Rock Band is Kicking It Old School
I will say that the most fun I've had playing video games were times that other people were involved in the "real world," whether that be Halo, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, or Super Smash Bros.Corporations have long known the importance of real-life meetings. Sure, they use virtual collaboration as much as they can -- e-mail, chat, mobile phones, videoconferencing. But when they really need to get some serious stuff done? Everyone flies to one city and gathers together in a single room, and they nail the door shut. "Co-presence" matters.
It appears that the game industry, too, is learning this lesson. By the looks of it, we're entering a new golden age of social, face-to-face game playing. Consider that in the last year, the biggest breakout hits have been music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and the Wii's sporty and casual titles.
Each of these games explicitly encourages social playing -- people hanging out together. (Here's a revealing cultural moment: I was walking down the street in the East Village last month and overheard two female college students complaining vociferously that they hadn't been invited to their friend's Rock Band session.)
Perhaps we're simply going back to the roots of gaming. Though you wouldn't know it from the perennial hysteria about games turning kids into walleyed, anti-social zombies, videogames were originally a social pursuit, because the best games were available only in arcades, and those places were as convivial as Irish pubs. You'd watch one another play, you'd share techniques, you'd talk trash, gossip.
Labels: Pop Culture, technology, Video Games
| Permalink |
|
