Party On!

A party is being arranged soon for my birthday. It's an impromptu event, mainly designed to break the ice with a lot of people who haven't seen each other for a while. My meticulous girlfriend and my cultured best friend have everything planned out to the last farewell - the aperitif, the intricate three-hours-to-work-out seating plan, even his own brand of light jazz playing in the background like some poor fifties movie. All I've got to do is organise the 30-minute icebreaker for the time until the guests have all arrived. I've got parlour games lying from here to infinity, small childrens games I could play and I still can't do it. The answer's got to be elsewhere, I told myself. So I'm off on a yellow brick road to discover the world of electronic party games. Feel free to skip along...
So the first stop has to be the epitome of party gaming - the party game. I sit down with my rental copy of Mario Party 4 and the necessary controllers. The slew of party games just won't stop. Wario Ware Inc. is a hilarious self-parody - the games are so short and simple they almost dissolve into nothingness at times. Mario Party 4 shares that feel. You leap around a boardgame like a sloth on tranquilizers, and when you occasionally do play a game it lasts for such a short period of time it's often hard to tell when it's begun. Party gaming is a tiny cocktail sausage wrapped up in a huge lump of far too salty bacon. It might be a good appetizer... but you won't put up with it for long.
Of course, at the other end of the scale I could improvise. Bring the guests in, set up the Playstation 2 and throw in a copy of Timesplitters 2. Just because it's viewed as serious gaming doesn't mean it can't be entertaining in quick bursts, right?
But as I sit with a friend debating whether to include the new sniper rifle or the double tommy-guns the truth dawns on me that no-one really cares about what they're playing - most people just wnat something to hammer away on for a bit. I'm not one for segregating gamer groups, but the average girl gamer won't be expecting to have to appreciate the finer points of spawn camping when arriving at a dinner party.
So what do you do? People want engaging entertainment, right? Something that they feel has a party atmosphere. But at the same time they want something worth doing... What is the missing link?
That in itself is almost a boardroom question. The problem with Japanese boardrooms creating products targeted at the West is that ineviatbly the word karaoke will rear its ugly head. A note to anyone who's looking for a good time with female friends - don't buy Singstar. Just move swiftly on to what, I later realised, is the only conclusion.
Eyetoy: Play is an inspired piece of technology. Not because 'it's, like, yourself in the TV! Man!', but because of the careful way everything is laid out. I set up the Eyetoy and switch on the 'Playroom' mode, selecting an effect and letting it run. As the guests file in, they barely notice the image of the room on the screen. Then one of them catches a glimpse of the psychedlic pattern made by their movements and waves their hand.
"What's this..." they say, but they seem too mesmerised to listen to my response.
Half an hour later and four of them are trying to wash windows as quickly as possible. The host is sitting looking quite disgruntled at the table with the dinner steaming near him. Of course, the only reason is because I beat him at Kung Foo. Better luck next time.
What is it, then, that makes the Eyetoy so brilliant? Once you've set it up you literally need to do nothing. Just setting it to blankly display whatever it sees garners enough interest from people - setting it up with mini ninjas attacking you or plate spinning with monkeys is just icing on a sweet cake. The Eyetoy is an ornament for people to admire, something you can have on whilst chatting or listening to music (dancing in front of it on some of the effect modes is particularly pretty). But it's also competitive and engaging if you've got the time. Put simply, switch it on and leave it on - your guests will do the rest even if they've never done anything like it before in their lives.
And lets face it, they probably won't have.

[Review] - Runescape

There's no such thing as a free lunch, they'll tell you. Everyone has to pay the piper sometime, they'll drone. But Jagex has fixed the bills and laid on a feast - Runescape is the finest piece of free gaming around!
We like games. It's a fact. People play games, either intentionally or not (see previous articles), and they do enjoy them. The essence of gaming for many people, however, is not the games but the culture it generates. Ironically, what was once the most anti-social hobby this side of the law has now become a source of social inspiration for many generations. In short - people play games because of other people. To meet, to play, to chat - games let them do all of this and more.
If socialising is why gamers play, then for many Runescape will be the only game they ever need.
The pitch is this - for free, you can join a huge MMORPG and walk, talk and progress in a huge, organic world. It's a grand aspiration, effectively removing the only barrier to the success of online gaming - namely the pricetag. After a short signing-up procedure and a painless tutorial (whose only annoyance is the number of other players), you're placed in Lumbridge and allowed to do whatever you choose.
And so stands both the greatest and the worst aspect of Runescape - freedom. There is no purpose whatsoever to your existence, save the occasional quest which seems to have no impact on... anything, really. So, although some may find solace in training as a woodcutter or learning the arts of magic, it will soon dawn on you that there isn't a way to complete the game, there is no story and there is no clear enemy. It's up to you to make a difference.
But don't get me wrong - that isn't a bad thing necessarily. The question is whether you want compulsive gaming or comfort food gaming. This isn't Diablo, and nor is it Final Fantasy XI. There isn't much of a guild. The graphics are a bit rough. But none of this should matter to you - because much like the real world it is what you make it. Take a boat ride and pick some bananas. You'll get given 30 gold pieces - completely worthless, but you feel like you've done something.
Or learn to cook and create an impromptu meals-on-wheels service for the new players. Anything you want to do, see if you can do it.
But when you've done it, you see... the only thing left to do is do it again. And again. And though the gameplay is oddly compelling, it is also irritatingly repetitive. Runescape suffers from the problem of Diablo, but unlike Diablo the repetitiveness seems less forgiveable.
At the end of the day, though, Runescape remains a free game, and a huge one at that. It's certainly one of the largest free gaming experiences on offer, and though it won't be to everyone's taste (certainly not if you're playing EVE online or anything similar), for many it will prove to be an amazing experience.
50,000 gamers can't be wrong...

www.runescape.com

What Is It Good For?

War is one of the fossil fuels of gaming, characterised by its ease of use, its ability to pollute a market and, most importantly, the fact that its soon going to run out.
Though war is one of the more hideous things in life it is, in effect, a game waiting to happen. A case in point is the recent slew of vietnam-based shooters. The focus that the war put on a single soldier lends itself well to games such as Battlefield: Vietnam but the desire of developers to apply any game template they thought would generate a profit has led to apalling results that will no doubt damage that era of entertainment resources for good.
However the story isn't always so bleak. The average gamer will have at least heard about, if not experienced, the moving experiences offered by World War II games, both old and new. World War II has been treated with the care and thought generally associated with game design of years (and platforms) gone by. As a result, the Omaha beach landings and the storming of Stalingrad will remain engraved in the annals of gaming history as some of the most influential set-piecing of the decade.
But it's getting old now. We've been fighting Nazis since Castle Wolfenstein, and the VC have been on our screens since Platoon. War doesn't go on forever, so what next? What happens when the shooting stops?
Though the temptation of some publishers and developers will no doubt be to milk the nearest fresh cow (and there's a lot out there, considering how long we've been fighting for - essentially forever), there are many other ways forward. After all, what made Medal Of Honour: Frontline so great? The bolt-loading rifles supplied tension. The graphical portrayal of wartime France is neatly spot on. But what really moved people are those moments which, to slip into a PR guise for a few moments, have 'the X-factor'.
Would Omaha have been the same if you were carrying a Railgun and had a spawn point on the beach? Would Stalingrad have benefitted from dumping you on a road and throwing enemies at you? These games excel, like Half-Life did, at giving you your part to play in a story and somehow not letting you escape it. If you don't make it to the beachhead you'll die. If you don't win Stalingrad the Germans will press on into your homeland.
But gamers don't need the leash any more. You split them into two teams, and give one team a beach and the other a transport ship and with the right interface you can let them create their own war stories. Battlefield is close to getting there, but the real master of this is Planetside.
Though it may look long in the tooth now, Planetside is the gaming format of the future for the FPS gamer. Sony Online Entertainment have given gamers a world and told them to fight for it. And fight they do. A quick perusal of a few fansites show that this kind of rich non-linearity leads to astonishing stories of real interest.
Now take that further - take that two years further when most of us will be running the kind of machines and consoles that are currently of our dreams. Instead of a island, give them an entire city... an entire country... living, breathing, waiting to be taken, garrisoned and sacrificed for.
Build the world, they say, and the gamers will come. Is it time to make war, not set pieces?

Hey, We're Popular Again!

Well what do you know? Gaming, it would seem, has just resurface as an entertainment source that people care about. We've had our squabbles with many things - law, society, bees - and yet finally people have realised how much we've grown into their lives.
What is a gamer? Well, its highly likely that the answer to that question it you. Because Gaming isn't a geek fetish any more. You don't need a bedroom, or a dark basement. You don't need madskillz or a disinclination towards personal hygeine. But you know what's confused the Mass Market the most? You don't need a console, you don't need a PC and now you don't even need to touch anything (to be fair, see also here).
Gaming is everywhere, like it or not. People bash away at Snake idly on their phones, they wave their hands madly at the TV screen with the Eyetoy, they click around their Spider Solitaire as aimlessly as if they were doodling on a Post-it Note. All of you - every single one of you. You are the New Age of gamers.
The Softcore gamers, those of you who probably have no idea who you are, need to wake up and smell the polygons. The gaming world is growing, expanding, and this post is just for you guys. Go forth and multi-play, as the awful product slogan went, and enjoy the games of today. Tomorrow, who knows? You didn't know you were playing on the train to work today. You probably won't know you're playing at work tomorrow. Enjoy what games have to offer, and don't be fooled by the world of the mass media.
Keep gaming, for tomorrow is all for the taking.

Next Week - Why It's Okay To Be 1337

...And In The Game!

There's shameless PR events out there, I know that. Hell, I've seen them. We all have - these astonishingly poor games that try to bribe you with, of all things, condoms (or worse). Even Silent Hill seaside-style rock was pushing it slightly.
But I Love Bees... that's something different. Not wishing to spoil any of the suprises which await you there (or on the affiliated blog), suffice to say it's a PR event like no other, blurring the line between being a game and a well-rounded experience like no other game has before.
It's made me start to wonder just how far PR for games can go. Some of you may remember that the Need For Speed PR events involved offering to pay for people's speeding tickets on the day of release... other companies tried to declare national holidays...
I Love Bees is beyond this. It's a game advertising a game. It's an experience worthy of everyone, even if they shan't be buying the game it's trying very hard to promote. I Love Bees, above all else, shows you just how much games are beginning to affect the world community.
No more needs to be said - go soak up the paranoid magic right now. Off you go. The Operator is waiting.