Four Player Co-op 02.08.12: Half Life 3, Everquest, UbiSoft, More

Posted by Stephen Randle on 02.08.2012

Will Valve address the protest by Half-Life 3 fans from last weekend? Are subscription-based MMORPGs a thing of the past? Should Ubisoft find new ways to protect their games after all the DRM problems? The 411 staff debates these topics and more in the latest 4PC!


Mathew Sforcina has joined the game.
Todd Vote has joined the game.
Dan Watson has joined the game.
Adam Larck has joined the game.

Quizmaster

Greetings, and welcome to another edition of Four Player Co-op, where our players are given free rein to discuss their thoughts on all sorts of gaming issues. Well, assuming that it's related to the questions that I ask. As a special treat this week, one of our players has come down with that cold that's going around, and did his answers on minimal sleep while heavily medicated, so he's going to be just a surprised as you are at what his answers are. Try and guess who it was before the game ends!

Speaking of which, start the game!

QUESTION ONE: Ooh, this is a good one. A politician in Oklahoma has put forward for consideration a bill which, if it's passed, would levy a 1% tax on every, and I swear to Kratos I'm not making this up, "violent video game" sold in the Sooner State. Pretty much nobody is taking this seriously and the likelihood of it actually making it into law is probably less than zero, but what the hell, let's froth at the mouth at the sheer stupidity of this, shall we?

Mathew Sforcina

Actually, it's quite stupid in that its classification of a 'violent video game' is a game with a Teen, Mature or Adult Only game. So yeah, it would tax such violence filled titles like The Sims 3, Leisure Suit Larry, a few Trivial Pursuit games and that well known violent as hell game, Mean Girls: High School Showdown.



The violence! OH THE HUMANITY!!!

Anyway, I don't mind the law's basic idea, in that if he said "A 1% tax on ALL video games that would go into paying for childhood exercise programs" would be... debatable. This is just stupid, and doomed to fail, and worse, end up costing the state money in legal fees.

Todd Vote

I agree with this completely. While we are at it, we should also add a 1% tax on every movie sold that could be considered violent, a 1% tax on every TV on DVD set that could be considered violent. While we are at it, there was an episode of Diff'rent Strokes back in the day that dealt with Arnold being touched inappropriately. Perhaps, by this same logic, materials that deal with children being molested should have to add a 5% tax each and every time they are sold. Should Fox News be fined every time they show violent content, which would include when they show footage of said violent games to get their points across? Going one step further, every time a politician says something stupid like that, we should just go ahead and operate, with the intentions of removing 5% of their brains. To quote Mr. Randy Orton, "Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

Dan Watson

Let me start out by saying I did no research on this topic because it is that off the wall bat shit crazy that it wasn't worth my time. I am so tired of politicians and media personalities and basically anyone else who states that violent video games are worse for people than other forms of violence. Listen, after you watch a true action movie filled with violence, you have more of a rush than playing Call of Duty. I understand that in theory yes, you are actually committing the act in a video game and are engaged in it, but if you are watching a movie, you are just as engaged if not more so. Movies have a way to motivate and get you involved and invested. Watch the movie Any Given Sunday and tell me you don't feel an adrenaline rush after Al Pacino gives his halftime speech near the end. That isn't even a violent movie and I wanted to go beat someone up. So to sum up my feelings, this is a waste of government time and money, something here in America we do quite often apparently.

Adam Larck

Like I said in the story, when will states learn? Every time a law like this pops up, the First Amendment steps in and shoots it down. California's already paying huge for trying this, so why would a state want to mimic them? This lawmaker has to be trying to make a name for himself in election year (if he's up for re-election), but this proposal will have a short lifespan.

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Quizmaster

Um, I'm not sure that video is proving the point for the side you want to be on, Sforcina, because the fact that such a game exists make me feel like committing some sort of violent act. Still, 73 points for trying.

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QUESTION TWO: In an interesting twist in an age where everything seems like an excuse to sign online petitions and occupy various areas of the planet and generally get angry, this past weekend fans of the incredibly groundbreaking and popular Half Life series staged a movement in order to get more information on the possibility that Half Life 3 might be created and released before the sun explodes. And they did it by…organizing a mass online play of Half Life 2 and also respectfully asking Valve if they would please open the lines of communication a little wider for their clearly large fanbase. What do you think about this latest, more elegant form of "protest"?

Mathew Sforcina

That it's about as useful as any other online protest or petition. Hooray for finding a way to send a message that's not destructive, sure, but it's about as likely to work as a petition would. Of course, this is Valve, so it might well work out well. Or get laughed at. Either way, there should be some sort of response. Just not an announcement that 8/13 stands for H L 3 this year or anything...

Todd Vote

At least they have less chance of being pepper sprayed, right? In all seriousness, this was probably the best way to get Valve's attention. Organize mass playing of previous games in the series, I'm sure Valve noticed the spikes on the servers, and really appreciate the passion the fans have for the series. Whether or not it actually brings Half Life 3 to fruition? That remains to be seen, but you can bet that Valve is hearing them now. Either way, this sure beats stealing and hacking. It'll be interesting to see if Valve opens up to this peaceful line of communication.

Dan Watson

Very classy move if I do say so myself. I am very impressed that gamers went about it this way instead of how the media would depict us as a bunch of hackers associated with Anonymous who just take what we want. I commend all that took part in this as it is a great way to show a company the respect they deserve for the game and hope that they see this and reward those gamers with more information about the next installment in the series. We have a lot to learn from these people, maybe they can write an email to the occupy protests and explain to them how things get done in a non-hippie way. How does sitting in a park let the rich people know that you are upset at them? You are the idiot freezing and wasting your days/nights while they get richer off of you. Go occupy their mansions, literally go sit in their chairs, watch their televisions, and drink their beer. Hell, maybe knock up a daughter too, then they will give you whatever you want. Trust me.

Adam Larck

It will get them just as far as signing a petition will. Valve will release details when Valve wants to and nothing will seem to change it. Sure, they are more customer friendly than most, but teasing Half-Life while running other franchises is something they seem to love to do. This "protest," or whatever they want to call it, was an interesting idea, but it will accomplish the same thing that an online petition for Half-Life 3 will in the long run.

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Quizmaster

I don't think I can condone Dan's idea for the "Occupy" crowd, but I can't deny it could be effective. Or at least good TV. And it's worth 826 points, which have approximately the same value as every Internet petition ever written.

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QUESTION THREE: After thirteen years, and also after being the one of the first truly successful and wildly profitable subscription-based MMO's and essentially being one of the groundbreakers in the industry, Everquest is the latest MMO to go free-to-play. That leaves, essentially, World of Warcraft on top of the MMO heap, The Old Republic a strong but distant second place, and no real challengers to their subscription-based gameplay (and even WoW is now free-to-play up to level 20). However, this opens up a whole world of potential for free-to-play MMOs who don't have to worry about competing with the two behemoths in the room for paid subscriptions. Do you think we'll ever see another huge pay-to-play MMO in the old vein, or is that era of gaming essentially out to pasture?

Mathew Sforcina

I think that outside of Japan, where if someone with an established property set out to do a fee based game they probably could get away with it, I think that the free-to-play/Micro-transaction system will be the way almost every new game will go... For the next few years at least. I think that eventually the pendulum will move back eventually once a few things come into play, when most everyone is online and playing games and people become totally used to the idea of paying for stuff they can't touch, then it might get full package MMOs back, as a selling point. But regardless, I think that micro-transaction based games (free to play sounds so fake to me...) however are in a bind in that while they do have the big guns no longer in the same pool that pool is hugely full of dozens and dozens of their direct competition. Not having to worry about WOW is fine, (Oh, and Blizzard will be the only company to release a fee MMO in the coming years, for my bet), but they still gotta worry about every other MMO out there...

Todd Vote

I'm sure we will see another one sometime. But it will not be the same model that is currently employed by pay to play MMO's. I think you will have to see a huge change in the way the game plays and the attention given to it by the developers, before you can make it pay to play.

Dan Watson

I think we will see it but possibly brought to us on a console instead of PC. Look where the console gaming is headed lately. People are buying COD:Elite for map packs, subscribing to WWE '12 online play, as well as a ton of other games. It is only a matter of time until we get a Elder Scrolls type of game as a MMO that you have to pay monthly for as well. It will sell millions but only last a year or two. Gamers have too much coming at them too often. I still have a backlog and the next release season is coming up quick.

Adam Larck

Blizzard may still have one more MMO up its sleeve that could still have the old MMO formula. If this "Project Titan" proves to be a Starcraft MMO, or if Blizzard releases a Starcraft MMO in the future, I can see this being a monthly paid MMO because of the following around it. As far as new franchises being a pay-to-play MMO, I can't see it. Free-to-play seems to bring in good money for these companies, so why not make a profit that way?

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Quizmaster

Adam's probably right, for 4821 points, because for years it's been clear that the only thing that will kill WoW is WoW 2, and everyone knows (but may have forgotten) that Blizzard has a massive MMO project in development (codenamed "Titan"), and you've got a 1 in 3 chance of guessing which franchise it'll involve. Outside of TOR, though, I can't think offhand of any giant licenses left that could possibly support the old pay-to-play model and get enough subscribers to support the game.

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QUESTION FOUR: I know, we talk about piracy and especially UbiSoft's increasingly crazy attempts to create the perfect DRM way too much, but this time it's actually seriously affecting people who actually paid for legitimate copies of games. UbiSoft is migrating their online services to new servers this week, and as a result, there will be an unspecified amount of downtime, because that's what happens when you do a server migration. One problem: UbiSoft's DRM for several of their games requires an active Internet connection to UbiSoft's servers or you can't play. Unless you have a pirated copy, I guess. Any thoughts?

Mathew Sforcina

The mark of a anti-piracy scheme that is the most important for me is simple. Will it impact negatively on me, the legitimate purchaser? If you put in something to discourage piracy that I never notice and isn't an issue, fine. But when stuff like this happens, you only reinforce in every pirate's mind that they are in the right, they are fighting the good fight, and that they are justified in what they do. You know, which is the exact opposite thing you want, right? Ubisoft, well done. You're just strengthening the pirate's resolve. Well done.

*slow sarcastic clapping*

Todd Vote

I blame the hackers, and the pirates. They are the ones who force the hands of developers in the first place and make DRM a near necessity. I understand that this server move affects everyone who bought the game new, but at the same time, at least Ubisoft is open about it from the get go. They didn't just shut down the servers and do it without informing the masses. Just calm down, you will be fine playing something else for a week or so.

Dan Watson

Well that really screws over those who play the games and paid for them. At the same time, this is a great way for Ubisoft to find out who is playing Pirated copies as if there is any change that they can find out about it would show who is playing when they shouldn't be able to. Its a bit ironic that those who paid full price for these games are the ones who cannot play them because of Ubisoft trying to prevent piracy.

Adam Larck

This just shows another flaw in UbiSoft's DRM. Big surprise there. DRM's are outdated things anyway, because the only person they truly seem to hurt are people that legitimately download or buy the game or program. Pirates can always find a way around it and will. But, as long as pirates are there, DRMs will remain. It's a cyclical argument, and one that will always hurt the person just wanting to play a game.

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Quizmaster

Sorry, Todd, the anti-piracy rant is usually good, but I think it would have more weight if there was any proof that UbiSoft's DRM was having any effect at all outside of making it really hard for legitimate customers to play, while the pirates have the DRM broken by Day 2 and get to sit back and laugh. You do get a couple points for the whole "at least they told us ahead of time" part, though.

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BONUS QUESTION: Valentine's Day is coming, fellas. Just making sure you're warned with enough time to make plans. How do you spend the yearly fake holiday created by card companies?

Mathew Sforcina

Already done it. You should never do Valentine's Day on the 'actual' date. Everyone puts their prices up and everything is designed to gouge the consumer. Since everyone eats a level higher than usual, restaurants charge more for worse food. A dozen roses that day costs more than a dozen dozen any other day of the year, and so on. So me and the misses did ours on the 1st. Went and saw Muppets in the normal theatre then the new Underworld flick in Gold Class. Then that evening we went out and played poker. And a good time was had by all. Moral is: On the 14th, have a quiet evening at home. Go out fancy a week prior or a week after.

Todd Vote

Depends on if I am with someone or not. If not, the day comes and goes without hardly a thought, maybe a horror movie marathon.

Dan Watson

I have been reminded many of times lately about this holiday coming up. My wife has dropped small hints about it and by small I mean has made sure to tell me that it is our first Valentine's Day being married so it better be good. So, just like any other guy out there, I am waiting until the last minute, I am sure it will work out great. If anyone has any good ideas that'd be awesome otherwise I am sticking with the simple movie/dinner outing and flowers/candy/card deal.

Adam Larck

I'll be at work, as will my fiance. We may try to do dinner out that night if we both get off at a decent time. It's not a big day for us, honestly. I mean, why should one day make us show more love than any of the others?

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Please wait…Host is calculating scores…

HIGH SCORE

IF YOU GUESSED IT WAS PLAYER 3,
YOU WIN!
HIS ANSWER FOR QUESTION TWO
WAS PROBABLY A GIVEAWAY
COME BACK NEXT WEEK TO TRY AGAIN

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