Blizzard's Slippery Slope

Blizzard has recently decided to include a 'real money auction house' in their new highly anticipated game, Diablo III. I've read many player forum posts, where some support the idea, and some hate the idea. I'm here to explain to you in detail, why anyone that supports the idea is ignorant, delusional, and most of all, wrong.

Buying items in RPGs for real money is nothing new. People have been doing it since the 90's. Back then it was frowned upon by most everyone - even developers. So what has changed? Why now has it become more acceptable? Why now are so many companies making it easy for the player to become more powerful with a simple swipe of their credit card? I believe there are a number of reasons.

• The number of online RPGs in todays gaming world is staggering when compared to ten years ago. There are so many options to choose from for the player, that it has become increasingly difficult for companies to maintain a strong player base. Players are constantly and more frequently hopping from game to game unwilling to commit any significant amount of time to a single game. Because of this, in order for a game to survive, companies have had to take the plunge and allow players to purchase powerful items or other benefits for real money.
• The majority of players and developers have lost touch with what an RPG is supposed to be. Being able to buy in game items with real money completely goes against the core elements of a great RPG. Either people have forgotten this fact, or this new generation of gamers is completely ignorant to it. I greatly fear the latter.
• Capitalism is a double edged sword. It is the reason technology exists as it does today(in my opinion), and therefore the reason video games exist. However, for too many people, money is more important than making a great game.

There are many reasons that we as players play RPG's, but in order to expand on the subject matter of this article, we are only going to focus on a few. Immersion, risk reward, and time reward.

In Diablo 3 there are 4 ways to acquire items (as far as I know). You can loot an item (Risk reward). You can receive an item as a quest reward (Immersion / Risk reward). You can buy an item with in-game currency (Time reward). You can buy an item with money you earned from working your real life every day job. One of these methods does not require the player to actually play the game. Therefore, this method should not be a feature that is included with the game. Why would a player want to cheapen their gaming experience by doing this? There is a certain high you get when you accomplish something in a game, and are rewarded accordingly. A sense of accomplishment. You completely bypass this very immersive and very real feeling when you spend $5 to receive the same reward. And this next part is very important.. Knowing that other players are receiving the same rewards you rightly earned without them ever having to play the game kills immersion in the exact same way. One of the common arguments supporting this horrible idea is, "You don't have to participate in the real money auction house if you don't want to". Wrong. What other players are able to do in game affects my immersion factor greatly.

Another common argument is, "Players would buy items 3rd party for real money anyways, so Blizzard is just making it safe, and official. There is nothing wrong with that". Again, wrong. Not too long ago buying items online was considered cheating, and looked down upon by the gaming community, as well as developers. I remember in days of Everquest if your character was ebay'd, you were the laughing stock of the server. The quoted argument is also wrong because while yes, players have always bought items online (though against developer policy), they took huge risks in doing so. Those risks included getting scammed, or getting your account permanently banned. Now that Blizzard has removed these risks, many many more people are going to be cheating their way to the top. Yes, buying in game items for real life money is flat out cheating, no matter which way you spin it.

Another argument supporting the real money auction house is, "Now we won't have to deal with spam bots, and constant advertising for gold and items." Yes this is a true statement. However making a true statement doesn't make it good. This is like saying "Instead of fighting against something that is bad, we are just going to accept it and even embrace it." Sounds silly right? Developers should work hard to get rid of gold farmers or item sellers. Remove the cheating that exists in your game. Don't embrace it. I'd rather play a game where I was getting spammed than a game where you're allowed to cheat.

I'm going to make a statement here... In an RPG, anything that affects your character, or the game world in which your character exists, should ONLY be a result of events happening inside the game. The more the game commingles with variables in the real world, the less immersive the game is, and the more devalued items and player achievements will become.

Sony, Bioware, and Blizzard have all now taken the plunge... Let us hope that Valve does not follow in their footsteps.

Portal 2 Review

So I just finished playing through all of the content Portal 2 has to offer. Here are my thoughts...

Gameplay: Just like its predecessor , Portal 2 is played from a first person perspective. And unlike your traditional first person shooter, instead of shooting bullets, you are shooting portals. You can shoot 2 different portals that will seamlessly connect to each other which the player can pass through. Just like portal one, this makes for some very interesting, awesome puzzles. Yes, Portal 2 is a puzzle game. But it is also so much more than that.

In addition to all of the gameplay elements from Portal 1, Portal 2 offers some awesome new features. They've added stationary lasers that can have their direction manipulated by using cubes with lenses on them, and of course you can also change their direction by using your portal gun. Another addition is a beam of light that can be walked on, or used as a shield against turrets. You can control the position of these light beams with your portal gun. They've also introduced worm holes that you can manipulate as well with your portal gun, and also change the direction that they travel with buttons found in the game map. Last but not least they've added three gels that have different properties. The blue gel acts as a sort of trampoline, allowing you to jump to new heights. The orange gel allows you to run extremely fast, and the white gel allows for surfaces to accept portals, where as before they could not. The puzzles in both the single player and the cooperative multiplayer are very well thought out, and well balanced. They are not easy. Many of the puzzles felt very challenging to me, and that is something I don't find in many new video games.

Throughout the game, you are constantly being entertained by multiple characters, and their voice acting is fantastic. I found myself constantly laughing at all the witty remarks made throughout the game.

I also want to say that the story telling in this game was superb. You learn much much more about Aperture Science, and about GLaDOS, but not enough to take away the mystery and eeriness of the place. I can't say too much about it here or I would spoil it.

As far as game length, it was at least twice as long as the first portal. Maybe three times as long when you include the multiplayer.

My only complaint about gameplay (actually my only complaint about the game), is that sometimes you get a loading screen when it doesn't feel like there should be a loading screen at that part of the game, and it kind of throws off your pace a bit, and takes your mind out of the game for a second.

Graphics: The Source Engine is just about 7 years old, and it still looks amazing. Portal 2 is by far the best looking Source Engine game I've seen. In Portal 1, the environments got a bit repetitive and boring. Not the case here. Portal 2 looks amazing, and it is always changing. The robot animations are incredible as well. Valve really outdid themselves in this game. From tree roots and vines creeping into the testing areas, to animated floor and wall panels moving around as if the place was alive, to huge open areas that really make your jaw drop when you realize the scope of the place you are in. Absolutely breathtaking.

Audio: As I said before, the voice acting is amazing. But there are also sound effects for just about everything, and it all sounds fantastic. In game music is subtle for the most part, but it fits the mood of the game perfectly. When something intense is happening, the music picks up, and it really helps pull you into the game. Also... I did not think they would be able to top "Still Alive" from Portal 1 for their end game credits song. But they did. The new song is even better, and you should all be excited to hear it. (Yes it is still sung by GLaDOS).

Final Thoughts: This is one of the best games I've ever played, and quite possibly the best game to come out in 10 years. It is so refreshing to play a game that was made to be a good game. They are few and far between nowadays, and I thank Valve for giving me one of the best video game experiences of my life.

Also... If you can play it on PC, then I suggest you play it on PC. Any first person game is ten times better on PC. That's not bias talking, it's a fact. First of all you can pump up the graphic settings much higher than you can on a console, and you get mouse control. Enough said!

Score: 10 / 10

Twilight Princess - So close yet so far away

Close to what? Perfection. I have never been more excited for a game since its announcement than The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. And truly, when the game was released, it did not disappoint (overall). I had it all planned out. I had talked to my boss about taking a week off from work to go through the game. I had told my friends and family I would be virtually unavailable until my Zelda gaming experience was complete. When the day finally came, I immersed myself into the world of Hyrule as I had done many times before in my life.

Yes, it was worth all the bantering I received from fellow employees when they learned I had taken that much vacation time to play a video game. The game has everything you would expect from a Zelda game. Rich environments, extremely immersive, smooth intuitive controls, great graphics (graphics are and were a little outdated, but the art direction more than made up for it), epic boss fights (visually), tricky well balanced puzzles, plenty of side quests, secrets, and other fun things to do (fishing!).

Well, now that I've talked it up so much, why doesn't the game appear on my Top 10 list?? Well unfortunately Twilight Princess was a victim of casual gamers being where the money is. You can read more about that here! So let me explain. This game could have been my #3, #2, perhaps even #1 favorite game of ALL time had the developers changed a few lines of code! Everyone that has played a Zelda game knows that fighting monsters is a big part of the game. Well unfortunately, in Twilight Princess, it's just too damn hard to get yourself killed.

After the first couple dungeons I thought, "Okay, maybe the battles will get harder as the game progresses". Nope... Seriously, they programmed this game so that anyone, and I mean ANYONE (that can hold a controller and distinguish what the buttons do) can fight off monsters in this game without breaking a sweat. Your hit-points (or life) is measured in hearts at the top left corner of your screen. I can't even remember if there is one monster or boss in the game that can drain more than 1 or MAYBE 2 hearts in one hit.. The average hit will only drain half of a heart or even a quarter heart!! Where is the challenge in this? And to make it even worse, during almost every boss fight you are able to find ways to regenerate your health throughout the battle... Which makes carrying potions and faeries around with you mostly pointless.

Not only does this flawed game mechanic make the battles in this game completely unchallenging, but it has other side effects as well. Most of the secrets that you find in this game will eventually lead to a "piece of heart" as a reward. Which end up adding the amount of total hearts (life, hit-points) you can possibly have at one time. In most Zelda games this proves extremely beneficial, and it is exciting to find them. However, in Twilight Princess, you are left feeling that they serve little purpose, and the excitement of finding these secrets is very diminished.

The most frustrating thing about all of this is knowing how easily this could have been changed. It would probably involve changing a few lines of code, and removing some pots and bushes from boss fights. So why couldn't have Nintendo released the game with two different modes? An easy mode (The current one), and a normal mode (for people like me). This is why I haven't been excited for Skyward Sword. I hope that Skyward Sword is great. I hope that it is everything Twilight Princess was and more, and most of all, I hope that the battles prove challenging and give me some feeling of accomplishment when I down an evil foe. But it ends there. I cannot be excited, only hopeful.

Limbo - Game Review

I just recently downloaded Limbo on my Xbox 360, because the screenshots intrigued me.  Anyways, here are my thoughts:

Gameplay:  Limbo is an Adventure Puzzle game.  You begin your quest as a boy in search of his lost Sister.  You must solve puzzles and avoid death to achieve your goal.  The game is 2D, and is platform based.  The simplicity of this game is so refreshing.  There are only 3 buttons you can push.  Your directional pad, the jump button, and the use button.  Knowing this, you would think that the puzzle solving portion of the game would be entirely too easy right?  That's what I thought when I started, and I was dead wrong.  While I thought that overall the puzzles could have been harder, they were definitely not too easy.  They were just hard enough to say to myself - "Ah ha!" After I figured one out.  It achieved a very good balance.  As you progress though the game, the puzzles get harder, and the atmospheres change constantly to keep the game interesting.  My only complaint would be that the game is much too short.  However, since the game is so simplistic, making it any longer possibly could have made it feel like it was being dragged on and on.  Although I was still itching for more gameplay by the time I was done.

Graphics:  I am a huge fan of 2d games.  Not only the way 2d games feel, but the way they look.  This game had some of the best art I have ever seen.  The whole game is in black and white, and most of the objects are just black silhouettes.  Yet somehow this simplistic design translated into something beautiful, and extremely eerie all at the same time.  The animations seemed very polished, and really added to the immersion factor.

Audio:  There is very little music in the game, and when there is it is very subtle.  This again, adds to the eerie atmosphere.  The sound effects are superb.  It really feels like the objects on the screen are truly creating the sounds that you are hearing.  Many notable examples of this is when you accidently fall into a pit of spikes, or your head gets crushed by a rolling boulder.  They are real sounding enough to make you cringe when you make a fatal error.

Final Thoughts:  When I finished Limbo, my mind was filled with the 'Wow' factor.  This game definitely left an impression on me.  It shows there are still people out there that want to make good games that have the resources to do so.  Limbo will always be one of those few precious gems for me, that I will always talk about.   That is a rare thing.  I highly suggest buying this game.

My Score:  9.8 / 10

-.1 For being too short

-.1 For wanting the puzzles to be a tad bit harder

Game Info

Top 10 games of all time

Obviously this is just one man's opinion, and one man couldn't possibly play every video game ever made. Now that that's out of the way, here's the list:


#10 - Planescape Torment

Genre: D&D RPG
Year Released: 1999
Perspective: 2D, Third Person
Platform: PC

You would probably read more text in one play through of planescape torment than you would reading your average novel. A lot of this game's RPG elements are very gritty and down to the core of what you'd expect from a true RPG. You play as a character referred to as the "Nameless One". Your character cannot remember who he is, but soon realizes he has somehow become immortal. Your quest involves finding a way to remember who you are, and how you can win your mortality back. The story is extremely rich, deep, immersive, and provides the keystone to this classic game. The overall atmosphere of the game is very dark as well. And while it's dark, there are some very funny, and clever dialogue moments between you and the party members that have joined you on your quest. More Info

#9 - Quake

Genre: First Person Shooter
Year Released: 1996
Perspective: 3d, First Person
Platform: PC

It's been 14 years and I still play this game. I've played most of the shooters that have come out since, and none of them have provided the same amount of fun factor that the original Quake did. Watching your friends duke it out with shotguns while you sneak up with a rocket launcher and send them both flying in opposite directions still makes me laugh hysterically. QUAKE!! More Info


#8 - Riven

Genre: Puzzle
Year Released: 1997
Perspective: Click and Point, First Person
Platform: PC

Myst was great, but the immersion and the atmospheres doubled in quality when Riven was released. So did the difficulty. I would almost go far enough to say that it was too hard. And that's coming from a lover of puzzle games, and someone that thinks most games are far too easy. The music in this game was also top notch. The eeriness you felt walking from place to place in this game was so unique and has not been recaptured by another game or myst title since. More Info


#7 - Resident Evil 4

Genre: Horror
Year Released: 2005
Perspective: 3d, Third Person
Platform: Nintendo Gamecube


"Wow.. Wow!" That's what I constantly said to myself while playing this game. The atmospheres are there, the difficulty is there, the fun factor is there, good game balance, sweet boss fights, and parts that will make you yelp like a little girl in fear. It's the best single player action/shooter I have ever played. The new Wii version is even better. More Info




#6 - Portal

Genre: Puzzle
Year Released: 2007
Perspective: 3d, First Person
Platform: PC (And on xbox360/ps3 I think, but not recommended!)


What can I say about portal? It's easily the best puzzle game I've ever played. You are given a gun that can make a blue portal, and a red portal, and they link to each other (you can walk through them), and are placed into a series of obstacle courses in which the gun is needed to succeed. This presents some ingenious and unique ideas that were implemented perfectly. Not to mention, while the story in the game is not complex, it is very interesting, and creepy. More Info


#5 - Everquest

Genre: MMORPG
Year Released: 1999
Perspective: 3d, First Person/Third Person
Platform: PC


Also known as Evercrack, this game is responsible for ruining the lives of probably thousands of people. It's also one of the best games ever created. Everquest is still the only MMO that was done correctly in my humble opinion. The game was raw, and gritty, and that's what I love. Since it's release there have been many imitators, and while some have been successful financially, none have been able to truly improve upon the core mechanics that made Everquest such a classic game. Perhaps the guys over at 38 Studios will strike gold with Copernicus. We can only hope! More Info


#4 - Baldur's Gate

Genre: RPG
Year Released: 1998
Perspective: 2d, Third Person
Platform: PC


This game revolutionized RPG gaming on the PC. Easily one of the best stories ever told from a computer screen, Baldur's gate is one of those games I will play again and again until I die of old age. Every time I watch the final cinematic that inevitably hints to what awaits you at the beginning of Baldur's Gate 2, I get goosebumps from head to tow. The game is truly epic, and if you're playing through the first time, and know nothing of the story, the events leading to the ending will leave you jaw dropped. You can't call yourself an RPG gamer until you've played it. More Info


#3 - The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time

Genre: Adventure
Year Released: 1998
Perspective: 3d, Third Person
Platform: Nintendo 64


Hmm.. Any true gamer knows that this game is going to be on pretty much any top 10 video games list that they see. You'll see nothing different here. Nintendo really went head strong into 3d gaming in the late 90's, and they didn't hold back at all. Creating a game of this scope with 3d game engines still being something relatively new must have been a colossal task indeed. It paid off though. This still remains one of the best gaming experiences ever. The ending is truly truly epic, and I still get a little choked up whenever I see it. More Info


#2 - The Legend of Zelda - Majora's Mask

Genre: Adventure
Year Released: 2000
Perspective: 3d, Third Person
Platform: Nintendo 64


Many of you are probably scratching your heads, wondering why Majora's Mask is at #2, and Ocarina of Time is at #3. But the ones that actually took the time to finish Majora's Mask are probably grinning from ear to ear, happy that finally someone is acknowledging its greatness. Yup, I'm standing by it. Majora's Mask is the second greatest game EVER made. Right when video games were starting to get much too easy, we throw our hero, Link into a strange world that is very unforgiving. Not only does Majora's Mask have some of the best, and hardest designed Zelda dungeons ever created, but you are also given a time limit to complete them. Mix the difficulty with the most emotionally twisting Zelda ever made, and that's just a recipe for greatness. This game actually leaves you caring about what happens to the individuals you will meet on your quest, and that is rare for a game that isn't RPG focused. The music will leave you in awe, and legitimately creeped out at times. There's nothing I can say that can describe what this game did for me. Just play it.More Info


#1 - Baldur's Gate 2 - Shadows of Amn / Throne of Bhaal

Genre: RPG
Year Released: 2000
Perspective: 2d, Third Person
Platform: PC


Here it is.. The best game ever created. I don't even know how to begin describing its greatness. While playing this game, it feels like every inch of it was hand crafted by people who really wanted to make something special. Something that would be remembered for years and years. This game proves that newer isn't always better. There hasn't been an RPG released since this one that has even come close to rivaling it. It's super challenging, has a much improved class selection over it's predecessor, it's the longest single player game I've ever played, it's fun, addictive, the story is phenomenal, has excellent replayability, it's emotional, the dialogue sucks you in, and on top of all that, this is the prettiest game I've ever seen. Ya, I will take hand drawn 2d art over repetitive 3d tile art any day. (That's not to say all 3d games are ugly, I just prefer the 2d look more). More Info

Video games have been hijacked

There are 2 types of gamers. You are either a hardcore gamer, or a casual gamer. Yes there are sub-types, and variations, but most gamers can easily be labeled one or the other. So how do you know which type you are? There is a very simple question you can ask yourself to find out! Let's pretend you're at some sort of gaming convention like E3. You're watching a game developer on stage trying desperately to get you excited for their companies new game coming out next year. Then he/she says: "We are making sure that this game will be accessible to everyone." (This seems to be a popular selling point nowadays!) The question is; Is this a good selling point, or a bad one? If you answered 'good', then you are a casual gamer, no doubt about it. If you answered 'bad', then you are most likely a hardcore gamer.

So let's get into the details of how I can come to such a bold conclusion. Let's start off by trying to define the hardcore gamer to an extent. First and foremost, the hardcore gamer has a love and passion for video games. They do not consider them a hobby. They appreciate the little details in well made games that to the casual gamer goes unnoticed. They nit-pick and critique every little aspect of a game's content and its balance. A good example of this is when developers started to introduce a little game mechanic called "Auto-scaling" or "Level-Scaling". This is a mechanic that has recently been introduced to games in the RPG genre that basically causes any enemy that you fight to automatically become a fair match for your character at any given point in the game. This is generally frowned upon by the hardcore gamer, because it causes a lack of difficulty and poor player immersion. The casual gamer on the other hand, just doesn't care about these types of things, and is blissfully happy just watching the character he or she created bash in a skeleton's skull with the hilt of their sword. The hardcore gamer needs more than that! Auto-scaling monster levels is a perfect example of making a game "Accessible to everyone!" This specific example though, is one worthy of it's own lengthy discussion, and we will save that one for another day.

So how do we define a casual gamer? Well naturally they are polar opposites of the hardcore gamer. (Other than the fact that they do indeed play games!) They generally care nothing of the things listed above. They are perfectly content with coming home from work, sitting on the couch, turning on their Xbox, and walking some random soldier through a war zone with buildings being lit on fire, and people's heads exploding. They are in it simply for the entertainment value. There is very little, if any passion, or emotion involved.

So going back to the title of this blog entry.. Video games have been hijacked! But by who? I'll tell you who. The majority of all gamers. The ones that feed the gaming companies the most money. The casual gamer. Okay, okay, to be fair, they are only indirectly responsible for the hijacking. In fact they are all probably ignorant to the fact that they have even done so. So I can't blame them! The real culprits are the game developers. But wait.. Can we really be mad at them? They are only trying to make money after all. They have kids to feed. They need to make a living just like we all do, and they are going to go where the money is.

So perhaps there is no one I can truly be angry at. The result is the same though; fewer and fewer good games. Since the year 2000 the quality of video games have been on a steady decline, designed to appease the growing crowd of the casual gamer, and we hardcore gamers are getting left in the dust. Will this path continue into this new decade? Or will we see a turn for the better? I hope there are people out there more optimistic than me.