Growing up - the video game industry’s move towards mass appeal

With E3 now over, it’s customary for people to declare one company a “winner” of the show.  However, this year, the winner isn’t Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony, the winner, or winners, are consumers, specifically, “casual” gamers.  If one thing was apparent during this year’s E3, it was that casual games have become big business in the video game industry.  Every major company courted casual gamers, whether it was Microsoft with titles like Lips and Scene It!, Nintendo with Wii Sports Resort and Wii Music, or Sony with LittleBigPlanet.  The common thread that ties all these titles together is that they have mass appeal.

As the Wii and DS have so effectively shown, games don’t have to be limited to an 18-34 male demographic, but rather, can be enjoyed by everyone.  The swiftness with which this shift in focus to courting casual gamers has occurred is startling.  In less than two years, the video game industry has been reborn, emerging as an industry that is more mature and is broader than ever before.  In addition to games, Microsoft also latched onto Nintendo’s idea of Miis, creating their “avatar” system for the Xbox 360, something which undoubtedly will help Microsoft redefine its console as one not just for hardcore players, but for the entire family.  While introducing more casual games and concepts to their systems will undoubtedly bring the Big Three more profits (after all, with a larger market comes more paying customers), the shift to a more holistic market  hints at something larger.

The gaming industry is still in its infancy when compared to other media, having been around for only a few decades.  As with any medium, video games have continued to evolve.  However, although the market for video games has continued to grow in terms of numbers, it hasn’t been expanding in terms of demographics until just recently.  The expansion in gaming demographics signifies a natural progression of the medium and shows that video games are coming to be accepted  as a legitimate medium.  Video games are no longer being viewed as just a form of entertainment, but rather, are coming to represent a new form of art.

Looking back on previous media, in virtually every case, any given medium was restricted to a small group of people early on.  Books were almost exclusively reserved for the rich and well-educated until the arrival of the Gutenberg press, televisions did not see widespread diversification until the advent of cable and satellite, when consumers had hundreds of channels to choose from instead of just the three major broadcasting networks and the list just goes on and on.

A medium cannot survive catering to just one group of people.  Diversification is a necessary step that any medium must take if it hopes to achieve widespread appeal.  While some gamers may feel defensive, or uncomfortable about having so many “casual” and “nongames” enter the market, this development should not be viewed as something negative, but rather, should be embraced.  The credibility of video games has soared in recent years, thanks to the efforts of companies branching out to new people.  There will always be a place for “hardcore” games, it’s just that now more people will be able to experience the excitement and fun that so many of us have been experiencing for years.

The video game industry is growing up.  More people are experiencing video games than ever before.  The wealth of innovative software continues to grow at a rapid pace.  While we still have a long way to go, we are finally entering an era where video “games” are viewed as more than just pure entertainment.  Video games can tell stories, they can get you into shape, they can help you train your mind, they can let you express your creativity, they can help you to grow as a person, they can help you connect with and learn from other people, and of course, they can also help you have fun.  If this doesn’t sound like a legitimate medium  that can stand with the likes of film, music and literature, than I don’t know what is.

Up, up and away - moving our content into the cloud

As more and more of our digital lives begin to move off the desktop and into the “cloud” that is the Internet, the role of computer companies is starting to drastically change.  What once was stored locally on our personal computers is now being stored thousands of miles away on servers.  Companies like Google are becoming guardians of our content and with that role comes a heavy responsibility - ensuring our content is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Thankfully, many companies understand the significance of this role, as was witnessed with Apple’s release of its new MobileMe service.

The new Internet service which replaced Apple’s previous .Mac service ran into more than its fair share of problems.  Users couldn’t access their content, MobileMe’s web applications were nonexistent and .Mac subscribers could’t access the service at all.  Apple acknowledged its mistakes and issued an apology, announcing that, to compensate its customers, it would be extending members’ subscriptions by one month.  While this was a positive PR decision and will surely please Apple fans, it is also hints at something which we will surely see more of as time goes on - acknowledgment of corporate responsibility.

Companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, MySpace and Facebook all provide services that people use on a daily (sometime hourly) basis.  Many people “live” on such services.  As such, companies have a responsibility to ensure that their customers will be able to find their content and have the experiences they are looking for.  Maintaining servers for millions of customers isn’t easy, as Apple discovered the hard way.  However, as more and more personal content is being placed into the hands of companies, this is a technological problem that must continue to be addressed.

However, no matter how much technology evolves, no matter how diligent companies are, there will always be those occasional outages, not to mention the omnipresent threat of someone hacking into corporate servers and siphoning our personal data.  Therefore, not only are we handing over our content to companies like Google, but also our trust and as the recent Google/Viacom story has shown, that trust can easily be broken.

While I do have a MobileMe account and use an @mac.com (or I guess now @me.com) email account, I don’t store that much information in the “cloud”, but instead use a thumb-drive for most of my needs.  While part of the reason stems from security and stability, another, and perhaps more important part stems from accessibility.  While the great majority of computers are now connected to the Internet in some form, there are always those times when access to the Internet is limited and it’s during those times that I’m glad I have my thumb-drive with me.  Sometimes I’ll keep a backup of a file online using say MobileMe’s iDisk feature, but I always ensure that I have a “hard copy” with me as well.

What do you think about the migration to online services?  Should we be worried about handing over so much information into the invisible hands of companies?  Are we sacrificing privacy for convenience?  Please feel free to add your own thoughts and experiences below.  Do you use online services like MobileMe, Gmail or Facebook and if so, what do you find appealing about them?  If not, why have you chosen to refrain from using them?  I look forward to hearing what you have to say!

Why the iPhone/iPod touch isn’t suitable for motion-controlled gaming… yet

After several kinks and a great deal of frustration, the iPhone 3G is finally out, along with the iPhone 2.0 software update.  Along with these two big releases is the equally significant (perhaps even more significant) release of the highly anticipated App Store.  The App Store gives developers an easy and streamlined way to get their apps to customers, either through iTunes, or on the iPhone/iPod touch themselves.  Along with this has come the arrival of several games tailored to the iPhone/iPod touch’s unique capabilities.  However, after downloading Super Monkey Ball, I am left wondering how successful Apple’s innovative platform will prove to be for gaming, at least as far as motion-controlled gaming is concerned.

The fundamental problem the iPhone/iPod touch have, and one that the Wii doesn’t is the fact that in order to control a motion-sensitive game, one has to move the entire device, including its screen.  With the Wii, the Wii Remote is its own separate entity and thus, is not restricted in terms of how it can be manipulated (e.g. turned, twisted and shaken).  With the iPhone/iPod touch, one is limited in terms of how much the device can be moved.  This became blatantly apparent to me when playing Super Monkey Ball.

In Super Monkey Ball, you must guide a monkey in a ball through various stages by manipulating the iPhone/iPod touch.  Turning the device to the left causes the monkey to go left, tilting it down makes the monkey go forward, etc.  No matter what gaming device you’re using, whether its a Nintendo DS, a PSP or a cell phone, it is natural to hold the device at an angle.  Rarely would you hold a device in a horizontal position (i.e. parallel with the floor) because this would be very uncomfortable, forcing you to look straight down.  However, in Super Monkey Ball, this would be the ideal position, since you are, in essence, replicating a board.  It therefore felt very awkward to have the board be level while holding the iPod touch at an approximate 30 degree angle, yet this is something which the developers could do little about, since holding the device flat would be so uncomfortable.  Motion control is also a tricky business when the device that’s utilizing it is meant to be portable.

Case in point, Super Monkey Ball requires a great deal of precision, especially during later levels.  This kind of precision is next to impossible to achieve when riding in a car or bus and the roads are not smooth.  Does this mean that motion in portable games won’t be as useful as once predicted?  Not at all.  It just means that developers will have to be more imaginative in how they design their games.

Although it may feel awkward at times, Super Monkey Ball is still a good game, especially when considering it was built for a “cell phone”.  However, it definitely would have been nice to have some sort of calibration option in terms of how it’s controlled.  Another game that utilizes motion control (and one which I admittedly have not have a chance to play yet) is Cro-Mag Rally, a racing game that has you steering by moving your iPhone/iPod touch.  Though I have read mixed reviews of the game, it seems as though the folks over at Pangea Software were able to exploit the idea of motion a bit better for the purposes of their game, but again, I have not played this one myself.

Nevertheless, it’s important to remember that the apps appearing in the App Store were created by developers who have had very little time with the iPhone SDK.  As developers begin to work more with the SDK and learn more about the inner workings of the iPhone/iPod touch, we will surely start to see games that take portable motion gaming to completely new levels.

Mac OS X Print Preview

With Mac OS X, you can get a print preview of anything you want to print using the “Preview” application.  Whenever you want to print something in Mac OS X, go to the “File” menu and choose “Print…”.  Within the print dialog box, click the “Preview” button.  This will give you a preview of what your print out should look like and will also tell you how many pages your print out will be.  This is very useful, especially when printing things off the Internet.  Many websites will have your printer print out a useless last page.  In print preview, you can spot this and prevent it from being printed.  Perhaps what you are printing is six pages long, but you only need the first five pages, simply go to “File” “Print…” and under the “Pages:” section click the bubble next to “From:” and type in “1” “to:” “5”.

TektodoWeekly Episode 4

All about Wii Fit.

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Make Windows XP start faster

More often than not, if your computer seems to be starting slower than usual, it’s not a hardware problem, but rather a software problem.  Many of the programs that you install onto your computer automatically start up with Windows XP.  Most of the time you probably won’t even be using those programs, but they’re still running in the background, causing your computer to run slower.  Here is how to stop these programs from slowing down your computer:

1.  Click on the start menu in the bottom left hand corner of your screen

2.  In the right hand column click “Run…”

3.  Type “msconfig” into the text box and click “OK”

4.  In the System Configuration Utility window click on the “Startup” tab

5.  You will now see a list of all the programs that start up with your computer.  Uncheck the programs that you don’t want to start up, click “Apply” and then “Close”

6.  A window will pop up asking you to restart your computer, click “Restart”

7.  Once your computer starts back up, a message will pop up telling you that you have made changes to the way Windows starts, check the box the says “Don’t show this message or launch the System Configuration Utility when Windows starts” then click “OK”

Depending on how many programs you stopped, you should now notice a difference in how quickly Windows XP starts up.

File sharing between Vista and Mac OS X Leopard

I can’t tell you how many hours I poured into trying to get my Mac and PC to communicate with each other.  It was very frustrating to have to use a USB drive every time I wanted to transfer files from one to the other, but I could never find a good, comprehensive guide as to how to get the two computers to talk to each other through my network.  After a great deal of trial and error, I finally figured it out.  Here are the steps for setting up file sharing between Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard:

In Windows Vista

1. Click on the “Start” menu (the Windows icon) in the bottom left hand corner of the screen
2. Select “Control Panel”
3. If you are using the “Classic View”, double-click on “Network and Sharing Center”
4. If you are not using the “Classic View”, click on “Set up file sharing”, located beneath “Network and Internet”
5. While in the Network Sharing Center, click on the small arrow located to the right of “File sharing” and choose “Turn on file sharing”, then click “Apply”
6. Go back to the Control Panel
7. If you are using the “Classic View”, double-click on “Security Center” and then click on “Windows Firewall” on the left side of the window
8. If you are not using the “Classic View”, click on “Security” and then click on “Windows Firewall”
9. Once you are in the Windows Firewall window, click on “Change Settings”
10. Click on the “Exceptions” tab
11. Scroll down and make sure that “File and Printer Sharing” is checked off

In Mac OS X

1. Click on the Apple Menu (the Apple icon in the top left hand corner of the screen)
2. Select “System Preferences…”
3. While in System Preferences, click on “Sharing”
4. Make sure the box next to “File Sharing” is checked off
5. While “File Sharing” is highlighted, click the small “+” located beneath “Shared Folders:”
6. Choose the desired folder to be shared (it can be just one folder, or an entire account folder)
7. Make sure the account that is being shared has “Read & Write” access by clicking on the up and down arrows next to the user name and choosing “Read & Write”
8. Click on “Options”, located below the “Users:” box
9. Make sure “Share files and folders using SMB” is checked off
10. Make sure that your user name is checked off
11. Click “Done”
12. Go back to System Preferences (this can be done by clicking “Show All” in the top left hand corner of the window
13. Click on “Security”
14. Click on the “Firewall” tab at the top of the window
15. Select “Set access for specific services and applications”
16. “File Sharing (SMB)” should show up in the list of allow services and applications

In Windows Vista

1. Go to the “Start” menu
2. Click on “Network”
3. The name of the Mac machine should show up
4. Double-click on it
5. Enter the user name and password for the account that is being shared
6. There should now be a folder with that user name as a title
7. Double-click on this folder

And that’s it!

The firewall on Mac OS X is what caused me so much trouble.  Many of the tutorials I consulted failed to mention it, and since my firewall was previously set to “Allow only essential services”, it would not allow file sharing to occur, since file sharing isn’t “essential”.

For some reason, I can only connect to the Mac from the Windows computer, not the other way around.  I have tried browsing the my network from my Mac and have even attempted connecting using the “Connect to Server…” option.  However, even though I can’t connect to the Windows machine from the Mac, for me, this doesn’t really matter, since if I need a file from the Mac, I can just pull it up from Windows, and if a need a file from Windows, I can just drag it over to my Mac.  If you know how to get Leopard to connect to Vista, please feel free to leave a comment explaining how to do so.

I hope this tutorial helps those of you that have been having the same kinds of problems I was having.  Please let me know what you think of my instructions and/or if you have any other comments or questions.

Wii Fit comes out today (at retail stores)

You’ve probably heard about Wii Fit, Nintendo’s latest game/peripheral to get gamers off their feet and make them more aware of their bodies.  You’ve also probably heard several stories on the news that Monday was the launch day for Wii Fit.  That was true, but only if you were getting your copy from the Nintendo World Store in New York City.  For the rest of us, we had to wait until today.

I’ll be picking up my copy later this morning and will be sure to post my impressions on Tektodo.com.  Now we can finally say that Wii Fit has “launched” for everyone.

LostWinds (Wii) Review

I strolled over to my bookcase, started to reach out my hand and then, it hit me, the game I was about to play wasn’t with my other more “traditional” games, this game was already on my Wii, in the form of a digital download.

LostWinds, part of the first batch of games to hit Nintendo’s new WiiWare service, is a breath of fresh air.  It is a game that truly could not be conceived in any other form than as a WiiWare title.  It’s games like LostWinds that prove the potential that digital distribution services like WiiWare have and it’s games like LostWinds that show the potential for letting developers take risks and try out new ideas.

In LostWinds, you play as a young boy named Toku, who, along with the wind Spirit Enril, must restore peace to the world of Mistralis by ridding it of the evil creature known as Balasar.  At the beginning of the game, you learn that Balasar threatened Mistralis in the past, but the spirits of Mistralis sealed him away inside the Spirit Stone.  However, one of the spirits, Enril, was trapped inside the stone alongside Balasar.  After much time had passed inside the stone, Balasar was able to break free, but Enril remained trapped within the shards of the stone.  It is your job to help Enril recover the “LostWinds”, while at the same time help to protect the land of Mistralis from Balasar.

The minute you start playing LostWinds, you will know this game is special.  The first thing that hit me was its unique and appealing art style and its beautiful and soothing music.  LostWinds is both a 2D and a 3D title, similar to New Super Mario Bros.  You play on a 2D plane, in that you can only move left and right, but all of the backgrounds for the game are in 3D, you can even see characters going about their daily business.  LostWinds is one of the prettiest Wii games out there, thanks to a great cell-shaded look and superb art direction.  The game is very bright and cheerful and the special effects are very well done.  At one point in the game, you are tasked with helping a small plant grow.  To do this, you must utilize the power of the wind to spray water onto it from an adjacent stream.  After using Enril’s power, I sat back and watched as a glistening gyser of water emerged from the stream and poured over Toku’s head and onto the thirsty plant.  This brings us to the power of the wind.

As the title of the game suggests, wind plays a pivotal role in LostWinds.  While your powers are relatively tame at the beginning, in time, you are able to grow those powers and learn new ways to harness the power of the wind to your advantage.  While a great deal of the time you will be using the wind to guide Toku around Mistralis, from gliding across a chasm to reaching a seemingly inacessible ledge, the wind can be used to manipulate all aspects of the environment around you.  From uncovering secrets to causing a boulder to hover in mid-air, you will have to use the wind in various ways to progress through the game.

In addition to its style, LostWinds also excels in terms of gameplay.  In essence, you play as two characters at once, Toku and Enril.  The nunchuck’s analog stick is used to control Toku while the Wii Remote is your tool for using Enril and his various powers.  Let’s say you want to create a vertical gust of wind.  To do this, you would simply “draw” a vertical line of wind with the Wii Remote by holding “A” and pointing the remote up.  Throughout the entire course of the game, you will be utilizing these control methods in tandem, using Enril to help Toku along his way.  This control scheme works very, very well.  In fact, I once stopped while playing and thought to myself, “could anything like this be accomplished with a traditional gamepad?”  The answer is no.  LostWinds is one of those games that is a perfect fit for the Wii, one that features controls that do not feel tacked on, but rather, that feel natural and fluid.  While the concept may not be totally original (think Kirby Canvas Curse or Yoshi Touch & Go), the execution is flawless and I could not imagine playing LostWinds any other way.

Because you are playing as two characters, LostWinds is able to throw some pretty creative puzzles at you, where you will need to use Toku for one task and Enril for another.  And while the puzzles may not be overly difficult, some can be challenging and all of them are almost always fun to solve.

Seeing as how LostWinds is an adventure game, you will be doing a fair amount of exploration.  In fact, there are many points in the game that are reminiscent of a Metroid title, such as receiving a new power.  There were several points in the game where I couldn’t figure out how to go on, but, upon receiving a new power, I immediately knew what to do and had to backtrack to that place where I was previously stuck.  That being said, the game can get slightly confusing at times, seeing as how there is no in-game map.  However, there are characters that will point you in the right direction and you can call upon Enril to remind you where you should be going.

Many of the game’s environments (and even the music to a certain extent) seem to be influenced by South America, especially Peru.  Whether it be Toku’s headdress or the villages tucked in amongst mountains, LostWinds has a very unique feel to it, one which I have not felt before and one which was very enjoyable to experience.

While the game may be a joy to look at, play and listen to, don’t expect it to last forever.  LostWinds clocks in at around two and a half hours, approximately three if you are trying to collect everything (there are 24 statues you can collect during the course of the game).  While some have complained that this is too short, I for one was not disappointed at all.  In fact, I wish there were more games like LostWinds.  If you think about it, paying $10 for a three hour experience is not so different than paying $50 for a 15 hour experience.  You are actually get the same amount of entertainment for your money, $10 for three hours.  In our hectic lives, it’s games like LostWinds that we can turn to.  We can experience something completely new, but at the same time, don’t have to invest dozens of hours to get that experience.

From its compelling gameplay, to its beautiful and serene environments, LostWinds is a game that can be appreciated by virtually anyone.  It’s easy to pick up and play, has a nice story that’s easy to follow and uses its unique control scheme to offer some very imaginative and fun puzzles.  If LostWinds is any indication, WiiWare has a very bright future indeed.

Wii Fit not available?

I have been looking forward to Wii Fit for months now and was very excited when I woke up this morning, knowing that it would be just a few short hours before I would be using Nintendo’s latest piece of hardware.  After the half-hour trek to my local Wal-Mart, I was met by a clerk who informed me the game wouldn’t be coming out until the 21st.  Convinced that he must have been mistaken, I called around to other Wal-Marts in my area.  All said the same thing, that Wii Fit wasn’t coming out until the 21st.

Finally, I called one last Wal-Mart and was informed they had Wii Fit in stock!  After 45 minutes, I was in the electronics department, waiting in anticipation as the clerk came back from the stock room.  Finally, I caught sight of him, white and green box in hand, making his way to the counter.  I knew those other stores must have been mistaken, I was finally going to get Wii Fit!  He went to ring it up, but was met with a sale error message.  Informing me he had to speak with his manager, he went back to the stock room, along with Wii Fit.

After a few minutes, he returned and informed me that Wii Fit won’t be sold until this Wednesday, the 21st.  After getting back home, sure enough, several retail websites list Wii Fit as having a May 21st release date, which is somewhat strange, considering that I called several stores that said they would be selling Wii Fit today and Nintendo itself has announced the release date to be today and is even having a launch event in New York City.  Oh well, it looks like we health-minded gamers will have to wait a couple more days to get our hands (or rather, our feet) on Wii Fit.