Glenn Broadway of iomo will be running a roundtable discussion at GDC, and wanted to get some advance ideas on the topic. He writes:

To what extent does the platform affect the content of a game? Why don't we see point-and-clicks or flight sims on consoles, or fighting games on PCs?

As new platforms such as mobile phones and iTV arrive do developers need to fully appreciate the factors that magnetise certain genres to platforms?

Anyone working in these new arenas should be acutely aware of the technical constraints placed upon them (who could fail to notice a 64Kb limit?) and these will certainly influence the types of games that get developed, but there are other factors to consider. The social habits of people playing mobile games can have a dramatic effect on the success of a particular product, and in this new age of online gaming (there's never been a more 'connected' platform than the cell phone).

It is an interesting point; there's certainly a considerable different between console and PC games, and it's not entirely due to the fact that PC gamers tend to be older. Fighting games are a good example; the core mechanic (to borrow Eric Z's term, which I'll argue about another time) is learning the 'chords' to perform special moves, something that makes perfect sense in the context of a console controller and a lot less sense on a keyboard--why would you even use chords when you've got so many keys? And, of course, PCs are inherently single-user devices, while fighting games are much more fun played by two people rather than solo.

Contrariwise, there are many game styles that work fine on PCs that don't on consoles: strategy games, for instance, typically require you to manage units/production centers across a broad geographic area, more than can be displayed on the screen at once. The usual solution is a radar view coupled with fast scrolling of the main view when the pointer is near one side of the view--easy to do with a mouse, but much more awkward with a console controller. Anyone who's played the PS version of Command & Conquer can tell you that it sucks by comparison with the PC version. FPS games are another example; why they've been successful on consoles (e.g., Halo), hardcore players generally prefer the PC version, because keyboard-plus-mouselook allows better control of the view and movement than the twin-joystick approach. According to Scott Miller, a Halo player on a PC playing against a Halo player on an XBox will, all things being equal, trounce the XBox player--I wouldn't know from personal experience, but it sounds plausible.

When we move to mobile phones, beyond the obvious problems of limited RAM and small screen, the limitation I find most constraining--and one of the key issues I try to design around--is the inability to detect simultaneous key presses. Not only is chording infeasible, but you can't move and shoot at the same time, a key component of so many game styles. On the market, the mobile games that do best seem to be quite light and aimed at a more general audience--things like Lemonade Tycoon, Trophy Hunting, and simple platformers. Of course, it's probably still too early to generalize about mobile games, but we are dealing with an interface that's more like a console than a PC--a directional pad plus a bunch of buttons--and a market that's more like the Uproar/Pogo demographic than the PC/console world (very broad audience looking for quick game fixes, older, but not as heavily female as with Uproar and Pogo).


posted by Greg at 4:47 PM

People in the NYC area may be interested in this. Carl Goodman writes:

Please join me at the Museum this friday, February 27 from 6 - 8 pm for a reception honoring BLIP: Arcade Classics from the Museum collection. During this time, tokens allowing you to interact with these touchstones of digital entertainment will be free and unlimited. Also at the Museum at 7:30 that evening is the theatrical DJ/VJ Martial Arts extravaganza, Hop Fu: Behind the Remix.


More information: http://www.movingimage.us/site/screenings/feature/index.html
How to get here: http://www.movingimage.us/site/about/map/travel.html

posted by Greg at 12:30 PM

Recently, Hollywood Reporter ran a piece about game sequels basically claiming that sequels sell better than original games, which as we've discussed here before is basically nonsense... And I was considering posting a riposte, but Scott Miller got there before me, and did so good a job I don't think I can improve on it.

I just sent back a signed contract with Raimei, a small Japanese RPG publisher, which will be doing a Japanese version of Violence: The Roleplaying Game of Egregious and Repulsive Bloodshed, which rather boggles my mind... American humor often doesn't work in Japan, and its a, ah, odd game at best. They're interested in the Japanese rights to Paranoia as well (and I've had two inquiries for Spanish rights), but Eric and I need to get smart about overseas RPG markets today before we start flogging such things. (That is, we were pretty knowledgeable about them back in the day, but haven't really tracked on them for decades.)

And speaking of Paranoia... We got quite a lot of ink, or, err, pixels yesterday. We were slash-dotted, and Technorati already reports thirty some-odd links to the Paranoia blog, with around 40 new links to this blog pointing to the press release.

Time to get back to work now...
posted by Greg at 6:20 PM

PARANOIA XP ANNOUNCED
Cult Roleplaying Game to Be Revitalized for the Digital Millennium
The Revolution Will be Blogged


February 19, 2004 - New York, NY - For Immediate Release


The Computer says that failure to feature this announcement prominently is treason. Treason is punishable by summary execution. Thank you for your cooperation.


Mongoose Publishing of Swindon, Wilts., UK (www.mongoosepublishing.com) announced today agreement with the creators of the fondly remembered tabletop roleplaying game Paranoia, to develop and publish a new edition of the game, Paranoia XP. The new version will be written and produced by legendary game designers Allen Varney and Aaron Allston, with participation by Paranoia's original co-designer Greg Costikyan.


The developers will conduct their discussions about the game on a blog hosted at www.costik.com/paranoia, and those interested in the game are invited to comment and participate in the process.


Paranoia, originally published in 1984, has sold more than 200,000 copies worldwide, and retains a fanatical following despite having been out of print for almost a decade. Designed by Dan Gelber, Greg Costikyan, and Eric Goldberg, it and its supplementary products have garnered numerous industry awards, including several Origins Awards and the Gamer's Choice Award. It is known not only for its hilarious, dark vision of a future world controlled by an insane Computer, but also for its ability to attract world-renowned authors to contribute to its supplements and ancillary material--people such as multiple World Fantasy Award-winning author John M. Ford; Warren Spector, whom PC Gamer magazine names as one of the top 20 creators in digital gaming, and Ken Rolston, co-creator of the best-selling PC game Morrowind.


Paranoia debuted at a time when the Soviet Union was shooting down jet liners and invading Afghanistan, and when many workers feared they would lose their jobs as a result of the spread of desktop computers. With its vision of an Orwellian world, a totalitarian society controlled by an insane Computer that demands instant obedience at laser-point, it struck a worldwide nerve. According to Costikyan, that vision is relevant now more than ever. "Paranoia XP is not an attempt to bring back an old RPG for the nostalgic. Its basic themes -- totalitarianism, fear of technology, mistrust, and loathing--are, if anything, more relevant than they were in 1984. Spammers. Identify thieves. Blackhat hackers. The RIAA. Weapons of mass destruction. Totally dysfunctional government. Just as it did lo these many years ago, so shall the new Paranoia encapsulate and make funny the terrors we live with every day... or remind us to be afraid of things that we currently think are merely funny."


Alex Fennell, Mongoose's director, set down his Red Bull and Coke long enough to say, "We're bloody delighted to be publishing Paranoia XP. Yanks don't come any funnier than these blokes."


Allen Varney, who contributed to many early Paranoia supplements, looks forward to revisiting the game's futuristic underground city, Alpha Complex. "For years society has been inventing new material for Paranoia. I'll have a great time transcribing it. I hope players will like our newly redecorated setting, and I'll do my best to make them feel at home. Alpha Complex is not a place but a state of mind. Oh, and ginger ale for me, please."


Eric Goldberg who since 1984 has become one of the most respected figures in the online and mobile gaming industries, said, "For those who know the game, Paranoia has settled into the deep hindbrain. Catch phrases like 'The Computer is Your Friend,' 'Commies are Everywhere,' and 'Happiness is Mandatory' come to mind at the most socially awkward moments. Back in the 80s, a concern with the social implications of technology was the purview of a geeky few; today, it's of fundamental importance to everyone. Games, too, are now a huge part of the vernacular. I believe Paranoia XP will be of considerable interest not merely to the audience of tabletop roleplaying gamers but also to anyone interested in and concerned with the social-technological issues of today-the attempt to control IP, to police the Internet, to suppress dissent. We're living Paranoia. By the way--what a bunch of wimps. I'll have the pale ale."


The text-based online game rights to Paranoia have separately been licensed to Skotos (www.skotos.com). Reports that Paranoia XP will also be published in several other languages, and that film, computer, and console versions are may be forthcoming are rumors. Rumors are treason. Treason is punishable by summary execution. Have a nice day!


Mongoose Publishing is one of the leaders in the RPG market, producing games such as Babylon 5, Conan, and Judge Dredd for roleplayers all over the world. Its publications are available in all good hobby and book stores.


Greg Costikyan (www.costik.com) and Eric Goldberg have collaborated on various games since they first met at Simulations Publications, Inc. in the 1970s, including on the first online game to attract more than a million players.


Greg has designed more than 30 commercially published board, roleplaying, computer, online, and mobile game, has won numerous industry awards, and has been inducted into the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame for a lifetime of accomplishment in the field. He writes about games, game design, and game industry business issues for publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal Interactive, Salon, Game Developer magazine, and his blog (www.costik.com/weblog), which is one of the most widely-read blogs dealing with games. He is also the author of four science fiction novels.


Allen Varney (www.allenvarney.com) has published three boardgames, over two dozen roleplaying supplements (including several for Paranoia), seven books, and 250+ articles, stories, and reviews, including regular columns in four national gaming magazines. Varney recently designed and ran the UT Executive Challenge, a three-day business ethics simulation for 100 second-year MBA students at the University of Texas McCombs Business School. He is now developing a Web-based "business simulator" with the e-learning company Enspire Learning (enspire.com).


Aaron Allston (www.aaronallston.com) is the author of a dozen science fiction and fantasy novels and the award-winning designer of more than forty tabletop role-playing games and game supplements. He has recently written a script for a feature-length horror movie intended to carry his trademark humor into the realm of ultra-low-budget filmmaking.


For more information, contact
Greg Costikyan
+1 646 489 8609


===========================
MONGOOSE GETS PARANOID
New PARANOIA XP edition and support line debut in August 2004


The Computer: Greetings, citizen! How may I help you?


Player: I hear Mongoose Publishing is releasing a new edition of the Paranoia roleplaying game this August. What can you tell me about it?


The Computer: State your reason for requesting this information.


Player: Uh... I guess I was wondering whether to buy it.


The Computer: Excellent, citizen! You wish to legitimately purchase this product, rather than steal The Computer's valuable intellectual property like a traitorous data pirate. This demonstrates your loyalty to the ideals of Alpha Complex.
Brought to you by The Computer's brilliant researchers in the R&D service firms of MNG Sector, PARANOIA XP is the entirely updated and perfected version of the darkly humorous RPG originally published by West End Games. The new edition's writers include PARANOIA co-creator Greg Costikyan, longtime paranoiac Allen Varney, and Famous Game Designer Aaron Allston. There are also devious and subtle new contributions from the original PARANOIA line editor, Ken Rolston.


Player: Is PARANOIA XP still about living in an underground city of the future ruled by an insane Computer?


The Computer: The Computer is not "insane." Traitors lurk everywhere. In the old days, The Computer's loyal Troubleshooters only worried about Commie subversion, secret society sabotage, unregistered mutants, robot liberators, feuding High Programmers, tainted drugs, exploding food vats, nuclear hand grenades, and the occasional giant atomic cockroach. How naive!
Now your clone family faces not only these persistent threats, but a new host of looming dangers such as viral licenses, closed-source genetic retooling, identity rentals, subconscious post-hypnotic brain-spam, Infrared-market WMD auction sites, and filesharing.


Player: Filesharing?


The Computer: Filesharing is Communism! Fortunately, The Computer's loyal Central Processing service firms have devised many innovative digital-rights management methods to shield you from temptation. The most promising methods manage your actual physical digits. Would you care to get your fingerprints remapped?


Player: Uh... maybe later. Is this new PARANOIA XP anything like the game's earlier editions?


The Computer: PARANOIA XP combines the scary-funny, sardonic tone of PARANOIA's first edition (1984) with the fast-playing, rules-light approach of the second edition (1987).


Player: Are you using the d20 rules system?


The Computer: No. PARANOIA is fun. D20 games are not fun. The Computer says so.
PARANOIA's second edition rules were, of course, perfect. The new PARANOIA XP expunges certain imperfections introduced by subversive elements, and will be even more perfect.
Remember, citizen, PARANOIA is a game of satire, not parody. It is not -- attend to this -- NOT "wacky." Expect NO awful misfiring "wacky" parodies of Westerns, cyberpunk, Arthurian myth, post-holocaust Australia, or angsty goth-punk blather.


Player: "Orcbusters" was a parody of fantasy games, wasn't it?


The Computer: "Orcbusters" obtained prior Internal Security approval using Special Registered Parody Dispensation Form KR1986-12/j. All unregistered parodies are treason.
Instead, the new PARANOIA XP support line recalls the illustrious releases of 1984-88, such as Acute Paranoia, Send in the Clones, Alpha Complexities, and the award-winning Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues. Mongoose will reissue updated versions of much of this excellent material soon after PARANOIA XP debuts.


Player: Does the new edition use material from the "Fifth Edition"?


The Computer: There is no Fifth Edition.


Player: Huh? Come on, I've seen it myself!


The Computer: You are mistaken, citizen. No Fifth Edition was published by West End Games in 1995, nor did West End show pages from a projected "Long Lost Third Edition" at GenCon in 1997. Note that there also has never been a Crash Course Manual, nor any "Secret Society Wars," "MegaWhoops," or "Reboot Camp" adventures.
These products never existed. They are now un-products.
Are you absolutely clear on this, citizen? Do you still doubt The Computer? Perhaps you need to visit the Bright Vision Re-Education Center.


Player: Uh, no! I trust The Computer. The Computer is my friend! But Friend Computer -- against all the dangers you so brilliantly enumerated, how can I possibly survive?


The Computer: I'm sorry, that information is not available at your security clearance.


PARANOIA XP. AUGUST 2004. MONGOOSE PUBLISHING.
BUY PARANOIA. IT WILL BE FUN. FUN IS MANDATORY.


PARANOIA is a trademark jointly held by Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan and used under exclusive license by Mongoose Publishing. Copyright (c) 2004 Eric Goldberg and Greg Costikyan. All rights reserved.

posted by Greg at 8:56 AM

I was doing some research on Miyamoto recently, and came across this Wired piece, published over a year ago. I probably read it then but, possibly because I've been playing Pikmin recently, it struck a nerve. The piece is entitled "Why Nintendo Won't Grow Up," and contains this quote from Seamus Blakely:

"He is not helping things...At this point, Miyamoto is making games for his fans.... most are kids. He's not opening up adult audiences. He's reinforcing stereotypes about games, not pushing them to a place where they can become something different and truly awesome."

Hum. Miyamoto is evil?

Sorry, I can't agree. There are few games as polished and fine as Pikmin, or the Zelda series, or even the Mario games. They're first rate, and it doesn't matter whether they are "intended for kids" or not.

But actually--I question whether they're intended for kids. Japanese popular culture is different from American popular culture. In Japan, the main audience for manga (comic books) and anime (animation) consists of--adults. In other words, the Japanese do not relegate whole artforms to the status of "kid stuff" they way we do--even though they often use an art style for highly adult material (the whole genre of tentacle sex comes to mind) that would immediately set the "this is for kids" neurons firing in a Westerner. (Well, until the first genital penetration, anyway.)

Is Pikmin for kids? It's cute, sure--but not cloyingly so. The interface is very carefully and clearly explained in-game, and I have no doubt that a six year old would be able to pick up the essentials quickly. And Miyamoto is, as ever, good about posing the next challenge; you're unlikely to find yourself wondering what to do next in this game. That is, however, a strong positive, I believe, regardless of the age of the person playing.

I don't think this (or the Zelda games) is a game "for kids;" I think it's merely perceived to be such by Westerners. And that is their loss, and no criticism of Miyamoto.

posted by Greg at 8:43 PM

This from Gamespydaily:

The Village Voice reports New York State Attorney General Elit [sic] Spitzer is gearing up to take on Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive, both New York based companies, over popular video game Vice City: Grand Theft Auto where players are instructed to “kill the Haitians”. The Attorney Generals office has launched an official investigation into companies and the claims by Haitian groups and concerned parent, however, the office of AG Spitzer would not disclose any details.

I wonder about this. Spitzer (a high school classmate) is certainly not above doing things that will get him press. However, what he gets the most press for is investigating financial industry misdeeds, which the SEC is investigating Take Two for. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him launch a state-level investigation of Take Two on that account.

But if the report is indeed correct as to why Spitzer might take action, I can only assume tht he's gone nuts, or possibly has drunk too deeply at the well of political correctness.

Let's analyze this. At one point in Vice City, you're told to "kill all the Haitians", because the Haitians are cutting into your padron's drug business. This sounds like something that could happen to me; the old Italian mob has lost a lot of business to Chinese tongs, the Russian maffiya, and so on. I don't know of any Haitian organized crime, but hey, I'm no expert, maybe it happens. Yes, this isn't exactly sweetness and light, but then, in the Grand Theft Auto games, you play an amoral thug.

So some Haitians got understandably hot under the collar about this, and in response, Take Two caved and pulled the line from the game.

Now, if Mario Puzo wrote a novel in which a gangster told another gangster to "kill all the Haitians," because a Hatian syndicate was cutting into the Family's take, would people be picketing outside Puzo's house? Would Random House be pulling the book off the shelves and reprinting it sans that line? Bullshit.

This is a clear free speech issue. Characters in games, just like characters in novels and movies, can say whatever the fuck they want, subject to some relatively minor caveats, like the libel and slander laws. No, games are not different, and yes, the Bill of Rights applies (or those parts still in effect apply, anyway--as Brad Templeton used to say, "It's not a free country, but you still have that right.")

What nonsense.
posted by Greg at 1:28 PM

One Hasbro® to rule them all

One Hasbro® to find them.

One Hasbro® to bring them all

And in the darkness bind them



Parker Brothers®, Milton Bradley®, Selchow & Richter®, TSR®, SPI®, Avalon Hill®, and Wizards of the Coast® are registered trademarks of Hasbro, Inc. Their use here is not to be construed as a challenge to their trademark status.

(Is it any wonder that the German boardgame market, with a dozen or so major competing publishers, is more vital and interesting than the market in the US?)

posted by Greg at 8:45 AM