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Where to begin, I could go on all sorts of tangents about the events this weekend, but of course I didn’t experience them first hand. Like many of the residents of the internets we can only go by what we see on TV, what we read on the news and twitter streams and everything else.

Protesting and the right to protest is something that goes with any political event. When done peacefully and even better when the people protesting have a coherent message that while not being grounded in reality, can at least provoke thought. But such is never the case, protesting and events such as this always draws out the “anarchists” and “hooligans” that use any opportunity to raise some hell.

I don’t feel bad for the protesters that got scooped up along with the shit disturbers. You took your chances going out there, even with your good intentions you should have know you were risking getting scooped up. Hell, many of the real activists who do use peaceful methods and a coherent messages expect that they could get arrested, some of them even crave it. It gives them some “street cred” or something worth whining about.

For me, if I felt passionate enough about and issues to protest about it, I would do so certainly knowing the risks. However, the moment some asshat(s) decided to start smashing property, or clashing with the police, i would take my peaceful ass elsewhere in a hurry. Standing by when such vandalism and acts of civil disobedience occurs is no different than condoning it. Just because you’re not involved in it, standing around watching it happen is no better than taking part in it. You want to be recognized as not being a part of it, move away from it, quickly.

I have been trying to find the various messages that were being delivered from the protesters, but for the most part it seems all I could catch was those whom are protesting Afghanistan and Iraq. Protesting war is all well and dandy, futile, but all well and good and is something worth standing up for, even if it doesn’t have any impact what so ever. Protesting against capitialism amuses me of course. There is no really good political system, mainly because any system used is still being used by people and people invariable manage to screw something up.

It sucks to be poor, but blaming capitalism for it, is rather stupid, as I said on Twitter last night, even if we weren’t a capitalist country, there would still be people richer than you. Yes we need better regulations against big industry, we need better environmental actions, but at the same time, without industry we’d lose a built of our economic power and more jobs than i care to calculate. Things could be better, but they could be a helluva lot worse.

You want your message to get across to the world, be proactive about it, make it coherent, make it educated and use methods people will respect.

Smashing up shop windows, throwing bricks at banks and cop cars, setting things on fire does absolutely nothing good. Oh other than pissing people off of course, and perhaps that’s the point. Terrorism either internationally or domestically generally does not advance a cause, just piss people off and push them to rally against you. Destruction of private and public policy is terrorism, in a micro scale perhaps, but the fact remains.

We have freedom of speech, we don’t however have freedom of chaotic destruction. Disrupting the places of work for many of the citizens we want to rally behind our causes only makes innocent people suffer and makes you look like an asshat.

Do I think the police response in Toronto was excessive, in some cases probably so, overall, no. Yes you might get arrested and yes you might be innocent, and yes it’s an imposition of your time, but if you’re innocent, the only thing you loose is time, if you’re guilty you get what you deserve. It could be worse, at least there aren’t tanks in the streets and live rounds being sprayed at the crowds.

If you want to say something, be responsible and mature about it, educate yourself, so you can make a stand and be respected for it. There is nothing wrong with differing opinions, it’s about all about how you deliver it.

Well this year E3 started off again with Microsoft presenting their highlights of what they will be showing at this years show.

Microsoft opened the show with a bang and some explosive footage from Call of Duty: Black Ops shown by Mark Lamia from Treyarch. The gameplay started out in what looks to be the jungles of South Asia. The player is crawling through some pretty close quarter tunnels and encountering enemies in close range combat. Once he reaches the end of the tunnel an encampment full of enemy soldiers, heavy tanks and a chopper is revealed. After a couple of grenades and combat with the remaining soldiers the player commandeers the chopper with a co-pilot and takes to the air. Some amazing visuals of the jungle are shown and then air combat begins. The chopper armed with missiles and what appeared to be a machine gun on its nose, starts taking out enemy choppers, bridges, and some kind of pipeline. The explosions were amazing, the air combat was impressive and this appears to be Treyarch’s best CoD to date. You can check out the footage here: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-call-of/101273

Next, Don Mattrick takes the stage to announce that Microsoft has signed an exclusive contract with Activision that will allow all Call of Duty add-ons to be released on Xbox 360 first through the year 2012. He then brings out Hideo Kojima to the stage to reveal something new and unique. Mr. Kojima didn’t spend too much time on the stage as he passed the torch to Shigenobu Matsuyama the producer of Metal Gear Solid: Rising who is here to show of the first ever footage of the game. The trailer opens with the camera panning a sword from hilt to blade. The Kojima logo appears and we are taken to footage of Raiden slicing an enemy soldier up. He then picks up the soldiers spine and seems to draw power from it. We are then treated to a montage of Raiden’s sword skills as he slices up things from vehicles to enemies. The word “Cut” appears on screen followed by the phrases “Cut at will” “Cut what you will” and “What will you cut?” The trailer ends with a very comedic performance of Raiden cutting up a watermelon into hand-sized chunks. See the footage for yourself here: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-metal-gear/101271

Out walks Cliffy B. with his red controller to present the new four player co-op mode in Gears of War 3. Live gameplay footage from the game including the two female Gears characters Anya and Sam were shown. The demo takes place in Anvil’s Gate where the Gears have a base of operations located. Standing between them and the base is a bunch of angry Lambent enemies which can come up from the ground, breath fire, spit out smaller enemies, and use their multiple limbs to throw objects at you. At one point you see a Lambent Berserker throw a car at Marcus which he uses for cover for a brief moment until the berserker charges at him. The team races to the base where they regroup with more Gears characters, thinking they are safe. The Berserker jumps over the fence and down into the camera where the demo comes to the end. See the demo footage here: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-gears-of-war/101281

Next on stage is Peter Molyneaux from Lionhead Studios to present the debut trailer of Fable 3. The game takes place 5 decades after Fable 2 and will feature exciting new content and storyline. He announces that the game will release October 26^th. From the trailer we can see that the story is about 2 siblings. One is the ruler f Albion and the other and adventurer. The player’s choices will decide the fate of Albion by helping them rise against the ruler or siding with their sibling’s tyranny. The choice is yours to decide. Debut Trailer: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-fable-iii/101279

After that wonderful debut trailer we are treated to another debut from Crytek’s new game for Xbox 360 called Codename Kingdoms. See it here: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-kingdoms/101275

Marcus Lehto from Bungie came out to present us with new gameplay footage from Halo Reach. He stated that this is the most ambitious Halo game to date. The demo footage started off with a space view of the planet Reach. Next we see a dropship dropping off four Spartans Soldiers. Incoming is a Covenant ship that begins to eject drop pods carrying Elite Covenant soldiers. Battle ensues and the Spartans work their way to the base showing a variety of weapons and grenades. Inside the base we get to see some close quarters combat and the player is ordered to get to the Sabre before the Covenant destroy it. The Sabre turns out to be a multistage ship that the Spartan boards and launches into space. Once out of Reach’s atmosphere the boosters eject and the Sabre turns into a maneuverable ship that is used to fire upon oncoming Covenant ships. It appears that air battle will be possible in the game. The game ships in September, but you can check out the footage here: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-halo-reach/101277

Marc Whitten comes out and states that Xbox Live has 25 million members as of today and starts the presentation on Xbox Live and Kinect (formerly known as Project Natal). He introduces Ron who shows us how useful Kinect will be with the dashboard. The camera will pick up movement and sound, watch a movie without a remote or play a game without a controller. To login all you need to do is wave, wave a second time and it brings you to the hub. He states “If you can see it, just say it” You can choose to watch a movie using just your voice. Tell it to play, pause, stop or tell your Xbox to play music and your play list will start playing. Kinect and Xbox Live will be available to all countries where Xbox 360 is sold. Xbox Live will also be available on the Windows Phone.

Kinect will also allow you to video chat with out the use of a headset. You can connect with your friends on Xbox Live or Windows Messenger. Once connected with friends or family through chat you can choose to watch movies together, check the news and other activities. The camera will be able to track you as you move around so you will always be centered.

Microsoft has now partnered with ESPN bringing over 3500 live and on demand sporting events, including College Football, College Basketball, Soccer, NBA, MLB and NFL. ESPN will also be Kinect compatible with the ability to replay, choose the team you are rooting for and playing trivia.

Kudo Tsunoda came out to present Kinect in gaming. Kinect will let you play games the way you want to play them. The first game that was shown is called Kinectimals. This game is basically a virtual pet that you can take care of, play with and train. It will include 40 animals from around the world with 30 different activities you can do with your pet. A young girl is brought on stage to show us her pet tiger, Skittles. In the demo you see her pet the tiger, tell it to go get its toy, play jump rope, and how the animal responds when you are out of its view. See actual gameplay here: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-kinectimals/101291

The next game shown is called Kinect Sports, an interactive sports game that truly puts you in the game. You are able to interact with the crowd of spectators, play Soccer, Table Tennis, Volleyball, Boxing, Track and Field, and Boxing. Game will be available this holiday, check it out: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-kinect-sports/101325

Kinect Joyride and Kinect Adventures were the next two games shown. Joyride was shown at last year’s conference and this year it is Kinect compatible. The game is a racing game with 5 gameplay modes and a stunt mode to show off your skills. Adventures will feature 20 adventure modes where you will dodge, jump, and collect using only your body. Throughout you adventures there will be photo ops that you can view and upload to Facebook or share with friends. Two modes were demoed; the first was a railway type adventure where you collected buttons while avoiding obstacles by dodging and jumping. The second was a water rapids adventure where you steer a raft through a river and jump to collect buttons on the water, land and even in the clouds. See what the excitement is all about: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-kinect-adventures/101344  http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-kinect-joy/101389

Exclusively for Xbox 360 comes a new version of Your Shape called Your Shape Fitness Evolved by UbiSoft. The camera scans your body to get your measurements so the game can customize your menus and workouts just for you. You can choose from Personal Trainer, Gym Activity, or Fitness Class modes. In personal trainer you can workout with your own trainer and get pointers from them on what you need to improve. Gym activity is a variety of fun fitness games for the whole family. In class mode you can chose to do yoga, martial arts, or Zen classes. In the demo the player is portrayed as an avatar that looks like it’s made of Jell-O. This seems an unflattering way to portray a person who is using a fitness game to get into shape. See it for yourself: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-your-shape/101376

Harmonix and MTV Games are collaborating on a Kinect compatible game called Dance Central. Alex Rigopulos from Harmonix said this was the next generation of dance games. This is a dance game with real body immersive dancing. The game boasts over 600 dance moves and 90 choreographed routines. Some of the artists named or previewed in the demo were Lady GaGa, “Poison” by Bell Biv Devoe, “Hella Good” by No Doubt, Beastie Boys and “Galang” by M.I.A.  Your character is displayed by a stylish looking avatar that appears as it may either be customizable or chosen through a variety of choices. Moves are shown on cards to the right of your avatar with the current move highlighted and moves queued above it. The move is rated and how you do is displayed at the avatar’s feet in a ring. If you need more help on a move the game goes into training mode and the music is rewound and slowed down until you hit the move correctly. No dance pad is needed, just the player and a Kinect camera. Get your groove on while viewing the demo: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-dance-central/101297

Phil Spencer comes out on stage to announce the Kinect will be available on November 4^th with 15 launch title games available also. No price was announced, but the camera will be compatible with all existing and future Xbox 360 consoles. One last Kinect game was shown coming from LucasArts that will be available in 2011. The game is being called just Kinect Star Wars for now and you can see it for yourself: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-kinect-star/101301

From Turn 10 Studios, Dan Greenswalt and Bill Griese were here to announce Forza 4. The game will be compatible with the Kinect camera, but wasn’t stated that it was only playable that way. In the demo shown you can walk around your car and actual open the door to sit inside. Racing was shown using the camera and the game is scheduled to be released in 2011. Check it out: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-forza-4/101303

Finally, Don Mattrick was back on stage for the final and most exciting announcement of the show. Since Xbox is celebrating its 10th year, they feel its time for something new; by bringing interactive entertainment and a whole new era for Xbox Live to everyone. He then revealed the new re-designed, sleeker, slimmer Xbox 360 console. The new console will come with a 250 GB hard drive, built in Wi-Fi, Ethernet port, and be Kinect ready. The new system will retail for the existing price of $299 and will be shipping today, so it will be available at your local retailer later this week. He then pulled an Oprah move and stated that everyone in the audience will have the new Xbox 360 console shipped directly to them.

With that the conference came to a close. This wraps up another Microsoft conference and kicks off an exciting week of E3 ahead. So what are your thoughts on the announcements, trailers shown, and technologies revealed? I for one was actually pretty amazed with the new name for Project Natal, Fable 3, Gears of War 3, Dance Central, and the addition of ESPN on Live.

** Post and Pre-Show Announcements**

Before the Microsoft Conference, Game Trailers held its own pre-show with some interesting announcements. On July 27^th the first DLC for Alan wake will be available called “The Signal”. On July 13^th, Season 4 of Felicia Day’s “The Guild” will begin with new surprise guests and surprise pairings. On July 14^th the game version of Deadliest Warriors will be available through the XBLA service. Trailers were shown for two new XBLA games, Limbo from PlayDead and Dust: An Elysian Tail by Humble Hearts the winner of the Dream, Play, Build contest.

Post show announcements were the line up of games for Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade event on XBLA. Upcoming titles are Limbo, Monday Night Combat, Hydro Thunder Hurricane, Laura Croft and the Guardian of Light, and Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. See the announcement here: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-xbox-live/101417

Also, some more info about the new Xbox 360 console was clarified. The System will have a new smaller internal hard drive inside the bottom of the system, 5 USB ports (2 in front and 3 in back), a TOS Link slot, a Kensington Security slot, Kinect port, and an Ethernet port for those who still want to use a wired connection. The system is 15% smaller than the original and will have a smaller, cooler power brick. The whisper quiet feature will include the fan and the disc drive.

Existing systems will be price dropped and phased out. The Arcade will be priced at $149, the Elite at $249 and the new Slim at $299. The Kinect will be available separately and in a bundle available for the holidays. See the Slim un-boxing here: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-xbox-360/101403

The Subscription plus Item mall debate is something that rages on and on these days. People come up with witty equations to illustrate the differences. Comparing the price of; (Insert unrelated product here) to the price of a game subscription. It’s all very cute and all, but the primary arguments, generally aren’t based completely in reality. A lot of the associated costs of an MMO gets left out, or blatantly ignored.

Is $15 bucks too much for a subscription?

Not really, yes different currencies translate into more or less, that goes without saying. Yes the cost of servers and bandwidth might be down, but that’s not all that’s being paid for, neither is Customer service the sum total of what you’re paying for.

Something that seems to be forgotten is that just like Single Player games (which you used to only pay for once, but with DLC you now pay for expanded content) is the cost of development for the games. For several years games are in design and development, internally tested, worked on and so forth. In the case of triple A titles, that costs a huge amount of money.

Designers, Programmers, Artists, Animators, Writers, Voice Actors, Server Techs, etc, all these people working to make the games people are complaining about, get paid to make the games. This can be a massive investment for a company, and the “box price” and the subscription fees, even the item mall content being added to sub model games go to recoup the money spent to make the game.

But beyond that, with MMO’s or at least with the good ones, new content and patches don’t come out of thin air, the above mentioned group of game staff, plus GM’s, plus Customer service people, plus community management all have to be paid to get all the new content/updates/patches created/made/tested before it gets released.

Using the “Game of main comparison” WoW, Blizzard spent millions developing it before it even launched and they spend more and more for expansions, updates and the like. Now yes they are making a pant load of money but when you factor in original and continuing development costs, continued operation and repair costs, corporate tax and more, that cuts down on actual profit.

Of course all these companies are interested in making profit; no company can survive without it. Not just because profit is good, but also because profit translates into capital for the next game they create/build/launch/operate.

I am not a happy go luck fan of Item malls, not because I don’t like paying for extra content, but because of the kind of crap that usually ends up in them. Items that unbalance a game, uber xp scrolls and the like that those who can afford love and those who can’t loathe.

Looking at STO (which yes I currently play as you all know) which was in development for something like 4+ years, that’s all that money spent, hoping that it would attract Star Trek fans, and gaming fans alike with a new experience. Yes there is the box fee or digital download cost, there’s the subscription cost be it monthly, 3 months, 6 months, or the special year or life time sub cost. Also they do have the C-Shop, which presently only contains 2 items, a playable Federation Klingon or Ferengi.

They need to make back all the money spent designing, developing, and testing the game, then make money to continue to operate, expand, and repair the game. Continuing with this example, the Staff for STO has already said in different places, that how Cryptic’s other games are operated in price models and how STO will be modeled isn’t going to be the same thing. The Borg update was free, and I get the sense other expansion content will likely be free also.

So looking at the overall subscription + item mall model, when you factor in all the costs either spent in development or going forward, it makes sense the company needs to generate revenue. Yes not everyone can or will pay for stuff in the item mall, which goes without saying. People play F2P games all the time without buying a thing. They however balance out with those who do buy things and usually spend an insane amount of money doing it.

How is that any better?

I’m not really sure it is, or different for that matter. The only differences between F2P and Subscription based games is usually quality (though that may be starting to change) and the word “Free”. It might be free to play the basic game, which is great for players, but to get the most out of the game experience you have to spend money. With P2P games you pay money to get the main experience, but there’s also the occasional bonus goodies in the Item mall, usually nothing that is really required, generally in the P2P world these are just nice little bonuses, and not really impactful to the experience over all. (Broad strokes I know)

Expansions on the other hand, yes some companies will make you pay for expansions, but considering an expansion is usually quite a bit of additional content, this makes sense. When of course, the expansion is priced reasonably and is worth buying. Any gamer who plays the Sims franchise will tell you that not always is the expansion worth buying, not because of the price, but because they, for whatever reason, don’t like the content. (Generally)

But you’re still paying for a higher end content package, not just a quick update patch, which costs more to create and develop.

If you want to really argue about this issue, at least be intelligent about it and do some research. Debate, discussion, and dissent is vital to keep the industry moving forward, but just complaining for the sake of complaining doesn’t do anything short of making you look rather stupid and waste the time of those whom participate in it.

My grandma used to fill my ears with the cliché “Money doesn’t grow on trees” Well in Gaming, neither does new content, expansions, and patches.

When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

— Revelation 6:5-6 NIV

After an interesting conversation during a call tonight, and some deep thought of my own, it does make me wonder where the industry is headed these days. With Social Media sites on the rise as gaming platforms, primarily for the sake of this article, Facebook. As well as a lot of companies now gearing their efforts towards development and publishing to make use of these platforms it has me thinking.

I’ve had a lot of people comment to me that they’re finding more and more games that just aren’t catching their interest anymore, or are down right boring. I’ve noticed this myself that a lot of times games aren’t really innovating anything new, just putting on shiny new clothes.

Of course there are plenty of exceptions to this, but not as many as there once were. And to be candid, a lot of the games found on Facebook are without a doubt, boring as crap, yet they get millions of players daily and the market is growing constantly with more and more companies and indie teams getting into the act.

Is the industry headed for another crash before we see a renaissance of creativity and an explosion of innovative creation across the board of games? Honestly, I don’t know, but at the same time as more companies pull away from making console games and of course the continuing stigma of PC gaming aside from the MMO market. (Which is constantly being accused of being clones upon clones upon clones of this game or that game?)

Where is the industry headed?

Where will our new gaming experiences going to coming from?

Has the bubble burst again?

Tough questions; and maybe a bit of an alarmist bent to my thinking as I look over the scope of the gaming space these days. A lot of companies have been cutting stuff, shutting down, restructuring, and changing direction, so on, so forth, etcetera, and etcetera.

So I but it to all of you dear friends and readers, is this new explosion of gaming on social platforms a sign of great change that will push the industry into a new era of creativity or is Facebook the rider of the black horse, preparing to spread a famine amongst hardcore games and gamers while it sows the seeds of meaningless fluff?

Comment below.