Squeezing blood from the stone...

You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have...


No, not the facts of life but rather the perfectly evil entity that is Microsoft (hereafter to be referred to M$).  There is no other company in the world that I have such a love/hate relationship with.  I am a huge fan of the Xbox and the 360 and consider M$ to be an extremely good game company.  The XBLA is a wonderful idea that is really starting to blossom and is going to get even better over the next few months.

On the flip side I hate M$ from a business standpoint because the are so damn overpowering.  I'm a network admin and I have a very hard time trying to convince the management regime here that there are products out there other than M$ that will do the job just as well for a lot less money.  There are some things that I think M$ does very well (like Exchange 2003) but it is not the end all be all of the software world by any means and I get frustrated when I have to try and explain that people.

The thing I hate most about M$, though, is their undying need to turn everything into money.  M$ doesn't give anything to you for free.  The latest example of this is the new XNA Game Studio Express.  This is the latest idea by M$ to get the basement-dwelling, wannabe game developers into actually making games.  Teamxbox.com has an excellent article on this that you should go read if you are interested because from here on in I'm only going to summarize and bitch. 

Esentially M$ is giving you a free downloadable toolkit that will enable you to make "rudimentary" games (according to Peter Moore) and the only thing you will need is a copy of Windows XP, and a free version of Visual Studio Express.  Then you can set about making little games to your heart's content.  Unfortunately, if you want to share your new bundle of pixelated joy with anyone it is going to cost you $99 a year.  That's right $99 a year (why the fuck don't they just make it a hundred, do they really think we're that stupid?) will buy you a membership in the "Creators Club" and let you share your games with other members.  This sounds like a cool, original idea at first until you realize that M$ has just taken the PC modding scene, bastardized it for the console, and added a yearly membership fee!

The PC modding scene has been running strong for many years and has managed to produced some huge hits (like Counter-Strike) and gotten garage devs noticed by the big devs.  In fact, over the more recent years devs have been embracing the mod community and actually encouraging them to make content.  They go as far as to put together excellent toolkits, community modding forums, and (in some cases) help and support; and guess what, they do it for FREE!  Abso-fucking-lutely free!  They do it because they know that it will keep interest alive in their product and extend it's life without them having to put anymore direct manpower or money into it.  They also realize that a thousand monkeys on a thousand typewriters may eventually come up with programming gold (like the aforementioned Counter-Strike). 

So then why does M$ want to change this dev-community dynamic?  Because they see it as an opportunity to turn a profit.  Break down the numbers.  Right now there are 3,000,000 Live subscribers.  Lets be ultraconservative and say that 1% of those download the XNA toolkit and pay the $99 annual fee.  That's 30,000 people paying $99 a piece for a total of $2,970,000!  That's right, M$ will make almost 3 million dollars for doing nothing more than giving people free software and access to a community.  And remember, that's annually!  Like with the Live service they are trying to create a steady annual revenue flow. 

How can M$ justify this?  The XNA toolkit can't be much more complicated than the toolkits devs personally craft and give out for free with their games.  They aren't providing you with a support model.  They aren't giving you direct access to the publishers so you can showcase you games.  I just can't see the reasoning behind it other than they want to sqeeze every last penny out of us that they possibly can.

It's like ol' Bill is doing his President Clinton impression and we're his Monica Lewinsky.  Before you know it we're going to be staring at a load of joy juice forming a milky white silhouette of a dollar sign on our collective dress.  The only problem is that our stain is never going to get us on the nightly news.



Any feedback, thoughts, or counterpoints are always welcome.

Posted by Q @ 9:01 am EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

The Struggle Within...

There are times when I just can't stand myself and now is one of them.  After all of my protesting and soapbox lecturing about this subject to anyone who would listen, or at least stare at me blankly while I ranted, I find myself consdering the unthinkable.  I am actually considering getting Madden 07.

It may seem like a trivial or even bizarre conundrum to some of you but it is really putting me at odds with myself.  To me EA represents the same thing that MS represents to alot of IT geeks, EVIL!  They are a monstrous publisher who weilds an enormous amount of power in the gaming industry and they just keep getting bigger.  They are renown for buying up everything that stands in their way of total gaming domination and that is, IMO, going to be one of the downfalls of the industry.  Competition is the driving force of innovation and when EA eliminates competition through absorbsion (like a giant, evil gaming Katamari) they have no reason to innovate and improve their products.  Fortunately Ubisoft has been able to fight them off but what's sad is that a major international pub/dev like Ubi is considered a David to the Goliath of EA.  What's worse is that in the end Ubi will probably lose the fight and be taken over.

So then why, if my despise is so strong for EA, would I consider buying what I have always considered an inferior football game?  Two reasons:

1. I love football.
2. I have no other options! 

I always felt that Sega's football games were better than Madden and I haven't bought a Madden game since the late 90's.  Unfortunately, seeing as how EA bought exclusive rights to both the ESPN license (for a staggering 15 years) and the NFL/NFLPA they have effectively eliminated all of their competition.  Now, I have gone on record in the past as stating I would just have to go without a football game until their exclusivity ran out but I don't see that ever happening. 

They just renewed their exclusive PGA license deal for another six years and I'm sure that they will do the same thing with the NFL unless the NFL decides against it (which is highly unlikey).  Let's face the facts, the NFL is a business that exists to make money.  They are going to do whatever is going to generate them the most profit.  When the exclusivity deal was originally announced in late 2004 EA admitted that they had been shooting for this for a few years.  So then why all of the sudden would the NFL accept a deal that it was proposed before?  Because EA finally realized they were in trouble and threw a ton of money at them.  EA had been the genre leader for almost ten years at that time and it didn't make financial sense to spend a whole lot more money for exclusivity rights when they knew thier game was going to be the top seller every year anyway. 

Like I said before, I always liked Sega's football games more, personally, but it wasn't until the release of ESPN NFL 2K5 that EA knew it was in for a serious fight.  When 2K5 was released for a pittance of $20 and got better reviews from nearly every game source out there EA got scared, and for good reason.  2K5's gameplay was sharper, the graphics were better, the online was more robust, and it cost half the price of Madden (even after EA dropped their price $10).  It was a bold and brilliant strategy by Take 2 that also proved to be their biggest downfall.  They came in so strong and presented such a threat that EA knew it had to take immediate and decisive action.  So EA fired up the engine of their siege bankroll, assaulted the tower of exclusivity, murdered all their competing enemies, and raped every consumer of choice for the next five years.  Unfortunately when the exclusivity deal is over EA has enough cash and the brand recognition so the NFL would never have a reason to put the license up for bid again, and even if it did EA could outbid anyone out there.  The future is quite grim.

So here I sit.  Pondering my own ethical dilemma.  I love football.  I love football games.  I still think that 2K5 is the best football game to date and have it in my collection hoping, in vain, that it will be made backward compatible.  But honestly it is losing it's luster.  I need a new fix.  So, do I give in?  Do I trade my principals in exchange for a game that I may hate myself for playing?  Will it be good enough to make me change my stance on EA and how it just puts out yearly upgrades at a premium price?  I honestly don't know.

Again, I'm sure most of you think that I'm a fucking lunatic for taking a game purchasing decision into the realm of moral debate, but that's just me.  I'm not a religious guy and I don't have any specific political affiliation.  My personal, self-developed beliefs and principals are what makes me who I am and anything that threatens to compromise those, no matter how seemingly trivial, bugs the shit out of me.

I have been watching the Madden 07 vids posted around the net and reading every preview and hands-on article I can find to try and figure out what I want to do.  I won't go into this blind by any means.  I guess if I think that the game is really good and improved over the past few iterations as oppsed to just an updated rehash I can justify it.  I can tell myself that I'm just giving it a fair chance.  The real question is, am I a good enough liar to make myself believe that?

Posted by Q @ 12:06 am EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments

Thank you...

To my fellow adult gamer, clan brother, and friend BioSlayer for the incredible help with the blog pics. I asked for help and within a few hours he had pics for me to look at and after a few additional requests on my part you are looking at the final products. I think they kick ass and are exactly what I was looking for. You're Halo 2 skills (which are near pro level) are only surpassed by your creativity and good heart. I promise that the next time we're playing online I won't betray you (at least not on purpose )

Thank you Bio, thank you.

Posted by Q @ 3:33 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments

Bloggin' again...

Some of you may remember me but most of you probably don't have a clue as to who I am or why the hell you should care. Well, honestly, there really is no reason to care. However that won't stop me from acting like this is a big comeback and announcing that I'm going to start my blog once again.

For a few months at the end of last year and the beginning of this one I had a blog called Almighty Q(uandaries) that people seemed to enjoy and that I really enjoyed writing. Unfortunately life got in the way (as it so often does) and I was forced into a several month hiatus that is now slowly coming to an end. So I've decided to bring back Almighty Q(uandaries) but instead of just firing it back up I am bringing it here!

I have to say that this is easily becoming the premiere adult gaming site on the web and I am going to take this unassuming blog space and try to put it to good use. Once again, I know you probably couldn't care less but hopefully in the future you'll give me a chance, take a read, and hopefully find some thing you like to get you to come back. I'm a cynic at heart so don't think you're going to find any rainbows or happy faces here. I tell it like I see it and I take no prisoners. Fortunately I do have a warped sense of humor that tends to peak through as I point out the flaws and shortcomings of life and gaming so hopefully you'll get some chuckles along the way.

I have a placeholder picture in my gamer picture and no title pic yet because of my complete lack of artistic ability and my sad inability to use any form of pic software. I have made a cry for help in the forums in the hopes that one of you artsy folks can lend a fellow gamer a hand. I would be eternally grateful for any help I could get.

If you have absolutely nothing better to do with your time feel free to visit my old blog and read through some of my old stuff. A few of them got mentioned on Halo.Bungie.org on the extremely slow news days (and when I could afford the paypal donations). I'll be posting soon, hope you'll be reading!

Q



Posted by Q @ 5:07 pm EDT | Permalink | 5 Comments