The Problem with Modding

One of the reasons I primarily play games on the PC involves a higher level of support and customization.  The bulk of this support doesn't come from developers, though: it comes directly from players, usually in the form of modding.  Whether it's to fix a broken game or add new content, mods have become essential for playing specific games (like Skyrim), and I can't imagine the game without them.

Hunt the Wumpus?!

Earlier in the week at Evil Avatar, I noticed a newspost that got quite a good deal of attention: Time put together a spread on the top 100 video games ever.

A Caution: Amazon.com

As you enter the holiday season, and do the shopping that tends to be tied in with it, I caution you against using Amazon.com for any purchase.  Here's why.

Disney and Star Wars

I admit, I initially winced when I heard about Disney's buyout of LucasArts. I expected it to be equivalent to the "Merchandising" scene in Spaceballs. And then I thought about it some more.

Cheapening Intellectual Property

EA's David DeMartini, Senior Vice President of Global eCommerce and head of the Origin service, stated this about Steam sales recently:


 "I just think it cheapens your intellectual property. I know both sides of it, I understand it. If you want to sell a whole bunch of units, that is certainly a way to do that, to sell a whole bunch of stuff at a low price. The gamemakers work incredibly hard to make this intellectual property, and we're not trying to be Target. We're trying to be Nordstrom."

It's no secret that I'm a fan of Valve.  Aside from their wonderful games, they made perhaps the first viable digital distribution platform, tying it in with a social platform.  EA's shot across the bow flatly states that they feel that Steam's model of sales is killing intellectual property values.  While it's true that they've left me with quite a backlog of games, the fact is that I've bought games that I've had little to no interest in.  Here are five things I think are deflating the industry IP value before Steam's sales can even be considered.

Sex and Violence: The "Demise of Guys"

The mental health profession is one with its share of quirks and oddities.  It's a field that's tried hard to analyze bias, avoid it, and generally comes out swinging hard with positive biases toward the underdog.  There are specific exceptions, and sometimes they're more evident than others.

FLGS 2.0

While in high school, I watched hobby shop after hobby shop shutter its doors in my (original) hometown.  I couldn't understand why this lucrative and noble profession didn't flourish as I loaded box after box of steeply discounted RPG materials that didn't sell into my car.  It didn't occur to me until the dawn of Amazon that it was particularly regular that I couldn't find specific books in my friendly local gaming shop (FLGS).  I had more luck finding Vampire: Revised books in my local Waldenbooks than at my hobby shop.  For the next decade, I would primarily make my purchases online, not only not supporting my FLGS, but encouraging their obliteration.

It wasn't until I saw Games Workshop's sales figures for the first time that I particularly understood why.  Here are ten lessons I've come to learn about a successful FLGS thanks to Games Workshop stores.

Internet Killed the RPG Star

Ten years ago, a few dice, a pen and paper, and a stack of game books cut it.  You could amass a group with regularity, and attract new players.  It also helped that ten years ago I was trapped in a college dormitory for two days without power while a hurricane hit.  In the past decade, though, video games became infinitely more accessible, intuitive, and enticing than tabletop gaming could offer -- lush worlds, massive challenges, and other players immediately at your fingertips have almost completely marginalized tabletop gaming.

It hasn't helped that the big names in tabletop gaming have largely ignored new technology and refused to meet the demands of an ever more connected market.  It also hasn't helped that by and large, the electronic medium has done its best to minimize direct player to player interaction with things like words, instead reducing players to stale macros and random player generators.   Only a handful of years ago, I tried running a paper and pen Shadowrun game for a group of players who'd never touched an RPG before, only to be met with blank stares and players fiddling with phones because the pace of combat was too slow, and quite a few cancellations due to scheduling conflicts because traditional RPGs don't particularly support variable players or handle pick-up groups.  After thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that they were right.

Technology has developed quite a bit, but game developers have been reluctant to interact with it.  Publishers continue to make only books, while all of the pieces of software that enable a digital game table are largely third-party.  A large part of this likely has to do with the lack of overlap between electronic and tabletop game industries.  Many digital tools are fan-created and fan-supported, and likely not authorized by the actual developer.  These days, for example, I use a Pathfinder SRD application on my iPod (which avoids direct mention of Paizo or the game in its App Store description) to make a convenient rule index, while my roommate is dungeon crawling online using fan-made maps of 4th Edition D&D boxed content.  Virtual tabletop software is frequently complicated to set up, and Wizards' own D&D Virtual Tabletop for 4th fell flat on its face likely due to the complexity of designing appropriate software.  It does not help that the bastion of tabletop (the FLGS) is becoming less and less available (or profitable).

In any case, follow the jump to view what I feel will be essential to keeping tabletop RPGs competitive: