The Barometer Online

Issue date: 2/12/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Andrew Burton Scott Beachly takes a swing during a round of Wii Golf. The game comes free when you buy a Nintendo Wii gaming console, along with bowling, baseball, tennis and boxing.

Wood shelves hold shining boxes over television screens. Glowing computer towers jack into flat monitors. A giant HDTV sits at the head of the room.

Let the games begin.

OSU's New Media Communications program is preparing its new video game laboratory for research.

The regiment: Jay Bartholomew, Scott Beachly, Hiram Cervantes and David Nicholas.

The commanding officers: Todd Kesterson and Jeffrey Hale.

The Weaponry: two X-Box 360s, two Nintendo Wiis, one Playstation3, three Dell XPSes, three Nintendo DSes, and one Macintosh - for paperwork.

Their mission is two-fold: To establish both a non-biased game rating system and an educational tool for examining the communication possibilities of games.

"We want to surpass game rating systems," said Nicholas, a junior in new media communication. "We want consistency in our reviews."

Most game reviews currently come out of video gaming magazines, which are funded by video game companies. They also only review games when they are finished and hit the market.

"They get biased reviews about games that are already released," Nicholas said.

"It's tricky to do non-biased reviews," said Bartholomew, a junior in business. There has to be enough facets to judge the games. That way, the game ratings will be based on more consistent standards, as opposed to the rater's individual preferences."

"We'll have a constant set of fresh eyes coming through the school, a huge value to the industry," Bartholomew added.

"That's what New Media Communications is to me - telling stories visually," said Beachly, a junior in NMC.

"[It means] using graphics to relate stoic information," Nicholas added.

New Media Communications focuses on storytelling through different forms of media and the technology that makes it possible.

"This fun and play-filled research is to serve as a foundation for game design and development," said Assistant Professor Todd Kesterson. "This is an intended direction for growth in the New Media Comm. Program.

Continued...

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