Onslaught

There are so many games launching now or in the next two months that I literally cannot keep track of them all. Seriously. On the plus side, I probably don't have to worry about being bored between now and March.

Here, take a look:

• Halo 3 (360) - Perhaps the biggest blockbuster of them all, the marketing and buzz for this game have been deafening (albeit pleasantly so). Halo certainly has its share of problems - the level design is frequently terrible, and the narrative is not presented well, for instance - but I cut my cooperative teeth on it back in college, so the latest entry into the franchise gets a token must-play.
• Orange Box (360) - I spent a long time without a gaming rig, so I still haven't played Valve's illustrious Half Life or its sequels. Now that there's a console version, I'm anxious to see what I've been missing. Plus, I've been looking forward to Portal for a good long while. (October 10)
• Phantom Hourglass (DS) - This one is high on my list based on its lineage alone. I'm pleased to see another game in the cell-shaded style. I'm even more excited about a touch-based Zelda adventure. There's a lot of potential there, and I expect Nintendo to have realized some of it with this title. (October 4)
• Rock Band (360) - Guitar Hero II was one of my favorite games of the past several years: a relatively simple concept put together exceedingly well. Add in some cooperative play and, well, I have very high hopes of Rock Band. (November 23)
• Guitar Hero III (360) - See above, although to be honest, I'm expecting more from Harmonix than Neversoft. (October 28)
• Beautiful Katamari (360) - I don't expect the game to add an enormous amount to the series, but I'm excited to have a Katamari game finally come to the 360. (October 15)
• The Simpsons Game (360) - The buzz is all but nonexistant, so my official stance is "cautiously optimistic." Perhaps it's just another lousy movie tie-in, but there are certainly precedents for a great Simpsons game. (October 30)
• Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - Mario has always been fundamentally about platforming - a genre for which I have no great love - but Galaxy takes such a unique approach that I can't help but be intrigued. (November 12)
• Super Smash Bros Brawl (Wii) - Smash Bros is a fantastic party game - at least if you're throwing a party for gamers. Which is exactly what I'm going to do when this game launches. (December 3)
• Ace Attorney 3 (DS) - The Phoenix Wright series may be simple, but these games sandwich a fantastic sense of humor neatly between interactive fiction and old-school adventure games. (October 23)
• Sam & Max: Season Two (PC) - I recently played Season One, and instantly bought into episodic delivery. To say nothing of a series of honest-to-God old-school adventure games with a wicked sense of humor, the potential of finishing a game within two or three hours is breath-taking. I do not finish 90% of the games I play. The week that I purchased Season One of Sam & Max, I finished six. The emotional significance of that fact should not be underestimated. (November 8)
• Assassin's Creed (360) - Since it was first announced, I've been hoping this would prove to be a spiritual successor to the wonderful Sands of Time. I'm still holding out that hope, and all the coverage I've seen seems to bear it out. The environment and animations look stunning, and I can't wait to explore the large-crowd AI. (November)
• Mass Effect (360) - Absolutely the game I am most looking forward to this season. The dialog system is along lines I've been waiting for the industry to pick up for quite some time. And while it may be drawing criticism from some camps, I've always been an enormous fan of BioWare's real-time/turn-based hybrid action model, so I'm glad to see it intact. Quite honestly, I cannot do my excitement over this game justice. Let me simply say: I am extremely excited about this game. (November 20)

Play Dirty

For the past couple weeks, I've been keeping an eye on Joystiq's biweekly feature, Playing Dirty, by Bonnie Ruberg. The most recent essay is a fascinating look at gender roles and gender play in the context of gaming.

Games have always played with our conceptions of sexuality - directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally. Remember Birdo?

I love Bonnie's writing. Joystiq is a great gaming site, and one of my favorite places to go for news. I'm glad that they've included this feature, and I hope that it helps to disseminate some of the gender issues inherent in games to a mainstream gaming audience.

Nintendo Makes Newbies of Us All

Ars Technica has posted a detailed review of the Nintendo Wii. If you've followed any of Nintendo's marketing hype or first impressions since the launch, then there might not be a great deal of new information. It does a great job of pulling together background and practical information about the system, so it's certainly worth reading.

This quote caught my eye. I think it sums up Nintendo's strategy for drawing in alternative gamers nicely.

Few of your Halo and Final Fantasy skills are going to translate to this system. Instead, you're going to have to learn a whole new way to think about games. When it comes to the Wii, we're all newbies, and while that may make some hardcore gamers uncomfortable, it's a revelation for new gamers who finally have something they can pick up and figure out instead of feeling like they couldn't compete without years of practice. The graphics are underwhelming, sure, but that Wiimote is a brand new way to play your games.

The Ars review also draws connections between the Wii and the DS - specifically that the DS was a less powerful system competing against the Sony PSP on the basis of its innovative interface. The DS has been successful, and has started to broaden the demographic of gamers. Hopefully the Wii will have the same effect.

Welcome to Softcore Gamer (Part I)

The Softcore Gamer blog is something I've been wanting to start for a while now. I got the idea when I realized that the games industry is broken.

Many people will acknowledge it, even if they love games and have trouble describing precisely what's wrong. I'm not claiming that I have a solution to the problem, or even that I can fully illuminate the problem. But I do have some ideas, and I'd like to share them with you.

The gamer has evolved over the past twenty-five years, and the industry as a whole has struggled to keep up. The population of gamers in the United States is greater than it's ever been before. The mean age of gamers is increasing, the number of gamers over 50 is increasing, and the number of women playing games is increasing. But at the same time, soaring development costs have led to shorter games, reduced emphasis on story and gameplay, and a zero-tolerance attitude toward failure that necessitates a minimization of risk.

These hi-def, low-risk games are targeted toward the "core gamer" demographic. Core gamers are typically young and male. They want action, they want violence, and they want competition. They play a lot of first-person shooters and sports titles, and they've demonstrated that they don't mind repetitive content. They're willing to pay a high premium for incremental advances in graphics and interface. They also grow up to be game designers.

This is the audience that the games industry is courting, as well it should. The core gamer demographic is a lucrative market. But where's the long tail of video games? The current culture, which tends to invest heavily in proven franchises or genres, discourages the production of lower-cost niche titles or unconventional games that are unlikely to capture the core gamer demographic.

According to the ESA, 38% of gamers are women. But that figure is misleading. If you limit yourself to mainstream games - games targeted to core gamers, with high production quality and wide release on physical media - the percentage of female gamers decreases significantly. On the other hand, if you look to the major players in the industry - well-known design teams, console manufacturers publishing first-party titles, and publishers with a long history in games - and examine the number of games they release outside the mainstream, the figure is similarly low.

This doesn't apply just to women, but to any group that finds itself primarily outside the core gamer demographic. The people who are serious about making games aren't making games for us.

In the follow-up, I'll talk about what it means to be a softcore gamer, and what significance it has to the games industry. I'll also mention some of the industry's current trends away from a traditional core gamer audience, and how that may impact the industry in the future.