Misanthropy

This is more of a thought than a post, but a Benjamin Quintero post on why he prefers single-player to multiplayer games struck a nerve given the comments on Left 4 Dead 2 earlier on this blog.  I loved L4D but played it a lot less than many other games in part because it was multiplayer, which meant that it was less convenient.  If I wanted to play with friends, which generally I find much preferable to strangers for a whole host of reasons (they won’t drop out of pique, I trust that they won’t spray the airwaves with racist profanity, and I know how good they are, among others). 

But given that it’s harder to to set up and play - you need to make sure friends are online, that they’re interested in playing, that they’re at the same level of proficiency in the game as you - which are all very difficult to ensure if you’re not as dedicated as they are to the game as they are, I much prefer a game I can pick up and play whenever I have a spare moment.  I appreciate the additional dimensions that a game like CoD4 and L4D can bring to a console game, but the busier I get, the more I value single player experiences.

Echo Chamber

I spent a whlie trying to find some intriguing thing to write about today and discovered that there was very little that wasn’t a rehash of arguments we’ve been having for some time.  In fact, as much as I know I have my own pet issues, it’s a little disheartening to see that we’re basically passive creatures, sitting around to await the latest press clippings and re-litigate the same battles.

Is this because we have no meaningful input to contribute, or because we lack a way to communicate it effectively so that it impacts publishers, developers, and other gamers?  I’m not really sure.  But I’d like to see a conscious effort on the part of all of us to try to pick some new topic of interest and raise it up (whether on our own sites or via comments elsewhere).  Any takers?

Selling Memories

This may not surprise anyone, but I thought it was interesting to see the video comparison of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2’s “filter options” on Joystiq.  It’s fascinating to me how many gaming features today play to gamers’ own nostalgia rather than being value-added in and of themselves: there are few other entertainment industries where fan service plays such a critical part of a game’s marketing efforts. 

This seems to hold true whether in the form of easter eggs, sequels, remakes, “de-makes”, or simply the inclusion of older games in the form of newer ones.  Even to the extent that older games are packaged with a new one (e.g., in Shenmue), the value is much more in the fact that people get to re-live their old gaming experiences than in the innate desire of people to play the old games per se. 

I bring this up not because it’s new exactly but because I think it’s become institutionalized to some extent, moving from being a nice option to being almost mandatory in all sorts of newer games.  Thoughts?

How to ruin the chance for people to take your game seriously in one easy step

1) Make a movie of it.

Perhaps that’s not exactly fair, but the track record really speaks for itself.  It is really depressing that Shadow of the Colossus, a game that was lauded for its serious and emotionally charged tone, is now going to be made into a movie that’s being written by the same guy who wrote “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li” and produced by the guy who did “The Scorpion King”.  This really feels like it sets the whole “Games as art” argument back, as now instead of SOTC being a beautiful, emotional, and, yes, fun experience it is now just another franchise to be milked.

Also worth mentioning is the fact that Gore Verbinski of “Pirates of the Carribean” fame is going to direct the Bioshock movie as well.  While the game didn’t pack quite the emotional punch that SOTC did, I doubt they’ll be able to, or even care about trying to produce the same level of intellectual discussion as the game did.  Just imagine how lame the “big twist” in the game would be as a passive 3rd-person rather than an interactive first-person experience.  I don’t think it’d be quite the mindf*ck that the game produced, which is really the reason why it’s a game in the first place, and not a movie.

A Dizzying Experience

My copy of Killzone 2 arrived last Friday and other than it (at least initially) seeming like another case of a game’s hype exceeding its accomplishments (and inflating its reviews), the game unfortunately has another nasty side effect on me: dizziness.

Now, this has happened to me before with maybe one or two other games, but this is *not* something that happens to me with every first person shooter.  I just played through Call of Duty: World at War with no problems and I’ve logged plenty of hours of time in Halo 3 and Left 4 Dead.  None of those gave me any problems.

So why Killzone 2?  I’m not really sure, though at least one part of the formula is probably because I’m playing on a 61″ TV.  Theoretically, I’ve made sure I’m sitting back at what’s considered the “ideal” distance, but at that distance, the screen still fills most of my vision (which is the point, really).  But since it doesn’t happen to me with every game, there must be some component of the game that makes it happen.

So, for Killzone 2 my guess is that it has to do with the framerate (which if I had to guess hovers at just a frame or 2 under 30FPS, but that’s just a guess) and the intended amount of motion that the game puts in in order to “simulate” a more lumbering sort of soldier-like movement.  Oh, and the menus and loading screens don’t help either, with all of them acting sort of “blippy” and moving around somewhat “jaggedly” for… some purpose I’m not really sure about.

In any case, I’ll have more to say on the game (which, while I do think has been somewhat overrated by some sites, but is still good… other companies will steal the way it does multiplayer, I guarantee it), but wanted to know if anyone else has been experiencing this with the game, and if there’s any way to help it.  It isn’t so bad that it’s impossible for me to play, but it probably does limit the amount of time I would sometimes like to play the game.  Maybe dramamine would help…

The Elusive Female Homo Sapiens

It might be a PR problem to have a video about selling to women leaked from the company, but I thought the conceit at least was sort of amusing.  Statistically, not that many women - relative to men - come into Gamestops, although I’d imagine most of them probably don’t want to be treated as an alien species either.  And clerks in retail stores aren’t generally known for their polished social skills to either gender.  Does this demean women?

Mario Board Games

Ever wonder what a Mario board game might look like, asks Kotaku?  Here you go.  Oddly enough, no one seems to have noticed that there actually was a Mario board game, which I did and still own.  I can’t even locate it online; did any one else have one?

Shorter Joe Below Average

Shorter Joe Below Average: Why don’t game companies make something non-games so I can enjoy them?  I’m just not very good at them.

I’d be a lot better at the piano if it was more like a tambourine, but that doesn’t tell you much about instruments - just about me.  And what it says ain’t good.

Make This!

A NeoGAF poster has recreated a bunch of old game screens in high definition… which is exactly the sort of actual value-add that I would love to see companies adding to their old titles, instead of simply re-releasing them as an emulated version on a new console.  The moody interpretation of A Link to the Past (maybe my favorite game) is my favorite, but they’re all great (just look at SMW!).

Critiquing the Joystiq Relaunch

Joystiq has relaunched!  Generally, I like it.  The new site seems much more slick and professional, with a good graphics layout, enough teaser text to be useful, and strong divisions between the posts.  One suggestion for anyone from the company reading this, however: the extremely large picture sizes mean that not all that many posts can be kept on the front screen at once, necessitating a lot of back and forth if you don’t look at the site every few hours.   Kotaku’s relaunch addressed this by shrinking each post, which has its own problems, but it would be nice to make everything just a wee bit tinier.