Still Waiting for New Line of MMOs

As far as most gaming publishers are concerned, all computer gamers are playing World of Warcraft. They don't seem to realize how many of us quit long ago because Blizzard alienated us, or simply because we got tired of them not being able to make up their mind on how some of the simplest game mechanics should work.

So for those of us that have played WoW and left, we have been waiting for something new for quite awhile. I first got excited about DnD Online, then it turned out to be nowhere even close to as good as it should have been. Then I actually turned my attention to some non MMO games, HellGate London, Assasin's Creed, Supreme Commander. I found out the first two wouldn't be out for ages, then wasn't too impressed with Supreme Commander due to the numerous multiplayer bugs.

So now I'm sitting here waiting for WarHammer Online, or Huxley, or anything that is different to emerge, something that requires some form of skill, or teamwork. Don't need another game with button mashing on cool down timers. I'm a picky gamer, I'll admit it, but two years ago you were seeing MMO's pumped out weekly, some good, most bad, and now that there are starting to be more and more available players that have left the old MMO's, there is nothing new to try. This is a failure of gaming community first off, and a disappointment in the gaming studios second.

Timing has always been a crucial part of just about anything, releasing games is no different. Several of the upcoming games have the potential to be big names, but when and how they manage their release will determine that.

Violence and Video Games Study that Looked Outside the Box!

I've been telling everyone I know, friends, family, and any stranger in a game store I happen to see that violence in video games is the least of a kids problems if he's even once contemplated picking up a weapon to use it on another human being. Unfortunately till now, most video game studies were performed on children that already had violent tendencies, or were based entirely by watching brain activity via an MRI and theorizing that increased activity in certain parts of the brain also meant increased likelyhood of bringing game events to the real world. Both types of tests are a complete failure of the scientific method. Dispite their failed testing procedures, both types have produced rather mixed data.

I have been asking for years now when someone would finally get around to doing a study correctly, and it appears that someone has finally got the ball rolling with some actual non biased testing. I'll try to sum it up. The study found that there are multiple personalities when it comes to gamers. Go figure, we aren't all monkey's trained to behave in the exact same manner. Anyways, they found they could generalize those tested into 3 categories.

The first group consisted of their most stable group. Which by the way consisted of 77 of the 125 tested. This group's mental state didn't change much after playing violent video games. The second group consisted of 22 of those tested. Those were of gamers that had low anger levels before gaming, but higher levels afterwards. Of those 22, only 2 were considered to be a cause for concern. The third group was limited to 8 members of the group. They started out with higher levels of anger, and actually calmed down to levels of the "stable" group after gaming.

Thye concluded that a major factor to the changes in anger level was the person's mental state before playing the game. Which indicates what I've been saying all along, troubled kids are more likely to get in trouble despite whatever cause you want to be the scapegoat. It's worth noting that just because their anger levels rose, doesn't mean they lost the capacity to determine right or wrong. It simply was an insight into how some people are effected by violence, and some aren't.

So yet I again I implore those that continue to blame video games to first look at the personal lives of these kids. Look at their parents, their friends, and most definitely look at their enemies. Most of these kids in the past have been the butt end of jokes from bullies all their lives. I know what your saying, kids have always had those problems at school. That is true, but it wasn't until the more recent generations that spanking your children, demanding their respect, and overall teaching them right or wrong become inappropriate. Not until recently did the # of work moms start to approach or out number stay out home mothers in most area's. And not until recently were things like prayer, the national anthem, and the right to enforce school policies with force taken away.

Kids are dealing with life differently now than their parents did because they are being raised differently and with different moral standards. They aren't being taught that their actions have consequences and that there are things worth believing in out here in the world. There is no sense of loyalty to any country, state, or god. And soon you will be able to add family to that list.

You want to stop teenage violence, then it's time to undue some of the last few decades work of unraveling everything this country was founded on. It's time for parents to realise that they are their kids example and law enforcement, not just their friend. And it's time to put the hippy idea's and political correctness with patriotism, religion, and morals to an end.

You can read more on the study here.

Alpha is the new Beta, Beta is the new Release.

I can't recall exactly when it became ok for software development companies to release their product when it reached the 75% complete milestone, but I can't even describe the things I'd to whoever set the trend. I can remember a day when you could go buy a piece of software off the shelf, take it home, install it, and then actually run it without having to update it or patch it first. Then it seems like overnight every game company out there started releasing games in "beta" condition. Unfortunately some of those games were highly anticipated and were sold despite not being a complete and finished product. And thus the precedent was born.

I have been unable to pin down who the first culprits were that actually turned this into a standard, but I'd appreciate any info or help tracking them down. Ok, so at that point it was only game companies releasing unfinished software as the norm, but it seems over the past few years that trend has leaked over into the business application world. As both a gamer and an IT professional, I can see how game companies got away with it, but I simply can't wrap my brain around huge companies putting up with flawed software after shelling out huge wads of cash. My stance on many things in life has always been "vote with your money", and I think its time for consumers to set software companies everywhere back on the right track.

*disclaimer - A certain OS and application company was excluded upon writing this rant on the basis that this rant is directed at an entire industry and not a particular company. And it would have thrown the entire basis of the rant off to include it.