If You Don’t Like Sonic, It’s Your Fault

Or so seems to be the gist of Sega’s latest messaging.  In short, the company would like you to know that the poor reception of Sonic & the Black Knight was mainly due to the fact that people over the “age of 12″ just don’t get the character. 

I actually started this post to lament the fact that gamers over the target age are far too harsh on Sonic titles that come after the Genesis era (I actually really liked his first Dreamcast outing).  But reading the Kotaku post referenced above, I just can’t bring myself to do it… the excuse is just too silly.  It seems to me that the main problem gamers have had with Sonic games is that they haven’t been very similar to the first three titles (and a few others, like the Game Gear iteration). 

What Sega doesn’t seem to get is that people don’t really love specific characters, per se - the Sonic vs. Mario angle they play up is probably misguided.  Rather, people loved Mario because they enjoyed playing his games - they liked the style and energy and emotions that it conveyed.  If you put Mario in a really bad game, people wouldn’t like him either.  Similarly, just because Sonic had specific characters doesn’t mean that people will want to play any game with those characters… rather, they need to feel connected to the same emotions that game initially sparked in them.  Gamers who are older and have fond memories of the original games don’t like the latest games because they’re too different from that original experience.  

The fact that Mario fans are able to separate their interest in him from the game styles in which he appears perhaps belies the supposed maturity of some Sonic fans.  But that hardly is reason to complain that they’re to blame, rather than the company whose job it is to cater to their interests.

A Belated Welcome Back

Apparently, while I was away the newest Telltale episodic series - Monkey Island - has come out to solid reviews.  I’ll just downloaded the first episode; I still have Ghostbusters to polish off as well.

So far, I’m definitely enjoying “The Launch of the Narwhal.”  I’m a little skeptical of the new Guybrush Threepwood design (the goatee isn’t doing much for me), and the voice seems slightly off, but they’ve definitely captured the feeling of the earlier games; the sense of humor seems intact and the general tone is pretty accurate.  Even the voice acting seems solid - which is tough for an episodic adventure game.  The new MI seems more relaxed and comfortable than the Sam & Max games, which sometimes seemed like they were trying too hard to be off-the-wall and zany.

The puzzles, too, seem relatively straightforward so far (if a little too reliant on players picking up on subtle changes in the scenery that occur when actions are strung in a particular order… action figure sword, I’m thinking of you).  A pleasant surprise, and I’m glad to hear it’s exceeding sales expectations.

It’s good to play a PC game again.,

Out of Africa

Back from Africa… regular posting should resume shortly. 

What have I missed in the last 5 weeks?

BREAKING: Sellers set their own prices for their own products

In a stunning realization, gamers discovered that the people who develop and produce their beloved games are actually allowed to determine their own price for the products they make.  Tempers flared in the gaming community when it was announced that the PC version of publisher Activision Blizzard’s Modern Warfare 2 would cost $60, prompting a possible boycott.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said avid button-masher Joe McCrybaby.  “I always just figured that there was some law that dictated that games were $50, especially PC games.  When I found out that wasn’t the case, I was shocked.”

Infinity Ward, the developers of the game, noted that publishers have been able to set the prices of games for years.

“There is precedent for this, believe it or not,” said Infinity Ward’s Community Manager Robert Bowling. “In the past, publishers have been able to determine what they thought was a fair value for their game.  This would sometimes lead to bargain games like Serious Sam for $20.  On the other end of the spectrum, Warcraft III originally debuted at $60.  We believe that’s a fair price for our game as well.”

McCrybaby reacted to this explanation with anger.

“Sure, less than $50 is fine.  But anything more than that is crap.  Blizzard learned their lesson after trying to pull that crap with Warcraft III.”

When it is pointed out that Warcraft III actually set sales records when it came out, McCrybaby simply complained that it would’ve done a lot better if it had debuted at the $50 pricepoint.

“A lot of people boycotted that game then just like I’m going to boycott Modern Warfare 2 now.  I’ll have plenty of other things to play anyway like Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, World of Warcraft and even Starcraft 2 is probably right around the corner!”

Activision Blizzard is the publisher of all of those games, as well as Modern Warfare 2.

*Note: This is satire.  None of the quotes above are real and no interviews took place.

Interlude From Africa

As you might have surmised, I’m on vacation (in Africa for several weeks).  My internet access is slow, periodic, and unreliable, but I did have a quick thought on the rebirth of EGM.  I guess I just don’t get how an online magazine solves the central problem that EGM had, which is that magazines are periodic by nature, whereas many sites (like Joystiq, which reported this) update continuously with new content as soon as it’s available.  I don’t see how any kind of periodical can compete unless it takes a dramatically different approach with its content - more editorial, less reporting-focused.

Ghostbusters Impressions

I have played Ghostbusters, and it is good.  Better, in fact, than I think the current Metacritic rating of 78 would portend. 

You can really tell how much attention to detail was lavished on this game.  The firehouse and levels from the movie are beautifully rendered, the voice acting and writing are top-notch, and the gameplay makes you feel like you actually are a ghostbuster.  In fact, after re-watching a (sponsored, natch) presentation of the movie recently, I was surprised to see just how many beloved locations and characters showed back up in the game. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Wii Are The Audience

I have a problem understanding how reviewers’ misunderstanding of the core Wii audience is relevant to games’ success, as Eurogamer reports that David Braben believes.

Reviews are either important to the large majority of Wii gamers or they’re not.  If the latter, then reviews aren’t important by definition.  If they are, then they read Metacritic or they don’t.  If the latter, then again, the reviews don’t matter.  If they do, then poor reviews are again, definitionally important to the main Wii audience. 

I tend to agree with Peter Moore in that core gamers pay attention to reviews, but the majority of the Wii gaming audience does not, and therefore that reviews are fairly irrelevant because of that.  But there’s no condition in which Metacritic scores will impact Wii game sales unless Metacritic-aggregated reviewers are also important to that audience.

Burnout

Mitch Krpata of Insult Swordfighting argues here that gamer burnout is a function of gamers getting too into a game, rather than not enough.  I would tend to agree that burnout is often a function of the length of playtime.  That said, I think that perhaps Krpata is confusing the technical definition of work with what we typically mean by the term in this context.

Undeniably, it takes a great deal of effort to get through many games, like Fallout 3 as is cited in the post.  That said, I got burned out by WoW in a way I never did by Fallout, because when I say that the former felt like “work” I meant that it became harder and harder for me to find the intrinsic value of my labor.

Read the rest of this entry »

Misanthropy

This is more of a thought than a post, but a Benjamin Quintero post on why he prefers single-player to multiplayer games struck a nerve given the comments on Left 4 Dead 2 earlier on this blog.  I loved L4D but played it a lot less than many other games in part because it was multiplayer, which meant that it was less convenient.  If I wanted to play with friends, which generally I find much preferable to strangers for a whole host of reasons (they won’t drop out of pique, I trust that they won’t spray the airwaves with racist profanity, and I know how good they are, among others). 

But given that it’s harder to to set up and play - you need to make sure friends are online, that they’re interested in playing, that they’re at the same level of proficiency in the game as you - which are all very difficult to ensure if you’re not as dedicated as they are to the game as they are, I much prefer a game I can pick up and play whenever I have a spare moment.  I appreciate the additional dimensions that a game like CoD4 and L4D can bring to a console game, but the busier I get, the more I value single player experiences.

Nothing To Apologize For

I find myself in the odd position of both wholeheartedly agreeing with Michael Pachter’s feelings and disagreeing with his walk-back of them.  I don’t often defend Pachter, whose profession I view as a modern analogue of the prehistoric entrail reader, but he was absolutely correct to voice his opinion publicly.  For those who don’t know, he ran afoul of Sony when he termed the new PSP Go a “rip-off” - a comment he based on the assumption that, if the PSP-3000 were profitable at $169/unit, the new PSP Go (which lacks some of the components) is overpriced at $250.

It’s certainly true that as a professional analyst, and not a gaming consumer, Pachter has the obligation to sever his private consumer-centric feelings from his objective view of the companies he covers.  That said, seen in context, the comments were clearly a professional opinion:

“On a recent episode of Bonus Round, Pachter matter of factly states, ‘$249 is too much. Period.’ He goes on to say that while the handheld is priced to compete with Apple’s $229 8GB iPod Touch, it doesn’t deliver the iTunes App Store or downloadable music from iTunes (as conveniently, at least, as the iPod Touch).”

Pachter is clearly voicing his opinion of how consumers will see the product and its impact on the marketplace, not his personal feelings about whether or not he would feel like purchasing it.  Since sales of the PSP Go are directly and obviously relevant to Morgan Wedbush’s customers, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Pachter would have a point of view on the subject, nor that he would express those views publicly. 

Obviously, Sony doesn’t want anybody of prominence badmouthing their new product, and so I understand their aggressive response.  But as far as I see things, Pachter’s got nothing to apologize for.