Do you have piles of neglected games lying around your house? Then GaBoom.co.uk could be the site to revitalise your collection. GaBoom is a website for gamers who wish to swap their old games for games that they want to add to their collection. All members need to do is sign up to the site, find the games they want, and add them to their wish list. Then they can list the games they wish to swap or sell. GaBoom will automatically match them with people they can swap with.

They offer three postage options, two of which are completely secure. Secure Swap, where members who have initiated a swap, post their games to GaBoom, who check each game’s condition, before forwarding them on to their new owners. If one of the members fails to post their game, then the other person is refunded the cost of the service, and their game is returned.

GaBoom Escrow, has both members putting down an insurance deposit of £18, and then posting their games Recorded Delivery. Once the swap is complete both members receive their deposit in full. If one person fails to post the game, the other member receives compensation using the other person’s insurance deposit.

Forum Exchange has members dealing with each other directly, and GaBoom accepts no liability for the outcome of the transaction.

GaBoom is a good way of swapping your old games for games you want.

The founder of the site, Jess Ratcliffe, had the idea for GaBoom when she was only 15, when she used to swap games with her friends and neighbours, and imagined it on a grander scale. Through a lot of hard work and a few setbacks along the way, GaBoom was founded on 22^nd February 2010, and an open beta of the site went live in July 2010. The site has featured on the BBC tech show Click, and has managed to attract over 900 users at present. You can catch Jess at 9pm tonight (Monday 13^th September) on BBC2 as she takes on the mighty Dragon’s Den.

If we were to take what the general media say as gospel about computer games, then we’d all be goths and emos with an unhealthy fascination with guns, death and grievous bodily harm. The fear of games and the incentives they carry has been around since their creation and as all parents “know”, their children are unable to make informed choices, are easily influenced by anything as long as it’s on a TV screen of some kind and are generally pretty dumb. At least that’s the message I get from the majority of parents when they’re asked about computer games and their kids. In the mid 80′s and 90′s the biggest complaint a parent could have about their child playing games was how “antisocial” they were. While it’s true that a lot of my childhood was spent in a dark bedroom figuring out pokes for games (if you think I’m being dirty, ask a gamer over 30), perfecting SF2 moves or finding all the warp pipes in Mario, there was a fair amount of time spent round at friends’ houses swapping games, playing against each other, or helping each other with difficult bits. Going further back in my life, the arcades were always a place of vibrant chitter-chatter and were abundant with people of varying ages, though we (me and my friends) always stuck around each other and kind of swarmed about different arcades like manic bees full of sugar, we met loads of other kids near our ages too. The idea of games being an antisocial thing was so far from my mind at that stage I’d have laughed right in your face if you even suggested such a notion to me.

How the arcades should be

With all that said however, there was the 90′s. When games started to get bigger and more involving than just a simple display of button memory skill, a new breed of gamers began to emerge. When games like Zelda and Final Fantasy really got into their stride, gamers (though the term ‘Gamer’ wasn’t even really coined back then) began to find true fascination in these massive, new virtual playgrounds they had been given the gate keys to. The truth is though, that the whole world had become obsessed with the idea of living with virtual reality and what computers were now capable of doing for us. TV shows and films depicting VR began to spring up everywhere, things like The Lawnmower Man and the Matrix made us believe that VR was a thing to be feared (yet undeniably cool) while TV shows such as Cyberworld or Knightmare and to some extent GamesMaster, showed us that there was a lot of fun to be had with it.

"With this new telescope, I can see up alien's bottoms" said Patrick Moore; probably

Yet still the dreary teenager sat alone (as he always has) playing with his joystick in a dark room away from prying eyes. It would be fairly safe to say that it was the 90′s that singlehandedly cattle branded gaming as a solitary and selfish fulfilment, but just around the corner online multiplayer lay in wait.

The question is, WHAT IS THAT MAN PLAYING WITH???

By the time the space year 2000 arrived we (gamers) had become connected and in doing so, it quickly became the most social hobby available. If you know anyone that scoffs at you because you’re into gaming just ask them if they’re on Facebook/Myspace/Twitter and if they deny that then ask them if they’ve ever sent a text message, because all of these are lesser versions of how gamers communicate with each other all the time (only we do it with a bit more sophistication). If they tell you they’ve never sent a text then you might as well be talking to an antique vase.

Our Connected World

Gaming has connected so many people across the globe that I’d dare say it’s responsible for thousands (if not millions) of friendships, relationships and even marriages. It’s one of the fastest moving industries today and makes a considerable amount more money than the behemoth that is the film industry. From things like Second Life and PSN Home to games like LittleBigPlanet, ModNation Racers and Spore (let’s not forget the massive PC modding community) it can bring out the imaginative side of us and makes us want to share our creations with each other, though it can bring out the ugly side of humanity (I’m looking at you, racist foul-mouthed online T-Baggers) but most of all; it enriches us, keeping us together having fun. Sure, it was harder to admit you were a gamer in the 80′s and meeting those of the same frame of mind was difficult, and we had a little hiccup with our more solitary bedroom antics of the 90′s, but now look at us all! Have we not become a deeply entwined worldwide community of individuals that get together just to be in each other’s company? I for one can’t wait to see what this gaming empire will bring to the social side of humanity in the future.

Perhaps LittleBigPlanet should have been released in the summer?

As we move into the summer months the release of major games becomes a trickle, much like a water supply during a summer drought. It’s a phenomenon that has been synonymous with gaming for years, as publishers put all their efforts into pushing their titles for the Christmas market. Unfortunately this glut of games leads to some gems getting left on the shelves as uneducated parents flock to buy the latest entry in the FIFA or Call of Duty franchises.

Games like LittleBigPlanet, Mirrors Edge etc have all suffered due to coming up against the Christmas big hitters. Christmas may be the time when people spend the most money, but there’s only so far hard working parents’ cash can go, and when faced with the dilemma of buying popular games like FIFA, or buying an unknown but critically acclaimed title like LittleBigPlanet, then the choice is simple. They’ll go for the known quantity every time. As an example of a lost sale, I recently purchased Dead Space second hand on a well known online auction site, as it’s a game I was always keen to play; but at the time it was released my Christmas budget could only stretch so far, and so a sale was lost to the developer. If it had been released a couple of months later the story would have been quite different.

Red Dead Redemption should flourish during the summer drought, like predecessor GTA IV.

Last Christmas saw several big games feeling the pressure of coming up against the COD juggernaut, and moving their release dates into 2010. Games like Bioshock 2 and Red Dead Redemption were sensibly shifted to the first half of the year and I’m sure their sales will get a boost as a result. They could easily have been lost in the Christmas wilderness, and then found a couple of months later at bargain basement prices, but sensibly the developers chose to bide their time and release them when the competition wasn’t so fierce.

While these moves are a step in the right direction, I still feel mid and late summer has a dearth of decent titles, and goes completely against what the movie industry do, when the biggest blockbusters are released during the summer months. A game like LittleBigPlanet would flourish during the summer, and as Nintendo have shown with Mario Kart Wii, sales can be very strong during this period, with the classic karting game still in the retail top 10 throughout the summer months. They are also releasing Super Mario Galaxy 2 this summer, which should hopefully see it doing good business. If more companies showed this kind of forward thinking then we wouldn’t have to rely on our Christmas games to see us through the summer.

So what can you do when the AAA titles dry up? Well you could trawl the games stores for bargains from previous years. How about Fallout 3, the aforementioned LittleBigPlanet, Far Cry 2, or Okami? All these games can now be found for bargain prices in most stores, and are well worth picking up if you’re bored with the games you have. You could also check out your own collection, as I’m sure there is a title in there that you haven’t played much, if at all! I know I have several titles that I need to delve back into, that I have only played the odd 10 minutes of. There are also countless games to download from Xbox Live and PSN which are well worth a look. Games like Braid, Flower, and LostWinds are all great, original titles, and have a lot more to offer than some so-called blockbuster titles. If you feel guilty playing games indoors when the sun is shining outside, take your PSP or DS with you and enjoy the best of both worlds. You could also use this time of year to try a different genre than you usually play. FPSs like COD and Halo are great, but you do get jaded with them after a while. Why not try an RPG like Fallout 3 or Persona 4? A strategy game like Settlers 7 or Advance Wars, or a puzzle game like Professor Layton? There is a lot more to gaming than FPSs, and you might be surprised to find a game that really sparks your gaming Mojo.

What to do? Cut the grass or play a videogame? Tough choice!

So what are your plans for when the drought finally hits? Personally I’ve got Fallout 3, Dead Space, Bioshock 2 and Red Dead Redemption to tide me through the summer months. It’s either that or I’ll be out cutting the grass. Now whatever happened to Lawnmower Simulator?

Seriously. Some dude went to this place once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away...

Do you remember your ancestry?

Chances are, if you are a modern day videogamer, you are 18-34 years old and a male. Judging by that demographic, many of us are 25 years or older. We might not have experienced games from the very beginning but we have a rich, storied heritage with both Nintendo and Sega at the very least.

In a recent discussion with friends around a couple of beers, the topic of games from yesteryear arose. I began to ask my group what classic games they might go back to the cabinet and revisit, but startlingly, the response was negative. All of them said “Nothing,” or something else in that same vein.

Flash Fact: In 2008, Swedish developer GRIN took the 1988 original NES game, Bionic Commando, and Rearmed it. In 2009, they also released a modern edition, simply titled Bionic Commando. It didn't sell. Shortly after, GRIN closed their doors and went bankrupt.

It seems like the gamers of today are more savvy. We understand that nearly every other week a top of the line title will be released on any one platform. We are stuck in a cycle where we have money, and if we want to stay up to date with what all the industry pros are talking about, we have to play the latest releases on day one, lest we be ridiculed by our peers as being “n00bs.”

There will always be a handful of us who travel back in time a decade or so, or whenever the advent of 3D gaming was beginning to take shape, but it feels like we’re less willing to return to our two-dimensional past. The irony of this being, of course, that classic games are seeing all sorts of sequels in the shape of downloadable content on all platforms including Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Steam. Capcom appears to support this niche more than anyone else, with the company’s recent Mega Man and Bionic Commando 2D action games.

Are these games meant to attract newer users perhaps void of a past, or is this an attempt to satiate the older gamers who remember their championed history?

Halo: Contra Evolved.

Another question brought to mind, is whether or not 3D re-imaginations are meant to appear like entirely new franchises, or are they banking on tradition? How many kids knew Wolfenstein or Bionic Commando, both recent game releases, were cherished franchises from nigh-on two decades ago? Certainly, these titles were marketed towards the informed as re-imagined classics, but it is almost guaranteed that much of that was lost on a demographic who just wasn’t informed as of yet, or simply did not care to learn.

Ask yourself this: Do you, no doubt a gamer of legendary proportions, reflect on how you got to where you are today? Do you remember the industry before it was a household name, or do you often times find yourself reminiscing about classic memories from games you will never get a chance to truly re-experience?

Interactive media is no doubt a constantly evolving medium, and day after day our experiences and expectations are altered. For instance, Prototype is a decent game, but I have no wanton need to revisit it. I know it wouldn’t be as thrilling for me the second time as it was the first. Tribes 2? Well, I’m going to assume that it’s always going to be just as good now as it was then. Dare I revisit it? I really shouldn’t. What if its jetpacks feel clunky and incomparable to Halo: Reach’s fancy-pants jetpacks? Why, I might be devastated!

Okay, okay. Maybe some of us take gaming way too seriously.

Remember the Clint Eastwood film, Gran Torino? I wonder if the cliche of old men sitting on their porch also hold true for gamers? Do those of us with a healthy respect for retro-gaming turn our noses up at the generation who grew up with Halo as their first experience, or do we learn what they like now, and present to them their chosen genre’s true gaming roots?

Is it even our job to care?

Change is inevitable. It happens. We evolve and adapt. Sometimes change is for the better and sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes things can even change back to the way they once were. Whether it is for the better, for the worst or simply a by-product of circumstance the key point here is that change is inevitable.

A long time ago in a place called the Nineties people, including myself, eagerly bought gaming magazines each month. These magazines recapped four weeks worth of news, reviews, previews and exclusive titbits from all the big important conventions. Now we’re in a place irritatingly referred to as the…actually, what are we in now? As people who proof read this pointed out: this isn’t the Naughties now (and I know this probably isn’t the place or totally related, but when talking about the upcoming Olympics please do not refer to the year as twenty-twelve, it’s two thousand and twelve damn it). Oh well, whatever we’re in now and despite society moving on far beyond the need for them, every time I’m in a newsagent I still see gaming magazines.

For accuracy’s sake let’s clarify the two types of gaming magazine. First we have the official type of publication such as OXM or OPM or ONM that someone more cynical than myself might refer to as a collection of lies, bias and more propaganda than the Brotherhood of Nod newsletter. Then you have your unofficial publications like GamesMaster or NGamer.

While I don’t particularly begrudge them holding on in there, is there really any justifiable reason that they still exist? Have I missed something? When things moved at a much slower pace waiting a month to hear all the latest news was fine, but now with the internet providing news mere minutes after a statement is made (or quicker if it’s a live conference) why do people still buy these magazines?

I ask because I can only assume that people are still buying them. There still seems to be plenty of them when I’m out shopping, gleefully sticking news on their front cover I’d heard about or reported on weeks ago like they’re the first people to bring it to the public’s attention.

When thinking of who might still be buying them I can only come up with younger gamers who perhaps aren’t aware they could be getting all the same information and more for free online. Naturally you could also throw in people who don’t have access to the internet but are still interested in gaming, yeah all five or six of those guys, but even if that’s the case it can’t possibly be a large enough audience share to be keeping these magazines afloat.

That isn’t to say that the magazine format needs to be erased from the world. Online magazines are the way of the future and in the same way that the national papers are slowly trying to go, some former large magazines have already started testing the waters (CVG is a good example). Then you also have Future Publishing’s attempt exclusive to PSN called FirstPlay, which Luke has previously spoken about based on the beta here. Revenue is still generated in the exact same way (advertising, endorsements, etc.) but you get to remove a large chunk of production costs because there’s nothing physical to print thousands of copies of each month.

Sadly, this also means that a lot less people will be needed. This reminds me of the frequent squabbling within Royal Mail, usually around Christmas, just to make sure as many people as possible get irritated at the same time. It’s an example of fighting change, but in a catch-22 situation where even if change is stopped something will still inevitably happen. In the postal service’s case it won’t just be inevitable that people will continue to be annoyed every time there is a strike; but also that the service will be strangled from within and cease to be anyway, laying off more people than the numbers that would be lost from the less harsh modernisation route.

I could go for a /facepalm montage right about now.

Apply the same consequences to gaming magazines. Lose some staff but take the format online (and that way you keep your readers, fan base, some revenue sources and name) or fight the change and eventually disappear forever. Sure, if you go at it from an edgy angle you might last a little longer than the riff-raff (like, for example, looking down your nose at every game in order to manufacture an opinion held in high regards by literally thousands of fools that may or may not be purchasable or could be traded for space on box art quotations)…but change is inevitable.

There’s also environmental benefits to stopping producing so many magazines, but there’s a chance that might save the world and if that happens I’ll lose a bet I made with Satan last year when I stayed at his condo, so I’m not too bothered about that one. Since I haven’t purchased a gaming magazine in so many years I don’t know if they’re being produced on recycled or at least partially recycled paper, but I doubt they are and I also remember the mountain of magazines I kept as a child and then eventually had to dispose of.

I’ll finish as I began by stating that change is inevitable. The digital generation is slowly killing the print generation and I don’t personally think it’s a bad thing – at least in this instance. Gaming magazines no longer serve a purpose. They are obsolete and unnecessary. If a gaming magazine were an old dog, this would be about the time to find a shotgun and leave a trail of biscuits leading behind the garden shed.

ASTRO Gaming, purveyors of the coveted A40 headphone system for professional gaming, have recently announced their latest headset and amp combo which is sure to make any owner of multiple consoles salivate.

This is a headset designed for the person who owns every modern gaming device available, be it a PSP, DS, iPhone, Zune, multiple consoles and a PC. In most cases, you need a specific headset for each platform, but you probably couldn’t afford one after buying all that other technology.

The A30 is multi-faceted because of the bevy of connectors, do-dad’s and cables that accompany the device itself, which retails for a sturdy $149.99 American. The headphone/mixamp combo, capable of Dolby® Digital, Dolby® PLIIx, and Dolby® Headphone clocks in at $229.99.

The headphones come with a detachable boom mic that can be affixed to either it’s left or right side. Happily, the headset is not just a gaming peripheral, but also as a smartphone headset.

Similar in design to the flagship A40′s, the ’30′s continue the companies trademark aesthetics, though in a smaller package. These headphones fit on your ears and are smaller than the flagship A40′s, presumably to make them more portable, though ASTRO also mentions that the smaller design allows for more substantial bass range.

“The A30′s closed-ear design and street savvy styling lets gamers play out in public and still look great while doing it,” said Aron Drayer, Director of Marketing over at ASTRO Gaming.

The bigger brother A40′s are used to winning all sorts of awards, and since much of the technology is similar if not identical in the A30′s, there is no reason to not keep an eye open for them.

The A30′s recently went on sale on the company’s own page, though I warn you, shipping internationally is a real killer, and remains the only reason I haven’t found a pair for myself yet.

Oh, yea! And here’s the link to the official ASTRO Gaming product page!

With the newly unveiled beta program for Valve’s digital download service, Steam, users skillfully sifting through code were treated to a bit of a surprise: Steam might be coming to the Mac platform.

Various client-based browser buttons were discovered for OS X, as well as a dock icon and a handful of file icons.

While this does not confirm that there is indeed a Mac edition planned for release, it is a strong indicator, seeing as how Valve basically teased its user base with an Easter egg.

What is interesting to note is that other download services, such as Direct2Drive, have a special section for Mac downloads, but Steam, the industry leader, does not.

Steam was previously an Internet Explorer based interface, which as of beta, has been replaced with the WebKit UI. Explorer for Mac was discontinued by Microsoft on December 31, 2005. One would wonder if this is why Steam didn’t make a home on the platform sooner.

I’ll start this article with a disclaimer – to truly examine the relationship between gaming and mainstream media, it’d probably take a University thesis, around 756 cigarettes, twelveteen source books and an ungodly amount of coffee. Instead, this article hopes to look at how gaming has been portrayed in the media recently and hopes to draw a few conclusions as to the relationship between the two.

Games have been in the newspapers, radio and on the TV a lot recently, these mediums are what I refer to when I say mainstream. They are the sources of news and information that people have relied on for decades and they are the watermark for what’s acceptable and what gets talked about in British society. You might think then that games have made a breakthrough, that finally they’re getting the attention they warrant as one of the largest and fastest growing industries on the planet. That finally, grudgingly, games and consoles are being accepted as a valid form of entertainment, rather than being perceived as an evil box that warps the minds of our children and turns them into murderous social degenerates.

But that’s not entirely true. The increasing profile of games, whilst no doubt good for the industry in the long run, opens up old wounds in terms of games being an easy target. High profile publications such as the Daily Mail gave the gaming industry both barrels back in October as word began to spread about the controversial ‘No Russian’ level present in Modern Warfare 2. MP and Critical Gamer Interviewee Tom Watson sprang to the defence of the industry in the House of Commons, but the Daily Mail article is symptomatic of the way games are perceived in some sections of the media and the establishment.

Whatever game he's playing must be awfully green

Games are too violent

The problem is multi-faceted. Lets start by looking at the most simple of reasons. The words Games, Videogames and Gaming are not exactly helpful. They sound like toys for children and hence you’d think it was reasonable to regard them as such. But the level of blood, violence and more recently sex in games clearly marks them as an adult form of entertainment. Unfortunately the ‘for kids’ label isn’t cast aside so easily, especially with the high number of children that play games. The fact is many of today’s gamers are people who played games as children, rather than growing up and moving away to more traditional ‘adult’ pursuits of entertainment – Theatre, Art, Knitting etc – they retained their fondness for gaming and the industry has grown up with them.

Games are long past the stage where they existed primarily as a child’s toy and that’s reflected in the majority of major titles released today. So the issue arises that certain sections of the media and the people whose exposure to games largely comes from that media, have a perception of games and gaming that is erroneous. The knock on effect being parents buying their children products that are clearly intended for adults and containing unsuitable content. This is what gives rise to a high number of the articles and condemnations of games to be found in the mainstream and at a basic level it’s due to ignorance and misrepresentation.

The second argument surrounding violence in games comes from the stories we hear about impressionable young people who play games and then commit acts of violent crime. Far be it from me to declare myself an expert in psychoanalysis and claim understanding of the thought processes of these individuals; yet common sense would dictate that to place the blame solely upon games is a gross oversimplification. It would seem more reasonable that games can – as can books and music and film – act as a conduit for people to live their lives through a proxy, where they can project their feelings onto the screen and act out violent fantasies. But to say that games made a person this way or that games spurred on the violent act ignores the fact that most of these people must already have quite severe mental health issues or feelings of crushing alienation.

Perhaps for such people games are not exactly a healthy hobby to engage in, yet you cannot simply ban everything in the hope that impressionable minds will be spared. What can be done is that parents and media outlets can be aware of the content of a game and represent it in the proper manner. Games have a ratings system that is enforceable by law, by making sure that all parties are aware of the content and indeed the target audience for a game, it would help to stop those impressionable minds from bearing witness to something that is patently not intended for them to see. At least until they are of an age where you might hope they have the maturity to process it in the normal manner – as fictional pieces of entertainment that do not have a bearing on, nor should influence the way we act in, real life.

An accurate representation of the average WoW player or tongue in cheek satire? You decide!

Gaming is addictive and anti-social

We hear regularly of the latest report either confirming or debunking the idea of games addiction and how the playing of games is an anti-social activity. For instance last week we heard of how Andy Murray’s girlfriend left him, because of his 7 hour a day PS3 addiction. The truth is, if you can’t indulge in your hobby in moderation, then it’ll likely come back to bite you in the arse at a later date. This doesn’t only apply to gamers, it applies to bedroom DJs who’ll alienate their neighbours with loud music and to fishermen, who’ll begin to smell of river water and get infections (I’m operating on the assumption that every river is as nasty as the River Wear here), the anorak wearing train-spotter who’ll forever be mocked for his hobby with choice. My tongue is lodged firmly in cheek here, but the point I’m trying to get across is that – Yes, if you overindulge in a hobby and allow your social life and personal hygiene to suffer to an unacceptable level, then it’s probably time to tear yourself off the couch and reintroduce yourself to daylight.

Yet despite the common sense approach most of us take to gaming, the reports have persisted. Klaus Woelfling, a psychologist and director of the Clinic for Gaming Addiction at the University of Mainz earlier this year reported that gamers can display symptoms consistent with withdrawal from drug usage, when deprived of games. Furthermore in England you can now go to a rehab clinic to be treated for your games addiction. That is – if you’ve got wads of cash you’re ready to waste on having someone tell you to be a bit more sensible.

The anti-social argument is a little harder to pin down. If like Andy Murray you’re completely ignoring your girlfriend in favour of shooting people in the face then perhaps there’s something in it. But games needn’t necessarily be anti-social. In fact they can bring people together in all sorts of ways. For instance think of the group of friends who leave their home-town to go university. Sure they can keep in touch via Facebook, but even better they can log into Left 4 Dead using their headsets and have a blast as they romp through the zombie filled campaigns. Think too of the many stories we hear of WoW marriages and the like, people who may lack certain skills or be overcome by shyness in the real world, have through WoW the chance to meet people with the same interests. Games can allow people with a lack of self confidence to feel good about themselves and to present themselves as they wish to be seen, with bonds of friendship being formed with complete strangers from around the globe. So while I agree that an excess of gaming can be anti-social, I also believe that games and gaming can act as a valuable tool for socialising.

Andy Murray celebrating a Killstreak of 14

Games lack the art and the status of other forms of entertainment

I’ll be brief here, because my editor will kill me if I start writing about ‘whether gaming is art’. But that’s not that point I was intending to make anyway. Instead I simply want to highlight the differences between the ways games are treated and the ways in which other mediums – in particular films – are treated. It is often argued that games fail to garner artistic recognition outside of their own industry, that the wider press have little time for what they see as a frivolous and perhaps childish activity. Games are predisposed towards being violent and filled with explosions, with narratives often being tacked on. However that has in the past not harmed the reputation of many films of the action genre. Films from the 90′s such as Die Hard or Terminator 2 are now regarded as modern classics, showcasing the perfect blend of action and well written dialogue, often aped in games. Yet while watching Die Hard might be seen as a perfectly adult and suitable way to spend an evening, stick a game – lets say Uncharted 2 – on and suddenly it’s a waste of time and too violent. It’s true that perhaps the majority of games still feature poor writing and some plots feel as though they’re superimposed over the levels to glue them together. But I’d still rather play Bioshock and explore the sights and sounds of Rapture, as Andrew Ryan and Atlus fight over my soul, than watch Michael Bay’s latest nonsensical explodarama.

Jack Black as Brutal Legend's Eddie Riggs

Perhaps then what games lack is the celebrity and star power that exist within other forms of entertainment. Few games have big name stars ready to go out and sell their games on prime-time television or radio and few developers are cut from the same cloth as actors or musicians who are often natural showmen or women. But then again perhaps the times are a-changing. Brutal Legend which was released in (R)Oc(k)tober not only had Jack Black willing to dress up as main character Eddie Riggs, but netted Tim Schafer a spot on Jimmy Fallon’s late night chat show. Modern Warfare 2 released here in the UK with a star-studded première party, the likes of which are usually reserved for films. Plus who can forget seeing the Beatles up on stage at E3, there to promote Beatles: Rock Band.

So while this article has largely focused on the negative appearance of games and gaming in the mainstream, there have been positive signs too. Charlie Brooker’s Gameswipe was a rare thing, an intelligent and most definitely adult television show that examined gaming, tailored for a wider audience. It may have been a one off show, and it may have been tucked away on BBC Three, but it sat pretty at the top of the BBC iPlayer chart.

As gaming continues to grow and we have new generations of gamers reaching adulthood and maintaining their hobby, it will be more and more difficult for the mainstream to ignore and criticise our electronic pastime. With groups such as Gamers’ Voice pushing for a fairer representation of the industry in government, it can only be a matter of time before the media at large follows suit. Who knows, once gaming is no longer dismissed as childish, the games we see may mature in tandem and then we’ll be in for a treat.

Additional Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/3934277.stm,

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/36327/Games-rehab-centre-opens-in-UK

http://www.tgdaily.com/games-and-entertainment-features/43378-computer-games-as-addictive-as-drugs

There’s no denying recent Apple products are all design classics. From the stunning iMac to the svelte iPod Touch, their products are things of beauty, but they also have great functionality and simplicity to go with their good looks.

After some lean times, Apple really made a name for themselves with the release of the all-in-one iMac G3 computer. Its brightly coloured exterior crushed the idea that computers had to be packaged in grey plastic, and as a result they flew off the shelves. Then with the release of the iPod and iTunes they redefined how music could be packaged, and you could now carry your whole music collection around with you. Over the years the iPod has added extra functionality, with the ability to store and view photos, then the addition of viewing movies, surfing the net, and most groundbreaking of all the addition of Apps to the iTunes store. This finally gave Apple a handheld computer, that can do most things that a laptop can do but in a pocket friendly package. With the release of the iPhone they gained valuable market share in the mobile market. The iPhone and iPod Touch have proven to be major players in the gaming market, with their bite sized, and pocket friendly games proving popular with users. In fact Apple have started marketing these devices as gaming consoles, with the slogan “Next level fun”.

iPod Touch and iPhone have proved popular with gamers.

The evidence is certainly there that Apple are making an aggresive approach to getting a foothold in the gaming market. Already this year they have signed up Richard Teversham, a senior Executive from Microsoft’s European Xbox operations. They have also patented technology that mixes and matches media and games. The App Store is full of games from independents. These are low cost, and some are even free! All are at a price point that is very desirable to consumers. For instance, the old classic adventure game Beneath a Steel Sky is only 59p! Most are below the £2 threshold, but there are a few over £5. Compared to games for your DS or PSP at £30 a shot, these games offer great value. Now major players like Konami and Capcom are releasing their own franchises on the App Store as well.

Sony and Nintendo have obviously taken note of this and have released Minis and full price games to download for PSP, and DSiware for the DSi respectively. They have noticed Apple slowly but surely gaining momentum in the handheld market, and are quite rightly feeling threatened by them. The PSP was the multimedia powerhouse handheld when it was released, but when you compare it to the iPod Touch or iPhone the technology is not as sleek or as well implemented. For instance the PSP web browser is very poor and slow compared to Safari on the Apple machines. Most sites take forever to load, or don’t load properly, then don’t have the necessary plugin to view the page! Compared to silky smooth Safari it falls flat. Also, the release of the PSP Go is another reaction to the iPhone/iPod Touch, although it is a lot less appealing with downloads costing mostly the same as the equivalent packaged game, but without the resell value from second hand sales. The recently added bite-sized Minis are welcome, but are still a lot more expensive than similar games on Apple’s Store.

The PSP Go is a reaction to the success of Apple's service

So does this mean the imminent arrival of an Apple branded console for your living room? Apple certainly have the infrastructure already in place. With Apple TV you can beam movies and music to your TV from your computer. It wouldn’t take much of an upgrade to enable it to play games as well. All they would need was a Wii style remote or Project Natal camera interface linked to the Apple TV box, and a new console is born. Apple have already made massive inroads into the music, movies, and mobile market, so gaming is a natural progression. After all, old foe Microsoft haven’t done too badly out of it, have they? And anything Apple release would certainly look and perform better than Microsoft’s current console, that’s for sure!

One of the arguments against Apple going into console production, is the fact that they have no developers under their umbrella. There have been rumours of them purchasing EA, but this has never materialised. They have also previously released a console in conjunction with Bandai in 1995. This ill-fated venture was intended to be released as a low cost computer, but at the $599 price point, compared to the much lower cost Playstation and Sega Saturn it fell flat and flopped. Another hurdle is that there are already three established consoles out there. Can the market handle another console, and can consumers handle yet another box under their TVs?! Sony and Microsoft are losing a lot of money from each console sold as it is. Will Apple take the same risks and financial hits again? Only time will tell.

Could Apple TV be reconfigured to become a console?

Nobody imagined Apple releasing the iPhone when it was rumoured for so long, and there must be some truth in them looking at games as a major source of income, after the success of the App Store. Sony and Microsoft have battled it out for control of your living room with their media hub consoles, and I don’t think it will be long before Apple enter the fray and take a place in your living room as well as in your pocket.

And here it is the new Apple console…NOT!!

The subject of advertising is something I ponder a lot of the time (yeah, that’s how I roll) and although I can find so many things about it that I could target with my unending rage, that is not to say that I dislike everything to do with this branch of media. In actuality I envy some advertising methods; in the same way I might envy a serial killer for their superb murdering abilities I mean.

One thing I envy about advertising, or at least the Public Relations branch of advertising, is the ability to conceal an unsatisfying truth within an incredible boast. You know the kind of thing I mean; the sorts of statement that gets produced by the hype machine, that appears on the back of a game’s box, in preview material for a game or that spews from Peter Molyneux’s mouth.

So, for a bit of fun (yes, fun. I’ll say it again. Fun. I do this for fun), I decided to list the kind of thing you might see in PR press releases or general advertising material or on the back of the box for your newest gaming purchase and what these all really mean. I urge everyone to contribute with any more you can think of and your own ideas about what they ‘really’ mean.

(I should point out for the sake of clarity that only some of these are even remotely serious. I don’t mean them literally and there are always exceptions. Please don’t attack me, glorious PR arm of the great advertising behemoth, I beseech thee.)

They Say:

“Over thirty levels of fun!”

They Mean:

The game has thirty-one levels.

Started with an easy one to poke fun at as everyone is bound to have read a sentence like that on a game at some point in their gaming life. You don’t see it as much these days I must admit, and it’s fairly obvious why.

They Say:

“Critical acclaim!”

They Mean:

One review liked it.

They Say:

“Excellent… 5* – The Sun.”

They Mean:

No credible source liked it.

They Say:

“Dozens of secrets to find!”

They Mean:

Collectables. Lots of collectables. Tedious collectables. Hundreds. Thousands.

I’m quite the Achievement/Trophy completionist and a fairly sane man, but one more “Collect x of x” type achievement to aim for and I’m climbing my local clock tower, clutching a rifle and a hurriedly scrawled list of developers as I go, to aim for far more satisfying targets.

They Say:

“From the creators of…”

They Mean:

They’re hoping it will sell well off of the back of the only previous success that they’ve had.

They Say:

“…Based on the hit movie!”

They Mean:

The game was rushed out the door in time for the movie release date and had a production budget comparable to what an average person might spend on toothpicks during their lifetime.

They Say:

“Similar to Grand Theft Auto.”

They Mean:

Exactly like Grand Theft Auto.

Yeah, I know they aren’t specifically going to mention something like GTA if it can be helped, this is more an example of a reply I’ve seen in a lot of interviews when the interviewee has been posed specific questions by the interviewer that has caught them slightly unaware. Keep an eye out for this one, it’s honestly amusing how often it crops up.

They Say:

“Explosive Xbox Live/PSN online play.”

They Mean:

Exposure to the worst kinds of people in the entire world that will hate you for your superior playing ability and eventually have you gleefully wishing for a nuclear apocalypse every time you’re berated with yet another immature taunt.

They Say:

“High octane non-stop action from start to finish!”

They Mean:

Couldn’t be bothered thinking up a plot. Stuck in lots of explosions as filler.

They Say:

“Customise your character.”

They Mean:

Male or female. Five different faces. Twenty hair styles (only three of which you’d ever pick). Good or evil. Shotgun, Sniper Rifle or Assault Rifle. Heavy Armour, Medium Armour or Light Armour.

Just once I’d like to see mundane options like favourite food, colour and soap opera. In case you’re wondering: pizza, red and real life.

They Say:

“Unbelievable next-gen graphics!”

They Mean:

Plausible current-gen graphics.

They Say:

“Over 50 hours of gameplay.”

They Mean:

Twenty hours tops.

Actually, I love these suggested completion times that get thrown around for games. They used to make me feel bad because I always came in well under. It made me feel like I must have been rushing, but then I found out the truth. The worst are always from people involved with the game doing their own promotion (advertising on the back of the box comes a close second). Who are they using as the test subject for the completion times that they suggest? A bug tester that has to spend five minutes running into every wall to make sure they can’t clip through it and then fill out a form if they do?

The 'master' of PR speak.

Anyway, that’s the first twelve that came to mind, but there are dozens more at the very least. So once again I’ll ask you to chip in down in the comments section with any that you can think of.

Best PR/advertisement/box quote with an alternate ‘real’ meaning wins…nothing. My adulation? Doubt that’s worth much. My unyielding affection? It’s far more sinister and dangerous than it sounds. Probably not a good idea. Oh, I know! You win the satisfaction of being the winner. Wow.

Title Art R. Furie; Words Ian D