Why Microsoft, well, sucks.

When M$ first announced that they were going into the platform gaming market with the Xbox, I remember being all doom-and-gloom about it. I'd run around grabbing people by the collar and screaming into their faces, "M$ is gonna flood the market with cheap consoles and games, take it over, and then produce crap games!! Nooooo!!" And people would go, "What's the big deal, dude?" And I'd have no real response, other than some sort of righteous anger about the joys of competition and a moral resistance to M$ taking over every aspect of the world.

Then the Xbox came out, and I didn't have anything to say, because I realised how silly I was behaving. There were better things to worry about. I can't remember what I transferred my attentions to, though.

But today, my fears have come true.

Most of you have no idea what Shadowrun is. For the uninitiated, it's a Paper-and-Pencil roleplaying game system set in a cyberpunk setting in the future. The twist is, magic has awakened along with the rise in cybertechnology, and the two co-exist in a gritty landscape of urban decay, where gangs rule their turf and megacorporations play their games of power and intrigue in their high-rise towers. Orcs, elves, trolls and other metahuman races co-exist uneasily with humans, and the world is connected by a global network called the Matrix which regulates the flow of all information. And players play Shadowrunners - those who survive on the streets by doing "jobs" against the megacorporations for those who would pay for their services. Jobs like breaking in to retrieve data, like destroying facilities, like kidnapping executives. Funky, eh? Think...Bladerunner. Think...Neuromancer. (It's a novel by William Gibson.) Sound like fun, hey?

And M$ decides to turn it into an FPS. Which is called Shadowrun, but has very little to do with the source material. Which differs in terms of setting, mechanics, and most importantly, mood. Which, quite frankly, makes me sad, because I've waited so many years for a decent game based on Shadowrun and M$ decides to slap the Shadowrun label on this FPS clone. And I'm not the only one. It has resulted in a rather huge uproar among the Shadowrun community.

Here's an analogy. Say, for example, you are a fan of the Harry Potter books. (Eww.) So someone decides to make a video game out of it. (I know, it's already been done, but bear with me - it's for the purpose of illustrating my point.) So the developers think it would be cool if they gave Harry a lasergun. And how about giving him chewing gum that was actually plastic explosives in disguise? and Then they change the setting to a university in America, where Harry must hide his true identity as a practitioner of the magical arts (with laserguns) even as he braves the weekly beer parties and the hotties who come onto him. (He's saving himself up for Hermoine.)

You get the idea? It would be a travesty. Harry Potter fans would scream bloody murder. But to make matters worse, this video game publisher says, "Yes, we understand your concerns. We love the Harry Potter books too. But we believe this is the best way to treat the material." And they ignore the protests and continue development, without bothering to change the name of the game. Which they should, since it has deviated so far from its source material.

The same thing is happening now with M$ and Shadowrun.

Most of you won't know what heck I'm talking about, much less care. That's alright; I just felt the need to say my piece about this. For those of you who want more information about the Shadowrun universe, poke me. Perhaps we can get a Paper-and-Pencil game together someday. I hope. I've never been able to find interested players.

On a sidenote, I suppose you could call this blog revived, what with 2 posts in a not-so-short span of time. We'll see about updates.