!!! Tales of Vesperia Light Spoilers Contained Within !!!


Currently, I am working on Tales of Vesperia and am nearing the end of the game. As such, I decided to finish up many of the side missions that I had been working on over the course of the game. One of these missions involved Judith and her missing spear. Throughout the game, I had triggered many events that furthered the side mission of finding Judith's spear; and at the final town visited I triggered yet another even involving Judith with the president of Fortune's Market. According to guides, I needed to travel to some town ruins that I had visited earlier in the game. There, I would meet up with bandits who had Judith's spear and would they would get chased down - side mission over! Except, the bandits never appear.

After consulting the guide again, it would seem that I missed (easily) a certain event near the beginning of the game. Not triggering this event, the bandits never appear at the ruins and I can't get Judith's spear to finish this side mission. So my question to the developers is this: why lead me on through scripted events if I can't finish the side mission?

My game time now sits at over 140 hours, and I have yet to beat Tales of Vesperia. This amount of time is mainly due to me exploring each area and talking with people multiple times (and also a good amount of grinding). Yet, I still miss many side missions that should be available. It feels like now I need to speak to a certain person, at the right time of day, wearing certain armor, at a speific spot, using the right character, just to trigger an event. Oops! Fogot to say 'Hi!' to his sister back three towns ago and before I had defeated a boss. Too late now!

Tales of Vesperia does redeem itself however in it's grade system in battles. Each battle fought is graded based on certain criteria, and at the beginning of a new game (after beating the game), you are able to use the accumulated grade points as a currency in exchange for carrying over various aspects from your previous game. Hopefully I'll have the time to actually play the game a second time; as it stands now, I already have quite a back log of games, and would still like to do second playthroughs of Fable II and Lost Odyssey.

Speaking of which, Lost Odyssey also robbed me of an achievement for maximizing skill levels for all the immortal characters due to me missing two spells at a shop. By the time I realized that I had missed the spells, the shop had changed it's inventory! GAH!


tl;dr
Don't show events to side missions that players aren't able to complete (due to missing something earlier)!
If an item is easily purchaseable at the beginning of the game, it should be just as easy to purchase at the end of the game!

Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?

No, says the pirate: it belongs to the everyone.
No, says the used game market: we want the profit.
Well maybe, says the consumer: how much sweat are we talking here?

I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible.

I chose...

A new take on old sales methods.

Two questions arise with the sales of games, and they're fundamentally the same. "Is it worth the price?" and "Was it worth the price?" These two questions are what publishers must look into before putting a game onto the market, likely when the first budget for the game is being outlined.

The current gaming market is based on a pretty set pricing structure; usually with consoles games at $60, with the occasional console game coming out at $40. PC games usually start a bit lower between $30 and $50. With higher budgets, shrinking sales, and the ever-looming issue of piracy, how is a publisher to survive which still offering quality games?

Looking into the issue of piracy, one of the top reasons is the 'try before you buy'. Many games do not have demos available, and for those that do the demos usually don't represent the game well.

So here are a couple of questions:

1. How many would be willing to pay an initial low cost for a full, time-limited game on the premise that afterwards you had the option to pay more based on your own value?

or

2. How many would be willing to pay an initial low cost for a full, time-limited game on the premise that afterwards you had to pay based on a set range of amounts (+$10 more, +$15 more...)?

or maybe a bit of both.

For example, lets say you buy Modern Warfare 2 for $15; it is the full game, fully featured but is time-limited to 30 days. Once 30 days has been reached, the game no longer functions but you do have the option to pay a one-time extra amount to unlock the time-limit permanently. Would you?

Some points:

For those that just wanted to play though the game once, the low-cost entry will hopefully be of enough value and kept someone from just pirating the game. The publisher may not see much money out of this consumer, but at least it is not money lost due to piracy.

For those that play through the game several times, what is it worth to be able to do so? The game was $15 up front, but there is more value to that game in that you want to play it more. For this consumer, there is an added value to playing through the game multiple times (usually due to a multiplayer component). From here comes the next part, let the consumer decide the value, or let the consumer choose from a set amount of values.

Based of questions above, a couple of business models already exist: shareware and the rental market. What if these two markets were to me merged? The consumer pays an upfront cost to play the full game for a time period (the rental), but at the end of that time has the option to unlock the full game for a little bit more (shareware).

Going back to the example above, Modern Warfare 2 was purchased for $15 up front and at the end of the time period the option arises: +$10 more, +$20 more, +30 more, +$XX. Any amount will unlock the game permanently, and you only need to pay it this one time. You choose the fate of the game and publisher.

There are three categories here from the publisher perspective, and it would likely follow the bell curve. Some consumers will pay the least amount of money available, no matter the quality experience or value. Most consumers would likely fall into the middle category, paying a moderate amount extra ($20, $30). Finally, the third category of people would feel that the game is worth more to them for the amount of time spent on it, and would likely give the publisher extra. Whatever category these consumers fall into though, money went to the publisher.

There are still questions to this model though. How many extra consumers would this model bring in, especially those who are on the fence with piracy? Does the bell curve (if accurate) balance out profitability? Where would this model be best placed in the market? While not having answers to all questions, the best test bed for where to implement such a system would be in the direct download market; places such as Steam.

While the numbers in the examples may not be accurate, nor the idea that consumers would fall under the bell curve, I find the premise interesting. From a publisher standpoint, more people are likely to buy into a game at a low cost entry. Even if they don't capture all of the consumers, the publisher still sees some money out of it. From a consumer standpoint, the saying 'vote with your wallet' holds more direct weight. The consumer would be able to pay for a game based on what they feel is it's value. Games with more effort behind them will get a better following of consumers who will be more likely to spend more on them. How much sweat would this model be worth?


tl;dr
Piracy hurts, how to cope? Would a merging of the rental and shareware business models work?

As with many here on the GiantBomb website, I have a decent gaming collection (as well as books, movies, and music). Some media I have out on shelves for easy access, other media is on loan with friends and family, and the rest is boxed up in storage until I can get a dedicated gaming room. After much procrastination, I finally felt it time to find a means for organizing my collection.

Finding an application for inventory helped me two-fold: for one I am typically very organized, and even though I had put off getting an inventory of my collection, I still knew where everything was. However, the second reason for finding a means for organization was for insurance; what if there were a fire or theft? By organizing my collection in an application of some sorts I have some form of proof of ownership and a way of listing every title without the need for memorization.

I needed an application that was easy to use, supported multiple media types, and at least looked decent or was customizable. After trying various applications, MediaMan ended up on top; so this is my review of it.

This is the main Mediaman window for viewing your media. On the left is a tree view offering four primary categories by default: Books, Games, Music, Videos.  Each of these categories are customizable, and also allow for sub-categories making organization a breeze.

The middle portion of the window displays the collection, with virtual shelf being the default method. The boxart size can be adjusted by a slider located at the bottom-right of the window. 

On the right is the information panel with three tabs: Details, Images, Extra. Details contains information that was pulled from Amazon.com such as publisher, platform, UPC, EAN, Date released, and other relavant information. Images will display a larger image (if available) as well as offer other viewing angles if additional images were imported. Only one default is available for viewing (front cover), and selecting other viewing angles is needed for each view. The Extras tab gives more customization options, such as choosing the style of box packaging or placing the box in a glass case. The media can also be flagged for different purposes such as lending or borrowing, or if the media is damaged. Finally, the Extras tab has a linking feature; so a file can be associated with the selected media, such as a screenshot or video review.


Visually MediaMan closely resembles that of Windows Vista, even mimicking the breadcrumb bar along the top of the window for easier navigation. The content is easily sorted through a drag and drop interface. Besides the Virtual Shelf view, MediaMan can also display entered media as Icons, a Compact List, Expaned List, or Details.

MediaMan pulls information from Amazon.com, and can be set to grab from other Amazon sites in other countries. Of course, content can also be edited or manually entered into MediaMan. There are many fields available to enter information, or custom fields may be added. Box art can be added through the Images tab, which supports the box Front, Back, Spine (Side), Disc, and Extras. Any fields that do not have entered information are not displayed in the normal viewing of content, freeing MediaMan of unnecessary clutter.

When the root folder of Library is selected, MediaMan has a type of home page. On it, there are the Overview, Statistics, Quick Tips, and Web tabs. The Statistics tab will display a pie chart consisting of the entered media collection, breaking down by the categories entered under the root Library folder. As this feature uses Flash, it does not currently work with 64-bit versions of Windows.

On backing up, MediaMan has the option to save in multiple places and with multiple files. A schedule can be set up, as well as how many recent backup copies to keep. A secondary location is also supported (and very handy); I use a USB drive as my secondary backup location.

One final feature to cover for MediaMan would be the exporting of the entered collection. MediaMan supports exporting your collection as a rich text format file, comma seperated value file, web page HTML file, plain text file, or a virtual shelf rendering. The nicest of these would be the web page and the virtual shelf rendering. Exporting as a web page also gives an option to export for use in a web site. When selected, this option created an index file that will set up the collection for viewing as a web site. Exporting as a virtual shelf rendering basically saves the virtual shelf view as a PNG file. Currently MediaMan does not offer as many options as I'd like for exporting, as I would like to select certain categories for exporting at once; this feature is under consideration for future updates though.

Now I have only been using MediaMan for a brief amount of time, so I have not tried out all the features offered. In addition to what I have written about, MediaMan also has a built-in media player and supports scanners and some bar code readers for easier data entry.

Overall, MediaMan as a package has offered everything I had been looking for in inventory management software: ease of use, multiple media types, visually appealing, customizable, and the bonus of 64-bit support. The creator of MediaMan, He Shiming, is also active on the support forums and open to suggestions. At $39.95, the initial cost seemed a little more than other options, but the support on the website as well as lifetime updates made the overall package a good value.


Supports: Windows XP and Windows Vista, Windows Vista 64-bit (Windows 7 is also compatible 32/64-bit).
Creator: He Shiming
Price: $39.95 (includes updates for life)

http://www.imediaman.com/

In playing a game, more than likely you will eventually come across a side-mission or scripted event. This side-mission or event lies in wait until you, the player, trigger it.

Imagine this scenario: You are playing a game and have just been tasked to getting a herb located in the mountains or else the blacksmith in town who can craft your special weapons dies. So what do you do? Time to level grind for a bit during this side mission while the game sits and waits for you to return with the herb to continue the side-story. Several hours later (probably several days in game time) you return to the town with the herb, heal the blacksmith, and you get your special weapons.

What should happen? So you spend a few hours level grinding and return with the herb to heal the blacksmith. Only this time you spent too long in grinding, the blacksmith died, and no one else knows the secret for making your special weapons. All is not lost however! Prior to triggering the side-mission the game auto-saves and now you have two choices: lose all the level grinding you did, but get another chance to get the herb and save the blacksmith or keep going on with your higher levels, but losing out on finishing this particular side-mission.

Too often, games present challenges for the player that don't really punish indecisivness or taking too much time. Instead the game just sits there waiting for the player to finish before it continues. Imagine near the beginning of Bioshock, just after Jack injects himself with a plasmid for the first time. You use your newly aquired electrobolt to trigger the door and walk though; suddenly you see the plane that had sunk earlier crash into the corridor and the door you just walked though locks behind you. Glass is beginning to crack and leak and through the murky water you see a parallel corridor implode from the pressure of the sea.

These scripted events work to build a sense or urgency for the player, and for their part works well. However, as a player I could just sit in that corridor all day and the game will just wait until I have move into the next room. What should happen is that after a certain amount of time, the corridor you're passing though should finally give way and implode, whether you are still in it or not. Should you still be in the corridor when it does implode then it's game over, load up the previous check point or save.

Environmental interaction is another lost opportunity, though this may be due to budget restraints and hardware limitations. Bioshock again, this time in a room with large vaulted ceilings and huge windows showcasing the ocean floor below. As a player, you have a rocket launcher and continually fire it at the window. Eventually the glass should begin to crack and finally buckel under pressure and break, flooding the room.

It is understandable that not everything can implemented with this current generation of hardware, PCs included. However, I would like to see game development step more in this direction, where side-missions and scripted events have negative repercussions for not following though correctly. Games as a medium are about interaction, that is what sets them apart from other entertainment; and part of that interaction are the wrong choices the player may make. Think along the lines of the original Dragon's Lair: there are multiple outcomes in each room that face Dirk. Now add to that more direct player control; sure your could do many different things in this room, but not all things you do will let you leave alive.


tl;dr
Just wanting to see more negative repurcussions in player interactivity.
Take too long to finish a side-mission, you won't be able to finish it; blow a hole in the wall holding water in, you drown.

Used games won't go away. Publishers need to realize this; and the more they fight against the will of the customer, the more they will lose out. There will always be a market for used items, be it books, movies, music, cars, houses, whatever. And a sale in a used item does not equate to a lost sale of a new item, which is also something the industry fails to understand.

When I purhcase a game, there is a set price I'm willing to spend on it based on my interest (e.g. demos, word of mouth, hype, knowledge of the series). So when a game is released for $60 new, I have to decide if that particular title is worth $60 to me. If not, I'll wait for the price to drop. What usually happens though, is that the used price drops more quickly than the new price does, so I end up with a used game. The problem is that most games released are all priced the same, instead of a relative value of production or worth. Not all games can be AAA million sellers. Unfortunately, the market can also disagree with this theory at times in that games like Viva Pinata were released at a lower price and still sold low (though that may have been due more to poor marketing).

If the industry feels they should get a cut of used merchandise, then it should work with retailers and not fight them. Why not work out a deal with retailers that sell used games so that they get a bigger percentage of profit selling new games, and in return, a portion of the used sales will go to the publisher. As it stands now, retailers make almost nothing on new games, with most of the money going to publishers. However, this business model relies on front-loaded sales; whereas Gamestop makes most of it's money on used games over a longer period of time.

One point I would have to side with the publishers is the Gamestop practice of used game prices on recent releases, where the savings are minimal. In this case, the publisher is losing a new sale, which in the end is lost financial support for the publisher and developer. After watching the Bonus Round on Gametrailers, I would have to agree with Michael Pachter that used game prices would need to be a minimum percentage off of the new price. This king of change can only happen though if the gaming industry is willing to work with used game retailers such as Gamestop; find a way to make the new game market more appealling for the retailer.

The industry needs to look critically at it's business model now, and see how it can work with emerging trends; and not spend money, time, and effort fighting against it. This is especially true with the emergence of direct-download sales. What of those sales? What can I with these games once I no longer want them? Will I still be able to play them when the next generation of systems is out? If activation is required, what happens 10 years down the line if I get the urge to play it again?

Books, movies, and music are still all surviving (despite what certain **AA groups might think), and there are healthy markets for both new and used items. None of them see any profits on used items either, why is gaming any different. Work with retailers, price your product accordingly, make better products that offer more value to the consumer; and most importantly don't fight against change, embrace it and use it to your advantage.


tl;dr
The used market isn't going anywhere. Instead of fighting retailers, work with them to find a solution that is beneficial for both parties.
The game industry is no different than that of books, music, or movies.