Electronic Arts putting Microtransactions in their games

I told you all this would happen. I told you in my previous posts (Here, Here, Here) that EA and Activision are planning to implement severe restrictions on their games, and now they are already publicly admitting it.

I told you all that I knew what the ultimate goal of EA was, to severely restrict content and charge extra for a bare-bones game to become whole.

Now, it has happened. Gamers have stopped caring about this because they think it doesn't hurt them or their Gaming life, but guess what, it does. This is going to spell the end of Video Games, as every other Game Maker out there is going to do exactly what I reported they said they were planning to do, slowly but surely.

It's time Gamers wake the fuck up and take back the industry they are responsible for. If you want to sit back and ignore this, than you can say bye-bye to your favorite games. Everybody likes to talk and talk, but nobody is boycotting these practices because they're so loyal to a disgusting company they're blinded by their rhetoric.

Gaming will no longer be what it is if we don't do something now. STOP SUPPORTING EA AND ACTIVISION and all of the other companies who want nothing more than to exploit Gamers for more money in the name of profits.

New Blog & Blog Authors & Fun Update

Started a new blog today. It's going to be about showcasing all of the PC Emulators for PS1/PS2/Dolphin(Gamecube/Wii)/N64/Sega and all of the other ones. I'm going to put videos up showing how to properly configure the Emulators to get the Maximum Performance and Best Graphical Settings for each Emulator.

I'll be showcasing me playing the games as well to show how they work and give tips on the best Emulators and the inner-workings.

So if you're interested in playing your PS1/PS2/GameCube/Wii/N64 or any other system (Excluding PS3 and Xbox 1 & 360 for obvious reasons) on your PC then head on over and check it out!

http://truthofgamingretro.blogspot.com


ALSO

I am seeking some extra authors who are interested in volunteering to help out over on the "True Reviews" blog. I want to grow the blog into a vast resource for Honest, Unbiased Reviews and anybody who's interested in making that happen is welcome to join.

Shoot me an email or an IM if you're interested. My email and IM contact information can be found by looking down a few posts, or by clicking this link.


ALSO


I just recently purchased some new Hard Drives for my Data Center and I am officially up to 20 Terabytes (TB) of data. Yes, that's 20,000 Gigabytes (GB) of storage. I'm hoping to improve my Data Center even further now that I have additional slots put into the Motherboard so my collection of Media & Entertainment can start growing even more now.

Thoughts on THQ and their Future.

For those who don't know, THQ is not doing so well. Their stock is on the verge of being de-listed from the NASDAQ Stock Exchange because they have been trading under $1.00 per share for several months.

On January 31, 2012 they were warned by NASDAQ that if they continue having a Stock Value below $1.00 per share they will be de-listed. They were told they have Six (6) Months to get their stock price up or they will be de-listed, which is currently set for July 23rd.

Recently, THQ has announced plans to do a Reverse-Stock-Split so that they can increase their stock price above the $1.00 needed. They must maintain the $1.00 or more Share Price for Ten (10) Consecutive Days to avoid being de-listed.

Doing a Reverse-Stock-Split means that they will take their existing shares and consolidate them. Their current plans are either 1:3, 1:5 or 1:10. This means that for a Stock Holder every 3, 5 or 10 shares that they own will forcefully turn into a Single Share. Example: If you own 100 shares of THQ and they do a 1:5 Reverse-Stock-Split then you will only have 20 shares, but the price/value of the stock should increase respectively.

Doing this removes a lot of the stock that is already out there, which can cause Investors to become uneasy and many may decide to pull-out and not be apart of it. When a company does a Reverse-Stock-Split it usually means they are in dire straits, and the fact that THQ just posted a near-$250 Million Loss for their May, 2012 Fiscal Year End does not bode well for the company.


Honestly, I think THQ is in very big trouble. If they are de-listed from the Stock Market, their company will be in major trouble and could spell the beginning of the end for THQ. Even if they are able to do the Reverse-Stock-Split they will still face stiff criticism from Share Holders and could further damage their image. After posting so many losses quarter-after-quarter, even if they manage to get their stock to several dollars, it will immediately plummet again as they're not showing any profits and so many deep losses, ultimately putting them back in this position but in an even worse way.

This month will prove tremendously pivotal to the future of THQ. I honestly would like to see THQ get de-listed, as it will send a message to other companies that they need to treat consumers better and release higher-caliber games that satisfy the communities desires. The sad part is people will likely be Laid-Off and out of work, something that is truly horrible and was caused by the Top-Execs getting way too greedy.

A meeting with investors is scheduled for June 29 to attempt to come up with a solution. Let's see how it rolls out.

How to contact me

I've gotten a few requests from people wanting to contact me. Below are the details you can use to contact me:

AIM Messenger: xMadModMikex
Yahoo! Messenger: MadModMike
Google Talk Messenger: xMadModMikex@Gmail.com
Windows Live Messenger: MadModMike@Live.com

E-Mail: Mike@InFusionBlue.com

Thanks.

PS: Make sure you don't send me an E-Mail to my Gmail or Live.com account. I do not check those E-Mail accounts, I only use them to sign-in to Google Talk Messenger and Windows Live Messenger. The only E-Mail account that I check is the "InFusionBlue.com" one.

My Favorite Games

I've had a few people ask me what I thought was a good game since I tend to rag on quite a few, so I will list below some of my Favorite Video Games.

Yakuza Franchise
Heavy Rain (Top 3 All-Time Favorite)
Alan Wake (Top 3 All-Time Favorite)
Demon's Souls & Dark Souls
Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy
Dead Island (Top 3 All-Time Favorite)
Silent Hill 2 & Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Metal Gear Solid 2, 3 & 4 - 4 is my favorite of the entire series
Lost Odyssey
Mercenaries 1 & 2
Forza Motorsports Franchise
Max Payne Franchise (#4 All-Time Favorite)
Fallout Franchise
Elder Scrolls Franchise (Though Bethesda does a horrible job of creating a world, reusing textures like crazy)
Call of Duty 2 *ONLY*
Grand Theft Auto Franchise
Just Cause 2
Magicka
Mass Effect Franchise
Dragon Age: Origins (Not #2)
Company of Heroes Franchise
Half Life 2 & Extras
Resident Evil Franchise
inFAMOUS
Killzone 1 & 2


And more, though these are my fav-favorites.



As you can tell I really enjoy games with either Amazing Stories or Great Gameplay. My Top-Favorites are story games though, but games that let the player carve out a piece of the world for themselves like Mercenaries and Fallout/Elder Scrolls really appeal to me as well.

Big-Time Franchises like Gears of War I don't particularly care for, as GoW got real boring for me and I've never finished the entire campaign for any of the franchise. I don't think Epic Games does a good job at making a story, as all of the elements of the game that are supposed to be emotional are horribly executed.

Thoughts on the Future of Gaming & Next-Gen

The gaming industry is doomed.

That's quite a statement, huh? Saying something like that can mean any number of things, but typically it's nothing too great. There're so many rumors running around about the details of the Next-Gen systems and their supposed features, like Touch-Screens and Motion-Control; both of which, mind you, are stupid.

Gimmicks and Casual-Gaming are taking over slowly but surely. The new "Wii U" is all about "connectivity" and their new Giant-Cell-Phone-Controller that is supposed to be so great. I haven't had a chance to use the Wii U personally, I've only held it in my hands, and that was enough to turn me away for good.

The size alone was enough to turn my stomach, but what I was hearing was even worse: Making games that are focused on their "Play-N-Go" system, about using the Touch-Screen to view your games and be able to go from TV to Portable and back. Now, that sounds like a nice thing, right? Well, it isn't.

All of this points towards focusing on making "games" that are severely stripped down and appeal to a Mass-Market. While that makes sense from a Business standpoint, it means shit is ahead for Hardcore Gamers. I do like Casual gaming, things like Angry Birds are great for your phone or PC when you're bored or need to kill a few minutes, but games like that do not bode well for the future of Hardcore Gaming.

As I've said before, it's not that companies wanting to make a buck are all-of-a-sudden a bad thing, it's the fact that the CEO's and Executives and Shareholders have now gotten so damn Greedy it's ridiculous. It's not just the Gaming Industry, it's the entire world, as the General Public has now realized that ever since 2007 things have steadily gone downhill. Companies are not just releasing Casual games to make a buck, they're sacrificing the Hardcore Gaming market because they're not satisfied with only $1 Billion they need $100 Billion, and once they have that they'll want $200 Billion.

But, I digress.

With the news of the Wii U and Microsoft pushing their Kinect and their new "SmartGlass" crap, the overall quality of the products plummets, because they're focusing all of their attention on trying to get the largest piece of the pie that they can. I do applaud companies like Rockstar Games, because although they're just as guilty as the rest of delaying games for profit, at least the games they DO push out are ridiculously amazing (Max Payne 3).

I don't have much hope for the future of gaming, I really don't. I can see the Next-Gen systems focusing more on all of the gadgets and gizmos like Kinect and Touch-Screens to push them through. Anybody who's used Kinect (myself included) can attest to the fact that the quality of that hunk of plastic is as low as a tuna fish's place on the food-chain.

People like Cliff Bleszinski are helping ruin the industry I put well over 10 years of my life into. For the record, Next-Gen systems are NOT needed. What IS needed are Publishers and Developers who still care about the Hardcore fan-base, the ones who helped put them in the place they're in now. I hope Gamers will wake up and start voting with their wallet and show the industry that we all have a voice and that we want better-quality games that we deserve.

Also for the record I'm not a huge fan of Multiplayer games. I don't hate them, quite far from that actually, but I feel making games completely based on simple Multiplayer-tactics that are decades old is a bad move. I do enjoy games like Battlefield (even though EA is apart of it) but when Developers start changing the entire game mechanics of a game's Single-Player Experience to better fit Multiplayer, that is absolute bullshit.

I will keep some faith in the future of Gaming, because it is MY Industry and it's what I love and many millions love as well.

PS: Please quit sending me so many damn messages and e-mails about my writing technique; everybody has their own style of writing and this is mine. I focus on creating Stories and Depth over General Appeal. I haven't been able to write as much as I would have liked because I'm working on some Stories and finishing my third Novel, so I've been a bit busy as of late, but I haven't forgotten so don't worry :).

Responding to criticism

I figured I'd take a minute to respond to some of the criticism I've been receiving from people over my blog posts.

I do understand that the majority of people do not want to believe certain things because they enjoy living in their little bubble where nothing bad happens. The bubble where bad people aren't real and corporations really care about people and won't do bad things to simply make a buck, but unfortunately for them that is not the world we live in.

Bribes and Scams are prevalent in all aspects of society in every country, including the Video Game Industry. The sooner everybody understands how deep this goes and realizes the truth, the sooner we Gamers can take back our rights and use our money to promote respectable Game Developers and Publishers instead of throwing money around just to satisfy our small desires, which in the long run, will make things even worse and lead to another 1983.

Also, to those who want to insult and belittle my writing skills, it is not my fault that you never graduated from any writing class. How I write is the proper, correct way to punctuate a sentence with proper grammar and syntax. Sure, I make mistakes, I'm human after all, but 99% of what and how I write is correct.

I will continue writing articles exposing the industry players for who they are, to educate and enlighten the Gaming World to the realities of how things are. The reason for this: I love the industry and I am sick and tired of greedy bastards destroying the industry I love so much.

If you don't want to believe what I write or don't like what I write, than don't come here.