Please Reattach the Controller

Published
on January 30, 2009
in News
. 1 Comment

Down the Wall is now officially on hiatus. I leave tomorrow with my backpack and boots for a whirlwind adventure through Europe, the Middle-East, and Asia and won’t come around the world again for a year. I’ll chronicle my trip at a new blog called Where is Jon?, and Down the Wall will have to wait until I return.

This blog has been a great experience for me and a lot of fun. I think I’ve found a good niche for myself amidst all the gaming blogs. Preparations and partings have kept me from regularly updating this site for the last month and a half, but I fully intend to continue writing here whenever I get back.

So salud, adios, goodbye, farewell, and all that jazz. Thanks for reading.

Reflecting On ‘Star Wars Galaxies’

Published
on January 30, 2009
in Review
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As much as some would like to forget, BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic is not the first massively multiplayer online game to tread the waters of the galaxy far far away. Sony Online Entertainment’s Star Wars Galaxies was the first MMO I ever played, and the oddball experience has colored my approach to every MMO after.

My love for the franchise compelled me to start playing SWG in the final stages of the beta, where everything was still broken as hell. Characters who sat in a certain chair in a campground would teleport to the exact middle of the world, where a set of women’s underwear hung in the air and graphic glitches played off the plains like thunder. It was charming as hell.

The game encompassed ten planets, all rendered as wide-open 15 km by 15 km squares of terrain. You could go anywhere, walk up any surface, swim across any body of water. Each planet featured a few movie landmarks — Jabba the Hutt’s palace and the droid’s escape pod on Tatooine, the lakes of Naboo, the Massassi temples on Yavin IV, and the Ewok village on Endor, to name a few.

They were fun to explore, but more like theme parks than anything else. The game had a few World of Warcraft style quests, but most players turned to the mission assignments for money and experience. Computer terminals randomly assigned a mob lair to destroy, which could be Womp Rats on Tatooine, smugglers on Corellia, or Rancors on Dathomir.

I loved the beta and all its flaws so much that I picked up SWG when it was released on June 26, 2003, and started playing the next day (the log-in servers were tellingly broken on the first day). I joined the Damorian Corporation, which constructed the first guild hall on the Chilastra server and later spawned Nova Enterprises.

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A New President, A New Age of Game Regulation

Published
on January 20, 2009
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Today confirmed everything I love about this country. It also brought a new perspective on video game regulation to the White House, as Gamasutra reports in today’s article on the history and future of US regulation.

“We need to make sure that all of our children have access to these technologies and we must teach our children how to harness the huge potential of this technology. I want to make sure my children are protected from the dangers of the new media world, but I also want to make sure they reap the benefits of it,” said newly-inaugurated President Barack Obama in late 2007.

The US government has a lot to clear off its plate before gaming legislation floats back to the top, but this presidential perspective marks a definite turning point in games as a new medium.

Researcher Neils Clark opens his examination of the industry and regulation with a quote from Republican Senator Mitt Romney: “I want to restore values so children are protected from a societal cesspool of filth, pornography, violence, sex and perversion.”

Clark covers the history of video game legislation, the need to guard from indecency always balanced with the need for free speech, and points to the lack of understanding of the medium among most politicians as the primary problem. He looks to the cynosure of South Korea, which has a government agency devoted to video games.

Game regulation remains a tertiary issue in the greater scheme of things: “Some of the strongest critics to the industry won reelection to the House and Senate handily. Issues like abortion, the war in Iraq and gay marriage still trump the gaming hobby. Go figure.”

Likewise, Obama’s administration will face the issues of the economy, two wars, and a failing national image, crisis which take precedence over gaming regulation. Clark concludes his essay by urging gamers to remain informed and vigilant for harmful legislation and for the even more dangerous threat of self-censorship by gaming companies.

“Government pressures on rating boards, and their subsequent pressure on ‘appropriate’ or ‘marketable’ imagery, may already affect a number of gaming companies internationally,” says Clark.

Ziff Davis Sells 1UP, Shuts Down ‘EGM’

Published
on January 8, 2009
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After twenty years Electronic Gaming Monthly is closing its doors, and the January 2009 issue will be its last.

In the long rumored buyout, Ziff Davis Media sold its 1UP Digital Network to UGO Entertainment and shut down EGM, its last remaining print publication after Games For Windows magazine, the rebirth of Computer Gaming World, ended last April.

At least 30 Ziff Davis staff members were laid off, and everyone else now works exclusively for the online network, which includes 1UP.com, MyCheats.com, GameVideos.com and GameTab.com. The 1UP video podcast is terminated, and the state of the other podcasts is unknown.

That’s the news story, and here’s what it means: the games industry just lost one of the last refuges of intelligent, professional writers and editors.

Of course, this was a long time coming. Gaming journalism, especially print journalism, had a lot of problems. One was the generally greater degree of tech saavy among gamers, or at least gamers who care enough about the industry to read news. Those took to the Internet, where content came immediately and was easy to find, rather than to the magazine rack.

Another problem was with the magazines themselves. Game journalists had buddied up with gaming companies to ensure they got exclusive news, which meant that previews were sycophantic and unreliable, and journalists often bailed for jobs at game developers and publishers.

Game magazines bled to death, losing readers to the Web and writers to game companies and online publications, which are now the only option for news.

Web content versus print publication is a big issue among journalists. Web writers usually spend less time per story, since immediacy and volume are more important than detail. They have less time than their print counterparts to nitpick details, do serious investigative reporting, and write articles that matter and have a point and a literary voice.

All that matters online is getting an article up on the feed and moving to the next one. If its a rewrite of the press release without any additional information, so be it. Timeliness is all that matters for most blurbs, not care or message.

I first read EGM in 2000 not long after they hit the 100 issue mark. It had Unreal Tournament on the cover, and inside a Majora’s Mask review, funny letters, cosplay pictures, and a feature on games that were canceled en development. I loved it, and I’ve taken the thumb to every issue since.

I’ll miss the magazine’s professional insights, its wit and candor, its humor. I’ll miss reading news that has a distinct voice, and reviews that I can trust since they come from people who have been in the industry for ages and who I have agreed with in the past. Some of that is available online, but most is lost in the dash to the finish of online journalism.

‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ Game of the Year

Published
on December 22, 2008
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Grand Theft Auto IV nabbed the 2008 Game of the Year slot in Time magazine, the New York Times, the Spike TV Video Game Awards, and in other critical lists, and for good reason.

Rockstar’s newest crime simulator definitely attempted something different than its predecessors. It cast off the minigames and bicycles of San Andreas in favor of realism and immersion. Instead of playing off the strengths of the series, it tried something new and risky.

A lot of what Rockstar attempted with GTA IV failed — the relationship building aspect was distracting and the open world did not fit with the linear storytelling, to name the largest flaws — but it failed in a fantastic way.

Even though your interactions with the world are fairly straightforward, they involve and engross the player. Driving and shooting through the beautiful, vibrant, living playground of Liberty City feels fun and strangely realistic.

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‘Left 4 Dead’ and the Cinematic Tutorial

Published
on December 16, 2008
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Last month’s zombie apocalypse game Left 4 Dead offers one of the best co-op experiences of the year in one complete and functional package that the team at Valve has gained a reputation for.

Unlike most Valve games, however, this one includes a very cinematic cutscene at the beginning of the game. An article by John Brownlee on the Offworld gaming blog explains how this cinematic is actually a tutorial which combines storytelling with the utilitarian function.

Left 4 Dead’s opening cinematic is a shockingly complete primer to the rest of the game. With only a few exceptions, almost any player going into Left 4 Dead for the first time will know exactly how to play the game: they already know the gameplay, the weapons, the enemies, the win scenario and the strategies they need to get through the game alive… the only thing not covered in the opening movie is the specifics of the interface.

It is one of the most useful tutorials ever put together: both broad in scope and minute in detail, with no strategy or major gameplay element overlooked. And as much as I love Left 4 Dead, I think the opening movie is probably the most brilliant thing about the game. While other developers put together opening cinematics that ignore the elements of the gameplay to tell a story, Valve made theirs a tutorial… one so subliminal that almost no one realizes they’ve sat through one.

In the article, Brownlee says point-by-point how Valve demonstrates game mechanics — like special infected behaviors and the use of pipe bombs — unintrusively through the opening cinematic, and how gamers naturally understand all these mechanics when they start the game.

One thing I liked about the cinematic is that it leaves the four characters on top of the building where they start the “No Mercy” campaign. It has a context within the story of the game, establishes the characters, and shows how the gameplay works. This is how game stories should be told, and it’s not surprising that the move came from Valve.

‘Fallout 3′ Procures Mods and DLC

Published
on December 13, 2008
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Bethesda’s Fallout 3 mod creator, nicknamed the Garden of Eden Creation Kit, went online this week.

The new Web site has the mod tools available and a library of how-to articles. Fallout 3 Nexus is a good community source for new content.

Bethesda has a history of good mod support for Morrowind and Oblivion as well as downloadable content, and Fallout 3 is getting the same treatment.

Three downloadable packages have been announced — “Operation: Anchorage,” which simulates a battle between the US and China, will come out next month, followed by “The Pitt” and the new city of Pittsburgh in February and “Broken Steel,” a continuation of the main quest, in March.

IGN has an in-depth interview with Producer Jeff Gardiner about January’s “Operation: Anchorage.”

“The Chinese red army is everywhere, and the player will first have to secure the surrounding mountain side and then fight their way into the Chinese base,” summarized Gardiner.

“The player will have to use a lot of their standard combat skills, along with several new tools that will only be available in the downloadable content. These include interactive Strike Teams under the player’s command and unique armor, weapons, and other exotic gadgets.”

The packs are exclusive to the Xbox 360 and PC, and they will cost $10 a piece. 

Despite the price tag, I think Bethesda’s new DLC is exactly what it should be: four to five hours of content that supplements the main quest and expands on the story and gameplay of the core game. They are substantial, experimental mini-expansions rather than superfluous aesthetics like Oblivion’s infamous horse armor.

As Gardiner said in the interview, “It’s important to our team to use DLC as a way for us to flex our creativity, to try new things and answer the ‘wouldn’t have been cool if we did this?’ question that always comes up towards a games completion — when it’s too late to try them!”

Steven Spielberg Skips the Cutscenes

Published
on December 9, 2008
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Blockbuster King turned game developer Steven Spielberg talked about his hatred of cutscenes that interrupt gameplay in an interview with Yahoo! Games.

The thing that doesn’t work for me in these games are the little movies where they attempt to tell a story in between the playable levels. That’s where there hasn’t been a synergy between storytelling and gaming. They go to a lot of trouble to do these [motion-capture] movies that explain the characters. And then the second the game is returned to you and it’s under your control, you forget everything the interstitials are trying to impact you with, and you just go back to shooting things. And that has not found its way into a universal narrative.

Spielberg complained specifically about games like Battlefield: Bad Company where you can’t skip the cutscenes. His perspective comes from almost four decades of movie storytelling, and shows the importance of delivering a cohesive narrative through gameplay rather than cinematics.

“I think filmmakers are learning things from video games,” said Spielberg. “Movies are starting to look more and more like videogames, like the digital introductory teasers videogames give you before they turn control over to the player.” He added that Wanted and The Bourne Ultimatum show “a lot of video game saavy.”

Spielberg also talked about his own game projects in the interview. His puzzle game Boom Blox surprised a lot of gamers with its lack of narrative when it came out for the Wii in May. The director’s next project, LMNO, is “more of a movie-type story game” and revolves around an ex-secret agent.

BioWare Brings Companions, Epic Combat to ‘The Old Republic’

Published
on December 4, 2008
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An Edge magazine preview of the new Star Wars MMO The Old Republic has new details on how BioWare’s first attempt at a massively multiplayer game will differ from the competition in atmosphere and play style, including the use of companion characters.

“This is a faster-paced system that focuses on making the player feel like a hero,” said Creative Designer James Ohlen. “Four players all beating on one enemy; that’s not what you think of as heroic. It’s usually the heroes who are outnumbered, and that’s the kind of feeling we’re going for.”

BioWare is trying to integrate the epic, personal, and ascending narratives of their single player titles into the MMO genre, where individual players are normally cogs in a massive machine and one hero among thousands.

Lead Writer Daniel Erickson said that players would have to make big, character-defining choices and live with the consequences, but could not say if or how those choices would change the game world.

The Edge mentioned companion characters as one BioWare mainstay making its way into the game. A single ally can fight alongside a player character, and these allies have opinions and backstories.

Their role is to continually comment on, and presumably try to influence, your behaviour. Greg Zeschuk (BioWare’s president and co-founder) describes them as “the lens through which you see the world,” and they won’t hesitate to make their feelings known, good or bad, and will even abandon you if you’re constantly doing things they object to.

The article also gives early impressions of the new game’s art style.

The game takes a few visual cues from the new Clone Wars aesthetic introduced by the recent film and TV series: characters have simplified body structures, bright flat colors and the odd exaggerated feature. Each asset is hand-painted rather than using photo-sourced textures, giving everything a slightly unreal and highly distinctive sheen.

This is the same approach that Blizzard took with World of Warcraft. They compensated for aging graphics with unique art and design that kept everything fresh. Its the most economic plan for MMOs because it allows for stunning visuals and an expansive user base to play on low-end machines.

FPS Combat Most Exciting When Frequently Close-Quarters

Published
on December 2, 2008
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The most engaging first person shooters of the last few years force players into intense bouts of melee combat, Gamasutra reported today.

Game Developer magazine published the study last year. It used current generation FPS games — Battlefield 2142, Call of Duty 3, F.E.A.R., Gears of War, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, and Resistance: Fall of Man — plus two 2004 titles Halo 2 and Half-Life 2.

The surveyors recorded “300 hours of physiological and gameplay data” and tested how players reacted to gameplay by monitoring brainwaves, heart rate, breathing, blinking, temperature and motion. They found, among other things, that melee combat is more fun and exhilarating than any other approach.

Close combat was the most reliable method of creating engagement, adrenaline, reward, and all the emotions that make shooters so much fun. Certainly, this is nothing new to the genre, but the next-gen games that excelled in this area were exceptionally strong at creating high-paced close combat frequently.

This graph shows how players responded to different weapons in Halo 2, with melee combat and especially the one-hit-kill energy sword reigning as most satisfying.

The chainsaw in Gears of War generated a similar response. Both these titles didn’t just allow for melee combat. They forced it through tight level design and surprise encounters.

Close quarters combat in these games is exciting because it put players in situations where they either score a one hit kill or be killed in one hit, where they can do a lot of damage or die immediately.

This frenetic FPS melee has largely been replaced with cover and distanced enemies and regenerative health, and not unfairly because it can be very frustrating or very rewarding. Halo 2 and Gears of War both did a good job of padding these close, personal encounters with standard fare, which makes the most sense and keeps the gameplay interesting.