Tag Archives: game culture

Sometimes…things just get way out of hand!

11 October 2006

Leave a comment

I absolutely adored the WoW South Park episode! There was just too much laughter in that episode and so many things to pick up on! I even had to smile at the GTA style carjacking by Stan’s dad, but this, however does not make it into the wiki on the episode! Oh yeah! That’s right! They’ve got it all! The inconsistencies, the goofs, the ‘who has what’ armour!

Well…at least all the facts are recorded! But jeez! Talk about information overflow!!

“Trailers for this episode show Stan and Kyle in what appears t be the Undercity, right after Kenny is killed. In the airing of the show, they were in Goldshire”

Oh…I was wrong…the carjacking is listed!

Although…comments like “Crushing an enemy’s head into a bloody pulp as depicted in the final fight is impossible in the game” can be useful to worried parents? If they’re too frightened to ask their children, they can always look it up in Wikipedia?

Basshunter strikes again

25 September 2006

Leave a comment

This time it’s a song about gaming. Pretty much singing that they’re sitting there in ‘venten’ (which I think is an abreviation for ventrilo) and playing a little computer games (interesting to think that the direct translation would be ‘playing data)!

Update: Oops! I was wrong! He’s actually singing about playing DotA – Defense of the Ancients.

It’s, you know, something to blog about without having to write too much;)! Interesting, at least!

Thanks, i1277!

News Games

8 August 2006

Leave a comment

So there’s two new News Games (I guess that’s what we’re calling them now) out, that just claw viciously at my definition of game.
Either way, they weren’t very enjoyable for me and I’m saddened that anyone would! I suppose this is why the word ‘fun’ isn’t a requisite in any formal definition of game. Nasral is…well…just filled with some really nasty connotations! Which I suppose has all the qualities to properly be defined as a game, just my lack of fun while playing it. But fun is a point of view, isn’t it? I mean, I don’t have fun playing car racing games either (hmm…should brush up on my Koster). So I guess it’s a perfect example of how games can ‘mean’ something, and I’m not just talking narrative here, we’re talking real Bogostian theory! And then there’s this one with Google maps – impossible to gain points, which I guess is the point! Gruesome!
(via Guardian Games Blog via WaterCoolerGames)

Western vs. Eastern gamers!

28 July 2006

Leave a comment

This just desserved to be blogged about and not just del.icio.us’ed! Aleks at Guardian’s gameblog has posted a great piece about the ‘Cultural Differences in Gameland’. It focuses a lot about the differences between Eastern and Western gamers. She mentions a hell of a lot I didn’t know about. Like the fact that we don’t get so much ‘gore’ because of Germany’s strict rules. And there’s an excellent quote from Ren discussing Prof Rischard Nisbett’s findings:

“Another point that Nisbett makes is that Westerners tend to assume
linearity but Asians assume circularity. For example he gave in a recent
interview was a stable set of circumstances a Westerner will tend to think that
this signified a trend and that things will continue in the same fashion but an
Asian will tend to think that it is indicative of the potential for change and
ultimate return to some pre-existing state.”

Well that explains a whole bunch to me! The whole article is interesting! You truely should have a look!!!

re: Your Brains

27 June 2006

Leave a comment

I just adore this!!!! This is exactly what Web 2.0 (or…? the correct terminology eludes me)is about, if you ask me!! Jonathan Coulton is a New York musician who releases a song a week on his blog, under a Creative Commons license – and this guy, Mike Spiff has created a WoW Machinima from one of these songs – and ofcourse it’s available on YouTube!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!! I LOVE IT!!! I LOVE IT!!!

McDonalds Interactive

9 June 2006

Leave a comment

I’m not completely certain of what to make of this. But there’s been a UK Serious Games event (link not working as I’m writing this – EXTREMELY annoying) and among the participants have been Nokia, BP and McDonalds Interactive – that turns out to be a hoax, which to be honest infuriorated me to begin with. I’m a believer of serious games and I didn’t like anyone taking the piss out of the event. But after further review, I have to say that I’m overwhelmingly impressed and I also can’t think of a better way to actually promote Serious Games.

Andrew Shimery-Wolf (ehm…), Director of McDonalds’s Interactive gave a presentation which he entitled “The Most Serious Game”. And I truely believe the clue lies in one of his opening remarks about what McDonalds was doing to improve:

“…we undertook to become a more visibly responsible company, and adopted a platform of Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR – just like Nokia and BP, who are also represented at this conference.
Much as Nokia have pledged not to exploit Far East workers, and BP are exploring alternative fuels, so we responded to various critics by looking “beyond beef” on our menus, trying new packaging, and even experimenting with environment-friendly refrigeration.” (links added by me)

So he ends up presenting a game which was a simulation of the fast-food marketplace.

“This is the game that resulted. Players adopt the avatar of a fast-food company, and make business decisions in highly accelerated time. The game calculates the effects of those decisions on the overall market, collates them with other players’ decisions and rewards the best players with profits.”

Continue reading →

Christian Games

4 June 2006

Leave a comment

Greg Howson at Guardian Games Blog reported on The Bible Game earlier this week – and my initial thought was “Well ofcourse! The Bible must have plenty of great gaming scenarios in it! Why the hell not?!” – but ofcourse this was a quiz game which seems blah and boring.

So I couldn’t help having a good chuckle this morning when I read Ian Hardy’s “Spiritual challenge for gamers”. There’s so many weird utterenses in this article I just couldn’t let it pass by without commenting! The most reasonable comment:

“Troy Lyndon of Left Behind Games said: “There is warfare, the Bible is full of warfare, so are all the other great games that are on the market.””

Too right! He’s commenting on a new game they’re releasing called Eternal Forces which is “an action packed story set in a New York landscape where soldiers take on demons”. But then I start to chuckle:

“There’s no blood and a no cursing rule – curse and your energy level drops.”

Umh…oh there’s just so much to say about this sentence. Firstly, I’ve never really understood the moral dilemma of having the visualisation of blood, surely the issue is ‘the killing’. But I’m no expert on what corrupts children and I honestly don’t care if there’s blood or not, I’ve just never understood what the big deal is. And then there’s the cursing. He he! Seriously? Is there some form of monitor keeping track of the words coming out of the kids’ mouth while play? And if it’s an online game with communication channels – I’m so sorry to break it to you – but kids are way too smart to let censorship stop them from using unfavourable words. But you know, thinking about it – it’s a great marketing line! I’m sure parents will feel so much more comfortable buying a computer game that has “NO CURSING ALLOWED” in big red letters on the cover!
The rest of the article is kinda bizarre if you ask me. There’s something about how the Christian game developers can learn from the Christian music and movie industry and the examples mentioned are Gospel Music, Passion of the Christ and The Da Vinci Code (really?). But I also had a little – huh? moment with the last sentences:

“A Christian video game typically costs about $1m (£530,000) to produce, about five times less than a video game aimed at the mass market”

Huh?!!! Why is it cheaper to produce a Christian computer game? I don’t understand. Someone please explain this to me!! Is it because the developers are volunteers hoping to spread the word of God? Or is there some special funding involved when you call yourself a Christian organisation?