Extra Life 2012 : Raising Money for the kids

Some of you already know that on October the 20th I'll be doing a 24h Gameathon to raise money for Opération Enfant Soleil. I'm going to Live stream the event starting at 8AM EST on Google + Hang Out on Air and should also be on my YouTube Channel.

So far I've raised 2/3 of my objective with 80$. Thanks to two extremely generous donators. I still have 40$ (or more) to raise. I am giving donators something in exchange of every 5$ donation : The right to choose a game I'll play for 1h from every game I own. The list will be given at the end of this post.

3 games were recently added as well : Scott Pilgrim vs. the World : the Game, Double Dragon Neon, and StarHawk, Single Player campaign.

There are many ways to help:

First might be the easiest, but also the most important :

Making a donation to "Opération Enfant Soleil" is easy and fun : follow the link SUPPORT ME on my Extra Life page:

Donate for the kids

Remember, for every 5$ you can choose a game that I will play for one hour. If you don't want to choose a game you don't have to. Don't restrain from making a donation because of that.  If you don't know what to choose, you can let me choose for you, or I can guide you according to what you like (leave a comment or contact me). Once your donation is recorded, just leave a comment here, on my Extra Life profile page or by any other way you may have to reach me.

The second way is to join the gameathon.

Joining the team still lets you choose the child support organisation you want to raise money for. It's 24 hours straight up of games. The games you want, the platform you want and where you want (like in your living room, ain't that great?) follow this link and Join the team :

Join here

The third way is to share this blog page and challenge friends and family to donate or participate. The more, the merrier.

The fourth way is to watch the Live Stream on YouTube or Hangout on air (Google plus) on Oct. 20th 2012 starting at 8h00 am Eastern Time up until 8:00am on Sunday the 21st.  Look for StainedPupil on YouTube, or wait for the official link in October. The stream will be part French part English. During the live stream, donation will still be opened. What will be fun is that viewers can send me challenges in exchange for a donation if the challenge is completed.

So here is the current list of games you can choose from.

PS3:

First Person Shooter
Bioshock
Brink
COD: Black Ops
Dead Island
MAG
Rage
Resistance 2
Counter Strike : Global Offense
Section 8
Section 8 Prejudice
Modern Combat Domination
Gotham City Impostors
Borderlands
Dust 514

3rd Person Shooter
The Club
Kane & Lynch 2 Dog Days
Metal Gear Solid 4
Hydrophobia
Warhammer 40k : Space Marine
Starhawk : Single Player Campaign

3rd Person Sandbox (Shooter in an Open World)
GTA IV
Red Dead Redemption
Red Dead Redemption : Undead Nightmare
Infamous 2
Just Cause 2
Saints Row 2

Top Down Shooter
Dead Nation
Renegade Ops
Super Stardust HD
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

Platform
LBP 2
Lego Indiana Jones 2
Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Ratchet and Clank : All 4 One
Sideway New York

Adventure
Heavy Rain
Walking Dead
Back to the Future

RPG
Fallout New Vegas

Racer
Burnout Paradise
Motor Storm
Wipeout HD

Hack and Slash 3D world
Afro Samurai
Dead Rising 2
Darksider

Hack and Slash 2D world
Outland
Blood Raine : Betrayal
Scott Pilgrim vs the World : the Game
Double Dragon Neon

Arcade/Other
Eye Pet
NHL 2010
Rock Band 2
Sonic's Ultimate Sega Collection
PacMan Championship Edition DX
Playstation Home
Choplifter HD
Pain

Onlive:

First Person Shooter
Deux Ex : Human Revolution
Metro 2033
Zeno Clash (Fighter, not Shooter)
Borderlands
Duke Nukem Forever

3rd Person Shooter
GhostBusters : The Video Game
Splinter Cell Conviction

3rd Person Sandbox (Shooter or Slasher in a Open World)
Assassin's Creed 2
Mafia 2
Saint's Row 3
Red Faction : Guerilla
Red Faction Armageddon

Real Time Strategy
Warhammers 40k : Dawn of War 2 Chaos Rising

Tower Defense
Defense Grid Gold

Puzzle
SpaceChem
Doc Clock : The toasted Sandwish
Lume

Platformer
Braid
Lego Batman
The Maw

Top Down Shooter/Adventure
Bastion
Space Pirates and Zombies

First Person Adventure
Amnesia : The Dark Descent
Dear Esther

Other
A Kingdom for Kefflings
POP : Methodology Experiment

Thanks from the kids!

Digital Distribution : And all that could have been. Onlive.

Starting today with the first article on my series on Digital Distribution, Onlive. Onlive is a streaming service. The way it works is that it streams the input from your device to their server and stream back the video to you. It is accessible from almost any devices : Low end PC/MAC, their console (and soon the Ouya), and mobile phones (iOS and Android). 

So far, it's one unique way of digitally distributing games. Just before the pros and cons, here is a diagram of how it works. Really simplified, but it'll help you understand a bit better how it is done.

Onlive technology, now also on iOS and Android

Pros:

Your games follow you : 
While its streaming technology makes the best part, your games follow you everywhere. No need to redownload it to a new device, you can play your games straight from your friend's PC, or even his phone.

Free trials : Try before you buy has never been so easy. Game trials are available for almost every games offered. It gives you 30 minutes of gameplay from the full game. You can replay the trial as much as you want, but each time you start from the beginning as it won't save your progress.

Game rentals : 
You are the kind of player who plays a game for a few days before moving on? There are two options for you. Rental of games cost less but you can play all you want for 3 to 5 days.

Netflix for games : 
Onlive offers a service called PlayPack. For 10$/month, you get unlimited access to around 150 games. From indies such as Doc Clock, old classics like Fallout 1 and 2, to blockbusters hit like Homefront Multiplayer and Just Cause 2. The only titles not there are new games who will eventually be added.

Price and promotions :
I got Deus Ex : HR for free (my brother gave me the code he got from buying the retail game), got Warhammer 40k : Space Marine for 1$, got Saint's Row: The 3rd for 20$ and usually new games are below the 40$ mark.  They used to give 5$ Fridays where great titles were 5$ (Red Faction Guerrilla and Armageddon, Dawn of War 2 and many more). Unfortunately, this golden time seems to be over today.

Cons :

Always on Internet : 
It's not some kind of security DRM, it's just the way they distribute the games.  No Internet? How could you stream the controls and the video?

Streaming is a lot of data : 
About 100MB/10 minutes, even for small indie games that usually are less than 100MB. This is the data rate monitored on a laptop but it does vary. It takes less on mobile due to the smaller screen, and more on the console since it streams on HD TVs. In many countries, this is not an issue as there is no bandwidth cap on home High Speed Internet, but in other regions, there is. And if you play a lot on your phone data plan, that could become expensive.

Games are account based : 
Sorry if you have a family, either everyone plays on the same account, sharing the achievements and other social features, or everyone buy their own games. Could get really expensive to have 4 PlayPack accounts.

Is it dying : 
Onlive might be a good example of the ugliness of digital distribution. For many, the recent bankrupt is the sign Onlive will die, even if a new owner is determined on keeping the service alive. If the distributor dies, so are your game database and every games you don't have installed. In the case of Onlive it could be worst since no games are installed at all.

Conclusion :

Onlive's business model of distribution was aimed at making its games accessible everywhere for a single user on many devices.  This, in theory is a great opportunity for gamers to always have their games with them, but in fact its weakness is that you are Internet-dependent.  The fact that every user needs to buy their own game is also a great drawback  compared to physical media.  The cheap prices, game rental, monthly service or free game trial having all that in an Instant Access is its strong point.