It seems that Pachter doesn’t really understand the “gamer’s experience.” I wonder how many hours he plays on or offline on a regular basis. The huge oversight on Pachter’s insight is that the online gaming experience is created by the players themselves and not the game. The game itself is only a canvas that players are able to express themselves through. It’s the co-op style of play that made the classic arcade games form the 80’s and 90’s so hugely popular. Players back than frequented arcades to challenge other players and compare their skills, trash talk, and socialize with fellow game’s, that is what made the experience so satisfying and original. If you had to pay to get in an arcade at that time no one would have gone in on a consistent basis.

Using only the top “franchise games” as targets for paying to play online could have very serious repercussions to the publisher. Gamers could backlash against them and go to another format or game, its just not worth the risk and would be irresponsible to the “publishers and shareholders” to jeopardize a smash hit. Many publishers and shareholders should embrace the gamer audience and thank the 28 million gamers who play their game!

Once a developer/publisher is able to produce a game that has no programming flaws or quirks and servers that don’t crash and slow down under heavy loads and can offer additional benefits like new map packs and perks/plays and other add ons that the gamer can decide on which ones he wants to purchase than they might consider a option for “pay and play.” Until than grab a game Michael Pachter and play it for 10 hours or more to understand what makes a game great.
PS-Even Infinity Ward and Activision don’t know what drives their games if they where even considering this. It’s sad when a company can be incredibly successful in spite of itself

With PS3 new ad campaign in full gear during the Holidays as the “Do Everything” system Sony has clearly set it sights on the Xbox 360. Personally I think Sony products and their proprietary technology that they develop is often years ahead of most competitors but in this instance maybe its two little two late. Yes I own a 360 and prefer it over my PS3 (Metal Gear Ltd.) not because I think the 360 is better but because the online experience is so much easier and I feel of better quality. I think both offer great games and great graphics but for online gaming the 360 I would say is the winner.

What Xbox Live has been doing (1st with Netflix) with all media content PSN is now just starting. With the recent server issues revolving the Modern Warfare 2 release and the servers crashing on opening day is not acceptable. Sony blames Activision yet Activision claims it wasn’t them, either way the PSN looks bad. There where no issues that I am aware of with the 360 servers. That’s not to say that the 360 doesn’t have its own set of issues (RRD) but for the most the Xbox Live experience and content has been very smooth. Before you jump all over me claiming I’m an Xbox fan understand that we all need to have choices when it comes to gaming and online content and in order for Xbox and PSN to continue and improve their services for us we need them both in the picture along with the Wii.

Because of the Wii run away success with motion activated controllers and games we will sooner than later experience Xbox and PS3 versions. By some accounts almost 2 years ahead of schedule if it where not for the Wii. My only concern is that the PSN improved its current online gaming integration before moving onto other product lines. Despite being a free service currently I feel many users would pay for the service if it was vastly improved. – Game On

If you’re too young to remember the game, KLOV has all the information you need to see how great a game it was. It has all the old school great players in it and many of the stars of that era bought one personally for their home. Michael Jordon and Gary Payton didn’t want to be in original game but once they saw the popularity of NBA Jam they begged to be in it. Shaq even bought two games, one for his home and one to take on the road as he traveled with his team from city to city. Mark Turmell, the games creator, was brought in to assist in revamping the game and shares more little know facts of the original NBA Jam game on EA’s website.

My excitement for this new NBA Jam game was short lived when I read that the game was being exclusively made for the Wii. Nothing against the Wii but considering the average age of a gamer is 30 it just doesn’t make sense. The Wii is targeted towards the young crowd not core gamers who in fact have been propelling game development more than any other gaming sector. With y/y sales up over 17% in core game software development I don’t understand how EA can afford not to include the 360 and PS3 in it plans. Being an “older gamer” and remembering playing the original arcade version I would buy the game out of pure interest and share it with my kids. Many of the “core gamers” are slightly younger but I believe they would buy it as well. Let me know if I am wrong by taking the poll.

You can also visit the independent gamer web sites and read their reviews. If they are not sponsored by any game publishers and are committed to gamers you can get a fairly honest review of most games. One of the sites that I like to visit for all types of information on gaming is gamasutra.com. It’s not about game reviews but more on what is going on in the industry. It’s also a great resource for those wanting to get into the gaming business. If you know of other game review sites let us know and we will post them. This brings us back to the reason I started this post. How do you know what the best games are to purchase?

According to a recent study by Waggener Edstrom Worldwide and its partners, all you need to do is ask a friend. That’s right word-of-mouth was the most influential form of getting a game to be purchased. The study gathered information using Moments of Influence™ proprietary research tools and was conducted during the month of July consisting of 507 video gamers. The research data showed that friends where twice as likely to influence the purchasing decision on a video game over traditional retail, online demos, reviews and other forms of advertising and promotions. The initial opinion I expressed over the other forms of media bias was born out in the survey as friends where also among the most trusted form of influence. From the research it seems that the 12 billion dollar a year industry wastes a lot of money trying to influence gamers to buy their games. You can read more on this startling research at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide.

The bottom line is that we the gamers still have a major voice in the games that are made and played more so than we think. In fact this research strongly reaffirms my belief in that the gamers who actually play a game from top to bottom and really get into the game play should be the ones reviewing the games. A site like gamerrated.com is a great website that gives the power back to gamers. Here you can rate the video game from being the “bomb” to “it sucks” and also leave comments about the game. Check out Gamer Rated.com and empower yourself!