Ads
insinuated into video games
I read about this in WSJ a few days ago but couldn’t link to it. Glad to be able to share it now.
Needless to say, I think this whole idea of streaming ads into a game I paid for pretty much sucks…
Category: Gaming
Don’t fool with the Swedish Girls of Gaming
Don’t fool with Swedish Girls of Gaming
Its like the Swedish Bikini Team for game geeks!!
Video game prices about to rise
Video game prices about to rise
Hmm, grim news to me, and another case of somewhat inaccurate reporting. Fact of the matter is, the price of console games has dropped over time, at least in some cases. Remember $75 N-64 cartridges?
I don’t buy into the argument that games are the only form of entertainment where prices haven’t increased, either. I mean, I’m not debating that the fact is true, but you have to look at the big picture. A top-selling game today moves a LOT more units than a top-selling game in the early 80s, and that increase in audience size has a lot to do with the cost per unit, I should think.
I was pissed that Doom 3 cost $55. $60 for a game is a lot. If game developers want to increase their consumer base, they need prices to come DOWN, not go up.
Game almost over for Doom creator?
Sorry no posts in so long. Work has been crazy and, ahem, I do most of my posting from work. 😉
Anyway, looks like Carmack is thinking about dumping games and focusing on space. Such tough decisions this guy has to make, eh? Well, he’s earned it. Nice to see him using his success in ways that are interesting to him, rather than just squatting on a pile ‘o cash.
Game almost over for Doom creator?
Sportsmanship is not dead
When I was a kid, my father taught me to be a good sport. “Nobody likes a sore loser.” he told me, “And nobody likes a sore winner, either.” At the time, this wasn’t any great revelation; that was how the world was. People were expected to be gracious about both winning and losing in competition. Now I’m not saying everyone was gracious, but that was what society expected.
Over my years of gaming on the internet, I’ve sadly grown to accept the fact that sportsmanship was dead, replaced by ‘trash talking.’ When you win, you’re expected to berate your opponent. When you lose, you’re expected to accuse the other guy of cheating or something. And this isn’t limited to the internet, I should add. We see it in sports of all levels as well.
This is, in my opinion, a sad, sad part of our current culture.
And so it is with delight that I can say, sportsmanship and healthy competition does still exist! As I said in my last post, I’ve been playing a lot of board games online lately. Mostly Go and Backgammon, but also Shogi, Xiangqi, Chess, Pente and a few others. At this point I’ve played (or am currently in) hundreds of different games against people from all over the world. And the ‘rudest’ exchange I’ve had is the lack of pleasantries. That is, some people who play silently rather than wishing their opponent ‘good luck’ at the start of the match, and ‘good game’ at the end of it. Again, let me emphasize that these silent opponents are the most rude I’ve encountered, and I think you’ll agree that this isn’t very rude at all.
The vast majority of opponents I’ve played against have varied from cordially polite to pleasantly chatty. I’ve had much stronger players take me under their wing to teach me a few tricks. I’ve had people apologize for playing too slowly, even when they really weren’t slow at all. In all, its been such a pleasant and encouraging experience that I keep waiting for the other shoe to fall!!
And the cynic in me wonders if nationality has a lot to do with this. I’d say that at least half my opponents have been from countries other than the US. Perhaps sportsmanship is still alive and well inside foreign shores…
Online board gaming
Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time playing various board games on various sites, and I just have to say that I am totally enjoying the experience. I’m trying to learn Go & Xiangqi as well as some more obscure games (Dvonn, StreetSoccer), and I’m playing old favorites as well (Backgammon). Even though it is all “PvP” so far I’ve not met a single “jerk.”
A lot of folks are quite silent, but I have encountered a few of my fellow chatty types, and wishing your opponent “Good luck” and ending with “Good game” seems to be the general trend, and that applies equally to Dailygammon, IYT, DragonGo and Little Golem. It just seems like these kinds of games draw a nice sort of person.
Its just such a nice discovery! I’m still looking for a site that lets me easily play Shogi. If anyone knows of one, I’d love to hear about it!
Zillions of Games
I was looking for software to learn Shogi with and not having any luck, when I stumbled upon Zillons of Games. Its a package with some kind of a ‘universal game engine’ in it. I d/led the demo and before too long shelled out $25-ish to unlock the whole game. Messed with it a bit last night but didn’t get too far.
Well at lunch today I d/led it to my work machine (and registered it…which technically might be evil but I know I’ll never be playing both copies at once).
I’m pretty happy with the purchase now that I’ve had more time to mess with it. Granted the interfaces can be a bit clunky since they’re generic, and its isn’t a gorgeous game. But there’re a ton of games I haven’t played since I was a kid and its fun to go and revisit them. Lots of solo games, too, like Towers of Hanoi, Knight Chase, that infuriating game where you have to toggle off all the lights but you can only turn them on/off in clusters and so on.
Go, however, seems pretty clunky I’m afraid. You have to use a drop-down menu to pass, and often the AI opponent moves behind the menu and it can be hard to see where it went. Also, at the ‘PushOver’ difficulty level, it doesn’t know when to quit, but maybe its ‘smarter’ at higher levels.
Basically, I’m pretty confident I’ll get my $25 worth of fun out of it, even if I don’t d/l any extra games or make any of my own.
You can probably find many of these games elsewhere, either on websites as Flash games or as freeware/shareware downloads, but having them all in one package is pretty convenient. Zillions-of-Games gets the DC Seal of Approval.
Oh, but sadly its only available for Windows. 🙁
Playboy undressed video game women
Playboy undressed video game women
Looks like BloodRayne isn’t the only one that’s going to show up in October’s Playboy! 🙂
Y’know, its just weird enough that I’m going to have to find a copy of the magazine… for the accompanying article, of course. 😉
Boring Game? Outsource It
Y’know, the real problem here isn’t that these virtual goods sellers are hiring some poor Russian dude to farm in-game cash for $100/week.
The problem is that the games are so damned TEDIOUS that people would rather BUY their way to the good stuff than play the games.
If the journey was fun, then everyone would be happy doing it.
Paying to play a game, and then paying more to a third party to get to the good stuff? What’s wrong with this picture?
Legacy
I have to promote Legacy a bit. What a fun game for your PDA (versions area available for PalmOS, PocketPC & Symbian). Remember back when we were playing Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder on our computers? Well Legacy will take you back to those days, with a first person perspective, turn-based RPG dungeon crawl. Magic users, clerics, knights and adventurers…they’re all here (up to 4 in your party at once). Highly recommended, if you enjoyed those RPGs of old!