Used Games in the Gaming Industry

Outright piracy is one thing. People taking something that isn't there's is indefensible on most any measure.

But then, there's this "problem." Yes, another publisher complaining that used games is somehow losing the video game industry money.

I see several problems with this view: one of them being that THEY HAVE ALREADY GOT THEIR MONEY. Every used copy was once sold as new. The publisher got their cut from that. If someone for some reason decided to give that game away, to a Gamestop or to a friend, it doesn't mean that they lost a sale.

Which brings up the line of thinking: that games are selling to customers. It seems to me that they are thinking that they are the brick & mortar store; that a customer lost is a sale lost.
But this isn't true, because publishers are selling copies of the game.

It does not help their case that for AAA titles, common sales figures are around the same to that of summer movies. This doesn't including used titles, these are brand new, shrink wrapped copies. Of console games, which means that the DRM factor of PC games don't count in the used vs new issue.

Now, I don't tend to buy used games. That's because most of the time, it's just a $5 discount, not worth the potential risk of damage and probable loss of manuals and game covers (yes, that is actually of importance for me). But with things like discontinued games, I'll easily look toward the used bin. And I would rather have that option for those people who would like the discount, as well as the discount that comes with selling the games they don't play.

The reality I see is if the used market just went out of business next week, it wouldn't help the industry. Those people who buy used would then just wait for the game to go into the bargain bin. Which means that rather than having the game being sold at the full price, and thus fueling the used game stores with copies, they'd risk losing profit.

So message to the video game industry: double check your goals. It isn't to sell to customers; that's the stores. Your goal is to sell copies. And that is exactly what is happening at Gamestop.

One Week Left of the Election Season

Or this post could also be titled: Florida, please don't frack this up again by making this process longer.

So, it has been well over a year, proabably darned close to two years, this election process has been going on. We've seen the unexpected happen (McCain winning the Republican nomination), the very unexpected (Palin gets VP nomination), the unnecessarily lengthy fight (Clinton and Obama fight almost to the end for the Democratic nomination), and of course claims made that are darned near false (um....just go to Factcheck.org, everyone involved has done this).

Things really got interesting around March, about when people were expecting both Republican and Democratic candidates to rise out and begin the 1-on-1 match for president. It turn out for both parties to cause problems.

The Republicans was interesting since most of the hardcore wanted the Romneys, the Huckabees, the Thompsons...but McCain came out on top. Many of the hardcore disliked the relative moderate to be nominated, not after having their way for the past eight years (for the most part).
McCain got out of it by nominiating a known figure, but a young, up and comming lady from Alaska. In having a self-proclaimed conservative, and one that didn't appear to conflict with him, appeared to be the right move at the time.

On the Democratic side, Obama and Clinton duked it out. For a long time. Excessively long as some argued. At first, the two appeared to be tied. But as time went by, Obama overtook the relative political veteran in every measure.
The problem was that for a long time, it seemed that many Obama supporters and Clinton supporters wouldn't vote for their competator in the general election. However, it seemed that after the Democratic Convention, that hasn't been an issue, or much of one.

It has been made much less of an issue since Obama has gained such a huge lead in the polls. As much as the McCain people have been finger-pointing over the problems in the campaign, it was the economy that really swung in Obama's favor.
The specific turning point was when Bush called for a $700 Billion "rescue plan" (bailout) of top loan companies and banks since they were all on the verge of colapse. Before then, the economy was arguable on whether it was up or down (or at least argueable in a political sense, which most anything is arguable in). While most everyone is responsible for that mess, it seems that Republicans are getting the majority blame for it.

So, want my predictions for the outcome? If not, you're getting it anyway.
1) Obama will lead in the overall vote by a small margin, but will have quite a bit of a lead in the electoral college.
2) There will be calls of voter fraud, election fraud, ect. by Republicans. This is mostly based of the pattern of the last few elections having similar accusations, mostly by the loser of said election.
3) While the Democrats will get more seats in both houses, I doubt they will get the 60 needed to be filibuster proof in the Senate. So while Republicans QQ, they still hold some check and will probably use it often (as they have the past few years).

I'll be back in a week to see if I'm right (and I'm playing it safe on these predictions).

Being Political in Gaming

One problem that the video games industry has in being accepted as a mature medium for art is not one of cost, but one of avoiding controversy. Particularly in the area of politics.
The games that do get controversy, like Grand Theft Auto, tend to be focused on the violence and sexual aspects. With GTA, much of those aspects are taken from much of the cinema counterparts that the games were based on.
Unfortunately, even the industry views video games purely as an escapist medium, and not something that can tell a truly relevant experience.
Just today, as of this post, Sony decided to remove a song from its Little Big Planet soundtrack...because they thought it would have been controversial. There's very little evidence, as the link shows, to show said song would have any controversy.
The only place we get political or attemptingly relevant games are from home-brewers, single or few people that release these games. To this date, I don't think any are considered good, although some do consider them good attempts.
It's too bad that the only commercial game that does try to be relevant to current issues, well....it's basically a movie.
Hopefully gaming will shortly try, and succeed, in projecting a view or question on a current issue. Isn't that why the new Battlestar Galactica a great series?

Last Debate for This Season, It Didn't Matter

Last night's debate was the best of the three. It felt that there was an actual bit of debate, rather than both sides giving purely stump speeches. It also helped that the moderator was an actually good one, budging in when the candidates ran too far from the question (something that happened way too much in the previous debates).

For McCain, this was his "last" shot. I put that in quotes since debates don't do all that much for campaigns.

Both sides did have their moments, but it seemed to me that McCain was not just more negative, but was unresponsive to Obama's responses. I don't know how many times he kept claiming Obama will raise small business taxes (and Plumber Joe was brought up far too often in the debate, by both sides). I don't think I even need to link to Factcheck on this one; Obama explained that point in the debate fairly accurately.

That's not to say that Obama was flawless here in terms of presenting the truth. Healthcare was the one topic that both sides attacked, giving misleading info on.

I think this round of debate could have been described as this: McCain was on the offensive (often giving political attacks), and Obama was on the defensive. This was different from the previous debates where both was on the defensive, trying not to flub up.

It probably didn't help McCain though. I just doubt he changed anyone's mind toward his side. If anything, probably the opposite direction, but only on the margins. Overall, the debates didn't do anything for the horserace, or show much of their actual political agenda that wasn't already in stump speeches.