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Madden Developer Inerview

Interview With A Development Manager At EA’s Tiberon Studios

Scribbled on February 19th, 2007 by derf
Filed in Platforms, Sports, Interviews

I’m sure many of us have wondered what it’s like to work on video games with one of the top companies. When I found out that a friend of mine’s son works on the Madden projects for EA, I immediately asked for an interview. Timothy Hart agreed to the interview.

Tim describes his Job at EA:

“I am a Development Manager here at the Tiburon Studio of EA in sunny Maitland, Florida. My team for the ‘07 product worked on the XBox360 version of Madden, and we are currently working on getting the PS3 version ready for ship. My team (or Pod as we call it) consisted of seven developers and two producers.”

What is his pod responsible for?

Franchise Mode Enhancements
New Player ratings
Create-a-Player
Madden Gamer Level
Rehab Injury/Train for Game
Interfacing Franchise and Rehab to the new Minigames (the actual Minigames were in another pod)
Helped final out Superstar mode
Online (including Live Opponent, online Minigames, and all the misc. online tasks)
Hall of Fame
Quite a few enhancements that didn’t fall into an easily labeled bucket

GameStooge: How did you get into video game development?

Actually, I found my way to Tiburon (EA) in a very strange way. For the last twelve years, I was a software engineer working on large scale systems and systems of systems. Most of the work was for government agencies and Departments (such as DoD, DoS and the DOJ). About seven or so years ago, I was at Lucent Technologies and was looking for something new.

One of my wife’s high school friend’s husband was a recruiter at Lockheed Martin, and I interviewed there and began to work for them in their Biometrics Identification mission area as a senior SE. Roughly five years later, Shawne, the recruiter from Lockheed, moved on to EA. I was starting to look for more in my job at LM, but was unable to find any way into management, until Shawne, who had moved to EA, called me.

Since my wife, for years, had been saying “since you play video games so much, you should go make them,” I answered the call and interviewed at EA for both an SE position and a Development Manager (DM) position. The rest is history.

GameStooge: Was your first job managing a “Pod” or did you work you way up into that position?

At EA, yes, I’ve only ever been a DM here. However, no one (well, for the most part) just starts managing a POD developing software. For you to be successful, you have to work your way up to it. Software Engineering is much more than just writing code. It’s schedules, designs, cutting, resource allocation, mentoring, patience, and a slew of other things that can only be learned by working your way up.

You don’t have to have been a developer previously to be a POD manager, but you do have to have paid your dues in learning the software development process and understanding what it really takes to make an application from cradle to grave.

GameStooge: How much coding, play testing etc. do you do?

(Snicker) I haven’t written a line of code that has gone into any customer visible application in over a year. That’s what happens when you begin to manage and stop developing. Yes, I do get the C++ and J2EE withdrawal tremens from time to time, but I do write tools for my POD and the game team to use - tools that allow other managers to do their jobs more effectively.

So I guess it’s safe to say that while I don’t write game code, I do keep myself sharp by making apps that make people’s jobs easier, mainly mine. I do play the game a lot. It’s my job. (snicker again) Since I’m the POD manager, the quality and ease of play stop at my desk too for the features we develop.

GameStooge: What’s it like working for EA?

Where do I start? I have worked for Lucent Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and a few smaller companies in my almost 25 years in the industry (I wrote my first functional program on a Apple IIe when I was 13 – it kept track of car lot inventory), but, I have never worked for a company like this.

Tiburon Studios is by far the most enjoyable job I have had to date. I don’t say that lightly either. I’ve had the opportunity to work on some of the world’s most cutting edge technology, most of which I can’t talk about do to government clearances.

I’ve worked for fortune 500 companies almost my entire career and none of them compare to this studio. The people and the environment are unequalled. There is not that “corporate” feel to the workplace, people can freely exchange ideas without any feeling of “not going with the company line.”

It is a very fast-paced job, every day is dynamic in terms of what will happen and what challenges will be overcome. The work time is very flexible, as you can imagine, to meet our aggressive and market driven schedule. Work attire is casually comfortable. All of this kind of swirls together in the mix to create a really cool place to work. I could probably write a mini novel about work life here, but, in the end, we make great games. We make great games that affect people the world over. You can’t ask for much more than that.

GameStooge: What are the facilities at Tiburon like? Could we come take a tour?

The facilities here at Tiburon are incredible compared to what I have seen at my other jobs. We have a six floor facility in the main building, a QA facility nearby, and we are slowly taking over the building next door.

The main building has a game room on the first floor, a few pinball machines and some of the more popular arcade games, a pool table and an air hockey table. We have a very nice garden area outside the game room for more serene relaxation. Going up, each floor has it’s own cereal and coffee/tea bar, along with a few stand up arcade machines.

Obviously, the thing that we have in the greatest quantity is people. We house roughly 600 developers, producers, managers and other staff here. That means a lot of cube space. Studio tours are done, but we’d have to schedule you in pretty soon – as you can imagine the spaces fill up real quick. Just recently we had some Cub Scouts and Brownies come through.

GameStooge: What’s it like to meet a Madden deadline?

It can be challenging. Iterative titles like Madden, NCAA, NASCAR and Tiger can be challenging to meet. Mainly because of the start of the season for other games drives the release of the title.

EA, our studio, and our game team take these deadlines very seriously, as it drives the success of the game to some degree. No one wants to start playing Madden half way through the season. So, as managers we understand that as we are choosing feature sets and determining what will and will not be in the game for a given cycle directly impacts how tough it will be to get things done.

One might think that would allow us to go easy on ourselves, but it means exactly the opposite to us. The reasons it is this way are pretty simple: We care about the quality of the game and how it plays. We take our jobs very seriously, and the delivery of the longest running, most popular sports franchise is no small part of that.

We impose such a high level of quality and ownership on ourselves. We won’t let the game be done until we reach that high water mark of excellence.

GameStooge: How do the separate “Pods” communicate with each other?

Very often and with a lot of awareness of the impact your POD has on other PODs. This is one of the easy places for things to get overlooked. We know this so we take great care in POD communication.

We try to set each POD up so that it can be a self contained unit, but inevitably, a feature will span across PODs and makes the cross POD communication even more crucial. On Madden 360/PS3, we have three managers. Terry, Kevin and I are constantly talking about what impacts we force on each other through the cycle and how tasks in their PODs that are dependent on my tasks and vice-versa.

We also rely very heavily on our producers to communicate across the PODs to insure features are being implemented as designed.

GameStooge: What does a developer and what does a producer do?

Production is generally responsible for feature design, documentation, tuning a completed feature, and assisting development during Alpha and Beta. They are the thinkers that come up with far more features than we could hope to develop – this is good so we can pick and choose the high quality features that make it into game.

They are also the quality gate for any finished product. Developers are the feature implementers. They take the designs that production writes and check for technical issues, write the needed technical designs, implement the features, and debug the final product. Both disciplines are responsible for quality of the game, they just see quality differently.

To a producer, quality is in the game play, immersion into other features, and how the game as a whole falls together. Developers see quality in what they implement. Does the feature flow well, is it fast and nice to play; can it be implemented such that it can be reused later on down the road? Both production and development work on our feature sets, just from different ends.GameStooge: How easy is it working on the 360? Have you guys considered using the new XNA project from Microsoft?MS did a real good job in constructing the console (hardware wise) and did a great job on the UI. The HUD and the online community that MS has created is very slick. My two year old is able to navigate around in it – he isn’t playing the games yet but he knows how to make them start. That has to say something for ease of use.

Tiburon has looked into the XNA project from MS. However, we will not be using it anytime soon. Not because we think it is problematic or anything, it’s just that we have already developed an environment that has all the needed processes in it.

We have our own build processes; we already have processes for creating assets and a pipeline process to get the asset into game. For us to use XNA effectively it would cost us hours to switch over, which basically means that we would have to sacrifice features to use XNA. That’s my take, not the official studio line.

GameStooge: Do you find that Microsoft is a good company to work with? Do they have any input on the game designs?

Microsoft is a great company to make games with. As I said, their console is solid and their process for getting games to shelf is also well thought out. MS has been very helpful to us during the entire development process.

As far as input into the game design, we hold the reins. MS is primarily concerned with standards in the games for their consoles. Does the start button get used for the same thing, does the game comply with MS standards, does the game violate user friendliness? These are the common concerns of MS when finaling a game.

Now, if we decided to make a game with raunchy or extremely suggestive content, MS might have some input on the game that could be construed as changes to design, but I imagine it would have to be extreme.

GameStooge: How about the Sony and the PlayStation 3, are they easy to work with and do they have input on game design?

Sony is a great company to work with as well, and has about the same level of input into the games as we give MS. We look forward to taking our great relationship with Sony on our current generation titles to the next level in our Next Generation titles.

GameStooge: Electronic Arts has been rumored as development “slave drivers” - Do you guys work long hours on a regular basis?

So, just to get the obvious out of the way, EA Tiburon are not slave drivers. Do we work longer hours sometimes? Yes. But, this can be very deceiving to those that haven’t developed software. We are very cognizant of our employee’s work hours.

I am a husband and a father. I have a family that I enjoy spending time with. If I’m here, I can’t be there – it’s a simple fact of life. One of the biggest parts of my job is to organize, schedule, and direct my pod so that we can keep a reasonable work-life balance. Sure, things get hectic from time to time, but we never loose sight of the need for people to be away from work – to have free time with friends and family.

Much of my time is spent researching, planning and optimizing schedules so that we have a even, load-leveled, balanced development cycle, and it is all aimed at getting people home at reasonable times, and ensuring a high quality product that we are proud to put on shelves.

Without getting into exact numbers, I can say this: The time that I spend here at the studio is no more than the time that I spent at work at Lucent Technologies and Northrop Grumman. The time that I spend here at the studio is considerably less than the time I spent working at Lockheed Martin from day to day.We have no slaves here. What we have are personally and professionally committed game makers that dedicate themselves to making the best games on the market.

GameStooge: Since you work on the “Madden” project have you ever been able to meet John Madden?

Negative, no Madden for me.

GameStooge: I have played Madden for the 360 and the DS – why is Madden and Michael’s commentary on the DS but so far no commentary in the 360 game?

Creative issues mainly – while EA does like to have similarities between product lines, each game stands on its own. People have different likes and dislikes and this gives them some choices and variation between games.

It also requires that we rework the entire audio flow of the game. Since we don’t have Madden voice over for the entire game commentary, we would have to try to splice Michael’s commentary into the Ask Madden playcall flow.

It’s a feature that would align us with other consoles, but doesn’t really bring that much improved user experience along with it. We prefer to spend our development dollars in things that the user will see, feel and immediately appreciate.

GameStooge: Is there any collaboration between the NCAA games and Madden games?

Absolutely. We use a similar engine for both games, heavily reworked to give each game its own unique feel and play. We trade many things between the two game teams; downloadable content, lighting, game play, and so much more. Both games are truly better games because of this collaboration.

GameStooge: Who comes up with new features – such as the rehab which your pod worked on?Producers are generally the feature creators. However, that is a general statement. Any good idea is welcome. Many times, as we progress through development, the developers come back to the producers with suggestions on how the feature could work better if it was tweaked this way or that. The point is, some features just evolve as we play the game and develop the software – producers generally design, but all good ideas are welcome in game.

GameStooge: The PlayStation 3 has 50GB of space on the Blu-Ray disc, will you and your team be taking full advantage of the huge amount of space or do you have to keep it limited to 9GB to be easily ported to the other consoles?

Not sure this is accurate. We may take advantage of it.

GameStooge: Do you have any comments for those that say that Madden is simply a “roster change” since your team is working hard to build features?

Oh, I have many comments on this question. As luck would have it, the producer who used to do the roster updating, Ced, is now my POD’s producer. Ced laughed when he saw this one. Last cycle, we made two roster updates (that I can recall) that my POD helped out with.

We also implemented Injury Rehab, Train For Game, Madden Gamer Level, various franchise upgrades, Hall of Fame, Create-a-Player, Import Draft Class from NCAA, Downloadable Content, Live Opponent, EA Online, Player Scouting Enhancements, Point Wagering System and a few more.

That is just the short list for my POD (we only have two other PODs!) Just Roster upgrades? There is nothing further from the truth.

GameStooge wants to thanks Tim for not only spending the time to answer our questions, but for “going out on limb” to answer them.

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Dell XPS 1710 Gaming Laptop Review

Another article written for 2OLD2PLAY:

Dell XPS 1710 Gaming Laptop Review

It happened just the other day. That nauseating feeling you get when your laptop will no longer play the games you want. My Alienware held up well. Two and a half years for any laptop is admirable. The inevitable occurred, while playing Guild Wars, the laptop overheated 3 times. The kiss of gaming death! The Alienware will now find a place at my office running my business software and typing letters. Time to buy a new laptop! This time it’s a Dell XPS 1710.

Alienware vs Dell

I’m going to compare my experiences with both Dell and Alienware since many consumers consider the Alienware one of the best gaming laptops in the marketplace.

DISCLAIMER!!! My decision is based on a two year old experience and may not reflect the Alienware Company today. I have recently heard that Dell has bought Alienware so perhaps these issues no longer occur. Two years ago, when I bought my Alienware, I wanted a new laptop to play games on during the Christmas Holidays. I ordered my laptop from Alienware by the cut off date for shipment before Christmas only to be disappointed when it showed up almost a month later. Also the model was touted to have an upgradeable video board, which is extremely desirable with new games pushing your video board’s limits, only for me to find that a year later when I wanted to upgrade they were “no longer supporting the laptop model” and had no upgrades for it. I would think that a year isn’t an unreasonable amount of time to wait but they were very short with me when I confronted them with that. Also on delivery many of us had horrible range with internal WiFi. So bad, that I ended up buying a WiFi card to compensate. Prices on the new Dell and Alienware’s Laptops are comparable with the exception that Dell offered the new 512 MB nVidia GeForce Go where Alienware offered the 256 MB version.

The Dell experience was different from the start. I have ordered many computers both for home and work through Dell and they have been consistent with service. I went to the website (www.dell.com) and clicked on the home and home office section and headed over to the gaming laptop section. I applied for Dell credit and in 30 seconds I was approved and I qualified for 18 months no interest financing. Then I picked the Dell XPS 1710 with a 100 GB drive with the Intel duo core T2500 processor running at 2.0 GHZ. I thought the extra 400 – 500 bucks for a 2.16GHZ wasn’t worth it at this time. Ordered up spare battery and checked out. At checkout, the expected ship date was in 9 days. As contrasted to Alienware’s 6 week wait my Dell XPS arrived at my front door exactly 7 days from ordering. This isn’t unusual for orders from Dell.

Dell XPS 1710 Specs

Size 15.5 x 11.3 x 1.7 inches

Weight 8.8 pounds

XPS M1710, Intel Core Duo Processor T2500 (2GHz/667MHz FSB)

17 inch UltraSharp TrueLife Wide-screen WUXGA with Red LCDCover

1GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm, for XPS

512MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GTX

7200RPM SATA 100 GB Hard Drive

Optical Drive: 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW/+R) with Dual-Layer

OS: Microsoft MCE 2005

Wireless Card: Intel 3945 (802.11b/g)

Battery: 9-cell lithium ion rechargeable battery

Ports / Slots: 5-in-1 Memory Card Reader, DVI-D, VGA video output, S-Video, IEEE 1394 (Firewire), 6 USB 2.0, Express Card slot, Modem, Ethernet/LAN, Microphone in, Headphone out

Integrated Subwoofer

Is it a Ferrari?

Taking it out of the box, the first thing I thought was “Wow this thing looks like a Ferrari”. From the polished sliver with the red top, this is the nicest Laptop I have seen. The case is incredibly sturdy. I feels rock solid and the keyboard is the best I have ever seen on a laptop. The keys have just enough spring and a slight click. The support areas for your hands on the unit while you type are much better than on my previous laptops letting you type more comfortably. The accent lighting is cool. Lights come out from speaker and vent ports. The XPS under the touch pad is lit as is the cover. You are able to change the color of the lights through the software if you feel you must. It’s a fine looking laptop and a pleasure to type on.

Intel Core Duo

Tests have shown that the dual processor architecture will make your overall system performance 27% faster and multimedia 49% faster. My experience is that this laptop is extremely fast. With multiple windows open and downloads running in the background I noticed a speed increase over my other computers, including my Athlon 64 desktops.

7200 RPM 100GB Hard Drive Speeds up this System

It really doesn’t matter how fast your processor or video card is when you have wait for the dang hard drive to load the game, level, or graphics. The hard drive is a common bottle neck in laptop system performance. The Dell’s 7200 RPM SATA hard drive zips along at a nice pace eliminating that long wait at boot up or load. The Hard Drive is mounted on an internal shock absorber as part of Dell’s “RoadReady” technology.

17 inch Widescreen is Gorgeous

Dell Says “The WUXGA display supports an ultra-high resolution of 1920x1200 and features TrueLifeTM technology, promising rich, vibrant color with crisp clear text and up to a 10% higher contrast ratio versus the same display with an anti-glare coating. The M1710 also boasts a maximum brightness of 250 nits, making it 30% brighter than the previous generation XPS gaming notebook.” . Right out of the box I was considering decreasing the brightness. The display reminds me of the beautiful widescreens you see with the new Apple Macintoshes. The larger viewing area gives you a cinematic feeling when playing games.

nVidia GeForce™ Go 7900 GTX with 512 MB of Video Memory

My Alienware ran on an ATI mobile with 128 megs of memory and it did an admirable job of running games up until recently. The nVidia is truly a mobile gamer’s dream video card. Heck, none of my desktops have that much video memory. The speed rivals SLI systems. Go here - http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2887&review=Dell+XPS+M1710 for another review and benchmarks on this video and system performance.

Make No Mistake About this – It’s Made to Play games!

Since my Alienware was overheating running Guild Wars on minimal graphics I thought I would try Guild Wars on the new Laptop to see how it runs. After installing I set the resolution to 1900 x 1200, all video settings on the highest quality, with anti-aliasing turned on. I was blown away by how great the graphics were. As I said before, the widescreen gives you the feel you are in a movie. After 2 hours of playing I found no visible slowdown in the graphics engine. Only and occasional hiccup now and then occurred most likely a lag issue.

Quiet Coolness

My desktop here at work and my Alienware laptop both kick in a noisy fan when you start running any graphics intensive application. The bottom of the Alienware actually gets hot enough to burn your legs when playing a modern video game. I purchased a laptop fan to protect the components for that excessive heat. After my two hour session with the Dell XPS 1710 the bottom back was warm but not near enough to be uncomfortable. The fans were whisper quiet. I had to feel the vents to know that they were working. Dell has put a lot of thought into the cooling systems on their new laptops.

Internal Wireless

I mentioned before that the range on the wireless in the Alienware was so bad that I had to purchase an add-on card. In the XPS the wireless performs great. I have not seen any dropped connections or reduction in connection strength anywhere in the house. However, speed tests run from DSL Reports (www.dslreports.com), show a reduction in throughput with XPS over the Alienware with its PCMIA card. I’ll need to check drivers and run a tweak test to see if the XPS is properly set up to for broadband. Speed reduction, although significant, is not enough to affect game play.

Dell’s Media Direct Button

Another innovation that Dell has placed in the XPS is the Media Direct Button. This button above the keyboard has a dual function. If Windows is running it launches the Media center application from the Windows Media Center Edition. This is nice but real surprise comes if you hit the Media Direct Button instead of powering up the XPS with the power button. Hitting the Media Direct Button without power boots Dell’s Media center, a Linux application. In a few seconds you can play your music, watch videos, or watch DVDs avoiding the wait for windows and then media center to boot. DVDs and video look great in both Window’s Media Center and Dell’s media center. Handy controls on the front edge of the XPS allow you to do the usual play, FF, Rewind, Next Chapter, Mute, Pause and Adjust Volume. You can also use the mouse if you wish for play back control.

Speakers are Surprisingly Good

Most of us don’t expect good sound from our laptop speakers. The XPS, once again surprised me with its sound. Dell has placed a subwoofer on the bottom of the unit and with a little tweaking of speaker settings I am quite satisfied with the sound. The surround sound works well in games. It sounds so good that I am considering not hooking up my USB 5.1 surrounds that I used on the Alienware Laptop.

Ports abound!

4-pin IEEE 1394 integrated port (1394 cable and software sold separately)
6-USB 2.0 (Universal Serial Bus) compliant 4-pin connectors
Express Card Slot
RJ11 Modem port
Video: Digital Video Interface (DVI)
Video: 15-pin monitor connector
S-Video: 7-pin mini-DIN connector
Component Video and S/PDIF digital audio out
5-in-1 removable memory card reader
Audio jacks: Stereo headphones/speakers miniconnector (same as line-out), microphone miniconnector

The Express Card slot is a new design so your old PCMIA cards will not work in the XPS.

XPS is a fine Gaming Laptop

Before I purchased the Dell I read the reviews and I agree. Dell has made a great gaming laptop. That coupled with Dell’s service makes this purchase well worth it. As for price expect to pay around $4,000 for the latest, fastest processors. By dropping down one level in processor from 2.16GHz to the 2.00 I was able to save about $400. If you drop processors even further you should be able get an XPS in the $2,000 range. The comparable Alienware laptop did not have the new 512 nVidia board available at the time of ordering. That along with my previous experiences with the Alienware Company swayed my decision firmly to the XPS. However, if Alienware would like to send me their latest laptop to test – I would certainly give an up to date review of their product J.

News release

Alienware just released its new dual SLI 256 GeForce systems. Benchmarks on desktop systems show the 2 - 256 MB SLI cards slightly out perform the single 512MB card (http://www.bjorn3d.com/read_pf.php?cID=855). Whether this is true in with the mobility laptop cards is undetermined. I guess the race never ends!

Fred Giombolini

Derf - member of 2old2play (www.2old2play.com)

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Madden 2007 Development Manager Interview

This was posted in the sports forum as well...

I just secured an interview for 2OLD2PLAY with a person that was/ is a development manger for the Madden Series. Here are some of the things he does.

"I'm Development Manager at the Tiburon Studio of EA in sunny Maitland, Florida. My team for the '07 product worked on the XBox360 version of Madden, and we are currently working on getting the PS3 version ready for ship. My team (or Pod as we call it) consisted of 7 developers and 2 producers. My pod was mainly responsible for:
* Franchise Mode Enhancements
* New Player ratings
* Create-a-Player
* Madden Gamer Level
* Rehab Injury/Train for Game
* Interfacing Franchise and Rehab to the new Minigames (the actual Minigames were in another pod)
* Helped final out Superstar mode
* Online (including Live Opponent, online Minigames, and all the misc. online tasks)
* Hall of Fame
* Quite a few enhancements that didn't fall into an easily labeled bucket So, lots of things went on last cycle in my pod. But, if you have questions outside of my pod, it's no problem for me to forward those questions onto other managers or producers. So, if you have some questions about Minigames, stadiums, or graphics (or any other area that my pod didn't work on) feel free to ask and we'll find the right person to get an answer."

If you a have a good question to ask him (remember he is an employee not the Head of a EA so be cool). Please reply to this blog as we want to do a kick ass interview.

Thanks for help,
Derf

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Sony is in Deep doo doo with the PS3 limiting online usage

There is a vicious rumor circulating the net. But it smacks of Sony's arrogance so I thought I’d pass it along. The original article is at http://www.aeropause.com/archives/2006/09/more_ps3_rumors.php.

The rumor is the PS3 will only allow the original owner to play that game online. If you rent a game and try to play it online it won’t work. It’s not like Microsoft couldn’t do the same thing, but they know the online market and know how foolish this tactic will be. It smells like the root kit fiasco of last year. Hopefully this is a false rumor or Sony will wake up. Either way Sony has another PR problem to deal with.

Derf

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Sony PS3 in big trouble? � Part 2

This is a continuation of my blog post on 9/08/06 which is a reprint of a June article that appeared in our 2OLD2PLAY magazine. One point in that article talks about Sony needing a press makeover. Today I’m going to talk about that point and see if things are any better just 2.5 months before their launch date.

I’m afraid, from my point of view the answer is no. Many of the original issues that have caused Sony to have bad PR have not even been addressed. On top of that we hear newer news blurbs indicating that the launch at Christmas time, if there is one, will be sparse. Shortages of Blu-Ray Diode are forcing all launches to be delayed in Europe, and Australia. This is forcing Sony to use what supplies they have for the Japan and U.S. launches. This seems to be following a similar pattern to the PSP launch that was delayed in the U.S. until March. The next area of concern is the lack of developer kits. As reported on our site news – developers are having problems getting the kits which may mean many launch titles will not be ready or maybe even need to be patched online. The latest bit of bad PR for Sony revolves around there being no 1080p games being developed. This was supposed to make a big difference in how PS3 would be superior to the X-Box 360.

It appears to me that Sony’s public relations issue is only worse now after 3 months. As I concluded in that article 3 months ago:

“As gamers, we consistently reap the benefits of the three way competition for our dollars. If Sony fails, then perhaps the next generation of consoles will not be as imaginative, innovative, and exciting.”

Derf

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Sony PS3 in big trouble?

I wrote the article below for the magazine and submitted it on June 19th. I thought I reprint it here today and then in my next blogs talk about any progress Sony has made.

What can Sony do to recover from the bad press at E3

Sony was unprepared for the competition this E3. Both Nintendo and Microsoft have their sights set on the leader and can claim a victory in the prominent E3 public relations war. To recover from the E3 fiasco, Sony is going to need to address a few issues.

Issue #1 - Sony needs an “Extreme Image Makeover!” Today, I asked on the forums (http://www.2old2play.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=15429), “What do you think of Sony?” Most of the answers were quite negative. If you were to compare these answers to a year ago or in the pre X-Box days at the height of the Playstation 2, the answers would be quite different. Sony has an image problem. Whether Sony believes it or not, they are being perceived as the giant corporation that thinks they can drive the marketplace. Lately, this has been evident with Sony’s rootkit copy protection scheme. Rootkits permanently alter your computer’s operating system and are difficult if not impossible to remove without wiping and reinstalling. Sony released Audio CD’s that, without your permission, install a rootkit copy protection program. This has been shown to cause problems in other areas on your PC. Sony’s insistence on proprietary hardware, although a nuisance at first, has become increasing displeasing to consumers. If you buy a Sony product, you need to use their memory stick format or their UMD disk for your PSP. Likewise, marrying the PS3 to the Blu Ray HDDVD system will further divide the gaming community. Is the PS3 being made to push the Blu ray format? Ultimately if Blu Ray wins the fight for HD DVD, Sony will make more off players than they will on Playstations. Sony’s products are traditionally priced high. The expected costs of the PS3 ($499 for a 20 gig Hard Drive or $599 for a 60 Gig hard Drive) are significantly higher than their competitors. Sony needs to hire a good public relations firm and launch an advertising campaign to reconstruct their image. I truly believe that Sony does not grasp the size of this problem.

Issue #2 – Nintendo. Nintendo is on a roll. It started when “Nintendogs” came out for the DS and rolled into E3 with their spectacular demonstrations of the new Wii system. Nintendo targeted their device for the casual gamer on an average budget but with enough guts to please the hardcore gamers. The image they portrayed and conveyed at E3 is that Nintendo is about having fun in new and creative ways. Sony’s PS3 was touted as a game machine with superior processing capabilities that also does HD DVD and has media capabilities. They failed to show any creativity in the way you play the PS3 games. They look nicer but in essence they play the same as your PS2 games would. Nintendo’s wand will make their system unique. How do you rebound from this dilemma? Is it time to go back to the drawing board and rethink the user interface? The PS3 controller can sense motion but doesn’t allow you to point and aim at the TV like Nintendo’s wand does. Perhaps an innovative add on controller could be released later but marketed at launch. By touting the high end processing and graphics of the PS3, Sony seems to be targeting the hardcore gamer. Nintendo is targeting new, casual and hardcore gamers. This is a tough issue for Sony. In fact both they and Microsoft have said that they would be the second console in each household after Nintendo.

Issue #3 – Microsoft. Microsoft has a master plan to grab the market from Sony. The earlier release date of the X-Box 360 was timed to get a jump on the next generation console market. Sony responded by putting together a more powerful machine but with each day, especially here in the US, Sony is slowly loosing the battle. Sony’s advantage with exclusive titles is slowly being eaten away by Microsoft. Most notably Rockstar’s Grand Theft series has now jumped ship to Microsoft. Although Microsoft has a somewhat dubious image, they have worked hard to gain the respect of gamers. Sony will be hard pressed to put together anything close to Microsoft’s X-Box Live. Microsoft unveiled their “X-Box Live Anywhere” plan at E3 where you would have one gamer tag across Windows Vista, X-Box and Windows mobile. It will be possible to start a game on the X-Box, play it on your phone on the way to work and then on your Office PC. Microsoft’s OS advantage is huge! To rebound from this position Sony needs to get their PS3 out as soon as possible. If they miss the Christmas season this year and Nintendo goes ahead with their launch as scheduled Sony will be in trouble. The PS3 has to come out by Christmas for them to have a chance of catching Microsoft. Sony may have to lower their price to be competitive.

Issue#4 – Where is the WOW factor? WOW factor is what I call seeing something and you think “WOW I gotta have that”. Nintendo’s Wii has WOW factor with its wand. Microsoft’s X-Box 360 has already given gamers the WOW factor graphically and with its seamless integration into X-Box Live. So far I have seen no WOW from Sony. Even the PS3’s interface is much the same as the PSP’s. I have no doubt Sony’s hype machine will crank up full speed as they near launch but what will they tout to give them the WOW factor! Sony needs to find something to generate that “I gotta have it” mentality in gamers.

Sony is in a tight spot. They only have 5 months to fix their image, combat Nintendo and Microsoft’s superior position, and get that “WOW factor”. If Blu Ray catches on and becomes the dominate format then many may buy the PS3 just to watch movies. Even though the Blu Ray has more storage, history has shown us that superior technology doesn’t always win. Sony should know this from their Beta - VHS format war. Perhaps Sony and Microsoft concentrated on each other and forgot about Nintendo. Although Nintendo’s E3 strong showing has damaged both companies position in the gaming market, Sony is going to be hurt the most since they have no product on the shelves. As gamers, we consistently reap the benefits of the three way competition for our dollars. If Sony fails, then perhaps the next generation of consoles will not be as imaginative, innovative, and exciting.

Derf

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Could troubles in Diggville mean less press for 2OLD2PLAY?

Today I ran across this article - Troubles in Diggsville:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/06/troubles-in-diggville/

Here’s a disturbing except:

“Political blogger Michelle Malkin was one of the first to complain that groups of conservative or liberal Digg users were acting to remove posts from pundits on the other side. More recently, another blogger analyzed Digg home page stories and concluded that a small group of powerful Digg users, acting together, control a large percentage of total home page stories.

To some this is troubling because it removes the supposedly democratic nature of Digg. Unlike newspapers like the New York Times, where a small group of editors decide what is “news” and therefore included in the paper, Digg is a more meritocritous and democratic process where the readers actually decide what is newsworthy. If Digg is being corrupted by a relatively small group of users, the difference between Digg and the NYT becomes less clear.

Others respond that these groups are just very hard core Digg users that spend much of their day scouring the web for good stories to promote on Digg. Digg ranks users based on how successful their submitted stories become, and a handful of users are hyper-competitive about their Digg ranking. The argument is that these users are simply more proficient at finding stories.

Today Digg co-founder Kevin Rose responded to these complaints. He takes both sides of the argument. Kevin says that groups of people recommending stories to each other is actually a good thing. But he also says that Digg will soon be implementing a new algorithm that weighs a diversified group of Diggers more heavily than groups acting together:

This algorithm update will look at the unique digging diversity of the individuals digging the story. Users that follow a gaming pattern will have less promotion weight. This doesn’t mean that the story won’t be promoted, it just means that a more diverse pool of individuals will be need to deem the story homepage-worthy.”

If I read this right - when a great gaming article surfaces like the one’s from our writing contest and we as gamers go to Digg and digg them and since we are not a diverse group but a group that mainly scours gaming and technical Diggs, our votes won’t count as much.

Let’s admit it. When we have one of our writers put up something good many of us tend to bounce over to Digg and help that article move up the standings so it will be noticed by the more “diversified” Diggers out there. Once it gets up high enough, then the articles are left to stand on their own merit. Many continue to head up the Digg list. I’m guessing that most articles get a 30 – 60 Digg push from our loyal 2OLD2PLAY members. What I fear is that the new “algorithm” will make that initial push to be recognized a more difficult affair. I’m assuming most people are like me and don’t have time to read a 10 – 20 person Digg. Perhaps I’m wrong there; at least I hope I am.

Should we be concerned about this? Does this group really need any more publicity? I wish I could answer those questions but I like many have joined the group late and don’t really have a feel for what that core group that founded 2OLD2PLAY have in mind. I do know that this group is doing an excellent job and I’m glad to be here,

Derf

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The Greatest Video Game Movie Ever Made!

I’ve listened to the 2OLD2PLAY pod casts where they claim that there have never been any good video game movies. I was in agreement until the other day when I ran across a VHS in the back of my old movie drawer. It was a weird time – my family was gone – so I thought “What the heck – lets watch this thing”. So I popped it in my VHS and that awesome music started. I was swept back to 1984 and the Starlite Starbrite Trailer park. Yup - The Last Starfighter has got to be the best video game ever made.

I still remember going to that movie back in 1984. It was pretty hyped. Everyone wanted another Star Wars type movie experience. We enjoyed it although it was no Star Wars. It was definitely low budget and the rudimentary CGI graphics, although revolutionary, were a let down. Having been compared to the Lucas releases, The last Starfighter was given lukewarm reviews.

What the movie did have, unlike most Video Game Movies was a Story. There was the love story between Maggie and Alex, mixed with the standard boy coming of age story, mixed with the space opera, and supported by great characters. Great comic relief was strewn throughout the movie. The little brother Louis spouting “Diarrhea” when Alex was kissing Maggie is spouted frequently in my house. Robert Preston, the music man, was even in the thing. One of my favorite quotes I tell my kids when they bring home marginal grade or when they don’t turn in the paper work for getting in to college is:

Alex’s Mom – “You can still go to City College with your Friends”. Believe me – my kids didn’t want to go to City College!

The beta of the video game surfaced and was spread across the internet, but the game was never released. I played it and it was a pretty good space shooter for that day.

Of course the movie has a happy ending. Alex shows us that all of us can make a difference in life – no matter where we start from. If you have kids that are old enough – warm up the VHS or grab a copy on DVD and watch it as a family. My 21 year old asked me to loan him it the other day. He was remembering the back yard overnighters in the tent watching this movie and playing board games.

It ain’t Oscar, It ain’t George Lucas, but its plain old fun.

Derf

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SlingBox Review.

I wrote this news item several months ago but I thought I'd start posting some of my reviews here on my blog as well. Some are news articles and some are from the magazine. Eventually I'll have all my writing in one place. So lets start with the SlingBox review:

Slingbox Review

One of the advantages of truly being too old to play is that you have the income to try out interesting new technology. The Slingbox is something I didn’t think would either work well or be a technology that I would use on a regular basis. Much to my delight, I am wrong on both counts. Just what is the Slingbox?
Slingmedia (www.slingmedia.com) describes it: “Slingbox enables you to watch your TV programming from wherever you are by turning virtually any Internet-connected PC into your personal TV. Whether you’re in another room or in another country, you’ll always have access to your television.” For the technology minded, the Slingbox connects to your TV or DVR and converts the signals into streaming media which is transmitted via broadband locally, or wide area to any pc running the SlingPlayer Software.

Connecting the Slingbox.
The Slingbox comes with everything you need to connect to your video systems. This includes S-video, coaxial, composite, and Ethernet cables. I plugged the composite cables into the video out of my Tivo Series 2 and into the Slingbox. Next you place the IR emitters near the infrared sensors on your DVR or Television and plug them into the Slingbox. Lastly connect the Slingbox to your router via the Ethernet cable. In my case I have a wireless network so I used my old Microsoft Wireless Game Adaptor. Next you connect the power adapter and give it about 30 seconds to link up and get an IP address. When both LEDs on the front of Slingbox are lit, you know you have a valid network connection.

Installing the SlingPlayer Software.
The Slingbox comes with a cd that has the SlingPlayer software on it but the easiest way to go to the support section at www.slingmedia.com and download the latest version. Run the install and follow the setup instructions. The SlingPlayer software will locate the Slingbox on the local area network and allow you to name, password protect and configure it. From there you run the SlingPlayer software to connect to your Slingbox and start watching your TV or DVR.

How does it look?
I was disappointed that the full screen mode is blocky although comparable to TV cards I have used in the past. The smaller “normal size” video is sharp and looks great. Depending on your monitors resolution the size of display in normal mode will vary. On my 19in flat screen the display is about 4in by 4in. This is a great size to lock the window to the side and continue to work. In “full screen” mode the display doubles in size and distorts accordingly. The best picture I was able to get was on my daughter’s computer with an old 14 in dell monitor. I am unable to tell a difference between watching the Slingbox on LAN or across the internet at my office. I suppose that has to do with buffering.

Controlling your DVR or TV from your computer.
My TIVO series 2 remote is duplicated exactly. All buttons are functional. When you click on a button on your virtual remote expect about a 2-3 second delay before the actual changes happen on your TIVO. I am able to program, record, watch live TV or recorded video, just like at home. It’s fun to be able to see what the kids are watching and if you’re in the mood change channels on them.

Connecting from work.
To do a remote access you need to open your router with port forwarding. If you are comfortable with reprogramming your router, it is simple and well documented in the installation program. When you get to the remote computer, download and run the install program. Next you enter the password you set up along with the finder ID number that the original installation program gives you. From there you hit connect and start watching. I see no noticeable degradation in viewing quality from the local network to the remote one.

Great ways to use your Slingbox.
The obvious use is to watch TV while you work or play on your PC. In fact while writing this review I have had X-Play running from home in the SlingPlayer window. If you want to watch something from your DVR but it’s in another room or in another state – just run it on your laptop. You can find out what the kids are watching at home while you slave away at work. My daughter has a PC in her room and uses it to watch TV from time to time. I have copies of the SlingPlayer software on all my PC’s so it’s like having 4 more TVs in the house. I can catch up on Lost or Battlestar Gallactica here at work if I have the time or record a show from a remote location. Tivo has a new feature where you can listen to podcasts. Today, I was able to listen to Diggnation today at work through the TIVO - Slingbox connection.

Things that don’t work well.
As I mentioned earlier, a full screen display isn’t possible. Also with the delay between clicking on a button on your virtual remote and it happening on the DVR makes complicated programming and searching are quite slow. Only one person can be connected to the Slingbox at a time.

Final thoughts.
I paid $199.99 for it at Best Buy. I took me only 15 minutes to get it up and running. To access your Slingbox from a remote location you have to do some port forwarding. The documentation is excellent to walk you through this but anytime you program your router you better know what you are doing. I give the sling box 4.5 out of 5 stars. My only complaint is that I would have liked a clearer, larger, full screen mode. I doubt that is possible with current broadband limitations.

Derf @ 2old2play

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Suxor Reason #4 New Game Addiction

I’ll admit it. I have this thing about new games. I love them…. I love the way they feel ….. I love the way the smell…. I love cracking them open and installing them and reading the manual… Yeah – I actually read the manuals. The first time you weave your way through a new interface or game is sweet. My wife is extremely jealous of that other woman (The New Game).

The gaming industry loves guys like me. We drive the industry. It’s true! We have to have the newest game, the newest console, the newest gaming PC. In the 60’s it was the space program that drove technology. Since the invention of the PC and the console – it has been me and others like me that have pushed technology to new heights. I’m not kidding – I should get some of kind of reward from mankind for making this world a technological wonderland.

The reason I suck at games is I never seem to stay on one game long enough to master it anymore. I bought the X-box 360 in a bundle from gamestop and it came with 6 games!. That nearly killed me. How do you play one when another is calling you……. OMG then Ghost Recon comes out. Give me a break! In any event – I rarely play a game long enough to truly master it and move from suckdom to competence, forget l33tness!

Then there is the problem with seasonal suckitude. The Christmas season for video games and console releases! There is no way to keep up with the things that come out during this season. My good old standby games disappear in the back of the game cabinet while one after another new one appears and occupies my psyche for an undetermined period.

New games = perpetual suckitude…. You can quote me on that one !

Suxor Reason #4 New Technology Addiction

To be continued…

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Suxor Reason #3 � The X-Box Controller

The first console we ever owned was the X-box! Yup no Sega, Nintendo, or Playstations. My second oldest son somehow worked out a magical deal with my wife and arranged for the ban on consoles to be lifted. She said yes and minutes later we were buying the X-box and a copy of halo. After racing home and booting up the game I realized I was in trouble. I had this controller thing in my hand. No mouse or keyboard. I had to look at the stupid buttons!!!! In fact I had to look at the stupid buttons for over a year. I was still glancing when halo2 came out.

In my opinion, nothing beats a mouse keyboard for playing a FPS. Bungie has done a great job working with the controller but I’m afraid it still isn’t as good as a mouse keyboard combo. So when you have to look at your hands all the time – you die a lot and you just decide to go back to the PC and don’t practice with the controller. This is a viscous little cycle of suckiness. Only now, after all this time, am I able to not have to think what button I’m pushing. I just react. That’s a long learning curve –maybe this part of my overall suckitude isn’t intentional.

Suxor Reason #4 New Game Addiction

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Suxor Reason #2 No Talent!

Suxor Reason #2 – No Talent!

I’ll admit it, I have no talent. Never really had any! Any reasonable amount of skill I have ever had in the multiplayer environment is from practice. Practice knowing the levels, weapon locations, and shooting skills have made me a decent player in the past. Spending hours doing jumps and shooting drills have given me an advantage. I am willing to do some of that these days but there always seems to be something else, more fun, to devote my time to.

A talent story…..A couple of weeks ago I was playing Ghost Recon Advanced Warrior online. I probably owned the game for a couple of weeks at that point. Played a few late nighters and had some clan training. Fetal joined the game and I think it was the first time he had played MP. We played a multiplayer variant where you have infinite spawns in a Halo Deathmatch style. Fetal did fantastic. In fact when we played the normal variants he did quite well. I wish I played that well! Last week we hooked up again and now that he had a chance to learn the maps he totally pwned. Either he played constantly for a week or two or he has a talent for playing video games. I’m pretty sure he has the talent.

You can’t learn talent. You can’t buy talent. Hell you can’t even rent it!

Practice is the great equalizer to talent but then that takes time. Time I really don’t seem to have or want to spend!

Suxor Reason #3 – The X-Box Controller

To Be Continued…..

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Intentional Suckitute Part 1

Lately, I have been thinking about my game play or more accurately the lack thereof. Am I simply a suxor or are there reasons why I play badly. Perhaps if I blog this out – I’ll figure it out.

SUXOR REASON #1 – Leading guildz can drop your skilz…..

I wasn’t always this bad. A few years ago on PC – I was a pretty good Jedi Knight / Unreal Tournament Player. Played in a few CTF leagues – had made a name for myself. Somewhere along the way I decided to help out the clan leaders. Was a co-leader of a 50 member clan for awhile. Did a lot of HTML stuff. Then I realized it was cutting into my game time so I quit. Joined another clan this time I helped take a 30 member clan to over 140 as the leader. ;; More time was spent on the organization and so my skills diminished even though I could still fire up the games in end up in the top 2-4. So the more I helped people the worse I became at the game. While trying to play, run the clans, and maintain the sites other things began to suffer as well. I was staying up way late at night and dragging around work. My personal life suffered some as my time with my wife and kids dropped. BUT I COULD KICK ALL THEIR ASSES in Jedi Knight / Unreal Tournament. So I dropped out again and tried SW galaxies for 3 years once again ending up as guild leader. MMORPHS are easier since you level a lot but then there is always something to do and usually it takes forever to form a party so the hours are eaten away. When the big changes occurred in SWG I dropped it and went to WoW but to me it lacked the rush you get from a FPS. STAY AWAY FROM CLAN LEADERHIP IF YOU WANT TO PWN!

SUXOR REASON #2 – No Talent!

To be continued…..

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