Friday Fun Picks! -- Violence

It's a bit late for wasting time at work, but if you have a lonely Friday night ahead of you, what better way to use it than play the night away? This Friday, our theme is violence. Violence in games is not by any means a recent phenomenon. Many ancient games, such as Chess and Go are abstractions of war. And let's not forget popular sports such as cock-fighting or the fun Mayan game of Pok-A-Tok. The very first computer game, SpaceWar! was a game in which two opponents tried to shoot each other to space debris. Why is it that violence is so prevalent is games? My theory is that in order for a game to be interesting, there needs to be some kind of conflict to be overcome. Violence is an easy conflict to comprehend, and an easy one to translate into games in a transparent fashion. It is much easier to create a game where the player looks at it and thinks "Oh, I get it. I just have to blow up these aliens before they get me" than "Ok, I have to avoid all the early dating pitfalls with this guy so that he will date me long enough to realize that despite my outward neurosis, I'm actually a really swell gal." Kill or be killed we understand, and given a few basic controls, we understand how to do it. On the other hand, very few people understand the nuances of dating and more than a few basic controls are required to be successful. On with the games! Here are some kill or be killed games to take your mind off the fact that you don't have a date tonight: Slay! A great game developed by Sean O' Connors (check out his site for more). Using very simple mechanics, this game nonetheless requires complex strategies and deep thinking in order for you to be successful. Very elegant, brilliant design. Oh yeah, and its a turn-based strategy in which you try to take over the map with your little guys from other little guys. Fate Fate is a pleasant surprise. It is much like Diablo, but with the clever addition that you have a pet you can transform into monsters by feeding it fish. Of course, you can go fishing too to catch these fish. Instead of skill trees, the character system is much more flexible and open-ended. You can multi-class if you want, but I suspect at higher levels that becomes pretty tough. This game is also much cuter than Diablo. I highly reccomend it for some dungeon-crawling monster-bashing mayhem. Kingdom of Loathing Kill monsters! Get meat! This is a clever and witty web-based MiMMO that features killing things, exploring a seemingly never ending supply of weird equipment and quirky locations, and stick-figure based graphics. I was unconvinced at first, but it has turned out to be (so far) endlessly amusing. Smacky I like squirrels. They are cute and furry and have adorable fluffy tales. At first the premise of this game didn't appeal to me: Smacky is an irritable squirrel who just wants to be left alone, while his endlessly cheery squirrel friends want to reform him into a more chipper rodent. I gave it a try though, and have to admit that it is kinda fun to smack the smiley squirrels around a bit. Also I thought the interface was neat and an interesting way to tranlate the button mashing of arcade fighting games into a one-button/mouse movement combo. Ok, enjoy your Friday night. Next week our theme is Halloween. If you know of any web-based or downloadable games that will make for fun Halloween prep, especially if they are created by small indies, then please email the URLs to jetgirl [at] jetgirl.net. Later!