Tag: Bonus Content

BONUS CONTENT: Copyright in Video Games: Protecting Property or Owning Creativity?

My idea for this segments stems from Warner Bros Studio’s successful patent of their ‘Nemesis System’ used in both the Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor & Middle Earth: Shadow of War games (link). Along with my last discussion piece(link) where I discussed Namco’s patent of the load screen mini game, they’ve got me thinking about copyrights effect on the video game industry and what it means to creative expression.

Copyright is defined as “the exclusive and assignable legal right, given to the originator for a fixed number of years, to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material.”. In layman’s terms this means that the creator has the legal right over their own creation. This also means that any use of that material without permission of the owner is considered illegal. If the creator can prove enough similarities between their creation and the creation of another later in time then if the original creation is copyrighted then there is a case of infingement. Copyrightable content can vary from a small part of something like a character, a catchphrase or a melody to a whole creation like a song, video game or book.

From a moral perspective their is a fine line between what is copyrightable and what should be copyrightable. I believe that a creator should hold rights over that they create but my problem lies when these copyrights are so vague that they can hamper the creativity. For example, up until 2018 Sega held the patent for the compass pointing arrow from Crazy Taxi that pointed in the direction of your goal. This and systems similar to it have become quite common place in video games, the likes of Skyrim & Death Stranding come to mind. Imagine if they wern’t allowed to us them? Or even yet when Ubisoft were challenged by Monster Energy drinks because their upcoming game “Gods & Monsters” because the name “Monster” was Trademarked, Ubisoft eventually changed the name to “Immortals: Fenyx Rising”.

I get that people should be able to protect their creations against people stealing and rebranding their own ideas and intelectual property but when it gets to the point people arn’t allowed to build on and improve on what came before them we get to a point of stagnation. Imagine if we did that in the scientific community? “No, you are not allowed to work on relativity because that was Einstein’s thing and he has complete rights over it for X number of year”. We’d still be living in the dark let alone playing video games. Now that would be a real tragidy.

If you like what you read and would like to support further pieces then feel free to subscribe to my Patreon or Buy me a Coffee. Your continued support will be most appreciated. Also for regular updates please like and follow me on Facebook & Twitter.

by Individuo

BONUS CONTENT: Loading Screens: Making waiting fun

Lets face it, nobody likes a loading screen but they are a necessary evil, especially as game environment becomes more detailed and more items are in need of loading. Now with that I’m sure a lot of you are thinking “Actually, now that you mention it. I’m noticing loading screens less and less these days. So how is it that with more stuff needing to be loaded I’m seeing less loading screens?”. Well, I can tell you that is true, you are “seeing” less loading screens. Developers have started to get creative in the way they are incorporating them into the game, especially since having to wait and set everything up behind the curtain can break both a games immersion and pacing. So here is a few things that are/have being done to keep a players concentration while the stage is being set.

Cinematics

This is an old favorite and quite an easy one to pull off. Once the player gets to the end of the stage a cut scene or cinematic will start usually with the aim of driving the plot forward. While this is going on the game will be loading in the background that way once the cinematic finishes the play can get back into the game with little to no waiting required.

Grid and partial rendering

One used a lot by open world games such as GTA, & The Elder Scrolls series. This involves breaking the map down into a grid and fully loading the grid around the player as well as partially loading grid squares round them. That way as the game loads as the player moves around the map, eliminating the need for loading screens so long as the game can be loaded quicker than the player can travel.

Informal loading screens

Sometimes you just can’t get away with not having a loading screen, usually when a player dies or is fat traveling to a location elsewhere on the map. In this example information for the players is shared with the player that can either expand their knowledge of the games lore (for example, with the Dark Souls series) or can inform the player of tips and tricks they can do to improve their gaming abilities (e.g. the Uncharted series)

Loading Screen Mini Games

This is one that is brought to up by Namco back in the early days of the Playstation. At the beginning of Ridge Racer as the game loads you have the opportunity to play Glaxian while the games loads, also as an added bonus if you win and shoot down all the alien ships before the time runs out you unlock another 8 cars to race with. Namco loved this concept so much that they patented the use of mini-games in loading screens, hence why it wasn’t widely adopted.

This list is by no means exhausted, there are many cleaver ways developers hide what’s going on behind the curtain, sometimes even convincing us their is no curtain at all. If anyone has any other stand out ways games load while keeping the player invested please tell us in the comments. It’s not a loading screen but I remember when I originally bought Heavy Rain for the PS3 it came with a piece of craft paper and while the game was installing it gave the player the instructions as to how to fold an origami pajarita (endemic with the game itself). It was such a simple thing but it was something that kept me occupied as well as gave me a collectible to go with the game.

If you like what you read and would like to support further pieces then feel free to subscribe to my Patreon or Buy me a Coffee. Your continued support will be most appreciated. Also for regular updates please like and follow me on Facebook & Twitter.

by Individuo

BONUS CONTENT: Review Scores: What does a “7” mean?

I personally don’t believe in using review scores when reviewing video games. One reason is because it forces people to actually read what I write rather than skipping to the score at the end and assume everything between that and the beginning. Although the main reason I don’t use them is that it would open me up to a world of scrutiny if I did.

Take the following scenario. 2 games for me to review, Game 1 is good there are a number of points which I cannot overlook so I give it a score of 7/10. Game 2 isn’t as good but still enjoyable, however it’s consistent in it’s enjoyment so I also score it a 7/10. The amount of flack I would open myself up to to Game 1 fans who can overlook the points I couldn’t over giving their precious Prodigal Son game the same score as the dirty plebe that is Game 2.

In attaching a score to a review it also gives readers a tangible number that can be compared to other numbers assigned to reviews of other games that couldn’t be compared any other way. Going back to my previous Game of the Year winners. The experience I got from playing What Remains of Edith Finch is totally different from that I got from playing God of War. As such I wouldn’t be able to say for definite that one is better than the other. Though as soon as you assign a score to them suddenly there is an avenue of comparison. My reviews are based on complex opinions (shut up, they are!!!) and in rounding such complexities down to a single number isn’t doing any justice to the review, to the reader or to myself.

It’s also true that opinions change over time, however a review scores despite being a product of the age we lived in, will stand the test of time meaning that review scores can span across generation gaps. For example on the Metacritic’s Best Video Games of All Time list both Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 and Red Dead Redemption have the same score, does that mean they are both as good as each other despite them being released 18 years apart? No it doesn’t.

So why do mainstream reviewers such as IGN or Gamespot use scores if they are so unreliable? This is because the scores are not for the consumer but for the developers and publishers. A lot of AAA developers issue employee bonuses depending on review scores. Publishers are also known to have clauses in contracts with developers getting bonus payments if game achieves a minimum review score. This is why a lot of studios are known to “butter up” larger video game reviews with events, swag and even parties for journalists. Reddit User u/cronedog took all 208 games from 2016 that had at least 20 reviews and found that the average score was 7.8 out of 10. That tells me that statistically 104 games from 2016 scored between 100% & 78%. This leads me to conclude that either 1) 2016 was one hell of a year for video games or 2) Review scores are heavily inflated to please Developers and Publishers. Honesty, I believe the latter is the more likely.

by Individuo

BONUS CONTENT: Looking Back at The Sims (PC)

“Uhh shamoo ralla poo”

The sims

Can you believe The Sims has now existed for 21 years now? I surely can. The Sims was a game that I put in a fair amount of my teenage years being the somewhat of a social outcast I was. I thought with the original game now old enough to drink in the US it would be a good time to look back and reminisce about a simpler time.

The Sims was brought to us by Will Wright and his crew at Maxis & published by EA (before they became evil personified). For those who aren’t aware of the original PC meth addiction (pre World of Warcraft) The Sims allowed you to create and live your own little slice of suburban SimCity. You send your Sims to work or school, feed them pizza, put them to bed, bathe them, set them on fire and drown them. A typical Thursday. As your Sims worked, got promoted and made money you could improve their living conditions give them better shinier gadgets before they shuffle off to the grave.

When The Sims was released in 2001 it was an instant hit with a lot of different gaming demographics. From casual gamers to hard-core gamers, it seemed everyone was playing The Sims. I think it’s popularity lied with it’s simplicity to play. Anyone could sit down in front of a computer and pick up the game quite easily because of it’s simple aesthetics and ease of use. I too was drawn in by the simple charm of The Sims. My enjoyment continued into The Sims 2 as well, although by the time that The Sims 3 came around both me and the series had grown apart, becoming different from the people we once were.

It was about this time that EA’s corporate greed and contempt for humanity started to show. It seemed where most series would expand and incorporate new features. The Sims in contrast did the opposite, narrowed it’s field of household objects and creation tools. All in the name of packaging it up into DLC packs and charge the same price as the core game EACH!!! I wouldn’t mind it so much if there was 4-5 DLC packs but the sheer number of DLC packs is mind boggling. The Sims had 7 DLC’s, The Sims 2 had 18 (8 Expansions & 10 Stuff Packs), The Sims 3 had 20 (11 Expansions & 9 Stuff Packs). The Sims 4 currently has 37 (10 Expansions, 9 Game Packs & 18 Stuff Packs) with more still being released. So I’ve done the maths (so you don’t have to) and to buy The Sims 4 and all of it’s DLC’s at full price it would cost you over £600 for the privilege.

The Sims and to some extent The Sims 2 are a reminder of a time when EA actually wanted to market games that entertain and spread enjoyment. Although I can’t help but think that The Sims as a series is a victim of it’s own success. Maybe if the The Sims & The Sims 2 weren’t as popular as they were and made as much money as they did in DLC’s then EA wouldn’t try and ring as much money out of their clientele as humanly possible without resorting to muggings.

I’m sorry if you read this expecting a nostalgic return to a game that was much loved and was well deserving of that love and instead got a hate speech on the evils of EA. Although I do have a lot more to say about EA I’ll wait and dedicate a whole piece to them.

If you like what you read and would like to support further pieces then feel free to subscribe to my Patreon or Buy me a Coffee. Your continued support will be most appreciated. Also for regular updates please like and follow me on Facebook & Twitter.

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by Individuo

BONUS CONTENT: Immersion in Gaming: Believing the Fantasy

This is something that I’ve discussed in many of my reviews and discussions in the past but have never really explained. I thought this week I would delve into what immersion is, how it can be achieved as well as examples both good and bad.

Immersion is just that, how immersed into a game the player can be. Believing in the fantasy and feeling as though the player is really in the game. Be it racing at Le Mans or storming the beaches of Normandy or exploring the furthest reaches of space. The are also the type of games that leave an impact on the play both while they are playing and after they have walked away from it.

So what makes a game immersive? I think the most important characteristic for creating immersion is believability. You can have the best graphics, the best gameplay but it means nothing if the player doesn’t believe they are there. For example if a game’s frame rate drops to a level where the games movements suffer from lag or if bugs cause the game to act strangely such as objects clipping into each other or animations not working as they should, they break the fantasy being built up by the player causing players to disconnect with the game. The game also has to entice the player into the game, be that an expansive gaming world/universe dripping in lore, a gripping & engaging story, fluid & smooth gameplay or something completely different.

Now, how about some examples? An example of a game lacking in immersion is Fallout 3. The story drew you in and the gameplay was smooth but with the bugs and the creepy stare everyone gives the play when talking to them breaks any believability the game has. On the other hand, both Red Dead Redemption games oozed with immersion. Everything about the game was made to lure the player in and keep them there.

Immersion is what separates a good game from a great game but on the other hand it also won’t make a bad game into a good game. For example, icing a cake will make it taste better but icing a turd will still make it a turd.

If you like what you read and would like to support further pieces then feel free to subscribe to my Patreon or Buy me a Coffee. Your continued support will be most appreciated. Also for regular updates please like and follow me on Facebook & Twitter.

by Individuo

BONUS CONTENT: My PlayStation Wrap-Up 2020

With 2020 well as truly behind us. I’m going to look back at my PlayStation round up of 2020. A year where unlike most people who got to sit around at home and play video games. As a “key worker” I didn’t get this privilege, I instead went into work as usually helping make sure hospitals, care homes and the like were getting the equipment they needed to do the real work in saving lives. Anyway enough about that, lets look at my downtime.

That’s a new game about every week and a half
I have good taste. Some pretty excellent games if I do say so myself
That is a constant month of gaming (depending on the month)
I don’t play well with others.
Lets face it, who doesn’t love a lazy Saturday afternoon?
This would explain the mid week blues
I thought it would have been lower to be honest.
What!? No Platinum Trophies!? I’m ashamed of myself

And with that, that’s the end of the tour. If you would like to get your own you can sign up here. Just sign in to your PlayStation account before March 2nd, you can also redeem a few theme for your PS4 in doing so too.

If you like what you read and would like to support further pieces then feel free to subscribe to my Patreon or Buy me a Coffee. Your continued support will be most appreciated. Also for regular updates please like and follow me on Facebook & Twitter.

by Individuo

BONUS CONTENT: The Scalper Blight: How not to buy a PS5.

So long as there’s demand for something there will be someone somewhere who will try and make a profit off of it. This can be seen with the sheer number of PS5’s & XBox X/S series being sold on sites such as eBay & Facebook Marketplace by people in bulk. These scalpers are taking advantage of the high demand by shorting the supply even more by buying as many as possible in order to increase the “street price” by up to 3 times the sale price. It’s not a new concept, ask any festival goer and they will tell you all about scalpers, but what damage is this doing on the industry and how can we stop it? This is what I will look at answering today.

Scalping is when products are bought (usually but not exclusive to shares or tickets) in order to be quickly sold for a profit. This is usually done as in buying up products, especially in bulk, it will increase demand and as such increase the price people will be willing to pay. This is evident in the current situation surrounding the next-gen consoles. Scalping is not illegal but it is very much frowned upon by the general community as it seen as a way for those who have the capital to purchase several consoles to profit from those who don’t .

Now why is this such a bad thing? First and foremost, it means that there are less consoles available for people like you and me that want one to use and play on. This creates a greater demand and as such elevates prices as less PS5’s become available. Next is the effect on the manufacturer, now I can imagine at some point people will be thinking “If consoles are being sold, be them to ordinary users or scalpers Sony is still profiting from them aren’t they?”. Normally this would be true but in the case with games consoles it’s not. This is because consoles, especially at launch are sold at a loss to the manufacturer. The loss is offset by the sale of games, which is why you usually find consoles after release being bundled with several games and added products such as extra hardware or films. Given that each console in the hands of a scalper means that there is 1 less person buying games for that console, the more consoles being held in storage, the less games are being sold. In fact stats show that in Japan by the end of December PS5 games were being sold at a rate for 1 game for every 3 consoles sold. It’s true that these figures only included physical disks and not digital games but that still wouldn’t account for the dramatic short fall.

So what can be done to stop scalpers? The UK government is looking into measures to put measures in place to stop the inflation of prices of used hardware given the rise of not just private scalpers but even UK based second hand goods chain CEX started advertising PS5’s for up to £900 a console. In order to have the best chance of buying as many consoles as quickly as possible scalpers will tend to use buying bots that are programmed to wait in online queues and buy the consoles once the queues open or to. Each group of scalpers can have hundreds of these bots waiting in queues across many online retailers. Some retailers (although very little) are taking steps to counter scalpers. UK based video game retailer Game, have committed to fighting against scalpers after a twitter user bragged about managing to purchase over 2000 PS5’s from the retailer. Since then all pre-orders from game are subject to 1 unit per customer and all pre-orders are checked after order confirmation has been sent with the retailer having the right to cancel any suspicious orders.

What can we do as consumers against the scalper blight. Sadly, we can do very little. As mentioned before there isn’t any laws against scalping itself, although some online platforms won’t allow scalpers to use their services, as such the best thing to do is report these sellers removing their selling platforms. Apart from this the only other thing we can do is to not buy from scalpers. If the scalpers have no one to sell to they will stop what they are doing. I can imagine it’ll be hard for some people, especially if pressured by a child or loved one, but in the end these leeches prey on those pressures to make money. These people do not deserve your hard earned money. Do not let them win.

If you like what you read and would like to support further pieces then feel free to subscribe to my Patreon or Buy me a Coffee. Your continued support will be most appreciated. Also for regular updates please like and follow me on Facebook & Twitter.

by Individuo

BONUS CONTENT: Are game disks a dying breed?

In recent years we have seen an insurgence in digital media in most entertainment industries. Both the film & music industries are seeing more people making digital purchases compared to their physical counterpart. Video games are also following suit with the introduction of Steam back in 2003 and with consoles joining later with the introduction of the Xbox Games Store, Playstation Store & Nintendo Store. This growth came to a head in 2013 when digital game purchases overtook that of physical copies for the first time in history (54% Digital, 46% Physical). The most recent figure I can find comes from 2018 where it was believed that 83% of all games purchased were done digitally. Now the question is does this mean that there will be one day where the game disk will become a thing of the past? It’s the direction that the market seems to be going in but I still think we will still see video games on our shelves at least until the next generations of consoles.

The main advantage I see to physical games is in purchasing and cost. There are so many more places you can buy physical copies of games compared to it’s digital counterpart, the huge number of online and high street stores would take me an article of it’s own to dictate. This means people can shop around to get the best deal and save money, with digital games the player is very much at the mercy of the market. This is less true with PC games than consoles given the rising number of distribution platforms on PC such as Steam, Origin, Gog, Epic Games Store etc. Physical copies have another advantage in that they can be loaned to others and bought & sold on the used market. However, mainly with online multiplayer games a game bought used may require an online pass to be bought as well as the game disk in order to play. There is also the convenience that comes with buying digital games, you can buy a game and install it there and then. No having to go out to the store or waiting on deliveries, this is especially advantageous when it comes to new releases as some platforms allow for digital pre-orders to be installed and ready to play by the time of release.

Some digital providers sometimes offer games for free for a limited time. The Epic Game Store offers some games for free and EA’s Origin also did for a while. PSPlus subscribers as well allows players to purchase selected games for free and allow free play of them so long as they remain PSPlus subsribers. There is also an argument to be made that digital games have a longer shelf life due to damage and wear-and-tear to disks as games are swapped and age. However, there is a lifespan of digital games too depending on the digital vendor. Since your purchase will be registered to you via the provider, if that provider were to go out of business and their servers are shut down you would loose access to all the games you purchased and because you only purchased the right to play the games on the server as opposed to the game itself you wouldn’t be eligible for any kind of compensation.

I’m made a lot of mention as to how the different mediums effect the player but what about the developer? The rise of digital providers offers opportunities to indie developers to distribute their games to a greater audience than they could if they were restricted to having to sell their games using disks or cartridges which can be an expensive process to create. This however has caused it’s own problems, as the number of indie games available on the likes of Steam means that it’s becoming harder and harder to have your game stick out from the crowd. Doing some research, I have found that Steam has over 10,000 games as of Dec 2020 and with 40% of them in the Indie Genre it’s hard for a new developer to get their name out without a current fan base.

Personally I buy both physical copies and digital copies. I tend to shop around and try and get the best deal I can. This usually means buying physically copies of new releases and then waiting for sales for games that have been released for a while. Sadly given my current situation I don’t have the luxury to be able to buy every game I wish as soon as it’s release nor would I have the luxury of time to play them all if I did. This means I have to pick and choose my game purchases, as such I prefer buying physical copies of games as being able to shop around and the used game market helps me get as many games for the lowest price. Although if this wasn’t the case I would probably prefer digital copies due to the convenience of not having to go out or wait for delivery.

by Individuo

BONUS CONTENT: Ludo-Narrative Dissonance: Saying One Thing, Doing Another

Lets start with a definition for those who aren’t aware. Ludo-Narrative Dissonance was coined by the game designer Clint Hocking in a blog post in 2007. The term is used to describe the difference between the narrative told by a games story and the narrative of it’s gameplay. In his post Hocking singled out Bioshock where he explained that the narrated story demands the player be selfless but all the while the gameplay mechanics enforce a selfishness and the pursuit of power.

This was something I was thinking about as I wrote up my review for The Last of Us Part II. How Ellie would stab, shoot and blow up several people just so she could kill one person for killing another. Any kind of self-reflection would tell her that if it wasn’t for the camera crew following her around she would be the bad guy in this story. Abby by contrast is on a mission to kill someone who slaughtered her father as well as many others and succeeds in doing so without anyone else dying. This in contrast to the Ludo-Narrative consistency of the first game was one of the few things that rubbed me the wrong way about the game.

Another example that comes to me is that of the Tomb Raider remake. Again this was a game that I thoroughly enjoyed and had it not been for The Last of Us would have been my Game of the Year. There was a moment in the game where Lara kills her first person. You can see the terror in her and see the very moment that a piece of her soul breaks. This as a scene in isolation really brought depth to Lara’s character, However from that point on she starts gunning, stabbing, exploding people like it’s going out of fashion rendering her early breakdown almost meaningless.

The use of Ludo-Narrative Dissonance isn’t always something to avoid and if used properly can be a powerful story telling tool. To illustrate this lets look at Spec Ops: The Line where the use of ludo-narrative dissonance was a conscious choice. The actions of Walker are seen as a horrible warning to enforce the games message of “War is bad and you should feel ashamed for enjoying this game”. The game uses the hypocrisy of the playable character to reinforce the message of the story. This is how the Ludo-Narrative Dissonance differs from that in Spec Ops then it does in both The Last of Us Part II & Tomb Raider. Ellie & Lara never get that revelation that what they are doing is a bad thing, Walker on the other hand gets to the end of the game and it’s brought to light everything he’s done in the game and he realises his actions cannot be justified.

So to sum everything up, if your game is show signs of Ludo-Narrative Dissonance you can do one of 2 things. 1) Fix the inconsistencies by either adjusting the narrative or gameplay elements so that both elements go hand in hand; or 2) Highlight these difference in such a way that the contract makes the player question their in game choices and actions. The latter is more difficult to pull of but if managed successfully can make for a deeper gaming experience and give the player something to ponder once the gaming is done.

by Individuo

BONUS CONTENT: 5 Cult Games Worth Playing

We all get that once and a while. We find a gem of a game that we think is absolutely brilliant only for it not to get the recognition it deserves among the wider audience, be it due to mainstream critics who have missed the point of the game or the narrow demographic of the game itself. These are 5 games that I believe never got the credit they deserved, in no particular order.

Spec Ops: The Line:

This was a game that surprised me in a very good way. I originally went into it expecting a traditional modern 3rd person shooter, never to give the game a second thought after putting it do. Instead I’m still talking about it 8 years after it’s release. It’s story is nothing short of sublime and has yet to be topped by any shooter since. It’s obvious playing the game that the developers went into this game with a message to say, that war is not as black and white as previous games make it out to be. The game was let down a bit by it’s generic 3rd person gameplay style and it’s needlessly added bland multiplayer game but the strength of this game and one that gives it it’s cult following is it’s ability to put the gun in our hands then hold up the mirror to show us that there are no heroes in this story, just a different shade of grey.

Valkyria Chronicles:

Valkyria Chronicles was one of the first games I’d reviewed and it is one that has stuck with me since. The art style, the soundtrack, the gameplay, the story, there wasn’t all that many aspect of the game I didn’t enjoy. The lack of auto-save and the overabundance of unskipable cut scenes being the main two I can think of. Despite it’s mainly positive reviews the game never got the sales figures befitting of said reviews. I personally feel that this was because Sega didn’t have much faith in the game to be a success. With little to no marketing and being released within days of Fallout 3 and other major AAA titles doomed the game to be overlooked which given the quality of the game is more than a little unfair.

9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors:

I spoke about this briefly in my Zero Escape trilogy review. The game itself felt a little stop-start and the gameplay felt very one dimensional, but the solid story, well rounded characters and the fun and interesting puzzles kept the game from becoming stale. Since it’s initial release on the DS, the game has now been released on PS4 & PC making more accessible to new players.

Hogs of War:

If you can find a copy of this game I strongly suggest you play it. If I were to describe it in a couple of words it would be “absolutely nuts”. The voice acting as well as the voice over from the dearly departed Rik Mayall are absolutely side-splitting and adds to it’s endearing antics. The game is over 20 years old and sadly it shows it, feeling particularly out dated when compared to games from the time.

Grim Fandango:

I’m finding it hard to find the words to accurately describe Grim Fandango. It was a brilliant written, brilliantly executed story wrapped up in moments of drama and ludicrousness. Despite critical acclaim and a number of awards the game’s sales suffered due to the rise in popularity of more action based games at it’s time of release. This shift in the market meant that adventure games such as Grim Fandango & Monkey Island wouldn’t get the popularity I felt they deserved. A re-mastered version was released a few years ago to bring the experience to a new generation of gamers.

by Individuo