Phil on Games

The future of game distribution

2011-08-25T08:59:00.000-07:00

It’s been a year since my last post, so I figured it’s time I throw something up here so my loyal fan(s?) know I’m alive.

This past year has seen the emergence of a new, amazing technology… OnLive! Streaming gaming is the future; no new hardware to buy, and you can instantly access whatever game you want to play without waiting for an installer, or worrying if the game will be compatible. It just works, and works with the push of a button. Most exciting to me is that the OnLive service is hardware agnostic. As long as you have a decent cable internet connection or better, it works. And it works on your computer, laptop, and in more and more cases, is built right into your TV set.

This is extremely important because it finally enables the games industry to have a ubiquitous format, just like DVD’s are/were to the movie industry. While gaming is extremely popular and profitable, it has always been held back by the hardware. You can sell only so many units of a game as there are specific game systems out there. If you know that 30 million people worldwide own an Xbox, you know you can’t sell more than 30 million units… you game MUST have an Xbox to work. If I make a game for a computer, it has to be compatible with the hardware or it won’t work. If I make a DVD movie, it will work on ANY DVD player, regardless of who makes it. OnLive’s technology breaks down the barriers of hardware limitations, and promises a distribution platform that works, in theory, on any internet connected device, just like my DVD movie will play in any DVD player regardless of manufacturer. It means a game published for OnLive has the potential to reach many more customers than any previous game platform.

The main thing standing in its way is the need for a good internet connection to be available in most homes across the world, but I see this barrier braking down more and more each year. I’m not sure if OnLive itself will be the “go to” platform of the future, but the streaming gaming technology they ushered in is undeniably the direction the industry is going. Its reach will decrease price point for the consumer while increasing profits, and eliminates traditional pirating, which will ultimately lead to developers creating more ambitious games they’d previously had a tougher time justifying the costs for.

That being said, I’m still looking forward to playing the huge list of holiday games coming out this year for my PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 :)

Kill the infidels!

2010-08-25T14:52:00.000-07:00

My contribution to my Uncle’s FaceBook discussion on the following topic:

In October, Electronic Arts will be releasing a first-person shooter video game called "Medal of Honor". In this game one can assume the role of a soldier on either side of the conflict in Afghanistan. Is it wrong to produce a game that allows one to play the role of a Taliban soldier and shoot American soldiers? I would like to say this is just a came, but I'm having a hard time with this one. But then, I have a hard time with ANY first-person shooter game that portrays human-on-human violence. Your thoughts?

I have to weigh in considering the guys who made this game are in the building next to me, and EA pays my paycheck.

@Aaron: You’re pretty much right on, except that the average of the video game consumer (person who makes the purchasing decisions and forks over the cash) is now 35. Word of advice though, at the risk of sounding like a jerk… try not to swear so much in your e-mails defending video game culture. It doesn’t help advance the general public’s opinion on our education and maturity level.

@Uncle: I think it’s a generational thing. As Aaron pointed out, this is nothing new in games. The only major differences I can see from what has already been released is that this is the first time in a scripted story portion of a game (a.k.a. – single player) that that you are in the body of a terrorist affiliated with Al Qaeda, and not a fictional group.

From the context of the story, which is part of the experience in most all forms of entertainment, this is also nothing new. Obviously, there’s the previously mentioned relation to movies. Though passive forms of entertainment, a good movie engages the viewer and sucks them into the cinematic world by growing them attached to the good guy and bad guy… often, the viewer enjoys experiencing the world through the perspective of the enemy. A great example of this would be Christoph Waltz’s character, Col. Hans Landa, in the film ‘Inglorious Basterds’. He’s pure scum, but it’s incredibly difficult for the viewer not to like/sympathize with him. Probably even more so for Daniel Day-Lewis’ character, Bill “The Butcher”, in ‘Gangs of New York’… completely horrid human being, but the viewer sympathizes with his motivations even though they know it’s wrong. Watching either of those two characters in action elicits the same response that Medal of Honor is trying for from their audience; you know what they are doing is wrong, though you understand why you are doing it (their motivations) and how these characters became who they are that enables them to commit such horrible actions.

Interactive stories with portrayals of “good vs bad” are also nothing new. I can’t think of a single generation of that hasn’t acted out this story in play. Someone always plays as a Native American, a Confederate Soldier, a Japanese Soldier, a German Soldier, a Russian Soldier, a Vietnamese Soldier, a Mexican or South American drug lord, an Imperial Storm Trooper, and now Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Most of the time, these “games” are played out during the time of the relative conflict, allowing those to process the meaning of what’s going on in the world around them using play/entertainment as a tool… except for those Civil War reenactment guys; the North won guys! Let it go already.

As with all forms of entertainment that try to convey some sort of message to provoke thought, it’s all about how it’s implemented. For video games, Modern Warfare 2 did something similar by placing you in control of a secret agent undercover as a rogue Russian terrorist for a single level. You assault an airport and are forced to kill dozens of civilians in order not to blow your cover, only in the end to get shot in the head (from a first-person view) as the level ends when it’s revealed the terrorist group knew you were working with the government the entire time. It’s a brutal level, but when taken in context of the entire story, it made the user feel a twinge of “this is very wrong of me to do this”, and further drove home how truly bad the terrorist group was and how important it was to stop them when put in the shoes of the main characters throughout the rest of the game. There are no awarded points, achievements, medals, or anything for completing this one mission… there was no reward whatsoever for the player to perform these terrorist acts.

It’s yet to be determined, but I imagine that the Medal of Honor level(s) where the user plays from Al Qaeda’s perspective are going to be implemented in a similar fashion. The presentation is embellished for entertainment, but it is supposed to be thought provoking at the same time. I’ll agree that it flirts with moral lines, and I’ll reserve my judgment until I play the game and see how they actually address the issue.

With regard to the timing, from a historical societal perspective spanning modern society, conflicts made into main stream entertainment (high profile cinema, and now games as well), usually occur within 3 to 10 years after the start of that conflict. Even the Romans recreated battles, though I’m sure the speed of information at the time slowed down the process a bit. Thankfully we no longer go so far as to kill the gladiators that were “acting” in the recreation.

I think this is a normal pattern of human behavior to help us make sense of tragic events, especially wars. This just happens to be an extremely long war, which is butting up against the societal need for open expression on what has just occurred, and in this case, is still occurring.

• Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) 4 years after battle occurred
• Deer Hunter (1978) 3 years after Vietnam War ended
• Apocalypse Now (1979) 4 years after Vietnam War ended
• Three Kings (1999) 8 years after Persian Gulf War ended
• Black Hawk Down (2001) 8 years after Mogadishu
• The Hurt Locker (2009) 6 years after invasion of Iraq
• Green Zone (2010) 7 years of invasion of Iraq

Micro$uck-it!

2010-02-19T16:19:00.000-08:00

My Xbox 360 died again the other day, for the 5th time. Unfortunately, my warranty is expired this time around, which means I can spend $100 and wait for yet another refurbished system replacement that is bound to die, or spend $200 more for a brand new system with the smaller, cooler running chip set (and HDMI video), that will probably also die faster than it should.

At this point, I'm sick of Microsoft's inability to fix fundamental heating issues with the system. They are obviously banking on users to replace their systems with brand new purchases so they can keep playing all the games they invested in. Here we are, 5 years after the system launch, and they STILL have issues with the hardware. Is it a coincidence that the very same week my Xbox died, THREE other Facebook buddies had their systems die as well? And for two of them, this was at least their 3rd time having it crap out.

The really crappy part about all of this is that in order for me to play anything Halo, I have to have an Xbox. Anyone who knows me is aware of my love for all things Halo, so this situation is especially harsh. In protest, I have traded away most of my Xbox games, and will be giving my gaming dollar to Sony and Apple until Halo: Reach comes out this fall. At that point, I'll probably pick up another system, which hopefully will have dropped in price by then.

Thankfully the PlayStation 3 is finally coming into its own, and the development community is figuring out how to have equal or higher quality versions of multi-platform titles. There are still a few exceptions (Dragon Age, I'm looking at you), but I'm extremely happy with the level of quality that system has been able to crank out the past couple of years. And though I may be jinxing myself by writing this, that system is solid as a rock. I have the same system I purchased three years ago (the original launch hardware), and that thing keeps on kicking after countless hours of playtime. Unlike the Xbox, I never fear that the next time I press the power button might be the systems last... and it doesn't sound like a 747 taking off when it's running.

9.22.09

2009-09-09T08:29:00.000-07:00

More Halo 3: ODST Info

I've never been more excited for September 22nd to arrive. Sorry Dad... though it is your birthday, it happens to be the release date for the next Halo game. The above extended cut of the latest commercial is simply amazing! I love seeing the video game, along with all the fascinating science fiction that influenced it, come to life with such care.

It's interesting the Halo movie deal fell through a couple of years ago, presumably because of Microsoft's demand for the strictest of creative control over everything that would be heard or seen in the film, and since then Microsoft has only been producing live-action commercials for the Halo franchise. Each one gets better and better. There is no doubt in my mind that they are brushing up on their movie production and licensing skills, acquiring the proper talent and putting process' into place to return to Hollywood fully vetted and prepared, so that movie studios would be taking a lesser perceived risk on production for the feature film.

If the movie comes out, you know I'll be there on opening night. I might even buy my Dad a ticket as a birthday present.

Family Fun Football

2009-08-31T09:49:00.000-07:00

It’s been a crazy year, to put it lightly, and I’m extremely proud of the hard work my team has put into our first studio project, Family Fun Football on the Nintendo Wii. Given some fairly tight constraints to work around, everyone delivered the best work they could. The end result is a fantastic football video game that perfectly hits the target demographic, while wisely avoiding direct competition with Madden ’10. I’m confident when I say that we beat the pants off of all other competing football titles currently available on the Wii.

As with all projects, we wish we could have had more time to add additional features, tweak the occasional polygon or texture, and add that little extra “oomph” that ultimately gets dropped once the schedule noose begins to tighten. This feeling is especially prevalent with Artists on EVERY project; it is a discussion that I’ve had with every Art Director I’ve worked with. I have to reassure them that they’ve accomplished their goals of creating a visually compelling product, while sympathizing with the little things here and there that we all wish we had more time to tweak on. Truly, an Artist’s work is never done.

As I reflect back on all that has occurred from the start of this project (which was a totally different game at first), to the satisfying end result, I try to identify what lessons I’ve learned from the experience. It’s important to do this with every project in order to improve one’s self. Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned, or I knew of and have been re-confirmed, from this project:

1. It’s always best to have your team leads hired, on-site, and contributing to the pre-production process. Never bring in a team lead at the end of, or after, the pre-production process if it can be avoided.

2. A person is smart, people are stupid, and groups are ingenious.

3. How someone’s personality jives with the group is sometimes more important than the experience on their resume. You can have a Barry Bonds on your team, but you’ll never win the World Series.

4. Solid, experienced Quality Assurance testers are vital for a smooth finish to a project. For a sports game, especially football, you need a minimum of 8 weeks of QA testing with at least 8 testers after hitting the Beta milestone (Beta = code and content complete with no known major “showstopper” progression bugs). This is on top of the 6 weeks of QA testing that should happen between Alpha and Beta milestones.

5. When it comes to conflict, people do not emotionally advance beyond the mentality of a four year old child, and should be treated as such until the issue is resolved.

6. Donuts are important for team moral, but coffee is vital to avoid mutiny.

7. It’s always best to worry about your own work, and ignore what others are doing with their time. That’s for the managers to worry about.

8. Project Tracking systems work well if the team actually updates it properly… and you should NEVER switch systems mid-project, no matter how “easy” it looks to transition.

9. With proper planning, it’s possible to predict and minimize crunch time (overtime beyond 40 hour work weeks) while still creating a high quality video game. A rested employee is a productive employee.

10. Having a kick-ass Producer on the Publisher end is just as important as having one on the Developer end; and it’s even better if the two get along well enough to send each other disturbing monkey pictures (Thanks Mike! You were FANTASTIC to work with!).

Check out the updated game video on the official website, and put down money for a pre-order at your favorite video game retailer. We’d love to get a chance to build upon this solid foundation to create an incredible sequel, but we need you to “holla’ with ya’ dolla’” at Tecmo to let them know you want more!

RIP Michael Jackson 1958-2009

2009-06-26T09:39:00.001-07:00

...a symbol of my childhood died yesterday afternoon. Michael, you will be missed, and your music will live on through the ages. Nobody before or after you will ever achieve such artistic greatness and perfection; you are a true King, one that every entertainer will be compared to for generations to come.

2008 Game of the Year

2008-12-30T12:58:00.000-08:00

My pick for the best of game of 2008 is, without a doubt, Call of Duty 4 (despite it's late 2007 release date). I know that it appears I’m conforming to the pressures of the mainstream video game press, but I can’t argue with their decision to universally praise this game as the best the year had to offer.

While the single player game is getting undue praise for supposedly telling a meaningful story that makes you feel attached to the characters (and ultimately grieve for their death within the story), I think the story was the usual incoherent, jumbled mess that goes along with most 1st Person Shooter games. I couldn’t remember who was who and why I should care if the person died or not, but I did understand the whole “shoot the bad guy” concept well enough I suppose. This is a case where I agree with school of thought that hardcore shooter games are like porn movies; the story is there if you want to try and follow it, but you really only care about the action.

The online multiplayer is where the action is really at with this game, and it has kept me coming back for more since the first day of release. I was still playing last night toward my quest to reach my level cap for a second time, and have spent a total of about 96 hours of my life playing these online matches, and that's nothing compared to most of the online community. There’s just something that doesn’t get old about that feeling you get when you outsmart a tough opponent and get your revenge shot, or those moments when you enter “the zone” and feel like you’re single-handedly dominating the opposing team. The moments where teamwork comes together are also spectacularly staged; calling out enemy positions to your teammates over the headset, coordinating UAV drones and airstrike activations, laying down cover fire while your team gets in close for a grenade strike, littering the ground with claymore mines while sniping an enemy through what they thought was a solid and safe wall, or bringing down that damn helicopter with a well placed RPG round and hearing your team sigh in relief, are all moments that keep me coming back for more.

The game doesn’t do anything particularly new, but it takes proven gameplay and delivers everything in an extremely polished state. It delivers the movie-inspired thrills of the modern battlefield without that whole risk of death that keeps war from being good, clean fun in real life.

My runner up for 2008 Game of the Year - God of War: Chains of Olympus. It’s everything that makes the PlayStation 2 God of War games awesome, but on the small screen of the PSP. This is the best looking, sounding, and playing game released for any handheld device capable of playing video games. And unlike Call of Duty, it’s got a fantastic story that’s just simple enough to follow without bogging down the juicy action. I’m not sure that there will be a more impressive handheld offering until the next time Sony decides to do another PSP God of War game.

Geeks... How could you not love 'em?

2008-09-20T16:28:00.001-07:00

I just saw this video the other day and wanted to share. It drags on a little bit, but I thought it was great what these guys accomplished with a little bit of time and After Effects skills on the computer. Enjoy!

Punch Your Mother

2008-09-15T14:22:00.000-07:00

I think a line has been crossed with the latest advertisement I saw on TV for the new EA boxing game, "Facebreaker". The advertisement was touting it's "create-a-character" mode, where the player can manipulate the look of a boxer in a fairly robust editing mode that comes with the game. While this is nothing new in video games, and I do think is a cool feature, the advertisement actually tells the viewer that they can make a character that looks like your mom, then beat it up in the game. This bothers me quite a bit; though I have no doubt it would be fun to create, say... Hitler, and beat him up, I think it's horribly irresponsible to glorify the ability to beat up your parents as a selling point for the game.

Damn! I sound old... when did I stop being cool and turn into my parents?

People are stupid

2008-09-09T14:22:00.000-07:00

“(Stupidity) implies that the attributed party is not mentally retarded but rather is willfully ignorant and/or unintelligent, and displays poor use of judgment or insensitivity to nuances.” - Wikipedia

The average person living in the United States is stupid; video games and politics prove it.

In game design, it boggles my mind how much hand holding has to be done in order to maximize the number of people who can enjoy playing the game you’re working on. Though your core market that you’re targeting can probably figure out on their own whatever it is in the design you’re trying to accomplish, you almost always have to design for the lowest common denominator. I have trouble wrapping my head around this sometimes, and usually end up in some sort of argument with someone over dumbing down a certain aspect of a game. In the end, even if it arguably makes the game worse off from a “fun” standpoint, the decision that makes your game accessible to the largest number people is the right decision in terms of sales. Without sales, there is no money. With no money, there is no game.

Politics prove that people are stupid because the latest polls coming out today actually have John McCain leading Barak Obama with the popular vote. I think it’s because the GOP is great at campaigning to the lowest common denominator. No new taxes? That sounds WAY better than raising taxes to help pay off debts; besides, who ever heard of increased income helping to balance budgets? Less government oversight? Not paying for government programs that help educate and ensure the health of children, elderly, and the disabled sounds way better than paying for them, especially since I’m not any of those myself. Pro-Life? Of course I don’t support killing babies! It’s one less choice that I’ll have to worry about in life, since it’s already made for me (wait… didn’t I vote for less government oversight? Oh well, it’s too complicated for me to understand so I just trust my elected officials to figure it out for me). Drilling for more oil to help lower oil prices now? That makes total sense to me; why worry about our dependence on oil when my kids can worry about it for me?

A vote for McCain is a vote for keeping the GOP in power. In the past 8 years, what has the GOP done to deserve another 4 years in charge of the executive branch? We have had 2 wars; one has failed to catch Osama, the other has failed to bring security to Iraq. Both have cost us billions of dollars and thousands of lives. Both have caused the US taxpayer to directly contribute to the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians; every taxpayer has blood on their hands. We have a failing economy; part of our latest $400 billion plus deficit is from that tax relief package that you all got in the mail… you know, that $400 that was supposed to help you pay your rent and bills? That $400 you probably already spent and forgot about? It was actually just a loan, and you need to pay it back with some interest. Sorry.

I don’t think the Democrats have the perfect solution for all of our countries problems, but if the republican’s take the White House in this race, we deserve everything that’s coming to us as a society.

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." – Albert Einstein

All your base are belong to us!

2008-09-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

Support the cause. Keep it alive!

Know Your Meme: All Your Base from Rocketboom on Vimeo.

2nd Best Music Video Ever

2008-07-17T07:38:00.000-07:00

A coworker shared this video with me this morning, and I had to share with all of you. For those not in the know, the video is paying homage to the classic 8-bit Nintendo game, "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!". I think this is one of the most original music video's I've ever seen. Enjoy!

World of World of Warcraft

2008-06-10T08:26:00.001-07:00

'Warcraft' Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing 'Warcraft'

Still alive

2008-06-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm still alive. I apologize for not keeping up with regular blog updates since I moved, but it has been very difficult for me to find the time (and when I do have the time, I'd much rather relax and play a game instead of write about them).

I'm getting ready for yet another big move to Austin, Texas within the next few weeks, and am very excited to be able to dive into my biggest project headfirst without the distractions of trying to manage mutiple projects at the same time. Thank god I'll be locked in the office most of the time; it's just too hot out there during the day.

Assholes and Elbows

2008-02-04T17:39:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the long pause between blogs. I also realize that something is messed up with my blog’s html, so it displays oddly on some browsers. I guess that makes me the asshole right now.

A lot has happened over the past couple of months! I no longer work for Sony Online Entertainment. It was by my choice, and it was not an easy one despite leaving on very good terms. I worked with a great team, and made some great games. It's too bad that our accomplishments in the mobile development community will go largely unnoticed by our peers in the industry, but I'll just leave it at that. At least I know what I accomplished.

2 years ago I moved from San Jose to Los Angeles for mobile and casual game development because I didn't know anything about it. My goal was to figure out how the industry worked, and why people found these bastard child’s of the game industry so fun to play. At the time I thought they were sort of a joke. I was very much into playing World of Warcraft and Ghost Recon, two very complex games in their own way. I considered these the supreme gaming experiences.

I quickly understood and respected what Casual gaming was all about. And over time I began to respect the potential for mobile gaming, but I don’t particularly like it and think that its way too controlled by some non-gaming morons wearing monkey suits at the carriers. With very few exceptions, I have less than zero respect for the people running the gaming divisions the carriers have set up.

Here’s a little free advice for them:
Get your head out of your ass, and you might be able to make better decisions and more than the quick buck you’re currently comfortable with… Respect in this business is earned through smart actions and elbow grease, not given freely because of your status. Now go shine that BMW again and get the hell out of my way.

I'm very glad to be out of the mobile industry, and am happy that fellow Producer friends of mine have stayed within the mobile gaming industry. It needs all the talented, level headed people it can find. Don't get me wrong here; I'm not bashing Sony... I'm bashing the carriers like Verizon and ATT.

The carriers are the glass ceiling that keeps the mobile industry from breaking ground and becoming a viable platform. The only way I think this will happen is if Microsoft and Apple (and/or maybe Sony) both get involved in a viable platform battle, creating some semblance of a unified development structure similar to what exists in console/PC development. I'm not sure which one of the 500 or so versions of God of War: Betrayal you got to play, but I pray it was the 350k version. I apologize in advance if you had to play the 64k version (though you really should get a new phone buddy).

Once the mess of having to create various base versions, such as a 64k, 128k, 200k, and 350k version in Java code, then porting it to two different base BREW handsets, then porting from all those handsets down to be compatible with around 500 different phones across the globe, you might actually see a real mobile gaming community sprout up.

It is profitable to make mobile games right now if you do it right, and some are quite fun and well made. It has amazing potential to be the top gaming platform, surpassing the Nintendo DS like you wouldn't believe. But until there is some sort of order to the chaos, it will remain a dumping ground of games for the average consumer.

Despite the obvious bad taste in my mouth working with Mobile games, I found my exposure to the casual gaming community a very positive experience (though some may disagree with me, I lump the Casual and Mobile gaming markets together, as they share many of the same design philosophies and have similar target demographics). I used to think that casual gamers were only housewives or people that suck to badly at ‘normal’ video games to enjoy them. While this is partly true, I believe the true explosion behind casual gaming is actually the adult hardcore gamer.

Think about it for a bit; say you are in my age group, between 25 and 35 years old. We are now the average age of the video game consumer; we grew up with it, and now we have our own money to spend on it. Chances are you had a ton of more time and patience to devote to a video game when you were a kid. Fast forward to the present day; you want the fun and distraction of playing a good video game, but you just worked a ten hour day, had to go to the grocery store for food, possibly cook your dinner (…does ordering pizza count?), do your bills, clean the house, feed the pets, and possibly watch your kids before they go to bed. All of a sudden, devoting even 8 hours a week to playing video games becomes quit a big chunk of your free time.

Obviously, I’m projecting my own life onto this scenario, sans the kids. Though I still play the ‘hardcore’ games, I find I only have the attention span to play one, possibly two during a period of time. Then there is this magical time where I really want the challenge and fun of a good game, but I really don’t want, or can’t, play for more than 15 minutes at a time. Suddenly, these streamlined, quick gameplay experiences available in the Casual gaming market are a viable distraction for me.

So here I am, playing a huge space-opera game like Mass Effect, but still enjoying quick play experiences on games like Dice Wars, Uno, and Puzzle Quest. I actually got excited when I saw Chessmaster got released on the Xbox 360 Arcade the other day… damn, now I know I’m getting old!

From a design perspective, I believe that the defining lines between Casual and Hardcore gamers and games will become so blurred, it will disappear within 5 years. It’s already happening with games like Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and to a lesser extent, Puzzle Quest. These are games almost everyone can enjoy, regardless of their skill level, age, or sex. These are the types of game designs that are paving the way for an expanded video game market, which will lead to more revenue, which will lead to even better overall games.

Personally, I enjoyed the challenge of having extremely limited hardware resources to design around. It really taught me to identify the small little gameplay chunk that makes a game fun, and not to rely on the pretty bells and whistles to distract the player into thinking they are having a good time. This is especially true with Mobile game development; you have to fit an entire modern gaming experience into an average of 128k of memory, so you don’t really have room for anything but that core experience you design.

Let’s compare Gears of War to Puzzle Quest. I love Gears; I think it was a very solid game design, with great level design and some of the most fantastic graphics I’ve ever seen. It also didn’t do a single brand new thing other than its graphics and overall production quality. In my mind, it didn’t deserve all the ‘Game of the Year’ awards it received from the industry. It would be like rewarding “Cloverfield” best movie of the year just because it was such a freaking cool visual assault. It is this type of industry self-congratulating that is the exact reason why the “games are like porn” debate thrives today. This is why I’ve been wary of spending money on BioShock… too many industry insiders like it too much, though I hope I’m proven wrong when I play it after I’m done with Mass Effect.

In my mind, Puzzle Quest is a vastly superior gameplay experience to Gears. Though the game itself didn’t introduce any new gameplay elements that have been seen before, it found a great formula for fusing previously unrelated gameplay mechanics to create an entirely new experience that nobody had ever played before. Though it certainly wasn’t the prettiest game ever made, it provided something fresh and unique, and I know it forced me to rethink my definition of “fun”. If I told you to make a game about matching 3 like symbols up in a row, and there are only 5 symbols in the entire game, you’d probably question my sanity. If I told you I wanted to make the game an epic, multi-hour adventure that forces the player to keep playing ‘match 3’ over and over and over again, you’d probably have me committed at that point. But it works, and the reviews and sales numbers prove it. Thank god for a level headed publisher like D3 that’s willing to take a calculated risk or two.

ARGH! I’m rambling way too much. I’ll leave this as my cut-off point for now, and wrap up this particular entry by saying I moved to Springfield, Missouri. I bet you didn’t see that one coming! And yes, I still work in games. But that’s for my next blog entry ;)

Still no love from Microsoft

2007-11-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

I still haven't received my Xbox 360 back from the repair center. Harrumph.

Thank god for the Wii, DS, PS3, and PSP. I've been keeping myself busy with games of Wii Sports and Puzzle Quest for now, though I really need to finish Orange Box on my borrowed Xbox. I just can't bring myself to play it too much because, well, it's not mine! I know that makes no logical sense, but it's just how I roll. It's why I hated checking out books or CD's from the library back in the day. Maybe it's out of a twisted sense of feeling that if it's not mine, then I haven't truly earned the right to use the item. Like I said, I know it's illogical behavior.

I've been really digging the new Remote Play feature on the PSP and PS3. Being able to boot up and watch any movie stored on my PS3 using my PSP from anywhere in the world is straight up science fiction becoming reality... assuming you have a good wireless internet signal of course. The latest PS3 2.0 firmware introduced some nasty bugs with it's remote start/shutdown that are very annoying, to the point where it can't display streaming video, and if you remotely shutdown the system from the PSP, you can't remotely start it back up again. It's super lame that Sony didn't catch or didn't care about these blatant bugs in their software, but when it does work, it's a site to behold. I'm sure they will fix it in the next firmware patch or two.

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T15:40:00.000-07:00

Christmas decorations available at Target

2007-10-19T16:13:00.001-07:00

…so it must be time for Halloween! This home stretch at the end of each year is one of my favorite times. The air gets cool, the leaves change color, and everyone decorates their homes with gaudy knickknacks each month until the new year arrives.

Maybe it’s something in the air, but this time of year always “feels like change”. I’m not sure how to properly describe the feeling, but it always seems to me that significant life events, be it life altering or just a fun unforgettable event, happen this time of year. There is already this feeling of ‘change’ in the air, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe it’s just the anticipation of the holiday’s, where I get to spend more time with family and friends that I rarely get to see.

On the game’s side of things, this time of year is usually super busy as you’re preparing your game title to come out in Spring, or you’re taking it fairly easy because you just shipped (or are about to ship) your product in time for the Thanksgiving rush. Thankfully, I’m finding myself somewhere in the middle at the moment, which is a nice comfortable spot. I can’t wait to unleash Laser Cats on the world!

In other news, following up on my 2 previous posts, we had yet another false fire alarm and everyone still lazily piled in the back parking lot to be virtually burned to death.

Also, my Xbox 360 is STILL broken. I did receive my FOURTH unit in a timely fashion; to bad it gave me the Red Ring of Death after only 2 hours of playing Half-Life 2. I won’t go into too much detail about this latest round of dealing with Xbox Customer Support, but it has been a friggin’ nightmare. Normally they are very professional and jump at the chance to help their customers (I think I’m on a first name basis with half the crew at this point, and I should have them on speed dial), but this time I wasn’t going to let them send me a FIFTH unit that isn’t one of the new HDMI [High Definition Multimedia Interface…aka: a fancy video cable] enabled motherboards. Sending me one of these newer units greatly reduces the odds of the replacement unit breaking down since it includes the smaller, cooler running processor. Despite my reasonable demand to one of the heads of the repair center, and explaining that they have already spent $150 just in shipping for all my broken units, they would not guarantee me one of the newer model units. “We will repair it to the current specifications of the 360 hardware, or replace it with a refurbished model that meets the same specifications.” Pardon my French, but what kind of bullshit is that?! Obviously their current specifications for refurbished models are whack, otherwise the one they just sent back to me would have worked fine. I don’t even care about the HDMI port itself; I just don’t want to worry that every time I turn on my 360, it could be the last time it works.

Microsoft should have hidden achievements imbedded within their system. Something that adds 250 points to my Gamerscore every time I get the Red Ring of Death would make these problems easier to deal with.

Thankfully I’m able to borrow an Elite unit from a friend, so I haven’t been without Halo 3 this entire time. Consequently, the borrowed Elite unit, which has the newer hardware with the HDMI port, has been running flawlessly so far.

Fire Drill!

2007-09-21T11:32:00.000-07:00

We just had a false fire alarm go off in the office. It probably wasn't smart of everyone to crowd into the back parking lot where the only escape from a raging inferno would be to jump down a 20 foot wall. One of my coworkers summed up the experience perfectly by referencing the beginning of a classic Simpsons episode. The Simpsons is great at pointing out how silly people can be in real life.

7 days, 6 hours to Halo 3

2007-09-17T15:39:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr. Gates,

My 3rd Xbox 360 just died. Damn you! Why? Why!? Why!?! Halo 3 comes out next week, but now I'll have to wait another 2 to 3 weeks before I can play it :(...........

Bill, I loath you. How do you manage to make people want your products, despite the fact they almost never work properly?

First 360 = Died February 2006 ~ 2 months after purchase
Second 360 = Died November 2006 ~ 8 months after replacement
Third 360 = Died September 2007 ~ 9 months after replacement

Please hurry and send me my fourth 360, jerkface!

Sincerely,

Philip Cohen

You know you're hardcore when...

2007-09-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

Associated Press: A man in southern China appears to have died of exhaustion after a three-day Internet gaming binge, state media said Monday.

In related news, the subscriber base for World of Warcraft has dropped by 1.

18 days, 7 hours

2007-09-06T15:47:00.000-07:00

Less than 3 weeks left until Halo 3!

Interview with me on Joystiq.com

2007-08-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

I came back from lunch, and there it was! Sweet!

Phil Cohen talks up God of War: Betrayal

26 Days

2007-08-29T10:28:00.000-07:00

w00t! Congrats to everyone at Bungie and Microsoft!

Press Release:

Halo 3 Goes Gold

Most Anticipated Title of 2007 Released to Manufacturing, Begins Final March to Xbox 360

The wait is almost over. "Halo 3," the final chapter in the groundbreaking "Halo" trilogy and the most anticipated game release of 2007, has been released to manufacturing.

Three years in the making by renowned developer Bungie Studios, "Halo 3" is now finished and will begin its journey to store shelves around the world in less than four weeks. "Halo 3," which has already set new records as the fastest preordered game in history, has exceeded one million presales in North America alone. The title is set to shatter day-one entertainment sales records when it is released worldwide beginning Tuesday, Sept. 25.

"This is a huge milestone for us and a big cause for celebration at Bungie and Microsoft Game Studios," said Harold Ryan, Studio Head at Bungie Studios. "This is the game we've always wanted to make and certainly the best game our studio has developed. We can't wait for gamers to get their hands on it on Sept. 25."

Created by legendary developer Bungie Studios and exclusive to the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system, "Halo 3" will set a new standard for interactive storytelling and social gaming by engaging consumers worldwide in Master Chief's epic battle to save humankind. In November 2004, the world's view of video games changed forever with the release of "Halo 2," which generated a record-setting $125 million (U.S.) in sales within the first 24 hours and changed the way people think about interactive entertainment. Three years later, it remains the most-played game on Microsoft's Xbox LIVE® online gaming and entertainment network, with nearly 1 billion hours of online gaming logged to date.

28 days

2007-08-27T19:12:00.000-07:00

28 days to Halo 3!

It's not a big secret that Microsoft and Peter Jackson are having "issues" getting their script funded. Though I'm disappointed that the initial deal for the film fell through, I don't blame the film studios. 98% of all video game movies are complete garbage. The sales of these films in theater tickets and DVD are projected out and based on what % of each demographic they assume will buy the film. In this case, they would assume: 12 million Halo fans (probably more like 30 to 50 million aware of the brand), and they would cautiously aim at whatever the high % prediction since it's one of the biggest game franchises ever, but so was Super Mario Bros.

Since the film deal fell through, and with Halo 3 only a month away, Microsoft has been releasing short "live-action" clips based on the Halo universe, the second of which was released today. Though some scoff at the quality of the film, I see a stroke of brilliance. It seems to me and many others that Microsoft and Peter Jackson's WETA team have gotten together with a reletively tight budget, and are releasing a variety of these shorts as screen tests to convince a studio to give them the big bucks for a feature film. Though the screen test film quality isn't exceptional, they spent their money in very specific places to plant the thought "this would look amazing if it had full funding". For example, they built a fully functional, drivable Warthog, and put their special effects effects budget into the flying Pelican craft, but spent little on the rest of the effects, like lasers, explosions, and such.

And that's what it's all about; convincing others to give you money. It's not that the movie studios don't want to release the movie, it's that Microsoft won't budge on reducing the estimated budget that would bring the script to life (and if you've seen Lord of the Rings or the new King Kong, then you know the type of quality Microsoft and Peter Jackson are going for). I think MS/Jackson are doing the right thing here; they believe if you can't do this franchise justice on the big screen, don't do it at all. They are not backing down, but they aren't giving up either. I really hope that wiser heads prevail.

Playing Favorites

2007-08-22T18:23:00.001-07:00

The release of Halo 3 for the Xbox 360 is so close! I haven’t been this excited for a video game launch since, well, Halo 2. It’s safe to say that Halo is my all time favorite video game franchise to date. My excitement as an “adult” for these games is the equivalent of my childhood excitement for all things Star Wars or Indiana Jones (which admittedly continues to this day). I actually feel the kid in me break out for a moment when I think about the game, allowing me a taste of the time in youth where the world was magical.

This is a very bold statement for me. I rarely say that something in entertainment is “my favorite”. I enjoy all genres of movies, music, and games. Beyond my demand for quality from these experiences, what you would consider “my favorite” at any given moment is dictated by my current mood. For example, I love Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, but I really just want to sit down and watch Night at the Museum sometimes. I like 24 and The Shield, but sometimes I’d rather just watch Seinfeld. I like Metallica and Slayer, but enjoy Rolling Stones and The Beastie Boys more at times. All of these can be considered “my favorites”, but none can be called “my favorite” alone.

Of course there are plenty of other video game franchises that I play and enjoy. I still play Super Mario, Civilization, Ghost Recon, etc... Most of the time, given the choice to play a Halo game or something else, I’ll probably play the non-Halo title (just like you wouldn’t watch Citizen Kane the majority of the time you choose to watch a movie).

But how can I call Halo my favorite game franchise? There are certainly titles that surpass aspects of the Halo games; some games have better graphics at their equivalent time of release, some have better voice acting, some have better stories, and some have better gameplay. The Halo games, so far, have managed to find the perfect balance between these multiple aspects. Perfect at none, but fantastic in all, is what makes Halo such solid, intriguing games.

If you need me, I'll be on Xbox Live the night of September 25th.

Patches the Horse

2007-08-21T10:42:00.000-07:00

This is ripe video game material... What kind of game ideas did you get from watching this video?

Hezbollah Game Celebrates War vs. Israel

2007-08-17T15:10:00.000-07:00

My buddy and fellow Producer, Al, brought this article to my attention in light of my post from a couple weeks back. It leaves me feeling very conflicted.

Posted: Thursday, August 16, 2007 2:07 PM
Categories: Beirut, Lebanon
By Richard Engel, Middle East bureau chief

It was a launch party that would have made Microsoft proud, if Microsoft were an anti-Israeli militant group.

Hezbollah held on Thursday what was basically a giant garden party to announce the release of its latest video game, "Special Force II," in which players destroy Israeli tanks, shoot down helicopters and destroy warships; killing Israeli soldiers earns bonus points.

Victory party
All week, Hezbollah has been holding victory celebrations to coincide with the end of the conflict in August 2006, which Hezbollah considers a major victory. It’s a war Hezbollah says is not over.

In a speech earlier this week, Hezbollah leader Sayid Hassan Nasrallah declared there is "no ceasefire" with Israel, but only a "halt of offensive operations." Nasrallah also claimed his forces are fully rearmed with rockets that can reach "anywhere" in Israel, but added that he does not want another war.

Until there is a new war – many Lebanese fear it could happen at anytime – young people here can now relive the fighting on their computers.

Hezbollah’s celebrations and new video game may also have a domestic political goal. Many Lebanese now question if the nation gained anything from what Nasrallah calls his "Divine Victory" over Israel.

During the war, as Israel targeted – Lebanese say indiscriminately – the country’s infrastructure, most people here were united behind Hezbollah. But today, Lebanon remains in tatters, and on-going Hezbollah-led protests against the U.S.-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora have closed most of the businesses in downtown Beirut and scared away tourists. Lebanon has not moved forward since the war. Lebanon has turned on itself. But that’s not part of the video game.

Graphs and Spreadsheets

2007-08-10T14:58:00.000-07:00

When I work on game designs, I write down loose descriptions in a MS Word document of what the general gameplay, setting, and development goals are. MS Word is fantastic for creating design documents, but I find the 2 places where I hash out the finer details of how the game generally functions are in my brain, and in MS Excel. Composing all of my ideas into spreadsheets and graphs gives my design ideas some sense of tangibility beyond a descriptive paragraph. If I have the variables in the game set up in a spreadsheet, it allows me to play around with combining these elements and tweaking them to get a better idea of what works, what doesn't, and what I'm still missing well before any coding starts.

In the end, a working prototype is the best way to determine if your gameplay ideas work or not, and the best way to tweak them so they're just right. But I try my best to determine what works or not ahead of time by playing with these graphs and spreadsheets. It saves money, time, and a shred of sanity.

Equal Opportunity Violence

2007-08-03T13:16:00.000-07:00

This past week, a blog was posted that caused quite a stir in the game world. The writer was deeply troubled by the upcoming game, "Resident Evil 5." The famous zombie-themed survival-horror franchise is moving into some generic African village setting. The populous has become infected/driven mad by something, and it’s up to the player (a white character) to fight through and discover the source of the mystery. Since the setting is in Africa, the player is inevitably gunning downs hordes of black people.

On the surface, it sounds horrible, encouraging a white player character to shoot black people because they are rabid killers bent on your destruction… but back up. This is not the first game that has the player in situations where they have to shoot black people. More important, most human-target games have the player killing white people (though admittedly, there are only a handful of cases where the player controls a black person doing the killing). Therefore, does this not mean that most black gamers have spent their lives virtually murdering white people for years? And let’s not even get into the number of aliens, mutants, and masked ninjas that are virtually slaughtered on a daily basis.

Obviously, these complaints are ridiculous. If the game’s entire premise was that ‘black people are bad and must be killed’, then of course there should be an outcry against it. However, this game’s premise isn’t racially motivated by any stretch. It just so happens the story's setting requires that there be black people to make it believable.

When it comes down to it, the only real-life group of humans that are universally acceptable to kill in video games are Nazis, and they are white (at least a good Nazi is). I can’t tell you how many I’ve killed in video games I’ve played; they make great bad guys, and who is going to care if you kill a virtual fascist? Maybe Illinois Nazis… I hate Illinois Nazis.

And the next game I'm working on is...

2007-07-24T15:21:00.000-07:00

This is just how my product pitch meetings usually work ;)

I have a history of working with licensed content and raising cats, so designing and producing the LC2 game is a natural fit. I guarantee this will be the most violent, bad ass, balls to the wall game ever created.

God of War: Betrayal receives Wireless Game of the Month award!

2007-07-16T16:38:00.000-07:00

God of War: Betrayal has received Wireless Game of the Month for June 2007 from IGN.com! This game is on FIRE!!! Again, congrats to everyone involved. This is now the second reward for this game, and the third in my career.

I can’t wait to start talking about my next project, but that will have to be under wraps for several months. I’m sure I’ll have plenty to talk about between now and then, anyway. For example, I just bought a PlayStation 3 now that the price dropped, and I love that machine. After hooking it up to my entertainment center, I can now see the potential that SCEA has been touting this entire time. I can easily see it becoming the centerpiece of my home theater set-up. More on that later!

Editors Choice Award!

2007-06-27T14:11:00.000-07:00

God of War: Betrayal just got a 9.0 and an Editors Choice award from IGN.com !!!!!

I know I stated in a previous post that review scores don’t mean as much to me as real player response and fan communities, but MAN does something like this get me excited! This was the highest score our department has ever received from IGN on a mobile game review, and is the highest score I’ve ever received on any game that I’ve produced/designed.

It also appears that God of War will be the last mobile title I’ll produce, as I’ll be shifting my focus back to console development, which is exactly what I want to be doing. As such, I consider God of War: Betrayal to be my gift to the mobile gamers out there as I move onto greener pastures, and a big middle finger to all those haters who thought it couldn’t be done.

Many thanks to the team here at SOE for their hard work, to SCEA Santa Monica for caring and working as closely with us as you did to help make the game special, to Javaground for an outstanding programming and porting effort (your tools and talent kick major ass), and to Wayforward for bringing Kratos and the enemies to life in such spectacular fashion, especially considering you all had to learn an entirely new tool and method of 2D character animation for the game!

I’m still in shock, and giddy with excitement. Yeah, that’s right. Giddy!

And with that, I’m going on vacation in Israel for a couple of weeks ;)

Love my PSP

2007-06-25T17:48:00.000-07:00

I was at the game store the other day looking for some PSP games to take with me on vacation, needing to find a quality game to pass the time on the flight across the pond. A teenage couple was in there, and the girl ran up to the PSP on display and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Her idiot boyfriend said, "The PSP is dead. Don't even bother with it." And mumbled something about the Nintendo DS.

I looked over and the girl was obviously disappointed at what her boyfriend told her. She kept holding onto the PSP and stared at it for a bit, then finally followed the guy to some other part of the store. Later I was walking out, after purchasing a couple of titles, and noticed the couple was back hovering over the PSP.

I can understand why some people were turned off by the PSP, but the system is far from dead. If anything, Sony has been slowly ramping up to a second coming of the system. Rumors of a redesign are running rampant, and the recent increase in quality titles, upcoming online downloadable support, a ton of new demos to download, and especially a God of War game show that the system is far from gone. It's true that the DS has outsold it by some crazy number (I think it was a 2 to 1 margin), there's still something like 58 million projected PSP's sold worldwide. That's far from a flop!

I encourage people to look into the device. It's got great games such as Daxter, Killzone, Lumines, Grand Theft Auto, Puzzle Quest, and more. If you throw a 4 gig memory stick into it, you can hold about 8 full length high quality movies on it, and the 8 gig memory stick is out and should be dropping in price soon.You can even surf the web through a wireless network without having to purchase a separate device. The screen is one of the best available on the market, being much larger and clearer than the iPod, iPhone, or Zune. Plus, most of the games are available for $20 or less if you shop online, and the new titles tend to drop in price relatively quickly compared to the consoles. Though the DS has its own strengths, no one can argue that the PSP produces the most amazing handheld gaming graphics and sound available.

I really need to get a DS before Contra 4 comes out, though.

Vatican issues 10 Commandments for drivers

2007-06-19T16:50:00.000-07:00

"It urged motorists to obey traffic regulations, drive with a moral sense, and to pray when behind the wheel."

Living in L.A., I can tell you I do at least one of the above every time I get in the car.

The Future of Music DJ'ing

2007-06-15T15:18:00.000-07:00

This was so awesome I had to double post today. It’s THE most amazing Wiimote hack yet. Watch the entire video; it’s worth it. This is the future of DJ’ing, without a doubt. If you’re impatient, skip ahead until there’s about 4 minutes left on the video to see one of the best examples.

I found this through a post on NintendoWiiFanboy.com.

God of War: Betrayal Website Is Live!

2007-06-15T13:00:00.001-07:00

The official website for God of War: Betrayal is finally live! Check out the awesome video that was edited together using some raw footage I captured and passed along to the powers that be. It really shows off the great animation that WayForward put together for the game, and the power of Javaground’s tools. It’s some of the best 2D animation yet for a Mobile game, and certainly the bloodiest.

My own responsibilities for the project are finally winding down, and I am already looking forward to my next project after I get back from vacation in mid-July. God of War: Betrayal is launching very soon, so keep an eye out on your phone’s storefront from now through July.

Flash games on your Wii

2007-06-12T18:53:00.000-07:00

I created an offshoot to this blog that contains direct links to the better quality Wii compatible Flash games. That's right, free Flash games on your Wii! Just click on the Wii logo located just under my mugshot, and you'll be brought to my list of Flash games that get the "Phil Seal of Approval" for fun and/or production values.

I just started it, so the list is fairly small right now. Don't be afraid to give them a shot; they are all PC compatible (for those of you that don't have your Wii yet). Let me know if there are any other Flash games you'd like to see added to the list.

Please feel free to share the site with your friends.

Now go get your game on!

Banned

2007-06-08T12:31:00.000-07:00

***Naughty language in video***

Modifying your game system to do things it wasn’t meant to has been around for ages. It used to be rooted in the ability to play Japanese games on your US region system, back when a ton of great games were coming out in Japan that never saw the light of day on these shores. It used to be as easy as filing down the plastic tabs in the cartridge slot (Super Nintendo), or filing the edges of the cartridge slot away (Genesis) so that the Japanese cartridges would properly fit into the US system. As the systems became more advanced, and switched from cartridge to disc format, a fundamental shift in system modding took place, and what the focus of these modders was.

Enter the PlayStation in the mid-1990’s, and suddenly it wasn’t as easy to play import games. You had to purchase and install a “mod-chip” inside the system, a much more complex and risky operation than filing away some plastic. However, because of the switch to disc format, and with the abundance of CD burners available on the market, the mod community suddenly had the ability to copy retail versions of the games onto burned discs, Japanese or US! The focus switched from simply making your system able to play legally purchased foreign games, to being able to play games from any region without having to purchase any of them.

Fast forward to the start of the 21st century, and Microsoft opens the floodgates with the release of the first Xbox. It was essentially a Pentium III 733mhz with an Nvidia GeForce 3 graphics card all packed into a fancy game system case… a regular PC in disguise. It even had an over the counter PC hard drive in the thing. Long story short, install the mod chip, install a new hard drive (let’s just say you replace the stock 8 gig drive with a massive 120 gig drive), insert desired game disc, copy game disc to hard drive… free game. It could also do a lot more, including many features that are just now being released as separate devices as full retail products to the public (Apple’s iTV, or whatever it’s called, is a joke… a modified Xbox can do the exact same thing, but supports almost all video codecs, and has been doing so for several years now).

The ease at which people could copy games, and the mass amounts of people that were doing so, alarmed Microsoft and game publishers. Why spend $50 on a game when you could have it for free? The supposed ace up Microsoft’s sleeve was, and still is, Xbox Live. The online gaming platform is such a huge draw, arguable one of the key reasons to own the system, that Microsoft found a way to detect these mod-chips when logging into Xbox Live, and proceeded to ban those accounts from logging in. This effectively turned the community oriented aspects of all games off for those who modded their systems. Of course, the price dropped on the Xbox, so you could just go buy an extra one and not modify it so you could still play your legally purchased games online with others.

Now that the Xbox 360 is out, the mod community discovered a way to hack the system by messing with the DVD drive’s firmware. Update the firmware, and the system would be fooled into playing burned copies of retail games. I’m beginning to notice a similar trend that Microsoft went through with the first Xbox, myself being offered to have my DVD’s firmware updated on a few occasions. I’ll admit it is tempting… free games? Hell yes! Or maybe not. I thought about it for a bit, and realized that Microsoft was just going to do the same exact thing; they would find a way to detect this firmware change and then ban these systems from logging into Xbox Live, which is now an essential part of almost every game to enjoy them fully.

It turns out I was correct. A few weeks ago, Microsoft found a way, and is now banning these systems from playing online. The second Xbox mod-war has begun! I’m sure there is going to be a lot of back and forth with the mod community to get past these detection methods, but I want no part of it this time around (…not to say I was part of it with the first Xbox). So, while others I know are all angry that they can no longer play online with their buddies, I can laugh and still play all the games I want on my 360, at least until it breaks down (again). But that’s for another blog entry.

Earthland Realms

2007-06-01T18:07:00.001-07:00

This is a funny clip from a recent Simpsons episode where Marge gets hooked on playing a World of Warcraft style game, only to discover the rest of Springfield is just as addicted. I figured this would compliment my previous post. Enjoy!

"First you get the money, then you get the power."

2007-05-30T18:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, I admit it! I play World of Warcraft. I’m a woman named Punkybrewstr (spelling is weird due to character name length restrictions). I throw fireballs at goblins and orcs. I create portals and teleport instantly around the world. I tailor articles of clothing and sell them at the auction house for virtual cash. I enchant items for my friends to make them more powerful. I… am a nerd.

Apparently, I’m not alone in the world though. Over 8 million people play World of Warcraft, and everyone has to pay to do so. This is loose math, since not all pay to play models are the same worldwide, but figure this:

- Average cost of game out of the box (10 days free to play) = $39.99
- Average cost of expansion pack out of the box (which almost everyone has or will purchase) = $39.99
- Average monthly subscription cost = $14.99 ($179.88 per year)

This means that Blizzard, which is owned by Vivendi Universal, has potentially sold:
- $639,840,000 worth of boxed or download copies of the game (counting expansion pack)
- $119,920,000 per month on subscriptions alone ($1,439,040,000… that’s BILLION… per year)

The numbers probably come in somewhere under that, but relatively, I doubt by much. The success of this game boggles the mind, and has propelled the profit potential perceived for video games through the roof. If you figure the cost of a bleeding edge next-generation Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or PC game can cost an average of $20 to $30 million to develop, this means Warcraft can finance the development and marketing for multiple AAA quality titles for Vivendi, all of which could fail miserably at retail, and Vivendi could still safely churn out a profit at the end of each year.

Now, not all things last forever. Obviously people will grow tired of venturing through the world of Azeroth, and move on to fresh Massive Multiplayer experiences. Let’s assume that 3 years from now, World of Warcraft subscriptions really start to slide. Blizzard/Vivendi release another expansion pack (for another $39.99), and most likely update the graphics engine to make the game look even better/stay competitive with newer titles. The game now has at least another 3 years of solid subscriptions because of these two things alone (retaining a higher percentage of older players, attracting back players who left, and even attracting a handful of new people).

What does life look like after World of Warcraft? Blizzard pulls out the often rumored World of Starcraft.. Crazy you say? Get this: Warcraft III, a smash success, came out 2 years and some months before World of Warcraft. Starcraft II was just announced, with a potential release date of sometime in 2008. Blizzard announced a month or two ago it is hiring for an unannounced next-generation MMO development project. It takes about 2 to 4 years to create a MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game to the point where it can be released to the public, which puts the potential release for World of Starcraft around 2010-2011, 2 to 3 years after Starcraft II, and about 7 years after World of Warcraft launched. Around that time the subscription base for World of Warcraft will have begun to drop off in comparison to the huge numbers they are doing now, which is the same year I predict Warcraft will get another expansion and a graphical upgrade in an effort to retain existing subscribers. They are then operating two of the most successful and profitable games in history.

Here are some quick numbers on the Starcraft franchise (which is the sci-fi brother to the fantasy based Warcraft):
- Over 9 million copies of Starcraft and it’s expansion (Brood War) have been sold worldwide, making it the second best selling computer game in history (behind Electronic Art’s “The Sims”). *Note: I’m not sure if it’s still #2 or not.
- 13% of South Korea owns a copy of Starcraft (it’s been rumored that 90% of the South Korean population has actually attempted to play the game at one point or another).

The future is bright for Blizzard and Vivendi if they play their cards right, and I’m going to need a second job to pay for my subscriptions.

Happy 30th Star Wars!

2007-05-25T10:39:00.001-07:00

Happy 30th anniversary Star Wars! It's been a wild ride, and I will forever love your merchandising and re-edits (though I'll never forgive the replacing of the band in Jabba's palace... that musical number was LAME!). Now where are those 3D re-mastered versions of IV, V, and VI?

Ten things Star Wars has taught me about life:
1. The only difference between making a pebble or a sunken X-Wing float is in my mind.
2. If you're caught outside in a blizzard, slice open the nearest animal and crawl inside it to stay warm until you are rescued.
3. ALWAYS let the Wookie win.
4. Some things in the universe are best left a mystery (*cough* midiclorians *cough*).
5. Always bring a lightsaber to a bar, and leave your droids outside... they simply aren't welcome.
6. Don't ever show a lack of faith in front of a Sith Lord. They find it disturbing and will probably force choke you.
7. R2 units are man's true best friend.
8. If you're overwhelmed by the enemy while fighting in the forest, gain the trust of the woodland creatures and have them do the fighting for you. (Too bad there are no Ewoks in Iraq.)
9. If you build a planet crushing, moon sized space station, make sure it isn't vulnerable to small, one-manned fighters.
10. Always slice off your enemy's right hand.

...it's how you play the game.

2007-05-21T17:59:00.000-07:00

By no means am I the world’s best game producer. If there is one thing I learned very quickly in life, is that no matter what you do and how good you think you are, there will always be someone better than you. You could be the best athlete, the most successful business man, or even the most influential world leader, but inevitably someone will come along that is undeniably more successful.

Some people find this discouraging and think, “Well if I have no chance at being the best, what’s the point?” They move on to something else, usually selling themselves short. Other people think, “GREAT! I have a chance to be the best, if only for a while.” They run themselves ragged trying to achieve something that is nearly impossible and set themselves up for disappointment (though at least they try). Then there is a third school of thought, where one thinks, “I’m just happy to be able to do what I do, and will do the best I can.” I consider myself in this third tier.

I feel so lucky to be a game producer, the feeling is indescribable. Of course I have lofty dreams of my name becoming a known force within the industry, but this dream of vanity stems from what really matters to me, and the satisfaction I get from my job: I just want people to enjoy the games I make. I want them to have fun! I go to sleep at night a happy man when just a small group of people say they enjoyed playing one of my games; to hell with review scores and naysayer’s.

Take Sigma Star Saga, for example. This was a fairly low-budget Game Boy Advance game that I created the initial concept for and worked with an amazing developer to flesh out and get created. It didn’t sell particularly well, and the review scores were all over the board for it. I’ll never forget the feeling I had reading the first good review (excitement), the first bad review (dismay), and the first forum post by fans exchanging tips and tricks and chatting about their love of the game (elation). I surprised myself, really. I didn’t realize how that small group of tweenies who kept posting on the forum in support of the game could make me feel 1000 times better than the best review score. I’ve said many times I make games that I personally think are fun so I can play them myself (hence the shooter/RPG combo of Sigma Star Saga), but I knew right then it was the gamers that would drive me for the rest of my days in the industry.

As I continue with my career, which I consider to be just starting up, the most I can do, as with anything in life, is the best I can do. Developing a career is much like growing up all over again. You have to pay attention and learn from those around you, as well as pay attention to your own decisions and actions, and LEARN from them, if you are to mature.

It’s very easy to look at someone who’s established within the industry and feel an entire range of emotion, from awe of those that consistently create amazing product, to jealously of those who are horrible at making games yet somehow continue to get funding to poop out more waste. Part of doing the best job I can is to recognize these “irrational human emotions” and where they stem from, pay attention to what these folks are doing with their career and games, and continue to analyze myself from project to project, and make sure I learn from my own success and mistakes.

So, as a summary of my first game blog, I don’t think I’m the best there is, and that’s okay. I continue to learn from my experiences, and those of others. I’ll continue to make games that I enjoy and, hopefully, other people enjoy. That’s really all that matters.