Taken about 2 years and 1500 miles apart, it was only when I looked at the second picture on my laptop that I realised it reminded me of one I’d taken in Pompeii. I started to write this post then but got side tracked with the events happening in Japan.

The main similarity in the photographs is, of course, that they’re both shot from a fairly similar angle of a long straight street. The big difference, of course, is that one is of Sheffield and the other Pompeii. A modern city versus a historical one. Yet one that we can still learn much from.

When I was in Pompeii it wasn’t just the quality of how well preserved it was that impressed me, but the logical way in which the city had been designed. You can see how deep the kerbs are in the bottom picture: they’re getting on for at least a foot deep (33cms). A health and safety nightmare these days for sure, but it was done for a very simple reason: hygiene.

There weren’t any sewers in Pompeii, instead everyone simply emptied everything out into the road. Twice daily (at morning and at night) the sluice gates on the aqueduct at the top of the city were opened, thus washing the streets.

To make it so people didn’t have to wade around in muck the roads were built deeply inset, and the stones you can see in the middle of the road were laid for people to cross at. Each crossing stone is, at maximum, the width of the axel of the carts that used the road.

The simplicity is mesmerising to me, and I think we could benefit greatly from this kind of design more today.

It’s been a week now since the earthquake hit Japan and, like everyone else, I’ve been sat watching the news in disbelief, wonder and horror. It doesn’t feel like it can be real: it’s difficult to comprehend from the comfort of a sofa in England. We rarely experience the extreme forces of nature here: more often than not it feels like our own ineptitude getting in the way rather than actually being overwhelmed.

Possibly the most unbelievable thing of the disaster is how well it is being recorded. Images of the Pakistan floods last year were taken from the relative safety of helicopters flying above: from Japan we have hours of footage first person, the people in danger, distributed so rapidly for us all to watch.

The picture above was taken a few years ago in Pompeii. It is not exactly what it initially looks like, which is to say that it is not the body of a person caught in the volcanic ash cloud that descended upon Pompeii.

Instead it is a plaster cast of a cavity the archaeologists found as they carefully excavated the site – many more such cavities were filled revealing places where bodies had once laid. There aren’t many on display in Pompeii itself, but there doesn’t need to be. Even in its broken state this mannequin perfectly captures to us how it must have felt to be in Pompeii on the day Vesuvius erupted.

Even though this is an echo of a natural disaster from nearly 2000 years ago, the connection to Japan, to me, feels very real.

I took this a few days ago while cycling in to work, and it got me thinking – I love this city. Like Liverpool there is a sense of pride here. Not everything about the city is perfect: far from it. But the people here know that and acknowledge it, and are proud to be from Sheffield.

And, like Liverpool, I get the impression that Sheffield is looked down upon by a lot of people in the UK. The two cities are shunned, assumed to be horrible places full of tough Northerner’s that may or may not know how to read or write.

And this is a shame. Sheffield is somewhere to the entire country should be proud of, a place where manufacturing still reigns supreme. Things are made here. There’s booms and thuds all around, heavy industry going about its business and not caring who hears. And, as I hope my snapshot shows, industry can be beautiful and inspiring.

A slightly strange post coming up, as this week several events have occurred that makes the games industry suddenly feel quite fragile. The initial piece of news was Activision recommending the closing of Bizarre.  For those following the story since the 90 day consultancy was started this probably doesn’t come as a surprise – it was unlikely a buyer would step forward for such a large studio when Activision are probably retaining the IP and technology.

I was only at Bizarre for a six month contract, but feel proud to have worked at one of the flagships of the British games industry. Sure, as with everywhere there were things that could be improved, but there was a sense of pride from the staff that they were working somewhere truly special.

One studio closing doesn’t spell disaster for the industry, but Bizarre wasn’t the only place in the news this week: across the pond, Disney Interactive have also closed Propaganda games. And back in England Frontier Developments have made 17 people redundant following issues on The Outsider.

So why is this happening?

Games take a long time to make. To make something truly AAA, 90% plus, takes a staggering amount of effort. 2 year development cycles of PS2 days have now effortlessly expanded into 3 years or more, with teams several times the size. The amount of financial backing required to take a game all the way to being in the hands of players is massive now, let alone the organisational skills needed to ensure that every member of the 100 man team is working towards the same goal.

The grim reality these days is that if a game isn’t able to shift 3 or 4 million copies then it’s considered a failure and, really, no wonder: to break even most need to sell a couple of million at least.

Looking plainly at the figures then a simple conclusion can be drawn – Blur hasn’t sold a million yet and neither has Blood Stone. But it’s not that simple – both games are very technically competent and good fun to boot. Blood Stone was released just a few days before Activision’s annual flagship Call of Duty. The critical response to both games was quite different (6.4 vs 8.8 / 10), though the user response is far closer – Call of Duty is rated at 8.4, with Blood Stone rated at 8.1.

With Blur, the problem possibly lies with the simple fact that it’s a racing game. To explain: the racing game genre is massively cyclical, linked very closely to the hardware that it runs on. Towards the end of a console’s life most racing games struggle to sell well, and when new hardware appears they do very well – revelling in the extra horsepower under the hood of the new machines to improve the graphics, physics, damage, AI and so on – ever pulling the gamer deeper into a more realistic driving experience.

We’re 5 years into this console generation and naturally at the point where racing games take a dip in sales. GT5 is performing roughly on par with how GT4 sold, shifting over 5 million copies so far. But Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, EA’s flagship racing game, has sold around 3 million. Not bad, but a million less than the version a year previously – despite being rated about the same. And far less than the 6.5 million the last PS2 version sold.

Activision bought Bizarre Creations because they wanted a flagship racing game development studio. But the racing game market is struggling and Blur didn’t sell what they hoped. So were they right to simple cut their losses and close the studio?

I’m not sure. While Blood Stone also didn’t sell as well as everyone hoped it would, it’s by no means a bad game. And it proved that their technology and the people were adaptable: they weren’t a one trick pony. I’m certain there are other games in the Activision portfolio that Bizarre could have turned their hand to and excelled at. I guess the worry of a 3 year commitment without a guarantee of return was simply too big a risk to take.