Backhand of Justice

Social gaming is the new hotness. Haven’t you heard? Zynga is taking over the world, and Mafia Wars and Farmville are the most popular games on earth. What, you just own a Playstation 3 or an Xbox 360? Those are so passe. I’m sure you play on your own, in the dark, while we’re happily picking blueberries with our friends.

Is this really what it has come to? Is social gaming the future of gaming, as many Facebook gamers claim? Is a single player experience in the form of ‘core games’ a brief aberration that will be relegated to the least social of creatures? read more

Shigeru Miyamoto said that videogames didn’t sell well in 2009 because ‘we were not able to produce fun-enough products.’ When the creator of Mario, Zelda, Starfox, Donkey Kong and Cold Fusion (Nintendo scheduled release 2011) speaks, the videogame community listens.

Do games really need to be fun, though? Not all books are fun, and critics frequently ridicule ‘fun’ books like John Grisham novels or the Da Vinci Code. Nobody can really argue that The Hurt Locker was more fun than some of the other films released this year, but that doesn’t prevent it from winning the awards? Will games always just be fun? read more

If you haven’t been following recent game news, you might not have heard of GameCrush. It’s a service where you can pay $8.25 for a 10 minute Xbox Live game or 6 minute flash game. Why would you do this when you can play for free? Because GameCrush allows you to play with women. read more

People (mouth-breathers) like to demean games as silly wastes of time. They’re probably right, at least if you’re referring to the current crop of games. Can they be harnessed towards something useful? We’ve seen labeling pictures turned into a game. We’ve seen manipulating proteins turned into a game. What about teaching Microsoft Office?

A new game called Ribbon Hero attempts to turn learning and practicing Microsoft Office techniques into a game. This is just the first step: soon everything will use games to teach. read more

Don’t get me wrong: I’m a PS3 owner, and only a PS3 owner. I don’t want to start some console flame war about which is better overall. I just want to suggest that Xbox Live is winning the online war vs. PSN (as well it should considering it costs something vs. PSN which is free).

PSN likes to push that it offers greater value because there’s no subscription fee. Is $5/month really that crippling? Is the worse functionality offered by PSN worth the savings? Hardly. read more

Whether you’re discussing the rise of MMOs, the increasing use of digital distribution or the prevalence of online multiplayer, it is undeniable: we’re living in an online world.

Why are so many upset, then, when Ubisoft introduces DRM that requires you be online for game saves? Why are so many upset when there are delays to updates, or the Playstation Network goes down, or World of Warcraft server maintenance takes slightly longer than expected? Sure it’s inconvenient, but there are as many if not more benefits to having game services move online than there are drawbacks. Why fight it conceptually? read more

Arcades were once great gaming meccas. Kids from across the neighborhood would converge to spend many quarters and hours on their favorite hobby. Back then, videogames were a social hobby, as you would encounter countless kids with whom you had a common interest while waiting for the next game.

While the home console changed the face of gaming forever in primarily positive ways, one negative side effect was the death of the arcade and the emergence of the fat loner slob videogame stereotype. Can new 3D games reinvigorate the arcade scene? read more

Developers have sold the idea to gamers that if they continually support a game long after release, it offers greater value. As long as a CoD: World at War map pack comes out every few months, that $5 charge to access it is more than justified.

This is a fallacy that takes advantage of consumer inability to judge value at the very low end of the price scale. Relative to the price of a game, DLC offers terrible value, and gamers who want more from a franchise would be better served by encouraging developers to start on a sequel rather than by paying for subpar DLC.  read more

Gamers expect a constant progression of technology. In just 3 decades, games have evolved from primitive black and white graphics to the extremely lifelike presentation seen in Uncharted 2 and Heavy Rain.

Developers can’t possibly keep pace with the acceleration of technology given its current trend. What can be done to help them out? read more

Dragon Age had many skeptics pre-release. It was seen as a throwback niche product, attuned to hardcore RPG fanatics that were hidden in some dungeon somewhere, rolling dice for the last decade. An antiquated, hardcore RPG couldn’t really be successful in today’s sophisticated and streamlined market, could it?

Now that we know Dragon Age sold 3.2mm copies since its release date, putting it on pace for over 5 million, we have to ask whether there are any niche products anymore. I believe there’s no good product that won’t find an audience. If your game doesn’t sell well, it’s probably because it was crap, not because there’s some missing audience for your phenomenal game.     read more