Entries Tagged 'Opinion' ↓

The older I get the more cynical I become about awards and rewards, did Barack Obama win the Nobel peace prize because he wasn’t George Bush, or was it for waging several simultaneous wars, using Predators to commit attacks in friendly countries, supporting a toxic Israeli regime and leaving the CIA to trample on human rights? The latest BBC Sports Personality of the year award went to a professional soccer player near the end of his career who doesn’t even play for his national side any more, when we also had Olympians and the world F1 driving champion, amongst some very highly achieving sports people, eligible. And, having looked at the latest new year’s honours list, even the awards the government hands out sometimes look very shaky.

So it is with the video game industry. I remember receiving awards on behalf of Imagine in the early 1980s, so they have been going nearly 30 years. And they very often seem to go to the wrong recipient. In fact they often look as if they are the measure of belonging to the right clique or cabal rather than having anything to do with actual achievement.

Which brings us to this year’s MCV awards. The process is as transparent as mud: MCV will take soundings from the industry and consider any direct lobbying from retailers, suppliers or general readers before announcing a set of Finalists on Friday, February 26th. The winner is voted for by the Judging Panel, which will consist of around 100 highly regarded industry executives taken from all sectors of the business.

I am sure the winners will be very happy with their awards.

There is no doubt whatsoever that downloading and playing a game that should have been paid for is theft. The perpetrator is benefiting from another person’s labour that has a commercial price which has not been paid. The fact that with digital content you do not need any materials to manufacture a copy is totally irrelevant. It is still theft and the people who download games without paying are thieves.

And it is theft on a grand scale. The current orgy of online IP theft is the biggest outbreak of mass stealing in the history of humanity. Tens of millions of people are stealing because they think they can’t be caught.

Earlier this month I wrote this article about $304,149,300 stolen from Activision, the reaction has been quite amazing. This article in TechDirt criticises me and takes the tone that it is perfectly acceptable to steal games. This is a professional journalist biting the hand that feeds him. Does he not realise that the people who spend their lives working on games need to be paid? And has he not seen the damage that game theft has repeatedly done to the games industry?

Here are some of the pathetic comments that people made to the TechDirt article:

I download games because I want to know if its worth spending money to own the game. Give us more demos and I’ll download less! (maybe)

Amen! I can’t wait until these overpaid nancy boys quit whining and realize that their customers are no longer going to tolerate a company stealing money by providing little value for a high price. Then again, they have politicians in their pockets, so why should they? I say, fire all the top executives that have made any mention of ‘stomping out piracy’ and elect all new politicians (preferably younger than 60) into office. Next, we need to formulate some teaching tools that a kindergartner could follow so that the remaining executives can understand the current technologies.

I downloaded MW2 out of spite alone. I specifically did so because they chose not to support dedicated servers. Meanwhile, it’s a lot easier for my downloaded copy to play on the dedicated servers that people made on their own, than it is if I were to buy a legit copy.

This is the problem now, developers make a game for every platform, and dont change it much from the console version for the PC – instead of taking advantage of the power and better capabilities of the PC. Its not worth the time to even bother if its a direct console port.

If the marketers decided to treat their customers respectfully, offering a product that was actually worth full price on the PC, or offered it at the price it was actually worth, they wouldn’t have a “piracy” problem.

The problem is that while piracy can be traced partly to the “blackbeard” torrent users who just want something for nothing, it can also be traced to attitudes and decisions of the company that released the IP.

And then there were the comments that people made to the original article on here:

Sorry Bruce, but they dug their own grave on this one and you need to get off your soapbox and try to find the REAL reason piracy exists.

You sir are confused.
Nothing has been stolen.
The original is still there .

Nothing is stolen.
If it was the police would be involved…….
………We all tread on thin ice so we cannot point fingers.
Let he that has not ,throw the first stone.
nobody, i thought so.

COD:MW2 isnt too great anyway. Yes it is a good game,if you can overlook the pathetically short single player mode, and the ridiculous regenerating health system (why does everything have to be dumbed down
nowadays?), and invincible allies…………

Further, saying that it’s stealing because somebody’s enjoyed the fruits of others’ labor without paying is questionable. You want to go down that road? How about not watching the commercials for a television program? Every time you get up to go to the bathroom or skip past them on your DVR, YOU ARE THEN ALSO STEALING. I suggest you call the authorities and turn yourself in.

I have pasted my dictionary’s definition of the word “theft”. Note that “every part” bit, as long as the copyright holder still has access to their work then it has not been thieved.

Damn pirates. If it weren’t for them, maybe MW2 wouldn’t have bombed at retail?

If customers are treated with respect, they’ll purchase your content. If you treat them with contempt, they won’t.

I’ve sworn to myself that I’ll never, ever buy an Activision title, ever again. (Barring, of course, any and all Blizzard-Activision titles, because Blizzard is 100% deserving of my support). That (put whatever expletive you want here) CEO of Activision disses the gaming community as a whole; it’s only fair that he suffers the consequences. Not to mention MW2 is WAY overpriced, and if that CEO would’ve had his way entirely, it would’ve probably been twice as expensive. Same goes for Spore, simply because their draconic DRM “protection” is a slap in the face to people who bought the game, and it’s not even that well-made.

the trouble is, due to the combined ease and inexpence of both fast downloading, and mass digital data storage, piracy has become so easy and prevailant that it’s an easy target for companies to blame when looking for an excuse to explain away their lack of sales, or for justifying their extortionate prices.

I love this bit, Bruce “Explain their low morality to them and the harm they do….”
Can we do the same thing to ‘investment’ bankers, realtors, solicitors, accountants, big Pharm,……

There is more, but you get the idea. The thieves use a range of excuses to justify their stealing to themselves. And there is a big lesson for the industry. The thieves are barbarians at the gate, looking for any opportunity to destroy everything we have built, the proof is in the quotes above. Any lack of vigilance and they will be through the gate, destroying all before them, as they have so many times before. Against this you need to make your business model as tight as possible against these thieves. Be proactive against them. And always remember that you may have to abandon a well established platform tomorrow because the thieves have destroyed it as a viable target for games.

Before we start I do know all about Golden Eye, the exception that proves the rule. This was made by Rare at the height of their pomp yet ironically  by a very inexperienced team there. It sold over 8 million copies back in 1997 and is considered a seminal game in the development of video gaming as a media. But one success in 30 years of trying does not make video games spun off from films a good idea.

Compare and contrast Golden Eye with Avatar from Ubisoft, this has turned out to be a very damp squib which is very rare from Ubisoft, who are perhaps the best performing publisher in this generation of game consoles. Yet it is based on what is already one of the highest grossing films of all time. And they did everything right. But still they would have done better commercially if they had used their resources to produce a game from one of their existing properties.

So why do games made from films do so badly?

• Films, like the books they are so often derived from, are sequential media. One frame follows the next in an unbroken sequence from beginning to end. This sequence is used to tell a story, usually in the time proven three act structure. Games however are non sequential and often don’t tell a story. Instead the best games allow the player enormous latitude to do what they want, when they want. The most non linear games are called sandbox games, Elite being one of the all time classics and Grand Theft Auto being a massively successful current franchise.
• The film industry sees video games purely as just another form of merchandise for the film and another income stream. Their priority is getting people into movie theatres and getting them to buy DVDs. They may pay lip service to video games but the reality is that their concern is secondary at best. In fact the film company should be paying the game publisher to make the game, not vice versa as it is now. The game is valuable marketing for the film.
• Films are not interactive, you sit down and get comfortable and then the film is imposed on you, you have no influence whatsoever over events. Video games are the exact opposite, they are very highly interactive, the player directly influences events on screen. So one is a passive media, the other is an active media. Also films are totally lacking of the fundamental mechanism of games where the player is rewarded for their success.
• Perceptions. Because of its history, star structure and ubiquitous marketing the film industry is perceived as being bigger and more important than the video game industry. It isn’t. The biggest grossing first week of an entertainment property was a game, Modern Warfare 2, the second biggest was also a game, Grand Theft Auto IV. The biggest games now do half a billion dollars in their first week. And Modern Warfare 2 has already gone on to gross over a billion dollars, something that only 5 films have ever managed to do. World of Warcraft has outgrossed every film in history.
• Huge difference in development timetables and philosophy. A film spends a long time in pre and post production. Actually shooting the footage is immensely expensive for every day, so is compressed into as short a timeframe as possible. Mainstream console games contain vastly more human labour than films do. A large and highly skilled team will spend two years or more working long hours to generate the content. There is (wrongly) very little pre or post production. So when a film and a game work together for a simultaneous release there are massive problems. Tellingly the Golden Eye game was release two years after the film.

So there we have it, games and films need completely different creativity and content, they are like oil and water. And it works both ways. Films made from games are pretty rubbish too.

I have written many times about the convergence of social networking and gaming. Kingdoms of Camelot represents a step change along this path. It is by far the most ambitious game that has been implemented on Facebook so far. Basically it is a building and warfare MMO like Kingory, Nap War, Evony, Empire Craft and Lords Online. The good news is that it is American, from Watercooler Inc.

It is well established that the Daily Mail does not understand video games, which puts them at some distance from their readers who mostly do. The Daily Mail and it’s sibling the Sunday Mail relentlessly attack video games, but in doing so they only serve to display their ignorance.

All that video games are is another form of entertainment medium. Just like books, television, film, radio, opera, ballet etc. Games have several technological advantages in that they are interactive, non linear and connected, which gives them capabilities that are beyond the other media. But they are still just another form of media.

So when anyone is being critical of games it should be in comparison with other media. So issues such as sex, violence and addictiveness should not be taken in isolation in gaming. We should be looking at books, film etc and see how the same issues apply. And when it comes to sex and violence video games are tame. Film and books are far worse and books don’t even have an age rating. I read Karma Sutra, Lady Chatterly’s Lover, Portnoy’s Complaint, The Perfumed Garden etc in my early teens.

Another thing that the Mail do not understand is that video games is a thriving business that adds to the economy. Worldwide it is worth somewhere between $50 and $100 billion a year. And the British share of this massive cake has been going down under the current, labour, government. For many years we were third in the world behind America and Japan. Now we are definitely behind Canada and almost certainly behind Korea and China as well. Which puts us sixth and going down rapidly.

The demise of the British video game industry is almost all down to government policy. Other countries have seized the opportunity to build for the future whilst British politicians seem mainly to attack that which they don’t understand. It is incredible, for instance, that video game development does not receive the same tax treatment as film making in the UK. These politicians are not in the real world.

Which brings us back to the Daily Mail and an attempt at a witty political piece by Andrew Alexander. In which he says:

‘Culture’ also has a minister of its own operating under the grand panjandrum of the Secretary of State. The Shadow Minister, Ed Vaizey, provides a foretaste of nonsense to come with his declaration that the video games industry – there’s culture for you – has been let down by the Government. It has not grown fast enough.

He proposes a Video Games Council.

Why there should be a government role in this field may well defeat you. It is at least as silly as the role of Hereditary Butler to the Crown etc and no doubt more expensive.

I have some news for Mr Alexander, by any and all definitions video games are culture. They entertain, have creativity, genre, subtlety, a history, engender emotion and have everything else that ballet or the opera have. Except that video games are massively more popular.

Then he completely misses the point that games are a huge industry that provide jobs, profits, wealth, exports etc. Just as heavy manufacturing once did in this country.

And then we come to him disparaging the excellent idea of a Video Games Council. It is a massive shame and a huge detriment to Britain that we don’t already have one. If Mr Alexander wants to criticise the concept he should put it in context. Let’s see him rubbish the Film Council, the Arts Council and the Music Council as well.

In fact Mr Alexander actually provides compelling evidence for the need for a Video Games Council, because if we had one we would not have to suffer so much ignorance from journalists (and politicians).

Publisher consolidation is an ongoing story in any form of IP publishing. The competitive advantages of scale are so great and are becoming greater. It is something of an ongoing saga in the game industry too and we are going to see plenty more.

The internet has changed the rules in two ways. Firstly it has focussed all IP publishing (including books, TV, film etc) into a smaller number of big hits. This makes the risk/reward equation ever bigger. We are at the point where a single game can gross a billion dollars at retail, yet most non blockbuster games make a loss. Secondly it has reduced the entry barriers to publishing to nearly zero. Anyone can set up a business with instant global distribution, just put a game on Facebook, App Store, Steam, XLA or any of the other online distribution channels. So now we have around 100,000 active publishers in the world!

I see consolidation in the video games industry now taking four forms.

Firstly I don’t think that mid sized console publishers are a tenable business model any more. They have insufficient titles to spread the risk and if a single iteration of one of their blockbusters bombed they would be in very severe trouble. Take Two and Sega are perfect examples. So these sort of companies will be the subject of M&A activity. They will merge or be taken over so that their IP can flourish within a big enough organisation. Some publishers may well go bust as their accumulated debt becomes too much for anyone to take on. When this happens the IP will live on in the hands of others.

The second form of consolidation will be the big general media companies enhancing the gaming side of their portfolios. Companies like Warners and News Corporation know they have to be in gaming in a big way. Nobody is safe from being bought by these guys, for a long time I have thought that Electronic Arts is a prime target, but don’t be surprised by who ends up being owned by them.

The third form of consolidation will be the small self publishers like those that have sprung up on the Apple iPhone App Store in the last 18 months. 99% of these have no idea about marketing and no idea about finance, so they are currently not going anywhere. However they are a hotbed of creativity and innovation. So those few that do understand marketing and finance will end up owning those that don’t. This is exactly what happened 20ish years ago with home computer game publishing.

The fourth is the acquisition of publishers for their IP by platform holders to give themselves exclusives. This has dropped off in recent times but could become a lot more prevalent when Apple join the home console market.

But it is this third form that can be the most exciting, as we are seeing with Playfish and Zynga. Done just right a publishing startup company could easily go from zero to a billion dollars turnover  in just a few years. All you need to do this is the right people following the right business plan.

Games For Soldiers is a brilliant American charity, it: is a non-profit organization dedicated to sending entertainment items to deployed US troops the world over. Primarily we send new and used videogames and videogame consoles.

Obviously it is brilliant if you can help them by sending them any games stuff you may have for them to distribute. But they also need a bit of more specialist help:

Hello,

Games For Soldiers is looking to gain it’s 501(c)(3) status early in
2010. The approximate cost for this is $1,500 (includes incorporation,
IRS documentation and agent fees). I am reaching out to the community
first to see if anyone is willing or able to provide this service
pro-bono, to include filing fees.

Currently, nearly all donations are in the form of games. Any monetary
donations supplement out-of-pocket costs to myself for the shipping of
boxes overseas (each costs roughly $13). As a college student, one can
see how these continued expenses get out of hand quickly.

Fear not, GFS is not going away regardless. Even if we need to put off
the NPO filing, I will continue to operate GFS as I have for the last
year and a half. However, the benefit of gaining this status is that
some companies who currently donate games would also be willing and
able, by internal policy requirements, to offer monetary donations to
offset the shipping costs and allow GFS to donate greater amounts of
entertainment items.

Please forward this message along to anyone you know that may be
willing and able to assist us in this new adventure.

Thank you,

Jesse Williams
Games For Soldiers (.org)

Now giving a helping hand here should be easily within the compass of readers of this blog. So if you are in a position to help Jesse, then please do. If you need an email address, just ask me.

The politics and the rights and wrongs of deployments don’t come into this. These young men are a long way from home doing a dangerous job and they deserve our support.