Kiichigo

May publishers concerned about second hand games, EA tries to pull some solutions like Cerberus Network (for Mass Effect) and other day-one DLCs, that should make people want to buy new game for €50 instead of older one for say €15-30.

I was thinking about re-inventing Expansion Packs, yeah good old Expansion Packs, not this 2-5 hours DLCs, but full blown expansion packs. But then we could go a bit further.

Say we release something like BioWare’s Mass Effect, or Bethesda’s Fallout 3, which is FPS/RPG, for convenience let’s call it Platform Game (not platformer) because we’ll use this game as a Platform for others. Then we could release another game, based on , which will be able to run stand-alone say for €35 or users might buy Expansion (Plugin) for Platform for €25. Prices are rather Abstract, but this Expansion/Plugin games will be standing somewhere in a middle between DLCs and Full games. The don’t have to follow story or concept, just share graphics and some gameplay features with Platform. We could base Adventure/RPG Plugin on FPS/RPG Platform for example.

Of course another way to make players benefit from buying new games is to include something useful. Say we could use CloudComputing for AIs instead of Consoles/PCs CPUs. If you bought used you’ll stuck with “standart AI” but those who bought new, can use ever-evelolving cloud AI. But this should be optional, I hate and definitely won’t buy single player game that requires Internet connection to even start it.

Concept

Genre: Action RPG, Sandbox.
Online: Cooperative, Pop-in.
Inspiration: GTA, Alpha Protocol Trailers, Fallout, FarCry 2.

Setting

Time: 2018-2024.
Tone: Game should throw protagonist from cynical to idealistic choices. And lots of dark humor =).
Somewhere in Middle-East, maybe Iraq, or some other bombed country. America and NATO moved somewhere else. Only forces present is random PMCs, small contingent of so-called-peace-keepers from Russia, some more so-called-peace-keepers from China, corrupt Iraq military and bunch of religious fanatics here and there. This parties does not confront each other openly, they rather use Cold War like strategy, to use a lot of indirect proxies to do their bidding. What a nice place to live.

Maybe it could be even funnier to play, if we can add some religious piligrims from all over the world, starting from Buddhism and even Scientology 0_o.

Player is journalist from neutral country like Swiss, or maybe some weak country that did not played any role in ME like Macedonia or Montenegro. Player can choose his agenda from some presets: save sex partner, investigate friends death, steal some money and transfer them to offshore, help transport cocaine to Moscow and Europe etc.

Gameplay

Player can change his or her goals any time. Protagonist can become Idealist or Cynic, or whatever player wants. Somewhere in a middle of a game, or near end Protangonist may be able to create and maintain his own stronghold.

Player also can go to confrontation hot spots, and join one of the sides, or snipe both sides. I’m not sure what’s would be the motivation yet though. Maybe some side bonuses and/or side quests, or to improve Sandbox feeling.

RPG System divided in three circles: Skills, Knowledge and Feats.
Skills: Good old skills, drop points here to improve your shooting, ducking, swimming, jumping etc.
Feats: Add feats to learn more stuff, you can futher improve quality of feats by putting skill points in them.
Knowledge: My favorite part. Knowledge will allow you to open more dialog option, blend in different anclaves, for example you can try to infiltrate russian moonshine factory if you have enough knowledge in chemistry, cooking and humor, or newly build Synagogue with exceptional knowledge Jewish History and Judaism.

Game Reviews, Articles and News

Kotaku^RSS|Twitter – Game Blog, the best one.
EuroGamer^{RSS|RSS:News|RSS:Reviews|Twitter|Twitter:Reviews} – Reviews with actual critics.
GameTrailers^Twitter – Video Reviews, you can listen to them while doing some work .
Zero Punctuation^RSS|Twitter – Good critical review once a week.
The Escapist Magazine^RSS|Twitter – Tons of interesting articles about games, quite interesting points of view too.

About Game Dev

GamaSutra^{RSS:News|RSS:Articles| RSS:Columns} – Just go there, don’t ask.
PlayValue Video Podcast^{RSS|iTunes HD} – One of the best podcasts about game history, also available in HD. Unfortunately hosts don’t update it since 2008.
GameCareerGuide^{RSS:News|RSS:Articles} – Nice Articles.

Publishers, Shops and Services

Steam^Twitter – – Valve’s Steam.
Good Old Games^RSS – Get a fix for your nostalgia, get good old games **.
EA^Twitter – I still think they are evil .

People might be interested in

Geoff Keighley^Twitter – GTTV and Bonus Round Host.
N’Gai Croal^Twitter – I’m not really sure who the hell is he.

* Yeah I know – I forgot to mention GameSpot, IGN and other shitty game sites.
** In case it’s not yet copyrighted, I’m copyrighting in right now and here!.
*** Twitter does not pay me yet, I just find it useful for me.

Dear Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony

I’m going to offer you something you might be interested in, as it seems you all have interest in social networks.

In brief

I want you to let me sell HTML/JS and Flash widgets from your online stores.

Long version

You guys created great pieces of equipment, I really fond of current generation. But I think there is place for improvement – place for applications. I understand that there is security and piracy concerns, but there is swift and painless solution – AJAX and Flash widgets.

Both AJAX and Flash apps can be fully black-boxed, they can be built in a way they don’t have access to system at all. Yet they can bring power of RIA to end-users: usage of modern social networks like Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, utilities for weather, time or email checker, even some cute yet pointless widgets that people like anyways.

Once again, it might bring edge to you consoles that some of you search.

David.
Rich Internet Application Consultant/Developer.

I was just hit by random idea — World of Warcraft could be quite nice place for Viral Marketing:

• It can be easily extended via LUAScript and XML.
• It has 10+ million users.
• Users who actually agree to pay for internet services.

Maybe I should re activate my account .
Friend of mine showed me some nice links: in game browser, in game games 0_o.

Imagine: if you could sit on your sofa, and view new content on YouTube or MetaCafe (well you can do this with PS3 + Linux). Or add your MySpace, Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin contacts to Multiplayer game, or simply check email. Those who played with PlayStation 3 + Linux installation will understand me.

But for some time I thought that consoles will remain closed market for small business, and we have to agree, Twitterific and other Web 2.0 client is far from $20M Game . But recent news: Nintendo announced video service (Kotaku, Reuters), and Sony opening PlayStation platform for developers, led me to conclusion that Gaming consoles may become quite popular market for RIAs of next generation, there is more than 200 millions consoles on the market:

• Wii: 34, 000, 000 +.
• XBox 360: 25, 000, 000+.
• PlayStation 2: 140, 000, 000+ (yeah more than 140 millions).
• PlayStation 3: 17, 000, 000+.

Currently all of them trying to create own Web 2.0 like content: Mii, XBox Live Avatars, PlayStation Home and LittleBigPlanet, but I hope that this markets will open it’s doors for popular services too.

Here is my thoughts about iPhone as gaming platform after short trip to mountains.

Tilting is not that good in moving trasnport: I tried to use tilt while was in not vertical position (lying on backseat of a car), and I haven’t enjoyed it. I also expect tilt to have problems in underground/subway, since trains wobble and change speed from time to time, but have not tested it, and could not find and info on the net. It’s not a big issue unless hardest level of difficulty is selected.
Solution: always leave buttons as alternative control scheme.

No buttons: while it could be a subjective, I could not play games comfortably without buttons, yeah, you can put “buttons” on screen, but then I had to lift my fingers from time to time, to check if I’m still pressing right button.
Solution: to use stylo, Nintendo DS utilizes style, and it does not over whole button, it just needs to cover 2-3 square pixels.

Battery life: Nintendo DS and Playstation Portable has option to change battery, which could be helpful on long trips, iPhone 3G with high brightness die pretty fast.
Solution: to buy chargers for planes, trains, cars instead of extra battery packs.

It’s not that bad, but just as Mac OS X, iPhone is not shaped with gaming in mind. I doubt that spoiled by Sony and Nintendo gamers will enjoy iPhone, but casual gamers could find it enjoyable. So the bottom line is: iPhone has all the chances to become best gaming phone, of Apple will work in this direction, but I don’t see 10-20 million sold games ($15-35 each) sales for iPhone. IMO that leaves iPhone for indie developers and PR, MLM and Viral Marketing campanings, but not mainstream gaming.

Btw, does any one know, whenever Apple plans to enable games on Apple TV?

Update

According to comment I received on my email, it’s also hard to tilt when player is stoned.

That’s just awesome, 1920×1080@60fps, rock solid product from Liverpool Studios.