Videogames are bad for you?

Tonight at 8:30 GMT on BBC1, Panorama have a programme about videogames and addiction (yes, that old, long-dead, desiccated equine-corpse).

Now, forgive me if I’m repeating myself, but given how it’s stirred up the gaming community today, I figured I should mention it here.

Suffice it to say that the games industry aren’t overly happy about the programme and its agenda, as you’d expect.

Eurogamer posted this article which collated various viewpoints from across our beloved industry.

"Think of my kill/death ratio, dad!"

Edge spoke to one of the reporters on the show who revealed they didn’t even look at games like Farmville (yes, Farmville. FARMVILLE for fuck’s sake – that ever-present, news-feed spamming, time devouring boring ‘social’ click-grind where people constantly badger their Facebook friends for those extra pieces they need to build a bloody virtual barn), where developers Zynga have openly admitted they designed it to be addictive. Instead the BBC concentrated on the easier targets like World of Warcraft, presumably Black Ops (“we were hoping to go out in November to coincide with the release of Call Of Duty: Black Ops” says Raphael Rowe) and other more mainstream titles – not that you’d consider Farmville a ‘niche’ title, given it’s the most played game in the history of, well, ever, (apparently). I guess most of Panorama’s researchers have been playing it too much to notice…

One thing that did make me chuckle was when user ‘dadredster’ on Eurogamer pointed out that the BBC have their own games division, but don’t consider theirs to be the stuff of addiction (read: actually any good).

On a lighter note, GamesRadar decided to take a more mocking stance with regards to the BBC’s promo for the show.

Many have said that anything can be addictive if it’s done to excess – in terms of children being addicted, it’s about controlling them – if parents use the PC or console as a cheap babysitter then the child is bound to become addicted.

Eurogamer’s follow-up article (presented here) quotes some of the kids who have experienced this addiction, in order to give more insight into the issue. The one quote that stood out for me was this:

Take Joe. Having quit gaming, he suggests people should “go out and get smashed” instead.

This guy is a fucking genius (yes, that was sarcasm). Rather than keep kids off the streets (and risk their ‘addiction’ to a harmless substance), send ‘em out with a bottle of White Lightning and see what damage is done then… It’s no wonder the Videogames Industry gets a bad-rep with morons like this giving advice on how to avoid addiction.

I can see myself watching tonight and becoming more and more annoyed at the wild claims the programme is sure to make about our favourite past-time. I’d like to be pleasantly surprised, but I’m sure I won’t. Well done to the BBC for pushing the envelope.

Will Halo Reach keep it clean?

I’ve been finding a lot of games rather less fulfilling lately, and embarked on a period of soul-searching in order to figure out why.

Perhaps as I get older, I thought, I view the hours spent gaming not as an amusing way to pass the time, but as time wasted as I edge towards my demise. Maybe I have begun to consider each unlocked Achievement less as a badge of honour, more of a Real Life opportunity missed. If I gathered up all of the hours spend gaming over my life and dedicated them to education and experience, how many languages would I speak? How many musical instruments would I play? How many people would I have met who might have influenced and enriched my life?

Then I realised it’s none of that foolishness. It’s simply because game-making folk are relying on unlockables instead of gameplay in order to keep people playing.

RPGs started the ball rolling. Gaining XP, levelling up and unlocking new items and abilities make people feel as though they’re moving forward and making progress. But in a single-player RPG, you’re still heading towards completion of the game. The end is always in sight.

Enter the MMORPG. Enter World of Warcraft. While not the first game to use this method, nothing has done it so successfully before. No one reading this needs to be told about the this game’s reputation for pulling people in and keeping them there. What keeps people online is the promise of progression. But while levelling up has always been the core of the RPG experience, it has now become a staple in many more genres, particularly when it comes to online gaming. Why? Because it works. It keeps people playing.

The example leaping to most minds here will be the Modern Warfare games. CoD4 was, and still is, rather good. The maps were well designed, weapons were balanced and it was fun to play. And players knew that when the yellow bar at the bottom of the screen filled up they would advance a rank. Perhaps a new weapon or enhancement would become available.

Following the success of this, Modern Warfare 2 was positively bloated with unlockables. Lots of perks, dozens of weapons and hundreds of callsigns became available to those who would put in the hours. Most people agreed that the maps, although more detailed, were flawed. Weapons were imbalanced and gameplay just became tedious more quickly.

And yet people are still blistering their thumbs to get the last few ranks and callsigns. Unlockables have become the crystal meth of the gaming industry. The design itself can be sloppy, the gameplay dull and imbalanced, but your customers will keep coming back for that next hit. How many people can honestly say that they would have continued to play games like Modern Warfare 2 and Bad Company 2 if all of the content was available from square one? Is it the fun of playing that keeps you coming back for more? Or is it the buzz you get from big thumping “You’ve been promoted” noises and the clack-clunk-click of your newly unlocked machine gun being cocked and loaded?

One notable exception thus far is Halo. So far, online gamers have had all weapons available to the from the outset, and I hope Halo:Reach keeps it that way. The games have plenty of longevity in single player, co-op and online, and they do it with good gameplay and design, not by using drug-pusher tactics. Sure, there will be a few helmets and whatnot to gain, but I don’t want to have to spend hundreds of  hours of my life just so I can access all of the content on the disc. Keep it old fashioned, Bungie; I like your style.

Rumble – is it needed?

I’ve been saving this article for a rainy day, and since the weather was pretty cruddy yesterday, here it is, er, now, on this gloriously sunny day… Yeah yeah, be quiet.

A while ago Kotaku published this short opinion piece on rumble/force feedback in games, which in turn was a reaction to a piece from Edge.
Go and take a look at Kotaku and see what you make of it: Kotaku article.

Wrong Rumble. Just don't let Michael Bay get his hands on this one...

All done? Good. I found myself agreeing with the Kotaku writer – and it doesn’t do anything to increase my (already low) enthusiasm for Kinect. I like having rumble. Feeling the ‘kick’ of a gun as you pull the trigger, feeling the impact of every punch and kick in Street Fighter, feeling the clunk of a gear change in GRiD and everything else the rumble motors in a controller have been used for (the Psycho Mantis encounter in Metal Gear Solid being my personal favourite).

Playing certain Wii games with the classic controller or a Wavebird Gamecube controller often feel strange to me now – hitting a wall at top speed in Mario Kart just doesn’t feel right (literally).

Of course, both articles quote Kudo Tsunoda (general manager of Microsoft Game Studios) as saying that “rumble is such a rudimentary form of haptic feedback” – he then goes on to extol the virtues of Kinect and the world peace changes to the way we play games that it’s going to bring – all marketing and PR spin, I would assume (well, he’s hardly going to talk down his company’s latest product, is he?).

I for one, lament the day that rumble is phased out of our controllers. Here’s hoping Kinect is merely used as an add-on and not a replacement for the controller.

E3 Thoughts

So, after watching some of the coverage last week, what were my highlights from this year’s E3 offering?

The press conferences by Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft were the usual blend of camp, meme-creating presentations, with a few nuggets of good games thrown in for good measure. Press conferences aside, it was really good to see some more information revealed on Gears of War 3 and Halo: Reach.

You can watch the press conferences in full here (If you can stomach the hype and marketing/PR hyperbole which comes with them, of course):
Nintendo press conference
Sony press conference
Microsoft press conference

Cliff Bleszinski conducted a short interview on IGN’s live coverage and gave a running commentary on a short gameplay segment of Gears 3′s campaign, which, finally, gets 4-player co-op. He also detailed their new co-op mode, called ‘Beast’, which sees players assume the role of the Locust. It should definitely make a nice diversion from Horde, which, if Gears 2 was anything to go by, will be played to death by Team Gash when we get our hands on it!

In a similar vein, Bungie detailed Halo: Reach’s Firefight mode (as well as many other details about the game), which is really sounding like it’s going to be great fun (and we can now turn off those damned Skull modifiers, including the retarded ‘Black Eye’ one…). From my short burst of play through the Reach Beta, I’m definitely looking forward to the final Halo game from Bungie – a lot of my hopes for the series were realised in the Beta, and so things are looking good. Time to book September 14th off of work…

In terms of new tech, Microsoft’s Project Natal finally got rid of the awful name in exchange for (the slightly less-awful) ‘Kinect’. Sony unveiled their ‘Move’ stuff too, although as noted in a previous post, I’m not overly excited about either of them (except for maybe getting the chance to say “Xbox; On!” in a Star Trek manner every time I want to switch it on).

Nintendo managed to wow me with their 3DS though – although without having seen the 3D effect in person, I can’t pass judgement, but I’m sure it’ll be good. I’m just hoping they make the casing more akin to the DS Lite or DSi though. I’ll have to get my sticky paws on one as soon as they’re released!

Of course, I’m not going to harp on too much, lest this post turn into War and Peace – if you want to catch up on this year’s E3, check out some of Eurogamer’s E3 coverage here: http://www.eurogamer.net/e3.

Until next time, game-fans!

The issue of immersion

For me, art is first and foremost a source of escapism. Whether or not you buy the “videogames can be art” argument, it’s hard to deny that games can offer windows of unparalleled clarity into fictional worlds. With games, you’re not merely reading about or watching the inhabitants of these places, you are an inhabitant. You’re in these places.

RPGs and open-world games tend to be my favourites, so perhaps this applies to me more than most. All the same, I’m sure every gamer has got so wrapped up in a game that they tend to forget the outside world (hell, it’s just not as exciting, is it?). But what happens when the spell is broken?

Again, this may be a personal problem. I’m not terribly persistent with games. If I come across a particularly tricky section, I’m more likely to leave the game in a huff than try the same bit repeatedly (case in point: I got stuck on FFXIII about a month ago and I’m still yet to return to it). Sometimes, I don’t even get stuck! I’ll just forget to play the game for a couple of days, and as time goes on it gets harder and harder to plunge back in. When I do finally revisit, the game is still enjoyable, but the feeling of immersion and wonderment is replaced with disconnect and mild apathy. It’s troubling. I spent a good chunk of last summer playing Fallout 3, and after hours and hours exploring the Capital Wasteland I decided it was probably one of my favourite games. I couldn’t finish it at the time, because I was unable to get hold of the expansions (Fallout 3 requires DLC to get the “full” story).

I finally got hold of the necessary “Broken Steel” DLC a few weeks ago, and.. well, I’m still playing through it. The problem is I’m just not as invested in Fallout 3 as I was last summer. Before, the evocative power and detail of the world captivated me. Now, I can see the flaws more clearly. The jerky animation and the repetitive indoor environments are a whole lot more apparent. I don’t feel like I’m entering the world, in fact I’m very aware I’m playing a game.

This might read like a piece about the perils of addiction. In fact, it’s more like the opposite. While I certainly don’t condone becoming severely addicted to any game, it can pay to appreciate immersion (of course, the best immersion is subliminal, so you may not even notice!). What I mean is you should make time for the games you love. See them through to the end if you can. Spend too much time away, and the game’s strange power over you may have evaporated.