Money Idea of the Day- The casual RPG

Let’s get this out of the way now, because it needs to be said. Storage limits are no longer a major consideration. That doesn’t mean they don’t have to be contended with, but if you have the game, odds are you can probably swing it. That’s not always true, of course, but it’s worth noting that storage sizes are so large that we have a real opportunity right now to reinvent a few wheels.

Grinding drives a lot of people towards RPGs, and it also drives a lot away. As a market, the grinding, arduous, 60-hour plus RPG has done exceedingly well. And the 100+ hour RPG, has also done exceedingly well.

I spend a lot of time talking about World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy, mainly because I truly think they do a lot right and a lot that is deplorable. I think that neither Blizzard nor Final Fantasy could reinvent the wheel, because of how much they have loaded on to their cart. Make no mistake, if Square doesn’t feel it is pushing an envelope, you are likely looking at a sequel or spin-off. This means that any space considerations are always going to be a prescient concern as they will always run out of it. So right there, I have little faith that the big dawg would come after me. And Blizzard? Too big and successful to care.

Bioware gets it. They keep their grinding short, and I would argue that many future RPG’s need to keep it shorter? How do they do it? Content, content, content.

The traditional RPG was meant for a Japanese audience, and audience that loved leveling up, either by traditional methods or over the long slog of many hours on a tactile grid, exchanging various experience points, using items, and casting various versions of fire.

That audience is shrinking in its overall profitability, probably for a multitude of reasons. But the point remains.

A shorter RPG, could be epic. It would be an event. Make leveling not a goal, let the events be what gains you something. A Zelda strength model for RPG! Does this put the game and skills more on a rail? To an extent, but it also means that, if you make the world large enough, that you are rewarded more for your ingénue than for how long you spend on a couch.

And SPACE is less a factor than ever. Imagine if you could create a game 5x the size of a big game, without the leveling to get in the way? Take graphics down a notch; the best games do. Counterstrike never looked cutting edge. World of Warcraft looks antiquated. Starcraft 2 is meant to run on even simple systems. Size matters, but the potential right now is smearing on the gameplay, on the addiction, . You would attract gamers who feel jaded by the new RPG’s, who are bored with current ones, or who simply don’t have the time or dedication they once did.

So when thinking about RPG’s and video games, what else do people do? More to the point: are there people who watch movies every day? Of course, but there’s also a lot of people who only watch movies on a Friday night.

Aha.

There’s also people who play Dungeons and Dragons once or twice a week, and a considerably smaller number who play every night.

A-ha!

Event gaming.

Take a big draw of World of Warcraft such as seasonal or sponsored events, and make that a game! Make a giant world that you can only see once! Keep it simple, maybe use a template or software, but tell an entire story arc in one night.

Just don’t make it an episode! People love episodes, but this ain’t Tivo! Make it an event, make it challenging enough for real gamers, but make it accessible! Charge pennies, but make millions. Put in-game advertising in on billboards, in witty ways to subsidize development costs, not as an add-on. This would let people in on a world, or a couple worlds. Make playing the game the reward, not persistently leveling up until 3 am the cost. Episodic gaming means that people have to be in a certain time, at a certain place. Have multiple servers? How about multiple start times? If movie theaters can do it, why can’t game companies? There is none of the overhead and a fraction of the investment- people bring their own seats! Hell, you can even charge more for off-peak gaming. Matinee servers! Smaller companies could offset larger costs during peak hours by diverting traffic to other hours, and create a significant margin overage during those peak hours and invest that balance into better servers! IF you have a real story to tell, you can get people excited. Keep them hungry! Everyone, from release schedules, from Blizzard to Bungie to Squenix, to Disney to Dreamworks to McDonald’s to Nintendo KNOWS THIS WORKS. But for video games, no one has ever tried it quite like this.

Then, you collect, say, a season’s worth of content, sell it as an anthology, and reap more profits! This is entirely possible with today’s technology. It would be fun gaming, renegade creativity. There’s a place for Pixar, but there’s also a place for Daffy Duck cartoons. Before Toy Story, remember, there was a DVD worth of animated shorts.

There’s gold in them thar hills, and the only limit is when people say “no”.

On pwning

The internet doesn’t forget. That’s the dangerous thing about it. You either control all of the information, or you control nothing.

As Microsoft and Sony find, as Apple wonks find, as the world finds out about China, the simple fact of the matter is… the uncontrollable factors are over a billion. China plays a fool’s game, as does any marketer. They all knew about the iPhone, they all knew about the Macbook Air. So too, now, does the world cringe at what’s going on in Tibet.

Recently, a European has filed a trademark for the phrase Pwnage. They did not create this euphemism for the truly eclectic and jubilant moments of gamedom. Rather, they suffused this mighty slogan for their own good. And the internet will choke their rivers with fervent antagonism. They have the worst kind of marketing now, contending with having to simultaneously live up to the name, as well as putting out the product that they had originally intended. On a sub-major development budget, it is unlikely that they can succeed. Not impossible, but the stakes have been raised.

So this European developer must contend not only with releasing a new product, but also in defending their taking for themselves a phrase that is very public, and certainly not of their origination. Even via the courts, or even an impressive game, can they suppress the fact that they subjugated and stamped on something the public sees as a gimmick.

After all, if Apple and China can’t figure it out, how can they?

A Brave New World, 20 years ago.

I am on my 25^th hour of Smash Brothers Brawl. The really scary part now is not the content, which is egregious in its effects on my time management. The producer says this will be the final one, but we all know that’s shenanigans. But what on earth could they put in the next generation, a fully HD release? I shudder to think what Nintendo could fit on a Blu Ray disc… mere sunlight may not be a sufficient alternative.

Now the Wii has a problem, and that problem is pricing. The 360 and the PS3 have this to a lesser extent, but the greatest problem is that anything outside of a highly marketed game doesn’t do too well in this day and age. The Wii’s numbers are … mixed.

The success of the Virtual Arcade, Xbox Live Arcade, and the Playstation 2 Greatest Hits packages shows that value can be drawn from nostalgia, but value also arises from value. Games that couldn’t sell well at full regular price are marked down. And this is what the Wii shall do. We all know that Zack and Wiki (and I know what I’m getting into) won’t sell as many copies as Metroid Prime 3, so why not sell it at a lower cost?

Well, they did, and it still didn’t do so hot. But at the lower price, you can bet they moved more copies than they would if the MSRP was 50. And in the interest of the gaming companies, they may have to re-examine some of their figures. Most games on the systems that are less anticipated or hyped could be offered at a lower price. Said console company raises their certification and licensing marginally to offset any loss, and the manufacturers get a bigger piece of cake by way of gross sales.

Some would say this is already happening with the Wii, that many “lower” titles take up shelf space. This is true, but the quality there is lacking. The difference may be that we need to show companies a greater potential in margin. It makes no mistake that nominal budgeting for a girl’s horse game will make a return even on the largely mistaken customers.

It is important to remember Atari at this moment, and it’s also important to remember the Game Boy. The Game Boy has games that are Classics with a capital C, but it also has shit that you couldn’t give away. It didn’t destroy the gaming business. On the contrary, it grew by leaps and bounds, and preserved a handheld monopoly where competition is only a recent phenomenon. The Wii model isn’t broken; it’s been used for years to the tune of tidier profit than any competitor.

Independent developers will find themselves drawn to the relative cost-effectiveness on the Wii, and big time players may find themselves allocating more resources. What’s working against Nintendo is that production costs (unless your name is Squenix) is going down as companies learn the ins and outs of the high definition consoles.

So the solution? A much lower price point on capital games. Give away a Mega Man, practically. Show that a top tier game can be bnought at the Wii (and ensure a lower MSRP to make it tempting) and you’ll see the difference. No More Heroes, for example, is not a fifty dollar game. But a 25 dollar game? I’d wager even Japan could say yes to that. The notion that all games need to be priced at identical prices has been obliterated by PC gaming and years of remixes and reissues. The future isn’t microtransactions, it’s in selling small in volume. It’s hard for many to remember, but what really touched off the RPG video game genre on the NES wasn’t Final Fantasy, but it was the inclusion of a failure of a game (Dragon Quest nee Warrior) that was given away free with a marketing tool. It worked, sales improved, and Americans have enjoyed RPG’s of a similar texture (if not series) for the better part of twenty years. It wasn’t that the game was a hit, it was that it was affordable, acceptable, and paved a path for bigger, prettier things to come. I think a similar model could work with the Wii. It’s only up for someone to try…

Wow

Without any reservation, the game of the year is Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Nothing can come close in terms of content. No game has made me feel like a kid again quite like this.

The closest I can come to this game is the HeMan Christmas Special. It’s a largely forgettable piece of schlock, but it was basically how all the rules come apart, and suddenly Skeletor is trying to save Christmas. That doesn’t make sense, but it does because it’s CHRISTMAS. That’s how Smash Brothers works, in an exuberant role where sense is made simply on youthful wonder. The pieces fit because our brain makes it so, and the writers make sure all the right moves are there. Suddenly, you cheer for HeMan and Skeletor.

Nintendo is on a role, and I realize how this game was made, really, for kids my age. My first Mario was Super Mario Brothers. My first Zelda game was The Legend of Zelda. We are well past the point where a seasoned gamer doesn’t necessarily have the same pedigree, but for them, this cake known as SSBB is no less dense, with no less topping. It is an exuberant love letter to gamers and especially those who can tolerate Nintendo. I say tolerate because, quite simply, there are those who don’t think these games matter.

Nintendo games are about pure joy. Immersive fun, the unexpected moments, and scope. Between this and Super Mario Galaxy, I feel I have two of the best games for gamers ever made.

I can’t get over how it felt when I fired up my Gamecube, and against all reason plugged in my Gamecube controller. The reason for this is simple- rumble. I want to rumble. I want to feel the game, as that’s a big part of what made melee so immersive. It works, it works like an old friend. A couple hours in, I discovered the game demos for old school classics. When I found myself, on a 1080p plasma, gliding and soaring and jumping through the first level of Super Mario Bros. demo, I felt like a kid again. A stupid, hurt kid who likes to imagine.

I don’t want this game to bore me. I never want to find every secret, find its missions borderline on the tedious. I want this game to excite me. And the best part? The game seems so full, so rich and so ready, that I can honestly say it never wants me to feel that way either. How many studios ever, ever aim for that? Not even Nintendo, not even Bungie, not even Blizzard. It’s so big.

I feel like I’ve been given a towering cake, loaded with candles and frosting for my birthday. I feel like any sort of review structure would hinder what I feel is a totally visceral game. I can find very few faults.

Reviewers fault the friend codes, the lack of online messaging, and a structured tournament. The fools… this game is about fun. The ire and languages and consequences of the regular online gaming community are not here. Nintendo has made too many inroads with families to risk the kind of language and people that Halo abides by. It makes perfect business sense, and the hassles are short-lived. Connecting online tonight was hard, but no system is perfect. Slowly, I started vs one other person. Then two, then four. Suddenly it was a friend’s basement again. A girl’s bed. The glow of the Christmas tree in the next room, the smell of forgotten pizza. It triggers emotions and memories. It’s the Yankee Candle of gaming.

If I have any complaint, it’s that the graphics have become too detailed in this game. Normally, that’s not a bad thing, but Nintendo characters have always had a bit of a singular color pop. By adding shading and graphics, it tends to make the character design look busy. It’s an odd point, but I do believe that many sort of games need simplicity. Pikachu looks especially terrifying: the added lighting and effects have made it look less like a cartoon and more like a possessed stuffed animal. Which is sad, because if you look at the Pikachu in Melee, you see the cartoon electric rat in all its bouncy happiness. I wish they had gone for a simpler, cleaner look with more polish, instead of more detail. The more real something becomes, the more fake it feels. Advent Children feels a lot more static than the Iron Giant, for example, despite the vastly superior visuals of AC.

But back to the game. I am so, so glad I bought this. I’m so, so glad I can literally play anyone in the world who has this game in the entire world (something not even XBL could fathom). I’m so, so glad I can share this with friends. What game could dare live up to that?

Joy

People play games and this brings them joy. Mostly It will be true when many hundreds of thousands, and eventually millions, open Super Smash Brothers Brawl next week and proceed to have childhood icons beat each other up.

Joy is a funny thing, and it’s so important that people see it and recognize it.

Today two things happened that remind me of joy.

The first is that Gary Gygax died. Gygax created Dungeons and Dragons, which had a profound impact on gaming of the past and today. Final Fantasy wouldn’t have been what it is without Gary Gygax. Japanese gaming was influenced by a Westerner’s tabletop game. How crazy is that? How impossible is that notion today?

From what I’ve seen of the man, he was happy. He enjoyed his game, he enjoyed tweaking it and he was a social, happy man in a Hawaiian shirt. And he dreamed of fighting dragons, orcs, and saving the world with your friends decades before World of Warcraft. As a gamer, you can’t help but tip your hat at a man who so defines what it means to dream bigger than the chair you’re sitting in. Remember that. Remember how dragons are made, not simply fought.

And what hits me closer to home is the retirement of Brett Favre. I consider him the perfect athlete. I have seen many people play numerous kinds of games over the years, but I’ve never seen anyone play as jubilantly as Brett Favre. My hometown team the Chicago Bears went through 21 quarterbacks in the time the Green Bay Packers had one. One! He did it, despite pain, despite the grind of a media-centric league.

Earlier this year I caught a bit of a game. He threw a touchdown, his team had left the field. He went up to a referee to high five him. The referee looked confused, but gave him a high five.

I grew up watching Michael Jordan dominate. And I liked it and considered him a hero. Looking back, he was a gambling chauvinist with a dark edge, arrogant to his core. I have been the fan of a team on the receiving end of a 17 year whuppin’, and I can’t bring myself to say one negative thing about Brett. The joy in which he played football is what I want my kids to have. It’s what most people wish they had in their jobs. I hate to see him go so much. Bears fans may say unkind words about the Packers, but I would bet Harry Caray’s glasses that if he ever expressed an interest in playing for the Bears, this city would move heaven and earth for our rival. He wasn’t just damn good, he was a damn class act.

When I play games, I want to play them like Brett.