General gaming

General gaming

Senseless Bill Would Tax "Violent" Games Based on ESRB Ratings

Posted: 02 Feb 2012 05:45 PM PST

Oklahoma Legislature

Reflecting the fact that last year's Supreme Court decision, which reaffirmed videogames qualify for First Amendment protection in the United States, wasn't quite clear enough for everyone, Oklahoma state representative William Fourkiller has introduced a new piece of legislation sure to draw the ire of gamers.

HB #2696, as reported by Gamasutra, would see an excise tax of one percent levied against the sale of any and all violent videogames in the state of Oklahoma. That immediately raises the question of what constitutes a violent videogame -- Call of Duty is undeniably violent, but would a game where bears can punch each other count as violence? Fortunately the proposed bill provides specific criteria: a violent videogame is considered to be any game to have received a Teen, Mature, or Adult Only rating from the ESRB.

Surprisingly Constructive Protest Planned for Half-Life 3

Posted: 02 Feb 2012 05:20 PM PST

I love Half-Life, but somewhere around E3 2010 I resigned myself to the fact that Half-Life 3 won't see the light of day anytime soon. Steam, Portal, Left 4 Dead, Dota 2, Counter-Strike, as well as some projects we've probably never heard of seem to keep Valve busy (and rich) enough for the time being. Not all fans are so patient. A Steam group named, A Call for Communication (CFC), is hosting an event called "A Red Letter Day" and asking players around the world to play Half-Life 2 this weekend at 2:00 P.M. Eastern, 11 P.M. Pacific, with the hope that Valve will take notice and begin to share more information about the future of the series.

Years of listening to forum-posters demand things of game makers with a remarkable sense of entitlement and lack of shame has led me to expect little constructive work to come fans, but CFC's positive tone and earnest message managed to shake me of my cynical world view (if only for a few moments). The group even goes out of their way to encourage positive interaction between Valve and fans on their official site:

"The lack of communication between Valve and the Half-Life community has been a frustrating experience. While continued support for current and future products is greatly appreciated, fans of the Half-Life series have waited years for a word on when the franchise will return. So, Instead of focusing efforts in a negative and disrespectful way, we have decided to gain Valve's attention by delivering a basic message:

How Swapnote Went From a Limited DSi App to the Best Reason to Have Friends on 3DS

Posted: 02 Feb 2012 03:26 PM PST

Swapnote

Since being released for 3DS just over a month ago, 10 million notes have already been exchanged through Swapnote. Considering the size of the 3DS install base is still relatively small, it's an impressive achievement. Swapnote is, however, hardly perfect, and a lot of that has to do with the limitations of the 3DS itself as Jeremy outlined last month. Namely, it's impossible to share notes with strangers or anyone beyond the 100 people you're limited to being friends with on 3DS. There were ways Nintendo could have worked around this, but the situation was almost far worse. As discussed at length in the latest edition of the roundtable Iwata Asks discussion series, Swapnote was originally developed for the DSi and was nearly ready for release at the end of 2009.

Even before the idea of a picture diary for DSi came up in late 2008 (as a response to the lack of downloadable software for the system), Daiji Imai of Nintendo's Network Business Department had been interested in creating a maternity health record book. The idea was to keep a record of a child's development that could then be shared with him or her once they were older. This morphed into an idea of a picture diary that was iterated on numerous times. One of the keys was that notes would not be typed; handwriting was deemed to be a warmer, more capable way of expressing one's feelings. And while it can be hard to read people's scribbled notes at times, that decision was without a doubt for the best.

The Troubling State of Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City

Posted: 02 Feb 2012 01:55 PM PST

The minute I heard of Capcom's announcement for Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City, my excitement for anything RE-related peaked. I'll admit that's probably not a great idea considering the series has some pretty pathetic lows (like PS One's Resident Evil Survivor) in its past, but I tend to ignore silly offshoots for promising ideas.

And the core ideas in ORC make a bold promise: A tour of duty through the zombie-filled streets of Raccoon City, and the player engages the storied viral outbreak from the perspective of Umbrella Corporation's security squad. Different objectives have you destroying evidence regarding the G-Virus -- all in an attempt to clear the corrupt pharmaceutical company of wrongdoing. The idea fits in a provocative sense even though, if you really think about it, Umbrella won't get away with it in the end -- remember the sleepy Midwestern town is nuked to contain the problem at the close of RE3, wiping it off the map. But regardless of the outcome, it's the journey that counts: another Resident Evil set in Raccoon City using today's high-definition technologies could be remarkable, right?

OP-ED: THQ and Ignition Troubles Show That Gamer Taste Threatens the Industry

Posted: 02 Feb 2012 01:53 PM PST

This week was not kind to video game publishers. THQ announced plans for 240 lay-offs amidst the board of directors and CEO giving themselves a 50% paycut. Meanwhile, Disney bought a controlling stake in India-based UTV Ignition -- a publisher which went through its own set of lay-offs and restructuring last year -- for an undisclosed sum after the Indian government approved the deal which had reportedly been in the works since at least last summer. Disney plans to use the firm to expand their own presence in the Asian market. Neither company revealed how the changes would impact Ignition's gaming division. It's entirely possible that it will have little or no effect, but that seems unlikely given the troubles the company endured last year. THQ ran into financial trouble after relying on licensed properties and kids and family titles, specifically uDraw, whereas Ignition announced they would shift their focus to downloadable titles last year after a series of poorly performing games.

These two publishers are hardly the only ones publicly struggling. Various factors, including high-cost HD development, have led to a shakeout amongst small and medium sized publishers like Eidos, Gamecock, Midway, and others while Activision rakes in massive profits. Of course, this is normal, companies that fail to adapt die. However, THQ's and Ignitions's recent troubles stem from a disturbing trend in game consumers, not from development or publishing difficulties. It seems that players are spending more time playing games, but paradoxically spending that extra time with fewer titles. Game makers have never in the forty-year history of the medium had such a massive consumer base to sell to, but players have never been so unwilling to try new experiences.

Ubisoft Server Transition Stresses the Faults of DRM

Posted: 02 Feb 2012 11:37 AM PST

Splinter Cell: Conviction

PC gamers have become accustomed to being treated less than ideally as a result of DRM schemes like those which force you to have an active Internet connection to play or only provide you with a limited number of installations before having to ask for more. Next week gamers will get a taste of what it's like to be treated even worse when Ubisoft migrates its online services to new servers.

As outlined on the publisher's website, the process will begin on February 7. There's no estimate given for how long this will take which is problematic because not only will Uplay be unavailable, but a handful of PC and Mac games will also be impacted. That impact goes beyond online multiplayer; a number of games will not be playable online or offline for the duration of the transition. You didn't read that wrong: you will not be able to play a game you own offline because of a server transition.

OP-ED: Does Final Fantasy XIII-2 Represent the End of Square, or a New Beginning?

Posted: 02 Feb 2012 07:56 AM PST

Earlier this week, Gamasutra published a scathing criticism of Final Fantasy XIII-2 penned by our colleague (and occasional Retronauts podcast guest) Christian Nutt. Though contextualized through an extended comparison to Red Letter Media's popular video critiques of the Star Wars prequel films, his commentary touched upon many of the same points and concerns I addressed in my own review of the game. Where our opinions differ, I think, is in our ultimate conclusion of XIII-2's merits (or lack thereof); I found the game flawed but a welcome step in correcting the series' course after two widely lambasted entries, while Christian feels it represents a deep, systemic rot at Square Enix's internal development studio.

I'm not too surprised by this turn of events. Christian and I rarely see eye-to-eye on most matters. So while I agree with his assessment of the underlying issues affecting FFXIII and XIII-2, my outlook on the company's future isn't nearly as dire as his. (I also disagree with many of Christian's assertions about FFXIII, such as the claim that lead protagonist Lightning lacked a demonstrable character arc, but that's neither here nor there.) From having spoken to FFXIII-2 director Motomu Toriyama and producer Yoshinori Kitase several times over the past couple of years, I get the impression that they're sincerely concerned about the series' direction and want to keep Final Fantasy relevant. From what I know of Square Enix's corporate culture, I also suspect that they're hobbled by the conservative nature of Japanese business, which can be slow to change when processes and standards that worked for years suddenly become ineffectual.

Posted by Shri Krishna

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