NEW RULES OF THE GAME

This feature of mine appeared in the Herald's Time Out gaming special yesterday but didn't appear on the website, so I've republished it here...

NEW RULES OF THE GAME...

If video gamers have stereotypically been seen as geeky, solitary figures, more engaged in virtual fantasies than the real world, the time for an image overhaul has arrived.

New forms of gaming, incorporating social networking, user-generated content and with the internet at their core are arriving on the scene as the video game titans push their next generation gaming machines.

The new PS3, the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii are all custom built for internet gaming but do much more than that – video conferencing, instant messaging, e-commerce and networking that could bring casual gamers online in numbers for the first time.

In the case of Sony, which launched its $1200 PS3 console here last week, adapting hit tittles like Buzz, Guitar Hero and SingStar for online gaming will be a priority.

You might compete in online quizzes using the Buzz consoles that come with the popular general knowledge quiz game. Or compete online in SingStar Idol against wannabe pop stars all over the world.

“It could be better than American Idol,” suggests Sony’s local Playstation boss, Warwick Light.

“Our online community is going to evolve pretty rapidly.”

If beaming liver versions of karaoke favourites around the world isn’t your idea of good gaming, don’t worry. User generated content, by necessity, is infiltrating all styles and genres of games, encompassing casual gamers through to the hardcore.

That’s because building high definition games with cutting edge graphics, complicated animation and game physics, is an expensive business – the big titles can cost $20 million or more to produce and selling at $100 a pop, the risk of losing your studio going under if your big game isn’t a hit, is very real. That’s why venture capitalists salivate when developers pitch game concepts described as the “Youtube of gaming” – it means they’re cheap to make.

THE USER GENERATION

Video games have increasingly given users opportunities to create their own content in games, whether that be personalizing a players face and body in the best-selling soccer franchise FIFA, or editing a video of your performance in the classic Playstation game Gran Turismo.

But game developers, inspired by the explosion in “web 2.0” services like Myspace, Flickr and Youtube, and driven by the ambitions of owners that straddle media and technology, are upping their game when it comes to user generated content.

The new Sony “Home” PS3 online network will act as a sort of 3D Myspace, consisting of public and private rooms where users can share content, download games, navigating the environment as characters that can interact with others.

SOCIALLY AWARE

You need only visit the world of Second Life to see where social networking has collided with gaming. All you require to join in is an internet connection, a small piece of software and your own Second Life avatar, or online personality. Four million people have already registered as Second Lifers and some of them are making a living trading virtual property for Linden dollars, which can be exchanged for real cash.

The Second Life community has exploded in size in just a few months, with real businesses setting up premises online and bands holding virtual concerts. There was even a virtual riot when the right-wing National Front set up an office in a Second Life neighbourhood. A teen version of Second Life designed to have more parental oversight has also been developed.

Just as ambitious in scale is Spore, the upcoming Electronic Arts title from Will Wright, the gaming guru who brought up Sim City and The Sims. Wright’s new creation simulates evolution from the existence of a single cell through to numerous interacting communities of creatures. A long time in development, Spore will ultimately be based on computer servers around the world, where members of this massive virtual world will meet to trade, colonise the universe and wage war on each other.

MULTIPLAY

While these open form social networking games are gathering momentum, large online communities of gamers are nothing new. World of Warcraft is the most successful multiplayer game in the world with 8.5 million members participating in a massive fantasy landscape. It’s the best example of what’s known in gaming circles as a MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role-playing game). Others include Everquest and Ultima Online.

The quirky sci-fi role-player Half Life, took on a second life itself when developers adapted it for the online community, releasing it as Counterstrike. It still has a huge following among PC gamers, who have traditionally been kept separate from the communities of gamers using video game consoles to enter multiplayer tournaments.

That changes this month with Microsoft’s move to open Xbox Live to PC gamers running Microsoft’s new Windows Vista operating system. PC gamers can take up Xbox Live subscriptions and join in on games previously reserved for Xbox owners. It promises to be a clash of gaming cultures – the hardcore PC gamers meeting the more mainstream but equally passionate video gamers.

VIRTUALLY REAL

Both of those communities, which are typically made up of males aged 18 – 34, are still the prime target of the games industry which makes the bulk of its revenue from mass market blockbusters like current best sellers, Gears of War (Xbox 360) and Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3). The real-time graphics rendering power of the processors built into the Xbox 360 and PS3 allows for ever more lifelike game play. The fancy video cutaways that used to prop up less than impressive titles now resembles the standard game play everyone is used to on next generation titles.

While the developers crunch mathematical algorithms to make games more lifelike, there’s also been a revival in arcade gaming, driven by the move to online game communities. The major games makers such as EA and Microsoft sell arcade games over the internet and through the Xbox Live Marketplace, while the Playstation Network features arcade games that can be downloaded for as little as $3. Tetris and Pac Man, which kicked off gaming culture over twenty years ago, are inspiring a new wave of simple, fun games that can be delivered directly to gamers via the internet.

A WII BIT LESS

You didn’t see teenagers test driving Nintendo’s Wii game console in electronics stores in the run up to Christmas. That’s because the Wii controller, which is so integral to how new Nintendo games are played, can be a dangerous weapon in the hands of overzealous novices. There have been many reports out of the US of Wii players accidentally throwing the controller at their TV screens or other players as they simulate a tennis stroke in Wii Sports or a sword swipe in Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Still, the Wii-mote, as it has been dubbed, has proven to be a hit for Nintendo which chose not to compete head to head with Sony and Microsoft with its next-gen console, but play a different game with a cheaper device. The Wii $(499) doesn’t aspire to be a multimedia hub for the lounge, focused squarely on gaming. It too is internet ready and Nintendo plans to tap into the same type of online communities its two rivals are developing. Nintendo flourished through the nineties with titles like Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog and has produced some surprise hits on its handheld Nintendo DS console, which can communicate wirelessly with the Wii.

The approach has so far been successful for Nintendo. The Wii sold well in the Christmas sales season. If anything, the tiny console symbolise the changing face of gaming, where development no longer has to follow Moore’s Law of bigger, better, faster, just to be successful.

THE GAMES WE PLAY

Here's a link to my review of the PS3 which is still sitting in my lounge and is indeed growing on me (even though it won't display an image on my main TV and has to be plugged into my computer monitor). I think the glitch is to do with my AOC flatscreen TV rather than the PS3 itself.

I think the PS3 deserves to have a great future, but at the price point it has entered the market ($1199), it's out of the league of the average kiwi. People point out that the PS2 also debuted over the $1000 mark, but dropped quickly in price. That is true, but the PS3 includes a number of things that make it expensive to produce - the Cell processor and the Blu-ray drive to name just two components. It's unlikely that the price drop will be as rapid, but I can still see Sony matching the price of the combined Xbox 360 and HD-DVD drive purchase price of $969.

The debut of the Xbox Elite, a sort of premium version of the Xbox 360 featuring a HDMI connection brings the Xbox up to he standard it should have been launched at, but again excludes an HD-DVD drive. This is the surest sign that Microsoft is less than confident of success with this high definition technology.

My review here of the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive (which I gave four stars, despite it looking fairly unattractive.)

THE XBOX MOVIE FIX

by Peter Griffin

There’s Sony’s black box which plays Blu-ray discs, Nintendo’s pint-sized Wii which doesn’t play DVDs at all, and then there’s Microsoft’s high definition plug-in.

When the software giant was preparing its Xbox 360 console for launch back in 2005, it made a serious call – not to include a high definition disc drive as a standard feature. The drives weren’t available in reliable supply back then and would have boosted the cost of the Xbox 360 by several hundred dollars.

Instead, Microsoft decided to build a separate drive which Xbox owners could buy as an accessory and it’s that drive which has just gone on sale here.

In terms of aesthetics, the HD-DVD drive doesn’t do much for me – it’s bulky, need sits own power pack and makes for a lopsided partner to the Xbox 360.

But the drive is actually quite good at what it does – play high definition DVDs. It connects to the Xbox 360 via a USB cable, employs the Xbox menu which you’re already used to and comes with a decent multimedia remote control. Set-up is easy. The included DVD configures the Xbox for the new drive. The opening credits for King Kong were appearing barely five minutes after I plugged the drive in. And what a sight Peter Jackson’s epic gorilla flick is in high definition. I compared it directly with the standard DVD version and the picture appears crisper, Jackson’s admittedly computer generated world look more lifelike. HD-DVD allows some useful new DVD menu features you won’t have seen yet. Picture in picture lets you watch additional documentaries or out-takes while the movie is playing and you can choose a new chapter from within the movie. Real movie buffs can bookmark there favourite scenes for replay.

The one major technical downside of the Xbox add-on is its lack of a HDMI connection slot. These are built into the latest flat-screen TVs and allow you to send a digital, high-definition signal from media players directly to the TV set. The absence of HDMI, means many people won’t have TVs that can support the true high definition quality the Xbox 360 drive supports – the so-called “1080p” video mode. That’s a big disappointment, but the next quality level down, 1080i, which my TV accepts, is still miles better than regular DVD quality.

Sony’s PS3 makes for a tidier living room and, for many, a smoother transition to true high definition, but there’s an advantage for consumers in Microsoft keeping the drive out of the Xbox. It’s still unclear how the high definition format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray will pan out and as an optional add-on, the drive doesn’t force you down any particular fork in the road just yet. For those who want to jump in now, it makes for an affordable way into the HD realm.

Price: $249

Herald rating: ****

TRADEME BANS EARLY PS3 SALES

My Herald on Sunday column looks at Trademe's ban of PS3 sales ahed of the official launch date of the machines...

One of the great things about globalisation is that when it comes to buying gadgets, we’re not at the mercy of retailers to the extent that we used to be.

That means you can often buy a gadget online through an overseas merchant before it’s even released in stores here. In many cases, you’ll pay less for it even when shipping and tax is taken into account, such is the mark-up our retailers have traditionally put on electronics.

Buying from overseas vendors is always something you should approach with caution, as the product may not work here as it does in the country it was originally sold in. But that same force of globalisation is driving electronics makers to standardise their products across the world to lower production and sales and marketing costs. The result is that most major new products work the same way worldwide.

The iPod is a good example – it’s the same everywhere you go – only the plug adapter and the language the manual is written in change between territories.

Similar can be said for the video gaming industry’s new big ticket item, the Sony Playstation 3, which goes on sale here in March for $1299. New games for the console are not zoned, a policy Sony kicked off with its PSP handheld device. You can play new games on the PS3 no matter where they were bought, though you may need a TV that’s PAL and NTSC compatible to play titles bought in the US and old PS1 and PS2 games won’t work on PS3 machines bought overseas. Zoning for new high definition Blu-ray discs which the PS3 play is simpler than for DVDs. Instead of sharing region 4 with Australia, we are now in region B with Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Australia. A universal power adapter also allows your PS3 to be plugged into the mains anywhere you are.

With this type of standardisation, it’s no wonder people are more comfortable buying overseas before local launch date. But don’t plan on bringing in a bunch of PS3 consoles to on-sell on Trademe – the country’s largest auction website has banned sales of PS3 before the March launch date.

“Previous experience with release of similar items has resulted in increased fraudulent auctions for them,” Dean Winter, Trademe’s trust and safety manager told me.

“The fraudsters tend to use them because they are both desirable and unavailable meaning less cautious buyers and a quicker alleged sale.”

Trademe prohibits what’s called “drop-shipping” – auctioning a product before you’ve received it or even paid for it.

With the PS3 such a highly anticipated item, there’s a good chance some opportunists might order PS3s from merchants in Asia, then advertise and sell the machines on Trademe at inflated prices before the shipment has even arrived here. That’s pretty dodgy and Trademe is right to protect its customers.

But there’s another group of Trademe users who may have already imported the PS3, can prove they have it in their possession and want to make a profit selling it on to someone who wants it more than them. I see no problem with that. If Trademe is happy to let people sell concert tickets at inflated prices, I can’t see why electronics should be any different. It’s the free market in action.

As Herald reader Mark Rowley asked: “Surely if a person legally purchases a PS3 while overseas and then decides to sell it on return to NZ, how can any person or company, legally prevent them from doing so? There is no illegality or breach of intellectual property right, or copyright involved.”

There are brand new PS3 consoles, which the owners say they will ship worldwide, available on eBay’s US website for US$800 - $US900 plus freight so PS3 fans can still pick up a machine early from eBay and other sources. Auckland Retailer Parallel Imported has also been bringing PS3s in, though when I enquired last week they only had one left – at an obscene $2300.

Winter points out that eBay Europe is also banning PS3 sales before the official launch there, also scheduled for March and says there’s been no pressure exerted by Sony to restrict Trademe PS3 sales.

But with auction sites listing more new goods than ever, a thorny policy issue is likely to emerge here, as more people buy products overseas with the aim of selling the products back home before the official release date. Will the Trademe ban extend to other yet to be released goods? I hope not. If you bought it fair and square and have it in your possession you should be able to auction it. But can you live with yourself extracting huge profits in the process? That’s another question entirely…