Daily Archives: October 12, 2014

Midterm

Video Game Business Ethics

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There is no greater motivation in this world quite like the promise of having a thicker wallet. Entertainment has arguably been at the forefront of this sentiment. Whether someone is a pop diva or an NFL running back, they all belong to something called the entertainment industry. The keyword there is “industry”. Although comparatively young in regards to sports and music, the video game industry has become wildly successful over the past decade. What started off as being nothing more than a specialized hobby has grown into a massive mainstream form of media. With triple-A video game releases even beating out Hollywood in terms of revenue there is clearly something they are doing right. Still, despite all of these impressive sales figures, inevitably greed will come into play. From creative business models to practically stealing from customers, the video game industry has undoubtedly affected modern business ethics both positively and negatively.

Perhaps it would be best to start off with the good. It is common knowledge by now that expanding your target market to be more inclusive will rake in bigger profits. While the console wars rage on between Sony’s Playstation and Microsoft’s Xbox, Steam remains practically unchallenged in the PC gaming market share. While Steam does rely on some exclusives such as Counterstrike and Dota 2, much of its success can be attributed to the large library of games that it provides from a myriad of different developers and publishers. Playstation, and more specifically, Xbox try to stay in the game by providing a number of other services such as Netflix and blue ray players in their machines. The Wii U trails far behind all three platforms due to its lack of third party developer support. Consoles may not necessarily be dead but PC elitism has grown over the past few years due to the number of titles Steam has accumulated over the years. Similar to how the Xbox 360 arguably won the console war several years back due to Playstation’s loss of certain exclusives (Final Fantasy and Grand Theft Auto to name a few), Steam may understandably win this war of platforms as they continue to forge alliances with dozens of other developers in order to cater to the many different kinds of gamers.

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Speaking of PC gaming, World of Warcraft, although fallen in numbers, still remains the biggest MMORPG of all time. It once was able to claim a whopping 12 million players. How is all of this possible? It relied on subscriptions. Most video games at the time of its release were single products that had a one-time purchase and less reason to revisit the game once you were done. World of Warcraft’s formula offered more than just a product. It was also a service. Constant patches and add-ons convinced players that they were living in an ever-changing and ever-growing online world. Off course server maintenance and constant reworks would cost money, but they made all of it back through subscription fees. Blizzard had successfully created an IP that would last more than a decade and still go strong. Other companies needed to constantly innovate creating new products that could keep the company afloat or destroy them.

Trying to capitalize on Blizzard’s success, a number of other companies tried their stab at a big MMO release. Bioware’s The Old Republic appeared promising at first, but does not appear to have the longevity that World of Warcraft does. However, it still is far from being a failure by including an in-game store. People are quick to nay-say micro-transactions, but it is all about the manner in which they are implemented. The reason why micro-transactions and in-game stores are criticized is because of their encouragement of a pay-to-win model. This essentially means that people can pay to pass levels and not give the time or effort required to progress in the game. The Old Republic relies more on selling in-game items that offer no real gameplay rewards, but you can give your character a cool looking hat. There’s really nothing advantageous about a hat. Small purchases like this keep the game alive and running.

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Wildstar, a new MMO on the scene, makes money from an even more far-fetched angle. Knowing that entering the MMO market is difficult, they came up with a formula that encourages its current subscribers to keep playing. They believe that there are essentially two different kinds of people that play their games. Person A is fine with paying subscriptions but does not have enough time to play in order to progress in the game. Person B has plenty of time but cannot keep playing because he/she is unable to keep up with the subscription fees. Wildstar allows person A and B to alleviate their problems. Person A can give some of the time purchased through his subscription to pay for some of person B’s hard-earned in-game currency/items. This is basically a trade between money and time. Person A gets the in-game items he/she needs to progress without having to dedicate their life to the game while person B gets the time needed to play longer. Interestingly enough, this is not the first time a video game company has let players trade directly between each other.

Eve Online has more than just a simply trade system. It has an entire living economy in its virtual space that players control and utilize with real money. The market inside this virtual reality is so complex that it has actual inflation and deflation rates for the in-game items being traded. Players themselves set prices and can make auctions at their own will. Very little is monitored in this in-game economy except for any “illegal” trades. Plume, a game journalist, describes the game as being its own “small country” even going into further detail about how players “speculate on commodities” while forming “trade coalitions and banks”. The amount of user power in this game is remarkable. There is virtually no middleman. At no point does the game developer itself step in to moderate trades. They give power to the people, and through this ideology they have secured the loyalty of their players ensuring that their IP will stay relevant in years to come.

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Unfortunately not all video games are sunshine and rainbows in the way they handle their businesses. Let’s take a look at the most casual of games. Just about everyone with a smartphone has played or at least heard of a little something called Candy Crush saga. The entire game is just swiping candy in four directions trying to match colors. For anyone who has had a phone before the iphone era, this concept sounds a lot like bejeweled doesn’t it? The premise of the game has been around longer than most people believe in various different forms ranging from a Facebook equivalent to classic NES games. Despite being predated, King Digital, the creators of Candy Crush saga, made it their mission to sue every other game that was similar to theirs. Games that simply have the words “Candy” or even “saga” were not safe from the legal attacks by King Digital. Even more outraging is the way they make money off of their game. Players cannot go 1 minute without a shameless plead for more of the user’s money. Smosh Honest Game Trailers puts it best saying that players “are given options like paying to unlock new levels, paying for power-ups, paying to make more moves, paying for more lives and paying for the ability to pay for more lives”.

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Corporate video game crimes do not end there. DLC, also known as downloadable content, has been greatly panned by fans and critics alike. These digital expansions have been accused of allowing the developers to market games with missing content to consumers and selling that same missing content as an “add-on”. I have to admit that this is a generalization and that some DLC expansions have earned the right to actually call themselves an expansion. The most blatant example of DLC abuse was with a game called Street Fight vs Tekken. This particular game actually came with the content on the disc but could only be accessed through a purchasable code. It’s like selling a book that was fully written but only selling half of it to their customers. Understandably, outrage spread through the community prompting the developer to review their DLC practices although no real action has taken place.

If selling your game in chopped up pieces one at a time to your customers was bad, selling an unfinished game to your customers is downright inexcusable. Steam, along with other publishers, have allowed players to partake in early beta tests to judge games that are still in development. The catch is that some beta tests actually require players to pay a fee. Gamers are not doing themselves a favor by paying to criticize unfinished games. This problem has extended to kickstarters. Games that began as kickstarter projects receive funding from hype that builds as they get closer to their release date. Not every game gets fully developed and some projects eventually get scrapped. While some kickstarters are legitimate, others abuse the mysteriousness of their projects reeling in consumers to sink their money into something that may not even be finished.

Sadly, even one of the most popular series, Halo, cannot escape the lure of becominga corporate sellout. The embarrassing alliance Halo 4 made would forever be the laughing stock of gamers everywhere. Halo 4 was at the forefront of the Doritos and Mountain Dew campaign at the time of its release. By buying Doritos and Mountain Dew gamers could level up faster than those who did not purchase their products. High profile game journalist Geoff Keighley was nothing more than a mere puppet promoting Doritos and Mountain Dew through Halo 4’s popularity. Capitalizing on an IP’s popularity can destroy a company’s integrity, and doing it so blatantly directly insults their customers.

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More pressing than the Doritos incident is gaming journalism itself. Corruption always finds a way to snare its tendrils into the innocent. There has been great speculation about whether publishers have any power over those that review their games. GMU, a video game awards ceremony came under fire in 2012 when it was revealed that the journalists invited to the ceremony were voted for and sponsored by video game publishers. Journalists were encouraged to tweet positive statements about certain games. In return, they would get a free PS3. Joe Vargas, a youtuber specializing in video game reviews, describes the process as “favors for positive coverage”. Promotion through shady deals have become an increasing problem in the video game industry. Incidents such as this practically destroy the legitimacy of video game journalism all over the internet. It may be too soon to claim that all game journalism is bad, but the tensions between gamers, journalists and the puppet master publishers have not helped its image in the slightest.

It may be wrong to praise all of the business practices of the video game industry over the past years, but the events that have transpired have nonetheless become important lessons in business ethics as a whole. Each success and each folly have become a stepping stone further shaping what it means to be a good business. There is no shame in huge profits as long as they are earned by just means. The tales of the video game industry will undoubtedly transform the corporate world into something that both consumers and businessmen can rally behind.

Works Cited:

“Business Model.” Wildstar, n.d.http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/game/features/business-model/.

Candy Crush Saga (Honest Game Trailers), 2014.https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=candy+crush+criticism.

William, Volk. “Free-to-Play Games Are Having Their Soupy Sales Moment,” August 6, 2013.http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/16/free-to-play-games-are-having-their-soupy-sales-moment/.

How to Run a Successful Videogame Kickstarter, n.d.http://www.dorkly.com/post/66182/how-to-run-a-successful-videogame-kickstarter.

“League of Legends.” League of Legends, n.d.http://na.leagueoflegends.com/.

Phil, Owen. “No, Game Journalists Are Not Paid by Publishers for Review Scores,” July 28, 2013.http://www.gamefront.com/are-paid-by-game-publishers-for-review-scores-nope/.

“Steam.” Steam, n.d.http://store.steampowered.com/.

Brad, Gallaway. “The Consumer’s Seven Laws of DLC,” April 8, 2010.http://www.gamecritics.com/brad-gallaway/the-consumers-seven-laws-of-dlc.

Brad, Plumer. “The Economics of Video Games.” The Washington Post, September 28, 2012.http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/09/28/the-economics-of-video-games/.

“The Old Republic.” The Old Republic, n.d.http://www.starwarstheoldrepublic.com/.

Top 10 Gaming Controversies of 2012!, 2013.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54s_jyjMUxY.

“Top 10 Gaming Controversies of 2013!,” n.d.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voVpvKlntDM.

Kyle, Orland. “Valve Lets You Pay for the Beta with Steam ‘Early Access’ Program,” March 20, 2013.http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/03/valve-lets-you-pay-for-the-beta-with-steam-early-access-program/.

Tom, Chatfield. “Videogames Now Outperform Hollywood Movies.” The Guardian, September 26, 2009.http://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2009/sep/27/videogames-hollywood.

“World of Warcraft.” World of Warcraft, n.d.http://us.battle.net/wow/en/.

Reflections

MY EXPERIENCE AT THE BOOK TRACES EVENT

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I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the Book Traces event. This was my first time at Columbia University, which has one of the most beautiful campuses I have ever seen. The library assistants guided us to the book racks focusing on American and British Literature pre-1923 where we were supposed to find books which had old annotations, dedications and so  on. Initially, I had no luck. I searched for the oldest books on the shelves but none of them held any significant markings. I was just beginning to lose my enthusiasm when finally after an hour of searching, I encountered a seemingly plain book that contained a heartwarming dedication:

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Soon, I encountered another interesting book which contained a rather unusual marking:

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This was the highlight of the day. I am unsure whether this illustration is from the 19th century, but apparently I was the only one who discovered a drawing in a book.

The event was quite an enlightening experience for me. These books contain not only stories by the authors but also of the readers themselves. Every marking reveals the thoughts and feelings of the reader and gives us a glimpse into their mind. It felt like I had time traveled to the 19th century. To say I enjoyed the event would be an understatement.

I believe that Book Traces is an essential project that must continue and spread all over the country and even the world because these books need to be protected. They contain so much history and so many memories that it would be cruel to destroy or discard them. I am especially prejudiced to this cause because I am an avid reader who worships books. Nonetheless, these books need to be preserved, studied and admired.

My one suggestion to improve the project would be to expand to other genres of books as well. May be the project could be stretched to include not only American and British literature but also literature from other nations as well. But for this to occur, the cause must be spread internationally.

Reflections

Cesco’s Book Traces

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First off, wow what a campus. According to the Columbia website, Butler currently has over 2 million books just in the stacks, and many more in several auxiliary libraries such as the Business and Dramatic libraries within the same building. The building’s construction was paid for by Standard Oil during the Great Depression, and the architect was the same who designed Yale’s library. Look at how gorgeous it is:

Dr. Stauffer’s hunt for old marginalia really intrigued me, and if I wasn’t completely convinced by the time I got to the Morningside campus, the examples he presented did the job. The class collectively went up to the stacks and began perusing old books (pre-1923) and searching for any annotations that appeared to be made by the original owners. Albeit looking through some 80 books, including very old Peter Pan prints and many decrepit ones in boxes that fell apart when I touched them, I yielded no results. Each time I’d find something written in the margins or underlined, it quickly became apparent that it was much more recent than what Dr. Stauffer was looking for.

Aside from my failure that day, I think the Book Traces project is a very important one. As the world’s population continues to expand and our collective knowledge as well, it is understandable that space begins to become an issue due to newly printed books. While Butler Library truly is huge, unfortunately, it isn’t infinite. For the most part, digitalization is a good solution; almost everyone has portable computers or e-readers, and therefore we can save all of these texts in online hard drives accessible to all. Critics argue that the feeling of holding a book is irreplicable and that e-books aren’t as engaging. Instead of arguing a subjective point such as that one in order to save the books, Dr. Stauffer takes a more ingenious tack and presents the case that the marginalia in these old texts is often just as valuable as the text itself. We can study the annotations and comments by these ghosts of the past in order to further our understanding and insights about the text. These old texts are living and breathing organisms, not just because they were crafted by trees, but because of the stories that reside within them; a prime example being the love story presented to us on the title page of an old book.

While the sadness that comes along with discarding and rendering these books unaccessible is inevitable, I think there are other solutions. In the same way that new technology plays a large part in the downfall of these texts, it can help save them as well. It would be a tedious task, but just as we can have interactive comments in Google word docs, we could collectively input this marginalia (or at least the more important/intriguing portion of it) into the e-versions of the texts. Additionally we could preserve a part of these old collections according to which were used the most. That way, students and alumni could still access history hands-on for a part of their research, and still find everything else online. I wish I’d found something of value in my search, but the experience of digging through the stacks and seeing what my peers around me found was amazing. I’ve always been a bit wary of these dungeon-like rows and rows of books but our interaction with the library changed the way I viewed it. As technology continues to evolve, we will continue to find better and more efficient ways to preserve these texts in their entirety, while still conserving space.