Development After Retail
E3 has come and passed, delighting those who were required to cover the event, as it signals the start of the slightly slower-paced gaming season that precedes the holiday rush. Say what you will about the quality of the products on display this year -- it seems many came away from the event feeling slightly underwhelmed -- but there were definitely a few reasons to make the trek to Los Angeles last week.

TOMONOBU ITAGAKI.

I was lucky enough to be invited to a relatively small party hosted by Tecmo and Team Ninja celebrating the end of a Dead or Alive Ultimate online tournament. The top eight players from around the world were in attendance to compete against each other for the top spot and a chance to meet the game's illustrious and often misunderstood creator, Tomonobu Itagaki.

I was delighted by the diversity of the players in attendance; they had come from not only the US and Japan, but also New Zealand, Taiwan, and Mexico. While most players were young men, the crowd favorite was clearly the middle-aged Japanese woman who had made her way through the ranks to take on the world's other top players. Watching them play was impressive; many disregard DOA due to its deceptively simplistic fighting mechanics. But watching skilled players -- the world's best, in fact -- does make it much easier to respect the game. No button masher would've stood a chance in that room.

Prior to the final match, dinner was served and two of the players were seated next to me at the table with a few fellow game writers from various online and print publications. I watched the pair’s eyes light up as the group shared stories about the industry and it's secrets. Our work, which often feels mundane, was so interesting to these young outsiders that I couldn't help but be reminded why I started working in the field in the first place. Their excitement was infectious and soon a table full of grizzled industry vets had been transformed into children telling schoolyard tales, dropping names, and most importantly, talking about the games we love.

After dinner, Itagaki-san approached the El Paso-based player seated beside me and drunkenly applauded his play in as eloquent English speech as he could muster at the time. "Hayabusa, right? You. Me. We're like brothers..." he stated while slapping the star-struck youth on the shoulder. He approached a the Taiwanese player to congratulate him similarly. Instead of appearing excited like our friend from Texas, this player held himself with a coy, uneasiness that was so decidedly nerdy and familiar, that I couldn't help but smile. If someone had snapped a photo of me the first time I met Itagaki-san, our expressions would have been the same.

Tecmo has skillfully extended the Dead or Alive experience. Sure, the winner of the tourney walked away with a check for $1000 and the esteem of his competitors. But just being in attendance was the real reward. These players, who had simply purchased a video game at their local game store in months prior had now been given a chance to attend E3 and meet the man most directly responsible for creating the product that they had invested so much of their time in.

I thought a bit about Ninja Gaiden and the subsequent release of the free Hurricane Packs available on Xbox Live. When else has a single-player console game been updated with so much new and fulfilling content? Tecmo and Team Ninja are so unique in their motives. They want their fans to stick around. They want them to play their their games for longer than a single weekend. They want to extend the game experience beyond what was originally included in the boxed retail copy. And I respect them for it.

The gap between the player and the developer is being chipped away in a very interesting fashion and the games, their creators, and those who consume them can only benefit from it. Is it financially feasible to release free content, or throw a giant party and fly a few attendees in from around the world? Maybe not initially. But eventually, more gamers will notice this particular developer's commitment to its projects and I can only hope that sales of future products will reflect that. In what other ways could the game experience be extended? In what ways are PC developers -- who've obviously been working in the online space longer than their console counterparts -- innovating similarly? Networking will play such a large role in the next generation that there's no excuse for developers not to find innovative ways to connect with the end-user. I'd love to be able to join creators in a video chat while racing or access to interactive tutorials on complex fighting techniques hosted by those responsible for creating them. I suppose it remains to be seen whether or not more developers will make such an effort. But I can hope, cant I?

Posted by ryan at May 23, 2005 07:52 AM | TrackBack