Do you remember the days when Super Nintendo (SNES) games cost $59.99? I remember saving all of my lunch money for summer camp to buy Street Fighter II on day one. (Day One Confirmed!) Well, to be honest my mom put the last $10 with it, because she was so proud of us for saving all of that money. Times have changed. SNES games were too high for their time, and as a consequence new games debuted at $49.99 or less. In a strategic move to battle Madden 05, 2k games released NFL 2k5 for $19.99. EA bought the exclusive NFL license the next year. Before the release of the Xbox 360, Microsoft promised that games would release for no more than $49.99. That didn’t happen. Before people think this is an article of complaints, I will digress. Video game budgets are beginning to rival movie budgets. Halo 3 cost $30 million dollars to make. The average PS3 game costs $15 million. The current prices are understandable due to the high production costs of games, but the flood of games to the store shelves causes small caliber games to be squeezed out of sight. With nearly every Next-Gen game debuting at $59.99, gamers are really picky with their gaming dollar. Especially with the slowdown of the American economy. A new game is nearly $70.00 with taxes, so gamers have to plan for new purchases weeks and months in advance. Pre-ordering is an ideal way to pay for new game purchasing. But, even that can get expensive when buying multiple games. If games were released at various prices, lesser marketed games can compete with the bigger named franchises. Assassins Creed is a testament of this solution. After receiving many bad reviews, retailers worried the game’s sales would not match the marketing hype. In an unprecedented move, the price dropped withing the first month of the game’s release. Now Ubsioft is struggling to find a place to put the money it’s making from Assassins Creed. Even superceding Ubisoft’s sales projections, Assassins Creed has sold over 6 million units. It’s also one of the fastest sellers on the Xbox 360. If more games were released under $59.99 gamers would be encouraged to buy more than one game at a time. Retailers would sell more units and smaller publishers wouldn’t have the stress of trying to compete with AAA titles in the same price bracket. Also, people would spend more money on new games, instead of waiting for used copies, which publishers make no money from. Gamers would be less dependent on used game stores, which would allow publishers to profit from new game purchases. Is there a mystery to why one used game reseller made close to 15 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2008? Value-minded gamers are willing to wait for their titles to drop in a affordable price range. In the end, resellers are the winners. Not the publishers, who are losing millions of dollars to the used game market. And not the gamer, that trades in their games for, 25% of the original price. By receiving trade credit, the gamer buys a recently released game for $54.99 used and the new copy costs $59.99. If that game released at $39.99, gamers would buy it new. Also, the resell value wouldn’t be worth trading in causing the gamer to keep it. Resell stores wouldn’t have “recently released” games five dollars cheaper than the new copy, causing them to lose their main form of profit. It would be beneficial to both gamers and publishers.

Stories have been an integral part of gaming since it’s inception. Spark up a discussion about the golden age of gaming, the NES, and you will hear about Zelda, Metal Gear, and Final Fantasy , etc. Before video games became graphical powerhouses, success hinged on the narrative to keep the player’s attention. Final Fantasy stories have remained unchanged since Final Fantasy 1 in 1986. The stories include a group of teenagers, equipped with magic, departing on a journey to save the world. Teenage angst and love affairs are commonly intertwined in the main narrative. Fans still return in droves for the next installment of each Final Fantasy, although the main change is the gameplay and setting. The Metal Gear series follows this same principal. The plot focuses around a advanced Nuclear warhead transportation device, Metal Gear. Kojima San adds his artistry throughout the series in the story telling. These games are often filed with moral decisions. After many of the boss fights, the enemy talks about their pasts and their regrets. This method of storytelling allows the player to connect with the enemy on a human level, and causes some regret in taking down an enemy. War is one main over-arching theme in this series also. Metal Gear exposes some of the harsh realities and decisions that soldiers face. These are just two examples of some of the best story based series today. The current generation has forgotten the art of story telling. The current focus is graphics and multiplayer. Now, games are created for the masses and not for the fans of a specific game. Gears of War has been touted as a graphical masterpiece. The story was completely left out of the game. Reviewers scored this game with some of the greatest games ever. There was more story in the previews of the game than in the game itself. Narrative in gaming has become a lost art. It pains me to see this happen, and I hope gamers speak with their wallets by supporting narrative based great games. The excitement around Metal Gear Solid 4 has been amazing. The excitement continues after people actually play the game. This generation has been marred by marketing hype, but MGS4 is starting a new trend. Gamers are witnessing the true power of an excellent narrative. Let’s fight to resurrect a dying trend!

Summertime, June 2000. Yep, 8 years ago. Seems like a long time ago. It was probably at one of the happiest times of my life. We had just finished our freshman year at Lee Univeristy and we were forging friendships that would last a life time. Summertime has a way of making me eflective. Honestly, the reason that I was inspired to do this post was me driving this morning. I had just left the YMCA after a great workout! I noticed how most people driving had their cars nice and washed, shades on, and just looking happy. I saw this guy in a late 80′s Trans-Am. It was fire engine red and the T-Tops were out. It just brought back a flood of memories of college, and riding around town in Allen’s IROC with the T-Tops out, just chilling and blasting those Sony Xplod’s!! Those were the days. That was the beginning of the GamerHusbands!

It struck me like a bolt of lightning, while playing Burnout with my God-Son. Of course, I’m getting school-ed by a 6 year old, but that’s not the point of today’s thoughts. After a race or two, I began to realize how much fun I was having with the game. Bustling through the corners, and powersliding for points to unlock tracks became a sizable challenge for Marquell and I. Both of us forgot about everything around us and were focused on the task at hand. Like a bolt of lightning, it hit me. I didn’t care about the fact that this game didn’t have Live support, or a Cross media Bar. No one sent us a friend request and the graphics didn’t have that Unreal 3 engine shine to them. It was a fun game with really good graphics. 2005 was the year that everyone was forced into Next-Gen, whether we were ready or not. The hardcore had to upgrade to the newest systems and Hi-Def T.V.’s to enjoy that new expensive piece of hardware. Burnout Paradise is a great game. It has that nice coat if shininess and all of the next-gen appeal. But, is this game more fun than Burnout Dominator for the PS2? I don’t think so. I think they are both great games, and the graphics on the PS2 still hold up today. That’s why Nintendo is stomping on the competition. Not only does Sony have to worry about Nintendo and Microsoft every month. It also has to worry about the PS2 cutting into those PS3 sells. I love my Xbox as much as anyone else, and I can’t wait for the day to hook up a PS3 to my HD big screen. At the end of the day, I just want to relax and have a good time; I don’t need Unreal Engine 3 to have a good night of gaming with my friends. It doesn’t matter if I’m the only person on my friends list to still play Castlevania:SOTN. I don’t have to wait for the newest update to my Dashboard to stay excited. All I need is a game and a system to play it on.

It’s been nearly four years since I jacked cars and completed mafioso style missions for money. It’s been nearly four years since I cruised the streets looking for prostitutes to “restore my health meter.” Murdering innocents, and mowing them down in my car were just “part of the fun.” I wouldn’t blink an eye to putting a bullet through someone’s skull and just laugh about it. The last time I partook of this unholy wine was 4 years ago. Now, just having celebrated my fourth year of marriage and having a daughter that’s nearly two, has allowed me to be a bit more introspective about the games that I play. I told myself that this game would be different due to the change in settings. San Andreas took place in the 90′s Gangster Rap era. Now, it’s modern day New York City. I told myself that the vulgarity would be toned down due to this change. I lied to myself. As I write this article, I’m currently performing hitman missions for a coked up Russian Boss who is so high all the time, that murder is the answer to all of his problems. Well, I do have a good Jamaican friend who considers me to be a “loyal” friend due to our murderous sidequests. Why do I enjoy these games so much? Like most gamers, I enjoy the fantasy of being the tragic Hero. Niko Bellic is the Macbeth of this world. He flees his war-torn homeland for a fresh start in America.(sounds familiar) He is thrown into the criminal underworld to protect his cousin, Roman, who is waist deep in debt to loansharks. I enjoy the freedom to walk around a magnificent city, go play pool on a date, drive around listening to the radio, or just watching a little T.V. The hard work is evident that Rockstar has invested into bring New York city to the virtual World. These are excellent qualities of a great game, and the innovation that Rockstar has done is award winning. An uneasy feeling surrounds me when ever I begin to play this game. Rarely will I play it around my daughter, and when I do, I am usually just driving around. I made a mistake yesterday. While my daughter was playing in the living room, I went on a mission. I had to spy on these drug dealers, because they were intruding on another dealer’s territory. Well, one of the dealer’s saw me and in GTA fashion, it escalated into a full scale shoot out. Fully entrenched in saving my own hide, I didn’t think about the fact of my daughter sitting next to me. I shoot one of the dealers in the head, and my daughter screamed. Freaking out I shut off the Xbox, ran over to her, embraced her in my arms, and ensured her that everything would be fine. Five minutes later, she was back to playing with her toys in happy fashion. Tears swelled up as I held Gabby in my arms. Each tear was the affirmation that I’ve caused hurt to my little Angel. It has been nearly four years since I delved into the Grand Theft Experience. Yesterday showed me that I’m not the same Alfred I was four years ago. I don’t want to play a game when my family is asleep, because I can’t play it around them. As much as I enjoy the nice drives and playing the role of the tragic Hero, I also cringe at the seediness of Liberty City. I am a tourist, who is just visiting for short time. But, once I leave Liberty City, I don’t think I will be returning.