The topic of videogame violence has always been interesting to me. Especially since many use it as a scapegoat for the things they can’t explain. I’ll never forget when approximately a week after the Columbine shootings the principal had found the game Diablo in my friends backpack. Needless to say it didn’t help that it was a Catholic school too. He was forced to go to the office and his parents had to come in and explain why he had such a game.

It was a bit unbelievable when self proclaimed crusader against videogame violence, Jack Thompson was put on the air on the day of the VT shootings. Not only was he put on just a mere 8 hours after the shootings started, but the killer wasn’t even identified yet. Even more crazy was that the trend continued later on throughout the week. One of the interviewers was interviewing one of the roommates and asked out of the blue “Have you ever seen him playing Counter Strike?” The roommate gave a strange look and said he was never seen once playing a videogame. I just sat there disgusted with the media once again trying to shift the blame.

I have never been big on overly violent games personally, but I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy games like GTA, Halo, Counter Strike, etc. when I had played them. There is something satisfying in that “lock on” feature we had talked about earlier in the semester. It’s a means of release, just like any other medium. We read, watch movies, listen to music to escape reality for a while and I think videogames is just this generation’s rock and roll. Most likely as time passes this will no longer be an issue and something else will come up because people fear what they don’t understand.

On a lighter note I plan on picking up the new Pokemon game coming out this weekend. Yes, I'm not ashamed to say that I enjoy these games. I think they are actually quite amazing and surprisingly deep.

So I have gotten Super Paper Mario this past week. Although, I haven’t been able to play much of it with all the homework piling up in these last couple of weeks, it has been a very fun and entertaining game. Like I had said before, the 2D to 3D perspective change is an amazing feature and I really feel more games should take advantage of it. Even the changing the perspective itself is amusing. For example, if you stand on a platform in 2D and switch to 3D you may all of a sudden not be on it any more and Mario give a little whelp of worry as he falls down. Even though he should still be on the platform no matter what dimension he switches to, it’s little touches like this that add to the overall humor of the game and the craziness of the Mario series as a whole.

Speaking of humor, I absolutely loved the presentation part of Bard’s Tale. Having played games like Diablo and Baulder’s Gate, seeing Bard’s Tale in action was hilarious. This idea of humor and parody I think further goes to prove how far along videogames are coming to start being taken as a serious textual study. A text has to be worthwhile in order for there to be a parody of it in the first place because otherwise no one would care for the parody or find it funny. With videogames reaching the point of having been around long enough to start becoming a strong part of culture it also becomes a part of textual parody. This can be seen with games like Super Paper Mario which parodies’ it’s own series, or Bard’s Tale parodying the Hack and Slash RPG genre, or Conker’s Bad Fur Day parodying games and other texts in general.

This beginning of the branching off in parodies is much like the forming of genres within a text. Videogames have been forming their own genres much like texts with mystery, comedy, suspense, science fiction, etc. It’s just recently that I have begun to notice this emerging of the parody, something that has been around in literature for a while now.

After seeing “Façade” in action today, it had made me want to try it out. It appears to be one of those games that tries to attract the non-gamer as well as peek the interest of the regular gamer. The reason for this being that it appears to me that it has a “Sims” like quality. Meaning, that it has tries to simulate some aspect of life by putting you in this god-like role.

With “The Sims” or “Sim City” you either can control people or a city and the way in which they act. The difference with “Façade” is that you are more in control of human emotion. As a character you can respond in any way you please and it affects the way in which characters react around you, similar to other simulation based games.

Although simulations are often classified as a game, I do agree that they can fall under game and non-game categories. I believe a game would be defined as something that has rules and an end goal. Simulations often fall under the first part, since any kind of programming intrinsically has rules and restrictions within the code. However, there is no end in sight, or at least something officially programmed as an end. The end can only be made by the player. Such as wanting a certain size house or city in “The Sims” and “Sim City,” or wanting the couple to reconcile in “Façade.” In other words, the end rule has to be established by the player in order for it to become fully a game. Otherwise, it remains on the borderline.

Continuing my Mario nerd-a-thon I thought I’d just post a video I found of these two guys racing each other on the original Mario Bros. game. There’s nothing particularly deep about it, but if you ever played the original, it’s quite amazing to watch, especially the ending. So here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRY6vTsnNjA

Now on to more important things, it was interesting for me to watch Katamari Damacy in action for the first time. A friend of mine had said he played it and it was a lot of fun and I have seen plenty of references of it on the internet, never really got the chance to see it played though. The first thing I noticed was that it really brings out a certain “craziness” of Japanese culture. As we had discussed earlier with Okami, one of the potential problems with it not selling so well was that strong drive of Japanese culture throughout the game that tends to only appeal to a certain type of gamer. However, as I said before, it focuses less on the serious and more on the wacky side of things. It reminded me of other strange Japanese games like the Wario Ware series or even a game that was made on Playstation where you would control a guy’s nose hairs to fight off enemies. In a way it’s like that parody that The Simpsons had done a while ago with Mr. Sparkle.

Katamari really tends to embrace its own craziness and it’s this stereotypical craziness of Japanese culture that makes me wonder if that’s the reason these games only become cult favorites. Katamari follows the usual feeling of videogames becoming a collection-fest but on a higher level that most people once they give the chance to play it, enjoy it. Or even in Okami’s case, it was compared to the likes of Zelda which is very popular with Western culture, yet once again it only appealed to a select few. The same can be said for American based games like Halo which do poorly in Japan. It’s rather interesting to see how much culture influences the selling and accepting of videogames world wide.

I’ve been wanting to talk about the new Super Paper Mario game coming out for Nintendo Wii. However, I was never quite sure what to say about it. When I heard in class today someone who said they often compared ideas of games to actual texts, then it hit me. To get an idea of what this game is about, here is a video:

http://media.gameinformer.com/downloads/downloads2014/movies/2007/spm/spm-3.wmv

In the video a guy demonstrates how to play the game and a basic idea of what it is about. What I found most intriguing in this particular video was when he demoed a familiar stage from Super Mario Bros. To view the stage in 3D is really neat, especially since most everyone has played it back in the day. As a fan of Mario, it’s a bit mind-blowing to think that there was more to the 2D world of the old Mario Bros. games.

I then started to draw parallels to Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” As a reader, we often view the text by blindly following Hamlet and not noticing much of anything else that surrounds Hamlet. A reader tends to only think that there is a story about Hamlet and nothing else. Later there comes a film called “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.” The movie follows these two characters that played a fairly minor roll in the actual play, yet we see how the play unfolds from their perspective. The movie takes on a humorous perspective, for example, when they spy on Hamlet by himself giving a soliloquy they think he’s crazy.

It’s this idea, that I was able to somewhat compare to Super Paper Mario. And Super Mario Bros. Much like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, it’s a bit funny to think that the character Mario was running in a straight line and jumping over pipes when he could “see” that he could just walk around them. It becomes a whole new view on a classic text. The possibilities are endless in expanding a text like Shakespeare’s if you take a slightly different perspective on it. As with Mario, it becomes even more apparent the videogames can do the same thing.

After looking at the list of the ten most important video games of all time, there are some interesting choices. Some with which I would agree and some not so much. I think the ten most important games would have to follow criteria in which the game pushed the video game medium forward in terms of the way games are played and the way in which people viewed them.

Games on the list like Tetris, Doom, and Sim City I believe follow this best. They were all essentially the games that started out their genre, became well known among the public, and besides being the first they were very well done.

Now there are some games on that list which I will admit I had never heard of, so I would have to refrain from commenting on their impact on the industry. However, I do consider myself fairly well know in video game history and some of those games I have never heard of, so perhaps they aren’t very influential to genre, because if I don’t know about it, chances are the general public doesn’t either. And if they don’t, then how can those games affect the way people viewed them. But it is very possible that those games may have influenced their own genre, so they still may follow a criteria of pushing the industry forward.

Also, something I don’t quite understand is how they can only list Mario Bros. 3 and then list the whole Warcraft series. It doesn’t make much sense when you consider that the original Mario Bros. paved the way for the third. Also, thinking to Mario64 which shaped the way many 3D games are today.

It’s an interesting list and probably not too far off from being correct in what they were trying to accomplish from it. This list goes to show just how video games are becoming a text that needs to be documented and kept track of and probably re-edited in the future. For example, I can imagine 5 years from now Wii Sports making it on that list, if the Wii continues to shape gaming in the way it is doing with its motion control.

Yipes! Getting caught up in the Mid-term rush and Spring Break, I’ve fallen behind on the blogging. I’ll have to pull double-time this week.

Anyway, after reading the short article done by William Gibson about Playstation 3’s Home, I would have to agree and disagree with him at the same time as to whether or not Home is forming a Metaverse.

When I had first saw Home I thought it had looked pretty amazing and seemed to be the big kick start Playstation 3 has wanted. Virtual worlds have always been an idea that has captivated people in different ways like The Matrix, Second Life, Animal Crossing, etc. Home seems to try and make it the most realistic example of a universe within a universe. The people all move and react based on our own reality, there are no random samurai battles or leveling up. This gives it the sense of a “realistic” Metaverse. However, I see the people controlling these avatars are what are going to make it appear unrealistic.

Only a few will take full advantage of this virtual world by making microtransactions so that their avatar with have all the latest clothes, furniture, emotions, etc (Then again maybe that is a lot like real life). The rest of the Home universe will probably be sitting in the lobby screaming, “Who want’s to play Resistance with me?!” The only way I can imagine this kind of behavior could be combated is if Sony gives lots of options to everyone. But only time will tell whether Sony can fully develop its own Metaverse.

I’ve been playing Paper Mario for Gamecube in anticipation for the one coming out on Wii. The Wii Paper Mario looks to bring an interesting twist on 2D and 3D gaming at the same time. But that’s a blog for another time.

I’ve never been a really huge Halo player, but I do enjoy the game. I have a couple of friends who are really into it and we’ve managed to get a 16 player system link going off of four TV’s. I will admit that even though I’m not huge on Halo, those have been some of the more fun times in my multiplayer experience of videogames.

I believe one of the charms of this game is that it gives you so many options to do different things with the game, as seen with my example of having up to 16 players in the same room as you. It is similar to the extent of what we had viewed in class today also. An interview done within a game world is just another option that can be done with the game, or even a comedy as seen with Red vs. Blue.

The game creates this own virtual world that people can live in, it’s a world within a world. Everyone comes up with different ways to utilize the world that allows them to seek some sort of enjoyment or relief. This is similar to what the interview was saying about locking on with a gun and being able to shoot. The same could be said for all the different variations that can be made within the game. Such as all the different game modes, or warthog jumping, or even people coming up with their own multiplayer games. Much like the real world, everyone adjusts and does different things within this world to bring a sense of enjoyment.

The options within Halo seem to be endless and will most likely be expanded upon when Halo 3 comes out. As for one more example of the world of Halo being changed, I’ll leave with this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eZIwb_PpF8

It ties in Zelda and Halo in an entertaining way.

An interesting game that I have played as of late is called Hotel Dusk: Room 215. It is a game made for the Nintendo DS. The interesting thing about the game is that it is referred to as an “interactive novel.” It actually says that on the game case.

I had originally picked this game up because it pays homage to the older point and click PC games. The type of games where you can click on an item and see if it does anything or you can hold on to it for later. In a way it is in the same vein as Myst where you point and click at items in hopes to make some use of it.

However, back to the interesting part, it attempts to combine the genres of a book and a videogame. As most people know, the Nintendo DS has two screens. For this particular game you hold the DS sideways, as if it was a book (As shown in the picture to the right). You play the game while you hold it like a book. As you point and click your way further with the stylus, lot’s of dialogue unfolds the story, almost making it like a choose your own adventure book.

All of these aspects that I have mentioned makes the game a rather interesting blend of what attempts to be a book and videogame combined. However, due to the combination, neither one truly feels like on or the other. By combining the two I would say that it seems to create its own genre. Neither one particularly stands out more than the other, that’s why I couldn’t even completely call it a videogame on its own (or maybe it could be classified as a new genre within a videogame). I think this is another interesting example of a genre transcending its medium in a different way.

An interesting idea that I had been thinking about with this week’s recent talks about the adventure/puzzle genre, is how the fans of the genre can shape and change a certain game. In particular I noticed this with the game my group had covered this week: Zelda. However, instances of this can also be seen with Okami that was shown today.

As I had mentioned in our presentation, in Zelda II it had drastically changed appearance from an overhead view to a side scrolling more action based type of game. The said reason for this change? Mario’s popularity. Interestingly enough, people enjoyed the original Zelda game for what it was and they reverted back to the classic style when the Super Nintendo version came out. Once again, another example of the fans of the genre changing how the game is made. This could also be said for the change from Wind Waker to Twilight Princess. Everyone enjoyed the artistic style that Ocarina of Time had laid out that Wind Waker end up causing a huge controversy with its new art direction. However, many people started growing fond of this new art direction Wind Waker had laid out, that its art style is going to return in a new Nintendo DS game as show to the right.

Even in Okami we see the game using Japanese mythology trying to appeal to the Otaku subculture that had been referred to in class. Unfortunately for Okami, that culture in the US doesn’t have the kind of strength it does in Japan. It’s so strong in Japan I’ve read about buildings solely dedicated to Pokemon. Where fans of Pokemon can just hang out and play the game against others who share their interest (while being exposed to other Pokemon merchandise of course). It would be hard to imagine anything like that here in the US.

This is just an example though of how strong the influence of the audience can be towards a text. It can change future iterations of the text and even cause it to transcend its medium in different ways.

Well, I have tried Myst for the first time and I have to say I am a bit underwhelmed. I wasn’t expecting it to be some mind-blowing experience with action at every turn, but there is just very little that makes me want to continue the game. I enjoy the usual type of adventure/puzzle game where you have to get a key to open a chest to get an item to move onto the next room, etc. This one however, does nothing to reward the gamer in return. The story is vague and any form of action is non-existent, which makes it difficult for me to get into it. Also, to think that this game at one point didn’t have any hints during the beta-testing, as we had discussed in class, is a frightening thought.

However, I think it brings up the interesting point of how a text changes and stays the same over time. While this game may be difficult or frustrating to play for gamers now, it was an achievement for when it was made. It was one of the first games to give a sense of three dimensions. The soundtrack was also quite amazing and I would consider it still very good by today’s standards. A similar comparison could be made to Shakespeare’s plays. Many students might find them a chore to read but at the same time understand that they are very well written and can even find many aspects of them enjoyable.

I believe that on a deeper level Myst has many interesting things going for it. It has a theme of books that bring the player from new location to new location. Yet when you open the books there is a video. Also, the book imagery is ironic in a videogame. I believe these kinds of concepts are rather interesting, but they require a study beyond just playing the game.

I look forward to the types of parallels that can be drawn between Myst, Zelda, and adventure games in general that we will be examining in the coming week.

I have just finished playing Wii Sports with my Dad. The interesting thing is that my Dad never plays videogames. The Wii truly seems to be a console that does appeal to gamers of all ages, especially if my Dad is willing to go a few rounds of bowling, tennis, and golf. Nintendo purposely designed the console so that anyone can play and it shows. These sports simulations couldn’t be done on any other console simply because of its unique controller. I believe this is an example of what we have discussed in class today.

You can never quite get the exact feeling of a book unless you are actually holding and reading the book itself. It doesn’t feel the same reading it on a computer screen or any other type of device that tries to simulate the feeling a book gives. The same can be applied to videogames. Videogames are known for porting the same game on to different consoles yet they never remain truly equal. One version may have better graphics or perhaps a person prefers a controller over another one. In other cases, some games simply can’t be recreated without certain devices like the Wii remote for Wii games, a dance pad for Dance Dance Revolution games, or a guitar for Guitar Hero. It really brings up an interesting point of preservation in the way that texts are preserved.

I still have all my old consoles from back to the original Nintendo days, partially out of nostalgia but also because I know there is nothing like playing it the way it was originally intended.
Now that I think of it, a good example is actually on the Wii itself, with their internet browser. It is convenient to be able to surf the internet from the comfort of a couch, but at the same time it is no where near as convenient as on the computer, where it originated from. Viewing the internet from a television makes web pages appear “grainy” and a bit of a chore when trying to read fine text. This is just another example of what can happen to a text when it crosses platforms.

Now I am going to go play Myst since I just received it in the mail today. I look forward to it.

Just Testing

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