Something Fun to do

One thing that is so often fun to do is to pick up a game that has just been sitting, uninstalled in your library, since you bought it, likely in a random sale. You heard or thought it may be good and then figured you can spend a few bucks on it, before promptly moving on to something else. Get back to those games though, because some of them can be better than you expected.

Tale of Two Communities

I have a somewhat eclectic set of tastes for video games, to that point that at any given time, I can have 4X games, RPGs, ARPGs, FPSs, simulations, and more types of games installed and ready to play. It is nice though, as it means I can satisfy just about any gaming-itch I have, but there is one odd consequence. I can also be exposed to a variety of online communities, from awesome, positive communities, to ones that are about as negative as a posse going after a horse thief. This week has been especially interesting though, because two games, one with a positive and the other with a negative community, had major patches/updates scheduled, but pushed both back. The differences in responses are staggering.
The positive community repeatedly voices their anticipation for the new content, grasping at any hints at what is happening and when the patch may come. The negative community however has turned to repeated attacks on the developers, accusing them of lying and (though not strictly for reasons limited to this incident) have some have even threatened bring claims of false advertising against the company. If only I were exaggerating, but the truth is I am not even covering all of it.
Why the disparities between the two communities? I believe it comes from a few things. One is that the developers for the positive community seem to strive for transparency, sharing everything they can without breaking NDA or exposing something before its ready. The other company is much more restrictive with the information they let out, and is a bit more limited in free communication between the developers and the community.The positive community also has access to patches prior to release, as part of a patch-testing system whereby anyone with a regular game account can download and play a test client. The other does not have such an open system.
Personally, I think the main motivator driving the differences is the openness of the developers. People like to feel included in something they have invested time and money into. Of course people also like to protect their creations, so they can satisfy themselves before sharing anything with the world. The trick is getting the balance right, but doing that isn't easy. Not by a long shot.

Amazon Bought Twitch?

Anyone following gaming news almost certainly knows by now that Amazon purchased the Twitch streaming service for almost one billion dollars. Immediately following this acquisition were questions of 'why?' Can't answer that, but what I can say is that I hope it works out as well as it may. Amazon has one of the larger presences on the Internet with numerous data centers that people can pay to use, such as for hosting and running game servers. With full access to that kind of backend, I would hope Twitch's service improves. May be a while before the improvements materialize, but hopefully not too long.

Hopefully More than an Upgrade

Among the events of this week are the releases of the Metro 2033 Redux and Metro Last Light Redux; both of which I am looking forward to. I am looking forward to them for the obvious reason that I enjoyed the original games and that I like the idea of games like these getting such deep reworks. Both will be running on the latest version of 4A engine, which should not only look great but run very well too. I remember commenting on how with 2033 and Last Light, it is pretty cool to be playing a game, taking screenshots, and have practically each one look like a cinematic render. Should only be better now. Plus a number of mechanics have been added and refined, making for a more what should be a more enjoyable experience.
Tuesday should be a fun day.

Disappointing, and Worse, Not Surprising

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I saw the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie and enjoyed it, though it did have some issues, in my opinion. Now one of those issues is haunting me because of the number of people I hear/see commenting on the movie that never realized that Rocket was exactly an antihero, and little more. Constantly I am finding people say he was the best character in the film. I'm sorry, but a paragon of a classical archetype is nothing special. (The performance was very good though, I am glad to say.) Rocket did not really even have much depth because every action feel directly in line with the archetype.
...at times it can be a little annoying having even a mildly literary mind, because you catch things like this and the comments from other people that don't, can just be irritating. Eh, still a fun film.