Atari has joined the crowd of publishers intent on demonizing used games, claiming them to be "extremely painful," but also suggesting that it isn't too concerned in the long-term thanks to its focus on online content.

"Second hand game sales represent consumer choice and desire," states Atari CEO, David Gardner. "Obviously, it has economically been extremely painful for the industry... the publishers don't benefit.

"But as games change and they become more and more network centric, the disc in the box becomes only one part of the experience. As that experience grows then it becomes not such a problem."

I do love how he followed "consumer choice and desire" with "extremely painful." Something tells me that the idea of customers having any sort of choice must feel like needles being dragged along a penis head to some of these publishers. Phil Harrison at least offered one of the most sensible arguments I've seen from an industry spokesman concerning the issue:

"There's no doubt that second hand games sales has a macro-economic impact on the industry and a lot of people get miserable about it. But it's no coincidence that the most valuable games, the one's that have the most lifetime as a game experience, are the one's that don't get resold, that don't get traded."

It's fairly simple. Create a great game, and you'll find that consumers will consider them keepers. Make an Atari game, and you'll find that second-hand store shelves are full to the brim.

1. Return To Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is a pretty realistic shooter that allows you to fight other people online and team work is the key to success. Based on the single player game Return to Castle Wolfenstein, released back in 2001, this game is still far from its final hour.

2. True Combat: Elite is a modification for the Enemy Territory game that turns it into a modern day shooter from the rusty WW2 maps and weapons used by the original, but beware - starting off could be extremely tricky online, since you can’t simply walk in the open and shoot around, because one bullet can kill!

3. Since I mentioned Nexuiz earlier, here you have it - a really fast-paced shooter reminding me of Quake 3 - after all, it uses its graphics engine, but heavily modified, so it’s even better than Quake 3 - just give it a try, it’s free, and it doesn’t bite!

4. Tremulous is another excellent shooter based on the id Tech 3 graphics engine from Quake 3, offering Aliens vs Humans multiplayer team combat with some RTS elements.

5. Leaving shooters behind, we have The Battle For Wesnoth, a great online multiplayer TBS game with RPG elements with development going on at full speed since 2003. Best part of it - it’s corss-platform, so if you can’t reach a Windows PC, don’t worry - it also runs on Macs and most Linux-based PCs!

6. Getting back to the shooters realm, I only have one more to tell you about - Alien Arena, a game that takes the old id Tech 2 engine where it has never gone before, making all those who see it go “WOW!” when looking back at Quake 2, the game that used it for the first time.

7. No, this is not a game, but simply a useful advice - if you want more, just be sure to use Google to find the best free downloadable games to suit your gaming needs, but since it is my duty and pleasure helping you, here’s a page worth its value in gold - the Wikipedia freeware games page. It may not be the ultimate resource, since I don’t think such a resource exists, but it’s a great place to start.

Just one more thing - as usual, if you have something useful to add, don’t be shy and drop your valuable hints below. After all, there’s always one more free downloadable game to discover hiding somewhere…

I've been giving a lot of thought recently as to how I could improve the Scraps column. Don't get me wrong, I've always believed that it provides a valuable service to you in giving you bits of leftover news. There was always something missing, however.

And then it hit me. There's a ton of really great original content that finds its way onto the interwebs every day which would appeal to our audience. I mean, granted, none of it is as entertaining as the stuff you find on Destructoid, but it's still worth having a look over when you're not busy laughing at that wacky Jim Sterling.

So, from here on out, Scraps will be featuring some of that content after the jump. We'll start in the traditional manner, relaying news you might not have had a chance to read because the greatest gaming news site in the world didn't deem it worthy of a full post. Follow along afterwards for some primo material from our friends in the gaming press. 

• Now that Hilary Clinton is looking likely to be the next Secretary of State, she probably won't have time to fight videogames. Shucks. [Gamepolitics]
• SCi (parent company of Eidos) are in takeover talks once more. Word is that EA and Ubisoft might be biting. [MCV]
• The Entertainment Merchants Association is recommending a standard for point-of-sale activations of software. Oh, yeah, there's absolutely nothing that could go wrong for the consumer here. [Gamasutra]
• A gaming addiciton clinic in Amsterdam is claiming that 90% of their patients aren't clinically addicted. Don't you see? Society made me who I am! Society! [Game|Life]

Apparently enough people (rightly so apparently) have complained about the various bugs, poor quality and various other issues with the recently released Gothic 3 : Forsaken Gods that publisher JoWoos has taken it upon themselves to issue a formal apology.

Over on the JoWood Forums, the apology– which was recently published over on the German site PC Games– was translated as such:

First of all we want to thank the community for showing their support and we also want to thank those who have chosen to buy the game.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible for us to release a game that could fully satisfy you, for different reasons. The game was released this year because that was what we and the community desired.
JoWooD and Trine have worked under a lot of pressure, and to repair some of the mistakes we released the game with a patch to try and make it better.

Michael Kairat, Executive Producer of JoWooD said: “We are now getting the “bill” from the community for our mistakes. JoWooD Productions would like to present their apologizes to the fans for releasing an unsatisfying game.”

Furthermore Michael Kairat explained that in the next days a new patch will be released which will improve the quality of the game and it will be available for download on JoWooD’s Official Website.

“We also want to make a content patch which will include opinions, suggestions, wishes from the community. After the feedback from the community, we will release a statement regarding the patch.
Together with Spellbound we will make early beta tests for Arcania : A Gothic Tale, to be sure that the past mistakes will not be repeated.”

A patch was sent to FileFront on Wednesday, which you can get here. The patch in question that Kairat is speaking of has yet to be released but as soon as we find out more, we will be sure to let you know.

Hopefully, JoWood and Trine have learned their lesson, a hard one, but a valuable one nonetheless.

---
Related Articles at Gaming Today:

• First Screenshots Surface for Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods
• Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods Gets Patched
• Spellforce, Gothic, and The Guild Universe Editions Coming
• Gothic 4 Development Troubled?
• GC: Spellbound to Develop Gothic 4

As an aside, I’ve always felt there haven’t been enough RTS games based on the works of Hieronymus Bosch. Sacrifice seems like a lonely compromise. What long-dead artistic visionary would you base a game on, readers?

(...)
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This article is from Rock, Paper, Shotgun. If you're reading it on any other website, they're stealing it from us without permission.

We want to make sure that it's the best, so a lot of what we're doing in the closed beta is fixing some of those loose ends and making sure that the final launch product is fantastic. Everything that we're seeing right now is that it's going to be everything and more that consumers have been asking for.

We're going to have to get beyond the holiday before the announcements from third parties; they want to sell their products for this year.

[...] You notice that on any board you go to online, it's like there's always that discussion of "Where are the games?" and "Will we get them?" and there's always that answer of "Yes, they're coming" and we can say unequivocally that in '09 games are coming and they're going to be rewarded.

[...] When the games come in the quantity and quality we'll see next year, I think it's going to be a real strong tidal wave for sales.

You could have games that have maybe a movie or a trailer attached to it on the disc. The space... [laughs] 50 gigs is a lot of space, so there's... many games can accommodate that.

Games like Resistance or Metal Gear which are bumping up on that top end may not have as much space, so it really depends, but the ability to have a Blu-ray hybrid disc is certainly available and I think we'll see some of that next year.

• Sony's Mark Levitan: Product functionalities will set them apart; 2009 is PSP's year (again)
• Sony: future PSP and PS3 firmware updates will raise level of interconnectivity
• Koller: PSP software decline to reverse by 2009
• Qore 7 teases something 'big', something 'free' (i.e. Home?)

Having a child that once needed an extended stay in the hospital and witnessing firsthand how valuable seemingly insignificant distractions are, Child’s Play is at the top of my list of philanthropic organizations I actively support. A gamer-focused charity that provides toys, games, books, and other miscellaneous items for sick kids in children’s hospitals across North America (and the world), attending their Charity Dinner Auction is one of my most favorite events to frequent every year.

Even if you can’t make it to their annual swanky affair, 8-Bit Brigade has a fun way to contribute to the worthy fund with their 3rd Annual Holiday Fundraiser. For a mere $5 donation, you can purchase a raffle ticket that gives you the opportunity to win everything from various Xbox Live Arcade titles to PlayStation 3 games to a Special Edition of Rock Band for the Xbox 360 (including a whole slew of plastic instrument-shaped peripherals). I happily donate a hefty package of my video game-themed cards to their prize pool every year so if you decide to try your luck at their raffle drawing, perhaps you’ll walk away with those! They are also hosting a Gaming Trivia Challenge (a trivia contest covering a variety of video game topics from the 8-bit classics of the 1980s up to recent releases) so go read the specifics and perhaps win a cool prize, all while supporting a worthy charity. The kiddos thank you.

Check out our Flickr set for more screens and art

In order to survive in the world of Mushroom Men, players must concoct grand scale weapons out of mere knickknacks. The arsenal is entirely based on how creative players can get. But modifying flimsy weapons such as sticks, batteries and nails into deadly creations is only a fraction of the arsenal at the player’s disposal. The most valuable armaments will be fusions between multiple weapons already in possession. As a result of the wide range of weapons that can be created in Mushroom Men, players must choose one of three classes which will determine which weapon types they will specialize in based on their class’ fighting style.

(more…)

However, sometimes the best ideas are born out of inner confusion and turmoil. Unsatisfied with the state of WAR, people have been setting their brains to the task of coming up with a number of interesting ideas to “fix” the game. Here are some of them I found particularly thought-provoking and worth a mention.

I’m not saying every one is a spot-on save the game idea… but they are very interesting concepts.

Via: http://potshot.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/can-rvr-ever-work/

I think that the war effort should be focused at all times, from all factions, to limited areas of the game. For example the NPC general of faction X says to you “Hey, we really need to go and cut off this supply train”. The opposing faction should be saying to its players “Hey, we really need to protect this important supply train”.

That’s not to say players can’t go and do whatever they want to do, but rewards would be greater for going to the directed areas. The key is definitely to direct both sides into conflict with each other. To help avoid overcrowding, you can make the number of rewarded goals at a given time proportional to the player population on the server.

Also, you should have a bunch of conceptually different tasks leading up to the player’s goal. For example, in WAR you can just run up to a keep and lay waste to it. In a more realistic world, you’d need to cut off supply lines, burn surrounding villages, maybe sneak in and assassinate some key personnel to lower morale, defend your siege weaponry from being raided, etc. In WAR it’s…. siege this keep and this keep and this keep and then unlock the zone to progress to the next area and siege some more keeps. The gameplay this way just feels too bland, keep sieging loses its special feeling.

———–

Taking the directed hot zone/objective idea further, include alternate goals that might also play to different play styles– interrupt supply lines, blow up bridges to slow down the influx of reinforcements, burn crops, sabotage/covert activities, etc. all that would aid the directed war effort.

If Karl Franz called for an offensive in Zone X and strategic objective quests were given out by a one of his generals in that zone…

———–

The problem with War is the limited amount in which guilds can gain recognition, there is no meta game to play for the natural born leaders (except petty intra guild drama and politics). Keeps just get flipped and flipped, and the rewards for claiming one are not enough for the guild leaders to convince their troops to prevent that from happening. There are not even ladder competitions to prove you are top dog.

[Ed. There are statues of the top individual players in the capital cities, but they are located in out-of-the-way places. It would be great to move these statues into the main hubs of activity. There is also a Realm War page located on WarhammerOnline.com, however, every time I have tried accessing it lately, it seems unresponsive to the point of making me not want to bother.]

———–

They have the cute trinket idea. How about expanding it so we get medals or something for every keep we capture. Perhaps the size, color and ornateness change based on the size or effort of the battle. Let me wear them as badges of honor that show how many successful sieges I’ve participated in or how many keeps my guild owns or something to show, “That’s right, I am RVR awesomeness.”

Via: http://wnw.blogwarhammer.net/2008/11/17/another-way-to-capture-zones/

So how about this idea? Holding an Objective or Keep in a zone gives Victory Points over time instead of instantly? Holding all Objectives and Keep for 24 hours give you enough points to capture the zone, and even if the other side recaptures things the points will still remain, they will just slowly go the other way.

As the zone gain VP over time all people in the zone will also gain renown and experience. This make people stay to defend and the battle and it’s just as important for others to take up the torch when you log off as when you captured the things in the first place. Killing enemies in range of Objectives and Keeps give extra renown and experience.

This also removes the possibility of capturing zone in the middle of the night. You could still do it and capture the objectives, but the zone still won’t be captured until the points have slowly trickled in.

[Ed. Patch 1.05 brought some improvements to the zone control mechanic, so we'll have to see how it pans out. If it doesn't get any better, I really suggest Mythic considers the above idea.]

———–

1) Add crafting vendors to keeps that improve over time. For every hour you hold a keep, the quality of the items will improve by 10-15 tradeskill, starting at a decent base (e.g., 50). Therefore, after holding a keep for 4 hours, your vendor will sell items up to level 110 (15/hour + base). By hour 8, 170 tradeskill. And so on… Give members of the guild/alliance who are holding the keep a discount on prices.2) Decrease the cost of claiming keeps. If the maintenance cost was 1 to 3 gold per hour, it would become much more affordable. At the moment, only the richest of the zerg guilds can afford it.

————

Put level 40’s in their own scenarios …Level 28-39s are competing for renown and xp. All level 40’s care about is renown.

Via: http://www.keenandgraev.com/?p=1653

If the enemy chooses not to defend then the fight should make it to their capital city.  A city siege has never once happened on Wolfenburg or Phoenix Throne (two “very populated” servers with supposedly active RvR).  If players are going to stay then they need to experience city sieges and be faced with a truly imminent realm war.  This is a realm war and players need to feel the pressure of losing territory to feel motivated.

————-

Warhammer Online, back in November 2007, was delayed in order to transform the game to align closer with DAOC’s RvR but it forgot that one crucial element… the PURPOSE.  Sure, city sieges are a purpose but let’s be realistic - a keep is under attack in Praag… why would I go defend if it poses no threat to our city?  It’s going to take like 8 keeps, 2 fortreses, and a TON of RvR to make our capital city vulnerable.  As of right now a city siege is not going to happen.  So, we come back to the PURPOSE.  I strongly feel that Darkness Falls provides that purpose.  Find out more about Darkness Falls here.

————

Let’s face it, WAR was designed in such a way that a lot of players participating in the realm war is mandatory.  Right now, especially in light of recent mmorpg competitions’ releases, we’re seeing the populations dwindle.  Merge the freaking servers and you will improve the enjoyment of the game globally for all players.

————

I honestly hate to admit it, but I fear the game’s core design can not have open world elements tacked on to it. Honestly, Mythic should just instance the keep sieges to 40 vs 40.

The city sieges are already instanced, there is no sense in having this tiny little stop gap of open world RvR that runs absolutely horribly when twenty players get on screen.

————

Introduce more siege pad items that can variety the strategy of keep battles. The single chokepoint to the 2nd level keep lord is so boring. Obviously don’t allow for zerg rushes but hell even adding an Orc Thrower siege weapon for getting people slowly up on a battlement would spice things up. Another idea could be a siege tunnel item that lets you tunnel to under an outer siege wall (again slow access thru it though to avoid zerg rushes). Again this eye is taken from Planetside with it’s deployable items.

————

Make BOs objective provide global buffs to the zone so everyone benefits from them immediately (no need to go to the Sergeant). Makes them more valuable to everyone (even those doing PVE), so hopefully more people will want to maintain them. Even if this isn’t done, the idea is to provide a very very strong LOCAL incentive to do RVR. As you said, cities are a distant thing that have no local meaning or incentive for people.

————

I think what’s truly needed is a solid LFG mechanism. I am a frequent organizer of outdoor RvR… and I’d LOVE to be able to browse a list of ALL the people on the server either DOING or LOOKING for outdoor RvR.

That seems like a no-brainer to me.

Via: http://waaagh.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/ai/

Apart from hero and lord mobs, we just don’t see a lot of special abilities popping out of these guys. A lot of my skills are set up to combat fairly complex player behavior in PvP, yet surprising few of these moves are necessary in PvE. Spell interruption? How often do these guys cast at me? Do I ever need to root a mob to prevent their escape?

[Ed. I really think this would make keep taking a lot more dynamic, especially undefended keeps. ATM you just zerg-rush the mobs. There is little to no strategy involved. It would be a lot more cool to see this take place more often in PvE too (e.g., knockbacks, knockdowns, disarms, roots, debuffs, etc.).]

Have you seen any others I might have missed? Have any of your own you’d like to contribute?

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