Judge backhands Illinois for messing with gamers

Keeping with today's theme of legal wins for games...

A judge ruled that the State of Illinois has to pay the ESA $510, 528.64 in legal fees pertaining to the defense of a law banning sale of violent video games. The law was found to be unconstitutional; the judge said, "If controlling access to allegedly 'dangerous' speech is important in promoting the positive psychological development of children, in our society that role is properly accorded to parents and families, not the State."

It would have been $510,528.00 but the attorneys had Italian on the third day and sent out a paralegal for some Orbitz.

Anyways, in response to the victory, ESA president Douglas Lowenstein says, "Pwned biyatch!" Followed by jumping on top of the dead law and emoting:

"EsaBigDaddy 's rub'n my @ss on ur face!"

Ok, maybe he didn't. But damn, I wish he had. C'mon Douggy, represent your constituents!

Instead, he said, (in what was no doubt a great impression of Ben Stein):

As we said from the outset of this debacle and repeatedly since then, instead of squandering taxpayers' money on frivolous lawsuits and attempting to enact clearly unconstitutional laws, we encourage policymakers to focus their resources on a cooperative effort with industry, retailers, parent groups and health groups to work together to educate parents about the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings and content descriptors, and the parental controls available in all next-generation consoles to help parents make sound choices about the games their kids play.

Like I said, pwned!!

But let's take a moment here and reflect on the real losers in this case. The children... of the lawyers. How many late nights did lil' Madison try to stay up waiting for the lights of mommy's Porsche to pull up the driveway? What about Tyler, who brought home his shiny new soccer trophy to an empty house? Yes, the children of Illinois are suffering. As mom and dad are fighting for/against the rights of video games, these kids are going without nurture time. Is an hour away from your kid really worth the $750? Will half a million dollars take away the scars of parental neglect? I don't think so. People, let's think about the kids!

via Worthplaying

Strip clubs need to brand too

Top story today on CBS in LA: Judge rules that GTA: San Andreas did not infringe on an LA strip club's trademark by featuring a look-alike club in the game. (No joke, it's categorized under top story. God, I hate local news.)

The LA PlayPen Gentleman's Club (the real club) has their panties in a bunch (they really are in a bunch, over there, in that box at the corner) as they lose out on this brand infringement case. The in-game strip club is named Pig Pen, and frankly that's way too close for comfort for the owners of PlayPen. In addition, the game designers apparently fashioned the interior of the game club to be quite similar as well. Makes you wonder what kind of texture-hunting trip that must have been:

"Dave, get a shot of this floor, high res please"

"Dave, did you get the matted velvet there, that's going to look good."

Regardless, the judge cites "artistic" interpretation and rules in favor of Rockstar. It's a damn shame too, because I'm sure the club has suffered serious losses due to the in-game clone. I, for one, have been looking forward to going in there and busting a cap on some asses, maybe slap a few ho's and sucker punch a bouncer or two. Unfortunately, the PlayPen establishment is not that kind of place so don't even think about it. It's a classy joint that I'm sure has a great 3PM buffet, right before the balloon artist stops by for the kids. So don't even try to think "GTA" in a respectable joint like this k?

Might as well face it...

"Expert" (note the quotes, dammit if I didn't already reveal my stance in the first word of this post) psychologist Maressa Orzack says that as much as 40% of WoW players are addicted to the game. TwitchGuru has an interview with the expert. Here are some choice quotes:

Orzack: A lot of people are asking me to get help for their teenaged children, boyfriends, spouses and sometimes themselves.
Q: So more often than not, the addicted person isn't seeking help?
Orzack: That's correct. Usually, some type of intervention is needed.

And who exactly will be doing this intervention? Is it dad on the couch watching football? Or mom out shopping compulsively?

Q: [Are] the issues at home more of a problem than the actual games themselves?
Orzack: No, I disagree. You can't say that about Blizzard, which structures the games like World of Warcraft to be addictive. They design these MMORPGs to keep people in the game.

As opposed to what exactly? Is it really possible to distinguish between designing the game to maximize playability and designing it to be addictive? Are television producers guilty of designing shows to be addictive? I'm guessing 100% of season viewers of Lost are addicted.

Orzack: It's called variable ratio reinforcement, which basically means that you keep playing or gambling and failing until you reach your intended goal, but once you reach that goal, you still keep playing. [emphasis theirs]

Doesn't VRR basically describe everything? I mean, seriously, when has the world given you static ratio reinforcement? And if it did, how quickly did you get bored with that?!

I think there needs to be warning labels on MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, similar to warning labels on cigarettes. People should know that these games are potentially harmful.

It'll look like this: Warning: This game features content that has been found to be highly addictive. In addition, this product causes aggressive behavior, unprotected sex and a penchant for wearing clothes that do not match.

Ok, look. I'm not denying that there's definitely a problem with game (and MMORPG) addiction out there. But to say that 40% of players are addicted and to suggest a warning label is ridiculous. People are going to like doing things that make them feel good. Some people are going to be addicted to things that make them feel good. It can be food, sex, nicotine, working out, dancing, singing, whatever. The fact that things get taken out of control are rarely (nicotine and other brain altering chemicals aside) the fault of the actual thing being consumed. The only way to avoid addiction is to take away everything that makes people feel good.

40% of WoW players are not addicted, they're enjoying themselves and perhaps prefer the game to other things. If 40% were truly addicted, we'd hear about all the jobs being lost, the pawning of personal belongings for the broadband fees and the sex market for heroic armor. We're talking millions of people here. No, these people are not addicted, they're having fun. God forbid we're allowed to do that anymore.

What this is is blatant alarmism. Google the "expert" and you'll find an informative little site on addiction, "computer" addiction that is. The site looks circa 1999 and Warcraft seems to just be the latest vice on the addiction list here. Now this isn't an outright commercial site but one has to question the doctor's objectivity. If you make a living looking for addicts, how long do you think it'll take before everyone starts looking like an addict?

via Digg

Acclaim announces 2Moons; directed by David Perry

Just a bit of news for you guys:

Acclaim's third game is 2Moons, a violent mmorpg that promises to shake things up in the mowgee world. What's especially exciting is that 2Moons is directed by David Perry, founder of Shiny Entertainment who's past work included Earthworm Jim (such a sweet game) and Enter the Matrix (bullet time!).

What can a player expect from this game? I'm pretty confident that this is the first mmorpg with graphic animated violence. Lots of violence, blood and gore. Yup, clean-up on aisle 2, 5, 8 and 11 please!

My favorite quote:

“Violence in games is just an issue if you’re not being honest about the violence in your games,” added Perry. “I’m doing my best to make this a violent game.”

Hey, we're nothing if not honest around here. You can read more at mmorpg.com, the news just dropped earlier this morning.

Voice changer offers new features

Remember that post about the voice changer software that let girls pretend to be guys in games? Well, this release about new features just came across the wire. I'll let the press release speak for itself:

AV Voice Changer Software Diamond is built with 30 stunning audio effects able to color your voice and create more special ambience, such as Radio, Reverberation, Orchestra, Raindrops, Big Hall, Behind the Wall, Cool Stereo, just to name a few. Also, 250 new effects are available in the online library where you can free access and download them to enrich your collection and have more choices of fun. You now have a total control over your voice making it warm, sweet, romantic, gentle, impressive, or even shocking and creepy the way you like. Especially, users will be absolutely contented with the real-time audio effect mixer which can morph your voice in a millisecond allowing them to enjoy the output at once.

OMG! Take a moment to let that sink in. Just brace yourself for the wave of fun coming to online games with these "250 new effects"! Can you imagine?!

Oh, I can't wait! I've always wanted to make my voice "impressive". And let's face it, there's been days when you just can't muster up "sweet". With this, those days are gone! GONE! I can't wait to try all 250 effects. Think I can do it in less than an hour?

WoW & MySpace share a cup of sugar & more

There is a land far from here where the roads are paved with gold, the trees bear chocolate-covered fruit and money, hmm is that something people worry about? There are no flights to this land, no tall ships accenting the portraitesque harbors and each well-heeled citizen will tell you a different way to get there. Let me introduce you to the land of Popular Culture (Popucu to those in the know). The fabled place where all the rich and famous, be it people or brands or trends, go to mingle and interbreed.

Now that we're all caught up, BN is proud to announce an exciting new segment: the latest news from Popucu!

Just the other day, in an elaborate oceanside ceremony, the two wealthiest families in Popucu got a little bit closer. In what will surely be the first of many unions, the WoW clan delivered a gilt-edged dowry and moved a fair-haired daughter into the friendly house of the MySpace family. There was much rejoicing in Popucu.

In short (hehe, too late right?), WoW has an official MySpace page.

This is a pretty good looking corporate MySpace page. Surprisingly, it satisfies both the brand manager and gamer in me. The former is happy with the abundance of imagery, branding, product info and viral fodder. Throughout the page, there are no wasted areas. Each section is either selling the game to newbs or giving fans the tools to push the game to others. Even the layout of the page is purposeful with the top dedicated to selling and the bottom catering to those more than likely already playing.

The gamer in me enjoys the goodies and content interpretations of a game I'm very familiar with. It's a one stop shop for branding myself a WoW fan on MySpace and beyond. It's probably nothing a true fan hasn't seen before but for a casual fan, it's a goldmine. The forum capabilities is a great feature. I got a good laugh that none of the top images in the screenshot competition is an actual screenshot and that the survey stinks of ripe kitschy cheese.

What's probably the most interesting is the bottom of the page where the expected MySpace friends list and comments section make this the unique marriage that it is. There's no doubt that these two titans of Gen Y pop culture have similar demographics. Suddenly, the veil is lifted and you have a real life list of those fuzzy dots in the Venn diagram. This, my friends, is a marketer's wet dream.

As much as I like this convergence, I don't think they went far enough. I wish the MySpace WoW skin tool was a little more robust. Right now, you can generate a generic page based on several templates. What would have been more interesting is if they allowed you to input your own character info or screenshots within that skin. Better yet, tap into the WoW database and update my stats in real time on MySpace. This is a convergence of two Internet-based properties and yet it still somewhat feels like a consumer packaged goods company could have done the same thing.

As far as a first try goes, this is excellent. I'm guessing that WoW didn't pay anything to MySpace for this page. Not that they didn't get the MySpace blessing and did it under the table but that this is most likely a "value add" to a media buy WoW purchased on MySpace. There have been WoW banner ads on MySpace for a while now and MySpace more than likely threw in this page with their blessings as part of the package.

So I wonder, will we be seeing anything happening on the other side? Will this relationship find its way into WoW? I'm trying to imagine something that would be cool and acceptable to the players and can't quite think of anything. In fact, it doesn't appear that MySpace is trying to benefit from this at all. WoW is no doubt driving some traffic from their own site to this page and I'm sure there's at least 5 or 6 people that don't have a MySpace page yet, so how come there isn't a more prominent form of a "Join MySpace" message on this page directed towards WoW players? Oh well, there's always one side giving more into a relationship.

via Joystiq

The plan for the weekend

I'm heading out of town this weekend (starts today) so normal posts may be unpredictable.

Abnormal posts, however, will be the plan.

Stay tuned...

[Sunday evening update: I totally lied, sorry. Would have posted but I got "wired" and then couldn't get "wired". hehe ]

Is physics that thing nerds study?

NPR's All Things Considered featured a story (hit link and click listen) today on a new device most hard-core gamers are already familiar with: the PhysX physics engine. It does for in-game physics what graphics cards do for in-game visuals. The goal of PhysX is to make games appear more "real". The question is, do we want things to be more real?

NPR's commentator, Jake Halpern, thinks "real" is not why we play games. He can do with less "real".

I agree.

We play games to escape the harsh realities of the world, gravity and all. Reality, we don't need no stink'n reality. I can't really fly a plane or drive a car at 156 mph but I want to think that I can. Reality tells me I can't. If a toss a grenade in the general direction of a zombie, I really don't want to think about velocity or if the "wind" is blowing towards me. Reality says, bad gust and you're dead! If a physics engine forces me to obey laws of nature I've enjoyed ignoring in the past, I'm not sure I'd want one. I'm ok playing forever in "arcade mode", thank you very much.

and... I also disagree.

Physics chip awesome! Me likey things splode pretty. BOOM! Ha ha ha! SPLat! Whee! Dead things fall funny. More more! Wicked blood spurt dude! Dude, check out the bouncy bouncies! Vavavoom! Hehe, physics is schweet.

Hehe, he said bouncy bouncies.

Measuring MMORPG success

Via Clickz, an Universal McCann study shows that by market share, 89.1% of MMORPGs are of the fantasy genre. This is, of course, significantly skewed by WoW and the two Lineages which together account for 72% of that total.

Not a surprise but it does make me wonder. With fantasy playing such a huge role in the market, where are we in the lifecycle of the MMORPG? (Such an ugly acronym, let's just call it mowgee, a term coined by ionicwings of mowgee.com)

Is the mowgee game form mature? Perhaps what we're seeing is the best that it'll get and fantasy is the only genre that really work in mowgees. On the other hand, what we're seeing may just be the very beginning of the market and fantasy just happens to work right now. So which is it, mature or immature?

I'm going to lean towards immature. I believe fantasy mowgees are just in the lead and not the only genre that works for mowgees. Fantasy mowgees have been successful because they've been propelled by two major factors. The first is the groundwork laid down by tabletop D&D. You create enough elaborate rules and you liberate fantasy worlds from books. Then, you borrow these rules (and everyone's acceptance of them) and your job of creating a new world online is much more simple. This ties into the second reason: the success of Everquest as the first 3D mowgee. EQ found a secret sauce of visual candy, gameplay and community that pretty much guaranteed we'd see fantasy mowgees for some time to come. Resources always follow a successful proof of concept. Although fantasy has a head start, other genres will eventually catch up once they figure out their respective rules and experience their proof of concepts.

But there's another reason mowgees are still immature. Let's look at revenue. According to the same article, Jupiter Research estimates annual revenue to be $350 billion. What? Billion?! Hold on a sec, this is a bad typo. The ESA estimates the entire video game industry to be approximately $7 billion. So let's ignore the "b" and assume the writer meant $350 million. With that, mowgees roughly account for 5% of the game industry. Not exactly a dramatic percentage. Have we reached the peak? I don't think so. I'm going to justify this opinion on two factors. Mowgees are cheap and a specific demo is playing them.

Let's crunch some numbers. On average, mowgee players play 9 hours a week, that's 36 hours a month or 432 hours annually. I estimate the annual spend is $240 ($60 to purchase game, $15 a month). That comes out to $0.55 per hour of gameplay. You can't beat that kind of entertainment value. People pay lots more for far less valuable entertainment. With that said, there's definitely money left on the table. In other words, with such an attractive value proposition (literally) mowgees should have the potential to extract more dollars from the consumer space, if the right mowgees are available.

This brings me to the second factor: Most mowgee players are male, 18 to 34. Again, the question is similar to the fantasy situation above. Are mowgees limited to this demographic because male players are the only ones that would play any mowgee or is it because the currently available mowgees are appealing to male players? I'm going to have to go with the latter. There's a ton of things I could talk about regarding bringing in other demos (females, for instance) but I won't go there. That topic are for another time. Let's just agree there's potential in other mowgee types to bring in new people.

My belief is that the mowgee is a medium rather than today's defined set of products (just as movies should not be defined merely by a summer's list of blockbusters). What we're seeing today is more than likely the beginning of the mowgee as an entertainment medium. The age of the fantasy mowgee played by males will pass but I don't think it'll take the mowgee form with it. When I see the 89.1% figure, it actually makes me excited because I think it signals the top of this trend. At this point, there's no where for fantasy mowgees to go but down.

So to answer the question I posed waaaay up there. Where are we in the lifecycle of the mowgee? We are more than likely very near the inflection point between introduction and growth. I think the first adopters have made it clear that given the right content, it's fun and affordable. Like all things entering the growth stage, the next move is to appeal to the mass consumer. Surely, the fun has just begun. (And stop calling me Shirley)

E3: Stages of Grief

It's been 3 days and as an industry, we've dealt with the loss nobly. In fact, we should probably move on and get back out there, maybe start dating other conventions. You know, just a casual thing, nothing serious.

Denial
Business Week - "It's too early to declare E3 officially dead. Pachter says while E3 in its current form is no longer, exhibitors will continue to come out in force."

Anger
Engadget - "It's simply not always feasible for hundreds of companies to round up retail professionals and game journalists the world over to show off new product in bits and pieces throughout the year every year -- which is why we have massive shows..."

Bargaining
VGGen - "Surely other parties will return to the table, keeping E3 almost as big an event as it was before, even if the crowds are drastically reduced from previous years."

Depression
GameSpot - "At the same time, I've come to recognize that the madness of E3 is something special. I will miss the sheer grandeur of the show, its media-circus atmosphere."

Acceptance
Penny Arcade - "As soon as we engaged our minds it made a lot of sense. It's a big move, but that Goddamn thing essentially arrests the entire industry for months. For that reason alone I'd be glad to see it gone, as much as I've enjoyed the annual bacchanal."

All quotes are shamelessly taken out of context to fit the needs of this post. Have a nice day!

The girl has a great personality

Just surfing around MediaWeek, minding my own bid'nes and ran into this ad. Call me crazy but I do pay attention to online ads. This particular ad is about as attractive as that sorority burping contest years ago. And yet, just like the contest, I couldn't help but be intrigued.

Clicking the ad unit took me to InsideVideoGames.com, a game site for those in the industry endearingly referred to as "suits". Not only that, the site leans towards marketing and advertising. How wonderful is this? I think I'm going to cry.

Unfortunately, my initial euphoria was quickly replaced by that awkward feeling you get the morning after a beer-goggle-induced rendezvous (Not that I've ever had one, just channeling my writer's imagination). Like the ad unit, the site is fugly. The navigation is atrocious. The worse part: if you click on an external article, they hijack your window with their own top frame. Web designers need to realize this is about as appealing as grandma chaperoning your prom.

But hey, I'm a team player. Clenching my jaw, I take in the entire experience and find the site to be quite comprehensive and timely. What is most interesting is that the site is an ugly stepchild of Adweek, Billboard, Hollywood Reporter and Nielsen. Although all four of these properties dabble in games, none are what you would call authorities. This makes me wonder what sort of strategy is playing out here?

Is this site merely a merging of separate properties owned by the same media group (VNU) in an attempt to generate extra revenue? Or is this the beginning of something new, a test of a potentially new game marketing/advertising media company?

Prey is fun

After several weeks of intermittent playtime, I finally got through Prey. Now I'm not usually in the business of reviewing games but I really have to make an exception here:

This game is so freak'n fun!!

...

...

...

(What?)
(What do you mean "Is that it"?)
(You want to know why it's fun? Umm, can't you just take my word for it?)
(Geez, fine, ok, but I'm telling you, I'm not good at this review stuff.)

Ahem ahem. Prey is fun because...

Innovative elements

• Portals: These are little rips in space that transport you around the game. (Think Rand al Thor... What? You don't read Wheel of Time? Nevermind.)
• Gravity: It's not a law, it's all relative in Prey. Ceilings are floors are walls are ceilings again.
• Death: Not a problem, it just slows you down but you're right back at it in a few seconds.
• Story: Hey, there is one, it's not Shakespeare but it worked.

How it all fits together

I'm not usually a fan of first-person shooters. I find them to be mind-numbing. Most FPS games require me to strap on horse blinders and only pay attention to what's in front of me. In Prey, I was immersed in the environment, all x, y and z of it. I constantly found myself craning my neck over the horizon, trying to get a glimpse of what I'll experience next (I'm being figurative, if I did crane my neck, I'd see the office couch behind my monitor). I credit this immersion to the visuals and game design, which leaned heavily on those innovative elements. The portals threw level predictability out the door, you never knew where you would end up. The casual gravity made you pay attention to everything around you; goodbye FPS blinders.

This analogy is often over-used but I truly found the game to be a roller coaster ride. One of the most interesting design elements is that you never really "die" in the game. Instead, your character is taken to a "time-out" where you gather strength and come back exactly where you fell. In practice, this means that I don't ever have to "redo" any part of the game. Dying is still frustrating in that I'm taken away from the action and feel the sense of failure but I never leave the game world. Let me repeat that, you could play this entire game through without ever seeing a save or rez load screen.

The final element is the story. It's not a award-winning but it's well-seasoned with captivating moments. Two examples of good story experiences: You have full visual control during cut-scenes so you can look wherever you want, thereby making you feel like you're there. In certain areas of the game, you overhear a radio show that talks about the main plotline, although this has no direct impact in the game, the show adds a great sense of realism.

In summary, this is one that will satisfy your urge to frag things while also tickling your sense of wonder and excitement. Definitely worth the money and the time.

For some more professional reviews, hit IGN, FiringSquad, & GameSpot