No Xbox Originals Achievements Either

I’m going to get one last one in before the DNS throws up.

Major Nelson reports that Xbox Originals aren’t going to have achievements either.  So essentially buying the game digitally will be like having a buggy version of the disc version of the game with no achievements and random crashing when you chose menu options that you shouldn’t have chosen because you’re a stupid fuck who’s not psychic (apparently). 

“These are the original games that were created before Xbox 360. In order to preserve the integrity of the original gaming experience they provide, they will have the features available at the time of their initial release”

That’s some marketing bullshit that means “We don’t want to go into the source code and modify the game because it costs more to do that, so you’re going to get a sloughed out half-experience instead”.  Achievement points cannot possibly destroy the integrity of the original gaming experience.  This is one of the only modifications you could make that would be a no risk gain.  I don’t even see a scenario around this product anymore. 

There’s an opportunity to leverage the existing platform of awesomeness and bring it up to a new level.  Developers in general are happy to release their game on more platforms if the cost is low to them.  I would expect most would be more than happy to spend a month reworking their code to operate in this environment and add achievement points to their games.  It gives people a really good reason to replay those games they once loved and to buy them through this channel instead of getting them for ten bucks used at the local GameStop.  You guys do know that you don’t get paid when people buy used games, yeah?

By feeding your customers the raw scraps from the table in an attempt to make a quick cash grab you’re hurting your brand.  Xbox Live has become a touchstone and a symbol of multiplayer gaming.  Watering down that symbol with buggy content, or rechurn of games at a lower quality than their original incarnation burns your brand.  This will result in less money long term.  Do it right, or don’t do it at all.

Xbox Originals

*sigh*

 Guys, what are you doing?

Look, I’m a PM, I understand that things get cut and you don’t always get to produce what you’d ideally like to produce.  That’s the reality of the situation.  I’m okay with the producer’s logo being a little choppy on the way in.  But if you’re essentially licensing out back catalog IP, is it really that much work to disable menu options that will cause the game to crash?  What if Word shipped with a big red toggle button on the ribbon that said “More Magic” on it. 

Do you really want to field all those calls with the answer that the player is just ’supposed to know’ not to push those buttons.  That’s not a good experience story.  In fact, it’s such a fucking terrible experience that it may threaten the viability of the platform.  I already have way, way too many awesome games coming out right now, I can wait until the mid-winter slump for my third copy of Psychonauts.  Go fix it. 

The Art of Theft

Yahtzee has a new Trilby game out, this time a stealth game, in distinct deviation from previous titles.  If you’ve been under a rock, the Chzo Mythos series of games are some of the best games available using the Adventure Game Studio toolkit and predominately feature a gentlemanly catburgler named Trilby.  Go check it out.

Kongregate

Kongregate will consume your soul and cause you to swear Oaths of Fealty.

As mentioned previously, I’m a huge achievement whore.  The concept of badges has entranced me since I was a wee Boy Scout.  I don’t take particular pride in showing them off to anyone, I just like having a record of tasks I’ve accomplished.  If you’re a fan of Newgrounds, which is the cradle of humanity for cool flash games, you’re going to lurrrrve Kongregate. 

Additionally, and this bit is kind of weird, Kongregate is the future home of a digital collectable card game.  The current manner for aquiring these cards is to complete an acheivement for a particular game for that week.  Presumably when the game is actually launched there will also be some mechanism for purchasing/winning additional cards for your deck.  Final judgement is reserved for when the game comes out.

On top of all that, It’s just clean.  Clean like Facebook used to be, you know, back in the day before they started plastering shit all over your screen like this was 1997.  Cleanliness is highly appreciated and improves the usability story tenfold.  Go check it out.

My name is Angus, and I’m an Achievement Whore

1. Achievement Points
2. ???
3. Profits!!! 

Apparently the EEDAR has figured out that acheivements points are good.  This has been apparent to basically anyone who owns a 360 since the dawn of time, but it’s nice to see in an official looking report.  The report says that Metacritic scores go way up on titles which have a large number of achievement points, as well as a larger variety.  Games which have online achievement points generate 50% more income than those who do not.  Furthermore, a user will prefer to buy a title on platform which as acheivement points (I know I do, if it’s on the 360, I get it on the 360).  A more interesting finding is that if you have achievement points which include a viral marketing component, or some type of content creation, profit is on average 50% higher.

An acheivement is a very powerful reward scheme, because unlike gameplay mechanisms, you can only unlock it once, and that’s it, forever.  Each point is also unique, they are not generic rewards such as extra lives.  What this means is you remember rewards you get, especially if the mechanism in which you got it was particularly offbeat and unique (e.g. hitting the guard with the can he tells you to pick up in Half-Life 2, or taking a picture of Spencer Cohen’s body in Bioshock).  Furthermore the points themselves extent their reach in the other direction as well, by demonstrating your glorious victories to your friends through Xbox live (which cleverly has badges which sync to the system available for facebook and blogs).

Update: A clever assertion by Raph Koster:

Well, yeah. I’m one of the people who went out there and said, “Single-player gaming is doomed,” and I actually used that phrase. An Xbox Live Achievement is a soul-bound item, and Gamerpoints are experience points, and BioShock is a one-man instance dungeon in the Xbox Live MMO. That is the direction that single-player gaming is going, frankly.

Having a larger variety of interactive tasks therefore incentivizes your players to keep exploriIng the world you’ve crafted.  Strategic use of an achievement can introduce a player to an entirely new area of exploration that they may not have considered.  A player will start by picking the low hanging fruit when they try your game, and indeed it’s good to have some early hand-outs, but the fruit is sweet, and as long as you don’t make it impossible to get more of them (I’m looking at you Burnout), they will keep coming back for more.  Eventually they turn into freakish, bizarre creatures like myself, who will stay up to all hours of the morning, killing peasants over and over again because I need more Minions to squeeze 10 more little fetid GP out of your game with my clammy, blistered hands, cackling to the moonlight as I go.  By the way, as a general rule, do not make achievement points which require hours of repetitive action, it isn’t fun, and actually detracts from an otherwise highly entertaining game.

What this means is that the rewards structure of achievement points, while in a sense existing ‘outside the magic circle’, in effect has impact on the game itself, and should therefore be considered as part of the design, not merely an afterthought (as it seems to be in many titles).  So to all you developers out there, do a good job, hire Tim Schaefer to plan your Achievement strategy if you must, but give it serious consideration.  If anyone needs me, I’ll be trying to nail the rest of the gold medals on Portal.

Red Ring of Death T-Shirt

I just saw this shirt on Split Reason and thought I’d share it with you all… because it’s amazing.  Do yourself a favor all ye who have felt the burn, and pre-order one of these puppies before they start flying out the door like an unwanted child on their 18th birthday.

Oh what a weekend…

Still bogged down in the midst of exams, but my final one is tomorrow (Computer Security!) and maybe I’ll have a chance to post more in the near future.

In the meantime, why are there so many phenomenal games coming out for Xbox 360, and only a handful for any other system (including PC)?

According to Metacritic (speaking of which, I promise to post the results of my data mining soon) We have on the Wii two games that are rated above 90% (Twilight Princess and Resident Evil 4), leaving Super Paper Mario in 3rd place, and after that there isn’t a single game that I have a huge urge to go and play. Now I know that we have Metroid 3 coming out in a few weeks, and Mario Galaxy and Smash Bros. Brawl coming out before Christmas, but that only brings the total of must-have games to six for the Wii (IMHO of course). Nintendo needs to step this up.

The Playstation 3 has a SINGLE game rated above 90% on Metacritic: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The next couple down from there are Ninja Gaiden Sigma (which is a remake) and Resistance: Fall of Man (which is awesome). The only title that I would consider to be must have between now and Christmas is Assassin’s Creed, which would bring us up to four, one of which is a remake of an Xbox game.

Come on guys.

Microsoft though, those guys are just feeding me dessert all the way to the bank (Remember, Bias, I work for them).

The 360 has 7 titles rated above 90%, Including Oblivion as on PS3, we have of course Gears of War, and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. A little further down the list we have Burnout Revenge (a dark, dark addiction of mine). I would also suggest that there have been some innovative if not perfectly designed games which are 360 Exclusives including Dead Rising and Overlord.

What to me is absolutely shocking is the volume of titles being released in the near future which I feel I must have:

Fable 2

Release Date: TBA 2008

Platforms: Xbox 360

Website

Now, I know there were issues with the first Fable game, and it certainly didn’t meet all the hype that was generated for it. But that said, I really enjoyed it, I like Molyneux’s preoccupation with allowing you to play different sides of the story, and I think Fable 2 (set in a more Steampunk setting too) will raise the bar a little higher.

Assassin’s Creed

Release Date: November 2007

Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Windows

Website

Now this game I’ve been waiting for for a very long time. I understand that it’s being released on PS3 as well, but Hitman meets Prince of Persia is all you have to say to get me to fork over 60 bucks. Beyond that the storyline to this game is being kept under strict secret, and that tells me there’s more to this game than meets the eye.

Mass Effect

Release Date: November 2007

Platforms: Xbox 360

Website

An action RPG Space-Opera from the creators of Knights of the Old Republic, Baldur’s Gate, etc. Again, that’s all you need to say to me. “The most non-linear game we’ve ever made” helps to. From the glimpses I’ve seen so far, this game looks to deliver in spades everything Advent Rising never was, and a whole lot more.

Too Human (Well, maybe)

Release Date: TBA 2008 (Bets, anyone?)

Platforms: Xbox 360

Website

Any game that attempts to blend Norse Mythology into a sci-fi setting and quotes Nietzsche is okay in my books. I’ve actually had the privilege of watching this game being demoed when Denis Dyack and crew showed up for an information session for recruiting at the University of Waterloo (and unfortunately didn’t give me a call!). The game looks slick. It wasn’t done by a stretch yet when I saw it, and it was clear that they were having some issues, but if this game ever comes out (which gets uglied up when you sue your game engine developer and try to build your own version of Unreal 3 Engine while simultaneously doing game development), I’m sure it’ll be a hit.

Bioshock

Release Date: August 21, 2007

Platforms: Xbox 360, Windows

Website

Bioshock is heralded as the spiritual successor to System Shock 2, a game which you should surf your ass over to eBay and land yourself a copy of if you’ve never had the delight of playing. The game has been designed for Emergent Gameplay, meaning that much of what you’re supposed to be able to do in the game is by emergence of the simple game mechanics which were built in, instead of being guided by the hand of the developer. If it’s anywhere close to on the same level as System Shock, this one should be on everyone’s bookshelf.

GTA IV

Release Date: Feb-Apr 2008

Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3

Website

The latest in the Grand Theft Auto series, and from the trailers, sure to be a cut above anything we’ve seen so far (Multiplayer!). Need I say more?

Burnout: Paradise

Release Date: Q1 2008

Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3

Website

The newest Burnout game is supposed to be a complete reinvention of the series. I’m not sure how I feel about this, as the series is pretty sweet as it is, and I really don’t want Burnout to turn into one of the other many racing games that are around. Nevertheless, I’m sure it will at least be worth a look at this Winter, and if it’s anywhere near as addictive as it’s predecessor, I’ll have scurvy by the time the Spring comes.

Halo 3

Release Date: Sept 25, 2007

Platforms: Xbox 360

Website
In 2001 Halo put the original Xbox on the map, and six years later Halo 3 will close the Saga of Master Chief. Although I’m sure this won’t be the last we see of the Halo games in years to come, it”ll be the end of a story arc that’s been with us for most of the decade, and has been a defining example of the FPS genre. I’m sure Halo 3 will be the best yet in the series, and I’m also fairly sure that It’ll be a few days before I see the sun again after it comes out.

Anyway, We all have that to look forward to in the coming months, and I’m highly pleased. I’ll be getting a Wii in the next few weeks as well, so here’s hoping Nintendo once again pulls a completely new genre out of thin air and creates an entire ecosystem of games that will quake the earth once more.

As for Sony, well, you guys are on your own for now. Maybe when God of War comes to the PS3 I’ll think about coming up with $17,000 or whatever it costs to buy a PS3 when you’re in Canada, but for now, I don’t think the titles are worth the cash.

Then again, when Playstation Home comes out, I might rethink that decision. That guy looks sweet.

Red-Ring of Death Followup

Peter Moore yesterday released an open letter to the Xbox 360 community announcing a new three year warranty extension that covers systems that fail due to the red ring of death.

Although Microsoft has not announced the official cause of the red ring of death issue, unofficial reports seem to indicate the problem is related to the proximity of the DVD drive to the board, and the lack of airflow through that region causes the board to warp, breaking contacts and additionally causing the solder to reflow. Some have reported that Microsoft has begun to add additional heat piping on repaired systems to fix this problem.

I’ve previously written about my experiences with the Red Ring of Death. I should like to comment that after calling for support, Microsoft shipped me the packaging box (”Dubbed ‘The Coffin’”) several days later, and after a couple of weeks, I received my system back. I’ve had not a single issue with it since the joyful return of my system almost two months ago. Overall I didn’t have to pay a dime, and Microsoft gave me a free month of Xbox Live Gold access for the inconvienence of losing my system for a couple of weeks. All in all, a generally positive customer experience.

If this is indeed the problem, one would not expect Microsoft to own up to it specficially, because the onslaught of ‘Heating upgrade requests’ would be financially damaging, and in many cases unnecessary. For those systems that require the upgrade, this should become obvious well before the three year deadline arrives. This certainly bolsters my spirits and hopes that we’ll all be able to enjoy the 360 in years and decades to come. I congratulate Peter Moore, Microsoft, and the Xbox 360 team for owning up to the fact that there is a problem, and stepping up to the plate to ensure the customers and community remain satisfied with the 360 Experience.

Kudos.

Update: So much for that.

On WiiWare

Nintendo on Wednesday announced that they have joined Microsoft in offering a solution for independent developers to create content for their system. Full details have yet to emerge, but it would seem that WiiWare is designed to allow developers to produce games which can then be sold through the WiiShop Channel, Similar to the mechanism Microsoft is using to deploy XNA games through XBLA.

Level Up has an exclusive interview with NOA President Reggie Fils-Aime, where some interesting details were disclosed. Firstly, the pricing for a given game is determined exclusively by Nintendo. I’m not sure how this compares to the Microsoft method, as the entire “Getting my game on XBLA” process is somewhat opaque at this point (and I might add, Microsoft would do well to make it more transparent).

Secondly, WiiWare seems to not encompass libraries or tools that make to development process easier (a la XNA), but rather the simplification of the delivery channel. The argument for this is that development kits for the Wii are extremely inexpensive. While this is a valid point (They cost between $2,500 to $10,000), it’s certainly not on par with the concept behind XNA. Additionally, actually becoming an authorized developer so that you can get your hands on the kits is more complex, and as a result it is unlikely to target the homebrew community emerging around the Xbox 360. That would also not appear to be the intent, rather it would seem Nintendo is trying to simplify the process for small (but professional) development shops.

Thirdly the developer must seek its own ESRB Rating. As I don’t have a development company, I don’t even have access to the information regarding getting a game rated. There seems to be similar restrictions to getting a game rated that exist to get your hands on Wii DevKits. I would not be suprised if there was also a fee associated with getting a rating, but again this seems to tune WiiWare towards small independent developers rather than just anyone.

Reggie also states in the interview that Nintendo will not be overseeing the games, suggesting that any game that gets through this process and passes some basic requirements from Nintendo will be made available for purchase on the WiiChannel. Note that this is strictly different than the attitude Microsoft has developed. XBox Live Arcade is a carefully crafted entity into which new games are eligible only with the good graces of the managers who maintain the portfolio. In other words, XBLA will never be filled with 800 solitaire games, because Microsoft gets the final say on whether they’ll sell your game or not. The fact that Nintendo is not doing this is both good and bad. On one hand, it could conceivably encourage games that might not make it to XBLA, however possibilities exist for the marketing of a lot of crap that nobody is interested in buying.

All in all, I’m excited to see Nintendo is getting in on the independent developer market, and digital delivery, but WiiWare isn’t strictly comparable to XBLA, the two seem to be marketed at different audiences.  While many are quick to herald WiiWare as “Nintendo’s XBLA”, WiiWare does not in any way make it easy for “Anyone to create a Wii Game”.  WiiWare simplifies delivery mechanisms, not development mechanisms, so all those hopeful hobbyists will still have to remain weeping in the corner.

Now we just need to see when Sony is going to get on board.

More on the causes of Red Ring of Death

After my Xbox 360 died earlier this week, I finally called Tech support. As suspected, there is nothing I can do about the issue, and Microsoft will be shipping me a box in which to ship them the console for repair (and for free, as my console is under warranty). The tech support line was a bit hard to hear, and one has to navigate through an automatic tech support drone (although not a bad one) to get to a real person, but I suppose that’s good as it filters out the people who forgot to plug their system in.

I’ve been trying to discern what might have happened to cause this error. I’ve found a nifty little guide which allows you to get some more in-depth information about the dreaded three blinking red lights. I won’t go through the entire procedure here, but if you have this issue, I encourage you to do so.

The particular error code I get is 0102. This code is an unknown error, an error not handled by any other of the escape conditions. Essentially my Xbox 360 has no idea what’s wrong with itself. The guide suggests that it can occur if components have lost contact with the main-board, due to a cold solder or a short, or possibly a broken contact.

As I have not physically relocated my Xbox 360 since this occurred, the only conceivable explanation is that my console has been overheating, and the heat has caused warping significant enough to damage the component connections on the system board. As my system IS under warranty, I’m not willing to open it up and poke around, nor try to repair it using heat reflow or other techniques.

My system was purchased in the summer of 2006, not exactly among the ‘first batch of 360s’. Additionally, the system is sitting on my wooden desk, upright, and has plenty of space surrounding it. In fact, there is not a single device within three feet of the console which emits heat (and even at that, an LCD monitor doesn’t emit much). If heat was the culprit, this points to a systemic problem with the 360, although Microsoft has denied this. Either the solder work in the pick-and-place machines used in fabrication are flawed somewhere (a problem which would be relatively trivial to diagnose and fix given large quantities of 360s suffering the same problems), or there is simply too much heat and not enough airflow within the 360 chassis. If this is the case, it will continue to be a major problem unless the physical case is redesigned (fat chance) or the system uses a lower-voltage chipset which will reduce the amount of heat being generated (would require another model of 360 to emerge). As both of these solutions seem to be unlikely to be implemented, my hopes of having my (repaired) 360 last as long as my SNES has are foundering rapidly.

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