How the Mighty have Fallen...

First of all, normally that title is used in a mocking sense when one achieves a victory, usually somewhat shallow or vain. However, this time it's used more as an observation of an industry... the gaming industry. For starters, let me point out, it was a toss up between that title and "Fall of the Roman Empire", however, I can't seem to make too many *decent* analogies between the whole "Roman" bit and gaming, I can however do that with "Fallen", which I'll get to later.

Now honestly, all laughs, puns, and jokes aside, I've partaken in the gaming industry for going on twenty-nine years. I've been a spectator, a player, a beta-tester, a modder, even a here and there a "silent" consultant of sorts. I've seen whole companies, technologies, and consoles come and go. I was there to see the very first original unveiling of EGA graphics as a step-up from CGA (to note: I was around for monochrome B/W, Orange, Green single-color displays all the way up... just wasn't present at the very first original unveilings of those technologies). Anyways, case in point, I'm trying to point out I'm not just some jabber-jaw who picked up an iPhone one weekend on a fluke, downloaded a few apps, and suddenly decided to self-label himself expert.

I started out on the ColecoVision in 1983 (hence why I refer to myself as "The Coleco Kid"), the very first game I ever played on it was Donkey Kong, which to this day is one of my all-time favorite retro-arcade games. Eventually had a ColecoVision Adam with the Atari adapter, which led to possessing every Coleco cartridge, cassette, and floppy disk game; as well as every Atari game. Yeah, the case that held 'em all was rather huge. I also remember playing various IntelliVision systems at my parents' friends houses. Over time, got into PCs and PC gaming. I'll go to my grave saluting hardcore props to the very original Sierra OnLine (not the sideshow Sierra of today), the ORIGINAL Sierra. So many names and titles, if anybody's curious, look 'em up on Wikipedia, they were definitely one to shape the path of gaming as well as RPGs today. As time went on, I finally got an 8-bit Nintendo, then a Super Nintendo, and admittedly, I kind of skipped the N64 and jumped on the Playstation when it first came out. I never got much into SMS or Genesis, Sega was always my sister's thing... and I'm not being sexist with that, she just liked it

more, and I went the Nintendo route is all. I then went through a PS2, an X-Box, a PS3, and and X360; I've also used just about every emulator there is on the market, emulating the old TurboGrafx 16, NeoGeo, SMS, Genesis, SNES, NES, Atari, Coleco, Intellivision, even PS2 emus.

(Pardon the size of this next graphic, but it fit just SO perfectly right here...........)

I could go into tons and tons of detail, but it's been very rare that at any point of my life I wasn't exposed to gaming of some shape or form, or rare I didn't have some outlet for gaming readily available, and most rare I wasn't a hardcore gamer in some sense of the definition. Also, not to sound sappy, but gaming isn't always sunshine and daisies either... it's had quite a few moments of being a love/hate relationship. There's been numerous times that certain company politics, or certain company/game/idea scrappings, or even game hecklers, etc have made me want to just throw down the gauntlet and walk away from gaming for good... but no matter how hard you try, once gaming is your blood, it's always there... sort of like a really hard addictive substance that's

hard to kick. Which also brings it's fair share of negativity as well. I won't lie on this next part, there's a part of me that gets a bit sick to my stomach when I look back, and remember all the torment, insults, teasing, mocking etc that people used to get way back when for being a "nerd", "geek", "dweed", "loser" or what have you. Thankfully I was a body-builder that got along with just about every crowd,

so I didn't get as much as some, but I did get looked at sometimes as a "loser" or "nerd" because I knew more about technology, and there were some days I couldn't wait to get home and chat online. Back then, that was so "square". How funny how the tide has turned... now all those people that used to tease about it, can't be separated from their cell phone for more than 15 minutes without going into a cold-sweat, while trying to go around showing off to everybody how tech-savvy they suddenly are, now that "tech" is the "cool thing". Sorry to say, there's always going to be seniority for those of us that found technology to be cool, while everybody else found it to be uncool, far before they even realized there was a "cool peoples" carpool lane on the information superhighway.

Okay, so that was a bit of a long-winded introduction, my original point for this blog was more to focus on the timeline of gaming, and to look at how the structure of the gaming industry has changed as a whole, but not just the now change, the ongoing changes that laid out the different eras of gaming if you will.

Honestly, at times many changes within the industry are so subtle that most might not even notice, and just sort of roll along with it like a tide blowing into the beach, but honestly, gaming has changed quite drastically since the early days, even in ways you probably haven't thought of.

For starters, multi-location gaming. I had to call it location after much thinking, I was going to say multi-console, multi-system, but none of them do it justice, so multi-location works. If we rewound time back to say somewhere around 1985, and anybody told me that one day we'd be able to game with each other from different systems linked together, or game with people all around the word, even with as open-minded as I try to be, I probably might have to at least chuckle a tiny bit at first.

Heck, back in 1985, the idea of playing with anybody besides the computer and not having them be on the same screen with you was unimaginable. Eventually though, it became a norm to do

system-linking with both consoles and PCs/Macs in a peer-to-peer network, as well as long-distance dial-up connections. Believe it or not, there was even a time when "games" were read on the screen like a book, or even made in "ascii" where letters and characters came together to make images. (Ascii game: Castle Adventure) ----->

One aspect that can't be forgotten either, and I was trying my hardest to avoid it, since I kind of covered it in the last entry, but sadly you can't really avoid, is money. For anybody that grew up gaming with me over well over 25 years ago, you'll remember that yeah it took a tiny bit of money to be into gaming, but not that much. Granted things have changed from the days where you could get BASIC program language codes from magazines like Compute! (as seen in the image to the left... which yes, I remember that issue #46 of March 1984 quite well), type them into your computer in 5 minutes, and be playing the latest and greatest Cannons game. But I digress, as I was saying, those who gamed way back in the day, remember that for a tiny bit of money you could game and game for awhile, keeping yourself entertained. Now we're finding ourselves crunched into a "corporate gaming" system. Here's what I mean, back in the day, a computer was much like a gaming console in that you'd have your typical PC and tons of games would be made that could easily play on it, and over time you'd need a sys-upgrade obviously for the next-gen games.

Now here's how things seem to work lately, you build a computer that's cutting-edge, there's a handful of half a dozen to a dozen titles that can really push it to the limits, almost even exceed what it's capable of, then about six months to a years later, guess what, time for a new system, because that mighty beast-box is already starting to date itself; say wha!? Computer's taking all my darn monies!@#! -->

I mean seriouly, it's almost enough to make us PC gamers envy consoles. The days of a new console coming out every few years seem to be dying down, and now a console comes out with its set specs, and each programmer makes the games to fall within those specs, and the whole "package" upgrades when the console does. Seriously, the first PS3 released in late 2006, the X-Box 360

was originally unveiled on MTV in early 2005, and the original Wii also released in late 2006. To date, the only one of those three systems that has a working prototype model in play for it's next-gen release is Nintendo with the "Wii U" (which I still swear is the verbal sound I make when I fart really hard!). Anywho, point of all that, is it's been pretty much 5 years since the last major console release, and they're still going strong; yet on the PC side of things, every few game releases spells a needed system upgrade. Which don't get me wrong, at heart I'm a die-hard PC gamer, as you can do the best mods, tweaks, and customizing on Mac/PC... but admittedly, it gets REAL pricey over time. Which to go along with my last entry, I may turn this into an upcoming topic, how to shave off dollars and cents for those of use trying to make the most out of our PC gaming experience, in fact, look forward to that one, I can actually see that being the next entry.

So, long story short (too late), this entry hasn't turned out at all like I had envisioned, I originally meant to at least go down the line and point out companies that have come and went, giving props where they're deserved, and also offering a "who's who" of F2P games you may not have realized offered F2P functionality, and to trim that down, going to narrow it those games that used to be pretty much strictly P2P that have become F2P. So, without further a do, the top 10 - "How the Mighty have Fallen"...

10. ToonTown - As seen in the title, created and released by Disney games. Awesome virtual world where you get to make your very own toon and battle the cogs, diving into four different enemy cog factions including Cashbot, Sellbot, Bossbot, and Lawbot. This game was originally a premium only with limited trials, however it now offers a very limited F2P functionality where you can play as much as you want, but can pretty much only really do anything major in ToonTown Central, making it a bit harder to get to the outlaying neighborhoods.

9. Anarchy Online - Welcome to Rubi-Ka Inter-Territorial Space, at least I think I recall that's what the opening says. Anarchy Online is, was, and will always be one of the greats Sci-Fi MMORPGs of its time, with deep skill/stat customization, to great gameplay, deep storylines, and huge open-world gaming environment. This game was originally premium only, but now offers full F2P all the way through the standard Anarchy Online as well as Notum Wars. Funcom is also currently improving the graphics of Anarchy Online to make it more "worthy" of the latest graphic

capabilities, so be sure to check this bad boy out if you get a chance!

8. Face of Mankind - Yes, for those that like FoM, it IS indeed back from the dead. It was recently repurchased by another company and revived, while that new company is also looking to make it bigger and better. Admittedly I've dipped in and out of Face of Mankind, but the gameplay architecture behind it seems amazing, where the players fully make both the laws and the economy. Even though I'm not much of a PvP type, I do understand that FoM I believe offers semi-decent PvE, so I really want to try and focus on this one at some future point! Check it out if you get a chance peeps.

7. Champions Online - Another Superhero MMORPG, comparable a little bit to City of Heroes and a couple notches down from DC Universe Online. Still really fun to play, really open-world, deep, cartoony, with awesome character customization, excellent cast, and hours entertainment, be sure to give Champions Online a try if you haven't already!

6. HellGate: Global - Say what!? What'd you mean you haven't heard that HellGate is BACK!? Developed by some of the original Diablo creative team, HellGate originally released as HellGate: London and didn't fare so well, but it's back now as HellGate: Global, which has just recently released their latest "Japan" expansion. Be sure to check out HellGate... as it's gaming experience is pretty much second to none. To give the hardcore gaming audience an idea, it's like Fallout meets CrimeCraft... b00yah!

5. City of Heroes: Freedom - This one completely flew under my radar, and I didn't even realize it had gone F2P until a little while after the F2P launch, but this one so deserved a spot on this list, since a) it's like the very first MMORPG superhero game to start the trend, even though there were a couple superhero games kicking around before that, this was the first "MMO" one, and this game just friggin rules. If you haven't ever given City of Heroes a try, I strongly recommend that you try installing it and see what you think, as this thing is like super tight!

4. APB: Reloaded - This one, even at number four, may have to take it's own cake in other ways. So many, myself included, looked forward to the release of APB for so long. After so much time, it finally came to be, and at the last minute, they announced subs, WHAT!? Okay, they didn't really have an infastructure in place for this yet, thus RealTime Worlds tanked, went out of business, and thanks to that awesome company GamersFirst, APB is back as APB: Reloaded! Now if they could only streamline the code a bit more... thanks in advance fellas! So if you want to either be a criminal or enforcer in GTA-like shooter/semi-MMO style, check out APB: Reloaded!

3. DC Universe Online - Keep in mind this one hasn't quite gone F2P yet, but is scheduled to go F2P sometime this month (October), where you can play hero or villain in the superhero genres many of us grew up in. Props to my man Supes over there... oh yeah, I'm like the world's fore-leading Superman fanatic, LULz!!

2. Star Trek Online - Another one that hasn't quite yet gone F2P, but are scheduled to be F2P, in their words, sometime before the end of the year. Word of warning to any old-school traditional Trekies, this isn't your typical storyline. It's supposed to take place sometime after the most recent movie, where the Klingons and the Federation are at war, yet for some reason, the planet Vulcan I believe still exists in this one, whereas in the movie, it was destroyed? Hrmz. Oh, also worth noting for any that haven't followed STO, but were aware of the original Perpetual Engine that was SUPPOSED to be used; FYI - it didn't turn out that way. Perpetual Entertainment went under, and the IP rights went to Cryptic, but not the engine... which as many saw, Cryptic rather rushed it's release, thus there tends to be a decent amount of areas that don't necessarily feel as "Star Trek" as they should.

1. Fallen Earth - Finally, the number one, "How the Mighty have Fallen"... a-ha, now you see why I went with that title. Fallen Earth as a game is awesome, however, the coding could use some major streamlining. The game however is the closest to a FallOut MMO yet, at least until Grimlands comes later from Gamigo. If memory serves correctly, when Fallen Earth first released, many of its gaming community, as well as some of the staff wanted to be rather pompous. It was always weird how Fallen Earth was sort of its own private community, that nearly cried out, "VIP Only". Well, looking back at those heads held oh so high, noses in the air... it's so awesome to say, with only eight more days and counting to Fallen Earth F2P... "How the Mighty have FALLEN"! Q:)

So, even though there's more I could point out, I may save that for my next entry. Be sure to check it out, as I plan to focus on ways to help save gamers money, which will aim mostly towards the PC gamers since they have to shell out quite a bit more for gaming rigs, but will also have tidbits that can help the console gamers as well. So anyways, see ya' next time my peeps... same g33k time, same g33k channel! \m/, Outtie!

Exit... stage left!