Draw Something Charts Show Off The Perils Of Casual Gaming Ads By Google » Blog Tags Today's Most Popular Videos »

Well, that went South quick -- casual, mobile game Draw Something is hemorrhaging players at an amazing rate. It was only  a month ago that 14,300,000 gamers were drawing little pictures with the game. Now there are 9,100,000 iPhone and Android artists online. That's still a lot of players, but the percentage user drop is huge too, and if you check out the chart below (from Appdata.com) you'll see that the trend line is not moving in a positive direction--unless you think "toward the center of the earth" is positive. Something could happen to reverse the slide, sure, but if it doesn't...

So what happened?

Draw Something came out in February, and by April, the company that made it, OMGPOP, was purchased for $180 million dollars by small-game titans Zynga. Then, almost as suddenly as it blew up, Draw Something deflated. It's hard to say specifically why, but it seems to me that the answer lies in a simple idea that game companies sometimes forget, but gamers never do: It just wasn't fun enough to keep playing it.

Like everyone else, I played Draw Something when it came out. I was quickly enthralled with the simple gameplay, instant gratification and ability to draw dongs on everything (that's how I roll.) It's a simple game, unencumbered by extraneous material, and at first, that purity of function was really cool-- who doesn't like drawing things? I played DS pretty hardcore for a week or so, but then, suddenly and with no warning at all, I no longer had any desire at all to play the game, and never made another doodle. I put it down as casually as I'd picked it up.

I didn't think about it at the time, but it seems like my experience mirrored the overall player charts for Draw Something. Everyone seem to have quickly loved it, worn it out and moved on. Why is that? For me, the effort it takes to draw something, while fun at first, just doesn't "pay off" over the long haul. There are no levels to the gameplay. No risk. No reward. No depth. Just the same repetitive motions, again and again. The game's not-subtle-at-all attempts to pry my credit card out of my wallet didn't help either. Once I started noticing that the same clues came up again and again, and you had to buy new ones, I was right out. Words should be free, man. So should colors. How are you gonna make me pay (in either time or money) for the color orange while giving me the clue "pumpkin?"

Even something like Farmville has a cumulative effect over time. A reason to build your farm and harvest your crops. Angry Birds has varying levels, a cool combination of chaos and thought, and the audacity to make a sequel with radically different physics from the original.

The rise and fall of Draw Something (and the continuing success of Angry Birds and various "-villes") can be seen as a lesson in how to have a successful game. At the final level, marketing, buzz, hype and a huge payout can only take you so far. It's the game design that ultimately determines longevity for gamers, especially for casual games, which can be put down as easily as they are picked up.

Source : http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/723648/draw-something-charts-show-off-the-perils-of-casual-gaming/

Minecraft 360 - Finding the Missing Pieces Ads By Google » Blog Tags Today's Most Popular Videos »

Playing this week's Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition is like stepping into a time machine for fans of the PC game. The console port from 4J Studios faithfully re-creates Mojang's blocky world-building game, but it's an earlier version of that game, and a somewhat stripped-down one as well, in comparison to the original. It's still totally fun and addictive, but fans of the PC version will experience a somewhat unpleasant sense of deja vu the first time they play.

The most important addition that we'd like to see is of course the release of the various updates that would bring this Minecraft alongside the PC version in terms of in-game features. We're talking hunger and experience meters, jungle biomes, ravines, Nether Fortresses, Strongholds, abandoned mine shafts... lots of cool stuff that adds to the experience of exploring the world. This content is supposedly coming in future updates, though no release plan has yet been revealed.

There are other features though, elements from the PC version of the game that don't necessarily fit into one of the capital-U Updates, but are nonetheless essential to delivering a proper Minecraft experience. We're going to take a moment now to highlight those, in the hopes that mentioning these absent features will somehow magically transport them into the Xbox 360 game.

Or, you know, 4J will take notice and do something about it. Magic would be cooler though.

On-The-Fly Difficulty Adjustment

Jumping in and out of Minecraft's Peaceful difficulty -- which stops monsters from coming after you -- is a hallmark of the PC version of the game. Sometimes you just want to explore and not worry about dying 56,015,963,831 miles from your spawn and losing all of your hard-gathered resources in the process. You can adjust the difficulty of a saved world on the Xbox 360 anytime you load it up, but there's no option for doing that in-game, like you can in the PC version.

Rent-A-Server

Players can't rent their own servers in Minecraft on PC, but they can create one using a secondary piece of software. That's not really an option with your Xbox 360 for a variety of reasons, but being able to rent server space and store a persistent Minecraft world somewhere in the cloud would go a long way toward creating the sort of multiplayer community that exists on the PC side. The max player count would also have to be upped from the current eight-player limit on the console side, but it would be cool to see some of the elaborate group construction projects from the PC world find life in the Xbox 360 version as well.

On-Screen Coordinates

In the PC game, you can press F3 at anytime to bring debug information up on the screen. It's a common enough thing in PC games, but it's especially useful in Minecraft since your coordinates within the world along X, Y, and Z axes are listed along with the rest of the info. For those who are serious about Minecraft building, having access to those coordinates is invaluable. Since the world is laid out along a blocky grid, being able to use numbers makes construction planning -- both aboveground and below -- much easier to deal with.

Creative Mode

This is a serious no-brainer. Minecraft didn't start out with the survival elements you see now that turn the experience into more of a "game." It was born as a sort of virtual LEGO set, and that prototypical take lives on in the PC version as Creative Mode. Loading up a new world in this way starts out just like any other. You're deposited at a random spawn point and the world then becomes yours to explore. The difference in Creative Mode is that there's no need for resource management. Your inventory is filled with an infinite supply of every block, resource type, and craftable item in the game. Also, you can fly. Creative Mode strips out the "game" portion of Minecraft and lets you focus squarely on the building.

Bigger Maps

This could simply be a hardware limitation, but you'll quickly learn as you explore your world that the overall map size in the Xbox 360 version of Minecraft is actually quite small compared to what you get in the PC game. Surely we can go bigger, right? Walk for 10 or 15 minutes in one direction in this console release and you're going to hit an invisible wall. Walk for the same amount of time in the PC game, and you'll just have that much distance to cover as you retrace your steps back to wherever you were carving out your piece of the world.


Source : http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/723634/minecraft-360-finding-the-missing-pieces/

Diablo III sets Blizzard preorder record

Diablo III can lay claim to the title of Blizzard's most anticipated game ever, as the PC action role-playing game was today confirmed as the developer's most preordered title of all-time. That news comes with a slight asterisk, as it includes copies of the game owed through the World of Warcraft Annual Pass promotion, which gives a free copy to anyone who signs up for a full year of the subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

A decade between games can help build anticipation.

The Diablo III news was announced as part of Activision Blizzard's earnings report for the quarter ended March 31, which also included some noteworthy stats for the Activision half of the company. The publisher confirmed the Call of Duty Elite service has 10 million registered users now, with more than 2 million of them paying for the premium tier membership. The game-and-toy synergy of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure also continued to sell for the company, with more than 30 million toys sold through March. It's been doing so well that Activision's internal estimates have Skylanders toys outselling even Star Wars for the first three months of the year.

As for the company's actual financial figures, revenues and net profit both surpassed projections set in February, but fell short of the company's performance for the same quarter last year. For the quarter, Activision posted sales of $1.17 billion, down year-over-year from $1.45 billion. It also chalked up $384 million in net income, down from $503 million for the same period last year.

The results beat expectations sufficiently for Activision Blizzard to up its full-year forecast. The company now expects the calendar year 2012 to see it ring up $4.2 billion in sales (up from $4.15 billion) and earnings per share of $0.65, up from $0.63.


Source : http://gamespot.com/news/diablo-iii-sets-blizzard-preorder-record-6375915

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Face Off Mode Revealed Ads By Google » Blog Tags Today's Most Popular Videos »

The next Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 DLC, "Content Collection 2," will feature three multiplayer maps, two special ops maps, and a new competitive mode called Face Off.

Face Off Mode

Face Off mode in Modern Warfare 3 is designed for smaller groups of players. According to Michael Condrey, Co-Founder Sledgehammer Games, it provides, "Small maps, custom-created to have sight lines and lay outs to keep you in the action in 1 v 1 or 2 v 2."  In other words, if you have a grudge match that must be decided by a knives-only, no-perks match, this is the mode for you. (I'm looking at you, Donell Tucker.)

According to Mark Rubin, Executive Producer, Infinity Ward,"You don't spend your time running around the map looking for each other. You actually engage pretty quickly. You actually can still have the frantic fun gameplay we're used to with Call of Duty, but with one or two guys."

Content Collection 2 will be released on May 22, but 360 gamers who want to check out Face Off will be able to download two maps ("Erosion" and "Aground") for free on May 15. The Face-Off mode will be released on PC and PlayStation 3 eventually, though no date has been confirmed. Aground is set on a shipwreck off the coast of Scotland while Erosion sees you in Roman ruins while Mount Vesuvius erupts.

New Maps

Two new COD maps,"Getaway" and "Lookout" will be released on May 22 as part of the main DLC Collection 2 release. Getaway takes place in a beachside mansion in Brazil, while Lookout is set in a forward observation post in Afghanistan.

In addition, Modern Warfare 3 DLC Collection 2 will also offer three new standard multiplayer maps. Two maps, Sanctuary and Foundation, have already been released via the Call of Duty Elite service, but a new map, "Oasis", is set on a beach resort in the United Arab Emirates.

Spec-Ops Missions

Two new Spec-Ops mission modes are coming as well. "Ironclad" is set immediately after the Hamburg mission from the single player campaign, with you and your pal making it back to the landing beach after the initial assault, or dying in the attempt. It features asynchronous combat, with one player clearing obstacles while the other engages in basic infantry combat. Then there's a tank section, where one guy drives the tank and the other provided support.

The second Spec Ops mission, titled Killswitch, plays out in an all-new area set in a Russian dockyard.

For a look at the new mode and new maps, check out this video:

Source : http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/723637/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-3-face-off-mode-revealed/

What We Want in the New Skyrim DLC, Dawnguard Ads By Google » Blog Tags Today's Most Popular Videos »

With the newly announced Skyrim DLC, Dawnguard, just over the horizon, now would be the perfect time to start making of list of features we expect to see.

Luckily for us, Bethesda tipped their hand at DICE this year to show off some of the projects that the genius developers there worked on behind the scenes. Since then, we’ve already seen the implementation of kill cams for arrows and dragon shouts by using the Kinect. We’re still waiting on a couple of other innovations to come to light.

Here are our picks for things we want to see in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim DLC.

Horse Combat

Bethesda did something no one expected by making horses cool. Remember all of that hubbub during the days of Oblivion when they thought people would actually pay money for horse armor. I know several people who would gladly fork over some cold hard cash for a little steel for their horse. But forget the pony show here; what I want is to make horses even cooler.

Let me attack from the saddle. Swing a sword. Draw a bow. Throw a lightening bolt or two. As it is right now, even a mangy pack of wolves makes me off of my high horse just to dispatch them. Even simple maneuvers would allow me to feel as though I could at least defend my trusty steed.

Follower commands

I wonder if Lydia would still be alive today if I could have told her to run like hell when you see me leave. As it turned out, my running and screaming into the night after facing a cave filled with trolls seemed to be a cue for her to stand her ground to the very end. After running half a mile, pulling in a half a dozen city guards, and exhausting my last potion; I found what remained of my companion and thought, “who’s going to carry all my crap now?”

As in the DICE presentation, additional follower commands allows for more strategy as well as the ability to customize your companion with your play style. Since I play as a thief, I usually remain in the shadows and without a partner who usually runs into the middle of battle like Leroy Jenkins. Having the option to “sneak” or “let me attack first” would make me consider picking up a buddy from the local tavern. As it is now, I’m a lone wolf until I can find a friend who knows when to keep their swords sheathed.

Spell Combinations

How do you add something complex to an already complex game? By using what’s already there. Adding new spells to the game comes with its own problems, but by using spell combinations to create something new, we do away with working through more magic trees or negating the ones we’ve already built. Imagine creating a fire bound bow or raising electrical zombies.

Speaking of weapons, let’s learn to enchant weapons with magic powers as well. Let me take on the dragon priests with a flaming sword. Let’s see what happen when you dip your arrows into a little fear before letting them fly into a crowd of bandits. And by using the spells already set before us, we’re already grounded in the strengths we’ve picked for them and our character. Don’t think of it as bringing in something new, but rather building upon what we already have.

Werewolves and Vampires (Oh my.)

Those glowing yellow eyes on the cover of Dawngaurd can only mean one thing – vampires or werewolves. Actually, those are two things, but with all the talk about crossbows showing up in the next DLC, I would put my money on some vampire action.

As it turns out, one of the projects that the developers worked on included new powers such as flying and calling on minions when you went full fang. We’re talking leather skin, wings, and nasty little overbite. I actually wanted to create a vampire thief in my original playthrough, but it’s rather difficult to sneak when you tend to spread fear faster than the common cold at E3.

With that said, werewolves need a little love as well with a couple of extra abilities like weapons and armor designed to protect their furry little hide. Let me be able to call on a pack of wolves to do my bidding like attack enemies or chasing balls. Better yet, let me work on my own pack of followers to lead into battle. When you have an army of werewolves, you’re gonna see the fur fly.

More, More, More

As fans of Skyrim, our needs are relatively simple. We just want more. Give us a new area to explore, caves to loot, and perhaps a new weapons to start swinging around to kill people in the new areas to explore or caves to loot. Give me a castle with new enemies and a little challenge. Take us to the sand swept lands of the Khajiit or the dense forests of Cyrodiil yet again. We’ve spent hundreds of hours already in this open world and we’re only asking for a slightly bigger sand box.

And more dragon riding. I would like both if that’s available.


Source : http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/723632/what-we-want-in-the-new-skyrim-dlc-dawnguard/