rock the bells

It’s not surprising that Wii Music has been overlooked since gamers usually dismiss toys that masquerade as video games. And I’ll gladly concede that Wii Music may not be a good video game, but when I compare Wii Music to Rock Band I can’t help but see Rock Band for what it is; not a music game. That’s because nothing the player does is musical. No, Rock Band is a rock star game and I think most of us can agree that being a musician is not a requirement for rock stardom. If you think about it, even the drums and singing are just fancy controllers for matching colored bars. Wii Music encourages musical creativity where Rock Band does not. If you or your kids want to ‘play musician’ instead of ‘playing rock star’, try Wii Music.

Let me put it this another way. Everyone has music that they enjoy for simple entertainment value, personally that explains my collection of 80’s pop. Many people can also appreciate the musical contributions of specific group(s) or genre(s) on a much deeper level, that’s my Miles, Hendrix, Kid Koala, etc.. Music is not just about fun and entertainment and neither is Wii Music. Rock Band is all about fun, entertainment and maybe even ‘music exploration’ as Harmonix’ founder suggest. Harmonix’ founder also calls Haromonix a music company and Rock Band a music game. But how can Rock Band be about musical if we can program a robot to do it better than a human?

Last thing, I know some will say that Rock Band can teach you to play the drums. I agree and think it’s a great tool for learning some basic coordination. But learning to play the Rock Band drums (or the recorder) does not make you a musician even if it might start you in that direction.

by C.B.Leslie

Our first three dates were sublime and we clicked. Your controls were great, your pacing was wonderful and I always knew what you were thinking. The pressure of the chase was so intense it sent my heart rate up. Then, out of no where, you put on the red light. You went from gazelle on the run to a helpless salmon swimming upstream and everything fell apart. You forced me into combat with every encounter and you gave me no room to gain that wonderful momentum. What happened? I am reading into the fact that your low budget cutscenes got progressively worse with each outing? I bet it was your parents. I thought they were cool with you prototyping your first few dates. Did they force an alpha date on you that just wouldn’t work? God that makes me so angry. Well, I’ts too late for the blame game, Mirror’s Edge, you broke my heart.

Yesterday I downloaded a game called Rolando. Rolando is brilliant in its simplicity; get your circles to the exit. But this isn’t match three simplicity, this has the essence of a triple-A title. It has excellent art and music (provided by Mr Scruff), it has achievements, its credits are a level, it quicksaves your game as soon as you exit. That may sound like a boring list of features but it’s actually the details that make an already fun game an A+ production. Understanding those types of details is a prerequisite to making good games. Yet It has the fit and finish of a $30 DS game and this breed of game could turn Apple into a bona fide gaming outfit.

that's how we roll in rolando

Rolando is tailored to the player; on an iPod, gamers might play for as little as 60 seconds so Rolando is instantly rewarding. Few iPod owners are gamers so Rolando’s developers gradually introduce mechanics while they avoid neutering a gamers enjoyment. It’s the kind of understanding of the user that smacks of Nintendo, and who else should Apple want to target? Nintendo has already fired back at the iPhone by creating the DSi; a DS with a memory card, camera, ‘online market’ and media playback capabilities.

Prices on iPod touches will drop and the DSi will never compete with the iPod as a multi-purpose device. But Nintendo is untouchable when it comes to software. Even something as intuitive and platform specific as Rolando might easily get lost in the herd of shovelware that lives on the App Store plain. What Apple needs is a way to brand their hardware with their software and the solution is to become a first party developer/publisher. 

Apple’s latest MacBooks, which are also Apple’s most popular laptops, now include a low-end gaming GPU and I bet Valve knows how many Macs are playing TF2. Apple has slowly and now more vocally been positioning their hardware as a vehicle for games and the time is right. They just need to capitalize on Steve Jobs’ exit and their billions in liquidity. Come on guys, just grab your balls and create the next Mario.

So the secret of this column is; there will be no WoW-killer. WoW’s position is unassailable. We live in a time when absolute statements like that sound foolish, I don’t mind sounding foolish. I’d love to see a robust and mature MMO market where several games could be successful. But I don’t think that’s the reality. Whatever else is true, you will not be able to beat WoW’s network.

My good friend Matt has put together a great column on the challenges facing MMO developers today. He argues that Blizzard’s network is really why no MMO has ever or will ever come close to competing. I agree with much of what he’s written, but I’ve decided there is a way to beat WOW.

WIIIIIITCH!

It’s because I think there is something more powerful than the network, something that Valve understands about communities of players that Bungie and Infinifty Ward do not. If you’ve played any Halo game you know that there is a point of normalization where the human interactions live. Team Fortress 2 interactions are very different for a variety of reasons but one key reason is how Valve uses play-testing to gain insight into their players. What they call play-testing actually seems to more closely resemble scientific observation than focus testing. Players are given no direction, asked few questions and Valve observes all of their behavior with maximum neutrality. In doing so, Valve is able to craft the experience and even emotional reactions of players. With Left4Dead, Tutrle Rock and Valve created a game that can very accurately predict actual player interactions as well as emotions. You experience this as a player when the voiceover says “we were lucky to get out of there” at the same moment you mention to your friends “thank god, we made it out”. 

This study of player experience and interaction could easily be applied to WOW. Deployed in greater depth and on a huge scale, it would be possible to understand the experiences of individuals and groups that form a matrix of tiny interactions that create a total experience. WOW is arguably a vanilla experience where the users are the sprinkles, the flavor. Armed with tens of thousands of play-testing hours you could evolve those sprinkles, the moments of human interaction, into delicious chunks of candy bar. While at the same time, you could learn where WOW is vanilla and where it is hiding the occasional chocolate chip. Applying this study of experience to an MMO would allow give the player the best opportunities for intelligently designed shared experiences. 

So few games try to create moments of human experience but Left4Dead has shown me that it is possible to create genuine moments, even for hours at a time. Apply that to an MMO and you’ve got a game compelling enough to move an entire network. Anyone remember MySpace?

Turn the blog over to read the second part.

• LittleBigPlanet is full of wonder. It did for me this year what Mario Galaxy did last year; it made me feel like a little kid.
• Despite Left4Dead’s frustrating server system, a good game of L4D is the best multiplayer experience money can buy, and tearing into a survivors soon-to-be-corpse is completely intoxicating.
• WipeOut HD was a perfect introduction to the series. Everything about it is intensexy.
• Castle Crashers is catharsis, baby. Four players, one screen and pure joy.
• World of Goo is perfectly suited to the Wii and its sense of humor is beautifully subtle. 
• Rhythm Heaven is so strangely Japanese and unsurprisingly fun.
• Braid  struck a chord with me. The puzzles were mind bending and the delivery of character was emotional.
• Professor Layton is too smart for me but it’s designed it in such a way that I can still enjoy it.
• Mario Kart Wii has done something amazing. It has made some Drifting intuitive enough for your mom. I wonder how many drifters of the future are training in Mario Kart right now.
• Rolando found its way on my iPhone just in time to be part of 2008. Like Braid and Goo, Rolando carefully layers on the mechanics and is chock full of flavor.

EA says it will lay off a further 4 percent of its workforce as it either consolidates or closes down “at least nine” of its studios. Including the company’s recently-announced headcount reduction, this brings the company’s planned layoffs to 10 percent of its total — 1,000 employees.

..EA recently said its key titles underperformed in the latter part of this year, and as such, alongside the uncertain economic environment, it would need to reduce its financial estimates — and its title portfolio — into the new year. It also recently abandoned its plans to open a third location in Vancouver.

“EA is implementing a plan to narrow its product portfolio to focus on hit games with higher margin opportunities,” said the company in a statement.

“The company remains committed to taking creative risks, investing in new games, leading the industry in the growing mobile and online businesses, and delivering high-quality games to consumers.”

Gamasutra

Looks like EA’s marketing department has cut a trailer for Brutal Legend.

Left 4 Dead takes the crown for Zombie Action games but RE5 revives the Zombie Thriller genre to the current consoles (my beloved Wii is sadly absent). With the exception of the inventory no longer breaking immersion, the gameplay seems like a carbon copy of RE4. Thus far, the addition of the beautiful female partner doesn’t make much of an impact on the feel of the game. I haven’t tried co-op yet but I imagine actually playing with a friend could really change the experience. Like Left4Dead you and your partner can take turns rescuing each other and can share ammo, health, etc. The graphics are lovely even if they are a little pedestrian. The only thing that is a bummer is the lack of attention to detail on the characters that Capcom added to prevent a inevitable PR backlash. Come on people, that Rodney King thing was a fluke.