Parental Guidance

WARNING: This turned out to be quite a long post. I was just mainly writing in a sort stream of consciousness way with some minor editing. Hopefully, you'll find it an interesting story even if the conclusions aren't exactly mind-blowing.

A funny thing happened the other week: I got my dad playing Forza Motorsport 3.

He rarely touches videogames. The number of times he’s touched a controller, I could count on one hand. My first memory was some Olympics game we had on an old Amstrad computer and, later, I can remember him showing me how to play Super Mario Bros. 3 when we first got a NES (my sister and I were complete rubbish at it) and he enjoyed (and became quite skilled at) Tetris on the Game Boy. Since then he’d not touched a videogame, right up until a few years back.

It was Christmas 2007, and after having seen my sisters enjoying the game but leaving the room for a moment, he’d decided to sneakily give Guitar Hero II a go. I’d wandered into the room to find he’d failed after something like 4% of the song. For a beginner, I don’t think his choice of track (Bad Reputation by Thin Lizzy) was the greatest either (although, the same could not be said of his Forza 3 encounter) and I think it had been left on medium difficulty. No encouragement could get him to try it again though (I don‘t think he enjoyed having to stand to play a game either…). His other most recent encounter with videogames was Mario Kart Wii, which my sister had been borrowing from a friend. I wasn’t present for that particular occasion but I hear that was not successful either.

As for Forza Motorsport 3, his interest had first been caught when he could overhear me playing the game and came in to observe. He’s always loved sports cars, particularly Ferraris, so seeing me blast a Challenge Stradale (with go-faster stripes) around Silverstone was enough to make him want to see more. Soon he was asking what other cars the game had so I offered to show him in Free Play mode. He had me take the Bugatti Veyron round Laguna Seca and eagerly anticipated seeing me tackle the infamous Corkscrew section (in what was a tricky car to drive, the bastard). While playing, I encouraged him to have a go; talking up the ‘assists’ the game has and demonstrating first-hand the rewind feature (although, I‘ll admit I was ‘forced‘ into showing off that particular one. Thanks, ‘useless brakes’ Veyron!). You probably hear a lot of talk about games being ‘accessible’ but in this case I felt the game offered enough of a safety net for new gamers and the controls were simple enough. Combining that with my dad’s knowledge of race cars and 40+ years of driving, I didn’t think there would be too much of a problem. The following evening he was back to have a go…

Now I wasn’t going to throw my dad in the deep end, but I also know he can become easily frustrated with things so I made sure not to bombard him with information or try and get too involved. Controlling the menus for now, I took him into Free Play and to Hot Lap (no opponents) so he could adjust to the game. I tried to get him to start with a slower car or at least something four-wheel-drive but, no, he wanted to hear how a Ferrari sounded ingame. I’d recently downloaded the Holidays Car Pack and the brand new 458 Italia model had caught his eye. Next onto a choice of track and he went for the first one he felt he knew: Circuit de Catalunya. Having a look at the full layout I figured it was quite a good start; it had a variety of corners, and a few straights for getting speed up, without being too tricky. I had all the assists on except auto-brake (the computer attempts to slow you down if you’re approaching a corner too fast) because he insisted he wouldn’t need it and he had a braking line guide as opposed to a full racing line to show him how to approach corners at least.

So, off he goes, hurtling down the opening straight, approaching the first hairpin…and he skids widely off track. I tried to warn him that he needs to slow down to the appropriate speed before turning but he informed me that real racing drivers are on the throttle until the last second. (Take note, Turn 10 Studios, you’ve obviously made a huge mistake!).

Seeing him struggling with just about every corner was disheartening so I started trying to explain the subtleties involved without making it too complicated. If you sit down and actually try to illustrate the various elements of a game to a non-gamer it can actually be quite tricky. It felt odd having to tell him about being able to pull down on the acceleration and braking triggers to varying levels to set your speed; so on long corners he could apply enough power to keep the car’s speed up without sending himself wide, or avoid coming to a full stop on hairpins.

I can admit that, having tried the Ferrari myself, it wasn’t the greatest choice of car and did suffer from a bit of under steer. But even with all this advice, and some switching of cars (but never below A-Class), he seemed to be getting worse rather than better. So I took to quickly demonstrating these basic principles and showing my dad what I was doing on the controller. But even that did not seem to help.

I’d already noticed that he was struggling to get to grips with steering using an analogue stick but then again, so would anyone not used to a racing game or a controller, in general. Back in the days of Burnout 2, friends of mine could not understand how I could use one. Now it seems we’ve all since been forced to become accustomed to it, as developers moved away from the directional-pad for steering and face buttons for acceleration and braking.

Foolishly. I think I’d dismissed how something so simple as the basic controls was affecting my dad. Of course, he knew about racing lines and how to corner but he couldn’t put it into action if the controls weren’t effectively translating what he wanted to do. Unfortunately, Forza 3 does not allow you to steer using, what we have come to call, the d-pad (“What’s a d-pad?“ my dad asked).

I think being a little cowed by the experience, he did not come back to the game after that. (And I haven’t actually touched it since then due to other game commitments).

But, this story does not have an unhappy ending…

No, it seems that while my dad could not ‘get into’ Forza 3 he was bowled over by the sights and sounds and when he’d seen an advert for a bike-racing game on TV (he claims it was a super-bike or MotoGP one, but I couldn’t find anything about a newly-released one, just upcoming ones) he was determined to investigate. Recently, my dad has become pretty proficient at internet-shopping (perhaps a little too proficient) and so he’d been happy enough to try and find one of these games and then check with me. He found MotoGP ‘08 for pretty cheap so decided that was worth a go. I would’ve checked for a demo first but he’d been looking on his own initiative and only consulted me before placing an order.

Soon enough, the game arrived and I gave it a quick go. I did the ‘tutorial’ race, which was really a tester to see what settings it recommended for you. I had a rocky start but I managed to finish first and the game recommended simulation handling (it has arcade handling so I opted for that for my dad). I had noticed the bikes were much quicker at accelerating and braking, which I figured would work in my dad’s favour. He was on that evening and I accompanied him to make sure he knew what he was doing and to explain the controls.

I should probably give you a little more background concerning my old man (don‘t worry, I‘ll try keep it short). He’s always been a fan of cars and bikes but he actually used to own a super-bike, which he gave up when starting a family (and financial reasons). He’s run his own company for decades now and works pretty much seven days a week, but he’s reached a point where he can comfortably afford a bike again. So he bought two…You could say it’s a mid-life crisis but he’s even beyond that…

Anyway, he follows MotoGP (among many other motor sports), so he delighted in telling me who was who and spotting the little details the riders have (even if the game was about a year old not much probably changes). Being a Ducati owner himself, he opted to race as Casey Stoner who, he informs me, had won the GP in 2007. He chose what looked like a suitable course (they all seemed pretty winding anyway) and the opponents were set to the lowest level.
I was unaware at the time that you could change the Quick Race class down to 250cc or even 125cc, which might have made his first go a little easier seeing as MotoGP, he later told me, is 500cc. But, since they were, in essence, like Formula Two and Three in comparison, he wouldn’t be seeing or racing as the ‘big’ names he’d recognise and that just wasn’t good enough…

As you might have guessed, he came last in his first race but he seemed to be handling things a little better and was getting a kick out of seeing the riders arms move for doing the throttle along with other little details. The game wasn’t the most impressive-looking (it wasn’t bad) but my dad was thrilled with the graphics. He was also laughing at the bikers cursing each other or shaking their first angrily if they were cut up or knocked during the starting grid rush. Somehow, my dad was managing to wheelie the bike as well…

Over the Christmas break he was playing the game a bit more, getting used to the subtleties, learning the tracks. He’d also switched the number of laps from 3 to 5, since it gave him more time to get the hang of things during a race. I’d started having a go at career mode (which puts you at 125cc to begin with) and my dad was watching me a bit and observing how I was racing. I advised that he try the mode himself or race the slower bikes and work his way up to GP level, because even the less powerful bikes still gave you a great sense of speed. He gave it a go a few times but wanted to race Ducatis and the other top-class bikes. He was improving and usually finishing 13th out of 18 but I could see he was still struggling a bit with the analogue stick.

Now, it’s pretty much common knowledge that the d-pad on the 360 leaves a lot to be desired. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. But MotoGP ‘08 lets you use it for steering. The position of the d-pad relative to the two triggers used for accelerating and braking is a bit odd, but my dad has big enough hands and was willing to give it a go. He’s only got to turn left and right so it can’t be too bad, can it?

Luckily enough, it wasn’t. He took to using the d-pad quite well. His only problem was sometimes holding down while steering, causing the bike’s front wheel to lift up, losing a lot of traction and stability; which, for a powerful bike like the Ducati, sometimes meant skidding off. Fortunately, that didn’t happen too often. Overall, my dad had been improving; regularly finishing up around 7th and 8th.

Then one day, when I arrived home from work on a Sunday, my dad excitedly related a tale to me: he had won a race. Turns out he’d managed to work the 360 on his own while I’d been out. I congratulated him as he explained how the controls had suddenly clicked for him and he was battling with ‘Rossi’ for first place. Rossi being Valentino Rossi, also known as ‘The Doctor’ (because he can apparently make any bike a winner), has a camera on the back of his bike and has been MotoGP World Champion seven times; all these obviously being details my dad had told me when playing the game before. Back to his victory, this is the funny part…

In telling me this story, he mentioned how he’d managed to nail the last corner and overtook Rossi on the straight and that, now these are his words, he had earned a: ‘one gigabyte photo finish thing’. From memory, I recalled there was an achievement called ‘Photo Finish’ and that he had obviously confused gigabytes with gamerscore (lolnoob!). So I checked my 360 and, yep, he had earned that achievement for finishing first by a second or less. He had won a race, barely, but a win is a win.

He has since been unable to replicate this victory but he’s usually finishing in the top five for every race. I can see his problem is just that he’s a speed-demon who takes too many risks, which sometimes pays off but most times do not.

Wishing to encourage him further I downloaded the demo of SBK ‘09 (super-bikes with racing improvements as opposed to exclusive MotoGP models) and he gave that a go. My first impressions are that the SBK games seem closer to Forza in terms of the adjustable options and the customisation of your vehicle; and the graphics and physics are a little more polished and realistic too. It is, unfortunately, a little bit harder than MotoGP ‘08 as well, but my dad has gone ahead and ordered a copy since it’s cheap. I’m sure he’ll still get some enjoyment out of it though.

Since then, he’s been telling a friend and fellow bike-fan about the game, quite excitedly too. In some ways my dad can still very much be a big kid (which probably explains a lot about myself too…) but it’s nice to see him happy about something so simple. And there’s this weird sort of reverse-parent pride thing to the whole story… Either way, it was a nice bonding experience considering I'd never really done much with my dad when I was a child.

(Please note that this last section is still in 'progress', I was just trying to get the thing 'out' and written)

Anyway, in conclusion, it’s clear that while Forza 3 can certainly claim to be accessible it’s not for everyone. Whether a racing wheel would help is not a cost I’m willing to incur in order to find out either…

It does show that even if a game claims to be accessible, there is still a certain minimum amount of experience required along with a lot of time and patience which a ‘casual gamer’ just does not have.
But this also goes to show that there can be games for everyone (except maybe my mum) to enjoy. Gaming encompasses such a wide range of areas that there has to be at least one release that someone (except my mum) likes.

Just please remember, if you’re going to let your parents play videogames: make sure to supervise them. You never know what bad language they can learn, or violence they can witness!

Gregg.