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.