Fewer News Posts

I want this blog to be about interesting topics in the game industry, but I feel like I have been posting too much news without discussion. Occasionally news might warrant discussion, but most times it does not. That means I will rarely be posting news on this blog from now on. I cannot keep up with all the news going on all the time. It requires a full time team. I could choose to post news for specific games I am interested, but I want this to be a general blog not about specific games. Posting news takes time away from me posting more interesting articles, so I definitely do not want to get stuck writing news posts to keep up.

I will still post news if I think it warrants discussion. Some news is about a controversial issue in the industry, and that will be fair game for a post. For example, Blizzard adding a Real Money Auction House to Diablo 3 would be okay if I talk about how this will influence the gameplay and the consumer. At the same time, posts about the Skyrim Creation Kit being delayed again and again would not be okay. There is nothing there to discuss, just news. I probably posted too much about Skyrim in general. I will try not to focus on one game too much in the future.

My 2012 Gaming Predictions

I have written before how I like to make predictions about the future of the game industry. This post will be a compilation of my predictions for the best games of the year. I like to wait until I can read and hear about a lot of the big games of the year before I do this. After all, I cannot make a prediction if I do not know what games are even expected to be out.

I make my predictions based on a combination of factors. Mostly it is hype surrounding the game, but I also think about other factors such as the developer’s history of games, the previous games in the series if it is a sequel, and what I personally think from the preview footage of the game. I generally weight full game releases higher than expansion packs. An expansion pack has to be perfect to beat a full game.

Action

Winner: BioShock Infinite
Other Contenders: Halo 4, Max Payne 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, The Darkness 2

I expect the latest Call of Duty to sell like crazy as always but tend to favor games that bring something new. Call of Duty games do bring small changes but not enough when compared to other shooters. For example, Halo: Reach scored an average of 91/100 on metacritic while Black Ops only managed 81/100. I expect Halo 4, BioShock Infinite, and Max Payne 3 to all score higher than Black Ops 2.

Taking Breaks From Games

One thing I have learned over the years is that repetition causes boredom. This is really true for all things in life, but especially true for video games since so much of gameplay is repetition to get better. No matter how good a game is, if I play it enough I will definitely get bored. Good games will last longer than bad games before boredom sets in, but it still inevitably happens.

In the past I would get these “gaming blues” and think maybe I was outgrowing games. Sometimes I would even fall into a light depression wondering what I would do with my free time without games. Nothing I tried was as fun as games, but games were not providing that fun anymore either. Over time, however, I noticed my interest always came back with time. Maybe just a day without games was enough, but sometimes it even took a few months.

I am finding this happens less and less as I get older. As a kid I probably played games too much. I would get a new game and beat it within a few days. Since my allowance only afforded me a new game every two to three months, I had to endure a lot more repetitive gameplay.

I do not play games as many hours these days compared to when I was a kid. Before adulthood, I probably played at least 40 hours a week. After adulthood, it is more like 20 hours a week. I also do not play exclusively with that free time. I now post on forums and write blog posts about the games I am playing, so my overall playing time is probably closer to 10-15 hours per week.

Besides playing less I have learned that playing a variety of games instead of just one reduces the chance that I get will get bored. Before I might play one game exclusively for weeks and months until I had done everything, but now I usually play a different game each day or every few days.

I seem to stay interested as long as the games are in different genres (RTS vs RPG) with different playstyles (casual vs hardcore). One day might be Civilization 5 for hardcore turn-based strategy. The next day might be Skyrim for casual role-playing. Another day might be League of Legends for hardcore arena PvP.  Finally, the weekend might be World of Warcraft for casual dungeons with friends.

The important thing is that I will get bored of games sometimes. It is not that the games are bad or my interests have changed. I just need some time away from games. I think an important part of life is understanding your feelings. You can then logically decide whether a feeling has merit or unfounded. If it has merit you might make a few changes to your life, but if it is unfounded you can simply cast that feeling aside.

Skyrim Sells 10 Million

Todd Howard yesterday during his Dice 2012 Keynote Speech mentioned The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim has now sold 10 million. In an earlier post comparing Skyrim and Oblivion first month sales, I found that Skyrim sold roughly 7 million in the first month while Oblivion only sold 2 million in the first month. Oblivion’s sale were slowing down by this point, but Skyrim appears to be still going strong.

Three million additional sales in three months is still very good. Many new games hope they can just get 1 million sales in the first month let alone months after release that Skyrim is pushing. Part of this has to be all the Game of the Year awards Skyrim received, but I think another part of it is all the sales lately. I have seen four Skyrim sales already, two at $30 (Amazon, Gamersgate) and two at $40 (Steam Christmas, Steam Midweek).

I thought the Keynote Speech was very good overall. Todd Howard is down the earth, not one of those executives that knows nothing about how people actually play their games. GameSpot has a nice recording of it if you want to see it.

Will Video Games Ever Become Mainstream?

There is mainstream, and then there is mainstream. In the gaming world, a lot of developers like to say mainstream to represent the hardcore crowd of gamers. These are the fans that are expecting innovative gameplay and amazing graphics in each new release. Gaming is not just for quick fun here and there. It is their main source of entertainment. Their one hobby they engage in whenever they have free time. I would consider myself in this hardcore crowd, but there is also the other mainstream.

Mainstream within society is a whole different thing. Justin Bieber’s music despite being popular may be hated by a lot of people in the general public, but these people still see the potential of other kinds of music. Some people might be into classical music, and there are still composers in that genre. Similarly, other people might be into jazz, and new music keeps getting made in that genre. Video games, on the other hand, are still not seen this way.

In the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, society in general saw video games as toys for kids. Playing video games was not something that adults did. The adults that did play video games were made fun of either directly or indirectly, not like being made fun of in the school yard, but being gossiped about behind their back or looked down on. Video games were seen as not only uncreative, but also just a fad that would soon pass. Any adult playing games needed to grow up.

Now, in the last ten years it has gotten a little bit better. I do not think anyone considers video games to be a fad anymore. They have been around too long to just disappear. In fact, they are getting more and more popular now with Facebook and smartphone games, but there is still that lingering issue that society does not see video games in the same light as music or movies.

An adult can play games these days without attracting too much attention, but only if they do not spend too much time with them. If they become serious about games, putting in 20 hours a week and talking about games when not playing, it is the same situation as the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Their peers see their interest in games as unhealthy. Games are for casual fun, not a hobby you dedicate your free time to.

Some people like to say “Just give it more time. Society will eventually come around and see games just like music and movies.” Well, I do not think that is always the case. Comic books probably reached the height of their popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. At this time mostly children, teenagers, and young adults read comics. They grew up waiting patiently for comics to be accepted for all ages, but it never happened. Society these days still considers comics as more of a kid or young adult thing.

We can see the same thing with role-playing games. Invented in the 1970s as an extension of wargames, they were initially only popular among teenagers and young adults. The greater society considered role-playing as a waste of time. Any adult that played them was looked down on by society. Role-players just assumed one day that role-playing would be mainstream. Maybe not everyone would play it, but it would at least be accepted by the general public.

This did not happen either. Role-playing games are definitely more accepted these days, but the society still looks down on adults that play them. Using the imagination as required for role-playing games is considered to be strange. That is something that kids do, not adults.

I am sure there are lot more examples. Not all forms of entertainment become mainstream. Only a few ever get to that critical mass. Video games are certainly more accepted these days than when they were new. However, society still considers them to have less artistic merit when compared to music and movies.

I am not sure video games will ever get to that point, but we should keep playing games even if the general public criticizes us. There are enough fans of video games they will stick around in some form or another for a long time. I do not see anything else replacing them.

Times change. Video games may not go any further. They may even decline, but we will still play them. We have the most fun playing video games, and that is what we will do.

Skyrim Creation Kit Released!

Exciting news for PC Skyrim players, the Skyrim mod tools have finally been released. It has been nearly three months since Skyrim’s launch date, and yet the mod tools were not available until today. As Skyrim is a Steamworks game, the mod tools are only available through Steam. On your Library screen, click the drop down to show Tools instead of Games. As long as you have Skyrim, the Creation Kit should be listed.

One of the new features in Skyrim’s mod tools is the Steam Workshop. Once you are satisfied with your mod, you can publish it to the Steam cloud. I had thought that the workshop would be available within the game similar to Civilization 5’s mod browser, but it looks like you have to go to the Steam Workshop website. You simply “subscribe” to a mod, and then the Skyrim launcher downloads the mod the next time you start Skyrim. If the mod author updates the mod, the launcher will automatically download the new updated version.

This seems like a handy system for end users. It will be much easier for them to get mods. I only wonder how it does with conflicts. Frequently, mods will modify the same things. This is called a conflict. The effects of conflicts can be as minimal as the wrong texture being used but as bad as causeing the game to crash.

The workshop is still pretty new; Skyrim is only the second game to support it. Hopefully, they will fix any bugs and add new features over time. I expect the more advanced mods will stay on the Skyrim Nexus as the Steam Workshop is not required to use Skyrim mods. It just makes things easier.

Other big news is the High Resolution Texture Pack. I have been looking around for some videos or screenshots of it in action, but have not found any. It is being released as a free DLC on Steam. I compared two of the same screenshots: one from the Skyrim base page, one from the High Res Texture page.

The difference was very subtle. The high resolution textures were just a tad more crisp. I imagine most players will not be able to tell the difference. I could only tell by having both screenshots side by side and switching from one to the other. I have read it is a 3GB download. Compared to the size of the download, it looks like the better visuals do not really pay off that much, but I am sure some people will appreciate them.

Finally, Steam has a new Midweek Madness (Tuesday 10am through Thursday 4pm) to celebrate Skyrim mods being added to the Steam Workshop. For the duration of the sale, all of the Elder Scrolls games on Steam are available as The Elder Scrolls Collection for $50. Alternatively, you can buy them individually with 50% off Morrowind and Oblivion, and 33% off Skyrim.

I decided to buy Skyrim for $40. I was thinking about waiting for Game of the Year edition, but Bethesda has done pretty well with the patches, and some great mods should be released soon. This does mean I probably will not buy the DLC until it goes on a good sale.

Best Gaming Year by GameSpot Editor’s Choice

There has long been a debate between players over which year has been the best gaming year in history. For some this is the year when they first got into gaming. For others it might be the year they bought the most games. Still others see it as the year they have the most gaming memories from. Well, another way to look at it is by counting the number of top rated games. GameSpot has a page that lists all of the games that have received their Editor’s Choice award. It is an easy overview of the big games over the years since 2002.

First things first, this is a biased list.  Each game was reviewed by just one person, who could have different opinions than the average. On top of that each game chosen had to have a 9.0 or higher rating, but not all 9.0 games were chosen. Keeping that in mind, I counted the number of unique games for each year. Multiplatform titles, expansion packs, and re-releases (Gold editions, Game of the Year editions) were not counted. I did count handheld games (PSP, DS, GBA) but not mobile games (iPhone, Android, etc.). Whichever year had the most games would be the best gaming year. Remember, I am not saying this is absolute truth. It is just another angle to look at in the debate over best gaming year.

2002: 32

2003: 27

2004: 26

2005: 24

2006: 17

2007: 16

2008: 23

2009: 24

2010: 20

2011: 19

That puts 2002 as the best year so far. There were more unique, highly rated titles than any of the years since. I wonder if there were Editor’s Choice for earlier years, say the late 90s, if we would see even higher numbers. The switch from 2D to 3D started a radical new round of innovation in the industry.

Around 2005/2006 when the new consoles were coming out, the phrase “same game with better graphics” started getting thrown about. There was a general worry in the industry about a lack of innovation. There did not seem to be any new visionary game designers in the 2000s as Shigeru Miyamoto had been in the 80s and Will Wright in the 90s. Couple this with the new console generation in 2005 and 2006, and there were a couple slow gaming years. Things seemed to pick up strangely during the Great Recession years. Now the seventh generation consoles (Xbox 360, Wii, PS3) are getting old and soon to be replaced. The number of unique games seem to be slowing down as well.

Skyrim Creation Kit misses January

In a blog post today, Bethesda Softworks provided more details about the Skyrim’s mod tools, the Creation Kit, and the Steam Workshop. The one thing missing, though: the actual Creation Kit in players’ hands. The only mention of the release date was “soon”, taking a cue from Blizzard. They did post nice a video showing off the Creation Kit. It is just too bad it is taking this long to get it released. It really should have been out at least by December. Players could be occupied the first month with playing the base game, but then they are ready to start making their own mods and trying out other players’ mods. I posted the video below for reference.