The Homgenization of Video Games

There used to be a simple way to characterize videogames, back when games were simple enough that they could only do a couple of things. More and more though, the gaming elements that work are being amalgamated and placed into one overarching genre that encapsulates everything.

I don't think that taking the successful game types and pooling them together are bad, but sometimes they can cloud the experience. The current tendency of first person shooters to upgrade weapons, for instance, takes away from the joy of finding a new death machine.

The first games I remember that successfully blended elements from multiple genres were Super Metroid and Castlevania. Successfully infusing RPG elements with action/adventure gaming breathed a little fresh air into two series that had started to grow a little stale.

It seems natural for games to evolve into new types over time. The limitations of games used to set the rules, but now their potential is so huge that the designers ultimately control the game type. The all encompassing nature of current games does leave me a little apprehensive as to what comes next. As fun as a virtual life simulator sounds, I'm still working on perfecting the real thing.
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CementShoes 2141 feedbacks » • PermalinkPermalink

Web Games that Help Beat the Clock

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We all know that office work is just as much about milking minutes off the clock as it is about anything else. The best way I've found to shave off the 15 minutes til your next break are web games.

There are a few things that are important to consider when playing games at work.

First: The game should be relatively stress-free. After all you don't want to scream "FUCK!" in a crowded office after your commando jumps into a fiery pit.

Second: The game must be easily abandoned. This is less important if your boss doesn't use or know about tabs in Firefox. For most purposes though, it's important not to get wrapped up in anything that takes more than 10 minutes.

Third: The mouse should be the primary controller. Anything that requires an E-Honda like mashing of the mouse buttons is a dead give away, as no office programs take advantage of this skill. Also you won't have to make the incriminating grab for your mouse when Lumberg rounds the corner

Finally: The game should be non-offensive. This is purely a just in case kind of measure. Getting caught, "Stealing company time" is bad enough, but it's even worse if the game's objective is to decapitate big breasted women while they fuck horses.

Here are five web games that fit this criteria and will help your day suck a little less.

5. Attack of the Buggles

http://www.casualcollective.com/games/AotB/

Most of the games on www.casualcollective.com are just a little too involved for wasting office time. But, this game in particular is covert enough not to raise any eyebrows. Simply use the mouse to move your buggle over the squares, while avoiding the new buggles that spawn when you do. The blocks start out at 10 points each, but are worth less the longer you wait. Beware though, the game makes a loud roar when you load it so it's best to mute your sound before playing

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4. Totem Destroyer

http://armorgames.com/files/games/totem-destroyer-1871.swf

Save the golden idol from falling to the ground by removing one block at a time from the tower upon which it sits. The game starts out slow, but the physics of dropping the idol become more complicated as the towers start to wobble when you remove key blocks.

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3. Bowman 2

http://www.addictinggames.com/D78AQSAKQLQWI9/2817.swf

A throw back to playing gorillas in DOS. Determine the angle and velocity with which to send your arrow flying towards your opponent. Several other modes mix up the gameplay a bit, but the goal is always the same; skewer something with an arrow.

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2. The Eyeballing Game

http://www.woodgears.ca/eyeball

Recently discovered, this game tests your ability to correctly transform shapes/lines. A bit shallow, but the fun is in improving your score.

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1. Dinorun

http://www.pixeljam.com/dinorun/

An Atari lookalike, this game oozes 8-bit cool. Run to the right, away from the armageddon gaining on your heels, while hitching rides from birds and collecting eggs and bones. With several different levels, and a boat load of achievements, the game is fairly deep. However, each level takes only a few minutes to complete. The game requires only 3 buttons to play, freeing up your other hand to quickly exit if need be.

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Good luck, with the games and your mind numbing job.

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CementShoes 7915 feedbacks » • PermalinkPermalink

StarCraft: The Original Life Killer

StarCraft was the only game that ever stole my soul. I remember making the uncool decision of staying home and idling on a battle.net chat room instead of being a nuisance to the retailers at the mall. I remember faking sick for three days, the height of my method acting skills, in order to get keke'd at by some other 15 year old kid that had convinced himself that he was Korean. I remember being scolded countless times for starting up a new game after promising I was finishing up. More than that though, I remember having some of the best gameplay experiences ever while playing StarCraft.

Starcraft's single biggest achievement was making the most balanced video game of all time, while not sacrificing the unique style play that each race offered.

The Zerg's plight generally concerned unit production and expansion. The hatchery, which has the dual role of resource collection and unit production, makes the Zerg's main focus much easier. Whereas often Terran and Protoss players have one giant center for production, you'll often see a Zerg player with 5 different bases surrounding their enemies. The best Zerg players are masters of macromanagement and unit pumping.

The Terran race is arguably the most difficult to play. While they may seem the weakest race on the surface it is the power of the tank and the SCV which makes them formidable opponents. Two well placed tanks behind a supply depot wall can hold back an attack of many times its size. And as cliche as it sounds, the Terrans best offense is their defensive prowess, using tanks to keep the enemy penned in their base. This strategy requires a great deal of micromanagement. Paying attention to managing units critical to your survival often leaves the Terran player with hundreds of extra resources that they frantically spend upon realizing their mistake.

Protoss gameplay is kind of like a mix between the two others. However their strengths are not as defined by their race, but rather by the race posed against them. Mass producing dragoons is essentially suicide against a Zerg opponent, and yet par for the course against the Terran. The protoss got the best of Brood War with two units that are efficient, and often necessary in certain situations. A fully populated Protoss army is probably more powerful than either Terran or Zerg, but they also have the most expensive and slowest producing units.

These unique styles of gameplay would never have been as successful as they were however, if it weren't for Blizzard's incredible fan service. Now up to patch 1.15, they have been tweaking this game for balance for almost 10 years now. After patch 1.07 came out it introduced one of the best updates ever given to a game, the replay. Sites like battlereports.com used to be the only way to get insight into the strategies of pro players. The introduction of replays essentially evolved the battle report from a sports column type story to an exhibition game on ESPN.

Blizzard's online game manager Battle.net allowed you to insulate or expose yourself as much as you wanted to from the online gaming experience. The IRC style system was user friendly enough that a 12 year old could master it in a day.

If there's one area RTS genre games suffer it's their learning curve. Every minute that you spend living your life, some asshole is out there cutting microseconds off of his zergling rush. It's completely possible to meet a player, play with them 50 times, and never once beat them. StarCraft is not a forgiving game, but it is a rewarding one.

There is a potentially huge audience awaiting the arrival of StarCraft 2. If Blizzard does as well with it as they have with everything else in the past then I'm sure we'll be just as engrossed with it as we were with StarCraft, the original life killer.

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CementShoes 13829 feedbacks » • PermalinkPermalink

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