Haibane.info

Category: Games

  • pc gaming is dead to me

    It seems everyone is raving about the creature creator in Spore. As J says, expect to see a lot more of these. The idea behind Spore is truly brilliant, to let everything in the game evolve, the ultimate simulation of life. And yet, the game is already tainted by the promise of the same DRM that Shamus has been warning about for months – the game requires an online security check every ten days or it stops working. This is outrageous, well beyond the reasonable need of copy protection.

    In fact, the recent coverage of these issues at Shamus’ site has led me to reconsider my own position on PC gaming entirely. I haven’t actually played a PC game since Tie Fighter and Myst: Exile. However, I have entertained thoughts of building a new rig for gaming (and scientific calculation, mostly MATLAB). Increasingly, though, the trend in PC gaming is towards more DRM, not less, and I don’t see any compelling argument to subject myself to the suspicion of being a criminal. Aside from Spore, that is – but Spore will also be released on the Wii.

    In addition, at some point in the near future we will be biying an HDTV, and then will need a Blu-Ray player. The single best Blu-Ray player on the market, also the cheapest, is the Playstation 3. Between the Wii and the PS3, is there any genre of game that I might even theoretically want to play which isn’t available on the console side? Even Portal, the other game that has my attention, has a PS3 version.

    I think it’s safe to simply declare that console gaming is the sole route I will follow from here on out. Rather than invest even a minimal $500 in building a gaming rig, I can buy ten games on the Wii. The value proposition of console gaming blows PC gaming out of the water since you aren’t stuck in the perpetual upgrade cycle – and consoles have astounding longevity, just look at the PS2 (another system I might pick up someday for kicks). And actually owning my games, and being able to play them without jumping through hoops, is just icing on the cake.

  • my gaming history

    Kevin at DW has a nice summary of what’s changed in the new 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons. I really am eager to give this a shot – I used to play D&D heavily, starting with the red box (back when D&D and AD&D were two separate products. Anyone recall the Immortals box set? :), during grade school IIRC. I maintained my gaming up till college, playing 2nd Ed at the time (and enjoying the expansions like Dark Sun, Ravenloft, etc). We also dabbled in Shadowrun. However near the tail end of college, Magic The Gathering came out and basically obliterated D&D. I havent played Magic since leaving college either, so in a sense I am ready to come full circle again and give 4th Ed a shot. (there was a 3.5 Ed? wtf?)

    I did try a lot of board games too – I remember Talisman very fondly from junior high, and there was also the Star Trek Starship Combat Simulator in high school. And in college we were heavily into Illuminati, whose second edition was still playable but we preferred the original. I also got into RoboRally while in college, which was another of those games with a simple concept and game mechanics, but tremendously complex play.

    I am also very tempted by the new online gaming tool for D&D 4E, but it looks like WOTC is making a huge mistake with respect to its pricing:

    Details uncorked at D&D Experience earlier this year revealed that Wizards of the Coast is rolling out a subscription model used by many massively multiplayer games. In order to gain access to the service, players will be asked to pay $15 a month. Buying in bulk months ahead of time can reduce that price somewhat — to $13 a month if buying a six-month block or $10 a month for a 12-month block.

    For a hobby that has (despite the high prices of the actual D&D books) mostly been a fairly cheap pastime, D&DI’s pricing is tantamount to highway robbery. It may sound reasonable — until you consider that in order to participate in an online event, each player will need to be paying this fee. For an average group of four players and a dungeon master, that’s a monthly outlay of about $75. Even at the lowest price of $10 a month, that’s roughly $50 a month just for that one group.

    That WIRED article makes the great point that if WOTC adopts a per-hour model for pricing, it will lower the barrier to entry for a lot of younger players, and encourage casual gamers as well – like myself.

  • movie madness

    Mark is someone who would be a lot of fun to play Cineplexity with.

    Massawyrm at AICN just reviewed the game and it sounds like the ideal way to spend an evening – and part of the appeal is the sheer simplicity of the game’s design. He wrote,

    What works most for this game is the free, easy going format and just how it leads to great conversations. Someone will mention a movie no one else has thought of in years. Or someone will call forth a movie so bad the whole table winces at the idea of even thinking about. Someone will share their love or hate for a pick or argue the merits of whether or not the movie stated actually fits the bill – whether by technicality or just being wrong. The end result is a bunch of friends sitting around talking about movies for hours while jumping through mental hoops that really get your juices flowing.

    There is an online demo version, too.

  • a DRM solution

    Shamus has long been a gamers’ advocate with regards to prohibitive DRM on computer games, and even has a common-sense 5 point solution to the problem. Unfortunately, since his plan (which treats customers as customers instead of potential pirates) does nothing to actually prevent pirates from pirating games, his solution is likely to be ignored. It seems to me that any solution to ease the DRM load on the end user will need to at least make a token effort to reduce or otherwise inhibit piracy, for it to be taken seriously. Obviously, the common-sense argument that Shamus makes, namely that good business practices which treat customers like a scarce resource instead of a bitter enemy will result in higher revenue despite piracy, is simply not going to penetrate. Even Penny Arcade, a longtime gaming fansite, fell prey to DRM’s allure in their own game, after all.

    Somewhat related to all of this is the lesser issue of CD keys, about which Shamus draws a distinction to DRM with. If all DRM was just CD keys, then DRM wouldn’t be that much of a pain, but the problem with CD keys from the manufacturer perspective is that they can be written down, cut and pasted, emailed, etc. I’ll readily admit that I’ve used CD keys for various software in the past that were “borrowed” – its no different (apart from being less annoying) than the old “whats the 10th word on page 4 of the game manual” routine. So, again, as far as preventing piracy, or even mitigating it, CD keys just can’t solve the problem.

    However, in considering CD keys, a possible solution to piracy does present itself. What is needed is something that is both dynamic and tied to the specific user. For example, imagine a software download service wherein:

    1. game can be downloaded if user sets up an account and registers a credit card for payment. game can also be mailed out on physical media for nominal extra charge.

    2. user is asked to set a password to their account. This account is treated like a bank acct password, ie you have the little picture for verification, you have security questions about your mom’s maiden name etc, the whole bit.

    3. upon download, game can be activated for installation (not play!) by entering a key that is generated via a standard one-way function in real-time by several inputs:
    a. the license number emailed to the user (or printed on the back of the physical disk).
    b. the user’s username and password to their online account
    c. the current date and time (automatically slurped from public date/time servers).

    4. the game itself can be played anytime, but still requires username and password (not CD key).

    the advantage of the scheme is that the activation code for installation is not a static string but something that changes in a consistent way. The one-way function should be something very well-known (like MD5). The only way that the game can then be shared would be for the user to share his account password and login, which presumably they’d be incentivized NOT to do, because their account represents private data including payment information for future game purchases.

    The user would be happy because the code is easy and really just requires a simple login, and then the game is fully unencumbered for play. The game company would be happy because they are tying each copy of the game to a specific consumer, and they can leverage that for marketing purposes as well (for example, offering good customers a buy 10 get one free deal, or a points system to redeem games, or the option to download exclusive minigames or other freebies). The problem for pirates who want to distribute the game should be pretty clear – especially if the encryption on the actual game software is pretty high.

    What do you think? would this work? does it meet all of Shamus’ criteria for a solution to the problem?

  • neocube

    When my daughter was 3 years old, I bought her this amazing toy called Magnetix, which is basically nothing more than a few large metal marbles and some multicolored plastic rods with magnets at each end. It’s a great toy, letting you build all sorts of nifty geometric shapes, and she really loved it. It’s invaluable as a child-distractor, though she’s already starting to outgrow it.

    This takes the idea to the next level – and is definitely not for kids, nor something you will ever outgrow:

    That’s brilliant. Forget the rods, just use the balls, and make those magnetic. Is it just me or should this thing be part of every graduate physics curriculum?

  • Wiitis

    Yes, Wiitis is now officially real – magnetic resonance imaging proves it so.

  • Summoner Geeks

    a classic for your Sunday afternoon pleasure.

  • wuss on wuss violence

    This bit from The Onion is just too good to pass up.

    Wii Video Games Blamed For Rise In Effeminate Violence

    Wii’s critics claim that the sissified games use disturbing pastel imagery, graphic representations of adorable characters, and disorienting kaleidoscopes of color to prey on children’s basest flaming instincts. The game Dewy’s Adventure, in which children control a cute droplet of water who must return fruit to a magical tree, is often cited as one of the worst offenders.
    […]
    “The Wii’s fluffy flowers and bright peach-colored sunlight glorify chasing precious talking rabbits with plungers,” Greer said. “What kind of message is that sending to our children? That it’s ‘cool’ to act like some kind of electrical elf or banana fairy?”

    Of course, Super Smash Brothers Brawl just came out, so presumably the problem will only get worse.

  • in the eye of the Beholder

    This insane rant against Gary Gygax is either satire or simply the product of the kind of person who the Adults always feared playing D&D was turning all us good kids into. I don’t know what game this jerk was playing, but it certainly wasn’t Dungeons and Dragons.

    I cant take someone seriously who laments about a “hobgoblin holocaust”, nor someone who is still – STILL – hung up about the fact that elves didn’t have player classes. In Basic D&D.

    I was just in Lake Geneva this past weekend. It felt like sacred ground. Here, an industry was born. Poseurs like Erik Sofge can only snipe from the sidelines, but they never really grokked D&D. Pity them.

  • The Fellowship of the Card

    An intrepid band of adventurers strike out on an epic quest to reclaim a mystical item from antiquity. It ends well.