Category: Entertainment

Kids and Games – Inspired by Penny Arcade

I like video games. Not just in the sense of spending a few hours a week playing them, but the development and design of them, their history in popular culture, and the unique ways the medium allows us to experience new places and characters like nothing before.

I’m also a parent with a daughter I love dearly. Which, as you can imagine, can create friction between the two interests. Kari loves video games too. We play Minecraft together – exploring caves and looking for diamonds and avoiding monsters. She knows what kind of games she can play – and why she can’t watch dad play his more mature games.

I’m lucky, I grew up with a Gameboy in my hands and had supportive parents that looked over my shoulder every once in a while. Some parents didn’t. I know folks whose first interaction with video games was via the unrelenting requests of their children to buy the latest Sega Super Mega Ultra Station 2000 for Christmas.

I was inspired by Mike Krahulik from Penny Arcade and decided to reach out to my daughter’s principal to see what I could do to help educate other parents on video games. Below is the email I sent to her this evening. If you’re an adult who cares about young people growing up in a positive gaming culture I urge you to do something. Communication and education is far more powerful than talking heads and fear mongering.

—

Dr. Vogelsang,

I’m Chris and my daughter, Kari Koerner, is in Ms. Parker’s 1st grade class.

Lately there’s been a lot of talk about video games in mainstream media. Katie Couric just did an hour-long piece that, while she has good intentions, makes video games look like something the devil came up with. Here’s a good retort if you’re familiar with the piece. The whole thing is a bit crazy and like most things, the truth lies somewhere in between.

I want to talk to other parents and teachers about video games. Not some boring 45 slide PowerPoint, but an honest chat with literal examples of what games are really like, how to find games that are appropriate, and how to guide our children to the right games, in the right context, at the right time.

This past March my family traveled to Boston for Spring break. Kari, Jackie and I went to a convention called Penny Arcade Expo or PAX for short. It’s a huge gathering of 70,000 gaming nerds from all walks of life. People who love board games, Dungeons & Dragons, card games, classic video games and yes, even the modern blockbuster titles we hear about in the news. People traveled thousands of miles to see new games and hang out with people who share the same interests. And you know what? It was the most amazing group of kind, interesting people I’ve ever met.

The guys who started PAX are behind a webcomic called Penny Arcade. It’s a series that is always mature and sometimes offensive, but spares no victim in being brutally honest about video games and the culture that surrounds them. They are very outspoken on issues such as this and just this morning posted an article about an idea they had. You can read it here (Warning: strong language). The gist, if you don’t wish to read it yourself, is that one way we can help is to educate other adults on the ins-and-outs of video games. They inspired me to reach out to you to see what I can do for Bowles and the Rockwood School District.

It’s awesome to be a nerd and I’d like to share my knowledge and enthusiasm with other parents and teachers. I threw together a rough outline that I hope might give an overview of what we’d talk about.

  • Explain what ESRB ratings mean. Show them how to use these ratings to determine appropriate purchases (There’s also a free and pretty awesome ESRB app for smartphones).
  • Demo some recent games of various ESRB Rating Levels.
  • Show what it’s like to play certain games (walk through a level from a couple different games).
  • Talk about hand-held gaming like Nintendo DS and Apple iPads. These systems too have very mature games (like Resident Evil) alongside Mario and Pokemon.
  • Talk about online gaming, like Xbox Live. What will kids hear when playing with anonymous strangers.
  • Talk about parental restrictions. All systems released in the past 7 years have some from of parental restrictions, many associated with the ESRB ratings.
  • Talk about social pressures. Kids want to be popular and included.
  • Talk about what impact parents can have on other children when they visit their house (to play video games).
  • Talk about how to educate other parents in a polite manner about video games, the ESRB and the implications of inappropriate gaming.

Let me know what you think. I’d love to grab lunch and chat if you’re up to it. If you have any ideas of a potential opportunity to get a group of interested parents/teachers in a room I’m all for putting something together.

Yours,
Chris Koerner
clkoerner.com

Most Anticipated Games from PAX East

PAX East

A few weeks ago we traveled to Boston to attend PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) East. It was awesome and I’m still reeling from all the amazing things we saw. Kari had a great time, got tons of swag, and even won some pretty cool prizes.

While there I kept a running list of some of the games that I’m most looking forward to. In no particular order here are a few worth checking out when they release in the near future.

 

Zombie Tycoon II (PS3 and Vita)

This is by the very talented Frima Studios, makers of the throwback bullet hell shooter “A Space Shooter for Two Bucks” that came out on the PSP a few years back. As always, the production quality is top-notch with unique designs and animation. This is a RTS where you control a horde of zombies, a mobile base and a special monster as you try to not only take over a town, but keep the opposing zombies at bay. Kari and I played a round with her on the PS3 and I on a Vita. She liked it a lot. (We also won a PS Vita in a drawing, but that only sweetened the deal.)

 

Mercenary Kings (PC)

Paul Robertson (NSFW) is an insanely talented artist, known primarily for his over the top pixel art. He did the sprite work for the recent Scott Pilgrim game. It’s a 2D 4 player Metal Slug-esque shoot-em-up.

 

A.N.N.E. (PC)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC6Re76NriA

Reminds me of Cave Story with some heavy and deliberate Super Metroid influences. The guys manning the booth were super cool and the playable version at PAX was promising. (are you noticing a trend of awesome retro gaming?)

 

Tearaway (PS VIta)

Media Molecule, the genius behind Little Big Planet have a new game coming out this October that revolves around a little messenger in a land made of paper. You have to help guide him along his journey using all sorts of input methods. Not only an amazing looking game, but their booth was top-notch as well. The booth is made of paper for a game about a world made of paper where you can print out objects in the game with paper – infinity.

Tearaway

 

Super T.I.M.E Force (PC)

Yeah, nuff said.

 

Mighty Switch Force 2 (3DS)

I really enjoyed the first one on the 3DS. Here’s to hoping this one is bigger and badder than the first. You play as Patricia Wagon, who in this go round is now trying to save the reformed criminals from the first game with her unique powers. Wayforward, the makers of this game, are also in charge of the remaster of the SNES classic Ducktales!

 

Monsters Invade (iOS)
This is on the list mainly for the crazy inflatable they were handing out. LOLWUT?

http://instagram.com/p/XLRU9Wo-Sm/

 

This list doesn’t include tons of big triple-A titles like Hawken, Luigi’s Mansion – Dark Moon and The Last of Us. These should be at the top of everyone’s list already.

I should also mention a few games that were on display that I’ve already play and recommend as well.

Major Magnet (for iPhone)

 

Beautiful animation, spot-on chiptune soundtrack and the level designs take me back to Sonic and the 16 bit Sega Genesis. The devs are two young guys who were nice to talk to and I wish them all the best.

Major Magnet

 

Ridiculous Fishing (also for iOS)

Imagine an arcade-y fishing simulator where you have to see how deep you can cast your line. Then imagine that you have to catch as many fish on the way back up. Then, on top of that, imagine that as you reel the fish from the water you have to shoot them as fast as you can. Oh, and all the imagery is in weird 45 degree parallelogram shapes. Did I mention that your lure has a chainsaw attached to it? It’s, well, ridiculous.

Oh, and anything by Double Fine, including the release of Brutal Legend for PC!

 

I will never tell her she’s doing it wrong.

I love getting emails like this one:

No, I’m not being sarcastic. You see, this email came from an iPad/iPhone game called Pocket Frogs. In this game you breed and nurture tiny frogs. You can feed them and race with them with the goal to create new generations of offspring with new combinations of colors and designs. To encourage new users the developers have a messaging feature baked in. You can message your friends to let them know about the app in hopes they’ll download it.

So why do I love emails like this? Because they’re from my daughter. At the ripe old age of five, she’s discovered how to use the in-game messaging – she taps on the frog, then the “Share”, then “Email” and sends a message to my name, stored in her Grandmother’s iPad.

So while I’m staring at code, sitting in a meeting or editing video for 8 hours a day, my daughter sometimes thinks about sending her newest frog to her old man. I’ll never tell her she’s doing it wrong.

The Speed of Things

First, a prediction. This generation of hand-held consoles will be the last.1

How can the multi-year spans between console releases compare to the yearly improvements of devices like the iPhone and iPad? Apple claims that the iPad 2 is 9x more powerful than it’s predecessor. In benchmark testing Anandtech confirms – yeah pretty much.

While it’s early in the life of both the iPhone and iPad, it’s hard to imagine that future incarnations would not continue this increase in graphical prowess.2

Year after year the iOS devices continue to improve while companies like Sony and Nintendo are in a cycle of releasing a device and then supporting it for a few years. The DS was released in 2004 and just this month is being replaced by its successor, the 3DS. The PSP has also been around a while with an original release in 2005. Its successor, the Next Generation Portable or NGP, is planned for a late 2011 release.3

According to this article from Business Insider the iPad 2 is “equal to NGP in terms of raw graphical horsepower”. Wait, that can’t be right. Sony’s much heralded next-generation portable that won’t be released until November is only equal to a device that is in consumer’s hands right now?

I’m not trying to over-emphasize graphics, there are many other factors when it comes to an enjoyable gaming experience. You can ding the iPad for lack of physical controls or the DS for not having many mature games. While smart intelligent readers such as yourself realize this, there are tons of consoles bought due to graphical fidelity over gameplay or library selection.

—

The genesis of this post came to me while laying in bed this evening. I was playing Real Racing 2 on my iPhone 3GS and was struck by a few things. 1) How well this game looked on a 2-year-old phone. 2) How smoothly it ran – no stuttering and load times were all but nonexistent. 3) How well the controls worked on a device without buttons.4

Next to me were a Nintendo DS and a Sony PSP, both loaded with a few top-notch games. Yet, here I was playing a racing game on my cell phone – a game that was about $25 cheaper than similar titles on its console brethren.

So the iPad 2 is as fast as the NGP, which won’t ship for another 9 months and the old cycle of developing a console and waiting a few years to improve is dead. Or dying. Develop, a website about game development noted that next-gen handheld console budgets have tripled. How much are the games going to cost? $50!?

I’ve been able to play the same games over the last 4 generations of iOS devices with out a hitch. In some cases the games are even improved on newer hardware. Meanwhile DS games are fuzzy on the new 3DS and all of my UMD games for the PSP will have to be re-purchased when the NGP is released. :-/

From one perspective, not only are the graphics a huge win, but also the financial and vitality aspects of this new breed of gaming devices.

Photo by sneeu – Licensed under Creative Commons