Here are a bunch of random pictures from id Software’s launch party for Rage. (You know, that thing I was at when I sent you those drunk messages on Google+) It was a pretty big blowout and way better than most LA videogame parties. Of course there were lots of celebs around. Charlize Theron was the official host of the party. I recall seeing Seth Green, Jaime Pressly, Danny Masterson, Topher Grace, and Chris Pine. I was totally bummed that I missed Stacy Keibler. The Black Keys put on a sweet performance. It was cool briefly seeing my E3 buddy Sarah Carroll. My favorite part was bumping into id CEO Todd Hollenshead. He looked so happy and proud! I was thrilled for him.
Anyway, check out these picks. Highlights include some idiot climbing on top of the Rage kiosks and some woman vomiting into a trash can. Ha!
I think I’m going to give Bastion another go. I meant to give it a more thorough run on my personal Xbox Live Account and never got around to it. It’s such a fun and charming game. It’s also cool that someone I like, ex-GameSpot editor Greg Kasavin, worked on it. Yeah, that settles it. This weekend will be about replaying Bastion!
Activision and Pepsi are teaming up for a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 promotion that gives gamers time to earn double experience points when they buy participating products. The “Rank Up Your Game” web site shows Mountain Dew and Doritos as foods that will earn double XP. In a recent article, Forbes called the promotion “nothing short of unholy.” Here’s an excerpt:
The promotion is called “Rank Up XP,” and the long and short of it is that by buying certain Pepsi products, namely Mountain Dew and Doritos, players can redeem codes in the packaging for Double XP time in Modern Warfare 3. A 20 oz gets you 15 minutes, a 12 pack gets you 45, and so on.
Why is this a problem? Because XP is currency in these games, and whoever has more of it first is at a distinct advantage. More XP, especially when the game is new, means more weapons, more perks, more attachments, more killstreaks, and subsequently, usually more wins. Offering Double XP to someone who purchases Pepsi products is selling out about as much as you can, and for a franchise that’s already been accused of pushing the limits with “Elite” monthly membership and overpriced map packs, it goes to show that Activision will exploit its fans in any way they can.
Perhaps I’ve been desensitized by years of marketing, but I don’t see what’s so bad about the promo. I’ve certainly seen worse and it’s not like I expect Activision to offer a deal that rewards gamers for buying organic direct-trade fruit. It’s a marketing deal that combines a popular game with popular junk food. It’s not benefiting mankind, but I wouldn’t go as far as to call it “unholy”.
Actually, let’s take it to another level. Calling it unholy is f*cking stupid. There are people without homes and food. There are people that are being denied their civil rights. There are people without jobs and health insurance. I don’t know Paul Tassi, the author of the Forbes article, but I’m inclined to think that he’s a moron if he truly believes a “Call of Duty + Mountain Dew = double XP” promotion is unholy compared to all the other things going on in the world. If earning double XP in a questionable way is unholy, then how do you describe what’s going on in Myanmar and North Korea?!?
What do you think? Is Activision teaming up with Doritos for double XP unholy? Or is it just another marketing deal?
Blizzard has announced that the Foo Fighters will be the musical guests at Blizzcon 2012. The all-things-Blizzard fan-festival usually ends with a star-studded performance. Past guests include Ozzy Osbourne, Tenacious D, Jay Mohr, and Level 10 60 70 80Elite Tauren Chieftain. Here’s a clip from the…
Blizzard has announced that the Foo Fighters will be the musical guests at Blizzcon 2012. The all-things-Blizzard fan-festival usually ends with a star-studded performance. Past guests include Ozzy Osbourne, Tenacious D, Jay Mohr, and Level 106070 80Elite Tauren Chieftain. Here’s a clip from the official press release:
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that Foo Fighters will headline the closing concert of this year’s sold-out BlizzCon, taking place October 21-22 at the Anaheim Convention Center. While tickets to the convention are currently sold out, viewers can watch at home by ordering a BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, offering comprehensive live coverage of the event (including Foo Fighters’ performance) globally over the Internet and also on DirecTV in the United States.
One of my favorite shows of the year gets even better! I love Blizzcon. Blizzard is an incredible developer and publisher. The company has some of most passionate fans in the world. It’s brilliant watching thousands of people come together to celebrate Blizzard’s excellent games. Add the Foo Fighters on top of all that?!? Awesome!
Any of you making it out to Blizzcon this year? Are you psyched to watch Foo Fighters perform at Blizzcon whether you’re there or watching on DirecTV?
It’s frustrating talking about Google+ with my friends in the videogame business. Most of them are missing the big picture. Most of them can’t think of it in terms other than Google+ vs. Facebook. Certainly Google+ competes…
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 Yankees jobbing to Tampa Bay to stick it to the Red Sox, Facebook and Spotify sitting in a tree, or remembering your favorite indie-pop bands from 2001, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
It’s frustrating talking about Google+ with my friends in the videogame business. Most of them are missing the big picture. Most of them can’t think of it in terms other than Google+ vs. Facebook. Certainly Google+ competes with social networks like Facebook and Twitter. It even competes with messaging services like BlackBerry Messenger and the upcoming iMessenger. While it’s fun for writers, analysts, and consumers to talk about these “wars”, that’s really not what Google+ is about. Ultimately, it all comes down to search.
Remember way back in 2007 when Microsoft invested $240-million in Facebook? At the time, Google was concerned about two of its biggest rivals teaming up. Remember earlier this year when Microsoft’s Bing search engine got a huge social boost powered by Facebook “likes”? That’s when Google’s biggest fears about the partnership were realized.
Although it has its fingers in many pies, at the end of the day, Google is a search company that makes the vast majority of its money serving ads. Google was not pleased that the most popular social network in the world was helping Bing serve up more relevant results and serve more relevant ads. This is what Google+ is really about — the socialization of Google search.
As someone with nerd friends in Silicon Valley and the videogame industry, I have a lot of friends and acquaintances that actively use Google+. More importantly, they actively use the “+1” buttons found on numerous articles. When I search for something on Google that’s tech or game related, I usually see articles that my friends have recommended. This is enormously powerful! I’m more likely to click on a link that my friends recommend than one without that seal of approval.
While some people at Google would love to see the Google+ installed base surpass that of Facebook’s, I’m sure that most don’t see it as a realistic possibility. I’m also sure that a lot of them don’t care. This is not a head-to-head race. Google+ is growing at a rapid rate, as is the use of “+1” buttons. Google executives are just fine with collecting more user data, making search results more socially relevant, serving up more relevant advertising, and swimming in ad dollars. That’s way more important than getting into a numbers contest with Facebook. I’m just surprised that my gaming friends don’t get that.
I’d love to hear what you think of the Google+ vs. Facebook “war”. How do you feel about the socialization of search? Do you want the search algorithm to do all the work? Or do you like having your friends influence your search results?
[Also, don’t forget to drink your Ovaltine click on the +1 button for any RPad.tv articles you enjoy. It really helps!]
I’ve been playing around with Facebook’s new “Timeline” feature for the last few days. It’s definitely bold and different, but I’m not yet sold on it. Although it’s arguably Facebook’s biggest initiative since the social network launched, I have a feeling that it’s going to pan out similarly to other new feature introductions — some people are going to love it and some people are going to hate it, but few people will leave Facebook because of it. Here are some random thoughts from my three days with Timeline.
– I hated Timeline for the first few hours. This was hardly surprising. Hundreds of X-Men comics have taught me that people fear and hate what they don’t understand. I definitely didn’t understand Timeline at first. Using it was jarring and overwhelming. Hell, just looking at it was confusing. I didn’t know where anything was and in many cases I wasn’t sure where to look for it.
– As I got more familiar with Timeline, I became fascinated by it. It’s definitely a new and different way to look at and organize personal information. I found myself thinking, “You know, if I used Facebook for purely personal reasons, this would be totally neat!” Unfortunately, I don’t. I decided long ago never to walk in anyone’s shadow that I was only going to have one Facebook account. Several of my friends have personal and work Facebook accounts. That’s definitely the more practical thing to do, but I also think it’s slightly pretentious. Because I mostly use Facebook for interacting with readers, promoting articles, and keeping tabs on videogame industry peeps, I limit the personal info I put on the service. As an atypical Facebook user, I won’t get as much out of Timeline as someone that uses Facebook primarily for personal enjoyment.
– Sorting through my birthday wishes was outstanding for getting used to Timeline. At this point, I was accustomed to where everything was. Getting a steady stream of birthday wishes got me used to how information flowed. This made Timeline click for me. I can see myself having a sad February day in 2012 and clicking on September 2011 to cheer myself up with my birthday wishes. I can also see myself randomly clicking on a month and year just to remember what happened. It’s like the “pensieve” from the Harry Potter movies…but with tech instead of magic.
– Today I tried to upload old photos to see how they would behave in Timeline. After uploading a batch of pictures from the Spike TV 2003 VGAs, I was disappointed to see that they didn’t pop up in the 2003 section of my Timeline. This is absolutely stupid. The meta data is right there in the files. The pics should automatically be placed in 2003. I didn’t see a way to manually do this either. There’s a chance I’m missing the menu for this option. There’s also a chance that this feature will be implemented later. Either way, it’s moronic that this isn’t done automatically.
– Three days later, I’m not sure if I like Timeline. I’m having fun playing around with it because it’s new, but I’m still not sure it’s better for the way that I use Facebook. It’s certainly bold and interesting, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good. Obviously I’m stuck on Facebook and can’t leave. It’s too powerful for networking, marketing, and outreach purposes. That’s where you come in! If you’re already using Timeline, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. If not, let’s revisit this on September 29 when it starts rolling out to everyone.
BioWare and LucasArts have announced that the highly-anticipated MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will arrive on December 20, 2011. The launch date is fascinating. Major game releases typically stop in early December. A lot of my industry friends are thinking, “Sorry family. I’m abandoning you this Christmas.” Others are surprised that the game is coming out for the holidays, simply because MMOs are typically “me” purchases and not gifts.
I think it’s a brilliant time to launch an MMO. A lot of people have time off at the end of December and the beginning of January. That’s the perfect time to create SWTOR addicts! I can see lots of people giving the game a shot while they’re off from work or school. They’ll return to the office or the classroom and dream about their SWTOR life all day.
Of course I could be wrong. The pull of family and friends might be too much for the Force. What do you think about the unusual launch date of Star Wars: The Old Republic? Is it a great time to create subscribers? Or will the game lose out to Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa joy?
Last week I had one of the silliest videogame dreams I’ve ever had in my life. In my dream, I was feverishly playing a Gilligan’s Island real-time strategy game made by Blizzard…
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, digesting outstanding birthday food, Michael Vick complaining about referees, or rooting for Manchester City, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
Last week I had one of the silliest videogame dreams I’ve ever had in my life. In my dream, I was feverishly playing a Gilligan’s Island real-time strategy game made by Blizzard. I was harvesting bamboo to build war huts. I was gathering coconuts to make coconut-cream pies to hurl at my enemies. I was defending Queen Mary Ann Summers from the villainous Emperor Howell and the mad scientist Professor Roy Hinkley. From the bits I remember, it was an intense battle played out in wonderfully polished and addictive Blizzard RTS.
Yeah, pretty ridiculous, hey? It’s been awhile since I’ve had such a vivid and crazy videogame dream. I had to share it with you. I’m also trying to remember what I ate that night and wondering if anyone slipped me any absinthe….
Have you had any crazy videogame dreams lately? Please share them in the comments section! If you were playing a Gilligan’s Island RTS, which team would you pick? Are you a Ginger? Is Skipper your man? Or would you go with good old Gilligan? Also, is anyone else shocked that some hack TV executive hasn’t tried to remake Gilligan’s Island?
For Diablo III, we were aiming to launch by the end of 2011. As we’re announcing globally today, our new target for the game is early 2012.
While this news might not be a complete surprise, I know that many of you were hopeful that Diablo III would ship this year. We were too. However, this week we pulled together people from all of the teams involved with the game to decide whether we felt it would be ready before the end of December, and we grudgingly came to the conclusion that it would not. Ultimately, we feel that to deliver an awesome Diablo sequel that lives up to our expectations and yours as well, we should take a little more time and add further polish to a few different elements of the game.
The upside of today’s announcement is that we will be running the beta test longer than we initially planned, which will allow us to invite more of you who have opted in.
I’m so psyched for this game! It’s going to completely own. I know that RPadholic smartguy is definitely down to play. Anyone else? Are you going to be among the millions — and millions (think The Rock) — of people that will buy Diablo III?
My Diablo III beta key arrived earlier this week and I’ve barely spent time with the game. That changes this weekend. I plan to play the hell out of the beta. I’m also toying with going to an Apple Store and seeing if one of the Geniuses will let me try the game on a high-end iMac. Yeah, I can’t afford one at the moment, but I’m curious to see how the game runs on a fully-loaded 27-inch iMac. Maybe I should fly to RPadholic TheJediRevan’s store….
