Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the surging Boston Celtics, specialty beer bars, or waiting for the new Powerfox & Ponymane video, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
Even though many of you aren’t sold on streaming, I recommend keeping an eye on Gaikai. The company has been making all sorts of interesting moves that make the service appealing to hardcore and casual gamers. On the enthusiast side, Gaikai keeps adding great content; recently the company announced that it’s the only streaming service to offer Mass Effect 3. On the casual side, the company just announced that its games will be available on Facebook. A fantastic videogame library, broad reach, and (from what I’ve seen so far) sound technology — Gaikai seems to have it all. So why aren’t you paying attention?
Part of it has to do with the newness of it all. Streaming is a new way to play games. After decades of playing games on cartridges and discs, it seems foreign. As the X-Men have shown over the years, many people fear and hate what they don’t understand (yes, I’m overstating things). Part of it has to do with some gamers (still) being (way too) attached to physical media. Collectors love hoarding boxes; streaming totally goes against that. I’m sure there are some reasons that I’m not thinking of, so I’d love to use today’s column to get your take on Gaikai.
Have you been paying attention to Gaikai? If not, check out the company site to learn more about the service and its sweet game library. What do you think? Say Gaikai was playable on one of your favorite sites (like this one!) would you use it? Scream and shout in the comments section (please)!
I like having physical media because of the conversions that spring about when people see what games, movies, or music that's around the house. Resale is another issue I have with strait digital content.
I'm also rarely on a desktop or laptop so streaming games for me is out the picture. I use my cell more than ever to check out my favorite websites.
They have Mass Effect 3… the demo. You can't actually play through the whole thing. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when I tried the demo the "buy now" button led to a physical copy. Not that exciting after all.
From what I understand, it's the demo for now and the full game will eventually be available through streaming. Remember, the service is still in its infancy.
What advantage is this over purchasing from Origin?
I dislike Origin due to their lack of deals but I'd rather buy and store the game on my PC rather than stream against my meter. Streaming makes sense in a persistent world (MMO) but I can't find the advantage with today's PC. Considering IvyBridge will offer good gfx performance and future versions will only get better.
Selling me on streaming isn't gonna fly with the "you don't need the best hardware to run the most visually stunning games!" since ppl who care about Ultra settings buy dedicated GPUs. Kind of like telling a musician that Beats headphones are excellent for bass.
What is the pricing model? Pay for bandwidth and pay for titles? Buffet Netflix style?
Goodluck Gaikai but unless you are hosting server side content like League of Legends or an MMO I won't stream a game.
Really the big reason I like having physical copies of games because I never know when I want to play them. Not that Gamefly is digital distribution, but they don't work for me because it assumes I have plenty of time to just sit down and play once I get a game. I don't always have that luxury, and Gamefly would be a waste of my money. When I purchase my games then I don't have to worry about when specifically when I play my games. This has caused me to purchase more games than rent games or stream them.
I'm slowly coming around to streaming some games or going digital with some games. Netflix is helping me get there with movies, but they feel so hit or miss. Maybe Netflix isn't the best example because they are losing so many of the quality movies and deals they used to have. But if that happens with movies then I would have to assume it could happen to games at some point too. It's frustrating to not be able to watch a movie that was on Netflix last week, and that would be much worse for me in regards to games.
Streaming games doesn't sound like a bad idea though, and I do believe digital will be the way of the future. Mass Effect 3 is actually a great example for me though, with streaming games, because I will eventually want to play that game, but only one time through in all likelihood. Once I finish ME1 and 2, streaming ME3 doesn't sound too bad. It's a cheap and easy way to play a game I don't see myself having a lot of attachment to. There will still be some games I need my own copies of, but it seems that as time goes on I do seem to want games for a shorter period of time. Purchasing physical (or even digital) copies though provides me with a consistency I enjoy right now though.
So when ur saying I could play games through fb or this site; are u saying that I'll be able to play ME3 while voicing my thoughts or opinions here?? If so that would be pretty awesome. I'm still kinda on the fence with streaming since I'm in the same camp as bsu when it comes to playing games and also I don't want to be locked if I don't have internet access or because of DRM issues.
I think it looks cool. If I could play it here, I definitely would. I hate Facebook.
What would be even better is if we could have some kind of mass viewing like say… if they had MK… and we could finally strap down a certain trolley riding chicken… and everyone could witness the destruction of said trolley riding chicken… that would be awesome.
But yeah, I have interest.
This is all going to be so funny in 10 years.
To put that into perspective:
What were we all taking about (gaming-wise) in 2002?
-M