When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

— Revelation 6:5-6 NIV

After an interesting conversation during a call tonight, and some deep thought of my own, it does make me wonder where the industry is headed these days. With Social Media sites on the rise as gaming platforms, primarily for the sake of this article, Facebook. As well as a lot of companies now gearing their efforts towards development and publishing to make use of these platforms it has me thinking.

I’ve had a lot of people comment to me that they’re finding more and more games that just aren’t catching their interest anymore, or are down right boring. I’ve noticed this myself that a lot of times games aren’t really innovating anything new, just putting on shiny new clothes.

Of course there are plenty of exceptions to this, but not as many as there once were. And to be candid, a lot of the games found on Facebook are without a doubt, boring as crap, yet they get millions of players daily and the market is growing constantly with more and more companies and indie teams getting into the act.

Is the industry headed for another crash before we see a renaissance of creativity and an explosion of innovative creation across the board of games? Honestly, I don’t know, but at the same time as more companies pull away from making console games and of course the continuing stigma of PC gaming aside from the MMO market. (Which is constantly being accused of being clones upon clones upon clones of this game or that game?)

Where is the industry headed?

Where will our new gaming experiences going to coming from?

Has the bubble burst again?

Tough questions; and maybe a bit of an alarmist bent to my thinking as I look over the scope of the gaming space these days. A lot of companies have been cutting stuff, shutting down, restructuring, and changing direction, so on, so forth, etcetera, and etcetera.

So I but it to all of you dear friends and readers, is this new explosion of gaming on social platforms a sign of great change that will push the industry into a new era of creativity or is Facebook the rider of the black horse, preparing to spread a famine amongst hardcore games and gamers while it sows the seeds of meaningless fluff?

Comment below.

For the majority of time we’ve had video games there’s been music attached to them. It a fact music can trigger memories and sometimes music can just spontaneously pop into our head at the strangest time. Like any good gamer, most of the music that pops into my mind and the strangest times is game music. There’s a lot of music that instantly plays and recall that particular game, or that period in our life when we were playing that game.

There’s been good music, and bad music in games and the use of music in games can either be a good counter point to the game experience or it’s just thrown in there because either the developers liked the song or they just couldn’t find anything better and took whatever they happened to hear in the elevator on their way to the office.

As far as recalling music, whenever I hear the Legend of Zelda theme, regardless of which version for which iteration, my thoughts always go back to the gold cartridge for the NES.

Music can be very effective in games to set a scene, add ambiance, make for kick ass battle scenes and cinematics, or  just be part of the experience that comes with a game. For the sake of not pissing anyone off I’m not going to list the misses that fall into the game music category, and I can think of a wealth of music that stands out in my mind as game music I could listen to for hours. I’ll post one of those examples later.

My point however is that when making games we should and personally have to think about the music we associate with our game. Music that adds to the experience is a benefit, both to the game but also to longevity. If people can hear a tune and instantly think back to the fun and joy they had playing your game not only did you get the game right but you have a certain kind of stickiness that you might not otherwise find. Music as a memory cue can add a wealth of recognition to your game(s), but also your brand.

Squaresoft has been remarkably good at this, not that it comes as a surprise of course, considering they have Nobuo Uematsu-Sama, and others making music for their games. Even after all these years of Final Fantasy games, I still get that chill run through me when I hear the tell tale theme, Legend of Zelda manages that of course as I stated above, but I can think of many more examples.

But then there’s the other side of this conversation, when game music isn’t used effectively, isn’t adding to the experience but instead, just sits in the game and ends up either annoying the crap out of the players or gets blatantly ignored. MMO’s are notorious for crappy music selections in the games, often recycling the same music for area after area. Which let me tell you, gets old really quickly, especially when you’re transitioning from a swamp land, through a town, into an ice area and the same ghastly, worse than elevator music persists throughout the game world.

I know music can be expensive if you’re shelling out money for a Big Name composer to do your game, but to be honest you don’t need to go that far to get good music. Looking through the indie music scene is it rock, electronic, or folk music depending on the genre of your game you can find quality music to bring into your game world and add to the experience.

It’s not rocket science and maybe it does require your designers/developers/ and especially your producers to have some level of decent taste, but at the same time, it is worth the effort. Of course you want to focus on game play, art style, game experience, game world and all the components that make up a successful title, but at the same time, you don’t want to cause your players ears to bleed and do a half assed job picking music.

Music can and is effective both for game experience, brand recognition, but also the all important stickiness. You want your players to remember your game fondly, and use music for its memory cue ability so the next time you launch a title, your players can remember the kick ass time they had on the previous one and look forward to your next offering.

Music might not seem important, but I can recall the countless times I’ve seen players ask; “Is the music any good?”

Something to think about; that and remember to be consistent for god sake. For now, here are a few more samples of games that got music right, even if it’s only in one certain part of the game.

Yeah I know, most of it’s Squaresoft, what can I say, they get it right most of the time.

There this thing that I see many times over the years. Certainly within the gaming community, all kinds of people have great ideas about the next “Great Game Idea”. Of course the realities that go into making a game aren’t involved in their thought process about what it takes or how to go about making that “Great Game”. Of course the information is out there for those whom are willing to research into it, and of course all time and again people in the industry has written and commented or had talks and exhibitions on what it does take. But there often seems to be some component missing from this information, it gets referenced certainly but not really discussed.

Yes making games takes time, money, resources, people, etc, etc. But it also takes a large amount of dedication. Yes it takes Passion too of course, but the more often I hear that word “Passion” the more it takes on a buzz word kind of feel.

Dedication, perseverance, fortitude, persistence and determination, all aspects of a similar state of mind, but still words that describe the means that drive one to work their ass off to get where they want to go. With all creative types,  be it a game designer, an actor, a writer, a fashion designer, anything else creative, it can be difficult breaking into those industries, or getting your first product out, proving yourself, proving your concepts, and getting that notice that you “Made it”.

You can have all the creativity in the world, you can have all the practical knowledge you need, you could be an artist-programmer-writer-musician-producer-ninja with all the skills imaginable but if you’re not willing to put the time in and get things done, you won’t make it off the ground.

If you have a great idea then pursue it, learn how to do things, find like minded people to form a team, but even with teams you run into this same issue. We’ve all seen it over and over again, people come together and plan out something epic, but it falls apart because someone gives up. It takes time and people are impatient and often in this “On demand” world of ours, people expect immediate results.

In a perfect world that could happen, sure.

In reality you have to work your ass off to get somewhere, you have to do things you otherwise would avoid to gain skills; you have to invest hours working on building your game, your CV, your portfolio, your creds. From concept to development to production and beyond it all takes work. Not in the metaphorical sense, but in the get down and dirty and kick ass and take names.

There’s no reason at the core that you can’t bring your “Great Game” idea to life, if you’re willing to poor you time and essence into making it happen. Hell, you can make a really good pitch for your idea but then you have to deliver on it. We’re not talking about some abstract thing, we’re talking about standing up and taking action.

I’m guilty of forgetting this sometimes and I let myself go slack as I work on different projects or take side gigs to expand my horizons. Like anyone I get lazy sometimes when I’m faced with work or projects I might otherwise avoid like the plague, but I kick myself and remember the goal, remember where I’m aiming for. So not only am i writing this for you my dear readers, but also for myself, a good self ass-kicking and reminder to practice what I’m preaching is good for the soul, so is admitting my own missteps on the great path of life.

Reminders are great for this; I’m not talking about some tacky poster on the wall, but just that one memento of past achievement or that one game or book that inspired you. We all need out talismans that keeps us focused, but even then you need to remember that no one’s going to get you want you want if you don’t have the drive and determination to carry through and deliver your own destiny.

You want to do something, you want to create and make something, then my best advice to you is to shut up and do it.

Now we all know the argument between what makes a casual game player and a hardcore game player and that particular debate is going to continue raging back and forth probably for the rest of the foreseeable future. And far be it for me to interject my opinion on that one. However, I have noticed something as of late which fairly amusing to me and as you know dear readers, my amusement is paramount to the inner workings of the universe.

Now what is it that amuses me? You ask, well my lovelies, let me enlighten you on this new source of merryment.

There’s this strange creature prowling around the internetz, especially on the social networks which is a curious being indeed. I really don’t think scientists have classified this one yet, but in mind, I’ll refer to this entity as the “Hardcore Casual Player”.

Yes, yes of course it sounds like a very good oxymoron, which I suppose it is, and yet I can find no better terminology having encountered this species in the wild.

Now we all know casual game s, especially on social networks like Facebook and Myspace are essentially short playtime games, you know x amounts of minutes or less. So taking Farmville for an example, you prepare your farmland, plant your crops wait hours to days to harvest, rinse, and repeat. Fairly simple formula for a game and yet can be oddly addictive, mainly due to it’s low requirement of brain use. You drop in, do your business like in many of the similar games and then off you go. Wham, bam, thank you Zynga-Ma’am.

Here’s the punch-line though, there are people, however strange as this is, who sit on Facebook for hours on end engaged in these games, either several over a period of time, or they just spend hours and hours playing the same quick game. I suspect this is an example of the Tetris effect we saw back in the day, but it still boggles the mind.

Many of these games, no matter how fun they may be, have the depth of a drying mud puddle yet they captivate people for unnatural amounts of time and have millions of players.

We talk all the time about replay-ability of games and some games try to highlight this aspect.  Yet these casual, low brain activity games seem to suck the time out of people in copious quantities without the major budgets, massive game worlds and deep stories.

I realize that I believe much of this is due in part to the social aspect of these games, they share with their friends, give them gifts, become neighbours and all the other cute little social bells and whistles that seems to be standard MO for these games. But in the final analysis, there seems to be comfort in repeating simple actions that makes these games so addictive. Sure they might have cute graphics and nice lulling music that doesn’t annoy sometimes, but just sort of fades into the background of doing the same basic chores again, even with your friends.

It’s no small wonder the market for social games is exploding more and more. People eat this shit up with their morning coffee and night time beer. It’s like reality TV shows, sure we know that eventually someone is going to be the only survivor or win the amazing race, yet people are captivated by the events that lead to the conclusion which is sometimes the real reward in user/watcher participation.

I sometimes wonder if we need to take a page from the casual game world and find some way to make our more expansive and yes grindy games just as addicting.

Which brings up another issue, people can spend hours on end doing quests and things on Mafia Wars, but they complain endlessly about the grind in MMOs. If you play an mmo in small does as you do a casual game, of course you’ll be less bored by the grind, but you won’t accomplish as much. So how then can we make the long term grind rewarding enough to entice players to do it as much as they can spend hours in casual games?

Quite a conundrum really, for which I don’t have an answer presently.

One thing I do know is that Hardcore Casual Players are a growing trend, a curious, amusing and bizarre trend but one we must be aware of and make allowances for as we continue to make games, be they epically massive games, or cute casual 4 minute fun blasts. There’s a change in the reciepe, and we need to find that secret ingredient again.

Right so as the gaming community is now chewing on the speech by President Obama with his usual comment regarding video games, I had a conversation the other day with Epi on this issue. So like anything else in the world that pings my brain for longer then 5 seconds I’m going to write it up.

Let me start off by saying that I do not in any way have a problem with the idea of play in moderation. I do think many times kids are left to much to their own devices by parents and many spend way to much time gaming. I know I certainly did as a kid and even today it can still be a bit tricky to put the game down to get work done. However, like most arguments by the anti-video game lobby I disagree with most of their tired old bullshit. Not that I count the Pres in that segment but when it comes to certain times, he does come off a bit overboard when he mentions video games in his speeches, or perhaps makes the reference far to often.

But I’m going to look at the other side of things this time around, I don’t feel like ripping the anti game establishment a new one right now. Let’s look at our children, our education system and our society, and take some things into accounting.

Consider the pressure our kids are under from day to day, and for those of us able to remember it hasn’t changed all that much in the last 50 years though perhaps the pressures themselves are different to some extent. (Yes I know as adults we are under pressure in our own lives but that’s a story for another day hmmm?)

Our kids start school usually at 5 years old, though around here they’ve started including some four year olds, and holy shit has primary changed from when I was a kid. They have homework and start on the fundamentals a lot sooner then we did. Most of what I remember from Primary was reviewing the ABCs, counting, playing with blocks and chasing cute girls around the playground. Now kids come home with homework that range from printing, spelling, basic math, reading and so on.

Now that in and of itself isn’t anything overburden some I suppose if the kids are prepared for it, but parents may not be bothering unaware of it, or plainly to busy. (Again a story for another day) So now kids are faced with this whole new environment, learning new things, concepts and in an enclosed world/social ecosystem. Now look at the fact that from start to finish in most cases kids are in school for the next 13 years of their life. Facing new challenges of learning every day save summer and Christmas vacation.

Add into that they are growing up, going through puberty, first loves, first enemies, changing world perceptions, and all the extra activities they are either willingly or by parental directive joining after school.

When you take a step back and look at the situation objectively, kids have a whole lot of shit thrown at them from a young age till they are nearly adult. Now add in during (usually) the teenage years they become drivers at 16, they deal with sexual issues starting anywhere from 10 and older these days (Scary as that is but I digress), and all that noise they get from their peers and family.

From their parents they will hear how they have to have good high grades, get into this university or that, find a good job, go to the Olympics or some other big dream plan dreamed up (usually) by the parent(s). Hell of a lot of pressure to put on a young individual still coming down off of hormonal turmoil, changing life perceptions and sexual awareness.

From their peers, we know what that all entails, sex, drugs, everything else under the sun that kids might experience to get them into trouble. Even more pressure atop from school, physical changes, emotional changes, and parental/family/cultural pressures.

It’s no small wonder kids can implode sometimes and why they turn to things like drugs, gangs, and other things that are far removed from parents expectations. People complain about video games like their something evil, yet video games are often one of the few pressure valves kids have. Sure some kids go outside and play, and that’s all well and good, but the video games also provide cerebral experiences that can relax a weary brain, assist in hand/eye coordination, and with online games, kids who deal with social anxiety/awkwardness/shyness might blossom into their own personality online more readily then in more physical social environments.

As I parent I certainly try to make sure my children have a balanced amount of video games vs. outdoor/indoor play, physical activity, and study homework time.

Do I think video games lead to children becoming violent mass murderers?

In some rare cases perhaps, though in many cases I suspect where the games not available to these few kids their violent outburst/explosion would likely have happened sooner rather then later.

We as a society need to look at the amount of pressures we place on our children, teenagers, and even our selves and think long and hard about how we can work to take some of the stress out of our day to day lives. Provide children with the love, encouragement and support to deal with their own pressures give them the room they need to grow and guide them towards the future.

Allow them what they need to relieve their pressures in a safe environment. If a couple hours of daily video game playing help your child wind down after the hell we know as School, then what’s wrong with that? After some time cooling off on some good fun playing games they enjoy (though you all know well I don’t advocate violent or mature games for kids their not intended for so don’t give me any shit on that) They’re more likely to be refreshed enough to tackle their homework either following some relaxation time or knowing they’re entitled to it upon completion.

Everything in moderation is true, be it play, or be it work and stress/pressures. We should be more forthright with our kids and involve them in serious discussions. We expect kids to grow up way to fast and we stuff so much “adult” information on math, sciences, and other subjects in school, yet we don’t hold real discussions with them because their “just kids”

The differences between their education and the way we treat them outside of school borders on naked hypocrisy.

We expect our kids to learn their biology, physics, chemistry, calculus and so on and get high grades, but we can’t seriously discuss important subjects like sex, drugs, and balancing their work and play time?

We allow kids to learn how to handle cars at 16-17 but we stumble over the idea of actually involving them in choosing or finding a direction in our lives?

I’ve covered some of this before so I won’t harp on it, video games and violence, video games and drugs, video games and gangs, video games and sex. All hot topics with the anti video game lobby, yet has anyone pointed out to these paper-asshats that Violence, Drugs, Gangs, and Sex has been around a helluva lot longer than video games. All these evil things video games cause in kids, predate video games by something in the way of oh I don’t know, most of human civilization.

But enough ranting from me, my closing points are simple.

Everything in moderation is a good idea, especially, the “Everything” part.

Our kids are under immense pressure all through school, then university especially when they dive right from one to the other. We need to look hard and long at our education systems.

Video Games won’t cause anarchy amongst our youth, but they might keep our youth from going bonkers.