Via our lovely video editor Chris Person comes this absolutely baffling video of a 'birth' in Second Life, an MMO. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be beautiful, weird or funny. Maybe a bit of all three. Someone out there thought it was a good idea to record this, though.
The real question for those of you that sat through the whole video: who is the father?
What's up, buttheads. It's me, Biff. Look, I know my sports betting advice this year didn't play out so well. Sorry if you bet your adjustable-rate mortgage balloon payment on one of my lead pipe locks. How was I to know I had a printer's error? Really, that stuff was the Gray's Sports Almanac from 2014. So just bet my advice in two years at triple the amount, you'll win back everything you lost and still make a fortune.
Anyway, even if I did give you the other half of the almanac, the notable events of 2012, what sports book was gonna give you odds that NBA Live 13 wouldn't release? That MLB 2K12 would be the last baseball game on the Xbox 360? OK, alright, those were probably even-money propositions. Still, here's the rest of what I should have told you would happen in 2012.
The dominoes that fell in Peyton Manning's release, free agency, and his signing on Tuesday with the Broncos tumbled all the way to the cover of the NFL's signature video game. More »
The man who made Nintendo into a video gaming giant is warmly regarded in Seattle. But Hiroshi Yamauchi has never seen his team play. There are rumors, going back as far as 1992, that he doesn't even like baseball. Seattle and the Oakland Athletics opened the Major League Baseball season on March 28 and 29 in Tokyo. It was the last chance for Yamauchi to see the team he "has always viewed ... as a thank you to Seattle for being so welcoming to Nintendo of America." More »
Two days ago, the "Tecmo Bowl MMO" was left for dead, less than halfway to its funding goal on Kickstarter. After a last-minute comeback that conjures images of the Music City Miracle, the Ghost to the Post, and the Bills sundering the Oilers in 1993, Gridiron Heroes met its funding target. Sport's most emotional moments are often the ones manifested as allegories of real life victories. That makes it precious, indeed, when the beauty of real life echoes the triumph of sport. More »
After two rounds at The Masters, the 44 best scores and ties, plus anyone within 10 strokes of the leader, make the cut. Since 2006, when the course was lengthened, no American amateur has survived to "Moving Day," the nickname for Saturday's round. Yesterday, I did so. As a woman. More »
T.J. Brida usually shows up 15 minutes ahead of his shift. This day, he was thinking he'd be late. He pulled on his work shirt, ran out the front door, got in his car and lit a cigarette, cursing and smacking the steering wheel all the way.
T.J. Brida had just thrown 13 1/3 innings of perfect baseball. And then he gave up a hit. More »
Every main character needs a good nemesis. Seinfeld has Newman. McBain has Mendoza. And Tiger Woods has Scott Ratchman, who represents all the older kids Tiger defeated in his youth career.
Welcome to Better Know An Umpire, an effort to educate ourselves on the human elements—deliberately programmed into a computer simulation—who have ultimate decision-making power over millions of games played in MLB 12 The Show on the PlayStation 3.More »
It's appalling that anyone would think that rigging the opposing lineup is acceptable in a million-dollar contest predicated on throwing a perfect game. What is truly outrageous is that the contest's administrators at 2K Sports saw nothing wrong with it either.More »
The University of South Alabama is none too pleased they won't be appearing in NCAA Football 13 when the game releases in July. This season will be USA's debut year in Division I-A Football Bowl Subdivision play, and while they're ineligible for postseason bowls, three other schools making their Division I-A FBS debut—Massachusetts, Texas-San Antonio and Texas State—will be included. More »
As a private-school doormat for decades to two big-boy conferences, until last year most people couldn't name one guy on the Baylor football roster. Even if Robert Griffin III won the Heisman Trophy in 2011, it didn't make the school's fight song any more recognizable last week. Maybe that's why so few noticed that when NCAA Football 13 released—with Griffin himself on the cover—the Bears didn't take the field to "Old Fite.". More »
It should be no surprise that THQ jettisoned its expensive exclusive license to make video games with the UFC's imagery and fighters. The company is hurting badly and had gone through a huge, soul-searching reorganization, jettisoning its kids-stuff division and completely bailing on E3 this year. In a surprise announcement, EA Sports revealed it had bought the UFC license from THQ. More »
Twenty-seven million dollars is a lot of money. But it's not significant. Not in the case of the Madden monopoly lawsuit. In fact, I'm struck by how meaningless all of the terms are in its settlement. More »
When Kobe Bryant hypothesized that the 2012 U.S. Men's Basketball Team would beat the 1992 squad—the original Dream Team—Michael Jordan just laughed. Charles Barkley said only three players from the current team could have cracked their roster.
Video gamers can settle it for themselves this October when both squads, in their United States Olympic uniforms, appear in NBA 2K13. And yes, that means Barkley is at long last returning to a video game.More »
It's inevitable that women will appear as playable athletes in a football title, the executive producer of the FIFA video game series told a petition organizer. But it's far too late for that to happen in FIFA 13, and he couldn't commit to any future year in which it might for his series.
Still, whatever is done needs to be done right, David Rutter told Fernanda Schabarum, a 29-year-old gamer living in South Florida. It can't be a token tack-on feature, and certainly not a downloadable game or extension that sends a message that women play a second-class sport. More »
EA Sports, though it is inviting women who are hockey fans to its product, has also invited a different problem this year by signing up the Canadian women's star Hayley Wickenheiser, and United States national team standout Angela Ruggiero. Both will appear in the "Legends" mode of NHL 13, which is due out Sept. 11 in North America. "Be a Legend" puts an all-time great from a past era on the ice in present time. Ruggiero and Wickenheiser, both gold medalist Olympians, have well earned a roster spot. But these are the first two real-life female athletes to appear in a video game simulation of an all-male professional team sport. And so their inclusion raises the uncomfortable question of how to rate their skill relative to a universe of male performers. More »
I knew what was coming after I lost to Green Bay, 24-17, in Week 11 of my first season in Madden NFL 13. It was the same kind of thing that came in Week 2 after a gutwrenching 24-20 loss at home to San Francisco, in which I was cited for the lack of a "clutch gene."
It was ESPN's Skip Bayless, a media personality I actively avoid, someone put on my TV screen by my Xbox 360 to bray about my defense's inability to tackle opposing runners. Never mind that I was controlling just one player, a running back. Win as a team, lose as a team, get ripped by Skip as a team. If it's in the game, it's in the game.
"Hah-hah, there's Skip!" said my opponent, still connected by chat.
"Fuck you, Skip!" I growled.More »
This is a glitch video to end all glitch videos, and not just because that's a player getting checked over the glass and into the fourth row of a hockey arena. It's also Sidney Freaking Crosby, the Pittsburgh Penguins superstar who has lost, like, an entire season's worth of games due to concussions, going back to early 2011. More »
Never pass up the opportunity to sit," Ben Haumiller (above) told me, as we slumped back on Virginia's vacated sideline bench at Wallace Wade Stadium, the Cavaliers in the locker room leading Duke 17-14 at the half this past Saturday. Pondering the long walk to the free concessions in the press box, I half considered sticking my mouth under the spout of the UVa water cooler. All we had been doing for the past four hours was standing on the sidelines and keeping quiet. But you really have no idea how draining that kind of work can be, especially in the early autumn sunshine at a Southern football stadium.
Ben's face already betrayed the onset of a sunburn, and though I had worn a cap, my neck and cheeks were sure to peel in the next two days. My feet throbbed and by Monday I'd be walking with a limp, thanks to a poor choice of shoes.
To explain what the hell we were doing, you have to go back to the roof of a parking deck in Florida about nine years ago. More »
EA Sports, on Sept. 27, canceled its troubled NBA Live 13 project. It is the second time in three years that sports video gaming's dominant publisher has pulled the plug on its NBA simulation at the last minute.
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EA Sports should junk its NBA simulation. Just get out of it and this license altogether. There is no upside to kicking the NBA Live can another year down the road, for either management or labor. Two straight efforts at publishing an NBA simulation have failed, which didn't even happen in the days when games were sold on cartridges. It only gets worse from here. More »
Five years ago, an NCAA executive said EA Sports should be allowed to use actual names of its amateur athletes—commanding a higher licensing fee as a result—because players' likenesses were "rigged into the games now by illegal means." Permitting their use would clear up the matter and bring more money to the NCAA, he said. The comments came to light in documents exposed by a lawsuit 15 former college players have brought against the NCAA and EA Sports.More »
Nothing deleted from Twitter is ever deleted on time, and sometime between Monday and Tuesday, a disillusioned former Madden developer figured that out. By then, his unvarnished rant tossed a dripping slab of red meat to Madden's many Internet enemies, and it didn't win the author much support from his old friends. More »
The dangers of buying used, people. According to 9News, this Christmas, the Giles family found themselves horrified after their five year old son, Braydon Giles, found racy pictures on his refurbished 3DS. Presumably, the pictures came from previous owners who utilized the system's camera function. (...who the hell DOES that? For porn, I mean.)
The pictures were discovered when the kid asked his older brother with some help in deleting the pictures. There were nine in all.
Naturally, the father—Mark Giles—returned the 3DS. GameStop apologized for not catching the pictures before trying to sell the system, and then offered the family a new 3DS.
Despite being appreciative, the father doesn't feel that the new 3DS really makes up for what happened.
"You can't unsee this he's 5 years old maybe when he's 18 or 20 maybe he won't know anything about it but he's not going to forget about this tomorrow," Giles said.
As our own Chris Person put it: "You can't refurb a kid's brain."
Family finds racy photos on 5-year-old's Christmas gift [9News Via Gizmodo]
A couple of months ago, if I started a new game—no matter what it was—I'd start off on a high difficulty. At the very least, I'd go for normal, but only if it was clear that normal would provide a challenge. I reasoned that nowadays ‘normal' is geared toward a more general audience which may be less familiar with games than I am. And, more importantly, pssh. Of course I can do better than normal!
We've internalized difficulty like that. I hear it all the time: games are getting easier, oh the good ol' days, they're gone, gone! Sometimes, without difficulty, some people start to wonder if what they're experiencing can even be considered a game, like with Dear Esther or Proteus.
But something curious happened recently: I noticed that playing games at high difficulties started to feel grating. I realized that playing normal/high difficulties often makes me feel like I wasn't doing it because I was having ‘fun' per se, but more because I felt I had something to prove. I'd want the better achievement for a high-difficulty run-through; I'd be able to tell people what I did and sound that much more impressive.
Part of the recent change came from being absolutely torn down by Persona 4: Golden's highest difficulty. I'm at a point where going through one level in a dungeon might take an hour, if I manage to survive and avoid getting one-hit-killed. I'll often preemptively kill myself if I didn't do amazing in a skirmish, if I spent too much SP or got knicked enough that it would affect me in the long term.
I remember doing something similar in Super Meat Boy when I saw that I wasted an errant second on my run: it wasn't good enough. I could do better. Except unlike Super Meat Boy, Persona 4 has me feeling delirious. Oh, have I died for the tenth time in a row without making any progress whatsover? Have I spent hours in the same place with nothing to show for it? Haha! I don't even feel a thing anymore. Alrighty, back on the horse we go.
In an effort to retain what little of my sanity was left, I decided that any other titles I was playing concurrently to Persona 4 should be played on easy. Despite that decision, hovering between ‘normal' and ‘easy' on games like Far Cry 3 and Hitman: Absolution still felt wrong. I hesitated. Thinking back on it now, it reminds me a lot of being at a party and not knowing how to relax and just have a good time.
It wasn't until I started watching videos by popular YouTube user Criken, where he does all sorts of idiotic things, that the joy of easy mode really ‘clicked.' Maybe being sloppy and stupid could be fun. It's not so much about wanting to bulldoze through everything without thinking; games facilitate that at normal difficulties too. It's about having the ability to be creative and silly without penalty.
So now my Agent 47 runs around with ‘weapons' like radios instead of guns. Turns out, radios can be just as effective as whatever might typically be in a hitman's arsenal. Imagine my glee when I hocked said radio straight at a guard's head, and everyone screams and points their guns at the radio as if they could kill it? Or when I threw a glass bottle at the wall near a cop, they become alarmed and call dispatch about a suspicious sound... only to then stare at a wall for like two minutes?
It's so absurd, and I'm loving it. Compared to trying to stealthily navigate a level—which was what I was doing prior—what I'm doing right now feels way better.
In the case of Far Cry 3, easy mode is helping me muscle through a story that has clearly gone off the rails and is kind of bad, and, to my horror, still probably has a few hours left for me to experience. Far Cry 3 is not alone in this regard: all too often, I'll find myself wading through a game that goes on for longer than it needs to. I don't feel that very many games respect my time, and easy mode helps alleviate that.
More importantly, I'm moving into a place where I'd like difficulty, but not in the way most games give it to me. Mechanical difficulty is not the only type of difficulty there is.
I want to play more games where I have a hard time putting the pieces together on what happened, like Thirty Flights of Loving. I want games that challenge my values and force me to make difficult decisions, like the The Walking Dead does. I want games with challenging themes and ideas that make me feel uncomfortable, like with Analogue: A Hate Story. I want to play games where the characterization of those I interact with is a tangled web of inscrutable desires and motivations, like in Dragon Age 2.
Physically going through the motions of pressing buttons, at this point, is easy. I know how to do that, I've played a ton of games that have refined my skills and reaction time. Until more games give me reasons to make those actions complicated or messy, I'm plenty happy seeing what a game can offer me when I stop being so serious.
Image Credit: Shutterstock
You might know the name Victor Ireland—the outspoken ex-head of Working Designs was responsible for translating and publishing a number of beloved Japanese games, like the Lunar series and Alundra.
But you might not know his son, Broderick Ireland. Broderick, an 18-year-old designer who just released his first game on the Xbox Live Indie Marketplace, is a member of the "next generation" of game makers: he wants to bring games to life just like his father before him.
Second-generation designers are not particularly common in the video game industry, as interactive entertainment is still so young. So I thought it might be interesting to do a Q&A with Broderick. We talked about his new game, his interests, and the many ways in which his father has influenced him over the years.
The full conversation follows:
Kotaku: For starters, could you tell me a little bit about your game? What type of game is it? What's special about it?
Broderick: Space Crüesader is a twin-stick, Robotron-style shooter with tons of added flair. Cool explosions and effects, over 370 professionally-recorded voice-clips, over 45 minutes of music, etc. There's also some options to turn on subtitles for the hearing-impaired and to disable flashes for epileptics—you don't see those considerations in indie games that often. I really tried to make it more than "just another twin-stick". In fact, that's why I realized pretty early on that the player needed something to do other than just "here's a level, here's your time limit, shoot stuff". This eventually lead to the rescue gameplay mechanic that the game is kind of centered around now. Adding in the rescue mechanic really made the game more interesting, as it also added a sort of underlying story of the "why" behind everything your doing that's there if the player really looks for it.
It's actually a fair bit more complex than "you've gotta save Earth!", but it's not super in-your-face and it's intentionally ambiguous to an extent, as I personally hate stories that try to get overly wordy and detailed in a genre or game type that doesn't really need the added detail. There's also a lot small pop-culture references I threw in, whether it's in badge descriptions, some of the default names on the global highscores, or voice clips. Pretty much just little winks and nods that the player will encounter throughout the game, but, again, in a very subtle manner—they may not even realize they're references.
Essentially, I really tried to make Space Crüesader something with a bit of soul, going above and beyond what a lot of Xbox Live indie shovelware delivers. This isn't Twin-Stick Shooter 9001: Scantily-clad Zombie Avatar Massager Edition—I really tried to make this special.
Kotaku: Xbox's Indie Marketplace feels a little desolate these days, and I've heard that it's tough to get a lot of attention on there. Do you plan to take the game to Steam or any other platforms?
Broderick: There are bright spots and some terrific games, but it is a pretty grim marketplace, yeah. Attention definitely runs at a premium if you're on XBLIG, as most everyone sort of brushes it off as the area where all the crap goes. I've heard it described as the red-headed step-child before, and I think that's a pretty good description.
As for other platforms, I would love to get Space Crüesader on Steam, in fact I had it added to Steam Greenlight day one (i.e. the day Half-Life 3 was put up 10 times). I was totally prepared to bring Space Crüesader to PC and Mac (possibly with Linux support too), but my Greenlight page wasn't an FPS or Minecraft clone, so it was hard to get attention.
I currently don't really see much of a reason to spend the time (and, by extension, money) to bring it to other PC marketplaces if I can't get it up on Steam, as that's really the holy grail of PC distribution. We'll see. I'm very interested in Mac (and Linux to a lesser extent), as they really don't get a lot of games and I don't think that that's very fair. If the Greenlight thing doesn't work out, I may very well look into the Mac App store. Greenlight seems to be governed mostly by "hey, this looks pretty" or "hey, this is another First-Person Shooter/Minecraft clone", so I suppose that only time will tell.
Kotaku: Tell me a little bit about what it was like to grow up with Victor as your dad—did you get to see a lot of games before they were released in America? Did he show you a lot of games when you were younger?
Broderick: Gaming has always been a pretty huge area for me growing up. I definitely remember playing some of the games Dad was working on growing up (and a few that never made it to release). A lot of great games that I've played have been imported (a few of the recent ones like: Earth Defense Force/Global Defense Force, Blue Dragon, DeathSmiles). Our copy of Gears of War is actually one of the Asian copies (the Korean one, I believe) because Dad wanted to play it on his Asian Xbox! I was also in a segment cut out of the original Making of LUNAR. We still have the tape with my 6 year old "staff" interview discussing my view of the game's production in my custom-sized LUNAR Polo.
Growing up I also learned what "Save", "Confirm", "Yes/No", etc. looked like in Japanese pretty quickly, as even if you can't understand what the characters in a RPG are saying, you'd better know what those mean or else you'll be replaying a lot of areas. One of the things I found out about importing is that for every three or four great imports I played there were also one or two really, really weird ones (I'm looking at you and your man-juice, Cho Aniki).
I definitely seem to remember more of the imports of recent years than the really old ones, mostly because I think, at the time, I didn't really "get" what was so special about them. "Oh, this game's got weird crap on box of it. I can't understand the text. Whatever, I'm just going to go back to Banjo Kazooie." That kind of thing. I do want to make it clear that I definitely understand and appreciate their significance now, as I can already hear people going "You grew up surrounded by great imports, why don't you remember all of them!? Why haven't you mentioned [import X]? Why aren't you talking about Waifus yet!?"
Kotaku: What are some of your favorite games? Have you always wanted to make games?
Broderick: This may come as a surprise, but I am fairly unbiased when it comes to genres. I've played so many games that it's really hard to name my "favorite" ones, but I can name quite a few ones I enjoyed a lot.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
I played this game to death on the 360. Literally over a thousand hours, a few characters, the whole shebang. Then I got it for the PC a few years ago and logged over five-hundred hours on that copy.
Tales of Vesperia
Out of all the Tales games that I've played, this is by far my favorite. The writing, voice acting, gameplay and style all came together in this one. Most Tales games have some of it come together (seriously, spend more money on voice acting!), but not all of it. I'd totally recommend it.
The Ace Attorney Series
Phoenix Wright was my #1 reason for owning a DS for a while. Every game in the series was great. Somehow something as boring as a court proceeding was turned into something awesome. Who knew?
The Professor Layton Series
Great puzzles? Good stories? Addictive music? Professor Layton has it all. A series that should definitely not be missed.
Disaster: Day of Crisis
A Wii game that's not shovelware? Sign me up! Pretty much Disaster Report (another great series) but as a wacky action game on steroids (Flaming tornado? Yes, please!), I was astonished when this game wasn't picked up for the U.S.
Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland
Remember that annoying guy in green tights from Wind Waker? He actually got his own spin-off series for the DS. The even more surprising thing is that it's a really great top-down adventure RPG. Another title that should have made its way to the U.S.
Dad said Nintendo told him the character was too "controversial" for the U.S. market, so I'm unsure if it'll ever come out here.
DJ Max
An amazing music game, this is another title that never made it to the U.S. market. Eventually we got, what, one of them? Other than some of the menus and most of the music being in Korean, a surprising amount of the game is in English. Sometimes it's worth it to boot up my PSP just to listen to the music.
The Ganbare Goemon Series
A lot of childhood memories are associated with Goemon. The characters and settings (who can forget Gorgeous My Stage?) made it something really special. I'll always remember the first time you call on Impact in the Nintendo 64 Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (the U.S. name), as that made a huge impression on my 4-year-old self. Aside from one or two duds (I was never a fan of Mr. Goemon, for example) the series holds up really, really well.
Half-Life 2
I'd never live it down if I forgot this. This is definitely one of my all-time favorites, simply because of the immersive story-telling, gameplay, etc. Everything about it was so perfect. Definitely one of the best games I've played.
Demon's Souls/Dark Souls
These games set the bar (for me at least) for challenging, strategy-oriented, action RPGs. These games used the minimalistic story-telling that I mentioned earlier—just enough to get you into the world, but not too much that it pushes you out of it. Amazing games.
As for your second part of the question, no, I didn't always plan on making games. I knew that I always wanted to be a part of the process, but I never would have dreamed that I'd be doing the programming (mostly because I was never very good at math). Thankfully, when you're programming, you've got to improve your math skill quickly, or else you're in for a lot of very frustrating nights.
To be honest, I always thought I'd be a part of the visual process (designing, directing—a visualizer), but I started learning programming. Then I got to do both programming, and designing. That's the fun part—when you're only limited by your own creativity. Once you have to work within the limits you've imposed... that's when it becomes "work". The middle to end of development is where "if it was easy, everyone would be doing it" comes into play.
Kotaku: What sort of influence do you think your dad has had on your work?
Broderick: Generally, I'd say it's been a huge positive influence. He's been the one that's helped from the start, so I can safely say that the game wouldn't be what it is today if he hadn't helped out. That said, I can't say that all of his ideas were gold (just like I can't say that all of mine were either), but between both of us—between the arguing about what should and shouldn't be in—the game was definitely changed for the better.
I also learned a lot—a lot about how the industry works internally, a lot about industry politics, a lot about design, etc. Looking back at where I started, essentially a gamer with absolutely zero programming and zero design experience, I can't imagine getting from where I was to where I currently am without his help.
Actually r4di0fly3r's motion-tracking turret probably won't keep intruders out. But it will startle them. And it will probably keep cats and dogs out from sheer terror of "OH GOD WHAT IS THAT."
You can download the software for your PC or Mac, or just run it off of the deviantART page since that didn't seem to work for me.
Interactive Portal Turret [deviantART via Reddit]
The man behind The War Z has apologized to his fans for some of the controversies that have entangled the much-maligned survival horror game over the past couple of weeks.
In an extensive letter that tackles some of the game's well-publicized issues—like misleading Steam descriptions and community mismanagement—War Z boss Sergey Titov says he'll be hiring new staff, changing the War Z forum's policies, and "[providing] better communication" in the future. He also apologizes for his missteps.
Here's the full letter he sent to War Z players today:
Dear fellow Survivors,
It has now been more than two months since we launched public access to The War Z. We've definitely had our ups and downs, and I thought that this Holiday break was the right time for me to try to step back a little and think about our journey since it started. This may be a little long, but I would appreciate if you could stay with me for a few minutes as I try to go over the highlights of the game as well as some of the hurdles and controversies, how we have addressed that and what our plans are.
First of all a very big and sincere "Thank You!" to all of you. We are really proud of the community we have formed with you guys. Every day we have hundreds of thousands of players on our servers, and this is a life-changing event for the team and me. We are blessed to have you as members of the community and we are well aware that without you the game would be nothing. Along with that thanks, though, I need to admit that we failed to effectively communicate some of our plans and actions to both our existing players and to our new prospective players. This failure to communicate resulted in some very negative feedback from some members of our community, but while it might be easy to label them as "haters" or some other dismissive term, in all honesty this is my fault. I became arrogant and blinded by the early success and quick growth of The War Z, our increasing number of players, numbers we were getting from surveys, etc., and I chose not to notice the concerns and questions raised by these members of the game community as well as others. This failure is entirely on my shoulders and if anything I owe thanks to that vocal minority and admit that I should have paid attention sooner. I chose instead to concentrate on the bigger picture – my dream of turning The War Z from being a game developed by a small indie team into a large online venture, instead of addressing small things first and staying focused on the game issues. At the end my arrogance led us to the moment, when all those small things finally caught up and created a "perfect storm" that affected all of our community members. For that I'm truly sorry and apologize to all of our community as well as the larger PC gaming community that is not yet playing The War Z.
I do not take this situation lightly, and last week events were especially humbling for me. I've experienced a range of emotions, most of which centered on regret for not having addressed some of the issues differently than we did, but we can't change the past. The only thing we can do is to be sure that we won't repeat the same mistakes in the future. I have realized that as the leader of this ship, I missed all early warnings that were saying, "Your community is not as happy as you think they are, you need to alter course." I was too focused on how great we are and how a small independent team got their first game to over 700,000 users in a two-month period. Though that is something to be very proud of, allowing that to overshadow the existing community and their satisfaction was poor judgment.
I want to give you some insight into what our plans are for the future, but before we get to that, I'd like to clear the air with you on several important topics.
Community management and moderation – the problem
Even since the early Alpha launch, this game has always cultivated a large and loyal player base that is very active in the game. Again, thank you for this. Unfortunately, we weren't prepared for this large success and the way we managed the community was not the way it should've been. We relied too much on forum moderators, whose primary role was to punish those who break rules, not to engage the community and guide conversations into productive discussions about problems. There wasn't enough presence of the development team on forums, there wasn't enough updates on development of UPCOMING features. We failed to communicate our position and messaging on the outside platforms such as Facebook, twitter and various online websites, and when we did this we chose to rely more on arrogance rather than being humble and trying to understand why people were saying negative things. We chose to tune out negative reactions to the game, not paying enough attention to them – and this, again, is my fault. We chose to rely too much on numbers – percentage of refund requests, number and dynamic of our daily and monthly active users, etc. Well, in hindsight – those things probably work well for more casual games, but the hardcore PC gaming community is much different and can be very vocal about what they feel. Even when the percentage of players with negative comments is small, as the community grows, even a small percentage can add up to be a very significant absolute number. And it's not just a number – those are real people with real issues they are having with the game. OP Productions (publisher for War Z) and me personally have failed to address those issues effectively.
Community management and moderation – the solution!
We're changing our community management procedures and rules right now. We're going to reevaluate publishing and marketing team performance, and I will make sure that Hammerpoint Interactive developers will have a much stronger voice when it comes to community management and we won't rely 100% on OP Productions to single handedly handle this. Lots of changes will be happening very fast in the weeks to come. One of the ideas that I proposed was to select 10 players from around the world who can represent the player community and invite them to our offices in Los Angeles, to meet the team, check out what we're doing, and share with actual developers their concerns, wishes and thoughts on the game. We also will involve community, to a much higher degree, in the process of making our next map for The War Z (called "California"). We'll be discussing many of the aspects of the map with you and asking for feedback.
We're revisiting our forum policies; we're going to bring on an additional community management team, additional moderators and we'll train them how to respond to things properly. There will still be restrictions on harassment, trash talk, etc. But we'll make sure that every opinion is heard. At the same time, I must also be cautious: we cannot address all issues and there cannot be only one voice. Please accept that. With hundreds of thousands of players playing, talking, chatting, voicing their strong opinions, there will always be diverging opinions. And some issues that are minor ones are sometimes brought to light by very vocal channels. I would even say there is sometimes a beginning of controversy because the game is now so popular. So there is sometimes a distortion between the severity of the issue and the attention it gets. But we will clearly implement steps to better listen to the community.
What is Foundation Release?
The most asked question of the last week was "is this the final release?" My answer has always been that for an online game a "final" release means that the game is dead – so there's really no such thing, you never stop developing, making changes to and adding new features to the game. This is how we came to call the current version of The War Z "Foundation Release." We launched the Foundation Release on December 17, 2012 as our first-stage release that we use as a foundation to build upon. It does include the core features and a fully playable environment. This is our version 1.0, and of course we will continue to improve that version as time goes on. Did we rush to get it done? That is a tough question, but to answer honestly I think that we all pushed very hard to be first to market and in time for the holidays. Our entire team was working late, long hours to iron out issues and include as many features as possible. This is part of the reality of being a smaller, independent game developer. If we had a larger team and more funding we may have done things differently, but I'm not sure. I don't think it was a mistake because our numbers have been strong since day one and, even with the recent negativity, our metrics are really solid and we've been continuing to grow. The negative opinions are always the most vocal, but most players are really enjoying the game and we've been attracting more and more daily active players every week. A lot of the gaming journalists that have been playing the game have also given us some great feedback. I realize that we will take a few hits from some of the traditional gaming press in terms of review scores, but I'm hoping that even they will consider that this game is a living project that will continue to evolve as time goes on. We are very proud of our Foundation Release, and we do stand behind it like we have stood behind any previous version.
What's on the Horizon?
As for what will happen next with The War Z? We're currently evaluating the relationship between Hammerpoint and OP Productions. I firmly believe that Hammerpoint should be playing a more prominent role in publishing/game operating process. We're in a process of adding new key members to our team, bringing on guys who have much more experience operating and growing successful online games and I know this is going to make a huge difference in terms of development. We'll be making some big decisions in terms of leadership for both companies and I will personally change how I handle many things. Above all we will continue to develop and make this game the best that it can be.
I know that to some people my words won't matter much. I understand that. I hope that will change as we move forward and deliver the features that our players have been waiting for. I can promise you that from now on things will be much more transparent, and we'll provide better communication and engage our community to discuss upcoming features way before they appear in the game.
I do believe that we aren't even close to uncovering the true potential for The War Z, and I hope that in the coming year, we'll be able to regain trust from people who were alienated by our actions and we'll be able to move forward and grow the game together.
Thank you for reading all this, thank you for supporting the game and thank you for helping us to change and realize what's important as well as what is not.
I hope you are all having a happy holiday and I wish you the best for the New Year!
Sincerely,
Sergey Titov
Executive Producer, The War Z
Sometimes what you need is a little realism in your power fantasy. If you feel that Far Cry 3 is missing some crucial realistic bits, maybe this mod is for you.
Here is the "extremely in-depth Realism Mod" by Ubisoft forum user Panzerjager1943. According to the creator, this mod includes:
-Damage is based on actual weapon terminal ballistics tests
-Sway in sights and aiming are factors of the weapon's weight
-Recoil is a factor related to actual weapon recoil, incorporating bullet weight, powder, velocity, and weight of weapon
-Accuracy is based on actual Minute of Arc extreme spreads for the most realism
-Reload time is 25% slower on Assault Rifles, LMG's, and SMG's
-All weapons have realistic magazine capacities, including with Extended Magazines
-All weapons have vastly more maximum range
-Weapons have proper rates of fire (most especially that PKM.)
-Weapons have a new attachment setup that is a modified version of Leechmonger's attachments mod
You can find it here.
Not sure how to mod Far Cry 3, need a little guidance? The initial post in this thread has some tips and resources you can check out.
And remember: this realism mod will probably pair well with HUD-less Far Cry 3.
Diablo III's Team Deathmatch mode—shown off at a number of conventions and promised for the months following the game's launch earlier this year—has been axed, Blizzard says.
The player vs. player feature just wasn't good enough, Diablo III lead designer Jay Wilson writes on Battle.net today:
So, our core problem is that our Team Deathmatch mode doesn't feel like a great addition to Diablo III. It's not up to the quality that Blizzard gamers expect or that we feel you deserve, and it doesn't really fit with our goals for the rest of the game. The question now is what are we going to do about it?
First and foremost, if our original goal was to support dueling, then we're not achieving that goal very well if we don't actually give players a way to duel in-game. You've been asking us for dueling for a while, so we're going to add it to the game soon. Dueling is currently scheduled to release with patch 1.0.7, which is set to hit sometime after the new year. (We'll be providing details about that feature very soon, so stay tuned.)
But as I mentioned before, we are going back to the drawing board on a new replacement for Team Deathmatch, something that feels more appropriate for Diablo III. And as we stated previously, regardless of when we release it, it'll be a free addition to the game. Team Deathmatch provided us with the foundation that we needed and served us well. Hell, it may even still be added in some form in the future. For now, though, we're going to first be looking at new modes that play up to the strengths of the character classes, focus on objectives beyond just defeating other players, and possibly even integrate PvE elements and rewards.
I didn't notice how fairly quiet a year it's been for zombies until doing this round-up of all the flesh-eaters this year's media has to offer, but there were definitely some highlights that more than fill those gaps. Some duds, too, but you can't expect such a watered down narrative to always go over so creatively.
So let's take a look back at 2012 and all the zombie media that it had to offer. From games to comics to TV shows to film, here are a few highlights. If we missed any you're keen on, share your noteworthy selections in Kinja below.
This is the star of the list. Telltale's wonderfully harrowing episodic series was a somber exploration through your personal judgments as the game threw increasingly difficult decisions your way. The point-and-click adventure game also featured some refreshingly interesting characters, including a remarkably enjoyable young Clementine and a steadfast Lee. Though definitely the mediocre platform of the bunch, the iOS version available was an alternative to non-console gaming users. Which is great, because the more people that play this touching eye-opener the better.
There were hits and misses embedded in this franchise's 2012 existence. Resident Evil 6, for instance, was incredibly underwhelming. As much as the game tried to make interesting changes to the series, it felt too outdone by other games. Resident Evil: Revelations was a surprise hit on the 3DS, combining a quality Resident Evil vibe with an episodic structure that suited the mobile game well. And then Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City ran somewhere in the middle at mediocre.
The mod so good it's getting its own standalone game, DayZ has had an incredibly good year. It's marked by hundreds of compelling player tales on survival and trust, and a bunch of funny videos, too. Truly an experience unlike any other MMO or zombie game.
Not only is ZombiU arguably the game that makes best use of the Wii U's GamePad capabilities so far in the early launch days of Nintendo's new console, but it's also a fascinating game. The shooter experiments with new concepts—like having to kill zombified versions of your previous lives—and includes an incredibly fun multiplayer mode, too.
But, wait! This is a first-person, war shooter! Well it also has a multiplayer option completely dedicated to zombies. And it's quite good, if not a little tough.
Zombro is a clever, bright puzzle game where you can dismember your zombie body to roll, bounce, and crawl your way around each level. It's a lot of fun.
Deploy survivors, give them tasks, and survive.
Here's an interesting take on the world of zombie games. Zombies, Run! is an exercise game. As you go for a run around your neighborhood, you'll be listening to the story and taking instructions from the game, picking up supplies while being chased by zombies.
I imagine viewers are split on this one, as video games adapted into movies are never great. But our movie reviewer, Matt Hawkins, thinks that there are enjoyable elements to the latest film. Like great action sequences and some actual nods to the game, albeit not always too accurately.
This stop-motion animated zombie flick is different than what you're used to. It leans to the comedy variety rather than a horror film. Protagonist Norman has to use his ability to speak with the dead to fend off against the living dead. It's an adorable entry in what is normally a gross and scary one.
Perhaps not the most unique of zombie movies, REC 3: Genesis is at the least packed with gore and ludicrous action. What else can you expect of a wedding gone awry at the hands of a disgusting and infectious illness?
AMC's The Walking Dead, based on the comic book series, started off strong. Though losing some of its viewer loyalty somewhere near the end of season one and a whole lot of boring farm episodes in season two, the show has since picked up the pace in recent months with season three where the group of survivors finally starts to make more moves. The highlight of which has to be Daryl, who is certainly my favorite character, and unique to the show.
Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead series is absolutely fantastic. Artist Charlie Adlard's powerful black-and-white imagery adds to the many, many tense moments in the series that has been ongoing since 2003. It follows a group of survivors as they meet their biggest threats head-on: other survivors. Think of the series as less about zombies and more about the world zombies have left in their wake.
From Evan: If you only know Robert Kirkman from The Walking Dead or his other creator-owned hits like Invincible, you may not know that he delivered a gleefully gross mash-up of superheroes and shambling undead a few years back. Marvel Zombies gave us versions of Captain America, Hulk, Spider-Man and others who devoured every human being on their home planet and went battling across the multiverse to hunt for more fresh meat. This year, a massive anthology collected all the MZ mini-series between two covers. It's good gory fun that makes the good guys very bad. Get it for the zombie lover in your life.
