EchoDitto - Games

Sticky Rice - posted by Anne Keenan

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:56:42 -0700

So this is my first week at EchoDitto, and one of the most important things you should know about me is that I love rice pudding. And I’m not picky. Kozy Shack? Yes. Kheer? Yes. Homemade? Yes. The kind at the bodega with a half cherry on top? Absolutely.

Which is why the email from my friend Phillip with the subject “Rice Pudding” probably caught my eye. And the URL was www.freerice.com. Free rice pudding? Sign me up.

Well… I don’t want to ruin it for all of you, but it’s not free rice pudding. Instead, it’s a vocabulary game that donates 10 grains of rice to the World Food Program for every word that you get right. Amazing. (My nerdy love of word games took the edge off my rice-puddingless-disappointment.)

And now I can’t stop. The trick is that for every three words you get right, you go up a level. For every word you get wrong, you go back a level. There are 50 levels. I’m hovering around 43, and the FAQs say it’s nearly impossible to get above 48, but that won’t stop me from trying. And it’s not just my competitive spirit—how do you stop when you know the answer? And how do you stop when you don’t? Won’t it bug me all day if I don’t know what “bole” means?

I think what’s genius about this site is the way the game gets you stuck to the cause. For all of the time I’m thinking about arcane vocabulary words, I’m also thinking about how to address world hunger. So, maybe less delicious than rice pudding, but more satisfying? Satiating? Gratifying? Pleasurable…?

Going Scra-zy! - posted by Madeleine Perry

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:10:51 -0700

I didn’t truly appreciate Facebook applications until a few weeks ago. With the first applications I was interested but skeptical. I installed a few and ended up deleting most after discovering they were either pointless, or just didn’t work.

That is, until I found Scrabulous.

To give this some background, a few months ago Atari games sold the digital rights for Scrabble, Monopoly, Battleship, Boggle and Yahtzee back to Hasbro for 19.5 Million dollars. Most users of the site and games didn’t care about the money – all we cared about was that we could no longer play the games online. Many players were just like me – we only played Scrabble. Yes, I am a nerd. After work, I thoroughly enjoy watching the news, eating dinner, and playing a game of Scrabble.

Though it wasn’t heard by many, the Hasbro deal caused significant uproar in this particular gaming community. Users went through withdrawal – the comment threads were filled with anger and disappointment.

But now, the Facebook application “Scrabulous” has muffled those mutterings of disappointment. Though it is not perfect, by Facebook’s own admission it is probably one of the best and most popular applications available. I enjoy it for a few reasons: you can play with anyone -- friends or strangers; you, or the other user(s) don’t have to be online to be participating in a game, and finally, there are three speeds – slow, medium, and fast. "Slow" is perfect for users like me who only log on to Facebook once or twice a day. So you can log on, make a move, and log right back out. You can also play as many games at once as you like!

There are still a few issues with it, namely this screen that appears quite often when you try to go to an active game.

But after refreshing, it usually connects with no problem. It is easy to use, fun to play, and connects people, both strangers and friends, in a great way. I am actually amazed at how many friends from high school, whom I haven’t spoken with in years, have recently challenged me to a game of Scrabble.

So I have found at least one Facebook application that I know I’ll keep. Hopefully the developers will fix the few bugs to make it even better. And to all of you word lovers out there, I say bring it on!

Changing Games, Changing Gamers - posted by Terrance Heath

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:48:12 -0700

Like about 37% of adults, I'm an avid gamer. But like I've said before, I'm a bit of a odd duck when it comes to gaming. I'm pretty bad at first-person shooters, and most of them don't appeal to me. My bent is towards simulation games. Those are common enough but only occasionally do I come across games that also involve another interest of mine, like political simulation games.

So, I was surprised and intrigued to learn of a game that incorporated another interest of mine: Buddhism. And when I found out it was a game about Buddhist ethics, I decided to check it out. After all, it's a game where you lose points for killing (including animals). How could I not check it out?

A new video game has been launched in Thailand to help bring Thai youth closer to the fundamental principles of Buddhism. The religious affairs department of the Thai government came up with the idea to develop and distribute what is known as the "Ethics Game".

The game's creator, Pakorn Tancharoen, is the director of the office for the moral and ethics development, admitted that he himself had "never played a videogame" and that he "spent weeks observing how children played", before developing the programme for the game.

The main characters in the game are Dharmmahapanyo, an old Buddhist monk, and three children - Charn, who is considered the life of the group, Nu Na, the only female child and Paloe, a pudgy boy who has a lot of fun playing jokes.

... The five main principles of Buddhism - not to kill, steal, commit adultery, tell lies or drink alcohol - are fundamental to reach the highest level in the game, where they will then be called upon to teach farmers or peasants the fundamental rules of Buddhism.

The game's creator said that he was inspired to develop the game after having read a report about a child who attacked his mother after she refused to give him money to play a videogame.

Needless to say, I immediately went to download the game. However, after installation, it became clear that either I need a Thai translator (though Zach at Gameology managed to play without translation) or I need to wait until there's an English version of the game.

But with so much ink being spilled and bandwidth being burned over the supposed negative effect of video games (the latest being that people who play racing games become reckless drivers, though on the other hand gaming can improve your eyesight), it's at least refreshing to hear about someone using gaming to change gamers; that is, using games to teach values or change perspectives. There are games out there that do that, but rarely does that seem to be the intent.

The last game I know of to do that was A Force More Powerful, "the game of nonviolent strategy" that I blogged about a year ago. The next one may come from a commercial game developer. And not just any commercial game developer, but the one responsible for some of my favorite games. Will Wright, creator of The Sims, mused about his upcoming game -- Spore -- shares the same goal as the ethics game: making players think about the consequences of their actions.

For example, Wright wants his upcoming simulation game, Spore, to help kids think more about how their actions today can have a long-term effect on the world. With the evolution game, kids can learn about global warming, he said, by pumping carbon dioxide into the virtual atmosphere and then watching the planet burn up in minutes.

"By giving kids toys like this, I hope to give them some sense of what it might be like to (live on Earth) in 100 years," the game creator said of Spore. "That's why I think toys can change the world."

For his part, Spore creator Wright hopes technology will do more than democratize media. He wants the game to inspire a generation to invent a new future.

... Spore, expected to launch this fall, encourages players to grow from a microbe to a land-based creature, and eventually to explore and colonize space, as technology and business moguls like Virgin CEO Richard Branson are trying to do today. But gamers can also play with simple weather systems, the dynamics of the world and the geology of innumerable planets within it.

"Most games put players in the role of (Star Wars') Luke Skywalker. This is about putting the player in the role of George Lucas," Wright said.

A tall order, but for the guy who brought us games like Sim City and The Sims -- both games that, when you think about it, are all about choice and consequences -- it may not be.

Based on my experience of Wright's previous creations, Spore (which sounds like an updated version of Wright's Sim Earth, which I played quite a bit in college) is definitely the next big game I'm waiting for, and I expect I'll stay up into the wee hours exploring it. But it's not due out until this fall. So I'll have to wait. (That is unless Wright and EA Games need some dedicated, long-time fans, who know their way around Wright's previous games to test drive pre-release versions and help get the kinks out. Hey, Will! Are ya listening? And I'll do it for no more than a free copy of the game once it's one.)

In the meantime, I'll settle for the latest videos of the evolutionary phases in Spore's gameplay. I'm not sure it will influence the way I see the world -- though it will likely leave me somewhat bleary-eyed for the first week or so I have it -- but it may change some younger gamers, like the ones Tancharoen and write want to reach.

And maybe they'll be less likely to do things like kill homeless people and blame it on video games. The downside is that whatever good they do instead probably won't be "blamed" on video games, even when the games are intended to have a positive impact.

Reinventing an Industry - posted by Matt Stern

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 14:00:11 -0800

I read an article today, pertaining to the evolution of the gaming industry. The article stated that soon, manufacturers will be attempting to target a wider audience of enthusiasts, by creating games that are focused more in the online arena, yet are shorter than the games available on the market today. This disappointed me.

It seemed to me that this had already been a fledging trend, harking back to the release of Halo 2, and continuing more recently with Gears of War. Games, my friends and I finished in one night each, and were left with a sour feeling of expectations unrequited. Consider it comparable to Tom Clancy announcing he would only write books that were half as long as the ones he had written in the past, but would attempt to retain the same amount of involvement in each story. It doesn’t work that way.

Personally, I enjoy games that are long and adventurous. Take the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, for example. A game nearly twice as long as it’s predecessors, and effortlessly maintains interest throughout its experience. The majority of Nintendo’s recent success with the Wii, and its games is simply that it’s marketed to be more innovative than traditional consoles. For all intensive purposes, Nintendo has struck gold in terms of targeting a bigger audience. This bodes well with me, as they continue to produce engaging and innovative games, using a completely revolutionary console.

As for the online arena, the objective as it were, is to trump Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. Not an easy feat. Since its launch in 2004, WoW has garnered over eight million players. But it’s important to highlight that while the game takes weeks, even months to master, it retains its popularity through innovation. WoW puts an otherwise obscure and hard to understand genre into a fun and rewarding experience, without compromising the content of the game.

So is the answer to make video games shorter to compensate for tight schedules and short attention spans? No, I don’t think so. Merely look as far as the monoliths of the industry and you’ll find they all have something in common: innovation and moderation. While it may take weeks to master a certain game, you don’t have to do it in one sitting.

Culture, Video Games, and China - posted by Nicco

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 17:31:24 -0700

I continue to be obsessed with the social and political implications of video games - in America, but I've started to get interested to their implications in China. China has a game called Legend of Mir II (frequently called Legend2). It's what's called a MMORPG - Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. That means that thousands of people play it simultaneous on the internet, meeting up with each other in the virtual world and talking to each other. It's basically a virtual world where people meet to communicate and collaborate. At given minute, Legend2 has approximately 600,000 concurrent users online (and sometimes more than a million). Legend2 has over 20 million monthly subscribers and is owned by Shanda, the largest Chinese online entertainment company. The company has over 140 million subscribers across all of their games. By the way, that completely dwarfs American MMORPG numbers.

There's a great book by two harvard professors called "Got Game: How the Gamer Generation Is Reshaping Business Forever" by John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade. It's about how video games shape decision making and business strategy as a generation of gamers are now in their 30s and becoming management and decision makers:

"[The authors] base their claims on an exclusive survey of approximately 2000 business professionals. That survey, say the authors, provides the first data showing a direct, statistically verifiable link between digital games and professional behavior in the workplace. The authors express their analysis in clean, crisp prose devoid of jargon, making it accessible for non-gamers, especially non-gamers who are managers. "Gamers believe that winning matters," Beck and Wade contend, and gamers also place "a high value on competence—wanting to be an expert in the first place"—all of which makes the video game generation, estimated by the authors to be some 90 million strong, an influential force in the work place. The book touches on a handful of other ways in which gamers differ from non-gamers and provides suggestions on how employers can take advantage of their unique values and skills."

It all begs the question - what implications does China's enormous gaming community have on political activism and free speech? on government and free enterprise? The revolution will not be televised.

World of Plaguecraft - posted by Justin Miller

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 12:30:23 -0800

A digital virus spread by terrorists left bodies on the streets and cities quarantined by the government.

As mentioned at SecurityFocus, among other places, Blizzard's hugely popular World of Warcraft MMORPG was hit by an unexpected viral plague. A new gameplay area was introduced that could inflict a contagious plague onto players. However, game designers did not anticipate the rapid travel of the plague throughout the whole game universe -- potentially tens of thousands of players on each "realm", or server world. Whether intentional or accidental, soon thousands of lower-level players were unable to keep from dying as the plague ran rampant through city streets.

The affliction bears a striking resemblance to computer viruses and their spread throughout the world's networked computers.

For me, it was gratifying enough to read the article and note the following:

The complex epidemic that ensued after adding simple self-propagation to a feature of the game should come as no surprise, said Brian Martin, an independent security consultant who plays World of Warcraft.

It probably also comes as no surprise that security experts everywhere are, in fact, playing World of Warcraft.

Battle of the XXX-Box - posted by Terrance Heath

Tue, 02 Aug 2005 11:12:03 -0700

The recent ruckus over the "Hot Coffee" hack for the popular computer game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Fault, which allows users to play a mini-game involving illicit animated sex scenes, brought to mind an awkward moment I experienced while shopping for computer games a while back. It was a few years ago. I was standing in the middle of Electronics Boutique, at a D.C. area mall, perusing the shelves and trying to decide what -- if anything -- to buy. At that time, Electronic Arts had just come out with a new expansion pack for The Sims, called Hot Date. The name was a hint at what the the expansion offered. The characters in the game, called Sims, now had the ability to "play in bed" (now a standard feature in the 3D sequel to the original game, Sims 2).

I'd bought the expansion pack and tried it out, but hadn't thought much about it until I overheard a conversation between a mother and son who were standing nearby while I perused the shelves. The kid really wanted the expansion pack, and I figured he must already have the game. He lied somewhat unconvincingly, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he tried to convince her that there was nothing unobjectionable in the game. The mother was less than certain she should buy it for him, and was looking at the box trying to make heads or tails of it. The kid, meanwhile was rushing the mom along, hoping she'd buy it and just give up trying to screen the game before he played it.

I was torn. I wasn't a parent at the time, but I felt pretty sure if I was I'd want to take the time to screen what computer games my kid played. At the same time I sympathized with the kid, who probably knew enough about sex that he didn't need protection from a computer simulation of it (particularly one that takes place under the sheets with the non-existent "naughty bits." (Sims don't have genitals, a fact revealed by a "nudity hack" that circulated among the online community of Sims enthusiasts.) I must have looked like I was listening to the conversation and knew the game they were talking about. The kid looked at me as if asking for help. I gave a look I intended to say "you're on your own, kid." And left the store.

My how times have changed. When I was growing up the Parents Music Resource Center was trying to protect us from raunchy lyrics. Now simulated sex in a computer game has Hillary Clinton in full Tipper-Gore mode.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling on federal regulators to investigate the latest version of Grand Theft Auto, a popular video game series that allows players to go on simulated crime sprees.

In a letter she is sending Thursday to the Federal Trade Commission, Mrs. Clinton expressed concern over reports that anyone who used a free code downloaded over the Internet could unlock sexually graphic images hidden inside the game, called Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Mrs. Clinton asked the commission to determine "the source of this content," especially since the game can fall into the hands of young people. The game industry's self-policing unit, the Entertainment Software Rating Board, is investigating whether the maker of the game violated the industry rule requiring "full disclosure of pertinent content."

Mrs. Clinton also asked the commission to look into whether the industry erred in giving the game a rating of M, or mature, for players 17 years and older. National electronics store chains sell M-rated games but tend to avoid adult-only titles.

Rockstar wasn't exactly a rock star in the accountability department on this, first claiming that hacks created by outsiders added explicit sex scenes to the game, only later to admit that it happened in house.

Rockstar's parent, Take Two Interactive, also admitted for the first time Wednesday that the sex scenes had been built into the retail game -- not just the PC version but also those written for Xbox and PlayStation2 consoles.

Company officials had previously suggested that a modification created by outsiders added the scenes to the game, last year's best seller in consoles.

"There is sex content in the disc," Take-Two spokesman Jim Ankner told The Associated Press. "The editing and finalization of any game is a complicated task and it's not uncommon for unused and unfinished content to remain on the disc."

For an explanation on how and why the content remained in the game, we have to turn to an actual game developer, like Michael Russell.

A large part of game development is prototyping. That's when you're tossing new things into a product in a skeletal manner to see if it will add to the final product. This process often goes up until just a few weeks before a product goes "gold".

Sometimes, the features are cut but the files and code remain in the product. Why? Because developers don't want to introduce new bugs by pruning out older stuff.

And it's not always sex games, as Russell points out, that end up remaining a part of the game, without being "called" by it (meaning it's not part of the course of regular, unenhanced game play). As any gamer will tell you, the internet is full of "Easter Eggs" and cheat codes that unlock unfinished levels, test levels, or game features designed for the developers own use in testing the game. (Though ya hafta wonder just what use Rockstar's developers got out of the "hot coffee" hack.) So it's not as though there's a nefarious plot on the part of game manufacturers to scandalize America's youth.

Still, I can hardly blame Hillary. It a great chance to enhance her moderate creds. And who knows how many teenagers are holed up in their rooms right now simulating sex on a computer screen? (Though it's worth noting that, so long as their hands are on the game controllers or keyboards, they're not actually having.) But that's just it. If kids are holed up in their rooms, playing a hacked version of this game, then that's a sign of a bigger problem that neither Hillary or the game manufacturers can do anything about.

Plainly put, maybe parents need to drag the computer out of the kid's room and into the common area of the home. How else do you expect to monitor what your kid's doing on the computer if you can't see him/her or the computer?

Next you'll be telling me that they have internet access in their rooms too.

What? Um. We need to talk.

If you ask me, most of the time kids don't need to have totally private access to a computer. There's stuff out there on the internet that makes the "hot coffee" scenes in GTA look like Sesame Street. (Of course, I'd make an exception for teens in Zach's situation.) Parents who give their kids unlimited and unmonitored access to the internet are potentially inviting trouble. (Two words. Chat. Pedophiles.)

And as long as I'm addressing grown-ups, the folks who are gunning for Grand Theft Auto and Rockstar Games are missing one important factor. A surprising number of adults are part of the audience for these games. They're adults, yours truly included, who grew up playing computer games and have kept the habit upon reaching adulthood. I know I have. I tried Grand Theft Auto in its first incarnation. (I usually shy away from games with a lot of violence, but I've found that a round or two of Quake or World of Warcraft goes a long way towards burning off the frustrations of the day.) If some adult wants to turn his X-Box into an XXX-Box with a code he finds on the internet, that that ought to be his business, and I don't think anyone should try to stop him. If it's a question of protecting kids, well I refer back to the aforementioned responsibility of parents in things kid-and-computer related.

And, anyway, just what are the the new cyber Cromwells protecting kids from? Violence? As Steven Johnson points out, kids are already exposed to violence-as-entertainment outside of computer games.

I'd like to draw your attention to another game whose nonstop violence and hostility has captured the attention of millions of kids — a game that instills aggressive thoughts in the minds of its players, some of whom have gone on to commit real-world acts of violence and sexual assault after playing.

I'm talking, of course, about high school football.

I know a congressional investigation into football won't play so well with those crucial swing voters, but it makes about as much sense as an investigation into the pressing issue that is Xbox and PlayStation 2.

Johnson goes on to point out that kids also gain certain benefits from playing computer games, in areas like hand-eye coordination, problem solving and creativity. (Trust me, succeeding in the Sims without cheat codes requires some problem solving and creativity.) Turns out you might be saving them from skills they'll need in order to compete in what Johnson calls "the digital workplace of tomorrow," which I can assure is already here today.

The battle has been joined, and it's probably too late to stop it now. Recall petitions are circulating. Retailers are pulling the game from their shelves. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating. Jack Thomspon, the Miami attorney who spearheaded the action against Rockstar and and Grand Theft Auto is already gunning for The Sims 2 -- despite the fact that nudity in the game is pixeled out, and removing the pixels doesn't reveal anything kids won't see anyway if they take Barbie's clothes off. Most recently, a lawsuit has been launched.

Chances are it'll end pretty much the way the PMRC's heyday ended, with all the stuff it railed against still being as available as it was before (because, let's face it, if there's a market for it we're not about to stop producing it), but probably with a incredibly ugly lable on it.

Meanwhile, there are more pressing things we could be worried about, but apparently aren't.

Meanwhile, just down America's street, countless thousands of young U.S. soldiers are hobbling home from Iraq and Afghanistan, wounded and disabled and limbless and traumatized to the bone, eyes deadened to the world and permanently scarred to their cores and in interviews and documentaries and various news stories you often hear many of them say this one weirdly similar thing.

They say, wow man, yeah, it sure was amazing over there, totally surreal, killin' all those people with rapid-fire machine guns and firing rounds of mortar shells into buildings that might've been, for all we knew, hospitals or schools, and using night-vision goggles to invade decimated towns to hunt down crazed guerrillas and riding in those tanks and blowing the crap out of those Iraqi villages and hearing those women scream and watching those bodies burn.

This is what they say: Oh man, you know what it reminded me of? You know what it was like over there, what with all the killing and the violence and the guns? It was just like, well, it was just like a video game.

To which you may now reply, huh.

Huh. Hey, can I still get a copy of that game?

Yeah. Sure. It's everywhere.

EchoRadio Episode Two - posted by Tim Jones

Tue, 11 Jan 2005 09:59:58 -0800

EchoRadio's second podcast, recorded last night, posted this morning. Tim, Nicco, Justin and Joshua discuss World Of Warcraft and why The Legend Of Zelda is the Otis Redding of videogames. We should not be enjoying this so much.

When Virtual Becomes Reality - posted by Guest Writer

Mon, 07 Feb 2005 13:50:49 -0800

Via David Cohen, friend and colleague of EchoDitto, writing from the University of Virginia's School of Law.

Visitors spend an average of twenty hours a week here. Twenty-two percent of her tourists wish they could spend all of their time here. Forty percent of her guests would like to quit their jobs or studies and go to work here, and twenty percent of these people even claim to spend most of their lives here. But you won’t find this enticing destination on any map. You’ll need a keyboard, not a compass, to find your way around.

It is well established that the Internet provides vast potential for building ever more complex and progressive tools to promote economic growth and democracy. But a new chapter of growth is now being written; it promises to serve as a potent venue for understanding both the social and economic structures in which we function daily. Its economic, political, legal, and sociological implications are broad and fascinating, and its velocity of growth demands our immediate attention in order to reap the greatest possible benefits through study of the medium.

Recent data suggests that virtual worlds, known to the video-game industry as Massively Multi-player Online Games (“MMOG”), already engross the average user for twenty hours a week. Tens of millions of dollars exchange hands. And, meaningful relationships between people who will never stand face to face are forged daily. The growing populations in virtual worlds have brought about rapid, unforeseen yet remarkable consequences worth serious examination.

Think, for example, in Korea MMOGs are more popular than television. From around the globe, virtual worlds attract active citizenries and robust economies larger than those of Eastern European countries. Economists have already discussed the transfer of monies and assets between real world economies and virtual world economies using the vocabulary of international trade. Exchange rates and money markets have sprouted for virtual currencies. Point-and-click sweatshops now train third world laborers to harvest virtual goods for sale in real world markets. Those who frequent virtual worlds are ever more active in online cities and increasingly inactive in real world communities. They bowl alone, but they type together.

Understood now as more than mere video-games, virtual worlds are proving to be excellent microcosms, if not psychologically suitable replacements, for many individuals’ real lives. In a typical community, a user’s avatar can purchase virtual Levi’s jeans, own a virtual home, and have an occupation to earn virtual dollars. As virtual worlds continue to develop, questions and controversies about property rights, business opportunities, politics, and social orders predictably arise. For instance, the denizens of Second Life, an advanced MMOG, recently staged a revolt to protest high taxes borrowing symbolism from the Boston Tea Party. The event included a meaningful claim to rights, a thoughtful exercise of political power, a collective allegiance to an economic ideology, a committed effort by the many, and a creative spark rarely seen in the real world.

A lot of questions exist. Does a citizen of one of these virtual communities have the right to fair taxation? Does he even have the right to his person? If not, what exactly are “virtual citizens”? Can a business be profitable within a virtual world? Will capitalism thrive? What can we learn from witnessing the development a virtual world’s system of commerce and government that will instruct a better understanding of our own? What can these virtual communities tell us about democracy? About social organization? About technology, business, law, and the free exchange of ideas?

Look at what is going on in dozens of virtual worlds. These questions are ripe. Now is the time to begin an investigation of this phenomenon, raise the right questions, and think about their answers. The impact of virtual worlds has already been demonstrably felt by individuals and businesses; as these communities continue to grow and progress, let’s not miss out on the opportunities they provide for research, application, and intellectually stimulating discourse.

Published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs License.