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Don't Think, Just Click

Evony is at it again. In their attempts to sue Bruce Everiss at Bruce On Games, they’re scrambling to disguise or delete any and all of the evidence he and the gaming community has collected.

The article he wrote about Evony being Malware caught the attention of Eric Lam, the guy who runs the gold-farming UMGE network of businesses and the guy who was sued by Microsoft for click-fraud schemes decided to sue Bruce Everiss. While the details of the case are expertly described on Mr. Everiss’ site, the new wrinkle in this attempt to silence criticism is that there are efforts to disassociate Evony with UMGE altogether to cover up the evidence.

They’ve edited their Evony wiki to remove references to UMGE and when one of the commenters on Bruce’s site pointed out that they missed a reference, shortly after, that reference was removed as well.

"See who's wanting you?" WTF?

The official UMGE.com site is down (and parked by GoDaddy) as well as 321Wan.com (the company that built the original Civony game, then cloned it to other browser games) is also down as well.

A student and reader of Bruce on Games went into the code of the game and found numerous references to UMGE and found that rather than malware designed to hurt the computer, it’s a massive data-mining engine.  Evony’s client, once installed, harvests tons of user information and sends it back to UMGE/ Evony.  While this is speculation, this would be a great way to scrape emails for spam, track sites you’re visiting and generally invade your privacy. Now, those references are gone.

It’s become clear that the core argument from Evony/ UMGE/ Eric Lam is primarily that Bruce Everiss (and the internet community at large) made fun of him, his business and his game and he wants litigation to cause them to shut up.  His case depends on removing the digital trails and deleting the connections so that the claims Bruce made can no longer be found.

All of this deception continues as Evony continues to throw stupid and misleading ads across the internet.  Again, while sex in advertising works, there’s very little in those ads that represent what the product actually is. It’s deceptive, pure and simple.

It’s bad marketing, it’s bad business and when called out, they litigate and try to remove evidence.

When you pay for products and services online, it’s critical that the company deserves a basic level of trust.  As more people join and play Evony, they’re giving their money to a company that doesn’t deserve that trust.

Donate to Bruce’s fight against the UMGE/ Eric Lam/ Evony litigation here at PayPal.

Apparently, Set on Stun and every other blog on the planet has been writing (and writhing) furiously about the Apple iPad announcement.  In the past few days, my partner Shawn and I have produced a few of those articles as well.

While I’m hesitant to add yet another article in the current cacophony of critical and complimentary yet credible connoisseurs of computing culture, I feel that I have yet to put my finger on why I simultaneously love and hate the Apple iPad.  I hate it because of what it is, yet I love it for what it could potentially be.

Why I Love the Apple iPad:

As my friend, mentor and former boss Thom Kozik noted in a past article, about my skepticism towards the Apple iPad, the revolution of the iPhone was not in the technology, the same could be said (and is being said) about the iPad.  He makes the point that

There’s an old adage in product design & marketing that the mass market will never recognize they need and thus will not demand, truly innovative products. I would challenge anyone to argue that they would have specified in some 2006 survey or focus group that what they *really* wanted was the kind of capabilities/functionality an iPhone user takes for granted (nay, is *addicted to*) on a daily basis. Design by committee doesn’t work here.

He goes on to describe the nearly imperceptible learning curve and its ability to “just work”.  In a sense, he described the brilliance of the Apple strategy.  They make products that they control to give people technology that fits the way they consume media (games, blogs, the internet, music, movies and more).  With the nit-picking of the iPad due to its lack of GPS, media outlets, Adobe Flash capabilities and many more, I realized that in my mind, I am looking at this device with the perception of a media creator.  I create things all day long, analyses, spreadsheets, articles and more.  I sit at my PC and I think, I work and I create.  With those lenses, I have judged the iPad and found it wanting.

However, after a brief IM with Thom and reading his response, I took a look at how I use my badly damaged iPhone and realized that the things I create with my iPhone is minimal.  The emails, texts, tweets and updates are minimal.  However, the media that I consume compared to what I create is staggering.

I sent 12 emails via my phone yesterday, read 12 blog posts, viewed 20 pictures, played 6 games, listened to music for 7 hours and watched over 10 videos.  The iPad would allow me to do that, and more (multitasking aside).

The iPad as a Media Consumption Product is Amazing.

As a content consumption device, it has flaws, but what I think Apple has figured out is not just what people consume on a mobile device, but how they consume media on that device.  The iPad version 1 will always be a test, it will find out what works and what doesn’t.  Patches will be added to update and upgrade the firmware, apps will be created to supplement and work around some of the idiosyncrasies.  Don’t even start talking to me about hating the iPad because of the “walled garden”  each gaming console is itself a walled garden.  I agree in principle, but the reality is that every popular manufacturer of content consumption (games, ebooks, music and movies) have some level of that baked into their process.

Why I Hate the Apple iPad

Simply put, for me, it’s superfluous.  I have consoles, both mobile and static… I have an iPhone, I have a laptop and the iPad is just one more piece of beautiful technology that doesn’t replace any of these items, doesn’t really do anything that these things do significantly better and has some drawbacks that I just don’t have to live with in the context of my current digitally mobile life.  I hate it because I’m attracted to it.  I want it… I want to play games, experience what I’m sure will be a new way to perceive and experience games.

That’s the crux.  All I see now is potential, the iPad is a platform that has a beautiful, yet flawed architecture that holds an incredible potential.  I can see that potential and I can see how Apple has designed this product to be iterative, to blend in with digitally mobile lifestyle and I can see how good it can be.

not mini-me -- biggie me

The answer isn’t entirely clear. To hear Steve Jobs say “It does way more than a smartphone” well that’s kind of obvious (and if it could, the IPAD would probably be a better phone) but what’s the point of this expensive gadget especially in a recession filled, unemployment ridden new decade?

This is not to deride or poke fun at the IPAD. Oh, no. The IPAD is a wondrous device but let’s think about this for a minute. We have smart phones, we have Iphones, we have iTouches, we have notebook PCs and yes we have tablet PCs. Granted there’s no Apple Tablet and one could assume that’s their motivation but really do we need this? Couldn’t the R&D team at Apple have used their monster brains to develop something else?

Out here in videogame land you now have a 10-inch screen to play the same games you already play on a tiny screen with your Itouch or Iphone (sans Tap Tap Revolution — do you really want to shake this thing?) but does this mean you have to buy the same games? From a marketing perspective it’s like Nintendo making a bigger DS  — why would they do that? We have enough agita with their new models of the same device. Speaking of which, do you  think Apple will stop with just one or two models of this thing? Check back  in three years.

We’re not going to regurgitate the tech specs because it’s an Apple product and it has all the stuff you would expect  it to have. For the casual gamers who have all this stuff on their iPod, iPhone or iTouch, the company says the iPad will be compatible but to restate the earlier question will you then have to buy them again like when you have to re-buy a CD from iTunes? Apparently you’ll also be able to surf the web, load photos and listen to music. So … it’s a bigger iTouch that costs twice as as much?

You remember the campaign for the iTouch right?

everything the new thing has except smaller

Now take a look at what currently graces Apple’s home page…

Notice what is says –unbelievable price. Really Apple? We’re supposed to think that the $500 base price for the 16GB model is a deal? Yes so when you’re done hanging out at the unemployment office line maybe you can go down to the Apple store and wait in line for one of these new gizmos.  Who’s the target audience for this? If it’s people with money then good luck with that. If it’s going after the handheld fans who have already spent chunks of of change for their other I-gadgets then we go back to the initial question that titles this post. And if it’s for that “floating in ambiguity between a smart phone and laptop buyer” then you can envision all those Best Buy and Apple store associates trying to explain why the iPad is better. It almost (almost) seems that Jobs thinks of the Apple consumer as a cat who likes shiny things and can be easily lulled into chasing this a new version of the same shiny new toy right into the store.

Cool new gadget worth spending money you don’t have or enough already Apple?

From Gizmodo’s liveblog.  I’ll take a look at the gaming aspects of the new Apple iPad.

So, there it is. The Apple iPad. "meh" so far unimpressed.... c'mon Jobs, bring on the games!

At this point, I’m watching the liveblog event on Gizmodo and within minutes, tweets and status updates are furiously scrolling past, “OMGZZORS will TEH Twitt3r Breakz?”  There are comparisons to Roman emperors and all sorts of fascinating geekery happening.  So far, nothing about the iPad and gaming.

Instant critique: It’s not widescreen formatted (lame)

Instant like: It supports HD even in YouTube.  (neat)

It looks good.. but no widescreen? WTF?

Some technical stats are in:

The iPad is 0.5 inches thin, weighs just 1.5 lbs, 9.7 inch IPS display.  It’s thinner and lighter than any netbook.  H.264 up to 720p @ 30 frames per second.  This part, I like.  However, it STILL seems like an amped up iPod touch.  Sound is done in glorious mono.. wait, what?  MONO?  I’m sure that stereo headphones fix that problem.

This is no surprise... but still good. Can it handle 2 handed multi-touch? How will that change gaming?

First look at the app store.  Calendars, Contacts and Maps.  No Games yet….

Urge to kill.... Rising... no games!

Alright, here are the games.  You can play in tiny mode or full screen with low rez.

I'm still in the "meh" territory.

Not bad. but not impressed.

GameLoft is on the stage and they’re showing the game Nova, which is already on the iPhone.  In this game, on the iPad, you can slide your fingers across to throw a grenade, you can slide the D-pad up and down the screen and potentially customize UI elements.

You can “interact with the game world in ways that weren’t possible before”.  Not sure what this means, but i’m sure its a more sensitive multi-touch.

Alright, I'm almost hooked. For this iPad specific game, it looks really nice and there are some interesting UI/ Touch capabilities.

EA is taking the stage:

EA is showing Need for Speed and it looks damn good (not as good as the Xbox or PC versions though)  but it’s better than the iPhone.  Basically, if you play an iPhone game really close to your face, then you get the idea.

Mingames and other aspects to MLB on the iPad.

Jobs said that the guys from EA only had a few weeks to put these together, “Imagine what they’re going to do in the next few months.”

I’m intrigued.  The iPhone did a lot to put gaming into a new, more casual and widely distributed audience, which significantly changed the game space forever.  With the larger capacity, more sensitive multitouch, the HD capabilities, the iPad should present an interesting challenge to game designers, developers and game enthusiasts.

@ferricide (from Gamasutra) tweeted:

“so hacky iPhone ports will be all over the app store at launch. devs: let’s think ahead instead.”

While it’s really cool, and there are some aspects of the iPad that I’m liking… it’s not a game changer.  It looks gimmicky (from a gaming perspective) the good thing: it’s bigger than a PSP or DS, it supports HD and will have massive gaming support.

The bad news is that it’s probably going to be prohibitively expensive and you’ll still have to deal with the draconians at the Apple App Store.  (just don’t say “fuck” in your app… as Trent Reznor learned).  Another thing is the excellent critique that the iPad is not a Mac, it’s a giant iPod touch and that it’s proprietary innovations stifle competition and boost up a business that’s become more closed than Microsoft.

Well, I think that the gaming section of the iPad is pretty much done.

Overall impressions: it’s an interesting and fairly useful piece of tech.  However, it seems to me to be the “segue” of computers.  It’s not a smart phone, it’s not a laptop, it’s in between.  It’s got some decent functionality, but I’m not sold.  I can easily predict that the games will be significantly more expensive and, at first, shittier due to the flood of ports.   I’m just not convinced that there’s a need or a vulnerability in the gaming world to accept this.

Lastly, it’s priced at $499.  Which is more expensive than any console… but considering, this isn’t just a console.  Overall, not a bad deal, most pundits were expecting closer to the $1,000 mark.

Doesn’t suck.  I kinda want one, but I don’t think this is going to revolutionize gaming or the industry in the same way that the iPhone did.  Not even close.  However, I still feel like a jerk-wad for saying “iPad” out loud.  I now remember how I felt saying “Wii” for the first few days.

Image Credits: Gizmodo

Update: They’re using AT&T.  Dammit.

Update 2: More detailed pricing structure from IndustryGamers.com

“The $499 model gives consumers 16 GB of storage, with WiFi built-in. Then for $599, the storage steps up to 32 GB, and $699 brings it up to 64 GB. A 3G model will cost an extra $130. So that means for $829 you can get a 64 GB model with 3G. “

Update 3: Gamasutra has a very good article on the gaming aspects of the iPad.

I’m a huge fan of RPGs in general.  I spent hours and hours playing Daggerfall, in fact I still have an old PC where I can play it every once in a while in all its pixelated glory.  When I fired up Dragon Age: Origins, I was lost in the stories of the downtrodden elves who were essentially gentrified into the slums of human cities.  I both envied and pitied the plight of the powerful mages.  I managed to play through every origin story until my last one as a dwarf fighter noble.

I’d remembered Nick Yee’s Daedalus project about the perception of beauty, attractiveness and race.  So I decided to find out what life was like as a dark-skinned dwarven noble.

I was immediately plunged into the intrigue and deception politics of the dwarven court, it was well written, complex and satisfying.  Yet there was something that pulled at me.  There was something wrong.

My father, my brother, my best friend… the arena master, the two dwarven girls who agree to a threesome.  All fair skinned.  Once I made that connection, I tried to find another dark skinned dwarf like myself.  While I’m sure there are dark-skinned dwarves at some point, I couldn’t find a single one in the origin stories.  It seems I wasn’t alone in noticing the lack of pigmentation in dwarven society as the blog Brain Dump also noticed.

Why was it overlooked or disregarded by the Bioware team?  Did they not notice the discrepancy?  Did market research show them that the RPG population was so completely dominated by whites that they didn’t need to represent other skin-tones in the game?  Is it really so difficult to make the skin tone of the player character a hitch to which the other familial pigmentations are attached to in a sort of variation of tone?

I ended up chatting with a few friends of mine from Spark Plug Games about the technical feasibility of making the player character’s skin tone a factor in dynamically generating any familial skin-tones.  They said it wasn’t hard to do, games make much more dynamic calculations and decisions on the fly than just rendering a series of colors.

I still couldn’t really pin down why it bugged me so much.  Then, it hit me.  Sort of.

I’m white.

I don’t live in an area where I’m the different one.  Where I grew up, my race never really was an issue.  I wasn’t the different one.  However, now that I’m in a mixed-race marriage where my wife has described to me what’s embedded in the experience of being the one that’s different, the one that’s had to be very conscious of her pigmentation, I realized I was uncomfortable because this game had made me experience something I’d never experienced before.

I became the outsider in a world separated by pigmentation.  Sure, no one in the game treated me differently, they made no differentiation to me based on my skin color.  Yet, I felt it.  My character was different than my own family, than my friends, than every other dwarf I related to.

What I experienced at that moment of revelation was two-fold.  I was drawn into an emotional and empathetical experience by a video game.  For only a few moments, I felt a fraction of what it may be like to be the outsider, the one who’s different.  It made no difference to how I was treated, I was different and it mattered to me.  I didn’t want them to recognize my difference, I didn’t wanted to be treated differently… I just ended up looking for some other character that looked like me.

The second thing I noticed was that whether it was intentional or unintentional on the part of Bioware to make the pigmentations on the families static, to not place any (that I noticed) black dwarves in the origin experience seemed to me a slight injustice.  I know that even with this slight experience, I cannot even come close to relating to anyone who’s suffered a real injustice for their race, but if a video game can give me that experience, I can recognize the amazing potential to teach people, to have them experience life from another perspective and ultimately, contrary to some punditry out there, raise more thoughtful and empathetic people… even if they’re playing a bloody good game like Dragon Age.