Author Archive

New and Interesting:

Derek Smart may be a smart ass, a jack ass or “large and in charge” depending on you look at it, but he is great for getting publicity.

EA may have set the bar so high for Star Wars The Old Republic that even Superman couldn’t clear it. 

And now for the rest of the story…

Kaltxi everyone,

The interesting thing about those mmos that have actual “role playing servers” is that no one on them ever role plays.  Even if you try, the average player will look at you like you have fifteen heads.  It’s sort of an odd aspect of the hobby considering that one of the acronyms often applied to it is massively multiplayer online role-playing game.  The sad truth of the matter is that the only reason most people gravitate toward a role playing server like World of Warcraft’s (WoW) Earthen Ring server is that they somehow feel that the decent person/asshat ratio will be very low.  While it hasn’t happened in WoW, in other mmos we often see role playing servers merged with other servers, or eliminated altogether if there is more than one. Fortunately for those of us with active imaginations (I am certainly one of them) there is only one server in Star Trek Online.  And so, as mentioned yesterday, I present my latest effort, Na’vi me, with a special thanks to whoever the player was that first had idea – it was a good one and it is A LOT of fun.

Name:  Erzuli Taronyu “The Hunter”

Profession: Captain of Pandora’s Revenge

Favorite Quote: “Do you know how difficult it is to fit a tail into a Starfleet Uniform.”

Favorite Entertainer(s):  Blue Man Group*

Favorite Music: Blues… “The blue’s ain’t nothin’ but a good Na’vi feelin’ bad.”

Favorite Song: “Am I blue?”

Turn offs:  Ketuwong (Alien) people who attend a Na’vi wedding for the first time and think no one has ever heard the joke, “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue – say there’s always something blue at a Na’vi wedding!”

Biography:

She gained her immortality and lost her tail after recreating an “accident” involving two rubber bands, a nuclear particle accelerator and fifteen hundred gallons of Saurian Brandy.  Many people had attempted to recreate the famous accident that cast immortality upon Wowbagger “the infinitely prolonged” but no one had ever achieved it.  It is said that those who tried ended up looking silly, dead and usually both.

The situation immediately brings two questions to mind, the first being, “What does one do with immortality?”  Let’s face it friends, forever is a mighty long time. Most sentient species have some concept of an afterlife, but few people ever consider what they would do with an “eternal reward” even if they had it. Oh there are, of course, some cultures (especially on Earth) that believe they come back in some grand continuous cycle of lives repeating endlessly – and to tell the truth just considering the concept gave her the screaming heebee geebees. 

Those who know the history of Wowbagger (and may have even had the good fortune to be insulted by him) know that he occupies his portion of forever by insulting the universe…individually, and “here’s the clincher, in alphabetical order.”

Of course, after successfully repeating Wowbagger’s accident, Erzuli was immediately faced with a second question as well.  She could spend a few millennia hanging around the forest. However when you are part of an indigenous tribe that communes with nature through their tails (unlike some Earth men who,  rumors have it, talk out their posteriors – a remarkable concept to be sure) what do you do when you have suddenly lost your tail?  Well, without the tail, communing with nature, let along actually hanging around in it would be darn difficult to begin with.

Then the words of those who invaded her happy home as a child sprung to mind. It was something that Earth people belonging to a club they called “Starfleet” with what they called a “motto” – travel the universe, meet new and interesting people and kill them. There was another expression that an Earth woman had taught her. She wasn’t like the others. She once told Erzuli “before setting out for revenge you must first dig two graves – One for the one upon whom you seek vengeance, and your own.” It seemed fine to Erzuli, and as good a way to occupy forever as any…time to start digging.

Until later my friends,

Kiyevame

Na’vi words were from “Learn Na’vi” (http://www.learnnavi.org/)

*A popular comedy/performance art group in Chicago.

** Wowbagger the infinitely prolonged” is a character by one of my favorite authors, Douglas Adams.

Another peculiar aspect of roleplaying, a slight problem really, applies only to Star Trek Online.  Many of the players will be fans of one of the series: The Next Generation, Deep Space 9, and Voyager.  The star ships like those that were featured in each series are there for the player to obtain – Voyager, The Enterprise, and the Defiant.  The only problem is that these ships are not in the top tier of ships (Tier Five).   What this means is that they are much weaker in combat, whether pve or pvp, than their Tier Five counterparts – and even updating them with Tier five weapons and consoles does not make them competitive.  So as you level from the Captain tier to the Rear Admiral Tier, you are forced to leave behind that ship you enjoy so much, as it sits unused in the shipyard.

Free to play games in the western market seem to be developing the same trend as some of the extremely popular girls we all knew in high school – usually easy, but never cheap.

Now it seems that Keen from Keen and Graev’s gaming blog, once the great proponent of Allods has sworn off free to play games for good .  We can’t say that we blame him however, all things considered.  But sometimes it’s best not to judge the whole barrel of apples by the single rotten one at the bottom.   Even though Gpotato finally “listened” (read hastily retracted their original prices when players threatened to quit “en masse” before the end of what appears to be a “soft launch”).  

This is, in fact, one of the subjects that my co-host, Fran, Tipa, Saylah and myself discuss on the next show.  Life is circle, Elder Blackwolf used to say, and the gaming industry is the same way. A few years ago you couldn’t make the average western fan of “triple-A” games play a “free to play” game without holding a member of his family hostage.  The success of some free to play games has demanded the attention of more than a few developers, publishers, and even investors.  In many ways it’s like the increased presence of podcasting on the internet.   Those of us who are here at the start are increasingly seeing big companies with names like ABC, CBS and NBC decided they want in on the action (some of which rapidly fell by the wayside).

It’s easy to take a great idea, and in the process of trying to make it your own end up twisting it so far out of proportion that it simply doesn’t work anymore.   There is little doubt in my mind that this is the reason that some of the big communication companies that try their hand at podcasting podfade so fast it set land speed records – they were too busy trying to drive a profit margin through a great idea.  In the same way a very large fence seems to have been constructed amidst the free to play games, and the newcomers to North American shores seem to be falling on one of two sides…

On the first side we see games that have taken a careful look at some of the companies in places like Korea who have been making this way all along …the people who really know what they are doing.   My experience with cash shops in games like these, are those with stocked with items that entice the user to purchase the product.  Sometimes it’s a new outfit not available anywhere else. Don’t think that players will purchase that outfit just to hang out in front of the bank (or in port in the case of Voyage Century)? Think again.  As much as Darren Love’s now famous complaint about the $10.00 horse made its way around the blogosphere, these days it seems like a real deal.

On the other side of the fence are those companies that seem to feel cash shops are more like cash cows.  The concern I have, and that we discussed at length in our next show, is that games are being designed to force you to use the cash shop, and use it often, rather than simply entice you to do so.  It’s a delicate balancing act that not every publisher seems to have the ability to perform.   Even if the developers and publishers out there aren’t sitting down with prices and spread sheet, they should take note that gamers considering playing free to play game are doing just that.

It’s interesting to note that the cash shop that raised such a ruckus (I helped raise a bit of it myself I am not proud to say) over at Star Trek Online (STO) has only two items in it at present.  There is more to come of course, but it is easy to overlook it altogether and simply enjoy the game.

Now I will admit to throwing the last paragraph in there as a tie in…and here it is.  One of my favorite pass times in Star Trek Online (and Champions Online before I switched over to STO) is seeing what other players have done with the remarkable character creator metagame (and believe you me it is such a powerful tool it IS a metagame).  Fewer people make use of the “bio” part of the game where the player can put their character’s history in the Star Trek Online universe. It’s a shame really, because players do check for them and read them – I get regular compliments on mine.  This time I saw such a remarkable job at creating a character that I just had to share it all with you.  Those of you who have seen the new James Cameron movie “Avatar” may recognize a member of the Na’vi (the picture here doesn’t do the player’s character justice).  And yes,  it is such a fantastic idea that I fully intent to play a Na’vi myself.  Another quick note to our readers and listeners:  If you see me in game and send me a tell please tell me who you are as well (i.e. “Hey I know you from Fallen Earth” otherwise you might get mistaken for the bane of the gamers existence, a gold seller).

 See you Online

Julie Whitefeather

(Posted for Julie Whitefeather by The Web Master)

Was it good for you?

Just as you were getting over the hurt – just when you said to yourself, “O.K. Ubisoft used and abused me, but hey, she’s French so you have got to expect that right?”… 

It happens all again.

Here is an excerpt from an article over at Kokatu.com.

In a post over on Command & Conquer 4’s forums, EA community manager Apoc writes “First thing to be clear about, Command & Conquer 4 has NO DRM. Zip, zero, zilch, none.”

Sounds great! Until, a few lines later, he says this. “To play Command & Conquer 4, the computer needs to be connected to the internet.”

Uh. Apoc. If the publisher is imposing limitations on when and how a game can be played, it’s DRM. While it’s unclear how often you’d need to be connected – whether it’s just at startup, or whether it requires a constant connection – what is clear is you’d still need a connection at some stage. So laptop gaming is out. As is playing when your internet connection is down. – Plunkett, Kokatu.com

Maybe all this only means you need to be connected at startup, but it appears not. Most of the sources we see are saying otherwise.

In fact we discussed this very issue on show 56 (nearly through the lengthy editing process).   Maybe we should have expected the gaming equivalent of Robin Williams early years out of Ubisoft (always need to be on).  Maybe we should have said to ourselves what does a French company care about American soldiers in isolated areas of the world who can’t play some silly game, let alone American gamers. After all, those soldiers aren’t protecting French freedom right? Yes friends just as I was getting used to the pain, it seems that I am going to have to go out and buy what grandma used to call “an inflatable donut”.  You must have seen them – those inflatable round rings that you can sit in because yet another gaming company decided to shove one up our collective posteriors? Perhaps that’s not what they are used for but personally we expect a run on them down at the local Wallmart now that Command and Conquer 4 is on the shelves.  Originally my thought was that EA was going to ship a free inflatable donut with each copy of the game.

Now that we think about it however…

They did so well with Spore that the best course of action would be to simply ship the game with the code to crack the “always connected” DRM, after all, it’s probably already out there.

The No Prisoners, No Mercy Team

“I don’t get no respec”… well at least not yet anyway. It is a subject recently heard in many a barb in Star Trek Online (STO) fleet chat these days.  Of course those of you who have been following the news out of Cryptic lately know that the patch with a respec, federation versus federation pvp and more is just around the corner.  As a side note, once federation vs. federation pvp is firmly in place I wonder how much demand there will continue to be (or not) for Federation versus Klingon pvp.

Yet no matter how much a developer does to answer their critics and give their customers what they want there will always be those for whom the glass is not merely half empty, but the other half is full of toxic waste. One developer who was a guest on our show once told us “if you lose a customer, you don’t just lose a customer – you gain a detractor.”  Would that it were more people had the attitude espoused by Mr. Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve:

“One thing that you hear [Valve] talk a lot about is entertainment as a service, it’s an attitude that says ‘what have I done for my customers today?’” – Gabe Newell, co-founder Valve

Still, even if it were the case – Even if the development industry was full of nothing but Gabe Newell clones the task would still be a monumental one.  To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, you can please some of the people some of the time but someone will always be ticked off all of the time. Even when you discount the customers, spoken of by Glen Swan (one of the community managers from Funcom featured on show 55) who want a spaceship in games like Age of Conan, finding a median in the often conflicting customer demands is problematic at best. It is an exercise in multiple regression that might have even befuddled Einstein.  It is something that many a developer, I am sure, has only considered possible by changing the name of the developer’s studio to “Free Lunch.”

Even that would likely not work for long for as we all should know (and don’t seem to) there is no such thing as a free lunch. Some see the “free to play” business model as the savior of the industry (or at least their little corner of it) hoping to repeat the success of Turbine.  But free to play doesn’t mean free for everyone, and if it does, doesn’t mean the entire game is free – someone, somewhere, has to pay to keep the servers open.  When Cryptic Studios first announced the subscription plus cash shop model for Champions Online, and now STO, many players seem to forget that companies like the 800 pound Blizzard Gorilla have been doing it all along; it is just recently that they have opened an actual shop instead of calling things a “fee.”  Unlike games like Allods, which is designed to be unplayable if you do not support the cash shop, STO is designed (at least so far) so that you can ignore the cash shop and never be disadvantaged. Even so, it seems that what is good for the Blizzard goose is not good for the Cryptic gander these days. It’s a bit odd, however, that those players who complain the loudest, the “un-silent minority”, are those players who no longer seem to be playing the game. It doesn’t help matters when the impression some players have of cash shops are those created by Gpotato, which seem one step short of two big guys named bubba, waiting for the players in a dark ally, demanding their wallet.

In the end, no matter what developers try there will always be those players who are not happy deciding that the game is not for them, but are determined to bring the game down and the company that makes it along with it.  There was an old expression that was prevalent when I was growing up, and is just as applicable now as it was then.  It especially applies to those whom are determined that if they don’t like a product no one else should either:

Don’t get mad and go away – just go away.

Access Denied

While Ubisoft is busy showing us their middle finger these days, it seems that the collector’s edition of Silent Hunter 5 is being shown the door in Germany.  It seems that someone at Ubisoft forgot to account for the German constitution and left in images that violate the same – that’s one heck of an “oops”.  This, of course, comes on the heels of a denial of service attack on those same Ubisoft servers that Assassins Creed 2 customers are required to keep in contact with for every minute that the software is in use.

Meanwhile Gabe Newell, who founded Valve along with Mike Harrington, was busy accepting his Pioneer Award at the Gamers Choice Awards…where he took a few moments to sound out about, amongst other issues, digital rights management.  In an article over at Arstechnicayou can take a look at the picture of Mr. Newell with the screen behind him sporting foot high letters that spell out “DRM is entertainment as dis-service”.  Here is a quote garnered by Ben Kuchera:

“One thing that you hear [Valve] talk a lot about is entertainment as a service, it’s an attitude that says ‘what have I done for my customers today?’” he said. “It informs all the decisions we make, and once you get into that mindset it helps you avoid things like some of the Digital Rights Management problems that actually make your entertainment products worth less by wrapping those negatives around them.” – Gabe Newell, via Arstechnica.com

A bit closer to home, because it is closer to our hearts, is a whole different set of initials: ADA.  It appears that Sony was forced to dip its toe in the waters of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in Stern vs. Sony. If you haven’t read the article about it over at Terra Novayou should (that’s an order from the nuns at No Prisoners, No Mercy).  The article is by “Greglas” and is entitled is Everquest II a place of public accommodation.  In short the answer, at least in California is “no”.  But it appears that the answer is not a final no but more like our mothers “I will think about it” no.  As the article reports, in other states like our home state of Illinois, the ADA is not limited to physical structures.  In Stern vs. Sony, Judge Percy Anderson relied “on past decisions in California courts interpreting the ADA”. Judge Anderson concluded that the ADA did not apply in this case because “SOE games are not physical places or services connected to physical places”.

Mind you no one here is a lawyer, but our own Julie has had to deal with ADA on a professional basis on prior occasions (and was raised by a mother with cerebral palsy).  One operative phrase that might end up being applied, even if the “is cyberspace a public place” hurdle can be passed is reasonable accommodation. Even if courts do eventually find that the ADA applies to Cyberspace as well as physical space will the “reasonable accommodation test” be applied? In other words if it were applied (and we have no idea if it would be) what could Sony be reasonably expected to do to accommodate needs which were the subject of the lawsuit? Interesting changes may be “afoot”.

See you online,

The No Prisoners, No Mercy Team

Get together developers to talk about starting an “indie”?  Priceless.

Actually produce the game? Expensive – but doable.

Let Derek Smart talk about changes after you make him president?

Not very smart…

Those who are regular listeners, those who follow us on Virgin Worlds, and read us here, know that we are normally the champions of independent developers. In fact it was not that long ago that we had the community manager and lead designer for Quest Online Studios as guests on the show, where they described us as their “soldiers” making their game and efforts well known.  As a result, the No Prisoners, No Mercy team has been following the shakeup at Quest Online studios.   This morning’s news feed included some of the following Derek Smart quotes that came to us via Broken Toys in a post Scott Jennings calls “I am not making any of this up.”

“Dave Allen didn’t “depart”. I fired him back in February for insubordination and for acting against the best interests of the company. Shortly after the investors of the LLC unanimously voted him off the LLC….”  – Derek Smart

“The average gamer is as finicky as a hummingbird on acid, with a very short attention span and a penchant for being largely unforgiving.” – Derek Smart

It was just yesterday that one of our long time regulars, who goes by the name Token, said he missed a feature we used to do call “Flame Proof Undies.”  Well Token, my friend, buckle up and put on your asbestos long johns because the ride is going to rough and it might get a tad hot.

First off, in a proactive move I will anticipate some of the email and comments we will get regarding Messer Godwin’s Reductio ad Hitlerum –  Attorney Godwin may indeed be a kind and wonderful soul but he doesn’t pay the bills around here so let me set the stage with one of my favorite lawyer jokes.

Question: What can a goose do, a duck can’t and a lawyer should?

Answer: Stick his bill up his ass.

Now that we have set the proper mood, let me begin to violate said inane “law” by pointing out that, based the announcements by Derek Smart regarding Quest Online Studios (QOL), allowing him to do public relations for QOL is like asking to have  Joseph Mengele as your family physician.  First off a few words of advice to Mr. Smart who I know will tell us to put our advice the same place the joke above said lawyers should put the bill…

Derek, there is an old expression that says “be nice to the people you meet on the way up because you will meet the same people on the way back down.”  The gaming industry is a much smaller community than many people expect and bragging that you fired David Allen isn’t like burning your bridges behind you, it’s more like dynamiting the town on the other side as well.  Second, based on your opinion of the “average” gamer you really do need to get out more.  That or at least find a way out of the time warp that has left you stuck back in the 1970’s.  Your concept of the average gamer is about as archaic as the dial telephone, and useful as a third anus (considering, of course that a second one would be extraneous).

And speaking of extraneous…if you are there to turn things around for Quest Online Studios, you MIGHT not want to self destruct the studio’s reputation before they get their next product out the door.  At the rate you are going you probably wouldn’t be able to sell water to a man dying of thirst in the desert. Why am I saying all this? Because I care about Quest Online Studios and hope I am wrong…and if I am right I hope they survive you.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

(posted by The Webmaster for Julie Whitefeather)

I have been introduced to a new game lately, and I find myself playing a lot of it; quite against my will. The game is called “hide and go aggravate” and is a new twist on one of everyone’s childhood favorite game that involves seeking – and believe me if you find yourself an unwilling participant in a game of “hide and go aggravate” you will indeed do a lot of seeking, but very little findings, for that is the nature, and the purpose of the game. 

The game recently arose out of player vs. player (pvp) in Star Trek Online (STO).  It is one of those examples of emergent gameplay that are the result of player taking the path of least resistance. For those not acquainted with pvp in Star Trek Online, there are both ground and space combat matches.  Those pvp matches set in space go until one side or the other gains 15 points…without a time limit.  Unfortunately (at least unfortunately for my peace of mind) cloaking technology (making a ship disappear for those one or two of you out there who have never seen Star Trek) is such a major part of the Star Trek universe that they couldn’t leave it out without the complaints reaching a deafening din.  You would think then that the side having use of cloaking technology (the Klingons) would be the one making the most use of it to prolong a match indefinitely.

You would think.

But it isn’t.

As a Federation player (think Alliance vs. Horde for all you Warcraft players out there) I only rarely had to wait until the Klingons and their cloaked ships came out of hiding. Perhaps that is because they knew just how easy it was to wipe up the arena with our warp plasma ejected from our exploding ships.  However, now that my Federation Liberated Borg character has reached the level of  rear admiral “OMG what’s that on your face” I have been playing more of my Klingon character.  More often than not (at least in the lower levels) I find myself circling for what seems like an eternity while the Federation players hide…somewhere. And they have become very, very good at it.  More than once I have found myself logging off the game in disgust.  The odd factor in this is that Cryptic has arranged pvp matches so that win or lose, every side gains.  If this were truly about gaining something it would benefit the Federation players most to get the match over quickly if they had little chance of winning. After all, in the time they spent trying to aggravate the Klingons they could have lost that match and been half way through another (which is called “power leveling” by the way, but that is another story).

After spending an hour chatting with Joe Blancato from Cryptic Marketing during yesterdays recording session of show 57, it seems that the STO team has a lot of changes in mind – hopefully one of them will do something to address “hide and go aggravate.” 

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

(posted for Julie Whitefeather by The Webmaster)

“I beamed back onto my ship and hailed Star Fleet to report my progress.   In times gone by there would have been such a thing as “being kicked upstairs”. After all, those who wear the Admirals insignia rarely fly anything but a desk.  But these are not those times; these are desperate times.  When Benjamin Sisko first flew the U.S.S. Defiant through the Bajor Wormhole he had no idea what the future held – and what a furor it would unleash…” Rear Admiral 1 of 9, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01

As soon as my character hit rear admiral 3, Leonard Nimoy’s voice rang though the computer’s speakers with a very familiar “congratulations admiral”.   I was “hailed” by Star Fleet and Admiral Quinn gave me a mission summoning to the Gamma Quadrant – now I know what that transwarp conduit located just outside the Sol System is for. 

Welcome to the Gamma Quadrant

Exiting the other end of the transwarp conduit to the Gama sector found me in the midst of a Federation Fleet, with a Klingon Fleet camped on their doorstep.  Another liberated Borg, much like myself, welcomed me to the front lines.  Those who stay in the Gama Quadrant will not find themselves on a leisurely stroll through the corridors of Earth Space Station or the promenade of Deep Space 9. Any needs the new rear admiral or her crew (you have to be rear admiral 3 to get the quest that gives you access to the Gama Quadrant)  are served by individual ships who serve particular needs, found by winding your way through a central corridor that runs through the massive fleet of ships.

One of the early story line quests gave me the mission of rescuing colonists whose world had been beset by the Borg and Species 8472 (known as the “Undine” to you non-assimilated types out there). In the process of rescuing the colonists and simultaneously battling both Borg and Undine, a desperate colonist ran up to my bridge crew and I.  “Help us,” she cried out, “We’re being invaded and it’s like being caught in the middle of a battle between two giants.”  The first image that came to mind was a scene from the movie Time Bandits where Napoleon, portrayed by Ian Holm, is seated between two of his generals and exclaims, “With you on one side and him on the other it’s like being at the bottom of a bloody well” – and that aptly portrays the theme of the Gama Quadrant. 

Players find themselves in the midst of a titanic battle while trying to protect the interests of the Federation.   The player will find daily exploratory missions to an adjoining expanse, the reward for which are medals which garner very rare items once enough are accumulated, at the rate of five per day.  There are story missions and an abundance of patrol missions.   This quadrant is also the site of the new “raidisode” (read five person raid/instance for all you World of Warcraft players out there).   When it says “five players required” believe you me it means it.  No matter how good you are, no matter how well equipped your ship, the solo player will find the Borg that make up the antagonists in “The Infected”  will simply laugh at the even the toughest shield strengths and blast away the individual player in seconds.  This is one time where there is no substitute for a team.  This is not to say there is no room for the solo player.  The lone ship and her crew will find it possible to complete the missions by themselves. The Borg and Undine in this case are far from being easy, even in the case of a well shielded, heavily armed ship.

One of the many pleasures in Star Trek Online (STO) are the continuation of story lines that were started in the many Star Trek series.  STO being set beyond the latest time line covered by any of the Star trek shows or movies, it is a common occurrence to meet the relatives  of, or those influenced by characters that the fans are familiar with – and the Gama Qaudrant in Star Trek Online is no exception.  One of the earlier storyline missions has the player rescue a ship, only to meet the “son of Q” (the Q played by John Delancie) that was born during the Star Trek Voyager years.  Having once rescued the ship this new Q has you complete the rescue “with feeling this time.”  Having completed the same rescue mission a second time the New Q is still not satisfied and has you do it “again as if your life depended on it.”   It is then that the player is given a chance to go back and participate in a famous battle from Star Trek lore.

If Star Trek Online is your game, and you are ready for a challenge (aside from letting the Klingons drive you into the ground like a tent stake in pvp) you will find it in the Gama Quadrant.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

(posted for Julie Whitefeather by the Webmaster)

Update:

Let me add a little update here.  We have managed to obtain an interview with a member of the team that brings us all my favorite mmo.  I am always afraid to put the cart before the horse, so I will let you all know tommorow.  Much can happen between now and the scheduled recording time.

Also, in catching up with some of my favorite blog sites we found a very nice endorsement over at Kill Ten Rats (see below) Thanks Ravious for the kind endorsement!

- Julie

“No Prisoners, No Mercy – How could anybody not like a podcast about MMOs run by two nuns?!  Not only that, they are great journalists snagging tons of interviews from across the board for game companies.  Sister Julie Whitefeather and Sister Frances  have a good format with some interesting discussion.  A lot of time and love is put in to this podcast.  Butter doesn’t melt in the mouths of these two ladies.” – Ravious, Kill Ten Rats

We live in an era of economic downturn when, sadly, the closure or reduction of staff numbers at game development studios have become all too common place.  When we hear of another member of a game development staff that has been set adrift it is certainly cause for concern.  But when the biggest game publisher in the country kills the geese that laid the golden egg, the Modern Warfare Games, it is likely to raise a few eyebrows.  When it does so before the royalties due Jason West and Vince Zampella, CEO and CTO of Infinity Ward until just recently, are paid…

Well there, as the immortal bard once said, “lays the rub”.  For those of you not already in the know, I give you paragraph 32, page 10 of the law suit brought against Activision by Mr. West and Mr. Zampella, (via Indie Game Developer, you can read the entire article here)

Activision conducted the investigation in a manner to maximize the inconvenience and anxiety it would cause West and Zampella. On little notice, Activision insisted on conducting interviews over the President’s Day holiday weekend; West and Zampella were interrogated for over six hours in a windowless conference room; Activision investigators brought other Infinity Ward employees to tears in their questioning and accusations and threatened West and Zampella with “insubordination” if they attempted to console them; Activision’s outside counsel demanded that West and Zampella surrender their personal computers, phones, and communication devices to Activison for review by Activision’s outside counsel and, when West and Zampella asserted their legally protected privacy rights, Activision’s counsel said that doing so constituted further acts of insubordination.

 

For those looking for some additional background into the matter you can find it over at Jakeworld:  The IW/Activision Spat )

Beyond the two infinity ward former studio execs violating  Non-disclosure agreements (NDA) and their Contracts, Activision has been silent on the matter to date.  On the face of it, everyone outside Activision/Blizzard (and at this point that is everyone writing about the incident) will read about “interrogated over six hours in a windowless conference room” and Activision Interrogators bringing Infinity Ward employees to tears and feel outrage.  We can read about Activision counsel demanding that “West and Zampella surrender their personal computers, phones and communication devices to Activision” and it will, no doubt, summon up images of criminals in 1960’s black and white film, in darkened rooms, with searing white light shining in their faces.  However, without knowing the other side of the story, just developing an opinion based half the facts has the very real possibility of leaving any author writing about the issue with a heaping pile of crow to eat, depending on the outcome of the lawsuit.  While many of us will point out that everyone is entitled to “due process” it is easy to forget about “just cause.” 

It is at this point that many people will instantly leap to the defense saying, nothing justifies treating employees or anyone in the manner described in the law suit.  Keep in mind, however that anyone can ALLEGE anything, factual or not.  And before you say “nothing justifies” keep in mind what the circumstances may or may not be.  Yes, it could be as much of an outrage as circumstances appear.  However, what if Activision, as tight lipped as it always is about their business, has a whole deck of Aces up their proverbial sleeves?  

Still, it leaves a question that goes begging…do the professional and personal actions of someone in any aspect of the entertainment industry affect how we feel about their work?

When Paul Reubens, otherwise known as “Pee Wee Herman” was arrested for indecent exposure in an “adult” movie theater it all but killed his career, taking 20 years to get any public “exposure” of his work.

When Tonya Harding was concerned about competition from Nancy Kerrigan in 1994 she hired someone to attack her.

When Mel Gibson was arrested for driving under the influence of Alcohol he made anti-Semitic remarks to arresting Officer James Mee, saying, “Fucking Jews…Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world” (source) .  Aside from the heinous nature of the statement (for which he later publicly apologized) this is also a statement made, ironically, by the same man who brought us the movie entitled “The Passion of the Christ”.  What do you expect from a man who obviously didn’t bother to read the gospels before he made the movie (for some twisted reason he portrayed Mary Magdalene as a prostitute – she was nothing of the kind. Read Luke 8:1-3)

In the end we must each ask ourselves if the behavior of an actor, or even a game developer affects our patronage.  Would you still see a Mel Gibson movie if he insulted someone of your ancestry?  Now that Paul Reubens is trying to rekindle his career would you let  your children see one of his performances? And what if the treatment of Jason West, Vince Zampella, and Infinity Ward employees turns out to be an overreaction tantamount to dynamiting open a can of beans? Will you still purchase any of their games? Will you cancel your World of Warcraft account?

See you online

Julie Whitefeather

(posted for Julie Whitefeather by the Webmaster)

This morning a review (see following reprint) by one “Dirk Lammers” was sent to me for comment.  As I read through the brief review the following two sentences caught my eye at the end:

Perhaps “Star Trek Online” faces its biggest challenge with its price tag. You’ve got to buy the game, and then you’ll have to shell out as much as $15 per month in subscription fees to keep playing. – Dirk Lammers, “ Star Trek Online falls short in several areas”

During recording of the No Prisoners, No Mercy show (being edited now) with community managers from Funcom one of the subjects that came up was reviews, and of course the epitome of bad reviews – where the author who penned the article played the beta for 10 minutes and wrote a two word review “It sucks.”  Aside from pointing out how proud his English professor would have been of such a lofty, and well thought out review I was brought to another conclusion. More than once I have penned a private message to the author of a review whose works I otherwise respected and found myself saying “Come on, you know better.”  Then it occurred to me that perhaps they didn’t.

Time and again, as members of the game development industry pass through our doors, the voice they tell us that they hear, the opinions that matter, are those who are actively involved in the community that make up their target market.  As one senior producer opined of professional reviewers, “They may spend one or two levels with our game before they write the review.” 

More the rule, rather than the exception, are those authors whose lack of acquaintance with both the game and mmo market in general shows in their review – and the review by Dirk Lammers is no exception.  The claim Cryptic Studios will face a “challenge” because their prospective customers will have to both buy the game and pay a monthly subscription fee so blatantly screams of a complete lack of knowledge of the MMO gaming market that is like a slap in the face with a dead mackerel – it instantly negates the credibility of the remainder of the review and anything else the author has written on the subject.

Note to Mr. Lammers and anyone else reading these words or considering penning a game review: before faulting a game developer with something you might want to at least find out whether or not it is the industry standard. In other words “look before you leap”.

Mr. Lammer’s insistence that “But the frenzied pace hits the brakes when combat moves to the ground” tells of an author who was not only determined to find fault with the game ahead of time, but tells those who really are acquainted with the work of Cryptic Studios that the author hasn’t kept current with the product being reviewed.  I can only assume that there was a significant lead time between the writing and the publication of the review.

Does the review trouble Cryptic Studios? Well you would have to ask someone like Craig Zinkievich, executive producer for Star Trek Online, that question to find out the “straight skinny”.  Based on the professional developers we have spoken with, chances are they could care less – and doubtless neither will their target market.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

(posted for Julie Whitefeather by the webmaster)

 Star Trek Online’ falls short in several areas

That’s a tall order for the game as it stands now, but online games can improve over time.

 By DIRK LAMMERS, Associated Press Writer Dirk Lammers, Associated Press Writer – Tue Feb 23, 7:45 am ET

Two-and-a-half out of four stars.

The “Star Trek” franchise embarks on a bold journey into the massively multiplayer online realm in a game that excels in space combat but falls short in other areas.

“Star Trek Online” (Atari/Cryptic Studios, $50 with $15-per-month subscription fee, for the PC) thrives when multiple ships crisscross through space while exchanging phaser fire and photon torpedoes. The battles look spectacular, and piloting a starship around a planet while dodging enemy fire is both challenging and enjoyable.

But the frenzied pace hits the brakes when combat moves to the ground.

Away missions were a key part of both the original TV series and “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” but you’ll find yourself calling for Scotty to beam you up shortly after landing on your feet.

The first away mission, which acts as a tutorial, has your character beaming over to a damaged Star Fleet vessel to make some repairs and kill a few Borg. It does little to draw you in.

But when your character is given command of a Miranda-class Federation starship (think USS Reliant from “Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan”), things start to look up.

You’re sent out to explore the galaxies with various orders such as beaming a ship’s survivors to your own vessel or destroying various targets.

Maneuvering through 3-D space at impulse power takes some talent, and angling your ship to protect the forward, aft, port and starboard shields while multiple enemies are firing at will is no easy task.

The epic battles stray far from the character-driven original series and the diplomacy-happy “Next Generation,” but they’re a heck of a lot of fun. That said, even they grow repetitive as the adventure continues.

Despite some of these weaknesses, though, “Star Trek Online” offers plenty to please die-hard fans.

The game begins with a robust character creation and customization feature letting players choose to live as a human, Vulcan, Cardassian, liberated Borg or more. You can even create your own alien species.

And inside the closet you’ll find myriad uniform styles spanning the various movies and series installments. You’ll even get to name your character and ship, which really makes you feel like it’s your captain’s chair.

Both the new Spock, Zachary Quinto from the 2009 film, and Leonard Nimoy, who originated the role, generously lend their voices, and the game does a fabulous job sprinkling in subtle and some not-so-subtle episode references throughout.

The game avoids any “Star Trek” timeline issues by setting it far into the future, which returns the Klingons to enemy status. You just can’t beat a good villain.

Perhaps “Star Trek Online” faces its biggest challenge with its price tag. You’ve got to buy the game, and then you’ll have to shell out as much as $15 per month in subscription fees to keep playing.