Video Gaming

How Borderlands 2 Illustrates Changing Content and Involvement

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As you may have guessed, some of us here are seriously digging Borderlands 2.  I’m enjoying it and am currently on the first DLC campaign AND running a second game with a DLC character.  Jose penned his own love letter to it when it first came out (where did he get the time?).  All things aside, it’s a great game, filled with references, and has a crazy cute robot named Claptrap who at one point threatens to violate a villain’s corpse.

Really, it’s great.  Also, the Commando class rules and you can’t prove me wrong.

But what’s interesting on a pro geek level, is that the game has several great lessons for those of us working in gaming and content.  Beyond the whole angry-cute-robot angle.

One of the great lessons?  Mindshare.  A lesson that shows how we need to rethink content.

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Nintendo Versus Everyone

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Some of the new announcements of the Wii U make sense (video streaming), some are a bit odd (Yes, Bayonetta 2, because hey my Mom would love it), some are cool (I am digging the pseudo-tablet) and putting it all together paints a heady picture as the folks at Kotaku found out.

I look at the Wii U strategy and it seems to be focused on:

  • Being a media device much like the X-box has become.
  • Signing a lot of diverse and odd gaming titles.
  • Making up for lost time by having better internet integration.
  • Seriously pushing it’s unusual (and costly) controller.

That’s when I realized that Nintendo has become Sony and is throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.  However they’re doing it in a more . . . precise  . . . manner than Sony.

The Wii U is going to be a media box – and a media box with an interesting peripheral.  The latter may not be the only sales point but considering the Wii’s rep this may be the media box that less-hardcore gamers purchase.  My mother was practically ready to buy a Wii, the Wii U is even more promising.

The Wii U introduces an odd extra control structure with the Pad – one reminiscent of iPad integration and Android Phone integration with other devices.  Nintendo is making a tighter device integration play, and if you don’t think the future DS is going to tie into this or evolve from this, you’re not paying attention.

Nintendo is making up for lost time with assorted internet and social media integration.  This plays well with the Nintendo reputation for accessibility, and connects with the media options.  They just took making up for lost time and took it farther.

So the Wii U is a giant load of everything – but a precise one at that.  I think it gives Nintendo a good market since it’s got a date, it’s got things people want, and it’s got a decent price range ($299-$350).

And it has the usual Nintendo trademark of Being Talked about.  Because I and others are doing it – they got our attention.  Again.

Sure, this will face competition in time, but for now I think Nintendo caught the news cycle, and they caught it with a nice piece of technology.  So game developers pay attention, and see what they do here because if they’re playing catch-up you might have a chance to be caught up .  . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

 

We’ll Be Hearing About Zynga Long After It’s Relevant – So Keep It Relevant

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Well, Zynga’s COO is stripped of game duties.  We can imagine those people who can cash out their stock aren’t happy.  We’ve all heard about the possible insider trading scandal.

So my rough take on Zynga is A) No don’t take any job offers there, and B) They’re in for some tough times and a probable buyout, massive downscale, or both.  But there’s more.

So anyway, as I expect a tough time at the big Z, here’s something I think we need to be prepared for: the impact on the gaming part of the geekonomy.  In this case, I want to focus on the cultural impacts.

Zynga is a company that people have alternately praised and hated over the last few years.  I think in the end everyone knew it was too good to be true, but the real question was what we could learn, make, and take from them.  There’s an odd sense of inevitability in their fall, as if so many of us were waiting.

However now that it’s happening, I’m pretty sure we’re going to hear about this for the next few years until we’re sick of it.  Zynga is on it’s way to become a bad example, and soon only a bad example as history grinds on.  Remember how people talk about dot-bomb companies?  Yeah, that’ll be Zynga.

Our media is used to cartoon villains and heroes in the tech sphere, so I’m sure we’ll get plenty of that.

The problem with this is then we miss the lessons.  For those of us working in tech, or gaming, and in media, it’s important we don’t forget.

The insider training, the questionable monetization, the dependence on Facebook, we need to extract lessons from Zynga.  This was big, this was important, this was formative, even if you now have a fear of any game with the word “-ville” in the title.  So before Zynga becomes a cardboard villain, make the effort to learn the lessons of their fall.

Because in a few more years, they’ll just be a shadow of their former failure.  Think how many good lessons of the dot-bomb are lost because it’s a buzzword . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/