If you are not interested in fighting goblins, changing the hairstyle of your avatar every ten minutes or chatting to ten or so people at the same time in the virtual shopping mall of your preferred virtual world, you might just be more interested in doing good, good works that is, courtesy of a friendly Non Governmental Organisation that has a game with which you can develop your humanitarian credentials. For example, in 2005 UNICEF, one of the pioneers in ‘Do-Gooder games’, produced World Heroes, a Flash game playable on-line.^[1] More ambitious is Food Force from the United Nation’s World Food Programme. This is a downloadable humanitarian adventure game that requires game dexterity and carries an extensive and informative narrative about famine, agricultural practices and what humanitarian aid can do, as you and your team attempt to distribute food to a stricken island.^[2]

In 2006 a more political tone became evident. Darfur is dying tries to promote interest in the Darfur region of Sudan and presents a stark picture of survival, as the players take the role of a displaced refugee, foraging for water and food in a hostile and dangerous environment.^[3] Extensions of the ‘game’ may allow multi-users to take part, but for the moment the site is in on-line in Flash format. In another world trouble-spot Peacemaker, a game developed by two Carnegie Mellon students, challenges players to create a stable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Taking either the role of Israeli Prime Minister or Palestinian President, they have to run their chosen country and deal with the various crises that punctuate life in the volatile Middle East region, while all the time interacting with the international community. The objective is to make peace, but the game allows for military action. A demonstration version is available for download but if you wish to play the full version it will cost you $20. The developers believe that there is market for serious games but for many game professionals the business model is not very attractive. Unless there is public finance and donations it is unlikely that serious games will be taken up by the leading game developers.

Nevertheless this has not stopped one of them, BreakAway games, from plunging into the games market on behalf of the International Center on Non-violent Conflict (ICNC), with an original and controversial offering A Force More Powerful.^[4] This downloadable game costs around $20 as well, and is designed to use “non-violent civilian-based strategies for defending and extending democratic self-rule and human rights throughout the world”. The game’s objectives are ambitious: “to win freedom and secure human rights against dictators, occupiers, colonizers, and corrupt regimes, as well as campaigns for political and human rights for minorities and women”’ – no less! The player’s side is the “‘movement”’ and they must try to bring down the opposing (and oppressive) regime using a variety of non-violent techniques. The action is controlled by the game’s artificial intelligence and the game is very complete with its on-line help, guides and a forum, along with teaching resources and other support for would-be activists.

Virtual workouts

One trend which marked games in 2006 was the progression of virtual assistants to help create a sound mind and a healthy body. Take Nintendo’s Brain Age for example, inspired by noted neuroscientist Dr Ryuta Kawashima of Tohoku University in Japan.^[5] This game aims to train your brain daily, to keep your mental muscles in shape. It does this through short exercises using mathematics, puzzles, counting games, reading out loud and even Sudoku grids. Nintendo’s DS console has a stylus so you can input your answers easily. After doing a test to measure your initial ‘brain age’, the Doctor will keep you up to date on your progress. The Nintendo game was an enormous success with over 3 million copies sold in Japan alone by August 2006, American and European sales accounted for another million.

For those without a game console, there is a web site which has been doing much the same thing on a subscription basis for quite a while, in the shape of MyBrainTrainer.com, “the world’s first virtual mental gymnasium”. A cognitive enhancement tool, MybrainTrainer, purports to improve memory, speed of thought and concentration.

A sound mind is, of course, not worth anything without a healthy body and here, once again, the virtual world has an answer. Yourself! Fitness (described by one reviewer as the child that Bill Gates would have had with Jane Fonda) is a virtual fitness training programme hosted by a virtual trainer, Maya, a young, female, fitness trainer, who coaches the user to follow the exercises by way of a series of challenges that unlock bonuses in the game. Interaction is rather limited and relies on the honesty of the user. A more reliable solution is provided by Eye Toy Kinetic from Sony.^[6] This is a video camera that sits on a television and detects movement in the field of vision. The camera is connected to a PSP 2 console and once the camera is focussed, the lighting acceptable and the furniture out of the way, you can start to work out with one of the two personal trainers at your disposal. On the TV screen you see yourself with the game graphics overlaid. The Eye Toy motion detector monitors your actions in a variety of different exercises designed with help from Nike. For the more accomplished, a combat programme will let you train more aggressively.

Not quite so energetic but more fun, is the Wii Sports programme that comes bundled with Nintendo’s 7th generation Wii console. Hand-held units with built-in motion detection devices transmit movement information to a sensor bar, which transforms physical gestures into screenplay. The distance from the screen is also measured through an infrared connection so that three dimensional movement is detected. Although most of the physical actions can be done from a sitting position, many users were so energetic in the games that the wrist-strap attached to the device proved too weak and had to be replaced by a more robust version. Nintendo were not complaining too much, as almost 4 million units had been sold by the end of 2006. They also advised users not to play with sweaty hands!

Finally the health of children all over in the world is the concern of Body Mechanics, an Australian interactive DVD game. Here kids battle against the baddies – disease and illness – using the good guys – diet and exercise -, in an episode entitled ‘Escape from ObeezCity’!^[7]

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Jeux vidéo : l’année 2006 en revue

L’année 2006 a débuté sur les bons résultats de 2005, dont les ventes avaient été stimulées par le succès de la PlayStation Portable de Sony (PSP) et la DS de Nintendo. Les trois grandes sociétés furent cependant un peu éclipsées par le succès soutenu de World of Warcraft (WoW) qui annonçait 6 millions d’abonnés en mars, un bond de 43 %. Vivendi Universal Games, société mère de Blizzard Games, est sortie du rouge grâce à son jeu qui était numéro 2 aux États-Unis en début d’année. En janvier cependant, un tollé général s’éleva contre la maladresse des administrateurs de WoW qui avaient menacé d’expulsion une joueuse qui recrutait pour une équipe (Guild) ouvertement pro gay, lesbienne, bisexuelle et transsexuelle. Blizzard a dû faire des excuses aux « gaymers » ! Ailleurs, les réorganisations se multiplient dans des sociétés qui jusque là patinaient : Electronic Arts, Activision et Atari ont annoncé soit des licenciements, soit l’abandon des projets et la vente des unités de production.

En mai 2006, Sony avait choisi la grande fête des jeux aux États-Unis, l’Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), pour promouvoir sa nouvelle console, la PlayStation 3 (PS3). Mais si les jeux en démonstration étaient bien accueillis, l’annonce du prix élevé du futur produit phare fit plutôt l’effet une douche froide (deux modèles à 499 $ et 599 $ pièce !). Microsoft a continué à élargir les possibilités d’utilisation de la Xbox avec un réseau social, à augmenter ses capacités de production avec l’achat des studios Lionhead (créateurs de The Movies, Fable et Black and White) et à générer davantage de revenus publicitaires dans les jeux avec l’achat en avril de Massive Inc., société spécialisée dans la publicité dans les jeux vidéos^[8].

Le niveau de sexe et de violence dans les jeux vidéos a continué à faire du bruit. Aux États-Unis certains états ont essayé de restreindre la vente des jeux et le Entertainment Software Ratings Board, l’autorité qui définit l’âge approprié pour chaque jeu, a annoncé qu’il infligerait aux éditeurs de jeu qui cachent des scènes répréhensibles des amendes de 1 million de dollars.

En novembre le Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) a coopéré avec NCsoft dans la saisie d’un serveur appartenant au site internet L2extreme, qui proposait le jeu Lineage II sans autorisation de l’éditeur en question^[9].

La fin de l’année était dominée par le lancement des consoles PlayStation 3 et Wii, l’une après l’autre, en novembre. La PS3 cependant était disponible uniquement en Asie et aux États-Unis, car Sony a retardé le lancement européen jusqu’en mars 2007. Moins chère et très innovatrice, la Wii s’est vraiment bien vendue. Il reste à savoir si les jeux vont faire de même. En décembre, les joueurs du MMORPG Ryzom de la société Nevrax ont tenté d’acheter leur monde virtuel après que Nevrax ait été placé sous contrôle judiciaire.

2007 s’annonce palpitante avec les trois consoles toutes équipées pour l’interaction en ligne, espace longtemps laissé aux seuls utilisateurs de PC.