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Message:	"Competing Against Myself" -- Last week we had an "Orange Day" and, while the media gushed over Episode 2 I was far more excited about the full version of Team Fortress 2, to be quite honest. Episode 2 will come and go but I suspect I'll still be playing 2fort for years to come. (Just like these die-hards.) If you haven't had a chance to listen to the developer commentary included in Team Fortress 2 you definitely should. It offers a unique look into the minds of some very talented designers. Miss grenades? Learn why they aren't there. Curious about the choice of art direction when so many other games are going beyond photorealism? Hear why Valve scrapped their approach and went in the opposite direction. Your personal best is tracked in TF.2 I was especially intrigued by the developer commentary Kerry Davis gave on the design of the stats system. Davis says something I've long maintained: global leaderboards are dumb. Games usually approach stats by comparing a player to everyone else in the world. This is only really of interest to those who are near the top. With Team Fortress 2, we decided that a better approach might be to compare the stats to the players previous successes, turning them from a world-wide comparative system into a personalized motivational one. The beginning player gets encouragement and acknowledgment, that while they are not highly skilled yet, they are getting better all the time. Kerry Davis, Valve Software What a global leaderboard lacks is context. I'm never going to be at the top of the list so it is irrelevant to me. Why show the top 100 to me as the default view? Are you trying to make me feel bad? Do you want me to give up on your game and go play someone else's game? (Not only that, but it can encourage exploits and cheating. Witness Bungie outright removing leaderboards from Halo 2.) By applying a buddy filter, for example, I'm no longer competing against 450,000 anonymous smacktards any more. I'm duking it out for #1 against my 14 closest gaming friends. Better yet, I've now got an acceptable joke about performance to throw out at meetings at my boss's expense. You can see this put to great use in the new Unreal Tournament 3 demo. Or, if the information is available, a regional or zip code filter could, again, provide some context. Are you the best Madden player in Orange County? (I can assure you that I am not!) While on the right track, I think Valve takes it a bit too far and eliminates leaderboards all together. Leaderboards themselves, of course, aren't all bad. With the application of a little context the information in a leaderboard can be relevant, interesting and a great community builder. -- http://www.poweredbygamespy.com/blog/archive/competing_against_myself/

About Online Matters

This is a blog for GameSpy where we talk about games, soul food, and Nintendo Wii.

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Nintendo’s three goals for its online solution:

'Free, easy and safe', says Eric Walter of Nintendo of America.
Xbox Live Orientation:

Priceless.
When In-Game Ads Go Bad.

Know your audience before planning your ad placement.
ESRB Partners with PTA to Educate Parents on Game Ratings, Online Play.

The rating organization will work with the Parent Teacher Association to make sure parents are prepared for their kids' online interactions in games.
Getting steamed: Digital distribution for games isn’t there yet.

CNET Australia looks at the problems Valve is facing distributing content internationally with its Steam platform.
Eric Goldman talks about the pitfalls of user generated content.

Thoughts from a law school professor on the topic. Eric will be presenting at the ION Conference later this year.
Call of Duty 4 Map Downloads Set Xbox Live Record

One million downloads in the first nine days. Their platform exclusivity expires 4/24, when it hits the PS3.
GamerDNA Gets $3M to Expand on WoW Communities.

The funding will allow the social network provider behind GuildCafe to expand beyond MMO titles.
YNK, PayByCash offer Ultimate Gamer Card for online games payments.

Users without access to credit cards will be able to buy cards at retail locations and use them in over 150 titles.
Petroglyph/True Games Creating Free-to-Play Title.

The RTS developer will produce a micro-transaction based online game for PC.
NCsoft Introduces NCcoin.

The MMO publisher creates its own in-game commerce tech for in-house titles. Not with NCSoft? Ask us about our own Direct2Game product that offers the same.
New Burnout Paradise multiplayer modes offered in PS3/Xbox 360 patch.

EA & Criterion development studio doesn't shy away from offering significant new multiplayer game play for free in patches to both platforms.
Metal Gear Solid 4 online to require two game-specific IDs.

On top of your PlayStation Network ID, a Konami ID will be required to play the game online
In-game ads can help developers fill gaps

between release schedules with free for play version of their games, says IGA Worldwide's Steve Tucker.
Sony’s Peter Dille says PSN community features are a focus for 2008,

on the occasion of the launch of the redesigned Playstation Network Store. Video services and in-game XMB are also mentioned.

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