Intergalactic Summit

I dunno if it's the same outside the Federation, but gaming is a very popular form of entertainment around here.

When I was a kid the new big thing was hands free control schemes and interfaces, cutting down the number of hardware and peripherals and at the same time increasing player immersion.

Right now though, immersion has taken a whole new level. The game actually brings you in into the action. I like to play this shooter a lot called 'Absolute Warfare'. Basically it let's you customize an in game avatar from the smallest details from cosmetics to in game abilities. A good example of how gaming has advanced well in these years is at this particular stage. You and some commandos are infiltrating this Caldari facility to rescue one of your team mates before he can break and reveal details about the President's campaign tour that would endanger his life and start a new war.

The part that you bust into the interrogation. The life likeness of it is just amazing. I stormed in the room, rail rifle blazing, I could barely keep aiming down the sight as it kicked violently with every squeeze. Particularly, there was this Caldari soldier that appeared in this massive exo-skeleton. The rail rifle was just too powerful for his armor. Basically his entire torso got sucked out of the exit hole.

Such emphasis is put on realism and of making your senses perceive everything as life like as possible. Very different from that older alternative from a few decades ago that would administrate dosages of boosters in order to force you into thinking everything was real. That was outlawed very quickly, even by Federation standards.

These games in the end provide a way to unwind and sort of unplug myself from my worries and responsibilities from the real world. I think they are a very interesting and healthy hobby.

Having spent a lot of time during my early career in both the Minmatar Republic and the Caldari State, I can confirm that gaming is big in the State and pretty popular in the Republic too. Just like you'd expect from a megacapitalist entity like the State, they've turned it into a billion ISK business (and that doesn't sound like much to us, I know, but think how much that is in planetary currency!). Obviously, as one might expect, Nugoeihuvi runs the roost. They've got video games of just about every genre and every platform. Action, strategy, adventure, roleplaying games, puzzles, in all sorts of settings and styles. Hyasyoda and Ishukone both have a small foothold in the market as well. Their games aren't anywhere near as popular as NOH titles but they actually do pretty well on the export market to the Federation and the Republic. Kaalakiota makes a few games, but they're very unpopular, even in the State - despite being fervently patriotic, they're very poorly made (for a Kaalakiota product), have poor end-user support and are nearly unplayable. Seriously, I know that as a capsuleer, the amount of money you'd spend on it could be made back by literally doing nothing for an hour, but avoid Epic Liberator. I've heard Provists complain about how the patriotism being overdone.

Yes, you heard me, Provists were complaining about excessive patriotism in this game.

That said, despite being viciously pragmatic about its market, NOH does put out some genuine gems from time to time. I can highly recommend Tri-Kama, Heartland of K'vire, CEO's Guard and Nightmare Star. Ishukone has a couple of diamonds in the rough with the Othersign series and Interstellar 530. Hyasyoda has the... odd K'nai's Super Rigorous Adventure Happenstance!. It's... very hard to describe, but... pick it up anyway. You won't find anything quite like it anywhere in the universe.

In the Republic, The Leisure Group handles things, either as a developer, or as a publisher-distributor. Their games are definitely more violent and raw than anything you'll find on the shelves of a Caldari games store, but they don't skimp on their production values. A lot of Minmatar video games are bloody, vicious and objectionable, yes, but that's because the subject matter they depict really is bloody, vicious and objectionable. They're also pretty damn difficult - everyone else in the game is getting punished, so why not the player? If you're "hardcore", as they say, you might want to try games like Thunder and Stone or Kenassi's Journey.

What you may call interactive entertainment, we call simulation. A Khanid, alone, is trained throughout their youth and young-adult lives on endless hours of simulations and virtual scenarios. It enables us to become better pilots. We do not utilize these simulations for entertainment beyond competition amongst rivals.

Whether or not the same is true across the Empire, I cannot tell you.

Some do.

The Khanid case is a little different, and as said above from what I have witnessed they have a strong Caldari influence in that regard blended to highly traditionnal by-products tied to the cyberknight culture. A majority of the titles you will find are mostly centered around cyberpunk themes or chivalry.

In the Amarr Empire, like for most of the entertainement market and medias, everything is subject to censorship and general appliance to the orthodox mindset and the Imperial Trade Registry, which sometimes severely limits what kind of virtual games people can find. "Gaming" is also not very "big" in the Amarrian traditions to my opinion, and is mostly a niche market. People will of course find the traditionnal educative religious games developped for children, much like you will find educative consumerist games for children in the Federation, for example (to each nation its politically oriented education). A lot of foreign games that reach somehow the inner market are also often partially remade or rearranged.

But you can also find very, very deep and incredibly complex (or complex by a sheer simplicity) strategy games or virtual tabletop games that are quite popular among the whole Amarrian spectrum, be it between slaves, commoners, merchants, or Holders. Of course, their "coating" can vary greatly between all these social castes, but the shared passion remains and it is not always unusual to see for example a Holder playing with a close slave, especially between Holder's children and housekeeper slaves. Most of them are usually tied to very ancient card or pawn games, but with the appearance of the 3 other major cultures of the cluster, I think that the general Amarrian gaming market is currently at a turning point.

Generally not considered for children though, it is not uncommon to see a lot of Amarrians very reluctant to usual video games. I personally remember a roleplaying game partially based on the famous "Plantation" play (with the same name) that I had the occasion to play (secretly) when I was a child, which I really recommend for its originality (it is quite unusual to find true amarrian roleplaying games, khanid ones excepted), the depth of the story, its surprising neutrality and its description of the society without any embarassment. This game did not get a very good reception, especially by Amarrian authorities, often judged "too crude" or "biased" (when it was actually not), or even on the fringe of heresy when it came to play a slave with his own doubts about the institution of slavery and the system itself.

I've tried mind clash but mostly to strengthen mental prowess and not so much for entertainment though I'd be lying if I said I haven't had fun.

Aside from gaming as a whole I don't have time.

I hear rumors of a capsuleer-only "Mindclash" league starting, which would prove most interesting.

Farel's assessment of Amarrian gaming is quite astute. I would add that for many, the traditional, physical 'board games' are still quite popular. Grids of squares with tiny carved pieces representing armies or soldiers. Great games of old that that nobility used to play to train the mind for tactical thinking.

I've played that game past the point any adult should admit to it - I have half a mind to obtain a copy to wile away my personal hours. Even though I know the correct and / or historically taken choices by heart, It is just amazing how much time and effort was put even into the false paths, and how an erorr in an early stage can ripple forward to destructive ends later on - or how it can later be corrected by decisive and painful actions when appropriate.

Really, this game taught me about our culture as much as the best sermons and amonishions, since it not simply warns you off false choices, but shows their effects in a very convincing and eye-opening fashion.

My own favourite is game where there are three main components; humans, coloured dots and alcohol.

It's a favourite of ours, mainly at parties. You'll see why...

It involves a small plastic sheet with a series of green, yellow, red and blue dots in rows. You then have to spin the spinner, which serves as a die for the game, depending on where it points, you have to place one of your limbs on the corresponding coloured dots. Multiple people can play at once, often meaning that people are placed in precarious or perverse positions. The player that falls or who's elbow or knee touches the matt is out.

This game is often played at ours, naked with much alcohol.

I like this post. Do the Amarr do anything other than pray, read books and write long boring scriptures?

This question has already been answered.