Gameology – Page 13

How To Be A Fanboy Without Being A Troll

July 10, 2011 by Raj Agrawal 3 Comments

Trolls have been plaguing the internet gaming community for years now; rather the entire internet. Its time we did something about it and take steps to avoid this bothersome concept and its connoisseurs.

Gamers can be broadly classified into two categories, the ones who love gaming, and the ones who love their hardware. The former cares about nothing other than games and it’s related news. The latter, on the other hand, cares for the system they play their games on. Because of the wide segregation of gaming hardware, each system has their own army of followers. For them, gaming is like a battlefield, and games are like the territories you control. The more territories you control, the better your position on the battlefield.

Now that’s fine. The world wouldn’t be as much fun without fanboyism. A little bias is never a bad thing, and actually works as a social phenomenon, bringing people with similar views together. When any object attracts a fanbase, the people controlling the object and the fans of the object can interact on a creative and productive level which usually results in refinements in future iterations of the objects(the only exception being Apple Inc i guess). In case of gaming, there have been numerous games which were improved upon based on the feedback received from the gamers. The only downside of this is that some people can take this concept a bit too far. Such people in the gaming world are called “Trolls”

Trolls are self employed ambassadors of their respective systems whose level of comprehension about gaming far exceeds that of any normal human being. Their mere presence is destined to bring about biased conclusions in a healthy-non-biased-argument and brings about a very distinct change in the thinking of the subjective society. They are not paid to do the things they do, but the “cause” they are fighting for far exceeds the need for any monetary gains. The funny thing is that even for this one dimensional train of thought, there are many categories. There are some who troll on a very light note; its like drawing a line in somebody else’s book just to irritate them. They troll just for the heck of it. Then there are others who actually go that extra mile and try to justify. The basis of all justification is logical reasoning, and when you try to juxtaposition trolling and justification, that’s the kind of thing that would give any tutor about having to teach you all over again.

I’ve listed a few key points for you to consider while posting anywhere on the web. You may follow these at your will, but i’m sure they’ll easily help you to hover against the bewitched land of trolls:

Justify your bias

Being biased about something is fine. But you have to back it up with reasoning . If you like gaming on your favorite platform, good for you. Give reasons for it. But for that you don’t have to demean any other system.

Be reasonable

calvin on reasonable doubt — Calvin on reasonable doubt

Your opinion should have a unique personality trait. But don’t let it look something like:

XXX is at the upper echelon of the gaming community. XXX does not waste his time and potential playing games on the crapbox or the pc. Those are for people who do not enjoy the pleasure gaming has to offer. XXX only games on the playstation 3, the true gaming platform. Playstation 3 is the only system that can give XXX and gamers on a similar level the quality that people like XXX deserve

You just can’t have any hopes of reasoning with someone who says something like that.

Don’t feed the troll

Most topics on game forums go out of hand because they’re given more attention that they deserve. If somebody is trolling and you know it, at least don’t let them be successful. Trolls are usually not open to reasoning. This is probably the only reason someone would reply on a troll topic is to get that satisfaction of not letting him/her have his/her say. But that only makes the conversation worse.

Ignorance is bliss

This is the golden rule of the internet. The notion of free speech has never been exploited in as bad a way as it has been on the internet. People can get away with everything. There really isn’t any point in trying to change their thinking, cause they themselves don’t care. The most important lesson one can learn is to let things go.

The above points are not for the trolls. A troll would understand what he is doing and still do it. I wrote this for those who don’t know when they might cross the line. Many people cannot differentiate between opinions and facts and try to ‘speak for the society’. An opinion is a perspective and it should stay that way and the amount of trolls that exist in the gaming world. This becomes even more important. As long as we don’t let things as mundane as news related to gaming get to our heads, everything should be fine. And lastly, contrary to what this article might suggest, trolling is not a crime. Its just a major nuisance which might have bothered a lot of you and it should be eradicated.

Why PC Gaming Is Not Dying Anytime Soon

July 4, 2011 by Raj Agrawal 4 Comments

Considering PC as a much viable platform for gaming, it has invited a lot of flak from the gaming community over the years on account of poor sales and ignorance from the developers. The lack of concrete sales data and information has caused more damage to the platform than piracy ever could.

I’ve read through a good deal of articles and discussion threads pointing to the eventual demise of PC gaming since the advent of the new generation of consoles. Some of these talks suggest why PC gaming is nearing a fall down, while some defend it. These talks/claims are merely based on assumptions and aren’t backed with solid proofs, which is understandable given how badly PC sales are tracked. VGChartz is a joke when it comes to tracking PC games since, most of the sales data they provide is only confined to specific regions. It was quite recent when they started providing with more accurate estimates about PC retail game sales, which is yet far from sales figures the devs claim to have. Also, VGChartz doesn’t track the digital sales which sum up a chunk of the overall PC game sales. NPD is another source involved with this tracking job, but sadly, it isn’t enlightening either.

The reason why many believe the PC gaming market is suffering with a shaky feet, is mainly due to the lack of exclusives. The Xbox 360 and PS3 offer a good amount of exclusives dedicated for their systems. They sell mighty well too. What people fail to realize is that most of these exclusives are made by the first party studios of the companies that manufacture the hardware, or from devs who have been loyal to the system from the very beginning. Microsoft and Sony both have studios that develop games exclusively for their respective systems and they have to use this strategy to lure people into buying their hardware. If all their games were multi-platform, then consumers would only need to buy one system to run every game, which is not a profitable business model. Hence, the need for exclusivity.

PC falls into a different zone, since it is an open platform. The sales of PCs are not affected by games at all. The majority of PCs in the world today are not used for gaming and it’s usefulness far exceeds that. People buy and will continue buying PCs regardless of the gaming capabilities that it presents and companies which rely on the sales of PCs will continue to earn money regardless of the future of it’s gaming market. Hence, there are no studios dedicated for the system. Think about this, if you are an open developer, you’d rather make games for as many systems as possible, wouldn’t you? This is why some of the so called PC-only developers are going multi-platform and with game development costs on the rise, it only makes sense to bring your game to all three major systems. But, this is viewed in a different light by many.

Another culprit for the erroneous judgement is the lower game sales, relative to the major dedicated gaming consoles. Well, the consoles are indeed more profitable. In the same context, PC is profitable as well but the extent of this is not really known to many.

I’ve gathered and generated a list of successful PC games from over the years. I do not intend to compare these numbers to console numbers. All i’m trying to say is that gaming can be profitable. Where some of these numbers are extracts from the sales figures released by the game devs and some of them are source from VGChartz. (Please note that the numbers from VGChartz are not accurate. Some of them don’t account for sales from certain regions and digital sales. Hence, some rough estimates have been noted)

The not-so-obvious

The game created a lot of furore in the gaming community when it was released. During the first week it only sold 87,000 copies but, a month later the sales graph shot up to a million copies. But, Crytek (the developers of Crysis) apparently weren’t satisfied and blamed it on piracy. They knew games of such quality sell 3 to 4 times more. Two years later, the game had already achieved sales of over 3 million which is exactly what they had expected.

Data via[zuse.hessen]

When Bioshock was released, the sales on the 360 were really good. It was one of the fastest selling new IP’s on the 360. In contrast, the PC sales were pretty bad, accounting for only around 15% of the total sales. Many people stated this as proof that PC gaming was nearing its demise.

A year later, in a June 10, 2008 interview, Roy Taylor (Nvidia’s VP of Content Business Development) stated that the PC version had sold over one million copies. Lifetime sales of the game are supposed to be 50:50 for the PC and Xbox 360

Data via[EuroGamer]

An unknown game from a totally unknown developer. Minimal marketing, very little advertising, and allowing the game do all the talking. This was the motto of developer Ironclad games when they released this game. By word of mouth alone, the game had sold more than 500 k copies, which is good considering the budget for this game was just 1 million.

Data via[Gamasutra]

Another example of an unknown developer coming out of nowhere and experiencing resounding success. The Witcher has won a lot of fans, and for all the good reasons. The game was released on the PC alone and went on to sell 1.7 million copies. A bulk of those sales came in the latter part of its shelf life, which shows how well good games continue to sell on the PC.

Data via [Gamebanshee]

Fallout 3 stood at 850,000 copies, as per VGChartz. But, these do not include sales from America and digital sales, which should account for more than 50% of the sales. Definitely closer to 2 million if you ask me.

This one sold 700k, as per VGChartz. It was immensely successful on Steam selling more than 300k copies in just 13 days after its release. It should at least match Fallout 3’s sales on the PC, if not more.

Data via[Softpedia]

According to VGChartz it has sold 500k copies on the PC. Yet again, this does not include sales from America and digital sales which should be more than 50% of the sales. Lifetime sales should probably be closer to the million mark, which is roughly around 30% of total sales.

Another PC game which is severely undertracked. According to VGChartz it has sold 700,000 copies, but again no sales data for america and digital sales. Although not as successful as the console versions, its still not bad to sell more than a million copies of any game. And i’m guessing the sales are much more than that.

Another immensely popular but severely under tracked game series on the PC

The obvious

Sold more than 4.5 million.

Data via[Shareholder]

Valve has not released the sales data for digital sales. But the sales figures for the PC version are more than the sales of both of the console versions combined.

Data via[IGN]

Another gaming series whose sales we cannot determine. Considering it’s popularity on the PC platform, we can be sure enough that it has been pretty lucrative for Valve.

Not as much as the console versions. Yet very popular on PC

Any Battlefield game

This is a multiplayer FPS franchise PC gamers love the most and the sales are a testament to that. The last game in the franchise, Bad Company 2 has sold almost 3 million copies on PC alone.

Data via[BFBCS]

Any Sims game

Probably the most popular PC game franchise. Lifetime sales of almost 125 million copies and all of them on the PC.

Data via[Gamespot]

The plethora of F2P MMO’s

Many of them have found enormous success after going F2P. Games like Perfect World attract almost 50 million players every day and earn a lot of revenue in the form of micro transactions. More and more companies are adapting this strategy as its a win-win situation for both the company and the players.

These are just a few games i’ve put forward to complement my point. There are many others which have achieved mainstream success on the PC market but are not tracked properly. One of the main reasons for this is that companies like Valve do not release their digital sales numbers. They prohibit other developers from releasing them as well. This often leads to people making presumptions about the sales of a game based on retail numbers alone. This type of fallacy is what causes the most damage to the reputation of the PC as a platform. All we hear is developers talking either about the console numbers or combined numbers without a breakdown of individual platforms. If there is a new developer on the market, not having a clear picture about the monetary gains to be achieved from a particular platform is not exactly a motivating factor.

Nvidia’s Roy Taylor states,

Pick any successful PC title you can think of – selling over a million is being done, and will continue to happen.
But, words alone aren’t enough to prove anything. The lack of solid numbers is hurting the industry in more ways than one.

So, on concluding this, it’s fair to say that the PC is not dying. Misinformation on the part of the developers and gamers is leading to more games designed for consoles and then being ported to the PC. Many of these ports are not optimised properly, and are often criticized by gamers. Low sales experienced by such games leads to the developers making outrageous conclusions about the PC platform. This cycle will continue unless developers put in more efforts to make better games on the PC. Games like The Witcher 2 have proved that good games will sell regardless of the platform and companies like Valve and Blizzard profit entirely from the PC.

What we need is faith on the part of the developers and clarity about the state of the platform. An article on IndustryGamers gives a much clearer picture of the state of the PC . If you go through the charts on the article, you’ll find that the boxed and digital sales for the PC are almost 4.3 billion. Compare this to the 8 billion from all the consoles combined and this paints a very healthy picture for the PC. Those numbers do not include sales from MMO subscriptions and downloads and sales of casual games. Combining both of them, its clear that the PC isn’t dying any time soon. Its shifting in a different direction, one which consoles which eventually choose to follow.

“The Witcher 2 Is Adventurous And Challenging”: A Gamer’s Review

June 27, 2011 by Raj Agrawal 3 Comments

When The Witcher came out four years ago, it surprised a lot of gamers with it’s decent story, tactical combat, long, diverse locations and its sense of scale. It told a story about a monster hunter trying to survive in a war-driven world. While not perfect, The Witcher nailed many of the aspects that made the old school RPGs so popular.

The result was a game that was praised by critics and gamers alike, and went on to sell more than 1.5 million copies. Those numbers are great considering that it was a PC only title. So after four long years, CDprojekt has finally released the much anticipated sequel for the fans to enjoy.

The Storyline

witcher 2 screen shot — (Click on the snap to view it’s full size version)

The Witcher 2 takes Geralt of Rivia on a tracking mission across three chapters consisting of three different cities. The person he is tracking has committed a crime that Geralt is being accused for. At the end of the prequel, we saw Geralt fighting another Witcher who was there to assassinate the king. The sequel expands upon and follows this story throughout the game. While not an instant classic, I really liked how the story was implemented in the game. For the most part, the story and the characters are shrouded in ambiguity. This is not a game which polarizes the player by forcing him to choose between a light and a dark side. Its a story about selfish people and to what extents they will go to fulfil their objectives. You cannot trust any character since none of their intentions are never fully known to you. This leads to interesting situations where you have to make certain choices whose consequences will not be clear to you. This gives the game a very realistic touch which is hardly seen in other games. And the game and the story changes based on these choices. Its not a game where you can load a save to see what happens if you choose otherwise. The repercussions of your decisions don’t show themselves until several hours later in the game. This really makes the player think while making critical decisions. And its not just the story that will change; your decisions can affect the next city you visit, the bosses you will fight and also which side of the war you will fight for. Neutrality is less redundant in this game compared to the first. And this makes for a fascinating adventure.

Gameplay

First and foremost, let me get this out of the way. This game is challenging. Don’t expect to go all swords blazing in a fight involving more than two opponents, because you are sure to get clobbered to bits in seconds. The first half of the game is going to make you play many of the fights over and over again. As the game progresses and you upgrade your powers, it gets easier. The combat system has been completely redesigned from the previous game to make it more action oriented. Now you have to lock on to a target to hit him. And for most of the game you can only hit one enemy at a time. Combos consist of timed button clicks which do additional damage. I liked the combat but I found it to be unstable. Enemies don’t level up as the game progresses, so when you reach the end, it becomes a bit too easy for my liking. Also, the lock on feature is unstable and doesn’t work that well when you have many enemies surrounding you. As in the first game, you have a variety of magic powers which you can use in battle. Out of these, you will probably end up using Quen the most. This power grants the user a temporary shield which lasts for about half a minute. As you upgrade this power, it becomes a tool of invincibility which was quite a turn off for me. You have other powers too, like the Igni sigh which throws fireballs and the Axii sign which can let Geralt control a foe in battle. These are all very useful, but not as overpowering as the Quen sign. So I would suggest using a combination of these which can make the game more interesting.

In addition to using swords and signs, the game also allows you to use certain other weapons such as throwing daggers, traps, and bombs. Especially, in the first half of the game, these prove extremely useful. You can also create potions and oils using alchemy. These give Geralt certain temporary stat boosts which can really help in the difficult fights. There are a huge number of potions to choose from and all of them prove to be pretty useful at some point or another. Whenever Geralt wants to drink a potion, he has to meditate and you cannot do this in the midst of a battle. Hence, the game encourages you to prepare beforehand which adds to the realism, well, at least for the first half of the game. Thats another problem I have with the combat. It becomes so easy as you level up, that you will rarely use these additional items in the later half. This makes the combat a very monotonous affair and by the end of the game, you will get through the fights just for the heck of it.

All the items in the game can be crafted using crafting diagrams. The diagrams are available at all the vendors, and whenever you need to craft an item, you need to take the diagrams to a craftsman who will craft them for you for a price. Although there are many good items available throughout the game world, the best ones can only be obtained by crafting. The one thing they should have added was the chance of failure while crafting. But still, its a good addition nonetheless.

Graphics

witcher 2 gameplay — (Click on the snap to view it’s full size version)

The Witcher was criticised for its use of repetitive textures for characters and environments, and CDprojekt has made sure that its not the same with the sequel. In fact, they have created their own engine for this game, and it looks phenomenal. Without wasting any time or space, let me put it this way. Its the best looking game out there and it does not have any equals. This is the ‘Next Gen Tech’ that is being employed on current PC’s which really shows how far the Computer Gaming Technology has advanced in comparison to the consoles. New innovations such as Ubersampling and the advanced SSAO will even make the newest and the most powerful graphics card cry for mercy. Textures, shadows, and especially the lighting has been amped up significantly over the first game. The character models are still a bit off with broken textures clearly visible on some of the characters, but the facial expressions are mind blowing and really make the characters come alive. Even if you’re not a graphics enthusiast, after watching this game in all its beauty, you just won’t settle for anything less. And if your PC is anything more than a year old, then it will struggle with the game at the highest of settings. So an upgrade is definitely in order. Thankfully both Nvidia and Ati have released new drivers specifically for this game which improve the frame-rate to a certain extent.

Sound

The one thing I really liked about the Witcher was the soundtrack. It was well composed and really fit the mood of the game. While the soundtrack of The Witcher 2 is not as good as its predecessor, still its decent enough not to deter from the experience. The voice acting has certainly improved over the first game, but it still cannot match the standards set by games like uncharted and mass effect. The lip synching is poor, and certainly takes away from the realism portrayed by the superb facial expressions. Other sounds on the other hand are done very well, and whether you’re browsing through the city or hunting animals in the wilderness, the sounds really make the world come alive.

Presentation

CDProjekt has really gone to great lengths to create an AAA game and it shows. The menus are easy to navigate without being confusing and are equipped with plenty of options that one might expect from such a game. The graphics are the biggest hit to the game and the developers know this very well, hence the huge number of options to tweak the graphics. The in game hud is packed with sufficient detail without being distracting. The controls are neatly mapped and the game runs perfectly on a keyboard as well as a controller. The digital version does not contain any DRM mechanism and CDprojekt have released a patch which removes DRM from the retail version as well. Loading times were a huge problem in the original Witcher but are completely non existent in the sequel. Overall I would say the presentation is of top notch quality which comes as a surprise from a relatively unknown developer.

Overall

Role playing games have evolved a lot over the years. Many games of the genre have traded the traditional role playing aspect for a more action oriented approach. But somehow The Witcher 2 manages to keep both and comes away as a definite triumph. The story is presented very well, the graphics are simply sublime, the sound manages to keep up with the high quality, and the presentation is top notch. Overall, I would say this comes as close to being a game made for the fans as any I have every seen. CDProjekt analysed the first game, and improved upon nearly all the aspects that the fans did not like, and in the process have created a true masterpiece. This is probably my favourite RPG of the last five to six years and is right up there with the likes of Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins. After the huge letdown that was Dragon Age 2, I was starting to believe that RPG’s are losing their charm, but i’m happy for the existence of games such as the witcher 2 to remind us that there is still hope for the genre. Its not without it’s faults, but those are very minor in comparison to how good this game is. A single play through will last you around 30 hours, but with all the different choices to be explored, a second run is a must. Even though am mainly a PC gamer, am happy that this game is also coming to the consoles so more people will get to enjoy it. But if you have a PC good enough to run it, then buy this game as soon as possible. Not that you will run out of copies to buy; just that its never too soon to experience something great.

So what do you people feel? Is this the RPG of the decade? Or the biggest bummer of the genre?