Game of the Week - 'Ya'll Be Mining In Space'.

In the midst of a gaming slump - and since there's still another month left before I return to the long hard slog of university - I decided it was time to put things right and get my gaming ass back into gear. However, to become a gamer again there's always the question of just what should I play? Pretty much every new game was out of the question due to lack of funds, an aging PC and the fact that I have no 'next-gen' consoles in my possession. I wanted something that I could really get into and occupy my ridiculous amounts of free time. So, in light of this, it was back to MMO territory!

I didn't actually think I'd be going back to MMO's anytime soon (discount the free browser-based game Urban Dead) because I'd got terribly bored of the grind and, in my experience, 95% of current MMO's are one big gigantic enormous *insert other words for massive here* grind! However, I know that there are fun parts to MMO's like World of Warcraft and most of this comes through interacting with other players which - at the core - is what an MMO should be all about. I never really got into WoW because I felt like I couldn't engage with the game and spent most of my time in Azeroth on my own. I found (and already knew) a few decent people but, for the most part, they were so far ahead of me that I couldn't be bothered trying to catch up. Also I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the end game content of constantly repeating raids and PvP seemed to be full of angst-filled spotty teenagers every time I tried it out. Yes, I know a lot of people have fun with WoW but I never found anything I enjoyed and I’ll never be persuaded to go back. I’m not saying that the game I’m about to talk about doesn’t have it’s boring parts because – by god! – it does, as do many games, but I feel like I can engage with it more than I ever did with pointy eared elves and getting ganked by a dwarf.

The game? EVE Online.



If you play EVE solo then I think you’re far more likely to get bored quickly. Obviously EVE is an online game (which only uses one server for everyone) so interaction with other players is a key aspect and, with EVE, I think this is more important than anything else. The players run the game world, from the economy to the territory divided up between the largest and most successful player corporations that then group together into various alliances. Mining some ore and selling it means you’re contributing to the raw materials other players will use to build battleships that will then be destroyed in a war meaning the cycle begins again (in effect you’re contributing to the ‘war effort’). Mining has been accused of being a glorified screensaver (if you’re afk mining anyway) but there’s a thrill to be had from mining in low security space and having to constantly watch your back due to the constant threat of player pirates attacking you.

I’ve been told that joining a player corporation is where the fun really starts – especially since everyone works together. Speaking of co-operation I find the EVE community incredibly helpful and it’s extremely rare that a question will go unanswered. This may be because the average player age is around 25, which means the immature crap you tend to get in games like WoW or over the mic on Xbox Live games doesn’t tend to happen. Yes, you’ll still get ganked by pirates but those players are just following a different career path to you and if you’re going to operating in low security space then it’s really your own fault if you don’t have adequate protection.

I love the fact that skills carry on training when you log-off but this is necessary due to the incredible amount of time some of the higher skills will take the learn. All-together EVE’s skills will take over seven years to learn so you can see why I say you’ll never be stuck for something to do.

There’s so much I want to say about EVE and I’ll defiantly be writing about it a lot more in the future but, for now, EVE Online is my game of the week. It’s a massive game and you’ll be sure to find at least something you enjoy doing. Give the 14-day free trial a try and see what you think. If you don’t like the game then fair enough, but at least try out more than one aspect of it before you complain.

Urban Dead & The Meta-Game.

Bill Radcheck was once a regular Joe working the 9-5 shift that commonly drives people to the brink of insanity. When his home in Malton city became overrun with zombies you could be forgiven for saying that now was the time to go insane but - for Bill - this was the turning point in his life. Now he travels around the stricken city offering help wherever he can. Primarily a scout his job is often dangerous but extremely rewarding as the survivors of the outbreak come to rely on whatever information they can get about the state of the city. To be happy in such times may end in you becoming labeled as insane but, for Bill, he's happy because he's finally found his purpose in life.

I touched upon Urban Dead a few months back in my look at browser-based zombie games but I don't think I gave it any of the attention that it deserves. Ever since I was introduced to the game by Gnome over in his post at Siliconera I've been having incredible fun with it. Many of you may question why this is the case, after all - how much fun can you actually have with a simplistic point & click game that really doesn't look all that much? Well, the simple look and feel to the game is what makes it such incredible fun. You see, in the world of Urban Dead the developer doesn't make the game, the players do.

In an interview with The Escapist the games creator, Kevan Davis, talked about his hands-off approach towards the game;

From a storytelling perspective, Urban Dead's simple interface and deep gameplay allows each player to tell his own particular tale. Despite Davis' interest in telling stories and designing games, he's pleased with the hands-off approach he's taking with his game. "I think it's good that every player has a chance to build their own story," he says. "By avoiding any big, official, ongoing plot, players have been able to project their own ideas onto the game without being contradicted by everything. Because everything outside of the official plot is reduced to survivor dialogue and graffiti, anything that doesn't fit with your perception of the game - perhaps your safe house has been invaded by a squad claiming to be time-traveling robot vampire hunters - can be just dismissed as another sadly deluded survivor cult." - The Escapist

The game itself started out with extremely little in the way of backstory. However, in the course of the games existence enough has been fleshed out that you actually feel as though your character is populating a world in which survival is a daily struggle (the daily AP limit of 50 makes you think about every single point before you waste it). This player concocted history, group politics and even the lengths of organisation zombie player groups go to in order to start a horde are all what's key to the game. I've seen people grow bored of the game because they've got all the skills and reached the highest level but what they really lack is an imagination. The simplistic graphics offer nothing more than a simple street map while text-based descriptions are what the player must rely on. Like the table-based role-playing games a lack of imagination will return little in the way of enjoyment.

For me the most enjoyment comes not from the game itself but from the game's superbly detailed wiki. This wiki is where survivors go for status updates on important buildings (such as malls or revival points - key to any survivor who's just been turned into one of the walking dead) and the state a suburb is in. Everything from maps, the condition of a malls barricades, player-created newspapers and information on the games various player-created groups can all be found here. However, without the players the wiki would be nothing as it relies solely on their input. My enjoyment comes from scouting out the dangerous areas that few people want to travel around and providing status updates through the wiki. It may seem a pretty dull task to those who don't play the game but for me it puts me in the shoes of a survivor who's willing to put his life on the line to provide information to his fellow survivors.

It's not only the wiki that supports the game. Urban Dead forums and group websites are everywhere. There's even a site dedicated to hosting the journals of survivors in order to further flesh out your characters and - as a result - you become further entrenched in the game's world. All these are what breathes life into a city made up of little more than colourful blocks. Without the extremely dedicated community that Urban Dead enjoys the game would cease to be fun after a week or two.

I used to find it amusing that people found enjoyment playing characters in games that you couldn't really see with your own eyes but now I see how deluded I was. Yes, I love games with amazing graphics and a decent enough storyline that I can engage with but once you've completed the game the connection (if any) you had with the games characters evaporates. When you use your imagination to create a character and the events they take part in the result is far more rewarding. The character is part of you, you created it and you own it. It's survival and backstory takes on far more meaning than the characters developers can come up with. Bill Radcheck is me and I am him. His story is my effort to add life to a city that looks bleak from the outside but is anything but boring what you engage with the stories of it's community.

People sometimes say that people take the game far too seriously but that's what role-playing is about. If you aren't acting like your character would act then the fun is lost. When I immerse myself in the world of Urban Dead I am Bill Radcheck until I log-off and return to my normal life. These days games are losing that kind of integration with the game's world (people must love being immersed in the game's world as sales of GTA games show that), we want to feel like we're really a part of that world and what we do makes a difference to the others populating the world with us. I've played plenty of MMO's and become bored because I never had any connection with the character I was portraying and I didn't feel as though my actions were having any impact on the world around me.

When you think about it Urban Dead is anything but simple; yet that, for me, is what makes the game so refreshingly fun.

Play Urban Dead here.

Got a game you want me to take a look at? Email me or comment in the comments section!

*Picture from Dawn of the Dead (2004).

Hyrule Isn't Getting a New Hero Anytime Soon.

Probably the most useless and uncool Wii attachment ever created. If you buy this (and you're over ten-years-old) then you probably need to re-think your entire approach to life.

Sony Pays Its Bills? Not Quite!

To kick off my return to video game blogging (I've still been blogging elsewhere) shall we having something odd? Here we go then!

Just when you thought Sony had gone far enough with it's various marketing campaigns they go and do something you just never expected. This time around Sony has gone and put a PS3 kiosk inside a bank. Yup, you heard me right (or rather read), a bank!



Located in Shinhan Bank, Seoul, Sony Computer Entertainment Korea (SCEK) set-up something called 'The Bank Zone' intended for bank customers to take part in the PS3 experience (which is about two decent games).

Ok, so banks can be busy and extremely boring places but you go to pay your bills, and deposit bills - amongst other boring things - then you get out of their as fast as possible. I suppose it makes sense in a way as the Koreans are gaming mad but I know I don't go to the bank to try out a PS3 - I do it in a video game store.

I don't think we'll ever see this type of thing in the UK (or the USA) simply because people don't really want to play video games in a bank. If we want to try out a PS3 we head to a video game store or somewhere like HMV. It would be amusing to see a bank flooded by teenagers who come in solely to horde the PS3 kiosk for their own (like the chavs do in GAME) whilst tired and frustrated bank staff try to explain the benefits of a mortgage. To be fair it would give the children something to do whilst their parents pay the bills.

One question still remains though; 'Why would you want to spend anymore time than is needed inside a bank?'

Sony PS3 to join with a cinema and bank - AVING USA

Quick Announcement.

We're all allowed to take short breaks (it's hot outside and I'm not about to sit inside on my computer) but I really should have announced it. So, sorry about that and I'll get back to my regular blogging and dive right back into the community shortly.

Also, I've been experiencing a severe lack of creativity and horrible writers block lately.

Summer is a dry time for games anyway!