Have you ever been “experienced”?

The more I’ve researched games and media, the more that term “experience” comes to the foreground.  In the title of this post, I want you to think of “experienced” not so much as an adjective describing a person, but as a verb actively influencing its subject.

In my paper I’m trying to pass through SIGDOC’s review process, I’ve managed to sharpen some thoughts on experience as a conceptual term that can be applied to culture studies.  A 2003 article by Torben Grodal in The Video Game Theory Reader has led me to see narrative in a fashion that is a bit different from what literary studies has made of it.  Grodal posits storytelling as essentially a cognitive process composed of four elements: perception, emotion, cognition, and action.  Below is a passage from my paper in which I lay the foundation for an analytical model I’ve been working on in some fashion for about six months:

Sony’s Chief Responds to Activision CEO’s Threat

Yahoo! has a story from yesterday citing Sony CEO Howard Stringer in a response to Robert Kotick’s threat to pull Playstation 3 support:

“He likes to make a lot of noise,” Stringer said “He’s putting pressure on me and I’m putting pressure on him. That’s the nature of business.”

…

“I (would) lose money on every PlayStation I make — how’s that for logic, ” he said.

I’m going to take it for granted that this probably isn’t the entirety of Stringer’s comments on the subject.  And I haven’t seen anything on this elsewhere.  And, I’m also going to assume that the editorially inserted “(would)” in that last sentence is mispresenting Stringer’s statements a bit.  Sony’s argument all along about the PS3’s price point is that they are already losing money because of the Cell Processor and the Blu-Ray drive.

Nevertheless, Sony’s business model has been to make that money back through the game sales.  But, you can’t sell games to people who don’t have the system on which to play them!

Don’t get me wrong.  I love my PS3.  But I’m in that hardcore market that the gaming industry loves.  I would have found a way to justify a PS3 purely for Metal Gear Solid 4 and Ratchet and Clank.  But, the gaming market has shifted a bit under Sony since the last console cycle.  The “casual” gamer (a problematic and vague term to begin with) does indicate a new market just out to have a good time, not necessarily wade into the most high tech gaming experience on the market.

If Sony wants to sell systems, that price will have to come down.  Sony, at this point, does not have an option.  And their attitude about it has been one factor that’s put them in this place.  Everytime they speak, they sound as if they’re trying to milk consumers for money.

More Signs of Sony Trouble

Sony has been getting a press beating in the last couple of weeks. After getting hammered over the PSP Go!’s pricepoint, and offering no hint of a price drop for either the PSP or PS3, Activision’s CEO, Robert Kotick fires another shot over Sony’s bow:

‘I’m getting concerned about Sony; the PlayStation 3 is losing a bit of momentum and they don’t make it easy for me to support the platform. It’s expensive to develop for the console, and the Wii and the Xbox are just selling better. Games generate a better return on invested capital on the Xbox than on the PlayStation.’

I have a hard time thinking Activision would really pull their support of Sony’s hardware. But just the threat by someone like Activision’s CEO is enough to carry some weight here.

More on Project Natal

Man, if Microsoft really has Project Natal working well, and can have it on the shelf by Spring, I might have to break down and get a 360.  But apparently, Jimmy Fallon is “special” and he gets to play with one now…

(Follow link to video.  Sorry, couldn’t Hulu’s html code to embed.)

Do you suffer from “simulation fever”?

I have been slowly and purposefully plodding my way through Unit Operations: an Approach to Videogame Criticism, by Ian Bogost.  It was published in 2006, which means I’m a bit behind the times for a scholar.  But, in my defense, Bogost’s other book, Persuasive Games, has received more attention.

Unit Operations melds together a wide ranging set of technical concepts in mathematics and industrial design (the origins of the term “unit operation”) with a number of cultural/interpretive theories in the humanities.  His idea is to posit a way in which videogames can be approached critically without overtly privileging one form scholarly discourse over another (a debatable project on a number of levels).

PSP Go! has left the building…

I’ve always enjoyed my Playstations, all three of them.  I enjoyed my PS One, but rediscovered a joy of gaming with my Playstation 2 that I had missed since the days of my SNES.  I loved the experiences I found in it, from storytelling to simply playing.  Whether I was digging through the intrigue in MGS 2 (which I really enjoyed) or simply blowing shit up in the Ratchet & Clank games, in my PS2 I realized the real power of games, and finally came around to the joy of First Person Shooters.

But, despite my nostalgia, I’m not a Playstation fanboy.  In fact, the “console war” has always struck me as an artificial load of crap designed to pit gamers against a specific console rather than foster a love of gaming in general.  When the “next generation” hit the market a few years ago, I based my choice of console on finances and the fact that the Playstation 3 had exclusive titles that I really loved, while most everything else was multiplatform.  Make no mistake, if I had the money, I would own all the gaming systems I could find.

When the PSP first came out, I was intrigued, but I wasn’t blown away by the thing.  As the gaming library for it expanded and Sony started adding a few other capabilities (like Skype), I’ve found myself pining for one more and more.  Features like an AV out and Remote Play have really made the PSP worthwhile for me.  I just haven’t been able to spare the money for one.  Over Valentine’s Day, my wife gave me a choice: a PSP or a new laptop PC.  I went with the PC because I needed a more portable notebook to really carry out my school-related work and ODU homework.

Microsoft’s “Project Natal”

Microsoft dropped a lot of information and celebrities at their E3 Press Conference yesterday.  They had frikkin’ Paul and Ringo, as well as Stephen Spielberg, show up on stage.  And for the third time in three or four years, they pried an IP out of Sony’s ever shrinking hands of exclusivity.  Sony used to be the one-stop shop for all your GTA, Final Fantasy, and Metal Gear Solid needs.  Sony used to have exclusive rights to all of these franchises, or at the very least their players got the games long before Microsoft’s did.  A lot of Sony’s marketing strategy last year depended on Metal Gear Solid 4.  Now, if Kojima is opening up the publishing rights to the game to go multiplatform, it becomes one more feather falling from Sony’s wilting hat.

Sony will have to bring some real firepower today.  Microsoft further proved their understanding of online interconnectivity and service by announcing a partnership with Facebook.  I cannot figure out why Sony hasn’t fostered a better set of touchpoints and service with their online services.  To be sure, the redesign of the Sony Online Store helps tremendously.  But, they touted Home as the next big thing over the last couple of years, and then kind of rolled it out with a whimper.  Users are willing to pay a modest fee for XBox Live if they feel like it is a superior service.  The answer here seems obvious for Sony:  ape the hell of XBL and offer it up for free.  But, I suspect Sony is hamstrung at this point by a business model that has the gaming division losing money like they’re an auto maker.

But, moving onto some real thoughts on Microsoft’s presser…

The real interesting announcement for me yesterday was “Project Natal.” Check out the video Microsoft showed off: