3Deified exploring the divine in duke nukem

Games as Art VII



In honor of the Beijing Olympics, I present the celebration of excellence as interpreted in Super Mario Kart; not pictured is the giant floating trophy-spewing fish.


August 10th, 2008 / 0 Comments / Tags: games as art, olympics, mario kart / Trackback




Gaming for International Development


In a world first, University of Manchester professor of "development informatics" Richard Heeks has published a study considering the plausibility of virtual world "gold farming" as an international development strategy. The paper, titled "Gold Farming: Real-World Production in Developing Countries for the Virtual Economies of Online Games" quantifies the trade in and measures the stability of virtual world currencies so as to assess the viability of the practice as a tool for international development, particularly for the development of information technology infrastructure and skills. This "real money trade" (RMT) market is worth at minimum over a billion dollars per year, and estimates place the GDP of all virtual game economies combined at over $25 billion/year, larger than the real-world economies of Nepal, Lebanon or Lithuania. China now includes virtual world economies in its yearly GDP, while the US and Korea now have specific taxation schemes applying to those who claim "virtual gaming" as the primary source of their income.

For the uninitiated, "gold farming" is the practice of purposely playing virtual world games like EverQuest, World of Warcraft and others to earn in-game gold that is tradable and convertible to real-world currencies. The globalization of wage labor has brought these games to developing countries where impoverished citizens are recruited by golf farming firms and paid fractional amounts relative to the value of the in-game gold they earn (pennies on the dollar, or less). Maximizing the accumulation of gold usually requires the player to engage in hours of senselessly repetitive activity. This gold is then sold by the gold farming firm through currency exchange websites to wealthy first-world gamers willing to pay real currency to avoid the time spent earning the gold themselves.

Heeks provides a typical example of the money involved in this transaction. In the case of World of Warcraft, the world's largest "massively multiplayer online role playing game" (MMORPG), it will take around 10 hours of gaming to earn the 1000 gold pieces that is typically valued at around $US50. As the player in the developing nation is typically paid just a few cents per hour, most of the money goes directly to the farming firm. It is classic sweat-shop economics, and well documented in an upcoming documentary entitled Chinese Gold Farmers, a preview of which is available on YouTube.


Global estimated value of RMT

For it's part, the developer of World of Warcraft, Activision-Blizzard, officially condemns the practice of RMT as a form of cheating and recognizes the moral problems in exploiting unorganized off-shore wage labor. Players caught engaging in the practice risk having their accounts permanently disabled, a capital form of punishment given the 1000's of hours of work that goes into building in-game assets. With more than 10 million subscribers and billions of transactions however, it is presumed that most incidental RMT continues unchecked. In response, Acitvision-Blizzard is gradually altering the very structure of the game to reward players with non-convertible achievement tokens rather than gold. However, this has the recognized effect of reducing legitimate in-game economic activity between players, which many see as a fundamental part of the fun.

Activision-Blizzard might also be in the minority in condemning RMT as other game developers see it as a way to recoup their development and upkeep costs. Sony Computer Entertainment operates a number of MMORPGs centered around their Station Exchange, a Sony-run marketplace that openly allows gamers to buy and sell game related equipment and gold for real money. In addition to monthly subscription fees, Sony takes a cut of each transaction. In theory, legitimately run exchanges like The Station Exchange should cut the middle men out of the picture, but foreign players are often blocked from creating accounts and don't have the sophistication to bypass such restrictions. As well, the practice of "micro-transaction monetization" is blooming into ever smaller market niches. It is already a mainstay business model in more casual web browser-based strategy games like Travian or Ikariam, wherein players can exchange small amount of money (typically between $5 and $50) to buy in-game assets and resources that leapfrog them ahead of those players who otherwise enjoy the game content for free.

In my mind, the real problem with RMT is linked to the reason it occurs: these games are designed to provide rewards as a function of time played, rather than for the pure skill (that should be) involved.

August 8th, 2008 / 0 Comments / Tags: real money trade, RMT, micro-transaction monetization, international development, Heeks, gold farming / Trackback

HOMM:K Megasite


I'm pleased to announce that 3Deified has applied its enlightened gaming discourse to an upcoming release that looks to be so great it deserved a fansite of its very own: The Kingdom: The Art of Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms Warfare (aka HMMK, aka HOMM:K).

This site is entirely dedicated to Ubi's ooooh-shiny browser-based strategy game, a game so amazing they've described it as a "persistent world massively multiplayer online strategy RPG" that means to "establish a new benchmark for MMO browser based games".

Browser-based strategy gaming seems a lot bigger in Europe and Asia generally, where games like Ikariam, Travian and the copyright disaster "Heroes of War and Money" enjoy a steady stream of 100's of simultaneous users enjoying free access to pervasive and casual gaming. But as the quality of these games slowly drags their appeal and accessibility above the level of being an early 1990's text-based pseudo-MUD, I think the genre is set to explode. Already I can drop-in on my virtual empire in Ikariam for 5-10 minutes anywhere I get 3G reception for my iPhone. That level of pervasive gaming is addictive, and HOMM:K is going to take it to the next level with superior strategy and RPG depth and higher production values.

The Kingdom will be bringing all the latest news, interviews, mods, guides, spreadsheets, forum chatter and alliance support it can muster.

August 6th, 2008 / 17 Comments / Tags: Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms, The Kingdom, HOMM:K, browser-based games, strategy, RPG, pervasive gaming, casual gaming / Trackback

iPhone App Store opens for business


Come what may for gamers and competing mobile gaming platforms, but the iTunes App Store is now open.

Already 7 of the top 10 pieces of software sold are games, and games also dominate 8 of the top 10 slots for free software downloaded. Browsing the store showed some heavies testing the waters (EA, Sega, Hudson, Namco) and a couple of titles from each of the long-established Mac shareware developers (Ambrosia, PangeaSoft, Freeverse).

Most of the games at this point appear to be traditionally mediocre and derivative launch titles, and its disappointing that the old-school Mac devs are mostly just spewing out their own Soduku and Blackjack clones instead of leveraging their top titles like Escape Velocity and Wingnuts to establish an early and strong presence. PangeaSoft is one exception, launching with some of their top titles including Enigmo and Cro-Mag Rally.

The head of PangeaSoft, Brian Greenstone, also gave an interview on the new platform, noting that its got about the same raw power as a 233MHz iMac and commenting on port times, the OSX "halo effect" and how the App store changes the publisher/distributer relationship.

July 10th, 2008 / 0 Comments / Tags: iPhone, App Store, PangeaSoft, Ambrosia, Freeverse / Trackback
Next →