The Ludologist

A concise history of video games even if the chronology is a bit off here and there. (Space Invaders after Defender, Dig Dug after Tetris and so on.)

(Via Geoffrey Long via Nicola Davies)

PS. And where are the Commodore 64 games?

My blog seems to be turning into a “games and US politics” affair. Here goes:

According to a study by NeoEdge, 59% of casual players surveyed prefer Obama, 32% McCain.

Now, I want to propose various explanations. Basically, I think there is something in the underlying structure of Hidden Object and Time Management games that are inherently tied to the values of Democrats.

• Aren’t time management games the ludic expression of the welfare state, the Democrat idea of (the state as) the nurturing mother? An all-seeing eye that helps everybody?

OK, so I don’t quite believe that. It is more likely that casual players are mostly women, and Obama does well with women.

Sen. Barack Obama has widened his lead among casual game[r]s — an overwhelming majority of which are women — over Sen. John McCain following the third presidential debate on Wednesday, October 15. On October 16, the day following the debate, 59% of the respondents said they preferred Obama, while 32% preferred McCain. A week ago, the day after the second presidential debate (October 8), only 54% percent said they preferred Obama, and 36% said they preferred McCain. According to the poll, Obama now leads McCain by 17 points among this key demographic.

So here is a question: Is the reverse is true? Do “hardcore” game players lean towards McCain?

And what do we mean by “hardcore”? Mega Man? Level 60+ in World of Warcraft? Defender? Guitar Hero on Expert?

We can discuss why, but Sarah Palin is a popular choice for games this election season.

The Palin as President game (or game-like-thing) takes a grim view of things.

More lighthearted, here is the Palin Bingo game that I played with the locals at the vice presidential debate.

We shall know them by their games.

Apparently the Obama campaign is placing ads in Burnout Paradise.

(From GigaOM.)

Fascinating, but I also find the whole idea of in-game ads a little disturbing. Imagine playing Lumines with commercials – I could be made to buy anything.

I have been posting a bit slowly lately because I am finalizing my book on “casual games”, meaning downloadable casual games / Wii / Guitar Hero / Rock Band.

And I am looking for good photos of people playing these games!

If you have some that you would be happy to see in my book, please send me a line at:

j at jesperjuul dot net

Thanks!

At least if you play Brain Age, according to a Scottish study.

The report describes how children who were instructed to play Brain Age for 30 minutes every day improved their math skills faster than children having normal class during that time.

Here’s the graph:

It’s the kind of result we want to hear, isn’t it?

For a while I have been saying that “The Sun Always Shines in Casual Games”: Casual games, especially the downloadable ones, have tended to be colorful and bright, with a weather that was always good, with themes that were always cheerful.

Righteous Kill breaks with that: It is a hidden object game, but this time your job is to find a serial killer.

About time – after all, we can find lots of dark themes, tragedy, and murders in mainstream entertainment as well as in the entertainment for the presumed female audience of casual games.

The game seems to be doing reasonably well, so perhaps we will be seeing more thematic variation in the future.

(There have been detective and mystery casual games before, but Righteous Kill is a lot darker than other games I have seen.)