The first thing I'm going to do is start writing more reviews. I think people need to start getting more honest reviews for the most recent games and that's what I will start doing. I will, of course, post more news here and insider information that the big companies don't want you to know, but I will also be posting other Gaming-related things as well going forward.
Overall, I think in the coming weeks and months, this blog will transform into something much better than it was before and encompass gaming in general and as a whole where you can get any and all information about games that you want.
Stay tuned!
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Thursday, June 12, 2014
I'm back! & New Domain
Hello all, did you miss me? Probably not since after almost 2 years nobody even visits anymore, but that's about to change. I've taken a hiatus to deal with some things but I am back and boy do I have lots of new information to share with you. Firstly I want to point out a few things:
1) THQ Bankruptcy - I predicted this back in 2012 and told you it was going to happen, and it did.
1) Microtransactions - I predicted this back in 2012 as well that they were going to take over and nobody believed me, but guess what, I was right again.
Everything you read on here is 100% true and comes from inside the game industry. I have made a lot of enemies over these past few years, though none personal, but I feel it's important that the public knows why things are happening the way they are in the game industry.
Below I will highlight some topics of discussion to come so you have an idea of what I will be talking about going forward:
1) Microsoft & Sony and their new PS4/Xbox One
2) EA, Ubisoft and all the big publishers plans for the future
3) The delaying of most games into 2015
4) Much more
Stay tuned to learn even more about how horrible the gaming industry has become and learn what you can do to change it. Gamer's need to stand up and vote with their wallets or these companies will continue their horrible ways and things will only get worse.
Until next time my friends.
ALSO: There will be a new link to this blog. www.RubyWorks.net will be linking directly to this blog starting shortly so it'll be easier to remember and pass on to your friends.
1) THQ Bankruptcy - I predicted this back in 2012 and told you it was going to happen, and it did.
1) Microtransactions - I predicted this back in 2012 as well that they were going to take over and nobody believed me, but guess what, I was right again.
Everything you read on here is 100% true and comes from inside the game industry. I have made a lot of enemies over these past few years, though none personal, but I feel it's important that the public knows why things are happening the way they are in the game industry.
Below I will highlight some topics of discussion to come so you have an idea of what I will be talking about going forward:
1) Microsoft & Sony and their new PS4/Xbox One
2) EA, Ubisoft and all the big publishers plans for the future
3) The delaying of most games into 2015
4) Much more
Stay tuned to learn even more about how horrible the gaming industry has become and learn what you can do to change it. Gamer's need to stand up and vote with their wallets or these companies will continue their horrible ways and things will only get worse.
Until next time my friends.
ALSO: There will be a new link to this blog. www.RubyWorks.net will be linking directly to this blog starting shortly so it'll be easier to remember and pass on to your friends.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Cliff Bleszinski fired, but "with honor" as they say
Well news outlets are finally stating that Bleszinski is done with Epic Games and it of course has nothing to do with his ridiculous behavior and comments he's made recently (sarcasm).
The higher-ups didn't know how well a game would sell with his name anywhere near it so they let him go as part of a "damage control" plan they have.
I think it's good news. As soon as that moron opened his mouth up he should have known the big dogs were going to put him out.
It doesn't matter what the official report says or what he himself says, we all here know the truth about why he was let go: he's a financial mess because of his comments and (lack of) reputation in the gaming community.
Here's to hoping more idiots who run their mouths about Gamer's Rights being taken away get the boot as well.
The next round's on me!
The higher-ups didn't know how well a game would sell with his name anywhere near it so they let him go as part of a "damage control" plan they have.
I think it's good news. As soon as that moron opened his mouth up he should have known the big dogs were going to put him out.
It doesn't matter what the official report says or what he himself says, we all here know the truth about why he was let go: he's a financial mess because of his comments and (lack of) reputation in the gaming community.
Here's to hoping more idiots who run their mouths about Gamer's Rights being taken away get the boot as well.
The next round's on me!
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Why Next-Gen Systems aren't really needed
The talk lately is all about Next-Gen, and there's a big flame war argument between people who are taking sides in the debate: Whether or not Next-Gen Systems are actually needed. Half say definitely, half say not. Here're my thoughts.
Excluding Graphical abilities, there's only a couple of major reasons that a new console is needed. The biggest one is System Memory. More System Memory means games can render more on screen at once, thus increasing the size of game worlds and technical capabilities. This can lead to increased techniques which can be advantageous to Creativity, but as I point out below, it's not automatic.
I don't believe that Next-Gen systems with more performance and graphical capabilities will make developers "more creative" as a lot of people tend to say, because that's just not true. Creativity is being able to create a fantastic story with gameplay that isn't just labeled "innovative" but immersive and unique, and having a more powerful platform isn't going to necessarily automatically translate into the ability to achieve that.
I also don't think that it's Developers who are intentionally or unwittingly making games that are basic and plain just because they do, it's because of the Publishers that games are so similar. When a Publisher sees a game take off, they become entranced with it and want to know how they can continue having the profits pour in, and in their eyes the way to do it is to stick to what's popular and nothing else. In my eyes, this is what leads to the downfall of creativity in video games.
It's also because with the current trend in gaming, mostly due to the economy, being slowed down, Publishers are less and less willing to gamble with millions of dollars on a new type of game as well as a new IP, which is why there's so many sequels and spin-offs and such.
Gamers don't seem to be too receptive to new games, sadly, especially ones that take the gaming experience in a new way. Games like Borderlands are great; they're a fun experience to have and if people enjoy it then that's great, because that's what video games are supposed to be: fun. But, I don't think a game like Borderlands 1 or 2 should be $60, because they're just not worth that much in my opinion. Maybe it's just the writer in me that is complaining, but I always value Story above all else.
There's no reason that anybody has to sacrifice story for the sake of gameplay, as a perfect example of that is Max Payne 3. Max Payne 3 has tremendous amounts of action and gunfighting, but it also has one of the greatest stories and narratives in a video game I've ever seen. The same goes for the Grand Theft Auto series, particularly GTA 4.
We all love eye-candy, myself included, and having better-looking games really is a cool thing, but regardless of how great something looks on the outside, it can still be disgusting on the inside. You can polish up a turd 'til you're blue in the face but it's still a turd.
I'm hoping with the Next-Gen systems that Publishers will shift focus away from gimmicky gizmos like Kinect and focus on real AAA games with epic gameplay and stories that last for hours and hours, but if history is any tale of the future I predict many of the games to become even more restricted as we move forward. Games will likely be shorter as attention spans shrink and Publishers push to release more after-thought content (Not DLC because it's not worthy of being called DLC) to bleed their games dry of any and all possible profits they can.
Excluding Graphical abilities, there's only a couple of major reasons that a new console is needed. The biggest one is System Memory. More System Memory means games can render more on screen at once, thus increasing the size of game worlds and technical capabilities. This can lead to increased techniques which can be advantageous to Creativity, but as I point out below, it's not automatic.
I don't believe that Next-Gen systems with more performance and graphical capabilities will make developers "more creative" as a lot of people tend to say, because that's just not true. Creativity is being able to create a fantastic story with gameplay that isn't just labeled "innovative" but immersive and unique, and having a more powerful platform isn't going to necessarily automatically translate into the ability to achieve that.
I also don't think that it's Developers who are intentionally or unwittingly making games that are basic and plain just because they do, it's because of the Publishers that games are so similar. When a Publisher sees a game take off, they become entranced with it and want to know how they can continue having the profits pour in, and in their eyes the way to do it is to stick to what's popular and nothing else. In my eyes, this is what leads to the downfall of creativity in video games.
It's also because with the current trend in gaming, mostly due to the economy, being slowed down, Publishers are less and less willing to gamble with millions of dollars on a new type of game as well as a new IP, which is why there's so many sequels and spin-offs and such.
Gamers don't seem to be too receptive to new games, sadly, especially ones that take the gaming experience in a new way. Games like Borderlands are great; they're a fun experience to have and if people enjoy it then that's great, because that's what video games are supposed to be: fun. But, I don't think a game like Borderlands 1 or 2 should be $60, because they're just not worth that much in my opinion. Maybe it's just the writer in me that is complaining, but I always value Story above all else.
There's no reason that anybody has to sacrifice story for the sake of gameplay, as a perfect example of that is Max Payne 3. Max Payne 3 has tremendous amounts of action and gunfighting, but it also has one of the greatest stories and narratives in a video game I've ever seen. The same goes for the Grand Theft Auto series, particularly GTA 4.
We all love eye-candy, myself included, and having better-looking games really is a cool thing, but regardless of how great something looks on the outside, it can still be disgusting on the inside. You can polish up a turd 'til you're blue in the face but it's still a turd.
I'm hoping with the Next-Gen systems that Publishers will shift focus away from gimmicky gizmos like Kinect and focus on real AAA games with epic gameplay and stories that last for hours and hours, but if history is any tale of the future I predict many of the games to become even more restricted as we move forward. Games will likely be shorter as attention spans shrink and Publishers push to release more after-thought content (Not DLC because it's not worthy of being called DLC) to bleed their games dry of any and all possible profits they can.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Thoughts on Free-To-Play, AAA Titles and Vacation
Hey all, I was on vacation for most of August. Spent some time with family in Moscow and New York. I apologize for not getting on but I just needed to take a break. I'm back now, though, so let's get started.
The news has been buzzing with talk about EA's future goals (of which I've detailed on my blog months ago) finally being made public and the Assassin's Creed 3 director saying he thinks AAA games are dying out. Let's start with EA.
Electronic Arts
I've outlined in many previous posts about EA and what their future goals for gaming were long before the public was aware, and I'm hoping now that the news is out that people will start listening and realize the truth.
EA is banking on 100% Digital, that we all know already, as well as the Micro-transactions, aka Free-To-Play. Sadly, I think the Micro-Transaction/F2P model IS going to take off, mainly for Two (2) reasons:
1) While a lot of Hardcore Gamers won't buy into this, the vast majority are likely to give in if the base price is cheap and it becomes streamlined to purchase the extras on top.
2) Casual Gamers, or more specifically people who play games to kill some time, are definitely going to embrace this idea because they already have on the mobile devices.
I honestly don't think there is much that can be done to curtail this trend. The one and only thing that will completely fuck over Publishers like EA and Activision is if something happens that screws up the game or if the games they release are drastically stripped down to the point where the game becomes simply boring and, to be frank, sucks.
If EA/Activision don't shoot themselves in the foot over some mess up, I think people will embrace this idea, and that is extremely grim for the future of gaming.
So the moral of the story is DO NOT SUPPORT EA/ACTIVISION or any other Publisher that wants to infringe on the rights of Gamers.
AAA Titles
You've probably also read about the AC3 Director speaking about the future of AAA titles and how he thinks they're a dying breed. I couldn't possibly agree any more with him, he is completely right. There are Two (2) reasons that will help propel the industry into decline in the coming years.
1) The big publishers are pushing for F2P, as talked about above, so they can release content on Day 1 and over time to capitalize on increased profits.
2) The cost of Current-Gen and Next-Gen games is skyrocketing.
With respect to the cost of game projects, the Next-Gen systems are not going to help in reducing the overhead costs of producing games for said systems. Even if there are already set engines in place and certain criteria met beforehand, it's going to cost much much more to develop because people are going to be expecting outlandish visuals and High-Definition content.
When I say "High Definition" I don't just mean graphically, I mean HD in the sense of immersive sound, increased feature-sets, gameplay, content and more all wrapped in a big package with a pretty bow on top. As the levels of expectations increase, the price will follow suit. As stated above, I can see Publishers pushing Devs to be more adaptable (read: forced) to their thoughts and expectations of Next-Gen content, i.e. F2P.
This all spells the demise of AAA games as the mainstream. To be honest, though, I don't see this happening in the near future. AAA games will continue to be made for at least the next few years, if not 4-5 years, because they know there is money to be made in doing them. But, what I am trying to say is that as time goes on and budgets shrink and costs go up, games will start to lack even more content than they do now as Publishers try and push towards F2P to maximize profits.
The news has been buzzing with talk about EA's future goals (of which I've detailed on my blog months ago) finally being made public and the Assassin's Creed 3 director saying he thinks AAA games are dying out. Let's start with EA.
Electronic Arts
I've outlined in many previous posts about EA and what their future goals for gaming were long before the public was aware, and I'm hoping now that the news is out that people will start listening and realize the truth.
EA is banking on 100% Digital, that we all know already, as well as the Micro-transactions, aka Free-To-Play. Sadly, I think the Micro-Transaction/F2P model IS going to take off, mainly for Two (2) reasons:
1) While a lot of Hardcore Gamers won't buy into this, the vast majority are likely to give in if the base price is cheap and it becomes streamlined to purchase the extras on top.
2) Casual Gamers, or more specifically people who play games to kill some time, are definitely going to embrace this idea because they already have on the mobile devices.
I honestly don't think there is much that can be done to curtail this trend. The one and only thing that will completely fuck over Publishers like EA and Activision is if something happens that screws up the game or if the games they release are drastically stripped down to the point where the game becomes simply boring and, to be frank, sucks.
If EA/Activision don't shoot themselves in the foot over some mess up, I think people will embrace this idea, and that is extremely grim for the future of gaming.
So the moral of the story is DO NOT SUPPORT EA/ACTIVISION or any other Publisher that wants to infringe on the rights of Gamers.
AAA Titles
You've probably also read about the AC3 Director speaking about the future of AAA titles and how he thinks they're a dying breed. I couldn't possibly agree any more with him, he is completely right. There are Two (2) reasons that will help propel the industry into decline in the coming years.
1) The big publishers are pushing for F2P, as talked about above, so they can release content on Day 1 and over time to capitalize on increased profits.
2) The cost of Current-Gen and Next-Gen games is skyrocketing.
With respect to the cost of game projects, the Next-Gen systems are not going to help in reducing the overhead costs of producing games for said systems. Even if there are already set engines in place and certain criteria met beforehand, it's going to cost much much more to develop because people are going to be expecting outlandish visuals and High-Definition content.
When I say "High Definition" I don't just mean graphically, I mean HD in the sense of immersive sound, increased feature-sets, gameplay, content and more all wrapped in a big package with a pretty bow on top. As the levels of expectations increase, the price will follow suit. As stated above, I can see Publishers pushing Devs to be more adaptable (read: forced) to their thoughts and expectations of Next-Gen content, i.e. F2P.
This all spells the demise of AAA games as the mainstream. To be honest, though, I don't see this happening in the near future. AAA games will continue to be made for at least the next few years, if not 4-5 years, because they know there is money to be made in doing them. But, what I am trying to say is that as time goes on and budgets shrink and costs go up, games will start to lack even more content than they do now as Publishers try and push towards F2P to maximize profits.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
The real truth about Bethesda and the PS3
Since Bethesda has announced that Dawnguard might not even make it to the PS3, I thought I would share a tidbit of information about Bethesda.
Bethesda is not stupid, they know how to program for the PS3. The performance issues on the PS3 are intentional, as they are making A LOT of money from Microsoft to make the game basically exclusive to 360 (the PC release isn't under scrutiny because it's still Microsoft and most people who choose PC Bethesda games over Console ones aren't the same demo as Console gamers due to the prevalent modding).
It's disgusting what Bethesda is doing and even more disgusting that Microsoft is using these tactics to muscle-out Sony from the market.
I'm not saying Bethesda is this all-great Developer, but a vast majority of the bugs in the game are present in the launch because Bethesda doesn't do much Beta Testing. In fact, Skyrim had NO BETA TESTING whatsoever.
A lot of games have game-breaking bugs after the initial round of coding, but with proper testing and improvements the game becomes less buggy. The reason Bethesda chose not to Beta Test was because they really wanted that 11/11/11 release date, though they still could have tested the game if they were a competent developer.
This has been going on with Bethesda for awhile, with just about all of their games. The team that works on PS3 ports is considerably smaller than the 360/PC teams and they're not given as much time to work on their PS3 ports as their budget is smaller because they are given huge incentives by Microsoft to make their games unofficially exclusive.
Again, I'm not saying they're a perfect developer, but they're not stupid. How could anybody really believe that a Developer/Publisher as big as Bethesda can't program properly for the PS3? That's being way too naive.
With that said, It's very possible that Dawnguard will eventually come to PS3, but how long it'll take and how well it'll perform is unknown.
Bethesda is not stupid, they know how to program for the PS3. The performance issues on the PS3 are intentional, as they are making A LOT of money from Microsoft to make the game basically exclusive to 360 (the PC release isn't under scrutiny because it's still Microsoft and most people who choose PC Bethesda games over Console ones aren't the same demo as Console gamers due to the prevalent modding).
It's disgusting what Bethesda is doing and even more disgusting that Microsoft is using these tactics to muscle-out Sony from the market.
I'm not saying Bethesda is this all-great Developer, but a vast majority of the bugs in the game are present in the launch because Bethesda doesn't do much Beta Testing. In fact, Skyrim had NO BETA TESTING whatsoever.
A lot of games have game-breaking bugs after the initial round of coding, but with proper testing and improvements the game becomes less buggy. The reason Bethesda chose not to Beta Test was because they really wanted that 11/11/11 release date, though they still could have tested the game if they were a competent developer.
This has been going on with Bethesda for awhile, with just about all of their games. The team that works on PS3 ports is considerably smaller than the 360/PC teams and they're not given as much time to work on their PS3 ports as their budget is smaller because they are given huge incentives by Microsoft to make their games unofficially exclusive.
Again, I'm not saying they're a perfect developer, but they're not stupid. How could anybody really believe that a Developer/Publisher as big as Bethesda can't program properly for the PS3? That's being way too naive.
With that said, It's very possible that Dawnguard will eventually come to PS3, but how long it'll take and how well it'll perform is unknown.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Why do Games have Limited or No Split-Screen?
If you've been paying attention, than you'll have noticed that a lot of games lately that offer Co-Op experiences are lacking in the Split-Screen Department. Well, as you probably guessed, the reason for this is money.
Publishers are telling the Developers to exclude Split-Screen Gameplay ("Couch Co-Op" as I like to call it) from their games if they have Co-Op. The reason for this is, again as usual, very stupid. They believe that by doing so it will force Gamers to purchase an additional copy to play with their friends, thus increasing their sales.
That explains the Consoles, but when games have Split-Screen on a Console game and they then port it to the PC and remove the Split-Screen, the reason they do this is because they believe it will curb piracy.
That is quite possibly the dumbest excuse I have ever heard, and I didn't believe it at first until I was told directly by my friend that runs a smaller development company.
Gaming is headed down even further, and I will continue repeating what I always say: BOYCOTT THESE HORRIBLE PUBLISHERS.
Publishers are telling the Developers to exclude Split-Screen Gameplay ("Couch Co-Op" as I like to call it) from their games if they have Co-Op. The reason for this is, again as usual, very stupid. They believe that by doing so it will force Gamers to purchase an additional copy to play with their friends, thus increasing their sales.
That explains the Consoles, but when games have Split-Screen on a Console game and they then port it to the PC and remove the Split-Screen, the reason they do this is because they believe it will curb piracy.
That is quite possibly the dumbest excuse I have ever heard, and I didn't believe it at first until I was told directly by my friend that runs a smaller development company.
Gaming is headed down even further, and I will continue repeating what I always say: BOYCOTT THESE HORRIBLE PUBLISHERS.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Yakuza Collection & Reviewers
Hey all, I'm going to be adding some random posts to my blog to fill the gaps in time between my BIG posts. Mostly they'll just be stupid stuff that nobody cares about but it might interest some people and it also helps keep the place alive.
Today I finally found "Yakuza 2" for the PS2. For those who don't know, Yakuza 2 is one of, if not the, rarest game(s) for the PS2. Most people won't agree but it's getting almost impossible to find this game, and if you can find it it's usually expensive; typically in the $40-$70 range.
I was able to pick this game up at GameStop for $16 today in mint condition with the Insert and Manual and Case completely intact, something that's very rare at GameStop's nowadays.
With this purchase I now own Yakuza 1, 2, 3 & 4. I have yet to purchase "Yakuza: Dead Souls" but I don't think I consider that really a part of the Franchise as a whole but rather a sort of spin-off, though for a complete collection I must purchase it, but I don't really think it's worth the $39.99+ that it retails for now, so I'm waiting for it to get back down.
I was able to pickup the 4 games for the following prices (before taxes of course):
Yakuza 1: $3.99
Yakuza 2: $15.49
Yakuza 3: $15.00
Yakuza 4: $20.00
Not bad considering I got all 4 of them for the price of a single new game and all of them are in very good condition. I've included some pictures below to show you.
I'm happy I was finally able to complete the "Quadrilogy" and once I have "Dead Souls" I'll finally be complete :).
-----------------------
I've been talking to a few people about becoming Game Reviewers over at my "True Reviews" blog. So far most have been stale and shown little interest, so here I am again letting everyone and anyone who cares know that I am looking for people who would like to write reviews at the "True Reviews" blog.
This is a Volunteer position, but what it will do is give you a medium in which to improve your writing skills (should they need improving) as well as the opportunity to get your name known and be more involved in the Gaming Community.
You don't have to have a huge Game collection or the latest-and-greatest of anything to be a part of it. I'm looking to fill the reviews site up with Games, Accessories, Systems and more from every year of Video Games: NES/SNES/Genesis/Xbox/Playstation 1, 2, 3/Gamecube/Gameboy/ etc. etc.
So if you're interested in joining up then shoot me an email on my contact page. If you don't want to scroll down or can't seem to find it, my email is here:
Mike@InFusionBlue.com
Hope you all enjoyed the post (for what it's worth) and check back often for more updates into the Gaming World.
Today I finally found "Yakuza 2" for the PS2. For those who don't know, Yakuza 2 is one of, if not the, rarest game(s) for the PS2. Most people won't agree but it's getting almost impossible to find this game, and if you can find it it's usually expensive; typically in the $40-$70 range.
I was able to pick this game up at GameStop for $16 today in mint condition with the Insert and Manual and Case completely intact, something that's very rare at GameStop's nowadays.
With this purchase I now own Yakuza 1, 2, 3 & 4. I have yet to purchase "Yakuza: Dead Souls" but I don't think I consider that really a part of the Franchise as a whole but rather a sort of spin-off, though for a complete collection I must purchase it, but I don't really think it's worth the $39.99+ that it retails for now, so I'm waiting for it to get back down.
I was able to pickup the 4 games for the following prices (before taxes of course):
Yakuza 1: $3.99
Yakuza 2: $15.49
Yakuza 3: $15.00
Yakuza 4: $20.00
Not bad considering I got all 4 of them for the price of a single new game and all of them are in very good condition. I've included some pictures below to show you.
I'm happy I was finally able to complete the "Quadrilogy" and once I have "Dead Souls" I'll finally be complete :).
-----------------------
I've been talking to a few people about becoming Game Reviewers over at my "True Reviews" blog. So far most have been stale and shown little interest, so here I am again letting everyone and anyone who cares know that I am looking for people who would like to write reviews at the "True Reviews" blog.
This is a Volunteer position, but what it will do is give you a medium in which to improve your writing skills (should they need improving) as well as the opportunity to get your name known and be more involved in the Gaming Community.
You don't have to have a huge Game collection or the latest-and-greatest of anything to be a part of it. I'm looking to fill the reviews site up with Games, Accessories, Systems and more from every year of Video Games: NES/SNES/Genesis/Xbox/Playstation 1, 2, 3/Gamecube/Gameboy/ etc. etc.
So if you're interested in joining up then shoot me an email on my contact page. If you don't want to scroll down or can't seem to find it, my email is here:
Mike@InFusionBlue.com
Hope you all enjoyed the post (for what it's worth) and check back often for more updates into the Gaming World.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
My Interview with a Q&A Specialist & Game Designer
Hello all,
I had the pleasure of meeting with a fellow Video Game Enthusiast as well as a Quality Assurance Specialist and Game Designer who has worked for EA and other companies doing work in Game Design and Writing, the same field I am in.
The following is the Interview that I had with him regarding the Industry, his thoughts and experiences in it, as well as much more.
"Mike" refers to me and what my questions were and "Anthony K." is the person I interviewed.
---------------------------------------------
Mike: "What are some of your Favorite Hobbies?"
Mike: "How did you get into the line of work of being a Quality Assurance (QA) Specialist?"
Mike: "How long were you a Quality Assurance (QA) Specialist at EA?"
Mike: "How would you best describe the Working Conditions doing 'QA' at EA?"
I had the pleasure of meeting with a fellow Video Game Enthusiast as well as a Quality Assurance Specialist and Game Designer who has worked for EA and other companies doing work in Game Design and Writing, the same field I am in.
The following is the Interview that I had with him regarding the Industry, his thoughts and experiences in it, as well as much more.
"Mike" refers to me and what my questions were and "Anthony K." is the person I interviewed.
---------------------------------------------
Mike: "What are some of your Favorite Hobbies?"
Anthony K.: "Hobbies, hahaha... that's a bit hard to say, since I'm a bit of a know it all and like to dabble in many things! My most often tapped into Hobby is writing.
It's very rare to find me not busy writing a story, whether for the games I am designing, or for one of my various stories I have on the go! Gaming is also another large Hobby of mine, though that has dwindled in the last few years as less and less quality titles have appeared, sadly."---------------
Mike: "How did you get into the line of work of being a Quality Assurance (QA) Specialist?"
Anthony K.: "I had gotten a call from an agency (not related to EA) after posting a QA 'profile' on I believe it was Monster.ca after being encouraged to do so by a friend I knew and had heard about my interest in getting into QA with a Gaming Company.
About 2 weeks later, I received a call to show up at a Hotel in Burnaby for an interview. The Interview itself did not really feel like they were testing me for quality at all, more so seeing if I had two braincells that functioned; it was that simple. After that I was told when to come in, given my numbers and such, and began working the following week.---------------
Mike: "How long were you a Quality Assurance (QA) Specialist at EA?"
Anthony K.: "Well, officially, as in having a job specifically titled Quality Assuarance tester, it was only a brief 3 weeks before I quit the position due to... 'circumstances' in the work place."
---------------
Mike: "How would you best describe the Working Conditions doing 'QA' at EA?"
Anthony K.: "...as an employee there? Tolerable. As a human being? Miserable. As a Gamer? Without a doubt, a nightmare. We were not 'people' we were not a 'team'. We were robots there to mindlessly follow our given orders, and nothing else.
The facility you were in could be compared to a gymnasium, with rows of tables lined up, with a television/controller/chair at each 'station'. You were lined up like... Robots in a factory. There was no involvement, no 'team', just do your job, that's it. The over-all Atmosphere as well, was... unpleasant."---------------
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Thoughts on EA, Absence and Ramblings
Hey all, long time no see.
Sorry I haven't been on, I just finished with my publisher to release my third book and I'm working on more projects (games) so I'm real excited about that.
Anyways, I want to talk a minute about EA and their recent announcement that they're planning 100% all digital.
I don't want to say it, but, I told you so.
I have been in this industry for over 10 years, I have made contacts, friends, enemies and I have been in the board rooms and at the desks. From teams of 10 people making games where everybody shared every part of the game, to dedicated teams working on particular aspects of a AAA game, I know.
You need to start listening to what I've said and understand what it means for the future of gaming. Most people will see this and just think "no things won't be bad, stop being an idiot" well, guess what, it is that bad. The Gaming Industry has changed and it will never be the way it was again; but, that doesn't mean it's over.
I'm sure you've read all the articles about all of the executives and CEO's and heads of companies coming out and saying many things, such as digital gaming is the future or we need innovation, etc. etc.
I will tell you all the truth about why they're all saying this. As usual, they're forced to. The publishers are demanding that they support whatever they want or they won't publish for them and be able to get a mass-released game. It's not easy distributing your game to millions of people across the world; just look at the average sales of an Independent Game vs. a Mass-Released game by a Publisher.
Publishers such as EA and Activision (which is really Vivendi, the Mass Media Conglomerate) are Greedy as fuck and they want to control the gaming market the same way Microsoft controls PC's with Windows. Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo are cooperating with EA/Activision to a certain extent, and just how far those companies will go together depends on how the Gaming Community reacts to what they're doing.
I've been telling you over and over what their ultimate plan is now, and every week you see more articles telling you things I've already told you yet people still won't stand up and believe. The Gaming Industry is going to turn into nothing. People like Jean-Bernard Levy (Chairman of Vivendi/Activision-Blizzard), Robert Kotick (CEO & President of Activision-Blizzard) and others are Media Moguls and they are taking over and running these Gaming businesses into the ground in the name of profits.
Now, as you've all heard in the news, the board (including Jean-Bernard) are thinking about unloading Activision-Blizzard from Vivendi. Well, that can be good news or bad news. Their controlling stake in the company (Roughly 61%) can either be sold to a single entity or divided up, but either way the new majority holder (if they choose to unload it) could be a lot better or a lot worse.
This type of "management" is also happening over at EA, though Activision-Blizzard is actually trailing EA because EA came up with these ideas first (as I said in my other posts) so Activision-Blizzard aren't quite as bad as EA yet, but that's not for the lack of trying.
Gamers need to stand up and NOT SUPPORT these companies. DO NOT BUY A SINGLE EA OR ACTIVISION GAME EVER. If we do this, we will send a message to those companies that they cannot own our rights. Small developers and their teams, including myself, are being destroyed by this Greed. The higher-ups are controlling everything and doing everything the way they want. If you don't go with them, you don't have a job, it's as simple as that.
Stand up, tell them you'll fight back and don't support these Greedy Bastards. If you think this is being taken too far and over the limit, just sit and think for a minute about how you'd feel if there never was another video game coming out that was worth playing. All you have to play for the rest of your life are the games you have now. Think about it.
Gaming is a part of many lives, some more than others, but either way it's important.
Sorry I haven't been on, I just finished with my publisher to release my third book and I'm working on more projects (games) so I'm real excited about that.
Anyways, I want to talk a minute about EA and their recent announcement that they're planning 100% all digital.
I don't want to say it, but, I told you so.
I have been in this industry for over 10 years, I have made contacts, friends, enemies and I have been in the board rooms and at the desks. From teams of 10 people making games where everybody shared every part of the game, to dedicated teams working on particular aspects of a AAA game, I know.
You need to start listening to what I've said and understand what it means for the future of gaming. Most people will see this and just think "no things won't be bad, stop being an idiot" well, guess what, it is that bad. The Gaming Industry has changed and it will never be the way it was again; but, that doesn't mean it's over.
I'm sure you've read all the articles about all of the executives and CEO's and heads of companies coming out and saying many things, such as digital gaming is the future or we need innovation, etc. etc.
I will tell you all the truth about why they're all saying this. As usual, they're forced to. The publishers are demanding that they support whatever they want or they won't publish for them and be able to get a mass-released game. It's not easy distributing your game to millions of people across the world; just look at the average sales of an Independent Game vs. a Mass-Released game by a Publisher.
Publishers such as EA and Activision (which is really Vivendi, the Mass Media Conglomerate) are Greedy as fuck and they want to control the gaming market the same way Microsoft controls PC's with Windows. Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo are cooperating with EA/Activision to a certain extent, and just how far those companies will go together depends on how the Gaming Community reacts to what they're doing.
I've been telling you over and over what their ultimate plan is now, and every week you see more articles telling you things I've already told you yet people still won't stand up and believe. The Gaming Industry is going to turn into nothing. People like Jean-Bernard Levy (Chairman of Vivendi/Activision-Blizzard), Robert Kotick (CEO & President of Activision-Blizzard) and others are Media Moguls and they are taking over and running these Gaming businesses into the ground in the name of profits.
Now, as you've all heard in the news, the board (including Jean-Bernard) are thinking about unloading Activision-Blizzard from Vivendi. Well, that can be good news or bad news. Their controlling stake in the company (Roughly 61%) can either be sold to a single entity or divided up, but either way the new majority holder (if they choose to unload it) could be a lot better or a lot worse.
This type of "management" is also happening over at EA, though Activision-Blizzard is actually trailing EA because EA came up with these ideas first (as I said in my other posts) so Activision-Blizzard aren't quite as bad as EA yet, but that's not for the lack of trying.
Gamers need to stand up and NOT SUPPORT these companies. DO NOT BUY A SINGLE EA OR ACTIVISION GAME EVER. If we do this, we will send a message to those companies that they cannot own our rights. Small developers and their teams, including myself, are being destroyed by this Greed. The higher-ups are controlling everything and doing everything the way they want. If you don't go with them, you don't have a job, it's as simple as that.
Stand up, tell them you'll fight back and don't support these Greedy Bastards. If you think this is being taken too far and over the limit, just sit and think for a minute about how you'd feel if there never was another video game coming out that was worth playing. All you have to play for the rest of your life are the games you have now. Think about it.
Gaming is a part of many lives, some more than others, but either way it's important.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
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.
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.
Friday, June 15, 2012
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.
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.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
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.
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.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
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.
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.
Monday, June 4, 2012
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 :).
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 :).
Friday, June 1, 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
True Video Game Reviews
I have decided to start my own blog dedicated to reviewing Video Games. I am starting off reviewing older games to let people get accustomed to my style of reviewing and I will move on to doing new games as well as retro games in the future.
Head on over to the new blog to check it out!
Click the link below or the link at the right of the page to see.
http://truthofgamingreviews.blogspot.com/
Head on over to the new blog to check it out!
Click the link below or the link at the right of the page to see.
http://truthofgamingreviews.blogspot.com/
The Truth About CDProjekt RED
CDProjekt RED is quite possibly one of the worst developers in history, and it hasn't a single thing to do with their ability to make a game. (Link) (Link2)
Back in 2011, CDProjekt RED began a campaign. This campaign was to, in their words, stop the pirating of their game "The Witcher 2." What they did was they hired a law firm to send out letters to people who they claimed illegally downloaded the game from a bittorrent site and inside the letter was a threat that said (paraphrased) "If you do not pay us $1,000 we will sue you in court."
Well, that sounds fine and dandy, right? I mean, if all they're doing is targeting Pirates than it's okay, right? Well, that's not quite what happened.
You see, the internet is a strange thing, and ISP's are even stranger. The way it typically works is an ISP owns a block of IP Addresses. Your ISP assigns these IP's out to their customers at random and every so often they take their IP back and give you a new one. This all happens so quick that you don't even know what happened because it doesn't really matter.
Well, it does matter in this case. What CDProjekt RED did was tell the ISP to send threatening letters to each IP address that downloaded a copy of The Witcher 2 from torrent sites. The problem with that is that since IP's get switched around all the time, letters get sent to the IP that downloaded it, but the person who had the IP when they downloaded the game doesn't have it now, the owner of it now is a 60 year old man who works his ass off daily to provide for his family because of the economy.
(The reason CDProjekt RED can only send letters to the IP and not the person is due to Privacy Laws prohibiting ISP's from giving out your info without a court order)
This causes that 60 year old man to become very upset, potentially hurting his life and his families life, all because CDProjekt RED is a little whiny bitch.
CDProjekt RED claims no letters ever were sent to the wrong people, but that is untrue, because there are loads of complaints of people who got letters who don't even know what bittorrent even is.
To sum it up, CDProjekt RED should never be supported for anything, ever, for doing something so dirty and disgusting.
Back in 2011, CDProjekt RED began a campaign. This campaign was to, in their words, stop the pirating of their game "The Witcher 2." What they did was they hired a law firm to send out letters to people who they claimed illegally downloaded the game from a bittorrent site and inside the letter was a threat that said (paraphrased) "If you do not pay us $1,000 we will sue you in court."
Well, that sounds fine and dandy, right? I mean, if all they're doing is targeting Pirates than it's okay, right? Well, that's not quite what happened.
You see, the internet is a strange thing, and ISP's are even stranger. The way it typically works is an ISP owns a block of IP Addresses. Your ISP assigns these IP's out to their customers at random and every so often they take their IP back and give you a new one. This all happens so quick that you don't even know what happened because it doesn't really matter.
Well, it does matter in this case. What CDProjekt RED did was tell the ISP to send threatening letters to each IP address that downloaded a copy of The Witcher 2 from torrent sites. The problem with that is that since IP's get switched around all the time, letters get sent to the IP that downloaded it, but the person who had the IP when they downloaded the game doesn't have it now, the owner of it now is a 60 year old man who works his ass off daily to provide for his family because of the economy.
(The reason CDProjekt RED can only send letters to the IP and not the person is due to Privacy Laws prohibiting ISP's from giving out your info without a court order)
This causes that 60 year old man to become very upset, potentially hurting his life and his families life, all because CDProjekt RED is a little whiny bitch.
CDProjekt RED claims no letters ever were sent to the wrong people, but that is untrue, because there are loads of complaints of people who got letters who don't even know what bittorrent even is.
To sum it up, CDProjekt RED should never be supported for anything, ever, for doing something so dirty and disgusting.
The Working Environment For A Development Team
It's been published many times before how the Development teams are treated/mistreated during the development of a game, but I'm going to chime in and give my opinion on the matter and lay out the facts for those who don't know yet.
A typical Development Cycle for a game is anywhere between 18 months and 36 months, with the average being about 24-26 months, though there are cases where the time is drastically shortened or even increased, it just depends on the Publisher/Developer and the politics of the situation.
At the beginning of development for a game, things can usually go relatively smoothly. There's pressure from up above to get going on the project but there's nobody breathing down your neck 24/7 yet. As time goes on, the stresses of working start to take their toll. I'm sure almost everybody has heard the term "Crunch Time" before. "Crunch Time" varies in definition depending on the Developer & Publisher.
Smaller Developers are typically laid back and just let games be completed when they're completed. This is especially true with most Indie Developers, as they don't typically have big Publishers hounding them. When Publishers like EA or Activision are on board, though, things can get very rough.
During "Crunch Time" under EA, myself and the rest of the team were subjected to their "normal procedural workings" as they called it. In reality, this meant we were REQUIRED to work in excess of 60 hours each week. While that may not sound that bad, the part that always pissed me off to no end as well as several others, was that once we hit 40 hours, anything beyond 40 hours was UNPAID.
EA and Activision are both guilty of making overtime mandatory but not paying you for the overtime. If you had a problem with it they would not-so-kindly show you the door. There's been a lot of press over the actions of EA in recent years, but I can tell you from first-hand knowledge that these tactics are still practiced by EA and Activision, as well as occasionally at THQ (It was used during Homefront) and I'm sure a few other Publishers as well.
Working in the Game Industry can be hell, mostly because of the pressure the Publishers put on the head of the Developer who in-turn puts pressure on his team to satisfy their demands. Even with all this, though, I love doing what I do because I still feel a sense of freedom in creating a rich, vibrant story that captivates people, as that is where I think Gaming really takes off.
Games that are about nothing but action like "Stranglehold" or "Haze" or "Fracture" are just horrible. Multiplayer gaming is fine, but the market is so saturated with those types of games as well as blind shoot-em-ups that the brand has gotten stale. Games like "Dead Island" and "Fallout" and "Skyrim" and especially "Heavy Rain" are true examples of artistry. I'm hoping to see more of those in the future and if I'm lucky I can be apart of the team for another great game.
A typical Development Cycle for a game is anywhere between 18 months and 36 months, with the average being about 24-26 months, though there are cases where the time is drastically shortened or even increased, it just depends on the Publisher/Developer and the politics of the situation.
At the beginning of development for a game, things can usually go relatively smoothly. There's pressure from up above to get going on the project but there's nobody breathing down your neck 24/7 yet. As time goes on, the stresses of working start to take their toll. I'm sure almost everybody has heard the term "Crunch Time" before. "Crunch Time" varies in definition depending on the Developer & Publisher.
Smaller Developers are typically laid back and just let games be completed when they're completed. This is especially true with most Indie Developers, as they don't typically have big Publishers hounding them. When Publishers like EA or Activision are on board, though, things can get very rough.
During "Crunch Time" under EA, myself and the rest of the team were subjected to their "normal procedural workings" as they called it. In reality, this meant we were REQUIRED to work in excess of 60 hours each week. While that may not sound that bad, the part that always pissed me off to no end as well as several others, was that once we hit 40 hours, anything beyond 40 hours was UNPAID.
EA and Activision are both guilty of making overtime mandatory but not paying you for the overtime. If you had a problem with it they would not-so-kindly show you the door. There's been a lot of press over the actions of EA in recent years, but I can tell you from first-hand knowledge that these tactics are still practiced by EA and Activision, as well as occasionally at THQ (It was used during Homefront) and I'm sure a few other Publishers as well.
Working in the Game Industry can be hell, mostly because of the pressure the Publishers put on the head of the Developer who in-turn puts pressure on his team to satisfy their demands. Even with all this, though, I love doing what I do because I still feel a sense of freedom in creating a rich, vibrant story that captivates people, as that is where I think Gaming really takes off.
Games that are about nothing but action like "Stranglehold" or "Haze" or "Fracture" are just horrible. Multiplayer gaming is fine, but the market is so saturated with those types of games as well as blind shoot-em-ups that the brand has gotten stale. Games like "Dead Island" and "Fallout" and "Skyrim" and especially "Heavy Rain" are true examples of artistry. I'm hoping to see more of those in the future and if I'm lucky I can be apart of the team for another great game.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
The Truth About Video Game Reviews
**Update** - I have updated this post to include my thoughts on the Aggregated-Review Websites such as Metacritic.
Since there are still a few people who don't know this, I figured this would be a good time to have a topic discussion about Game Review companies for those who still don't know.
There are so many Game Review websites out there: GameSpot, IGN, etc. and they all review games in their own respective ways, or so they would like you to believe. The Truth about most big-name Game Review sites is that the reviews they do often have very little to do with the actual games' content.
Video Game Review websites most of the time (but not all the time) base their review scores on the amount of money they receive from Publishers. Take Jeff Gerstmann for example. Jeff wrote a review for the game "Kane & Lynch: Dead Men" and gave it a 6.0 out of 10 score. Subsequent to this, he was fired.
Prior to that incident, a man named Aaron Thomas reviewed the game "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction" and scored the game a 7.5 out of 10. Because of this score, SONY threatened GameSpot and told them they'd be removing their advertisements from the website because of the "low" score. This prompted the Marketing Department at GameSpot to freak out, keeping a tighter leash on their reviewers to avoid an incident like that in the future.
With Jeff's case, Eidos Interactive threatened to pull their advertisements, which was at a time when GameSpot's website was full of ads for the game. Because of this (and I know this because I am good friends with two of the reviewers at GameSpot and my cousin works in IGN's Marketing Department) reviews are now tightly watched. Games that are hot-button games where the publisher is paying a lot of money to advertise on the Game Review websites, those games will be receiving higher-than-necessary scores to satisfy the publishers.
Now all that information is public knowledge and can be found by simply googling, but what most people don't know is how it works in reverse. Some Game Review sites (notably IGN) will not only give a game a better review to either A) Satisfy the publishers to receive ad money, or B) If the Publisher pays for the review, they will also give a game a Negative review if the Publisher refuses to pay enough money or if they don't purchase enough ad space.
Games that this has happened to include: "DiRT: Showdown [X360] (6.0)" - "Game of Thrones [X360] (4.0)" - "I Am Alive [XBLA] (4.5)" and many more.
As far as I know GameSpot does not give negative reviews if they don't receive enough money, they just seem to respond to threats and give better reviews for more money, though I will continue receiving information from the reviewers and let you all know if this happens.
I suggest watching Gameplay videos on YouTube and reading about them on Wikipedia to get a true idea of whether the game is good or bad rather than reading a review from GameSpot or IGN.
**Update**
I'm going to give my thoughts on the Aggregated-Review Websites like Metacritic.
When looking at Game Review websites such as Metacritic, you need to be very precise in your browsing to weed out the Fake Reviews. It can be very hard to decipher the difference between a real review and a "padded" one. There are, though, a few things you can watch for:
1) Reviews that are incredibly low scores or have incredible amounts of criticism for each and every aspect of the game are typically done so for the attention. If there are hundreds of positive reviews for a game and then comes along a super low score, it's a good chance that person has done that review simply to get you to look at it. There are also those who the internet community refers to as "trolls" who simply revel in the idea of giving low scores and disliking things just to do it.
2) On the other end of the spectrum, reviews that give very high scores that don't typically contain much information other than "This game r0x!! everyone should buy it!1!" can be deduced as simply there to pad the review numbers. It can be very difficult to spot padded reviews when the reviewer actually took time to point out specific parts that they liked, which is also something a legit reviewer will do. If the review is written using exceptionally great writing skills it can be a red-flag that the review is padded.
While I'm at it, I'm going to point out one of the rumors that was going around the dev's right around the time the game Fallout: New Vegas came out. The rumor was that Bethesda actually paid some people to give the game a bad review so that they didn't have to pay out the bonus they promised them if the game scored at least an 85/100 on Metacritic. Now, like I said, this was just a rumor that was going around and most people (myself included) didn't and don't believe it.
Making the game have a lower score could potentially hurt their own sales, and I don't think it made business sense to do that, but nonetheless that was the rumor. I can see how it might be beneficial in a particular circumstance for the publisher to do that, if the bonus promised was very high or if they wanted to have an excuse to close the developer after the game, as that would net even more profits by no longer having to pay for the development team if they were on the payroll still.
Again, just a rumor and my thoughts so take it with a grain of salt and continue on your day.
Since there are still a few people who don't know this, I figured this would be a good time to have a topic discussion about Game Review companies for those who still don't know.
There are so many Game Review websites out there: GameSpot, IGN, etc. and they all review games in their own respective ways, or so they would like you to believe. The Truth about most big-name Game Review sites is that the reviews they do often have very little to do with the actual games' content.
Video Game Review websites most of the time (but not all the time) base their review scores on the amount of money they receive from Publishers. Take Jeff Gerstmann for example. Jeff wrote a review for the game "Kane & Lynch: Dead Men" and gave it a 6.0 out of 10 score. Subsequent to this, he was fired.
Prior to that incident, a man named Aaron Thomas reviewed the game "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction" and scored the game a 7.5 out of 10. Because of this score, SONY threatened GameSpot and told them they'd be removing their advertisements from the website because of the "low" score. This prompted the Marketing Department at GameSpot to freak out, keeping a tighter leash on their reviewers to avoid an incident like that in the future.
With Jeff's case, Eidos Interactive threatened to pull their advertisements, which was at a time when GameSpot's website was full of ads for the game. Because of this (and I know this because I am good friends with two of the reviewers at GameSpot and my cousin works in IGN's Marketing Department) reviews are now tightly watched. Games that are hot-button games where the publisher is paying a lot of money to advertise on the Game Review websites, those games will be receiving higher-than-necessary scores to satisfy the publishers.
Now all that information is public knowledge and can be found by simply googling, but what most people don't know is how it works in reverse. Some Game Review sites (notably IGN) will not only give a game a better review to either A) Satisfy the publishers to receive ad money, or B) If the Publisher pays for the review, they will also give a game a Negative review if the Publisher refuses to pay enough money or if they don't purchase enough ad space.
Games that this has happened to include: "DiRT: Showdown [X360] (6.0)" - "Game of Thrones [X360] (4.0)" - "I Am Alive [XBLA] (4.5)" and many more.
As far as I know GameSpot does not give negative reviews if they don't receive enough money, they just seem to respond to threats and give better reviews for more money, though I will continue receiving information from the reviewers and let you all know if this happens.
I suggest watching Gameplay videos on YouTube and reading about them on Wikipedia to get a true idea of whether the game is good or bad rather than reading a review from GameSpot or IGN.
**Update**
I'm going to give my thoughts on the Aggregated-Review Websites like Metacritic.
When looking at Game Review websites such as Metacritic, you need to be very precise in your browsing to weed out the Fake Reviews. It can be very hard to decipher the difference between a real review and a "padded" one. There are, though, a few things you can watch for:
1) Reviews that are incredibly low scores or have incredible amounts of criticism for each and every aspect of the game are typically done so for the attention. If there are hundreds of positive reviews for a game and then comes along a super low score, it's a good chance that person has done that review simply to get you to look at it. There are also those who the internet community refers to as "trolls" who simply revel in the idea of giving low scores and disliking things just to do it.
2) On the other end of the spectrum, reviews that give very high scores that don't typically contain much information other than "This game r0x!! everyone should buy it!1!" can be deduced as simply there to pad the review numbers. It can be very difficult to spot padded reviews when the reviewer actually took time to point out specific parts that they liked, which is also something a legit reviewer will do. If the review is written using exceptionally great writing skills it can be a red-flag that the review is padded.
While I'm at it, I'm going to point out one of the rumors that was going around the dev's right around the time the game Fallout: New Vegas came out. The rumor was that Bethesda actually paid some people to give the game a bad review so that they didn't have to pay out the bonus they promised them if the game scored at least an 85/100 on Metacritic. Now, like I said, this was just a rumor that was going around and most people (myself included) didn't and don't believe it.
Making the game have a lower score could potentially hurt their own sales, and I don't think it made business sense to do that, but nonetheless that was the rumor. I can see how it might be beneficial in a particular circumstance for the publisher to do that, if the bonus promised was very high or if they wanted to have an excuse to close the developer after the game, as that would net even more profits by no longer having to pay for the development team if they were on the payroll still.
Again, just a rumor and my thoughts so take it with a grain of salt and continue on your day.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Thoughts on KickStarter and Crowd-Funded Gaming
Lately places like KickStarter are getting more media attention due to the increasing number of Games being placed up there. Games like "Wasteland 2" have garnered much attention, as they have raised over $2 Million so far for development of the game, which is amazing.
The way I see Crowd-Funded games is that I think it's a Double-Edged Sword. The great thing about it is that it lets the Developers make a game how they want and get support from the Gaming Community. The downside is that if thousands of people donate money, that means there are more people who you need to satisfy.
The idea behind it is actually pretty great though, because it means Corporations don't have their claws in it to force it to be a cookie-cut design just to make huge profits. The bad news, though, is distribution. It can be damn near impossible to get the right means of distributing your game to consumers when you're Crowd-Funded, as you have to develop contacts or pay companies to distribute your product to the market.
Wasteland 2 is a prime example. Wasteland 2 developers chose to go with EA to publish their game through their online Origins service. Electronic Arts is probably the worst Gaming company in the world, up there with Activision and CDProjekt RED, and EA is known quite well for their destruction of games and developers.
While I see the positives and negatives of this type of development, I still feel it's a great way to go. I feel it gives people more choice and more flexibility in developing games and choosing to support games that you want to be made that the big-wig corporate people just won't make for fear of it not making money.
I hope to see more Crowd-Funded games in the future.
The way I see Crowd-Funded games is that I think it's a Double-Edged Sword. The great thing about it is that it lets the Developers make a game how they want and get support from the Gaming Community. The downside is that if thousands of people donate money, that means there are more people who you need to satisfy.
The idea behind it is actually pretty great though, because it means Corporations don't have their claws in it to force it to be a cookie-cut design just to make huge profits. The bad news, though, is distribution. It can be damn near impossible to get the right means of distributing your game to consumers when you're Crowd-Funded, as you have to develop contacts or pay companies to distribute your product to the market.
Wasteland 2 is a prime example. Wasteland 2 developers chose to go with EA to publish their game through their online Origins service. Electronic Arts is probably the worst Gaming company in the world, up there with Activision and CDProjekt RED, and EA is known quite well for their destruction of games and developers.
While I see the positives and negatives of this type of development, I still feel it's a great way to go. I feel it gives people more choice and more flexibility in developing games and choosing to support games that you want to be made that the big-wig corporate people just won't make for fear of it not making money.
I hope to see more Crowd-Funded games in the future.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Why are there so many layoffs in the Game Industry?
Again, this isn't so much a secret as a good piece of information to know. I know quite a few people know this but for those who don't it helps you get a better picture of what's going on.
For years now Development teams have been getting bigger and bigger, and the reason for this is they want to be able to release games quicker so they can get to market and capitalize as soon as possible. What happens is the higher-ups decide to hire a big staff for a game (usually AAA games but it happens in varying degrees to all Developer companies) to get as much done as possible.
Doing this over-does the budget for employees and makes games cost much more to develop. The way they offset that is Two (2) Ways:
1) They hire a lot of Developers as simply "Contractors" instead of Full-Time Employees The reason for this is because they don't have to pay extra for Medical Insurance or pay into Social Security/Medicare/etc. taxes since the "Employee" is technically Self-Employed, meaning the worker has to pay more taxes with no benefits.
2) When the game is finally finished, the higher-ups cancel the contracts with these "Employees" so that any sales they get with the game won't be negatively affected by additional payroll, thus improving the profit margins.
As I said, it's not a huge secret nor something that's a new idea, but as I said before the Gaming Industry is MY industry and I love it so that is what I focus on.
For years now Development teams have been getting bigger and bigger, and the reason for this is they want to be able to release games quicker so they can get to market and capitalize as soon as possible. What happens is the higher-ups decide to hire a big staff for a game (usually AAA games but it happens in varying degrees to all Developer companies) to get as much done as possible.
Doing this over-does the budget for employees and makes games cost much more to develop. The way they offset that is Two (2) Ways:
1) They hire a lot of Developers as simply "Contractors" instead of Full-Time Employees The reason for this is because they don't have to pay extra for Medical Insurance or pay into Social Security/Medicare/etc. taxes since the "Employee" is technically Self-Employed, meaning the worker has to pay more taxes with no benefits.
2) When the game is finally finished, the higher-ups cancel the contracts with these "Employees" so that any sales they get with the game won't be negatively affected by additional payroll, thus improving the profit margins.
As I said, it's not a huge secret nor something that's a new idea, but as I said before the Gaming Industry is MY industry and I love it so that is what I focus on.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Why are there games with On-Disc/Day 1 DLC?
It seems a lot of journalists are avoiding this question a lot, and they're completely in denial of the truth and refuse to publish it or are afraid. Luckily, I'm not.
It's obvious that the reason companies are releasing Day 1 DLC and On-Disc DLC is because they're greedy and want more money, but it's interesting to know the details of the process for this.
As you may already know if you've read my earlier posts about why games are delayed, a lot of games are finished months before their release date. When this happens there is no way to put anything new on the disc so they release the new content as Day 1 DLC and charge for it instead of including it in the price of the game to actually be fair to consumers. When On-Disc DLC is present, however, it means something else entirely.
DLC has grown to become something that I loathe personally, because there are very few games left that actually have worth-while DLC for them. Making a game and then a month later opening up 3DSMax or Maya for 5 minutes and changing the color of an NPC's shirt and then selling it for $5 is bullshit. What's more bullshit is what Developers and Publishers are doing now.
When a new game is made, there are typically several teams associated with the development of the game. Designers, Coders, Writers, all sorts of people. But, and this is the bullshit part, now there are starting to be dedicated DLC teams that work in tandem with the development team during production of the game to release DLC at the same time the game comes out. The higher ups have started to realize that they can make more money this way by charging $60 for the game and then another $5-$30 for add-on content that is being made at the same time as the game.
While I understand the notion that creating content for a game costs time and money, the reality and fact of the matter is that the DLC being released is extremely shitty and beyond sub-par. Having to pay $20 for a few characters or $5-$10 for different skins is highly overpriced and bordering on gouging. If Bethesda had been working on the DLC packs for Fallout 3 at the same time as the game and released them on Day 1 it wouldn't have been as bad, because those DLC's were actually full of content, though it still would have been stupid because $60 is a lot of money and should include everything.
Another major concern is that Games are now being developed on the so-called "Assumed Intent" standard. What this means is that Game Developers are now using the Day 1 DLC and others to test how far they can go. Companies are deciding to make games more bare-bones and as basic as possible so they can start charging extra money. A prime example of this is Batman: Arkham City where Warner Brothers deleted the entire Catwoman experience from the main game so they could charge extra for it to used game purchasers.
Unfortunately, it's not just Used-Game Buyers that are getting the shaft, as content is being ripped from games entirely to be charged extra for, even on new games. The reason for this is because the landscape of Gaming is changing and companies are realizing the potential profit that can be made in DLC and other Online Services thanks to EA and Activision.
Just as I stated before, companies are getting bolder and bolder, using things like Day 1 DLC and On-Disc DLC that is locked away to test how consumers react to it so they know how far they can push the line in the name of profits. Gamers need to wake the fuck up and realize that the industry is going down the toilet because of Greed. Things are not going to change until us Gamers change and fight back against the corporations.
It's obvious that the reason companies are releasing Day 1 DLC and On-Disc DLC is because they're greedy and want more money, but it's interesting to know the details of the process for this.
As you may already know if you've read my earlier posts about why games are delayed, a lot of games are finished months before their release date. When this happens there is no way to put anything new on the disc so they release the new content as Day 1 DLC and charge for it instead of including it in the price of the game to actually be fair to consumers. When On-Disc DLC is present, however, it means something else entirely.
DLC has grown to become something that I loathe personally, because there are very few games left that actually have worth-while DLC for them. Making a game and then a month later opening up 3DSMax or Maya for 5 minutes and changing the color of an NPC's shirt and then selling it for $5 is bullshit. What's more bullshit is what Developers and Publishers are doing now.
When a new game is made, there are typically several teams associated with the development of the game. Designers, Coders, Writers, all sorts of people. But, and this is the bullshit part, now there are starting to be dedicated DLC teams that work in tandem with the development team during production of the game to release DLC at the same time the game comes out. The higher ups have started to realize that they can make more money this way by charging $60 for the game and then another $5-$30 for add-on content that is being made at the same time as the game.
While I understand the notion that creating content for a game costs time and money, the reality and fact of the matter is that the DLC being released is extremely shitty and beyond sub-par. Having to pay $20 for a few characters or $5-$10 for different skins is highly overpriced and bordering on gouging. If Bethesda had been working on the DLC packs for Fallout 3 at the same time as the game and released them on Day 1 it wouldn't have been as bad, because those DLC's were actually full of content, though it still would have been stupid because $60 is a lot of money and should include everything.
Another major concern is that Games are now being developed on the so-called "Assumed Intent" standard. What this means is that Game Developers are now using the Day 1 DLC and others to test how far they can go. Companies are deciding to make games more bare-bones and as basic as possible so they can start charging extra money. A prime example of this is Batman: Arkham City where Warner Brothers deleted the entire Catwoman experience from the main game so they could charge extra for it to used game purchasers.
Unfortunately, it's not just Used-Game Buyers that are getting the shaft, as content is being ripped from games entirely to be charged extra for, even on new games. The reason for this is because the landscape of Gaming is changing and companies are realizing the potential profit that can be made in DLC and other Online Services thanks to EA and Activision.
Just as I stated before, companies are getting bolder and bolder, using things like Day 1 DLC and On-Disc DLC that is locked away to test how consumers react to it so they know how far they can push the line in the name of profits. Gamers need to wake the fuck up and realize that the industry is going down the toilet because of Greed. Things are not going to change until us Gamers change and fight back against the corporations.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
What's up with Online Passes/Subscriptions?
That's a hard question to answer, but I'll try to explain it as best as I can.
Back in 2007, John Riccitiello became CEO of Electronic Arts. His return to the company after leaving was dependent upon a few factors, one of them was increasing sales and profits at the demand of the Board and Shareholders.
Electronic Arts, along with other Tier 1 Gaming companies like Activision, don't actually "hate" used games, they're just extremely greedy. They saw that there were numerous amounts of people who were simply renting games or buying pre-owned instead of forking over $60 for their sub-par games. Being at the beck and call of Stockholders, they saw this as an opportunity to profit.
Companies have used Serial Keys on PC Games for years, but Piracy on the PC was too big to make it matter, which is why most Gaming companies refuse to even publish on the PC or they'll delay the PC release to weeks or months after the console version launches.
The Online Pass was originally planned to be the same as PC games, requiring an entire Serial Key to even play the game. Unfortunately for them, when they did a Focus Group and polled them, they found overwhelming backlash at the idea. Undeterred, though, they thought of ways to introduce it because they felt there was sufficient profit to be made in doing so.
They decided to introduce it as just a Multiplayer component, since this was the core of the Gaming market they wanted to corner. They knew they'd upset Gamers, but they also knew that people would eventually come to accept it and submit to it, which they have. The idea, in reality, is to slowly introduce ever-increasing restrictions to test how consumers react and gauge their response for the future.
Through slow introduction, by locking out Multiplayer, they have now moved on to Single Player restrictions like the games RAGE, Batman: Arkham City, etc. Activision has taken the lead in a new study with the Call of Duty: Elite, which is a study of how people will respond to a subscription-based service. This service, in their eyes, guarantees a steady stream of income from Gamers.
Unfortunately, Gamers seem to have accepted and submitted to that as well, forever changing the landscape of the Gaming sector. It's going to be interesting to see the next step in the process, as it will no doubt upset Gamers. But, if the past is any indication of the future, nothing good can come of this.
I don't see why Gamers are defending companies like this, saying that it's okay to do it because things are "optional" and aren't "shoved down your throats" like some. This logic is heavily flawed, because with each new restriction the Game companies get bolder and bolder, inching ever closer to the final step of having complete activation of Console games.
I hope that never happens, and I don't see how it can based on the article I wrote before this, but the future will tell.
Back in 2007, John Riccitiello became CEO of Electronic Arts. His return to the company after leaving was dependent upon a few factors, one of them was increasing sales and profits at the demand of the Board and Shareholders.
Electronic Arts, along with other Tier 1 Gaming companies like Activision, don't actually "hate" used games, they're just extremely greedy. They saw that there were numerous amounts of people who were simply renting games or buying pre-owned instead of forking over $60 for their sub-par games. Being at the beck and call of Stockholders, they saw this as an opportunity to profit.
Companies have used Serial Keys on PC Games for years, but Piracy on the PC was too big to make it matter, which is why most Gaming companies refuse to even publish on the PC or they'll delay the PC release to weeks or months after the console version launches.
The Online Pass was originally planned to be the same as PC games, requiring an entire Serial Key to even play the game. Unfortunately for them, when they did a Focus Group and polled them, they found overwhelming backlash at the idea. Undeterred, though, they thought of ways to introduce it because they felt there was sufficient profit to be made in doing so.
They decided to introduce it as just a Multiplayer component, since this was the core of the Gaming market they wanted to corner. They knew they'd upset Gamers, but they also knew that people would eventually come to accept it and submit to it, which they have. The idea, in reality, is to slowly introduce ever-increasing restrictions to test how consumers react and gauge their response for the future.
Through slow introduction, by locking out Multiplayer, they have now moved on to Single Player restrictions like the games RAGE, Batman: Arkham City, etc. Activision has taken the lead in a new study with the Call of Duty: Elite, which is a study of how people will respond to a subscription-based service. This service, in their eyes, guarantees a steady stream of income from Gamers.
Unfortunately, Gamers seem to have accepted and submitted to that as well, forever changing the landscape of the Gaming sector. It's going to be interesting to see the next step in the process, as it will no doubt upset Gamers. But, if the past is any indication of the future, nothing good can come of this.
I don't see why Gamers are defending companies like this, saying that it's okay to do it because things are "optional" and aren't "shoved down your throats" like some. This logic is heavily flawed, because with each new restriction the Game companies get bolder and bolder, inching ever closer to the final step of having complete activation of Console games.
I hope that never happens, and I don't see how it can based on the article I wrote before this, but the future will tell.
Will Next-Gen systems block used games?
I don't think so.
The prelim DevKits for the Next-Gen systems don't appear to have any special firmware that would prevent it from playing any specific disc, and the suppliers memo they sent with them didn't mention anything about it.
Honestly, though, I don't see how they could block used games. They can "physically" do it, sure, but not logistically. A vast majority of Gamers buy new $60 Xbox 360/PS3 games by trading in the other ones they bought to lower the price of it. Getting rid of that venue will see sales plummet and recreate 1983 all over again.
Regardless of what Publishers/Developers want to say, they make a killing on the Rental business, especially through companies like GameFly and the like. Given the facts above and the impending implosion of the Gaming market if Used Games were blocked, I see the probability of this happening as very very low.
Of course, it could happen, anything is possible after all. They could send a new memo requiring that each game be coded to use an Activation Code similar to PC Games, but I truly don't believe that will happen.
The prelim DevKits for the Next-Gen systems don't appear to have any special firmware that would prevent it from playing any specific disc, and the suppliers memo they sent with them didn't mention anything about it.
Honestly, though, I don't see how they could block used games. They can "physically" do it, sure, but not logistically. A vast majority of Gamers buy new $60 Xbox 360/PS3 games by trading in the other ones they bought to lower the price of it. Getting rid of that venue will see sales plummet and recreate 1983 all over again.
Regardless of what Publishers/Developers want to say, they make a killing on the Rental business, especially through companies like GameFly and the like. Given the facts above and the impending implosion of the Gaming market if Used Games were blocked, I see the probability of this happening as very very low.
Of course, it could happen, anything is possible after all. They could send a new memo requiring that each game be coded to use an Activation Code similar to PC Games, but I truly don't believe that will happen.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Why does GameStop throw away old game cases?
**UPDATE** Check the bottom of this post for additional information just added.
This isn't so much a secret as it is something very fucked up. A lot of people already know this but for those of you who don't I thought it would be a good little tidbit of information to know while you're out shopping at GameStop. Let me start with the scenario.
GameStop's company policy is to always throw away old manuals, cases, inserts, etc. for old games for the PS2 and such (of the few they still actually keep) and even some old games for the 360/PS3/Wii.. Why do they do this? Well, I will tell you why.
They're forced to.
The distributor for GameStop, the one that supplies them with all of their Games for Xbox 360/PS3/Wii/etc. demands that they throw away the cases, manuals, inserts and everything else except the disc itself. How can they make this demand? Why does GameStop do it?
The distributor supplies them with Games at a price they can afford for all of their thousands of stores, and to get this price and maintain an uninterrupted supply of Games, they must meet whatever demands their supplier has. The real fucked up part is the reason why the distributor makes them do that in the first place.
The distributor believes that by not giving the consumers entire cased-games of the old PS2 and other systems that it will entice buyers to overlook those loose-disc games and buy the new ones, which will mean GameStop would have to buy more new ones from them and thus increasing their profits.
I, personally, think that logic is flawed on many levels. I do not shop for games and think "Oh, well, I was going to buy $100 worth of PS2 games but since they're just discs I think I'll instead buy $100 worth of Xbox360/PS3 games." That is just stupid.
**UPDATE**
I have been getting messages from people who are claiming to be Managers and Employees of GameStop. They are saying that the information in this post is untrue. To those who dispute this I have to say that what you do on a daily basis isn't necessarily in accordance with company policies.
I obtained this information from several individuals, some of them were simply regular Employees and Store Managers, but I was able to confirm this information from a very close friend of mine who was hired as a Regional Director. I saw the E-Mail he received informing him of this information as well. This information is 100% accurate and true, but if you don't believe me than so be it, that is your choice.
This isn't so much a secret as it is something very fucked up. A lot of people already know this but for those of you who don't I thought it would be a good little tidbit of information to know while you're out shopping at GameStop. Let me start with the scenario.
GameStop's company policy is to always throw away old manuals, cases, inserts, etc. for old games for the PS2 and such (of the few they still actually keep) and even some old games for the 360/PS3/Wii.. Why do they do this? Well, I will tell you why.
They're forced to.
The distributor for GameStop, the one that supplies them with all of their Games for Xbox 360/PS3/Wii/etc. demands that they throw away the cases, manuals, inserts and everything else except the disc itself. How can they make this demand? Why does GameStop do it?
The distributor supplies them with Games at a price they can afford for all of their thousands of stores, and to get this price and maintain an uninterrupted supply of Games, they must meet whatever demands their supplier has. The real fucked up part is the reason why the distributor makes them do that in the first place.
The distributor believes that by not giving the consumers entire cased-games of the old PS2 and other systems that it will entice buyers to overlook those loose-disc games and buy the new ones, which will mean GameStop would have to buy more new ones from them and thus increasing their profits.
I, personally, think that logic is flawed on many levels. I do not shop for games and think "Oh, well, I was going to buy $100 worth of PS2 games but since they're just discs I think I'll instead buy $100 worth of Xbox360/PS3 games." That is just stupid.
**UPDATE**
I have been getting messages from people who are claiming to be Managers and Employees of GameStop. They are saying that the information in this post is untrue. To those who dispute this I have to say that what you do on a daily basis isn't necessarily in accordance with company policies.
I obtained this information from several individuals, some of them were simply regular Employees and Store Managers, but I was able to confirm this information from a very close friend of mine who was hired as a Regional Director. I saw the E-Mail he received informing him of this information as well. This information is 100% accurate and true, but if you don't believe me than so be it, that is your choice.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Why are most games always delayed at the last minute?
This is the big question that a lot of people have, though most don't seem to understand why. Let me give you a situation:
You're waiting for that new, big AAA game to come out and you're told it's going to come out in September of 2012. As your anticipation grows, the deadline to the release looms closer and closer. Then, out of nowhere, the game is now delayed and pushed to December of 2012. That sucks, but it's not too long, right?
As that deadline too looms, you find that the game is delayed yet again, this time until next year in March! That sucks! Damnit! Why did they do it?? Well, I'm going to tell you why.
Money.
The truth is that most games (but not all) are actually completed long before their release date, so read on to find out the truth.
Corporations work on what's called a "Fiscal Year" and that is not the same as the actual year. Whereas we all live in January-December as our year, most corporations (Game companies included) will start their "year" in a random month, such as March. That means their company's "Fiscal Year" (google that term if you don't understand what it means) begins in March and that's when the Shareholders and those who own the company and provide them money look to forecast the future of the company's performance.
What happens is when that AAA title you've been waiting for in September gets delayed, it's more often than not (but not always, don't forget that) because of the "Fiscal Year." Allow me to explain. The company making the game, Company X, is releasing Game Y.
The game is set to release in September of 2012, and their next "Fiscal Year" begins in March of 2013. The company already knows they're not releasing the game in September, they had no intention of ever doing that. They needed to put that down as the date to entice people to keep their attention on it so they don't lose press coverage.
They always planned to wait until their next "Fiscal Year" to release it. The reason for this is because releasing a big-name game (or any game for that matter) that is going to be the most profitable will show Stockholders that they're set to make more money.
Now, you may be asking yourself "Well, why the fuck don't they just release it earlier? Why do they wait?" - Well, this I will explain as well.
When a company has a huge game they're releasing, a couple of things happen. First, this company is a Publicly Traded Company, which means they answer to Shareholders and they must show profits at all times. When Company X is set to release Game Y, they need to make sure that it aligns with their "Fiscal Year" to maximize profits during that period while not hurting their next "Fiscal Year."
What this means is if their "Fiscal Year" begins in March and if they release the game in December, that means they probably don't have another huge game coming in the next year to release during the next "Fiscal Year" to show that they're still making huge profits. The best thing to do, in their mind, is not release a game at the end of a "Fiscal Year" because any profits that are shown will only show up for the previous "Fiscal Year" because people would have already bought the game and sales will not stay strong 6 Months after a game is released.
Doing this makes their "Fiscal Year" starting in 2013 show a huge amount of sales and profit, thus carrying their company into the next year and boosting their companies values as well as Shareholders dividends and CEO's/Executives Paychecks. Of course, this fucks over the Consumer because they are forced to wait and wait for a game that all the while they're saying "needs to be polished" when in reality most games are done several months BEFORE their release date, but they need to coincide the release date with the "Fiscal Year" to meet the Publisher demands.
It seems very complex but it is all really simple when you think about it. It is all for profit, profit at the expense of the consumer.
Have you ever wondered why there are Day 1 Patches that they release? How can they already have to fix bugs? The reason is the same as I posted above and solidifies the truth: The games are already stamped and you can't go back and patch a Game Disc now can you?
You're waiting for that new, big AAA game to come out and you're told it's going to come out in September of 2012. As your anticipation grows, the deadline to the release looms closer and closer. Then, out of nowhere, the game is now delayed and pushed to December of 2012. That sucks, but it's not too long, right?
As that deadline too looms, you find that the game is delayed yet again, this time until next year in March! That sucks! Damnit! Why did they do it?? Well, I'm going to tell you why.
Money.
The truth is that most games (but not all) are actually completed long before their release date, so read on to find out the truth.
Corporations work on what's called a "Fiscal Year" and that is not the same as the actual year. Whereas we all live in January-December as our year, most corporations (Game companies included) will start their "year" in a random month, such as March. That means their company's "Fiscal Year" (google that term if you don't understand what it means) begins in March and that's when the Shareholders and those who own the company and provide them money look to forecast the future of the company's performance.
What happens is when that AAA title you've been waiting for in September gets delayed, it's more often than not (but not always, don't forget that) because of the "Fiscal Year." Allow me to explain. The company making the game, Company X, is releasing Game Y.
The game is set to release in September of 2012, and their next "Fiscal Year" begins in March of 2013. The company already knows they're not releasing the game in September, they had no intention of ever doing that. They needed to put that down as the date to entice people to keep their attention on it so they don't lose press coverage.
They always planned to wait until their next "Fiscal Year" to release it. The reason for this is because releasing a big-name game (or any game for that matter) that is going to be the most profitable will show Stockholders that they're set to make more money.
Now, you may be asking yourself "Well, why the fuck don't they just release it earlier? Why do they wait?" - Well, this I will explain as well.
When a company has a huge game they're releasing, a couple of things happen. First, this company is a Publicly Traded Company, which means they answer to Shareholders and they must show profits at all times. When Company X is set to release Game Y, they need to make sure that it aligns with their "Fiscal Year" to maximize profits during that period while not hurting their next "Fiscal Year."
What this means is if their "Fiscal Year" begins in March and if they release the game in December, that means they probably don't have another huge game coming in the next year to release during the next "Fiscal Year" to show that they're still making huge profits. The best thing to do, in their mind, is not release a game at the end of a "Fiscal Year" because any profits that are shown will only show up for the previous "Fiscal Year" because people would have already bought the game and sales will not stay strong 6 Months after a game is released.
Doing this makes their "Fiscal Year" starting in 2013 show a huge amount of sales and profit, thus carrying their company into the next year and boosting their companies values as well as Shareholders dividends and CEO's/Executives Paychecks. Of course, this fucks over the Consumer because they are forced to wait and wait for a game that all the while they're saying "needs to be polished" when in reality most games are done several months BEFORE their release date, but they need to coincide the release date with the "Fiscal Year" to meet the Publisher demands.
It seems very complex but it is all really simple when you think about it. It is all for profit, profit at the expense of the consumer.
Have you ever wondered why there are Day 1 Patches that they release? How can they already have to fix bugs? The reason is the same as I posted above and solidifies the truth: The games are already stamped and you can't go back and patch a Game Disc now can you?
What is this stupid blog about?
That's a valid question, and a good one at that.
This blog is dedicated to telling the world the truths of the Gaming Industry. Most people only know what they're told by Gaming News outlets like Kotaku and GameSpot, but those aren't always the most reliable sources of information.
Game Developers and Publishers like to tell you their version of events, which is the same as their version of Damage Control to keep the masses just happy enough to keep you coming back to buy their new games.
I'm not afraid to piss off the big wig corporate executives, because I have nothing to lose and the only thing I live for is The Truth, no matter how stupid or "retarded" that may sound.
You're going to learn things here that you won't believe, that your brain won't want to believe and will tell you it has to be a lie because it's just too bad. I can guarantee you that any and everything that I will speak here is The Truth 100%. You have no reason to believe a word I'm saying, and we have no Trust developed nor reputation, so I won't deny that most won't believe what I say. After all, when someone says something incredibly shocking your first instinct is to troll and hate, which is only natural.
I can only hope that a few of you will be able to read between the lines enough to see what is really happening, and that maybe this blog will open a few eyes to how things really are. I just hope you're ready for it.
This blog is dedicated to telling the world the truths of the Gaming Industry. Most people only know what they're told by Gaming News outlets like Kotaku and GameSpot, but those aren't always the most reliable sources of information.
Game Developers and Publishers like to tell you their version of events, which is the same as their version of Damage Control to keep the masses just happy enough to keep you coming back to buy their new games.
I'm not afraid to piss off the big wig corporate executives, because I have nothing to lose and the only thing I live for is The Truth, no matter how stupid or "retarded" that may sound.
You're going to learn things here that you won't believe, that your brain won't want to believe and will tell you it has to be a lie because it's just too bad. I can guarantee you that any and everything that I will speak here is The Truth 100%. You have no reason to believe a word I'm saying, and we have no Trust developed nor reputation, so I won't deny that most won't believe what I say. After all, when someone says something incredibly shocking your first instinct is to troll and hate, which is only natural.
I can only hope that a few of you will be able to read between the lines enough to see what is really happening, and that maybe this blog will open a few eyes to how things really are. I just hope you're ready for it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)