[Insert Game Here] is Dying!

What a crazy week it's been in the Eve world. CCP recently changed their ToS agreement and the entire player base went crazy. Essentially a small change seemed to outlaw nearly all scamming in the game, spurred on by a particularly well thought out scam involving EVElopedia (specifically the Chribba page). But this isn't what I want to write about today. I'm more interested in the fallout from it, particularly the crowd of people who always scream "EVE IS DYING" whenever something like this comes up.

Whenever an MMO receives a change, there is always a small, very vocal but misguided group who assume the worst and shout to the hills that the game is dying; that the change is the signal of the end of the game. As Eve is the MMO I have spent the most time on, I have gotten used to the Eve is dying cries once every six months or so (usually in between expansions). Recently it became apparent to me that despite it's amazing successes, even WoW isn't immune to such claims.

It's no secret that WoW has been bleeding subscriptions for a while now. They recently announced that they had lost 5 million subscribers since Wrath of the Lich King, more than most MMO's have ever had. But rather than assuming that WoW is dying, look at it from another perspective. When WoW was released, I was in school. Almost all of my friends in school played it. However now they are all working full time jobs, have families and responsibilities. The circumstances that allowed them to play WoW have changed and many have had to quit the game. Still others that I know who played, were invested in the Warcraft story line. With Arthus dead, they see no reason to continue, as the bad guy they knew from WCIII has been dealt with. WoW also had the draw of friends playing together. If one or two of that group quits and they want to continue to play together, they are all going to move on to another game. As it stands WoW is still the most successful MMO ever made, and MoP has brought new players into the game (like me).

Eve on the other hand has been growing slowly for ten years. This year it hit 500,000 subscribers, a far shot from WoW's record of 12 million subscribers, but Eve inspires a loyalty among its players that has to be experienced to believe. Also looking at the stats for Eve's peak concurrent users shows that Eve is growing slowly with the number of people online. If anything, Eve isn't dying, its growing.

So why do people constantly jump on the "X is dying" bandwagon? In my opinion, it's all about resistance to change. People see something that they aren't used to, or expecting, and they immediately want to shout about it. When LFR was announced, there were people shouting about how Blizzard was catering to casuals and this would be the death of WoW. The reality? LFR didn't affect anyone who was already raiding in a normal or heroic group. Sure it can be full of people going AFK, but you will get that in any unorganized group in any game. When Eve's safety system was implemented, people assumed this would signal the death of highsec ganking. This hasn't happened yet.

Perhaps one day the gaming community will grow up enough to actually accept change without screaming immediately that the game is dying (unless it actually is, and they can present hard evidence of this). Until then, when you see someone crying that a game is dying, ask them to prove it. I guarantee watching them struggle to find how they can prove it will be entertaining, if nothing else.

As always guys,

GAME ON! And to the idiots who think Eve is dying, can I have your stuff?

Random Ramblings #5

Hmm... I think I feel something... What could it be? Oh right! THE RANDOM RAMBLINGS ARE BACK! Brace yourselves folks. This one could get messy.

Iran Bans Female LoL Champs

Where to begin with this one? It was revealed on Reddit earlier this week that the Iranian branch of the World Cyber Games have banned almost all female champions in the upcoming League of Legends tournament, with Annie being the only exception. There is a small caveat with Annie though, the volume of the headphones must be lowered.

What?! So as Redditor Paydrum explains, these decisions have been made to comply with laws enforced by the Ministry of Ershad. In order to obtain the permits to run the tournament, the organisers made the changes to "jump through their hoops". Regardless of the fact that this has to be one of stupidest rules I've seen in my time of following E-sports, they have even banned Anivia a character who is a giant blue bird. I can understand the more scantily clad women in LoL being banned to comply with the social and political setting of the region, but a bird who happens to have a female voice?

Boy Shoots Grandmother: "Video Game to Blame"

On to something equally as depressing, an 8 year old boy in Louisiana shot and killed his grandmother. Immediately the news was broken that police had found that the child was playing Grand Theft Auto IV prior to the shooting, leading the media to blame the game for the violent act.

Let's look at this objectively though. The boy was left under his grandmothers care, had access to both a game CLEARLY aimed at adults and a loaded firearm. Who is to blame here? Video games or poor parenting? I personally am sick of the media trying to find any way to blame anyone other than parents for a child's actions. If those parents had of taken a slight interest in their child, he would not have been playing the game for starters (as that game is definitely not the sort of thing a child should be playing), and he would have been educated about firearms or even better, not had access to the loaded weapon in the first place. This was clearly not a video game causing a tragic act, this was poor parenting.

And that concludes this edition of the Random Ramblings. Sorry for it being both short and mildly depressing.

As always folks,

GAME ON!

Hearthstone Beta

So unless you live under a rock or somewhere equally without internet (in which case how are you reading this, you wizard?), you probably know about Hearthstone, Blizzards new completely virtual card game. It was released in closed beta two weeks ago to widespread fanfare and excitement virtually everywhere. Fast forward to today, when a tweet from Blizzard says that the opt-in wave of Beta keys has finished.

I am one of the people who has been looking forward to Hearthstone since the announcement of it. The beta release hyped me a little more than it should have, as I tend to not get overly hyped about betas of games. If I get into a beta, then I play it, but certainly don't make it all I play. However, looking at the thread on the Hearthstone sub-reddit, you would think that Blizzard has killed someones hopes and dreams in life. Let's take a look shall we:

Fuck hearthstone

Whoa! Chill out dude. You were so hyped about this game 2 weeks ago, and now you are angry because you missed out on an invite to a closed beta? Talk about entitled.

Fuck the people who brand us as "entitled", if Blizzard knew what the fuck they were doing, they'd make the beta open. 

I'm sorry to have to be the one to break it to you man, but you are acting pretty damn entitled. You expect to be in a closed beta, despite the fact that you are no more entitled to it than me.

Apparently being a long-time Blizzard veteran means nothing to them, however every single mediocre streamer and their grandma gets to play the game because marketing.

I've played every single Blizzard game since Warcraft 2. Does that mean that I am any more entitled to get into the beta than someone who has played every Blizzard game since Warcraft 3? Starcraft 2? Get off your high horse and deal with the fact that you aren't some special snowflake. And of course Blizzard is going to market the game. That's what it's all about.

In short, chill out guys. You'll get your chance to play this game. It's not going to kill you to wait till open release.

Video Game Classification in Australia

It's something every single gamer in Australia dreads. You are excited about a new game coming out in the near future, when you see somewhere that it has been denied classification by the ACRB. There have been some changes to our classification system recently, and also some controversy about those changes. However let's examine the history of video game classification in Australia.

Since an article published by Hyper in 1993, it became known that video games were not allowed the R18+ rating, meaning that any games that could not be rated MA15+ would be refused classification and not available for sale in Australia. During this time games that failed were able to edit their content to attempt to pass a second time. Wikipedia has a sizable list of games that were initially refused classification, along with the final result of that game.

It was at the beginning of 2013 that the R18+ rating finally took effect, twenty years after the original article by Hyper. Why did it take so long to implement? One of the major blocks came from the governments perception that video games were for children only. It comes as no surprise to those of us who are gamers that the average age for a gamer is around 30, and has been playing games for 10+ years. Despite this, many of those against the implementation of an R18+ rating for video games made their voice known with cries of "Think of the children!"

One of those people was Michael Atkinson the former Attorney-General of South Australia from 2003 to 2010. During his time, he blocked each and every attempt to have a R18+ rating introduced in Australia. How? To get the law passed, it required the agreement of each of the Attorney-Generals; there could be no opposition. By opposing it, Atkinson single-handedly stopped any progress on the R18+ rating. His reasons?

I don't support the introduction of an R18+ rating for electronic games, chiefly because it will greatly increase the risk of children and vulnerable adults being exposed to damaging images and messages.

Also in the same exclusive with Gamespot, Atkinson also mentions that his three sons play video games:

I have three sons who regularly play computer games at home--the eldest is now 22. I see my children become physically and emotionally obsessed with games, and it is difficult to drag them away from the gaming console. 

Because of his personal experiences with and single minded view of gaming, Atkinson continued to refuse to support the introduction of the R18+ rating. Finally, when Atkinson stepped down as Attorney-General, progress was made as John Rau was shown to be more reasonable and supportive of introducing the R18+ rating. The final vote was passed in 2012, with the finalised guidelines coming into effect on January 1st 2013.

It's been a rocky road for the R18+ rating in Australia, and with the recent controversy surrounding Saints Row IV, there may still be some ways to go before we get the R18+ rating we deserve, but for now we do have something at least. As a small aside, I would highly recommend that you read this 2010 article from Youth Studies Australia for very impartial, seemingly unbiased report on both sides of the debate.

But for now, and as always:

GAME ON!

Random Ramblings #4

It's that time again: the Random Ramblings are back!

Minecraft and Tekkit

Had a LAN night with a friend on the weekend, and we played some Minecraft survival. While playing, we talked a lot about our first experiences in the game. He brought up that he had noticed a lot of people felt the people working on Minecraft had "ruined the game". Having had a few days to think about it, there is some truth to that from my point of view. Minecraft was always about building incredible things for me, not finding dungeons and killing mobs. Those experiences came from trying to get materials to build my incredible things. Redstone, pistons and rails gave me near endless enjoyment. The enchanting and "The End" never really made sense to me. The game certainly isn't ruined however, as you can completely ignore those parts of the game if you wish, but I can't help but wonder if it was the direction Notch had intended to take Minecraft.

Tekkit on the other hand, is exactly what I love about the Minecraft style of game. Building crazy machine setups, coming up with solutions to problems that you face and nuclear freaking reactors. Sign me up for more of that.

Saints Row IV... again

Sigh... so in the last Random Ramblings I pointed out that Saints Row IV seems to be well on its way to being the most controversial Aussie release of 2013. Since then, it's been banned... again. That document simply says it was banned due to real drugs being depicted as rewards and incentives. Yet again the Australian Classification Review Board shows just how little they understand video gamers. We aren't children. I'm 24 and most of my gaming friends are in their twenties, although I have a few who are older than that. We are responsible adults who make informed choices about our entertainment.

The whole point of having a restricted rating is to prevent children from accessing the material. These games are no longer to be aimed at children. So, if I can watch someone get killed by someone who is under the influence of drugs on television (I'm looking at you Underbelly), why is it that I cannot play a game that is decidedly tongue in cheek? Because the game has "alien narcotics"? That's as hypocritical as you can get there ACRB. Not that I should be surprised.

EDIT: So it seems that the aforementioned Low Violence Version of SR4 is still up on Steam. I'll keep you posted on what has changed as I find information on it. Also GTA5 has passed the ACRB... hypocritical as it seems, the drug use in the game has been deemed ok.

EDIT 2: The low violence version has passed, with the mission containing the alien narcotics taken out. The downside to this is that SR4 cannot be played in co-op with anyone outside of Australia. Oh well, good with the bad I guess.

The Mighty Quest for Failed Monetization

On to happier news, Ubisoft, the developer of The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, have announced that a whole bunch of changes to the in game store will be rolled back. What was the issue? Essentially any item in the game could be bought for either the in game currency gold, or Blings purchased for real money. How did this affect the game? In TMQfEP you build your own dungeon that can be raided by other players, and then you can go and raid another players dungeon. If someone with a lot of real world cash wanted, they could simply buy the best items for their dungeon, skewing the power of the game to those who were willing to drop real world money (the very definition of Pay to Win). Many complaints were made, with a major part being played by this video by TotalBiscuit. All in all, at least Ubisoft knows when to stop fighting a losing battle.

And that's all this week folks. As always:

GAME ON!

Random Ramblings #3

Its back! Join me for some more Random Ramblings!

Steam Summer Sale

That picture pretty much describes every Steam sale for me. Valve just knows how to make money out of us PC gamers. This sale has been pretty good for me so far. I picked up some games I've been meaning to get like Dishonored's DLC, Civilization V and FTL.

Saints Row IV

Looks like this years "most controversial Australian release award" has to go to Saints Row IV. First of all it was banned, despite the R18+ rating now being a thing here in Aus. Then a "Low Violence" version made its way onto Steam for preorder in Australia. Finally it seems Deep Silver Volition want some more money, as they have already announced the first DLC pack for the game... which isn't even out yet. Really Volition? I mean sure it's not day one DLC, but is day 45 DLC any better?

Homeworld Remakes

Hear that? That's the sound of thousands of Homeworld fanboys all screaming in delight. Gearbox software recently announced that they would be remaking Relic classics Homeworld and Homeworld 2 in HD. HW2 has been one of my favorite games for years and if the number of modders still working on the game is anything to go by, it's a community favorite too.

However, it's not all roses and exploding ships. Gearbox, who are responsible for the hit Borderlands series, were also involved with the colossal failures Aliens: Colonial Marines and Duke Nukem Forever. For a fan of Homeworld, it's scary to hear that a franchise you love is being taken over by someone who has butchered other loved franchises in the past. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Eve Online

Not a whole lot of news from me about Eve at the moment. The Alliance Tournament is going on now, and RvB won their match. That's really all I care about from the tournament at this stage.

There was a funny post on the forums where someone tried to call out Malcanis for telling someone they are bad. Malcanis was telling someone to stop whining about being caught out by the very well known Market Trading scam. A little lesson for you. When you are playing a game that uses a marketing tagline of "Be the villain" then trying to white knight for someone probably won't go down particularly well with the community. Then to cap off an already funny thread, Frying Doom dropped in to add his trademark skewed logic to the discussion about the whitepaper. That's right. Doom is back. Missed you buddy, and don't disappear for so long next time.

And that's all the news and random comments I have at the moment. As always folks.

GAME ON!

EDIT: Just as a small aside, you should all totally go and watch the Alliance Tournament at http://www.twitch.tv/ccp

World of Warcraft

So... yeah...

After years of resistance and like a teen at a party, I finally caved to peer pressure. But it wasn't drugs or alcohol I succumbed to. It was World of Warcraft. Blizzard recently reduced the price from $70 down to $30 and I just had to take them up on the deal.

I've mentioned WoW here before, in my post about Sandbox vs Themepark MMOs and I wasn't particularly kind about the grind in the game. However there is something that I didn't count on to hold me in. Lore. Last time I tried WoW, I took no notice of the lore in the quests. I was simply going to a spot, killing x amount of enemies, getting x amount of items, killing a boss and then repeating. This time however, I've dove headfirst into the lore of Warcraft. I loved the Warcraft RTS games as a kid, and Blizzard has done an astounding job of taking someone like me, putting hooks into my flesh and dragging me back into that universe.

It's taken me 2 and half weeks to get to 90, which I found reasonably easy to do. There have been some moments where I thought I might never make it, but there was always something to keep me entertained. A few of my friends have been playing pretty much since WoWs release back in 2004, and talking to them while running the old raids and dungeons has shown me just how much WoW has changed.

All in all, my initial thoughts about WoW have changed drastically (as most uninformed views tend to). It's no Eve in terms of gameplay, but there is more than enough content to keep me interested for a while at least. Soloing old raids has really gripped my interest, especially Molten Core. I really don't know what it is about that place, but I actually look forward to being able to go back there each week. Perhaps that too will change in time, and I will need new and more exciting things to do. But for now, its time to try and get my hands on Sulfuras... again...

As always,

GAME ON!