Boss Barrel at the beginning of the year got off to a slow start. The motivation to write and create content was absent, even on my end. I tried to rouse everyone with project ideas and time tables and all sorts of businessy crap. Good things came out of it despite by fumbled approach. My This Old Game project has been a lot of fun and I can’t wait to do more. The learning process surrounding video creation spiked with the Bracket tourniment project. Being on camera and editing real people was different and fun. I’m reluctantly looking forward to doing it again, though I do feel a little awkward since I won and tournament and trophy I designed. I didn't write the number of reviews I forecast for myself but I know my work is getting better. I was even confident enough to apply to Game Informer. I knew I wouldn't net a response, let alone a job (they also weren’t hiring.) I did it just to do it; as a way of telling myself that I can do it. Sounds flat and clichéd but it’s one of those silly personal victories that can't be explained. The other side of Boss Barrel, the podcast, is still going strong.
With just as many changes to the site, BBR has had an overhaul this year too. We’ve had John host, Matt return, a couple awesome special guests, and Andy join. Plus he brought music. After looking for over a year for the right song, it was dropped into my lap and better than I could have ever hoped for. We also decided to switch to a fortnightly podcast. Now every two weeks we record which gives us more time to play games. This also allows for more video content to go up in the off weeks and honestly, it’s a whole lot easier for all of us. I’m proud of how Boss Barrel Radio has grown in the last year and expect another fun year with Ryan, Matt, and Andy.
Regular visitors to Boss Barrel might have noticed a change. I have removed everyone in the About section. I did this because besides being on the podcast, no one, accept me, is contributing anything to the site. I don’t mean for that to come across embittered. This was my dream to write about games and it’s cool if my pals don’t want to anymore. It’s great to have a group of people who want to get together to chat about games and if they aren’t crazy like I am, that’s fine. So BBR won’t be going anywhere and Boss Barrel is now primarily a blog for my writing. I won’t be changing anything else simply because it would be a pain in the ass.
We’ve seen a lot happen in 2012. Two new devices launched. Kickstarter shook things up. Studios closed. People left the industry. Publications were canned. And as many series were wrapped up, just as many were resurrected for another go on the current generation of hardware. It wasn’t a boring year. Nintendo’s new console, the Wii U, launched in November to apprehensive success. Sony’s new handheld device, The PlayStation Vita, launched twice in February. Both times were met with indifference. Though it is technically a powerhouse of a device, it hasn’t caught on. What has caught fire is the 3DS. After having launched last year to a similar ho-hum response, a few price cuts, and now a new model, the Nintendo 3DS is outselling almost everything in Japan. Hey Sony, it seems like people don’t love spending money.
But maybe people do like to spend. Kickstarter is a website/service that allows artists/designers/dreamers to get their projects funded by crowd sourcing. The project creator promises to make a thing and backers can throw some money at it if it appeals to them. The pot is sweetened by rewarding the backers with extra little things depending on how much they give. It’s like choose your adventure public radio. The site isn’t new but a few developers used it to fund pet projects. The Double Fine Adventure blew things up when it garnered over 3 million bucks in pledges. The OUYA was the next to make waves. The Android based, open source console will cost 100 bucks and comes with a controller to play essentially phone games. With a Jedi wave, the dumbly named OUYA raked in 8.5 million. More and more retired franchises used Kickstarter. FTL, a game funded by Kickstarter, came out this year to much critical praise. But with games taking time, and people being impatient, Kickstarters’s lightening in a bottle success for game funding may be drawing to an end.
Many studios have been shuttered this year, the most tragic being the 38 Studios and State of Rhode Island break up. What could have been mistaken for tabloid rabblerousing, was sadly true. Details remain a little grey but the distilled story is Curt Shilling’s 38 Studios was forced to shut down after too much debt was amassed and not enough product was shown. Though 38 Studios acquired Big Huge Games and molded their project into Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning to act as a tie in the fabled MMORPG, Copernicus, 38 Studios was working on, it wasn’t enough. Debt was called to collection and the studio was liquidated to pay off as much as possible. Some cry foul on the part of the state for not understanding the games industry and others cite overly ambitious management as the downfall. What is more important is that many people worked without a paycheck and were laid off with literally nowhere to go.
Love him or hate him and his games, Cliff Bleszinski stepped away from Epic games. The Bioware doctors Ray and Greg left EA to pursue none game related projects. Rod Ferguson, Adrian Chmielarz from People Can Fly, and Mike Caps all made transitions. Even Yoshinori Ono of Capcom spoke out about how overworked he is, which many have interpreted as his passive resignation. Jason Rubin came back on the game scene to helm the financially floundering THQ. Speculation as to why he took the stigmatic job spans the range from savior to executioner. But more importantly, THQ is in a pickle. The curse of the uDraw tablet hangs heavily above them as they were almost delisted from the NASDAQ. An inverse split saved the stock but eventually the company filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. A “Stalking Horse Investor” (whatever the fuck that means) has taken on THQ. Details on what this means for THQ’s titles in development remain vaguely positive but a little too early to be certain. Jason Rubin compared the THQ bankruptcy filing to that of MGM's a few years ago. He cited the success of recent films Skyfall and The Hobbit and how MGM emerged from bankruptcy. Even the popularity of South Park will not be able to put up the numbers that THQ needs but hopefully it will refresh faith in the struggling publisher.
Sticking with the negative vibes, a couple magazines were put to rest; most notably Nintendo Power. As a tribute to the first issue, the cover of the last magazine is a sclupted Mario scene. Is this lose of Nintendo Power due to the waning marketplace for physical magazines or is it because Nintendo isn’t giving them much to write about? Plenty of other strange things happened too. Penny Arcade asked for money through Kickstarter and promised…the same stuff they are already doing (I was fine with this to some degree.) Giant Bomb was bought by the company that fired on the sites founders. G4 TV is becoming the Esquire channel. The VGAs were good. Polygon is or will be a thing. All in all, pretty gosh darn nuts.
What about the games? 2012 has been, a better time to use this terribly worn out phrase hasn't existsedin my lifetime, a mixed bag. Mass Effect 3, Max Payne 3, and Assassin’s Creed 3 all came out to “end” long running series this year. Most likely none of these games will actually end these series. We saw Halo 4 kick off another trilogy. Next year more God of War, Devil May Cry, and Tomb Raider get the whole wheel turning again. We also saw the inevitable slow-motion implosion of MMORPGs with the tanking of Knights of the Old Republic Online, The Secret World, and Final Fantasy IV and the unanimous laugh-pause-wait-are-you-serious reaction to the announcement of Elder Scrolls Online (plus the whole 38 Studios thing mentioned above.) Day one patches, DLC that should have been in the main game, save file bugs, and a quality shift towards the PC plagued games this year. We also saw many of the tent pole franchises slip and get outshone by indy titles, downloadable games, and stuff that simply was under the radar. It was a weird year with weird games. A mixed bag isn’t a bad thing. I played some totally rad games this year and am looking forward, as always, to the next year for new, exciting experiences. Cheers to 2012.
Check out my wicked stats bro:
New games played – 44
Games completed – 26
Reviews written – 9
Old Games completed – 10
iOS games played – 11
Favorite game of 2012 – Fez
Weight gained – 10 pounds...okay 15
Proposals preformed – 1
Successful proposals – 1
Short trimmed beard status – international
Farts – Less than Hunter…maybe
Documentaries watched – 2
Books read – 3
Comic series read – 3
Maximum number of cats in the house at once – 2
Best dining – Baru 66
Movies watched in theater – 5
Best moment least remembered – Beer breadcrumb Razor scooter journey
Best year yet - YES
And follow this link if you want to see my full list of games this year.