Alright now that I’ve set the tone with the above video, as everyone knows (unless they’ve been living under a rock for the last couple of weeks) Closed Beta has started for Star Trek Online, and beta sign ups have begun for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Now I’m a pretty ‘core fan of both franchises and I’m eagerly waiting to play both of these games, as I imagine every other fan boi and fan gerl is also. But there begs the question…

Which am I anticipating more?

The answer to that isn’t simple as I have no idea! I want to be a rock’em sock’em Jedi, but at the same time I want to beam around the galaxy in a star ship tackling those Federation yahoos. This is a conundrum facing many sci-fi geeks the world over; which franchise and which game do we really want to support. I’m certain many will opt to play both, but for us time constricted folks it’s likely to come down to one or the other. Certainly some will gravitate based on their experience with the aforementioned games, some will like one more than the other based on game play, graphics, or some obscure geeky thing or another.

But given who’s behind each game, Cryptic Studios doing ST:O and BioWare doing SW:TOR, I suspect it’s going to be a hard fight with ourselves one way or another. A duel of the fan-bases is going to ensure and I’m not sure which is going to win if either. Lots of us are more staunchly embed in one camp or another, or split evenly down the middle. The flame wars that will come and spread across the internets is going to be astounding as fans will rally behind their choice and evangelize whichever game that might be.

When caught up in so much chaos, where will that leave the fence sitting fans, who can’t decide either way? Worst case they will decide which community is less annoyingly vocal and mature than the other, or they’ll get fed up with both sides and run off to play Farmville. I hope, I desperately hope that both communities can learn to co-exist and we don’t see to much tomfoolery go on.

But when it comes to fan bois and fan gerls that seems about as likely as my winning the lottery. So I leave it to you dear readers, how will you decide when the time comes, will you be Dances with Siths or Gone with the Vulcans?

For me, I can tell you one thing…

I have no idea! They both look awesome XD

For the majority of time we’ve had video games there’s been music attached to them. It a fact music can trigger memories and sometimes music can just spontaneously pop into our head at the strangest time. Like any good gamer, most of the music that pops into my mind and the strangest times is game music. There’s a lot of music that instantly plays and recall that particular game, or that period in our life when we were playing that game.

There’s been good music, and bad music in games and the use of music in games can either be a good counter point to the game experience or it’s just thrown in there because either the developers liked the song or they just couldn’t find anything better and took whatever they happened to hear in the elevator on their way to the office.

As far as recalling music, whenever I hear the Legend of Zelda theme, regardless of which version for which iteration, my thoughts always go back to the gold cartridge for the NES.

Music can be very effective in games to set a scene, add ambiance, make for kick ass battle scenes and cinematics, or  just be part of the experience that comes with a game. For the sake of not pissing anyone off I’m not going to list the misses that fall into the game music category, and I can think of a wealth of music that stands out in my mind as game music I could listen to for hours. I’ll post one of those examples later.

My point however is that when making games we should and personally have to think about the music we associate with our game. Music that adds to the experience is a benefit, both to the game but also to longevity. If people can hear a tune and instantly think back to the fun and joy they had playing your game not only did you get the game right but you have a certain kind of stickiness that you might not otherwise find. Music as a memory cue can add a wealth of recognition to your game(s), but also your brand.

Squaresoft has been remarkably good at this, not that it comes as a surprise of course, considering they have Nobuo Uematsu-Sama, and others making music for their games. Even after all these years of Final Fantasy games, I still get that chill run through me when I hear the tell tale theme, Legend of Zelda manages that of course as I stated above, but I can think of many more examples.

But then there’s the other side of this conversation, when game music isn’t used effectively, isn’t adding to the experience but instead, just sits in the game and ends up either annoying the crap out of the players or gets blatantly ignored. MMO’s are notorious for crappy music selections in the games, often recycling the same music for area after area. Which let me tell you, gets old really quickly, especially when you’re transitioning from a swamp land, through a town, into an ice area and the same ghastly, worse than elevator music persists throughout the game world.

I know music can be expensive if you’re shelling out money for a Big Name composer to do your game, but to be honest you don’t need to go that far to get good music. Looking through the indie music scene is it rock, electronic, or folk music depending on the genre of your game you can find quality music to bring into your game world and add to the experience.

It’s not rocket science and maybe it does require your designers/developers/ and especially your producers to have some level of decent taste, but at the same time, it is worth the effort. Of course you want to focus on game play, art style, game experience, game world and all the components that make up a successful title, but at the same time, you don’t want to cause your players ears to bleed and do a half assed job picking music.

Music can and is effective both for game experience, brand recognition, but also the all important stickiness. You want your players to remember your game fondly, and use music for its memory cue ability so the next time you launch a title, your players can remember the kick ass time they had on the previous one and look forward to your next offering.

Music might not seem important, but I can recall the countless times I’ve seen players ask; “Is the music any good?”

Something to think about; that and remember to be consistent for god sake. For now, here are a few more samples of games that got music right, even if it’s only in one certain part of the game.

Yeah I know, most of it’s Squaresoft, what can I say, they get it right most of the time.

There this thing that I see many times over the years. Certainly within the gaming community, all kinds of people have great ideas about the next “Great Game Idea”. Of course the realities that go into making a game aren’t involved in their thought process about what it takes or how to go about making that “Great Game”. Of course the information is out there for those whom are willing to research into it, and of course all time and again people in the industry has written and commented or had talks and exhibitions on what it does take. But there often seems to be some component missing from this information, it gets referenced certainly but not really discussed.

Yes making games takes time, money, resources, people, etc, etc. But it also takes a large amount of dedication. Yes it takes Passion too of course, but the more often I hear that word “Passion” the more it takes on a buzz word kind of feel.

Dedication, perseverance, fortitude, persistence and determination, all aspects of a similar state of mind, but still words that describe the means that drive one to work their ass off to get where they want to go. With all creative types,  be it a game designer, an actor, a writer, a fashion designer, anything else creative, it can be difficult breaking into those industries, or getting your first product out, proving yourself, proving your concepts, and getting that notice that you “Made it”.

You can have all the creativity in the world, you can have all the practical knowledge you need, you could be an artist-programmer-writer-musician-producer-ninja with all the skills imaginable but if you’re not willing to put the time in and get things done, you won’t make it off the ground.

If you have a great idea then pursue it, learn how to do things, find like minded people to form a team, but even with teams you run into this same issue. We’ve all seen it over and over again, people come together and plan out something epic, but it falls apart because someone gives up. It takes time and people are impatient and often in this “On demand” world of ours, people expect immediate results.

In a perfect world that could happen, sure.

In reality you have to work your ass off to get somewhere, you have to do things you otherwise would avoid to gain skills; you have to invest hours working on building your game, your CV, your portfolio, your creds. From concept to development to production and beyond it all takes work. Not in the metaphorical sense, but in the get down and dirty and kick ass and take names.

There’s no reason at the core that you can’t bring your “Great Game” idea to life, if you’re willing to poor you time and essence into making it happen. Hell, you can make a really good pitch for your idea but then you have to deliver on it. We’re not talking about some abstract thing, we’re talking about standing up and taking action.

I’m guilty of forgetting this sometimes and I let myself go slack as I work on different projects or take side gigs to expand my horizons. Like anyone I get lazy sometimes when I’m faced with work or projects I might otherwise avoid like the plague, but I kick myself and remember the goal, remember where I’m aiming for. So not only am i writing this for you my dear readers, but also for myself, a good self ass-kicking and reminder to practice what I’m preaching is good for the soul, so is admitting my own missteps on the great path of life.

Reminders are great for this; I’m not talking about some tacky poster on the wall, but just that one memento of past achievement or that one game or book that inspired you. We all need out talismans that keeps us focused, but even then you need to remember that no one’s going to get you want you want if you don’t have the drive and determination to carry through and deliver your own destiny.

You want to do something, you want to create and make something, then my best advice to you is to shut up and do it.

Having watched all of this season of Digital Trends – Players Only, by far this is I think the best episode I’ve seen. There’s a lot of truth in that, especially for gaming blogs.Of which there is an uncountable amount of them as everyone and their dog has opinions on games, on gaming, and on the game industry.

Yes, I am aware I’m no different than the rest, and while I do try to keep some measure of objectivity especially when I talk about games, I of course have opinions, it’s an opinionated business to say “This game rocks” or “This game sucks”

Lets be honest, we have our preferences and while I or anyone else can find good and bad points about games, generally I will cover games that actually interest me, not games that are just out there. Unless they’re given to me to check out of course.

Media isn’t dead, it’s evolving, it’s just that a lot of print media companies and journalists seem to not have the flexibility to make the jump more often then not.

All that said, I really enjoyed this episode and took a lot of food for thought from it. Maybe you will too.

Oh and final point, I know plenty of you dear readers know as much as i do, and probably a lot know more than I do on certain points.

A person isn’t defined by what they know, but what they don’t know and choose to learn more about.

Now we all know the argument between what makes a casual game player and a hardcore game player and that particular debate is going to continue raging back and forth probably for the rest of the foreseeable future. And far be it for me to interject my opinion on that one. However, I have noticed something as of late which fairly amusing to me and as you know dear readers, my amusement is paramount to the inner workings of the universe.

Now what is it that amuses me? You ask, well my lovelies, let me enlighten you on this new source of merryment.

There’s this strange creature prowling around the internetz, especially on the social networks which is a curious being indeed. I really don’t think scientists have classified this one yet, but in mind, I’ll refer to this entity as the “Hardcore Casual Player”.

Yes, yes of course it sounds like a very good oxymoron, which I suppose it is, and yet I can find no better terminology having encountered this species in the wild.

Now we all know casual game s, especially on social networks like Facebook and Myspace are essentially short playtime games, you know x amounts of minutes or less. So taking Farmville for an example, you prepare your farmland, plant your crops wait hours to days to harvest, rinse, and repeat. Fairly simple formula for a game and yet can be oddly addictive, mainly due to it’s low requirement of brain use. You drop in, do your business like in many of the similar games and then off you go. Wham, bam, thank you Zynga-Ma’am.

Here’s the punch-line though, there are people, however strange as this is, who sit on Facebook for hours on end engaged in these games, either several over a period of time, or they just spend hours and hours playing the same quick game. I suspect this is an example of the Tetris effect we saw back in the day, but it still boggles the mind.

Many of these games, no matter how fun they may be, have the depth of a drying mud puddle yet they captivate people for unnatural amounts of time and have millions of players.

We talk all the time about replay-ability of games and some games try to highlight this aspect.  Yet these casual, low brain activity games seem to suck the time out of people in copious quantities without the major budgets, massive game worlds and deep stories.

I realize that I believe much of this is due in part to the social aspect of these games, they share with their friends, give them gifts, become neighbours and all the other cute little social bells and whistles that seems to be standard MO for these games. But in the final analysis, there seems to be comfort in repeating simple actions that makes these games so addictive. Sure they might have cute graphics and nice lulling music that doesn’t annoy sometimes, but just sort of fades into the background of doing the same basic chores again, even with your friends.

It’s no small wonder the market for social games is exploding more and more. People eat this shit up with their morning coffee and night time beer. It’s like reality TV shows, sure we know that eventually someone is going to be the only survivor or win the amazing race, yet people are captivated by the events that lead to the conclusion which is sometimes the real reward in user/watcher participation.

I sometimes wonder if we need to take a page from the casual game world and find some way to make our more expansive and yes grindy games just as addicting.

Which brings up another issue, people can spend hours on end doing quests and things on Mafia Wars, but they complain endlessly about the grind in MMOs. If you play an mmo in small does as you do a casual game, of course you’ll be less bored by the grind, but you won’t accomplish as much. So how then can we make the long term grind rewarding enough to entice players to do it as much as they can spend hours in casual games?

Quite a conundrum really, for which I don’t have an answer presently.

One thing I do know is that Hardcore Casual Players are a growing trend, a curious, amusing and bizarre trend but one we must be aware of and make allowances for as we continue to make games, be they epically massive games, or cute casual 4 minute fun blasts. There’s a change in the reciepe, and we need to find that secret ingredient again.