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