I originally planned on one big article on the convergence of MMORPGs (or MMOGs in general) and sports games. After I finished the first part of the article I realized there is a lot of ground to cover. So this is the second part of my article on MMOSG. This is also submitted to the September edition of the Blogs of the Roundtable (specifically, Topic Choice 1E(xploratory): Pick a genre of games and discuss how it would benefit from adopting some of the game mechanics of another genre. If the merging of the genres would create a new genre, discuss the core gameplay and boundaries of the new genre..)
Gaming
Helping out the little guy
Here at buttonmashing.com we are fighting the good fight for video games. We try to get the word out about the positive aspects of gaming while we refute spurious claims that violent video games are bad for kids. Last month I wrote a little piece about the topic of violent video games, quoting a couple articles that had some empirical evidence that refutes the claims by the anti-gaming cadre (definition 2a). Little did I know that it would actually have tangible results.
Last week, “Bloody Vamp Man” left me a comment, thanking me for the information and the graphs. Why? I’ll let his comment speak for itself:
Bloody Vamp Man
Comment by Bloody Vamp Man | 2005/09/07 at 13:24:06 | eThx for backing up the video game community. we needed some proof that the video games didnt cause violence. because of your graphs my mom is buying me games like resident evil 4 now. i apreciate your time being spent on this site thx.
;.;Bloody vamp dude
While I am a little nervous about his nick name, (Bloody Vamp Man/Dude doesn’t exactly conjure up happy, non-gory thoughts) I’m glad he is doing his homework and his mom has an open mind. Thanks to WP’s commenting system, I know where his comment originated from. I don’t know what grade Bloody Vamp Dude is in but I do know he’s still in school somewhere. So he is probably 15 or 16 years old and he wants to get his Resident Evil 4 on. I think RE4 is okay for that age. I wouldn’t have a problem with my older teenagers playing a game like RE4. I guess the graphs I used from the articles convinced his mom that video games of the violent/gory variety were okay. Good on ya, BVM.
I just hope his mom also does her homework, too. She could start by checking out some reviews of RE4 to determine if it’s okay for her boy. A good place to start would be Gamer Dad’s review. Gamer Dad does a good job of reviewing games with kids in mind.
This works both ways. I’m glad kids are proactive in the defense of their hobby and I’m glad parents can have an open mind. Neverthless, parents need to be informed. As much as I enjoy BM.com I still recognize I am just one voice in the overwhelming interweb. I hope parents are interested in their kids hobbies enough to know what their kids are doing. That includes making the tough call when to say “No, you’re not ready for that game/movie/book/whatever.” Being a parent I can say it isn’t easy saying no, but once and a while it needs to be done. But it’s easier when you’re informed.
And I’m glad to help.
What I’m playing
I haven’t had a much time the past couple weeks to play as much as I’d like to. I guess I need to reorganize priorities! Anyway, here’s what I’ve been playing lately:
I’d really like to get some playing time with Guild Wars soon. It’s been almost a month since I played any GW so I need to get back to Ascalon. Especially with the new content that was released last week.
I’m also looking to get a couple other DS titles. I’m thinking about Meteos and Tiger Woods. Any other suggestions?
In my hands…
… rests my brand new, electric blue Nintendo DS.
DSes everywhere!
I don’t know if my DS-sensitivity has gone up since I started contemplating the purchase of one, but I’ve noticed an increase of DS-related news being spread through the gamingsphere (I don’t even have to mention all the Nintendogs hype). Kotaku had the huge DS display unit (with requisite display girl) earlier this week. There’s two stories at games.slashdot that talk about DS things. The first is actually about the PSP’s launch in the UK that shattered the DS record-breaking release. (Pay no attention to the fact that they counted a year’s worth of pre-orders in that figure). The other story refer to a wish list of games people would like to see ported to the DS. Both posts have comments that are pretty favorable for the DS. I’m pretty excited about Age of Empires on the DS but I would love to see Starcraft.
I still don’t have a DS in hand, but right now I’m leaning toward the Blue DS with Mario 64 bundle at Walmart. Time will tell!
Should I or shouldn’t I?
I’m this “] [” close to trading in my Game Boy Advance SP for a Nintendo DS. I’m going out for the evening and I know my friendly neighborhood Game Crazy would facilitate said transaction without any problems.
The question is: Should I or shouldn’t I?
Update: Okay, a quick update. I heard Walmart had a DS/Mario 64 bundle. Supposedly Toys ‘R Us had a Spider Man 2 bundle as well. I made stops at both places but Walmart was out of them and TRU’s deal is over. So as it stands now, taking into consideration the comments thus far, I think I’ll keep my GBA SP (Pacman Vs. is a great party game, so keeping the GBA to link up with the Gamecube has become an issue) and I’ll just pick up a new DS. I’m also very interested in Advance Wars DS like Mr. LaMosca. I play Advance Wars all the time and can only imagine how sweet the touch screen works. I’ve heard Madden and Tiger Woods work great with the touch screen, too. I’m pretty excited about new game kit.
So I’ve pretty much decided on a new DS. Now the question is: what color do I get?
Harvest Moon, another tedious sim
I don’t like games like The Sims. If my digital counterpart can’t manage to feed himself then he deserves to go hungry. I don’t like babysitter sims. I lost interest in The Sims after about a half hour. I got tired of waking my sim up at 5 in the morning just to make sure he was ready to catch his ride to work at 8. If he overslept, he didn’t get breakfast. Then he’d be hungry and complain all day. I also got tired of making him do his business on the porcelain throne. I don’t know why it took my stupid sim 45 minutes to take a crap and a bath. If I sent him to work without making a bathroom run he’d either crap his pants or stink from not bathing. Half the time I’d mismanage the time and he’d be in the tub when his ride to work arrived. There was no “jump out of the bath and run out to tell your ride to wait a minute” button. So he’d miss work. Then he’d mope around the house all day because he didn’t have anything to do. I told him if he’d stop taking 40 minute baths he’d actually make it to work on time. He didn’t listen. He’d just drop half his lunch on the floor and let it sit until it gathered maggots. He angered me so I quit playing. I did the humane thing and just deleted the save file. I didn’t build walls around him and watch him die. Sometimes I wish I had. That would have been a lot more fun. So yeah, I don’t really like Sims-type games.
Back to Harvest Moon. After naming my pets and getting through the intro tutorial, I set about the business of farm work. I went and bought some seeds and proceeded to plant them in the wrong type of soil. They wilted and died in the period of three days. Then, my little character started making this wierd “gurr” sound. It took me two days to realize she was hungry. I couldn’t buy her food because I wasted all my money on seeds and fertilizer. I couldn’t drink the milk I got from my cow because I needed to sell it for money to buy more seeds because the ones I planted earlier had already died. The seeds that did take root grew too slow to rely on them. I wanted to eat my little puppy but I couldn’t find the button to do that. My chicken coop was empty and no one around town seemed to care that I was wandering aimlessly as my stomach growled. Not my idea of fun. I shut the game off and never looked back. There was never a moment when I thought, “this isn’t a bad game.” It was boring. I didn’t have time to cultivate each and every little square in my garden, then plant a seed in each and every square in my garden, and then water each and every frickin’ square in my garden. That’s just not my idea of fun. So I quit. I didn’t want to play a babysitter sim.
I already have a real one. And this one comes complete with trips to the potty and stinky diapers.
Carnival of Gamers #6
AFK Gamer just posted The Carnival of Gamers #6 for everyone’s enjoyment.
MMORPG Sports (Part I)
A while back I mentioned I had been playing a Golf MMORPG called Shot-Online. Since then, I’ve been back for a round here and there and my overall impression of S-O is that it’s an ambitious game that is fun to play and actually has players that are fun to be around. It got me thinking about Sports games as MMORPGs. Or at least MMOGs. Call them what you will, but I’ve seen them mostly referred to as MMOSG (Massively Multiplayer Online Sports Games). I wondered if there were other games out there trying the Massively Multiplayer genre of gaming. I also thought about where this “genre” of games could go. We already have online sports gaming that’s been relatively sucessful but I think there could be more. I don’t think role-players and sports fans are that far removed. They both pore over their players “stats” and play to their strengths while shoring up their weaknesses. The MMO “sphere” is ripe with possibilities.
This is a two-part article. The first part will be what I’ve found while I’ve looked for games that fit the MMOG mold. Part two will be some thoughts I’ve had and where I think this could go.
[Read more…] about MMORPG Sports (Part I)
Don’t miss out
You’ve got today and tomorrow to get in on the Carnival goodness, gearing up right now at AFK Gamer.