I Just Want Virtual Reality Already

There is some really cool new technology being developed right now. Motion controls and touch screens have dominated the gaming landscape for a while now, and I remember a time when those things were considered to be the cutting edge of video game technology. Now though, most of the tacking on of motion controls has stopped, and anything that can fit in your pocket has a touch screen, leaving room for exciting new game control technology. One day, ONE DAY, we’ll be able to jack into Matrix style virtual reality worlds to fight monsters and bang chicks, but until then we’ll have to be content with some feasible alternatives. I’m really excited for the future of computer control, and it’s coming sooner than you think.

Leap Motion is some fantastic new 3D motion tracking technology that, in addition to working really well, makes you look like Tony Stark, which is always a plus in my book. It’s similar to the Kinect, but significantly more accurate, down to 1/100^th of a millimeter, and because it’s so accurate you can use it to paint pictures and control games. Gone are the days when Kinect promised us interactive gameplay without a controller, considering that’s not what we got at all:

This thing is amazingly precise, and tracks all of your fingers independently, which means it can be used as anything from a teaching tool, to physical rehab, to gaming, to artwork, and more. The Leap Motion controller comes out next month, and has had software being developed for it for months. Combine that with this deal to bring the Leap Motion to laptops, and we may just have a whole new sub-genre on our hands.

Then we have this game, Son of Nor, coming to PC, Mac, and Linux. At first look it seems to be a fairly standard third person action game, but then you watch the development videos, and realize that you control magic in the game with your mind. Using the EPOC headgear you can cast spells and alter terrain with thoughts, rather than actions. The technology requires you to “teach” your brain how to activate the abilities, but once you are immersed all of the actions just become effortless. This is the kind of technology that could easily be integrated into nearly every game genre, imagine being able to reload with just a thought, or not having to navigate maps and menus, but rather just thinking of the item or location you want, and having it pop up.

The future is here people.

"Gaming Journalism" Is the Only Punchline You Need

I’m sure you've seen this one; Katie Couric did an hour long exposé on the dangers of violent video games, and video game addiction. In short, she found some particularly gruesome cases of violence and tragedy, and tries to frame them in the context of being caused by violent video games. The prominent case on display is the case of Daniel Petric, the so called “Halo Killer”, who shot both of his parents in the head when they took away his copy of Halo 3. Petric's father survived the gunshot, while his mother did not, and after facing trial was sentenced to life in prison, with possibility of parole after 23 years. I could spend literally 12 hours typing up all the reasons why this piece of “journalism” is a complete farce, but I’m going to try to do it in 8.

I would like to point out that I am in no way trying to undercut this tragedy. Petric snapped, and in his rage committed a terrible act of violence. As a society, it is up to us to protect the members of our society first and foremost, even against other members. Petric is a murderer, and no amount of justification or science will change what he’s done, or what punishment he will face for it. However, the way that Katie Couric is presenting this tragedy is nothing short of exploitation.

I could go on a rant about legitimate mental health problems not suddenly appearing in 1972 when Pong was first released, or in any other year when your game scapegoat de-jour came out. I could talk about the fact that, if we assume that video games cause these behaviors that the actual violent events are statistically insignificant compared to the number of people who actually play video games (about 70% of the entire world). I could also point out how this report is framed and shot like a horror movie, with the sole intent of scaring its audience. How about I go on a rant featuring all of the well documented positive effects of video games? I guess the most convincing evidence is that this is just a repeat of history. Before video games, rock music was going to get our kids to worship Satan, and before that comic books were ruining our children forever. Video games are just the latest in a long list of parental scapegoats, and if history is any indication, we will irrationally discriminate against something that our kids like.

Instead of all of that though, I’m going to talk about something I didn't even know about until I was doing research for this article. The Petric case took place in 2007, so the trial and sentencing have come and gone, and during the trial, the defense attorney claimed that Petric was housebound for nearly a year due to a staph infection that resulted from a snowboard injury. The defense went on to say that due to these conditions, he was “more prone to be influenced by the game's violent content”.  

What.

What does that even mean? Is this lawyer literally implying that boredom can lead to murder? Is he saying that Halo 3 encourages matricide, but unless you have sufficient time to play it doesn't affect you? They were going for an insanity defense here, but that means that they were trying to prove that playing video games for a long time causes insanity. Not even the “sleep deprivation causes insanity remarkably quickly” defense, literal, balls to the wall, insanity. While he was still found guilty, and his sentencing was lighter than it could have been on account of Petric being a minor, the judge admitted that he believed that “[Petric] had no idea at the time he hatched this plot that if he killed his parents, they would be dead forever." 

What the hell? I’m not about to go on a personal accountability rant, but this is not rocket science people. When someone does something that they like to do over and over again, it isn't an addiction, it's just something they like to do. When they get to the point of neglecting other elements of their life for it, it becomes an addiction. Petric had legitimate mental problems, and the event of his parents taking away his copy of Halo was just the trigger that led to this awful incident. That trigger could have been anything else just as easily, any other confrontational act with his parents where he had to choose between them and something he wanted. I’m willing to bet that a gun wouldn't have even been involved if his father hadn't locked the game in the same lockbox where he kept his 9mm handgun.

But that’s a whole other issue.

Video Games are Not Expensive, Seriously

“Video Games are getting expensive nowadays” is probably something you hear out-of-touch people say, but it does hold some merit. The price points and levels of value are an ever changing element of the games industry, and that roller coaster isn't going to stop any time soon. Between monthly subscriptions, free to play models, sale pricing, and more, figuring out just what you are getting for your money can be a chore, but fear not friends, I, Lance Vance am here to put your mind at ease. Below is my simple guide for determining how much value you, personally are getting from your games!

Video Games are, first and foremost, an entertainment product. You buy video games to be entertained, and how entertaining they are determines how much of your time is spent playing. Each person is going to have their own idea of how valuable their time is, so you’ll have to apply these numbers to your own life, and see what you can find, but no matter how much time you have available to play video games on a weekly basis, you don’t have infinite time, so budgeting how much value you are getting from your games is important. In order to determine how much each hour of entertainment costs you, just follow this simple formula:

(Note: This formula doesn't factor in things like, electricity bills, hardware costs and maintenance, or time spent discussing the game but not playing. These things vary wildly from person to person, and it will be up to you to determine those values for yourself.)

(Cost of game + additional game costs (DLC)) / (Game playtime in hours) = (dollars spent per hour of gameplay) 

Most games and game systems have an internal method of tracking playtime, and keeping track of how much you spend on a game is important anyway. For example, if you bought Bioshock Infinite for $60, and played it for 15 hours, you spent $4 for each hour of gameplay. That may seem like a lot, but let’s check out some other forms of entertainment, so we have a benchmark to go by:

Activity:	Cost:	Time:	Hourly Rate:
Average Movie	$14	1.25 Hours	$11.20/hr
Day at Six Flags	$85	8 hours	$10.62/hr
Average Concert	$46	4 hours	$11.50/hr
Average Brothel in Nevada	$835	2 hours	$417.50/hr

Well the lesson here is that hookers are freaking expensive, but the other lesson is that an average hour of entertainment is going to run you about $10 - $11. Compare this to our Bioshock example above, which is looking pretty good right about now. From this point of view, even if you only play a $60 game for 6 hours, you are still getting pretty decent value out of it. You may not feel like the game was worthwhile, but for sheer dollar value, it isn't too bad.

Let's look at my personal numbers for a variety of games across multiple platforms and genres:

Game:	Total Cost:	Total Playtime:	Hourly Rate:
Borderlands 2	$68 (Including season pass)	138 Hours	$0.49/hr
Bioshock Infinite	$46	14 Hours	$3.28/hr
Fire Emblem: Awakening	$83.50 (So much DLC)	141 Hours	$0.59/hr
Pokemon Black	$35	324 Hours	$0.10/hr
Super Smash Bros. Melee	$50	1265 Hours	$0.04/hr
Dungeon Defenders	$8 (Yay Steam sales)	66 Hours	$0.12/hr
Halo 4	$100 (Worst special edition ever)	66 Hours	$1.51/hr
Tales of Vesperia	$150 (Imported copy and DLC)	477 Hours	$0.31/hr
Metal Gear Rising	$55	6 Hours	$9.16/hr
League of Legends	$180 (LOL free-to-play)	512 Hours	$0.35/hr

Oh. I… wow. Just wow. I don’t even know how… That’s a lot of hours. This is only a handful of games I've been playing lately too. If I add up all the time I've spent on the Pokemon series alone, it comes out to about 3,600 hours. That’s 1.7% of my entire life. I’m going to go lie down.

(Just kidding, I’m playing Fire Emblem right now.)

Proof that Video Games are Art

I really don't want to do a “video games as art” post. Seriously. All that will happen is I'll get really mad about dumb opinions and restate points that have been made a thousand times over. Video Games can be art OK? Just take my word for it. Also note that I said “can be”, not “are”. Just like paint can be used to change the color of a wall or to produce a beautiful picture, video games are an artistic medium, and can harbor works of art, utility programs, horrible junk, and anything in between. My point today, however, is that the fact that this argument even exists is because of the way the games industry as a whole has been treating games lately.

Now, I understand that games have to make a profit. Entertainment is an industry, and it takes a lot of money and a lot of people to keep an industry working. The genre couldn't survive if every major game could be made in a basement by one guy like Notch did with Minecraft, and that’s not how it is right? It takes studios of dozens of people literally years to put together the kind of AAA mainstream title that we come to expect. That’s just for linear shooters too, gigantic games like Skyrim or the Fallout series take even longer, and MMOs are rolled out over their entire lifecycle, in some ways they are never not being developed. These kinds of games are a massive investment of time, energy, and money, and that can’t be changed. Indie games like Minecraft must be fluke, and the product of a genius or someone with otherwise superior resources right?

Wrong.

That there is a mod for Just Cause 2, a mod that was created to fill a gap left by the original development team; the lack of a multiplayer mode. Now Just Cause 2 is a massive game, like really massive. There are games with larger maps, sure, but Just Cause 2 has a map that is fully rendered in high definition, and not at all barren, with transports, traffic, and other elements running all over the place. In the process of developing a landscape, and game, of that scale, at some point the multiplayer was dropped from development, which left its fate up to the modding community.

People have been making mods for games since the 80's, and the things that can come from the community at large are impressive to say the least. This Just Cause 2 mod though, is blowing my mind. Most games that have multiplayer have a player cap, usually an even number so there will be even teams, (16, 32, 64, etc.) but these numbers rarely hit triple digits. It was a really big deal a few years ago when MAG came out on the PlayStation 3, and offered 256 player multiplayer on a console. Even in MMO's, where a server can play host to thousands of players simultaneously, the game is sectioned off into areas, and player characters don’t really interact with each other beyond text unless they start an interaction like a party or a duel. This Just Cause 2 mod, however, supports a whopping 1800 players. Actually, is may support more than that, that’s just the highest number of people they could get online at once, and according to the developers, the server has “yet to reach any real barrier or limitation preventing us from reaching an even higher player count than the previous public tests”. Best part? It was created by five friends, in their spare time, and it only took them about “700 hours” each (or about four and a half months working at forty hours a week).

How is this even possible? This is the kind of feat that isn't even supposed to be possible, much less by a team of relative armatures, and sure, the game engine was already in place, but they had to reverse engineer the whole thing in order to figure out how to make it run anyway. If a group of dedicated friends can put out something this impressive, then why does it take the big name studios years to put out a title that barely pushes envelope of established video game standards? One word my friends: bureaucracy.

The corporate bureaucracy that enables the gigantic companies to function is ironically the thing most impeding progress. Accountants from one department will cut the budget while marketers from another department will push up the launch date, and it’s the game that suffers in the end. That’s how I know video games are art, because while they can be beautiful, innovative, deep, and amazing, in the face of a corporation that is trying to trade creativity for profit the whole process falls apart. Name me one form of art in all of human history that hasn't had a group try and fail to market it as a business, I bet you can't.

Why Microsoft’s Next Console Won’t Always be Online (And Why it Doesn’t Really Matter)

There have been a ton of rumors and plenty of drama floating around lately about Microsoft’s next console, codenamed “Durango”. The most prevalent rumor is that the new console will always be online, with rumors even circulating that the console cannot be played offline at all. A Microsoft employee took to Twitter to defend the idea of an always on console, and subsequently left Microsoft, although it is unknown if he was terminated, or left of his own volition. Public opinion is varying wildly, with some people claiming that this “always on DRM” won’t matter in the long run, and others believing that it will lead Microsoft to its doom. There’s obviously a lot of conflicting information, and until E3 everything should just be taken as a rumor, but I thought I should weigh in.

Microsoft’s next console will not require a constant internet connection to simply play retail games. I’ll bet money on that, but even if it does have a system where it is constantly using the network, it would not be for DRM. See, the Durango already has a system in place for always on DRM, the PlayStation 4 will have it too, and it’s already in place for the Wii U, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and every other home console on the market. This DRM is called using physical media.

The bane of hackers since the dawn of time.

Look familiar? These little guys are what make sure you actually paid for the game you are playing. Both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 offer the ability to install physical games to their internal hard drives, but still require the game to be in the disc tray in order to actually play the game. See, game discs are incredibly hard to replicate. You can’t just burn the image of a game onto a blank DVD, pop it in your Xbox, and boom, free games. You have to mod your console first, which, in addition to voiding your warranty can go wrong very easily and lead to you destroying your console. We’re not talking about just downloading some files and sticking them on a flash drive either, we’re talking about soldering stuff to your Xbox’s motherboard. The idea of “always on internet connection DRM” is fine on PCs because:

A) PC architecture is very open-ended and in some cases open-source, which can lead to people creating workarounds and mods with comparatively little effort, and

B) Anyone who is downloading full sized games from say, Steam or Origin, has a stable enough connection for a 10+ gig download, and most PCs never move from somewhere they have a connection, so they more than likely have the stability for DRM.

Consoles, however, are not subject to either of these. Most of the firmware elements of the current generation of consoles still have not been broken to the point of infinite free modding (although the Wii totally has). As long as hardware manufacturers are able to develop new, stronger methods of encryption, home consoles will probably never be fully broken during their lifecycles. I know home consoles are moving more and more towards the digital marketplace, but digital games on current systems already have DRM, and it works fine. There is a way bigger problem with websites generating codes for Microsoft Points (which I will not link here, seriously, do not download one of those things) than there is with people pirating Xbox Arcade games.

The other claim I hear is that this “always on” system will be used to eliminate the used game market, by locking copies to consoles. The problem with this theory, of course, is that Microsoft literally cannot afford to do this. GameStop owns a pretty big chunk of the market share, and their business is heavily dependent on used game sales. If Microsoft decided to literally destroy the used game market, GameStop could simply choose to not carry their new console. This would be a way bigger blow to Microsoft than it would be to GameStop, because Microsoft needs a big install base of early adopters in order to compete with the Wii U and PlayStation 4. Additionally, they are well aware of how many of their users do not use the internet features of their systems. By their own admission, there are about 76 million Xbox 360’s in the world, but only about 46 million Xbox Live accounts. Microsoft is not about to alienate nearly half of their userbase.

If Microsoft’s next console does have some form of constant internet connection, it will likely be used for background downloading and updating, so you can set a schedule and have things download while you are at work/school/whatever. It is possible that as long as the internet is connected, it will be searching for updates and downloads, but let’s not forget that Nintendo has already been doing this for years. I don’t think WiiConnect24 did the Wii any harm at all.

I'm Going to TRY to Explain Bioshock Infinite to You.

This is going to be one hell of an endeavor though. Let me start by saying that Bioshock Infinite is a fantastic game. The story is something to behold really, a fantastic roller coaster ride that never slows down. The excellent writing and atmosphere is punctuated by some fantastic vocal performances and an unparalleled soundtrack. The gameplay itself if fairly standard FPS faire: recharging shield, limited gun capacity, minor weapon upgrades, etc. The sky-lines and the vigors add some nice variety to gameplay, and there are more than a few different enemy types and bosses to face. Overall an above average game with an amazing story, which I will try to explain the intricacies of:

SPOILERS FOLLOW. Seriously, if you haven't beaten the game, don't read this. It's the kind of thing that you need to experience for yourself. Also, a lot of this is my interpretation as a result of playing the game and talking with other people who have done the same. I've found some theories online that have been pretty comprehensive, but this is what I got from it. Of course, Ken Levine could come out a month from now and tell us that the whole thing was about aliens, so who knows.

Imagine this, but with Ken Levine (I'm bad at Photoshop)

Where do I even begin? The "beginning" of the game isn't really the beginning of the story, so I guess some background would help. The story of Bioshock Infinite isn't even really about Booker DeWitt, the protagonist, it's about Rosalind and Robert Lutece, the twin physicists-turned-demigods and their quest to right their wrongs and satisfy the insatiable boredom that comes with quantum immortality.

Wow, that's one hell of a topic sentence.

The "original" Lutece is Rosalind, who was the physicist funded by Comstock and the United States to develop the technology that led to the creation of Colombia. She discovers through quantum physics the existence of the multiverse, and the infinite spectrum of worlds that exist there. She soon makes contact with "Robert", herself from an alternate universe that is nearly identical, except that she is born a man. The Colombian propaganda machine hand waves Robert as being her brother, and the two go on to study the effects of quantum tunneling, the process used to see and travel to other universes.

As a direct result of the quantum research, Comstock is rendered infertile, and suffers from premature aging. Needing an heir, Comstock petitions the Luteces to find an alternate universe in which he had a child, and acquire that child for him. The Luteces find protagonist Booker, buy baby Anna from him, and give the baby to Comstock, who is raised as Elizabeth. As Elizabeth grows up, it is revealed that she has the power to manipulate quantum tunnels, or "tears" without the use of a machine. The Luteces suggest that her abilities result from the loss of her finger during the transition from her original universe. The Luteces reach an impasse, however, when Robert insists that Elizabeth be returned to her original universe, as her powers could lead to widespread destruction. Comstock learns of the reasons for Elizabeth's powers, but wants her to remain, so she can fulfill a prophecy he saw involving Colombia and the destruction of modern society, so Comstock decides to kill everyone who knows about where she came from, his wife and the Lutece twins. He murders Lady Comstock by his own hands, and blames it on Daisy Fitzroy, the leader of the Vox Populi, a band of revolutionaries and a convenient political scapegoat. Meanwhile, he has one of his subordinates, Jeremiah Fink, sabotage one of the Lutece's experiments, which causes their consciousness to be scattered across the multiverse.

Still with me? Good, because this is where it gets nuts.

Rosalind and Robert are now literally demi-gods, able to see across time, space, and multiple universes simultaneously. The reason they seem so disjointed in their speech throughout the game, is because they have to really focus in order to communicate their ideas to one person in one universe. It would be like trying to explain tax law to a four-year-old, you would have to talk slowly and use big easy concepts because you would have no way of knowing what the kid understands and doesn't understand, there's no frame of reference for someone so beneath you on an intellectual level. They are also "immortal", since they exist "outside" time. That doesn't really explain it well, but there really isn't a way to explain being "outside" time. The closest example would be the ideas explored in Edwin Abbott's "Flatland", a novella about a two dimensional world called Flatland, which is occupied by people who exist as a variety of shapes and lines. One day a sphere comes to visit Flatland, and tries to explain the existence of Spaceland, a three dimensional world, but the citizens of Flatland cannot even comprehend the idea of a world that exists "beyond" theirs.

Being "outside" of time, the Luteces have an opportunity to think, and come to the conclusion that Elizabeth needs to be returned to her own universe, as her powers are highly volatile. Well, honestly we don't really know why the Luteces take the actions they do after this point. The prevalent theory is that they feel guilt over stealing Anna/Elizabeth from her original universe, but the fact of the matter is that they are so beyond mortal reasoning that no one really knows. What we do know is that they come to the conclusion of letting protagonist Booker loose in Colombia, with the mission of getting Elizabeth back from Comstock, but leaving him unaware that she is his daughter. Thanks to the scene with the coin flip (the Luteces appear before protagonist Booker and ask him to pick heads or tails on a coin flip, the coin comes up heads, and a mark is added to the tally, which shows 122 previous flips, and results), we know that they have made multiple attempts to "fix" Elizabeth with different Bookers, but this is where things get really hazy:

If the Luteces can see "outside" time, and all eventualities, are they aware of the way the end of the game plays out? Was their plan for Booker to rescue Elizabeth and return home no problem, or were they trying to get booker to destroy the Siphon, so Elizabeth's power would be unleashed, and the events at the end of the game would take place? After the Siphon is destroyed, Elizabeth seems to be similar to the Luteces, in that she can "see" across time and space, and she causes the events at the end of the game to play out the way they do directly. She is even the one who personally drowns Booker. Is this caused by the ability to see across universes, so she has the same goal as the Luteces, or is she simply going along with the idea to kill Comstock before he ever existed? If she is just going along with her own instincts, did the Luteces' know that she would reach that conclusion, and is that why they sent protagonist Booker to free her? If the Bookers of many worlds all make different choices in Colombia,  which leads to their varying levels of success and failure, are all of the events of the game simply the latest set of "constants and variables" being tested? It seems so, as evidenced by the coin flipping scene, but shouldn't the Luteces' know when and how the various Bookers with succeed or fail, by virtue of being able to see everything? Are they creating new universes by manipulating the Bookers? If so, why not create a universe where Booker would clearly succeed, or one where he has ALREADY succeeded. Perhaps they tried this, but still found the results inconclusive. The objective is apparently to stop Comstock from ever existing, but the Luteces' presumably can't take care of him themselves, or they could risk undoing their own existence, but Elizabeth does it anyway, and they don't stop her. Thanks to the after-credits scene, we know that life goes on for at least one Booker somewhere, but doesn't that mean that the capacity for Comstock still exists too?

I don't even know where to begin untangling these ideas. Multiple universes AND time travel? I'm going to go lie down.

Totally check out our new YouTube channel though, fun people playing games, and NO quantum physics.

A Brave New World

Check this shit out!

Let's Play Some ARAM


That's right! We've got our own video series now! New capture card fresh out of the box and HILARIOUS commentary locked and loaded; we're good to go. Expect lot's more of these in the future, we're going to try to keep making them pretty consistently, and they're fun to do too.

For now we're going to be doing a bunch of games that we have wanted to make videos for, but in the future  I may be taking suggestions for new games for us to try. Enjoy!