Coffee Talk Archives - Page 34 of 68

Coffee Talk #348: Internet Bandwidth Caps Revisited

As I mentioned in March, AT&T has started bandwidth caps for its DSL and U-Verse Internet services. On the cable side, Comcast is still using the same cap it introduced in 2008…as if its network hasn’t improved.

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As I mentioned in March, AT&T has started bandwidth caps for its DSL and U-Verse Internet services. DSL customers are now capped at 150GB per month, while U-Verse customers are now capped at 250GB per month. The typical (BS) reasons of “network management” and “avoiding congestion” were the reasons given for the caps. The reality is that AT&T will make money from overage fees. Conveniently, the caps also help protect the company’s U-Verse television service from Internet streaming services like Hulu and Netflix.

On the cable side, Comcast remains capped at 250GB per month — you know, the cap that it introduced in 2008. Internet use has only gotten heavier since then, with streaming video and downloadable games really taking off over the last few years. Meanwhile the cap remains the same. Certainly Comcast has improved its network capacity, throughput, and efficiency, but for some reason it hasn’t increased its cap.

If you’re an AT&T or Comcast customer then you should be pissed off by these bogus practices. If you’re not, you should be pissed off by the trend. Bandwidth caps stifle innovation in Internet services. If you like being able to download a full Xbox 360 game as an impulse purchase or want to maximize the value of your Netflix subscription then you should act. Write your Internet service provider and your congressman about AT&T’s caps (pure money grab) and Comcast’s laziness. Let’s start of Monday with some righteous anger and kick this week’s ass!!!

Coffee Talk #347: Your Least Favorite Console Launch

I’m late to the party on the Nintendo 3DS…and I’m trying to figure out where the party is. As a frequent flyer and huge portable gamer, the 3DS is off to a disappointing start. What was your…

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I’m late to the party on the Nintendo 3DS…and I’m trying to figure out where the party is. I loved the potential of Nintendo’s latest portable gaming system at E3 2010 and the handful of times I got to play it between then and launch. After a few weeks with the system, I’m completely underwhelmed.

I have five 3DS launch titles and the only one I’m regularly enjoying is Nintendogs + Cats. That game hardly pushes the 3DS’ capabilities and the charm is largely the same as the original’s. I know that the 3DS will have great games in the future and I’m sure I’ll eventually love the system. As a frequent flyer and huge portable gamer, I’m really disappointed in the 3DS’ weak start. Next time I fly, I’ll probably leave my 3DS at home and play games on my iPad 2.

I don’t remember the last time I was this underwhelmed by a console launch. A new system usually brings something new and exciting to the table. The 3DS only does half of that. Where there any console launches that left you feeling flat? Kindly name the console launch (or launches) that disappointed you the most.

Coffee Talk #346: Gaming While You’re Sick

Yesterday it was 90 degrees in Los Angeles…and I spent most of the day under a blanket. It absolutely sucked to be sick and weak on such a beautiful day, but I think I made the best of it…

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Yesterday it was 90 degrees in Los Angeles…and I spent most of the day under a blanket. It absolutely sucked to be sick and weak on such a beautiful day, but I think I made the best of it. My gaming habits are a little different when I’m sick. I like to dumb it down a bit and stick to games that I can play blindfolded. I spent most of of my couch time playing Civilization Revolution and doing random battles in Final Fantasy III. I watched some motion comics and WWE documentaries. While I didn’t get to enjoy the beautiful day, it was as good a sick day as I could have imagined.

What kind of games do you play when you’re sick? Are your sick games different than your regular games? How about other nerd activities like movies, comics, and TV? What kind of media to you devour on your sick days?

Coffee Talk #345: PSN Outage Further Killing Sony’s Brand?

Gamasutra’s Colin Campbell wrote this excellent article on how the PlayStation Network outage has further devalued the PlayStation brand. I don’t think he went far enough. The PSN outage has damaged the (already declining) Sony brand.

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Gamasutra’s Colin Campbell wrote this excellent article on how the PlayStation Network outage has further devalued the PlayStation brand. Colin is awesome and his article is great, but I don’t think he went far enough. There’s no question that the PSN attack has damaged the PlayStation brand. It’s more than that though. The PSN outage has damaged the (already declining) Sony brand.

Remember when Sony was the premiere name in consumer electronics? There was a long stretch when the consumer electronics market was Sony, followed by everyone else. From televisions to audio components to laptops, Sony products were almost always best in class. A lot has changed since then. The company absolutely bombed in the modern portable audio space (which is funny because it basically created the market with the Walkman). PC manufacturers were able to offer computers that were almost as nice, but much cheaper. The television market got a lot more competitive, with Korean companies like LG and Samsung outdoing Sony in both price and performance.

For two console generations, Sony dominated the field. Its third go-round didn’t go nearly as well, for numerous reasons. Although the PlayStation 3 was starting to pick up steam globally, the PSN outage will definitely impact performance and perception. Rightly or wrongly, people will use the PSN outage to illustrate that Sony has lost its grip on yet another market.

What do you think? Will the damage be confined to to the PlayStation brand or is the Sony brand in jeopardy too? Or is all of this being overblown? Perhaps the PlayStation and Sony brands will be just fine by the end of the year. Kindly share your thoughts on the nebulous value of branding!

Coffee Talk #344: Do You Care About the Little Guys?

As I was sipping coffee with one of my industry friends, I was surprised by his lengthy and passionate rant on PSP Minis. Do you guys and gals care about the little guys like PSP Minis and Nintendo WiiWare?

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As I was sipping coffee with one of my industry friends, I was surprised by his lengthy and passionate rant on PSP Minis. He loves them. He thinks they’re underrated. He believes there are plenty of cheap gaming treasures to be had with PSP Minis. And he was sad that most gamers don’t seem to care.

To be fair, he loves small indie games. He plays more PSP Minis, Nintendo WiiWare titles, and Xbox Live Indie Games than anyone I know. He made a great point though — why are most gamers ignorant of these games? I’m certainly guilty of not paying as much attention as I should. Part of it is that these games don’t get any marketing money or coverage from the press. There’s also a lot of crap buried with the treasures. It’s hard to find the good games when you don’t hear about them and have to sift through a lot of garbage to find them.

Do you guys and gals care about the little guys like PSP Minis and Nintendo WiiWare? If so, kindly share your recommendations. If not, why don’t you care about them?

Coffee Talk #343: Consoles, Personal Information, and You

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, President Obama’s birth certificate, the fate of SETI, or your favorite Britney song, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

With Sony’s revelation that user information — including credit card numbers — was compromised when PlayStation Network was hacked, I wanted to get your thoughts on tying your info to your consoles. I know that a few of you only make console purchases through gift cards and codes. Those of you that do are looking extra smart this week. For those of you that use your credit cards on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, are you wary of doing so now?

Personally, I’m not too worried about it. In my limited experience, my banks have been pretty good at alerting me about fraud attempts — if anything, they’ve been overly paranoid. Plus, it’s not like I have money or anything (ha!). In the particular case of PSN, I’m guessing that the hack was a result of Sony’s strong-arm stance against people like GeoHotz. I will, perhaps naively, assume that malice was intended towards Sony Computer Entertainment and not its customers.

Now it’s your turn! How do you feel about the issue? Are you paranoid? Are you carefree? Or somewhere in between?

Coffee Talk #342: Sony’s Android Tablet Ambition

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Will the combination of PlayStation Suite and Qriocity lead to Sony succeeding in the Android tablet market? That seems to be what the company is banking on. Sony recently announced that it will be releasing two Android tablets later this year — a traditional tablet with a 9.4-inch screen and a funky folding tablet with two 5.5-inch screens. While Sony’s “style” will help these tablets appeal to the masses, it looks like the company is banking on its own services to help differentiate its tablets from the numerous Android manufacturers out there. Will this strategy work?

I need to think about it more, but my initial inclination is that these tablets will get lost in the shuffle. On the hardware side, a folding tablet doesn’t have the wow factor of 3D (LG G-Slate) or the practicality of a laptop dock (Asus Transformer). On the software and services side, Sony looks silly compared to Amazon and its aggressive Android moves. I know loads of people that love Amazon’s MP3 Store and several that love Amazon Instant Video. I don’t know anyone that thinks highly of Qriocity. PlayStation Suite has lots of potential and I’d love for it to take off, but a few sources within Sony have told me that the product is getting the bastard treatment internally.

What do you think of Sony’s Android tablet future? Will its slick industrial design, PlayStation Suite, and Qriocity help it rise above the competition? Or will Sony’s products end up being one of several Android tablets released in 2011? Leave a comment and let me know (please!).

Coffee Talk #341: PSN Outage Compensation?

Millions of gamers have been inconvenienced by the PSN outage caused by “an external intrusion”. What do you think Sony will do, if anything, to make up for the PSN outage?

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Sony is still scrambling to get its PlayStation Network service fully operational. Millions of gamers have been inconvenienced by the outage caused by “an external intrusion”. As RPadholic N8R pointed out, customers that pay for enhanced services like PlayStation Plus or subscribe to games like DC Universe Online have been especially put out. What do you think Sony will do to compensate gamers for the down time?

It would be fairly easy to tack on an additional month of PlayStation Plus service or add some extra time to a DCUO subscription, but is that enough? Do you think Sony will try to win back gamers by giving away something really cool? Or will it be something lame like a virtual t-shirt for PlayStation Home? (Though it would be funny to have an avatar wearing a shirt that said, “PSN Was Down for XX Days and All I Got Was This Stupid T-Shirt!!!”)

I’d be interested in seeing everyone get some PlayStation Plus time and a free downloadable game or two. It would be a nice gesture that could also get Sony some new Plus subscribers. Sony makes money, gamers get free stuff — everybody wins!!! (Well, not if you’re still angry about not being able to play Portal 2 with your friends last week.)

Now it’s your turn to speculate! What do you think Sony will do, if anything, to make up for the PSN outage?

Coffee Talk #340: Are You Ready For What’s Next in Gaming?

Gaming is at a crossroads. Big changes in the business are already underway and even bigger changes are on the horizon. What do you think of all the change that’s happening in gaming? Will you change with it?

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Gaming is at a crossroads. Big changes in the business are already underway and even bigger changes are on the horizon. Epic Games’ Dr. Mike “Busta” Capps recently chatted with Industry Gamers about the changes happening in the gaming business. While they’re exciting from a gamer’s point of view, they’re scary to developers and publishers:

We have not been this uncertain about what’s coming next in the games industry since Epic’s been around for 20 years. We’re at such an inflection point. Will there be physical distribution in 10 years or even five? Will anyone care about the next console generation? What’s going on in PC? Can you make money on PC if it’s not a connected game? What’s going on in mobile?

Tons of really scary things… It used to be, ‘Well, of course PlayStation 3 will be successful because PS2 was amazingly successful.’ But can you say for sure that you know everyone’s going to jump to the next generation? I sure hope so — I’m going to try to make some great tech that will make everyone want to. But it’s scary.

If there’s anything that’s killing us [in the traditional games business] it’s dollar apps. How do you sell someone a $60 game that’s really worth it … They’re used to 99 cents. As I said, it’s an uncertain time in the industry. But it’s an exciting time for whoever picks the right path and wins.

Digital distribution, mobile gaming, and social gaming are challenging traditional game makers and publishers. These relatively new forces are also challenging traditional gamers. I’m reminded of friends in the ’90s that loved PC gaming, but couldn’t adapt to a console world. I’m reminded of friends that loved 2D fighting games more than anything, but couldn’t deal with the shift to 3D. These friends are no longer the gamers that they once were.

What do you think of all the change that’s happening in gaming? Will you change with the times? Or are you perfectly comfortable with the disc-and-console model? Will you resist change and hang on as long as you can? If you don’t like what the future holds for gaming, will you look for another hobby? As for me, no matter what happens in gaming, I’ll be like Jefe from The Three Amigos: “I’m still here El Guapo!”

Coffee Talk #339: Frame Rate and You

One of my coworkers at GameSpy was huge on frame rate. His eyes were not happy with games running at anything less than 60 frames per second. Some people at the office were amazed by…

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One of my coworkers at GameSpy was huge on frame rate. His eyes were not happy with games running at anything less than 60 frames per second. Some people at the office were amazed by his ability to quickly detect frame rate, others thought he was obsessed over a technical feature that doesn’t contribute to the fun factor in games.

What are your feelings on frame rate? Is running at 60 frames per second important to you? Do you not care about the actual rate so long as it’s consistent? Does a smooth frame rate contribute to a game’s fun factor? Or is it something you don’t really notice or care about? Share your feelings in this filmic edition of Cofee Talk (running at 24p).