Another Microsoft Money-Maker

Microsoft has finally decided to respond to the strong consumer demand for a controller with a non-sucky D-pad. Let the world rejoice! ...As long as you have $65 lying around to buy one of them since it will only be available as part of a play-and-charge bundle out November 9. The product itself is pretty cool-looking as you have the choice of using the normal (sucky) flat D-pad or switching (via a neato twisting motion) to a more defined (non-sucky) D-pad a la Wii, PS3 and pretty much every other console controller ever. I just continue to be boggled by Microsoft's tyrannical pricing decisions. When the majority of your customer base hates an easily modifiable part of your product, you'd think a low-cost alternative might make a top 10 list of development ideas somewhere. Instead, if we want an improvement, we're saddled with a bundle that (let's be honest) we're not really interested in. Booooooo. I suppose with Kinect out we may as well wait for controllers to be rendered obsolete anyway?

Microsoft Raising XBox Live Gold Subscription Prices

In a questionable move, Microsoft is increasing its XBox Live Gold subscription prices starting in November. A one year subscription will cost $59.99 (up from $49.99), three months will cost $24.99 (up from $19.99) and one month will cost $9.99 (up from $7.99). This seems to be that favorite corporate action of charging consumers more and delivering less - in direct opposition to all major competitors. Online services are free for the PS3 and the Wii (and of course, for PCs), so aside from mulitplayer online gaming being free, this means that Netflix and hulu streaming are included at no additional cost from Nintendo or Sony, making the consoles versatile at a much lower overall cost. Granted, XBox Live is arguably the best online platform available, but when competitors are providing the service for free, I just don't feel the need to burn a hole in my pocket for slightly better quality. What is the fee for, anyway? Most games are hosted locally, not on their service, so it's hard to explain a monthly subscription fee and even harder to explain a price increase for it. Sadly, the popularity of online gaming on the XBox 360 doesn't look like it's going to be dying down anytime soon and as such, Microsoft will continue to reap the (increasing) profits. I'll be sticking with my PS3 for online content until (if ever) the tides change and gamers start refusing to be hosed.

Man Sues NCsoft Corp: No Warning of Possible Addiction to Mediocre Game

No, really. Apparently Craig Smallwood (name indicative?) is proceeding with a lawsuit against NCsoft as a result of his addiction to the game Lineage II. If I were the judge, I would throw this case out on the grounds that Lineage II is not even a particularly good game - it got a 6/10 from GameSpot and a 6.7/10 from IGN, and its unique user base is well under a million. For comparison, WoW also came out in 2004 and has a user base of roughly 11.5 million - try that for addictive, Mr. Smallwood. Looking at the larger issue, however, I just don't see how anyone can define a non-chemical-producing product as addictive. Cigarettes have nicotine and coffee has caffeine, but MMORPGs have... a power switch for those times you need to "function independently in daily activities, such as getting dressed, bathing or communicating with family and friends." An analogy to this case would be a man with a rage control issue breaking his TV and blaming it on Sesame Street because there was no disclaimer that Elmo might really piss him off. All I'm saying is that the problem seems to lie with the user in these cases - learn some self control or get help, don't blame an industry that already suffers from massive amounts of scapegoating.

Blizzard Makes a Good Decision

So, for those of you not in the know, Blizzard recently decided that gamers would have to use their real names - yes, real, first and last - in order to participate in their online forums. For those gamers who are at all concerned with privacy, who maybe have jobs or girlfriends or are in the market for jobs or girlfriends, or who just love being anonymous jerks, this was a pretty big misstep on Blizzard's part. The interwebs were in an uproar. In a shockingly rational and well thought-out move, Blizzard has decided not to enforce the Real ID idea. This is a great marketing ploy - get everyone upset and talking about a potentially bad move and then you look like a hero just by not following your plan. Nice work.

Ebert: Slightly More Rational This Time Around

So Roger Ebert has posted a follow-up piece to his inflammatory diatribe wherein he claimed that video games could never be considered art. He has now (sort of) admitted that he can't make such sweeping statements about a medium he has never experienced, he (grudgingly) accepts that it is possible that future video games could be classified as art, and he even (kind of) allows for the possibility that current games can be experienced as art by some gamers. My final thought on this whole debacle, a quote from TV Tropes: "Art isn't about making you feel good. Art is about making you feel." And now, I feel like playing the original Final Fantasy.

Less Scary Blizzard News

In non-cataclysmic Blizzard news - no wait I suppose this does by definition count as cataclysmic - closed beta testing has begun for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. This is the third expansion for the insanely popular game and is expected to break more PC sales records upon its release as did the first and second expansions. Now might be a good time to work on account security before the new release swells the ranks of active users once more.

Breaking: Blizzard's Account Database Breached

If there were ever a case to be made for avoiding putting all gaming out in the cloud, this would be it. Thousands of users' Blizzard accounts have been stolen. Support lines are overloaded and they are telling users to call back at a later time while the issue is being investigated. It looks like one group of hackers is logging into multiple accounts to sell off items, delete accounts and cause other general mayhem. This could be the End of the World... of Warcraft.

Okay probably not, but it does yet again raise the question of internet security (or the seeming lack thereof). Without the use of an authenticator, even the most careful users are at risk of having their accounts hacked. We either need to develop better security measures or come up with something more interesting for hackers to do.