Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups

NoVaMoMe 2024: 06/08/2024
Arlington, VA
Details to follow


Texas MoMe 2024: 10/18/2024-10/19/2024 Corsicana,TX
Contact Ben Had for info





















« Sunday Open Thread: The Juice! Edition [WeirdDave] | Main | If They Bring a Knife You Bring a Gun »
July 13, 2014

Gaming Thread 7/13/2014

I know, I know, you're watching the World Cup finals or the EV Finals right bow but this week I've got a guest post from David Queener aka Scar3crow, an interesting cat that I talk to online.

Go HERE to watch and bet fake money on EVO. The BlazBlue Grand Finals was frigging amazing as Dogura choked away to Garireo. Killer Instinct Grand Finals is on right now.


Harada is also announcing Tekken 7


***************************************************

Playing in the Mainstream

by scar3crow

It is said that politics is downstream from culture. This is indirectly often reiterated by Ace's posts about cultural tone and direction. It is followed by sites like Twitchy and the Big Hollywood portion of Breitbart. But more and more games are a dominant strain of that culture which shapes the political disposition of the public.

Where movies, TV, music, and books can show us what to think, or how to think, games can train us to think that way by requiring it, and rewarding it. Repetition helps you pass the test, but doing lets you teach the class. What a generation plays can mold how they approach problems (politicking), treat resources (economics), and what challenges resemble (root ontology). Games have historically been systems of pattern matching. You observe the game, you discover the pattern, you run the counter pattern, and progress to new content. During this you are rewarded in a number of ways, and the events are justified through a story.

Games have the strengths of all previous art forms to shape culture, as well as the power of creating habits and mental shortcuts. This isn't to say that games are necessarily leftist propaganda, but rather the philosophies of a developer naturally come through - though good designers will often go for what works best (regardless of if they realize that the default is their belief system) so as to make the best game as they know it.

Look at the stories games seek to tell with the same discerning eye you would use for film, literature, or music. Particularly consider the message the gaming media says about them. My go to example is the way sites like RockPaperShotgun and others treat Call of Duty, as a jingoistic, Fox News oriented game, when the stories themselves treat America as an at best bumbling and incompetent power that needs to be rescued by Europeans time and time again.

So consider the cultural impact games can have. Not so much in the setting, but in the mechanics. What it teaches to have regenerating health, where simply avoiding damage for a short period removes the impact of previous harm. What it teaches to have foes respawn and eventually become farmable. What it teaches to reduce people to vending machines where you can skip what they are saying (kudos to Borderlands for putting in literal vending machines for what players most commonly want). I try not to think too much on it mechanic wise when playing a game, but you can't avoid it in the story. As games continue to further imitate Hollywood, we can expect this to become more prevalent - especially with so much of the industry concentrating in deep blue states - and so we should be further on guard for what behaviors our games have us practicing.

I like to use games as an escape, but having worked in the industry for six years, I have seen the echo chamber that is the political mindset and knowledge of many of the content providers. Sometimes we just can't escape.
-scar3crow

scar3crow intermittently writes content such as this at sca3crow.com where he focuses on game mechanics, and the loathsome state of gaming journalism. You can follow him on Twitter, @scar3crowdotcom

***************************************************

Since I'm completely topical with horrible timing, here is my top 5 Soccer games.

MegaMan Soccer (SNES) - For goofy arcade soccer gaming, I don't think there has been anything that has topped this for me. It's got special moves and just an overall fun about it with some Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball style jank to the whole proceedings. Wish I didn't sell my copy, it's gotten kinda pricey over the years for a complete US copy (still $50 just for the cart)

International Superstar Soccer Deluxe (SNES) - Great physics with a killer touch in curling the kicks. Also had the best AI at the time for sports games without it being rubber banding it's way to wins. Also gave birth to the animation standards that Konami was king of for 10 years. Sadly it had a small print run in the US so it commands a good $100 or so for just the cart.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2, PS3, PC, Xbox 360, Wii) - The last good entry in the Winning Eleven/PES series and frankly the last good soccer sim game. There really wasn't a bad bone to pick in the game as it nailed everything perfectly IMO. Sadly with them constantly getting their asses handed to them by the FIFA games in sales, they ruined the series in chasing EA's juggernaut.

Sensible World of Soccer 96/97 (PC and Amiga) - First game to blend competent management sim with a decent game of footy. First game for me that got me into management sims but it was also the game that has really nailed ball physics IMO.

Football Manager series (PC, Mac) - The only series to be able to match Out of The Park baseball series for depth in the management sub-genre. And it does a good job in presenting it's power point gameplay. The yearly released of this and the yearly OOTP is all the management sims you need for a year.

***************************************************

NEW RELEASES

Abyss Odyssey (PC, PS3, 360) - The weirdos from Chile, Ace Team (Zeno Clash and Rock of Ages) have made a procedurally created sidescroller with what is supposed to be an interesting combat system. Gonna go out on a limb that like the other games from Ace, it's not gonna be worth buying.

Magic The Gathering 2015 (PC, Android, iOS, 360, XBO) - Another year means another Magic digital game that isn't MTGO. It came out for the iPad last week and like last year's entry, the early word was that at least that release is buggy as all hell so it might be releasing like how last year's entry was. They supposedly have expanded the "deck building" in this year's game. Eh, $10 and it's easy to get your money/time worth out of it even if it's not MTGO.

Catch me on Twitter

digg this
posted by Gang of Gaming Morons! at 03:16 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Nova Local: "69 "Local news here quietly discussed that most/al ..."

redridinghood: "Wishing all a blessed Good Friday. ..."

LinusVanPelt : "No. Burr was a POS, certainly. But it was a duel, ..."

Rufus T. Firefly: ">>>Local news here quietly discussed that most/all ..."

Village Idiot's Apprentice: ""Local news here quietly discussed that most/all w ..."

Ben Had: "..., boggles the mind, it does. May Spring bring ..."

Nova Local: " And the names of the two deceased workers who's ..."

... : "We MUST defend Ukraine. And we MUST stop Israel ..."

Dem Propagandists: "Republicans made Obamacare expensive and unafforda ..."

Ben Had: "JT, Good morning. Hope all is well with you ..."

JT: "Hiya BenHad ! ..."

m: "Where's our SFGoth? ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64