This happened about two weeks ago. I received an invite to a private GameFAQs board called "LifeFAQs." Now considering the fiasco over the video proposal contest (which I'm not even going to link to--click on the tags to the right) and the realization that private boards are not accessible unless the admin specifically types your name in, I was convinced that they're just a waste of time.
So you may think this guy invited me because he saw my entry. Well, no, that's not it. The guy got this list of all the GameFAQs accounts older than eight years old and I happened to be on it. The board is actually rather big now, like another LUE (Life, Universe, Everything) board where people discuss their favorite flavor poptarts and their grief over breaking up with girlfriends.
Putting aside all pettiness, I'm not a fan of big boards at all. I used to post at a "big board" but it took a huge-ass amount of energy just to remain semi-relevant because there's hundreds of posts to reply too. I'd much prefer a small board where you can maintain close friendships with a few people than to be the "cool guy" that everyone likes.
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And this is a news story that I've picked up on too. It kind of relates the the OutRun Online Arcade server removal issue I talked about earlier. Well, if you've been following Halo Wars, then you've probably heard in November that Microsoft is pulling the plug on the stat-tracking server on Dec. 15, much to the fanbase's chagrin. However, because enough Halo fans complained about it, Microsoft has decided to keep the server up.
Going offline...
...just kidding, we're not going anywhere (yet).
Wow, isn't that great. A game lives or dies by the servers. Servers go down, game bricks. And this is what you get when you rely on official servers instead of dedicated ones (EDIT: I think anyway, not sure if there's any remedy to server games RIP). And throw in downloaded games too. Oh, what about my Microsoft Achievement Points? Well, if that were to go away, then I would have to come onto this blog and disagree with their decision in a not-so-polite manner.
And of course, this follows Electronic Arts' claim that they will only make games that adhere to online mode. See here. Can be loosely interpreted at a poke at Japanese games which have always been lackluster in the online component...
Oh, let me throw in that I've also been playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. Yes, I'm a toolbag. Yes, it's kind of fun. So I'm already Level 26 and I think the Galil is a dead sexy gun (for a gun of course). And I also made this crude Sega logo as my pic...it's not that grand because the game doesn't have every letter of the alphabet so I had to use a 5 and a 6 for the S and the G and then tweak it from there. Will post pics later.
But I also look at Call of Duty and the house of cards it's built on...everything is on a server. Not a dedicated server, I might add! Just public servers. See Starcraft 2, Modern Warfare 2, etc. Server goes down, everything flushed down the toilet. And you can also say this about World of Warcraft or Halo or any other game that people log hours upon days upon weeks into.
You could say that down the road about five years from now when the servers are gone that "no one will care about the game anyway," which is a seemingly legit argument, but why make all these disposable games in the first place? About as disposable as cameras and toilet paper! I'm getting really redundant here, just read the old OutRun post I linked to up there. If this is the future of gaming, then I'm sure as hell gonna hang on to my Daytona games as the ship slowly sinks. I don't want to be a sellout who buys all these brand new games that I will dispose of in the next three months. That's just pathetic, I can't take it.
BTW, I'm backing up my Blogspot too. Just in case the server is hit by a hurricane, a volcano, or a nuke. I put too much thought into this site to let it slip through my hands like sand on a beach.
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One more story. Forza 3, in an attempt to sway me back to their game, has released ten community-selected classics cars in a future DLC pack. This includes the DeLorean. Congrats Turn10 for deceiving me into believing your game was "dead," now go fix your PI ratings and maybe I'll reconsider.
88 MPH
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