Excellent article, Booth! I am entirely with you.

The only point you made that I disagree with, is supporting any game that is good. I think that in the interest in all of us, the industry itself and games as an art form – it makes sense to only support good games when their publisher respects our rights as consumers. This is why I still refuse to buy any games that UbiSoft publishes.

I can see not supporting a publisher on account of questionable DRM or pay-to-play practices (etcetera), but in the end, I’m still more concerned with the game itself as a product of the artistic vision of the developer. I realize publishers take a significant portion of the profit, but I’d like to think that my money is still supporting designers, writers and programmers that are creating a game I enjoy.

I loved the article Booth. I basically agreed with you on everything.

People want to think that publishers in the video game industry are not in it to make money. So when they must lay off 500 workers because a series is not selling well then they immediately attack the people in charge. In fact it is a business decision that they made to insure that they can make money on other things that they are releasing to continue to make a profit and operate. They even might establish a, oh no not that, DRM to help secure that all stakeholders in the company. I am mostly 100% behind the business decisions of publishers because they are usually the correct business decisions. Now I am talking strictly business decisions not anything else.

Thanks Patrick. I’m against DRM and certain decisions in principle, but given the state of the game development industry, I give publishers a lot of leniency. This podcast (http://irrationalpassions.com/irrationalpod32-live/) had an excellent discussion on the future of gaming and gaming consoles. The main points were these:

1) The diversity in systems/hardware hurts the industry and quality of games. If rules and regulations were set in place to standardize the development for ALL platforms, then focus could be shifted off of multi-platform development towards game innovation and quality. Moving software to the cloud could further protect publisher’s and developer’s investment of time and money. We have a similar setup with cable, cell phones and other forms of technology, why is gaming so sacred?

2) The used game market is probably more to blame for declining profits than piracy. There should be some sort of legal protection against one corporation (e.g. Game Stop) making a huge profit off of the intellectual property of another corporation (e.g. Activision).

That’s why I made it clear I am a fan of gaming in general. If you want what’s best for gaming, you may have to be in favor of a lot of decisions being made in the industry. They are trying to preserve and protect their creations.

In support of my point in #1, the podcast guest brought up Nascar. In the past Nascar had a very loose set of rules regarding how cars were built and customized, so the teams with the most money built the best cars creating an imbalance to smaller race teams. But then Nascar standardized the specs on the cars so now every car is basically the same and the winner is determined by the quality of the driver and the crew behind him.

If you have a similar scenario in gaming, the “winning team” would be the publishers/developers with the best product. The hardware creators would also be forced to innovate beyond their proprietary machines in order to compete on a level playing field with each other.

I’m sorry but that is bug-house nuts. You are essentially saying that locking the gaming medium within a rigid set of requirements will ensure fair competition. If that’s your plan, then why not extend it to movies and literature? Let everyone write books according to the same exact standard, and then the best book can win.

No, Booth. In this case diversity of methods and platforms is what breeds innovation. Moving any form of artistic expression within rigid confines is the same as condemning it to death. And no, Nascar is NOT a form of artistic expression.

Personally I am very much in favor of corporations making profit. But when Patrick suggests that any decision made by a corporation is financially sound and by default intelligent – I can’t help but disagree. In particular there isn’t a single DRM scheme in the world that does absolutely anything to protect any game from being pirated. The highest level of success that DRM has EVER achieved was preventing zero day piracy. The amount of problems that it creates, however, is staggering.

Given a choice between buying a game and then getting abused by DRM or pirating a game and having no problems with it… I can see why many turn to piracy.

Listen to the podcast section about it, or read:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/174193/news/dyack-one-console-future-inevitable/
Dyack’s argument is convincing and logical, but it’s more carefully explained on the podcast.

And books are essentially already being published that way. The standards are language and the print medium. The best authors end up selling more books. They don’t have to worry about writing 6 different versions of the same book to make it accessible to the widest audience. It’s almost the same for movies, except there are different ways of filming depending on whether or not they are doing 3D, etc… but they don’t have to film several different versions.

What we’re looking at is a developer saying “I want to make game A, but I have to program it in radically different ways if I want it published on PC, xbox, Playstation, wii, kinect, move, etc…

We’ve dumbed down the language by using the term “porting” to refer to this process, but based on what developers are saying, it adds a significant amount of production time and obstacles to their goal of reaching the widest audience. And we are talking about them producing the same game… they just have to develop for the different platforms which costs enough to restrict development.

As consoles drift further and further away from being gaming machines, they are costing too much to purchase and produce, eventually that model will collapse.

Or with film, if they do film different versions, it can be done simultaneously.

With video games, each console has it’s own proprietary requirements for their developer kits and publishing for their console and marketplaces. It’s horribly inefficient for developers and is hurting their wallets and creativity and holding back our gaming experiences.

Booth: “First, let me be clear. I am not a fan of any publisher/developer, including Activision. I simply do not care.”

Last time I checked, you were a seld-proclaimed Apple Fanboi and to the best of my knowledge, you have never had a bad thing to say about that ‘publisher/developer.’

If I am wrong, please list everything you hate about the iPhone, iPad, so-called ‘App Store,’ and Apple in general.

Thank you.

Typo: ‘self-proclaimed Apple Fanboi”

@OmegaBob – lulz – stay on topic and I will respond with specifics.

On topic? You mean the opening of the article that you, the author of said article, bolded to make it stand out -ie emphasize a point & to prove that you are unbiased – is not part of the discussion?

My apologies for assuming the fact that you did such actions at the beginning of the article meant that the rest of said article would be baised upon & evolve out of what you, yourself, emphasized and therefore, be ‘on topic’

First, I emboldened “I am not a fan of any publisher/developer, including Activision” to emphasize that my article about Activision (not Apple), and gaming (not hardware e.g. iPad, iPhone) is not based on an emotional attachment to Acitivision or its developers.

Second, I’ve never claimed to be a “fanboi” of Apple (outside of trolling to make you mad). I own and enjoy hardware and software from a wide range of manufacturers/publisher/developers. You really don’t know anything about me, so you have no foundation for denouncing my entire article based on something you brought up just to argue about Apple.

If you have specific disagreements with something I said regarding Activision then fine, but this isn’t the appropriate place for you to go on one of your “Why I hate Jobs/Apple” tirades.

nice job bud. If i recall Singularity was developed by Raven… Now theres an old school developer that i love.

Singularity was a fairly good game and I was hoping for a sequel. Maybe the franchise will get some love in the future.