It is equally exhilaration to see Daniel Auteuil as well as the Prince of Persia on the silver screen of Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. Semper Ubi: Ubisoft and the Art of Games, sponsored by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris and French Cultural Services in New York was debuted at Walter Reader Theater last night. Hollywood-styled CGI animation and in-game footage of five new games (Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones [looks very interesting], Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, Tom Clancy: Ghost Recon, Project Assassin [debuted in Tokyo Game Show in September] , and Peter Jackson's King Kong [a bit boring]): created by Ubisoft were previewed and followed by comments from the game designers and producers.
Colonel John Antal, the producer of Brothers in Arms, brought up an interesting point regarding game design. He complimented on how game designers have reacted to the suggestions of players via their communications in message boards. He contrasted the builder v. player relationship with that of filmmaker and moviegoer, where the communication is minimal. Antal’s comment brought back Charlie Nesson’s enlightening remarks at the recent State of Play III conference. It is encouraging to learn that game designers do listen to popular demands, but one should push beyond the level of dialogue pointed out by Antal in order to increase the educational value of games. Again, it is a balancing act of responding to the preference of the players without compromising the level of creativity of the designer. Brothers in Arms – Earned in Blood as a military action games seems to have gotten raved review among all WWII series.
According to Antal, designers were given military training for two days, his research team interviewed almost all members of the 101st Airborne Division who are still alive to find out how the battle took place, and the map was drawn with extreme accuracy to that of Sainte Marie du Mont and nearby towns based on photographs from the US National Archives. .All in all, it is encouraging to see the level of authenticity and educational value of this game while being an immersive one.
You said, "It is encouraging to learn that game designers do listen to popular demands, but one should push beyond the level of dialogue pointed out by Antal in order to increase the educational value of games."
I believe you may be understating your case. Games like Half-Life permit their users to create and host their own boards. The administrators, usually gamers themselves, develop their own worlds, decide the rules, and handle disputes. Talk about a competition among rule sets!
While deliberation is important, half-life illustrates the democratic potential of video games through new and exciting forms of citizen participation.
Posted by: Nikitas Nicolakis | December 17, 2005 at 07:37 PM