Rift Beta

Well I got my Rift Beta key, the new MMO developed by Trion Worlds. I'm downloading the client now to make sure we're good to go for Tuesday when the event goes live.. The Beta event starts on Tuesday so we'll see if just because we're not in Azeroth anymore if we still wish we were.

I always wonder why MMO developers go after WoW. You can't do it. Blizzard have unlimited time, money, and talent. They didn't invent the modern MMO but they certain perfected it. It is pretty common knowledge that it takes a lot of resources to build an MMO from the ground up and a lot of companies who take aim at the better half of Activision/Blizzard end up folding. A lot of companies who don't take aim at them but still put out an MMO end up folding.

We'll see if Trion has the stuff to compete.

PAX East will be 28 Days Later

Today is Friday February 11^th and PAX East is officially 4 weeks away. I have been trying to ignore the time between purchasing my 3 day pass and the actual convention in March, but it is hard not to focus on something that is really as incredible as PAX.

I remember quite fondly sitting in the main hall in the Hynes last year listening to Wil Wheaton’s keynote speech. By the time he was through I knew exactly how amazing PAX would be; seriously watch the youtube playlist if you have time. It’s pretty epic. Some highlights for me last year: Being stomped out by a Brotherhood of the Steel dude, getting eaten by Enforcer Zombies, and having an amazing time with some of my best friends.

This year my goals are really to be more social and get a little more involved with the community of fellow geeks, participate in a MTG tournament, play against someone other than my friends in the PC free play room, meet HuskyStarcraft and HDStarcraft who are kind enough to make my commuting into Boston everyday not only bearable, but enjoyable, and mostly I am excited to just be in that atmosphere of common interest.

I do plan on making up business cards with my contact info to not only promote this blog, but also maybe meet some people to play on Steam and Impulse with, and maybe another person or two to get involved in my TTRPG circle. I don’t know if I have time in my life or room in my heart, but I probably would be open to joining someone else’s as well or finding more people to play MTG with.

If there is a Starcraft 2 tournament I will definitely have to play a lot of games to train so I don’t get knocked out the first round. I don’t actually play much anymore but I am a high platinum Terran! (That's me front right BTW)

Violence, Gore, and everything I would want in a Video Game

I’ve been thinking a lot about my post yesterday and how gamers are seen as loving violence. I thought to myself, “is this so untrue?” Some of my favorite movies are incredibly violent and disgusting. Sin City ranks as one of my favorites as does Pulp Fiction, and District 9 which all share common themes of extreme violence and flawed heroes reaching for lofty goals. When I first started playing video games some of my favorites were Golden Axe, Altered Beast, and Mercs (can you tell ours was a Genesis household?).
This lead me to think about a violent shooter that is one of the many anticipated sequels coming out this year that (all of this is speculation based on past entries and the gorgeous trailers and marketing) does look violent, gory, disgusting, and everything I want in a video game. That game would be Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

First off this game is a shooter. You go around killing people and destroying things. It’s violent. There are guns, hand to hand combat, explosions and explosives, etc. I would also argue the trailer is very disgusting. It alludes to power struggles and abuses, human beings being so mistreated they resort to violence, chaos, and generally not just attacking the human body, but the human spirit as well. That always disturbs me more than blood and guts.

The marketing that publisher Square Enix and developer Edios Montreal have put together is absolutely spectacular and is about as fine of an example of how to target your audience (at least me being in the 24 to 38 year old male nerd category) and get them to really anticipate paying full price for your product.

What does Dead Space 2 say about Gamers?

EA’s Visceral Games has recently released the highly anticipated sequel to their 2008 space thriller (I wouldn’t go so far as to call it survival horror but that’s another rant) Dead Space to critical acclaim. Despite the pacing and atmosphere being more jumpy than scary I really enjoyed the first entry in the series. It was a very solid 3^rd person shooter, reasonably (but not remarkably) well written, and technically flawless. Bottom line it was a blast running around the Ishumura and blasting a bunch of weird alien like things limb’s off.

Like most people who enjoyed Dead Space I was very interested in playing the sequel. I enjoyed the full Isaac Clark costume they had to promote the game at last year’s PAX East, and in general appreciated the overall design philosophy that went into the game. I haven’t played it yet though because I have been struggling with the dilemma of supporting bad marketing and what Visceral and EA are doing and think about me through their marketing campaign.

The tag line for the game is “Your mom wouldn’t approve of this.” They have aired commercials on national television of crotchety looking old ladies going on about how it is so violent and disagreeable to them as an attempt to appeal to me, video games core audience of 24 to 38 year old males, to be more enticed to buy the game at full price.

I have 2 main issues with this campaign. The first being the obvious; I like my mom. She was kind enough to bring me in to this world and raise me with enough finesse for me not to require massive amount of therapy (debatable) or jail time. In my book that is a win. I would hope that enough professional 20 something’s like myself would have the same reaction. Second the commercial calls the game “violent, gory, and everything that you (I) would want in a game.” Now, like anyone who enjoys art and especially video games, I don’t mind violence one bit as long as there is a purpose. Violence for the sake of violence never makes a fun game. Ultimately, when done right where the violence is merely a result of the game world, mechanics, and writing, it is really a blast. Heck many of the best selling video games of all time, like Guitar Hero, the Sims, the Wii Sports games, and Tetris feature no gore or violence.

I think that Take 2 and Rockstar hit a home run marketing their GTA franchise and they have set the benchmark for marketing a violent video game to it's intended audience.

What does this marketing campaign really say about the attitude and perception of it’s consumer base for a game like Dead Space 2? Are we all just slobbering monsters who crave only the most graphic and depraved images? Are our escapist fantasies so enveloped in the act of gratuitous violence and not in the meaning and purpose behind it (being for noble or nefarious causes)? Do EA and Visceral think that this is the strongest selling point of their IP?

Now I have been wrestling with this dilemma. I know I will enjoy the game and it would probably, under normal circumstances, warrant a full price purchase for me. Can I, however, reward such a terrible view from the developer and publisher? It is not exactly Visceral Game’s first offense.