Developers are beginning to realize that multiplayer online games, and how these If you look at any medium, most of what this might be faulty logic. With more must fall for the genre to grow. It seems you’ll find is worthless but there is the games being made every year, and each as though there’s a movement afoot! To occasional truly amazing thing out there. of those games, on average, costing read these articles, and more about How many truly godawful movies does it In the quest for the AAA title, it seems our more to make, pleasing first and casual games, check out this week’s take before we get one as good as beloved game industry sometimes forgets foremost a rather small segment of the issue of The Escapist. [insert your choice for best movie ever]. what it’s about: entertaining. While population that most people don’t have How many comics are written before we photorealistic graphics can enhance a time to be a part of (no matter how Cheers, read one as thoughtful and heartfelt as gameplay experience, do they really add to much they might like to), is less than Maus or as complex, nuanced and entertainment? Or perhaps making a game fiscally responsible. intricate as Watchmen? Novels were longer, like some of the 100+ hour RPGs on originally treated as a worthless form of the market – is that more entertaining than But alienating them is no good either. entertainment just like video games are one that’s, say, 40 hours? Traditional “casual games” (I put in today. I haven’t done any research but I quotes because I’ve … ahhh … seen bet most art forms were not instantly I’m not saying that games can’t have a other people … ahem … obsess over accepted to be worthwhile and even then deeper purpose than entertaining, but things like and Sudoku.) often do were still filled with worthless iterations. they are likely to get their point across a not hold hardcore gamers’ attention the little better if they are. This is the same way an RPG does. What is a game It’s amazing because the modern forms with educational books, television or developer to do? In response to “Why Do We Bother” of cinema, television, video games and movies; those that entertain are often from The Escapist Forum: I’m comics are all relatively new art forms more engaging, and therefore, fulfill Perhaps the mark is somewhere in the reminded of the beginning of Scott and we get to live in a time where we their purpose a bit better. middle? There’s certainly a trend in that McCloud’s book Understanding Comics. can witness the growth of them. It’s a direction. As we see in Drake’s article, In it, he speaks of his earliest time when change is sweeping us and So, if the purpose is to entertain, no long time casual game experts, Popcap, experiences with comics, how at first be it’s going to take a while before the matter the subject, why do games are moving a little more toward a fully believed them all to be worthless general public gets on board. continuously get bigger and better and fleshed out RPG with their new title, superhero garbage. Eventually a friend brighter and faster? Why are new Deluxe. In Pitts’ persuades him to give comics another One of these days, scholars will look at features/graphics/hours and hours of article, renowned game designer Warren chance and he falls in love with the craft. the origins of the art forms, perhaps gameplay added at questionable Spector talks about moving toward more On the next page he concedes that most asking students to slog through the entertainment value? To push the limits. digestible, less complex games. And of what’s out there is poorly written and primitive games of the past, looking for To utilize new technology. To challenge Aihoshi talks about the barriers to entry crudely drawn, but comics don’t have to meaning and insight into culture. Even seasoned players. To please the hardcore. in the current crop of massively be that way. know, video games are quite diverse. The games I play come from all over Europe, impressions in our mind, so we spend Japan and Korea, even such obscure the rest of our lives in that comfort zone. countries as Croatia. There’s something awesome here and at some point, we’ll all - bduff accept it as great but until then, it’s our art form to love and cherish. In response to “Fei Long and Justin Wong “ from The Escapist Forum: - Ayavaron “You had to be there.” Maybe that is true after all because I fail to understand how In response to “Why Do We Bother” you reached your conclusion. While your from The Escapist Forum: I’m I premises are interesting, and worked in the game industry for 8 years investigation nationalism and racism is right out of college. I’ve always loved the diversion from real life. That’s all it really is, a diversion. There are artistic merits within the diversion, but none that really benefit anything outside of the diversion itself. We’ve seen games crossover to other diversions like movies and books, but essentially provide the same benefits in a different medium. I cannot make the case for this diversion to others. It’s similar to when I try to explain to non- hockey enthusiasts why I like the sport of hockey. Just because I tell someone what I like, doesn’t make it any more palatable to that person. Oftentimes what we enjoy comes from early experiences that leave positive

always important, you have made out predominantly made up of Japanese was the challenge of besting the side with the different categories to be monolithic. players cheering their own? the most wins and a younger , if you will, who has yet to be dethroned. Now I think the burden is still on you to show - donquixote compound that with legions that clamor that racial or national allegiance is a key for his defeat and you can see the factor in elite competitive gaming (XBox In response to “Fei Long and Justin passionate outbursts of their reactions. Live, along with WoW, is another story). Wong “ from The Escapist Forum: It’s my experience that the Daigo fan club Being an “Asian-American”, myself; I However, the points you bring up our cuts across racial and national think the assertion of two view points astounding, be it bad or good, your demographies. Or is Diago’s play style an “American vs. Asian”, seems a bit narrow article gives some knowledgeable insight exception to the rule? I think the reason in context of the event, EVO 2004. I was into the many different social issues in why so many robotic, precise and there to witness the action and entered a the melting pot that is America. And it’s methodical players crop up is that the tournament or two. Although, there were great to see some different commentary game mechanics make it so effective. We a few dissenters among the audience, a on the theme within the industry. only get to see the elite Japanese players, good vibe was generally expressed amid and they leave a skewed view. If we go to the competitors and spectators. I - Gnomey Japan we’ll probably find just as many presume a varying degree of inclinations cocky, flashy, and impatient players incurred instead. bubbling beneath the elite. And they are more popular than the Justin counterparts. A bit more background information should That’s my impression anyway. be given to readers about Justin Wong, and the warring opinions of “The East My point is that you might be over Coast vs West Coast” that plagues the analyzing this. Sure gamers are competition. Between the fighting game conscious of race but we are a lot more communities, therein lies its own rivalries. conscious of skill. And because we play In a particular game, MVC2, the face to face, the other stereotypes that competition is fierce within the U.S and we might have had about race fade away Americans can claim to be victors. Most with increased camaraderie. Or did I followers of the scene are quite familiar miss something? Was the EVO audience with the escapades of Justin Wong and his cohorts whom reside over in the eastern side of US. Brought with them One of the most fascinating presentations Released for the PS2 in 2005, Buzz!: The scored a near instant hit. Yet the game, at this year’s Game Developer Conference Music Quiz is, in every sense of the unsurprisingly, received very little was given by a man I’d never heard of word, a casual game. Packaged with four fanfare in the gaming press, and the whose game, hasn’t even been released brightly-colored buzzer peripherals, the company’s showing at the E3 trade show in the United States. The presentation game allows up to four players to in 2005 generated little buzz, if you will. “Making Games for the Other 90%,” participate in the equivalent of a game chronicled the process of developing a show in their own living room, using the “Nobody really cared about [Buzz],” says game that would sell millions of copies, buzzers to, well, buzz in with their Amor. “For some reason it’s considered establish a franchise and get people answers. David Amor says that when an un-sexy thing to be doing.” Un-sexy who’d never picked up a controller to play they set out to develop Buzz!, they perhaps, but profitable. In spite of a . The game was considered originally wanted to make an artful game negative, almost ireful reviews (“Buzz? a joke when it debuted at E3 in 2005, but with a unique, almost visionary design, Snore.”), Buzz! had a strong retail today, David Amor, Creative Director at involving a “crazy alien game show showing upon release, and literally UK-based Relentless Software, and host,” a cactus for a hostess and a cleaned up over the 2005 holiday season. developer of -selling PS2 title of singing clam. “I don’t know what we 2005, is the one laughing - all the way to were smoking,” he says. What they “[Buzz! was] ’s biggest-selling title the bank. made instead was a game which, at the of 2005 … and way up there in 2006,” request of Sony, the game’s publisher, Amor says. “[We] sold over 4 million was “more like television.” units of the Buzz! franchise … in its first 15 months. So by any measure it’s a “And I think it was the right decision,” successful title.” says Amor. “I think we have a tendency to add more complexity where it’s not “Wildly Successful” necessary. … We had to be brave in a In his presentation at GDC, David Amor way to say … we think people will be outlined the characteristics of games happy with [simplicity].” that appeal to the mass market. Among them: familiarity, simplicity and Running counter to what seems to be approachability. Amor (as well as an common sense (in this industry), increasingly large number of high-profile Relentless held back, safeguarded the developers) believes that most games envelope and released a game with very are too complex and too intimidating for little inspiration, almost no “verve” and non-gamers. “People have a low threshold for wanting According to the IGDA’s Casual Gaming Teen. “If you look at companies who to find out how games work,” says Amor. Whitepaper, more people should listen have no experience with advergames, “When you create a game that has a new to Mayes’s mom. Almost 40 percent of but they’re used to more typical forms of set of rules and spend a tutorial people in America play computer advertising, they’re used to spending explaining how it works that’s a very games, and the majority of these millions of dollars [on traditional intimidating thing to have to do. I think gamers play casual games. 70 percent advertising]. But this kind of advertising if you make something that people know of them are women. only holds a user’s attention for possibly about already then you don’t have to fifteen seconds, if that. [Advergaming is] teach them so much.” “If you make a game fun enough and so much more robust and engaging, addictive enough,” says Mayes, “not only they’ll hold a user’s attention for fifteen This may be news to some developers, do [users] stay longer and longer, but minutes, 30 minutes, an hour and the but not to web-based game developers they also tell their friends about it.” whole time they’re being exposed to like New York based Arkadium, one of a Which is exactly the point. Game your brand and all your products. It’s a growing number of companies making designers, like David Amor, call this word really sticky form of advertising.” so-called advergames, small, web-based of mouth. But advertisers call it “going games designed to promote and viral.” When a game or advertisement Wild Tangent agrees. Founded in 1998 by popularize a product and be fun at the reaches a critical mass of popularity, and Alex St. John, one of the architects of same time. Their site, greatdaygames. friends of friends of friends start telling Microsoft’s DirectX, Wild Tangent has com, which doubles as their portfolio and their friends about it too, you’ve scored a since been making its name, like new PC this year, chances are you’ll also catalog, features over 100 small, hit, whether you’re selling the game or Arkadium, in the advergaming and be buying a Wild Tangent game. Over 85 efficient web-based games, many of hawking the product it’s attached to. casual game sphere. And making it big. percent of all new PCs ship with the Wild which are quite capable of laying waste Before long, you’ve reached the mass Tangent game client pre-installed, giving to an entire afternoon. market. “[Traditional publishers] are in the movie users instant access to Wild Tangent’s business,” says Dave Madden, Executive vast library of web-based games, and “As a whole there is this ... demographic “[Advergaming] is wildly successful,” Vice President of Wild Tangent. “We’re in Wild Tangent access to you. Wild for the ‘not-hardcore’ gamer,” says says Mayes, and he should know. the TV business. We’re a middle man.” A Tangent, according to Madden, is out for Arkadium’s Director of Game Production, Arkadium recently signed a deal with The middle man perhaps, but with high nothing less than “ownership of the Jeremy Mayes. “I think of my mom all Hearst Corporation, to create online ambitions. Wild Tangent, according to desktop,” and if 85 percent can be the time. She emails me links [saying] games for potentially every single one of their own website, was named the 5th considered a majority stake, one would ‘Check this out. I played this for hours.’ Hearst’s publications, including Cosmo, most popular online game property by have to argue that they’ve made it. That sort of thing.” Redbook, Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, and comScore Media Metrix and if you buy a sponsored by According to IGDA’s whitepaper, the based casual games, for the most part, advergaming market will account for over have eliminated a lot of that pressure. $500 million in advertising and Whereas the typical blockbuster game sponsorship revenues by 2008, and casual (Like Gears of War) may take anywhere games as a whole over $2 billion, which is from 18 months to several years and more than the GDP of a significant number millions of dollars to develop, casual of westernized nations. To say casual games, by contrast, average only a few games, therefore, are taking over the months, and a fraction of a million world, would not be too far from the truth. dollars. But that doesn’t make them any To say they’re taking over the industry less compelling or any less fun. Again, would be even closer. judging by the numbers alone, one would have to argue the exact opposite. “The Other 90 Percent” “Web development is so fast,” says “You have to be super disciplined,” says Arkadium’s Tom Rassweiler. “You can David Amor, “and say ‘what people really have an idea - a simple idea that’s totally want is the same thing as last time, but out of the box - and have a prototype to with new [content].’” And that’s exactly test in two days. [By contrast] we were what his company gives them. Since the talking to somebody one who was 2005 release of Buzz, Relentless has working for a long time on this game developed and shipped two more entries that they knew probably wasn’t going to in the franchise, each using the same work, but they [had to] get it further. … big, red buzzer peripherals, and they’re And there’s pressure from the top and currently at work on a fourth title in the it’s already in production … talking about series. The original, Buzz! The Music this 10-month development schedule for Quiz, is still selling at full price, more a game that they know isn’t any good.” than a year after its release. Most games only last a few months at full retail. That kind of pressure is all too familiar to anyone who’s worked in the trenches of “I think if you looked at the way [Buzz!] traditional game development, but web- sold,” says Amor, “it was bought by people who don’t normally play games Amor. “If you bring along the right game, games. I absolutely believe that if you and played by people who don’t play people are going to buy it.” really think about those people … then I games. … The other 90 percent of people think that they will buy the games that - people that don’t play games - are But what’s the right game? For Amor’s we make.” ready to play games.” Relentless it was a quiz game that looked - and played - like a TV show; a game Russ Pitts is an Associate Editor for The Amor admits he pulled this percentage people could identify with because it was Escapist. He has written and produced out of “thin air,” but he’s not far off, and at once familiar, simple and accessible. for television, theatre and film, has been he’s also not the only developer thinking “These kinds of games are more writing on the web since it was invented in those terms. The legendary Warren important than Gears of War,” says and claims to have played every console Spector, who’s long championed a Amor. “These are games your girlfriend ever made. His blog can be found at refinement of what some might consider buys. It’d be depressing to think we www.falsegravity.com. “high-brow” game design, targeting keep making the same games for the gamers who prefer deeper, more same set of people forever.” complex, story-based games, also recognizes that the future of gaming lies Spector agrees. “How can we be satisfied in the hands of people who wouldn’t play letting players jump from cover point to System Shock in a million years. cover point so they can kill somebody?” he asks. His vision of the future involves “We’ve got to sell a lot more copies or iconic characters and meaningful stories. we aren’t going to be able to make A world and design in which a talented games anymore,” said Spector at his storyteller can create something unique. GDC lecture titled “The Future of Spector is currently espousing simpler, Storytelling in Next-Gen Development.” cheaper design techniques in favor of “If giving people what we already give putting more resources behind story and them was enough, all of those non- actual game design. gamers - which is most of the world - would already be gamers.” “If we start making games that appeal to non-gamers,” says Amor. “Then those “We reach such a tiny amount of people people will eventually start playing more when we make video games,” agrees sophisticated games, more story-based PopCap Games built an empire on a completing some initial work on the game, legion of casual gamers, feeding simple the team decided, “maybe it would be fun but addictive titles like Zuma and to put Lex from Bookworm into the game, to a nation of people looking at which point, it really seemed to gel.” for something easy and fun to play. Their However, turning their game into an epic recent release of Bookworm Adventures RPG required something they hadn’t Deluxe came as a surprise: A $700,000 considered: “a lot of content. Lots of budget and two and a half years of work monsters, lots of levels, lots of ‘stuff,’ and is the kind of heavy lifting PopCap that’s what ended up consuming so much usually shies away from. Bookworm time for us.” Adventures Deluxe combined an impressively-polished homage to RPGs PopCap isn’t used to epic- with the clickability and fun of Popcap’s development, he said. They usually work own Bookworm seemed to indicate a with small teams, “one programmer, one new sort of direction for the company. artist, one game designer, and BAD was pretty much along those lines, with a Jason Kapalka is “one of the three co- couple extra artists on contract, which is founders of PopCap (along with Brian Fiete why it took so long.” He called the and John Vechey), and the Creative $700,000 figure “a little approximate,” Director of the company, which means I saying, “We don’t really keep track of oversee the design of all the games to game budgets in that way, usually.” make sure they’re up to PopCap PopCap usually doesn’t “have big teams standards.” He says Bookworm Adventures working on games in the traditional Deluxe didn’t start out as the epic project game-company fashion.” Usually, they go it wound up becoming. Putting all that with a different model, using “a lot of effort into a single game “wasn’t entirely a smaller teams working on a bunch of conscious choice,” he said. “As with most games simultaneously. We spend a lot of of our games, Bookworm Adventures time prototyping and testing, and throw started as a rough prototype — originally out quite a few games if they’re not fun called Spellcraft — which featured more enough, so that kind of ‘R&D’ does add traditional wizards and monsters, along up, in terms of costs. We hope it’s with the spelling mechanic.” After worthwhile, in that we want PopCap to have a reputation for only releasing all the more complex RPG mechanics — and the ‘casual’ space, which you’re really good titles.” With that said, were introduced very gradually.” also seeing on , where Bookworm Adventures Deluxe is “the you have people who bought a $400 largest game we’ve released to date, and While some were surprised to see the game system using it to play Bejeweled I think it does represent a higher bar for PopCap crew trying out a different genre, or Zuma.” For all that’s made of the polish and content than we’ve previously the company itself doesn’t “see hardcore-casual divide, he thinks “there had, so the challenge now is to make Bookworm Adventures as a departure are fewer differences between these two sure that all our future titles live up to from our core mission at all, really.” He crowds than people think. They’ve both and surpass the bar.” says they’ve “always been more just gotten used to different channels for interested in trying out different things, getting their games. If you’re a hardcore The game itself was a small team effort, [rather] than in just milking a formula to console gamer, well, until recently, there but it quickly became a labor of love. “I death. We’ve only done one sequel so simply was no way you could find even a put together the original spec for the far, after all [], where we light puzzle game for your system.” game,” Jason said, “but fairly early on in could have probably been pumping out development, it became a labor of love Zuma 5 by now. Our earlier shoot-em-up Something else PopCap is trying is an for a couple other people, who really game, , is certainly more open-source toolkit, offered freely as made the game [what] it is today: Tysen of a ‘serious’ game than BAD, I think, in part of the PopCap Developer Program, Henderson, who was the producer and that it’s definitely aimed more at a intended to make it easier for aspiring artist, and Jeff Weinstein, the traditional audience for violent games.” developers to make games. I asked him programmer.” BAD shows a real love for if this was a blue-sky thing, or simply RPGs and the tropes of the genre, as Right around the time of the interview, another avenue to look to for might be expected from a group of people I’d noticed PopCap games popping up on submissions. “Honestly, we’re not very Jason describes as “pretty big fans of Steam — one of the homes for that aggressive about publishing other obscure RPGs, and even more obscure/ traditional audience for violent games. people’s games,” he says. “The convoluted games. … So, yes, a lot of the He says they’d worked with “lots of Developer Program is not at all about stuff in BAD is an homage to more portals and publishers, like Real Arcade, luring people in. Brian Fiete, our CTO traditional roleplaying games. We just MSN Games, Yahoo Games, Shockwave and the author of the PopCap framework, wanted to make sure it retained an ease and so on, so doing something with just wanted to make these tools of use and accessibility and didn’t slide off Steam seemed like a logical extension.” available to new developers.” into obscurity and excess complexity, so a He adds, “The interesting thing here is great deal of effort went into making sure seeing the overlap between supposedly The framework would give them “a leg hardcore gamers — the Half-Life 2 crowd up in getting started, so they might focus on creating cool new games, and developer had gotten to a playable stage, guarantee that everybody will like every the web to PC retail, to cell phones, to not on refining technical stuff and which we thought we could help refine game, but we want to minimize all the Xboxes and so on. So, that’s one angle chasing bugs.” While he acknowledges it and polish, and then publish and market. hurdles that prevent people from for PopCap, expanding in different helps PopCap, he says that help is It has to be something pretty amazing for enjoying a title, [like] nasty interfaces, formats and channels.” When it comes to indirect, “by hopefully raising the quality us to pick [it] up, though, at least in high difficulty curves, unintuitive new games, Bookworm Adventures bar for the whole casual games industry.” potential. We’re not likely to publish gameplay and so on.” He describes the Deluxe is only the beginning of their Not all developers believe in their benign something that’s just a derivative of one ideal PopCap game as “timeless or dabbling. “We’re definitely experimenting intentions, he says. “A fair number of of our own titles.” evergreen, like Monopoly or Tetris. It with some unusual new genres that developers are still suspicious of this and should be just as fun and playable five aren’t usually thought of as ‘casual.’ At can’t believe the PopCap framework PopCap’s goal, in their own games and years from now as it is today.” the same time, we’re continuing with doesn’t have some sneaky catch built in, the ones they get from others, is to more traditional puzzle games.” He’s whereby they’ll be beholden to us, or make games “playable by everybody, As for the company itself, they’re “doing unwilling to give out hints, saying it’s all we’ll have the rights to seize their game from my mom to an oil rig welder to [their] best to make [their] games as “very hush-hush right now.” But in the or something. But it really is pretty much traditional videogamers. We can’t universally available as possible, from next couple of years, “you’ll be seeing free to use, with no obligations.” some really strange things from us.” He won’t predict their success or failure, he Aspiring developers should note, though: says, “but it should be interesting either “We very rarely look at a submission if it’s way!” just in the idea stage. Ideas are a dime a dozen, really, and it’s very hard to be able Shannon Drake is a Contributing Editor to tell if something in this vein will be fun, for The Escapist and changed his name just by looking at a proposal. Try writing when he became a citizen. It used to be up a description of Tetris or Bejeweled, Merkwürdigeliebe. and show it to someone not familiar with the game. It’s just incomprehensible.” However, once games have reached the prototype stage, they’re quite willing to look. “A number of our games are co- development efforts we’ve done with external people that started at this stage. and , for instance. These were games that an external My wife, a gamer so casual she’s the aberration. Until, that is, I introduced her boxers and T-shirt to my three-piece to Live Arcade and games like Hexic, Uno business suit of gaming, was one of the and the great time-killer Lumines Live!. half dozen or so people on the planet who absolutely loved Black & White. In the six As she managed an endless flow of years since the game’s release, she still descending squares, I saw in her a speaks fondly of her once kind and glimpse of the feral gamer. Lumines was benevolent cow, a pleasant beast I the full moon to her lycanthropic gamer inadvertently shuffled to an untimely side, and to see it revealed was both oblivion during a hard drive wipe. startling and glorious. In a moment of Whenever Black & White comes up in a inspiration, I decided to see if I could discussion, my bovinicide is rarely omitted. draw the hardcore gamer from within her. Looking back, this may have been But during the weeks when she and her similar to what my wife thought the time cow tripped the digital fandango, she was she took me to swing dance classes. beguiled by the kind of hardcore gamer mania normally reserved for MMOG Whether it was an experiment or an addicts and people who play Bejeweled. attempted indoctrination I’m not sure, She would find excuses to settle in front but I resolved to introduce my wife to of the computer and drag her obedient three popular games from the past herbivore endlessly through the game couple years. She agreed with space, as I was left in the unusual encouraging enthusiasm. position of wondering when I was going to be allowed to play Diablo II. Game 1 – World of Warcraft She took her seat at my computer, a cup Eventually she moved on and settled back of hot cocoa by her side and an eager into the familiar routine of ignoring expression on her face. After 10 minutes games. I had briefly entertained the of character creation, her dwarf Hunter notion that my wife was an unrealized entered the world and spawned into a closet gamer, but as weeks became snowy village where her avatar months, then years, I figured her manifested on top of a gnome whose addiction to Black & White was an user had apparently abandoned his keyboard. My wife’s brain tried to “Well, what if I don’t want to kill things? her back to town to turn in her quest and interpret the oddity of two people I mean, what else can I do?” train up. occupying the same space, and in her “You’re a Hunter. It’s kind of your thing.” confusion wrinkled her nose, glanced at “Oh. What if I wanted to start over and The griefer eventually lost interest, and me and asked, “Is that guy trying to give be one of the guys who heals? Can I go when my wife asked why he had done me a blowjob or something.” It was an around healing wolves instead?” those things, I again didn’t have an inauspicious start. “No, you’d just be healing the guys who answer. Every one of her questions are killing the wolves, or yourself, while, revealed the dark truth of MMOGs: They While I described the controls another well, you know.” simply make no sense. We moved on. question erupted for which I was not prepared. “Wait,” she said. “I have to Eventually she conceded and set herself Game 2 – Half-Life 2 type moving?” to the task. One of the wolf corpses that Following the concerns my wife “Well, yeah.” surrounded her dropped a pair of gloves, expressed about the violent nature of and I was grateful she simply accepted World of Warcraft - the first time I’d I directed her toward her first quest, and the fact without wondering what a wolf heard such a complaint levied against she lumbered around like a drunk in a was doing with clothing. the game - I worried about my second skating rink. The quest was standard choice. So did she. MMOG fare: Kill some wolves and collect “You know, it’s nice that when I shoot their pelts for purposes both mysterious these things they just come helpfully “Running around shooting things in the and probably grotesque. She read the over, so I can kill them some more,” she head doesn’t sound like fun.” text. “Why am I supposed to kill wolves?” said, as another player wandered past “At least it’s not wolves, this time.” and challenged her to a duel. I explained “Because that guy asked you to,” I said. I what was happening, and she clicked the I hoped Half-Life 2’s mostly non-violent purposely avoided the more genuine decline button in disgust. The character, beginning might surprise her. I never answer, which was that killing wolves a gnome Rogue, began helpfully clucking really held much hope that we might would let her accumulate experience and like a chicken. After she declined his eventually enjoy long, passionate nights items, so she could become stronger and request, the Rogue proceeded to jump in of toilet-toss in deathmatch, but if there go on to kill even more, and bigger circles around her character, putting on was a game that might temper the scowl wolves. The tickle of a salient point poked the kind of display one might expect with which I am always greeted when at the back of my mind, but I shoved it from an avian mating ritual. I told her she walks in on me playing an FPS, this back in a box before it took hold. she was being griefed, and then was it. explained what that meant and directed She struggled with the controls again, but The hour finished without her firing a they seemed to make more sense to her single shot. This was, for her, the most than WoW’s third-person floating camera. surprising thing about Half-Life 2: She She wandered off the train into City 17 hadn’t just been unleashing bullets into and the bleak heart of a dystopian future. nameless faces, but instead had been I showed her how to jump, and she coaxed into a world that she began to skipped happily among refugees being care about. But, in the adrenaline shoved and intimidated by Combine afterglow she said, “You know, the thing soldiers with a gleeful “whee!” is, if I want to see something die I’ll just turn on CNN. Playing a game, to me, is I filled in some back story as the plot about forgetting all that.” unfolded. She approached the train station’s main terminal, and a guard Game 3 – Civilization IV knocked a can on the floor and “I used to play Civilization way back,” demanded she pick it up. It was a she said, and then told me the story scripted event I remembered annoying every Civ player knows. It ends with, me. She glared at the screen, picked up “And they told me it was 11:00, and I’d the can and threw it at the guard’s head been playing for 10 hours! I couldn’t with a confident “Fuck you!” believe it.”

Oh, how I beamed. Don’t I know it, babe.

The pace quickened after that, faster than Civilization, as it turns out, had been her her ability to control Gordon Freeman, first gaming love, and while she only and a number of unfortunate, if comical, played it a handful of times, each of deaths followed as she tried to navigate those times had been for countless rooftops under the pressure of gunfire. hours. As I sat her down in front of this Frustration set in, and the giddy gamer last game I had the feeling it might be that had stepped off the train evaporated The One. under the stress of combat. Not surprisingly, she settled on Gandhi as her leader and promptly set out on a course of organized non-violence. her measuring the several Exploring, building temples, researching accomplishments nearing completion: technologies like pottery and sailing - the growth of Delhi, the completion of these were tasks that she could tackle in the Oracle at Delphi, the last section of her own time and at her own speed. map that she wanted to uncover. Could Following some brief explanations of the she simply stop, leave those things updated controls, she remained largely undone, leave her infant civilization to its silent. Her eyes blinked less, her own devices? expression fixed itself into concentration and a smile played at the corner of her “No, I should stop,” she finally conceded. mouth with each tiny accomplishment. “I’d be here all night.”

Occasionally she would mutter something And that may be the only difference like, “Wow, look at the detail!” or, “Hey, between the hardcore and the casual those guys aren’t going to attack Delhi, gamer: the ability to keep gaming from are they?” But the commentary was interfering with one’s life. It is the diminished compared to the other games difference between the guy who has as she played in the great sandbox of some wine with friends and the bar fly human history. She brought Buddhism to on his ninth beer of the afternoon. When her people and rejected slavery. She built she rose from her chair and thanked me centers of learning and worship, but only for the fun experiment, I realized that a enough troops to make her people feel casual gamer is all she would ever be. safe from invasion. She sweated over And I was fine with that. each town’s happiness and strove to fulfill their needs. Then, I heard the sound of Lumines Live! echo from the next room. An hour passed in seconds, and when I called time I could tell she wanted more. Sean Sands is a freelance writer, co- There it was; the feral gamer lurked founder of Gamerswithjobs.com, and behind her green eyes. She crossed her owns a small graphic design company arms over her chest and considered the near Minneapolis. He does not miss his screen for a few moments. I could see stint in retail even a little. After a friend of mine visited New And they build. Not just collapsed houses, Orleans, he didn’t come back with much but businesses and industries. hope for the city. His stories were full of desolate spaces submerged in three feet I spoke to one such builder, Ben Lewis, of water, the poor being marginalized recent LSU graduate and marketing guy and tourists clogging the inhabitable at Yatec Games. He’s got big ideas, both areas like cholesterol in an artery. What’s for Louisiana and for gaming. worse, much of what plagued New Orleans before Katrina stayed put. The *** legal system is still run by the good ol’ boys. Police officers accosted young The Escapist: What is Yatec? What does coeds in broad daylight and sat drunk in the company hope to accomplish? outdoor cafes in the French Quarter. And since much of the police force was Ben Lewis: Our main goal is to help concentrating on things other than build the entertainment industry in fighting crime, the areas more damaged Louisiana. We’re trying to build a film by hurricane Katrina have become third- and game industry. For the company, we world refugee camps. wanted to start off in casual games to kind of build up. We’re looking into some He also said the food was amazing, and boutique MMOGs and some bigger he can’t wait to go back. projects later on, in a few years.

There’s a certain breed drawn to the city, TE: You’re based in Baton Rouge, and despite the graft, despite the crime, you formed up post Katrina. Were you despite the fact it’s under water. They’re guys planning on making a game what’s left of the cowboys, suffering nigh- company before the hurricane? equatorial weather and corruption for the sake of reviving a fallen city’s culture. BL: I think it was a combination of things. Dean Majoue - he’s the President of the company - he was looking to branch out a BL: It’s kinda tough, since there really is have a lot to offer, especially if you’re little bit. Then, after Katrina happened, he no industry here, there’s a lot of people doing any type of digital media. really wanted to get involved in bringing enthusiastic about getting into the permanent jobs back into Louisiana. And industry. But there was really no studio TE: The company’s about page says the digital media tax incentives we have here before for people to go to, so a lot you’re currently hiring and trying to here in Louisiana will give developers 20 of people would just go out of state. ramp to team up to 30 in the next couple percent tax credits on every dollar they There is enthusiasm there, [though]. years. Do you plan on growing slowly? spend - same thing for film. The IGDA chapter shut down a couple BL: It’s in line with the vision that we’re TE: Are you involved in the community years ago. Now that there’s a couple staying casual for now, and as we get at all? companies here building it up, hopefully bigger, we’re going to be adding more it should be going pretty well by the end people. Say we’re going to be doing an BL: Yeah, a bunch of us are members of of the year. MMOG within the next year or so ... the IGDA, and we’re working with other we’re definitely going to need more than companies like Turbo Squid and TE: What is Louisiana’s appeal? we have right now. Eventually we do GameCamp, trying to set up a kids’ camp intend to grow the team quite a bit. in Austin and Louisiana. Trying to partner BL: The tax credits offer a lot. The word We’re actually building a new office right up with some new people and get the is slowly getting out. I know Austin and now to fit more people. community thing going again. There’s a Georgia are also doing tax incentives. couple more conferences coming up in It’s really tough. Development TE: Do you plan on working on one Louisiana, the Red Stick Animation communities are really already there in game at a time with the larger team, or Festival and another one in Lafayette, and Austin and Seattle, so that’s been our do you want to have multiple teams we’ll have a presence there, just trying to biggest focus. Trying to bring people in doing multiple things? get the message out. with incentives. It’s a good, low-cost place to live and work. Like, Lafayette for BL: You have to split it up. We have TE: How is that going so far? A lot of people instance - a lot of people don’t know three projects going on right now. The must have scattered after the hurricane. what a really high-tech, driven city it is. great thing about casual games is small It’s a slow process, but the state does budgets, quick dev times. You can’t have 12 people working on a game at once. You’ll have art styles clashing against They’ve never put out a blatantly bad So we built in the Garden Builder. Every each other and everything. So we break game, but their budgets are pretty crazy, five levels, depending on how well you it into smaller teams. It’s usually two to because they can afford it. They’re did - it’s kind of like a Diner Dash model four people per project now. Our last bringing in millions a year. ... There’s no - if you get all five gold medals in five [project] took about five months. way we would spend two years getting a levels, you go to this high-res garden, casual game just right, because we don’t and you can add new upgrades, and I wish I could talk [more about what we’re have the budget for it. … But, man, if we kinda tweak things, and get a better doing], but we do have a couple projects had the budget, we could really do looking fountain, and stuff like that. that are in the early stages. One of them something like that. It’d be great. is a boutique MMOG kinda thing. Actually, As we were making the game - it’s mostly that would be blending an MMOG and an TE: Yatec has one game out now, guys in our 20s - so it’s really hard to [alternate reality game], but the casual Enchanted Garden. Could you tell us a figure out what women over 35 really stuff would be separate. The casual stuff is bit about it? want to get in these games. When we a stepping stone for us. were making the game, it felt like a fun BL: It was our first foray into the casual little diversion, but when we went to beta TE: The whole office recently got gaming space, so we were looking into testers, [garden building] was pretty addicted to PopCap’s Bookworm themes [to see] what we could do to much their favorite part of the game. Adventures Deluxe. They really did really resonate with the people who play something interesting by merging more these games. We were at Casuality in TE: You say that casual games are a traditional gaming elements into a casual 2006, up in Seattle, thinking up ideas. stepping stone for Yatec. Are they fun to game. Is that something you look at and We had gotten the game mechanic work on, or are you guys grinding now to say, “That’s what we want to do”? down; we were already prototyping it get to the fun stuff later? back at the office. And we remember BL: Every time PopCap puts a game out, seeing that the top five interests of ... BL: It’s actually really fun. It’s we say, “Wow, they nailed it.” One of our the core, female audience ... were pets, surprising. Except for Heather, our lead things is whenever we try to figure out, how shopping, arts and crafts, gardening, and artist, it’s all guys in their mid-20s. ... A should this sound, how should this look, it’s travel. Alright, well, gardening, OK. lot of times we’re just sitting there, like, like, “Well, what would PopCap do?” “What is the player going to do?” It’s kind of like the Wild West for us. It’s just, like, games that we don’t really When I first heard about Yatec Games play, so it’s a new area for us to get into. and their goal of bringing the gaming industry to southern Louisiana, my first TE: As the core gaming group gets older response was one of bemusement. Why and they start getting married and in God’s name would a bunch of having kids, do you think the casual computer geeks ever wish to move to a space is going to grow, and they’ll place that’s one more natural disaster demand different types of games? away from Beyond Thunderdome? But after speaking to Lewis, I think I know BL: Xbox Live Arcade helps that a lot. I why. New Orleans and the places around know guys that are younger than me and it are a mass of potential, waiting to be they play Zuma and ... they’re excited shaped into something new. It’s a blank about [Eetz]. There’s people looking slate waiting for new inhabitants to make forward to the casual games on Live their mark. Who better to build a world Arcade more than the hardcore demos than the people who create them for a that come out there. It’s driving younger living? players to get used to casual games. Live Arcade is really helping the demographic Joe Blancato is an Associate Editor for find casual games. I’m 25, and I’d like to The Escapist. He quotes Wayne’s World think of myself as a hardcore gamer, but and Dr. Strangelove more often than you’re right, I don’t have time to play what can be considered normal. them anymore. … I think by the next generation, casual games won’t be called casual games anymore. It’ll just be people playing games.

TE: Thanks for your time, Ben.

BL: Thanks a lot!

*** The future of massively multiplayer isn’t but these newcomers will still only tap you. Or me. Or anyone else who’s a into a miniscule proportion of the greater serious fan of the genre as we hardcore potential audience, which is anyone with gamers know it. Don’t get me wrong. a PC and an internet connection. Many of We’re part of the future, but we’re not them are “casual” gamers, ranging from the future. Not if the genre is to grow those who buy a game or two a year to enough to approach mainstream status. those who just play free ones. And no, the vast majority won’t make the jump Why is this, you ask? How can someone to MMOGs targeted directly at hardcore who has logged thousands of hours in players. dozens of online worlds possibly think like this? Well, it’s pretty Mike Goslin is Vice President of the Walt straightforward. There simply aren’t Disney Internet Group’s Virtual Reality enough people willing to spend the time Studio. He was one of the principals on playing day after day, week after week, Toontown Online and is presently month after month, to sustain rapid, focused on Pirates of the Caribbean ongoing growth in just the hardcore Online, which is approaching launch. segment. Sure, our ranks are increasing, Both of these MMOGs target non- but not nearly quickly enough to support traditional audience segments, children the kind of broader audience expansion I and teens respectively. He’s clearly a foresee over the coming years. believer. “I agree with the premise. The only thing that I would add is that we This means massively multiplayer can [either] wait for the audience for gaming will have to attract other types games to diversify and have this of users, not just more like those of us audience begin to demand more diverse who are already familiar with World of games, or we can create more diverse Warcraft and EverQuest. games and accelerate the process.”

Lord of the Rings Online, Age of Conan While the game industry is moving in the and other games that build upon popular direction of the mass market, Disney has brands will certainly expand the market, been there for many years. Its VR Studio was initially set up to create interactive Daniel Huebner, who works on Linden virtual reality attractions for the Labs’ Second Life, agrees. In his opinion, company’s theme parks, which draw, “the fierce competition in MMOG well, pretty much everyone. Their development has created a plethora of operations went online as far back as niche themes, but far less differentiation 1999, when Disney first started thinking in the experience itself.” He also sees the about Toontown. “We had the idea that potential to capture a much larger user we could use our theme park skills to base, though it’s unrealized. “The worlds create a similar experience for the home offered online are rich and fascinating, by developing MMOGs,” Goslin says. “It and the presence of actual, living human seemed natural to us to continue beings with whom someone might developing for the broad theme park interact give these worlds the potential audience that we already knew, and we to be far more compelling and immersive thought it would enable us to do than traditional media - but the something different from the other experience is still too constrained.” games in the genre.” Huebner says although certain current I asked whether the current crop of properties qualify as “social phenomena,” online worlds has reached its potential, none are mass market. “There is in terms of audience. Goslin says something about the nature of the Disney’s “point of view is that a ‘mass experience that is holding it back. Star market’ is both large and diverse. I don’t Wars, as a brand, is as mass appeal as believe there are many MMOGs out there one could hope for; but Galaxies didn’t that appeal broadly to kids and parents, bring a vast new audience to MMOGs. male and female, and young and old.” As Certainly, the age range of gamers is for how to attract such groups, he’s clear broadening; there are parents playing in saying “we need a much wider variety World of Warcraft, but how many of gameplay, themes, settings and grandparents? Genders are certainly not stories available in the marketplace, and equally represented.” these games need to be much, much easier to pick up and start playing.” Second Life, Linden Lab’s virtual world, Similarly, Huebner believes virtual worlds the middle, the hardcore will represent a isn’t a game in the conventional sense. and other non-games can appeal to shrinking proportion of players. Like Huebner doesn’t call it one, although he hardcore gamers, although in different digital pioneers, the hardcore will see the does say, “The ways in which the virtual ways. In the case of Second Life, he cites fertile lands they discovered filled by the world presents itself, and mechanisms “deeper interaction, more robust less intrepid from all walks of life, and for interacting with that world, are very relationships, fewer social and creative those new souls will only push the old game-like. ... [However,] Second Life restraints, and the ability to contribute to guard forward, past the horizon. Who doesn’t offer up a neatly packaged the building of a world rather than knows what they’ll find? theme or plot, so we’ve never been able simply its consumption.” to fall back on the kinds of built-in Richard Aihoshi blurred the line between audiences that gravitate toward sci-fi, In the creation-consumption vein, the work and play in another way. Several fantasy or licensed titles. Our target future of MMOGs will also include new years ago, his hobby, computer games, audience is those who are restless, self- ways to monetize them. Most of the turned into a career writing about them, motivated, creative and tenacious.” major Western publishers are sticking primarily the massively multiplayer and with box sales plus monthly roleplaying genres. An online poker While hardcore online gamers often subscriptions, but from a business point player for about a year, he claims to be possess these qualities, so do many of view, this single-minded approach is ahead overall but admits he makes far others. Goslin thinks “the big difference self-limiting: A lot of people aren’t too little even to dream about playing between casual and hardcore gamers is comfortable paying $15 a month for a for a living. the amount of time they are willing to game. But it’s only a matter of time until invest. To attract the former, you have to someone makes a lot of money - and get them engaged faster, because their opens the demographic floodgate - time is limited. Once they’re playing, without charging players a monthly fee. however, the game needs to be challenging, deep and fun, if you want The future of the genre will be defined them to continue. If you succeed in by the decisions developers make now. creating a game that’s challenging, deep MMOGs used to be created by the and fun for a casual player, it will likely hardcore, for the hardcore, but as the also be fun for a hardcore gamer.” audience continues broadening toward EDITORIAL PRODUCTION BUSINESS Executive Editor Producer Publisher Julianne Greer Jonathan Hayter Alexander Macris

Content Editors Lead Artist Director of Advertising Joseph Blancato Jessica Fielhauer Susan Briglia Russ Pitts Layout Artist Chairman of Themis Group Contributing Editors Jason Haile Thomas S. Kurz JR Sutich Shannon Drake Lead Web Developer Whitney Butts Research Manager Nova Barlow Web Developers Erik Jacobson Contributors Tim Turner Richard Aihoshi Sean Sands IT Director Jason Smith

Issue 89 © 2007. The Escapist is published weekly by Themis Group, Inc. Produced in the United States of America. To contact the editors please email [email protected]. For a free subscription to The Escapist in PDF format please view www.escapistmagazine.com