61 Frames Per Second : world of warcraft

10 Years Ago This Week: EverQuest

Joe Keiser — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:00:00 GMT

10 Years Ago is a recurring feature that looks at whatever the new hotness was around this time 3,652 days ago. Ostensibly it will look at the game’s impact both in past and present terms, but mostly it will just make you feel really old.

While not the first successful MMORPG (Ultima Online is frequently cited for this accolade), EverQuest (released March 16, 1999) was undoubtedly the first truly culturally relevant MMORPG, and the first one to achieve critical mass in its player base. The things EverQuest did in its five years at the top of the genre defined not only the way MMORPGs are designed. It also codified how the MMO business is structured, cemented a great many aspects of massive game player culture, and began the controversies that continue to haunt the genre to this day. It’s hard to overstate how much EverQuest has contributed to the medium, and you could certainly make an argument for it being the most important game of the last ten years (though you only have the rest of the day to do so).

In retrospect, it’s easy to see EverQuest as the culmination of the interesting online game experimentation that went on in the mid 90s, in games like Meridian 59 and The Realm and at companies like Stormfront and Mythic. In addition, Ultima Online proved that there was a significant market for subscription-based online gamine as far back as 1997.

EverQuest has gone through many UI and graphical overhauls in the last decade. This video represents a long defunct version of the game.

EverQuest made all of those projects look like relics. At a time when just being an MMO alone was considered a marked technological achievement, EQ managed to render its large-scale world in an incredibly modern 3D engine. With its graphics alone bringing in newer, more casual players, EverQuest also sought to take some of the harder edges off the genre, taking (for the time) major steps to limit player killing and encourage more cooperative play. It still wasn’t completely intuitive—the original interface (which has since been iterated out of existence), for example, was a rather kludgy attempt to keep massive amounts of game data available to the player at all times—but it was an improvement over the intimidating MMORPGs that it was competing with.

This more casual slant, combined with gameplay that pulled the most addictive parts from MUDs, D&D, and its predecessors, made EverQuest a sensation. Reviewers loved it, simultaneously praising and warning against its incredibly addictive nature. At the end of 1999, it was simultaneously winning game of the year awards while surpassing the incumbent UO’s subscriber base. Bolstered by frequent updates and sizable expansion packs, “EverCrack” quickly became a gaming institution.

The industry immediately took notice. EQ proved that a single living game could not only do strong retail sales for years, but could also draw high monthly fees from a satisfied player base of up to nearly half a million players. It was a temptation that few publishers could resist, and the ensuing years were filled with “EverQuest killers” that looked and played similarly to EQ in the hopes of drawing a positive comparison.

And which that much, um, sincere flattery, tropes were created. It’s almost impossible to count the number of MMO memes and standards that began in EQ, but here’s a fairly prominent one: raiding did not really exist before EverQuest. Today these large-scale uber-challenges are standard issue content in most MMO end games. Interlocking guild-based character classes like tanks and buffers also came to prominence in this game, as did jargon that is now used across the entirety of the genre—phrases like, you guessed it, “tank,” “buffer,” and “raid”.

Like any work at the vanguard of a new cultural movement, EverQuest drew controversy. Most of these issues were non-specific to EQ itself, but rather endemic to the genre the game led. The idea of game addiction became more prominent than ever in discussions about the game, and anecdotes of people who flunked out of college or were left by their wives because of their EverQuest habit rapidly made the rounds. An even more fascinating cultural problem cropped up in the form of gold farming, as third world-based sweatshops began playing the game nonstop and offering spoils to the highest bidder. When World of Warcraft did prove to be the EverQuest killer of legend, it inherited these and similar issues of psychology and economy.

EverQuest’s PC version is still actively maintained and updated by Sony Online Entertainment; its most recent expansion came out last October. Of course, a free trial is available. There is also a Mac version, but it exists mostly as a curio—it hasn’t been updated in years, meaning it lacks the game’s rolling graphical upgrades as well as the content of the last eleven expansion packs. The effect of this lazy maintenance schedule means the Mac version acts as a time capsule of EverQuest at the height of its influence. So it’s an interesting historical artifact, and one that’s freely accessible until Apple inevitably breaks the game in an operating system update (and that assumes you can even get it to work at the moment, because it sure did look funny on my machine).

Previously on Ten Years Ago This Week:

Army Men 3D
Silent Hill
Syphon Filter
Alpha Centauri

How to Cook like a Tauren

Cole Stryker — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:00:00 GMT

"Tired of your character getting all the great food?" So begins the sales pitch for one of the interent's quirkier e-books. Some internet hero has developed a cookbook based on the fictional delicacies found within World of Warcraft's Tauren territories. Dee-lish.

You've fought like a Tauren and died like a Tauren (and probably taken more than a few with you,) so why not eat like a Tauren? In real life. Why should you only be able to eat Poached Sunsdcale Salmon in-game? You've seen Delicious Cave Mold dropping here and there, but what's it really like?

Mmm. Cave mold.

Just picture it- your brave crew of weary warriors, casters, and cannon fodder gathers around the campfire after slaying that boss and his horde (again,) and what do all of you want? Some limp wimpy green salad? NO! You want comfort food! Hot and tasty DragonBreath Chili, Seasoned Wolf Kabobs, or Roast Raptor are just the stuff these crusaders need to banish the fatigue and get back to slaying!

It goes on like this for a few pages. You get the idea. With over sixty recipes, this has to be the most comprehensive WoW-related cookbook on the market. And a steal at only $19.97.

But wait! There's more! Order now and get a free mini-cookbook, whatever that is. Read more at Tauren Chef.

Related Links:

Play Bejeweled Inside World of Warcraft

Up All Night: Blackthorne

Free to Play MMO's: Where do You Draw the Line?

Whatcha Playing: FusionFall

Nadia Oxford — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 04:53:00 GMT

Yeah, uh, I'm only playing this for work-related purposes.

I...I...

I'm still cool.

Actually, FusionFall has received a lot of hype, and there's quite a bit of charm to it. Worried parents wonder if Cartoon Network's MMORPG is merely another name for Billy's Gateway World of Warcraft Addiction, but there are some interesting speed bumps that are in place to keep kids from descending down the vortex in its entirety. Levelling up occurs through the completion of missions, not hours of grinding, and your rewards actually lessen if you log several consecutive hours of gameplay.

These restrictions serve well as wake-ups for enraptured children who will hopefully realise that it's a good idea to go outside and play once the cow has been milked dry. It's probably not foolproof, though. Who wants to stop when they're with their friends, giving evil what for? It's still up to the parents to pull the game when their kids' eyes start turning into squares. Pity the poor hand-wringing adults: the thought of having to administer some means of discipline on their children will send many of them scrambling for their stationary so they can re-direct their energies into writing a blame piece for Scare Weekly.

It's too bad, because I believe FusionFall might serve well as an introduction to MMORPGs. The game is marketed to kids eight through 14. The missions needed to level up aren't overwhelming, as the game in its entirety is meant to be played in quick intervals. The monthly subscription fee is cheap ($5.95), you tailor your own costume suited for a post-apocalyptic battleground and you basically let loose in a low-stress environment where nobody compares the size of your sword to theirs. It's better to learn to respect the MMORPG environment through an age-appropriate game than to just be thrown head-first into Warcraft.

It's also just kind of cool to explore the Cartoon Network schedule come to life. FusionFall's biggest disappointment is that the art style has been homogenised, and interesting-looking characters like Dexter look like they've come off Generic Anime Template #475. It's not so bad, though. I can finally meet Samurai Jack and ask him if he got that love sonnet I wrote for him in 2005.

Related Links:

Whatcha Playing: Cleaning House, Finding Roots
Whatcha Playing: The New Adventures of the Nintendo DS
Whatcha Playing: Weight of the Stone

Up All Night: Blackthorne

John Constantine — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Blizzard doesn’t need to make games in a timely manner. They finish games when they’re finished. This is because Blizzard are masters of their craft. They are unimpeachable purveyors of the best the medium has to offer. Got something bad to say about the Warcraft trilogy? Best keep your trap shut, pal. Think World of Warcraft is a cunning way of enslaving free minds? Keep it to yourself. And heaven forfend if you question the merit of Starcraft, Diablo, or either of those series’ impending sequels. Indeed, Blizzard are new gods for the 21st century.

But this was not always the case. Once upon a time, Blizzard made trash. Fun trash to be sure, but trash nonetheless. That is to say, once upon a time, Blizzard stayed up all night.

Of the multiple Up All Night candidates from Blizzard’s catalog – and believe me, The Death and Return of Superman and Justice League Task Force are prime subjects – none are so deserving as Blackthorne. Blackthorne is raw 1990s, distilled into a collection of pixels, and preserved for all of time. The plot is a tangle of violent sci-fi fantasy tropes, so if you’re curious about the nitty-gritty of Blackthorne’s story, please consult this handy synopsis on Wikipedia. All you really need to know is that you play as a longhaired dude named Kyle Vlaros, aka The Blackthorne. Kyle does not wear a shirt. Kyle wears jeans, a tanktop, sunglasses, and a shotgun. The jeans are for comfort, the sunglasses are for looking cool, and the shotgun is for shooting everybody. This goes for the monstrous aliens who serve the evil ruler of Tuul, Sarlac, as well as the peaceful subjects Sarlac has enslaved. I found it to be pretty shocking the first time I accidentally shotgunned a helpless prisoner in the head way back when. But when I realized I could shotgun them over the shoulder – I’m pretty sure blind shooting, recently popularized by Gears of War, originated in Blackthorne – I couldn’t help but be manically amused.

Joking aside, Blackthorne is a good game, albeit a remarkably cheesy one. If you’re a fan of platformers in the vein of Flashback, Out of This World, and the early Oddworld games, track it down. Of course, if you’re a Blizzard devotee, you probably already have.

Previously on Up All Night:

Doritos Dash of Destruction
Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe
Cannon Spike
Parasite Eve
Trojan
Dark Sector
Ex-Mutants
Nightmare Creatures
Bad Dudes
P.N. 03

Should Reviewers Go Easy on Cheap Games?

Cole Stryker — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:00:00 GMT

In "researching" for my previous post about free MMO's, I came across the following comment on Kotaku:

Third and most important, its FREE TO PLAY, FOREVER. You aren't losing any money playing this game (unless your buying cash shop items, but who can blame them for trying to cover some of the costs) Try it out yourself and stop saying how much its this or that. I personally think they did a really good job at the game. There are bugs here and there (It's beta) but its a F2P game that I'd actually play. Most of the F2P games I have tried have either been soo god awful I couldn't play more then 20mins. Others were kind of fun but soo cartoony and kiddish I'd be embarrassed to be seen playing them. On top of game play issues in every other F2P game I've played (mind you I've tried a lot) they lack updates and fixes support. If Runes of Magic is going to do any of what they said they were going to there's going to be content patches with class balancing and new content.
They wanted to give a new F2P experience, and so far they have delivered. I'd urge anyone on the edge to try and play it and remember, It's FREE.

This mindset really bugs me!

You know what else is free? Mowing my lawn. That doesn't mean it's better than Halo. Pricing should not even enter the equation, because everyone has different value scales. Some people are cool dropping four grand on a massive gaming rig. Others are content playing online fash games. Reviews that take price into account are meaningless to everyone but the reviewer, because value for money varies from person to person. Slamming a game for costing too much is just as futile as giving a crappy cheap game a break because, well, it's "such a good deal".

I don't think gamers should be expected to pour hours into a game like Runes of Magic if it's a crappy WoW ripoff*, just because it's free. For a lot of people, time is more valuable than money. Prices are determined by consumer demand (i.e. whatever publishers think they can get away with charging). How can we allow this arbitrary number effect the bottom line of a review, which is ostensibly about the quality of the game?

*Not saying it is.

Free to Play MMO's: Where do You Draw the Line?

Cole Stryker — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:30:00 GMT

According to a press release, over 220,000 people have joined the Runes of Magic beta since Monday. This number astounds me.

I have never got into any MMO's, but it got me thinking, at what point will users be willing to pay money for an online game? How much better of a play experience is World of Warcraft as compared to something like Runes of Magic? Are people willing to put up with a noticeable drop in quality as long as they can avoid monthly subscription fees?

Where do you draw the line?

I'm willing to bet that the subscribers to Runes of Magic skew younger, since kids have less disposable income than adult and even teen players. Also, younger players have more free time, so they may be more willing to put up with bugs that crash the game or server downtime.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the game experiences a similarly explosive downturn in player activity at some point. The new subscribers are most likely folks who are a little bored with WoW right now. I've talked to several people about this phenomenon, and I'm universally told that WoW has a way of sucking people back in after a momentary diversion with Age of Conan, Tabula Rasa or whatever. Sooner or later, they return from whence they came.

(via Kotaku)

Video Game Addicts Dropping out of School

Cole Stryker — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Game Politics reports that FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate has declared the following:

You might find it alarming that one of the top reasons for college drop-outs in the U.S. is online gaming addiction - such as World of Warcraft - which is played by 11 million individuals worldwide.

Taylor provides no hard data to back up this claim, but it got me thinking about some of the casualties I knew, not necessarily from online gaming, but gaming in general.

During my freshman year in college, there was a guy who literally punched a hole through his laptop monitor after repeated losses in Counterstrike. He didn't drop out, but he had to shell out for a new monitor. I don't think nerd rage was covered by the university insurance policy.

One of my R.A.'s had a then-new Xbox. He was a friendly dude, and invited anyone on the hall to come play it any time. Well, there was this one really smelly, socially awkward kid who spent nearly every waking moment playing the R.A.'s Xbox. They had to kick him out at night. On one occasion he was found playing their Xbox, dripping wet, with nothing on but a towel, after a rushed shower. He couldn't be away from Halo for even ten minutes. He dropped out after a semester.

Another guy on my freshman hall dropped out on account of Battlefield 1942. Another from Super Smash Bros. Melee. Another missed a final because he had spent the night speedrunning through Prince of Persia.

Do you know anyone who failed epically because he couldn't pull himself away from video games? Let us know in the comments.

Watching Age of Conan Die

Cole Stryker — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:30:00 GMT

Some guy is getting a lot of attention on Reddit for a fascinating writeup on the dramatic rise and fall of Age of Conan, a surprisingly successful MMORPG whose popularity has waned nearly as quickly as it exploded last spring.

He argues that the first twenty levels, which take place in the bustling city of Tortage, are fully-fleshed, bursting with fascinating NPC's, fun quests, and breathtaking visual design. But then:

From here on out, most of your questing will involve going to the proper Place of Great Respawn and grinding mobs like you were filling up a resume to take some Chinese gold farmer’s job. The dust and dirt must be really hard on the lungs, too, since the vast majority of quest givers are mute. Voice acting, it seems, was too much a courtesy for Funcom to extend after the trial period.

Ouch. I met a guy who worked for Funcom during Age of Conan's development period at a pub. We became friends. He complained a lot for a guy who (to me) had one of the coolest jobs in the world. He also drank quite a bit.

Apparently, he wasn't the only disgruntled employee:

Gaute Godager, the Producer and Game Director even resigned, leaving Funcom after sixteen years with the company over how the game was handled post-release. Without Godager’s influence as a unifying force, the game sunk further in the pits of hooting monkeydom.

I find it fascinating how the development cycle for games continues to inch further beyond the actual release date. As the play value of games extends, so too will budget requirements and the length of development cycles. What sucks for Funcom, and every company trying to make it in the MMORPG space other than Blizzard, is that the second your game becomes just a little bit less fun than World of Warcraft, gamers will immediately return to their first love's newly frosted arms.

Play Bejeweled Inside World of Warcraft

Cole Stryker — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:40:00 GMT

The world's most addicting game just got addictinger.

So you're waiting for your fellow clansmen to meet up at a waypoint before a raid and you've minimized the window to play a little Bejeweled. But when you pull up the WoW window, you find that some h4x0r pwned your n00b ass while you were goofing around. Well, this unfortunate situation will never happen again because now you can play Bejeweled, the game most likely to have been downloaded by your mom, inside WoW.

From Yahoo:

An amateur game maker and World of Warcraft junkie, the San Jose State undergrad decided to break more than a few laws by creating an unauthorized clone of the great puzzle game Bejeweled (called, laughingly, Besharded) that could be played in the middle of a Warcraft session. While such insolence normally leads to a barrage of cease and desist letters, Bejeweled publisher PopCap Games opted for a much different strategy.

They decided to go ahead and allow players to play Bejeweled inside Wow, kind of like how you can now play officially branded Scrabble instead of Scrabulous inside Facebook. The game can be easily pulled up and closed. Of course, all this does is give me more ammo for hating on MMORPG's. If the game isn't interesting enough to hold your attention, why not just go play Bejeweled to begin with?

Terrorists Using WoW to Plan Attacks?

Cole Stryker — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Wired reports that the Pentagon is researching the possibility of terrorist groups working within World of Warcraft, using the MMORPG as a chat room and demo arena for potential terrorist attacks. This is pretty scary, but at the same time...hilarious.

In [a hypothetical scenario], two World of Warcraft players discuss a raid on the "White Keep" inside the "Stonetalon Mountains." The major objective is to set off a "Dragon Fire spell" inside, and make off with "110 Gold and 234 Silver" in treasure. "No one will dance there for a hundred years after this spell is cast," one player, "war_monger," crows.

Except, in this case, the White Keep is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. "Dragon Fire" is an unconventional weapon. And "110 Gold and 234 Silver" tells the plotters how to align the game's map with one of Washington, D.C.

Even if terrorists were using this technology, how could the Pentagon ever monitor it effectively? There are several dozen MMO's, and countless avatar-based chatrooms. Going further, why would they even need an avatar? As long as terrorists use a system of regularly-shifting code words, I don't see how the government could possibly hope to act on this research.

But hey, if terrorists were to start playing WoW, they'd probably get addicted and forget about blowing up buildings. Download the original powerpoint presentation here.

Gold Farming: Why I'll Never Play an MMORPG

Cole Stryker — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

A sensational title, to be sure, but this is insane.

BBC News reports that nearly half a million people make a living supplying lazy first-world gamers with monopoly money.

Steven Davis, chief of game security firm Secure Play, said gold farming had been around since the earliest days of online gaming but had mushroomed along with the popularity of gaming. The trade was clearly meeting a real need, he said
"When you get people with more money than time and time than money the two will find a way to meet," he said.
While exchanges of goods and gold take place inside game worlds the deals are typically done via one of many hundreds of online market places and shops. Some gold farming sites employ just a handful of people but many were large businesses with hundreds of people on their books.

Analysts estimate that the magnitude of gold farming rivals that of outsourced call centers in India. Criminy! 400K? These numbers are unreal, and I took my glasses off, rubbed my eyes, and put them back on to make sure I was reading them right.

I just don't think I could ever enjoy a game in which skill and dedication mean nothing in the face of expendable cash. The world is unfair enough. I play games to escape the harsh reality of the distribution of wealth. The last thing I need is for this imbalance to infiltrate my fantasy worlds.

Shawn "Napster" Fanning: Wow Nerd Success Story

Cole Stryker — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:00:00 GMT

Remember this smug little prick? The original tech wunderkind (years before Rose and Zuckerberg took it to the top) Shawn Fanning built Napster from the ground up, earning a few million before he could legally drink. He sold Napster and dove headfirst into WoW, where he was inspired to create a social networking site for Wow players called Rupture. He recently sold it to EA Games for 30 million.

From an ancient 2006 interview with 1-Up:

Using an add on or a software download, Rupture taps into the game to automatically pull together character names, profiles, and resources, and publish them on a personalized site. Rupture will also pull together stats to create individual and guild rankings and provide a place for guilds to organize their playing. As Rupture tracks each member's playing over time, these personalized profiles evolve. And players will be able to chat in groups or with other individuals and download other addons and game demos.

Interestingly, this means that building online communities is a key element in EA's online strategy, just like everybody else. Everyone seems more interested in virtual real estate than producing content these days. Am I the only one out there who has absolutely no desire to share my gaming statistics and habits with others? Maybe I just hate people/society?

Shawn's also a Jiu-Jitsu master. Check out the rest of the story over at Wow Riot.

NSFW: The Top Five Game-Based Pornos

John Constantine — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Seriously. Not safe for work.

As they used to say back on the farm, if it exists on this here planet, you can be cocksure there’s a porno based on it. Okay, you caught me. I didn’t grow up on a farm. I grew up in the middle of a lot of farms though, and I’m telling you, people on those farms used to say this all the time. The past twelve years of browsing the internet have taught me that this age-old maxim is absolutely true. Hollywood movie parodies have been a rich and lasting resource for triple-x features forever, birthing immortal classics like Edward Penishands, so videogames seem like a no-brainer. That’s not even taking into consideration modern gaming’s largely Japanese origins and that country’s penchant for all manner of costume-related perversions. We at 61 Frames Per Second, being the powerful cultural critics we are, have compiled this list of the top five Game-Based Pornos from east and west. Be warned: continuing to read may cause embarrassment for humanity, uncontrollable laughter, and occasional revulsion.

#5) Super Hornio Bros.

The image above is an internet staple, the “film” an affront against the senses. Yes, shortly after Nintendo allowed Bob Hoskins to play the world’s most recognizable gaming icon on the silverscreen, director Buck Adams cast Ron Jeremy as Hornio, the overalls-clad plumber star of Super Hornio Bros. Rumor has it that the day the video shipped to adult boutiques across the land, Shigeru Miyamoto threw up for over twelve hours straight and was institutionalized for a month.

#4) Many, Many Tifa Lockhart of Final Fantasy VII Videos

Final Fantasy VII was the RPG that changed the world, making cinematic presentation an integral part of game design and bringing role-playing out of the basement and into the mainstream. Most people say this is because of the epic for-its-time presentation. I say it was because Squaresoft decided to put giant boobs in it. The character of Tifa Lockhart, barely clothed and sporting some serious back-problem-causers, was a shameless move to sex-up the series and, unsurprisingly, it worked. There are literally hundreds of pornographic films in Japan starring actresses dressed up like Tifa (the pictured title spices things up even more with the star playing even more game stars, like Darkstalkers’ Morrigan.) For the record, I only know that many exist after research for this article. Seriously…

#3) WhoreLore – World of Whorecraft and Age of Bonan

WhoreLore is a special case because, like its multiple inspirations, it’s persistent. Formerly known as the World of Whorecraft, WhoreLore makes episodic, eerily accurate hardcore fare based on Blizzard’s World of Warcraft and Funcom’s recently released Age of Conan. They don’t go to the point of listing what kind of stat losses the actors experience as they disrobe, but the costumes, make-up, and dialogue are spot on. Bonan even goes so far as to literally recreate the opening mission of Age of Conan. For anyone out there feeling some kind of shame for their love of MMOs, don’t. Porn stars are just like you and are, apparently, even nerdier.

#2) Geki Fit

and

#1) Chinpo o Kitaeru Otona no Ingenware Training (Dick Drilling Adult's Lewd Word Self Training)

Like I said before, everything eventually becomes subject matter for porn. Everything. But our number one and two entries have left me incredulous. They are wholly strange, totally silly, and utterly Japanese. Both are based Nintendo’s most recent successes, specifically their non-games. These are lifestyle enhancers more than goal-oriented, character-driven “games”, which makes the smut they’ve inspired even more peculiar. Number two is Geki Fit. Inspired by Wii Fit, it is one-hundred and fifteen minutes of lewd yoga poses viewed from increasingly voyeuristic camera angles. There isn’t even any nudity. I’m not making this up.

Number one is Chinpo o Kitaeru Otona no Ingenware Training. Translated as Dick Drilling Adult's Lewd Word Self Training, it’s based on the Nintendo DS phenomenon, Brain Age. Yes, that’s right. It’s porn based on WORD PUZZLES AND MATH! Have you ever played these Brain Age games, dear reader? A disembodied, polygonal head quizzes you repeatedly with brain teasers and then judges your intelligence. I can’t even begin to imagine what this DVD is like. Does it ask you to read out loud? Does it ask you to memorize as many words as possible in thirty seconds? I have nightmares about people using this as a marital aid.

Nintendo, next time you’re trying to think of a clever name for a line of videogames, do not call them “Touch Generations”. Look what you did.

Many thanks to Kotaku, J-List, 1P Start, and Whorelore in the compilation of this staggering achievement in journalism.

Related links:
The Ten Greatest Classic Mega Man Levels
The Ten Videogames That Should Have Been Controversial
The Ten Greatest Opening Levels in Gaming History
The Ten Most Adventurous Sequels
The Ten Greatest Fire Levels

Screen Test: Diablo III

Cole Stryker — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:00:00 GMT

I came home from a weekend holiday to find a buttload of Diablo III info had been released.

Apparently some Blizzard fans are nonplussed, concerned that the series's art direction has taken a turn for the cartoonish. This online petition, which looks like it was composed by someone with a tenuous grip on written English, has gained some traction (nearly 5K signatures as of this writing!). Is Blizzard aiming for WoW's widespread appeal by toning down Diablo's gothier design or does someone need to call a whaaaambulance? Whatever the case, this petition is sure to go nowhere, as Diablo III has been in development for four years now. Making these changes would surely require a massive design overhall.

Some of the screenshots are darker...

than others.

But dude has a point. Even the darker imagery is still glowing, colorful, and crisp. Not exactly creepy. I have a distinct memory of being so filled with dread upon entering some sort of spider-filled crypt in Diablo II that I actually had to leave for a while to build up the courage to venture in. Hard to say from a screenshot, but I'm not getting the same vibe here.

I'm just thrilled that they chose to stick with a top-down perspective, unlike just about every other current-gen RPG. I will admit, though, Diablo definitely set itself apart with its chilling, demonic vibe. I'm seeing a lot of fantasy here, and not a whole lot of hellish imagery that would, say, provoke my fundamentalist mom to literally burn the game out in our backyard's fire pit. I learned how to play unapproved PC games in a window after that little incident.

Seriously though, where the bloody pentagrams and torches made from disembodied limbs at?

Captivating Discontent: Where's the Nintendo Love, Capcom?

John Constantine — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Written by Derrick Sanskrit

Like a lot of other gamers, I was rather perplexed by the announcements at the Capcom’s recent Captivate ‘08 event. Sure, Street Fighter IV is starting to look like a worthwhile return to the franchise and Bionic Commando just looks awesome - both got me wanting to pick up that Xbox gamepad again - but what the hell happened on the Nintendo side of things? Neopets Puzzle Adventure and Spyborgs?

Capcom doesn't really believe that ALL Nintendo gamers are eight years old, do they?

But as the media rolled in, I started to warm up to these new IPs. Despite whatever unpleasantness lies in my history with Neopets — a story for another day — the characters are still adorable, and Neopets Puzzle Adventure is being handled by the team responsible for the addictive Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. As a character-driven puzzle RPG, it shows a good deal of potential, and with Capcom and Neopets attached to the project, you know its going to have much more retailer support than Puzzle Quest ever did.

As for Spyborgs, well, the trailer didn’t instill much hope. Tacky voiceover, characters that could have been lifted from the very worst saturday morning cartoons, and potty humor... in a minigame?! You guys let go of Clover, the studio responsible for Viewtiful Joe and Okami, for this? "FUCK YOU, CAPCOM!" was my first thought.

There's one true bright spot: Spyborgs is the first project by Bionic Games, a new studio whose members have worked on Ratchet and Clank, World of Warcraft, Resistance: Fall of Man, Tony Hawk: Pro Skater, The Sims, and Call of Duty. With a resume like that, you know these kids know how to make games that are well-designed and actually fun. Also, Capcom's Christian Svensson stated on the company's official message board:

Have faith. This is a game that is incredibly thoughtful in its design, incredibly varied in its mechanics and will be incredibly fun to play (both alone or with a buddy/son or daugther/father or mother) when it’s done. The initial reaction here I swear is the EXACT reaction so many of you posters had when we first revealed Zach & Wiki. Somehow, Z&W is now a poster child title for the Wii in your eyes. Mark my words: you will feel exactly the same way about the level of quality in Spyborgs when it is done. Again, this is a big, epic game. A far cry from typical Wii shovelware. You’ve heard my rants on that before, I won’t go through it again.

I know that at least two of us FPSers love Zack & Wiki (probably more of us, I haven't asked around), and it's excellent to see them acknowledge that most Wii games are crap. For now, I'm going to accept that Spyborgs is still extremely early in development and is a labor of love for designers with great track records.

I am skeptically looking forward to both Spyborgs and Neopets Puzzle Adventure. Wish we'd learned a bit more about Resident Evil 5, though.

Kotaku Endorses Products Unaware

Cole Stryker — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Yesterday Kotaku published a post regarding how Figure Prints, a company that creates 3D models of WoW avatars, ran an ad in a comic book with a testimonial from Axel at Kotaku. The compelling testimonial reads, "Wow... I NEED ONE!!!"

Problem is, no one who writes for Kotaku goes by the name of Axel. It turns out that the company snagged the gushing prose of one of Kotaku's bleating commenters, attributing the quote to Kotaku.com, where it technically appeared. And the commenters are all slapping Axel on the back with hearty shouts of, "Kotaku commenters FTW!!"

You'd think Kotaku would cry foul, considering that their journalistic integrity has been compromised. Anyone can comment at Kotaku, even, say, a plant working for Figure Prints. Even if this guy legitimately NEEDS ONE, it's still a misleading ad, one that basically encourages any company to attribute any quote to any news source with a comments section. I'd be surprised if someone at Gawker Media hasn't sent Figure Prints a nastygram, but given the nature of the post alone, the editors don't seem to mind, which is strange because it makes every party involved look bad.

Perhaps Figure Prints assumed that Kotaku's superstar editors had enough name recognition, thus making it obvious that the endorsement was coming from some average joe. Whatever the case may be, this ethical dilemma seems far less sinister than Konami's recent bullying of reviewers over MGS4's content or the whole Gerstmanngate debacle. Compared to some of the conflicts of interest and payola happening elsewhere in the industry, it seems rather innocent. At worst, it was a bad judgement call on behalf of Figure Prints. There doesn't seem to be concious manipulation happening, but in the wake of the above scandals, the media would do well to put a stop to these questionable business practices to prevent compromising their journalistic integrity.

Brainy Gamer Asks the Ever-Present Question: Can’t We All Just Get Along?

John Constantine — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:00:00 GMT

While admitting this risks damaging my “cred”, I do not game that much online. Indeed, my experience with online multi-player is limited to only a handful of games like Mario Kart DS (which I quickly abandoned due to rather egregious cheating) and a very brief stint in World of Warcraft (once I got to more populated areas of the game, my aging G4 PowerBook just couldn’t keep up. I got lucky.) That said, like so many others, I’ve played a lot of Halo 3 online. In general, the random people I’ve played with have been alright; not offensive but not people I’ll become bosom buddies with. Playing online is like hanging out with any group of strangers. It’s civil and awkward. On heavily populated nights though, when Microsoft’s servers strain under the weight of hundreds of thousands of players, that’s when you get a taste of the horrific behavior that keep many people from playing online at all. Racist, moronic, misogynistic rambling from a multitude of pubescent men with no sense of irony, humor, or decorum. No description, no recording can do it justice, you have to experience this sort of dumb hostility yourself to truly understand it. Though you don’t have to play online to witness it at work in the community. Just look at the Kotaku comments section during last year’s Resident Evil 5 debacle.

Angela from Lesbian Gamers and Michael from Brainy Gamer have written up an essay that succinctly states the problem and elegantly asks what’s to be done about it if discourse on games is going to grow:

How can we constructively address members of our community who use the public and anonymous nature of our forums and comment areas to attack or berate others? Is banning specific commenters or IP addresses the best solution? We can moderate and filter, but is there something meaningful to be gained by allowing such people to publicly have their say? Can we nurture a community that responds to these situations in a useful and instructive way? Can we engage a critical mass of gamers willing to model respectful disagreement and thoughtful discourse?

Or are we wringing our hands about something only a relative few of us care about? Is it unlikely we can do anything substantive to create a more civil environment among gamers? Should we simply do what we can as individuals and hope things improve over time? We'd like to make a positive contribution, but are we being hopelessly idealistic?

As Angela and Michael say, it’s a difficult problem to tackle. The real problem is the anonymity of all online interactions as illustrated by the John Gabriel Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory. Anti-social behavior in physical communities isn’t tolerated because anyone behaving badly is dealt with immediately, either by overt punishment or ostracizing the guilty party. But there’s no such thing as internet jail and, even if there was, escape is only a new screen name, a new persona away.

Not to be flippant but the simplest answer is for people to just stop being stupid. The complicated answer, however, is a mystery to me. What do you think readers?

Big thanks to N’Gai Croal at Level Up for pointing us to this.