Gamers are all About Stats

One of the reasons for putting this list together was, firstly, because I wanted to see if it could be done. The other reason was to de-contextualise and cram all this information about gamers together to emphasise that “gamer” is in discourse. The word is not actually about who plays games it is how people talk about who plays games. I included all the source links for reference but this post is really more a visual thing. For example, I find it interesting that certain words appear repeatedly such as ‘addict’ and 38%-48% entirely concerns “women” and “female” gamers. It’s also interesting that upon researching this I found that some of the articles refer to the exact same study even though they’ve presented a different percentage.

1% of gamers use the Linux platform
2% of gamers not currently playing an MMO said they would willingly pay a subscription fee to do so
3% of gamers are extreme
4% of gamers within the US play games for around 50 hours per week
5% of gamers agree with the statement: “The rumble feature should be removed from all video games
6% of gamers buy virtual goods
7% of gamers are choosing to keep their console and their gaming in the basement of their home.
8% of gamers are addicted
9% of gamers might be addicted to video games
10% of gamers are addicted
11% of gamers own unopened games
12% of gamers demonstrated addictive behavior
13% of gamers play as the default Shepard
14% of gamers plan to buy a tablet instead of a console
15% of gamers exhibit signs that meet the World Health Organization’s criteria for addiction
16% of gamers responded that they play Cafe World
17% of “casual” gamers consider themselves addicted
18% of gamers play as female Shepard
19% of gamers have broken their games console after getting frustrated playing a game
20% of gamers buy virtual goods
21% of gamers who are aware of FarmVille play it daily
22% of gamers reported being stopped by police
23% of gamers feel addicted to video games
24% of gamers reduced their TV watching over the last year
25% of gamers think they may be addicted
26% of gamers said that they believed their driving scares other people
27% of gamers are 45 years old or older
28% of gamers don’t ever check for the availability of DLC
29% of gamers are over 50 years old
30% of gamers have purchased virtual goods
31% of gamers reported running a red light over the past 12 months
32% of gamers chose to honor and respect the names given to characters by developers
33% of gamers say that playing games is their favorite entertainment activity
34% of gamers are women
35% of gamers are parents
36% of gamers that see an in-game advert go on to seek information about the related product
37% of gamers said friends and family relied upon them to stay up-to-date about movies
38% of gamers are female
39% of gamers are female
40% of gamers are women
41% of gamers are women
42% of gamers are female
43% of gamers are women
44% of gamers are female
45% of gamers are women
46% of gamers are female
47% of gamers are female
48% of gamers were female
49% of gamers won’t buy downloadable content
50% of gamers said in-game ads make games more realistic
51% of gamers don’t want 3D consoles
52% of gamers play on iPod, iPhone, or iPad
53% of mobile social gamers are women
54% of gamers ages 2 or older play online games
55% of gamers play on portable devices
56% of gamers today play to socialize and meet new people
57% of gamers admit that they have sex on a regular basis
58% of gamers are male
59% of gamers play with friends
60% of gamers are male
61% of gamers dig god
62% of gamers play online
63% of gamers believe console firmware updates make TVs 3D
64% of gamers still prefer hard copies to digital
65% of gamers play games with other gamers in person
66% of gamers between 18 and 25 have been playing games for at least ten years
67% of gamers believe in-game advertising makes games more realistic
68% of gamers indicate that they are intermittent, marginal and/or dabbler gamers.
69% of gamers cite re-playability as their main reason for not trading in a game
70% of gamers said the ads enhanced realism
71% of gamers want 3D games
72% of American households play computer and video games
73% of gamers in the US Use Wii and DS
74% of gamers who purchase “casual games” are women
75% of gamers are 18 years or older
76% of gamers play less than five hours a week
77% of gamers noted that 3DTVs were not something they’d want
78% of gamers are over the age of 18
79% of gamers report exercising or playing sports an average of 20 hours per week
80% of gamers are interested in playing 3D titles even with glasses
81% of gamers are exposed to at least one ad every other minute
82% of gamers are 18 years of age or older
83% of gamers are willing to view a 30-second ad in exchange for free game play
84% of gamers begin participating in video game play before age ten
85% of gamers would prefer to not pay for their digital games content
86% of gamers said they’d welcome an increase of in-game ads if it lowered game price
87% of gamers say they prefer the personal computer for playing games online
88% of gamers have bought virtual goods
89% of gamers aged 18 or under say their parents are present when they buy games
90% of gamers don’t finish games
91% of children are gamers
92% of gamers who play on smartphones say they play at least once a week
93% of gamers are happy to pay for their games
94% of gamers follow news and current events
95% of gamers did not fall into the “problem” category of gaming
96% of gamers said they’d like to see more games that help players make a positive change in the world
97% of gamers are pirates
98% of gamers never spend a penny on the virtual items offered to them
99% of gamers will tell the difference between fantasy and reality
100% of gamers between ages twelve and seventeen have been playing since age two

Games

January 27, 2012

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Atmosphere as the Depth not the Diving Board: A Response to Eric Swain

In his article, Atmosphere is Not Enough: A Limbo and Another World Critique and accompanying blog post, Eric Swain describes the game Limbo by Playdead as “a nice looking hollow shell” full of “wonderful imagery that never comes up again or pays off”. He concludes that “the developers thought that with enough ambiguous elements thrown in people could pick them apart and come to their own conclusions on the game’s meaning. Except once you parse away the layers there’s nothing underneath”.

As evidence of this he points to the lack of what he calls a “connecting point…that all the dangling threads can tie themselves around and have everything make sense.” For Swain, this lack of a connecting point and abundance of loose ends means that Limbo has no core and is rendered “metaphorical without a metaphor” incapable of being anything more than mechanically competent.

If I’ve characterised Swain’s argument accurately the suggestion seems to be that a connecting point is something a narrative game requires to be greater than the sum of its parts and that its absence is a failure on the part of the developer to communicate anything specific to the player and therefore something to be counted against it. I get this feeling strongly when he unfavourably compares Limbo to the game Another World (developed by Eric Chahi) complimenting the atmosphere of both games but deciding that “where Another World utilizes it as a basis to dive into other matters and themes, with Limbo it’s the whole show.”

My argument is not a specific defense of Limbo; Chloi Rad has already put forward a case for that in their post In Defense of Limbo. Instead I challenge the notion that the lack of a connecting point is necessarily a failure or should mean a game is hollow or lacking a core.

Swain is correct about the developers wanting people to come to their own conclusions about the meaning of the game. Producer Mads Wibroe in an interview with Gamereactor stated:

“We’re deliberately vague about what the back story is and why you are here. We want you to make up your own mind about what’s going on and get a strong feeling about what’s going on rather than being told an epic story”

Swain sees this vagueness as being ‘thrown in’, a sort of top down method whereby ambiguous elements were included to mask its lack of meaning. I would argue that the vagueness was there from the ground up and that rather than liberally including ambiguous elements, the developers were instead conservative with the inclusion of explanatory ones for the reason Wibroe stated; that instilling a strong feeling was more important than telling a story.

But the dangling threads in Limbo and the absence of anything to tie them around are repeated irritations for Swain:

“Why are we traveling left to right? Hell if I know. Who are the savage children? They disappear after a while, so it’s never explained. Are the spiders the mystical guardians of torment and redemption or the transformed beings of those trapped so long in the cycle they’ve become feral? Limbo wakes you up in what I can only suppose to be the titular plane of semi-existence. Ok, so now what do you do with that?”

In the documentary An Introduction to David Lynch, film professor Charles Ramirez-Berg says of Lynch’s process:

“Most narrative film-makers begin with the story then try to figure out how to illustrate the story. [Lynch] begins with an image and the story is secondary, it’s not primary at all. If you’re asking the narrative question, what does this mean? What was that story about? Maybe that’s the wrong question to ask. Maybe you should go back to the Dadaist appreciation of the image as image. You’re going to get a lot more out of it if you appreciate the image and the primacy of the image”

This is the case for Limbo. The story is secondary to the imagery, maybe there isn’t even a story at all but why should it necessarily follow, however, that just as much can’t be got out of it or that it is any more hollow than Another World?

While Swain fully understands that Limbo is supposed to be open to interpretation I think he assumes it has an obligation to explain, if not itself, then parts of itself or at the very least communicate something, anything, to the player. I think this places too high a value on communication and specificity. Why shouldn’t atmosphere be enough if it inspires a strong feeling and a sense of place and mood? That’s enough for me and is more than I get from most films or games whether they have a connecting point or not. And if that emotional state is the product of strange and wonderful imagery then I have no expectation that it should all make sense. I’m quite happy to just feel it.

Conjuring up a series of images without a clear connecting point and then presenting them without an accompanying story might be someone’s way of trying to dramatise their subconscious; bypassing what they perceive to be the filter of narrative. This, indeed, might manifest in a noise of non-sequiturs but just as with the series of images, ideas and emotions that occur involuntarily in dreams, they can’t immediately be dismissed as meaningless just because there’s no apparent connecting point to them. There might even be a meaning that hasn’t been realised yet.

In the same Lynch documentary, actor Michael J Anderson who played the Man From Another Place recalls a conversation he overheard in the editing room for Twin Peaks between David Lynch and assistant director Mary Sweeney:

“…he was talking “play that again. Hey, you know, I’ll bet you that’s what I meant by that” meaning that he had already shot it and it was in the editing room and now he was deciding what maybe he had meant by it. That’s staggering. The courage and belief in self that that would require is staggering.”

Swain asks many questions of Limbo throughout his piece culminating in “What The Fuck?” Maybe Swain is asking Limbo the wrong questions.

Games

Another World, atmosphere, David Lynch, dreams, Eric Chahi, Eric Swain, imagery, Limbo, Playdead, story, subconscious

October 27, 2011

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Amnesia Fortnight and 4th & Battery

Candy Train is the second release from PopCap’s new studio, 4^th & Battery. The game puts you in control of a train collecting various pieces of confectionery from the tracks that you are simultaneously responsible for arranging into a passable route. It’s a bright, colourful, challenging and fun little game that I certainly prefer over the developer’s first offering, Unpleasant Horse, in game play if not in name.

What I find most interesting though is the circumstances in which it came about. Here is how the process of its development is described on its app store page:

“Candy Train was an old and nearly forgotten PopCap title. However, an aspiring game programmer, working in a different part of the company, loved Candy Train and thought it would be a great game for iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads…She poured equal amounts of sweat, tears and love into Candy Train and we think it’s great enough to share with the world.”

On their site, 4^th & Battery is described by PopCap as:

“…a new label we’re using to bring some of our more experimental ideas to customers. It’s a way to lift some of our internal filters and let us stretch our creative legs a little.”

When I read this it reminded me of ‘Amnesia Fortnight’ at Tim Schafer’s studio, Double Fine Productions. This was a period of development at the company that took place between the loss of their first publisher (Vivendi) and the attainment of a second (EA) for their title Brütal Legend. The company split into 4 groups each working on ideas for potential games. These ideas became prototypes but progress stopped once EA picked up Brütal Legend.

EA then canceled the sequel (mid-development) and Double Fine, with no project to work on, turned to their unripened crop of experiments and continued cultivating them. Two of these games (Costume Quest and Stacking) have since been published by THQ on XBLA and PSN and one of them has evolved into the upcoming Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster.

At the Develop Conference 2010, Tim Schafer said about Amnesia Fortnight:

“The primary benefit has been to enable us to move to a multiple game development set-up. We have choice, and can do small or larger games, or mix it up. That has been hugely liberating.”

Ed Allard at PopCap has expressed similar sentiments about 4^th & Battery:

“Our standard game development process is long, involved, and doesn’t really accommodate all of the creativity pumping through our collective veins. 4th & Battery gives us a way to quickly try really strange or marginal ideas and to give our designers a safe area to hone their chops.”

4^th & Battery and Amnesia Fortnight both came into existence from a desire to maximise creative output. For PopCap it was a desire that they were privileged enough to be able to realise while working concurrently on their primary projects. For Double Fine, it was an inspired solution to the problem of having a title dropped and their future as a company presumably thrown into doubt (although it’s worth noting that they have since had a second Amnesia Fortnight). But these differing origins resulted in the same fostering and delivery of good new ideas which, as well as offering creative flexibility, lubricated Double Fine’s transition to multiple game development and enabled PopCap to identify talent within the company that otherwise might not have been able to reveal itself (the ‘aspiring programmer’, Sophia Hohing, now is a programmer at PopCap).

It’s always inspiring when remarkable bubbles of innovation like this surface and, circumstances allowing, it would be nice to see other companies try out stuff like this.

Games

4th and Battery, Amnesia Fortnight, Candy Train, Double Fine, games, innovation, PopCap, Tim Schafer

June 21, 2011

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