Nothing against Boom Blox; I got it from Amazon's Black Friday sale, and loved it. But...
"Phase one of this study will seek to identify the qualities a game must have to improve cognition - memory, problem-solving, critical thinking and the like."
How do you determine this from one game? This sounds like a study that needs comparison of some sort. Boom Blox has different modes, sure, but they're not varied enough for something like this. Using one game in the study is sort of like the studies that used DOOM ten years after its release to say that all video games make people violent - it doesn't really work.
@spiderweb1986: If you had checked out the organization's website, you'd see a second study is in process focusing on World of Warcraft. It's only natural that for such a study to work that games which essentially appeal to all groups, genders, and ages would be chosen to try to achieve some level of constant in these experiments.
This is great news, not only for video games, but for mental growth in the elderly (and possibly even those with mental disorders). Video games have always been thought as a novelty item, but if studies start to show the health benefits of use, it could bring about a new age of video games. I'm sure Nintendo is waiting on the edge of their seat for studies like this (as they well should).
@ttocs: My colleague's son was born with Cerebral Palsy. Any regular console would be useless to him due to the fine motor skills necessary to use it.
They bought him a Wii and now he regularly whoops his dad at Wii Boxing.
Just as TV, movies, and books are accessible to all, so should video games be.
Wii Boxing can be quite a workout. I know it's often difficult for people with disabilities to get exercise, but this kid's getting aerobics from that.
phase two will seek to develop guidelines for "a new class of video game for older adults," and also develop a prototype game that follows those guidelines
What every adult gamer has been craving; a game that gives them an advantage over annoying thirteen year olds online.
Okay, this is getting out of hand. You can't make every single moment in any given plot interesting with gameplay alone. Cutscenes add some emotion and human value to moments that would (in game) be really, really, fuckin' boring.
Basically you can have some plot points mid-play, but there's only so much you can do that the player will notice, and you're taking cinematography out of the picture almost entirely. I like how Gears handled it by pressing Y to zoom in on the action, but that really only takes things so far.
There are an infinite number of things that can happen in a story that will never be entirely covered by any style of gameplay, ever. I think moments like you find in Half Life and Bethesda games are prime examples of where not "breaking" gameplay is actually more disurptive than a simple, engaging cutscene.
I just don't get how people are so thrown off by cutscenes. They're just as much a part of the game as the gameplay.
@SecCom: ...Are you that dyslexic that the minute you stop playing you're somehow ripped out of a magical trance? Cutscenes have been, and are, integral because it's how you get your story out of a video game. It's impossible to tell a story without some form of cinematic. But sure, you tell me how you can make interesting gameplay work 24/7 for every single moment ever recorded in a cutscene. Like when everyone is standing around talking in Fallout, that'll be awesome. Press x to yawn? Or how bout when Kaims daughter dieing in Lost Odessy? I know, waggle right joystick to whipe tear. Cause that's emotional!
@SecCom: Yeah, because the choice between a static camera or hopping around for crotch shots of Alex is totally artistic. Those are limiting to the point of cripling in the flow of a game.
Anything short of VR contact lenses or a halodeck is not going to allow for the immersion Spielberg is looking for.
Even in cinema, fades, wipes, montages, subtitled time and location shifts all jar me out of the narrative. I think the job of the director/game designer is to make sure that I renew my buy-in to the experience again after these shifts in perspective occur. If a game does this effectively you won't begrudge the cutscene, you'll look forward to the next one.
07/11/09
"Phase one of this study will seek to identify the qualities a game must have to improve cognition - memory, problem-solving, critical thinking and the like."
How do you determine this from one game? This sounds like a study that needs comparison of some sort. Boom Blox has different modes, sure, but they're not varied enough for something like this. Using one game in the study is sort of like the studies that used DOOM ten years after its release to say that all video games make people violent - it doesn't really work.
07/11/09
07/11/09
07/11/09
07/12/09
no....
07/11/09
07/11/09
They bought him a Wii and now he regularly whoops his dad at Wii Boxing.
07/11/09
07/11/09
Just as TV, movies, and books are accessible to all, so should video games be.
Wii Boxing can be quite a workout. I know it's often difficult for people with disabilities to get exercise, but this kid's getting aerobics from that.
07/12/09
07/11/09
What every adult gamer has been craving; a game that gives them an advantage over annoying thirteen year olds online.
07/11/09
At least you'd get a different kind of trash talk.
07/11/09
07/11/09
But DAMN is that game fun!
07/11/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
Emotion interpretation Failure. They were actually laughing at you for moving to a game company called "Flower". Sorry, I thought you knew...
05/20/09
05/19/09
05/19/09
05/19/09
05/19/09
05/19/09
I think you deserve a star.
12/23/08
Oh boy, Boom Blox!
Billy then used those cheats.
Bad Billy.
12/09/08
Basically you can have some plot points mid-play, but there's only so much you can do that the player will notice, and you're taking cinematography out of the picture almost entirely. I like how Gears handled it by pressing Y to zoom in on the action, but that really only takes things so far.
There are an infinite number of things that can happen in a story that will never be entirely covered by any style of gameplay, ever. I think moments like you find in Half Life and Bethesda games are prime examples of where not "breaking" gameplay is actually more disurptive than a simple, engaging cutscene.
I just don't get how people are so thrown off by cutscenes. They're just as much a part of the game as the gameplay.
12/10/08
12/10/08
12/10/08
12/10/08
12/09/08
Even in cinema, fades, wipes, montages, subtitled time and location shifts all jar me out of the narrative. I think the job of the director/game designer is to make sure that I renew my buy-in to the experience again after these shifts in perspective occur. If a game does this effectively you won't begrudge the cutscene, you'll look forward to the next one.
12/09/08
12/09/08
Short, and sweet.