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[ClayB]

church is run by EA don't expect too much from them

I predict connection issues with the new pope at launch.

[feminazi]

i thought no one cares about zynga anymore

[Ridley]

I predict connection issues with the new pope at launch.

Error 37: Unable to establish divine connection with papal servers.

To be fair, Catholicism is like an MMO. Lacking a single-player mode, the always-online DRM is reasonable enough.

[Impmaster]

Anyone know how I can play Shadow of the Colossus on a Mac? I have Windows on it as well, if there is no way.

[ink.inc]

install pcsx2

pirate the ps2 bios

pirate a sotc rom

enable all speedhacks

gg

[gimymblert]

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/zynga-debate-over-originality-is-vastly-overblown-6405101

"What I actually said was that all games are derived from other games, that this has been happening long before Zynga, and that the debate about originality in games is vastly overblown and misses the mark,"

Part of it were true, i mean, look at NES & Atari era, bunch of space shooter there, but it's hard to say "you were right, Zynga" consider that the word is come from them, and they wan us to excuse them for cloning others. Such shameless company.

Yep and it didn't increase the user base until new genre where introduced, actually the user base decrease as the game became more sophisticate, also shooter has almost disappear and remain the nichest thing ever. Like there isn't much anticipation for suwapon 3 is it? Which basically mean the genre has crashed, and only a few small specialist remain on the market. So it's not overblown, something can work big time but also generate fatigue and suddenly became antiquated by the next fad. Originality, variety and singularity protect you from fad, where is social game today? Now it looks like a promising golden goose that have been cut in half to make the eggs out quicker ...

[clockwrk_routine]

install pcsx2

pirate the ps2 bios

pirate a sotc rom

enable all speedhacks

gg

get gsdx 'cutie' graphics plugin

http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-A-custom-gsdx-which-include-many-nice-hackfix-source-code-attached

superfast

[s0]

btw zynga's bs isn't somehow excusable because other companies use shitty marketing tactics too, just throwing that out there.

[Udderdude]

actually the user base decrease as the game became more sophisticate, also shooter has almost disappear and remain the nichest thing ever. Like there isn't much anticipation for suwapon 3 is it? Which basically mean the genre has crashed, and only a few small specialist remain on the market.

I think as a genre continues to evolve and have stuff added/changed, the people interested in those changes gets smaller and smaller.  Only the hardcore stick around to see the final result/evolution of a genre or sub-genre, and by then it's so refined that newcomers can barely make any sense of it. See : Pretty much any scoring system heavy bullet hell shmup. D:

As for social games, there was really nowhere for them to evolve in the first place; they were hardly even games to begin with.  Does not surprise me at all to see it's burning out already.

[gimymblert]

Well I don't believe there wasn't room for them to evolve, the reason is that I had design a very similar game back in 2004, and there was nothing like that at all to look up. Because I made the same conclusion that led to social game I can tell you there is much more that can be done.

Actually social game is evolving much like every genre, finicky details for connoisseur, pretty much what you are describing. Also there is a offshot of social game in mobile game as card collection game which has pick the business model and the business gameplay.

But let's break down social game: they are essentially management game with different friction model (friction is on time instead of economy). My experience with social game is barely different from my first time on civilisation or similar game, when I could not read the screen and basically just place stuff to make resource and wait ... especially when you play these game on easy mode. Except social game had stronger feedback and "action" to take, you need to manually harvest resource and their flow are much more apparent (the collectible is not an abstract gauge hidden somewhere), this increase of action had a new layer of gameplay as you have to invest in effort reducing items (buy a tractor instead of harvesting the crop by hand) which is more organic and directly translate to what happen on screen. No wonder all old school management veteran flew to them, and also metrics make making the game another management game they enjoyed. And while social game does not have harsh failure loop, they does have good optimization loop where placement increase production.

But actually casual game and social game were actually tightening game design all along, game culture is what prevent lesson to be learn (identification to hard core gamer community reject anything that does belong regardless of merits). For exemple I use to think hidden object game was silly, they bring the least interesting things of point and click game and made it a game (pixel hunting), the good way to see it was they pick the worst part of adventure game and made it "fun". Most casual game make a tabula rasa and reinvent a genre from the ground up, finding new way to build gameplay and sustain interest. For example escape rooms and hidden object has much better density of interaction, feedback and much better layered hint system (from subtle animation to draw the eyes to straight up giving the answer at the cost of some resource). In contrast even a good game like monkey island feel barren and poorly pace. What prevent hidden object to learn something like the narrative cohesion of good adventure game is simply arbitrary cultural border, much like narrative driven game don't learn anything from IF.

[Udderdude]

Social games are designed from the ground up to require payment if you want to proceed at anything more than a glacial pace, and there's no ultimate end game or test of skill to be had anywhere.  You might be able to make a game out of seeing how quickly you can build up your farm/city/whatever with the limited resources you get from not buying anything, but it's hardly that difficult to figure it out (Unless you're terrible at planning/resource management).  These games are designed first and foremost to suck money out of people's wallets by putting up a progression barrier that can only be overcome with money.

[s0]

But let's break down social game: they are essentially management game with different friction model (friction is on time instead of economy).

they're actually just browser mmos that have been around since the 90s with facebook integration and a microtransaction model.

actually some of these pre-facebook "social games" had cash shops too so

[SirNiko]

Kingdom of Loathing is a good example of an evolution from the facebook / browser game model. It features more carefully crafted quests with the intent that players will do exactly what Udderdude described - play the game from scratch, complete the tasks with the most efficient use of resources possible (sometimes under the burden of optional handicaps) then get on a high score table only to do it all again.

In addition, it has plenty of people who play the game just like a facebook game, throwing turns at it when they have them then logging out when they need to wait to generate more turns.

Zynga's dilemma is that they spent too long milking Farmville and its clones and let other game companies capture players who cut their teeth on Zynga games, but left when they wanted something more advanced.

[mono]

youtube loser

saw that piece vice did on him and he sure comes off as a jerk lol





edit: aaaand it was deleted

[Udderdude]

NOES, you must tell us who the loserer is :O

[mono]

NOES, you must tell us who the loserer is :O

phubans would agree

[Bandages]

NOES, you must tell us who the loserer is :O

phubans would agree

What is it with White People and god complexes?

[Mittens]

NOES, you must tell us who the loserer is :O

phubans would agree

All I see when I watch this is a man eating a tub of nutella, I can't hear a word he's saying

[gimymblert]

@udderdude
That they are build up to suck up money (like old arcade micro transaction based on life) is not new for any game, and some people are genuinely making social game (especially those who got ripped of by zynga). Remind me why AAA corridor shooter has no secret area again?

[Udderdude]

That they are build up to suck up money (like old arcade micro transaction based on life) is not new for any game

If you're suggesting social game paywalls are the same as the arcade game pay for play model, you're on crack.  Almost all arcade games could be completed on one credit, given a high enough player skill level.  Social games, on the other hand, have almost nothing to do with skill and don't ever end or even have any other goal other than "Collect more shit" anyway.  And the company is under no obligation to keep it around, since it's all on their servers anyway and is digital/intangible goods.  Once the server is unplugged, your farm goes bye-bye for good, regardless of how much money you shoveled into it.

That they and some people are genuinely making social game (especially those who got ripped of by zynga).

They're inherently like that .. you can approach it with the best of intentions but you'll still end up with the same result.

Remind me why AAA corridor shooter has no secret area again?

What does this have to do with anything?