Question for the Gamers

[Pix]

I was curious about the various types of video game systems like Nintendo, PS3, wii, etc. How many of these let you play with other gamers OL, and how does that work (like if one has to log off while playing with others OL then what happens)?

What would you say the main differences are between them?

How common is "brand loyalty" (that is dedicated to one system) and how many try to get as many different systems they can?

How expensive would you say the habit is likely to be for the "serious gamer" (that is, what some would call an addict who has to keep current)?

Have you ever heard of someone who juryrigged more than one gaming system together so one could use the controller for one system to another? How did that work out?

And I've heard that hackers (I mean "hacker" in the classic sense of creatively working with code, presumably to debug, fix programs, and improve the utility of computers though they can turn that creativity and expertise for more criminal purposes of course) can sometimes find hidden scenes (Easter eggs?) or helpful cheat codes in games...but how hard would it be for a programmer or game designer to customize a game? I do recall reading of how one game designer hacked and modified Donkey Kong for his daughter but that's a pretty simple game. How hard would it be to adapt a much more complex game the same way? Would it be easy to destroy the game accidentally that way? Do game designers put in features to make that hard to do or consider it piracy if such an altered game is shared or sold?

Thanks! mile:

[Cuddly]

I assume OL = online. I am no console gamet (yet) or atleast haven't been since they started going online.
They all play online. It depends more on the individual game than it does the console, assuming newest generation consoles (wii u, ps4, xbone). Hacking is a huge thing.. Since you ask the question I assume you won't be able to do it. It requires years of experience in 100111010. Online games take many steps to avoid manipulation, including banning offending accounts. Depending on the game you get punished for leaving a running game. The punishment can be nothing, a loss of ingame currency or a temporary ban.
The rigging is common for gamesticks, because they aren't common controllers. They are very expensive, if they are ever even made/released for said console.

[Pix]

In case anyone is wondering why I'm asking it's for a character in a story of mine that takes place about 2 decades in the future (which gives me some leeway with video games, though computer technology hasn't advanced much due to some apocalyptic worthy events). One character subjected to horrific experiments with a retro-virus that had unexpected side effects rewriting her genes (nothing comic book worthy) has hated being treated like a freak because of the deformities she developed AND how the corporation that secretly funded the experiments are extremely popular, including for their retro-viral therapies that double human lifespan and have military applications that the governments of the world (the ones left) are salivating over (or at least not wanting to be left behind in a time of political instability).

In short, the world has no sympathy for what was done to her (the experiments also killed off her siblings whom her impoverished mother in Vladivostok sold them off to for the experiments just to have money to eat and she herself would be coincidentally killed by insane combat mutants that escaped the same lab she rented her children out to) she has become very apathetic regarding the world and antisocial. She escapes through video games, the one place she has any control and where people can't see her deformities.

Nevertheless, after she's saved (from Russian soldiers on Unity Day who actually attacked her more for being Buryat given Buryatia was one of the countries to secede from the Russia Federation starting a chain reaction which has infuriated Russian patriots) by a skilled hacker who knows the truth (he's more of a professional burglar trained by Russian thieves and now takes high risk, high paying jobs involving corporate & industrial espionage & sabotage around the world and learned of the experiments since so many are willing to pay for the secrets of the corporation involved rather than caving in to all their unreasonable demands and exorbitant fees) he's now the only one she trusts. And existing in a grim world of betrayal and being hunted by powerful enemies on both sides of the law the girl into video games has become something of the one friend he dares to have (and vice versa) but his jobs take him away so much that I figured he'd tweak her games to show his care for her.

His hacking abilities are geared to getting into satellites for communications and even some "eye spying" as well as hacking into corporate computers he's infiltrating, using rogue wireless nodes when he must though a cellular interceptor mixed with the classics like finding the info he needs in corporate dumpters and while disguised as a technician gives him what he needs, he doesn't play video games himself and has had no training with that. He does interact OL with some Russian black hat hackers (some who gift him with cutting edge cracking software that can do all sorts of tricks) and has learned some programming languages, however (not that he considers himself a hacker at all, he just "knows a few tricks to get by" and would consider himself a grey hat if he did).

Thing is I don't know that much about how games work. I hear things from all sorts of gamers but a lot of what one gamer says doesn't apply to what another gamer says. I know many are OL (OnLine) but not all. 'Course given that it's in the future and one infamous event has forced computer companies to adopt new safeguards on their satellite transmissions rather than risk another global disaster costing in the billions (and more!) does mean I have some leeway for creative license, yet the video game market has suffered greatly so wouldn't be much more than say how they'd be about 10 years from now at most which means it would be very similar to today.

[TimeSage]

Most multiplayer gameing is done online these days. The days of sitting around the screen with your buddies is over for the most part as you can just text them say hop online and use the ingame voice chats or something like skype to talk while playing via a head set.

Hacking.. is HARD.

The more complex the game, the harder it is to change One line of code out of place can cascade into a bigger issue in the most random of areas.This is also why post-relase Patchs are a thing. Bugs can lurk in the code undetected until release only for gamers to find it by doinging something unusual, nessasitaeing a patch. So while editing the textures is easy, or forcing the game to do things it's already programmed to do but on command is also easy, rebuilding the game is tough but not unheard of. Most game hacks are for PC or a Rom hack of an older game though. Hacking a current-gen console game is neigh unheard of, though it can be done.

That said OFFICAL changes are a thing. DLC and all that.

Brand loyalty depends on the person. I know people who swear by a single system. I used to swear by nintendo until got really into RPGs and got a PS2 as a gift. I now fanboy both stuff for Sony and Nintendo (I refuse to touch Microsft with a 39 1/2 foot pole though)
When I think of each system I think:
Xbox: Shooters and gritty "Adult" (IE M rated) games
PS: RPGs, Teen rated games,
Nintendo: Games everyone can enjoy. IE The classics like Mario. Mostly family freindly but has a few gamer games.

the vita and 3DS have an even mix of stuff, Vita has alot of port as well. HD upgrades of PS2 era games are popular right now.

The cost... well that again depends on the person's intrest. Right now I personally am a Generation behind on consoles is going to cost me over 800 dollars to catch up on both systems I want. That's JUST the systems and not games and accessories.

For a character that uses video games to escape a physical defect, I suggest watching the Anime .Hack//Sign which is set in a (Sadly fake) MMO RPG. One of the main cast uses the games to escape stuff. Most of them actually do to some extent, be it phsycal, emotional or interpersonal issues.

[Cuddly]

You can't use OL as an acronym for OnLine, as it's the same for OffLine >_< !!
Or do gamers actually do that? I have never come across anything who did that and I've done alot of what we call "high-end" or "hardcore" gaming.

How he would tweak a game depends on what the character plays. The best reality escape is MMORPGs in my opinion (World of Warcraft, Rift, Elder Scrolls online, Star wars: The Old Republic etc.).
Hacking those is more or less impossible, as the in-game economy has a top priority. The best/only way to hack and gain an advantage would be to insert a few zeros in your currency, so instead of having 1000 gold you have 10.000.000. But that is easily / instantly detected and the account is banned.
Alternatively you could write a bot for said game, that would play it for you. Which isn't really saying how much he cares for her and takes alot of work and alot of time, which he doesn't seem to have.
Reading memory you can get away with, assuming the game isn't allowed to scan your computer (which none are atm because of EU law, from what I understand). Writing memory (insertion, like explained with the currency above) is easily detected.

In my opinion, in two decades, you can assume ALL games are online. It's the direction we're heading and it plays well with the hacker lifestyle.
A way he can show her how much he cares would be to crack the game so she can play it offline, I'm sure you can come up with a reason as to why she would want to do that. Imo that would stand out.

[Undreamt]

Have you decided on your target audience? I don't know how much sci-fi you have read because there is alot out there and things are written in different styles of different audiences.

I.e teenage fiction or pop fiction can be a more basic than proper science fiction. (or maybe i'm just a bit biased because i love my science fiction)

If you want to go hyper realistic then you will want to do you reaserch into all sorts of gaming before you start writing about it, however if you are creative and dont' go into too much detail then you can pull off a fairly creative story.

even just to get some ideas on some similar work, I would HIGHLY recommend reading;
Neuromancer by Wiliam Gibson
and
Jennifer Government by Max Barry

very different styles of sci-fi and both kind of look at different aspects of the story that your proposed book would cover.

To answer the questions that you asked in your OP.

1) All systems allow for online play, from game boy to PS4, generally the systems are integrates and alot of the online connectivity goes on behind the scenes without people being aware of it.

2) Main differneces between systems/online play? well the more into the future you go the more streamlined systems get and the more the same they get.

3) Companies would like to think that brand loyality exists and companies like Apple and Sony depend on it. In reality people generally buy the cheapest that will do what they want to do.

4) Cost of a gaming addict? Well again it depends if you are playing the one game (there are still gamers in asia that are addicted to starcraft - a game that came out in the mid 90's) people who play through games can often either trade in games or swap with friends or buy on sales, I'd say $20 - $50 a week.

5) You can get adapters to have the one controller used for multiple systems, proper gamers would be unlikly to do this however as different consols are designed to use different controllers.
If you are that pedantic about the controller you are using then its easier to be a pc gamer.

6) VERY DIFFICULT to mod a game. Programmers design alot of security to stop people from doing this on consols. PC gaming is a compltly differnt matter and and companies can encorage it. however people that do mod games tend to stick with a small subset of games becuase it means they have more time to work on the code.

[ceez]

This would make a great anime movie

[Pix]

Thanks everyone. I've decided to skip on that element, but I have found the responses useful!

They're just one of many characters, almost a supporting cast, but I like to have characters that aren't "generic cutouts" who come off as real people, especially as I can add quirks and drama to the action to make it feel more real. The bigger story is very complicated to explain.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

Hacking is not hard. Sheesh run a program and wait, have a sammich and a cup of coffee - that is how most hacking works. Most is now done via a program designed to run various gabits against software to find its weaknesses. Not hard at all.

As for the Game questions.

Since this is a story for the future then I doubt what exists today is going to be of much help.

Look at the past 2 decades of advances. back when I was in my 20's play stations and stuff were graphically impaired, slow and dull (mind when I was a kid pong was all the rage). 20 years later and we have near totally immersive environments, avatars/characters that look pretty close to being real people. Action and activities which can be played on line or in sandboxes' composed of seamless worlds.

WOW is such an example of seamless world. One can walk (run actually) across a whole continent and not go through a gate or other barrier that leads to your having to wait for the next area to load. As long as you don't take a boat or try to use a flying mount to fly to the other end of the continent you can go from place to place without a single pause.

Second life is also like that, one can literally walk around the world and not have to stop and wait for a loading screen to do its thing.

Right now online gaming is the rage. Unfortunately this has more to do with forcing players to be online to protect the software. For instance SimCity's recent epic failure was due to Maxis/EA games trying to protect its software by forcing everyone to have to go online in order to play. That system failed - epically.

As for Xbox, Wii, etc - that is predominately a matter of user loyalty. Most games will play on all or most game boxes. However the companies do try to win loyal customers by having specific games run only on their system. And yeah that has had a number of failures. https://www.google.com/#q=list+of+games+...nly+on+ps3 for lists for PS3.

The trend is to sucker more players into more realistic worlds. The general thrust is toward Virtual Reality where the player is totally surrounded by the environment. play counsels are changing. Used to be a sit and joy stick with a few buttons, now we have the Wii full body interactions (where I guess you are supposed to throw the controller through the monitor screen - LOL).

I think it was minority report - IDK one of those sci-fi movies that pushed the industry to remove controls from people's hands and through hand movements one controls the flow of data... Game producers are seriously seeking developments in that area to make it to where your whole body plays the game and you touch nothing.

Surround sound systems, epic sized screens, VR wrap around glasses - these sorts of things are tried and or used and are the general push as to what future gaming will be all about.

Pay to play is also starting to effect the scene, and there is a push to move the software from hard copy to 'the cloud' to where it will be nigh unto impossible for you to access the software directly. Buying a game will most likely cease to happen in a decade or so - renting the game or buying time appears to be the next development.

The future of gaming is going to be interesting: https://www.google.com/#q=future+of+gaming

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/future-of-gaming/ explores 5 future trends....

[swalter]

What is it you're trying to accomplish? Are you just interested in how these work, or are you trying to mod an existing game with your characters and story? To be honest, it doesn't sound like you know what you're doing, and I question how realistic your project is. You're clearly not a programmer, and even with a script-kid decompiler & kit, it doesn't sound like you have the requisite technical knowledge to decompile and mod a game. There are some open-source game engines you can download, and create your own game around, but even that requires significant programming knowledge. I don't mean to shatter your dreams here, but it just doesn't sound like you've got the fundamental skills and expertise to do this.

*update* I just Re-read the thread, and it seems I misunderstood you. I realize now you are writing a story, and want to weave some stuff in about gaming. My apologies for the confusion.