In 2016, when I started writing Loathe at First Sight, a workplace romantic comedy about a female Korean-American producer who works in the video game industry, I had the full intention of writing a lighthearted romp. One of my best friends is a producer at a large, well-known game developer and she led an all-male… Continue reading New Book Explores Challenges of Being a Female Game Producer (Guest Post)
Hey, Geeks. Welcome to Your Favorite Thing Sucks, where I get to talk about all the worst parts of your favorite things. And while I'm pretty sure that NO ONE actually considers Electronic Arts their favorite thing, we need to discuss it anyway. Because EA is worse than being your favorite sucky thing. EA actually… Continue reading Your Favorite Thing Sucks: EA
Hype. It's a word that is thrown around a lot today in general and seems to be used even more in the context of video game releases. Given the frequency with which this word is used it seems like maybe we should know its exact definition. Let's go to Google and see what it has to… Continue reading Hype and its Disastrous Consequences
When I first started writing for Game On Girl back at the end of 2012, I immediately thought of doing an article at the beginning of every year where I looked ahead to the games that had me excited. I, to date, have done that exactly once, at the beginning of 2013. And looking at… Continue reading My Growing Despair of the Video Game Industry
I had the pleasure to chat briefly via email with the art director for a fantastic Kickstarter game, Charmixy. Tess Young took some time to answer my questions about this unique, puzzle-based combat game. It's rare that I promote Kickstarter campaigns but I think this game has great vision, diverse characters, an intriguing game play… Continue reading The Charm of Charmixy: An Interview with Tess Young
Recently, I returned to playing Warframe after about a six month hiatus. The impetus for this being that I wanted to see how pretty it would be on the new PC I built. After waiting about 20 minutes for the game to download, I began the install and was surprised when a beta Terms of… Continue reading Hiding Behind Beta
I’ve been thinking about early access games a lot over the past six months. On the surface it seems like an incredible way for small game developers to raise the capital to get their games made and for the gamers to see behind the curtain and have input into development. And when things go really… Continue reading Early Access Doesn’t Work. At Least Not for Me. Most of the Time.
I play free to play games.
There's lots of reasons why, but here are the important bits.
First, and foremost, I’ve become a bit of a penny pincher in my middle age. Money doesn't exactly flow freely and I find it hard to justify paying $60 for a video game. When you add the quality issue that a lot of video games seem to have on release lately (looking at you Watchdogs and Destiny), it just becomes foolish to buy most new titles.
Don't get me wrong. I’m happy to support a game when I have the money and the game is really worth it.
This is why I’ve taken to Free to Play (F2P) games in the last year or two. I’m not saying I don't play anything else, but when I’m looking for something new, that's where I start. Because of this I’ve come to realize what makes a F2P game work.
It comes down to playability, respect, and value.
Playability
When it works, the game is a fully realized concept. From controls to design, the game functions as it was intended to. The controls are smooth and react as you would expect them to and the game has very few bugs and is playable “right out of the box.”
When it doesn't work, the game is full of holes. It can be any mix of terrible controls, half-realized game mechanics, story, and bugs. In my experience, some of the really bad F2P games hide these shortcomings behind a pay wall where they only become evident once a player gets beyond that wall. For an example of this check out Regina and Rhonda's review of Swordsman on GoG podcast episode 125 and Rhonda's companion piece.
When I first heard of the documentary Gaming in Color, I fully intended to watch the documentary and write a review, listing out a bunch of reasons why I think gamers and non-gamers alike should watch it. As I made my way through the film, however, I soon realized that that’s not really what I… Continue reading The Need for Queer Narratives: A Response to “Gaming in Color”
Want more action in your MMORPG experience? Andy Velasquez, Lead Producer on Neverwinter, the D&D MMORPG from Perfect World and Cryptic Studios, talks with us this week. Andy shares some of the challenges faced by game producers and the many reasons he plays Neverwinter even when he's not at work. Have you tried Neverwinter? It's a… Continue reading Episode 66 – Andy Velasquez from Neverwinter
