Posts Tagged ‘Video Gaming’

2008 Game of the Year

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

I always have to delay my game of the year consideration until I have had a chance to play the great crop of games that comes out right around Christmas time.  This year I had the opportunity to vote in the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Interactive Achievement Awards.

The nominees for game of the year were:

  • Fallout 3
  • Grand Theft Auto IV
  • Left4Dead
  • LittleBigPlanet
  • Metal Fear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

After playing each of the games I have to give my game of the year vote to Metal Gear Solid 4.  Every one of the games on the list has pushed video gaming forward in its own way.  I strongly considered Left4Dead because of the AI director innovation and how well put together the experience is.  I also considered LittleBigPlanet for the astonishing move forward in user-created content.  Ultimately though, I could not pick anything other than Metal Gear Solid 4.

My preferences tend toward whichever game is the most engrossing and immersive.  MGS4 was the game that hit that target the hardest.  The visuals were jaw-dropping throughout the game.  No other game this year, or possibly ever, did such a great job of making you feel what the main character was feeling.  I didn’t even care about the long cut-scenes until the very end.  The cut scene during the credits is very long and slow and the player has had enough by that point.

I put 40 hours into Fallout 3 this year, but never found myself as engrossed as I did in MGS4.  I never found myself up at 1-2am playing Fallout.  MGS4 was the only game that kept me engrossed until the early morning hours this year.  The most amazing part is that I have never really been a fan of the Metal Gear series.  Outside of the original Metal Gear Solid, I never put a lot of time into any of the games.  I never expected to like the game as much as I did.

If you have a PS3 you owe it to yourself to play Metal Gear Solid 4.  It is the best game of 2008.

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Sensationalism and The Gaming Industry

Friday, January 25th, 2008

If you haven’t seen this video yet, you’ll probably be as appalled as I was. Fox News does a jaw-droppingly amazing job of simply creating a controversy where none exists. What a slimy news outlet. The sad part is that this is the type of coverage is indicative of the coverage that the video gaming industry typically gets. I commend Geoff Keighley for doing a tremendous job of refuting the reporters points while not appearing defensive. One point that I would have added is that it takes about 16 hours of gameplay to get to that scene. You can’t fast forward. It isn’t exactly a quick fix. Grabbing one of Dad’s DVDs would be a much quicker fix. The gaming industry will continue to see more stories like in the future, particularly with the release of the next Grand Theft Auto installment this year.

What can the industry do to help itself in the short-term?

#1 – Always point at the DVD-player

#2 – Adopt the movie industry ratings system.

The reporter and panel point to the content in Mass Effect as “wrong for kids.” The content is wrong for kids, but it isn’t supposed to be purchased for kids. A quick response is:

Q: “Do you have a DVD player?” A: Yes

Q: “Do you own or ever rent any R-rated films?” A: Yes

Q: “How is an R-rated game any more difficult to keep away from your kids?”

How much sillier would this Fox segment sound if they pointed at how bad it was that an R-rated game was released? A bit of the issue here is that the game probably would have only warranted a PG-13 rating as a movie.

What can the industry do in the longer-term?

#1 – Scene-It?

#2 – Wait it out

What the industry needs to do is make more games like Scene-It?. Regardless of the profits from that individual title, the industry benefits are long-lasting. Everyone has a TV. Why not replace the family board game? Why does Fox’s target audience look for games and not movies to be vilified? Generally, it is because they all watch movies, but never play games. People fear what they do not know. By simply getting a Mom or Dad who would never otherwise play a game to turn on the system or even join in playing a game has far-reaching transformational impact. Video games are quickly de-mystified. The idea that they are only the domain of adolescent boys is debunked. If more of Fox’s audience played a game at least occasionally, the network would not have run a segment like that. They certainly didn’t talk about the R rated movies that came out that week. The industry will have won when the game system is simply considered a glorified DVD player.

Certainly Nintendo’s Wii has brought in more non-gamers. Games like Scene-It? and Microsoft’s other forays into casual gaming are working to displace the family board game. Long-term these types of games will serve to make video gaming a more acceptable part of everyday life.

The final item isn’t something that the industry has to do anything about. The passage of time will help. When the older demographics in the country become people who grew up with exposure to video gaming, this industry won’t have nearly as much of a reputational issue to worry about. That is a long time to wait though. I hope that this segment serves as a rallying cry for the industry. An image improvement campaign only means more sales for all games.

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