Demons have stolen my Soul, with reservations [Demon's Souls]

 

Lately I admit I’ve been lazing about in front of the ol’ plasma a bit too much, staring at magically rendered universes of fantasy and adventure. Part of it is that I’m slowly recovering from a cold. It’s probably H1N1. If it’s fatal, I might die playing video games. Would my soul be revived in the Nexus? Somehow I doubt it. I’m no hero, I’m just a dude.

Apart from the fantastically beautiful Uncharted 2, a much lower profile game from the studios of Sony Japan has captivated my attention for a good twenty plus hours over the past few week. That game is Demon’s Souls, an action RPG that has won at least one claim to fame—it’s very hard to win. Yes, that’s one marketing angle they’ve taken deliberately, not one you often see on a game box, because, for some reason, game developers think that would be a turn off.

I’ll avoid going off on a tangent about how miserably easy most games have become these days, but suffice it to say, Demon’s Souls makes a solid effort at living up to its claim, but where I’m at in the game now, the difficulty seems to be fading to irrelevance.

The story is some throwaway about a demon that has ravaged the world and you’re the hero designated to defeat it. The problem is, you’re not all that much of a hero, not at first—more like a 98lb weakling. I like this, a lot. Probably because I’m a 150lb weakling and it gives me hope.

The game trains you in the basic mechanics of game play and then quickly kicks your ass by making you fight an impossibly difficult demon, and then the game really begins with your soul awakening in the Nexus, a sort of Void where you end up when you die. To progress through the game you warp to different worlds where you kill the baddies and collect their souls. Souls are like money, used for everything from equipment purchases to stat upgrades. Along the way you kill boss demons that give you a whole bunch of souls, and the added bonus of getting your human form back.

What makes the game difficult is that you start off very weak, and if you don’t pay attention to what you’re doing, you will die. You will die fast. Add to that that every time you die, you lose ALL of your souls. The only way to get them back is to get back to where you died and reclaim your soul stain that was left behind, which is not always easy since all the monsters come back to life in your ever so brief absence. Unfortunately if you die again, the souls are gone and you have to start collecting them all over again. So yeah, it’s hard and it only gets harder the more you let your frustration replace your patience.

The game no doubt pisses the crap out of me on many occasions, but I love that they really wanted to make the game a challenge. The problem lies in the inherent nature of almost any RPG, plus a couple level design flaws I wish they avoided.

The inherent nature of which I speak is the leveling up of your character. Every RPG has this. In Demon’s Souls you use the souls you gain to improve your stats, and inevitably this means you can take and inflict more damage. This also means that monsters in the earlier levels become much easier, making them easy to defeat for quick soul farming. This takes away from the difficulty of any RPG, not just this one.

The problem then is that Demon’s Souls has monsters that are too easy to defeat but still give you quite a few souls, letting you soul farm quickly, which in turn makes future levels easier than they probably should be. I think what they could have done instead is follow the Diablo method, where killing easier monsters gives fewer souls than they did before, maybe to the point that they give almost none. This would mean the player either has to take a long time soul farming, or press on fighting their way through the harder levels. Another option would be to make the monsters you kill give you more souls the first time you kill them, increasing the risk of dying. Granted I’ve not made it more than a quarter of the way through the game, so I may find my critique is totally misguided soon.

The second problem may be a spoiler, so don’t read further if you care about this game.

The boss demons I have battled so far are waaaaaaaaaaaaay too easy. The problem is that the bow is overpowered and there’s no limit to the number of arrows you can carry, so basically I just enter the boss battle with 200 arrows and blast them from a safe distance. After defeating the big guardian night in the second part of the first world with arrows without having to move at all, I knew something was amiss. Again, perhaps this becomes an impossible trick against later demons, but so far I’m a little disappointed with the boss battles.

More to come on Demon’s Souls in the next couple posts. I want to look more carefully at the ludic (read: game) elements and later at the multiplayer features, which are pretty awesome for what’s a mostly single-player adventure.

Posted via email from 电玩杀瓜 - a game blog

Comment riposte: Tools are not enough

 

 

A few days ago I posted a comment on Kotaku to  this article, which discusses a bit of a PR fiasco game developer Infinity Ward has found itself in after announcing that it’s new FPS Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 would no longer support dedicated servers for PC gamers. The comment was lengthy enough that I’ve decided to repost it here, but first some context. (note: original comment appears near the end)

Call of Duty is a multi-million dollar franchise published by Activision and developed by Infinity Ward (IW) and Treyarch, each developer taking turns to put out a new game every year. Originally Call of Duty was a WWII first-person shooter, and was an instant hit when it launched. To freshen up the brand, IW released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare in 2007, which went on to be one of the biggest sellers in gaming history. That game put IW on the map, and a sequel was inevitable. Because the game is multi-platform, however, it had to appeal to two very different audiences—console owners and PC gamers. The main difference between the two is that PC gamers tend to be more hardcore and expect greater freedom and control over the gameplay, while console gamers range from hardcore to casual with plenty in between.

COD: MW was loved by PC gamers because it allows them to host their own dedicated servers to run matches. It also lets them to modify what options are enabled in ranked public matches, up to 64-player support (only 18 on consoles), the ability to lean, and most fun of all map creation and game modding, which lets the gamers change the game rules and graphics in almost any way they want.

an AWESOME Star Wars mod

The buzz for COD: MW2 was huge the moment it was announced, and honestly that’s no surprise. Robert Bowling, former community manager and current creative strategist for IW, was leading the communications charge in what started out with great promise.   He was already on Twitter and was writing his own blog, and MW2 had its own Twitter and news site as well. They had even set up a twitter site tracking #MW2 comments, and posted questions for fans to respond to. The latter had some problems, like tracking any #MW2 comments and not ones related to the questions being posed, but it let users vote up the best comments in an attempt to keep them relevant.

All in all, a great start.

 

So what went wrong?

On October 17, 2009, with less than a month before the 11.10.09 launch date arrived, Bowling announced during a webcast (around the 1:39:00 mark) that IWNet would be implemented as a match-making service for PC gamers—and the end of dedicated server support. He called this making multiplayer more accessible to the PC community, but it’s hard to imagine that he didn’t see the serious backlash from the hardcore PC gamers coming.

This was not the end of the announcements, either. Soon after PC gamers discovered that everything that made the PC version unique was being taken away from them—no more leaning, no more modding or mapping. No more console for granular control over game settings, and perhaps worst of all, no more 64, or 32, player matches, meaning larger game clans, essentially the sports teams of gaming world would have to split up if they wanted to play. And, without dedicated servers, they will face greater lag issues and greater difficulty connecting with only the players they want to play with, since IWNet will do the matchmaking for them.

At this point IW and Bowling had already made one big mistake in their PR campaign—they didn’t engage the small but passionate demographic of their gaming community early enough. Fine, everyone makes mistakes. The problem then is how they continued to ignore the PC gamer audience. During an open online QA hosted by Best Buy—good idea, by the way, gives direct access to the game developers—IW game designer Mackey McCandlish and weapons artist Ryan Lastimosa deliberately and arrogantly snubbed the PC gamers participating in the event with unfortunately classic examples of terrible PR responses. For example:

Q: Is there a console in the PC version of the game, so we can change our field of view from the Xbox’s default 65 FOV to 80 also can we tweaks the weapon damage for each gun, removes perks, graphical debris, breathing sway, also thru console like we where [sic] able to before or is this all gone?

Vince-IW: We would like you to play the game the way we designed and balanced it.

And even worse:

Moriarte: Ignoring IW.net, is the PC version a direct port of the console version?

Mackey-IW: No, PC has custom stuff like mouse control, text chat in game, and graphics settings.

To suggest that “mouse control, in-game text chat, and adjustable graphics settings” somehow makes the game more than just a port of the console version is not the best choice of words.

Bowling, meanwhile, wasn’t doing much better, suggesting that the number of hardcore PC gamers was so small as to be meaningless when it came to game design decisions. He also called MW2 “their most feature-rich PC gamer yet,” despite all of the features that had been removed, and called the hardcore PC gamers “a very vocal community [that is] all online.” Ouch.

The great and tragically ironic climax to all of this is that Bowling himself declared just a few days later that he doesn’t think “any developer should not have control of how their game is presented or marketed or communicated… and they should take control of that a lot, lot more.” I might agree with you, Mr. Bowling, but I would add that whomever is handling it be someone with some level of competence.

IW has the tools, but they don’t have the skills, the experience or the wisdom to engage with its community in a way that respects the many, many opinions they’ve received.

 

What should they have done? What should they be doing right now?

I’ll let my original Kotaku comment answer the first question:

The problem, and the great irony here, is not that IW has jacked the PC version--it's their total arrogance in going about it.

I'm not condoning the jacking, but they really needed to at least try to make their audience understand their reasons for doing so, and in this they've failed completely. I find it ironic because IW was JUST saying how important it is for developers to handle their own marketing, and so far they're doing a terrible job of it! They seem to be totally clueless--Bowling especially--about the importance of showing a little humility to their fans, especially when they make changes that they KNOW will piss people off.

No, the end-user is not always right, as some are saying here. But that doesn't mean you ignore them! Just because IW doesn't need to worry about the money they make on PC game sales doesn't mean you dismiss those gamers voices--in essence IW has told PC gamers they are 2nd class to console gamers, their opinions are insignificant. There's almost no faster way to destroy your brand.

If I were IW here's what I would have done:

1. Pay special attention to those who are complaining--show them you're listening and understand their feelings.

2. Make sure I'm engaging them on public platforms, Twitter, Facebook, developer blogs, whatever.

3. Explain the reasons for jacking the game, and BE SPECIFIC. None of this "game balance" crap, that is PR nonsense designed to deflect, condescend, and offend. Your real reasons might not make the complainers happy, but at a deeper level they'll appreciate your honesty AS LONG AS YOU ARE BEING RESPECTFUL. You're worried about piracy? Ok, say so! You've actually received a lot of feedback from other PC gamers who find the game too hard to play because of cheating? Say that too, but HAVE PROOF to back yourselves up.

4. Make it clear you are flexible--let people know you're monitoring the community and are searching for ways to let people enjoy at least some of the things that made PC gaming special, like mapping and modding.

5. Finally, take a page out of Valve's book on L4D2--they handled their PR crisis beautifully, and look at what happened: complainers came away more than satisfied, and sales are up 4x over the original game! Seriously they won on all counts and still managed to make the game they wanted to make.

I find it so effin funny that IW thinks they know how to communicate with their audience, when they clearly have no idea. Sorry, I mean when they clearly don't care. Methinks they've been watching one too many episodes of Madmen. Get a clue, IW--MW2 might sell like hotcakes, but your reputation has suffered tremendously. I was looking forward to getting this for PS3, but maybe I'll wait awhile.

And as far as what they should be doing now is making it very clear that a lot of the details about how IWNet will operate are not finalized and that there is room for change and that they are listening to user feedback from everyone, whether it’s hardcore or casual gamers. And drop the arrogant holier-than-though attitude, be apologetic and promise you’ll do better in the future.

You screwed up on this one, IW, not the gamers.

Posted via email from 电玩杀瓜 - a game blog

I'm a preposterous posterous poster now.

So please feel free to visit there, all you millions who've stopped by here. But this will still get updated.

Killermelons new home!

Video games-games of chance

As my millions of readers may have noticed, I haven't updated in awhile. Between illness and general work busy-ness, I just haven't had time to get around to it.

But now, I've got time. In my wandering miasma of pain and suffering from an acute case of tinnitus (which is also chronic) and sudden hearing loss in my right ear for the second time this year, I've discovered a few things about life. One, sucky shitty things happen at a moment's notice and for no apparent reason. Two, some really wonderful things can also happen for no reason (like my gf's bikini wax--totally out of the blue!). And three, video games possess another characteristic besides interaction that other artistic mediums lack: ADDICTION.

While some people might be passionate enough about a book, movie, or CD that they flung the object in question at a wall out of frustration when they fail to make sense of it, I can't imagine anyone continuing to try and retry reading or watching said piece of art. For example: I suck at Call of Duty games pretty regularly, and no matter how much I continue to suck, I just keep telling myself I'll win the next time. Suddenly it's 4am and my kill ratio has gone from .4 to --3, I've broken three controllers and am ready to smash a window with my PS3. I often look out the window and see six other people doing the same thing (I wish I saw six other people who even had PS3s...).

But with a book, I might suddenly look up and it's 4am because I've so thoroughly enjoyed it. Any hint of frustration and I'd simply have fallen asleep out of boredom. I wouldn't care because there's no competitive drive to read better. I'll read it when I want and at the pace I want. Or maybe never. Same with movies and music. Why are games so different? Perhaps video and computer games, especially the online ones where you're in direct competition with other people, are more like gambling, in that gamers believe their success is equally determined if not more so by luck than by skill. Certainly the rationale for continuing to play is the same--I'll win it all back in the next round. Just one more round.

So why are you addicted, if you are? What keeps you playing even when you are clearly lacking in skills and have no hope of getting better?

Booth Babes--The true sign of a developed nation

It comes as no surprise to me or my pet hamster that females in what some might call stripper outfits are, with possibly the exception of free pizza and/or beer, are wonderful and powerful way to sell a product, whether it's a replica Ryuken Katana from the late Hirohito period or... a video game!

"Booth babes," as they've come to be known, are merely the latest manifestation of an ancient tradition dating back many a millennium (blogspot just taught me that millenia is not a word--who knew? Anyway) to the day Ugh traded Sny to Fft for twenty Psa. Sny, an alluring young woman with the least hairy armpits this side of Qr, was so tantalizing to Fft that he was willing to give up all the food he had foraged for during the autumn harvest. Needless to say, Fft died that winter but not before having the most mind blowing love making sessions our primitive ancestors probably had ever seen. So in the end who was the winner? Fft by a longshot, as Ugh was stuck with hagged and old Rut, practically in the grave at the age of 27. He did get to live a long time thanks to the Psa, but I think we all know who the real winner of that deal was.

My point is, women sell stuff, and it's unfortunate that so many countries have yet to realize this. Look at Saudi Arabia--it's not so hot when you get the model's hands chopped off for accidentally glancing in her eyes when she's try to sell you on 1002 Arabian Nights, the sequel, and her Boshiya accidentally slips. Not to mention the embarrassment of a Boshiya slip, my God.

But China, China has totally got it and is totally if not tacitly fine with it. Not just the standard chick selling cars at international auto shows by metaphorically stroking your newly purchased manhood fine with it, but even video game fine with it. Why is there a difference? Because car drivers are mostly successful men, whereas gamers, especially in China, are scrawny or bulbous teenagers with a serious overload of hormones that have caused countless JIMP moments. So when you add booth babes to the mix, you might as well be lighting a stick of dynamite in a vat of nitro glycerin!

ChinaJoy, China's E3 equivalent, is a testament to China's commitment to opening its economic doors, with booth babes galore, many of which are truly attractive. Combined with China's growing cosplay love, these women--sorry, babes--are a sales and marketing force to be reckoned with, especially as China expands its gaming markets internationally to include the old, white, sweaty and hirsute old lonely men demographic, where it has already shown tremendous potential.

Honestly though, any country that doesn't prevent its women from using their sex appeal to sell shit, it's gotta be on the right track economically. I could blather on, but you'd probably rather just enjoy browsing the babes of booths at ChinaJoy 2009:



(Photo Credit: Frank Yu)

Chinese drywall effin up your Xbox

I'm sure Microsoft would like to find any excuse other than their own crappy manufacturing process for the huge number of Xbox360s that have RROD'd themselves to death, but the fact is, the build quality sucked for a couple a few years.

Still, I won't say that it's impossible that Chinese drywall is responsible for some of those deaths. It's been a growing scandal leading to possible class actions suits for several months now, causing electrical problems among many other serious issues:

• persistent rotten egg odor
• respiratory or other symptoms alleviated by leaving a building and worsened on return
• blackened and corroded metal, including copper, nickel, silver and/or stainless steel
• premature failures of central air-conditioning evaporator coils
• blinking lights or power failures
• arcing or sparking
• intermittent operation or failure of appliances such as refrigerators and dishwashers and electronic devices such as televisions, computers and video-game systems

(Thanks Gamepolitics via Getmogames!)

EA's Battlefield 2: a chance to fight for the PLA!

According to EA's Battlefield 2 website:

In Battlefield 2, players will choose to fight for one of three military superpowers: the United States, the Chinese, or the newly formed Middle East Coalition.

Sweet! I hope it recreates the Long March and other Communist triumphs, that sure would be exciting.

China bans electro-shock therapy for IA

And what is IA? INTERNET ADDICTION!!! A rampant epipandemic in Asia only for some reason. Must have something to do with those Asian Addiction genes, East Asian to be precise.

But really, frying kids brains with electrons who were already frying their brains with electrons? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Then again I am only feigning shock (pun intended) at China surprising the world. Really, what can China do anymore that the rest of the world will find truly surprising?

(thanks Joystiq!)

China tastes the vinegar at WCG Asian Championship

Upset by Vietnam in DOTA? I'll pretend to show shock at this stupendous upset, the shock I would show if I knew anything about how good China has been at DOTA.

Match results:

DOTA All Stars	Guitar Hero World Tour	FIFA 09
1st rank: Vietnam	1st rank: New Zealand	1st rank: Vietnam
2nd rank: Malaysia	2nd rank: Singapore	2nd rank: Korea
3rd rank: Singapore	3rd rank: Chinese Taipei	3rd rank: Malaysia

This year, there were lots of unexpected results especially from Vietnam. In the DOTA All stars quarter finals, Vietnam won against China, who was the champion in Asian Championships during last 2 years, and won the gold medal. Vietnam also won gold medal in FIFA 09.

(Link)

WCG 2009 looks tasty in this hot promo

Netease? More like NetPlease!

Women say I have a terrible sense of humor. I tell women they lack fortitude and more than a few mind grapes.

Netease, however, possesses a feature that are inherent in most men and women. Laziness. No sign that the new WOW servers will be up and running on time? Maybe that's just typical Chinese fear of making public announcements about complicated and possibly controversial issues, and everything is actually fine. Or maybe things are a mess, in which case I would still bet the farm that they're up and running as scheduled simply because Chinese are good like that.

The real kicker, according to the article, is that

A poll of some of the subscribers points to some interesting information, 53 percent of players said they would return, 26 percent wanted to observe the handover of the servers and then make a decision while 21 percent said they wouldn’t return to the game.

So the delay, however intentional, could have serious repercussions to that 11.5 million players figure, quite a few of those players are in China

WCG 2009 Asian Championship coming to Singapore

On July 4-5 an invite-only WCG 2009 Asian Championship will be held for 112 2008 and 2009 National Final champions from fourteen Asian countries, including China. Four years in the running too! Games include DOTA All Stars, FIFA Soccer 2009, and Guitar Hero World Tour.

So who will make it from Team China? Will it be Slick Willy Wong or Charlie Chaplin Chan? Fu ManJew or LuvULongThyme? Stay tuned to not find out!

China's National WCG Finals Kick(ed) Off in Shanghai! (a long ass time ago)

I'm so behind the times. So last month the first round of finals were held in Shanghai to see who would make the team that would represent China in the World Championships to be held in Chengdu, China later this year. 3,000 spectators watched 450 contestants battle it out over three days, and as far as the official WCG tells me, no results are available yet. I guess they'll be waitin till the rest of the results are in from the competitions yet to be held in other parts of China.

(WCG National Finals in Shanghai)

UPDATE: The players who have moved on to the next round can be found here:

Or just read this:

WCG2009三星电子杯中国区锦标赛预选赛已晋级名单 (winners)：

魔兽男子 Warcraft (men)

上海赛区：历生辉（Future），唐涌辰RyH.Darken，曾文睿（WE.09.kenshin）

北京赛区：武麟（Wulin），张芦Sayno

杭州赛区：徐真（Hopestar）

魔兽女子 Warcraft (women)

上海赛区：吴婧（Eva），张丽君（KK_Wind_mm）

北京赛区：竺励（Colagirl），米彤（Moonfish）

星际争霸 Starcraft

上海赛区：刘玻豪（Fnatic.Lbh）,陈昊（SC_Eva），孙一峰（Fnatic.F91），刘寅（Lovett）

北京赛区：黄慧明（SC_Toodming），王恩平（WYW），沈鹏（Onlycc）

CS：Counterstrike

上海赛区：Tyloo，fst

北京赛区：Excellent.Luckyday

DOTA

上海赛区：CD

北京赛区：TTi

WCG2009三星电子杯中国区锦标赛外卡赛晋级选手名单 (wildcards)：

魔兽男子 Warcraft (men)

外卡赛：黄翔（Mouz.Th000），李晓峰（WE.Pepsi.Sky），周成龙（Sai）

星际争霸 Starcraft

外卡赛：沙俊春（SC_Pj），罗贤（=PNZ=Legendary），叶荣龙（Fnatic.Never）

China wants us to protect us from ourselves

China is now requiring that all PCs sold as of July 1st must come shipped with filtering software that can block access to certain websites. I haven't come across any details on how the software works, but it's safe to say this is the most boneheaded and backwards move China has ever taken regarding Internet development. People will be annoyed at having government controlling their PC ever so literally, but more importantly hackers will break it, computer vendors will get tons of negative feedback for complying and lose a lot of customers if they don't.

The silver lining to this dark cloud of misery is

The head of a software developer involved in devising the program confirmed the report to AFP, saying it was aimed at protecting people from pornography.

"The software will be provided to consumers in new PCs and they have the option to install or not to install it," said Bryan Zhang, chief executive of Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co.

Actually it does make me wonder why this is even necessary? Doesn't the Great Firewall of China work well enough? Or is China worried that it can't handle the rising growth in Internet connectivity? It could be a sign of things actually changing for the better, in a weird way--giving customers the option to control their own level of censorship. Maybe China plans on passing the censorship buck in a few years, putting the GFW out of its miserable existence. One can hope...


http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-world/china-pc-filter-has-trade-implications-20090609-c1bp.html

E3-It's ON!

E3 is live and beautiful. I have no time to keep up on it all, but here's some links you probably already have to track updates:

Joystiq

Kotaku

Magic Box

Infinity Ward (live twitting!)

World of Fight becomes World of Fighter becomes WTF?

On May 6 I wrote about The 9, a Chinese gaming company that was the WOW distributor for China until this month, and its teaser page for a new MMO in the wake of losing the WOW account. The page used fonts and images eerily but not surprisingly reminiscent of WOW and perhaps other games as well. Needless to say, I was pleased (I bathe in pleasure bubbles every time I get a chance to knock a Chinese company for creating knock-offs).

And my pleasure deepened, because the title of this yet to be released MMO was World of Fight--you see, Chinglish is another veritable source of profound joy in my life. Just today I walked past a young man wearing a t-shirt emblazoned boldly with the words, "Are you ready to Ruck?" And yes, I knew at that moment, I was ready. Ready to Ruck.

*ahem* so World of Fight is kind of a Chinglishy name, but I find it kind of catchy as well--three monosyllabic words that get straight to the point: this is a world, and in it there be fighting. I decided to check up on this site today, and what do I find? They've CHANGED the name to World of Fighter, no "s". So close, China, yet this is terrible, making no sense at all. At least World of Fight meant something, stirred my cranium in some way to think, "ah, this is an interesting title!"

And the screw turns further. The name is changed; but so is the page itself. While the WOWish font remains, the black background is adorned only with two pillars guarded by what I can only assume to be dwarves and a classical Chinese building in the distance. Suddenly the title appears, and then Chun Li, Ryu, Ken and several other characters I presume to be from various Japanime fighting games.

WTF? Capcom? A partner? Perhaps. But seeing as The 9 is partly owned by EA, wouldn't that be some sort of conflict of interest? Or maybe not? I don't know. It does seem odd to me that The 9 would so brazenly use what are certainly trademarked images to promote an as yet unexplained gaming concept.

One other note--World of Fighter might just be a tagline. At the end of the Flash intro you see the Chinese characters "名将三国", and I think this could be the Chinese title, but 三国 or "Sānguó" refers to a period in China long ago known as the Three Kingdoms, and is a popular source of stories for contemporary creative works in China. So it could be some sort of fighting game set in that period, but that still doesn't explain the appearances of SF characters--If anything, it only confuses the issue. Most likely, as is often the case, The Nine thought, "hey, those are fighters! And we're creating the world of fighter! They will communicate a sense of fight that we wish to convey and attract many audiences and mad money in no time!" Most likely.

Pictures (click for full size):

(World of Fighter)

Video of Zeebo in action--could the Zeebo Exec look less interested?

He just looks like he doesn't care that much... not enough sleep? I also notice that there's no option in Quake for multiplayer--not a good sign

Zeebo launches in Brazil--China next? (no)

Looks like the Zeebo has launched, I think in Brazil first. I can't really tell from the report I read whether it has actually appeared on the market though.

Designed for developing markets and regions where latest-gen game systems are too expensive and piracy is rampant, the Zeebo takes a different approach to game distribution--3G networks. Seeing as China has recently launched 3G, it has the potential to be a big thing there.

And why might it succeed? Good marketing research!

[Zeebo CEO John] Rizzo says a consumer’s key requirements are affordability, local language, culturally relevant content, and ease of purchase and play.

“Our focus is frankly not at the top of the pyramid,” says Rizzo. “The richest people in those regions frankly can afford to buy the biggest consoles. We’re aimed solidly at that middle class.”

Publishers’ key requirements, according to Rizzo, are piracy prevention, less expensive title development, low cost, efficient marketing, and access to new markets.

So, how does Zeebo connect the needs of publishers and consumers? Rizzo says it’s by way of the console having zero marketing waste, minimal development cost, nearly no cost of goods due to the download format, and no piracy.

As far as Zeebo's wish to enter the China market, my concerns would be price--$199 is still no small sum of money--how hackable the systems are, and whether China would even allow it in the first place, since consoles are still banned.

As far as piracy concerns, Zeebo says on their website "content providers have a secure channel to market and sell their products. Titles are authorized to work with a unique ID, assigned to each individual console. They are not portable, and cannot be moved between consoles via removable media cards. With no way to copy titles, the Zeebo system is effectively piracy-proof." I'll leave that link they give to read more about it, but they still don't address the issue of potential console modding and people finding ways to access the data off the internal storage device (nor does it say how large that device is, how many games could fit on it before you start having to pick and choose). Of course, it could just be too much trouble to be pirated, as seems to have been the case for the PS3.

Let's say it did get in, though. Could it compete? Online PC gaming in Internet bars is the major form of video game entertainment in China, where gaming is also a more social experience. MMO games are very popular, including WOW, and like in other Asian countries Chinese like doing microtransactions to accessorize their avatars. Zeebo's website, however, doesn't even mention online gaming, which would suck, frankly, if it's not an option--who plays Quake (one of the games available) in single player? Nobody, that's who.

Still, the game list, though extremely short, looks good with big developers like Activision, Capcom, EA, and id giving support, and while most of the games are oldies like Quake/2 Duke Nukem 3D, they are good oldies. Some newer games available are FIFA 09 and RE4. It's really a very short list though, comprising five free titles and twelve more you can buy for $5-15.

Oh that price made realize another problem--you can get a gray market Xbox 360 w/o hard drive for about $200, the PS2 is $99, the Wii is $250 or so, and pirated games are less than a buck a pop--Zeebo will definitely have its work cut out for itself coming to China. If it offers free online gaming, however, it could beat Xbox, which for the most part can't be used in China since it's a fee-based service and Chinese people are stingy, no just kidding, they're just more practical. I can't speak, I bought a PS3 partly so I wouldn't have to pay to play online because I'm a stingy scrooge (The fact that the PS3 is the most expensive console on the market indicates only that I am also a man of great complexity and mystery.)

Plus and minuses aside, I think Zeebo has the right idea, even if the plan for execution leaves some questions unanswered. Prices do need to be lowered for consoles to get into China and other developing markets, but game quality can't suffer. I feel like Zeebo might be wrong about these markets enjoying games that are so many years old when they can easily see what latest-gen systems are capable of any time they're browsing the web. If you're not offering the realism of a PS3 or Xbox360, then at least the find a way to deliver the innovation of a Wii.

(Thanks Karlstadunix and Zeebo!)

Welcome to China where we steal your idea

And try to make a quick profit, or whatever. I don't have anything to say about this except I really wish at least in the video game industry China would stop doing this. It's not like film or book industries that are hampered by heavy regulation and a constant need to appease the powers that be, is it? Actually it probably is. Until the Chinese government wants to give up some control and let creative minds work without fear, I don't foresee a bright future for locally created video games, or any other creative media, for that matter.

(Thanks Kotaku!)

The gaming industry and its rising penetration

According to the NPD Group, anyway--

...nearly two out of three Americans (63 percent) have played a video game in the past six months. While that level of penetration does not begin to compete with music listening, which is nearly universal (94 percent), it exceeds the percentage of U.S. consumers who report going out to the movies (53 percent), during that same time period.

The best part? It's beating out film. I don't know why that's the best part, actually, but it should be, because film is terrible.

That's probably enough blanket statements for one day... anyway, read the rest of NPD's report here.