You guys have any burning questions? About anything? This is Ask Me Stuff, which does exactly what it says on the tin. Leave me a question in the comments below and I’ll endeavour to answer it before the day is out.
Ask Me Stuff
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86 responses to “Ask Me Stuff”
/Headslam.
I’ll be at the Gizmodo/Lifehacker trivia night tonight, do I get a bonus prize if I’m able to touch Seamus’s hair?
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I was planning to go, but it wasn’t til last week I found out you actually had to register for a place, so i missed out 🙁 Do us proud Trjn!
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Apparently they opened up additional spots today. Give it another check, you might just be able to join the fun.
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Two spots available! Team Kotaku, unite!
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Your prize will be a night in prison and a temporary restraining order! Congratulations!
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Worth it.
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Have you ever wanted to liked a game – or wanted to play it – so much that you played it at 640*480 with all graphic options turned off?
I did that on my first playthrough of tes iv. Wouldn’t be able to do that again.
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I remember the only way to get Doom to run in a non-chuggy way on my old 386 was to shrink the screen size down to gameboy size
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Mario Galaxy 2.
(lol)
What are the future release prospects for console based MMO’s.
I like the idea of getting into an MMO, which I haven’t done yet. But I also like playing games on my couch, PS3.
thanks
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Yeah! The Marvel MMO claims to be free and free, I guess I’ll at least need LIVE gold right?
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i’m not sure why people view a PC as unable to be played from a couch
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I think that’ll start to change when people get used to the idea of a PC as a media center.
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Sorry I should have clarified. I can and sometimes do play my PC games on my TV on the couch, provided it has proper support for a gamepad because I hate using a keyboard and mouse on the couch.
So another question would probably be: anyone know a good MMO for PC that has a good interface with a game-pad, 360 controller usually?
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Keyboard and mouse requires a stable surface to use. Being on the couch means that you can’t effectively use a keyboard and mouse.
Trust me on this, I’ve tried. It was such a hassle I ended up using a Magic Trackpad on a PC with Windows 7.
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I think there’s definitely space for it to work. But MMOs are well suited to the PC.
It’ll take a strong brand with great implementation.
Two questions:
1. Why are some publishers on steam now finding it necessary to jack up prices? Seeing it with darkspore, shift 2, shogun 2, brink… given that this is a digital purchase, why do they think it necessary to charge the same amount I would pay for a retail box?
2. What’s rift like? I hear an older crowd are into it and (at this point) there are less juvenile shenanigans compared to WoW. How’s the balancing? Anyone in the community want to chime in?
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Mainly because EB and Game bitch that it’s uncompetitive to their pricing.
So far EA, and THQ are the main perpetrators of this so far. But i feel it’s only going to get worse from here on out.
but there are ways around it.
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Indeed, I am becoming a more regular customer of ozgameshop, although I am happy not all publishers on steam are joining in on the machiavellian pricing scheme (yet, anyway).
Canceled my brink pre-order on steam for $90 and bought it from OGS for $36. Srsly Bethesda… you used to be cool.
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I think Ubisoft are publishing Brink here because the other day they sent me an email about it!
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Gods, I hate regional publishing deals. In fact, I hate regionalised publishing in any form; it leads only to discrimination.
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As far as I’m aware, if the publishers felt they’d make more money by keeping prices low online, there’d be absolutely no incentive for them to jack them up. The retailers are absolutely powerless before the might of their suppliers. Imagine the following conversation:
Retailer: “Make it more expensive online so we keep our sales up!”
Publisher: “Or what?”
Retailer: “Or we won’t stock your products!”
Publisher: “You’ll deprive yourself of major titles which your competition will be stocking?”
Retailer: “I… uh…”
Publisher: “So you’re upset that the platform which you don’t/can’t support properly about is moving away from you, such that you’re willing to drive your more lucrative platform lines into the ground?”
Retailer: “._.”
Publisher: “Now get out of my office.”^ If it goes differently than the above, let me know. Because I can honestly not see any other way for that discussion to go. So that line of reasoning has to be BS. In Australia at least, where retail PC is almost negligible outside of WoW launches.
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Retail still counts for the vast majority of game sales in Australia. Publishers don’t want to piss off retailers because they get screwed over just as much as the retailers do.
Also, with this option, they make more moneys and everyone likes to make more moneys.
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Oh yes, I should conclude, not just rant. Based on what I just said above; specifically that retailers don’t have much they can do other than boycott, I can’t see that being a viable reason for online pricing discrimination.
The alternative which makes more sense to me is much simpler: profitability. People will still pay jacked up prices, because we’re used to it at retail, so they’ll make way more money. It’s greedy (because otherwise they’d price everywhere higher) and unethical (because it’s discrimination!), but it’s the only way I can see it.
For example, if 2K release Civ V, and make 1,000 sales at $50/ea, they’ve made $50,000 revenue. But if they release Civ V at $90, and lose 20% of their customers, they’ve still made 800 sales. Which is $72,000. I can see which way I’d rather go, running the business. Naturally, those numbers are illustrative and not based on fact, but it paints a profitable picture, no?
Kotaku AU, can we get a poll: How many people would refuse to buy a game on Steam if it costed $30AU more than it does in the US? I’d like at least an informal way to get some more accuracy into my example…
Another thing worth asking the community is how many people notice the price difference. I gather that a lot of purchases on Steam are impulse buys (no pun intended), so I don’t think many people are aware that they can compare prices, as on http://www.steamprices.com/au.
More research into this would be welcome, even if informal!
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I am all for a Kotaku Community Census. I myself didn’t know about the steamprices site the other day when I noted how prices had suddenly gotten much more expensive and decided to take a closer look to find out why…
Imagine my shock! Imagine my horror! It was large, in both cases.
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RE: Steam. The short answer is that the prices are jacked to provide an even playing field for retailers. The long answer? It’s something I’m looking into.
RE: Rift. Haven’t played it! Not much of an MMO guy.
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Anything you can say about the possibility of a future Kotaku AU Census?
“Have you ever heard of or used the http://steamprices.com/au/ website, and if so, have you chosen to cancel, postpone, or look for other options for a purchase?”
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As far as jacking up prices to give retail a chance – is that done anywhere else in the world? Or just in Australia? Seems exceedingly dodgy.
PSN and XBL are the same, too, in terms of charging full retail price for the digital version of a game. It’s time for a Serrels expose to blow the lid off this conspiracy.
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I believe it is. Games could be sold online for less than retail RRP for the same margin everywhere. But I don’t really have an issue with this. I’m really happy to pay the US retail price. The problem is the regionalisation.
Specifically, games in the US go for approx. $50/ea. PC ones, at least. So the prices are kept around that point for the sake of the massive US retail empire. But in Australia, they choose to not sell at the US retail price, which they’re obviously fine with selling at in other territories, but the local retail price. This is to say that they’re not trying to preserve local retail market share, because that’s nonexistant/inconsequential from a global standpoint. But still they jack it up to 180% of the US price. For no logistical reason. I’d abide 10% for GST, or even $5/title for ACB approval. But they don’t pay GST, and don’t seek ACB approval.
So it’s obviously for the purposes of inflating the bottom line, and yet, we have no meaningful means to hold them accountable.
Help us, Mark. You’re our only hope.
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When do you reckon they’ll start turning PSN back on? And once they do, how long do you reckon it’ll take them to get around to Australia? Would we be one of the first (does being a smaller market make us a good testbed just in case things go pear-shaped, or make us the lowest priority?).
Oh, and when’s the Ico/SotC collection coming out? 😛
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Correct me if I’m wrong but the Australian PSN is just part of the European one. So when they go back online, we should be back online too.
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I know we have some stuff in common with them, but we also have some of our own stuff (e.g. our own store) – I’m just not really sure where the boundaries lie, or if they’re capable of bringing us online independently of Europe or not.
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Australia doesn’t have it’s own store. It’s the European store. All items on the EU can be restricted to certain regions (eg no release in Germany/Australia). But it’s all the same content/layout unlike any other store (Asia, Japan and US all have different layouts and content)
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I think we’ll def see the PSN on in some form this week. Even if it’s just the store. Not really sure how Australia will fit in the grand scheme of things…
RE: ICO/SOTC… [awkward silence]
Why isn’t the picture one of the many serrels stare pictures the guys made last week?
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Yeah, this! Where’s the animated chair swivel or death stare image? I thought we had a deal!? (Well, I know that I agreed on it at least)
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Agreed. We need this image changed! xD
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http://i52.tinypic.com/6h0oj8.jpg
Any Questions?
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OK, I’m a lover of the headslam but thate is
AWESOME!
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If only we had someone on the inside…..
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I just forgot! I’m quite tempted to use Andrew’s actually!
Which game or games are you looking forward to the most this year?
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The Last Guardian. Although it probably won’t make it this year.
And Journey.
Just found out Donkey Kong 64 isn’t on the virtual console because of problems with the emulation!
Any idea if they are still working on it or where I could find out.
If they aren’t who can I complain too?
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You can complain to me. I won’t be able to do much but i promise I’ll listen 🙂
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Done
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OH GAWD!
just realised I wrote too instead of to, hope Trjn doesn’t read this!
What is your favourite colour?
Oh, right, the gaming. When is Asura’s Wrath coming out?
Can anyone review or give some feedback on RFactor. I’ve been a GT5 and Forza fan for ages, but am looking to spend some real $$ and get into PC racing to be able to play some Aussie tracks.
RFactor keeps getting mentioned, but I’m totally confused by it all.
As for a direct question:
Are there any FPS games that don’t have you constantly holding the gun out in front of you? It kind of ruins soldier games that you don’t walk around with the barrel pointed to the ground and only raise the gun when firing, like you do in real life (so you don’t accidentally blow a hole in a squad member’s back). Also you would fatigue out if you tried to carry an assault rifle in the firing position constantly, do any games utilise that and make it harder to aim the longer you keep the rifle in the ‘up’ position?
If I was to Pre-order a bunch of games on the net (Deus Ex, L.A Noir, Skyrim etc.) what would be the best place to do so? Last time I bought off OzGameshop and it took AGES, and I really don’t want to be sitting around for weeks when I could’ve picked it up from JB
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OzGameShop is the cheapest, GAME is blisteringly fast, especially if you’re in NSW, and JB is probably a decent middleground. No idea how quick they are, though.
Does George Romero scare the pants off you in Call of the Dead? I am pantsless myself now 🙁
Who’s the most awesome person at Allure Media? (note: There is only one correct answer for this)
😛
But seriously:
Any more news incumbent about the new SSX game?
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Do you work while not wearing pants??
…insert-answer-here…
That’s what I thought. The correct answer is Mark Serrels then 😛
What did you think of Xbox getting 8 live AFL games from 2012 as a part of the AFL rights announcement last week?
Has there been any word about the XCOM reboot since the stuff late last year?
In a 2K financial statement, it’s slated for a 2012 fiscal year release, (ie second half 2011) so shouldn’t there be a bit more info out there?
All the website has is the movie.
Hey Mark, do you think my Asteroid Evaders game is worthy of being an official Lunch Time Waster?
Don’t worry, I won’t be disappointed if you say not yet.
Is the Mark Serrels I see making posts with their name in black a different person to the official Mark Serrels whos name is in red?
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Is the Lone Wolf posting a few spots above you in fact related to you? And if not, how do you feel about the new HBO Game of Throne TV series?
I think its tops (and yes, those two questions do not relate to each other in the slightest.)
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Lone Wolf is not Dire Wolf. I have no idea which of us was here first.
I haven’t seen the series yet. I didn’t even know it was out. I did enjoy the books though so I guess if the series is well done I’ll like it.
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It is fricken AWESOME! =D
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Have there been any Kinect-based XBL games announced and they coming out in the near future?
Kinect seems like the perfect apparatus for goofy online, avatar based shovelware. Yet so far, I have seen none. Thoughts?
…hmm, maybe I should get into game development. Thoughts? =P
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Isn’t the Wipeout style thing that’s been announced an XBLA game?
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Hey, that reminds me, isn’t ‘The Gunstringer’ from pixeljunk meant to be out by now? It was a promising looking XBLA Kinect jobby.
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or is it from twisted pixel? something with pixels anyway.
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When are we due to see these ‘Wii Select’ titles and this new Mario Kart Wii Bundle in Australia?
Best preorders for LA Noire? (360)
Anybody else with a 360 and WWE Allstars got problems with the video?
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VG for thr first?
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I mean DLC, Special Editions, JB/EB exclusives etc. Looks so good and i’m to lazy to look around.
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Just find the one with the most extra missions. Who cares about a different suit with whatever upgrades when you can get more gameply!
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Went with EB… their pre-order came with the case with the dead hookers.
I love me some dead hookers.
Reminds me of the time I toured with Andre Reiu.
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The Marvel MMO claims to be free and free, I guess I’ll at least need LIVE gold right(if it come to 360)?
Not a question, but I just wanted to thank you Mark for your attention to my Crysis crisis last month. 🙂 Still haven’t heard from EA yet but I’ve plenty of Portal and Splinter Cell to distract me while they sort it out.
Thanks 😀
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