Brad Wardell of Stardock has recently issued a “Gamer’s Bill of Rights“, and what his goals are with it and who he wants to get involved:

The Gamer’s Bill of Rights

• 1. Gamers shall have the right to return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund.
• 2. Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
• 3. Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game’s release.
• 4. Gamers shall have the right to demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be forced to load in order to play a game.
• 5. Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will play adequately on that computer.
• 6. Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won’t install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their consent.
• 7. Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.
• 8. Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.
• 9. Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play.
• 10. Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play.

His goal is to get publishers and developers to sign this agreement to protect those buying PC games and have the same level of quality assurance as consoles offer. We’re already a few steps there with some publishers, but we still have a way to go, and a little stamp on a box of a publisher/developer’s game would go a long way.

• 1. Gamers shall have the right to return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund.
• 5. Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will play adequately on that computer.

These two are a huge problem with PC gaming. Unfortunatly, I cannot afford a beast gaming rig, so when new games come out, the only thing I have to go by are specs, and I wish I didn’t plunk down $50 on Bioshock and Unreal Tournament 3 to find out that minimum specs mean nothing other than, “Some shit will show up on the screen.” While I disagree with gamers being able to return games that don’t work (too abusive), downloadable demos would alleviate these problems, as well as protect the gamer (slightly) from a bomb of a game.

• 2. Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.

I think this goes without saying. Massive games require a large budget and time, and when the publisher starts breathing down the devs neck’s, sometimes shit gets pulled. I’m lookin’ at you, MMOs.

• 3. Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game’s release.

In a world where we have downloadable live content and expansions, most games want to remain viable for months after the release. Breathing new life into a game via these methods is much more cost-effective than building a game from scratch, but to require updates after a game’s release is a bit much, unless we’re referring to “making sure the game runs on system updates.” /shrug

• 4. Gamers shall have the right to demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be forced to load in order to play a game.
• 6. Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won’t install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their consent.
• 8. Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.

These are the “no shit” ones, but they still happen. Paying $49.99-$59.99 for a Triple-A PC game does not ensure that you’ll have to download extra crap to play the game, and while I don’t know of any games that install controversial software without consent, that sounds like a pretty big red flag. Maybe this would happen more often once the other requirements in this list were met (like Steam, but another distribution system that required something other than a client download).
Gamers treated like pirates? There are many methods of pirate-proofing games that do nothing but to piss off people who have sunk their cash into them. It was cool to know that when I uninstalled/reinstalled my copy of Bioshock that wouldn’t run that I could only do it three more times before I lost access to my game.

• 7. Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.
• 10. Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play.

These are both a great step in the direction towards a digital world. CDs are a thing of the past, and I feel like a fucking badass caveman with my binder of games. Steam’s service alleviates these problems, and I gotta say it’s awesome innovation in gaming distribution. Unfortunately, one of Steam’s downsides is…

9. Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play.

…to have to be connected to the internet to play a single-player game. While I’m almost always connected, if I want to fire up a game of Half-Life 2, I should be able to validate my account some how to do it.

Good direction and requirements? What do you think?

So for the past month of being part of the college graduate crowd, I’m kind of at a loss on what to do. Ever since I started at Drexel, I knew I wanted to be a part of the gaming industry. As what, I had no idea. After taking some classes, I realized I wanted to animate, and then at a later point, be a more technical artist perhaps. After trying for the last two years or so to be a part of the gaming industry through networking and attending events and such, I’m still having trouble getting in. But ever since Lazybrains caught all this publicity, there was some talk about maybe pursueing a master’s doing that at Drexel. So I’m torn.

The Industry

It’s been hard as balls for me to get into this. It’s really frusterating knowing that I’ve worked my ass off for four years, been doing everything that “I should be doing” and still can’t get in. Attending the IGDA meetings, meeting awesome people in the industry and people who are just interested in development, going to the GDC and all that. I make what I think is a badass portfolio, then see others way better. So maybe I just need to improve it and spend a few months on doing that.

Continuing Education

I’ve been looking at Master’s programs all over the country. Most are CS-oriented gaming degrees (Penn’s Computer Graphics and Gaming Technology, Digipen’s game-focused CS Master’s) but some are more art-technology and theory based (like Drexel’s Digital Media Master’s). Ever since the Lazybrains thing, there has been some talk about a dual-masters in Digital Media and Biomedical Engineering, which would be right up my alley, and I could continue to work towards a degree while making neurogaming prototypes. Awesome.

Problem with this is, it’s more money. I would need to get mad scholarships, stipends and maybe a job on the side. Not that I’m not willing to do that, but still. The stipend would have to sustain me living, plus the awesome debt I’ve racked up on my bachelor’s.

So WAT?

All this, on top of pressure from parents to settle and take a web design job. Frusterating as hell working your ass off for four years, doing everything you needed to do, everything you should’ve done, and then just told to settle for less than what you wanted. It feels too much like giving up. When I think about the dual-master’s in Biomed and DIGM, it seems like an awesome opportunity to become more of something. An entry level position at some game company is one thing, and even if I work my way up, is that what I want? Maybe I could start my own neurogaming studio of the future.

I hate settling for less than the best.

Anyone have any advice?

Dr. Richard Bartle, Granddaddy of the MUD, was recently interviewed by Massively, criticizing on the state of MMO’s, namely what he’d change about World of Warcraft.

Steve Danuser, designer from 38 Studios, noted on the generation gap now existant in the MMO genre, giving it props for being old enough to have this gap, and acknowledging the differences between the two camps of MMO players:

What this boils down to is that you have the Old Guard protecting their sacred cows, and the New Guard (many of whom have World of Warcraft as their primary or sole point of reference) questioning their elders. This pattern should sound familiar, because it happens in every generational shift around pretty much every art form. Congratulations to the MMO industry for finally being old enough to have a generational gap!

Bartle, representing the MUD camp, and being one of the ten-million World of Warcraft players, had a lot of criticisms for Blizzard’s MMO, in the realm of things he would change about the game. While his ideas are solid from a design stand-point, not all are necessarily the best way to go about implementing “better” functionality in an MMO.

One change he’d make is the ability to Buy things on the Auction House. You can put up 10 Bolts of Cloth on the AH for 10 gold, but the ability to put up the request to buy 10 Bolts of Cloth for X gold should also be available. Several other games have implemented this feature (Everquest comes to mind), and Bartle demands a reason for not having this available. Maybe it’s to force players to interact with each other in trade channels? Who knows, but I wouldn’t consider it an abomination in design that Bartle seems to present it as.

He next goes on to criticize WoW’s first expansion’s introduction raid zone, Karazhan.

There was absolutely no need for Kharazan to have that kind of hardcore raid attendance thing. There was no need for it. Why can’t you PUG it? It’s got five different sections. There could have been five separate instances. Why?

I’m not sure I even understand this. Blizzard claimed this to be one of their finer achievements in terms of The Burning Crusade, a 10-man intro raid zone, and Bartle would rather it be split into five different single-group zones? Single-group zones already exist at this point in the level 70 game.

Blizzard has done an awesome thing from my now-casual-MMO-gamer perspective; as the age of a raid zone increases, so does the ease of entry. This means the hardcore raiders will always be at the newest zone, draining it for all it’s worth, and the casual raiders will be raiding zones that were once cutting edge. During The Burning Crusade’s launch, Karazhan was exclusive to the hardcore for a few months, but as they moved on to harder zones, the casual raiders were easily able to organize and even PUG Karazhan. What does Bartle have against entry-level raid zones for the casual gamer? There is nothing hardcore about Karazhan, ask any WoW player from any playstyle.

I never played any MUDs, that was before my time, so the generational gap I most feel is from the Everquest era to the World of Warcraft era. The unforgiving slaughter machine that is Everquest made many players hardended and gave them a form of entitlement to everything they earned, and subsequently, felt that if they had to go through something hard at one point for item X, everyone else has to as well. World of Warcraft eased up on this, and felt that it was useless to restrict raiding to hardcore players only, and lowered the entry-requirements to the entry-level raid zones as the hardcore players progressed beyond it, something hardcore players and players from the Everquest era sometimes strongly disagree with.

While World of Warcraft isn’t the perfect game for me, they have made some strong design decisions, and to criticize against an entry-level raid zone for not being split into several single-group instances, essentially taking away the ability for casual players to raid, seems kinda silly.