Old Games: Should Downloadable Content Be Free?

by dkpatriarch

© 2009 David Hilton

I would love to see sales figures for downloadable content for games that were released 1-3 years ago.  Some of this content hasn’t ever changed in price and competes with new release games’ downloadable maps and features.

Old Game Content Should Be Free

In a world where everything, including the retail games themselves, depreciates does this make any sense?

No it doesn’t.

But of course those in charge are certainly not obligated to lower prices or, even better, make the added content for older games free.  But it would be both logical and, well, nice.

This is the point raised recently on the Xbox.com.au forums by user mchiefvs360. The comment was:

It’d be nice if older games like GRAW1, COD2 or PGR3 made their content free as I don’t know many people who would want to pay full original price for maps for a game that is five years old, Perfect Dark Zero did it right.

And he (or she) has a good point.

Games like Gears of War, The Outfit, Lost Planet, Perfect Dark Zero, Fable 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and GRAW 2 have some or all of their content free and are praised for it.

Of course the latest trend has been to re-release the bundled retail game and downloadable content some time later as a “Game Of The Year” edition at full or near full retail prices, as with Lost Planet, Oblivion, and Fable 2.

Should Oblivion content be free now?

I’m not sure of the sales figures for those editions either, but I believe it would be good PR and even prolong the use of many of these old games if all the content was made free after a certain length of time instead (which Lost Planet has since done).

Let’s face it: these days gamers move on pretty quickly.  If your game isn’t Halo 3 or COD:4, and fewer people are playing your game online (or offline in the case of added missions, cars and tracks) what is the purpose of keeping a high price on it?

If a gamer has a lot of downloaded content on their HDD that they got for free for your game, they may just keep it instead of throwing it away for a few bucks trade-in at EB Games.

When the game’s content is announced as being free it may very well revive interest in the game and propel a few sales (used or new).  Yes the game-maker makes nothing off a used copy sold, but any creator wants their creation used as long as possible, and this may keep up interest for an upcoming sequel.  It’s not as if they are making anything if nobody is paying to download the content anyway.

So what would be the drawbacks?

Well not everybody goes on N4G, Gamegrep, or the forums to find out about new initiatives like a game’s content being made free, so how would the good publicity reach the public at no cost?  Sure, the Microsoft (or Sony) Dashboard could advertise it, but otherwise word of mouth will be the only way people would even see the goodwill gesture and take advantage of it.

Then there is the worry that some gamers would just wait for the content to become free and therefore it would cost in download sales, though I doubt most gamers who really want the content would wait that long.

Still, these concerns aside, it certainly could be something besides the “deal of the week” idea to give added value to being part of the online service.  Some gamers still aren’t online with their consoles because they don’t play online games, but if they could get free content for their retail game they may connect more readily for the added missions or race tracks and be tempted to try online gaming.

The future of gaming.

Then there are the implications for the future of console gaming.

If future consoles, as is sometimes surmised, focus on digital distribution, as with the PSP GO!, then you may have a situation where prices do not reduce very far as there is no competition between retailers.

PSP GO: expensive digital distribution the future?

With the PSP GO! we have the situation where the retail versions of PSP games with full packaging and discs are more often actually cheaper than the downloadable version.  Digital distribution with consoles remains very fixed in pricing with only the “deal of the week” lowering the price of only a few items.  Will this trend continue in future consoles?

Yet the PC crowd can revel in digital distribution thanks to Steam, where prices drop often on a large variety of games.  This model is in stark contrast to the one with the PSP GO!.

If Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and all the game-makers start winning the gamers over to digital content by adopting the ‘depreciation’ model and by giving all older content for free, they will be a lot more successful in winning converts (especially skeptics like me) to the concept of digital distribution-only consoles in the future.

They really should start by giving older content away now.

So what games offer “some” free content on Xbox Live Marketplace?

Well here they are:

• GRAW 2
• FORZA 3
• Gears of War
  
• Call Of Duty: World At War
• Halo 3
• Fable 2
• Batman: Arkham Asylum
• Call of Duty 2
• Call of Duty 3
• Left4Dead
• Midnight Club: LA
• FEAR 2
• Project Gotham Racing 4
• The Last Remnant
• Rainbow 6: Vegas
• Rainbow 6: Vegas 2
• Endwar
• Infinite Undiscovery
• LOTR: Conquest
• Timeshift
• Frontlines: Fuel At War
• Kameo
• Crackdown
• Civilization: Revolution
• The Darkness
• The Outfit
• Lost Planet

© 2009 David Hilton

Eftersom jag har ändrat inriktning på den här bloggen så tänkte jag dra en parallell till spelens värld då det kommer till spännande och vackra miljöer. Nu är det förstås inte alla spel som är sådana men det finns ett par stycken som jag gillar att bara röra mig runt i utan egentliga mål.

Azeroth

Azeroth är Warcrafts värld som jag föll för när jag testade World of Warcraft betan för många år sedan. Under betan spelade jag som en Dvärg paladin och nådde nivå 13 ungefär på den veckan jag spelade men jag fastnade som mest för spelet när det anordnades en räd mot Crossroads i Barrens. Redan den gången slogs jag utav variationen i miljön då vi på vägen dit han springa igenom ett snölandskap, ett låglandskap, ett träsk och sen savannen i Barrens. Senare när jag väl började betala Blizzard för att få se resten av Azeroth så var jag fast. Jag har spenderat åtskilliga timmar där med att bara utforska världen, tagit mig till områden där jag egentligen inte bör vara på grund utav min nivå men som jag ändå har utforskat. Men det spelet är något speciellt, att utforska de tropiska miljöerna i Stranglethorn Vale eller de barrskogsbeklädda områdena i norr var väldigt spännande och roligt framförallt. Det var delad glädje och tillika saknad när jag hörde att de ska göra om hela Azeroth till den kommande expansionen; glädje då de ska bli kul att utforska områdena igen fast i ny tappning och saknad då jag inte kommer att kunna besöka den gamla versionen igen. Av de två tidigare expansionerna så har jag bara testat den första, Burning Crusade som var lite för annorlunda för min smak. Wrath of the Lich King har jag inte testat på men den tror jag passar mig bättre dock.

Albion

Jag har haft nöjet att besöka Albion i ett spel och blivit hypad över Albion en annan gång. Första gången var inför Fable eller Project Ego som det hette i sin början. Jag läste mycket om spelet och längtade ju efter den öppna världen som jag skulle få utforska. Så blev det inte i slutändan då spelet blev relativt instängt och jag sket i att köpa det spelet. Förra året så släpptes den andra delen i Fable serien och jag köpte spelet vid release. Det visade sig att Albion är en vacker värld som även fast den är uppdelad i sektioner ändå är levande och mysig att röra sig omkring i. Speciellt så här på hösten då det regnar utanför fönstret så är det mysigt att utforska de lummiga skogarna i Peter Molyneux värld.

Det var två spel vars världar jag kan besöka och utforska utan att ha några egna krav på mig men självfallet finns det fler spel med härliga världar. Har ni något eller några spel som ni trivs med att spela utan att egentligen göra något, där ni bara kan vara och ha det mysigt?

Good news everyone, Fable ….aka “the game that is almost the greatest RPG ever but it’s always something that throws it off….oh yeah its too short” has just began to promote its newest installation, Fable 3 (great title huh?).  You know what that means?  That’s right, another 10 hour game that could be 12 hours if you really really push it, or possibly 13 and a half if you find all the hidden items….Hopefully this game will take longer then it took you to read this paragraph….Enjoy!!!!!!

Colapso neuronal. Esta sería una de las mejores escusas que un tío podría inventar en un mundo donde el pensar poco está premiado y el hacer lo contrario perseguido. No, no es broma. La entrada de hoy serán simplemente palabras unas al lado de otras, solo por rellenar, solo por no defraudar a esas pequeñas mentes que buscan en este blog un poco de refugio para perder su preciado tiempo. Yo hoy necesito una cama, unas horas de descanso pero cierro los ojos y no puedo dormir. No sé, este planteamiento me lleva a pensar que quizás padezco algo de trastorno del sueño o que simplemente soy raro. ¿Drogas? Es una opción pero claro depende que cuales pueden causar el efecto contrario y mantenerte en vela toda la santa noche. Así que me decido a leer o buscar algo de entrenamiento digital para ver si llega ese, de momento, inalcanzable momento de somnolencia pre-estado fase REM. Enchufo mi consola y empiezo a buscar entre los juegos que me han llegado a entrar en estado de somnolencia miro y tengo pocos, me deshice del Kameo, también del Sega SuperStar Tennis y sólo sobrevive el Fable 2, y sobrevive por que pertenece a una Saga, que si no directo a la basura.

Pero hay otros juegos de juzgado de guardia, algunos son juegos mediocres, otros son juegos del montón y otros son perfectos ejemplos de somníferos informáticos. Y como no tengo muchas más ganas de escribir pues se me cierran los ojos he pensado ayudaros, gracias a metacrític podeís ver los juegos que pueden ser perfectos para echar una cabezadita.

http://www.metacritic.com/games/xbox360/scores/

http://www.metacritic.com/games/ps3/scores/

http://www.metacritic.com/games/wii/scores/

Sobretodo aquellos que están por debajo del 65 son geniales cerrar los ojos, y no de dolor, si no de agotamiento.

http://dholl.deviantart.com/art/We-Get-You-When-You-Sleep-68885712

Buenas noches, Laocoont.

]]> http://xxgamerzhavenxx.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/fable-iiis-latest-concept-art/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:45:39 +0000 xxg3n0c1d3xx http://xxgamerzhavenxx.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/fable-iiis-latest-concept-art/

Lionhead studio is really putting lots of effort on developing the latest fable sequel and they have  released some new artwork as Lionhead Studio had promised. As you can see Albion is now no longer a Stylised Renaissance and is heading  straight into a Stylised Industrial Revolution. Fable 3 is an exclusive Xbox360 platform RPG title and it will be scheduled to be release in 2010 with new features,improvement gameplay system,and many more. Peter Molyneux confirmed that Fable 3 will support the latest motion sensor controller of Xbox360 “Project Natal”.

So this past week I had a very sobering conversation on path of my career with a fantastic instructor of mine who has a ton of industry experience, Net-net, I need to decide whether I’ll be a coder or an artist. Not because I was good at one or the other, but simply the fact of time to learn the plethora of tools, technologies and game engines out there just doesn’t exist. He also illuminated that the program I’m in isn’t geared toward creating game developers, but rather environment artists and game asset creators.  Yikes!  I wanted to learn everything so I could be in super demand after I graduated but now it seems I have to focus more on the modeling front.  I don’t have a huge problem with this.

Here’s the kicker though – I’m in the one year certificate program and he let me know that’s just not enough time to create a kick-ass demo reel.  THIS I have a problem with. Now I need to re-evaluate not only my focus, but my graduation date and hence, the date I get a job.  Not cool given I have a family.

I think I barely scratched the surface in my convo with my instructor and need to dive more deeply into it, working out every little painstaking detail. Yeah, this is where sweating the small stuff really counts. You can throw you’re own cliche’ in here too.

I’m also having a great discussion on what is a game designer versus a game developer and who’s the one that gets final say on what gets put into a game.  Check it out here.

Take the poll below and make a stand – game dev or game designer?

Russ wrote some good stuff about Fable 2 a long time ago, but Tyler and I were too lazy to do the same. We don’t want him to suffer due to our extreme lethargy, so here is what he said.

Russ:
When it comes down to it, Fable II ultimately feels like Zelda trapped in Microsoft’s hulking, sweaty body. The adventure elements and overall gameplay are very similar, though a little more robust than Zelda. Not having to worry about things like ammo is nice, and I preferred Fable II’s story (although it should have been several hours longer, considering how long this game was in development). But when it comes to level design and overall fun, Zelda (Twilight Princess in particular) easily wins. It may be unfair to compare Fable II with one of the most enduring video game franchises in history, but I can’t help but feel that it’s exactly the audience they were targeting.

In its own right, Fable II is a beautiful and engaging little title. It touts some serious gameplay mechanics – an open-ended moral system, the promise of living an entire lifetime, and consequences – and it’s hard not to appreciate the developer’s ambition. But when push comes to shove, these features feel like little adventures to distract you from the fact that this feels like half of a game. The side-quests are far too easy, and never let you really feel any sense of accomplishment when you complete them. Fable II has a whole lot of concept with too little content contained within, and it proved to be a week of fun that I may never revisit.

81/100

In Chapter 1 of Gaming: “Gamic Action, Four Moments,” Alexander Galloway explores video games as a mass medium. He does this without delving specifically into the more creative comports of gaming or the social and specific significance of the playing of video games, but focusing on the semantic makeup of the video game design as a whole and play as medium-specific actions.

First, he explores the differences between video games and previous media. “If photographs are images, and films are moving images, then video games are actions” (2). This is not the same as “active audience” media, where an audience can apply their own subjectivities to media, such as an interpretation of a film. While films and images are passive in our intake of them, in that we cannot affect them directly in how they affect us, video games are an “action-based medium” which requires our input to engage us (3). This concept can be compared to children’s toys.

First, there is the image, the photograph—or in children’s toys, the action figure. Think specifically of the action figure that you are not supposed to play with, or one of the shoddier type you get in Happy Meals: the one that doesn’t have moveable bits, where you must invest your own interpretations into the toy. This could range from anything to fighting aliens to having a tea party, but the main point is that while the toy might look like Iron Man or Barbie, it doesn’t have to be played with in a certain way.

Next, there is the moving image, the film—or the active toy, like the Furby. Furbies were these toys from the early 2000s. If you don’t remember, here’s a commercial:

However, once bought, one quickly realized that while when you turned them on, they would warble and giggle and move their eyes in a semi-terrifying way, there wasn’t much else left after that. Certainly, you could hug them (they were furry), but the mechanics inside got in the way. Otherwise, there wasn’t much you could do but watch them, or have them wake you up in the middle of the night when they suddenly decided to talk (as it was extremely difficult to fully turn them off.)

Finally, there is the video game, the action—one could see this sentiment echoed in a coloring book, or a board game, or legos. You can’t just look at these toys, because there is no fun at looking at a coloring book. These toys are essentially useless unless you act upon them, and it is that action that is its purpose.

Then, Galloway goes into the “Four moments” of gaming action. First, he writes about the diegesis of video games:  “[It] is the game’s total world of narrative action. As with cinema, video game diegesis includes both onscreen and offscreen elements. It includes characters and events that are shown, but also those that are merely made reference to or are presumed to exist within the game situation” (7).

Then, throughout the chapter, he breaks down the four moments, actions, suggestions of the video game thus:

First, there is the diegetic machine act, which he describes as an informational and atmospheric process, specifically the “ambience act” (10). This is when the player has temporarily ceased playing, but it is the “inverse of pressing pause” because while the game is going unplayed, certain acts are still going on. The trees might rustle, a bird might caw, and your character is still there, usually bobbing up and down in an uncomfortable fashion. The game is still within the created universe, allowing it to live and breath mechanically while it waits for you to pick it up again. This can be seen in more cinematic video games, such as Myst, or Ico, in which the “experience of ambience, of nonplay,” is more desirable to the actual game (18). However, Galloway feels that “formally speaking, cinematic interludes are a type of grotesque fetishization of the game itself as machine” (11).

In the following video, game review Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw deliberates on why cinematic gameplay does not work.

(Disclaimer: Ben uses some NSFW language, but he has several good points nonetheless.)

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/981-Wet

Second, Galloway describes the nondiegetic operator act as a “subjective algorithm,” in which the action is material and subjective (37). This is about pausing the game, or gathering cheats to flout the game’s original intentions to win. This is applicable to gameplay heavy games, where one seeks to buck the system and skip ahead, or even just freeze the game because there is little time for rest in the actual game.

Then there is the diegetic operator act, which is simply the gameplay: shooting, running, climbing trees, etc. He calls it “ritualistic dromenon” and refers to Huizinga’s ideas of gameplay as “an activity that is (1) free, (2) separate, (3) uncertain, (4) unproductive, (5) unregulated, and (6) fictive” (20). Huizinga also calls out Jodi (remember them?) as “spoilsports” because “their games intentionally deviate from the enchanting order created by the game” (28). Huizinga, Galloway explains, see video games as perfect order in an imperfect world.

Finally, there is the nondiegetic machine act, which are simple actions that are coded within the machine: the disabling or enabling of gameplay (which could be simple shutting off the game via a button or cutting off the play via death) which is based in the “play of structure” (37). A game in connection to this would be DDR, or Guitar Hero. Here I’d like to return to Yahtzee when he reviews the new Guitar Hero 5 and Beatles Rock Band (same disclaimer applies):

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/941-Beatles-Rock-Band-and-Guitar-Hero-5

You’ll notice that at the end Yahtzee mentions that he realized that after a while it wasn’t about the music anymore, it was about how quickly he could press a bunch of buttons.

One last point: when I was reading about video gaming, I wanted to see if it was cybertext or hypertext. It seems to me that video games are cybertext in general, in that they are supposed to be linear (in terms of levels and advancement) and are also set up to be orderly. However, within the game’s frame, one could see it as hypertext. In the diegesis of video games, one does not need to follow the set rules. For example, when my friend would play Fable 2, he would often ignore the game’s hero aspects (save this village, avenge your sister, etc.) and do things like kick people to see if they noticed, or marry one woman per town, and have children with each of them, and see if he could fight the children with his sword (he couldn’t).

Como suele suceder cada semana, un producto del Bazar de Xbox Live se ve reducido en su precio en comparación al costo original con el que fue lanzado a la venta. En esta ocasión es el turno del título de Xbox LIVE Arcade, Fable II Pub Games, que estará disponible por sólo 400 Microsoft Points.

Fable II Pub Games consta de tres juegos al estilo de las tabernas, llamados Keystone, Fortune’s Tower y Spinnerbox, los cuales dan una oportunidad al jugador para obtener más dinero o ítems para Fable II (únicamente si el personaje ha obtenido la mayoría de edad). Aún así, los Pub Games añaden una pieza de oro más a la bolsa del jugador, lo que permite un personaje más rico desde el comienzo del juego.

La promoción estará disponible solo durante el resto de la semana del 26 de octubre y para los suscriptores GOLD. El precio original de lanzamiento de Fable II Pub Games es de 800 Microsoft Points.

Da click aquí para considerar la descarga de este producto.

Vía: OXM

Fable 2 (2008)

Rated: M

Platforms: Xbox 360

A sequel to one of the best xbox games this decade. The first Fable was a heroic achievement in creating a RPG world where communication and action is at its best. Similiar to its counter part Oblivion. With all sorts of arrangement of weapons and spells, the first game looked amazing. But it cant beat this Fable. The sequel transcends its little brother by a mile with more can do experiements. Now you can be both girl or boy(although the girl can look very big and odd looking as you continue to level up). Also, the company of mans best friend. A dog. Cute and helpful in your quest. He’s also quite resourceful. Who wouldnt want a treasure hunting dog. Besides, he does a little bit more. Like dog tricks and attacking fallen enemies. Awesome!

When you start the game, you are able to make the decision of being a girl or a boy. From there, you play as a little kid trying to survive on the streets with your older sister named Rose(beautifully voiced). Kinda start doing little quests until Theresa(from the first game) comes in and introduces you to the magic world. But really just to tell you that buying the music box is the best thing that can happen. It really isnt as your sister ends up dead and you break nearly every bone in you body. But heros can survive such fall and as you slowly recover, you are now old and able to become a hero. From there, your main quest is to find and destroy Lucien(the man who murdered your sister). But more importantly, before he destroys the world. But its no fun chasing the main quest because believe it or not, its rather easy and short lived. So go out and do the other quest that can give you rewards or help you get renown points. Points that will tell your place in the world. Also each action(like the first game) can change your appearance. From pure or to downright devilish. Horns will grow out or a halo will shine above you. You choose because people will react accordingly.

Its  battle system is quite the same from the first but with a few additions. Like guns and chain attacks. Also a more range of spells. It should widen your tactics but I was a litte disappointed witht the small amount of spells. Nevertheless, still fun to joy around with. But what got my attention was its view. It has perfect sense of nature and resemblance of natural lighting and believable action. Colorful and binding. Although its nothing compared to Oblivion. But still, a rather beautiful site. Characters hardly matter as you are the only one that should be taken care of. The three heros are in question but nothing you can do to really harm them or disappoint them.

I would like more movement capabilities and for a rather larger arsenal of emotions and communicative actions. In this game, you get the ability to marry and have relationships as well as participate in sexual acts. If there isnt any protection, a kid is in the conversation. But if you ignore your family, divource can happen and there is really no action for you to take. A misstep in this direction but overall, I like the idea of sensual human relations. Some of the actiosn are stiff but the ability to freelance makes up for it. The story is familiar but its narrative approach is well enough to be exciting. Overall, this game is all but built for role playing. I wont say its better then Oblivion but its close.

Grade: B+

Written By: Xou Xiong

Labyrinthitis, alas, has nothing to do with David Bowie and the muppets. I feel rather hard done by as a result.

You know that feeling you get when you’ve had far too much Sangria, and you and N- can’t find the jug of coctail you just made because you’re holding it in your hand and the room is spinning too much for you to focus? Well, I feel like that whenever I move my head, which is irritating because none of the fun stuff – like playing through Guitar Hero 3 and discovering that you could probably break into that warehouse full of old cars if you weren’t nearly unconscious on the computer chair – has happened. And the worst part? Worse than feeling sea-sick and being denied the Muppets? I’ve been told to avoid driving.

It’s like losing a limb. My car, my baby, my Charlie Micra… I mean, obviously I don’t want to crash, for the car’s sake if nothing else, but being confined to Soham until the world begins to look a little more like its usual, non-blibbly self is not a prospect I particularly relish. Nothing to do now but play Fable 2 and hope my hero’s debauchery will make me feel better. Either that or work… but you know how these things go.

Oh! While I’m rambling, I highly recommend that everyone go take a look at http://cakesbymisti.co.uk/ This incredible cakestress – it’s a word, who says it isn’t!? – did my wedding cakes and so impressed the chef and owner of the restaurant we’d hired that he came out to tell her how good they were.  She does all kinds of incredible goodies, including lemon merangue cupcakes, black forest cupcakes and the most incredible chocolate Guiness cake you’ll ever get your mits on.

I finished up on my Fable 2 review. Just added content and fixed up some grammar, from the older review. I gave the final game a B+. It would have been an A if it wasn’t for the cost. New Fable 2 review also has been changed and renamed under XBOX Games. Been playing Team Fortress 2 lately so maybe review that.

Célèbre jeu se passant dans un monde médiéval, aux allures de mangas, Fable II nous emmène dans la vie d’un jeune garçon en quête de vengeance et de réponses, dans un monde très coloré.

Ce jeu a-t-il tenu toutes ses promesses? Ah! Ah! Suspens ^^

Le début est peu long avec beaucoup de blabla, malheureusement nécessaire pour poser les bases. J’ai eu un peu de mal à manier le personnage mais c’est en grande partie parce que j’y jouais déconcentré. Une fois que l’histoire se met en route, on prend du plaisir à errer dans le monde, même si celui-ci est assez limité finalement.

Pourtant, Fable 2 n’est pas dénué de défauts. Au fil des missions, l’engouement du début s’estompe car il manque un peu de folie. La conversation avec les personnages devient lassante, voir énervante. Personnellement, j’ai beaucoup de mal à y jouer très longtemps mais peut-être qu’avec le temps et un peu plus d’expérience, je l’apprécierai vraiment

Un bon jeu mais dans lequel j’ai du mal à m’insérer. Il faut être honnête, il n’y a pas que des bonnes choses mais aucun jeu n’est parfait

]]> http://yousaysummer.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/determinism-in-video-games/ Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:13:56 +0000 whitey89 http://yousaysummer.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/determinism-in-video-games/

“A man has a choice… I chose the impossible.”

―Andrew Ryan

“The Terrible Twins” – Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

‘Determinism is the view that every event, including human cognition, behaviour, decision, and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences.’

The term naturally suggests that humanity or individual humans may not change the course of the future and its events; however, some determinists believe that the level to which humans have influence over their future is itself dependent on present and past.

Causal determinism is associated with, and relies upon, the ideas of materialism and causality.

If we apply this theory to the video game world we begin to see something very interesting. As humans in real life, we are born into different situations, with different features and different experiences.

If we are born with media defined ‘good looks’, wealth and into  a similarly defined ‘good education’ we are seen to go far in life, have a successful job, a girlfriend and the flashy sports car.

But, If we are born without these ’successful’ traits, we seem to be condemned to a life of hardship, of social, financial and relationship problems, and no matter how hard we try, never seem to escape.

Interestingly in the video game world, we are starting to see games scratching at the surface of the philosophical themes of determinism and causation, games asking you;

Who Will You Become?

Fable II

The important aspect about Fable II is that your choices affect everything around you, from the way people perceive you, to your personal appearance, and even to the world itself. The world of Fable II is as as much a character as the protagonist, as the impact made by your adventures over the course of the game will reshape it in your image. From the very first hour to the last, you’ll find opportunities to make choices that will drastically change Albion and yourself forever.

This idea could be argued to be quite scary – why would you want to live another life to such an extent within a video game?

The answer is escapism in it’s purist form – the ability to shape the world around you is extremely important for the person that is unsuccessful – such an idea in the real world is seemingly unattainable.

The fairytale of the young boy/ girl, often born into poverty or hardship, but growing, surviving and against the odds, triumphing over evil is becoming increasingly popular for use as the basic storyline within many video games.

Is it then coincidence that the majority who identify themselves with these games, putting hours into character creation, being influenced by morality choices find themselves part of the latter group of media defined ‘unsuccessful’ people?

I think there is something very comforting about the characters and story-lines within video game worlds; not only do they offer a form of escapism from everyday monotony, but I believe they also offer valuable life lessons about the rights and wrongs of society. Perhaps this is why people strive to become like them in things like “Cosplay” or role-play.

The Legend of Zelda – The Ocarina of Time

Perhaps the real reason why we play these games and get so involved with what they have to offer is because deep down we believe that even though we might have been given the ’short straw’ in life, (in terms of job, quality of life etc) there is always the hope and possibility for change. There is always a ‘nagging’ feeling saying ‘you are better than this’, and the games merely latch on to, and pull at this feeling for an emotive reaction, possibly then effecting human action in the real world.

Kingdom Hearts II

Another interesting factor regarding the notion of determinism and video games is it’s actual implementation into the video game world – one such example is within the complex and philosophical narrative of Bioshock.

“A man has a choice… I chose the impossible.”

―Andrew Ryan

Above is one of the major themes of Bioshock, and Andrew Ryan’s personal motto. The theme of self-determination and the question of destiny in the game is embodied by this phrase. During the game, the player, Jack, is given many choices, both tactically and morally, but his actions turned out to be illusory: his will had been controlled and driven by Frank Fontaine, under the guise of Atlas, via the phrase he’d been conditioned to obey, “Would you kindly…”

Ryan, once he identified who Jack really was, first openly controlled the player with the code phrase, forcing him to do humiliating actions with pet commands, then used it to have the player kill him.

Bioshock

The game is interesting because whilst exploring the underwater dystopia of Rapture, the player is urged to turn everything into a weapon in order to survive;

‘The original goal of Rapture was to create a capitalist society free of religion and government, where any citizen could achieve for his or her own gain, rather than for the altruistic fulfillment of the wants of others. The “world’s best and brightest” were granted freedom of will and choice in Rapture, unrestrained by government, religion and similar established institutions. Instead of abiding by the morally idyllic restrictions imposed by these institutions, values such as logic and scientific reason were to guide the inhabitants in their pursuit of achievement.

However, the would-be utopia had its problems. In Rapture’s purely capitalistic society, with no social programs whatsoever, everything within the city was privately owned and came with a price. This included the city’s food, health care, sanitation, and even its oxygen supply. There were few, if any, defined norms for business and labor, allowing unscrupulous business practices (such as overpriced vending products) to flourish.

This system alienated Rapture’s less fortunate citizens, who began to resent Ryan as naive and elitist. Andrew Ryan’s hostility to “parasites” and his paranoia of these poorer citizens led to the downfall of his self, as well as his city. His edict that the outside world never be permitted to learn of Rapture’s existence enabled a man named Frank Fontaine to build his criminal empire through smuggling. Unlike the capitalistic Ryan, the former mobster could not be satisfied by mere material wealth – he wanted Rapture to be subject to his dominion. Fontaine would go on to start a civil war that sealed Rapture’s doom, under the alias Atlas.’

Biologically modifying your body with plasmids, hacking devices and systems, upgrading your weapons, crafting new ammo variants, and experimenting with different battle techniques are all possible and indeed necessary;

‘Ryan believed that scientific achievement in the world was being restricted by “petty morality,” so he ensured that the inhabitants of Rapture could explore paths of inquiry previously deemed too immoral or controversial to follow. Some scientific breakthroughs were in robotics, bringing about an advanced automated security system; others in biology, where developments advanced in the restoration of life, both in plants and humans.’

The fact that the player has to constantly splice his DNA and upgrade his body to face new challenges within the game world suggests that the media defined ‘unsuccessful’ are intrinsically not good enough to survive or face the hardest parts of life without outside help (plastic surgery in order to look a certain ‘acceptable’ way for example).

‘One of the major breakthroughs achieved in Rapture was the discovery of ADAM, unstable stem cells from a species of sea slug, and this led to the creation of plasmids and gene tonics. Essentially, ADAM allowed a user to splice new genetic material into the user’s DNA, enhancing health and intellect, and even giving superpowers. However, ADAM was soon found to cause physical and mental damage as more of the user’s native cells were replaced by ADAM stem cells. The need for ADAM became an addiction, which became more pronounced by excessive splicing, mainly during and after Rapture’s civil war.’

]]> http://hawaiiangamer.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/fable-2-chapters/ Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:46:57 +0000 Curtis http://hawaiiangamer.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/fable-2-chapters/

It seems that there is only 2 things you download if you are doing the other chapters of Fable 2. I just noticed today, after buying chapter 4, that once you downloaded chapter 2. You do not have to download anymore files. I guess the whole game is 4.5gb. Nice to know that. Well now that I think of it, I feel kind of ripped off now. With the whole game of Games on Demand costing $40 and the closest Gamestop sells it for $35. Hoping their might be a secret or something.

Microsoft, I’m picking up what you’re dropping, and I like it. You released Fable II in five separate episodes, making the first one free. Gamers now can play the actual game (vice a pre-release build of only the best part of the game) and then decide if they want to shell out some real life moneys for it. And if/when said gamers decide to buy the rest of the episodes (or the retail game), their savegame and stats from the first episode transfer into the full game, so they don’t have to replay anything and they won’t miss a beat. Nice.

It’s a great idea, and something that every game could have: release the first 10% of the game as an “episode”, and then let the player decide if he wants to actually pay for it. This would go well with my future vision of all-digital media, as well as digital rentals.

There are a couple things I’m not happy with, though. Fable II is released in five episodes, why? Who is going to say, “well, I’m only going to play 3/5 of this game”, really? Fickle gamers? Secondly, you can’t find the price for the rest of the episodes anywhere, which looks sneaky. Either Microsoft is going to charge too much for it (btw, you can find it on half.com for a little over $20 right now, and it was $25 at Gamestop today), which sucks, or they haven’t figured it out yet, which also sucks. Either way, they should be upfront with the costs; how’s it going to feel when a 15-year-old kid with a limited budget really enjoys episode one, only to be slapped in the face by some obscene price for episode two that he didn’t know was coming?

I’m busy during the week. I play games, skim news, annoy editors, brainstorm articles, forget deadlines, make errors, correct errors and send polite emails to accounting departments asking where is my money, could I please have some money, that would be so nice…

But the weekends? The weekends are built from dark days. The Irish city I am currently living in is soggy and stony like you wouldn’t believe. The rain is everywhere; you breathe it in and out. If you put your hand to a clump of moss you can feel pulses coming from a secret heart. The land is angry. Last night I think I heard a swan demand my wallet. I kicked it in the neck and fled.

I’ve taken to sheltering in my rented room for these periods because it is safe, although this means facing the awful bitterness in my head. I intend to use this. During the bad weekends I will take something in a game that makes me furious and write about it while drinking both a little too much and not enough Jameson 12 year. Let’s start with an old one I never got around to writing about at the time. Let’s start with

FABLE 2′S BREADCRUMB TRAIL.

With every review copy of Fable 2 Peter Molyneux chose to include a cover letter explaining that this was a game designed for non-gamers, and asking if we, the press, could review it as such. Fable 2’s most prominent features that made it ‘accessible’ for the non-gamer included the removal of player death (each time the player ‘dies’ they get a new scar and the fight continues) and the inclusion of what Molyneux called a ‘breadcrumb trail’, meaning the player could toggle on and off a trail of floating gold particle effects that would lead them to where they had to go to continue whatever quest they had selected.

I detest Fable 2. I consider it something of a dick move to make the target audience of your game’s sequel all the people who didn’t buy and enjoy your first game. I hate its infantile sense of humour, and how in every demonstration he gives Molyneux demonstrates the same mindset as that breed of casual gamer who giggles like a naughty child when the game berates them for stripping naked or pointlessly murdering passive characters.

I hate the idiocy of expecting combat to remain exciting when you’re playing with infinite health, and I find insufferable arrogance in the opinion that you can achieve this if you simply scar that player’s avatar with each ‘death’ because it ignores the possibility that the player won’t give a shit about their avatar.

If games are my life then Fable 2 is my own personal pus-soaked gut wound. It embodies the rise of this hateful opinion that the way to make everybody enjoy your game is to remove everything and anything which might piss them off, and then make every single piece of content so blindingly obvious that it cannot escape their attention.

For example, your character’s dog can sniff out buried treasure. He does this some 10 or 20 hundred times throughout the game. Whenever it happens the dog will run off to a patch of dirt and start barking wildly, but just in case you couldn’t fathom this mysterious hint the word “DIG” and a picture of a fucking spade materialises over your dog. Here is the idiocy of this illustrated in bullet points:

• Dog runs off.
• Dog starts barking, telling you to dig.
• The word DIG appears, telling you to dig.
• An icon showing a spade also appears, making sure you know to dig even if you do not speak whatever language you’re playing the game in.
• Laboriously you walk to where the game says, equip your spade and watch a digging animation that goes on for too long.
• Oh you found some buried treasure!
• Oh, well done!

It’s even worse when your dog finds a treasure chest. The dog barks, runs over to whatever treasure chest might otherwise have escaped your attention and then the word “TREASURE” appears over the dog. You, the player, end up looking at a dog going apeshit at a treasure chest the size of a fridge, above which floats the word “TREASURE” alongside a small white icon of a second treasure chest.

This is not the way you make your game accessible to non-gamers. This is not putting training wheels on a bicycle, this is putting the player in a baby seat mounted on the back of the bicycle while Peter Molyneux rides the bike, his asscrack poking out the top of his jeans the entire time.

But it’s the breadcrumb trail that really gets to me like fingernails on a blackboard. Of all the hateful missteps this game makes it was always the one I was most scared of spreading like [insert STD here] throughout the games industry during the inevitable cross-germination of ideas that’d come after Fable 2’s success.

Being able to complete almost any task in the game by following the trail like a fish on a hook does a very good job of incinerating immersion, wonder and a sense of achievement. You walk the line. You do not deviate from the line, because deviating from the line will only slow the rate at which you progress. Molyneux’s goal was obviously to create a game where no player, no matter how inexperienced, would ever get lost, yet he either couldn’t see or didn’t care how much less human the this makes the experience.

The breadcrumb trail rips the soul from that glorious intimidation that comes from arriving at a big city, and it flays the fear from walking into a dark forest and not knowing where the monster you were sent to kill might be hiding. You might say a real hero never gets lost (which I’d disagree with anyway), but fuck if real heroes zip from town to monster to reward to dungeon like medieval bicycle couriers.

And you know what? It’s idiotic to try and let everyone be a hero. Not everyone’s cut out for it. My mother is not cut out to be a hero, Peter Molyneux. She binge-drinks, cannot open jars and is scared by foreigners. Did it occur to you, Peter, you turd in the grass, that if you’re putting out a game where my mother can be a hero I might not find playing it quite so heroic? Leave being a hero to those of us who want it badly enough to spend £200 on a game system and £35 on your Goddamn game.

And don’t you DARE TELL ME I “Don’t have to use it!!”. Doing that is a useless platitude which does nothing but cooly demonstrate an ignorance of how games work. For example, I enjoy the difficulty of taxing action games like Devil May Cry and the new Ninja Gaidens, but if you put a button in there that instantly regenerates your health I’m going to use it. I enjoyed the lack of fast travel in Morrowind, but if it had been an option available on the map I’d have used it.

Likewise, fuck if I’m spending two minutes fumbling around for where to go in Fable 2 when the answer is a menu option away, especially when the game has been developed without half as much care for dropping hints as to where you have to go because the developers knew the breadcrumb trail would always be there.

Alright, I’m done. I’m not always such an ornery bastard, you know. Here’s my new Eurogamer article cheering on a few examples of anti-breadcrumb level design, levels which have incredible success deliberately confusing the player. Ooh, and there’s my Steambot Chronicles retrospective! It came out pretty good! Although I guess I get my teeth into Harvest Moon in the fourth paragraph so maybe it’s not such a good example.

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I finished chapter 3 of Fable 2. Little pissed off. Not much is added except for a few nothings. About an hour or two of extra content. I got about 7 hours out of chapters 1 & 2. Well I still like the game and old true to the B I gave it. Later this week I will pick up the last 2 chapters.

So how is the game. It is pretty damn sweet. Never played Fable 1 but I knew a friend that said he was short. The people behind it, Lionhead, made Black and White. Black and White is good/evil god game which was pretty good. So they know how good vs evil works in games. Do bad things, bad things happen to you and the world around to. Opposite if you become good. If you become loved by the people, discounts happen and marriage with kids. It is kind of too easy to seduce women. Sort of want to try a chick next time that is gay. It would be pretty hot.

I think I am about 1/3 way through the story or maybe this chapter. I have having lots of fun and some bugs and bullshit parts. Like if you charge your melee attack, enemies don’t get close to you but if you do it right next to them they attack you and you stop the charge. Or there won’t be any charge. Also affects spells too. Can be a pain when groups of enemies around.

Speaking of spells, quite a few are pretty useless or just lame. Upgrading skills and abilities require experience. The game doesn’t tell you how to get it and Games on Demand do not give you manuals so that sucks. Figured it out later but it is a cool system. There are 4 types of experience, just like in Puzzle Quest. One based on melee attacks, spells, range, and just generic experience. The generic one can be added to the melee, range, or spell experience to buy abilities. And to get the experience, you get it from using your melee, range, or spell attacks.

UPDATE Final Cut

Well I finally finished the game and I have to say, I feel ripped off. It is the price of the game for being a download vs going out and buying the game from Walmart or Gamestop. It adds up $40 for the 5 chapters at $10 for chapters 2-4. Should’ve have bought it at the store and spend the money on one of the DLC content. It would be about $33 at Walmart or Gamestop, factoring all possible costs. Also it seemed like half of the content was the first 2 chapters and if you bought chapter 2, you might as well buy the rest because if you buy it at the store you just going to end up spending more.

And that’s the only downside of the game. Holy shit is this game great. The story is just amazing. I can’t wait for Fable 3. The Final End Game thing is you choice between 3 things bring back everyone harmed by the Spire, bring back your family, or rich. It is retarded because it is a wish and why can’t I just wish everyone to come back. If you choice the “bring everyone back” wish, you lose your dog which is a bitch. I guess in one of the DLC addons, you can sacrifice someone to get a new dog. I think I will do that.

With finishing the game, I am redoing my score on it from a B- to a B+. It would be an A if it wasn’t bullshit rip off if you buy it from Games on Demand.

Fable 2 = B+

Peter Molyneux announced that Fable 2 would be coming to Xbox Live’s Games On Demand service in 5 part episodes at GamesCon 2009.  And today you can now download Episode 1 for FREE.

The episode will bring our Hero from childhood into their 1st adventure.  Pricing on the other episodes hasn’t been discussed.  Considering you can get the disc version of the game for under $30, Microsoft should take that into consideration.  But you know they won’t and the downloading the game will probably cost you more then buying it retail.  You gotta love Microsoft’s pricing strategy.

Now let’s just hope Lion Head is hard at work on Fable III.

Comme annoncée a la gamescom le découpage en épisode de Fable II a commencé et comme promis l’épisode 1 est disponible sur le Xbox live en téléchargement gratuit ce qui va faire du bien au joueur et surtout a leur porte-monnaie !
J’accompagne ce post de quelques images de Fable || pour que vous soyez entièrement convaincu du devoir que vous avez de télécharger la première partie de ce très bon jeu !