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New York Times review thinks Metal Gear Solid 4 isn't a game
Seth Schiesel of the New York Times declared twice in his review of Metal Gear Solid 4 that it "isn't really my kind of game." He started off by stating his prejudices early; blatantly telling the reader that his "favorite games provide a sort of social framework within which the players set their own storylines" and that he favors one-player games like SimCity that deliver open-ended gameplay. Surprisingly though, he still claimed MGS4 is very much enjoyable.Schiesel saw MGS4's production values and attention to detail as quasi-negatives, which lead him to "pretty much stopped caring about playing the game." He then gave a backhanded compliment to the game by saying the "combat scenes ... are just as good, if not better in their intensity, than anything I have ever seen in a film. No lie." Because ultimately, Schiesel thought it is too much like watching an interactive film. According to him, the player lacked control over the storyline. He though it's "Mr. Kojima's world, and you are just passing through for the moment." He ended the review on fully negative note, with an implication that MGS4 isn't even game: "By the time those credits did roll, I was ready for the MGS4 experience to be over ... I was ready to play a game."Schiesel also thought MGS4 as-it-is would not be possible on the Xbox 360 and that "the PS3 has more pure silicon horsepower under the hood" which will eventually result in "Microsoft ... playing catch-up." Perhaps by lavishing praise on the hardware, Schiesel thinks he will sound neutral. We can't help but think his view on MGS4 is from a guy who walked into a restaurant ordering Omakase from a world-renowned chef whose specialty is an ingredient he is mildly allergic to.
Complete My Album is selling music
I was just as much a naysayer as Dave was when the service first came out (and for the record, I haven't used it all either), but apparently there are lots of people who do use Apple's "Complete My Album" service in iTunes -- the NYT says that it has become a prime selling tool, especially for bands and labels that pre-release singles from their album in a digital format. A whopping 52% of Lil Wayne's latest album sales on iTunes were sold through the "Complete My Album" feature. That means half the people who bought the album on iTunes had previously purchased one of the singles, and clicked through that way to buy the rest of their music.And though neither Dave or I use "Complete My Album," that's a good sign for consumers, and a nice wake up call for the record industry -- the days of playing a song on the radio to up album sales are over. Digital releases are what sells music, and though "Complete My Album" currently only works on music previously purchased in the iTunes store, Apple could very easily extend that to all music in iTunes -- if you like a song that you've downloaded as a free single from the artist's website, it's just as easy to find music of theirs to buy in iTunes the same way.We're done with a world where radio airplay determines what sells at the record store. These days, consumers are the ones who tell record makers what they want to buy -- it's already in their iTunes playlists.
New York Times looks under cardboard box over MGS storyline
A New York Times article in the Week in Review section published today discusses the latent meanings within the Metal Gear series' epic storyline and attempts to answer the bigger question of whether video games can be a capable medium, on par with films and literature, in conveying a narrative. NYT's Dave Itzkoff delves into the world of MGS by exploring the hidden messages from every MGS game; for example, MGS is a statement about atomic weapons, the Patriots of MGS2 portrayed as an Illuminati-like secret society suggests a worldwide conspiracy, MGS3 hints at how a "military-industrial complex" changed the world and MGS4 has Itzkoff describing Solid Snake as a "James Bond meets Rambo" who blur the line between hero and villain. Finally, Snake's endless mission is seen a parable of modern war and invokes the philosophical debate of "determinism and free will." The article also debates the validity and effectiveness of the cinematic cut scenes -- according to Itzkoff's interviews, 1UP's Shawn Elliott equates this methodology as "kind of cheating" and accuses the game of using "a language that isn't native to its own medium." On the other hand, Leigh Alexander of Kotaku argues the cut scenes are embedded into the game and essential. She even takes a jab at Halo, describing the Xbox series as mindless action that is only popular because "you shoot people." Just as films have evolved into an acceptable means of telling a full, gratifying story, it won't be long before video games achieve the same distinction.
New York Times talks Miyamoto, Wii Music
Following Time Magazine's announcement of Shigeru Miyamoto as the most influential person of the year (as chosen by you!), The New York Times has a lengthy biography of the legendary game designer, focused around a candid talk with the man.Among other things, Miyamoto discusses his emphasis on gameplay over characters (it sounded strange to us too), and Nintendo's transition from fantasy games to those grounded in reality. He also briefly discusses Wii Music, Nintendo's original music title, which will emphasize creating original musical compositions, unlike Guitar Hero or Rock Band. More details on Wii Music are expected this summer.
Times Reader coming to the Mac
I live in Philadelphia, but I'm a native New Yorker, and for my money there is no better newspaper on the planet than the New York Times. The Times has really embraced the new realities that the digital age has foisted upon the newspaper business by trying a number of new things (running a great website included).Sadly, it seemed that the Gray Lady was ignoring Mac users when it first released the Times Reader. The Times Reader, for those who don't know, is a dedicated application which displays the last seven days of the New York Times. It has many of the benefits that one gets from reading nytimes.com (changeable fonts, searchable content, ease of printing) with the added benefit of not requiring an internet connection. The Times Reader syncs content on your computer, and lets you take it anywhere. Luckily for me (and I am betting there are some other New York Times fans out there) the Times will be launching the Times Reader Beta for Mac at some point this month. The Times Reader for the Mac is a native Cocoa application powered by Webkit and Silverlight (yes, you'll have to install Microsoft's Silverlight to use this app). This is not the same as the RSS reader called Times which Mat posted about last week.This is a beta, and so there are some features that the PC version has that aren't in the Mac version: Resizeable windows: yep, the Times Reader on the Mac only has 4 preset window sizes at the moment. Copy and paste of text: this is a pretty big feature that I hope they sort out sooner rather than later. It isn't all bad though, the Mac version supports search across all seven days of content while the PC version only searches the current day's edition.During the beta the Times Reader for Mac will be free to use, but once the beta is over it'll revert back to being free only for New York Times subscribers (though you can subscribe just to the Reader service for $14.95 a month). Check out the blog post for more images of the app.As soon as I get a chance to look at the Times Reader for Mac beta I'll post an in depth review.
New York Times one half
With the release of Crosswords DS this week, will a $10 price cut compel you to buy New York Times Crosswords instead? Amazon's "Deal of the Day" happens to be everyone's favorite alf-loving crossword game (again). While $10 for any game is hard to resist, keep in mind that puzzles from the New York Times are tough -- make sure you have the mental fortitude before picking this one up. You might also want to note, though, that Mother's Day will be here soon, and this might make a nice, cheap gift for DS-owning moms.
All the World's a Stage: Background story
All the World's a Stage is a source for roleplaying ideas, commentary, and discussions. It is published every Sunday evening.Your character is like an arrow. He was launched from the birthplace of your imagination with the aim of creating spontaneous stories with other creative people. Your character's personality is the particular direction he travels in, and his background story is the bow which set him on his way.The bow-string tension that gives a good backstory its momentum is its lack of resolution. The desire to find resolution propels your character forward into the game, but it doesn't predict with certainty where your he or she will end up. Realizing this can free you of a great burden: your story doesn't have to make the New York Times Bestseller List. In fact, the whole idea here is to purposely leave your backstory unfinished, ready to be resolved through roleplaying. Too much emphasis on a dramatic background leaves you with not enough room for an interesting foreground, and little else to contribute other than the saga of your epic past. Obviously, people aren't logging into WoW to read your miniature novel. They generally won't want to hear your backstory unless they specifically ask you about it (which they might!), but even then they'll care less for its narrative value and more for its ultimate impact on your character as a person. It's best to think of it less as a story in itself (e.g. "How I got to be this way"), and more as a prologue to the story you want to roleplay (e.g. "How do I get out of this mess?"). Its purpose is to set up challenges for your character to overcome with other people, and it should establish a direct line to your character's desires and aspirations.
Poking holes in the New York Times's claims
Refuting perceived negative statements against your console of choice is usually a very petty, fanboy kind of thing to do, but the New York Times' recent coverage of the Wii's terrible attach rate deserves it. The article has some problems that make the Wii seem to be in a worse situation than it is, though we don't know whether it's an intentional angle or a bit of haphazard reporting. John Scalzo of the Video Game Librarian blog identified some of the issues. Scalzo identifies the paper's dependence on numbers from VGChartz (a "a team of analysts who study video-game sales"), their claim that Smash Bros. sales have tanked, and their spurious analysis of Guitar Hero III sales as noticeable problems with the coverage. The last is especially startling: the NYT claims that "Guitar Hero, for example, sold 2.2 million copies for the Wii, but 2.8 million copies for the Xbox 360 and almost 5 million for two versions of the PlayStation," bringing in the PS2 to make its point. "The only way the author could get the numbers he was looking for," Scalzo said, "was to combine the sales of Guitar Hero III on the PS2 and PS3 to push it past the Wii."Hit the break for some of our own thoughts on the article.
NY Times tackles Wii's tie-in ratio
The Wii has comfortably outsold its rivals since it first launched, but it does lag behind in at least one other respect: the number of games sold per console. The low software tie-in ratio of the Wii is hardly a new issue, but it's one that shouldn't be ignored.According to a new article in The New York Times, Wii owners typically purchase only 3.7 games a year, a figure that compares unfavorably with Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners (4.7 and 4.6 games per year respectively). This, argues the article, is just one of the effects of the expanded audience that Nintendo has captured -- as the New York Times piece observes, most Wii owners seem to treat their console as little more than a Wii Sports machine.There are solutions, however, with Wii Fanboy favorite Michael Pachter suggesting third-party publishers should adopt a different approach to marketing their wares. As Pachter puts it, "Advertising on GameInformer and 1up.com just isn't reaching [the expanded] audience."[Via Joystiq]
NYTimes looks at Wii's software sales problem
Despite consistently strong hardware sales, the Wii has thus far lagged behind its competitors when it comes to the all important software tie ratio. The New York Times looked into the problem today, with an article highlighting Wii owners' reluctance to buy games at the usual rapid pace.On average, Wii owners only buy 3.7 games a year, compared to 4.7 and 4.6 for the Xbox 360 and PS3 respectively. "These new gamers are content with the games they have, often going no further than the Wii Sports game that comes with the machine," the Times author states. "They don't buy new games with the fervor of a traditional gamer who is constantly seeking new stimulation."Analysts say fixing the problem will require changing the way third parties market their games to the new audience of casual Wii gamers. "Advertising on Game Informer and 1up.com just isn't reaching this audience," Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter said. Advertising on Joystiq.com, though? Always a great idea!
SL art and architecture sells for US$100,000?
Notable Second Life artist, China Tracy, has apparently sold an installation in the virtual world for US$100,000, according to the New York Times - other sources suggest that the purchase price may be 100,000 Euros, not US dollars. The NYT is scanty on specifics as to what was sold (and we're not able to locate the specific site), but it appears to be an SL site and architecture (maybe RMB City), rather than any specific item of artwork. We're not actually sure quite yet, based on the information available, whether this constitutes an actual sale or if it is actually capital for development of the site. Right now, we're suspecting that it is the latter, and that the representation of it as a sale is not necessarily technically correct. [via New World Notes]
Beanie Babies Online entertains kids, sells toys
Ty -- the company behind Beanie Babies -- has teamed up with Animax to take on Webkinz with a somewhat similar online service called Beanie Babies 2.0. Unlike Webkinz, the different levels of service will only unlock when children buy new real-world Beanie Babies. The toys ship with some sort of registration code that will progress the account to the next level when entered at the Beanie Babies 2.0 website.Usually we're glad to see virtual worlds and online games adopted by the culture at large, but we're not so crazy for this one. It looks less like a meaningful experience for kids than it looks like a sneaky attempt to use technology to sell more Beanie Babies. Sure, Ty is a business, and it needs to profit. But we're more quick to admire businesses that try to do something constructive with their products as well -- like Fluid Entertainment and its environment-friendly kids' game. At the very least, the game should be fun on its own, right?Beanie Babies 2.0 has no such aspirations. The New York Times thought it fitting to call it "Catalog 2.0."
Will we ever see Imagination Is the Only Escape?
Imagination is the Only Escape is only in its early stages, and yet, the game is already causing controversy.This Holocaust-themed title is about a Jewish boy in Eastern France during WWII, when the Nazis occupied the territory. The game's world then becomes a fantasy land, imagined by the boy in order to "escape" the harshness of reality. The New York Times caused some alarm this morning, though, reporting that Nintendo wouldn't be releasing Luc Bernard's DS game to America. The article, however, might have been jumping the gun. It's true that Nintendo of America has no plans to distribute this title, but Bernard hasn't even approached the company yet. A representative from Alten8, Imagination's potential publisher, also told Eurogamer that no one has blocked the game and that it's still in its early stages.Does that mean the game is in the clear, though? Not necessarily.
NY Times oopsies over Nintendo's Holocaust game remark
In a recent article about Imagination is the Only Escape, an under-development edutainment title about the Holocaust, the New York Times' headline writer apparently didn't read the story before slapping at the top: No Game About Nazis for Nintendo.Turns out the actual quote from Nintendo was something far more inert: "At this time, there are no plans for this game to be released for any Nintendo platforms in North America." Which in industry speak simply means "wait and see."GI.biz's follow up with Imagination's publisher, Alten8, reveals the game is in its "early stages" and wasn't blocked by Nintendo. A spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League even said the group welcomed the use of new technology to educate. Although this isn't our favorite NYT error about gaming in recent memory, not channeling FOX News when writing headlines is always a good start.[Via GamePolitics]Read -- NY Times: No game about Nazis for NintendoRead -- Alten8 disputes reports of Nintendo blocking DS release
The Daedalus Project tracks MUD
Actually, it tracks MMOs, but what a clever title, huh? The Daedalus Project is the demographic/analysis website created and maintained by Nick Yee, a graduate student of Stanford University in the field of Communications who now works at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Nick's site is noteworthy both for the online surveys of MMO players that are open to anyone who wants to participate, and also for the conclusions he draws based on those survey results.This statistical data has been used by Washington Post, CBS, TechWeek, CNET, the Associated Press, Nature.com, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, among other publications. Nick always has a survey or two running, so if you're interested in contributing your experiences and thoughts to the collective (and growing) body of knowledge concerning MMOs, you can do so at the 'Current Surveys' section of his site.For those of us interested in metadata, The Daedalus Project is a genuine boon, and we hope he continues his necessary and groundbreaking work well into the future. [Thanks, Nick!]
New York Times can't let WoW duo get away with it
Reader Roland (thanks!) pointed us to this weird WoW reference in the New York Times. In the wedding section of all places, there's a story about a couple that used World of Warcraft to play and have fun as a duo, and it's too damn bad that the NYT falls back into the old media idea that playing videogames as a couple isn't healthy.Can we get one mainstream media article that breaks the mold? Can we get one portrayal of a WoW player (or players, in this case) that doesn't fall back into the old line of MMOs being the territory of cave-dwelling social outcasts? That's most certainly not the case in reality -- how long is it going to take for mainstream reporters to forget this moronic angle and report on what's really happening here: two people in love sharing a hobby in between the rest of their full and fulfilling lives.There are now ten million people playing this game around the world, and the large, overwhelming majority of them are healthy, fulfilled individuals who lead great lives both in and out of game. In fact, the two people this article is about are two of those individuals. It's perfectly healthy to sit down and play a videogame with your significant other, on a beautiful spring day or at any other time (yes, it's never healthy to do one thing all the time, be it videogames or TV watching or anything else, but that's not what's happening here). And it's crazy that the NYT bent over backwards to make it seem like that's not the case.
Study shows men's brains hard-wired for games
When it comes to gaming, the popular perception is that it's a man's domain. (Of course, you'd be hard pressed to make that point around Massively HQ, as many of our most prolific writers and senior bloggers are of the fairer sex.) Traditionally, this has been pinned on sociological factors that discourage women from developing as close a relation with computers as men. While there is still probably a kernel of truth to that, a new study out of the Stanford University School of Medicine points to biological factors hard-wired into the brain as the cause. Reportedly, MRI scans taken of both men and women while playing a simple game showed a marked difference in the areas of the brain responsible for feelings of reward and addiction. Men simply got more of a buzz out of games than women, by and large.What amused me was the description of the game they used in testing, which they described as having no real prescribed goal -- the test subjects simply clicked a series of images depicting balls as they slowly approached a wall. The more quickly they clicked the images, the more ground they gained. Without any instruction, the men in the study "appeared more motivated to acquire terrain." No real prescribed goal? Players motivating themselves to acquire terrain? Feelings of reward and addiction? If I didn't know any better, I'd swear they were using an MMO for that study! At the same time, short of casual Popcap-style games, MMOs probably enjoy one of the highest female to male ratios in the industry, so I'd stop short of saying that sociology has nothing to do with it. Still, very interesting stuff.
NYT on gray market iPhones
The Gray Lady has published a piece examining the so-called "gray market" for iPhones in China -- legitimate products transferred through not-so-legitimate channels. Though we of course have no idea how prevalent this was before the rise of the 'Net, I have to think that the shrinking global neighborhood contributes to this a lot -- it's much easier to ask someone in another country to buy something for you when you talk to them every day on Twitter.The NYT puts the number of non-AT&T iPhones at a whopping 1.4 million, but of course that includes unlocked phones all over the world, and people who are using iPhones without actually activating them. So we're not exactly sure of the number of iPhones floating around China (where Apple hasn't made a deal to provide official service yet). Analyst Charles Wolf says that Apple definitely enjoys listing the gray market iPhones in their sales numbers, but that the lack of an AT&T agreement with the phone sales undermines their contract plan.However, he admits also that making the decision to sell the phones unlocked would have earned Apple more demand in the first place, so it's six in one, half-dozen in the other. There's no word on how the impending release of the SDK might affect the sale of phones for unlocking, either. But for now, it's clear that the gray market is a substantial and yet very much unknown quantity of Apple's iPhone business.
A million bajillion crossword games for the DS
We hope that many of you flocked to stores this week to get Barnyard Blast. If so, or if you're a fan of crosswords, you might be happy to know that the same developer (Sanuk Games) is coming out with Crossword Challenge. Or, you might be thinking, "Another crossword game?" Aside from the New York Times title, Nintendo is coming out with one in May. Then there are iterations using The Sun's crosswords and a USA Today's. So, in other words, five games. If you speak Japanese, there's also Compile Heart's release.We don't mind an oversaturated crossword market, though. New York Times puzzles can be too hard, Nintendo ones might be too easy, The Sun's will be too trashy, and USA Today's crosswords are always too similar. In our opinion, there's definitely a place for this Sanuk Games project.Of course, whether there's room in the market is another question. The New York Times rendition came out long ago, but surely sales for the other four will eat into each other, with (we think) Nintendo's being the most successful. Whether or not the publishers do well, though, there's no doubt that with competition, the consumer always wins.
New York Times Macworld gadget slideshow
I always have a hard time letting Macworld go. When the last day of Expo rolls around it sort of feels like you're graduating from college and moving away from all your friends. There are some heartfelt goodbyes, promises to stay in touch, and a cap or two are hurled into the air. That's why I'll take any excuse I can get to relive those blissful moments one more time, and it would seem that the New York Times is with me on that. They sent a photographer to Macworld 2008 to create this slideshow of Macworld attendees and their gadgets. The most interesting thing is the vast amount of non-Apple gadgets that are on display (there is every someone using a PC!).How many more sleeps until Macworld 2009?
