Acid for Blood

Metroid Director Yoshio Sakamoto Profiled on MDb

Yoshio Sakamoto, Director of the the majority of Nintendo-developed Metroid games, will speak at the Game Developers Conference this year. Sakamoto also happens to be the Director of my favourite Metroid game, and the game that (if pressed) I might call my favourite game of all time: Super Metroid.

The Metroid Database has an extensive feature article about Yoshio Sakamoto:

Sakamoto has become a kind of enigmatic director at Nintendo to outsiders, being overshadowed by the work of Miyamoto and Miyamoto's apprentice, Eiji Aonuma (Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess). In some cases, Sakamoto's role has been overlooked or underemphasized and credited to Gumpei Yokoi, who served mainly as the producer or supervisor of Sakamoto's games rather than as a creative director. So Sakamoto is Nintendo's 'other' director, one of the most creative men in the company, yet also one of the least known, considering his body of work. As such, he has not been as widely sought out by the press, but his recent work with Other M is likely to change that, catapulting him into the spotlight.

The in-depth article details Sakamoto's many years of experience at Nintendo, design philosophies and approaches, and discusses the background of Super Metroid's development. It's a really interesting read, particularly since Sakamoto is not as high profile a creative director as other Nintendo luminaries.

[Read]

Convention Sexual Harassment and #EAFail

I haven't spoken up about the failness that is #EAfail, partly because I've been doing detective work, collecting many of the links you see in this post, keeping tabs on what's going on in the Twitter stream, and just gathering my thoughts on it after several days of perspective. 

If you haven't heard about it, this post gives a good overview of the Dante's Inferno "Sin to Win" contest, which EA Games ran at San Diego Comic-Con this year.

I think there are several interconnected issues at play here, and a broader context that many of the articles I've read about this incident that I feel people have not discussed enough, which I will cover towards the end of this post.

First is the misogynistic, sexist, and heteronormative bent of the contest itself. It appears targeted to males of a certain mindset (immature) and social aptitude/ability (incompetent) and/or Males Who Don't Give a Shit About Women. It presupposes that straight women and gay men are not interested in buying this game, therefore part of the prize EA and the Dante's Inferno development team offered up were just"two hot girls", no equivalent prize for straight women or gay men. This is setting aside the fact that awarding people as prizes is gross objectfication. I feel it's safe to assume they didn't consider that lesbian and bisexual women play games, either, because the language and imagery used by EA were quite sexist and disrespectful of women, in my opinion. The graphics for the contest, a woman's chest and cleavage, and the tattooed silhouettes of two women, on their hands and knees, with their asses in the air in a provocative position that presents themselves as sexually available and subservient was just gross.

Further, labeling women 'girls' is, to many women, sexist as well, because it infantilses them. A girl is a prepubescent human female. Do adult males get called 'boys' all the time? No, they're usually called 'guys'. But it's different for women. Women are taken a notch down, they're 'girls'—they aren't adults, they are children. "You throw like a girl!" is a common insult—just one tiny, tiny facet of society's partiarchal power structures in which men are raised up and women are devalued. I know many women who don't mind being called 'girls'. I'm cool with that. It's their choice. I don't look down upon them for it, because it is a woman's own personal choice in how she identifies. Personally, I won't rip your head off if you call me a girl, but it gets on my nerves because I haven't been a child for a very long time. In the specific context of this contest, however, the terminology, combined with all of the other sexist content, further stresses the disappointing lack of respect for women.

The second issue is treating women as objects (that men are entitled to). They were being given away as prizes. Booth workers/models/"babes" are there to do a job. Whether people approve of booth babes or not, they are human beings and deserve to be treated with the same respect and dignity afforded to any other human being. Dangling a couple of booth babes as prizes in this contest is not respectful in my opinion. I don't feel the need to elaborate further on this point, because it seems pretty obvious why this aspect of the competition was problematic.

Thirdly, there is the objectification of women. Just because EA or any other company hires attractive women to work at their booth does not mean the women are "asking" to be objectified or harassed. Supporters of this contest argued that "booth babes know what they are getting into" and that the possibility of being groped (in other words, assaulted) is "part of the job", which is a dumb argument. Why? Because employers have a responsibility to ensure their employees' safety. Sexual harassment or assault should never be "part of the job". To put this into a little perspective, so that people of the dude persuasion can perhaps understand better:

As to the guys saying "if your job is to look pretty and pose for pics in a bikini, you're asking to be harassed," well gee, your "package" is out on front of your body---I think you're asking for it to be smacked. I have the right to decide that, don't I? IMO, if you aren't wearing a cup, you're asking for it and it's fair game. If you don't like it, then either wear a cup, cut it off, or get used to it---because you've asked for it.

Both the above statements are ridiculous---but that's my point: assuming that a woman's clothing (or lack thereof) is an invitation to harass her makes just as much sense as a woman assuming a guy not covered by a cup is asking to be hit in the package with a 2x4. Since when does *she* have the right to assume you're asking for it, get into your personal space and flatten your package, based on her own ideas about how a man should properly hide his goodies?

These above two points—the fact that people objectify women, and the fact that women are being treated like objects—are different, but related. As Eleniel said, "Just because people objectify models doesn't mean models become objects when they do their job!"

Fourthly, there is the ignorance of convention fan culture on the part of EA, which fans  who have some awareness or critical thought know, is rife with misogyny—sexual harassment, incidents of stalking, assault, and just general badness towards women. Geek conventions can be a safe, accepting haven for many who have been derided or shunned because of their hobbies in other social environments, but geek fandom is a very male space, where women, unfortunately, get treated poorly with disturbing regularity. I'm going to elaborate on this point by discussing one of my own personal experiences with creepiness at an anime convention. Before I begin, I'd like to note that this incident happened when I was much younger; I would probably behave differently these days (hindsight is 20/20):

I was hanging out in the Video Game room, watching people play a fighting game, and I wasn’t really bothered to play it. This guy walked up and stood beside me to watch the others play the game, as one does. This fellow was a very large man, in terms of height, and in terms of girth. He had thick glasses, unkempt clothing, and dark, messy, curly hair—in short, a typical geek. However, he was standing so close to me that I felt a little on my guard.

Like many people at anime conventions, my badge name was different from my real name. In this case, my badge name was 'Samus Aran', because I like Metroid so much. He started the conversation with me by looking down at my badge—keep in mind he was already standing very close to me—and saying, "So you're a Metroid fan, huh?" We started talking about Metroid and fighting games. That was okay. He started talking about his online girlfriend in Taiwan, who he was going to visit very soon. That was fine, too. But then he started bragging about how he spent over £100 on anime porn at a previous convention. He kept going on and on about his girlfriend, their long distance relationship, and his porn collection. The fact that he discussed his porn collection and his girlfriend at the same time disturbed me and creeped me out, because he was just so keen on bragging about both. He wasn't talking about her like she was an actual person, but a trophy, another part of his collection. I also felt undertones of Asian fetishisation/exotification in the way he talked about his girlfriend, and this racial dynamic also made me uncomfortable, as someone who identifies as Asian.

At this point, I really wanted to leave, I didn't want to hear about his porn or his girlfriend anymore, and I was thinking of how to extract myself from the conversation without making a scene. Luckily I spotted a friend of mine, and excused myself.

In hindsight, I consider what happened to me to be sexual harassment. Uninvited, a total stranger launched into a discussion of a sexual nature completely out of the blue. This dude had no sense or understanding of social boundaries, and it made me feel very uncomfortable. I've experienced a few other incidents of general creepiness from men at conventions (and outside of conventions), and they were uncomfortable experiences as well.

My experiences were tame in comparison to what many women experience at fandom conventions. Sexual harassment, stalking, and even physical and sexual assault, are not recent problems at cons, either. The incident I described above happened to me nearly a decade ago.

I don't live in fear of going to cons. I've been going to and working at cons for a long time. If I didn't enjoy them, I wouldn't go. My good experiences of conventions outweighs these few negative experiences, so I hope people don't get the impression that I am against fandom or conventions. I'm against people getting hurt at conventions.

I have insight on this issue from another point of view. I've been on Otakon Staff for ten years* now. Otakon is the second largest anime convention in the United States. Every year, about 23 000 people attend. When you work behind the scenes in running a convention you know that there are incidents where convention staffers have to help out a member who is having problems with another member, and sometimes those incidents involve sexual harassment. That is reality. I won't get into details, but there are definitely a lot of disgusting and creepy people out there.

SDCC has continuing problems with sexual harassment. Last year, people called for a no-tolerance sexual harassment policy to be instituted. The convention administration has remained silent and not addressed the concerns of women and members who complained. I looked through the SDCC website and found no policies on sexual harassment or any type of behavioural policy**. The pleas of fans last year seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. This year, there were yet again incidents of sexual harassment at SDCC.

For EA to run a contest like this in complete ignorance of the problems that fan conventions have with stalking, sexual harassment, and other problem behaviours, was not a good move, in my opinion. Many men at fandom cons already have problems recognising social boundaries and the personal space of women who are fellow attendees, without any external prompting or encouragement. Contests like the Dante's Inferno "Sin to Win" promotion invites contestants to go beyond social boundaries by committing "acts of lust" with any booth babe. It puts not only EA employees workers at risk but also the employees of other companies. Furthermore, it leaves the door open for this type of inappropriate behaviour towards regular attendees, who may not have the same protection or power as those with exhibitor badges.  As the link round-up post concludes, "It encourages behaviour that makes cons unsafe for women."

EA's response? A not-real apology (saved here, in case they try to take it down again), the kind that blames you for being offended and "confused". It didn't actually address people's concerns.

While EA may learn from this, I wonder whether this even registered on the radar of SDCC convention staff.

* At the moment I'm not active because living on the West Coast makes travel to Baltimore to staff a con impractical.

** Full disclosure: Shortly, after reading the blog posts about what happened SDCC last year, as well as the ridiculousness of the Open Source Boob Project, and after the establishment of the Con Anti-Harassment Project, I proposed to other Otakon Staffers that Otakon institute a sexual harassment policy. Convention leadership felt that the very broad existing disruptive behaviour policy already included sexual harassment and was adequate for the con.

Ada Lovelace Day: Spotlight on Paulina Bozek

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, an international day to draw attention to women in technology, in which bloggers from around the world write about a woman in tech that they admire. Today, I'm going to write about Paulina Bozek, a fellow LSE alumna and the Executive Producer of one of my favourite videogames, SingStar.

Paulina Bozek is the award winning Executive Producer, and Game Director of the SingStar franchise of games, which was developed at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Studio London. Prior to her stint at Sony, Bozek had previously worked at Ubisoft and GameLoft. She later decided to pursue a Master's degree in Media and Communications in the media@LSE department at the London School of Economics and Political Science from 2001 - 2002. After graduating from the LSE she joined Sony in 2003, starting out as an Associate Producer. 

Bozek is cited as one of the key developers of the SingStar franchise, having guided the direction of conceptual technology towards the popular social music game we know today. About the early days in her role as a game designer on SingStar, she says:

"SingStar already existed as technology -- that is, the programmers were developing something with which players would interact by singing rather than pressing buttons. My role was to look at it as a possible product and ask questions like how will it play? Who is it for? The technology had already existed for a couple of years. It could have been used as a music tuition tool, but we wanted to develop something more intuitive that didn't require a manual -- just a pick up and play game that would be entertaining and fun."

A significant number of women were part of the development team for SingStar, which is a rarity in the games industry. Thinking about why this was the case, Bozek mused:

"It might have something to do with the nature of the game as it is not as male-focused as many games and women might see it as relevant to them, but lots of people are interested in working on it and women in the industry also play 'male' games."

The game was initially going to be targeted to women and girls, with the knowledge that it would appeal beyond the target. Bozek emphasised how important it was to keep the target market in mind in the development process:

Music is universal. The development team used music as a way of segmenting target audiences, i.e. through music genres. The key lessons Paulina has drawn from SingStar is that it is all about the user and their experience and that it is central to innovative game design to prioritise what brings most value to the experience.

SingStar was released on the PlayStation 2 to mainstream popular, as well as critical, acclaim in 2004. As of February 2009, the SingStar franchise has sold over 15 million units in the PAL region alone. SingStar has achieved a huge success in bringing gaming to traditionally non-gaming markets. Very few videogames get advertised in publications targeted to women, and SingStar is one of them. SingStar and its creative team won the 2004 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Originality in Video Games. Paulina Bozek also won the first ever BAFTA Interactive New Talent Award in 2004.

In 2008, Bozek was named one of the 'Top 35 Women Under 35' in Management Today. She was also listed as one of the members of the exclusive Courvoisier Future 500 List for 2008. After her success at Sony, she joined Atari in 2008 to develop games for a new internal games studio.

Media consumption is still gendered in many ways, and this is abundantly clear in the realm of videogames, where there seems to be a huge divide in terms of what is specifically targeted to women and girls, and what is targeted to males. Furthermore, games that are enjoyed by both sexes, such as World of Warcraft, are seen by mainstream, traditionally non-gaming audiences as targeted specifically to men and boys. Unfortunately, game developers and publishers continue to hold the assumption that the vast majority of their audience is male, and this assumption impacts development at every turn. They base these assumptions upon past sales demographics. However based upon current trends in games marketing and advertising, it seems that many aren't looking to future potential -- that their games could grow beyond current markets -- or they are averse to taking risks and spending money on promoting games to non-traditional markets.

94% of teenage girls aged 12 - 17 and 50% of women in the United States play videogames, so there is huge potential for growth in games, but it requires a lot of cultural and social change in the way non-gamers and gamers, alike view games and gaming. It requires companies to shift how they market and design games so that they are more inclusive to women and girls. The marketing for SingStar included demographic segments that are usually completely ignored by the games industry, such as women, teenage girls, and gay men. The marketing and box art for SingStar games typically includes at least one, if not multiple, women in active roles. Furthermore, the women that feature in SingStar marketing materials are generally not depicted in hyper-sexualised ways. All told, these marketing tactics send important signals to consumers that Sony has thought of them during the development process, that Sony has made it a point to include them, and that Sony wants them to play these games.

Designing games with inclusiveness in mind, where the design team operates with the key assumption that women and girls will comprise of at least half of their audience, has positive impacts. Bozek says that "Women can bring a different point of view" to game development, and that "the industry is looking for more women and wants to get more girls playing games to expand the market."

I admire Paulina Bozek because she played a pivotal role in developing a piece of voice technology from a product that could have been a niche educational toy into a cool, fun, competitive singing game that achieved mainstream and critical success. She and her team recognised that women and girls are an important part of their audience, and this is reflected in SingStar's marketing and advertising. In turn, their excellence, innovation, and hard work were rewarded and recognised by consumers.

[List of  Participating Blogs]

Nintendo Customer Service Centre

Today I visited the Nintendo Customer Service Centre in Redmond, Washington to have oliemoon's and her friend's DS Lites repaired (the right shoulder buttons stopped working). I took a few pictures with my phone. I apologise if they're a little blurry.

This is a shot of the counter towards the back of the shop:

There are two seating areas, marked by Pikachu and Mario. Mario is closer to the entrance:

You can buy Nintendo merchandise and accessories:

 
 

This is a display case filled with Nintendo products. At the top, you can see hanafuda playing cards, which is what Nintendo was originally formed to create way back in 1889:

I'm guessing this is a majong set, but I'm not really sure:

I think that's a ROB at the top:

The customer service person was pleasant enough and efficient. Instead of repairing the DSs, Nintendo just replaced them with new ones, with a brand new one year warranty on each.

Winter Holiday in Japan: Game, Toy, Anime Edition

I was in Japan for two weeks and I just returned last night. I didn't do much gaming there because I placed more importance on other activities. I did take a lot of pictures and bought a bunch of stuff, though.

This is one of many used goods shops (recycle shops) I visited. The majority of items in these shops are in good condition, even the games. Most of the games, especially for the past two generations, come with boxes and manuals in good condition. This particular shop sells used toys, ...:

Used/vintage games, ...:

As well as many other second-hand items, such as CDs, records, clothing, and random assorted sundries.

I spent some time wandering Akihabara in Tokyo, looking at/for toys and games. Akihabara is one of the major places to go in Tokyo if you are looking for anime, toys, and games (new and vintage). Here are a couple of pictures:

I also went to Shibuya, also in Tokyo. If you've played The World Ends With You, this sight may be familiar:

A Final Fantasy: Dissidia advert at the Shibuya train/metro station:

Konami, known for the Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania, and Silent Hill series of games, also runs a chain of gyms in Japan:

The following was taken in Den Den Town in Osaka. Den Den Town is a section of Osaka where many game, anime, and toy shops are located, kind of like what Akihabara is to Tokyo.

If you've played Mirror's Edge, the next few pictures may be of interest. The Mirror's Edge developers have stated that the nameless city in the game is not modeled after any one particular city, however during my travels in Japan, many urban spaces reminded me so much of the architecture within the game

One of the interesting things about the Japanese games market is how varied the player base is, and consequently the types of games released. This is particularly true for the DS, but the PSP is also marketed as a portable console for all gamers, including women. For example, I found marketing advertising targeted specifically to women, in which the PSP was presented as a friendly and stylish product. On the subway, there were many types of people playing portable consoles. I saw more women playing PSPs in Japan than I think would be the case in the West. Judging by what is played on the subway, the PSP is performing well in Japan. For the DS, you can find games for (left to right) training/exercising your face (it comes with a camera so you can see your face on the DS screen), selecting wines for all types of meals (there is also a bartending/mixed drinks DS game in the same series, both published by EA), and practicing your kanji brush strokes (complete with a 'brush' stylus!):

I'm a huge Studio Ghibli film fan, and one of the highlights of the trip was a visit to the Ghibli Museum:

This is a sampling of the goodies I came home with after the trip (there are other purchases I haven't shown such as my modest haul of J-music CDs and yet more Animal Crossing plushies). Click through to the Flickr page for notes about the picture:

The most expensive piece was a boxed, Limited Edition Mother 3 GameBoy Advance Micro:

I haven't played Mother or Earthbound, but my partner is a huge fan, and I have always wanted a GBA Micro, so it all works out. I just have to be extra super careful when I use the Micro.

So there you have it, a pictorial review of the gamer/anime/toy aspects of my holiday. All my pictures from my holiday in Japan are located here.

Comcast Cares About Twitterers

Something odd happened to me this week. Early one morning, my internet went down for a couple of hours. I tried resetting my modem to no avail. I was irritated because I'd have to take time out of my day to call Comcast and tell them to fix my internet. I posted a tweet on Twitter to vent my frustration:

brinstar: OMG. I have no internets at home. Comcast, you suck! I never had these problems with Verizon or AT&T DSL.

Later on, my internet access returned. However, I'd received an @reply to my tweet:

ComcastBill: @brinstar send me your account info i can help?

Holy crap! Comcast tweeted at me! I replied that I had my internet back, so there was no longer a problem:

brinstar: Internet started back up inexplicably. ~2 hrs of downtime. Inconvenient.

@ComcastBill insisted:

ComcastBill: @brinstar send me the account info.

Well, okay, since he insisted:

brinstar: Acct# is xxxxx. I am at work, so I cannot troubleshoot modem/connection.

He proceeded to conduct customer support with me via Twitter. I communicated with him through direct messages:

ComcastBill: @brinstar this is a splitter or modem issue which both require a tech. What's your availability?
brinstar: Whoa. That's some service! Oct 25-26 or Nov 1-2. Sat is ideal.
ComcastBill: @brinstar Saturday moring 8-12?
brinstar: Yup, that works. Sat Oct 25? Or Nov 1?
ComcastBill: @brinstar the 25th
brinstar: Will I get an email confirmation?
ComcastBill: @brinstar I already sent it to the market and they confirmed

And later, after it was all arranged, I tweeted:

brinstar: Mind has officially been blown. Tweeted abt internet probs this AM. Comcast did customer support w/ me thru TWITTER. Have tech appt Sat.

In an article I'd read just the day before this happened, on either Mashable or TechCrunch, Comcast had been mentioned amongst other companies who connect with their customers through Twitter and other social networks.

I did some research, and found a couple of articles about this Comcast Cares initiative. They have several accounts on Twitter through which they provide personalised customer service, including the main one, @comcastcares. Apparently, TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington also received customer service with Comcast through Twitter. It is to Comcast's advantage to do this sort of thing. Techdirt writes:

But we should all keep in mind that the sort of concierge-style customer support offered by @comcastcares is unlikely to ever scale beyond the size of a PR exercise.

In this case Twitter's chief virtue is its userbase: a collection of highly-wired early adopters whose online complaints about cable provider malfeasance frequently find their way into press accounts and Google results associated with the company.

The Comcast technician just stopped by and he looked at my internet connection. Apparently I was keeping my wireless router too close to the modem and this could interfere with the connection, so I should keep them farther apart. He told me that the other diagnostic tests revealed no problems. Very cool.

This experience with Comcast through Twitter was great, and I think it's an awesome thing for a company to do, but honestly I do find Comcast's internet service far less reliable than Verizon FiOS/Verizon DSL, which I had when I lived in Virginia and AT&T DSL, which I had when I lived in California. With Comcast, I regularly have to reset my router because the internet drops off, and three times (including this one) in the past six months, Comcast customer service has had to help me troubleshoot connectivity problems. It's ridiculous. Comcast cares about their image, and that's why they're scanning Twitter and the blogosphere for disgruntled customers, but they should put some heavy investment into their infrastructure.

I didn't even want to get cable internet in the first place. I don't subcscribe to cable television, which is why I prefer DSL for my internet needs. I was unable to find a DSL provider relatively quickly when I moved to this area, so I settled for Comcast. I'm paying more for my internet through Comcast than I was paying through either Verizon or AT&T, and Comcast's service is worse. With Verizon and AT&T, I was paying a little over $50 a month, and with Comcast, I'm paying nearly $60. When my contract is due to end, I may look for another ISP.

GDC 2008: Two Sessions Highlighted

There were a couple of sessions that I really enjoyed at the Game Developers Conference this year.

The first was "Game Studies Download 3.0". The Game Studies Download first appeared at GDC 2006, which was the first GDC I attended. I'm quite interested in the various fields of game studies, having dabbled in it (read: dissertation research) during my Master's degree. Bogost, Consalvo, and McGonigal delivered a fast-paced, information-rich and very interesting presentation. One of the interesting bits of research they highlighted were findings that showed that breaking immersion can actually make games more engaging. An example of this that I thought of is in Metal Gear Solid, when you're fighting Psycho Mantis and he tells you he can read your past. The game reads your memory card and if you have certain Konami games, Psycho Mantis comments on it. I personally found this bit of the game really entertaining, and though it does break the fourth wall, it was memorable and cool. If you're interested in the rest of the research top ten, check the link above.

The other session I especially enjoyed was "The BioWare Live Team: Building Community Through Technology". French gave an overview of the development of the Live Team and what technical decisions they made to support their fan community. I gleaned a lot of great insights from it, particularly since I don't work at a company that makes games. It was interesting to hear the rational behind decisions as well as what went right and wrong in the Live Team's work with Neverwinter Nights.

The rest of GDC was pretty good, though I'm not as wide-eyed and excitable as I was at GDC 2006. Could it be that I've become a jaded games industry professional? I definitely was not as keen on collecting swag as I was two years ago. In fact, I don't even know why I bothered to get the few free pens and assorted nonsense that I did come away with. Why the fuck do I need a yellow rubber duckie stamped with a company logo? I don't know, but it's a rubber duckie and I didn't have one until now!

Games Media Award Nominees for Best Non-Commercial Site All Contain Ads

The MCV Games Media Award winners are set to be revealed this October, and the finalists have just been announced. The judging panel will consist of games industry professionals. When the Game Media Awards were announced, some games journalists criticised the judging process.

Kyle Orland stated:

Journalists themselves are in a much better position to judge their peers than are the game makers and publishers that we're supposed to be covering somewhat objectively. Even if there's no chance of explicit coverage-for-votes trading, the danger of industry-picked awards is that they'll end up going only to outlets that give unquestioningly good coverage to everything. Hard hitting critiques and investigative journalism are unlikely to be rewarded by the companies that work so hard to generate positive coverage and keep secrets until they're ready to be announced.

Kotaku's Brian Crecente, a former writer for the Rocky Mountain News, believes, "The last thing game journalism needs is a closer relationship with the industry. It's already far, far too cozy."

Kieron Gillen, who has been nominated for Best Writer on a Specialist Magazine stated:

The games industry are the last people who should be voting for awards in games journalism. It's a bit like the prisoners voting for who's their favourite prison guard." Gillen said he worries that the industry voting will make the award one "you wouldn't want to win.... because it's basically shorthand for 'Lapdog of the year award.'

Anonymous game journalist blogger, RAM Raider, was equally critical of the awards, calling it "Yet another opportunity for everyone in the industry to firmly grasp the penis of the person next to them, and wank firmly" (LOL). Recently, RAM Raider pointed out another small problem: the nominations in the Specialist Media Category (Online) for Best Non-Commercial Website or Blog all contain advertising in text and/or graphical form. Displaying advertising means that you are making money or you intend to make money from displaying those adverts, right? The nominees may not necessarily be making a profit from advertising, but having advertising on a blog certainly seems to convey commercial intent.

Destructoid is one of the nominees in this category. It is one of the biggest group gaming blogs on the internet. Most of the content is written by its random community members, with varying quality, and they have a bunch of staff bloggers whose posts are highlighted on the main Destructoid page. Destructoid reports that the site receives 2.5 million visitors per month. They pride themselves on being "an independently-owned community site dedicated to gaming, written by people who love love love love love love video games and like to write about them" and criticise game journalists as "people that feel they need to hide behind their journalism degree to justify their lives". The site makes money off of its community members, without paying a cent to them, while the "company employs 36 freelancers" who likely do get a cut of advertising revenue. So Destructoid may be independent, but that doesn't mean they're non-commercial. Destructoid actively solicits advertising on their site and have a company that manages and sells their "premium" ad space inventory. Sounds commercial, right?

The other nominations in this category are relatively smaller than Destructoid, though fellow nominees UK: Resistance and Wonderland have vast numbers of readers in their own right. These blogs also prominently display advertising, though they probably manage the ads themselves . I enjoy reading both blogs, and I don't mind adverts because I can ignore them, but I do question their categorisation as "non-commercial" blogs when you've got those Google ads staring you in the face.

"Best Independently-Owned Website or Blog" may have been a better name for the category.

Ex-ArenaNet Employee Claims That Company Works with Gold Farmers

I meant to post about the PAX Guild Wars party last night, but I ended up being too tired from work (and still tired from the weekend) to concentrate on writing. Instead I just played Guild Wars and relaxed in Pre-Searing Ascalon. I'll try to write about the party tonight after work, but first...

I've been keeping an eye on this story. He (she?) chooses to remain anonymous, and there are questions as to this person's credibility in the comments to their blog post. There are some things that just don't add up, but enough content of interest to at least take a second look. This person makes some very serious accusations about ArenaNet and their ties with gold farming companies, what the person calls "GFCs":

Know that every MMO company that has a large GFC presence in their games will use this to their advantage and form an unofficial partnership to boost income. This income may not be recorded properly, or at all in financial statements. Obviously the large GFCs are much more protected than the small. Some of these connections may not even be known to higherups and seniors. We are the latter. Even if the seniors do know, they will most likely do nothing about it. It generates revenue and keeps the gold buying population happy. In all regards, it is a good thing.

The ex-employee alleges that there was an exploit used to "dupe" (create) gold and items via the automatic re-connect feature. This person states that ArenaNet intentionally left the bug in the game with the knowledge that eventually gold farmers and players would figure it out and use it to create gold and items. Furthermore, this person says that when the amount of new gold and items entering the market devalued gold and certain rare items, and the population of dupers became too large, the auto re-connect feature was disabled and thousands of accounts were banned. The informant further states that ArenaNet communicated with the gold farmers prior to banning accounts:

We initiated several "ban floods", much like the publicly announced 26th May 2006 affair. Obviously this was just PR material. These were waves which bot accounts would be banned. The GFCs knew the accounts that were being banned. We provided them a list of accounts that would be banned. Some GFCs were told to remake the accounts under different character names to thwart the PvE community, or remain inactive on those accounts until later periods. A majority of the accounts were shutdown.

Mmobux has an interview with the former ArenaNet employee:

In your work, do you have to work directly with the gold farmers? What is the company's policy on gold farming business and how were you told to handle the issue? What was your perception and experience with the gold farmers?

I'd like to take a moment and go a little off topic here. A common misconception from the responses to my first article is that working with GFCs is a bad thing. It is quite the opposite. More co-operation means both parties are happier, and more money flowing into ArenaNet's pockets means they can afford larger investments into the game. Apart from a slight degradation in the game environment, it does not negatively impact upon the game's overall health at all. Like I said in my article, I am not trying to hurt anyone, only tell the truth as it is."

As I have stated, an unofficial partnership usually prefers indirect approaches. Another common misconception is that the whole of ArenaNet knew about these "under-the-table" deals. If this was in fact the case, the whole company would be in an uproar. This knowledge is confined to only a small circle of members.

Worlds in Motion has a nice summary of the issues raised by these accusations, though they also note that there is no way to be sure that this person is credible.

Kohler Talks Wii and Gamer Types, CliffyB’s Bro QQs

Chris Kohler has an excellent article explaining his understanding of types of gamers and what this means for the 'console war':

Before blue oceans and innovators' dilemmas, the "casual gamer" was the guy who played Xbox but wasn't a game nerd. He'll play Halo with his buddies for hours. But the new definition of "casual gamer" is your grandma. She loves "Cooking Mama." Tyler B thinks she is ruining gaming.

These are two very distinct groups. Add them to the other two types of game console buyer and you've got four groups who are all affected very differently by fluctuations in price and hardware power.

Kohler then details the characteristics of each type of gamer: the Hardcore Gamer, the Casual Gamer, the Expanded Audience, and Kids. It's well worth a read.

Meanwhile, there was a hilarious rant/whinge by Tyler Bleszinski, who is only important in this context because he's Cliffy "Gears of War" Bleszinski's brother, last week on Newsweek's Level Up blog. In this article, CliffyB's brother whines about how the Wii will present a "direct threat" to his hobby if grandmothers and other people who are traditionally non-gamers keep buying Wiis:

If Nintendo has its way, young males will no longer be the dominant segment of the console audience--and this transition appears to be happening faster than I expected.

Oh noes! Sound the alarm bells! A young male is threatened by the prospect of developers no longer creating games just for him! I would like to think that this would be some sort of epiphany for CliffyB's brother, a moment realisation of what the non-target segements of the market experience as a reality today, but he seems to be too interested in his 'dominant' gaming needs to pay attention.

So while the business of the Wii has great for Nintendo--surprise, surprise--and a handful of risk-takers like Ubisoft, it's thus far been ugly when it comes to the experiences beloved by core gamers like myself.

CliffyB's brother is displaying a rather arrogant sense of entitlement. Would you like some cheese with your whine, oh brother of CliffyB?

And should the product portfolios of major publishers become a zero-sum game, her tastes will represent a direct threat to my longtime hobby. ... I sincerely believe that bringing new people to video games is a good thing... But ultimately, going more mainstream can have unintended consequences--ones that could negatively impact the breadth and depth of the kinds of games that I love, as do millions of others.

Translation: "New gamers are only a 'good thing' if they like don't encroach on my territory by demanding that game developers make games other than what I, as part of the 'dominant', 'hardcore' gaming demographic, enjoy".

I believe games are already mainstream. Games started to become mainstream ever since Sony cracked that segment with the PlayStation, and it's been widening ever since. If one looks at the definition of 'hardcore' and 'casual' in terms of the way Kohler outlined, we can see that CliffyB's brother probably falls into the Hardcore Gamer category. The gamers that CliffyB's brother is so afraid of are the Expanded Audience. The Casual Gamers are the frat boys and average Joes who don't read industry news or blogs religiously, but they buy all the Grand Theft Auto games when they come out -- these are the guys that CliffyB's brother would probably lump into the Hardcore Gamer category. This Casual Gamer segment won't go away, and I don't think that the Wii and the Expanded Audience is as much of a threat as TylerB thinks it is. It may be too soon to say, anyway, as Kohler concludes.