The range of my writing has been a recent source of concern for me. I have looked at what others write about video games; I’ve looked at what is popular. I’ve considered writing news, reviews, and even analysis and predictions, but I have no affinity for any of it.

I don’t want to write about news. If news is to be a site’s bread and butter, its writers must obsess over and write about every minor occurrence: every collector’s edition, every screenshot, every rumor — anything tangentially related. Inevitably, the news writer is forced to betray their passions. I can’t let an information trickle dictate the direction of my writing.
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The PC is treated as a second-rate game platform. This is evidenced most strongly both by game publishers’ treatment of the PC versions of their multi-platform games as well as how the games press covers PC games whether they be multi-platform or exclusive. For roughly the last six years the PC has been perceived as being a dying platform. While some players have definitely shifted from PC to video game consoles during this same time frame, things aren’t that bad; the PC platform’s biggest problem is still the perception that gamers, game makers, and game journalists have of it. This problem, left to fester, has begun to have distinct effects on the way PC games are treated.

Publishers, when they even make a PC version of their game, don’t treat it as well as they do the console versions. Development of the PC version of multi-platform games is often outsourced to a third party, and the quality of the product suffers as a result. But it isn’t always a problem of outsourcing; sometimes developers are simply told to focus their foremost efforts on the console versions. Marketing of the PC version also takes a hit; it is not uncommon for the PC version of a game to be released weeks to months after the console versions. Rarely will the PC version even be mentioned in magazine and comic book ads, much less television adverts; it will just be tossed out and left up to word of mouth and the virtually non-existent retail spaces to sell it to people.
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Earlier this week, Valve announced that their digital distribution platform Steam would now be offering the ability to push “DLC” (Downloadable Content – a marketing term made to refer to microtransactions on consoles) to those who publish their games on Steam. This news has so far been met with reactions ranging from “good for you, PC” to customer outrage on the Steam forums. I am finding myself to be somewhere in between, but I’m leaning towards the belief that “DLC” on the PC is a bad thing for everyone involved. I’ll share with you my reactions as a consumer, as a business student, and also as a person who writes about games.

The Problem With The Maw

With The Maw’s “DLC” (two “bonus” levels), I went from thinking “that’s neat” to realizing the implications. I knew the maps were available and ready by the time the PC version released because they were available for purchase on my Xbox 360 before the game even came out. That means they were held back with the intent to sell them later as “bonus content”. This immediately diminished the value of the product that I had already purchased. I felt like I was not getting the full experience out of The Maw if I didn’t pay $2.50 for these extra levels. But I hadn’t even launched the game yet despite having pre-purchased it, knowing that if it’s good I’d be writing about it here at DoSu as a Cheap Game. But I hadn’t played it yet, so I was not attached to it. I found myself with no desire to play it. So I requested a refund. After jumping through some hoops, I received my refund. I no longer own The Maw — I probably never will again. Since that means I’ll never get to play it, The Maw will not be recommended by me here as a Cheap Game.
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It seems that the thing to do at the end of each year on sites like this is to write a series of wrap-ups. Game of The Year, retrospective reports, trends analysis. People also like to make predictions for the impending new year. I really do disdain things like holidays and imposing tradition, and while I honestly have very little sentiment for New Years, I do think it’s appropriate to acknowledge what has happened as long as the world insists on operating cyclically.

But I won’t. In fact, I tried to just now. I got half a dozen items into a list before I scrapped it. Deciding what’s universally important isn’t for me. I’m not sure who it’s for; the real enthusiast press doesn’t do a good job of it either. Much of what they say is very hype-driven, lazy and predictable. I won’t do that, though that may be what people really want.

I’m going to go finish riding the planet around a star now.

As I’m sure you’ve been conditioned to know, Spore was released this last Sunday, September 7th. I really wanted to play it on release day. Normally I don’t worry about this too much unless it is a game that I am especially excited for. If I recall correctly, the last game that I was determined to play on release day was The Orange Box in 2007. I downloaded it through Steam at midnight as soon as it became available. It was incredibly convenient and it made me happy to be a Steam customer. Things are not always this easy, however, especially when it comes to games published by Electronic Arts.

My experience in obtaining Spore inspired the message of this post. EA: I want to buy your games. Please make it easier on me.
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If you know anything about me, you know that gaming is my passion. I love this medium. I love this artform. I love this industry. I feel fortunate to be alive during a time of such innovation in the melding of visual and interactive entertainment. But for the last few weeks, ever since the beginning and ending of E3 and its aftermath, I’ve been worried about the state of certain facets of our industry — namely, our gaming press.

I have been wanting to write a post addressing certain issues for quite some time, but I could never collect my thoughts well enough to put together a case to present. So during this year’s E3 I made a point of listening to responses from both the gaming community and the gaming press via forums, comments, blogs, and podcasts.

It is apparent to me that the press is not happy about where E3 stands as an event. I haven’t been able to discern whether or not if, overall, they are dissatisfied as games journalists or simply as gamers, but I am not sure that it matters. I don’t know that they have much reason to be upset either way.
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Welcome to the new iteration of Bearly Commentary. You may have noticed that I have not updated the comic version of this feature in some time. This happened for several reasons.

I was never entirely happy with the way the comic ended up being formatted. It was an experiment to begin with and I felt that it worked, for the most part, at first. However, it became apparent after not long that the space limit for text that I had arbitrarily set for myself was proving to be too restricting for all that I found myself wanting to say on a given subject. Being humorous in every edition wasn’t my intention and I felt that I had shoe-horned myself into that. Rather than let it get out of control I decided to come up with a new way of doing this.

I have grown attached to the panda as well as the name of the feature, so they will be staying, but I will be using them in blog posts as opposed to regularly in a comic. The comic itself will, I think, not appear anymore in its current form. Instead, I may adapt it later on down the line to supplement the blog posts. No guarantees, though.

This post has simply been to update you on what’s going on. I will have a real edition of Bearly Commentary for you in the near future.