So How 'bout That Steam OS?

It looks like the long rumored Steambox may finally come to fruition with Valve’s announcement this week of a Steam OS. Apparently it’s going to be a full, Linux based operating system that’s optimized for game performance and media sharing. According to the official website, this operating system is being designed from the ground up to be a living room operating system with streaming options, developer support, and more. No hardware partnership has been announced yet, but this seems like a natural first step toward a first party Valve box.

The Steam OS is a somewhat unique product, as there isn't really any competition for “living room TV” computers. There are consoles, sure, but consoles are closed systems, designed to play specific games. You can’t just install the Xbox operating system on a PC and hook it up to your TV. There are also smart TVs, which offer video and music streaming options, but those are bare-bones systems that are basically just apps for your TV. The Steam OS is going to be a full operating system, which will presumable have all the features of base Linux available underneath the Steam shell, so the system will be as complex or customizable as you want it to be. That leaves room for a lot of flexibility and space for upgrades in the future.

It isn’t unheard of for people to have gaming computers hooked up to their TVs. Steam launched their Big Picture feature at Christmas time last year to target those people specifically. This OS could be a step in the right direction for those people, since presumable the entire OS could be controlled with a gamepad, similar to how Big Picture works, but it will be interesting to see how many people are willing to buy or build computers for that purpose when the OS launches. Luckily the OS will be 100% free, which eliminates the large cost of buying an operating system for a living room PC, but even with that benefit it seems unlikely that average consumers will be willing to build or buy their own living room PCs just for gaming.

I’m one of those people that has a living room PC, and thanks to a 30ft HDMI cable I can play all my Steam games on the glorious big screen. When Steam OS launches I’ll probably look into setting up a dual boot to at least try it out, but whether or not it becomes a permanent part of my setup will depend on how good the streaming capabilities are. If a Steam OS PC with minimal running hardware can act as a streaming box, and stream games in real time from my main PC I’ll buy one for every room in the house.

Versus!

Competitive gaming is an interesting subject. It has existed since the first days of head to head play and high score competition in arcades, but in the grand scheme of things that’s been a relatively short period of time, about 40 years or so. In that time competitive gaming has grown by leaps and bounds, and not just in a professional sense. Sure, there are gaming tournaments now that offer millions of dollars in prizes, and games that support millions of players in competitive environments, but video games as a medium of competition still have a long way to go.

Competition in numerous forms has existed longer than human society has. It can be used to settle conflicts, to entertain, or to communicate, but all forms of human competition have been bound by one thing; arbitrary rules. Rules are important, they are the only things that keep society from collapsing into roaming gangs of murderers, and by extension competition needs rules as well. These rules are generally a good thing, as they establish a fair and balanced metric for use in determining victory, but that does not mean that they aren’t still totally arbitrary. The only reason a quarterback doesn’t punch and kick his way through the defensive line is because there are rules against it, just like how the only thing stopping a particularly jealous ex-boyfriend from kidnapping his former girlfriend are the laws that call that act illegal and the police force who enforce those laws. These rules create important boundaries in both games and in life, for the safety and fairness of everyone.

As a result of these rules, human beings become very adjusted to limiting and controlling themselves on a daily basis. Learning what the rules of life are, why they are important, and how to avoid breaking them is one of the most important parts of becoming a member of a society. In a way, all of the bad things that happen in society are the result of someone breaking the rules. Unfortunately, this leads to a fundamental problem when it comes to competition in video games, because video games have their own rules, and don’t need the players to enforce them.

This is very weird if you aren't prepared for it. Even other games, like board or card games, have established rules that you can break if you know what you’re doing. You can’t cheat a computer program, it literally cannot do things it wasn't programmed to do. You can exploit glitches, sure, but those are things that are very specific, and achieve a specific result, in a way they are just as much a part of the program as the non-glitch parts are. This results in a whole lot of new rules and problems that don’t exist anywhere else. Because the physics of the universe are set in stone from a gameplay perspective, it’s up to balance testers and programmers to fix problems that arise in the rules. You’ll see that in online or ongoing games, where routine patches are commonplace. It takes a lot of creativity to create a network of rules that result in a balanced competitive environment. Imagine if the referees and officials could manipulate physics for the duration of sports games, and how much work would have to go in to maintaining a system like that.

Additionally, people are bound to find this type of game difficult, seeing as there has never been anything like it in human history. Video games exist in a world where all the rules of the game a built right in, and there are no "honor rules". Anything that isn't allowed by the rules of the game is simply impossible to do. This is why you get lots of cases of people enacting their own honor rules in video games. Things like no rushing in real time strategy games, or no spamming in fighting games. Humans are used to having to live by arbitrary rules, and the lack of them can be startling to some people.

Just a random thought I had.

Travelogue - Dragon-con

Dragon-con is a convention that takes place every year in Atlanta, GA, and claims to be the “The world's largest fantasy/Sci-fi convention”. The convention certainly seemed huge, but that was due largely to the fact that it takes place across six hotels instead of one large convention center like most other cons. This leads to a lot of walking, both indoors and outdoors, and very congested hallways, since people have to do a great deal more walking than they would if this were held in a convention center. I managed to completely wear out my shoes over the course of the weekend, but it was well worth it.

This convention is run by fans, for fans, which of course has both positive and negative elements. On the positive side it doesn’t feature any of the strict regulations that sometimes plague larger cons. The autograph area is simply a room, where you can walk around, see people, and line up for whoever you want to meet. The celebrities get to make their own schedules for when they want to be there, and you don’t have to line up hours in advance or get lucky in a ticket drawing in order to meet them. Security was also a lot more lax then at other big conventions, with several vendors selling live steel weaponry on site and several outfits that would be impossible at other conventions for one reason or another. Also there were bars, lots of bars. Literally at least two or three per hotel, and open all day and night, so the entire convention was one big drunken four day party.

The flip side of this of course was the lack of organization. It’s very apparent that Dragon Con doesn’t have any sort of singular event coordinator to make sure everything is running smoothly. Each event or panel basically has to govern itself when it comes to tech support and organization. This results in several events clearly being run by people who are not prepared to do so, and the show suffers as a result. The lack of organization also makes navigating a colossal pain. Because the convention takes place across multiple hotels, there are more than fifty different event rooms, floor names, and venues to navigate, and each hotel has their own method of naming and organizing them. Instead of a single unified map and room layout, patrons have to navigate from building to building using sky-bridges, which leads to clogged hallways and lost con-goers. It doesn’t help either that the hotel staff will know the names and locations of areas in their hotel only, so getting help is a pain. It took us two days to finally figure out the most efficient way to navigate the area.

If you like massive parties and exceptional costumes, Dragon Con is the con for you. The events run all night every night, so there no shortage of things to do. If you don’t like large crowds, complex navigation, or lots of walking however, this one may not be worth it. Even if you don’t attend the event proper, Dragon Con takes over several square blocks of downtown Atlanta, and even has a parade that’s open to the public, so if you’re in the area you can still come by and experience the festivities.

I’m back everybody. Next week my post will be about my new place and all the fun things it contains. After that I can go back to posting about how Microsoft has their collective heads so far up their collective asses they look like that inside out pig monster from Galaxy Quest

I forgot Alan Rickman was in this movie...

Is It Almost A Year Already!?

Welp, it’s time for me to be taking a little summer break. I’ve been writing this blog nonstop, every week since its launch almost a year ago, and I’m about to go through some big personal stuff soon. I’m moving in 2 weeks, and also going to DragonCon in Atlanta. I’ll be back with a Travelogue about that on September 10^th. DragonCon is one of the largest conventions on the east coast, so it should be a good time. I’ll be back in a few weeks, enjoy your summer till then!

This Week In: The Internet

Too many things were announced in the past week so I’m going to cover a bunch of them! Here we go~

Riot Games and American Express are teaming up to create a League of Legends debit card. They’re doing a full reveal of it tomorrow but it looks like they are going to be offering a lot of Riot Points to customers. 22,000 points by my count, for signing up, adding money and making ten transactions. That’s almost $150 in Riot Points, which is a pretty damn good deal. It isn't a credit card, so there’s no credit check and no chance of it stealing money from you in interest. I’m still waiting to see more details, but if the American Express website is to be believed other than ATM fees and the one time signup fee it doesn't cost a thing. If it’s really on the up and up I’ll totally get one for myself.

Mark Whitten confirmed in a Reddit AMA that the Xbox One no longer requires the Kinect to be plugged in to function. This is fantastic news, because even if you love the Kinect and would always have it plugged in, you have to admit that losing your Kinect or having it break also resulting in the effective bricking of your console would be extraordinarily annoying. Not to mention the fact that Microsoft had stated in the past that it is possible to disable the Kinect on the software side, but if you could disable it but not unplug it, it leads to some questions about how much you can actually disable.

Finally, Nintendo announced a new element for the new Pokemon games; Mega Pokemon. This has been a big controversial point among Pokemon fans, mostly because we don’t have enough information about how they work mechanically. I like the designs from a visual standpoint, and from what we've seen the forms are activated in battle through the use of a hold item, which seems pretty straightforward. Nintendo probably won’t give too many details about this until the game is closer to release, but I’ll keep my eyes open. Another advancement for the new games is a system to track and build EVsin game, which isn't a big deal if you don’t play the game competitively, but if you do play competitively it’s a huge freaking deal.

Honestly though Mega Pokemon, good or bad, are totally redeemed by one thing: L'oreal Ampharos.

Because you're worth it

Travelogue - Boston Comic-Con

Boston Comic-Con was this past weekend, and it was pretty entertaining. It’s held in the Seaport World Trade Center now, as opposed to the Hynes convention center in previous years. This is good news for everyone, since the Seaport is larger, better laid out, and doesn't have the traffic problems that come with being connected to the Prudential Center. Last year BCC was small, taking up only half of the Hynes and only featuring a vendor’s room and a small hallway, but this year the offerings increased significantly.

Having been to both San Diego and New York Comic-Cons has spoiled me somewhat I suppose. Between those and PAX I’m used to large, sprawling convention halls with multiple main rooms and lots to do. Not that BCC is anything underwhelming, but it pales in comparison to the larger conventions. This is improving of course, and in a few years it’s likely that BCC will be big enough to rival the bigger cons, but this year it was still small. The convention hall was crowded, and the lines out the door went on for nearly a mile, but the convention still felt small and intimate.

The convention’s size did not stop it from attracting numerous noteworthy guests, however. The most exciting for me was the chance to meet Billy West, the man of a thousand voices, before the end of the final season of Futurama. We also got to meet the actors who played Fili and Kili in The Hobbit, as well as some famous models and cosplayers. All in all it was a good time, and even if you don’t think this convention is worth the price of admission, keep an eye on it. I have a feeling that Boston Comic-Con is going to become a very noteworthy convention in the next couple of years.

In other news, Pikmin 3 is fantastic, and I've put almost ten hours into it already. It’s so good that I can’t stop playing it, even with my Steam backlog staring me in the face and Tales of Xilia coming out today. I'm trying to find a way to fit all these games in, but there just aren't enough hours in the day. It’s so tough being me sometimes.

Insert Fish Pun Here

As you may or may not have heard, Phil Fish has cancelled Fez II, and is giving up on making games. He says that this decision comes at the end of “a long, bloody campaign”, and it has been confirmed that he is totally serious. People have made a really big deal about this on both sides of the camp, with some people really upset that Fez isn't getting a sequel, and others glad that Phil Fish won’t be making any more money.

If you've seen Indie Game: The Movie, you probably know that Phil Fish is a bit of a weirdo. He reminds me of a game developer version of Edgar Allen Poe, kind of sad, misunderstood and a bit of a dick. Fez turned out to be a fantastic game, but only after years of development and multiple revisions. Regardless, I have a lot of respect for Phil Fish as a developer, the conditions and situations he had to face while developing Fez we’re terrible but despite that he managed to make a great game. If he wasn't so abrasive toward his fans and didn't respond to criticism with such hostility he could have become a well-known and beloved game designer.

Honestly, this isn't really news. Game companies form and collapse all the time, and Indie companies aren't any different. The only real difference is that this decision was made by one person while he was overly emotionally invested. Was it a sensible move to make? No, but it is his decision. If he really believes that random people on the internet have been working in tandem to offend him and get him to stop making games, then there’s nothing else to say. As anyone who does any job in the public eye knows, you need to be thick-skinned about most of the things people say. You’ll drive yourself insane if you try to rationalize and internalize everything anyone says about you.

In reality though, Phil Fish is just a guy who either never really cared about making games in the first place, either that or someone who takes internet insults really really badly. I wonder what he’s going to do now that he’s out of the game business. It’ll be interesting to see if he takes up another “public creativity” career like writing, and if he does how badly he reacts to being called a hack all over again.