So a month or two ago, I got involved with writing articles for a new digital gaming magazine, which as anyone who has been following me on twitter knows, it would be Game Theory Magazine. It’s Free to subscribe and read, and looking at our now launched first issue, it’s looking pretty damn sharp and I’m proud to be a part of it.

It will be Bi-monthly, which is a nice cycle for me as it gives me plenty of time to review the games I’ll be covering properly, and the other articles I’ll be writing for it covering hardware, and my favourite subject gaming culture or positive impact gaming.

There is and will be contests run with various partners, and we have some good quality writers and staff working on this. So please take time to give it a read when you have time if you haven’t already, and I appreciate the feedback I’ve received for both my STO review and the magazine itself, you can also leave a comment on here.

The direct link to the magazine PDF

It’s an exciting opportunity and I hope you all enjoy reading it.

Thanks Much

~Anj

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.

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.

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.

User generated content isn’t a new concept really. It’s been around for quite some time now, primarily in PC gaming space at first but as the consoles have opened their doors to homebrew creations it’s growing in significance. There’s always a debate on the quality of the content being created and the amount to which the tools are used. I recall a statement that while the tools are there only a small fraction of the user base will actually use them. Given the growth of uploads on Spore, Sims 2 and now Sims 3 exchanges and other titles that provide in-game tools for content or levels, I think that assessment is incorrect indeed.

The amount of use the tool-sets given to the players gets is directly related to the ease of use those tools have. Certainly the higher the complexity of the tool is to use, the less likely a wide selection of people are going to be using them.  Now don’t get me wrong, there are certainly some games that require a certain level of complexity in the tools to create levels and so on, which is where the mod and indie developer community comes in, but games that have more intuitive and easy to use tools, the more content gets generated by the user base.

All of this is a great thing to see, and yes, I know a lot of the content that comes out of the community can be complete and utter crap, but other times we see elements and ideas that are truly inspired, interesting or sheer creative genius. The thing I like most about this is that it gives aspiring designers and developers a place to get their wet feet wet, their hands dirty and catch a glimpse of what’s involved in the space they want to enter. I’ve seen some truly amazing content come out of the minds of kids as young as 9 and it gives a bright hope for the future of the industry.

So where am I going with all this?

It’s simple, and it goes beyond the content, to the community built around the games. When the developers and publishers of a game are accepting and open to user generate content, not only do they find a wealth of new ideas to build on with the community, but also form a sense of connection that not only leads to an interesting gaming experience but also a more loyal fan base. (Which never hurts the sales hmmm?)

With more and more people making homebrew games across the many platforms we now have available to us, the more new and interesting ideas are coming forth. It can be a pain to filter through the random garbage, no doubt about it, but like sifting gold, you might move a lot of dirt, but then you find the bright shinny nuggets that really seem to sparkle in the sunlight.

The gifted and inspired within the community not only add a new dimension to the game experience but also these people should be drafted and brought into the fold to build on and expand the horizons of the games in  a more formal way. The wealth of undiscovered talent out in the world would startle many in the industry if they really took the time to look, and I believe taking a good hard look is worth the effort.

Free to play games, flash games, social networking games, mobile phone games, console homebrew, mods, indie projects, this is where a lot of the future can be seen. Sure everyone loves the big, heavy hitting triple a games with the massive budgets, but watching the habits of people playing games these days from every walk of life, and age group reflects that people just want to play games, good games, amazing games, or just casual addicting games. You don’t need a massive budget to be successful, you just need ideas that are fresh and capture the imagination to really stand out. (Though a big budget helps lol).

If anything, collaborative efforts between developers, publishers, and the gaming community is where some of the future of the industry can be seen taking root. User generated content is one aspect of where the lines between customer and collaborator are starting to blur a bit as players are adding to the game experience and recognition for those inspired ideas should be given freely as it will help fertilize and grow the future of the industry.

Right so as the gaming community is now chewing on the speech by President Obama with his usual comment regarding video games, I had a conversation the other day with Epi on this issue. So like anything else in the world that pings my brain for longer then 5 seconds I’m going to write it up.

Let me start off by saying that I do not in any way have a problem with the idea of play in moderation. I do think many times kids are left to much to their own devices by parents and many spend way to much time gaming. I know I certainly did as a kid and even today it can still be a bit tricky to put the game down to get work done. However, like most arguments by the anti-video game lobby I disagree with most of their tired old bullshit. Not that I count the Pres in that segment but when it comes to certain times, he does come off a bit overboard when he mentions video games in his speeches, or perhaps makes the reference far to often.

But I’m going to look at the other side of things this time around, I don’t feel like ripping the anti game establishment a new one right now. Let’s look at our children, our education system and our society, and take some things into accounting.

Consider the pressure our kids are under from day to day, and for those of us able to remember it hasn’t changed all that much in the last 50 years though perhaps the pressures themselves are different to some extent. (Yes I know as adults we are under pressure in our own lives but that’s a story for another day hmmm?)

Our kids start school usually at 5 years old, though around here they’ve started including some four year olds, and holy shit has primary changed from when I was a kid. They have homework and start on the fundamentals a lot sooner then we did. Most of what I remember from Primary was reviewing the ABCs, counting, playing with blocks and chasing cute girls around the playground. Now kids come home with homework that range from printing, spelling, basic math, reading and so on.

Now that in and of itself isn’t anything overburden some I suppose if the kids are prepared for it, but parents may not be bothering unaware of it, or plainly to busy. (Again a story for another day) So now kids are faced with this whole new environment, learning new things, concepts and in an enclosed world/social ecosystem. Now look at the fact that from start to finish in most cases kids are in school for the next 13 years of their life. Facing new challenges of learning every day save summer and Christmas vacation.

Add into that they are growing up, going through puberty, first loves, first enemies, changing world perceptions, and all the extra activities they are either willingly or by parental directive joining after school.

When you take a step back and look at the situation objectively, kids have a whole lot of shit thrown at them from a young age till they are nearly adult. Now add in during (usually) the teenage years they become drivers at 16, they deal with sexual issues starting anywhere from 10 and older these days (Scary as that is but I digress), and all that noise they get from their peers and family.

From their parents they will hear how they have to have good high grades, get into this university or that, find a good job, go to the Olympics or some other big dream plan dreamed up (usually) by the parent(s). Hell of a lot of pressure to put on a young individual still coming down off of hormonal turmoil, changing life perceptions and sexual awareness.

From their peers, we know what that all entails, sex, drugs, everything else under the sun that kids might experience to get them into trouble. Even more pressure atop from school, physical changes, emotional changes, and parental/family/cultural pressures.

It’s no small wonder kids can implode sometimes and why they turn to things like drugs, gangs, and other things that are far removed from parents expectations. People complain about video games like their something evil, yet video games are often one of the few pressure valves kids have. Sure some kids go outside and play, and that’s all well and good, but the video games also provide cerebral experiences that can relax a weary brain, assist in hand/eye coordination, and with online games, kids who deal with social anxiety/awkwardness/shyness might blossom into their own personality online more readily then in more physical social environments.

As I parent I certainly try to make sure my children have a balanced amount of video games vs. outdoor/indoor play, physical activity, and study homework time.

Do I think video games lead to children becoming violent mass murderers?

In some rare cases perhaps, though in many cases I suspect where the games not available to these few kids their violent outburst/explosion would likely have happened sooner rather then later.

We as a society need to look at the amount of pressures we place on our children, teenagers, and even our selves and think long and hard about how we can work to take some of the stress out of our day to day lives. Provide children with the love, encouragement and support to deal with their own pressures give them the room they need to grow and guide them towards the future.

Allow them what they need to relieve their pressures in a safe environment. If a couple hours of daily video game playing help your child wind down after the hell we know as School, then what’s wrong with that? After some time cooling off on some good fun playing games they enjoy (though you all know well I don’t advocate violent or mature games for kids their not intended for so don’t give me any shit on that) They’re more likely to be refreshed enough to tackle their homework either following some relaxation time or knowing they’re entitled to it upon completion.

Everything in moderation is true, be it play, or be it work and stress/pressures. We should be more forthright with our kids and involve them in serious discussions. We expect kids to grow up way to fast and we stuff so much “adult” information on math, sciences, and other subjects in school, yet we don’t hold real discussions with them because their “just kids”

The differences between their education and the way we treat them outside of school borders on naked hypocrisy.

We expect our kids to learn their biology, physics, chemistry, calculus and so on and get high grades, but we can’t seriously discuss important subjects like sex, drugs, and balancing their work and play time?

We allow kids to learn how to handle cars at 16-17 but we stumble over the idea of actually involving them in choosing or finding a direction in our lives?

I’ve covered some of this before so I won’t harp on it, video games and violence, video games and drugs, video games and gangs, video games and sex. All hot topics with the anti video game lobby, yet has anyone pointed out to these paper-asshats that Violence, Drugs, Gangs, and Sex has been around a helluva lot longer than video games. All these evil things video games cause in kids, predate video games by something in the way of oh I don’t know, most of human civilization.

But enough ranting from me, my closing points are simple.

Everything in moderation is a good idea, especially, the “Everything” part.

Our kids are under immense pressure all through school, then university especially when they dive right from one to the other. We need to look hard and long at our education systems.

Video Games won’t cause anarchy amongst our youth, but they might keep our youth from going bonkers.

Pulled this off the feeds this morning from MarketWatch, waiting to see more reports start rolling in before I totally accept it, and given the booboo that’s in the article. (Damn death of reliable journalism)

Anywho going by this Mikey Mouse has gone from  buying Marvel to Stubbs the Zombie. While it doesn’t surprise me that Uncle Walk is moving further into the gaming sector with this possible aquisistion it does make me start to wonder where they’re going to go next. Or more aptly who are they going to buy next?

I know Disney has a respectable level of quality control usually (control being the operative word there) and they don’t limit themselves to purely children’s entertainment these days, it still makes me scratch my head and wonder not only what effect they will have on Marvel’s future releases but also the impact they will have on the Game Industry as they move further into the gaming sector.

There’s also if they keep aquiring game studios, with Disney’s marketing aparatus and brand visibility I wonder if they will crowd out the smaller publishers and makers in the kids game market and other areas. Between Disney and EA (Evil Empires rising! XD) if aquisistion trends continue I suspect we’re in for an interesting year or more of developments.

Something to watch develop as one drinks their morning coffee and contemplate if there really is a DOG.