Playing the other side

Artcile first appeared on sleeperhit.net

No one can deny that the video game industry loves making games about World War II. And what’s not to love? Our boys heading off to distant shores to rid the world of tyranny and murder, and bring liberty back to the Europe and the South Pacific. Yet here is a problem with the World War II games that we’ve seen thus far. Players have never had the opportunity to experience an era of history that’s shaped pop culture and human consciousness through the eyes of the people we were fighting: German and Japanese citizens and soldiers.

World War II games have put gamers in the seats of Flying Fortresses, in the jungles of the occupied Philippine islands, and on the crumbling streets Berlin. All while players continue to fight the good fight against the Axis powers even though the war has been over for more than fifty years. It’s time that American game developers and publishers show the whole story of World War II and give gamers the perspective of our foes of old.

One argument against such games is that they would force American gamers to kill their digital ancestors. Though this may seem insensitive and something that no developer in their right mind would dare produce, it’s been done before.

If you turn back the clock a bit, Electronic Arts’ Medal Of Honor: Rising Sun was the first World War II game to feature a campaign and story based in the Pacific Theatre. Rising Sun pushed the envelope further by having its first level open with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The game debuted here in the States where the events of Pearl Harbor and the Pacific Theater are still sensitive topics, but it was also released in Japan.

Rightfully so, Rising Sun’s release was met with friction from Japan’s gaming community. A 2004 GameSpot article interviewed two Japanese gamers, both left anonymous, about the game’s premise and release. Both gamers described their feelings as being at odds with and disliking the idea of playing an invading soldier who’s killing their virtual ancestors.

Tarrinie Williams, the senior producer of Rising Sun, defended the game in an interview with IGN in 2003. Williams said the premise and story of Rising Sun was a natural progression of the Medal of Honor series. Williams also said that the story of the game needed to be told because the Pacific campaign and its battles are frequently overlooked in the grand scheme of the Second World War.

To Williams’ point, The Pacific Campaign was a natural direction for World War II games to go. The stories and experiences of soldiers fighting in jungle paradises turned to living hells needed to be told—along with the fact that Europe is seen as a bland game setting these days. What better way to bring those stories to life than through a medium where the consumer can look through the sights of the Thompson sub-machine gun?

The next step, though a risky one, for World War II games is to tell a story through the eyes and voices of Japanese and German soldiers. These soldiers are human beings with families and reasons for fighting, and above all else, stories that should and need to be told. And there is no better way to tell these stories than through an interactive medium like video games.

Another argument that could arise from these potentially controversial video games is how to deal with acts like the Bataan Death March and the Holocaust. Many would argue that the atrocities committed by the Japanese and Nazis don’t warrant a game being made. This argument is understandable and these topics need to be approached with the utmost empathy. But a point needs to be made. The United States is still the only country to deploy nuclear weapons in a time of war, an act that killed over 200,000 people, and yet this event has never made it into a video game—probably due to tactfulness. So by applying the same logic to all World War II games, none of them should be made.

It’s doubtful that a game featuring the perspective of one of the Axis powers will ever be made because of the backlash that it’d create. Everyone from veterans’ groups, senators, and news-group pundits would jump down the throat of a developer attempting to make a decent game worthy of all the negative attention that it would receive. After all, if a game like Six Days in Fallujah gets pulled off the production line because its relationship to one of the deadliest battles of the Iraq War, then there is no telling what would happen to a game where you aim the iron sights of a MP-40 sub-machine gun at ‘40s era US soldiers during Market Garden.

There is one game that ventured down this path; it’s called Battlestations: Pacific. The Battlestations games put players in control of warships throughout the Pacific theater, along with aerial dog fights and ship-to-ship warfare. Unlike the first Battlestations game, Midway, Pacific offers a Japanese campaign that acts as a what-if timeline where the Japanese win the pacific side of the war. Though this game does have the Japanese as protagonists, it lacks a specific main character that you follow through the course of the game and the naval combat feels distant and unemotional.

What the game I’m proposing would ultimately be about is the story of a young man who is fighting for his country while the world is plunged into total war. The reasons for him fighting are vaguely known because the major decisions regarding the war are made way over a lowly grunt’s head. All that our protagonist knows is that to get home he will have to fight his way through the forests of Europe or through the jungles of the South Pacific against one of the strongest armies the world has to offer. When put into this description it sounds like any other story or game about World War II. It’s only when you add labels like Japanese Empire, Nazi-controlled Germany, or the invading Americans that turn the perspective of the game sour.

If movies like “Letters from Iwo Jima” and “Valkyrie” can tell stories about soldiers fighting for the Axis powers and portray them as human beings, instead of pop-up targets asking for bullets to be thrown at them, then it’s time video games followed suite and told a story worth hearing from the perspective of our long-time virtual enemies.

Video games that are More LEGO Than LEGO

LEGOs have been a staple of childhood’s creative playtime in the US since their arrival from Sweden in 1962. Now kids and adults are re-exposed to the brand in a digital form through Traveler’s Tales numerous LEGO inspired games.

LEGO Star Wars started the trend in 2005. And roughly every year after, the video game industry has seen a steady flow of LEGO games based off movies like Indiana Jones and Batman. The LEGO craze continues with a new “LEGO Indiana Jones 2” and “Harry Potter: Years 1-4” that are slated to be in stores this fall and 2010 respectively. And let’s not forget the new musical venture appropriately called LEGO Rock band due out this fall.

What TT Games hasn’t done over all these versions of the same basic game is make a LEGO game that allows players to freely build structures and contraptions. Something one children’s advocacy group says is just as damaging to young consumers—whom the games are marketed for—as the commercialization of the LEGO brand.

The Campaign for a Commercial-free Childhood, or CCFC, is a group of healthcare providers, educators and parents who argue that the over commercialization of a child’s playtime will hinder their ability to develop critical thinking skills and their budding imagination. The CCFC calls out the LEGO brand and Traveler Tales’ LEGO Batman specifically. Arguing that the brand once promoted creative play and self expression but now don’t. Instead the LEGO brand now settles for a partnership with successful movie franchises.

LEGO Batman was even nominated for the CCFC’s “TOADY” award (Toys Oppressive And Destructive to Young children) which is a spoof of the Toy Industry Association’s toy of the year award. The reasons against the caped crusader’s LEGO game aren’t your usual “it’s too violent” talking points. It’s that the game came out to promote Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” and had spin-off prizes that were given away with happy meals from McDonalds. The CCFC argues LEGO batman “simultaneously promoted the video game, junk food, and the violent “Dark Knight” movie series to preschoolers.”

Parental intervention of what kids buy and the lack of knowledge of the ESRB rating system aside, the only real argument left is that LEGO games keep the building to a minimum–something that would seem like an obvious fit for the series. For those who don’t know, the “building” elements of the LEGO series are rarely used outside of solving simple puzzles where players hold down a single button and watch the LEGO blocks jump together by themselves. To the CCFC’s point, it’s clear how this doesn’t promote free thinking or creativity.

There are games however, that are essentially more LEGO than LEGO games. An example is Rare’s “Banjo-Kazooie’s: Nuts and Bolts” for the Xbox 360.In Nuts and Bolts, the Nintendo 64 heroes return to video game stardom where players build vehicles to compete in a series of events that unlock more parts so they can construct more complex machines for our bear and bird heroes to use. This adaptation to the Banjo and Kazooie series brings out a level of creativity and out-of the-box thinking that is enjoyable and accessible for gamers regardless of age.

Banjo and the bird aren’t alone in the endeavor to develop a build-and-play style of game. Sony’s “Little Big Planet” is hailed for its simple-to-use-yet-difficult-to-master stage building experience and its ability to share user-created worlds via the Playstation Network. This new franchise and style of gameplay is so successful that it spawned a spinoff version for the PSP and a probable sequel and downloadable content much later down the road for the Playstation 3

Sony went a step farther at this year’s E3 conference when they announced “ModNation Racer” for the PS3. Like its cousin, Little Big Planet, ModNation lets players build racetracks, avatars and carts all while sharing them with the friends over the web. Sony unveiled the simplistic building engine for the game when they had ModNation’s developers build a racetrack in front of the audience at the expo, which is something to my knowledge that hasn’t been done before.

However, the LEGO brand is gearing up to bring out a build-and-play game in 2010 with NetDevil developing “LEGO Universe.” LEGO Universe is said to play out much like Nuts and Bolts, where players complete tasks using the contraptions they’ve made to gain more building components. The difference is, like other MMO style games, the world will be open and continuingly running for all players.

This is a step in the right direction for LEGO inspired video games but there are doubts about how successful this venture will be. It’s hard to imagine gamers who enjoy the MMO community atmosphere and style of game leaving “World of Warcraft” or “City of Heroes” to build things in LEGO Universe. It’s harder to believe that parents will fork out the dough for their kids to play with LEGO bricks online when they could easily play with them in the living rooms of their own homes.

Nothing can replace the physical interaction with a set of LEGO blocks and the benefit of letting a child’s imagination run wild of what to build next. For the past forty years legions of kids have done exactly that. With games like Banjo and Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts and Little Big Planet already out and Sony’s Mod Nation Racer on the release-date horizon show is creative experiences have a place within the video game industry. It’s just time LEGO and Traveler’s Tales got involved.

Nintendo press conference leaves more questions than answers

Nintendo needed a “go big or go home” attitude for their press conference at this years E3 and they delivered in some points and flopped on others. The majority of press conference had Nintendo executives talking about units sold of the Wii and DSi with a small handful of triple “A” titles being announced.

It was clear that Nintendo still had a strong plan to cater to casual gamers, clearly stating there was the opportunity to expand the casual gaming market by, up to, 50 percent in the U.S. and European countries. The majority of the press conference reflected this plan by premiering games like “Women’s Murder Club”, a game will take gamers through James Paterson novels in a mini game laden adventure, and more details on “Wii Sports Resort.”

The jewels of the press conference were the announcements of “Super Mario Galaxy 2” and “Metroid: Other M”, which is made in partnership with Team Ninja of “Ninja Gaiden” fame. Both games won’t be around until sometime in 2010.

One game that looks to bridge the gap between casual and core gamers is “New Super Mario Bros.” for the Wii. Like the DS version, it is a side scrolling game but now allows four-player-drop-in co-op.

One of the oddest announcements of Nintendo’s press conference was the premier of the Wii vitality sensor. A device that looks it should be in a hospital instead of your living room.

With the majority of the time at the press conference spent talking about how casual gaming is still a growing demographic, can Nintendo bring back their core audience with the announcements of “Super Mario Galaxy 2” and “Metroid: Other M”?

E3 2009 predictions

Finally it’s June. The time of the year gamers look forward to with more zealous and anticipation than a crack addict getting their next fix. Every year the big three and the countless developers promise the world, which is sometimes delivered. What will this year have in store for the industry and what will be the life-altering announcements? Here are my pre-E3 predictions.

Nintendo is kicking ass and taking names with the continuing success of the Wii and the DS. There is, however, room for the improvement with their hardcore audience. Nintendo’s game library is being flooded daily by piss-poor excuses for games that cater to their casual gamer market. They need a new triple “A” title that they are known for.

Top websites are predicting it’s going to be a new “Legend of Zelda” or “Super Mario” with a few side notes about a true “Pikmin” for the Wii. If they’re smart, Nintendo would announce multiple titles. They need to bring back their core audience because who knows how long the soccer-mom-casual-gaming bubble is going to last.

Microsoft is in an interesting situation because they haven’t struggled with selling consoles or consumer confidence. There is the red ring problem but it seems to have died off and Microsoft handled it with some poise and grace. If Microsoft presents a strong release calendar, which they already have with “Halo:ODST” and “Mass Effect 2,” they have 2009-2010 in the bag.

The big hardware update, outside a less-than-probable 360 price drop, will be about the Zune HD. On May 26, Microsoft announced that the updated Zune will be able to connect to your Xbox Live account. In a press release Microsoft stated that the Zune will act as a remote for your account. What else it’ll do hasn’t been said but Microsoft stated that “attendees will see firsthand how Zune integrates into Xbox LIVE to create a game-changing entertainment experience.”

Sony, on the other hand, has the most to gain. Most of which is on the business end of the show. The most anticipated announcement is the long-rumored price drop. If Sony doesn’t announce this price drop, they are going seal the tomb of the PS3 so tight Kratos won’t be able to pry it open when “God of War III” is released.

There have also been rumors about a slim-line PS3 with a matte finish. Would this redesign accompany a PS3 price drop? Time will tell.

Unfortunately, the same goes for the PSP. It’s been on the market since 2005 and is in desperate need of a redesign from the ground up. The DSi already has a camera and a clean-cut online service. Both of which were concepts “in development” for the PSP. Sony needs to keep pace with Nintendo if not take the lead with a new handheld.

Besides the big three, there are a huge amount of games people are waiting to hear about. Will we hear about “Final Fantasy XIII’s” release date? What exactly did Infinity Ward change with “Modern Warfare 2”? What’s the release date for “Star Wars: the old Republic”? How much will OnLive cost?

Despite the announcements from console companies and developers being made it’s good to see E3 return to its former glory: A party for the video game industry with booth babes.

OnLive: The next Sega Channel or the video game messiah?

If you weren’t using the Internet during the the 2009 Game Developer’s Conference then you missed the video-game industry explosion that was OnLive.

For those who still don’t know, OnLive is potentially the fifth competitor to the big three–Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft–and the PC market. Offering full budget titles that will be processed and streamed straight to your onLive system. Meaning you no longer have to have a CIA super computer to run Crysis at full steam.

This all seems awfully familiar and too good to be true. A service that streams games with little or no down time straight to your system. Sounds like the 21 century’s Sega Channel.

Sega Chanel in its heyday streamed games to your Sega Genesis allowing you to play full titles without buying the game. You simply paid for the service. The service worked well and lasted longer than some systems after the Genesis.

Will OnLive bring subscirption based libraries back from video games’ past and become top contender of the industry? Maybe. GameSpot’s feature about onLive points to a lot of heavy-hitting publishers lining up behind OnLive.

In the April 19 issue of the San Jose Mercury News, Steve Perlman, onLive’s CEO, said that someone will sign up for the service and out of a $50 billion market those someones will be their market.

Will it put the final nail in the coffin of PC gaming since it takes the guess work out of building a specialty PC? No way, building your own towering monster is part of the draw of PC gaming and taking the opportunity to tinker away from a nerd isn’t going to happen.

OnLive is an interesting concept and it will change the way indusrty will look at publishing but it it wont change the indusrty overnight. What Onlive will do is cater to casual gamers who don’t know the difference between Xbox Live and their Nintendo channels.

Sex, Video Games and the ESRB

On Nov. 12, the ESRB released a new set of rating summaries to go into effect. Their press release states that all games since July 1, 2008 will have new content descriptors defining what’s in the game. While the content summaries have expanded, the actual rating of the games will stay the same, meaning the “early childhood” through “adult only” ratings are here to stay.

This started the hamster wheels in my head turning. What exactly makes a game notoriously Adult Only?

To unravel this mystery I turn to my current distraction; Gears of War 2. There’s plenty of violence, a plethora of gore and enough explitive to make a sailor on shore leave feel dirty – let’s face it, that’s why we buy it. Yet the game is rated mature. Damn, AO games must be extreme in comparison.

A search on the ESRB’s website reveals 23 adult only games. Among their despicable ranks are the likes of “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” with its sinful hot coffee, and the sex addicted “Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude: Uncut and Uncensored”. Sex. Cool. Where’s my gore, where’s my violence where are my exploding heads?

Out of the 23, only five are on the list for any type of violence, ranging from animated to intense, and all five are rated for “strong sexual content”. In fact, all but one has to do with sex; and a lot of it.

That’s “adult only”? Sex! Bumping the ugly, the forbidden tango, the horizontal hula. That’s more taboo than cutting a guy in half with a chainsaw while he lies dying on the ground?

Alright, but what about the ultra-violent “Manhunt 2”–after all, it was AO for a bit-–and the sexual innuendo rich “Postal 2”? These games have been banned by governments around the world for their violence and explicite material. The ESRB must have a Hannibal-Lecture plastic cage for these games! Nope, just mature; despite the ridiculously long content lists. In fact, Manhunt 2 wasn’t even among the ranks of the notorious 23.

There’s your answer. Sex is still the forbidden topic. Gamers can deal drugs, swear until they’re blue in the face and run pedestrians over on the street, but we can’t talk about the human act of breeding or its pleasures.

No wonder we get a rap for being sexual oppressed and socially enraged. Look what the industry says is okay.

World Of Warcraft and The Middle Class

The lessons from this presidential election can be applied to World of Warcraft. With McCain and Obama battling for the hearts and minds of the middle class, I’m reminded of the forgotten middle class in the Eastern Kingdoms.

No really, keep reading.

Blizzard announced on Friday that subscriptions for the game have reached 11 million. That’s potentially more people playing one game than living in the country of Hungary.

The thing is all those people can’t be the hardcore, 40 hours a week, Sun-Well Plateau players. A lot of these people playing are going to be anyone that play casually and will never see Illidan in the Black Temple.

Blizzard is happy to accommodate these players with a series of handouts if the players use the “Recruit-A-Friend” program. Drag one of your unwilling friends that has a pulse and a valid credit card and poof, like a trick from the magician at your fifth grade assembly, you are up for a slew of welfare gifts. Eased leveling when you and your amigo are together-–remember this is on top of the already watered down system–a super secret friend-to-friend decoder summoning stone – the super secret friend-to-friend decoder summoning stone is in fact, neither super nor secret and doesn’t decode anything –even the deluxe Zhevra mount. A terrible looking unicorn-zebra hybrid, that you get at level 30. Remember, that’s after the lowered the level requirements from 40.

Seems so long ago when you had to bust your ass for that stuff.

What about those players that are completely consumed by the damp darkness of their mom’s basements, who’s only source of light is the soft glow of Orgrimmar on their screen; well, they don’t need hand outs. Blizzard is happy to accommodate them by pitting their guilds against– from what I’ve heard–absurdly complex boss fights and gear with godlike properties and DPS counts that will make your opponent sh** their brains onto the arena floor.

What about–cliché, I know –“Jhett the Warrior”?

Now, there are handfuls of you saying “fool, STFU you’re a casual player”. I’m not. I used to be hot shit back in the day, running Molten Core and Black Wing Lair when they were the dungeons to run. But, I’m in college now and I refuse to fall back into the darkness that consumed my high school days. Why? Simply, I got more shit to do

So, where do the middle class players fit into Blizzard’s game plan? What about the players caught in obscurity?