Gaming moving "ferword"?: Disc/Data to Hard drive
Going to try as badly as I can to muse on game related issues with a bit of humor and a ton of bad grammar, I dub these ?articles?(and the world of writing sighs)"Gaming moving 'ferword'??"
And today we start with "Disc/Data to Hard drive?.
If you have been hiding under a non technological rock you might be surprise to know you can buy and download (IE DLC/download content) some last generation games to your console this is nothing too exciting in itself but will lead to some real inserting developments in ?current? gaming.
Not discounting the WIIs virtual console but reselling us old games we might own and not developing a add on device for current hardware is a wii bit annoying even if they could do both and charge us out the ass for the ?experience? like most of the industry dose for current games of grand anal carnage(IE 50$ flawed and crappy games) but it seems they are focused on bigger shinier probes what with Securoms march on consumer rights but PC DRM is for another day me thinks.
With the WII leading the way in reviving the dead Sony and MS have followed suit and I do discount everything on live but the Live focused games on the 360 its clear MS made a mistake on locking the hard drive and then getting out the anal probes to rob of us money when they offer a hard drive for 2 or 3 times the cost of a normal drive?
But I am regressing and before I start whining about RROD I shall kill the demonic trud that has formed from something crawling up my ass and dieing and move on.
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Move along DRM move along?
Moving on to DRM which is the corner stone to how they sell products to the us the fuzzy masses who buy into half the poo they sling and some of us just point and laugh at the poo like the sad lil retards we are..but enough about me already?.
DRM is part of the authentication of the selling process thus part of the sale and it has to change, change to a coherent non ?rent? focused system we the consumers need 2 receipts one for the consumer to be stored any way the user wishes to store it(Defaulting to the consoles HD in a easily copyable file format, USB card,Mem card,ect,ect) and one on the account you cannot move to sell digi media as a normal and trusted practice until you protect the consumers investment into it, this does not mean you get rid of renting it just means it?s another layer of protection and authentication for both parties in a digital transaction.
Allowing the DRM to do this with a authentication check when you download it and random authentication checks per week/month will be all the protection industry needs as unlike on the PC you can permanently disable the online access to the unit/account.
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Household account
Now with a per system authentication system things can become crazy for households that own more than one unit so you?re going to need a account system that can have multiple consoles per house hold verify it by IP range and either charge a flat fee per unit or a 1/8th -1/4th rate for each additional unit thus allowing people to spend more money on games, units and accessories not to mention countless micro transactions.
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Buddy system 2.0
Also a buddy system to rent shared time for a small fee would be good so you can go over to your buddy?s house for the weekend and can?t take your unit and what to share the cool stuff on it, by initiating it on your end and sending a invite to your friends unit you can turn on a share setup allow the other unit full access to whatever your unit has even allow you to copy off games onto a portable device pug it into your buds unit and through authentication will work on his unit, to prolong the rent time your buddy or you can pay for more time to rent ?shared? status.
Take the above into consideration and allow people to transfer stuff to and from their consoles for a small fee if under a buck money can be made here if you apply the right mindset to the process.
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Shared distribution.
Now that you have a proper receipt system with authentication that links to not only the system but the account it?s tied to you cannot only sell new whole games from your digital store but allow retail games to fully ?download to disc? allowing for quicker loading and other features. Again this does not mean you cannot rent items, in fact renting a whole game for 10$ to start and 5$ a week after the first week might replace clumsy retail altogether but you have to understand the process it?s not going to be perfect even now people can buy a unit leave it offline and play any illicit copy they want without opening the console up (yes that?s you MR high attach rate 360) but what you want to do is remove those who break the rules online while giving those who play in the rules more features and value at less cost to them.
Now just because you give consumers the right to re download their purchases does not mean it has to be free a small fee of a buck or less would help keep the gears of the network greased.
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Final thoughts
People are willing to pay for extra worth while features why else is live gold subscription so damn hot, we need more features at better costs what I would like to see is consoles not having locked hardware like the 360, that you have your units attached to your account and allowed a easy system to trade/give and "share" the stuff you have bought or rented but for a fee of credits, the credit system is quite a interesting setup you gain them (specials,gimmicks, new game purchases,subscription plans,ect,ect)you buy them you should be able to share them, with maybe a 10% fee as you need to lessen "free" credits as much as you can thus having smalls fees on this and that balances out the whole system.
With a proper credit system a free account can buy demos,downloads and other items as they go with a subscription you get credits and a lot of free content, of coarse this is mostly the PSN model but if you mix in alil LIVE and have a 2 or 3 tier system but lets not hack up the speed for multiple tier levels for them to nickle and dime us to death with.
A solid network thats free to all console owners with a small fee of 2-5$ for unit/account transfers blocked units will require a Ccard and home address thats not the same address as the old user, that or a 50$ fee reconnect perhaps a mix to balance things out.
Unit/account linking is not inherently bad if one has a house hold of multiple units they could be put on with 1 flat fee and share most content between units , a constant flow of some profit is better than irregular profit and that is the mindset the industry needs to comprehend not the "as much as you can get as fast as you can get it" quagmire.
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Cheating at control, a rant.
Also since games are rushed in development and console makers are all the more wary of cheat systems we need more and varied cheats to re balance the supposedly finished product.Cheats offer not only a crutch to finish a mediocre game but add FUN to an otherwise stale product.
Control is currently the biggest demonic turd for me no matter how much I try to shat it out it lingers and smells?.could be BO but I can?t tell anymore?but really not every gamer plays the same and full control mapping is something basic all devs need to understand it can turn a clunky horrid game (insert game here or Manhunt) into a fun stealth killing spree (A port that strangely offers more button mapping like Manhunt on the PC with extra button mapping) and I am not saying port all your crappy titles to the PC just allow for full button mapping since games 10 years ago had them and new consoles and games are light years more advance in comparison... most of the time...and if you got balls that are not saggy and limp add in mouse and KB support most consoles know a days know what a mouse is it?s the software that refuses to use it?.
