Many gamers are happy, since they like trophies and this will mean that more games will feature them. But this also means that some developers that don’t want to add trophies to their game will just not put their game on the PS3.

I don’t like this kind of thing at all. This crosses the line from basic technology, stability, and obscenity issues to actual creative content. This would be like the movie theater chains mandating that all new comedies use laugh tracks or all new action movies must have at least two car chases.

It’s normal for bosses, investors, and big clients to make these kind of demands, but Sony (and Microsoft/Nintendo) is essentially a middle-man between independent studios and the public. If I were a passionate independent developer, and some clueless beaurocrat middle man started to tell me how to design my product and what feature list it needed, I would tell them to kiss off! What’s next: all games must feature bald space marines and singing purple dinosaurs?

OK, I’m probably overreacting a hair. Trophy logic can’t be that complicated to program in to a game and it’s not that invasive on the game experience. However, I still think that this is the wrong way to go. If a development studio is able to fund and create their own products, they should have maximum creative control over the end user experience and shouldn’t be mandated into supporting the platform’s latest brand-identity marketing gimmicks.

Lastly, let features live and die on their own merit. If a feature is appreciated by users and the development resources are justified, developers will generally support the feature on their own terms without coercion. We are seeing this willing developer adoption of trophy support. Why take the choice out of the hands of the developers and force those that feel otherwise into compliance?

I’m sure my coblogger Henning would love to enforce split-screen support on all games, but isn’t this kind of decision best left in the hands of the developer?

The 360 and PS3 have their fair share of Super Mega Awesome Collector’s Editions of games. The Wii? Not so much. Luckily Capcom likes the sound of money and thinks that their forthcoming House of the Dead: OVERKILL is well worth a Collector’s Edition. We’re inclined to agree, since anything the reinforces the whole grindhouse style of the game gets a big thumbs up from us. Even better is that the Collector’s Edition is free with pre-order of the game.

As if it didn’t get sexier than free Collector’s Editions of games with zombies in them, the package will include not only a special slipcase (OK, not that exciting) but also Prelude to an Overkill, a graphic novel starring series staple Agent Washington and newcomer Varla Gunns. It tells the breasticle filled tale of the two on the night before the events in OVERKILL occur. The graphic novel will be illustrated by Steve Copter, of dissident punk band ‘Black Mekon.’ I’m not sure why an illustrators credentials would be a band, but from the image above it looks like he’s doing a decent job. How great is the intentional wear and tear on the cover there. Thank god SEGA is stepping up the awesome on the Wii.

My greatest complaint about the otherwise testoterone-tastic Gears of War 2 is how cheesy and clunky the romance subplot comes across as, and I think the reason is clear - it’s not amateurish writing or awkward dialogue, but rather the fact that Dom’s struggle to find his wife Maria, who went missing during the Locust horde onslaught, just doesn’t come close to the emotional gravitas of his unspoken love for fellow Gear-head, Marcus Fenix. And I’m not the only ones who thinks so. GameDaily is highlighting the top 12 greatest, and chastest, dude-on-dude love affairs in the history of gaming, the purely platonic phenomenon known as the “bromance.”

“Their heterosexual love affair plays out through a series of fist-pounding frathouse antics,” according to GameDaily. “Think Michael Cera and Jonah Hill in Superbad, Vince Vaughn and John Favreau in Swingers, or, in the video game world, Marcus Fenix and his buddy Dom in Gears of War 2.”

Counted among the happy couples are Bill Rizer and Lance Bean from Contra, Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem from Army of Two and Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles “Tails” Prower from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, proving that true love knows neither gender nor species. But it’s still not okay for Harry Potter to schtupp that horse.

By the power of Greyskull!

It has been a long time since my last diary post and in that time, I have raised from rank 23 to 30. That’s about a month for seven ranks. Most of the people I know can average one level every two or three play sessions, but not this guy… I found the last seven levels to really challenge my interest in the game, which you’ll have noticed if you’ve read any of my posts since the last journal entry.

The main reason I wasn’t writing WAR Diary posts for each or every few ranks was because nothing of much import actually happened. I didn’t find much of it interesting enough to report on, so I couldn’t imagine any of the readers finding it interesting either.

Here my highlights from ranks 23-30:

• Witching Night - This really got people interested in oRvR in T3 and every time I logged on I could find some pretty decent fights in Black Fire Pass. Yeah, some, if not most of it was zergy, it sure beat grinding out scenarios and quests over and over again.
• My gear finally got some new skins by rank 30 (T4 quests and RvR drops), which is a welcome change from the same boring textures I’ve been used to since the beginning of T3. Dyes are a great way to customize your character, but would it hurt to have more than two skins and weapon models per tier?
• My guild finally achieved rank 15, so we picked a background style for our heraldry. Once we hit rank 21 we can finally add an emblem to make us truly stand out. Unfortunately, there appears to be a graphical glitch that prevents me from actually seeing the heraldry on my cloak half the time. It’s about a 50/50 toss-up as to whether or not my cloak texture will show up every time I load into a new zone/scenario.
• I can finally join T4 scenarios and participate in T4 oRvR. Serpent’s Passage seems to load a lot and apparently Order heavily outranks Destruction on my server, so it’s usually five or six rank 36-40 Order guys with a couple of rank 39 and a ton of rank 28-33 Destruction guys.
• Rank 30 finally unlocked a new backpack and two more tactic slots. Woot.

I got vertigo... and I threw up a little.

Here are some of the lowlights from ranks 23-30:

• You’d think with all the morale abilities, career skills, and tactics I would actually learn something new and cool at each rank. This doesn’t seem to be the case. Often times I would gain a new rank and not be able to learn anything at all. Most of the time I would gain a new rank and be able to train some trash abilities (I still have about 8 untrained career skills/tactics/morales because I know I’ll never use them). I have only found a skill/morale/tactic worth training three times since rank 23.
• I am so damned sick of grinding away at Public Quests, solo or in a group. I have levelled a few alts lately and I really miss how quickly the influence bar seemed to move in chapter 1 and 2. Why must they make the latter PQs (chapter 15+) so brutal? It’s not like the rewards are itemized very well anyway… Half the time I don’t even want the junk they consider rewards.
• Kill ten rats. Collect five foozles. Go talk to this guy. And then go talk to that guy. Go scout this area. Mythic has shown some glimpses of brilliance with quests in earlier chapters, but it really starts to wear on you after doing it for so many ranks.  I like to balance my oRvR with scenarios and with PvE. The PvE just isn’t engaging at all anymore.
• Scenarios. There are six of them. Yet I only ever get into two or three with any frequency - Tor Anroc, Temple of Isha, and Doomfist Crater. All three are fairly fast-paced, but it is easy to get dominated early in them and become unable to recover. Mostly this is a PuG issue. Half the time people are running around like challenged folk with protective headgear and when you try bring a little organization via scenario chat you are either ignored or called an idiot. The remaining three unplayed scenarios are even worse in PuGs because people play them so defensively.
• Aside from Witching Night, T3 oRvR has been quite dead. Most of the time I log on we already own all the keeps and BOs, so there’s nothing to do but wait for something to go under siege. Unfortunately, I think the majority of Order is in T4, so T3 isn’t very important to them on my server these days.

What am I looking forward to?

• Heavy Metal - Depending on the daily tasks, this event might actually be quite fun. They did a great job with Witching Night even though there was no way I could possibly fill the Live Event influence bar on a casual schedule, even after maxing out on Lords, Crones, and Spirits and doing a ton of oRvR. I hope to fill the Heavy Metal Live Event influence bar and participate in the new scenario.
• A potential respec to Quick Shootin’ mastery. I’ve been training in Big Shootin’ since rank 10, so I welcome a change in playstyle, especially one that keeps me a moving target instead of a stationary pin cushion.
• The 1.06 Combat and Career patch that will finally address a number of my Squig Herder’s balance issues.

Cheating the system - going back to the chapter 1 PQ for a Daily unlock and a bit o' revenge.

Maybe the outlook isn’t so bleak afterall? The fact that I’m looking forward to a few things has to be good, right?

Related posts:

1. Day 1 (again): Secret Diaries of a Goblin Squig Herder And so starts a new blog category: WAR Diary....
2. Day 2/3: Squig Herder Confessions Last night I went from ranks 7-9 by doing...
3. 1.05 Squig Herder Buffs Delayed I want to say I’m shocked here, but that wouldn’t...

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This is one of the fun parts of my job, when we get to unveil our TV commercials and give you, our loyal fans, a preview of our spots before they hit the airwaves. This year’s campaign is dubbed “Entertainment Unleashed” and for good reason.

The campaign actually began quietly a few weeks back with three fifteen second “tease” executions. Hopefully, you’ve seen these by now. These initial ads depicted various people catching glimpses and reflections of beautiful PS3 game footage magically appearing on building facades across a city.

This weekend, we’re excited to reveal what triggered the excitement. The spot begins with a guy creating a LittleBigPlanet level on a building wall and from there, the PS3 takes on a momentum all its own, spreading amazing entertainment content uncontrollably from building to building throughout the city. The ad prominently features not just LittleBigPlanet but also two other PLAYSTATION 3 exclusive titles — Resistance 2 and MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. And we’ve also highlighted PS3’s Blu-ray capability by featuring Blu-ray movies like The Dark Knight, showcasing PS3’s unrivaled leadership as both a gaming and multimedia entertainment experience.

PLAYSTATION 3 offers unrivaled game content, with not just one platform-defining game, but an array of groundbreaking games across virtually every genre throughout the year that are pushing the envelope of creativity and sheer gameplay.

And at the end of the spot, you’ll see that all this great exclusive content has literally been unleashed on the city and its residents. I know our fans will appreciate spotting some of your favorite games across the cityscape.

This week marks an important milestone for the PS3. And one of the things we’re most excited about as we head into year three is the tremendous adoption and excitement found on PlayStation Network. This year alone, we’ve added great new features you guys have been asking for like a service to deliver High Def movies and TV shows that you can rent or buy and store directly on the PS3’s hard drive; a robust trophy system that lets you compare your gaming prowess with others as well as help you discover everything about the great PS3 games you’re playing; and of course, the groundbreaking Home service, which is just around the corner for all. All of this and a lot more has resulted in more than 14 million active PlayStation Network accounts – a very rapid expansion of a service that we have equally aggressive plans for in the future.

So with its tremendous growth and adoption, we thought it was time to give the PlayStation Network its own moment in the sun with a TV spot that sings its praises. This PlayStation Network ad will also make its debut this weekend. The ad is a metaphor and itself depicts the relentless spread of the PlayStation message from user to user. We’ve featured various ways you can “Download/Play/Connect.” Great downloadable games like Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty, PAIN, Wipeout HD and Echochrome. Free online gaming and downloadable levels with games like LittleBigPlanet. Human connection and community via Home. And downloading great movies like Hancock directly to your PS3 and then sharing it with your PSP.

When we launched the PS3 two years ago, we said we would deliver on the most advanced next generation console that would offer ten years of entertainment value. We are committed to that promise and remain confident that we’re now just scratching the surface on PS3’s potential.

We hope you like these new ads and look forward to your feedback and continued support for PlayStation.

Enjoy!

Peter

PS: Killzone 2 is real and it’s spectacular…

One of the greatest things about X-brand components is that they often do something that the brand components do not. For instance, rechargeable Wii Remotes are something that Nintendo should really pack in with the Wii. Not only would it save their customers money, but the environment would also thank them. Luckily companies like Nyko pick up Nintendo’s slack. Now, with the introduction of the Charge Station Quad, Nyko is picking up their own slack.

See, before the Quad you could only charge two Wii Remotes on the same Nyko base. The aptly named Quad now let’s people charge four. Nyko was clearly slacking off when they came out with the first iteration. That’s two more! I’m going too fast, I can tell. Here is a simple mathematical equation: 2+2 = 4, 4 = better. See, simple as pie. Other than having two more slots, the new charger is basically the old charger. You’ll get four rechargeable battery packs with it and four of their patented grippy back covers. It’s double the fun and all at a price of $49.99. The Quad hits in December, just in time for all those holiday Wii buyers.

Mario and Zelda games take time to develop.

Well duh… There isn’t a serious Nintendo gamer out there that doesn’t realize that great games take time to create. However, this excuse has become the gloss-over for Nintendo’s failures on two fronts. They’ve failed (initially at least, there is hope for the future) to create an environment where 3rd party developers see incentive to pick up the slack, and they failed (initially) to see the demand for new core games this generation, and seemingly refuse to make an adjustment. Nintendo is becoming very politician-like in their constant stance of: “We’re doing everything right, even if we aren’t.”

I seriously believe the Wii gave core Nintendo fans a better lineup turnaround time than any Nintendo platform before it. I guess I was wrong! Check out the full article here.

Warhammer is plagued by some rather terrible flaws, flaws that should have been tested in beta. The flaws have nothing to do with coding errors or graphical problems, but rather center around player actions and motivation. Warhammer Online’s biggest problem is the players are simply not playing it correctly.

Now before you go and post a “don’t blame the players” comment, relax and keep reading. On paper, everything in WAR works. In execution, each piece also works on its own. Scenarios are a noticeable improvement over WoW battlegrounds, PQs are a clever new way to implement PvE, and RvR is a ton of fun when players are battling over keeps or objectives, and truly does separate WAR from other MMOs in that regard. The engine supports PvP above and beyond what previous MMOs have done, and the balance is remarkable for a new MMO with so many class options and abilities.

The problem occurs when you put everything together, and then let MMO players enter the world and decide what they do next. Who could have predicted that contrary to the massive Alliance/Horde imbalance, WAR would feature the exact opposite? What happened to everyone wanting to be the knight in shining armor? Who could have predicted that in a game that starts at level one, rather than at the cap, players would STILL race towards the end regardless of anything around them, and do so in the most grind-like manner? (one scenario per tier)

Mythic coded an amazing game. They nailed the look and feel of the Warhammer IP, they had a great launch, and they continue to support the game at a rapid pace. What Mythic failed to do is provide enough motivation to herd players in the right direction, to guide them towards the great content they have provided. In today’s MMO market, it’s no longer enough just to provide quality content; you also have to guide your players to it. Take for instance open groups. Open groups make finding players for PQs or RvR rather simple, yet many players still don’t know about the /join command, or that you can look at all the open groups around you by clicking an icon. The best way to gather players is still to advertise in regional chat, and this clearly shows the general lack of awareness by players. Lairs are another example of wasted content. Instead of being explored and discovered by players, lairs go largely ignore, not because they are not entertaining (they are), but because the players are not guided to them. (Which is the design point of lairs, to be found by explorers, but clearly catering to the explorer means you exclude the masses)

It’s safe to say Mythic is now aware of this rather dire problem, as the last two events have been a virtual hand-holding to guide players into content. The Witching Night brought RvR lakes to life, and now Heavy Metal directs players on a daily basis, be it towards a scenario, some PQs, or whatever else Mythic has planned. It’s a good first step, but it makes you wonder why it’s a step being taken a month after release, rather than something fleshed out and ready to go on day one. What would Mythic’s retention rate look like if more players have experienced a great keep battle before bolting towards more neon pastures?

Blizzard, masters of hand-holding, gave the MMO market an innovative step forward with daily instances (was Blizzard the first MMO to do this? It’s always dangerous saying Blizzard was the first to do anything…), but Mythic should ‘borrow’ the idea and take it a step further. As others have commented in the past, we need daily RvR lakes, or daily keeps, or even daily scenarios. Each day a new focus, something that drives the majority towards a single point. Fluff rewards are enough to drive players, so create an overall influence bar that runs for a month or so of time, and at each influence level hand out trophies, titles, whatever. Each month reset the bar, mix up the rewards, and continue to guide players. Save the major events for really game-changing stuff like new classes or major content updates.

Who would have guessed that the biggest problem facing WAR would not be content, bugs, or stability, but rather player motivation? Clearly not Mythic, but now lets just hope they move quickly to provide that motivation, and get players into the great content they already created.

And just for the record, I myself have not really experience the majority of the problems listed above. I’ve never had an issue finding a group for a PQ, I’ve seen plenty of RvR, and I’ve never been at a lack for content or something new. That said, Monolith seems to be a very well balanced server, and playing with Forsaken and CoW really helps, so I understand that my situation is somewhat different from the majority. I also understand how /join works, but that’s just elitist old me…

Two teenagers were given one-year probation and a ban on violent video games after they were convicted of placing a cat in a microwave, and killing it by cooking it alive for 10 minutes. Where does the video game punishment stem from? Nowhere at all…this case has nothing to do with video games. Unfortunately, now we have the pleasure of video games being tied to such a disgusting act.

This judge has no rhyme or reason to ban these teens from violent video games. I just hate to see games used as the scapegoat here. The judge said the reason for the video game ban was due to a prior ruling. None of that matters though…games should not be tied to this at all.

I so badly want to go into the punishment that the boys received for such a heinous crime, but I will bite my tongue.

Link