The Distracted Gamer

Yahtzee says what I’ve always thought: GTA 4 sucked, not because it was violent, but because it was boring.

I downloaded the demo of World of Goo from Greenhouse.  This is the fist game from independent game developer 2D Boy.  The basic idea is that you have these goo ‘globs’ that can connect to each other to reach a suction hose that collects them up.  The un-used globs will be sucked up into the hose and each level has a minimum number that you need to collect. The game is based on realistic physics, so if you’re building a structure it’s going to bend and sway depending on how you build it.

If it sounds weird, it’s because it is.  This is a game that is definitely high on the bizarre humour ratings.  It’s essentially a puzzle game, and it gets progressively harder as the levels go on.  You also get new types of goo, such as ones that you can re-use.

Also, each level has an OCD award.  You get this for either collecting the maximum number of globs or finishing in a set number of moves.  I’ve only managed to get a couple of these, it’s pretty hard.

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Gamasutra has done a pretty well detailed article on the desires and motivations of what they term ‘missing gamers’:

Although the ranks of the gaming masses are swelling more than ever, there are still thousands who used to play games when they were younger that have yet to return to the pastime.

Their lives have obviously changed in the intervening years — so that available time, money, and attention are now in more limited supply.

But beyond these generalizations, we wanted to discern the detail of what it was that kept them from picking up controller, mouse, or remote. Over a few weeks in the summer we organized a series of play sessions with some of these absentee gamers, a group ranging in age from 25 to 35.

This is pretty sweet, since this is pretty much the whole point of this site.

What they found from the sessions is very interesting and worth reading, but here are the main things they people said they wanted:

1. Integrated Social Experiences
   The ability to integrate gaming into existing social structures
2. Covert Gaming
   That is they don’t want to be part of the ‘gamer’ culture and don’t see themselves as ‘gamers’
3. Monumental Challenges
   ”It was clear that this group loves to rise to a really monumental challenge — games that they could study over many years to really understand.”
4. Adjacent Multiplayer
   Split-screen rather than network gaming
5. Price Point
   The people interviewed said price really wasn’t an issue
6. Adult-Oriented Products
   Not porn, but rather they didn’t like the immature packaging & marketing for a lot of games
7. Assumed Gaming Grammar
   They didn’t understand what a lot of the games required.

I find myself agreeing more or less with most of this. I would contend that for people with a family & a mortgage, price is an issue, I can’t afford to spend $100 or more on a game. Also, I don’t mind the ‘gamer’ tag, but I can see why it would turn some off. Especially with the sometimes stunning amount of childishness that goes with the name.

I’d add a couple of items to this list though:

1. Quicksave
   Any game that doesn’t allow you to stop at any point then pick it up again at the same point is not designed for people who are time-poor. The last thing I want to be doing when I manage to get an hour for gaming is replaying the same half a level again because I didn’t quite make it to the checkpoint before my daughter tripped over & needed to be taken to the hospital!
2. No unskippable cut scenes or dialog
   Seriously, I’ve already bought your game, I don’t need to spend 30 seconds staring at your really fancy animated logo. Let me skip it, I do not want to have to sit through it or any other FMV 100 times.

I’m sure there’s other things.  There’s plenty of other things that are good for more ‘casual gamers’ (I really don’t like that term though, it always sounds like someone who’s favourite game is Bejeweled, hence the name of this site), but these two are, I think, mortal sins that so many games commit for absolutely no good reason.

There’s been some announcements in the last couple of weeks that seems to suggest that game makers are starting to re-focus on your non-hardcore gamers in some cases.  As an ex-hardcore gamer I would never want to see the industry abandon the brilliant games that require the major time investment of time in favour of us poor distracted gamers.  But a little love for us guys would be nice.  I know the Wii has brought about a number of games that you can pickup & quickly get into.  But I still like my serious games.  Wii Sport may be fun for a while, but it’s not why I love gaming.

Just as I posted about them still being in private beta, gog.com has just gone into public beta mode

Also announced today is that Strategy First & Pluto13 will be releasing their games on gog. This means that games like Disciples: Sacred Lands & Gothic are going to be available soon.

There’s a fairly active forum community on the site too.  There’s forums for each game where you can ask support questions or just discuss the game, plus a general discussion group.

For those in the mood for a little nostalgia, gog.com (Good Old Games) has just added Battle Chess to their catalogue for US$5.99 (about $9 Australian with the lousy exchange rate).  You’re going to need a beta code to get access, but you can still sign up for one.

I remember playing this game years ago.  The combat scenes are hilarious, I love the lumbering rook monster.  There’s a bunch of references to Monty Python & Indiana Jones too. The game also adapts as you play, so it can be pretty hard. 

This special edition version has Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess (with dragons) and Battle Chess 4000 (with aliens).  I hadn’t seen the other two versions before. The Chinese Chess game is based on the Chinese game called Xiangqi, so its rules & pieces are different, where as Battle Chess 4000 is just regular chess with a sci-fi theme.

If you’re a old-school gamer, I can’t recommend gog.com enough.  There are some great titles on there, all DRM-free and all for either $5.99 or $9.99 for the new(er) games like Colin McRae Rally 2005 & Second Sight.  Get yourself a beta code & check it out.

One of the things that manages to stop me from going completely insane is the existence of flash games.  Kongregate has possibly the best site for them, but there’re countless others out there.  The great thing about flash games is that they usually require very little time commitment, you can stop and start them whenever you like, and they’ve usually got a very shallow learning curve.  So for a gamer with very little time, they’re great. 

So I’ll be including flash games in my reviews and I’m kicking it off with one of the newer games on Kongregate – Hunted Forever by Pixelante

It’s a surprisingly simple side-scrolling platform game.  Very deliberately basic graphics.  The character is basically a silhouette who can run & jump.  That’s it. You can slide down walls and slopes and you can fall from any height without damage.  You can also do wall jumps (jump again while next to a wall) and you’ll grab onto ledges if you don’t quite make it.

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Boware has revealed the latest in its Star Wars Old Republic games, this time a MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. Set 300 years after the end of events in Knights of the old Republic (KOTOR), the Sith Empire has returned:

Star Wars: The Old Republic takes place more than 3,500 years before the rise of Darth Vader. The most powerful Sith Empire in history has emerged from deep space to attack the Republic and its legendary Jedi guardians. After decades of war, a tenuous truce has been established between the Sith Empire and the Republic, but events occurring in the game are leading the galaxy back to an all-out war.

Word is you can play as either part of the Republic or the Sith & you can be a Jedi or Sith class, but other classes (such as Elite Troopers ot Droids) are “coming soon”.  Well have to wait & see what else there is.  BioWare have said that they wanted to make playing for both sides enjoyable and realistic, not just ‘good guys vs bad guys’.  They’re also going to create a character history for each class. From the OGN article:

So your class story will start right away with you being introduced to your class, not based solely on the mechanics of gameplay, but in terms of what motivates your particular class and how you should start thinking about your opportunities. That’s not to suggest that each player of a given class will be forced into a scripted motivation; as we’ll see in tomorrow’s feature, BioWare will be giving players tremendous freedom to set their own sense of value and priority in the game. But the point is that your class story will provide a relevant framework for you to exercise your own choices throughout the entire life of your character. And then you can carry that sense of identity out into the rest of the game’s content that’s not directly tied to your class experience.

Perhaps the most intriguing benefit to this approach is that your own actions can begin to have a lasting impact on the game world. BioWare wasn’t ready to provide us with concrete examples, but we can imagine the watershed moments for certain characters based on the typical Star Wars experiences

I have to say, I’m pretty exited about this.  I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to play it too much, MMOs tend to require a fairly high level of time commitment to really get things out of them, but maybe they’ll address that.  Most die-hard Star Wars fans are adults now, and they’ll likely have less time to commit to a game.  I’m a huge fan of the original KOTOR & KOTOR II games.  I still play them from time to time. I’ll definitely be checking out the demo when it’s released. 

For now there’s a bunch of images you can view including concept art and screenshots.  There’s also a developer blog that will hopefully be updated regularly.

This has, of course, been covered by all the major gaming sites, so here’s the rundown:

• Rock, Paper, Shotgun: That’s No Moon. It’s a MMO: The Old Republic!
• Kotaku: LucasArts Massive Reveal: The Liveblog
• Joystiq: Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO unveiled
• 1UP: BioWare Reveals Star Wars: The Old Republic
• IGN: Star Wars: The Old Republic First Details

On Sunday just gone, the ABC (Australian, not US) started the second ‘Not Quite Art’ series presented by Marcus Westbury.  It’s was actually really interesting.  This first episode was called ‘Culture Shock’ and they were looking at what shapes current culture.  He had an interview with a musician, an animator and a ‘singing bridges’ fan.  But the most interesting bit was his interview with Ben Croshaw, aka Yahtzee from Zero Punctuation. 

He talks about what, how and why he does the critiques he does. One of the points he made about how influential he’s become was that his fairly positive review of Painkiller caused the sales of it to triple in the first four hours after he released his review!

He also talks about his frustration with people still refusing to recognise games as an art form (which they are).  Yahtzee gets my quote of the day award for this:

It can get frustrating when you want to talk about games as a cultural thing, it gets very frustrating with people saying “oh it’s for kids, oh it’s a bad influence.”  But what I find comforting is that they’re all old.  And old people will die first.  And we’re the ones that get to pass on our values to the next generation.  Old people have always opposed what’s new and scary because it reminds them they’re loosing control of the world.

Not diplomatic, but then that’s exactly what’s made him so popular.

You can check out the show on iView here for the next 20 or so days, or you can download it here. Yahtzee’s interview is at the 9:30 mark, but I would recommend watching the whole thing if you’ve got the time.

Update: Someone has put it up on YouTube too:

The show’s host Marcus Westbury gave a talk at the Department Of Culture and the Arts in Western Australia and he’s posted his notes for that talk, in which he talks about the show and Yahtzee’s interview in particular.

Oh, and Yahtzee’s latest video is on S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky.  As always it’s worth watching, and as always, it comes with a language warning.

Welcome, this is The Distracted Gamer.  Like the majority of gamers, I’m (well) over 18, I’m also married, a parent (of 3, soon to be 4), and an employee.  I’m also a freelance programmer & blogger. 

And I’m a gamer.

I love computer games.  I’ve been playing them for years and years.  I can still remember sitting down as a kids with my dad’s old monochrome (orange & black FTW!) Toshiba laptop playing Moon Patrol.  One of my favourite all time games was Wonder Boy 3 on the Sega Master System

A few years back when the first Xbox came out, I pretty much dismissed getting one, we couldn’t afford it.  But my wife, wonderful woman that she is, secretly organised with all my friends and relatives to put in and they got me the Halo pack Xbox for Christmas.  I pretty much didn’t get anything else that year, but I didn’t care, it was awesome.

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