A Farcical Tragedy Told Through Facebook Status Updates

Tension Between Free Speech and Realpolitik on Wikipedia

NYTimes article on the suppression of information on a Wikipedia page neatly encapsulates a dilemma of democratic nations at war. A cornerstone of a free society is an unfettered press, serving the public's right to know; on the other hand, global politics is a dangerous game that sometimes requires sleight of hand and control of information.

Twitter as a Tool of Mob Rule

I wasn't at the keynote at SXSW because I suspected that Zuckerman would not be a very interesting interview. He's well-known placidly toeing the Facebook company line. Apparently, I was wrong -- not about Zuckerman, who certainly didn't disappoint my expectations, but about the combination of Zuckerman and his interviewer Sarah Lacey. Many people who were at the keynote called it a "disaster" and a "train wreck."

Looking at video coverage of it, it doesn't really seem that bad, to me. But my friends say "you had to be there."

Why?

Well, I think this has to do with mob psychology, a phenomenon that tries to explain how mass movements happen, how otherwise reasonable, kind people can whip themselves up into a frenzy of ecstasy or rage.

When I was a history student at UC Berkeley, this phenomenon utterly fascinated me, and I tried to understand, form a historical perspective, how and why it happened, trying to piece together the data that set up situations like this. In both Japan and France (the two areas of enduring interest for me throughout my academic career) there were famous instances of mobs gone insane -- mobs of otherwise ordinary and decent citizens pulling people out of their homes to beat them, cut off their body parts, and parade them around the city. Outsiders (people who watched from their windows, for example) were utterly horrified; but those who participated were swept along by mob logic, if one can call it "logic" at all.

I don't believe that any of us are immune to the pressure of group action. And now I think we see from the Zuckerman keynote that technology creates its own special place where mob psychology can flourish. Those of us who have spent any time on forums already know this to be the case. But applications like Twitter can produce instant results, in real time. From Tim Leberecht's astute commentary on the incident:

Twittering (on Twitter and elsewhere) pushed people to act out; it accelerated interruption. People who did not like the way the interview was going had assurance that the crowd was with them; and it intensified those feelings. In traditional passive audience situations, for every person who acts out, the ratio of those who wanted to but didn't, is probably much higher. Instead, because people knew that not only the people sitting next to them, but also those in all four corners of the room had the same gripes--or pointed out new ones--many people acted out. As Lacy said, what we got was "Digg-style mob-rule." Essentially: Twittering lowers the threshold for lash-out.

Interesting. Tim goes on the suggest that the interview could have been saved if the interviewer had been following what was going on in the room; of course, in the olden days performers had direct feedback form the crowd's energy through other means -- body language, attention paid, in more extreme cases, applause or boos or other vocal signs of approbation/disapproval. I suppose now all those reactions are sublimated and streamed through the ether. One much tap into that to get a sense of where the mob is headed...

Haunted by War

Stories like this make me so sad. Soldiers serve in the war when they're still so young, they experience horrible things, and then they fall apart, and fall through the cracks. This man may not even get help if he's court-martialed for desertion.

Social Media Making Us Less Social?

There's an interesting article by Christine Rosen in The New Atlantic pointed out to me by my old high school buddy Ben Bloch who is now an artist and teacher. Oh, the stories I could tell of 17-year-old Ben! This one time, he hosted a post-prom party at his house, and... ah, sorry, that falls under the rubric that everything done before 18 is permanently sealed in childhood.

Back to the matter at hand: Rosen cites studies and anecdotal evidence that seems to suggest that this explosion of socializing media is actually making us less social in physical incarnations:

The few studies that have emerged do not inspire confidence. Researcher Rob Nyland at Brigham Young University recently surveyed 184 users of social networking sites and found that heavy users “feel less socially involved with the community around them.” He also found that “as individuals use social networking more for entertainment, their level of social involvement decreases.” Another recent study conducted by communications professor Qingwen Dong and colleagues at the University of the Pacific found that “those who engaged in romantic communication over MySpace tend to have low levels of both emotional intelligence and self-esteem.”

Um... being a self-described addict of Facebook and of World of Warcraft I have to wonder about this and really look inside myself. And also to wonder what Danah Boyd, who studies social networks and environments, would make of this. She's been an advocate of these spaces in the past, as places for self-expression and connection.

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Gabe Grows Up By Acting Childish

In this case, "childish" is not pejorative. Maybe it never should be. Mike "Gabe" Krahulik has a great post on Penny-Arcade about rediscovering the joy of gaming by entering a Pokemon tournament, and seeing his min-maxing play style through the eyes of kids who are differently emotionally invested in their pokemon. Like a Scrooge, Mike also sees a reflection of the douchebag he could have been in an overly aggressive, boastful kid.

Anyway, it's a charming vignette and I love how it ends. It's wonderful to think that Pokemon is teaching kids to be gracious winners and losers, to appreciate the journey more than the destination, and to really revel in what the best of games can do - bring joy. These kids sound like they are acting way more civilized than most people twice their age who frequent Xbox Live.

Which leads me to thinking - are there games that seem to draw out better behavior than others? Are there games which, by intrisic design principles, bring out and encourage courtesy and consideration for others without forcing it on players as just another stat to max out? How would one design a game to encourage this?

In the case of Pokemon, it seems that the behavior is linked to the values exhibited in the TV show, where Ash and friends are always good guys, even when they lose. Sure, Ash can be a bit of a whiner sometimes, and he's immature, but he's got the sense of justice and honor that one sometimes finds in kids - a simple sense of doing the right thing, not yet corrupted by the world. Something to think about, anyway.

Thanks, Phil!

Game Journalism is not the Only Journalism that Sucks We all complain about how bad game journalism is (and always point to to a handful of the usual suspects as exceptions) but maybe that's just because we actually know about and care about the industry. A friend of mine (who shall remain anonymous!) forwarded me this story yesterday: Japan's lonely hearts turn to dolls for sex, company.

My first thought was, how the hell can you write this story and not mention the very famous RealDoll, which is an American product?

Because either the writer didn't know about them - which indicates a lack of simple Googling - or, more likely, because the story is better if it's cast as "Look how weird/sad/lonely/perverted Japanese man are - aren't we glad we're not like that?" In which case it may have been the editor who excised the writer's sentences about RealDoll. I guess "Some Men Like Sex Dolls" is not much of a story.

Gross. MORE...

Tipping in Favor of Girl Power

This week, several things cropped up on the radar which collectively suggest some sort of tipping point. Or, I suppose, more likely that the point has tipped and we are starting to see the effects.

The first announcements were released in conjunction with the event, Casual Connect. Sony Online announced the relaunch of Station.com, a portal for the casual experience of games, including access to trials of Sony's MMOs. Nickelodean announced plans to spend $100 million over the next two years on casual games and virtual worlds. Oh, and did I mention that casual games are still dominated by female players?

Gamasutra didn't pick it up, but this week also saw the news that Barbie Girls, a virtual world aimed at, you might guess, preteen girls, experienced astonishingly explosive growth, reaching 3 million users in sixty days.

And you thought WoW was popular.

Then in recent game announcements, Ubisoft released details on a new series of games specifically for girls. The Imagine series include aspirational games based on professions, like fashion designer, veternarian, and figure skater. There's also a virtual baby doll with Imagine Babyz. Throw in Imagine Equestrienne and I'm so there.

Speaking of things equine, Atari is coming out with a horse-riding simulation game, My Horse and Me. The language in the official PR is carefully gender-neutral, speaking very coolly of the "Horse-enthusiast community", but you cannot convince me that in North America, at least, this game is not targeted specifically at horse-crazy girls between the ages of seven and fourteen. Which is to say, nearly all girls.

You may also have read that the PS3 has finally sold 1 million units in Japan eight months after launch. It took the Wii six weeks to reach the same milestone. Why? In part because flocks of non gamers (many of them women) bought a console, some, I've no doubt, for the first time in their lives.

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Rock Stars of Videogames

I was flying home from the weekend in LA (where I didn't really go to E3, just sampled the afterparty and saw some friends) when I found myself next to Chris Hecker, whom I hadn't seen in a long time. We got to talking about why there are still very few recognizable names and faces in the videogame industry. He reminded me of the famous ad announcing the founding of EA, headlined, "Can Computers Make You Cry?"

Well, we're still struggling to answer that question, but take a look at the photo on the right - the founding members of a company that ambitiously and grandiosely called itself Electronic Arts. A name that defies the Eberts who don't see the art in computer and video games. And the photo itself says unequivocally, "Not only are computer games art, we are artists."

It looks like it could be a publicity shot for a moody rock band. The photographer has captured real personality here, individuals - dressed in dark clothes and seemingly passionately united under the aegis of a single goal.

With a few notable exceptions (you know who they are - Will Wright, Shigeru Miyamoto) - the industry has turned away from personalizing game development, from regarding the people who work on games as individually important. No, far better for a studio like EA to let the public see the studio behind the franchise rather than a handful of creative geniuses. The franchise is longer-lived that way, the studio system more stable.

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Videogames Cure Cancer

Well, at least one does - a game called Re-Mission, designed to help young cancer patients combat their disease. From CIGNA.

Story here, with videos.

Alter Ego

I want to get this book Alter Ego- photographs of avatars and the people who play them.

See the slideshow (with audio).

Sports DO Cause Violence

The aftermath of the Manchester United versus Roma game is just the latest soccer-related incident that shows a clear correlation between sports matches and violence.

And yet no one is seriously calling for a ban on football. Why not? Well, for one thing the fans would throw a riot that makes this event look like an Easter egg hunt; and second, because society recognizes that sports have a value that is greater than the unfortunate incidents of violence that sometimes follow in the wake of games. We need to educate society that video games, too, have outstanding value for us as a culture, as a society, as a people, that far outweigh the isolated acts of violence that may or may not be tied to playing them.

The question is, how do we do that?

Wii Communitii Sites Two separate people emailed me this week to tell me about web projects they'd built recently to facilitate the trading of Wii numbers with friends and potential friends. What's interesting to me most, of course, is how the community of gamers has responded to the need to share Wii information.

There's the cutely named Wiipals which mostly seems to be a forum, but also generates a code to share your Wii number on Myspace. A bit...simplistic.

Then there's Sharewiis.com, a pretty sweet community site that also lets people trade DS numbers. Alex Chang, the site's creator, explains:

I just finished my hobby website sharewiis.com --a place where wii players can share their Wii codes, DS friend codes, etc. without the annoyance of ads and with powerful search tool to pinpoint active users that will most likely exchange codes with you.

I just got fed up with the archaically inefficient forum/comment-on-a-blog method, and then the in-your-face popup ads on other exchange sites, etc. You never know easily on a forum/blog comment who has added you who hasn't. So i created this simple but comprehensive web site to allow friend code sharing. ...

my site wasn't designed to supplant valuable forum communities or blogs, but rather supplement it with an easier way of sharing codes for forum users and blog readers.

So get out there and find some miis to play with!

In a Family Way

The old gang at Gamepro are rolling out something called GameProFamily, which is aimed at educating parents about the games they might be buying for their kids. Through the framework of a fictional family - a Dad, a Mom, and a kid of indeterminate age - various games are discussed and rated with a traffic light.

I agree with Simon when he writes on GameSetWatch that the idea of helping parent around ESRB ratings and popular titles is a good one; but like him I trip up over the fictional family metaphor as clunky and peculiar.

And the kid - this is maybe the most odd. What exactly is he (and he is clearly a he - another potential problem)supposed to represent? If there is a kid at all, shouldn't there be more of a dialogue between the three? Maybe Mom and Dad should actually directly address the points the kid brings up.

Wes Nihei, who writes the "Dad" perspective, is of course a long-time gamer and game writer, as well as a father. Does it matter that the writer who writes for "Mom" apparently doesn't play games? Other than that it reinforces the stereotype that women don't play games (by the way, why can't you see her eyes in the icon that represents her? Dad and kid have open, smiley faces while mom's looks more like sullen tramp than happy mom) I don't think it's important that one of the parents doesn't play games. Lots of parents have to feel empowered to make decisions about what games their kids play without playing the games, too.

Well, the site is still in Beta; it's a good idea, maybe it just needs some refining?

Games for Health Competition

Serious games - games that seek to do more than entertain - are something I've been interested in since I met Ben Sawyer many years ago at a GDC and he introduced the concept to me. I've been too distracted by commercial and mainstream games to pay it the attention it deserves, but I agree with the philosophy of serious games - that the medium can be used to make the world a better place.

And now may be a time to jump in. Games for Health is sponsoring a contest for a variety of categories, all related to making an interactive experience that will further the cause of health and medical education.

Can Trauma Center be considered? :D.

And Speaking of Alchoholics...

The View from the Top or, how I lost my life to World of Warcraft.

Betty Ford for Gamers

The BBC reports that another has opened in the Netherlands. From the article:

"I lived in my room. I have 4 televisions around me, with one X-Box 360, PlayStation 2, X-Box 1 and a Game Cube and a lap-top, where I can play online games," said Tim, a 21 year old who has received treatment at the clinic.
Tim played games for up to 17 hours a day.
"I have no social life, I have no friends - only cyber-friends"

There's no doubt that much of what the "language of videogames", as popularized recently by David Jaffe's blog post earlier, feeds the compulsiveness of gamers. Games reward you for being OCD, for playing long hours, for repetitive behavior. But again I protest the idea that "cyberfriends" are somehow not "real". I'm not sure that meetings in the flesh make friendships and relationships more meaningful. In fact I'm sure they don't. That's not to say that a cyber-relationship is the same as a physical one, because I think they're very different. But we all have many different kinds of friendships, all of which are valuable, some of which happen nearly entirely online.

So, people probably shouldn't play games for 36 hours straight; but I say they should feel free to count their fellow-gamer compatriots as friends, as real as anyone.

A Break In The Silence: Narnia Game Divine?

A blogger on another games blog (rhymes with Joystick) did by direct association label the Chronicles of Narnia movie tie-in title a Christian game. I disagree without the least hint of concession. Not only do we have a game twice removed, based on a movie based on children's fantasy stories, but although the use of Christian theme and symbolism certainly exists in C.S. Lewis's Narnia tales these are not "Christian stories" per se.

But the game. I've heard good things about it. It reviewed well. Almost surely it's a title appropriate for a wide range of ages, especially children. Why in the world does it need to be stuck into a Christian pigeonhole? It's apparently exactly the kind of game for people who want some sort of wholesome gaming diversion for their kids. Why is it so important that Narnia, the game and the movie and the novels, be knocked into the Christian category, unless it is merely to market to a demographic perceived as under served by the video game and film industries? And why is it so important to a large swath of Christians that the entirety of Narniadom belong to what amounts to a very narrow view of Christianity -- a view C.S. Lewis himself would have been unlikely to support?

Why?

Things I Never Thought I'd Hear Myself Say

I was talking with my friend OrangeDeca from the Laundry Sessions blog the other day about our careers.

"This'll be the third game I'll have designed for at EA," I said, "and I still have yet to do a direct sequel."

This is true. While all the games I have worked on have been parts of franchises, they've all been entirely new types of games for Electronic Arts. For example, my last shipped title was Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, and while it was the third Rings game published by EA, it was the first roleplaying game we've ever tried to develop internally. Now I'm working on The Godfather, which is the first living world game we've ever tried to make. It's even a new franchise for us.

"Trying to make a new type of game for the studio is really hard," I said, "Everything is touch and go; the engine and tools are being built in parallel with the gameplay; it's almost impossible to do any experimentation or prototyping." Then I said, "I kinda wish I could try doing a derrivative sequel, just so I could see what it's like. Is all the instability of working on a totally new thing really worth the higher cool-factor for doing something that hasn't been done before?"

If a tiny wormhole had opened up right in front of me, and the words carried through to my days as a graduate student, I would have flipped out. But I don't think that my curiosity for the development culture of the derrivative sequel is entirely born of laziness.

The first generation of any line of things, videogames, cars, or whatever is always the most problematic. The requirements that the thing work properly and do its intended job (in my case, "be fun") consume most of the time that would otherwise be spent exploring new variations, or taking things to the proverbial next level. Look at the evolution of my favorite EA series, SSX. The first game really is a racing game, but by SSX 3 the racing has taken a back seat to performing tricks, which is much more appealing to me personally from a gameplay perspective. Most people, I think, don't want to just make something that works, they want to make something that shines. But both tasks are so monumental, it's extremely difficult to do both at the same time. In a sequel, developers really get the chance to go deep into a concept and expose new strata of detail that can really take you to a new place.

Which is better: to start from nothing and make something, or to start from something and make something impressive? I suppose, working where I do, it may only be a matter of time until I get to try the latter. As a designer, I now find that I do not make this observation with trepidation, but anticipation.

Power Fantasy

The other day, a good friend of mine had her bag stolen while we were hanging out in a bar we visit regularly. It was completely random, and nobody saw who did it, but it still made me seethe for not being more observant of my surroundings. I was sitting right next to her, facing the exit even. I should have seen something, but I didn't.

Something like this happens, you feel so stupid and helpless. In my mind I turn back the clock. Reload my last save. Restart my current mission. I watch her chair out of the corner of my eye, and when the thief slips by, grab the offending wrist and say something rugged and melodramatic like, "I don't think that goes with your jacket." Possibly follow through with a punch in the nose. Not sure.

In any case, beating the crap out of purse-snatchers in Spider-Man 2 has never been so fulfilling.

Close to Home

So, as I've said many times before, I work as a game designer for Electronic Arts, where I recently helped put the finishing touches on The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, which was perhaps comperable to a lonely ocean voyage.

Aye, 'twas a long crunch in deed, a six-month r'more. Many a grizzled industry veteran remarked that it were likely the most brutal they'd ever witnessed. But if'n it were hard on us, we who were born with games' salt water in our veins, then it were the very rock of Sisyphus to our loved ones back home. So gather 'round, oh ye wild-eyed young'ins who rush to bed each night in a-hopes of dreams of game development. Gather 'round and ye shall learn the sad tale of one such spouse-o'-a-developer.

From the description of the crunch, I'd say that this was probably the spouse of somebody who worked on TTA. Also, be sure to read the comments. More fun stuff in there, too. The only correction I can make, if this truly is about the development of TTA, is that I believe most of us did actually get some down time afterwards: 2 weeks, plus any PTO you felt like spending. The rest is accurate in my understanding.

In reading this, I suddenly remembered an exchange from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol

"Mr Scrooge!" said Bob; "I'll give you Mr Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast!"

"The Founder of the Feast indeed!" cried Mrs Cratchit, reddening. "I wish I had him here. I'd give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and I hope he'd have a good appetite for it."

God bless us, every one.

UPDATE: Here's another one from a former Maxis employee. He posts under his real name, but, of course, is subject to the bitter-ex-employee argument.

MORE UPDATE: Another EA Spouse chimes in.

EVEN MORE UPDATE: Another former EA employee talks about management solutions.

32-1? That was a hockey match?

There's nothing like watching your opponent rack up children's league basketball scores in a hockey match to put you in your place. Based upon six months of fairly in-depth experience with Xbox Live I've isolated three things about networked gaming I believe to be true.

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Wholly Matrimony

Slate has an interesting piece on the growing presence of gay characters in videogames, emphasizing that both the D&D-ish game The Temple of Elemental Evil and the upcoming The Sims 2 include gay marriage. The article ponders whether the same-sex Sims will cause a ruckus, given the relatively mainstream nature of the game. "What happens when little Johnny wants to have his boy Sim marry the neighbor's son?" the author asks, then answers, "Not much, I bet," because videogame creators aren't branded by the L word (no, not lesbian) the way the film and TV industries are.

But more to the point, I think, is that the allowance of gay marriage in Sims 2 will really be a minor change in the game play. In the first Sims and all its expansions, characters could already flirt, form households, and even adopt babies with characters of the same gender. Without making a to-do about it (or even mentioning it in the user's guides), The Sims was sanctioning civil unions.

As The Sims 2 will likely show, gay marriage is different from a civil union only in nomenclature, recognition, and how much more it makes prudes and politicians sweat. On the other hand, that recognition is clearly a big deal; and, in the real world, there's also the matter of legal and financial benefits. That's why so many of us stamp our feet and make grumbly, Sim-waking-up-too-early sounds when people say they don't want to discriminate against gays but won't support gay marriage.

In Sims 2, will same-sex marriage get us extra Simoleans? Don't know. But the game should show that gay marriage can be as fulfilling and often unglamorous as het marriage. Excluding the ultra-insecure, I think most gamers will dig gay marriage, for the simple reason that it opens up new play options, new stories, new possibilities.

And if the new Sim creator tool is up to snuff, I can finally compensate for a change in another game, SSX 3, which wrote out the character I crushed on most in SSX Tricky. A little avatar adjusting and, presto: Brodi, welcome to Sim City. Go find yourself a husband.

Dearest used N-Gage owner...

This is a mostly personal, blog-style complaint so pass over if you're looking for substance (but, Clockwork my friend, it is game related).

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I'm Not a Socialist, I Swear: power and respect in the game industry

Jason Rubin's call to arms at the DICE conference last weekend has gotten mention at several gaming sites, but I thought I'd open the discussion here. Rubin wants to see publishers market the developers behind a game, both the studios and the individuals, along with the game itself. This harkens back to the early days of third-party developers, when Activision and Electronic Arts would put developer bios, like you'd find on the back inside flap of a hardcover book, in their manuals or on their boxes. It also might remind some of us of the heady days when John Romero promised to "make you his bitch" with Daikatana. Most places around the internet look at Rubin's talk and ponder the place celebrity should play in the game industry. I, however, believe there is a deeper issue here.

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Côte d'Ivoire Charge d'Affairs, call your agent.

We all get them: e-mails based on an original concept, the Nigerian 419 scam, formerly a post scheme called after the statute number of Nigerian law that makes them a crime. Typically, the contents have lots to do with you sending them a substantial chunk of change -- or the routing codes and numbers for your accounts -- to help them semi-licitly spirit a large sum of money out of their government's bank accounts and a rather small bit to do with the scads of money -- usually in the millions, US dollars -- they will send you after the money is safely tucked away in the Cayman Islands.

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The Postman To The Rescue

No, not Kevin Costner. This has nothing much to do with the typical G+G=A fare, so I'll keep it brief:

The Department of Homeland (In)Security is considering a plan to have postal route carriers deliver antibiotics to residences and workplaces in the event of a "catastrophic biological event" (I think we can take this to mean a successful bio-terror incident). What does this mean? This means there is at least one smart individual with one good idea -- awash in a sea of dullards floating miserable strategies -- in the American terror-response bureaucracy. The US Postal Service is, and has been, a shining beacon of efficient execution in American federal institutions. Way back when, "back in the day" as you kids say, when Ross Perot offered to, for a fee, overhaul the US Postal Service, I declared, Good God! Don't let that man anywhere near the post office. There's nothing wrong with the Postal Service.

What I want to know is who this son of a bitch is. Let's make him, or her, president. Hell, let's make him God.

Pushing My Buttons

by Kyle Hebert, guest contributor

Console gaming is big business. In November alone Sony sold over a million consoles.  That said, surely most Americans have, at some point in their life, wielded a control pad and with  joysticks and a few brightly colored buttons guided a plumber, fox, soldier through digitized terrain. Why is it then that movies and television shows can’t get it right when depicting a character playing a video game?

We’ve all seen it before: players with one thumb repeatedly mashing buttons while the other twirls the joystick mindlessly. If their machinations are to be believed then the best way to enjoy whatever game they’re playing is to watch as the character jumps around in a circle.

Some games have production values and costs on par with big budget movies. The least movies and television could do is correctly portray the industry that is nipping at its heels.

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Kill Me 'Cause It's Saturday

I was going to do a bit of not thinking this weekend. It is, after all, Super Bowl weekend in the States, and what better 48-hour period to eschew both introspective and extrospective rumination, opting instead for the triplet vices of carbohydrates, saturated fats and American sports spectacle. Unfortunately, however, I had one of those chain-reaction moments Thursday night while watching about 15 minutes of the television program CSI -- not TV snobbery; I really did watch but 15 minutes. One of the principal characters -- a forensic pathologist or microbiologist, some sort of academic type judging by the chin-stroking way he speaks -- quoted Sigmund Freud, "The only abnormal sex is no sex. Everything else is just a matter of time and preference." (Or something like that. Via cursory research, I can fairly attribute the first sentence to Freud; the second sentence is highly suspect, but it's the first sentence that is essential for my purpose.)

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Hiking In The DMZ

I thought that some GGA readers might find interesting a recent public spectacle on MacRumors, a site, as the moniker boldly suggests, dedicated to news and rumors about Apple's Mac platform and the company's peripheral products and services, as well as the technologies behind these items. A news item discussion about Xbox 2 and possible 65 nanometer process IBM microprocessors or some such double-E nonsense -- apologies to EE track students and professionals; you people are a cut above, really -- quickly devolved into a console wars thread replete with thinly veiled, censor-evading expletives in the vein of "Xbox is sh**!" and "GameCube is for p**sies!"

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Local man dances, awaits revolution

Today I started an internship at Electronic Arts, the world's largest game company, but before that I found myself faced with a long weekend where I had moved in to my apartment, but had no obligations. To put it another way, I was facing a three-day battle with boredom. From my small arsenal of distractions I pulled Doug Pray's excellent documentary, Scratch, about the history and culture of DJs within hip-hop.

Well, me being myself and all, I got to thinking about hip-hop and videogames. Then today, I was talking to some co-workers over lunch and one of them mentioned that EAs games are getting pushed now by MTV types as part of "the lifestyle." He marveled at how games had moved up in social acceptability (something we've discussed a few times here) to get to that point.

Now personally, I didn't see such a problem. The elements of hip-hop: DJ, MC, B-boy/girl, and Graffitti each require their own kind of geekiness (normal people don't pour through record shops for hours looking for a good 30-second break somewhere in a record, for example). So, other than probably being too invested in their own geekdom to have time for gaming, there really isn't so much of a disconnect.

What this got me thinking about then was did videogaming have much in common with hip-hop besides geekiness and being common targets for the blame for society's woes? Something beyond Parappa and Frequency? Does "gamer culture" have values? There are some companies out there trying to sell "gamer culture" but what does that mean other than playing games? Penny Arcade's recent toy drive, calling for people who consider themselves "gamers" to donate toys or money to help sick children in an effort to show that "gamers" are good-hearted folk, suggests that there is at least a little internal desire to explicitly create a gamer cultural identity, rather than simply rely on outsiders to classify and describe as they choose. Are there others out there?

Now I think I'm going to go price a set of turntables on ebay.

Fun with Joysticks

Nick Catucci's a young writer who went though the NYU journalism school and worked his way through several positions at New York's venerable Village Voice (former home, incidentally, of Julian Dibbell, too). They gave him a column and basically said, "Do want you want with this."

If it's not yet on your radar, his column Joysticks should be. He's previously reviewed music and films - infamously, porn films. So his take on games is not so technical, but more experiential - treating them more like cultural products than like virtual toys. He often places games into larger socio-political contexts, noting for example how a game like Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon "actually gives one an idea of the depths of our entanglements around the world."

He still does the rating thing, which is something I hope smart game reviews will drop one day, but hey, nobody's perfect.

Gamers and Goths

As many of you already know, White Wolf is suing Sony over its new Underworld movie for copyright infringement, claiming that Underworld's characters, theme and setting are based on White Wolf’s Vampire: The Masquerade® and Werewolf: The Apocalypse™ roleplaying game series. While the lawsuit itself is rather ridiculous, it did make me think about the intersection of goth culture and gaming.

During the Austin Game Conference last week, I went with some friends to the Elysium Nightclub to see the Crüxshadows perform. I had never been to a goth concert before but I had nothing better to do and was desperate for entertainment. Surprisingly, I rather enjoyed it and will mostly likely be attending their next show in SF. Upon entering the club, I was immediately impressed by the amount of games they had. In addition to the pool tables you would expect in most bars, there were two pinball tables (with the suitably gothy themes of Dracula and the Adams Family) and a whole section devoted to classic arcade games (which were not noticeably gothy at all unless you consider Joust somewhat intimidating). Who knew gaming was so prevalent in the goth scene?

After a little digging around, I was able to find official Sims skins for the Crüxshadows' lead singer and a full featured Underworld Half-life Mod. Anyone else know of other examples of goth gaming?

Cultural Differences in Game Design

Game conferences are a tantalizing place to study cultural difference. With designers and publishers from around the world, you can get a sense of what games are popular in each country. Often there are panels proposing to compare regional markets - the difference between France and Germany, or between Asia and North America.

But I'm fascinated by the smaller nuances, not RTS versus RPG so much as violence, sex, gender, or language. These differences become clear when a major AAA game title is translated for multiple international markets; usually blood or profanity is excised as the game crosses an ocean

Arguably, there isn't much of a science to this, or else there would be more reading material online. Jason Della Rocca explores the few traceable specifics in Cultural Game Design on Reality Panic.

The Junior Gamer Speaks, And All Must Listen.

(pssst... it's not a good idea in any situation to take me seriously. just so you know. no getting mad when the goofball opens her mouth.)

So. This isn't really a Becoming: Gamer installment - consider it my first nitpick in the world of Gamer, rather. I think I deserve one after two weeks. :P

Let's just say I've got the game situation under control. I gave Harry Potter to my brother, who told me to buy it in the first place, and I've confiscated the family copy of Pokemon Ruby. Sure, an 8 year old could play it, but it's a format I'm familiar with, and, more importantly, it involves no jumping. NO jumping. Yay.

I still don't believe that you have to be good at jumping or the like to be a gamer. If that's true, then I ought to quit right now. But I don't think it is. A few of you commented in the affirmative - you, like me, believe that not all games are about pixelated jumping. That's nice to hear. But I discovered this past week that most games that are jump-free or sport-free seem to fall under the category of, well, "Role-Playing". And that, in fact, even Pokemon is considered a role-playing game.

Role-playing. I don't think so.

Look, I may be a geek, but that is NOT my bag, baby. I am very happy in this particular set of bones and skin, and when I do pretend to be someone else, I stick to stages full of lights and people bringing me pretty things in my dressing rooms. And I know that not all geeks role-play.

Here's my argument. Aren't all games role-playing? I mean, you're obviously not in the game yourself - you're controlling something or someone. Will the new Matrix game be considered a role-playing game? I mean, does it make it less of a role-play depending on how many things you shoot or stuff you jump over?

Is the label Role-Playing just slapped onto games that seem to fit in no other category? That is, games that we uneducated few can play without confusion or fear? Yes, mortal fear. Shut up.

I don't know. Help me out, guys. I'm confused.

Becoming: Gamer - Part Deux

I have taken my first glimpse of Planet Gamer, my friends, and I may never be the same.

So. After making this mildly insane declaration, I was bound and determined to stick to my promise. When The Man saw fit to hand over a paycheck on Thursday, I knew exactly what I was going to do with it. That's right, baby. SP.

Being intimidated by Gamespot and the like at the current time, I figured I'd just pop over to Toys R' Us and spend, spend, spend. I marched in, grabbed my new toy in the humongous plastic casing complete with infrared detecting and global positioning system, and plonked it down on the checkout counter.

"Just that," I tell the 16 year old guy behind the counter with his red polo shirt buttoned all the way to his neck in high fashion style.

"Do you want any batteries with this?" he squeaks, setting off my Harry Potter Puberty Detector.

I'm in too good of a mood to really make fun of him, so I just beam and say, "The Game Boy SP has a lithium battery already installed. No batteries for me."

"Really?" Hm. Why didn't he know that? Isn't he supposed to be a game expert or something?

"Yes. Incidentally, do you have any headphone adapters for the SP in stock?"

"What headphone adapters?" O-kay. Obviously, this guy knows NOTHING about games. I can't believe how much more I know, and I don't even play them. I've gotten all pissy now, so I shove my money at him and storm out. The nerve of some stores.

I get the thing home, plug it in to charge while I spend three miserable hours at my brother's Little League game, and come home all ready to go. I unplug it, click it on, and hold it three inches from my face, allowing the gorgeous backlighting to frame my face in a Holy Mary, Mother of God sort of style. All is good.

Until I realize that I somehow neglected to buy any games.

MORE...

"Down with the Sims!", etc.

Pretty nice AP story on social protests in online games. The article quotes Raph Koster as saying, "If someone started walking around in the San Diego Zoo screaming profanity or handing out Nazi leaflets, the park would remove them form the premises. We need to be able to do that also." Hm, interesting extremist observation from Mr. Declaration of Players' Rights. Sounds like he's firmly inside the party line, to be sure. An interesting development in online gaming, because of course it means people can meet and gather without having to travel real distances. The possibility for a global meeting, global protest and communication, in fact. But who, besides the guys the run the servers, is going to care? One reason that real-life protests are effective is their obvious visibility to non-protesters. So the efficacy of protesting a war online seems limited at best. But if your aim is the complain about the game, in game is surely one way to make the server owners take notice - although they might simply kick you off.

Star-crossed Romance

A while ago I found a treasure trove of newsgroups run by young women and teenagers who wrote romantic/erotic fan fiction about boy bands starring themselves and their friends. It was fun to watch the fiction flex to include newcomers and their requests ("Oh, I want to be Ashley's best friend! And I have red hair, and green eyes, and my favorite color is blue. Can you write me in?") This was, I thought, a different kind of MUD, and almost 100% female in population.

I started searching for similar phenomena and can across this delightful fan fic starring Lance Bass of *NSync and the notorious Eminem. The set up is delicious, and there are extremely amusing touches which lend an air of playfulness to the story. I love that whenever Eminem gets pissed off he runs himself a bubble bath, or that Chris and Joey are portrayed as the only non-gay members of *NSync (well, duh).

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Video Games Tech used as Research Tool

The NYTimes reports that psychology researchers studying "hidden bias" found that subjects were much more likely to "shoot" African-American figures than Caucasian figures in a test situation facilitated by a video-game-like interface. Do you have hidden bias? You can try a test yourself.

Game Researchers

A useful resource for people studying electronic entertainment:a list of game researchers. Included are summaries of their specific research subjects, as well as links to their web pages and web projects. This is a good chance to see the field of game scholarship emerging, developing. The rest of the site is a bit out of date though, so this list might also be out of date. Either way it's reassuring to see thinking and analysis proliferate!

internet cafes: the new smoking.

Friday October 11, 9:46 PM

China bars minors from Web cafes

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has barred minors from going into Internet cafes, issuing new rules on Friday to govern the shops hugely popular for video games and Web services, but blamed by state media for poisoning the minds of urban youth.

The regulations, reported by the official Xinhua news agency, came four months after a fire at a Beijing cyber café killed 25 people -- mostly students -- locked inside and shocked the nation's leaders.

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Gaymers

A gay gamers community portal has just been launched. It's pretty nice.

[via little yellow different]

addiction or arrogance?

CNN.com/WORLD
Jet man jailed for playing Tetris

LONDON, England -- A newlywed man has been jailed for four months after playing a game of Tetris on his mobile phone during the flight back from his
honeymoon. Full story here.

i found this pretty amusing. and a four month sentence is so wonderfully, numerically fitting for the crime of playing tetris...

Diary of a Mad Programmer

A clever fellow named Adrian O'Grady has modified his GBA to be a web server and has written a development diary about it. Fascinating, inventive - useful?

I guess this was reported on Slashdot a few months ago but I hadn't seen it. And it's worth thinking about again as a direction that games technology might be moving in. Integrated games and communications devices, hand-held and versatile.

Nostalgia

Saturday I went to the California Extreme classic coin-op and pinball arcade games expo. For $25 bucks you could spend 12 hours playing any of the games available - provided they still worked. Some were for sale; others were emphatically NOT for sale. I didn't see a single game there made after 1992. There was a beautiful Discs of Tron game, and several fragile-looking mechanical games. But it all made me a little sad. Because arcades are a dying phenomenon. And shows like the California Extreme Expo are more like museums, these days - full of dusty memories.

I wonder, will we feel the same way about consoles in ten years? Already I feel a sad nostalgia for the Dreamcast. Does it belong in a museum?

NYT reports concern over kids in cyber cafes

PC Rooms: Rated M for Mockery (new york times link, registration required).

Oh, those evil cyber cafes, teaching war games to our children. At least the U.S. Army should be happy.

Broad Generalizations

Hey:

1) games are fun, except when they suck

2) most gamers are male because the males scare the females away from gaming (through rude behaviour mostly)

3) In general, the more comples a game you're talking about, the nerdier the gamer attracted to it.

There, that's a nice controversial first post