My Year in Games

As is the custom around this time of year, I feel compelled to write some sort of year-ending, bases-rounding kind of summary. Should I do a list? But everybody does lists, they’re so cliche and uninspired and lazy and…oh, OK, fine, I’ll do a list. Below I have generated a sequence of bold-type fonts that represent several of the biggest moments that 2008 brought to me as a gamer.

Most Surprising: I’ve been wondering for a while now what exactly Blizzard was doing with the 10 million times 15 dollars they’ve been hauling in every month. Building giant money forts maybe? Buying lots of coke (-a-cola) and strippers perhaps? While it’s no surprise that this cash surplus has gone to the development of other games, I am surprised that they are simultaneously developing and promoting both “Starcraft II” and “Diablo III.” If you look at the record, Blizzard has traditionally released one game at a time in a pretty linear fashion. Game, then expansion, then a different game, then expansion, etc. Either of these games is a big enough announcement in and of itself to occupy most gamers’ minds, two just speaks of raw ambition.

So, I have a theory. Over the past couple of years, Blizzard has developed a habit that I think they went to keep. For the last two, they’ve had produce a duo of major events each fall; Blizzcon and then an expansion release for “World of Warcraft.” Blizzcon allows them to heavily push and promote the product they plan to release while also setting the stage for their future developments. Good PR. With “Starcraft II” being broken into three parts and “Diablo III” doubtlessly getting an expansion, I think it’s a good chance that Blizzard will continue to release one game every fall for the next five or six years, alternating between “Starcraft” and “Diablo.”

Most Depressing: Let’s be honest, and as a PS3 owner it hurts me to say, Sony has not had a good year. They got beat on basically every good idea that’s come to the next-gen console market. From motion-sensing to online play, their competitors have already done it and (mostly) perfected it. As 2008 began, there was still good reason to believe that Sony could come roaring back. Home would be unveiled and demolish Xbox Live, someone would finally make a good SIX-AXIS game, “Metal Gear Solid 4″ would be so awesome Jesus Christ himself would descend from on high to play it. Sadly for Playstation fanboys, nothing Sony did, said, made or sold changed the facts on the ground. The trend line from 2007 maintained itself in 2008, with the Wii clearly dominating, the Xbox 360 posting a respectable second and the Playstation 3 coming in a distant third.

And, just in case I didn’t already feel “babo” (Korean for stupid) for buying a PS3, Square announced that “Final Fantasy XIII” would have a multi-platform release. For me, this essentially destroys Sony’s next-gen hopes as FFXIII was the last trick in their bag. With Home revealing itself as a silly diversion to actually playing games and SIX-AXIS effectively abandoned by developers, there’s nothing left for them to promise. Even Blu-Ray’s victory in the format war did little to shift consumers. There’s nothing left but price cuts.

Most Enjoyable: Some of the most fun I’ve had gaming this year doesn’t come from a video game per say, although there is an excellent java version and a release an Xbox Arcade. Instead, I left the electronics behind and discovered the venerable board game classic, Settlers of Catan. A couple of Brits introduced me to it here in Korea and I haven’t been able to get enough of it since. I’ve recommended it to friend after friend and asked for the complete set for Christmas. While I won’t get into the mechanics in detail, it’s a game best played around a big table with good friends and a few beers. Even better, it combines familiar strategy game elements like resource gathering and spending with the casual appeal of dice rolling and “Sorry!”-style revenge to become a game the whole family can enjoy. Seriously, I’ve played it with my mother and she’s actually quite good.

Most Looking Forward to Their Eventual Demise: Stop it with “Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero” already. I’ll admit it, I was like everyone else when “Guitar Hero II” came out, seduced by the bright, flashing colors and tiny plastic equipment. But that was almost two years ago and the well has gone dry. The whole appeal of the idea was to play fun, popular songs, kind of like karoake with music instead of words. But, just like karoke, the amount of fun you have depends on the selection of tunes available. With each downloadable pack that appears, it just seems there’s less and less good stuff to be had.

Maybe I’m just too jaded of a gamer, but after wailing away on enough songs, they all just started to feel the same and my enthusiasm died. Activision and Harmonix keep releasing new tracks, but none of it is new content, just another pattern of colored dots to memorize and master. Perhaps a music metaphor is best here. It’s like a band you really like keeps rehashing the same material record after record. It’s not like you don’t enjoy listening to the music, but it’s hard to get excited about another album when you know it’s just going to be the same as the last.

Most Humbling: I recently acquired a multitude of emulators on my laptop that allow me to immerse myself in old-school gaming enjoyment at any moment. The veneer of nostalgia I felt concerning most Nintendo games, however, completely glossed over the sheer difficulty some of those games had. I mean, Christ, did I always suck at “Megan Man” this bad? It’s quite a shock to the system when one is use to checkpoints and regenerating health to face the excruciating frustration of a mis-judged jump or the underwhelming power of the Blue Bomber’s peashooter. Rather than own up to my lack of skill, I just say it’s a hold-over from the arcade era when developers didn’t want you to actually beat the game. Oh, that conniving Dr. Wily….

Save the Princess

If you haven’t realized yet from the hail of positive reviews, the new “Prince of Persia” release is an awesome game. Ah, but what qualifies it to enter the cannon of great games, you ask (don’t you?) Well, let me expound upon the reasons.

First, the game is revolutionary. More of a quietly significant innovation like the microwave than a bloody upheaval like the French Revolution, but a step forward none the less. The chief source is the way it mixes gameplay and presentation to create an experience that contrasts with its contemporary brethren. Most of today’s blockbuster titles are a succession of violence, gore and over-the-top machismo draped in drab shades of brown, black and gray. Examples include “Gears of War,” “Killzone,” “Call of Duty,” “Resistance,” “Left 4 Dead,” “Fallout 3,” “Grand Theft Auto IV,” etc. Most of these are also shooters, a type of game that has achieved de facto status as the genre du jour. Other hallmarks include hardcore difficulty levels, co-op modes and online play.

The new “Prince” has none of these things. The boldness involved when a large company like Ubisoft steer away from formulaic profit territory to drive into new terrain is what, for me, qualifies it as revolutionary. In an era of grim, online shoot-em ‘ups, the game instead presents beautiful and breathtaking landscapes that emphasize exploration over headshots. I simply can’t say enough about the art style; it’s just stunning. The game seeks to be rewarding, not demanding, with combat that encourages creativity in lieu of frantic button-mashing and hair-trigger reflexes a la “Devil May Cry 4.”

Second, it executes some classic gaming conventions, platforming and adventure, with renewed vigor. As I mentioned before, the FPS and RTS and other acronyms constitute the majority of games produced today; the idea of a platformer or adventure game seems downright antiquated. Even “Uncharted,” poster boy of next-gen adventure games, threw in a “Gears”-style cover mechanic. But, just like in music, movies and art, there’s something to be said for going back to the roots. The thrill of old school games like “Super Mario World” and “Pitfall” came when your plucky avatar finally navigated that tricky succession of traps and baddies to reach the level’s end. “Prince of Persia” proves that this exhilaration is timeless as the Prince slides, leaps, climbs and (with Erika’s help) flies across the world.

Third, it creates a deep immersion that almost all “big” games strive for but often fail to reach. Some games achieve it with atmosphere (”Bioshock”) and some with setting (”Grand Theft Auto IV”), but “Prince of Persia” uses connectivity. With little prologue, you are immediately thrust into the action with no clumsy interface to get in your way. There are no levels and no linearity, it’s you and this chick and an unstoppable evil to defeat. The game takes place in a sprawling city that you save piece-by-piece and can travel across back-and-forth without the aid of loading screens. I think this simple decision, to connect every area of the city so seamless, really helps lift the game from great to unforgettable. It gives the experience that larger-than-life feeling, similar to the way MMOs use vast distances to create an epic scale.

Of course, the game’s not perfect. The combat, as fun as it is to string together cinematic combos, could use a little more variety and mobility. The fairly shallow difficulty helps enhance the cinematic and immersive flow, but it would be nice to have some more challenging options. Yet, I’ll conclude by saying that these flaws are the best part as they prove that as great as this game is, it can be even better. Ubisoft has staked out some new territory, let’s hope they keep pushing the boundary forward.

Jim would be happy to know that “Prince of Persia” employs heavy use of one of his all-time favorite video game moves, the venerable Double Jump. Jim Gibbons, Online News Editor here at WizardUniverse.com, and I both have long admired the fun and utility that having an additional burst of height provides. Sometimes, one jump just isn’t enough.

Just as I feared some real economist had to come along and use fancy things likes “facts” and “mathematical data” to debunk my recent comments on the financial health of the video game industry. Such a public calling out I cannot sustain in good conscience. You have thwarted me for the last time “The Economist” and I will marshal all the power available to me towards your destruction.

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Blue Christmas

The business of video games has become larger and larger almost every year since the original Nintendo first brought Italian plumbers into living rooms nationwide. Along with the money generated, the fanbase has also steadily increased, as the variety of games available expands exponentially to lure in new players. The kinds of things you can expect from video games has also multiplied with advent of more powerful machines and the always-evolving power of the Internet. For most of its history, the industry has just continued to climb to greater and greater heights.

Amid this continually upward trend, there have only been two large scale failures. The infamous video game bust of the mid-80s and the total failure of the Dreamcast, the latter which demoted Sega from powerhouse player to endlessly churning out mediocre “Sonic” games. Yet, if you look past all the pretty ornaments out on display this Christmas season [add some games here], there’s some news underneath the tree that isn’t like to spread holiday cheer.

Sony’s announced 16,000 job cuts, EA chopped off six percent of its workforce, Midway canceled several games, THQ slipped into the red and Electronic Gaming Monthly is likely to cease as a print publication. Despite the veritable torrent of quality titles released, it seems that dastardly economic recession has stymied potential buyers from investing in a $60-a-pop product. While it’s tempting to blame this all on the recession, some of things events have been a long time coming. Sony, especially the corporation as a whole, has been struggling to find a stable line of profit for a while now and EA’s financial troubles where also apparent back in the summer months.

My theory? Perhaps, like many other economic sectors, the video game industry is susceptible to bubbles and bursts. Think of all the massive hype surrounding the unveiling of next generation consoles. The respective companies promised that the synergy they (the consoles) were capable of, incorporating games, movies, music and the Internet, opened up the path to immense profits. On top of that, “World of Warcraft” become a poster child of sorts, with its 10 million times $15 a month business model. Who wouldn’t want a piece of that? In addition, Xbox Arcade and the Playstation Store ushered in an era of smaller, cheaper titles.

Guided by the cheap credit of the global economy as a whole, old hands expanded their libraries and new companies tried their luck. But making games can be an expensive endeavor and public opinion can be brutal, resulting in a quick trip to the Wal-Mart bargain bin. As demonstrated by EA, the industry’s biggest publisher, even having a few blockbuster titles isn’t always enough to put you inside the margin of profitability. The irony of EA’s sudden turn of fortune has already been noted by others.

And so, with both the holiday season and the global financial meltdown fully engaged, that end-of-the-year saving grace has yet to manifest itself for many game companies. A lot of industries that rode the wave of economic growth produced by financial market manipulations have just now come crashing into shore. It seems that some video game companies will not be spared from this tsunami either. The bubble burst and there’s coal underneath, just in time for the holidays.

Yet, this surely will not be the last Christmas the industry sees. While losses may slim down some corporate structures, the video game industry is too firmly entrenched, both socially and economically, to suffer any drastic consequences. So, drink some eggnog, buy some games (if you can), enjoy the season and be glad you play games, not make them.

Fact Check: I’m not an economist and what I argue above is merely food for thought, or at the very least an intellectual snack. Please do not ask to see facts, stats, graphs or trend lines to back up any of this, as I have none of these things. If you do hold some theoritical disagreement with my thesis, by all means, comment away.

Total War

Last Sunday, I accepted the challenge put forth to me by a few of my younger Korean students and met them face-to-face on the field of virtual battle. The PC room located on the first floor of my building served as the venue for our epic showdown, our combat medium none other than the perennial “Starcraft.” The result? Let’s just say it was the first, and hopefully last, time I’ve ever been so thoroughly humiliated by third graders.

The war consisted of two separate battles, and in both cases I chose to deploy as Terrans whilst I faced down Zerg and Protoss opponents. I hoped to capitalize on the Terran’s excellent defensive capabilities to maximize my lifetime on the battlefield, as I considered victory far from reach. Instead, I merely hoped to see if, and how, the Koreans lived up to their reputation as a nation of “Starcraft” champs. My observations proved quite enlightening.

While pro gamer leagues exist in the U.S., the fact that anyone would want to watch the matches live on television seems a little far fetched. But here in Korea, there is a channel devoted 24-7 to that one purpose. After engaging in play with my pint-sized opponents, I began to see how such a thing is possible. The most important thing to understand is that they play the RTS in a manner far different from anything I had seen back in the States. In most of my RTS experience, people simply find a build order that specializes in producing a mass amount of one unit faster than their opponents, thereby earning a victory. Such a method merely involves a little trial and error in discovering which particularly unit is favorably unbalanced.

Koreans, however, take a much faster and looser approach that emphasizes quick hits determined to exploit an enemies weakness, followed by a more concentrated attack. Generally, they seize one or two expansions and then focus their forces near the center of the map. This loosely assembled group serves to probe enemy bases or respond to attacks, while raiding units and drop ships lurk behind the front. They constantly raid you, but rarely commit their entire force. Whatever you build, they build to counter you. Once you show sufficient weakness, then comes the main thrust.

Unlike Western players, who tend to focus on building one overwhelming force for one overwhelming attack, Korean players have their armies spread more thinly. While this at first seemed an advantage to me, I soon realized that it allowed them to attack repeatedly and from multiple angles, thus distracting me from building that all powerful army. This also lured my units out of position so they could swoop for a devastating counterattack.

Another gulf also separated myself from my victorious foes, the sheer speed by which they do everything . The mouse clicking is constant and it clicks all over the place. They check units, then buildings, then workers, moving the screen all over the map with surprising zeal. Control groups are discarded and defense is minimal, but effective. Building, expanding, attacking, upgrading, raiding, more tasks than I could possible hope to execute in an orderly fashion.

In the end, the overall speed, tactical discipline and instant adaptability inherent in the Korean style of play was unlike anything I had ever seen. It presented an entirely new way to play and think about the game. It’s no wonder the game is elevated to the level of a national sport, they play it with the a level of skill, execution and dedication that is the hallmark of any sport, from American football to curling. And all this, just from third graders. I shudder to think how I would have fared against the likes of two-time World Cyber Games champion Lim Yo-Hwan.

More minerals required: For everything you ever wanted to know about the Korean gaming scene, check out TeamLiquid, a foreigner (a.k.a. non-Korean) run Web site which posts videos of big pro league matches complete with English commentary.

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