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Hiatus time…

July 14th, 2010

Brad McGraw

After a bit of discussion Cliff and I decided we need to step back for awhile. Cliff has been carrying far more of the load than he should have, which is my fault, and since I am in the middle of moving and trying to find work, I still don’t have the time to put in. So I am going to concentrate on moving and finding work when I get there (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada), and Cliff is going to work on some of the other projects he has in the works.

Does this mean we are done? I don’t know, we are going to give it a few months and see where we stand. We may not pick it up again, but it all depends on what is happening with us at the time. Cliff said that we had fun and did pretty well, and we should be happy with that. So that ain’t too bad.

So right now all I can do is thank the readers we have had, its been a real joy to chat with some of you and that you have enjoyed our work. Kathy is going to take over from Cliff in updating the game sales page, but it won’t be kept as up to date as when Cliff did it. Things will be updated in the evening instead of during the day.

Something else for you guys…

Here is a list of Open-Sourced games.

Here is a list of Freeware games.

The lists are not complete, but there are a bunch of good free games in there, so I hope you enjoy those. With the economy the way it is, free is a good thing right now.

Again, thank you from all of us.

Brad, Cliff and Kathy

Posted in Miscellaneous

2 Comments »

Battle.net to use RealID for new forums (Updated)

July 7th, 2010

Brad McGraw

(Update) It looks as though Blizzard has backed down from its RealID plans for the moment. After a lot of people expressed concern over the move, Blizzard has decided to listen to the fans. This is what makes Blizzard stand out from other game companies, and why Blizzard fans love the company. Mike Morhaime, CEO and Co-Founder of Blizzard had this to say:

I’d like to take some time to speak with all of you regarding our desire to make the Blizzard forums a better place for players to discuss our games. We’ve been constantly monitoring the feedback you’ve given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we’ve decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums. (see the above link for more)

They are going to continue with the RealID they have been using, and bring that into Starcraft II, but keeping it optional. Which is good, there are benefits to the system so scrapping completely it would have been a bad idea. I do have to point out that Blizzard was just trying to make their forums a better place, I can’t fault them for that.

(/Update)

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Posted in Miscellaneous

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More people still prefer discs to digital downloads

July 4th, 2010

Brad McGraw

In a new report by Ipsos MediaCT they found that 64% of gamers still prefer a physical disc than a digital download. MCV quoted:

“I believe the preference for physical discs amongst next gen gamers reflects the potential value they derive from the pre-owned market, which is holding up the preference for physical – this is unlike the music and film markets,” said Ipsos MediaCT director Ian Bramley.

“Physical games discs have a long and well-established history, which is a deep mindset to change – particularly when gamers build a physical collection as they fear losing digital versions. And in-store browsing is also important to buyers.”

What I would like to know is how many of the 1,000 gamers were Console only, PC only, or both. I think this is where a huge difference comes in. A larger portion of PC gamers are more into digital downloads than console gamers. Console gamers have been able to take more advantage of trade-ins and pre-owned than PC gamers, specially with DRM and registry requirements on PC games. So while I don’t doubt the numbers they are using, I just don’t think it means as much if they don’t categorize Console gamers and PC gamers separately.

Posted in Games

Tags: Console, digital downloads, gamers, PC

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Broadband as a legal right.

July 3rd, 2010

Brad McGraw

From July 1st, Finland has guaranteed that every Finn has access to a 1Mbps line (megabit per second) with a goal of a 100Mbps by 2015.

Speaking to the BBC, Finland’s communication minister Suvi Linden explained the thinking behind the legislation: "We considered the role of the internet in Finns everyday life. Internet services are no longer just for entertainment.

Where I live I don’t even have the option to get a 100Mbps line, I’m currently on a 3Mbps line and while I am not happy with it, I’m not sad about it either. Looking at that 100Mbps goal makes me feel inadequate though, like my ISP just doesn’t measure up and I am less of a man because of it. Yes, I have premature download speed envy.

The UK is also looking at going down the same road, but not offering any guarantees to its citizens. This makes sense because the UK takes a tougher stand on presumed file-sharers with potential of cutting off their internet. Finland is not going down that road.

"We will have a policy where operators will send letters to illegal file-sharers but we are not planning on cutting off access," said Ms Linden.

Posted in Miscellaneous

Tags: broadband, Finland, Suvi Linden

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Politicians, Copyright and ‘Fair Use’

June 17th, 2010

Brad McGraw

Every political cycle there are ads on TV and there are increasing ads on the internet, all of these ads have music of one sort or another. Some campaign ads use original jingles while others use copyrighted material from other artists (usually famous ones.) In the case of the latter, the song might be unchanged or edited for political effect. In either case, the original song is readily apparent. The problem with using artist’s songs is that you have to pay to use them, or get permission. Ironically, the same politicians who will back the RIAA’s overreaching copyright claims are stealing artists’ songs for their own personal gain.

Of course, they claim it’s ‘fair use’, but is it really? Recently Chuck DeVore was sued by Don Henley because he was using Henley’s songs in campaign ads. He claimed ‘fair use’ because he was using parody, but the judge didn’t think that the ‘parody’ or ‘fair use’ exemptions to copyright applied in this case, so Don Henley won his case. This isn’t just Chuck DeVore, every campaign cycle these charges come up against a number of politicians and usually get handled pretty quick. Either through paying for the song, getting permission, or taking down the ad. The issue is it should not be happening at all. Artists do have a right to be paid for their work.

That ruling against Devore supports my opinion that if a politicians chooses to use a song in ads, they either have to pay for it, or get permission to use it. Its not ‘fair use’ because they are looking to personally profit from it. What really irritates me is that they claim innocence when doing this, but they’ll back the music or movie industry when they go after people for legitimate fair use. Politicians need to start walking the walk on this issue.

I’m not going to hold my breath.

Posted in Just my Opinion

Tags: Chuck DeVore, copyright, Fair Use

1 Comment »

Why some E-book publishers are stupid

June 13th, 2010

Brad McGraw

Currently there are a number of formats for e-books and a number of e-book readers, some of which have proprietary e-book formats. The problem with this is that while one of your favourite authors may be read on one reader, not all of your favorites will be available on that reader. This is extremely frustrating as it completely defeats the purpose of being able to have one small device hold the books you want to read. Back when I could afford to buy a reader I looked at which one would best suit my purposes and which authors I could read with them. Which did I buy? None of them. Too many authors spread out among the readers would mean I would have to spend nearly $1,000 just the readers alone. Add the cost of putting my large library of books on them and it just wasn’t worth it. How many other people have come to the same conclusion I have?

I’ve been saying for awhile now that there needs to be one format and that the readers can compete as electronics has always competed. Stereos, cassette players, CD players, MP3 players, all centre around one format and its the pluses and minuses of the electronics that sell the players. This benefits the artists so that their music can be heard no matter the player you are using. This is not the case with e-books. Publishers have to decide which reader best suits them, which one gives them the best revenue back, who has the biggest store to push their authors, etc… None of this actually helps the authors, nor does it help the consumer.

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Posted in Books

Tags: DRM, e-books, Luddites

4 Comments »

EA CEO – ‘the project is only half done when we ship it’

June 11th, 2010

Brad McGraw

EA CEO John Riccitiello sat down with Industry Gamers and talked about E3, 3D Gaming and my pet peeve, the Online Pass. If you haven’t been paying attention the Online Pass means that if you buy a game used, you’ll have to pay $10 to access the game’s online features.

He did say one thing that caught my eye:

I’m a gamer on Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, I play a lot on PC, um…. I’m definitely going to play a fair amount on iPad, iPhones, and once I get my account set up on this Android phone, it’s going to be part of my portfolio. I play FIFA Superstars among other things on Facebook.

Now I’m unemployed, and I don’t have time to play that much gaming. I’m just wondering if he said that because when Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said he wasn’t a gamer anymore, gamers criticized him for that. Maybe he is, I donno, but I really don’t see him in a board room talking about how he worked out how to trap a big daddy and kill him. Somehow I more see him talking about how he loves the power glove.

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Posted in Games, Just my Opinion

Tags: EA, John Riccitiello, project 10 dollar, used sales

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We control the Horizontal. We control the vertical.

May 20th, 2010

Brad McGraw

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to… The Outer Limits

Looking back at this now, its oddly prophetic. What this is all about is something called ’Selectable Output Control’ and the MPAA has won a fight that it has been fighting for the past 2 years. The FCC has decided to allow the MPAA to control your tvs (pdf).

In this order, we act on a request for a waiver of Section 76.1903 of the Commission’s
rules to allow multichannel video programming distributors (“MVPDs”) to disable certain audiovisual outputs on set-top boxes to assure that copy protection is active for certain high-value content, specifically early-release films.

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Posted in Movies and TV

Tags: FCC, MPAA, Selectable output control

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Longbow Games, an interview with an indie dev

May 18th, 2010

Brad McGraw

LongbowLogo

Yes, I know what you’re thinking, ‘Another game centered interview?’. Well, can I help it if the US Justice Department and President Obama don’t want to be interviewed by me? (I know, this shocks me too.) However, I don’t think you’ll mind too much. Longbow Games is an indie developer that just released Hegemony: Philip of Macedon which is being compared to Total War, R.U.S.E. and Age of Empires by many on the net.

Longbow Games is no stranger to success, having won awards for Best Game, Best Design, and Best Programming at the Independent Games Festival for the game Tread Marks in 2000. Sadly, on the heels of this early success, the founder Seumas McNally passed away very shortly afterwards. However, his family has continued on in his absence. They’ve grown the company and spent the last 6 years creating their latest game. With such a small team, what they have been able to achieve is pretty damned impressive.

This interview, which was jointly answered by Jim McNally, President and Game Designer and also Rick Yorgason, Programmer and Webmaster gives you a bit of an inside look at Longbow Games.

How did Longbow Games come about? It seems quite the family affair, is that how it originally started?

Jim: Longbow Games was founded by the late Seumas McNally. Seumas recruited his younger brother Philippe and his parents, Jim and Wendy, to help with game development. Seumas died of cancer in March 2000, shortly after his game “Tread Marks” had won the IGF Grand Prize, which was renamed in his honour. As a consequence, we moved the family/company from rural Northern Ontario into downtown Toronto.

What aspect of getting Longbow Games together did you find the most frustrating and what part did you find the most satisfying?

Jim: Apart from the ultimate frustration of losing Seumas, the most frustrating part of rebuilding Longbow after Seumas was finding the right team members to add to the family core. The most satisfying part of rebuilding Longbow has been having the pleasure of working with Rob, Rick and most recently Clarissa.

You are quite vocal on your website about your feelings about DRM. Has that always been your opinion of DRM, or was there an incident that perhaps led to that?

Rick: That was mostly my doing; the rest of the guys seem to agree with me, but I’m the loud-mouth around the office when it comes to these things.

For a long time, games have been using the “CD in the drive” trick, and I always found it annoying. There was a sort of ritual to buying a game: as soon as I got it home, I had to visit some illicit website to download a “NOCD” crack. The really frustrating part was that, listed right next to the crack I was looking for, I could find a ZIP file with the full game, and the crack pre-applied. I got better service if I didn’t pay for the game.

It was when developers started imposing installation limits that I got really fed up with the whole thing. I think the game that pushed me over the edge was Dreamfall. I bought it straight from FunCom, and I felt pretty betrayed when I bought that and later realized that I was only allowed to install the game on one machine at a time, and I was only allowed to transfer my license once.

Imagine if DVDs were like that! People would raise hell! I wrote a pretty angry email to FunCom after that.

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Posted in Interviews

Tags: DRM, Hegemony: Philip of Macedon, Longbow Games

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Walmart, Best Buy, Toys R Us to be bigger problems than piracy

May 15th, 2010

Brad McGraw

You might have heard that Walmart, Best Buy and Toy R Us are getting back in the used game market. While there is no news about how far into it Toys R Us and Best Buy are going to be doing this, Walmart at least seems to think they can make this work. They are rolling this out to 5 stores and will ‘monitor with great interest’. Walmart is taking a smart approach, going slowly and making sure things work for them. Used sales is a large market and rushing into it as they did before with the kiosks was a bad move. At least they’ve learned some lessons and are taking a more sensible approach.

Right on the heels of this announcement by big box retailers, Andrew Oliver, co-founder of Blitz Games, has said that used sales is more of a problem than piracy. He told Develop: