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crusherthedoctor · 3 years

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Can we have some unpopular Sonic opinions?

I tried to cram in a lot, so I hope this satisfies you. :P I tried to stick to the ones that I haven't brought up quite as often, since by this point, we all know that I think IDW's storytelling is dire, SA2's story is overrated, X Eggman is an embarrassing portrayal (at least from season 2 onwards), Blaze shouldn't be handcuffed to Silver, Shadow's backstory had issues with or without the Black Arms, Neo Metal Sonic looks silly, etc. But anyway, here we go:

- Knuckles may be tricky to incorporate into plots that don't relate to Angel Island, but making him obsessed with his duties is no better than having him forget about Angel Island entirely.

- I like Marine, and never found her annoying. Oh, I understood what they were trying to do with her, but I honestly wasn't put off by her, and found her Aussie lingo more endearing if anything. Since her debut was during the period in my life where where I couldn't stand Sonic himself, I instead thought he was irritating (and hypocritical) for getting annoyed with her for doing shit he would often be guilty of.

- Silver is just as guilty of being shoehorned into games and plots as the Deadly Six are. Having more fans than the latter is irrelevant, since we're still talking about a character who constantly has to time travel in order to be present.

- Speaking of Silver, if he has to stick around, please do something different with him. They've pulled the doomed future routine multiple times now, and it's been boring every single time. I wasn't interested when it involved Iblis. I wasn't interested when it involved Knuckles drinking the edgy Kool Aid. I wasn't interested when it involved a council of dumbasses... give it a rest already.

- The Tails Doll can work as a mildly creepy thing, with maybe more to it than meets the eye when it's time for a boss fight or what have you. But the memes about him stealing your soul are just dumb, and I thought it was dumb even back in my teenage youth.

- “Eggman is supposed to be clownish!” Yeah, well he's also meant to be a genuine villain with a 300 IQ. These qualities don't have to be mutually exclusive.

- “Sonic is supposed to have attitude!” Yeah, well that's not the same thing as being an absolute cunt. Sonic was only ever meant to come off as having an edge compared to Mario. He was never meant to be a GTA-tier protagonist.

- Rouge is not a villain, and never was a villain. Literally the whole point of her role in SA2 was to reveal that she was working against Eggman and Shadow the whole time, albeit using sneakier tactics to do so. You'd think all those people who exult SA2's story would remember this, but apparently not. She barely even qualifies as an anti-hero, since aside from stealing the Master Emerald, she rarely does anything morally questionable otherwise. She's got a lot more good in her than people give her credit for.

- Captain Whisker is a better Eggman Nega than the actual Eggman Nega. And as far as robot characters in this franchise go, Johnny's design is pretty underrated.

- I don't like Iblis or Mephiles, but I DO like Solaris, and it annoys me that it was out of focus for most of the story due to all the time spent on its less interesting halves. Had they kept the backstory with the Duke and his experiments, and worked from there, I think they could have provided an interesting contrast with Chaos (since Solaris can also qualify as a monster with a sympathetic backstory) instead of recycling the surface level schtick.

- Black Doom may technically be just as bad as Mephiles, Nega, Scourge, Mimic, etc, since he's yet another villain with one-note characterization and fucked over Eggman. But because he never gained a disproportionate fandom, he doesn't annoy me to the same extent. It's easier to ignore him by comparison, and his Dr. Claw voice and face shaped like a lady's delicate part make him enjoyable to mock.

- Likewise, while Lyric is also on the same level as these other villains, it's easier to dismiss him because I was never invested in the Boom games anyway, and being an obvious alternate universe (compared to Sonic X or IDW, which retain the Modern designs and plot elements), it never had an effect on the main series. I also unironically like his design, and if nothing else, at least this snake didn't start a hypnotism fetish across the internet.

- Sally - and the rest of the Freedom Fighters for that matter - have had their importance in the franchise severely inflated. They may have been lucky to be the face of popular media (SatAM and Archie), but they're not these magnificent entities that the game characters are but a speck of dust in comparison to. Having a “legacy” doesn't make them more entitled to shit than any other character, old or new.

- Conceptually, the treasure hunting gameplay is one of the better alternate gameplay styles IMO. But it was let down in SA2 by its one track minded radar (the levels may have been big, but I don't think that would have been an issue on its own if the radar was better). If they brought it back and made it more like SA1's treasure hunting, I'd be all for it, although it would probably be better suited for a spinoff title.

- This goes for a lot of games, but when it comes to 2D, I prefer sprites over models. Not that the Rush models are bad (though the ones in Chronicles sure as fuck are), but the sprites in Mania and the Advance trilogy are just so charming and full of character.

- I actually like Marble Zone. Yeah, the level design is a bit blocky, but I love the concept of an underground temple prison, mixed with lava elements in a zone that otherwise isn't a traditional volcano level.

- I also like Sandopolis Zone. Again, completely understand why it's not the most popular zone around, but I've been a sucker for the Ancient Egyptian aesthetic since childhood (you can thank Crash 3 for that), and Act 1 is visually stunning.

- I prefer the JP soundtrack for Sonic CD over the US version overall... but I also prefer Sonic Boom over You Can Do Anything.

- SA2's soundtrack isn't bad by any means - I love Rouge's tracks, and The Last Scene is one of my favourite pieces of music - but as far as variety goes, it's a step down from SA1's soundtrack.

- If Sonic X-Treme had been released, it probably would have been unenjoyable and confusing. Whatever your thoughts on SA1, it was probably the better option between the two as far as Sonic's first legitimate translation into 3D goes.

- I have no qualms with Modern Sonic and the other Modern designs and characters, but I also fully acknowledge that changing gears from Adventure onwards - and doing it with a great amount of fanfare - was always going to create one of the biggest divides in the fandom, and fans shouldn't act surprised that this happened. The fact that they felt the need to hype up a new design and direction in the first place (compared to Mario, who has mostly been the same since the beginning, with only the occasional minor change with little fanfare) also indicates that they weren't confident enough in Sonic and his universe being the way it was, which often gets ignored by all the “SEGA have no confidence!!!” complaints you see with their recent games.

- Unleashed did not deserve the incredibly harsh reviews it received back in the day... but it doesn't deserve its current sacred cow status either. It had more effort put into it than '06 to be sure, and I can respect that, but much of it was misguided effort, and even if you like the Werehog, you have to admit that the idea came at the absolute worst time. The intro cutscene may be awesome, as is the Egg Dragoon fight, but 2% doesn't make up the entire game. Chip was also quite annoying, and I wasn't particularly sad when he pressed F in the chat at the end.

- On the other hand, while Colours definitely has its shortcomings, and people have every right to criticse those shortcomings, a lot of its most vocal detractors tend to have a stick up their arse about the game because people actually enjoyed it, and it had a gimmick that people actually liked. Yes, it may have been the first game to have those writers everyone hates, but then SA1 was the first game to give the characters alternate gameplay styles and have other villains upstage Eggman, so...

- Forces is absolutely not on the level of '06. It's nowhere close. A game being flawed does not make it the next '06, clickbait YouTubers. Or should I say, the game they want to retroactively apply '06's reception to, since they've been trying hard to magically retcon '06's own quality...

- To echo @beevean, ALL of the 3D stories have their issues. SA1 is probably the most well-rounded of them on the whole, but even that one isn't perfect.

- To echo another opinion, although I do love SA1, I'm not crazy over the idea of a remake, and would prefer them to just take Sonic's gameplay from SA1 and work from there. Because with a remake, you're stuck in a hard spot: Do you keep it the way it is bar the expected graphical upgrades, and risk accusations of not doing anything to actually improve the experience? Or do you try to address past criticisms, and risk the wrath of the fans who will inevitably go on a #NotMyAdventure crusade about it? What people fail to consider is that the Crash and Spyro remakes were accepted gracefully because their original iterations were still unanimously beloved for the most part, whereas SA1 - and especially SA2 - have always been divisive, and have only gotten moreso over the years.

- People take their preferences for the character's voice actors too seriously. I have my own favourites like anyone else, but I don't make a big deal out of it.

- And with fandom voice actors, they usually focus too much on doing a basic impression of their preferred official voice actor, and not enough on the acting. So you end up getting a lot of fan voices who sound like decent impressions of Ryan Drummond or Jason Griffith on the surface, but they sound utterly empty beyond that impression, because there's no oomph or depth to the actual emotions. They think about the actor rather than the character, when it should really be the other way around.

- The thing with Ian Flynn is that he is capable of telling a decent story, and he can portray some characters well. But he's proven time and time again that everything will go off the rails if he's given too much freedom (ironic, given how quick he is to point the finger at mandates when something goes wrong).

- Ian Flynn and Shiro Maekawa are not the only people in the world who are allowed to write for Sonic. I understand that one should be cautious when seeking out new writing talent, but for all the fandom's accusations of playing it safe, they sure aren't in a rush to experiment outside of their own comfort zone.

- And of course, the big one: You don't fix the franchise's current problems by crawling back to its previous problems. It's much more helpful and constructive to discuss the good and bad alike with each of the games. Less “THIS GOOD, MODERN BAD”, and more “This could work, but maybe without that part...”

#Crusher's Asks #Opinion #Sonic the Hedgehog

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sonic7ischaos · 4 years

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So Sonic 1...

I’ve gone over what my definition for a Sonic Adventure game is and why 06 isn’t Adventure 3, nor is Heroes or Shadow or Unleashed but I’ve finally crystalized WHY Sonic Adventure is SO different from 06 and Heroes and Unleashed and why every Sonic game done this way is more memorable and long lasting.

See, the thing about the Adventure games and their focus on momentum is that they, like Sonic 2, CD, 3k and most recently Mania, are built on the foundation established in Sonic 1, which, to go over briefly, is a game fundamentally built on using momentum and rolling physics in conjunction with sloped terrain and its effects on your momentum (Downhill = gain momentum, Uphill = Lose momentum). There’s a LITTLE more to it but that and how running works comprise Sonic gameplay at its core. It’s Sonic 1 that established this as its foundation and every mainline game and some portable “spinoffs” (because of their continuation of the main canon, I hesitate to call them spinoffs) iterated on that foundation up till SA2 (and Rush for the spinoffs).

In the same way that Mario 64 to Odyssey are built on Super Mario Bros. core, foundational mechanics and design goals, so too are the Sonic Adventure games. They’re Sonic 1 taken in another direction and iterated and/or improved on. Sonic 2 is Sonic 1 with the spindash, playable characters, and a consistent level design structure that better plays on the strengths of Sonic with it’s greater emphasis on sloped terrain and exploration of paths than the block platforming which plagued Sonic 1. Sonic Cd is Sonic 1 with 2 variations on the spindash, level design with an almost exclusive focus on exploration, a time travel mechanic, and greater worldbuilding focus. Sonic 3k takes the lessons learned from Sonic 2′s level design and makes the different level paths more flowing and less binary. It greatly expands the worldbuilding, characterization, and storytelling from previous entries, add’s new mechanics like the insta shield and flight for Tails and a 3rd character in Knuckles with his own abilities and limitations as well as his own level challenges. STILL, it only does this by building on the rules established in Sonic 1. You’re still using the natural buildup of momentum by running and rolling down slopes for speed and height. The core mechanics and physics are still there and the focus of gameplay.

Sonic Adventure 1 is the first in the series to attempt iterating on Sonic 1′s foundation (it’s directly iterating on 3k, but 3k’s foundation is Sonic 1) in 3d. If you’re attempting to Make a 3d Sonic game this HAS to be your priority or you’re not making a 3d SONIC game. You might be making a 3d game that features Sonic but it’s not the same thing. I could mod Sonic Adventure 2 to include Mario 64′s character model but I’d still be fundamentally be playing with Adventure 2′s rules and mechanics. The boost games are SPINOFFS set in Sonic’s world with its characters (sort of, fuckin’ pontaff) and some of its ideas and mechanics like rings and loops and Super Sonic but it’s still not Sonic gameplay. Modding Adventure Sonic into Generations doesn’t make Generations an Adventure game. Whether the boost games are lesser or not is a matter of opinion (if you ask me, they are, though they’re still worthwhile outside of Forces....FUCK Forces) but they’re not the same.

Saying Sonic needs to try new gameplay styles so it can get out of its rut and be good again misses the fundamental point, which is that Sonic games were ALREADY VERY GOOD AT THEIR CORE. Heroes? 06? Unleashed? Not built on the core of Sonic 1. 06 is very SUPERFICIALLY like Adventure 1 but honestly if you play it, it plays almost nothing alike, but that’s a whole other long diatribe topic that I’ve already done a lot.

Sonic the Hedgehog rose to titanic popularity (like, precursor to the pokemon craze popular) in the early 90′s with the release of Sonic 1 and it wasn’t just the character that did it. Like, maybe close to half of it was Sonic himself but Sonic 1 really was good enough to challenge Mario’s absolute domination of the genre at the time and the series (for a while) only got better on mainline installments. It’s not nostalgia, the fact of the matter is that Sonic fans stuck around after Shadow and 06 and the Storybook games and Free Riders and Boom and Forces for a reason, and it’s because of the goodwill earned in those early days. Understanding how and why they worked is KEY to getting Sonic back to where he belongs, on top, shoulder to shoulder with Mario.

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danyelle756games · 4 years

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keegames · 7 years

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Expectations and Gaming Mentality: In Defense Of (What We’ve Seen Of) Sonic Forces

Sonic Forces, the latest 3D entry in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, has had multiple new gameplay videos and trailers released in the past few weeks. With every bit of footage, more scrutiny follows, with the biggest criticism being of the linear level design. Considering that Sonic Mania, with its massive, multi-tiered, sprawling 2D levels, is fresh in everyone’s mind, it’s no shock that people see a 3D game with a more linear design as a step backwards. Still, as someone always open to various design intentions in games, I’ve decided to take a bit to write about the sort of thing Sonic Forces seems to be going for. This probably won’t change minds, but hopefully it’ll be another stepping stone to more nuanced and accepting games discussion, which is really what I want more than anything out of this blog.

As I said in a previous post, players can get different things from their experiences with games. People play games for different reasons, and they’re all valid, and they all have different games that serve them best. But what happens when a long-running series drastically changes the kind of experience it offers? What happens when people whose tastes were met with early entries are no longer served by the latest ones?

The Genesis Sonic games are pretty unorthodox in terms of design compared to a lot of 2D platformers of the time. Unlike 2D Mario, levels are not singular paths to the end with perhaps a small secret area or single path fork leading to a secret exit; they are large and spread out over a wide area, vertically and horizontally. However, the levels don’t REQUIRE you to explore various corners to complete them. You don’t have to find objects; there is a singular goal to reach. The result of this design is that classic Sonic is very free. You can utilize the games’ physics (and, in Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic Mania, the special abilities of Tails and Knuckles) to reach all sorts of new places, but you’re never forced to. The reward for them is generally only small extras for your current playthrough; rings, temporary power-ups, occasionally extra lives. Basically, in classic Sonic, you can take the levels in many ways for no reason other than your own desire, which is unusual in 2D platformers. This freedom helped endear these games to many players of all ages.

Sonic’s tumultuous history with 3D games is well-known, but there is a consistent bit of design that started with Sonic Adventure 2 and continued through all of his 3D adventures: the grading system. At the end of a level in nearly all 3D Sonic games, you’re given a letter grade, usually ranging from E (worst) to A or S (best). This grade is usually based on your score, which includes a time bonus, a bonus for how many rings you have at the end of the stage, as well as any points gathered from collecting rings, destroying enemies, and performing certain other game-specific actions (though a few games or missions within games base your grade solely on time).

Grading systems like these show up in other games beyond Sonic, such as action games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, and they generally serve a specific purpose. That purpose is pushing the player towards flawless, optimized play. Do it right, do it fast, and make no mistakes. It’s no coincidence that 3D Sonic level design really started to become more linear with Sonic Adventure 2; it’s designed to push players from exploration to optimization.

Personally, I love the “optimization” style of game design. It’s a choice straight out of intense arcade games, where it’s all about making the perfect maneuvers to maximize your score. After you beat the game once, you go back to it to try and REALLY perfect it. There’s an amazing feeling of satisfaction when your performance improves through nothing but your own skill, rather than in-game character upgrades or something similar. The thing is, not everybody is looking for that in single-player games. In fact, I’d hazard a guess that it’s not actually a common desire, considering the kinds of single-player games that are popular these days (big RPGs and open-world games that are more about exploration, tons of content, and character/world interaction). Not only that, but with how beloved the Genesis Sonic games and Sonic Mania are, people probably want to see that style advanced into 3D, rather than jettisoned to make something completely different. The expectations of a long-running series are different than those of a stand-alone game, and as much as games should be taken on their own merit, it’s not wrong to have those expectations.

Basically, I’m not saying that the things people are saying about Sonic Forces’s level design are wrong, because they’re not. What I am saying, however, is that they don’t inherently make a worse game, just a different one. I don’t think there’s inherently anything wrong with 3D Sonic’s current focus on improving and optimizing your runs to get the best grades. However, I also don’t think there’s anything wrong with not liking that. I just think games discussion needs to move beyond classifying everything as “good” and “bad,” especially if it’s not broken on a technical level (which 3D Sonic games certainly have been in the past, but not recently outside of Boom). Games can be many, many different things, and how we talk about them should respect that.

Sure, Sonic Forces might turn out to have more damning problems. The game’s not out yet, so I can’t say for sure. (Expect a thorough review/analysis on this blog, by the way.) But I think that the game deserves some respect for what it is, rather than simply critiquing it for what it isn’t. I’m not asking anyone to like linear games that are about score optimization, but I want it to be known that they’re valid.

And that I like them. Because, hey, I get to have opinions too, right?

#game design #video game design #video games #sonic forces #sonic the hedgehog

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poppiseed · 6 years

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Okay so I beat Sonic Forces.

First things first, not the worst game in the series. You would rather play this than Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic 06, the Storybook games, or Sonic Boom.

But considering that they were continuing on a playstyle that was previously, in my opinion, fine tuned, it's quite disappointing.

In recent years, I found Generations to be a high point in the series. It's a game that took what was created in Unleashed, refined somewhat in Colors, and simply nailed it. While Unleashed was too "boost-2-win" and linear (still LOVE the game though omg) and Colors too platform heavy with constant breaks in momentum, Generations had a perfect balance with fluid platforming that did not have you feel as if you were constantly in a state of stop-and-go, the sense of speed needed in a Sonic game, and various pathways to discover. Many people consider Sonic's Adventure formula to be the pinnacle of Modern Sonic and I think what we got in Generations was just as good.

I expected Sonic Forces to improve or simply just continue established, solid mechanics and it didn't.

Level design is the dullest of dull. Go straight, just straight, reach the goal. Especially in Sonic and classic Sonic stages. Any minor detour is made simply for a red ring and nothing more. Modern Sonic has no 3D platforming as well. If you're in 3D, you will be boosting and that's it. I know this is a complaint often made in Unleashed, but it's even more shallow here. Unleashed had platforms, drifting, fun level gimmicks and even some nifty qte tricks to pull off. This game has very jarring qte segments and little else.

Avatar stages have more variation, but if you don't have the right wispon, you're stuck doing more of the same. Colors did it better, you unlock the wisp, you can now use the wisp if it's there. In Avatar levels the wisp options shuffle and vary, but again if you don't have a wispon compatible, it's a waste.

Classic Sonic? Why? Why were you just shoehorned into this game? With Generations and Mania behind my belt, it's disheartening to see these stages. There's just a few classic levels (again, shoehorned), and they're lacking in pathways and fun gimmicks. The level with the casino elements was a nice touch, but the physics didn't act the way I expected to. How am I flipping off a flipper and not going sky high? Now I know that Generations doesn't have classic physics down to a tee, but Classic Sonic felt awkward. Really awkward.

In fact, controlling all three was awkward. Sonic's homing attack reticle wouldn't always appear when I expected after years of previous gameplay. The Avatar was meant to have gameplay a little less speedy than Sonic's (hence a delayed homing attack) with a minor, really minor, focus on combat but the character moves as fast as Sonic so I would unintentially zoom off the edge. At one point I started to use the d-pad to alleviate this in 2D sections, and while that helped (until I got to wall jumping...), that shouldn't be a thing I need to do. Control, depending on the character, can be too stiff and awkward or to loose and awkward. Even with a double jump. Sonic has controlled super smooth in previous titles and it was not the case here.

Levels aren't just barren in terms of design, but also looks. It's not Shadow the Hedgehog bad, but does every level have to feel like a factory? A Sonic game can have a darker tone and not overly bleak level design. SA2 doesn't have much of a light story and it doesn't have overly bright levels like Heroes, but they aren't saturated in dark grays and dark greens. There were times when I had a hard time seeing my character because of the way they blended in the level. That's pretty damn bad. I get it, Eggman took over everything but it was a bit much.

Also... kinda tired of both Chemical Plant and Green Hill at this point lol.

Music was fine minus whatever the fuck that shit was for Classic Sonic. All of those themes were grating. I can honestly dig a Sonic game rocking a soundtrack with loads of dnb, though I can't remember most of it. I'm going give it another listen through some headphones though. I STILL LOVE INFINITE'S THEME SO MUCH OMG.

Character interactions were great (minus Shadow being hard to hear), Knuckles wasn't a moron, and Tails was PRECIOUS. I was apathetic about my character's involvement in the plot, but I'm not really in this series for that anyway.

I'll probably end up deleting this off my Switch when I wanna do some housekeeping on it, but I'll most likely keep playing to see if I warm up to it.

I bet this sounds harsh, but this is coming from a fan. I've loved the series for a long time and truly felt they nailed it with Generations, I didn't expect them to go so backwards with the winning formula. If you're a fan, try the game. Try it first, don't buy. But I, personally, don't feel the same kind of thrill and joy in this game and expected more after so long of a wait.

As a friend said: Unleashed >= Generations >> Colors >>> Forces

#sonic forces #and that is that #unleashed is greater than/or generations for those who dont get it lol #ebby rambles

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zoomswish · 7 years

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Mm, last anon is incorrect. Amy's not under fire for shit from a decade ago. Its the shit she does in the main canon games up until very recently. (The last main canon game she showed any creepy traits is Sonic Generations, I think.) Sonic Boom Amy should be put into the main canon to get rid of the creepy, fangirl Amy.

I’m not going to slam the gavel on game!Amy because, like I said in another ask reply, her characterisation has been all over the map during her entire game history. I think she made some great strides as a character, and yeah, maybe fell back a bit at other times.

It’s probably easier and more fair to pick out specific instances of character growth and/or relapse than try to make a blanket statement about how much or little she’s improved as a character - and I’m probably out of my depth here anyway, since she’s not one of my favourites, simply a character I somewhat like now that I didn’t before.

However, I can pretty definitively say that Boom!Amy is my personal favourite portrayal of her and has been mostly consistent - not perfect, but good - in developing her as a strong lead-role character outside of her romantic inclinations towards Sonic.

#amy rose #sonic boom #zs sonic asks #Anonymous

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jollycollectionprinceme-blog · 6 years

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Mighty Monsters Hack

Hundreds Ways to generate Gold and Money with Mighty Battles Hack

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We've reached out to Valve for any comment on the situation, but don't expect to hear back from the notoriously-private company. In the meantime, it's best to make sure that none of your passwords are shared with any other sites or services and keep your eye on Have I Been Pwned. This subject had been touched upon by Biko when he discussed how the implementation of religion of South African traditional societies, who were convinced, by the missionaries, of a wrathful god, and Hell. Colonization took place under these auspices as described above, particularly by Sutphen, wherein, in his article, he gives a detailed modus operandi that has been engendered by religion, by the armed forces, by TV to subdue and manipulate their adherents and in the end achieve their own ends and interests. This has been an ongoing technique that saw many nations enslaved, many people deluded by crass and very aggressive religious institutions, the army, so that, those they effect, end up being their automatons. As with Sonic for the iPhone, Golden Axe offers virtual D-pad and buttons as the default control arrangement, with the option of accelerometer-based controls. As well, there are two display modes to choose from: a full-screen stretched arrangement with semi-translucent control icons and a framed, original size view (320 x 240 pixels) which runs at a slightly higher framerate. I'm sorry I can't comfort you when you need it because I'm not well enough. I need to calm myself down first. When mommy gets too overwhelmed, she doesn't feel good and there's nothing she can do for you. Those times break my heart and my guilt and anxiety stir up a harmful concoction. It makes things more complicated and I need to separate myself from everyone and practice my breathing so I can come back to you. Welcome, commander! Nice to have you aboard! Let Mighty Battles hack tool introduce you to your squad! And your squad is Mastodon, Hornets, Howlers, Boom Bros, Brick and Bombing Run, these units will make up your first squad, now lets get your squad into training and whip them into shape, so train them hard because you are going to defend and attack the different enemies basis and with the different strategies to dominate and rule over all the players from all over the world, also make sure to read our Mighty Battles tips to fully understand the game before you even start it.

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marcelavenegas7-blog · 6 years

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EA Sneaks FIFA Mobile Game Onto Google Play Store Earlier than Console And Computer

Having an excellent staff is more necessary than ever. Nevertheless, the staff might be of some actual player sitting anyplace across the globe. With 30 leagues, 650 real teams, and round 17000 real players, the sport delivers an genuine experience to each participant. This is only a sport evaluate & Gameplay! Hence, the revenue from in-recreation transactions associated to FIFA’s Ultimate Staff (which is a particular recreation mode in cheap fifa mobile coins [http://arabelacamille.myfreesites.net/blog/playing-fifa-18-and-getting-fifa-18-coins-in-china-are-such-difficult]) amounted to sixteen% of total income in fiscal 2017, which implies players are inclined to spend money in a recreation over time. Here’s we shared FIFA Mobile Cheats & Tips to build the ultimate Group (FIFA Mobile Tips). Right now's FIFA 18 Ultimate Workforce video we glance into another FIFA glitch/ FIFA hack which includes a FIFA 18 autobuyer! You can generate as much FIFA Points & Coins as you want. The FIFA Mobile Soccer Soccer Coins and Factors Cheat is a software on the internet designed to be simple and secure to use. Whereas the company continues to carry again on FIFA 16 gameplay footage in many areas, there's too much of recent and necessary FIFA sixteen data that arrived over the past week.

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They spent all year constructing on this foundation with AI enhancements, including G4 Star Heads, improving controls and rather more. That is one vital step to building a better crew, and increase your total workforce ranking. It's one in every of a kind expertise that no soccer enthusiast would love to miss. However , I can’t observe them maintaining their succeeding streak towards probably the greatest clubs in Europe. Along with a singular style of operability maintain authentic, the operation is extra handy to expertise the total Shuangkuaigan Sonic world! This was Daniel's first experience in sourcing merchandise from factories. Nicely, its fairly tough to offer the experience of a dualshock four on a 5 inches touch screen, with out placing buttons all over the display, which is clearly not possible. Should you don’t contact the management to move your character round, the pc will auto control the movements of the players but you'll retain the power to move the ball and to shoot the ball. Football followers are eagerly waiting to see what the new series could have in retailer for them. It may seem that it's just a little, but you'll really feel the difference after enjoying some matches.

With avid gamers like him spending freely to outfit characters with new "skins," in-sport purchases are booming and digital content now generates more revenue for Activision than bodily video games do. A quantity of sites right now, catering particularly to avid gamers and their followers stream e-sport events. The coins market is where you should buy more coins with actual cash to speed up things. So right now EA are merely sustaining the FUT 15 worth institution, nothing more. In the sport, you are additionally able to affix groups and play as real groups do. This perception has created a unsuitable notion that these units are usually not fitted to right now's youth. And the state of the reside motion creation portfolio proper now? Should you look at Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, we know that individuals play for a very long time and so they play virtually daily. First you should obtain the official software by the developer which is live on Play store. The reality is, is that we had had a few false starts on Madden even earlier than the first season in the present iteration of that franchise on mobile. Parker was efficient for San Antonio, however Miami deserves credit score for slowing him down through the first three quarters.

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autumnchanelcharley · 7 years

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Lesson 3- Lecture 3

Gaming and computer videos

Brief history; although short is varied and interesting, way back int the 40s military hardware was one of the first to use and play rudimentary games. As tech progressed so too did the interest in computer scientists in the creation of electronic games. Although many years away from being anything like today, the amateurs production of computer games became popular with the computer science community. so much do that in the mid 60s Steve Russel created a ‘shoot em up’ game called space war. Before long it was shared UK wide.

In the 70′s computer games began their commercial journey. The golden age of video games. The rise of arcade games. Games such as Galaxian, the simple tennis game pong and, towards the end of the decade, space invaders and pac-man paved the way for the entire arcade industry. Although relatively basic these game operated on a similar basis to arcade style games of today, with simpler graphic interfaces and less depth. The 70s also saw the beginning of the home based console gaming. These console either played exchangeable or interchangeable game cartridges or where pre-programmed with a limited range of games. As a result of tech cost and other arcade competitions consoles did not gain the popularity until the 80′s.

The 80s was the decade of the personal computer. In the uk, Sinclair, acorn and amstrad were major players in the world scene. Alongside the likes of commodore, they set the pace for home-based gaming out-selling consoles like the Atari on the basis of cost and programmability. Computers such as the commodore 64 and the zx spectrum attracted a large following of gamers with knowledge of programming. Game distribution within this community along with cheap media formats meant that games were far cheaper than cartridge based-machine. Towards the end of the 80s and the early 90s Japanese made consoles such as Nintendo and set master system gained popularity. Through a combination of ‘killer games’ such as Mario and sonic the NES and master system dominated the home gaming scene. important these systems mark a shift in gaming UI. for years the joystick had been a dominate peripheral-Wit the new wave of game consoles came the game pad.The game pad proved to be in a long line of UI changes.

The 90s was the decade of the console. With each generation came improved hardware architecture and as a result, games begun to have different dimensions. Importantly, improvements in graphic capabilities saw a shift from 2D sprites to 3D polygon based graphics. Over the years graphical restrictions in games have led to very inventive visual interpretations and creations. The generations of simple pixel images of basic hardware, can still result in very atmospheric and sophisticated design solutions. Although graphic capability has improved enabling the creation of more realistic game environments, simplistic graphics still play an important role of aesthetics.In the mid 90′ the CD arrived. Hard wearing and with a high information capacity and cheap manufacturing cost boosted sales. CD spawned the genre of multimedia. The first multi-media games allowed for the inclusion of video footage and sound and were heralded as the new face of gaming. In reality many multi-media games such as Phantasmorgoria, mad Dog and Night Trap were severely lacking in both interactivity and visual worth.

Since the turn of the century, games have continued to grow and develop their popularity increasing with every passing generation. As a result, the home video game system is now a common fixture in many western homes. This is not entirely due to the increase in gaming popularity. Todays concorde are not just for gaming, they are capable of delivering a variety of contents. The market for gaming has boomed.

Part 2 Multiplayer gaming-

For some time gaming was considered a solitary pursuit, either pitted against either a computer pre-programmed routine or a certain degree of reactionary computer responses. However some games often fighting, driving or sports related, have offered two, three of four player options. However multiplayer can have limitations while interacting on one screen. The communications revolution has changed this. The multiplayer game has changed from one entering around a handful of players to one which involves tens, hundreds or thousands of players. Online gaming has been around for 3o years, albeit very basic form. Dial-up bulletin boards allowed players to post game scores.

Modern equivalents such as the OpenFeint platform insert social and competitive dimensions with mobile gaming. Providing games with communication tech has made the formation of these types of gaming communities possible. Driven largely by the desire to compete. The number of genres that support multiplayer features are many. In addition playing such games via broadband allows for near-flawless connectivity and voice. Along with networking apps such as social networking sites, online multi-player gaming is working to expand globalisation. Connecting people on such a highly interactive level removes geographical boundaries. One phenomenon that online gaming has given rise to is the massive multi-player games. Multiplayer games are no longer limited to mere win or lose dynamics.

Part 3-Game interaction

Recently the way in which we interact with games has changed. For years we used a keyboard or a joy-stick and then moved to game pads. Meanwhile throughout the history of home consoles, consumers have been sporadically bombarded with game specific, one of prephials.

However recent tech developments have resulted in improved possibilities in games. Apart from touch screen devices, which will revolutionise our interaction with the screen, motion sensor technology has changed the way we play games. The Nintendo wii was very successful considering the drastic turn it has taken away from traditional controllers. Both the standard will remote and motion plus remotes ask gamers to participate in game. There has recently been a huge increase in health and fitness games. However the wiis interaction was still remote controlled despite the huge leap in human-computer interaction (HCI), they still represent interaction by proxy.

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davewakeman · 7 years

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Your Fans Are Warning You! Are You Listening?

For the past several years, we have seen the world of sports business overwhelmed with a bunch of business practices that are detrimental to the long term health of sports as a business and act decisively to destroy the brand equity that has been created over the years.

Some of the worst business practices that seem to have become “best” practices throughout the sports industry, but which have been discarded by many other industries include:

Using cold calling in place of almost all other marketing and selling tactics and strategies.

Discounting aggressively and constantly, even when that flies in the face of trying to promote higher value products and services through the inside sales efforts.

Trying to price according to unscientific data and unscientific data points as a means to “defeat” the secondary market, even when the actual data flies in the face of actual results.

An almost total disregard for digital best practices like email list building, digital selling, and other digital distribution best practices.

I could list several more business practices that have outlived their usefulness, but this is a short primer. Which led me to an interesting discover at the end of last week, a Facebook group that was founded by unhappy San Jose Sharks Season Ticket Holders that are unhappy with the team and have specifically turned their anger towards the team’s Chief Marketing Officer as the point of focus for their anger and their vitriol.

While the Sharks have made a big deal about how they have been restructuring their pricing and their benefits to their Season Ticket Holders, this has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and led local media to call the timing “ill-timed at best.”

Businesses in all industries have to make these types of decisions at their own time and in their own way, but in the case of the Sharks, I think that their decisions and the backlash from the media and fans is illustrative of some of the areas of concern that any of us that work in or with sports should be feeling and where some of the sports business “best” practices fall short and need to be improved before its too late.

Need To Refocus On Long Term Customer Value, Branding, And Community

One of the big issues in sports business is the fact that most decisions are made on a yearly basis.

While a team’s GM and team side may have a 3 or 5 year plan for returning to prominence, in most of the teams’ business efforts, the cycle is year to year.

There are several reasons for this:

First, in too many cases, executives, managers, and team members have very short shelf lives with a team or a market. My colleague, Kathy Burrows, wrote about this challenge recently with a post about the revolving door of sports business professionals.

Why is there a constant flux of executives, managers, and professionals?

I think there are a lot of reasons that this occurs and not many of them are good for the industry.

For one, as an industry, we’ve sold people on the fact that it is an honor to work in sports and that you should take under fair market value to follow your pursuit of sports business.

While it is trumpeted as all about making sure that the really “competitive” people get the jobs, what is actually does is acts as an incentive for some of the best and brightest to take their talents into other industries.

While there are many very talented individuals in the sports industry, the question becomes “with these multi-billion dollar assets, can we afford to hire on the cheap?”

Second, we’ve done a pretty terrible job of building long-term fan loyalty. Or, I should say that we’ve allowed brand loyalty to deteriorate to a great extent.

I’m sure if we were to poll a lot of the veterans of sports or a lot of long term sports fans, we could ask them some variation of the question: “What drew you to your team or sport?”

Likely the answer would be some version of, “I grew up a die-hard Mets’ fan because of my dad.” Or, something similar.

Team loyalty used to be something that was passed down from generation to generation, but not any longer.

In too many cases, the loyalty is transferred from player to player or there isn’t much strong connection to the team at all.

This does two things, it means you are constantly having to ratchet up your efforts to educate and grow your customer base, but you don’t have as strong of a base from which to start. This has the effect of making everything feel like a hard sell.

Finally, over the last several years we have seen a building boom in sports and more and more seats have become “premium.”

Trust me, I love the premium experience. My whole career is like one long love song to the premium experience, but this obsession with different levels of “premium” experience has come at a cost.

One, we have lost the sense of community that creates magic in our buildings.

This magic is what today’s consumers demand from their entertainment dollars. Because if you aren’t building a great experience, the in-home experience has gotten so tremendous that it is tough to tear people away from their homes.

Second, in the rush to make things more “fancy,” we have actually commoditized the premium experience to the point where it is pretty meaningless.

As an industry it feels like we have lost touch with what real premium experiences are and have instead confused that with luxury amenities or low value features.

The thing about a true luxury experience is that it isn’t driven by free Bud Light or a buffet. It is driven by connections and experiential aspects that can’t be gained anywhere else.

All of these issues have led to an environment where even the most rabid, long-term fans feel like transactional participants.

One of the big gripes in the Unhappy Sharks group is that fans that have been with the team for 26 years feel neglected or unimportant. That’s a big challenge on so many levels because for one, the first rule of business is that your only job is to build and keep customers. But if someone has committed to spending money with you and being loyal to you for 26 years, they deserve some respect.

This is a pretty dire situation, but it can be turned around…with the right commitments and the right ideas.

First, think about your customers from the POV of their full lifetime value.

I talk consistently about this with my own clients. Getting new customers is expensive and time consuming. So you want to minimize the time and cost of customer acquisition. The best place to start is with the people that are already on your side.

If you take the step back and look at your customers from their full life cycle, you are going to make many different decisions.

Because looking at the long term value is going to change the approach.

The current approach to pricing for tickets and concessions is the kind of spreadsheet, algorithmic mumbo jumbo that is great in an MBA course, but which when applied to the real world makes fans feel like they are being gouged and turns them off to your product and experience.

In other words, just because you have a formula that says you can charge a fan $14 for a 16 ounce Bud Light that doesn’t mean you should do it.

A much wiser way is to ask, “what can I deliver for my buyers so that they are happy and I can capture the most valuable?”

Second, put some effort into the branding of your team.

The strength of sports brands is strong in some places, not strong in others. But one universal is that in too many areas, the brand’s strength or weakness rises or falls with winning or losing.

That’s pretty much a formula for a boom or bust cycle.

Think objectively for a moment and ask yourself how many teams have a tremendous and consistent brand that has been built over the long term?

How many brands if mentioned immediately bring to mind a specific image? A specific sense of place? A specific sense of purpose?

If I’m being honest with myself, not nearly as many as used to be the case.

I can think of 3-5, but the rest are just some jumble of more of the same advertising, uniforms, and brand personalities.

The thing about this, and it holds true for any business, is that if you don’t stand for something, you stand for nothing.

If you don’t stand for something specific and unique, you are just a jumble in your customers and prospects minds and you can easily just be discarded for whatever is new and shiny.

So as an organization, it makes sense to come up with a mission and a brand that is unique and relevant to your organization.

For me, I think that the Raiders of old created a tremendous brand identity around their mission to “Just Win Baby” and their logo and uniforms and their fans and experience.

The thing is, with effort, that is available to all of us.

It isn’t easy work but it does have a tremendous payoff.

Third, get back into the community building business.

The joy of attending a live event, concert, or game is that its communal. Bob Lefsetz writes fairly often about the way that a great concert can transport you and take you away. In too many of our venues, the experience has been watered down, sanitized, and sterilized to the point that there is no sense of there there.

I remember specifically being a 24 year old, young professional that bought Seattle Supersonics season tickets in the 5th row of the upper deck at the Key Arena, behind the Sonics’ bench.

During the next two years that I lived in Seattle and attended Sonics’ games, the Sonics worked hard to create community both in our seats and for all STH holders by having a membership rewards program that rewarded fans for going to games, special STH holder events, pick up games on the practice floor with team members and STH holders, chances to network and meet your other people from the neighborhood.

The list goes on and on, but the thing was that the Sonics and Howard Schultz put a great emphasis on community and the team and the business was stronger for it.

We have to get back into the community building business, so that are teams and venues are gathering places that draw people in. I don’t think it was a coincidence that Howard Schultz was the owner at the time that the Sonics were focusing on community building around the team since Starbucks is so famous for its “third place” philosophy.

What would it take to make our stadiums and arenas a third place?

Start Treating Fans In A Manner That You Would Like To Be Treated

Another pretty compelling set of posts in the Sharks group is the number of times that the team acts in a manner inconsistent with holding their STH’s as some of their most important customers.

There are the 50-75% increases in certain seats…especially when the team is playing to a lot of empty seats. There is the sever discounts that make it cheaper for fans to buy single game tickets in better locations that STHs are getting for their full seasons. These are two examples that popped up several times in the Sharks group, but combine it with some of the other prominent practices that have been tried, and it adds up to an environment where we could be accused of treating our fans and customers in ways that we wouldn’t accept if the shoe was on the other foot.

There are simple reasons that are spelled out in consumer psychology not to do some of these things. Discounts destroy brands and when you open up the door to deep discounts, that’s a door that can’t be shut for 7 years. Martin Lindstrom did one of the most expensive consumer psychology studies ever and detailed it in his book, Buy-ology. The point of which is that psychologically and deeply in our brain, discounts make us feel like something is lesser.

By radically changing your pricing and/or benefit structure, you should explain that in a way that makes it clear to your buyers what the rationale is for the decision making process.

You might think that you don’t really owe anyone an explanation, but as we see with the Sharks’ group, word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing. If you lose the battle for word of mouth, you lose the argument period.

That’s why even when you raise prices or cut them, make the explanation clear and sensical.

Don’t couch your explanation in a bunch of buzz word and marketing speak. Talk to your people like people.

This kind of thinking needs to jump into every decision and idea that we offer up because we have to start treating our guests the way that we would want to be treated if we were on the other side of the transaction.

Start at the first contact we make, which is usually before a fan ever enters the building.

What do we want our marketing and advertising to say about us?

If you go back to the point above, you know we need to work on making our branding about creating a specific feeling and environment around our team, our fans, and our building.

Does our marketing and advertising really say that?

How about the buying process?

I know that I’ve been frustrated by the buying process going through a primary point of purchase on any number of occasions.

I’m in the industry and know what I am doing.

How do you think that fans that have no clue must feel?

How about the pricing of food and beverage?

I know that a big deal is being made about the Falcons’ decision to make their prices “fan friendly.”

But the thing is, shouldn’t we all be making our prices fan friendly?

If you look around at so many of our buildings, the empty seats are glaring. Which means that some of the following things aren’t happening:

We aren’t doing a good job of selling the value of our experience. Our pricing is out of line with the value in our buyers’ heads. We aren’t creating a good enough experience or a good enough community to compel people to turn off the TV and come to our venue. Some of the pricing decisions we make make me think that some version of all 3 are at play.

This goes not just for food and beverage, but for tickets and merchandise as well.

Like I said above, you may have a spreadsheet that says you can charge your fans $14 for a Bud Light, but does that mean you should?

The thing about it is that creativity can open up tremendous paths to new revenue and an enhanced experience for your fans.

FC Barcelona makes over $100M a year from merchandise alone because they realize that they can offer up their fans many variations of the standard jersey, t-shirt, etc and their fans will be happy to have it and happy to pay for it.

Compare that to the standard team that maybe has one or two alternative jerseys or has pretty much kept the same jersey design year after year.

Granted, part of the variance and ability to generate 9 figures in merchandise sales comes from having a wider global audience, but see the points above…branding is a big freakin’ deal.

Finally, let’s get to the idea of pricing our tickets and inventory.

It sometimes feels like not a day goes by where don’t hear of another team implementing a 20%+ price increase on some seats. Usually this increase is framed as “fair-market” or some other nonsense term that just means, “we’ve seen our tickets listed on the secondary market” at that price and we want to get into that game.

The problem with this way of trying to price is that no one outside of the brokers that hold the inventory and are buying and selling the tickets knows exactly what the sale price for the tickets is.

Trust me, Darren Rovell and a lot of these other sports business “reporters” are touting some bogus statistic from StubHub or TicketsNow, but the average listed price is a pretty meaningless statistic and tells you only which way the market is moving on the sites.

What this has done is created an environment where teams and executives feel justified to raise tickets to astronomical levels. The rationale being to “beat” the secondary market.

But what has happened is evident in so many panning shots of arenas and stadiums around the country, empty seats.

This idea of pricing correctly relies on several pieces of thought:

First, you can either price for the revenue or to maximize attendance.

If you are just driving revenue, go ahead and price the things at the point where you are going to have lots of empty seats, but someone will pay at some point.

You may have a few sell outs over the season, but they aren’t going to be consistent.

If you are pricing to maximize attendance, that’s going to mean you are going to likely leave a little money on the table for brokers. And, that should be okay because if you are smarter about your experience and merchandising strategies, you can make up much of that revenue in these areas.

But also if you are driving attendance, over time the experience will improve and that will enable you to push up the prices because attending is a much more valuable proposition.

Second, the secondary market provides a valuable service to teams and leagues because brokers actually have different markets and customers than the team might have. Or, they open the door for teams and leagues to reach markets that they aren’t currently communicating with effectively.

The other thing that the secondary does that can’t be understated, they invest in your product in a substantial manner that mitigates some of the risk that a team faces in the form of not being able to sell all of their tickets.

Finally, you have to price better because its a marketing drain to have sky high ticket prices that you have to deeply discount. This is true for a number of reasons.

Discounts destroy your brand. By poorly pricing at the start, your first impression on your market may not be what you want it to be.

Changing someone’s mind after they have had a bad first impression can be expensive, time consuming, and fruitless. You don’t give fans an incentive to buy early, causing your risk level to increase. Again, these aren’t insurmountable challenges.

They do require thought and consistent focused action.

Start by designing the entire experience from pregame to postgame and beyond in a way that shows you care.

With all of the digital technologies available, it is and should be much easier to communicate with your ticket buyers before, during, and after a game. This kind of high touch experience is what is demanded of most of our modern customers, but it is also a tremendous opportunity for our teams to wow our customers and turn them into long term fans, which should be our ultimate objective anyway.

Next, instead of being myopic in the our business models, we should think more strategically and globally about our pricing, selling, merchandise, customer service, and F&B strategies.

I like to frame this as: “What does success look like for us?”

If we are following along with business 101 ideas, we want long term customers. We also want to create experiences that people will talk about and we want to build strong brands that travel the globe for us.

That means that we have every incentive to do some of the following things:

Communicate with buyers and prospects in a manner that they want to be communicated with. Providing a great customer experience from the moment they get to our parking lots or our metro stops until they get home and beyond. Give our fans the tools and opportunities to make their experience shareable. Work with other partners and vendors that have already gained our fans trust to help piggyback off that trust in a manner that will allow us to get some of the halo effect of our and their efforts. Finally, don’t look at the customer experience and customer path as transactional.

Again, I tie this into the idea that we need to be focused on long term customer value.

You don’t get to long term value by accident. It is deliberate and it is consistent.

Don’t Get Trapped By Old Business Models

Right now TV money is blowing up the world of sports.

What that means is that probably too much of the thinking and best efforts of teams, leagues, and people is spent on making sure that the TV money keeps flowing, even to the point that people aren’t spending enough time focusing on what’s next.

This means that the declining ratings are the alarm bell that has driven everyone to action, but the clearest indicator that something wasn’t right with some of the aspects of sports business was that real attendance was down.

I’m thinking of the conversation that Roger Goodell had with the Steelers about ways to bring their fans into the stadium because the empty seats were a bad look on TV.

The empty seats and the declining ratings are symptoms of a larger issue. Which I’d define as not enough emphasis on long term fan development.

Its tough to convert fans to your sports and games if they haven’t been introduced to the games, arenas, and experiences earlier in life.

The idea that people are just going to move into loving your sport later in life is sort of like a Hail Mary.

In Chuck Klosterman’s recent book, What If We Are Wrong?, he talks about the decline of participation in team sports, which is a pretty strong feeder system for long term sports viewership.

What is driving that change in participation?

Probably a lot of things like costs, changes in society, and competition for attention from other activities.

The cause is irrelevant.

The bigger issue is that by not investing in early childhood exposure to sports and teams, the teams and leagues are in danger of not having a customer base later on. Which will mean that the costs of marketing and selling will increase tremendously and the effectiveness will go down.

This is an issue of needing to revisit the business models from time to time.

Feeding fans into the games is one area.

Having so much revenue generating specifically from one area like TV, that’s another.

Relying on the old ways of selling and marketing the sport, that’s another.

Only revisiting the customer experience and experiential nature of the in-game experience around stadium remodels and rebuilds is another.

Not finding ways to enhance the community aspect of the games because fans only care about winning is another.

The key here is that thriving industries and businesses are constantly disrupted and if they are doing a good job, they disrupt themselves consistently so that they aren’t caught off guard by some upstart or startup.

A few of the easier ways to get started on this path include:

Asking how you can expose more new people to the games or experiences? Are there leagues that you can support? Programs that you can offer in schools? Looking at trends and try to map out a several year strategy for fan development, customer development, and marketing strategy that is focused on the idea of expanding your reach in your community. Revisiting your revenue models. In any business if too much of your money comes from one source, that’s problematic. While any revenue structure might have an imbalance, it is possible to act to secure and strengthen revenue from other sources so that you have some security and balance to your revenue generation. Figure out how you can more readily adapt some of the new tools and technologies that will be meaningful to your customers and potential customers. The big point here is that you have to always be looking a few steps down the road. If you don’t, you can end up in a similar position to the Sharks. Where your credibility is being questioned by the media, fans, and customers. Where you have business side executives being ridiculed in the open on social media and where you struggle to fill your venues.

The challenge is that even if you do everything right, that doesn’t mean you are guaranteed anything.

The opportunity is that if you do take action on some of these ideas is that you are less likely to be in a position where you have an open revolt among your customer base.

What say you?

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Your Fans Are Warning You! Are You Listening? was originally published on Wakeman Consulting Group

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