As some of you may recall, NCSoft will be making PS3 and PSP games in the coming future. Well, they just signed a deal with Double Fusion to bring in-game advertising to provide revenue for Dungeon Runners and their upcoming Exteel game on PC. Looking at NCSoft and their games, this gives us four possible ways to play possible NCSoft games online when they hit...

1) Subscription. Practically all their MMO's follow this model. Rates for Lineage II, City of Heroes, etc., start at $15/month and go down if you buy in bulk.

2) Free with Microtransaction. The game is free, play is free, but they have things for you to buy; things to customize your character with, equipment for in-game use so you don't have to play 5 hours just to get that new sword/gun/whatever, temporary bonuses to stats/abilities, etc.

3) Free with Advertising. Free to play but the game has companies sponsoring it through advertising. Maybe they're on billboards, maybe you'll see a "This game has been brought to you by Coke," whatever.

4) Combination of any and all of the above. Exteel was slated to being just Microtransaction, but is now Microtransaction and Advertising. Dungeon Runners was Free with perks for Subscribers ($5/month), but now is Subscription and Advertising (don't know if subscribing will turn off the ads or not, though).

The trick with PSN is "how is online paid for?" I personally feel that question lies behind Blacksite's dimished online play with the PC and PS3 versions, and can point to a number of games on the PS2 and Dreamcast that had online functionality in Japan but not here. Sony's partnership with NCSoft, a company that is already successful in Korea with multiple online revenue models and is attempting to bring them to the mainstream US gaming industry bodes well for all gamers.

Long term I would like to see PSN and Live follow a combination model similar to Gametap; free basic online with paid subscribers getting perks that non-paying players don't get (plus revenue/profit sharing for publishers/developers). Best of both worlds for consumers and companies.

I downloaded the new trailer for City of Heroes issue 11 in Quicktime. I mean, hey, eat lunch, see the new stuff, y'know?
Well, I can't watch it because my Quicktime player is too old. Get the new one, right and go from there, right?

Wrong.

The new Quicktime player which I need to watch the trailer with is for OS X 10.3.9 and up. I have OS X 10.2.8. Bastards! OS X 10.2 came out in 2002, 10.3 came out in 2003. A stupid 1-year difference! I can't think of a real reason that it won't work except its a "reason" to pay the bloody Apple-tax, just like getting an updated version of Safari :(

Microsoft tries this stuff and they get the grief they deserve. Apple does this and nobody says a bloody word. That's one reason I'll never leave Windows; Apple can get away with too much with OSX, but they won't dare do that on Windows. I'll redownload this at home on my happy, just-as-stable-as-my-OSX-Mac Windows XP machine once I figure out if I would rather watch it in Windows Media Player or Quicktime format. Maybe I'll be a really naughty boy by getting the WMP version and seeing how many different video players I can watch it on or transfer it to my Sansa and watch it there.

At least I'm ahead of my boss. He can't get Firefox to work on his OS X 10.4.x Intel Mac Mini, which I enjoy using on my G4 at work as well as my G3 and XP machines at home.

Halo is proving to be a nice diversion; a level or two here and there and I'm pretty happy.

Gears of War for Windows has gone gold and I simply cannot find out what the system requirements are. This is a little off-putting for me, obviously. I'm half tempted to get the Bioshock demo just to try and gauge performance on my machine, but that's 2 gigs worth of demo and Bittorrent murders my bandwidth (makes City of Heroes unplayable, just about).

I thought about picking up Bioshock at some point, but a friend of mine actually got the 360 version even though his PC can handle it. Reason given? SecuROM is installed with Bioshock's demo and the purchased game (another fine Sony product). My antivirus already reports GameGuard as being a trojan, so I'm a little curious if it would do the same for SecuROM also. Similarly, I don't know if SecuROM would or could allow for the same problems SunComm's DRM caused for PC owners in terms of virii and cheating bastards.

That being said, my buddy aside (who's co-owner of a technical support service here on Maui), I haven't heard much, and at least Sony isn't Starforce, but aside from the Sims 2 and Bioshock, I don't know any games that use it, so I can't research how much of a problem it is or isn't. That being said, I just wish more people thought like Brad Wardell.

Speaking of which, I haven't played Galactic Civilizations 2 in ages. Or Guild Wars. Darn my mood based gaming.

And tomorrow City of Heroes Halloween event gets started, so I'm looking forward to trick-or-treating in Paragon City :D

One of my complaints about "next-gen" gaming is in many cases, to me, I've not yet seen much that couldn't have been done on last-gen's hardware in a less pretty fashion. Well, here's something that I'm reasonably sure can't be, and I find very impressive as a result. It might look gimicky, granted, but Sony's Eye of Judgement? Very cool.

Read the quick initial impression. Okay, done? Cool.

So, a gaming use of OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and all that lovely power of the PS3. It might be the photo, but it seems like its taking the room's lighting into account (look at the tank's shadow and the sumo's), as well as the lay of the card. Obviously, this is one of those things that needs a good video showing it off to get an idea of how much the game is taking into account, but the possibility is pretty awesome. I've heard favorable things about the game so far (albeit from a niche crowd), and my buddy Aaron is getting it next week so I'll get a full report from someone I know and trust, game-wise.

And I'm sure I'm not alone in wondering why on earth Sony didn't partner with Konami or Viz (Shonen Jump) on this; Yugi-Oh would've been a near-perfect match, and Viz puts out a LOT of CCG's as well. It would be nice to see a newer version that doesn't need the stuff on the top of the card to pull the trick off, and that would be perfect for Magic and other pre-existing CCG's, too.

Will we see something similar on the 360? No idea. I don't see why not power-wise, so it'd be more of an issue concerning "are there patents involved." Microsoft does have its own tech concerning bar-codes and the like, so I don't think its impossible (too late for Magic right now, as 10th Edition just came out). The Wii? I'm far less hopeful. While the OCR can be done, I don't think it could do at 30fps+ while superimposing 3d graphics on the cards.

But hey, if I'm wrong, I won't complain. Gimmick or not, this is quite cool, and a considerable leap from the old web-cam games Intel and other companies made long before the Eye-toy. Nice!

Okay, I paid a ton of bills yesterday (ouch!). Well, while at Wal-Mart I saw Halo for $20 and figured "why not."

Installation was quick and easy (didn't install the Gamespy multiplayer thing), and it runs very nicely on my system (1280x1024, 60fps according to FRAPS). Yes, it looks old, and the textures are on the rough side, but hey...

I actually never owned Halo when I had an Xbox, preferring to do on-couch multiplayer with my buddy Lee on Co-op, so I'm enjoying it. Just playing it on the normal difficulty, and I think I've seen some additional bits not in the Xbox version (mostly in the intro cinematics). Its fun, the difficulty isn't a cakewalk (I can't be stupid about things), but isn't the "I HATE YOU" level of difficulty; as is I feel superior to the marines and Covenant, but not like "god-on-the-battlefield" superior. The keyboard/mouse is making it a lot easier for me too as my aim on the pad was never terribly great; pads required a bit more setup and intentional aiming, whereas the KB combo is a lot more fluid for me.

Its a little odd playing a first-person game now since I've been playing almost entirely 3rd person games (MMO's and the like). I think I'll probably have an easier time with Gears when it comes out.

Anyhow, its fun, even if its old fun.

Dell's lovely 24" UltraSharp 2407AWFP-HC.

Now, I'm sure some of you will point out that I can find a comparably priced but larger HDTV. This isn't for use as an HDTV, this is for use primarily as a computer monitor then as an HDTV (probably just for gaming). The big trick is this; this thing has every video input I could possibly want except for HDMI. Add HDMI and it would be, quite literally, perfect.

I need a high desktop resolution because of I do a lot of computer work, especially when I'm working on my Mac (Photoshop, Quark, etc. - desktop publishing is very real-estate intensive). Most HDTV's I've seen have very poor resolutions when used as a computer monitor (failing to beat out my "small" 19" LCD's 1280x1024 resolution), whereas this thing offers 1900x1200 (or as they point out, "That is greater than High Definition, which is defined as 1920 x 1080 for 1080p."). Plus its a reasonable size for my desktop. Normally I'd consider getting a second monitor, but I've not the space on my desk for that, plus I'd have to get two additional videocards for my PC and my Mac not to mention a DVI/USB-KVM. Those things are insanely expensive; cheapest I've seen being $250 and I'd need two in order to not have to go behind the machines and switch things around? No thanks.

Anyhow, if you see anything, just let me know. Its a bit of a dream right now, but its a nice dream.

Read it here.

I personally like this bit:

One thing that I did was put an Xbox 360 in an area of the studio where there's a lot of foot traffic, and I also have a PS3 there, and I'll bring in western-developed games. I'll be playing them, or I'll just have it on and running through the intro, to be repeating on the title menu. People will pick it up and play it, and so now we have a lot of Gears fans, and people are playing Bioshock. So people are checking out games that they wouldn't normally check out, and they're getting ideas and inspiration as far as, "OK, this is how things can work for us; this is what we like."

And speaking of Gears...

BS: It's kind of ironic to have to explain simple controls to people. It's kind of the opposite of the usual scenario.

RP: Well it's also maybe our own fault, because this is a sequel of a sequel of a sequel, and people come into the game with expectations. So, if this was a totally new IP, I think they would go into it with a fresh slate, and I think they would work with us. "OK, so this is how you press up against a wall," or, "This is how you shoot," but here everybody goes into the game expecting that you just run up against a wall to latch onto it, whereas this time you have to push the triangle button.

Those little icons are reminiscent of Gears of War.

RP: Absolutely. I mean, we've played a lot of Gears.

BS: And they're useful.

I'm sure, somewhere, CliffyB is reading this and smiling from ear to ear. I'm also positive he's curious as to how Konami refines things from Gears, and when he finds out, wondering how to implement those ideas if they're useful for whatever he's working on at the moment...

Thank goodness devs aren't nearly as closed-minded as most fanboys...

"OMG WHAT A LAZY DEVELOPER/PROGRAMMER"

I strongly dislike the "lazy developer" argument that some people come up with to explain why something didn't happen. Maybe a game didn't meet technical expectations. Maybe its not coming out on their system of choice. Maybe some feature they wanted isn't there. Whatever.

To me this reeks of ignorance.

Yes, undoubtedly there are lazy devs (there are lazy people in any and every profession), but the rest of them? They have deadlines/milestones to meet, changing goals, have to work with the stuff day in and day out for the same project for 18 to 24 months or more, having to decide what's going to have to take priority over what (and what will have to ultimately get cut), working very long hours and doing their best to stay within budget. The game industry has a turnover rate of 5 years - you get in, maybe work on 2-3 games, and go find another career, basically.

Its particularly irksome on console games. Its amazing how many console games are shipped with as few bugs and problems as they have. Truly. Especially when you consider how complex games have been last generation and how sophisticated they'll be this one! The graphics engines don't write themselves, neither does the AI, the physics, online code, or anything else. Yet it seems like people are perfectly willing to overlook all that and rant and rave about how dumb developers are and how lazy they are and oh how stupid could they be.

Jerks!

So, the next time some idiot fanboy starts going on about that, tell him if its so damn easy he should go apply for the job. Chances are the moron wouldn't be qualified to be a tester, much less anything else.

Story here.

Interesting. Capcom cites high costs as the reason, so this is what I want to know; how much of a budget were they planning to have? I see the chief advantage of the Wii being they could feasibly reuse pre-existing assets from the PS2 game, prettying them up a bit, whereas a PS3 version would involve remaking everything.

How popular is this series? Is it the development costs alone? Or is it a relatively niche title who's sales projections on the PS3 make it look like too much of a risk? Why not make it cross-platform with the 360 and PS3? Or did they consider that too? Is it just the raw numbers of Wii's in the US, Japan and Europe were too hard to resist? Maybe in a few years we'll see Monster Hunter 4 on the heavyweight systems, but for the time being...

Just a little something I noticed.

In World of Warcraft's Burning Crusade expansion, there are missions/instances through the Caverns of Time that allow you to participate in the history of Azeroth.

In the upcoming Guild Wars Mission Pack, they have four points of history that happen in Guild Wars lore and you get to play them.

In the upcoming City of Heroes Issue 11 update you'll be able to not only revisit your own past (story arcs) but go hopping around time to events in the past, fixing the timeline (or so it seems). A lot of people are hoping the 5th Column (an enemy group removed from the game) will return.

I'm not sure if WOW did it first or someone else did for the MMO scene, but its an interesting trend. Its certainly a cool idea; it creates new content and allows players to explore the history the developers have already created for the game. Very nice!