Showing posts with label 3sat neues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 3sat neues. Show all posts

Friday, August 20, 2010

Media blowout: Louis Castle, Matias Myllyrinne, Warren Spector, David Cage, Josh Sawyer and more



I am extremely happy to share with you the 3sat Neues expert panel featuring Louis Castle (InstantAction, formerly Westwood Studios) and Matias Myllyrinne (Remedy Entertainment) discussing the current state and future of the games industry, hosted by myself. Here is the video stream of the 30 minute debate.

Why does a movie license to be used in games cost millions while a game license to be used in movies costs a few hundred thousands? Is Hollywood still not taking the videogame industry seriously?

Are services like OnLive, Gaikai or Louis Castle's InstantAction posing a threat to traditional games distributed the traditional way?

And can the videogame industry ever emancipate itself as a medium of art? Comic books managed to win Pulitzer prizes and deal with topics like the Holocaust. Will videogames ever be able to do likewise? Please check out the interesting debate of two industry visionaries on these questions.



We also bring you two GDC Europe lectures in full:

Heavy Rain: How Far Are You Prepared to Go to Develop an Original Project? by David Cage (Quantic Dream)

Chilling Tales from Red Steel 2: How Motion Control Will/Won't Change The Future by Jason VandenBerghe (Ubisoft)



Finally, 3sat Neues presenter Yve Fehring conducted a series of interesting interviews, which we also host on YouTube.

Warren Spector (Junction Point) speaks about ´Epic Mickey´, his slightly undeserved legacy of being a dark developer as well as why he loves German board games and what we can learn from them.


Josh Sawyer (Obsidian Entertainment) talks about the upcoming ´Fallout: New Vegas´ and whether it is a trend to give established series to new developers.




There are further interviews in German:

Olaf Wolters (BIU association) and Franko Fischer (koelnmesse) discuss this week's gamescom in Cologne, the current industry trends and why Canada was chosen as the first host country.

Heiko Klinge (IDG) and Stephan Reichart (GAME association) discuss how the financial crisis has affected the industry, how to get a career in gaming and how the career pavillion at the gamescom can help.

Finally, Lars Buttler (Trion Worlds) talks about the company's new MMO which will be developed alongside a TV series.

Andreas Lange talks about the computer game museum in Berlin opening later this year and shares one extremely rare item from the collection, as well as old footage of Ralph Baer playing the Magnavox Odyssey.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Join Louis Castle, Matias Myllyrinne and myself



I am very happy to invite you all to a very special event taking place alongside the GDC Europe, the first 3sat Neues expert panel. Join Louis Castle (InstantAction, formerly Westwood Studios) and Matias Myllyrinne (Remedy Entertainment) in a discussion about the current state and future of the games industry, hosted by myself. Here are the details:


Monday, 16th of August 2010
Offenbachsaal
Congress-Centrum Ost Koelnmesse/KölnKongress
Deutz-Mülheimer-Straße
50679 Cologne / Germany
7pm - 7:45pm


Registration for GDC Europe will not be necessary. Fifteen minutes will be reserved for Q&A. Here are all the travel details. I very much hope that all of you attending GDC Europe can come. If you are unable to attend, you may want to check out the on-demand stream of the session, provided by my television network ZDF/3sat. Check back for the link Monday evening.

Sunday, April 05, 2009

This week in ´neues´: Violence in videogames




I interviewed Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Cheryl Kay Olson, co-director at the ´Center for Mental Health and Media' and author of the book `Grand Theft Childhood` as part of today's program, focussing on violent videogames and their possible effect on children and adolescents. Here is an exclusive interview in English, which I translated for our webpage into German.

Why did you approach this debate about violent videogames? A lot of German politicians would have you believe there is plenty of research around already and it clearly reveals a causal relationship between violent video games and aggressive behavior.

There are actually fewer studies than people realize. Also, some studies don’t measure the content of games played (only how much time was spent playing games); other studies confuse children’s aggressive play with violence that’s intended to hurt someone. Many studies include only a few dozen children, and then claim to represent all children. And studies are often done with college studies in artificial settings, where the students play a game for 20 minutes (very unlike real life).

Our research (involving surveys and focus groups) was designed with the needs of parents in mind. We wanted to help parents (including ourselves!), teachers, doctors and politicians understand what kinds and amounts of video game play are normal, when to worry about violent video games, and when video games might even benefit children.


Violent video games are commonly linked to school shootings and videogame critics assert that they often push the perpetrators over the brink. Does that not make those games dangerous? The Bavarian interior minister called them “killing simulators” and compared the impact of them to the impact of child pornography.

There is so much publicity about school shootings in the US, Germany and other countries. But a review of the data shows that this type of violence is not increasing – it’s the media coverage of the violence that has gone way up. So, people believe that school violence is much more common than it is. (Your child is actually more likely to be struck and killed by lightning than to be shot at school.)

The Secret Service and the FBI in the US have studied school shootings in an effort to identify a “profile” of potential shooters and prevent these tragedies. They were not able to find a profile. The only thing these shooters had in common was male gender and (often) a history of treated or untreated depression. Some were bullies and some were victims of bullies; some were good students and some did poorly in school. Many did watch violent films or play violent games, but the average teenage boy today does this, too. School shooters often wrote stories about imagined violent acts, however.

Also, we researched the issue of whether it’s possible to learn to shoot from a video game. Experts told us that it’s actually not difficult to shoot a gun at someone who is not moving, is not shooting back at you, and is not far away from you – even if you have little experience with guns. Media reports on a few school shootings in the U.S. said that these boys had never fired a real gun, but learned only from video games; this turned out not to be true. They had practiced with real guns.


Your book seems to assert that a gut reaction to such a topic can often be misleading, even entirely wrong.

People have been worried about bad influences from new media ever since the debut of cheap paperback novels in the late 1800s. These fears were also expressed about violent movies, television, and comic books. One difference with video games is their interactive nature; if I’m concerned about a movie, I can rent it on DVD and fast-forward through it to see if the content is appropriate for my child. I can’t do that with a video game. Also, many parents don’t know how to operate the controls on their child’s video game console. And when parents see photos or short video clips from very violent games, they may wrongly assume all games are like that. Finally, the fact that these are called “games” makes people think they are for children; just like films, many video games are definitely not created for children.

Critics of video games often assert that violence in games is far more detrimental than violence in movies because you act out the violence yourself. Is that so? Or is there another way of looking at this? Could games even be the better vehicle for violence because the player can control the degree and pace of the violence? In a horror movie, I am at the director’s mercy and helplessly subjected to his idea of how much violence can be shown.

There are many opinions about this issue, but very little research. I can understand the argument that acting out violence seems worse than watching it. However, game controls are not at all like real weapons, and the physical movements used in games cannot train you to carry out real-life violence.

Also, the video game player is always aware that he is playing a game, and must take an active role to keep the game going. He can pause or quit at any time. One might argue that this reinforces the difference between the game world and the real world. When we watch a film, we have no control over the story and the only way we can stop it is to turn it off or leave the room; this is potentially more traumatizing for a child than a game that he controls.


You seem to be much more concerned with the effects of games used as marketing tools and browser games. Why is that?

When everyone is focused on violent content in commercially available, rated games, it can be easy to overlook Web-based games that may promote offensive attitudes or beliefs. It is impossible for governments to regulate or rate games that are played over the Internet. Parents need to be careful to monitor Internet use for that reason; some free web-based games are racist or sexist, while others push commercial products.

You are a mother yourself. What should parents do? Is it enough to check the age ratings?

One problem with the age ratings is that they don’t tell us about the context or the goals of the violence. Studies on TV violence tell us that the manner in which violence is portrayed could make a child more or less likely to imitate violence. For example, if the perpetrator of violence is appealing and attractive, if no pain or suffering is shown resulting from the violence, or if the violence is shown as humorous, these might increase the risk of imitation.
Age ratings also don’t address other things parents told us were important to them – such as whether violence is done to aliens, zombies or other unrealistic characters vs. realistic humans. And as one parent said, “"It's one thing, killing; it's another thing, you know, chopping, decapitating, lighting on fire…."

My son is now 19; he was 14 when we started our research on video games. Our computers were in a shared room, so I was able to observe the kinds of games he played and how he reacted to them, while I was doing work on my own computer. Some of his games had violent content, but what he really seemed to enjoy were interesting stories and complex characters. And at times, if he had a difficult day, he would work out his stress and anger through a violent game.

If possible, ask your child to teach you how to play part of a game he enjoys, and ask him to explain what he likes about it. Even if you are not comfortable playing video games yourself, it’s important to watch your child play now and then to see what is in his favorite games, and how he reacts to them. For example, most children feel more relaxed after playing a video game. If your child is more angry and stressed after playing a particular game, it may not be appropriate for him.


Finally, video games are part of today’s youth culture. Is it not perfectly healthy, even necessary for kids to play them? Should we not be worried when our kids do not play them at all?

It’s important to remember that electronic games are a medium – like books or films. We need to move beyond condemning the entire medium, and focus on the content of individual games. I can trace much of my son’s interest in world history and politics to computer games such as the Civilization and Age of Empires series. Many entertainment games also teach planning and strategy skills.

But just as some books are trashy or are inappropriate for children, so are some games. And, sometimes it’s good to read a book or play a game that doesn’t teach anything at all, but is simply fun or relaxing!

Our research found that for young teenage boys in particular, it is very unusual not to play electronic games. Your child may in fact be left out socially if he doesn’t play, because children often organize activities around group play as well as discussion of game characters and strategies.
However, parents have the right to set limits on when and how often their children play video games. I encourage parents to keep video game consoles, TVs and computers out of children’s bedrooms; we found that having a console or computer in the bedroom was linked to more time spent on games, and greater odds of playing violent games. Other researchers have found that technology in the bedroom also interferes with sleep, which is very important for children’s health and academic achievement.

It’s important not to panic if you find your child playing a game that upsets you. Just because a child pretends to be a criminal in a game, that does not mean he wants to be a criminal in real life. Children enjoy testing what it feels like to be different types of people in the safety of the fantasy video game world. However, it’s important to talk with your child about why you object to certain games, so he understands the reasons for your concerns. Try to find positive things to say about some of his games; this shows him that you value his interests and opinions, and helps build a good relationship.


The show is in German. You can watch it on television at these times:


Sunday, 5th of April, 4:30pm CET (3sat)
Tuesday, 7th of April, 1:50 am CET (ZDF)
Thursday, 9th of April, 1:30 pm CET (ZDF-Infokanal)


You can also watch it online through our station's Mediatheque. This direct link should be live already. Soon, you can download the entire programme through our podcast page, where you also find the above bonus content. Please also visit the show's blog for additional content.

Source: 3sat neues, `Grand Theft Childhood`

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Miyamoto talks Wii HD, ´Project H.A.M.M.E.R.´, 3D visors



Has ´Project H.A.M.M.E.R.´ really been cancelled? Will Nintendo be the first company to bring 3D gaming to market? Is there any truth to the rumours about an HD-capable Wii? We at 3sat neues put those questions to game designer Shigeru Miyamoto himself.

My dear colleague Valentina just returned from London and an exclusive interview with Nintendo's chief designer, mainly about ´Wii Music´. Since we had a generous interview slot of 45 minutes, I was able to sneak in a few extra questions which some of you good people may be interested in.



First of all, Valentina asked him about whether Nintendo will bring some kind of 3D gaming device to market anytime soon.


Before the Wii launched, there were plenty of rumours about the console making use of augmented reality, perhaps by means of a visor. Nintendo pioneered this way back with the Virtual Boy. Will Nintendo be the first company to successfully implement 3D gaming? How long before this technology will take hold?

Nintendo is always trying to construct the framework in which we can provide... we can be as creative as possible in order to create as new entertainment as possible. And that's what Nintendo has been striving at and that's what Nintendo will be challenging itself once again in order to make unique entertainment opportunity.

But if I can just add my personal opinion: if the new environment requires the player to wear some goggle-style, I really don't have a good impression of that.


As you may remember, there were plenty of clues hinting at the use of augmented reality or similar technologies in future Nintendo consoles. It would appear that Nintendo is bullish about continuing to be the innovator in this industry.



We also asked Miyamoto about the status of ´Project H.A.M.M.E.R.´, which is rumoured to have been cancelled.


Whatever happened to ´Project H.A.M.M.E.R.´? Has it really been cancelled?

[says he is not part of the development team and really cannot comment] (...) What I can confirm here is that only when Nintendo can become almost certain of the timing of the launch we are able to make the relevant launch announcement of the software.


Here is the background to this story. Nintendo announced in May 2007 that the game would launch in Japan in 2007. But in July, Nintendo's E3 press kit no longer mentioned it.

Nintendo of America even confirmed that development had been delayed indefinitely. But bear in mind that the same can be said about ´Disaster: Day of Crisis´, which was also meant to be published in 2007 in Japan, according to the May 2007 list and also seemed to disappear subsequently. So it now seems that there is hope for ´Project H.A.M.M.E.R.´ yet.



We asked Miyamoto further about the rumoured Wii HD ("We are working in terms of the changes of technology all the time."). Also, we asked whether Nintendo was still committed to core games ("We are working on them.").

You can download the entire interview in English on November 9th via our podcast page.

Alternatively, you can watch the show in German at the following times:


Sunday, 9th of November, 4:30pm CET (3sat)
Tuesday, 11th of November, 1:50 am CET (ZDF)
Thursday, 13th of November, 1:30 pm CET (ZDF-Infokanal)


In the meantime, I hope to be able to update this post with other interesting quotes from the 45-minute interview.

EDIT You can find the podcast right here. I will try to update the transcript in this entry soon.

Source: 3sat neues podcasts
Thanks to: Valentina's blog (German)

Saturday, September 13, 2008

This week in ´neues´: Will Wright interview



Will Wright interview

A few days ago, I was able to interview Will Wright at some length about ´Spore´ and user-generated content in general. The interview was conducted for the weekly technology show I work for, 3sat neues. Simply click on Will Wright to download the full 25 minute interview in English.

We discuss ´Spore´ and user-generated content in general. We go into some depth about quality assurance, the design of the editors, the use of artificial intelligence in ´Spore´ and balancing freedom with guiding the player. We also discuss some of the surprisingly low ratings by a number of reviewers, especially out here in Germany. Further, I ask Will Wright about the commercial failure of ´The Movies´ and whether that shows inherent limitations of user participation.

We go on to discuss Sporenography and whether it presents a threat to the idea of user-generated content. Will Wright then reveals what he considers the main challenges for a possible ´Spore´ sequel (or similar game). He also believes that this trend is not exclusive to the games medium, drawing parallels to the Web 2.0 phenomenon. Please check it out.

Other gaming-related topics

Tomorrow's show will also focus on ´LittleBigPlanet´, show a feature on hobby developers in Germany, a report from this year´s ´Ars Electronica´ art and media festival, as well as a portrait of Julian Oliver, designer of the ingenious augmented reality game ´LevelHead´ (you can also download the entire interview with him - in English - from our website).

Our studio guest this week is Benjamin Nitschke, co-founder and head programmer of ex:Dream Studios (´Arena Wars´, ´XNA Racing Game´) who talks about user-generated content, middleware tools like XNA, indie development and how hobby developers can turn professional. Finally, we review Google's Chrome browser. The show is in German. You can watch it on television at these times:


Sunday, 14th of September, 4:30pm CET (3sat)
Tuesday, 16th of September, 1:50 am CET (ZDF)
Thursday, 18th of September, 1:30 pm CET (ZDF-Infokanal)


You can also watch it online through our station's Mediatheque. This direct link should go live Sunday afternoon. Soon after, you can download the entire programme through our podcast page, where you also find the above bonus content.

Source: 3sat neues

Thursday, January 31, 2008

This week in ´neues´: augmented reality demonstration



You remember that I quit my job with a general newsroom in October and became a full-time games and technology editor? As a reminder, I now work for 3sat neues, the German equivalent to the BBC´s Click, if you will.

This is the first of many shameless plugs of our weekly programme. But you will want to tune in, believe you me - even if you don´t speak German. We often examine current technological innovations that are making the rounds on the internet in detail and try them out ourselves. And a lot of them are directly or indirectly related to gaming or, specifically, Wii. Just remember my history of Super Mario in 4 minutes.

And this week, we will have another interesting demonstration for you. After we tried out Johnny Chung Lee´s now notorious 3D application for Wii in the first show this year, we have now invited the people behind Total Immersion´s D´Fusion technology into the studio, which stands for cutting edge augmented reality.

You are likely to remember the company from the DEMO events and various interviews. And you will remember augmented reality from the golden age of Wii mysteries and wild speculation. Here is a reminder from this blog:

Why 3D projection makes sense (February 2006)
The price of the future (June 2005)
Augmented reality is reality already (June 2005)
Not virtual, but augmented reality? (June 2005)



Watch 3sat neues

You can watch this week´s programme on television, as ever, anywhere in Europe at these times:

Sunday, 3rd of February, 4:30pm CET (3sat)
Monday, 4th of February, 7:00am CET (3sat)
Monday, 4th of February, 9:45am CET (3sat)
Tuesday, 5th of February, 1:50am CET (ZDF)
Thursday, 7th of February, 1:30pm CET (ZDF-Infokanal)

Better still, you can watch the entire programme and each individual item as a video stream (will go live Sunday evening) or download the entire programme and bonus content through our podcast page.

Source: 3sat neues

Monday, December 10, 2007

My history of Super Mario in 4 minutes



If you are interested in what has kept me from posting recently, please view my history of Super Mario in 4 minutes or read the text version. Both the video and online text are in German, but the amazing work of our graphics department is worth checking it out even if you do not speak it.



On a personal note, please stick by this blog. I am preparing a very comprehensive study of one of the so-called indie development studios that have been rumoured to be developing for Wii. Will we ever play their games on a Nintendo system? I have compiled weeks of research and hope to be able to answer that question. The post will be up soon. Please stay tuned.

Source: 3sat

Thursday, October 18, 2007

I quit



Leaving RTL II

After eight years in their newsroom, I have handed in my notice at the private German television station RTL II. As of November, I will become technology editor with the public sector station 3sat, based in Mainz, Hesse.

I usually do not post personal matters, but this is the single most important change in my professional life so far. It will also greatly affect this blog, as I will no longer be dealing with general daily news and current affairs. Instead, I will be exclusively focussing on technology-related topics, particularly IT, multimedia and computer and videogames.

I will work for their weekly technology show called ´Neues´. If you do speak German, you should check it out. It is a great program and airs on 3sat as well as ZDF and the ZDF-Infokanal.

Leaving Cologne

This will involve me leaving Cologne behind and moving to Frankfurt. Below is the flyer for my farewell party. Just so you understand the title, ´Alaaf´ is a salute used in the Cologne carnival. It rhymes with the word ´half´.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Looking back

As a technology editor, I will no longer deal with videogames only on the side. So this change will undoubtedly have a positive impact on my blog. Since this blog is nearing my 500th post, isn´t this a good time to look back at this blog´s various achievements?

I revealed that Wii would be significantly underpowered compared to the competition. I revealed that ´Zelda: Twilight Princess´ would use Wiimote functionality, rather than being merely a Gamecube game playable on Wii. In fact, Shigeru Miyamoto told me exclusively and in person.

I was also first to interview Pablo Belmonte, creator of the ´Nintendo On´ video. And I brought you the first developer comments regarding the Wii - by Peter Molyneux and Yuji Naka, no less.

And, of course, I ousted numerous fakers (like Seriousgamer007 and Kenton Bailey) and I played ´Red Steel´ before almost every other game journalist. I even told you the name before it went public by linking to this image.

I told you more than two months in advance that Rockstar´s ´Table Tennis´ was coming to Wii and my long-time readers knew about a ´Star Wars´ game featuring lightsaber action more than a year before it was finally announced. Finally, I recently revealed that the Wii´s friend codes will be game-specific.

Looking forward

What is more: I had a real blast writing all this stuff for you and I greatly appreciate all of you good people coming here. I apologize for the recent lack of updates, but both looking for a new job and moving to Frankfurt has kept me tremendously busy. Things will get back to normal over the next few weeks. And, as a technology editor, I am sure that I will be able to post even more exclusives than I have been able to so far.