By now, most of if not all of you have heard of the Infinity Ward lack of dedicated servers in MW2 clusterfuck. Yes, that was a long ass sentence.

Anyway, this issue has actually got me to start writing a bit; though I'm not exactly going to win awards for "Most Free Time" nowadays. Getting a new job, (finally!) will do that to you. Anyway, IW's argument against dedicated server support is something along the lines of, and I'm paraphrasing heavily here: "Well, sever hosting is a bit too hard for some gamers...so we're going to make it easier and go for a console-style system for online play." Translation: "We can screw you out of more money by charging for content like new maps and modified gameplay that the community would make for free." That's pretty much what this boils down to when you burn the all of the corporate BS off the heap.

As a long time PC gamer, and someone who dabbles in FPSes; this is dirty, and low. The PC gaming model for multiplayer FPS has always been about user created maps and gameplay elements created by the community, seeking nothing for their work. While I wish I could explain this away, I can't. This isn't Valve-style corporate trolling, it's Activision style "let's screw the customer for everything they're worth"; a disturbing sales model called "Let's feed them bullshit and call it gourmet" Gamers live in a climate of what borders on corporate brainwashing, where we are taught that paying more for something somehow makes it of a higher quailty, that paying for downloadable content is somehow okay when mod-makers and mappers have been doing it for free ever since the first modded content.

Personally, I think onlime multiplayer has gone downhill since voice chat became standard, but maybe that's just me. But the next time I hear a 10 year old talk about how he's "fucking my mother"; I know I have someone to thank.

Thanks IW for lowing the bar just that much lower.

As I write this, there's a shitstorm passing over all the Internets. Specifically, the parts that contain TF2 loyalists. It all started yesterday, with the cryptic text in Valve's TF2 update notes:

-Added support for client explanations of backend inventory manipulation

Now, I'm no hardcore TF2 player, but as someone who has played it now and then since I picked up The Orange Box two Christmases ago, here are things as I understand them, in chronological order, or as best as I can put it.

- Valve announces a new item drop system for TF2, and soon implements it. People are confused and aggrivated.

- Players realize that the system is based on a random check made every second which determines if you get an item. The chances of getting one are fairly low, and even lower still to get hats for each class; cosmetic items that if anything, say that you spend way too much time playing TF2.

- Competetive players begin to use hats to measure which classes players have spent a lot of time with. Around this time, players begin to start idle servers, where one can sit and idle, and obtain items and hats. Valve says nothing about this practise. The system is now more well liked.

- A TF2 player develops an external program, called an "idler" to allow players to trick Valve's servers into thinking they're logged in and playing on a server, when in fact they are doing something else, not even requiring the game to be open. Someone at Valve is rumored to say that the use of the idler is not really a concern of theirs.

- On September 2nd, 2009, an update is posted with the above update note in it. Soon after, anyone who has used the idler program has had all items suspected of being gained using this method unceremoniously removed. It is revealed that players who did not use the idler recieve an exclusive cosmetic hat, a halo.

And after this, huge forum wars erupt between the users of the idler program, and the players running around to cries of "OMG CHEATERZZ!!"

And then there is me, who finds the situation absolutely hilarious. Are Valve developers trolling? I think so. They've pulled stunts similar to this in the past. I remember one instance, before the items patch, where people on the forums had been complaining that items with stats made the game too much like an MMORPG. TF2 developers, knowing that players are wont to hack patch files to view new changes all at once, mocked up code that pointed to things like "Mob=Boar", and hinting that there would be quest content once the new update hit.

Completely untrue of course. But I must say Valve; you've really outdone yourselves this time. Good show.

And now, I leave you with a completely awesome picture summary of the whole event:

Once, when game development was a relatively new endeavor, it was (relatively) easy to develop a video game, or so I've read. Minimal numbers of personnel, minimal amounts of money, even for the time, a good (or bad) idea, and you could begin development and have a working game in a fraction of the time it takes nowadays. Now, that's not really the case. Nowadays, you hear about three to four year development cycles and huge, move sized budgets for video game projects. Take Square Enix, (once Squaresoft for those who've been playing console RPGs as long or longer than I.) spent the equivalent of a Hollywood movie's budget on Final Fantasy VII, which I shouldn't even need to mention as one of the most well-known games of the last decade. Gone were the days of small game development...or were they?

One thing is undisputed: Somewhere along the line, video games became something more than just primitive entertainment, much like films became more than still-camera scenes of everyday life, accompanied by live music. Games, like many other entertainment mediums were swallowed whole by big business. How big is big business? Try to the tune of $22 billion last year alone. Games are now seldom made for fun, but more often than not, are made for profit. Forums and blogs are bathed in buzz and terms like IP, SKUs, Content delivery, DLC and more corporate shenanigans. Now, as much as this sounds like the beginning of a rant about the soullessness of the industry, or how big companies shouldn't turn a profit; it isn't. Today, I plan to talk a bit about the fans. Or more specifically, ones that develop their own games.

Indie development has really gotten a turn in the limelight, with competitions like the Independent Games Festival, or all those "develop a game in 24 hours" contests. When indie content is original content, everything is fine. But the moment development crosses the intellectual property proverbial "line in the sand" not surprisingly, the publishing companies, and gatekeepers of IP don't like it much. This has led to many, many fan made projects getting fancy cease & desist letters from publishers, and getting cut down before they see the light of day, leaving fans to wonder what could have been. Fox did it to a Aliens-themed total conversion mod. In fact, shutting these games down has happened a fair bit in the last few years or so; Square shut down the Chrono Trigger 3D remake, Chrono Resurrection, despite not touching the series since Chrono Cross, And Vivendi shutting down a King's Quest sequel created by fans to give some sense of closure to the series, despite not having touched the series since acquiring the property, and having no proper game in the series since 1998. Even Games Workshop shut down V40k, a java program that allows people to run modules to simulate the warhammer 40k tabletop game without spending hundreds of dollars on pewter figurines.

Again, don't get confused here. I'm not complaining about this. If it infringes on their IP, they have every right to shut it down. My complaint is that it's such a waste. A waste on both parties' parts, in truth. Despite my love of consoles, there's one thing that keeps me coming back to PC gaming (besides MMOs): the customization. For instance, I'm starting up Oblivion again, and the amount of modded content is just ridiculous. It's like that with virtually any western PC game you can think of. PC game dev companies welcome modded content as a way of extending the life of their games, and in some cases modders have even been hired to staff, and had their work purchased. Valve, in particular, is known for doing this; Counterstrike in particular is an example of why hiring modders can work in a publisher or developer's favor. Even in Japan, doujinshi games, usually based on existing anime or manga, though sometimes originals themselves fill thousands of tables at Comiket.

And yet, look at most console developers and publishers. C&D letters when they could have just bought the properties or the fan developers and made money at the same time.

There's little chance any corporate bigwig is reading this, but all the same...Why don't they smarten up?

To all those who actually read my updates,

Sorry for the lack of them lately. I've been amazingly busy. After helping to run an anime convention that I work at once yearly, I have been looking for work, packing for my move later this week, doing some personal writing, and trying to finish games I haven't been able to finish. All this, coupled with my lack of good ideas lately have combined in nearly a month since my last post. As soon as I get my Internet back on September 1st, that'll change. I aready have a few ideas in the works, and the week downtime without Internet I'm about to have should get me to push myself to finish them.

Upcoming topics may include:

-Why I think companies should pay more attention to fan made projects.
-Visual novels and why they're mislabled as "erotic games", and erotica in gaming in general.
-Discussion about upcoming MMOs, including FFXIV speculation now that we know a bit more.

Thanks for reading thus far, and I promise, I'm just getting started!

-Musai

In this week's news: game-related lawsuits.

That's right, people are suing each other again, surprised? Given that it's a US lawsuit, a country where you can sue companies for coffee being too hot, or sue homeowners for injuries sustained during home invasions, is it really that surprising? In this case, the lawsuit is over something that I'd assumed was behind us. The case of the terrible case of the GTA advertising on Chicago public transit vehicles and locales.

For those that need a recap, this started in April, when the CTA refused to run ads for GTA IV, breaking a contractual obligation established with Take Two Interactive to advertise the game on their public transit vehicles (The creator and publisher of the GTA series, for those who live under a bridge.) The matter was eventually settled outside out of court, and Niko Belic made a return.

The affair seemed finished, that is until these rumblings of the ESA filing suit against the CTA emerged yesterday morning. The city has apparently passed an ordinancet that prohibits the advertising of all M or AO video games on public transit vehicles and property, much like ads depicting alcohol and tobacco use. Apparently, according to the CTA, the ads could "incite imminent lawless action", almost as if they expect some law abiding citizen to see Niko Belic and start frothing at the mouth whipped into some sort of violent frenzy.

Even more disturbing is the suggestion by the CTA that games are somewhat equivalent to advertising alcohol or tobacco. Read that part over again. Isn't that more than a little scary? Video games are now mentioned in the same breath as alcohol and tobacco, and are for some reason still viewed as gateways to violent behaviour, despite no causal link between violent images and behavior. It's as if parental responsibility has no place in today's society, almost as if parenting is some sort of foreign concept.

At the end of the day, it's far easier to blame outside factors than to blame yourself. It doesn't matter that even if children see the ads and want a game like GTA IV, they'd need to get the money from their parents, most of the time, or their parents would just buy the game. It doesn't matter that R-rated movies are advertised freely in CTA vehicles and on CTA property, sometimes depicting the characters in the movies with (gasp) weapons. It doesn't matter that you can't even advertise tobacco anyway, no, all that matters is saving the poor children from the evil of video games, or rock music, or movies, or whatever-the-fuck-else people have used as scapegoats in the past. Hey, they can violate the first amendment, right? Because the ads are somehow more deplorable
than the gratuitous sex used to sell products to boys and girls alike, or overly sugary drinks, or R-rated TV and movies.

My main question here isn't even "why?", at least not at the moment. I still can't comprehend the CTA's reasoning behind this. What I want to know most of all is...

Who exactly does this ordinance protect, really? The children? Or lackluster parenting?

Well, after owning a 360 for 2 years and change, the console passed away this afternoon. It boots up to the dash just fine, but freezes when it tries to play games, and red rings when I try to boot it with a game in it. This is rare for me, as I usually have great luck with consoles. I have a PS2 from about 6 months after launch that still works, albeit with a bit of lens tweaking now and then.

Other than that, I've never had a console die on me. It's a strange experience, not quite on the level of losing a pet, but still with enough of an impact to have you think about it with some sobriety. This console was a birthday present, and it lasted through two moves before this happened, so I was a bit fond of the thing. Oh well, now to find a box to place it in and get it to UPS before the end of the day.

With any luck, your replacement will last me longer than 2 damn years.