I was going to move on to the next game review, but with how things how been going ugly, we have to chew though this subjects.
Caution: Longest Blogg Post yet!
Just recently, The gaming industry has been loosing A LOT of money: Nintendo lost TWENTY FIVE percent since of the year delay of good games for the Wii U; Microsoft lost a decent percent because off the Window's 8 Micro interface, the failed mobile systems, and Bing; and Sony lost A BILLON, but not only that, but around FIVE THOUSAND in the game industry.
Because how bad this generation of gaming, more jobs will be lost, especially since Irrational Games shut down because the main developer wanted to step away from shooters to work on more story-based games. Sure, some of the developers will be hired by 2K, but everyone and their mother knows that some will be lost because the industry wants to cut down just to save money so they can use it to make games.
The problem is that there are cancerous things the industry that are causing everything within from slumping over. In short, the gaming industry needs chemotherapy. Here are some ideas....
Free-To-Play games need balancing! The Free-to-play can be a fun experience, but power can be bought to where the term "pay-to-win" where buying the items for real world cash can be unfair to players that either want to play for free or just try the game. I guess that should also keyed the term "free-to-try," especially when Warcraft has a level cap for the "free-to-play" parts of the game.
What makes things worst for FTP can either make or break a game. Team Fortress 2 was a big example as the balance of power was unfair, and when Super MNC switched to the system, they lost more than what it was worth. Power can either make or break, no matter whatever the situation.
The recent, best example of power-balance is Loadout, as you gain the points to make your custom weapons and the only thing you can buy is cosmetics -- costume and other appeal items. Here, the power is balanced without worrying about power can be bought and sold.
Think outside the box and make new I.P.s! Yea, sure some reboots or sequels are O.K. at best, but I personally feel that ideas like this is better left twords indie-developers. But some games like Metroid, Kirby, Silent Hill, and other licenses has been scared because the industry cannot grow up and go out of their comfort zone. No matter the excuse for some people, as they are trying to defend their persona, these games have ideas that they should be on their own.
The biggest example are the rebooted series, as they might look good to some people, they DO NOT sell as much as the original, and are considered to bastercize to the orignal fans, causing a war between the fan-base to fight between each other like the Sonic Fan-base. While sequels can wear themselfs out like Silent Hill and resident evil, some ideas from the series could have been something brand flipping new!
The main issue with this trend is that it is it's a waste of potential and to the gaming industry,
this will burn a lot of profit, a main reason companies have to downsize and leave people out of a job. Companies like Capcom, Nintendo, and Sega tends to make this mistake the most. They still fallow a business model that is outdated in the last few generations.
They fear of leaving things behind, even if it hurts them financially. In the past, the gaming industry boomed withing the 90's as the gaming industry compete with each other, especially how Sega and Nintendo purposely started the counsel wars just to help bring the bucks home. Now, however, the world's economy has changed and people have grown in wisdom and intelligence in today's time. Sadly, they have to look ahead and move on.
Remaster, Remake, and Remix Wisely. While it's great that Double Dragon got a reboot, people have a responsible dislike to some reboots because sometimes. While reboots like Ducktales Remastered was OK at best, the game dose try too hard to marry both the game fans and the animation fans together. Many people who has not seen the show on Disney may feel awkward twords the Remastered game. If you don't want to burn out the "gamer" part of the fans, at least leave an option to auto-skip cut-seances instead of going into the pause.
Also, it's best not to add odd changes in games if it takes away from the original. An example of this would be Conker: Live & Reloaded, as it's just a remake of Conker: Bad Fur Day. While I do agree that the graphics are nice for the time and that it stands the test of time, the game did have unnecessary censorship. Most notably is The Great Mighty Poo, as a singing poop monster is the most musical boss in gaming history. While he dose look nice, it's sad that most of his son is censored. But I do understand WHY change in some remakes are nice, but in Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie felt that they didn't make enough change. That, and requires N&B for the bonus material.
Speaking of Rare, The biggest example of a flop remake is the Halo game, as it dosn't hold up as much as the original PC and XBOX version. While the devs at Rare DID do as much as they could since most of the team moved on since the Mycrosoft buy-out; This was considered the biggest mistake Rareware has ever done as it threw them back for two generations. But back on subject -- this shows that remakes arn't everything MOST of the time, just SOME of the time.
Exspectations must be lowered! As games like Sleeping Dogs felt to be underrated because the developers want almost a billion in money from sales. While I don't agree with some games not getting enough sales, games like Sleeping dogs personally did well. Another is the Wii U, as Nintendo was expecting to sell nine million while they only made three million during last year. This is part of the issue is similar with thinking outside the box, just more with sales.
The industry must accept to only received at least Twenty five to fifty of their normal expectation as this is the least dissapointment woudn't be as bad as it is today. Part of this is linked to the times, as the better the economy, the better the business that could be executed. Right now, the world is not as people would want and need it to be. This doesn't just effect your country as it effect the world as a whole as well.
The only way for the industry to survive is to adjust to with the times, but the gaming industry and companies of foren places like Japan are suffering because they refuse to adjust because of just simple pride. Companies like Sega, Nintendo, Capcom, and others has been effected as well because how they the impacts of events like how the tsunami caused the delay of the Wii U's games as company damages prevented them from mass producing. Things that happen outside do come back inside, as a cause will always have an effect.
Finally, Be nice to your fan-base, but ignore the trolls. They are the ones that spend the most of their time, money, and livelihood just to support the companies like Son Microsoft, uncle Sony, and great-grandpa Nintendo. They get hyped for upcoming games like Smash Bros., the next Halo, or even the next...Sony game. However, the hype train can be abused to bring in the "slaves" of the gaming industry.
The biggest criminal for abusing their fans have to be EA and Sega, as their current licenses like Dungeon Keeper and Most Sonic games can be abused. While Sega did get a few hits like Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations, the bombed Sonic with games like The Black Knight to even Sonic Lost World. While back to EA, They recently made Dungeon Kepper into a Pay-to-win game on the app-store. The heart and soul of Dungeon Keeper (and Original voice-actor) is gone...Unless you bought War for the Overworld, which I recommend to back.
While there are Let's Plays of games on Youtube, Game reviews, parodies, and so forth, most of these are out of love for the game and are more involved with the experience of the player. Sadly, The industy sees them as a block to profit, especially if the game is, in fact terrible like Garry's incident. The party then issue copyright strikes and take-downs on the channel they dislike the most, causing censorship on issues. These people are the ones the industry should apologize, as some abuse them by taking revenue as free advertizement or just purely attacking their business. While copyright law is very gray, this is static at best and NO ONE can copyright this nature, as like rain drops heard outside, it belongs to everyone!
We can only hope things go well within the industry, things seem to get worse later on the line. If The industry wants to prevent a crash, SOMEONE has to stand up like Nintendo did in the 80's. I believe that Inde-games could help bring the attention back to gaming, as games like Doom actually sparked the Shooting gen of games. The problem is the main solution for gaming is not clear enough, but at least the industry has something to look for...
UNTIL THE END OF US ALL!
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Free-to-play
In this economy, people cannot spend as they used to when that money has to go to other things such as family, pets, their girlfriend/boyfriend, hair, rent, water, and so much other needs and wants that can eat up one's lifetime. Because of this, the game industry has decided to run a new try system know as Free-to-play (FTP.) Which is an ironic term since only few can run the system fairly.
While it is good designed FTP games, there are games that are keyed "Pay-to-win" because of the total corporal ways to milk money from the players.
One way is Pay-walls, which force the player to buy the power they need just to move on to the next stage or to remove a cap that prevents players from moving on. Not only that it's unethical, this can sap a lot of money from anyone stupid enough to pay for this system. The most resent is EA's Dungeon Keeper App for iPhone and android. As you have to pay just for the jems to even minions, as getting new parts of your own dungeon. Another bad FTP game that fallows this evilness is Star Trek: Texels, because it fallows the same tactics. To sum it up, as Angry Joe puts it, Greed-over-game-play. (This is why I had no choice but to boycott EA and Capcom because how they premote bad practice)
The way to prevent this issue is to allow players to find or unlock power without leaving caps or pay-walls, nor timers. I did mention that in Phantasy Star Online 2 where you can find most your rares, but the most recent example is Payload, as you can get most clothes by dailies and winning matches to get points to help adjust and make weapons. Paying for the starter kit dose help pay the developers for the cost of their art and graphic design, but that seems to be optional thanks to how their FTP game is built.
Another issue is Area-lock, which only selected countries can play the game. The biggest example is DragonBall Online. One of the world's biggest animes in the world has an online game...Only for asia. However, they did allow an English patch later on as it bough tons of new fans. While it dose have it's "trolls," as most communities do, they can easily be hunted down with a huge Ban-hammer. That is not a huge issue. While, yes, some English patches can be discouraged, Some can actually be promoted and even help moderators find jobs! this is why the modding community is a major plus for the gaming industry, as we would never get games like Day Z nor The Stanly Parable...But that's for another topic.
Even though the solution for games like that seem to be third-party help-outs, that is not always the case. One example is Play-Asia, as they botched most of their online-ports. Their biggest flop has to be DC Universe online, as they took the best part of the game has been taunted by delays, bugs and glitches that weren't in the original port, and unneeded censors, even when sometimes it works. The sad thing is Japan and other foren companies are aware of this because they fallow their own rules, and because the industry is constantly changing in other countries, companies are taking economical and financial damages because they are refusing to adjust to the changes.
The last thing I have to say is that it's up to people to make the wise decision to what they play and what they spend their money for, but even that's a stretch since adults would even let children play on their tablets while not paying attention to the consequences. That brings up the news stories of how kids managed to spend thousands of dollars on Free-to-play games. That money could have been used for needs like clothing, food, supplies, or your needs like better games made from people who actually put their hearts into their games, instead of cloning from others heartlessly just to make a fast buck!
The gaming industry really needs a drastic surgery to clear and remove this cancer part of Free-to-play and burn off the fatty parts of the industry, or an industry crash will occur, as it seems to slowly creep among us. Luckily, I have managed to prepare with used games and food supplies because soon the soul-less casual gamers will roam and eat our brains. Good-luck on your end, because you'll need it.
While it is good designed FTP games, there are games that are keyed "Pay-to-win" because of the total corporal ways to milk money from the players.
One way is Pay-walls, which force the player to buy the power they need just to move on to the next stage or to remove a cap that prevents players from moving on. Not only that it's unethical, this can sap a lot of money from anyone stupid enough to pay for this system. The most resent is EA's Dungeon Keeper App for iPhone and android. As you have to pay just for the jems to even minions, as getting new parts of your own dungeon. Another bad FTP game that fallows this evilness is Star Trek: Texels, because it fallows the same tactics. To sum it up, as Angry Joe puts it, Greed-over-game-play. (This is why I had no choice but to boycott EA and Capcom because how they premote bad practice)
The way to prevent this issue is to allow players to find or unlock power without leaving caps or pay-walls, nor timers. I did mention that in Phantasy Star Online 2 where you can find most your rares, but the most recent example is Payload, as you can get most clothes by dailies and winning matches to get points to help adjust and make weapons. Paying for the starter kit dose help pay the developers for the cost of their art and graphic design, but that seems to be optional thanks to how their FTP game is built.
Another issue is Area-lock, which only selected countries can play the game. The biggest example is DragonBall Online. One of the world's biggest animes in the world has an online game...Only for asia. However, they did allow an English patch later on as it bough tons of new fans. While it dose have it's "trolls," as most communities do, they can easily be hunted down with a huge Ban-hammer. That is not a huge issue. While, yes, some English patches can be discouraged, Some can actually be promoted and even help moderators find jobs! this is why the modding community is a major plus for the gaming industry, as we would never get games like Day Z nor The Stanly Parable...But that's for another topic.
Even though the solution for games like that seem to be third-party help-outs, that is not always the case. One example is Play-Asia, as they botched most of their online-ports. Their biggest flop has to be DC Universe online, as they took the best part of the game has been taunted by delays, bugs and glitches that weren't in the original port, and unneeded censors, even when sometimes it works. The sad thing is Japan and other foren companies are aware of this because they fallow their own rules, and because the industry is constantly changing in other countries, companies are taking economical and financial damages because they are refusing to adjust to the changes.
The last thing I have to say is that it's up to people to make the wise decision to what they play and what they spend their money for, but even that's a stretch since adults would even let children play on their tablets while not paying attention to the consequences. That brings up the news stories of how kids managed to spend thousands of dollars on Free-to-play games. That money could have been used for needs like clothing, food, supplies, or your needs like better games made from people who actually put their hearts into their games, instead of cloning from others heartlessly just to make a fast buck!
The gaming industry really needs a drastic surgery to clear and remove this cancer part of Free-to-play and burn off the fatty parts of the industry, or an industry crash will occur, as it seems to slowly creep among us. Luckily, I have managed to prepare with used games and food supplies because soon the soul-less casual gamers will roam and eat our brains. Good-luck on your end, because you'll need it.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Early Access and Kick-Starter
Well, this is a serious subject that recently came up by many critics: The pledge of Early Access that has came withing the last year. While that the games that features early access are cheaper and are less risky as most donation sites like Paypal with, or without, Kick-Starter, the games aren't exactly complete, has ton of bugs, and on rare occasions, been abandoned by the developers.
Part of it is the confusion between what goes on within these systems.
While there are games that where successful on kick-starters like Skull-Girls and River City: Underground, Games like Garry's Incident are a big example of it's failure. When the developers couldn't get enough money, they tried to make the game on their small budget, and they failed. It was one of last year's worst games. They did try to claim the videos and even written false reviews, in bad English, as well.
A misnomer is that some people believe once they give their amount to the developers though donations, they have a small amount of control. Well, wake up: If one takes control away from the developers, that would only complicate things because they cannot have creative control. It's getting to the point where people should at least make their own games, not just to plagiarize the game by making into something else. Not all games can have a customization as Saints Row, the WWE games, or like most avatar games, because it's egotistic. It shows that no one has faith twords the developers to make their own game. What an issue.
What both donation systems have issues with is that both require you to gamble and trust on the developers. While there are good developers with unique projects, there are some that are just trying to cash in on the certain fad.
For example, Wolf Among us help spawned the Werewolf games last year. While the Fable's spin-off is an awesome storytelling game, others werewolf games are knock-offs like modern movie spin-offs. While some are very average, Guise of the Wolf is terrible because they wanted to fallow a trend than just make a good game. The game is full of bugs, has terrible programing, dosn't give any hints of the mechanics, and is a horrible game all-around...
So all and all, The gaming industry is a huge gamble. Even the same old plans from the past cannot help, even though it did work in the past. If there is one hint that I would have to give is know what one is getting into. Getting information of the devs is a major, as the past often reflect on their performance. If they're an inde dev, it all depend on how things look and how people talk about the project. In the most of all, wait until the game is released and wait for the critics and reviews get their hands upon the games and then work it out from there.
Until then, roll that hot pair of dice! Daddy needs a new pair of shoes!~
Part of it is the confusion between what goes on within these systems.
While there are games that where successful on kick-starters like Skull-Girls and River City: Underground, Games like Garry's Incident are a big example of it's failure. When the developers couldn't get enough money, they tried to make the game on their small budget, and they failed. It was one of last year's worst games. They did try to claim the videos and even written false reviews, in bad English, as well.
A misnomer is that some people believe once they give their amount to the developers though donations, they have a small amount of control. Well, wake up: If one takes control away from the developers, that would only complicate things because they cannot have creative control. It's getting to the point where people should at least make their own games, not just to plagiarize the game by making into something else. Not all games can have a customization as Saints Row, the WWE games, or like most avatar games, because it's egotistic. It shows that no one has faith twords the developers to make their own game. What an issue.
What both donation systems have issues with is that both require you to gamble and trust on the developers. While there are good developers with unique projects, there are some that are just trying to cash in on the certain fad.
For example, Wolf Among us help spawned the Werewolf games last year. While the Fable's spin-off is an awesome storytelling game, others werewolf games are knock-offs like modern movie spin-offs. While some are very average, Guise of the Wolf is terrible because they wanted to fallow a trend than just make a good game. The game is full of bugs, has terrible programing, dosn't give any hints of the mechanics, and is a horrible game all-around...
So all and all, The gaming industry is a huge gamble. Even the same old plans from the past cannot help, even though it did work in the past. If there is one hint that I would have to give is know what one is getting into. Getting information of the devs is a major, as the past often reflect on their performance. If they're an inde dev, it all depend on how things look and how people talk about the project. In the most of all, wait until the game is released and wait for the critics and reviews get their hands upon the games and then work it out from there.
Until then, roll that hot pair of dice! Daddy needs a new pair of shoes!~
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