GDC: Building a Better Mousetrap

The news coming out of GDC is weird.

the-game
The future is now! OOOooOooOoo

Nvidia announced a ‘smart tv’ -esque box that is pretty much an Amazon Fire TV, or a Roku, or a weaker version of every console and tv product their hardware supports. You can use Netflix and play Android games, or some other games at just over Xbox 360 specs. Yay? Thanks for joining the party? I don’t get it.

Sony, AMD, and whoever else announced more VR gimmicks. I didn’t want to wear the 3D glasses while watching TV. I certainly don’t want to wear the headgear or gadgets they’ve concocted. It’s the next Kinect, and I will happily pass on yet more hardware that will never be adopted by the software companies.

Steam announced a couple of things. First, Steam Link. It’s a $50 box that lets you stream your PC content to your TV. You know, like an HDMI cable…  Then there’s Source 2 which could be neat, but I’m pretty sure somehow it’ll be used to hype their Steam “Home entertainment” push and troll people into thinking Half-Life 3.

Next up is ex-SWTOR Lead Designer Damion Schubert preaching about F2P being the future. Because his work on SWTOR was so good he’s now taken to motivational speaking and being the white knight defender of people who spend lots in cash shops. Apparently calling them whales is offensive, as Damion says, “These people are very important, and we can start by treating them with some fucking respect.” Call them what you want, they are still the textbook definition of a whale. Call them royalty for all I care. They still spend extravagantly and are textbook ‘whales.’ Calling them a ‘Patron’ like Schubert wants is misleading. All of us who spend money on games, in any model, are patrons. Let’s call a spade a spade and a whale a whale. The entire talk was full of logical leaps, make believe what-ifs (like saying if BF5 went F2P and succeeded that CoD would have to follow…) and manipulation.

If you found something decent from GDC please share.

  • SHIELD
    I have the Nvidia Shield tablet and I genuinely love it. I love it because it functions as a standard tablet, with access to the usual mobile/toilet games you expect on a mobile device, but then I plug it into my TV and it’s this small form-factor console that has all the apps I normally use with my TV – netflix, plex etc. and streams games from nvidia’s cloud service as well as from my PC pretty darn impressively too.

    @Keen – You elude to the fact that a HDMI cable will do and I’m with you there mate. Just my PC is upstairs in the study and streaming down to the TV in the living room via the shield tablet…maybe it’s unnecessary…but I’ve really enjoyed working through games that are a bit more drop-in, drop-out and replaying some more controller-friendly games, whilst sitting on the couch. It’s just worked quite nicely for me with my wife feeling less “shunned” when I play a bit downstairs. But I do get that it’s a bit of a gimmick in certain scenarios. The whole movement to get PC gaming into the living room is a bit over the top perhaps.

    So back to the Shield box then; Compared to their tablet, it’s an inferior product in my eyes. It may be more power, but more powerful for what reason? My tablet streams incredibly smoothly over ethernet and reasonably good over wireless. So considering the real power needs to be in my internet connection, the idea of another box under the TV doesn’t make sense to me when I have a multi-functional piece of hardware that already does what they’re trying to sell here. I suppose the business sense is that it gives them a wider array of hardware options in their Shield line – a plug-in TV box, a portable handheld (not sure if they’ll continue with it), and a tablet. In my opinion the tablet is the strongest item of the three, but then I am biased based on my experience with it.

    VALVE
    Valve feel so wishy-washy to me. I’d rather they just concentrated on what they’ve done best in the past and that’s software and games. But then they obviously have a vision of sorts to make moves in hardware circles. I still feel that the strength of the hardware, be it a console or one fo these set-top boxes or even all the VR stuff that is being touted about, is going to be the software. Consoles sell because people want to play the games they have. Often games you can ONLY play on that specific console. My fear for the future is that we’re going to have a plethora of consoles/mini console boxes with various games exclusively available on this one or that one, or only on those two. It will be a minefield.

    F2P
    *sighs*

  • @Lengle: Yeah, that sums it up for me too. Valve is really wishy-washy on where they are at as a company. It’s shaking my faith in them. I totally agree with you on the minefield of mini consoles boxes each playing their own set of games… starting to remind me of when every game launched with its own platform: Steam, Original, UPlay, etc.

    Interesting to hear about the Shield tablet. I haven’t looked into that at all, and it’s probably not my particular cup of tea, but I’m going to look into it more now.

  • So many gimmicks!

    And language itself is under attack! (Not just in the gaming industry, everywhere too) There needs to be a coalition formed. Could call it Webster’s Warriors and they call public figures out when they misuse words 🙂 If you interact with ANY business and spend money on any good or service, no matter how small, you are immediately a patron and the business has received your patronage.

  • The issue I have regarding developing games for whales/patrons/royalty/cash pinatas is that it rewards addictive and compulsive behavior, in getting people to spend more than they can afford in games. Building games for whales is little different from building slot machines in public areas and the negative effects of slot machines on individuals with addictive and compulsive tendencies is well established.

  • I’m actually most interested in the VR Headgear that looks to be on track for either late this year or early next year. As someone who plays flight/space sims, currently Elite: Dangerous, the ability to look around in game adds an incredible amount of extra depth and immersion.

    Also, on a side bar, as you really like sandbox games, Keen, have you looked into Elite: Dangerous at all? You can be a pirate, trader, and anything in between as you explore the universe. Outside of being a flight sim, it seems right up your alley!

  • Valve stop screwing around and get us Half life 3 and release the damn steambox software out of beta so I can build my media pc in my lounge streaming games from my PC!