Link: Game Informer

Apparently Bethesda ported Skyrim over to Xbox One in order to test if it Fallout 4 Development, and the funny thing there is no plan to release the game at any time, even though it wouldn’t be hard to improve the graphics since they do have the High Resolution Texture Pack DLC for PC for free even.

Bethesda instead viewed a longer development time frame – one that allowed the team to properly gather data before starting development on the new hardware. When I visited Bethesda Game Studios last month, Todd Howard and other key members from the development team walked me through Fallout 4’s creation. Early on in our talks, Howard smiled at me and said, “The first thing we did was port Skyrim to Xbox One.” After a brief pause, he quickly blurted out, “Don’t get your hopes up yet.”

So yeah no plans as of yet to release Skyrim to Xbox One.

Links:

NBC News
The Verge
Buzzfeed

Apparently there was going to be a Panel on Online Harassment at SXSW and was cancelled due to threats of violence (which to me would constitute as harassment of sorts as well).
The festival — known as SXSW — said it had hoped that hosting the two panels “SavePoint: A Discussion on the Gaming Community” and “Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games” would lead to a “valuable exchange of ideas.”

However, it said SXSW had received “numerous threats of on-site violence” related to the programs in the week since the March 2016 SXSW Interactive event panels were announced. It did not detail the nature of the threats.

Because of this action Buzzfeed and Vox/The Verge has pulled out of the festival. Here’s BuzzFeed’s Statement:

Dear Hugh,
We were disturbed to learn yesterday that you canceled two panels, including one on harassment in gaming, in response to the sort of harassment the panel sought to highlight.
We hope you will reconsider that decision, and reinstate the panels.

Digital harassment — of activists of all political stripes,
journalists, and women in those fields or participating in virtually
any other form of digital speech — has emerged as an urgent challenge
for the tech companies for whom your conference is an important forum.
Those targets of harassment, who include our journalists, do important
work in spite of these threats.

BuzzFeed has participated deeply in SXSW for years, and our staffers
are scheduled to speak on or moderate a half-dozen panels at SXSW
2016. We will feel compelled to withdraw them if the conference can’t
find a way to do what those other targets of harassment do every day —
to carry on important conversations in the face of harassment. We hope
you can support the principle of free speech and engage a vital
issue facing us and other constituents on the event.

Fortunately, the conference is five months away. We are confident that
you can put in place appropriate security precautions between now and
then, and our security staff would be happy to advise on those
measures.

We look forward to your reply.

Ze Frank
President
BuzzFeed Motion Pictures

Dao Nguyen
Publisher
BuzzFeed

Ben Smith
Editor-in-Chief
BuzzFeed

And Vox Media’s

Harassment is an issue Vox Media takes extremely seriously. As a digital media company, our journalists often face online harassment and find themselves on the receiving end of threats. We support our staff when they encounter this kind of abuse while continuing to do the work that can result in it, and want to continue an open dialogue about how best to do so.
By approving the panels in question, SXSW assumed responsibility for related controversies and security threats. By canceling the panels, they have cut off an opportunity to discuss a real and urgent problem in media and technology today. We have reached out to SXSW organizers and ask that they host a safe and open discussion of these issues, rather than avoid them. Vox Media will not be participating in this year’s festival unless its organizers take this issue seriously and take appropriate steps to correct. We will work to find an alternative forum for this conversation and invite others who feel the same to join us.

I approve of these measures actually. Harassment in this world has become insane lately due in part to the GamerGate. The fact that there are threats being posed because of trying to change the environment of harassment within the Gaming industry/community is insane. So I applaud these two companies dropping out.

Polygon Link.

Nintendo recently sent out developer kits for their new NX system but also opened applications for program development. (https://developer.nintendo.com/home ) Nintendo seems to be opening up their systems to make it much easier to port games to whereas it used to be nearly impossible. I’m actually glad they are taking a more friendly approach to it especially since they have been bleeding developers and publishers since the last few generations of games. Hopefully the NX will bring all these companies back to Nintendo and make some awesome stuff happen.

On other fronts, looks like Davey Wreden wasn’t the only one making a game.

Polygon Link.

William Pugh, co-designer of The Stanley Parable, has made his own company with some other friends and started an ARG at his website (http://crowscrowscrows.com/) So far it’s looking pretty interesting at least if the ARG has any relation to the game itself and seems to deal with a TV studio or movie set where something has happened in, thefts… After going through most of the ARG I am still unsure but it’s interesting to follow. Just can’t wait to see what kind-of game William comes out with.

Also Happy Back to the Future Day!

Gamasutra Link

For most of us since we build games and web games using Unity this may not be a total shocker but as more and more browsers remove an old Netscape Plug-in API (NPAPI) from their system the less likely we are able to use games created from Unity’s Webplayer. Well in version 5.4 of Unity they will remove the webplayer altogether and focus on the WebGL format. Basically this means we need to stop making our games with NPAPI and with WebGL. The good news is they are looking at solutions to try and transfer the old games into a playable format.

Also since that one was rather short here’s another look at “The Beginner’s Guide” from Gamasutra.

It’s funny to I think he basically had the same reaction as I did to the game. I haven’t played through a second time yet, and if I ever met Wreden I probably wouldn’t ask him what his meaning of the game is because it has so much meaning that I feel it should be more personal. That each person has their own individual reaction to it, whether good or bad, is really what I feel that game is about. It’s a game that, even though it’s breaking the rule’s of the game itself, wants to be talked about, wants to be experienced by others, wants to be seen, wants to be heard. I still can’t believe this game has impacted me so much and still feel this should be taught in one of our classes.

So apparently last week I found out that Davey Wreden, creator of “The Stanley Parable”, just released his new game “The Beginner’s Guide” so I had to purchase and play it. The game is amazing and really what I expected of from the creator of “The Stanley Parable”. It’s not a typical game and leaves you questioning everything.

On of the greatest things about the game I feel though is Davey gives out his personal email address, or at least one for the game itself, and he asks for your opinion on what the game means/games mean.

But since it is just a game release it shouldn’t be “news” except that it’s getting a lot of reviews, some good, some bad. Ars Technica actually gave it a rather bad review only because I don’t think they saw it as more of a narrative/art piece that it was. They seemed to be more focused on how the game played rather than the story it told, which I feel is the most important part of the game. But on the other hand Polygon gave it a decent review based on what the content is rather than a technical review. Either way I feel everyone should play this game, especially everyone going to school here as it’s like a quintessential thought process for creative people.

It actually did have a pretty big impact on me so I did write a blog post about the game here.

Polygon review.

Ars review.

I’ve never really played a game that effected me as much as music, or a movie. What I mean by this is, most games tend to be some silly entertainment, or maybe even art piece that is played to be enjoyed. “The Beginner’s Guide” pushed all the right buttons for me. As a creative person who is a little bit depressed and doesn’t know how to connect with a lot of people it seriously hit home at the beginning. And then the end happened which questioned everything, whether the narrator is an honest one, whether there is a real “Coda”, whether this “Coda” was male or female or even trans. All of these things add up to a really good game that gives you something to think about, leaving you with more questions than when you started.

I really enjoyed this game because it touches on things that I feel are wrong with me. Social Anxiety, Depression, Pulling myself out of the world and reflecting inward. I know I have done these things, I know for the most part they are not very healthy, but for me that is a coping system, is that the same coping system that “Coda” used. “Coda” made these games for fun, for himself, and only shared them to his friend because he thought that maybe sharing part of themselves to the world, to a person might help them not feel as lonely. But then you begin to feel that you have to live up to this person, be as good as this person. Why can’t your life be as good as theirs? Why can’t you step outside of yourself and be better than what you have been? Be an “adult”? Get a “real job”, a “real life”?

Ahem!

So yes as you can tell I have faced similar if not the same demons of “Coda” in my life, and as hard as you try when someone wants to help, wants to be a part of your life, sometimes you unknowingly, or even purposely push them away. Sometimes the only way to help yourself is to do it alone, even when you know you have friends out there who would bend over backwards to help you. Life is funny that way, and the mind is even funnier.

The game itself seems to give us false leads though. The Narrator calls “Coda” a male but in multiple places during the game, the game refers to “Coda” as a female. The end portion leads us to believe that Davey was the one putting Lampposts in the end of the games to make them seem complete, that “Coda” wasn’t making the games for the narrator, and that the narrator didn’t get why they were making the games at all. The last level even has near impossible puzzles that there are solutions to but are so difficult that cheating would make it easier (which the narrator does for us). Maybe it’s a thing between narrative games and action games. In actions game you just do things, for the sake of doing things. You get a mission, you accomplish the mission, you gain some piece of story from it. Narrative games are almost opposite. With them you get story sometimes whether or not if you do things, doing things does progress the story, but it’s always just to progress the story. No quests, no “win/loose” just completion. In fact it why I think it’s hard to make games these days heavy on story, because when I play I like to try and finish the story as quickly as possible (being a reader/writer/game designer makes me want to know why these things are here). Narrative games make you think, not like a puzzle, but inquisitively, emotionally. They strike some nerve, some inkling to become something more than just a game.

In the end I wrote Davey an email about how much I enjoyed this game. I would love to hear from him to see what the real interpretation of it is, if there really is a “Coda” more about the game or just life in general, but in truth I doubt I would get a response, mainly because I feel many will probably email him, but I doubt I would have done it any other way.

Get this game, play it, and learn from it.

Engadget Link.

Apparently Sony is getting out of the mobile gaming device market. Sony is not planning on making a sequel to the PS Vita. Shuhei Yoshida believes that smartphones have dampened enthusiasm for gaming handhelds. Personally I believe, as the article echoed, that Sony never really tried with the Vita or their portable systems. Unlike Nintendo they never seemed to fully embrace the system and focused solely on their home consoles. But even Nintendo knows that the mobile market is a huge market otherwise they wouldn’t have started making mobile games themselves. In all honesty I think Sony realized they couldn’t compete with Nintendo and Mobile and dropped out of the race, much like Sega did years ago when it made the Game Gear and couldn’t compete with the regular Gameboy. It is sad that Sony is stopping production of it but will be good to have their resources fully focused on current and possibly next gen consoles.

Polygon Link.

Kickstarter just announced that they are becoming a Public Benefit Corporation. What this entails is that they are still a for-profit company but they are under stricter rules in order to provide good basically it ‘falls somewhere on the spectrum between a corporation and a true non-profit.’ “A benefit corporation has a legal responsibility to perform a social good, to provide a benefit to society,” says Kickstarter’s co-founder and CEO Yancey Strickler. The impacts on Kickstarter Campaigns are negligible, basically anything you could have done before on the site you can do now, but it makes one feel better knowing where the profit is going and that the company has a much more public entity.

This article also touches on the fact that they don’t plan to make some form of equity option to the system as it changes the model they work with:

“I think that an equity-driven model of cultural production results in the same world we’ve been stuck in,” Strickler said, “where if a new idea is asked to justify itself by its potential profitability, I think that restricts the amount of innovation and new ideas that come into the world. To me, that is a world of sequels, of less original content, of people not taking chances because when you’re asking an audience to look at it through the filter of ‘is this a good investment or not’ and I think that’s often a poor fit with the world of art and culture.”

Kotaku Link 1, Kotaku Link 2.

Two articles caught my eye as I was reading Kotaku on Monday both about the restructuring of Nintendo after Satoru Iwata’s death. Tatsumi Kimishima, who is had also been the CEO and Chairman of the Board for Nintendo from 2006 to 2013 where he then became Managing Director of Nintendo Co., LTD, as which Kotaku didn’t mention, he is now the President of Nintendo Co., LTD. It’s a good choice now that I know his background. He’s been with the company for years and was there helping it when it was the most successful with the Wii and worked with Pokemon one of Nintendo’s most successful products. I do feel he has a grasp on how to innovate but also how to make money for the company. It is also interesting how the restructuring of the company went as well, rather than have four distinct groups, into two distinct groups, one specifically for hardware and one specifically for hardware. The restructuring also renamed some senior staff members making them seem more like consultants than as senior staff. Shigeru Miyamoto is now the “Creative fellow” and Genyo Takeda is now the “Technology fellow”. Hopefully these changes will be good for the company and make the Nintendo NX a success rather than the lackluster Wii U.

I happen to be a huge fan of Second Life. It was one of the first truly social online games and the first to use micro-transactions, and I feel would be a good game to, if not be played by the Game Culture class, at least looked into and examined. Second Life has always been a game of creation and social activity. I had always wanted to play with it when I heard about it initially but never got to until 7 years ago, when I had a computer that could handle running the game well, but now just about any computer can get onto Second Life, even phones.

The best thing I like about Second Life is the creation ability. If the player has a dream item the player want to make in SL then you can build it. In fact I made a version of the American Brewery (http://baltimorehistorybits.blogspot.com/2011/10/john-f-weissner-sons-brewery-aka.html) in Baltimore in SL. With SL though the player can build their own clothes, their own furniture, their own buildings, their own cities. They can can make something come to life with a few clicks. Granted it does take some time to build in SL but it feels very much like a simple 3D art program. Also right now they have it so if you wanted to make a mesh item in something like Maya or Blender you can transfer it over to SL as a mesh.

Once the player build these wondrous things SLs micro-transactions will help them be able to sell it online in the Second Life Marketplace or in SL itself. I have personally built a few things and have sold a few things myself but nothing to really write home to mom about, but there are sellers on SL that actually make a living off of it. The other excellent aspect of this is that once the player sells their items they can exchange it for real cash, or use that money to purchase something they want in world themselves.

For these reasons and many others I feel Second Life would be an excellent addition to the Game Culture Class.