RickH
3015
I disagree, see my edits.
This. If you’re taking money, the bar for transparency has to be much higher.
The dumb thing is that players totally get that, by and large. If you come out and say, “Okay, for real: This is in beta, it’s not done. Wait until 1.0 if you want something we consider a ‘finished’, polished, balanced game. But we value your feedback if you take the time to buy in and play our games before they’re released,” players tend to react well. You still get aggressive jerkoffs, particularly in drive-bys on forums where they can be amazing self-righteous pillars of Gaming Taste with their denunciations of the very idea of charging money for something unfinished, but the overall tone tends toward the positive if you’re peddling anything worth a shit.
Some marketing departments at big publishers seem oblivious to this, insisting on keeping with the old model of preview HYPE MACHINE -> pre-order -> review embargo -> patch -> problems? What problems? Our game is amazing!
But hey, it’s entirely possible that they have the data to support this as the best way to sell the most games, at least on a per-product basis. Without teams of analysts measuring k-ratios and conversion percentages at each stage of every funnel, the right play seems to be a more down-to-earth, honest approach to players.
It’s ok to make a negative preview article if the game doesn’t look up good. That’s the point of having previews too, right? To inform of the state of a gem… be positive or negative.
I guess my question would be why single out The Order? Beyond the general concept that no one should preorder any game unless they’re prepared for the consequences, is Eurogamer going to do this for every game they preview?
But as Telefrog says, the article doesn’t feel right because “maybe you shouldn’t preorder this game” is applicable really to 95% of games so singling out The Order feels weird. Apart that some of the five points raised in the video like “hand holding gameplay” is very common to AAA games and most of the time journalists ignore it. And complaining of bugs in a preview version (and from the sound of it, they were cosmetic glitches with ragdolls not functional bugs) is just bad taste, unless it’s a almost done version of a game that going to be released in 2 weeks, which isn’t the case here. Usually it’s understood preview versions are going to have bugs, that’s why they are preview versions and not “finished versions”.
Synth
3018
Eurogamer being unfair on a Sony title its just par for the course as far as I’m concerned.
The Order has been the target of a large amount of bizarrely pointed and unfounded negativity almost since it was announced. The criticism have often been completely specious or demonstrably false and frequently waiver between accusations that it is too cinematic with no gameplay and complaints that it’s too gamey. It comes across like it just too good looking and some refuse to believe it could also be fun to play. Of course, this is like arguing an attractive person can’t also be smart.
FWIW a lot of the previews of The Order coming from PSX have been very positive, even from people who had previously been very critical. But pre-orders are always dumb.
I really don’t get it. Someone played a game, didn’t like it and made a video about it. Whether they’ve published similar videos before seems fairly irrelevant.
ShivaX
3021
Well it was kind of touted as a “reason to buy this system!!!” kind of game since there wasn’t much difference between them with all the cross over titles. The first gameplay teaser was pretty lackluster as well iirc, though I barely paid attention since I’m not buying any consoles anyway.
I don’t know about this one, is it a good idea or a bad one (from a parenting point of view)? It is interesting:
I would add that you also need to keep in mind that many kids that have only grown up with current gen (well and the last) consoles also love Minecraft too, so they did not go through this same kind of ‘programming’ of game culture.
I don’t see a down side to this. You could certainly think it’s not worth the effort or necessary for kids to enjoy modern games, but Andy’s not saying everyone should do this, just hey, he did, and it’s pretty cool.
Yeah, IF i was going to set my kid on a gaming path (and why would i do that!?) this would be what i would do, and it would stop at PS2 gen. Minecraft and modding would the general trend i’d try to create. But then maybe i should play more football with the kid, get him healthy and fit before turning him into a couch potatoe early. It was that kind of issue i was having with the idea in general, and not saying that is what the Andy did not do himself, maybe him and his kid go cycling a few miles before Zelda? But yeah, an interesting experiment.
If nothing else it helps prove why i love lo-fi indies so much and find modern AAA leaves me cold. It’s all about the upbringing.
I don’t have a moral problem with the experiment but I’m not convinced by the author’s assumptions:
Eliot’s early exposure to games with limited graphics inoculated him from the flashy, hyper-realistic graphics found in today’s AAA games. He can appreciate retro graphics on its own terms, and focus on the gameplay.
What games is he talking about exactly? Are other kids being wowed by simplistic AAA games? He briefly mentions minecraft’s popularity with with everyone his child’s age but doesn’t dwell because it doesn’t make him look special.
Also Atari-Nintendo-Nintendo-Nintendo-modern retro indie PC games hardly seems a comprehensive history. His kid’s skill at spelunky reminds me of those freakish children who can expert fire and flames in guitar hero, it’s really impressive but they’re hardly an expert on all of rock.
This is one of those moments where the parent of the ten-year old goes on and on about how the kid is so well-behaved/loves the gluten-free no sugar vegan diet they feed him/shares his parents taste in music. And the parents of the teenagers smile secretly to themselves and feel a twinge of envy for a bygone era.
I have a viscerally negative emotional response to people who plan out and invest themselves deeply into their childrens’ “inductions” into video games.
I mean, I love games – they’re my favorite hobby, and my whole professional career is built on them – but they’re just video games. My daughter will be into them, or not, and either way it’ll be fine. If she digs games I’ll do my damnedest to guide her toward appropriate and rewarding content, and if she develops other hobbies and interests I’ll do the same for those.
Seriously. They’re just video games.
(Says the guy posting on QT3. I know, I know. But some people take it too far.)
BobM
3028
Sounds like he put to much work into it. My now 14 year old started gaming with Halo around age 4, and he’s into similar games as this kid, like Spelunky and Binding of Isaac.
He was on a Garry’s mod kick for years and is currently in a Nintendo phase (which started because he’s forbidden to use a PC for fun until he catches up in school.)
TimJames
3029
On a related note, one of the smartest and funniest things RPS (and John Walker specifically) have done lately is this supporter post:
No, Please No, Not Another Game Player Has Baby Article
Here is my dilemma. It’s nice, I think, to approach supporter posts with a desire to be more personal, more intimate, to shine the light on ourselves a little more brightly. Or to be even more self-indulgent than ever, if you’d prefer to think of it that way. So when considering what to write about in my weekly supporter column, I like to think about what’s going on in my life, pick a lens to look through. Except, four weeks ago my first son was born, and good grief, who wants to hear about that?
Oh my goodness, how many more games-journalists-becoming-parents can the internet cope with? And who is it for? People without kids are likely far less interested to read about an experience they don’t relate to. People who don’t want kids and never intend to have them can feel marginalised, excluded. People who want kids and haven’t yet, or those who want them and cannot have them, can find the whole topic misery-inducing. (My wife and I were trying for three years before ours came along, and I can testify that it’s really shit.) And people with kids already went through it, roll their eyes at the naivety of it, or don’t want to be reminded of it. Can the internet hold another, “How I game with my kid in my arm” article, without keeling over and just collapsing on the floor?
Let’s find out!
I laughed. There really are a lot of articles like that! Credit to him for recognizing it.
RickH
3030
Not to mention that a guided tour / mandatory game syllabus philosophy detracts from what kids like best, discovery. Who the hell can relax and enjoy himself with someone putting a controller in their hand and watching them play?
Heck, my recommending something old seems to have the opposite effect for my kids, they won’t touch it because Dad’s not cool. Which sums up every generation’s attitude about the one before it.
Just leave your SNES plugged in with some games lying around and tell them they are, under no circumstances, to touch or play with it.
That should get them into some retro gaming goodness.
‘Are the walls closing in on indie developers?’:
CVG is closing down.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/future-will-close-cvg/0142090
According to sources close to the business, CVG and all of its staff are on consultation and face redundancy. The site may even be closed before the end of the year. CVG is currently the longest-running video games media brand in history.
indeed, there was some report on this a few weeks back, and while i had a great time with the magazine in the 80’s it soon became a rather ‘industry bought’ type rag full of those 80%/8 out of 10 or more game ‘reviews’. It’s not like the industry needs as many of those as it has.
