Mario: Can He Inspire the Next Generation?

At TheUniversity of Southern California, where I attend school, graduation impends, and with it thoughts of the next step after college occupy the forefront of our minds and students are forced to ponder the question, what should I do with my life? In response to and in recognition of the passage into a new realm the University selects a remarkable acheiver from the intimidating world of postgraduate existence to address the students. The selected speaker is conferred an honorary degree by USC to “honor individuals who have distinguished themselves through extraordinary achievements in scholarship, the professions, or other creative activities”. Today's post is dedicated to selecting the person who is most deserving of the honorary degree for this year’s spring commencement. Recently USC began to offer a degree in “Interactive Media” through the renowned School of Cinematic Arts, which is largely dedicated to game design. The school’s high regard for gaming as a discipline is established and expresses a sincere desire to see USC graduates make an impact in rapidly expanding feilds such as interactive media. With the current success of the game industry and the recent support at USC for students who choose to pursue game design, I feel that it is fitting to choose somone from within that discipline; and that person is Shigeru Miyamoto, whose fansite is depicted to the right.

Miyamoto’s career in gaming is not only exemplary because of the success of his titles, most notably, the Mario and Zelda series, Mario is pictured below, but also because of his dedication to innovation and maintenance of the lifeblood of game development. Both of these are among the best selling titles of all time and Mario in fact tops this list with over 193 million games worldwide. These products only touch on the vast amount of industry changing work he has been responsible for over the years. His accomplishments speak for themselves and already earn him the right to be honored. USC's criteria for the award dictate that the recipient will be a person, "who is widely known and highly regarded for achievements in their respective fields of endeavor". He clearly falls within this category however his philosophy and approach toward game development are what truly set him apart. Another highly esteemed developer, Will Wright, creator of the Sims, considers Miyamoto as the one with the most “creative impact” on games and praises him, “because he has always remained focused on what actually matters in a game: the player's experience… His insistence upon simplicity and his appeal to our inner child recognize that play is an important part of being human.” Wright’s words not only validate Miyamoto’s status as a game maker but also qualify it with what truly sets him apart; his vision of games is truly unique and he is wholly dedicated to what makes them a unique medium for not just entertainment but creative expression.

James Freedman, former president of the University of Iowa, raises the issue that the, “purpose of honoring distinguished personal achievement has been widely modified . . . to flatter generous donors and prospective benefactors,” or “trivialized” with awards to “mere celebrities”, resulting in an “ill-chosen” recipient. Though I think it is fair to say Miyamoto is not a “mere” celebrity, there is an argument to be made that he could be ill-chosen. He is perhaps an obvious choice, already having been bestowed with the lifetime achievement award at the 2007 Game Developers Conference. And he is as much of a celebrity that one can become as a game developer. When Miyamoto made his first public appearance in america, “More than 2,000 gamers lined up Sunday outside the Nintendo World store in Rockefeller Center to get an autograph”; most game designers cannot make this claim. However, I do not feel that this detracts from his viability as a candidate. Fame, in most cases, is not dispersed aimlessly: he has earned it. Simply because he is widely recognized that does not negate his impact or importance. USC stipulates that honorands should be considered, “whether or not they are widely known by the general public,” in order to support nominees who may be less prominent, as this does not always ensure true worth. However the converse is also true and fame surely does not equate to triviality.

His accomplishments are astounding, but the honorand not only needs to exemplify excellence professionally but also have a message pertinent to the students; a message to send them off into the “real” world. In his first public appearance in America Miyamoto gave the following advice to the youth in an interview with MTV, “See what you personally can create and what you personally can bring to the world… The more you can step off that path, the more you're going to grow and the more that you can experience in the world.” He preaches what he practices: dedication to one’s field, love of a career, the importance of creativity, and the value of perseverance. These qualities can all be seen through Miyamoto’s example, but his words are just as beneficial and significant to the students of this generation. Students faced with the tremendous burden and excitement of taking the next step, are also given an opportunity to experience more. In accordance with Miyamoto's credence they need to take full advantage and provide the world with personally significant work, as this is the only way to be truly successful.

MMOGs: The Need for Culture and The Greed for Experience

MMOGs have gained incredible popularity in the past couple years and currently are not losing momentum. Despite this upshot in use, the same issues still riddle designers and gamers alike. Many people desire a more realistic and immersive experience, and others are only concerned with getting to the highest level as fast as possible by any means necessary. Again I turned to the Blogosphere this week to see how other bloggers felt. I commented on two blog entries discussing the issues MMO players and developers are faced with, which can also be seen here in the ensuing paragraphs. Jen Dornan’s entry, “Us Being Human”, discusses the lack of realistic human culture within MMOGs and received my first post at her blog Terra Nova. The second post I chose to comment on was from Psychochild’s Blog by Brian Green whose entry, “Cheat While Exploring, Not Achieving”, covers the use of automated bots and the use of guides, such as Thotbott which is pictured to the right, and their effect on MMO gameplay and development.

"Us Being Human"
Comment:
Jen, MMOGs definitely need to make strides in the direction of a more integrated cultural and social experience. Like what others have said in response, many of these educational and cultural aspects exist in structures outside the “game” itself and can be observed within guild interactions. These subcultures are not built upon the structure of the game, and though they arise and are prevalent, it is not something the game provides to the player; the players form it themselves and bring it to the game.

Some people have indicated that the integration of cultural functionality could render the game “un-fun” as it would be too akin to real life, or it is simply unnecessary because people already encountered all seven phenomenon resulting in culture within MMOG’s.

Frankly, that is absurd. MMO’s strive to strike a balance between emulating reality and fostering fantasy and escapism. Games will not throw this balance off by introducing more complex structures for encouraging substantial culture to form. Rather it will allow for new levels of exploration for both of the competing forces to be reached. Secondly, if people are already experiencing all of these social structures through other avenues such as guilds, then why not make them inherent to the gameplay and therefore more easily accessible to all players?

"Cheat While Exploring, Not While Acheiving"
Comment:
Personally I don’t believe that there is a distinction between botting/ RTMing and using guides quantifiably; it is a matter of quantity. I mean that guide using and botting are both of the same nature just of differing degrees. Players use bots and guides for the same reason, to achieve their goals in game with minimal time and effort. Botting is only looked down upon due to the more blatant laziness and lack of user intervention. However, using thottbot to “automate quests” as you concisely put it, it is only more accepted because it is a less barefaced offense.

Is this an issue of bad design? Partially. Someone above mentioned dynamic content and quest variation. These are phenomenal ideas and would definitely lessen the number of people pushed to guides due to boredom. However this overlooks the issue of player’s experience greed. The major reason people use guides or bots, is not because they are bored with the quests, but because they get more enjoyment out of being high level as that gains them more social prowess. MMO’s are about the social aspect; questing is a means to an end for those seeking social glory. This is the root of the problem and it is only compounded by the boredom felt by genuine quest-lovers.

Independent Developers Doom: The future of Game Development

With the arrival of the next generation consoles, and with the recent release of Windows Vista, developers for console and PC games alike are called to reciprocate the platform changes with revolutionary new games. The PS3 the X-Box 360 and the Wii provide an unprecedented level of performance, discussed previously, and Windows Vista boasts, “great features like the games explorer, Direct X10 and parental controls”; all this seems like a developers wonderland and simply begs for them to forge some software to take advantage of these exciting advancements. However, the call for new games seems to have only been made to larger contracted developing firms. This move may cultivate a monopolistic style of game development and push the smaller independent “casual” game developers slowly out of business.

Since its’ launch on December 8^th of last year, the Wii has been wildly popular and painstakingly difficult to obtain. This trend of low supply and high demand is only a consumer isolated phenomena but also applies to the aspiring independent developers of Wii games. Nintendo projected that by January they would have Development Kits for smaller development firms or at least begin reviewing the applications. This has proven to be untrue. According to Ian Bogost, an academic game researcher and designer, Nintendo, “doesn't have enough kits to cover the demand for all those crappy licensed games, let alone more original work.” Seemingly, Nintendo is ignoring this outcry despite the lack of quality development from its licensed, contracted game makers. However, a lucky few independent developers have indeed received the coveted Wii Development Kits but does this negate the legitimacy of the disgruntled attitude of developers who have not? No. Nintendo projected that by this time they would be reviewing all applications from all parties desiring a kit. This process would allow for a standardized method toward acquiring one, which is what was promised; allowing a few exceptions does not meet the expectations raised by their previous statement. Nevertheless it does show that Nintendo may not be bent on pushing out the little guys.

Similarly the release of Windows Vista has spawned many obstacles for the developing community. Vista is intended to completely replace Windows XP on all desktop PCs making it the new standard for developers. Apparently this news is not inspiring for independent, casual game developers. The operating system has integrated a Games Explorer designed to provide “game players, the safest, easiest, and most fun experiences of any platform,” due to its new fangled features. DirectX 10, the most current version of Microsoft’s graphics Application Programming Interface (API), an upgraded set of security features including parental controls and an entire explorer with specialized functionality just for games, are the focus of the gaming component for Vista. There are many on the development side who feel differently about Vista's approach to games.

Apparently the features can inhibit the gaming experience in many more ways than enhance it. Alex St. John, CEO at Wildtangent, whose website is displayed on the right, brings attention to the, “heavy handed implementation of parental controls” and how it, “ presents several problems for PC game developers,” including his own company. Vista locks down the game installation process in such a way that could greatly discourage people from downloading game content, forcing them to deal with multiple dialogue boxes and a prompt for username and password. These games target casual gamers who need quick and easy access and any hindrance to the flow of this process could deter them from playing. One major criterion for the Game Explorer’s assessment of a games appropriateness is the ESRB rating. For many online game developers “most free family and casual games are 'unrated' because the ESRB rating service, designed for multimillion dollar boxed titles, is too expensive,” making their games instantly unsuitable by default within the new game explorer and creating more red tape for the end user. These new features can be detrimental to the convenience aspect that these games so heavily rely upon. Developers of online games can only wait and hope that either users are not easily frustrated, or that Microsoft makes some form of adjustment.

Independent or not, developers need to acclimate to these new platforms for games; however there seems to be an inherent discrepancy favoring the larger and contracted game makers. Hopefully as the games roll out, independent game makers are granted the resources they need to catch up and work on par with their currently advantaged competitors. If not, game development might lose an invaluable source of ideas and innovation.

Can They be trusted?: A Call to Game Developers

For Massively Muliplayer Online game developers, their product cannot be self-contained; the game alone does not suffice to please today’s online gamer. The developing company is expected to cultivate a report between themselves and their customers. This report builds into a community, one based on trust. Of late there have been examples of both abuse of this trust and dependence on this trust within the development business incurring respective negative and positive results. Turning to the Blogoshpere to explore these events, the extent of their impact can be more clearly related. Steven Davis’ blog PlayNoEvil, dedicated to issues of game security, in a recent post discusses the issues of in game cheating by developers. From a similar vein, Mark Hefflinger in his entry on DMW Daily focuses on the legitimization of Real Money Transactions and the implications of this move. In hopes to begin a dialogue on these topics, comments on these posts are shown below and were posted at PlayNoEvil and DMW Daily.

Trust within the online gaming industry is undoubtedly a necessity for the longevity of developing companies. The main concern for game developers is to create a positive experience for the consumer. What does this mean for developers who desire to play their own games?

Developers have an unfair advantage that cannot be ignored, and as such it is inappropriate to allow them regular user status. This does not mean they should be barred from experiencing the world they helped create. However, limitations need to be set. There are a hundred thousand plus customers for Eve Online, in this case, who should be the CCP or any developers’ primary concern. As a game developer, one needs to have an appreciation for games and should very well enjoy playing them. Nevertheless, professionalism and dedication to the integrity of their company and product need to the priority. After all, there are other games out there…

Black Market sales of virtual property have co-existed with MMO games since their inception and until recently the developer has always strongly combated the sale of their virtual properties. Sony Station Exchange’s acceptance and facilitation of the customers’ capitalist ventures has earned a great deal of customer patronage, revenue and has greatly cut their support costs. What does this mean for other MMO developers? Will they begin to adopt this policy and instead of punishing virtual salesmen, simply play the middle man? They should. The players of Everquest II using Station Exchange have shown that they can be trusted to use a legitimate system if it is offered. Currently the illegal sales of virtual property from games such as World of Warcraft, Ultima Online and City of Heroes are estimated to be as high as a billion dollars. This is a chunk of capital industry developers cannot afford to neglect, and it seems Sony has presented a viable means to regulate this currently illegal trade with great success.