passion4games

MODEL RAILWAYS PROMOTE SEXISM AND ARE AS ADDICTIVE AS COCAINE!

A guest post from our media expert:

A recent American study has concluded that as many as a million people, worldwide, are highly addicted to playing with model railways. The condition affects mainly middle aged males some of whom are alleged to spend up to eighty hours a week, involved in what experts have described as a ‘dangerously solitary pursuit’ and ‘a compulsion that interferes with normal life.’ A significant percentage of the respondents within the study suffered from agitation when they were unable to play with trains, or missed sleep or meals to tend to their layouts, or source small industrial shunters, online. In the extreme phases of addiction, men may regard personal hygiene as a waste of time, suffer from weight gain and disrupted sleep patterns, avoid phone calls from friends and find themselves lying about time spent tinkering with low reduction gear boxes.  

 The men are perceived to be in danger of losing all social skills and ceasing to interact with their families altogether. ‘We don’t know where this might go in the future,’ said a commentator on a recent television chat show. ‘After all, technology is developing all the time, and we have no idea what this kind of thing might be doing to their brains. These men seem to prefer lurking in their own attics, fiddling with ever more extensive layouts, rather than socialising with the oppposite sex or interacting with other human beings.’

Playing with model railways is admitted to be a largely male pursuit. Although the average model rail enthusiast is a middle aged man, companies make a determined effort to target young children while their parents – ignorant of the dangers – purchase whatever railway books and toys their children request. The addiction is fuelled by occasional conventions at which participants are encouraged to spend large sums of money. On a recent panel show, a media celebrity announced that many mass murderers had confessed to playing with model railways at some point, thus demonstrating an unambigious connection between model railways and psychosis. She further stated that travelling by real trains was infinitely preferable. ‘It’s giving these men access to houses, strange headwear and unregulated model railway kits that’s the problem,’ she said. ‘These activities promote sexism and are as addictive as cocaine. I would never ever participate in any activity which associated model trains with entertainment. It’s an outrage.’

Experts propose that one solution to this serious problem might be to develop online railway simulation computer games, during which addicts could at least interact with others in a more sociable and productive way.

 

Realtime Worlds

The troubles affecting one of Scotland’s largest video game developers, Realtime Worlds, are a sad reminder of the perils which impinge on all of us who love and work in, or want to work in the video games industry. This kind of event isn’t just disastrous for the company – it’s bad for its creditors and investors and bad for the Scottish industry as a whole. The coalition government, intent on withdrawing support from the industry, should take note. It’s very hard to get people ‘off benefits’ if you are also creating the very conditions which jeopardise jobs.

But can we learn something from this? Perhaps we can. In an industry which is changing and developing so quickly, perhaps it was inadvisable to concentrate all efforts on a project so huge, so expensive, and something which would take so very long to develop. Something – dare we say it – so very macho. It seems to us, that gambling a great deal of time and money on any single project is a risk only worth taking if the project in question is part of a classic franchise with a certain ‘buzz’ remaining from previous iterations.

But hindsight is easy. If the gamble had come off, we’d all be on the sidelines cheering. All the same, smaller, more flexible companies which can react to current situations –Tag Games, another Dundee based company, springs to mind – are likely to do better in this very difficult economic climate. Realtime was a company we wanted to work for, a company we admired – but it was also a supertanker of a company, and they are notoriously difficult to slow down and turn round, when faced with oncoming hazards. All the same, our sympathies are with the whole company – there, but for the grace of God, go most of us. Let’s hope a buyer is found, and that many of the jobs can be saved.

Five Tips for Aspiring Designers

I would like to begin by stating that I am far from a games industry veteran, and not the fount of all gaming knowledge. The tips below are generated from my own personal experience, although I imagine many people will relate to them.

 

1) Learn to write well

You will know if you cannot program, you will know if you cannot create 3D character models, you will know if you cannot animate. The people who know they cannot do any of the above will likely believe they can write. It is almost a sad fact of life that writing is one of those skills which falls under the 'anyone can do that' category, whether it be technical, analytical or creative. Oftentimes, aspiring designers create design documents because it is deemed the easy option compared to programming and art. Why should writing the design document be the easy option, if done properly? There are many who state that the most important program a designer must use is the word processor, but you'd be surprised as to how many cannot use one...

 

2) Avoid too much work on story

This follows on very much from 'learning to write well'. The following is paraphrased from a very informative email I received. There are many wannabee designers who become far too hung up on the story of a game. We can all understand the appeal, and it is likely judged 'do-able' as discussed above. However, a designer may never go near the story of a game, even more so in the junior ranks. A Game Writer is distinct from Game Designer, although they can overlap. Being realistic here, Game Writers are often professional, award winning writers before even being considered. To achieve good storytelling in games requires the combined talents of the whole development team, which means the small games you create with your college friends will have minimal story (Point and click adventure being a possible exception). Even if you are very much a creative designer, and not particularly technical (mod community, scripting, etc), there is a lot more you can do than simply writing down story ideas. Design puzzles, doodle, draw diagrams, use MS Paint (yes!), put together a combat or damage system, use your imagination.

 

3) Give programming a year and don't let it put you off

You will hear many people casually talking about learning to program. I have to say I do not see much learning within the programming discipline. It is a heavily aptitude based skill, with a you can or you can't factor. If you are thinking of undertaking a Computer Science or Games Technology degree, then my advice would be to give programming a year. If you genuinely practise and throw everything at your coursework, but see no sign of improvement after this point, then cut your losses and get out. It will save you a lot of stress later on. It will not get any easier and as the material becomes more abstract you will become even more confused. I've got a degree in Pure Maths so I'm not saying this lightly. Designers are not Programmers! I must stress this.

 

4) Realists are Pessimists, take it with a pinch of salt.

Nine times out of ten, those of us who aspire to be successful in the creative industries will come across this breed of person. They get away with it, and it is something I feel strongly about. You may come across this type when asking for career advice - they will take a heavily sceptical tone, remind you of how hard it is to make it big, inform you of the million miles there is between you and your dreams. Vapid, thoughtless bullshit basically. Remind them that you are not a 14 year old who just wants to be famous. You are probably passionate, dedicated, talented, highly qualified, and above all just asking for some friendly tips! These people probably 'piggy back' on the industry, and have likely been burned by sideways promotions, bad decisions, or their own general negativity. This is sad for them but don't let it affect you.

I understand that I mentioned being realistic with regard to game writing, but I must stress the difference between being practically realistic on occasion, for your own development, compared to being a complete realist. We all know that not everyone will become a Hollywood star, but to me, these individuals never truly believe that anything good will happen to them.

 

5) How do you beat catch 22... To get experience with no experience

This is the main problem facing graduates looking to break into games, and sadly I have no easy answer to this. The best I can come up with is never to give up... Try everything you can possibly think of. Go to conferences, make friends in high places or even in low places (any contacts in the industry are good), undertake slave labour *cough* I mean unpaid internships, make small games, get a position in the QA department; but always be working on your own projects in your free time. You'll have to find a roundabout way, and get a bit lucky! So long as you are enjoying what you do, none of this time will be wasted.

Igniting the Old Flame - Heavy Rain

I think it's a great shame that story driven games have been - to a great extent - sidelined by today's market. It's fair to say that traditional point and click adventure games have been superceded by action-adventure games. This, I feel,  is a natural progression. The wherewithall to include real-time action-based sequences became available and developers jumped at the chance. This certainly 'sells' a game concept to the public. The slower paced adventuring elements remained and became integrated into the bigger picture. A similar fate befell arcade 'one versus many' beat 'em ups; the idea of melee combat against many CPU controlled opponents became a central gameplay system of the action adventure game.

This is, however, not an excuse for overlooking the story element of games. In my opinion, there are far too many games which 'tag' a story onto the minute-to-minute gameplay. The result is an action montage in  which rash and persistent gamers feel the need to one hundred percent complete the game, with all collectibles and achievements/trophies. The 'fair enough' argument does exist. If it sells, why change it? But this doesn't help the serious problem of stagnation. I see it happening already with the creativity dwindling away within this so called creative industry. Fewer risks are being taken, more franchises with 'x' number of sequels and there are, of course, fewer opportunities for new and aspiring developers. My list could go on and on.

This is why I'll support new IPs every step of the way. Heavy Rain is one such. It's a mature, story driven, interactive drama, following the actions of four very different people, as they track the Origami Killer, a serial killer on the loose who drowns his targets, leaving only an origami figure and an orchid on the victim's body. Even the synopsis on the back of the game's box had me intrigued. Although far from a traditional adventure title, it is the modern day equivalent, focussing fully on the story. It's a game where memorising complex strings of buttons is not necessary. It is also a much needed game, something a bit more sophisticated and imaginative for the older, indeed less stereotypical gamer.

I anxiously await its release in Europe and I'll be posting my thoughts during my time with the game.

Experience, experience, experience...

 
It has gradually been brought home to passion4games that we have a problem. Or perhaps that should be a more general statement. There is a problem. It is one that affects any young person who is thinking about a career in the video games industry - and at the last count that was a great many young people. Just look at the courses on offer, as we plan to do over the next year or so. It is a problem of such magnitude that any suggestions as to how it can be remedied would be very welcome indeed.

How does a young graduate, with a reasonably rigorous degree from an excellent university, a strong cv, plenty of enthusiasm, and a certain amount of work experience, get -  well, to put it bluntly, more relevant experience? Enough experience, in other words, to begin to be considered for a job within the games industry that doesn't involve a tremendously short, zero hours contract (advances on two months, anyone?) on minimum wage with no possibility of advancement.

One of us, here at passion4games, finds himself in just such a position. All jobs advertised in any area of video games other than extremely short contracts in Quality Assurance (testing) - interesting and informative as these often are - demand 'three years minimum experience.' And by 'experience', these ads don't mean in QA. They mean in design and production.  But where is one to go, to get that experience, since there is not, so far as we can see, a single company offering any kind of junior/trainee/internship position, paid or unpaid, in either design or production within the multi million pound games industry in the UK, or even elsewhere?

And there's another problem. QA contracts can indeed be interesting and informative. They teach you a great deal. But they are in no sense seen as part of a career continuum. This is so much the case that, at interview, the ambition to progress within the industry, no matter how many years in the future - far from earning the interviewee brownie points as it might in so many other industries - will count against him or her. It's as if a medical school grad could only expect to find employment as a ward clerk, and - moreover - was expected to stay as a ward clerk for the foreseeable future. It might be useful experience for a while, but it wouldn't be your sole aim in life and you would begin to wonder (a) why you had bothered with all the studying and (b) how you were ever going to afford a decent standard of living. Not banker bonus rates you understand. Just enough to take the occasional holiday, rent a decent flat, begin to crawl out of the hole of your student debt.

In our more specific case, the graduate in question is full of enthusiasm for the whole industry, articulate, imaginative and committed, with a degree in maths, but with skills in writing, both creative and analytical and in puzzle design as well. He has been told that he has a very strong cv. He has university level programming experience, significant QA experience, which he would be more than happy to improve upon in the short term and a black belt in karate, so he could advise on martial arts as well! He would go anywhere and work - probably - for peanuts or less, if only somebody out there would agree to do what companies in other fields (supermarkets for instance) seem happy to do - employ him and commit to giving him some on-the-job training in design or production or both.

He is not, sadly, alone. We know of plenty of intelligent and committed young people out there, and realise that there must be hundreds, possibly thousands, many of whom have actually done dedicated video games courses, who cannot get work or even work experience for love nor money. The recession is - frankly - no excuse. If the games industry cannot find some way of nurturing and supporting its new talent, who else will do it?

Martial Arts and Fighting Games

Because combat is and will remain an important theme among many modern titles, it follows that many martial arts styles will be referenced in a number of ways throughout the industry. Naturally, 3D Fighting is the obvious genre to consider, although adventure and RPG games such as Shenmue use martial arts to form a core gameplay element. In some ways this happens in a more creative sense, since the nature of the RPG is to develop the characters' abilities over the course of the game rather than simply using what has been given at the outset.
I have always found it interesting to consider the depiction of martial arts in video games and it's a topic that passion4games will return to in the future. It is of course anything but realistic, although some titles attempt to recreate more realistic combat sequences than others. This is not necessarily a positive with regard to a particular game or series: a totally realistic fight sequence would be over in less than a second! And there are many individuals out there who firmly believe that martial arts teaches you various 'unbeatable' moves that could be executed during a bar brawl... They really do play too many video games!
Having said that, there are some similarities: relaxation for example. Martial Arts centre around inner relaxation. With regard to fighting games, you simply cannot input complex commands with speed if you are tense. Relaxed, nimble fingers are essential.It is also interesting to consider how fighting sequences are enhanced in video games. Many games include ridiculous pyrotechnics during hand-to-hand combat,  explosions whenever a fist makes contact, or possibly swirls of light and even flashes of lightning accompanying moves and attacks. These certainly make any game aesthetically pleasing. Realistic tends to equate with boring, in the world of games. Games often include many other supernatural elements, such as teleportation or time travel. Although these are, of course, fantastical, they do occasionally echo real martial arts philosophies, in some sense. The focus of power and energy is practised during training  although in a game you would actually see the energy as a blue flash of light. The film House of Flying Daggers, could - in fact - be seen as an extraordinary visual realisation of a genuine philosophy.  

Non-Arguments When Reviewing

I recently loaded up Shenmue 2 on the Xbox and started another run through the game, something that I haven't done in a while. But revisiting it confirmed that It really is my favourite game (or rather series) of all time! As far as I'm concerned, it simply never palls.
Certain reviews of games give lists of pros and cons as well as a final verdict. Some time ago I noticed that a particular review criticised Shenmue's fighting system because it was not as versatile as the Virtua Fighter series. (From which it was derived). This seems a little unreasonable. Of course it isn't as versatile. Virtua Fighter does not have a wealth of RPG/adventure gameplay to contend with. A dedicated fighting game will have a terrific, sharp, combat system compared to that of an action adventure game, but it must be understood that despite the fact that it probably isn't possible to implement a hugely detailed fight system into a title like Shenmue, it may also be unwise to do so. The target audience is quite different and many of the gamers who enjoy adventure based titles are not going to be the kind of hardcore tournament level fighting game players who would be attracted to the likes of Virtua Fighter. For myself, I feel that Shenmue is sometimes  judged very harshly. But that may well be because I, personally, find it to be one of the most underrated titles ever released!

Why are video games denigrated?

Why are Video Games so denigrated when other creative media are not? This is a question that has interested and irritated me in about equal measure for years. It seems to me that double standards operate when it comes to criticism of video games. Far too many media commentators thoughtlessly equate video games with mindless violence. When you ask such people what games they have actually played, they seem unable to name any. Or begin analysing the appeal of Pacman, and wonder why the youth of today waste their time moving 'a little man around a screen'. Similarly, certain sections of the press complain about the violence of games without batting an eyelid at 18 rated films, forgetting to blame parents who must surely take some responsibility for buying such games for ten year olds, blithely unaware of their 'adult' content, in spite of warnings in the shops, on the box, and all over the media.

It strikes me, however, that part of the problem lies with the term 'game' itself. The definition of the word which instantly springs to mind is 'amusement or pastime'. But many games of today share the creative, emotional and deeply involving qualities of film and similar artforms while other, more competitive games have tremendous depths of playability which puts them on a par with many sports. An old school teacher once told me that I would certainly not still be interested in video games when I was in my thirties. Well, I suspect I will be, just because this amazing, exciting medium will, by then, be stitched into the fabric of all our lives, and recognised for the exciting and inifitely variable artform it is.  But  maybe, just maybe, I'll be feeling nostalgic about the Playstation 3 when I'm in my 70s, while my grandchildren are raving about their personal Virtual Reality systems!

Where game ideas come from...

Attending a game development conference at the excellent Edinburgh Interactive Festival certainly inspired me to continue pursuing my dream of working as a game designer. I have read countless job descriptions and personal quality lists online and in magazines with regard to the coveted position of game designer. They all, of course,  say more or less the same thing, but there are sadly many people who still believe programming and design are the same thing. As stated at the conference, a designer should essentially be a 'jack of all trades', somebody who has many interests and has taken part in many different activities over the years.
It's true that this life experience is where creative ideas come from. Of course, a designer must be an avid gamer, but if that is all they do, then their ideas will be hopeless clones of existing titles. Apparently, Tōru Iwatani, the designer of the arcade classic Pacman, got the idea from working on his garden, watching insects and flowers in the grass! Similarly  the 'Octocamo' camouflage system in Guns of the Patriots, was inspired by the blending characteristics of the octopus. Anyone with an ounce of imagination - me for instance! -  can see a wealth of ideas floating around, many of which would make terrific games. But with the industry, it's a question of getting a foot in the door, and that's where the real challenge lies!