What Games Are

Better Than Movies [Kill Hollywood]

“The Worm has turned”, Jack Nicholson once said in the otherwise-forgettable Wolf, “and it is now packing an Uzi.”

I’m minded of this quote when reading various reactions to the concerted move by the established entertainment industry to stop piracy. It’s not just SOPA and PIPA, but also ACTA in Europe and a variety of national-level legislative campaigns which propose draconian, over-reaching controls to protect content industries at the expense of all others.

The normally-placid geek industries, which prefer to make stuff rather than lobby, are nettled to such an extent that key figures are declaring that it’s time to saddle up. That it’s time to lobby and cajole on issues like relaxing copyright and patents for real rather than talk about it. That it’s time to, as Paul Graham wrote last Friday, kill Hollywood.

So do you want to take up the call?

The Maker's Lament, Free To Play and Transmedia Malls

I’ve been reading a book named Free Ride. Its central argument is that through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, freeloading pirates, two faced behaviour from a variety of tech companies and faulty prevailing wisdom in the media about the need to be online at all costs, people who make content have been screwed out of a career.

It also asks whether it’s really worth throwing out hundreds of years of professional creation for openness. The author (Robert Levine) posits several solutions to try to recapture, or at least stabilise, a market for professional content, from the walled gardens of app stores through some form of television license for internet access to the blocking of infringing domains. On whole, however, he paints a pretty bleak picture.

Except he forgot one medium, arguably the one with the best plan for the future. The one that has shown massive growth in an age of professional content decline. The one that makes billion dollar corporations seemingly appear out of thin air. Ours.

Keeping Players At Bay [Diablo 3]

Reddit is not happy. Nor Wired. Nor Rock Paper Shotgun. Nor indeed much of the internet this morning. Why? Primarily because of the news about Diablo 3.

In short: the game will insist on using always-online authentication, forbid modding (allowing access to the engine or tools), and include a market for the buying and selling of items. The first means you won’t be able to play the game on a plane. The second means that fans will not be allowed to fully express themselves. And the third means that those with more money may progress faster.

Of the three ideas, only the third is smart. Most players really don’t mind if others have used a shortcut to their success as long as it doesn’t affect them directly. But the other two are terrible. They are indicative of a growing trend in publishing to try and keep players at bay. They may work in the short term, but as long term strategies they are fraught with danger.