Starting this Friday at 10 a.m. PST (or 10 p.m. JST) Black Ops will be having an all Nuketown weekend with double XP. For me, this is really nice because I have just gotten into CoD: Black Ops (I'm more of a Battlefield: BC 2 guy). Since I almost have my first prestige, I am hoping that I can complete another prestige during the double XP weekend. I also love the Nuketown map.

I love the feel of Nuketown. It feels a lot like walking through the neighborhood in Edward Scissorhands. The whole map is reminiscent of 50's/60's Americana. The pastel colors of the map. The clothes on the dummys. Even, the housing development sign outside of the houses looks like it fell from a scene from Mar's Attacks.

Another guy mentioned earlier that he hated Nuketown because of spawn camps, constant explosions, and some other gripes I forgot. But, those are the reasons I love that map. It is like playing old school Quake. I love throwing random grenades and hitting stuff. I like pasting the map with Nova Gas. And, depending on the balancing of the teams, the tug and pull of the B flag in domination is deadly fun.

Here is hoping that I can spend a ton of time playing Nuketown this weekend.

Gamasutra reported a few weeks ago that Nintendo had filed a patent for an idea they call 'Massively Single-Playing Online Game.' The patent, which was filed in early 2010, lays out an idea for this 'Massively Single-Playing Online Game,' which turns out to be an amalgamation of a few different ideas. Nintendo seems to have taken the ideas for this MSPOG (I like to say M-S Pog) from its own Animal Crossing game but it also seems to have cribbed some ideas from other well made single player franchises.

The Gamasutra article got it's information from a Gamespot article. The Gamespot article lays out in more detail the specifics of what a MSPOG would look like. The Gamespot article starts by describing the merging of single player and multiplayer games into the same world.

“a single-player game in which the player's actions impact the characters and environment of other players enjoying the same single-player game.”

Animal Crossing has for years allowed players to copy their towns information to a memory card to be left with friends who will inevitably write the most foul mail, create t-shirts with numerous kinds appendages and orifices, or just sell every piece of furniture in town, only the send the money to themselves in an e-mail...the wounds are still fresh! No more!

We can see this kind of gameplay tweaked for better or worse; Demon's Souls and Fable 2 & 3. I think this kind of gameplay has been around for some time, it seems like Nintendo is the only company that wants to market it as a singular idea.

Nintendo also wants to get into the business of online economies. We have seen how these types of supply and demand economies are becoming commonplace in MMORPGs like Eve Online.

“a game with an economy affected by player demand for (and scarcity of) items. The company pointed to a purse in a fashion-centric game as one implementation of that, or perhaps oil in a global commodities trading game.”

As games move more towards being completely microtransaction funded, we are going to see developers try to get more out of their games. We only have to look at Valve, who, after making so much money off of hats and shirts, decided to make Team Fortress 2 free-to-play. Microtransactions are here to stay and they will just become a bigger part of the industry. Nintendo is just late to the party, and right now, they still have one foot out the door.

Nintendo seems to have heard about this whole Minecraft thing too.

Halloween Update“Another example given had one player spotting a pile of building materials in a virtual world and making a house out of it. Since the world is the same, the next player to happen along finds not a heap of lumber and tools, but a finished house (with the builder nowhere to be seen).”

Now, don't misunderstand me, I know that Nintendo has been playing this game for a while since the original Animal Crossing on the N64. But, Minecraft is different. While Animal Crossing is concerned more with esthetics; fung shui, Minecraft is about raw infrastructure; building cities and buildings. Nintendo seems to have noticed this little downloadable game.

Nintendo seems to be pulling from the playbooks with one of the last possibilities that Gamespot reported on.

“Additionally, Nintendo's filing suggested that one player could gossip to a non-player character in the world, who would then pass it along to other players.”

While this looks like a version of the mail system from Animal Crossing, I think it is a shout out to Demon's Souls. But, in the end, it is a promise of communication, with which Nintendo doesn't have a stellar record.

But, the final idea Nintendo had in their filing, was the most confusing.

“The application also covers one tweak to make the gameworld more traditionally multiplayer. If players have "friended" one another, they would be able to see each other and interact in the same environment.”

Which seems to mean “we also have multiplayer!”

Nintendo still has a lot to prove in the online space. I am not sure if the members of the Nintendo family have the will to stand up and make it understood that if Nintendo doesn't get into the online space soon they will float into oblivion like Sega. With the big words coming from Nintendo at last years E3 it sounds like they understand that the stakes are high with this one. We will just have to wait and see what comes of this MSPOG idea.

Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online has a good mix of everything I like: LotR, games, RPGs, D&D, and the list goes on. I have been wanting to play and MMO for quite some time, but I have never really found one that really fit me. I have also never really wanted to purchase the game or pay a monthly fee. But, when LOTRO went free to play I decided that I didn't have any excuses anymore; I needed to discover this adventure.

I had a good time picking between the different races and classes for my character: a elvish, hunter and a dwarf, champion. I was able to get some basic information from the Turbine wiki page, this was especially beneficial to me because my only contact with an MMO was the 4 hours I played the DC Universe beta. So, the beginners guides provided on the wiki page were pretty helpful. It doesn't hurt to know some of the backstory to the characters; this is provided in game to a degree, but it is also good to have a foundation in the literature. This is the part of LOTRO that I really find enticing, the filling in of the broader history that created by the original author. The historical quality of this game and its source material is what keep the LotR universe so interesting even today.

I have been playing Borderlands lately and I think that I have finally succumbed to loot whoring. It is difficult to balance my desire to keep clicking and my need to stay filled in on the story of each mission. In Borderlands, it is much easier to take it easy because the controller just seems to be much more relaxing to use. I have never been much of a PC gamer. I have always had Macs, so PC games have never been that important to me. When I use my computer, I am always using the internet. I don't use the internet in a tactical way. I am constantly moving when I am on the internet. Playing LOTRO feels like I am navigating the internet. I am constantly moving and constantly clicking.

The game is really good looking. I don't even want to put in any caveats. I think that the game skates the divide between realism and animation quite well. The characters look pretty interesting and they feel like they could be real. I think that the LotR in my mind is less realistic than the Peter Jackson stuff, but more realistic than the old European animations. I am looking forward the seeing some of the later level content. I would like to see what Mordor looks like and I would like to get a chance to go to an Elvish city.

I have a lot of games to play and I would like to continue playing LOTRO. I am not going to push myself to stay with the game. Like I said before, I have no monetary investment in the game. I guess if there is another blog update soon then that will mean the game has had its hooks in me.

I have been catching up with NDX lately and I really do think that it is a great podcast. We don't have enough creative satire aimed at making fun of our industry. I have been following the games industry for about 15 years. When I think back to good satire I think of people like Seanbaby, who wrote many articles for EGM back in its heyday, but he also had a blog/website that he would routinely post his thoughts on. But, I haven't followed Seanbaby since the fall of EGM. We  need people to take his place and I think that recently there have been a few people who have taken up that mantle.

I must honestly say that The Gamespy Debriefings is the funniest videogame podcast that wem, as an industry, have right now. Scott Bromley, Brian Miggels, and Brian Altano are some of the funniest guys that I have heard on a game podcast. Ryan Scott, who has his own kind of mistaken humor. Arthur Gies, who I don't believe really brings much to anything he is on (I stopped listening to Rebel FM because I couldn't stand listening to him anymore).  Anthoney Gallegoes, who tends to keep the train moving towards the goal of actually talking about games. These guys, while not even working on the same site anymore, bring it together to make the best non-generic gaming podcast that we have.  
 
I really think that NDX is striving to move towards that same kind of humor, but, to be honest, I think that it falters on occasions. I think that a lot of thought went into that Cup Ramen episode. In that episode Jeff really sold the idea of the podcast, without needing to blatently shove it into our faces. The main goal of the show is to take a satirical look at the downloadable games market, especially on Nintendo's platforms, and construct a commentary on how atrocious the games are on those services. In that March 7th episode, Jeff played on the idea that because the games are so terrible people won't listen to his podcast. He wants us to think that if people won't listen that he won't have the money to eat. I really liked that he was plugging Nisson brand ramen in the background during the episode in a vain attempt to get sponsorship. But, there are times when NDX loses it's train of thought.
 
I am really excited about this kind of writing/podcasting and I think that it is really good for the industry as a whole. We, as the audience, tend to take ourselves and the podcasts and websites that we visit too seriously. We need to really take a look at the amount of absurdity that we consume and produce everyday and I think that these two podcasts are helping to keep us grounded. I just want these guys to know that there are people that understand and love what you are doing.

Sony has instituted a "Welcome Back" campaign to encourage some goodwill from the Sony faithful. With this "Welcome Back" campaign they will be giving away 2 free PS3 games and 2 free PSP games. So, if you own both systems you will be getting four free games. There will also be some movies "On Us," which will be free to view for PS3 members.

Those people living outside of the US will not have access to those movies I am sure. I live in Japan and I access the US store to buy games, but I don't have access to the movies store. I am sure that any people that are in the same boat as I am will not be able to access the "On Us" movies. But, しょうがfuckinない.

Now, since the release of the list of games some people have been bitching about the game lineup. I'm not sure what those people expected, but I wasn't expecting Sony to put out games that they aren't the licence holders to. I wasn't expecting them to put out any games that are too new, a la Killzone 3. I was expecting pretty much the games that are in the list that they made. Good games that Sony owns. But, people will bitch about anything.

The one thing that I don't agree with Sony on is their one month free PS+. I really think they should extend that to three months. One month for every week they were offline. The people who are not PS+ members will be pretty pissed off when they realize that the free games they will be getting on the service will not be accessable after their free month is over. I think that is a PR nightmare that is going to bit Sony in the ass.

As for me, I am going to get Infamous, and Super Stardust HD or Dead Nation. I already have LBP. On PSP, I will get Modnation (which is an awesome game that doesn't get enough love) and Killzone or LBP PSP.

I have fallen out of love with movies recently. I became aware of this the other day as I was watching a movie. I was watching 12 Rounds, a crappy action movie starring John Cena, when I realized that I kind of liked the movie. It had been a long time since I had watched a movie that was "crappy," but I also had so much fun watching. I used to love watching crappy action movies, but recently I have been playing so many games that I haven't made the time to watch movies. I also blame movie theaters. In Japan, going to the movie is a much more expensive affair than in the states.

I worked at Blockbuster Video for 3 years at the end of my high school career. I loved that job. I rode a register all day, I did some simple cleaning, and I got 5 free movies every week. During that time I watched way more than 5 movies a week. There were times where I would watch that many movies just in one day, maybe more. I loved putting the movies away because I could see what movies other people rented. Human beings are pretty reliable, most people would rent blockbuster movies. But sometimes people would rent a movie that was bad in every respect, and I loved looking at the box art and reading the back of the box. I found out about a lot of movies this way. Working as a cashier at Blockbuster Video was a pretty good time in my life. I developed my love for movies during those years.

I really miss going to the movie theater. I used to go see a movie with my Dad almost every week when I lived back in the states. The excitement of walking into a new movie that you aren't sure will be good or bad is just as prevalent now as it was when I was a child. I love sitting down before the previews start and talking with my father and brother. We would usually talk about the slides of local buisnesses, we might make fun of people in the audience, or just bullshit with each other. Going to the movie with my father is something that I miss a lot. He was always there for me in just the right way. If I was feeling depressed and didn't want to talk we would have some quite time with each other, but if I wanted to gab he would always listen. Going to the movie theater helped bring me closer to my dad.

I am going to make a concerted effort to get back to watching more movies. I have been going to the local rental store to pick up movies and this has gotten me back into touching movies and reading about their plots. I want to be able to get back to that old feeling I used to get after watching a movie. It is the same feeling I get once I finish a game or complete a book. It is a small feeling of accomplishment. Even if I haven't conquered the world or written the worlds greatest novel, at least I finished doing this small thing. I think that finishing things is very important and finishing a movie is much easier than finishing something else.

I have been living in Japan for three years now and I will start my fourth year in July. Giant Bomb has become a mainstay in my life and something that connects me to American culture. Watching the Happy Hour every Friday is one of the high lights of my week. It gives me something regular to come back to week in and week out that I know will be funny, interesting and something that I can watch at any time.

Usually I set aside some time on Saturday during the afternoon to watch the show. My Fridays are usually spent at the clubs in my town and I usually get home around 6 o'clock in the morning. Which means that right around the time that I wake up, the happy hour appears on the news feed. Being a foreigner in Japan can be hard sometimes, especially if you are not as technologically savvy as I am. I also have a subscription to Hulu, but Hulu doesn't really provide me with the same content that I get from Whiskey Media. I feel kind of bad because I don't have time to go to the other Whiskey Media websites. I love the tested.com guys. Sara is pretty hot and she knows a lot about comics. The guys from screened are pretty good and the stuff on Anime Vice has led me to some pretty good anime.

Watching Japanese TV isn't really my idea of a good time. In short bursts it can be really entertaining, but for more than an hour or so at a time it really isn't my cup of tea. I just wanted to have a little love in for the whole Whiskey Media crew. I just wanted to let them know that they really help me get through my week. (Partially because they are one of the few game sites that isn't blocked at my job.) It is good to have this site to keep me company when times are hard and I feel disconnected from America (Mariachi music helps too, but that is a whole different story).

Thanks Giant Bomb and thanks Whiskey Media.

I read the news story about the Sony PS3 hacker and the hacker group "Anonymous." I am comfortable with being inconvenienced if that means that consumers gain their voice again. Long ago a consumer who was dissatisfied with a product could have their voice heard, but now our e-mails are automatically replied and stuffed into the digital garbage can. This kid paid his money, cracked the firmware and got sued for it. I'm not going to do the same thing; I don't have the expertise. I know that everybody is upset because this will lead to pirate games, but I have a conscience that won't pirate games. He shouldn't have to trade his freedom for breaking a piece of hardware that he purchased. (Yes, I know all about a EULA.) Sony and the American legal system will take away his right and put him in jail. He will stay there until he is rehibilitated. Sony will have a cracked system that will continue to be cracked until the end of time.  

If everybody is so worried about piracy, then everything should just go server side, like Steam. The world isn't convenient and the more we act like our little bubbles are impenetrable the more we will be butthurt when they aren't. Leave the kid be! Let him do his little haXXor tricks! The vast majority of us who have a conscience, we can see the interesting parts of the story and scoff at the "impending Armageddon" that will be brought about by pirated games.

We have laws to keep us morally correct, but all of us break those laws at some time or another. Everybody has jaywalked, most people have tried marijuana, and a vast majority of you have looked at internet pornography before you were 18 years old. Laws are there to keep our consciences on a straight path. If we stray from that path we are not reprehensible people; we are humans.