Games Amazing "Teaching Tool": Jack Thompson

Chances are if you follow video games with any fervour you know who Jack Thompson is. Thompson is the former attorney and conservative activist who has spent much of the past decade of his life crusading against violence in video games. Controversial, often misrepresented and a father himself Thompson has taken quite a beating in the sphere of public opinion online. This might be because cyberspace is populated overwhelmingly by the very youth Thompson is fighting to keep M-rated (17+) games away from. Some gamers have taken to wearing 'I hate Jack Thompson' t-shirts and simulating killing him in games.

Recently Thompson attended the Screw Attack Game Conference in Texas to debate the issues. Responding to a question during an informal Q-and-A session Thompson admitted that while he finds the Grand Theft Autos and Gears of Wars appalling, video games in general have potential to do good. "It's the most amazing technology and teaching tool in the history of the world" Thompson said. This may seem like quite the concession for the man who has been demonized on the internet for wanting to shut down Rockstar Games, but for anyone who has actually seen Thompson speak it is not surprising. Thompson's stance has long been that violent games have the potential to impact young people's lives in a negative way. It would follow then that games could also have the potential to impact youth positively.

The fact that Thompson calls gaming a "teaching tool" may be prophetic. Many an elementary school student has gone through their education in a state of agony and alienation because of a perceived rigidness in the system. And, high school students are certainly not immune to disillusionment with classrooms and textbooks. What if their was a way to teach through gaming? Could there come a day when Nintendo develops interactive curriculum experiences? It may not seem likely, but then again Nintendo teaching people how to do Yoga wouldn't have been foreseeable back in the 1980s (the days of Nintendo's first console) and here we are today with Wii Fit. In another twenty years who knows what will happen.

As always please comment on anything you find interesting

Artificial Intelligence A Hoax?

My mother says she can't understand my last blog so I will try to make this one clearer:

The British author Mary Shelly wrote a great novel. It is about a man who created a being that can walk, talk, and most importantly think on its own. His name is Victor Frankenstein. "Frankenstein" is considered to be the first science fiction novel ever written and the first example of artificial intelligence in English literature.

Artificial intelligence is something that may exist within our lifetime; some would argue that it already does. But, a red koopa that knows to turn around at the edge of a cliff instead of shuffling off this mortal coil is not artificial intelligence (A koopa is a bad guy mom). Artificial intelligence is something that has been written about in science-fiction novels and attempted by game programmers, but it has yet to be truly achieved.

Now Lionhead Studios claims to be on the verge of a breakthrough. It is working to create a fully responsive and adaptable video game character named Milo. Milo will interact with users, respond to questions, intuit emotion and dare-we-dream exhibit true intelligence. He will do all this via voice and facial recognition technology. In contrast to Frankenstein's malicious monster the young boy Milo exhibits a certain charm that has gamers and technology watchers excited. Microsoft is excited too! Milo, or whatever he evolves to become, will be a feature product for their newly announced camera system dubbed Natal which will hit X-boxes at some point in the future. So excited are they that Milo was given a spotlight in the form of a presentation at Microsoft's recent E3 press conference. On the surface Milo seems to be it, true artificial intelligence, but what has come out since E3 tells a different story.

While Milo wowed the audience during Microsoft's press conference only a select few of the gaming press were given access to something playable behind closed doors. Many of these journalists have reported something fishy about the demo they played. According to Shane Satterfield of Gametrailers.com journalists were asked by Microsoft not to stray from interacting with Milo in the ways seen on stage during the press conference. "Its not legit" said Satterfield. "There were a lot of smoke and mirrors going on there."

Satterfield also speculated that someone was behind a curtain controlling Milo's responses. It seems that the only intelligence behind Milo at E3 was some Wizard-of-Oz figure listening to users questions while scrambling to feed Milo responses. Deceptive.

The blogosphere and message boards have lit up with speculation about Milo's E3 appearance. One reader of Joystiq.com posted a comment about Milo. rrrr writes that the only people impressed by Milo were the "dumb/deluded/paidoff press that couldn't see how faked it was. It was 60% prerecorded and 40% 'live' with faked responses by a bloke out back."

rrrr believes the press to have a bias which favours Microsoft. "American press, American console, can do no wrong" rrrr writes.

Perhaps Microsoft and Lionhead Studios felt this trickery would best display how the product should work when completed. It is unknown how long it will take Milo to turn into an actual game on store shelves, but when he does perhaps a miniature man behind a curtain should be packed in with the software. This is just in case gamers chose to ask Milo a question he isn't programmed to answer.

My Naked Fanboyism

The following is an email I sent to Metacritic.com about their scoring system for games. Metacritic is a site that compiles critics' scores for movies, music, books and games from all over the internet and beyond and calculates weighted averages:

I've noticed that VGchartz.com reviews don't factor into your scores for games. At least not in the case of the Conduit for Wii so I assume this is generally true.

Respectfully I would like to ask why and urge you to include their reviews in your scores. There is a large debate around the legitimacy of reviews for Wii games right now, whether or not reviewers are reviewing for the average Wii owner or for themselves and their 'hardcore' gaming buddies. I believe the latter to be true. I would think that given the current debate around Wii scores you would want to include as much information as possible to calculate your Wii scores. Mathematically this would increase accuracy.

The problem is further evidenced when you look at the difference between your calculated scores for Wii games and the user scores. The average gamer enjoys Wii-game x, y or z much more than critics enjoy Wii-game x, y or z. Some critics are interested in one thing only, hardcore, high definition games. (There is more to gaming than HD-display systems and ultra-realistic graphics). Your user scores for Wii Sports and to a lesser extent The Conduit are inconsistent with critic scores. Frequently with these sorts of games there is a 10-percentage-point difference (or more) between Metacritic and the users' real opinions.

I find VGchartz to be fair and accurate in their assessment of games. Not only that, they are the number one source for monitoring game sales. This should make them a legitimate and reputable voice on games.

Sincerely

Concerned gamer CasualGamerGuy
Zach Gruber @ http://casualGamerGuy.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading this. Check out my previous post on E3. Please leave comments.

E3 And Wii Games Reviews

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) recently held in Los Angeles showcased the future of video games. Sony and Microsoft both held impressive press conferences which outlined their plans to introduce motion-control schemes to their game systems. The mainstream gaming press' reaction was to pat Microsoft (and Sony to a lesser extent) on the back for their innovations. While their respective technologies look promising and game journalists' coverage of E3 simply reflects that, a voice calls out from the wilderness with a question: "aren't Microsoft and Sony simply jumping on the bandwagon Nintendo started rolling in 2006???" (2006 was the year that Nintendo revolutionized gaming with its motion controls on the Wii). Regardless, the press has crowned Microsoft and Sony as the 'winners' of this years expo while Nintendo's continuing impressive lineup of games is treated as a side note. There are two reasons for this.

The first is that lightning has struck so many times for Nintendo in the past few years that expectations are too high for the company to ever measure up. The Wii has become the fastest selling home video game console ever. It is currently sitting at around 50 million units sold and has birthed such phenomena as Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Bros Brawl. If the Wii is a success, it's cousin the Nintendo DS is an outright triumph for the Japanese company. To date the portable system has sold over 100 million units, more than twice it's closest competitor, the Playstation Portable (PSP). And, DS hosts a library of software equally diverse to the Wii's, not to mention just as successful in the marketplace. Brain Age, New Super Mario Bros, and Nintendogs are three examples. The excitement that has grown around Nintendo over the last half-decade coupled with the nostalgia game journalists have for the company which first broke through in the 1980s is causing some of those who game and write about it to expect the moon, the stars, Jupiter, Uranus and M31 from Nintendo. Super Mario Galaxy won't suffice.

The second reason that the gaming media has overlooked Nintendo's performance at E3 is that those game journalists who aren't disappointed with Nintendo's inability to live up to unreasonable expectations never expected anything from Nintendo to begin with. The so called "core gamers" who thrive on Grand Theft Autos, God of Wars, and First Person Shooters only, make up a large portion of the gaming media. These people couldn't care less what Nintendo does because they are more concerned with how many hours the next PS3 or X-Box 360 exclusive will last them. They are interested in ultra realistic graphics and tight Joystick controls, not new interfaces such as motion control or colourful presentation. They wrote off Nintendo's E3 performance before they arrived at the show.

To oversimplify there are two kinds of game journalists, those who don't like Nintendo and those who like Nintendo but find themselves perplexed that each and every game on a Nintendo system isn't designed specifically for them. Wii Fit is an example of a game that erks people because it is expanding the gaming market to soccer moms and senior citizens while some gamers would prefer that gaming remain an old boys club (or rather, a young acne prone boys club. ages 16 to 25). But ultimately the presence of engaging experiences that appeal to a wider audience of people will have it's mark on the media that cover them. Microsoft and Sony's entry into the motion-control ring signifies the legitimacy of new interfaces in gaming along with new gamers; It took three years, but it happened. It may take longer for the gaming media to adapt to change, but ultimately they will have to.


This is my take on E3 and the casual games coverage debate. Please comment bellow on my opinions.