Are Video Games Bad For You?
Or can we build relationships with people through games?
I’ll be the first to admit it — I was a huge video game nerd growing up. I don’t play that many games any more. So what happened? Did I become more social, go outside more, meet IRL friends, and ditch my lonely gaming habit?
No, I didn’t change much, except for getting taller and having a bigger appetite. What changed were the games, and how we play them. Video gaming used to be such a social, inclusive experience. I played puzzle games like Dr. Mario and Tetris with my parents. I played Mario Kart and Goldeneye with my brother and my friends.
But nowadays, with the advent of online gaming, this concept of “local multiplayer” games has gone totally out of fashion. Even the newest Halo, one of my favorite games to play with my friends, doesn’t allow multiplayer on the same TV. It seems like the only big name developer putting any effort at all into multiplayer games is Nintendo.
A New Hope
There is one shining beacon of hope: Indie Developers. There is a flourishing community of people making games that are meant to be played with a group of people, together, in the same room.
Alongside the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) was an event called the Indie Olympics, a tournament of indie multiplayer games. At GDC itself, there was a whole section about multiplayer games with alternative controllers (read more in my article about it here).
Two games in particular were designed to get players talking with each other to cooperate and win. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a bomb-defusal game where one player operates the computer to defuse the bomb, and the other player(s) read the bomb defusal manual and relay instructions. The other game, Sentree, has one player, the shooter, blindfolded, while the other player(s), the spotters, relay instructions to the shooter on where to aim and shoot.
These games were huge hits not only because they were fun and easy to pick up, but because they brought out entirely new ways of playing games.
Everyone Can Play Games
I’m a firm believer that everyone can, and should, play games. Games are good for you. They teach social skills. They teach strategy and critical thinking. They get people interested in technology.
Until recently, playing games required a huge upfront investment in terms of buying a console, controllers, and then finally, games. Besides the monetary investment, games were intimidating. For a first-timer, modern controllers are not intuitive.
As soon as smartphones became prevalent, many more people started playing games. These devices that we bought to play music, stream movies, and make calls (imagine that) are powerful little computers that, with touch input, provide a very intuitive way of playing games.
What excites me most is this question:
Can we combine the best of both worlds — local multiplayer gaming from the console world, and intuitive, accessible gaming from the mobile world, into one awesome experience?
I think the answer is yes. With the rise of smart TVs, we are now populating houses with devices that can (this should sound familiar): play music, stream movies, and run custom software. Rather than buying consoloes and controllers, just use the devices you already have: smart TVs and phones.
To test out my theory, I created a game for Apple TV: Super Happy Fun Time (or “SH|FT” for those in the know). It’s a ten player party game, with a dozen short but frantic minigames. Excited by the new platform, I tried to explore many different ways of interacting with the game. It turns out there’s a lot of really neat things you can do with a smartphone as a game controller. First of all, there’s tons of inputs — touch, motion, audio, video, location, etc. that provide tons of new opportunities to play games. Below is a quick sample of some of the interactions.
I’m really excited about this space, and I think there are tons of opportunities here. If you’re interested in chatting or collaborating, I’d love to talk with you. Feel free to reach out on Twitter or email me at pdesantis3@gmail.com.
If you’re interested in reading more about games, check out my article about GDC.
Also, my girlfriend & co-developer of SH|FT wrote an article about the real-life skills you learn from board games.
Lastly, if you liked this article, please click the “recommend” button so more people will be able to see it. Thank you!
