Games I will be Playing

            I have not been posting nearly enough this year and I want to steer back from that.  To that end I have found a 30-day blog challenge and will be writing out entries, hopefully I can get all thirty days without any breaks, and if I manage to do that (since August has 31 days) I will think of an additional entry to write about.  I have done a 30-day challenge before, it for movies, but that was a while back, feel free to read those too if you like.

            Today is day 29 and the topic is “A Game I Will Be Playing”.

            I do not have a single game earmarked for this topic, so I picked something more nebulous, My Steam Library.  Way back on day 4 I said that the PC was my favorite system to play on, and that was because of Steam, and right now I have a shit ton of games all loaded and ready to play just as soon as I get past that initial push of actually turning them on.

            Let’s look at 5 games I have played for less than an hour, but I still want to play more of them, I just haven’t for whatever reason.

You can almost hear the moody low key score in your head.
Even if you have never played this game you can picture what it sounds like.

            1) “Deadlight”

            While I am sure of the narrative developing it is a solid platforming game.  I imagine that if this game had not been about zombies, which I am kind of sick of at this point.

Let me talk about zombies for a second.  The thing about fads in pop culture when they relate to science fiction and horror elements, be it vampires, werewolves, angels, or aliens; these things tend to show up, they get 4-5 movies or shows, then there is a brief period of backlash when people start to analyze the nuances of why they would and would not work, and finally the fad passes out of the system to get revisited a decade later with a fresh twist.

At this point zombies have not only been deconstructed, they survived the backlash and just kept on walking around, getting even more shows and video game tie ins.  We are going to end up hitting the revisiting/revitalizing stage of the cycle without them having ever dropped out of popular consciousness.  That is weird. 

This game also sounds exactly how you would picture it to.

            2) “Invisible Inc”

            I like turn based strategy, and a stealth game that utilizes a system akin to “X-Com” but for thievery sounds great.  I had actually hoped for a game with fewer narrative elements so I could just play it while doing something else, but with the story kicking in between every mission and sometimes during I can’t split my attention entirely, hence why I have not managed to play thru the thing.  I guess I will have to make time to go thru the thing rather than it just being something I keep busy with.

This is a longer game and has a more diverse sound.

            3) “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning”

            This game has a style, both in gameplay and art, that reminds me a lot of “Fable” and I think that if I just give it a shot it will draw me in, but I’ve played it less than 2 hours.

This actually sounds nothing like I would picture.

            4) “Mark of the Ninja”

            This is a stealth platformer that is fun, but for whatever reason I found myself annoyed by being graded for my performance by the game while at the same time being unsure what it is I needed to do in order to improve my performance.  I think I will have to give it another chance and just ignore the repeated instances of me sucking.

This one sounds like the 90's cartoon adaptation of itself.

            5) “Shadowrun Returns”

            This turn based gameplay added to a cyberpunk setting, but with magic… This seems to have everything I look for in a story based game.  I liked the first half hour, but much like my non-starter romantic relationships in my life, I was afraid to commit.

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Now let’s look at games that are downloaded, and ready to roll, but I haven’t actually played them, instead just looking at them for a few minutes before playing “Age of Empires III” or “Civilization V” again.  These were initially in reverse alphabetical order, because I thought that would provide a strange sense of symmetry to the list (as the previous list is in alphabetical order), but then I realized that if I put them in Alphabetical order I would have started the previous list with zombies and ended this one with zombies, and that seemed even more symmetrical.  I am a bit of a mad person.

I think this has music that is suitably a mix of grim and epic.

1) “Darksiders II”

I played the first one, and while I found it to be over the top it was still fun… Until I hit a boss I couldn’t beat.  I turned the difficulty down, played it several times, and then quit in a huff (This attitude is also why I have not played a lot of “Dark Souls”).  That experience with “Darksiders” left me a little uninterested in trying the sequel, but I got it as part of a game bundle when THQ went out of business and have been willing to give the series another shot but just haven’t yet done so.

Creepy and weird.

            2) “Dishonored”

            This is probably the most well regarded game on this list.  I have no idea why I did not dive into this the day I got it.  I have wanted to, but just haven’t.  I think I might have some deep seeded fear of starting something I will probably enjoy.

Bit of a color change with this title as compare to the previous entries.

            3) “How to Survive”

            Fucking Zombies again.  At least this one has a unique view of the gameplay, and seems to emphasize making weapons to fight the zombies in different ways.

Sexy chick in a cyberpunk dystopia.  Tell me I'm Dreaming.

            4) “Remember Me”

            A science fiction dystopia about manipulating memories and kung fu.  Am I in the Matrix?  No?  Okay.  But that’s what the game is about.

Windmills?  If I had played this it might make sense.

5) “Valkyria Chronicles”

This is a turn based strategy game set in an anime version of World War II, but they don’t call it that.  Cause, Japan.  Which is fine by me.  I have heard tons of good things but much like everything else I just haven’t done it.

Anything I write in this caption will be more words than what I wrote under the description.

6) “The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux”

This is about a guy walking around.  That is all I have managed to gather about this thing.

Even the music on this thing is better than the show.

            7) “The Walking Dead: Season Two”

            I talked about the first one being a masterpiece of storytelling (except for chapter 3) and I have put off actually playing this thing for freaking ever.  I no idea why.  Two of my buddies played it in tandem and invited me to watch it but I foolishly blew them off expecting to have played it on my own time.

            This is kind of where that lethargy toward zombies was really kicking in.  I had been giving the TV show a shot at this point (what a piece of shit) and this could just wait.

            I think it is pretty clear that I have allowed way too many god damn games pile up in my Steam library and have not done enough to actually take advantage of owning them the way I took advantage of how easy they were to purchase.  This is the problem I think with some online shopping that lots of people fall into, when you have instant access to something you want on an impulse and those impulses are stimulated frequently by sales, special offers, or just more content being released it feeds that squirrel part of the brain that just collects and hordes hunts until your squirrel hard drive looks like an overstuffed red bar.

            What games have you been looking forward to playing but haven’t had the time or the drive to actually hit “start”?  Or are there any games you only played for an hour before setting down?  Not because they were bad, just because you had other shit to do and it could wait.  And they continue to wait.  Please comment.

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My Gaming System of Choice

            I have not been posting nearly enough this year and I want to steer back from that.  To that end I have found a 30-day blog challenge and will be writing out entries, hopefully I can get all thirty days without any breaks, and if I manage to do that (since August has 31 days) I will think of an additional entry to write about.  I have done a 30-day challenge before, it for movies, but that was a while back, feel free to read those too if you like.

            Today is day 4 and the topic is “My Gaming System of Choice”.

            I currently have a Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360 hooked into my TV; I also use my phone for quick little things like Bejeweled; and I have a Nintendo DS which I have had since 2007.  All of these things together make up about 5% of my gaming activities.  I am very much a PC oriented game player at this point in my life because of one particular goliath of gaming.

Bwaaaah!

            Behold, oh glorious garbage peddling monster.  Soul sucking abomination of the online world.  Shiller of shit I do not need and may never touch again.  Breath deep and feel your lungs burned by the Steam.

            The number of games old and new is ocean deep on this service.  It has allowed me to play dozens of games for dollars that in previous generations of renting shit at Blockbuster would have cost bricks of gold.  Which is fine by me.  I spend less on games every year and yet I still have access to everything I want to play (that my computer can handle, it was top of the line 7 years ago, not so much now).  I have 7 games waiting for me to play them and dozens more that I got in value packs waiting to be downloaded.

            Really at this point I am more starting to just hate the concept of how consoles function.  Individual units with variable power and certain walled off fiefdoms of games that they won’t let the others play with.  Forcing consumers to buy more of these units to gain access to each of the fiefdoms.  WHY IS THIS ALLOWED?

When movie studios began to buy uptheater chains they were hit with antitrust legislation but game companies continue to horde these things.  Imagine a world in which a particular movie wouldn’t play on certain brands of movie player, only on the players of the company who owned the movie as an IP.  Imagine if TV operated that way, only Universal brand TV’s can play NBC and related networks.  People would be pissed (and so would advertising firms) as no one would want to have three screens in their living rooms to watch the three big networks, to say nothing of all the independent content that would have never been produced because of the prohibitive barriers to entering the market.

And esoteric shit like this needs no more prohibitions to entry.  It is hard enough as is.

In eras past they wouldn’t bother producing a video game unless you can guarantee 2 million units sold, otherwise it wouldn’t be worth the shelf space it takes up (this is also true of the music industry and CD’s, independent artists in the music world floundered for so long, and why they are booming now because of PC music, allowing people to sell the music they want without having to put disks on shelves).  Steam removes that.  Sure there is a tidal wave of sewage, but there is also a lot of good content that would have NEVER existed with this means to distribute it.  Could you imagine selling “Papers Please”, “Invisible Inc”, “This War of Mine”, or even something with some horror elements that are unmarketable like “Sunless Sea” or “Darkest Dungeon”?  No, because no one would think they would sell.

Steam, and the PC culture in general has created what is called in marketing “The long tail effect”, that the more esoteric something becomes the thinner the audience for it becomes, so sales drop off to a flat line, or a “Long Tail”.  Things in the long tail would not be catered to because the distribution of hard media is too expensive for something that won’t sell, look back at something like “Psychonauts” and how that game’s strangeness left it sitting on shelves, but now it is considered a classic because it was able to find its part of the long tail, sell to those who wanted it, and then sell to others who grew curious of it, a curiosity spurred by the ease of access and low price.

This blog will better explain the concept.

What is more, Steam and services like it are competing with both each other and piracy, consoles don’t have that difficulty, the cost of buying a console means you are invested, and they have complete control over their market place, no Steam sales for you, this is how much XBLA wants to charge for this game, if you want it that is how much you will have to pay.

I like PC’s because they are so pro consumer, because they are so full of Choice.  (Hey, look at that, I tied this back to my talk about my favorite game genre.  Aren’t I cute?)

           

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Future of Video Games

            I would like to make a prediction right now about the future of one of my favorite hobbies, Video Games.  The next gaming system, be it the Playstation 4, Xbox 720, or the Super Wii Cube Virtual Revolution, will be as different from the current disk utilizing and motion control tom-foolery as the current generation is from the Cartridge utilizing systems of years long forgotten.

            My prediction is this: Video Game consoles will stop using game disks.  No more having to go to Game Stop, Best Buy, or Wal Mart to pick up the latest title, they will all be streamed to a large hard drive found in the system utilizing the Web connection you have.  This will give you what you want more or less on demand.  The game companies will sell new hard drives, but really they won't have to.  You will have an online account which will keep track of what games you have purchased and if you ever delete a game from your hard drive for space you can just download it again at any time from the internet, you essentially will be purchasing the right to play a game at any point you wish, forever.

            What in the world makes me say such a ridiculous portent?  Many things, not the least of which being that it already exists and is insanely profitable, efficient, and well liked by gamers all over the world.

            Currently there are services that do this very thing, and you have used them recently to rub yourself off with the pleasurable thoughts of nostalgia, and to add on fresh content to a title that was of particular interest to you.

            The Playstation network allows you access to movies, news, international multiplayer, and more importantly, downloadable content that takes the form of classic games and extra levels, weapons, maps, and just pointless bullshit like clothing all without having to leave your chair to get a new game disk.  Wii has the virtual store, again a source of news, multiplayer (which is balls), and classic games.  XBLA is the best of them as they get you to pay them for the pleasure of playing "Halo" against racist fat kids in Michigan, while downloading classic games.  All of them allow you to download independent titles that showcase new game mechanics, art styles, stories, and other risky ventures that major studios wouldn't put out for fear of loosing money.

            And forget those titans of industry, lets look at Gametap, the Netflix of games, allowing you to stream titles for a monthly fee, which is fucking awesome, at least in theory, my internet connection couldn't handle it I'm sure.  And there is also Onlive, the new system which much like a cable box allows access to games on demand using their own library.  And there is the mach daddy of services, "Steam" which is produced by Valve, makers of "Left 4 Dead", "Portal", and "Half-Life"; Steam has allowed the company to become the go to in online content acquisition for the PC, and I wouldn't be surprised if Valve did the reverse of Sega and moved into Hardware production, creating a system just for the utilization of the Steam network.

            Also, World of Warcraft, and the entire MMO style of play.  Or if you are really interested in throwing out internet related content, lets look at the huge number of flash games on Newgrounds.com, or the staggering number of bullshit available in any given ap-store for tiny little touch screens.  Oh, and Farmville.

            Why in the world would these companies do this?  Abandoning a business model that is tried and true?  Simple: they are getting screwed over by the retail system, and the used game marketplace.  Currently Gamestop is of the practice of buying back games and selling them at a discount, none of that second sale money goes back to the holders of the IP's, none of the coders, none of the development teams, none of the companies who made the games see any of that money.  Gamestop is making a killing as a fucking pawn shop, and none of that money is going toward the creation of new IP's and game technology.  The worst part, Walmart and Best Buy are planning on opening up a used game market themselves, using their superior store placement and technological culture to steal away Gamestop's customers (assuming of course that Best Buy just doesn't buy out Gamestop and use them as the front for this circle jerk).

            The only way to keep money flowing to companies like Double Fine, Bioware, Valve, and Bethesda, the real producers of what we want, is to cut out the retail companies altogether.  And they should.  Retail companies produce nothing, they fence the goods produced by others with a mark up, and pay employees very little.  They are fostering a dystopian future of a Libertarian ideal gone mad.

            I personally do not buy used games.  And in general I dissuade others from buying them.  Other people tell me that a used copy is cheaper but just as good, but fail to realize that it would be cheaper still if we just bought stuff direct from the creators rather than through a middle man who currently offers less and less.  I dream of a world in which we can buy things instantly, play them, and go back to working on creating things for others to instantly buy, be it entertaining junk, food, or clothes, or anything, rather than living in a world where we are all paid tiny amounts working shitty retail jobs, and have to buy used and repacked stuff because it is the only thing we can afford.