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.

"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

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.