So the folks at
the Themis Group have implemented a little Flash game called
Death Star Designer, as a promotion for Ubi's
Star Wars: Lethal Alliance. I like the basic concept (who doesn't want to build the galaxy's most powerful battle station?); the basic implementation, though is "spreadsheet + leaderboard." You've got a trillion credits to spend (flashback to GDW's old
Trillion Credit Squadron, and I'm sure that's intentional--Alex Macris, Themis's CEO, is an old tabletop gamer). After you spend them, you 'submit' your plans and get a report on flaws in the design. In a sense, it's no win; even if you plan optimally, there are always going to flaws (I'm sorry, Lord Vader, but a trillion credits isn't enough...acck... choke). But your design is scored, and you can see how it stacks up against other designs.
Richard Garfield once said that you could design a compelling game just by tacking a leaderboard onto 'rock-paper-scissors,' and I suspect he's right.
Meanwhile, today's Times has an article on
a new "big urban" game based on the Sopranos, developed by
Area/Code Games. Area/Code previously designed
ConQwest, a similar game to promote mobile services from Qwest. Area/Code is a venture founded by ad exec Kevin Slavin and Frank Lantz, who previously designed games for R/GA Interactive, GameLab, and others. The basic design looks similar to ConQwest, in that it's essentially a mobile treasure hunt; you find things related to the game that have semacodes (2D bar codes) on them, take a pic with your cameraphone, and upload it to the game's server to prove that you were there.
When we talk about 'advergaming,' we normally mean little Flash games to drive traffic on a sponsor's site, but maybe these two are part of a different trend--one that tries to promote a product or service by creating a game that is itself potentially viral and newsworthy. (ARGs, at least the commercial ones, are another example of course.)
In general, I tend to have a skeptical view of the role of advertising dollars in anything--advertising depends on mass, which means catering to the lowest common denominator, hence the wasteland that is broadcast TV. But then, two of the most interesting and innovative game styles to appear in recent years--ARGs and "big urban" games--are inherently advertising supported, and we can at least hope that other novel game forms will emerge from the admixture of viral games and advertising dollars.
posted by Greg at 12:33 PM
19 comments
The compelling game based on rock/paper/scissors and a leaderboard was called "Gladiator" by JAMDAT...remember?
Scavenger Hunt is the not the sort of game I would have used with this style of gameplay. I think it would be moree appropriate for a Law & Order or Cold Case tie in, wherein the player is doing all the legwork in gathering clues to solve a crime.
For a Sopranos game, I would have setup the scenario for the players to be low level earners for various crews in various families. Sort of a Massively Multiplayer Real World RPG.
bkd69
Any chance I can get a citation/link for that Richard Garfield quote? It fits right in with my work and I would love to use it in some academic papers. Thanks!
IIRC correctly, it was something he said at a conference... So no, I don't think I can point you to a citation... Apologies.
Advert-dependent games are not entirely limited to the multitude of flash games that we wade through to get to our cyber-destinations. Some of them are actually quite advanced, like everything that comes from Kuma Games. They use the half-life 2 engine on all of their stuff...and they are completely free; hence they must be running adverts to get by.
Quite of a step up from trying to out-fart the flash gorilla at the top of your myspace page...lol.
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