It's time... for plot!

Save me Obiwan Kenobe

How boring. Another save the princess, defeat the horrible villain, save the world plot. Throw that in the basket with all of the evil organizations and alien invasions. Sure it's fun and easy to understand but where is the lasting value? Who was I fighting in Halo again? The Combine, Helghast, Covenant? While different in origin and look, they are the same basic thing. A cheap and easy way to have an endless supply of drones for you to slaughter. Human enough to be familiar and alien enough to kill without guilt.

This is why gamers are thrilled with some new indie games busting onto the scene with remarkable success. Braid (steam), Limbo (steam), Fragile Dreams, or maybe even throw something like Analogue: A Hate Story (steam). They were not too radical in gameplay and really didn't forward the industry that much. Maybe they even took it a step back, to the days before it was a corporate ruled adventure. I'll admit, many of these ideas come from the amazing film, Indie Game The Movie. 

This image is from Reddit and the anime is Guilty Crown

This is a rather short entry but just thinking about games and their stories which got me thinking about how games have been so mass produced that games have no soul and even to the point where the breakout games get squashed in reviews for the things you can get over, like awkward controls or glitchy graphics. If a game is going to have a story I want it to be worth it and not just a cover for bad level flow. Humorous graphic.

The Revolution [2/2]

Hello.

Be sure to check out part 1 before reading this.

Simple and catchy. Apple was the name in graphics. Perhaps it can be attributed to a lack of focus or perhaps a surplus of it, Apple quickly fell behind in gaming. Microsoft bolstered its own offering with many bonuses to help gamers. Easy to update video drivers, the powerful DirectX software, and a format that lends itself better to gaming powerhouses.

Mac was a niche.

The huge growth of gaming in general led to the demise of gaming on Mac. This was a business corporations could build on. This idea was worth millions. Billions. Now that marketing strategies and financial concern were a part of game making, the Mac platform was not worth supporting.

 
Ok... that may have been a bit dramatic but this is certainly how it felt. In the 90's it seemed like nearly every game had Mac support or at least a Mac version. As time went on and graphics became 3D and GPU accelerated and other fantastic things, Windows pulled ahead with Direct3D and a wider array of hardware. Linux is still pretty far above most consumers at this point. Hell, even Windows and Mac were up there.

Wublam! Physics! Shading! Texture Mapping! Antialiasing! Other GPU words!

If you were a gamer you had an Alienware, XPS, or built your own PC. Why? because 200fps just didn't seem like enough. Let's just drop in a couple 2 slot GPUs in here and some crazy heatpiped RAM, and a huge hunk of metal fins and fans on top of my overclocked GPU.

Not very Apple.

Perhaps gaming progress has slowed, at least graphically. Why can my PC build from 2008 able to play games released in 2012? On High. Simply put, because then I can buy the game. Microsoft and Sony have built 10 year game consoles we will be forced to endure for 2 or 3 more years. The WiiU fills that midway Dreamcast spot (good luck Nintendo). The progress of game graphics has plateaued for the time being and because of this even low end computers can play new games. Even Macs.

Macs aren't known for being gaming powerhouse. They are powerful but in entirely different ways. This slowing in gaming let the Macintosh system catch up a bit. Even now Apple is taking a bit of interest in Gaming. The success of games on its iOS device may have helped as well. Decent GPUs. Fast Processors. Flash Storage and a bunch or RAM. These new macs are set up to win in gaming and the Dual GPUs in the 15 inch models of MacBook Pros preserve that Macintosh low power feel, if you want it.

Steam.

And then there was Steam. For ages we have had some AAA titles on Macintosh, from Halo to Bioshock to Starcraft, the platform always had a little support but there was quite a lot that went into making a Mac version and then the cost of the game was not parallel to the version on PC. Finding a Mac game in a store was also a challenge. Unless you were lucky enought o be near a large electronics store you may be out of luck. Enter Steam. The runaway digital distribution success from Valve.

Debuting with some of their greatest games, Valve ported their own source engine to Macintosh as well as Steam. Offering services like steam play, Macintosh was a valid gaming platform. Before Mac gamers had to use bootcamp for a quick game of Team Fortress 2, now you can do it without closing down your Mac Apps.

It's not perfect.

Microsoft's lead in PC gaming allowed the company and the developers plenty of time to get very good at the software. Developers knew Windows and Microsoft gave them better and better tools as time went on to improve their game's performance and visual. Apple is now behind. They handle the video card drivers for you. They handle the updates for OpenGL for you. In fact at this point, there is an improved version of OpenGl on Mountain Lion as opposed to Lion. That's a twenty dollar investment for a software update.

As my time with Mac gaming increases something becomes painfully obvious. Apple did not consider gaming at all when designing their last gen products.Their current gen products seem to be a little more aware with proper exhaust for heat. This is in reference to the MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Though that product may be one step forward, two back. The RAM is soldered to the logic board and replacing the GPU is far from an option.

With gaming you need to just ignore Apples keyboard, mouse, and trackpad. The tracking on the Mighty and Magic mouses is not optimized for gaming and not all games support raw inputs. The one button design in general is not for gaming. The keyboard is not so horrible but the flat chicklet key design does not provide the feedback I prefer with games. I have to look at the keyboard far too often.

More users look for open as things close down.

I'll admit that the closing of Windows 8's ecosystem may be exagerated by many; it is a threat. Macintosh is pretty open for the time being with the App Store being only an optional source of apps. This "iPading" of Mac has me fearing for the future. The PC is dying according to many but I still want it around. Linux.

Linux is the open. The final stand. I know, I know, nerds. There are others but I'm trying to write an Al Gore style article! It's inconvenient? Too bad. You have to manually unpack that file and sometimes compile it on your own. Nightly builds are a risk but something must be done!

Steam, once again. On Linux. It's only in beta but it looks promising. A Linux gaming rig? It's a mega-nerd's wet dream but it may happen.


Reality.

A direct threat to gaming is far away. The now is Apple needs to get its act together and accept its new gamer brothers. Also discontinue all iOS development; I think that is just my opinion though.

I'm planning a new video. I'm currenty running OSX Lion on my 2009 MacBook Pro with only intergrated graphics. I'm going to do some game testing and see how things improve in Mountain Lion then compare that back to Windows 7 and if timing works out Windows 8.

The Revolution [1/2]

1099 free hours.

Mac OS, Linux, iOS, even Android are pushing into PC gaming in a big way. While iOS and Android may not seem like a contender at first thought, they are taking over that social games and flash games space. Game developers are looking at new operating systems for their big games as well.

Mobile

Once upon a time, flash was as big a deal as javascript or css on web pages. Well maybe not that important, but it was not possible to experience the whole internet without it (an idea some tech companies hold onto). Changing hands from Macromedia to Adobe, it was obvious flash was going to be big. It did what HTML and other embedded video just couldn't and that was provide an easy and cheap way to make a site interactive. These new dynamic interactions saw the expansion of point and click navigation on sites and interactive windows containing videos or games. Who could forget watching NumaNuma, or Shig on albinoblacksheep.com?

Kongregate became a great success followed soon by social outlets like Facebook for the new casual gaming experience. 

Enter the iPhone.

From gsmarena.com

No, not that one. This one.

From gsmarena.com

Games already designed for point and click just seemed to work with touch controls. With the addition of simple conversion tools for iOS and a powerful toolset from Apple the games came fast and easy.

From iTunes

Simple games for a simple platform.

Early on in the iPhone's lifecycle and for some, the iPod Touch, the greatest game options were in the form of simple and painfully addicting games like Cube Runner or Jelly Car... also that bubble paper game. The games were such a step back from flash games and other casual games based on input. Developers just weren't used to the lack of freedom, or more precisely, the lack of restriction with a full multi-touch surface. Before a game's directional controls were simply the arrow keys or WASD but now... do we do a swipe? A flick? Maybe a trace? Perhaps a virtual D-pad or control stick? And what about tilt!?

From iTunes

There has been an evolution, an improvement on the idea of free range of motion. 

Building on what has been learned from things like the Nintendo DS and Wii, developers finally got around to figuring out the best ways to do controls on touch screens. Just look at Infinity Blade on iOS. Besides being a graphics beast, it also shows that the platform is a real and important thing. Good controls and a huge name behind it, success was at their fingertips of anyone looking to get in this business. Many years of work and we finally get to this level of quality, but now we must ask, was it fast enough? Have the others caught up?

Android was not far behind in the games department but seemed to lack a lot of the finess of it's iOS counterpart. The games were often less optimized and laggier on all but high end Android phones.

Free! 

Free games on Android are rarely free. By this I mean they are as free as the rest of the internet. People provide the reader with information and media and pray that they don't have ad-blockers installed and perhaps take an interest in a ad and click it... or as in my Android experience, accidentally graze an ad and then furiously tap the back button. Android games are free in the same sense that a Victoria's Secret ad is a free gentleman's magazine. How much is it worth to the user to know that some of these apps are burning their data in the background ready to throw an ad in game or up on the notification bar? Uninstall.

From Google Play Store

Android did have one benefit of entering the ring after the touch screen controls had some of their details hammered out and refined. It also had the advantage of being far more open than iOS. If a developer couldn't get their app onto the famous app store over at Apple, just throw it up on the Android Market Play Store and if they still can't do that, throw the app online and let the user download it on their own.

Why pop on a PC, open a web browser, type a URL and click through several pages to play a games when the device in user's pocket offers an arguably better experience?

From windowsphone.com

Windows Phone 7 and 8 are honorable mentions because the way Microsoft has implemented Xbox makes it feel like a more complete gaming console. Game Center is trying but still does not have the support of something like Xbox Live.

If someone has a Windows Phone they could be playing and getting achievements for DODONPACHI MAXIMUM. I have to pull out my Sega Saturn and the wonderful 3D controller to play some DODONPACHI. Admittedly, one could get their Cave shmup fill on iOS with Deathsmiles and Espgaluda but there is something remarkable about the high quality games on Zune Windows Phone.

From windowsphone.com

There are some other gems on there like like Z0MB1ES (on teh ph0ne). Similar to Apples iPhone principles in hardware, Microsoft required Windows Phones to have a certain level of hardware power. This helped lead to a standard level of performance for apps as well as a bit of confidence that most users can run it. Hopping on the Google Play Store with anything but a beast phone, one might look at the graphics and say "This game looks beautiful, it probably won't run on my phone, so I'm not going to risk the $5."

Trophievements

My achievements (admit it, you care), my friends list, and a company that has yet to lose my credit card information online. Xbox has a hold on gaming and the trust of many gamers. Imagine telling a COD fan that he can unlock more perks faster by NFC trading on a Windows Phone certain things unlocked in a clever mini game. Or a short range broadcast of that avid gamer's skill levels for those around to arrange a challenge at a later date, or now. How about WoW or TF2? SC2? I know the people that play COD, WoW, and TF2. Those dedicated players want that stuff and if they need a Windows Phone to attach it to their online alias, they will pursue it. Come on, they talk about it so much they have made the acronym a word like a high school kid naming their favorite bands. There is already Xbox Companion, I fear it is only a matter of time.

Windows Phone seems to have a secret focus on gaming that is hidden far behind a layer of very 2D tiles in a world obsessed with skeuomorphism and grids.

This got longer than I thought it would, I would trim some fat if I was writing professionally but here I'll just make a part 2.