Life is a Spectator Sport
Feb 19, 12:16 pm
I feel sorry for the developers of Skate. There they were, implementing this cool feature where you can record, edit and upload your own user videos. No doubt they thought gamers would publish some groovy tricks and amazing feats of skateboarding. Instead they are greeted by lots of clips of people falling over, getting their character’s head squished under a moving car, and smashing into trees. There are few things funnier on a dull Tuesday evening than watching a glitching skater hump the leg of a startled female pedestrian. And if real-time humiliation is more your thing, you can laugh it up spectator style and tell yourself that, everytime someone messes up a trick, you’d never fall over because you’re the best skater IN THE WORLD. If only you were competing eh? Oh yes. You’d wipe the floor with them. For sure.
Poker Smash is a puzzle game on XBLA, where you must rid the screen of ascending “blocks” (or in this case, cards) by matching up poker hands to gain high scores. Like Skate, it too has an uploadable user video feature, but unlike Skate, there’s no silliness to be found. These videos are hardcore. Watching a user put together a ninety-three chain combo was a humbling experience that made me weep for my own paltry X3 effort. Fortunately, upon messaging said Poker Smash-god, I discovered he was in fact a developer. Hurrah! Leaving me only to tackle ‘Most Viewed Video #2’, with a slightly less insane sixty four chain record…. Joy.
And finally I’ve been dusting off my copy of GRAW 2 for the arrival of the new Co-op Collection. I love GRAW co-op, and the new challenges are no exception. As with many shooters, GRAW’s spectator mode is fairly typical, but absolutely necessary when you’ve got one life and a mission that takes an average of fifteen to twenty minutes per run. It’s incredibly satisfying ranting with your (also deceased) team mates about your lone survivor’s progress and – of course – how you could do much better. I’ve screamed blue down the headset that they need to push the bloody detonator, even though I know they can’t hear me. But it’s this sense of still being connected, even when your last slither of life has been taken, that makes a challenge feel all the more inclusive – and satisfying – if any of you survive.
Feb 19, 12:16 pm
We gamers are a fussy lot. We’re not content anymore to simply play games. We want whole community features and spectator modes built in too. It may still be something of an afterthought, but features like these can be warmly welcomed after a long hard day, when you lack the concentration to play but still want to feel involved. Let’s take three recent examples: Skate, Poker Smash, and GRAW 2.
I feel sorry for the developers of Skate. There they were, implementing this cool feature where you can record, edit and upload your own user videos. No doubt they thought gamers would publish some groovy tricks and amazing feats of skateboarding. Instead they are greeted by lots of clips of people falling over, getting their character’s head squished under a moving car, and smashing into trees. There are few things funnier on a dull Tuesday evening than watching a glitching skater hump the leg of a startled female pedestrian. And if real-time humiliation is more your thing, you can laugh it up spectator style and tell yourself that, everytime someone messes up a trick, you’d never fall over because you’re the best skater IN THE WORLD. If only you were competing eh? Oh yes. You’d wipe the floor with them. For sure.
Poker Smash is a puzzle game on XBLA, where you must rid the screen of ascending “blocks” (or in this case, cards) by matching up poker hands to gain high scores. Like Skate, it too has an uploadable user video feature, but unlike Skate, there’s no silliness to be found. These videos are hardcore. Watching a user put together a ninety-three chain combo was a humbling experience that made me weep for my own paltry X3 effort. Fortunately, upon messaging said Poker Smash-god, I discovered he was in fact a developer. Hurrah! Leaving me only to tackle ‘Most Viewed Video #2’, with a slightly less insane sixty four chain record…. Joy.
And finally I’ve been dusting off my copy of GRAW 2 for the arrival of the new Co-op Collection. I love GRAW co-op, and the new challenges are no exception. As with many shooters, GRAW’s spectator mode is fairly typical, but absolutely necessary when you’ve got one life and a mission that takes an average of fifteen to twenty minutes per run. It’s incredibly satisfying ranting with your (also deceased) team mates about your lone survivor’s progress and – of course – how you could do much better. I’ve screamed blue down the headset that they need to push the bloody detonator, even though I know they can’t hear me. But it’s this sense of still being connected, even when your last slither of life has been taken, that makes a challenge feel all the more inclusive – and satisfying – if any of you survive.
There’s no shame in standing on the sidelines once in while.
