Penny Arcade

I read on Krizz Kaliko that Microsoft was ”rumored” to be approaching developers about Free To Play games on their service.  But they aren’t rumored to be, as the steel mask of Kakrotticus knows full well - they are, because Free to Play doesn’t represent some rapidly plumping metastasized future.  It represents the flowing and present ultranow.

Team Fortress 2 went free to play.  As I was typing this, Kiko knocked with his unique percussive knock-a-docka-dock dock, tilted his head, and said wasn’t it already free?  I hate very few games, precious few, but I do hate Team Fortress 2; it’s not as though either of us has any intention of playing it.  Even so, he was right to wonder.  The asking price has been, for a very long time now, a paywall.  A paywall which exists for no other purpose than to restrict people from paying further.  I’m not even sure this is a part of the overarching narrative of F2P; it’s more on the side of L2P.  Did they know they were still charging for it?  It’s possible that one of them bumped a baroque copper lever during one of their fortnightly revels, and the price simply fell off.

Removing the most severe barrier to access - cost - has profound psychological effects.  In Webcomics, these ideas are all settled law.  There was a period of time where mysticism about Microtransactions asserted itself, but even very small barriers are still barriers to the mind - looming, and strange.  The shape of the model is retained, even as it’s stretched to the particulars of online publishing.  Access is free, but you pay for “cosmetic upgrades.”  Look at Topatoco, for fuck’s sake.  This is how it works.  If you give someone something they like, for nothing, they feel gratitude.  It isn’t rocket science, unless you’re actually giving away rockets.  

And now, we’re ready to take it a step fürher.  I mean, further.  Beginning this fall, you’ll be able to crowdsource interstitials wholesale.  You’ll exist in a state of perpetual co-opetition with the best of breed while reifying mindshare with value-adds.

(CW)TB out.

i took off my pants

There is really the most incredible offering of Bungie treasure going on now on eBay, in a sequence of unstoppable charitable auctions.  Some fairly shocking things in there, including original concept art for what we now understand is Halo.  Just amazing.

They came by and got some stuff from us as well, and put it into a nice little frame and everything.  Very classy!  Quite the honor to be alongside this other stuff.

(CW)TB 

(my emmisary table from Geek Chic)

I jumped back behind the DM screen last night and had a great time. I mentioned before that our obsession with Warmachine lead us to try the Iron Kingdoms RPG, specifically the Witchfire trilogy. I’ve been converting it over to 4e which has mostly involved the re-skinning of monsters and powers. Cross bows become pistols, Golems become Jacks. Its been pretty easy so far.

Last night I decided to try the D&D fortune cards. They came out while we were heavy into Warmachine and so we never got a chance to try them. I picked up a couple booster packs for all my players and let them open them at the table. They used the cards from their two packs to make a deck that they would use for the night.

The rules are pretty simple. You can play one card per round. It requires no action to play. The rules on each card state when you can play it and what effect it has. A card takes effect just once unless it states otherwise, and you discard the card when its effect ends.You can have only one Fortune Card in your hand at a time. At the start of each of your turns, you can do one of the following: Discard the card in your hand and draw a new one. Draw a new card if you don’t have one in your hand. Keep the card that’s in your hand if you haven’t played it.

The cards offer all kinds of effects like “stroke of luck” which you can play to re-roll an attack. There are are cards that let you take damage for an ally, or help them succeed on a skill check. Some of the cards offer a risk vs. reward scenario, like you can roll a die and maybe take half damage from an attack or double damage. I asked my players what they thought of the cards and Kiko’s response was “there is no reason not to like them, all they do is help us.”

I thought that was interesting. As the DM they don’t do jack shit for me. In fact all they do is help my players overcome my devious tricks and traps. I like things that add new mechanics to the table though and having the cards defiantly made for some interesting turns. Personally I wonder if there isn’t an opportunity for WOTC to make a set of cards for DM’s. If I had a deck sitting in front of me that I could draw from with similar rules, I’d be very interested. Of course my deck would be designed to screw them over.

-Gabe out

I recorded today’s stream:

-Gabe out

It really does!  Friday is the last day to register.  We just added a bunch more sessions to the almighty Schedule, too, for your perusal.  

(CW)TB