Monthly Archives: July 2013

Here’s what I learned from CheckPoint S3E4.

I’m a little late with this post, as I’ve been busy trying to relearn everything I forgot about Linux server administration.

  • Graham and Kathleen are rightfully smug for the US-in-general forgetting Canada Day. Now, moving on…
  • Square Enix continues its string of out-of-touch decisions by deciding that, instead of developing a Final Fantasy VII remake with modern 3D technologies, its time would be better spent by making Cloud’s SOLDIER uniform a pre-order bonus for Lighting Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. But Graham has a point, nostalgia can make up for a lot of sales.
  • MSFT announced an algorithm for match-making that takes into account the ratings and reviews that other players leave about you using the Xbox Live match-making system. The more negative ratings you receive, the more likely you are to be paired up with players with negative ratings like yours. It sounds like a decent way to split up griefing and trolling users from those wanting to just play the game and do so without feeling the need to use racial slurs and so on. Graham’s remarks are right on; if the system works as intended, perhaps there’ll be a bit more self-reflection among the Xbox Live players.
  • Dwarf Fortress hitting version 1.0 in 2033? Half-Life 3 confirmed.
  • Ars Technica comes up with some great information about the prices of console systems at release versus prices adjusted for inflation. While the Xbox One’s launch price is roughly half a gas tank more expensive than the Xbox 360’s launch price adjusted for inflation, it’s important to note that it’s still a difference of half a gas tank. I don’t really consider myself a social being that drives errywhere all the time, but that’s still something to think about.
  • Douche AsstrickDon Mattrick left MSFT and joined Zynga. Going from being the boss of the division that believed that the Xbox 360 was the offline version of the Xbox One to being the boss of a company that preys on consumers’ wallets with pay-to-win games that are borderline addictive. But oh wait, that was Xbox news. And Kathleen got a Dwarf Fortress joke in that needles the Xbox brand again! HEYOOOOO
  • The way to get a game that glorifies drugs classified in Australia: find/replace drugs to vitamins.

A prelude to a few investigations.

The larger idea that prompted the above tweet is the following: is the viewership to players ratio for any given game a factor in esports marketing ventures?

I’d like to take a look at the numbers game, so to speak, behind esports events and broadcasts. What is coveted ‘critical mass’ behind the explosive growth and inevitable decline of a game’s viewership?

I want to try to understand this particular train of thought because I’m not sure there are many marketing perspectives from the video game industry’s side of esports. Perhaps that’s why Valve hid Dota 2 behind the beta invite wall for so long? Maybe that’s why Activision could throw a million dollars at Call of Duty one year and not do the same the next year? What gave Blizzard the idea that its much smaller scene could support the reformation of its World Championship Series events against its competitor’s League Championship Series? Why did Shootmania never ascend to replace Quake?

As with anything esports-related, the scope of the initial questions that has prompted me to look into things as simple as numbers has outgrown its initial goals over time. Of course, this also means taking the time to actually sit down and watch these events, something that I really haven’t done lately. Which series of events for each game should I start with? This is the crazy question I’ll have to answer first, really.

Maybe it’ll get me excited about esports again.

We’ll see.

[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Which game do I try to figure out first?’ type=’select’ required=’1′ options=’CS:GO,Dota 2,League of Legends,Other,Shootmania,StarCraft 2′][/contact-form]

Here’s what I learned from CheckPoint S3E3.

  • Graham’s delayed enjoyment of Halo 4 is a lot like mine. I didn’t pick the game up at launch and decided to wait until the game came out on the download store thing, whatever it’s called. this was a good call, because it seems that the copy only came with the campaign and the multiplayer bits had to be downloaded. I’m also enjoying the Infinity missions co-op campaign.
  • Kathleen makes the obvious point about the Aussies rejecting games from classification to stop them from being sold in their country, but this makes me wonder how morals fit into the typical Aussie view. Maybe I’ll do some looking into this.
  • Molyjam is dumb. It might have some cool indies developed in the competition, but it’s still dumb.
  • Routine is basically Doom 3 on steroids, as far as I can tell. It’ll doubtlessly fare better than Doom 3, but with the bells and whistles they’re adding on, you’d think that the horror genre would develop specifically for elements like Oculus Rift support or force-feedback controllers.
  • BamFu is the tablet/smartphone gimmick game that I swear has already been done before, but is getting the polish and refinement that warrants marketing attention. Therefore, CheckPoint covers it as well. Odd.
  • Some actual news: free-to-play games will be exempt from PlayStation Plus fees on the PS4, while Xbox One owners must have the Xbox Gold subscription. Therefore, free-to-play will actually not be free-to-play on the Xbox. Pretty lame, but considering anyone who owns games with DLC has to pay the Gold fee for access to them in the first place, it’s probably a non-starter for more arguments against the Xbox One.
  • No Xbox news for next week? Oh man. I might pay for that.
  • The Kinect mic is bad and the Xbox One’s Kinect mic can’t replace a headset, as MSFT claims. I hope my headset will continue to work with the Xbox One I’ll probably end up pre-ordering.