The fall of 38 Studios.

The big news yesterday and today is the reported closing of Curt Schilling's 38 Studios.  38 Studios laid off their entire staff and the CEO, Jennifer Maclean, and the Senior Vice President of Product Development, John Blakely, have both updated LinkedIn to show that are no longer with the company.  This move leave the taxpayers of Rhode Island on the hook for an unpaid loan of $75 million.  And that's not just what's left of the loan, 38 Studios defaulted on the first payment, so they're out the whole kit and caboodle.  Basically, that amounts to a huge gift. 

So, 38 bought Big Huge Games, had experienced staff, and funding from the state.  What went wrong?  Well, 38 gambled big and lost big, to oversimplify the situation.  Amular wasn't a bad game, in fact it got some great reviews.  Most of the criticism was that it was a bit buggy and the art was lacking on some areas.  Basically, they made a big expensive product, ran out of money and rushed it to market before they were ready.  A common problem in today's gaming marketplace. 

If it's so common, why did it kill 38 and not others?  Well, Amular was their fist release.  The company was founded in 2006 and actually had no releases for six years and when the game did finally hit the market sales were not fast enough to cover the investment put into it.  If another studio, let's pick Valve just for fun, started a project right now and spent six years making it and that game flopped Valve would still have other sources of revenue to keep them running.  38 didn't, so when game finally hit the shelves, it was all or nothing.

What could they have done differently?  Well, most gamers I know rolled their eyes when Schilling started a game company and didn't really have an interest.  Most baseball fans that I know took a mild interest and just kind of tuned it out because they're not into RPGs (unless you count fantasy baseball as an RPG).  38 could have capitalized on their founder's fame a bit more to produce a game that required a smaller investment that might have appealed to baseball fans and Schilling's fans in particular.  A Home Run contest game, a baseball game that centers on the pitcher rather than the whole team, an RPG starring baseball players who get sucked into a game world (like Tron).  That could have produced an initial stream of revenue to fund the projects that they really wanted to work on.  or they could have branched out into subgenres for funding - Alumar was said to have a pretty good story (I have not yet played it) but maybe they could have set up a webcomic to generate ad-based income to help fund it.

All in all, starting a major studio is a risky effort.  And while the rule of "risk big, win big" does apply, there are ways of minimizing risks so that the people who depend on you the most - your employees, are not unemployed when the job market sucks. 

Now, if the state is smart, they might be able to take ownership of 38's IPs and sell them to recoup their losses.  If the state is smart and lucky, they may be able to lure another game maker to open shop and buy those IPs with a plan that the state will make money to recoup their losses and will be able to increase employment in the state.  Rhode Island and Massachusetts are two major college states.  Any company that sets up there will have no problem finding talented people to work there.  The company might be able to purchase the right to Copernicus, which is mostly finished and put out an MMO quickly and keep afloat on that income. 

I will be watching this to see where it goes.  I'm very interested in how this will turn out.

Cooking "games" for the Nintendo DS

Today I am reviewing two items because the second is simply a remake of the first, but in my opinion, is far better.  But to understand why I like the second so much better, you might need to know a bit about the original.

Item 1:  Personal Trainer: Cooking
 

The software (can't really call it a game) and concept is what makes this worth picking up.  This software uses your Nintendo DS as a cookbook and will tell you, with voice commands, how to prepare the various dishes.  Recipes are divided up my country of origin or category (salad, soup, meat, etc.) and contains a shopping list feature, calculator, and a kitchen timer. 

This software contains recipes from many different countries and cooking ... Umm..  I guess I'll call them "genres."  There are American dishes, Mexican, Thai, Russian, Italian, Japanese, and many more.  The program has a little chef that will talk you through all of the steps and can give more details and even videos when needed. 
There is a Japanese cooking school on the cover.  This appears to be where the recipes originate.  The good news is that the recipes, especially for Asian meals, are really authentic.  The bad news is that the recipes, especially for Asian meals, are really authentic.  Authentic as in:  I have no idea where the hell I can buy squid ink.  Some of the Asian dishes require ingredients that are not carried by my local supermarket.  It also means that some of the other recipes require ingredients that seem a bit odd to me.  Seriously, they put squid in Jambalaya?  Also, some of the cooking terms are a bit odd.  The recipe for chicken stock includes a chicken carcass.  That's right, carcass!  I am not a chef, but that seems odd to me, and I usually associate the word "carcass" with roadkill, not dinner.  It may be just really bad phrasing. 

On the whole, I really like the concept and the software, but the recipes are for someone with more varied tastes and possibly a more access to specialty cooking supplies than me.  I would not hesitate to recommend this game to someone looking to expand their repertoire.


Item 2:  America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking


This is basically the same software as above with all new recipes.  The recipes seem to be more Americanized and are more in-line with what I'd actually make.  There were a lot more items that I wanted to make in this program than its predecessor.  The software allows for each user to create an individual profile and even mark items as things that they'd like to try.  It also allows for the scheduling or a certain dish and for job assignments to different users.  I can even adjust the settings so that my 4 year old is not put in charge of the cutting or the stove.  Not that I'd blindly do that if the program told me to, but still, it's nice to say, "this is your job" and let him feel like a big shot because he stirred the cake batter and I don't have to take away a job because a 4 year old should not be trying to julienne potatoes.

I have only made a few items, but there are so many that I want to make that I am really in love with this program!

The DRM Dilemma

The issues with the Diablo 3 launch had me thinking about Digital Rights Management (DRM) and how best to go about it.  For starters, DRM is here to stay, but there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it.

Firstly, I don't really want to get into whether companies should or should not employ DRM.  They do.  And I don't really want to get into the ethics of piracy or anti-piracy.  At least not in this post.  My main point is that publishers have used some type of copyright device from very early on, from quizzes at the beginning of Leisure Suit Larry to the spyware/malware that Sony once put on music CDs.  Publishers want your money.  The whole reason that they exist is to generate profit and DRM is a tool that they see as being key to that profit generation.  Clearly some publishers are more ruthless than others.

We're all familiar with the standard type - you buy your awesome new game, download it, and then try to type the long code in the tiny print.  Sometimes is blurry, smudged, or contains printing errors.  Sometimes you wonder if the dashes are required, or if that's a 1 or an I, or whether it's a 0 or a O.   Fun times.  But if I'm running a LAN game, I can sometimes get away with copying the same disk to multiple computers or even copying the disks, and so long as I'm not actually connected to the Internet, or at least a site like battle.net, I can have my LAN lovin' and game on. 

Blizzard decided to pick a different route.  They decided to keep people like me from pulling shenanigans like the ones I explained above I need to be connected to battle.net the whole time I play my 1 player game.  This saddens me a bit because I can't take my laptop to work and continue my game on my lunch breaks, but Blizzard is creative and clever and the, in my opinion, really do care about the player's experience and gave us something in return for being shackled to their servers - they made a really nifty friends system and two auction houses (one of which is not yet implemented at the time of this writing). 

Blizzard got it both right and wrong.  Right in the sense that they tried to provide value in trade for the fact that my 1 player game can only be played when I have an internet connection and wrong in the sense that they failed to launch smoothly and angered/frustrated players right out of the gate with server malfunction issues.  Most players would never have cared about the mandatory connection, and many would have never noticed if that fact was not brought to light so very early in the launch.  What Blizzard could have done better was to provide an offline mode for players like me who wish to play alone and without an Internet connection at times.

While I'd love to rant about this, anyone interested is seeing someone froth at the mouth on this issue can simply search the D3 forums.  I'm more interested in what this means for the future of DRM.  Was this launch enough of a disaster that companies will hesitate to shackle you to their server?  I doubt it.  I think we'll see more and more of this from companies who will give us less in return.  Blizzard knew this was a possibility from the PlayStation Network outages and people couldn't play certain single player games.  The reality is that DRM is here to stay.  And while the old adage that "locks are for honest people" will always hold true, you'll still see people using locks that will hassle their honest, paying customers and will still do little except slightly slow down those who are determined to pick that lock.

They only thing that I can really say to you if you truly hate the direction that DRM is heading is to keep calm and keep your comments civil and constructive.  Hammering away in all caps and calling the devs all kinds of filthy names will not get your argument heard, it will get you banned and ignored.  Threatening to burn down the publisher's office will just get you arrested.  And do not threaten to boycott.  Let's be serious, will you really never buy another video game again?  And how many of your friends are likely to follow your lead?  Look at the recent NOM boycotts of Starbucks - sales actually rose during that time.  There is no surer way to tell a company that you are irrelevant than to prove you are toothless.  And once you've crossed that bridge, it will be tough to get a good dialogue with anyone who matters.  So keep calm, keep constructive, and keep civil. 

Again, I really don't want to get into politics here or to agitate toward forcing publishers to steer away from this trend.  I could name a dozen different ways of protesting, but for now, I really want to educate my fellow gamers what DRM really is, and what its effects are, and how companies are trying to slip it past you disguised as as features.  I want to get the dialog started on alternatives - how can a publisher ensure that they will see a return on the investment it made in creating the game and how can players not feel taken advantage of or inconvenienced in the process.

Diablo 3 - first impressions

This is pretty much my first interaction with the Diablo series.  I played the first so long ago that I can't remember and I didn't play the second.  I was invited to the beta, but I had computer issues and didn't get to play.

The first thing is the control style.  It's similar to the first game, so not really a surprise in that regard, but it did catch me off guard.  I didn't expect that kind of control and it threw me for a few seconds.  I haven't played a game with that control scheme in so long it took me a while to remember.  I'm a bit user to the wasd keys.  Also, I apparently have to click every bad guy I want clobber, and every coin or piece of loot I want to pick up, but I can walk close to coins to snag them. I find that to be a bit cumbersome, but I'm willing to give it a chance so that I can see if I can get used to it and in the case of the looting, it's not that bad unless they disappear after a short time.  It will suck if I loose loot because I'm fighting an endless onslaught of baddies.

I've not really gone too far with the plot.  I'm doing a few of the opening missions with one of each class to see which one I like before continuing.  I'll post more when I've had time to give this one the attention that it truely deserves.

The Secret Whirled

A castle in the park.

Making friends

The Secret World had it's public beta this weekend and I got to check the game out.  I first saw it at PAX East, and thought it was interesting.  After playing, I think it's breathtaking.  The setting is eerie and creepy.  I'm not big on zombie (I think they're overdone) but this is an interesting take on it, and let's face it, you need bad guys to fight.

The game is set in the modern world.  The world is secretly ruled by a few secret societies, chiefly The Templars- an ancient order dedicated to ridding the world of evil and making the world pure, The Dragons- an Asian organisation who thrives on chaos and strategy, and The Illuminati- a group who seeks power and influence by any means necessary.  

This weekend's beta was limited to the opening campaign of the Templars.  I don't want to give too many spoilers, but one night while you are sleeping you somehow manage to inhale a bee and inadvertently set your shirt ablaze with blue flames.  Ok, your backstory is a bit slapped together, but that's ok.  So then a representative of the Templars randomly shows up and recruits you.

I see two Lovecraft references and a possible reference to Murder She Wrote.

Your fist mission is to investigate Solomon Island, a tiny town off the coast of New England.  The accents place the town in northern Maine or New York (NY is not part of New England, by the way) and bothered me.  But I don't want to get into my opinion on accents and voice acting here.  It seems a thick fog has rolled in essentially making the town into New Silent Hill.  Many of the street and place names got a laugh out of me as most seemed to reference something or other.  Your job is to uncover the dark secret behind the fog and zombie invasion.  Thee are other later for more content.  

So far, this looks like a really interesting game and I can't wait to play the release version.

Running out of shop names?

The simplest haircuts are the best.

Redheads are hawt.

The most awesome furniture I've ever seen.

I have been lusting after the furniture on www.geekchichq.com for almost a year now. (that's right, lusting. As is staring at open mouthed and fantasizing about all the things I'd like to do with it...) I really, really want one.

The Emissary (http://www.geekchichq.com/furniture/emissary) seems like a good choice - It can double as a dinner table and the leaves can be installed over nearly any game I'm likely to play.



The Hoplite (http://www.geekchichq.com/furniture/hoplite) is really,really cool as well. It could go in my living room and double as a coffee table. But If not sure I can use a small table like that for very long comfortably.



Oh, heck! As long as ignoring the fact that my kids would destroy it and ignoring my financial reality, I might as well get a new house with a room dedicated to The Spartan (http://www.geekchichq.com/furniture/spartan). Then not only can I play, but then every time I open it up I can yell, "THIS IS SPARTA!"



...or not.



I actually got to check out these pieces at PAX East 2011 and in 2012 I managed to get my wife to want one too.  They are very, very well made.  The craftsmanship is very high and is probably better than anything I currently own.  The price seems a bit high until you realize that each unit is custom built and that $50 table you bought from Kmart won't do a tenth of what this one will.  Once you consider the usefulness and quality of the item, the price is actually quite reasonable.  If it wasn't for the fact that my kids would destroy it,* I'd use my tax return on it.  In the meantime, I'll just keep checking the site and dreaming. 

Maybe when the kids are older.  Like 20.



*My 3 year old destroyed his own bed.  It was a metal frame toddler bed and he was doing cannonballs off the dresser.  He was using the drawers as a ladder.  I shudder to think what he'd do to a beautiful table like this!