Newgrounds.com 'Problems Of The Future, Today!"

topic of the day: case for the digital game

welcome to another entry by your friendly neighbourhood gamer. today the topic is the digital game. and my example is crazy steven, a rather violent and gory game from newgrounds.com (my favourite haunt. it really IS very good for getting game examples).

so what's the core mechanic for this game involving a psychotic sword-wielding fireman who rides a flying magic donkey and goes on a killing spree? well, by conventional game genre standards, crazy steven would be considered a side-scroller, where there's the element of continuous motion and changing landscape (think like a cinema reel thing). not to mention the element of response time and reflexes.

and speaking of cinema reel style, that's one way someone would (try to) convert it into a board prototype. the only problem being that it would be SUPER-slow (if the minimum specs for crazy steven were pentium 5, then it MIGHT run at 386). and the fact is that the obstacles and targets are continuous. a bit hard to co-ordinate if you ask me. especially when you've got to collect some (like cash and timers), kill others (like people) and avoid the rest (like fallen trees and concrete blocks). all those aspects would make crazy steven a nightmare to prototype / simultate. and that's it i guess - the fact that you need the computer to do the processing at a reasonable speed in order to have the desired experience (especially when it comes to response time and reflexes).

then again maybe i should try a real life simulation to see how much the game is able to translate. the only problem is that now i need a sword, a fireman's uniform and a magic flying donkey.

p.s. the friendly neighbourhood gamer bears no responsibility whatsoever for any crazy fool who decides to undertake the suggestion mentioned above (assuming he / she can get his / her hands on a magic flying donkey of course).

p.p.s. this kinda goes back post title. except that the problem of a sword-wielding, pyschotic fireman riding his flying magic donkey and killing people is not a problem in the near future (i hope). not till someone can get donkeys to fly anyway.

Seriously speaking

yes. i have lots of catching up to do. lagging quite badly actually. but we'll get there. somehow.

topic of the day: you can't be serious...

today, our friendly neighbourhood gamer reports on serious games. what's that you say? serious games? isn't that a paradoxical situation?

but yes. seriously speaking... there ARE serious games out there. like 'the McDonalds game'. its basically a game where you take control of 'the evil corporation' that is McDonalds (if you don't believe me, check this out - proves that not just the creators of the McDonalds videogame have that sentiment).

so the game aims to 'educate' players about the fast-food industry (i put the inverted commas for the simple reason that throught the gameplay you can more or less deduce their intended message and views).

so does it pass the test of being a good game? not really. its more of a sim rather than an actual game i think. there isn't much of a win condition per se. the only goal you have is to not go broke. the fact that in attempting to do 'bad' things to increase your profits result in more negative effects, your options for gameplay are rather limited in that sense, even though you get to control the various aspects of running a fast-food corporation. most of the time when you play you're more into survival than maxing out profits. so the fact that it perpetually frustrates players (i had to experiment with it for hours before getting an 'equilibrium' situation) doesn't make for very good gameplay.

as a serious game (trying to spread a message / educate people), the message doesn't quite get across either. they don't explicitly tell you what they're trying to say (then again if they did then they could get sued by the golden arches). that's the problem with an implicit / indirect message - not everyone will get it. and that's why it will not really succeed as a serious game (the bad gameplay might actually turn players off before they can understand the intended message).

and with that, your friendly neighbourhood gamer gives the mcdonalds game 3 out of 5 stars for its success rate.