There’s been a recent shift in the way developers approach games. In the days of the arcades and the early consoles, gaming felt like a war against the developers. They would make games as mind-numbingly, quarter-stealingly difficult as possible, and gamers would do their best to not cry. This was a relatively simple way to make games. Traditionally, developers had just increased the speed or difficulty of a game’s early levels, drastically limiting the actual amount of content that had to be coded. This was fine when it was only 25 cents to play, but with the advent of pricey home consoles, this practice just wouldn’t fly. As a result, developers had to start making more complex, content-rich games. And thus was born the item-find. Continue reading ‘A Kinder, Gentler Approach to Item-Finds’
GamerTraits™
Us gamers, we’re a sort of subculture, are we not? Sure, we may not have a distinct style, but after a long day (or if you’re lucky, this is your long day) we all flock to our platform of choice, and that right there is what groups us together. So, as any good anthropologist would tell you, if we are in fact a subculture, well, we should probably be classified further. Please, dear reader, don’t be afraid, it’s going to be much less scientific than it sounds. Hit the jump and take a look at ‘GamerTraits™: A Gamer Classification System.’ Continue reading ‘GamerTraits™’
Dear Video Game Journalists,
Enough is enough. I need to kindly ask you to stop toying with my heart.
Over the years, we’ve had something of a love-hate relationship. Mainly, you love to lie to me and I hate you for it. You’ve broken my heart so many times and in so many ways, there’s not enough health kits or healing potions to put it back together again. And yet I keep coming back. Why? Because I can’t quit you.
So we’re both clear, I want to explain to you exactly what it is that you’ve done to make me this broken shell of a man. I want you to know just how deep you cut me. Continue reading ‘Open Letter to Video Game Journalists’
This will be the first in a series called Inside Indies, where I take a look at some independent game developers and give them a bit of the spotlight. This week the focus is on Black Jacket Studios, a company based in the beautiful west-coast city of Portland, Oregon. With a relatively young but experienced staff, this team set up shop in the City of Roses hoping to be inspired by their beautiful surroundings.
Save the Gaming Magazines!
The word on the street is that print media is dying. Supposedly newspapers are collapsing, popular periodicals are reducing content, and the specialty publication market has all but imploded. But if you walk through the magazine section of your local chain supermarket or bookstore everything looks more or less normal. Most of the monthly knitting and fly fishing magazines are gone, but there’s still the same selection of bright pink covers featuring diet tips and sex secrets, lots of car mags, and a carload of oiled up guys promising better abs in just 6 weeks. Look a little closer, though. Go on…we’ll wait. What did you find? That’s right, virtually NO gaming magazines. What’s going on? Continue reading ‘Save the Gaming Magazines!’
Love is in the Virtual Air
February 14th. You know, Valentine’s Day. The one day a year when fighting couples suddenly fall in love again, and all decide there’s no better time to buy candy and flowers, go out to for a romantic dinner, and, erm. . . well, you get the point. And yes, it is in fact a terrible day for gaming. However, since we here at Fragmatica aren’t around to tell you whether or not you should be celebrating a holiday, we’ve decided to keep in the spirit of things and talk a little bit about something not often associated with video games. Yep, that’s right. Today, we’re going to discuss the role love has played in video games. Continue reading ‘Love is in the Virtual Air’
Today I’m taking you on a journey to hell and back with a review of Dante’s Inferno for the Xbox 360. We’ll dodge the freakish unbaptized monstrosities in Limbo, grab a hooker for the road in Lust, eat a lard burger and take a swim in a gold pool in Gluttony & Greed, and burn some Bibles through Heresy while slicing off the heads of patriots in Violence and Treason. This review (and game as a whole) is not for the faint of heart.
“Abandon every hope, ye who enter here”
Continue reading ‘dante’s inferno: through the fire and flames’
Last week on Gamer Culture, we explored the dark and mysterious world of speedrunning and traced its history from the arcade era to modern consoles. Today, we’re going to look at the technical side of speedrunning, with a few tips and, of course, a heavy dose of speedrunning lingo. Think you’re a speed demon? Hit the jump and see just how much you know! Continue reading ‘The Quickest Controller in Town: Part II’
Ok, I know this here is the interwebz, but let’s put our boycotts, petty complaints, and flamewars aside for a second and talk about something we can all agree on. We live in a completely awesome era for gaming, am I right? In just the last twenty or so years, we’ve seen graphic engines go from spitting out fuzzy 2D images to creating ‘wait-is-that-real-life?’ renderings that are the cause for some major jaw-dropping gaming moments. On top of that, we’ve also watched gameplay evolve immensely and the immersion factor shoot way up. If you’re not convinced these are good things, try wandering around fully realized worlds in games like Fallout 3 and participating in the functioning society of World of Warcraft and get back to me.
Unfortunately, the industry can’t keep up this level of progression forever. In fact, we’re already beginning to see it start to level out. Sure, we’ve still got motion sensing technology like the Wii and Project Natal trying to raise the bar, but these just aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. So what’s next? Will we keep moving forward, or will our favorite industry quickly become stagnant? Luckily, that’s a big no, but instead of seeing major jumps in technology like we’re used to, we’re going to have to rely on smaller, more developer-specific innovations to keep us on our feet. One of these advancements that has already began to catch on is a little thing I like to call ‘inter-game communication.’ Continue reading ‘Industry Progression: Moving Beyond Good Graphics’
EA and the New Era of DLC
Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello is shaking things up. Big time. In an interview with BusinessWeek, Riccitiello talked extensively about EA’s abysmal income, their new focus on DLC, free games with for-pay accessories, nontraditional platforms like mobile devices and social media sites, and their war with the used-game market.
The gist is this: Brick-and-mortar gamestores are dying. As a result, they’ve shifted their focus from the sale of new games to the resale of used games. Where EA can sell a game once, GameStop can sell, buy back, and resell a game over and over without kicking any earnings back to the publisher. Understandably, Riccitello believes that EA can’t survive indefinitely in this kind of a market. The solution? Digital distribution. Continue reading ‘EA and the New Era of DLC’
