Weapons then items then weapons and maps...

[davidn]

This seems to be a fairly popular clip, but I was only pointed to it the other day - it's a stand-up section by Dara Ó Briain about games, rather similar to his appearance on Gameswipe, but with some extra pieces.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKIiUsbOO24

I actually saw it just after I'd said the same thing to some (very) extended family members at a dinner, when they were asking about my game-making - that even though games are now the biggest entertainment industry in the world (having eclipsed films some time ago), they still have this odd maligned hobbyist status. Everyone watches films, just about everyone listens to music - not everyone plays games. Except that might be changing a little - I was very pleased during that dinner to have a conversation in which everyone at the table did actually know what I was talking about, thanks to the iPhone and other smartphones bringing in people who don't normally play anything.

For that reason, though, it's really surprising and special to hear games being brought up on stage like this - it's unusual enough to hear them even mentioned in an intelligent way on television. This kind of level is what we're all more used to. The climax of it all is when he brings up Metal Gear Solid 4, as the crouch/stand/crawl control confusion led me to doing that exact eccentric waddle throughout most of the game.

And hearing him impersonating Roy Campbell (who he refers to as 'Mick') with the cry of "SNAAAKE" is something that I never realized my life had been missing until now.

Comments

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Much-needed laughs were had at this.

Thanks, man. XD

[tamakun.livejournal.com]

I wonder how well this comedy sketch comes off to the casual gamer. Much like how the video ended with him pointing out some people have no clue what he's doing up on-stage, I'm curious to show this to Christine and see what she thinks of it.

[davidn]

I'm interested as well! Particularly if the completely unrealistic mannerisms of in-game characters can be recognized among people who don't play them, or if they've only ever seen games on television and have very twisted views on what they're actually like anyway.

[tamakun.livejournal.com]

Interesting enough, Christine did get a lot of the jokes, since "she hangs around me" despite not playing console games! I think she liked him waddling around more than the explanation of why he was waddling. I decided to not bore Christine with the other video (with the horrible media-centric view of video games) but instead explianed it to her, and yeah, she gets how games "aren't like that".

What games were you discussing when you were talking with your (very) extended family? Were you talking about Crystal Towers 2 or were you referring to your smaller projects like Boxplode?

[davidn]

Yes, it was mostly about Boxplode and Running Free (which I passed around the table - everyone is absolutely charmed by it when they first pick it up and realize that their movement of the phone affects the stickman's gravity, so I really must continue with it). I think that... just the existence of games in that format has turned "I write games" into something weird to say into something that everybody can understand.

[tamakun.livejournal.com]

Man, it's strange to think that this has only happened in the past four years! Not even the DS managed to break this deeply into the portable gaming market, but look at how almost everyone now has a game (whether it's a 99-cent time-waster or a full-fledged RPG) in their pocket!