YES! That was the collective reaction of hardcore football fans and hardcore gaming fans alike at midnight this morning when Madden 12, the video game that unofficially marks the start of the NFL season, hit store shelves. After the NFL lockout threatened to make the Madden franchise largely irrelevant this season—after all, who wants to pretend to play games that are pretend in real life, too?—Madden 12 hits stores to the same type of fan fare that it always seems to get, with fans waiting in line outside of GameStop and other video game stores to get their hands on it the moment it dropped.
That said, you might still need a little coaxing. Hardcore Madden fans always buy the game—no matter how similar it is to the previous year’s title—but if you’re the type of person who only buys a copy of Madden every few years, you might be on the fence about buying it in 2011. A piece of advice: Don’t be! Don’t just take our words for it, though. Here are five features included in Madden 12 that make it a must-buy for any football fan. Just remember: We almost didn’t have a football season at all. So don’t take this one for granted!
1. A brand-new Dynamic Player Performance feature
Know how sometimes you’ll be watching a football game and a normally-reliable wide receiver drops one pass and then a second pass and then, before you know, the only thing he seems to be able to catch is a cold? Madden 12 has factored that into the game this year with a feature called Dynamic Player Performance. If a guy makes a couple of drops, he’ll suddenly lose all his confidence and drop the ball all over the field. And if he makes a crazy catch? He’ll turn into the second coming of Jerry Rice. Pretty neat.
2. More than 100 new tackle animations, including 40 gang tackles
The NFL might be cutting down on the hard-hitting tackles that have plagued the league in the past, but that doesn’t mean the creators of Madden are cutting back. Instead, they’ve actually added new tackle animations and also given you the power to control the point of impact on tackles this season. So make sure you don’t get flagged for any helmet-to-helmet hits!
3. An improved Superstar Mode
This is a great feature for hardcore Madden fans. You can improve your best players’ skills on more than just game day now. You can also use the Madden practice mode to get the most out of your players’ talents and to improve their ability to play on game day. If you thought your girlfriend was annoyed by how much time you spent playing last year’s Superstar Mode, the makers of Madden apologize in advance for making it even better this year.
4. More than 100 new defensive moves
How else are you going to stop Michael Vick!? Just kidding. But, seriously: Madden 12 makes it easier than ever to play D against your opponents. Of course, that means it’ll be a little more difficult for you to score when you’ve got the ball. But we’re pretty sure you won’t mind the first time you’re put in charge of trying to stop Chris Johnson or Adrian Peterson.
5. A better way to organize your own online community of friends and foes
If nothing else, every new Madden game comes with a better way to communicate online with your opponents. This year is no different. You can create your own online community of your favorite opponents (up to 2000 people can fit in your community!) and you can find out where you rank amongst your opponents. It’s a great way to keep track of your stats—and to make the most of the Madden 12 experience. Soooo, what are you waiting for? Go start the experience now. See you in a few months…
Article Source: http://live.drjays.com/index.php/2011/08/30/game-time-5-reasons-you-need-madden-12-in-your-life-immediately/
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Monday, 29 August 2011
Addiction? Video games crowded out man's real life
At the height of what he calls his addiction, Ryan Van Cleave would stand in the grocery store checkout line with his milk and bread and baby food for his little girls and for a split second think he was living inside a video game.
It sounds crazy, but it's true: something would catch his attention out of the corner of his eye — maybe another shopper would make a sudden move for a chocolate bar — and he was mentally and emotionally transported to another world.
It was his favourite video game, the one he played every night, every day, sometimes all weekend. The sudden movement in the store triggered a response similar to when he was in front of the computer screen, battling dragons and monsters for up to 60 hours a week. Van Cleave's heart pounded. His breathing quickened.
But then the thirtysomething family man would catch his breath and come back to reality. Sort of.
World of Warcraft began to crowd out everything in Van Cleave's world. His wife. His children. His job as a university English professor.
Before teaching class or late at night while his family slept, he'd squeeze in time at the computer screen, playing. He'd often eat meals at the computer — microwave burritos, energy drinks, Hot Pockets, foods that required only one hand, leaving the other free to work the keyboard and the mouse.
Living inside World of Warcraft seemed preferable to the drudgery of everyday life. Especially when the life involved fighting with his wife about how much time he spent on the computer.
"Playing World of Warcraft makes me feel godlike," Van Cleave wrote. "I have ultimate control and can do what I want with few real repercussions. The real world makes me feel impotent ... a computer malfunction, a sobbing child, a suddenly dead [mobile] phone battery — the littlest hitch in daily living feels profoundly disempowering."
Despite thoughts like this, despite the dissociative episodes in supermarkets, he did not think he had a problem IRL — gamerspeak for In Real Life. But he did, and a reckoning was coming.
Van Cleave grew up in suburban Chicago in the US. He was adopted, which he said always made him feel like an outsider in his own home and in the world. As a kid, he was more interested in guitars and computers.
In high school, each year brought more exciting games with better graphics, but his parents didn't see a problem because all teen boys seemed to play video games. And their son also played guitar in a band, so video games weren't the only thing in his life.
Same with college. "Gaming 15-20 hours a week in college is no big deal," said Van Cleave, who graduated from Northern Illinois University with a degree in English. "The problem occurred after that, when I got into the real world."
He earned a master's degree and a PhD in creative writing at Florida State, was named a poetry fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and found a teaching job at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Then in the fall of 2003, he was offered a tenure-track position at Clemson University in South Carolina — his dream job.
His wife, Victoria, became pregnant for the first time; the baby was unplanned and Van Cleave admitted being shocked at the idea of becoming a father. He and his wife were late for her first ultrasound because Van Cleave was playing Madden Football, a sports game.
It was around this time that World of Warcraft entered his life.
Van Cleave ended up playing one entire weekend, stealing away to the computer while his family was sleeping or while his parents, who were visiting, played with his baby daughter.
Victoria used one word to describe her feelings: "disgusted."
She felt abandoned. "I couldn't believe that someone could choose a virtual family over a real one."
One reason Van Cleave was so captivated: it offered different perspectives. Previously, most games Van Cleave played were seen from a bird's eye view, looking down at the action. In WoW, a player can zoom, pan and look at a scene exactly how a human does in real life.
Three years into his job at Clemson, Van Cleave's life began to fall apart. His four dogs died, one after another from various causes. His wife was pregnant again. Then Van Cleave began to get the impression that other faculty disliked him and wanted him gone. But he didn't try to repair the rifts, instead channeling his anxieties into WoW, a virtual world he could control.
"All that tethered me to anything meaningful during this time was WoW, which I clung to for dear life," he wrote.
For millions who play, the lure of games like WoW is hard to resist.
Players create an "avatar", or online character, who operates within a startlingly detailed storyline and graphics. Playing makes the gamer feel like the star of a really awesome sci-fi movie.
While in-game, characters form "guilds", or teams, and go on "quests" to find items, conquer lands or achieve new levels. They occasionally fight with other players or guilds, slay zombies, clash with evil elves or kill monsters. Players talk to each other in the game via headsets and often form intense friendships.
"People play those games often in a desire to meet their social needs," said Hilarie Cash, a Washington state therapist who runs a six-bed inpatient program for internet and video game addicts. "There's a sense of friendship and self-esteem you develop with your teammates, you can compete and be cooperative. It really feels as though it meets your social needs."
Unlike other games, WoW didn't end. It went on and on, with characters roaming through different realms and meeting new people along the way. When Van Cleave had reached the apex of one world and hit the maximum points a character could possess, there were always other characters to create and more loot to amass. Meanwhile, the game makers offered expansions every year, which meant new worlds to explore, new levels to achieve.
"There was always something better and cooler," he said. "You can never have enough in-game money, enough armour, enough support. You've got to keep up with the virtual Joneses."
The maker of World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment, declined to comment when contacted.
In the past five years, news stories have described people suffering exhaustion after playing a game for 50 hours straight, of teens killing their parents after having games taken away and of parents neglecting infants while mesmerised by the online world.
Yet not all authorities believe the games are addictive.
"I do not believe that the concept of 'addiction' is useful; it only describes strong temptations; it does not explain strong temptations. What makes the temptation so strong? The memory of past pleasant experiences with the behavior that we are talking about — in this case videogames," wrote Jackson Toby, a professor emeritus of sociology at Rutgers University. "I don't believe that someone can be addicted to videogames."
The American Psychiatric Association will not list video game addiction as a mental disorder in the 2012 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. However, the APA said there is a possibility that a group of reward-seeking behavioral disorders — including video game addiction and internet addiction — will be included in an appendix of DSM-5 to "encourage further study".
Van Cleave and others insist video game addiction is similar to gambling addiction.
By the time his second baby was born in 2007, Van Cleave was playing some 60 hours a week.
A few months later, Clemson didn't renew his contract and said he would not achieve tenure. He was hired for a one-year fellowship at George Washington University, teaching one class, but that meant he had more time for gaming while the stress of finding a long-term, full-time job ratcheted up.
He spent money on gaming and bought two new computers so he could see better game graphics.
In 2007, Van Cleave had three different World of Warcraft accounts (each at a cost of $US14.95 a month). A secret Paypal account paid for two of the accounts so his wife wouldn't hound him about the cost.
He spent $US224 in real money to buy fake gold, so he could get an in-game "epic-level sword" and some "top-tier armour" for his avatar.
Changes in Van Cleave's personality began to appear. Among those who noticed was his best friend from high school, Rob Opitz, who lived in another state but played World of Warcraft with him for years.
"When things in IRL — in real life — would interrupt what was going on in the game, he would get very loud very quickly about those things," Opitz recalled. "During that time, it's kind of like everything was completely over the top. It wasn't that he was a little mad, he was in a full-blown rage."
Van Cleave was about to hit bottom.
It was December 31, 2007. Van Cleave was halfway through his yearlong fellowship at George Washington University. Yet there he was, standing on the Arlington Memorial Bridge. He was thinking about jumping into the icy water.
He had been gaming for 18 hours straight and wasn't feeling well. He had told his wife that he was going to buy cough drops for his sore throat. But his misery was not just physical.
"My kids hate me. My wife is threatening [again] to leave me," Van Cleave would write in his book. "I haven't written anything in countless months. I have no prospects for the next academic year. And I am perpetually exhausted from skipping sleep so I can play more Warcraft."
That night marked the first time Van Cleave realised he had a problem.
The self-examination pulled him back from the bridge railing. He went home and deleted the game from his computer.
For the next week, his stomach and head hurt and he was drenched in sweat — like an addict withdrawing from drugs.
Staying away from WoW was difficult, but he didn't re-install the game.
And he started rebuilding — In Real Life.
Said his wife: "I didn't believe him. I had heard it all before and had no confidence that he would stop."
Van Cleave worked on his professional life. He freelanced, wrote poems and young adult books. He wrote the tell-all about his addiction, titled Unplugged and published last year.
He set his sights on a job, sending out 182 resumes.
In 2010, he was hired as an English professor at the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota. Van Cleave and his family bought a beige stucco home in a quiet subdivision.
It's an irony in Van Cleave's new, game-free life that Ringling is one of the nation's top schools for video game designers.
He knows his students spend much of their lives online, and he worries about them. "I don't think video games are evil," said Van Cleave. "That's not what I'm saying at all. I think games are fine if they are part of a balanced life."
Last semester, he had two students in class who talked about WoW non-stop. It made Van Cleave anxious.
Over the past year, he has talked about out-of-control gaming to various mental health groups.
But even now, four years after he stopped gaming, Van Cleave thinks about World of Warcraft.
Then there are his dreams.
In them, he is playing one of his former characters, running through the virtual world. When he wakes, sweating and out of breath, he always has the same impulse: to rush to the computer and log into the game.
Article Source: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/addiction-video-games-crowded-out-mans-real-life-20110830-1jj8z.html
It sounds crazy, but it's true: something would catch his attention out of the corner of his eye — maybe another shopper would make a sudden move for a chocolate bar — and he was mentally and emotionally transported to another world.
It was his favourite video game, the one he played every night, every day, sometimes all weekend. The sudden movement in the store triggered a response similar to when he was in front of the computer screen, battling dragons and monsters for up to 60 hours a week. Van Cleave's heart pounded. His breathing quickened.
But then the thirtysomething family man would catch his breath and come back to reality. Sort of.
World of Warcraft began to crowd out everything in Van Cleave's world. His wife. His children. His job as a university English professor.
Before teaching class or late at night while his family slept, he'd squeeze in time at the computer screen, playing. He'd often eat meals at the computer — microwave burritos, energy drinks, Hot Pockets, foods that required only one hand, leaving the other free to work the keyboard and the mouse.
Living inside World of Warcraft seemed preferable to the drudgery of everyday life. Especially when the life involved fighting with his wife about how much time he spent on the computer.
"Playing World of Warcraft makes me feel godlike," Van Cleave wrote. "I have ultimate control and can do what I want with few real repercussions. The real world makes me feel impotent ... a computer malfunction, a sobbing child, a suddenly dead [mobile] phone battery — the littlest hitch in daily living feels profoundly disempowering."
Despite thoughts like this, despite the dissociative episodes in supermarkets, he did not think he had a problem IRL — gamerspeak for In Real Life. But he did, and a reckoning was coming.
Van Cleave grew up in suburban Chicago in the US. He was adopted, which he said always made him feel like an outsider in his own home and in the world. As a kid, he was more interested in guitars and computers.
In high school, each year brought more exciting games with better graphics, but his parents didn't see a problem because all teen boys seemed to play video games. And their son also played guitar in a band, so video games weren't the only thing in his life.
Same with college. "Gaming 15-20 hours a week in college is no big deal," said Van Cleave, who graduated from Northern Illinois University with a degree in English. "The problem occurred after that, when I got into the real world."
He earned a master's degree and a PhD in creative writing at Florida State, was named a poetry fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and found a teaching job at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Then in the fall of 2003, he was offered a tenure-track position at Clemson University in South Carolina — his dream job.
His wife, Victoria, became pregnant for the first time; the baby was unplanned and Van Cleave admitted being shocked at the idea of becoming a father. He and his wife were late for her first ultrasound because Van Cleave was playing Madden Football, a sports game.
It was around this time that World of Warcraft entered his life.
Van Cleave ended up playing one entire weekend, stealing away to the computer while his family was sleeping or while his parents, who were visiting, played with his baby daughter.
Victoria used one word to describe her feelings: "disgusted."
She felt abandoned. "I couldn't believe that someone could choose a virtual family over a real one."
One reason Van Cleave was so captivated: it offered different perspectives. Previously, most games Van Cleave played were seen from a bird's eye view, looking down at the action. In WoW, a player can zoom, pan and look at a scene exactly how a human does in real life.
Three years into his job at Clemson, Van Cleave's life began to fall apart. His four dogs died, one after another from various causes. His wife was pregnant again. Then Van Cleave began to get the impression that other faculty disliked him and wanted him gone. But he didn't try to repair the rifts, instead channeling his anxieties into WoW, a virtual world he could control.
"All that tethered me to anything meaningful during this time was WoW, which I clung to for dear life," he wrote.
For millions who play, the lure of games like WoW is hard to resist.
Players create an "avatar", or online character, who operates within a startlingly detailed storyline and graphics. Playing makes the gamer feel like the star of a really awesome sci-fi movie.
While in-game, characters form "guilds", or teams, and go on "quests" to find items, conquer lands or achieve new levels. They occasionally fight with other players or guilds, slay zombies, clash with evil elves or kill monsters. Players talk to each other in the game via headsets and often form intense friendships.
"People play those games often in a desire to meet their social needs," said Hilarie Cash, a Washington state therapist who runs a six-bed inpatient program for internet and video game addicts. "There's a sense of friendship and self-esteem you develop with your teammates, you can compete and be cooperative. It really feels as though it meets your social needs."
Unlike other games, WoW didn't end. It went on and on, with characters roaming through different realms and meeting new people along the way. When Van Cleave had reached the apex of one world and hit the maximum points a character could possess, there were always other characters to create and more loot to amass. Meanwhile, the game makers offered expansions every year, which meant new worlds to explore, new levels to achieve.
"There was always something better and cooler," he said. "You can never have enough in-game money, enough armour, enough support. You've got to keep up with the virtual Joneses."
The maker of World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment, declined to comment when contacted.
In the past five years, news stories have described people suffering exhaustion after playing a game for 50 hours straight, of teens killing their parents after having games taken away and of parents neglecting infants while mesmerised by the online world.
Yet not all authorities believe the games are addictive.
"I do not believe that the concept of 'addiction' is useful; it only describes strong temptations; it does not explain strong temptations. What makes the temptation so strong? The memory of past pleasant experiences with the behavior that we are talking about — in this case videogames," wrote Jackson Toby, a professor emeritus of sociology at Rutgers University. "I don't believe that someone can be addicted to videogames."
The American Psychiatric Association will not list video game addiction as a mental disorder in the 2012 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. However, the APA said there is a possibility that a group of reward-seeking behavioral disorders — including video game addiction and internet addiction — will be included in an appendix of DSM-5 to "encourage further study".
Van Cleave and others insist video game addiction is similar to gambling addiction.
By the time his second baby was born in 2007, Van Cleave was playing some 60 hours a week.
A few months later, Clemson didn't renew his contract and said he would not achieve tenure. He was hired for a one-year fellowship at George Washington University, teaching one class, but that meant he had more time for gaming while the stress of finding a long-term, full-time job ratcheted up.
He spent money on gaming and bought two new computers so he could see better game graphics.
In 2007, Van Cleave had three different World of Warcraft accounts (each at a cost of $US14.95 a month). A secret Paypal account paid for two of the accounts so his wife wouldn't hound him about the cost.
He spent $US224 in real money to buy fake gold, so he could get an in-game "epic-level sword" and some "top-tier armour" for his avatar.
Changes in Van Cleave's personality began to appear. Among those who noticed was his best friend from high school, Rob Opitz, who lived in another state but played World of Warcraft with him for years.
"When things in IRL — in real life — would interrupt what was going on in the game, he would get very loud very quickly about those things," Opitz recalled. "During that time, it's kind of like everything was completely over the top. It wasn't that he was a little mad, he was in a full-blown rage."
Van Cleave was about to hit bottom.
It was December 31, 2007. Van Cleave was halfway through his yearlong fellowship at George Washington University. Yet there he was, standing on the Arlington Memorial Bridge. He was thinking about jumping into the icy water.
He had been gaming for 18 hours straight and wasn't feeling well. He had told his wife that he was going to buy cough drops for his sore throat. But his misery was not just physical.
"My kids hate me. My wife is threatening [again] to leave me," Van Cleave would write in his book. "I haven't written anything in countless months. I have no prospects for the next academic year. And I am perpetually exhausted from skipping sleep so I can play more Warcraft."
That night marked the first time Van Cleave realised he had a problem.
The self-examination pulled him back from the bridge railing. He went home and deleted the game from his computer.
For the next week, his stomach and head hurt and he was drenched in sweat — like an addict withdrawing from drugs.
Staying away from WoW was difficult, but he didn't re-install the game.
And he started rebuilding — In Real Life.
Said his wife: "I didn't believe him. I had heard it all before and had no confidence that he would stop."
Van Cleave worked on his professional life. He freelanced, wrote poems and young adult books. He wrote the tell-all about his addiction, titled Unplugged and published last year.
He set his sights on a job, sending out 182 resumes.
In 2010, he was hired as an English professor at the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota. Van Cleave and his family bought a beige stucco home in a quiet subdivision.
It's an irony in Van Cleave's new, game-free life that Ringling is one of the nation's top schools for video game designers.
He knows his students spend much of their lives online, and he worries about them. "I don't think video games are evil," said Van Cleave. "That's not what I'm saying at all. I think games are fine if they are part of a balanced life."
Last semester, he had two students in class who talked about WoW non-stop. It made Van Cleave anxious.
Over the past year, he has talked about out-of-control gaming to various mental health groups.
But even now, four years after he stopped gaming, Van Cleave thinks about World of Warcraft.
Then there are his dreams.
In them, he is playing one of his former characters, running through the virtual world. When he wakes, sweating and out of breath, he always has the same impulse: to rush to the computer and log into the game.
Article Source: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/addiction-video-games-crowded-out-mans-real-life-20110830-1jj8z.html
Sunday, 28 August 2011
Sporty games for the social media
When it comes to building games based on social sports, you cannot copy the logic from other successful social games and apply the same logic directly, says Swami Venkat, Founder and CEO, iNexgen Games Technologies P Ltd, Chennai (http://bit.ly/F4TSwamiV). Many social sports games have tried that model and failed, he adds, during a recent interaction with Business Line. “Social sports game is a special genre that has its own advantages. We need to build a plan and design based on the strengths of the social sports.” Our conversation continues over email.
Excerpts from the interview:
First, how is the next-gen game different from its predecessor?
The future of gaming and innovation in gaming have clearly moved into social and mobile, mainly because it is easy to develop and distribute to millions of users. Console games are dying, due to the lack of resources, escalating costs in making, longer release cycle, cumbersome distribution strategies and heavy marketing costs.
In fact, console makers (XBox 360 and PS3), and console game developers have realised this fact and have been integrating to Facebook through ‘Facebook Connect'.
It is possible to study the user behaviour, playing pattern and feedback and do enhancements to the social games. Ninety per cent of the console gamers never play and complete the game they bought for, say, $40; and 90 per cent of the social gamers never pay for the games they play.
It is, therefore, a wise strategy to release the games on multi-platforms and maximise the reach to provide unsurpassed quality of entertainment to the next-gen gamers.
One of your first products was a game for Facebook. Can you walk us through its different stages, from ideation to launch?
When Chari and I wanted to develop a great game for the Indian gaming market, we unanimously selected cricket as our core idea. For obvious reasons, known to 1B people! We also have a past experience developing a successful cricket game for ESPN-Cricinfo.
We chose our first launching platform as Facebook, after carefully studying all the available cricket games including those on Facebook. All the games use the social networking feature to post the score and not tapping the real potential of it. We believed that cricket deserves a much more engaging game on social media that will make the players experience the excitement of playing cricket with their friends. That's how we started ‘AllRounderz' and the game is currently available at http://apps.facebook.com/allrounderz.
We can proudly say that AllRounderz is the world's first true social cricket game on social media. We have also introduced the world's first women's online cricket, introduced S. Venkataraghavan as virtual umpire, and true 3D experience to the players. Our game is skill-based.
What are your observations about Indian online gamers?
We have a huge market for online games in India. The critical challenge we have is the monetisation of those games. Indian gamers don't want to pay for the games, thanks to the piracy market culture, which shakes the movie industry also.
Age group 18-24 is the majority of the demography that plays games. Even if they are ready to pay, we don't have a right payment mechanism, as most of them won't have the credit card, which is the most common online payment mode so far.
Zynga has come up with game cards, sold through cyber cafes and retailers.
Social games and casual games are also having a wider reach of audience, including women above 34.
Since most of the social networking sites offer open platform for the developers, thousands of applications/games are launched every day. The major challenge for the game developers is to retain the customers for a longer duration.
Is there a potential in gaming that corporates in India are yet to tap?
Traditionally, India has proved as a top-notch and cost-effective destination for outsourced work. Most of the companies have been focusing on this and also distributing international titles. Only a very few have tried to tap the real potential of Indian gaming market by releasing games for the local market.
Movies, music and cricket are the major forms of entertainment in India. Many games were made based on them and none has achieved a huge success. Several years ago, nobody in India would have predicted/ anticipated that Zynga-type of games would be highly successful in India. The message is that Indian gamers are ready to consume games, if they are good.
More companies should come forward to experiment, innovate, and improve the current genre of games. At iNexGen, we are improving the popular game with some innovations in the game play. It is also wise to plan for both products and services to protect your bottom line.
Your views on the skills most wanted in the gaming industry.
Honestly, the animation and games industry has not grown to the level of IT in India, mainly due to the lack of quality and quantity of resources, and certainly not due to the lack of business opportunities. Games development involves two major categories: Games art, and games programming. You need to be really talented to perform either of these.
Developing art assets for games that will go into multi-platforms requires special skill. You need to design high quality assets that will be rendered on multiple devices in real-time with limitations based on the device's configuration. Game programming requires both programming skills and understanding of mathematics, physics, and knowledge about the integration of several third-party tools. Any good game programmer can become a good software programmer in IT industry, but the reverse is not true.
The government and parents play a key role in getting recognition for this industry. Animation and games should get into the school curriculum, at least as optional subjects. Colleges should come forward to offer recognisable programmes for the students. Parents should also encourage their children if they are interested in games development and animation.
An overview of some of the exciting projects currently pursued by iNexGen...
Our framework is based on ‘Game as a Service' that can be utilised by the top brands for their social media strategies. Our plan is to introduce user-engaging features, provide a solution to the brands to tap the power of social media, introduce real multi-player, conduct school/college/corporate tournaments online, launch the game on multiple platforms (iPad/iPhone/Android, other SNS, and mobile SNS), create a cricket community that can collaborate, share and learn. We also plan to develop other similar social sports on social media. Everyone is looking for ways to make the players spend their real money for virtual goods. We are planning to provide a platform where players can exchange their earned virtual coins to buy real goods through our game.
Article Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/d-murali/article2376619.ece?homepage=true
Excerpts from the interview:
First, how is the next-gen game different from its predecessor?
The future of gaming and innovation in gaming have clearly moved into social and mobile, mainly because it is easy to develop and distribute to millions of users. Console games are dying, due to the lack of resources, escalating costs in making, longer release cycle, cumbersome distribution strategies and heavy marketing costs.
In fact, console makers (XBox 360 and PS3), and console game developers have realised this fact and have been integrating to Facebook through ‘Facebook Connect'.
It is possible to study the user behaviour, playing pattern and feedback and do enhancements to the social games. Ninety per cent of the console gamers never play and complete the game they bought for, say, $40; and 90 per cent of the social gamers never pay for the games they play.
It is, therefore, a wise strategy to release the games on multi-platforms and maximise the reach to provide unsurpassed quality of entertainment to the next-gen gamers.
One of your first products was a game for Facebook. Can you walk us through its different stages, from ideation to launch?
When Chari and I wanted to develop a great game for the Indian gaming market, we unanimously selected cricket as our core idea. For obvious reasons, known to 1B people! We also have a past experience developing a successful cricket game for ESPN-Cricinfo.
We chose our first launching platform as Facebook, after carefully studying all the available cricket games including those on Facebook. All the games use the social networking feature to post the score and not tapping the real potential of it. We believed that cricket deserves a much more engaging game on social media that will make the players experience the excitement of playing cricket with their friends. That's how we started ‘AllRounderz' and the game is currently available at http://apps.facebook.com/allrounderz.
We can proudly say that AllRounderz is the world's first true social cricket game on social media. We have also introduced the world's first women's online cricket, introduced S. Venkataraghavan as virtual umpire, and true 3D experience to the players. Our game is skill-based.
What are your observations about Indian online gamers?
We have a huge market for online games in India. The critical challenge we have is the monetisation of those games. Indian gamers don't want to pay for the games, thanks to the piracy market culture, which shakes the movie industry also.
Age group 18-24 is the majority of the demography that plays games. Even if they are ready to pay, we don't have a right payment mechanism, as most of them won't have the credit card, which is the most common online payment mode so far.
Zynga has come up with game cards, sold through cyber cafes and retailers.
Social games and casual games are also having a wider reach of audience, including women above 34.
Since most of the social networking sites offer open platform for the developers, thousands of applications/games are launched every day. The major challenge for the game developers is to retain the customers for a longer duration.
Is there a potential in gaming that corporates in India are yet to tap?
Traditionally, India has proved as a top-notch and cost-effective destination for outsourced work. Most of the companies have been focusing on this and also distributing international titles. Only a very few have tried to tap the real potential of Indian gaming market by releasing games for the local market.
Movies, music and cricket are the major forms of entertainment in India. Many games were made based on them and none has achieved a huge success. Several years ago, nobody in India would have predicted/ anticipated that Zynga-type of games would be highly successful in India. The message is that Indian gamers are ready to consume games, if they are good.
More companies should come forward to experiment, innovate, and improve the current genre of games. At iNexGen, we are improving the popular game with some innovations in the game play. It is also wise to plan for both products and services to protect your bottom line.
Your views on the skills most wanted in the gaming industry.
Honestly, the animation and games industry has not grown to the level of IT in India, mainly due to the lack of quality and quantity of resources, and certainly not due to the lack of business opportunities. Games development involves two major categories: Games art, and games programming. You need to be really talented to perform either of these.
Developing art assets for games that will go into multi-platforms requires special skill. You need to design high quality assets that will be rendered on multiple devices in real-time with limitations based on the device's configuration. Game programming requires both programming skills and understanding of mathematics, physics, and knowledge about the integration of several third-party tools. Any good game programmer can become a good software programmer in IT industry, but the reverse is not true.
The government and parents play a key role in getting recognition for this industry. Animation and games should get into the school curriculum, at least as optional subjects. Colleges should come forward to offer recognisable programmes for the students. Parents should also encourage their children if they are interested in games development and animation.
An overview of some of the exciting projects currently pursued by iNexGen...
Our framework is based on ‘Game as a Service' that can be utilised by the top brands for their social media strategies. Our plan is to introduce user-engaging features, provide a solution to the brands to tap the power of social media, introduce real multi-player, conduct school/college/corporate tournaments online, launch the game on multiple platforms (iPad/iPhone/Android, other SNS, and mobile SNS), create a cricket community that can collaborate, share and learn. We also plan to develop other similar social sports on social media. Everyone is looking for ways to make the players spend their real money for virtual goods. We are planning to provide a platform where players can exchange their earned virtual coins to buy real goods through our game.
Article Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/d-murali/article2376619.ece?homepage=true
Saturday, 27 August 2011
Anthony Recker on Thursday's crazy game: "That's baseball."
Anthony Recker was kind enough to call me late Friday night and fill me in on what it felt like to make his major league debut in Thursday's wild Yankees 22-9 win over his Oakland Athletics in New York.
The 22 runs was the most the Yankees scored since 2000 and New York hit a major-league record three grand slams.
Recker was the catcher for the entire ballgame and had to endure 21 New York hits and 13 walks issued by Oakland pitching. He worked with six different A's pitchers.
"It was a day I will never forget," he said. "It was an awesome feeling to get my first start in the big leagues and it was exciting to get out to a 7-1 lead. Unfortunately, it couldn't continue. We won the first two games of the series and were happy to be up 7-1, but that's just a tough offense to keep holding down. I just wish I could have contributed offensively."
Recker went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and a walk. He put the ball in play in the ninth inning, hitting a grounder to Jorge Posada -- yes, longtime Yankee catcher Jorge Posada -- who made a bizarre throw to first baseman Nick Swisher, who made a nice play for the final out. It was not your typical 4-3 in the scorebook, but nothing was typical about this game.
"It was a little tough going against five different pitchers, a different one every time I came up," Recker said. "But again, that's baseball and something you have to adjust to."
Recker said Oakland tried its best to hold the Yankees down, but "they just got rolling and we couldn't stop them."
He said he was familiar with the six pitchers manager Bob Melvin used.
"I knew what they had," he said. "I've caught them before. I felt like I knew what to say and how to handle them. It was just a tough day, but it's all part of the experience."
Oakland, happily flew to Boston on Thursday night and the A's thumped the Bosox 15-5 on Friday night in the first game of another three-game seriest.
"You just have to roll with the punches in this game; every day is different," Recker said.
He said it had been a crazy week, but was settling down.
"I am getting more and more comfortable every day," Recker said. "It has been an awesome experience. The guys have been great and very helpful to me. They have gone out of their way to make sure everything is going well and I am fitting in. I am a lot more confident."
Recker said those who may have pitied him for being on the losing end of a 22-9 score in his first major league game were missing the point. The point is he was just playing in a major league game.
"It was still an awesome experience," he said. "Sure, I wish I had done better and we had won the game, but just to be playing was amazing. Now, I can't wait to get out there and play again."
Recker will get another chance in the second game of a doubleheader on Saturday. The Oakland-Boston series, like several other sporting events, has been impacted by Hurricane Irene. Sunday's scheduled game was shifted to Saturday. The games are scheduled for 1 and 5 p.m. and Recker will likely start the second game.
"They tell you when you're going to start so that you can get yourself mentally prepared," he said.
Recker said the team having to deal with the hurricane was par for the course.
"It has been a wild week, but you just can't let anything bother you," he said.
No matter what has happened this week, Recker said he has received considerable support from his family and friends back home in the Lehigh Valley.
"They have been texting me and calling me all week and they have been very supportive," Recker said. "They keep telling me to stay upbeat and not get down.
"Believe me, I am having a great time. I was playing at Yankee Stadium and now I'm going to play at Fenway Park, one of the two classic ballparks in this country. It would have been great to get my start anywhere, but to have it happen at Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park, who could ask for anything more?"
Article Source: http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/2011/08/anthony-recker-on-thursdays-crazy-game-thats-baseball.html
The 22 runs was the most the Yankees scored since 2000 and New York hit a major-league record three grand slams.
Recker was the catcher for the entire ballgame and had to endure 21 New York hits and 13 walks issued by Oakland pitching. He worked with six different A's pitchers.
"It was a day I will never forget," he said. "It was an awesome feeling to get my first start in the big leagues and it was exciting to get out to a 7-1 lead. Unfortunately, it couldn't continue. We won the first two games of the series and were happy to be up 7-1, but that's just a tough offense to keep holding down. I just wish I could have contributed offensively."
Recker went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and a walk. He put the ball in play in the ninth inning, hitting a grounder to Jorge Posada -- yes, longtime Yankee catcher Jorge Posada -- who made a bizarre throw to first baseman Nick Swisher, who made a nice play for the final out. It was not your typical 4-3 in the scorebook, but nothing was typical about this game.
"It was a little tough going against five different pitchers, a different one every time I came up," Recker said. "But again, that's baseball and something you have to adjust to."
Recker said Oakland tried its best to hold the Yankees down, but "they just got rolling and we couldn't stop them."
He said he was familiar with the six pitchers manager Bob Melvin used.
"I knew what they had," he said. "I've caught them before. I felt like I knew what to say and how to handle them. It was just a tough day, but it's all part of the experience."
Oakland, happily flew to Boston on Thursday night and the A's thumped the Bosox 15-5 on Friday night in the first game of another three-game seriest.
"You just have to roll with the punches in this game; every day is different," Recker said.
He said it had been a crazy week, but was settling down.
"I am getting more and more comfortable every day," Recker said. "It has been an awesome experience. The guys have been great and very helpful to me. They have gone out of their way to make sure everything is going well and I am fitting in. I am a lot more confident."
Recker said those who may have pitied him for being on the losing end of a 22-9 score in his first major league game were missing the point. The point is he was just playing in a major league game.
"It was still an awesome experience," he said. "Sure, I wish I had done better and we had won the game, but just to be playing was amazing. Now, I can't wait to get out there and play again."
Recker will get another chance in the second game of a doubleheader on Saturday. The Oakland-Boston series, like several other sporting events, has been impacted by Hurricane Irene. Sunday's scheduled game was shifted to Saturday. The games are scheduled for 1 and 5 p.m. and Recker will likely start the second game.
"They tell you when you're going to start so that you can get yourself mentally prepared," he said.
Recker said the team having to deal with the hurricane was par for the course.
"It has been a wild week, but you just can't let anything bother you," he said.
No matter what has happened this week, Recker said he has received considerable support from his family and friends back home in the Lehigh Valley.
"They have been texting me and calling me all week and they have been very supportive," Recker said. "They keep telling me to stay upbeat and not get down.
"Believe me, I am having a great time. I was playing at Yankee Stadium and now I'm going to play at Fenway Park, one of the two classic ballparks in this country. It would have been great to get my start anywhere, but to have it happen at Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park, who could ask for anything more?"
Article Source: http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/2011/08/anthony-recker-on-thursdays-crazy-game-thats-baseball.html
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Victor Chandler Poker Goes Cash Game Crazy
Victor Chandler Poker goes cash game crazy this week with a full daily line up of cash game promotions designed to boost your bankroll just by playing.
Monday and Tuesday (August 22 and 23) sees Wheel of Fortune offer any player who wins a hand at showdown with a wheel (a straight from ace to 5) be eligible to play in a €1,000 Wheel of Fortune freeroll on Monday August 29.
Tuesday (August 23) also hosts the Bad Beat Bonanza Double Payouts which sees players who lose a hold’em cash game hand with aces full of kings (A-A-A-K-K) have their payout doubled from 100 times the small blind to 200 times the big blind.
Wednesday (August 24) sees Flop Stars offer cash bonuses from €10 to €500 simply for flopping a made hand from a flush to a royal flush and going on to win the hand at showdown.
Thursday and Friday (August 25 and 26) has the Raked Hands Race which sees players make the top 500 on the leader board after the end of day two be eligible for a €1,000 Raked Hands Freeroll on Wednesday August 31. Eligible hold’em cash games range from €0.05/€0.10 to €0.50/€1.00.
Finally, and for one day only on Friday August 26, Victor Chandler Poker is offering Royal Flush Fortune Double Payouts, which will give 100 times the small blind (rather than the usual 50) for anyone who wins a hand at showdown on a hold’em cash table with a royal flush – A-K-Q-J-10 suited.
Article Source: http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/11886-victor-chandler-poker-goes-cash-game-crazy
Monday and Tuesday (August 22 and 23) sees Wheel of Fortune offer any player who wins a hand at showdown with a wheel (a straight from ace to 5) be eligible to play in a €1,000 Wheel of Fortune freeroll on Monday August 29.
Tuesday (August 23) also hosts the Bad Beat Bonanza Double Payouts which sees players who lose a hold’em cash game hand with aces full of kings (A-A-A-K-K) have their payout doubled from 100 times the small blind to 200 times the big blind.
Wednesday (August 24) sees Flop Stars offer cash bonuses from €10 to €500 simply for flopping a made hand from a flush to a royal flush and going on to win the hand at showdown.
Thursday and Friday (August 25 and 26) has the Raked Hands Race which sees players make the top 500 on the leader board after the end of day two be eligible for a €1,000 Raked Hands Freeroll on Wednesday August 31. Eligible hold’em cash games range from €0.05/€0.10 to €0.50/€1.00.
Finally, and for one day only on Friday August 26, Victor Chandler Poker is offering Royal Flush Fortune Double Payouts, which will give 100 times the small blind (rather than the usual 50) for anyone who wins a hand at showdown on a hold’em cash table with a royal flush – A-K-Q-J-10 suited.
Article Source: http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/11886-victor-chandler-poker-goes-cash-game-crazy
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
How to Get Yourself Banned from Gears of War 3
Epic Games is taking stern action against those who have made it their life goal to spoil and ruin the campaign of Gears of War 3. It’s sad to acknowledge that these types of people even exist (don’t they have better things to do with their time), but the truth is they’re out there. Now Epic Games is firing back, warning players of serious “repercussions” if they share videos online that spoil the plot of Gears of War 3. One such repercussion would mean permanent banning from Gears of War 3 when the game ships in mid September.
“We’re extremely diligent about getting that stuff taken down and issued a call to fans to not perpetuate it… and just keeping track of those who do,” said Gears 3 executive producer Rod Fergusson to Edge. “I don’t think everybody’s aware of the potential repercussions of those types of actions.”
Then, while speaking with Eurogamer, Fergusson elaborated on the repercussions he had in mind by dropping the banning bombshell.
“We have a banning system built into our stuff so we can go in and identify certain people,” he said. “Some people aren’t smart about what they do. They’ll be disappointed on the 20th of September when they can’t get in and can’t play. They may be banned.”
Burned. But rightfully so.
It’s just insane to think people dislike something so much that they’ll go out of their way to ruin it for everyone else. Some people just need to find something better to do with their time. My recommendation: knitting.
Finally, in the same interview with Eurogamer, Fergusson put his final stance on the situation by using a recent example of someone trying to spoil Gears 3 for the dedicated fanbase community. In short, the bad apples will be discarded.
“We had one of my video chats and somebody went into the chat room and tried to yell all caps spoilers throughout the chat room to try to ruin the experience for the thousand people who were watching me. It’s that kind of stuff that just drives me crazy,” expressed Fergusson.
“If you don’t value this community, you don’t value this experience, then we don’t value you. I’d rather pick that one bad apple out of the pool so everybody else can have a better time.”
So if you want to enjoy Gears of War 3 when it launches on September 20th, don’t share pirated videos of the game’s campaign. End of story.
Article Source: http://www.craveonline.com/gaming/articles/172639-how-to-get-yourself-banned-from-gears-of-war-3
“We’re extremely diligent about getting that stuff taken down and issued a call to fans to not perpetuate it… and just keeping track of those who do,” said Gears 3 executive producer Rod Fergusson to Edge. “I don’t think everybody’s aware of the potential repercussions of those types of actions.”
Then, while speaking with Eurogamer, Fergusson elaborated on the repercussions he had in mind by dropping the banning bombshell.
“We have a banning system built into our stuff so we can go in and identify certain people,” he said. “Some people aren’t smart about what they do. They’ll be disappointed on the 20th of September when they can’t get in and can’t play. They may be banned.”
Burned. But rightfully so.
It’s just insane to think people dislike something so much that they’ll go out of their way to ruin it for everyone else. Some people just need to find something better to do with their time. My recommendation: knitting.
Finally, in the same interview with Eurogamer, Fergusson put his final stance on the situation by using a recent example of someone trying to spoil Gears 3 for the dedicated fanbase community. In short, the bad apples will be discarded.
“We had one of my video chats and somebody went into the chat room and tried to yell all caps spoilers throughout the chat room to try to ruin the experience for the thousand people who were watching me. It’s that kind of stuff that just drives me crazy,” expressed Fergusson.
“If you don’t value this community, you don’t value this experience, then we don’t value you. I’d rather pick that one bad apple out of the pool so everybody else can have a better time.”
So if you want to enjoy Gears of War 3 when it launches on September 20th, don’t share pirated videos of the game’s campaign. End of story.
Article Source: http://www.craveonline.com/gaming/articles/172639-how-to-get-yourself-banned-from-gears-of-war-3
Friday, 12 August 2011
Facebook Reacts to Google Games
Facebook Inc. made a series of changes Friday to its online-gaming platform, a day after its biggest rival in social media, Google Inc.'s Google+ site, launched online games.
Facebook posted an update on its blog late Thursday announcing it would roll out a live game ticker that gives updates on friends' recent moves. The company also increased the size of its gaming screen and now allows users to bookmark their favorite games on the home screen.
The moves are an attempt by Facebook to quell the concerns of game developers, who have had an increasingly tense relationship with the social network over the last year.
"Fundamentally, we want to have a relationship with developers on our platform where our values are aligned," said Carl Sjogreen, Facebook's director of platform products. "We've been cleaning up some of the incentive misalignment."
Social gaming has become an increasingly important part of Facebook's business. Research firm eMarketer estimates that social-gaming companies generated more than $500 million in revenue from selling virtual goods last year.
Facebook says it has over 200 million users who play games on its site.
Last September, Facebook began cracking down on "game spam," or the amount of game-related updates that show up in a user's news feed. But game developers have complained that since then, their visibility on the site has plummeted.
As of July 1, Facebook requires game developers to accept payments through its virtual payment system, called Facebook Credits. Through credits, the company takes a 30% cut of all game-developer revenue.
The announcement on the Palo Alto, Calif., company's Facebook page came just hours after Google announced that it will begin offering 16 games from 10 game companies on its competing social network, Google+.
Those offering include Rovio Mobile Ltd.'s popular "Angry Birds" game and Zynga Inc.'s Zynga Poker.
The offerings will expand over time, the company said.
In sharp contrast to Facebook's fee, Google+ will offer a "promotional rate," initially taking only 5% of any payments made by Google+ users to the game companies for the remainder of the year. A Google spokeswoman declined to say what the share of revenues would be in the future.
Sean Ryan, director of game partnerships at Facebook, said that the revenue split is just one factor that game developers consider when deciding where to build their products.
Article Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904823804576504624079447138.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Facebook posted an update on its blog late Thursday announcing it would roll out a live game ticker that gives updates on friends' recent moves. The company also increased the size of its gaming screen and now allows users to bookmark their favorite games on the home screen.
The moves are an attempt by Facebook to quell the concerns of game developers, who have had an increasingly tense relationship with the social network over the last year.
"Fundamentally, we want to have a relationship with developers on our platform where our values are aligned," said Carl Sjogreen, Facebook's director of platform products. "We've been cleaning up some of the incentive misalignment."
Social gaming has become an increasingly important part of Facebook's business. Research firm eMarketer estimates that social-gaming companies generated more than $500 million in revenue from selling virtual goods last year.
Facebook says it has over 200 million users who play games on its site.
Last September, Facebook began cracking down on "game spam," or the amount of game-related updates that show up in a user's news feed. But game developers have complained that since then, their visibility on the site has plummeted.
As of July 1, Facebook requires game developers to accept payments through its virtual payment system, called Facebook Credits. Through credits, the company takes a 30% cut of all game-developer revenue.
The announcement on the Palo Alto, Calif., company's Facebook page came just hours after Google announced that it will begin offering 16 games from 10 game companies on its competing social network, Google+.
Those offering include Rovio Mobile Ltd.'s popular "Angry Birds" game and Zynga Inc.'s Zynga Poker.
The offerings will expand over time, the company said.
In sharp contrast to Facebook's fee, Google+ will offer a "promotional rate," initially taking only 5% of any payments made by Google+ users to the game companies for the remainder of the year. A Google spokeswoman declined to say what the share of revenues would be in the future.
Sean Ryan, director of game partnerships at Facebook, said that the revenue split is just one factor that game developers consider when deciding where to build their products.
Article Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904823804576504624079447138.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Thursday, 11 August 2011
Why isn't there outrage over game prices?
Not wanting to tread over old ground, but you'd have to have been living under a rock this week not to have noticed some of the uproar around the country about the stance by Adidas over the pricing of its All Blacks jersey.
In a nutshell, the company refused to budge on its wholesale price, prompting fans and retailers to voice their opinions on just about every forum imaginable. It was an outrage, it was a travesty, people opined. Senior people in the country, too. People started ordering their jerseys from overseas just to show Adidas what they thought, blah, blah, blah.
It seems the situation has now resolved itself somewhat (to be honest I haven't paid much attention to the issue, not being a huge rugby fan) but ask yourself this: why isn't there as much public outrage over video game pricing as there is over the price of a replica team jersey for an event that comes around once every four years? That's what Game Junkie reader delphijunkie wants to know.
Good point, delphijunkie, good point - but I don't have the answer.
I've talked about the discrepancies in video game pricing in New Zealand on this blog before but there won't be a gamer here who hasn't held off buying a new game they've wanted until they've found it in the bargain bin or on special somewhere.
Now, not that I usually use Twitter as a source for story material, but delphijunkie's query raised a interesting reply from kiwibastard, who noted that high prices for games had been "the case since there was games in NZ. I remember £1.99 budget tapes for Amstrad selling for $20 here."
So why is it that when rugby fans rise up in arms about an issue it nets results pretty darn quickly from retailers, but when gamers complain about high prices of something they love (which we have) it seemingly falls on deaf ears?
Is it because, in the mind of society, video games matter less than replica rugby jerseys and rugby in general and many in society still see video games as the domain for children and not grown adults? I know which one I'd prefer to buy.
Interestingly, there are two rugby games coming out to mark the Rugby World Cup: Sidhe Interactive's All Blacks Rugby Challenge ($128, EB Games, console price) and HB Studios' Rugby World Cup 2011: the official game ($118, EB Games, console price). I wonder if the pricing for those games will raise the hackles of rugby fans?
I'd be interested in your thoughts.
Article Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/blogs/game-junkie/5435276/Why-isn-t-there-outrage-over-game-prices
In a nutshell, the company refused to budge on its wholesale price, prompting fans and retailers to voice their opinions on just about every forum imaginable. It was an outrage, it was a travesty, people opined. Senior people in the country, too. People started ordering their jerseys from overseas just to show Adidas what they thought, blah, blah, blah.
It seems the situation has now resolved itself somewhat (to be honest I haven't paid much attention to the issue, not being a huge rugby fan) but ask yourself this: why isn't there as much public outrage over video game pricing as there is over the price of a replica team jersey for an event that comes around once every four years? That's what Game Junkie reader delphijunkie wants to know.
Good point, delphijunkie, good point - but I don't have the answer.
I've talked about the discrepancies in video game pricing in New Zealand on this blog before but there won't be a gamer here who hasn't held off buying a new game they've wanted until they've found it in the bargain bin or on special somewhere.
Now, not that I usually use Twitter as a source for story material, but delphijunkie's query raised a interesting reply from kiwibastard, who noted that high prices for games had been "the case since there was games in NZ. I remember £1.99 budget tapes for Amstrad selling for $20 here."
So why is it that when rugby fans rise up in arms about an issue it nets results pretty darn quickly from retailers, but when gamers complain about high prices of something they love (which we have) it seemingly falls on deaf ears?
Is it because, in the mind of society, video games matter less than replica rugby jerseys and rugby in general and many in society still see video games as the domain for children and not grown adults? I know which one I'd prefer to buy.
Interestingly, there are two rugby games coming out to mark the Rugby World Cup: Sidhe Interactive's All Blacks Rugby Challenge ($128, EB Games, console price) and HB Studios' Rugby World Cup 2011: the official game ($118, EB Games, console price). I wonder if the pricing for those games will raise the hackles of rugby fans?
I'd be interested in your thoughts.
Article Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/blogs/game-junkie/5435276/Why-isn-t-there-outrage-over-game-prices
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Now You Can Experience Real Flying With Pro Flight Simulator
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ProFlightSimulator was developed as an alternative to professional flight simulators for pilot training. This is a fully functioning Flight Simulator that puts other flight sims to shame. ProFlightSimulator gives you the experience of flight right from your own computer. Everything from terrain, aircraft reactions, to planetary alignments & movements is based on actual world data.
The virtual controls are based on Real Life cockpits and you will find night flying more enjoyable with ground lighting concentrated in urban areas, car headlights on major roadways and accurate airport approach lighting. With realistic flight dynamics and controls...
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
Free Games at Think Bingo
Around the world of bingo online free games definitely seem to be the order of the day and each brand does things slightly differently to the others. You can find sites that offer free bingo all day every day and others that have dedicated free play rooms for their depositing players - Think Bingo is of the latter ilk and there are two rooms available under a "Free" tab with a selection of free games at Think Bingo.
Play Now
Whilst the free games at Think Bingo may not be as impressive in the number of no cost games available in comparison with other brands, the jackpots are slightly more impressive than most.
Free Thinkers
This free to play room opens at 8pm every evening until 10pm and boasts £25 jackpots every 20 minutes in the 90 ball room. The prize is split with one and two lines getting £5 each and the full house winner taking home £15.
Free Little Birds
This room boasts 75 ball games that have jackpots of £25 per game. Games play every 15 minutes from 1.15pm until 2pm.
Free bingo isn't all that Think Bingo has to offer, you just have to check our their specials page to see what else this established brand brings to the bingo table for their players. You have the 200% welcome bonus for new players making their first deposit, a guaranteed 50% cash match on all other deposits made to the site, bounce back cashback bonuses every day, weekly 5% cashback offers, the introduction of multi-line 75 ball bingo and a great selection of pre-buy guaranteed jackpot games and prize bingo offerings. All of this and their very own dedicated forum!
Written by Freya Barber
Article Source: http://bingo.gamble.co.uk/news/free-games-think-bingo-4927.asp
Play Now
Whilst the free games at Think Bingo may not be as impressive in the number of no cost games available in comparison with other brands, the jackpots are slightly more impressive than most.
Free Thinkers
This free to play room opens at 8pm every evening until 10pm and boasts £25 jackpots every 20 minutes in the 90 ball room. The prize is split with one and two lines getting £5 each and the full house winner taking home £15.
Free Little Birds
This room boasts 75 ball games that have jackpots of £25 per game. Games play every 15 minutes from 1.15pm until 2pm.
Free bingo isn't all that Think Bingo has to offer, you just have to check our their specials page to see what else this established brand brings to the bingo table for their players. You have the 200% welcome bonus for new players making their first deposit, a guaranteed 50% cash match on all other deposits made to the site, bounce back cashback bonuses every day, weekly 5% cashback offers, the introduction of multi-line 75 ball bingo and a great selection of pre-buy guaranteed jackpot games and prize bingo offerings. All of this and their very own dedicated forum!
Written by Freya Barber
Article Source: http://bingo.gamble.co.uk/news/free-games-think-bingo-4927.asp
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