175: Open-World Gaming

Spanner

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Open-World Gaming

Handhelds and cell phones may let players game on the go, but developers have yet to realize the possibilities of truly mobile gaming. Spanner speaks with LocoMatrix founder Richard Vahrman about how his cell phone gaming platform is blurring the lines between real-world and game-world.

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SirSchmoopy

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Wait the best games require exercise? I mean Wiisports was fun for a day but everyone even Nintendo fan boys agree the system has released jack since then.

I mean most people I know who own a Wii got it for Zelda and/or Smash brothers and with zelda you sit on the couch flipping your wrists and smash brothers you use a GAME CUBE controller. In fact I lost more weight getting angry at megaman 9, standing up and yelling at the TV then playing smash brothers.

The Wii is a fad and a slap in the face to nintendo fans. A neat idea that lasts a day and then has people going "Okay where is the real controller". Graphics never meant anything to me but with the Wii it's no better then game cube graphics and when I game comes out like Star Wars Force Unleashed I have to stand back and go.

"Hmm.. do I want to play this with a real controller on the not crappy system or do I want to try doing this with a Wii remote and get bored in 12 seconds".


The problem with exercise plus gaming is that they are two different things. Gaming tests the mind and exercise tests the body. If I want to run around and catch a ball, I'm going to go outside with some friends. I don't really want to do it in front of a buggy TV that simulates me throwing a ball. Most gamers play games to have fun and exercise while it can be fun is not associated with the games that are.

Nobody would want to play World of Wacraft if you had to freaking run on a Wii Fit bored to get everywhere. Nobody wants to play Halo 3 throwing a virtual punch at the TV. Nobody wants to even frail there arms to attempt to do a slap shot in NHL 2k9.


Nintendo has a problem. Right now they are fine and dandy but Microsoft and even Sony now have the edge on both Graphics and Online features. It took Microsoft an ENTIRE SYSTEM to get Xbox Live to where it is and Sony is still trying to get the PS3 to that level. The Wii has nothing and Nintendo has silly policies about gamers not being allowed to communicate with each other online still. In the next ten years, we might totally see the slow death of Nintendo in the main stream consoles simply because they release fads not good gaming. Our generation has the 8-bit era in our heart but the next line of kids does not.


TLDR: The Wii is a fad, Nintendo shouldn't mix exercise and gaming and release a real system next time.
 

thedistractedgamer

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SirSchmoopy said:
The Wii is a fad and a slap in the face to nintendo fans. A neat idea that lasts a day and then has people going "Okay where is the real controller". Graphics never meant anything to me but with the Wii it's no better then game cube graphics and when I game comes out like Star Wars Force Unleashed I have to stand back and go.
I've got to disagree with that. I think the Wii fills a niche. It's not going to appeal to everyone, but it's innovative ideas, IMO, have helped the game industry gain acceptance. By releasing a relatively cheap gaming console with some low-barrier games it has introduced a whole new market segment to gaming. Now while many of these people will never progress from Wii Sports to more serious games, many will. And the more people who play games, even these 'casual' games, the more seriously gaming will be taken as a hobby for more than just children. This can only be a good thing, even if you personally don't like the games available there.
 

dtocs

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I think games are used as a form of entertainment or escapism. I think that gamers know this, youll also be hard pressed to find teenagers that will want this kind of gaming. It sounds like work, work isnt escapism and defenatly isnt fun.

Companys are waiting for that big release, well its out. Its called sport, see if you list the reasons why people say dont play football. You can bet there the same reasons why this wont sell well.

Gaming is a market, if there isnt a demand for the product it wont sell. The wii sold so wel because of its price, a teenager may shrug at it and ask for a differnt console but a naive parant at Xmas thinks that there kids will be just if not more happy with any console. Then there brains twig that it is in pop culture(fad), it is the cheapist option and it looks the most kid friendly thing out there, mostly to the health conscience of parents.

The wii is a bit of aone hit wonder, it took a step foward with its motion tech but might as well not botherd when brawl desighners said "lets forget that, it makes the games less fun to play if its DIFFICULT to play"

The truth is that Open world gaming only sems fun to kids that already enjoy feach quest stile games in real life. In that case why not give your kid a ball and send him outside, then see the magic of imagination take place.
 

Mr.Pandah

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Jul 20, 2008
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I think this is a great idea. Imagine this, cell phones act as tagging mechanisms and you sign up with your cell phones online. Still with me? Good. Next after you've signed up, you head outside and use your GPS on your phone to find others who have also signed up and now there are teams. You can make it cops and robbers or survivors vs. infected. If you come within a certain area of another cell phone that has this application activated, you either turn into an infected or get "arrested" by a cop.

Sounds like a lot of fun to me! I remember a college campus did this, certain people who were zombies wore red shirts and people who weren't wore blue shirts and the infection spread =P
 

olicon

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Dang..the internet rejected my big rant. So I guess here's the short version:
Open fields and fresh air are luxuries of the past, ones that are inaccessible to most of us nowadays unless we are asking for untimely death or chronic lung diseases.

With that said, I think it is human nature to love being in motion of all sort. Given accessible playground, people of all age will roam out and about, just for the heck of it.

ps. Be prepared to be called out for singling out the disabled when such "open world" game really does arise. Uh, FOX News won't take kindly to leaving out the poor who cannot afford GPS phones and the helpless.
 

Scopique

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One thing that's ignored is demographics. The majority of gamers are 18-34 (or thereabouts) according to research. The majority of this demographic actually has responsibilities (like work) that make finding time to just go to random places almost impossible. dtocs had it right: games are escapism, not a doorway to physical activity. For adults, it's their own choice to either sit down and game, or go outside. For children, it's their parents responsibility to ensure that their children aren't spending unhealthy amounts of time in front of the screen.
 

T.H.O.R

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SirSchmoopy said:
Nobody would want to play World of Wacraft if you had to freaking run on a Wii Fit bored to get everywhere. Nobody wants to play Halo 3 throwing a virtual punch at the TV. Nobody wants to even frail there arms to attempt to do a slap shot in NHL 2k9.
You can't say 'nobody' Because I for one have been dreaming about interactive VR RPGs and FPS for many many years now.

"Wait, you mean the new Call of Duty lets me wear this neat vest? And when I get shot it delivers a small thump to the area? NEAT! I get to use this (time crisis style) rifle to have realistic aiming, instead of a mouse and keyboard? AWESOME!!!"

Or for an RPG;

"You mean I actually get to swing a sword instead of just inputting the little buttons!!! FREAKING AWESOME!"

Especially for versus...imagine the star wars games for THAT system... So long as it isn't executed like the Wii was.
 

MarcusStrout

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I see massive orc/human fights, using laser tag style Bluetooth suits and sensory arrays that are individualized. Experience gained through the number of hits sustained and attacks completed. Customized maps to fit your location. Caches of EXP in your work. STR point exercise machines, DEF-customized clothing. We are looking at a seamless-if-initally-clunky transition into a world where games and real-life go hand-in-digital-hand, and people start doing things to gain experience and such. We are close to coming full circle with gaming.
 

kenji8055

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SirSchmoopy said:
Nintendo has a problem. Right now they are fine and dandy but Microsoft and even Sony now have the edge on both Graphics and Online features. [...]
TLDR: The Wii is a fad, Nintendo shouldn't mix exercise and gaming and release a real system next time.
I think that's abit harsh seen as how the PS3 executives say that they don't think that they will have made a profit by the time the PS3's replacement is developed. As for graphics, granted yes its nice to have games that look good but that isn't the only thing that makes up a good game. But I agree that Nintendo should try and change its focus from the icons of yesteryear and move on to something better whilst they still have a choice.

The Sonic, Mario, Zelda, Metroid and Pokemon sagas have all run their course (or over it in some cases) and should be allowed to retire whilst there is still some dignity in the brand.

And for the sake of our children, no more cross overs just because you put two franchises together does not mean it will be an instant success, the last (andpossibly only) time I can remember that working was Marvel vs Capcom
 

Odjin

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What's the deal? If I want to exercise I go outside play with friends. Why the hell I need an electronic device in my hands to play tagging for example? Why needing a phone in my hand to play football? It's ridiculous. A nice academic experiment but totally useless in the real world.

Furthermore gaming is for doing something "you can not do". Take for example the RPG example given a couple of posts ago. The trick is that there you can cast spells... you can swing swords as big as yourself... you can punch apart rocks and finally "you can upgrade". This is all not possible in the real life and this is why gaming is different and will never fit into this "open world" crap.

Many also don't understand what Wii is about... especially Nintendo doesn't. The big point here is the motion controller. People misuse it for "swing a sword" or "throw a ball" motion but this is all bullshit. The big point on this controller is that you gain 3D control ability. You can write games with control schemas in 3D instead of 2D as a mouse or keypad can do. But hell no game developers including Nintendo did not understand what they created and make dumb shit which makes this tech look silly. If Indie Game-Devs like me could develop for the Wii we would see some interesting usage of the motion control for really new and different game mechanics. But as always as long as those called "AAA Developers" keep trashing platforms we won't see interesting usage of new technology.

So gaming outside is silly... as simple as it gets. Physical games like team sports will always stay clean of mobiles or "open world" crap since there is just no reason whatsoever to do so. It's perfect as it is so why not go and really get innovative about gaming instead of trying to bastardize existing physical games?
 

Smokescreen

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Dec 6, 2007
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From the article:

"We now find ourselves in a time when games - the best games - are physically interactive"

Bioshock, Little Big Planet, Gears of War 2, Dead Space and pretty much every awesome game over the past 12 months would like a word with you. The only possible exception is Rock Band/Guitar Hero; there has yet to be a Wii game that has really catapulted itself into greatness, unless you want to count the videos of women in their underwear exercising to Wii Fit.

So we start off with a basic falsehood.

And there is already a game where people use GPS trackers and hints to get people outside, it's called Geocaching [http://www.geocaching.com/] (which the author references) so I'm not sure that anything really unusual is being done here, except you get to use mobile gaming devices (like, say...a GPS device?) in order to play your game.

As for a game where "where the outside world is the programming engine, our arms and legs are the controllers and reality is the graphics processor."

Uh, don't we have that? They're called sports, and someone might want to check into that. I hear they can be a lot of fun, in addition to making some people a fuckton of money.

The article wasn't badly written, but it fails to ask one critical question: If we already have this option, how does putting a videogame setup for an outside, mobile videogame where reality is the processor and our bodies are the controllers in someone's hands suddenly encourage them to go outside?
 

Chemfire

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May 28, 2008
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Alright I read this article and though

'How exciting, this sounds amazing'

And then I flashed back to my younger years, wandering the woods outside my house, looking for that one wild pikachu, just to shove it in my friends' faces. But sadly, never was there a pikachu, or ANY pokemon for that matter.

With this, the first thing I thought about was pokemon. A little device you can carry around, alerts you to a pokemon in your area, you have the possibility to catch it, battle it and so forth.

And trainer battles, oh wow, battling people on the streets if both little devices go off and both accept, I dare say, amazing

But hay, whatever, this is just some childhood fantasy of mine.
 

PizzaTheHutt

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Aug 7, 2008
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Saddly the author of this article fails to see the purpose of gaming. Do you really think we could use a gps device to play something similar to l4d? would we be able to defend our selves from hundreds of frantically rushing people and special powered creatures using a gps realisticly in our society? No.
 

xitel

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Aug 13, 2008
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I've actually seen a game or two that used GPS. They were based off of people independently using a website and GPS locations, but I understand it was extremely fun and competetive.
 

Bakery

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I can't wait to go out one morning for footy practice and see the field is taken over by a small crowd of nerds SLAYING THE DRAGON!

Actually I'd probably be out there slaying it with them... I think the idea of open world RPGs would be frigging awesome, the trouble would be getting enough people to play. To the people saying that these games already exist and are called sports, I think you're wrong. Maybe you could consider sports your 'casual' games and open world RPGs your 'hardcore' games.

They may never become mainstream, but i definately think there'd be a niche market out there.
 

Not Good

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SirSchmoopy said:
The Wii is a slap in the face to nintendo fans.
I have been led to believe that this is a good thing. For the simple reason that Nintendo is showing their influence in the gaming community and they are also not targeting their past audience, but rather trying to get people who haven't picked up on video games a chance to bond with their children who might have or not ignored them for the most part.
 

dtocs

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Bakery said:
I can't wait to go out one morning for footy practice and see the field is taken over by a small crowd of nerds SLAYING THE DRAGON!

Actually I'd probably be out there slaying it with them... I think the idea of open world RPGs would be frigging awesome, the trouble would be getting enough people to play. To the people saying that these games already exist and are called sports, I think you're wrong. Maybe you could consider sports your 'casual' games and open world RPGs your 'hardcore' games.


They may never become mainstream, but i definately think there'd be a niche market out there.
Theres already a live action RPG comunity, There called LARPers. Most proberly dont know about it, why because slaying the dragon may be fun yes but its horribly impractile. Oh yeah also kids for years have been LARPing for decades its called pretending.
 

sketchesofpayne

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Imagine if a pokemon game had no gameworld. It instead either generated one based on your geographic area or was pre-loaded with satellite map info and such. To catch pokemon you'd have to wander around various parks and places which would generate the random encounters for the game. You would also duel fellow players wirelessly, but would have to be within a certain distance of one another. Retailers or your house would be the 'pokemon centers' to restore your pokemon's health.
 

SirSchmoopy

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Not Good said:
SirSchmoopy said:
The Wii is a slap in the face to nintendo fans.
I have been led to believe that this is a good thing. For the simple reason that Nintendo is showing their influence in the gaming community and they are also not targeting their past audience, but rather trying to get people who haven't picked up on video games a chance to bond with their children who might have or not ignored them for the most part.
Lego Star wars is a good way to bond with your kid too. Shitty parents are going to be shitty parents and it really doesn't matter how you design a system around it.