Blood Sport: Final Nail In The Coffin?

I can’t resist the puns.

Last week I spoke about Blood Sport, the so-called “ultimate in immersive gaming”. This off-kilter initiative was aiming to make blood donation more fun and appealing by tying it to video gaming. When you would receive damage in any given game, the controller’s rumble feature would trigger the blood-collection system. If you would like to learn more about it, check out these two posts.

I said that I would be covering the story as it unfolds. At this point though, Blood Sport may have reached a dead end.

The project first started getting widespread recognition when it had its crowdfunding campaign suspended on Kickstarter. Ultimately this meant little since the project was simply not going to meet its funding requirements. It had only raised a couple thousand towards its lofty $250,000 goal and its January end date was fast approaching.

When I last left Blood Sport, I was waiting for further information on why the project was suspended, what prospects it had on overturning that suspension, and what was going to happen next in the very near future. Around the time of my last post, CNET reportedly reached out to the duo behind Blood Sport and asked about their situation. Frustratingly, Kickstarter has a sealed-lips policy when it comes to actually explaining why suspensions get handed out. The creators did share some theories on why Blood Sport got pulled, namely issues relating to safety and medical equipment.

A week later and news on Blood Sport has all but dried up. Some articles still get posted, but they’re just regurgitations of previous info. If the website Joystiq is any indication, the Blood Sport creators are just sending out the same canned responses to those who are contacting them. Even the Facebook page for creator Taran Chadha has gone back to posting unrelated content, although to be fair it’s not a particularly active or focused page.

So what’s going on now? The creators may still be consulting blood donation officials as they stated in the CNET article. Maybe the project’s been put on hold. Either way, Blood Sport would have a long ways ahead of it to gain the amount of support needed to be successful, of which it has previously demonstrated itself incapable. News about Blood Sport will either trickle in slowly or just cease. Maybe.

What did you think of Blood Sport’s concept? Its implementation? Do you think it has a future? Do you even think it’s real? Tell me in the comments below, and thanks for reading.

The Easiest Way To Play Smash 4 Is Currently The Hardest

Sorry for not posting for about a week. I decided to take a break from blogging due to other commitments. Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!

Has anyone picked up Super Smash Bros. for Wii U? I’ve mentioned before how totally broke I am, so I haven’t gotten the chance to actually buy the thing. Hell, I’d at least need the console first. Luckily, I met a nice group of folks at the game’s midnight release and have gotten the chance to play it several times. Several local tournaments have also featured this new game and have attracted lively turnouts.

The game’s good. People seem to having a great time with it. However, its release has been held up by one important thing in particular: the controls.

Truth be told, Smash 4 offers a wealth of control options. You can use the Wii U tablet, Smash 3DS, the Pro Controller, and I believe he old Wii remote as well. For a lot of Smash Bros. fans though, there will only ever be one.

The Gamecube was hardly one of Nintendo’s biggest consoles. Although some fantastic games debuted on it (hello there Metroid Prime), the little lunchbox was hardly rocking the sales charts. Would you believe that its predecessor, the Nintendo 64, was also in the same boat? That console with such prolific hits as Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, and Goldeneye? Granted, these systems were hardly dismal failures but they did underperform relative to the Super Nintendo and the original NES before it.

The one-two-punch of the DS and the Wii soon put Nintendo back on top (for a time), though the Gamecube managed to still cling to life. The Wii was the only one of the main last-generation home consoles to have complete backwards compatibility. You could simply pop in both your own Gamecube discs and even its controllers. Dedicated Wii games like Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. Brawl even incorporated the Gamecube controller as an available option. For the latter, this was a godsend.

The Gamecube controller has been typically associated with the Smash series since Melee, and has since been commonly regarded as the ideal control option across the series. Many fans have been playing the Smash series for over a decade on the same controller! It is uniquely ergonomic and almost seems like it was designed specifically for Smash Bros. Unfortunately for the new Wii U game, it was debuting on a console that wasn’t as directly accommodating towards that old Gamecube tech. The Wii U offers none of those ports that its predecessor featured, nor does it even accept physical Gamecube discs.

Not to worry, though! Nintendo created a little converter box just for Smash. Connect it to your Wii U and then plug in your trusty Gamecube controllers.

However, Nintendo seemingly didn’t make enough of these.

Website Nintendo Life has a great rundown of the situation. This tiny $20 box is largely sold-out at major retailers and is being offered at a considerable markup on sites like eBay and Amazon. $80 to use a Gamecube controller for just one game… the fact that some are willing to pay that price reflects how important the Gamecube controller is as an option for Smash players. Why weren’t more adapters produced? Did Nintendo underestimate its demand? Are more on the way?

For the Smash fans out there, how important is it to be able to play with your Gamecube controller? Can you stomach other options or is it all-or-nothing? Personally, I’m not all that affected by the situation since I spent several months hardwiring the controls of Smash 3DS into my head. When I go play the Wii U game I’m most comfortable just playing it with my 3DS. I do find the Gamecube controller to be preferable over all the other options, though.

Tell me your thoughts in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter or Facebook. The links are on the side of the page. Thanks!

A Gaming Controller That Literally Sucks Your Blood

Vampires have taken many shapes over the years. Bats, wolves, annoying teenagers. Robert Carlyle. Now gaze in horror at their newest and most feral form. BEHOLD.

Spooky.

Actually, Dracula’s still working out the kinks on this one. IGN’s Brian Albert recently posted an article describing this outwardly odd Kickstarter project, of which had its funding suspended less than a day ago. Have you ever really wanted that extra, extra, (extra) realism after getting gorily mowed down in whatever one of hundreds of games? …no? Well, there are 39 backers that apparently liked the concept enough to throw some money at it.

“Blood Sport” was conceived by Taran Chadha and Jamie Umpherson. Here’s the idea in a nutshell: you take damage in a video game and blood is then drawn into sterile bags. The pair hoped to use this functionality in combination with video game competitions to encourage charitable blood donations.

The drawing process is tied with a controller’s rumble feature. When the rumble goes off, a typical blood-collecting machine will start to safely do its job. Factors like age and weight are considered and a professional must always be present to operate and activate the machine. The Kickstarter page generally gives the impression that donating via Blood Sport would be no more dangerous than doing so at a blood bank.

Unlike many game-related Kickstarters, Blood Sport is not pitched nor intended as a commercial product. It pretty much CAN’T be a commercial project. Can you imagine waltzing into Gamestop and picking up a snazzy new “Nosferatu” controller for your preferred console? A free blood bag with every purchase!

Chadha and Umpherson plan to raise money for the creation and transportation of a single unit that supports two players. This unit will then be toured throughout Canada in a blood drive hypothetically facilitated by relevant gaming and medical associations. Unfortunately for Blood Sport, funding prospects are looking poor: of the $250,000 needed, only $3,390 has been raised within the last 45 days. It only has until January to rev up support.

Curiously, the vast majority of raised cash appears to have been donated by only four individuals. According to the incentive sidebar on the right side of its Kickstarter page, Blood Sport owes at least $3,000 of its haul to these generous donors.

Hmm.

Does Blood Sport sound like an idea that you can get behind? Personally, I’m not all that keen on the idea of linking controller rumble with blood collection. When playing any given game, controllers tend to rumble a whole lot, and not just in response to your virtual head being blown off. Explosions, shots, and vehicle feedback can get the rumble going just fine, as can mundane stuff like running. If Blood Sport doesn’t discriminate, the blood will just keep on flowing and games will be short. Might as well just give blood normally if that’s the case.

Follow my blog for more impressions about this news as it unfolds. I’m interested to see why exactly the Kickstarter was suspended.