Tuesday 28 May 2013

An Accidental Collector

Several weeks ago, a friend told me that a copy of Earthbound for the SNES with box and book is selling to upwards of $600.  Of course, it's not that easy.  The North American copy of Earthbound also came with it's own full sized strategy guide and I'm fairly certain it won't be worth that much unless everything - including the guide - is accounted for.  That was back then.  Today, games being bundled with guides or statues or any number of knick nacks are considered 'collector's editions'.  Back in the SNES day, there were no such thing.  A game which came with it's own strategy guide was simply a game that came with it's own strategy guild.  Nobody thought to collect the darn things.

And ironically, that's why it's worth so much.

After a bit of thought, it came to me that most of these so called 'rare' games which are worth a bucket load of cash on Ebay are collected accidentally.  That is, someone buys the game, plays it, puts it away for 20 years and then finds out it's worth hundreds of dollars.  This person, I'm betting, never thought to put the copy away so it could be worth something one day.  In the same way, I too am an accidental collector.  A few (very few!) of my games are worth 'something' (something small) but that's because I buy an abnormal amount of games so one or two of those purchases are bound to pay off.

One such game (and the crowning jewel in my collection) is Panzer Dragoon Saga for the Sega Saturn.  Not many copies were printed of the North American release of the game (this is the only version worth something) and that's no surprise considering it's release at the very end of the Saturn's life cycle.  It's also the very first game I have ever pre ordered off EB!  (My second is Magic Knight Rey Earth…. I wonder if that's worth anything…)  And now it's worth a couple hundred bucks and is also considered one of the rarer games.  Still I never meant to collect it.  It was bought, played, and just sat there for 20 years.

Even today, this still appears to be the case.  My friend also told me about Xenoblade Chronicles, which apparently is worth more than it's sticker price, because of limited quantities.  Again, this is in reference to the North American version, which was only availiable either through Gamestop or pre ordered from Nintendo.  It's no surprise that quantities are limited.  Not THAT limited, however, because I hear there are around 300k copies of these floating around but unlike Panzer Dragoon Saga, it's still fresh in peoples minds and, being a newer game, people might actually want to play it.  So I'm quite happy I own a copy, but again, it wasn't because I planned on a rising resale value.  It just happened that way.

This is why I'm very skeptical of all these 'special editions' floating around out there for just about every game.  Yeah, you get statues, soundtracks, art books and the like but it's highly unlikely it'll be worth anything.  Or maybe it will and I'll eat my tongue but I do have a bit of an example for what I'm talking about.  So I mentioned Xenoblade, right?  It's not crazy rare or super expensive but it's deifnitely more than you would have paid if you pre ordered.  Following the release of Xenoblade is another JRPG:  The Last Story.  My friend says that's beginning to crawl it's way up the value ladder and I'm sure plenty of people missed the first collector's run (with the artbook and box).  People who have been burned by one or both titles aren't making any more mistakes, so when another JRPG comes out, a game by the name of Pandora's Tower, people started to snap them up…  in doubles.  Which is kinda ridiculous because now you've got two copies out there for every one person who wants to play it, and honestly, that isn't going to make the game any more rare.  When people start buying games just to collect, ironically, is also when the value of these games take a nose dive.

A perfect example of this is the comic industry in the 90's.  As everyone knows now, old comics in good condition are worth something.  You know it now, but back 30 years ago noone does.  So when these comics printed in the 60's and prior start to be worth something in the late 80's, people took notice.  In the 90's, comic book companies are churning out new '#1' issues by the dozen, just to attract speculator dollars.  Comic collectors would buy 20 copies of these issues hoping to make a quick buck down the line and the book publishers made a lot of money.  So many of these 'collector's issues' were printed that, unsurprisingly, the supply became over saturated and the issues ended up having no worth.  The folks who bought 20 copies of Supreme #1 lost out and these same people stopped buying.  Demand suddenly tanked and the great comic crash was the result.

Now I'm not saying the gaming industry will crash in the same way.  But what I am saying is this:  if you buy something hoping it'll go up in value, you better make sure noone else is doing the same.  And in today's 'collectable edition' mentality, that is much harder said than done.  I am still convinced that whatever is worth something now only got that way accedentally a very long time ago.

Tuesday 21 May 2013

Microsoft Doesn't Care About Games

That's right, you read it here first, folks.  Microsoft no longer cares about videogames.

Oh, what's that, you say?  They had just officially announced their next console, so they can't possibly have given up on games?

To which I say, oh really?  Did you see any games?  Well… yes, you do, but you also see a whole lot more.  Like football.  TV.  Skype.  Halo TV show.  Oh, did I mention football?  Yes, there were a bunch of sports games.  Yes, they did show footage of the new Call of Duty and yes, it's still too early to show off their other games (namely the 15 exclusives they mentioned but did not name except one) but let's face it, most of the announcement were not gaming related and sports games are nothing to get excited about.

The thing to remember here is that this is Microsoft's 'big reveal'.  This show is supposed to tell the world what the Xbox One is all about.  And it did.  It's just not about games.  If it was about games, they would hype the systems gaming features.  Things like a list of developers on board, or at least, a list of titles slated for the machine.  They can save the game footage for E3, that's fine.  But at least show use a plan which actually involves games.  Show off what your new machine can do to help us experience games in a whole new way, and no, having Kinect built in does not count.  We want to see something new.  New games, new features, new titles, new exclusives, that kind of thing.

Instead, we were treated to a… well, a PC, really, with Skype, multitasking, TV watching, web surfing… pretty much the kitchen sink included but very little of that was gaming related.  At least Sony has a plan for bringing social connectivity to our regular gaming.  But the Xbox One?  Nothing.

So here's where I tell you Microsoft's real plan.  They plan to dominate your living room with the Xbox One; essentially an all-in-one machine (hence the name) to let you do everything you can dream of in the living room.  TV, web, games, etc, etc.  If you follow Microsoft's moves, this isn't news.  What is new is this:  Microsoft's new machine involves a lot of things, but if you consider yourself a gamer, then the one thing it doesn't involve, is you.  That's right, this is Microsoft's outright rejection of 'the gamer' and their embracing of everyone else.  Who is this elusive 'everyone else'?  People who don't consider themselves gamers.  People who play nothing but Call of Duty, for instance.  People who dabble in videogames only until Monday Night Football shows (which they can now watch on Xbox One).  People who would rather watch Halo on TV than play Halo.

The proof is in the reveal.  Just who was Microsoft targeting with their launch?  There were just too much 'mass market' in that show to be a conincidence.  Most of the tech and nerd speak of that show were glossed over by mass market offerings.  Sports, is a very safe, massively popular past time, and Call of Duty is about as mass market as you can get and still be called a video game.  And Skype?  Web browsing?  Those fall under a lable everyone does at one time or another called 'communication'.  Finally, watching TV is something everybody understands.  So, if you are a television watching sports lover who enjoys voice chatting while surfing the web and likes to dabble in a shooter or two (and only shooters), then the Xbox One is probably the best thing since sliced bread. 

The clues are all there.  Microsoft is aiming the Xbox One to everybody, but what gets shuffled up and lost are all the gamers in between.

Wednesday 15 May 2013

My First Person Shooter History

I used to hate first person shooters.

I consider Bioshock Infinite to be the best game of all time.

These two statements are a shocking contrast, yet, they also perfectly describe my journey into the world of first person shooters.  Like many, my very first FPS was Wolfenstine 3D.  This very first experience was pretty much just me trying taking five minutes to walk through that first door.  After that, I powered down the game, never to return.  Having gotten off to such a bad start, it was surprising that I never game up on the genre, but subsequent attempts have not endeared me to the first person perspective.  Hexen, the fantasy FPS hybrid, nearly make me puke with motion sickness and Decent was a confusing jumble of corridors going up, down, sideways, inside and out.

For a very, very long time, I hated first person shooters.  Which explains why I've never played Doom or Duke Nukem.  Or got into Counter Strike or Unreal Tournament.  Not that these last two would have made much difference, since multiplayer was never my thing.  You really can't toss a dead cat around without hitting a FPS, however, so there comes a time when I just had to go back.  My very last PC experimentation with the genre was Vampire:  The Masquarade.  That's when I figured out one reason why I hated first person shooters in the first place.  I hated mouse and keyboard controls.  It doesn't matter how much more accurate a mouse is compared to a pad, or how many keys a keyboard has comparied to a Dual Shock, I can never, ever, play PC games with the default controls.  This applies double to first person shooters.

But my console forays were rocky also, no doubt about that.  There was a period of time when I joined a group of like minded fellas and we played (on LAN) Xbox games like Halo and Castle Wolfenstein.  These were very fun times.  Yet, when I tried Halo as a single player experience, the whole enterprise fell apart.  I just couldn’t get into it.  It's not just Halo either.  I detested games like Half Life and it's sequel for which I passed on the PC to play on consoles.  These three games were just oh, so boring in the single player sphere.  To this day, it mystifies me how peple think Master Chief is a 'badass'.  He's not.  He's an idiot who left Cortana alone so she can get abducted and have the location of Earth compromised.  And don't get me started on that lifeless shell we call Gordan Freeman.  Not even the gravity gun in Half Life 2 can rescue that pointless adventure.

Yes, I hated first person shooters.  Even on consoles.

But one day, the light dawned on me.  And the game that finally opened my eyes was a shocking one.  It was Halo 3.  Everything clicked in that game.  Halo 3 itself wasn't the greatest.  But it was the first game where I understood how much fun it is to go running and gunning with just a hand holding a gun.  Unfortunately, the exact reason why this game broke my mold still eludes me.  However, I will always remember how Master Chief lept from the top of a high building to the back of a giant mech for which he proceeded to blow up from the inside.  In any case, I'm glad the streak finally broke, because after that, I went on a rampage of FPS gaming.  Battlefield Bad Company, Modern Warfare, Singularity, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Bioshock, Bulletstorm, Dishonored, Portal and Portal 2; I've played them all.  Even the RPG spin offs like Fallout 3, New Vegas and of course, Oblivion and Skyrim. 

Now, finally, the story comes to a head.  This time, with Bioshock Infinite.  This is absolutely the most memorable game I have ever played, and is absolutely perfect.  This is the Citizen Kane of video games.  The Mona Lisa of gaming.  The 'War and Peace' of interactive storytelling.  Bioshock Infinite is at once a game and a work of art.  It's story is as much a blockbuster as it is a metaphor.  The whole experience itself is like peeling back an onion.  The more you play, the deeper you go, the more you play.  It is perfection. 

And where would I be now, had I not finally opened myself to first person shooters?  Stuck in parallel universe.  A twilight zone in which the best game of all time would have passed me by.