Category: games

Do you have good photos of Wii/Guitar Hero/Rock Band players?

I have been posting a bit slowly lately because I am finalizing my book on “casual games”, meaning downloadable casual games / Wii / Guitar Hero / Rock Band.

And I am looking for good photos of people playing these games!

If you have some that you would be happy to see in my book, please send me a line at:

j at jesperjuul dot net

Thanks!

The Sun used to always shine in Casual Games

For a while I have been saying that “The Sun Always Shines in Casual Games”: Casual games, especially the downloadable ones, have tended to be colorful and bright, with a weather that was always good, with themes that were always cheerful.

Righteous Kill breaks with that: It is a hidden object game, but this time your job is to find a serial killer.

About time – after all, we can find lots of dark themes, tragedy, and murders in mainstream entertainment as well as in the entertainment for the presumed female audience of casual games.

The game seems to be doing reasonably well, so perhaps we will be seeing more thematic variation in the future.

(There have been detective and mystery casual games before, but Righteous Kill is a lot darker than other games I have seen.)

Games to try to Hate. (What is the Pink Floyd of video games?)

The previous post discussed indie games as being the punk rock of video games. I chained this to the “I Hate Pink Floyd” t-shirt that Jonny Rotten apparently wore once. And I said that we should wear “I Hate World of Warcraft” t-shirts.

But really, what is the Pink Floyd of video games? What should the t-shirt say; what games should we hate?

I take it the late 1970’s objection to Pink Floyd was that they were rather pretentious, stodgy, had too big and expensive sets. I am a big fan but I see the point. So what is the Pink Floyd of video games?

The obvious line of attack is to go for the good big-budget titles on grounds of their big budgets and hardcore sensibilities:

  • I hate World of Warcraft: one game, incredibly expensive, you actually subscribe to it as not to have other games.
  • I hate Grand Theft Auto IV: Rehash of the formula, decent voice acting and story, huge budget, but same-old, same-old.

On the other hand, Pink Floyd was always in somewhat “good taste”, which would lead us to an attack on exactly the games considered to be good taste:

  • I hate Wii sports: Excellent game design, fun for the whole family, content that no one could possibly object to … but that is exactly the problem! Where is the edginess, where is the depth?
  • I hate Okami or Rez: Smooth and “wonderful” graphics, conventionally “edgy” but really … who cares about mythical sun goddesses or mainframe computers?

What is the Pink Floyd of video games? (You don’t have to really hate it, just bring out your inner punk!) What should the t-shirt say?

Indie Games (like Braid) are Punk Rock

According to rock lore, John Lydon aka Jonny Rotten of the Sex Pistols once wore an I Hate Pink Floyd t-shirt.

Johnny Rotten\'s I Hate Pink Floyd t-shirt

The standard interpretation is that the world at the time was full of symphonic (aka progressive) rock bands, Pink Floyd, Genesis, King Crimson, doing massive concerts and overly pretentious, long and elaborate songs …

… and so the stage was set for Punk music, the songs of which were short, had low production cost, and which wrestled music from the claws of big corporations.

And this is my small comment on Braid in the Wall Street Journal: Indie video games are like punk rock, short, low production costs, wrestling our art from the claws of big corporations.

And we really should be wearing “I hate World of Warcraft” t-shirts.

The subject of games, especially the games of children, has been generally regarded as beneath the dignity of real scientific treatment

Who would have guessed that the subject line and the following quote was from an 1895 review of Stewart Culin’s book Korean Games?

The subject of games, especially the games of children, has been generally regarded as beneath the dignity of real scientific treatment. They have been indulgently regarded as trivial pastimes, or, at best, as amusements only.

A quite different presentment of their significance is advanced in the work before us. The author, drawing most of his information from fresh and unpublished sources, describes ninety-seven games played by the youth of Korea, or by those of older years who retain the love of festal occupations.

(Science, N. 8 Vol.  II. No 49. 1895)

It just struck me because 1) it is the kind of thing that we keep on saying – games have not been taken seriously and now we should, but 2) I rarely feel I have to defend the study of games anymore. (But perhaps I travel in the wrong circles?)

It is Alright to Blame the Game

One of the (few) downsides to being professionally involved with games is that there is a certain pressure towards being an expert at all games. (I believe my subpar Foosball skills once disappointed a group of people.)

So, perhaps this is one of the reasons why so many games are broken: since most people testing are in some way involved with the industry and/or are gamers wanting to show off their amazing skills, they are afraid of admitting to finding the game/UI too hard. We are afraid of looking stupid, so we keep quiet about obvious usability and balancing issues.

Fortunately, the backlash is here. In order of appearance:

1) The reviews at Games for Lunch are successful in their honesty about such matters. Here is the Parappa the Rapper review:

0:49 The next stage is a cooking show. “My style is rich, dope, phat, in which/We’ll make a cake today that looks rich.” That almost sounds like English.
0:50 “The other day I was called a little turkey/But I’m a chicken, got it, ya beef jerky?” This line always cracks me up for no good reason.
0:52 I fail the song, but I have no idea why. I thought I was doing OK, actually…

I admit it: I failed here too and never came back to the game.

2) How do I Play Game is the chronicle of a “non-gamer” playing Half-Life.

I played for 10 whole minutes last night. Got off the train, started moving around, started opening doors and wondering through. I figured out I was supposed to be looking for this test chamber. Scientists and security guards were talking to me but I didn’t have the sound up and wasn’t really listening.

Found a “break room” with vending machines and stuff … wtf?
Found a men’s restroom with feet under the stalls … wtf?
Found a room with a suit that looks like I’m supposed to get it but I couldn’t figure out how to get it from behind the glass.

Found a door, but a security guard wouldn’t let me through because I didn’t have a suit on.

Got frustrated and exited for the night.

3) Jurie Horneman has an honest post about failing at games:

  • Skate and Burnout Paradise, where I respectively got stuck in the tutorial and failed to find the game.
  • Mass Effect, where I instantly got lost in the first mission. I mean, be serious: Spawn the player in the first level and then point him in the wrong direction? Do you know how much trouble I went through to rotate the camera just so at the start of some of the Manhunt 2 levels I worked on? Maybe this was a glitch – I can’t believe this was left in the game.
  • Assassin’s Creed, which generally befuddled me.
  • Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Don’t get me started on the first boss battle.

4) Jurie also mentions Donald Norman’s observation that most users (of anything) tend to blame themselves, rather than the design / game / object.

That leads to the good news: It is alright to blame the game. Don’t be afraid of admitting to failure.

Which gives me the courage to admit how I utterly failed at the desert level of Patapon. Here is how it went:

  • I went to the desert.
  • At the totem pole with some controller markings on it (X O triangle, something like that), pressed those buttons. No feedback either way.
  • Was told to watch out for the desert heat. No indication what I was supposed to do to counter said heat.
  • Died.
  • Repeat.
  • Repeat some more.
  • Looked up some walkthrough. It told me that I should have the Juju. Unfortunately I did not recall every hearing about a Juju, had no idea what a Juju was and no idea where to get one.
  • Put the game back in its package.
  • Behold the 145.000 google hits for patapon + desert. I am not alone. (Phew – makes it a bit safer to admit it, doesn’t it.)

5) I think it should be officially OK to blame the game: What games did you fail at?