Pixel Theories | a gamer getting older...

It's not a "Down Year" or a "Sign of the Times."

In approximately 50 days the annual trade show circuit starts in the video game industry.  At that time video game journalists and affluent bloggers from all over the world will start an "amazing race" of their own that will span six months and three countries.  The race starts in Los Angeles with e3 in June, then takes professionals overseas to GAMESCom in Cologne, Germany in August, in September I'll welcome everyone to my backyard for PAX, and the finish line resides in Makuhari Messe with TGS in October.  During these conventions, save PAX, I'll be home constantly scouring the net for info on games to come out in...2010.

That's no typo.  There are only a few highly anticipated games to come out this year; those being God of War 3 (PS3), Halo 3: ODST (Xbox 360), and Modern Warfare 2.  And regardless of what people will say about "the economy," this year's lack of blockbuster titles is only a sign of the bi yearly condition of the market.

Which in turn means that for you, the majority of info that will be dropping this summer will be about annual sports titles, sequels, movie based ip's, and handful of casual games.  The likelihood that anyone of us laymen will be able to see raw gameplay footage will be towards the second half of the trade circuit at PAX and TGS.  Publishers, and the big 3, will use e3 and GAMESCom to show behind the scenes footage, talk about future hardware, and announce games that will come out in 2010.

This doesn't mean that the year is a waste, only an optimal time for you to get geared up for 2010.  And that may sound like a lame thing to say.  But consider the plethora of games that came out from the end of 2008 till March 2009.  Can you honestly say that you've played every worthwhile title in that time frame?

I know I can't.

Use the next 8 months as a pivotal time to catch up on the backlog of games left from years of past.  Or use the time to build a game with Blender, XNA, or Flash.  Now's a perfect opportunity not to get distracted.

Kotaku Cronies Strike Criticism of Community Games

Kotaku's Luke Plunkett took the now infamous analysis of community games by GamerBytes two days ago, and made the assessment that XBLA community games "don't sell and don't make money."  Well not to be a prick, but that would seem like a fairly obvious sentiment to anyone who has read the article.  In fact, it's flat out crap journalism like this that has polarized those who read Kotaku.  You either love them, or you hate them.

You can probably already guess which camp I'm in.  Kotaku's pis poor fact checking, their lack of respect for bloggers with smaller readerships, and their use of aliases, has tarnished what was originally a nice newsblog.  Unfortunately, Brian Crecente and his merry band of trigger-typing morons have nothing to offer readers in the form of self created content.  Rather, Kotaku has turned into a blog that relies on it's tipsters to inspire articles that generate readership.  And I use the term blog lightly, because like it or not, Kotaku has propelled to the level of aggregate readership that parallels IGN, GameSpot, &  blog-like counterparts like Joystiq & Destructoid.  Though technically these latter mentioned webs fit the blog look, their behind the scenes access to devs & their content literally take them out of the definition of a "blog."

I'm not bitter, but when I see the obvious the last thing I do is blog about it.  Which brings me back to the topic at hand; community games that are made by gamers for gamers is a new realm.  Often when breaking new ground or developing new trends, very few positives come from these avenues.  In fact, when introducing new features such as community games; we'll most likely learn more lessons from what was done incorrectly. 

For example, think of XBLA back with the original Xbox, there were few titles, and the purchasing of those games was a pain.  Microsoft learned from this mistake and retooled XBLA for the 360, which I might now add is a success.

Are people really going to download titles like 360 Calculator?  No.  Will homebrew developers start to get a better idea of what it'll take to survive as a small time influence on the industry?  Yes. 

Right now, Microsoft is still trying to figure out how community games will be viable as a long term profitable business solution.  Say what you want, there is a market for homebrew games on retail consoles.  However, the method for it's delivery and the marketing behind it, is just something that Microsoft will have to figure out as time goes on.

It's just unfortunate that some journalists don't have the ability to read into what their writing about, rather than just typing up short sarcastic linear essay.

Overthinking it.

The accusation that Resident Evil 5 is the byproduct of racism is a complete fallacy.  In fact to argue that point you'd had better have a concrete argument; or at least stake your reputation on it, because reporting it as such would be irresponsible.  Comparing games like RE5 to Ethnic Cleansing and it's "sequels" that have been developed to propagate the ideas of Neo-Nazism and white supremacy would certainly be ludicrous.  To me this issue is very simple.  Resident Evil 5 is a not a platform for racist beliefs or part of a racist propaganda.

I can say this because it's been proven.  Games that are developed plainly to promote brash racial prejudices don't make money.  And even though titles like Ethnic Cleansing get a lot of press prior to their release, they never yield a profit.  Make no mistake; publisher's are out to make money, plain and simple.  While this industry is relatively new, the rules remain the same: always turn a profit.

I haven't played the full retail game, nor was I given privy to a hands on preview similar to IGN, Kotaku, or Eurogamer, etc.  However, the demo reveals the original RE protagonist Chris Redfield in Africa battling zombies in the fictional country of Kijuju.  Even after the initial backlash in August of 2007, for accusations of racist overtones, Capcom backpedalled and added Sheva Alomar, a black female protagonist, to the game's playable character roster.

One has to question whether we are being too sensitive to factors that are purely fictional.  Racism is ongoing presence in our life, but we tend to look for it everywhere, even in things where it's not.  In this case it would reinforce a stereotype that would proclaim that African men & women can be only dirt poor and not affluent.  An assertion which most logical people would label asinine.  I for one at  a young age didn't think that I'd be wearing a proton pack as a profession because I saw Winston Zedemore's charachter in Ghostbusters.

Perhaps instead of labeling a game that none of us have really had the chance to play, we give the dev the benefit of the doubt, and wait one more week to make our own assessment.  Just maybe we can't always rely on the overcritical assertions made by game journalists who are more than eager to break the next big headline.  Because as much as we rely on their content to make purchasing decisions, we can't take everything they have to write for granted.  They may simply be overthinking it.

One for the Little Guy

For over 18 months Circuit City has had a lawsuit against a user known as Speedy1961 at Cheapassgamer.com.  The lawsuit was brought forward because of Speedy's postings detailing the prices of video games, DVDs's, and related hardware from Target, Best Buy, and of course Circuit City that would appear on CAG & DVD Talk forums nearly two weeks before released in local newspapers.  The lawsuit was filed shortly after the 2007 E3 Expo where Speedy's posting about a PS3 price drop, spread quickly over the Internet and gained his posts even more notoriety on both webs.

Well score one for the little guy, because as of toady Circuit City has officially dropped the lawsuit against against Speedy1961.