Diablo 3 and Fandom

Diablo 3 man I remember playing 2 as a teen and not being able to get enough.  The simple yet addictive gameplay was amazing.  So obviously I was stoked to hear  that D3 would be coming out.  If you havent played it or seen it in action you wouldnt have read this far so let's get into it.

The horror of the launch cannot be understated.  When you have customers shell out 60 bones and find out they cant play the game this is the same as buying a car and needing a cab to get home from the dealership-Blizzard should be completely embarrassed about this but somehow I dont think that they are.  When you have the fat cash that they do there is no excuse as to why your customers should have a want as simple as being able to play the game.  Blizzard experienced login errors during Beta and bug testing so one of two things happened.  Blizzard said too bad the fans will have to deal with it OR they said we are not spending the money to fix this crap so our fans will have to deal with it.  Basically I am saying they expected their fans to shoulder this nonsense,,,and they did.

Many fans didnt want to sound spoiled by raising a stink about this-you people are 100% at fault for supporting bad behavior.  Game companies seem to screw their fans every chance they get and if you LET them-they will. There is nothing spoiled about being pissed about spending 60 bucks and not being allowed to play a game.  Again I metioned that if you buy a car and "It isnt ready" or whatever and you need to walk home or something.  That we can agree is completely unacceptable.  Blizzard tested for launch they knew this sort of thing would happen and rather than invest the money or whatever they needed to do they decided-actively decided to disappoint their fans.  That is a ridiculous barrel of monkey farts-what kind of business model IS that?  On release day we'll have some very pissed off folks and I'm ok with that how about you Steve? Sure as long as we get their 60 bucks up front.  If you experienced this and DIDN'T complain then shame on you.

One of the things I adored in Diablo 2 was single player offline.  This allowed me to stay away from lvl 99 Barb morons who aggroed everyone.  It also allowed me to grow a proper skill tree and learn how to develop a character properly and learn skill chains and combos and such before partying with others.  Uh I can't do that here.  I am required to be online at all times. That's fine but if I am required to be online at least have the servers ready huh?  Demanding I be online yet not providing me with the capability is like demanding a guy in a wheelchair to run a marathon-it's flat out moronic and rude.  Also experiencing lag in a single player game is really stupid.  Again if you find this acceptable please feel free to open a game studio.

Blizzard says that they designed this game this way so that it can help defend against piracy.  If you believe this then please ask me about the dinosaur bones I have for sale.  Maybe it DOES help fight piracy but it also screws paying customers right in brown town.  Blizzard is afraid of piracy? THAT'S BLIZZARD'S PROBLEM! not mine or yours.  Blizzard seems to think that it is acceptable to shift their problems onto their PAYING customers.  what a bunch of buffalo balls.  Again who came up with this business model?  I have news for Blizzard: if someone wants your game and doesnt want to pay for it-they will get it you cannot stop it.  You basically keep the people who would have paid for it anyway good and straight.  Not that any hack would want it solely for single player anyway...and remember by being quiet you let them think this is ok.

I dont have much experience with the real world money (RWM) auction house and I remember people bitching that it would screw up gameplay.  I thought these folks were over reacting.  I am starting to think differently.  Since RWM can be gained in this game the drops are ridiculous.  Basically any item in blue letters is a piece of crap-you're looking for legendary and yellow objects.  In D2 you could carry a decent blue item for a while and you'd be alright or better than alright.  Yeah not here.  As I mentioned since RWM can be made the drop rate has been lowered to nearly insane levels.  But let's think about this.  Let's say I really need a new sword to continue.  Let's say after 10 hours of playing I dont get the weapon I need...let's just say...let's just say that I am so frustrated of not being able to continue that I buy that sword for 10 bucks...I find that it gets me out there pretty nicely but I am taking too many hits...I need to find or buy some armor.  Well with the gimped drops I have one option...more money.  You're not paying Blizzard but you are still paying and paying sucks.  No monthly fee? yeah well Blizzard will pay for those servers through the percentage they shave off those auction house buys.  Brilliant really.

I will infinitely say it: Video games are a business.  It seems that most of the bigger dogs understand and exploit this fact.  It seems that most fans havent caught up to this.  They are afraid to hold developers and publishers accountable for bad consumer practices.  Gamers aren't stupid-typically we are more intelligent and creative than the next guy but majority of gamers have one fatal flaw as a consumer: Naivety.  Most have a hard time accepting that beloved developers would screw them over for extra cash or simply not give a damn about their gaming experience.  It IS a bitter pill to swallow-it is.  Most simply dont want to swallow this pill-ignorance is bliss...it also makes the next gaming experience that much shittier since devs will feel that their deplorable behavior is acceptable.  I've never been one to deny the obvious-and most of this BS is obvious if you just remove your fanboy glasses.

Businesses are SUPPOSED to make money that is their goal.  However where I draw the line is sacrificing quality or putting your customers out in order to make that money.  Games are supposed to be fun and make you feel happy not frustrate you needlessly and rob you blind.  Sadly Blizzard hasnt learned anything from this.  When Diablo 4 comes out my son will visit my grave and tell me all the horrible things that happened.  Don't think that major devs werent watching and learning from this colossal blind goat orgy.  Major devs want to know just how much bologna you will put up with.  Turns out its quite a bit.  The major releases can follow suit and know that they can be just as bad...some may even take it a step further...you may not raise a stink but I am wondering what it will take-what you open the dvd case and there is no game in there at all? is that what it might take?

Video Games the new slave labor

So as it turns out Free Radical Design (FRD) were supposed to make a game for "free".  Well according to gamespot http://www.gamespot.com/news/lucasarts-wanted-star-wars-battlefront-iii-to-fail-says-dev-6375176 that seems to be the case and you know I trust gamespot I like to think they have their ducks in a row.

So LucasArts (LA) wants them to make a follow up to the Star Wars Battlefront series.  But someone somewhere screwed up when for 6 months no one is being paid.  Six months half of a fiscal year.  It also seems that LA changed their tactics when dealing with FRD.  I can't say for sure since I wasnt there but apparently LA stopped sending people who like video games to meet with FRD and began sending a team accompanied by at least one lawyer.  I cant WAIT to jump on to that issue but for now let us focus on the salt mines that are FRD.

38 Studios in Providence Rhode Island failed to pay their employees for a month before laying them off in a very brave and courteous manner (it wasn't).  Now FRD does this for six months.  FRD AND 38 both cite that their parent company or investor with held sufficient money in order to pay these people.  Let us look at both sides of this shall we?

I want you to make toys to sell.  You have many workers.  I give you money to cover all expenses paying your workers buying tools and materials etc.  We all know that when these toys go to sale I will make more money than what I gave you (that's the plan anyway).  Sounds simple.  No not according to FRD.  They claim that LA intentionally sunk them and that it was malicious.  Because look at it through LA's eyes: making money is stupid and not the goal of business at all.  I am no Lucas fanboy by any stretch of the imagination but it just doesnt seem like a wise investment to kill a studio that has proven to turn a profit in the past.  Makes about as much sense as this...

So no I personally don't think FRD is being completely honest here.  38 claims the same though citing that the governor of Rhode Island short changed them.  Their ridiculous story is found here: http://lazyepsquared.blogspot.com/2012/05/38-studios-big-huge-games-and-curt.html
Now will I sit here and say that I know all about the inner woes for both companies?  nah.  Will I sit here and say that they don't budget correctly? yes I absolutely will.

When you fail to pay employees it is this thing called "illegal".  A business should want to avoid illegal activity. To avoid situations where you may be doing things that are illegal in this business takes this other thing called "care".  Let's say a fat publisher dropped some cash on my company and said to make the next Iron Man game or whatever.  First thing's first.  Figure out how many workers you need and figure out their equipment and hourly rate.  Next figure a time frame.  If the payroll portion exceeds how long it would take to make the game then you're good.  If the payroll portion is projected to dry up three months before the game is finished you may need to reconsider or seek an audience with your investor BEFORE WORK BEGINS.

What I dont understand is  "Hey boss I punched the numbers and we just dont have enough-payroll will be shortchanged by three months before launch."....  "Ok let's go ahead anyway." .  OR not doing any projections. OR we budget correctly-everyone will be paid yet somehow when we get down to it the money is still gone.  This means they are not adhering to their own budget they are breaking a cardinal law of business.  Even here where I am at if we punch the numbers and a purchase is made and we end up saving 10 bucks on that purchase we do not allocate the extra ten somewhere else.  Why?  We planned on it being gone so to us it IS gone but not really.  We seem to do the opposite in larger companies.  We're running over budget in a few areas.  Ok take it from...payroll? dafuq????

Just goes to show you that while video game making is a fun job it is still a business and the minute you forget that and the minute you rely on daddy war bucks to keep you alive you are living on borrowed time.

Now on to the lawyer business.  A lawyer is in a room of people who havent been paid in a month this shit is laughable.  This lawyer should be advising whoever that unpaid employees can get you sued or possibly thrown in jail.  Yet there he is watching unpaid guys making sure THEY arent pulling anything fancy.  God I love this world.

38 Studios Big Huge Games and Curt Schilling what a fellow business owner thinks

38 Studios...seems to be all the talk right now and it's for all the wrong reasons.  No one can shut up about this...not even me and it's for a damned good reason.  I am mad as hell.

Now I'll begin by saying that I am a huge Red Sox fan and I love that Curt Schilling was able to break the curse.  What he couldnt do?  Break even after 75 million was dropped in his lap along with 30 million of his own money.  Now Curt is personally worth somewhere in the neighborhood of 110 Million or 80 after the investment.  He was loaned 75 Million by the city of Providence.  So he puts in 30 and somehow gets others to put in more than double what he did...when he can damned well cover it all.  Why not cover it all? you pay no one back and if it fails you still have enough to have a nice life with.  That's some amazing bullshit powers.  "Hey buddy I have a great idea and I really believe in this project all I need is lots of your money.  Huh? what? no this idea is SO great and I believe in it so much that my money isn't good enough for it!"  Providence probably swooned over the Red Sox legend who expressed interest in their town.  However when creating a video game one's resume should read more than just "Good baseball player"...you would think anyway.  Even here at my company a good idea alone won't land you the job.

So we have 105 Million to make ONE game with.  Again I will be blunt and tell you that it does not take 105 million to make a game-hell you could nearly invent a new console with that money.  Well that's if you weren't an idiot anyway.  So Curt is a huge WOW fan-okay.  So he wants to create a WOW like game-okay. And he's going to do this even if he doesn't know how-okay...actually that isn't.  He's never made a game before why such a big one why so ambitious?  Hell that's like never shooting a gun before and being sent off to a World War...ok that shit happened bad analogy but you get my point.  No one should take on such a grand ambitious game as their first title.  Even Darksiders was a smaller scope project and largely because of that Vigil games gets to live on.

So anyone who pays at least a little attention knows that WOW makes billions of dollars.  What people forget is that WOW didnt happen over night.  Blizzard put out a bunch of titles and spin offs and sequels and other crap prior to WOW.  When WOW came out Blizzard had a customer and fan base.  It took YEARS of products already to market to allow Blizzard to release WOW.  38 Studios had no previous fan base and no proven track record so let's go huge and try to muscle in on some of that WOW money...what could go wrong?  Surely this won't be a decision that ruins my studio before we even have fans...surely.  WOW's players are notoriously loyal and typically despise competition-Curt had to have known this going in to this.  Why would anyone in their right mind want to go toe-to-toe with a game like WOW as their first project?  Sure someone will de-throne WOW one day but 10-1 says it wont be a company's first project.  Even BioWare with SWTOR couldn't do it and they have an established reputation and a fat war chest worth billions.

I hate to say this about a man I admire but I think there may be some crooked business practices here.  The more I find out about this company the more I feel like this was a snatch and grab.  I'd love to see records of payroll.  Who got paid what to do what because I guarantee that the 400 people who were fired were not making 6 figures.  Let's be honest (because I like to be) Kingdom of Amalur or KOA did not implement new technology meaning they did not have to create technology from scratch.  So we're using existing programming engines linking scripts etc.  Art? Art has to be created so from concepts to final renders we need people on cintiqs and maya or 3DS Max or whatever program the studio chooses.  EVEN IF all 400 employees that were fired were artists we come out to just shy of 1 Million to equip them all. Need to use existing engines and software? ok even with licensing fees and software we again come just shy of a million.  This puts us at 2 million IF all 400 employees have BOTH programming and art software and equipment...KOA took two years to make and at 15 bucks an hour for a 40 hour work week for two years all 400 employees (and you KNOW some got way less than 15 an hour) comes to 13,5 million. 13.5 plus the 2 to equip them we're at 15.5.  Providence wanted a pay back of 1.2 million per month for two years we'll round it off to 38 million...we're at 53 million. Not only that this equation pays people more than what they got AND gave them equipment they didnt need so we're more around 40 something million...That is of course rough math but a discrepancy of roughly 35 million?  I'm gonna have a ball after this tax season after the numbers are released.

Also let us not forget that a man worth 110 (80)Million supposedly did not use any of his personal finance to help his employees-so much so that he fucked his workers for a month.  No one was paid for the month of May before the studio was shut down.  Now not for nothing but personally if I am worth 110 (80) million and my company can't pay the employees for the month I would shell it out of pocket for as long as I felt necessary. These are human beings with lives and responsibilities and they depend on me for their money to survive.  I did the math it costs just over 1 percent of Curt's worth per month to pay all 400 employees at 15 bucks an hour.  Wow dude, I don't know what to say.  And I dont want to hear this crap that he's broke.  if he put in 110 million (all of his money) and RI put in 75 million then we're REALLY messed up on the accounting books.  So yeah I don't think Curt really cared for his actual employees, not as humans anyway. Proof- you need proof?

Sure well 38 Studios opened in Massachusetts and was lured to Rhode Island by the money.  The employees were told there would be a relocation program.  If you owned a house in Mass then dont worry just buy one in providence and 38 studios will take on the task of selling your old home in Massachusetts.  Well no, they didnt.  Many employees are being slapped with double mortgages turns out 38 didn't sell their old homes for them like they promised.

So what? need more proof? Ok well in addition to not paying people that work for you i.e. slaves we had a lay off policy that looks like it was hatched in a coward's ass.  An email was used to lay off 400 people.   What follows is the actual email-no joke.  So you know you come into work, get your coffee, shoot the breeze a bit, sit down at your station open your email and read:

“The Company is experiencing an economic downturn. To avoid further losses and possibility of retrenchment, the Company has decided that a companywide lay off is absolutely necessary. These layoffs are non-voluntary and non-disciplinary. This is your official notice of lay off, effective today, Thursday, May 24th, 2012.

Or maybe you're like me when I was at a major video game publisher and don't read your emails. (I am different now) so you don't know this is going on and you see all of the people down the hall with their personal items and maybe tearing up or something and you think "Whoa shit! they're fired!" so you go out there to find out what's going on and you ask them why they're fired.  They tell you that you are fired too.  Shit!  Where was the leadership here?  Nothing like treating your employees like people.  Would have been nice if at the beginning of the month someone of power rounded everyone up and said something like "Hey it isn't going so well here.  We're not sure how long we can keep at this.  It might be a good idea to put your resume out there-list me as a reference."  But no.  No the ship is sinking so you chain everyone to it?  What happened to the captain goes down with the ship?  Nice move Curt.


Who cares about fallout and bad publicity if employees go home and talk about the company dying?  What does it matter?  Nothing can be hidden forever obviously so you might as well be honest.  I'm sorry I am angry at this type of thing.  As a business owner myself and after being treated like garbage most of my working life I can't imagine how or why someone could do this to their workforce.  If you can think of excuses please by all means start a video game company since this looks to be par for the course.

I mean it.  Although we are small and fledgling I mean it-we treat all employees with dignity and respect.  We see them as humans first and workers second.  I swear and I have sworn numerous times that I will not follow this model.  Hold me to it-be hard on me, do whatever you want I'll never surrender this promise.

Profits go up Challenge goes down

Why are video games today not as hard as the ones I had as a kid?  I mean yeah sure shitty controls and half baked programming was a big time culprit making games harder than they should be back then but no-no.  Games, great games like Megaman and Contra were hard as shit and they had fluid controls and solid programming for the day.  Ninja Gaiden II and III? yeah-add those too.  It seems like games today can be beaten in my sleep.  Most rely on cheap shots to kill you and once you figure out how they set them up the game becomes predictable.  OG's like myself have relatively no problem cruising through popular titles-why is this?  I think well rather I know that it boils down to one factor: Consumerism.

When I was a kid gaming was nothing like today-you had to wait for a game worth buying to come out.  There were only a handful of major labels and once in a while you found a nice small development sleeper hit.  It wasnt like today where there is a plethora of developers and choices and a new game comes out every week...whether you have heard of it or not.

So I'm a kid I get bored easily and the next installment of double dragon wont be out for a while...so...make the game hard.  Make it so that I have to soak days worth of time hell weeks even.  Make it so that I have no choice but to play unfair levels and ridiculously tough enemies in late stages.  Bullshit timers that run out way too early.  One life and no continues?  yeah I suffered that shit.  By time you beat it you felt satisfied and wanted to tear a hole into the next game...you would still have to wait but you remember that challenge and you counted the days-you checked up in Nintendo Power as to when you might expect the new game you wanted.  You were gonna make the next game pay-oh yeah.

Nowadays?  Pfh who cares?  Add some multiplayer and we're done.  Let them play against hackers and people who memorized the gameplay.  So let me get this straight...You as a developer are supposed to provide fun and challenge to your gamer yes? Yes.  Ok and you do this by allowing me to duck behind cover and wait for my health to replenish in a game that focuses on and sells the "realistic combat feel"?  Yeah ok.  So your fun and challenge doesnt really come from the game itself but rather the PLAYERS you play against or with?  Hmmm doesnt sound like any real care went into level design and balance.

Now when I say level design I dont mean "It looks realistic with the trucks by the house" and bla bla bla.  No I mean like designing the level in such a way to either trick the player into a trap or making them solve a problem either with force or smarts you know something like that...it allowed us to play in a way that was unique to oneself.  Nowadays you just kinda wander the map looking for a guy to shoot-boring.  Major snooze.  In the unlikely event that I do get hit it is nearly impossible to die in Single player these days.  Just duck and wait.

We don't have to go back very far where the standard was health pick ups.  And you couldnt grab that health when you were at 100% to save for later.  No you had to leave that crap there and hope to be able to get back to it should you need it.  A lot of times I would survive a bad ass fight and on my way to the health previously in the level I would be fragged.  This was aggravating but part of the game.  I had the PATIENCE to play the game as designed.

I say patience because a lot of us arent.  So to regenerate health just sit there...you are now a bad ass gamer with great tactical mindset.

And before I forget about balance and design...typically in these shooters you take five maybe six bullets and within a seven second window and you die.  Ok so the 9mm handgun is noticeably weaker than the shotgun...Part of what a game is supposed to do is frustrate and scare you.  Where is the health bar?  When I was younger and you saw a bad ass enemy for the first time you would gasp in horror as you saw your health bar drop by 80% in one hit.  Hell sometimes you took the hit just because you were curious.  And when that health was gone it was gone baby.  Nowadays-no health bar no way to really gauge how much fight you have left...just lay somewhere quiet until your sight straightens out.

 My original point is that these games are designed like cotton candy.  It's sweet goes down easy and there is always more of it.  Franchises launch titles sometimes twice a year you can't tell me that isnt catering to people's impatience.  There is also fear.  There is so much competition out there that if you take too long to put out a game the fans may find a new favorite and your sequel will meet bitter middle fingers.  Back then it wasnt so.  There was competition yes but not like today where literally dozens of major labels are slugging it out.

Because of this we are left with milktoast games that most of us veterans can clobber with one hand.  I know some people that will not play a hard game since they have become too spoiled.  They dont see the challenge as a reward.  They'd rather play some easy crap and feel that they are a bad ass gamer.  Developers also cater to this mindset as well.  Back then games were fun and if you played them you werent judged on your skill but rather HOW you played them.  The wannabe badasses who stomp easy games?  back in my day you'd be reserved to Sesame St on NES...in my opinion you're doing that anyway with these hold your hand easy to beat games so...say hey to Oscar on the way to pick up your uh "Plasma Rifle".

Do you appreciate your games?

Your PS3 X360 games will never be appreciated.  As I mentioned in an earlier blog online gaming while fun will at the same time destroy any possible nostalgia attached to the game when the servers shut down.  I have vivid and fond memories of playing contra with my brother on the NES specific bosses and levels we had trouble with etc.  It seems to me that games today just arent built that way.  They arent built to become a permanent spot in your memory but rather "Just get you to buy them".

How can you forever remember being fragged in multiplayer?  It never happens the same way twice and unless you're an idiot not even by the same person twice.  That in and of itself is cool that the game is always different...yet the same.  It was the repetition that created the vivid memories for me.  Single player in these newer games is usually an after thought.

It's funny the MMORPG and FPS multi player crowds for the most part shun and bag on facebook games but essentially you are doing the same thing.  You are playing online games with friends and people you don't know.  The scope and visual dynamics of the game don't really matter it is still essentially the same thing.

So because of the introduction of online aspects gaming will never be the same.  But because it is a temporary means of gaming (meaning that one day the servers go bye bye) it in effect creates a shallowness of the art.  Yeah Making a game is an art believe me anyone who hasnt tried it has no idea.  Art to me will always have some sort of permanence.  The Nike of Samothrace is as beautiful to me today as it was when I first saw it.  Megaman is not the same QUALITY as that Nike but again Megaman is as beautiful to me today as it was back then.

Games today simply will not have the lasting power of games of yesteryear.  Since there are a lot of clones and sameness it is hard to have one really stand out to last two decades from now.  Just think about that young gamers...two decades from now.  Your generic FPS games and hack and slashes won't stand out for worth a darn.  In fact in this throw away society that we are living in most of you young gamers won't even give a flying turtle's ass that those games you played so much are now retro.

I won't lecture any of you on "keeping it real" or having respect or bla bla bla.nah that aint me.  Some of you will appreciate the art of gaming and keep a retro PS3/X360 collection but most of you wont.  Most of you will have plenty of games downloaded from Steam onto your hard drive and either delete or uninstall them whatever.  There isnt a hard copy to keep anyway so how do you collect THAT?

The funny part? some of you are all like WHOA I LOVE GAMES I THINK THEYRE AWESOME I'LL FRAG YOUR NOOB ASS!!! WAAAAHHHH!!!!  usually you are the throw away type.  Usually you will also say "THAT GAME IS GAY! IT CAME OUT LIKE FIVE YEARS AGO THE GRAPHICS SUCK!!!!"  so no this type of person doesnt love games but only loves games that they love.  I love games my collection spans from pong consoles to current stuff.  I have great games that created a new standard in the industry and I also have titles that were so God awful that they were rounded up by its own developer and buried in the desert.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_video_game_burial  But If you love something you love all of it-forever.

I think you mean to say that you love PLAYING games and yes that is fine.  My brother loved playing games and doesnt retro collect.  However he also doesnt adhere to the modern epidemic of what I call "I'm online so now it's time to be a douchebag" I'll explain what I mean a little later.

This game is nothing like call of duty!

"This game is nothing like call of duty!" I am sure we have all heard this at the very least once.  People even say it about puzzle games and RPGs.  Such is humanity I suppose.  When your game is considered the measuring stick for all other games something either really awesome or terribly wrong is going on.

I remember my friend was buying the first Sniper Elite and I kid you not the guy at Shamestop is almost yelling "I don't even want to sell you this game! Dude it is nothing like call of duty!"  My buddy is like "...yeah that's exactly why I am buying it."
"Dude you dont even know this game is SOOO hard-it's nothing like Call of Duty."  Then he goes on to explain how the game incorporates Coriolis effect and bla bla bla.  I thought it funny then...I think of it as hilarious now.
Basically he was saying "You dont want this game because in some ways it is better than the most popular one running"

That's a funny thing to have happen in the marketplace.  A game that is in some ways better than the pop standard is smacked down because it isnt the pop standard.  Damn the gaming market is fickle. but in all honesty when was the last time you heard "this game sucks! it's nothing like Myst!" or "this game is bullcrap-why isn't it like smash bros?" both popular games but never used in ridiculous comparisons.

It's no secret that COD has come to be a dominant if not the dominant player in the FPS market.  It isn't because the game is built amazingly well...even the hardcore fans bitch about certain things.  Usually the bitching is about minor stuff which gets blown out of proportion into "it is unplayable" when they play it everyday.  Hey side note: you want an unplayable game junior?  You wanna know what a REAL bad game is?  How bout one that isnt even designed so that you can beat the first level? It's called squeezebox for atari 2600 and you have to shoot the walls that are closing in on you...problem?  you can't crouch so you cant shoot the bricks at your feet they will close in on you and kill you and you cannot stop it...you cannot beat level one.  Before 5 minutes the game is over.

THAT'S an unplayable game.  This is what I had to bitch about and I had reason to.  But I digress as usual.  When you're popular things will be said both good and bad about you.  Popular does not translate into good though.  I think COD in its early days was pretty damned amazing but now it's impossible to die in single player if you're not an idiot and not only that single player is a way distant fourth thought and the focus is online and how to get you to buy the new map packs.  Which isnt new by the way.  I remember my brother and I playing COD 2 on PC and they were selling maps for online use.  

But I do raise the question when did EVERYTHING become compared to COD?  Is it because it's the only game people know/play or do they really think it's that good?  When I was growing into mature gaming FPS was one of those genres that was unbelievably creative and fun.  Doom-a "super human" trooper slaughters everything and shoots his way out of hell and all the demons in it in order to fight a mechanical spider.  Quake Monsters and secrets a go-go no shortage of badasses to kill with weird weapons like the super nail gun.  You get the point.  So personally to me running around with "realistic" weapons shooting at nothing but human targets is pretty boring.  The fact that you can just regenerate health by hiding is ridiculous in a game that focuses on visual realism a better yet still unrealistic option is health pick ups.

But I want to be clear and say that our experiences shape our likes and dislikes.  I have a dislike for COD because I am used to imagination and surrealism in games.  The fact that it is the measuring stick for anything that comes out or anything that is already out is rather silly and anyone making this comparison probably only has extensive COD play to judge other games with.  I suppose that makes sense but if that's true how come no one is making comparisons that I noted earlier i.e. smash bros. and myst?

Great games Shouldn't be bought?

"Chrome Hounds! aw man what a great game but don't buy it-they shut the servers down." These words will forever stab my brain unmercifully.  That was actually said to me by a dear friend.  Think about that and let it sink in "...What a great game but don't buy it..."  That makes no sense-actually my friend is right it makes perfect uh..."sense".  We're seeing a lot of focus and emphasis on multiplayer these days and hell why not?  Being fragged by 7 year olds who have the map and glitches memorized is (sadly) the cutting edge of gaming today.  But what happens when the lights go out?

What happens when a company decides "We cant (or don't want to) support the servers any more."?  Short answer: you enter the town of Fuck-a-Roo'd-Population: You and everyone else who bought the game.  Long Answer? this post.

My buddy was telling me that chrome hounds is awesome and yeah it sure looks like it-too bad it flew under my radar and I only found out about like a year ago.  I cannot experience that game to the fullest anymore.  There is something terribly wrong there.  Now again younger readers won't understand but I will try to explain. I can go to any retro store or ebay and buy a NES game and plop it into my top loader and it will play the entire full game no questions asked.  THAT is what I am used to.  This whole we can take 50% or more of the game away from you at any given time is what's the word here...I want to be eloquent...it's Bullshit.  Thats like one day that same game just cuts out at a certain point.  Yeah once you get to level 3 the game just stops it just ends.

Multiplayer is the focus of many games these days and single player campaigns are a second thought if a thought at all.  COD, BF, all those games that really target the online market are considered amazing games but why?  When those servers eventually close (and they will one day) people will re-visit them and find out "Single player sucks!"  A game isnt amazing by its ability to wow you for a year or two it is earns its amazing title by forever wowing you.

What's that?  The game is awesome so it'll never shut the servers?  Yeah ATLUS is laughing at you.  Demon's Souls is considered one of the best games for PS3 and it's been out for roughly 2 years.  The servers go bye bye this month.  I cannot play with my brother in Manhattan anymore...The thing about it is online play is a SELLING point that devs flaunt and shove in your face. YOU CAN PLAY WITH ANYONE IN THE WORLD BUY IT BUY IT! only to find that-that promise cannot be maintained forever-it just can't.  So games become sort of temporary and that is very sad friends.

That's like me pointing to my retro collection and saying "It works but we can't play it-devs weren't thinking about lasting power."  To me it is so foreign and in some ways wrong.  Maybe I am showing my age but I feel that it is a matter of common sense.  Hm? oh ok yeah go buy that extra map pack for an extra 20 bucks putting you at 80 bucks for a game. whats that you bought the "collector's edition" so with the maps you're at 100-120 bucks for one game...and those maps are only good online? so when they shut the servers down you're 100-120 into a game that is no longer whole?  you're right I don't have common sense.

Some of you less appreciative types might be saying I won't want to play a game when it gets old-who cares?  Do you own pokemon on GBA and N64?  If you do you are already embracing the nostalgia of games of yesteryear-you will not be able to do that here.  Multiplayer is great and all but I am of the mind that if it consists of nearly half of the game then it is a crappy game.  Oh no? "It's a great game but don't buy it."  Don't buy it is something you say about a bad game isn't it?  In my day a good game was indeed a good game and you better damned well buy it or else everyone you know will be playing Super Mario 3 and you won't be.

Gaming today seems to me very short sighted.  While there are plenty of single player games that are whole and solid I look at these mega titles and they often boast online play.  This is like being excited for the world's biggest ice cream sandwich on the hottest day ever.  sure it hits the spot for a while but before you can finish it's melted away.  Think about those poor bastards who bought demon's souls the day before they shut the servers down.