feelthedarkness

Is there room for one market in the marketplace? I'm going fully meta as The Entitled Gamer.

I think we're just getting into the real auteurs! Kentucky Route Zero is really remarkable as sophisticated storytelling goes.

That's probably a more fair expression than my flippancy! Hah. I think the newly evolving business models can tie to another defining arc of this cycle: The decline of the mid-sized studio/game, which is where I think my favorite work gets done.

I think it's channel decay and a few other things at work. According to him a lot of cable networks think the sun is setting on reality and they're trying to move to scripted shows, but most networks have no experience with that and it's been weird. Also, the reality component that never existed in those shows has become even less as they've gone for more "out there" concepts in search of ratings (leading back into decay). Before this show he was lead editor on Duck Dynasty, and the whole thing is basically scripted already.

Oh, there are totally some huge success! The install base of mobile users is basically most humans. There was a real fear that the iPhone was going to put Nintendo out of business. (The big N still might put themselves out of business but it won't be their handheld's fault) It seems like "revolution" is in the business model of mobile being translated over to traditional space.

Mobile Gaming: The revolution that wasn't. This is probably just an expression of my own confirmation bias, but there was a lot of late cycle hand wringing over phones/tablets gutting the console market. It didn't seem to happen? I think it's mostly because basically nobody figured out how to make a good game, or those that did couldn't get past the people who were satisfied with distractions.

Here's a TV recommendation! One of my buddies has a pilot airing on NAT GEO on Sunday, Nov 17 10pm, called Monster Survival Guide. I wrote some jokes! If the ratings are good they'll pick up a series and I'll get to make a cameo! Lets do this! It's a fake follow doc about a monster hunter/amateur cryptozoologist Campbell Macabre. Preview! http://vimeo.com/78668972

I hope if Kinect is listening enough to recognize language and penalize you in NBA that it will quietly corral all the slur spewing a-holes on XBL into one cesspool. The need/cost for human moderation is pretty minimal and they won't even have to ban people.

I hope Sad Times with Nick Breckon becomes a regular feature, like Robot News.

Geneforge 2: More retro PC-RPG from Spiderweb. Something about totally filling in those maps scratches some primal gaming itch for me. A little disappointed that clearing the final extra dungeon didn't change the ending. Metro Last Light: Great fun! I think they hit a nice balance of scripted events and freedom to move and tackle levels your own way. The scripted stuff looked really nice on my low-high end machine. The early levels where they make you leave the tunnels for the surface are totally nerve wracking and really sells the world. The monsters are meaner, spawn a bit dynamically on some levels, and air filters are tight at first, so I was frantically looking for an entrance back into the cramped, but breathable metro tunnels. Well done!

Foiled sounds a lot like a melee TOWERFALL, which is some of the most riotous multiplayer fun I've had this year. 4 Player local co-op, where each player starts with 3 arrows that have a short arcing range. You can bounce off the walls, and have the single screen levels spawn power ups like wings that let you multi-jump, a 1 hit shield or a cloaking field. I can't recommend it enough! You have a to buy an OUYA to play it right now. Coming to PC. I think it's worth owning an OUYA for it now. I promise great fun!

So far they got me for Chronicles of Riddick, Dark Athena, The Real Texas, Jade Empire, Retro City Rampage. Watching the bar drain is addicting! I've got bargain fever! Edit: i'm just going to keep updating my SHAME LIST.

wild. NWN2 is so good. MotB is my favorite D&D game, after Torment. Boy these are flying! Geneforge Collection and Wing Command 4 blew through 250 copies each in 2 minutes total.

lately i've really been enjoying this podcast that seems to be entirely about spelunky. jk jk 1 luv. EDIT! dammit, Hermie beat me to the gag by a day. sorry!

If a console cycle is 7 years now, I assume that the goals for the Xbox ARE to transition it to a cloud service, like their own Steam. They have their own app store for the Surface. I know the always online thing stumbled, but I can see them retrying a variation of it, for a download store.

Oh MAN, Dune. My main board game pal has an original copy, but we also printed the fan remake (all the assets are freely available) on the larger playing cards, and the map we mounted on foam core. Our last game took 13 straight hours, and ended on a final turn victory with me, as the Fremen summoned a worm, forced a conclave, convinced the Spacing Guild to ditch his Emperor Ally, and shuttle my people to a few key points. GREAT game. I haven't played the others, but always heard great things about Resistance. I'll also agree that Game of Thrones is a great game that makes good use of the license.

yeah, it being able to function as a budget Cintiq was a big factor.

Man, i think i'm like the only person who strongly disliked Battlestar Galactica. My friends and I still play Talisman every few months. It's one of the few games that supports 6 or more players, and we load up all 3 expansions, and random draw characters. The turns don't require too much concentration so it's great for bullshitting. While really daunting at first, Arkham Horror is a great narrative engine. In our last game, a recovering alcoholic priest had to jump off the wagon to use some bottle of booze that would give him enough courage/tries to drive his stolen pickup through a portal and detonate it, saving Arkham.

I thought they get some kind of licensing fees through the publishers/devs, as well as all the certification stuff, and access to XBL? The Surface is obviously going to try and get the usual App store fee cut, assuming that other Win 8.1 tablets play the same game. ( Full disclosure (haha) I got a Surface Pro 2 256 gig, and I love it!)

Does the idea of break even or losses include licensing? I think the evens and losses around hardware are supposed to be acceptable to maintain an environment where they make up the difference in licensing fees?

Perdido Street Station would make a great Infinity Engine RPG.

I haven't even started it, but I just want to say I'm really appreciating two weeks in a row of vintage, extra-jumbo-length artisanal casting.

Haha, yeah, taken on it's face it's totally broad! Though I think if look at them like "this isn't art, this is a Yakuza film, this is a Body Horror, The is a Hollywood Silver Age Musical" (Happiness of the Katakuris), etc.. there is an order to it. For a few years he was averaging like 5+ movies a year. Almost 100 since 1991. I remember really liking the Great Yokai War, which is a Terry Gilliamesque Neverending Story thing.

I believe Miike has stated that he deliberately and only makes "genre film", so through that lens, I think they all make sense as a unified effort. Even though it's pretty easy to see he's not just doing genre.

On the topic of losing "net lore" this story comes to mind, circa 2007. A long, funny tale from a Dev on Street Fighter 2: The Movie: The Game, which was orignally posted to the shoryuken.com forum, but seems gone. I was able to find a copy, seemingly ripped to a PDF, but it's now behind some paywall, but you can read it, FOR NOW. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/142024089/Street-Fighter-the-Movie-Broke