Tag Archives: video games

in english

Football video games and simulation

Fifa 10

I have been playing FIFA 11 over Xbox live with some friends (gamertag: chivacongelado). I was struck by how accurate the simulation is nowadays.  Trying to dribble or sprint your way around a defense definitely doesn’t work anymore, and you need to be well aware of the tactical advantages and disadvantages of playing a 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-1-1, to give an example. At least with the people I’ve been playing online, possession football seems to be your best bet. This style is both close to my heart and the way Spain won the World Cup in the summer, which makes me wonder whether it influenced the development of the game.

I never thought I needed to read Zonal Marking to play a video game, but at least I really enjoy the experience.

in english

Times change

Guitar Hero Metallica

When I was growing up and my parents’ friends would come over to our place, there would usually be dinner and/or coffee and they would just keep on doing the “adults’ conversation”.

Now that I’m an adult and some of my friends already have kids of their own, when we meet we sometimes have dinner and/or coffee, but there’s almost always a playing session on the Wii going on, while we take turns to take care of and play with the kids. Videogames (of a certain kind) have become part of the social experience.

I’m not sure I can picture my mom shredding to Guitar Hero: Metallica while I was growing up.  Makes me wonder what kind of things will our children take up to show their rebellious spirit when the time comes if they are so inclined.

in english

The power of the community: Case SimCity 4

I grew up playing SimCity, as I’m sure some of you did.  The appeal of simulating how a city would grow and try to create something that would reflect my own choices was definitely very strong.  The last version of the franchise SimCity 4 was released in 2004, and its publisher (EA) has pretty much discontinued support for the game and stopped any sequels.

Imagine my surprise when I found Simtropolis.com, an online community of SimCity players.  Not only do they have City blogs and chat, but a huge archive or user-generated content to improve your experience of the game.  Over the years, the users have created maps (so that you can build your city in the site of Helsinki, for example), landmarks (like the Angel of Independence from Mexico City or the Atomium from Brussels) that you can use in the city you build and other general improvements to the game that the designers hadn’t originally thought of, an example of which you can find below.

It is amazing how much people can do, when you give them means to do it.  A community of devoted fans is all you need.

in english

New kind of video games: PeaceMaker and FoodForce

I like video games, especially those related to strategy. I’ve played games in the series of Age of Empires, Total War, Command and Conquer and Civilization, among others. However, a new kind of socially-responsible video games have caught my attention.

PeaceMaker is also a strategy game, but in this case you take control of one of the sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the goal is to achieve peace and the Nobel Prize. Their usage of real news footage in the game seems particularly interesting.

FoodForce is a game developed for the UN World Food Programme targeted at pre-teens, where they are given the task to co-ordinate the food assistance operations of the UN in a fictional country. It has now been downloaded millions of times.

I don’t know about you, but I feel these kind of gaming is worth trying. We can teach people that doing the right thing can also be fun.