Video Game News and Miscellany

figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
stienman said:
What they are saying is, "If you publish a game, you MUST provide a preview for free to consumers BEFORE asking for money."

I believe this is actually a positive thing for the consumer.
Click to expand...
I disagree, what they're saying is "You must hide your prices from the consumer." If companies were only required to provide a demo or other free content, that would be one thing, but they're also required to handle all purchases in-game. There is no way for them to get their listing in the Ouya store as a paid app. No way for them to be the top paid app. No way for them to show up in a search for games between $10 - $20. This looses a lot of ways for them to differentiate themselves and thus more games will fall back to deceptive practices to lure gamers in under false pretenses because that's what it will take to function in the Ouya marketplace.

This is a negative thing for gamers, because it's a fallback to the days of the NES, when Nintendo demanded that all games cost $50. Only this time it's a demand that all games be apparently free. Either way it masks costs and makes it harder to differentiate expectations. I think different prices points, advertised as such, is an important part of communication between the seller and the consumer, and this system attempts to remove that from the system as much as possible.
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

stienman said:
Besides, we're really only talking about perhaps 1% of the total games out there, and it's usually obvious from the description of the game whether it's a grinding game, or a puzzle game where you buy level packs, or otherwise.
Click to expand...

Actually, when we're talking about mobile (which is smaller than console in the US, but far from insignificant), which Ouya is functionally using as their model for distro, around 90% of all daily iOS downloads are free downloads. And no, going by the research I've seen, it's not usually obvious. People read those descriptions about as often as they read advertisements (partly because that's what the descriptions often are).


Of course, doing away with F2P won't fix this problem (and I think you're the only one here who is actually pushing that as a solution), but I think you're looking at this in a very black and white where it's either everything-up-front/everyone-same-model vs -Wild-West-of-Mobile.

There's a lot that could be done that's relatively simple in between. Like say, if your "free" puzzle game is really a short demo containing 10% of the game, then in the description, make it clear that this free puzzle game includes the first 5 levels. Don't bury it beneath the fold, or in a block of text, but all the way up front by itself. Not all games using the demo model do this.

Or let's try an in-game imitatable example, CSR Racing. Uses virtual currency to drive upgrades. CSR Racing's app store description is pretty ambiguous but at least they point out that some upgrades cost actual money, and the player has the option to turn of access to real-money upgrades because the game doesn't require it. Also, it lays everything out almost immediately on opening the game by showing you 90% of the game catalog. Compare this, say, to You Don't Know Jack, which doesn't tell you what the tokens mean until you go looking for it, and doesn't make it clear what all of the token purchases even do.

This isn't a model question, this is a presentation question, and it's one that is fixable with time and experimentation (I guess this is where I disagree with Pez :p).
 
Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Why would I want to play PC games in my home on a dinky little crap screen when I could... you know... play them on my friggin' awesome PC and sound system?
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

If the passthrough works all the way (PC-to-handheld-to-TV), that could be intriguing, but I'm not sure why I would want something like that otherwise.

When I want handheld gaming, I'm on the go, and for that I have an iPad and a Vita, which fit perfectly into the pockets of my shoulder-bag.
 
Frank

Frank

THQ will be sold piecemeal at auction on January 22nd, which also happens to be my birthday. That seems fitting somehow.

PLEASE DON'T LET EA GET RELIC, PLEASE DON'T LET EA GET RELIC, PLEASE DON'T LET EA GET RELIC.
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

Hylian said:
NVIDIA announces Project Shield handheld gaming system with 5-inch multitouch display, available in Q2 of this year
Click to expand...
I can't tell what market segment this is meant to be targeting.

Hardcore gamers, the ones who are likely to have a computer with a GTX 650 or better? Why wouldn't they just play their games on their computers with the GTX 650s already?

Gamers on the go, to play when they're on the bus or something? People already have smartphones and tablets for that. On-the-go gaming works best for games that can be easily picked up and dropped when the bus reaches your destination. Angry Birds, Fruit Ninjas, Pokemon, stuff like that. You don't need a brand spanking new device for that.

Casual gamers? See point 2.

Geeks who want the latest cool thing? Maybe, that this isn't exactly a huge market segment.

Dear Nvidia, diversification is good, but I really don't think you've hit a winner here.
 
Far

Far

Maybe I'm not reading this correctly but will this enable me to play any of my steam games currently on my laptop, on the go, so long as it's connected to wifi? Or is it only if connected through the same wifi network?

Cause if I can play xcom on the bus...
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
I'm guessing what they're going for is that anywhere you could stream video (say from a Slingbox or from OnLive) you'd be able to stream the video from the game running on your home PC instead. I'm not sure if many people would have the necessary bandwidth to stream while riding on the bus, but I wouldn't be surprised of couch gaming were a part of that target. After all, one of the big arguments against having a PC instead of a console for couch gaming is that people don't want to have to own two computers, one for the desk and one for the living room. If someone could stream from their powerhouse workstation to their living room, it'd be a big win.

I imagine it'd also be nice for business travelers, if they don't want to lug around a gaming laptop.
 
bhamv3

bhamv3

Aww great, my favorite legendaries are going to end up falling down the tier ladder even more. That always happens when new generations are released.

I remember when my Suicune could terrify every Pokemon it faced. :(
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
One thing about Project Shield that I'm really wondering about, is what makes it a better option than a smart phone paired with something like this: MOGA Mobile Controller? A lot of Android phones can already output over HDMI with the right dongle, some can transmit to a TV via WiFi as well. With the right app for streaming from your home PC, I don't see anything the Shield has that a well equipped smart phone can't.
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

figmentPez said:
One thing about Project Shield that I'm really wondering about, is what makes it a better option than a smart phone paired with something like this: MOGA Mobile Controller? A lot of Android phones can already output over HDMI with the right dongle, some can transmit to a TV via WiFi as well. With the right app for streaming from your home PC, I don't see anything the Shield has that a well equipped smart phone can't.
Click to expand...
But can it output 4K to your TV, man?!

Seriously, why is that even useful? A fixed 4K standard for TVs hasn't even been established.
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

In other words, just like HD TVs, most of the market won't have 4K TVs for years after the standard becomes generally available, and content creation will be a problem until TV manufacturers pick one of the two versions of the standard and stick to it.
 
Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Only a very small minority of people can even tell the difference between high quality 1080p footage and 4k footage. When is enough enough?
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

Azurephoenix said:
Only a very small minority of people can even tell the difference between high quality 1080p footage and 4k footage. When is enough enough?
Click to expand...
Well, progress is normal enough, even incremental progress, it was more a comment that I think that touting 4K HDMI output to TVs is a peculiar thing to have in a handheld system right now, considering that we are likely a couple years away from that being a real competitive feature in the mainstream consumer market.
 
Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

You have to be pretty blind/not give a shit to not tell the difference between SD and HD unless they're watching it on a small screen or SD TV.
 
Gared

Gared

figmentPez said:
Most members of my family can't tell, or don't care about, the difference between SD and HD.
Click to expand...
My parents are the same way. They have two TVs, one SD and one HD, and SD dish service. The big TV downstairs isn't an issue - because it's big, old-ish, and SD - but they recently replaced the upstairs TV that they keep in the dining room/kitchen to watch football and basketball games on while my dad's cooking. It's a nice new 19" flat screen HD TV, and they never even bothered changing the pic size to fit the image to the TV, so they were watching a 15" picture with big black bands on all 4 sides with itty-bitty little action figures running around on it.

If it weren't so sad, it would have been comical.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
My father suffered a detached retina, and even he can tell the difference between HD and SD, though often he doesn't care, cause he's old. I think that's what it boils down to... people who don't care, because 90% of the time they're really just reading a newspaper with the TV on behind it.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Gilgamesh said:
You have to be pretty blind/not give a shit to not tell the difference between SD and HD unless they're watching it on a small screen or SD TV.
Click to expand...
Blind kind of describes my mom and my sister. (When my parents first got a new HDTV my mom didn't like it because the captions displayed smaller and she couldn't read them anymore. She needs glasses but doesn't trust optometrists.) I'm not sure why my dad doesn't care.

They watch on a 37" HDTV, but they use an SD cable box that sends out a 4:3 signal and most channels have letterboxed content. So the TV usually displays a small amount of picture in the center with both letterboxing and pillarboxing on the sides making for a large black border the whole way around. It's like some sort of absurdist protest against HDTV, and I really hate watching television at my parent's house. They own a Blu-ray player, and it was great watching The Avengers in HD on it, but they almost never use it themselves.
 
Covar

Covar

stienman said:
80% of the humans on the planet may not be able to tell the difference between a good steak and a junk steak, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't have good steak available for those who can tell the difference
Click to expand...
That number would be a lot lower If people would stop ruining their steaks by insisting on cooking them well done.
 
Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

My two boys have been dying for 3DS Pokemon. They own and have beaten them all, though complained that White/Black V2 was short/uninspired. They're pretty excited about this on their 3DSXLs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top