NMR ISSUE 48

Astrological Forecast 48
Be Careful What you Wish For
Cherished Secret of Success Resonance
Crone Empowered
Crystal Skull Luminaria
Daily Prayer
Doing It by the Book
Editorial 48
Esoteric Symbology of the Tarot
Frog, Cobra & Chickadee
Helping Hand or Magickal Hand
Ikhanten's Doom
Letters 48
Modern Scapegoat Rituals
North Star Road:
Other Editorial 48
Pagan Catechism
Prayer to the Goddess
Renewal Through Release
Samhain Ritual
Temple of the Goddess grounding Meditation
The Fellowship of Isis
The Kabalah in Everyday Use
The Serpent and the Radio
Timelapse
Wolf Moon
Wrath of the Gods Luminaria

Articles
Authors
Rituals
Book Reviews
NMR Issues
NMR Covers

Pagan CD ROMs

Games are Not Fun

By Scot Rhoads

There are a few CD-ROM's falling within the realm of Paganism (and perhaps some relating to magick) so we would like to include them as review fare. Many are games, so in this first review I would like to avoid a common oversight by reviewing the reviewer. It's hard to use a review, especially of something involving personal tastes, without knowing the reviewer's philosophy. So I will explain why games are not fun.

Those lucky enough to have seen the series Dream On, may remember the episode in which the secretary completely neglects her work as she is engrossed in playing a game on the office computer. The game is hilariously banal, working your way up from stocker to manager of a supermarket, but the secretary is the classic addict. After many hours of hard work, she wins; but her delight turns to horror as she observes, I've become manager of a supermarket that doesn't even exist! A good computer game will not leave a player with this feeling. Such games are rare.

For me, the positive experiences from a computer game are very limited. Since I already have to work to live, I don't want to have to work for nothing. Learning unintuitive commands is work. Scavenger hunts are work. Shooting a bunch of things is work. Puzzles are work. Reading endless text is work. Mazes are like doing taxes. They are all OK in small doses (except mazes), but it doesn't take much to be too much. The easiest thing to overdose on is also disappointingly common, having to read the programmer's eccentric mind. Too often a player must solve abstruse, counterintuitive puzzles with insufficient clues. To add injury to insult, some companies charge for a clue book.

But the most evil act a designer can perpetrate is to deliberately reward determination. It may be a laudable trait in life, but if something works only after the first try in a game, that is cruel. It's burdensome enough to worry if you've tried everything, to have to worry if you've tried everything enough times destroys any vestige of fun in a game.

What should a game offer? Escape is good, but the returns here rapidly diminish as RL (real life) crowds back in. Art, either text or graphics, is welcome. This is harder, but many games do it well. Mostly I want to experience something that has an application outside the realm of that little silver disk. Back in NMR 6:3 I predicted that the explosion of entertainment would start to encourage selection for things that do more than just entertain. Edutainment is the wave of the future eventually. Fortunately we are starting to see it. Carmen San Diego, for instance, seems to be very popular. My ideal CD would combine an unobtrusive dash of game, a lot of art, and much RL information that I care about. There is a genre well suited to CDs that readily fulfills my ideal virtual- reality reconstructions of historical sites. These can give a good impression of life in other times and places and offer vital context to historical information.

Wrath of the Gods

by Luminaria, distributed by Maxis

In this game players take on the role of the young generic Greek hero (authentically male) wandering among over a hundred sites to accomplish feats of legend (more or less), culminating in a forgivably anticlimactic battle in the labyrinth with the minotaur. The locations were photographed in Greece, and include many sacred sites. The sites are often edited for game purposes. For instance, you will find various views of various bits of the Acropolis showing up in various game locations. But though not always entirely authentic, nothing is misleading.

In Wrath of the Gods Joel Skidmore and Jeff Cretcher have created a good example of my ideal, even though it shows its age of some three years and is relatively low tech. For instance, on a Pentium moving targets whiz by impossibly fast. Fortunately, this arcade part is skipable. I also found the occasional bug with the sound, but didn't bother to fix it. The animation seems inspired at different times by Gumby, Monty Python, and Clutch Cargo. But this is forgivable since the parsimony allows an amazing variety to fit on one disk. After a while, it even has a certain charm. The game has many scavenger hunts, but they aren't aggravating. There are two mazes, only one of which is tiresome.

The puzzles, readily annoying in most games, are an outstanding theme in this because instead of coming out of some designer's otherwise useless mind, they are taken from Greek myths. They are not exact recreations, but if you solve a puzzle in the game, you will know more about mythology, and vice versa. And if you have trouble, you can take advantage of the oracle. A built-in hint feature that should be universally required. Few adventure games, including this one, can be satisfactorily completed without it.

Wrath of the Gods is oriented toward young teens. It's rated 5th grade and up. That and the melodramatic acting seem appropriate for the Greek myths. Teens also stand to benefit most. To this inexperienced eye, it seems a very good teaching tool. Older players might prefer more depth to the information and fewer cute anachronisms, but these are not serious flaws. Though the info could be deeper, it has very respectable breadth: a good introduction to ancient Greek myth and culture. A student absorbing the info in this game should do well in even a high-school class. I enjoyed relearning many things I had forgotten and I learned quite a few new things, too. But it was annoying being unable to peruse the text independent of the game (evidently teacher's aids allow you to do this). Players have to remember to check at each site for the next tidbit, which is distracting. The challenges in the game encourage reading the text, but if you forget, it's a hassle so pay attention.

I liked this game until I reached Knossos. There I fell in love with it. Outside of Crete, reconstructions of the ancient sites are rare and modest. Most ruins are left as ruins, though usually shot from their good side. These give a good impression what it would be like to be there now. I wanted to see more of what it was like then. In Crete, I got plenty of that. But the best surprise was reading the text that offered the latest archaeological interpretations. There was discussion of Paleolithic culture, the importance of the Goddess, the invasion of Indo-European patriarchy and the consequent mistreatment of women in Greek society, culture and myth. I felt this could have been written by a Pagan. It was particularly welcome after Hera's mistreatment, among other tragedies, in the embarrassingly popular TV version of Hercules.

Wrath of the Gods easily rises above its flaws. It is fun, and a great educational tool even for those familiar with Greek mythology. It's readily worth the street price of $20-30, and a steal at the unsubstantiated price of $10. If you'd like more info, you can visit www.somezone.com. There is also a Greek myth encyclopedia with info and pictures from the game at www.cultures.com. Teachers should contact SOME Interactive at 800-821-2060. I would be very happy to see this game in every classroom.