the likely return on investment.  Or more plainly, we ask ourselves “is this person worth my time?”.  While we’re teens, we are learning to set a baseline for this metric and it will continue to be tweaked until the day we drop.  By the time you’re in the 20s, you’ll have a pretty solid baseline for all future relations.  Here’s the tricky part, the health of that baseline is impacted by psychology.

Your personal experience is the largest factor.  A single child is looking for something different than a child of 5 just as a broken home is going to provide a different mindset than one that is not.  Maybe your baseline is simply “will this person give me attention” or “will this person provide good discussion”.  If you’re a person of eternal optimism, then you’re likely not going to get a healthy relationship with a pessimist.

While everyone goes through a period of triage in their social circle, it’s important to realize that you can build new criteria over time.  This is more or less a testing phase, where you find a particular item you might not be interested in but give it a shot to see what comes of it.  With practice, you get better at handling that type of personality and you can try it more and more often.  You diversify your social abilities so that you have a different toolset for people that have type A personalities and those that have type B.  Along the way, in order to get better at this diversification, you learn more about those personalities and their driving forces.  “Why does that person need to please everyone?”, “why are they an adrenaline junkie?”, “why are they always smiling?”

I said earlier that I liked watching people.  Without meeting someone, I tend to find the common traits of character that they provide.  So for example the other day I saw a lady walking down the street.  Power skirt, 5 inch heels, ankle bracelet, no wedding band, blouse and jacket, straight shoulder length hair and a few other features.  So while I might not be 100% correct, based on my experience and location (world customs differ, naturally), I could deduce that she worked with people, was a middle-aged divorcee with at least 2 kids in their teens, a heavy smoker, a francophone, in need of attention and likely to respond positively to a flirtatious conversation.

To continue on the thought, it’s not that I like or dislike the person at this point; it simply gives me a reference point as to how I could start a conversation.  I’m not going to start with a story about a sports team but a chat about a night at the bar is probably going to work.  I do it so often now that I don’t even think about it.  It makes meeting new people a whole lot of fun since I don’t ever feel like I have nothing to say.

There really isn’t much of a closing statement here just that the concept of social interaction is factored by thousands of small and big factors and that our brains are able to take all of that data and within a few seconds, determine if we like or don’t like someone.  While we call it a “gut” reaction, it’s really one of the most complex decisions you’ll ever make without realizing you’re making it.

One day I’ll talk about how this social model works in cyberspace, where you lose 90% of the social cues due to not having a visual.

Less is More

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March sale estimates are out and they paint an interesting picture.  Both GoW games sold poorly while the more mid-stream, quality games, sold well.

God of War sold 360,000 (down from 1.1 million for the last game) and Gears of War sold 425,000 (down from 3 million for the last game).  Both had rather poor reviews of the same rehashed combat, lack of story and general “same-ness”.  Essentially, they were expansions priced as full priced games.

In contrast, Tomb Raider sold 696,000 copies and Bioshock sold 665,000.  2 years ago, if you told me that Tomb Raider would sell more than God of War and Gears of War combined, I would have called you crazy.  Today, we’re a few thousand copies away from that being fact.

I look at this with optimism.  People are getting tired of the franchise cycle and this bodes really well for gaming as a whole.  The days of just re-skinning the same game every year are hopefully dying, or at least making developers think twice about charging full price. (*cough* EA Sports *cough*).

My fingers are crossed that the gaming community as a whole keeps on this path of rewarding quality games and shunning the crud.  That way we can get more amazing games, as we’ve been rather blessed with so far these past few months.

Interplay Sale

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If you’re older than 25, you likely played the heck out of Interplay games.  I’m sure I put in a few hundred hours into both Fallout games.  Stonekeep, Lionheart, JAGG and Freespace also took up a huge chunk of time.  Some poor management decisions in the early 2000s meant the end of that company but it doesn’t mean you can’t still find the games.

GoG.com is having a 50% sale on most Interplay games.  There are at least 5 games in that list that I’ll be getting.  I have no idea when I’ll be playing them mind you, but having them in the back pocket for when my internet craps out (all day yesterday) is a solid investment.

For those that are a bit younger and might not have had the chance to play these games, at the very least you should try out Fallout 2.  Every sandbox-RPG built in the last 10 years owes that game.

Differing Opinions

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I read Tobold’s blog not because I agree with him but rather because I don’t.  He often starts with complicated ideas, boils them down to a black and white question and picks a side.  It’s hard to think of a personal gaming blog that elicits more comments, both for and against, so something must be working.

A recent case in point is the defense of EA argument.  In it, he postulates that disagreeing with an artist’s intended ending isn’t grounds to dismiss the game or the artist completely.  Perfectly reasonable.  Applying this logic to Mass Effect 3 however, the argument loses ground.

Rohan has a solid critique of the ending and the idea here is that a story’s ending, a twist though it might be, is dependent on the preceding elements in order to be accepted.  Casablanca might not have a happy ending but it’s acceptable and memorable due to the characters remaining true to the entire story to that point.  Bioshock Infinite might not please everyone but you can’t deny that each and every character gives additional weight to the ending through their actions in-game.

Some might have read the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind.  The first half of that series was pretty solid, the second half, so-so.  The ending was a massive Deus Ex Machina – magic saves everything.  It completely nullifies the rest of the story up until that point because the entire series could have been wrapped up in book 1.  Mass Effect 3’s ending was so poor, so full of plot holes, that they needed to retcon a few things and clarify some leaps in logic for people to accept the ending.  Even then, barely a decision you made up until that point had any impact whatsoever on the options presented to cap the series.  Starchild?  Really?

To the original topic.  EA didn’t win the golden poop because of the ME3 ending.  They won it for micro-transactions in every game, poor quality games, draconian DRM practices that inhibit gaming and for generally being so out of touch with what they are delivering that they want to blame everyone but themselves.  EA hires great companies with great ideas and somehow manages to burn out every original idea and spit out a husk of a former team.  There has to be a balance somewhere between the game experience and the bottom line – hopefully EA can find that again.

Same Story, Different Eyes

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I’m running through a second playthrough of Bioshock Infinite, having given some time to digest the complete story from last time.  I mentioned that there was a twist, and to be quite honest, I didn’t see it coming.  I normally have a decent eye for that sort of thing but I think I was just too engrossed in the tale to notice.  There’s just something about a good yarn that makes you put logic at the door, put on your kids’ mind of open wonder and just goggle up whatever the story says.  Sure, there might be some plot holes but they are so slight that you can forgive them.  This isn’t Prometheus!

Back on topic. The thing about the twist is that it pretty much puts the entire game in a different light.  The prime driver of the game changes, the setting changes, the people change. Heck, you change.  Every little tidbit of information, the little tales spread between recordings, the images, everything is in on the twist.  Where once I read rhetoric, now I see truth.

I think that’s Bioshock’s (the series) best accomplishment.  That the entire story can be played multiple times with a completely different mindset.  Where once I was the savior, now I am the criminal.  Where once there was hatred, there is love.  It’s a really weird feeling to be told the EXACT same story, word for word, and get a 180 degree interpretation.  This “grey zone”, if you will, is astounding.  I’m looking forward to seeing this through to the end again.

 

Follow Up

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In relation to the previous post, Microsoft brass has come out with an apology for what seemed like a crazy tweet.

“We apologize for the inappropriate comments made by an employee on Twitter yesterday. This person is not a spokesperson for Microsoft, and his personal views do not reflect the customer centric approach we take to our products or how we would communicate directly with our loyal consumers. We are very sorry if this offended anyone, however we have not made any announcements about our product roadmap, and have no further comment on this matter.”

That makes step 1 complete.  Step 2 will likely be happening on May 21st, if sources are correct.

This does beg the question about pricing and was one of the main reasons the PS3 had such a hard time penetrating the market.  2006 was a good financial year and still the >$600 price point was too much.  Today’s market is garbage, worldwide.  For the same price you can get a decent laptop and build a media center, wifi everywhere and build a massive collection with Steam/GoG.

Microsoft’s push towards the subscription model isn’t folly.  They’ve had it since the first XBOX with a sub model to connect to their network. This “subsidized” model allowed them to sell consoles at a loss and make it up over the years.  Sony did not do this, but instead gave you the best price Blu-Ray player at the time.  If MS is going to push a contract model, similar to cellphone arrangements, this could work in their favor.  Let’s say they sold you the console with free network access for 600$ but also had a 300$ console with a 15$/month connection fee, I would gather the former would sell like crazy.  You’d end up paying more by year 2 with the contract but the system would be on your shelf.

If you were to read the internet about this whole MS vs. Sony debate, the only “
known” factor seems to be the network connection – and it’s not even confirmed.  People can’t compare price, spec, game selection, there’s just no information out there.  Instead people will latch on to the tinniest piece of information, rumor or not, and preach it as the death of X console.

In my RL job, I do a lot of analysis and this entire process is quite the case study.  There is the advantage of early PR on Sony’s behalf, with not a peep from them since – nearly 2 months ago.  The big picture PS4 is out there but we have next to no details past that.  MS has a die-hard following on XBL, with 10+ years of network service behind them.  That they maintained the console lead for so long, with next to no technical/game reason for it is a testament to the online service’s integration.  You would think by this time more info from MS would be revealed, even if it was just a teaser site.  This gap of information, in an age of instant information, is causing massive speculation.  I have never found a time where speculation was positive.

May 21st is a long time out, a couple weeks before E3.  With a near complete lack of details from either camp, there really isn’t much to do until then.  But when has that stopped the interweb?

 

So I Hear You’ve Been Living In A Cave

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First with the introductions.  Adam Orth is the creative director for games at Microsoft.  He sent out a tweet, in response to rumors that the next XBOX is going to require always-on internet, that basically said he didn’t get what the problem was.

MS twitter

To which many a person replied.  Orth then compared internet access to electricity, in that it’s just always there.

A few points.  Point the first.

Now, I’m no rocket scientist but I do knows my stuff things.  My electricity goes down maybe twice per year and I might suffer a brownout or two (where it drops and comes back suddenly).  My internet however, goes down more than a few times per week due to multiple issues, the least of which is a crappy router.  My provider, as reliable as they are, still are not anywhere close to the reliability of electricity.  And I live in a high urban area.  My friends in the burbs or in the country, well they either don’t have access at all or suffer through horrendous service and garbage speeds.

I know people who live year round near my cottage have no internet other than tethering to a phone, facing north, in a special 4in x 4in corner, with no clouds, and no one can move while the internet is up.

Point B)

Has Mr Orth been living in a cave this past month?  Year?  There wasn’t a day in March that didn’t talk about SimCity and the always-on requirement.  Hell, it (partly) cost the CEO of EA his job.  Diablo 3 is standing right behind you, same with the UPlay from Ubisoft.  Steam is somewhere there smiling too, what with the offline mode and all.  Always-on is clearly not ready for prime time.  Unless you want to cut your market share.

Point the 3rd.

It is hard to believe that someone so highly placed within MS think this way.  Even more so when it comes to the gaming division.  I have such a hard time believing it that I am beginning to think that his account was hacked.  That truly seems to be a more reasonable answer to this.  Or, the entire point of the tweet was to gauge the public’s readiness – maybe.  That seems too meta for MS though.

Final Sum

Here’s what I’m thinking is going to happen next.  Orth is going to tweet a clarification of some sort (or move companies).  Microsoft is going to modify their always-on requirement so that offline play is possible. There will continue to be massive speculation about always on until MS comes out with an official statement.  Until that statement, every discussion about that console is going to likely be negative press.

Now That’s an Ending

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Here I sit, nearly 2 AM on a tear of a run to finish Bioshock Infinite  done and done.  Irrational has a propensity for twists and turns in their tales and this game is no different.  Expecting a twist is different from expecting the twist, much in the same way you can’t really watch the 6th Sense a second time but you’ll still sit through another one of M. Night’s movies to see what’s next.

I finished the game, in a bit over 16 hours.  I played on the hard difficulty, which I suggest most others do as well.  I had a few problems at the start but after a few upgrades, it was relatively smooth sailing from then.  Up until the last fight.  You know it’s the last fight as the mechanics change a tad but it’s a solid run.  Little note for those trying the game, I highly suggest you upgrade the Murder of Crows and Possession to their highest.  While the game is certainly a FPS it is much less about running and gunning as it is about tactical fights.  Both of those skills give you a lot of breathing room.

There are some issues within the game, I’m sure you’ll find them from time to time, but on the whole, the entire game has a great flow.  The pacing is superb up until the final penultimate act.  You companion, Elizabeth, becomes such an integral part of the game that  when you are separated from her for any amount of time, you feel exposed.  There is something to be said about an NPC character leaving such a mark and I can think of only 2 others that come to mind – the Princess in the Prince of Persia reboot and your horse Agro in Shadow of the Colossus.

I won’t spoil it for anyone as it really is a game to be experienced.  Not played mind you, that comes naturally.  You need to experience the story, the world, the people.  When the twist happens and you think back to the trip you’ve taken, you’ll appreciate it all the more.