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Assembly Winter 2007 Game Festival

Assembly Winter 2007 Game Festival

All fun and social games

Walking into the Pirkkahalli fair center, I was surprised by the tight security and all the console gaming stuff - this definitely wasn't a pure PC gaming festival. Xbox360 was one of the festival's main sponsors and green "X" banners were all over the place, with consoles sprinkled around the hallways for the visitors' amusement. Just as visible, though, were the Singstar and Guitar Hero II stands, and the Nintendo Wii system near the main entrance always drew a crowd. Social gaming played a significant role in the event. "Nobody should sit in front of a screen for days on end," said Pekka "Pehu" Aakko, one of the main organizers. "Social games are great for a gaming festival, not just for the exercise but as real events." The Guitar Hero II finals on the first event day were a case in point: the house was rocking as the finalists put on a real show, with smoke and stage lighting for a concert atmosphere. Judges awarded style points for the performances, which were off the charts (although no stage dives were witnessed).

Social gaming took center stage again on the second festival day, with the In the Groove finals. The high energy dance game wasn't part of the World Cyber Games tournament roster; instead, the event was organized and promoted by a dance game players' organization. Despite this, In the Groove filled the main stand and had the audience on the edge of their seats. Dance gaming has a lot going for it as a competitive sport: the competition is set up as a duel, which is easy to understand and entertaining, and players' actions are easy to relate to game events. However, dance gaming is now sanctioned by the International Dance Organization, and looks to be distancing itself from cyber gaming and seeking mainstream acceptance through a more established organization. We'll see how well this match-up works: In the Groove is definitely and above all a skill-based video game. It's not a purely mechanical exercise, either, says Tatu "Doat" Rajaniemi, the tournament 3rd place winner. "There are 200 songs in the game, and any one of them can come up in a match." There's strategy involved in song selection: both players choose one song, and in the event of a tie, the game randomly selects a song for the tiebreaker. "I'm not as accurate as some of the other guys, so I prefer a faster pace. I had a bit of luck with the semifinal songs." There's more skill and sophistication In the Groove than what meets the eye. Is dance gaming destined for e-sports success? "Sure," says Doat. "It's not boring to watch like FPS games." These may be fighting words to FPS purists, but Doat can back them up with serious Wii Sports Boxing skills.

While Wii Boxing and other social games at Assembly Winter had no professional tournaments or e-sports organizational backing, pro players got to beat each other up in the Dead or Alive 4 World Cyber Games pre-qualifying tournament. Niklas "Shinobi" Saukkokoski won the tournament convincingly, and advances to the August qualifiers. He competed last year at the WCG Grand Final tournament in Milan, Italy, and feels that beat 'em ups are a natural choice for e-sports competitions. "Dead or Alive is getting more and more popular in the U.S.," said Shinobi. "It's very easy to get into and requires no expertise or prior knowledge of the game - a complete opposite of [real-time] strategy games." Samuli "SamXZ" Siltanen, the DOA4 amateur tournament winner, chimed in: "The skill and dedication you need to get to the top level in Dead or Alive are the same if not more than, say, World of Warcraft. Still, anyone can pick up the game and play for five minutes and enjoy themselves."

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