Age III On The Charts: Voodoo Extreme posted recently NPD’s list of 10 best selling PC games in the US for the last week of December. Age III was #8. WoW ($20) had reclaimed #1 followed by Sims2 and its xpacks. There were three RTS games on the list but only the one MMORPG and one shooter.
More impressive to me is Yahoo’s list of the top ten PC games of 2006 with Age III at #7. The other strategy games on the list were Star Wars: Empire at War (#4) and Civilization IV (#9). The listed was topped by World of Warcraft and rounded out with four Sims 2 Xpacks and Oblivion. If it is true as rumored that Blizzard is going all MMORPG all the time (no rumored Starcraft 2) and we are serious about no new Age of Empire game for a while, there might be an opportunity for a new RTS franchise to get its footing. Great strategy games are still good business.
ES Work Life- Hawk on the Window: Our offices are located on the top floors of a building in north central Dallas and the ledges outside our windows attract wildlife on occasion. For a little while last week a red-tailed hawk perched outside Eric Best’s window and Brian Dellinger took photos that he sent around. The raptor was identified by Greg Street, one of our designers with an extensive education in the sciences. A similar hawk munched on a pigeon outside Karen McMullan’s window a few years ago. It is pretty cool to see a wild bird like this within a few feet of your chair and its presence made me think about how we have had birds of one kind or another flying over the Age game maps. If we see more of this guy on our ledges, he may get a role in a future game.
Warchief Games Pass Age III on ESO: Graham Somers reported to us that over a past weekend Warchief games exceeded Age III games for the first time. It is good to see the new content and features attracting a growing audience.
Positive Health Effects from Video Gaming: The Reuters web site recently reported on an article that appeared in a journal titled Motivation and Emotion. The original article claimed that the activity of playing video games can satisfy for many people deep psychological needs and therefore improve their well-being, at least in the short term. The researchers felt that gaming could boost a player’s sense of independence, achievement, and connectedness with others. Where research on video games to date has often focused on potentially harmful effects, this research suggested that positive things were happening as well.
I don’t think this is big news to me or to gamers I know. I have been feeling independent, achieving, educated, entertained, and connected through playing games my whole life. I liked those experiences so much that I pursued a career in the business. But I do find the research interesting for two reasons. First, I’m happy that games are being looked at for what is good about them. I think the harm that have been associated with them is relatively isolated and more a reflection of an unbalanced person’s problems than a cause of those problems. Second, as game developers we may learn from such research how to make games more satisfying and perhaps more successful.
The art and science of game developing seems crude in comparison to other forms of entertainment like films or the theater, both of which have now an extensive history of being studied and taught in academia. Seeking an education in game development has only recently become possible and probably lags way behind the other arts in its utility. If research into the psychology of game playing can help us understand what makes game successful, helps us train developers, and therefore leads to more and better games, that is obviously good for us all.
I don’t know how many studios/publishers actively recruit from the few schools now offering game development educations. I don’t think having such an education on a resume is currently considered a huge factor in a candidates favor. I believe it is a very positive factor for newcomers in film and theater, however, and very well may be in games also some day.
Blog Migration: The original intent of this blog was to report on the progress of Age of Empires III and also occasionally look inside the workings of Ensemble Studios. It has expanded recently to talk about our Halo Wars project and pretty much anything else related to gaming and our studio that I thought might be of interest to our fans. We have decided to move the blog to the Ensemble Studios web site as well, to reach readers seeking news about our newer projects and not necessarily the Age series. There may be other bloggers writing at the new location and there may be an opportunity to ask us questions. We’ll see how that goes. The blog will remain available here as well.
Gaming for Fun: The most popular game outside of work for ES’ers right now has to be WoW with the recent release of the Burning Crusade expansion pack. We have an email alias for several interest groups here and one is devoted to this game. The mail traffic on it has been heavy with a fairly deep discussion of what people like and don’t like about the expansion. People who have previously tailed off their participation on raid night have their L60 characters out of retirement and back in the dungeons, pushing for L70. Of particular interest is the news reported on Gamespot and Yahoo that the expansion sold over 2.4 million copies in 24 hours (Europe and US combined). That has to be a record for an expansion pack of any kind and you know it is grabbing the attention of developers and publishers around the world.
Bruce Shelley