Archive for Featured Articles

Video: Automated online bargain hunting

March 20th, 2009 •
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Grab the savingsOnline shopping has opened up for many of us a shopping world that was totally alien before it. Online retailers are competing with every other store you can think of which makes the competition fierce. They also sell large quantities of items which opens up room for deep discounts never before imagine by B&M retailers. Computers and the Internet also make it easier to shop. Here is a technique that automates the entire bargain hunting process. If you want something and a have a few weeks to wait, use this procedure, and there’s a good chance you’ll find a deal you never thought possible.

First, you’ll need a Gmail account. If you already have one, you’ll probably need an additional one. Second, you will need a Yahoo account for use with Yahoo Alerts.

Use the procedure described in the video, sit back, and watch the deals roll in!

 

Here are some great feeds to subscribe to in order to get the most out of this system:

That should get you started. If you find other feeds I may have missed, please post them in the comments. Thanks for watching. I’ll have a new episode on April 3rd.

Download the podcast

Video: Making an ethernet cable

March 6th, 2009 • 1 comment
Tags: , , , , ,

If you have to wire this, you definitely need to learn to make cables.

If you have to wire this, you definitely need to learn to make cables.

This is the first video in a short series about using your geek-sense to save a little cash. The first installment: making your own ethernet cable.

You may be wondering how buying a cabling kit that costs $71.50 is going to save you money. For the average person, it probably won’t save you much. If you need a couple of 6′ cables to wire up everything, you can get by purchasing pre-made cables. There are a number of scenarios where that much cable (at that price) will save you money.

  1. You need to run two or three cables from one side of the house to another. Forgetting the fact that you may not find a store with cables at the length you need, a brick-and-mortar retailer has no qualms charging you almost a dollar per foot or more for the pre-made cable. The cost of two fifty-foot cables will pay for the box, and you’ll have loads of cable left for fun and profit.
  2. You’re hosting a LAN party. If you’re going to wire up 20 or 30 machines, this is a no-brainer. You can’t touch the cost of doing it yourself.
  3. You’re a cheap-ass and intend to split the cost of the kit with several friends. You can most likely wire any ten of your friends for less than the cost of wiring one of you the lazy way.

I believe I have sufficiently justified the existence of this video. So, on to the information!

 

Wikipedia has an excellent article (albeit a short one) on category 5e cable. This is the classification of cable you’re getting with the kit from Geeks.com. For most, this will be everything you might need. The specification allows for cables up to 328 feet. With support for gigabit ethernet, it will support anything a typical home network can throw at it.

Cat5 wiresThe image above is from a tutorial on PC911 and clearly shows the correct order of the wires before you insert them into the connector and crimp. This is also described in the video, but I have placed the image here for quick reference. The order of the colors from left to right are white/orange, orange, white/green, blue, white/blue, green, white/brown, brown.

I think that pretty much covers it! If you have problems or questions, drop a comment. I will make an effort to respond to each and every comment posted here. Good luck and happy cabling!

Download the podcast

Links

Check back for the next episode in which I will demonstrate some killer online shopping techniques for maximum savings! Look for it Friday, March 20th.

Video: Easy Digital Music Recording

February 20th, 2009 • 1 comment
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

 

Guitar: I'm on the InternetsColin Campbell is my brother, and, more importantly for the purposes of this video, he is a singer/songwriter who records music digitally and distributes it online. He uses a very cheap and simple method. If you want studio-quality recording, this isn’t for you. If you want to continue to gain exposure while you finance your studio gear, or if you simply want to be heard regardless of how it sounds, this may be the simplest and easiest way to do so.

He uses only software and hardware included with his Macbook to record his tunes and distributes them online via rifflet.com. If you have a Macbook, you can follow his exact procedure to record and distribute your tracks. If you have a PC, he suggests the free and open-source audio recording program Audacity. This can really be done with any kind of computer along with a microphone… even if it’s a cheap one! Like I said, the goal is not to build a home studio but to quickly and economically digitize your music and get it heard.

Colin also recorded a screencast showing his recording and uploading process to make things even easier on you.

 

Be sure to check out Colin’s other tracks on rifflet. You can even subscribe to an RSS feed of his music to see updates in your feed reader when he posts a new song. If you need further information or have questions, you can e-mail him @ appletofu [at] gmail [dot] com.

Download the podcast

Links

Console-quality iPhone games

February 17th, 2009 • 1 comment
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Console-quality iPhone gamesApple’s launch of the app store last year was an amazing success with games making up a large part of the catalog. However, with rumors of iPhone Flash getting hot and heavy, the need for 100 native Sudoku apps, 20 solitaire apps, and probably 1,000 variations of sliding block puzzles will diminish quickly. My suggestion is to insure that the $10 game you buy today is not going to be trumped in three months by a free Flash game three months down the line. In light of that, here are some iPhone games that really make the phone feel like a full-fledged gaming console rather than just a place I can go to pay for games that are free online.

PaybackPayback ($6.99)- Payback is a very true-to-the-original GTA clone. I’m sure many of you are only familiar with the GTA series since the third game in the series was released for PS2. This is a little different. This game is very similar to the first two GTA titles for PC (also for PSOne, I believe). The perspective is top-down. You go to phone booths, pickup missions, and complete them for points. Once you reach the point goal, you can move on to the next area. I have a couple of minor complaints. The light poles in the game do not come down even if you hit them with a tank… literally. Not only that, but they stop your vehicle immediately and completely upon impact. The cops in the game are very nonchalant. You can often steal another car in front of them, run over someone, or run into their cop car with your vehicle without raising their suspicions that you might be up to no good. In spite of this minor gripe, this game is definitely a steal. There is spoken dialog and a cool radio just like modern GTA games!

ExZeusExZeus ($5.99)- This game comes straight from Japanese arcades. The PS2 version was released only in Europe. The Dreamcast also saw a version at some point in time (probably on a continent on which I do not reside). This is a shoot ‘em up that puts the camera behind a giant mech which you move on the x and y axes using tilt control. Attacks are executed using a number of tapping gestures on the right side of the screen. Tapping the left side of the screen locks enemies for a homing-rocket attacks. It’s great fun and and very polished especially well under the $10 price point.

I Love KatamariI Love Katamari ($7.99)- The Katamari series has held a special place in my heart since the original Katamari Damacy for PS2. This particular version was destroyed by critics upon release because of some major slowdown issues, but those were fixed shortly after with the first update. For anyone unfamiliar with the series, you play as the Prince who is sent to earth by his father, the King of the Cosmos, to roll around a giant sticky ball called a katamari and pick up objects. These objects range from paperclips and matchboxes to tables, people, and much larger objects still. While the katamari is small, it can only pick up small objects, but, as it gains mass, it can pick up much larger objects. There are a number of modes including the story mode in which the King asks you to roll up a specific object in each level and a mode which has you trying to stop rolling when your katamari reaches a given size. It is wacky, but it is simple addictive fun.

RolandoRolando ($5.99)- Here we have a super-cute and complete platformer that uses the accelerometer to great effect. The graphics could probably be duplicated in Flash, but the tilt control upon which the game is built is uniquely its own. It also contains a level of polish that few Flash games ever achieve. Roll your Rolandos through each stage solving puzzles and overcoming obstacles to reach the exit. Some stages also have elements that you interact with directly by touch. Each Rolando has a unique personality which makes the game more endearing than most you will play on this platform. Start with the lite version and see if you like it.

SimCitySimCity ($7.99)- This is SimCity 3000 adapted for the iPhone. It is an excellent and complete version of the game. Amazing to me is that the game was not watered down for the mobile platform. This isn’t SimCity “Lite.” You’re out there zoning, placing roads and water lines, and talking with advisors just like its desktop counterpart. Maybe this experience could be reproduced in Flash, but it never has to my knowledge.

This list is not meant to be comprehensive. Nor am I trying to suggest that you should not buy simpler games on the platform; they certainly fill a need as well. However, as a hardcore gamer, there is a thirst in me that no quantity of puzzle and card games can ever quench. Lucky for me (and those like me), the iPhone offers a powerful gaming platform that developers (like those of the aforementioned titles) have really begun to exploit to the fullest. These are some of the finest examples of exactly what the iPhone is capable of in the mobile gaming space.

Gaming’s underground: an indie games primer

February 16th, 2009 •
Tags: , , , , ,

UndergroundLike most commercial artforms, video games have a vibrant community that exists outside the commercial realm. People are making games that are less influenced by the marketability of the graphics, the concept, and the gameplay conventions—and in many cases they are not influenced at all by these factors. This gives developers and artists a blank canvas to create games that you could never find on the shelf at GameStop.

For years, indie gaming has been primarily a PC affair. Console development has had too many barriers for small-time developers to be able to even consider as a viable platform. Of course, there have always been the stories of the game developed by the guy in his mom’s basement that was discovered by someone and turned into a full-fledged console release, but that is the exception not the rule. In the past year, this has started to change slowly. Microsoft has released its development kit and launched Community Games on Xbox Live which is a platform for indie developers to release and sell their creations. The iPhone has also offered a successful and accessible platform for indie developers. Most indie games are still on the PC, but the industry has seen the value in indie games and is making inroads to having them on a multitude of platforms.

GemCraft is a deep tower defense game built in Flash and playable in the browser

GemCraft is a deep tower defense game built in Flash and playable in the browser

Possibly the most popular platform of all for indie gaming is the web thanks to the Flash browser plugin. There are hundreds of sites that focus solely on providing a Flash gaming playground with titles spanning every genre you can imagine. Because of the ubiquity of Flash, these games are accessible to almost anyone with a computer of any kind. They reach levels of sophistication that are very close to that of applications native to a particular hardware platform and offer something for casual and hardcore gamers alike.

Within indie games are represented a number of popular genres of old that no longer receive exposure in the mainstream. There are still die-hard fans of the point-and-click adventure genre and the shoot ‘em up genre, but there aren’t enough of them to justify big-budget boxed releases outside the oddball title once every year or two. The indie scene has stepped in to support fans of these genres, and developers release a steady stream of these titles all the time.

Counterstrike started life as a Half-life mod

Counterstrike started life as a Half-life mod

Indie games also invent new genres that often make their way into the mainstream. Popular PC shooter Counterstrike began its life as a freely-distributed game mod for the original Half-life. A loose genre that has gained popularity as of late is the “arthouse game.” This genre label doesn’t really describe a particular set of gameplay conventions as many do but instead refers to an underlying philosophy present throughout games in the genre to a greater or lesser extent. This genre bending and stretching often even stretches the definition of a “game” to encompass interactive works of art (drawing the ire of some).

Speaking of game mods, they too are a major part of the indie gaming community. Modern PC games often ship with sets of tools that allow players to more easily modify and extend the experience of the original release. Even before these toolsets were common, users were still known to hack together modifications of popular games. These mods can be as simple as a new map or weapon or as complex as a completely new game with entirely different sounds, weapons, characters, and levels. Modders have even developed completely different genres of games on top of existing ones.

By nature of their being not as commercially viable as big titles on the console, they are also less visible. So, where would you go if you wanted to find some cool indie games? Try these sites:

Bytejacker- Bytejacker is a twice weekly video podcast that focuses on downloadable games in general. Of course, the WiiWare and Xbox Live Arcade titles profiled are still big—too big in most cases to be classified as “indie,” but the show also covers indie PC games and iPhone games. It is currently one of my favorite podcasts and is certainly a fantastic source for indie goodness.

Indiegames.com Blog- This blog covers the hottest releases in the PC indie scene. You’ll often get video footage along with the descriptions to further entice you.

The Independent Gaming Source- Indie PC games are also the focus of this long-running blog. Subscribe to this feed and you will surely find a plethora of awesome games you would otherwise have overlooked.

Game Tunnel- Accessibility to developers is a double edged sword. In the indie scene, you will find some gems packed full of originality. You’re also going to find a lot of crap. If reviews of PC indie games are what you’re after, this is your place.

Slide To Play- My current favorite iPhone games review site. Sure, the iPhone is starting to get noticed by major developers, but it is still a largely independent playground.

Kongregate- This is the killer platform for Flash games. Kongregate hosts a ton of games and has site-wide acheivements ala Xbox 360. Completing an achievement in a game that supports them (many do) will add to your site-wide score. You can also complete certain acheivements to earn cards for use in Kongregate’s Flash-based collectible card game. The site also enables you to chat with other players while playing. I’m raddevon on the site so, if you join, look me up!

Newgrounds- You might call Newgrounds the birthplace of Castle Crashers since the game’s creators not only got their start posting games on the site; Tom Fulp himself actually started the site! The site is the original home of Alien Hominid which eventually became a modestly successful console game on multiple platforms including the latest version on XBLA. The success of that game paved the way for the insanely fun XBLA title Castle Crashers. The site hosts all types of Flash content, but a major chunk of its content is in the games section.

Mod DB- If you own any of the popular PC games released in the past 10 years, there are probably at least one or two mods you could download and install for free to give you a fresh gaming experience. Mod DB currently indexes almost 5,000 PC game mods which can be searched and sorted by the game they modify, the release status, the genre, the theme, and whether they are single or multi-player.

If you find yourself bored with a seemingly endless cavalcade of cookie-cutter AAA titles, dig a little deeper into the indie games scene. You’ll find greater variety and incredible innovation in almost every aspect of the games from story to visuals to gameplay. There are also indie developers working hard to refine more mainstream gaming tropes to levels not pursued in the mainstream. The indie scene can truly provide something for every gamer.

Caps return us to the days of limited Internet access

February 11th, 2009 •
Tags: , , ,

FiberISPs everywhere are making it known that they do not intend for Internet access to be unlimited. It was a popular marketing term in the days of time-limited Internet access. Everyone has seen the old AOL disks and CDs that offer 500 hours for the first month. Users hated having to count hours (and even minutes prior to that). Some ISPs realized this and started offering unlimited Internet access plans as a way to lure users away from the ISPs that limited the amount of time a user could access the service. That was fine in the days of dial-up. You could max out your 28.8kbps connection for the entire month and still transfer very little data. However, broadband brought speeds that, when used to capacity for an entire month, cost the ISPs a little more to deliver the copius amounts of data that could be transmitted. Enter bandwidth caps.

In other countries, bandwidth caps are old news, but the major US broadband providers have only begun to cap users’ monthly bandwidth allotment. Comcast instituted a cap of 250GB on its residential Internet service which began in October of last year after several years of an invisible “bandwidth ceiling.” Before the cap was instituted, there was, in fact, a cap, but no one knew exactly what it was. Even users who hit the cap would never be told exactly what line they had crossed to cause their service to be halted. It seems Comcast wanted these users to, rather than knowing the limit which they would undoubtedly reach every single month, drastically reduce their usage unaware of their actual allotment. They then decided that the Bittorrent protocol was most likely the root of their problems at which time they began throttling data transferred over the protocol. This garnered a good amount of bad publicity and drew the ire of the FCC who ruled that throttling of a particular protocol was illegal.

No one wants to try to sell a service that has previously been unlimited as “limited.” Comcast had tried every way it could to covertly reduce its bandwidth costs, but it essentially had no remaining options but to be forthright with consumers. In September, Comcast informed them their services would, as of October, be limited to 250GB monthly. This move seemed to open Pandora’s box for US terrestrial ISPs to begin instituting their own bandwidth caps. Time Warner had begun testing a 40GB monthly cap in Beaumont, Texas back in June of ’08 but only on Wednesday of last week announced expansion of the program to new cities. AT&T announced in November of last year tiered caps ranging from 20GB to 150GB. Charter just last week announced a cap of 100GB on speeds of 15mbps and slower and 250GB up to their 25mbps offering. Cellular data providers have been capping service for a while now with most currently at 5GB per month.

No one likes caps, but the consensus seems to be that Comcast’s cap is fair. I can attest that I would really have to try hard to exceed it in a typical month, and I am a pretty heavy Internet user. Time Warner’s cap is ridiculously low at 40GB. I could see even average users exceeding this cap on a regular basis, and, at $1 per GB over, they aren’t going to be very happy about it. Charter’s caps are low considering the speed. Even Comcast’s cap will become less and less reasonable as speeds increase and online video gains ubiquity. I venture a guess that, in two years time, 250GB will not serve the needs of even the average Internet user. We have to assess the probability of Comcast increasing the cap to keep up with the times. Barring some competition from a new national broadband ISP offering net-neutral and unmetered access, it seems unlikely they would increase the cap.

Another issue to consider is that, when bandwidth is capped, increased speeds are no longer really a selling point. An increase in speed effectively reduces the portion of the month for which you will have access if you fully utilize that speed. ISPs will undoubtedly continue to market new speed increases as a selling point never pointing out this fact. Deceptive? Sure. Illegal? Doubtful.

As consumers become more aware of the limitations, content providers who depend on this bandwidth to connect with customers (like Hulu or Netflix‘s Instant Watch) will have to scale back offerings to fit within consumer limitations. We won’t ever be streaming Blu-ray movies from Netflix on a 250GB cap whether or not speeds will support it. This will stifle growth, innovation, and creativity among Internet content providers.

We have essentially returned to the days of being ever-mindful of our Internet usage patterns. Now, instead of counting hours, we count bits. The days of carefree Internet usage are most likely over. Here’s hoping for an ISP in shining armor to deliver us great speed unfettered at a reasonable price. It’s our only hope.

Cream of the cloud: The top premium web services

February 9th, 2009 • 7 comments
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Clouds

Photo by Flickr user zerega

There has been much talk in the past year about cloud computing. Some like it; some don’t. Say what you will, but there are some services that can only be provided through the cloud. As a result, the concept has been around forever and will probably never leave. There are some really stellar services available that make your computing life a lot easier. Several weeks back, I posted a question on Ask.Metafilter asking what are the favorite premium online services. Some of the answers I expected while others I had never heard of. Let’s hit the highlights (in no particular order).

  1. Flickr- This was one of the most oft repeated responses. Flickr is a fan favorite. It has a huge community and a great featureset for organizing and sharing photos. If you’re going to use a photo sharing service, it’s a pretty safe bet your friends already have accounts here because Flickr offers both free and paid accounts. The free account limits uploading to 100MB per month and only allows you access to your last 200 pictures. The paid account lifts both of these limits and comes with a few other perks as well like video storage for video up to 90 seconds. Paid accounts are $24.95 per year.
  2. SmugMug- SmugMug fans are quick to talk about features and support which are the two areas that make this service stand out. It is a photo-sharing service like Flickr, but it doesn’t have quite the userbase of the Flickr service. They do not offer a free version of their service, but users may share with people who do not have a membership. SmugMug has three different levels of accounts offering different features. Each of these is more pricey than Flickr’s service which is probably why they have fewer users. Accounts range from $39.95 to $149.95 per year.
  3. Dropbox- If you want an easy way to store files online, Dropbox has to be it. Install the client, tie it in to your account, and drop files into the Dropbox folder. You can also install the client on multiple machine, link all of them to your account, and wait for it to synchronize your Dropbox folder across all computers. It supports Mac, PC, and Linux. This is another service with both free and paid offerings. The free service offers a healthy 2GB of storage, but the paid version (at $9.99 per month or $99 per year) gives you a whopping 50GB of storage space.
  4. Backblaze- Get unlimited online backup from Backblaze for $5 per month per computer. It supports Mac and PC. Backblaze prides itself on requiring little to no user intervention. It backs up all the files on your computer. Everything. If you lose your data, you can redownload it or, for a fee, they will mail you the files on DVD or an external hard drive.
  5. Safari- O’Reilly Publishing offers online access to a huge library of technical books. Users may access 10 titles at a time for $22.99 per month or an unlimited number of titles for $42.99 per month. If you need to catch up on your knowledge or if you just need to keep up with the ever-changing tech landscape, this would be a cheap alternatives to purchasing a plethora of books at $40 to $60 each.
  6. lynda.com- For $25 per month, lynda.com offers a plethora of video tutorials for many current creative and programming technologies like Flash, Photoshop, and PHP. It seems like a great quick way to get up to speed on a particular technology that you need familiarity with for an upcoming project. You can watch some of the early lessons for free before you buy. They are very well-done.
  7. MetaFilter- A predictable response coming from the community, but this is truly justified. The cost is $5 for a membership. That’s not $5 per month or per year. Just $5. This entitles you to post on the “community weblog” at metafilter.com once per 24 hours and ask a question at ask.metafilter.com once per week. I have never actually posted to the blog, but I frequently tap the community for answers and am always surprised by the quality and depth of knowledge. Almost any question no matter how specialized or obscure receives attention.

I’m not entirely sold on the cloud as a place to create and store data. I will probably never subscribe to Apple’s MobileMe and be locked in to paying $100 per year for access to my data and services I have become dependent upon. However, some services are uniquely suited to being outsourced to the cloud. In these services, there is often value and justification for a reasonable subscription fee. We are not returning to the days of dumb terminals in which most of our activities take place outside our own machine, but people are beginning to realize the merits of the emerging trend of “the cloud.”

Video: Building an arcade cabinet

February 6th, 2009 • 2 comments
Tags: , , , , , , ,

 

It’s nice to have friends in high places. Failing that, it’s nice to have friends who can build you a sweet arcade cabinet! Brandon Haynes is a Rubik’s Cube virtuoso. He’s also pretty good with power tools. In this episode of the raddevon video podcast, we discuss his experience building a MAME cabinet.

The plans Brandon used to construct the cabinet were obtained for free from ArcadeCab.com. The only modifications made were to accomodate for the HotRod joystick as the original plan assumes a homemade control panel.

The monitor was found through an ad on the Freecycle Network which allows users to post giveaway items to be claimed by other users. BYOAC (Build Your Own Arcade Controls) has a video section which explains the ins and outs of different types of monitors.

The cabinet is not currently done (We will revisit it when it’s complete.), but the build cost is going to be less than $300 for the materials, monitor, and hardware necessary. I’m lucky enough to have an old Dell Pentium 4 lying around I can use as the brains of the cabinet. I also have some computer speakers. Check out the price list for details on the prices and sources of our components.

For more information, questions, or advice on this project, contact Brandon via e-mail (rcubeman [at] comcast [dot] net).

Download the podcast

Resources

Coming up on raddevon video for February 20th, I have an interview with a musician who distributes music online using equipment and software you probably already have. Check back in two weeks at 8pm Eastern.

If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to the podcast using the links in the sidebar on the right. You might also want to subscribe to the blog!

iTunes is now DRM-free. So what?

February 2nd, 2009 •
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Apple has kindly decided to allow users to pay 30 cents per track to remove the crippling DRM which would otherwise render users’ songs useless should the iTunes DRM servers vanish (as Wal-mart’s did last year). I understand that this charge was probably mandated by the RIAA, but I still have a problem with a store that charges me again to have unfettered access to my own purchases. This is especially true since other stores have already been selling DRM-free music for a while now. Many of us who care about owning music with fewer conditions have already found iTunes alternatives. Here are a few of the iTunes store alternatives that have made my radar.

eMusic

eMusic- eMusic is a subscription-based service that offers a number of downloads per month for the life of your membership. The current entry-level plan is $10 for 30 tracks which is significantly cheaper than ordering from other online music stores (except maybe for those based in Russia). The drawback is availability of major label artists; there is none. Because eMusic was among the first services offering DRM-free music, they still don’t really have a relationship with the majors. They have gained something of a reputation of being the online store for indie titles and have developed a following as a result. I can’t argue with the pricing!

AmazonMP3

Amazon- Based on my experience, Amazon’s music store comes closest to iTunes in size. Up until recently, Amazon was the place to be if you wanted DRM-free music from the majors. One unique aspect of this store is that they actually run discounts and deals on songs and albums. They offer a daily deal which is often an entire MP3 album for $2. Not bad at all!

lala

lala- In lala’s previous life, it was a CD trading service. Someone got smart and decided CDs weren’t going to be around forever. Now, lala is a DRM-free music store with good selection (although not quite as good as Amazon’s) and a number of very unique features. Lala has a web-accessible music library. You can choose to purchase an MP3 for $.89 or the web-playable track for $.10. If you buy the MP3, the track is automatically added to your web library. If you buy the web track, you can upgrade it to the full MP3 for $.79 more. When you first sign up with lala, you will download the Music Mover app which acts as a downloader for purchased tracks. It does double-duty as an uploader for any MP3 tracks it finds on your computer. These songs will be added to your web library as well giving you roaming access to your entire library for no more than you would pay (or have paid) for the tracks themselves. It’s a really nice service, but the store is excellent as well. Most albums are $7.50 which is a pretty healthy savings over iTunes typical $9.99 price. I have also had to deal with customer service on a couple of track downloading problems. They were very responsive and provded me with an opportunity to redownload any tracks I did not receive. This one is my current favorite by far.

There is little disadvantage to using these alternative services. In many cases, you get much more for your money than you would from iTunes. The advantages are clear: extra services and better prices. Both Amazon and lala are easy to try since there is no subscription and eMusic offers a free trial. The only disadvantage is that these stores are most likely not integrated into you computer’s media player. Fortunately, the features and savings you get for that little extra effort are really worth it. Even though iTunes now offers DRM-free music, there still remain compelling reasons to give the alternatives another look.

Recession could bring about another “dark age” for gamers

January 30th, 2009 • 2 comments
Tags: , , , , , , ,

The Dark AgesElectronic Arts was on fire last year with a number of unique and stellar titles. This was a pretty pleasant surprise for most gamers since recently EA has been known for churning out sequels, roster updates for sports titles, and licensed games. In fact, EA suffered from something of a backlash at the hands of hardcore gamers not too long ago; many of them were tired of being bombarded with “safe” releases from EA who was the largest game publisher at that time. It seems the publisher has now found its way, and, although they still release lots of drivel, there are some risk-taking gems that temper their lineup from time to time.

Now, we face a worldwide economic recession. There are arguments from both sides as to whether or not the video games industry will be affected. Most can agree that the industry has not been affected profoundly as other sectors of the economy have. There is no doubt that things are at least tightening up—developers are closing up shop, laying off workers, and halting projects. Companies across the spectrum are playing it safe and cutting back. Will this recession take us back to the all-too-recent days of sequels, updated rosters, and movie adaptations?

I, for one, don’t want to go back to those days. If they do return, I can assure publishers and developers that I won’t be purchasing many of their titles. Movie games are notoriously bad (in most cases). Sequels are easy money. Roster updates should never be anything but downloadable content at this point since all current consoles are capable of this.

The hardware makers have all been saying that this console generation will start a ten-year cycle—twice the length of the cycle that has been in place virtually since the days of the NES. It is a smart move on their part. The platforms are all very mature and can withstand a longer cycle this time around. Our consoles are delivering a gaming experience that is very complete (with the possible exception of Wii online play). Why replace the platform when it is perfectly capable of delivering the experience users crave? This is also a sound strategy considering the current economic climate. Software developers could learn a lot from this approach.

Quake 3 Rally is a racing game built on top of an FPS

Quake 3 Rally is a racing game built on top of an FPS

If developers can stop thinking of their games as single encapsulated experiences, games themselves can also become platforms. We don’t need a new game engine every time a developer wants to tell a new story. We don’t need a $60 boxed title to update a years worth of roster shakeups. We don’t even necessarily need a new engine to deliver a new game type (proven by the modding communities that have blossomed around popular PC games). Most of all, we certainly don’t need an endless stream of easy-money titles from now until the economy is back on its feet. This strategy of games as platforms has already been put into practice by a few smart developers.

Harmonix has released two excellent music titles in Rock Band and Rock Band 2. Yes, the sequel was just released this past year, but Harmonix has already stated they will not be releasing a new edition in 2009. However, the Rock Band music library is updated weekly with new tracks that can be purchased and downloaded over Xbox Live. I venture a guess I have spent more money downloading new tracks than I have on the game itself. This is monumental considering the game with instruments was somewhere in the neighborhood of $180. I’m sure the development time spent on adapting a song to the Rock Band platform is minimal in comparison the time invested in developing a new sequel to the game. I speak for myself and many others like me in saying I do not feel a burning need for additional features to justify a new sequel to the game this year or even next for that matter. I am perfectly satisfied purchasing new songs.

The much-anticipated Burnout Paradise Legendary Cars DLC includes this gem

The much-anticipated Burnout Paradise Legendary Cars DLC includes this gem

Burnout Paradise is pretty much the perfect arcade racing game in my estimation. I am not a fan of racing games in general and definitely not a “car guy.” This makes it all the more amazing that I have poured hours upon hours into this game and still enjoy it immensely in spite of it having been released last year and my notoriously short attention span. Criterion, the game’s developer, has already come through with some free downloadable content even going so far as to add motorcycles to the game! Their plans for the upcoming year include some really exciting DLC that expands the game in ways that have traditionally only been done through new boxed releases.

All current-gen consoles are capable of receiving downloadable updates to games. They all have a marketplace setup to take payments for said downloads. In this time of economic strife, rather than devoting valuable time and energy to adding inane features and minor graphical updates, or worse still to adapting the hottest new family film, why not flesh out some of the fantastic platforms that are already out there in gamers’ homes. This model is cheaper for developers, cheaper and more convenient for gamers, and may just be the stimulus package the industry needs to keep it strong in this climate of counting pennies and cutting corners. Expanding existing games may be the best way to avoid the new gaming “dark age.”

Archives

RSS@raddevon on Twitter