Downloading stuff is all the rage right now. Music, movies, books...and videogames. Pulling electrons from the ether and assembling them into entertainment. It sounds cool, and in some ways it is, but I just don't know about it. I'm from the generation that needs and wants a physical object, such as a disk with the information on it. It makes me feel safer, somehow. Whereas if I were to download something, I would be afraid of it getting lost somehow, back in the ether. Call me old school, or just old, I'm not part of the download generation.
Downloading is becoming a big thing in videogames, with entire videogames able to be downloaded to hard drives and downloadable content (or DLC) for games that are sold on disk. I have to admit that downloadable games have their good points; mainly that games that would not have a chance of hell of ever being published because they are too quirky or not a sequel, can be distributed electronically at a fraction of the price. These games are the indie films of the gaming world, and that is a very good thing as developers fall back on sequels and blockbuster games that need to guarenteed they will make back the cost of developing the game, which is averaging 20 to 30 million and only getting higher. The downloadable/indie games are needed if there is to be any creativitity and imagination left in games.
What really bothers me is DLC. It allows game makers to be lazy, either by releasing patches that fix bugs that should have been fixed before the game was released, or by adding stuff that should have been in the original gane to begin with. Sometimes the DLC is free, and sometimes you have to pay for it. So let me get this straight:I pay 60 dollars for a buggy game and then pay an extra 10 for an extra level or new skins? You know what:fuck you and your game.
I long for a simpler time when you had a cartridge or a disk and that was it. Granted, I'm still not sure how they become games when inserted into the game system, could be some kind of weird gaming magic mojo for all I know. But you still have a physical object that own. If you download something, what exactly do you own? Air? Electrons? And you don't have to concern yourself with downloading more crap to your hard drive to fix bugs or race an extra track.
Still, I'll try not be completely negative. Indie games are good and a balm to the sting of expensive videogame sequels. It would be nice if they could be on disks though. In a kinder world...
(And yes, the irony of these words being in cyberspoace and not typed on paper is not lost on me. But who would read my rants if they were typed on a typewriter at home? Not that I expect these blogs to be read either. Ranting into the dark void, I am.)
Friday, February 20, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
It's too big!
The big thing with videogames now is the term 'open world'. It's where you are free to do just about anything you want in the game world. Examples of this are the Grand theft Auto series, Elder Scrolls:Oblivion, and the recent Fallout game. In these games there are hundreds of things, maybe thousands of different things to do, decisions to make. You have the ultimate freedom.
For me, this freedom sucks.
I make enough decisions in the real world. What show should I watch? What do I eat for lunch? Do I have to go to work today? In a video game, the only real decision I want to make is, what bad guy do I shoot next? I don't really want to think all that much in a video game.
I played Elder Scrolls:Morrowind on XBox, excited to start an epic journey, only to be confronted by dozens of different missions and decisions. I wandered around the huge landscape, got completely, utterly lost, and ended being killed by a peasant by accident. I gave up. I may try the game someday,when I'm not looking for fun.
Everyone says ES:Oblivion is an awesome RPG, which is really big, man. The game looks cool, but after Morrowind, I'm not sure if I want to waste 500 hours of my life playing it.
Western RPG, which are becoming more popular than Japanese style RPGs, are famous for being open worlds. JRPGs are too linear, some say, they don't give you an EXPERIENCE, they follow a storyline too closely for that. Well, fuck that, I want the story, I want the linearality. If I want create a story, I'll write a story, and writing a story is HARD.
So in my book, open world games suck, linear games, like JRPGs and most FPS, rule. That's my choice and I'm sticking to it.
For me, this freedom sucks.
I make enough decisions in the real world. What show should I watch? What do I eat for lunch? Do I have to go to work today? In a video game, the only real decision I want to make is, what bad guy do I shoot next? I don't really want to think all that much in a video game.
I played Elder Scrolls:Morrowind on XBox, excited to start an epic journey, only to be confronted by dozens of different missions and decisions. I wandered around the huge landscape, got completely, utterly lost, and ended being killed by a peasant by accident. I gave up. I may try the game someday,when I'm not looking for fun.
Everyone says ES:Oblivion is an awesome RPG, which is really big, man. The game looks cool, but after Morrowind, I'm not sure if I want to waste 500 hours of my life playing it.
Western RPG, which are becoming more popular than Japanese style RPGs, are famous for being open worlds. JRPGs are too linear, some say, they don't give you an EXPERIENCE, they follow a storyline too closely for that. Well, fuck that, I want the story, I want the linearality. If I want create a story, I'll write a story, and writing a story is HARD.
So in my book, open world games suck, linear games, like JRPGs and most FPS, rule. That's my choice and I'm sticking to it.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Games are for Children
For a long time, a very long time, videogames have been seen as "childrens' toys". For a long time, they were. But in the past 10 years or so, the medium has matured, and not just in the level of violence (which will always be a sticking point for those who still think of video games as kids play), but in storylines, plot and characterization . More games have been made with the 'M" rating than I have never seen before. I consider this a very good thing, as video games need to mature. There are books for adults, movies for adults, why can't video games be for adults as well as for kids?
Video games are a unique medium, in which the player is in control of how the game and the story plays out. Sure you are often on a set path, but the fact is that you are the hero/heroine, and what you do wrong or right effects the game positivily or negatively. This experience should be experienced by any age, young or old, without the stigmata of others saying 'grow up', games are for kids.
As I mentioned, video games have been taking great strides in maturity, as those have been playing video games, like me since the atari 2600 have gotten older but still enjoyed our, in my belief, unique hobby. That is why I am frankly pissed at Nintendo's unwavering stance to make video games only for kids and neglect, and almost put a stigmata on those who with houses, jobs and kids but still enjoy video games as a hobby.
Nintendo has marketed the DS and the especially the Wii as game machines that the 'casual gamer' can play. That has worked very well so far, but there has been a glut of simple games, many aimed at children; worse many of these games are not very good. Yet, they sell well, because of the 'gimmicks' that the DS and Wii have:the touch screen, and the Wii remote. Children love gimmicks. They love waving their arms, love tapping on things.
this would not bother me so much if I did not feel that Nintendo is not adding and growing to the medium of videogames, instead, they are making videogames take a giant step backward. While the PS3 and the XBox 360 have games that try to improve, evolve and mature the medium, Nintendo does the opposite, infantalizing and stunting video games, which as a whole are trying to be as viable and important as movies as storytelling mediums. There is a ways to go yet, but Nintendo sure as hell isn't helping.
To be honest, as a lover of all things videogame, Nintendo to me is an embarrassment to the industry at this point. To underscore this, I will only say this 'Wii music.'
It is a sad state of affairs when the company that jump-started the videogame industry in the 80's is now the company dragging it back down. Nintendo is doing quiet well, but for quiet some time now, they have cared for nothing but themselves. Like an evil Pied piper, children follow them, their eyes glued to the hypnotic back and forth sway of the Wii remote.
If you diagree with this blog, and I'm sure many do, please email me at grumpygamer@yahoo.com. No swearing please, that would be childish.
Video games are a unique medium, in which the player is in control of how the game and the story plays out. Sure you are often on a set path, but the fact is that you are the hero/heroine, and what you do wrong or right effects the game positivily or negatively. This experience should be experienced by any age, young or old, without the stigmata of others saying 'grow up', games are for kids.
As I mentioned, video games have been taking great strides in maturity, as those have been playing video games, like me since the atari 2600 have gotten older but still enjoyed our, in my belief, unique hobby. That is why I am frankly pissed at Nintendo's unwavering stance to make video games only for kids and neglect, and almost put a stigmata on those who with houses, jobs and kids but still enjoy video games as a hobby.
Nintendo has marketed the DS and the especially the Wii as game machines that the 'casual gamer' can play. That has worked very well so far, but there has been a glut of simple games, many aimed at children; worse many of these games are not very good. Yet, they sell well, because of the 'gimmicks' that the DS and Wii have:the touch screen, and the Wii remote. Children love gimmicks. They love waving their arms, love tapping on things.
this would not bother me so much if I did not feel that Nintendo is not adding and growing to the medium of videogames, instead, they are making videogames take a giant step backward. While the PS3 and the XBox 360 have games that try to improve, evolve and mature the medium, Nintendo does the opposite, infantalizing and stunting video games, which as a whole are trying to be as viable and important as movies as storytelling mediums. There is a ways to go yet, but Nintendo sure as hell isn't helping.
To be honest, as a lover of all things videogame, Nintendo to me is an embarrassment to the industry at this point. To underscore this, I will only say this 'Wii music.'
It is a sad state of affairs when the company that jump-started the videogame industry in the 80's is now the company dragging it back down. Nintendo is doing quiet well, but for quiet some time now, they have cared for nothing but themselves. Like an evil Pied piper, children follow them, their eyes glued to the hypnotic back and forth sway of the Wii remote.
If you diagree with this blog, and I'm sure many do, please email me at grumpygamer@yahoo.com. No swearing please, that would be childish.
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