OGAMES: Big Brother gets more interactive

DSTV Online has launched Africa’s biggest gaming portal, Ogames.com. Offering users over 600 games for PC and over 300 mobile games, Ogames.com has focused on social media integration and dynamic multiplayer offerings for its online community of gamers.

Key to the Ogames.com offering is multiplatform interaction, giving users the opportunity to play games with strong links to the DStv Channel offering. Ogames.com’s new Big Brother games – developed for the current season of M-Net’s Big Brother Amplified – allow users to play for points which translate into rewards for the housemates on the live TV show.

By playing Big Brother Bubble Popper, Big Brother Wordsearch or taking the Big Brother Quiz, Ogames.com users have the chance to influence aspects of the television show. They can use the points they score by playing to supply the housemates with extra snacks, drinks and surprise gifts & goodies at their Saturday night parties. Users also stand the chance to win rewards of their own. By scoring more than 500 points, they are entered into a grand prize draw for Samsung prizes at the Big Brother Amplified finale on 31 July.

Brendan McNulty, GM: Games, says that this level of gaming / television interactivity is a first for the continent and puts Ogames.com at the forefront of interactive gaming worldwide.

“Viewers and gamers in Africa have never had the chance to influence the content of a television broadcast on this level before – outside of voting for contestants. The Big Brother games allow users to compete and show off their skills and have the result broadcast across the continent for all to see on Africa’s biggest reality show,” says McNulty. “This development on Ogames.com is just the first in a series of steps which will take interactivity in the broadcast space to new heights in our market.”

Darkness Falls – The Jozi Outbreak is another new addition to Ogames. The MXit-based Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) sees users entering a shadowy world to participate in a battle that's been raging for generations in Johannesburg. Thousands of players have chosen their side, created their own characters and are honing their skills as they battle through the dark underworld of Darkness Falls.

“MMO’s like Darkness Falls are generating huge traffic volumes as thousands of players log in to challenge each other. This kind of game has changed the way users engage with multiplayer offerings and Ogames.com is excited to be leading the charge,” says McNulty.

Ogames.com is the biggest gaming portal in Africa, built specifically for the African market. The portal delivers quality, fun and challenging mobile and PC games to users. With a strong multiplayer offering, Ogames.com offers users the chance to compete against each other for high scores and collect badges to showcase their achievements. Ogames.com launches tailor-made Kenyan and Nigerian sites in July.

- Issued on behalf of Ogames.com

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THE GRID launches SA location-based multiplayer social game

CONTRARY to popularised belief, not all video games are mind-numbing experiences of blood, guts and gore. Some of them can be quite educational. I remember always trying to convince my folks just how much I was learning from spending so many hours in front of the computer.

Some of my all-time favourite games taught me (at a very early age) about the ancient civilisations; the wonders of the world they built; and of course, logical thinking, such as "use paperclip on locked chest".

A lot can be learnt within the gaming world; it’s just unfortunate for the youth of today that guts and gore is the predominant direction that newer releases are taking — some of which are now available for cellphones.

LEGENDS OF ECHO

Mobile social network— The Grid — has launched a multiplayer social game for cellphones called Legends of Echo. The mobile game makes use of Vodacom’s location-based services to determine the player’s physical location, from which players can explore their surroundings or move (virtually) to anywhere else in South Africa to interact with other players in real time.

The point of the game is to battle, communicate and trade with other players across South Africa using their physical location as a central point. The game sees five bloodlines battling each other constantly for domination in the Echo. These are the elements of Air, Earth, Water, Fire and Industry. Whoever thought that industry would be an element to be reckoned with? They forgot about plasma.

The Grid describes the Echo as “a parallel virtual universe based on South African street maps. However, instead of cities and skyscrapers, players will find rolling green fields, rocky outcrops and valleys to explore and establish their base” — a nice illusion in which to escape perhaps.

There might be a bit of geography to be gained from playing the game as real-world place names are used to navigate the Echo universe. Players are able to teleport around the rolling green fields of South Africa’s suburbs and cities to battle one another and become a legend of the Echo.

The game is available for cellphones as a Java download. It is marketed as free to play yet appears to be far from it. According to The Grid: “There is no cost for playing Legends of Echo apart from the standard data costs to the network provider.” Players are also required to trade airtime for elements if they wish to advance in the game.

Mobile applications that make use of street maps have a lot of potential — whether they are developed as games or not. Being able to tag content­ to specific addresses, recommend­ venues such as good restaurants, and even find directions to venues recommended by others, are all useful mobile features to have in an application. However, when such potential is turned into a hack and slash adventure, I fear that mobile software developers are missing the mark somewhat.

Legends of Echo may be a good attempt at combining location-based services, social networking features and online mobile gaming, but its appeal really seems to be focused on the adrenaline-driven youth that have airtime to squander.

The Grid has developed some innovative­ apps in the past, but I would argue that this is not one of them. Nonetheless, this is up to the players to decide ...

So, if you are keen to have a crack at playing Legends of Echo, SMS ‘Echo’ to 33313 (50c per SMS) or visit www.legendsofecho.mobi/ If you require the Java application, SMS ‘Grid’ to 33313 (50c per SMS).

May the Force be with you …

What is The Grid?
The Grid is a location-based social network that uses your cellphone to connect you with people, places and events around you. From your cellphone you can see which friends are in your area, chat to people across South Africa and share photos and videos — wherever you are. All South Africans, irrespective of which network operator they are connected to, can join the Grid social network and play the Echo multiplayer game.

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GETMO: Digital entertainment content

GetMo South Africa — SA’s newly formed multimedia platform, is being dubbed as the country’s first all-in-one online digital entertainment service.

A nationwide live music launch tour (to promote GetMo) was held in August, and saw leading South African artists perform 34 free shows at schools, universities and venues in seven cities across the country.

According to company director, Jehan Mackay, “GetMo offers South Africa a wide range of entertainment including music, movies, mobile content and more. The service is available to both mobile and PC users, making it South Africa’s first multi-platform all-in-one digital entertainment service.”

There is no doubt that the digital entertainment landscape is changing fast, as are users of mobile and PC products. What GetMo aims to accomplish, according to Mackay, is to give South African’s fast and reliable access to value-for-money digital entertainment anywhere at anytime.

In addition to music and movies, GetMo offers consumers online access to ringtones, graphics, video clips, music videos, games and more, all from the same online service, says Klaus Renkl, GetMo Country Manager for SA.

Yet how good is this service in comparison to existing ones? Although there may not be many others that are uniquely South African and offer as much, who gets to decide who SA’s top artists are? I’m a big appreciator of local content, yet truthfully GetMo just didn’t seem to offer much that excited me.

*The following is from a Q+A with the peeps behind GetMo

CONTENT & QUALITY:
The content available on getmo.com is aggregated from the major music labels, as well other major or independent entertainment content owners and game developers. GetMo claims to be able to support all content types and encourages independent filmmakers, designers, creators and the like to make their content available.

The developers aim to set the highest quality standards, especially when it comes to mobile content. According to Mackay, “we demand the highest technical complexity to ensure that each content item works on each mobile handset”.

PRICING:
Whereas most other digital entertainment services offer a pay-as-you-use model, GetMo includes a unique all-you-can-eat service, which allows customers limitless amounts of entertainment on any device they choose for a constant monthly fee.

Consumers can either look out for various GetMo Club Card options (available free of charge and bundled with other products), purchase items directly via credit card on an item-by-item basis, or purchase GetMo Club Cards which allows unlimited access to content for one or more months.

UNIQUENESS:
What is rather appealing about the GetMo product site is that it offers pre-listening sessions, previews, movie trailers, descriptions and other metadata around the items available. This really helps make informed choices and helps ensure that consumers get exactly what they want.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of GetMo is its use of peer-to-peer distribution technologies, which allows users to share files between each other legally. According to Mackay:

“Our legal P2P (peer-to-peer) technology also allows us to use the individual hard drives of PC owners to help distribute large files more effectively (known as the bittorrent principle). This advanced technology has often been misused for illegal file sharing. However, we have designed and approved a platform that enables a legal service without losing any of the benefits.”

If you have ever heard of a nifty file-sharing program called Bearshare, GetMo uses pretty much the same principle. One is able to choose what files on their PC to share across the internet and is able to download zillions of files from others. It used to be entirely illegal and several existing loopholes allow it to remain so. How GetMo manages (or will mange) to keep it all kosher is something I’m waiting to see.

GRIPES:
I’ve been in possession of a Zen Vision mp4 player for about two weeks now. It comes with an introduction CD which includes a Britney Spears music video and some idea on what the games (which are considered as “mobile”) are like, but has no software. One needs to visit their site to download the required software (i.e. the GetMo media suite), which is a 47 meg download required if one wants to share media files with others across an internet network.

To be honest I haven’t felt the urge to use my GetMo media suite or download anything off the website. I am quite keen to get a few movies though. Unfortunately all the videos available so far are cheap Bollywood productions, which is possibly due to the fact that GetMo South Africa is owned by Arvato Middle East Sales (AMES). I’m not much of a fan of Bollywood.

Otherwise if music videos, ‘mobile’ games, wallpapers and ringtones are what you want, there is quite a good collection of those. I’ve been quite content with using my Zen vision as an mp3 player, flash stick and alarm clock (no software required! It’s all a matter of copy and paste).

I’ve also tried converting my favorite shows and movies into mp4 files to see how those tickle my fancy on the tiny screen without too much success. One can download trial versions of several mp4 converters, but these either only convert the first few minutes of a video file or bomb out after a couple of weeks. The full versions of such converters go for between $25 - $30.

Does anyone know of a free, full-version mp4 converter available for download?? Otherwise I guess it’s back to illegal file-sharing!

For more information visit www.getmo.com

PS: if your in the market for an mp4 player, and have some cash to spend, go for the ipod nano - you won't regret it!

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