World of Warcraft

This week I was slightly unsure of what to talk about. There was no tech or video games that really grabbed my attention. So, I have decided to talk about an older game that has managed to stay fresh and relevant over many years. World of Warcraft was initially released November 23, 2004. The game generates gross profit of around a billion dollars a year. Not shabby considering the game is about eleven years old now. Over that time, the game has been upgraded and graphics improved. Many people consider the code of the game to be some of the best. There have been many expansions introduced since the game first came out. All of these are huge money makers for Activision-Blizzard and they encourage players to return and play the game. The game itself is truly a masterpiece. There are a lot of incorrect stereotypes about World of Warcraft as well. The world is completely open and traveling through the whole world by foot would take many, many hours. Just to give scope, there are several continents in the game. Exploring every area of the game would be quite the accomplishment which gives credit to the creators of the game. You choose a character at the beginning of the game and choose your faction, race, and specialization. The factions are Horde and Alliance, who are sworn enemies. There are many races which include Orcs, Humans, Tauren, and Undead just to name a few. At the inception of the game, there were sixty levels. Now, players can level up to one hundred. You can power the higher level you are and you unlock the ability to do raids and dungeons. Raids and dungeons pit a group of players against a computer controlled force with bosses. These are a lot of fun and very time consuming. The other main attraction of the game is player versus player. There are many game modes and maps in which the players of the horde square off against players of the Alliance faction. I am not ashamed to say I have played this game a lot even though it has been sometime since my last login. It does get expensive to play and it takes up a lot of your time. I would even give the game a 10/10 just because it is really good.

League of Legends

I have decided to write my blog about a very popular game called League of Legends or “LoL”. This game is popular because it is completely free. There is no catch when it comes to this game. You do not have to spend money to progress or unlock certain game modes. You can however pay money to unlock champions and champion skins. League of Legends is almost always the most popular game on twitch.tv which is a site that allows users to stream themselves playing video games. Now that I think about it, this could be a cool topic for class because companies in the tech industry will sometimes have streams that’s they sponsor on twitch. A few days ago Riot, the people who make League of Legends, had a live stream with commentators for a tournament they were hosting. I was able to watch some of the event and they even had live music which was very cool. This game in particular has brought a lot of money popularity to gaming. The biggest ever prize pool for the game would surprise most people. The League of Legends 2014 World Championship help in Seoul, South Korea had a prize pool of $2,130,000.00. So at this point I am sure I have surprised you with the popularity of this game, now I will tell you about the in-game content. The most popular and competitive game mode for League of Legends is five people versus people on the Summoner’s Rift map. You are the summoner and you play a champion and control him or her on the field of battle. There are three lanes which minions, who spawn at your base, travel upon toward the enemy base. Both bases are defended by towers and by players. Players can kill neutral monsters, minions, and other players to get coins which they use to buy items that boost their ability in battle. Typically one player who specializes in attack damage plays in the top lane. In the middle lane one person who typically goes ability power plays. In the bottom lane two players are situated so that one can “support” the other player. Finally, there is a player who roams the jungle killing neutral monsters and tying to assassinate enemy plays by sneaking up on them. The game can end in two ways. First, the enemy team can surrender after 20 minutes or your team kills the enemy nexus. The nexus is equivalent to a headquarters. I do not have too much information on the lore of the game so I am not sure exactly where the name comes from. After the game has concluded, you gain experience which levels you up and you gain influence points which can be spent unlocking new champions or runes. Runes make you character stronger and would take a long time to explain in full detail. There are other game modes in the game but “5v5” on Summoner’s Rift is where all competition takes place. The makers of the game, riot, relentlessly attempt to balance the game and make sure one champion is not strong than the other or that there are no glitches in champions abilities. This has been just a small glimpse of League of Legends. There is a lot to this game and it can take a long time to understand and get good at. However, this is what makes the game fun and allows the user to play it without getting bored of the same experience.

Super Smash Brothers

This week I am going to head back to my childhood. The game I am going to talk about this week is Super Smash Brothers. The first iteration of this game was created in 1999 by Nintendo. In my experience people still play this game. It is extremely fun and competitive. The game itself allows the user to pick a character which they want to play. Some of the options include Fox, Link, Pikachu, and Yoshi, just to name a few. These characters are pitted against each on a map of the players choosing. Players damage each other with items or “smashes”. The more damage you take the farther you will fly when hit. You lose lives or points when you are hit off the map. I played this game as a child and I still play it today until recently…. Nintendo recently came out with their Wii U console. Typically I would not care about the Wii products because they are motion controlled and I do not like that. This console however has actual controllers and you can use the past controllers as well. This year I was most interested in the new Super Smash Brothers. One of my friends got the console and the game and it is just like old times except much more fun. There are new items, new characters, and new maps. Not to exclude updated graphics. The idea of the game is the same, but the feel is different. Abilities can be charged to do more damage and learning all of the characters and items can take some time. I almost always play with friends, but there is an online feature that allows people to battle over the internet either one versus one, or team battles. I found that playing over the internet had a lot of lag and often resulted in the game being dropped altogether. Nintendo is definitely not better than Sony or Microsoft when it comes to online gaming. Their games are often created for children, but order crowds may find some of the games fun. I would recommend this game to anyone especially college students because it will get a lot of use among your friends and it never gets old. The Wii U will set you back anywhere between $230- $300 depending on how much storage you get. The game itself will typically cost around $60, but sometimes you can find a sale. So if you are like me and enjoyed this game as a kid, go out and pick yourself up a Wii U and bring back some memories.

Today I am going to talk about a game that is currently in Beta called Battlefield Hardline. This game is currently available to players on console in a pre- release version of the game. Like I discussed in my first blog, a Beta is typically a free version of the game that allows the developer to test the game and make last minute fixes. It also builds anticipation for the game. People are tweeting and posting videos about the game, thus relaying their experience so far. Now I am going to get into what I know about the game so far. I have not played the Beta, but I do plan on downloading it soon and trying it out. I have however watched videos and looked at the Battlefield website. The game is made by Electronic Arts the same developer as Fifa, a game which I talked about in a previous blog post. Battlefield Hardline takes a turn from the previous four Battlefield games. Instead of being in an actual war, Hardline pits criminals against cops in the classic first person shooter. You can choose to either be the good guys, cops, or the bad guys, criminals. I think this game is a lot like Grand Theft Auto in concept, but the storyline and gameplay will be completely different. Players can choose to play the single player campaign or the “high-speed Battlefield Multi-player. You’re on one side of the law or the other—time to hit the streets.” This game incorporates new tactics that include non-lethal force and obtaining warrants for the arrest of criminals. When playing as a criminal you have grappling hooks and zip lines to scale city buildings. In this game there will be there ability to drives all different kinds of cars and even armored trucks. I feel that this change in game type could be risky for the franchise. All of their previous editions of the game have been war based. This year they have decided to change the main aspect of the game. I am sure the game will still be good because Battlefield has such a great track record when it comes to the quality of their games. They always seem to be ahead of the curve when it comes to graphics and gameplay. It will be interesting to see what weapons and gadgets that they decide to use in this game. Typically there is a fair mix of weapons manufactured in all different countries. I anticipate this game to be one of the biggest titles of the year because of it high reputation and “replayability”.

Microsoft HoloLens

I am going to take a different turn in my blog this week. Instead of reviewing a game, I came across a product I could just not pass up. It intertwines with the theme of our course because this product is marketed on social media. The product is called the Microsoft HoloLens. I can really see this product being the next generation of computing and gaming. So you can see exactly what the product looks like here is a link- http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us . The product looks like glasses in that you can still see through them but, there is a screen in front of your face. This allows the device to put images in your line of sight. Some of the features I have seen include being able to "open", in sorts, a television screen anywhere. It allows people who are building a prototype the ability to see what they are building before it is done. I honestly think it is extraordinary. I do not usually get so excited about products like this, but this device takes computing and gaming to a different place. It is on the forefront of technology. One day, I would like to see contacts that do what the HoloLens does, except without being seen. The only huge downside I can see from that is people could lose touch with reality. It could also be addictive and cause depression when the product is not on. It could literally change the world how we see it every day. This first iteration is very interesting because I can only see people wearing this device at home or at work. I think it will allow the masses to become more productive. When Dr. Burton asked us in class if we interacted with brands online I thought to myself that I really did not. I had not been on Facebook for some time before I had to for this class. I do on occasion check Twitter. I was on Twitter the other day and I saw the HoloLens promoted and I simply could not resist. The promise of a revolutionary tech product was too much for me to pass up. I liked the post and then watched a short two minute video that explained the product to me. I think this is a great example of how certain people can be targeted on social media for products. I can say I do not bite for these promoted tweets often, if ever, but, this was a great example of a tweet being advertised to the appropriate audience. I will follow this product farther into the future. I expect it to be well received by the public. Maybe this shows that Microsoft can lead innovation in the tech industry compared to Apple. In my age group particularly almost everyone prefers Mac to PC. I am one of the PC hold outs. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft can target young people in the college market and get them excited about a non-Mac product.

Fifa 15

In this blog I am going to be reviewing and talking about a different video game each week. I will also be talking a little about marketing strategy that these game developers use to gain market share and make gamers aware of their game. In this first blog I will talk a little about how many companies attract people to play their games. One of the first ways is ingenious. They release the game before it is ready to a certain group of people. These are called alphas and betas. This allows gamers to play the game while also sending feedback to the makers of the game so they can make the game better for the actual release. The players get to play a game before it comes out which makes them happy, while at the same time, they will make videos and post them to YouTube so that the general public can view these videos, which builds hype. Some smaller games which are played on the computer may make use of a service called Steam. Steam is a program a user downloads and then plays games off of it. It keeps a library of games which is nice so that you know exactly what you have and it tells you when you need updates. This service also has sales. Putting a game on Steam is a great way to extend product life. It can bring new life to a game, or be the life for a not-so-well known game. These are two great tools to build hype for a game and increase revenue. I will continue to talk about different alternatives in future blogs. So let’s get to Fifa 15. Fifa 15 "is an association football simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts." This game brings all of the best clubs and soccer players from around the world and allows players to control them. The consumer is able to play player versus player or player versus computer. One of the best parts of this game that I am going to touch on the most is Fifa Ultimate Team. So what is Ultimate team? It allows the user to create a team of players in any formation they want to. There is a live marketplace where gamers can buy and sell their players for coins which are earned through playing matches. This market functions almost exactly like a real market and responds to supply and demand. It also fluctuates depending on the time of day. When more people are online and trading cards prices are different from when less people are doing the same thing. It is not as simple as it seems to build your ultimate team. I have been playing Fifa for a long time and I have never even come close to getting the best players in the game much less the best team overall. This is what makes the game fun, the difficulty in getting certain "cards". Of course if you are lucky, you can acquire these cards in packs. Much like baseball cards or Pokémon, Fifa Ultimate Team also uses a digital card system. The packs are random and can help or hurt your club by buying the packs. You can hit a home-run or lose coins by buying the pack. Packs have a gambling feel to them and they can become addicting to buy. So how does Electronic Arts capitalize on this? Well you can use more than in game currency to purchase packs. Players can also use money to buy Fifa Points. So what can Fifa points do for you? Fifa points allow you to buy packs. So Electronic Arts makes money hand over fist selling content which costs them absolutely nothing to deliver. Once the game is created, they capitalize on people buying these packs. Overall Fifa 15 is a fun game I have played it myself and would recommend that anyone play it. There is a huge global following and the game is very competitive. EA also makes other sports games such as Madden which I may get to in future weeks.