Europe In Ruins Mod for Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts Modcast Episode 3 feature

Heh my German is really good i swear :P

Essential ingredients for entertainment to qualify as a game: (add numbers or debate as you wish)

The essential thing for me is that in games the user moves along the game, in film there is a set speed at which events unfold. In literature it is true that the reader controls how fast they read, but they do not control the sequence of events or how quickly the story can be experienced.

1. Interaction: A game must involve the player and require their input to progress.

2. Challenge: Even the most minimal degree of skill is required in order to progress to the end of a game. (Everything else falls into interactive storytelling, which is what The Graveyard is.) This challenge could be a simple as killing an enemy without dying, avoiding a trap, negotiating a tricky path, choosing in which order to approach certain events, choosing the most suitable tool for a task, etc.

I agree that 'game' is really becoming an outdated term (you could even make a case for this term in part contributing to the popular misconception that 'games' are for immature types and kids, and even extrapolate further towards the 'violence in games' debate). Interactive entertainment medium (IEM?) is more appropriate, but much less catchy!

Well, you could argue that you still experience the narrative in a set way in a set time (because anything between what conveys a story is just a filler, you may or may not say that it contributes directory to the narrative). So the scripted sequences are still in the same spot, the same length, convey the same thing and can't be changed by the user (like a film).

Also, how do you class a sandbox game, say, Garrys Mod? There is no inherent goal or challenge in a game like GMod. Everything - every challenge or goal is self-imposed. Does that still make it a game if there are no built in challenges? If it does, whats to stop the user having a self-imposed goal in The Graveyard of walking to every tombstone? Does it then become a game and not an interactive narrative?
I agree that the term game evokes the idea of a childish/immature medium, which is part of the reason we need a new term for them.

OoOoOoOo I am Downloading right now.

excellent and I love the bit at the end!~

Excellent interview guys, I really enjoyed it. But the German words are hard to pronounciate I know. I'm German, so that's an easy task for me but Stenchy was very close to the original "Fallschirmjäger" sound. Keep on the good work.

lol that was me not stenchy :P

Love theese modcasts, really interesting. Keep em coming :D

Superb. They get better everytime. I think you really have improved so much on the format from the first one. It really is a good format that you have now.

I found it quite funny aswell. While it was still serious there was a nice light hearted tone to it.
There were a couple of things that I wanted to comment on about what was said. First would be to perhaps not have the staff members introduce themselve as staff members after Stenchy already introduces that he is joined by staff members. Though I did chuckle.
Second I would say that the graphics on the Wii don't suck, quite as bad as was suggested. But you were right it isn't really a console for the graphics side of games.
Lastly I agree with the comments on games courses at uni. I myself am on one and we really do look at games in a totally different way. I would say they get you to look at games from the developers point of view as well as understanding games.

I can't wait for the next one.
And before I forget, I think it is great that you use community generated music, when it is just as easy to grab anything you happen to have on your computer.

I knew I'd probably cop a bit for saying that Wii graphics sucked. They're definitely not on par with the other two consoles, but the point I was making is that its almost last-gen in comparison to others, and its doing much better because its changed something else.

Great show, added to regular feeds !

Grats david for the music gig.

1. YA AUSYS!!!!!

2. Intro music is a bit to long, maybe drop it back by, say, 10 seconds.