B. Mann Consulting

I got some feedback in Facebook thanking me for posting about the video of Will Wright's talk at TED. So, I thought I would post about it here to spread it a little farther rather than hiding it in Jaiku.

Wright talks about his upcoming / much awaited game Spore in the context of thinking about how "games" or rather tools that appear as games, can help us understand/explore the world around us. Will Wright, for those who aren't gamers, is the creator of all of the "Sim" series of games, starting way back in 1989 with SimCity.

To say that I'm looking forward to this "game" is a bit of an understatement.

OK, so my last post had pretty much already ended with me convincing myself that the Xbox 360 was probably the right game console for me. logicnazi's post in the comments pretty much sums up why I ended up going with the Xbox 360:

However, if you are more concerned about immediate benefits or are willing to buy a PS3 in a couple years when they have better games and are cheaper AND don't have much desire for a blu-ray player then by all means buy an Xbox 360. I feel the pull of the PS3 as much as anyone but you just can't deny that at the moment the xbox has greater market penetration and better games. Hell, given that the xbox 360 is pretty close to commodity hardware it would be surprising if it hadn't come out of the gate stronger than the PS

I'll be writing up a few more thoughts as I kick the tires on different features, here are some quick hits:

• Unbox experience was nice and easy, aside from some sound issues -- I have a monitor with composite inputs, and then had to dig up RCA to mini stereo connector; I'm an edge case here, so no problem
• I had been warned that sign up process was long / awkward with controller (e.g. address / credit card sign up stuff) -- it wasn't that bad, and it's a "one time operation" ... went smoothly, connected to my existing boris_mann AT hotmail.com ID no problem
• some inconsistencies in UI (this is going to be vague, doing from memory) I end up in one section which has a listing which I click on, which then says, go to this other section to actually get to that feature...uh...just link me there directly :P
• set up Connect 360 and am playing music etc. from my Mac no problem...very nice
• Xbox Live Arcade games seem somewhat expensive: maybe this is just an expectation thing...I expect "small" games to be much cheaper
• also, why can't I buy full-length games online? I've been spoiled by Steam, I guess...and thinking about this more, I guess the games are locked to that particular console? Or to my gamertag?

Thanks to everyone for the lengthy feedback on the last post. Much appreciated.

P.S. my gamertag is "Cudgelsan" -- please add me if you are looking for someone to easily beat :P

I've been recently going down the path of re-shuffling my home media environment. Since I'm also still kicking the tires on various PC games (the new Steam community site is very interesting (link is my userid, you may need to be logged in) -- for the record, all the other games I mentioned I'm no longer playing.

Anyway, I've been thinking about a game console at home. The choice is really between the Xbox 360 and the PS3: the Nintendo Wii is a great supplementary machine with its very different interface options and social nature, but not such a great media center. I'm more likely to buy my own Wii controller and go over to friends that already have one.

Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 seem to have solutions in place to easily share media from your Mac. There is Nullriver's Connect360 and there is the open source MediaTomb which can let you run an open source UPnP server to share to both platforms (older how-to).

The Xbox LIVE and Xbox Live Arcade is compelling. Easily download small mini games. Get an account, earn achievements. Even playing "simple" games, you can compete with other people at home anywhere else online with you, and "invest" in an identity.

But...

...it's Microsoft. I acknowledge they've built a very interesting machine. It's much more of a market win than the PS3 by a long shot (at this stage of the game...). But it's optimized to work with Windows Media Center, and it's not really that hackable.

The PS3 on the other, I love for its open-ness. It actually has "install other operating system" as a *menu item*. That's fantastic, and totally appeals to me wanting to tinker.

But...

...for the price of a PS3, I could buy both an Xbox 360 *and* a Wii. It's pricey. Am I buying into tomorrow's technology, today? Also...it does come down to the games. And to the social network. My social network mainly has Xbox 360s (aside from Mark Yuasa who has a PS3 in addition), and some of the upcoming games that I'm interested in (e.g. Mass Effect) are Xbox only.

Hmmm...it seems like in writing this, I've convinced myself. My heart says I should get a PS3, but my head says Xbox 360.

What would you get? Why? Do you have one already? What do you use it for?

Travis and Susie got me playing WeeWar. Caution: do not click during a work day. Although, luckily, you can set "turns" to be as long as an entire day, so you don't necessarily need to be glued to your screen. I think we'll see more of these fun, casual, browser-based games.

Now, off to see if my Heavy Trooper and Raider strategy is working...

I have longer thoughts on these items, but I've talked to enough people that I should highlight this a bit. Two areas that I've been experimenting with / learning about are digital downloads, specifically of games, and some Windows-only online games that I can now try thanks to Apple's Boot Camp on my Intel Macbook Pro.

Some game/digital download services:

I went over to Travis and Susie's yesterday evening to play with a Wii for the first time. Overall verdict: fun! My arms and back are actually sore today...

I spent a bunch of time exploring the user interface and all the various options that the Wii has. If people can actually buy it and get it into the home, entire families are going to get hooked on this thing. From Internet access to "Miis" (virtual avatars for each user) to email in and out of the system...lots of different ways to use this system that *aren't* traditional gaming.

I started by building my Mii. There's enough variability that you can build a pretty good clone of yourself. Apparently, the Wii Remotes can actually carry your Wii around. I can see people customizing their Wii Remotes and carrying them around. 

The Internet access is based on the Opera browser: one thing I was surprised was how long it took to "boot up" the Internet browsing app. The system does have Flash support...so this means it's a YouTube browsing front end. I navigated over to Rathergood.com to show off some of the funny songs/movies there, and the Flash videos only loaded intermittently...might be an issue just with that site. The Internet channel is in "preview" mode, and Nintendo isn't sure if they are going to charge for it or not. I think charging for the Internet would be insane...there are SO many other ways they could make money by allowing this for everyone.

As well as this full browser, there is also the News channel: it sucks in news from AP and displays it on top of a virtual globe that you can rotate, zoom in on, and click on news stories in the locations they are happening. Is this what we mean by hyperlocal? The Everybody Votes channel is even going to allow people to fill out polls and various questions. Hmmm...I'm *really* hoping that Nintendo continues to open this up: I can't wait until a local news organization integrates with this...

When we finally started playing actual games, we started with the Wii Sports games that are bundled with the system. Tennis, Baseball, Golf, Bowling, Boxing. Yes, you do have to play these games standing up, and yes, they do make you sweat. Not much else to say here...lots of fun to play with multiple people, and even the training and fitness items are "fun".

The only other game we played was Rayman Raving Rabbids. It reminds me a bit of Conker's Bad Fur Day, although less "adult" humour, but just as many bathroom jokes. There are many different puzzles / mini games which you have to complete in story mode, but then can play vs. another player. Shooting rabbits with a plunger gun, throwing a cow that you spin around your head, or the uber strenuous pumping carrot juice game. Actually, one of the most fun is having to drop rabbits in time to the beat from different songs.

My previous favourite party game was Super Monkey Ball for the GameCube. It's available for the Wii as well, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they've done with it. The Wii controller is going to open up a lot of different options, obviously. 

So, the Wii is going to continue to be a big hit. Rather than an XBox 360, I'm now thinking that I'd rather like to get a Wii. I've currently got a desktop machine hooked up to my screen here at home: the Wii could perform a bunch of the things I currently use the computer for, although I would be looking for a DVD player and a keyboard. It's going to be interesting to see how Nintendo continues to evolve this platform. 

I can't remember what exactly prompted it: I wanted an application for my cellphone that *wasn't* a productivity app, that *wasn't* the half-finished handiwork of a lone developer, and that did just work. So I ended up buying a game.

My phone is a Nokia 6630, running on the Series 60 platform. The Fido site does sell applications, including games. It was basically useless for looking for stuff. My phone isn't sold by Fido, and they only offer browsing by type of phone. There is no way to say what platform your phone is.

Luckily, the Mobile Gamer site in the UK was great. Right at the top of the site, you can filter everything available by your model of phone, and mine was listed, so I got a full page of Nokia 6630 games. I browsed around for a bit, and settled on Might & Magic -- the same name of a game that I remember playing on the Apple IIe. Actually, the graphics on my phone look better than an Apple IIe.

Getting the game was ridiculously easy. I entered in my full phone number, including the +1 to show it's in North America. I paid via PayPal. Moments later, I got an SMS with the URL of a download. I clicked on it in my phone. It downloaded the installer. The installer launched, and downloaded the rest of the game.

That is what seamless delivery of mobile content is all about. I didn't try it, but I suspect I could have navigated the site directly, and completed the entire experience via my phone's browser. Hmmm...pay for something via PayPal, have it delivered immediately around an identity-based infrastructure that's encrypted. Skype + eBay ring any bells now?

I was amazed when I heard the Xbox 360 would support iPods out of the box. But, of course, it has to. Embrace AND extend.

One of the big take-aways for me was hard drives vs. optical. Everyone knows what a pain it is to burn discs. They're the floppy drive / sneaker net of this era, only being used if there are no other alternatives. So of course Microsoft bypasses them with a portable hard drive.

But basically, click through to Mitch's overview of how the XBox is going to kick the PS3's butt.

Here's how Microsoft will win the Game Wars by next summer, before the Playstation 3 ships in volume, using a wireless handheld Xbox that plays games, movies and TV stored on the detachable hard drives announced in the Xbox 360—and, building on .NET, Microsoft will turn both the game console and the portable game system into full-fledged productivity systems.
RatcliffeBlog -- Mitch's Open Notebook: A bone-jarring Ah-ha moment: How Microsoft wins the Game Wars

When you tell someone you're buying a Mac and they throw the No_Mac_Game FUD in your face, they're being lazy. Someone, somewhere, at some time, told them that "Mac Games Suck" and that's simple idea to remember. FUD paints a world of black and white and the good news is it's all gray people.
Rands In Repose: Silver Bullet: No Games for the Mac

I thought this was appropriate since I am (still) enjoying World of Warcraft. Pretty much all of Blizzard's games are cross-platform, and usually ship with one set of CDs as well. Actually, the guys at Electronic Boutique where I bought the game almost didn't want to sell it to me when I mentioned I was playing on a Mac.

I don't care to get involved in the FUD one way or another -- if I was really interested in playing games I would get an Xbox or a PlayStation.

So I picked up WoW on Tuesday. I played a few hours that night, when things were really busy. Not suprising, given the response:

We launched with 41 servers in the U.S. yesterday, and we are bringing up an additional 34 servers today to accommodate the influx of players. Over 200,000 accounts were created in just a single day!
World of Warcraft Community Site: WoW - Day One

By shifting around to different servers, I was able to experiment a bit with different characters. Because of the traffic and upgrade issues, you should probably try and create characters on a couple of different servers. That way if your server is down or under heavy load, you'll still have a backup character to play.

There are some unrelated-to-load issues with latency when fighting or getting "loot" at times, but I predict there are going to be a lot of people playing this game and really enjoying it. We'll see if Blizzard manages to make this type of game more accessible to a wider range of people.