Richter Scale^® Articles

A version of this article first appeared in the January 2, 2006 issue of Jon Peddie’s TechWatch

I am a geek. I love my gadgets and video games. I write about them and use them. I am also an e-mail addict. And I procrastinate. All of those led to not writing my 2005 retrospective until the very last moment possible. But my faults aside, I blame it all on technology and the fact that there simply is too much of it out there that I want to buy or have already acquired.

Here’s an abbreviated list of technology I have acquired in the last year in no particular order: a T-Mobile Sidekick II, a couple of Creative Zen Micros, a third Xbox, a third and fourth Sony PS2s, a Sony DVD writer, an ADSL connection (maximum 256Kbps in, 96Kbps out – highest speed available where I live), a Packet8 VoIP connection, a 32” Samsung LCD HD-ready TV, Xbox 360 with all the bells and whistles, a Pentax OptioWP waterproof 5MP camera, a Sony PSP, a Motorola V-330 cell phone (T-Mobile Prepay), a second Canon S-500 camera, a DirecTV Receiver with Tivo, my own blog (blog.RichterScale.org), over a hundred video game titles for all sorts of platforms, a Nikon D2x professional DSLR, close to 100 music CDs, a strobe, and several lenses, a circular saw, a sander, a pocket digital multimeter, switchboxes galore, a couple of CRT TVs, a 60GB video iPod, DVD ripping software, video conversion software, a couple of Wacom computer tablets, a month-to-month subscription to Yahoo! Music, some fisheye security cameras and control systems, a Roomba, countless routers and switches, a new washing machine, and a new refrigerator.

In reviewing this list, the reason for acquisition of items tends to fall into one of six categories: 1) purchased because the previous technology incarnation of the device type failed to work properly (the video iPod is my Zen Micro replacement, for example, and the new fridge and washer replace broken ones too); 2) it was easier to buy a new one for a new location than lug one around with me (this applies, for example, to the extra Xbox and PS2 consoles); 3) because a family member needed one (e.g. the second Zen Micro – which also failed – for my wife, Pentax and Motorola phone for my daughter); 4) because it was something I needed (e.g. the power tools); 5) Because I thought it might be needed and could be fun to play with (e.g. the Sidekick II, my blog, Nikon DSLR, etc.); and 6) because I wanted it even though I had no real need for it but was willing to fabricate a need if pressed on the subject (e.g. the Xbox 360, the DirecTV receiver for my Texas office, etc.).

In reality most of these items are ones that I could have done without and still be happy and technology sated, never mind richer. Technology is not cheap. Nor does it seem to generally save time. I’ve spent too many weeks during 2005 trying to figure out how to maximize my use of many of my acquired technology items, and still only know a fraction of their capabilities. Even as I am writing this column I am getting distracted by e-mail, my son and daughter running into my office to get me to help them defeat the latest shadow monster boss in Kameo on the Xbox 360, and making a list of what DVDs I want to convert into MP4s so I can play them on my new video iPod during my upcoming travels.

Technology, while increasingly more capable and fascinating, has also at the same time become more and more complex. And ironically, the documentation supplied with much of the new technology that has come into my possession lately is thinner than ever, forcing me to Google for answers to figure out how something should work (e.g. “How to create play lists on my iPod without getting sucked into iTunes”), or why something does not function the way I think it should. And every chunk of technology has its own user interface, its own way of providing positive or negative feedback to users, and frequently too many exposed buttons to create problems with.

Of all the regular tech toys I have acquired this year, the simplest to use so far is my Roomba. I press the “Clean” button when the power light is green, and off it goes. When it’s done, it goes back to recharge itself.

The Roomba is the exception rather than the rule. The reason is that too many technology purveyors are trying to combine too many functions into unitary devices. Witness the latest generation of mobile phones – featuring cameras, video, digital TV, messaging, predictive word spelling, MP3 playback, and who knows what else. Oh, and you can use them to receive and make telephone calls too – at least sometimes. An exception to the thin manual rule, the manual that came with the Motorola V-330 phone was quite thick and took the better part of a day to parse and I still don’t think I understand everything the phone can do.

Microsoft spent the better part of the year trying to convince the media and anyone else who would listen that the Xbox 360 was designed to be easy to use by anyone in the family, including the proverbial female significant other who has in the past shunned game consoles. Well, my female significant other still leaves the room when the Xbox 360 gets turned on. And while I deem myself to be rather technically competent, I found the Xbox Live configuration of the Xbox 360 to be tedious and annoying. And, I believe setting the Xbox 360 up as a Media Center Extender to be beyond the skills of a normal non-techie computer user (since it’s the computer part of the system that does not work smoothly, at least at first).

I picture my parents as the typical non-techie computer users. Both are skilled Photoshop users, and know how to use e-mail, but anything dealing with hardware configuration or replying to computer-prompted technical questions on their screens scares the dickens out of them. The “user friendly” Xbox 360 would give them a heart attack. That’s why I am not planning on ever sending them one.

2005 was a year of many great developments in technology – ranging from cheap high capacity flash RAMs and truly amazing all-in-one cell phones to the Xbox 360 and 10+ megapixel cameras, but a large chunk of the population which can afford this technology are the same folks that pre-lit Christmas trees are designed for and marketed towards – people who want things that work out of the box and don’t require a lot of tinkering or playing with to accomplish their function. Just because a device can be made to do a bunch of cool things does not mean it should.

Unless technology makers can somehow simplify their devices, they will limit their markets to either the mostly younger folks out there who don’t mind being user interface guinea pigs or technology addicted folks like us who spend too much money on functionality we’ll never figure out but keep coming back for more, for some unfathomable reason. Call it a primal urge for or addiction to the latest tech toys. Or maybe it’s simply some variant of obsessive compulsive disorder?

What 2006 Holds

Bring pragmatic, I see 2006 as the year that I will need to build a larger living room. I have already started saving money for this expansion project. I simply have run out of space for game consoles, game controllers, battery charging stations (for the wireless controllers), as well as all the game and DVD content I want to have in my living room. And 2006 will bring us the $399 Sony PS3 (I predict a launch in Japan to coincide with E3 in May) and the $199 Nintendo Revolution (November 2006 U.S. release) to add to my living room. That will also require more ventilation – I may even need that now, as the larger-than-a-brick sized heat-generating power supply for the Xbox 360 is merely a taste of what’s to come with the Sony PS3, no doubt.

And speaking of the Sony PS3 – it will support dual HD displays, and that means I need to get a second 62” DLP to complement the current one – that’s at least another 5 foot extension of the living room right there alone.

And perhaps I should not stop at just one living room – after all, I have been enjoying playing over SystemLink on the Xbox with my son, so maybe a duplicate living room so that can continue (and so I can play my games in one living room while my kids use the other one) would be a good idea too.

Of course, none of these things make my wife very happy. She thinks we spend to much time playing games as is. The fact that she may be right is totally beside the point. After all, 2006 will be the Year of Next Generation Video Gaming, and we must welcome the year into our homes in proper style. For those folks whose Blackberry units stop working because of the injunction by NTP, as part of NTP patent litigation against Blackberry, playing video games will be the only way for them to get their frantic button pushing fix.

But the expense for the living room expansions, new consoles, extra HD displays, and batteries for all my new wireless controllers is not the only one I will need to budget for in 2006. 2006 will also be the year of the Split Cent. Microsoft will be revered by software and content makers world wide for bringing us Microsoft Points – a way to charge people fractions of a cent (typically many multiples thereof) for content they don’t need, but for some inexplicable reason are willing to spend vast amounts of “points” on, bringing the oft coveted (by mobile carriers) nickel and diming strategy widespread in the mobile phone business where people will spend $1.99 for a fraction of a song to use as a ring tone when that same whole song can be had from Yahoo! Music for $0.79, just to make a statement. And that sort of mobile phone expenditure pales compared to the sum of spending on lots of small amounts on things like text messaging, overage, e-mails, image transfers and everything else the carriers can get away with charging for.

Microsoft Points, and equivalent micropayment systems, will start becoming ubiquitous on devices other than mobile phone. Some smart entrepreneur out there will start giving away free PCs but you’ll have to pay in points for usage. 10 points to boot the system, one point per character typed in a document, etc. Renting software usage on-line a la “Live” is only the first step in being able to charge for everything a user does on a computer, bring back memories of how mainframe usage used to be charged for on timeshare systems.

But Google will still be free, and continue to be advertiser and stock market subsidized. Although Google Points will be available, and even offered as a reward to frequent Googlers, to be used on cool merchandise, like USB memory devices in the shape of a piece of sushi.

And while it won’t happen in 2006, but may a year or two after that, I suspect we will see Microsoft Points, Google Points, Nintendo Points, Paypal Points, etc. all traded on international currency bourses. In fact, with point-based MasterCard debit cards, it will be possible to shop anywhere in the world – in person or on-line, forsaking a national currency for a virtual one.

Of course, there will be the issue of point interoperability. AOL will no doubt at first refuse to accept Microsoft Points in trade for AOL Points, but when Open Source Points are created as a non-proprietary point system and Google announces that their Google Points are interchangeable with Open Source Point, the other big guys will work things out.

I am looking forward to 2006. It will leave me a lot poorer, but I’ll have fun spending my money. Better than being pointless, right?

(This article first appeared in the June 6, 2005 issue of Jon Peddie’s TechWatch)

With a couple of weeks to ruminate on the unveiling of the Xbox 360, the Sony PS3, and the Nintendo Revolution (if one can call showing us a pretty box and telling us what’s inside is a mystery an unveiling, that is), it’s time to take a look at the big picture.

Microsoft infamously stated they want a billion consoles out there, and post-E3 elaborated that they didn’t really mean a billion Xbox 360s, but instead a total of a billion game consoles of varied origin.

Sony and Nintendo also paid lip service to the concept of a console in every living room (or something close it).

What’s missing is how to achieve such noble goals. Well, the so-called Big Three in video game console makers have all decided that in order to achieve more market penetration and hit their lofty goals, they need to overcome the stigma that their products are:

• Ugly
• Messy (lots of cables)
• Testosterone oriented
• User un-friendly
• Family un-friendly
• Women un-friendly
• So gee-whiz-wow that it’s a must-have

Based on commentary during and after the various unveilings, the Big Three indicated that the key to getting into the living room pretty much boils down to convincing the stereotypical woman of the house that a next generation console is a “good thing” to have – no, that it’s a “must-have good thing”. And overcoming the stigma above is apparently the way to do that.

However, based on what all was shown at E3, they have a darned long row to hoe to even get close. Making pretty looking boxes in multiple colors or skins, with smooth curvy lines doesn’t cut it. You need to make the content appealing – something all three paid lip service to, but so far have failed to deliver.

Microsoft suggested that the prototypical female Xbox 360 user (a.k.a. “VelocityGirl”) might enjoy playing card games and making t-shirts to sell in the Xbox 360 marketplace. That stereotype thrilled TechWatch editor Kathleen Maher, sitting next to me at the Xbox 360 kick-off to no small extent. Not!

Nintendo proposed that its non-aggressive, alternative genre games, such as Elektroplankton and Nintendogs, might be a way to cultivate a greater female following for its products. When I suggested this to my non-video gaming wife of many years, she laughed hysterically, bluntly informing me that she still doesn’t get the attraction of game playing, and even something cute like Nintendogs or socially oriented like The Sims is a non-starter – if she needs pets to train or interact with she has our two dogs, two kids, a cat, a bird, two hamsters, and me. She questioned why would she want to bother with a video game when reality is busy and captivating (and occasionally annoying) enough? And by the end of the day dealing with her job, the family, and life in general, if she wants to be entertained, passive television watching or reading is far higher on her list than playing electronic games. Other friends’ wives I’ve surveyed are pretty much in concurrence on this. Mind you, my survey group consisted of married woman, ages 32 and higher, most with children and/or pets.

It doesn’t help that all the new games being touted for the Xbox 360 and PS3 are loud, violent, and when featuring female protagonists, such are wearing +10 thongs of eye catching, +17 armored silk demi-bras of deflection, and all sorts of other unrealistic accoutrements and body shapes a la Vargas. Nor that Microsoft touts the t-shirt making VelocityGirl as its female role model.

What I don’t get is why the Big Three don’t get that not everyone – male, female, transgender, etc. – is carved out to be a video game player, no matter what the video game. The gratification that those of us who play games and make it past the bosses or difficult puzzles or battles feel translates to annoyance and distaste in others who don’t share the same interest in gaming.

Likewise, I can’t stand Survivor on TV, as I think it shows the basic shallowness and poor social morality of ones fellow man – things I would just rather not think about because they are so depressing, but my wife (and countless other millions of people) will watch such dross, and gleefully yelling at the characters on TV when watching and then discussing the show in painstaking detail with their friends after the fact.

You can’t please everyone, and assuming you can simply leads to disappointment for yourself as well as those who might be the proper targets for your product which has now been dumbed down so much that it’s useless pabulum.

Let’s take a look at some of the stigma again, in the context of the new consoles.

First, we have ugly and messy. All of the Big Three have new, sleek, sexy boxes (and in Nintendo’s case, it’s apparently all they have). The Revolution is still pretty boxy, but it’s also small (probably because there’s nothing inside it yet). The Xbox 360 is white – a contrast to the typical black or silver television, incidentally – and has concave curved surfaces. The PS3 is also curvy.

Smooth, curved surfaces are theoretically supposed to be appealing to women. All three next gen consoles can be stood up, tall and erect. That too is supposed to subconsciously appeal to woman, I guess. However, most home entertainment furniture has about 6-8 inches clearance for home entertainment components, so these boxes are likely going to be using horizontally or require a complete redecoration of one’s living room. (I am personally planning on just building a second living room, just for all my next generation consoles and the almost required multiple HD displays.)

The messy factory is supposedly addressed by not needing wires to connect controllers to the consoles – they will all be wireless. However, you will still need wires to charge them, and wires to connect the console to your TV and stereo system. And with wireless controllers, the ability to misplace a controller in some place like a bathroom, kitchen, patio, car, or bedroom, is pretty high – at least in my experience with remote controls and my children.

While games targeted at the traditional post-pubescent male market make the biggest waves, and carry M or T ratings, they are not the biggest sellers, according to the Entertainment Software Association. However, that doesn’t stop console and game makers from using such violent and dark themed games as their primary promotion vehicle for video gaming. Sure, there may be the FragBabes, and some other women/girls that like to play such titles, but the primary audience will be decidedly young and middle aged males. And for those males who are married, the video game console becomes competition to a non-game playing spouse, which only offers the woman of the house a bigger reason to detest violent action games. And certainly she doesn’t appreciate how non-family friendly such games are (unless you have a family of psychotics).

With respect to ease of use, the number one feature that so far every game console and even DVD players lack, is true “Instant-On” capability. TV is instant-on, as is radio, and real set-top boxes too. Game consoles and DVD players take measurable time to start up to spin the disc up to speed, determine its format, and then start reading data. DVDs compound the start-up delay with annoying previews, the FBI warning, and perhaps animations before you get to a menu.

Game consoles also suffer from such start-up delays, typically needing to show the splash screens for the half dozen developers, licensees, and publishers who were involved in developing the game. Then you need to go through all the right menus to load a saved game (if you were able to save one). The only folks that seem to have done this more or less right are Sony with the PSP (you can shut off during a game at any time and immediately resume from the same point when you power on) and Nintendo with the DS (same scenario). Having to make several minute commitment to starting up a game when you may only have a few minutes to play is very user un-friendly, and it’s not known whether any of the new consoles will overcome this issue.

Additional complaints about ease of use heard from my wife are that the controls for games my son wants to play with her when I am traveling are far too complicated and non-intuitive. I know Microsoft made a point at the Game Developer’s Conference about trying to get game developers to unify their use of the various controls and buttons on game controllers so that transitioning from one game to another would be easier and more intuitive. We will see when the next generation games ship if they were successful.

I should point out that DVD players work for women like my wife because they are simple to use, non-intimidating, and they are used to accomplish a particular purpose – namely watch a show or movie or even an exercise or yoga lesson.

Game consoles, used for things other than playing DVDs don’t have the same appeal, from what I can tell from my informal survey.

All that said, the only game title my wife may want to “play” in the coming months is EyeToy Kinetic, which features interactive exercise, including Tai Chi. It runs on a PlayStation 2, requires the EyeToy Camera accessory, and a properly lit large room to use it (which fails to describe most living rooms). But is that really a game?

It’s such non-traditional uses of video game systems – making them do non-game, non-whiz-bang things which is the most likely way to garner at least some interest from the large population of disenfranchised woman, non-game playing males, and even the elderly.

Until the Big Three start really thinking outside the box, all they will have a is good looking box with nowhere to really call home.

Update: Added pictures to the article which were missing from the original posting.

(First published in the May 23, 2005 issue of Jon Peddie’s TechWatch)

With the announcement of next generation consoles in triplicate during E3 last week, we hit the show floor to see what software publishers had to say, mostly with their actions, about their support for the boxes.

Universally, publishers indicated that they would certainly be support one or more of the next generation consoles at some point. But details were short in many cases. A number of publishers indicated that they would announce specific titles in development at some point after E3 as they did not want to distract their audience from current generation console titles they were working on or releasing. Others indicated that they were still in negotiations with the console makers.

It’s perhaps not well understood, but game console makers have enormous influence in the development of new titles for their consoles. Such influence includes required approval for the creative concept, on-going evaluation of the title during the development process, usability testing, conformance testing, and more. So in addition to facing internal resource allocation issues and deadlines for development, publishers need to also make sure the console makers stay appeased. One European publisher we spoke to complained that a title they had ready late last year and had announced for shipment in time for the Christmas game buying season, didn’t make it out until E3 because the console maker’s European and American offices kept ping ponging the product and its approval between each other, and telling the publisher it was the other’s responsibility. And without the console maker’s approval, they could not ship.

With respect to our man on the street (or on the show floor, in this case) survey, those who were willing to share specific titles were typically vague about release dates, as well as support for anything beyond the soonest to ship console, namely the Xbox 360. With one exception, no company was willing to publicly commit to support for the Nintendo Revolution. That should come as no surprise with Nintendo keeping details about the Revolution very close to the vest, however.

On the flip side, Electronic Arts announced quite publicly at the Xbox 360 media briefing six specific titles they intended to release at or near launch. They also showed yet another title in development at the Sony PS3 briefing earlier that day, and as if that weren’t enough, issued a press release stating that they actually had 25 games in development for next generation consoles. That means 18 more titles they will be telling us about in the coming months.

And Microsoft announced that more than 160 titles were in development for the Xbox 360, and that of those 25-40 would be available at or near the launch date later this year.

While the original intent of our research was to create a chart to show which games will be available on which combination of consoles, we found virtually no overlap in titles between the Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation 3, the stated reason being that the Playstation 3 launch date is approximately a half year after the anticipated launch date of the Xbox 360, and as stated before, publishers are taking a “first things first” attitude.

---

Titles Announced for the Microsoft Xbox 360:

Publisher (Developer)	Title
2K Games (3DRealms)	Prey
2K Games (Bethesda Softworks)	Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
2K Sports	Amped 3
2K Sports	NBA 2K6
2K Sports	NHL 2K6
2K Sports	Top Spin 2
Activision	Call of Duty 2**
Activision	Quake IV
Activision	Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland
Activision (Neversoft)	GUN
Atari	Test Drive Unleashed
EIDOS	Tomb Raider Legend
Electronic Arts	FIFA 06
Electronic Arts	Madden NFL 06
Electronic Arts	NBA Live 06
Electronic Arts	Need For Speed Most Wanted
Electronic Arts	The Godfather: The Game
Electronic Arts	Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06
Majesco	Darkness*
Majesco	Demonic**
Microsoft Studios (Bizarre Creations)	Gotham Racing 3
Microsoft Studios (Epic Games)	Gears of War**
Microsoft Studios (Mistwalker)	Blue Dragon
Microsoft Studios (Mistwalker)	Lost Odyssey
Microsoft Studios (Rare)	Kameo: Elements of Power
Microsoft Studios (Rare)	Perfect Dark: Zero
Midway	Stranglehold***
NAMCO	City Killers
Sega of America	Condemned: Criminal Origins
Sega of America	Full Auto
Square Enix	Final Fantasy XI
Tecmo	Dead or Alive 4
THQ	Saint’s Row
THQ	The Outfit
Ubisoft	Ghost Recon 3
Vivendi Universal Games	Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
Vivendi Universal Games	Scarface

* = Announced for both Xbox 360 and PS3

** = Exclusive to the Xbox 360

*** = Midway says Stranglehold will be available for all three next generation consoles

---

Sony PS3 Games:

Publisher (Developer)	Title
Bandai	Gundam
Capcom	Devil May Cry 4
Electronic Arts	Fight Night 06
Evolution Studio	MotorStorm
Guerrilla	KillZone 2
Incognito	WarHawk
Insomniac	I-8
Koei	Ni-oH
Konami	Metal Gear Solid 4
LiverPool Studio	Formula 1
Majesco	Darkness*
Midway	Stranglehold***
Namco	Tekken
Ninja Theory	Heavenly Sword
Polyphony Digital Inc	Vision GT
Rockstar	Untitled**
Sega	Fifth Phantom Saga
Sony Computer Entertainment of Japan	Eyedentify
Square Enix	Final Fantasy VII
Square Enix	Final Fantasy XII
Soho	Getaway Screen Test
Ubisoft	Killing Day

* = Announced for both Xbox 360 and PS3

** = This may be a sequel to Rockstar’s Red Dead Revolver – we only saw a Western gunslinger sort of clip at the Sony PS3 briefing from Rockstar.

*** = Midway says Stranglehold will be available for all three next generation consoles

---

Nintendo Revolution

Publisher (Developer)	Title
Midway	Stranglehold*
Nintendo	Metroid Prime 3
Nintento	Legend of Zelda**

* = Midway says Stranglehold will be available for all three next generation consoles

** = A commitment was made to a new Zelda product on the Revolution, but the exact title was not revealed.