What Would Matt Do

Today, ladies and nerds, we’re going to tlak about gaming…mostly 2007, but the state of gaming in general. Why? Because god dammit, we can. And we love to hear ourselves talk. So lets jump right in.

First and foremost, wow. No, not WoW, but wow, the word. That’s what you should be thinking if you’re gamer. Last year alone was stellar. We’ve seen some of the best games ever released on any platform ever. We saw Team Fortress 2 become a reality, and not just a reality, but a damn good one. And it a little Portal thing with that lots of people seemed to love. We had Supreme Commander and an expansion released. We also had, in no particular order, Oblivion, Crackdown, Mass Effect, Rockband, Lord of the Rings MMO, the first WoW expansion, Halo 3, The Witcher, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Bioshock, Zelda:Phantom Hourglass, and Call of Duty 4. What a fucking year.

That’s alone ought to convince we’re living the golden years of gaming. We’re literally seeing the best games ever created and each year they seem to be out done. It’s outrageous, amazing and stunning.

Now that’s not to say it’s all love and gummy bears. We’ve had all kinds of problems too. Like Fox News calling out Mass Effect for what it really is, simulated porn. I for one am glad Fox is watching out for all of us. Game forums, MMO forums in particular, as still something not to be viewed by your average person, but thankfully enough, your average person has no idea they exist and the rest of work hard to avoid them. We’ve still got Jack Thompson, developers having hissy fits, Silicon Knights claiming any all profits Epic made (and boy howdy, they made some profits from Gears) are belong to them and PC Gaming is STILL dying.

But none of those things can put a damper on the level of gaming we’re seeing now. Last week alone I played some Team Fortress 2, The Witcher, Forged Alliance (SC expansion) and Mass Effect. It’s like I’m living in some glorious world where every game I play is just too damn good.

And that’s really the point of this article. Games are no longer better in the past. Yeah, there isn’t an X-Com or Masters of Magic replacement, but what could really replace them anyway? Gaming has officially passed into a new era. Call it the golden age, the new age or just call it gaming as it was meant to be.

Me, I’m going to call it Bliss and continue to be amazed.

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What Would Matt Do: You can’t hear it, but right now I’m making the Homer donut sound. And it’s good.

That is, if you’re a public servant on the take!

“Let me be clear of our intentions: Any public servant who cashes a check from the videogame industry will be exposed by the PTC as taking a stand against families, and his or her actions will be communicated to constituents in his or her congressional district.”

I don’t really know how to take this.

First, I’m pretty happy for the Parents Television Council, what with them expanding beyond just television as of late. I think it’s great that mentally retarded (no offense meant to actual retards. I’m sure they wouldn’t be caught dead running an organization like the PTC) are able to run such an organization. Maybe they can get a Bronze medal just for competing?

Second, that they, a big organization almost assuredly using lobbyists themselves, complaining about another organization using lobbyists brings joy to me heart. Really, there aren’t much more foolish complaints you can make than, “They are going to use the exact same system we are! Lets call them on it!”. I guess you can’t really expect much from the same idiots that flooded the FCC with complaints when Janet Jackson’s nipple was shown during the superbowl (the next idiot that tells me their kid seeing a nipple ruined them is going to get a god damn smack). Ok, I guess that explains it. They are just plain stupid. Can’t really argue with stupid.

I do like that they have no problem lying to get their point across:

Winter went on to accuse the Entertainment Software Rating Board of failing to “prevent companies like Rockstar Games from subjecting millions of children to sexually graphic material as they did with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.”

What the fuck are kids doing playing GTA, any version, much less SA? And how would the millions of kids that supposedly saw this content have done so? They couldn’t have unless they had PC and modded their content. Sure, it was included on the disc when it was shipped, but, and this is the important, there was absolutely no way to access that section of the game without modding the game! None! So the whole fucking complaint is bullshit. I really love these guys.

I see the PTC, I mean the idiots, also complain about bad language in tv shows constantly. These guys are awesome. I don’t know about you, but I feel pretty comfortable writing them off as retards…except, well, politicians don’t. The FCC listens, politicians listen and so do others. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me (I’m lying).

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What Would Matt Do: Did I care enough, I’d suggest someone watching the watchers. Post every single politician that takes donation from these jack offs and post it on a website called, http://www.IAcceptedDonationsFromIdiots.com. That would sweet. Someone go do that, would ya?

And lo, there came a time when the WMDs were not found, but the WWMD was still here. In that, the forsaken time, the Matt shall rise again, like a phoenix from the ashes…ah, fuck it, I’m back, I’m still here, I’m ready to call people stupid. It’s kinda my gig.

To start it off, I’m not going to talk about this. Why? Because the more attention paid to Trolls on the internet, the happier they are. I say fuck them. If said Troll can’t even be bothered to play the game, I can’t be bothered to respond. PA puts if very nicely here.

To really start it off, I have to thank John Romero and Mike Wilson. Without them, this post wouldn’t be here today. I would have continued to think, maybe I should start updating the site again and then not doing it. Which I’m very good at.

Instead, we have an old school hissy fit by two of the older gentlemen in the game. You may or may not remember these jokers from the likes of Ion Storm, or Wilson from God Games or Romero from…well, whatever he’s been doing since Daikatana was the biggest hyped piece of junk of it’s time. Most likely though, you probably don’t remember because neither of these guys have done much in recent years…at least not much related to games. Except for a lot of talk about Gamecock and how it’s teh awesome. Awesome yet to be seen. But, you ask, what brings us together today? This aforementioned hissy fit:

From John last week:

It got much worse at Godgames where he pretty much just partied all the time and after the whole thing got reined in by Take 2 he went underground for a while, waiting for his next victim/investor so he could go hogwild all over again. And thus was born Gamecock.

Awesome sauce!

Of course, Mr. Wilson being the big child that he is and not taking well to being called a jackass, responds:

And unlike you, I didn’t get to file a federal trademark for my own personal catch phrase,” Suck it Down.” I remind you of these things only to remind you that there was absolutely nothing done by me or Ion Storm, including the advertisements which bore your name and which you happily posed for, that didn’t require your full approval and grand signature.

It’s much longer than that, but it amounts to more he said, he said bullshit. And I love it. I miss the days of the .plan updates, the developers talking smack all the time and the heated flame wars. I for one am tired of the facade! Bring on the fun, bring on the retards, bring on more old school gents still trying to make it in today’s gaming world!

Or maybe, neither of them should be doing this and it’s not only not good for their companies, but not smart. Nah, that’s crazy talk. To be fair, Romero did update with a I think we’re mature enough to stop this post, but we’ll see.

What Would Matt Do: I’m just happy to be back in the saddle again! And if I were either Romero or Wilson, I’d keep my fucking head down until I proved myself again. They both came from some really big money losses and failures and probably shouldn’t be shooting off at the mouth about it. But hey, I guess that why I don’t work in the game industry, I just don’t know how to properly behave.

I was going to make the topic Valve hates me, but I’m pretty sure everyone hates me at this point, so that isn’t the most useful topic. This one, on the other hand, really gets across my point. I think.

Let me explain. Valve recently announced their Orange Box (on the 9/11 anniversary of all days). This package includes the following:

• Episode 2 - great!
• Team Fortress 2 - Maybe great, maybe not.
• Portal - 3D puzzle game. Weeeeee.
• Peggle Extreme - Never played it, but it’s not even the full version.
• HL2 - huh?
• Episode 1 - double huh

And how much does said package cost? $45. How, and that’s only if I prepurchase, otherwise it’s $50.

What. The. Fuck.

While I wasn’t looking, did Valve decide I’m really stupid? Because here’s how this breaks down. If you believe the prices on steampowered.com, it’s a great deal. Except, well, it’s not. See, because I already bought HL2 and Episode 1. And I don’t want Peggle Extreme or Portal. And TF2…well, they made those crazy cool videos, but none of the actual gameplay videos or talk of it have convinced me I’ll be playing it for more than a couple of hours ever. Though, if I could get it for not too much, I’d still buy it.

So I’m really talking about getting Episode 2 and TF2 (if not too much). But wait, if I wait and try to buy those two separately, it’s going to cost $60…? What? I thought they said that Episode 2 + TF2 + Portal would be priced similarly to Episode 1. But instead, I’d have to pay $80 to got all three of those separately. Oh, I see your sneaky game Valve. Since it’s such a good deal, according to your prices, I should just buy the package and be happy about it. Well fuck that.

Maybe.

See, even though I already own HL2 + EP1, if I buy this package, I could give them away to someone else. Literally. But why, if this is something free they are throwing in with it, would they go through all of the effort of allowing me to give it away? And why do I have to purchase something I am just going to give away? Why isn’t there a Black Box, as they originally told us, that was nearer priced to EP1 and doesn’t require me to buy software I already bought?

Here’s why. Because Valve, being the enterprising bastards that they apparently are, know most people will just buy the Orange Box anyway. They know that offering the TF2 beta to those that pre-purchase the OB will help people over come the hurdle of re-buying software they already own. And they are probably right. Even though I can see and know I’m getting screwed, I REALLY want to play EP2 and want to try TF2…so if I want that, I might as well pony up and take their deal for the OB and be done with it. Right…?

What does this all come down to though for me though? Lost consumer confidence. I believed in Valve. I believed in Steam. I believed they were really trying to do something here, make a different distribution model that would allow them deal directly with the fans, cut out the middle man and be good “publishers”. Now I’m starting to think they are just like everyone else. It’s all about the quick buck. Great. Congrats, you got fooled me. I bought into the Steam is different idea and purchased a couple of things from it. Including Bioshock. I guess I should just go back to buying games in the brick & mortar stores and let Steam be…right?

I can’t tell if Valve is laughing at me, at my consumer stupidity, if they chuckle that I would buy the same game twice, that they believe I believe that this is a great deal or they hoodwinked me. Whatever they believe about me, the consumer, the gamer, valiant supporter of Steam, I don’t know that I believe in them anymore.

What Would Matt Do: I don’t know. Sure, it’s just a package, just way to say, here, take some stuff and pretend you’re getting a good deal. Heck, if you break it down by the things I’d actually buy, maybe it is a good deal. But it sure doesn’t feel that way. It feels like I’ve been lied to, that I was promised one thing, and then they switched it up with the OB. Which requires me to buy games I already own to get in on this “great deal”.

If you’re a regular reader (I’m talking to both of you), you might have noticed I haven’t updated in over a week now. It may appear I’ve been slacking, but really, I’ve been chewing on D&D 4th Edition. I literally haven’t been able to post because I’ve been so unsure of what to think about the next version of D&D recently announced. And honestly, I still haven’t decided.

The Bad

Most people might start with the good, but me, I’m more worried about them ruining the game more than anything else. Yeah, that’s a pretty pessimistic view on the whole thing, but I’ve lost a lot of faith in Hasbro/Wizards since the release of 3.5 and beyond. With that in mind, lets see how they can screw this up.

Online Components

This is the big one, the potential clincher of full on suck. There isn’t too much known about it yet, but here it goes (reg required):

Sometime in the spring, when all of D&D Insider’s digital components go live, we’ll begin charging a monthly subscription fee to access some of our online content. We don’t have final pricing details ready to share, but one subscription fee will cover all aspects of D&D Insider, including more than two print issues’ worth of editorial content each month. You’ll get access to the amazing set of tools D&D Insider will provide—the D&D Game Table, the D&D Character Creator, and the Dungeon Master’s Toolkit, details of which will be unveiled in the coming months. You’ll also get more of the great content you’ve come to expect from Dragon and Dungeon over the past umpteen-dozen years.

That’s pretty much what we know right now…except this key point. Each book you buy will have online components that you can only get by subscribing to their site. Which will cost “more than a magazine subscription, but less than an MMO.”
Here’s my worry. Lets say I get the new Player’s Handbook. And to be able to view the Barbarian class (if it even exists in 4.0), I’ll need to sign up and pay a monthly fee. That will kill PnP. It’s expensive enough as it is to be a D&D PnPer. If you start adding even more cost in, you’re going to screw the guys that don’t have a lot of disposable income for their habit. And you’ll make the pool of available players less, not more, with your spiffy new system. This is my biggest worry about 4.0.

Roleplaying

This isn’t so much a worry as a request. Can we have some roleplaying in my roleplaying game? I don’t feel that’s asking for a lot. I’m not asking you to completely redesign the system in the manner of Vampire or the like where you don’t even talk about numbers or powers until after you come up with a character concept, motivation, etc, but maybe something closer? And they don’t need to be mandatory. Optional rules are just fine. I just want something as a DM I can point to say, “this is the idea, this is what I’m taking about”. I’d love it if the book would talk about these things before they had players rolling dice. Instead of Roll Dice > Pick Race > Pick Class > Pick Feat/Spells/Powers/Gear > Consider having some motivation and history for your character, I’d love to see the last step be the first. Just something to help people along towards being a roleplayer…in D&D, a RPG. I don’t think I’m asking for too much. And if this isn’t there, I won’t be stunned, but it would make 4.0 less than it could be.

The Good

Wow. Not the MMO, but the actual word. There is so much potential good to talk about, I’m considering being happier than a puppy with two peters. It could happen. Lets hit some of the best points.

Customization

Races (reg required):

In the final version of 4th Edition, most of your racial traits come into play right out of the gate at 1st level—dwarven resilience, elven evasion, a half-elf’s inspiring presence, and so on. As you go up levels, you can take racial feats to make those abilities even more exciting and gain new capabilities tied to your race. You can also take race-specific powers built into your class, which accomplish a lot of what racial substitution levels used to do: a dwarf fighter with the friend of earth power can do something that other 10th-level fighters just can’t do.

Classes (reg required):

The fighter is the only current 4th Edition class with capabilities that depend on the weapon they have chosen to train the most with. Even at 1st level, a fighter who uses an axe has a different power selection than a fighter who relies on a flail or a rapier or a pick. In the long run, fighters can diversify and master powers related to a few different weapons, but most will opt to focus on the weapon that suits their personal style, helps their interactions with the rest of the PCs in the group, and carries all the magical oomph they’ve managed to acquire.

Monsters (reg required):

In 4th Edition, your dungeons are going to be a lot more densely populated. The typical encounter has one monster per PC in the party, assuming that the monsters are about the same level as the PCs. An encounter’s total XP value determines its difficulty, allowing you a lot more freedom to mix tougher and weaker monsters. Even better, the difference between a level X monster and a level X + 1 monster is much smaller. You can create an encounter using monsters that are three or four levels above the party without much fear. Add in the rules for minions (which will be described in a future Design & Development article), and you could (in theory) match twenty goblins against a 1st-level party and have a fun, exciting, balanced fight.

I’m so going to be a shield and board dwarven fighter with earth power! Whatever that is! The point being, is you’ll have an almost unlimited number of ways to customize, and game/munchkin, the system. It’s like they are promising to ship non-model thin super models with the game. Well, maybe not quite that good, but close. And that doesn’t even get into the Talent trees, the way skills will be changed (the just released Star Wars book is supposedly a good preview of what they are planning on doing for both) and numerous other changes they are talking about (lots more monsters sounds particularly cool for encounters).

Temporary Conclusion

I’m excited. Very excited. But I’m cautious because this is Wizards and while they promised a lot from 3.5, all it really boiled down to were some slight modifications and bug fixes on 3.0. Which meant I had to buy numerous other books if I wanted to play 3.5, but it didn’t really have much bang for it’s buck. That doesn’t even go into the bajillions of books they’ve pumped out, like second player’s handbook, the six jillion class customization books, the extra races, etc. Most of which is pretty worthless. Not all of it mind you, but a fair amount of it isn’t worth the paper is was written on. Which is disappointing to say the least. So I’m hoping that’s not going to happen. Oh, and I wish they would release the damn books all at once. Why bother releasing the PHB without the DMG? They say they’ll be launching 4.0 in May, but really, it won’t be launched and playable until sometime in august. So I’m excited. Excited, but wary.

What Would Matt Do: I’m going to be praying and hoping they don’t pooch this one. Don’t charge me an arm and a leg to play it and screw the system up. That doesn’t seem like a tall task, but for Wizards/Hasbro, it just might be.