lost in games

This is a youtube videogame based on the Oscar nominations for 2009. Very cool.

Youtube videogame

My life has always been about constants. My hobbies ever since I was just a child have always been the same. Football, books and finally of course videogames.

There have been many guest star activities such as tennis, mountain biking, watching hockey, comic books, gym and most recently running. But I had and have no illusions as to the future of most of these. They will be on and off whenever I am in the mood or even give them up entirely never to return to them again.

However, recently there will be one more addition to my constants. This is the world of board games. Ever since I played Catan on the XBLA I have fallen in love with them and begun to expand my horizons in this very geeky and niche form of entertainment. I had previously had flings with games such as Diplomacy, Acquire and of course Risk. But they were just summer flings. Loved them for a while but then suddenly it was all over. Just like that.

But now it’s back because of board games released on the Xbox Live Arcade service this past year or so (Lost Cities, Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride). The XBLA has managed to bridge the gap that existed (i.e. no other people around me playing) by giving me the opportunity to play and enjoy these. Even single player against the AI is a viable way to play although not ideal. Getting friend to play with locally is though.

Many people criticise videogames for turning more and more people to anti-social behaviour. The best answer to this is how games can also “push” people into being more social and opening their eyes into new experiences and opportunities.

For some it might have been the Rock Bands and Guitar Heroes. A rekindling of teenage love for guitars and drums maybe. Or even the house parties that have been organised with these music themed videogames at the heart of entertainment. Or the Wii bowling and Olympic event tournaments. Couple against couple!

For me it’s the desire to now organise weekly board game nights with friends and also play by email sessions with distant friends.

Thank you videogames for making me more sociable.

Just read Michael Abott’s latest blog entry about Personal Trainer: Cooking.I never believed that i would be so interested to try one of these”games”. I would normally call this part of the DS “shovelware” but i really want to try this game.

Evening plan.

Lie on couch with a cup of traditional afternoon tea (blimey), with my DS and play Pic Pic.

21:25 - Just placed the hot cup of tea on a white mat from Mykonos.
21:26 - Inserted Demon Days by Gorillaz into the cd player. Volume at -60db.
21:31 - I switch on the DS and choose the Drawing puzzles. Previously left off at drawing puzzle no. 19 (out of a total of 400).  Kids for Guns (track 3) now playing.

21:43 - Done with Drawing 19. It’s a bee!
21:52 - I am almost done with my cup, and just finished drawing 20 - Brushing teeth. Slow progress today. Drawings are getting bigger, more colourful and brighter.
22:00 - Drawing 21 seems to be a red/black fish. A Rossoneri fish?
22:04 - Switch on the TV to have the Man Utd - Wigan game on mute. It’s already 1-0. Let’s hope it was a Ronaldo goal, my fantasy league captain. Checking flashscore now.
22:05 - Damn. Rooney….Fantasy league site gives Ronaldo the assist. Nice!
22:08 - Back to my Rossoneri fish.
22:15 - I messed up the connections. I can’t finish the drawing as it is and have to undo some of the work to figure  out what i did wrong.
22:17 - Got it! Rossoneri fish completed.
22:18 - The tea is now just a memory as the Fire Coming out Of The Monkey’s Head lyrics enter my ears.
22:22 - Ronaldo is limping after suffering a hard tackle. I hope it’s one of his theatrics.
22:25 - Wedding and Crocodile drawings completed as Tevez misses an Adebayor opportunity to score.
22:30 - I finish the Cow (drawing 23) and take a break to check google reader. Still 1-0 and Ronaldo is just fine. Typical.
22:35 - Google reader - Game unveils online rental service . Interesting….
22:40 - Back to Pic Pic and drawing 24.
22:47 - Half time at Old Trafford while i am still at 24…. Plan going better than expected.
23:30 - Finally finished drawing 25, “boxing”. Connections reached a maximum of 18. The puzzles are getting trickier. Time to call it a night. Still 1-0.

Don’t know what Pic Pic is? Check eurogamer’s perfect 10 review

Yeap, i haven’t been able to do much blogging nor gaming since the morning of Tuesday, 28 October 2008. I am trying to bring back my flat to an orderly status with the purchase of a couple of bookcases for my comics, books and of course games. This is something that i have wanted to do for some time now and it seems that i am nearly there. I will put up some photos when i am finally happy with it.

Apart from that, me and Mardas are trying to make some improvements to our site www.forevergamers.com and finally “publish” our first podcast. Excited and nervous about that at the same time.

As far as running is concerned i am happy to say that i am back in form and it feels good. The weather is fantastic now and the runs help me relax.

Unfortunately what all these mean is that my gaming time has suffered. Hopefully, not for long and i will be back to Fable II and my dog, Makis!

I know that slavery was officiallly abolished during the previous century but over the end of last week i have been buying and selling people all over the world for a profit and increasing my investment worth total in a Forbes style ranking system.

But first things first.

Facebook for me so far has been merely a subsitute of emailing friends living abroad. Social networking and applications? What’s that? 99% of the people in there are also people that i actually know in person. There is the odd one here and there and for the most part there was no digital social networking. Nor were there any applications in my wall. The spam of invites i have continuously been receiving has also been consistently ignored with the click of a button with the same name. I was not bothered at all.

Until last Thursday. During a visit to a friend’s flat when he started talking about buying and selling people’s photos on Facebook using an application called Owned. Needless to say the majority of these were of women. Out of curiousity than real interest i asked him to explain how it works. It is as simple as it sounds. You just bid on photos and make profits when these are then acquired by others similar to regular stocks. You also get funds when you own photos get bought and sold. And at any given time someone owns the photos. Unlike stocks however you really care about some of them. Did i mention that the most traded and high valued photos are of women….? You get attached and it usually ends up with 2-3 people bidding over some girl’s photo.

As i left my friend’s flat i was more surprised by the effort and time he invested in this application more than the actual application. Could not figure it out. Sure it’s sort of fun but what’s the point? I woke up the next morning and found that a couple of my own investments had been bought and so did my own personal photo. I had a strange feeling of loss and pride combined. “Loss” for a photo of a girl i was particularly fond of but also pride cause someone actually “spent” money to acquire my own photo.

I spent a lot of my time on Friday raising funds (by sending gifts/spam to my friends) and buying back the photo i lost and also investing smartly in some promising ones. With a mixture a boredom at work and real interest in owning a photo of a real person i was hooked. Or should i say owned by a “pointless” application for the whole of Friday.

Facebook has come out of nowhere invading offices, flats and dorms. I can’t see myself or my friend bothering with Owned after 1-2 weeks but applications similar to this, which involve human interaction are getting people hooked all over and i have to say i really want to see what they will come up with next.

It is not easy to find people to play board games anymore in our ever busy adult schedules. One of the problems that board games, like Risk have, is that they require a big investment of time on any single day which actually makes it almost impossible to be played on a weekday. That leaves weekends where football and going out (so i hear) take priority.

Hasbro, the maker of Risk, however is preparing to launch a new version called Risk: Black Ops. It will introduce a new resource based system on Capitals and Cities which will affect troop additions. But the version will also introduce an Objectives System and will be streamlined. The primary effect is that individual game sessions will be reduced to around 50 minutes making frequent sessions possible. Risk is adapting to us.

There is a post at Gamers with Jobs from Lara Crigger, who managed to have a go at the Risk: Black Ops version, and details her impressions. LINK

Also N’Gai Croal goes one step further to explain how the collaboration between EA and Hasbro can bring board games such as Risk: Black Ops to the XBLA and PSN. LINK

Just started a session with 2 of my friends on FM2008. One room, three managers, three laptops, three teams, one game!

Its not everyday that we manage to find the time to squeeze in enough hours in our calendar for every football fan’s dream game. But it’s the holidays and things are on our side. Started the session today in Spain’s first division. My friends got Seville and Real Madrid while i am managing Athletico Madrid as you can see from the title….

The team has some great midfielders like Simao and Maxi Rodriguez while in front it is Forlan and Aguero. The defence is the weak line but i have not been able to attract any good signings to strengthen it.

Now here is the plan.

Short passing, quick pace and attack minded. The Arsenal way. The best defence is a strong offence.

I love this game!

Realistic graphics? Ever evolving AI? Online gaming? Is this what this generation of games will be known for?

No. The Wii, 360 and PS3 will be remembered for bringing gaming to the masses in the form of social gaming. Not with the FPS’s, the RPGs, the Sports games but with party games. Games which are very easy to get into and allow people of all ages and genders to play, even together.

The Wii already has an abundance of mini-game kind of titles like Wii Sports, Wario Ware, Raving Rabbids and now Mario & Sonic at the Olympics. I had some friends over on Saturday and we were all hooked on Mario & Sonic. Mindless, simple and pure fun. We had a blast and got a good exercise as well. That 4×100 swimming relay event was a killer!

On the other 2 consoles the complexity of regular controllers make it harder for non-gamers to get into a game. That is why Scene it?, Guitar Hero and Rock Band are so brilliant. They are using peripherals which everybody can feel comfortable with. And people are also familiar with both themes, music and movies.

You can expect more board games getting the videogame treatment. Imagine a turn based pictionary on the Wii. A trivial pursuit with buzzers on the PS3. They can be even better than the original games.

I believe this generation of consoles’ greatest contribution will be establishing social gaming as a true, mainstream entertainment.

I came late to work…..nuff said.