Ouya and Kickstarter: Why my generation is the worst.

When browsing the internet this week I constantly saw one thing:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console

A Kickstarter page where people pledge money to see ''A new kind of video game console'' made.

How much? Well at the time of writing 36,357 people have donated to a total amount of over four and a half million dollars.

Oh well this thing has to be amazing then hasn't it?

Specifications:
Tegra3 quad-core processor
1GB RAM
8GB of internal flash storage
HDMI connection to the TV, with support for up to 1080p HD
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth LE 4.0
USB 2.0 (one)
Wireless controller with standard controls (two analog sticks, d-pad, eight action buttons, a system button), a touchpad
Android 4.0

 

Alright, I'd buy a phone with those specifications. It's not great but certainly cheap.

Wait a second, it's a game console...

HAHAHAHA.

For the people that come here in between an actual life: these specifications amount to going to newgrounds.com on a 10 year old notebook.

Alright, so people will be getting a completely powerless indie game system for a hundred bucks, silly but I bet they are all rational people that understand this thing has trouble running farmville:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ouyatop20

This link is actually straight from the webpage of the Ouya kickstarter asking people that donated money to this thing what games they would like to see on it.

People really are expecting:

-League of Legends

-Skyrim

-Call of duty

-Fifa

-Mass Effect

-Grand Theft Auto

-Assassins Creed.

-Final Fantasy.

Alright, allow me to be the first to show everyone what each of these games look like on a tegra 3 chip:

                                   Leage of Legends on a tegra 3 chip, copyright Blizzard 1994.

Skyrim on a tegra 3 chip, copyright Bethesda 1994.

1994 was a good year it seems.

Call of Duty on a tegra 3 chip Copyright ID software 1992.

I think you get the drill by now.

Another gem straight from the page that made 4.5 million dollars already:

''For hackers: root it. Go ahead. Your warranty is safe. Even the hardware is hackable. Want to get inside? You’ll need a standard screwdriver and nothing more. Go to town. We have standard USB ports and Bluetooth, so you’ll even be able to create your own peripherals.''

Exactly the thing Activision CEO Bobby Kotick wishes to hear when presented to a new console that would like a Call of Duty on it. Who cares about making money in the first place? Stick it to the man!

So yeah, 36 thousand people already expecting a 100$ fully hackable console that can and will play Skyrim. I bet that will end well. It's funny because the last console that was a multi million dollar fraud was called the phantom.




It's like a console named after spectral phenomenons is destined to fail. Who could have guessed?

Taking other peoples ideas in the videogame business and making millions in the process.

''Good artists Copy, great artists Steal.''

Jos van Eekelen, 2011.

''Stop right there criminal scum.''

A guard in the Elder scrolls: Oblivion who still sees stealing as a crime.

Taking other peoples ideas in the videogame business and making millions in the process.

The best example I can think of that gave me inspiration for this topic would undoubtedly be Angry Birds, a simple smartphone game that already sold several million copies. The sad part?

This game was basically already made seven months earlyer and can be played entirely free here:

Yes, that's Crush the Castle a game you most likely never heard of and at most made a few thousand dollars from advertising.

Even more funny? That game is (as told by the creator and with permission of the creator of the game they took ideas from) made from the idea of this game: Castle Clout

That's right, a game that ripped off another game based on another game is the game hailed for it's ''innovation'' and sold over half a billion copies.

Speaking of which, Here is another fun tidbit of conversation from this years game developers conference which involves the creator of Angry Birds:

"There was one hiccup in Vesterbacka's world domination plan: just as the Q&A after the panel was ending, someone stepped up to the mic to ask what physics engine Angry Birds used. Vesterbacka replied that Rovio used Box2D, a very versatile open source physics engine used often in iOS development. "Would you be willing to credit it?" the questioner then asked. "I'm Erin Catto," he continued, "the creator of Box 2D." While credit isn't required to use the Box 2D engine, Rovio had used the code in its megahit without even providing a nod in the credits to Catto's work."

Ouch.

Now how come those original two games didn't make buckets of money while Angry Birds shamelessly takes credit for being an 'innovative game'?

Simple, Angry Birds was created for the scourge upon gaming: The iPhone.

A system where people get to pay a dollar to play condensed pre-selected flash games that came out months earlyer for free on the internet.

And everyone loved it.

But honestly, is copying the innovative ideas of game designers to make good money really a trend that pioneered from iOs games?

No.

The people of id studios for example, the guys that made games like Wolfenstein3D and Doom (pretty much invented the first person shooter genre) were at first people that worked for Softdisk, and what was one of the projects they were working on there?

Pretty much copying Super Mario bros 3 but on the p.c. , then deciding to make their own game studio and after not getting the rights from Nintendo to make Super Mario bros 3 for the pc making that game into the game now known as Commander Keen.

Is this limited to videogames? No, turn on your tv (that boxy thing you play console games on)

and you will see that today there is at least four shows about a forensics unit solving crimes,

three shows which are a talent hunt in front of a cranky jury and show or two about a team of charming fictional doctors.

But why is it that we start noticing these trends now?

That's quite simple really, since with the advent of social gaming most games end up on the internet.

The big advantage: When putting something on the internet 99% of the time you also put a time-stamp of your product up there.

Does this stop publishers from blatantly taking other's work as their own? No, and the sad part? It's the most annoying design that always comes back.

Think of this for example, if I gave you an hour to Google as many social network farm simulators where you can buy in game money for actual real life money how many results would that yield?

I searched for ten seconds and already found 10 results.

Ouch again.

So, not to sound cynical or anything but it really seems games are heading towards a direction that no longer means people who make stuff get paid for it.

Borderlands

Recently I decided to download myself Borderlands since it was relatively cheap (30 dollars) on the Xbox live marketplace. And I needed to quench my thirst for an RPG related game.

My thirst good quenched, quite well even.

Let me explain what Borderlands is actually:

In Borderlands you create a vault hunter, a character you use to explore the world of Pandora.(wasn't that also the name for the planet in that James Cameron movie?)

Pandora being a steampunk semi apocalyptic alien world ruled only by Anarchy.

Now I said Borderlands is an RPG right? I lied (sort of).

Borderlands plays like a shooter in a free roaming world where you can take quests or just explore, A lot like Fallout3 but done right actually.

Unlike Fallout 3 however Borderlands plays smooth.

Being build on the Unreal engine Borderlands actually feels responsive, in a sense that you don't have to shoot a target twenty-seven times, before for some weird reason the hit detection decides this time your bullet actually did hit.

The entire game actually shows signs of the Unreal engine, being on an alien planet, doing massive Super Mario like jumps, shooting futuristic weapons.

Which introduces what defines Borderlands most to me, fun.

I was tired of shooters that took themselves too seriously, think of gritty war simulators that focus a bit too heavily on being ''realistic'' and dark.

After all, I have no interest in being a soldier, I just want to shoot some things in a satisfying manner.

Borderlands delivers on that by it's sheer creativity, no two weapons are the same (arguably), enemies range from deranged criminals wearing ski-masks to colossal world destroyers that are so huge they have their own ecosystems attached to them.

The downside to this? The humor especially in quests sometimes borders being just infantile, Having to clear poop from a fan is an actual mission for example.

A collosal world destroyer, with optic problems so shooting the eyes helps.

Remember how I talked about Borderlands being a roleplaying game? Let me explain:

You start the game out by selecting one of four predetermined characters, a soldier which uses machine guns and can set down turrets (the average Joe character), a scout that uses sniper rifles and a bird to kill his targets from afar, a brute that uses his fists and rockets to inflict damage from a short range and the all around Siren that just likes to set things on fire (literally).

When you play as one of these characters, you will notice that killing enemy's gives experience, gather enough and you will go up a level. When you level up your character becomes stronger and gets the ability to use a point to specialize in a certain aspect in combat.

Also, you carry your weapons with you the entire game, each weapon having unique stats that allow them to be useful in different situations.

It's like Pokemon... With guns!

The game looks rather unique, having a definitive cell-shaded style bordering between cartoony and standard alien shooter game in a rather pleasing manner.

There is also an online mode that works rather well, but due to Xbox-live being full of thirteen year olds asking you if they can steal your weapons and demanding for duels in a high pitched voice the online mode is best played with a friend.

All in all I got around 30 hours of playtime from my Borderlands so far and can wholly recommend it to anyone interested.

Borderlands is available for both the Xbox360 and PS3, the ps3 version having an exeptionally sweat package where the downloadable content is included.

I however got the Xbox360 version.

First!

Welcome to my personal blog everyone.

Some may wonder what this blog is actually about, allow me to explain:

This blog is a random geek's hideout where thoughts, opinions and other cool stuff will get posted.

Most content will (probably) be videogame related but can also include politics, philosophy, art, anything goes really as long as it's deemed interesting to the author.

More coming soon.