Crowd Funding for Games

Crowd funding has without a doubt had a massive impact on media as a whole. Several movies and even television have become realities thanks to sites such as Kickstarter and Fundme. Video games are no exception. Crowd funding has made several video games and video game related content become more than just ideas. Throughout this post I will reference to this article from The Economist.

The leader of crowd funding is currently Kickstarter. Of the top ten projects on this website, five are related to video games. The top of these projects is the OUYA game console. OUYA made 8.6 million dollars with over 63,000 backers. OUYA may not be as large as Xbox or Play Station but in just two years time, but OUYA has put out nearly a thousand games. The community based beginnings have continued as OUYA opens its platform to small time indie developers allowing it to produce so much. Other popular crowd funding based hardware includes the Oculus Rift which acts as an immersion addition to a PC. 

 The Oculus Rift in action.

Kickstarter has also directly led the way for games to be produced by a developer that may not have the startup funds necessary. This concept of the consumers contributing to the development of a game is not something gamers are opposed to. The Economist concludes that a major reason why these games get funded is because the average American gamer is 37 and has plenty of disposable income to pay a little extra for games. Crowd funding also helps the industry itself. Large developers such as Electronic Arts or Activision have seen large profits by sticking to sequels or similar ideas at triple A titles. This has greatly decreased the diversity of games on the market, pushing consumers to crowd funded games for some new content. It is hard for a gamer to find new games to enjoy when half of the ones at Gamestop are military shooters. This is supported by the fact that the three largest games supported on Kickstarter have been from from underrepresented genres. This idea eliminates the need for the middle man, which is the publishers who would typically fund a games development. 

Media convergence is also aided with crowd funding of the web series Video Game High School. Crowd funding has seemingly been a hit in media as a whole. RoosterTeeth, a gaming content based company, made history by setting the record for most money raised for a movie. Only time will tell if these projects will continue to profit. 

Video Games and Movies Relationship

Video games is no doubt a growing and new form of media. This article from the Guardian by Steve Boxer entertains the relationship between movies and video games. Boxer does this through analyzing the various technical and artistic aspects of both genres. 

No one will deny that the video game industry has made very powerful strides in recent years. However, few will conclude that video games have separated themselves from other mediums such as television and movies. For example, The Walking Dead game series from Telltale borrows many aspects from the television show of the same name. It even goes as far as to separate iterations into episodes and seasons. Boxer cites his main example, The Imaginarium. The Imaginarium is the team behind the Xbox One debut exclusive Ryse: Son of Rome.  Imaginarium was partially co-founded by movie motion-capture hero, Andy Serkis. "There was probably a time when people in the games industry wanted to emulate films, but now it's very much the other way around: the technology is driven by video games," quoted Serkis. Motion capturing is when actors use tracking to match visuals in real life to computer generated ones. This method of effects is now shared with both movies and video games. Boxer got a chance to interview the man behind the motion capture of the main character in Ryse. "What we can do now, in real-time, is produce imagery and emotional experiences within a game." I think any gamer will admit to atleast tearing up to the ending of one of their favorite games. This emotional experience is what I think connects video games to the consumer. The first ten minutes of The Last of Us is just as impacting as that of Up. 

Now Imaginarium has been hired for the work on the film adaptation of Animal Farm by George Orwell. This is most likely due to the success and beauty of Ryse. I personally am excited to see this continued relationship of movies and games. What do you think about this. Are games just as much a crucial medium as movies are? And yes, I do plan on talking about video games becoming movies and vice versa. 

Preordering Games

http://bgr.com/2015/01/12/stop-preordering-video-games/
Today's blog will be referring to the Jacob Siegel's article on BGR.com. BGR is an emerging tech and mobile news website. In it, Siegel pleads to consumers to stop pre-ordering video games. He continues to describe the failures of 2014 as a year for video games as an industry.
This past year was full of high expectations. Well into the current generation of video games, most gamers believed that we were going to get some truly revolutionary games along with some that would reinvent their series. The first failure was Watchdogs which was incredibly hyped up with what appeared to be some of the best graphics we had seen. Thus, Ubisoft received a lot of money through pre-orders. With all the high expectations consumers were outraged when the game did not look like the demo from E3. A similar event happened with the latest Bungie title, Destiny. Destiny has promised a vast open-world first person shooter that would revolutionize cooperative gameplay. Gamers saw attributed the success of Halo from Bungie and assumed it would be another hit. That combined with the store bonuses, pre-orders were through the roof. Destiny was a success for profit but not for critics as it provided a limited story and repetitive gameplay. Yet again, gamers were let down by producers refusing to fix their games as they had already made their money. We have seen this pattern yet again with already well established titles. Halo The Master Chief collection and Assassins Creed Unity were widely considered broken games by fans.
Now we find ourselves in a problem as consumers. Do we try to support our developers with confirming our purchase ahead of time? Siegel poses this question to readers. "Why not wait and see if the game actually works before investing in a product that the developer didn't finish? Now I ask you the reader to not pre-order games this year to teach developers that consumers will not purchase a game that comes out before it is finished.

Advertisements in Video Games

My topic today is video game advertising. Paul Tassi, contributor to Forbes Magazine, wrote this article on the topic. In it, Tassi analyzes a future path for advertisements within video games.

As in any form of media, corporations and businesses will find ways to push the demographic into consuming a product of some sort. Tassi states that the video game industry is "underutilized" for advertising purposes. This is often true. Ads are rarely seen in some of the biggest video game titles. Most ads with in the game itself are for fake companies used to make the game seem realistic. For example, Nuka Cola is a very obvious parody of Coca Cola that is used in the Fallout series. This is a recurring event in almost all games striving for realism, even the largest of titles such as Grand Theft Auto. So why are corporations not paying attention to the advertising opportunity that is video games? I believe it is mostly due to the poor representation of video games and gamers in other media. In movies or television, video games are typically portrayed in a negative manner.

However, Paul Tassi believes public opinion is beginning to change on the subject of video games. I agree that the term "gamer" has become more broad. It can now mean anything from playing tetris on your phone to competing in national competitions. This is why Tassi stated three years ago that "in-game ad spending will double by 2016". This hypothesis is beginning to be proven true as in game ads are becoming more dominant according to a Statista Article. Examples would definitely be games such as Trials Fusion and Fifa 2015. So is this a good thing for the gaming industry? Or does it hurt the immersion that video games bring forth? Let me know what you think!
Until next time,
David

Video Games the Future of Education?

Today I will be discussing video games as an informative tool. The topic comes from Scientific American's article about whether or not video games are the future of teaching. Video games are often seen as a distraction more than anything by those that don't play them. When students go to school parents assume they are no longer spending time in front of their devices and "wasting time." However finding a method of holding a child's attention is difficult especially when trying to get them to learn. 

As a kid, most of us heard of FCAT explorer and other knowledge based games on the computer. But now we are in the future where every kid has an iPad and has no time for education. Although, teachers seem to have rigged the system. MinecraftEdu is an educational take on the billion dollar game called Minecraft. If you have spoken to any kid around the age of nine, then you know what it is. Teachers are using the games engine and incorporating educational elements. Find the area of the cube. Find the perimeter of the fence. All of those word problems we tried to picture in class are now visually represented in the 3-D world. The same group has done the same with SimCity. Brian Waniewski, managing director of Institute of Play, sees this progress as the way of the future of schooling. 

On the other hand, there will always be that oppose these ideas. The main argument used is that there are zero studies showing evidence that these educational games actually work. Emma Blakely, researcher at University of Sheffield England, claims that from a theoretical psychological standpoint these games should be aiding the student's memory and cognitive abilities. A study from the University of Cambridge found that the improvements in game scores for children with lower levels of working memory did not extend to broader skills. 

Obviously time can only tell if these educational video games will help the next generation. Is this a good idea or should teachers continue the classical teaching method? Let me know in the comments.

Pros and Cons of Digital Distribution

Last time I discussed the origins of digital distribution of gaming. A lot of the information comes from this article from Cheat Code Central a gaming journalism site. Digital distribution is becoming the new way of the future, as we switch from a digital copy to a file on your console of choice. Here are some of the biggest pros and cons of this new age of gaming.
The benefits of this era of digital distribution are largely based in convenience. Without leaving my chair, I can buy, download, and begin playing a game. No need to drive miles or wait for a store to open. This download also allows me to download and play it at anytime. These online stores don't close either and won't be constricted to one place. These games stick to your hard drive. Take it anywhere and you immediately have your entire gaming library anywhere you go. These downloads are also a small percent cheaper. This is due to the decreased cost of shipping and packaging. Another often overlooked advantage is the environmental impact. Downloads eliminate wasted transportation energy and packaging materials.
However, there are significant disadvantages to downloading games. Digital downloads are often less reliable than physical copies. Downloads often become corrupted or lost over time. Downloads also require an above average internet speed. The current generation of games are somewhere in the range of 5-10 gigabytes per game. This requires an often more advanced system for which to play on. Physical copies also have the upper hand in the resale ability. Physical copies can be resold to decrease the overall value spent on the game, a feature not available for digital downloads. Digital downloads also hurt the gaming market as they eliminate the middle man. Companies like Gamestop employ thousands of people that would be unemployed if the digital distribution market becomes more dominant.
Obviously there are clear drawbacks and benefits of the new era of digital distribution. It is up to us, the consumer, to decide which path we prefer before one dies out. Personally, I enjoy the physical copy of the game as I often buy games used and have a poor internet connection. On the other hand, digital distribution seems to have the upperhand. Which do you prefer and why?
Until next time,
David Rutner

New Age of Digital Distribution

Today I will be discussing an article from the Statesman.com. Although from 2011, this article introduces many ideas still relevant in the industry today. It discusses the new era of digital distribution that the video game industry has entered. Digital distribution is the reception of a video game without the purchase of a physical copy of the game.

Although this idea of video game delivery has been around since the 1980's, it has only grown widely in recent years. This is thanks to mostly the popularity of internet capabilities over the last few years. The thought of downloading a several gigabyte game using the internet possibilities is not a pleasant one. However, another big contributor to this new age is the companies that make it possible. Steam by Valve revolutionized the online market for digital games by bringing the convenience of buying from the home possible all on your personal computer. This came with all the variety of your local Gamestop.

The popularity of Steam brought many competitors for the pc market. Uplay and Origin are just two of several examples that also bring big name titles right to your computer. This idea was spread in the form of the App Store and Google Play that bring games digitally to your device. Now even consoles that previously only dealt with physical copies are taking this route. The Xbox Marketplace and Playstation Store have been more popular than ever as consoles move towards downloads over discs.

Is digital distribution the way of the future? Developer Rodney Gibbs from Ricochet Labs seems to believe so. What do you prefer? In a post soon I will discuss the pros and cons of digital distribution.
Until next time,
David Rutner