Leaked Microsoft Video Reveals Horrible Future for PC Gaming
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
How to make this succeed:
1) Eliminate the 'points' system and link transactions to real money.
We're adults. We don't like paying for things in packets of Chuck E. Cheese tokens, no matter how they brand themselves. Whatever mysterious ephemeral revenues Microsoft is currently skimming off the top by playing The Arbiter of The Monopoly Money can be recouped in an honest, transparent, and straightforward fee, visibly applied to all purchases; ie, "This item costs 10.00, with an additional $2 Xbox Service Fee". This will increase ease for the user, and attractiveness to third parties. More importantly, it's less of a 'fuck you' to your customers, in that it doesn't condescend to them.
2) Increase the ease of access for user-content-created portals
The indie games channel was a step in the right direction -- but come on. It's 2011. The absence of a Newgrounds-style game upload channel without the cumbersome approval process Live currently requires, is astounding. Do you...do you not like money?
Allow developers to set their own price. 'Free' games may be plastered with the ad of the week, while larger prices are subject to a proportionally larger 'Xbox Service Fee'. Link this to a user rating/review system which is much more visible than the one you have now, and implement tight parental control features over the whole shebang.
3)Third-party Support
Again, the avatar clothes are a step in the right direction. Get third-party publisher to develop games and services which will fit right into this 'hub' experience you're trying to present. More specifically: tailor your system to their needs, in a way which will allow them maximum creative freedom -- and therefore most attract them -- while earning you greater revenue and overall capability. It should not be impossible to create a system of 'Microsoft Development Agents', either real or online, with which studios could collaborate in realtime.
Eg,
"We're having trouble getting our game to accept Avatar/Kinect input."
"Okay, let me see your code."
There is no reason a game like Mass Effect should not be able to read the visual data from my avatar ([brown hair], [blue eyes], [large nose]) and match it to their own presets of the same, and the ability to do so would create a unique, overarching experience which would actually follow through on what the Avatars are supposed to be. As it stands now, they're little more than decoration for my Xbox menus. This is wasted potential, and wasted potential money.
Despite this knee-jerk anathema bs from the hardcore crowd, I understand what Microsoft is trying to do with the whole gaming-hub type deal: and it's commendable . . . but only if they do it right.
Don't shoehorn revenue streams in, and expect quality to fill the crevices.
Create quality, and find ways to draw revenue from it.
Edit: and the lack of an Xbox meta-game centered around gamerpoints, money spent, etc, which unlocks perks, discounts, and so forth, is simply astounding. Get some MMO consultants from Blizzard into your offices, and get cracking.
1) Eliminate the 'points' system and link transactions to real money.
We're adults. We don't like paying for things in packets of Chuck E. Cheese tokens, no matter how they brand themselves. Whatever mysterious ephemeral revenues Microsoft is currently skimming off the top by playing The Arbiter of The Monopoly Money can be recouped in an honest, transparent, and straightforward fee, visibly applied to all purchases; ie, "This item costs 10.00, with an additional $2 Xbox Service Fee". This will increase ease for the user, and attractiveness to third parties. More importantly, it's less of a 'fuck you' to your customers, in that it doesn't condescend to them.
2) Increase the ease of access for user-content-created portals
The indie games channel was a step in the right direction -- but come on. It's 2011. The absence of a Newgrounds-style game upload channel without the cumbersome approval process Live currently requires, is astounding. Do you...do you not like money?
Allow developers to set their own price. 'Free' games may be plastered with the ad of the week, while larger prices are subject to a proportionally larger 'Xbox Service Fee'. Link this to a user rating/review system which is much more visible than the one you have now, and implement tight parental control features over the whole shebang.
3)Third-party Support
Again, the avatar clothes are a step in the right direction. Get third-party publisher to develop games and services which will fit right into this 'hub' experience you're trying to present. More specifically: tailor your system to their needs, in a way which will allow them maximum creative freedom -- and therefore most attract them -- while earning you greater revenue and overall capability. It should not be impossible to create a system of 'Microsoft Development Agents', either real or online, with which studios could collaborate in realtime.
Eg,
"We're having trouble getting our game to accept Avatar/Kinect input."
"Okay, let me see your code."
There is no reason a game like Mass Effect should not be able to read the visual data from my avatar ([brown hair], [blue eyes], [large nose]) and match it to their own presets of the same, and the ability to do so would create a unique, overarching experience which would actually follow through on what the Avatars are supposed to be. As it stands now, they're little more than decoration for my Xbox menus. This is wasted potential, and wasted potential money.
Despite this knee-jerk anathema bs from the hardcore crowd, I understand what Microsoft is trying to do with the whole gaming-hub type deal: and it's commendable . . . but only if they do it right.
Don't shoehorn revenue streams in, and expect quality to fill the crevices.
Create quality, and find ways to draw revenue from it.
Edit: and the lack of an Xbox meta-game centered around gamerpoints, money spent, etc, which unlocks perks, discounts, and so forth, is simply astounding. Get some MMO consultants from Blizzard into your offices, and get cracking.
I'll just stick to Steam thanks, besides Ive never liked microsofts ways to implement gaming or communication so it's not really a shocker to me nor effects me.
I do everything they ask me to do to get my orders in, and to date I've been screwed out of $100 by them. Orders went through fine, but it still won't let me install the game and demands that I purchase a second copy to play. I had a similar problem when I bought Dawn of War II, which only worked through Steam, but it wanted me to buy an online copy to actually play it.MorphingDragon said:
Plan, you think they have a plan?Irridium said:
Wait, you're serious, let me laugh even harder.
OT: Didn't somebody try this with the Sims Online? How'd that work out? My prediction. Hardcore success in Japan, pretty much pure failure everywhere else. It's almost an anti-Facebook.
Board up the windows! Bolt down the doors! Seal the hatches! A shitstorm is a brewing!
Ready your weapons! Gather your cheezies and mountain dew! Brandish your keyboards! WE CAN'T TAKE THIS LYING DOWN! NAY! WE WILL TAKE THIS SITTING DOWN IN OUR BASEMENTS!
We'll fight them in the trenches, on the beaches, in the sky, in the Wal-Marts, in the Future Shops, and in the EBgames! We'll storm their bases on the net, in the Forums, and in their games! We shalt not falter, we shalt not waver, we shalt RISE UP! AND EMPLOY EVERY OUNCE OF...eh screw it, wanna play some Farmville?
Ready your weapons! Gather your cheezies and mountain dew! Brandish your keyboards! WE CAN'T TAKE THIS LYING DOWN! NAY! WE WILL TAKE THIS SITTING DOWN IN OUR BASEMENTS!
We'll fight them in the trenches, on the beaches, in the sky, in the Wal-Marts, in the Future Shops, and in the EBgames! We'll storm their bases on the net, in the Forums, and in their games! We shalt not falter, we shalt not waver, we shalt RISE UP! AND EMPLOY EVERY OUNCE OF...eh screw it, wanna play some Farmville?
This... is... AMAZING!!!
This is what we've all needed since computers were invented! A truly splendid video this is.
To think you can gracefully switch from farmville to something else entirely in a matter of seconds! And look at how the avatars are used in every game! With this awesome idea, we have no more need for shoddy, generic characters! YAY!
And there's more! With a wider audience, PC gaming can grow non-stop! This is a major step up from recent years of PC gaming. Much better than that silly Steam thing.
Ohhh, how I wish this magnificent future would happen sooner rather than later. This is the very definition of perfection!
*sniff* This is a dream come true...
This is what we've all needed since computers were invented! A truly splendid video this is.
To think you can gracefully switch from farmville to something else entirely in a matter of seconds! And look at how the avatars are used in every game! With this awesome idea, we have no more need for shoddy, generic characters! YAY!
And there's more! With a wider audience, PC gaming can grow non-stop! This is a major step up from recent years of PC gaming. Much better than that silly Steam thing.
Ohhh, how I wish this magnificent future would happen sooner rather than later. This is the very definition of perfection!
*sniff* This is a dream come true...
I don't see how anyone can be afraid that the future might turn out like that. Knowing Microsoft's threshold in PC gaming as it is anyway. Hell, casual gaming is probably the only way they can get any attention in this big world.
It ain't the future. Just saying.
It ain't the future. Just saying.
How much time have you spent talking with their customer support? I had an issue ONCE, and they resolved it real fast.CJ1145 said:
I tried it the second time and I got redirected to five different places, each guy even less sure of how to solve my problem than the last. Then I got to some guy named Chuck in New York who hung up on me instead of redirecting. Now I only use Steam in emergencies, such as getting XCOM, or X3, or anything starting with an X really.vxicepickxv said:
Microsoft hasn't had any integrity with PC gaming since they got into the console biz.Uber Waddles said:
