The picture is our way of saying somebody missed the target. In this case, we aren’t the ones who are claiming someone missed the target, but Games Politic’s own James Fudge is:
“A report from Inside Social Games shows that Facebook games saw big drops in monthly active users (MAU’s) in the month of April. According to the monthly report 18 of the top 25 Facebook games saw a decline in visitors for the month.” – Game Politics
Accessible games, as Mr. Scott Hartsman called them on our podcast, are a subject that we have discussed often as of late. Zynga, being the new (albeit beleaguered) 800 pound Facebook Games gorilla on the block, has seen many developers vying for a piece of their action. But a quick look at the article cited above makes it seem as if Johnny-come-lately developers are indeed a day late and a dollar short. This includes Richard Garriott who’s Portalarium company has released yet another poker game.
Mending the Net
One of the subjects we discussed at length in the top half of show 58 is net neutrality and the failed attempt by the FCC to rein in Comcast. Comcast, you may remember, has been attempting to join internet providers in other countries by finding a way to make their subscribers pay until they bleed if they go over a set download limit on their internet service (a limit they set). It appears that our Uncle Sam is not one to give up quite that easy and has taken a novel approach one might call everything old is new again:
“The Wall Street Journal reports that the Federal Communication Commission plans to try regulating the Internet again using older rules that were written for phone networks to stop broadband service providers from blocking access to different types of data. But the real reason to use older language is probably to avoid another rebuke in the courts when service providers try to challenge the new regulations”. – Wall Street Journal via Game Politics
A Pirates Life (not) for me
A side effect of those who do find the pirates life is for them (at least video game pirates) are the many developers like Ubisoft who are busily throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Why? If you haven’t heard, one of the latest trends for single player PC games is to require the user to be constantly connected to the internet; and without the connection the game becomes unplayable. But are the developers and publishers right to use such draconic digital rights management? The head programer at Wolfire games doesn’t think so. What is more, Wolfire is putting their money where their mouth is. They are hosting something called “A Humble Bundle” - “a sale of five independent games that work on the PC, Mac OS X, and Linux. No DRM, so you can install each game on all your systems. You pay what you like, and you can split the payment between the developers and two charities.”
Sound as if they won’t make a nickel? If that’s what you think you would be wrong. Read the article over at Arstechnica, where Wolfire’s head programer gives his opinion on just why a few fingers are pointing back at developers when one points at video game pirates:
“David gives a simple reason for the problems in PC gaming: developers do it poorly. “It’s easier for these developers to point their fingers at pirates than to face the real problem: that their games are not fun on [the] PC… they are not fun to play with a mouse and keyboard, and don’t work well on PC hardware. Their field of view is designed to be viewed from a distant couch instead of a nearby monitor, and their gameplay is simplified to compensate for this tunnel vision.” – Arstechnica.com
Passing on the award
Recently we cited some serious contenders for the Darwin Award. One of the most serious contenders was Activision for busying themselves about killing Infinity Ward, the proverbial goose that laid the golden egg. Contender or not, Activision can pass on the award (albeit on a far smaller scale) to a student at New York City’s Pensacola High School who used a Nintendo Game Boy to create a fake bomb and planted it in his school:
“With all the reports of terrorism in New York City this week, it is probably not a good idea to place something that looks like a bomb in a school, but that’s just what 18-year-old Pensacola High School student Lars O’Mara did. His motive? To gain popularity by getting fellow students out of class for the day. But instead of a trip to the mall this student is spending some leisure time at the local jail and facing a felony charge.” – Game Politics.com