Anti War Games?

There are great anti war films which leave you with the feeling "never again". But how about games? In all ego shooters I know disabling enemies (by killing them) is the core element and therefore has to be fun. Otherwise the game would not be played and bought. So can anti war games (even ego shooter ones) work?

Yesterday I wrote about a leaked U.S. military video closely resembling the level "Death From Above" from Call of Duty 4.

There is another game the leaked video reminded me of: It is the free flash game September 12th by newsgaming. In this game you can also bring death from above, in this case to "insurgent looking" as well as unarmed inhabitants of a middle eastern town. But every time you kill a civilian, others gather to moan him and turn into insurgent themselves. The indirect controls are designed so you can't only kill the gunners - so the longer you play the higher rises the rate of insurgents.

Coming back to the question "can anti war games work"? September 12th is anti war, but is it a game? You can't win or loose. It is more an interactive caricature than a game.

September 12th is not fun to play - similar to an anti war movie which is usually not fun to watch. Big budged anti war movies can be commercially sucessfull in a free market, but I don't see that happening for big budged anti war games.

I have heard a project to make an anti war (or a least war critic) ego shooter. I am thrilled to find out how it will achieve being anti war while being fun to play.

Virtual and real deaths

Wikileaks released a U.S. Military video showing the killing of 16 civilians including two Reuters Photographers. Please note that the video is very disturbing and graphic (link). Why I write on it here? It looks and sounds VERY similar to the Call of Duty level "Death From Above" (game play video) which made it even more disturbing for me. I thought about why that might be the case.

I think the reason is that I felt guilty that I enjoyed playing the level. Back then I already had a bad feeling noticing the cold blooded commentaries and the unrealistic easy distinction between "good" and "bad" fighters as well as neutral civilians. But playing the level still was great fun. And that I felt that fun makes me feel sick now.

It might be interesting to use both videos when discussing media usage with young adults.

Interview on mobile storytelling

"Spielwiese" is a new format on the German On-3-Radio on innovative digital media. For their second episode they interviewed me about the topic mobile storytelling.

During the interview we played a mission created by teenagers during my latest media education project at the Multikulturellen Jugendzentrum (more about the project).

You can listen to the episode online (its in German).
To play the file either use this direct link or do it the propper way by

1. clicking here
2. and then scrolling down to "Komm spiel mit uns" and pressing "play" there

The interview is between 29:20 and 35:40.

They also released filmed footage of the interview. But there is not much info in there. Just us playing GPS Mission and occasionally cracking bad jokes.

Amanita Design does it again with "Machinarium"

We at Neodelight were big fans of Samorost by Amanita Design and happy we could feature it on neodelight.com.

So I was excited about their latest game "Machinarium". And I can say I really, really enjoyed playing it. Can't remember feeling so moved by a game as during the last screens, when I had freed the robot girlfriend, knowing it would be over soon.

Kudos to for making the game so challenging (riddles) and accessible (one button design, included walk through, Flash) at the same time.

From what I hear sales of Machinarium here in Germany seem to be pretty good. It makes me very happy that Amanita therefore does not only get the critical reception they deserve.

If you are interested in the creation of Machinarium check out Machinarium Deconstructed or this little interview.

Amanita also did a little serious game for BBC called "Questionaut". Feels good :-).

So guys, keep up the great work! You are an inspiration to many others out there.

Mobile Storytelling

Did you ever stumble on the term "Mobile Storytelling"? It basically refers to storytelling technology that incorporates awareness of locative, spatial and contextual factors in mobile interactive environments. GPS Mission, which I use in my latest project, is an app you can use for mobile storytelling.

If you are interested in the topic www.mobilestorytelling.net offers a comprehensive resource for all things (apps, companies...) connected to it.

Mr. X Mobile

Have you played the classic boardgame Scotland Yard/Mr. X.

A mobile game version is in development by the University of Bonn.

For more info (mostly in German) check out: http://qeevee.com/projects/misterx

The game sounds promising, hope I can test it soon.

Creating geotainment with teenagers

At the moment I am working on a pretty exciting project which I got funded by the City of Munich. Based on free www.gps-mission.com. I am enabling educationally disadvantaged teenagers to create, review and play geotainment.

During the two day course two groups of teenagers first scout the area to come up with riddles based on their surroundings. With these each group creates a "GPS Mission"which the other group tests and reviews.

We also discuss basics of game design and storytelling. Goal is not to have bare riddles but to decide on a story which link the places and objectives together. Nice examples groups came up with till now are a suspense secret agent story and a voyage to Harry Potters Hogwarts (with a Bus Stop standing for Platform Nine and Three Quarters).

The kids love that they can use an iPhone to play the mission and are very motivated. The geotainment aspects makes it easier for the kids to be creative as we are working not only in virtual but also real space and they can basically "touch" the riddles. One challenging aspect of the concept is that I only have a limited amount of iPhones and therefore don't have a smart phone per kid. In a week I will try the project with 5 kids per iPhone which I think is the upper limit.

I would like to thank some people who helped to get the project to where it is now:

• Mobile learning expert Chris Nash with whom I had an inspiring discussion in London
• Marike Schlattmann from Lern-welten is working with me on the project.
• and last but not least the City of Munich and Netzwerk Inter@ktiv which are open for innovative media education projects.

"Silver Gaming" in Germany

Videogames are more and more becoming a regular medium. Like older mediums (books, TV) they are increasingly being used by a variety of people (across gender and age barriers) for various different means (e.g. entertainment, learning). As part of this process different specialized markets emerge (this was one of the topics of my diploma thesis).

On the 25th of January 2010 the first congress about gamers exceeding the age of 50 took place in Germany. As project manager for the conference I was very happy we hit a nerve with the topic which we labelled "Silver Gaming" (we were sold out :-) . The next conference will most likely be taking place end of April in Nuremberg.

I especially liked the presentation by Nintendo. They mentioned the pressure of the strong ageing in Japan as a main reason for the development of alternative input methods for their consoles.

Other presentations included:

• Roland Weiniger (SpieleGilde (GamesGuild) Games Industry Association): Serious Games - A huge growth area for the cultural industry.
• Prof. Dr. Karl-Werner Jäger (Committee of Standard Practice (ANP) in DIN registered association (e.V)): Standard framework for the development and organization of user interfaces of interactive systems and games
• Guido Hunke (A.GE Bodensee agency for generational marketing, Ravensburg) and others: Games in the senior and generational marketing area
• Hermann Beißer (Head of the Käthe-Reichert-Nursing Home Workers' Welfare Association (AWO) Nuremberg): Video games in assisted living and nursing homes
• Prof. Dr. Helmut Herold, Prof. Ethelbert Hörmann, (Ohm-University Nuremberg): genesis – “nuts and bolts “ promotion/advancement with computer games

A first summary of the findings of the congress in German can be found in this press release. A more detailed documentation will be released on the website of the congress in the future.

If you are interested in the topic but Nuremberg is to far, you can meet many of the participants of the conference in the Xing (~German LinkedIn) Silver Gaming group.

Pädi 2009 winners announced

The winners of the 2009 "Pädi" - the pedagogic interactive award - were announced. The Website www.kindernetz.de/minitz won the award in gold in the kids category, "Line Rider - Freestyle" for teenagers.
Other winners include "Rhythm Paradise", "Maus DS - Der mausgeflippte Denkspaß" and "Professor Layton and the Curious Village".

I was happy to be part of the "Pädi Expert Team" which took part in the decision making process of the award. There will be an award ceremony on November 12th 14-16 in the Munich Gasteig/Carl-Orff-Saal with approx. 600 guests.

More info on the award (in German)

Der pädagogische Interaktiv-Preis - bundesweit einzigartig in seiner Konzeption – basiert im Unterschied zu vielen anderen Preisen, die entweder auf die künstlerische Komponente, die technischen Details oder die curricularen Lerninhalte Bezug nehmen, zu einem wesentlichen Teil auf praktischen Erfahrungen im Einsatz der multimedialen Produkte.

Mit dem Pädi werden Lern- und Spielprogramme pädagogisch bewertet, die Kinder und Jugendliche in ihrer Freizeit nutzen.

Der Pädi ist einerseits eine Orientierungshilfe im schier undurchdringlichen Dschungel der online- und offline-Angebote für die Heranwachsenden und andererseits eine Auszeichnung für die Hersteller von pädagogisch wertvollen Multimedia-Produkten. Er ist ein Ansporn für ihre Bemühungen, sinnvolle Produkte für Kinder und Jugendliche anzubieten und damit einen Beitrag zur Förderung der Medienkompetenz zu leisten.

You can find more infos on the Pädi and a full list of the winners of this 12th here:
www.sin-net.de/paedi.htm

New Projects

My work for the RCP Newsletter is completed. I got more time to focus on other projects. Therefore I am currently looking for new opportunities and challenges.

Gamescom

At the gamescom in Cologne especially the PSP game "Invizimals" caught my eye.
The game allows players to interact with their environment, using the PSP Camera to look for and interact with "invisible" creatures. It is the most convincing augmented reality game I have seen so far, while they still have problems with the prototype camera they were using at the gamescom.

Remote Control here we go!

Since beginning of May I am working for remote control productions running their research department.

remote control productions is an independent, internationally active production house, with an emphasis on mediation, development and production of entertainment software and research services. With its extensive experience and far-reaching contacts, remote control productions acts as an important interface between developers, publishers, distributors and investors.

It feels great to be here. The general focus of the company is very interesting with projects which try to do something new and/or have an positive impact on society or the video games business in mind. On top of that the company is very much involved in education, the local IGDA chapter, contacts to political institutions and the Verein für Videospielekultur (club for video games culture) on which I blogged here.

One of my main projects is our weekly newsletter which goes like this:

Up-to-Date in 30 minutes
Keeping an eye on current trends and affairs is an imperative for anyone concerned with the video games industry.

With the RCP-Newsletter, remote control productions are offering a compact overview on the latest trends and news as well as concise figures. Whilst we are tracking the international market very closely, our special focus lies on Germany. This not only provides our readers with detailed information about international happenings but also with insights into the German industry and current political developments.

Our newsletter summarises news items from more than 40 different sources, relevant to the games industry, in a short and clearly arranged way, thus giving you the advantage of having all relevant news at hand in only 30 minutes a week.
The sections of the newsletter are covering the following areas:

1. Current Market Data: Software-Charts with sales figures, global hardware sales and company reports
2. PC and Videogames: announcements of new titles worldwide on all platforms
3. Online: news about digital distribution, social networking platforms and online games
4. Companies: fusions, takeovers, openings, closings and partnerships
5. Technology and Hardware: firmware updates, new middleware versions, technical innovations, licensing of engines
6. Politics, Culture, Events and Education: political decisions and amendments, cultural events, changes in education, conferences and events
7. Feature Recommendations: articles and blogs concerning current topics and trends
8. Event-Calendar: the most important conferences and events of the next three months
   

The RCP newsletter is released once per week (48 times per year) in English and German language.

What do you think about it? And if you are interested, please request a free sample copy at my new email address: utausend [) r-control.com ;-)

Homework

I occasionally play games with the two nieces of my girlfriend. This got me thinking about how they are affected by playing them. In the case of the two little girls these were Wii Fitt, some horse game and Nintendogs.
I studied Sociology which helps me to self reflect on my gaming habits. But it is interesting how little we (who we design games) actually think what effect these games have on others. My diploma thesis showed that people have very different reasons why they play games and choose the games to play also depending on these reasons.
When I was a kid, I did not play games to learn. I also never played any specific learning game. But I think I still learned a lot from these games. In this post I don't want to get into the question how the violence in these games might have affected me focus on two positive effects they might have had.
One of them was that I learned quite some English playing RPGs and Adventures. Playing them might also have been a great incentive for me to pay more attention to my English teacher.
Another type of game which aided my (basic) understanding about how the economy or society works were simulations like Railroad Tycoon or Civilization.

Today (as homework) I gave myself two topics I want to learn about in the future:

• The two little girls are probably not old enough for all of the above games, but I will check out some games which they might like to play while additionally having a rather positive effect on them.
• I want to learn more about how learning actually works.

In school the Math teacher told us that we would need this boring formulas our whole live and therefor should listen to him. He was right. While probably not everybody needs the formulas we all need the logical thinking we also learned on the way. Question is: Does a game like Crazy Machines help your logical ability in the same way as School Mathematic does. Neuropsychology should have something to say about it. What I know is that getting someone to play Crazy Machines is way easier than motivating him to attend a math class.

The million dollar question on learning programs and games is how much "learning" these should be to actually being played.

Searching new opportunities

2008 was a very busy but also very successful year for me.

In January I sold my online gaming company Neodelight.com to 7Seas Technologies (press release).
I also did some consulting e.g. for www.fettspielen.de (more).
In August I completed my master's thesis titled: "Explanatory Models of Computer Gaming Consumption" an empirical survey focusing on the differentiation of casual and hardcore games (more).
• In December I wrote my final exams for my Master in Sociology, Political Science and Psychology and now am officially a "Diplom-Soziologe Univ", hooray!
  

With my company successfully sold and my diploma certificate in the pocket I now have my head cleared for new challenges.

So if you

• know of any interesting jobs (preferably near Munich)
• or are in need of a consultant with 8 years of experience in the social, online and casual games market (and an additional year shooting documentaries :-)
• or you need a researcher who does not only know the business side of computer games but has also researched them from a scientific angle,
  

then I am at your disposal.

If you want more information on what I did, can do and want to do in the future then check out my LinkedIn or Xing profiles or go back to the main page of my website at www.ulrichtausend.com.

As I am travelling North America until 14th of march reaching me though email might be easier than calling my cell (you find the contact info here).

'Organized' gaming in Munich - here we go!

I am really happy that I came across the "Videospielkultur e.V." (club for video games culture) end of last year. The club is very active organizing lectures and discussions on the cultural aspects of video games as well as their impact on society.



AND they are hosting the bi-weekly Games Lounge. There you can play the newest (and oldest) games from a massive library on good equipment. And as most people attending are from the games business it is also a perfect way to discuss games while making new connections.
For me the games lounge is what I always wanted to exist. And I am a bit sad that I will miss couple of them on my well earned post graduation travel to North America ;) . It is just quite a sight to see the Bavarian Minister of Media playing guitar hero.

Why is the console games development in Germany relatively weak?

During the last days I was thinking about why in Germany the console games development is relatively week compared with other European countries. May it be a reflection of the Germany's sub-strength (given its population size) retail console games market? Why are Germans relatively fond of PC games in comparison to console games.

To be honest I did not reach a conclusive answer on that. Below are couple of thoughts about it but the main idea of this post is to hopefully get some better ideas on the matter from you guys.

Generally I see two underlying factors:

1. Many Germans grew up not paying for games
The the PC scene has been pretty strong in Germany since the C64, Atari ST and Amiga days. It was very easy on these platforms to copy games. So many people from my age group (around 30) grew up without paying much for games. And I think these people mostly moved to the PC as it is also pretty easy on the PC to copy the games (again games for free), while it is more complicated on the console (especially as you basically also need a PC for that).
Therefore you have more people on PCs and less on consoles which could also explain why Germany is (from what I know) very strong in the open source or demo scene areas (both work without payment) as well as in the browser (mog) business.

2. Violence in games is seen more critical in Germany
Another factor could be, that in Germany negative effects of PC and Console Games (especially violence) are emphasised more strongly than in other countries (more on that in an WIRED article connecting this to the pacifistic 'never again' education style in Germany).
So on a individual level on average it is (or was) probably harder to get some money for a 'only games' console games console from your parents than for a PC which can also be used for working.
On a company level the German state was pretty reluctant to sponsor PC games as well as console games development, probably again because of the relatively negative image of games being violent or addictive. Ego shooters are often called "Killerspiele (Killergames)" in the media and some politicians not only want to ban the sale but also the production of these games. You probably heard that Crytec (Crysis) was openly stating in 2007 that they are thinking to relocate to another country (more). So some investors were probably scared away from founding AAA studios in Germany which often focus on console market. This may also explain why Germany is strong in the browser (mog) games marked as more clever coders tried to go in this direction as you don't need much initial funding for developing these.

But times are changing
In recent times the discussion on violent computer games has died down a bit and currently the media is discussing games in a much friendlier light. And this development is not limited to casual games. For example also GTA4 was discussed repeatedly in German main stream (not video games) media as being a culturally interesting game for adults. Also December 2007 the German minister for culture announced that computer games are now considered to be a 'Kulturgut' - a 'cultural asset' - which can and should be sponsored by the state. The G.A.M.E. association (pretty much the same as the British TIGA) was lobbying for that since couple of years.
It is also interesting that Germany hosts the biggest European convention on console and pc games.

So it seems there is a lot of potential for catching up ("Hello investors").

Leipzig

I made a short stop at the Games Convention in Leipzig. Always nice to see these "a bit more than power point slides" press conferences.

Little Big Planet is great, hope it will sell well so we will see more of this stuff.
Guitar Hero and Singstar were everywhere. That is a road to go, don't miss it.

Diploma thesis completed

I completed my diploma thesis and are waiting for my result. Right now I am preparing for my final exams. I will have completed my studies in March 2009. I will prepare a summary of my findings then.

In short: There were huge differences in demography and play style between the Hardcore Game Player and Casual Game Player audiences. There is not just ONE computer games culture. Gamers associate different functions and meanings with gaming. Generally restrictions (like income, time, experience with input devices and games) are less relevant when choosing which games to play than preferences (like attitude towards violence in games).

Edit: I was awarded the mark "very good" on the thesis.

Play FETT!

While working on my diploma thesis I am also doing some consulting. One of my clients www.fettspielen.de, a German online gaming website, went live April 2008. I was involved with the project since November 2007 while the strategic direction of the website was not yet decided.
I really like the graphical style of the website as well as how quickly you can browse through the different games. Using the site is very easy. For example every registered user automatically has a personal profile-site (check out mine). Please write me if you have any comments on the website. David An, the founder of Fettspielen, has many nice ideas for the future development of the site. And he got backing from Holtzbrinck, who also own StudiVZ the German Facebook. So Fettspielen is a name to remember.

Fett is German slang for cool, spielen means to play.

Fishing in Lake Sagar

As I wrote in another post we sold neodelight.com and all our sources to 7Seas Technologies.

In January 2008 the Neodelight staff was in Hyderabad/India to train the 7Seas team on our sources. We wanted them to learn on the job and therefore created a nice little game with them which even has some serious thoughts to it:

When we were sight seeing in Hyderabad, we visited Lake Sagar, a picturesque but heavily polluted lake (to keep us from doing foolish things a man told us "When you swim here - you die!").
Around the lake we saw many "not littering" signs which hopefully will have an effect soon.

We crossed the need to train the team with the problem of the polluted lake and got as a result the game "Clean Sagar" in which you have to fish out garbage from the lake so it can recover.
Three days after the idea the completed game was released on the official press conference and the game became a big hit in the press as well as with Indian gamers.



The other game which was released on the press conference was Mouse Maze. This very nice mouse avoider which we created in 2007 even won the FICCI FRAMES Best of Animation Frames Award for the online gaming category. By the way, Halo 3 won best console game and Gears of War best PC game awards.



So everybody was very happy with the press conference. Especially the fish in Lake Sagar.