Used Games: Japan and England

Gaming is a pretty expensive hobby, or at least it can be if you want to stay completely up to date with the latest stuff.  To offset the strain on ones wallet, people like to buy games used rather than new since the used price is obviously going to be a bit cheaper than brand new.

What I'm basically trying to say in a really long winded way is that I have bought a lot of used games over the years.  A lot of those used games in the last couple have been from Japanese stores that sell retro stuff like NES and Super NES games.  Since coming here and dealing with the used game market in Japan, it's quite clear that Japanese people (generally speaking) take WAYYYY better care of their shit than they do in the UK.

I bought so much shit in the UK that didn't work that I almost developed a fucking phobia of buying games used from GAME or CEX, the condition of some of those discs was fucking atrocious.  I still remember one time during my teenage years I bought a used copy of Shadow of Memories on PS2

I took that shit home, opened up the box and I shit you not, the fucking bottom of the disc was fucking COVERED in Jam (that's Jelly for you Americans).  I mean how the fuck did that even get taken by the store in that condition and HOW THE FUCK did no one in the store think to clean/test the disc before they took it?! 

Needless to say I cleaned the shit out of that disc but even when I took the jam off it, it still didn't function.  What makes this story even worse is that I swear to God I know the guy who traded it in because he is the only guy on earth that has the capacity to smear a game in jam and not give a fuck about it when he goes to trade it in.

There have been other examples of this shit too, like when I bought a copy of Kingdom Hearts new and GAME tried to fob me off with a used copy.  When I took it home the game would fucking freeze when leaving the first island so I had to take that shit back and get it traded for an actual new copy like I fucking paid for.

Then there was that one time I bought a old PC game from a Gamestation in Manchester called Pool of Radiance.  I got home and opened the box and there was a different fucking game in there called P.O.D

The icing on the shit cake with that one was that when I took it back to the store, they didn't have any copies of Pool of Radiance left!  Of course I didn't want to just give up on that damn game so I ended up spending £10 more getting another copy from a different shop and when I eventually did get to play it, I remember thinking that it was a bit shit.  Still though, I wasn't very good at DnD style RPGs back then, so I'd like to hunt it down and try again at least.

Let's contrast this with Japan

That is a copy of Metal Gear Solid for PS1 that my friend got from a used book store.  The discs were immaculate, not a single blemish on them at all.  The demo of Suikoden on the bottom there was also immaculate.  Just to top it all off, it even came with a sheet of fucking stickers in PERFECT condition, it's as if the previous owner didn't even open the fucking thing the condition was so good.

Hell, just take another look at my new retro haul video

In that video I show a copy of a game called Sangokushi 4.  The game is fucking boxed with all the little pamphlets and the manual in absolute perfect condition.  On top of that the game came with the original fucking map that looked like it hadn't even been touched and this thing only cost me like 200 fucking yen.  If something in that kind of condition was available in a UK store it would be priced out the arse.

On top of that, in my local retro store I have seen the staff taking the old cartridges off the shelf so that they can clean them and put them in new plastic wrapping.  When I say clean, I don't just mean they give the underside a blow and then re-wrap them, I mean they properly get the fuck in there and give them a good clean and test before putting them back on the shelf.

I mean Japan isn't perfect, they do tend to overprice on a lot of shit, especially in these specialist retro stores.  Like the other day I found Silent Hill for 1500 yen, but a few months prior my friend had found another copy in a different store for 500 yen.  You really have to be careful not to get totally ripped off when buying retro games in Japan.

Still though, Japan is way better than England when it comes to dealing with and purchasing used games.  Fucking sort your shit out England

Stop it and Grow Up

Twitter is cool, I don't use it but I can see why people like it so much.  It's a good way to have a direct line to certain people and have a platform to send them short messages or questions and it kind of brings people together.  That said, it's also a place for a lot of needless internet drama and despite it being really funny when it happens, it kind of needs to stop.

The above picture was a tweet made by Halo designer David Ellis commenting on a redesign of a Metal Gear Solid 5 character, here is what they came up with.

Now this isn't an issue about sexism or anything like that because I'm sure there are tons of morons already arguing about that shit, I have a problem with Mr Ellis's tweets regarding this design.

As far as I know, Kojima changed the design of this character to be "more erotic" to promote cosplaying.  Kojima isn't an idiot, he knows who he is designing this game for and that demographic like skimpy outfits on females.  He also knows that there are a large amount of female cosplayers in Japan who will jump at the opportunity to recreate this outfit so really he's just pleasing two fairly large groups of people.

Now you can criticise it all you want and no doubt there is definitely stuff to criticise with this design no matter how much I quite like it personally but calling Kojima a "man baby" on twitter is unprofessional, stupid and it kind of shows that you have no idea what you're talking about so you resort to petty insults because you feel like this should offend you for some stupid reason.

(As a side note, I don't think the man who's involved in making generic robot soldiers really has the right to be commenting on anything, get a clue)

David Ellis isn't the only person guilty of doing this shit though.  Phil Fish, a man who I have ranted about before was notorious for just insulting people on twitter and generally starting web drama because of his lack of tact and professionalism.  So you may be thinking "But Tau! You insult industry figures on your blog all the time!" and you would be completely right.  However the difference between me and them is that I'm a fucking nobody on Blogger writing for a small audience of people and I have absolutely no power in anything.  These people are industry leaders who should be setting a fucking example and going around twitter insulting people is not the example you should be setting. 

If it ever came to a point where I started having some kind of serious impact on anything, I would damn well make sure that I wasn't spouting the same rage filled nonsense that I do here.  If I was doing posts on let say, Tom Hulett for a proper website, they would be well constructed and thought out pieces on why his decisions are bad for the Silent Hill series.  Instead I can just down a bunch of caffeine drinks and smash my keyboard so that swear words appear around his name on the screen, but in this day an age I'm sure that would acceptable in a "professional" environment as well.

So basically, get a fucking clue and stop bringing school yard insults to twitter if your trying to criticise other professionals in your field.  It's childish, stupid and it sets a bad example and sends the wrong message.

Grow up and stop pretending to be offended by things for the sake of seeming "progressive" to morons on the internet.

Doing DRM Right

While I was staring at my Facebook last night I came across an article on the PCGamer website talking about a little trick that the developer of a game called Game Dev Tycoon played on it's user base.

For those that want to read the whole thing, you can find it here http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/04/29/indie-development-sim-game-dev-tycoon-gives-pirates-a-taste-of-their-own-torrenting/

For those that just want a quick summary, the deal is that in this game you run a team of game developers.  The idea is that your supposed to make games and make money to build a decent game development company.  At least I think that's how it works, I've not actually played it.  Anyway, the developer released a cracked version of the game to torrent sites where if you had torrented the game, after reaching a certain point all your releases would be pirated, you would make no money and go out of business.

This is fucking DRM done properly, it's not fucking over any legitimate players are is giving hilarious results to those that did pirate the game.  My personal favourite quote from that article was a screen cap of a guy saying "Can I research DRM or something?"

The other awesome anti-piracy measures mentioned in that article was Serious Sam 3s immortal scorpion that will chase you for eternity if it recognises a pirated version.

Although my personal favourite subtle DRM comes from Earthbound on the SNES, where if you were playing a bootleg cartridge it would ramp up the encounter rate and then crash and delete your save if you managed to get to the end.  Hell, even Metal Gear Solids "Meryls codec number is on the back of the box" was fucking genius.

Whats NOT cool is shit like Sim City and other crap "always online" DRM that does more harm to the paying customer than good.  Just look round the internet and see all the people raging at the "always online" rumours that were going around about the next generation systems.  People aren't mad about developers protecting their games from pirates, it makes sense that they want to be paid for their work.  What people get mad about is when we do support them and get fucked over anyway.

So try using these imaginative ways to stop piracy rather than just fucking over entire user bases of people because of paranoia about pirates.  Also, even if something does go wrong and paying customers for Serious Sam 3 somehow got the scorpion, at least you have a hilarious story to tell as you get it fixed rather than just being locked out of the game you paid full price for. 

Used Games in Japan (With video examples!)

I've had some bad experiences buying used games in the UK.  For example I once bought a copy of Pool of Radiance, and when I got it home there was a completely different game in the box.  Another time I once bought a copy of Shadow of Memories on the PS2 only to take it home and discover fucking Jam on the CD and despite my best cleaning efforts, that shit just would not work.

In Japan however, I've had the reverse of that.  Every used game I have bought has come in pristine condition with all inlays and extra bits and bobs that came with it when it was new.  I have a friend who got the PS1 version of Metal Gear Solid that came with a load of collectors stickers or something, it was pretty neat.

It also had a Suikoden Demo

So while I was up in Kawagoe doing a bit of a retro game hunt with previously mentioned friend, we came across a copy of Final Fantasy 2 and 3 in a junk pile in a Hard Off.  Book Off is a used book store type deal in Japan that also takes stuff like Video Games and DVDs, Hard Off is like that but for things like old VHS players and TVs, but Hard Off also stocks games.

So for about 200 yen each we took these things back to my buddies place, slammed them in his Famulator and turned it on.  First it didn't work and got a load of gunk inside his system, which we had to clean out before trying again, and then when we did make it work, the sound was a bit.....off.  Take a look!

This is the first time I have ever seen this happen, but it was pretty funny.  Usually used games on carts come with all its save slots full of 100% completed games, this one was just messed up.  Still, for only 200 yen it's not like you can really complain.

More Japan Purchases (Vlog)

I don't need to write anything since everything I want to say is in the video!

The Phantom Pain

The Phantom Pain is the name of a game that was announced at VGA and has a very cool trailer.  If you wanna watch the trailer, here it is!

When I first watched it I though it looked like a really cool horror game or something, but I noticed something that made me feel like I'd seen the character in the trailer before.  That hair, that eye injury...Big Boss?!  That's right folks, this cool lookin' thing may or may not be a new Metal Gear game!  It doesn't really matter if it is or it isn't though, just from watching that trailer I'm interested (it probably is)

Give it a google search if you want a big list of the evidence that points to this being a Metal Gear but if it is a new one, I'm curious as to why it's not being shown as such.  This whole subtle clue thing is really cool and all but there must be a reason for it.

So watch that space, if you're a fan of Metal Gear you probably have a reason to by hyped, and if you're not, it's still a damn cool trailer

Do we really need more Metal Gear?

I love Metal Gear, it's up there with some of my favourite franchises ever.  I started with the Metal Gear Solid demo on my playstation, ended up buying the full thing and being hooked ever since and as much as some people like to rag on it's outlandish, insane plot which could arguably use some editing, I still love that stuff.

So on the horizon we have Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, but do we really need these games at all?  Now I don't want anyone to take this the wrong way, these games do not look bad by any stretch, in fact they look awesome, but they worry me. 

The story for Metal Gear was done, finito, over with MGS4 and while I'm not going to turn my nose up at more Metal Gear goodness, I'm worried that one day, if they keep making these games, that they are going to end up sucking.

We have seen it happen to Silent Hill and Sonic just to name a couple of franchises that aren't anywhere near as good as they used to be and I really don't want to see Metal Gear get the same treatment.

I'm pretty hyped for these games, and they'll probably be good, but please....let it die and be remembered as a great series before you ruin it with spin off crap.