You first have to enter Osama bin Laden’s hideout and then kill him — in fact, take his head off — and then carry on to another five levels, where you hunt more terrorists and behead them too, mercilessly. And, says Games2Win, which has made and marketed this fantasy, it’s got people hooked.
The game was launched a fortnight ago and already has 200,000 plays. “This is the first such game on Osama after he was killed, but what we did not expect was the time spent on it,” said Alok Kejriwal, founder and CEO of Games2Win. The game has received 1.4 million minutes of engagement from players across the globe — United States, India and, surprisingly, even Pakistan.
What’s the point in offering such gore as a game? Defenders say these games bring in associations of people with live social problems. “Our lives today are getting more intertwined, as personal and professional aspects overlap. Consumers want to be connected and the proliferation ofonline games is where communities of like-minded users connect over social matters," said Vishal Dhupar, managing director, Asia South, NVIDIA.
News, events and social issues are now the preferred themes for gamers. "Gaming is the new social language. People are fed up and want justice and want to participate in social issues, which they would not be able to deliver otherwise," said Kejriwal.
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It’s not just violence and killing and so forth that gamers want to play around with. Yet another game by Ibibo.com called ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ is popular. The game is a platform where enthusiasts can build a virtual India, by taking up the role of a vigilance commissioner. The game allows players to set up departments, commission projects and punish the corrupt, leading on to an Ideal India.
After the 2G telecom scam started grabbing headlines, Ibibo decided to come up with versions of this game which include caricatures of an ex-telecom minister involved in the scam, as well as other accused. The version that attracted the highest number of players had incorporated the Anna Hazare movement.
"After the Hazare angle, the number of people who started playing the game shot up to 210,000. Earlier, it was a quarter of this number," said Rahul Razdan, president-operations of Ibibo.com.
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Experts say online gaming has moved on from racing, cricket and boxing to mind games where tactics and real issues turn up. Razdan says games which make people identify with the real world are more popular in the virtual world. In one such instance, the company’s farming game, saw the introduction of onion farming during the price surge in the vegetable. That was an instant success.
The company gifted real onions to players who grew the highest number in the game.
This change in gaming trends has come in after the profile of gamers has extended from youngsters and geeks to a much wider range of enthusiasts. "Gaming is beyond the stage of being a nerd's thing. Now we have all sorts of players, like stockbrokers and housewives," said Kejriwal. As the success of these games lies in handling sensitive issues, gaming companies say its success lies in handling these carefully, without trivialising.