[Episode 34] The Triple E

[Ravenlock]

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Ordinarily, we’re not a very news-oriented show. We’ll occasionally mention something that’s been making its way around the internet if it’s of interest to us (or if it’s really terrible, harp on it for weeks on end – hi, Infinity Ward and Ubisoft!), but generally speaking we figure you don’t want to hear a week later what we said about something that was already a week old when we talked about it. There are a couple of exceptions, though, and E3 qualifies as one. So here it is: the E3 show.

With our newly expanded crew, a fair amount of time is given to catching up with each others’ gaming, and you’ll be hearing about mods like I Hate Mountains (http://www.ihatemountains.com/) for the original Left 4 Dead and Sacrifice of Angels 2 (http://www.moddb.com/mods/star-trek-sacrifice-of-angels-2) for Sins of a Solar Empire, indie games like Fractal (http://www.playfractal.com/) and Mount & Blade: Warband (http://www.taleworlds.com/), some console games we wish were on the PC (or at least, we wish we could play there… Ubisoft), a little pseudo-MMO discussion in the form of the APB beta, and a whole lot more. Once we finally get around to talking about E3, you can look forward to our confusion over the Valve reveal, our concerns about Obsidian taking back the Fallout license, our hopes and fears about the accelerating trend towards “free-to-play” MMO pricing, and other things I’m sure I’m forgetting to mention. Also, listener mail!

It’s a pretty meaty show, so dive in. There’s something for everybody at The Triple E (http://www.immortalmachines.com/?p=376).

Hosted and Summarized by Eric [Ravenlock]
Participants are Robert [Trebor], Steve [Dukefrukem], James [Vigil80] and J_Arcane
Produced by Clayton [Voodoo]

Direct Download (http://www.immortalmachines.com/public/podcast/The_Triple_E.mp3)

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[Dukefrukem]

I'm such a nub.

[Doogie2K]

Surprised you guys didn't talk about the possibilites of ducking cert (which would make TF2 actually playable on console) and cross-platform multiplayer/co-op (which I do recall being talked up at some point during E3, though that may have been another podcaster projecting/hoping). Those are actually the most exciting possibilities for Steamworks on console, aside from the Cloud.

(And no, no one would buy Portal 2 for $60 on console and $50 on PC; they'd buy it on PS3 then wait until a Steam sale and get it on the PC for $10.)

[Ravenlock]

Doogie, those are two very good points that I confess I just didn't think of at all. I have no idea whether Steamworks on PS3 would influence the certification process, but it's not unreasonable to suppose that it might. Either way, cross-platform multiplayer is certainly something that I could see the appeal of.

Good calls.

[Ravenlock]

On the topic of free to play MMO games, Lord of the Rings Online isn't the only subscription MMO considering it - this from PCGamer.com: Blizzard discuss making World of Warcraft free (http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/06/30/blizzard-discuss-making-world-of-warcraft-free/)

"Speaking to PC Gamer at their studios in Irvine, California, World of Warcraft’s lead designer, Tom Chilton, explained that “at some point, it may not make sense for us to have a subscription fee.”

Tom was speaking about the rapid expansion of free-to-play games in the west, and the terms under which Blizzard would consider a similar model for World of Warcraft. In the last year, classic western hardcore online games such as Lord of the Rings Online, Company of Heroes and Dungeons and Dragons Online have all embraced a free-to-play model, where microtransactions and item purchases are a substitute for a traditional subscription fee.

Yet Tom doesn’t think those games have gone free just to compete with World of Warcraft. “I feel like they’re doing that to compete with other games that are on a similar subscriber level to what they were at. I imagine that when one of them went free to play it cannibalized some of the other subscribers. I can definitely imagine that being the case with World of Warcraft. If another game comes along and blows us away it may not make sense for us to have a subscription fee. Or even further down the line, when we have another MMO out.”

They're careful to say it's "not something coming soon", but that they're talking about it as a realistic future possibility should be viewed as a marker to anyone wondering whether free to play is being taken seriously by the big boys. If anybody can be said to have made the subscription model wildly successful, it's Blizzard, but clearly they don't necessarily think it's going to win out in the end.

[Vigil80]

I don't think it's so much about "winning out" as it is a different strategy for a different situation. Older games, or those with limited playerbases, are the ones that tend to go free. Someday, believe it or not, WoW will be in that camp. I think that's what Chilton is mainly describing.
If another game comes along and blows us away it may not make sense for us to have a subscription fee. Or even further down the line, when we have another MMO out.
For new, heavy hitters with lots of customers, I predict subscriptions will still be king for some time.

[Doogie2K]

Doogie, those are two very good points that I confess I just didn't think of at all. I have no idea whether Steamworks on PS3 would influence the certification process, but it's not unreasonable to suppose that it might. Either way, cross-platform multiplayer is certainly something that I could see the appeal of.

Good calls.

Thanks. I know SteamPlay was one of the main pillars of appeal for current consumers when they released their Mac client, along with being able to download Mac versions of stuff you already own (fat chance of that one happening on PS3). As for cert, I think I'm mostly dreaming here: never mind the 8,000 TF2 updates, imagine if you could turn on your PS3 and be taken by the same sort of viral campaign that led to the Portal 2 announcement. I felt kind of bad for our console brethren that they couldn't share in that bit of joy.

As for WoW going FTP, I like that they're at least willing to consider it, along with the possibility of them being overtaken someday. When you've been #1 for that long, it's easy to get arrogant, and while clearly, their current model's doing them just fine, you can never assume these sort of things will run in perpetuity. Might be something we see somewhere around 2014 or something, but hell, that might be enough to get me to reactivate my WoW account.

Regarding my email...I totally forgot I sent that, I'll admit. The thing I meant by the "feeling old" is, I know you guys are all old-ass men. ;) So when you talk about doing something in your childhood that I did in my childhood (i.e. the 5 1/4" floppy games), that lumps me in with you guys. Kind of like going to my ten-year high-school reunion a few weeks back: yes, I'm 23, so I'm not really that old, but your ten-year reunion is still the sort of thing that marks the passage of a significant amount of time.

And yes, my Nimoy autograph is pretty awesome. :) I think I was the only guy there who didn't have a Star Trek (or maybe Fringe) tchotchke of some form. Needless to say, it's a good thing I have Civ IV on Steam now, because that fucker went straight into our safe when I got home.

[Voodoo]

I would venture that WoW will go free to play when their new MMO is released.

[Ravenlock]

I’m a sucker for procedurally-generated games. They don’t always work, mind you – sometimes generating levels off random seeds just ends up with an infinite number of relatively unplayable messes. But when they do work, their replayability can extend far beyond that of most games.

Beat Hazard (http://www.coldbeamgames.com/), much like another recent, successful independent procedural game AudioSurf, generates its contents from your music, making every song in your collection a potential leaderboard challenge for you and your friends. With AudioSurf it was racing, with Beat Hazard it’s twin-stick shooting. If AudioSurf was music meets Skyroads (yes, I’m dating myself – go Wikipedia it), then Beat Hazard is music meets Geometry Wars.

A few neat concepts manage to set Beat Hazard apart from just being a generic shooter with your music as a soundtrack, though. Firstly, the current beat and volume of the song dictate how powerful your weapons will be. During a frantic, loud section, you’ll be unstoppable, raining death upon your enemies. During quieter sections, though, your ship because a far less powerful force, and you may need to focus on evasion more than offense. Secondly, the augmentation of your strength during the song (both through the song’s attributes and through “power” and “volume” pickups) is balanced by increased visual noise as the literal noise increases, making it harder to follow the action; suffice it to say that Beat Hazard gets visually crazy, and this is not a game for those prone to seizure.

Finally, high scores will net you level progression as you play through your music collection; you’ll earn reduced death penalties, bonuses to your score multiplier, additional power-ups, and so on as you make your way up the ranks. High score tables that compare you to your friends on any songs you happen to share round out the package to make a pretty seriously addictive game; I poured far more hours into Beat Hazard than I intended to, the week I started playing it.

But enough text rambling, you’re here to listen to vocal rambling! So please, enjoy our latest Indiecast (http://www.immortalmachines.com/?p=381). If Beat Hazard sounds like your thing, a very reasonable $4.99 will obtain it on Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/49600/) through July 4th ($9.99 afterwards).

Hosted and Summarized by Eric [Ravenlock]
Participants are James [Vigil80], J_Arcane, Robert [Trebor], and Producer Clayton [Voodoo]

Direct Download (http://www.immortalmachines.com/public/podcast/Beat_Hazard.mp3)

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[nabokovfan87]

For those who though Beat Hazard sounded interesting, it is on sale until 10 AM PST 7/3/2010 for $2.49.

[Ravenlock]

Oh sweet! I hadn't looked at today's deals yet. Thanks, Nab.

I definitely recommend it for that. I mean, you can't get a Happy Meal for that. ;)

[Doogie2K]

OMFG PRETTY LIGHT SHOW

I had wondered if, as some sort of meta challenge, you could try putting this MP3 into Beat Hazard and play it. Having now played Beat Hazard, I'm pretty sure that would be fucking terrible, but it'd be interesting to see how it handled the spoken word nonetheless.

[Doogie2K]

I'd also like to present the Law of DragonForce, which states that in any procedurally generated music game released after Guitar Hero III, the Internet must necessarily upload multiple videos of people playing "Through the Fire and Flames" on a high difficulty setting to demonstrate their perceived badassery. So it was with Audiosurf, and so it is with Beat Hazard.

86yGZKQXHF0

[nabokovfan87]

OMFG PRETTY LIGHT SHOW

I had wondered if, as some sort of meta challenge, you could try putting this MP3 into Beat Hazard and play it. Having now played Beat Hazard, I'm pretty sure that would be fucking terrible, but it'd be interesting to see how it handled the spoken word nonetheless.

I was talking to raven about doing this, I got 33% through it, about the 5 minute mark, and died. It is a very offbeat way to go about it, makes it unique and interesting to just mess with the game like that.

[Doogie2K]

I do wish the thing would pre-analyze and rate the difficulty of the song you choose in advance. I keep getting fucked up by "Tom Sawyer" because a boss shows up but ships and asteroids don't stop coming. I've gotten killed three or four times on that boss just because I run into something else while trying to dodge/shoot missiles.

[nabokovfan87]

I do wish the thing would pre-analyze and rate the difficulty of the song you choose in advance. I keep getting fucked up by "Tom Sawyer" because a boss shows up but ships and asteroids don't stop coming. I've gotten killed three or four times on that boss just because I run into something else while trying to dodge/shoot missiles.

I'll have to take a vid, but metallica's call of ktulu, two bossfights at once, within 45 seconds. You have no upgrades, and will get rolled if you play it wrong. The rest of the song is insane, and that song has the brightest visuals I have seen in all of BH.

EDIT: I think I need to play on a higher difficulty to have the two bosses that early, but here is the vid. I played king of reserved, saving shots to boost the bonus.

5UpUFmeQtv0