I’m not sure why, but something about Telespiel’s nominees for most influential games (up to 2006) inspired me to unearth my Microsoft Word graph skills. It’s an eighth grade science lab all over again.

Click on the image to see the undistorted version.

As you can see, we’ve recently entered a dark age of influential games, at least according to the German game journalists who compiled the list of nominees. There has not been such a dearth of influence since the late 70s. The top 16 finalists, posted at GameSetWatch, tell a similar tune, with winners every one, two or three years between 1984 and 2000, then nothing until World of Warcraft in 2004.

What does this mean? My first thought was, “That sounds about right.” It’s a common criticism that the games industry is wading in familiar waters these days. But the more I think about it, were really much more influential in the 80s and 90s? Sure, we had some new genres — first-person shooter, third-person shooter — come into their own, but I can’t shake the feeling that the judges were touched, at least partially, by nostalgia. For example, Star Wars: Rebel Assault made the list. The game was enjoyable, but only as a landmark along rail shooters’ path to destruction. Let’s not confuse impact with influence. R-Type had a lasting impact on gamers, but the influence didn’t persist in the 3D age, and side scrolling shoot-em-ups now exist only on the fringes of game culture. And Track and Field? I must have missed the hot trend of speedy button-mashing Olympic games that followed.

Meanwhile, Grand Theft Auto 3 was omitted from the nominees; a game that creates its own genre deserves a nod, at least. Halo 2 set the standard for online console play, but only its split-screen predecessor appears on the list. And then there’s Diner Dash, played by millions, it set the standard for “time management” games to follow, and spawned countless clones and copycats.

Obviously it’s hard to judge a game’s influence without ample time to observe the ripple effect, but there’s room for a little foresight here.

Arbitrary Lists | No Comments »

Sometimes I don’t know what to make of Kieron Gillen. But the rest of the time he’s spot on, particularly with this essay on The Sims.

The whole thing is intriguing, but there’s one idea he flicked at that is particularly of interest to me:

While gaining power brings a different sort of pleasure – that of control – it also generally detracts from emotional impact. It becomes less of an immersive event, and more of a traditional game. In short, videogames are most enthralling emotionally when you’re least in control. As you gain in one area of enjoyment as you lose in another.

There’s a segment in The Darkness where you creep through a recently destroyed orphanage in New York City. The gunfight you’re expecting never comes. Instead, you reach the top floor outside a room where your girlfriend is held captive by a mafioso and a corrupt police officer. Instead of dashing in to save her, the demon possessing your body binds you by the wrists and makes you watch. The officer kneels the girl on the ground and shoots her in the back of the head. Anguished, your character frees himself, sticks a pistol in his mouth and pulls the trigger as the demon insists you are making a terrible mistake.

You awake in a trench. The sky above is red and laced with lightning bolts. In front of you, a Nazi guard executes three British soldiers who are sobbing and pleading for mercy. You take up arms and begin to fight. As you emerge from the trench, you see the battlefield is littered with what looks like undead Nazis with gas masks fixed to their mouths. The pace is unrelenting as you scramble towards an undefined objective.

Even the most immersive games settle into a routine. The same is true in Bioshock, when the set pieces recede, your enemies become more generic and your focus turns to managing ammunition and upgrading special abilities. But the most powerful moments are dominated by uncertainty and powerlessness. It’s less of a game when the rules aren’t so clear.

Theory, Media | No Comments »

To my three loyal readers, I’m not going to explain my absence here, because the same reasons apply as covered in a previous post.

That includes another story in the Escapist (out in a week and a half) and another tiny review of “Miss Management” in Wired (and I can’t seem to find it online. You’ll have to take my word for it! Here it is. Thanks Ran!).

I will, at least, acknowledge the gaming feast began with this week’s release of Bioshock. Seriously I feel like the entire online gamer contingent is less irritable than usual. It’s hard to play anything (or do anything) besides play Bioshock all weekend, and I haven’t touched Super Metroid and Project Sylpheed, and haven’t played too much of The Darkness. The latter two will probably collect dust until I send one back to GameFly and wait until Metroid Prime 3 comes around.

Newman | 1 Comment »

The siege on Caiger Mall began right in the middle of my vacation.

Not that it mattered, I was already dead. A human killed me for no apparent reason. From a cruise ship Internet station, I shambled to the nearest revive point and waited until I reached port. In the interim someone brought me back to life, in the midst of what seems like my personal zombie apocalypse.

Over 150 zombies have crowded the nearest Necrotech building, where survivors can find needles to revive their comrades. Hundreds more wait outside the mall itself. The radio is buzzing with chatter, from strategic to humorous to delirious. Back at the mall, someone spraypainted “ABANDON SHIP!” on one of the walls.

At the moment, the doors to the mall are heavily barricaded, but the number of survivors inside doesn’t instill confidence. I’m waiting until later tonight, when it’s said the zeds are making their big push. I’ll be barricading and dumping bodies, because I have no ammunition and not enough health kits to be an effective medic. Vacation truly caught me off guard.

Urban Dead | 7 Comments »