Poor Poor Okami...but your wallet isn't!!!

When Okami was presented in class, it struck me as a game that I would be willing to play. Casually strolling through the blogosphere, Kotaku ran an article reading "You Just Ran Out of Excuses Not to Buy Okami".

Yes, they mentioned the problems that we hated in class i.e that little creature not shutting its trap but alas, at $20 I may pick up a copy myself come soon.

Here's where your returned consoles go. Let's call it X-BoxStation Lingo. Till next time lovely people.



-AM

you probably aren't as good as you think you are

so i don't think anyone noticed, but there was a flyer on the one of the bulletin boards on our classes floor promoting a smash bros brawl tournament.  i decided to attend since it is one of my favorite series, and i honestly thought i had a chance.  well i didn't have such great leverage over the competition.  i know there would be competition, but in a game that is so approachable and easy to learn, i didn't think there would be much inequality between the players.  So with my limited online play and at home play against maybe 3 people i showed up expecting to do somewhat well.  i lost in the first round.  Players that attended were apparently seasoned tournament participators and spoke about techniques and used lingo i wasn't even familiar with even though i am very familiar with the game.  regardless i did not get destroyed, and my match was actually close, but i was missing something everyone else had: experience.  My opponent knew most of my techniques which gave him the advantage, meanwhile it took me a life and a half to learn to how to play against him.  There were also matches for fun, that forced me to learn the strategies of other players and characters.  Overall it was a great experience for me, and gave the insight that i could hold my own in competitive tournaments (a champ was apparently present) if i had more experience.  

This little experience made me think about internet play and the rise of clans in fps games.  The Smash bros. online community isn't that great which is probably why i didn't have the competitive experience like others; however, just about every fps game has a highly competitive following that can foster many players at tournament level.  i think as we see video games legitimacy grew as well as tournament play, the internet will play an enormous role in growing teams and players for competitive, entertaining, and marketable official tournaments.  We see it beginning to happen, and its going to be very interesting when it reaches a profitable level.

One last grievance, tournament rules.  My favorite parts of smash bro. are the 4 way battles and item drops.  However, both were removed from the tournament and i am not sure how i feel about it.  I see the reasoning behind 1 on 1 battles with no items requiring the most individual skill and leaving little to chance, but the game designers put these features into the game and essentially they should be part of the competition.  The dimensions they add may theoretically require even more skill and strategy from a player.  Positioning, choice of which item to go for, item usage, the list goes on.  there is no verdict on this, i just wonder how tournament rules can ruin the fun for some players, or give others advantage.

When You Just Can't Love a Game

Yesterday it was announced that Dead Rising: 2 would have a multiplayer feature, in which up to 6000 zombies would be visible on the screen. While just about any promise of fighting off zombie hordes is enough to get me salivating, I found my excitement dampened by the memory of my attempts to play the first game, Dead Rising.


I wanted to love Dead Rising. I really did. But sometimes, like a bitter-sweetly doomed relationship, you just can't work out your differences. In this case, the text drove me to return the game with a wistful sigh of what could have been.

The font, even on my father's big screen, HD-tv, with my nice HDMI cables, was still miniscule. To further compound this problem, there was no feature that asked you to signal that you were finished reading the dialogue before it carried on. To make matters worse still, time was a critical component of the game, and it was a pain in the ass to try to make out the micro-numbers on the main character's watch.

Everything else I encountered in the game, I liked. The idea of photojournalism in the midst of World War Z was fresh and engaging. The main character was a sleaze and it was fun to play someone not obnoxiously righteous. Best of all, you could turn almost any device into weapon. It was heaven... except for that one goddamn flaw. I think the positive elements of the game actually made that flaw more glaring because of the fact that it was so easy to want to know more, and the main way that video games disseminate background and mission information is via text.

All of this leads me to wonder how often simple, avoidable pitfalls like this one turn people away from games that they might otherwise adore. That, and how something so blatantly obstructive to a player's enjoyment got past any dev.

Wait a second, Canada DOESN'T suck!

I recently read an article by Vito Pileci regrading the state of the video game industry within Canada and found many of the statistics quite astounding. According to Piliece the video game industry now directly employs over 14,000 people in Canada. Furthermore, Canada has just recently leapfroged the U.K. to become the worlds 3rd largest center for videogame production talent, trailing behind the United States and Japan. Also due to various generous tax incentives, Canada currently houses the worlds two largest video game production centers: Ubisoft's campus as well as EA's campus. Canada is also looking to grow these game development centers by increasing the number of videogame producers by 29% by 2011.

What really impressed me was the resilience of the video game industry in the midst of one of the worst recessions since the great depression. For example, in February videogame sales broke existing records increasing 10% year over year in the U.S. to 1.47 billion. Futhermore, Canadian Videogame sales hit record levels in 2008 hitting 2.09 billion, an astounding 23% year over year increase. Probably the most interesting statistic in the article is the sheer size of the video game market in the U.S. According to Media Control GfK, videogames are predicted to account for a whopping 57% of all home entertianment sales in 2009. While the financial industry is in flames, it seems like things are cruising right along for video games!

Sales of Video Games Are Rising, But the Developers' Profits Are Not

In a recent article from the New York Times written by Matt Richtel, video game sales are rising but not the profits from game developers. The reason? Simply put, the cost of making video games have risen significantly over the years. With the advent of high-definition hardware, developing games for consoles like Playstation 3 and XBox 360 are very costly. According to Reggie Fils-Aime, chief marketing officer for Nintendo of America, "Nintendo recognized the economics were changing when it developed the Wii." He states that "the company deliberately did not add high-definition capability to the Wii so games would be cheaper to make." Currently, industry sales have grown 19 percent in 2008 compared to the year prior. Yet top game developing companies like EA (Electronic Arts), Take-Two Interactive, and THQ are being affected. The reality is, developers cannot charge enough or sell enough games to cover the cost of producing most titles. A couple of decades ago, it was unheard of that developing games would cost a couple of million dollars. Nowadays, top-tier best sellers easily cost $20-25 million.

For more on the scoop, check out http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/technology/30game.html

A cartoon on the two John's

Here is a You tube clip I found titled, "Masters of Doom-The Animated Series"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA4_XFlxM1M
Im guessing its too violent to have ever made it to prime time. Im having trouble deciding wheteher its fan art of whether it was professionally created and distributed. Does anyone else know?
I was quite take aback by how bloody everything was as well s by how fast action moved from one sequence to the next. Interestingly enough, I realized that these two features only suorsed me because they were present in a cartoon and that I would not have though twice about them if they were present in a video game.
This brought the the familiar question of which conventions are found in soecific art forms...
I watched this really interesting movie for my "Film: History and Form" class titled "Run Lola Run"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta1Sn6MtC9w
The film reflects many elements of video game design in terms of the pace camera angles and insetion of animation between scenes. It even has three altrenate endings to choose from.

However, its obviously not interactive in the way that video games are.

There will always be limitations that prevent these two atreforms from completely spilling in to eachother

Movement and Video Games

Having just talked about the Wii and its incorporation of movement into video games, I thought about why that was important and what made it effective for gamers. I realized that by immersing yourself into the game, the gamer feels a sort of control over the character they are inhabiting. A case in point is the category of racing games. Without fail, every time I play a racing game I find myself up on my feet and desperately leaning my entire body over to the side I want my car to go to. I find that a lot of my friends and family do the same thing when playing with them. Is this just a coincidence? Or is it more so that we get into the games to the point that we almost subconsciously feel like we can directly control them (without the medium of a controller). Either way, this definitely speaks to the quality of a video game to immerse a gamer into the world it portrays, which is not an easy task.


Midnight Club 2 was my personal experience of this movement in gaming, but there are definitely a myriad of others to be found. It only makes sense that Nintendo would think to incorporate this into the actual game play, where perhaps my leaning left might mean something in the game-play.

masters of doom

"Arcades bred games. Games bred delinquents. Delinquency bred failure in school and in life."-Masters of Doom

Just a little thing I find funny... Reading about Steve Wozniak as this programming genius (who made games say "oh shit" when the player lost) and helped create the Apple brand and  and then watch him do this... 

 oh and ballroom dancing is harder then programming computers!

on another side note.... so it is kinda sad how the gaming ruined pretty much all the relationships in the book. Sorry my thoughts are scattered BUT

this was an article I read this week in the Wall Street Journal talking about how many different forms of media are failing and the new innovation which video games will see "at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the industry got an eyeful with the introduction of new business models that would allow gamers to purchase or subscribe to games without ever setting foot into a retail outlet - or even without having to buy the latest game hardware, such as Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Xbox 360, Sony Corp.'s (SNE)" PlayStation 3 or the top-selling Wii, from Nintendo Co. (NTDOY)." Developers don't want to see the video game industry take the same turn that the music industry has and this was a response. 

link and the ocarina of rhyme

Video game music is a funny thing. Players don't pay much attention to it while they're playing the game, but can recall it after the game is over. Players react positively to Zelda's music, Super Mario's overworld music and even the "victory!" sound effect from Final Fantasy VII. (I had it as my ringtone for my cell phone for a while.) Almost everyone knows how to hum that music from the first level of Super Mario Bros.

Think about it for a second. Players listen to this music on loop for hours and hours. Barring realistic games that use songs from musicians (games such as GTA and Burnout), composers have to craft a mix of music that is memorable but not intrusive, interesting but not too annoying. It's surprisingly difficult.

After a while, the songs get lodged in your head. You find yourself humming them when you are away from the game.

And then something like this happens:

http://8tracks.com/teamteamwork/the-ocarina-of-rhyme

Hip-hop rhymes laid over music from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

It turns out that this practice is very, very common.

http://www.ocremix.org/

Founded in 1999, OverClocked ReMix is an organization dedicated to the appreciation, preservation, and interpretation of video game music. Its primary focus is www.ocremix.org, a website featuring hundreds of free fan arrangements, information on game music and composers, resources for aspiring artists, and a thriving community of video game music fans.

And of course, YouTube does not let me down:

Legend of Zelda Medley for Strings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1cDR1NvR_E

Even if you've never paid attention to video game music before in your life, I urge you to check out some of these links. They are pretty cool.

Fulfillment

"Achieve and cherish it." Those are instructions for Fulfillment, a low resource browser-based game found here.

Hosted on the same site are similar games, all fairly easy to jump into and quickly get a hang of. Fulfillment itself is more of a puzzle-based game, but its timed aspect forces a sense of urgency.

But is it actually fulfilling? It seems like a tongue-in-cheek shot at self awareness to claim outright that the act of matching blocks and racking up a high score is somehow answering an inherent human need. At the same time, there is a reason that simple games are so addictive, to hardcore gamers and bored officer workers alike.

I think games like this, and their popularity, are telling of our conception of satisfaction... it's just hard to pinpoint what exactly is so intriguing about them, and most academia isn't concerned with trying.

video games training for us for the government

the title is entirely over cynical, but if we all look back at our haptic interactions with video games we can see how much training we've received.  Starting with the Nintendo, a d-pad and 2 buttons are all that are required to play any game, excluding start and select which have really only 1 or 2 meanings even today.  The simplest of all controllers and still my most beloved.  But this is besides the point.  If we look at the interfaces for modern systems, they are much more complex.  There has been a progression in the number of buttons needed to participate in a game.  From the somewhat weird to intimidating look of a gamecube controller to the comfort and damn near perfection of a ps3 controller.  While we aren't really being trained for the government, we are being trained for the real world.  Our hand eye coordination is increased drastically, as i'm sure many of us can tell from when our parents attempt to use any piece of modern technology.  Just like kids use to play physical games to be fit for an army of the past, our generations play video games to join the keyboard and mouse workers of today.  We can already see how important it is, and honestly its scary to witness the progression.  I myself am scared of the day when i won't be able to keep up anymore.  My cousin who is just 5 years older than me is starting the process.  

Aside from our hands becoming more agile, our eyes do to.  Or become more receptive to digital visuals.  Any time my mother asks me to search for some product online she can never keep up with my scrolling speed, and is astonished that i can see all the little objects fly by.  But this could just be the age difference.  However, i've seen for myself that video games do change the details your eyes notice.  I picked up mario64 over the break and the landscape isn't as fluid as before.  My eyes pick up polygons so easily and distinctly it makes me laugh in the middle of a bowser fight.  The ever increasing graphics capabilities have made our eyes sharper i believe, and pretty soon everything is going to have to be high resolution for us to take anything seriously.   

no comment necessary.

Virtual World Developer MindArk Granted Real World Banking License

The Future of Video Games (?)

The Start-up company "OnLive" surprised everyone and is planning to take over significant part of the gaming industry starting next year by enabling us to play games right at home without the use of a powerful computer or an advanced console. 

The idea is simple- instead of running a game on your computer or console it will run on a super computer at a dedicated servers' place and will only send you the graphics over the internet.Think of a future where you only need a big-screen tv and a small console that can connect to the internet and display the images on the screen. Game developers can make games that will use amazing graphics that run on a super-computer, because they will know that everyone who is connected to the service will be able to play them and not just the owners of the most powerful computers.

This is not a new idea, it has been told in the past, but "OnLive" are the first one that provides promising technology that actually works. We can see how much is serious when the game industry support this new technology - companies like EA, Take 2, Ubisoft and more have contract with "OnLive" for Distribution Agreements - their next games will be available on "OnLive" technology too.

So, what left to see is how this new technology will work in the "real" and though world of the game industry, till then you can count the hours for the official release at "OnLive" site - today (March 24th) at 7:15PM PDT.

Successful advergaming for a failing car company

In USA Network's hit show, Burn Notice, the main character Michael Westen drives a convertible Saab 9-3 all over Miami. We've seen this kind of product placement before, especially by American (or American-owned in this case) car manufacturers. Transformers is essentially a GM commercial and 24 is a Ford commercial. But tying these products and shows with gaming has never been that successful. With Burn Notice beating the primetime network competition and Saab failing so much that not even the Swedish government will help it, a new advergame has brought a lot of attention. Called Covert Ops 2, the game has drawn 500,000 unique visitors and 50,000 registered, far exceeding the expectations. Autoblog notes, "With those kinds of numbers, that means Saab was exposed to nearly 25 times the number of people who actually bought Saabs all of last year." GM's director of branded entertainment said it exceeded their expectations by 400%. What makes this game so much more successful is that its missions were created by the actual writers of the show. Unlike the many poorly made advergames, this game actually added content worthy of the fan's time. This difference is what will change people's perceptions of content designed to advertise.

Play the game here: Covert Ops 2
Ad Age article

foursquare::virtual achievments for a real world

Recently, a new "game" appeared on the iPhone app store called "foursquare," made by a graduate of NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program. Based off the recently shuttered "dodgeball" mobile social network, foursquare seeks to make a "game" out of going out. Using the iPhone (and soon other smartphone's) GPS capabilities, someone can "check in" to a nightlife location, to let their friends know they are there, and also to collect points on the foursquare leaderboard. To make the whole process even more game like, the more places one locks in at, the more points, and eventual "achievements" rewarded for certain goals completed. (for example, you get a "bender" achievement if you go out 4 nights in a row). Each of the major cities which are included in the game's initial release have different sets of achievements, and gives the "mobile social network space" an interesting new spin.

As relating to our readings, I think that this is an interesting idea how a "virtual world" is adapting to the real world, rather than forcing people to adopt a completely separate persona and value system in a purely virtual space. Bringing big games to real life is another interesting space where "body interface" may completely collide with game controllers, and perhaps confound the discussion altogether.

Wii Fat

So this week I'm presenting the Wii Fit for the class. My dads co-workers chipped in and got him one for Christmas, so this Spring Break I decided to break it out of the box and give it a whirl. You constantly here positive things about the Wii; it seems that everyone who has played can only gush about their experience, usually set in the social realm. My hopes were high.

After assembling and hooking up the system, I was ready to get Wii-ing. After creating my Mii, I got started on the Wii Fit specifics. After entering my height- the game automatically spews out your BMI. Rather than laying it on you nicely, the interface of the system turns red and starts flashing, "OVERWEIGHT, OVERWEIGHT OVERWEIGHT." Now, I was able to see the comedy in the situation. Here I am, having one of those 'blah' days, not particularly feeling hot myself, and I have this video game harshly putting me in my place. It was funny.. sort of.

It got me to thinking.. this could really be damaging to some. So I did some googling, and sure enough, the game has received countless flak for it's blunt nature. To be honest, I wouldn't use the Wii Fit as a weight loss tool, because it would be ineffective for me. The workouts are easy, and although you are active, it does nothing a walk around the block couldn't do. The game seems most effective and useful for those who are less likely to workout publicly; who find comfort in the privacy and the regimen that the game offers. So why would Nintendo implement such a discouraging and crude announcement, so early on in the game. Seems off...

Game Consoles and Movies on Demand

In UK, the Xbox 360 system offers an online movie service, and here in the states both Sony and Nintendo are moving in this direction as well. Sony has reportedly signed deals with many major film studios to make movies able to streamed though the Playstation 3, and Lionsgate president of Digital media Curt Mavis has hinted at Nintendo prepping a similar service for the Wii.  Do you think that the merging of games and streaming movies will be successful? I personally would be much more inclined to purchase a new gaming console if it offered an extensive selection of streamable movies, considering the movie selections available on-demand through cable services tends to be very limited, and services like Netflix don't offer streaming straight to your television. Could this be the future of movies and gaming consoles?

Second Life as depicted on True Life

This week during Spring Break I decided to catch up on some MTV. I caught up on some True Life episodes and was particularly interested when True Life: I Live Another Life on the Web came up. It exposed me more to the Second Life community, which we have often discussed or made fun of in class. The episode featured a female musician whose stage fright was so intense she could only perform through her Second Life character on the internet. I was amazed at how recognized as an artist she was throughout the community. She had legions of fans and even hosted her own concert events which drew crowds of avatar followers. Although I felt at first her internet double life was hindering her potential and talent, seeing as she felt complacent in living in this alternate world. I then realized the support and admiration shown to her through her online community was worth just as much to her as it would have in the "real world". It even connected her with former Second Life musicians who were now taking the stage at actual concert venues, and eventually pushed her to overcome her stage fright and sing in from of a live audience. This episode had me wondering if the personal validation acquired through the internet was just as effective to a person's well being and self esteem as the feedback they attain in the non virtual world. Can a person's online avatar or persona surpass their true identity in the real world, or is that virtual personality a player's true identity?

Field Trip?

In a move that tests the boundaries of high and low culture, the "Strong National Museum of Play" is opening in Rochester, NY by 2012. With over 10,000 games in their library, and nearly every console known to man, the museum will archive the history of gaming--calling attention to its cultural importance.

Placing video games in a museum context automatically creates an educational learning environment, which will hopefully direct positive attention toward the side of the debate that reinforces the learning benefits of games. In addition, I have a feeling that the target audience will be everybody except hardcore gamers, who may find it pointless to visit a museum dedicated to a subject they are already immersed in at home. Perhaps the museum is a step toward redefining what it means to be a gamer, and will consequently make the boundary between gamers and non-gamers begin to disappear. Jon-Paul Dyson of the Strong Museum commented upon bridging this gap:

"Some people say 'well I'm not a gamer.' I don't play games but we are increasingly coming to a point where everyone is going to be a gamer of some sort."

Since the museum is (obviously) interactive, I am curious to see how violent video games that have been condemned by media outlets and government alike will be treated. Will a museum-goer have to be a certain age to partake, or will all games be grouped onto a level playing field, under the larger scope of "art"?

Read the full article here: http://rochesterhomepage.net/content/fulltext/?cid=78992

second life to real life?

Ok, first off I found the article "Meet Kevin, King of Cybersex" by Bland extremely surprising because I had no idea that there were so many people not only involved in this second life sexual phenomena but that it is breaking up real life relationships. Also, the notion of buying a body part online for you avatar I just can’t wrap my head around but I guess it’s just like every other status symbol people buy for their avatars. “If the idea of buying your genitalia over the counter still sounds a little far-fetched, you have some catching up to do. These days, online sex - or, to put it another way, computer-assisted masturbation - is a seriously complicated business.” It is also a big money making business. People were up in arms about the GTA game’s hot coffee but yet there is an entire culture of sex in video games. According to Parisi, “learning does not only happen through the eyes and ears, but also in the fingers, hands, legs, and feed, and in the skin, muscles, and joints.” I think this is an interesting point in understanding how video games affect the body and the role of sex in video games as a way of learning. Parisi, Parks, and Bland each pointed out the importance of movement in the experience of video games something which is evolving not only with the emergence of the wii but also teledildonics.

Curious Pictures... Check it out

In Parisi’s article “Playing the Interface” he explores and discusses the way in which new types of video game technologies are being used to “invoke the whole body as a participant in the game text”. As he goes on to explain in the article this can be seen so vividly in games such as Guitar Hero, Dance Dance Revolution, Nintendo Wii and even others that he does not touch upon. As I discussed the ideas of Parisi that “the gaming body is no longer static and disengaged; it is now hailed as a participant in the game text” with a friend of mine who is majoring in Digital Animation at Tisch he told me about a class trip that he was taken on that pertains very well to this weeks discussion. The place is located very close to our Classes Video Game haven at 440 Lafayette Street and is called Curious Pictures. One of the companies main features is what they call the “Motion Capture aka Performance Capture aka MoCap”. According to their site “The process of recording a performer's motion which is then used to "drive" a digitally created character. Performers wear spandex suits with reflective optical markers and perform in front of an array of special computer controlled cameras. Once the motion has been captured by this system it can be applied to any character with any rendering style. Since the capture is done in an immersive volume this performance can be digitally viewed or "filmed" from any angle. Recorded performances can later be edited or refined with key frame animation.” One of their particular clients is RockBand. If you go to their website http://www.curiouspictures.com/services/mocap.html# you can check out some of the digital animation that they’ve created and the different companies that they work with. Maybe I can set up a class trip there soon!

Curious Pictures... Check it out

Response to Game Interfaces as Bodily Techniques

David Parisi in Game Interfaces as Bodily Techniques discusses the recent trend in video game input devices. He makes the case that the physical aspects of input devices have moved away from a graphical user interface towards a human-computer interface (HCI). This is evidenced by the raging success of consoles such as the Nintendo Wii as well as the game Guitar Hero. Parisi argues that these new inputs for video game technology have changed the focus of games away from the graphical interface towards a more physical action oriented style of game play. In other words, learning within video games is no longer solely done with the eyes and ears. Instead, now with new technologies such as the "Wii mote" learning also can occur through physical touch and motion.

Galloway makes the case that what distinguishes video games from other media such as televising and film is that games serve as an "action-based medium." Galloway states "if photographs are images, and films are moving images, then video games are actions..." With the recent proliferation of physically interactive games, it seems that video games are becoming increasingly action oriented in which motion or touch can effect the action within the game. This trend doesn't seem to be exclusively limited to video games. New devices such as the I-phone require haptics to operate. Furthermore, tilting the I-phone a certain direction can alter the screen orientation. Therefore, it also seems that technology itself is trending towards a more action oriented configuration.

With such trends in technology it seems that there could be many new educational opportunities. Parisi points out that these new game interfaces could potentially be used to teach students about the bodily habits of other cultures through a human-computer interface. While I am a little skeptical about the educational possibilities of such technology human-computer interfaces are certainly worth exploring. One question I would pose for discussion is what other educational possibilities can such technologies hold?

wii fit + my mom = lots of LOL

My mother, swayed by the glossy ads in Better Homes and Gardens, bought a Wii Fit over Spring Break. She's 58, and has not picked up a video game since playing Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past on SNES. She always complained that video games gave her motion sickness and headaches.

Stepping onto the Wii Fit, she had problems with using the Balance Board and with associating the little avatar on her screen as herself. She simply wasn't used to seeing a virtual representation of her self. She had a lot of fun, occasionally screaming with glee as she moved back and forth on the balance board (scaring the crap out of our Yorkshire Terrier in the process).

What she had a problem with the most was the games that involved manipulating some element on the screen by leaning in a certain direction on the Balance Board. There was a game that involved turning a board and guiding balls into holes cut into the board. There seemed to be a spacial issue, that she couldn't visualize how to move the board.

When I made my own Mii and tried the same game, I got to the advanced level on my second or third try. Part of that was my own developed skill with video games and knowing how to manipulate the board. I was already familiar with how objects moved within video games. This was a game within Wii Fit that did not rely on how the body moved, it also relied on how a user interacted with the board.

Technology and the Handicapped Body

Although Parisi and Mauss discussed the relationship between technology and the body on a more macro and social level, their discussion, particularly Parisi's, about the physical relationship between technology and the body reminded me of my brother's relationship with video games. My brother was severely handicapped since birth and wheelchair-bound from the age of 18 months, but he was an avid and able gamer. He had limited mobility with his entire body, but could write, type, operate his joystick on his chair, and play video games. Despite his disability, he was a better gamer than my able-bodied brother and could beat any of my friends at Madden at the age of 12. I never realized why or how he was such a talented gamer, but after reading Parisi and Mauss a light bulb went off: his entire life and entire existence was his relationship between technology and his body. He couldn't walk, jump, or crawl, and instead relied on his hands' relationship with his joystick for mobility. Because my mom constantly switched his controller from the right side to the left side and vice versa, he was particularly competent with his hands and had an intrinsic and learned understanding of the relationship between the controller, his body, and the video game. 

I have noticed this pattern and this relationship not only with my brother, but also with other handicapped children as well. Video games become a vicarious mode of play, a heightened sense of what reality could be. In a sense, because my brother's life was defined by his body's relationship with technology, his gaming experience was more of a reality than a virtual experience. 

GTA: Chinatown Wars

While Spring Break was mildly uneventful, I did get my hands on GTA: Chinatown Wars and have since become happily addicted to it. It's literally GTA on-the-go. You're this Chinese high-horsed rich kid who has to deliver the family sword to his uncle in Liberty City. Chaos ensues when you get jumped at the airport and lose the sword. Everything else works in the ol' GTA style of things where you go on missions for different gangs, mobsters, rogue cops, etc. in hopes of finding the sword and recovering your family's honor within the crime world.

The graphics are really good for the DS. Both screens are used in the game. Most of the viewing happens on the top screen where you actually control your character. The bottom screen gets used constantly for checking emails, routing the GPS, checking out where drug dealers are, switching weapons - all indispensable. One of the cooler things I noticed about it is that when you break into stationary vehicle, you get to manually hot wire it on the bottom screen. Other uses include making Molotov cocktails, digging through garbage bins, trading with dealers, and using LOTTO scratch cards for easy cash (or a waste of money).

My one problem with GTA:CW is the camera. You can only rotate it around your player; the angle is high up, so you only see people's heads and flailing limbs as they run around the city. Attention to detail however is really good. It was quite exciting when I bailed from a car and accidentally crashed it into a gas station, completely bursting into flames. So much for a quick batch of Molotovs...

PS - I'm gonna bring it into class tomorrow if anyone wants to check it out.

Crazy HD Tetris

I read about this HD version of Tetris on Kotaku a while ago and thought it quite interesting. When hearing the terms HD and Tetris one might think "Sweet! Let me at it!"Right? I mean, I did. That's where they get you.

You see, Tetoris, a true HD version of Tetris, doesn't scale the size of the pieces, only the size of the board. You can imagine how long it must take to clear an actual line in this game. And that's assuming that you don't mess up and have to clear the line above it.

Since it's so frustrating does that make this a bad game? Not necessarily. Sure it's not a great game to play using traditional Tetris rules, but the game does function well as a platform. Players have come up with their own rules for the game, like trying to see who can die the fastest or creating pieces of art using the blocks. This is sort of like what we were talking about in class about games now being used as platforms instead of just games. For example, the DLC models of games like GTA and Fallout 3 allow the developers to use the game platform to release new content that differs from the packaged game. Perhaps Tetoris is more akin to Little Big Planet where players make what they want using the tools provided by the game.

Is this the direction that game are moving towards? Should developers just make fun mechanics and let players choose how they want to use them? Maybe that's why sandbox types of games and user generated content are starting to grow in popularity. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Anyway, if you want to check out Tetoris, here's the link.

-JF

Recession Casts Shadow Over Video Game Conference

So far, the video game industry has held up pretty well in the midst of this recession, but nonetheless, it will be a predominant concern at this week's Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco. The video game industry has actually benefited from people who are turning to games as a cheaper form of entertainment. Yet companies, such as Electronic Arts, are still being forced to lay off employees. The director of the Game Developers Conference, Meggan Scavio, expects attendance to be down a bit this year from last year's 18,000 attendees.

In 2008, Americans spent more than $21 billion on video game hardware, software, and accessories, up $3 billion from the year before. The recession has made competition even more fierce. Video game stores are only likely to stock games that are surefire hits. Game companies that can't make up their development costs are facing big budget cuts to stay afloat. One plus for laid-off video game designers and developers? They are more likely to find work, as many independent and start-up companies are hiring. This year if the first time that the Game Developer's Conference will feature panels on surviving this economic climate.

The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis

I was thinking about this game back when we were discussing the educational value that video games provide. I finally remembered a close enough name that rendered some useful Google results. The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis, along with the classic Oregon Trail of course, was issued in "Computer Class" when I was in 5th grade. The game attempts to teach you substantial mathematical skills, and instill puzzle solving techniques within the player as well. Even more interesting is the fact that as you play, the game adapts to your skills. The goal of the game is to transfer the Zoombinis across the border, in groups of 16. As you beat each level, the game gives you harder puzzles and harder obstacles. The game design allows for constant challenge suited to the player. It also allows for customizable options to give the player some sort of decision-making ability. Your 16 Zoombinis all look different and can have unique capabilities. You can equip them with a spring for legs (thereby allowing your Zoombini to jump over obstacles), or a propeller instead (obviously for flying). By far the best class in 5th grade.

Fan-Creations

Even every offbeat anime or canceled Disney cartoon has devoted followers rehashing the story lines into fan-fictions, conjuring up strange cross-overs with other universes, or crafting works of fan-art that vary greatly as far as accuracy is concerned. World of Warcraft has over some 11.5 million accounts, so the law of large numbers says that it should have much more of this type of creative fan involvement going on: and it certainly does.

I posted a few weeks ago about Blind, a fan-video that was a shockingly well-composed hybrid of machinima and original programming. That was pretty new at the time, but it's part of an almost overwhelming (at least to me) side-culture that has sprung up around World of Warcraft.

When I've mentioned that I played World of Warcraft, even people who are otherwise completely unfamiliar with the game know about stuff like "Leroy Jenkins," which used to take me aback (I've since gotten used to it).



I don't think that the creative community precedes the actual video game in many cases, and I think that WoW is an exception because of its accessibility. Taking screenshots is highly simplistic, and you can easily (Alt-Z) hide your user interface. It's only a moderate step above that to running videos of what you're doing on screen. Personally I think the PvP side of the game probably promoted this video capture aspect before it caught on in other areas (people love to show themselves killing other players), but it isn't long before people are doing goofy stuff to ham for an audience. And from there it isn't a leap to get into more "serious" endeavors like Blind.

video game reviews

i kinda feel like i need more background on the history of video game reviews.  A sampling of what nintendo power and ign did during the 16 bit and 32 bit console era.  but i don't have time for that so i'm gonna criticize the reviewing system based on a franchise i've been falling from the start.  The prince of persia series debuted on the ps2 in 2006 and scored high marks across most of the industry.  The following sequels on the ps2 did not change much mechanically and did very little visually aside from darker tones.  They were still great games in my opinion and the industry.  They were deducted 1 or 2 points of whatever the rating system most likely because there weren't many innovations like the first game and didn't deserve as high marks due to the progress of other games.  To me this is completely understandable and promotes video game innovations so is well deserved.

Where my problems begin with the industry is the last prince of persia game released for the ps3 only 3 months ago.  I played through the game and beat it, however half way through i was already tired of it.  This had never happened before in any of the games.  The industry still gave the game 9s and 10s across the board.  They acknowledged that this sequel was different from all other from the franchise, and the artistic basis of the game merits its score.  The artistic part of the game was cell-shaded and deserved all the praise, but in my eyes the industry led the gamer down the wrong path this time.  I hate to mention or think, but this sort of artistic praise disregarding the actual fun derived during gameplay represents an industry becoming full of themselves.  Kinda of the way no one listens to movie critics and just go out and try to enjoy movies.  The truth behind the game is that aside from its beautiful imagery, very little was done to improve gameplay and make the experience enjoyable.  Three quarters of the time i spent with the game involved me collecting light orbs, which became extremely annoying after 150 (it went to 300 i think).  About 15 percent of the game was spent fighting 5 or 6 of the same people, and 10 percent went to dialogue.  It became quite boring and i just wanted to get through it and be done with it.  The game took removed the fun of acrobatic multi-enemy battles, booby traps, and the strategic use of time rewinds.  Instead they gave us a princess that could save you over and over again making nothing really challenging.  The upgrades earned were simple plate activated boost that involved pressing a button once you land on one aside from a flying upgrade that was not very difficult or enjoyable.  After lending the game to another friend, their review was the same.  I know the industry isn't always going to be right but how they could get this review so wrong is beyond me.  It seems like they completely ignored how fun the game was, and looked at the artistic quality of the game.  I just hope this one pompous review that said not all people will understand the game doesn't become a trend.  This was just a game that did not have the right blend of story telling and gameplay and my eyes.  Something msg4:sons of liberty did great and the industry scored correctly.  I just had to vent about that because i had such high expectations for the game especially after reviews, and honestly it fell short.  Lets hope the industry does not become elitist. 

GTA's Next Mini-Game?

After watching and discussing GTA4 and its depiction of the strip club and strippers, I came across a game that has been making the rounds in various news outlets recently. The game is called RapeLay and is what's called a rape-simulation game. Developed by Illusion Soft, a Japanese company, the game falls under the genre of "eroge" or "erotic game" that actually has a small market in Japan. The point of the game is to stalk a girl from the subway, making the "right" moves to finally be able to take part in the interactive rape scene. This seems to be what politicians and activist groups have made out the Hot Coffee mod for GTA to be like. As we all know, this isn't the case. Obviously, RapeLay will never be sold here, especially in brick-and-mortar stores that refuse to stock Adults Only titles. In Japan, its sold in stores next to pornography, not Grand Theft Auto. Has this game crossed the line for American policymakers and will it end up affecting our beloved video games? Or is this game just a small part of a niche industry that does not deserve the attention it's getting? While I never condone censorship, one thing is certain: this game will offend anybody's sensibilities and is probably better off with limited availability.

http://www.slate.com/id/2213073/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RapeLay

Game Approachability

In his review, Kasavin notes early on that one of the positive attributes of World of Warcraft is it's approachability. I thought this idea and concept of what is "approachable" was sort of interesting. Games that have huge followings, such as World of Warcaft, are innately intimidating, because they suggest that a certain level of gameplay/knowledge is required to appreciate the game. Although he remakrs on it's "simple, highly legible, uncluttered interface," Kasavin suggests that this is mindfully done, and is actually serving to disguise it's complexity.
I wonder how effective taking something complex and applying an "approachable" design to it, actually is. How much can this basic interface really mask the underlying depth and involvement of a game? Can easily intimidated players be swooned (wrong word), and for how long? Can the complexity of a game successful hide behind a simple design?

Tiger Woods PGA Tour '09 vs. '08

On March 2nd, Nintendo Power named EA's Tiger Woods PGA Tour '09 the "Sports Game of the Year." Euro gamer gave the golfing video game a 9/10, 1UP/EGM awarded it an A, and Game Daily rated it a 9/10. IGN awarded it "Best Sports Game," "Best Online Multiplayer Game," and "Best Local Multiplayer Game." So far, TWPT '09 has been widely more successful and acclaimed that its predecessor, Tiger Woods PGA Tour '08. TWPT '08 had a critical reception and suffered from serious technical problems including, incorrect yardage, freezing and crashing, problems with the online server, and issues with the Photo Game Face feature. 

So, on the subject of game design, what makes the '09 version so different, more approachable, and more user-friendly? 

First of all, the 09 version featured simultaneous game play and players no longer had to wait for other players to take their shots, making the rounds go by faster. The updated online server attracted a bigger population of online gamers and encouraged the online, multiplayer gaming community. 

Secondly, the 09 version now features Tiger Woods' coach Hank Haney, who guides the player through his/her golfing career, offering tips, advice, and training to help improve the players' skills. 

According to the EA website, "Your career beings under the watchful eye of Hank Haney, Tiger Woods' real-life coach, who takes you under his wing, helps you tune your clubs, and provides training drills to help improve your game." This new feature puts players on an even playing field, giving beginners the opportunity to compete with veterans and gain skills.

The EA admits, "With experience under your belt and confidence as you raly, take aim at family, friends, and rivals in fun and challenging game modes, including the new Golf Part mini game mode. 

Under the tutelage of Coach Haney, players learn how to play the game and are then encouraged to play with and against their friends and the online community. There is a clear progression into game play and the notion of "all-play." EA tweaked the 08 version by perfecting the online server and adding Hank Haney's character for guidance. Haney helps encourage game play and promotes the multiplayer challenges both locally and online by instilling confidence into the players. 

In terms of game design, TWPT 09 relies on many of the features initiated in the rest of the golfing game series. However, 09 successfully recognized the design issues in 08 and made it more playable universally, individually, and online. 

mario party, meaningful play and multiplayer experiences

Mario Party was a surprise hit. It was a game that combined elements of board games while engaging with familiar Mario characters (and villians!). It managed to gain the attention of game reviewers and fans, despite it's departure from previous Mario games.

Players moved characters around a themed board, and every few turns there would be a "mini-game", a small game within the game that involved all of the players. Games such as jumping rope (am I only person that LOVED shouting "jump!" at the wrong time to trick people?) or 'red light/green light' or 'follow the leader' became a lot more fun when you were playing with Mario characters on your Nintendo 64. All of the boards were themed to different characters, and many of the mini games are themed as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HV36G2K_2w

Mario Party is only really fun when you're with other people. Player interaction with other players is key to the enjoyment of the game. Trash talking, trading tips (or sabotaging people!) and cheering each other on are key components to the game. Many reviews said that the single-player mode just seemed to drag, while party mode was made for lots of people. Playing Mario Party alone is just not as fun as playing Mario Party with others.

Mario Party also engages with the themes of discernability and integration. Players can tell when they're making progress; they move across the board, they get coins and stars and they are ranked. The players can also tell that their actions have consequences down the road. Players can manipulate the camera to look down the road and see where the various paths take them. They roll dice and make decisions about paths and forks in the road.

Mario Party is a fun game and a great example of meaningful play.

Plumbers Don't Wear Ties (3DO)

Last week when we were discussing the sexual nature of certain elements of Grand Theft Auto, I was reminded of a game my friend had for the 3DO platform when we were in 3rd grade.  The 1994 game is described on Wikipedia as an "adult" graphic adventure game, but I assume it was sold in regular game stores because my friend had it at age 7 or 8.  In the game, the player is cast as a plumber trying to "woo" a woman, with overtly sexual themes, and mild nudity. I've included a YouTube video below of the video intro to the game, which does of a good job of portraying the game as the boderline-softcore porn that it is . The wikipedia page also says that the game is "widely known as one of the worst if not the worst game ever made", and from what I remember from 3rd game, I can't argue that. Its just interesting to think about this game in the context of last week's discussion - I'm sure Hillary Clinton would love this one.  Also interesting because this game came out 10 years before any of the Hot Coffee mod business. 

Social Hierarchy in World of Warcraft

Although I did largely agree with the review on World of Warcraft, I did feel a discrepancy with the statement that there is "no real sense of 'class envy'" (Gamespot). Each race/class does have its advantages and disadvantages, which in effect levels the playing field for all characters, but at some point or another there have been accusations of various classes being over powered (generally in between patches). Personally, I roll a Warlock Blood Elf and have definitely had people assume that warlocks are over powered and "easy" to play. I've definitely had discrimination against my character because of this view. As of late, with the Lich King expansion pack, the Death Knights have replaced the paradigm and become the center of attention for this issue. I'm not sure there is this utopian idea of equality within the realms.

I definitely feel certain limitations as a warlock, but they are no doubt balanced out by other characters' limitations and my own advantages. All in all, World of Warcraft is indeed a fairly well-designed game and is definitely worth the experience. Particularly if you have some self-discipline to resist the addiction.

Bowser's Minions

This video seems somewhat relevant to the readings on both power play in games and design principles. It brings up the question of why the hell certain characters do certain things in games, unveiling the "illusion of reality" or the acceptance of a game as it is presented. In the reviews we read, game quality was based on certain expectations of gaming. Though this video is silly, it does question why we have certain expectations about games and the sometimes arbitrary functioning beneath their surface. In the article we read for next class, Jane McGonigal discusses how players enjoy being in the role of the actual character rather than control the character in a game/ experiencing rather than simulating experience. This may also be the function of fan fiction (or goofy you-tube videos) and imagination beyond the game- a desire to inhabit the characters we play beyond simply controlling them- tapping into a new type of immersion in play.

Wait... What?

That's exactly what I said after catching the headline "Brain waves control video game" while perusing BBC News. Ironically, I was having an internal dialogue yesterday about the future of interactive technology, about how only a handful of years ago I asked my parents if they thought we could watch television on our cell phones in our lifetime. We are becoming more in-tuned with technology than ever before, videochatting and virtual reality have gone from sci-fi movie novelties to mainstream. Now, it seems that a whole new technological barrier is being crossed, having implications that stretch far beyond the gaming world.

Researchers at the MIT lab in Dublin, Ireland showcased "Mind Balance" last month, a video game in which the player controls the character directly from their brain. The game harnesses a player's brain activity through "electroencephalography." I'll stick with "EEG." The player wears a headset called a "Cerebrus," which sends electric activity from brain signals to be processed in real time, and the results can be seen on the screen. The nodes on the Cerebrus correspond to the parts of the brain responsible for vision, hallucinations, and light processing, and become activated when the player "tunes in" or concentrates on particular elements on the screen.

Beyond the world of video games, the idea of brain wave controlled technology has incredible medical implications, seen through the following statement from Ed Lalor, a research associate at the labs:

"One of the obvious applications is for someone who is locked in or paralysed completely, somebody who has an advanced case of ALS [Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis], where they literally cannot communicate at all, but their brain is operating fine. They can still see and hear but can't move or speak.

"If we had a direct link from their brain to their computer, they could communicate."

But for now at least, lets relish in the dangerous and entertaining thought of playing GTA with our minds.

[Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3485918.stm]

Fashion and Gaming sitting in a tree...D-E-S-I-G-N-I-N-G

Hey folks, if you are low on your gaming shirts and are afraid you can't commiserate with your fellow gamers in style, this is your lucky day! Uniqlo has announced a video game inspired t-shirt line.Not quite sure if they will be hitting the Soho store. But we do hope so!!!

Here's the list of fabulous games to be ported to t-shirt form courtesy of Kotaku:

On March 16, Pac-Man, Bomberman, Dig Dug, Arkanoid, Galaxian, Mappy, Ape Escape and Resident Evil shirts go on sale.

On April 6, Rally-X, Phoenix Wright and Densha de Go! shirts go on sale.

On April 20, Monster Hunter, Xevious, Street Fighter II, Mega Man, Sonic The Hedgehog, Namco's Family Tennis, Tekken and Puyo Pop! go on sale.

On April 27, Hot Shot's Golf, The Tower of Druaga, and PaRappa The Rapper shirts go on sale.

In May, LittleBigPlanet, Doko Demo Issyo and Ghosts'n Goblins shirts go on sale. The exact date has not been announced yet.

In June, Ridge, Virtua Fighter, and Momotaro Densetsu shirts go on sale. The exact date has not been announced yet.

You can visit the UNIQLO site and see all the designs for the March 16th shirts already posted for viewing.

Vintage gaming/eye candy in one sitting?!?! No complaints here!

Presenting Bubble Bath Babes for this weeks edition of Gaming Fun!

-AM

The Curtain...

Majesco has announced that its going to release a game called Go Play City Sports for the Wii. It simulates sports such as jumprope, rooftop hockey and shootout soccer. Plyers must dodge manhole covers and parked cars to succeed. The setting is very much a part of the diegetic action.
It reminds me of the puppet master princples discussed by McGonigal. She quotes Everything Bad is good For You by pointing all gamers must face the fact that narrative action of the game can be broken down into, "...a bunch of algorhythms behind a curtain."
However, games like Go Play City Sports are trying to recreate reality. There is no "curtain" that can be raised during actual street sports. Fire hydrants were not place on the pavement simply so that people playing street soccer could dodge them
The puppet master this game is trying to depict reality. The only way game designers can emulate the unorchestrated rhythms of everyday lives is through translating it into algotrhythms. Games seem most realistic when the most effort has gone into programming and graphic design. Ironically, the more control the game desingners exert, the closer a game line Go City seems to be to actual human experience.

World of Warcraft & South Park

So before this episode of south park (which I am sure you have all seen many times) I had never been exposed to world of warcraft- shocking I know. Even after this episode I really was not aware of the game or how widespread it is and was until this class. I was semi shocked to see how high Kasavin rated the game but then again, it would not have all those players if it wasn't good-right? I just thought it was funny to read the World of Warcraft review right after the Big Rigs review because the Big Rig review was so outright negative. 

On another note....here is something more my style that I came across on thursday. You can't get them on itunes but you can listen to them while playing rock band? Being released on xbox360, playstation3 and nintendo wii on september 9th "the beatles: rock band" edition is making its way into mainstream society. For me it is bizarre that they will not put their music on itunes but will license it to a game- but hey...whatever brings in the money right.

It's All In The Experience

After reading Navarro’s hideously awful review of the game “Big Rigs” and Kasavin’s enthusiastic and ecstatic review of the game “World of Warcraft” it is no wonder that in the article by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman entitled Game Design and Meaningful Play, the authors call the ability “to create great game experiences for players- experiences that have meaning and are meaningful” the most important aspect of game design. In essence what the authors are reiterating is that “the goal of successful game design is the creation of meaningful play”. This is something each one of us can certainly understand and this concept is highlighted every Tuesday afternoon in our class as our enthusiasm or lack there of is indicative of our past gaming experiences as specific games are either mentioned or played. I have noticed the huge smiles on specific faces as games were either divvied up to different classmates for presentations, presented and played, or mentioned and discussed as well as the disappointment of a specific classmate when asked to play, research, and present NFL Madden. It is obvious that these smiles, chuckles or disappointments were solely dependant on the past experiences that individual players have had with specific games. Salen and Zimmerman comment of what successful games have in common. They exclaim, “Each situates play within the context of a game. Play doesn’t just come from the game itself, but from the way that players interact with the game in order to play it”. With that being said, based on Kasavin’s experience and review of World of Warcraft I can’t wait for class tomorrow. 

World of Warcraft's ingenuously additictive characteristics

Kasavin's World of Warcraft review brilliantly highlights all of the ingenious and yes addictive characteristics of Blizzard's blockbuster MMRPG. According to Kasavin, it has taken many years for the MMRPG genre to finally develop a breakthrough hit that has come to define this particular category of games. Finally, World of Warcraft seems to have taken this designation both improving and innovating the genre of MMRPG. As a former, World of Warcraft player, I identified with many of the ingenious and addictive aspects of WOW game play. For example, the game's interface itself according to Kasavin is very intuitive and easy to use requiring no cumbersome tutorials. The game instead immediately immerses the player in the game providing helpful hints along the way. This strategy quickly immerses the player in game play increasing the likelihood that the player will become "addicted" to the game. As a novice recreational computer user, this strategy of seamless game play proved to be very important. If the game interface proved to be challenging I would likely lose interest in the game and move on to another platform.

The game also provides the player with variety. Unlike previous games such as Diablo II which was criticized for being repetitive, World of Warcraft immerses the player in a diverse atmosphere of quests, tasks, games, and battles. This variability sustains the players interest levels ensuring that the user will continue game play. The game also seems to be designed for the more recreational gamer. For example, a player that chooses to discontinue playing for several days in some ways gets rewarded with being rested in the game. A rested character gains double the experience for a specific amount of points. This windfall encourages a less hardcore player to return to the game in order to rack up some experience points at an increased rate and catch up with friends.

One criticism of many RPG's was the steep penalties employed against the player when death occurred. For example, in Diablo II players who died would often take an experience hit, this would sometimes discourage the player from continuing game play. In World of Warcraft death was made a little more "painless." For example, World of Warcraft avoids doling out severe experience point penalties for death. Instead, the game may only yield some damage to your items as a penalty. This system encourages the player to continue playing in the face of defeat or failure. All of the above listed characteristics of World of Warcraft helped to make the game much more addictive to the recreational gamer and helped to establish the MMRPG genre.

Kids Might Actually Be Cool With Dad Wearing Sonic?

According to an article that I read recently on Joystiq, a survey done by Microsoft found that 60% of kids want their parents to be more involved with gaming. The article also mentions that 60% of parents say that they understand the ESRB rating system and 94% feel responsible for checking the rating before buying the game. That sounds okay, but then there's the issue of 47% of parents admitting to buying games for their children rated higher than their age level.

This type of data would have been pertinent during our discussion on the rating system that we had in class, but I'll try to talk about it now. I think that this only goes to show that there is still a fairly large generation gap when it comes to gaming. 47% of the kids surveyed said that their parents never even play games which is a surprisingly large amount. I can't help but wonder why, if so many kids want their parents to play games with them, so few parents are actually playing games with their kids Perhaps it's because they don't have the time or becaues they simply just see videogames as something for kids. Granted that's a common misconception and the article doesn't give any specific reasoning why.

More importantly, I don't understand why 40% of parents in the survey can't understand the ESRB rating system Everything is written right there on the box! It's not like they're trying to hide anything. I don't see how they could be more obvious about it. Now, one could say that it's horrible that parents are buying games for their kids that they know aren't rated for them, but I disagree... as long as they're informed. If a parent is aware of the game's content and thinks that it's still okay for their kid to play, then at least they are making an informed decision. That's exactly how the rating system should be used. I guess I can take some comfort in knowing that those 94% of parents are willing to take responsibility for checking the ratings because I feel like the ESRB and game developers are doing as much as they can at this point.

-JF

Video Game Helps Kenyan Youth Avoid AIDS

The U.S. government has teamed up with a private entertainment company (Warner Brothers, who contracted out to Virtual Heroes Inc.) in order to produce and distribute a video game that teaches Kenyan youth how to avoid contracting HIV. Kenya has an HIV rate of about 5 percent -- young women are the most vulnerable. This game is called "Pamoja Mtaani," which is Swahili for 'Together in the Hood." Users assume the identity of one of five characters. Apparently, during the course of game play, each of the five characters engages in some type of behavior that puts them at risk for contracting HIV or other diseases. As they play, users are given information on HIV prevention. This game is targeted to 15-19 year olds. Then, they have to make good problem-solving choices in order to advance from level to level. They also have specific puzzles and missions to complete.

This is an interesting example of video games being used to educate a younger audience by engaging them through a youth-oriented way.

IGA Worldwide

After lecture last week my friend was telling me about his internship at IGA Worldwide, the global leader in unique 360-degree in-game advertising solutions. Since we were talking about in-game advertising in class, I thought it would be interesting to check out their website and flip through some of their advertising campaigns. (http://www.igaworldwide.co&Tm) They specialize in product placement and branded content across all platforms and some of their clients include: TMobile, McDonalds, Nike, Virgin, Dell, AT&T, Burger King, Ben Sherman, Fox, and Geico among many others. Additionally, IGA has a specialist internal creative solution department that focuses on branded content and allowing gamers to interact with their clients' brands as part of game play. Using in game advertising to reach a young target audience, IGA knows that "one billion eyeball hours can be generated from a top selling game." 

This Is Actually a Real Thing

Apparently Gillette is trying to capitalize on gamers (male ones, at least) as a market niche--and not by crafting a delightful ditty of an advergame, either. Nope, instead they've made a razor... for male gamers.

Hilarity aside, you have to wonder if this is the beginning of some kind of strange courtship. What's next? Radical bobby pins for female gamers? Ultra-Cool Blizkrieg Supernova paper towels for when you spill your Mountain Dew and need to soak it up quickly before it has time to reach your console and trigger a Red Ring of Death?

Really, what the hell is going on? I don't know whether to groan and wish this pitiful attempt into obscurity before it can become some kind of fad, or welcome in an era of supremely ridiculous products. I suppose it would be kind of fun to watch advertising agencies for a host of everyday products jump through hoops like better-paid pomeranians at a dog show.

videos games argue better than movies

before i go into that title i want to mention the gta article and the social aspect of the last article. First of all with gta there is such an obvious bias against video games i am surprised not one reporter mentioned it aside of the actual industry.  How many more times do we have to see new media forms be discriminated against before the mass populations learns to be more open or at least weigh their judgements objectively.  Also the game was intended for kids 17 and older, and there are few 17 year olds left who have not witnessed sex, talked about it, or had it.  Some times i think the "authorities" are extremely naive regarding how much knowledge about the world kids have these days.

The online social community and the reference to two players attempting to beat a one player game made me reminiscent of some of my golden days of gaming.  Cheats and walkthroughs are a way for gamers to connect through helping others.  We've all been there looking for a hint to beat some insane boss in a game or find a secret (last one i used was getting megamen a hadoken).  The single player games being shared reminded me of the summers i spent with my brother and cousin beating Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid 2, Resident Evil  games, and working together through the hours of effort needed to get some bad ass cars in Gran Turismo.  We bonded, competed, and learned about how each of us thought (Related to video games at least).  Being social is a personality trait and can't be changed by a medium, just like television and movies haven't made people less social.

Now i can go into the title.  Games as rhetoric, as in posing an argument work a lot better than any other medium.  The main reason for this is that they are interactive.  Every other medium essentially presents ideas and can be kept at a distance.  But any video game automatically forces the player to join the side of the video game creator.  Gamers take the persona of the main character and join their crusade.  They start to believe in what they are fighting for.  Games are just starting to get involved in current events.  I wish i could go into Metal Gear Solid 4 because there is a great deal of current debates and ideals mixed up within the game so seamlessly gamers are not aware that they are being educated.  But i won't because it is gonna be presented soon.  So i will just leave it at: the game presented very complex ideas that enlightened my view on the world.

RUSHKOFF THE FUTURIST

Max's mention of Rushkoff below reminded me of the reading we did by Douglas Rushkoff.  Although his reading of video game culture seems astute to me, I can't help but remember the other work by Rushkoff that I've read:  his 1994 book "Cyberia".

Yes, the book is actually as gee-whiz techno-utopian as its cover.  Rushkoff reads the drug use of 1990s' electronic music culture as a sort of liberalist progressive dream-- rushkoff predicted that experiences of technologically induced community (through techno music, designer drugs, or computer networks) would elevate humanity's collective consciousness above materialism.

Were the 2000's just a bad dream for Rushkoff?  Will his 'video games as symptom of new rennaisance' theory one day seem just as dated and out of touch as his shamanic-techno-visionquest culture?  

Although there is clearly a renaissance happening in digital arts and information technology, the way in which it is integrated with popular culture will probably be a surprise.  The 1990s' scene on which Rushkoff wrote in Cyberia was effectively swept under the rug by the pop music industry and drug legislation, for example.  Only time will tell.

Girls and Games

Way back in 1998, the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Conference had Brenda Laurel give a presentation on her research of over 2 years trying to find the answer to this question: Why are all the top-selling videogames aimed at little boys?

Mind you, this was in the late 90's. Today, we see numerous games that are aimed specifically to younger girls (ie - High School Musical singalong games and Dance Dance Revolution, among others). The TEDBlog actually has her entire speech on video and it is very interesting what she found in her research. Ultimately, she said there were two kinds of video game developers: the kind that made games for boys and did not expect girls to play them, and then there was the more feminist producer that would decide for the girls what they would want to play. Essentially, the people making games never took into consideration what girls actually wanted. Laurel's researched child psychology and gender studies; later interviewing about 1,100 girls and boys. Her research presented in the video seems quite outdated and obvious to us now, but that was only about a decade ago. See the vid after the jump.

MTV Games and Warner Music Group in Dispute Over Licenses

Recently, Warner Music Group (the record label group that encompasses labels like Atlantic, Sire, Reprise) announced that they would begin asking for higher rates for licensing their music to MTV Games' Rock Band platform.  MTV Games and Warner have not yet reached an agreement regarding these new demands, and no Warner-owned music has been licensed to the Rock Band game since this announcement was made.  Warner also recently made a similar move with YouTube, when they had all videos featuring their content removed from the popular video site.

Even when a game cannot get a master license from a label, they can include a cover version of any given song to include in the game (and sometimes do). How important is it to you that the song in a game like Rock Band or Guitar Hero be the original track and not a re-done cover version? Does this affect your enjoyment of playing the game, or is the recording secondary to the material itself in these game contexts? Do you think Warner is smart to use this tactic? 

Cultural Significance of "halfway games"

Without divulging too much on my presentation tomorrow, (which is sure to be a doozy) I have really come to wonder about how what we think about the future of gaming is actually going to come true. Runescape may be a bit dated, but it really is the culmination of many predictions and hopes of early internet users. The game itself is almost a direct projection of this "virtual self" ideal, where people come together and roleplay in a virtual world, which is actually composed of people who come from everywhere in real life.

I found myself really hating on the game when I started, but actually once I realized that this game is coming from not a "gaming" community, but a "community" in it's own right, I started understanding the appeal, and also a little retro, internet, lets talk to random people on the internet and see who we meet. I don't want to give too much away, but make sure you read Rushkoff, and lets talk about old school MMO and new school MMOs

NYU Game Center and the Wii

On Friday, I decided to stop by the opening day of NYU's Game Center. While there were not that many people there (a few phD students from the Courant Institute of Mathematics, some curious Tisch students that played GTA, a Professor who stopped to marvel at GTA) I did manage to observe something that surprised me.

I was reminded once again of how user-friendly the Wii can be. I spent over an hour playing the Wii with three phD. We played MarioKart. After explaining the "this button is to drive, this button is to shoot things" mechanics, we were off racing around Luigi Speedway.

That's all they had to know to enjoy the game. I could have told them about items, strategy, which character or kart to pick. They just wanted to race around. I think that's the brilliant part about the Wii- it's so user friendly, that people can just pick it up and go. For certain games, there's absolutely no learning curve. They had fun punching each other and playing tennis in Wii Sports, even if the games were at their simplest level.

I'm definitely returning to the NYU Game Center. It's interesting and informative to see different kinds of gamers interact; from the new gamers swinging a Wii remote around for the first time, to the Professor who might pick up a controller and run over a pedestrian in GTA, to people huddled over a Nintendo DS. There's something genuine about the reactions, and while it might not be the most scientific game center in the world just yet, it's a good place to start.

Sex and Violence to a whoooole new level

I was perusing my good friend "Pitter's" blog the other day and stumbled upon this pretty disturbing piece of information...

A game called RapeLay, a hentai game developed by Japanese company, Illusion, that also has a number of sexually violent games on the market. It follows the life of a man (the playable character) through his quest to rape a mother and her two daughters. There are deliberately graphic images as well as "mini games" that reward you for making the women do certain sexual favors or forcing them to have abortions.

The game only recently gained publicity when Amazon stopped selling the game on their websites (only after complaints of course).

The debate of course is "Why is there a rape genre?" and "What are it's effects?" The game seems to reward you for the behavior, however it is interesting to note that both endings involve the rapist dying. Hmmm...

When looking at YouTube videos, a commenter pointed out an interesting fact. American rape rates are astronomically higher than most elsewhere, especially Japan. Of course this is also the country that suffers from the lowest sex rate in the world. Something to think about.

Check out Pitter and the links for more graphic imagery. It's ok to look if you're curious what this game looks like, it doesn't make you a rapist.
http://pitterpatter.tumblr.com/post/80967945

On a lighter note, anyone hear of the women who claims she was thrown off XBox Live for being gay? Here's a nice little poster, WWII style.
-AM

Video Games and Modern Art

I recently stumbled on a website that listed the "10 Video Games That Should be Considered Modern Art". I know this would have been relevant a few weeks ago, but I think he brings up several interesting points (and Katamari Damacy is one of the games!). Swaim talks about having to defend video games, and comments that, "Like comics, video games are a bastard medium, perpetually trapped in the purgatory of 'low art.'"

He goes on to defend and list reasons why several games, including the Fallout series, Portal, and Oddworld "would be hanging in museums if flat screens weren’t so damned expensive." Lastly, he even compares the game's aesthetics to the style of a modern artist.


Is he making good arguments to support his claim?

Social Science Goes Digital

Every year social scientists across the United States spend millions of dollars on observational experimentation and research costs, gathering data about communities and the behaviors of the individuals within them. However, researchers from the University of Minnesota have found that online multiplayer games have become so enormous that they can function as sites of human behavioral observation, much like a real-life city. The researchers focused upon observing behavior in Everquest 2, which takes place in a slightly post-apocalyptical fictional world, and emphasizes social interactions between characters through formations of guilds. While the digital environment takes place in a fantastical location, and predominantly contains elements and characters that do not exist in reality, the behavioral tendencies of people can still produce legitimate results. This research suggests that studying human behavior in a natural setting is becoming, well, outdated.

In Everquest 2, the researchers monitored discourses between individuals as well as group dynamic, much in the same way that regular experiments and studies are conducted. However, the interest lies in the fact that people create characters that do not reflect them in the least, from their personalities to their gender. The greatest advantage to digital research (besides the minimal monetary costs) is the players’ unawareness of their status as test subjects, therefore producing clearer results, untainted with the knowledge of being watched. It is ironic that our digital lives have becomes more accurate measures of behavior than real-life experimentation.


http://www.multiplayer.ro/2009/03/02/video-game-everquest-2-provides-new-way-to-study-human-behavior-says-u-of-minnesota-researcher.html

Guiness' All Time Top 50 Video-Games

Guinness World Record gathered a professional group for Video-games to decide and list the top 50 Video-games of all time in the game industry.
The games were selected by their marketing success, on the market response to the game, how much they influenced the game industry in long-term and obviously - how much the game is enjoyable for the judges.

I Some of way, the list is not making a new statements, that we did not know from other lists that created in the past, However, there are a few important games that missing like Pacman and War of Warcraft, mainly because they did not have any console version.

The list published on the 2009 "gamers version" of Guinness, and here are the top 50:

1. Super Mario Kart
2. Tetris
3. Grand Theft Auto
4. Super Mario World
5. Zelda Ocarina of Time
6. Halo
7. Resident Evil IV
8. Final Fantasy XII
9. Street Fighter II
10. GoldenEye
11. Super Mario 64
12. Tomb Raider
13. Metal Gear Solid
14. Call of Duty 4
15. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
16. GTA San Andreas
17. Super Mario Bros
18. Zelda: A Link to the Past
19. Gran Turismo
20. Final Fantasy VII
21. Pro Evolution Soccer 4
22. The Orange Box
23. Lego Star Wars Complete Saga
24. Tekken 2
25. Wii Sports
26. Pokemon Red/Blue
27. Guitar Hero
28. Project Gotham Racing 4
29. Super Mario Galaxy
30. Resident Evil
31. Ico
32. Chrono Trigger
33. Gunstar Heroes
34. Soul Calibur
35. Advance Wars
36. Ridge Racer
37. Super Metroid
38. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
39. GTA Vice City
40. BioShock
41. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
42. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
43. God of War
44. Sega Rally Championship
45. Starfox 64
46. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
47. WarioWare Inc
48. Saturn Bomberman
49. Crash Bandicoot
50. Outrun 2

Tabula Rasa Brings a Creative End to its MMO

I've never played Tabula Rasa and apparently no one else really has either because its servers were finally shut down this past weekend by the game's developer, NCsoft. MMOs closing are nothing new and not surprising seeing that there's currently a reigning champion in the genre with no signs of slowing. However, what NCsoft decided to with the closing of this MMO is what's interesting.

Again, I'm not sure what the exact story is, but apparently in the world of Tabula Rasa there's an ongoing war between an alien race and mankind. The original plan that NCsoft had was that since the humans were losing the war, they were going to obliterate themselves along with aliens, essentially destroying life in their solar system. I thought this was pretty original. I mean, if you're closing your MMO, why not go for broke and and go out, quite literally, with a bang?

Well it looks like mankind rallied and instead were actually able to finally defeat the aliens right before the servers closed. Here's a video of what the final moments looked like:



Sure it's not the big bang that they had advertised, but at least they went to give some sort of closure to the story for the (few) gamers who still played their game. I can't help but think about what this must mean for those players. Will they play another MMO with friends they made in Tabula Rasa? Do they feel like they wasted their time building their character and attaining loot in this world? Is this conclusion to the game a satisfying one?

And what was so bad about Tabula Rasa anyway that it needed to be closed? Is any MMO other than WoW a waste of time? I mean, so many more are being developed; a majority of the games coming out from EA that were shown at NYC Comic Con 2009 were of this genre.

I know I've asked a lot of questions and maybe if I researched the MMO more extensively, I'd come across some answers. But here's what I can conclude. In watching this last video I realized that some gamers did really enjoy Tabula Rasa and will definitely miss it. NCsoft did a great job at designing what looked like a final epic battle between mankind and an alien foe in an attempt to give their loyal players a satisfying ending experience. So sure it's sad that one particular online community has died. But at the same time, I feel like it died in the way that a TV series does when it has a really satisfying series finale.



-JF

sex&violence

I was reading an article that I came across when I was searching for a list video games that include sex in some way. Rather, I became more interested in this article that I read which said "Video game violence warnings make kids more likely to want to play, study says." I found this whole  idea interesting. According to researchers, 'if you want to make blood-and-gore video games less appealing to minors, toss those restrictive age and violent-content warnings. The lure of something off limits only increases demand, a new study says". When you think about it- it makes sense, wanting what you can’t have…what is forbidden. So, this brings about the point: how effective is the ratings system. Is it created merely for parents? Is it created to protect children? Is it effective is prohibiting children from playing certain games and being exposed to particular themes? As seen in the Grand Theft Auto: SA game, things fly by under the radar. Yet, how do you prevent that-is it even possible? The fact is that the “hot coffee” feature is on the disc and because people know that they shouldn’t see it (because this feature would normally render a rating which would make it impossible for them to buy) they download the patch. Sex and violence should create the same effect. One point that stuck out in the Sex in Video Games article was that children are buying these games with their parents. What I don’t understand is why parents are so up in arms about these rated games when they are most likely the ones providing it to their children. Does the rating system do anything or does it as the study suggests create more potential play for violent/sexual games?

Dante's Inferno

According to John Lundberg @ Huffpost, EA is going to be releasing a video game based on Dante's Inferno for the Xbox. Brief article here.

This is awesome for multiple reasons. Melding gaming with well know literature is great mashup of new and old culture. In terms of our discussion about art, using video games in combination with older art forms perhaps lends to their legitimacy in communicating the same ideas through a new form. The Inferno is from Dante Alighieri's 14th century epic poem the Divine Comedy. The poem chronicles Dante's descent into the 9 circles of hell. Each circle is described with gruesome imagery of sinners tormenting for eternity. If you have read it, you will know that this stuff is made for video games- monsters, zombies (sort of), the eternally damned, fire, brimstone- its perfect.

This would also be a great way to critique and discuss religious ideology in relation to hell- is the entire structure of religion all just some kind of game? I realize that is taking it a bit far when the game hasn't even come out yet, but I think it would be a spectacular site for discussion about games in relation to art and religion.

Plus, I'm just a fan of the Divine Comedy and I can't wait to see it rendered in 3D graphics. Trailer below.

Interactive Media

"Renaissance Now! The Gamers' Perspective" brings up some interesting points about the manipulative nature of the content in new media like video games. Lev Manovich discusses this in "The Language of New Media", but portrays his opinion that this is a myth of new media:

When we use the concept of 'interactive media' exclusively in relation to computer-based media, there is the danger that we will interpret 'interaction' literally, equating it with physical interaction betwee a user and a media object (pressing a button, choosing a link, moving the body), at the expense of psychological interaction. The psychological process of filling-in, hypothesis formation, recall, and identification, which are required for us to comprehend any text or image at all, are mistakenly identified with an objectively existing structure of interactive links (Manovich, 57)

He proclaims that because there are only so many variations of options to choose from when "interacting" with new media like video games, we are not given autonomy in deciding at all. In fact, according to Manovich, we are only objectifying the mental process that entails creative thought and imagination characterized by older forms of media like books. New media, and video games, are therefore not interactive or conducive to unique cognitive thought. Although I do not agree with this view, it is an interesting alternative way of thinking about new media and video games.