Getting hyped for the next Xbox!

  May 17, 2013 - 12:30 AM | ,
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So the Xbox reveal event is happening on May 21st, less than a week from today.  Here’s what I’m looking forward to in the following weeks and months.  See if you can find a common theme!

Inappropriate cross-promotional media appearances

Brace yourself for seeing the next Xbox/online service on TV shows and movies.  You can expect characters to suddenly include name-dropping the Xbox Infinity (or whatever) just like they did with the Xbox 360 and “Bing”.  Remember Bing?  If you don’t, maybe you should Bing it!

 

Walmart, McDonalds, Mountain Dew partnership deals

This is classic Xbox.  By partnering up with the biggest and sluttiest American retailers/franchises, you literally won’t be able to escape the next Xbox.  The average consumer won’t even know that the PlayStation exists, but they’ll think that Microsoft’s new console is a game-changing event.

 

Publisher orgy

Sony is trying to make the PlayStation 4 extremely developer-friendly.  But developers aren’t the real movers and shakers of the industry.  Most of them are beholden to some lumbering tyrannical asshole corporation like Activision or EA.  Instead of making the next Xbox appealing to developers (or consumers) Microsoft is simply going to get in bed with the publishers, which will ensure plenty of products for their system.

 

Insane anti-competitive development clauses

Most people don’t know about it, but with the Xbox 360 Microsoft forced developers to make every game published on their system as attractive or better than the PS3, despite the hardware and storage space gap between the two.  This is why PS3 games often looked worse than the 360 ones, against all logic, and why pretty much nothing interesting happened with the hard drive.  (I can never seem to find a link to this story anymore, it never got proper attention and seems very hard to find.  If you find a link to it, send it to me on twitter @meta_gear)

I expect even worse restrictions this time around.  How about forcing any cross-platform developer who wants to be published on Xbox Infinity to include a 10 minute Xbox propaganda video at the beginning of their PS4 game launch?  It may be underhanded as fuck and betray the whole notion of optimizing for each system, but who gives a shit?  It worked before, and that means it will work again.

 

CISPA strategy

CISPA is the depressingly real Internet censorship bill threatening to turn the Internet into a “shoot first, ask questions later”-style corporate paradise, in which your activity will be monitored and shut down by the government with the flimsiest of excuses.  Why does Microsoft want this?  Because it will allow them to aggressively spy on and undermine their opposition, shut down piracy and file-sharing services, and basically police the online world however they want.  There is no protection against abuse in the bill, because it seems to assume that corporations and government will only use their new terrifying powers for the good of mankind!

And if rumors about the upcoming Xbox being a DRM nightmare creature are true, and if they manage to seduce publishers into signing on to their schemes, you better believe that piracy and online criticism are going to be a huge thorn in their side — which is why CISPA would sure be handy.

Jagged Alliance: Flashback

  May 13, 2013 - 9:30 PM |
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I’m a fan of anything that challenges the dominance of the big videogame publishers.  I love that THQ went bankrupt and had to sell it’s assets, that CEOs have been resigning due to poor performance, and that games like Path of Exile and Skullgirls can get by just fine without them.

One franchise that needs to come back is Jagged Alliance, because like X-COM, it represents the best side of gaming.  Like X-COM, it’s a deep, cerebral, but not humorless turn-based masterpiece, and although there was a botched attempt by BitComposer last year, they’ve now given the rights to Full Control, who plan on making it a proper turn-based thing with help from you and me, via Kickstarter.  They need a significant amount of money with only 10 days remaining, so I encourage you to help them and order yourself an awesome game in the process.

PRETENTIOUS: Diablo III vs. Curiosity

  May 5, 2013 - 11:31 AM | , ,
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Diablo III vs Curiosity

When you think of pretentiousness, you probably think of failed attempts at being intellectual or profound.  It’s the failed attempts that you think of.  It’s not pretentious to actually be profound or intellectual, but when an artist’s ambition is not matched by his talent, it usually ends up feeling phony.  You might think of a college chick who wants to open up your third eye with a shitty tambourine dance and some pot; or you might think of some indie developer who tries to tackle the sensitive issue of rape with an 8-bit sidescroller.  In both cases, you’re thinking of someone who bites off way more than they can chew.  You think of Peter Molyneux.

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Woe is Gaming! Innovation & Ignorance

  May 1, 2013 - 1:46 PM |
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When Satoru Iwata cautions investors that it’s becoming harder to impress players due to the plateauing effect of innovation, a part of my brain collapses.  When he tells the world that games have been “improving steadily each year, but these improvements are becoming less noticeable”, gravity flips and I hit my head on the ceiling.  Do you see the dark, ominous clouds on the horizon?  It is the storm of doom that will hit gaming this “console cycle”.

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The Xbox and The Spin

  April 23, 2013 - 6:12 AM | ,
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Two things caught my interest today: one is the “Pros and Cons of an Always-Online Xbox 720″ article on IGN.com for its blatant spin job there, and the other is Marcus Beer’s sudden hypocritical disinterest in next-gen console speculation, which is tucked into the most recent Annoyed Gamer (around the 6:20 mark).

(Be warned, this is going to be a pretty epic rant.)

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MetaGearSolid.org Reader Survey (updated!)

  April 7, 2013 - 5:05 AM |
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I’ve created a quick little survey.  Go here and fill it out!

Update: Survey results have been pouring in already, so thank you.  I’ll continue to read them as they come.  A permanent link will be put in the sidebar for future reference, too!

Thankfully, results have been consistent with my expectations; which is encouraging because it means I’m not totally out of touch with what you guys are interested in.  All your suggestions are great, it’s the kind of stuff I’d love to get around to as well, so we’ll see how many of them I can do yet!

 

For those who’d like to do news hunting:

I hereby demand that you USE THIS IMPORTANT LINK to submit your suggestions, which I will certainly read, probably keep in mind for future writings, and possibly even bring up in “News Roundup”-style posts.  Basic instructions are on the page, and I look forward to having my own gang of snitches working nonstop in my service.  The more the merrier, I say!

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For those who’d like to submit original content such as articles, comics and videos/animations:

Contact me at contribute@metagearsolid.org and let me know what you’d like to contribute, how you’d like your stuff to be published/linked, and who you are as a person.  I’ll reply when I can, and we’ll go from there.  Sorry it’s not more convenient but hopefully getting your stuff on the site is a worthwhile tradeoff!  I look forward to seeing your cool shit and getting to know the talented, opinionated people who’ve been reading my own work for a while.  There’s no hurry, so keep that email in mind for when you’re ready.