Ves

Let me offer a different opinion. I have been developing software for as long as I remember. I assure you that botting (for some) is not about greed or cheating or "low self-esteem". Writing software to solve the monotonous tasks that I have to do day to day is my blood. It's what I do. I can't even put into words how frustrating it is to not "solve" these redundant task issues when they crop up. The issue and blame here should be placed squarely on the shoulders of stupid mindless game design.

I am of the philosophy that if the task is so monotonousness and mindless that it can be botted, than frankly its a waste of human intelligence to not bot it. Computers are not self aware, they are mindless automatons with less processing power than a fruit fly. It they are by themselves capable of the task, they should do the task, so that the humans can go off and do the really challenging mind bending things that ONLY humans can do.

To ask some not to try and find the most efficient solution to the problem is like asking a great FPS player to play a game left handed to give everyone else a shot. I understand that it is the nature of some games to constrain certain aspects for game purpose (ie Soccer you can't touch the ball with you hands). The difference in MMOs is that they try to appeal to the guise of unconstrained freedom once in the world. Once here I can use all of my skills as a human to solve these obstacles. Except you software engineers you can't one of the skills your best at.

Hiding a better more interesting social game behind a wall of mindless grinding is just asking someone like me to come "solve" the problem.

Dear Game Marketeers,

Can you please try not to turn everyone's teenage daughter into a h**r? Wait... my bad... "Virtual" h**r, ah now that's different. As long as she is only fantasizing about being a slut online, everything is a OK. Not that you care or have any semblance of social conscience. Make adult games all you want just don't target kids with your creepy lack of morality.

Well at least this media medium didn't have anything about Vampires in it, but I bet you have that pegged for an expansion don't you??

From the HMX Site:
"Most importantly, the Rock Band and Dance Central will continue to be worked on at Harmonix for the foreseeable future. We’re not leaving them behind."

I read that as the IPs go with them.

Out of all of the Potential buyers MS makes the most sense. Dance Central was one of the bigger kinect titles out of the gate. HMX probably needed to work very close to MS to get Dance Central to work with Kinect. It's hard to imagine a relationship not having already formed from that development effort.

MS has the money and there really is no good reason why the wouldn't want HMX.

You know WoW is such a huge success and they have built successful support structure for it (that can be reused for another MMO product), that it would not surprise me in least if Blizzard produced nothing but MMOs from now on. There is no piracy, they have the infrastucture and money is just too alluring. Thier developers love the genre and thier executives do to. Universe of Starcraft is pretty much a given. Now I think the variable is this instance is wether its a RPG, FPS or RTS. No one has done a successful MMOFPS or MMORPG yet, so it would be a great oppourtunity for them to branch out and not neccesarily cannibalize the WoW playerbase (but I think that fear is overstated even if they do another MMORPG). Buy stock in Blizzard.

Ves

If only red Octane would have had the 360 version of Guitar Hero ready for christmas. The demo stations at Best Buy of Guitar Hero II were always crowded. And its that exact audience (the casual ones that are sick and tired of the dual shock controllers with 1000 buttons) that the Wii has been riding so high off of. The first Guitar Hero and DDR basically proved the Wii business model before it even hit the street. People love these games!! The PS2 for sure picked up sales from Guitar Hero II since it is for now a platform exclusive. And I don't think everyone realises just how important it was. When this thing is realeased for the 360 it may make a few waves in the industry.

Funny thing is that Sony basically inherited the game in exclusive form simply because they had the most popular platform last generation. Red Octane picked the console with the most users and made it for that one (with the first GH).

The fact that it did so phenominally well as last generation title further proves the viability of the wii. People don't care about graphics as much as they do about fun and an easy to get into interface. The ipod proved this as well.

Ves

Analog Vs Digital?? In the end it's simply a medium for providing a certian user experience. However I will admit that boardgames as of now provide a better party atmosphere "heady" multiplayer environment. But as you said the ease and convience of the digital medium often trumps these positives. Expect convergence to of mediums to solve your issues in the future. This is where I think XBLA (this is actually why I am considering developing with XNA) and the Wii VC have huge room for expansion. Take the gameplay and surpurb design of the german-style multiplayer boardgames and translate them to the digital medium and you will have found geek gaming nivana. This is largely untaped since it hasn't been done effectively yet. You can play settlers and a Puerto Rico online but the interface is not impressive. I think a small independent development studio has lots of room for a breakout game or 5 in this largely untapped space. Gameplay of a boardgame with the convience of the digital. Sign me up....

Ves

While Sony doesn't "Force" you per se to buy thier console. If you want to play a PS3 game then you must pay the extra premium cost of blu-ray as well. You cannot play a PS3 game without paying for blu-ray. So yeah they are forcing blu-ray onto thier PS3 customers. Thier hardcore customers will pay prety much anything so it's no big deal to them. Where this gets interesting is after all of the fanbois have thier PS3s, will the regular gamers stand for it. When anyone can get a PS3 will anyone want a PS3?

Ves

Look if your worried about getting tired after playing 2+ hours on the Wii, here is a hint: The Wii isn't targeting you!! You see you have 2 other perfectly wonderful consoles that will make games for you. You can plop you lazy butt on the couch and only have to move your fingers to any of numerous complicated buttons on the other two consoles controllers.

This may be a shock to some of you so brace for it.... You don't HAVE to play a video game for 4 hours straight. *gasp* I know its hard to believe but even more insane is that fact that there are actually a large amount of people out there that DON'T WANT thier vidoe game's designed to be consumed in 4 hour incriments. I know I here ya brother "What will they do with thier wasted lives if they can't play video games for 8 hours every day?". Well, and this will be another shock to you, they have other commitments (*gasp*), they have jobs (the horror) or families (ok now I know you're lying). Its these unwashed, inferior, unskilled masses that I think Nientendo is trying to target. I know, I know, I find it silly too. Just because that demographic actually has a decent amount of disposable income, no one is really targeting them specifically with an experience designed for them and they represent larger part of the population then us hardcore gamers, that is no reason to target them as opposed to us. I mean we have been gaming for years, we know what we like! We like 20 button controllers that have absolutly no intuitive mapping to in-game movements. It's complicated, it requires skill to learn even the most basic movements. That keeps the newbs and our grandmoms from playing. Thats how gaming should be!!! Who cares if Nientendo sells 10s of millions of these consoles to casual gamers. They still won't have any hardcore gamers because we won't play a game system that makes us physically tired (thats not real gaming). In the end they will have an entire user base of nothing but unskilled non-gamers, I don't care how much fun they will be having. They will never be leet like us... Can I get an Amen!!!

Ves

You know what, excepting the creepy baby one I am really liking these ads. They are artistic, clever and edgy. I still think the UK 5 minute narritives were the best though ("It's not High Definition, It's Higher Definition"). Those actually made me want to go out and buy a PS3 (but no one can get one so whats the point of using commercials like that right now). Right now thier objective is just to make people aware and I think they are doing that wonderfully (hell we get a new Joystiq post for every single new commercial run).

I am no fan of sony and if I buy a PS3 it won't be before march of next year (if at all, as I own a 360 and have reserved my wii for this christmas). But I like this advertising. Sony has screwed up in many MANY ways but this advertising campaign is not one of those screwups.

Ves

Wait so 1up's sister publication gets an exclusive scoop on a new rpg from Bioware in the same time frame as a scathing review of the new non-bioware NWN2. So they underate NWN2 so they can push publications and hype of a new RPG that they have the exclusive on. Sounds entirely too underhanded even for them though.

Ves