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.

Halo Makers Beg For Your Forgiveness

The power of next-gen.

Do you like Halo? Lots of people like Halo. Who doesn’t like Halo?

I don’t like Halo.

That said, I’ve been seeing a lot of Halo in the news recently. After all, a veritable Halo-bomb landed two weeks ago in the form of The Master Chief Collection. If you really love your Halo, this is the definitive experience: all four of the numbered games in one super-compilation for the new generation. The first two games are also sporting the  “Anniversary” subtitle, which means that they were greatly enhanced relative to their original Xbox and PC releases. For fans, this is like a dream come true!

…well it should be.

If you’re in it for the single-player campaigns, you’re probably going to have a fantastic time. Based on Chris Watter’s Gamespot review, everything’s all there. What’s more, everything’s all there to be played in whatever order you please. In a personally unheard-of feature, all the missions for every game are available by default. The Master Chief Collection knows its audience well: frankly they’re Halo players. They’ve played and have extensive knowledge of these games. Rather than unilaterally force those players through campaigns that they’ve already experienced many times before, developer 343 Industries is content to just let them go wherever they want. Whether you’d rather start midway or from the very beginning, whether you want to skip a challenging segment or just brave the storm, The Master Chief Collection caters to a wealth of inclination. It’s a regular Wild West of progression!

However, Halo didn’t get famous entirely from its campaigns. What keeps Halo alive and breathing is its emphasis on a rich and enduring multiplayer component. If you’ve clicked on that link to Watter’s review, you were probably taken aback by that unflattering 6/10 score. Apparently, The Master Chief Collection launched with online multiplayer that simply didn’t work. Matchmaking in particular was the biggest problem- players seemingly struggled just getting into the games. Turns out that gameplay doesn’t mean much if you can’t reach it.

Understandably, this has been a nightmare for the developers. Although they’ve been attempting to get things back on track, their efforts have hardly been successful. At least one patch even managed to worsen the matchmaking. How can the developers hope to save face as fans grow increasingly frustrated?

Openness. Even further than openness, begging for forgiveness.

This may sound like an exaggeration, and it might be, but Bonnie Ross’ apology letter seems to basically amount to just that. Speaking for her company as a whole, Ross admits that 343 Industries failed to give Halo fans what they deserved and expected out of the initial release of The Master Chief Collection. Several pieces of insight are shared, namely that some kind of incompatibility arose between testing hardware and actual consumer-grade hardware. Several updates are also said to be in the pipeline, and that the employees are dedicated to solving the outstanding issues. Ross ends the letter by affirming her “heartfelt” apology to the affected fans.

Don’t get me wrong, such an approach is hardly a bad thing. After botching the multiplayer and struggling to come up with a timely solution, what can 343 Industries do but lay themselves at the mercy of the fans? I feel this is a good choice, although apologies won’t do much good if the multiplayer can’t quickly be salvaged.

Share your grievances or impressions with The Master Chief Collection in the comments below. Personally, I’m not a Halo guy so I’ve hardly been following the series. If you’ve got something to say I would love to hear it!

REBLOGGED: Debate Club: Video Game Movies Still Have Potential.

An interesting post that makes a case for (good) video game movies and why we haven’t seen much of them yet. Some of us have been burned by the likes of Uwe Boll and whoever was responsible for spawning that live-action abomination of Super Mario Bros. film, but maybe those guys were just the Schumachers before the storm. Maybe videogames have yet to find their Kevin Feige.

Whatever the reason, give it a read. I’d be lying if I haven’t daydreamed about a proper Legend of Zelda flick (or series)!