Andrew Losowsky

Game and watch

09 March 2005. No comments yet. Inspired by .

"I just got fascinated by that game [Resident Evil]. I didn't play it - my assistant played it and recorded it so I could watch it" -- George A Romero in this month's Edge

"Top left. Reload. Oh, nice shot." -- Shaun in Shaun of the Dead

We've probably all done it at some point. Someone else is playing a videogame, but instead of picking up a book and waiting our turn, or wandering off elsewhere in the arcade, we end up getting involved in the game as they play it. More ammo! I think might have been a health pack back there. No, look out!

My flatmate in London was always much better than I was at videogames. We'd play two-player sometimes, with him half-heartedly holding the controller upside down to give me a chance. Sometimes I'd play a game myself while he was around, with him lazily watching with half an eye. But usually I'd wait for him to go out before I'd dare try - and then would throw down the controller in frustration half an hour later.

The truth is, the best thing about our games console was watching him play some great games. Not watching him, obviously, but his on-screen personae as they leapt, shot, understeered and putted the winning hole in the Ryder Cup. I'd also help where I could, with "top left"-style shouts. We'd discuss strategies, possible ways to find the bad guys' weakness. I'd regularly guess the necessary solutions - and then he'd be the thumbs that would implement them.

Just because I'm rubbish at playing games, that doesn't mean I can't love gaming. Videogames at their best, such as Metal Gear Solid or the Legend of Zelda series, have such developed narratives and contain such wit that they are genuinely entertaining to watch. I love the possiblities of the medium, and what people create with it to fool and stimulate the player.

But if left to my own devices, I'll never see more than levels one and two, and the complexity of later on will remain forever locked until some tells me the cheat (and then you're not seeing it as the creator intended anyway).

This was the added bonus of having a mate who was better than me - the further he got, the more levels he would unlock for me to mess around in later. When he went out, I knew I could then go over bits I'd liked the look of, all the while being extra careful never to over-write his carefully constructed characters with my cack-handed cliffplunging.

Another crucial part of the experience as viewer is that it was my mate sitting there and playing it out live. Watching a recording of someone else's mate playing it would have missed the point, which is one of the many reasons why Gamesmaster never made it to BBC1 on a Friday night. There has also been much discussion elsewhere on pro gaming leagues, which they claim is about turning gaming into a spectator sport - but that's not the same thing at all. I don't want to watch pros battle it out in some elite arena with all the narrative subtlety of a wrestling bout. I want to watch my mates, and to help them navigate their way through One Player mode as together we uncover what the games designers have created for us.

You need hands

A recurring theme elsewhere in the latest edition of Edge is handheld gaming. Two new handheld consoles are about to be launched in Europe, the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP.

The most popular pocket electronic device of the moment, the iPod, has a very cool peripheral available for it called the splitter. It allows a friend to plug their headphones into your iPod at the same time as you, so they can also enjoy your choice of tunes, without disturbing anyone else. One step further is the iTrip, which allows any number of radios close by to tune into your music selection.

So why shouldn't something like this exist in handheld gaming? Both new consoles have wireless options. It seems only a small step to add a software option so that you could use your console to watch your mate play on his. Or to watch any the games being played nearby, if the users have 'open mode' switched on.

If publishers produce more games as imaginative as the stunning interactive artwork Rez then it'd be well worth being a handheld electronic spectator, without having to jostle the actual player to sit at an angle where you can both see the screen.

Things shouldn't stop there. Let the designers make a decent standard shooting/driving/sports handheld game - but then include added extras for those of us without the manual dexterity to play the main game properly. Let us gamespotters spend most of our time watching, but then give us the option to freeze a frame from our friend's gameplay, remix it, play with it on our handhelds to one side, while the skilled gamer continues his quest. Especially if it's a tricky bit that will take them a while to sort out.

And then let us somehow insert what we've done directly into our mate's game, so that our more-talented friend can see what we've done. Make it so that our friend wants our interactive input, as it makes their game more interesting and unique.

Those of us who aren't great shooters, drivers, fraggers, dungeon battlers - but love those games nonetheless - don't want our own kinds of games that require different skills that we can actually master. We want those self-same games that everyone's playing, and we want them to be played expertly in front of us by our mates, so that we can all experience together the whole work of art from start to the end sequence, and then talk about it afterwards. And we who sit and follow it all the way through would quite like to be able to play an occasional minor role as well. We're not the heroes, we're the bagmen and the cheerleaders - common enough roles that gaming has yet to properly notice. One player mode doesn't ever mean only one player.

When the gaming industry talks about shared experience, it means online multiplay like Xbox Live or Everquest. But what about us watchers? We experience it all too. We're a part of gaming, even if we're not actually ourselves communicating with the hardware. Sometimes we even pay for half of the game itself, in return for a frustrating few attempts at our own gameplay - and then many more pleasurable hours enjoying what the creators have built while others actually play it.

Right now, the industry specialises in building windmills to tilt at, and long may it do so. But the addition of a Sony Sancho or a Nintendo Panza would add extra value the whole gaming experience.