With Gadget Show Live being the first technology expo that I have been to, I was probably expecting the wrong thing, as I believed it would have been more like E3, with developers showing off up and coming products that you have never seen before. In reality though, the NEC was filled with retailers, selling you the same products that you can buy online or in store, just for a slightly discounted price. Aside from the “Future” technology zone, which was a small area at the back of one of the halls, everything on show was already on the market and wasn’t particularly ground breaking. The sales nature of the event should have been glaringly obvious, I suppose, upon walking in to the game zone, and being met by a Game Store. That’s right; Game had set up a store at the event, with hundreds of games to buy. It is at this point that I began to question, who would spend money to come to an event such as this, and then buy games that they could have bought in their local shop?

The game area on the whole would have been more aptly named as “the peripheral area”, as for the most part, everything on show was peripheral related rather than game related. Hall 8 was a who’s who of headphones, controllers, mice, keyboards and all other wacky gaming peripherals such as racing chairs, but really lacked what the name implied, games. There were no developer stands, and aside from three or four Kinect consoles, a PS3 area with about eight consoles and a Nintendo 3DS booth that always had a huge queue. There was very little in the way of anyone to talk to about the games that wasn’t just trying to sell you the next in the range of Tiger Woods Branded Wii Golf Professional Putting Gloves, or some other new fangled waste of money that you don’t actually need.

Between Triton, Steel Series and Turtle Beach, the gaming zone would have been an audiophile’s dream room, but being consistently told that “Our headphones are the only ones with true surround sound, not pseudo-surround sound” got old, very fast, especially when I’m fine with my stereo headset that I picked up for £139 less than the one they were trying to show you. To that point, the value of a £159 headset is really not evident when your stall is right next to the racing seat demo, which has blaringly loud engine noises all the time, completely diminishing the noise cancelling effect of the headphones.

James playing Duke Nukem: Forever. Disclaimer: No cheerleaders were harmed in the play through of this demo.

After finally getting away from peripheral promenade, we got to yet another pointless aspect of the Gadget Show live experience. As we got to the Over 18’s area in the gaming zone, there was a bouncer there to ask for ID. I am all for this, as there were many children around, and obviously it would be against the law to give them entry to the area. The pointless bit however, is that the entrance to the over 18’s area was so big, that you could happily stand outside the door and watch the Mortal Kombat tournament unfold from the comfort of the bouncer free area. Being nearly 20, we didn’t have to stand outside the area, but I was surprised that there weren’t many parents that complained about this, as the Mortal Kombat area produced so much attention and noise that it was difficult not to stand and watch the gratuitous violence when walking past.

The Over 18’s area was the only area in the whole show to be showcasing more new games than games currently out. Between Gears of War 3, Mortal Kombat, Socom 4 (which was at the time, unreleased) and Duke Nukem, there was a plethora of new content to behold, unfortunately for this new content, if that’s the future of gaming then I don’t really want in. I, like most other 360 owners, have played Gears of War 1 and 2, and enjoyed them greatly, but I’m not really excited for Gears 3, and after playing the multiplayer (which notoriously has been dubbed Shotguns of War after Gears 2), I am looking forward to it even less.

Shotguns of War is back, with the same choice of weapons, and the same punishing conclusion for using anything other than the shotgun. The default sensitivity settings make it seem as though Epic don’t want you to use the lancer or the pistol, because it’s about as difficult to consistently hit a moving target in the head as it is to finish the game Punch Out. From the small amount of time I had hands on with the multiplayer, it really feels like the same game with slightly different maps and a few new weapons. If that is what the Gears 3 beta is, I for one am glad that I am missing out.

Socom 4 was our next stop, as I was very intrigued to use the move assault rifle accessory (more peripherals?) and see how it affects the playing of the game. As you’ll see in the video of my friend Alex playing Socom, it makes playing the game insanely difficult. For someone just picking up the game, the control scheme of using the Move controller is punishing, as even the slightest move too far makes the on screen character spin on the spot while looking at the floor, doing a cross between line dancing and the robot.

I can only assume that the thought process for this control scheme came from someone wanting to move while playing on rails shooters like Time Crisis, but what made Time Crisis great was the fact that it was on rails, as it made it pretty much idiot proof because you couldn’t end up out in the middle of half a hostile army, staring at the floor, admiring the greys and blacks of the scenery in 3D. A second point is that holding the controller up at the high screen really started to ache after a while, and really put me off ever wanting to try the control scheme again.

James does his best Geordi La Forge impression while playing Socom 4.

Perhaps the most disappointing thing of all of the Gadget Show Live, and I know many people will disagree with me, was Duke Nukem: Forever. I went up to Birmingham with Duke Nukem as my must see game of the show. I really wish I hadn’t hyped the game up for myself, as within a few minutes of playing the demo, I suddenly lost all enthusiasm for buying the game. The game starts with the Duke Nukem charm that we are used to from previous games, but it quickly became evident that the twelve years in development for Duke has not been kind. The game looks bad. I’m sorry; I just had to say that. The first impression of the game was that the graphics need updating, badly, especially in the second half of the demo. With a game like Crysis mere feet away while playing Duke Nukem, you would have felt short-changed if you’d paid to see the Duke.

The second biggest thing that really needs to be brought up to speed are the loading times (pun intended). The initial loading time was huge, and for what was included, a few hallways and a boss fight, it really is a wonder what the game was loading. As for the boss fight that was included, it is perhaps the most boring, uninteresting boss that I have ever fought. Boss fights are meant to be challenging, and to me, a boss with two different attacks that you just have to constantly fire guns that seemingly you have an abundance of ammo for is just not a good way to showcase your game. Defeating the boss brought no sense of achievement, no accomplishment, and bared little celebration other than a Duke Nukem-esque cut-scene that joked about the twelve-year wait. In short, if the demo was meant to make us say “Hail to the King”, then all it did was make me want to commit treason against this virtual monarch.

Gadget Show Live's £2000 top prize winner Naniwa at the Alienware booth mid-game.

I’m sorry to be stealing Total Biscuit or Yahtzee’s shtick, but perhaps it’s time to move on from the cynicism and talk about some of the positives that came out of the weekend. As I had alluded to earlier, there was a big Starcraft 2 tournament taking place over the weekend, with some of the best players from around the world, with £5000 on the line, the biggest prize for a Starcraft II tournament the UK has ever held. The majority of the competitors were representing Team Dignitas, as there were a few players who didn’t attend the tournament regardless of qualifying. SeleCT, Sjow, BlinG and Naniwa were the four players for Dignitas in the tournament, with Socke representing Team Alternate and Hasuobs playing for Mouz Sports.

These six players are undoubtedly six of the best in the world, with numerous accolades shared between them. From European champion Sjow to MLG Dallas, and current player to beat Naniwa, the reputation of the players alone certainly made for a nail-biting tournament. Day one brought a few surprises, with newcomer to the scene BlinG taking a victory from one of the best Terran players in the world, SeleCT being the biggest of the day. With day one being the group stages and determining the seed numbering for day two, the players were less worried about their performance as we found out when we caught up with them for an interview.

Day two, however, was the day where the money was on the line, and every little mistake could cost you your place in the finals. BlinG once again knocked out a big name in the way of MouzHasuobs, cementing his place as a real contender in the growing world of eSports. It was not to be for the only British player in the tournament, as the finals came down to German player Socke and Swedish MLG Dallas champion Naniwa. If you had been following the tournament at all over the weekend, you’d be forgiven for expecting a close final, since both players had put on showcases of their skill in all of their games, but the Naniwa made it look easy. Taking the finals 2-0, Naniwa showed everyone exactly why he is the player to beat right now with incredible timing, hitting Socke’s defences at the precise time that he had an advantage.

Unfortunately, a return to negativity is required, as the advertising for the tournament was non-existent both at the event and online, as there was no signage and the live stream that was broadcasting the event wasn’t being promoted on any of the Starcraft 2 community websites. The quality of the tournament was so high that it really did deserve more press and attention than it received, with caster Total Biscuit trying his hardest over both days to increase awareness levels on Reddit and through twitter. The lack of advertising and updates made it difficult to follow the tournaments progression unless you spent the whole weekend watching the screens that were showing the matches.

While it may not sound like I had a very positive experience at Gadget Show Live, I did thoroughly enjoy my weekend in Birmingham talking with the players and casters. The whole Gadget Show Live experience was very professional, with a high standard of quality in every aspect of the event. The tournament itself was a testament to how good a British event can be, from the high quality of the games, to the superb commentary by Total Biscuit for every single game, with Dignitas Apollo joining him for the Sunday. It’s a wonder why there aren’t more tournaments in the UK for eSports, a topic which I discussed in my previous article, as we clearly have a passion for competition and definitely have the talent to back it up. With rumours and rumblings about Major League Gaming, the largest tournament series for gaming world-wide, coming to the UK next year, is this perhaps the start of a beautiful relationship between Britain and competitive gaming?

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This year; our second at these awards, we had full red carpet access. Faithful readers (especially those with a good memory) will remember that last year I spent a reasonable amount of time sneaking about trying to listen in on people’s interviews, etc, while also trying extremely hard not to get thrown out. The experience was quite the opposite last night; I was shown to a spot behind a velvet rope, in full view of the doors through which the great and the good would be arriving. We even had some of the events organisers running around asking if there was anybody in particular we wanted to speak to, including nominees. I yelled for Russell Shaw, nominated for his original music work on Fable III and instantly panicked that I might not have anything to ask. I reminded myself that I love his work, so it ought be be like chatting to a friend. The thought kept me going, anyway.

Anyway, that aside; I may be wrong, but I did notice the previous year that the nominees were largely ignored when compared to the non-industry celebrities, which at the time I thought was wrong. It may sound slightly holier-than-thou, but I would far rather ask someone in the industry where their inspiration comes from, or what they are working on, etc, than someone who, however nice they happen to be, is attending for other reasons. So the point is that I am glad that the actual stars of our industry are getting a bit more recognition at their own awards show.

Assassin’s Creed led the nominations with a total of seven, and were looking understandably happy but nervous on the red carpet. When asked about their current project, they were tight-lipped; when pressed on the subject (not by me) the lips were noticeably tighter. The tension was diffused by one of their delegation smiling a winning smile and saying that telling us anything would be like spoiling Christmas. Revealing games (or even minute details) is an art; do it to soon and you run the risk of over hyping it; do it too late and people might not pick up on it in time. I feel sure that the date of the reveal is already set; if it wasn’t set for the BAFTA awards, no news would be forthcoming. Anyway, here is a nice picture of the Ubisoft delegation to make things a little better.

No news on the next game; all in good time, chaps.

I felt a teensy bit sorry for Reece Ritchie of the Prince of Persia movie, as no one seemed to really know who he was. He seemed pleasant and if anything a bit shy, I didn’t manage to get any words with him and nor did I hear him speak with any one else, but here he is in his tux. Not the most flattering of pictures, though, so my apologies to Reece.

Reece Ritchie; a star for the future?

Danny Wallace also came by, and I managed to snatch a few words with him. He is a friend of this website; he remembered where he’d run into some of us before. He was kind enough to give us a special message, though I feel I put him on the spot, somewhat! He told us that he likes this site because it has a nice personal feel, and that delighted me because I think that is something that we strive for. We are people, and we have our own opinions, and we are encouraged to express them. If this is what we are trying to do, and people have noticed that, then I am a happy person. Here he is, with someone who drives very fast.

Danny Wallace and Ben Collins; or 'The Stig' to the likes of me.

It sounds a tad sycophantic, but none of the celebs said anything to annoy me this year. One in particular last year (whose name does not need mentioning here) got up my nose by implying that gamers were sad, sweaty men with no social lives, and no social skills. I felt that was a tad tactless at an event designed to celebrate the achievements of the gaming industry. Anyway, I am very sorry that I am unable to launch into a scathing attack on anybody.

The Stig. Or is it? How can we tell?

I decided to stick on the side of non controversy (I might have joined in if other people were doing it, though) and not ask Ben Collins about that lawsuit. I meant to call him ‘Ben Collins’ but silly me called him ‘The Stig’. I had to remind myself that The Stig is actually a character, and one who is very different to the man in the photo above. Both drive very fast, and they are probably about the same size (I’d guess Collins’ head is a bit smaller) but otherwise they are different men. Ben Collins came over as being well spoken and polite, although he did lose me a bit when he went into detail about his current setup for his upcoming Le Mans 24hr job. I am not stupid, but I didn’t follow everything. Stig; if you read this; it was a pleasure being baffled by you. Oh, and best of luck with the race.

The only man to get away with an open collar at a black tie event.

Finally for this article, here is Sir Ben Kingsley. I wrote down most of what he said in our Live Feed, but I wanted to share this picture with you. Being the arguably the most important of the non-industry types at the award show he arrived last, and as such did not have a great deal of time to chat to us. Although being ushered by one of the event organisers he was more than ready to stick around and chat for longer. I think he would have answered all our questions, had fate and Father Time not intervened.

So that, for the most part, is my report from the Red Carpet. I will post at least once more some in-depth transcriptions, so this article is a taster for you. I am already looking forward to next year’s event; I feel even more prepared now, and ready to take them all on.

I often meet people who still play board games and ask why they haven’t made the switch to computer-type games; the answer is always the same. They enjoy playing face to face with real people. Even Ian Livingstone maintains his board game group with buddies (see my previous article here for more).

Anyway, this was an “unconference”, filled with people who wanted to make, play and talk about games. People brought in their own board games and others checked them out of the game library and one immediately had enough people around who would be interested in joining in.

Even Graham Linehan was there, saying how much he hated reading rules and this was the perfect place from which one could learn from others all the games you were interested in but were afraid to ask about.

Anyone could sign up and give a talk and anyone could then have their own talk based on why that talk wasn’t any good. The talk given by Margaret Maitland on the Ancient Egyptian game of Senet was incredibly thought provoking.

Senet is a game that was played continuously over the last 3,000 years. It is a two player game and seems to be the ancestor to Backgammon (but played with sticks instead of dice) and features in hit TV show ‘Lost’. There are symbols on the board which we believe symbolise death and rebirth.

The average age of mortality was very young in Egypt (around 35) and death was a preoccupation. The ‘bad’ ways of dying concerned losing your body; drowning, burning, or being eaten by a wild animal. Other than that your rebirth was connected to what you did to prepare  for death before you died. The Egyptians wanted to do as much as they could beforehand to ensure that when they died, they would safely make the perilous journey to the afterlife, be judged favourably, and be permitted to enter paradise. The game of senet, it could be said, could have come to represent the preparation of the final journey and the stepping into the afterlife.

This got me thinking. Game playing is a way for us to deal with difficult issues, societal fixations and fantasies. Testament to this is that we have found game tokens or parts of games that predate earthenware pots for storing food. Clearly, game playing is an important part of human existence. The author of the talk, Margaret Maitland seems to agree and deals with this subject in the context of Egyptian society here.

If one accepts the premise of the argument, what do our games say about us? One can immediately discount all the sports games, for even I can’t deal with the preoccupation of a game within a game in the context of a live set of games. Pop, or at least my mind, will eat itself.

The next biggest genre has to be first and third person shooters. Overlay that with the demographic of the average gamer and perhaps we see that people aged 23+, mainly men (although certainly not exclusively) like buying games in which killing is a main focus (contrast that with the Egyptian focus on dying and that perhaps suggests that we see ourselves in an entirely different light). I would hope that this is driven by games companies churning out rehashes of older game concepts because they had previously sold well rather than what we as a society would really want if offered a fair and open choice.

Is this the preoccupation of Modern Western Civilization?

In support of this stands ‘casual’ games where the average player is older and more female. The most popular games are ones concerned with building, puzzle solving and those where you must work collaboratively with other players. Jeremy Rifkind, author of the book, The Empathic Civilization, (if short of time, check out this RSA lecture here) asserts that at heart we are (and most animals) an empathic species. If one accepts his assertion, humanity takes pleasure from and is strongly motivated to helping other people. Various scientific experiments referred to in the book show that living beings will express empathy above their desire for self preservation. Bringing it back to games, if this theory is correct, the growth of games where killing is the goal or the primary mode of interaction will be stymied by basic human nature. Games where one creates, builds, of helps should always be more popular.

For my own part, I have never really shied away from playing violent games in the 26 years I have been playing computer games. Even though I have no pretensions to be a psychologist, I will admit that I am becoming more disturbed by the level of realism and the goals of a lot of games I play. I know I am not alone in finding GTA: San Andreas sickening to play, with the nadir for me being reached when I was tasked with stealing a rapper’s rhyme book and having to kill lots of people to get it. Even if we are exorcising our demons by playing these games, what kind of demons do we have in us that seeks this kind of release?

Hopefully, not a lot. At Board Game Camp, playing board games with real people (face to face), laughing, being silly, pushing the rules and tossing the dice left me in a completely different state of mind from my normal post computer game fatigue. I felt invigorated and excited. I’d recommend you all to attend the next one which will be organised in six months time and experience the difference yourselves.