Friday, November 4

More like 10 shitloads



Looking back on recent posts it seems like I'm becoming the Grumpy Old Man of the gaming world. Good I say! Nuts to you all.

It's fair enough to say 'There's always going to be a cheap and nasty side to gaming' but it feels like rather than being the seedy underbelly or the politely ignored idiots that corruption is spreading. It's becoming the rule rather than the exception.

First let's look at these EB/Gamestop fuckers.

Sexism and insulting stereotypes aside, this is an ad to convince you to basically give them your old games so they can sell them again. The store credit is negligible really. Gone are the days when you could trade in 42 PSX games for a PS2 on launch. Ever since I happily offered a kid twice the trade-in price for his copy of Powerstone 2 I've felt like there's something seriously wrong with game trading.

At PAX last year they explained how games are ready to be sold online but Gamestop threaten to stop carrying their hardware, which is why those stores still exist: blackmail. They are a redundant leach on the games market, one with a deadly effect. If half the people who buy a game from a store were to buy it second hand, that doubles the stores profit and halves the developers profit. The stores just annoy you, try to rip you off, and dictate how and when you can buy games while the developers actually MAKE THE DAMN GAME. In an age where word of mouth, television and the internet form a powerful advertising net and people of all ages comfortably trade online there is no need for a store front. HMV? iTunes. Blockbuster? Netflix. Gamestop? Steam/XboxLive/PSN.

Now on to a threat not to the industry, but to the gamers themselves.


That is a link to something IGN call Babeology.

Babeology [beɪbˈɒlədʒi]
noun
Some terrible excuse for quasi-nerd fantasy fap material that actively drives a wedge between male and female gamers. Largely used to increase website hits. While it's true that 'Sex sells' I feel like this kind of crap, along with 'girl gamers' like the Fragdolls and virtually every female games tv host gives a wholly unrealistic (and honestly undesired) model of female gamers. At least on tv they have equally vapid meat-headed men to stand alongside and read terminology off a teleprompter but I don't exactly see a section for girls with male models dressed as pokemon. Oh and if I see one more girl posing naked with a plastic guitar I am going to snap like my GH2 Explorer controller variant.

Thanks (or damn you!) to Joshua Muller for the links.

I find myself writing this on one of my last nights in California on my -second- trip to America. I didn't film much more for the documentary this time, but I did do a lot more networking (which is crucial), went to Blizzcon, and Luke [aka Mr--Jack] has taught me how to paint like a pro. A favour for which I will forever be in his debt.

I'm not sure if my blog reflected it, but the highlight of my last trip was meeting one Chris Allsopp. he is basically me but English and being so vein I immediately fell for his nervous charm. He considers me an uncouth Australian which is refreshing, considering I am probably one of the most couth Australians. But I don't tell Chris, he'll find out when he comes to my wedding next year.

Enough for now. Although I can say that after a long pause to work on my painting and organise a second trip to America I am ready to talk once again about making a documentary and being a true gamer.

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