Fraser MacInnes - Jack of all tirades

Digital morality: Is it good to be bad in gaming?

Do moral choices in games make them more, or less fun? No really, it’s a serious question. It’s a fairly widespread trend in the games industry just now to offer stories and characters that elicit an emotional response from the player. An emotional response that's intended to make the game more immersive, the characters more believable and the lasting memory of the game, more enduring. All positive consequences, but what about the negative?

Take Grand Theft Auto IV: Liberty City. A high watermark in interactive storytelling and character design. A genuine digital soap opera, as gripping a drama as The Sopranos or The Wire, but with enough action to keep core gamers entertained and enough heart to keep industry proponents naval gazing contentedly.

Four months later...

Typically, I have not kept up with self-imposed format for blogging about my career. In fact, I've dispensed with it entirely. But I did run the format from April to March, so I am going to see that as a solid 12 month stint and leave it at that.

So what's new with me? I'm now a resident of the eminently hip and funky Berlin. It's a fantastic town, but strangely, despite the fact I have always wanted to move here, I think I miss the UK more than ever. Perhaps after my wife finishes her PhD we'll move back to good old blighty and have a tonne of kids.

In the meantime, as ever, I intend to be unreasonably busy, all of the time. Moving into a more fluid (READ: precarious) freelancing situation, I'm going to be stepping back from Steel Media slightly, in order to concentrate on other things. I'll still be a regular fixture on Pocket Gamer, but hopefully, I'll be a regular fixture on several other sites too.

Choice Cuts - March 09

 OK, so I know the point of maintaining a blog is that you are supposed to update it regularly, but 2009 has been an exceptionally busy year for me so far.

The podcast has been going from strength to strength, commanding ever more of my time, keeping me peering into this little screen into the small hours on many a winter's night. But spring is in the air, signalling a bit of a sea change in my work situation.

Some of my better games concepts are really starting to take shape and as I delve ever deeper into the beguiling mysteries of C-based programming languages, I have one in particular that's really beginning to shine. But all that's for another blog which I will be starting very soon. Not before I get out off this island (Orkney - long story) and go to New York to visit friends and take some time off though.

In the meantime, here is a snippet of work I have actually been paid for over the last few months of this fine year we call 2009. In fact, I have somehow found the time to start turning in written reviews of iPhone games and applications for both Pocket Gamer and Pocket Picks, the very best examples of which are listed below.

Pocket Picks
Review: Papers (iPhone)
Review: Photo fx (iPhone)
Review: AppSniper (iPhone)
Review: Air Mouse Pro (iPhone)

Pocket Gamer
Review: RastaMonkey (iPhone)
Review: Eliss (iPhone)
Review: Ancient Frog (iPhone)
iPhone gaming podcast: Episode 15
iPhone gaming podcast: Episode 16

iRecommend - December 08

Currently listening to:

Glasvegas - Glasvegas
Born Ruffians - Red Yellow and Blue
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Empire of the Sun - Empire of the Sun

Currently watching:

In Bruges - Martin McDonagh
Six Shooter - Martin McDonagh
Kirschblüten - Doris Dörrie

Currently reading:

The End of the Affair - Graham Greene
Liebe Schaut Weg - Line Hoven

Currently playing:

Edge (iPhone) - Mobigame
Crayon Physics Deluxe (iPhone) - Putri Puhro
Silent Hill: The Escape (iPhone) - Konami
Fallout 3 (360) - Betheseda
Wii Sports - Nintendo

Choice Cuts - December 08

Over the last two months I have been in no less than fifteen different airports and god knows how many different beds. Hopping between friends and family on this extended trip has been fantastic, if a little stressful at times, but as I write this, I’m sitting in the very comfortable attic room at my in-laws' house in Uelzen (just South of Hamburg, Germany).

It seems that due to a lucky dip of circumstances, Berlin is where my wife and I are ultimately going to end up in 2009. Nothing’s set in stone yet, but seeing as it’s my favourite city, I am determined to move there… We’ll see.

Besides circling the globe and claiming a serious advance on my carbon footprint allowance, I have been working on an iPhone gaming video podcast for Pocket Gamer and it’s finally out the door. We’re up to episode four now with episode five set to arrive early in the New Year.

But it’s Xmas eve and all that’s left to do for now is turn my laptop off and ignore it for at least a week while I set about inhaling heroic quantities of festive cheer - it’s going to be a very busy 2009.

Pocket Gamer

Pocket Gamer iPhone podcast Episode 1
Pocket Gamer iPhone podcast Episode 2
Pocket Gamer iPhone podcast Episode 3
Pocket Gamer iPhone podcast Episode 4
Loose Threads - What does the future hold for the N-Gage?
Loose Threads - How powerful does the next PSP have to be?
Loose Threads - Are tilt controls a fad?

Pocket Picks

Is the T-Mobile G2 set to land in January?
Nokia pulls flashy touchscreen UI out of its crystal ball
Nokia completes Symbian buyout

Stop Press! Nokia announces touchscreen N97
Will Nokia enter the laptop market in 2009?

Why so original?

What do The Departed, Resistance 2, Michael Clayton and Gears of War 2 all have in common? Guns? Male leads? A certain darkness of tone?

Nope, nope and nope. The thing they all have in common is a lack of innovation, but is that such a bad thing? Something else they all have in common is consistent evidence of master craftsmanship, but when it comes to games, that particular element is often brushed over in favour of endless deconstructions of what a particular title does differently to its peers.

Perhaps that last comment does the gaming press a disservice, after all, both Resistance 2 and Gears of War 2 scored favourably in the majority of reviews. I'm also being a little unfair on the games mentioned, both titles have their share of quiet design epiphanies. The problem lies in how we perceive interactive entertainment as a burgeoning art form (there goes that nauseating sentiment again). Though there is still bountiful room for innovation in the industry (and long may it continue), it could be argued that gaming is now mature enough to afford more in the way of a self-referential perspective.

Choice cuts - November 08

It’s from one extreme to another this month. One day I find myself grumbling unreasonably in Sydney about the absurdity of so much Christmas regalia in the midst of 30 degree heat and the next, I’m shivering in the wilds of the Scottish highlands. Oh for an anchor…

Despite my lack of a solid footing in one hemisphere or the other, I’m delighted to say that Pocket Gamer TV (PGTV) is out the door and ready for sale.

After much emailing back and forth between myself and the elder statesmen of Steel Media (who have been expertly managing this project), I managed to carve a demo PGTV reel out of Final Cut Express that I am very proud of. If any carriers out there decide to snap it up, I’ll be hammering out the same quantity of content every week (fingers crossed).

On top of that, we now have an iPhone video podcast in the works that I am very much at the helm of. If I have an ambition, it’s to be the Stanley Kubrick of editorial video content concerning interactive entertainment. Oh and I’d also like to swim with dolphins (or something).

Pocket Gamer

PGTV: Mobile gaming news round-up
PGTV: Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 mobile video review
PGTV: de Blob mobile video review
PGTV: Top 5 Mac titles that would make iPhone gaming gold
PGTV: Ghostbusters mobile video review
Pocket Gamer TV - PES 2009, Ghostbusters and de Blob reviewed, iPhone games, and more...

Loose Threads: Which handheld has the brightest future?
Loose Threads: Which genres are lacking on handhelds?
Loose Threads: Should iPhone games have a minimum charge?
Loose Threads: Is GTA on the DS really such a good idea?

Pocket Picks

N85 gets UK release
Microsoft and LG new best friends forever…
Sony Ericsson planing 20 megapixel camera phones for 2012…
Android catches Adobe Flash on the rebound from iPhone
Barack Obama to be forced into Crackberry withdrawal, cold turkey
Google launches voice activated search for iPhone - can’t understand British accents
Apple working on new iPhone battery saving measures
Microsoft and NVIDIA readying killer smartphone

iRecommend - November 08

Currently listening to:

Mogwai - The Hawk is Howling
James Yorkston - Someplace Simple
James Yorkston and the Athletes - Moving Up Country

Currently watching:

Law and Disorder in Philadelphia - Louis Theroux
Law and Disorder in Johannesburg - Louis Theroux

Currently reading:

Dawn of the Dumb: Dispatches from the Idiotic Frontline - Charlie Brooker

Currently playing:

Portal: Still Alive (360) - Valve
Mario Kart Wii - Nintendo

Choice cuts - October 08

Well, I’m in Australia and amazingly it’s raining. I’ve been to the Sydney Opera House, I’ve eaten Venus clams by the sea and I’ve wondered at the bewildering size of the place. More than that however, I’ve sat glued to my laptop slaving over Pocket Gamer TV, or PGTV for punchiness’ sake (which I discovered after some armchair Googling is also the name of an outfit called Pure Groove TV).

It’s been a hard slog but I’ve been working with some great people and things are really starting to take shape. We’ve (read: Steel Media) got templates, we’ve got content, we even have a smattering of personality - all we need now is for someone to buy what we are selling.

Maybe next month’s choice cuts will be presented exclusively in glorious technicolour, for the time being however, everything is still very much under wraps. At any rate, I still managed to find time to do some regulars and some blogging which can be found below:

Pocket Picks

Nokia officially unveils its first touchscreen handset, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
fring brings VoIP calls to the iPhone (and this time with Apple’s blessing)
Nokia exploring wooden devices, media players…
T-mobile G1 sales figures somewhat exaggerated
iPhone sales surpass Blackberrys in fourth quarter figures
Motorola readies the AURA luxury phone (try not to laugh)

Pocket Gamer

Loose Threads: What online services do handhelds need?
Loose Threads: What will TGS have in store for handhelds?
Loose Threads: Is there space for another handheld?
Loose Threads: Should Apple have a first-party game studio?

iRecommend - October 08

Currently listening to:

Mogwai - The Hawk is Howling
James Yorkston - When the Haar Rolls in
The Postal Service - Give Up

Currently watching:

The Wire Season 2
Burn after reading - The Coen Brothers

Currently reading:

Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut JR.
Alien - Dean Foster

Currently playing:

Super Monkey Ball (iPhone) - SEGA
SPiN (iPhone) - Secret Exit
Aurora Feint (iPhone) - Youweb LLC