Hell hath no fury
Tesh dug up this guest article from Penny Arcade and I thought it was worth relinking. It’s written by Daniel James (aka Captain Cleaver), CEO and designer for Three Rings Design (Puzzle Pirates).
The paraphrasing quote hits home like a hammer:
“Money can’t buy you love, but love can bring you money. In software the only sustainable way to earn money is by first creating love, and then hoping that some folks want to demonstrate that love with their dollars.”
Free to Play hasn’t grabbed onto my heart as it should. Most of the publishers are so busy seeing dollar signs and trying to leverage the word “free”, that I often sum up the whole business model as a bait-and-switch ploy.
There are some notable exceptions and that’s what this quote above is all about. How to do it right.
In that same article Mr. James slams the “expectations of vast profit” of traditional media and I’d say that has plenty of overlap into the games industry. All of the major publishers (and minor ones, see: gPotato’s faux pas with Allods Online) are salivating over what it means (in dollars) to be the gatekeepers.
When the developer’s love of their game gets superseded by the publisher’s love of money, the gamer’s love dwindles accordingly. On this topic, balance is everything. Love can be a fickle thing. Expose your hand with motivations of pure greed and, well– Hell hath no fury like a gamer scorned.
Too many of these games are trying to design themselves around a supposed addiction and not enough around joy.
Windows 7 working well for me
I’ve just migrated from the Windows 7 RC1 to the full retail install of Windows 7. I like it.
For years I’ve treated Windows as a necessary evil for playing PC games. Outside of that scope, I’d much rather run Linux or BSD. Windows XP was the first time I actually enjoyed a Microsoft OS, at least in regards to the user interface (with a lot of tweaking after install, those defaults = ewww).
For the past year of running Beta and RC1, my PC has loved Windows 7. Running in 64bit is probably a big factor on the speed. It’s been downright zippy, even though I don’t have gobs of RAM (2 gigs). That’s really surprised me considering the hideous performance experiences I had with Vista. I’ve even been able to cleanly install some older software that Vista didn’t like at all. It’s also been very stable.
Games have been especially smooth and I don’t think I’ve ever had such few crashes. Not a single blue screen throughout the year, and I’m a serious power user of my PC (it’s never off or sleeping).
The DirectX10 games I’ve run haven’t really impressed me visually, but my DX9 games have run well. Dare I say it: marginally better than on Windows XP. My PC is well past the threshold for speed though, I’d still recommend XP for slower PCs. Just for reference, here’s my current hardware:
Processor: Intel E8400 Dual-Core @ 3Ghz.
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 260 (EVGA with 896Megs of DDR3 videoRAM).
Motherboard: ASUS P5K SE.
RAM: 2 Gigs of DDR2 (weakest point of my PC but honestly not bad).
HD: 1 Terabyte (Seagate @ 7200 RPM).
Sound: SoundBlaster X-Fi “XtremeGamer”.
I’ve still got my big caveats with Windows. I loathe the Registry. I get frustrated at the barriers to clean Backups. I find Network file-sharing messy and problematic. And I dislike the control Microsoft tries to leverage on my own desktop, but I guess that could be worse (Apple). Overall, Windows 7 so far has been the best experience I’ve had with a Microsoft OS.
Of course, if I could run all of my PC games smoothly in Linux, I would switch desktops in a heartbeat.
2009: Year of the Game Downpayment Plan
The best games I played this year were actually released in previous years.
Oh I enjoyed some of the fresh titles. Left 4 Dead 2, Champions Online, Fallen Earth and Borderlands all come to mind, but each have their own caveats. I expect they’ll improve with updates. That’s the trend right? The one we’ve been sold on for years, it’s finally the norm.
Patches and Downloadable Content have hit the mainstream on the consoles and it’s bounced back to PC-land. A key pivot point has been the impact that updates (and easy access to them) have on piracy. The number of PC games with static end-product releases are now very few. Expansions are becoming common again.
I’ve long been a bit of a classic gaming nut, so playing older games has always been normal for me, but this is the first time I’ve celebrated games from just a year or two previously instead of focusing on the new releases.
For me, 2009’s highlights were Lord of the Rings Online, Guild Wars and Sins of a Solar Empire. I felt the bliss of playing these games after they’d been polished to a good shine, gotten past their major bugs and most thankfully been balanced already (I haaaaaate playing through balancing). Most importantly, these games had already added a significant amount of content.
For MMOs, I may be trading in my old 6 month wait rule for a “after an expansion or big content update” rule.
I hope the actual 2009 releases I purchased come into their own over the coming year. It’s a bit of a bet now, isn’t it? I also skipped over other games, knowing I can get in once the dust settles. I could care less about the bargain bins, in fact I hope digital distribution keeps the dollars rolling in for longer shelf life. For far too long it’s been about the top few releases. Of course, I appreciate Steam’s current floor-dropping sale nonetheless.
Maybe next year my list will include more 2009 games. =)
The tail end of Summer
Okay I’m done reflecting on the games community for a bit, although it does remind me that I’m a bit of a people watcher.
So here it is, August 2009. Warning: Rambling ahead.
This Summer has been good. I’ve been alternating between just enjoying the sun and burying my head in work. It’s one extreme or the other and probably not so well Zen balanced. It doesn’t help that it’s been so damn hot. The heat wave broke two days ago and now I’m experiencing Vancouver’s glorious rain. I stood on my deck at 3am and simply basked in it.
I’m really liking my iPod Touch. I still loathe Apple, but I’m a self-confessed consumer whore who’s never truly boycotted anything. If you make a product I like, I may buy it. That’s my number one consumer rule and I have a small amount of pride at least that it supports quality craftsmanship.
I should mention that Hellbent Games has an upcoming iPhone / Touch game. I have tons of respect for Chris & crew @ Hellbent. I can’t say much, but the game looks good so far. It should be ready in a few weeks, although who knows how long it’ll take to get approval for the App store.
I’m torn between sticking with Windows 7 or going back to XP for convenience. I’m really pleased with my PC right now, even after sinking more dollars into it than I expected to (or perhaps because I did).
I’ve been taking a break from MMOs, poking my head in here and there, but nothing substantial. I hit the Diku burnout wall big-time and the result is I’m probably going to be a sucker for the little differences rather than the sameness of it all. More on that topic soonish.
I’ve played quite a bit of Unreal Tournament 3 and some Left 4 Dead. I’m burned out on Plants & Zombies and pretty much anything else Tower Defence related. I love Pocket God and Flight Control, despite those games guaranteeing that my Touch spends more time in the hands of my roommates.
I’ve been coding up a storm on Gameslate hoping to move my beta status to fully live before month’s end. I don’t expect it to get much traffic at first, it’s more just about my enjoyment making it. Sometimes that’s the most satisfying, knowing every bit of work put into something is your own.
Here’s a toast to everyone else enjoying their Summer, whether you’re cooped up indoors or enjoying the outdoors. *cheers*
2 Million pixels
When it rains it pours. Bad things come in pairs. Hardware failures come in chains. Okay enough with the clichés, basically my monitor went flaky too. So not only have I just replaced my videocard, I’ve spent another wad of cash on a new monitor. D’oh.
The upside is I’ve finally joined the widescreen age with a Samsung 2243SWX. Although It’s taking me a bit to get accustomed to something so wide.
I’ve preached 16:10 to my friends. Your eyes can only scan so quickly left-to-right so unless it’s going to be meters away from you, narrower makes sense. 16:10 gives a good ratio of screen real-estate. So here I am, breaking that rule with the official 16:9 spec (1920×1080 = 1080p). It was such a good deal (~200 bucks) for such a beautiful screen, I couldn’t pass it up.
I suspect I’ll appreciate the extra pixels on the left and right side a whole lot more once I get back into MMO land or even general gaming (I’ve been so busy web developing lately).
Update: Benchmarking my GTX 260 again on almost double the pixels and it’s only dropped down a few frames, niiiice.
One week with the Touch
I really like my iPod Touch so far. It’s an iPhone, without the phone.
I didn’t need the phone or the expense of a data plan, but I did want to do some convenient browsing & reading without feeling tethered to my PC. I’m now hanging out on my deck with my cats, enjoying the weather without feeling disconnected. I also have an interest in web development for small screens.
Reasons aside, let’s get to the gritty:
These are what I’d call the “must haves” from the app store. I’d recommend them to anyone. They’re easy to jump in and out of, which is essential for a pocket device. They’re addictive, fun and blissfully demonstrate the best aspects of the Touch interface, they totally promote you to get your greasy fingers all over the screen.
The app store is flooded with crap, but do yourself a favour and take a look at these two first. Every other game or entertainment toy I’ve tried (and I went a bit crazy trying them) have been letdowns, but these two are the gems.
The boring non-game stuff I’m using:
- Twitterfon – Great Twitter app. I paid the extra for the “Pro” version to get rid of the ads, but aside from that it’s mostly the same.
- Instapaper – Good for offline reading of websites, which makes it especially useful for the Touch when I’m out of free Wi-fi range. I already put this to good usage showing the product page to the sales guy at NCIX to make sure I got the exact videocard I wanted. Beats printing things out.
- Google Earth – How could I resist a free version of Google Earth to carry with me?
Overall I’m more pleased with the Touch than I thought I would be. I keep calling it an iPhone, not intentionally, but it’s so close to one and there’s the whole mindshare thing going on.
I’ll save the criticisms (because you knew they were coming) for other posts.
8800 GT versus GTX 260
I just purchased an Nvidia GTX 260.
After benchmarks, I’d say it’s a minor-to-moderate upgrade from my 8800 GT, depending on the games played.
A few months ago one of my hard drives started vibrating excessively, causing a reverberation with my fans. I put off replacing parts for awhile, which was a bad mistake: By the time I’d noticed my PC’s heat rise to excessive levels it had already done the damage. My videocard has been acting flaky since.
The 2xx series has come down in price recently (I paid $220 Canadian + tax). It’ll probably come down even more after the release of DX11 later this month, but once I was seeing graphical smears / glitches on my desktop, I knew it was time to replace my beloved 8800 GT.
Benchmarking the games that matter most to me right now:
| 8800 GT | GTX 260 | |
| Unreal Tournament 3: | 97.96 FPS | 100.56 FPS |
| Supreme Commander: | 35.47 FPS | 48.35 FPS |
| Left 4 Dead: | 77.97 FPS | 76.63 FPS |
As you can see, UT3 didn’t change much. Supreme Commander (Forged Alliance) went up the most and Left 4 Dead actually went down. All three are DX9 games. My guess is the 2xx series is probably meant mainly as a DX10 upgrade. I have noticed LOTRO in DX10 looks prettier on the GTX 260.
I also went with the base version of the card from EVGA, rather than the overclocked / superclocked variations which would have shown a greater edge. I was more concerned with heat and noise than the extra mileage. However, I did make sure to get the core 216 (more streams are better right?) version built on the 55nm (smaller = cooler) process.
For benchmarks, Michelle conveniently has the same rig:
E8400 Core 2 Duo CPU.
2 gigs of RAM.
ASUS P5K SE motherboard.
Windows 7 (RC1)
This is what I’d consider a moderate-to-high end machine, self assembled and running smooth. The 2 gigs of RAM doesn’t bottleneck as much on Windows 7 as Vista, but probably more than XP (but then I wouldn’t have DX10 available). Michelle’s hard drive is different / slower, but Supreme Commander’s simulation score was exactly the same (the difference was in the graphical score: 7313 vs 8048, whatever that means) so I don’t think the tests were degraded much by any caching.
The specifics of the benchmarks:
- All tests at 1280×1024, with vertical sync and frame smoothing off.
- Unreal Tournament 3: “Vivid” post processing. No AA. UT3Bench: Ran 60 second bot (12 bots) matches on 10 maps, then averaged the FPS.
- Supreme Commander Forged Alliance: “High” Fidelity settings. No AA. Benchmarked using /perf which simulates an intense 4-way battle.
- Left 4 Dead: Max settings, 4xAA. Benchmarked via my own timedemo of the farmhouse finale of Blood Harvest on advanced difficulty (which I suck at). Ran the demo 3 times and averaged the FPS.
One thing I have noticed is good AA performance on the GTX 260. I went back and ran the tests again but cranked up the AA and saw no noticeable difference, which I know would have slowed down the 8800 GT. In Left 4 Dead I can comfortably use 16xQ CSAA with only a frame or two change. To me, that’s the biggest difference with this card. I’m running at a moderate resolution mind you, this might not be as dramatic at something like full 1080p (1920×1080).
Another note is I like the card design. Here’s a quick snapshot of it next to my 8800 GT:
It looks pretty monstrous out of the box and it’s quite heavy. It takes up two slots, with an intake vent directly from outside of the case, designed so the fan pulls air over the massive heatsink that covers most of the card. I feel secure that this will dissipate heat better.
Overall I’m mostly happy, but I can’t help but feel I’ve spent a couple hundred bucks to get back where I was. D’oh!
