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On This Day In Gaming History...
| 2001, GameRifts.com (Hey that's us!) launches! |
| 2001, Vivendi Universal announces they will publish Dark Age of Camelot. |
| 2003, Another hit to the Shadowbane game by Ubi when "The Covenant of Swords" guild announces they are departing the game due to numerous game issues. |
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Editorial: The Future of the Casual Player
We stand upon the threshold of change. The signs are everywhere: ads litter train stations and the sides of buses, flash annoys the $#!% out of you when visiting your favorite sites, commercials might cause a double-take since you, like me, weren't likely giving the tely your full attention during the break…I'm even betting on a short segment in the evening news in the days coming.
Maybe you won't feel the impact immediately; maybe you'll only notice the slight drop in available bandwidth. It's very possible that your personal tastes will render you completely immune to the coming tidal wave, but rest assured we're on the horizon of content delivered via a most convenient medium. Of course, the content of which I speak is our most beloved time-killer, gaming.
Editorial: The Future of the Casual Player - Ray "Minister Vado" Alvarado (03-29-05)
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| The Largest LAN Party!
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Traditionally; gaming with others was only possible through one of two scenarios: either your comrades were sitting right next to you, wired into your console; or you had a networked PC - in which case a friend's physical location was irrelevant. Consoles, as we know, gave rise to the efficiency of a standardized platform; both simplifying the interface and achieving plug and play in its purest, most desirable problem-free execution…but at the cost of interconnectivity. Lanning 32 folks together for a frenzied deathmatch session was only possible on the PC, with its inherently flexible interface…but the price of admission was steep for any without the patience or an affinity for technology. This gave rise to two separate camps within the gaming world - console gamers and pc gamers - but was clearly irrelevant to the outside world, as it did nothing to mend the industry's undeserving perception as a childish, time-wasting muse suited to grade-schoolers and socially inept adults.
While the PC has given the willing gamer oodles of top-notch quality gaming from Doom to World of Warcraft, rarely has it been the platform of choice for the casual gamer, or even been able to fall under the radar of Joe Average. Steps have, in the recent years, been taken by the console makers to connect their gamers to one another over the web, but it has been for the most part a pale shadow of the offerings from PC developers: Halo 2 (now lets just look at the online functionality here) may offer revolutionary online play for a console title; but when compared to PC offerings it barely scrapes by. With another batch of consoles just beyond reach, and E3 sure to gush with announcements of respectable online and HDTV support; it's actually NOT this next generation of consoles, or video cards, or physics processors, or Unreal Engine 3 that carry the greatest potential. These powerful machines and toolsets do have potential, and will undoubtedly push the envelope with both offline and online offerings; but I look to the impending possibilities of something already available to us. It is in the handhelds, the portables, the market that used to be dominated by and synonymous to the Gameboy, that the future really shines.
Meet the Players: Sony PSP and Nintendo DS
Already the world has begun to embrace the newest, and arguably most evolutionary, offering from the oldest gaming company around, Nintendo. As of this writing, the Nintendo DS (Dual Screen according to some; Developer's System according to Nintendo) has found its way into Japanese, North American, Australian and European homes; hailed as a critical and commercial success. Unlike its forthcoming competition, the DS declines the notion of being your complete mobile entertainment center; and instead adheres to Nintendo's long-embraced ideology that "It's all about the games". Built around a second, full-sized touch-screen and an onboard microphone, the portable's unique interface design is aiming to capture an audience of both long-time gamers and those who'd never even considered the art as a viable entertainment medium. Through these additional control mechanisms, Nintendo has opened the door for developers to create new ways for players to interact with their game worlds.
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| The Nintendo DS!
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Adding to the mix is a secondary slot intended to function as both backward-compatible support for Gameboy Advance software, and as future expandability (ironically enough; a third party has already taken advantage of this port by developing an SD card-reading multimedia player, dubbed "Play-Yan", for your mp3/video playback cravings). Of course; the relevance of this gaming machine is that it comes with onboard 802.11 support as well as a proprietary wireless ad-hoc protocol for proximity multiplayer gaming - even complete multiplayer matches via game sharing off of a single cart. Although rumors and speculation exist regarding web browsing and PDA software for Nintendo's machine (and here it almost seems appropriate given the system's touch-screen and stylus); aside from the games, the only concrete announcements have been regarding downloadable content, including shareable demos and trailers. While launching with the game-sharing and proximity multiplayer, Nintendo's been slow to roll-out with full-on internet gaming support. Thankfully recent announcements have confirmed that titles releasing later this summer will in fact have full online support - one game in particular having a complete basis on a virtual community.
Last week delivered us the Playstation Portable; Sony's vision incarnate of the "Walkman of the Future" - and all-singing, all-dancing handheld designed from the ground-up to satiate all of your voracious media consumption needs; regardless of your current real-world locale. The PSP's most immediate eye-catching feature is its gorgeous and gigantic (with respect to the format) LCD screen: at 4.3" diagonal, it is of an unusual, albeit very welcome high-caliber quality (in fact; reports surfaced of unpleasantly surprised developers being introduced to bland image quality when porting works-in-progress to the PSP from their development kits for the first time - what appeared pleasing on their dev kits/monitors just wasn't up to par with what could be produced on the PSP). The housing itself is a sleek and smooth black, with a button layout familiar to the 100+ million folks out there who own a Playstation in some form or other.
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You know you have
to have one!
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Not to be done in by worthless aesthetics, a gamer knows that it's what's underneath the skin that counts; and here we find brains to back the beauty: said to be comparable in processing power to the Playstation 2, the graphical capabilities seen thus far do seem to support Sony's claims, as launch titles look notably similar to their home console counterparts. Games and retail movies come pressed upon Sony's proprietary Universal Media Disk format, and storage by way of Sony's own Memory Stick Pro Duo. It's in this latter format, the memory sticks, that much of the touted functionality is exploited - mp3s, video clips, and [in the event you own a Sony camera] photos, can be stored on the stick for playback on the PSP. A mini-USB 2.0 port graces the system for future support of damn near anything Sony & Friends feel might add appeal to the system. And topping it all off, the reason you've found this article on this site; is built-in 802.11 functionality for wireless multiplayer gaming in both ad-hoc and infrastructure modes. Through this feature, Sony has hinted at a possible distant future of PSP web browsing, email access, and a variety of downloadable content...but in the immediate, tangible future; the PSP marks the very first console, portable or otherwise, to have a fully supported online component available for use right out of the gates.
Who !@#%ing cares?
Alright, so we've essentially got meatier Gameboys. Why should any self-respecting gamer show any concern over these devices; and for that matter, why should Joe Average? It's no secret that the handheld has previously been labeled as child's play, both within the industry and outside of it: parents buy Gameboys for their children to keep the ride to grandma's house peaceful and silent. What's changing here is most readily apparent by way of Sony's measures: they are charging a premium for this PSP, and salivating in hopes of taking a big bite out of Apple's consumer base - there've been a lot of comparisons between the iPod and PSP; the new gadget's sleek sex appeal is definitely going to turn heads and open wallets of males age 18 - 35 with disposable income. And it is here where Nintendo's strategy differs…while Sony chooses to target the same audience it has with its previous Playstation line; Nintendo realizes that when you look beyond the 30 year-old boy (thank you Tyler Durden), there is a vast market waiting to be penetrated and usurped. They aim to use the DS's intuitive, albeit unconventional interfaces to bring gaming to an entirely new audience, and yet simultaneously offer something fresh compared to our current state of clones and me-too rehashes - just look at the GDC demonstration of "Nintendogs". Here stands a clear example of software not designed to appeal to the traditional gamer; a showcase of possibilities wrapped in an extremely underhanded, deviously cute package: puppies that respond to the gamer's own voice commands. While this might not raise the eyebrow of the guy wanting some Wipeout on the go, it might just appeal to his sister, girlfriend, grandfather, etc… and it definitely foreshadows the platform's potential. The two devices represent a huge step towards mainstream acceptance - and while some would argue this represents the death of the art; it's hard to deny that with it comes more diverse content to quench the varied palates of a considerably larger user base.
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| PSP Around the World!
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So now, we have these two industry giants battling for the dollar of both hardcore gamers and mainstream consumers; and the biggest weapon in each arsenal is an identical one: portability. As online gaming is a social activity at heart, the portability of these devices will open doors to a greater interaction between gamers - as no hardware aside from the device itself is necessary to get a multiplayer LAN game going, location will become all but irrelevant and the entire process will become exceedingly efficient. We're talking games at the local Borders with others in the café against those commie bastards at the Barnes and Noble across the street…or across the country - it doesn't really matter since you can take them all from the comfort of your home, if you so choose. We're talking a quick session with some other folks in the theatre for those 10 minutes before the previews start (and through the previews if you care to). You're looking at a crazy marathon session on the airplane with a bunch of other passengers (navigation systems be damned!). Maybe a two-player match of incalculable length when you've been dragged out shoe shopping against another poor sap who can't see the vital difference between burgundy and claret. We're looking at using your lunch hour for something meaningful instead of just blogging. We're looking at the best features of both sides - the interconnectivity of PC gaming and the standardization of consoles - combined into a pocket-sized device usable literally anywhere.
The most important question now is where is this content? Patience - the DS is only a couple months old, and the PSP is just breaching. The content we need to fully take advantage of it all is coming…we already have word of an Age of Empires for the DS, as well as Animal Crossing - which just screams global virtual community. Then there's the fact that just about anything that's seen the light of day on a PS2 can be done for the PSP - which includes the announcement of another trip to Liberty City via a PSP-only Grand Theft Auto. We're talking about the possibility of exclusive downloadable levels/maps/characters/etc. for the hardcore who buy on release day; possibly made available via a variety of channels: retail partners from a Best Buy to an AMC Theatre to the local coffee shop could choose to participate in hosting this content. We're looking at the possibility of thriving virtual communities as deep and rich as those found on the PC nowadays - just bigger, and with a little TLC on the developer's end, even more satisfying.
The months ahead brim with possibilities; and E3 2005 will be first real glimpse into what this exciting future holds.
Discuss: What do you hope the future may hold?
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