Saturday, October 31st, 2009
Do not panic! Playstation Home is still a priority. Please go back to whatever it is you were doing before you heard the news that it was possibly no longer a priority for Sony. Chances are whatever you were doing was not involving Home, but if it was (dressing up for Halloween?) you should be in a better mood now. Recently, Edge had quoted Pete Edwards, director of PlayStation Home, as saying that Home was no longer a business priority for Sony despite increased hours of use and money being spent by those who use it.
“It’s been a long road,” he said. “We’ve proved there is a market out there and we’ve got a lot of people that spend a lot of time in [Home]. It’s not a priority right now but there is a business model there,” he said.
This is a lie. Sony has rebuked the quote by saying that it was taken out of context and misrepresented what Edwards was trying to say. “Allow me to put your minds at ease about this recent press. The coverage of what Pete Edwards said at the London Games Conference was not only a misquote, it was a misreprentation [sic] of what he actually said,” a Home Manager explained on the official PlayStation forums, “Edwards was saying that monetizing Home was not as big a priority as building a great platform, with a compelling environment and a strong community. Home is still a top priority for Sony and will continue to release quality content and provide a positive experience to our users.”
“And yes, we will continue working on fixing bugs, login problems, and other user issues.”
There you go. I just summed up two days of internet drama for you. Seems a bit less exciting when it’s all in one post.
Do not panic! Playstation Home is still a priority. Please go back to whatever it is you were doing before you heard the news that it was possibly no longer a priority for Sony. Chances are whatever you were doing was not involving Home, but if it was (dressing up for Halloween?) you should be in a better mood now. Recently, Edge had quoted Pete Edwards, director of PlayStation Home, as saying that Home was no longer a business priority for Sony despite increased hours of use and money being spent by those who use it.
"It’s been a long road," he said. "We've proved there is a market out there and we’ve got a lot of people that spend a lot of time in [Home]. It’s not a priority right now but there is a business model there," he said.
This is a lie. Sony has rebuked the quote by saying that it was taken out of context and misrepresented what Edwards was trying to say. “Allow me to put your minds at ease about this recent press. The coverage of what Pete Edwards said at the London Games Conference was not only a misquote, it was a misreprentation [sic] of what he actually said,” a Home Manager explained on the official PlayStation forums, “Edwards was saying that monetizing Home was not as big a priority as building a great platform, with a compelling environment and a strong community. Home is still a top priority for Sony and will continue to release quality content and provide a positive experience to our users.”
“And yes, we will continue working on fixing bugs, login problems, and other user issues.”
There you go. I just summed up two days of internet drama for you. Seems a bit less exciting when it's all in one post.
Posted in Games | No Comments »
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
Over in Moscow, two top Counter-Strike teams met in a LAN contest. As soon as they started runnin’ and gunnin’ however, the promoter threw in a surprise to test the team’s focus: Strippers. Russian strippers. Let’s get to the NSFW!
English Russia reports that
“it was impossible to put an attention of those hopeless men off. The game was drawing to a close and the ladies were sweating as much as they could, but the eyes of the tough players were nailed to the screens tight.”
In the matchup, the team forZe bested rival Virtus.pro.
I pulled ten pics from English Russia, galleried at left. There are tons more at the link.
Hot Gaming [English Russia, thanks to Kevin!]
Over in Moscow, two top Counter-Strike teams met in a LAN contest. As soon as they started runnin' and gunnin' however, the promoter threw in a surprise to test the team's focus: Strippers. Russian strippers. Let's get to the NSFW!
English Russia reports that
"it was impossible to put an attention of those hopeless men off. The game was drawing to a close and the ladies were sweating as much as they could, but the eyes of the tough players were nailed to the screens tight."
In the matchup, the team forZe bested rival Virtus.pro.
I pulled ten pics from English Russia, galleried at left. There are tons more at the link.
Hot Gaming [English Russia, thanks to Kevin!]
Posted in Games | No Comments »
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
Microsoft has come down hard on some pirates this Halloween. No, not the slutty girls in short skirts and low cut pirate blouses or the guys dressed up like Johnny Depp, silly. Gosh, why would you think that unless you constantly think in really bad puns, in which case you lead a terrible life. No, for the past week Microsoft has been banning “a small percentage” of Xbox Live users that had systems that were modded to play pirated games. IGN uncovered the deed after seeing a bit of complaining going on in the Xbox Live forums.
After being contacted, Microsoft had this to say on the rash of complaints, “We have taken action against a small percentage of consoles that have been modified to play pirated game discs. In line with our commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of our Xbox LIVE community, we are suspending these modded consoles from Xbox LIVE.”
I mean, good for Microsoft. Don’t steal games. Lesson learned. Anyone here banned for their dubious activities?
[Via Hot Blooded Gaming]
Microsoft has come down hard on some pirates this Halloween. No, not the slutty girls in short skirts and low cut pirate blouses or the guys dressed up like Johnny Depp, silly. Gosh, why would you think that unless you constantly think in really bad puns, in which case you lead a terrible life. No, for the past week Microsoft has been banning "a small percentage" of Xbox Live users that had systems that were modded to play pirated games. IGN uncovered the deed after seeing a bit of complaining going on in the Xbox Live forums.
After being contacted, Microsoft had this to say on the rash of complaints, "We have taken action against a small percentage of consoles that have been modified to play pirated game discs. In line with our commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of our Xbox LIVE community, we are suspending these modded consoles from Xbox LIVE."
I mean, good for Microsoft. Don't steal games. Lesson learned. Anyone here banned for their dubious activities?
[Via Hot Blooded Gaming]
Posted in Games | No Comments »
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
Going through the list of the trophies and medals in Uncharted 2, one spots a yak-petting exercise called “Beast Mode.” Jacob Minkoff, of the studio Naughty Dog, explained its origin with a laugh.
“There was a tester we had who came in and was constantly describing Drake as going into ‘beast mode,’” said Minkoff, a designer on Uncharted 2. “Like, ‘Man, I went into beast mode and merced those fools!’ And I said, ‘We need a beast mode medal.’ It had to happen.”
But what you do to get the “Beast Mode” medal is the larger part of why Minkoff talked with me earlier this week about designing for trophy support on the PS3. Beast Mode isn’t a difficult challenge, you just pet every yak you encounter in the Tibetan Village level, and the instructions for getting it are there in the game. But at this stage of the game, Naughty Dog wanted to encourage players to interact more with those they encounter, outside of doing so to advance the story.
It’s part of how developers are using things like trophies – which have been mandatory on all PlayStation 3 games for nearly a year now – and internally built medal systems to condition player behavior, and steer them to aspects of gameplay that they might not seek out, whether from habit or not knowing it’s possible.
And, of course, it supports replay value. Which is why I was interested in Uncharted 2 as an example of developing for trophy support. Its strong, linear narrative forms the bulk of its experience, but that doesn’t exempt Naughty Dog from the obligation to invite gamers back for more after they finish the last chapter.
“I think the virtue of making a really good game with a story that really satisfies people, is that it’s not something people are going to put down and never pick back up,” Minkoff said. “We find that people who complete a normal playthrough, they go back and instantly start on hard. They look at the trophies. They look for more things to do in the game, and trophies help to add that value.”
Development for trophy support necessarily comes toward the end of a project, Minkoff said. The team doesn’t reinvent the wheel figuring out what to award – Uncharted 2’s trophy list mirrors in large part that of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. But they do consider what their players will be looking forward to doing, and want to reward them when they pull it off.
“Being that Uncharted 2 is an action-adventure game, we wanted people to have an incentive to explore these worlds and see them from a different perspective, and use all the skills we’ve taught them,” Minkoff said. “Our combat related trophies are in there to help people learn advanced tactics. People might not know about Steel Fist [finishing off a foe with one punch] or shield takedowns until they go in and read the trophy list.”
The treasures and the kills, carried over in large part from Uncharted 1, condition a completionist mindset of seeing every inch of the world Naughty Dog created, and using all of the weapons placed in the game rather than relying solely on a trusted favorite.
Just as important is how difficult the trophies are to earn. “There were big arguments over here about how to handle that,” Minkoff said. “We don’t want somebody to come out of a game and feel like they accomplished nothing, and they only got two trophies because the others were so esoteric, weird or difficult to find. It’s like a slap in the face, to say, ‘You thought you played Uncharted, but you really haven’t.’ “
The way Naughty Dog built their trophy structure “people should get about a third to a half of them on their first playthrough,” Minkoff said. “It’ll be on the lower end if they’re just rushing through and killing everyone, on the higher end if they’re finding, maybe, half the treasure and doing exploration.”
However, the studio has no way of knowing if its expectations are borne out by the statistics. Plenty of minute details and gamer behaviors are measured, but nothing comes back to Naughty Dog regarding trophy collection, Minkoff said.
“We track tons of stuff – where people die, how many weapons are used, what’s the most used weapon in a particular area, what’s the longest playthrough for a checkpoint,” Minkoff said. “But we don’t track trophies. [That analysis] is done by gut. We do tons and tons of playtesting, so we get a feeling for what players do, what they don’t do, what they like to do and what we should encourage them to do. But we develop that from playtesting.”
Sony Computer Entertainment caps the number of trophies and points a game can award. Increasingly, you’re seeing developers turn to internal reward systems to extend the payoffs to gamers; Naughty Dog is no different, engineering a medal system that’s familiar to what multiplayer fps gamers have seen elsewhere. Its intent is still the same as the trophies – get players to wring every last drop of value out of the game. Motivating the in-game medal system is the virtual money one earns, which can be redeemed for in-game unlockables.
It also allowed Naughty Dog to offer two types of rewards and make the game more accessible to gamers of varying levels of skill – or time to commit to it. “We didn’t want people playing through the game and feeling there was no way to ever get the platinum trophy, that there was no way to get all the trophies because it was so super-complex,” Minkoff said. “We decided, if it’s core to gameplay, it gets a trophy. If it’s a skill-based honor, like a ‘Hey man, look what I can do,’ thing, then it’s a medal.”
Ultimately, it all presents a fuller picture of the gamer – not just for others, but also something he or she can reflect on, and remember the time spent in a rewarding game.
“One of the wonderful things it does is give you a constant reaffirmation that you’re doing the right thing and playing the game the right way,” Minkoff said. “There’s nothing like sneaking up, and taking down a guy, and getting that notice that you have the Master Ninja trophy. It means you have improved, you are continuing to master the game, and we are recognizing that. It’s not just ‘Oh, here’s another guy to kill.’ It’s ‘Here’s a guy who matters in a larger context. And when I defeat him, that will be recognized.’ It’s a solid way of rewarding and reinforcing a game’s action.”
Going through the list of the trophies and medals in Uncharted 2, one spots a yak-petting exercise called "Beast Mode." Jacob Minkoff, of the studio Naughty Dog, explained its origin with a laugh.
"There was a tester we had who came in and was constantly describing Drake as going into ‘beast mode,'" said Minkoff, a designer on Uncharted 2. "Like, ‘Man, I went into beast mode and merced those fools!' And I said, ‘We need a beast mode medal.' It had to happen."
But what you do to get the "Beast Mode" medal is the larger part of why Minkoff talked with me earlier this week about designing for trophy support on the PS3. Beast Mode isn't a difficult challenge, you just pet every yak you encounter in the Tibetan Village level, and the instructions for getting it are there in the game. But at this stage of the game, Naughty Dog wanted to encourage players to interact more with those they encounter, outside of doing so to advance the story.
It's part of how developers are using things like trophies - which have been mandatory on all PlayStation 3 games for nearly a year now - and internally built medal systems to condition player behavior, and steer them to aspects of gameplay that they might not seek out, whether from habit or not knowing it's possible.
And, of course, it supports replay value. Which is why I was interested in Uncharted 2 as an example of developing for trophy support. Its strong, linear narrative forms the bulk of its experience, but that doesn't exempt Naughty Dog from the obligation to invite gamers back for more after they finish the last chapter.
"I think the virtue of making a really good game with a story that really satisfies people, is that it's not something people are going to put down and never pick back up," Minkoff said. "We find that people who complete a normal playthrough, they go back and instantly start on hard. They look at the trophies. They look for more things to do in the game, and trophies help to add that value."
Development for trophy support necessarily comes toward the end of a project, Minkoff said. The team doesn't reinvent the wheel figuring out what to award - Uncharted 2's trophy list mirrors in large part that of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. But they do consider what their players will be looking forward to doing, and want to reward them when they pull it off.
"Being that Uncharted 2 is an action-adventure game, we wanted people to have an incentive to explore these worlds and see them from a different perspective, and use all the skills we've taught them," Minkoff said. "Our combat related trophies are in there to help people learn advanced tactics. People might not know about Steel Fist [finishing off a foe with one punch] or shield takedowns until they go in and read the trophy list."
The treasures and the kills, carried over in large part from Uncharted 1, condition a completionist mindset of seeing every inch of the world Naughty Dog created, and using all of the weapons placed in the game rather than relying solely on a trusted favorite.
Just as important is how difficult the trophies are to earn. "There were big arguments over here about how to handle that," Minkoff said. "We don't want somebody to come out of a game and feel like they accomplished nothing, and they only got two trophies because the others were so esoteric, weird or difficult to find. It's like a slap in the face, to say, ‘You thought you played Uncharted, but you really haven't.' "
The way Naughty Dog built their trophy structure "people should get about a third to a half of them on their first playthrough," Minkoff said. "It'll be on the lower end if they're just rushing through and killing everyone, on the higher end if they're finding, maybe, half the treasure and doing exploration."
However, the studio has no way of knowing if its expectations are borne out by the statistics. Plenty of minute details and gamer behaviors are measured, but nothing comes back to Naughty Dog regarding trophy collection, Minkoff said.
"We track tons of stuff - where people die, how many weapons are used, what's the most used weapon in a particular area, what's the longest playthrough for a checkpoint," Minkoff said. "But we don't track trophies. [That analysis] is done by gut. We do tons and tons of playtesting, so we get a feeling for what players do, what they don't do, what they like to do and what we should encourage them to do. But we develop that from playtesting."
Sony Computer Entertainment caps the number of trophies and points a game can award. Increasingly, you're seeing developers turn to internal reward systems to extend the payoffs to gamers; Naughty Dog is no different, engineering a medal system that's familiar to what multiplayer fps gamers have seen elsewhere. Its intent is still the same as the trophies - get players to wring every last drop of value out of the game. Motivating the in-game medal system is the virtual money one earns, which can be redeemed for in-game unlockables.
It also allowed Naughty Dog to offer two types of rewards and make the game more accessible to gamers of varying levels of skill - or time to commit to it. "We didn't want people playing through the game and feeling there was no way to ever get the platinum trophy, that there was no way to get all the trophies because it was so super-complex," Minkoff said. "We decided, if it's core to gameplay, it gets a trophy. If it's a skill-based honor, like a ‘Hey man, look what I can do,' thing, then it's a medal."
Ultimately, it all presents a fuller picture of the gamer - not just for others, but also something he or she can reflect on, and remember the time spent in a rewarding game.
"One of the wonderful things it does is give you a constant reaffirmation that you're doing the right thing and playing the game the right way," Minkoff said. "There's nothing like sneaking up, and taking down a guy, and getting that notice that you have the Master Ninja trophy. It means you have improved, you are continuing to master the game, and we are recognizing that. It's not just ‘Oh, here's another guy to kill.' It's ‘Here's a guy who matters in a larger context. And when I defeat him, that will be recognized.' It's a solid way of rewarding and reinforcing a game's action."
Posted in Games | No Comments »
Manhunt 2, notoriously edited by Rockstar to not earn an Adults Only tag from the ESRB, will be released Nov. 6 in that AO form, on the PC. Direct2Drive will have the download, for $29.95.
