Since the beginning of video games we’ve simulated war. Almost every FPS game simulates war, and most MMOs such as World of Warcraft do so as well. Yet- few of them capture anything that’s remotely like war.
Some of this is that war is almost like a human emotion- and nearly impossible to capture and emulate on a computer. The fact that it isn’t cards like a game of Poker, but living and breathing human lives that act as the game pieces makes this so. It is very likely that we do not want to simulate war, because the real horrors would likely break most people. We don’t want games that cause PTSD.
Yet I think that many of the issues with war games being more like ’skirmish games’ can be fixed for a deeper and in-depth simulation and experience that we’ve ever had before.
War Scale Games
Wars aren’t 8 vs 8 battles on an even and well planned and balanced battlefield. The players need to be in the thousands. The maps aren’t the size of a house, or a city block. The maps are the size of a country or region. Yet- in an MMO manner you travel between areas using various other methods aside from walking.
War is Unbalanced
Few battles ever fought have had balanced teams, weapons, skills or terrain. It wasn’t that was in the time of the Greeks (think the 300), and it isn’t that way today in Afghanistan. Lets break the notion of balance. Not all weapons are equal. Not all sides are equal and sometimes- you’re going to lose.
War doesn’t Stop
War does not have 12 minute rounds. There is no ‘Max Score’ to be reached. You fight until either the goals change, you die, they die, or they retreat. War is persistent and so a game emulating war should be.
Ranks Aren’t determined via Headshots
Perhaps if you’re a sniper, there is some medal for clean headshots, but for the most part- military ranks aren’t like your rewards on XBox Live, or your ranks on Call of Duty. Medals are based on time served, accomplishments, valor, injury, risk and success. Ranks also in real life don’t just give you a better weapon. They give you command and responsibility for those below you.
War Carries Risk
In war, if you screw up- you die. Others die. There is consequence. Of course, we don’t want to actually kill the player, and permadeath or banning someone from the game if they die seems like a quick way to make a stale game.
Yet I think I have a solution that works to monetize the game, offer incentive and reward for doing well. ‘Lives’ in the game cost money. That’s right. You’ve got a central server, similar to World of Warcraft except that you get so many lives per month as per your subscription. You can purchase more if you like, but each life costs you say- $5USD. This prevents people from running into a room and going kamikaze. Perhaps the higher ranks you obtain the risk gets even higher and lives cost $10. If someone is in your battalion, you may even be liable for the lives of those around you to some smaller degree. Substitute death and/or emotional pain for currency.
War Requires Planning
How many times have you played a FPS ‘war’ game, yet you’ve had no discussion with teammates about what you will do, your goals or the overall plan? You just run forward and start shooting. Maybe two of you pair off, but that’s about it. War requires training, planning, strategy and tactics.
War has Many Roles
Games are slowly getting this one right. Not everyone in war has the same role. Of course, in real life they aren’t all balanced either. Rarely do they simply have different types of guns. In a firefight a medic can actually pick up the same weapon as a guard, or that the enemy might drop. There’s no artificial limitation on this. At the same time, knowledge for how to do something is massively important. Anyone can try driving a tank if they need to, but most people will screw it up and kill themselves and likely others. An Ultima Online style skill system could be helpful here, but you want to prevent people training/grinding in the wrong way that’s unrealistic.
In Closing
I think that FPS/MMO games have a long way to go in simulating war. Modern Warfare 2 certainly doesn’t do it, nor does World of Warcraft. Much of this is probably best implemented in a historical or fantasy medieval game. Post-Nuclear warfare is too worldwide and too complex for a first pass attempt.
Twitter, the CB-Radio of the internet, has become a follower numbers game for many. Everyone has to play a bit, but some people are living and breathing the game.
The end goal for many is to have more “Followers”, that is people that hear what you say, on Twitter. Having a larger number of followers gives to a degree more credibility, gives greater ability to spread ideas or products, and often overall makes you feel pretty good. Then again, some people just want to spam you with their company’s failed social media attempts.
At first, some tried following a ton of people, some upwards of 50,000, in hopes that 10-20% of those would follow them back, and would give them a strong following to spread their message. This started looking bad, and having a poor “ratio” often would be indicative of a spammer. This lead toward the faux pas of following too many people and having such a ratio or you too would be considered a spammer. Oh yea, and Twitter started banning them. This has been further reinforced by things like Hubspot’s Twitter Grader, which rewards people with a higher grader if they follow significantly less people than follow them (among other things). Keep in mind that at the end of the day this causes a pyramid scheme like stack, if the act of following/being followed is a currency, where the ‘top’ people have put the least into it but have gained the most, and the people at the bottom have put the most in but gained the least.
Now, new tools have been developed which have only perpetuated this game. When Twitter was young curating 10,000 people that you’ve followed and seeing if they had followed you back was tedious. Now with something like Twitter Karma you can quickly look at everyone following you, and all of the people that you follow and check for reciprocation of the follow. However, another tool is helping alert people of this activity: Qwitter.
Qwitter lets you see who has unfollowed you. At first this might seem useless, or vain but its neat to notice and catch people who are trying to game the system. Everyone at first says, “Oh, no one unfollows me, all of my followers love me and what I say.” They soon find that isn’t true.
Here’s the new game I’ve noticed: Since having much worse than a 1:1 Follower:Friend ratio on Twitter is looked down on and often prevents people from following them back (making the problem even worse), the spammers and spam-like people follow a bunch of people, maybe 200, and then wait two days. They then use something like Twitter Karma and unfollow anyone that hasn’t followed them back. They then have a perfect ratio again! They rinse and repeat, following another large groups of people. If you’re using Qwitter you can catch them. Not that you can do anything about it, asides from maybe contribute to some Twitter Blacklist (well, that one is close now but whatever) but at least it makes you feel good that you didn’t follow them back.
There’s many downsides to this numbers game however. Some of us like a large stream of information. I honestly wish I was following 2-3x as many people as I’m following now, just so at 2am the conversation would still be flowing around me. Its not overwhelming as long as you’re using a good client that supports groups like TweetDeck. I hope that people follow me back, and I like having a healthy and engaged following, yet I don’t want to tip the social norms and be seen as a spammer. Twitter already banned my account once mistaking me for a spammer and I’d prefer to not have such allegations or mistakes made again.
Also, keep in mind that this turns it into a game- not a conversation. Conversations aren’t numbers. People aren’t numbers. Having a ‘killer ratio’ doesn’t matter. People who are only following back 100 people, but having 75,000 people following them aren’t engaged in the conversation (I’m looking at you Kevin Rose). They are there for their own celebrity. People who play the follow/unfollow/spam game on Twitter aren’t in the conversation with you either. Don’t follow them back, and don’t worry when they unfollow you. They don’t care what you have to say, only that you listen to them.
What do you think of the numbers game that Twitter has become for many? Are there any rules you play by? Are there any rules you break?
I have just recently purchased an Xbox 360. I had owned Grand Theft Auto IV from when it came out and I bought it for betahouse, so I didn’t have many games. After seeing it showed off at GamerDNA a bit, I wanted to buy Braid.
Braid is a platform-like puzzle game, but to call it a platformer is like calling Myst an FPS. It does have side-scrolling action, and many of the creatures in the game take a serious nod to Mario Bros, and it works the phrase, “I’m sorry but the princess is in another castle” into the storyline quite well.
Braid is a time-manipulation puzzle game. Every map has a unique challenge, and an excessively unique solution. In some levels you can simply rewind time to correct your mistakes, in other levels some items react to you rewinding time but others do not, in other levels a shadow version of yourself completes actions that you had done prior to rewinding time. Overall it is simple, elegent, and mindblowing.
Braid is currently exclusively for Xbox360, although I see no reason that asides from licensing that it couldn’t hit the Wii, PS3 or PC in time. It isn’t excessively graphically demanding, although it is beautiful. The musical score is great, and the music plays off of your time manipulation. In one level there is the sound of a music box playing. As you walk left and right the music box goes forward and backwards.
Braid is only $15 on the xbox DLC. Some have complained of its high price compared to other DLC offerings. All I can say is that its well worth it. Braid and Geometry Wars 2 are the winners right now on the DLC and well worth their combined $35.
So this leaves us that Braid is likly the best puzzle game of the past 15 years. Myst was the one before that which totally blew my mind with its complexity, graphics and puzzle skills. Much of the puzzle genre is represented by casual games that don’t have any depth or brain power involved.
What is interesting, is that this game isn’t based on high powered hardware. Honestly, this is the game that Super Mario Bros, (or at least Super Mario World) could have been. We could have had this 20 years ago. Its like the Wikipedia in a way, in that it wasn’t the technology holding us back from having the product but simply the fact that it hadn’t been done yet.
Here is a video review that I found of the game and highlights aspects of its gameplay rather well:
The other day I purchased GTA: IV for betahouse. I figured it would be a good change from Rockband since we’ve gotten several noise complaints from the neighbor and it’s a game that’s practically impossible to play quietly. I picked it up at Radioshack of all places for $60, but it came with a $10 gift card which I’m using on electronics parts (maybe some blue and green LEDs later).
I bought the Xbox 360 version, as that’s what we have at betahouse. I’d really like to get a Playstation 3 myself, although the news that the Xboxes will soon have Bluray players does make them tempting. I personally just want to play Metal Gear Solid 4, GTA: IV, and Gran Turismo 5 however, so it looks like I’ll be on a PS3 soon enough.
Took it into the office, fired up the projector, turned on the sound system. This game is jawdropping. The shadows are the best I have ever seen in a game. The characters don’t look “real” as some screenshots of MSG:4 are looking, but they are really enjoyable to watch. Turn on sub-titles as they are a must since they have heavy accents for most of the game.
The driving is better, but much more difficult than in prior games. The missions so far have been ok, but nothing amazing. Overall I think I just enjoy the world.
A few things that they have done to the game. No longer are there vast expanses of wilderness and farms. It’s all NYC! No empty random spaces. They did a great job at modeling the city. It feels much more vibrant. At the same time, a few things feel a bit less interactive than before, but they really did take out some of the random tedious things that you had to do in prior games. I’m only around 8% through it, but so far this is looking to be one of the best games ever.
