Right now I'm writing a text concerning Planescape Torment and forgiveness, and so I've come to be reacquainted with Ravel Puzzlewell, Night Hag of the Grey Wastes, puzzlesolver of puzzles that shouldn't be solved. It reminded me of the comparison that might be drawn between Ravel and Kreia, another one of Avellones creations, and realized that a third character might be added to that list.
Next time I play through Planescape Torment, Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Dragon Age, I should really take notes concerning three female characters - Ravel Puzzlewell, Kreia and Flemeth. These three might be referred to as "The Crones", and Chris Avellone himself refers to Ravel and Kreia (whom he created) as Crones. I find these three characters incredibly fascinating, and although I'm sure I'll replay PT and KOTOR2, I'm actually not as sure about Dragon Age, seeing as I'd rather replay Baldur's Gate 2 or perhaps play a new RPG instead. But yeah somebody should write something about these three liminal, incredibly powerful, individualistic witches of the wilds, whether the wilds be the outskirts of the planes, the dualistic understanding of the force, or... hell, I don't remember Flemeths backstory well enough, but it probably had something to do with working the larger picture of history from behind the curtain of ordinary affairs. Something about perspective which comes from a life lived not among ordinary men, and a long life at that. I love how one never is quite certain which "side" these Crones are on, whether asking oneself which side they're on just shows how ignorant you are compared to their vast sea of experience, or perhaps just reveals how duped you are to take selfish posturing seriously. I love how they all might serve as mentors, yet perhaps not willingly, and certainly not only for your sake. How they are powerful female characters but not easy to pinpoint as good or bad representations of females and would probably laugh their heads off if they knew you were trying to reduce them to something as simple-minded as "good" or "bad".
But yeah I won't be doing a comparison anytime soon, so go right ahead and pick their minds. :) Perhaps there are similar characters in other video games which are just as interesting?
Addendum: The Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3 is a crone of sorts! A crone flaunting hir cesarean scar instead of hir boobs (like Eva does) and is both mentor and enemy, archetypical and magical, larger than life and a grounding force for Jack/Naked Snake. Great female character, even if zie ultimately is fridged.
Showing posts with label mgs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mgs. Show all posts
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Friday, August 21, 2015
21/8
§HER STORY
It’s a Gothic story, fundamentally, the bones of Radcliffe and Bronte still visible under the wrappings of more modern genres. The duality of persons, the midwife, the poison, the significant pictures that are usually kept covered up; the obsession with mirrors and fairy-tales, doppelgangers and disguises, the forbidden places within the home, the family secrets preserved by servants, the false parentage. No, of course it’s not plausible. This kind of story has never been plausible.
/.../
The more authentic self, in other words, is sometimes also the more deliberately enacted and performed self. And this is the point (finally!) where we get back to what I liked about Her Story. Eve is both the more false and the more true member of that pair. She knows what she is doing and why she is doing it. She is more confident, braver, a superior liar. Hannah is less competent at being bad, without being a better person. Eve, one feels, would not have lashed out and killed Simon by accident. She might have killed him on purpose at some point, if she felt she had to, but not by accident.
As exaggerated as the story incidents were, as much as the virginity story squicked me out, as little as we have in common in circumstance or (I hope!) personality, there was still something about the deliberate self-making of Eve that spoke to me.
§MGS
And this is why many of the dramatic twists within and surrounding the codec work. Miller’s reveal as Liquid is a betrayal because it’s a long, subdued invasion of Snake’s most Snake-like space. The banjaxed AI Colonel disrupts Raiden’s sense of reality because it’s a deep-seated subversion of what we felt was sanctuary. The strangers Deepthroat and Mr. X unsettle us because they don’t belong here, so secretive, withholding, despite appearing vaguely benevolent in the advice they share.
§
Although many games have “bodies” and many games involve stabbing, shooting, slicing, and dicing them, few series have gone so far out of their way to showcase, alter, mangle, deform, transform, and violate them as Metal Gear Solid.
/.../
From early in the series, Kojima works to make his characters simultaneously more and less than human.
One of my goals with Hollywood Visionary, released by Choice of Games earlier this year, was to create a game with more interesting representations of gender identity.
§
Making Sense of Shenmue 3
§
"Hundreds of Hours of Content"
§
Dear Esther is best left as an unsettling howl of grief into the sea wind.
It’s a Gothic story, fundamentally, the bones of Radcliffe and Bronte still visible under the wrappings of more modern genres. The duality of persons, the midwife, the poison, the significant pictures that are usually kept covered up; the obsession with mirrors and fairy-tales, doppelgangers and disguises, the forbidden places within the home, the family secrets preserved by servants, the false parentage. No, of course it’s not plausible. This kind of story has never been plausible.
/.../
The more authentic self, in other words, is sometimes also the more deliberately enacted and performed self. And this is the point (finally!) where we get back to what I liked about Her Story. Eve is both the more false and the more true member of that pair. She knows what she is doing and why she is doing it. She is more confident, braver, a superior liar. Hannah is less competent at being bad, without being a better person. Eve, one feels, would not have lashed out and killed Simon by accident. She might have killed him on purpose at some point, if she felt she had to, but not by accident.
As exaggerated as the story incidents were, as much as the virginity story squicked me out, as little as we have in common in circumstance or (I hope!) personality, there was still something about the deliberate self-making of Eve that spoke to me.
§MGS
And this is why many of the dramatic twists within and surrounding the codec work. Miller’s reveal as Liquid is a betrayal because it’s a long, subdued invasion of Snake’s most Snake-like space. The banjaxed AI Colonel disrupts Raiden’s sense of reality because it’s a deep-seated subversion of what we felt was sanctuary. The strangers Deepthroat and Mr. X unsettle us because they don’t belong here, so secretive, withholding, despite appearing vaguely benevolent in the advice they share.
§
Although many games have “bodies” and many games involve stabbing, shooting, slicing, and dicing them, few series have gone so far out of their way to showcase, alter, mangle, deform, transform, and violate them as Metal Gear Solid.
/.../
From early in the series, Kojima works to make his characters simultaneously more and less than human.
One of my goals with Hollywood Visionary, released by Choice of Games earlier this year, was to create a game with more interesting representations of gender identity.
§
Making Sense of Shenmue 3
§
"Hundreds of Hours of Content"
§
Dear Esther is best left as an unsettling howl of grief into the sea wind.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
19/3
§SPECIFIC GAME GAME CRITICISM
Unrest has a point to make. The game takes place in a kingdom that is suffering drought, and food has become scarce. You play as several individuals in the kingdom, from peasants to diplomats to commanders and queens. The point of the game is: individual actions can not change the course of systematic problems./.../
The consequences are simpler, and so the decisions are guided more by what “feels right” instead of what is “correct”. By choosing what “feels right”, you are more in tune with the character you are playing, and as such the consequences have more personal meanings rather than systematic ones.
http://therealicepotato.tumblr.com/post/106568454544/unrest
§
Jazzpunk feels different than Schafer’s games. It isn’t a game that solely tells jokes in cutscenes and through dialogue. It more often involves the player in the jokes and depends on the player to complete actions necessary to complete those jokes. It is a comedy that hinges on the fact that games are more interactive than other media. The comedy becomes a collaborative act between the game and its player.
/.../
In Jazzpunk, we don’t laugh at the clown, so much as we laugh at our own clowning around.http://www.popmatters.com/post/189726-jazzpunk-a-collaborative-jack-in-the-box-comedy/
§
Interestingly, the lamp on the cabinet begins the game turned off. This seems contrary to the received wisdom of level design: use light to guide the player. In this case, having the light begin lit would draw the your eye and encourage you to interact with the cabinet. With this guidance specifically absent, you are more likely to fumble around, unsure what to do. However, this “fumbling” serves a didactic purpose. http://ludusnovus.net/2015/03/10/the-first-cabinet-in-gone-home-a-close-reading/
§
There’s a pervasive idea that procedural storytelling and arts are somehow less “authored” than linear narrative, which is bullshit. I love Transistor because it skewers this idea mechanically and thematically, and while many games ask us to question what we consume (a la Spec Ops: The Line), Transistor asks us to question what we make.
http://clairehosking.tumblr.com/post/94313334088/city-beautiful
§
The Bestest Best Being Pleasantly Lost Of 2014: Bernband
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/12/19/best-being-pleasantly-lost-bernband/
§
... if I had to draw a conclusion here, it is that what I failed to really see was how utterly trivialized gender is by standard games, and how it would never occur to any given male player that playing as a woman might actually make a difference in what (or how) a game makes meaning. Instead of explicitly deconstructing the privilege I set my sights on, I sorta feel like I gathered my firewood and forgot to strike the match.
http://correlatedcontents.tumblr.com/post/100357151149/hey-i-just-wanted-to-say-that-i-really-enjoyed
§
if the S3 plan is a crucible through which the Patriots are recreating Snake as embodied by Raiden (or at least doing so as a benchmark for the *real* S3 plan), I was not only a participant due to my connection as a player to Raiden as an actor, I was now an active collaborator with the Patriots.
/.../
And sure, my will overlapped with Raiden’s character goals but the way in which they overlapped was perverted by the nature of ranked play. Both Raiden and I want to defeat Vamp. However, I want to do this to assert my technical mastery as a player while Raiden actually wants to do this to save lives.
/.../
I want to complete the game according to the simulation mapped in my head. The one where Raiden achieves perfection. My emotions threaten to distract me from that. I need to pull back. Like the Patriots, I cannot choose to see Raiden or any other character as anything other than things I can manipulate to get a result. Austin Howe pointed out to me that the Big Shell is shaped like an infinite loop. Each Shell is a circle. Combined, they form a lemniscate. I run around and around, repeating simulation after simulation. Mr. Howell notes that the level design of Shell One is a reaffirming myth space where Raiden fallaciously continues to enact his fantasy of being Solid Snake. A hypnotic mold.
/.../
If the Big Shell is about affirming my control as a player over the simulated space of the game, Arsenal Gear is where the simulation starts to run wild.
/.../
This specifically is because there is an rogue factor in the program that I cannot afford to ignore any longer: Snake.
/.../
What was I not engaging on if not my own S3 plan? Both to mold Raiden into the perfect actor but also to control the flow of the digital information that made up the game. I wanted to censor anything that didn’t fit into the narrative of “my playthrough”. I wanted everything that the villains wanted. Perfect data, perfect control. In the end? I got what I wanted. I “won”.
And I’m not going to lie: I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.
http://transgamerthoughts.tumblr.com/post/110792352797/according-to-simulation-metal-gear-solid-2
§
This video is my explanation why I am leaving MGS criticism due to the series' sexism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEX1vU1-9I8
§MISC
When we grasped this new dual-grip controller we did something that Goto might not have ever imagined: We placed our right thumbs solidly over the X button. Without the benefit of so many years of cultural reinforcement we didn’t know that the X was not the affirmative button. We couldn’t have.
http://killscreendaily.com/articles/semiotics-controller-design/
§
I spent most of my life religious—Christian, to be specific. Semi-recently, however, that small part of me died. Or maybe I killed it myself. I know one thing for sure, though: video games had a hand in it.
http://kotaku.com/the-game-that-let-me-mourn-my-lost-faith-1688465653
§
Extra Credits - What Makes Us Roleplay? - When Game Worlds Feel Real
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJCEQaSlvHE
§
Extra Credits - Asymmetric Play - Can One Game Cater to Many Playstyles?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQhxtfKH1f8
Unrest has a point to make. The game takes place in a kingdom that is suffering drought, and food has become scarce. You play as several individuals in the kingdom, from peasants to diplomats to commanders and queens. The point of the game is: individual actions can not change the course of systematic problems./.../
The consequences are simpler, and so the decisions are guided more by what “feels right” instead of what is “correct”. By choosing what “feels right”, you are more in tune with the character you are playing, and as such the consequences have more personal meanings rather than systematic ones.
http://therealicepotato.tumblr.com/post/106568454544/unrest
§
Jazzpunk feels different than Schafer’s games. It isn’t a game that solely tells jokes in cutscenes and through dialogue. It more often involves the player in the jokes and depends on the player to complete actions necessary to complete those jokes. It is a comedy that hinges on the fact that games are more interactive than other media. The comedy becomes a collaborative act between the game and its player.
/.../
In Jazzpunk, we don’t laugh at the clown, so much as we laugh at our own clowning around.http://www.popmatters.com/post/189726-jazzpunk-a-collaborative-jack-in-the-box-comedy/
§
Interestingly, the lamp on the cabinet begins the game turned off. This seems contrary to the received wisdom of level design: use light to guide the player. In this case, having the light begin lit would draw the your eye and encourage you to interact with the cabinet. With this guidance specifically absent, you are more likely to fumble around, unsure what to do. However, this “fumbling” serves a didactic purpose. http://ludusnovus.net/2015/03/10/the-first-cabinet-in-gone-home-a-close-reading/
§
There’s a pervasive idea that procedural storytelling and arts are somehow less “authored” than linear narrative, which is bullshit. I love Transistor because it skewers this idea mechanically and thematically, and while many games ask us to question what we consume (a la Spec Ops: The Line), Transistor asks us to question what we make.
http://clairehosking.tumblr.com/post/94313334088/city-beautiful
§
The Bestest Best Being Pleasantly Lost Of 2014: Bernband
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/12/19/best-being-pleasantly-lost-bernband/
§
... if I had to draw a conclusion here, it is that what I failed to really see was how utterly trivialized gender is by standard games, and how it would never occur to any given male player that playing as a woman might actually make a difference in what (or how) a game makes meaning. Instead of explicitly deconstructing the privilege I set my sights on, I sorta feel like I gathered my firewood and forgot to strike the match.
http://correlatedcontents.tumblr.com/post/100357151149/hey-i-just-wanted-to-say-that-i-really-enjoyed
§
if the S3 plan is a crucible through which the Patriots are recreating Snake as embodied by Raiden (or at least doing so as a benchmark for the *real* S3 plan), I was not only a participant due to my connection as a player to Raiden as an actor, I was now an active collaborator with the Patriots.
/.../
And sure, my will overlapped with Raiden’s character goals but the way in which they overlapped was perverted by the nature of ranked play. Both Raiden and I want to defeat Vamp. However, I want to do this to assert my technical mastery as a player while Raiden actually wants to do this to save lives.
/.../
I want to complete the game according to the simulation mapped in my head. The one where Raiden achieves perfection. My emotions threaten to distract me from that. I need to pull back. Like the Patriots, I cannot choose to see Raiden or any other character as anything other than things I can manipulate to get a result. Austin Howe pointed out to me that the Big Shell is shaped like an infinite loop. Each Shell is a circle. Combined, they form a lemniscate. I run around and around, repeating simulation after simulation. Mr. Howell notes that the level design of Shell One is a reaffirming myth space where Raiden fallaciously continues to enact his fantasy of being Solid Snake. A hypnotic mold.
/.../
If the Big Shell is about affirming my control as a player over the simulated space of the game, Arsenal Gear is where the simulation starts to run wild.
/.../
This specifically is because there is an rogue factor in the program that I cannot afford to ignore any longer: Snake.
/.../
What was I not engaging on if not my own S3 plan? Both to mold Raiden into the perfect actor but also to control the flow of the digital information that made up the game. I wanted to censor anything that didn’t fit into the narrative of “my playthrough”. I wanted everything that the villains wanted. Perfect data, perfect control. In the end? I got what I wanted. I “won”.
And I’m not going to lie: I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.
http://transgamerthoughts.tumblr.com/post/110792352797/according-to-simulation-metal-gear-solid-2
§
This video is my explanation why I am leaving MGS criticism due to the series' sexism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEX1vU1-9I8
§MISC
When we grasped this new dual-grip controller we did something that Goto might not have ever imagined: We placed our right thumbs solidly over the X button. Without the benefit of so many years of cultural reinforcement we didn’t know that the X was not the affirmative button. We couldn’t have.
http://killscreendaily.com/articles/semiotics-controller-design/
§
I spent most of my life religious—Christian, to be specific. Semi-recently, however, that small part of me died. Or maybe I killed it myself. I know one thing for sure, though: video games had a hand in it.
http://kotaku.com/the-game-that-let-me-mourn-my-lost-faith-1688465653
§
Extra Credits - What Makes Us Roleplay? - When Game Worlds Feel Real
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJCEQaSlvHE
§
Extra Credits - Asymmetric Play - Can One Game Cater to Many Playstyles?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQhxtfKH1f8
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
7/10
§VIDEOS
Errant Signal - Glitchhikers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMqfFWQgzZY
§
Extra Credits - Free to Play Is Currently Broken - How High Costs Drive Players Away from F2P Games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwI0u9L4R8U
§
Extra Credits - MMO Economies - How to Manage Inflation in Virtual Economies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W39TtF14i8I
§
Are 50% of Gamers Women? | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILMiw9KGJd8
§
Review: Wasteland 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnxdNncArdo
§
Game Reviews Are Weird
http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/59gebk/the-final-bosman-game-reviews-are-weird
§
Japan's Commercials Are Better
http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/vfm6qp/the-final-bosman-japan-s-commercials-are-better
§
Would You Want To Live In Sword Art Online? | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32DwPB15a0M
§
Damn, That's Romance
http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/49q706/the-final-bosman-damn--that-s-romance
§
This One's For the Pervs
http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/w1j40q/the-final-bosman-this-one-s-for-the-pervs
§ARTICLES
The news that Mojang is to be sold to Microsoft undoubtedly causes a lot of upset for some. Minecraft, more cultural phenomenon than game at this point, has had a breadth of appeal unlike almost any other game. And Microsoft aren’t exactly at the top of most PC games player’s Christmas card lists. It’s very easy to see the news and immediately consider it bad news. But perhaps we should pause, and wonder if this might be something worth celebrating?http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/09/15/opinion-maybe-microsoft-buying-mojang-is-a-good-thing/
§
Thoughts on Microsoft Buying Mojang | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp_A0NUpM3M
§
Destiny‘s story fails because it tries to employ the evocation effect to a database.
http://thiscageisworms.com/2014/09/15/destinyandwriting/
§
The hand-drawn fighting game background is a fading art, kept alive by the crew at SNK Playmore, keeping the lights on in the King of the Fighters series and the tireless hardcore savants at Arc System Works.
http://www.joystiq.com/2014/09/29/scenes-of-calm-and-chaos-artists-on-fighting-game-backgrounds-w/
§
Treachery has long been an important aspect of competitive boardgames, but in videogames there seems to be far less betrayal between players.
http://blog.ihobo.com/2014/09/treacherous-play.html
§
something I think Metal Gear Solid asks us to consider constantly: the very nature of interactivity means there is no fourth wall to break. A video game story necessarily exists in a world that includes the player, not just the character they control, and you can’t simply pretend they don’t exist.
/.../
Metal Gear has a reputation for extremely long sequences of passive acceptance as waves of chatter and floods of cutscenes wash over the player, but it is to be commended for proudly stating that the player is an important part of the puzzle. From the moment Colonel Campbell tells us about the Select button, the game is making a statement. You are not controlling Snake, you are Snake; and this universe only exists because you interact with it. The burden of the player’s role is exactly why games have the power to tell stories unlike anything you can find elsewhere.
http://www.electricphantasms.com/self-awareness-interactivity-and-metal-gears-three-walls/
Errant Signal - Glitchhikers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMqfFWQgzZY
§
Extra Credits - Free to Play Is Currently Broken - How High Costs Drive Players Away from F2P Games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwI0u9L4R8U
§
Extra Credits - MMO Economies - How to Manage Inflation in Virtual Economies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W39TtF14i8I
§
Are 50% of Gamers Women? | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILMiw9KGJd8
§
Review: Wasteland 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnxdNncArdo
§
Game Reviews Are Weird
http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/59gebk/the-final-bosman-game-reviews-are-weird
§
Japan's Commercials Are Better
http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/vfm6qp/the-final-bosman-japan-s-commercials-are-better
§
Would You Want To Live In Sword Art Online? | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32DwPB15a0M
§
Damn, That's Romance
http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/49q706/the-final-bosman-damn--that-s-romance
§
This One's For the Pervs
http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/w1j40q/the-final-bosman-this-one-s-for-the-pervs
§ARTICLES
The news that Mojang is to be sold to Microsoft undoubtedly causes a lot of upset for some. Minecraft, more cultural phenomenon than game at this point, has had a breadth of appeal unlike almost any other game. And Microsoft aren’t exactly at the top of most PC games player’s Christmas card lists. It’s very easy to see the news and immediately consider it bad news. But perhaps we should pause, and wonder if this might be something worth celebrating?http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/09/15/opinion-maybe-microsoft-buying-mojang-is-a-good-thing/
§
Thoughts on Microsoft Buying Mojang | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp_A0NUpM3M
§
Destiny‘s story fails because it tries to employ the evocation effect to a database.
http://thiscageisworms.com/2014/09/15/destinyandwriting/
§
The hand-drawn fighting game background is a fading art, kept alive by the crew at SNK Playmore, keeping the lights on in the King of the Fighters series and the tireless hardcore savants at Arc System Works.
http://www.joystiq.com/2014/09/29/scenes-of-calm-and-chaos-artists-on-fighting-game-backgrounds-w/
§
Treachery has long been an important aspect of competitive boardgames, but in videogames there seems to be far less betrayal between players.
http://blog.ihobo.com/2014/09/treacherous-play.html
§
something I think Metal Gear Solid asks us to consider constantly: the very nature of interactivity means there is no fourth wall to break. A video game story necessarily exists in a world that includes the player, not just the character they control, and you can’t simply pretend they don’t exist.
/.../
Metal Gear has a reputation for extremely long sequences of passive acceptance as waves of chatter and floods of cutscenes wash over the player, but it is to be commended for proudly stating that the player is an important part of the puzzle. From the moment Colonel Campbell tells us about the Select button, the game is making a statement. You are not controlling Snake, you are Snake; and this universe only exists because you interact with it. The burden of the player’s role is exactly why games have the power to tell stories unlike anything you can find elsewhere.
http://www.electricphantasms.com/self-awareness-interactivity-and-metal-gears-three-walls/
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
23/4
§BIOWARE
Garrus Vakarian is the Mass Effect series.
http://www.unwinnable.com/2014/04/14/garrus-and-the-turians/#.U1M6c4VOKHh
§
Comparing Baldur’s Gate II’s romances to Mass Effect’s is not only an interesting way to look at how BioWare as a company has changed over the past twelve years, but also the way that gamer culture and video games in general have changed.
http://ontologicalgeek.com/from-jaheira-to-liara-a-brief-survey-of-bioware-romances/
§DESIGN
And yet, parenthood as described by videogames on a whole generally tells us this is what children are: dreadfully bothersome creatures who suck up all your energy and tolerance, baited with rewards.
/.../
BioShock Infinite’s vision of parenthood is finding someone of a younger generation to help you do the things you were doing anyway, indistinguishable from a minion but for your tone of voice. In this manner, your daughter is a walking, talking pair of pants that give your bullets fire damage. The Last of Us carries a similar message more expertly told.
/.../
Still, she plays second fiddle to Joel because, ultimately, the game revolves around Joel growing up
/.../
So to the extent that BioShock Infinite and TLOU are about parenthood, they conceive it as control. Two of the biggest games of recent years dealing with a narrative as old as humanity, and this is the best they can figure: two father-figures to whom a daughter is but a mechanism for their own wish-fulfillment.
http://normallyrascal.wordpress.com/2014/04/14/parenthood/
§
The primary approach we'll be looking at is a series of questions that storytellers can ask themselves to help create story ideas, interesting scenarios, player characters, and all that humus.
http://playersdelight.blogspot.se/2014/04/how-to-develop-interactive-story-idea.html
§
Comedic Games - Can We Make More Funny Games? - Extra Credits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh_kdu8LnvE
§
We have progressed to the point where we are brave enough to ask, if we take away the > prompt, is it still interactive fiction that we are playing?
Twine is just one way of asking this question. Inklewriter and ChoiceScript ask it in similar sorts of ways; StoryNexus, Versu, and Seltani come at different angles.
http://storycade.com/war-pestilence-famine-death-twine/
§
Design/war has to change, to stay new, to always be one step ahead of the player/protagonist, and so the real question is not “how did Kojima land here?” but rather “can Kojima think his way out of this?” In the drive for new narrative elements, Kojima has written himself into a creative corner. What we’re seeing isn’t just the product of a sexist world view, but instead a designer who, in his attempt to invent, to push, to surprise his audience, ends up going to a powerfully regressive and brutally violent place.
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2014/04/ground-zeroes-the-sexual-violence-of-metal-gear-so.html
§
So there you have it. Thomas Was Alone and Dark Souls 2. Same game, basically. Because psychology.
http://www.psychologyofgames.com/2014/04/thomass-dark-soul-is-alone/
§ZELDA
Because it calls Link’s will into question, because it’s tinged with uncertainty, and because it captures the illogical flow of a dream, Link’s Awakening feels more human than other Zelda games.
/.../
Link has no grand reason to follow the owl or to wake up the fish—it’s not the Virtuous Thing To Do, just a possible route off the island. As in the haze of sleep, the only choice is to go forward despite a dearth of logic.
/.../
Since it’s so easy to get swept up in this push, it takes a while to realize that Link’s actions aren’t necessarily good. The townspeople were just fine without Link (except for the occasional dognapping). The monsters who guard the musical instruments aren’t causing problems for anyone. Link is the one storming into their homes, breaking their things, and taking away their drums and violins.
/.../
Dreams don’t make sense. They’re forces of nature, beyond our control. They’re human, and by that measure alone, Link’s Awakening transcends its staid fantasy roots. Whether the game is Link’s dream or the Wind Fish’s, they both face something that many of us confront every morning when we emerge from our dreams into another, supposedly more meaningful reality.
http://www.avclub.com/article/when-zelda-traded-heroism-murky-morality-dreams-203416
§DEPRESSION
Errant Signal - Actual Sunlight + Depression Quest (Spoilers)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js1OsJZq2Vg
§COMMUNITY
Game Theory: Flappy Bird, PewDiePie, and Pasta Sauce
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyXcr6sDRtw
§
Shenmue's moment has passed, and as intoxicating as its grounded, gloriously detailed open worlds were at the turn of the century, it's hard to see one man isolated from the industry recapturing their grandeur for an audience spoiled by Skyrim and Los Santos, regardless of whatever budget comes his way. The Last Guardian, meanwhile, could suffer similarly: when Team Ico's last effort came out nearly a decade ago, it was a time when more esoteric, ethereal and overtly artful games were something of a rarity.
/.../
Yet either way, the world of games has become so broad, so varied and so dynamic in Half-Life's absence that the idea of a bespectacled scientist redefining that world all over again seems impossibly quaint - and it leads me to believe that, should that day ever arise, my response won't be an excited scream, but rather a resigned sigh.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-04-12-i-never-want-to-play-shenmue-3-half-life-3-or-the-last-guardian
§
It is unlikely Luftrausers will undergo any major aesthetic change as a result of what Simins and Dubbin said, but the conclusion of this exchange brings a better understanding of what Vlambeer intended by creating Luftrausers. No one has to agree with either side, but our understanding of Luftrausers’ place in game culture was deepened.
That’s not controversy. That’s criticism, and I wish we had way more of it.
http://patrickklepek.tumblr.com/post/82006821614/help-me-out-i-dont-understand-how-people-could-be
§
In Sweden, politicians are learning to settle their differences the civilized way: with video games.
http://www.dailydot.com/esports/starcraft-sweden-political-tournament/
§QUEER
In these shaky times, it is perhaps appropriate to recount to ourselves why a male protagonist is simply impossible in videogames, and pray that this reminder will usher dissent back to the hell from which it spawned.
/.../
3. You would have to implement unruly testicle physics which is currently very tough to design for. All that flopping about when a male is physically active can make for very inappropriate content. On that note, randomly generated erections test negatively with focus groups, and nobody can figure out how to implement ‘the character accidentally sitting on himself’ as a game mechanic.
/.../
6. Males are a notoriously diverse bunch – it’s highly unlikely that any one male character will sit perfectly well with every male player. Since someone probably won’t like him, this places developers in a lose/lose situation avoidable only by abstaining entirely. That’s why every videogame cast consists solely of inoffensive abstracted geometry.
/.../
10. Males are typically busy at being politicians and talking about snooker, so they generally do not fall within the contexts of most videogame settings. Such fun-hating character traits seldom lend themselves well to home entertainment. Most games, meanwhile, center around flighty adventures that ultimately save the world, for which female protagonists are far more realistic and believable, given their innate romanticism.
/.../
19. The gender of the main character of a videogame is trivial - it may as well be one as the other. To place so much value on it is to overstate the whole subject.
20. On the importance of the main character’s gender, it is simply unforgivable to compromise the artistic vision of a team of 300 designers, programmers, artists and so on, working in conjunction with publishers, investors, shareholders, testers, researchers and so on, who all coincidentally have the same vision from the get-go and never have to compromise with one another or pursue such bourgeois trifles as commercial success.
http://www.gameranx.com/features/id/14954/article/why-we-can-t-have-male-leads-in-videogames/
§
There have been plenty of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes reviews, some of which have been greatly revered and lauded as brilliant pieces of writing but, barring the Telegraph’s review, they have all failed to do so much as acknowledge the existence of tape number 4 which depicts rape and child rape.
/.../
The whole of Ground Zeroes is simply a catalyst, a back story for the upcoming Phantom Pain. Paz and Chico’s rapes function only to further Snake’s story, to give him a reason for revenge and to have been in a coma. They are victims for the sake of the progression of another character; the scenes are careless, clumsy and childish. In his desperation to achieve “what movies and novels have achieved” Kojima has created a piece of work that shows complete disdain for the only female character in the game, a fetishisation of Paz’s pain and has failed to create any meaningful portrayal of sexual violence.
http://introskeptive.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/chicos-tape-4/
Garrus Vakarian is the Mass Effect series.
http://www.unwinnable.com/2014/04/14/garrus-and-the-turians/#.U1M6c4VOKHh
§
Comparing Baldur’s Gate II’s romances to Mass Effect’s is not only an interesting way to look at how BioWare as a company has changed over the past twelve years, but also the way that gamer culture and video games in general have changed.
http://ontologicalgeek.com/from-jaheira-to-liara-a-brief-survey-of-bioware-romances/
§DESIGN
And yet, parenthood as described by videogames on a whole generally tells us this is what children are: dreadfully bothersome creatures who suck up all your energy and tolerance, baited with rewards.
/.../
BioShock Infinite’s vision of parenthood is finding someone of a younger generation to help you do the things you were doing anyway, indistinguishable from a minion but for your tone of voice. In this manner, your daughter is a walking, talking pair of pants that give your bullets fire damage. The Last of Us carries a similar message more expertly told.
/.../
Still, she plays second fiddle to Joel because, ultimately, the game revolves around Joel growing up
/.../
So to the extent that BioShock Infinite and TLOU are about parenthood, they conceive it as control. Two of the biggest games of recent years dealing with a narrative as old as humanity, and this is the best they can figure: two father-figures to whom a daughter is but a mechanism for their own wish-fulfillment.
http://normallyrascal.wordpress.com/2014/04/14/parenthood/
§
The primary approach we'll be looking at is a series of questions that storytellers can ask themselves to help create story ideas, interesting scenarios, player characters, and all that humus.
http://playersdelight.blogspot.se/2014/04/how-to-develop-interactive-story-idea.html
§
Comedic Games - Can We Make More Funny Games? - Extra Credits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh_kdu8LnvE
§
We have progressed to the point where we are brave enough to ask, if we take away the > prompt, is it still interactive fiction that we are playing?
Twine is just one way of asking this question. Inklewriter and ChoiceScript ask it in similar sorts of ways; StoryNexus, Versu, and Seltani come at different angles.
http://storycade.com/war-pestilence-famine-death-twine/
§
Design/war has to change, to stay new, to always be one step ahead of the player/protagonist, and so the real question is not “how did Kojima land here?” but rather “can Kojima think his way out of this?” In the drive for new narrative elements, Kojima has written himself into a creative corner. What we’re seeing isn’t just the product of a sexist world view, but instead a designer who, in his attempt to invent, to push, to surprise his audience, ends up going to a powerfully regressive and brutally violent place.
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2014/04/ground-zeroes-the-sexual-violence-of-metal-gear-so.html
§
So there you have it. Thomas Was Alone and Dark Souls 2. Same game, basically. Because psychology.
http://www.psychologyofgames.com/2014/04/thomass-dark-soul-is-alone/
§ZELDA
Because it calls Link’s will into question, because it’s tinged with uncertainty, and because it captures the illogical flow of a dream, Link’s Awakening feels more human than other Zelda games.
/.../
Link has no grand reason to follow the owl or to wake up the fish—it’s not the Virtuous Thing To Do, just a possible route off the island. As in the haze of sleep, the only choice is to go forward despite a dearth of logic.
/.../
Since it’s so easy to get swept up in this push, it takes a while to realize that Link’s actions aren’t necessarily good. The townspeople were just fine without Link (except for the occasional dognapping). The monsters who guard the musical instruments aren’t causing problems for anyone. Link is the one storming into their homes, breaking their things, and taking away their drums and violins.
/.../
Dreams don’t make sense. They’re forces of nature, beyond our control. They’re human, and by that measure alone, Link’s Awakening transcends its staid fantasy roots. Whether the game is Link’s dream or the Wind Fish’s, they both face something that many of us confront every morning when we emerge from our dreams into another, supposedly more meaningful reality.
http://www.avclub.com/article/when-zelda-traded-heroism-murky-morality-dreams-203416
§DEPRESSION
Errant Signal - Actual Sunlight + Depression Quest (Spoilers)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js1OsJZq2Vg
§COMMUNITY
Game Theory: Flappy Bird, PewDiePie, and Pasta Sauce
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyXcr6sDRtw
§
Shenmue's moment has passed, and as intoxicating as its grounded, gloriously detailed open worlds were at the turn of the century, it's hard to see one man isolated from the industry recapturing their grandeur for an audience spoiled by Skyrim and Los Santos, regardless of whatever budget comes his way. The Last Guardian, meanwhile, could suffer similarly: when Team Ico's last effort came out nearly a decade ago, it was a time when more esoteric, ethereal and overtly artful games were something of a rarity.
/.../
Yet either way, the world of games has become so broad, so varied and so dynamic in Half-Life's absence that the idea of a bespectacled scientist redefining that world all over again seems impossibly quaint - and it leads me to believe that, should that day ever arise, my response won't be an excited scream, but rather a resigned sigh.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-04-12-i-never-want-to-play-shenmue-3-half-life-3-or-the-last-guardian
§
It is unlikely Luftrausers will undergo any major aesthetic change as a result of what Simins and Dubbin said, but the conclusion of this exchange brings a better understanding of what Vlambeer intended by creating Luftrausers. No one has to agree with either side, but our understanding of Luftrausers’ place in game culture was deepened.
That’s not controversy. That’s criticism, and I wish we had way more of it.
http://patrickklepek.tumblr.com/post/82006821614/help-me-out-i-dont-understand-how-people-could-be
§
In Sweden, politicians are learning to settle their differences the civilized way: with video games.
http://www.dailydot.com/esports/starcraft-sweden-political-tournament/
§QUEER
In these shaky times, it is perhaps appropriate to recount to ourselves why a male protagonist is simply impossible in videogames, and pray that this reminder will usher dissent back to the hell from which it spawned.
/.../
3. You would have to implement unruly testicle physics which is currently very tough to design for. All that flopping about when a male is physically active can make for very inappropriate content. On that note, randomly generated erections test negatively with focus groups, and nobody can figure out how to implement ‘the character accidentally sitting on himself’ as a game mechanic.
/.../
6. Males are a notoriously diverse bunch – it’s highly unlikely that any one male character will sit perfectly well with every male player. Since someone probably won’t like him, this places developers in a lose/lose situation avoidable only by abstaining entirely. That’s why every videogame cast consists solely of inoffensive abstracted geometry.
/.../
10. Males are typically busy at being politicians and talking about snooker, so they generally do not fall within the contexts of most videogame settings. Such fun-hating character traits seldom lend themselves well to home entertainment. Most games, meanwhile, center around flighty adventures that ultimately save the world, for which female protagonists are far more realistic and believable, given their innate romanticism.
/.../
19. The gender of the main character of a videogame is trivial - it may as well be one as the other. To place so much value on it is to overstate the whole subject.
20. On the importance of the main character’s gender, it is simply unforgivable to compromise the artistic vision of a team of 300 designers, programmers, artists and so on, working in conjunction with publishers, investors, shareholders, testers, researchers and so on, who all coincidentally have the same vision from the get-go and never have to compromise with one another or pursue such bourgeois trifles as commercial success.
http://www.gameranx.com/features/id/14954/article/why-we-can-t-have-male-leads-in-videogames/
§
There have been plenty of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes reviews, some of which have been greatly revered and lauded as brilliant pieces of writing but, barring the Telegraph’s review, they have all failed to do so much as acknowledge the existence of tape number 4 which depicts rape and child rape.
/.../
The whole of Ground Zeroes is simply a catalyst, a back story for the upcoming Phantom Pain. Paz and Chico’s rapes function only to further Snake’s story, to give him a reason for revenge and to have been in a coma. They are victims for the sake of the progression of another character; the scenes are careless, clumsy and childish. In his desperation to achieve “what movies and novels have achieved” Kojima has created a piece of work that shows complete disdain for the only female character in the game, a fetishisation of Paz’s pain and has failed to create any meaningful portrayal of sexual violence.
http://introskeptive.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/chicos-tape-4/
Friday, August 21, 2009
Does War change?
-->
Have you ever wondered who was right about the future (and history) of warfare in 2008, Ron Perlman or Hideo Kojima In Fallout 3, the narrator (Ron Perlman) says “War. War never changes.” And in Metal Gear Solid 4 Old Snake’s monologue goes “War. War has changed”. There are different ways of examining these claims, and Anonymous chose one of them on a comment section somewhere:
"I'm pretty sure that the intro to Fallout games are meant to show how war has always been a visceral and messy, violent ordeal. It is not meant to be taken so literally. Nice try, though."
Now you know that Ron Perlman in Fallout 3 has been up for discussion before, and that I’m not trying not to create a strawman, actually being aware of the basic definition of war as a struggle for resources that often leaves people feeling pretty shitty. But that makes me wonder, what exactly is a terrorist attack? Or someone trying to overthrow the government? Mothers Against Canada’s attack on Terrance and Philip? Jack Thompson’s attack on violent video games such as Postal? The actual violent video games? Postal? Shelf space is valuable commodity, darn it! The specific definition of war as a struggle for resources not only leaves lee room for militaries to exploit, but also doesn't encourage further analysis of warfare in a historical context. A structuralist approach often tends to position itself as quite ahistorical so let's go *post* and identify the reasons then? Let's do it internets-style, by posting a link to the original post and discussion.
Also, the X-Ecutioners put something about war nicely by sampling someone else:
“We’re not using spears anymore! Weapons have become highly impersonal, developed to travel fantastic distances—how the hell are my enemies going to see my appeasement signals?!”
I mean, today people bomb buildings with innocent people in it—how's that for accuracy and appeasement signals? There was even an art game depicting the consequences of this type of warfare, where each building you put your aim on and understood to be a terrorist headquarter had some innocents which became terrorists after the bombing, in a perpetual cycle of war. There was no end to this "game", and there was no victory state. Ah, life would be so much easier if our cross fire's would only turn red when seeing someone hostile, no rocket launchers were allowed and friendly fires was turned off. But I sure as hell wouldn't want the US
PS: I portrait Hideo Kojima as the voice of Metal Gear Solid 4 and not the specific voice actors name from the scene in which the quote is from (David Heiter, Scene 1) or Snake (the main character), or even Old Snake (the main character, tired of war) because Kojima is an auteur, and who the hell knows who wrote what in Fallout 3? And who the hell is Ron Perlman? Media doesn't seem to be interested in telling us about the writers of Fallout 3, and Bethesda Tenpenny Tower but rather because the script, well, isn't that good.
But never mind that. Or do, because that's what we're here for. But I digress...
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