Difficult Games Aren’t Disappearing, They’re Changing
I frequently read that difficulty in games is going the way of the dodo. ‘Players don’t want challenges anymore, they want experiences. Punishing games such as Ghouls and Ghosts and Battletoads are a relic of the past, and designers have learned from their errors in difficulty tuning.’
With the release and warm reception of Demon’s Souls, however, could tricky games be making a comeback, or is this a brief aberration in the trend towards obscurity?
I don’t think difficulty in games is going anywhere. There is a demographic of gamer who likes a stiff challenge and there will always be developers who cater to them. I want to briefly analyze what challenges difficult games face in today’s market, whether difficult games can ever become mainstream again and if not, what form difficult games will take going forward. read more
Why Does Everybody Hate Gamestop?
Gamestop is vilified for being the evil empire of games, controlling pricing and availability with an iron fist. Many think their top priority is to rip off the customer and see the management team as greedy beyond measure. I want to suggest that this is far from the case, and Gamestop is merely another corporation in the industry we all love.
I will analyze many of the criticisms leveled against the company and explain why they’re not fair. I will argue that you can criticize the game industry in general, but singling out Gamestop is unfair and unwarranted. (I realize I’m going to take a lot of crap for this one)
Why PC Gaming is Poised to Become Relevant Again
I believe that while expanded user bases force developers to release games simultaneously on consoles, innovation and creativity is about to take on a decidedly PC bias. read more
How Large a Threat to Traditional Handheld Gaming is the iPhone?
Apple announced Monday that more than 2 billion applications have been downloaded through its App Store. More significantly, 25% of the applications on the store are games, and 80% of the applications are free. The costs to develop for the App store are significantly lower compared to traditional handhelds as the games are far less complex, and the iPhone already has an install base over 30mm and that number is growing rapidly.
Is this a sea change in the industry in terms of where people are going to game, is this just a passing fad, or is it an expansion in the overall market? I’m going to analyze multiple questions on this matter and offer my conclusions on what the handheld gaming industry will look like 3-5 years down the road.
Why Licensed Games SHOULD NOT be Good
I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard that licensed games and crossover games disappoint. ‘Oh god, not another movie game, it’s going to be terrible!’ ‘Why are they making a Superman game, everybody knows Superman is too powerful to be a good videogame character.’ ‘Shaq-Fu and Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker were the best games of all time! OF ALL TIME!’ Ok, so maybe that last one is just me, but the point is gamers are constantly dismayed at the low quality of licensed games. They lament the abuse their favorite superheroes, action stars and movie franchises receive at the hands of videogames.
They’re just being naïve. I want to explore why we should expect licensed games to be terrible, and it’s completely illogical that they would be anything but shovelware. read more
Should we Care About the Business of Games?
Obsession among videogame players about the business of games is nothing new. We have long joked about ‘the console wars,’ and every podcast I listen to has a discussion of NPD numbers after they are released.
The question I want to ask is: why do we care? Why should we care whether the company who published a game of which we’re a fan made a ton of money or struck out? Why should we care which console is selling better? There are several logical reasons, but I don’t think we care for logical reasons. read more