OrtizGames

So, Soul Calibur IV comes out this Tuesday. So today. I will be buying it. It’s a little-known secret that I love fighting games–particularly Soul Calibur. At first, I wasn’t too thrilled by the screens I saw of Soul Calibur. The same old, same old–just more glitzy graphics and some finishing moves that looked like they might break the game. But as time has gone by and the release date come closer, I popped in Soul Calibur 3 just for kicks and messed around for a while.

I missed Soul Calibur 3.

And to be honest, I wouldn’t mind getting a little shot at Darth Vader. No, he shouldn’t be in the game. No, I’m not going to buy the game just for him. But really, playing as Darth Vader and maybe even Yoda is admittedly pretty cool.

So I’ve had a bit of Change of Heart, and my opponent has stolen me for a turn and put me on their side of the field (curse you, Yu-Gi-Oh!).

The problem is, it seems like they’re looking to sacrifice me. And all of us.

From this nice analysis put up by “Mike Masashi Murakami III“, seems like Yoda will be unlockable on the PS3 version and Darth Vader on the 360 version–but only if you scrape up the cash as downloadable content. In other words, you have to go on the PlayStation Store or onto the Xbox Live Marketplace and buy something that’s already technically on your disk.

Now, I have absolutely no qualms with forking out money for stuff I don’t have. That’s the point of buying. But when I need to pay money to get stuff I already own, I get a little pissed off. Example: iPhone. I want to use my songs as ringtones. You’d think if I can put them on my phone and listen to them, I should be able to use them as a ringtone. Wrong.

Instead, I have to actually go onto the iTunes Store and buy them again. Not only that, but I think I need to pay a $1 fee to turn them into ringtones. That’s two dollars–for a sound your phone makes when it rings. You may think it’s not a lot, but two dollars is the price of a quarter gallon of milk. Two dollars is enough to buy some stuff on the PlayStation Store that I don’t own. Whereas these songs? I already freaking have them on my phone. Why can’t I use them?

That’s much the same situation we’re finding in Soul Calibur IV right now. I could pay money in order to be able to unlock Yoda on my game. It’s tempting. But at the same time, why should I have to? He’s already on my disk! Can’t I just, I don’t know, beat the game on Very Hard Mode without dying? What happened to unlocking content based on skill?

Mike Masashi Murakami III is calling for people to boycott the downloadable content for Soul Calibur IV. Maybe they’ll make it free if they see how few people are accessing it. Then again, why would they make it free? It won’t benefit them in the slightest.

So I guess we’re just royally screwed. If you 360 fans want Darth Vader, or if us PS3 owners want Yoda… we’re going to have to deal out the Washingtons. Or maybe even the Lincolns.

Or yen and Euros, if you’re that person.

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I’ve realized that from a design perspective, demos are some of the most powerful tools available to experiment with your game mechanics in a real, out-of-studio setting. Previously, I always saw demos as an advertising tactic, and I never really appreciated the idea of getting only a fraction of a game–it made me feel like I was being sucked into eventually buying the full version. But now I see demos as such an exciting phenomenon.

Weekly I’ll check my news to see what’s been uploaded to the PSN Store. I’ll download most any little demo that comes out–Sam and Max, World in Conflict; you name it, I want to try the beta. I love to be able to see how the mechanics of a game work, and what the premise and definition behind it are before the studio actually gets around to releasing it.

The trouble is, most companies do still see it as an advertising tactic in order to get people excited and buy the product. The only time you hear the word “testing” related to demos is when it’s been grafted to the words “beta” or “alpha”. Which is fine, I suppose–but why don’t we see much beta and alpha on consoles, now that we have such intricate systems as 24Connect, XBLive and PSN? We’re seeing some examples–Playstation Home has had a private beta for a while, though we’ve still been waiting on the public one. I’m sure there’s other games that are being considered for alpha and beta release. But I want to see more of it–demos shouldn’t just be a “sneak preview” factor, but an experiment to see how the gaming community reacts to the dynamics being presented to them. Look at the Burnout Paradise example, and the different things EA tried (including amping the online multiplayer–for a demo of a game, of all things).

There should be more attempts to exploit the tool provided by releasing demos–or beta tests, if you want–and seeing the public’s response to the premise and mechanics.

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