The New
Technology That Has Ushered In XMBs And Online Play Has Also Ushered
Problems Exclusive To This Generation. Welcome To The Future.
The idea for this article spawned from two minor news bits. Sony and Microsoft have been
forced to cut cost to remain relevant in the current competitive nature
of this generation of gaming consoles. Sony has decided to cut Linux
OS support for the PS3, which is adding to a growing list of features cut to keep the powerful
console affordable. Microsoft opted to kill online support for the Xbox
original titles, Halo and Halo 2. These examples could all
be indicative of what the gaming culture has evolved to be, but it
leaves the average person to question: what is off limits? With the
assimilation of DRM content and digitally distributed games, how can we
be sure that what we are paying for is actually ours to keep? It would
appear that this era of gaming has evolved into a sophisticated form
of the Wild Wild West.
Capcom's Code
Name Viper Was One Of The First Games My Mother Ever Bought Me. It Was
Difficult. Aggrevating, But Due To Being Poor And Crazy About Awful
Cover Art...I Learned To Love CNV.
I look at my collection of games and, for the most part, that is
what they have turned in to ... a collection. I have a group of old
games that span from the Nintendo Entertainment System to the recent Sony Playstation 2 and are rarely played. When I do
work up the energy and effort to hook up my gaming consoles of yore,
the collection shows its worth. When my mom or myself bought "Game X"
ten or twenty years ago it was intended for constant play. "I don't
have any money to be wasting, so whatever one of these games I buy ...
you had better damn well play it!" My mom exclaims about her purchase
of Code Name: Viper. So maybe I'm (un)naturally sensitive about
topics of user's rights because of a clear and present fear of my mom.
Maybe, because of that fear, I know the value of a dollar and what it
should stand for.
Somewhere
Under This Heap Of Piracy In Business Inventory Clothing Is A Copy Of Where
In The World Is Carmen San Diego.
Playing the role of the naive gamer was never my strongest suit.
How many times have I had to memorize an obnoxiously long code in order
to install and play a game on my elementary schools PC? Now how long
did it take someone in my class to bring in their personal floppy disk
and copy that game, and scribble the code on the face of their newly
pirated piece of software? How long did it take me to mimic the same
action? Back then, playing a pirated PC game was as common as having a
friend who legally purchased Doom. Playing a pirated PC game
today is arguably more widespread than ever and more expensive to the
community and industry. Even the stigma is different. Publicly
admitting you pirate and play PC games [given the economic state of PC games]
is the equivalent of smoking crack at bus stop. Be prepared for add
stores and the general public to judge you immediately. I understand
why a Stardock and Ubisoft have become
less concerned about the consumer and more fixated upon protecting
their game properties. There are a lot of fans of games out there that
don't own a damn game they so fervently argue in favor of.
The
Infamous Image Of PC Gamers 'Boycotting' Call Of Duty: Modern
Warfare 2 By Playing Illegal Copies. Next Time Close Steam Before
Launching The Game, Brainiacs.
Within the past couple years I started purchasing games via Steam
and PSN. Whether I am still capable of playing these games ten years
from now remains to be seen. At least Steam offers the consumer to back-up their game on another
storage device. The PSN and I presume Virtual Console and XBLA offer
limited to no ability to copy game content [aside from game saves] onto
a secondary storage device. All services allow a limited number of
installs of a game. PSN oddly allows a 'game sharing' feature that
grants a user rights to log into a friends machine and download a game
the user previous purchased. I am sure this feature will be an
interesting topic when downloadible content because more commonplace
in the wider scheme of the gaming industry.
Though
Resources Will Likely Go To Microsoft's Future Gaming Titles, The Xbox
Has Had A Long Enough History Of Being Given The Shaft By Its Corporate
Overlord.
Isn't it strange that, today, most of what dictates a gamer
actually playing a game relies heavily on a server being on? At least
PC gamers have a community where dedicated servers and community
servers are a social norm. Let us not forget about the dreaded PSN
update that temporarily prevented gamers from playing both multiplayer
as well as single player games. How about Ubisoft's server
management when Assassin's Creed II was released? Imagine
playing a game in your collection requires you to log in first. Now
imagine yourself digging into your space game chest -- ten years from
now -- and pulling out Dragon Age: Origins and not being able to
play it because that serve no longer exists. Game companies owe us a
promise if it is indeed required of us as well.
We have come so far and improved upon so many aspects of what
makes games fun. These issues scream of a generation trying many new
ideas and stumbling along the way. What will be interesting to see
develop is if the voice of the consumer outweighs the voice of the
industry or vice versa. As long as both sides are being heard and are
able to coexist the piracy and price gouging should "eventually" be a
topic we all see eye to eye on. If not, then its probably best to
prepare for digital rights management to become more cumbersome.
Prepare for the next console generation to temporarily support what you
have purchased in this generation. Finally, prepare yourself for the
day you turn on your console and for whatever reason you purchased the
device for refuses to do that on thing. I guess nothing lasts forever.