Look, Mario Dresses!

Mario-inspired eveningwear.

Buying The Cow

Microsoft is apparently releasing its new 802.11n wireless adapter shortly, and it’s occasion for me to complain again about the fact that wireless wasn’t built automatically into the 360.  It was a little shocking for me to discover that the original 360 required a LAN connection in order to go online, because almost no one I know outside of a dorm room happens to game and wire ethernet connections in the same room (particularly if they’re renting).  There was no way I was paying $100 for what even then I considered to be an essential component of a gaming console, so I’ve been bridging a laptop connection ever since.

The fact that Microsoft now feels inclined to release another adapter, which is supposedly faster, irks me further.  Either the addition is practically worthless (bad), or it’s actually going to provide a more competitive experience with 360 games (worse): who wants to be forced into periodic console upgrades in order to keep a level playing field with others?  This is yet another symptom of the increasing PC-ization of console gaming.

Console-less

In light of Jeff’s comments about DJ Hero’s pricing (it’s outrageously expensive, especially for a single-player experience), I thought these recent comments by Activision’s Bobby Kotick were interesting.  His interest in creating a game playable independent of a console is of course understandable, since it would presumably reduce the cost of publishing those games, but there’s an unpalatable undertone here: the more we move away from a single hardware reference point, the more likely it is that we’ll be paying a significant premium for plastic hardware that needs to be bundled with the game. 

I, for one, will be passing on DJ Hero the first time around despite a strong interest in the game.  A $120 price point is something I have no desire to encourage.

Making Music Games Interesting Again

I bought Guitar Hero 1 and loved it.  I got GH2 and liked it.  I haven’t gotten anything since then, including Rock Band, nor have I much interest in the latest Beatles expansion.  The reasons for this are numerous, but include the following:

• The songs are so mixed it can be hard to understand a game’s value.  Guitar Hero 1 had, I thought, a pretty good mixture of songs, but since that point I have had a hard time finding a setlist that I thought was truly great.  Rock Band has tried to fix this somewhat through DLC, but frankly, you pay so much up front that I don’t consider it worth it.
• The games are extremely uneven in terms of difficulty.  Guitar Hero 1 was pretty accessible, but GH2 was shockingly difficult by the first game’s standards, and sequels in the genre fall all over the board (Rock Band has some very easy portions and some very difficult ones).
• The target audience for the games varies as well.  Rock Band is best played with others, but since I don’t know a ton of people who have an interest in the genre, it doesn’t make much sense to pick it up.
• They’re expensive.  Shelling out $60 - $200 for a new game - which is essentially the same game as before - is just hard to justify on a regular basis.

Rhythm game fanatics have probably enjoyed most of the entrants into the series, but I suspect more casual players have lost a lot of interest.  What can be done to make these games more interesting?  Lately, all the innovation has focused on changing inputs: adding devices or upgrading them to attempt to make them a closer simulation of real music.  I’d suggest that we should focus a bit more on the mechanics of the game and how it’s sold.  (I’m actually pretty interested in DJ Hero, mostly because it’s so different than what we’ve seen so far, both in terms of gameplay and musical style.

One idea I’d like to see: what about an iTunes-esque “build your own game” format?  Games would come blank, but players could select a series of, say, 15 tracks to download that would become the standard tracklist for their game.  This would ensure that players would only pay for tracks that they really liked, in a style they desired; since DLC right now seems reasonably successful, I don’t see this as being a licensing cost issue.  I’d definitely pay for that.

Other thoughts?

The Difference Between Copying And Duplication

Apple stores work because they have a strong design element, strict control of the way their products are used, strong differentiation from their competition, good pricing power, and a decided attitude.  Sony has at least some of these things, plus an extremely broad consumer product range.  Microsoft stores have basically none of these things.  Why it thinks that the best way to sell their products is via retail is quite unclear to me. 

Why will this succeed?

Touch - A Splintering Effect?

I read this piece on Novint’s Falcon coming to consoles soon with great interest.  We’ve spent a ton of time touching up graphics for immersion, and the Wii shows that there’s a definite interest in a more tactile effect in games.  It seems pretty clear that there’s an opportunity here; however, the Falcon makes me wonder whether an all-in-one solution like the Wii remote is a potential answer.

I like the Wii, but it’s undeniable that it lacks the precision that many people expected when it was first announced.  The Falcon is a much more specialized device; it replicates the feeling of dimension and depth, and can do a convincing impression of holding a gun.  But it probably can’t be adapted to the many, many different experiences that a game is designed to replicate - controlling vehicles, maneuvering an adventure game character, and so on.  But it most likely nails the things it does try to do.

There seems to be a trade-off, then, between how effective an input device is and how specific it is to a designated function.  This probably makes a ton of sense to user experience designers, but I think it’s something that I haven’t processed all that effectively.  As a result, I wonder if we’ve run ourselves into a Catch 22: if we make a multitude of specific devices, they will be unaffordable yet replicate tactile experiences perfectly.  If we do not, they will be far less effective but more affordable.  The upshot, then, is that we may have a clear ceiling on sensory input devices… there’s only so much that we can do in this area before it becomes grossly impractical to continue making such items. 

There logical conclusion, then, is that games that are designed around these experiences will never meet certain standards likely demanded of them by serious gamers.  If you can’t meet the precision of a mouse and keyboard, then many gamers will eschew these devices, relegating them to the world of the casual.  Is this just a technological hurdle that is yet to be overcome?  Quite possibly, but that seems to be the current state of things.

XBLA File Sizes

The XBox Live Arcade file size has been raised again, this time to 350MB.  I have mixed feelings on this: part of me is suspicious that it’s just another step on the long line to digital distribution controlled by the console manufacturers (including the concomitant DRM issues).  On the other hand, it never made a lot of sense to me.  If a company wants to have a good, decent-sized game available for download, and they were willing to use XBLA to distribute it, what was the point of a size restriction?  Just make the size obvious, and what’s the problem?

How To Draw Geometric Shapes

Via PtB, this site takes aim at one of my least-favorite game-related memorabilia, How to Draw guides.  As the site notes, these books seem targeted to irritate you while teaching you nothing about how to draw: they usually feature 3-5 drawings for each character, in which the artist makes a bunch of geometric shapes, then draws the full character with few, if any, intervening steps.  Although I understand the shapes conceptually, I have yet to see an artist actually use them when drawing something.  I suspect the time would be much better spent showing someone how to make guidelines or something to keep everything proportional, then just doing everything slowly and in small sections. 

Needless to say, I doubt you’ll be able to draw Link after reading this book.  But you will have some unattractive pictures of Zelda characters.

I Hate Oyster Packs

And I’m glad to see I’m not the only one.  Kotaku points to this CNET article suggesting that clamshell packaging is on its way out.  There are three great reasons to despise it:

• It’s nearly impossible to open.
• Even if you can open it, you’re probably going to hurt yourself in the process.
• It’s terrible for the environment.
• Its entire design is predicated on the assumption that you want to steal things.

I just opened up another rechargeable 360 battery pack and managed to slice my thumb.  The sooner this stuff disappears, the better.

The Best Car Commercial I’ve Seen In Years

Brilliant.  Just brilliant.