I want to wish everyone a very Happy Holdays and I hope you spend it with amazing people. Some of us will be opening some presents from Santa so if you get anything particularly noteworthy feel free to share it in the comments.
Cheerful Ghost Blog
The Cheerful Ghost Blog is the place to find important site news and allows you to travel back through time to see how the site has evolved and read some of the most important and interesting articles and discussions!
I was able to attend this years Steam Developer Days and had a great time. One big draw of the conference was the talks and Valve has dropped them all on their YouTube page. I linked to one really great talk above by Mike Ambinder on the Psychology of Games I recommend you watch. There are 25 talks available from this years Dev Days so if you are in need of some awesome game talks and have some time, hit the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLckFgM6dUP2ihiMeKHoyIdHvhRSyqwQsp
If you want to read my thoughts on my two days at Steam Developer Days hit the links below.
... Read All I was able to attend this years Steam Developer Days and had a great time. One big draw of the conference was the talks and Valve has dropped them all on their YouTube page. I linked to one really great talk above by Mike Ambinder on the Psychology of Games I recommend you watch. There are 25 talks available from this years Dev Days so if you are in need of some awesome game talks and have some time, hit the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLckFgM6dUP2ihiMeKHoyIdHvhRSyqwQsp
If you want to read my thoughts on my two days at Steam Developer Days hit the links below.
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3127/steam-developer-days-day-1-vr-is-all-around-you
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3132/steam-developer-days-day-ii-a-wrap-up-to-a-great-conference
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLckFgM6dUP2ihiMeKHoyIdHvhRSyqwQsp
If you want to read my thoughts on my two days at Steam Developer Days hit the links below.
... Read All I was able to attend this years Steam Developer Days and had a great time. One big draw of the conference was the talks and Valve has dropped them all on their YouTube page. I linked to one really great talk above by Mike Ambinder on the Psychology of Games I recommend you watch. There are 25 talks available from this years Dev Days so if you are in need of some awesome game talks and have some time, hit the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLckFgM6dUP2ihiMeKHoyIdHvhRSyqwQsp
If you want to read my thoughts on my two days at Steam Developer Days hit the links below.
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3127/steam-developer-days-day-1-vr-is-all-around-you
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3132/steam-developer-days-day-ii-a-wrap-up-to-a-great-conference
Portland Retro Game Expo is a mecca for retro game lovers. This year we had a booth a the convention and ran four NES speedrun and score tournaments. Packie was the overall tournament master by winning two of our contests starting with his blistering 2 minute 04 second Super Mario Brothers 1-4 speedrun. Packie then ended the convention by absolutely demolishing our Dr. Mario score tournament with a score of 334,400! His Dr Mario ability was incredible and i've never really seen anything like his setup and execution of combos. Ben won Papers, Please on Steam for his 1 minute 26 second speedrun of Super Mario Brothers 3 to the first Toad House. Philly won our RC Pro AM... Read All
Portland Retro Game Expo is a mecca for retro game lovers. This year we had a booth a the convention and ran four NES speedrun and score tournaments. Packie was the overall tournament master by winning two of our contests starting with his blistering 2 minute 04 second Super Mario Brothers 1-4 speedrun. Packie then ended the convention by absolutely demolishing our Dr. Mario score tournament with a score of 334,400! His Dr Mario ability was incredible and i've never really seen anything like his setup and execution of combos. Ben won Papers, Please on Steam for his 1 minute 26 second speedrun of Super Mario Brothers 3 to the first Toad House. Philly won our RC Pro AM score tournament with a incredible final score of 18,658! I want to thank everyone that took part in our contests as each was unique to watch and some were won on the edge of a knife, or in this case a controller.
As Adam and I were preparing for our booth this year we identified early on that we wanted to run a few NES tournaments and I realized that the best way to do that was to get an old CRT TV. After looking at some options I decided that getting a TV/VCR combo seemed like the coolest option as I haven't owned a VCR in well more than a decade. As I scoured the local Goodwill and other second hand stores I also noticed how cheap VHS films were and that it might be fun to start a small collection. Between each tournament we played a couple VHS films such as Tron and Back to the Future and people seemed to really like that. Besides showing a few films between our tournaments I also had a few movies out on the table I was showing and more than a couple times people seemed interested in buying them. I didn't know there was even a small market for VHS films but I suppose a retro game convention would be the place to pick them up if you wanted to.
After our first NES tournament my childhood NES we were running the tournaments on stopped working. I was really upset as this NES had been with me since I got it for Christmas from my Grandparents back in the early 90's. Having your NES break at a retro game convention is pretty fortunate but I wasn't ready to pull the trigger on getting a new one quite yet but we had to continue the tournaments. In the end I decided on picking up a Retron 3 and that worked out really well. The Retron 3 not only plays NES games but it also accepts SNES and Genesis carts. We continued our NES tournaments without a hitch and I was surprised at how incredible the Retron worked with my existing NES games and controllers. After the convention was over I set it up with the TV in my office and played some of the games I picked up at the convention such as Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam on Genesis. Apparently Sega Genesis games are much cheaper than the SNES counterparts because collectors seem to prefer the Super Nintendo. Whereas I think the Super Nintendo does indeed have better colors and sound the Genesis ports of games are extremely solid and I have been having a blast playing Mortal Kombat on it. So much so that I plan on doing a formal review in the upcoming weeks on what I think of the game and my thoughts on the Genesis port.
I want to thank everyone that checked out the booth at this years Portland Retro Game Expo and hopefully we will be able to do it next year. We are already planning on attending and have some ideas on how to make it better but if you have ideas, i'd love to hear them.
If you are interested in seeing more of the convention you can hit the link on some pictures I took in an imgur album below:
http://imgur.com/a/YwFQk
As Adam and I were preparing for our booth this year we identified early on that we wanted to run a few NES tournaments and I realized that the best way to do that was to get an old CRT TV. After looking at some options I decided that getting a TV/VCR combo seemed like the coolest option as I haven't owned a VCR in well more than a decade. As I scoured the local Goodwill and other second hand stores I also noticed how cheap VHS films were and that it might be fun to start a small collection. Between each tournament we played a couple VHS films such as Tron and Back to the Future and people seemed to really like that. Besides showing a few films between our tournaments I also had a few movies out on the table I was showing and more than a couple times people seemed interested in buying them. I didn't know there was even a small market for VHS films but I suppose a retro game convention would be the place to pick them up if you wanted to.
After our first NES tournament my childhood NES we were running the tournaments on stopped working. I was really upset as this NES had been with me since I got it for Christmas from my Grandparents back in the early 90's. Having your NES break at a retro game convention is pretty fortunate but I wasn't ready to pull the trigger on getting a new one quite yet but we had to continue the tournaments. In the end I decided on picking up a Retron 3 and that worked out really well. The Retron 3 not only plays NES games but it also accepts SNES and Genesis carts. We continued our NES tournaments without a hitch and I was surprised at how incredible the Retron worked with my existing NES games and controllers. After the convention was over I set it up with the TV in my office and played some of the games I picked up at the convention such as Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam on Genesis. Apparently Sega Genesis games are much cheaper than the SNES counterparts because collectors seem to prefer the Super Nintendo. Whereas I think the Super Nintendo does indeed have better colors and sound the Genesis ports of games are extremely solid and I have been having a blast playing Mortal Kombat on it. So much so that I plan on doing a formal review in the upcoming weeks on what I think of the game and my thoughts on the Genesis port.
I want to thank everyone that checked out the booth at this years Portland Retro Game Expo and hopefully we will be able to do it next year. We are already planning on attending and have some ideas on how to make it better but if you have ideas, i'd love to hear them.
If you are interested in seeing more of the convention you can hit the link on some pictures I took in an imgur album below:
http://imgur.com/a/YwFQk
That sounds awesome! Well, except that your NES failed you. I hope it's not dead. Nintendo used to have places you could take it for repairs, up until a few (or more) years ago that is. I never heard of the Retron 3, but it sounds amazing! I have an extremely small library of NES and SNES carts. I know exactly where my NES is (I think I got it around 13 years ago, maybe more), but I have no idea what happened to the SNES I had.
This event sounds and even looks totally awesome. I can imagine majorly geeking out there!
This was such a great experience. I've gone to the expo for the past few years as just an attendee, but when Jon asked if I could help out at the booth, I jumped at the chance.
This is such a great convention as there's so much to do and everyone is incredibly friendly. People really do come from all over the country, so everyone had an interesting perspective.
The game competitions we ran blew me away. The combos Packers was pulling out on Dr. Mario... I honestly thought he was messing up, until he started nailing multiple-stage combos (he'd clear 8-10 viruses at a time... I can't adequately describe how much it blew my mind). The speed running competitions we're amazing as well. The precision some players had was astounding. I think I learned a thing or two, but would need to practice forever to even get close to the fastest times.
I got to talk to people about Cheerful Ghost, but I wish I had talked more about the site. The competitions took up the majority of Jon's and my attention lol. Next year I hope to be able to talk CG up more.
All around it was a great couple days. Thank you Jon for letting me be a part of it! I already can't wait for next year!
How does the retron 3 feel with inserting and pulling out carts? I read some comments on the 5 that it felt like it was going to break them.
Will: Yep, it really does clamp on to them hard. It didn't seem to harm them but I wonder how that would work longer term?
I think it would be fun to try to build something similar to a retron... Maybe with a raspberry pi? Have an emulator that runs on the pi, then have a device of sorts that takes the carts, plus some retro controller to usb functionality.
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Just wanted to wish everyone a very Scary Halloween! Since Halloween falls on a Monday this year I imagine most celebration happened over the weekend but i'm still curious what you all are doing this year? We were going to have a small party but instead we all got sick so we cancelled that and are going to watch the new Ghostbusters later tonight. Also wondering what people have been playing lately? As per normal i've been playing ... Hearthstone. Yeah, I know, not a huge surprise there but I have been continuing my Final Fantasy VI advance game as well as really tearing into Mortal Kombat on the Sega Genesis.
Stay safe if you are going to be out celebrating or doing... Read All Just wanted to wish everyone a very Scary Halloween! Since Halloween falls on a Monday this year I imagine most celebration happened over the weekend but i'm still curious what you all are doing this year? We were going to have a small party but instead we all got sick so we cancelled that and are going to watch the new Ghostbusters later tonight. Also wondering what people have been playing lately? As per normal i've been playing ... Hearthstone. Yeah, I know, not a huge surprise there but I have been continuing my Final Fantasy VI advance game as well as really tearing into Mortal Kombat on the Sega Genesis.
Stay safe if you are going to be out celebrating or doing tricks or treats tonight!
Stay safe if you are going to be out celebrating or doing... Read All Just wanted to wish everyone a very Scary Halloween! Since Halloween falls on a Monday this year I imagine most celebration happened over the weekend but i'm still curious what you all are doing this year? We were going to have a small party but instead we all got sick so we cancelled that and are going to watch the new Ghostbusters later tonight. Also wondering what people have been playing lately? As per normal i've been playing ... Hearthstone. Yeah, I know, not a huge surprise there but I have been continuing my Final Fantasy VI advance game as well as really tearing into Mortal Kombat on the Sega Genesis.
Stay safe if you are going to be out celebrating or doing tricks or treats tonight!
Vinny went trick-or-treating with some good friends.
As for what I'm playing....Ark: Fear Evolved 2!!! LOL Yeah I'm *still* playing Ark.
Mortal Kombat on the Genesis. Wow, that's a blast from the past. I wore out a fighter joystick on that game.
I have been playing Shadow Man on N64 on New Super Mario Bros U on the Wii U.
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Today is Sunday and it's Day 2 of the Portland Retro Gaming Convention! Jon and I are manning the booth, talking to people and right now we have a speed running competition for Super Mario Bros 3! If you are at the convention come stop by!
Today is Sunday and it's Day 2 of the Portland Retro Gaming Convention! Jon and I are manning the booth, talking to people and right now we have a speed running competition for Super Mario Bros 3! If you are at the convention come stop by!
Any videos for the speed running comp? I used to enjoy speed running the Mario games. I never was good enough to be even remotely competitive but it's crazy fun.
Also I want one of those shirts!
Good idea Travis, I'll try and get some.
I'm pretty jealous to be honest. One of these times I need to make a trip up there to attend this with you guys!
I saw you got a Retron 3 while you were there. I want to pick your brain about it later! I think my SNES is showing the first signs of failure, so I may need to look into a replacement system soon.
Absolutely! We are already planning on a bigger booth for next year.
I'll do a Retron formal review in the next couple weeks for sure!
Hey everyone. I'll be writing up all my thoughts about the convention tomorrow so check back then.
Expect a few pictures. 
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Even though i'm more than a couple days late to writing about the second day of Steam Developer Days I wanted to get out my thoughts while they are still nearly fresh in my mind. Spoiler alert, day two was incredible but the drive home from Seattle to Portland that night was precarious as I had to navigate the freak storm that occurred as some remnants of Typhoon Songda hit the west coast. I feel bad for my steering wheel as my clenched fingers strangled it for many tense driving moments but the wheel and I made it home safely.
One of the most interesting parts of the second devs days was Mike Ambinder's talk on The Psychology Of Games. When the talks are released from... Read All Even though i'm more than a couple days late to writing about the second day of Steam Developer Days I wanted to get out my thoughts while they are still nearly fresh in my mind. Spoiler alert, day two was incredible but the drive home from Seattle to Portland that night was precarious as I had to navigate the freak storm that occurred as some remnants of Typhoon Songda hit the west coast. I feel bad for my steering wheel as my clenched fingers strangled it for many tense driving moments but the wheel and I made it home safely.
One of the most interesting parts of the second devs days was Mike Ambinder's talk on The Psychology Of Games. When the talks are released from Steam Developer Days I plan on featuring the talk in a post for people to watch and talk more about it. There were many standout parts to Mike's talk but the thing I thought about was how Developer choice can effect player preference. Mike also talked about cognitive dissonance and how they used that to change toxic behavior in DoTA 2. His talk also featured the hilarious picture of him and Gabe embedded above and I want to thank Mike letting me use the image in this blog post.
Another interesting talk was by Ronimo Games(the creators of Awesomenauts) about games as a service. Traditionally a game was released as a physical product and after the initial wave of sales you were done with it. You'd maybe drop a patch or two and sometimes an expansion but for the most part, after launch, developers and companies were done with the game. Ronimo takes a different approach to this with Awesomenauts as they are always releasing content in the form of game patches, heroes, skins and expansions. They've been utilizing the games as a service model since 2012 and it seems to have served them and the fans of the game well. Fans get more of what they love and Ronimo can keep the studio lights on. I found a few things out in this talk in that when players buy Awesomenauts skins one reason they often do that is to support the developers. Players see it more as a patronage of the company and want to support them as a studio. Ronimo also was straight up honest that they held back some content at launch so they could focus on post release promises and be able to fund fixing bugs. Usually companies are not transparent about this but Ronimo was pretty straight forward about the costs of running a studio and being able to keep post release commitments by having the work done in advance.
If I had one suggestion for next years Steam Developer Days it is that I would focus on more advanced topics. It's good to cover things from a beginner level but I wasn't finding each talk to be as meaty or topical as i'd of liked. The talks I highlighted in my two posts were superb but not every talk was as deep as i'd have wanted. That said, I loved that Steam Developer Days was only two days as i've had a rough time when conferences overstay their welcome. All that said, I really enjoyed this years Steam Developer Days and can't wait to head back when Valve does it again in 2018.
If you want to read up on my thoughts on the first day of the conference hit the link below
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3127/steam-developer-days-day-1-vr-is-all-around-you
One of the most interesting parts of the second devs days was Mike Ambinder's talk on The Psychology Of Games. When the talks are released from... Read All Even though i'm more than a couple days late to writing about the second day of Steam Developer Days I wanted to get out my thoughts while they are still nearly fresh in my mind. Spoiler alert, day two was incredible but the drive home from Seattle to Portland that night was precarious as I had to navigate the freak storm that occurred as some remnants of Typhoon Songda hit the west coast. I feel bad for my steering wheel as my clenched fingers strangled it for many tense driving moments but the wheel and I made it home safely.
One of the most interesting parts of the second devs days was Mike Ambinder's talk on The Psychology Of Games. When the talks are released from Steam Developer Days I plan on featuring the talk in a post for people to watch and talk more about it. There were many standout parts to Mike's talk but the thing I thought about was how Developer choice can effect player preference. Mike also talked about cognitive dissonance and how they used that to change toxic behavior in DoTA 2. His talk also featured the hilarious picture of him and Gabe embedded above and I want to thank Mike letting me use the image in this blog post.
Another interesting talk was by Ronimo Games(the creators of Awesomenauts) about games as a service. Traditionally a game was released as a physical product and after the initial wave of sales you were done with it. You'd maybe drop a patch or two and sometimes an expansion but for the most part, after launch, developers and companies were done with the game. Ronimo takes a different approach to this with Awesomenauts as they are always releasing content in the form of game patches, heroes, skins and expansions. They've been utilizing the games as a service model since 2012 and it seems to have served them and the fans of the game well. Fans get more of what they love and Ronimo can keep the studio lights on. I found a few things out in this talk in that when players buy Awesomenauts skins one reason they often do that is to support the developers. Players see it more as a patronage of the company and want to support them as a studio. Ronimo also was straight up honest that they held back some content at launch so they could focus on post release promises and be able to fund fixing bugs. Usually companies are not transparent about this but Ronimo was pretty straight forward about the costs of running a studio and being able to keep post release commitments by having the work done in advance.
If I had one suggestion for next years Steam Developer Days it is that I would focus on more advanced topics. It's good to cover things from a beginner level but I wasn't finding each talk to be as meaty or topical as i'd of liked. The talks I highlighted in my two posts were superb but not every talk was as deep as i'd have wanted. That said, I loved that Steam Developer Days was only two days as i've had a rough time when conferences overstay their welcome. All that said, I really enjoyed this years Steam Developer Days and can't wait to head back when Valve does it again in 2018.
If you want to read up on my thoughts on the first day of the conference hit the link below
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3127/steam-developer-days-day-1-vr-is-all-around-you
In 2014 Cheerful Ghost published it's first game Starship Rubicon, an asteroids-esque rogue lite. Working with Wick to take his game to a wider audience was a really fun experience and along the way we hit some fun milestones like releasing the game on Windows, Mac and Linux on Steam. Because of that Cheerful Ghost was asked to attend this years Steam Developer Days and we happily signed up. I wasn't sure what to expect but I figured we'd learn more about what Valve was up to and maybe play some fun games along the way.
It's All About VR Baby!
It might not be too surprising that Valve is focusing heavily on VR and the Vive. The main social area here at Steam Developer... Read All In 2014 Cheerful Ghost published it's first game Starship Rubicon, an asteroids-esque rogue lite. Working with Wick to take his game to a wider audience was a really fun experience and along the way we hit some fun milestones like releasing the game on Windows, Mac and Linux on Steam. Because of that Cheerful Ghost was asked to attend this years Steam Developer Days and we happily signed up. I wasn't sure what to expect but I figured we'd learn more about what Valve was up to and maybe play some fun games along the way.
It's All About VR Baby!
It might not be too surprising that Valve is focusing heavily on VR and the Vive. The main social area here at Steam Developer Days is lined with VR booths featuring a ton of really interesting games such as Work Simulator and Tilt Brush. I've really enjoyed trying my hand at Work Simulator and after the whole experience really think that the Vive is the most immersive VR I've used to date. The sensitivity of the tracking and controllers is superb and much smoother than other VR I've tried like the Oculus. Wick discovered the Tilt Brush VR app by Google and was painting some really interesting things for about an hour. It's hard to describe just want you can do with Tilt Brush but imagine a paint program where you can paint with light, smoke and other effects in 3D at room scale. These kinds of VR art experiences are going to allow people to create some really great stuff and I can't wait to see what people do with it when VR becomes more popular.
Valve Dropped Some News On What's Next
We've heard rumblings of a new Steam client update that aims to change things up considerably and I heard first hand of this today talking to a Steam designer and it was later confirmed in a Steam talk. They didn't talk a ton about what the new version would do but they did note that they wanted to improve how people find new games.
Valve said that they are partnering with Samsung to have the Steam Link built in to upcoming Samsung TV's. Smart TV's are doing so much these days and integrating the Steam Link into them seems like a really great next step to get Steam into every living room. I wonder how long it will be before you don't need a PC to stream the games and the TV's have enough horsepower to do it themselves?
During the VR talk they also let us know that they are working on bringing VR to Mac and SteamOS and that there would be a demo of VR on Linux for us to get our hands on tomorrow. Valve bringing VR to SteamOS, Linux and Mac sounds like something that should make people happy as will push VR to be a more open system, something Valve is committed to.
The Swag Is Strong With This One
Each Steam Developer Day attendee was gifted a Steam Controller, Steam Link and a bunch of other swag. This is a really great bonus and something I am looking forward to checking out. It's also really nice for players of Steam games because now that more developers have a Steam Controller, adding support is that much easier.
There Is No Steamboy
Personally, I've been interested in Valve producing a handheld system for quite some time. While I was talking to a Valve Developer I asked them if Valve was working on such a system and they said they weren't. They remembered the Steamboy concept video and thought it was pretty interesting but said Valve wasn't working on anything like that. It makes sense as they are focused on other things right now but I thought it was worth mentioning and lamenting.
Interested in reading my thoughts on day 2? Hit the link below.
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3132/steam-developer-days-day-ii-a-wrap-up-to-a-great-conference
It's All About VR Baby!
It might not be too surprising that Valve is focusing heavily on VR and the Vive. The main social area here at Steam Developer... Read All In 2014 Cheerful Ghost published it's first game Starship Rubicon, an asteroids-esque rogue lite. Working with Wick to take his game to a wider audience was a really fun experience and along the way we hit some fun milestones like releasing the game on Windows, Mac and Linux on Steam. Because of that Cheerful Ghost was asked to attend this years Steam Developer Days and we happily signed up. I wasn't sure what to expect but I figured we'd learn more about what Valve was up to and maybe play some fun games along the way.
It's All About VR Baby!
It might not be too surprising that Valve is focusing heavily on VR and the Vive. The main social area here at Steam Developer Days is lined with VR booths featuring a ton of really interesting games such as Work Simulator and Tilt Brush. I've really enjoyed trying my hand at Work Simulator and after the whole experience really think that the Vive is the most immersive VR I've used to date. The sensitivity of the tracking and controllers is superb and much smoother than other VR I've tried like the Oculus. Wick discovered the Tilt Brush VR app by Google and was painting some really interesting things for about an hour. It's hard to describe just want you can do with Tilt Brush but imagine a paint program where you can paint with light, smoke and other effects in 3D at room scale. These kinds of VR art experiences are going to allow people to create some really great stuff and I can't wait to see what people do with it when VR becomes more popular.
Valve Dropped Some News On What's Next
We've heard rumblings of a new Steam client update that aims to change things up considerably and I heard first hand of this today talking to a Steam designer and it was later confirmed in a Steam talk. They didn't talk a ton about what the new version would do but they did note that they wanted to improve how people find new games.
Valve said that they are partnering with Samsung to have the Steam Link built in to upcoming Samsung TV's. Smart TV's are doing so much these days and integrating the Steam Link into them seems like a really great next step to get Steam into every living room. I wonder how long it will be before you don't need a PC to stream the games and the TV's have enough horsepower to do it themselves?
During the VR talk they also let us know that they are working on bringing VR to Mac and SteamOS and that there would be a demo of VR on Linux for us to get our hands on tomorrow. Valve bringing VR to SteamOS, Linux and Mac sounds like something that should make people happy as will push VR to be a more open system, something Valve is committed to.
The Swag Is Strong With This One
Each Steam Developer Day attendee was gifted a Steam Controller, Steam Link and a bunch of other swag. This is a really great bonus and something I am looking forward to checking out. It's also really nice for players of Steam games because now that more developers have a Steam Controller, adding support is that much easier.
There Is No Steamboy
Personally, I've been interested in Valve producing a handheld system for quite some time. While I was talking to a Valve Developer I asked them if Valve was working on such a system and they said they weren't. They remembered the Steamboy concept video and thought it was pretty interesting but said Valve wasn't working on anything like that. It makes sense as they are focused on other things right now but I thought it was worth mentioning and lamenting.
Interested in reading my thoughts on day 2? Hit the link below.
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3132/steam-developer-days-day-ii-a-wrap-up-to-a-great-conference
This is super cool. I'm excited to see VR being taken seriously!
Bring on Ready Player One.
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To say I am a fan of Kevin Wilsonâs work would be an understatement. Kevin not only designed my favorite board game of all time, the original 2004 Doom: the Board Game but he has also created many more incredible games including the upcoming Kickstarter smash hit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past & Mistborn: House War. Iâve done two previous interviews with Kevin one in 2012 and 2013 and realized he was doing so much incredible stuff and way too much time had passed since we last talked.
I want to thank Kevin for taking time out of his schedule to talk with me, because with all his current and upcoming work I am not sure how he has any time for... Read All To say I am a fan of Kevin Wilsonâs work would be an understatement. Kevin not only designed my favorite board game of all time, the original 2004 Doom: the Board Game but he has also created many more incredible games including the upcoming Kickstarter smash hit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past & Mistborn: House War. Iâve done two previous interviews with Kevin one in 2012 and 2013 and realized he was doing so much incredible stuff and way too much time had passed since we last talked.
I want to thank Kevin for taking time out of his schedule to talk with me, because with all his current and upcoming work I am not sure how he has any time for sleep!
jdodson: Hey Kevin, thanks for doing the interview. Can you explain a bit about who you are and what you do for people that might not be familiar with your work?
Kevin Wilson: I originally got my start in the game industry at Alderac Entertainment Group, where I worked on the 7th Sea and Spycraft RPGs, but I'm probably best known for the board and card game design work I did for Fantasy Flight Games over ten years, including designing Doom: the Board Game, Descent: Journeys in the Dark, Sid Meier's Civilization: the Board Game, and Android, co-designing Arkham Horror and Elder Sign, and developing the new editions of Cosmic Encounter and Wiz-War.
I've been freelancing for the past four years, and have done several more games including X-Files and Awesome Kingdom (IDW Games), Darkness Comes Rattling (Wyrd Games), and I have a whole slew of upcoming releases, including Arcane Academy (IDW), which I co-designed with my friend Eric Lang.
jdodson: Coming off the massive Kickstarter success of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past where are you at right now in the process with the game?
Kevin Wilson:I'm working on the scenarios for the first few hero packs for the game. The base set is fully completed and we're just waiting to get it back from the printer now.
jdodson: Working with the Ninja Turtles and Kevin Eastman is pretty incredible how did you get involved in the process?
Kevin Wilson: When IDW Games approached me to work on X-Files, they also asked me if there were any other IPs they owned that I wanted to work on, and I immediately replied "TMNT." I then pestered them for a year or so about it until they finally gave in and let me design it.
jdodson: Do you remember one of your first experiences with the Ninja Turtles comic book, cartoon or films?
Kevin Wilson: My earliest Turtles experience was watching the 80s cartoon after school as a kid. I latched on to Donatello almost instantly as my favorite, and I've loved the turtles ever since. Later on, my roleplaying group tried out the Palladium TMNT RPG, and I played a Scottish terrier mutant in it. Good, silly fun.
jdodson: How has Kevin Eastman has been involved with Shadows of the Past?
Kevin Wilson: Kevin had oversight on all the thematic elements of the game and the look to make sure we were nailing it. He had a lot of very nice things to say about how the design captures the personality of the turtles, so I was pleased as punch about that. We hung out for a few hours at the GAMA Trade Show this year while we did signings, too, and that ranks high on my list of favorite memories.
jdodson: When you were designing Shadows of the Past what elements did you feel you had to get right to make sure the game was authentic to the source material?
Kevin Wilson: Obviously, I felt I had to really deliver the personalities of the characters, but I also really wanted to make sure the turtles felt like brothers - that you could really feel how closely they work together. That's where the dice sharing mechanic came from, where basically the turtles to your left and right share one of your action dice each, which really gives a strong feeling of supporting each others' actions. Well, except for Raphael...
jdodson: I know the game hasnât launched yet but since the Turtles game was such a huge Kickstarter you must have at least personally considered creating an expansion for it. If you were looking to the future what kinds of things might you explore for a future Turtles game? Also, is there talk of releasing multiple expansions due to itâs popularity?
Kevin Wilson: I'd like to see the TMNT Board Game continue for several years at least, with us adding all the different villains and heroes that we couldn't squeeze into the base set. We do have some plans for an expansion called Cityfall that will introduce some of the elements of the storyline of the same name from the IDW TMNT comic series, and I want to develop an AI deck for the villains that will let players try the game as a full co-op instead of a one vs. many design, but I want to make sure that when I do that, I deliver a really good AI mechanic.
jdodson: There were some Kickstarter exclusives such as the special edition Box and April OâNeil hero pack that look really interesting. For fans that may be late to the Kickstarter have there been any discussions to make these exclusives available at a certain time?
Kevin Wilson: The hero packs only had Kickstarter-exclusive miniatures, which possibly wasn't communicated as clear as possible. The hero packs will most likely appear again in some form with new sculpts. I've tried hard to make sure that there are few or no mechanical exclusives for the Kickstarter, only aesthetic exclusives. That way backers get cool stuff, but folks who buy the retail edition don't get left out in the cold.
jdodson: When you work with an artist on a board game cover how much thought do you put into how it sits on a game store shelf and how likely people are to be intrigued by what they see?
Kevin Wilson: Heh, I usually have very little to do with the title or cover of my games. Those things are normally handled by the publisher's management or marketing department. That's not always the case, of course, as Little Circuses and Escape from 100 Million B.C.! are two games coming from IDW that kept my original titles.
jdodson: You have talked a about diversity in games and how you approach that. Do you have any guiding principles that help when you are working on your initial game concept to final product?
Kevin Wilson: I've had to become a lot more self-aware of my own assumptions and of the assumptions that artists make. If you give a basic art description and don't mention gender or race, you're pretty much getting a white male back 99% of the time.
So I've had to start being more careful about that. I also keep a much tighter watch on how women are depicted in my games these days. I want heroines to inspire a young girl, not for her older brother to ogle. The hobby is growing and I think it's important, as well as good business, for game creators to include everyone who wants to play.
jdodson: Looking back at any of your published games would you tweak something if you could knowing how it turned out for people that have played it?
Kevin Wilson: Of course. There's not a single game I've done that I'm perfectly satisfied with. You do your best in the time you have to work on them, but there's always little things that slip through the cracks, and better ideas that you think of when it's too late. That's just how it is when you're doing anything creative if you keep trying to push yourself to get better and better.
jdodson: As a long time Twitter follower I am curious to know more about your project Frontier âSpace Operaâ board game. When I think of space opera a few things come to mind and maybe you could give us a few hints as to what this may be? Maybe a special exclusive reveal perhaps?
Kevin Wilson: It's a 2-player card game of planetary conquest between different alien races. Rather than a big sprawling board, however, it's more like a knife fight in a phone booth. It plays fast and has a lot of replayability, and I've already thought of 8 alien races for it. I'm currently still shopping it around to publishers and ironing out the game balance between races, so it'll be awhile before it makes it to market.
jdodson: For quite some time now youâve been collaborating with IDW Games on nearly all of your recent board game releases. Whatâs it like working with them and how open are they to you pitching your new games to them?
Kevin Wilson: IDW has been great to work with. They're very open to my ideas and they try hard to make sure I'm satisfied with the quality of the releases I'm doing with them. Nate Murray in particular has worked himself to the bone on my stuff, so here's a big thank you to him for that! You rock, Nate!
jdodson: Speaking of successful Kickstarters youâre involved in, Mistborn: House War was recently funded so congratulations on that. With this and the Turtles Kickstarter at what point do you realize that a game you are designing should be Kickstarted? What kinds of games donât make sense to Kickstart?
Kevin Wilson: Typically, I'm not making the decision whether or not to kickstart a game. It's mostly based on the publisher's financial situation and level of risk they're comfortable with. As for which games do best on Kickstarter, I'd say that well-recognized licensed games and miniature-heavy games are the best bets. Games that aren't as physically impressive and which lack name recognition definitely tend to suffer.
So for Mistborn, although there weren't a ton of fancy miniatures like in the TMNT game, there was still an extremely loyal fanbase that was excited to get a game that takes place in the Mistborn setting. Crafty Games also ran a very tight campaign, which helped the game do really well.
jdodson: What stands out to you as something important that makes a Kevin Wilson game?
Kevin Wilson: Even when the game is intended for a lighter audience, I try to bring something clever to each of my designs, whether it's the dice in Doom: the Board Game, the skill sliders in Arkham Horror, or the tech pyramid in Sid Meier's Civilization: the Board Game. In addition, I really enjoy including storytelling elements in my games. I love planting story seeds here and there in the designs and leaving them for players to find. I also really like it when I get to do some worldbuilding for a game, but that's less frequent than I'd prefer.
jdodson: So I think maybe everyone on earth watched the new Star Wars The Force Awakens. Itâs a great movie and I really liked it a lot. That said, one thing some of my friends and I canât shake is⌠why another Death Star? Like if you count The Phantom Menace âsort of Death Star like space battleâ and subsequent blowing it up from inside thing thatâs like 4 Death Stars. Why do bad guys think yet another Death Star will be the ticket? I mean this one was super big and had itâs own independent sheild generator so they upgraded it from Jedi but stillâŚ. Why a fourth Death Star Kevin? I need closure. Do you think the first order will create even more Death Stars and if so what would be the hook?
Kevin Wilson: Well, when you start with a weapon that can destroy a planet in a single shot, where do you go from there? That's why they went with another Death Star in Return of the Jedi. And technically, they upped the stakes to entire solar systems in a single shot in The Force Awakens, so maybe next time they'll have a solar system-sized gun that blows up whole galaxies!
jdodson: Thanks for taking the time to do this Kevin, I really appreciate it. Anything you want to say before we finish up?
Kevin Wilson: Just a heads up. The next 12 months or so are going to see a TON of releases from me - most of which I can't talk about just yet due to NDAs. Anyone who wants to keep up with my release schedule should follow me on twitter (@KevinWilson42 - http://twitter.com/kevinwilson42). I make sure to announce any new and upcoming releases there once I'm allowed to talk about them.
**If you want to read my previous two interviews with Kevin where I gush more about Doom: The Board Game you can read those below. Because you should. For science.**
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/666/interview-with-board-game-designer-kevin-wilson
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/986/interview-with-game-designer-kevin-wilson
I want to thank Kevin for taking time out of his schedule to talk with me, because with all his current and upcoming work I am not sure how he has any time for... Read All To say I am a fan of Kevin Wilsonâs work would be an understatement. Kevin not only designed my favorite board game of all time, the original 2004 Doom: the Board Game but he has also created many more incredible games including the upcoming Kickstarter smash hit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past & Mistborn: House War. Iâve done two previous interviews with Kevin one in 2012 and 2013 and realized he was doing so much incredible stuff and way too much time had passed since we last talked.
I want to thank Kevin for taking time out of his schedule to talk with me, because with all his current and upcoming work I am not sure how he has any time for sleep!
jdodson: Hey Kevin, thanks for doing the interview. Can you explain a bit about who you are and what you do for people that might not be familiar with your work?
Kevin Wilson: I originally got my start in the game industry at Alderac Entertainment Group, where I worked on the 7th Sea and Spycraft RPGs, but I'm probably best known for the board and card game design work I did for Fantasy Flight Games over ten years, including designing Doom: the Board Game, Descent: Journeys in the Dark, Sid Meier's Civilization: the Board Game, and Android, co-designing Arkham Horror and Elder Sign, and developing the new editions of Cosmic Encounter and Wiz-War.
I've been freelancing for the past four years, and have done several more games including X-Files and Awesome Kingdom (IDW Games), Darkness Comes Rattling (Wyrd Games), and I have a whole slew of upcoming releases, including Arcane Academy (IDW), which I co-designed with my friend Eric Lang.
jdodson: Coming off the massive Kickstarter success of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past where are you at right now in the process with the game?
Kevin Wilson:I'm working on the scenarios for the first few hero packs for the game. The base set is fully completed and we're just waiting to get it back from the printer now.
jdodson: Working with the Ninja Turtles and Kevin Eastman is pretty incredible how did you get involved in the process?
Kevin Wilson: When IDW Games approached me to work on X-Files, they also asked me if there were any other IPs they owned that I wanted to work on, and I immediately replied "TMNT." I then pestered them for a year or so about it until they finally gave in and let me design it.
jdodson: Do you remember one of your first experiences with the Ninja Turtles comic book, cartoon or films?
Kevin Wilson: My earliest Turtles experience was watching the 80s cartoon after school as a kid. I latched on to Donatello almost instantly as my favorite, and I've loved the turtles ever since. Later on, my roleplaying group tried out the Palladium TMNT RPG, and I played a Scottish terrier mutant in it. Good, silly fun.
jdodson: How has Kevin Eastman has been involved with Shadows of the Past?
Kevin Wilson: Kevin had oversight on all the thematic elements of the game and the look to make sure we were nailing it. He had a lot of very nice things to say about how the design captures the personality of the turtles, so I was pleased as punch about that. We hung out for a few hours at the GAMA Trade Show this year while we did signings, too, and that ranks high on my list of favorite memories.
jdodson: When you were designing Shadows of the Past what elements did you feel you had to get right to make sure the game was authentic to the source material?
Kevin Wilson: Obviously, I felt I had to really deliver the personalities of the characters, but I also really wanted to make sure the turtles felt like brothers - that you could really feel how closely they work together. That's where the dice sharing mechanic came from, where basically the turtles to your left and right share one of your action dice each, which really gives a strong feeling of supporting each others' actions. Well, except for Raphael...
jdodson: I know the game hasnât launched yet but since the Turtles game was such a huge Kickstarter you must have at least personally considered creating an expansion for it. If you were looking to the future what kinds of things might you explore for a future Turtles game? Also, is there talk of releasing multiple expansions due to itâs popularity?
Kevin Wilson: I'd like to see the TMNT Board Game continue for several years at least, with us adding all the different villains and heroes that we couldn't squeeze into the base set. We do have some plans for an expansion called Cityfall that will introduce some of the elements of the storyline of the same name from the IDW TMNT comic series, and I want to develop an AI deck for the villains that will let players try the game as a full co-op instead of a one vs. many design, but I want to make sure that when I do that, I deliver a really good AI mechanic.
jdodson: There were some Kickstarter exclusives such as the special edition Box and April OâNeil hero pack that look really interesting. For fans that may be late to the Kickstarter have there been any discussions to make these exclusives available at a certain time?
Kevin Wilson: The hero packs only had Kickstarter-exclusive miniatures, which possibly wasn't communicated as clear as possible. The hero packs will most likely appear again in some form with new sculpts. I've tried hard to make sure that there are few or no mechanical exclusives for the Kickstarter, only aesthetic exclusives. That way backers get cool stuff, but folks who buy the retail edition don't get left out in the cold.
jdodson: When you work with an artist on a board game cover how much thought do you put into how it sits on a game store shelf and how likely people are to be intrigued by what they see?
Kevin Wilson: Heh, I usually have very little to do with the title or cover of my games. Those things are normally handled by the publisher's management or marketing department. That's not always the case, of course, as Little Circuses and Escape from 100 Million B.C.! are two games coming from IDW that kept my original titles.
jdodson: You have talked a about diversity in games and how you approach that. Do you have any guiding principles that help when you are working on your initial game concept to final product?
Kevin Wilson: I've had to become a lot more self-aware of my own assumptions and of the assumptions that artists make. If you give a basic art description and don't mention gender or race, you're pretty much getting a white male back 99% of the time.
So I've had to start being more careful about that. I also keep a much tighter watch on how women are depicted in my games these days. I want heroines to inspire a young girl, not for her older brother to ogle. The hobby is growing and I think it's important, as well as good business, for game creators to include everyone who wants to play.
jdodson: Looking back at any of your published games would you tweak something if you could knowing how it turned out for people that have played it?
Kevin Wilson: Of course. There's not a single game I've done that I'm perfectly satisfied with. You do your best in the time you have to work on them, but there's always little things that slip through the cracks, and better ideas that you think of when it's too late. That's just how it is when you're doing anything creative if you keep trying to push yourself to get better and better.
jdodson: As a long time Twitter follower I am curious to know more about your project Frontier âSpace Operaâ board game. When I think of space opera a few things come to mind and maybe you could give us a few hints as to what this may be? Maybe a special exclusive reveal perhaps?
Kevin Wilson: It's a 2-player card game of planetary conquest between different alien races. Rather than a big sprawling board, however, it's more like a knife fight in a phone booth. It plays fast and has a lot of replayability, and I've already thought of 8 alien races for it. I'm currently still shopping it around to publishers and ironing out the game balance between races, so it'll be awhile before it makes it to market.
jdodson: For quite some time now youâve been collaborating with IDW Games on nearly all of your recent board game releases. Whatâs it like working with them and how open are they to you pitching your new games to them?
Kevin Wilson: IDW has been great to work with. They're very open to my ideas and they try hard to make sure I'm satisfied with the quality of the releases I'm doing with them. Nate Murray in particular has worked himself to the bone on my stuff, so here's a big thank you to him for that! You rock, Nate!
jdodson: Speaking of successful Kickstarters youâre involved in, Mistborn: House War was recently funded so congratulations on that. With this and the Turtles Kickstarter at what point do you realize that a game you are designing should be Kickstarted? What kinds of games donât make sense to Kickstart?
Kevin Wilson: Typically, I'm not making the decision whether or not to kickstart a game. It's mostly based on the publisher's financial situation and level of risk they're comfortable with. As for which games do best on Kickstarter, I'd say that well-recognized licensed games and miniature-heavy games are the best bets. Games that aren't as physically impressive and which lack name recognition definitely tend to suffer.
So for Mistborn, although there weren't a ton of fancy miniatures like in the TMNT game, there was still an extremely loyal fanbase that was excited to get a game that takes place in the Mistborn setting. Crafty Games also ran a very tight campaign, which helped the game do really well.
jdodson: What stands out to you as something important that makes a Kevin Wilson game?
Kevin Wilson: Even when the game is intended for a lighter audience, I try to bring something clever to each of my designs, whether it's the dice in Doom: the Board Game, the skill sliders in Arkham Horror, or the tech pyramid in Sid Meier's Civilization: the Board Game. In addition, I really enjoy including storytelling elements in my games. I love planting story seeds here and there in the designs and leaving them for players to find. I also really like it when I get to do some worldbuilding for a game, but that's less frequent than I'd prefer.
jdodson: So I think maybe everyone on earth watched the new Star Wars The Force Awakens. Itâs a great movie and I really liked it a lot. That said, one thing some of my friends and I canât shake is⌠why another Death Star? Like if you count The Phantom Menace âsort of Death Star like space battleâ and subsequent blowing it up from inside thing thatâs like 4 Death Stars. Why do bad guys think yet another Death Star will be the ticket? I mean this one was super big and had itâs own independent sheild generator so they upgraded it from Jedi but stillâŚ. Why a fourth Death Star Kevin? I need closure. Do you think the first order will create even more Death Stars and if so what would be the hook?
Kevin Wilson: Well, when you start with a weapon that can destroy a planet in a single shot, where do you go from there? That's why they went with another Death Star in Return of the Jedi. And technically, they upped the stakes to entire solar systems in a single shot in The Force Awakens, so maybe next time they'll have a solar system-sized gun that blows up whole galaxies!
jdodson: Thanks for taking the time to do this Kevin, I really appreciate it. Anything you want to say before we finish up?
Kevin Wilson: Just a heads up. The next 12 months or so are going to see a TON of releases from me - most of which I can't talk about just yet due to NDAs. Anyone who wants to keep up with my release schedule should follow me on twitter (@KevinWilson42 - http://twitter.com/kevinwilson42). I make sure to announce any new and upcoming releases there once I'm allowed to talk about them.
**If you want to read my previous two interviews with Kevin where I gush more about Doom: The Board Game you can read those below. Because you should. For science.**
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/666/interview-with-board-game-designer-kevin-wilson
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/986/interview-with-game-designer-kevin-wilson
I always love interviews with Kevin! Doom really is a great board game, and I'm definitely looking forward to both the Turtles and the Mistborn games!
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Last year Cheerful Ghost published Starship Rubicon and I am really proud of that. Working alongside Wick to get the game launched, promoted and sold has been one of the more enjoyable things I've been part of. When I approached him about publishing his game, I had a fledgling idea of how to approach and in the end I believe we did well by the game and its fans. Together we've learned a lot: firstly, making an Indie game doesn't mean you make big money (because as of now we haven't made very much), and secondly, you need to be aware of what is out there that can potentially harm your game. One such thing that can chip away at the money you can make in the industry is... Read All
Last year Cheerful Ghost published Starship Rubicon and I am really proud of that. Working alongside Wick to get the game launched, promoted and sold has been one of the more enjoyable things I've been part of. When I approached him about publishing his game, I had a fledgling idea of how to approach and in the end I believe we did well by the game and its fans. Together we've learned a lot: firstly, making an Indie game doesn't mean you make big money (because as of now we haven't made very much), and secondly, you need to be aware of what is out there that can potentially harm your game. One such thing that can chip away at the money you can make in the industry is the CD Key grey market.
Tiny Build Games is a relatively new publisher from Seattle I admire quite a bit. They started modestly and had a hit with Speedrunners that catapulted them into a really great spot in the Indie community. Since then, they've published Party Hard and Punch Club which are really great games that are well worth your time. They also recently wrote a blog post about the CD key grey market called "G2A sold $450k worth of our game keys" and after it was posted on their blog it lit a fire in certain parts of the game scene. The blog post is fairly detailed but the long and short of it is that over time G2A, a CD key reselling site, has made over $450k in resold keys from their published games. These keys were __NOT__ given to G2A by Tiny Build but resold through the CD key grey market where keys are acquired through bots scamming storefronts, purchased through low cost bundles or sold directly from crooked partners. Very frequently, CD Key resellers like this end up with a massive dump of keys from stolen credit cards, and there are no checks in place to ensure that keys are legitimate.
Again, it's an interesting read and I recommend you check it out.
http://tinybuild.com/g2a-sold-450k-worth-of-our-game-keys
Why Do You Care That I Sell Or Giveaway A Game Key Iâll Never Play?
To be honest, I don't. I donât have a problem with a normal gamer getting a copy of Starship Rubicon and selling it or giving it away. I think there is a huge difference between a normal person reselling a key to make a couple bucks and having a CD key grey market middleman scam hundreds to thousands of keys to resell. Again, just to be super clear here I have zero problem if you giveaway or sell a Starship Rubicon key to your friend or internet stranger, as normal people are not the problem. Grey mass-market CD key resellers that use G2A and sites like them are the problem.
Itâs also not wrong that people want to buy a game at a reduced price; sales are the lifeblood of the game industry! But there is a huge difference between buying a game in a Steam or Humble sale than on sites like G2A because the developer gets nothing from G2A.
By the way, Starship Rubicon is now 60% off in this current Steam Sale so if you love massive discounts and awesome Indie rogue-lites you need to check that out! CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/372030
We are also handing out free 10 copies in a Giveaway but that will only last for the next couple days so enter now! FREE? WHAT? ARE WE CRAZY? DONâT ANSWER THAT!
http://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/giveaways/14/kicking-off-the-summer-with-free-lamjets-zukovs-warbirds
Cheerful Ghost Wonât Make Money From Developer Misery
G2A and other reselling sites can be a big problem for developers and as such I want to make it known that until they and other sites make drastic changes we won't be supporting them. Websites like ours can make big money recommending you purchase games through CD key resellers but we arenât going to do that and to-date we've declined each request. Let's be clear here in that if we partnered with these sites weâd make quite a bit of money itâs just not right for us to do that. In one such deal we have been offered 6% commission for displaying a banner ad and re-directing gamers to make purchases on a reseller site. Weâd also get 5% for direct purchases and it sort of breaks down a bit in terms of percentages based on use-case. Needless to say, if we made some hard recommendations and altered Cheerful Ghost to recommend these sites, weâd do really well.
Many Twitch streamers are financially supported by G2A because the money is pretty darn good. Thatâs because the CD key grey market is a gold mine, it's just banked on developer misery. Weâve decided to not partner with these sites and give up that revenue because we feel this position is better for developers making great games and the gamers that play them. I was also heartened to see the Reddit Hearthstone community take a stand on this issue and reach out to Twitch streamers to re-think their partnership with G2A.
https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/4ped4m/clean_up_our_community_ditch_g2a/
Itâs good for gamers to care about this and make their thoughts on this issue known. The kinds of partnerships we make as video game sites and streamers matter and we need to think what kind of world we are creating by making them.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Ultimately CD Key Reselling sites will either change their rules to disallow massive CD Key sales from unofficial sources or continue with their morally bankrupt model. I have my doubts we will see much more than platitudes here but I remain hopeful to change. Ultimately these discussions are good to have because they raise awareness to gamers and developers on the health of the industry we all love. Curious what you think about this issue and would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Here is another article well worth your time.
https://medium.com/@mode7games/the-key-masters-reselling-and-the-games-industry-6bb01a6a4963#.kkj9vddwd
A developer is recommending piracy over buying a game on G2A, canât say I disagree with that thinking. Iâd rather lose a sale than see G2A get money.
http://www.fortressofdoors.com/g2a-piracy-and-the-four-currencies/
Looks like G2A is attempting to address some of these issues if at least, very slowly. I think this is an interesting attempt but as the article statesâŚ
âUnless they actually solve the main issue â fraud on their platform â this initiative invites developers to become accomplices.â
http://www.polygon.com/2016/6/28/12050942/gray-market-reseller-rolls-over-agrees-to-incremental-changes-at-g2a
Tiny Build Games is a relatively new publisher from Seattle I admire quite a bit. They started modestly and had a hit with Speedrunners that catapulted them into a really great spot in the Indie community. Since then, they've published Party Hard and Punch Club which are really great games that are well worth your time. They also recently wrote a blog post about the CD key grey market called "G2A sold $450k worth of our game keys" and after it was posted on their blog it lit a fire in certain parts of the game scene. The blog post is fairly detailed but the long and short of it is that over time G2A, a CD key reselling site, has made over $450k in resold keys from their published games. These keys were __NOT__ given to G2A by Tiny Build but resold through the CD key grey market where keys are acquired through bots scamming storefronts, purchased through low cost bundles or sold directly from crooked partners. Very frequently, CD Key resellers like this end up with a massive dump of keys from stolen credit cards, and there are no checks in place to ensure that keys are legitimate.
Again, it's an interesting read and I recommend you check it out.
http://tinybuild.com/g2a-sold-450k-worth-of-our-game-keys
Why Do You Care That I Sell Or Giveaway A Game Key Iâll Never Play?
To be honest, I don't. I donât have a problem with a normal gamer getting a copy of Starship Rubicon and selling it or giving it away. I think there is a huge difference between a normal person reselling a key to make a couple bucks and having a CD key grey market middleman scam hundreds to thousands of keys to resell. Again, just to be super clear here I have zero problem if you giveaway or sell a Starship Rubicon key to your friend or internet stranger, as normal people are not the problem. Grey mass-market CD key resellers that use G2A and sites like them are the problem.
Itâs also not wrong that people want to buy a game at a reduced price; sales are the lifeblood of the game industry! But there is a huge difference between buying a game in a Steam or Humble sale than on sites like G2A because the developer gets nothing from G2A.
By the way, Starship Rubicon is now 60% off in this current Steam Sale so if you love massive discounts and awesome Indie rogue-lites you need to check that out! CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/372030
We are also handing out free 10 copies in a Giveaway but that will only last for the next couple days so enter now! FREE? WHAT? ARE WE CRAZY? DONâT ANSWER THAT!
http://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/giveaways/14/kicking-off-the-summer-with-free-lamjets-zukovs-warbirds
Cheerful Ghost Wonât Make Money From Developer Misery
G2A and other reselling sites can be a big problem for developers and as such I want to make it known that until they and other sites make drastic changes we won't be supporting them. Websites like ours can make big money recommending you purchase games through CD key resellers but we arenât going to do that and to-date we've declined each request. Let's be clear here in that if we partnered with these sites weâd make quite a bit of money itâs just not right for us to do that. In one such deal we have been offered 6% commission for displaying a banner ad and re-directing gamers to make purchases on a reseller site. Weâd also get 5% for direct purchases and it sort of breaks down a bit in terms of percentages based on use-case. Needless to say, if we made some hard recommendations and altered Cheerful Ghost to recommend these sites, weâd do really well.
Many Twitch streamers are financially supported by G2A because the money is pretty darn good. Thatâs because the CD key grey market is a gold mine, it's just banked on developer misery. Weâve decided to not partner with these sites and give up that revenue because we feel this position is better for developers making great games and the gamers that play them. I was also heartened to see the Reddit Hearthstone community take a stand on this issue and reach out to Twitch streamers to re-think their partnership with G2A.
https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/4ped4m/clean_up_our_community_ditch_g2a/
Itâs good for gamers to care about this and make their thoughts on this issue known. The kinds of partnerships we make as video game sites and streamers matter and we need to think what kind of world we are creating by making them.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Ultimately CD Key Reselling sites will either change their rules to disallow massive CD Key sales from unofficial sources or continue with their morally bankrupt model. I have my doubts we will see much more than platitudes here but I remain hopeful to change. Ultimately these discussions are good to have because they raise awareness to gamers and developers on the health of the industry we all love. Curious what you think about this issue and would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Here is another article well worth your time.
https://medium.com/@mode7games/the-key-masters-reselling-and-the-games-industry-6bb01a6a4963#.kkj9vddwd
A developer is recommending piracy over buying a game on G2A, canât say I disagree with that thinking. Iâd rather lose a sale than see G2A get money.
http://www.fortressofdoors.com/g2a-piracy-and-the-four-currencies/
Looks like G2A is attempting to address some of these issues if at least, very slowly. I think this is an interesting attempt but as the article statesâŚ
âUnless they actually solve the main issue â fraud on their platform â this initiative invites developers to become accomplices.â
http://www.polygon.com/2016/6/28/12050942/gray-market-reseller-rolls-over-agrees-to-incremental-changes-at-g2a
Their model is, as you've said, very morally gray at best. However, they definitely get most of their money from money laundering from stolen credit cards. If this was any other kind of medium that dealt with something other than electronic goods, these services would have been shut down a long time ago, I imagine. Lawmakers still just don't know what to do with electronic goods.
I'm trying to wrap my head around this one, but I wanted to point out a quick misrepresentation. G2A didn't make $450K in sales of tinyBuilds game keys. The estimation that tinyBuild came up with was that just under $200K in revenue was created, with a percentage of that (somewhere between 10.8 and 30, I can't tell) going to G2A, which they claim would have equated to over $450K if those sales had gone through their site. I think these kinds of factoring are generally flawed, but the fact remains that they had product stolen and resold without seeing fruits of that.
Added to that, grey markets aren't illegal or immoral. Associating the problems in G2A's system with grey market activity is confusing the issue.
> I think these kinds of factoring are generally flawed, but the fact remains that they had product stolen and resold without seeing fruits of that.
Yeah, that's a good point.
> Added to that, grey markets aren't illegal or immoral. Associating the problems in G2A's system with grey market activity is confusing the issue.
Yeah, that makes sense. This article has been through a couple revisions and what it landed on maybe is a bit odd in that way. I do think that G2A and sites like it can potentially serve a legitimate use, for instance a developer could sell the game there if they wanted. That said, that's a far reach from what I am talking about in this article and I used the term Grey market to sort of cover a legit usecase for these sites even though the main use of them isn't.
In the end I think G2A and sites like it should operate more like a pawn shop and require ID up front and maybe do a bit more to make sure things are on the up and up if you are selling more than a handful of keys.
I find it interesting that you both use the British "grey" instead of the American "gray"
That's off-topic :D
Gray markets definitely aren't illegal by definition, but there's a certain connotation with the term. And G2A's practices certainly support that connotation. It's possible that "gray market" isn't the right term to use here, but I don't know what the right term is. At its best it isn't money laundering with stolen credit cards, but it supports that. At its usual best, it provides ways for people to sell keys that they probably aren't authorized to sell.
And there's a certain point about ownership here as well. It's worth noting that just because you have a key to redeem a game on Steam, that doesn't mean you are allowed to sell it in all cases. Ultimately, with digital goods, you don't own the content, you are licensed the content, and the content owners can make choices that affect your ability to re-sell or do other non-standard things. G2A and its competitors facilitate fudging that concept of ownership.
> I find it interesting that you both use the British "grey" instead of the American "gray"
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By now Iâm sure youâve all heard about the tragic shooting in Orlando yesterday. Itâs the largest mass shooting in US history. Such a senseless act of violence caused by fear and lack of understanding. Our thoughts are with the victimsâ families and friends today.
To those who lost someone in this attack, please know you are not alone. We canât imagine what youâre going through right now, but weâre mourning with you.
This event will become politicized (and thatâs already started), but thatâs not what this post is about, and we ask you not to do so in the comments. There are political ramifications and those need to be discussed, but not now. For now, we mourn this... Read All By now Iâm sure youâve all heard about the tragic shooting in Orlando yesterday. Itâs the largest mass shooting in US history. Such a senseless act of violence caused by fear and lack of understanding. Our thoughts are with the victimsâ families and friends today.
To those who lost someone in this attack, please know you are not alone. We canât imagine what youâre going through right now, but weâre mourning with you.
This event will become politicized (and thatâs already started), but thatâs not what this post is about, and we ask you not to do so in the comments. There are political ramifications and those need to be discussed, but not now. For now, we mourn this tragedy and pay tribute to those who lost their lives:
Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34 years old
Stanley Almodovar III, 23 years old
Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20 years old
Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22 years old
Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36 years old
Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22 years old
Luis S. Vielma, 22 years old
Kimberly Morris, 37 years old
Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, 30 years old
Darryl Roman Burt II, 29 years old
Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32 years old
Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21 years old
Anthony Luis Laureanodisla, 25 years old
Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, 35 years old
Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez, 50 years old
Amanda Alvear, 25 years old
Martin Benitez Torres, 33 years old
Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37 years old
Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26 years old
Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35 years old
Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25 years old
Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez, 31 years old
Oscar A Aracena-Montero, 26 years old
Enrique L. Rios, Jr., 25 years old
Miguel Angel Honorato, 30 years old
Javier Jorge-Reyes, 40 years old
Joel Rayon Paniagua, 32 years old
Jason Benjamin Josaphat, 19 years old
Cory James Connell, 21 years old
Juan P. Rivera Velazquez, 37 years old
Luis Daniel Conde, 39 years old
Shane Evan Tomlinson, 33 years old
Juan Chevez-Martinez, 25 years old
Not all the victims are known at this point, but the city of Orlando is keeping an updated list.
http://www.cityoforlando.net/blog/victims/
And NPR is reaching out to learn more about them to pay tribute to their lives, not just focus on their deaths.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/06/12/481785763/heres-what-we-know-about-the-orlando-shooting-victims
Orlando is operating a hotline for those seeking information about friends or loved ones: 407-246-4357.
To those who lost someone in this attack, please know you are not alone. We canât imagine what youâre going through right now, but weâre mourning with you.
This event will become politicized (and thatâs already started), but thatâs not what this post is about, and we ask you not to do so in the comments. There are political ramifications and those need to be discussed, but not now. For now, we mourn this... Read All By now Iâm sure youâve all heard about the tragic shooting in Orlando yesterday. Itâs the largest mass shooting in US history. Such a senseless act of violence caused by fear and lack of understanding. Our thoughts are with the victimsâ families and friends today.
To those who lost someone in this attack, please know you are not alone. We canât imagine what youâre going through right now, but weâre mourning with you.
This event will become politicized (and thatâs already started), but thatâs not what this post is about, and we ask you not to do so in the comments. There are political ramifications and those need to be discussed, but not now. For now, we mourn this tragedy and pay tribute to those who lost their lives:
Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34 years old
Stanley Almodovar III, 23 years old
Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20 years old
Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22 years old
Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, 36 years old
Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22 years old
Luis S. Vielma, 22 years old
Kimberly Morris, 37 years old
Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, 30 years old
Darryl Roman Burt II, 29 years old
Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32 years old
Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21 years old
Anthony Luis Laureanodisla, 25 years old
Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, 35 years old
Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez, 50 years old
Amanda Alvear, 25 years old
Martin Benitez Torres, 33 years old
Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37 years old
Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26 years old
Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35 years old
Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25 years old
Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez, 31 years old
Oscar A Aracena-Montero, 26 years old
Enrique L. Rios, Jr., 25 years old
Miguel Angel Honorato, 30 years old
Javier Jorge-Reyes, 40 years old
Joel Rayon Paniagua, 32 years old
Jason Benjamin Josaphat, 19 years old
Cory James Connell, 21 years old
Juan P. Rivera Velazquez, 37 years old
Luis Daniel Conde, 39 years old
Shane Evan Tomlinson, 33 years old
Juan Chevez-Martinez, 25 years old
Not all the victims are known at this point, but the city of Orlando is keeping an updated list.
http://www.cityoforlando.net/blog/victims/
And NPR is reaching out to learn more about them to pay tribute to their lives, not just focus on their deaths.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/06/12/481785763/heres-what-we-know-about-the-orlando-shooting-victims
Orlando is operating a hotline for those seeking information about friends or loved ones: 407-246-4357.
My heart goes out to those families.
Thanks Travis, I read this to Francesca and we were both very touched by your words. Our thoughts are with everyone impacted by this absolutely crushing event.
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I reacted the same way when I got my N64 for christmas, but I was 20.
I got the NES Classic! (It's super fun, but I'm just impressed my wife found one!)
Awesome Adam!
Damn lucky Adam.
The main fun stuff I got was the new 3DS and a few movies like The Hateful Eight and Star Trek Beyond. The new Metallica album and the Breakfast Club on Bluray. Can't wait to watch Bender smoke it up in HD!
The new 3DS also doesn't come with a charger. I remember something about that a while ago. I guess it works with the old ones and they don't include it. Not expensive but annoying as it's my first DS.
Yeah the new 3DS no charger is lame.
I got a PS4 slim with uncharted 4.
Lucky guys! Gaming wise I got a $30 Gamestop gift card, which I'm thinking of taking to Gamestop and buying $30 in Steam gift cards. LOL Gaming wise, my son got an ocarina from his mom! He also got a Skylanders thing, but it's for XB1/360 (which we don't have), so it's going to get returned for something else.
Oh and as for the N64, I remember that Christmas when I got mine. I got enough money for Christmas that I went to Wal-Mart and bought one. It was sometime around or after high school (which ended in '98 for me). I still have it!
That's super lame that the 3DS doesn't come with a charger, since it's a proprietary connector.
@Travis, I agree. I read about that issue and forgot about it. Since I have already paid for a 3DS and 2 3DS XLs, I already have more than one charger for the 3DS family, so that mattered little to me. I seem to remember reading that they did that to reduce the cost of the system (which is currently about $200), although it seems like a charger would be only a slight cost and not including one just seems like a stupid idea.
I forgot about the charger too! I already had a charger, so I didn't think much of it. I would have rather paid a few more dollars for a bundled in charger than not having one. Think of all the poor kids (and Jon) that get one as a present and then can't use it due to not having a charger. Sometimes I just don't understand Nintendo.
Did you get any 3DS games Jon?
Besides immediately going to Amazon for a charger I also bought Ocarina of Time 3D and Yoshis New Island. I already got a few old DS games like New Super Mario Brothers from Goodwill and that's a really fun game.
I will get the Link Between Worlds and a few others st some point too.
Also there are a ton of demos for the 3DS which should keep me occupied for awhile. Demos, remember those?
Yeah! I know Nintendo has demos, because I've downloaded some of them from their online store. I haven't played OoT 3D, but I bet it's pretty sweet (as the original and other ports are). I have Link Between Worlds, or at least I bought the golden Triforce 3DS XL that came with it. Well it was really a code I had to enter to get it downloaded from the store.
Jon, did you get the New 3DS XL or just the New 3DS? Apparently that "New" model you got has better hardware. I was told that the Hyrule Warriors game for the 3DS doesn't play well on the original system, but works fine on the "New" model.
The New 3DS so not the XL and it was a Black Friday special for $99, so a pretty good deal.
Man, "Nintendo hard" is a real thing! These games are fun, but I kinda feel like I'm banging my head against a wall when playing them lol. I am determined to play through Zelda II, but it's really slow going! (Zelda II is a super smooth game though. The controls feel really good)
What have you played so far? Zelda 2 is really rough. I've never beat it myself.
OMG Zelda 2 is freaking hard. I never was able to figure it out when I played it on the NES. I finally found another way to play it (many years later) with cheats and then looked up what I was supposed to do. I really don't know about that game, it's perhaps one of the most mind boggling games I can think of!
So far my favorite games are Zelda 2 and Final Fantasy. I've played (and loved) FF 2, 3 and 7, but never played the first. It appears it's going to be a long grind (I made my 4 person team to be, 1 black magic, 1 white magic and 2 fighters. I really had no idea what I was doing, but it seems to work) as my team is going to need to level up A LOT before even going through the first dungeon/castle. But I love the sounds! It's kind of a "duh" now, but the FF sounds originated in the original! I was pleasantly surprised to find this out :)
I've tried out most of the other games, and my wife laughs at me when I play for 1 minute, the feels impossible, and I press Resart and go to a different game :)
Which ones feel impossible Adam? "Nintendo hard" is definitely a thing :D
Please note: I'm not asking so I can say HAHA YOU SUCK I'm interested in hearing which ones, as an adult, feel impossible. Our interpretation of difficulty has changed since the 80s. I think we were more willing to grind something really hard when we had all the time in the world and only like 15 games to choose from.
Don't worry, my wife already says that to me, all the time...
Looking back at the list, the only game that feels *impossible* is Super C. The controls feel bad for Ice Climber and Kid Icarus. I might not bother playing those again. I get Galaga and Gradius mixed up, but both were too difficult to put much effort in. Ghosts'N Goblins and Megan Man 2 felt really hard, but beatable (I got through a couple Mega man levels before getting interested in trying something else). Both Castlevania games seemed fun, but didn't keep my attention. I'll come back to those at some point. Kirby and Tecmo Bowl were way too easy, I stopped playing them quickly after starting but will probably pick them up at some point when I'm bored. Zelda 2 is super hard, but fun enough to keep trying. Final Fantasy is grinds, but I'm giving it time.
So I guess the only *impossible* game is Super C :)
Kid Icarus is one of my faves, clunky controls and all. I can see why you might lump it in with that (tangentially)
I need a Game Genie Classic now ;)