Week Five - Sports Games

I hardly play sports games, and ironically, one of the only ones I have played is Skate 3. As that was a part of our reading, I will not be talking about it and will be doing my best in this Devlog to make sense of something that I have not played since I was maybe 10. Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic games was my addiction for about 6 months when I had my 3DS (RIP, it accidentally got thrown away), and I played every single Olympic event through that game. Was it accurate? In some ways, yes. As Sharp says describing the game Skate 3 “Skateboarding video games focus on translating specific mechanics of the individual athlete.” Applying this to a children’s game, we see the individuality and unique skill sets of each Olympic event as we play. While it doesn’t encompass the complexity of each sport, it gives us a general idea and understanding of the sport’s goal and how to execute it. It actually was a learning experience for 10-year-old me because I was not, and would never be, involved in any sport at that level. Sharp also brings up a big aspect of video games: measuring performance and scoring. While not all games encompass scoring, they most definitely have a way of measuring your performance. For example, Detroit Become Human measures it by how many characters you keep alive by the end of the game. Sharp states, “These create core challenges for skateboard videogame design: How do you measure a player’s performance? And what form of structured competitions can be used that won’t feel artificial?” As you can tell, there is no skateboarding in the video game I have chosen, but seeing as it is a kids game, this question is also important because we cannot assume that a child will have the same skills as a teen when it comes to gaming. Some artificiality may show through due to the difference in demographics.  So how to measure performance while keeping in mind the demographic AND keeping to the authenticity of each sport? From what I remember, it was basic mechanics such as QTEs that aren’t extremely detrimental and drawing on the bottom screen to determine where the character on the top screen needs to go (as seen in rhythmic gymnastics.) Completing these mechanics in a quick and/or accurate way results in higher scoring when the event is over. Sharp also describes the importance of reflecting the culture and community surrounding skateboarding in the video games about it. He describes the history and how the culture was shared: “Through…local communities, magazines, videos, and skater-created documentation-skating culture is spread and shared.” The Olympics have been a VERY big thing for a very long time, and because it did not need the shares to get people to notice it, it already has a big community stemming from athletes to fans. In the game, the importance of the Olympic events is displayed by mimicking the packed events. It displays the hype behind the Olympic games, but it also goes into a bit more detail, making each event unique in execution. The player gets a feel for the skills and community behind the games. While it is a surface-level kid game, at least it does it well and without mockery.