Tag: Computerspil

UK gamers dissected

The grandfather of Public Service broadcasting, the BBC, just published an impressive report surveying the habits, preferences, demographics etc. of UK gamers.

It contains bundles of well-presented facts. Like:
– Young age and chance of being a gamer correlate positively (not surprising)
– 48% of respondents were “heavy” gamers i.e. they play at least once a week and up to daily, whereas only 7% are “medium” and 4% are light. This seems to indicate that if you play then you are likely to play more than a little (it also indicates, of course, that the categories might not be entirely intuitive)
– Gender has extremely limited influence on frequency of playing
– 6-10 year olds “prefer” the PC as a platform (over individual consoles etc.) while for other age groups the PS2 takes over (although I’m not entirely sure how”Preferred device” is measured here)

Also, the report sums up interesting findings on genre preferences and gender:

Simulations and MMOGs perform equally well with males and females, while RPGs and Strategy fare only marginally better with males. Females then show strong approval for Music/Dance, Puzzles/Board/Quiz, and
Classic games. Males show strong approval for Action-Adventure, Racing, Sports, and First Person Shooters. Simulations and MMOGs seem to be key to attracting audiences of both genders equally: Sports and Shooting category games generally hold the lowest appeal for females, although it should be noted that this doesn’t mean they have no appeal: 12% of females play First Person Shooters.

Via BoingBoing

Know a game like this?

There is a scene in Babe – The Gallant Pig where the pig protagonist is informed of a password which may be used to entice sheep to give crucial help in terms of dire need.
Okay, this introduction is going the wrong way, so just forget it.

My problem is this. I’m looking for an example of a game where:

– One player does not fully know what the other player can do or where one player does not know the other player’s goal (i.e. what he wants to do)

AND

– The players are not informed of all choices made by the other(s).

An example of not knowing the other player’s goal would be the secret missions handed out before a Risk game begins. An example of not being informed of the actions of the other player would be being unable to see the other player’s section of the gamespace (as in Civilization, Age of Empires etc.).

Is there such a game?

Vivid metaphor

Sure, everyone’s ranting about the sad state of game journalism. But good researchers like to take one step back and rant about the ranting. Superb ones, it follows, talk about others who rant about ranting. Here’s what Bryan-Mitchell Young wrote:

"Complaining about horrible videogame journalism is like complaining about someone staining the couch cushion when the couch is sitting in the middle of a garbage dump. It may be accurate and a valid complaint, but it is kind of missing the point."

And I just thought that was pretty funny.   

History of soccer rules

Kasper wisely informed me that soccer tournament rules regarding points awarded (to defeat, draw, and victory) were revised some 20 years ago creating stronger incentives for aggressive play (3 points for victory instead of 2). That’s a wonderful example, which certainly managed to make the thesis section I’m writing on game sum types even more confusing.

But does anyone have a reference to this rule change? Someone know a good history of soccer rules? Or a few more details to help me google? 

Update (July 2006): Ah! I got it. With the help of resident soccer sage Olli Sotamaa. It’s all here.

More fun

Check out Wired’s Game Year in Review: 2010 . The game biz does sort of lend itself to satire.

"As for the current generation of video games, the big news was the long-awaited release of Grand Theft Auto: West Bloodbath. Gamers were appalled by the violence, specifically the wussiness of it. "Wait," they said. "I’m still limited to shooting, beating or running over hookers? Kill Death Die Hurt Maim let me chop off their fingers one by one while they begged for mercy, their cheap eyeliner merging with their tears and darkening the pools of blood at their feet. Are you sure Mario isn’t in this wimpfest?""

Reluctantly interactive stacking game a success with parents’ groups

Take-Two’s "Stacker" wins the acclaim of parents’ groups: "A demo version of Stacker was unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show in September and garnered praise from parents’ groups who lauded its unstimulating visuals, utter lack of storyline, and non-immersive game play."

Developers promise that "We’re confident that the new ‘reluctantly interactive’ content engine we designed will prevent any excitement or emotional involvement, inappropriate or otherwise, on the part of the player."

Now, why is that so funny?

The Onion has the full story. 

Long time, no siege

Dread is a large word, but I had anticipated the arrival of AoE III with some worry. Hearing strategy game developers of the game to replace my favourite AoE II discuss how they had spent a year getting the water just right tends to inspire such feelings. We’d all heard about fancy 3D stuff, the Havok engine etc. while discussions of improved – or even changed – gameplay had been few and far between.

Having played the game a bit it now seems that gameplay changes are indeed modest (which means that AoE II skills transfer almost directly). Most importantly micromanagement has been almost eliminated. Not only do villagers not need to build and rebuild farms, they now do not have to carry the resources anywhere at all which means you can collect resources without worrying about your vils travelling a long way. Less strategy involved, of course, but all in all a pretty good thing it seems to me. The game continues the tradition (known from Age of Mythology but not from previous AoE games) of having certain designated spaces on the map which support particular buildings giving particular advantages. I didn’t like this aspect of Age of Mythology but in AoE III it seems to have been downplayed although it’s still a feature which shapes the conflict to some extent (largely a bad thing, but it does speed up the game somewhat).

Officially, the Great New Feature is the “home city”, which is meant to be a source of identification (the city can level up which is novel at least) and which holds your deck of cards. Yep, the whole deck of cards idea seems far-fetched but appears to be less of a nuisance than one might think.

Which brings me, in a classical non sequitur, to the player matching system. And here, finally, real change is apparent. Oh yes, it’s still fairly counter-intuitive and rather poorly explained, but it seems to combine virtues from the matching system of AoE II and AoM in a way which actually works. I know it sounds improbable but it’s now possible to actually go online and start a game within minutes – unheard of in AoE II (where, oftentimes, you couldn’t start a game at all). In the end this change, completely outside the “core” game which you usually see described in reviews and such may turn out to be the most important one by far.

And what I meant to say: Let me know if you’re up for battle in the new world.

[post-entry rant: The game is extremely buggy. Sound shuts down, the update crashes the game etc. but that’s just too ridiculous to even mention – particularly being a Microsoft game which supposedly can speak to Windows and has been tested to some extent.]

Girl worry

I think it’s pretty fascinating how certain memes and myths regarding gaming travel around the globe, die out for a while only to respawn briefly or more massively.
Used to be that a lot of people would express worry that gaming gave boys an advantage since it would introduce them to computers. And girls, not playing (much), would be left behind. But this was mostly an early-to-mid 90s meme, since after that gaming generally didn’t rely on much general computer skill.
I hadn’t heard this type of argument for years but the other day Jyllands-Posten claimed that “Online games give boys a number of skills that are wanted in business. Girls miss this development”. In the article professor Birgitte Holm Sørensen argues that schools must see to it that girls achieve the necessary skills. Forced WoW play during recess? Girls taken aside for Counter-Strike classes? My daughter‘s schooling may turn out very differently from my own.