This weeks gaming podcast brings us some recent news articles while also focusing the history and flashbacks on play-by-mail games. We’re looking at Diplomacy and discussing this weeks comments. The week in news includes:
- Analyst predicts Nintendo “DS2” will be out in 2011
- Beatles Rock Band lack luster sales
- Nintendo Wii finally gets Netflix
- ESRB Rating Awareness
- Games Fueling Social Change
Don’s with us in studio this week and goes on a tear about iPhone Monopoly, requiring many censor beeps. We’re asking a new question of the week: ESRB – What is your ratio to TV/Movies for electronic entertainment?
The same company that brought us the NES Advantage has proven the Wii control scheme isn’t as bad as critics speculated. The beauty of adding the “waggle” technology is limiting your button count to a reasonable level without overwhelming gamers.
Sony took pieces of this concept in their PS3 controller and its ability to detect “tilt.” Xbox 360 stuck with the beefy controller with lots of buttons and analog sticks. Not just a D-Pad but two analog sticks and a ton of buttons to press, some pressure sensitive as well. What of our next-generation console? Maybe a few new buttons?
The Follow Ratio (%) is calculated on a weekly basis relative to each other:
Gaming: 64.93506
AUSTAR (paid TV): 12.98701
Movies: 10.38961
Web Browsing: 7.792208
Listening to EDD/TDG Podcast: 3.896104
XD
The Follow Ratio (%) is calculated on a weekly basis relative to each other:
Gaming: 64.93506
AUSTAR (paid TV): 12.98701
Movies: 10.38961
Web Browsing: 7.792208
Listening to EDD/TDG Podcast: 3.896104
XD
@Diplomacy: belive it or not, there are board games like that that are still being produced/sold even today. I just can’t remember the name of the game that’s being sold in Romania …
— edited —
Ok, you mentioned that the game is still being produced.
@ Nintendo “DS2?: Jennifer has a strong point, being first to market counts a lot. Everything that follows is “like that other one”.
Another way to force sales is to cut support for the older products.
@Beatles Rock Band: lemme guess, nobody wanted to be Paul McCartney? Who would have thought that today’s teenagers will not want to play “Hey Jude” and they love to play instead “Sad but True” from Metallica?
@ESRB: 1201 is small, considering how huge the gaming market is, US alone, nevermind the rest of the world.
And if parents are so carefull with ERSB ratings, then why all this fuss about games ruining our kids?
@Games and social change: you mentioned a lot Zynga Games. Well, I wouldn’t trust them:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.154897
Computers making it more comfortable for people to network, that, that is what fuels the social changes.
Don, I LOVED your rant. Keep it comming 🙂
@Question of the week: In terms of spare time, I spend most of it gaming rather than watching TV, so I guess I’m more towards Don’s ratio.
@Diplomacy: belive it or not, there are board games like that that are still being produced/sold even today. I just can’t remember the name of the game that’s being sold in Romania …
— edited —
Ok, you mentioned that the game is still being produced.
@ Nintendo “DS2?: Jennifer has a strong point, being first to market counts a lot. Everything that follows is “like that other one”.
Another way to force sales is to cut support for the older products.
@Beatles Rock Band: lemme guess, nobody wanted to be Paul McCartney? Who would have thought that today’s teenagers will not want to play “Hey Jude” and they love to play instead “Sad but True” from Metallica?
@ESRB: 1201 is small, considering how huge the gaming market is, US alone, nevermind the rest of the world.
And if parents are so carefull with ERSB ratings, then why all this fuss about games ruining our kids?
@Games and social change: you mentioned a lot Zynga Games. Well, I wouldn’t trust them:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.154897
Computers making it more comfortable for people to network, that, that is what fuels the social changes.
Don, I LOVED your rant. Keep it comming 🙂
@Question of the week: In terms of spare time, I spend most of it gaming rather than watching TV, so I guess I’m more towards Don’s ratio.
Most
out-takes
EVER!
Don – I used to wonder what happened to the soap-box segment, I think you jut brought it back in style!
QotW – Spare time is WoW orientated, with tv on in the background. If I’m setting up for a night of raiding I tend to leave it on either a music channel or Comedy Central.
When I’ve got friends round, its Rock Band or Buzz. Not even the Wii comes out for that these days.
Most
out-takes
EVER!
Don – I used to wonder what happened to the soap-box segment, I think you jut brought it back in style!
QotW – Spare time is WoW orientated, with tv on in the background. If I’m setting up for a night of raiding I tend to leave it on either a music channel or Comedy Central.
When I’ve got friends round, its Rock Band or Buzz. Not even the Wii comes out for that these days.
Beatles Rock Band – I can’t say I’m surprised that it sold less than Rock Band 2. While Rock Band 2 had songs from dozens of different artists, this one focuses on one band only, limiting the target audience to people that like the Beatles. I think it would be more fair to compare it to games like Guitar Hero Metallica or Guitar Hero Aerosmith.
In regards to the whole “parents knowing the ratings of games” thing, I think it would greatly help parents if the ratings for games and movies were the same, (As in- G, PG, PG-13 and R). Australia does this and it makes things a lot simpler and easier to understand.
For the Question of the Week – I’d estimate:
Movies/Tv=45%
Games=40%
Web Browsing= 10%
Listening to Podcasts= 5%
By the way, in case you guys didn’t find out, apparently EA is sticking with Tiger Woods for their golf games. Source: http://au.gamespot.com/news/6246753.html?tag=latestheadlines;title;1
P.S. That was some nice censoring there during Don’s rant… Stay classy, Don! 😛
Beatles Rock Band – I can’t say I’m surprised that it sold less than Rock Band 2. While Rock Band 2 had songs from dozens of different artists, this one focuses on one band only, limiting the target audience to people that like the Beatles. I think it would be more fair to compare it to games like Guitar Hero Metallica or Guitar Hero Aerosmith.
In regards to the whole “parents knowing the ratings of games” thing, I think it would greatly help parents if the ratings for games and movies were the same, (As in- G, PG, PG-13 and R). Australia does this and it makes things a lot simpler and easier to understand.
For the Question of the Week – I’d estimate:
Movies/Tv=45%
Games=40%
Web Browsing= 10%
Listening to Podcasts= 5%
By the way, in case you guys didn’t find out, apparently EA is sticking with Tiger Woods for their golf games. Source: http://au.gamespot.com/news/6246753.html?tag=latestheadlines;title;1
P.S. That was some nice censoring there during Don’s rant… Stay classy, Don! 😛
I think I looked at Beatles: Rock Band differently from most people (surprise surprise), particularly the fact that it’s the FIRST of the whole “imaginary instrument” genre to catch my attention. See, my music tastes have always been weird (again, another surprise I’m sure), so 80% of the songs on other music-based games, I’ve either never heard before or have heard and just don’t care for, depending.
My point is, I think of Beatles Rock Band as a way for them to grab those who, like me, didn’t jump at the chance to be Aerosmith, or Metallica, or the random bands of the other titles.
I can’t imagine anyone having an interest in all of the other titles AND the Beatles one. And it would be foolish of the marketing people to expect that. Just like it would be stupid to think that everyone wants to pretend to scratch a record like DJ Jazzy Jeff.
(Oh, and… I’ve played Diplomacy. But not by mail, e-mail, carrier pidgeon, etc. Just as a board game, in the same room as other people. And I have to say, it’s a kinda dull game live and in person, so I can’t imagine what a correspondence barrier does for it…)
I think I looked at Beatles: Rock Band differently from most people (surprise surprise), particularly the fact that it’s the FIRST of the whole “imaginary instrument” genre to catch my attention. See, my music tastes have always been weird (again, another surprise I’m sure), so 80% of the songs on other music-based games, I’ve either never heard before or have heard and just don’t care for, depending.
My point is, I think of Beatles Rock Band as a way for them to grab those who, like me, didn’t jump at the chance to be Aerosmith, or Metallica, or the random bands of the other titles.
I can’t imagine anyone having an interest in all of the other titles AND the Beatles one. And it would be foolish of the marketing people to expect that. Just like it would be stupid to think that everyone wants to pretend to scratch a record like DJ Jazzy Jeff.
(Oh, and… I’ve played Diplomacy. But not by mail, e-mail, carrier pidgeon, etc. Just as a board game, in the same room as other people. And I have to say, it’s a kinda dull game live and in person, so I can’t imagine what a correspondence barrier does for it…)
With regards to The Beatles, I’m not a fan of them. Sure some of the songs are etched into my head over years of torture being forced to listen to father’s radio selection in the car as a kid, but I truely believe that on the whole, they were tone deaf!
I suppose some of todays technology can improve the standards of the recording, and artificially improve the pitch and tone, but still, I think they’re awful.
Having said that, at least 2 of my friends bought Rock Band and instruments specifically for The Beatles edition. They were wise enough not to get the special edition controllers though, and I allowed them the chance to wow me with the game.
I thought that I would end up having to stave my own face in listening to the songs, but that wasn’t an issue in the end. Compared to regular GH / RB games, I found that the colours were far too pastelled for my eyes to take more than 10 minutes. Combine that with the nasty oufits symbolic to the band, an I am happy I decided not to even rent the game out of curiousity.
With regards to The Beatles, I’m not a fan of them. Sure some of the songs are etched into my head over years of torture being forced to listen to father’s radio selection in the car as a kid, but I truely believe that on the whole, they were tone deaf!
I suppose some of todays technology can improve the standards of the recording, and artificially improve the pitch and tone, but still, I think they’re awful.
Having said that, at least 2 of my friends bought Rock Band and instruments specifically for The Beatles edition. They were wise enough not to get the special edition controllers though, and I allowed them the chance to wow me with the game.
I thought that I would end up having to stave my own face in listening to the songs, but that wasn’t an issue in the end. Compared to regular GH / RB games, I found that the colours were far too pastelled for my eyes to take more than 10 minutes. Combine that with the nasty oufits symbolic to the band, an I am happy I decided not to even rent the game out of curiousity.
Yes us brits are weird, you can get a magazine for pretty much anything you can imagine. For play-by-post, I wouldn’t mind giving it a go, I mean try everything once right? The problem is most of the people I know would probably take 4 days to decide their next move.
ratio of gaming to TV, probably 98% gaming, on the TV the only shows I really watch are documentaries about living on the moon, and the dying genre of the game review shows :'(. Other than that I only really use my PC for digital entertainment, not that I want to sound overly-sad, cos I do do other things…
REALLY!
pop.
Yes us brits are weird, you can get a magazine for pretty much anything you can imagine. For play-by-post, I wouldn’t mind giving it a go, I mean try everything once right? The problem is most of the people I know would probably take 4 days to decide their next move.
ratio of gaming to TV, probably 98% gaming, on the TV the only shows I really watch are documentaries about living on the moon, and the dying genre of the game review shows :'(. Other than that I only really use my PC for digital entertainment, not that I want to sound overly-sad, cos I do do other things…
REALLY!
pop.