Warioware : Smoothmoves (WSM)

1. Warioware: Smoothmoves(WSM) Genre

2. Classifying its genre SPORTS PLATFORM PUZZLE DRIVING How many others can you think of? FIGHTING • Almost all the games are mini-games; all require some degree of mimesis. • WSM can be classified as a Casual Game

3. What are Casual Games? • 1980 – Pac-Man: first casual game? • 1985 – Tetris: first casual game? • 1990 – Solitaire released on Windows 3.0 PCs • 1993 – Myst is most common (and best loved) game played by baby boomer generation (born 1946-1964) • 2001 – Bejewelled hails “the genesis of the casual boom.”

4. Casual is not Hardcore • Hardcore games set in dangerous situations (like war zone – GOW3– or world of criminals – GTA IV) • Casual games set in positive and familiar settings: “Chances are, if you walked down the street and encountered a typical casual game setting such as a restaurant or a tennis match, you would experience positive emotions and find the situation pleasant or attractive. On the other hand, if you walked down the street and encountered a typical hardcore game setting such as an armed conflict, you would in all likelihood experience negative emotions and perceive the situation as fundamentally unpleasant.” JesperJuul (2010)

5. WSM and Casualness • Casual games are seen to have 5 criteria: • Fiction: these are usually pleasant locations and/or desirable situations • Usability: casual games pre-suppose almost no familiarity with computer games and are designed to be easy to use • Interruptability: it is easy to put down and pick up when the phone rings, etc. • Difficulty & Punishment: casual games can be difficult, but they do not usually punish failure severely (e.g. by making the player return to the beginning of the game) • Juiciness: casual game design tends to be very juicy

6. ‘Juiciness’ and Game Types • The term ‘juiciness’ was coined by indie games developer Kyle Gabler: • “A juicy game feels alive and responds to everything you do – tons of cascading action and response for minimal user input.” • Juiciness in hardcore games is diegetic (i.e. explosions, blood: part of the game world) • Juiciness in casual games is non-diegetic (i.e. takes place outside the game world). • “Hardcore juiciness takes place in the 3D space of the game; casual juiciness takes place in screen space, but addresses the player in player space.” Juul 2010

7. Play and Play Space How do online communities complicate the idea of the solo-loner? • Solo Player, working alone to complete the game: stereotype of the ‘Hardcore’ Gamer • Action takes place on the screen: in the world of the game • Very little interaction between player and real world. • Multiple players, working co-operatively or competitively • Action takes place on the screen, but also between players in the play space • More obviously social

8. Play Space & Wii Games “Of the top twenty pictures [on Flickr.com] named “Wii tennis,” seventeen show people playing the game; of the top twenty pictures named “Gears of War,” only one shows a person playing the game.” Juul 2010

9. Genre cross-overs with other media Classical Japanese Art

10. Genre cross-overs with other media • Animé/Manga – which aspects of these Japanese styles are evident in WSM?

11. Genre cross-overswith other media • Guess the original reference?

12. Mimesis and WSM • Mimesis is where the controller interface is designed to mimic an actual device used in the real world • “Mimetic interface games are easy to learn because they draw upon familiar conventions from outside video games, but the large-scale physical movements that players perform also make it easier to play by looking at other players.” • The devices mimic real artefacts; players mimic each other.

13. Most of the mini-games in WSM are from a first person perspective: • The hand of the player is usually present by literal extension, or by implication from what is going on.

14. Some of the mini-games are played from a third-person • We can see the character we play as on the screen • What might be the reason for some of the games being in 1st person and some in 3rd person?