Will Game Services Ever Think Globally?

Does anyone else find it strange that big global companies like Amazon, Sony, Microsoft, etc. don’t think globally?  As a game developer you move a lot and not necessarily within your country.  Very often people move to different countries to work in the field. 

So let’s say you move from the US to Canada.  When you moved you certainly aren’t going to buy all new consoles, & why would you?  Maybe you will when you find your Sony and Microsoft accounts don’t transfer across borders.  You can no longer add money to the accounts to buy games because you have a US account and you can't use your new credit card with a Canadian billing address.  Calling them for help you’re told nothing they can do.  And don't think buying a points card will work, codes only work in the country of the account. Meaning if you have your US Sony account and you buy a points card at a Canadian Best Buy the code won't work.

Blizzard is the same, if you made a US account you cannot change the address to Canada to buy loot crates or items in your Blizzard games.  Steam allows you to change countries but recently changed their policy so you cannot gift games to other countries because of “regional restrictions."  So forget buying that game to your relative back in the States over Steam.  It’s not just game services.  Most online stores will only allow you to ship to the same country as your credit card’s billing address.  This makes holiday gift giving a nightmare every year.

Ironically the companies blocking you from using things across borders hire game developers from all over the world.   They will come and encounter these limitations on the very systems they are developing games for.

As the world get smaller and smaller game services should change to meet the needs of people that don't stay in their hometowns their entire lives.

Return To Castle Wolfenstein Is On Sale

Yes the first game I worked on as a designer is now on sale on Steam.  Maybe it's always on sale I don't know but this was the first time I noticed it at least.  If you're into retro gaming it's a really great old school shooter.  It's still one of the highlights of my career.

I learned a lot working with Gray Matter on it.  I was the last designer Activision had on the payroll when they stopped internal development to focus on publishing.  Gray Matter needed help so I was sent over to help them stay on schedule.  The schedule was an absolute death march, I started overtime in January and didn't see the light of day until November.  I literally missed the entire summer.  I slept on the floor of my office so often that Gray Matter bought me a pillow and sheets.  No joke.

The development process was much different then.  You didn't have tasks really, you were given levels and it was your job to see them to completion.  Your task was to "make it fun." Every day the company owner and design lead would play the level and give you feedback which you iterated on.  Often you were totally free to try anything you could think of if you thought it would make the game fun.  One day I hand scripted every movement of a head bouncing down the stairs (there was no physics) because I thought it would be a nice touch to a spooky area.  In modern game development you'd never really be allowed to take time to do such a thing.  You are given tasks to complete like an assembly line.  Game development today has lost most of that creative freedom.

So it was a terrible death march of endless work but it was also creatively free and fun.  In the end Activision bought Gray Matter and it became Treyarch.  Everyone that worked there got fat bonuses with the buyout except me.  Since I wasn't technically a Gray Matter employee.  So that sucked big time.  After it completed Gray Matter offer to hire me but instead I went to Raven Software with dreams of Hexen in my head.  Considering the insane success of Call of Duty I made another financially bad decision.

Anyway if you haven't played it go grab it. http://store.steampowered.com/app/9010/

Valve Refuses to Refund Game From Dead Developer

UPDATE: It seems the devs are working again.  Cool I guess.

Nether was an online game that was in early access on Steam.  It was similar to Day Z except more of a post apocalyptic survival world with monstrous creatures instead of just zombies.  Many people got suckered into buying this title.  For me a co-worker said, "Hey Chad, buy Nether and we'll play together at lunch."  Sure! I said.  By the time lunch came I had bought it and he changed his mind.  ....bastard.  :(  Then months later it started becoming clear that the developer went "poof" and disappeared before the game was ever completed.  Then Steam pulled the game from their site and the devs have started shutting down the servers.  You can still install it and play but the horribly buggy and unfinished game will never get any better.  The game is not going to happen.  It's dead.

If you are interested in attempting to punish yourself with this title they still have a web site and it looks like you can go there still buy it.  On September 25th 2015 their Facebook page posted this.

Dear players,

As of September 26th, the back-end system for Nether, MBER, will no longer be available to support the game. This unfortunately means that the servers will shut down on that day, and play will no longer be possible. We hope to find a solution to this and other issues with the game ASAP. Please stay tuned for updates when available, and thank you for playing Nether.

https://playnether.com/

Nether on Facebook

Nether on Twitter

Logically I asked for a refund since the game was never finished.  It never got out of early access and therefore was never "released."  Steam however says no because it was more than two weeks since my purchase.  Well I purchased this in June 2014 before the developer disappeared so we all had the hope the game would become something.  I would wager that they gave no refunds to anyone that purchased this title.  

Seems if a game is pulled from Steam, especially if the devs disappear then everyone who purchased it should get the option for a refund.

Long Time, No Blog

Wow, it has been and incredibly long time since I have updated this blog or even my main web site.  I wish I could say this is because I've been so busy at work but that was not been the case.  Of course I cannot elaborate why but I'll just say the industry is very "dynamic."

On a personal level I finally got a new PC!!  Yes that's right, no more Pentium 4 machine.  Can you believe I got all the way to 2015 with a P4??  To get this new PC I did the ultimate sin. I did something frowned upon by countless gaming enthusiasts, I clicked "buy."  I didn't do months of researching components and prices in a quest to build the ultimate rig.  Nope I went to Alienware and clicked "buy" on a new Area 51 machine with a 4 year warranty against problems and even damage.  I know, I know I wussed out.  But I built my last 3 computers and I just didn't want to deal with it.  I've always wanted to try an Alienware system and had the means to do it so I did.

So far there are no complaints about the system itself.  I may have made the wrong choice of video
cards but that's my fault not the system's.  I got dual GeForce 770 in SLI mode.  Sounded cool but really not necessary I think.  My main complaint if I had one is just with Windows 8, man does it suck.  But I get a free Windows 10 when it comes out so hopefully those woes will be over soon.

The main hurrah is just the fact that I can finally play all those Steam games I bought in sale and couldn't run on the old P4.  So far I've installed almost everything and have hardly made a dent in my 2TB hard drive.  The bad part of this is now I'm a little overwhelmed as to where I should begin.  It's like when I used to have enough money to buy two Genesis games.  Ultimately I would play the hell out of one and the other would never get much play time because something newer would come out before I got to it.  So now I've got all these older titles I never tried and also new shiny titles asking for my attention.  So I mainly find myself sitting in from of the machine doing nothing.

One thing I did not get was a monitor.  My plan is to get two 24" flat screens like I have at work but after buying this machine I need to financially catch back up a bit.  So I'm playing everything on my old ViewSonic CRT monitor and it doesn't seem very happy about it. Gets a little "wavy" at times and I think it's about to pop.  So far things are all holding together.

The biggest reason I did all this is I wanted to play with the Unity engine.  I can't install it at work because of legal restrictions so I needed a machine at home that could handle it.  Once I get my two monitors I can start becoming productive.  I have a few projects in my head and I'm looking forward to future developments.  ;)