Halo 3

Things finally heated up in Round 2 of our Vs. Mode exchange with MTV News videogame reporter Stephen Totilo on the Halo 3 multiplayer beta. We taunted him by urging him to step out of the ivory tower and join us in the trenches where we were trying to grapple with the essence of Halo multiplayer; he in turn punched below the belt by exposing specifics of our online ineptitude. In today's final round, we get up from our corners and come out swinging against a common opponent--the starkly unforgiving learning curve that plagues many online multiplayer games--in an attempt to figure out how the rest of us can be trained to wage war like the veterans who dominate Halo 3's virtual arena. Some excerpts:

N'Gai Croal: My most provocative suggestion, however, would involve a change in how Microsoft doles out Achievement points on a per-title basis. For titles like Halo 3, where multiplayer is half or more of the reason people buy the game, developers should be encouraged to include a multiplayer campaign mode with as many Achievement points as single-player, effectively doubling the number of points available from that one game. This new multiplayer campaign mode would be an expansion of the training mode that you suggested, modeled after racing games like Burnout (maps and match types would be made available in tiers) and Gran Turismo (license tests for maps, weapons, equipment and match types) so that gamers are systematically trained for multiplayer--including team play and clan play--in much the same way that racing games teach us throughout single-player.

Stephen Totilo: You didn't mention it, but I think what you were trying to hint to them that they should look at good old Perfect Dark on the Nintendo 64, a game so ahead of its time that when they made a sequel years later, they had to number the new one as a prequel. It didn't just have competitive multiplayer. It also had co-op multiplayer, something crazy called counter-op (which looks like it will resurface in a game called The Crossing) and--get this--it had a multiplayer-map set of training missions called Challenges that lurked within the game's Combat Simulator. You played these challenges against--and sometimes with--computer-controlled bots. You could play them by yourself or with friends. The Challenges are what you and I are looking for in Halo, I think.

Click on the link below to read Final Round in its entirety.

1. EA!...accused of backing wrong horses
2. MMO...killed the RPG star
3. NYC...may say felony if minor sold "depraved" game
4. DOC..."King of Kong" documentary disputed
5. RND...Enter the world of "hypermilers"

Halo 3 multiplayer beta

Sometimes, that's just the way it goes; Round 1 of our Vs. Mode exchange on the Halo 3 multiplayer beta with MTV News videogame reporter Stephen Totilo was a largely friendly affair. For our part, we reminisced about communal gaming experiences from games gone by in an attempt to understand why online multiplayer generally leaves us cold, while Totilo variously compared Halo 3's multiplayer to baseball, basketball and "Survivor." And while there's nothing wrong with collegiality, our readers want to see some blood ink pixels spilled. Today, in Round 2 of our exchange, things get more than a bit personal as we hone in on what Halo feels like for a newbie. Some excerpts:

N'Gai Croal: Separately, I've met up with you and Level Up Xbox 360 correspondent Rolf Ebeling, but our handful of shared experiences didn't produce much in the way of coordinated action or in-game cameraderie. The real bonding took place during the after-action reports in the lobbies waiting for the next match to begin. During the games themselves, I felt as though I was pretty much on my own, but crucially and cruelly robbed of the narcissistic godhood around which single-player games are generally based--it wasn't all about me anymore. In other words, I was spawned into a world where I was fundamentally alone, and the only sure thing was that I was going to die.

Stephen Totilo: Let's be completely honest, N'Gai, and admit to the readers that we're such neophytes that when we played the same maps together we couldn't even get the Team Chat function working. We weren't working together because we couldn't talk to each other. I do recall one map where a player far better than us--so talented that he even knew how to use the Team Chat function!--effectively guided our little band of half-brothers to momentary mid-match success. Then he stopped coaching us, yelling something about desperately needing cover fire, and we went back to losing our match.

Click on the link below to read Round 2 in its entirety.

1. NEW...armor types for Halo 3 multiplayer?
2. ONE...thousand words, this picture is worth
3. DEF...CON developer, in his own words
4. RND...Google, can you spare a dime?

Today, we welcome back the soon-to-be-married Totilo to discuss the virtues and vices of Bungie's Halo 3 multiplayer beta, created for the Xbox 360. The beta officially began on May 16th, but we and a slew of our fellow journalists got our hands on it early; first at a series of promotional events on May 11th, after which we were given an early access code to download the beta for ourselves. In the first part of our "previously recorded" email exchange with Totilo, we examine why in-person multiplayer gaming might be more engaging than its online counterpart and attempt to determine which sport or cultural phenomenon Halo most resembles. Some excerpts:

N'Gai Croal: My heretofore unexplored lack of interest in online multiplayer didn't change much with the release of the PlayStation 2 or the Xbox; save for playing a handful of games with publicists and fellow journalists at industry events and online hands-on sessions, or dabbling with a few more titles shortly after they shipped, I was pretty much M.I.A., or AWOL, depending on how you look at it. And with the exception of a few quick bouts of Gears of War and Resistance: Fall of Man, the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 simply haven't forged in me the love of online multiplayer that warms the hearts of so many gamers. But in the interest of Vs. Mode, I'm willing to use the Halo 3 multiplayer beta as a springboard to see whether there's a place for me somewhere in this vast connected arena.

Stephen Totilo: Maybe Halo isn't a sport and maybe it shouldn't be treated as if it can be as pure as one. Maybe it's more like "Survivor." I used to watch it regularly, and back when I did I noticed that the rules changed regularly. Those fundamental voting rules didn't, but many of the specific day-to-day ones did. Challenges changed. Tribes were shuffled. Monkey wrenches were thrown. Halo multiplayer games have always been full of tribal challenges: Capture the Flag, Slayer Deathmatch, King of the Hill. We've got VIP mode and Oddball mode. The challenges get mixed every time, even if getting voted off the island consistently involves getting tagging from a hop-and-shoot enemy. If Halo isn't baseball; if Halo isn't basketball; if it's "Survivor," then, yes, it could use more of a remix.

Click on the link below to read Round 1 of our exchange in its entirety.

God of War II

Note: This email exchange with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo ran on N'Gai Croal's Level Up, in four separate installments, from March 26th-29th 2007. We now present it here in its entirety, under a single permalink, for easier printing, emailing and archival purposes.

1. GOV...of Illinois spent $1 million on failed videogame ban
2. MMO...report, weekly, from Michael Zenke and 1UP.com
3. FPS...Would you shoot a real, live Iraqi from your computer?
4. HOW...Lord British celebrated his 45th birthday
5. RIM...A look at MMO business practices in China
6. RND...Prof to Dept. of Homeland Security: Look at me! 

1. HOT...buttocks--could this explain Peter Moore's GTA IV tattoo?
   
2. OOH...Threaders applaud focus on Xbox 360 hardware flaws
3. BOO...A live action Sims movie? Color us skeptical
4. ONE...way street? Such is the much-touted Wii60 alliance
5. MEH...Nintendo event fails to wow admirers, haters
6. ESA...and parents under fire from game journalists
7. RND...Dr. Laura takes break to remove log from her eye

1. WED...Game journo solicits wedding planning advice
2. WOW...creators grant a wish; responses vary wildly
3. XBX...Ex-Microserf looks back at the first Xbox
4. HMM...Skeptical reviews of Aegia, CellFactor
5. PS3...programmer, taken to task by fanboy, responds
6. HL2...Valve's Gabe Newell on why he's in bed with EA
7. HOW...to build a better action hero
8. RND...Buffy creator rages against misogyny

At Newsweek HQ, most of our colleagues are either boomers in name or boomers in spirit, which means there haven't been many serious gamers among our ranks. But from the increasing number of game-related conversations we've had with our office mates, it's clear that this is starting to change. Our de facto Xbox 360 correspondent Rolf Ebeling, who in his day job is the creative director for Newsweek.com, posted here last month about the compatibility of videogaming with his then-imminent fatherhood. In today's entry, he briefly steps away from the early joys of child-rearing--congrats to you and the missus, Rolf!--to write about a few stolen moments with the Halo 3 multiplayer beta.

When I last left you, fellow enthusiasts, I was on the verge of being a father and struggling with the conventional wisdom on parenthood that many have been quick to inform me of--essentially that I'll never have time to do anything I like ever again. I tried my best to spit back that bitter pill by posting about my dad's ability to merge his interests with mine as I grew up. Time will tell if I'm able to be as canny with my now week-old daughter.

I work the night shift, mostly acting as her human bassinet; she lies across my stomach in my folded arms, completely oblivious to hour nine of my "Lord of the Rings: Way Longer Than You Remember Edition" DVD marathon or cable surfing (I finally got around to seeing "Quadrophenia"...starting at 5 in the morning.) Honestly, I can't complain that much--in describing her, it's been the first time I've ever used the words "cute," "little" and "munchkin" in the same sentence with complete sincerity.

For a brief moment, however, the little one decided that it was time to sleep for more than a fifteen-minute stretch in her real bed. Yes, this was the moment for me to be responsible and finally shut my own eyes, but how could I not cash in my golden ticket and fire up the Halo 3 multiplayer beta? Shh--non-gamers and disapproving co-workers, I have the floor now; you'll be given your chance to speak. Elsewhere. Maybe.

1. HUH...Why more games should be boring
2. HMM...Cynical self-promotion, or sly condescension?
3. MTV...Relentless journalist, or Nintendo spy? 
4. RND...Tankers, like cheaters, never win

1. RED...rum: The doctor, the MMO, the murder
2. VIN...Diesel returns in next-gen Riddick remix
3. Wii...Boxing helps rehab brain-damaged pugilist
4. RIP...Unofficial PlayStation museum's wares on eBay
5. MTV...gets PS3 developers to open up about violence
6. RND...Venezuela's President Chavez, movie producer

One of the cherished traditions for people in and around the North American videogame industry is the mid-to-late month release of the previous month's sales figures for both hardware and software. Much like Hollywood with the weekend box office or the music industry with SoundScan, this data, compiled by the Port Washington, NY-based NPD Group, is the subject of much scrutiny, speculation and analysis as everyone tries to figure out What It All Means.

Having engaged in many phone, email and IM back-and-forths with various people over the NPDs, as they're generally referred to, we've decided to bring some of those often unheard discussions to light with our newest occasional feature, Monday Morning Quarterback. Our first participant, and hopefully a regular, if his schedule permits, is the Game Head himself, Geoff Keighley. We profiled the prolific Keighley last year, and we're glad to have him aboard to kick things off, pitting his BlackBerry-fueled insights against our Palm-enabled observations. Some excerpts:

N'Gai Croal: If, having suffered a $2 billion loss during its last fiscal year, Sony is not willing to lop at least $100 off the price of the PS3--and you're correct that a price drop alone is unlikely to move the needle enough--that leaves the company's first party operation and a handful of remaining third party exclusives to shoulder the burden. But great games take time to make, and it's unlikely that such lookers as White Knight Story, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Final Fantasy XIII will be ready by the end of 2007. (SOCOM: Confrontation will get some PS2 dead-enders to upgrade, but the PS3's $599 price tag will remain an inhibitor.) And without potential killer apps on that scale, Sony will more or less be forced to cede 2007 to the Xbox 360 until both a price cut and better software manifest themselves.

Geoff Keighley: To keep with the football analogies, I wonder how Sony can even hope to score a first down with the PS3 in the next few months. After I sent you my last e-mail, SCEA [Sony Computer Entertainment America] released a statement that blamed poor PS3 sales in April on a lack of compelling software. No argument here. I was, however, puzzled by Sony's claim (hope?) that sales will soon pick up because 15 exclusive first party titles are due out over the next year. Lair is coming in July, but beyond that I don't expect any major first party titles until September. And when it comes to third party releases, there's not much due this summer. If MotorStorm couldn't move hardware, I have little hope that Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden Sigma will jumpstart sales. Could we see the PS3 sales numbers continue to creep down over the summer? I wouldn't be surprised. Let's hope Sony delivers a blowout E3 with playable Metal Gear Solid 4, an impressive Killzone demo, and lots more of LittleBigPlanet. After playing LittleBig at Gamer's Day I am now more convinced than ever that it may be Sony's secret weapon this holiday season.

Sit back, strap in, and get ready for a wild ride.

1. HMM...Chatter and thoughts on the V-Tech Flash game
2. SEE...The Most Powerful Person In the World
3. Wii...Should its gestural violence concern us?
4. GDC...Examining exploration in videogames
5. VOX...Are MMOs ready for voice chat?
6. DAD...Meet the patron saint of connected consoles
7. RND...How much is your kid's text bill?

 Peter Moore rocking out on Guitar Hero II at a February 2007 Xbox sales and marketing meeting

In Part III of our four-part Q&A with Microsoft entertainment and devices corporate vice president Peter Moore, he explained why, despite Rare's inability to regain its former sales dominance, the U.K. studio was still essential to Microsoft's ambitions to broaden its audience beyond shooter fans. In the final part of our interview, Moore turns his attention to the competition among Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. (Once again, as we've noted previously, this interview was conducted in January of 2007, before the December 2006 sales figures were available.) But we also get him talking about the prospects of Media Center for Windows Vista and the then-recent removal of Super Columbine Massacre RPG! from competition at the Slamdance Film Festival.

Sony's going to announce that they've shipped a million units of Playstation 3 in North America. [Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO] Jack Tretton was very clear with me that that did not mean that half a million just came off of a factory floor in Guangzhou; that these were units that were pretty much on store shelves--

Okay. Then that's sold, not shipped.

No, that's shipped.

Okay.

That's shipped. The implication is that their production kinks are largely worked out.

Sony officially stated that on Tuesday back in Tokyo, if I recall, that "Our production problems are behind us." I can't remember the gentleman's name, but "Our production problems are behind us, and we will meet our six million unit mark on March 31st." Okay.

So assuming they're through the difficult period, let's back up a little bit. Now that all three consoles are in the market, let's take Sony first. What, if anything, do you need to do specifically to counter them for 2007?

Well, I still think it's all about the games. Many of us get distracted with other things, but 2007 is all going to be about the games. It's going to be about unique experiences, to your point, what is going to be truly next-generational. I think Microsoft Game Studios plays a huge role in 2007. I think the ability for us to be able to effectively deploy some of our exclusives with third parties, whether it's BioShock or the next Splinter Cell, is going to be important. But in a year where we're delivering Crackdown, Forza 2, Shadowrun, Mass Effect, Too Human and a little thing called Halo 3, we're feeling pretty good about where we're at in first party. And then with titles like Alan Wake, Fable 2 on the horizon as well, when you roll all of that together, we need to continue to deliver reasons for people to buy our console over somebody else's. I mean, it's as simple as that.

You read the boards as much if not more than I do. One of the things that Sony has to do is start delivering a slate of content that's both exclusive and truly next-generational. The only thing that gets into that conversation right now is Resistance: Fall of Man. I think they've got to build upon that and build upon that very quickly. So back to our original conversation: we're feeling good about where we're at; we've exceeded our number; the ecosystem is looking very healthy; and we've hit some form of a critical mass with a lot more good stuff to come.

Once you come out of the holiday, are you projecting to be above 300,000 units a month in 2007, consistently, without a price drop?

1. WOW...Why journalists shouldn't quit their day jobs
2. ADS...Google's intriguing in-game advertising patent
3. DOA...Brad McQuaid's side of the Vanguard debacle
4. RIP...A look at game genre's life cycles
5. RND...Start your own college in three easy steps

Peter Moore (back row, third from left) and his 1974 Yale High School Division I National Championship soccer team

In Part II of our four-part Q&A with with Microsoft entertainment and devices corporate vice president Peter Moore, we debated the timing and impact (or lack therof) of the $299 Xbox 360 Core with early adopters. Today, in Part III, Moore discusses the implications of the then-recent announcement that the founders of the Microsoft-owned developer Rare were leaving the company (as we've previously stated, this interview was conducted in January of 2007), explains the kinds of games he envisions the studio making in the future and talks about why Microsoft is absolutely comfortable with Rare's perverse sensibility.

What should we make of the Stampers' departure from Rare?

Nothing. Chris and Tim have been tremendously loyal to Microsoft since the acquisition of the company. They've been behind everything we continue to do. Certainly Viva Pinata, both of them were instrumental in their own way of getting Viva Pinata up and running. Their legacy will live on with Banjo-Kazooie. The time had come after many, many years of service to Rare that the founders move on and do something different. We wish them nothing but the best. They've put us in great position with Gregg Mayles and Mark Betteridge to come in and step up. Betteridge in particular has been there 19 years, and it's great that we can have somebody with Mark's background in the company be able to step into the shoes. Nothing to be made of it whatsoever.

I asked Phil Harrison about Rare--

I saw that.

--and why they were having trouble regaining former glory. They used to put out games that were five million unit sellers, seven million unit sellers, much higher Metacritic ratings than where they're at. He said that he felt that they were a company that was always prone to insularity; got moreso with Nintendo, and then maybe got a little defocused by the windfall that they got from Microsoft. Perfect Dark Zero certainly got good reviews when it came out--very good reviews, though not GoldenEye-level, but good reviews--

Yeah.

But in hindsight, there are a lot of people saying, "Maybe we scored it too high." Hindsight's 20-20--

The same people who scored Kameo too low. But that's a personal opinion. [Laughs.] So that's fine. It all washes out in the end.

Viva Pinata is certainly a return to form according to reviewers. There are a lot of people who are very passionate about it.

Absolutely, yeah.

But sales aren't there, considering that Microsoft spent $375 million to buy Rare. On the balance sheet, that's already been written off, for sure. But how do you start to earn out on that investment? What's the plan for Rare in the future? Where do they fit in and what are they going to do for the company in order to deliver the hits that they were presumably purchased to make?

1. DOA...Read the tale of an alleged ex-Sigil employee
2. .44...Daft U.K. cops raid house over Lara Croft dummy
3. BOO...Halo 3 beta access delayed; fanboys melt down
4. VP!...Cheney shout-out pulled from Halo 3 beta
5. RND...Mary Jane Watson figurine causes stir

1. SEP...Finish the fight when Halo ships on 9/25...
2. HMM...or wait for "more important" satirical shooter Haze
   
3. RED...Sony's Q4 loss widens on Playstation 3 costs 
4. RAP...PaRappa creator disses today's music games
5. SIM...Will Wright at the 2007 New Yorker conference
   
6. RND...The Most Trusted Name in Sports?
   

Sometimes, modesty is so transparently false that it's best to dispense with it altogether. We've been sitting on an absolutely terrific interview with Microsoft entertainment and devices corporate vice president Peter Moore since January. Though, in fairness to our staff, we've been so busy with other things that it's been difficult to set aside the time to transcribe this 62-minute whopper of a Q&A. So difficult, in fact, that reliable sources informed us that Moore had begun to despair of ever seeing his words in print. Well, despair no more, Peter. Despair no more.

Beginning today, we're kicking off with the first installment of our four-part interview. Moore, who prior to joining Microsoft in January of 2003 was a veteran of both Reebok and Sega of America, sat down with us for lunch during the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show at the Brazilian restaurant Rumjungle. Upon arriving at the eatery, we found Moore deeply ensconced in the final ticks of the Philadelphia Eagles win over the New York Giants for the NFC wild card playoff spot, discoursing with his handler all the while about various nuances of the game. Thus began our wide-ranging conversation.

From hearing you talk just now, it sounds as if you're a pretty big football fan.

American football, I should specify.

When I first came to this country, it was very clear to me, as much as soccer still rules my life--I lived in L.A. and became an L.A. Rams fan, of all things--and I determined that unlike most Brits who come here and go to the British pub and for whatever, I was going to learn baseball, which I did, and watch the L.A. Dodgers. Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, Mike Scioscia, Tommy Lasorda, Bill Russell--all of those guys. I was a salesman, a shoe salesman, I lived in Long Beach, and I would drive north in the day and then come back and learn baseball with one of the great teams. Then I learned American football. And then worked for Reebok for eight years in Boston, which made me a Patriots fan. So yes. Sorry.

1. XXL...PS3, Xbox 360 AC adapter too big, says game creator
2. MOH...WWII, meh. But this trailer's looking good
3. DIY...VH1's create your own PS3 laser-etching contest
4. CON...vergence, redux: Michael Bay wants to make games
5. RND...Paris Hilton, headed for this all-girl chain gang?

We’re committed to the long-term success of Shadowrun and understand a title’s fate is not decided based on first week sales. The coinciding Halo 3 multiplayer beta is actually going to provide some great opportunities for us to transition some of our hardcore FPS [first-person shooter] gamers over to Shadowrun when the beta expires in early June. Halo 3 and Shadowrun will further prove to gamers that Xbox Live and Games for Windows – Live is the best online gaming service for action titles. Additionally, another Microsoft Game Studio title, Forza Motorsport 2, will also be launching on May 29th.

1. WII...gets Best of 2006; Zune, Sony batteries worst
2. POD...cast with Dean Takahashi, Kyle Orland, Level Up staff 
3. BYE...Clover Studios flopped, Capcom exec blames producers
4. Wu-...Tang's Shaolin, aka Staten Island, still not in GTA IV
5. PhD...An informal guide to graduate study of games
6. DSL...Square Enix + DS = guide to the good life 
7. RND...Can't novelists and bloggers just all get along?
   

Covering videogames for a mainstream publication like Newsweek, we often feel like priests. Why? Because our colleagues will periodically pull us aside to confess their videogame experiences, or, more often, those of their children. We, in turn, solemnly hear their confessions, offer our infallible advice, then urge them and their loved ones to go forth and game some more. We had one such conversation with NEWSWEEK Assistant Managing Editor Kathy Deveny, wherein she recounted her quest for a DS Lite for her daughter, and her subsequent observations about her child's gaming habits. She agreed to share them with us; enjoy.

When my six-year-old daughter, Jing Jing, emailed Santa last November asking for not just a videogame player, but a Nintendo DS--specifically, a pink Nintendo DS Lite--I was pretty amused. How did she even know about Nintendo, let alone that the DS came in pink? She didn't get it from me. I'm not even good at Brick Breaker. But I liked the fact that she was growing up in a world where technology was all around her and that she was absorbing it naturally. I thought it was cool when she hovered around an all-boys group after a birthday party, angling to get her turn on the handheld they were passing around. That was just the kind of boys' club I had always wanted to crack. So what if other parents of kids her age fretted that violent videogames would turn their children into psychotic kitten killers? I was proud. My kid didn't want a Barbie; she wanted a key to the kingdom.

For days, I floated around in a DS-induced post-feminist haze, dreaming of the day when Jing would write her first lines of code. I also noticed--for the first time--that there was a GameStop just two blocks from our apartment. Perfect. I bravely walked in and asked for a pink DS. No dice. Sold out. Till after Christmas.

Crap.

One of the measures of a good colleague is their ability to inspire you. Newsweek.com creative director and Level Up Xbox 360 correspondent Rolf Ebeling recently wrote a Player Two post about his impending fatherhood, wherein he reflected on his relationship with his own father as it intersected with videogames. We found the piece both thoughtful and affecting, and with Mother's Day fast approaching, it spurred us to assemble a small package of posts examining the mother-child dynamic as filtered through the lens of interactive entertainment.

NEWSWEEK Assistant Managing Editor Kathy Deveny writes about the impact of her young daughter's Nintendo DS, while Senior Writer Peg Tyre explains why she made a conscious decision to develop her own videogame literacy. Rounding out the package is a first-ever Q&A with Level Up mother-in-chief Yvonne Croal discussing why she never allowed her children to own a console. For our part, we'd like to thank both our contributors and our interview subject, and we wish them all a very happy Mother's Day.

No, no trick questions. Growing up, you allowed us kids to have a computer, but we weren't allowed to have a videogame machine. What was your thinking behind that?

Well, in my estimation at that time, videogames were just another silly game. We certainly didn't want you to be spending 24/7 playing these games that we considered not productive in any way.

Was that based on your gut as a parent? Was it based on things you had read, things you had seen from other kids? What was going through your head?

It was my gut as a parent. I mean, now that I see what you're doing with games and what you tell me--I was not as knowledgeable about the game industry. And to be honest, even if I were as knowledgeable, I still would not have allowed you guys to have those games at will. Even if we had bought one, we would have monitored it closely. We would have had to know the content, and even after knowing the content, we still would have monitored it. You would not have been able to jump on the machine at will and play games and play games and play games and play games. That was not acceptable. It would not have been acceptable.

Growing up, you also regulated our TV consumption a lot as well. Did you view TV in the same light as games, as something that you had to monitor both the amount we were taking in--

Definitely--

--as well as the content?

Mother's Day is coming up. And when I'm done opening my present (bath products) and putting my spring bouquet in a vase, I may well end up picking up a videogame controller with my son. That's right. I'm a forty-something mother and there's a good chance that I'm going to play videogames with one of my sons this weekend.

I'm not drawn to them. I can think of about ten things off the top of my head I'd rather do. In fact, I curse the whole idea of them every time I trip over the console, which, inexplicably, seems to migrate from the TV to the floor whenever the lights go out. But among their other activities, my kids like videogames. They like them a lot. They talk about them, think about them, play with them and spend (too much) money on them.

Like many parents, I harshly limit the time they can spend playing. They can only watch screens of any nature--TV, video or Game Boy--before 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday mornings and between 8 and 10 on Friday and Saturday nights. Still, I feel like it's part of my obligation as a parent to dip my toe into their world. So once in a while, I play videogames with them.

1. ESA...The trade body surveys gaming parents
2. MOM...beats rival dad in Halo; Kotaku-ites opine
3. YAY...PopCap offers Bejeweled free to moms
4. RND...A brief history of Mother's Day

1. FEM...Cerise, a site by and for female gamers...
2. ICK...has Kotaku commenters in a tizzy
3. DLC...Crackdown goes crazy with add-ons
4. JPN...Feelplus prez offers insights on Japanese market
5. MTV...Is its games coverage too 'sophisticated'?
6. BOY...bands and pro gamers: separated at birth
7. RND...George Tenet vs. Doug Feith--Fight!

As our most loyal readers know, the staff here at Level Up will from time to time scrutinize the statements of videogame executives to determine their veracity. So when Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division, disparaged the technical capabilities of Nintendo's flying-off-store-shelves Wii, we knew that our services would be required. eWeek asked Bach "So, is Nintendo disrupting things for you, or were you surprised to see them?" to which he replied:

I'm actually not--the product has gotten more broad-base [sic] acclaim that I would have expected. It's a very nice product, but it actually has a relatively specific audience and a fairly specific appeal, frankly, based on one feature, which is the controller itself. And the rest of the product is actually not a great product--no disrespect, but...the video graphics on it aren't very strong; the box itself is kind of underpowered; it doesn't play DVDs; there are a lot of down-line components [that] aren't actually that interesting.

Just in case that statement wasn't enough of a hit on the Wii, Bach quickly circles back around for the fatality:

The challenge they have is that third parties aren't going to make much money on this platform because Nintendo is going to make all that money, and their ability to compete with something like a Halo or produce an experience like Madden on their system is going to be tough. They don't have the graphics horsepower that even Xbox 1 had. So it makes sort of the comparison set a little bit difficult.

Those are the kind of statements that reliably set fanboys' tongues a-wagging. But how accurate are they? Back in February, we observed posters on various message boards speculating about how much power the Wii had under the hood. Nintendo, for its part, has steadfastly refused to release the Wii's technical specifications. So we approached two of our most reliable technical experts at third party publishers--both of whom spoke under the condition that they not be identified for fear of angering Nintendo--for an independent evaluation of the Wii's abilities.

If the staff of Level Up, like the Shakespearean villains of old, can be said to have a fatal flaw, it's an obsession with prognostication. We love to predict the future, and we're pathologically obsessed with being right. Given our track record, however--we said that a first-person shooter like Halo could never be a system-seller for a console; we believed that PSP would outstrip the DS; we assumed that more early adopters wouldn't blink at the PS3's high price--our forecasting abilities are currently hovering somewhere between those of former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld (pre-war) and pundit William Kristol (post-war.)

Still, a stopped clock is right twice a day, and we correctly foretold that the pace of PSP shipments would match or exceed that of the PS2. This, then, was the basis of our notorious 2004 bet with Microsoft wunderkind James "J" Allard, of Pearl Harbor memo-Xbox-Zune fame. Yet despite our having emerged victorious, neither phone calls (yes, we've got his cell number), text messages (ditto), emails (thank goodness for the vast storage capacity of Gmail) nor blog posts ('sup, fellow bloggers) could persuade the elusive Allard to make good on the wager. So you can imagine our surprise, based on the collective wisdom of our blue ribbon panel, to get word that Allard had, in the words of Spike Lee, finally managed to "Do the Right Thing"--sort of. (For Allard's perspective on our bet, click here.)

As juvenile as videogames and sports may be, the folks at Microsoft take man law very seriously. After an interview with Xbox chief Peter Moore at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show, which took place during the NFL playoffs, he described how sports-obsessed he and a number of his fellow Microserfs are by describing the company's "high-stakes" football pool. Called the Shark Pool, it involves some variation of trying to predict the spreads in that week's NFL games. The loser, that is--the person with the lowest score--must deliver gourmet doughnuts to each of the other participants in the Shark Pool. What's more, the loser can't pawn this off on his or her assistant. They must personally trek all over Microsoft's massive campus to render unto the non-losers their tasty spoils of victory. And to fail to do so--well, let's just say that none of the Sharks would ever shirk their responsibilities.

It's an intriguing anecdote, and we've had cause to reflect on it as of late. For today marks the 360^th day to go by since E3 2006, where our infamous bet with James "J" Allard was expected to be honored. Yet nearly one year later, the dread wig has yet to take its rightful place upon his shiny bald pate for the agreed upon month-long duration. We've turned to a panel of experts in attempt to understand why, hypothetically speaking, an individual might refuse to honor a bet that was freely entered into.

In Part I of his two-part essay for Outsourced, Midway Home Entertainment chief marketing officer Steve Allison firmly disputed the notion that videogame marketing and PR needs to change. Instead, he pointed the finger squarely at the developers themselves, and listing ways in which a game's concept and timing could stand to be improved. In the second and final part of his essay, Allison explains why execution is just third on his list of the most important things a developer must focus on--and explains why more game creators should learn the art of the vertical slice--as he finishes up his answer to Level Up's question "How must videogame developers change in order to create bigger hits?"

3. Execution is Only The Third Most Important Factor In A Game's Success. Yes, Third.

This doesn't mean that we shouldn't strive to make great games. Nor does it mean that a great concept gives developers the license to make a crappy game. It simply means that execution alone is no guarantee of commercial success. The developers who understand this will thrive in the next generation home console business. The ones who don't will fall victim to the realities of the shifting marketplace.

The average reader of this piece, especially one working in the gaming business will say, "Wait a minute. A great game whose review scores average 90 or higher can ship when it's done and it'll still be a great game." Or they'll say, "Whatever the concept may be, a great title is all about the game mechanics." Unfortunately, this is not true.

A great game is one that is a commercial success. Period.

Consumers review games with their wallet, and you don't get to sell them a million units at full price unless a bunch of people love your work--especially at $59 a pop. Sure, your craftsmanship may be amazing. But if your concept is not a powerful and relevant male fantasy, executed in a timely fashion, at a level that delivers on the promise of your core idea, you've probably just delivered the videogame equivalent of an art house film.

An art house game certainly proves that your development team is really talented but it also demonstrates you're really not in tune with the audience.

On March 20^th, we kicked off our Outsourced series of guest essays with a post by Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack, who argued that the marketing and PR of videogames was in desperate need of radical change. Since then, Dyack has continued to press his point in interviews, message boards and other forums. But since Dyack was in effect telling marketers how they should do their jobs, we wondered, what advice would a marketer give developers to improve themselves?

To find out, we approached Steve Allison, senior vice president of marketing and chief marketing officer for Midway Home Entertainment. He's been at Midway since 2003, but we first met Allison when he was serving as Atari's vice president of marketing and business development, a position he held from December 2001 to December 2003 (he joined Atari in 1999, when it was still called Infogrames.) We've had a number of frank discussions with Allison about all things videogame, and we're pleased as punch that he's agreed to share his thoughts with us. Here, then, is his answer to Level Up's question "How must developers change in order to better create videogames that sell?"

In the past several weeks there has been some interesting banter about changing the way games are marketed as we enter the next generation, particularly when it comes to new IP [intellectual property.] But is this really the case? According to our numbers, the actual success rate of new IP over the past four years is just seven percent. In other words, 93 percent of new IP fails in the marketplace. So while the 90-plus review scores and armfuls of awards create the perception that titles like Psychonauts, Shadow of the Colossus, Okami and other great pieces of work were big successes, the truth is that they were big financial disappointments and money losers.

The call for a change in marketing has come primarily from a few developers who have seen their games passed over by the marketplace or by their competitors and decided to reboot their projects a couple of times. Yet I've never seen a highly anticipated game with a truly powerful concept hurt by a product delay. I've been through a few with the Unreal Tournament franchise and the launch of Neverwinter Nights. These were truly anticipated releases that were destined to be big whenever they shipped and have publicity all along the way however long it took. But let's face it: not all games are as highly anticipated as these. If a game loses its momentum because of delays it will be because the concept itself is weak, or because bad timing has made the product either less relevant or allowed a rival developer to get to market first with a similar idea.

So with a success rate of less than 10 percent for new IP, it is not the way we market and launch games that needs revisiting in the next generation. No, it is development that needs reflection, refinement and change.

1. SMB...Mario, like you've never seen him before
2. GOP...Romney attacks "cesspool" of videogames
3. WHO...you are, defined by the way you game
4. NCL...Nintendo CEO disses U.S. division, Second Life
5. WE3...The GTA guys like Grant Morrison's toilet?
6. MMO...but neither WOW nor Second Life. Discuss.
7. HUH...IGN or Gamespot on All-Pro 2K8--whom to believe?
8. RND...Scoop Jackson Q&A on race, rap and hoops

1. WOW...Warcraft player's griefing leads to beatdown
2. TAP...Free games come to GameTap service
3. BOW...Videogame producer turns playwright
4. KID...Wii Sports inspires EA Playground
5. VF5...coming to Xbox 360; first look
6. RND...Study says white NBA refs show bias

1. DvG...David Jaffe takes issue with Gamespot review
2. NvD...Denis Dyack, once more into the breach
3. UGH..."Mii Love You Long Time" T-shirt?
4. H2O...Irrational Games on BioShock's water
5. EEE...Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo get 400 sq ft at E3
6. G-d...Left Behind Games smites board members
7. RND...Alec Baldwin finds solace among film buffs