Neighbourly love in the key of G(aming)

I just spent a good chunk of the night playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero with my next door neighbour.

First, I went over to his place and played drums (shameless plug: I’m pretty dang good on the drums at exaggerating ). We played on his PS3, which I still say is inferior to the 360 because the frame rate is so slow that the notes are actually shaky as they approach — making hitting the drums even tougher to time. If you’re reading this neighbour, I’m sorry . . . but it’s still true.

Then we came over to my place and played Guitar Hero: Legends of Rock for a while. He’s super good at guitar. Maybe I should recruit him to help me get the Rock Band world tour achievements that I still need.

But the thing that struck me is we hardly ever hang out. We’ve played catch and we’ve played golf. Still, what really connected us was the gaming — in particular Rock Band. He calls it a great family game because they all play together. I agree. My wife and I play together.

The music games are such good social connectors. They do video gaming a real service, helping to debunk the prevalent myth that gamers hang out in their (mother’s) basement by themselves all day and button mash.

Replay: This article brought to you by…

… In case you missed it on Toronto Thumbs.

Picture this: You pop Metal Gear Solid 4 into your PS3. The cinematic introducing the game begins with a close up shot of Solid Snake’s boots, then the camera pans up his dark jeans to the waist where you see the Levi’s logo. The shot begins to pull back and you see Snake pull a cigarette from his pack of Marlboros. He puts the pack away and takes a big swig of his Budweiser before using a Bic lighter to spark his smoke.

That may well be the future of gaming, and that horizon was brought closer by Sony’s recent announcement that the company will be introducing “dynamic in-game advertising.”

Mind you, such ads likely (hopefully) won’t be quite as obvious as the above scenario. In fact, Sony Computer Entertainment’s senior vice-president, Phil Rosenberg, went so far as to say in the company’s news release that the ads will benefit gamers.

“Ads that are organic to the environment not only benefit developers and advertisers, but also create a richer experience for gamers,” he says.

I may be in the minority when I say that I actually like the idea, if it’s done intelligently; that means no “This game brought to you by” messages, no interruption to the game play for embedded ads and no Coke ads in alien universes. The ads need to lend realism and credibility to the gaming experience, real products in likely places that don’t have big look-at-me signs above them.

It’s not a new concept. Movie makers have been doing product placements for decades. And they do it well, without taking anything away from the film. I’d imagine game developers should be able to incorporate the idea with flair.

So what do gamers get in return? I’m sad to say we probably won’t see cheaper games. But we may well see more game developers hop into the fray as a new source of revenue opens up the playing field a bit. We’ll see tougher competition as game developers fight for your attention. That will mean better games in the long run, hopefully.

* Image courtesy of Toronto Thumbs

Survey says: Games are good for the disabled

It seems video games are the prescription for what ails ya.

A new survey done by Information Solutions Group has found casual video games, especially simple puzzle games, help people who are suffering from physical or mental disabilities. The study was done on behalf of pop cap games, makers of casual games such as Bejeweled and Peggle. So take it with a grain of salt.

Games are said to have helped people cope with depression and ADD. It also helped distract those with physical disabilities from their pain.

For me playing games can be depressing, especially when some 12-year-old keeps killing me and tea-bagging my dead body.

The survey is nicely summed up here.

Replay: It’s not easy beating games

In case you missed this when it was posted on Toronto Thumbs.

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I was surfing the Internet on the weekend when I spotted a columnist arguing video games have become too easy. The article featured a picture of someone’s grandma, with her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth in concentration. She’s holding a Wii controller.

It was then that I thought to myself in desperation, “Perhaps I have fallen prey to game developers morphing me into a (gasp) ‘casual gamer.’” After all, I did buy Viva Pinata last week. And I did finish Halo 3 on normal. And I did buy NHL 07 for the easy achievements. And I do play Guitar Hero on medium.

Still, I can confidently answer the question posed by the Blend Games columnist — “Do gamers have it too easy these days.” No, gamers are not being catered to as drooling buffoons who can’t find the ‘start’ button without a tutor.

Sure I beat Halo 3 on normal. Then I beat it on legendary, with a little help from my friends. And it was hard. And if that’s too easy, try doing it on Legendary with the iron skull activated, a setting that forces you to start from the beginning of a level if you die. I also beat Gears of War on casual because insane is too, well, insane for me. But I’ve recently started playing it on hardcore. I started playing Rock Band on medium to get the hang of the drums, now I play it on hard. I can only beat a handful of songs on expert.

You see, game developers are allowing gamers to play at their comfort level — in some cases, to ease into the game. That’s not making it too easy. It’s simply a sign of the times.

Back in the olden days of gaming, before Nintendo, before Atari, waaayyyyy back to the arcade days, when there was Donkey Kong and Pac Man, games were designed for one purpose: to eat as many of your quarters as possible in as little time as possible. That’s when games were hard . . . because hard was profitable. Then along came Atari, then the Nintendo Entertainment System, and games became much easier because the game developers wanted you to take your time. They wanted you to become immersed. There was no longer a burning need to part you penniless from the arcade so some other chump could plunk money into the machine.

That’s the natural direction games have evolved; developers want you to spend time in front of the television living in their game world because then you’ll buy the downloadable content, not to mention the sequels. If you frustrate the gamer by making the tasks too difficult, repetitive or meaningless, you lose him.

And that’s why games have become, in some ways, even more challenging. You can now play online against other people who play as much as you do — maybe even more. There’s challenge in not getting your bum handed to you by a 12-year-old whose thumbs have become one with the analog sticks on his Xbox controller.

Thankfully, when I’ve been humbled by my online foes, I can turn on Guitar Hero and rock away to my favourite tunes on medium. And oh yeah, where is that start button again?