UPDATE: ^Check out the new 'articles' section above.^

Games Professional Awareness – Casual Games

Contextual note:   I wrote these two essays last year as part of my honours work for university.  The casual games industry is not an area I’m overly familiar with (I’m a core gamer through-and-through), so this was quite a difficult exercise to write on with any kind of authority.  I did my best under the circumstances, but I’m by no means an expert in the field.

INTRODUCTION

‘Casual Games are just a short lived fad, and within a few years Video Games will return to their traditional demographic of young males playing action orientated titles.’

Starting from humble origins, the casual games market has grown significantly in recent years.  Today the market is currently estimated to be worth around $2.25 billion (USD) a year (CGA. 2007), and some expect it to grow anywhere between $11 and $15 billion by 2011 (Boyer, B. 2007).  One of the more interesting aspects of the casual market is that the primary audience are females, and on average, people aged between thirty-five and fifty (CGA. 2007).  Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of the larger players in the video games industry are now turning their attention towards casual games.

However, as the casual games industry grows, significant concerns regarding plagiarism, piracy, market saturation, and limited business models have been raised.  At the 2008 Casual Games Summit, Gamelab’s Eric Zimmerman declared the industry as “financially and creatively dead” unless developers took action to steer the industry in a different direction (Waugh, Eric-Jon. 2008).

To examine whether the casual games industry is merely a “short lived fad” or not, this essay will examine the origins and drivers behind the industry’s growth; examine the state of the market; and look at the future opportunities that could shape the industry in the near future.

THE PLIGHT OF THE INDEPENDENT GAME DEVELOPER

The recent Playing for Keeps report compiled for the UK government forecasts a bleak outlook for independent game developers:

“…smaller developers will struggle to start up due to poor access to finance. Those that survive will focus either on newer, smaller, cheaper platforms, or could become satellites around larger studios and publishers, providing specialised outsourced services…” (UK Trade & Investment. 2007)

This is consistent with the general trend of rising development costs and increase in consolidation over the last few years.  It is generally agreed that a “next generation” “AAA” game cost upwards of $10 million USD to develop, and have to sell around 1 million units to be profitable (Schoback, K. 2005; Costikyan, G. 2006).  Combined with lengthy development schedules and low profit margins (between 5-30%), it could be argued that the console market has become too risky and too expensive for all but the most successful independent developers to compete in.  Furthermore, the report suggests that by 2010 the majority of independent studios will be pushed into ‘work for hire’ contracts, with little or no opportunity to create their own game IP (UK Trade & Investment. 2007).

Therefore, in many respects the rise of the casual games industry could be seen as a deliberate response to this, both as a ‘back to basics’ movement and a way to reduce the costs and risk associated with making an AAA console game.  To illustrate, casual games typically cost between $50,000 and $250,000 to develop, and can be produced within a 3-12 month timeframe, with teams comprising of 3-10 people (Waugh, Eric-Jon. 2006).  More importantly, due to the reduced costs and overhead, casual games are perceived to be less risky to publish; giving developers the creative freedom to make more innovative games, which emphasise fun gameplay and not graphics.

“If the game’s not fun, it’s not going to make a sale. So everything comes down to whether or not the game is fun. …. It’s not about fancy graphics or movie licenses, it’s just about fun.” (Gwertzman, J; Cifaldi, F. 2005)

GROWTH OF THE CASUAL GAMES MARKET

While all video games can be traced back to the original arcade games and early home computers; as a pastime, casual gaming grew alongside the development and widespread adoption of PCs and the Internet.  Casual games as we know them today could originally be found in the form of free web-based games on the Internet, normally built in Flash, Java, or ActiveX by amateur game designers.  Due to the technical limitations of both connection speeds and web-browser capabilities, the majority of these games were visually simplistic, and designed to provide immediate gameplay satisfaction – making them ideal for 5 to 15 minute sessions (IGDA. 2006 – Present; Boyer, B. 2007; Nutt, C. 2007).

However, from around 2000, as the popularity of these web-based games grew, and as faster Internet connections became more widespread; a number of businesses, such as PopCap Games, began to develop and publish more polished games resulting in commercial hits like Bejeweled.  PopCap’s initial success was arguably the catalyst for the flood of casual games published today, which reportedly attract over 200 million players per month (CGA. 2007).  Today, casual games appear on a variety of platforms and distribution channels, including PC, Mobile Phone, PDAs, Steam, and even games consoles, such as Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii, which both supplement their primary catalogue of games with casual, arcade, and retro games distributed via their own online services (IGDA, 2006 – Present; Boyer, B. 2007).

CASUAL GAME DEMOGRAPHICS

However, the origin of casual games as a genre, is not limited to web-based games, and goes back further.  Games like Solitaire and Tetris (packaged with Windows and the Nintendo Gameboy, respectively) are often cited among the first and most popular casual games ever made (CGA. 2007).  While it’s straightforward enough to trace casual games by their gameplay and interface similarities, it could be more insightful to reframe the definition in terms of the target audience.  In other words, not asking what the games are, but who plays them?

“If my mom can play it, it’s a casual game.” (Waugh, Eric-Jon. 2006)

The IGDA Casual Games Whitepaper and Casual Games Market Report agree on two main gaming demographics, or type of player – Casual and Hardcore.  The hardcore demographic represents the traditional videogame audience of males under 35 years old; typically playing action games with steep learning curves and significant time investments.  Whereas the casual demographic includes all players, with a 50-70% skew towards females and those over 35 years old.  These casual players tend to play for shorter periods of time, primarily for relaxation and fun; rather than for challenge and stimulation (IGDA. 2006 – Present; CGA. 2007).

By expanding this definition to demographics, we can include PC games such as Myst and The Sims into the casual market.  These games are unique in that they managed to successfully appeal to both hardcore and casual players, and as a result, sold tremendously well[1].  What they share in common include an accessible interface; relaxed pace; and universally appealing themes (mystery, exploration, self-development, experimentation, learning).  These characteristics, combined with a carefully balanced learning curve, seem to partly explain why the games have appealed to a much wider audience.

Ultimately, what this suggests is that there is, and has always been, a potential market for casual videogames, and that the scope of these games is probably much wider than current range of titles being sold by portals today.  Eric Zimmerman concurs, recommending that developers rethink the structure of market and consider the role games play in people’s lifestyles.

“If there’s going to be a casual game industry, its audience should be all the people who bought The Sims — people who don’t own an Xbox, yet neither do they resort to Yahoo! for their entertainment.” (Eric Zimmerman, 2008).

INNOVATIONS IN THE CASUAL GAMES MARKET

In theory, this would imply that every computer user could be a potential customer.  However, to capitalise on this, the industry would have to respond quickly to change in customer demand.  Yet, in its current state, the casual games market is already stable and growing steadily; thus raising concerns that it risks becoming stagnant from the same kind of complacency and lack of innovation seen in the high-end console market.

For instance, the primary business model for most casual games is the “Try & Buy” model, which is very similar to the shareware model of early PC games.  Portals host a number of games on their websites, and allow consumers to play limited trial versions.  To continue playing after the trial, the consumer has to purchase the full version of the game.  While this is the most widely adopted model, it has several limitations.  First, and perhaps most importantly, the conversion rates between players trying a game and actually buying it are extremely low – normally between 1 and 2%.  Secondly, there’s no continual revenue stream – once a user purchases a game, they do not need to spend any more money to continue playing (IGDA, 2006-present).

To work around this, most portals rely heavily advertising to supplement their revenue streams, both on their websites and in their games.  Other companies, such as WildTangent, use a “Pay for Play” model, which works around the concept of a virtual arcade (or slot) machine – users purchase virtual ‘wildcoins’, which they can use to play the games.  Variations on this idea include subscriptions, where the customer pays a monthly fee in return for unlimited access to the portal’s game catalogue and special ‘premium’ games.  Lastly, some companies have experimented with skill-based game tournaments, where players pay a small entry fee to compete for monetary prizes, from which the operator takes a small share (IGDA, 2006-present).

To further complicate matters, low barriers to entry have resulted in increasing levels of competition entering an already crowded market.  Since IP is harder to defend with simpler games, the market has become saturated with what are commonly referred to as ‘clones’ – derivative games that resemble bestsellers (UK Trade & Investment, 2007).

While this occurs in the hardcore market as well (e.g. resulting in terms like “Grand Theft Also”) it’s worth remembering that casual games can be developed within a relatively short timeframe, meaning that a new innovative game can often be ‘cloned’ within weeks of its release, thus making any unique gameplay hooks or innovations redundant (UK Trade & Investment, 2007).  Consequently, critics have cast a shadow of uncertainty over the future of creativity and innovation in the industry:

the field has “almost become a parody of itself… The degree of shameless clones seems, to my eye, to be more prevalent than other sectors of the game industry… I’m not seeing that innovation is rewarded.” (Zimmerman, E.; Waugh, Eric-Jon. 2008). 

On the other hand, developers such as Colin Anderson are more optimistic, arguing that imitation and adaptation are necessary to evolve games and drive innovation in the long term.  He goes further to argue that creatively reimagining and reinventing existing styles is fundamental to all artistic mediums, such as music and novels, which couldn’t have evolved to where they are now, if it weren’t for artists building on previous work and adapting it into something new.

“If the early rock and roll stars had patented the twelve bar blues, then music industry as a whole would not exist.” (Anderson, C. 2007)

CONCLUSIONS

While condemning casual games as a ‘fad’ might be going too far; some concern is justified.  First, it has been acknowledged that while the market is growing, it is quickly becoming saturated with derivative game “clones”, making it hard for developers to compete effectively.  Secondly, the current business models in place are limited, and tend to favour game portals and distributors, rather than the creators.  Lastly, the rapid growth of the industry, and low barriers to entry, will inevitably put more pressure on developers and portals to compete with each other.

However, despite these factors, there are some compelling reasons to remain optimistic.  For one, casual games development could be described as a move back towards the ‘golden era’ of game design, and the desire of developers to focus on simple, compelling gameplay mechanics, using innovative and creative ideas to capture the imagination of their newfound audience.  Whether this is due to a natural desire to return to the fundamentals of their craft, or simply a response to increasing market pressure, it can be argued that the casual games sector is a becoming more attractive for independent developers, and therefore more likely to remain active.  Whilst competition will put more pressure on developers; arguably, it will also encourage them to continue to refine, innovate, and hopefully break new ground.

Furthermore, casual games have naturally evolved in parallel with console games, and there is evidence to suggest that there has always been a demand for them.  Critically, studies reveal that their audience is not limited to the narrow ‘hardcore gamer’ market, and thus the potential for growing the market is seemingly limitless.  Whether this is actually the case or not, initiatives by Microsoft and Nintendo to bridge the gap between hardcore and casual gamers are likely to continue, with games like Wii Sports, Guitar Hero, Myst, and The Sims clearly demonstrating the potential rewards of bringing the two markets closer together.  Likewise the increase in distribution channels for developers, including mobile phones; PDAs; iDTV; Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, and so on; only confirm that there is clearly enough interest and activity in the market to sustain the industry in the near future.

© 2008 – 2009 Jonathan Hallier.  All rights reserved.

REFERENCES & BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anderson, C. 2007. Opinion: Why casual game cloning makes sense [online] Gamasutra. Available from: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14990 [Accessed on March 22, 2008]

Boyer, B. 2007. Casual connect: Microsoft on bridging the casual/core divide [online] Gamasutra. Available from: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14741 [Accessed on March 22, 2008]

Carroll, R. 2007. Casually speaking: ‘casual game portals: the inside story’ [online] Gamasutra. Available from: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=15955

[Accessed on March 22, 2008]

CGA. 2007. The casual games industry summary 2007 [online] casualgamesassociation.org Available from: http://www.casualconnect.org/newscontent/11-2007/CasualGamesMarketReport2007_Summary.pdf

Cifaldi, F. 2005. Popping in on PopCap: James Gwertzman on casual growth [online] Gamasutra. Available from: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051214/cifaldi_pfv.htm [Accessed on March 22, 2008]

Costikyan, G. 2006. Games, genres, and why independent games are vital [online] Texas Independent Games Conference. Available from: http://www.costik.com/presentations/texasindie06.ppt [Accessed on March 22 2008]

IGDA 2006 – Present. Casual Games SIG/Whitepaper [online] IGDA. Available from: http://www.igda.org/wiki/Casual_Games_SIG/Whitepaper [Accessed on March 22, 2008]

Nutt, C. 2007. Casual game business worth $2.25 billion [online] Gamasutra. Available from: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=16034 [Accessed on March 22, 2008]

Schoback, K. 2005. The economics of a next-gen game [online] IGDA. Available from: http://www.igda.org/biz/GDC05_NextGenEconomics.ppt [Accessed on March 22, 2008]

UK Trade and Investment, 2007. Playing for keeps: Challenges to sustaining a

world-class UK games sector; Commercial Models [online] uktradeinvest.gov.uk. Available from: https://www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk/ukti/fileDownload/Mono3GamesReport_LR.pdf?cid=411884

[Accessed on March 22, 2008]

Walker, T. 2002. The Sims overtakes Myst [online] Gamespot, CNET Networks, Inc. Available from: http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/simslivinlarge/news.html?sid=2857556&print=1 [Accessed on March 22, 2008]

Waugh, Eric-Jon. 2006. GDC: Casual games summit 2006: An introduction to casual games [online] Gamasutra. Available from: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2621/gdc_casual_games_summit_2006_an_.php [Accessed on March 22, 2008]

Waugh, Eric-Jon. 2008. CGS: Gamelab’s Zimmerman says casual games are dead (sort of) [online] Gamasutra. Available from: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17499 [Accessed on March 22, 2008]

---

[1] Myst was one of the best selling pc games of all time until it was surpassed by The Sims (Trey Walker, 2002)

Games Professional Awareness – Censorship and Social Responsibility

Contextual note:   I wrote these two essays last year as part of my honours work for university.  Having written plenty of essays on games and violence for school and college, I tackled this with the hope that it would be the last one I ever write.  The subject of censorship in games is one that I feel pretty strong about, and this article fairly adequately sums up my beliefs on the subject.

To clarify, I don’t have a problem with sex and violence in games, per se — I’d be a hypocrite otherwise.  However, I do believe that if games want to be taken seriously as an artistic or entertainment medium, a line has to be drawn somewhere.  For me personally, that line is sadism, of the extreme kind you see in games like Postal2.

I don’t have anything against Rockstar Games,  or Manhunt2 specifically, it just happened to be in the news at the time of writing.  That said, I really hope publishing Manhunt2 was worth all the aggravation with the BBFC.

INTRODUCTION

“Pong didn’t make me aspire to play pingpong, tennis or another racket game in the real world. So maybe no one will want to join a street gang after playing ‘The Warriors.’ But making sport out of theft, murder, prostitution and senseless destruction seems wrong on every level.’ (Tom Martin) “

After much controversy, Rockstar Games’ Manhunt 2 was finally granted an 18 certificate in March 2008.  Up until this point, the BBFC had been successful in preventing the game from retailing in the United Kingdom; however after a series of successful appeals by Rockstar Games, the BBFC was eventually left with no choice but to issue the game with an 18 certificate, enabling it to go to retail (Jenkins, D. 2008).  The game was controversial mainly due its explicit violence (including a highly publicised castration scene[1]), and its connection to infamous Grand Theft Auto 3 developer, Rockstar North.  Furthermore, the original Manhunt game had already received considerable bad press after being allegedly linked to the murder of teenager Stefan Pakeerah.  While this link was categorically disproven, the game’s reputation as a corruptor of children stuck, ironically elevating the game to the same status as the fictional world of snuff videos that it portrayed (Jenkins, D. 2007).

However, the debate concerning videogame content, and whether videogames in general are harmful to children and society as a whole, is not a new one.  Over the years, games like Mortal Kombat, Streetfighter II, and Doom have all caused similar public outcries and have also been allegedly connected to various accidents, injuries, and deaths.  Whilst outspoken critics such as Jack Thompson and David Grossman have been quick to condemn videogames as bad influences on children; game publishers, developers, and consumers have be equally quick to defend them, pushing the responsibility to parents, and defending game content on grounds of freedom of speech and artistic expression.

After more than a decade of controversy, legal disputes, and research, it would seem that there is still no conclusive evidence to directly connect videogames with acts of violence and crime.  Despite this, videogames are, and will probably remain for some time, a controversial medium.  As a result, the intention of this essay is not to retread the same arguments for and against videogame censorship, because, as Ren Reynolds highlights, these arguments are grounded on two different theological perspectives which are unlikely to be resolved (Reynolds, R. 2002).   Instead, this essay will consider the potential dilemmas concerning whether or not industry professionals have an obligation to act in socially responsible manner.

DRAWING THE LINE

First, it is important to distinguish between microethics (individual professional responsibilities) and macroethics (responsibilities of the profession itself), and the dilemma this imposes on the individual developer (Ladd, J. 1995).  Looking at the responsibilities of the games profession itself (in terms of game content), there is a clear conflict between social responsibility and artistic expression.

On the one hand, it can be argued that it’s in the best interest of the games industry to limit the production of titles like Manhunt, Grand Theft Auto, and other games which make a “sport out of theft, murder, prostitution and senseless destruction” (Martin, T. 2006).

Arguably, the Manhunt games aren’t ethically questionable because of their explicit content, so much as the implication that they were shrewdly marketed as games about murder; leveraging the negative publicity and tabloid outrage to their advantage.  For example, the BBFC’s justification for banning the sequel, combined with its limited availability, inadvertently serves to promote the game further:

“Manhunt 2 is distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone in an overall game context which constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing.” (Jenkins D. 2007)

Other examples of games which used controversy to drive their sales included JFK: Reloaded, a game which allows the player to recreate the assassination of John F. Kennedy; and Postal 2, which allows the player to engage in various forms of homicidal and sadistic behaviour, often towards innocent bystanders and minority groups.

These kind of games have already tainted the industry’s reputation as a respectable medium, and incidents such as the “Hot Coffee” lawsuit and Manhunt 2 release have already cost companies like Take-Two significant financial losses (Gamasutra, 2007).  Consequently, concerns have been raised, by industry professionals like Raph Koster, that if the games industry continues to push its luck in this fashion (releasing controversial games for the sake of controversy) there’s a fair risk that society will call for more restrictive self-censorship system, similar to the Comics Code, which he argues “stunted the development of the comics medium severely for decades” (Koster, R. 2005).

Yet, at the same time, Koster acknowledges that “the danger is philistinism” (2005) — in other words that if developers don’t take design risks, and don’t push cultural boundaries, then their games will never rise to more than simple entertainment.  Thus, if developers want the videogames medium to be respected as an art form, alongside the film, literature, and music industries, they will have to challenge the limits of what is socially acceptable.  The problem is, at what point do developers draw the line between acceptable and offensive media?

An interesting example of this is the freeware game Super Columbine Massacre RPG! (SCMRPG), which lets the player re-enact the Columbine High School shootings from the killers’ perspective. Whether this game can be considered artistic or tasteless very much comes down to individual interpretation; and while there have been many detractors of the game, it’s worth noting that one of the victims of the shooting incident supported the game (to some extent) (Crecente, B. 2006).  Likewise other developers have commented on its artistic value:

“The game lacks compassion, and I find the Artist’s Statement disingenuous. But despite this, the game does have redeeming value. It does provoke important thoughts, and it does push the boundaries of what games are about. It is composed with more of an eye toward art than most games.” (Blow, J. 2007)

Perhaps then, what differentiates a game like SCMRPG from games like Postal 2, partly depends on the original intent of the author.  Sincere or not, the creator of SCMRPG, Danny Ledonne, argues that he designed the game to make a statement concerning the Columbine incident and the issues it raises (e.g. gun control, videogame violence, bullying, etc) (Crecente, B. 2006).  In comparison, the developers of Postal 2 simply assert that the level of violence in the game is left to the player’s discretion, stressing that it’s possible to finish the game without resorting to violence.  However, certain design choices, such as the range and availability of weapons, clearly indicated that this isn’t developer’s intent.

While history will ultimately cast judgement on these individual cases, the question that has to be asked is: ‘What steps should the videogames industry, as a profession, take to reframe its public profile, in order to be taken seriously alongside other artistic mediums in the near future?’  Raph Koster suggests that a degree of moderation is required.

“The constructive thing to do is to push the boundary gently so that it doesn’t backfire. That’s how we got Lolita and Catcher in the Rye and how we got Apocalypse Now. As a medium, we have to earn the right to be taken seriously.” (R, Koster, 2005).

Silent Hill 2 is a game worth mentioning here, because while it combines violent imagery with sexual symbolism; it is also frequently praised for its mature narrative and presentation — culminating in a unique game experience that sets it apart from similar games in the survival horror genre (IGN, 2007).  Likewise, the BAFTA award winning Max Payne, while primarily an ultra-violent action game, also balances its mature content with an intelligent, film noir inspired story (Davis, G. 2002).  These games, while perhaps not breaking any major boundaries of the medium, are arguably a step in the right direction – not being outright offensive, but taking small steps towards a more mature industry.

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPER

However, on the microethics level, the individual developer may have to face the dilemma of his personal moral code conflicting with his employment contract (or the contract with their client, such as a publisher).  As a result, an unfortunate developer might find themselves facing the prospect of either ‘lightening up’ and working on a game they morally object to (possibly for several years), or finding a new job.  This was illustrated last year by a revealing and candid weblog article written by a former employee of Rockstar Games, Jeff Williams, who reported that the company was allegedly divided on the controversial Manhunt.

“It may sound surprising, but there was almost a mutiny at the company over that game. It was Rockstar North’s pet project – most of us at Rockstar Games wanted no part of it. ….  It was all about the violence, and it was realistic violence. We all knew there was no way we could explain away that game. There was no way to rationalize it. We were crossing a line.” (Williams, J. 2007)

In retrospect, it seems interesting that the publisher would pursue a sequel, in spite of this; however, for the individual developer, there is little guidance available for what to do in such a situation.  Other professions, such as medicine and law, have legally enforceable codes of conduct for members; and even software engineers have broad set of professional guidelines to follow in ethically ambiguous situations (ACM, 1997; IEEE 2007).  However, with an overall lack of union presence in the games industry, individual developers effectively lack representation outside of their employing company, and therefore have to go along with the company’s management and values – or resign. 

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Like many ethical debates driven by media controversy, there is a tendency to shift the responsibility to other parties.  For instance, public outrage will likely put pressure on games industry professionals and governments to regulate videogames content more vigorously.  Likewise, game developers and publishers are more likely to hold the view that parents are ultimately responsible for monitoring and regulating what kind of content they allow their children to watch and interact with.

Rather than pursue the circular arguments and inconclusive research surrounding the issue of whether games are actually harmful; it has been argued that in order for the games industry to mature and become a respected cultural medium (either for entertainment or artistic expression), it is in the best interest of industry practitioners to take more professional responsibility for the games they create, and to become somewhat more sensitive to the cultural context in which they create them (outside of their target demographic).  As other mediums have shown over the centuries, adult themes such as sex and violence can be presented in respectable, even artistic manner.  However, the onus is on the creator(s) to approach the subject with some degree of tact and professionalism.

This applies on both an industry-wide and individual level; however it has also been noted that there is a significant lack of professional representation for individual professionals in the games industry.  The software engineering codes and guidelines of the ACM and IEEE have limited application in this field, and hence the games industry could benefit from its own game professional association, providing a moral compass for individual members.  While the IGDA does fill this role to some extent, the issues it advocates (such as anti-censorship) primarily concern the profession as a whole, and do not provide any specific guidelines or codes of professional conduct for the individual.

Ultimately, it would be unfair to suggest that the responsibility rests entirely on the shoulders of the games industry.  In the long run, all concerned parties are socially responsible, in equal measure, for ensuring that videogames are fairly regulated without resorting to unnecessary censorship.  Lastly, it’s in the best interest of the games industry to work with governments, and organisations such as the BBFC and ELSPA, to proactively raise public awareness of the facts concerning the videogames medium, rather than react over defensively to bad publicity.

© 2008 – 2009 Jonathan Hallier.  All rights reserved.

REFERENCES & BIBLIOGRAPHY

Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. (ACM). 2007. ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct [online] acm.org. Available from: http://www.acm.org/about/code-of-ethics [Accessed March 23, 2008]

Blow, J. 2007. Braid won’t be at Slamdance after all. [online] braid-game.com. Available from: http://braid-game.com/news/?p=18 [Accessed on March 23, 2008]

Casamassina, M. 2007. Manhunt 2 Wii update [online] IGN. Available from: http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/819/819465p2.html [Accessed on March 23, 2008]

Crecente, B. 2006. Columbine survivor talks about columbine RPG [online] kotaku.com. Available from: http://kotaku.com/gaming/feature/columbine-survivor-talks-about-columbine-rpg-171966.php [Accessed March 23, 2008]

Crecente, B. 2006. Gamer was on deadly road – Creator of download says Columbine was a wake-up call [online] Rocky Mountain News. Available from: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4722344,00.html [Accessed March 23, 2008]

Davis, G. 2002. Game noir: The construction of virtual subjectivity in computer gaming [online] Gamasutra. Available from: http://www.gamasutra.com/education/theses/20020821/davis_01.shtml [Accessed on March 23, 2008]

Della Rocca, Jason. 200?. Regulation is everyone’s business [online] IGDA. Available from: http://www.igda.org/articles/dellarocca_regulation.php [Accessed on March 23, 2008]

ESA. 2008. Top 10 industry facts [online] ESA. Available from: http://www.theesa.com/facts/top_10_facts.php [Accessed on March 23, 2008]

Freedman, J. 2001. Evaluating the research on violent video games [online] University of Toronto. Available from: http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/freedman.html

[Accessed on March 23, 2008]

Gamasutra. 2007. Take-Two announces ‘hot coffee’ lawsuit settlements [online] Gamasutra. Available from: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=16182 [Accessed on March 23, 2008]

IEEE. 2007. IEEE Code of Ethics [online] ieee.org. Available from: http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/iportals/aboutus/ethics/code.html [Accessed March 23, 2008]

IGDA. 2007. Anti-Censorship [online] IGDA. Available from: http://www.igda.org/censorship/ [Accessed on March 23, 2008]

IGN. Ign’s top 100 games of all time – Silent Hill 2 [online] IGN Available from: http://uk.top100.ign.com/2007/ign_top_game_97.html [Accessed on March 23, 2008]

Jenkins, D. 2007. Manhunt 2 denied rating In UK [online] Gamasutra. Available from: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14385 [Accessed on March 23, 2008]

Jenkins, D. 2008. Manhunt 2 wins legal battle for release [online] Gamasutra. Available from: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17869 [Accessed on March 23, 2008]

Jenkins, H. 200?. Reality bytes: Eight myths about video games debunked [online] KCTS Television. Available from: http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html

[Accessed on March 23, 2008]

Koster, R. 2005. A theory of fun for game design, Scottsdale, Arizona: Paraglyph Press, Inc.   pp166-170.

Ladd, J.1995. The quest for a code of professional ethics: an intellectual and moral confusion. In Johnson, D.G. and Nissenbaum, eds. Computers, ethics and social values. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Martin, T. 2006. What would Ms.Pac-Man think about the state of video games? [online] IGDA. Available from: http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=309231&Category=14 [Accessed on March 23, 2008]

Reynolds, R. 2002. Playing a “good” game: a philosophical approach to understanding the morality of games [online] IGDA. Available from: http://www.igda.org/articles/rreynolds_ethics.php [Accessed on March 23, 2008]

Rossignol, J. 2007. Blogged out: ‘rocking the boat’ [online] Gamasutra. Available from: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14868 [Accessed on March 23, 2008]

Tavani, H. T. 2004. Ethics and technology: ethical issues in an age of information and communication technology. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.

Williams, J. 2007. Life during wartime – working at Rockstar Games [online] Alphabet City. Available from: http://web.archive.org/web/20070804084043/http://badasscat.blogspot.com/2007/07/rockstar.html [Accessed on March 27, 2008].  Originally available from: http://badasscat.blogspot.com/2007/07/rockstar.html [Accessed July 27, 2007]

---

[1] Casamassina, M. 2007.

One year down, 19 thousand tracks scrobbled,…

..and many more to go, I hope. But I can’t believe a year has passed already — time really does evaporate.

What’s interesting for me is that my charts don’t quite reflect my “overall” taste in music — some artists I really like have shamefully low plays on my charts, but the plain truth is I just haven’t listened to them this year. Otherwise artists like The Band, and Bob Dylan, and quite a lot of alt-country and americana (e.g. John Prine, Iris DeMent, Steve Earle) would be higher in the list. Especially considering my family went on something of a ‘pilgrimage’ to New York last summer, including quick stops at Greenwich Village; Woodstock; and Big Pink (where Music From Big Pink gets its name, and Dylan and The Band recorded The Basement Tapes)

But I go through phases with music — this year has been dominated largely by, well, I gave up trying to hide it – Kate Bush, Mylène Farmer, and Paris Combo. I discovered (or re-discovered with Kate) all of them in the last 14 months, so it’ll be interesting to see if the charts even out over time.

Paris Combo are fantastic, and Belle du Berry is a truly remarkable singer-songwriter. Her songs are imaginative, romantic, and sometimes very quirky or ironic; but it’s her voice, attitude, and charisma that I think sets her apart. Really, her phrasing is second to none. I’m really looking forward to hearing her ’solo’ project Quizz with David Lewis which was released a few weeks ago. I just wish I could see them live, but I can’t see them crossing the channel any time soon.

As for Mylène Farmer… I’d like to say “guilty pleasure”, but the truth is I really like her. When I joined Last.fm, I decided early on to be frank and honest about scrobbling everything I listened to — not just the stuff that was ‘PC’ — and that includes pop music. Heck, I got into French music via Alizée, and it’s opened the door to a lot of truly great music including Paris Combo, Amélie-Les-Crayons, France Gall, Serge Gainsbourg, Édith Piaf, and many others. So I have no regrets and no shame there. Anyway, perhaps it’s an usual choice, even by my standards, but I think her albums are very consistent, with terrific melodies (probably thanks to Laurent Boutonnat) — something pop music seems to have lost over here. Love it or hate it, I’d probably go as far as saying that Mylène Farmer is as good as commercial pop music gets (so discovering that she’s one of France’s most successful performers is no real surprise).

In addition to those artists, I have actually been listening to other music; including a lot of Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Django Reinhardt, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross (ever since I heard Twisted on the radio last year, I’ve been a big fan of Annie Ross), and lots more Jazz besides. I’ve also been trying to get into modern british music (I guess you might call it electronic or alternative) — artists like Tricky, Goldfrapp, Portishead, Gorillaz, PJ Harvey, Candie Payne, and Martina Topley-Bird. My Dad mostly listens to American music, so it’s been interesting to try and introduce him to this music as well — so far Goldfrapp and PJ Harvey have gone down well.

Notable concerts this year (08/09) have included Leonard Cohen at Edinburgh Castle; Abigail Washburn and The Sparrow Quartet; and The Pretenders (both at the ABC in Glasgow). The Pretenders were playing the same night that Springsteen took Hampden Park by storm. In spite of this, the turnout was good and Chrissie Hynde was on tremendous form — with a few tongue-in-cheek jokes at The Boss’ expense. Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet were stunning — my jaw practically dropped when they ended the concert with Captain. Their album is remarkable too — it’s unlike anything else I’ve heard. That’s not to say the other concerts I went to this year weren’t good (in fact, all of them were exceptional), but these nights were definitely special.

So it’s been a great year for music for me. The one last question I had to ask was — has Last.fm replaced conventional radio for me? No – far from it. In fact, I’m actually listening to more radio now than ever before. If the BBC does anything right, it’s the radio, and BBC Radio 2, 3, and 6 are exceptional stations – at least, at certain times during the day (Radio 2 plays significantly better music at night). And I’ve been a fan of Radio Scotland for years — their evening music shows are fantastic, my favourites being the Jazz House and the Global Gathering (previously Celtic Connections). If anyone is interested, I’ve listed some of my favourite programmes on my profile page.

Finally, I’ve also been listening to a bit of Classic FM and several French radio stations (thanks to Radio FR Solo) . One nice discovery I made was Le pont des artistes on France Inter. Every Saturday three artists or bands are brought together into a studio, and put on a two hour gig — it’s like a French version of Later…

Well, I’ve written too much already, so I’ll leave it there.

Procrastination and Plans for the (near) future

Updates have been a bit sporadic as of late – I apologise for that.  It seems that Mafia Wars is more addictive than I gave it credit for (games and addiction is a good subject for a future post).  You might have also noticed that I keep changing the blog’s appearance and title as well — I’m struggling to settle on something I like.  Anyway, I’m posting this (more for me as a commitment/reminder) to let you know of my plans for the blog and future updates.

Pending changes:

• Overhaul of the portfolio section with links and details to all my game mods and projects.
• (Brief) Post mortems for notable projects
• Start weekly dev diary for The Real World
• Upload decent essays from university
• Finish my article on games and languages, and begin a weekly Morrowind en français progress diary
• Start posting game concept ideas, game & demo reviews, games production, and related articles.
• Update my ‘about me’ page, with a reading list, recommended books, music, and so on.
• Update ‘about me’ page with detailed, interview style FAQ
• Integrate with LinkedIn, Facebook, and Last.fm
• Do something with Hells Kitchen
• Revise categories into a more logical order.

If all goes to plan (HA!) you’re going to see some major updates, quickly and without much regard for order or anything.  I’ve got a lot of my mind, and I’m planning to dump it on you, dear reader.  You have be forewarned.

While I’m writing, I want to talk briefly about procrastination — something even the best of us have to battle with.

One of the main tenets of Agile Development (broadly interpreted) is that Action > trumps everything else (including planning and documentation).  To some extent this is true, certainly when it comes to procrastination — it’s incredibly easy to  come up with excuses for not doing something (including excessive preparation).   The basic idea, whatever the application, is to get the gears moving forward.  In other words, it’s better to act, rather than to react (i.e. pro actively do something, rather than wait until it becomes a problem).   This is certainly the case with student syndrome, where students routinely leave essays until the very last moment, before tackling their work (usually pulling an “all-nighter” –my personal record is two 2000 word essays in a 24 hour block) .

But, I think the key is to strike a balance between planning and action.  “To Do” lists work (and I swear by them) for two reasons:  first it’s quick to jot down even the biggest tasks; and secondly, by writing it down, you’re committing to action — or at least acknowledging that the task has to be done in the not too distant future.  You can also make prioritised lists, to cover the immediate, short, medium, and long term.  In sum: they’re quick, simple, and flexible — if you use them.

If you want to take it further, it’s not hard to see how a development schedule (like a Gantt chart) is really just a glorified To Do list.  Sure it has “powerful resourcing tools”, but essentially, what it comes down to is breaking tasks down into manageable steps, committing to action, and tracking progress.   The scope is much bigger, but it serves exactly the same function.

Another useful exercise I read about are Crisis Logs.  Basically, the idea is that you log down every instance where you left something to the very last minute and got burned for it (i.e. student syndrome).  The benefits are twofold: first, and obviously, the more you do this, the more likely you are to avoid procrastination strategies in the future.  Secondly, you might be able to identify patterns or key areas in your life and work, where you tend to avoid or put things off (procrastinate) rather than tackle head on.  This is enormously valuable information — merely being aware of this is enough to take steps towards change.   In a team project or game development scenario, you might note every instance when the team got pushed into crunch mode.  Were the tasks unrealistic?  Were the deadlines and milestones too ambitious?  It shouldn’t be too hard to see why this is a useful exercise (perhaps more insightful than a high level postmortem).

But it all starts with a “To Do List”, and if you want to manage anything, from an AAA game, to a mod total conversion, to your own life, you need to be familiar with “to do lists”.   That’s why I’d say the producer’s most important tools are as follows:

1. Notepad
2. Diary
3. Working pen

I’ve got an early start tomorrow — should be fun.

‘Appuyer sur la touché START’ [part one]

It’s something of a journalistic cliché (or faux pas) to use inappropriate/broken/wrong French words and phrases while writing an article on languages, so from this point on, I’m going to try my best to refrain from that.

Recently, I’ve been really getting into French cinema and music; and as some of my friends are from France (their English is excellent) it occurred to me that perhaps I should seriously try to learn the language.  In fact, when I was at university, one of my lecturers, Jim TerKeurst, suggested we do just that (learn either French or Japanese), and I’m now kicking myself for not taking up the offer.

So, for the last year or so,  I’ve been trying to learn French on my own.  Now, I wasn’t especially good at French in school (I’ve no idea how I scraped through Standard Grade because I honestly don’t remember much of it); but I figured that I’m old enough and ugly enough to get my head around this time — nasal vowels n’ all.

The problem is that I can’t afford lessons right now, so what have I been using instead?

• French Dictionary – a relic from high school (barely used, of course).  The one I have (published by Collins) has a fantastic grammar section, which is arguably more useful than the dictionary part.  Essential.
• Music – I’m trying to translate the lyrics to improve my vocabulary and written comprehension.  Because it’s audio,  I’m starting to pick up on the pronunciation of words.  Pop music works surprisingly well, I guess because the choruses are so damn catchy.
• Films/TV – same as music: to improve listening and comprehension.  It’s easy to fall back on subtitles, but every now and then I pick up on what they’re actually saying, which sometimes varies considerably from what the subtitles translate.
• Literature — Well okay, I’m not talking about Victor Hugo here, but Hergé.  I grew up with Tintin, and the idea of re-reading the books in their original language is very appealing.
• French Steps / BBC languages page – This is a terrific resource from the BBC (barely justifying my tv license), with plenty of online material to go through, and several structured courses at various levels.
• BBC Bitesize and Open University programmes – during exam season, the BBC shows various language programmes for school and university.  Handy.
• French Pod Class — This is what I started with, and they’re fantastic – Sebastian has made almost one hundred episodes (usually between 20-40 minutes), and each one comes with a detailed review sheet and exercises.  Episodes are typically divided into 2-3 easily digestible chunks, covering phrases, vocabulary, and grammar, often linked by a common theme (travelling, shopping, pets, etc).  Best of all, he breaks these sections up with brief introductions to  French culture, including popular films, music, and literature.
• LangoLAB.com — (updated) I’ve only just found this site, but it looks really useful.  You should check Jennifer’s comment below for a detailed explanation; but briefly, the site presents you with Youtube videos (such as cartoons and adverts) in the language you’re studying, and provides an on-the-fly translation via subtitles.  The best part is that you can pause the video and look up specific words and phrases with an in-built dictionary.  It’s also got various other tools to help you (again see the comments below), but I’ve not had time to try them out yet.  It’s a great idea — I really hope  it takes off.
• Le hall de la chanson – Not really a languages site, but this is a terrific online museum dedicated to French musicians, singers, and songwriters.  The site is massive, and has tons of content to explore.
• Radio FR Solo – An excellent little application that lets you listen to several hundred French radio stations.  I don’t know how effective learning by osmosis really is, but it can’t hurt, right?
• Video games – Ah ha.  You can probably guess where this article is going, but I’ll expand on this in a minute.  To begin with Ubisoft have released an excellent series of language games for the DS, including My French Coach (they also have Spanish, Japanese, and several other titles).

Now I fully admit that none of these are an ideal substitute to actual lessons. In fact, as I understand it, by far the most effective way to learn a new language is to actually move to the country in question and force yourself to learn it.  Nothing speeds up the learning process as effectively as when your day-to-day survival depends on it.  However, as appealing as it might sound to hitch-hike across the channel and busk in the Latin Quarter of Paris, I can’t see it working out for me.  So for now, I’ve had to make do with what I’ve got.

After one year of on and off studying, I’d say my comprehension of written and spoken French is improving steadily, but I’ve probably not had enough time/discipline to practise spoken and written French yet (this is where a course would help).  As an example, I’m perfectly happy to order something from Amazon.fr now, but ironically, very uncomfortable when it comes to writing seller feedback.

However, what I’ve come to like about learning a new language is that it’s inherently rewarding.  I’m not talking about the ego factor here — we all know someone who likes to show off because they know a few phrases (I would hate to turn into Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses — si danke schon, bonjour anyone?).  What I mean is that not only does it unlock doors to new cultures and people, but it’s incredibly challenging — and very satisfying when you finally make some progress.

As a game designer, I find this intriguing.  In game terms, translating the lyrics of a song, or a piece of literature, for example, can feel like code breaking or solving a riddle/puzzle: – at the start you have only the corner pieces to grab on to (i.e. basic vocabulary & grammar), but little by little you begin to piece together the meaning (by looking words up), until you get the complete picture.  As your ability improves and you build upon what you’ve already learnt, the process becomes faster and you can then go back and discover subtle nuances in the text, which may lead to a greater understanding (like discovering hidden secrets in a game).  Mastery occurs when the process becomes automatic, and you don’t have to stop and ‘think’ about what’s being said anymore.

In essence, what I’m getting at is that learning a new language can be played and enjoyed like a game.  The structure is in many ways similar — you start as a beginner, learn the basic rules of the game, which you then practise and are eventually tested on.  As you progress, you refine those skills and develop complementary ones, until you achieve mastery of the game.  (Or you hit a bump in the road, get frustrated, and eventually give up).  They’re similar because this is the basic pattern of skill-based learning — it could just as easily be applied to a subject like maths or physics.

For me though, this is a further illustration of what Raph Koster discusses in his book A Theory of Fun for Game Design – that learning is synonymous with fun.  I don’t want to get bogged down with the discussion about what’s fun for me (learning a new language) isn’t the same as what’s fun for you (carving people up with chainsaw in Gears of War); Raph Koster covers that pretty extensively, if I remember correctly, so it’s probably best that you just read his book if you haven’t already.  What I think is important here, is that the challenges or obstacles aren’t obscure puzzles, logical exercises, or tests of dexterity/reflexes; but are actually teaching you something practical and useful – that can be used outside of the game.

The psychology behind learning is something that fascinates me, as our capacity to learn, adapt, and pass that information on to a new generation is one of the main things that separates us from other creatures that inhabit the world.  So as a result, I’m very much interested to explore how video games can be used as a practical teaching aid – for real world/life skills, and not just rocket jumping or wave-dashing.  As I understand it, active learning (i.e. practising tasks, doing exercises, understanding the material, etc, not just reading about them and memorising by rote) is by far the most effective method of learning, and this is why video games have so much potential.  Their mere structure has conditioned gamers to intuitively accept a routine of instruction, practise, demonstration, and progression.  So the real problem then, is how you present it in the context of the game.

Since I’m learning French, I’m going to continue to use languages as the basis for this article and the examples I’m going to look at.  But with a bit of thought and imagination it should be possible to apply these ideas to other areas of interest, such as learning music (provided it’s not done in an arbitrary manner), or perhaps even as an introduction to something like Shakespeare.  Bear with me, I know it sounds grotesque  on paper, but I genuinely could see something like Macbeth or Hamlet working as video games (if the material was handled with a LOT of care and sensitivity).  Or put another way,  when I was 15, I might have engaged the material more had I already been familiar with it from a more accessible and ‘friendly’ source.  It doesn’t have to be dumbed down — certainly games like Final Fantasy X, Deus Ex, Silent Hill2, Grim Fandango and Max Payne aren’t,  so why not use games as a platform for heavyweight drama?  It might even give the industry more credibility (as unlikely as that sounds).  Again, the key here is how you present the material in the context of the game.

Okay, I’m digressing.  If that still sounds too much like sacrilege to you, then feel free to stick with languages.

The next part* will look at how video games currently incorporate foreign languages into them — both real and fictional.  I’m also going to briefly look at one or two ‘edutainment’ titles, like UbiSoft’s My Coach and Sony TalkMan.  For the final part, I hope to take some of the ideas I’ve discussed, and see how they work in practise.  A bit of empirical research, if you will.

–

*I wrote the whole article months ago, I’m just splitting this up to make it more readable, easier to proof read/polish, and to shamelessly boost my blog’s stats.

© 2009 Jonathan Hallier.  All rights reserved.

Google Chrome – the first Web-based OS?

Normally I’m not interested in tech news, but it’s nice to be proven right once in a while.  Back in March I wrote quite a theoretical post about whether it was possible to take on Microsoft Windows, and if so how.  You can read the full article here, but in a nutshell my main suggestion was:

“Look at the trends with technology and the Internet. Everything is done on the internet these days and not locally — webmail (Gmail), pictures (flickr), music and video streaming (lastfm, youtube, etc), gaming, and more. Everyone has a website, or a myspace profile, or a facebook page, or a blog — a lot of people have all of those and more. What I’m getting at here is that if you’re going to take on Microsoft, you have to be prepared to take a leap and do something no one else is willing to do.

My idea is simple but a little scary — integrate the operating system with the Internet. So instead of using Firefox, or Chrome, the entire OS is the browser. I don’t mean like that crappy active desktop feature in windows, I mean 100% full integration.”  David vs. Goliathsoft

And, big surprise, yesterday Google announced that they’re adapting their Chrome web browser into a fully-fledged operating system (initially for netbooks, mind).

“We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we’re announcing a new project that’s a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

…

We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.”  Introducing Google Chrome OS

As I said before, for many people, Google = The Internet, so I think it makes natural (marketing) sense for them to take this step.  Whether it’s the right step to take, is another matter entirely.  Like Microsoft, Google are dipping their toes into a lot of different markets (it’s been speculatated that they’ve lost between $174m-$470m on YouTube this year), and honestly, I would have preferred an outsider to have taken this step.

That said, I swear by GMail, and someone needs to give Microsoft a run for their money, so Google is as good as any.

To be continued…

Gamma Correction and Linear Colour Space simplified

I stumbled on this by accident, looking up some articles on digital lighting and rendering:

• Everything you ever used to do was WRONG
• Everything you ever got out of your renderer before was WRONG
• Everything you’ve ever put into it was WRONG

(From: http://mymentalray.com/wiki/index.php/Linear_color_space)

Pretty blunt, eh?  It got me interested in finding out more about gamma correction and linear colour space,  but unfortunately the majority of articles assume a fairly advanced level of understanding 3d graphics software and rendering programs.   So what follows is a simplified, condensed summary of the topic, as I understand it.  My aim is to try and present this in a form that’s clear and practical enough for intermediate/hobbyist artists, like myself, to understand and use.  It’s taken me a while to get my head around this, so bear with me.

The basic theory is this:

1. 3d rendering software renders at a different gamma setting (1: linear colour space) to what your monitor is set at (2.2 on pc, 1.8 on mac).  This is correct — it’s supposed to do this to get the light calculations right.  But what it means is that you have to manually apply gamma correction to your rendered image afterwards (either in Photoshop, or by the rendering software itself).
2. Unfortunately, a lot of people aren’t aware that their output render needs to be gamma corrected (and traditionally, the default settings don’t enable it), so instead, when they render their work, they compensate by adding more lights, and other shader “tricks”.  While this is OK for most people; technically speaking, the renders are physically inaccurate (i.e. WRONG), and you’re not making the most of the renderer.  You’ll will also see more visible problems when you use more advanced lighting, such as fall off.
3. Furthermore, the majority of the textures you put into your renderer have already been gamma corrected beforehand (in photoshop).  So what happens when you apply gamma correction to your image at the end is that it gets applied twice (before rendering, and then afterwards) — making the image look washed out.  Since you only want gamma correction to be applied at the end of your rendering pipeline, it’s necessary to gamma un-correct all of your texture maps, materials, and shaders before the renderer works with them.

So in a nutshell, what you need your software to do is:

1.  Input Gamma: Automatically apply gamma un-correction to your texture maps, shaders and materials beforehand, by an inverse gamma of 2.2.  (i.e. 1/2.2  = 0.4545454…)

2. Output Gamma: Automatically apply gamma correction to your rendered output, thus bringing your image to the correct colour space as your monitor (2.2. or 1.8.).

The settings will vary from program to program, but at the very least you should expect to see input and output gamma settings.

If your rendering software doesn’t have any options for Gamma correction (e.g. Daz Studio 2.x), then you can still work in linear colour space, but it’s a heck of a lot harder to set up and more difficult to tell if you’re doing it correctly.

1. Input Gamma: You have to un-gamma correct everything by hand (i.e. in Photoshop).  And I mean everything — textures, shaders, colours — the works.  You can use an inverse gamma curve to do this, or by adjusting the input levels midpoint by 0.455 (image-> adjustments->levels…).

2. Output Gamma: Simply apply 2.2 gamma correction inside Photoshop (or equivalent), and hope for the best.

The problem with this method is in how accurate your gamma correction is.  I’m still using regular Photoshop CS, and there are no explicit gamma controls.  Even worse, changing the gamma via levels gives me a slightly different results to using curves, making reliability an issue.

[ EDIT: I've just discovered a more consistent and reliable way of correcting the gamma in Photoshop, using colour profiles.  Essentially what you do is make a linear colour space profile with a gamma of 1.0, and then you assign this profile to your textures and renders before working on them.  When you finish, you convert your render to sRGB or AdobeRGB and it does the gamma correction automatically.  I'll add this section in later after I've experimented with it further.]

If that was a load -  don’t worry.    It’s taken me the better part of a year to get my head around it, and in spite of that, I’m still not crystal clear on some parts.

However, I will end this by saying that understanding linear colour space and gamma is worth the effort.  It might not instantly transform your images into works of art, but the lighting will at least look natural — even if your characters don’t.

Further reading:

http://mymentalray.com/wiki/index.php/Gamma
http://mymentalray.com/wiki/index.php/Linear_color_space
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=305727
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=610790
http://www.poserpro.net/King_Tut/Gamma/PoserPro_Gamma.html
http://www.poserpro.net/King_Tut/vids/Gamma/Poser_Pro_Gamma.htm
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2762503&page=1

Watch this space…

I know hardly anyone reads this, but for those that are, I’m currently trying to relaunch and redesign this thing.  Until it’s finished, you’ll probably see a few incomplete pages crop up, and other things disappear, change, turn upside-down, inside-out, etc — just put it down to a glitch in the Matrix.

Stay tuned.

Fight My Brute!

Fight my brute!

http://maddieman.mybrute.com/

This is a pretty neat game that’s doing the rounds on the Alan Wake and 3dr forums.  You just create a ‘brute’ and then watch it duke it out with other people’s brutes.  The more fights you win, the more neat stuff you unlock.  It’s pretty addictive.

The race to get to level 10 is on — whoever gets there first gets to start the official Alan Wake forum clan.

David vs. Goliathsoft

As a competitor, I don’t need to be sold the OS, I need to be sold the market strategies that will overcome the entrenched titan.

This means don’t respond to me with lofty theories and vague action plans filled with wordsmithing. I already know I have to be able to offer something cheaper, stronger, quicker, and without a system shock changeover. No shit, Sherlock. Tell me how I can do any of this better than Microsoft without referring to more dictionary terms or vague statements. Best of all, and really the only pertinent thing: Show me who has done it before given similar, analogous circumstances.

I’ve been wanting to respond to this comment since it was posted; but every time I try, the post mushrooms into business and marketing rhetoric, and I know Raveness has a strong intolerance for bullshit. Sadly this attempt ended up in the same way, but screw it, I’m posting it this time. Like it or lump it.

Short answer – if you’re gonna take on the leader of any business, you have to do the opposite of what they’re doing. Do what Nintendo did with the Wii, and laugh as Sony and MS blatantly struggle to catch up. Otherwise you’re a follower, and by definition, followers do not lead. Whoops, it’s already begun…

Okay what the hell, here’s the loooong answer:

Find a future

Look at the trends with technology and the internet. Everything is done on the internet these days and not locally — webmail (Gmail), pictures (flickr), music and video streaming (lastfm, youtube, etc), gaming, and more. Everyone has a website, or a myspace profile, or a facebook page, or a blog — a lot of people have all of those and more. What I’m getting at here is that if you’re going to take on Microsoft, you have to be prepared to take a leap and do something no one else is willing to do.

My idea is simple but a little scary — integrate the operating system with the Internet. So instead of using firefox, or chrome, the entire OS is the browser. I don’t mean like that crappy active desktop feature in windows, I mean 100% full integration.

Now, I’m not a hardware expert, so you’ll have to humour me on the technical side of things. I’m not interested in whether it’s possible now, with current technology and architectures. That’s the wrong approach. I’m interested in whether it’s conceptually possible in the future – ten, twenty, even thirty years on from now, and what steps would we have to take to make it happen. Even if it means building a new computer to support it.

So to flesh it out a bit. Instead of a main hardrive, all of your data is stored on separate severs (like how gmail works) [it would be necessary to have a small disk drive for the basic OS to work with, but the core idea is that 90% of data is streamed from and stored online]. For example, instead of opening a ‘My Pictures’ folder, you open a window which plugs directly into your flickr account. Instead of a music or video directory, you would just be plugged automatically into last fm, itunes, youtube, amazon, or whatever else you fancy. Likewise, software would be run server side — you’d have a licence for photoshop, and it runs via the net, like SumoPaint. Same goes for games (the technology is nearly there). Lastly, instead of web pages, you’d just have windows (that can be tabbed, scrolled, etc, like you’d expect). ‘Bookmarks’ would be accessed from icons on the desktop, and from the equivalent of the windows’ start menu.

One of the main advantages of this setup is that your operating system and files would be independent from the physical computer you’re using. So whether you’re using a desktop, laptop, palm, or mobile phone (I said this was in the future, right?), you’d have direct access to the same content. Facebook is along these lines — you have a home page, and you can ‘install’ applications into it (like poker, for example). You can then run them on any computer that gives you access to facebook. That’s similar to what I’m getting at, but on a much grander scale.

Now, I realise that the technology is no where near ready to take this kind of strain. But we’re already seeing steps towards this future, and who knows maybe 10-20 years we’ll see something like this happen. There’s also the whole Big Brother thing which is a serious concern, but that’s another argument for another day.

Make the competition obsolete

Whether you like the above idea or not, my main point is that to take on Microsoft, you have to do something radical and a bit crazy. Above all, you have to do something different. I can’t stress that enough. If your gut reaction was “Ick, I don’t like the sound of that, where will I hide my porn…” then I say GOOD. If everyone, especially Microsoft, are saying “That’s insane, it’ll never work” you’re probably onto a good thing. Because you can’t beat them point-for-point on stability and features alone — it doesn’t work that way. Most people expect quality and reliability as standard.

Lou Gerstner of IBM once said about Microsoft:

“Our biggest competitor in software is not a very good technical company. But it’s one of the best marketing companies I’ve seen, and I’ve spent twenty years in marketing.”

Everyone knows that Linux and Mac are more stable, and have a better design & features than Windows. I know this because every time I speak to a Mac or Linux user, they insist on telling me about it. Everyone still uses Windows regardless. Why? Because Microsoft introduced the concept of windows to the world — not the OS — I mean the idea of having resizeable boxes that can display and store content in them.   Even now,  right now, you are reading this text inside of a window!  The genius of this is that we take them for granted. It’s ingrained in us. Even on Mac and Linux, we still call them Windows. Children are taught at school how to use Windows. No matter what you think about marketing, this is powerful psychology at work here.

So to beat Microsoft at their own game, you have to do two things, simply put. The first thing is that you have to envision a future that embraces technological, cultural, and business trends, and presents it in a way that fundamentally rejects the entire concept of windows.

“Windows..? ” your marking slogans should run, “Are a two-dimensional concept from the 1980s.   We invite you to step outside of Windows, into the sunshine, and embrace the future.  We believe that future is…” whatever.

“A world without Windows? Are you nuts!?” The clue is in the username, but let me elaborate. This is exactly what Microsoft did to the precursor of Windows — DOS. DOS was a command-line OS, which Windows made obsolete by introducing a graphical interface and the concept of windows, icons, menus, and scroll bars. It also introduced a new input device — the mouse. What Windows did to DOS, we have to do to Windows. Now, I realise that I’m not offering a concrete answer here (if I had the answer I wouldn’t be writing this, I’d be out making my fortune), but lets look at the Nintendo Wii as an example.

A success story – The Nintendo Wii

After the Snes era, Nintendo got trounced by backstabbers Sony and their new Playstation generation. Nintendo’s audience had grown up, and wanted something a little more adult — like Metal Gear Solid, Lara Croft, Tekken, Resident Evil, and Grand Theft Auto. Unfortunately, Nintendo were divided on this and weren’t able to adapt quickly enough to the market. Before they knew it, their old time rival Sega had been replaced by none other than Microsoft. Nintendo limp-in with the Gamecube and get eaten alive. Game over for Nintendo? No – the situation is now reversed. Ignoring Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony became so preoccupied with out-doing each other on the hardcore market, that they never saw the monster curve ball coming around the corner…. “A console that isn’t graphically superior to its peers? That uses a remote control as its primary input? Are they nuts!?”

And the result? As of December 2008, the Wii has almost sold more units worldwide than the Xbox360 and PS3 combined. Moreover, unlike it’s competitors, the Wii doesn’t lose money on its hardware production costs (that would normally be recouped in software sales). Nintendo realised that the future wasn’t with the hardcore demographic, but the rest of the world. Being the Disney of the games industry, it was no problem for them to cater to this market, which is what they’re also doing with the DS (you can laugh at those cooking book ‘games’, but they’re selling like hotcakes). In other words, Nintendo rejected two fundamental norms about the games industry — that the primary audience are males, 15-30, who like games about sex and violence; and that graphics and raw processing power are the driving force of the industry (as opposed to creative and innovative use of technology; which is fundamentally what videogames are all about).

Save the cheerleader Destroy the brand, save the world

To beat Microsoft, like Nintendo did, you have to reject the norms they’ve ingrained into everyone. You have to make the notion of windows conceptually obsolete so that Microsoft can’t just integrate your new ideas into their own OS model (e.g. tabbed browsing, desktop widgets, etc). So not only would they be forced to redesign their operating system from the ground up, but they would also have to consider renaming it as well, because the word ‘Windows’ itself becomes obsolete. Basically what I’m saying is that to beat Microsoft, you can’t just beat the product, you have to destroy the Windows brand as well.

Of course that’s easier said than done. The problem is that windows is such a damn good idea that it’s hard to imagine anything else (my own OS idea above, clearly uses it as a frame of reference).   It’s like trying to imagine a car without wheels.  Maybe a 3D OS with portals instead of windows? A few attempts have been made, but we need a revolution, not a gimmick. That’s why, as a stopgap, I’m moving for the internet integration as the primary hook, rather than the interface itself. But again, let me repeat: to beat Microsoft, you need to kill the windows brand. Portals, Doors, and TV channels are all effectively the same as windows (if it looks like a duck…) so they’re hardly the knockout punch we’re looking for.

Finally

Assuming you do figure out your brilliant, revolutionary concept, you’ve got to deliver it — when they least expect it and when it’ll do the most damage. Given that Vista is faltering, to the extent where it’s starting to parallel the epic disaster of New Coke (Hilariously, Microsoft are even doing blind taste-tests, called the mojave experiment ); and Microsoft are distracted in the games industry; NOW would have been a really good time to launch a brand new, arse kicking, all singing, all dancing, Operating System from a fresh, hip, and unknown software company (I was going to say ‘think of microsoft in the 80s…’ but they weren’t). For now, lets call it OS Awsome.

Microsoft maintain this “Anything you can do, we can do better” attitude which can be clearly seen in the thinking behind Silverlight (Flash) and XBL avatars (Miis). So the second thing you have to do to beat Microsoft, is you have to bring your vision of the future to the mass-market before anyone else does. You have to be “Firstest with the mostest”. Otherwise forget it. After Neil and Buzz, do you know the names of the other men who walked on the moon? (without looking it up). History remembers leaders, not followers. Also, if you’re the leader, you have an edge, because you’re the one making the moves, while everyone else reacts.

Apple iPod is the textbook example these days. There are plenty of rival MP3 players out there (I myself use a creative zen stone – quality audio on a budget ), but Apple are the most successful because they were the first to bring their iPod brand to the mass-market. Not only that, but they followed through with iTunes, making mp3s popular and kick-starting the whole legal mp3 download trends (getting backing from the major record labels in the process). They lead the market because they saw a growing trend (rising popularity of mp3s) and they went in for the kill with the marketing equivalent of guns, tanks, and missiles. Firstest with the mostest. It’s a horrible violation of the English language, but there’s no better way of putting it.

And that’s exactly what you have to do — be different and be first. If the competition is going left, go right. If the competition going right, go forwards, or inside out, or daffodil, or meringue. Yes, Microsoft are a large and powerful corporation. No question. But they’re getting to that complacent stage where they’ve got loads of money and don’t know what to do with it — expanding into new markets that have nothing to do with pc software or operating systems. This will make them vulnerable — like IBM in the late 80s, and GM today. So if you want to take a Goliath like Microsoft down with a single stone, wait until he turns his back, or trips up, or starts to juggle too many balls — and then aim for his nuts and throw as hard as you can!

And that’s it. Easy huh? Think I’ll start working on OS AWESOME tonight…

Oh and I don’t think it’s going to be Google that does it (although for many Google = The Internet, so who better to launch an internet based operating system like I suggested).

Incidentally, I’d like to just neuter this entire post by saying I’ve got nothing against Microsoft, Windows, or Games, or the people that work there. They’re a great company and they make good software. I’ve met some of the guys at MGS, and they’re cool guys – very engaging and open minded.  So for me, this is merely an interesting thought exercise…. /trademarks OS AWESOME

Glad I got that off my chest.

show spoiler

Sidenote

(For those that bothered to actually read all this)

It’s also worth noting that iPod wasn’t the first portable MP3 player on the market. The MPMan was. The lesson here is that you don’t win a race by being the first to cross the finish line. Races are won by being seen to cross the finish line first. Christopher Columbus wasn’t the first to discover America, but he’s the one we all remember. Likewise, when Google release the worlds first Internet driven OS, do you think I’ll get any credit? No.

Why hasn’t Apple repeated their success with iPod? Lets see… iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone… What’s next? iDunno? iWalk? iTalk? iLaugh? iLove? iThink therefore iAm? iPod was a success because it came at the right time, captured the imagination of a generation, and it took off. Not because Apple are wizards at marketing.

Apple Macs aren’t sufficiently unique compared to PCs and Windows. Sure iMacs look chic, but under the bonnet, there’s no real surprises. Nothing revolutionary. And certainly nothing that could dent the windows brand (like I said earlier, we still call those boxes windows).  If they can’t be the leaders, then they need to be ‘the alternative’, not ’second best’.

I honestly don’t rate the iPhone either, but that’s another story.
Oh and Macs only have one mouse button – so annoying.

Further reading

Most of the marketing side of this is based on Ries & Ries ideas; so credit where credit is due:

http://www.ries.com/

http://ries.typepad.com/ries_blog/

http://www.youtube.com/user/riesreport