The Honor and Duty… of Fanboys.
[The serious downtime between articles has been a result of a very busy few months for me, particularly due to my new responsibilities volunteering at the RSPCA and, moreso, the death of a family member. I apologize for the delay since my last article post, but hope you all understand. -Fuzz]
I spend a decent amount of time on the internet nowadays, as most people do. I tend to spend most of that time participating in online gaming or gathering information. Information is power, and an endless diversity of information can be too much to pass up.
There are few things on the webbersphere that can get me truly frustrated; I even find humour in the trolls and various idiocies, but sometimes a point of view will escalate to a full-blown meme that everybody claims as their own. One that simply doesn’t deserve to be considered a valid basis for any opinion in the first place.
Everybody’s opinion is their own, and I can respect that. If all opinions were right there would be no debate or taste and, through that logic, little-to-no distinct creativity. Parrots who hear one argument and mimic it over and over again simply to defend something intangible though (Your validity as a gaming consumer, for example)? I wish every one of you would go headbutt a bullet.
There are two particular examples lately which simply demoralize anybody with any rationality. The first culprit isn’t really related to games, so I will skim over the details.
There was a flood in Australia around Christmas time, but it was far enough back that it’s no longer a very sensitive subject anymore, so people are trying to point fingers regarding who’s fault it was for the flood. Was it the fault of the officials who decided which areas would be settled in… on an island continent with a limited locational supply of water? No. Was it the people in charge of the dams? Maybe if they had whipped out some hoses and a few buckets and got to work on it themselves?
It was rain. Follow my lead here.
It rained a lot. There was water, then there was more water. When there was too much water, it went places. Places flooded.
I'm sure there's an inappropriate League joke in here somewhere.
This isn’t just my response to some internet parroting either; I heard debates about it on the radio and watched a few on television, and by ‘watched’ I mean ‘sternly frowned at for a while til something else was on’. I mean, I didn’t even suffer much from the flooding and I’m still pissed off about the debates; the water only reached high enough on my property to soak my lawn a bit. I came home after the evacuation and thought “Well, this is a bit anti-climactic.” then ended up with muddy water soaking into my socks. Travesty abounds! Uncomfortable squelching noises!
*Slaps dust off of hands* Subject dropped! Let’s move on and make this about gaming again.
There is another thing which has been giving me the Freddy Frowns; fanboys. In particular, Call of Duty fanboys. Yes, the Modern Warfare series is great. Yes, it bares some similarities to the timeline of the Medal of Honor franchise. No, Medal of Honor is not a slap-dash cash-in copy of Call of Duty.
For the past few years I can’t experience a conversation regarding different games in the ‘unnamed soldier’ niche without this coming up, but this broken-record is so dumbfounding-inaccurate that it’s just rather sad: “EA are such shameless bastards. Look at what they keep trying to do with Medal of Honor. They are trying to copy Modern Warfare”. No Nancy, they aren’t.
When Medal of Honor was announced the entire industry was intrigued. It was a game that was created by, and would also be directed by, the film director Steven Spielberg. At the time, a famous director getting involved in a video game release beyond a movie tie-in was just unheard of. The original game was released in 1999, then in 2002 Battlefield 1942 came out and was its damned schmexy self. It was a smooth and delicious palette cleanser for the market. You were thrown into an open world with a basic kit and told ‘Here are your orders. Now, go.’ It was probably the real protogame from which the sandbox gameplay style developed, and proved to consumers and developers everywhere that a large-scale multiplayer environment could exist, which was quite a big thing back then.
So everybody was kung-fu guerrilla fighting in Medal of Honor and turning tides in Battlefield 1942, then *pop*! Out of nowhere a year later in 2003, Call of Duty comes out and… wait, it’s actually a good game?
Yes, that was the exact response of the gamer everyman. We had our immersing survival wartime FPS in Medal of Honor and the completely nameless feel of Battlefield 1942. The common consensus was that Call of Duty was only being made to jump on the bandwagon, gripping strongly on the coat-tails of EA.
Epic Beard Man on a bad day.
It sounds really wierd doesn’t it? EA published two good games that everybody loved, and another company (at the time, Activision) saw some dollar signs and decided they could do things better? It’s funny how the circle comes around, isn’t it? So when Call of Duty came out and it wasn’t a completely crappy cash-in game, people were surprised. The game itself was a happy accident; it was another company’s attempt at doing a better job of providing a deep wartime experience, but it mainly came through thanks to a completely different company altogether.
Call of Duty was build upon ID Software’s Quake III Arena engine, which was a lead competitor in the multiplayer FPS core engine market that successfully rivalled the Unreal engine. This is important; modifying an engine with roots in deathmatch play to suit a wartime epic series ended up causing a strange effect: the multiplayer mode worked. It was crisp, clean and fun. It offered variety for map design, weapon implementation and graphical settings. To put it simply, people finished the single player campaign, got on multiplayer to give it a go, and were hooked.
Suddenly Call of Duty had their own fanbase, which they continued to cater for with each release in the franchise; while they strive to continue with their vision of making a better wartime experience for the player, they understood why they were successful and made an effort to maintain the clean multiplayer experience.
The Medal of Honor franchise has still been steadily releasing new games in its series to this day, and has taken its step into different wartime events, mostly due to having specifically built game releases around World War II campaigns for a while and needing new content. The series has still been primarily focused on the giving a truly heroic feel, where you step into the shoes of a soldier of the time to follow his misadventures and do your part for the greater good…
…but you know what, fanboys? You probably don’t know half of the history behind these two games, if any of it at all. All you do is spout of your comments in an attempt to put Call of Duty on some kind of pedestal and proclaim that somehow Medal of Honor is trying to take the podium. The games may have had similar roots (which, funnily enough, came from the opposite of what you believe) but they have evolved into two completely different experiences.
Call of Duty wants you to have fun, Medal of Honor wants you to feel proud.
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Fuzz Goes off in a Tangent:
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This type of pointless, stubborn fanboy behaviour is not limited to internet randoms or certain genres; it could just as easily be regurgitated by somebody you know about a game from a genre you wouldn’t expect. Allow me to portray one of my regular experiences with it first-hand.
I’m a big fan of all genres, but I’ve always had a soft spot for RTS games. I own and play the whole Command & Conquer franchise, the Dawn of War games, Blizzard’s productions, the Supreme Commander series, and many more different releases. Well, except Command & Conquer 4. I bought and played some of that, then almost facepalmed myself into a coma.
Some days I just really feel like playing a particular game, so I will get on my Ventrilo server and or take a trip to a local gamer’s hangout (like a LAN centre or hobby shop) to chat to people. There will be people talking about messing around on MMOs, playing FPS, RPGs; you name it. Unfortunately, many of these gamers have their foundation built from Blizzard games.
This poses to be quite the dilemma. Here’s a sample Ventrilo conversation that covers about 3/4 of the conversations I have when trying to drum up an RTS game.
“Hey, anybody wanna play some RTS?”
“Starcraft 2?”
“No thanks. I’d like to play some Dawn of War/SupCom/Red Alert 3/etc right now.”
“[Insert fanboy lingo here that dismisses the ENTIRE RTS GENRE unless it is made by Blizzard]“
No, I’m not joking. One of the biggest hurdles to make it over when playing a game with friends comes forward in the RTS field. Blizzard fanboys are like rabid bears, with Blizzard games being their caves which they shelter within to protect them from having a bad experience. Don’t step into their cave and confuse them with things such as ‘new concepts’ or ‘interesting gameplay mechanics’ or they might attack you with their fragile viewpoints and maul of inconsistencies.
“Starcraft 2 is the best RTS available. Nothing competes with it. There’s no reason to play anything else.”
“Comparing SupCom to Starcraft is a mute and pointless argument. They only share genre; they are completely different. They are fun for unique reasons.”
“I don’t care.”
Eventually it spirals downwards with me being accused of being the real fanboy of whatever RTS game I want to play at the time, despite playing all of them. Starcraft 2 is a good game, and most of Blizzard’s steps into the RTS genre share that trait, but for Pete’s sake people, play a different bloody RTS game you insecure twats.
So Blizzard fanboys, let’s put this into perspective:
By your logic, I shouldn’t have played and enjoyed Borderlands because I like FPS games made by Valve, or should never have played any of the Donkey Kong Country series because I should only have experienced platform games made by Shiny. Sure, Shiny only released 3 platform games in the last 15 years, but that wouldn’t stop you, would it? I mean, Blizzard has only released the RTS games Starcraft, Warcraft III and Starcraft 2 in the last 15 years, right? Though to throw your mind for a loop, I might not have ever played Earthworm Jim or Wild 9 if I was going by your logic, because I would still be playing Sonic the Hedgehog games.
Why should we even limit that logic to games? It’s so diverse!
You remember when you had some of your grandma’s jam on toast as a kid? Well, why aren’t you eating that every day for breakfast? Hell, don’t even worry that your roommates are sitting across the table enjoying crisp and spongy waffles. Is your toaster broken? Don’t risk it; stay away from that cereal in the cupboard and wait for lunch. You never know; the cereal might not be satisfying. Never mind that your friend Bob went out to the Diner with you and ordered some bacon on eggs. You’ve got jam on toast, right? You know that jam on toast is good, because it’s never let you down. You don’t need their fancy bacon, convenient cereal or sweet-smelling waffles.
In conclusion: Buy Borderlands. It’s cheap now and, after still playing it on-and-off for so long, I can safely say it’s worth the money. Plus, it gives them more incentive to go all-in for the production of Borderlands 2. Good stuff.
The Honor and Duty… of Fanboys.PvP.net hacked; League of Legends Unsafe
At this time I am reporting that League of Legends’ PvP.net client was hacked.
Although some believe it to be a simple DDoS attack (crashing the servers), many players have experienced spam messages from the culprits within the game client.
As I report this, the PvP.net chat system has been brought down. Riot has yet to comment whether they are even responsible for its downtime, but one would guess it to be the case since messages included links which directed to various unsafe websites.
Some speculate that this is another lulzsec hacking, while others point out the mention of ‘NoS’ (a brazilian hacking group, if I remember right) in the spam messages. In my opinion, it is probably some random messing around while hacking is ‘the in thing to do’. Hell, it might even be a script-kiddy (or ‘skiddy’, a pseudo-hacker who uses tools and programs a real hacker created to mimic them); there’s a fair amount of resources floating around on the internet right now.
Many of Riot Games’ clients are worried and paranoid thanks to several of the messages mentioning (in an almost cryptic fashion) that an excess of people have been exposed to keyloggers.
One of the more interesting side-effects can be found on the League of Legends 5×5 rankings page. I do not recommend going to Riot’s website for the time being, but I did so myself out of suspicion and grabbed you all a screenshot of my discovery:
Oh aren't you just the special children!
It wasn’t hard to guess that they would hit the site rankings after considering past hacks against gaming websites. Hopefully very few others thought to check this page and, again, hopefully it’s clean.
Luckily this is occurring on the afternoon of the 4th of July for American clients, so at least they are guaranteed to have a better use for their time.
I will edit this article as/if the story develops, but for the time being I recommend that all League of Legends gamers avoid the Riot Games website and game client for at least a few hours.
Update 1: It seems that Riot was responsible for bringing down PvP.net.
“Summoners! We’ve had to temporarily disable our chat system due to technical difficulties. This means you can currently not see the online status of your friends, talk to them, or queue up with them. We realize how disruptive this is and we do apologize. We’ll have the chat system back up as soon as possible.” ZenonTheStoic
It’s difficult to manoeuvre around the Riot Games’ site at the moment. This announcement wasn’t even linked in the forums or on the main page, I had to stumble across it. Either the site has been hit decently or their offices are in a bit of disarray.
Update 2: Somebody using the handle ‘Neonir’, seemingly stolen from an already existing member of the League of Legends community, has claimed a level of responsibility for the hacking.
Attempts have been made by this person to market the tools used, but capable individuals have pointed out that the program was probably created by somebody else. It’s currently assumed that the individual is using a RAT (Remote Administration Tool) and is using keyloggers to grant himself access to victims’ computers.
Update 3: A posting by Pendragon
“Summoners!
As you are aware we recently had issues with our chat services. Rest assured that we have no reason to believe any billing information has been compromised. Any impacted accounts will be fully restored.
Please always exercise caution when visiting any third party websites.
We will keep you updated with additional information as it becomes available” -Pendragon
Final Word: If you didn’t access any websites linked to you through either PvP.net or the Riot Games website, you should be fine. If you are suspicious, run a scan using an anti-malware program to hunt down any threats.
There are 3 programs which I recommend: Malwarebytes, Spybot Search & Destroy and AVG AntiVirus. One of any of those 3 should do the job, though I encourage you to use anti-virus software at all times. If they come up clean and you are completely convinced that you have been hacked, turn off your internet connection and wait out a few days to discourage RAT access, update your scanners’ definitions and scan again.
PvP.net hacked; League of Legends UnsafeSony Offline Entertainment
So the Sony Network is coming back online today, much to the joy of many gamers who utilize an internet connection on the PS3 or Sony’s online PC games (primarily MMOs), but information is scarce as to why it was down in the first place. Allow me to save you several hours of wading through the various stories, interviews, rumours and accusations that are floating around the internet.
This is the story of why (and how) Sony’s network went down for the better part of a month.
The whole saga began when two gamers known as George ‘GeoHot’ Hotz and Alexander ‘graf_chokolo’ Egorenkov succeeded at jailbreaking the security features on the Playstation 3. Such an accomplishment had the downside of making cheating in online play more commonplace, but it did also allow homebrew software to be utilized on the machine.
Sony was not impressed. They began a rather ruthless backlash campaign (particularly against GeoHot) using their influence and the legal system. The court case has been going on since January this year and is still unresolved, notably threatening GeoHot with a million-dollar Euro lawsuit. The monetary demands struck me as rather sadistic; that kind of suit would cripple most Europeans for the rest of their lives and, honestly, it seems as if they pulled the number straight out of their arses.
To add insult to injury; Sony had authorities raid his home and take possession of anything which might have been related to his work on the PS3. It just goes to show that in Europe “You never buy. You rent.”
Sony even went so far as subpeonaing information from Hotz’s various online connections, including Paypal account associated with him. Sony now has a list of IP addresses of people who they suspect have made the modifications to their systems.
Gamers have been modding their systems since consoles have existed and, as far as I am aware, every court case to deny such a right has sided with the consumer. It’s understandable that the gaming community responded with aggravation at Sony’s antics.
The organization of internet hackers ‘Anonymous’ took note, releasing a statement that is rather effectively summarized in this video:
Anonymous began a campaign to harass Sony, particularly targeting their websites. The whole operation was problematic for them; Anonymous’ main goal was to lay pressure on Sony and, as specified, NOT to grief the gamers who used their network.
In response to this, Sony hired a company named Prolexic and began mitigating the damage. Sites were crashing and rebooting constantly for the first few days while both the hackers and the security firm scrambled to gain the upper hand. Prolexic apparently succeeded in blocking off a range of IP addresses commonly used by Anonymous’ personnel (and many gamers, unfortunately) due to the experiences both parties have had with each other in the past.
Sony could have potentially dodged a bullet if they had just weathered the storm, but during this time they made a particularly big mistake; they gloated. Sony quipped that the attacks were of ‘medium strength’, were just an ‘annoyance to our network engineers’ and shrugged them off, stating they would just ‘get bored’ eventually.
Anonymous announced that they would stop the attacks to prevent harm to the innocent gamers, but a few days later Sony’s PSN network suffered a massive attack which flabbergasted their engineers. A statement was released quoting that the servers would be down for ‘a day or two’ which has since been revealed to have been made as pure P.R. [A course of action made to make a company, product or person more appealing to an audience or consumers], causing frustration for their gaming community.
“The fault lies with the executives who declared a war on hackers, laughed at the idea of people penetrating the fortress that once was Sony, whined incessantly about piracy, and kept hiring more lawyers when they really needed to hire good security experts. Alienating the hacker community is not a good idea” Hotz later stated.
Anonymous denied involvement in the attack, reinforcing their stance on not harming the players who used the Playstation Network.
Sony later released a notice that much of the information stored on their servers had been stolen, including some old credit card information. The servers stayed down and have been until today, with little word to the public regarding when they would return.
Whoever was responsible for this attack has apparently made a devastating job of it; Sony has been dumbfounded since it happened. Was it Anonymous, laying down propaganda to hide a more vindictive nature? Was it a rogue hacker, seeking to punish Sony for mocking Anonymous or the gaming community? Maybe it’s something more sinister, like an opportunistic dollar-seeker who just found the cover scandal too good to be true?
Either way; gamers aren’t the only ones suffering from this event. Retailers are reporting that the Playstation 3 is being traded in and sold at an alarming rate, up by 200% in a single month [Source]. Strangely enough, the PS3 is reporting a 13% increase in hardware sales during this time despite the PSN being offline [Source], though many are skeptical since their statement was released as a response to an NPD date report.
My opinion is: They are either lying, or they are including the sales of used systems in their report. Think about it. A 200% increase in trade-in probably results in some pretty cheap Playstation 3 consoles floating around in stores. Conversely, if you’ve been looking to buy a PS3 then this might be the time to do it; the PSN is coming back up soon and the consoles are probably on sale at many locations.
Sony announced a few days ago that it will be offering compensation to their MMO clients [Source], but many customers have already moved on, and the few remaining are frustrated about the lack of information presented to them. A common question is “Are they even still working on [Insert patch here]?”
Take what you will from the whole mess, but it’s safe to say that Sony has likely learned a valuable lesson.
Sony Offline EntertainmentConnection… Problem?
Everything went better than expected.
All 4 of my teammates connected within 3 minutes in and we won the game… but it was was one of those moments.
Connection… Problem?
Hook, Line and Sinker: What Makes a Classic Game
Boredom begets nostalgia; that moment where you’ve jumped into your desktop chair or kneeled in front of your array of console titles, but then you’re at a loss as to what exactly you want to play.
The stagnancy of development within the video-games industry [Gimmick Games article] happens to be a leading cause of this ‘problem’; it’s so rare to come across a game that satisfies. Sure, you can find a title that will spectacularly entertain you for a few afternoons, but afterwards you are often left with no reason to come back to it.
Enter through the parados thou players of old, and cradle thy controls and keyboards for revisited memories!
The classic game Syndicate, from Bullfrog. They also produced the popular Theme Park franchise.
Where would we be without the gems? Those games with enough variety and soul that they can be picked up and played again and again!
I really hadn’t given it much thought; I buy 4-5 new games a month. Truth be told, I wasn’t completely aware of just how much I had been neglecting the new releases, at least until my friend Pete asked me “So, what new games have you gotten into lately?”
Reflecting upon my past week, here are the games I’ve played for 2 hours or more:
- 5 Hours – Final Fantasy Tactics (1997)
- 4 Hours – League of Legends (2009, regularly updated)
- 3 Hours – Neverwinter Nights 2 (Platinum) (2006)
- 2 Hours – Global Agenda (2010)
- 2 Hours – Darksiders (2010)
I began to answer him, then stopped in consideration. What new games? None. I hadn’t played any new releases in the past 5 days. In fact, most of the new releases I’ve bought this year have been played for under 2 hours, then dropped into a shortcuts folder or put away on a bookcase ‘for later’.
“I guess I’ve just been going back to the classics lately.” I replied. He nodded and shrugged. “Yeah, that’s how it is nowadays.”
There are many other games I tend to fall back to for some guaranteed fun. What was it that made these games special?
Gameplay. The game has to be enjoyable, and in almost every case it has to have some damned difficulty. There’s no feeling of accomplishment when a game handholds you through to the end. At this point, I even give points for steady difficulty curves, even if the final hours of a game end up being a minor challenge at best.
Re-playability. ‘Tactics’ is a great example. Nearly endless customization and advancement paths combined with the satisfaction of executing a vast array of different strategies. You can literally play Tactics through a dozen times and still experience it differently. The same can be said about League of Legends, NWN2 and Global Agenda (mostly due to GA’s multiplayer elements). Even Darksiders allows you to use its Soul currency to purchase different attacks or weaponry, increasing its replay value.
An enjoyable story is another key element often underdeveloped in new games. A great plot can be the difference, even if its impact on the game’s structure is subtle; just look at games like Mass Effect (more direct) or Half-Life (silent protagonist). Even Red Alert 2 with its cheesy, ham-handed acting seems witty and immersive compared to the new releases this year.
When you combine challenging gameplay (the hook, catching your attention), re-playability (the line, pulling you back in) and an entertaining story (the sinker, keeping you immersed and interested) or even just implement 2 of these elements competently, you end up with a potential classic…
…and true classics never die.
Hook, Line and Sinker: What Makes a Classic GameApplying Gaming Skills to Real Life Situations – Part 3
Do you ever find yourself annoyed or upset? Maybe you just had a rough day and you’ve come home feeling on-edge?
What’s the first thing you want to do?
If your answer is ‘play some video games’ then you’re not alone.
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Case Study 3: Just What I Needed!
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So life just kicked you square in the cheeks and you need to wind down; you pick up a controller, sit at a desktop or start fiddling with your handheld. Did you ever stop to think “Why am I doing this?”
The answer: It works.
It’s been proven that video games are key tools in the psychiatric world when it comes to treating medically diagnosed conditions which affect concentration (as shown in Case Study 2), but did you know that studies have shown gaming to be a promising treatment for depression and anxiety?.
Multitasking at its finest.
A year-long study by the East Carolina University’s Psychophysiology Lab and Biofeedback Clinic tested the efficacy of video games for treating depression and anxiety. Almost 60 clinically diagnosed sufferers of depression took part in the testing, and the results were rather impressive.
“The hypothesis was tested using state-of-the-art technologies including psychophysiology, biochemical and psychological measurements, and found an average reduction in depression symptoms of 57% in the experimental ( “video game” ) group.” -Dr. Carmen Russoniello [Source]
Considering how hit-and-miss other forms of treatment can be; 57% is definitely a positive outcome.
“In my opinion the findings support the possibility of using prescribed casual video games for treating depression and anxiety as an adjunct to, or perhaps even a replacement for, standard therapies including medication.”
It has also been shown that the beneficial effects a gaming session has on a person’s mood can persist for the long-term.
The participants of the ECU’s test partook in casual games produced by PopCap, who are famous for Bejewelled and Peggle. The researchers are optimistic about ‘more hardcore games’ as well, so I’m looking forward to a possible future study into how more elaborate or complicated games affect moods. Personally; I like a challenge!
The fact that video games have such an influence on our state-of-mind is intriguing when you think about it, and it explains why we tend to get so frustrated when our gaming sessions are interrupted.
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There’s not much else to say that you don’t already know, so I’ll answer some questions:
“Only your first AGS article was a case study. Why did you call the second one that?” Michael, regarding the AGS series.
That’s a legitimate question Michael; a case study usually consists of analyzing a single example event, chain of events or a person. The sub-heading for this series is actually a sort of inside joke. Each article is built upon where my curiosity leads me after I make personal observations regarding differences between how I interact with my environment when compared to others and, as such, are often linked to a certain event which gives me a moment of clarity and insight.
Whew, that’s a mouthful! To finish up I’ll also answer several questions at the same time; Yes, I did spell ‘more’ as ‘moar’. No, it is not negligence or a typo; it’s gaming lingo. Yes, that was a Dragon Ball Z reference. No, the position in queue wasn’t Photoshopped.
Did you enjoy this case study? Then you might be interested in previous articles of this series:
Applying Gaming Skills to Real Life Situations – Part 3