Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Game Prices
It's occurred to me that the game companies may be following out dated pricing and sales systems. Valve discovered through experimentation on Steam that temporary price cuts could dramatically increase profits. This really should not be a new thing. Many other stores have been doing this for years.
Often the main limitation on doing big sales, are places like Walmart that simply price things as low as they can, and still turn a profit. This forces other companies to either inflate their normal prices, (when compared to discount stores) or lose money on items they cut prices on for the sale boost.
Games however, are generally unique, preventing the heavy price competition other products deal with. Each game company has a monopoly on their game, allowing them to charge much more money if people want to play it.
I'm beginning to think the lack of competitive pricing may be hurting the game industry as a whole. If a game launched with a big short sale, it could build more hype, and get more noticed. It's best to pull in as many people as possible, early, instead of waiting until later when there's more competition to unleash the tempting offers and deals.
A simple thought experiment regarding the new game Champions Online coming out: Champions Online is made by the same company that made the still running City of Heroes game. Due to both games featuring heavy character customization, and superheroes, there's likely to be a lot of overlap in who the two games appeal to.
So, since both CoH (City of Heroes) and CO (Champions Online) are competing for players, and both charge $15 a month for their subscriptions, the two biggest factors for many players is likely to be newness (CO is new, CoH is not) and price. Which means if CO were to cut their price in half or more (down to $25 or less) there would be a lot less reason for current players of CoH to not try out CO. If they went as low as $15 for the first month (maybe include 3 months free with the retail purchase so it can remain a high cost item) then they could probably steal a lot of customers from CoH.
Often the main limitation on doing big sales, are places like Walmart that simply price things as low as they can, and still turn a profit. This forces other companies to either inflate their normal prices, (when compared to discount stores) or lose money on items they cut prices on for the sale boost.
Games however, are generally unique, preventing the heavy price competition other products deal with. Each game company has a monopoly on their game, allowing them to charge much more money if people want to play it.
I'm beginning to think the lack of competitive pricing may be hurting the game industry as a whole. If a game launched with a big short sale, it could build more hype, and get more noticed. It's best to pull in as many people as possible, early, instead of waiting until later when there's more competition to unleash the tempting offers and deals.
A simple thought experiment regarding the new game Champions Online coming out: Champions Online is made by the same company that made the still running City of Heroes game. Due to both games featuring heavy character customization, and superheroes, there's likely to be a lot of overlap in who the two games appeal to.
So, since both CoH (City of Heroes) and CO (Champions Online) are competing for players, and both charge $15 a month for their subscriptions, the two biggest factors for many players is likely to be newness (CO is new, CoH is not) and price. Which means if CO were to cut their price in half or more (down to $25 or less) there would be a lot less reason for current players of CoH to not try out CO. If they went as low as $15 for the first month (maybe include 3 months free with the retail purchase so it can remain a high cost item) then they could probably steal a lot of customers from CoH.
It can be hard to keep up when the world changes so fast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHWTLA8WecI
My favorite part was around 1:51 where it's mentioned that current schools need to prepare students for jobs that don't yet exist, using technologies that haven't been invented yet, to solve problems that we don't know are problems yet.
With the rate at which new things come, can we keep up?
My favorite part was around 1:51 where it's mentioned that current schools need to prepare students for jobs that don't yet exist, using technologies that haven't been invented yet, to solve problems that we don't know are problems yet.
With the rate at which new things come, can we keep up?
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Attention demands
When I read that Champions Online was expanding their power bar from 7 to 14 slots, I got a little concerned. How many of those powers would I need to pay attention to?
In City of Heroes, I found that once I got more than 4 or so click powers, I'd start getting worn out really fast by the effort and attention required to manage them. I'm generally not comfortable using more than 3 powers most of the time.
One character I've stopped playing for this very reason was a radiation/sonic defender. I found near the end, that trying to use 6 different abilities which each have their own independent cool down, caused me enough stress to make it very much not fun.
Written on 20090719
In City of Heroes, I found that once I got more than 4 or so click powers, I'd start getting worn out really fast by the effort and attention required to manage them. I'm generally not comfortable using more than 3 powers most of the time.
One character I've stopped playing for this very reason was a radiation/sonic defender. I found near the end, that trying to use 6 different abilities which each have their own independent cool down, caused me enough stress to make it very much not fun.
Written on 20090719
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Looking forward to Champions Online.
What I've seen of Champions Online through previews, and developer interviews, has made me rather excited about it. However, most of my excitement comes from the desire to really delve into the character creation and figure out how all the various power options in the game work. I've often had great fun messing with character creation in CoH, and in fact, I find the creation and experimentation to be my favorite part of CoH, and often the only reason I play. Champions Online promises an even greater amount of creative freedom, and the ability to mess around with things a lot more.
What I fear, is that I will run into the same problem I always run into. My enjoyment of the game will come almost entirely from the creative aspects, and actual gameplay will become the chore that must be done to enjoy the parts I love.
One example of the sort of problem I've had in the past was Diablo II. I'd get the idea to try building a character around a certain power. Sometimes it would be a power available early, and it'd be great. Other times, it'd be something only available late, and I'd have to try slogging through the game long enough to get there. Often, I'd get bored first, and never finish my concept. I have a lot of incomplete Diablo II characters that never managed to really explore the concepts I had built them for.
Written on 20090711 (yyyymmdd)
What I fear, is that I will run into the same problem I always run into. My enjoyment of the game will come almost entirely from the creative aspects, and actual gameplay will become the chore that must be done to enjoy the parts I love.
One example of the sort of problem I've had in the past was Diablo II. I'd get the idea to try building a character around a certain power. Sometimes it would be a power available early, and it'd be great. Other times, it'd be something only available late, and I'd have to try slogging through the game long enough to get there. Often, I'd get bored first, and never finish my concept. I have a lot of incomplete Diablo II characters that never managed to really explore the concepts I had built them for.
Written on 20090711 (yyyymmdd)
Friday, July 17, 2009
Regarding the MMO
http://doublebuffered.com/2009/07/14/no-mmorpg-will-ever-beat-world-of-warcraft/
This guy makes some points I hadn't thought of before. They also seem to be some very good points. Such as:
"Unless you have breaks and social hubs built into your game (the waiting-for-the-round-to-end time of CounterStrike can serve this purpose well), players will never develop the long term social ties needed to sustain a community. This is also why there’s never been a good MMORTS: the amount of brainpower needed to manage units in a way that engages RTS players doesn’t leave a whole lot left over to build social bonds."
I kinda feel like that was the core observation of the article. The one of greatest import (at least for me).
This guy makes some points I hadn't thought of before. They also seem to be some very good points. Such as:
"Unless you have breaks and social hubs built into your game (the waiting-for-the-round-to-end time of CounterStrike can serve this purpose well), players will never develop the long term social ties needed to sustain a community. This is also why there’s never been a good MMORTS: the amount of brainpower needed to manage units in a way that engages RTS players doesn’t leave a whole lot left over to build social bonds."
I kinda feel like that was the core observation of the article. The one of greatest import (at least for me).
Monday, July 13, 2009
Game Core Mechanics
It occurred to me that CoH's main gameplay can be little more than hitting buttons at the right time. When the power lights up because it's ready for use, you hit the button to use it. There is a lot of strategy involved in creating a character, and deciding how to use it, but once that's done, the actual use of the character, tends to not be very deep. The bit about hitting the button when it says it's ready, reminds me of DDR.
Another thing that occurred to me, is that the common boss design in action games, where there's a visible animation before a big attack that needs to be either dodged or blocked, is in many ways similar to a quicktime event, in that it's just hitting the right button when the onscreen cue tells you to. Though quicktime events tend to be more straight forward (making them easier) and often involve having the character do feats not normally possible in the game mechanics.
With regard to the block when told mechanic. One varient I thought was neat was something I encountered in Skies of Arcadia. In the ship to ship battles, there would be a colour code to each segment of time in battle. The colour told you how dangerous a given moment would be. This generally encouraged you to block during the most dangrous ones. However, the most dangerous segments were often the ones in which you could do the most damage too. So there was a choice there between blocking, or gunning, and the different weapon types actually offered more than two ways of handling it.
I really don't know if these things I've observed are good things or bad things. I do know, that I often wish things were different, but I don't know what I'd want it to be. I'm reminded of how I love building decks for Magic The Gathering, but don't have much interest in playing the game. However, if I don't play, I can't learn how well my decks work. So the gameplay becomes a kind of chore I have to get through to do what I like. I find I have similar sentiments about most games that I play, and don't know how to fix it. I fear that even if I did find a game that did things in a way I really liked, I'd probably finish it too quickly due to it not being feasable to produce enough quality content to really keep me interested a long time. Sorta like how I can read books far faster than their authors can write.
Written on 20090710 (yyyymmdd)
Another thing that occurred to me, is that the common boss design in action games, where there's a visible animation before a big attack that needs to be either dodged or blocked, is in many ways similar to a quicktime event, in that it's just hitting the right button when the onscreen cue tells you to. Though quicktime events tend to be more straight forward (making them easier) and often involve having the character do feats not normally possible in the game mechanics.
With regard to the block when told mechanic. One varient I thought was neat was something I encountered in Skies of Arcadia. In the ship to ship battles, there would be a colour code to each segment of time in battle. The colour told you how dangerous a given moment would be. This generally encouraged you to block during the most dangrous ones. However, the most dangerous segments were often the ones in which you could do the most damage too. So there was a choice there between blocking, or gunning, and the different weapon types actually offered more than two ways of handling it.
I really don't know if these things I've observed are good things or bad things. I do know, that I often wish things were different, but I don't know what I'd want it to be. I'm reminded of how I love building decks for Magic The Gathering, but don't have much interest in playing the game. However, if I don't play, I can't learn how well my decks work. So the gameplay becomes a kind of chore I have to get through to do what I like. I find I have similar sentiments about most games that I play, and don't know how to fix it. I fear that even if I did find a game that did things in a way I really liked, I'd probably finish it too quickly due to it not being feasable to produce enough quality content to really keep me interested a long time. Sorta like how I can read books far faster than their authors can write.
Written on 20090710 (yyyymmdd)
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