Ouya

Feeling Ripped Off in Ravensword

/ Ralph Barbagallo / 3 Comments

If you’ve read my previous review of the Ouya, you may be familiar with my strange obsession with Ravensword: Shadowlands. It’s a hilariously inept Skyrim clone for phones, tablets, and the Ouya. The game seems like they went down the list of Skyrim features and implemented a bare bones version of each one. From horseback riding to guild systems, they all exist–but are laughably basic. Still, I must have dumped over 15 hours into this saga, exploring its ambitious yet flawed world.

One interesting element of Ravensword is the business model. It’s essentially premium, with an up-front cost to buy the game once the demo period is over. However, at any time you can buy gold, experience, gems, health restores, and talent points with real money. It’s probably the first single player RPG I’ve seen with such a business model.

Early in the game I hit a difficulty brick wall. Monsters were way too strong and there seemed to be no way to grind for gold or XP. I decided to make a one-time purchase of 5,000 gold pieces for $5. I then bought the finest equipment the shops in South Aven had to offer and ventured out into the wilderness, tearing through monsters that were previously kicking my ass.

Maybe 10 minutes after making this purchase, I found a chest containing a sword better than the one I spent the equivalent of 2 real-world dollars on. I felt ripped off. It’s the in-game equivalent of buying the latest iPhone a few days before they announce a new model.

This made me constantly suspicious of the game. Every time I hit a tough point, I thought about if it was some kind of game design sales funnel to get me to spend money. If there was any kind of competent story to be immersed in, it probably would have taken me out of the game, too.

As I stated in my Kotaku piece earlier this year, f2p game designs are still too primitive to carry a single player campaign. Ravensword is a prime example. I salute the developer for making a stab at merging a single player narrative with f2p economies. Yet, scattering purchases throughout a quest makes you second guess every design choice to the point of completely breaking any sense of immersion. Issues like this make me think it’s impossible to reconcile the design principles of f2p monetization and an epic single player experience. Yet, Ravensword is only the tip of the iceberg. Hopefully we’ll see some stronger attempts at this problem soon.

My Week with the Ouya

/ Ralph Barbagallo / 6 Comments

I’ve been skeptical of the Ouya since the beginning. Who would want to play mobile games scaled up on a TV with a box that’s about as powerful as a mid-range Android phone? Last year’s smashing Kickstarter success and resultant investor stampede was a mystery to me. Criticism of Ouya’s launch has been harsh. For a mere $99, I had to see if this microconsole ‘revolution’ is going to take off.

My Ouya

My Ouya

The console itself is a nice piece of industrial design–except for the fact that the vent is on the bottom. There also are shielding issues forcing some users to lay the box on its side or position it away from cabling to prevent interference with Bluetooth and WiFi. Contrasting Ouya’s sleek form factor is a cheap looking controller with no obvious way to put batteries in. At $99, you have to cut corners somewhere.

Setting up the Ouya is easy. It requires the creation of an Ouya account and a credit card link before playing anything. Some are complaining about this, but there’s no point in getting users on the platform if they aren’t going to pay. Making sure every user is billable and ready to buy stuff is a top priority for Ouya.

Despite having to create user accounts, Ouya appears to have no social network based around them. There aren’t any friends lists, achievements, or leaderboards. This is a glaring omission. Ouya’s somewhat unwieldy catalog is organized by curated arrays of games from celebrity editors and lists sorted by genre. At the very least, I’d like to see what some of my friends are playing.

What about the games? Frankly, they are atrocious. With over 100 launch titles, this is to be expected. Ouya’s games include half-baked ports from mobile (some don’t even bother to change the screen to landscape!), suspect exclusives, and tragically hip indie games about abused children.

As I dove deep into the Ouya catalog, I actually began to enjoy the experience. The diversity of games is charming. Plus, I’m a big connoisseur of b-movies and the Ouya feels like the MST3k of consoles. Blowing up games originally built for a 4-inch screen on my 60-inch TV really magnifies polish issues and sub-par graphics. Seeing just how bad some of these games are can be hilarious. However, I’m not quite sure that’s what Ouya had in mind.

Where Ouya shines is playing mobile game ports that originally had virtual buttons and d-pads. Games like Gunslugs and the unusually polished Ice Rage play MUCH better with physical controls. My current obsession is Ravensword: Shadowlands. Despite having bought it on the iPad last year, I purchased the Ouya version and have been ironically enjoying it as a PS2-looking Roger Corman-esque Z-grade Skyrim. It’s hilariously unpolished, absurdly ambitious, and infinitely more playable with a joypad despite the game being somewhat incompetently designed.

Ouya’s biggest flaw is the business model. All games are a hybrid of premium and f2p with a timed demo period. I learned way back in the feature phone era that demos are death for casual games. With an constant stream of content and bite-sized gameplay, users get their fill of your title for free and move on to the next demo. Forcing this model on developers is a major mistake. It’s the hallmark of a team clueless as to how to build a thriving ecosystem. If your mantra is “free the games,” then free the business model too. Straight f2p and video previews for premium titles is a much better option.

A lot of these early problems are to be expected from a company launching its first consumer electronics product so quickly. Also, people seem to have unrealistic expectations for a $99 box. It remains to be seen if the emerging category of microconsoles will be a market of any significance. Perhaps Ouya can break off some of their war chest for quality exclusive titles, or else they are doomed to drown in a sea of similar devices.