Kill Screen Magazine's Blog, page 477

Hey Internet, your petitions don't matter to Reggie

Internet, Reggie says back off.

No spreadsheet is safe when Typing of the Dead meets Football Manager

Paperwork, videogames, whatevs.

Oceanhorn borrows all the worst parts from Zelda

Triforce? Check. Innovation? Eh ...

Pretend real life is designed by Nintendo with these Mario mass transportation maps

If you’re not a morning person, and lord knows I’m not, you know how loathsome that morning commute can be. There’s the onrush of dissatisfied people, the inelegance of multitasking from a smartphone, the spilt coffee. Whether your headed to midtown or Jersey, Robert Bacon has designed the subway map to brighten your day. Okay, actually they’re posters, but there’s no reason these Super Mario World-styled representations of NYC railways shouldn’t be plastered on every station, bestowing happy memories. Not from the Big Apple? No problem! Bacon also did Mario-themed maps of the “L” for Chicagoans. 

Valve creates something called a "Tongue Mouse," which obviously raises some questions

Those ingenuous engineers at Valve have invented a mouthpiece that could make games more accessible to disabled players. The creatively named “Tongue Mouse” is a mouse that lets you control a reticule with the tip of your tongue, as its inventor Ben Krasnow explains in the video below.

However, Krasnow admits that his lick-able device isn’t perfect. If the tongue isn’t steady and precise enough as a hand is when resting on a desk.

This leads to a tough but important question. Should there be a mandate like the Americans with Disability Act for videogames? The ADA prohibits employers from discriminating against those with disabilities, and something similar in games could ask publishers to include options that make their products convenient for the disabled. When I spoke with Bill Donegan of SpecialEffect, a UK outfit that hacks software and hardware so that the disabled can have access, he told me that there are many cases in which popular games would be easy for quadriplegics to enjoy if the developers had implemented simple measures for mouth controls.

The issue is one of uniformity. As there is no central organization to speak to disabled players’ rights, there is also no uniform standards for hardware, which developers could put in their games. It’s something to think about, as those with physical handicaps can play these games and play them well if given the right tools. Hats off to Krasnow.

DOTA 2 and League of Legends are like the NBA and ABA of esports

When the 2014 contracts fell into the eager hands of League of Legends pros, they noticed a curious clause in it. They had been prohibited from streaming themselves playing games made by Riot’s competitors. At the top of the list was Valve’s DOTA 2, that other multiplayer online battle arena game. Riot has a right to be concerned. DOTA 2 is the O.G. MOBA in esportland.  

It looks like we have an AFL-NFL rivalry on our hands, with two leagues vying for talent and attention. You could also compare it to the situation in the 60s between the NBA and the ABA, when the ABA sprouted up because the NBA was reluctant to grow. Eventually, in both cases, an agreement was reached and the leagues merged, proving mutually beneficial, as we wound up with two fantastic sporting leagues.

This outcome for esports is unfeasible considering the way they work. For one, although League of Legends and DOTA 2 are similar to the untrained eye, the devil’s in the details. Both Valve and Riot have spent years tweaking and perfecting the systems and physics and values as they see fit. Which brings me to my second point: the question of ownership. No one owns the game of basketball, so it’s pretty easy for two groups of teams to join up. But videogames are the property of the companies who develop them, and obviously neither would be willing to give that up. Expect the feud to continue. 

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game loses the trail and gets a little lonely

On being a lone wolf.

Of course there is a Minecraft opera

When I heard that Virginia Tech students were performing an opera in Minecraft, my reaction could be described as befuddled dissonance. My logical brain thought: What the hell, a Minecraft opera? And the part of my brain that knows and loves the internet thought: Of course, there is a Minecraft opera. Besides that, we don’t quite know what to think. You be the judge.

The past, present and future of the Xbox as Microsoft’s vehicle for convergence

With the Xbox One safely on store shelves, writer Eric Fridén takes a look at the plans Microsoft has for our increasingly convergent future.

Money doesn’t matter, says Finnish developer swimming in money

Yesterday Tech Crunch published a corporate profile on the new wave of uber-successful mobile games coming out of Finland, including the popular Clash of Clans, and a game I forget the name of—something to do with miffed red canaries? In any case, the key to success for these filthy rich Fins, says Supercell’s CEO, was that they do it for the love, not the money:

“What I like about the local scene is that most people do not work in games because they want to make money. Instead, they want to make great games. Ironically, I think that is the right approach to take, and will also maximize the financial returns in the longer run.”

This is really hard to take seriously considering that it’s coming from the CEO of a company that’s valued at 3 billion dollars. It’s true that Clash of Clans is a pretty great game, and definitely some love went into it. But it’s also a product of something more lucrative: money. If you’ve played any of these newfangled “free” mobile games you know that everything funnels you towards an additional surcharge. They can move unbearably slow unless you pay up. This is like saying we don’t care about money while making games that are built at their core around making money. The whole thing makes an interesting comparison to the economics of the Nordic region, where, although socialism is the rule, billionaires are ubiquitous.