In this post of news articles I think I've got a pretty interesting selection of articles to talk about today.
There is a special edition PS4 that is up for auction to support an LGBT group in Sweden. Many Gamestop customers don't know about Gamestop's trade-ins and John Romero gives his thoughts on PC v Console and the free-to-play model.
Custom PS4 Auction to support LGBT group in Sweden
Source:http://www.gamespot.com/articles/custom-ps4-dubbed-gaystation-edition-up-for-auctio/1100-6421336/
There is a custom Playstation 4 called the "Gaystation Edition"(seriously).
This custom PS4 is currently on auction this week to support the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Rights(RFSL).
The auction for the console has already reached a bid of two thousand dollars. The auction for this special edition console will be closing on August 2nd.
Webhallen has posted about the console and the post has been translated to be saying this:
"For many young people, the world of games will become a refuge to escape the taunting or worse of real life. On Webahllen, we are gamers in heart and mind, and are keen that as many as possible have the opportunity to feel welcome and enjoy the world's largest and fastest growing interest: video games."
The post also included the hashtag "thisisforthegaymers."
Less than half of Gamestop customers know they can trade in their games
Source:http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/26/5939953/gamestop-idiot-customers-trade-ins
Gamestop's president Tony Bartel told VentureBeat yesterday...
"Believe it or not, only forty percent of the people who walk into a GameStop store today know that we accept trades of games."
Kind of strange considering how you hear a lot of bad stuff about GameStop's trade-in prices.
On a side note, Bartel said that GameStop sees about $1.2 billion in store credit on used games spent in its stores, saying that seventy percent of that goes to buying new games.
Doom designer John Romero on PC vs Console and VR Gaming.
Source:http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/07/28/the-pc-is-decimating-console-says-doom-designer-john-romero
Famously known as the id Software designer for Wolfenstein 3D, Doom,Quake and creator of Daikatana, says that PC and mobile games are dominating console platforms through price.
Mr.Romero spoke with GamesIndustry.biz at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. Giving his thoughts on free-to-play is being continued in the industry.
"With PC you have free-to-play and Steam games for five bucks. The PC is decimating console, just through price. Free-to-Play has killed a hundred AAA studios."
Romero continued with telling us his beliefs on how to do free-to-play right.
"It's a different form of monetization than Doom or Wolfenstein or Quake where that's free-to-play[as shareware]. Our Entire first episode was free - give us no money, play the whole thing. If you like it and want to play more, then you finally pay us. To me that felt like the ultimate fair [model]. I'm not nickel-and-diming you. I didn't cripple the game in any design way."
"Everybody is getting better at free-to-play design, the freemium design, and it's going to lose its stigma at some point. People will settle into [the mindset] that there is a really fair way of doing it, and the other way is the dirty way. Hopefully that other way is easily noticeable by people and the quality design of freemium rises and becomes a standard. That's what everybody is working hard on. People are spending a lot of time trying to design this the right way. They want people to want to give them money, not have to. If you have to give money, you're doing it wrong...For game designers, that's the holy grail."
He also commented on the advantages of a PC over a console.
"With PCs if you want a faster system you can just plug in some new video cards, put faster memory in it, and you'll always have the best machine that blows away PS4 or Xbox One."
Romero then went onto to talk about VR Gaming. More specifically, his thoughts on using the Oculus Rift.
There is a special edition PS4 that is up for auction to support an LGBT group in Sweden. Many Gamestop customers don't know about Gamestop's trade-ins and John Romero gives his thoughts on PC v Console and the free-to-play model.
Custom PS4 Auction to support LGBT group in Sweden
Source:http://www.gamespot.com/articles/custom-ps4-dubbed-gaystation-edition-up-for-auctio/1100-6421336/
There is a custom Playstation 4 called the "Gaystation Edition"(seriously).
This custom PS4 is currently on auction this week to support the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Rights(RFSL).
The auction for the console has already reached a bid of two thousand dollars. The auction for this special edition console will be closing on August 2nd.
Webhallen has posted about the console and the post has been translated to be saying this:
"For many young people, the world of games will become a refuge to escape the taunting or worse of real life. On Webahllen, we are gamers in heart and mind, and are keen that as many as possible have the opportunity to feel welcome and enjoy the world's largest and fastest growing interest: video games."
The post also included the hashtag "thisisforthegaymers."
Less than half of Gamestop customers know they can trade in their games
Source:http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/26/5939953/gamestop-idiot-customers-trade-ins
Gamestop's president Tony Bartel told VentureBeat yesterday...
"Believe it or not, only forty percent of the people who walk into a GameStop store today know that we accept trades of games."
Kind of strange considering how you hear a lot of bad stuff about GameStop's trade-in prices.
On a side note, Bartel said that GameStop sees about $1.2 billion in store credit on used games spent in its stores, saying that seventy percent of that goes to buying new games.
Doom designer John Romero on PC vs Console and VR Gaming.
Source:http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/07/28/the-pc-is-decimating-console-says-doom-designer-john-romero
Famously known as the id Software designer for Wolfenstein 3D, Doom,Quake and creator of Daikatana, says that PC and mobile games are dominating console platforms through price.
Mr.Romero spoke with GamesIndustry.biz at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. Giving his thoughts on free-to-play is being continued in the industry.
"With PC you have free-to-play and Steam games for five bucks. The PC is decimating console, just through price. Free-to-Play has killed a hundred AAA studios."
Romero continued with telling us his beliefs on how to do free-to-play right.
"It's a different form of monetization than Doom or Wolfenstein or Quake where that's free-to-play[as shareware]. Our Entire first episode was free - give us no money, play the whole thing. If you like it and want to play more, then you finally pay us. To me that felt like the ultimate fair [model]. I'm not nickel-and-diming you. I didn't cripple the game in any design way."
"Everybody is getting better at free-to-play design, the freemium design, and it's going to lose its stigma at some point. People will settle into [the mindset] that there is a really fair way of doing it, and the other way is the dirty way. Hopefully that other way is easily noticeable by people and the quality design of freemium rises and becomes a standard. That's what everybody is working hard on. People are spending a lot of time trying to design this the right way. They want people to want to give them money, not have to. If you have to give money, you're doing it wrong...For game designers, that's the holy grail."
He also commented on the advantages of a PC over a console.
"With PCs if you want a faster system you can just plug in some new video cards, put faster memory in it, and you'll always have the best machine that blows away PS4 or Xbox One."
Romero then went onto to talk about VR Gaming. More specifically, his thoughts on using the Oculus Rift.
“Before using Oculus, I heard lots of vets in the industry saying this is not like anything we’ve seen before. This is not the crap we saw back in the late ’80s. I was excited to check it out and I was just blown away by just how amazing it was to just be in an environment and moving my head was just like mouse-look. I thought that was really great but when I kind of step back and look at it, I just don’t see a real good future for the way VR is right now. It encloses you and keeps you in one spot – even the Kinect and Move are devices I wouldn’t play because they just tire you out.”
“VR is going away from the way games are being developed and pushed as they go back into multiplayer and social stuff. VR is kind of a step back, it's a fad.”
“Even though I’m excited about VR and how cool games look, I can’t see it becoming the way people always play games... If you're inside of a cockpit, that’s cool, but if you’re supposed to be running around a world and you can’t physically run but you can look around, it’s a weird disconnect and it doesn’t feel right.”
Personal Thoughts
Personally, I think I stumbled upon some interesting stories today.
Let's start from the last story to the first.
John Romero I think does have a point when it comes to PC and consoles. Although, he didn't seem to mention anything about how mobile games are beating consoles, more PC.
His claims about free-to-play destroying many AAA studios I'm not quite sure if that's correct.
However, when it comes to the price of pc vs consoles I do think that's where he's got something.
Steam has a lot of good sales on it's service. In fact, there were probably more games on sale on Steam than there were on Xbox's "Ultimate Games Sale." If that's what you want to call that.
When it comes to the power difference comments. This is where I think I really can't comment on it.
I'm not sure what type of graphics card you would need or how much it costs to get something stronger than a PS4 or Xbox One nor what kind of hard-drive you would need.
When we get to the GameStop article, this actually surprises me.
How do people not know about this? Did nobody ever read their flyers or their e-mails telling them "Trade games in for an extra 50% in store-credit!"
Especially considering how almost every gamer who has dealt with GameStop has always said that their trade-in prices are a huge rip-off and those memes all over the internet.
Finally, the PS4 console.
This really surprised me to be reading about something like this. I mean I've heard of protests and marches for LGBT rights but selling a custom video game console to support LGBT rights is something I was not expecting.
The comment that was made on the website I think was very nice. In many ways I think that's already happening now.
Games I think in many ways are already a refuge for many young people and teenagers today who because of their interests, looks or personality. Get bullied by other students everyday and when they come home they play video games to feel comfort and safety from people who judge them.
Now that we have a console that is being sold in order to support rights for others that have most likely been bullied and harassed for their sexual preference. Makes me really happy to be a part of this massive community.
Stay awesome gamers.
When it comes to the power difference comments. This is where I think I really can't comment on it.
I'm not sure what type of graphics card you would need or how much it costs to get something stronger than a PS4 or Xbox One nor what kind of hard-drive you would need.
When we get to the GameStop article, this actually surprises me.
How do people not know about this? Did nobody ever read their flyers or their e-mails telling them "Trade games in for an extra 50% in store-credit!"
Especially considering how almost every gamer who has dealt with GameStop has always said that their trade-in prices are a huge rip-off and those memes all over the internet.
Finally, the PS4 console.
This really surprised me to be reading about something like this. I mean I've heard of protests and marches for LGBT rights but selling a custom video game console to support LGBT rights is something I was not expecting.
The comment that was made on the website I think was very nice. In many ways I think that's already happening now.
Games I think in many ways are already a refuge for many young people and teenagers today who because of their interests, looks or personality. Get bullied by other students everyday and when they come home they play video games to feel comfort and safety from people who judge them.
Now that we have a console that is being sold in order to support rights for others that have most likely been bullied and harassed for their sexual preference. Makes me really happy to be a part of this massive community.
Stay awesome gamers.
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