Game Mechanics, Round Two
by BONZO, HSM Editor
Game Mechanics offered an extensive line of furniture from their debut release, and is following it up with an extension of furniture series designed to appeal to both the gentler romantic mentalities and the rougher gearheads in Home. These are gender neutral; believe me, whatever gender stereotypes you may have are wrong.
I once worked in marketing for a classic car restoration company, and I had the gender presumptions most people have: that the clientele would be all male, and older. While that was true to a marginal majority, I quickly learned a huge portion of the clients were young, and many were female. Imagine that job of designing content to appeal to an ethnically neutral, gender neutral, age neutral market. It wasn’t easy, but when you disregard the demographics and only consider making something look cool to someone who wouldn’t give the theme a second glance, the possibilities open up. And I honestly think that’s what Game Mechanics has done here.
It’s fairly easy to make something car-related look cool to a car aficionado; it’s probably harder to make something with that theme which that individual wouldn’t like. But it’s tougher to make something car-related look cool to a client that doesn’t care about car-themed hardware at all. But when you get that person’s attention, you have succeeded. And Game Mechanics has succeeded.
It is fair to say I am not a car aficionado, but not correct to say I am not a gearhead. I have always liked mechanical design in unconventional uses. I see them as art, because it really is an art to look at something mechanical — which is primarily functional — and its visual appeal is secondary, if it is even a thought at all. An engine block is not made to look pretty; don’t say that to a gearhead because they will argue with you, but to the average non enthusiast, it isn’t pretty. It’s just an engine machine made for a purpose, not for decoration.
To turn that look, and make it look good enough to be a decoration, takes some creative genius. In California I often attended car shows as part of my job, but also because I enjoyed seeing the final product: shiny, polished classic designs of cars. Frankly I feel that car design lines have only started to make a comeback, but for a long time they were abandoned and disregarded for ugly, practical, boxy designs.
I love the rounded, opulent impractical design of the 1940’s vehicles, and that design mentality ranged up to the late 1970’s, when car designs just seemed to have switched to smaller compact conservative use of materials. There’s a reason why there is a huge market of classic car designs, because you ask anyone of those enthusiasts they will tell you, “They just don’t make cars like they use to!”
A cubicle I wouldn’t mind being stuck at
It is no exaggeration that I am not a car guy. I know how to drive and how to put gas in it, and fix the minor problems if I really need to, but it is not a passion for me. It’s just a machine. I don’t have the appreciation or love for those machines like I have for avionics, or nautical machines. I don’t look at a car the same way I would look at a plane, a helicopter, or a ship. But seeing a part I recognize as a machine used in a creative alternative way gets my attention.
A company in California called MotoArt was very good at that, taking airplane parts and turning them into works of art which doubles as furniture. You look at some of their work and you may see some similarities in the Sodium Universe. But that level of unconventional design is beautiful, and it takes a creative mind to get from seeing an engine block and think coffee table — and actually make it look good.
It’s not so much about appealing to a theme, but more about looking at things from a different perspective. Seeing the unconventional use of a familiar object. There is an appeal to mechanical designs, particularly metallic objects, as they are associated in our psyches as being technological — and even when it is current technology, it tends to look futuristic.
Steampunk, for example, is high technology powered by low energy source: its designs are almost always Victorian an era a century old now, and yet to our understanding of current technology it tends to look futuristic.
This is furniture that anyone can appreciate. You don’t have to be a car aficionado or a gearhead to find some aesthetic appeal from them. Out culture has elevated the car to a status symbol, a source of power and freedom. It doesn’t have to be the car itself to put us into that mindset, but its components can work well to create that atmosphere as well. With some of the customization options included, it makes the furniture a little more versatile, but even if this isn’t the kind of content which appeals to you, Game Mechanics is exploring the possibilities of customization which is a step forward in the evolution of virtual furniture.
The Engine Grill and the Elegant Table are in the continuous experimentation of Game Mechanics to revolutionize the active item to give the user more options than simple animations. And this should be applauded.
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Heh, looks like the Top Gear Coffee table! Me likely!
I’m a big fan of cars; long, elegant, smooth sweeping curves. Two tone slightly sparkled paint jobs. The clunk of the gear booting in, the vibration of the revs hitting their peak…
As Queen once sang “I’m in love with my caaar! Got a feel for my automobeeel!” Heh, yeah I’d buy this stuff if I had the right place to put it in.