stigma
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Video games are tackling mental health with mixed results
Mental illness occupies a strange place in video games. After centuries of misdiagnosis and misinterpretation, we've begun to comprehend the reasons behind disorders and their prevalence in modern society. Recent research shows that roughly one in five American adults suffers from some form of mental health issue each year. When it comes to the media, though, these conditions are frequently misrepresented and misunderstood, and video games in particular lean on lazy stereotypes and tropes. Mental illness is used as a motivation for villainy, thrown in as an "interesting" game mechanic or mischaracterized as the sum and whole of a character's personality. There's a worryingly pervasive stigma surrounding mental conditions, and as one of our most dominant art forms, video games need to do a better job in portraying them.
The Think Tank: The MMO server merge stigma
Last week, Turbine announced that it plans to address Lord of the Rings Online's ongoing population problems. New executive producer Athena "Vyvyanne" Peters wrote, "We're taking measures to get everyone onto the more populous servers" and "working on [...] improved server transfer tools." And later, she clarified, "We are still working through the details, but part of our efforts here are to make the transition as seamless as possible for Kinship leaders to keep the players together. The idea is to bring you together, not spread further apart." In our post, we called this process "server merges of a sort," but some loyal LotRO fans went ballistic at the idea that mass server transfers to, you know, merge players onto populous servers might be called "server merges." The term has such negative connotations and implications for a game's health that neither studios nor fans will dare use it even when it's a reasonable term to use and when it heralds good things for an aging game. The stigma might even make some studios leery of doing merges at all. What do you think -- is there a better term for these sorts of faux-merges? Have you been through a merge and found it a worthwhile experience? Can we be done with the merge stigma already? We're talking server merges in today's Think Tank.
The Daily Grind: Do you tell people you're a gamer?
I'm not ashamed that video games are my hobby or my job, but reconciling games with the real world isn't easy. I don't volunteer details about what I do to anyone I suspect just wouldn't understand. But sometimes people ask you directly. Earlier this summer, I was in the hospital (having a baby!), and my nurses kept asking what I did for a living -- you know, just polite small talk. "I'm a journalist," I said. Few people inquire further. But one did, and I sheepishly admitted that I write about video games. "Sweet," she said, "we play consoles in my house too!" She wasn't into MMOs, but we still talked about video games for half an hour, and I felt dumb for trying to hide what I do. More than half the country plays video games, so why do we hide it? Maybe you don't, which is what I'm asking you today. Do you tell people you're a gamer? How do you reconcile your hobby with people who still think video games are for kids or weirdos? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Hyperspace Beacon: Star Wars Galaxies 2
It happens all the time: When a new game is coming out we attempt to compare it to something familiar. "Jumpgate Evolution is like EVE combined with Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed." "Guild Wars 2's battles are scalable like Warhammer's." Even Rich Vogel, the Executive Producer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, couldn't get away from comparing his crafting system to an existing MMO when we interviewed him at E3. "It will be very similar to what WoW has," is what he said. Granted, Blaine Christine later set our minds at ease at PAX: "I think it's a different take on crafting than what people will be expecting. It's not the standard implementation." Unfortunately, the stigma of comparison was already there. One of my favorite features of MMO creation is the fact that there are no real rules regarding gameplay style. Granted, in the early days of MMO design, a creator had to consider the heavy latency of dial-up connections, so most games were designed to be turn-based. However, now there really is no limit to gameplay style, so there are no rules regarding what makes a game an MMO besides its having a persistent online world. There are no rules that say a game must have similar gameplay to other games that came before, even a prequel. Guild Wars 2 is a great example of this, yet people, inevitably, are going to attempt to compare Guild Wars and its sequel -- sometimes to the point of being unfair about it. Current Star Wars fans cannot help but compare SWTOR to Star Wars Galaxies. Follow me after the break as I make an attempt to debunk this stigma.
Shaking the stigma of "Free-to-Play"
David Chang from Gamescampus has written a piece for Gamasutra which tackles the stigma that is "free to play" or F2P. Chang's "Opinion: Why We Need To Rebrand Free To Play" addresses the cynicism and perceptions of questionable quality that tends to surface in discussions about free-to-play games. Chang's piece points out similarities between the F2P business model and Google, although he admits it's not a perfect comparison. Google's service itself is free, but ultimately fuels its revenue streams through monetized services offered. The large userbase who simply wants to use the service for free is vital to the company's business model, and thus there are some parallels to an MMO operating without subscriptions. "In both situations, people receive a valuable service -- free search or a free game experience," says Chang.
NDOORS CEO on Atlantica Online succeeding in the West
Massively multiplayer online games operating on the free-to-play business model are definitely a mixed bag in terms of quality. As such, they get a mixed reception in the West. Those who like more variety in their gameplay choices than the standard subscription model offers them tend to be more open to alternative business models. Staunch supporters of the AAA subscription model typical of the industry in Western markets have some serious misgivings about what the new crop of free-to-play titles could mean for the industry climate. NDOORS Interactive hopes to change some of these perceptions with Atlantica Online, their strategic turn-based MMORPG. Danny "Ralsu" Gourley from Ten Ton Hammer interviewed NDOORS Interactive CEO Peter Kang about Atlantica Online and how it fits into the industry climate in the West.
Snakes on a Plane gaming commentary
Alas, I don't work for the film blog Cinematical here in the Weblogs family, so I was hoping that I might see something in last night's advance screening of Snakes on a Plane that would allow me to speak of it in a gaming conext. Lo and behold, a major facet of the movie's plot actually revolved around a character's ability to play video games! How fortunate. Without giving too much away, Kenan Thompson's character Troy is shown throughout the movie as a video game junkie...how? He sports a black PSP model, yelling and screaming at the machine. Later, in a brief shot, an eight year-old is shown occupying himself idly with a (phat) Nintendo DS. Despite the success the DS has enjoyed throughout the industry, there still seems to be a very strong stigma that the PSP is for an older, urbanized culture, while Nintendo's offerings are for children. Further on, Samuel L. Jackson mentions both the Playstation and Xbox brand names, with no mention of the Gamecube or Wii. Exactly how real is this stereotype, and can Nintendo ever really overcome it? Okay, so this may have just been a thinly veiled attempt to bring up Snakes on a Plane. Since we're already here, I'll go ahead and deliver my review: see it. As soon as possible. I can't remember the last time I had that much fun in the movie theater; the over-the-top action and wonderfully tongue-in-cheek plot were absolutely brilliant. Best movie of the summer? Blast me if you dare...hell yes.
