Stacey Higginbotham (no relation to Michael Hickenbottom) wrote an interesting article for GigaOm about the end of all-you-can-eat broadband access. Most Internet providers are working towards tiered plans with set bandwidth caps. Cable companies are being the most aggressive with these practices, since Internet video cuts into their television offerings. Sadly, it looks like “unlimited” Internet will be going the way of the dodo.
The article got me thinking about cloud-based gaming-services like OnLive, Gaikai, and whatever Ken Kutaragi is cooking up. While some of you are fixated on the pricing structure these services will offer (stares at Smartguy), I think that’s a pretty minor problem. Sure, a small and vocal percentage of customers will argue that digital downloads should be much cheaper than retail games and be disappointed when they’re not. Some will complain about not being able to resell games. The majority of consumers will just pay the set price and live with it (see the Xbox 360 wireless adapter, for example).
Getting back to the death of unlimited Internet, I’ve said time and time again that Internet services providers are the biggest obstacles to cloud gaming in America. How can you stream Blu-ray quality graphics when you have a Comcastic bandwidth cap of 250GB? How can you play hours and hours of online games every day with a limited amount of Internet access? The answer is that you can do all these things…but you’ll have to pay a premium price for Internet service. You’ll have to pay for the top speeds and the largest caps, which will surely cost more than whatever you’re paying now and can eliminate some of the inherent “cheapness” cloud gaming has to offer.
I’m all for cloud gaming. I am of the opinion that optical discs and plastic boxes are stupid. I’d gladly trade the stacks and stacks of games that I have for files in a digital locker. The problem is that ISPs are going to make it difficult for me to get to my locker.
BioWare has always done a good job at integrating romantic storylines in its RPGs. I fondly remember playing through Baldur’s Gate II, once courting the cute and innocent Aerie and once bedding the evil and sexy drow Viconia. Both romances added a bunch of unique dialogue to the game, giving each play through a unique feel.
has four romances you can pursue. Do you go with Alistair, the foppish templar that’s clearly one of Hugh Grant’s ancestors? Morrigan, the sexy swamp witch? Zevran, the bisexual elf assassin (I love typing that phrase)? On my first play through, I went with Morrigan; the dialogue was fun, but it was too easy. This time around, I had my female warrior get with Leliana, the cute bard with an adorable accent and a mysterious past. Her romance was tougher to trigger and her back story was more interesting than Morrigan’s, so I enjoyed this courtship more. Besides, I’m still immature enough that I get excited by most lesbian interactions.
line of games has been used to recruit youths into military service. While I imagine that some impressionable teens would get caught up in the game and think the Army is “cool”, the effectiveness of the game is much higher than that. According to a study conducted by two M.I.T. researchers:
One of the most wonderfully imaginative developers in the business, 
— All my industry buddies are saying this one is awesome and addresses all the flaws in the original.
Gaming is more expensive than ever. Consoles cost more. Games cost more. The addition of downloadable content adds to a game’s total cost of ownership. With a languishing economy, it’s no wonder that software sales are down.