tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57076451711604423122024-03-18T23:11:27.881-04:00Press Pause to Reflecton the social and artistic merits of video gamesDaniel Bullard-Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930142428698229185noreply@blogger.comBlogger138125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-66732909759235316462010-06-30T10:20:00.000-04:002010-06-30T10:20:26.013-04:00We Need to Talk<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhziI14OL1pYVBDEo9D262KiMMTsdMznZCF16J67tyfs5Wa_q1gcGbEmXKMkhPTUAnlyvVDUXHYOAthKfUoOCODH43JNAaEn20Mw1_gUwNOVy1zGoW3ay8SfkOomGm4Wf2-tEXoyU1CN1kf/s1600/casablanca-ending.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhziI14OL1pYVBDEo9D262KiMMTsdMznZCF16J67tyfs5Wa_q1gcGbEmXKMkhPTUAnlyvVDUXHYOAthKfUoOCODH43JNAaEn20Mw1_gUwNOVy1zGoW3ay8SfkOomGm4Wf2-tEXoyU1CN1kf/s400/casablanca-ending.png" width="400" /></a></div>You may have noticed that we've been less attentive of late. We just want you to know that it's not your fault. Our eyes aren't wandering to other projects because we don't like you. You're the best, you really are. In fact, you deserve better. I hope we can still be friends. <br />
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And who knows? Maybe we'll be back some day. It's possible. But let's not build up unrealistic expectations. Things change, people change. We're moving on. If we come back and you've found other blogs, we won't be angry. We hope you find happiness. <br />
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Thanks for all the memories. The archives will stay, but comments are closed.Daniel Bullard-Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930142428698229185noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-67168865807141047942010-06-07T16:30:00.002-04:002010-06-17T14:54:57.489-04:00No Need to Explain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbGB6ll4DYQ6n6wLFEUR4w9RiQt5N1_DGgmMfzI8Yc70XDF0NuIejRappOkNjWL6HtqrS8GVZIHI95rbWP23Hmgx3SOxHQzkDtrvFXGk4SzkbUFGmVc4KIFkCkvIgrQX4sEfgOScmOIuRo/s1600/alan-wake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbGB6ll4DYQ6n6wLFEUR4w9RiQt5N1_DGgmMfzI8Yc70XDF0NuIejRappOkNjWL6HtqrS8GVZIHI95rbWP23Hmgx3SOxHQzkDtrvFXGk4SzkbUFGmVc4KIFkCkvIgrQX4sEfgOScmOIuRo/s400/alan-wake.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><i>by Daniel Bullard-Bates</i><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Alan Wake is the creator and the protagonist of the world he inhabits. Whether he is living through one of his own stories, dreaming, or insane, his personality informs every element of the narrative. After playing Remedy’s <i>Max Payne</i> games, I expected Wake to be more two-dimensional than he is. He is impatient and quick to anger with his wife but his devotion to her is clear. More interesting is the fact that his writing is riddled with clichés which are then reflected in the world he inhabits. In another context, I might call the Taken (shadowy figures controlled by darkness) poorly written, but Remedy has pulled a little trick to remove themselves from this criticism: They are Wake’s creation, so their cheesy design can only be blamed on him. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">If this trick extended to other areas of the narrative it would become tiresome, but the rest of the plot is much more nuanced. <i>Alan Wake</i> leaves large sections of the story unexplained, but the absence feels intentional. Just like in the landscape of the game, there are patches of darkness left unexplored. Instead of distracting from the plot, this enhances it. The story veers between clarity and obfuscation, with large swathes of narrative open to interpretation and reconsideration. It isn’t entirely clear what happened in <i>Alan Wake</i>, and in a game with horror elements this works quite well. The object of fear stays out of the spotlight; some details are left to the audience. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">The major problems with <i>Alan Wake</i> come from over explanation. There are a number of simple puzzles in the game, mostly relating to finding and turning on generators, and Alan is ready to explain exactly what the player should do if a moment is taken to linger. This is an interesting world that Remedy has created, so why are they urgently rushing the player through it? I want to look around and enjoy the view. I want to bask in the incredible lighting effects. <i>Alan Wake</i>’s failures are the concessions it has made to design conventions. Without the <a href="http://presspausetoreflect.blogspot.com/2010/06/collect-everything.html">superfluous coffee thermoses</a> and impatient hint system, there would be little to distract the player from a truly enthralling experience. Even the mini-map is unnecessary. The level design already shows the player where to go using light and darkness as guides.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">The lesson to be taken away from the successes and failures of <i>Alan Wake</i> is that trusting the audience is a necessary part of the design process. <i>Alan Wake </i>trusts the player to fill in the blanks in the plot, but not the blanks in the gameplay. If the game sells well enough to spawn a sequel, I hope the creators learn to trust us (and their own design) even more.</div>Daniel Bullard-Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930142428698229185noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-80533432697061339022010-06-04T10:29:00.002-04:002010-06-07T16:30:53.340-04:00Collect Everything<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgri9yBAcQ0qougjd7kPHSg00-lk13Xvy94n85gfFCKFWH38q-Nhmi-Ra-2bxZPe2hSKuPII023B54l6Rnvf0xaMWH3_wJsKrS4gCE0EJnjDtn0Sc7ltcA03rdhsofFXSuCnQO3-N6eUVn6/s1600/agility_orb_super.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgri9yBAcQ0qougjd7kPHSg00-lk13Xvy94n85gfFCKFWH38q-Nhmi-Ra-2bxZPe2hSKuPII023B54l6Rnvf0xaMWH3_wJsKrS4gCE0EJnjDtn0Sc7ltcA03rdhsofFXSuCnQO3-N6eUVn6/s200/agility_orb_super.jpg" width="185" /></a></div><i>by Daniel Bullard-Bates</i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Collectible items have become standard fare in video games. If you haven’t collected all the flags in <i>Assassin’s Creed</i> or shot all the stars in <i>Resident Evil 5</i>, there’s still some meaningless task left to be accomplished. As irritating as those two examples are, however, it is possible to make collectible items a valuable part of the game experience. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Let’s talk about how: <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><b>They should be relevant to the narrative</b> –In some way, shape or form, the collectible items being gathered should make sense in the game world and serve some narrative purpose. <i>Alan Wake </i>provides one excellent example of how to do this well: The pages from Wake’s manuscript, scattered around the world, offer details on the characters and situations in the game. Some of them are easy to find, some require thorough searching. <i>Alan Wake </i>also provides a terrible example of collectible items in the form of coffee thermoses. They’re irrelevant, out of place, and clearly just there for the achievement points. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><b>They should serve some purpose other than achievement points</b> – Any in-game item or activity which yields nothing but achievement points should be removed. They are distractions from the game. Again, one game gives an excellent example of how to do this well and how to do it poorly. The agility orbs in <i>Crackdown</i> were fun to find and yielded a clear benefit in the form of increased jumping ability. Once you’ve achieved the maximum height, however, they serve no further purpose. So why are there still so many left? At least the blast shards in <i>inFAMOUS </i>continued to be useful throughout the game, even if finding them was tedious and obnoxious. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">3.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><b>They should be fun to collect</b> – Obsessive collection alone is not fun. Jumping around in <i>Crackdown </i>is; that’s what makes the agility orbs worth seeking. If the actual act of finding hidden and collectible items is not interesting, why would collecting them be worthwhile? There are (many) reasons why <i>Ocarina of Time</i> is so well-respected. Hidden pieces of heart served a purpose and were usually hidden by interesting challenges and puzzles. Plus, they make you more powerful, which fulfills criteria number two.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFC-h1nZQ5mgT0T_ChuWw47etIY6vi_0hUnd5TAPQavuDT32kZHWAz6923pKPkRMu5cva2m6mVsySAIVSqo8_LWToOoZg-UXepBSS74P0bZt758URDhpkgxzuK8SnmM19uJyx14EElfgFP/s1600/golden_bugs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFC-h1nZQ5mgT0T_ChuWw47etIY6vi_0hUnd5TAPQavuDT32kZHWAz6923pKPkRMu5cva2m6mVsySAIVSqo8_LWToOoZg-UXepBSS74P0bZt758URDhpkgxzuK8SnmM19uJyx14EElfgFP/s320/golden_bugs.jpg" /></a></div><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">4.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span><b>It should be something worth collecting</b> – People do collect rare bugs, and collecting rare golden bugs would be even more lucrative, so that’s a check mark for <i>Twilight Princess</i>. The bobbleheads in <i>Fallout 3</i> are immensely collectible items; they even have their own collectible item stand. Mario collects stars, which is pretty weird, but he’s a weird guy. I believe it. Soldiers collect dog tags, sure. But seriously, no one collects identical coffee thermoses or identical flags or identical anything. At least make the items somewhat different from one another. The little statues in <i>Assassin’s Creed 2</i> were approximately 300% more interesting than the feathers in the same game for that exact reason. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">That’s it. It’s a short list. All you need to make a collection quest fun is that it be relevant, purposeful, fun, and worth collecting. It doesn’t seem like very much to ask, but another bad example hits the market every week. Let’s forget artificially-extended gameplay and stop breaking immersion. If every game followed these guidelines, collecting everything wouldn’t seem like such a waste of time.<o:p></o:p></div>Daniel Bullard-Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930142428698229185noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-43727498178919927272010-06-02T14:48:00.003-04:002010-06-04T10:29:27.714-04:00Red Dead Refreshing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAqmVlYVPBFP8_8aluLfLjDAd6asiD-UFaAJVM9m0Oj6Oj9orj7rOnWLyHOoAGfZPDLOQuSUQzjQuiNSfYsNEGH2JMrcgHqwJy1c4pEekYIGOmM3mJiWQmAKMuPiGnPJvLUMW5OL2cEYY/s1600/sunset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAqmVlYVPBFP8_8aluLfLjDAd6asiD-UFaAJVM9m0Oj6Oj9orj7rOnWLyHOoAGfZPDLOQuSUQzjQuiNSfYsNEGH2JMrcgHqwJy1c4pEekYIGOmM3mJiWQmAKMuPiGnPJvLUMW5OL2cEYY/s320/sunset.jpg" /></a></div><i>by C.T. Hutt</i><br />
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In true Rockstar tradition, <i>Red Dead Redemption</i> is an open world free-for-all third person shooter with copious gunplay and significant adult themes. Instead of taking place in an urban jungle, <i>Red Dead Redemption</i> is set in 1911 in the untamed American South West. Gameplay-wise, aside from a great deal more cattle rustlin’, varmint shootin’, bronco wranglin’, and roamin’ across the open prairie, this title mimics many of the themes found in the much loved but highly controversial <i>Grand Theft Auto</i> series. Unlike <i>GTA</i>, <i>Red Dead Redemption</i> also incorporates a roleplaying element which allows the player to decide what type of range rider they wish to be. Rockstar has also made the collection side quests and achievement based rewards a seamless part of the game. These factors, combined with a vast array of interesting characters, a massive world to explore, and some of the best environmental graphics I have ever seen make this title a definite step in the right direction for Rockstar.<br />
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One of our biggest critiques of sandbox shooters in the past (such as <i>The Saboteur</i> and <i>GTA4</i>) is that in order to make progress in the game a player must act in a negative way. Even when the enemy is undeniably evil, civilian casualties are inevitable and in some cases part of the game. In <i>Red Dead Redemption</i>, a player can be as much of a devious bastard as they wish, riding into town on a jet black steed spraying the streets with gunfire and drinking all the whiskey in town, but they don’t have to. If a player is so inclined they can work with local law enforcement to bring down criminal organizations in the territory, save distressed citizens, and ride into the sunset on a white mare. Or you can do a little of both, kick down the doors of the local saloon, play cards all night, rob a bank before breakfast, and save the mayor’s daughter from being kidnapped before hopping on your motley horse and escaping into Mexico. <i>Red Dead Redemption</i> offers not only an open world, but an open character and story. This is done within the framework of an over-arching plot which is pretty interesting in itself. By allowing the narrative to be as personal an experience as the game play, Rockstar has added a fascinating element to its tried and true game structure.<br />
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Collection missions have been a long-standing pet peeve of mine. Nothing breaks immersion like a few lines of text telling you that collecting x number of y items is necessary to your cause. <i>Red Dead Redemption</i> features similar quests, but incorporates them into the over-arching game rather than having them exist as arbitrary challenges. For example: if you like to roam around the wilderness blasting critters and collecting their hides eventually your character will gain a reputation as a noted trapper. Townsfolk will start to recognize you for your expertise and you may even begin to start dressing the part. If instead you find yourself interested in the poker mini-game you can build up a reputation for being a champion gambler. Collection quests and mini-games are used to define your character rather than distract from the rest of the game. This is truly an ingenious change; it helps maintain immersion and gives players a motivation to complete side quests that makes sense in character.<br />
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<i>Red Dead Redemption</i> is hardly perfect; it relies heavily on combat to move the game along and the missions do tend to feel repetitive. Still, Rockstar has incorporated some elements into this title that the medium as a whole would do well to pay attention to. By allowing gamers to decide which type of character to play in addition to how we play the game, Rockstar is pushing the medium closer to truly open worlds.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00496219299854543889noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-76277597256489807522010-05-21T16:55:00.003-04:002010-06-02T14:53:07.239-04:00Violence Is Not the Problem<i>by Daniel Bullard-Bates</i><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Fair warning: the following post contains descriptions of brutal violence, as well as spoilers for <i>God of War 3</i> and the movie <i>Irreversible</i>.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">We return, time and time again, to the problem of violence in video games and other media. Does watching a gory movie make the viewer more comfortable with gore? Does murdering countless innocents in a fictional airport inspire real-life terrorism? Can a bit of the old ultraviolence permanently scar society? <br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizlHWj-YHmGGFjTZiz57VzdN222yMxUNyQsBqb7ttSMB0VTzM9EO46OSM-_SjFzw_fz3n0MdZ9moH_J4TD5EbZEgRsxifUUYRA8wJKU28Cvgr9OltN2XIH3T5FJkWjn9HIwp1NbKYCQMty/s1600/wolfenstein-3d.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizlHWj-YHmGGFjTZiz57VzdN222yMxUNyQsBqb7ttSMB0VTzM9EO46OSM-_SjFzw_fz3n0MdZ9moH_J4TD5EbZEgRsxifUUYRA8wJKU28Cvgr9OltN2XIH3T5FJkWjn9HIwp1NbKYCQMty/s320/wolfenstein-3d.png" width="320" /></a>When the media turns its gaze to the violence in video games, it is usually the acts themselves which are labeled as disturbing, gratuitous, and unfit for public consumption. What is most disturbing and potentially harmful, however, is the way that violence is treated by the individual characters in the games. Mostly it is not seriously considered by the characters at all. Enemies are merely there to be killed, and their deaths mean nothing. This may have been suitable in the time of <i>Space Invaders</i> or even <i>Wolfenstein 3D</i>, but as video game characters and graphics become more realistic, our response to violence must become more realistic as well. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Attempts at censorship in video games have frequently been misguided. <i>Manhunt 2</i> was given an Adults-Only rating due to its extreme violence, but allowed to be published as a Mature-rated game after a filter was applied to the game’s brutal execution scenes. While these scenes were extreme in nature, perhaps the most disturbing element of the game remained: The player was rewarded for skill in the stealth portion of the game with more elaborate execution animations. A player who presses the attack button at the first opportunity might merely hold a bag over someone’s face until they die of suffocation, whereas a more skilled player who spends longer lurking in the shadows is treated to a more elaborate murder.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">This element of rewarding players with gore is not new; a headshot in most shooters is considered a sign of skill, and usually results in an impressive spray of blood or an exploding skull. Extreme violence is even a selling point for franchises such as <i>Gears of War</i> and <i>God of War</i>. Despite their similar appellations, neither of these franchises have much to say about the nature of war and none of the protagonists seem affected by the things they do. Quite the opposite: Dom and Marcus congratulate one another on headshots and the creative use of chainsaw bayonets. These men should be riddled with PTSD and guilt; instead they joke and congratulate. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Visually speaking, the murder of Hercules in <i>God of War 3</i> is one of the most gruesome acts of violence I have ever seen in a video game, being reminiscent of an infamous scene from the film <i>Irreversible</i> in which a man is murdered by repeated blows to the face with a fire extinguisher. <i>Irreversible </i>is a profoundly disturbing film, but this scene is not played for the enjoyment of the viewer; I have never met someone who finds violence of that caliber amusing, nor would I want to. The witnesses, both in the film and without, scream, run, and panic. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixEXopFyI-fkRgXDRhPhn0qWWW59II_s4Vg8-BBCgK0n_wOfFKzCZiqs7lUP2jNvSIyZ2poxC8u35j02sRJa62ixjbukSm_dB9-BBII18uNWVAGM7uaLhr0_aHJc9JrTESo3p7euwfRDaG/s1600/kratos_bloodier.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixEXopFyI-fkRgXDRhPhn0qWWW59II_s4Vg8-BBCgK0n_wOfFKzCZiqs7lUP2jNvSIyZ2poxC8u35j02sRJa62ixjbukSm_dB9-BBII18uNWVAGM7uaLhr0_aHJc9JrTESo3p7euwfRDaG/s320/kratos_bloodier.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>There is no such recognition of the horror of Kratos’s actions in <i>God of War 3</i>. Kratos is no longer a character by the third game; he is a monster worse than most of the foes he faces. Whatever sympathy was possible in the first game is completely obliterated by the third, in which he is singlehandedly responsible for the deaths of almost every living being on Earth. Make no mistake: Kratos is the villain of <i>God of War 3</i>, and there are no heroes. But still the character is glorified, and the violence with him. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">While the destruction of Hercules’s face and skull is the most gratuitous act of violence in the game, the most disturbing is a simple moment in which Kratos allows an innocent woman to be torn to shreds by a machine simply because he needs to open a door. Do we really want our protagonists to be monsters like Kratos and Marcus, who think nothing of the violence they perpetrate? </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Similarly, Nathan Drake of the <i>Uncharted</i> series would be one of the most likeable characters of all time if it were not for the fact that <a href="http://presspausetoreflect.blogspot.com/2009/10/charming-sociopath.html">he is also a mass murderer</a>. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">I don’t think it is too much to ask for realistic characters in video games, and part of that is coming to terms with violence, shell shock, and post traumatic stress. There is a moment in the opening portion of <i>Alan Wake</i> where he mentions his fear that he may have just killed a man for the first time in his life, but it is merely narration. He doesn’t pause. He doesn’t think. He doesn’t sit and cry. Where are the characters who understand what they are doing? Where are the men and women who wonder whether their enemies had families or futures? </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">And yet here comes <i>Bulletstorm</i>, a game which promises to take itself even less seriously than most modern shooters and to reward players with points for particularly gruesome kills. How long can we fall back on the excuse that only unbalanced minds turn to violence as a result of video games? Are we ready to completely discount the idea that praising the player for causing violence might harm the psyche? Can we really put all of the blame on the parents? All of it?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If violent video games are damaging society, it is not with the level of gore or the realistic simulations of terrible acts. It is the uncaring gaze of the killers we call heroes that encourages the audience to take violence less seriously. Not every video game hero can be a role model, but shouldn’t most of them be better than this?</span>Daniel Bullard-Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930142428698229185noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-52792566652092049832010-05-18T14:55:00.003-04:002010-05-24T11:57:32.731-04:00Addiction or Entertainment?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYvhP2soFmsyhPRWwt0gtB4rGmYsaK06osLnkxWPDYv1kTp1JIWIctxNBAsl68k7i1HOiVjvnxQTy6g8cWAczKTKErQ1w1NN0hYpoGfG3Bc4Ck3w-eeT-0Uo3oZbtTKmMyWfB-D5WMq4K6/s1600/Torchlight+Vanquisher.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYvhP2soFmsyhPRWwt0gtB4rGmYsaK06osLnkxWPDYv1kTp1JIWIctxNBAsl68k7i1HOiVjvnxQTy6g8cWAczKTKErQ1w1NN0hYpoGfG3Bc4Ck3w-eeT-0Uo3oZbtTKmMyWfB-D5WMq4K6/s400/Torchlight+Vanquisher.png" width="400" /></a></div><i>by Daniel Bullard-Bates</i><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Some video games are designed to deliver a complete, finite experience. Sometimes these games deliver story and character arcs, other times merely a series of levels with little to no narrative coherency. These can vary in length, lasting anywhere from a few minutes to many hours, but at the end of that play time, the game is over. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Other games are designed to be played eternally. Even their so-called endings are frail veneers of finality. There is always something more to do. Games like <i>The Sims</i>, <i>World of Warcraft</i>, and <i>Peggle</i> are frequently referred to as “addictive,” which is not a quality one normally seeks out in a product. Still, these games hold a powerful allure. They demand a great deal from the player. A truly addictive single player or multiplayer game can eclipse all other games. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">The first item in <a href="http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/about/mission.html">Blizzard’s mission statement</a> is “gameplay first,” and one of the results is a long track record of incredibly well-implemented mechanics. Blizzard releases are overwhelmingly popular and their addictive properties are a matter of public record. Their games don’t really end. Their single player campaigns are lengthy and substantial, and when those are done, a rich multiplayer experience waits behind. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Some Blizzard games, like <i>Diablo 2</i>, don’t even require a multiplayer component to continue on into eternity. Even with only one character, multiple playthroughs are possible in the search for better and better loot and ever-increasing levels. I’ve lost what seemed like years of my life to that formula. Other games have come close to that level of addictive properties, a recent example being <i>Borderlands</i>, but few have reached the level of polish that Blizzard achieves. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">I began playing <a href="http://www.torchlightgame.com/"><i>Torchlight</i></a> yesterday, and I can already feel its claws digging their way into my flesh. My Vanquisher just got an amazing bow and a second melee weapon worthy of dual-wielding. I have deep stacks of town portal and identify scrolls, and piles of healing and mana potions. I’m close to gaining another level. If I grab a little more gold, I can afford a great gem. I have a long list of quests in my journal. I’m having flashbacks to past addictions. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">In high school and college, a few video games dominated large portions of my life. At boarding school, <i>Starcraft</i> consumed my study hall hours as I reveled in the fact that all the computers on campus were networked together. In my first year of college, in Montreal, I spent many an evening hunched over by the window, my mouse clicks spelling death to demons everywhere in <i>Diablo 2</i>. The persistent world community in <i>Neverwinter Nights</i> consumed days of my life after I moved to Greensboro. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">I wish those games were finite, in retrospect. I consider a great deal of the time I spent with them wasted. Our leisure activities should not generate regret. It made me consider swearing off video games entirely, though I later learned a stronger sense of moderation coupled with a desire to limit myself to certain types of game experiences. I am far more productive than I once was. I have a good job, I started this blog, and I have close friendships and exciting artistic projects. My time to actually play video games is severely curtailed, but my life is more fulfilling as a result.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Though I enjoy playing <i>Torchlight</i>, <i>Plants vs. Zombies</i>, and similarly obsession-fueled games, I get very little satisfaction out of my time with them. The parallels to addiction are darker than we let on: Some games really do help us to shirk responsibility, encourage us to keep playing for just one more level, or call to us when we’re working on unrelated projects. I know that, personally, some video games have had negative impacts on my personal relationships, study habits, and effective use of free time.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Obviously it is my responsibility to monitor my own time and actions, but why do we hold games that can completely distract us from our lives in such high regard? I’ve come to prefer a well-made single player experience with a beginning and ending to an eternal grind. I’m canceling my <i>Starcraft 2</i> preorder but looking forward to <i>Alan Wake</i>. And I’m constantly at war within myself, even as I write this article, to focus on the task at hand and ignore my nagging desire to search the internet for <i>Torchlight</i> tips. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">My free time is much more valuable to me now than it once was. I don’t have the mental space for an addiction. Maybe it’s time to put infinite games behind me, and focus on the finite. After all, I like a good ending.</span>Daniel Bullard-Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930142428698229185noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-2138196811979018362010-05-13T11:14:00.004-04:002010-05-18T15:45:23.186-04:00Humble Beginnings<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLr2uuJj0oTV9qzLp4vMLHNCZ0H3G4tH8D9OWyJ7FS3HXd85CGiEsxGtpUzi312E1pRqpLboP8ZR4YZwo9mT0IifzTvpH0Tlgp_ajS-PyeywNUXi0KgsUA8Ybq-TUmHKKIZ3DOopMvc7E/s1600/Humble.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLr2uuJj0oTV9qzLp4vMLHNCZ0H3G4tH8D9OWyJ7FS3HXd85CGiEsxGtpUzi312E1pRqpLboP8ZR4YZwo9mT0IifzTvpH0Tlgp_ajS-PyeywNUXi0KgsUA8Ybq-TUmHKKIZ3DOopMvc7E/s640/Humble.bmp" width="640" wt="true" /></a></div><i>by C.T. Hutt</i><br />
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I’d like you to imagine a major game developer. Are you picturing Activision or EA? Good choices. They work together for months creating the next blockbuster release. Like good little addicts you and I and hundreds of others line up around the block near a major retailer to be the first to put our hard-earned cash on the barrelhead and walk out of the store with a shiny new game in our clutches. However, after saving all your pennies and standing in line for hours, when you finally reach the cashier and they scan your intended purchase the price comes up as a question mark.<br />
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“What does that mean?” you ask the clerk.<br />
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“It means you can pay whatever you want,” says she.<br />
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“So I could get the game for a dollar?” You inquire, shielding your face with your hands for fear of a violent rebuke.<br />
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“Yeah, whatever. If that’s what you think it’s worth.”<br />
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“Even just a penny?”<br />
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“Sure, that’s fine. Also, we are going to give you four other games. Further, unless you specify otherwise we are going to donate a portion of the profit from your purchase to either helping needy children or ensuring that your civil rights as a gamer are not infringed upon. If you want, you can just make a donation of any size to either of these amazing charities and you still get the games. You don’t have to give the creators anything.”<br />
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“Gasp! I faint.”<br />
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You faint.<br />
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Waking up on your couch, you realize that such a fantasy could never be. Developers of high quality games do not simply give their products away. They are, after all, in the money-making business, just like the rest of us work-a-day people. Also, with the economy still in a funk it’s unrealistic to expect such generosity from wealthy individuals, much less corporations.<br />
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You would be perfectly reasonable to make these assumptions, but you would also be wrong. (Well, not about the big developers, they don’t really do this sort of thing.)<br />
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If you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, I fully encourage anyone who cares about gaming to check out <a href="http://www.wolfire.com/humble">The Humble Bundle</a>, a collection of great indie games that have attached themselves to some very worthy causes, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child’s Play. While I haven’t had a chance to play all the titles included in the bundle, the first two I sampled, <i>World of Goo</i> and <i>Gish</i>, are well worth a donation on their own merits.<br />
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A vital truth, and some would say a key failing, in our capitalist system is that all consumers vote with their wallets. Every time we buy a cola, a bus ticket, or a gallon of gas we are, in a very small way, voicing our approval not only for the product we consume, but for the company who provided us with it. As socially conscious gamers who want the best for our medium and our world at large, The Humble Bundle is an opportunity to make a statement about what we want the gaming industry to be. We also get some awesome games. Imagine if all the industries we paid for our entertainment were so magnanimous; that’s a world in which I would like to live.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00496219299854543889noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-20608767528457630542010-05-10T15:09:00.002-04:002010-05-13T11:17:12.678-04:00Sleep is Death<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRjbTxupWClFXcMo9EHnxa6M9nYY_YLCgGxRq0_5I-cperxwnzTq2FAVdcRJCGr4GMbBFAUNDDCqRbhttm4mVhxmE9lZjynCIjz5PH0M1rsLX7Kwmq9YA-omoN6ImcNWHCAGeZUvreQ8U3/s1600/Sleep+is+Death.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRjbTxupWClFXcMo9EHnxa6M9nYY_YLCgGxRq0_5I-cperxwnzTq2FAVdcRJCGr4GMbBFAUNDDCqRbhttm4mVhxmE9lZjynCIjz5PH0M1rsLX7Kwmq9YA-omoN6ImcNWHCAGeZUvreQ8U3/s400/Sleep+is+Death.png" width="400" /></a></div><i>by Daniel Bullard-Bates</i> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">When I first laid eyes on <a href="http://sleepisdeath.net/"><i>Sleep is Death</i></a>,<i> </i>I was confounded. How can there be a compelling story with such dull, even hideous graphics? How will hosts guide an entire story in thirty seconds using this complicated interface? What if my stories don’t hold up? It takes some time to get past all that, but once the fog lifts the limitless potential of <i>Sleep is Death</i> is revealed.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">It is difficult to talk about <i>Sleep is Death</i> without talking about the stories that result from play, and this is what makes <i>Sleep is Death </i>so fascinating: Each session is unique and personal. After spending some time familiarizing myself with the creator tools and host interface, I invited my friend <a href="http://jekyllian.blogspot.com/">Danielle</a> to play a game with me. I’d prepared a story, using the setting included, about Lilith’s fall from grace in the Garden of Eden. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">The result was sometimes frustrating while we were playing, since the thirty seconds on the timer always seemed to be gone too fast, and this resulted in some unusual moments. We still had fun with our tale of dogs that could only look in one direction, women who seemed to be speaking from their nether regions, cowardly disappearing snakes, and one incredibly rude devil. Even funnier, we discovered, was the flipbook that resulted from our story. All our mistakes became part of the charm of the story. <br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizLb3-7FnTA0-bVMyKHo6JnsDkl4Ru-2WXiZ6Dg0GqT258jJMqu3j64UeQ5dSmcXV7y3aSHMP5zKqRhF7F31OEFEw7HhCLQ0PWAkK3zi0u09Ep-x_VAti6x8FHA-nAbOfjwfTJD-1YqUv1/s1600/galvin.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizLb3-7FnTA0-bVMyKHo6JnsDkl4Ru-2WXiZ6Dg0GqT258jJMqu3j64UeQ5dSmcXV7y3aSHMP5zKqRhF7F31OEFEw7HhCLQ0PWAkK3zi0u09Ep-x_VAti6x8FHA-nAbOfjwfTJD-1YqUv1/s320/galvin.png" width="320" /></a></div>Shortly after our first session, I installed an updated version of the game and downloaded some <a href="http://sleepisdeath.net/galvin.php">visual packs</a> which made the game more attractive. Danielle didn’t have the new version, however, which resulted in some truly bizarre moments for our next game. The resulting flip book was only two frames. The first depicted a pair of legs standing in a surrealist landscape. In the second frame, the legs had moved to the left. They spoke: “Help.” </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">Our third game also encountered technical issues, mostly because Danielle was playing on a much older laptop which was having trouble staying connected wirelessly. A young girl spoke to Danielle’s avatar in a bedroom. She told him she had bad news. At this point, I thought Danielle’s connection cut out, but I sent a silly final frame before I restarted the program. It made it through, and the bedroom became a dark cave as the girl explained the situation: “Shit be freaky.” This is now something that my friends say in casual conversation, like they would quote a favorite book or television episode. As far as emotions go, pride is not often associated with video games. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">We’ve had some successes with the program since then, and the resulting stories have been much more satisfying to play. The real charm of <i>Sleep is Death</i>, however, comes from the fact that even when the experience is less than stellar, even when you feel rushed or confused by the interface or technical difficulties, the results are personal to you and your creative partner. You can show the best stories to your friends in flip books, and they will appreciate these video game stories more than others because they are created and played by their friends. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Jason Rohrer recently said, in <a href="http://www.charge-shot.com/2010/05/artist-apart-talk-with-jason-rohrer.html">an interview with Charge Shot!!!</a>, that Roger Ebert’s views on video games should be taken “as sort of a challenge. Not a challenge that needs to be argued against as much as a challenge that needs to be answered with game design, because I don't think we're doing that very much.” Looking at <i>Sleep is Death</i> in that light, Jason Rohrer’s purpose seems clear: Instead of delivering a piece of video game art, <i>Sleep is Death</i> is a medium for art and storytelling. The quality of that art is entirely left to the players.</span>Daniel Bullard-Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930142428698229185noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-14218837550811609892010-05-07T13:55:00.000-04:002010-05-07T13:55:47.315-04:00One Up<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP6vSgiS1aTcnw1GeUWujIfwfuBg7-xtsqYwGb3cwWsu2CfKN4YUOaW2oXOxvoIKHTkvCCqEbAuk7Yx31_jKbXhFtjC9BM9Tlhg08KdM4WQbZ1QAeUxih10J2qTjsj68dHYf-rENsLDNxb/s1600/1Up.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP6vSgiS1aTcnw1GeUWujIfwfuBg7-xtsqYwGb3cwWsu2CfKN4YUOaW2oXOxvoIKHTkvCCqEbAuk7Yx31_jKbXhFtjC9BM9Tlhg08KdM4WQbZ1QAeUxih10J2qTjsj68dHYf-rENsLDNxb/s200/1Up.jpg" width="200" /></a>As of today, we have been blogging for a full year. It’s been absolutely fantastic to share, argue, discuss, and refine ideas about the social and artistic merits of video games with all of you. We’ve made some good friends, talked to some great developers, and said some intelligent things and some less intelligent things. We have seen the awesome and terrible power of the internet. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Complete strangers have reposted our material and said it was worthwhile! Many thanks to everyone, and in particular to <a href="http://www.critical-distance.com/">Ben Abraham</a>, <a href="http://insultswordfighting.blogspot.com/">Mitch Krpata</a>, and <a href="http://www.thegamecritique.com/">Eric Swain</a> for keeping an eye on the site and deeming us worthy of a link every once in a while. We are humbled every time.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Other complete strangers have questioned us, critiqued us, and challenged our arguments! You know what? That’s valuable, too. Every comment you leave us adds to the ever-expanding dialog about our beloved medium and its place in society and the arts. Your input keeps us honest and adds to our collective understanding of video games, so keep those comments coming. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">It’s been a great year, and we’re glad that you’re all here. It’s fine if you didn’t get us anything for our birthday. Your presence presents all the presents we presently desire. Oh, you insist on getting us something? Then tell your friends to swing by and check out the site if you think they might like it. There is a huge community of people out there interested in the same idea: that video games can challenge society and reach incredible artistic heights. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">We want those people in our lives. Thanks for reading! <o:p></o:p></div>Daniel Bullard-Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930142428698229185noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-20385754083363429402010-05-05T17:05:00.003-04:002010-05-07T13:56:24.036-04:00Survival of the Daring<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOVdbqFFBUj8sL4a27yJBQkuAKbPY6bRs8MPFkr_9SLjcpO-NpQx9DF51sK66HXeuejhVkDbTvuEEwi7rvrFIJrIBrL3y2Sj7Lrtjt3FF1EO7EmJJztevVUvRzZDU0Udrh_w_nncGoN3M/s1600/dead_sonic_bones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOVdbqFFBUj8sL4a27yJBQkuAKbPY6bRs8MPFkr_9SLjcpO-NpQx9DF51sK66HXeuejhVkDbTvuEEwi7rvrFIJrIBrL3y2Sj7Lrtjt3FF1EO7EmJJztevVUvRzZDU0Udrh_w_nncGoN3M/s320/dead_sonic_bones.jpg" tt="true" /></a></div><i>by C.T. Hutt</i><br />
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Times are tough; money is scarce. Even devoted gamers are forced to watch every penny they spend on their beloved pastime. So when a little blue hedgehog told me about a deal where I could get 48 classic Sega games for fifteen bucks I forked over the gold rings and bought a copy of <i>Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection</i>. I was raised in a Nintendo household, but I thought this might be a good opportunity study the fossil records of some classic games. After some contemplation, I’ve realized why Sega lost the console war of the late eighties. It wasn’t the archaic graphics or outdated control schemes that put me off these titles today; it was their total lack of innovation.<br />
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While Nintendo may be infamous for its reluctance to deal with adult themes or offer original plots and storylines, there is no denying that their innovations have shaped a great deal of the medium today. Sega, despite their superior graphics and sleeker spokes-character, was keen to refine and duplicate Nintendo’s ideas, but offered few of their own to the primordial stew of early video games. <br />
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I realize that the titles contained in <i>Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection</i> are not all highlights on Sega’s curriculum vitae, but it does include some of the most popular games from the platform: the <i>Streets of Rage</i> series, the <i>Golden Axe</i> series, <i>Ecco the Dolphin</i>, and of course the first three <i>Sonic the Hedgehog</i> games. The collection also includes a number of RPGs and innumerable side-scrolling brawlers that do not warrant more than a moment’s glance. These games illustrate Sega’s policy of borrowing from Nintendo and frequent iteration. <br />
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In art and entertainment it’s bad enough to see old ideas recycled into irrelevance (see most summer movies), but to have developers mimic their own creations without adding substantive elements is tedious and uninteresting. Such inbreeding leads to genetic depression, as evidenced by a comparison of Nintendo’s and Sega’s signature titles. The first three Mario games were virtually identical in terms of plot, but varied greatly in visual style and game play. In the first there were two power-ups, the fire flower and the invincibility star. By the third game there were more than seven power ups plus a variety of new puzzles and mini-games. The <i>Sonic the Hedgehog</i> series offered a few new elements by its third installment, <i>Sonic and Knuckles</i>, but it was released four years after <i>Super Mario Brothers Three</i>. As Sega continued to work on perfecting its fins and tail, Nintendo was taking its first steps on dry land.<br />
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Our place in history gives us the benefit of knowing how this evolutionary tale ends. By the turn of the millennium, Sega’s early failings in innovation caught up with it and the world’s speediest azure erinaceidae was run down by the steady march of time. As a game, <i>Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection</i> serves less as a source of nostalgia and entertainment and more of a cautionary tale to developers who content themselves to re-hash old ideas rather than come up with new ones.<br />
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But the story is far from over. As gaming’s ace predators Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony content themselves with the profits from each reiteration and hasty reboot, a quiet revolution is taking place. Independent developers and home brew game designers are beginning to make themselves seen in the public eye. Though rough in form and small in scale, games like Jason Rohrer’s <i>Sleep is Death</i>, ThatGameCompany’s <i>Flower</i>, and Jonathan Blow’s <i>Braid</i> are taking the medium in bold new directions. If history gives us any indication of what the future will hold, the top place on the food chain belongs to those who dare to tread on new ground.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00496219299854543889noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-64571642512762051022010-05-03T16:30:00.004-04:002010-05-05T17:37:34.945-04:00Pong<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgctTvtYZ0Z6vZGQaxi6LScsNDxu1zRZggipsKnlBR9K7MLlRywGQSlhI5tcJo6nwzt-vKjzpQ2fpqXZC3I_cHLLGW5c3y1Z6HTrjj-sA3rRi-xT_0EGM17ib5U1EWsNSuErXN7n7szGtQW/s1600/Pong.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgctTvtYZ0Z6vZGQaxi6LScsNDxu1zRZggipsKnlBR9K7MLlRywGQSlhI5tcJo6nwzt-vKjzpQ2fpqXZC3I_cHLLGW5c3y1Z6HTrjj-sA3rRi-xT_0EGM17ib5U1EWsNSuErXN7n7szGtQW/s640/Pong.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i>by Daniel Bullard-Bates</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">In the beginning, there was <i>Pong</i>. Glorious <i>Pong</i>, with its gargantuan cabinet and two shining wheels. Progenitor <i>Pong</i>, revered ancestor of all video games. <i>Pong</i>, perfect in its symmetry: two dimensions, two colors, two players. Thus began the primal story. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">I am Pong and you are Pong. We fight.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">From the fertile loins of <i>Pong</i> sprung limitless forms of video game competition. <i>Pong</i> was based on tennis, and we now have video game versions of every popular world sport, but <i>Pong</i>’s legacy does not stop there. That simple idea of two players, one screen, and competition spawned entire genres of gaming: Fighting games, racing games, and eventually even split-screen first-person shooters. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i>Pong </i>was pure competition based on a sport. Now competitive video games have become sports themselves. There are professional players of <i>Starcraft</i>, <i>Street Fighter</i>, and <i>CounterStrike</i>. There are joysticks and controllers designed with the professional gamer in mind. All hail <i>Pong</i>. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i>Pong</i>’s detractors will claim that it now seems rudimentary, even dull, but is it not simple enough to be understood by all? <i>Pong </i>speaks a universal language. It is the language of love and friendship, of two people having more fun together than they would apart. It is also the language of war, for those two are locked in endless combat.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Some will say that <i>Pong </i>was not the first to enter the arcades and draw worship, and indeed, there were false prophets before the coming of <i>Pong</i>.<i> </i>What if <i>Computer Space</i>, the world’s first commercially sold coin-operated video game, had been the first to gain popularity? A spaceship fires rockets at flying saucers and avoids their fire. There are twin stick shooters even today, praying to the false god called <i>Computer Space</i>, but their popularity reflects their heretical beliefs. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i>Pong</i>’s glorious victory<i> </i>changed the face of entertainment. It showed that we can enjoy technology, friendship, and competition simultaneously. In the new world that <i>Pong</i> created, we care little for the high scores of strangers. We live in the moment. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Our concerns are immediate: Can I snipe that space marine before he sees me? Do I have the resources to support my growing army? Can I pull off my ultra combo? Can I kill Pong before Pong kills me? </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i>Pong</i> will never be forgotten. Eternal <i>Pong</i>, which made electronics fun. Blessed <i>Pong</i>, which taught us of digital victory and defeat. Primeval <i>Pong</i>, unassailable and absolute. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Fear. Love. <i>Pong</i>.</div>Daniel Bullard-Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930142428698229185noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-72673300438222043112010-04-30T15:13:00.009-04:002010-05-03T16:55:54.184-04:00Basket Weaving, Orienteering, Tekken<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2vUJ84LPQt4KuFjTOE_4NzmSFayKlwn8TaV8xikim_qV1LMSOMdqM9RPm-5C4TXCIFB_E6iPdr8umS0ohq2gXQ0V0KDNaK9vJkNv-eK2TmlzHpplVY07bdPHGucAP92AuyfrSuXW-z0c/s1600/video_games_pin.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466010948585382866" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2vUJ84LPQt4KuFjTOE_4NzmSFayKlwn8TaV8xikim_qV1LMSOMdqM9RPm-5C4TXCIFB_E6iPdr8umS0ohq2gXQ0V0KDNaK9vJkNv-eK2TmlzHpplVY07bdPHGucAP92AuyfrSuXW-z0c/s320/video_games_pin.jpg" style="float: left; height: 144px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 160px;" /></a> <i>by C.T. Hutt</i><br />
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When I read this week that the Cub Scouts were offering a <a href="http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/28/cub-scouts-to-offer-video-gaming-pin/?iref=allsearch">new merit badge</a> based on a young person’s skills as a video gamer I was floored. We are enthusiastic proponents of the video game medium, but even we will admit that there are <a href="http://presspausetoreflect.blogspot.com/2010/02/game-can-wait.html">limits</a> to how far digital experiences should permeate our lives. Surely the Cub Scouts, an organization dedicated to teaching young people practical skills and encouraging them to explore the outdoors, is the wrong organization to promote the merits of an inherently indoor activity.<br />
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A quick glance at the <a href="http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/cubscouts/awards/boys/sanda/video_games.aspx">Cub Scouts’ requirements</a> for attaining the video game merit badge sheds some much needed light on the issue. Each required step necessary to attain this mark of recognition encourages young people to not just be gamers, but to be engaged gamers. The steps teach kids to budget their time, to pay attention to the game rating system, and most importantly to seek their parents advice on the suitability of a given title.<br />
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Considering the limited exposure many kids have to the arts, digital or otherwise, makes this program seem like an even better idea. Children learn how to read in school, so literature makes an early appearance in the foundations of education (as well it should). If kids are lucky, they may get to take an art class to help them appreciate the basics of design theory and the joy of creative expression. Beyond these rudimentary foundations kids are given little or no guidance toward appreciating the arts. Standard curricula do nothing to encourage children to become savvy and mature video game consumers. If they did, perhaps we would see the market for violent doggerel in the medium decrease.<br />
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As someone who espouses the virtues of intelligent gaming I can’t fault the scouts for attempting to improve kids gaming literacy, especially since no one else is making an effort to do so. I also have to concede that my initial resistance to this idea is based mainly in my preconceived notions of what the Scouts should be. Any effort to make kids better consumers of anything is a positive and much needed undertaking. So my salute goes out to you Cub Scouts of America, now see what you can do about getting teenage and adult gamers to weigh the same considerations when they fire up the console.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00496219299854543889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-5535688817326649732010-04-28T15:57:00.002-04:002010-05-03T16:43:07.114-04:00The Permanent Collection<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdPzruycI_JoO0qwVhF-IRGA8dGcG_gUDvBGiM3uepsvvlh1i12T-Lozw_t5Z4M3XDSt9cAaBP4onngYNbVXMcpPSY61hNIOvufsgVzlKyvlwgUADg7-9DkM6XvkHkJQaQhj2iB5wewpMN/s1600/Bookshelf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdPzruycI_JoO0qwVhF-IRGA8dGcG_gUDvBGiM3uepsvvlh1i12T-Lozw_t5Z4M3XDSt9cAaBP4onngYNbVXMcpPSY61hNIOvufsgVzlKyvlwgUADg7-9DkM6XvkHkJQaQhj2iB5wewpMN/s400/Bookshelf.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><i>by Daniel Bullard-Bates<o:p></o:p></i><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Do you think there is anything interesting about <i>Gears of War</i> or its sequel, apart from the mechanics? Anything that will make you want to return to that game in some ill-imagined future? I'm thinking of trading them in, since they don't really offer any unique experiences I can think of, beyond the first playthrough. The story is laughable and other games have stolen their mechanics and improved them. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">This is true of many games: You play through them once, maybe longer if they have some appealing mechanic or compelling multiplayer, and then you forget them forever. I enjoyed <i>Mirror's Edge</i>, <i>Darksiders</i>, the <i>Professor Layton</i> games, and <i>Assassin's Creed</i>, but I don't see myself returning to them. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">A lot of people trade in every game they've finished, but I keep all my favorites. There are some works of fiction that I return to frequently; I play <i>Half-Life 2</i> as often as I read <i>Slaughterhouse-Five</i> or watch <i>Brazil</i>. It is unthinkable that any of them would be absent from my permanent collection. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Replay value is enhanced by allowing the player to make different choices on a second playthrough or by including an in-depth multiplayer experience, but to gain a place in the hallowed, arcadian halls of gaming excellence requires something more. The games that we revisit time and again are the ones that provide an experience that can't be found anywhere else. I just haven't played a story-driven first-person shooter as exciting and interesting as <i>Half-Life 2</i> and its episodes. I've never played a tactical role-playing game as well-designed, both in fiction and mechanics, as <i>Baldur's Gate 2</i>. I've played games that come close, like <i>Dragon Age: Origins</i>, but they don't reach those heights. That's also why we anticipate sequels so strongly to the games we love: we want to see those classic games be outdone, so that we can have an even better experience than the one that has consumed our minds and imaginations in the past. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i>Gears of War 2</i> makes <i>Gears of War</i> irrelevant. There's nothing to go back to, no interesting story or fascinating gameplay that wasn't carried over to the sequel. This isn't true of all franchises; <i>God of War 2</i> improves on the action set pieces of <i>God of War</i>, but it's a step backwards in terms of the narrative and puzzle-solving. Kratos doesn't develop as a character after the first game. The <i>God of War </i>sequels are worth playing for the epic battles and titanic action sequences, but the first has something more profound to offer. There is a character, and a narrative, and a very creative dungeon of complex puzzles and difficult platforming. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">So, readers, what makes you want to keep a game and return to it? What does a game have to do to earn a spot in your permanent collection? <o:p></o:p></div>Daniel Bullard-Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930142428698229185noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-91757193486642082322010-04-26T11:38:00.004-04:002010-04-28T15:58:06.781-04:00Violent Video Games and the Supreme Court<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibgFxdu8DbGGg8JzUDunhKzd6oJ4x5LxAzb8f9FTMkI2rcHAL2SLCR8Su93fy9sOKlS1qThLeRFPuC8D9OEwQp-6eQ2PVx2P2vMiy1vyY9VIzI1wNGSfUw3y_1ebEpKqCzigfPL7k9M8Z7/s1600/supreme+Court+Justices.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibgFxdu8DbGGg8JzUDunhKzd6oJ4x5LxAzb8f9FTMkI2rcHAL2SLCR8Su93fy9sOKlS1qThLeRFPuC8D9OEwQp-6eQ2PVx2P2vMiy1vyY9VIzI1wNGSfUw3y_1ebEpKqCzigfPL7k9M8Z7/s400/supreme+Court+Justices.jpg" tt="true" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>by Daniel Bullard-Bates</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>The Supreme Court of the United States <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/042610zor.pdf">granted <i>certiorari</i> this morning</a> in <i>Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants</i>, a case regarding the constitutionality of a state law which may have serious ramifications for the distribution of video games. The state of California made the appeal, asking that the Court enable states to completely ban the sale or rental of violent games to customers less than eighteen years of age. <br />
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The grant of <i>certiorari</i> had been on hold for some time, pending the decision in another case, <i>U.S. v. Stevens</i>, in which <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-769.pdf">the Justices refused to abridge the right to free speech</a> regarding the depiction of animal cruelty on video tapes. They struck down a federal law banning said depictions in products intended for sale or profit. The video game case is more specific: While the tapes depicting animal cruelty are legal for sale or profit in general, this case deals more narrowly with the sale of violent video games to minors. <br />
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In 2005, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stated that a law banning the sale of violent video games along with other obscene content was not the least restrictive means of keeping violent, objectionable material out of the hands of minors. If the Supreme Court were to do as the state of California requests in their appeal, this case would allow a constitutional standard which previously applied only to obscene materials to also apply to violent materials, allowing states to ban violent video game sales to minors in a manner similar to the restrictions on pornographic materials. <br />
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The standard that would apply is derived from the 1968 case <i><a href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8460647428333624773&hl=en&as_sdt=20002&as_vis=1">Ginsberg v. New York</a></i>, which allows states to pass laws barring minors’ access to obscene materials if the legislature determines that exposure to such materials would be harmful. <br />
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If this standard were to apply to video games, it is important to note that we are not talking about the possible banning of violent games, but the application of stricter restrictions on games being sold to minors. It may also affect the ratings system: Currently, most video games which depict extreme violence are given the rating of “Mature,” which means that it is legal to sell to customers seventeen and older. That age would be raised to eighteen, and it is possible that some violent titles previously rated “Teen” might not be legal to sell to minors either, though this is speculation on my part. <br />
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Alternatively, extremely violent video games might be given the rating of “Adults Only,” which already restricts sale to those eighteen or older, but most retail stores currently do not carry AO titles, and Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo do not allow AO titles to be licensed for their consoles. It is unlikely that the ESRB would change their ratings system if only a few states adopted laws which restricted violent video game sales, but if the practice were to become more widespread it seems more likely. This could actually have a positive effect: If the most popular violent titles were to be rated “Adults Only,” the console manufacturers and retail outlets might loosen their restrictions on AO-rated titles, allowing greater freedom to video game designers. It seems unlikely, however, that AO titles would sell as well at first, since there is a negative stigma attached to the rating.<br />
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One way or another, the decision in this case may have a serious impact on the sale of video games in the United States. The case will be heard by the Supreme Court during its next term, which starts on October 4th. <br />
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(via <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/2010/04/court-to-rule-on-violent-videos/">Scotusblog</a>)Daniel Bullard-Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930142428698229185noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-30408860618951980372010-04-21T16:21:00.008-04:002010-04-26T11:55:57.127-04:00Dasvidaniya, Martian<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjImjoTRjvT6AG17Rr_jdtN-pTuixoGE4X0yxx3e0JpcMpuHOMiXKo_tybngkIMzoSufmLKOUmm0HXe02BA0pTiHpE3IaD6DGTcrRTtVI1puN6vqD10oYqo3tjt53hyphenhyphenLyHXw8XMmM9AuP0/s1600/russian_revolution_1918.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5462689456908053554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjImjoTRjvT6AG17Rr_jdtN-pTuixoGE4X0yxx3e0JpcMpuHOMiXKo_tybngkIMzoSufmLKOUmm0HXe02BA0pTiHpE3IaD6DGTcrRTtVI1puN6vqD10oYqo3tjt53hyphenhyphenLyHXw8XMmM9AuP0/s320/russian_revolution_1918.jpg" style="display: block; height: 207px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a><i>by C.T. Hutt </i><br />
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</i>By night, the streets are hushed. To a blind man it might seem as though civilization was never established on the inhospitable soil of the motherland. The disastrous economic policies of a detached and archaic government have left the once proud civilization in ruins. Clinging to a decadent past, the tyrants of old have tightened their grip around the throat of the populace, muting their cries for reform. Even still, in a dark basement in the most rural and secluded corner of the nation a few dedicated individuals dare to huddle together and between them whisper a single word against the oppressive silence: revolution.<br />
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The spark catches, traveling faster than anyone could have dreamed across the country. Soon the nights are no longer silent, but filled with the battle cries of patriots and madmen. The seconds of twilight are measured in gunfire. The whisper becomes a shout and the spark becomes a wildfire. Soon the whole nation is filled with the roar of the common people.<br />
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Sadly, this is not the end of the story. Those bright ideals that gave the proletariat their victory were realized at a terrible price. Only once the revolution was won did the full cost to the nation, the culture, and to the peoples’ very souls make itself clear. This is the true story of <s>The Bolshevik Revolution</s> <i>Red Faction: Guerilla</i>, a story humanity would do well to remember.<br />
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I only wish that <i>Red Faction: Guerrilla</i> were that interesting. The premise of the game and the symbols used throughout have all the trimmings of an Orwellian satire. Unfortunately, the title fails to become an effective metaphor. I will be the first to admit that my expectations for this game were unrealistically high, but Volition, Inc., who developed <i>Red Faction: Guerilla</i>, could have made something really fantastic if they had just avoided some common pitfalls. Specifically:<br />
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<u>A main character motivated by revenge</u>: Living under the thumb of an oppressive government is more than enough impetus to get a revolutionary out of bed in the morning. Having the bad guys gun down a relative in the first five minutes of the game is not only unnecessary, it is one of the most overused plot devices ever.<br />
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<u>Excessive Minigames</u>: The main strategy of the resistance forces in <i>Red Faction: Guerilla</i> seems to be to move from area to area and execute the same eight or nine tasks. These tasks take the form of score-based or time-based minigames. Not only does this entail an excruciating amount of repetition for the player, every time a task is completed gameplay abruptly stops and gives you a rundown of your statistics. The revolution will not be graphed. This is just lazy programming; there is no excuse for it.<br />
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<u>Non-characters</u>: The protagonist of <i>Red Faction: Guerilla</i> is Alec Mason, a miner turned revolutionary. We know that his family is dead and that he’s a little skeptical about the whole “take back the planet” idea, but that’s it. The secondary characters include a lady mechanic who has a sort of British accent and the leader of the Red Faction, an old white guy. Also there is the antagonist; he wears a dark military coat and has a raspy voice so you know he is evil. If developers can’t be bothered to add a little originality to their characters, I can’t be bothered to care about them.<br />
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<i>Red Faction: Guerilla</i> could have been the medium’s attempt at <i>Animal Farm</i>. Instead, developers set their sights lower and gave us <i>The Saboteur</i> meets <i>Total Recall</i>. Being able to destroy almost any building in the game is certainly an amusing feature, but this title could have retold an important story from our shared heritage. I can’t help but feel disappointed.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00496219299854543889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-12287571624117273712010-04-20T10:55:00.006-04:002010-04-21T10:00:12.308-04:00More Responses to EbertLots of excellent responses to Ebert's article on why <a href="http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/04/video_games_can_never_be_art.html">video games can never be art</a> have been cropping up since he posted it. Here are the best ones I've seen since posting <a href="http://presspausetoreflect.blogspot.com/2010/04/why-roger-ebert-is-wrong-about-video.html">my own response</a>:<br />
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<a href="http://kotaku.com/5520437/my-response-to-roger-ebert-video-game-skeptic">Kellee Santiago responds</a>, explaining the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9y6MYDSAww">talk that she gave at USC</a> and critiquing Ebert's response to the arguments she presented in said talk.<br />
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<a href="http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=04&year=2010&base_name=ebert_says_video_games_can_nev">Adam Serwer offers his perspective</a> on the American Prospect blog.<br />
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<a href="http://kotaku.com/5520087/an-open-letter-to-roger-ebert">Brian Ashcraft presents a thorough analysis</a> of Ebert's authority as a film critic and lack of authority as a video game critic on Kotaku.<br />
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<a href="http://gaygamer.net/2010/04/i_finally_understand_eberts_cl.html">NaviFairy of GayGamer.net takes issue</a> with Ebert's claim that you always "win" a video game.<br />
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On a lighter note, Kirk Hamilton of Gamer Melodico has put together <a href="http://www.gamermelodico.com/2010/04/games-as-art-flowchart.html">a flow chart</a> which Ebert should consult the next time he sits down to write about video games.<br />
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Over at IGN, <a href="http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/108/1084651p2.html">Mike Thomsen points out</a> some of the illuminating artistic criticism that has been written by actual video game critics, and eloquently explains some of the key differences between video games and other games.<br />
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Though they certainly don't need me to link to them, Penny Arcade has offered some concise commentary, both in <a href="http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/4/21/">blog</a> and <a href="http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/4/21/">comic</a> form. <br />
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<a href="mailto:info@presspausetoreflect.com">Send us an e-mail</a> or comment with your favorite posts or your own responses, and we'll endeavor to compile all the best arguments here.Daniel Bullard-Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930142428698229185noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-29627705245359157502010-04-19T10:31:00.015-04:002010-04-21T16:02:13.121-04:00Why Roger Ebert Is Wrong About Video Games<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-xb6FwzRQkyxTZ0hcFiiSEwUK-dMkKCgOcMmzQBg0yZJN3zo1UWK3VxTKycbcwXbvFIHz9b72K-Jt7YF1hy36Kzm-iD1LPtA4XES1ryDZU3CQ-y4sQ2G2mVDQdz4BiWl5NZDrc3l7n2NL/s1600/roger-ebert-thumbs-up-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-xb6FwzRQkyxTZ0hcFiiSEwUK-dMkKCgOcMmzQBg0yZJN3zo1UWK3VxTKycbcwXbvFIHz9b72K-Jt7YF1hy36Kzm-iD1LPtA4XES1ryDZU3CQ-y4sQ2G2mVDQdz4BiWl5NZDrc3l7n2NL/s400/roger-ebert-thumbs-up-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">by Daniel Bullard-Bates</span></span></i><br />
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<blockquote>“Obviously, I’m hopelessly handicapped because of my love of cinema…”<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Roger Ebert</div></blockquote><br />
After reading <a href="http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/04/video_games_can_never_be_art.html">Roger Ebert’s new diatribe</a> against video games as an art form, I wrote an obnoxiously long, point-by-point response to his arguments. Re-reading it in a less heated state, however, I found that I continued to return to one point in particular, which may be more valuable than any other in understanding Ebert’s close-mindedness. The simple response to Ebert is this: He doesn’t know very much about video games.<br />
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He hasn’t studied them. He didn’t spend much time playing them growing up. He doesn’t understand what constitutes an innovation in gameplay or a tribute to an early classic. He’s a very well-educated and well-respected critic, so it is tempting to believe that his opinions are somehow more valuable than others, but they are not. He has made his living as a film critic, not a video game critic. He doesn’t understand the art form.<br />
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From Ebert’s article:<br />
<blockquote>Having once made the statement [that video games can never be art], I have declined all opportunities to enlarge upon it or defend it. That seemed to be a fool's errand, especially given the volume of messages I receive urging me to play this game or that and recant the error of my ways. Nevertheless, I remain convinced that <i>in principle</i>, video games cannot be art. Perhaps it is foolish of me to say "never," because never, as Rick Wakeman informs us, is a long, long time. Let me just say that no video gamer now living will survive long enough to experience the medium as an art form.</blockquote><br />
The hubris here is awe-inspiring. Having received countless messages from enthusiasts of a new art form, Ebert has consciously come to the conclusion that he knows better than any of them, despite his lack of education on the subject. He also knows, for a fact, what is and isn’t art.<br />
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Over the course of the rest of the article, Ebert discusses several different possible definitions of art. Some of them are definitions that Kellee Santiago offered in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9y6MYDSAww">a talk she gave at USC</a>, some of them are definitions that Ebert identifies as more convincing. One thing that is important to note here is that human beings have been trying to successfully define art for a very long time. It is a question for philosophers and artists to debate forever. I’m not sure we’ll ever have a perfect definition, and we never should.<br />
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When someone is asked to define art, the correct response is to refuse to do so. By defining art we limit it, and if there is one thing that we should never do, it is to limit art. To define art is to cripple the artist.<br />
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Ebert continues:<br />
<blockquote>But we could play all day with definitions, and find exceptions to every one. For example, I tend to think of art as usually the creation of one artist. Yet a cathedral is the work of many, and is it not art? One could think of it as countless individual works of art unified by a common purpose. Is not a tribal dance an artwork, yet the collaboration of a community? Yes, but it reflects the work of individual choreographers. Everybody didn't start dancing all at once.</blockquote><br />
It is bizarre to think that Ebert, primarily a film critic, is prejudiced in a fundamental way against collaborative art forms. Who is the one artist who creates a film? Is it the director? Is it the screenwriter? Is it the novelist on whose book the screenwriter based the script? Is it the primary photographer? His statement does, however, help to explain why he is less inclined to be impressed by video games, despite the fact that many games have creative directors whose ideas are being conveyed by their team.<br />
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Ebert judges Santiago’s examples of artistic games thusly:<br />
<blockquote>The three games she chooses as examples [<i>Waco Resurrection</i>, <i>Braid</i>, and <i>Flower</i>] do not raise my hopes for a video game that will deserve my attention long enough to play it. They are, I regret to say, pathetic. I repeat [Santiago's statement]: "No one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great poets, filmmakers, novelists and poets."</blockquote><br />
He and Santiago are both right about that last part.<br />
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The problem with the old question of the <i>Citizen Kane</i> of gaming is that <i>Citizen Kane</i> is an unhelpful standard for measurement. It’s too film-specific, and it isn’t shooting high enough. What video games need is a Shakespeare. Shakespeare revolutionized the English language by making the language serve his purposes. If no word suited his sentence, he invented one. If normal linguistic structure would not suffice, he rearranged it.<br />
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To create truly amazing art, video game auteurs need to play with gameplay and interactivity, the elements that truly set video games apart, in the same way that Shakespeare played with language. Too many of the video games released today rely on the examples that have come before. Some of these early art games may seem too experimental and strange to be effective, but this experimentation is what it takes to reach that point of vaunted artistic achievement.<br />
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Maybe, like Ebert says, it won’t happen in our lifetimes. That being said, there is no doubt in my mind that video games will reach those heights of achievement with time.</div>Daniel Bullard-Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930142428698229185noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-10758110608642132662010-04-16T16:39:00.005-04:002010-04-19T10:43:44.931-04:00Brush Your Teeth, Finish Your Raid, and Go to Bed<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpjjcdiSQHycIvZguTos_bwRjp-QPoTnAOcOf898r0VrpUjOzT-FAoH3NQGWQtdPX05EVOpHEUtwtl4FC96hHyEmrG83rlnjqnZUljoAqJrGfvXtu_jvwPaYXduXpGkRn63YbhDSZN_Kc/s1600/the_internet_it_s_a_series_of_tubes_ted_steven_mousepad-p144735916310490660trak_400.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5460838473725188018" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpjjcdiSQHycIvZguTos_bwRjp-QPoTnAOcOf898r0VrpUjOzT-FAoH3NQGWQtdPX05EVOpHEUtwtl4FC96hHyEmrG83rlnjqnZUljoAqJrGfvXtu_jvwPaYXduXpGkRn63YbhDSZN_Kc/s320/the_internet_it_s_a_series_of_tubes_ted_steven_mousepad-p144735916310490660trak_400.jpg" style="float: right; height: 320px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<div><i>by C.T. Hutt</i></div><i></i><br />
<div><i><br />
</i></div>Childhood videogame addiction has become the new darling scapegoat of fussy PTAs and politicians; the phenomenon is blamed for everything from slumping test scores to childhood obesity. When a new and pervasive problem like this is introduced to society, what can be done? Who could possibly step in to save helpless citizens? Say hello to our hero: a half-baked piece of domestic legislation.<br />
<div><br />
The South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced this week that they will be implementing a country wide internet service restriction for six hours every night to curb online videogame addiction in minors. The so called “nighttime shutdown” will apply to most online video games available to young people in the hope of promoting better sleeping and study habits. This decree comes in the wake of a widely syndicated <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8600517.stm">news story </a>in Korea about a couple who let their infant child die of malnutrition while they played online games. Despite its good intentions, this decision sets a disastrous precedent for the place of government in our digital lives.</div><div><a name='more'></a><br />
Video game addiction for South Korea’s kids is a serious issue. A survey compiled by the Korea Youth Counseling Institute indicates that approximately 29% of Korea’s school children suffer from some kind of gaming or internet addiction, hence the government’s decision to step in and make things right. The problems with a government body’s intrusion into the private activities of citizens and corporations are manifold. Not the least of these is that government officials have a notoriously poor understanding of modern technology (hence the quote in the picture from the United State’s former Senator Ted Stevens).</div><div><br />
The concept of legislating on a country-wide level when children can and cannot play a game is impractical if not impossible. Even if the Korean government had the power to fully enact this plan, doing so would have significant negative implications. Under this decree, every young gamer in Korea will have to register their digital personas with a federal body, people will have to surrender control of their internet connections to the government, and gaming companies will be obligated to hand over the personal information of their clients to the feds. This is to say nothing of the fact that kids will almost certainly find a way to hack around these restrictions. In a free and democratic country like South Korea, this mandate from a relatively small government body is an empty suit. But just because it is sure to be widely ignored doesn’t make it any less misguided.</div><div><br />
Because this plan is destined to fail I am not overly concerned for the status of gaming freedom for Korea’s youth in the near future. However, the precedent set by suggesting that government should be the intervening force to resolve this type of issue is troubling. Rather than ask how the government can tackle the negative effects of childhood videogame addiction, I think it would be more pertinent to first inquire if governments should be the force telling children when to go to bed. The answer to that question is a resounding no. This decree is a clear example of government overstepping its bounds. (If only there were some expression I could use to describe a federal administrative body as a domestic overseer of children, like an older sibling or a parent should be. Ah well.)</div><div><br />
Thankfully there is an organization with the power to tackle this problem without spending a dime of taxpayers’ money or further blurring the lines between government power and people’s personal lives: parents. You want your kid to study? Sit them down at the table and put a book in front of them. You want them to go to bed? Turn off the computer and tuck them in. The only sensible solution to the problem of childhood video game addiction is good parenting.<br />
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If we depend on government solutions to solve our personal problems with gaming, we risk giving up control of our medium to a body that doesn’t really understand it. It’s a bad move for gaming, for free speech, and for private life.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00496219299854543889noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-66173705470526524682010-04-14T16:42:00.002-04:002010-04-16T16:44:50.332-04:00Double-Take: Rewards<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGdS86Q_9-ZXcfLdN182gLa2y5SV4wRah0fZiisXy_OzQP6enp8jFZLERSRlYzB0KkRlbgKSmjCV8hYTL6rPEIVwfwN7Z2zC1yPnpW00vAtKgJTCN5eToh3aD1jWVvCpBzKF9JD6RHww7O/s1600/zelda3_treasure.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGdS86Q_9-ZXcfLdN182gLa2y5SV4wRah0fZiisXy_OzQP6enp8jFZLERSRlYzB0KkRlbgKSmjCV8hYTL6rPEIVwfwN7Z2zC1yPnpW00vAtKgJTCN5eToh3aD1jWVvCpBzKF9JD6RHww7O/s400/zelda3_treasure.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><i>by Daniel Bullard-Bates and C.T. Hutt</i></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><i>In our double-takes, we give our informal, conversational thoughts on a specific game or topic.</i></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Daniel: </b>Video games reward the player in a variety of ways. Some games reward the player's progress by showing them something awe-inspiring, be it a pre-rendered cut scene or a thrilling set piece. Others use new weapons, leveling up, and other systems of player empowerment. One classic reward system is the high score; a modern analogue is the achievement/trophy systems that have recently come into favor. No matter how a game doles them out, rewards are a key element of the pacing and design of most video games. How easily one reaps a game's rewards is also a large indicator of a game's difficulty.<br />
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So what are the most effective systems? The most satisfying rewards I have ever received from video games have been intellectual ones; to be more specific, I treasure the sense of victory that comes from solving a particularly interesting, intelligent puzzle. <i>Braid</i> was incredibly effective in this regard. I would get frustrated for a while, fiddle around with my various options for interaction, and eventually stumble on something that worked with a sense of sudden elation. Puzzle games are enthralling because they make the player feel intelligent when they successfully complete a challenge. This formula can also lead to discouragement and self-doubt, but to me, those hard-earned intellectual victories are worth the risk of feeling like an idiot from time to time.<br />
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So what video game rewards do you most crave, and why? </div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b>C.T.:</b><span style="font-size: small;"> For me nothing compels me forward in a game like the promise of a well-rounded narrative. When I actually care what is going to happen to the characters in a game I will always be willing to try that much harder to master the skills needed to find out what happens at the end. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Exploration is another way that games reward us for our efforts. The best part about expansive world games such as <i>Oblivion</i> or <i>Fallout 3</i> is seeing everything the worlds have to offer. This method of exploration can be taken to unfortunate extremes as is the case in the <i>Grand Theft Auto</i> games, where players are asked to search every nook and cranny of an entire city to locate newspapers, bleh.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">I also consider it a success when a game manages to illicit an emotional response from me. I was genuinely upset by the events in <i>Shadow of the Colossus</i>. Any game which manages to overcome schlock and sensationalism and get me involved in the experience is certain to keep my attention and keep me playing. Whether the emotion being evoked is fear, anger, sadness, or joy, becoming wrapped up in the gaming experience on a human level is really the great reward of all art.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Daniel:</b></span> Another thing that <i>Shadow of the Colossus</i> did well was the reward of pure visual spectacle. Seeing some of those Colossi for the first time was awe-inspiring. Wondering how you were going to fight the thing was invigorating. This is a reward scheme that <i>Final Fantasy</i> also tends to do well: to put it simply, just seeing something awesome from time to time can keep a game compelling and exciting. Wanting to see the wild visuals of the next Square Enix cut scenes has been keeping me going through some of the more repetitive sections of <i>Final Fantasy XIII</i> of late. <br />
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So there are lots of great reward schemes for gamers. Let's talk about some of the less interesting ones. I know this makes me seem terribly modern, but I've never been much for high scores. I'd rather just have a fun experience without worrying about points or percentages. The only games I have reached 100% completion in have been games that either enthralled me so completely that I would take any excuse to keep playing them (<i>Ocarina of Time</i>) or games that made it easy to reach that 100% mark (<i>Elder Scrolls: Oblivion</i>). <br />
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I have mixed feelings about achievements and trophies. I like the fact that I have a sort of respectable gamer score (typing those words, I realize I have no idea what that means), but I find that it does more to irritate me than give me a sense of satisfaction when an alert pops up to tell me I've accomplished something that I know I've accomplished. I mean, I was there. I should really just figure out how to turn those alerts off. Maybe there's part of me that still likes them. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>C.T.:</b> </span><span style="font-size: small;">As a general guideline I don’t think much of achievements and trophies. When a game stops the action to remind me that I just achieved an award for doing something I had to do to progress the plot forward it shatters my immersion. Playing games just to achieve an arbitrary task from the achievements list seems tantamount to plugging in quarters to an old <i>Centipede</i> machine until your initials are at the top of the leader board. Granted most achievements and trophies are a little more involved than simply having a higher number than the last guy, but most of them seem fairly pointless to me, a virtual equivalent of horseshoes.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is not to say that games based on arbitrary awards can’t be a good time. I’ve had plenty of fun with titles from Pop-Cap, but games whose only rewards are amusement fail to retain my attention for long. If I don’t feel like I am working up to something great, like the climax of an involving story or a significant character’s development, I probably won’t play a game to its conclusion.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">I am also more than a little wary of games that use leveling up and item acquisition as their primary motivating factor. It’s an effective tactic by developers, roping us in by using our hard wired instincts to forage and collect, but this can lead to some rather dark outcomes. <i>World of Warcraft</i>, <i>EVE</i>, and other games which appeal to our instinct to collect and hoard items of value are perhaps too addictive. I love video games, but I also want to see sunlight every now and then.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Daniel: </b>You managed to make achievements sound AWESOME to me, even though I don't like them. Hell yes I want to have the top score on centipede! Absolutely I would like to play some horseshoes! <br />
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I share your fear of the level up and collect rare items strategy of rewards, and for similar reasons. <i>Diablo</i> and its sequel have consumed years of my life. <i>Neverwinter Nights</i> nearly captured my entire soul. I feel that same itch when I pick up Borderlands, but perhaps thankfully have very few friends who care enough about the game to play with me, and the single player is just a little too repetitive to hold my attention. <br />
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<i>Diablo 3</i> looms somewhere on the horizon. God help us all if it actually has a compelling narrative to go with its shiny new graphics and improved mechanics. <br />
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Then there are some games in which the only reward inherent to the game is your continued improvement at said game. Multiplayer shooters used to be this way, although recently several have included a leveling system. <i>Starcraft</i> is largely this way, though I've never been remotely good enough to hold my own. One on one fighting games have a similar strategy to involve players: You want to get better at this. I do want to get better at it, it's true. I just don't want that badly enough to stick with it. And as a result, I don't get much better. Ah well. </div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><b>C.T.: </b><span style="font-size: small;">There is always something to be said about the satisfaction one gets from competitive gaming. Doing the victory dance in your friend's face when you trash them at a given contest is always gratifying whether that contest be Risk, bowling, or <i>Tekken 3</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">Giving us an initial reward for playing is one of a developer’s primary jobs, but like any recreational activity, it is ultimately up to the individual to find a reason to keep playing. Some people play for escapism, some people play to kill time, and still others have a near psychotic need to be the top dog on the leaderboard. For some of us games are a hobby, an art form, an addiction, a pastime, sometimes all of the above, sometimes none. In the end, people’s motivations for playing games are as numerous as there are gamers. So how about you, readers? How does a game have to reward you to keep you at your controllers?</span></div><i> </i>Daniel Bullard-Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930142428698229185noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-24681359300511618942010-04-12T16:12:00.003-04:002010-04-28T14:18:00.633-04:00To Thine Own Game Be True<blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgChyphenhyphenOehTcO0EKdr32pBKI8Cwz52gNvdzPkrJWextBMWNTwnbjWlK0oF7iq9KwGwmWZmxpePUfdQyMHzsopgU6PdSG8MdpIE_RuXKMl-2A0hU2visA87K7zgW2HSMSlOQdnAQE_tujZhHrv/s1600/Polonius+and+Laertes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgChyphenhyphenOehTcO0EKdr32pBKI8Cwz52gNvdzPkrJWextBMWNTwnbjWlK0oF7iq9KwGwmWZmxpePUfdQyMHzsopgU6PdSG8MdpIE_RuXKMl-2A0hU2visA87K7zgW2HSMSlOQdnAQE_tujZhHrv/s320/Polonius+and+Laertes.jpg" /></a></div></div></blockquote><i>by Daniel Bullard-Bates</i> <br />
<blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">I remember reading <i>Fight Club</i> and thinking, “There’s nobody I can think of who could better do this than [David] Fincher.” It’s like it was made for him. It’s the kind of text married to someone of his talents.<o:p></o:p></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">-Edward Norton, <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/edward-norton,39666/">AV Club Interview</a><o:p></o:p></div></blockquote>One of the greatest struggles of the artist is to discover one’s areas of expertise and come to terms with one’s limitations. This can be brutal and occasionally heartbreaking: One can’t help but feel sympathy for the person who dreams of being a painter only to discover they are colorblind, or the singer-songwriter who is hopelessly tone-deaf. It can also be empowering; discovering that one has a talent for the thing they most love to do is an awe-inspiring revelation. <o:p></o:p><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">In <a href="http://presspausetoreflect.blogspot.com/2010/03/reflections-with-thatgamecompany.html">an interview with us</a> last month, Kellee Santiago of thatgamecompany said that they avoid overt narratives as a company because, “None of us are professional storytellers nor have much experience in it, so why would we try and compete with games that hire extremely established writers?” A statement of this kind may seem obvious to many, but artistry is never so simple. Artistic creation is the stuff of dreams. Art tells us that we can do whatever we want to do. Kellee Santiago’s statement, to me, is both encouraging and humbling. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Many disappointments in video gaming have resulted from their creators’ inability to understand their own limitations, as designers or studios. There are so few companies that have incredible talents in all the areas necessary to make truly incredible games. Valve is the only creative group that I have witnessed consistently delivering top-notch artistry in game design, writing, and technical prowess. A few other companies, like Naughty Dog and BioWare, are getting somewhere close to that plane of idealized video game creation, but they still lean on a few of their key strengths as they develop in other directions. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Other companies succeed or fail in their artistry depending entirely on how well they know their own strengths and play to them. The creative team at Blizzard, for example, is the nearly uncontested king of gameplay and addictive reward systems, resulting in huge success for every product they release. Their writing team, on the other hand, tends to resort to archetypal characters and easily recognized themes and narrative structures. They’re not doing anything special with their stories, and they don’t need to. That’s not why most people buy their games. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Like many other games which receive lukewarm attention, both critically and financially, <i>Brütal Legend</i> was not as successful as it could have been was due to a failure on the part of Tim Schafer and Double Fine Productions. It was not because they are poor game designers or writers. Far from it! It is because they did not fully recognize their own strengths as artists. <i>Psychonauts</i> garnered a cult following for its creative scenarios, clever writing, charming characters, and winning sense of humor. The platforming and gameplay was seen as imprecise and occasionally frustrating. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i>Brütal Legend </i>was more focused on the gameplay, delivering a very brief story mode and cursory exploration of the characters and themes. The gameplay was enjoyable enough, but still unrefined; Double Fine’s technical expertise has improved since <i>Psychonauts</i>, but not enough to carry a full-length game. If <i>Brütal Legend</i> had been given more focused attention in a few key gameplay areas, and a more involved exploration of the settings and characters of the incredible world that Tim Schafer and company created, it would have been a greater game by far. <a href="http://presspausetoreflect.blogspot.com/2009/11/lay-waste-to-wasteland.html">It is still a worthy game</a>, but it will not be entered into the artistic canon of video games. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Though we have spent a great deal of time <a href="http://presspausetoreflect.blogspot.com/2009/05/grinding-my-gears-of-war.html">poking fun</a> at <i>Gears of War</i> for its poor writing and acting, the reason that games like that and <i>Halo</i> continue to be successful has nothing to do with the writing. It is because the creators have focused their energies on what they do best: gameplay, controls, visuals, and multiplayer. As narrative-focused gamers, we are less likely to find an overabundance of merit in this approach, but there is no arguing with the fact that this is a successful tactic for Epic and Bungie. A game company that knows its strengths and emphasizes them, like thatgamecompany, is bound for success, whether that success be financial or artistic. On the other hand, those who find it too painful to admit their own limitations may be doomed to semi-obscurity and fair to middling achievements. <o:p></o:p></div>Daniel Bullard-Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930142428698229185noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-10540253074332006762010-04-09T16:58:00.007-04:002010-04-12T16:23:37.927-04:00Release Day vs. Pay Day<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7seN8ewOy08h-1ySsAY-sMeW9ZoqD5tPZoHLsBxseFpmzw6oUAYueJ_CdHg4DqQB7MwqDTAk6fSM3h947dBj-FEAp2pOl9M3eM_bU7_VkK8oG-Fhoh2bPWvLJESgrhLjqdOAXSTFrGSg/s1600/mario-coin-block.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5458245948985940754" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7seN8ewOy08h-1ySsAY-sMeW9ZoqD5tPZoHLsBxseFpmzw6oUAYueJ_CdHg4DqQB7MwqDTAk6fSM3h947dBj-FEAp2pOl9M3eM_bU7_VkK8oG-Fhoh2bPWvLJESgrhLjqdOAXSTFrGSg/s320/mario-coin-block.jpg" style="float: left; height: 200px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 200px;" /></a> <i>by C.T. Hutt</i><br />
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For gamers with gainful employment and bills to pay, the fiscal impact of our favored hobby is significant. Consoles aren’t cheap and the television, sound system, and extra controllers that go along with them come at a premium; this is to say nothing about the resulting electricity bills or the cost of the games themselves. Unlike Mario, we can’t just pound our heads against brick walls until gold comes out of the stones, we work for our GPs and we work hard. Finding a good deal on games is an important consideration for savvy gamers, but doing so is complicated by the rise of digital distribution services, the popularity of DLC, and games which are released for multiple platforms. Assuming the experience is more or less uniform, why would a person pay more to play a game on their XBox when they could pay less for the same experience on a computer? Sales at brick-and-mortar stores like Gamestop and online promotions only add additional layers of confusion to the debacle. No matter how convoluted the algorithm may be to find the best price on a game there is only one rule that you always need to remember: the closer you are to the release date, the higher the price will be. So why does anyone buy a game on its release date?<br />
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Unlike movies, which are only in theatres for a short while, video games provide the same experience whether played in six months or this very afternoon. To people who don’t game, it probably seems that the only reason we pay extra to possess games immediately is because we either have poor impulse control or run some kind of blog that analyzes contemporary video games (which is really just an excuse for poor impulse control).<br />
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Price aside, there are a variety of other reasons to wait a few months to purchase a new title. Often it takes a while for developers to process customer complaints and iron out any wrinkles in a given title’s programming. Further, the truly patient gamer may win out in the long run if developers decide to release a definitive edition of a game that includes all the DLC which impatient folks (like me) have been <a href="http://presspausetoreflect.blogspot.com/2009/11/fool-me-twice.html">paying out the nose for</a>. And yet, many of us just can’t wait.<br />
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Are we such suckers that we can’t resist the siren call of clever marketing singing us to financial shipwreck? Are we so desperate for entertainment that we will throw our hard-earned cash out the window just to fill our lives with a few immediate hours of escapism? Are we a bunch of pathetic addicts lurking around the Best Buys of the nation at 4am on a Saturday just to get our next fix? Maybe we are, but I like to think that we shell out the big bucks for new releases because, like children, we are excited. We have the privilege to be part of an ongoing discussion about an art form still in its chrysalis. As small as they are, our speculations and introspections about new releases are part of a greater record of the medium’s emergence into our shared cultural heritage. Gaming is evolving so fast that every year brings new innovations and ideas to the table. We are exploring bold new worlds and doing so from different perspectives with every great title that comes out. We can scold ourselves for not making the right financial choices some times, but I think it is a mistake to be harsh on ourselves for indulging in our curiosity and striving to be among the first to see what’s next on the road ahead.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00496219299854543889noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-34169363524231402272010-04-07T16:16:00.008-04:002013-03-21T08:10:29.477-04:00Jack White, Rock Band, and Dinosaurs Fighting to the Death<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>by Daniel Bullard-Bates</i><o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="http://kotaku.com/5511413/white-stripes-guitarists-recommendation-quit-video-games">In a news post on Kotaku</a>, Jack White is quoted saying that new musicians need to “quit playing video games, throw away their Auto-Tune program and cut three strings off their guitar.” I don’t disagree that this combination of actions might help a person improve as a musician, but this sort of absolutist argument has become tiresome; we hear the same complaints registered against video games time and again by the older generations of musicians. They’re partially right: you’re never going to become a great guitarist by playing <i>Guitar Hero</i>. On the other hand, no intelligent person is playing <i>Rock Band </i>or <i>Guitar Hero</i> hoping it will turn them into a musician, and it’s not nearly as bad as the anti-video game musicians claim it is. In fact, you might get some small musical benefits out of playing a well-crafted music game. <o:p></o:p></div>
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To illustrate my point, I will have to enter into full awkward self-disclosure time: When I was living in Greensboro, North Carolina, my friend Andy and I started a story-based rock band about two dinosaurs that showed up in the present day United States, their adventures, and their inevitable <i>Highlander</i>-style showdown. The band was called Saurus. Our major influences were The Flaming Lips, Frank Zappa, and Jet Li’s <i>The One</i>. This is all true. <a href="http://www.myspace.com/saurusrock">I have proof. </a><o:p></o:p></div>
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We performed our entire sets in plot order, projected a PowerPoint presentation behind us to explain the story, dressed in lab coats, and let the audience determine which of the two dinosaurs would win the final battle, thus choosing both the last song of the set and the fate of the entire world. The dinosaurs had the combined powers of all the dinosaurs that are now extinct, you see. For the duration of my time with this crazy project, I played a lot of video games, including the newly-released <i>Rock Band</i>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I am not the world’s greatest musician. My band-mates, Bart and Andy, are both vastly superior to me in both musical composition and skill with their instruments. They kept me around because the story was partially my idea and I wrote some decent lyrics from time to time. I had to practice a lot to even keep up with them, and that practice is the main source of whatever skill is present in the final recordings on our one and only album, <i>The Word Dinosaur Means Terrible Lizard</i>. But when I slacked off and decided not to practice, I usually played <i>Rock Band</i>, and here’s the thing about <i>Rock Band</i>: If you’re going to slack off and not practice your instrument or work on a new song, there is no better video game to play. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s not actually playing music, sure, but it’s still interacting with music in a very real way. You have to focus on rhythm and timing. In well-charted games and songs, certain finger motions reflect the acts of actually playing an instrument. I’ve gotten more comfortable using hammer-ons and pull-offs through <i>Rock Band</i> than I ever was before. On top of that, playing the drums can teach a lot about rock timing and provide a newfound respect for the drummer in your band. That’s a tough job to do well. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Rock Band </i>is no more damaging to a musician than any other form of procrastination, and certainly less damaging than most (read: heroin). Of course you’d always be better off practicing or writing, but if you’re going to spend some time with a video game, music games will keep your mind thinking musically. Maybe my crazy dinosaur rock band doesn’t prove that point, but you should have heard my playing when I started out. Trust me, I was a lot worse. <o:p></o:p></div>
Daniel Bullard-Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930142428698229185noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-18543658695803895392010-04-05T14:47:00.002-04:002010-04-07T17:24:36.874-04:00PAX East Report, Part 3<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjADsQBDgVj66X0if-uuEuYoaMK5DTx6UQU6Hw_kP8g-Ehrunao9lrOLz50rNBu3AcKfGVEt6CmHdUjB9PApdPAC8EjDx27L7PkDcq-no2PkrdVLsJyrSmMJD-3mw_H5WluDcGEAv9SIMsi/s1600/starcraft2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjADsQBDgVj66X0if-uuEuYoaMK5DTx6UQU6Hw_kP8g-Ehrunao9lrOLz50rNBu3AcKfGVEt6CmHdUjB9PApdPAC8EjDx27L7PkDcq-no2PkrdVLsJyrSmMJD-3mw_H5WluDcGEAv9SIMsi/s320/starcraft2.jpg" /></a><i>by Daniel Bullard-Bates</i><o:p></o:p><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Just a few more games to talk about from the show floor.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><b><i>Mafia 2</i></b> – Sebastien played this one while I watched and took some notes. The controls are very similar to <i>Grand Theft Auto 4</i>, but the setting is a little more flavorful and immersive. One major improvement over <i>GTA4</i> is the fact that people react more realistically to the main character’s action. When Sebastien pulled a gun out, checking the controls, a passing police car stopped and police officers got out of the car and pointed their guns at him. As soon as he fired the gun, passersby began to run and scream away from the scene. It looks interesting, and if you’re in the market for a gangster game, it might hold lasting interest, but it looked far too similar to <i>GTA4</i> in both setting and style to hold my interest. It’s set in the 40s and 50s, sure, but the city still looks a lot like New York City. I am experiencing an acute case of apathy regarding any more causing of mayhem in New York City.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><b><i>Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands</i></b> – I wasn’t even paying attention to this game, assuming that it was a quick movie tie-in for the upcoming Jerry Bruckheimer production starring shirtless Jake Gyllenhaal. The gameplay actually looks pretty amazing, though: on top of the rewinding time mechanic from the gamecube-era <i>Prince of Persia</i> games, they’ve added elemental combat and magic. The section I watched had the Prince freezing time and using spigots of water as poles to vault between. Some combat was shown as well, and it looked chaotic and impressive, with large numbers of enemies on screen and devastating elemental attacks being used to destroy them, along with the Prince’s impressive acrobatic attacks. This looks far more promising than I expected, and like a return to form for the Prince.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><b><i>Battlefield Bad Company in 3D</i></b> – When I saw that there were 3D gaming computers at PAX East, I knew I had to see what this new technology can do for gaming. I settled into my chair and put on my 3D glasses and immediately felt my eyes strain to deal with the blurred vision effects they use to achieve 3D. On top of that, the 3D effects were very clearly layered. Close items (like my weapon) were on one layer, medium-distance items on a second, and far-off items on a third. The 3D effect, as a result, had very little in the way of realistic depth, instead making it even more difficult to become immersed in the game world. Suffice to say that I was not impressed. Those considering early adoption of this technology: don’t. They clearly need to do a lot of work before 3D gaming will be viable and appealing. Between the technology we’ve already seen in <i>Avatar</i> and the rumor that 3D without glasses will be coming soon, current 3D games seem antiquated already. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><b><i>Splinter Cell: Conviction</i></b> – This is a game that I never thought I would like, until I played a co-operative stealth kill mission on the show floor. We worked together to take down our enemies one by one, he saved my life once or twice, and we both pulled off some very cool maneuvers. I’m reserving judgment until the final product, but I’m in the mood for a really well-delivered stealth game. Here’s hoping.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><b><i>Starcraft 2</i></b> – Matthew Bamberg-Johnson has the following to say about his time with <i>Starcraft 2</i>: <o:p></o:p></div><blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">While I was certainly a bit rusty at PAX, I can see how the improvements in Starcraft 2 will make this a very rewarding game to play. The ability to scroll down to a squad level and see the action close up is a definite plus, as the characters are animated beautifully and the combat is fairly detailed. I only had the opportunity to play one game on Battle.net, but my criticisms of the multiplayer mode persists, as the game basically devolves into a resource race and moves so quickly that unless all the hotkeys are second nature to you, you will quickly be overrun.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">I'm most excited for the campaign mode of this game, but after thoroughly enjoying the "Dawn of War" series over the past few years, I question whether SC2's innovations and updates will live up to the tremendous anticipation surrounding this game. I hope that the level of character customization has improved so that it plays more like a RTS/RPG hybrid, but I suppose that I will have to wait and see. <o:p></o:p></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">I watched Bam play his round, and all I have to add is this: It looks like Starcraft, only much prettier-looking. It doesn’t look like they’ve done much to make the game more accessible, which is good news for Starcraft junkies and bad news for me. I predict that it will sell a billion copies. Two or more of those copies will be bought by C.T. Hutt.<o:p></o:p></div>Daniel Bullard-Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930142428698229185noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-52507328479786542792010-04-02T10:14:00.004-04:002010-04-07T10:22:28.264-04:00PAX East Report, Part 2<div class="Standard"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3BBGU9HKDZ2b1Z6HIZF-dwCu5TuuHF_cyv94WK89VqbuICGgoqS_UoqFBXF2pObOsGd4uF1G-ohII6xJrmNd6Q_x-cIZ0ZSVwlFbRlS4L-Jge_Ft2It48OhdGL5qEARYjxpwSz1Jeqe_k/s1600/Red_Dead_Redemption.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3BBGU9HKDZ2b1Z6HIZF-dwCu5TuuHF_cyv94WK89VqbuICGgoqS_UoqFBXF2pObOsGd4uF1G-ohII6xJrmNd6Q_x-cIZ0ZSVwlFbRlS4L-Jge_Ft2It48OhdGL5qEARYjxpwSz1Jeqe_k/s320/Red_Dead_Redemption.jpg" /></a></div><i>by Sebastien Bolea, Guest Writer<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="Standard"><br />
</div><div class="Standard"><i>Here are a few thoughts on </i>Red Dead Redemption<i> and </i>The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile<i>, both games which Sebastien played on the show floor of PAX East.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="Standard"><br />
</div><div class="Standard"><b><i>Red Dead Redemption</i></b> </div><div class="Standard"><br />
</div><div class="Standard">It took about an hour and a half of waiting to get my hands on <i>Red Dead Redemption</i>, and the demo was only about 15 minutes, but I was happy to do it. I've been dreaming about an open world western ever since playing <i>Outlaws</i> by Lucasarts back in the day, and <i>Red Dead</i> did not disappoint. The demo was a quick ride through the desert to pick up a mission from a demented grave robber. The job had me shooting my way into a mansion to get my dirty mitts on a chest full o' gold. From start to finish, the game feels like <i>GTA4</i>. Riding your horse isn't really that different from driving a car, although you can summon your ride with a whistle a la <i>Ocarina of Time</i>, and if you wear out the horse's stamina the proud cut stallion will buck you off. The shooting mechanics will also feel familiar, from aiming to taking cover, only slightly more polished. Weapons are selected on a wheel instead of cycled through a list, and your health regenerates in the style of many modern shooters. </div><div class="Standard"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div class="Standard">The only other difference is Dead-Eye mode, which returns from <i>Red Dead Revolver. </i>You click the right stick to slow down time while selecting up to 6 specific points on multiple enemies. It reminded me a little of VATS in <i>Fallout 3</i>, as one could easily line up head-shots or shoot the guns out of enemies' hands. The game generally has a greater attention to detail than previous Rockstar games, from the way bandits react when you shoot them in the leg, to the fact that all your gear is visible on your character's back and hip. The world looks great and is well populated by animals; I almost ran over a couple armadillos and prairie dogs while galloping through the brush, and I passed a few bandits holding up a traveler on the road. </div><div class="Standard"><br />
</div><div class="Standard">The Rockstar employee at my side assured me these were all randomly generated events, and then directed me to try shooting down one of the birds overhead. I was then able to run up and collect feathers, and he explained that every animal in the game can be skinned and carved up for meat. This sent shivers of joy running down my spine, but then I was a huge fan of the <i>Oblivion</i> alchemy system, too. If you didn't already know, <i>Red Dead</i> will feature both a morality and fame point system a little like <i>Fable</i>, which I discovered when some jerk tried to pass me on his horse and I shot his impetuous ass right out of the saddle. Apparently this was considered “bad” because the game awarded me with minus five honor points. The bottom line is that I had an absolute blast playing this game, and if you enjoyed <i>GTA4</i> and have any kind of interest in exploring and fighting your way through the old west as a rootin' tootin' gunslinger, then you will too.<b><i><o:p></o:p></i></b></div><div class="Standard"><br />
</div><div class="Standard"><b><i>The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile<o:p></o:p></i></b></div><div class="Standard"><br />
</div><div class="Standard">I should probably just put this out there now: I loved the original <i>Dishwasher: Dead Samurai</i>. Partly I was just impressed by the fact that it was made by one dude on XNA in a year and a half, but I also loved the fast-paced action and the incredible mobility and control the game offered. The second weapon in the game, after the dual cleavers, was a katana that gave you the power to teleport in any direction with a tap of the right stick. This meant that if you were fast enough with your fingers, you were untouchable. This let the game send some absolutely psychotic action your way, both in difficulty and art style. The levels threw a bizarre array of zombies, cyborgs, vikings, and zombie cyborg ninjas at you, which you then carved up with an appropriately brutal arsenal and some finishing moves that might make Kratos whimper. </div><div class="Standard"><br />
</div><div class="Standard">I stumbled onto <i>Vampire Smile</i> by accident on the exhibition floor, and just had to take it for a spin. My first impression held that it was the same game only much shinier, which was already all I wanted. Apparently there are now two characters, the titular dishwasher turned zombie samurai has been joined by... some girl? I guess she's a vampire? I skipped her and went straight for what I knew, because he was now sporting one of those slick samurai-style straw hats and the guy showing the game off said his demo was harder and I'm stubborn that way. There are also new weapons, and the weapon selection is a little easier to flip through on the fly. Someone had the bright idea to bind the guns to a button instead of making you select them, and bouncing around the levels teleporting and spraying lead is even more intuitive as a result. </div><div class="Standard"><br />
</div><div class="Standard">Just like you'd hope from a sequel, the levels seem a lot more dynamic, which is good because the first game tended to just have the same model of having a room with a couple platforms where baddies spawn in droves. In the demo, I found myself in the now familiar elevator-where-bad-guys-jump-out-at-you when I was accosted by the head of a giant zombie-robot that burst through the window. It's not the peak of creative design, but if you're the kind of guy who gets the giggles when he rips the legs off a cyborg and beats him to death with it, then this should do the trick. And if you played and liked the fist <i>Dishwasher</i>, then you'll be glad to know this one is shaping up to be even better. Ska Studios, which is still one guy, has the release date set as “when it's done” so we may have to wait a bit before getting our hands on toys like the guillotine, one of the new weapons which is essentially a giant pair of scissors. Keep your eye on it though, if for no other reason than that it's pretty cool to see this kind of work being done by a single designer.</div><div class="Standard"><br />
</div><div class="Standard"><i>Editor’s note: I never played the first </i>Dishwasher<i>, but the art style for this game is quite slick. It looks like </i>Johnny the Homicidal Maniac<i> in the video game form. <o:p></o:p></i></div>Daniel Bullard-Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930142428698229185noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5707645171160442312.post-15027744945476265402010-03-31T11:17:00.011-04:002010-04-02T10:18:56.796-04:00Reflections with thatgamecompany<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVtpBjsxT4OZJuuNjnP4YRoETx-JQOXFagSqsMVbCQyFmHKO1Y6z4chAYHYGNGkfNVwLNzCuRiJFRVvAxOxyxyXd_V18K2XXjeBs9cEgZ6S_DnYZWhJdqrAs9gF18YwIQwpAVeXxDdP4A/s1600/234499-thatgamecompany_logo_large.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454820194575982450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVtpBjsxT4OZJuuNjnP4YRoETx-JQOXFagSqsMVbCQyFmHKO1Y6z4chAYHYGNGkfNVwLNzCuRiJFRVvAxOxyxyXd_V18K2XXjeBs9cEgZ6S_DnYZWhJdqrAs9gF18YwIQwpAVeXxDdP4A/s320/234499-thatgamecompany_logo_large.gif" style="float: left; height: 300px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 300px;" /></a> <i>by C.T. Hutt</i><br />
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<div>Last year, we awarded <i>Flower</i> our <a href="http://presspausetoreflect.blogspot.com/2009/12/2009-select-button-game-of-year.html">Select [Button] game of the year award</a>. Kellee Santiago, Co-Founder and President of <a href="http://thatgamecompany.com/">thatgamecompany</a>, was kind enough to answer a few questions for us about the process of independent game development, the role of the gaming medium in the world of art, and what went into making such an ambitious game.</div><div></div><br />
<div><b>PPTR:</b> Flower contained some significant political themes. Do you believe that game developers have a responsibility to address social issues? If so, how do you balance that responsibility against your interest to succeed financially and draw in a wide audience?<b> </b><br />
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<b>Kellee:</b> We left Flower open to interpretation. We wanted an experience that was evocative enough to trigger an emotional response in the player, and open-ended enough to allow the player to bring their own backgrounds, political affiliations, memories, etc to the game. Part of the core experience of Flower is that interaction of the mind, which we find to be more valuable and meaningful to people, especially older gamers. </div><div><br />
The only responsibility I think game developers have is to use their medium wisely. Interaction is a powerful medium, and it can be used to greatly improve the quality of life for many people. At TGC's offices, we often use the word "relevant" to describe an emotional goal for our projects. We strive to create video games that anyone can relate to and derive meaning and value. We respect our player's time and money and want to show that in everything we do. </div><div><a name='more'></a><br />
<b>PPTR:</b> Your games include distinct visual and musical themes. Where do you look for your inspiration? </div><div><br />
<b>Kellee:</b> Pretty much anywhere! We first choose a theme or emotion that we're after in the game, and everything is designed towards that - visuals, music, and gameplay mechanics. I think that's why the games end up feeling unique; when you start with "give the player a sense of personal 'flow'", then it allows the team to take inspiration from anywhere they see fit. </div><div><br />
<b>PPTR:</b> How do you think that services like Playstation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, and WiiWare are affecting the independent games movement? </div><div><br />
<b>Kellee:</b> PSN, XBLA, WiiWare and Steam are driving the independent games movement by allowing independent developers to bring their games straight to market without having to deal with the overhead of printing discs, shipping, negotiation deals with retail outlets like WalMart, etc. </div><div><br />
<b>PPTR:</b> Many developers use combat as a vehicle to move their games forward, from your work it seems that you have avoided doing so. Why is that? </div><div><br />
<b>Kellee:</b> Our goal with each of our games is to try something different in video games. Combat is well-covered territory, so we don't need to explore that. </div><div><br />
<b>PPTR:</b> With Flower you chose to avoid an overt narrative. Tell us a little more about your storytelling style. </div><div><br />
<b>Kellee:</b> Part of our storytelling style comes from a similar place that many of our decision come from - having to leverage our limited resources. None of us are professional storytellers nor have much experience in it, so why would we try and compete with games that hire extremely established writers? We have to find another way to do it that won't put us in direct competition with the pros. The other side of this coin is that we also aim to reach a wide audience across age, gender, and culture. One way to accomplish this goal through story is to choose themes that anyone can relate to - flow, nature, flying through clouds - and then leave space in the narrative for the player to bring their own experiences to the table. Sometimes, when you leave a work open to interpretation, more people feel like that work is very personal, because they are able to relate their lives more directly to it, rather than had you chosen a specific person to talk about with a specific way of speaking and a specific narrative. </div><div><br />
<b>PPTR:</b> Would like to share with our readers what thatgamecompany is working on next? </div><div><br />
<b>Kellee:</b> Unfortunately I can't say anything at the moment, other than we are working on our third PSN title with Sony Santa Monica, and I'm really excited to hopefully be able to share more about it later this year!</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00496219299854543889noreply@blogger.com0